School. Chiropractor. Hike. Collapse.

The wind is doing freaky things. Hopefully it doesn’t do any of that near any of the California fires…and hopefully there are no new fires. What are the odds of that? Boychild and I are hiking tonight…hopefully there will be no fires there too. I’m exhausted already. Hiking 6 miles will help with that.

At least I’ll sleep well.

Lab day yesterday went pretty well. Some people didn’t read instructions. They had to sit down and watch others do the labs. Hopefully (damn, there’s a lot of that HOPEFULLY crap going around) today will be just as easy. Well…easy…because there was a lot of walking and thinking and trying to manage, but at least my aides showed up and helped out and nobody poured all the water into the sugar container. We’re good! I have low standards. It’s interesting…I don’t put out much of the materials any more because I figure some spacey kid will pour the wrong thing in the wrong place and it won’t work. There were a couple where I was like, um, so why isn’t the vinegar IN THE CUP WITH THE BAKING SODA? Like no reaction can happen if you miss the step where you pour the vinegar in the cup. Laughing my ass off on that one. Oh well. They can talk to someone else about what was supposed to happen there.

Anyway, survival day. They’re all survival days. My voice is shot, my body is tired, my brain can’t handle much. And yet I wrote a makeup quiz last night, so something is working. I create lessons on autopilot.

Today is Crazy Sock day. Again, every day is Crazy Sock day for me. I got this.

The official card for the show that opens Saturday. I’ll be at the opening, which starts at 6 PM.

I did tutoring after school. Then I went and picked up my quilt from the photographer. I did something very intelligent with the flash drive with the photos (can’t find it. I was tired. I’ll find it later.). Then I graded stuff, cooked dinner, graded some more. Kitten helped.

She so didn’t help. She’s totally in the way.

We argued about what was punk and what wasn’t. Good conversation.

Then I started drawing.

So I’m not changing much…but the lines after being enlarged to 500% are really thick and it’s hard to tell what’s happening in some places, so I am redrawing, adding and changing a few things (you can see I changed the umbilical cord where it hits the inside of the uterus, adding a placental area. I also gave that baby eyelashes.), but also clarifying where all the lines are. If you’re trying to trace pieces and the line is a 1/4″ thick, there can be a lot of variance in the overlap. I’d rather not have that.

I didn’t get super far.

And tonight I’ll be lucky to get off the couch after we hike. So there’s that. But it’s progress. It’s all progress.

School. Chiropractor. Hike. Collapse.

This sweet thang will guard the house while I’ll gone.

Nerds Read Instructions.

Today I’m supposed to dress like a nerd. I think I always do that. A discombobulated nerd who often wears blacks that clash with each other. I found my lab coat. That’ll have to do. Today we start two days of labs…where kids have to read instructions. I know this turns into a clusterfuck at some point, depending on my students…the ones who don’t read the part about 2 spoonfuls of sugar, and instead pour 50 ml of water into the entire sugar container. Nah. No need to kill anyone over that. I think. READ FIRST. We always say that. Like a million times. Anyway. Then there’s the kid who resubmitted her essay (which was late, but at least she turned it in, right?) about 5 minutes after I returned it to her with about 17 sentences of comments and a giant rubric, and I can guarantee she didn’t read all that. So they get a point here, a point there…instead of the big win. Ah well. ‘Tis slow progress we’re making this year.

It’s Red Ribbon Week. We start with moustaches (we moustache you not to do drugs). Most of my team…

I actually found it difficult to smile with the moustache on. IDK how they did that. Maybe it’s just me.

Speaking of slow progress, I was sitting there looking at my most recent rejection (it’s OK. I’m good.) and wondering what I was going to work on next. The drawing I did Sunday night is still a good start for a deadline in January, but I also know it’s a stretch, that whoever the juror is, they might not go for this. I’ll do it anyway, but I also realized that I have another deadline where I usually just pull from what I have, but what I have that fits the size and time restrictions is pretty limited. Huh. Well. So there’s a drawing I did back in 2016 for a coloring book my art group did. Well, I don’t know if I originally did it for the coloring book or it just ended up working for that, but I really want it to be a quilt. I enlarged it earlier this year, or even last year, and even numbered it, but then spilled wine on it or something and decided the pieces were too small…it started as a drawing in a 9×12″ sketchbook. Most of my big quilts start in the bigger sketchbook. So the lines get really thick when you enlarge. I had done it up to 300%, but didn’t think that was big enough. So yesterday, I recopied it.

The crazy story of my driving to FedEx Office twice after 9 PM (and WHY) will be my first November video on the Patreon. It’s pretty funny. Or crazy. Not sure which. Just know I fucked up a few times there. As per usual. So the bottom copy is at 250% and the top is at 500% total (the copier only goes to 400%, so I had to do complicated math. Well. For me anyway.).

Yeah, I know I can pay a bunch to have them copy it full size, but I like to mess with it. It’s also way cheaper this way. It actually taped together really well, until I got to one section.

The thing is, I want to redraw it anyway, because it was so small and fussy, and I want to fix some things. Like I said before, some of the lines are really thick.

But I think this is a better size. So I made a big piece to redraw it onto as well and got it on the light box…

That’s tonight’s project. I’m going to add some things in the sky around as well.

Kitten cleaning action…

She loves big pieces of paper. And string.

Calli sleeps hard.

Poor old lady.

Kitten was all over the place.

Anyway, slowly slogging through the grading still. Plus I’m picking up the newest quilt from the photographer today. Entering another show. That’s what I do when rejected…make/enter something new y’all. Now I’m gonna go meditate so I can handle the Not Reading Instructions part. While being a nerd. (Nerds read instructions.)

On Jumbled Sleep…

I’ve had three nights now with jumbled sleep…due to my brain in overdrive, the dog barking, just teeth-grinding discombobulation in general. I need to get control of that. It was a busy working weekend…not a lot of time to sit and relax. I took about an hour at the end of Sunday and drew, but otherwise, I worked for almost 6 hours on grading stuff, trying to get caught up (I’m not), plus I had a bunch of art stuff that had to be delivered here and there, and then an art group meeting, which took a good chunk of Sunday. I still have a huge pile of crap to deal with this week, in terms of prepping for labs, getting supplies, dealing with parents and other adults, and who knows what else. I won’t know until it’s here.

I finished the quilt in time. That’s a plus.

Here’s Saturday, for example…I had a Patreon video that was processing, then I was downloading more files for grading on the essay assignment, plus eating my lunch (late) and reading the book that will automatically go back to the library today, even though I didn’t finish it.

I don’t like to sit there doing nothing. Ever.

At some point while grading, I realized I’d left my computer charger at school…on the way there, a friend’s husband called about the spider plants they were trying to get rid of…so these came home with me.

To my boyfriend’s credit, when I started walking in the house with these, he didn’t even question it…that might have been the cold medicine though. He’s been pretty sick. (She went to get her charger and returned with plants. Totally logical.)

Kitten was my trusty grading companion, mostly not lying on the papers I was looking at, and only whacking me with her tail occasionally.

Fourth from the left is my quilt in the A Better World exhibit at Houston IQF…Bill! Bill! Bill! is about Bill Nye arguing with politicians about climate change.

I may be one of the few art quilters still using a binding, it seems. I like how it gives the piece a border…like a frame would.

More sleepy Kitten…now on my bag.

Eventually she got off it, and I piled a bunch of papers in there. I finished some things, didn’t touch others. Gave up on essay reading when I realized I was super tired and ineffective. I’m only doing the makeup essays now. Some are better. Some aren’t.

I spent about an hour, probably less, drawing this. I have a list of deadlines I’m looking at and trying to decide what I want to do next.

It’s a start. I don’t know how I feel about it for real. I do know I’m still tired. I also know making art makes the stress less annoying. Being stressed for art is one thing. My day job? I’m kinda over it right now. I mean I’m still doing my job and showing up and doing the work…I’m just mentally stepping back from some of the people shit. We’ll see how that really flies.

Not a Problem…

Quilt is finished and delivered to the photographer…

It’s the long one. The short one is getting delivered to a venue for an exhibit that opens next Saturday at The Studio Door in Hillcrest, 6-9 PM.

It’s a little crazy around here. And Kitten was decidedly not helpful last night…

This is me trying to ink the parts that need it. She got irritated when I dragged her off it. It took me another hour and a half of stitching and inking, and then I ironed it and dehaired it and packed it for the photographer. Then I packed up the other quilt. Then I sat down with some entry info, notes from art group meetings about upcoming shows, and a few websites, and made a list of what I might be working on next. That took me until almost 1 AM.

Honestly, today I have a bunch of grading to do and some errands…but I’d like to sit on the deck and draw some stuff. Just because. Although it’s hot and dry and smells like fire (ah, poor Mexico is burning). My eyes are dry and watering. I’m dehydrated and tired. But I’ll be doing stuff anyway. I also need to prep some materials for the workshop I’m teaching in November. I don’t know what that looks like yet, but I’ll be doing that.

Cat with stuffed dinosaur.

Dog in embarrassing situation…

(belly rubbing was happening just before)

Alert dog (he barks at leaves blowing) on my lap…

I was trying to grade while he was doing this. He is known for launching himself over my head to get to the window in attack mode. Small dogs. Sigh.

It’s Red Ribbon Week. I was told I couldn’t draw anything on my door. The kids voted on the slogan (it made me laugh).

(I drew the No Drugs, Yes Carrots sign). I’m pretty sure with this wind that this has fallen off my door by now.

I did like this one. It kinda goes with mine…

I am tired. I need some real food, some tea, and a focus. Going to look at my to-do list and prioritize shit. Artmaking will come eventually. No worries. I have stuff I want to do. Lots of it. I still remember that teacher I had who told me I would run out of ideas some day and I laughed at him. He was way younger than I am now. Sounds like a HIM problem. Not one I have.

Until the Cows Come Home…

Fires are back. Winds in California. Crazy stuff. Hope everyone is safe. It’s a pain to replace buildings, it’s sad to lose all your stuff, but people (and animals)…let’s keep them all safe. It’ll be interesting to see if PG&E is the cause of the fire in Sonoma after all their squawking about turning things off. Humans like to control things. Nature does too. So far, San Diego has not had a major fire…but we still have wind predicted today.

Something about the hot dry air messes with my head. I’m not headachy like usual…just fuzzy. OK, maybe that’s a long week and it’s Friday more than the Santa Ana winds. I did finish reading all the science essays. Well, I finished all the ones that were originally turned in. Now I need to go grade all the late ones. Ugh. I know what I’ll be doing all weekend. Grades. Yup. Well. Once I finish the quilt.

No, it’s not done. It’s almost done.

There’s something about having a huge quilt on your lap when it’s hot and dry (ugh) that is exactly no fun. But I got all the binding and one sleeve done. I have part of one sleeve yet, and then I need to ink, iron, and dehair. That’s tonight.

Kitten assist. She’s really not very helpful.

I am really tired this morning. This is not surprising.

Kitten gets to nap all day. But then she wants to hang out with me the rest of the time. These guys too. Unless my ex is here. They like him best. Something to do with food or play or IDK what.

Basically whoever comes in the door is their new best friend…especially if they run around with them a lot. I don’t think I’m walking dogs today. It’s still too hot. We’ll see.

So I came home and saw this. I was so tired, I looked at it and thought, well that’s an interesting design. Did the boychild find that in the shed?

I wonder how it works? Oh yeah. It’s broken. Duh.

He also broke this…

It’s just the shed roof. It’s fine. He was trying to clear fire danger from the house area, and we knew the roof was deteriorating. But I’m not ready to get rid of this shed. I will, but not yet.

OK, I’m going to survive today. Labs all day. Then come home and finish the quilt and find the other one that has to be delivered to a show tomorrow. The man is playing a short show, but I’m not going. I should tell him that. Then I’m going to grade until the cows come home…which is gonna be a while, because we don’t have any cows.

Like I Have Control Over That Shit.

I would like to thank my principal’s kid for his fever that canceled my morning meeting. No really. I mean, I hope the sweet boy is OK and all, but I needed sleep more than I needed another early meeting. Note to self. Fewer meetings. Like I have control over that shit. Seriously need to figure people out and their need to make useless meetings or add people to my meetings who aren’t going to add to the conversation or set meetings up and then not show the fuck up. Wasted time is like the worst thing in the world to me. Don’t make me do it! That said, I’ll show up to almost any kid meeting, hoping against hope that THIS will be the one that gets them to see the light (them being the kid, the parent, or someone who might be able to move the helping process along, hello counselors and psychs and all those other people who get in the way of our helping the kids who need it due to stupid governmental crap). I’m an eternal optimist, despite the cynicism you see and hear daily from me. I believe in people choosing good over evil…in doing the best things…despite seeing stupid shit day after day. Sigh. I’m preparing my mind for two lab days in a row. Wait until next week. Ha! Yeah. It’ll be fine.

I came home early last night and went to the gym. It was my night to cook, but I thought this shit through…the crockpot was going all day. Easy and awesome foods and plans. I tried using the iPad at the gym to grade these essays, but it doesn’t work like it does on the computer, so in 25 minutes on the bike, I managed two essays. Not great. And you know what? When I came home and was sitting there watching some weird Russian robot show (I don’t know why we keep watching this…the dialogue is awful and the lips are moving and nothing else is and the bots themselves…my lord.), I did NOT go get my computer and continue to grade essays. Yes, it means I’m behind. I’m always behind. Whatever. 20 minutes of grading after dinner wasn’t going to solve THAT shit.

Then I came in here and it took an hour to cut bindings and sleeves and sew them onto the quilt…

Same stuff as the background. I bought just enough to do the sleeves. Note to self…when your quilt is WIDER than it is TALL, your sleeves will be really long. Ugh. I have to sew all those down. Damn. Well. You learn something new every time you do this. Yeah, this cat is blurry. I kept trying to take pictures of her rubbing her head and body all over this quilt (sheesh), and she was moving too much. The Instagram one is the only non-blurry one.

Then I spent another 2 hours pinning everything and starting to stitch all the rest by hand. I got all the way down one long side and one short side, so that’s half of the outside part, but I still need to do the sleeves. Hang on…this is math. There are 380″ total inches of hand sewing and I did about 113 of them last night. That means I have a shitload left to do. No really. I don’t need to do that math. I’ll be fine. No gym tonight. No having to cut things out or sew them by machine or pin them, so another 3 hours and I should be done? Hopefully? I do need to do some inking on it, plus iron and dehair it…probably can’t deliver tomorrow, but definitely Saturday. Whew. Woo! OK. What am I doing next? For my sanity, I cannot have down time on the art stuff. It keeps me going. Seriously.

Meanwhile, school. No meetings today. A blessing. Don’t ask about tomorrow.

Do It Better…

My brain is significantly nonfunctional. Unfortunately. Because job and all. Plus morning meetings just suck. I’m sure it will be fine. I currently feel like I might still be asleep. I even went to bed early to try to make up for the early rise, but no. Not less tired or more awake. I’m just not a morning person. My brain is literally crying out for a sleep-in right now. No, brain. We don’t get that until maybe Saturday…not Sunday though. Sigh. OK. Some time in November! There we are. Is it November yet? Close.

The weather’s wacky again here in Southern California…it must be that weird burst of October summer we get most years…Santa Ana’s? Maybe. The old dog is increasingly more reactive to weather as she ages…now wind upsets her because it often comes before rain and her ultimate fear, thunder. There will be none of that this week, except for the wind, and she will freak out and be needy and we’ll pet her and it won’t help. Poor thing.

I’m in a daily routine…I come home from school and grade stuff…it was a 10-hour day yesterday. I’m not sure this thing where I keep track of it is making me feel better…but I’m doing it anyway…collecting data. Today maybe won’t be as bad…well, except for this early-morning meeting. Ugh. Grading is just such a time suck. There’s no solution I’ve found for it yet. Nonstop time suck. I was doing OK at the beginning of the year, but it’s the stuff we use for assessment that takes forever. Anyway…and makeup work. That’s killing me at the moment. I can’t even get to it. I only graded until we were done watching our dinner TV show though…then did a few things that needed doing.

Then off to the quilting. Which I took no pictures of…mostly because the thread broke approximately 28 times. I don’t know why. But it was all on the righthand side of the quilt. I booked it through the top section and then all of a sudden, every 6 inches or so, SHRED. WTF. I used the thread conditioner I have. I slowed the fuck down (OK, it’s true I was driving Nascar with the machine when I could). I thought about changing the needle, but I had just done that right before quilting. Anyway. Eventually it behaved and I made it all the way around…almost 9 hours of quilting. Not bad. When did I start? Saturday night? Yeah. Quick.

Then the trimming…

Sometimes this is a real pain in the ass, but last night, it was easy peasy. One side had to be recut, retrimmed to make the measurements work. And then I was done. It’s about 70″ w and 43″ h. I don’t usually do long and wide, but the image called for it. And she looks good! She needs a little ink (don’t we all) and a binding for sure. I have three nights for that! Maybe. We’ll see. I think the photographer would like it earlier rather than later, but I also know that all that binding will take a while. Plus holes in my finger unless I remember to use those sticky thimble things that I always forget I have until the hole is well established. Ouch.

Kitten agrees.

She was quite happily ensconced on the couch while I graded. Well, she tried to lie on the computer (why do they do that? It can’t be comfortable) and then she followed me to the office for the stitching time. All good.

OK, binding on tonight, start stitching it down. Hopefully I’m going to the gym as well…really need it. My back is tweaked. Plus blood sugar always needs it. Maybe I’ll figure out how to grade this current assignment there. We’ll see if the iPad can handle the weird add-ons I’m using. Early meeting tomorrow too, so I’ll be in bed early again. My brain is like YAASSSS. Bed. Sleep. Sheesh. If you like sleep so much, why don’t you DO IT BETTER?

GUTTER

Hi. I’m Kathy. I’m a bit of a workaholic. I seriously don’t know how to relax, especially with a bunch of grading that’s late and a quilt that’s due. The man was asking about my Saturday plans, and I kinda went off, because Saturday is DAYS from now and I have SO MUCH to do before then that my right eye is twitching. Or maybe it’s my left. Or they’re alternating. Did you know there’s something called TwitchCon? And it has nothing to do with my eyelids’ propensity to denote my stress levels.

12 hours plus on school yesterday. I am tracking actual hours this week for the program I’m on. Why? So I can cut some of those hours. I’m not sure how that will work, but I’m getting there. By hell or high water. Or I’ll die trying. OK, shouldn’t offer that as an option. This job will take it all out of you. I remember the guy who planned to retire from teaching, had to go out 3 months early on medical, was dead by the end of summer. Cautionary tale!

Anyway, I quit because I was reading this one essay and I’m thinking, whoa, this sounds familiar and then read a phrase about convection being a substance (WTF?) and went, holy fuck, Batman, I’ve read this before. Sweet little dumbasses. They must think we’re idiots. OK, sometimes we don’t catch this shit just due to time etc, but seriously, write something as lame as that and I will FIND YOU and award you the zero you deserve, you and your little friend. Yes, because Google Docs tells me who edited it when. Haven’t decided what to do about it yet. Drawing and quartering seems a bit much (though tempting). Making them rewrite during tutoring sounds fun. Not really. But I’ll probably do it.

Today is some practice with equipment that will hopefully help them with a lab tomorrow and the next day. Then we go into days of labs, which after yesterday’s incidents with “I don’t know how to shut up long enough to hear instructions,” might be an issue. Anyway. My day job…can suck the brains out of my head and spit them out in a what do you call that thing by the side of the road, next to the curb, damn, there goes my brain. I’ll let it ruminate and hopefully I’ll remember what it’s called. THE GUTTER! Sheesh. Google will be saving my forgetful ass until I die. The gutter.

So it was around 9:30 PM when I started panic quilting. Really it’s all a run to the finish now.

I had both arms, the Anza Borrego section, the entire torso (trees, heart, lungs), and the head to do.

In the last week, I’ve worked on this quilt for more than 18 hours. Yesterday, I only got in 2 hours and 12 minutes. They were good ones though.

Because I finished all the outlining, which was my goal…

And then I started quilting the background, of which there is not much…and I got about a quarter of the way around, maybe a little more. So that’s tonight…and hopefully trim it and maybe cut and start stitching the binding? We’ll see. It depends on how long the quilting takes. And on my sanity after tutoring. I really should grade more things, but I don’t know if I’ll have the fortitude. How come I can remember FORTITUDE but not GUTTER. My brain is like a fucked-up sieve.

Oh yeah, while I was watering last night and dealing with my composter, I saw this guy…

I thought their season was done, but apparently not. He looks well fed.

OK, off to the day job, where I will remember the word GUTTER and try not to use a triple-beam balance in a way it was not intended to be used. Seriously, though, why does it make sense to weigh your hand on a TBB without cutting it off? Because otherwise, you’re not weighing anything. Now you know why I’m a middle-school science teacher and not a kindergarten teacher.

I Stitched a Few Miles…

My blood sugar crashing woke me up at 5 AM. Not a normal occurrence. I need to be better about eating on the weekends. I forget. I’m not in the mood. There’s no plan. I’m pretty sure I said this sometime in the last 4 weeks. And then didn’t do it. Sigh. Part of it was that I was busy trying to get this quilt done. I’m still busy trying to get this quilt done. I’m going to be busy with it all week. I did manage to stitch a few miles this weekend, that’s for sure.

I got up Saturday morning and did a bunch of stuff I already wrote about, and then I started the stitch down again in the early afternoon…

I had done about 2 1/2 hours the night before and I was on a roll…

It’s not like this is hard. As long as the sewing machine behaves (sometimes an issue), this is easy. I put on some loud music, I try to remember to stand up occasionally, I forget to eat…and I stitch. At 4 hours and 51 minutes, I was done.

The back is always intriguing. I actually look at the back to find what I missed. I found one, but not the other…I found that one last night while quilting.

Then I went through the stash to find something for the backing. This is a batik on the front, and I used the whole width from selvedge to selvedge, so I knew I’d have to use another batik on the back, unless I wanted to piece it (I did not)…because batiks run about 44″ wide and regular fabrics are usually only 40-41″ wide. I didn’t want to lose the 3″. So I grabbed something that might work as a background, but was being conscripted to backing today.

I ironed it nice and flat. I’d already washed the batting, so I cut that, ironed the top, and laid it all out on the floor I’d already cleaned in the morning (I had a busy morning).

Looking good. Get down on the floor and start pinbasting. Look at the clock…the Visions opening has started, but you’re still OK on time.

Pinbasting doesn’t usually take very long…

Less than an hour. Put on something besides shorts, put a bra on (aargh, society, fuck you), head out to Visions for the opening of Interpretations. Talked to some interesting people, checked out the art, don’t have time now for resizing photos and looking up people’s websites, just know there was some interesting art there. And people!

I knew there was no food in the house (that I wanted), so I headed over to Liberty Public Market, had a glass of wine, and read my book while I contemplated the chaos inside and my food options.

Also stopped at Comikaze and got a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale, graphic novel style. Looking forward to reading that.

Then decided on crepes (I always decide on that…not sure why…because they’re a rarity in my world and I like them?)…waited for them to be cooked, and drove them home to continue reading. I finished the book. So I took about a 3-hour break from the quilt existence. The man was playing a show I couldn’t go to, so this was my one break all day.

Back to the grind…the quilting…

And that’s what I did, more music blaring, for the next 2 1/2 hours…quilted a little Torrey Pines cliffs…

Some water and a whale…

I was on a roll…a mule deer…

Somewhere around the river, the man showed up and I actually looked at a clock…after midnight. Ah. OK. Time to stop.

So Saturday was close to 6 hours of quiltmaking. Now that’s a day. But I didn’t get any schoolwork done, and that’s an issue. Yes. Well.

Sundays are always really busy, and this one was no exception. I did do schoolwork and I also went to the grocery store and the fabric store for binding fabric, plus made some lunch and breakfast stuff and a cake for my dad who just turned 79, which is awesome. So it was late before I started this…

I graded a little at the parentals’ house before dinner, but was panicking. And listening to a podcast about the Panic Monster. I quilted for an hour and then took a break, went on the bike and graded a few essays while riding, then went back to quilting.

I hate grading sometimes. And the quilt wins timewise at the moment. Hopefully I can get more of both done today. I’d really like to finish the quilting tonight…

I did 2 1/2 hours last night, so that’s almost 5 hours so far. Probably another 2 1/2 hours just of outlining left…

I have the whole torso, most of one arm and all of another, plus Anza Borrego and her head. Then I have to quilt the background. Hmm. Plus a 2-hour staff meeting and I’m cooking dinner tonight. Sounds problematic. OK, finish the outlining tonight. Finish the background tomorrow night and trim it, cut the binding. Maybe put the binding on? Shit. Time. When the hell am I going to grade anything? I guess it’s a good thing I have absolutely no evening plans this week. I did record some different videos for my Patreon this weekend…a bunch of me singing along to music as I quilt (not so interesting) and then a short treatise on materials and why you should wash your Machingers more often than I do. It’s not hard. I just buy new ones.

The Dog Ate My To-Do List

I got to sleep in. It was glorious. Well, the old-lady dog needed to pee at 8, so I did that, and then went back to sleep for an hour. Lovely. More please. But I have work to do as well…so up and at ’em! I had a brainstorm about a thing we need to do for science last night as I was brushing my teeth, so I ran in here and wrote it on a post-it note and then fell asleep thinking about it, so of course, woke up and made it more of a thing than it was on a post-it, while texting another teacher friend about a kid and all the kids and how we get to a (tired, honestly) point of just reacting and we have to step back and reflect, which is what teachers do all the time, but this year, it’s just exhausting and nonstop. So without weekends and breaks and promising yourself to go home and NOT work and trips to the gym or a hike or whatever it is that floats your boat, we’d all go nuts. Although I promised my students I’d finish grading all the makeup work AND the essay thing this weekend. Which might have been a mistake, because I have a quilt to do.

I got up, I made my lists…which is funny, because Calli got left alone for a while yesterday while the boychild went to get approved to hike (broken toe fixed! mostly!), and she decided to take it out on my listmaking strategies…

The dog ate my to-do list. It’s OK. It was the old notebook. Most of the useful stuff had been transferred over into a new one. I do like HAVING them, though. I don’t know why. Just because. Documentation of the crazy. She was anxious.

I’m supposed to be keeping track of my actual work hours this week for school…I’m dividing it up into planning, prep, teaching, grading, duty, and meetings. We’ll see how it goes. The plan is to reduce some of it and get that time back for me and what I want to do. It’s impossible to track the thinking time unfortunately. There’s a lot of that going on.

When I got home, what I really needed was a walk. And the boychild can do that now, so we grabbed the dogs and went…

We’re getting close to Daylight Savings, when doing this will be much harder. I hate that. So I’m trying to use time now…

The dogs are a little out of shape. I might be too…a week of being sick and not working out at all seems to have had an effect. I’m still stuffed up a little and not fully healthy. But I’m mostly better.

I did grade a little last night. I also read a little. But mostly I stitched shit down. When I felt tired, I got up and heated up my tea. Then I came back and stitched some more.

I can’t say this part is particularly exciting…but it’s a little meditative. You’re just moving the fabric under the needle and trying to decide where to go next in a logical manner.

I actually planned to try to finish all the bottom section…and I did do that and more before midnight hit.

Including the butterflies…

So today, I’ve already paid all the bills, scanned the contract I needed to email, transferred some of my retirement funds to different funds, did a little bit of planning for school, dumped the batting into a pile of hot soapy water in the bathtub, and am listening to the weekly podcast for how to get more fucking efficient in my work day, while I type this blog. I’m also eating my breakfast while I type. Because I need to finish stitch down, take a shower, clean the tile floors, sandwich the quilt, and start actually quilting. Because the photographer wants it by next Saturday (oh dear. OK. Yikes.) It’s a good thing I have no need to sleep, right? OK. I’m going to get on that now. Move the batting. Start stitching. Shower. I’m gonna get this done.