Will They Want Mine…

It’s kind of amazing how much I think and dream and talk about sleep when you consider how bad I am at it. 1 AM, 2 AM, and 4:44 AM. All good. 4:44 was something scrabbling on the roof though…so that was a dog response and that woke me up. Not sure what the others were but I don’t appreciate them; don’t appreciate starting the work week on low energy. Not that I slept much this weekend either. It was a busy weekend; I need another day to just relax. And finish my book club book. Ha! That’s gonna be a miracle if it happens. Miracles do happen though.

So Friday, I went and spent over an hour putting shit back together that slipped/broke/fell on Tuesday when I was putting it back on the shelf. I felt some things go but I needed to get out of there.

I added another burnt out building and part of the head. Not sure what’s gonna happen with that. Just know that the head can’t bump into stuff on the shoulders, so I’m trying to figure out what that looks like. The base came out of the kiln. There’s a crack in the bottom that will be hidden. I’m trying to decide what to do next. The gray is stronger than I thought it would be…so I might do another layer? And oxide it? That’s not a verb.

Need to think about it.

I managed to cut out all the page pieces…with a little doggie help.

It didn’t take long to finish the last two pages.

There were a lot of things I should have done over the weekend. I did pick up a quilt from the photographer. Haven’t dealt with that yet. Plus went to one of two meetings I was supposed to go to (too late for the second one), but it was also SD Book Crawl, so Saturday afternoon, I went to four bookstores and Sunday, I went to one. Here’s the baby haul…

I say baby haul because my coteacher did this as well, but made it to all 14 stores and has a real haul. I tried to pick books I hadn’t heard of, although the bottom one is the second in the 3-body problem series and I have read the first. It was fun, but it does take a chunk of time to drive around and park and wait in lines. I thought it was well-managed though. I’d do it again…that said, it’s always this 4th weekend in April, when I have two other meetings. Ah well.

Last night, I ironed the cover page together…

And then ironed it onto a background.

Seems relevant. They did say politics was OK, but IDK if they’ll want mine. We’ll see. I’ll turn it into a comic strip if it doesn’t get into the show. Like four panels in a row. In my spare time. Yeah. Right now, I’m kind of at a push to get this done. Wish me luck. Maybe I’ll blow off grading for a week and a half.

I’m hoping to get a page done a night, maybe more. This one took an hour. The others are more complicated. Although the next one has fewer pieces, so maybe it’s not more complicated. Hard to say. Then stitchdown Thursday, all of it, sandwich and quilt Friday…oh wait, the Man has a show Friday night. Fuck. Um. So Saturday/Sunday? Yikes. Deadline looms. I got this. Here’s the ex’s dog, complicating the couch…

Today though…today, I teach three classes…they’re finishing one thing and starting another. Hopefully. Then the other two classes are a mini-assembly about sex trafficking. Fun times. Then two staff meetings. More fun. Come home, finish reading book club book. Yup. Then iron. Maybe sleep. Big maybe on that one. The last 7 weeks of school are always a challenge. Nothing new this year.

Wicker Flamingos

It’s Friday. What a delightful sentence. Although this week is kind of a crazy mess…all life related, not school related. I finished progress report grades last night, way earlier than normal. Kids are still trying to turn in late work, and that’s fine, I’ll grade it, but not for the progress report. I’m actually, as of this very second, CAUGHT UP WITH GRADES. Shhh. It’s OK, as of the moment I start teaching, there are things being turned in that I need to grade. So much drama with school at the moment though. Yesterday was a lockdown because of a shooting in the neighborhood…glad we weren’t at the high school. I think they were locked down for more than four hours. And it was my prep period, amusingly enough. So I didn’t have kids. I think that’s the second time that’s happened. I’m OK with it. The shooting…not OK with that. Someone did die and that’s sad. Sigh. AND now two of our classes didn’t get full periods yesterday, so they’re off on time, and on Monday, we have a sex trafficking assembly (fun times) and two OTHER classes will lose an entire period, so scheduling shit at the moment is a clusterfuck. Anyway. School is always on the crazy side…and the last half of the last trimester is even more so.

I’ve been ironing stuff down still…finished page 4…

I just had all the hair versions to do. Then I started ironing down page 3.

I didn’t get very far. Last night was my stitching Zoom, so I cut out page 1 (aka the cover).

So many tiny pieces. The new Wonder Under doesn’t stick enough, releases too easily. So when I’m cutting out a complicated shape, it just releases. Annoying.

Then I went back to ironing page 3 to fabric.

I almost finished…just need to do the pile of books in her arm. Then I’ll keep cutting stuff out tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday, and then hopefully be ironing it all together by Monday. That’s the plan. The deadline on this is tight. I’m running out of time. It’s a good thing grades are done. Here’s all the fabrics used so far…

I don’t think I actually added any last night…no wait, I added a black. And a red? Maybe? Oh yeah, the red hair. Otherwise, I’m just reusing fabrics I’ve already used…makes it all look like it goes together when you repeat fabrics you’ve used elsewhere.

This is also this weekend.

I’ll be lucky to get to a few of the bookstores. It’s a busy weekend. Do I need more books? Of course I do. I just don’t have anywhere to put them and I haven’t actually finished any of the ones I have already. Minor issue.

Some political notes…

Of course, it’s very 1st world to just be worried about my 401k (and I’m really not only worried about it…quite honestly, there’s much more worrisome stuff out there). Although this is good news…

And good reason to get rid of Thomas and Alito. Because they are both idiots.

And this…seriously, so much.

Not just a president…all of the crazy lackeys who don’t know how to do their jobs, how to be safe and secure, how NOT to ally with Russia ffs, how not to alienate an entire group of intelligent and competent people who run a shit ton of the tech in this world and definitely hold jobs and pay taxes. Also I found out last night that I can’t eat fast food burgers anymore (well, I don’t eat a lot of those anyway) unless I go only to one that I can’t remember the name of (dammit). You know, I’ve stopped spending money at a bunch of places due to their political leanings and contributions, and it’s saving me money, but also, one of them emailed and threatened to shut down my store card and I’m like, um, this is how you’re going to deal with consumer dislike of your policies? Go ahead. Shut down my card. If I wanted another one, you’d give it to me. So wah to you. Really. I replaced you with a store that has hundreds of wicker flamingos (no joke, I was so tempted). But I don’t NEED wicker flamingos. Or do I?

Anyway. School today. Try to get everyone on the same (similar?) page. Start teaching GMOs. Evil? Or no? Tough one. Then ceramics to fix the thing that broke off on Tuesday and hopefully to build more. Then tomorrow is a bunch of chaos, but hopefully some is fun, and repeat on Sunday. I really need more sleep too and I don’t think that is happening any time soon. And I need to schedule a measles booster and an MRI of the boobage. Fun times, fun times. Art is gonna happen today. That’s the focus.

A Bag of Rocks.

Well hey. I’ve taught two whole days and already feel like a semi truck has driven through me. I’ve got new shoes arriving Saturday. Kept thinking I would have the time (and mental space) to drive up to the shoe place and just buy them, but you know what? I didn’t. Let’s talk about my reality of time…there’s never enough. That’s it really.

So I got my titers tested for the measles vaccine, because I’m in the timeframe of ‘possibly not protected’, and sure enough, I’m probably not. We’ll see if that turns into needing a new vaccine. I’ll wait until school is out to do it, just because these days, about half of the vaccines cause me issues. Don’t need to deal with that during school, for sure.

In clay news, I finally (FINALLY!!!) got the base in the bisque kiln. It was a logistical thing, lifting her down in there. Certainly makes me wonder about the next layer, how it will sit in there. How the fuck I’ll get it IN there.

They’re just incredibly fragile at the greenware stage. As I realized AGAIN last night. I did more work on the upper torso…had to reattach the hand again because I think someone bumped it.

She doesn’t fit on my shelf, so she’s on the shared shelves, and covered, so people can’t see what they’re bumping. So I reattached the hand, but some stuff was slipping too…so I tried to fix everything I could, and then broke the damn coathanger for the 17th time, plus the two classes that come in Tuesday night were showing up, so I needed to get out of the way. I put some burnt out buildings on the left arm. Then went to move it to the shelf, and I don’t think I bumped anything, but I felt the guy with the gun fall off. Fuck me. I didn’t have time (or the mental space) to reattach at that point, so I’ll try to go in tomorrow and do that. This part is also at that incredibly fragile stage. Everything just breaks so easily. This is clay though. This is what it does. I did also start a neck…you can see it there. The plan is to have that piece harden slightly in place…the torso is hardened (mostly), so it’s done some of the shrinking it’s supposed to, but if I start the head there and let that piece harden up a bit, and then make it a support, I can build the head separately once this part is done. I think. I’m a little concerned about how the piece is going to balance. The bottom is super light because it’s empty. I might need to put a bag of rocks in it. Seriously. Problems for summer, I think. This piece is taking forever.

In quilt news, I finished ironing down page 2 (or page 1, depending on whether the cover is page 1 or not numbered).

I trimmed and ironed the first of the embroidery pieces. I tried to be super neat with the stitching, using very few carryovers, trimming all the knots, but there’s still stitching showing through. I’m OK with that. Really, I’d have to be because I don’t have time to start over. Black thread on white fabric was always going to be problematic.

Last night, I got a goodly chunk of page 4 done. Why did I skip page 3? Because I forgot to number that page consecutively, so it’s in a separate box, and half of page 4 was already laid out because when I realized I fucked up with page 3, I started page 4 from page 2. Got it? Hope so. Well, really, doesn’t matter if you do, because I do. As I’m ironing, I’m separating each page into its own box anyway at this point. It’s just easier.

I ironed everything except the hair, which is complicated as all hell. I’ll do that tonight and start page 3. Hopefully, I’ll finish ironing down tomorrow night and start trimming, which won’t take long. I’m hoping to be ironing this together over the weekend…although that’s busy too. AND grades are due. Fun times. I shouldn’t have to do progress report or report card grades over the weekend…and I always end up doing it…which sucks.

If I were teaching 7th-grade science next year, I’d totally use this in class…

I mean, the boys always ask if they can eat things in class (chemistry), and I always pick up the phone and say “Hang on, let me dial 911” and then give them a scary smile.

OK, today the kids are doing a mostly independent assignment. I can’t direct teach another day; my voice won’t handle it. I’m trying to plan out the rest of the unit, but people keep adding things, and there’s literally no time left. We have like next week. And then we go into state testing, which means shortened days, shortened classes, tired and cranky kids (well that’s nothing new). And then sex ed. And then they graduate and get out of here and we start over with the next group. At least we know we’re doing 8th grade; my brain is already planning next year, trying to find 5 weeks to teach the shit we missed. Ha! We’ll be meeting over the summer for sure. I really have no plans for the summer, pros and cons. I might do a self-created residency. Maybe. We’ll see. Money might be an issue. It often is. OK. School. Mutations. Looking forward to kids’ reports on that.

Ready or Not

Well there’s nothing like the shitty Sunday sleep that comes after two weeks off of work. I’ve got a few thousand things to do rattling around in my head for today, and sleep was not my friend last night. I mean, sleep is never really my friend, but sometimes it comes along for the ride. There are 41 days of school left. It feels doable until you consider the details. Grades are due next Tuesday. I was really good and didn’t grade until last Friday. I didn’t finish, but that’s OK. This is a progress report so I don’t have to be done. The texts are rolling in about how we have new projectors, but they’re not set up and our rooms are messed up. Fun times. School starts in less than 90 minutes and now we have to set up beforehand. Ah well. I’m not rushing to get there. I’m boggled the district doesn’t send an email out about having to set shit back up and how. I know they assume we all come in over break, but I stayed away and it was a good thing. I needed a serious reset.

I forgot to post on Friday…it was a busy day. I had to pick up art in the morning, long drive, then doctor appointment, then I graded all afternoon and did some yardwork, then we went to see Regency Girls at the Old Globe.

It was fun, a good women’s-rights-friendly musical. So no art happened on Friday though. Saturday, I made it to ceramics. I was supposed to load the base of this piece into the kiln, but it was too warm. I’m going back tomorrow. I did add some bullets and money to the upper torso…

I had to fix the flag and some fingers first.

Sculpting is definitely a skill that needs developing.

This thing is a little crazy at the moment.

I also worked on the new quilt, after delivering the last one to the photographer and picking up the one before it. This is Portrait of One Self.

She’s big. She took four months to finish. Crazy really. Thought I’d hit a deadline; didn’t even come close. Ah well.

Started ironing with the Statue of Liberty…

Second Statue of Liberty in one of my pieces.

Yesterday, I washed all the embroideries, then realized I’d missed a bit. I’ll fix that tonight hopefully. Then I started ironing page 2…or is it page 1? Because the statue is the cover page.

Easier for me to think of it as four pages. I didn’t finish. This one is more complicated. So hopefully by the end of the week, all the page pieces will be ironed to fabric and I can start trimming. There’s a super tight deadline on these guys.

This is a thing.

Real people helping real people. Seriously, if you think she’s a caricature, you should listen to Dolly Parton’s America, the podcast. She’s not who you think she is. And she’s better than those dingbats who went to space.

Simba agrees.

Wishful viewing of the bunnies in the front yard.

OK. School. Apparently need to put my room back together before kids get there. Nothing is set up, I think. Or did I do it before I left? I don’t think I did, because they were gonna do our floors. Deep breath. It’s fine. Today’s teaching is easy. Then a 2-hour staff meeting (ugh). Then errands, dinner, art. The Man is having dental surgery today and is on liquids and soft food for about a week…so my dinners are my own problem. Pros and cons to that. I’m expecting some exhaustion this week. Going back to school always does that, more so as I get older. But also, I’m reading two books, making some art, dealing with yard stuff. Nothing new. Grades. Damn. Grades already. OK. Well, that’s happening whether I’m ready for it or not.

Still Upright…

Hey hey, I’m trying to do all the things here. Already got a splinter that won’t come out…fun times. I finished quilting yesterday and couldn’t find anything in my stash for binding, so I’m going to have to go to Satan’s fabric store and just feel good that I’m using her fabric to make some woke-ass liberal quilts (probably not gonna tell her that, but I’m telling you).

I trimmed her yesterday too…

So she’s ready for binding today. I’ve got a solar guy coming to talk about a battery today (he says they’re cheaper than last time…they better be). Then I’m going to ceramics (haven’t been in a week and a half) and running about 700 errands. Yuck to that, but it needs to be done. And some of it is OK, except for trying to be woke in a fabric store run by a MAGA nut. Her employees are fine…sigh.

I trimmed all the Wonder Under for the banned book piece last night too, because I didn’t have anything else to work on and that’s anathema.

So it’s ready to be ironed to fabric like…now.

Monday we had a big earthquake. It wasn’t huge but it was very bumpy. I was at the vet and after the first little roll that turned into a larger roll, I picked up the dog and stood in the doorway.

Los Angeles trained, y’all. Grew up on an earthquake fault. My high school evacuated us ACROSS the fault to the upper fields. Made no sense.

It wasn’t that bad though…just makes you a little jumpy.

I did a few drawings (or finished this one) while sitting in cocktail bars and restaurants.

All good. Didn’t finish this one…

Food came too fast. Also the food was kinda eh. Ah well. Can’t have lovely scenery AND good food, can we? I did a couple of big drawings too.

Nova helping me cut things out. Actually, she was sitting in my seat and it was kind of annoying to not have my cushion at my back.

But I rarely move cats. She wanted belly rubs and air biscuits later…

I obliged. Why are all the blue-eyed cats in the house cross-eyed? Cute but makes them look somewhat psychotic.

This shit. I can’t even.

Dystopian bullshit going on. Crazy shit. I’m boggled by some of the things that are passing…or being ordered…or happening. ICE is out of control. HHS is about to implode. I’m hoping no one I love needs groundbreaking cancer treatment in the next 10 years…or longer. These trials take years to conduct. I never changed my name when I was married, but if I had, I don’t know where my marriage license is. No clue. WTF. I take heart in the institutions and people that are fighting back and putting out statements saying uh uh. Not doing that. Oregon’s governor stating, hey, we pay INTO federal funding…you don’t get to withhold it. Damn straight. Where are my taxes going? To SpaceX? Fuck that. He keeps blowing the damn things up. Not when celebrities are in them. Sigh. I don’t want people to die, but people are going to die with the decisions that are being made. And it’s the people who need help the most.

Anyway. The rest of the day will be all art (mostly) and a little gardening. Well, and those stupid errands. I needed lightbulbs for two of the bathrooms, but first, I searched my cupboards for those stupid vanity bulbs and found one set from 1993. The previous owners had written on the box that they had a yellow cast and that they had replaced 4 bulbs. I can’t believe I still had these bulbs (I probably had them shoved in the back of a drawer somewhere and just found them). Clay first, then binding. That’s what I’m doing. Probably also going to try to fix the sprinkler system…the ex replaced the broken sprinkler, which is good (it was beyond my ability), but now I think there’s a solenoid problem. Yes, I will have to do schoolwork at some point. Ugh. Maybe tomorrow I will start. I don’t really want to. I got a call yesterday that I’m going to be 8th grade again next year: pros and cons. Pro: still with my same team, my same co-teacher, same grade trying to figure shit out. Better. MASTERY. FFS. Con: um, some of those 7th graders out there look/sound really annoying and I don’t want them. But that’s always the case. Nothing new. I might have to do a Newcomers class for science? We’ll see. It’s a bit of a relief to know what grade level at least. We need to cut about 2-3 weeks of stuff in the beginning to find time in the end. Actually, probably more. So much we’re not teaching this year. Oh well. We never get through all of it anyway. OK. Drink tea. Make more tea. Go see how the clay is doing. Pretty sure I left a flagpole of clay to harden. Hopefully it’s still standing upright.

Already in the Weeds

We’re baaack. And already in the weeds. Not surprising. The yard is full of weeds. The house needs things. The animals need things. I apparently need to do some work, both art and school. All good. Not doing school yet though. Sticking to art and the yard.

Can’t remember when I last posted…ah yes, we’d made it to Santa Ynez, but hadn’t done anything yet. Our rule was hike then relax. I mean, hiking is a form of relaxation in itself, but we wanted to make sure movement was a part of this trip, because the day job makes it hard to do anything but the day job. Hiking has fallen by the wayside. It’s easy to leave out the exercise, and we didn’t want to leave it out. SO. We hiked first, up in the mountains, where we found out that the Lake Fire last year had impacted part of the hiking trails.

It was beautiful out there and there were a bunch of people at the trailheads, but we managed to be quietly alone for a goodly portion of the trail. Which we prefer.

Burn was pretty obvious.

Apparently the boychild worked this fire last July.

We did a little over 4 miles. The weather was perfect…a little chilly, not too warm. The flowers were starting to bloom. Some of the oaks were coming back, some of the other stuff too. We didn’t see the pines coming back, but maybe it takes them longer.

After that, we headed out for a wine tasting. We wanted a pro-white-wine tasting and wandered around Los Olivos with a lot of really drunk people and dogs until we found a place that was more white friendly. Like white wine friendly. To be clear. We’d done a lot of reds at the last place and they’re not my favorite. The last place did give us an extra tasting though and then a great deal on two bottles of white. This place was interesting…different wines.

But he revised the tasting for us and we appreciated that. Afterwards, we were in the mood to feed some ostriches and emus (like you do)…

If you’ve been to Solvang, you’ve probably driven by Ostrichland and thought WTF. But you know, these guys are truly prehistoric-looking and fascinating up close.

Also a little terrifying to try to feed them.

It was totally worth it. We had dinner out at a place that wasn’t really known for its food, obviously. No amazing food this trip…oh wait, the sandwiches we had from the fancy grocery store…they were damn good. But otherwise? Eh. We did get apple strudel (well I did) from Solvang. It was good.

Then Sunday, we had to come home. It wasn’t a bad drive (knock on wood) for once…Los Angeles can be hellacious. Although this was interesting…

Let’s get that out there please.

I finished one Rooted tree (March block, Sue Spargo) on the way home…it’s the only one I worked on the entire trip.

I started the next one once I got home…

Once we unpacked everything and checked on all the animals and I ran to the store for essentials because the Man had to read a chapter and take a quiz and write an essay. The furry beasts seemed happy to have us home…

Poor pup. And I started quilting the piece I was working on before I left…

And emailing all the people I was supposed to deal with while I was gone. Fun times. I’ll be quilting today, getting vaccines, already took the dog to the vet and survived an earthquake in a building full of animals (5.2 just east of here…felt bigger). I even have pilates later. Although my stomach is not happy with me at the moment. Hopefully it’ll figure that shit out before I’m lying down and exercising. Just felt another aftershock. That one got a boof out of the dog. Hopefully I’m back on a normal blogging schedule now. It was nice to just check out for a week, but for some things, I really am a routines person, for good or bad.

I’m Going for a Walk

Well I said that a week ago and I feel like that’s all I’ve been trying to do for 7 days. Mostly succeeding. No super long hikes like trips in the past, but lots of little ones. Plus reading, stitching, drawing, and staring deeply into fires. Also not having a clue what day it is, which is the absolute best thing ever. We didn’t do a long road trip last year because I had to pay to fix the flooding damage, and I really missed it. I’m glad we did it this year.

We’re not back yet, by the way. I just have some time while the Man watches some videos for school, and I’m not really in the headspace to draw…ironic since a quilt fully drew itself in my head about 10 minutes into our drive today.

So we left last Saturday and took a couple hefty drive days…California is beautiful, even from the car…especially in Spring.

We stopped in hotels in tiny spots off the main road, nothing exciting…although at one point, we were across the bay from the girlchild. I stitched the pieces I needed embroidered for a small set of quilts I will need to finish very quickly when I get back.

Here’s the San Rafael Bridge…

It started raining at some point on Day 2, which turned into a downpour. We ate leftovers in the deserted hotel breakfast area and hung out in the room. There was a plan to go out, but the rain put a damper on that. So I drew and stitched.

First I had to trace the second bit of stitching…love hotel rooms with irons and ironing boards.

The next day, we had a few hours to waste, so we searched for the Bertella Kildow Skinner Grove in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which involved parking on the side of a road and hiking using two different topographical maps to figure out where the grove and sign should be. I know we were in it at multiple points, but couldn’t find the sign. It’s possible things were burnt in the 2003 Canoe Fire? Who’s Bertella, you might ask? I think she was my great great aunt? Or maybe three greats. I had these two old lady aunts who were awesomely strange in my childhood, and this was their mom, who I think died before I was born? Or soon after. But Jeanne and Bernice were definitely around.

We finally got into the campground just as it stopped raining, which was good, because it sucks putting tents up in the rain. As it was, the site was pretty muddy and damp and cold, but we enjoyed it.

I stitched in the campground too. We hiked in the AM, then more in the PM. Nighttime was for fires and drawing.

The Man had some moments…

Before showering. Definitely. In his creepy stalker stage.

The sky. It’s up there.

The Eel River…

Glorious weather for most of it.

When I was a kid, we traveled all over the US, but we never really were allowed to stop at the weird places. So the Man and I kinda try to do just that.

Legends of Bigfoot. And us.

After Humboldt, we headed for Sonoma.

More gorgeous green. I finished the embroidery that night in the bungalow.

So those are ready to be appliquéd into a quilt.

We hiked in the morning.

I scared a deer while peeing in nature.

Or it scared me. Hard to say.

This deer could not give a lesser shit about humans…

Which I appreciate. Also I never get good quail photos.

Plus our quail are much skinnier.

Flowers everywhere. Then we spent some time (and money, let’s be honest) at the Gundlach Bundschu winery (oldest in California)…

Beautiful day, needed a nap after. No shock. Did more drawing in a cocktail bar later…

I actually started drawing this over a week ago and just kept adding to it. I also started stitching a tree in Sue Spargo’s Rooted block of the month. I think this is the March block.

I worked on it today but forgot to photograph it. Today we left Sonoma and stopped in San Francisco to see the girlchild and her visiting friend, who worked with USAID, fuck you to the dumbasses cutting jobs without considering real live consequences. We had lunch…

It was nice to see them in person…from there, we negotiated all the Friday traffic past places we visited two years ago, maybe three? Down to Santa Ynez/Los Olivos, where we are now, researching hikes, wine, and ostriches. Plus donuts, due to the campground having a Donut Kebab van that just set us off on a donut tangent that has not been satisfied.

The cravings are real. The Man has an essay to write on Sunday, so it’ll be a bit of a kamikaze trip home so he can read the chapter in the book he didn’t know he needed. It’s fine. And I have things to finish too that I am currently ignoring quite well. I finished one big book and read two smaller ones so far, spent 12 1/2 hours doing the embroidered words, plus 4 drawings? All good.

We are currently sitting out by a fire pit, listened to Great Horned Owls and getting tired.

It’s almost the full moon and we’re ready to enjoy tomorrow.

In Between Everything Else

Good morning, ye Day of Chaos before Springe Breake. Yee? Not sure of my Old English. Ye. Definitely. Am I ready? For today, no. Today is supreme chaos, both at work and after. For break? Absolutely. Done. Exhausted. Need a space without school. Getting in a car tomorrow and hopefully finding it. The boychild can handle all the animals. It’ll be fine. Even if all I do is read in the car for 8 days. It’ll be fine.

I did spend some time last night prepping some hand embroidery for the next quilt for the trip. Hoping it works out OK. I found the thread I wanted, and thanks to my incredibly efficient spreadsheet, realized I had 8 spools of it around the house. So I don’t need to order any (which is good, because I left it too long for that). Wednesday night, I managed to pinbaste the quilt I’m currently working on…

Really need to replace the bulbs in that room. I’ll need to quilt this in like two days flat. It’ll be fine. No worries. It’s not huge.

Then I did some tracing on the next one last night…

It’s actually four small quilts that will work together. I traced 3 and part of the 4th. If I have time after packing tonight, I’ll finish the 4th. It won’t take long. And hopefully I’ll get all the embroidery done while traveling (there’s 4 pieces of embroidery)…and can start that one the following week. It’s got a pretty tight deadline. And grades will be due right after we come back from grade. Like to torture us. It’s like if you don’t grade over break (which I will eventually have to do), you won’t have grades to put in the progress reports. Ah well. I finished grading everything I could yesterday. Today I will be grading tests as they take them and homework as they hand it in, if I can pull it off. I also have to prep my room for having floors cleaned, which they just told us two days ago. Sigh. Good to have floors cleaned. Need more time to move shit. I do have after school, but I also need to go to ceramics and make sure everything will be OK for a week while I’m gone.

Packing is stressful too. Yesterday was a long conversation about coolers. I still don’t know what we decided. Minor issue.

Oh my. Well I don’t spiral into self hate at least. And being a teacher is pretty hard. I have not cured cancer or saved the world, though, and there was definitely a feeling that those things should have happened by now. All I do is piss people off with my quilts.

I’m taking a few months of Rooted blocks with me (Sue Spargo BOM)…but this one was almost done, so I finished it.

Although the fluffy bits were supposed to be two different colors, and I spaced on that because I was doing this in a variety of Zoom calls. It’s fine. So I have two of these done. They’re not hard; they’re fun and relaxing. I enjoy them. I’m also taking books to read and my sketchbook for drawing. No schoolwork. I’ll deal with that when I get back. In between everything else.

Today, I think we’re all giving tests. Mine is short and then they need to finish the rest of their shit…without losing their shit. My last class period may not survive. One class period was better yesterday because there was one kid missing. Ooooh. Interesting. He’ll be gone again today. Lots will be gone. We give them two weeks off and they take more. I had to do an independent study contract for the week after break because of that. Three weeks. Ah well. After testing, we’ll lose some more to the Middle East…or maybe not, with all the crazy deportations. Scary stuff. Scary stupid too. Lots of that around. But my future holds some bigass redwood trees and some wineries and some hiking and probably a banana slug or two and definitely deer. All good.

Nothing New

I read this terrifying article yesterday about the pronatalists…those who want more childbirths…some have some realistic concerns about decreasing birth rates, although their ideas about why that is happening are sometimes absolutely nuts. Honestly, there are too many people on the planet, so some restraint might be a good thing, but when you put their ideas together with some of the legislation that’s currently on the table, it does smack a bit too much of The Handmaid’s Tale. Why I would need to vote with a passport (those are expensive and difficult to get for many people) or a birth certificate (also sometimes difficult to get) IN PERSON, I do not know. I haven’t voted in person since before my kids were born. I know some people like to gather in groups and do tribal things, but I like to have all the stuff in front of me, read through it at my leisure, mark all the things, and then put it all in a freakin’ envelope to be delivered somewhere that I don’t have to talk to anyone or interact with humans. And I have transportation and the ability to move around without assistance. AND my birth certificate name matches my current name. Unlike many women. PLUS my job here on this planet is not to birth replacement workers.

But maybe that’s just me? Hard to say. By the way, burning the Teslas is not about the car, you dumbasses…it’s about the man. And we don’t just do it here…Germany and France and others are also protesting fascism. And oligarchs. Sometimes the far right’s take on things is just amazingly ignorant. I’m sure someone thinks the same of me. They can stay in the kitchen, giving birth, not allowed to vote apparently.

Sigh. Also, it’s not really ‘getting rid’ of the Department of Education if you farm out its responsibilities to departments that aren’t even related. Double sigh. I can’t NOT read the news. It’s impossible. So I keep making art.

Monday afternoon, I went to ceramics and worked on part two of the current sculpture. I built a tiny man with a gun.

He definitely needs a head, although he doesn’t have a brain. I also made a flagpole, but not the flag yet. I needed these to stiffen up a bit, so I just tucked them down in there, to be later attached to the arm. Hopefully Friday. Also pretty sure I broke one of her arms off again.

It’s my fault for not picking a bigger base and for making that arm lower than the base and then trying to transport shit. So IDK what the solution is, but I’ll deal with it on Friday.

Monday night, I did stitchdown…

Then last night, I finished it, washed the batting, cut a backing and ironed it, then remembered the floor where I pinbaste was horrendously dirty, so I mopped it at 9:30 at night. Hoping it would dry in time (it didn’t). So all that is ready for pinbasting…and then I started tracing the next one, the banned-book piece…

I also wrote out all the stuff I will need to hand embroider while we’re traveling. I’ll need to figure out how I’m transferring it to fabric and make copies of the drawings for travel purposes. I’ll be doing that probably tomorrow night. Tonight, I’ll pinbaste. After pilates and book club. Yeah. Long day.

We’re doing a teacher spirit thing all week where we all dress up and don’t tell the kids. Yesterday was dress like a kid (ah, those pimple patches) and Not a Cup (drink out of anything that is not actually a cup).

Today, we wear tiaras and sashes. That’ll be pretty noticeable. It’s just a way to help us survive that last few days until break. My boss came in my class yesterday while I was about to bang my head on the desk. Teaching Punnett squares isn’t hard, except for those few kids every period who don’t listen to instructions. Ever. They just want to copy, and they can’t. So they whine and tell me I’m not teaching them (read: I’m not giving them the answers) and by the end of the day, some figure it out eventually and some just don’t. But it can be frustrating for me. Plus with Eid, so many kids were still out yesterday, so they haven’t even started this thing that has to be done today. Fun times. I was hoping to grade homework papers all week, and I’ve gotten through three classes of one homework, and most of that was in my advisory class while we were listening to the book.

It’s fine. Really. It is. It’s nothing new anyway.

Not sure I believe that. Certainly. No. I don’t.

I do support this though.

I feel like all my fabric is emotional support fabric. And I support that choice.

OK. So more Punnett squares today…but it’s a test today, so that’ll be fun. I already have a plan for the one kid who never shuts up in class. The kids who come back today…well, I was going to make a video, but I don’t know if I’ll have time before school (meeting x2), and I think I need to use the phone because the doc cam won’t record unblurry, so that means I can’t post it until I get home anyway. Hmmm. Will think that over. Lots to do today. Gonna go do some of it.

Set Them…

OK. Five days. Anyone can do five days. Tomorrow will be the longest day, because apparently Tuesdays are now the longest days instead of Wednesdays. Not sure why. A 2024 school year thing? Who knows. I feel pretty good about the weekend; I got the things done that I planned to get done. I could have done more, but that is always the case. I feel prepared going into this week (well, mostly), unlike almost every other week since Winter Break. I’ve taught this before; I know what it looks like. It’s not all direct instruction. I get time to grade the two weeks of homework I haven’t gotten to yet. All good. Plus the quilt progress is ahead of where I thought I’d be, so that’s awesome.

I ironed on Friday night…

Got a good chunk of the second figure done. Saturday, I finished her…

And Sunday, I had picked a background fabric that was big enough, but when I unfolded it to iron everything down, there was a square chunk out of it in exactly the wrong place…it wasn’t going to be big enough (it was just big enough in the first place), so I picked a different one. And then ironed it down…

I’m glad I had another one that was big enough…although this isn’t a huge quilt really.

Then I started stitchdown…

I got a good solid start…did all of the torso on the more complicated figure. I should be able to finish tonight or come close to it, then pinbaste and sandwich tomorrow night and start quilting. This one is on a deadline. Hell, everything I’m working on right now is on a deadline. I need to prep the embroidery I’m taking with us on our trip too. No worries. Just got two Zoom meetings at night this week and packing to do, plus keep up with school stuff. Although I’m mostly caught up (breathe…knock on wood).

I also went to the ceramics studio on Friday. It was delightfully empty. A bunch of people are at a ceramics convention, but Fridays have been empty lately. I finished (for reals this time) the underglazing on the base…

It’s currently drying. It’ll get bisque fired soon. When I think it’s dry. I started the base on November 4. I wasn’t working on it all that time…I needed it to put the next level on to make sure they’d fit and work together. I should have underglazed it sooner, but I was distracted.

The back is not as exciting.

This is the second level in progress…

I think I started it in January. It’s solidified nicely, but is still pliable enough to attach more things. And attach more things I am doing. Probably for a while. Yes, there will be a head…haven’t figured that out yet.

Still horrified by the stupid shit my government is doing. Everything they do hurts almost everyone but rich white boys.

I’m amused that they’re butthurt about Tesla protests, but not about the racist/sexist protests of the Proud Boys and their ilk. Their protests where people died. I still see people claiming January 6 was Antifa. My lord, people. Read. Please. I’m just waiting for more of those pardoned assholes to commit more crimes. They’re ‘good people’, my ass. I had to shop once this month with Amazon (wedding registry…no way I could deal with it otherwise)…but I’ve been avoiding any brand with MAGA ties. I can’t say it’s easy. My local quilt store. Target. Staples. Honestly, I just don’t buy things that normally I would buy. I guess that’s another way of saving.

I spent 7 hours on Saturday doing my taxes. I wish I could say I’ll be better this year and document things as they happen, but I know I won’t. After doing all of it, I remember what the notes meant that I took last year. Maybe I’ll be proactive this year and set it up properly for next year. Maybe. Maybe not. Hopefully.

I’m with you, spoon. Got your back.

The Man took this picture of his three cats all in the same place and not moving (a miracle that)…

Luna, Nova, and Bowie. He’s a big boy. Almost a year old now. Still cross-eyed.

OK. School. Punnett square project. It’s Eid, so a bunch of kids will be absent (end of Ramadan). Pro: they will be eating normally again. Con: I’ll have to get them all caught up tomorrow or Wednesday. Pain in the butt, but can’t stop teaching right now. Too close to the end of the year and testing. Then staff meeting, possibly another meeting, then hopefully clay. We’ll see. I need to start going to the gym again…so I’m trying to save Tuesday for that. Progress on the quilt…maybe finish stitchdown. That’s the goal anyway. Set them, meet them or break them…it doesn’t matter as long as you set them.