Wow that’s a Monday morning headache…caused by emails and texts and probably low blood sugar, damn forgot to hardboil those eggs, plus I think the chiropractor is in my future plus there was the 30 minutes of coughing up a lung at 6 AM. Yeah. Hello body! Nice to hear from you. It doesn’t matter some days how young your brain feels…your body is like, nuh uh, you wrong bitch, let me explain it to you. It’s OK. I got this. Not really. I don’t got this. (cries while laughing into her tea)
I am ready to ship a quilt to an exhibit in Utah. I will be shipping six quilts to a solo show in Pittsburgh, probably sending them next month or early May. These are good things. I got into two local shows and rejected from two others. OK. Got it. I have this awesome quilt that I can’t get into a show and that irritates (is that the best word? saddens? disappoints? not sure) me. I will try again. There are always more shows. That combination of show and juror(s) and competitors did not work this time. It’s OK. Awesome quilt moves on. My first Quilt National piece was a Visions reject. I keep remembering that. My second Quilt National piece was a reject too. Keep making. Keep entering. Don’t let the turkeys get you down (I think that’s a direct quote from dad, a Bob Nidaism).
Today will be fine. It just feels like a panicky clusterfuck at the moment.
So what’s going on otherwise? What can I control at the moment? I liked this drawing, but wanted to simplify it for embroidery…so I did…
I think it turned out really well.
Of course, now I also want to do a large quilt-size version of it with a shit-ton of detail, but that’s just how my brain works. I might do that, once I get past the next two deadlines.
Here’s one in progress…801 pieces, measures 28″ wide by 48″ high. Not small…
But way smaller than the last one. I started tracing it last night. And it was good.
I made it to piece 101, I think. Through the first pillbug I’ve ever put in a quilt. Only 700 pieces to go. That sounds like a goal for this week. Although there’s a lot of crazy this week. I haven’t finished grades yet. (they’re due tomorrow.) Sigh. OK. Deep breaths. The to-do list is banging on the door, screaming at me. I hear it. Over there. Thank you mindfulness training for that.
Officially half dead. OK, not really, but definitely not at my finest this weekend. Half my co-teachers are down with it too. I guess that makes me feel better (not really). It’s a virulent thing, that’s for sure. I made it through Friday’s lab with the microphone attachment they give us teachers, but I couldn’t just clip it to my shirt…my voice wasn’t loud enough for it to pick up. So it was a little creepy…having my whispered voice booming out of the overhead speakers. But the kids were really good…it’s funny, when you are sick or troubled in some way, they have huge amounts of empathy. I guess that is a good sign for humanity. Luckily, I felt mostly OK on Friday…not dizzy and almost passing out, like earlier in the week. But the coughing was not great. People ask why we don’t just stay home. (1) Our school doesn’t get substitute teachers. I was even asked to sub my prep period on Friday and I just said you’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t talk. (2) It’s more work to put sub plans together than it is to go in. (3) It’s a lost day for my kids. They won’t get anything out of it…I would’ve had to pull the lab. No way in hell am I having a sub, who inevitably knows no science, do a lab with glass test tubes. My kids listen to me (mostly)…a sub? It would have been a nuclear meltdown. So if I’m well enough to stand, not vomiting, and don’t have diarrhea, I go to school. That is the reality of teaching in a low-income public school.
I felt a little better at night. I graded and even cooked dinner for the fam. And I drew this at around 11 PM because I didn’t want to feel like I’d done nothing artistic for the second day in a row, even sick.
Yesterday, the coughing got me out of bed early. And then I graded for the next 7 hours. Sleepy puppy from the night before…
Trimester 2 grades are due Tuesday. I was behind. I’m always behind. So I got through all the makeup work and two or three other assignments.
While binge-watching Season 3 of Victoria. So glad I didn’t live back then. I’d be dead.
Then I got a strange burst of energy…really strange, because when I took my shower finally, I got dizzy standing up in there. Hmmm. So I sewed the binding on the big quilt. Seriously a lot of sewing…
It took about an hour and a half to get it all on, including the sleeves. I ended up using the more plain fabric for the binding…although I used the other one for the sleeves, so it didn’t go to waste. I really want to be using things up this year…even when it’s a pain in the ass.
We went to dinner and I ate some. And then we came back and I pinned the binding in place and started stitching it down while watching one of the Planet of the Apes movies…
Until my partner in apes fell asleep, so we paused the movie for later and he went to bed. I kept going for a bit, through the first episode of The Passage. You can guess what I might be doing for the next few days. It’s a good thing to do when I don’t feel well. The other option is to start tracing the next one…it’s ready to go.
I’m trying to participate in #marchmeetthemaker and #igquiltfest. I did this last year and flailed through a goodly portion of it, mostly because some of the things don’t apply to being an art quilter on both of them. But I’m making an attempt anyway.
My studio is a not-bedroom that looks over the pool…it’s a sprinkly day out there. I hate the wallpaper. It’s not big enough for everything that’s in there. I look at a tree out the window too. I usually have at least one cat in there, but Kitten has been hiding in the bedroom.
The floor is coming up. It needs a remodel…but probably not as much as the bathrooms and the kitchen. I priced it out last year…to redo the floor and paint it and put in new shelving/storage, and it’s more than I have lying around…until I get all the kids’ college paid off anyway.
It’s worked for me for many years though…so I guess it will keep working for a while longer.
The ironing board moves as needed…and I reorganize constantly. It’s only about 8×10′, but it’s better than nothing…that’s for sure.
The 3×4′ light table is in the living room, along with a lot of in-progress stuff too. And there’s stuff in the girlchild’s room in the closet, plus our closet and under the bed. Because lots of stuff needs storage. And the garage is where all the old drawings go.
One of the prompts is about where you started. Well. Hmmm. I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. And I did screenprints before the kids were born, but then I started learning how to quilt. I began with hand applique, but it just took too damn long to turn a drawing into a quilt. I couldn’t get big enough. So I developed what I do now…
Which still isn’t fast, and is mostly crazy…but works for me. That’s an unfinished hand-appliqued art quilt from probably 2002 or so on the right, and the next quilt on the left, still in drawing stage.
Anyway. So. Today is still school stuff, because grades aren’t done, plus groceries and laundry. And hopefully feeling better. Still woke up coughing this morning, but I mostly slept through the night. Not feeling particularly energetic, but that’s OK. I got about 3 hours of art time yesterday and I’m hoping for the same today. If I have energy, I’ll trace. If I don’t, I’ll sew bindings. It’s nice to have options.
So there’s not much coming out of me today…energy wise, a report from yesterday, or for that matter, voice noise. I can type but I can’t talk. I’m doing a lab at school today. I’m hoping my voice reappears OR…I will write it all down and use teacher sign language to keep them from destroying the room. We’ll see how that works.
We did make it to the play and it was awesome until we had to leave before the end because they started late and our buses had to leave with us or without us, and we chose the former. It’s a long walk otherwise. That part sucked. But I think otherwise it went well. I came back and bought Footloose (the 1984 version) on Amazon Prime and we watched the last 45 minutes to see what happened. It was cool. They were mostly into it.
I then drove to San Ysidro to drop off work for next week’s show and met the curator, who had never seen an art quilt. She was sort of flabbergasted. I’m not sure if it was in a good way…she was still processing. She was expecting a painting, I think. But the guy that works there (he’s the gallery director, so he more than works there) had apparently talked me up from last year…he really liked the work…so I got in. That’s cool. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the opening.
But it took over an hour to get down there, drop stuff, and get back, and I wanted a nap so bad…but no. Need to grade. I got one assignment done…I’m down to one more assignment and all the makeups I didn’t finish on Sunday. Not bad. I think I can do this. But when I finished all of that, I went to bed. I read for a little while, but was falling asleep doing that, and finally gave up and did the sleep thing for real. I’m not better today, but I have more sleep in me.
So I only have two pictures for you: my quilt trimmed and folded up with the two possible bindings on top. Tonight I would like to be well enough to decide which one wins and sew it on.
We’ll see how that goes. I also need to go to REI to pick out my birthday present, so if I feel REALLY well, I might do that instead. Except Friday traffic. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow. I also need to grade tonight and I’m in charge of making dinner, so that’s a thing.
And the second one…the girlchild’s official LinkedIn photo…
She’s graduating in a few months and everything is changing. Well, no…she is still the amazing kid she’s always been…just older and in a blazer and trying to find employment. Scary stuff.
Anyway, let’s hope my voice reappears and then lasts…and that no one breaks a test tube…and that I make it through the day, quite honestly.
Definitely sick. Named this cold after the snuffly kid who’s been sitting in front of me really snottily for over a week. Stole the Kleenex box multiple times. It’s officially my one cold per school year. It’s never good timing, is it? I mean, no one wants a cold. So a field trip day could be worse…it could be a day when I have to talk the whole day in the classroom. So today, I will be watching a musical with a bunch of 7th graders. I think I can do that. Except I wonder when I will get to pee. I always wonder that. People who have jobs where they can pee whenever they need to…sigh.
We hiked again after school yesterday…I got home early enough and needed the exercise.
So apparently did the dogs…
Random pretty shit you see by the side of the road…
Makes up for any trash we saw before that, eh? The rains mean the weeds are plentiful and sometimes beautiful.
Similar view after…post-dinner grading…with furry beasts.
“I’m trying to keep my eyes open but I just can’t.” So I graded another assignment. Unfortunately, that goes pretty late some nights. Needs to be done though. Then I had to find, iron, dehair, and pack up a quilt to be delivered today after school for this show…
I like the space this annual exhibit is in…
It’s local and there’s interesting artists I don’t usually see in there. Looking forward to the opening.
Then it was 11 PM. I was smart and cleaned the entryway floor while someone else cooked dinner, so it was dry and ready to go. Because no way am I mopping at 11 PM. OK. Well. I have. But not last night.
It’s a challenge to start this that late, especially since I was definitely feeling this cold last night. But I did…laid it out.
And then trimmed it straight and mostly even…
She’s 76″ wide and a little over 66″ high. Big one. And now she’s ready for the binding. Hopefully tonight, I’ll get that attached so I can hand sew for a few days (and holes in my fingers). But first a field trip and driving to San Ysidro to drop off a quilt and the gym is on my list, but IDK if that’s gonna be in the cards. I hope so. I want to read and exercise. I want to feel WELL ENOUGH to do those things. Right now it’s a little questionable.
Rough day yesterday…sometimes school is hard, y’all. And I’m still not feeling well…can’t separate out whether it’s a cold I’m fighting or the new medication, but none of it feels fun. So that (of course) affects my ability to deal with stressors, like kids who pretend to be windmills. Whatever. Today I will handle it better. I might have to sit next to the windmill for a while, but I can do that. Even when I’m dizzy and headachy. Seriously, that shit can take a walk. I’m trying to stick with the new meds for a week before emailing my doctor, hoping the worst of the side effects go away. We’ll see.
So when I finally made it home, I seriously wasn’t a fan of doing any work for school, but realistically, grades are due in less than a week. My goal is one assignment a day. If I can get some done at school…great! Yesterday was not the day for that. Even the non-windmill kids weren’t in the mood to do anything independently (aargh), so I did a lot of management. Like why are you just sitting there? I’m thinking. No you’re not. Thinking is more active than what you’re doing and you shouldn’t be drooling. Also talking to your friends about what you saw before school? Not thinking. So there’s all that.
I went to the gym instead for a while. I wanted to read my book, plus I’m one of those freaks who actually likes exercise (wish I had time to do more of it), so I went for it. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Should do it again soon. Came back, co-cooked dinner (um, so even when you’re co-cooking, apparently you’re still in charge. Hmn. There’s that. I’m going to go on strike some day.), ate the foods, and then finished watching the first episode of Umbrella Academy (cool show!) and grading that one assignment per day. Success! I did good. Then I input those grades and all of a sudden it was 11 PM. See, that’s the shit that happens. But art! Art is important and WILL be done every day. It was way too late to clean the entryway floor though so I could trim the giant ass quilt. I’ll do that tonight, when I don’t have to deal with dinner. So then what can I do in just an hour?
Easy peasy. Finish the drawing. This is for a show that’s about indoors and outdoors, comparing those of us who live in mostly sunny and warm Southern California to a artistic group in Sweden, where it’s fucking cold and snowy. So their take on being outdoors is significantly different from ours, we think. Or not? We’ll see. I personally love being outside and wish I could do it more. Being in a classroom all day sometimes drives me bonkers. Anyway, all I had left was the sky, so I stared at it for a while. I didn’t have to do anything, but in keeping with the outdoors theme, I added space. I should work on my space though because this is the same space I keep adding. I should research more planets and weird space things (NASA here I come! Insta follow follows…)…
But this will be good. I like it. This is about 3 1/2 hours of drawing…not counting the original three drawings or so that I rejected.
Then it was only 11:30. Go to bed early? Fuck no. Number the damn thing (and this is how I never go to bed at a reasonable time).
So yeah, those ladybugs will need embroidery. Maybe even their little antenna things should be embroidered, but I numbered them for fun.
Lotso bugs on her face. Kinda like the hike the other day. Very buggy. So there’s 803 pieces I think in this thing. That’s not too bad. I don’t have much time to finish it, so yeah…should get on that. Deadlines! I’ve been ignoring them. Doesn’t help to not feel well and be stressed about health issues. I’m working on that…from multiple places.
OK, work calls. Windmill boy and all. Art tonight. I can do this!
I’m gonna start writing this at 12:02 AM on Tuesday. Why? Because this song…
I listened to Amanda Palmer tonight on Live From Here, the new version of Prairie Home Companion…here’s the link. Love this song. Makes me laugh. And cry. I’m so excited that I will be seeing Amanda sing in LA in May. I finally persuaded a male attachment to come with me.
So that was last night. I stayed up too late, but I finished quilting. That’s a big yahoo on that.
First we walked the dogs though…it’s been a while since we’ve been to this spot..
It was wet and muddy and stream-filled. Well. Not filled, but we went across at least two of them, one of them three times. Apparently the rain finally caught up with the creek and filled it to the edges…
Sometimes over the edges…the flowers are all starting to bloom…
Thinking about a trip to the desert for the bloom this year…
It was a really beautiful evening for a hike. It’s finally daylight a bit later, so we could go further…here’s one stream, which is actually where the trail normally is…
Calli has no problems or qualms about wading through streams. Simba is not as good. Definitely more water than usual…
Which is good.
Especially for the plants…we stopped here…I was kinda done with wandering through mud at that point.
Plus it was heading toward dusk…
So we headed back to see what the bridge looked like…
They’d fixed the smaller bridge…the rain had pushed it off its bank and into a smaller creek.
I don’t think the big bridge is going anywhere, but that’s a lot of water for here.
The dogs are good sports…
Tons of flowers everywhere.
I love ending a work day like this. Wish I could do it more often. Yes, I graded too…got one assignment done. And then my principal emailed about this professional development thing we have to do, and they totally screwed up next week. Sigh. I set test and due dates. Wonderful. I’ll figure that out later today. Last night I couldn’t handle it. I can’t be mad at him…his wife just had their second kid. I can be annoyed though that we have to do the PD at all.
While I was waiting for boychild to make dinner, I drew a bit…still working on possible embroidery designs.
Might be too much.
Post-dinner TV time with the man, Simba curled up behind him.
The two of them had a coyote scare last night, very close to the prime peeing spot. Scary. Dumbass puppy thought he would go kill the coyote. He does not realize he would be a tasty treat.
I finally went in to quilt at about 10:30 PM…with the goal of finishing.
Which after about an hour and 15 minutes, I did.
With 19 hours and 21 minutes total into the quilting. Crazy shit. Hopefully tonight I will clean the floor, trim the quilt, and put a binding on it. At least, that’s the plan. I’m also going to the gym, so we’ll see how that goes. Right now, I’m tired, but I also want this thing done. It’s taking too long. My brain is done with it.
So. Off to school. Difficult teaching day ahead I think…concept-wise at least. I thought yesterday would be low-maintenance and it totally wasn’t. So there’s that. I also need to prep for a messy lab. Good stuff.
I’m fighting a sore throat. I suspect I’m losing. So many people around me were sick last week. I don’t get sick very often. Hopefully it will be low-key and not hellacious. I only have two labs and a field trip this week. No biggie. It’s never easy to be a teacher and be sick. Staying home and doing sub plans and then coming back to the disaster they have wrought is hell…and so is being in the classroom when you don’t feel well. Anyway…let’s hope a lot of hot tea helps.
I just checked my time app and I’ve been quilting this beast for over 18 hours. I had to take a break for a bit there…couldn’t handle it for a few days. But now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I just want it done. I put in about another hour and a half last night…
Made it all the way around the 3rd side…there was more of it than I had thought…and around the corner, which was a vast expanse of blue…
Dark blue fabric. Dark blue thread. Night time. It’s not easy. So I’m close to halfway around the last side, but I have to do that blue bit going into the image, where the clouds are and the cat and the rattlesnake’s tail. And then I can’t remember how much of the sun I got around at the beginning. Hopefully a lot, because then I’ll really be almost done. On to trimming and binding.
I can’t get much done most nights right now because I’m trying to get through all the grading. Grades are due in about a week and I ended up with 139 emails from kids trying to turn late stuff in. They’re STILL trying, but I’m ignoring it. The deadline was midnight Friday. If I have time, I’ll do the stuff after the deadline, but mostly I don’t. I finished two full assignments this weekend, so that feels good. Don’t even ask how many I have left…it’s a lot. More than I would like. I also need to write a study guide before Thursday and check the test and make sure it’s still relevant. Try to see if there’s a better way to GIVE the test so I don’t have to grade as much of it by hand. I suspect not. We don’t give a lot of tests as it is…so I think this was the best option we had.
I was at quilt class on Thursday and my teacher (who no longer teaches me anything…) is moving this year, so she’s cleaning out her school classroom and her home. I ended up with science supplies and these fabrics…
I think I was even with her when she bought them. I’ll enjoy using them…
Dog pictures…I always have so many of these.
Calli keeps trying to eat Satchemo’s cardboard scratching toy. I had to yell at her twice this morning. It’s not a snack, dammit.
Kitten’s eye is much better, although she still needs drops.
She’s not particularly friendly about the drops. Speaking of friendly, Simba wants morning pets.
And possibly my breakfast.
OK, well, after a cup of tea, my throat is somewhat better. The new diabetes med I’m on seems to make me pee about 78 times a day. I’m a little frightened about that for school. Some people say it gets better after a few days, so we’ll see. It’s not really sustainable if I have to pee every hour at school. I just don’t have the ability to do that.
And here’s my philosophical moment. I think I got my city (county?) back. If you’ve been here long enough, you know I went through a bad breakup a bunch of years ago. It was completely out of the blue and threw me for a loop. And as part of that, I felt like I lost some parts of my city…there were places I couldn’t go to because I felt like they were tainted by the relationship or even that I was afraid that I would run into him and I didn’t want to deal with that. Sometimes I just wouldn’t go to certain events. I realize that’s not the healthiest thing in the world, and certainly, being paranoid every time you go into Trader Joe’s sucks, but it’s where my brain ended up…and that was a lot healthier than it had been. Anyway, I found out last week that he moved. He gave me the city back. I’m sure that’s not why he moved, but it’s weird how I feel about it. Better: I got my city back. For sure he didn’t give me anything. It was ages ago and I didn’t even realize I was still carrying it around, although the last time I went to the Indian restaurant we used to always go to, I felt it…looking around to be sure he wasn’t there. The guy who works there used to ask about him, but he’s stopped…which is good, because that was a hard one. But now he’s gone. He doesn’t inhabit this space at all, and that is a wondrous and expansive thing. Seriously, I feel like I can stretch my arms out and take in the whole county now. I guess it helps to know he moved down here to be with me, so this was not his space to begin with…and I had this definite voice in my head that was yelling at him to leave quite a few times when I thought “you can’t go to that. He’ll be there.” So my screwed-up mind aside, it’s a good thing. I’ll keep working on the screwed-up mind thing. It’s been a work in progress my entire life. Certainly the last 10 years it’s been a challenge LOL.
With that, I need to take my sick self to school (somewhere he never went…) and attempt to be a competent educator. We’ll see how that goes. More tea please.
Good morning Sunday. I don’t usually write on Sunday. I consider it my day off. But I didn’t write Saturday, because I got up late and then had to get out of here for a social event. No way! I know. It’s crazy.
But honestly, I didn’t get anything done on Friday after school except some work and going to see the man’s band play. After that, sleep. Sleep. And sleep. All the sleep I didn’t do during the week.
So instead, yesterday morning, I picked up my birthday friend and dragged her, with her art degree in painting, and we went to a bar to paint someone else’s vision.
Except, if you know us at all, you know we won’t be listening to the teacher. Much.
So you can see the teacher on the left and her sample on the right. And what she’s telling the students to do.
Neither of us understood the stripey thing, so we kinda blew that off.
You can’t make us. Laurette’s is on the left; mine is on the right. Then we did consider other options besides the tree…like a dinosaur. I was going to do the silhouette of a woman, but this is going in my prep room at school, so kids will see it.
Notice the glass of wine in the left hand. That might be the only way to do this shit.
Not bad. Certainly it was relaxing and amusing to hang out. Although I’m pretty sure she needed a nap afterwards. That’s how we know we’re old. We can’t drink in the middle of the day without a nap.
We were at Twisted Taps…and there’s a Gloria Muriel mural on the left. I feel like I recognize the other two artists as well…but can’t remember their names.
OK, thank you Google. Erin Yoshi did the giraffe…and Amandalynn did the butterfly piece. Very cool.
On the way home, I saw one of the neighborhood goats.
Good way to control all those weeds.
I eventually quilted for about an hour. I’m most of the way through the 3rd side, with a little incursion into the design.
Probably there’s another two hours to go on this…at least. I’d like to get it done tonight. We’ll see. I’ve got a ton of schoolwork to get through first.
Then we went out to a small opening in a garage…this is Cindy Zimmerman and her distinctive pieces…they are all saints.
Good little show. Then dinner and trying to stay awake. I quit trying and gave my body what it needed. Sleep! Bless it. OK, off to work on many things.
Friday dawns clear and cold, a nice change from yesterday’s crazy weather…hail and rain and yuck. Hopefully the world will let us dry out (and warm up? apparently not) for a few days. Meanwhile, I have a whole host of emails from kids who just realized they haven’t been turning their work in. I have to laugh at the kid who sent me some comment about how he turned everything in before midnight…but the deadline is TODAY at midnight. OK, well at least he did it. And the exaggerator…”I emailed you ALMOST TWO WEEKS ago.” Um. You emailed me on the 13th. You know I can check that shit, right? Plus there’s the part where I told you all the makeup work would get graded this weekend…which might be a promise I can’t keep. There’s 94 emails so far, so you click on the assignment in the email, then it takes you to Google Classroom, then you have to click on the actual assignment, grade it, close it, wait for GC to acknowledge the new score, write it in the notebook, then close GC, and delete the email. For each one. I hate late work. I really do. But I can’t bring myself to disallow it. They’re 12. They need supports. Anyway. Gradebook closes for late/missing work today. Then I can take a week to grade them all if I need to.
It means we’re almost 2/3rds of the way through the school year though…it’s been a weird year with curriculum piloting and tons of meetings for that. There’s a huge long stretch to a very late Spring Break this year…53 days from now, to be exact. So plenty of work left.
Last night, I had my quilt class…I took my tried and true embroidery project, that is currently only being worked on for about 4 hours a month.
I finished the flowers and started working on the ox.
Two hours of work…not much, eh? This is why these take so long. Oh wait, I did the grass by the tree too. Four whole fly stitches. It’s relaxing though.
Then I came home and did some drawings. I’m trying to draw things that can be embroidered by hand. So I have to simplify stuff pretty significantly for that to be possible…the drawing on the right is the original, which will probably be a quilt some day (or some version of it will be)…the left is my simpler version.
It might still be too much…
But I like it. It’s hard to know what it will look like though without stitching it up.
Then I just drew for a while…messing around…simpler but maybe too simple.
Then this, which is OK…I might try this one again…a little smaller and different hair…
Plus make the eyes the same damn size.
I think this one might work too…
The harder part is color. I can only use 5. I either work all in black and white or I use 89 colors. So there’s that. Anyway, still working on this…it’s really hard for me to not go overboard on details.
Speaking of overboard…I don’t have to simplify this one…
It’s done except I need to decide if anything else is going in the sky. I couldn’t deal with that decision last night though, so I stopped.
I did her hair on both sides last night…and added the obligatory cat and teacup.
Plus some interesting (and relieving) news set those flying hearts back in motion.
The bottom was mostly done, but I added a plug and some lung details…
There apparently weren’t enough pieces. Can you imagine trying to embroider that? Yeah right. Someone would do it. (not me) Anyway. It’s close to done. I can’t promise anything for tonight, though…the guy’s band is playing. Plus it’s a Friday night, so I’ll be tired. I’m hoping to finish the drawing though. Maybe do some smaller ones. We’ll see.
I made this breakfast casserole on Monday to encourage me to eat something useful in the morning, and I keep thinking, oh, it’s so easy, and it tastes good, it’s just eggs, sausage, and spinach, and this morning, I’m sitting here eating it, and it’s not often that I eat the same thing without getting tired of it, and I’m thinking, it’s because it’s so simple, but no. It’s because of the cheese. I forgot about the cheese. Cheese is wonderful. I love cheese. I don’t know how tasty this would be without it. Probably still OK, and next time, I might add more spinach or put some other veggie in it, but the cheese is staying. Well. That is my morning ode to cheese. It might be the most meaningful thing I say today.
Yesterday, I managed to teach an entire lab about photosynthesis with kids going outside to gather plant material, even in the rain, even though the sun disappeared after 2nd period. Let’s just say I made two fake suns in the back of the room. Good to know we have enough lamps and lightbulbs (I found them! They were in a “logical” place.) to pretend to be the sun for 10 minutes. I remember last year, standing in Home Depot, trying to figure out what type of lightbulb would work, since you can’t buy regular incandescent bulbs any more. These are halogens and they pretend to be the sun pretty well. For a short time. I couldn’t grow crops in my room with them or anything.
Then I spent two hours at a curriculum meeting, before deciding that going home for 5 minutes and then driving in the rain out to book club, which is a pain in the ass for parking, was not gonna happen. I was sad, but exhausted. I came home and ate the boychild’s food instead and then did some stuff and things, like you do, and maybe I have everything for today that I need? But you just never know. I’m up early this morning to take my car in, hoping it’s just spark plugs and not something else stupid. I’m lucky to have one friend who lives around the corner from the shop and will drive me to school after I drop the car off.
Kitten has a goopy eye. It’s not this one.
She wouldn’t face me. She’s mad at me. She has to have drops three times a day, and it’s not fun for anyone really, but we’re trying to make her feel better, which might be the only reason she doesn’t flat out kill us when we do it. Boychild just uses leather gloves. I bully it out and hold her and pet her and talk sweet somethings into her ear as she growls and squirms. And then she glares at me for an hour. Truly fun cats are. Eight more days of it. Whoo!
Puppy is a good sleeper.
He likes to curl up next to you, or even better, on your leg, half perched, and then zonks out. It’s sweet. Except then you can’t move because you feel guilty for disturbing him.
I did quilt last night for about an hour and a half.
Otherwise I was pretty brain dead. I’m actually really impressed I got that much done. I finished one whole LOOOOONG side, almost. It took that long because the thread broke about 7 times and I had to replace at least one bobbin, and there were a few incursions into the figures where I had missed stitching the background before. In fact, looking at this picture, I may have some armpits to fill in. Not sure.
So I have two more long sides, one with a significant divot into the figures that probably qualifies as almost another side. If the thread doesn’t break, which doesn’t seem likely, I might finish in 3 hours. That’s longer than I thought. I have tonight and a little bit of tomorrow night. My weekend is a little crazy. I have at least 75 emails from kids about makeup work, which is good…I’d rather have them turning it in and hopefully bringing their grades up, but it’s a pain on my end to get through all of that checking of the late work. I wish they would figure out they have work missing throughout the trimester, but it seems like they only do it when I hand them a little slip of paper with the assignments listed on it. Sigh.
Another thing I’ll be working on tonight is a few designs for embroidery…like for sale. We’ll see if this works out, but if it does, it’ll be a way people can interact with my work for much cheaper and without having to be near a show. It will look different too, but I’m interested in what that might turn out to be. Anyway. I have some ideas and we’ll see how they go.
Meanwhile, Kitten is offended by the computer mouse and the Sharpie lying next to it. I’m afraid when I start mousing, she’s gonna whack me. I probably deserve it for the eye drops.
Kathy Nida 