Vitreous Not So Humerous

Well good news, I can still see, no surgery (knock on a big piece of wood), and the odds are that in 6 weeks, I won’t have to be low-key stressed about any weirdness in the right eye…besides that bizarre swirling thing that is still there. Yeah. As a visual artist, the thought of losing any eyesight is pretty terrifying. I guess I’d still have clay, but it wouldn’t be the same if you couldn’t see it. My vitreous humor (and perhaps a hefty chunk of my sense of humor) is floating around my eye with wild abandon, occasionally panicking me with “OMG what’s that“ moments, but otherwise, I’m OK. Exhausted but what’s new. My retina is holding strong. All good.

I had to take Monday off because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get in to the doc or what might happen after. I spent a million hours grading this weekend, so I refused to grade after the doc appointments. I try to save the stuff I can do at school so I have some down time at home, so I finished the new quilt drawing, numbered it (just under 700 pieces), and started tracing.

It’s not huge, so I’m hoping I can hit the deadline. Knock on wood.

I’ve already found 7 pieces I didn’t number at all and one number I used twice. Good times.

So maybe not just under 700.

I traced for about 3 1/2 hours on Monday…such a delight.

Then another hour last night…

I’m just under halfway. Realistically I could be done tracing Friday night. Although I still need to input grades. And we don’t have next week planned for school. Minor issue. Not so minor.

I’m also reading two books and trying to decide if I can pull off another show. The proposal has to be done by the 15th, but I need to. Finish at least one of the books first to make the proposal. Some level of insanity going on here…or a reaction to the day job’s grab on my personal life. Hard to say. There’s also about 2 hours of quilting left on this (I try to do a little each night).

My self-imposed deadline is coming up and I’m not going to meet it.

I spent 100 minutes working on hands, knuckles, and fingernails. It was glorious.

I had to persuade the fingers to change shape and direction.

A rare moment of sisterly friendship. Although Nova is doing some side eye.

In case you were wondering how daylight savings might affect you.

Sometimes AI is really stupid. This can lead to sleepiness…

This is too true. Ok today is the end of lunar phases (well, not really) into eclipses, plus desperately trying to plan for next week without interruptions (ha!), then Pilates (gently) and book club. Whoa. Busy night. I finished the book Sunday? I think. I hope. Then tracing some more. Getting grades completed so I can just input Thursday and be done. That’s what I need.

Flashes of Light

God damn what a way to start a Monday! I’m rolling (roughly) on 4 hours of sleep, trying to get an eye doc appointment this morning after a lovely (really it was) ER visit at midnight last night (was it last night or was it fucking today already). Started seeing flashes yesterday , but didn’t realize that’s what I was seeing until I was turning all the lights off to go to bed. SIGH. So I have vitreous detachment, possible retina. Well. Fun times. I’ve been told to stand in the doc’s office until they can see me. I wrote sub plans at 1:30 AM, forgot to request a sub, luckily remembered to email my amazing office staff, who are covering my ass as always. I had a minor panic attack for about oh 3.7 hours before I fell asleep. I’ve messaged the doc team and will call at 8. Meanwhile practicing meditative breathing and trying not to grind my teeth out of my mouth.

This weekend…well, I graded for like 11 hours, plus went to a closing art reception, where I saw my piece, And Then There Was One.

Which I then picked up from the venue on Sunday, the crazy driving day. My bro came and we went to dinner after. It’s been nice seeing him more often. He lives far away and when we are in the same place, he’s often super stressed about having all the kids around etc. but they’re all adults now…very weird.

I did a different drawing Saturday night…

Then enlarged and added it to a drawing from last June…

Like you do. Now I just need to connect them. Long story…decided to try to enter a show, different than the banned book one. Still gonna do that one. Not sure I can pull it off…especially with the eye stuff. Whoops. Not thinking about that right now.

More art of mine in an opening at Shoebox Arts in Los Angeles this weekend…

The drawing in the top left is mine, interpreted in digital collage in top right by Moya Devine. Then her collage is in the bottom left, with my quilt version in the bottom right.

I think I have some animal pix and a meme to finish up, as I wait for the on-call doc to triage my info.

Dog sat Annie this weekend. Bought a new computer because mine went into old age almost dead stage.

Cyclops Luna. Eye on said dog.

This is me. Actually I just ate cereal even though I don’t feel hungry because that’s what you do when you’re a diabetic.

But I can’t jump around or head butt anything because I don’t wanna fuck up my eye.

I have some grading to do and a headache from not enough sleep. Just waiting for a call to go in. Stressful, but at least there’s help to be had. Gotta lot of political stuff in my head too…trying to figure out how best to deal with that. Those two dimwits in the Oval Office with Zelensky reminded me of middle-school gaslighting boys. Deep breaths. Take care of yourselves.

More of It

Still no working computer…and this iPad is ancient. I will have to deal with all that at some point, but not today. Today I will be teaching more lunar phases, going to an art opening, having dinner with my bro and the Man, and probably grading. This weekend I will be grading until I’m done. Not really looking forward to it, but it needs to be done. I want next weekend off work. Yes, I was traveling the last two weekends, but I graded. Got two weeks of homework graded across California and Arizona. Anyway, the plan is no grading. One weekend. That’s all I ask.

I’ve been drawing the last of the banned book pages…

I feel like I could do way more than 4, but time is limited. And now I think I’m going to try to fit another one in first, another quilt. Not a huge one…we’ll see.

Maybe I’ll plan out how to do the words by hand while I’m working on the other piece?

Not sure. Not a lot of brain power left at the end of the day for creative endeavors.

Too bad the current administration isn’t staffing the parks.

I did say I was retiring, assuming they didn’t fuck it up. It looks like they’re fucking things up for everyone but the rich white boys. Mind-boggling stupidity. I keep googling the crazy stuff I see my few friends who support the Cheeto post, wanting to fact check them, because they make so much shit up. It’s like middle school…if I say it’s true, it must be. Honestly I don’t know where to start protesting. Let alone how.

Such destructive tendencies. Just like middle schoolers…who by the way, are losing their minds this week. Let’s hope they can pull it together so the next 5 weeks before Spring Break don’t make us bang our collective heads on the desk. Also I need a plan for camping over break. I have two nights in Humboldt in the redwoods, but need to figure out where to stop on the way up and how to come back down. I’m hoping to get that figured out in the next week. Knock on wood.

Ok, gonna let the next possibility of a drawing percolate today. Hopefully kids will be more focused, less asleep and whiny. The art opening and dinner should be cool. I’ve got a book to finish. and the hot weather is gone. All good. Artsy thoughts. Art gets me through it…just want to make more of it.

Nonfunctional

So my computer is being nonfunctional. Aka it’s on but refusing to behave…I restarted it because every time I tried to use the mouse, it would do something whack instead of just scrolling like a normal mouse. There was a cat/keyboard interaction Monday night that might have been part of it. The boychild comes back here tonight, so maybe he can figure it out.

I feel a little nonfunctional as well. I mean all I do is work work work and try to fit art around all that. Got back to clay on Monday…

Her hand needs some work. Trying to keep everything from breaking and/or falling apart is a challenge at the moment. Never mind trying to figure out the head. I have too much going on this week so I probably won’t get back there until next Monday. Which sucks.

Quiltwise, I need to be working on my friend’s mom’s quilt but haven’t been able to clear enough time at night. Just playing catch-up from being gone two weekends. So I’ve been spending a little time (not enough) with drawing the next piece, which will have four panels. I think. I drew the first one before I went to QuiltCon, but inked it Sunday. Monday, I added the author (it came to me…).

Then I sketched the 2nd page…

And yesterday, I inked it.

And numbered the first two pages. Then stared at a blank piece of paper for a while, waiting for pages 3 and 4 to manifest. I can always start tracing these. Hard to have brain power some nights unfortunately. It all got used up for the day job.

Ok. Today is a chill day where the kids are working independently and I’m grading. Originally I was supposed to be at the District Office one day this week and that fell through, so I had a lesson plan ready for a sub. I’m going to take advantage of that today so maybe I won’t have to spend the entire weekend grading. Ha! It’s not looking good. Then Pilates…thank goodness. I missed the weekend class. Then home to grade and draw. Hopefully. And quilt maybe too. I think if I just get the quilt back under the sewing machine, it will be easier to do a little every day. Oh yeah, and fix the computer. Sigh.

Traveling Again…

It’s Monday again. It’s like it happens every week. This one feels like a bit much. I really enjoyed my three days away from home, wallowing in quilty stuff. It was a relief. Talking to people about quilts and art (and politics, because that came up over and over again)…it was nice; it was a relief. Seeing all the quilts…yes, I have a million pictures and I may put some in here when I have time (when do I ever have time???)…even though I don’t make that kind of quilt, some of them truly sing to me. Having one’s head solidly in something that is not school-related is a blessing.

And now I’m back. Woo! Actually, I had kids emailing all weekend and a slew of coworker texts on Friday that just about made me implode in the car on the way to Phoenix. More last night. Anyway, I’m sure that will just be the norm from now until June 17. Wait, probably after that too.

So before I left for the show, I hung out and stitched with friends…

I thought I would work on this on the trip. Nope. Not at all. I did make a spectacular knot in this thread on Thursday night, and three stitchers valiantly tried to unknot it and got it to this…

Two well-managed bits on each side and then an uncontrolled disaster in the middle. Kind of a metaphor for life.

We drove to Phoenix, leaving Friday morning. We had a nice little cottagey condo, with these guys in the kitchen…

And their friends on the fence out back…

I’m a fan.

We spent a tiny bit of time out here. I spent most of my time at the convention center.

It was a comfortable place though.

I went to two lectures: Susan Hudson of the Navajo Quilt Project, which I’ve sent a ton of fabric to…

Don’t sit close if you want to see their faces…I will send her more fabric when I get around to going through it. I didn’t make it through all the colors.

And Anna Maria Parry (was Horner)…

No, I don’t make quilts like her at all…I do love to listen how artistic brains work though, so it was fascinating for that. Same with Susan’s.

Somewhere in between all that, I was back at the cottage.

Relaxed and exhausted.

I sat at the SAQA booth on Saturday for a couple of hours with my quilt, Woman 3.0, which is traveling with the StitchPunk exhibit.

It was nice to see her. And I finally met Maddie Kertay of BadAss Quilter Society and got one of her ribbons.

That was nice. Appreciate the ribbon too.

Saw some art that wasn’t fiber…

And took a nighttime class (with a lot of caffeine) from Nichole Vogelsinger (aka Wild Boho). It was fun; I enjoyed my tablemates and time to stitch…

Again, this was more about listening to how the artist thinks than trying to make her stuff. I did buy way too many sequins though…

And beads that didn’t arrive in time. It’s OK; I went through my stash and ended up using stuff from crazy quilt swaps I did a million years ago.

The Man walked back from the convention center with me at 9:30 PM, and we saw this amazing thing…Janet Echelman’s ‘Her Secret Is Patience’. Beautiful piece.

Then Sunday, we drove home, I pissed off someone in a Zoom meeting (well, I didn’t agree with her), and tried to get a bunch of stuff done. I didn’t draw at all this weekend. It’s OK, I’m fine with that. I inked the drawing I did on Wednesday night…

With no help from Bowie…

Or Nova, who kept taking my seat…

Yes, I bought fabric. I notionally said I wouldn’t, but I knew that was a lie because I was looking for e bond’s new line and the African fabrics fascinate me…but not a huge haul…

Fun stuff.

Anyway, now I’m back and need to grade a million things and deal with kids and adults and parents. Ugh. Starting with this morning and a meeting that starts in 45 minutes. Did I tell you that 4 subs canceled on me for Friday? So I got the one I’d requested in the beginning that the district made me cancel? Long (stupid) story. It’s fine. We’ll see how the kids did in a few hours…making them do presentations today on what they should have done Friday. We’ll see how that goes. Tons of meetings today and then clay. And grading. And hopefully drawing after that. I’m back and there’s nothing planned until Spring Break, which isn’t really planned. And may not happen. Sigh.

Don’t Call Me Maybe…

Oh hey, yeah I’m totally off on days this week. Oh well. Travel does that to you. I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning for Phoenix for QuiltCon, where I found out, one of my quilts IS actually hanging, but in the SAQA vendor booth. Check it out!

That’s my quilt, Woman 3.0, on the right side of the middle. IDK whether it’s random that it’s hanging there (this is part of the StitchPunk exhibit that’s been traveling) or they knew I’d be in the booth, but I love it! If you’re at QuiltCon, you should go see it. It’ll probably be the only time I’ll have a quilt at QuiltCon.

I’m totally jealous of all the people posting that they left early and are touring all the parts of Arizona etc that are naturally awesome (like as In Nature). I won’t have time for that this time. And school makes it always hard to tack on any extra time.

In other quilt news, I finished this piece, which has notionally been called Self Portrait for the four months I’ve been working on it.

I may or may not retitle it. It needs to be cleaned up and photographed. It’s got body bags and bunnies, bullets and a fox, lots of political stuff, lots of personal stuff. All drawn in October, before the election and all the crazy shit that is going on now…stuff I’m not even sure how to process into a visual image.

I have a deadline coming up, so last night, I started figuring that out. It needs to be a certain shape and size (book shape-ish). So I’ll need four ‘pages’. I started drawing one of them last night…

My goal is to get them drawn in the next few days, although I kinda have a shit ton of crap going on, so we’ll see how that goes. In the background, with all the writing on it, is another possible deadline. One I’m interested in, at least…I’m going to have to read a book to complete it though. Not that it’s usually a problem, but I’d need to read it, process it, and draw something in the next three weeks. Hmmm. It’s not impossible. I could. If I have an idea, I can draw it fast enough. And I’m trying to clear some weekends in March (ha!) because February is such a mess. It’s a GOOD mess, but hell, this day job just kicks my butt when anything else is going on.

In clay, girlchild made the boychild a chip and dip bowl for his birthday…

Although she then left it with me to bisque and glaze fire and it just came out. It’s pretty. One air bubble. No breakage! A miracle.

I also finally got to do some building…it’s been rough getting into the studio the last two weeks. I worked on the right arm and hand, which still need work, and lengthened the left arm.

The bottom piece is dryish, but I want to paint it with underglazes…so I’ve been spraying it to rehydrate it, but then not having time to paint (or in this case, I forgot the glazes and I barely had an hour to work anyway).

Normally I’d go tomorrow after school, but I won’t be in this state. So Monday it is. Maybe I’ll remember the glazes. I can paint at the bisque stage…but I think I want to carve into the underglazes, so that needs to be at this stage. I keep having to beg people to NOT put things on the shelf where I pulled the base off…it’s big and only fits in a few places. I’m constantly fighting to keep it in the same space. The top is on my shelf, so it’s OK, but the drying shelves are really full right now.

OK. Today. Yikes. Need to pack. I had ordered supplies for my Saturday class but they aren’t coming now until next week, so I had to raid my stash for stuff. I don’t have much in the way of sequins…plenty of beads. So hopefully the instructor has some or I can buy some at the show. I’m looking forward to messing around with stuff, but I did not do a good job of editing threads or beads. The Man will have to deliver a bag to me right before class so I don’t have to carry it all day. I need to finish/edit sub plans and print them, copy seating charts, prep my kids for not being dumbasses while I’m gone, start a group project, be observed teaching vocab, finish the notes from yesterday, be totally efficient during prep period, go to at least one, possible two kid meetings, and drive to a stitching meeting tonight with a quilt that has sold. WOW. Maybe eat dinner. I mean there are no guarantees. Oh yeah, do laundry so I actually CAN pack. Maybe sleep, but probably not. Why sleep when you can lie awake with stupid songs running through your head (see post title) and a list of all the things you need to get done (grading! FFS). Yeah. Don’t try this at home, kids.

Fan the Seed…

I’m waiting for my photo editing app to restart, so I’m writing without pictures. I’m a visual person and pictures help me write. Ironically, I don’t need pictures to read because my brain makes them while I read. Probably explains a lot about how I make art. I’m in that complicated stage where I’ve been working on the same quilt for MONTHS and I’m almost done and the next one needs to just pop up so I can keep working without going insane. Drawing needs to happen. Drawing is hard. Not really, but having the mindspace for it at the end of a workday is hard. And right now, finding mindspace for anything is hard. Between an idiotic government, school crap, and grading, I’m just not there. But there’s a seed, a hint of an idea for the next piece, which will be constructed differently, so hopefully I can fan that seed into a fire. Wait, that’s not how it works. Or is it?

I spent the weekend in San Francisco with the girlchild, which meant plenty of art and good food and walking. My knees are reminding me of that part. My shoulders/back are kind whack from carrying an over-the-shoulder purse instead of a backpack. Easier in some ways, more complicated in others. I finished one book and started another. I stitched nothing and drew nothing (short flights…it’s hardly worth pulling things out of your bag, because then you’re descending). I graded a little, just enough to keep one nostril above the flood.

The night before I left, I was sewing binding. Sunday night, when I got back, I was sewing binding. Last night, I finally finished binding and got one sleeve and a bit done.

Tonight I finish.

OK, so the trip. Started with my taking pictures of Craig Calderwood murals in the baggage claim area…

There’s some fun airport art out there.

Then the next morning, walking to meet the girlchild for breakfast (my alarm didn’t go off)…

I took a bunch of pictures of murals…maybe some I took last time.

I stayed in the same place. It was quiet last time.

It was pretty quiet this time. Girlchild had a ceramics class in the morning and I was going to tag along and get a day pass and just make a thing while she advanced wheeled.

She made two things…my camera had clay on it by then.

Hence blurriness. But one marbled with two colors. While I made a coil pot.

So that was 2.5 hours, and then I thought class was done, but I looked over and they were all throwing a second pot, so I made something crazy.

Hopefully that neck will hold up. And the wings. We’ll see. I left them both for her to fire and glaze. Like a good mom. We were there a good 90 minutes later than we thought, so our second plan for the day (third?) was out due to closing times, so we met up with a high school friend of mine and a bunch of her family who all know the girlchild.

This was the walk back to change clothes though…

All one mural…

I didn’t even get it all…

Then we walked to the girlchild’s apartment for HER to change…

Lots of walking. It was the Chinese New Year parade, so traffic (even buses) was insane, but we grabbed takeout, walked up a huge hill, and ate in a park.

It was nice to see everyone, though I’d just seen my friend on Sunday (long story).

The next morning, I saw a rainbow across the Mission…

Mostly because it kept raining.

Then we went to the ICA (which is free) for some art.

Some beautiful work about mold and decay by Kathleen Ryan.

Fascinating how real it looks.

Another weirdness in the museum…

Maryam Yousif’s Riverbend pieces…

Ceramic and wood.

Rodney MacMillian’s Untitled (Orange Hills)…

Reminds me of screenprints I made in the 80s…spill and dribble the ink.

Shinique Smith’s Dusk…

There was definitely a lot of fabric going on at ICA…

Anthony Akinbola’s Neopolitan, made of durags.

Fun stuff. Tried to ignore politics, but it’s impossible.

So much stupid.

Oh yeah, I am. I’ll be sitting the SAQA booth on Saturday from 12-2 if you want to stop by. Taking a class, sitting in some lectures, checking out the art. Not sure how all the travel of the season ended up in consecutive weekends (gonna kick my butt), but whatever.

Nice kitty. My kitty bit someone because I wasn’t here to feed her. Hmmm. OK. School. Apparently I gotta go there and do things. Then ceramics. Then grading, the neverending grading. Ugh.

Breathe in, Breathe out…

Deep breath in, deep breath out. It’s Friday. Oooh. Deep breath in. We only had a 4-day week. Deep breath out. There’s another 3-day weekend starting tomorrow. Deep breath in. Yesterday was a bit of a shit show. Deep breath out. It’s fine. We did the eyeball dissection lab…

It’s not hard, unless kids are being stupid. 99% of the kids were awesome, although having to yell through Period 6’s chatting habit so we wouldn’t still be dissecting at 2 AM was not fun. The four boys who were jerks about everything? Yeah. Well. Take the F. Take the phone call and see the principal who will call your mom and your made-up excuse for not wearing safety glasses? Sigh. Just stop that crap. It’s annoying.

I think eyeballs are way easier than frogs (we do those in 7th grade). Anyway, today, they turn a bunch of shit in and that’s good. I graded for about 3 1/2 hours last night (and no, I’m not done), which helps my panic recede a little bit. I’m gone for about 46 hours this weekend to see the girlchild, so I won’t be doing a ton of grading until Monday. Which is a holiday. Hallelujah. There’s also drama about kids changing teams and behaviors and bullshit and that was a huge chunk of yesterday, so I was extremely tired and irritated. Fun stuff. I’ve slept, I’ve meditated with fabric. I might be ready for today (nah, there’s a meeting this morning and it’s gonna be a rabble rouser).

I’m still binding. I was watching ceramics school videos Wednesday night…

I have like 99 hours of video to get through…I think I’ve watched 4 of the 33 instructors so far. It’s fascinating, but I feel like I need to take notes and that’s time-consuming. Will I ever read the notes again? Hard to say. It helps me remember things though. If I write them down. Even if I don’t read them.

Last night, my brain needed story time, so I watched whatever I was binge-watching three weeks ago before I started stitchdown.

I’m not even halfway y’all. It’s fine. It’s dark, the thread’s dark, I’m tired. I fly out tonight, so it won’t get worked on until Sunday night at the earliest. It’s fine. When I get back, my friend’s mom’s quilt goes back on the machine to get finished and I draw the next one and maybe start tracing it. I might even start drawing it this weekend, if I feel into it. I miss drawing all the time. I hate that this job has taken so much of my time. I made it to ceramics on Wednesday for just enough time to fix cracks and put new moist paper towels on everything. I’m hoping to go Monday for a couple of hours. I might need glaze too, but I doubt the clay place is open Monday. Their hours are horrible. Sucks. Ugh.

OK though…I did get on the announcement card for this FIG show opening in LA in a couple of weeks.

I feel bad because I’m about 90% sure I can’t go to the opening. I mean, I could, but then wouldn’t get grades done and I don’t want to do those on my birthday weekend. I’m not sure what I DO want to do (hike, have a nice dinner, draw, read my book), but I know grading isn’t part of it. EVER (and it often is because of when the trimester ends). Moya Devine made the original collage and then I made an art quilt based on that. I had to make the image my own at one point. As always. She made one of my drawings into a collage as well.

OK. I need to get my butt to school to deal with this meeting and the day. Then come home and actually PACK, beyond making piles that will eventually come with me. I’m looking forward to seeing the girlchild and being in SF, even for just a short time, despite all the stressy shit surrounding the trip. It’s just this time of year. Seven weeks until Spring Break…which comes with its own pile of stressy shit. In awesome news, the mammo came back clean, although then they sent this letter that says I should have an MRI screening as well because I have more than a 20% chance of breast cancer. Well that’s a nice letter to send. I bet most people never see that letter, because they’re like hidden in the app. I’m supposed to talk to my doc about it. Fun times. FUN TIMES. BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT.

Dressing Like a Ninja

Woke up early because annoying hot flash caused by small fluffy dog all over my legs, trapping me. Then the heat went on because morning. And my brain rolled over into Why the Fuck don’t they understand that the LIGHT is doing all the things and not the OBJECT, and also why do they think they can just copy the notes and that is proof that they understand something. Sigh. I sense a mini-lecture coming in class today (it was coming anyway…I just spent the last 30 minutes when I could have been asleep preparing it in my head). I then spent 35 minutes on the phone with the online pharmacy trying to get a refill on something that showed refills but wouldn’t let me order it. I hate that shit. I appreciate the woman that helped me, but it’s annoying to have to deal with all that. In the morning. Have I mentioned I’m not a morning person? I’m not. Really no.

Didn’t mean to wake up early. Didn’t want to. I have the mini-lecture all noted out on a piece of paper so I don’t forget the genius I was at 6 AM.

Where am I at this week? Trying to eke out time for artmaking, often at the detriment of other things, mostly sleep. Monday, I cleaned the floor just in time for the boychild to tromp across it in muddy shoe, completely avoiding the towel I was trying to put down. Fun times. Then I trimmed the quilt.

I didn’t think I’d need kneepads for a short trim, but my knees stated otherwise. They’ve been pretty bad lately. Hoping it’s the weather. Not just increased ouchiness for fun.

I bought the binding last weekend…good thing, because I didn’t have time this weekend. I got the binding on Monday night…

And last night, I put the sleeves on, zigzagged all the seams because I was trained as a clothing sewer before I became a quilter (does everyone zigzag their seams? I just think it holds all the layers together in a more stable manner so it’s easier to fold the binding over and stitch it down.). Then I pinned the whole thing and stabbed myself a million times. Yes, I know there are clips and basting sprays (ugh) and other ways to bind quilts. I like how this looks, so I stab myself a bunch of times for the pleasure of the final product. Tonight, I’ll start the handstitching part. I’ll be working on that for a while too. But the quilt will be done in February. Not December. Not January. Sigh. WHATEVER. 2025 might be kicking my butt at the moment.

I’ve been reading (listening to) this book series and it yells out “NEW ACHIEVEMENT” on a regular basis (really long story) and I’m hearing that in my head right now. Finally made it on a hike/walk with the dog and the Man.

Finally had the TIME to do it. I think my knees appreciated it? Not sure. I’ve been doing pilates all along and regularly, but have missed the hiking (and the gym, but that’s going to be a new level to unlock when I get through the next two weeks of traveling). So NEW ACHIEVEMENT! Hiked this weekend. More of that please. And fuck the clean house. It doesn’t last anyway. I still need to clean one of the gutters out and it’s raining today and tomorrow and I raked some stuff away from the house, but I think I’ll be on the ladder tonight in the dark trying to clear this one gutter. In the rain. It’ll be fine. It’s not torrential until tomorrow.

OK, on the one hand (Comparative Literature major here) this amuses me, and on the other…

It irritates the crap out of me, because unless you’re doing something to make my life easier right now, my shrew has a legit complaint. And she doesn’t need taming.

I love that my brain can hold both those feelings at the same time.

Today. Well, you already know I have a mini-lecture all drawn out for my classes today. Mostly they’re taking notes and I’m prepping for eyeball dissection tomorrow. And trying to finish the next unit. Ha! Not finishing. But I need a table of contents. By Tuesday. Copied. Tonight is a union meeting AND book club (I checked. I read the book. I didn’t really like it.). I don’t have to cook though (pro). I do need to get more grading done during school today. Somehow. It’s all good. I had a plan yesterday and got a whopping 2 out of 5 classes graded. Then came home and did the other 3 in like 45 minutes. Not even. Efficiency without kids in the class is AMAZEBALLS. Right now, I need a big hit of caffeine and to brush my teeth and take my meds and then off to school…it is (strangely) wear dark colors day (it’s kindness week? Not sure what dressing like a ninja has to do with that, but I’m doing it…not hard…I have lots of black).

Free Time…Gone!

Yo ho, Yo ho, it’s a Monday with no school. Gotta love those. Because after this month, there aren’t any for a Loooonnnggg time. Well it feels that way anyway. The Vast Expanse of March is coming. Fifty three days until Spring Break. Doesn’t sound long, but it will be. That said, I got this 3-day weekend and I had plans for each of the days and both Saturday and Sunday got co-opted by perfectly reasonable things that were either unexpected or I hadn’t really thought through the time expenditure and then the mile-long to-do list all landed today. Now I’ve been quite efficient, talked to the IRA company that locked me down because the damn cat kept sitting on the keyboard and trying to log in, moved all the money to consolidate shit like my bro (my ACTUAL bro) suggested, talked to the parentals, did some emailing. But the plan was to be at the ceramics studio around noon (not happening), finish grades yesterday (didn’t happen), go for a hike (hopefully still happening). I have shit every night this week and then I’m flying to the girlchild for a quick visit. Boom! And your free time is gone. I did finish quilting last night after staying up too late two nights running…

Started the background quilting the night before, barely, then got most of the empty space in the middle quilted, plus down most of one side and across the bottom. Then last night, again, staying up too late, just needed it done…finished the rest.

Well. I just typed like three paragraphs and WordPress deleted all of them. OK, I probably deleted them by clicking something I didn’t mean to click because I am typing fast. Why? Because I am behind. So. Quilting last night, stayed up too late, finished, about 13 hours of quilting. Today need to clean the entryway floor so I can trim this and then put a binding on it. All good. Then draw the next one, which will be different and smaller and hopefully less time-consuming, but if my art brain is involved, there are no guarantees. Then make a smaller quilt or two, think about the duo solo show coming up in 2026, plus a big one for the summer, yeah yeah yeah. Can’t think that far ahead. I’m like still in this week survival mode.

Saturday, we went to see my co-teacher dance in her ensemble thing…

All people from school (and family). That was the more time-consuming thing than I had originally thought it would be because I sometimes can’t add all the travel time on either side and parse that out. Whatever. The night before was a show with one of the Man’s band members. It was fun but tiring and I didn’t quilt. Which is fine. Social stuff needs to happen too. Yesterday, a friend spontaneously came down with her hubby for lunch…also good, but time. So I’m behind in grading and I’m feeling pressure to do things. Always pressure.

But hey, in awesome sauce news, we got the new owl box up and within two weeks, there’s an owl in it.

I’d seen her around in my trees, heard her screeching at night, and I hope this one makes babies that survive. Not sure what happened last time, but I’m happy they’re back.

OK. I need a shower. I need to do ceramics. I need to grade. I’m cooking tonight. I need to hike ffs. I need another damn day. I know! I got an extra one! Sheesh. Seriously need to rethink my career choices. Maybe too late for that.