How to Do Things…

Oh hey. Apparently I missed Wednesday. What did I do Wednesday? Talked to someone who is going to stabilize the stained glass near my front door (it’s big, it’s old, it needs help). Went to the ceramics studio and forgot to take pictures. Remembered why I like going places late at night so no one will talk to me. Why do older men always wanna tell you how to do things. And then they say, “I don’t want to tell you how to do it” as they go on and tell you how to do it. Sometimes that’s helpful, but dude, see the airpod in my ear? Only one, because I’m female and we don’t feel safe with both in? Well maybe I’m bringing both next time. Graded some stuff. Went to pilates. It was a pretty chill day, honestly; so chill, I forgot to write. I don’t do well without routines. Well, let’s put it this way, I use routines to get shit done. And sometimes I ignore all that and get nothing done. I did finish my book actually, so that’s a thing.

OK. So I’m officially panicking about school again, because yesterday did not feel productive except in the plant-buying department, and now I have to plant them, so that’s on today and tomorrow’s list. The buying has been on the list for over a year, so I’m doing well. And I didn’t get two I needed. Also doing well. But I finally got down to Native West Nursery, which is all California natives…think the stuff you see when you go hiking. So I picked up some native ceanothus and some other fun stuff that should appreciate my slope. And maybe then I can stare at the chain-link fence less and butterflies more. That’s my plan anyway.

The Little Barn is the retail section; it has native seeds too, but I was afraid of the checkout bill if I looked there too. So I didn’t look. So I can go back. Limited hours though.

That was yesterday…all the errands I never get to. I went to Freeform Clay in National City, because they’re not even open on the weekend, and I needed glazes. Buying them online just seems weird. So I did it in person. Hopefully I did a good job. So many decisions. I don’t have room on my shelf at the studio for them, so I will have to do what I see other people doing: carrying in boxes of stuff. It’s not like I’ll be glazing every time I go in. I did take one picture on Monday or Tuesday, whenever I went in before…

But now one arm is attached, the other hand has an arm, there’s another bug on the torso. So many changes. I was going to go in yesterday evening, but I was tired from all the driving around San Diego County, and then school whacked me upside the head. Fucking A. That will be the next 10 weeks. Begging for time for art. Anyway, hopefully today, I’ll get the other arm on and decide about head and heart. Probably need shoulders first. I can only build for about an hour before I have to let it harden up. I made a pot on Wednesday too, because I wanted to try it. This sculptural piece actually started as a mug that went wrong. I do want to make a mug, and that was the plan, but that new one would have been way too big…like think about pouring the whole teapot in and having to boil more. So it became a pot. For plants. I need to decorate it. I can still make a mug, although I’m running out of shelf space. Finish the pot, keep going on the sculpture, then make a mug. I can do all the things. I figure an average sculpture for me will take all month to build if I’m back at school. Two days a week. It’s OK. I’m going to be OK with it. I knew the next 2 1/2 months would be hard.

In art quilt news, I’m still missing a sewing machine. I called yesterday; they said ‘soon’. I’m like, ‘how soon’? No answer there. It’s fine. If it gets to next weekend and I don’t have it, I’ll go over to mom’s and use hers for the thing that needs to be done by the following weekend. With binding. It’s small. I’ll be fine. Although I should think about binding fabric today or tomorrow. Next weekend just got more busy with family coming to town. This weekend…I was going to go to my guild meeting, but the FEMA inspector is coming by. Hopefully with a check. OK, that’s not how it works, but I’m hopeful. Anything to make up the shortfall to pay for the carpet would be nice. I also need to finish my taxes so I know how much I owe. I’ve been slogging through the data on that. I’m getting there. Slowly.

But I am working on the third unfinished quilt for this Spring…I started ironing onto fabric Monday night…

Then Tuesday was a clusterfuck of doctor’s appointments (meeting with surgeon in late April, thing in eye is not discernable by anyone but my brain) and an opening of Trauma at the Hyde Gallery at Grossmont College…this is my piece Doctor’s Orders…

And me with my eyes dilated, trying not to squint too badly. Woo! Not a way to see an art exhibit, by the way. The show is up through April 18. It’s a college, so the hours are during the week.

Back home to iron more things…all the flesh. Side-eye provided by Kitten…

Stayed up late to do that. Like you do.

This is all that’s left after that, all the non-flesh, non-background things. It doesn’t look like much, but it took two nights to get through it…

Heart, cat, trees, etc. There’s everything used by Tuesday bedtime.

Then Wednesday…

More color!

Then last night, I finished it off…

A closeup of the pile that now needs trimming…

It took 6 1/2 hours to pick the fabrics…

Only 71 fabrics…and a cat head. In case you think there’s ever a time Kitten is not in the room with me. She’s here. Old and decrepit, sometimes smelly, skinny, needs pets. But here.

So tonight, I’ll start trimming.

I trimmed three trashcans worth of yard stuff Monday and Wednesday…found this…

Totally molded on those branches. I always feel bad removing them, but that plant needed major trimming. NEEDS. I didn’t finish. Maybe not today, because rain. Plus planting supersedes trimming. Also found this…

Looks like some predator bird lost hold of dinner. Sorry. I popped it off the branch and into the undergrowth for some small thing to eat. Ew gross though. Aged alligator lizard.

Some other notes. The Man. Asleep. But the sisters are being nice to each other!

Nova usually gets kicked off the bed by Luna, because Luna is a jealous asshole. But this went on nearly all day.

I trimmed the ferns and found a bunch of freesias underneath, and now they’re blooming, which is lovely.

I love freesias.

And this is my school self, lurking in the back of my head.

I know going back is going to be hard. But at least there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Speaking of light, there’s a thunderstorm that just popped up over us. Super dark and rumbly. Probably not a good time to go out and plant. It’s OK. I need to write warmups and posts for next week. And finish my taxes. And plant 11 things. And go do some ceramics. JAYSUS. That was thunder of the crashing type. Not so rumbly. OK. Maybe gonna unplug the computer. Make another cup of tea? Not a driving day today then. School? Ugh. I’ve worked almost every day on school stuff over break. Never done. We were supposed to go on more hikes and maybe a trip to a winery. None of that happened. Oh well. It is what it is. Survival mode again. Still need to go in and copy one thing for Monday. Not gonna wait until Monday and fight the copy hordes.

Here’s owl video…I’ve been hearing a baby at night…

And then it started hailing here…

Always fun.

Fun start to the day. Certainly makes you mentally redo your to-do list. Maybe that’s a good thing?

Clover…

OK. It’s official. My Spring Break to-do list is taking over the world and there’s no stopping it. It just gets worse every time I try to cross things off of it. I mean, right now, I’m staring out the window at a beautiful blue spring sky and the yellow clover flowers (are they clover? I don’t know. The bunnies like it whatever the fuck it is…it’s definitely a weed, but it dies off pretty easily, so I only pull it when it’s in the way of something else that’s trying desperately to grow) are covering the slope, and all I see are the new growth suckers that need to be trimmed off the ashes, and that one branch that seems to be broken and hanging toward the ground. UGH. So much yard work.

Last night, I sorted the Wonder Under pieces finally (didn’t have the brainpower on Saturday night)…it took a whopping 14 minutes, y’all. So I could have done it at any time.

And here’s why I put it off…I then needed to spend 90 minutes cleaning the office so I could pick the next quilt’s fabrics. I folded, I ironed, I cleaned up. Mostly. So tonight, I can iron. Sigh. I want my sewing machine back dammit.

Saturday night’s opening was busy and overstimulating. Here’s my piece, Damaging Earth’s Fabric in the Allied Craftsmen show at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

And me in front of a piece by William Leslie and Alessandra Colfi…

That was about all the energy I had for the night. It rained all day until we left (well, and then rained on the way up). I was tired. I didn’t make it to the ceramics studio in the morning like I’d wanted to. I ended up going after we got home from the opening. I was tired and irritable, and wanted to get to the next stage on this thing…there’s a fine line between too hard and not hard enough to support stuff. So I went in at 8 PM for about 90 minutes and got some more coiling done…

Made a cat butt…

And then added it to the thing…whatever it is. OK, it’s human, mostly female. I think. Think about my drawings made 3D in clay and that’s kinda where I’m at right now.

IDK if the boobs will stay put…everything was a little soft. Ha! Not really. We’ll see later today hopefully. I need to find out how tall I can go. The head might need to be separate. I also just signed up for an sgraffito class. So there’s that. Yes, I still love fabric. Yes, I’m still making quilts. I’m just side-obsessed. It’ll be fine.

Yeah that. Constantly. Mostly I’m OK with the awkward. Sometimes it’s awkward.

That’s not entirely true. I’m still grading things and trying to lesson plan. There was a cat in the way this morning though and the chair was in the sun, so I let her have it. I’ll do some later.

Here’s cat TV…

That moth was still wriggling.

OK, doc appointment (lots of those this week), then I need to do some of the to-do list, then go to the gym, then go to ceramics. Those are all good things. I can read my book at the gym. It’s a nice day out too. So some yardwork is called for. It’s a Monday but not a school day. I can enjoy that.

A Day Late…

A day late. That’s OK. I was in the mountains. I forgot it was Friday. Today is Saturday. If I keep telling you what the days are, maybe I will remember them myself. I have doctors’ appointments next week; I have to remember to go to them.

We were up on Palomar Mountain for a couple of days…one full day really. It was nice. It was cold. There was still snow up there. We had a discount to stay in a really nice yurt and it was cool.

These are nice yurts (Baileys on Palomar)…take advantage of discounts if you can. We had a mid-week discount. I’m pretty sure it’s snowing up there right now though, so I’m glad we came home yesterday.

Inside was warm, sometimes too warm. But nice.

My drawing brain was mostly out of it. This one isn’t going anywhere.

And this one might. Maybe.

We couldn’t get a fire started the first night…pretty sure the wood was wet from the previous storm. The second night, after 5 firestarters and some weird juju of frustration (the Man’s, not mine…or the fire’s, for that matter), the fire started and kept going…me drawing by the fire…

The Man telling me about something circular…

It was cold out. I think this was still firestarter fire, not real fire.

Eventually we got cold and came back inside and got violent and slappy with this game.

I won.

That was after hiking to Palomar Observatory, which I’d never been to. The hike wasn’t hard or long…well, it was 5.3 miles with 800 feet of elevation. So not too bad. Certainly my legs were feeling it yesterday.

Those are some really big acorns…

My app says Canyon Live Oak. Acorns and their caps fascinate me. I brought caps home. Dunno what I’m going to do with them.

It’s funny, I only saw the observatory once from the hike until we were on our way back.

It was cool. San Jacinto in the distance…definitely snow up there too.

It was a nice day to hike…mostly not hot, mostly not too cold.

Definitely at elevation snow. Not a lot by the time we got there.

I stitched a little too…finished this block.

I remembered a chalk pencil for the bike. Started another block while I was there.

Forgot the proof of life picture. Yes! We were in the same place together.

It happens.

We came back, cleaned up, I peed some dogs. The one on the right is hunting bees. Or bunnies. Hard to say which.

Stood in line for 3 hours at a quilt store that’s closing so I could use up my gift card and my mom’s too, because she showed up halfway through and handed me more. Then held my place in line so I could find more stuff to buy. She’s a good mom. I’m supposed to be at the ceramics studio right now but there was a full on flood-level band of rain that came through and dropped like half an inch of rain, so I didn’t drive in it. I will now, because I think that band is done and I can wait out the next one. There’s an art opening at Oceanside Museum of Art tonight, though, and that’s gonna be a slog if it’s still raining this hard. Ah well.

Last night, I suffered cats. Lots of them.

They missed us. And then I finished trimming this one…

Time to sort and then to iron. Meanwhile the girlchild and friend camped in the Northern California band of this storm last night. They were not washed away.

There is a tent under there. There is also a rain fly. The tarp is just extra. I wonder if there is a tarp underneath as well? Hmmm. Did we train her well? Maybe not.

OK. Art opening tonight. Ceramics studio for now: gonna see what came out of the kiln plus do another level on what I’m building…maybe start something new? I need to be back here by 3 PM I think. Ugh. I’m sure it made sense to sign up for things weeks ago, but today’s brain is not up for it. Typical.

Drippy

I think I finally feel like I’m on break. Even though I put in about 10 hours on schoolwork in the last two days. Had to take an asynchronous course on writing. Of course. Like you do. Passed that quiz, no problem. The other one, ugh. Retook it yesterday and passed. So that shit is done and I don’t have to think about it any more. Still working on vocab slides for when we return. I got two weeks of school planned minus the vocab, so that’s a plus. Need one more week done so I can print a table of contents. OR I’m gonna pull the space stuff and make it one packet. Not deciding that today. Today, I am packing for two nights in a yurt! Not far, just Palomar Mountain, but not HERE, and I think that’s a plus. Also the nasty rain won’t start until we get back. I miss our long 10-day camping trips…sigh. I can’t even plan for this summer because I don’t know when I’ll have to do surgery. Sigh. SIGH. And I feel like I’m not getting quilt stuff done. It’s fine. This is just a short break until we go back and I get through this year that sucks and do things that make me happier. Speaking of…I went in early to my last ceramics class yesterday and worked on my piece, and some of the regulars were in there talking about the classwork, and the one they were talking about was MINE, which is still not dry, so hasn’t gone into the kiln yet. Which is fine, because I need to buy glazes for it, I think. I cannot decide. Next week, I will go to Blick and check out what’s there. I’m distracted by too many choices. And expense!

Then, we had glaze class, which was messy and overwhelming. Here’s all my fired pieces…

The cool cups and cactusy-looking things are NOT mine. Mine are all the weirdo things.

And then I glazed. Randomly. Because everything looks red and most of it will not be red. Which is confusing.

And the big ones were very drippy and messy and I think I tossed a toilet brush of glaze at one point. I am a klutz, in case you don’t know that.

The one on the left has three glazes on it. We’ll see how it goes. I suspect I may need to tone down glazing a bit if I’m actually going to do fabric pieces inside them. We’ll see though. They’ll be out on Saturday. Woohoo! Then I can try some fabric things. Three of those are actually pots that plants will go in. There’s a small tray. The two bigger ones are for fabric. I think. And the one that’s not fired yet.

Then I finished tracing the newest quilt. I’m gonna have so much stuff to finish when I get my machine back.

It took a little over 4 hours to trace that. I started trimming last night…

Got a lot done in just under two hours. It’s amazing how fast small quilts go. I still want to draw a big complicated one over break though…break that is disappearing as I write. Right? Ah well. I’ll get there.

In dog news, Simba had a rough day on Monday…very mopey, kinda sad, a bit flinchy, like he was in pain.

Poked all over him and couldn’t find anything wrong, and he seemed fine the next day.

Annie was quite glad to see me for her peeing event.

She has mellowed out a bit; she’ll be visiting us next weekend. Hope Luna is ready. No bullying!

Check out the owl video…

I keep forgetting to go out at night and listen for a baby owl again. I was so sure the other night, but maybe it was just mama? I don’t think so though. The moon is in exactly the wrong place for a lot of the night…it blows out the camera function, so it triggers from movement, but we either get fog or bright light and nothing else. It’s weird.

I was just looking at how many hours I was spending on art stuff in the last month and realizing I need to keep track of the ceramic hours if I want to be able to price anything I make. I’m not really planning on selling pots and trays…I do need to make some things for the house though. But the ones that eventually get fabric, it would be cool to be able to show them in an exhibit, although shipping them could be difficult. We’ll see. Keeping track of the time is something I should do for a while though. Just for info. More info good.

So it seems Medicine Tribe might be a band, which is fine…it was the skull on the back shelf that got me.

Anyway, I need to eat and pack and read my book (oh wait, that’s not required to get us to Palomar…just desired). And get more greenery in the trash cans. And probably do some other stuff I haven’t thought of yet. Hoping for trees and fires in firepits and peace and quiet and no to-do lists for a few days. It’s not much but it’ll help my brain fog…which has lifted a bit since Saturday and Sunday, so that’s good. Maybe I’ll grade something else today so that I’ll have less to worry about when I get back, yeah? Maybe. I’m not feeling motivated to do that at the moment, but I know next-week’s self would appreciate it. So there’s that.

I Can’t Do All the Things…

Look! It’s a Monday and I’m not at school! I don’t even need to go to school tomorrow! Well, I kinda do because I left a couple of things and need to get them. But no kids! No work stress! Just home stress! I’m trying to cut down on all that. Certainly today’s blue skies help, although the pool is doing things, my eye is doing things, there’s still the boob thing floating around, I have a doc appointment today where she will once again tout the Mediterranean diet that I sort of follow anyway, but not really. I also got the door code to the ceramics studio so I can go ANYTIME. And I went and meditated with clay on Saturday.

I made a thing.

It started as one thing and then became another. So now it’s an in-process thing. I’m hoping to work on it a bit tonight before my orientation (required) and then I have my final class tomorrow, which is about glazing. I always had issues with that part. It’s weird. Painting. I don’t like shiny things really. Not big shiny things. So there’s that. And glazes are expensive, so I’ll need to figure out what I want to do about that. My studio provides some, just not the stuff I like. And I want all the colors. And that’s not a thing. Unless you’re rich.

Anyway. More clay over break…that’s my goal. Put it in the calendar with the gym etc.

I did grade yesterday. I didn’t bring home much, but I did bring home some. “Bring home”…it’s mostly on the computer. I have one paper homework, one academic digital assignment I haven’t started, and one academic digital assignment that I still had two classes left to grade, plus warmups, last week’s digital homework (graded itself!), and another digital assignment. Plus all the kids turning in late work. So I did the warmups, one class of the academic digital thing, input the other digital things, and got a goodly chunk of the late work graded. Still have a few hours of grading to deal with, but also need to spend some time (hours) planning for after break. I need a table of contents for the Monday we get back and I have about one week of three planned out. Then we start test review, which worries me (it’s kinda boring), then a quick egg drop, then sex ed, and we’re out! It sounds fast, but it’s not fast enough. You know? I did appreciate this…

Be safe! There’s my sink, my eyewash, my doc cam, my rulers, my stick-figure body. All accurate.

I also took in my sewing machine on Saturday and it wasn’t a quick fix. I was hoping it would be. Ten days. No, I don’t have a backup machine. I can go to my mom’s house if I get desperate, but it made more sense (don’t question this) to start something new. I did want to spend Spring Break drawing a big new piece to get me through the end of the school year, but my brain is like mush at the moment and all I could do is pull one of those 12 drawings I copied back in December or whenever and start tracing.

It’ll be fine. The crone quilt is building itself in my head. We’re going out to Palomar Mountain for a few days later this week to stay in a yurt. I’m hoping to get my head around a drawing out there. There is too much crap to do here for my brain to back the fuck off and stop the to-do list.

So tracing Wonder Under makes sense right now.

Meanwhile, two shows opened this weekend with my work, one in Wayne, PA: Art Quilt Elements…

My piece My Body. My Choice. is on the far left…

And here, on the right…

I always have to scroll through Facebook looking for images from the shows.

Here’s one, Sweet Delicious, in a gallery in Japan…

Between the two women.

Interesting flyer…my info is the only stuff in English.

Also I guess that’s my name in Japanese?

It was a little scary to send stuff off to Japan, but now I know the two guys in charge of this show (they’ve been in my studio at least), so I feel better about it. I send work off all the time to people I don’t know, but it’s almost always been to a venue that has regular shows. Somehow that seems better. I don’t really know why.

I’m sitting around waiting for ophthalmology (I cannot spell that word correctly the first time for the life of me) to call me back, but I also need to take a shower before my doctor appointment, so I feel like as soon as I get in the shower, they will call. Right? Yeah. But I have a book to read (or 17), art to make (but not finish, because no machine until next week), a house that is never clean or functional, a pool guy to replace (seriously sick of this guy), and who knows what else on the list. But I’m not at work, and that’s the plus. And ophthal…fucking-A can’t spell it…called back and they don’t think it’s an emergency unless I see flashing lights or a veil over my eye (oh my). So next week for that. Ugh. During my opening…guess I won’t make it to that. Or I’ll be late. Whatever. I can’t do ALL the things. I just can’t.

Why?

Omigod omigod omigod, Spring Break is finally here…well, in 8 hours and 8 minutes, except I have to do duty after school and then set up or clean up or something, so a little bit more than that. Yes, I’m still sick, but not as bad as the two I live with were, so that’s a plus. Knock on wood. I met with a contractor last night who will start fixing the things that caused the flooding in January (or at least caused the shit ton of rain to come in the house…I don’t doubt we will have more instances of shit tons of rain, unfortunately). It won’t be cheap. There isn’t much I can do about that. It won’t be a quick fix either; we’ll be doing stuff in the summer too. Ugh. My summer already is problematic. Ah well. It’s not summer yet.

I was planning on finishing these two small quilts in the next few days. On Wednesday, I pinbasted the one I need for a show at the end of April…

And then continued stitchdown on the one that’s been hanging around for a while.

My machine needs service, a good cleaning. I had it on my list to call today after it was being fussy the night before, and then last night during my stitching Zoom. I had done about 35 minutes on it and then walked away to eat my dinner.

Usually the machine powers down if I don’t turn it off (and I didn’t want to reset everything, so I didn’t power down), but when I came back, it would turn on, it would beep, but the touch screen wouldn’t turn on. I restarted, I unplugged, I googled, but it looks like who knows WTF is going on, and I can’t sew dammit. REALLY? WHY. WHY. WHY. Deep breaths. OK. Calling them during my prep period. It’s fine; I can start drawing tonight instead, but My Goodness. Universe, you suck.

In better art news, they made personalized marketing for two of the upcoming shows…this is awesome!

Turns out Stitchpunk will be in Oregon in summer 2026. Plan that trip now in my head at least. Warn the Man it’s coming.

Nice choice. Fierce Planets isn’t coming close yet.

There’s still time.

Interestingly, I only have to teach advisory and two classes today, due to the dumbass planning of the literacy team. I’ll be in the library for the rest of the day. Planning things. Sounds lovely, eh? It’s pajama day too, so I’m enjoying that. Although I would have sewn up this pocket in my PJ pants if the sewing machine wasn’t on strike.

This is for my absent co-teacher…

Who talks about dinosaurs and space in equal amounts.

I actually finished coloring a cover page for once…

Penis-shaped volcanoes. Fun times.

And this…if you remember, I posted an appropriate version earlier this week. Although weird in the end (like how does that stick baby get out?)…and then there’s this one, from one of my not-so-sweet ones.

Seriously? Must have opted out of sex ed last year. I feel for his girlfriend, who I also have in class. Ignorance is real, y’all.

Anyway, gonna go do the things for as long as I have to, drink lots of tea, get as much schoolwork done as I can so I can do less over break (I already know I will have to come in to print things and set up), then get the fuck out of there for two weeks. Seriously. This year needs to knock it off. I’m done. Peace out though. Spring Break is a much-needed and appreciated respite.

Resolve.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Deep breath in…don’t cough. My household has been Cough/Snot Central for the last week, and apparently I will not escape, despite the doses of Vitamin C I’ve been downing. I need to stop by the store on the way to school to get something to counteract the shit I’m feeling at the moment. Not COVID. I just had that. And medicine only counteracts SOME of the shit. I’m trying to get the rest of this unit planned before break, so I don’t have to come in DURING break and copy shit. I think I’m gonna fail on that, unfortunately. Sigh. I also need to finish grading the two big things, but I’m not sure I can pull that off either. AND write sub plans for Friday afternoon, when the stupid literacy people scheduled the next thing. Bad timing. I rearranged this whole week on Monday night to make sure the academic grade would get done before Friday. Makes my life easier…and the sub’s, but I think I still need to move something this morning. Fuck. OK, write fast. Ugh. Sore throat. Dammit. I have stuff to do. I need to not be sick. Yes, body talking to me. I’m tired of it doing that. Could it just do the things without being a pain? I went to the gym last night, first time in ages, and did the things and felt really good until I tried going down the stairs to leave and both knees were like, fuck you, lady. We’ll give out if you do that again. Well, imma do it lots, so get over it. I didn’t even do the Bosu ball. Need to do that at home. More.

I started stitchdown on the little quilt Monday night…

I finished it last night and still had time before bedtime, so I started stitchdown on that poor quilt top that’s been hanging around for ages…

Didn’t finish that one, but that’s OK. Nothing’s really a rush right now. Maybe it should be, but I don’t have the mental energy for it.

Monday night, I went out to reset the owl cam (again…it’s been fussy as shit) and (1) heard a baby squawking in there (exciting) and (2) saw this…

I was a little freaked out…like where is the light coming from? Until the Man explained it was a rocket launching…ah SpaceX, you make the sky pretty. With chemicals.

A friend was asking whether we’d rather be buried under a tree or sent into space, and I picked the tree, because space is scary…fascinating, but terrifying, and I’d rather be in the earth, somewhere my kids might walk by and say hi. Weird, I know. Or not. Grounded. I love space movies and fiction, but I don’t want to live there. I think I’d be even more anxious floating out there.

Speaking of weird…or not…this kid’s explanation was strangely appropriate…yet weird.

I love that they are just lying in the bed and then she’s pregnant, and then she’s apparently giving birth? I laughed a lot. I like this kid. I mean, he picked that word as his challenge word and then did this. It’s cool.

This week. I’m done with it. I’m going to go buy cold medicine and try to get through things. Three days until Spring Break. Talking to a contractor on Thursday about the flood damage. Need to have a FEMA inspector come out, so I need to finish those forms. In my spare time. I’m really just sick of this school year. I want to go play with some clay tonight if I feel up to it. I want to finish these two small quilts so I can start a massive one for the rest of the school year. I want some of this health stuff to resolve. Ha! Knees are not gonna resolve. Maybe the boob thing will. Surgical consult in two weeks. OK. Go buy cold meds. Go to school. Deal with things. Resolve is an interesting word. I must have resolve to get through the week. Then things will resolve. Re-Solve. We are gonna solve it again? Yeah. Fuzzy brain.

I Blinked

OK, I’m pretty sure I blinked and the weekend was gone. I know I did things because the bathroom and kitchen floor are finally clean and there’s dead leaves in my hair and clean clothes in the laundry basket, but I honestly don’t remember much of it. Just took a deep breath in and it was over. What are the odds the school week will go so fast?

Five days until Spring Break. I have no clue what I’m teaching Friday (and I’ll have a sub for half of it due to pretty shitty literacy planning), so hopefully that will come to me in a dream or something. It’s actually more about not knowing how long this stuff will take to teach more than being totally clueless. I’m juggling a variety of things in my teacher brain, but I need to know how much time I have. I also need to write sub plans. All of that might be happening Thursday night, which I hate, but when you’ve never taught these lessons, it’s a crapshoot. Plus the kids are amazingly tuned out to grades and work completion at the moment, so sometimes I just walk around and look at the kids who are working and compare the kids who are fast to the kids who are super slow but still work, and kind of pick a place in the middle. The lazy kids who do nothing are not part of that equation. It’s not ideal, but it’s where we’re at. Hopefully some of their brains will turn back on after Spring Break (not expecting it really) and we’ll see some progress again. Ha! I’m not really counting on it.

Meanwhile, I did do some art this weekend…some more ironing…

I got the bugs done and the bird…

And the sun. And then ironed everything onto a background…

Looks good. That’s one of my hand-dyes…where I slop up all the leftovers with a piece of fabric. Works. So tonight, I’ll be doing stitchdown.

My ceramics studio posts a video when stuff comes out of the kiln…some of my first class pieces are in there!

Mine are all the weird non-cactus shapes. I made a bunch the first time. I think one of the coil pots might be mine? Can’t remember. Need to go back and look at my photos. I joined the studio last week, ordered my first clay yesterday, and have been writing down all the things I want to make, some of which are very utilitarian, like plant pots and a mug and a number sign for the house since my cheap plastic one is fading. But also, I’m making a list of art things I want to try. This is cool. I’m looking forward to spending some time there making new things.

I did read a book and a half on Saturday, started a third on Sunday…actually, no, started it Saturday night while waiting for the Man’s band to start playing. I might be hiding in fiction, y’all.

Beautiful. Plus I listened some more to another book. So LOTS of fiction. I know I wrote “mother tree” in my journal. That must be something. Certainly it feels like something.

I got my copy of the Fierce Planets catalog…

It looks like a really beautiful show, y’all. I’m hoping to see it somewhere. I can’t go to the opening…too far, wrong time of year. But it will travel, hopefully closer.

Dinner drawing, Friday night with the Man. Using up a restaurant gift card…

We had to drive to two locations. Long story. It turned out nicely. Weird drawing though.

There he is at his Saturday night show.

I didn’t make it all 4 hours. He barely did. He’s got some nasty cough. Both he and the boychild are sick, so knock on wood that my immune system is strong this week. Ha! Boychild went back to work today. His breakfast smelled better than mine. I should get that recipe. You know when you make something and freeze it to get you through the next two weeks, and then it’s OK, but not really great? Yeah. That’s this week.

Simba would totally eat it, if I’d left him.

Man, he has crusty nose again. Need to find the nose butter. He doesn’t like it, but it helps. Weirdly designed dog.

This popped up. Might be relevant in November.

In some states, much sooner than that.

OK. Teaching adaptations. Not hard, I think…but you know…Monday brains. I think my staff meeting after school is watching the staff-student basketball games. Last time, I felt like I needed to stay and watch the girls play, because they play last and everyone leaves, which I think is rude. Also, why can’t they play first sometimes? Sigh. What I really need after school is to get a handle on the rest of the week and the week after we come back from break, so I don’t need to come in and prep over break. We don’t have a nice trip planned for many reasons, which sucks. But I have shit to do around the house…hoping to get some of that set up this week. Yeah. Well. It’s just not a fun year. Parts of it are (the ceramic stuff) and parts are just keeping me going (all the books) and parts could feel better (the art in general)…so those are all things to think about that are more exciting than cleaning bathrooms and floors.

Problem Child…

Yo. It’s Friday. I woke up almost every morning this week hoping it was Friday. Exhausted. Daylight Savings has kicked my ass this week. That and my schedule. I know I voted for this craziness to go away, yet here I am, battling fucked-up blood sugar and feeling like a truck hit me. And my life is relatively simple. I get up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, get up. Right? Hmm. Not quite. Yesterday, I didn’t have a meeting right after school, so I came home and graded two periods of an assignment, and then felt relief that I had finished that. Although there’s another one I assigned this week. Ugh. I lost most of my prep period yesterday to just crap. Today’s needs to be focused as hell. But it’s Friday and probably we are short subs so we’ll see how that goes. And then I drove north to my stitching meeting. So not so chill.

So the little quilt for the show that opens in late April, early May, is progressing. I ironed two nights running…here’s Wednesday’s progress…

Lots of letters…

Then last night…

I was so exhausted after my stitching meeting and getting food that I didn’t think I would have energy to do this, plus it was already almost 10 PM, so then I started on the leaves, but then the arm spoke to me, and then I was going to bed late. I like it like this, actually, but I’m gonna add the bugs and bird and sun and see if that makes it better.

My next plan is either for a boob quilt or a crone quilt (or both!), and then I have a proposal with a venue for a possible duet show, except the other person just pulled out, so IDK what’s gonna happen. I thought I was the problem child, but we are all problem children, eh?

I had my stitching meeting last night and spent most of the two hours on the roof…

And didn’t finish. It looks cool though. I should maybe do more of the embroidery on these blocks and less of the applique, but the applique is so satisfying for some reason on a night when I am exhausted. All of them. That’s all of them at the moment.

Anyway. Today has no meetings. Oh wait, there’s one this morning; that’s why I’m up a little early. Then teaching Darwin (who apparently thought women’s brains were inferior to men’s??? WTF? Oh man, I gotta teach something about that bullshit. I’m sure this is how I’m brainwashing kids.) and giraffes and natural selection. Tonight we are using up a restaurant gift card so no one has to cook, and because tomorrow night (our normal date night), the Man has another show. Another 4-hour show. I have a ticket this time, but I don’t think I’m staying until midnight. I just don’t think I have it in me this week. Honestly, a quiet night at home sounds lovely. With my book (that I don’t really like, but need to finish for book club so I can read another book that I might like more. I mean, you can’t love ALL of them. That’s just reality.). And a cat/dog combo of some sort. Yeah. Sounds lovely.

Glorious Bit of Sky…

Glorious world. Hmm. Not a good start. Glorious SKY…that I can attest to this morning. Well, only in one direction. Don’t look south. Very grey and cloudy. Glorious BIT of sky. There we are. I can see that and stare at it. I should’ve gone to bed earlier…every night of my life, but I have not. Unless I was sick. Which I’m not (knock on wood; everyone else is). Yet. Wait, no, this is not a time for ‘yet’. I will NOT get sick. Ugh. Anyone else have a fuzzy brain? Hell, it’s not even fuzzy…it’s just like not vacuumed and the cat puked somewhere but you can’t find it. YET. There’s a good use of that word.

OK, so lets get through this because apparently I have to go to work. I checked. It’s a yes.

Monday night, I finished sorting. Or maybe it was Sunday. I think it was Monday. Fuck.

Apparently I also started ironing that night…

I didn’t get very far. And I laid out the 100s first for some inexplicable reason, and then didn’t want to waste the time to put them back in the box and start over with the less than 100s, so I just started at piece 91 like the brainless pile of art brain that I am right now.

I did none of it last night, because I was in school meetings and/or teaching from 8 AM to 5:30 PM (got to school at 7:40) and then went to ceramics, not home until 9 PM. Not ironing after all that. I did make something…

It may all collapse (the sponge and newspaper are currently holding everything up)…

The holes are for hanging fabric down into it. I don’t know that this one is as successful as what I did last week, which is still drying, but these are all experiments anyway, so we’ll see how it goes. I did sign up for a membership though, so there will be more. Experimenting. At least through summer. We’ll see how it goes after that. I need to be able to go in and work for an hour or so and then leave it to set up a bit before I go taller. So I need more time.

I have decided that every unit cover page I do for science this year (and maybe forever) will use rainbow colors in the title, just to fuck with the people in my district who say that rainbows are dangerous and should not be student-facing. Even though we teach the science of them.

Yeah, I still have some coloring to do. I realize I am so behind, so buried, at school right now that ugh. Fuck it. I am trying. I need all the to-do’s to go the fuck away. After I count cow eyeballs today. After I find the fucking screwdriver so I can get the damn bucket open. IDK what the fuck I did with it. The prep room and materials are kicking my ass.

Trying.

Yeah. I teach both at the moment.

OK. Fuck today. It’s nuts. Gonna get through it the best I can. Hopefully someone will feed me when I’m done.