Slowly banging my way through this to-do list. One of the things on it is “weed whack” though and that’s a few hours of crap. The stupid battery on the weed whacker lasts a whopping 15 minutes, so that limits the time I can whack…pros and cons? The yard will never be done, but I can hopefully get two trash cans filled by tomorrow’s pickup. Last night, I was trimming in the backyard and kept hearing this weird mechanical sound. Finally looked up in the sky and saw a drone hovering over me. Flipped it off…continued flipping it off…it finally flew off, probably with its 10-year-old owner laughing his ass off at the old lady brandishing clippers.
I started cutting pieces out on Sunday, did a bunch Monday…
That puppy is totally unhelpful most of the time. Keeps trying to put her nose in everything.
But when she’s out, it’s fine. Last night, I cut for three hours because I just wanted to be done…
Annie still was so helpful. At one point, she got her nose under the tray where I was collecting the trash and tipped it over. But then zonked out.
Just under 8 hours to cut it all out. I am ahead of my original plan…which is good. I leave for Seattle on Monday. I’m thinking maybe I can get it ironed down to a background before I go? Maybe? I can get a good chunk of it done anyway.
Girlchild is in Nevada, hopefully getting to San Francisco tonight, since she has to be at work physically tomorrow. Crazy trip.
So today we need to walk the dogs, I need to fill another trash can with weeds, I need to sort the pieces I just cut out and start ironing this quilt together, I need to pick up cat meds, do the rest of my laundry (which means reattaching the vent because the Man fixed the dryer but pulled the vent partially off in the process), and read more…maybe eat food. Certainly I’m not sleeping enough because the puppy is not good at mornings. Anyway…it’s break. And I can tell that some people are irritated that I get time off and they don’t. Well yeah, I worked 12 months (probably much more) of hours in just 10 months…so it’s like when I did 10-hour days for 4 days a week so we could have a 3-day weekend (pre-teaching years). But I get that it feels unfair in the moment. Just remember all the nights and weekends I was working and you weren’t and maybe it will seem more equitable. Sigh. There’s a lot of unfair shit in the world…I’m just trying to appreciate the quiet unfocusing of a teacher summer.
My computer doesn’t seem to want to work right today. I’ve restarted it multiple times and it just gets slower and slower. It won’t do what I need it to do. My brain is having similar issues. I’ll be in the middle of a task, leave the room to get something related to that task, and I’ll start a whole new task without even thinking about it. Finish that and then remember the earlier task. It’s school-break brain. Or recovery brain. I’ve written a ton of things down so I don’t forget them…because forgetting is all I do at the moment. Plus there’s just a shitload of things that need doing right now. All the things I put off because I was teaching and there wasn’t time for much else.
Also I’m still so tired. Not sleeping well. Not sleeping long enough. I’ll get there. Just not there yet. Took a nap Friday. Considered it Saturday and Sunday but didn’t have the chance. And right now, I have a dog behind me and a dog next to me. Seems unlikely.
So Friday night, I started ironing Earth…
Saturday, I managed to finish ironing all the Wonder Under to fabric…
I’m pretty sure at some point (not that photo) I organized all the fabrics. But didn’t count them or take a photo (see note about brain above). Oh wait. I did take the photo at least.
Counting though. Hmmm. Could do that now. 114 fabrics. Very few greens. Because it’s in space? Space is not so green? At least in my head it’s not.
Then last night, I started cutting them out.
Didn’t get super far. Was hoping to be further along. Oh well.
Meanwhile the Man is trying to fix the dryer. Cheaper than getting some repair person to come in.
Can’t dry the laundry until he finishes. The part comes in today. Let’s hope it works.
Girlchild is driving across the US, moving from Boston to San Francisco. I’ve been tracking her and her friend Alessia, who is getting her to Denver.
Then her dad is meeting her and helping to drive the rest of the way.
Sorry, Cleveland.
I’m curious how being scared in a gas station bathroom is not a personal record. They’re currently in Nebraska…it’s going to be nice having her in the same state.
Yesterday, we headed over to the parentals for dinner and I actually remembered to take a photo.
There was this weird conglomeration of a 100 or more crows being really loud and flying around the neighbors’ house. Mom and I walked over and the crows were attacking a juvenile hawk. There were two of them. We stood around and eventually the crows left, so now we are crow enemies forever, right? They’ll remember us? The two hawks made it into a tree, but the one that was being attacked was making its I want my mommy cry.
Very strange to see so many crows involved. Nature can be so vengeful. Speaking of…
Seems legit.
OK well I’m on the couch with the ex’s puppy because he’s on a plane to meet the girlchild, I have 78 thousand things to do and can focus on nothing, and I have a webinar in less than two hours. This blogpost has taken forever to write on the iPad (finally gave up on the computer). Puppy has her nose on my arm. So sweet when she’s not trying to eat shit and/or escape. I’ll read for a bit, maybe nap, then be productive in some way. Maybe.
Well I have a few more hours left of the school year. I have to go in and put the last three things away and then be officially checked out by admin. I’m not allowed to put my name on the checkout list until 10:30, so I’m not rushing over there right now. A mylar balloon hit a power line near school yesterday and blew out electricity, A/C, and wifi, plus there was a weird burning smell, so lots of chaos. That was AFTER graduation. But it’s good to say adios to this school year. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think in November I really thought I just wasn’t going to survive it, and I did, but I’m exhausted y’all. Looking forward to just one grade level of science next year with way more supports than this year. But that’s a couple of months away. Today it’s shut the door, lock it, walk (or dance and sing) away.
Some photos from the graduation thing…I suck at taking photos, I realize. Me and my co-teacher with our mascot (who is one of my kids)…
One of my favorite and top students this year (and last, honestly)…
Her outfit was amazing.
And another of my favorites, who like me, hates having her picture taken. I’ll miss her…
Also she was wearing combat boots. So cool. She gave me flowers, which I appreciate…
And so does Kitten…
I have to hide the flowers from the cats so they won’t eat them.
The day before was promotion practice and then a carnival all afternoon…I spent most of it here, yelling ‘Ready Set Go’ and/or ‘Wait!’.
It was strangely fun. Fun to see them having fun.
Meanwhile, I did get the sun ironed Wednesday night…
Lots of yellows and oranges for that…
And then last night, after graduation, electrical issues, getting all the kids off campus finally, going to our end-of-year party, then driving to get my quilt from the photographer (I’ll post pictures later), then home, then Zoom meeting, I somehow managed to iron Venus (the planet) together.
The planets are actually human-like figures in this quilt…well some of them are. I couldn’t do all of them without making it massive and being unable to finish it for the deadline. I started on Earth (with the blues), but was so exhausted I just went to bed. I didn’t sleep well because of the dog, who was growling and barking at these babies…
But over the next few days, hopefully I’ll start to catch up on the sleep and feel a little more human. Maybe. I’m certainly going to be ironing a lot. Although today is chaos…need to pack up two quilts for shows, one to deliver and one to ship, plus check out of school, and take the dog to the vet. Plus IDK what else, because I walk through the house and it’s a disaster (it always is at the end of the school year). Cleaning, getting rid of stuff, organizing stuff, but also reading and artmaking and a little bit of travel. That’s the goal.
Yeah I guess I’m woke then.
OK, gotta go back to school now. Wearing my unicorn NOPE shirt. You know, I might only have 6 more years of this. Maybe 7. Depends on the money. It alternately sounds like not much and way too much. It depends on the people and the work load. I am lucky to have the people…just gotta work on the other part. Peace out 2022-2023 school year. It makes me cry a little to say that, out of lots of relief and some joy and some sadness…but it’s good to move on.
Hmmm. Wednesday. Long week so far. So much chaos. A 3-hour school-board meeting last night full of crazy misinformation. Y’all, apparently I am performing trans surgeries in class, and that is why the people hate my curriculum so much. I’m also grooming all my students out of the cis-gender status that their parents made them and want them. AND I do not appreciate the American flag enough. I am boggled. Oh yeah, and I do not espouse East County values, which apparently align with white supremacy. So yeah, I guess they were right about that. Giant Ass Sigh.
Otherwise, we’re getting ready to graduate a bunch of kids who I hope listened enough to take care of their own bodies, be kind to others, work hard, be responsible, relax, chill out, reduce drama (unless they’re on stage), and maybe think about climate change and not buying food at places that espouse racist ideologies. But probably they didn’t get all of that.
On top of all that, the Man’s company laid off like 20% of their staff yesterday (not him! because holy crap, that was scary when he didn’t answer for a few hours), so he’s a mess and stressed while I’m actually mostly chill. Except when some dumbass is claiming I am a groomer. One parent said we (the teachers) are here for “ABC, 123, and plus/minus.” You will NOT learn multiplication! It is not allowed! OK, well, that was funny. But no science? No history?
Today is promotion practice. Not graduation…promotion. We line up in a really long line and march the kids in…the two words are SPACE and PACE…at which point, my kids were confused, not THAT space (the one we learned about in science). The one where you’re not climbing up the butt of the kid in front of you. Last year, they practiced all day, because the chairs weren’t set up right, and we all peeked out our windows at our boss throwing chairs in the quad. Fun day. It is long though and we are not allowed to bring a book (well the kids can, but I can’t). I’m not a fan of sitting or standing around for hours, but that is what I will be doing. Outside. In the UV light. Sunscreen, hat, at least it’s not supposed to be hot. And repeat tomorrow for graduation.
The afternoon is a carnival for the 8th graders, which sounds fun and I hope is, but the teacher who was supposed to be covering my class or the other 7th-grade class didn’t know about it yesterday. So that’s fun. Yesterday’s chaos continues.
I’m glad to have an exercise class today and a chance to read my book later? Maybe? We’ll see. Plans for later this week? Check out of my classroom, take the dog to the vet, ship a quilt to Virginia, and get the dryer fixed. Also fun stuff.
I haven’t gotten much ironing done, but it’s not unexpected. This is Monday night, after I finished (well, actually, not all of them) grades.
I ironed some planets and some asteroid belts.
Last night, I only had 30 minutes to iron because I didn’t even get home until 8:30. Blood sugar crashing. Irritated by “East County values” and the other bullshit. So my 30 minutes was another planet…
Slow progress. Maybe more tonight. I actually finished grades Tuesday at the last minute during my prep period because I had like 7 toothpick bridges still to test. I’m bringing all the broken bridges to the bonfire on Saturday night for a burning ceremony of some sort that I promised the kids I would record. One of my co-teachers is doing the bonfire…we bring the question cards from sex ed and burn them after reading them out loud. It’s cleansing.
Nova had an issue with the chair last night…
I missed the best of the wibbly wobbly.
She’s a chub. But a cute chub.
And although the owls don’t seem to be hanging out on the owl box much, here was one checking out their old home nest…
They are still here and screeching at each other. For a few more weeks at least.
Well, I don’t feel prepared for all the outside that today will be, but at least I’m not teaching. All the teaching is done. It’s just clean up and graduate them and get them out of here. 7th grade has their field trip today, so my 4th period will have double the kids…all the 8th graders who should be upstairs with the teachers who are on the field trip. Luckily, both classes are small. We’ll just finish the horror movie (I found one that was PG-13) that we started yesterday. Unless practice takes too long and then it won’t matter. We’ll go straight to lunch. We can hope for that. Pros and cons.
Then pilates after school with lots of deep breathing. Fix dinner, chill out, iron some planetary shit. Got it. Still one day at a time around here, but it’s working at the moment, so don’t fix that. It’s not broken. It’s just inefficient.
Yo! Last Monday of the school year. Am I done with grades? I am not. I’m hoping they are due tomorrow and not today. I should find that out. Tomorrow. Whew. I just thought of that. Nothing like going until the last minute. Trust me, I WOULD have been done by now, but we haven’t tested all the bridges yet and some kids forgot to turn shit in and I don’t even know what to do with the kid who at 2 PM on Friday, with an 11-day assignment due at 3:30, was begging for more time, and then STILL didn’t do anything. Sigh. So yeah. This is the crazy week. All the grades and awards and parties and promotion practices and actual promotion plus clean your room and lock it up because summer school will be in there and they will use all your shit.
Yup. Almost there. I can taste it. Almost. This week is actually really long. Friday night and all day Saturday I was convinced I was getting sick: massive headache, sore throat, achy all over, felt like crap. So I started with the immune protection stuff, emergen-c, and drank a lot of it. All day Saturday. I felt OK yesterday and this morning, so maybe I kicked it? Or? It will come back with a vengeance on like Wednesday, when I have to be outside all day. Yeah. Still taking vitamins just in case. Even if it’s all in my head. There are lots of things in my head. If it keeps me from getting sick right now, I’m good.
So Friday night, I sorted the Wonder Under…
It didn’t take long.
Then Saturday, I ran errands, bought a background fabric (two actually, but one was better than the other for this), and cleaned the office/studio…which started out like this.
I put all the fabric away, and then mopped the floor. It had been a while. It was driving me a little bonkers. But that’s all I got done in here.
The Man had a show on Saturday night and I was feeling well enough to go. In fact, there are times in my life when I feel like going out and dancing has kicked a virus out of my system. This may have been one of those occasions.
Also they played really local, which made it an easy decision to go.
It was a good time. They are taking a 6-month break because one member is having shoulder surgery and another one just needs to rest his shoulder, so this was the last show for a while.
They opened for Sonic Moonshine, which is also a good show.
Especially with the bubbles.
Sunday, I set up my ironing space…
Laid out the first 100 pieces of Wonder Under, picked the first fabrics…
And started ironing to fabric.
That’s where I’ll be every night this week, I think. With a few exceptions.
My post-eating stitching for the evening is still this Sue Spargo thing.
Brainless and easy. That’s what I need right now. Plus purple. Always good.
Simba agrees.
It rained AND his boy is gone. Very traumatic.
So traumatic that he was lying on my bedspace last night. Really, I think I was supposed to curl up at the foot of the bed, based on this arrangement.
I made him move. He was OK. Ever hopeful for that space.
The owls are wandering all over our little neighborhood, driving all the neighbors bonkers probably. Last year, they just hung out in our yard. This is a wide-ranging group. Which means we rarely see video of any of them on the owl box.
But we hear them constantly.
OK. Today I need to get through a whole lot of bridge breaking…Period 2 may be nigh on impossible. I think I need to do 7 of them in a short period. We’ll see how I do. Finish science and classroom orders, plus a staff meeting, finish grades. My quilt isn’t ready for pickup yet, unfortunately. I really need it by Thursday and I have limited time for pickup before that. Sigh. Ah well. Worst case, I’ll pay the extra for the ‘late’ entry (it’s not late, but there’s a cost break for ‘early’). I’m pretty sure I’m cooking (something) tonight, but there’s ironing at the end of it, which seems like more ‘work’, but it’s work I love. So that’s a good thing.
Ugh. It’s Friday Yay. Last Friday of the school year with kids. I feel like Ugh though. There are so many things for school that I am trying to keep straight in my head. I’m tired, really tired. I feel like I might just sleep the entire week after we get out of school. And that would be OK. Except for all the shit I have to get done that week…minor issue. All the stuff I haven’t been doing for the last 10 months. That.
But some cool stuff happened yesterday at school…we started testing these toothpick bridges. Some of them are pretty…
Like that’s classic.
By the way, we break them all. I have a bridge graveyard in the back of the room right now.
It held 6 1/2 pounds. Not bad.
But this one. Doesn’t look like much.
27.6 pounds before it broke. Seriously solid beast. Amazing. At one point, I looked up, and the entire classroom was gathered around as the kids said, “put another 1000 ml in it, Ms. Nida.” It was cool. Love moments like that. Holding onto that, because some of the classes are not cool. They’re just hard.
We still have more to break. Monday.
It’s exhausting doing this stuff, but rewarding.
At home, I am trying to keep the focus on the art. I do have grade stuff to do too, but I’ve been trying to get it done at school. Almost done with all of that. It almost doesn’t matter any more. Yay! Until next year. But the thought of 9 weeks with no grading, no worrying about lesson plans on Sunday afternoon, setting up on Friday after school? That’s delightful. No desperate searching for curriculum that makes sense. No ordering materials at the last minute. Lovely.
I got a bunch of Wonder Under cut out Wednesday night during book club and after…
Just a little bit left, but bedtime loomed. Last night, I finished it…
With Kitten for size comparison. That was about an hour of cutting. In total, 5 hours and 22 minutes to cut those out. Tonight, hopefully, I will sort them, and tomorrow, start ironing to fabric. I need to figure out a background fabric. I might need to go buy some tomorrow. Keeping that in mind. Fewer pieces goes faster. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the big quilts. The next one will be big, I think. Maybe. Gotta look at deadlines and see if there’s anything that I want to make art about.
I did have my stitching meeting last night.
Didn’t get much done. Tired. Distracted. Just worked on the window. Sue Spargo Homegrown. Been working on it for a long time. Will still be working on it next year at this time.
Look! The sisters like each other.
You can’t really see it in this picture, but Luna has a nasty scratch on her nose from her sister…some altercation. We’ve been calling her Harry Potter because it looks like a lightning bolt.
OK. I have to go to school. It’s a field trip day, to the local amusement park (super small, one roller coaster, a few rides, some games). The reward for getting through 8th grade. I’ve never done this field trip before, so that’ll be interesting. But then I come back and continue teaching 7th grade about STDs. Tiring. I’m going to bribe them…good behavior? No quiz. I have one class that will be fine with that. The other one has been awful the last two days. Better yesterday, but still pretty bad. I requested one kid be held out today so I don’t have to deal with him, but I’m pretty much guaranteed to have him next year too. I figure at least he’s the annoyance that you know. There will always be an annoyance (or 20).
Tonight, we’re going to an art opening; tomorrow, the Man has a show. Plus getting grades done and doing art. Close so close to a bit of freedom.
Always wear gloves to trim bougainvillea. I have three infected bits in my hand that probably have boug parts in them that need to be dug out. I never learn.
You know you are overwhelmed/tired/done when the email from Chewy that mistakenly tells you that you need to upload the vet authorization elicits an actual surge of anger. I mean, really. It’s not that big a deal. They do already have it. Maybe don’t bite their heads off. Which is something I need to remember for school today. If I can.
I wasn’t planning on trimming the boug. I was going to do the backyard. That’s my reasoning there. The other? I AM done. Mentally. I’m trying not to be, but some of the kids are also done, which is understandable, but if they could just chill out, like most of them are, waiting for glue to dry, instead of trying to put glue all over each other and/or poke each other and/or break the rulers? Yeah. Even in 8th grade, it’s the boys and they can’t just chill. So then I have to babysit stupid behaviors and I don’t have the fucking spoons for that. Seven more days. Two of those are different, not academic, probably easier because of that. IDK what stupid games we’ll be playing on the last day with 8th grade, but I also need to get my room cleaned and locked up, so I’d appreciate more just chilling than I got yesterday.
They’re building toothpick bridges. Hopefully we’ll be testing the first of them tomorrow and then finishing Monday, maybe Tuesday. Friday is a field trip. So it sounds fine, survivable. Until I get to three or four groups of boys.
Some are further along than others…
I’ve always taught sex ed at the end of the year, which keeps kids’ attention pretty well, but my (dumbass) school board limited what we could do this year, so 8th grade needed something interesting that wasn’t hard. More hands-on than brainiac. So this is a good choice, but there are still kids who are messing around. Not a lot. Just enough to drive a tired teacher bonkers.
And y’all, IDK how this bridge is even going to stand up, but that’s not MY problem.
Anyway. So today I’m giving them a short quiz (because I’m a bitch, that’s why…no, because there are actually forces in bridges and I taught them and hopefully this is an easy question…I mean, I think it is, but who the fuck knows what they will do with it) and then they need to get their bridges glued together so we can test some of them tomorrow. I also copied a bunch of mazes to hand kids who are goofing off (if you get a maze, it is because you are not chilling). Meanwhile, all of 7th grade will see an actual childbirth (on video; hard to get guest visitors to do that) and then move on to STDs. Scaring them into abstinence, as one of the teachers said. They weren’t chill yesterday either, but they had a sub in an earlier class and that shit makes them lose their fucking minds.
Yeah. So. I’m done. So done. I need to sleep for like a week straight. And it’s only Wednesday, so it feels like a vast expanse of the week is left.
Pros: It is the middle of the week. The boychild is home so he had the dog in HIS bed last night so I slept five hours straight without waking up. I have lots of Wonder Under to be cutting out, so I can just sit and watch a movie and not think too hard (except I picked a sci fi movie and spent most of it picking apart the science mentally, even though I don’t know enough about space to really do that).
Here’s the Wonder Under once I finished tracing…
Three yards and a bit. Not bad. Normally I can do a yard in an evening, depending on how complicated it is. Lots of big swoopy pieces and a ton of smaller pieces between them. I started cutting on Monday night…didn’t get far.
Last night, I finished the first yard and did the little piece as well…
I read a bunch last night, plus had a late pilates class, and then after I had eaten, while we were still watching our show, I worked on this background…
Of another Sue Spargo quilt, because I will never finish all of them, and that’s OK. This is brainless applique and I should have been cutting out Wonder Under, but my brain was too beleaguered to remember to do that, so this is what I did.
Tonight is a union meeting and book club, though, so IDK what I will get done. Probably more Wonder Under. And the last 23 minutes of that movie I was watching. Trying to decide who’s gonna die. Probably the older guy, even though he’s married, because his algae is all dead, so he can’t do the research anyway. The young woman has too much empathy; plus, she’s the doctor and they’re gonna need her.
Easier to think about that shit than anything else. I’m at 85% in my book too, but I don’t have time to read today. Sigh.
This cat, Nova, came out and sat on everyone yesterday because there were no dogs.
It was sweet. She asks nicely. Puts her paw out with one claw pulling at your shirt or pants. Can I please sit there? Yes. You may.
There was a baby bunny in the yard yesterday. I realize I have three to five barn owls on my property at the moment, so who knows if the baby bunny will survive that…
Certainly my indoor predators were offended by its existence.
Yup. Here’s where I’m at.
It’s not even stress right now. I don’t need to lesson plan, I’m mostly done with grading, I just need kids to not be assholes. Chill the fuck out. Put your head down if you can’t handle it (except don’t fall asleep during the pregnancy video, dammit). Ugh. I started planning next year’s calendar and I’m noting the issues. Not that there are solutions to the end of the year. Ever.
OK. Bridge building, testing, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections or diseases or whatever. Union meeting. Book club. Maybe water and/or do knee exercises in between that, if there’s time. Also need to pick up cat meds and go to Home Depot and maybe my quilt will be ready for pick up sometime soon? Who knows. I do need to go to school though. Like now. It’s my job.
This is the last full week of school. It’s a doozy, of course. Nothing like next week, but still a ton of stuff going on, both at school and in the evenings. Fewer kids turning in late work this trimester. A blessing for me; maybe not so much for their grades. No more lesson planning really though. That’s a plus. Spent so many hours over the last school year trying to do that. Desperately doing that. Can’t teach if you don’t know what you’re teaching. Glad that’s done. Mostly. Yeah. This week is pregnancy and STIs, plus bridge building and maybe breaking, plus a field trip, but coming back and teaching afterwards. Ugh. It’ll be fine. Right? It will? It will be something.
I did get some significant progress done on the new quilt…traced a chunk of time on Saturday…
Before a hike and after dinner. Made it more than halfway.
Then last night, I was going to grade another thing (I graded all afternoon), but then a kid, two kids really, cheated in a truly annoying assholular way, so I quit. Did not have the mental stamina to continue. So I traced instead, which may always be the healthier option.
There’s only 60 pieces left for tonight, and then I can start cutting.
Simba curled up on the couch. Yeah, I had hoped to be done with the tracing yesterday, but I did other things instead. Got a lot of things crossed off the to-do list, which is good. Feels less overwhelming at the moment.
The next goal is to be totally cut out this week and ironing to fabric by the weekend. Hopefully. Gotta put a lot of stuff away in the studio for that to happen, and I’m not sure I have a background fabric that will work. We’ll see.
I drew a little at dinner…
I don’t know if I posted this one, from the last two weeks of dinners…
Some places serve food super fast and I don’t have time to really finish a drawing. This sketchbook is almost finished. It’s a perfect size to fit in my purse. I probably have another one in my stash that will fit.
I went to my quilt guild meeting and worked on this. The never-to-be-finished scarf.
Almost got the body done. Still need to do the face and then decide what else I’m doing. I’m not covering all the black. I think.
We also hiked the dogs…mostly trying to tire out the puppy.
We tired the old man (the dog, not the Man) out pretty quickly…
But Annie was still zooming around at the end of 3 miles.
She was pretty good…a few moments of chewing stuff and she peed and pooped in the house in the first hour, but then figured out how to tell us she needed to go out. Good thing; she’ll be back in two weeks when the ex helps drive the girlchild across country. I’ll be off school, though, so hopefully that will help. Or not! Who knows.
Lots of blooming going on in the yard…
Lots of my chipping away at weeds, cleaning up the yard, trying to make it nicer. A little bit at a time. It probably needs more than a little bit, but that’s what I have time for. That and reading and making art. Lots of reading to do…looking forward to more of that. I do have a school training I have to do in July, and I really should plan things (but not sure how that goes…probably need to meet with my 8th-grade team at some point, but one is a newbie to our school and the other one is as burnt out as I am). Hmm. Not worrying about that right now. Maybe later this week.
Annie meets Kitten. Pretty sure I have scratches from this meeting.
9 days y’all. I might actually survive this school year…it felt pretty desperate last November…but I seem to have managed it. Not sure how. OK. Monday. Go to school.
I’m so off on my blog writing. It’s OK. I should have done it yesterday, but I read my book instead. In fact, there’s a lot of things lately where I think, “I should have done it…, but I read my book instead.” It’s OK. It’s a coping mechanism. It doesn’t make the right eye twitch less at this point. A week of sleep might, but that’s unlikely. Anyway, two weeks of school left. Some field trips, some promotion practice, some bridge building, some reproductive learning. It is easier. I still have stuff to grade, though. Brought a bunch of it home but have felt not at all like looking at it. Not a surprise really. Already mentally on break? Can’t really be there already. Next weekend will be a crazy batch of grading. This weekend, we are puppysitting. I did start tracing the new quilt though…people are always amazed that I go right into the next one without a break, but this one has been drawing itself in my head for almost 8 months. It needs to come out. I don’t like sitting down after school on the couch and NOT thinking about artmaking. My brain is on overdrive, often three or four quilts out, what’s next? Appease the art brain.
Anyway, I started tracing on Thursday night…
The first background pieces are large, long, and swoopy, so I didn’t get far. Last night, I finished those up and started on the sun.
Annie (Anwen) was trying to help by climbing up on the light table (the cats do it; why can’t I?). Not helpful. But I did get a goodly chunk of stuff traced last night; hopefully more today. I wanted to be done with tracing by Sunday night. Not sure I can pull that off. I do have a meeting today and we need to walk the dogs, tire the puppy out at least. And I do have things to do that are house-related instead of school-related. We’ll see how it goes.
So far, she’s peed on one couch, which led me to find a bra belonging to the girlchild (she hasn’t been here since December) and pooped on a rug. And scared herself with the cats. Both the Man and I are sporting claw marks (somehow we got in the way of the cats killing the dog). But in general, she’s fine. Sweet. Just puppylike.
Simba is not a fan.
But he gets the love from us anyway.
The good news is that I have two days off to semi-relax, maybe get a little bit more sleep than I have been during the week. I have plenty of books to read, possibly too many (is that a thing?), my meeting is in a quilt store, and school is almost out for the summer. It’s all good.
One of the ways I keep track of the days of the week during school is by the day I blog. And I’m off this week. Missed it on Monday, so did it Tuesday. Yesterday morning had two morning meetings, missed it again, so here I am on a Thursday. It’s not the end of the world, but it does make it harder for me to figure out what day it is. I usually announce to my Advisory students what day it is, and it’s more for me than them, and sometimes I’m wrong, and they think that’s weird, but then a bunch of them have no idea that today is JUNE. It’s June. Finally.
You know there’s two kinds of people in education: the kind that count the days left of the year and count the day they haven’t survived yet (me) and the kind who erases that day from their count because it IS that day. I don’t understand the latter. At all. I have 11 days of school left. One of my principals yesterday told me it was 10 days, and I’m like, the FUCK it is. I feel like those in the classroom know WAY BETTER than admin how many days are left. Grades are due in 9 days, I need to do award certificates, someone else is dealing with breakfast food (I do certificates so I don’t have to do food), I need to figure out what I’m wearing to graduation. Although the way the weather is going, it may be less of a worry than originally. Normally it’s hot and sunny, but it’s been May Gray all last month, maybe 5 days of sun all month, and this morning is just as gray. I’m still wearing socks to school. I know that sounds weird, but usually I’m in sandals by now. My heater is still coming on in the morning. It’s set for 65. Weird.
In awesome news, My Body. My Choice. got into another show, No Boundaries at the Virginia Quilt Museum. It will be on exhibit July 11-October 7.
I love it when work gets to be all over the place. West Coast, then East Coast. Good stuff.
I recently decided not to enter a show because (a) I didn’t really have a lot to enter and (b) the museum show that went with it is a museum that has previously pulled my work due to nudity. I decided it wasn’t worth the stretch to find pieces that might be OK to enter. I would have, I think, if I’d had more work. That’s what I need: more work. The newest quilt (still unnamed) goes to the photographer today. I spent an hour last night ironing it, cleaning it up, and packing it up for delivery. It took 146 hours to make. I started January 1 and finished May 28, but also did another smaller quilt in the middle…which better get into that show. Well. Honestly. It may well not. Oh well. I tried.
But the next newest quilt has been percolating in my head since last October, and although it has existed in many different versions, I know I have limited time to get it done, so I tried to keep it simple. Unlike the last one, where I went all out into Complicated Detail City.
I finished the drawing on Tuesday night…
I don’t actually even know if this is the right way up. It could go many ways. I turned the paper as I was drawing.
And then last night, I numbered it…
I’m usually pretty clueless about how many pieces there will be until I do this. I knew I held back on detail (except for the satellite and the Mars rover…just couldn’t be simple) so I’d have a chance at meeting the deadline. That whole thing where I’m gone for 10 days in the middle is going to complicate stuff. But it only has 545 pieces; I think the one I did in the middle of the last one was about that many pieces, and I was able to finish it in a month. Granted, part of that month was Spring Break, but part of this month will be Summer Break, so I should be able to pull it off. Also, I’m pretty much (almost) done with lesson planning, although I spent an hour last night editing some sex-ed video shorter, and I still need a graphic organizer for that, and an academic question for 8th grade. Unless I blow that off. So I think this quilt is doable. Tonight I’ll start tracing on Wonder Under, finish that by Sunday? Get it all cut out by the following Friday, start ironing to fabric next weekend, be done with that by the following weekend, then trim it all and start ironing it together before I go to Seattle. I can do this.
Already thinking about what will be on the next quilt: womens’ rights, banned books, and owls. What? Owls? Hey the owls fledged! This is 5 weeks earlier than last year. I thought that third owl was an interloper…turns out, there are three babies and they are partying it up in the evenings…I caught all three (blurry, you should try to take photos with a phone in the dark) in the tree across the yard the other night (the third one is further up, around the corner).
And then the following morning, they were up early and messing around…
This is around 5 AM.
I think I was also up at the time, but just to pee and go back to bed.
They are adorable. And loud. Honestly. They are. This group has been practice screeching. Freaks the dog out no end. Probably my neighbors too. Sorry. Not sorry. Taking care of the rat population y’all. I say that, and I had made some juice out of my tangerines and there was a lot of pulp. The rats have been eating out of my tangerines hanging on the tree, and I’m like, I’m not wasting this, so I put it out in a bowl and they ate it all, so now the owls can have rats with a citrusy sauce. Dark, I know. Cycle of life and all.
Someone took pictures of my quilts for me…one of Desert Mother at Quilt National (I don’t have the book yet, but I know the one is the background is Sky Trippers by Dinah Sargeant, and the other one is called Fig, by Maren Johnston).
It’s the first picture I’ve seen of my piece at QN.
They also took a picture at Art Quilt Elements, where Coronawood is hanging.
I don’t have info on the other pieces. I also need to update my Gallery page on this website. So I will. When I have time. Dunno when that will be.
OK. Meeting this morning. Not sure why. Some mom request. Then teaching reproduction vocab (not really teaching…just making them do the things) and finally building bridges. Hopefully. Then deliver quilt for photography, cook dinner, read my book, grade some things? Maybe not. And trace Wonder Under. Hopefully get more sleep than I did last night. I don’t know what was going on, but I don’t think I got more than 3 or 4 hours. Too much awake, uncomfortable, noise, couldn’t switch off. Which sucks. But it’s Thursday, so close to the weekend. Always good.
Kathy Nida 