More to Be Thankful for…

Good morning. Less sleep than usual. My fault. My desire to sleep in is not matched by the dog’s desire to be awake, fed, and peed. I forget this. Unfortunately.

Also unfortunate. Or at least things to consider: Red Shawl Day on Saturday, which I noticed because I follow a ton of National Parks, and they were all posting about it…per their website, “American Indian and Alaska Native women are missing and murdered at a rate of more than 10 times the national average. Red Shawl Day is an annual national effort to bring attention to the horrible acts of violence committed against Indigenous people, particularly women and children. Throughout the week surrounding November 19, people are encouraged to wear red as a symbol of the loss of sacred lifeblood through violence.” Just proof that justice is not the same for everyone.

Then Sunday was the Transgender Day of Remembrance…”an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.” More people who do not receive equal justice. That followed by the LGBTQ-hate shooting in Colorado Springs by the grandson of my former Assemblyman, Randy Voepel, MAGA all the way down.

They redrew the district lines about 10 years ago, but this is one of the guys I used to email regularly because he didn’t represent ALL of his district, just the white conservative faction (and honestly, the far right). There’s a lot of that dumbassery out here, unfortunately. But sure, let’s make sure all the haters have guns.

I’m currently working on an environmental issue quilt, but guns are ruling for the next one. Or something. Hate? I don’t want to do another hate quilt. We’ll see. I’ve got a while before I’m done with this one.

That said, I finished tracing the Wonder Under last night…

By staying up way too late…

I guess the dog let me sleep in an hour after the Man left for work…that’s a plus. It’s only three yards…much smaller than the last one.

Oh yeah, and this bit…

The vomit. Hence its nickname in my data collection app. So that was 8 hours and 40 minutes of tracing. My hand and shoulder hurt last night…this morning, they are somewhat recovered. The next step is to cut stuff out. I really want to be ironing to fabric by Thursday. I have a lot to do in the next three days, including grades, a dentist’s appointment to finally get the crown I needed back in August, and a Wednesday Thanksgiving dinner…so clean the house and cook. Lots of cleaning and cooking. Plus walking the frantic dog? Yeah, probably. He’s losing his mind right now because the boychild just arrived after being gone since Thursday AM.

I spent most of Saturday grading science units…but we did manage a short hike…

Mostly to try to tire out the barky dog so he’d do less of that…

Plus drawing at dinner, finishing one from last weekend…

The two younger cats have decided to be friends again…less fighting. More cuddling…

The old lady is sleeping a lot…

She had gained weight by the last checkup, but she’s lost weight again this time. One of her meds is for her thyroid, and we’ve had problems getting the right dosage. Plus whatever is going on in her gut causes issues. The truth of it all is that she’s old. But she’s relatively happy and playful despite all that, so that’s a plus.

Oh yeah, Friday’s field trip was OK. Could have been an hour shorter and I would have been OK with it. Expensive place to go, Old Town. The Scavenger Hunt part was good. The kids participated and all. Apparently the 7th-grade group was not as good. I guess that’s the plus of having 8th grade this year.

The graveyard in Old Town…and some diorama thing where the little plastic dog had fallen down.

Anyway, not a bad end to the week. I am enjoying hanging out in my pajamas and not panicking about posting assignments and lesson plans…yet. That’ll be later this week. It’s not a stress-free week, though…never is. Need to catch up on grading and planning so the next three weeks aren’t insane. Need to do Xmas shopping and shipping. Need to catch up on cleaning and yardwork that’s fallen by the wayside while teaching. Plus read 10 books. Is that a thing? I also need to catch up on sleep, which isn’t going to happen if I keep staying up late. But my brain works better then. Sigh. OK. For now, I have one more class of science units to grade so I can take them back to school today. Easier than dealing with them next Monday, plus I have counseling today and need a space that is not inhabited by multiple humans for that. And I need to check the stash for the lab I’m doing next Tuesday. So I need to read the teacher manual for that. Busy week. Always is. But still thinking about all the hinky shit people are doing to other people instead of getting along. Sigh. May there be more to be thankful for as the week progresses.

No Fanfare…

Usually I feel like there’s a bigger fanfare coming up to a school break. There’s a countdown. I mean, there’s a countdown in my head, but it’s mostly panicking because I didn’t have a plan for teaching everything this week. So I was panicking about that and not thinking about how today is the last day of school and then I have 9 lovely days off (well, there’s a lot of stuff that needs to happen, so not all of it is lovely, but that is the way of the world…and at least I’ll be able to pee when I want). Today, we are on a field trip…strange, though, because half the team is going to the Zoo and the other half to Old Town, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. But whatever. It’s done. We’re not at school. I don’t have to try to get a bunch of kids to do something they don’t want to do today. And the buses are picking up late because of elementary-school conferences, so we won’t get back until almost the end of the school day. Sweet. So no trying to teach two class periods after a field trip when we’re all cranky and exhausted. And for once, I end the day with 8th graders instead of 7th graders. Netflix? Check.

Then there are 125 or so science unit packets to grade. I got through exactly 9 yesterday (I had other stuff to do during class). I’d like to finish Period 1 and leave it at school, and then if I have the stamina, finish Period 2 (it’s huge) and leave it as well. I’d rather stay at school for an hour and kick those out than take them home. I’ll have to bring 7th grade home no matter what.

Last night, before my quilty Zoom meeting, I managed to post the first three days of stuff for 8th grade for after the break. I’m really hoping to have all the posts for that whole three weeks planned out before the end of Thanksgiving. I need to get ahead of stuff. I need to backwards-plan genetics and geologic time scale, and then see how much time is left for space and magnetism. Not much, I’m thinking. Ah well. This year is hard. I’m doing my best.

In art news, ah yes, the bliss of tracing stuff. I finished redrawing the new quilt on Wednesday night…

I didn’t change a huge amount, but cleaned up lines and added some stuff, especially to the earth head.

Then I stayed up too late and numbered it…

It doesn’t take a huge amount of time to number it…but it was enough to put me in bed late…

This one is smaller than my last few. It needed to be; it has to be done before the end of the year.

Only 630 pieces! Crazy. For me. Not a lot.

Then last night, I was a on a stitching Zoom with friends. I spent the first hour doing something for a Christmas present and the second hour plus another after the Zoom tracing Wonder Under pieces…

Yay! It’s very meditative and calming. Not enough, unfortunately, because I couldn’t fall asleep, and then something was crawling around outside the window, so Simba lost his mind and then I couldn’t fall back asleep. So I’m not awake. And I’m hopefully going somewhere I can buy caffeine. Or I’m taking it with me. IDK. Something. But now I can trace for the next two-three days, then cut it out, hopefully ironing to fabric by Thanksgiving Day. Big chunks of art, please. Yes, I will have to grade shit and plan shit and probably clean shit (fuck, I think Thanksgiving is here Wednesday night…so I need the vacuum fixed…yikes). But I need a break from the rest of it. I need to read a lot and contemplate silence. Or loud music of my choice. And less whining and neediness. That especially. Learned helplessness. Ugh.

OK. Here’s Nova this morning…

Such a sweetheart. Good thoughts for the day. We’ll be outside and wandering around Old Town and trying to find stuff on a scavenger hunt. Sunscreen. I need sunscreen. And a lunch…I bought a sandwich yesterday to take with me. The fun of being a diabetic. Ah, my head just twinged. Drink more tea. Make sure there is Motrin in my bag. I do actually love field trips. I’m just missing the zoo today.

Compelling, Complicated, and Worthwhile…

Can I stay home and draw? I was just starting to get into it last night when I looked at the clock. Damn. Nine minutes past bedtime. Fuck. My fault for going to the gym, right? Except I need that. Except my knees apparently don’t appreciate it. The knees have been fussy for a week now, really painful at times, but I was able to hike, no problem. Going up stairs is the issue…and anything balance-y, which should make pilates interesting. I actually went to the gym because work was stressing me out. The last period of the day just sucked and then I spent an hour trying to figure out what I’m teaching in 8th grade for one day before break, after we’ve turned the unit in, plus field trip stuff. It was a giant downer, so I exercised and read my book…which I don’t really like. Huh. It’s book club though, so I’ll finish it, hopefully before Monday’s book club (laughs quietly to herself…I’m only 50% of the way through and I don’t really like it, so we’ll see how that goes). I’m pretty sure this book is YA and that’s my problem. Or not. The review I read said, “compelling, complicated, and worthwhile.” Maybe that’s the subtitle for this school year? I guess I won’t know until I finish. Ugh. It’s fine. It’s not horrible. It’s just lots of girl meets boy, bad situation, but lust, but unrequited because religion, and I don’t have a lot of patience for that sometimes.

So dinner was late, I had to finish grading an assignment, and Google Classroom was being a jerk…

Still, that is how I feel about this entire school year. It’s exhausting. Three more days until nine days off. Nine days I really need. Nine days that will have too much work in them no matter what. I need to get ahead on the planning. Need to get my head above the water.

Pro: new drawing exists. Con: I need to redraw, so I need brainpower to do that. On Sunday, I started cutting and pasting the one I did at 250%…

And the Man walked by and said “That’s not small. That’s big.” Huh. So I stopped and started taping together the one at 200% instead.

There are some parts of it that need refining and some that just need changing (the top hand needs a purpose…and Monday night at 11:45 PM, I stopped trying to fall asleep and typed the purpose into my phone so I wouldn’t forget). So I started tracing over the bits that work…refining some as I went…

Not a lot of changes here…

Last night, I got a whopping 22 minutes, like I said. I’m hoping for better tonight.

Not a lot of changes here either. Added another plastic bag and another water bottle. Redrew one floating trash bit so it looked less like a student-drawn penis and balls. Like you do. Tonight? More of that. Grading too. Cooking. Exercise. Maybe read more of that irritating book. Irritating because of the relationship between the characters…not the back story. The back story has definitely got some interesting pagan vs Jewish vs Christian patriarchy shit going on. Ah well.

This.

Between school and political stupid Trump and shootings and stupid crap? Yeah. Can’t afford to retire early. Next year will be easier? I keep saying that. I keep saying ‘I can do it,’ and I can. I just don’t like it.

Today. Some pain and suffering all along the way. Need to find a video for 8th grade. I will push through in 7th grade. I feel like a shitty teacher this year. I’m working super hard, but I don’t feel particularly effective. That said, the last academic assignment in 7th wasn’t too bad. And 8th grade mostly understands…I’m not sure I do (Newton’s Third Law makes my brain hurt). And I get to draw at the end of the day.

Out and About…

Well we’re back from nature. Into cold feet and a house that perennially needs cleaning. So much easier to control a campground’s worth of stuff. Although even that can be a pain. The meat didn’t defrost…it was too cold! Well there we are. Years of mom experience to the rescue.

We left for camping around 2:30 PM…drove a little over 90 minutes to a campground in chaparral, mostly, dry, but with oak trees for shade. No showers, OK for a couple of days. It was already cold when we got there and started setting up. It seemed like I kept going into the tent and putting more layers on, or trading out my current layers for better ones.

We had a simple dinner planned the first night…probably a good thing. Mostly we tried to get the fire going…and wondered why people in campgrounds feel a need to play their music loudly.

I managed to finish a drawing I started in May in Ridgecrest, the night before I dropped the Man at Kennedy Meadows to continue his hike.

In bed early, because sleeping bags are warm. Parties around us continued until 3 AM, although we were pro the coyote parties, not the human ones.

We went hiking the next day, although 4 miles was our max.

It was all up. Well the first two miles were anyway. We’re both out of shape. The Man broke his toe in July and wasn’t hiking for a while because of that, and the weekends have been busy with either openings, shows, or my day job sucking up the weekend. We vowed to change that, although my left knee is being cranky and probably needs something.

This was the night of the non-defrosting meat. Warm water baths to the rescue, but my hands are still paying the price today with the repeated dunking in water in dry, cold air. My drawing started in the afternoon, which was a lot of reading and drawing…

This was a big one. I’ve had an idea in my head for the next quilt for about a month now, and this is the first iteration.

After dinner, I did another drawing, not related…

In the smaller sketchbook this time…

Watching the firewood make faces…

The cold chased us to bed around 9 PM again…where the Man had bought lights for the tent…

Fairy lights it is.

Morning dawned cold.

That was after we’d been up for 40 minutes. The cell service was more than we expected, in that it existed, mostly, although not always. The weather app was quite willing to tell me I was actually freezing. We ended up packing out early and eating breakfast at home. There were dark clouds and I didn’t want to deal with rain. Plus I had an artist Zoom at 11, so it made sense. Here was our last view of the area…

Those were not the dark clouds…they were behind me.

We got home in time for the Zoom, managed to shop, do laundry, clean out the tent (the Man did most of that, thanks), and get everything packed away. Every time we do this, we plan to make a list of things we should take, and then the day jobs take over and we never do it, which is how we forget stuff. Ah well. And I’ve misplaced my flashlight too. It’s here somewhere; I just don’t know where I put it down.

I did a bunch of school work yesterday, none of it grading unfortunately. Got a ton of that to do this week and next. More unfortunately. I did pin the bindings on the big alien quilt for the bed…

I’ll be stitching for a while. A bunch of people recommend using those clips to do this. I know I have some…just not sure where.

Earlier, I had enlarged that drawing from the fire…200 and 250%. I started taping it together to see if this is it, or if I’m going to (a) redraw a clean one over the top of it or (b) cut some bits out and redraw them. Don’t know. Will look again tonight. I had to go to bed. A warm bed. Squished between two cats and a dog…a little TOO squished. But warm at least. And not an air mattress. Old bodies.

Work today. Can’t say I’m in the mood. Only five days though. I’d like to get as much work as possible done this week, so I don’t have to do it all next week, but I don’t know how that will play out. Just wish for the best, be as efficient as possible, stay on task, get it done. Art at night…got 8 weeks to finish this next quilt. Don’t make it huge and insanely detailed (might have already blown that edict). Work on it every night…that I can probably do.

Until Nature.

Bless a 3-day weekend. Although I made stress for myself by deciding to go camping. My knee is cranky as shit, it’s gonna be cold as shit. And then I was like…there’s no wifi. You can sit in your chair in front of a fire, all bundled up, and read your fucking book. Or draw. Or stitch. In nature. Like fuck the rest of it. If I don’t attain an amazing hike because my knee is being an old lady, IT’S OK. I have three books on my iPad. THREE. Like what more do I need? (secretly puts an actual paper book in her bag, just in case). CAN’T do work. Yes. YES it will be stressful Sunday when I realize how much I need to do, but it was going to be stressful anyway. So yeah.

That said, I’m stressed this morning trying to get it all done. Tried to pack last night, Luna said no.

NOT NOW LADY. I WANNA BE IN YOUR BAG.

OK then. No packy. Pack later. Also signed up for an exercise class this morning. It made sense at the time. I thought I would have all day to do schoolwork, but no. Exercise is good though. It will be fine. And the cat has to go to the vet. And I still need to PACK. OK. Shhhh.

I finished the quilt Wednesday night, by the way. I have not calculated hours yet, but it’s a lot. I started drawing it in July? I think. Yes. July 23. Finished November 9. Fuck me. Insane year. Here’s the unofficial, standing on the fireplace hearth picture…

They don’t always have names right away, but this has been Same As It Ever Was since the very beginning. My old-white-lady educated self was horrified (still is horrified) by Roe V Wade falling, and then the following climate change policy dumbassery perpetrated by the not-my-Supreme Court, but really, if you’re young, of color, trans, LGBTQ in any way, poor, anything the old white guys don’t see as A-OK, then nothing has really changed. You still don’t have equal rights. Which sucks. And will continue to suck for a while, although the midterm elections were heartening. Hopeful. Not locally, unfortunately, but in general, trying to think positively and not go down the rabbithole of holy shit, when do I buy my own island and move there with my friends and family. Some of them. Yeah that.

I went out stitching with friends last night…finished the block on the left finally and started the one on the right…Sue Spargo’s Homegrown.

Perfect for when I can’t think straight.

Which I couldn’t. Rough day at work. Really, three out of the four this week were rough. Frustrating. Kinda done with this year. Only 23 weeks to go.

I’m reading a wonderful book though…almost done…Cloud Cuckoo Land by IDK, go Google it, oh wait, I guess I’ll do that for you, Anthony Doerr. It’s lovely, time-spanning, core story, nice thoughts even though also hard thoughts. Damn those, but they are good nonetheless. Mind-boggling at times. Yelling NOOOO in your head at times. Love that.

Yeah. Read it. I really can’t wait to sit on a chair in a campsite and finish it. That’s later today. But now? Now I need to pack, exercise, transport cat, pack some more, plan some school, blah blah blah. Until Nature. Thanks to veterans for what you’ve done, although my political nature isn’t a fan of some of it (and don’t tell me you’re protecting my freedoms…because you haven’t done that here…but that’s all a problematic conversation that we can have another day)…today, take some time, remember a veteran, enjoy the day in their honor.

Remain Calm…

First of all, apparently we got 2.36″ of rain out here in East County yesterday. Only had one branch go down on my property. Not bad. The yard is a sopping mess, but that’s OK. I remembered to turn the sprinklers off. If you live somewhere super wet, shhh. Be quiet. There are some years when we barely get more than that. I think it’s done…I hope it’s done…I’m going camping in two days and don’t really want to slog through a ton of mud (but there will be mud, I’m sure). Certainly the night temperatures are going to be in the 30s…I’m hoping at least there’s no moisture to go with it.

Secondly, I finished grades. There were some issues on the day they were due. One kid was absent, so I couldn’t have a conversation about something where I think she got more help than she should have. My SECA is back from COVID…not sure that’s a good thing, unfortunately. The sub was more competent. Ah well. This year rocks from kind of sucking to really sucking. The last two periods of the day yesterday were really sucking. Today will be the same, probably, because we’re making them write, and writing is hard, and the little buggers fight it. Well. Then they will start the new trimester with an F, which is not what I want. Successes breed more successes. Their underdeveloped brains do not do well with failure or difficulty. I have said “We can do hard things” about 7000 times in the last two days, and it’s making me tired and cranky.

I then came home and was lesson planning, because I was panicking about 8th grade, but I think I’ve solved the end of the unit and got a healthy start on the engineering design project they’re doing next. I was going to go to the gym, but it was pouring rain and I was already slightly damp and I couldn’t deal with it. Unfortunately. I need the exercise. I also need the planning time, because originally, I was going to spend Friday planning because I have it off and the Man doesn’t, but then the Man was all worried about arriving at the campsite in the dark (I wasn’t) and took a half day at work, and now my work time has disappeared. Sigh. I still need to write warmups for next week and copy all the shit I need…I think I have this week’s stuff copied? Not sure. I have some prep time today, hopefully. I went in early yesterday to get a ton of shit done and then the copier wasn’t working and my computer battery was dying. It was a mess. A clusterfuck.

Anyway, I made myself stop working Monday night and last night at 9:30 to stitch binding…

Kitten likes it when I sit on the couch.

Last night, I found my thimble sticky things because I had a divot in my right middle finger from the needle.

I think I’m about 3/4 of the way around…still gotta do the sleeves after that. I was hoping to drop this with the photographer this weekend. Not happening. Maybe next weekend. Then start drawing dammit. I hate this school year. I have cried more about being overwhelmed than I have ever cried. OK, maybe my first year. I don’t know. It just sucks. Fucking sucks.

SO. Gonna make a new quilt. These two are hanging in Arizona for another week or so? Nah. Coming down after Sunday.

At the Tubac Center…mine are in the background of that beautiful purple person…I don’t know who or what any of these are. There’s an artist/juror talk Zoom on the closing day of the exhibit, Sunday the 13th, at 11 AM. I told them I might be in the car, but I’m registered for it. Hopefully I’ll make it. Even if I’m coming back from camping.

The PHES show closed yesterday…

I’m lucky to have a friend who is picking up my piece. Because IDK when I would do it.

Kitten doesn’t either…

She offered, but is a horrible driver. Can’t trust her. She’s distracted by bugs. And lizards.

Ah election day…

This is kind of how I feel with most of politics lately. Then you watch The Handmaid’s Tale and it’s all too real. Our local school board election has picked up a crazy nutbag. We are getting rid of one, so I guess that’s fair, but I’d rather have sanity prevail and I don’t think it will.

OK. Parent-teacher meeting this morning. Hoping to keep my brain where it needs to be while teaching, which today, is more like directing some sort of chaotic orchestra where about 20% learned their part and is quietly playing in the corner and the rest need help, and some of those are racing around the stage throwing water balloons at each other so I can’t actually help the kids who want it. Sigh. I mean that might describe my job on a regular basis, but it was definitely worse yesterday in the last two classes. I will remain calm. Even though I’m tired and stressed out. I will. Union meeting after that. Then maybe putting more divots in my fingers.

Up and At ‘Em

Good morning. Splendid extra hour of sleep? Well, maybe. I mostly wasted it on checking my clock because it was light and I thought I hadn’t set the alarm. My brain went right into staying up an hour later though. I was working Saturday night well past bedtime (school stuff, unfortunately). I’m not done with grades. I have to do about 15 redo grades and then input everything, which is more than it has been in the past. There’s some new thing we have to check for certain students. The government doesn’t trust us to do certain things, so we have to check a box saying we did it. I’m not sure which teachers aren’t doing it, but if they aren’t, they’re still gonna check the box. So yeah. Didn’t fix that problem with more work, did we. I have not fully planned the rest of this week for 8th grade. Again. I’m not sure when I will get ahead. Ever. Like more than 5 days max ahead. I have through Wednesday planned, but only if I get the lab set up today. Lucky for me it is only a 4-day week, but we are camping this weekend, so I won’t have access to internet to plan, so next week’s gotta be planned before I go. I had Friday for that, but I added an exercise class because I can’t go earlier in the week, and then the cat needed to go to the vet, and then the Man decided he wanted to be out of here by 2 PM, and all of a sudden, the day is no longer mine to lesson plan, eh? ‘Tis how it works.

I also need to start the next quilt, at least on the drawing page. I managed to put all the bindings on Saturday…

That’s some old-school fabric there for the sleeve. Then the bed quilt…

Only got the art quilt pinned last night…

Other art stuff happened this weekend though. I went to the opening of Portraits of the Anthropocene at Dance Place in Liberty Station…and a bunch of my co-teachers showed up…

So did the Man…

I have two quilts there…

Through early January, so check it out…also some other very cool art there.

And after that, we ate…

It was really nice of them all to show up, and we had a good time.

The next day, I had a quilt guild meeting. Met an old acquaintance and made a new one. Also did some slow stitching…

Came home, graded for a while, and then went for a much-needed hike with Simba and the Man…

The weather was beautiful…just the right temperature…

Although all three of us are out of shape…

Saw a coyote…

It’s a little blurry. Every time we come to Crest, these days, we see a coyote.

Quilts=Art=Quilts is up at the Schweinfurth Art Center. You can see the whole exhibit here. I screenshot a couple of shots of my quilt.

Gotta love those orange dots.

I love seeing my work in a space I can’t visit, so this is awesome for me. It’s up until January as well.

I also voted. You should vote too.

And visited the parentals, who have had a week to recover from their trip and seem to need another week at least. Katie was happy to see us though.

Happy her parents are home too.

OK. School. Two-hour staff meeting. Dropping the sewing machine off to be cleaned/tuned up. Finishing grades. Setting up a lab. Cooking dinner. Hopefully starting to sew the binding on to that quilt and/or drawing the next one. I have high hopes for the next one. More time during the week to make art? Working on it. For now, gotta get up and at ’em. Whatever that means.

Something Manageable

I need to start the next quilt. I apparently thought I had until March. I do not. I have until January. Uh huh. OK. Oh yeah. It needs to be SMALLER, Nida. Seriously. No freaking big monsters of a quilt right now. Something MANAGEABLE (unlike maybe my day job). I have it half drawn in my head. Can I do it without intense detail? I mean, I can make things smaller and STILL put 3000 pieces in them unfortunately. It’s OK. I got this. I might lose my mind while doing it, but I got this.

So it’s been a remarkably shitty week for making art. I still haven’t put the binding on the current quilt. I keep track of my daily hours on specific art tasks, although I don’t count sewing on labels or other prep to send stuff to shows, and that’s all I’ve done this week. In the last 7 days, I’ve spent barely an hour on art stuff and that just fucking sucks. I know I’ve done some fun stuff this week too that has taken up my available time (the cat just deleted that whole sentence by laying her head on the keyboard, and then was offended when I pulled it out from under her), but it still feels shitty. Grades are due Tuesday and I was hoping to keep this weekend free…excuse me while I hysterically laugh myself under the desk because I have so much grading to do and I haven’t even really lesson planned next week for 8th grade, and we’re camping next weekend, so I need to be able to plan out the following week as well, OMG, I can’t breathe. This weekend is fucked. All the weekends are fucked. So are the random holidays, even the week off, it’s fucked.

In good news, I did manage to get that label on the quilt I need to ship…

Took me almost all damn week just to label it, clean the cat hair off of it, cut slats, roll it, and box it up. Sad but true. The bindings for the other two quilts are still sitting over here, waiting to be sewn on. Hopefully tonight and tomorrow. Handsewing is easier to do in little chunks. I have to commit a big chunk of time to sew bindings on. I don’t want to stop halfway to go to bed. I guess I could, but it seems silly.

Wednesday night…I graded stuff and then dehaired the quilt. Thursday night I went to the Jurassic World Exhibition…free educator night (they want us to bring field trips)…

You know me, I’m finding typos…check out the Data Chanel…

It was cool. I had a really shitty day with the kids, really hard, walk away and try not to cry, quit your job, and go work somewhere that you don’t have to bring home with you every day kinda day. But the dinos made it better…

Also might have been hanging out with coworkers in a less stressful environment. Yes, dinosaur attacks are way less stressful than middle school classrooms right now. So that helped last night. Then spent a couple hours talking to stitching friends…and actually doing some stitching! WTF. I know. All I did was the curtains…

They’re fancy. Buttonhole stitch needle lace thingies. Luna was impressed.

Then I speed graded after that. And then came in and packed the quilt into a box, got a UPS label, and went to bed.

Today repeat. Well. No dinosaurs, but art opening tonight in Liberty Station. Then dinner out. Then hopefully some quick grading and some bindings to sew. I AM going to my quilt guild meeting tomorrow. I will bring the iPad and speed grade on that. Brainless effort stuff. Super fast. I want to hike tomorrow too. It’s been a while. Driving me crazy not getting out into nature and exerting myself. Then start drawing the next quilt. Make it fit on one page for once. I used to know how to do that.

I appreciate the colorful mornings right now. I realize I will lose them again after Sunday’s time change, but I will appreciate the fuck out of that extra hour.

And next week…hopefully there will be more art (sketchbook while camping!) and fewer stressful days at school. It’s been easier in the last few weeks, but the last two days were shit. Wish me luck today. I don’t have a lot of hope for it, unfortunately, but that’s because we’re making kids do hard things, and this group I have has a hard time with hard things. Sigh.

Some Deadlines..

Ah yes. The middle of the week. Hello. Panic time? Maybe. The gradebook looms not-so-gently over me, breathing down my neck. As always. Maybe more so this week, because I really don’t want to grade all weekend. I might have to, but I don’t want to. I need to get a little ahead in planning 8th grade too, because I’ll be camping next weekend with no cell service, so that just needs to be ready to go. Ha! I don’t know how that will magically happen, because I either have time to plan or time to grade, and rarely time enough for both. Hence the problem this year.

I still haven’t gotten bindings on either quilt. Two nights ago, after grading a bunch, I managed to START the label for my Quilt National quilt…

Did not finish it. Did not get it packed up yet. Need to ship it, but need time to get it ready. Tonight! IDK how I will ship Thursday, though. I’m booked. We’ll see. Maybe I can persuade someone here to drive it to the UPS Store. Ugh.

Last night, I went to the opera with a friend…an opera about Frida Kahlo…

They had a big party set up out front before it, but we mostly missed that…

It was a school night…

We ended up magically sitting next to one of our coworkers from school. She has a season pass. Surprising coincidence!

I’m hoping for more art tonight…my own stuff…it was cool to see actors dressed up as Kahlo’s paintings, and the one of Diego’s paintings that they reproduced with humans…also cool.

My work bag. And Nova.

There’s been a lot of cat activity: playing, sitting in things, all that stuff. With the other dog gone, they seem to be out and about, ready for fun.

The Man and I on Halloween, matching (not really) skellies…

Mine glows in the dark. Realized that when I went to bed. Fun stuff.

Halloween night sky…

Of course, today, it’s all clouds. Rain coming. It’s good; we need it.

Ugh. Tired. Lab today in 8th grade…I managed to tie strings through straws and attach them to chairs and handles yesterday afternoon. I’ll have to deconstruct it all before 7th grade comes in after lunch. AND eat. And pee. Plus hopefully fetch more lab stuff from the 8th-grade classroom across the quad, plus deliver back all the stuff I have in my room. And grade. Lots of that. I’m really looking forward to having a week off, although I’ll be taking home units to grade and other stuff. So yeah, it’s never quick and easy. At least I know what I’m doing in 7th grade, even though it’s hard, sometimes almost impossible. Ugh.

OK. Parent meeting this morning, other parent has been sorted. Labs and activity all day. Pilates. I am cooking dinner tonight. I’m also getting this quilt packed up. If there’s time after all that (and probably a little grading), I will happily sew bindings on…because this machine is going in to get cleaned on Monday, so I need the bindings on before then. It’s good to have some deadlines I might be able to meet.

At the End…

Good morning, ye who have probably slept. Well done you! The crazy brain shenanigans plus coyotes and puppies who think they need to vanquish them, plus the remaining phlegmy cough of my bedmate…sigh. That said, things are progressing here. I finished quilting finally! A miracle, to be sure.

Over 16 hours in there. That’s a lot. Then I cleaned the floor and trimmed the quilt…

One of the reasons I would clean a floor…to deal with a quilt.

Then I wore it for #quiltyghost…

Originally, I was like, oh let’s do an art quilt for this challenge, and then the Man realized that the body fit right where I was (she’s a little taller)…

Even has my glasses on. Then last night, I cut the binding and sleeve fabrics…more donated fabric for the sleeves. I’m trying really hard not to buy fabric unless I have to. Hard when that’s my go-to for when I have a shitty week. Luckily the fabric store is rarely open when I can go…still…it’s better that way.

Hopefully I’ll get the binding sewn on tonight, although I need to prep my Quilt National quilt to ship too, so we’ll see.

I also trimmed the bed quilt from the summer…

‘Tis huge. And then I cut the binding for it as well, which I had bought back in 2006 or whenever I started this beast. Probably I need to make some pillowcases too.

I also did a lot of school stuff, mostly grading. I didn’t get enough done. I never do…but grades are due in a week, so I need to be done at some point. Or some version of done.

Saturday night, I had the dogs out to pee, and I just happened to look up into our tree…I’d heard a barn owl the other night, just one screech, unlike the Great Horned owls I’m hearing all the time.

It’s either one of the parents of our three, or one of our three! OK, I know it might not be, but they do return to their hunting grounds. So it’s probably mom or dad. I went back inside, put the dogs in, got my phone, and came back, and they were still there, staring at me, waiting for their picture. I obliged. Beautiful birds. Noisy as fuck when they’re babies, but beautiful.

Someone asked about Nova and Luna…they’ve been hiding while Katie (my parents’ dog) was here. Although Katie is pretty chill in her older age, these two still aren’t fans. So we moved their cage into the bedroom to give them a safe space. I did catch them on Sunday hanging out though…

And the night before, the Man was playing a late show, so it was just me, Luna, and Simba for a while…well, Katie was on the floor, not sure where Nova was, and my cat has been living in my office lately.

I finished a book…not gonna recommend it. It was OK. But I liked this…

It was a horror novel for book club; we read horror every October. Here’s the section a lot of people highlighted…

Which is what I’m teaching right now in 7th grade, so that’s always interesting, the connections.

This bug was tiny…took me about 5 minutes just to get my phone camera to decide it existed and it could focus on it.

On Sunday, I also did a Zoom artists talk for Quilt Visions with Libby Williamson and Wen Redmond. If you pay for the series, you get to see all of them. They are all recorded, which is probably how I will be able to see most of them.

There are 8 total. You can purchase the pass here…I figure that’s one of the ways I can support the museum, since they don’t have entry fees any more. Plus then I get to watch all the videos.

OK. Well work calls. Like a rusty barn door about to fall off its hinges. I did not grade all the things. I’m not even sure I posted all the things I need for today. And there’s a parent phone call I might have to make that is not how I want to spend even one minute of my day. Parents who harass. Fun stuff. But quilt stuff at the end, so that’s good, and I have my skeleton t-shirt on (that’s as dressed up as I can handle today). There’s only a few kids who come to our door, so we have a small stash of candy for later. Hopefully someone will sweep the steps before the littles show up.