Fight a Raccoon…

Hey guys, I just won a power tool set! As long as I send all my bank information to this janky email address! On it!

Summary of week so far: It’s hot, but it could be hotter. This drawing is slow, but it could be slower. This training has some things that are potentially helpful, but also a lot of it needs to happen in English class or Advisory. The science part can be beefed up to support the program. But it’s nothing new…we just haven’t focused explicitly on it before. We’ve tried many ways of teaching vocabulary, but we’ve never been particularly successful. Probably because our kids are such low readers…so we need to do something about that. Training though? In the summer? Always hard. We’re not even halfway through. Pros: Dad was sick and is better now, and boychild is back from wherever for about 36 hours, so Simba can get his boyfix. And I don’t have to sleep with Simba for two nights. A plus.

I’m not finishing this post before class starts. I’ll be back. You won’t even notice…well except that the post is late, for me.

Or if I totally forget that I haven’t finished this…which is what happened.

So I’ve been drawing all week. An hour here or there, mostly at night after dinner, when it’s cooler. I’m in class from 7-2:30 and then it’s hot and I’m tired, plus I’ve had an hour of reading to do each day after that. But it’s coming along. Although I didn’t start inking until Monday night…

I lied. I started Sunday night, and then as I was falling asleep, figured Ruth Bader Ginsburg needed wings, so I added the post-it for that. Some people are suggesting a halo…I’ll think about it. Not sure how I feel about haloes. There are issues with angels, angelic behavior meaning one thing vs when you look at actual stories of angels in literature…a troubling thing to think about.

Monday night, I added the wings and two of the justices…

It was slow. I also did some more pencil work, trying to figure out what might happen where. I’m adding things as I ink, so there’s some staring into space happening.

I did better last night…

I went to the gym in the afternoon, exercised, read a lot, got my head in a better place, and the things came easier. How to picture this or that. There’s a lot of this drawing that doesn’t exist in my head yet. Tonight will probably be the justices on the other side. We’ll see. There’s some confusion over there too. This is 8 hours of drawing so far. Not done yet.

Monday, I drew a little during class and then found that stitching stuff down lent itself to being able to listen and think and even take notes but not fall asleep.

Here’s the drawing…

Nova took over the space at night on Gecko Watch…

(There is no gecko in that picture)

Right now, I’m trying to type this with Kitten’s butt in the way. Annoying furry beasts.

Mr. Sad before the boy came home and cuddled him.

And then Kitten decided she needed to bring me red fabric…

She makes this strange yowling sound when she brings me fabric. I do then have to put it all away later.

I’m reading two books at a time. Because I can. This one is Margaret Atwood’s collection of short stories, Babes in the Wood. I liked how Orwell referred to us living folks.

I need that to be a quilt title at some point.

And this might be me at the moment, minus the getting drunk.

I can fight a raccoon any time.

I’m tired. I have 2 1/2 more hours of training today. I have a copyediting job, but they haven’t given me the files yet. I have another hourlong chapter to read. I might need a nap. Who knows. Oh yeah, pilates. And drawing. Still. Lots of drawing.

Backup Tea…

There were all these things I was waiting for info about on Friday and absolutely NONE of them were solved on Friday (of course), but they all came in by this morning. Ugh. I know I sign up for some of this, but then I second-guess myself, and now I will be dealing with it. Also, this is like school schedule, except a little tighter. I like a leisurely morning of shower, feed all the animals, eat and wake up, drink the tea, then drive to work and function. Well this week, it’s that, minus the drive to work. And I don’t really want to wake up an hour earlier to give my brain time, because that feels even more awful, so I’m going to do professional development on very little sleep and probably a lot of tea. Although it’s unknown if I am allowed to get up from my chair and MAKE tea or, possibly more importantly, pee, so I may not have more tea, unless it magically appears. That would be a useful superpower, y’all.

So I have 11, no 10 minutes, to finish this, my breakfast, taking my meds, making a backup cup of tea? Is that a thing? It could be a thing.

I’ve been drawing…it was going slowly and then Art Brain kinda kicked in yesterday. On Saturday night, I had a bunch of penciled-in stuff…

Basically, I did a bunch of Supreme Court Justice research the night before and then started drawing their faces. Didn’t finish. Faces are hard.

And what to do UNDER their faces is also hard. But at some point on Sunday, things started to solidify…

Sometimes drawing is easy. Sometimes it’s a slog. It’s been a lot of slog. You can see on the right side that there is still some thinking happening. There’s pedestals with just words and nothing else. It’s OK…the brain is processing.

Ugh. I don’t think I can finish this before I need to be in my Zoom class. I get a 15-minute break at some point…hopefully I can pee outside of those breaks? Things teachers constantly have to think about. Sigh. Although my mailperson the other day needed to pee really really bad as she was getting postage due from me. So there’s that. OK, back in a while, not that you’ll notice.

Yeah. Ugh. Not awake. Listened to a lot of talking. It’s hot in that part of the house, where the internet is consistent. In here is not so bad. Ten degrees cooler. This was my workspace yesterday.

Today there is a computer there.

Nova likes UNDER.

My new workspace bookshelf for stacking shit. My whole house is a repository for stacking shit.

Reading Margaret Atwood short stories…this is about pre-cellphone times.

“Space-time is denser.” True that. OK, so gotta go back to the computer for another two hours before I’m allowed a longer break. Fun stuff. Still need to find a rubberband. They didn’t tell me I’d need a rubberband.

Whenever That Is…

Um I still don’t know what day it is. Problematic sometimes. I’m pretty sure I have a class all next week and will need to keep track. Challenge for Sunday night, whenever that is.

It’s been hot here, if that helps explain it. Not even as hot as it often gets, more often in September than July, but hot enough to sap energy and brainpower. I’ve finished one quilt and started another. Although I may toss another one in the middle…still thinking about an October deadline. Because the one I’m drawing will be relevant no matter what. Unfortunately.

So I did go buy binding, but my dryer still isn’t fixed…so this is currently set up in the driveway for laundry…

Luckily that warm weather means things dry pretty much instantly. And no, I didn’t just buy the binding fabric. I don’t know how to do that.

Wednesday night, I got the binding sewn on and started the hand sewing, which I find very meditative.

I spent most of Thursday stabbing my middle finger with a tiny needle. But also got the binding done and used that laundry drying rack for a photo…

This weekend, hopefully it will be off to the photographer.

I had already done some preparatory drawings for the next quilt. I copied it at 250 and 300%, then taped it together. I knew I didn’t want to use it as is, but as a draft, so I cut paper for the actual drawing and laid that over the drawing. My computer is tuned to the SAQA Art in Place conference going on this weekend. Some great info about artist residencies and how artists work. I’ve enjoyed the videos, although it was hard to concentrate on drawing while listening to this.

I did some tracing and some drawing last night…still thinking and processing how I want to picture things.

So it might change again. A lot. Who knows.

The Torrance Art Museum posted this picture of the upcoming show Art & Med, opening July 22 from 6-9 PM.

I’ll be at the opening. My piece is on the right side.

Cat antics…Luna doesn’t like the heat.

And Nova is a little whack.

Bee update…they did finally leave.

I waited a day and then scraped the honeycomb off and then cleaned it with hot water and soap to hopefully remove the pheromones that attract them.

Boychild is at a fire up in Riverside again.

So it’s still hot this week coming up. I’m hoping to get the drawing to the ink stage, at least, or getting there. It’s big. I don’t like NOT working on something, so yes, I’m not taking a break. It’s summer so the other options are yardwork and housework. Eh. Screw that. Make art.

Wears All Black…

You know, as a teacher, I often put off repairs until I have a break from school, just because the time and effort (and sometimes need to wait around for a professional) isn’t something I can do during the school year. So I’m sitting here waiting on a dryer professional because we tried to fix it and the Amazon part failed almost immediately. It’s OK. I haven’t had a working dryer since June 25th or so. It’s hot and dry here, so we can put things out on the line. It sucks for towels, but works for everything else. At least this isn’t happening during the school year, right? Meanwhile, the house requires other fixes and improvements and I’m trying to get those taken care of. Broken and leaking hose faucets, need to replace some lattice pieces, plus putting in a pathway. At the moment, though, I’m dealing with a bee swarm issue. They gathered in the backyard composter while I was gone, but I managed to get one of the guys responsible for my stuff to pull the lid off and they left. They didn’t go far…to the composter in the front yard, and by the time I noticed (and was home, honestly), they were pretty well established. I waited until nighttime and pulled the lid off, hoping they’d leave…but it’s been over 36 hours and they are still there. Sigh.

That might be more money out of pocket for the summer. When I don’t get paid. Fun stuff. I do have a possible copyediting project coming up, but it will only pay for the dryer fix. Which is insane and annoying, but whatever. I’m also doing a professional development next week that will give me a chunk of money, but I don’t know when I’ll get paid for that. Probably the end of September. That’s the way it usually goes.

I needed to get this quilt done this week. So I got the quilting started on Sunday night and finished yesterday.

The outlining wasn’t too hard…

The background…well, I started with a super tiny filler background and then had to continue with that. It wasn’t too bad…

But it took longer than I thought it would…

It took a little over 4 hours for the stitchdown and a little over 8 hours to quilt it.

I finished around 6 PM last night, so I didn’t have time to buy binding. I don’t have enough of anything here to bind it with. So I need to go buy fabric today. As soon as I finish this and the retirement webinar I’m listening to. And then wash the fabric and hang it up to dry. It’ll dry fast today…supposed to be in the 90s.

But it also meant a minor moment of “holy shit what am I working on next!?”. Don’t panic. I already sort of know what I’m doing, but I need to copy and enlarge an existing drawing that needs major reworking, but it’s a start. Also gonna do that today. It’ll be a big one.

I’ve been doing some of this each evening…

These blocks are complicated, but I enjoy the stitching.

I also did some stitching on this…it’s been sitting around for YEARS…

All the things need to be stitched down. These are from Anna Maria Horner’s applique packages. I like the freedom of just randomly cutting bits out and putting them together. I have a ton of them and I am lame about getting them done. Limited time to make things…I have to make decisions about priorities. And the big art quilts get that priority.

It’s gecko season.

Nova loves this time of year.

Love this tree…

Don’t have room for another tree on this property.

Yeah this is me. I should rethink it. I’ve been living in shorts and just transitioned into no sleeves…I was holding out because of my laundry issues. Today, underwear is an issue. Sure, I could just buy more, but that would mean storing more. Trying not to do that. It’s fine. The boychild is here and can help me put the laundry dryer rack out. It’s heavy. For now, I’ve got another 30 minutes of this webinar (my brain is exploding, but I think I have my retirement date…even though I will need to continue to work after that), and then I get to commune with fabric and maybe my book…speaking of books, while I was quilting, I was listening to a book on Audible (I suck at this…have to rewind pretty continuously) AND reading a book on the iPad. I don’t usually do two books at a time because confusion happens between stories, but it seemed to work in this situation. This task is this book. Everything else is the other book. So yeah.

Read, bind, launder. Don’t think about work.

Amusingly, I walked away from this and forgot to post it…so most of the errands are done, but one that wouldn’t fit in my car…and I forgot the other one, so I’m gonna go do it now. It’s hot.

Reminder of the Line…

So I have about 27 minutes to write this. Not really true. I have 27 minutes (26) before I need to leave, and I like to finish things before leaving. We’ll see how that goes.

We got back Friday afternoon, the most trouble-free trip I’ve ever taken. Uber, then light rail, easy TSA, flight was not delayed, flight was easy, got off, picked up baggage right away, walked out front, and there were my parents, ready to pick us up. No problems on the way home, walked in the front door. Ahhh. It’s nice when it works out.

I managed to do some stitchdown on Friday night…

Kitten spoke to me clearly about how she felt about my being gone for so long…

Not pleased. Saturday I had a short meeting that I stitched through…

I feel like I will never finish this.

Then it was the Man’s birthday and he wanted a short hike/walk and dinner with a good burger, so we wandered through some trails I’d never been on at Balboa Park…

Had dinner at the Balboa (good burger, weird drunk guy)…

Selfies are not something we’re good at…

But this one wasn’t bad. Getting older and having birthdays is weird. This one was pretty quiet and chill. He says he was OK with that. I get it. Plus we’d been gone for a while and were just tired.

There was a confused bird…probably a fledgling or a mom trying to take us away from the nest…

I stitched more that night and got close to the end, but finished it up Sunday afternoon.

The last views of the back…

Before it gets shut up into the quilt…

A reminder of the line drawing…

Then I pieced a backing, found the batting, and had to clean a floor and wait for it to dry. So I cooked a complicated dinner that I never have time/energy to cook during the school year, but that I like to eat, then watched a show with that and finished one June Homegrown block…

And started another…

I finished about 1 1/2 blocks on the trip, compared to the 7 I brought with me (wishful thinking). I also brought 4 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of jeans, a pair of leggings, and a sweatshirt that I never wore. Plus a pair of shoes I only wore once. It is what it is. You never know.

After dinner, I laid it all out, sandwiched…

And pinbasted it.

It’s not a particularly big quilt, because I had a deadline.

And then I started quilting it last night.

My goal is to finish quilting today, bind it tomorrow, have it done Wednesday. We’ll see how that goes. Then turn those two Supreme Court drawings into something usable. Combined with what’s in my head.

Sleepy Kitten. But first, I have to pee a puppy and go to lunch with a friend, and maybe figure out a dog walk in the afternoon. We’ll see. Certainly the dog needs it. I probably do too.

All New Places

Well today is already crazy and that will continue for a few days…I leave in a few hours for Seattle to hang with family and then the Man. My nephew is graduating high school, which is the ostensible reason for going, but it’s also nice to have a change of scenery in summer. This house needs so much work. I’ve filled so many green trashcans with weeds and trimming and there is so much more to do. Things keep breaking and needing a small tiny part and more hand strength than I have to fix them. That said, I have been making art and reading books for my sanity…plus making wontons, because I never have time during the school year and I like them. Actually, I think I like the sauce more and the wontons are just a delivery system.

I’m not fully packed yet, because some of my pants are in the sun drying right now. Although the Man fixed the dryer, the part has already failed, so yesterday’s laundry got put (late, unfortunately) out on the line…which used to fit by the garage but someone (me) needs to trim the bougainvillea for it to fit now.

Doordash was probably amused. Not me, the boychild. I’ve never doordashed.

So I’ll be packed in an hour, whether my jeans are dry or not. I’m also trying to finish a book, an actual physical thing, so I don’t have to take it with me. I have a 900-page book on the iPad for my airline perusing. I dropped the parentals at the airport earlier, stopped to get my labs done so my doc will stop bugging me, then picked up Katie (the parental dog) and all her crap and delivered it here, put a bunch of stuff away, dealt with the greenery trashcan, watered some (still need to do more). Yeah. It’s been a little chaotic. It’ll be fine. Although I have to wear my hiking boots through TSA and on the plane because they won’t fit in my luggage. The Man can’t fit his hiking poles; mine fold up into thirds and his only half. It’s OK…my brother has that shit in Seattle.

Change! It’s weird. Good and hard all at the same time.

I did get the quilt to where I wanted it…Friday afternoon, I finished up Venus and started on Earth.

Who is up here and upside down.

I haven’t honestly decided which way is up, although now that I’ve said that, y’all will chime in. Just know whatever decision I make will be because I see it, not because you’ve voiced it. I’m not one of those who does the whole art critique stuff or group decisions about my stuff. I have a vision in my head and when it slots in correctly, my brain tells me. Art Brain doesn’t care about the rest of it.

That’s a Mars Rover on her hand…

Saturday was an art meeting and then we wandered up to the Phes Gallery to see this show…

That is Dinah’s Green-Eyed Dog piece…

And this is Nancy Lemke’s piece…forgot to write names down. Wait, the internet is my friend…this is The New American Crucifix…

Yeah. Disturbing. It’s a good show in a nice space. I didn’t take many photos, oh well, you should go see it anyway. It’s open until July 9, I think. Check the website.

Then we came back and I ironed Mars…

Which left putting it all together on a background last night…

Yup. I like it. I’ll finish it the week I get back.

I’m taking my sketchbook and some stitching with me. Hoping to solidify a plan for the next piece, hopefully a big one. If not, I have some smaller drawings that are already numbered and could step in to be made until the big one materializes in my head. So many things to consider for the next one. Maybe it will be another conglomerate of topics.

I’ve been mindlessly appliqueing pieces from Sue Spargo…can’t remember the name of this block of the month…Forest or Tree something obviously.

It soothes me to do this.

This poppy pod was fascinating.

I may add it to a drawing.

Still waiting for the caterpillars to move in to the milkweed meadow we made.

Most grown from seed. I have more in the fridge to be planted in early August. They won’t self seed here…doesn’t get cold enough for long enough.

OK. I have 84 pages of this book to finish, lunch to eat, packing to finish, watering to finish, and then I’m out of here, leaving the cats and dogs and plants to the whims and vagaries of the men. I’m looking forward to seeing most of the fam (niece is at a dig somewhere in Oregon?) and getting some stitching, reading, and drawing time in without the pressures of being at home with a dryer that needs fixing and weeds that need pulling and neighbors yelling all the time. I will miss the dogs and cats and probably my bed, but also looking forward to hikes in all new places.

All Up in My Head…

Hey. It’s Friday. But it’s not a work week for me, so what does that mean? Not much, except for the people around me who are working are doing their stuff, so I guess that affects me. It’s a nice place to be finally, although yesterday tested my summer break self on the first day I actually felt like I was on break. It’s still all up in my head, so I’m going to do my best today to dispel it and do the things I want to do.

The quilt is progressing, although let’s just ignore yesterday, because progress yesterday was nil, nada, nichts, nothing.

The previous day, I sorted all the pieces…

Super fast when there are only 500 and something of them. Then I started ironing it together…

As always, although my numbering seemed logical at the time, in reality, it’s a clusterfuck. I can’t fit all the background swirls on at the same time, so I did most of the 0-100s and then laid out the 100s for the next bit, but that was where I got tired and couldn’t do any more. And last night was not conducive to doing any art, so hopefully today will be a million times better, because I wanted to be further along than this.

Part of yesterday’s issue is that I took the dogs out for a 3-mile hike to try to tire them out before a Zoom call I needed to be on (mostly the puppy was the issue, but it turned out that Simba barked during the whole thing).

It was a nice walk, not too hot, mostly breezy.

The dogs were much better after the first mile.

Although trying to keep the puppy on her side was an issue. We were all tired when we got back, but Annie did sleep for most of the Zoom, so that was good.

Yes. On the bed. Where else? Oh yeah, also here.

After that, things just kinda went downhill. So I’m not focusing on all that doom and gloom (except I say that and my brain doesn’t like to leave those things alone), It’s not the end of the world. Everything will be OK in the end. We’ll all be dead in the end, actually, but it should get better significantly before that. Meanwhile, I’m on break and I don’t have to think about all the things right now. There are books to read and wontons to make.

The girlchild made it to San Francisco, by the way…here are the two days with her dad helping.

If you want to know about the crickets, Google Ekko, Nevada. Then be glad you’re not there. She went into her job in person finally (she’s been on Zoom for weeks) yesterday. Big changes. She needs to find a real place to live and get settled. Easier said than done, yeah? Her dad comes back today to pick up the puppy. We get two days off from extra dogs, and then my parents’ dog comes while they are in Seattle (and coincidentally, me too…wait, not a coincidence…my nephew is graduating from high school). So I won’t be here for most of Katie’s visit.

Find the cat.

Nova has not been thrilled about Annie’s visit. Luna has chased Annie down the hall two or three times, so she’s living her real thug life, but Nova is just hiding.

OK. Shower. Make wontons (my reward for existing right now). Eat wontons. Save some for later. Pick up ex from airport, pass over dog. Iron some quilt pieces while watching British murder mysteries. Maybe do some more weed whacking, find the art for tomorrow’s meeting (if I can get my head around it…yesterday, I couldn’t. I tried.), read my book some more, don’t think about things that suck. Oh yeah! Go see an art quilt exhibit that has been on my list for a month. That’s my treat. Doing that.

It’s Good to Move on…

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.

It’s Not Broken…

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.

Work I Love…

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.