Positive Emotions

Yes Friday. Yes. My voice is giving out (oh wait, I have to talk at two artist events this weekend), I’m tired (this is nothing new…by Friday, I sleep through the Man coming to bed late and the multiple urges to pee and just SLEEP through the night. But because of exhaustion.). The boychild comes back today from 6 weeks of training. Simba will be so excited. I’ll probably miss seeing that, because I’ll be gone most of the day, but it makes me smile to think about it. Also because the barky dog will be off my bed for three whole nights before he leaves again. Not for 6 weeks this time…just like 10 days. My voice might get a rest today; we’ll see. Yesterday was a lot of notes and finishing a lab and a couple of kids who like to blame adults for their actions. Fun times. Some things about middle school never change. There’s always kids who drop papers on the floor and just leave them there, and those who yell out in class while you’re in the middle of instructions, and those who fall asleep multiple times a day in class. And I often wonder how they turn out in the end. The two boys I had to deal with are on the immature side of middle school, which still happens in 8th grade, unfortunately. Next year, I go back to 7th grade and it will be all over the place again. Might be a relief to be back in 7th. We’ll see. It’ll be different anyway. All the stuff I’ve spent time learning and preparing will have to go into mental storage for two years while I just teach 7th grade. Weird.

The drawing is going well. It feels good to draw. Something big. It’s been a while. OK, a few months. And someone just proposed a new show for one of my groups where I’d have to have a piece made by January…a relatively small one, but still, WTF, y’all need to plan ahead. Sigh.

ANYWAY, back to the positive emotions from drawing…

Wednesday night, I did the vine and the hands…and maybe the snake? Can’t remember. Last night, I drew for 2 hours because I had a Zoom call with friends…so I worked on the torso a bit…

I’d like to say that Bowie was helpful, but you know he wasn’t really. He wasn’t as bad as Luna used to be…she’d try to dive under the paper while I was drawing. Kitten would just lie on top of the whole thing and whack you if you tried to move her.

It’s hard to see in this photo, but I drew the brain scan (one of two) they did to try to find the source of my visual disturbance, which has been there since March. Annoying. I guess I’m more used to it than I was, but it still freaks me out when I’m trying to sleep. So it’ll be in this drawing too. Along with LGTBQIA rights, banned books, medical and reproductive rights, missiles piling down upon us, and who knows what else. Angel cat. Everyone should have an angel cat.

Tonight is the member opening at Visions. It’ll be crowded and overwhelming, which will be awesome after a long day at school…actually seeing the show and the artists is usually pretty cool. Tomorrow are the artist talks at 1 PM…those are my favorite. I get to hear what other people have to say about their work. Last year, I showed up late and didn’t realize I would have to talk about my work. Luckily I’m a teacher and that’s all we do…talk without a plan half the time. Luckily the stuff lives in my head for free. My piece, Nowhere Else to Go, is about climate change and climate migration…

This picture is missing all the little people running for their lives in the lower section.

A tornado in this one.

Not a hurricane. Plus fires. I live in California…wildfire country. Although lot of other places are becoming wildfire country that weren’t previously.

Lots of people displaced by our need for oil and drilling and coal and big SUVs.

We need to work on being proactive and not just reactive. Two hurricanes in the last month, so much destruction. I don’t have solutions…I just know what we’re doing, denying climate change, not trusting scientists, not thinking critically about how we live in the world and what it does the futures for our kids and their kids…that shit isn’t working.

Welcome to my TedTalk. Also donate money somewhere. I chose CERF+ to help the artists who have needs because of the hurricane damage.

OK. School. Assessment today. On friction. Hopefully they are focused and on task. Ha! It’s Friday. When is the full moon? It was last night (laughs hysterically). Figures. That explains a lot from this week. After school, coming home…no ceramics this weekend, I think. Ah well. The greater good of art, right? Although two things were supposed to come out of the kiln. I always assumed they blew up if I don’t see video on Instagram right away. Lots of Visions activities this weekend. Probably a little school stuff, although I’m sort of caught up…but Trimester 1 grades are due soon, so there’s that. My dad’s birthday is Sunday…he’ll be 84…so there’s that happening too. Busy. But with good stuff. Hopefully I’ll get to read my book a little bit? The things that sustain me…and draw! Eventually. That too.

Drawing at the End…

Hey. Wednesday. You never feel like far enough into the week to be a relief. Sorry. I know it’s not your fault. It’s the 5-day workweek thing. Lots of people think of you as hump day, and maybe that’s it…once I get over the hump that is you, it will feel like a slide (it’s never really a slide if you’re a teacher…unless it’s a slide like those cheese wheel races down huge hills where you’re just rolling head over heels trying to beat the wheel down the hill) into the weekend. This weekend is the Vision opening…so member opening Friday night, artist talks Saturday at 1 PM, then artist dinner at night. Lots of art things. Hopefully cool. We’ll see.

Not a lot of art happening…at least it looks that way. Monday night, I had to label and pack two quilts for a show up in Glendora that’s coming up. I won’t make it to that opening (it’s midday on a Wednesday? or something like that). I still need to pack up the Quilt National quilt…I was going to do that last night, but didn’t feel like it for the second day in a row. Ah well. I did do ceramics on Monday…picked up two fired pieces…

They look pretty good, yeah? Well there’s this…

It ran like crazy, stuck to the biscuit. It’s OK. I’m going to glue it back together and then put it outside. Maybe bury it in the ground even, just a bit. The boot turned out fine! All ceramics is a guess sometimes. I even wiped this up a good bit…but not enough. You learn some; you lose some.

Still doing this…

A peaceful couple of hours working on this…the orange ran like crazy, so I had to fix some stuff…not sure how to make the underglazes less runny once they are.

I’ll be here for another couple of hours before she’s done. And I bought more clay finally…gonna try a new one. I have ideas. I always have ideas.

Last night, I was supposed to go to the gym, but I ended up running late finishing stuff at school, then doing more work at home to try to catch up and maybe get ahead, and then I bathed the old lady cat. She’d gone to the vet because we thought she might have a UTI (accidentes), but it doesn’t look like she does. She hasn’t been cleaning herself well for a while, and I worry about stressing out old ladies with baths, but she needed it. She’s so much cleaner now. I even combed her a bit, which she likes…until she doesn’t. She’s still cranky as shit…and probably was the source of random poops all down the hallway last night (sigh)…but she’s still kicking. When I had finished making dinner (and next week’s lunches coincidentally), I just wanted to draw. I love drawing. I miss drawing more. I just can’t fit it in. Either I draw or I read and even that is a fight…always work is calling. And the house. So much stuff. Ugh.

So I drew.

There’s a rough pencil drawing of the body, just because it’s hard to get everything on there and semi-proportioned right…for some definition of right. Then I stare at it and decide what I want to add. I know what this piece is focused on (everything?), so I think about how that can be portrayed…you can’t see all the hands on her thigh from here. It’s still in pencil. Anyway, hopefully I’ll be communing with this most nights for the next week or so, trying to wiggle an image out of a tired brain. It’s where I love to be. And though there are other things that need to be worked on, for now, this is it.

Is 9 the average women’s shoe size? I do always feel like I am huge-footed. Maybe not? Seems wrong.

OK. School. I’m doing a lab that I’ve only done once and it was two years ago. I don’t remember HOW to do it. I’m sure it will be fine. Pretty sure I made a video. I have pilates after school. I’m tired already. I don’t have to cook tonight. I do probably have to grade things…or prep things. Last night, I recorded things, so there’s dogs barking, cats meowing, men coughing, and timers going off. Like normal. Then more drawing hopefully. Plus reading. I’ve been reading at lunch instead of hanging out with my team. They are stressing me out, I guess. Probably I need to check in up there. Plus I had to set up a lab yesterday during lunch. So that took time. Whatever. Drawing at the end.

Under Control…

OK. So my butt is wet. The cat did something on my chair. This is not a nice way to start Monday. Actually, I started with randomly low blood sugar. Always fun. The cat is old. I’m hoping it’s not…fuck…I’m pretty sure it’s pee. Sigh. She’s looking pretty irritated right now. Maybe because I’m accusing her of peeing herself. I guess I need to call the vet. Sigh. She’s old, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready for her to be gone. She has been getting worse…unfortunately.

So artwise, I finished all the bugs. Except I need to repaint one for like the fourth time. I delivered 4 to Visions Museum on Saturday. The rest will hold for a bit (maybe?) and go on Etsy (maybe?). I took official photos of them; I’ll put them on the website later too. Here’s the last one though…

With the one that needs repainting in the background.

I finally started drawing the next big one…it’s been in my head for well over a month.

Not that you can see much, and the boobs might need redrawing based on this. I just get the general shapes with the pencil on something this big. I don’t usually use pencil on the smaller drawings. Here’s a pre-drawing for it…done in two restaurants before dinner came…

Not quite all there. But a vague idea of it. I drew this too, with no purpose…

On Friday, I did some underglazing…

This stuff takes forever…

But it’s relaxing…

Apparently two of my pieces came out of the glaze fire, but I couldn’t find them on Friday. Ugh. Maybe today.

I also finished the center panel of Homegrown…

So now I can piece all the houses around it and spend another year making the borders. It’s also relaxing, but in a different way.

My piece Stop the Murder Madness made it to Miami for the opening…

A fellow artist took a picture of it for me…

Her name is Eden Quispe and you should go look at her work because it’s amazing. And I appreciate her recommending this show to me in the first place and sending me photos as well.

I managed NOT to work most of the weekend (on school stuff), which I think is pretty healthy. We walked the dog on Saturday.

I also blew leaves off half the roof, terrified of being up there, trimmed a bunch of stuff, dumped plant matter in greenery trashcans, finally rehung the art in the hallway…

Drove to a sketch location and bought a recliner for my kid, who may or may not actually want it because he was in Pinnacles with no cell service. Long weekend. I finished a book! That was good. Wait, I actually finished two. So even better.

For some reason, all the animals were giving me judgy looks this weekend. Here’s Nova.

Bowie…

You already saw Kitten up at the top…and Simba…

Luna avoided me mostly, so I guess I didn’t wrong her too badly.

I’ll finish up with two new skull finds…

The one on the right is a new type…I don’t think I’ve seen it before? I’ll wait for nature to clean it up a bit. We get a lot of rats and mice…this is not the right shape for that. Wait and see.

OK, today is teaching speed and velocity…pretty easy stuff. Then a 2-hour staff meeting about literacy. I’ve been prewarned that the scientific content is factually incorrect (oh good), so I’m prepared to be irritated. Then to clay, to hopefully underglaze some more and find my two glazed pieces. Then back here to pack up three quilts for shipping. Fun times. And more drawing, hopefully…get those boobs under control. On the drawing. Those are the only ones I can control.

Check for Zombies

Well hey. I wish I had slept more last night, but the little dog made me get up once to check for zombies and there were definitely other barky moments when I was like, “it wasn’t zombies LAST time, so no, I’m not getting out of bed”. He’s definitely in need of something these days. A long walk…a cuddle with his boy (who still has 10 days of training to go). He is a grumpy old man (the dog, to clarify…although there are other grumpy old men in my vicinity, for sure). What it means is that my brain is a little fuzzy (when is it not?) and my eyes a little crusty, and maybe I’m drinking this whole cup of tea quickly so I can get another one down? Ugh. When my doctor tells me to improve my sleep, for health reasons, I want to explain to her that I’ve always been a bad sleeper and that has not improved with age and there are many factors affecting my sleep, most of which (zombies) are out of my control. Oh well. Doing my best. Mostly. Nah, I could do better. If I had more sleep. Maybe.

So I’m still slogging along on bugs. I stitched the edges of the last two on Monday night…

And last night, I painted all five canvases…

Last time, some of them needed a second coat, but hopefully there’ll be a couple ready to stitch down tonight. I also need to make labels for the back.

I did some carving on Monday as well…

Just for fun planter…

In video…

I’m just gonna work on this here for a while. I need to buy more clay for the next batch of projects. Not there yet.

After dinner, I’ve been working on the centerpiece for Homegrown.

I think I just have that last flower on top to do and then I can piece the whole quilt together and start the borders. I’m ahead of schedule! I thought I wouldn’t finish the center until next year. I figured 5 flowers, 5 months? But I’ve been faster than that for once. Mostly because I’m trying to get work done before I leave school and then leave it there. Much as I can. I did last night, anyway.

This is the face of a cat spying a gecko on the window.

I was reading a book the other day and they used the term ‘sanguivore’ for vampires, and turns out, it’s a real word (I love learning new words) for things like vampire bats and mosquitos (bloodsuckers), so my co-teacher and I thought it would be cool to add this word learning to our 7th-grade curriculum when we do trophic levels (carnivores, herbivores, etc), adding this one to the mix and then having kids make some up…I came up with ‘cerebrevore’ for zombies…

Makes sense? Right? We are supposed to be teaching literacy.

This is relevant as I get closer to the Quilt Visions opening, where I will have to explain my work in front of people…

Sometimes it’s a challenge. This quilt is actually easy to explain and way too relevant these days.

This is another word I like.

Unfortunately, I think if I do that today, kids aren’t going to try to learn…they’re just going to copy each other and then Friday’s test will be painful. So I will have to interact with them. And I have a union meeting after school, so that’s more people and talking. When I just want to read my book in silence. Not happening. Tonight, I’ll be sewing little bug quilts on canvases and/or repainting some of them. All good. I will read my book at some point though. It’s required.

Off…by a Day

I’m often off. This is just writing though. The district has given us these two weird 3-day weekends. I’d say thanks, but they just tacked those two days on to the end of the year. So I’m not sure how useful they really are. I do know that I’m not used to having Fridays off (most 3-day weekends give us a Monday), so I was totally discombobulated. That’s not why I’m writing late…that’s because I had to get a fasting blood test yesterday and I couldn’t get in very early, so my blood sugar was a mess, and by the time I did that and got two vaccines and smogged my car, I came back and took a nap on the couch. Not a short nap. I just zonked. I barely got my glasses off (I put them on my knee, apparently). Around 4:30, I stood up and thought, ugh, I’m out of it. Also some combo of all that made me nauseous (not eating often does), so then I only had a sandwich after the blood tests (a desperation sandwich) and that was it. I tried eating other things, but no. Uh uh. Eventually appetite returned in time for dinner, but every time I do a fasting thing, it just messes with me. I have to do one later this month where I eat lunch during prep so I can fast for 6 hours before the test. Anyway, I was going to go to ceramics yesterday and I totally didn’t. I slept and read instead. Hopefully I’ll get to ceramics today.

I’m still doing bugs. I’m not doing a lot at the moment, I admit. I aim for an hour a night and I’m lucky to get 45 minutes in. Wednesday night, I stitched this bug to a canvas…

This is one of my favorites.

Then Thursday night, I tried to iron this other rainbow bug but the legs were cranky and kept shredding. So I cut another set and left them for 24 hours. That was the smart thing. I think I also did the stitchdown on the other 4 bugs. Then last night, the bug legs released from the paper just fine, I ironed it down, and stitched it down…

This one might be my favorite now. And then I sandwiched and quilted all 5 of them.

The Man has a wedding all day and night today, so I’ll probably trim and finish these, and paint the canvases so they’re ready to stitch down to those. I also need to do some quilting on a friend’s mom’s quilt. So that’s on the list. Plus a quilt guild meeting. I was going to an art meeting too, but they changed the time and I can’t do two things at once. Well, I can…I just can’t do THOSE two things at once.

Progress on the home front: I fired the totally annoying pool company I’ve had for three years now and hired the old one back (there must have been a noncompete agreement for a while, because I tried to hire the old one back at some point…I did not choose to leave them). My dad’s garden guy, who is apparently retired, came over and attacked the bush that hangs over the pool. He was very judgmental and quit because of safety issues (I’m OK with that). I’m starting to think I should just spend the $150 and buy the thing he uses to cut bushes, because my problem is the time it takes, and he just shaved everything and shoved things in trashcans. Unfortunately, the bush is still too tall and one area, I would have cut it back more, but the guy was cranky and I wasn’t going to argue with him. If he wanted the work, he would have stayed. Whatever. That’s the hardest part about keeping this house up and finding people to help. Dad has a plan for the shed roof, though, so that’ll hopefully get fixed too.

Wednesday night, we had Annie for a bit.

She ate two toys and pretended to gack the rest of the evening. Plus scratched the shit out of my arm. Still love her. Bowie or Luna got me last night, some sort of desperation leap out of the bed (cat, not me)…totally bloody scratches this morning on my arm. Fun times.

Here’s one of the possible culprits, curled up next to me as I read for hours yesterday because I couldn’t do anything else.

Well I hauled a bunch of trashcans full of shit around. So did the Man. It’s hot here too…not too bad right now, but in the 90s later. It’s fucking October…can I have Fall please? Just a little? I guess this is Fall, Southern California style.

Dude, I don’t even know what I want to be for Halloween this year. Maybe an otter.

OK, so I have to shower and get ready for a meeting in a few hours. I did some schoolwork yesterday so I could avoid it today. I just need to grade one class of homework and then post everything for next week. I’m sort of caught up for once (knock on wood…it won’t last long). I probably should grade all the loose papers in my notebook too. I forgot about those. I did a predrawing for the next big quilt, but didn’t photograph it. One leg is distinctly wrong. But my hands were still shaky at night from the physical crap (vaccines and fasting, even though I wasn’t fasting any more). I need to water today, plus walk the dog (and me), plus make my own dinner, work on quilty stuff, and go to ceramics. All good. I think I have to sew a bunch of bug antennae…I could do that at my quilt guild meeting if I felt that organized. Do I feel that organized? I’m not sure. Not at the moment. Maybe later.

A Me Thing

Hello? I’m sorry…95 degrees today? 97 on Monday? It’s freakin’ October? Some people are wearing sweaters this week in other parts of the country. No thank you. Too hot. Not a fan. NEED a fan.

Speaking of weather, the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene to the southeast…distinctly awful. I’ve seen too many art studios that flood waters kamikazed through, and that’s not even dealing with lost lives and homes. We have a friend who was supposed to be moving to Johnson City this fall, but they had delayed the decisionmaking. I’m not sure what you do. I mean, I remember when I was living abroad, people would always shake their heads at living in California, with “all the earthquakes”…that was before we were Wildfire Central. There’s certainly no escaping the crazy weather patterns caused by climate change at this point…there’s just mitigation, remediation, and plain old survival…if you’re lucky. I’m going to donate to somewhere…just haven’t decided where yet.

That same weather has delayed one of my quilts from arriving, which is not a huge deal compared to what actual people are dealing with…I see it made it to Jacksonville…if I’d known a hurricane was arriving…who am I kidding? I shipped it the first day I could, based on grades being due etc. It’ll get there when it gets there. The gallery probably has a bunch of pieces they’re waiting on. We’ll all survive the delay.

Meanwhile, my art here is all bugs, all the time. I have things in my head, but I need to get the bugs done by next weekend for delivery. And sanity. So I got two sewn down to the canvases on Monday night…

The third was fussy. The paint needed to be redone (they all actually needed it…sloppy painting the night before). This one, there was a flake of something shiny in exactly the wrong spot. I think it was the paint off the paintbrush handle. My paintbrushes are all ancient. So I picked that off…should have painted it Monday night, but ran out of time. Painted it last night, and then ironed the ladybug together…

I did two of each bug: one normal bug colors (for that bug) and one NOT normal…tending toward rainbows. I also trimmed the Wonder Under for the last bug. I had bugs in different stages of the project so people could see what it looked like in the demo. So now I have four ready for stitchdown, and hopefully the fifth tonight.

I also went to ceramics on Monday. I had this thing that was supposed to be another mug (ha!), but was way too big (I will never learn), so now it will be a planter. I had painted it with all the leftover underglazes and started carving it.

Or here’s the picture…there were so many people in the studio on Monday. It was too many people for me, really. I prefer a quiet Friday afternoon.

I need to make a decision about buying more clay. I did some touchup on the boot vase and reduced glaze on the paper bag vase…need to touch that one up a bit. I’m worried the glaze is going to run everywhere.

This is the opening between my kitchen and the living area. It’s usually not blocked by a baby gate, but we have an inquisitive kitten who has decided this is where he will climb into the kitchen 17 times a night. So baby gate.

Don’t judge the mess there. I can’t seem to get it under control. It’s totally a me thing. Not a priority. Why would it be when I have bugs to iron?

OK. Wednesday. The last two days, kids have been sleeping in class. Today is a lab. Hopefully that will help. I can’t be amazingly entertaining all the time. It’s exhausting. I couldn’t get into pilates this week (ugh scheduling), so I went to the gym last night (and finished my book! yay!). Tonight is book club. I read the book and three more in the series. It’s light, but enjoyable. Ghosts and dead people light. Not traumatizing. Then hopefully more bug things. I’d like to be done with bugs soon, finish the clay pieces, and then start the next big quilt. I like working on big quilts. I like reading big books. I like coming home to things that I’m already immersed in and can continue to be immersed in, instead of trying to start new things. Also a me thing.

A Deadline

Some weekends, all I do is try to check things off the to-do list. I did mop the kitchen floor. It seriously needed it. I watered some things. I will need to keep doing that. It never stops. I tried to find someone to trim a bush, someone else to clean a pool (I’m close on that one), and a solution to the pool shed that is falling down. Not as successful on that. I need a ton more money to fix all the things. I graded two academic assignments…I’m glad that’s done. It wasn’t really how I wanted to spend Friday night, but I was dogsitting anyway and not in the mood to get up and be active, so I just sat there, bingewatched bad TV (some YA ghost thing), and graded most of them. I finished the rest last night. That’s a weight off my shoulders. That gives me some time this week. To what? I’m not sure. Get a bunch of little projects done. I might need to start drawing the next big one. Not sure what deadlines I have coming up. I entered a show. I probably will get rejected from one today, so it seemed fair. I entered with three pieces that have never been shown, and two of them are not new. I figured I should give them a chance, and if I didn’t get into the show, oh well. No biggie. Don’t have to figure out how to get to the opening! Or deliver the piece. Weird attitude for an artist who likes to have her work shown, sure.

Here’s what Friday night looked like…

Lots of nervous Annie with Bowie. When Annie gets nervous, she gets very close or in my lap. Bowie was not impressed.

I graded things that looked like this…

This one actually made no sense for the question. I did have some that made more sense in the drawing than in the explanation. Sigh. Had to reteach what evidence was because of this assignment. It’s fine. I even graded all the kids who transferred to the new section on the other team. Cuz it would be mean not to.

The Man had a long wedding on Friday that his band played for…the last wedding they’re doing is this Saturday. These things are kicking their butts…so much prep and then so much waiting around. I don’t go to the weddings…no desire to sit through that. Saturday’s is at the beach, though, so I might wander down there and sit on a chair with my stitching or a book. Or just go for a walk. I don’t know. Bring the dog? Not sure dogs are allowed down there. ANYWAY. It has sucked for us…he’s exhausted on the day after, so I took the dog for a walk without him…both the dog and I needed it. Honestly, I think he needs it too…more exercise would be good for all of us.

Simba was definitely out of shape. But we did 2 miles.

Artwise, I tried to find a better finish for the bug quilts, something that took less time so the price would come down, but that would still look nice. So I got some 8×8 canvases and painted them…

And then attached the quilts to that…which is always a pain in the butt because the wood framing is inevitably in the way…

But it worked! I need to finish three more before the 12th? I think? Easy peasy. And I think I can finish the other two pieces for the clay the same way (minus the canvas)…but I need a diamond tip drill bit too. Home Depot trip. If I remember.

I drew at dinner Saturday night…

A bit better than all the car drawings I saw the night before.

Yesterday, the Man’s dad had a surprise birthday party at the Jazz Lounge over by San Diego State. It was a nice couple of hours…mostly listening to music.

Jazz isn’t my favorite, but this was mostly old classics, so I knew most of them.

I came home and worked, because it has to happen sometime. Today, at our staff meeting, we get to ‘debrief’ the poverty simulation from last week. Not sure what to say about that. Did I gain new understanding? Um. Not really. Empathy? Already had it. I guess it’ll be interesting to hear what they think we should have learned. And then we get to make phone calls for an awards ceremony. I totally love the awards part, but wish there were staff who could make the phone calls…there are so many translation issues when we call parents. I’m sure it will be fine, and it’s for a good thing for once.

That’s always me. Gotta prep a lab today for Wednesday. Gotta plan next week…and next week…and next week.

This is too real.

OK. School today…watching a movie…Bill Nye. It’s where I’m at. Vocab and preteach Newton’s second law tomorrow, then lab Wednesday. We have Friday off…random 3-day weekend. I’m using it to get my labs done, two vaccines (because you can’t get in to a nurse for a vaccine before or after work…it’s 8:30-3:30 only…like WTF?), and a blood test or two…fasting…so that’ll be fun. And a smog check! What a day. Maybe ceramics if I’m lucky. Gotta do some stuff at home too. Always. That shit…I never get caught up with that. My goal is to get the hallway done before the boychild comes home. I have 3 more weeks. I might get there. Nice to have a deadline I guess.

School Breaks…

Rough way to start a week. No, I didn’t finish grading. I’m not even sure I can finish tonight. Two-hour staff meeting plus book club. I have about 20 more of the academic assignment to grade and a pile of redoes on homework. Not a ton, but I have to process it as well. And there’s book club tonight; have I finished the book? Nope. Oh well. I’ll go. I need a break from school. This weekend was not a break from school. My tiny breaks this weekend consisted of allowing myself a chapter here or there of the book, washing the dog’s butt after he pooped on himself, washing the boychild’s bathtub after I realized where the old lady cat had been pooping (I had wondered where she was hiding it), and watering most of the yard. Oh yeah, I had to pick up and reposition a trellis that fell over. I also delivered a quilt and got my blood labs done for the doc; she’s been harassing me, but with a 12-hour fast, I needed to do it on a weekend. That’s about all I got done. I did allow myself most of an hour each night for the little quilts…

Friday night, I cut out all the pieces for both of them.

Saturday, I ironed them together…

They’re super small.

Last night, I did stitchdown…

One…

And then the other…

And then sandwiched and pinbasted them…

I quilted the little one before I needed to go to bed…

I had to be up early this morning to deal with school meetings. I’m exhausted again. Not enough sleep.

I did go to ceramics after school on Friday, spending about 2 hours doing this and that. I did more on the mug…

It might be done now? Not sure…

I had this bowl I made out of leftover clay and it’s been sitting around, underglaze just waiting for a plan. I had one on Friday.

Some more underglazing and a little carving. Although now I’m realizing I didn’t do the inside of that one heart. OK. Need to do that. I can’t go today though…it’ll have to be tomorrow.

The paper bag vase came out of the bisque fire. I was texting girlchild pictures of it and she reminded me of the plan we had for it. But I had wanted to try some underglazing with a wax resist and then glaze over. So I painted a little thing…

I had some leftover underglazes. I hate to waste that stuff. It’s expensive. So I made an underglaze coat on this pot/mug/whatever the fuck it is.

I also picked up the glazed base for the winged woman piece…

I love how the oil spills turned out. I also love how it fits with the rest of the piece…

Next up? Wings and headpiece thingie. Bowie is not so sure about it.

Have to hide the ceramic stuff in bathrooms and the girlchild’s room so he doesn’t knock them over. He’s still a kamikaze parkour cat, despite the neutering. Nova doesn’t necessarily appreciate him.

She’s mostly just shocked at his existence…unless she’s playing with him.

This did actually start out as play. But sometimes she goes places just because he can’t go there with her, like the hammock.

The Man’s band plays a wedding this Friday. The singer made a poster with a GoGos’ image, adding in the guys’ photos…here’s the Man himself…

So goofy.

OK. Two meetings this morning, before school. Both student-related. Then teaching balanced and unbalanced forces again. I tell you, I’m not sure what’s happening the rest of the week. Prep period is definitely grading. And screenshotting kids’ grades for the new 8th-grade team that goes together on Wednesday. Plus? I lose 10 kids. Con? The work to get them out. I feel for the combo teacher. I’m glad I’m not them, for sure. And none of them know what’s about to happen. I’m losing one kid I really like. Maybe two. The others I can live without. Three I’m quite happy to see leave, maybe four. Then a 2-hour staff meeting about poverty. Hoping it’s useful instead of just “your students and their families are poor”. No duh. I have duty before that, so normally I need to pee, make tea, and find food before coming over…I’ll be late and it’s in the gym, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to do the eating part. I’m going to need to. Blood sugar was low this morning. I’m feeling it. Then finish grades. For real. And book club. On the book I haven’t finished. Can I have a nap in there too? Not sure. Might be a contentious parent meeting with me as a rep (not one of my parents). Fun times. I’ll just be glad to be done with the first round of grades. The second round is due the weekend we’re going camping. I think. Ugh. OK. Going. More tea.

Find Some Zen…

Hey yo. It’s Friday. Before grades are due. So I’m going to roll into grading for 6 hours straight I think, because I can’t get caught up. Ah well. Hopefully I will get better at it throughout the year, because hey, it’s only been like 21 years of it. 22? Something like that. I spent an hour last night writing a series of paragraphs explaining the piece I made for the We Got the Power exhibit that will be in Miami October through December. I had just picked it up from the photographer’s and the due date is Monday…so I made myself do it. I started it once before but then the computer deleted the halfway-done Google form (just like it does to my students), so I had to start over. Ugh.

Here’s the piece that has no name…

It does have a name, actually. It was from the movie Chiraq and I wrote it on a post-it note that I think the ex’s dog ate. Or she ate most of it and it ended up in the recycling and I forgot that that was the only place I had written it down. So I will have to watch the movie again? Or something.

This piece is not huge at 12×24″.

But it does have almost 400 pieces. I drew an Earth Mother trying to protect the women and children from the violence of war (and men). The exhibit is in response to the play Lysistrata, remade in the movie Chiraq (sort of), where a child is killed and women object to the violence of war (gang war in the movie). Their response is to withhold sexual favors from the men until they agree to stop fighting (shooting). And it works! The original play was written by a man, as much as we know.

That man is holding a video game controller. I included Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Russia, the Ukraine, and the US as participants in current wars.

Me? I’m all about how to protect the children…make the world safe for them.

And shooting things up and fighting over territory is never going to do that. It’s a tough one, though. Ukraine gets our hearts because of the way Russia just came in and started to take, but the Gaza violence is so much more complicated. There’s no easy solutions even if we just think of the kids because people have all these ideas of what their kids need (a homeland?). Land rights. Sigh. Peaceful living together. Double sigh. So yeah.

This piece has sold…for when it comes back from the show. So that’s cool.

The two little quilts I’m working on, someone asked, because I called them ‘baby quilts’, are they FOR babies? Um no. They’re just really tiny. I finished the Wonder Under trimming and took two days to iron them to fabric…this is the smaller one.

This one took two nights…

Only because I did the other one first. And I’m running out of time each night.

But I finished last night. Damn that bird is gonna be bright. I need to figure out how to drill through the glaze that dripped into the holes I was going to use to hang these in the clay pieces…diamond bit, for sure. There’s always a risk the clay will break, which would suck. But hoping to cut things out tonight after grading for a million hours. Ugh.

I woke up in the middle of the night to the dog barking, but not in bed with me. I was really confused because there was a furry body next to me, but it was Luna, not Simba. He was brought back by the Man. But he was barky all night, so I kind of feel like a semi rammed through me.

This was after Back-to-School Night on Wednesday…

A Bowie/Nova sandwich. Sweet babies.

I found this nest in the yard the other night…fell out of the tree…

It’s always fascinating to see what they make the nests out of. There’s definitely some human materials in there. I need to go back to throwing thread snips out into the yard for them.

Followed this big truck to work yesterday…

Funny.

OK. I’m teaching balanced/unbalanced forces today. I’m hoping to grade homework from last week at the same time. I have slides to grade…got through one class last night and finally got into a rhythm. So hopefully will finish those tonight? Or tomorrow…let’s be realistic. I’m going to ceramics after school and it’s my turn to cook dinner. Plus it’s Friday and I’m already exhausted. Does not bode well for lots of grading tonight. My team is going through some drama at work…hopefully that will chill out and everyone will find some zen over the weekend. I am hoping to get these two little quilts cut out and ironed together this weekend, maybe even stitched down? That would be nice. And buy a drill bit. Sometime. Not sure when. Oh yeah, pack up a quilt for Quilt Visions and deliver it…that opening is coming up. I’ll be there. Come see it (mid-October). Otherwise, we’re sliding into October, one of my favorite weather months (but schoolwise, usually a long month…but we have two 3-day weekends this year…maybe that will help). It’s certainly been delightfully cloudy and cool all week. That won’t continue much longer, but I’m appreciating it while it does. OK. Gotta go to school for real now…

Never Enough Sleep for It…

It’s pajama day today. On a Monday. That might be a first…usually it’s later in the week. It kinda makes me feel like I’m not going to work…is that a pro or a con? It’s good to go to work in pajamas because it doesn’t feel like work? Oh, it will feel like it when I get there. I think I mostly prepped on Friday; I just didn’t put the inertia stuff on their desks yet. No biggie. Anyway. I’m in pajamas. I’m going to the ceramics studio later; debating whether to bring real pants. Or just go in pajamas. They probably won’t care. Tomorrow is wear your favorite band shirt. What a coincidence? I just went and saw one of my favorite bands, Radio Thieves (the Man plays keyboards and sings) on Saturday night downtown. The Music Box did a street fair thing.

Nice location…too many people with captain’s hats (Yachtley Crew was the main band)…

Radio Thieves was awesome…

Although I still don’t understand the cowboy wear because they played no country.

Whatever. They always wear weird shit. Except pajamas. Never seen them in pajamas.

Ceramics-wise, I went Friday night. Two of my things were out of the bisque fire. One was the top of this so I could finally put them together…

Turned out pretty cool.

Don’t think I’m going to glaze fire? Not sure. It will get super dark if I do and it doesn’t need to be foodsafe, so why deal with that? I do think I will epoxy them together though. They fit but there’s a wobble.

Then the base for the other piece came out…

Looked good. I put an iron wash over it and then glazed the two oil spills with a glaze I picked up on sale called um I think it’s called oil spill! So it should be perfect.

We’ll see how it goes. I put a clear satin on the fishies (not the bones) and the windows of the car. Then the winged woman gets epoxied on that and the fabric added.

Speaking of added fabric, I finally had enough mental space to draw two fabric things for clay things I made back in February/March. I had papers measured to size to help me draw…like since July? I drew in pencil first…

And then in ink…this one will hang in a woman-shaped frame I slab built when I was in the handbuilding class…

And this one was a coil-built thing that I put two holes in for hanging a little quilt…

The holes might have filled in with glaze. I might need to drill them. Not sure how to do that. Will ask at the studio today. I also worked on my mug but totally forgot to take any pictures. Of course. Maybe today.

I graded a lot this weekend. I’m really trying to make time for the art, finish fixing up the house from the summer whirlwind (I pulled off most of the blue tape from the moldings and installed two switchplates, one old, one new because the other one was disgusting.). I need to hang the art up and get everything in the living room put away. I also need to do some textured paint in one area. I have the stuff…just haven’t had the time. AND I watered things. I haven’t had enough time for that either and plants are suffering. UGH. This week is a clusterfuck. So I don’t expect getting control of it this week.

Teachers need a 4th day to deal with school. Because there isn’t enough time at school to deal with it. Here’s Bowie helping me grade.

I finished the homework from the week before, all the warmups, and two classes of the Unit 1 packets. I have three more of those, last week’s homework, and an academic assignment. Fun times.

Speaking of school, we borrowed tennis balls from PE and they (1) smelled exactly like you’d think they’d smell and (2) came packaged like a scrotum, tied up like this with two balls in each bag.

I can’t decide if PE was just messing with us or there’s some reason to pack them this way.

Finishing with this…

I’m not a fan of war. I’m not a fan of supporting war, although the Ukraine/Russia thing seems a worthy cause. World War II was a worthy cause. Just wish there were no more kids dying anywhere from anything, but that’s too much to hope for in a country where guns are more important than schools.

Anyway. Monday musings. I’ll be making those two little quilts and finishing two big ones that are not art quilts but need doing. Hopefully I’ll also start that next big quilt in the next week or so. We’ll see how that goes. I’m giving myself grace (I hate that phrase) this week…back-to-school night, physical therapy on the neck, late pilates because of that back-to-school night. Lots going on. Never enough sleep for it.