Ride It Out…

Ah yes, finally typing this on a computer. Not everything is fixed and back to normal, but I am no longer fighting a 10-year-old computer that is slowly (very slowly, because it’s the only speed it had) dying. Yes, it’s taken like three weeks to get functional again. There are some things that I just can’t easily do on a phone or an aging iPad (also needs replacing this year). The boychild was a massive help, although in the end, we didn’t use the backup service I’ve been paying for for years…so fun that.

This weekend was another in a series where I don’t get 1/10th of the stuff done that I wanted or needed to. It’s just my life, maybe? Hard to say. I did some grading and some school stuff but mostly didn’t. I spent time in Home Depot (must be spring) and digging a hole that probably isn’t big enough. I finished one book (actually two) and started another. I made some art and went for a hike. I don’t feel ready for the week. I’m fighting a cold…I’m hoping I can hold the worst of it off, because we have a field trip this week. I’ve drunk a lot of Vitamin C this weekend in hopes it would boost things enough to kick this thing that’s trying to sneak in. Who knows.

OK, art…I ironed a lot this weekend…

I did like three sessions on Saturday…there’s the setup with one computer backing up, one being set up, and the one I was actually watching stuff on…

Too many computers…there’s the beginning of the flesh fabrics, which I spent most of Saturday ironing.

Got through the whole pile…they were interspersed between the 200s all the way to the 600s, so I officially have no clue how far I am in the ironing. But I got the actual flesh done and then still need to do all the eyeballs and the heart and lungs and all those fussy bits that aren’t flesh colored.

I really wanted to be done Sunday, but that didn’t happen. It took too long to do everything on Sunday. I don’t even think I got an hour in, unfortunately.

More of the bits and pieces though. I suspect I’ve got another three nights before I’m done. We’ll see. I have a ton of schoolwork to do as well. As always.

I’m underglazing the base in clay…with Bart’s help (not really…he was wet from outdoors and tried to headbutt the part of this that keeps breaking off).

It just takes forever to do this stuff.

Coral is done, some other bits and pieces in that color range. I’ll be back at it tonight.

We hiked Saturday…got the full 3 miles in this time.

With two coyote sightings…

Broad daylight…

Went out for dinner…

I did draw…just totally forgot to photograph it.

Ah, falcon payments. This lasagna thing was from the book for The Electric State, which was very different than what the movie seems to be.

But lasagna…

The next puppy I get…

This is maybe too real and also applies to my quilts…

Lastly, in cleaning up hard drives all over my office, found this from around 2001 (not 1994 like the time stamp says)…

One of the best pictures I’ve ever taken of the kids.

OK. School today…with an impending incipient cold. And still tired. But hopefully a chill day. Turn the things in, y’all. Then staff meeting (ugh but short) and ceramics (yay). Then home, grading, and ironing (more yay!). Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate (most of whom aren’t Irish in the slightest). And may the government fall into a deep hole it can’t get out of (we’re close, but not quite). I checked my retirement funds over the weekend. Thanks to the billionaires in charge, I’m now down a significant amount…well, we’re gonna ride it out y’all…just let me retire when I need to.

No Time Has Passed

I have a new computer. It’s still restoring all the stuff from before. It was at 12% when I went to bed last night and it’s still at 12% this morning, like no time has passed. Granted I feel the same way about the amount of sleep I had last night. I know I went to bed at the appropriate time for whatever time hell we’re in now, but I was still out of bed in the early dark feeling like I hadn’t slept. So maybe the computer feels the same way. It’s gonna be a rough week, for me and the kids.

This weekend was my 58th birthday, and I did my best not to work. There’s some level of having to pay for it during the week, but the week is already a shitshow, so I probably won’t notice much. What did I do? I read, I made art, I went on a short hike. All good.

Simba appreciated it. Maybe.

It was a little closer than I like to be to coyotes, but it reminds us that they are always there.

I did a little ceramics on Friday. I was tired though. There’s a bunch of stuff going on her arms.

Fun times. My glazes came in Friday as well, so that’s hopefully what I’m doing after a two-hour staff meeting after school. Ugh.

Friday night I finished tracing…

Four yards (just under) of Wonder Under. I spent almost 4 hours cutting stuff out this weekend…

And not a lot else honestly.

There are never enough hours in the day. I did a little yard work; I have bulbs to plant. but I quit when I accidentally trimmed a branch with a hummingbird nest and broke two eggs. Mom bird had lots to say about it and I felt (still feel) horrible, so I quit. It’s spring! Don’t kill baby animals. If you can. I was actually trying to avoid another thing that looked like a nest so it felt even worse that I fucked that up.

I had two dinners out, which was nice, and got a pile of books to read and my mom’s stash of silk ribbon, which is fun, so that didn’t make up for the hummingbird babies, but I also found out there’s a grove in Humboldt named after my Great Great Aunt Bertella who was an obstetrician, so we’re totally visiting that over Spring Break.

Government still sucks, if we can call it that. Our National Parks are at stake here. And people’s lives. Sigh.

I am coral. Ok, gotta teach and professionally develop and clay.

Vitreous Not So Humerous

Well good news, I can still see, no surgery (knock on a big piece of wood), and the odds are that in 6 weeks, I won’t have to be low-key stressed about any weirdness in the right eye…besides that bizarre swirling thing that is still there. Yeah. As a visual artist, the thought of losing any eyesight is pretty terrifying. I guess I’d still have clay, but it wouldn’t be the same if you couldn’t see it. My vitreous humor (and perhaps a hefty chunk of my sense of humor) is floating around my eye with wild abandon, occasionally panicking me with “OMG what’s that“ moments, but otherwise, I’m OK. Exhausted but what’s new. My retina is holding strong. All good.

I had to take Monday off because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get in to the doc or what might happen after. I spent a million hours grading this weekend, so I refused to grade after the doc appointments. I try to save the stuff I can do at school so I have some down time at home, so I finished the new quilt drawing, numbered it (just under 700 pieces), and started tracing.

It’s not huge, so I’m hoping I can hit the deadline. Knock on wood.

I’ve already found 7 pieces I didn’t number at all and one number I used twice. Good times.

So maybe not just under 700.

I traced for about 3 1/2 hours on Monday…such a delight.

Then another hour last night…

I’m just under halfway. Realistically I could be done tracing Friday night. Although I still need to input grades. And we don’t have next week planned for school. Minor issue. Not so minor.

I’m also reading two books and trying to decide if I can pull off another show. The proposal has to be done by the 15th, but I need to. Finish at least one of the books first to make the proposal. Some level of insanity going on here…or a reaction to the day job’s grab on my personal life. Hard to say. There’s also about 2 hours of quilting left on this (I try to do a little each night).

My self-imposed deadline is coming up and I’m not going to meet it.

I spent 100 minutes working on hands, knuckles, and fingernails. It was glorious.

I had to persuade the fingers to change shape and direction.

A rare moment of sisterly friendship. Although Nova is doing some side eye.

In case you were wondering how daylight savings might affect you.

Sometimes AI is really stupid. This can lead to sleepiness…

This is too true. Ok today is the end of lunar phases (well, not really) into eclipses, plus desperately trying to plan for next week without interruptions (ha!), then Pilates (gently) and book club. Whoa. Busy night. I finished the book Sunday? I think. I hope. Then tracing some more. Getting grades completed so I can just input Thursday and be done. That’s what I need.

Flashes of Light

God damn what a way to start a Monday! I’m rolling (roughly) on 4 hours of sleep, trying to get an eye doc appointment this morning after a lovely (really it was) ER visit at midnight last night (was it last night or was it fucking today already). Started seeing flashes yesterday , but didn’t realize that’s what I was seeing until I was turning all the lights off to go to bed. SIGH. So I have vitreous detachment, possible retina. Well. Fun times. I’ve been told to stand in the doc’s office until they can see me. I wrote sub plans at 1:30 AM, forgot to request a sub, luckily remembered to email my amazing office staff, who are covering my ass as always. I had a minor panic attack for about oh 3.7 hours before I fell asleep. I’ve messaged the doc team and will call at 8. Meanwhile practicing meditative breathing and trying not to grind my teeth out of my mouth.

This weekend…well, I graded for like 11 hours, plus went to a closing art reception, where I saw my piece, And Then There Was One.

Which I then picked up from the venue on Sunday, the crazy driving day. My bro came and we went to dinner after. It’s been nice seeing him more often. He lives far away and when we are in the same place, he’s often super stressed about having all the kids around etc. but they’re all adults now…very weird.

I did a different drawing Saturday night…

Then enlarged and added it to a drawing from last June…

Like you do. Now I just need to connect them. Long story…decided to try to enter a show, different than the banned book one. Still gonna do that one. Not sure I can pull it off…especially with the eye stuff. Whoops. Not thinking about that right now.

More art of mine in an opening at Shoebox Arts in Los Angeles this weekend…

The drawing in the top left is mine, interpreted in digital collage in top right by Moya Devine. Then her collage is in the bottom left, with my quilt version in the bottom right.

I think I have some animal pix and a meme to finish up, as I wait for the on-call doc to triage my info.

Dog sat Annie this weekend. Bought a new computer because mine went into old age almost dead stage.

Cyclops Luna. Eye on said dog.

This is me. Actually I just ate cereal even though I don’t feel hungry because that’s what you do when you’re a diabetic.

But I can’t jump around or head butt anything because I don’t wanna fuck up my eye.

I have some grading to do and a headache from not enough sleep. Just waiting for a call to go in. Stressful, but at least there’s help to be had. Gotta lot of political stuff in my head too…trying to figure out how best to deal with that. Those two dimwits in the Oval Office with Zelensky reminded me of middle-school gaslighting boys. Deep breaths. Take care of yourselves.

Fan the Seed…

I’m waiting for my photo editing app to restart, so I’m writing without pictures. I’m a visual person and pictures help me write. Ironically, I don’t need pictures to read because my brain makes them while I read. Probably explains a lot about how I make art. I’m in that complicated stage where I’ve been working on the same quilt for MONTHS and I’m almost done and the next one needs to just pop up so I can keep working without going insane. Drawing needs to happen. Drawing is hard. Not really, but having the mindspace for it at the end of a workday is hard. And right now, finding mindspace for anything is hard. Between an idiotic government, school crap, and grading, I’m just not there. But there’s a seed, a hint of an idea for the next piece, which will be constructed differently, so hopefully I can fan that seed into a fire. Wait, that’s not how it works. Or is it?

I spent the weekend in San Francisco with the girlchild, which meant plenty of art and good food and walking. My knees are reminding me of that part. My shoulders/back are kind whack from carrying an over-the-shoulder purse instead of a backpack. Easier in some ways, more complicated in others. I finished one book and started another. I stitched nothing and drew nothing (short flights…it’s hardly worth pulling things out of your bag, because then you’re descending). I graded a little, just enough to keep one nostril above the flood.

The night before I left, I was sewing binding. Sunday night, when I got back, I was sewing binding. Last night, I finally finished binding and got one sleeve and a bit done.

Tonight I finish.

OK, so the trip. Started with my taking pictures of Craig Calderwood murals in the baggage claim area…

There’s some fun airport art out there.

Then the next morning, walking to meet the girlchild for breakfast (my alarm didn’t go off)…

I took a bunch of pictures of murals…maybe some I took last time.

I stayed in the same place. It was quiet last time.

It was pretty quiet this time. Girlchild had a ceramics class in the morning and I was going to tag along and get a day pass and just make a thing while she advanced wheeled.

She made two things…my camera had clay on it by then.

Hence blurriness. But one marbled with two colors. While I made a coil pot.

So that was 2.5 hours, and then I thought class was done, but I looked over and they were all throwing a second pot, so I made something crazy.

Hopefully that neck will hold up. And the wings. We’ll see. I left them both for her to fire and glaze. Like a good mom. We were there a good 90 minutes later than we thought, so our second plan for the day (third?) was out due to closing times, so we met up with a high school friend of mine and a bunch of her family who all know the girlchild.

This was the walk back to change clothes though…

All one mural…

I didn’t even get it all…

Then we walked to the girlchild’s apartment for HER to change…

Lots of walking. It was the Chinese New Year parade, so traffic (even buses) was insane, but we grabbed takeout, walked up a huge hill, and ate in a park.

It was nice to see everyone, though I’d just seen my friend on Sunday (long story).

The next morning, I saw a rainbow across the Mission…

Mostly because it kept raining.

Then we went to the ICA (which is free) for some art.

Some beautiful work about mold and decay by Kathleen Ryan.

Fascinating how real it looks.

Another weirdness in the museum…

Maryam Yousif’s Riverbend pieces…

Ceramic and wood.

Rodney MacMillian’s Untitled (Orange Hills)…

Reminds me of screenprints I made in the 80s…spill and dribble the ink.

Shinique Smith’s Dusk…

There was definitely a lot of fabric going on at ICA…

Anthony Akinbola’s Neopolitan, made of durags.

Fun stuff. Tried to ignore politics, but it’s impossible.

So much stupid.

Oh yeah, I am. I’ll be sitting the SAQA booth on Saturday from 12-2 if you want to stop by. Taking a class, sitting in some lectures, checking out the art. Not sure how all the travel of the season ended up in consecutive weekends (gonna kick my butt), but whatever.

Nice kitty. My kitty bit someone because I wasn’t here to feed her. Hmmm. OK. School. Apparently I gotta go there and do things. Then ceramics. Then grading, the neverending grading. Ugh.

Work Like a Beast…

Hey. This week chilled out a bit. It helped to have a day yesterday not in the classroom. We did a bunch of planning and literacy stuff. We got to go get lunch (and see a former student). We didn’t have to deal with behaviors and bathroom passes and kids with their heads down. It was easier. Interestingly, it meant the two 90-second planks I had to do at pilates were ALSO easier. Sometimes I’m also physically exhausted, not just mentally. I came home after all that and chilled for a bit, made dinner, then graded two more classes of last week’s academic assignment, then quilted. I’m still tired this morning, because I’ve had to be up early for meetings three days running and I (bad girl) didn’t actually go to bed any earlier. You know when you’re setting your alarm and it’s already under 7 hours and you haven’t fallen asleep yet (and that’s an issue for you) that there will be tired. No dog last night at least…he went with the boychild…but sometimes the cats are annoying enough. Bowie just walks right across me and then plops on my legs. Luna starts kneading my (insert any part of body she can touch) with her claws and then licks me. Then Bowie starts to cause trouble when he wants someone to get up and feed him. He scratches at the wall above the bed, starts bopping all the framed art so it bangs against the wall. He’s a not-so-holy terror at times. So I have a 3-day weekend where I’m not going anywhere (much) and I have a to-do list a mile long, but it includes finishing the quilting on this and putting the binding on, and also getting some time in the ceramics studio. I’d like a long walk too please. And reading time.

In case you forget when the holidays are, we get these awesome signs…

OK. I think this sign is in a hallway like 20 kids see. But I like it.

So I was outline quilting on Wednesday night…

And those words took forever.

The backing is a weird fabric.

I totally use leftovers and stuff people have gifted me for backings. No way would I ever use most of this on the front of a quilt. But you can see what the words look like from the back.

Last night, I finally finished the outlining and headed into the background quilting.

Some pieces don’t have much background quilting. This is not one of those pieces. There’s a pretty large area between the figure and the tree and around the tree that needs quilting. It’s gonna take a while. We have a show to go to tonight, so I don’t expect to get much done today. But I have the weekend and I’m gonna get it done and bound. Then I have one I need to do for a deadline. And then I don’t know what I’m going to do. How do you process what’s happening right now? I’m sort of in shock, I guess. I’ve read this book. I know how it ends. I’m not sure how to protest it all, to fight back. There’s too many moving pieces…psychotically moving pieces. And people yelling that this is what we all wanted. Crazy psycho shit. I guess when the MAGA parents of disabled kids figure out that they no longer have help? I don’t know. They won’t have any power by then. Bird flu with a heroin addict in charge? Yeah. Don’t know. Do I need to change the account I pay my tax refund into? Possibly move all that money? Maybe. Shades of Handmaid’s Tale, right? Or Brazil (the movie). Haven’t seen it? Don’t worry, you’re watching it now.

Meanwhile, in my classroom, I got 7 new kids in a week. This is one of them. He’s so not prepared for assessment in 8th-grade science.

He has the start of it…but the cutest Thank you. at the end. One on each slide. Thank you for testing me. Thank you for grading me. Wow. OK. Thanks for all the fish.

Sigh. So we have a parent meeting this morning. For once, it’s not my fault (it’s no one’s fault but the kid for lying and the mom for believing her), but we all have each others’ backs. Then I’m giving another test. My kids were really good with the sub yesterday, so I have candy to pass out. I’m shocked and surprised, but happily so and will thank them. Profusely. Because I’m out two more days this month that they don’t know about. Yet. I don’t know if I should be scared to get on a plane or not right now, but I’m going to hope it’s all OK (that’s next weekend). Certainly there’s a lot of fear AND fear-mongering. After school, I’m going to ceramics to work on arms and think about how to attach a head to this thing. Let alone how to fire it/glaze it. Not thinking about that part. Then home for dinner and a show. Sleep in? Probably not with cats and dogs. Then art, book, hang out with friends, probably have to grade some stuff…a lot of stuff probably. It’ll be fine. Enjoy the weekend and all. Work like a beast for the next 8 hours so I don’t have to do as much of it over the weekend. Yeah. I’d like to draw and hike and do some embroidery…hope I can fit those in too.

Bright Blue Skies

OK. Monday. I see you. You have bright blue skies, you’re not totally freezing (I know, it’s Southern California; we’re never that cold, right?). Today is a day of direct instruction (all on, all day), a 2-hour staff meeting mostly about stuff I already do in my classroom (woo), then hopefully some clay and some sewing. Oh yeah, probably have to grade shit. I spent about 4 or 5 hours yesterday doing that. I should do more. Ha. Always.

Well, in awesome news, SAQA pulled the entire exhibit out of the AQS shows. AND both pieces sold, one to a private collector and one to the International Quilt Museum. I’m glad SAQA finally stood up to the bullies. I wish they’d done it sooner. Hey, IQM, I’ve got work you can acquire! Ha. Hopefully this is a sign for the next four years, of groups and people standing up to the power hungry, the critical, the categorizers, those who can’t let everyone exist without pigeonholing and censoring them. Because there’s a lot of that going on. Sigh. I’m glad the artists got the support they should have.

I went up to Palos Verdes on Saturday with Polly Jacobs Giacchina to a show we’re both in, 9×9 Contemporary Quilts and Containers, curated by Carrie Burckle and Jo Lauria, at the Palos Verdes Art Center. We were blessed by the traffic goddess, so very little of that either direction. We were able to see the show before all the people got there, so we took photos. Both of us got onto the banners, which is awesome.

Apparently just because our art was the right size for them, which made me laugh.

I have 4 pieces in the show…

All right outside the bathroom and at the top of the stairwell. Good viewpoints all.

There were a lot of people at the opening, which was cool. I talked to most of the quilt artists (I only knew some of them), and a bunch of other people who liked my work, which is always a cool thing.

Polly with some of her art…

She sold one…before the show even officially opened! Cool that. It was a long drive, but ultimately good to see the show and get all the kudos. It’s up through the middle of April, if you find yourself in the area. I grew up in LA, and I don’t think I’d ever been to Palos Verdes before. So there’s that.

Quiltwise, I didn’t get much done this weekend. On Friday night, I packed up a quilt and drawing for delivery on Saturday for a show in LA opening in March. I delivered that and bought binding fabric for this quilt, because the store with more choices is only open on Saturdays during non-working hours (they close at 3, y’all). I’ve given up on getting it done and photographed by Friday, so there’s that deadline gone. Oh well. I took a picture of where I was in the outlining when I pulled it off the machine to match binding…

And then I finally got back to the quilting last night. I bought thread too, because I was going to run out. Luckily they had it locally, but I had also bought it online and it arrived Saturday. All good. Plenty of thread now.

Guess I need to check the thread stash at the reopened store near me. I never go there…they never had much I needed before. Maybe they do now?

Sleepy Bowie…

Better than rampaging Bowie.

Oh yeah, ceramics. All but one tiny animal is out of the glaze fire…

My daughter’s trinket dish did not fare well…it is stuck to that cookie. I might be able to get it off. The other tiny animal got clear glaze put on and put back on the glazed shelf for the next firing. The other bowl thing got glazed, but it’s really thick, so I wanted to let it sit a bit and make sure it’s dry. Hopefully I’m going in today to do some actually hands-on clay, so I’ll put it on the glazed shelf too. Then back to the big sculpture! That I started in November and am still working on. Forever.

OK. To school. My coteacher was out Friday and will be out this morning. I have to find the rest of the flashlights during prep and put her lab stations together. Assuming I can find enough flashlights for that. I’m teaching the EM spectrum, mostly how the different wavelengths affect materials, eventually DNA. Which the stupid curriculum does not CALL DNA…it calls it ‘genetic material.’ Sigh. Like make it even harder for kids to figure out. So annoying. Then vocab literacy stuff after school. Then hands-on clay. Then quilting. Oh yeah, I’ll grade. I said that in the first paragraph. I never stop doing that until like June 17. It’s annoying. Oh well. Someday I won’t have to grade anything at all and the world might stop because of it.

Hidden Away…

How is it not Thursday yet? I don’t get it. It feels like Friday and a half. I even looked up the date of the next full moon, trying to find an explanation for the crazy we saw yesterday, and nope, it’s not for another two weeks. Ugh. Today feels long and difficult already. Meeting this morning; I was at the school board meeting yesterday (with 6 people, not counting the actual school board) until after 6 PM. I had to speak briefly about the sex ed committee, and then I listened to the rest, grading the whole time. Then came home and managed to cook dinner and eat it.

The quilt progress is slow. This thing is big and complicated. I finished the stitchdown on Monday night; it took just under 6 hours to do. I love seeing the back of the quilt top at this stage…

And then it gets hidden away inside the quilt sandwich forever. I do actually check for things I’ve missed at this stage too. Although I don’t catch them all sometimes until I’m quilting.

Then last night, exhausted, I found and pieced fabric for the background, cut the batting, washed it, and tossed it into the dryer before I went to bed. Tonight, I’ll sandwich it all.

I’ll have to clean the entryway floor first. So clean floor, iron top, sandwich it, pin it all together. It’s moving, but slowly. Somewhat like me. At least mentally. I managed to cobble together something I worked on in 2023 for the filler day we need at school tomorrow, but we lose our prep periods today for the walk-to-the-high-school thing. Take the kids over there (it’s not super far), have them do the rah rah thing, see all the sports and clubs, talk to people, then try to corral them all back to walk back before 3rd period. My biggest concerns? Well, a couple of kids, but whatever. Also I usually eat and pee during 2nd period. This is important! We’ll figure it out. I had a packet of nuts at school for such emergencies, but I needed it last night at the board meeting. I maybe need to stop at a grocery store on the way to school…if I have time before the meeting.

In other school news, this was deposited on my notebook yesterday. So I recycled it. Ah no, it was the behavior contract of a student who was having a day…and continued having a day. As you can imagine.

It was rough for the rest of us as well.

So bee/owl box update. I noticed the bees were ‘gone’ the other day/night, so I pulled the box off, and then had the boychild help me move it about 15 feet away, with the plan to install the new one the next evening. I figured they’d left to find a better place to hang out. Went to install the new one and saw this.

Um. Guys. It’s over there. So yeah. Not sure what this was about. Where were they the night before? Anyway. So. When bees swarm on an unprotected spot, they usually leave within 48 hours, so we waited. We also cleaned out the old owl box and found what looked like possibly 1 or 2 baby skeletons (matches up to the two separate babies I heard last year), and what looked like part of an adult. Bigger feet, adult feathers still attached to part of a wing.

Baby on the left? Maybe? Barn owls aren’t actually that big. I know it just looks like a pile of feathers and stuff, and now that carcass on the left has been dragged off by something last night. I knew that would probably happen. There were still some bees in the owl box, but not much honeycomb…not enough for them to have killed the barn owl (they can do that apparently) back in spring, when I last heard the second baby, and then built a hive. It’s all very strange. ANYWAY. Last night, the bees were gone off the pole, so we’re gonna try again. I have a bee repellant spray that is supposed to be arriving today that I’m going to spray on the pole and around the owl box. It’s natural, not poisonous. I was trying to get a natural bee repellant I could put inside the box, but it’s not an easy thing to find in California. It’s late for mama to be building a nest, but I can hope.

This is the 2nd tree in the Sue Spargo Rooted quilt. I started the embroidery during book club on Monday.

Actually, no, I started the embroidery in my Allied Craftsmen meeting on Saturday. Embroidery is not fast, y’all. But it’s relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing…

Bowie at 8 months (9?) is almost as big as his aunties. He is still being a teenager, harassing everyone in the house. My old lady cat does not like him and lets him know that…and she has a new scratch on her nose that is probably from him. He’s very curious and wants to know about her, but she’s not having it. I’m carrying her out of her cubby in my room to the food and the litter tray, but she does come out without me sometimes.

OK, besides the walking tour of the local high school, the rest of the day, we’re reading about light rays and writing about them. Fun times. Then pilates and hopefully installing the owl box. Then sandwich and pinbaste the damn quilt. After washing the floor. It’s a lot.

Most of the Time…

Bless the Fridays for they come once a week and release us from 12-hour days. Mostly. This weekend is overly busy, although it was supposed to be 3 meetings, and it went down to 2, and one is on Zoom, so I can do school stuff at the same time. Good thing. I have a run of busy weekends coming up, mostly because of art and/or quilting, so hopefully good times, but also increases stress because lots of driving etc. Hard to keep up on school stuff when I lose chunks of the weekend, because some chunks of the weekend, I just have to sit and read with a cat. Last night, after a 12-hour day (well, 15 minutes short of that), I sat and read with a cat. Finished one book and started another…

Nice sleepy Bowie. I finally ate dinner at 9 and did some ironing. The night before, I worked on my friend’s mom’s quilt, finishing up all the white background quilting so I could take it off the machine at a good stopping point…

There’s a border around the edges that needs quilting still, and the kokopeli in the middle needs background quilting, but otherwise, I’m getting there. I just need to get my quilt done.

I pieced the backing on Wednesday night…

Dark and impossible to photograph. Fun times. Last night, I got everything tacked down in the right place with the iron…

And tonight, I’ll make sure it’ll all stay stuck until I stitch it down.

Some steamy ironing action. Exciting Friday night. It is exciting, actually, to see her ironed onto fabric. When I’m ironing it together, the teflon sheet is light colored, so I can’t really get the effect of it all until this stage. Hopefully tonight I’ll start stitchdown too, although the ironing will probably be another hour. We’ll see how much energy I have.

I saw this on the way to work yesterday…had to think about it, analyze it…

Do they shoot people in wheelchairs? Ah no…they are a disabled person with a gun. Splendid. Big red truck, driving like an asshole, but it’s OK…they’ve got guns. (Kathy changes lanes)

Today in school, Nida will be teaching vocab in a high-energy manner (will she though? She will. She doesn’t know where it will come from, but she’ll find it). Then making kids write, using those vocab words (it’s like she’s insane, doesn’t even know it’s a Friday), and then make them take notes about light and how it works. Sounds fun. My headache started before I got up, by the way. Our weather has been warm during the day and super dry (hence the fire south of us), but tomorrow, we’re supposed to get much-needed rain (fuck you, fire). That rain is coming just when I’m supposed to be walking across Balboa Park to a meeting, but that’s fine. I’ll take it. Put the damn fires out and water the fucking plants. Plus make it so my hair stops being so staticky. Fucking hate that. OK, wait, I hate other things more, but in the moment, my hair in its flyaway annoying state makes me want to scream, and it doesn’t help that my government leaders are a joke. So there’s that. But hopefully I’ll have the energy to go to ceramics after school, then cook dinner, then finish the ironing. Will there be some reading with a cat at some point? I can pretty much guarantee that will happen. I’m not insane, y’all…most of the time.

On the Next Step…

January is flying by. It always does. So does February with its built-in shortness and double holiday whammy (for us anyway). Then March lasts for 3 months. It’s weird that way. Having a Monday off is nice; it gives me some extra rest/relaxation time, although I mostly suck at that, unless you count reading, which I do. And making art, which I totally do. I’m progressing on all art fronts, although slowly…which is fine. If I don’t hit deadlines, and I probably won’t…let’s be realistic…it’s not the end of the world. So…I’m still working on my friend’s mom’s quilt…I’m more than halfway, but there’s still a good chunk to do. I’m going to have to pull it off the machine tonight though so I can piece the backing for the final iron down, and then stitchdown after. I’ll do another 30 minutes on the background before I do that though.

The art quilt I’m working on is getting there…I ironed half the tree parts Monday night…

The tree goes from winter to spring to summer to fall (right to left)…so last night, I ironed summer and fall…

And then the last two little bits…the spaceship…

And a catronaut.

Castronaut? sounds painful. Anyway, on the dark background, she’ll show up just fine. Although she has kind of some disco tendencies too. I think. Tonight, I’ll piece the background and iron the whole thing down. Hopefully.

I have a piece in a show at Road to California in Ontario, CA, this weekend. It’s part of the SAQA SoCA/NV chapter’s New Pieces.

It is apparently at waist height. Hmmm. I apologize now for you having to bend over to see the details. I don’t enter Road any more because the lighting and hanging aren’t great, but this was my group and I wanted to be supportive. I feel like they need to accept fewer pieces and hang them with space between and not double hang. But I didn’t hang the show…so there we are. Also, there’s boobs and a uterus, so that will make some people clutch their pearls. I’m OK with that. I’m not going to make it up there…I have two art meetings already this weekend. It’s messy.

I went to clay on Monday and got more details put on the upper torso and started arms.

Still not entirely sure how I will dry/fire arms, but it’s in progress.

I do like the heart and lungs though. So far.

Side view, she’s leaning a little further forward than I’d like. I have to store the two pieces separately due to the size of shelves. The bottom is mostly drying and the top is mostly mushy still, so it’s a challenge. I haven’t even figured out the head yet. I need more clay and the boss has been away at a conference. I don’t actually have anywhere to store the clay, although someone in my shelves is storing it all on the ground. Which they told me was not OK, fire marshally stuff, also I can’t reach my shelf due to all the crap on the ground. Minor issue. I’ll be back there on Friday and hopefully get more clay. Or? Not sure. I was expecting her to be there Monday unfortunately. That does mean I’ve used almost 20 pounds of clay in this so far, minus a few things the girlchild and I made. Fun times.

I’m reading Swordheart by T. Kingfisher…I find it amusing.

Sometimes I chortle out loud even…

Lizards sounds painful.

I grew two bell peppers this summer. I waited too long to harvest them, of course.

I don’t mind feeding the animals…

This is the new government by the way…

So first of all, I’ve never heard of large and small cells to define egg and sperm. I’m not sure why they didn’t use those words (because they are scary???). Second of all, they are idiots. If only it were that simple. But it’s not. I have a 3-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting tomorrow at the district and a prep-time meeting tomorrow. Sigh. I’m tired of being in charge of things, but I honestly can’t trust the world to be smart about this stuff. I’m still off the regular social media. Still trying not to watch the crazy-making shit. Except I saw a conversation between teachers about what to do when ICE shows up on school campuses. Sigh. And our Newcomer population is growing crazily, mostly I think because they’re desperately trying to get here before they’re not allowed to. Such a hateful government. Really disappointing.

With that, I’m low-fi teaching today…just means I’m not directly teaching. It’s review. And finish the things. Tomorrow is an academic assignment. I’m really trying to be mostly hands off this week. Last week was all on, and it was tiring. OK, not gonna lie, but yesterday was also tiring. Ah well. Last night, I had a hard time falling asleep and then once I was finally there, kaboom! Cat fight under the bed. Fun times. Loud. Someone was pissed off. And then the little cat (who is not so little anymore) was up and about before my alarm went off. Squirrely bastard. Pilates after school (already tired)…then quilting, ironing the whole thing down, and hopefully starting stitchdown. We’ll see how that goes. Good to be onto the next step.