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.

They All Change…

OK. So this week has gone from 109 degrees to a delightful 77 or so. The Man replaced the ceiling fan. School has been…interesting. It’s fine. Lots of chaos. Like give us a bunch of kids and have us get to know them and then keep adding new ones and taking away some of them as all their school attendances adjust, and then about 4 weeks in, upend the whole mess and create a new section, which unbalances every single classload in that grade level, and then, probably, y’all will do it again with the Newcomer kids who are coming into general education classes because they have graduated out of that program…but wait another two weeks before you do that, so we have chaos all over again.

Every year. So you figure your classes out and how they work and then they all change. And you’ve done rules and expectations and how things work in this class and then it all changes again. It’s frustrating. It makes the first 6 weeks difficult. But do grades! And independent study contracts! And do them now and fast. Because the kids won’t actually do the work, and they’ll lie about it, because they’re kids. Fun times.

I have not figured out the balance yet.

That said, I finished the little quilt, which will get photographed and get a name. I had it on a post-it note somewhere, and probably a cat ate it. Or a dog. We have both.

I just had a tiny binding and tiny sleeves to sew on.

Simba is entirely unhelpful. So were Nova and Bowie, who tried to climb either on the quilt or on my lap or both last night.

Until Simba won the position.

Cute little thing. About war. So many not so cute. And possibly already maybe sold? I don’t have a price yet and I can’t remember if it has to be for sale for the show I’m sending it to (I don’t think so…I think that’s the other show I shipped to recently). So photographer tomorrow, just in time.

What’s next? A giant drawing of my own choice plus finishing up quilting on two other quilts, one for me, one for a friend, and then some clay stuff that needs fabric. Coolio.

I got to stitch with friends last night…this is the second flower of five…

And no, I’m still not done with it. It takes forever. It’s cool when it’s done. And I like the process. But forever.

Bowie in low-energy mode.

Unlike at 6 AM this morning. Woke up everyone except the Man.

OK. Gotta go to school. It’s Friday the 13th. Can’t be worse than last Friday with its multitude of fights? Right? It probably can. But it’s cooler, so maybe it won’t be. Clay this afternoon. Shit ton of grading to do. Art thing tonight. The Man has a show tomorrow night at the Music Box (sort of; it’s on the street outside). I need a ride to the trolley station in the afternoon, because I’m not trying to park down there. I am tired. I want to read my book. Instead, I will go teach football with regard to Newton’s Laws. Or Newton’s Laws with regard to football? Not sure. One of those.

Dead Fan…

It’s finally cooling off…a week of ugh. And our bedroom ceiling fan died yesterday. So that was fun. I kamikazed over to Home Depot after school and bought a new one, but the Man will be installing it today, so we found one of those tower fans in the house (there’s like three of them) and put it on a dresser to keep the bedroom cool last night. The house does not release heat easily after a heat wave. My office here is still 88 degrees; it’s much cooler outside. But soon…it will cool off. At least the fan made it through the worst of the heat.

The quilting on this little piece took forever. I ripped out so much…I think because it’s small and any mistake is much more obvious? Or I was tired at the end of the day and didn’t stitch as well? I don’t know. I got all the outlining done Tuesday night and barely started the background…

I had the right color of thread. Miraculous really. And last night, I finished quilting…

And I trimmed it up, ready for binding. Which I’ll need to do quickly if I want it photographed before the deadline and shipping. It jumped up on me! Deadlines do that. I have a bunch of bits and pieces I want to do after that, while I draw the new big quilt. Which I drew in my head during the MRI on Saturday. Results came back fine, nothing that explains the visual disturbance. So good news, still no brain tumor or infarcty thing or blockage they can see. Bad news, they still don’t know what it is and they’ve run out of tests to do. So. There we are. It’s there, it’s not going anywhere for now, and I will be living with it. I realized as I was driving last night that nighttime is where it annoys me the most. I was trying to see where to turn into a road and the little swirly thing was right in the way. Frustrating. But in the larger scheme of things, better than cancer or MS or a seizure disorder or any of the other crap they kept throwing at me. A migraine that doesn’t hurt and will never go away. Except it’s not a migraine. Whatever. Moving on. Well, first make a quilt about it and everything else.

I’ve noticed people like quilts about one discrete issue, not many issues. Ah well. ‘Tis not how my brain works.

One of the shows I went to on Saturday was at the R.B. Stevenson Gallery in La Jolla for my friend Jeanne Dunn’s solo show Forest Bathing.

That’s her in the middle and the infamous Anna Stump on the right. I realized later that her new work kind of reminds me of Dr. Suess and the Lorax (I guess the trees?). But it’s very bright, colorful, and fun. Apparently this piece has a fourth panel…

My favorite part is the DNA tree there in the yellow. Jeanne works hard at her art and is a sweet person…glad to see her getting shows and selling stuff!

More pieces from the Techne Art Center show…

By Gail Wagner…

Interesting cyanotypes by Annalise Neil…

Rhonda Anderson…

These intriguing sculptures by Reginald Green…

They are listed as ceramics and mixed media…

Very colorful.

Ellen Dieter’s work is there too…

I’ll post some more next time. It’s a nice show…lots to look at. I strongly suggest you check it out.

Kitten is moving uber slow these days, but this piqued her interest…

She’s moved down onto the floor with the heat. It might be that she can’t get up on the table any more. She’s pretty stiff moving. Much like me after sitting too long.

This shit.

My school board may flip this way soon. It’s certainly trying to. Assholes.

Yesterday’s weird really red morning sun. Pretty sure there are fires out there causing this…

The smoke from the Line Fire in Riverside maybe? Scary fires in LA right now.

Oh, I did work on ceramics, on my mug, on Monday. I was tired and forgot half my materials, so I just carved for an hour.

Sometimes that’s all I have in me. I’m going to add more underglaze colors to it. If I remember to take the glaze box with me on Friday.

I found this interesting feather yesterday…

So polkadotty.

The last of the science lab apples…this was was truly trashed by Period 1, who didn’t realize I needed it to last all day and poked way too many holes in it (it’s used as a battery for one of the energy stations).

I went through 6 apples…and composted all of them afterwards. Poor things. Glad those stations are done; although they are cool…they are a pain in the ass for the teacher.

OK. Today. Test for the kids. Ha! Fun times. Finishing our first unit. Tons of grading to do, but glad to move onto the next one. I need to make 5 seating charts today, grade a bunch of homework, finish an academic assignment, finish vocab slides (I got next week’s done at least), and survive a union meeting. Ugh. Plus hopefully get a new fan in the bedroom (it’s still warm in there, really warm), take the trash out, and read my book. And put binding on this quilt! Because now I’m committed to delivering it to the photographer. So that’s a thing. It’s cool. I don’t know why it feels like the first two days of school is a week’s worth, but it does. How is it only Wednesday? Yeah. Well. OK. Off I go.

Melting

OK, there’s always a hot run of days in September and hopefully that was it…well, today is supposed to only be 102 degrees (yesterday maxed out at 109? I think? My car said 116…but then cooled down to 109)…so that’s today as the last day…95 tomorrow and then back down into the 80s…might need a sweater for that. This is the time every year when I think about air conditioning, but it’s so damn expensive to install and run, and I never have money in September because I don’t get paid all summer. So it doesn’t happen and next September, it’ll be hot again for a run of days that will feel awful. Definitely a cycle. At least I will be at work today, which has air conditioning. The old cat is not having a great time of it…neither is the furry dog. It also messes with my ability to get shit done. And I broke my no-work-weekend rule in a big way because I was so freakin’ far behind in grading. Sigh. I’m frustrated.

I was really hoping I’d be done quilting by now, it’s such a small piece, but no, the machine and/or me…there were issues and I had to rip stuff out, which I rarely do. I pinbasted Friday night…took a very short amount of time.

Quilted badly on Saturday night…apparently took no pictures of that…ripped last night and quilted some more.

Seriously this thing is so small…but there is some fussy quilting in there…drawing peace signs in thread. I should be able to finish it tonight…hopefully I have something that will work in the background. Then bind it.

I had an MRI on Saturday of my brain and neck…still trying to figure out the weird visual thing I see…eye doc calls it a visual disturbance, neurologist calls it a hallucination. Hmmm. Great. ANYWAY. It was 45 minutes in the thing and I drew (in my head, the one being scanned) an entire full-size drawing for the next big quilt. About my brain. And the boob. So much health crap. Mostly turning out OK or unknown. Unknown is stressful. But it’s not changing or getting bigger. Whatever the fuck it is. Alien spider in my head. So now I need to draw it in real life. I also started drawing (again, in my head) the banned book piece, which still pisses me off, because there’s censorship there of some sort. I’m just going to make what I want and let it be rejected if need be. Whatever.

I underglazed the girlchild’s boot vase on Friday…

It’s cute…it’ll be darker when fired…

The Man had a wedding to play at on Saturday…he was gone for like 14 hours.

Luckily they were at the beach, but it was still hot…

I drove past where he was twice on the way to and from art openings. One was in Oceanside at the Techne Art Center, a newer gallery space. The show was Flora and Fauna and I think it was all Oceanside Museum of Art Artist Alliance people? Which I am now a free member of for a year because of the Allied Craftsmen show there. Which is cool. I’ll post a few pictures from the show today and more the rest of the week.

Susan Osborn had four pieces? I think. She is a member of FIG with me, which was why I was originally going up there, for the FIG members.

There are probably names of pieces somewhere. There was a price list that I scanned and then my phone disappeared it unfortunately. Ah yes, this is Trees and Ladders.

There’s more! There was a lot of interesting artwork in the show. Totally worth it; just be warned that either there is no A/C or it wasn’t working. I’ll post more later this week.

Boychild left Sunday for 6 weeks of firefighter training in the Merced area. He left his lint roller.

The dog will miss him. We will too, but not as much as the dog. He ate my leftover pasta before he left…I was going to eat it Saturday night. Ah well.

Our barn owl was quite vocal and local on Saturday night…

No fear of me and the flashlight…

Right next to the house. Beautiful animal.

This one lost his balls but has not really slowed down much…

Very kitteny.

Grading yesterday.

Hmmm. These kids…wish their parents would talk to them more about their futures, but I get it. Like fuck jobs and paychecks, right?

Anyway. I need to go to school. This week is pretty chill in the classroom…well, for me anyway. Only one day of labs this week. Thank goodness. The kids are finishing up a bunch of stuff, but hopefully I’ll find time to grade things while they’re doing that. Hope. Hope. Hope. So that I don’t have to bring it home with me. Friday was three physical altercations (two I was involved with) in the last hour of school. It was a lot. I need that not to happen today.

I’m going to ceramics after school, after the staff meeting about literacy that I found really frustrating to prep for, because I’m not an English teacher and testing for fluency is not something I’ve practiced. I get how to do it, mostly, but the fussy little mark-it-this-way or that-way shit is not in my wheelhouse…and I’m not entirely sure it should be. I have two new kids today, right before an assessment. Poor things. And a kid that was kicked out to the language classes and then kicked back to us (OMG, test him before you do all that shit), so he missed all the labs last week, but did them the week before. Not sure WTF to do with him. Sigh. It’s all that fussy little shit that takes us down. And hopefully finish quilting tonight and pick a binding and do that. But right now? I still have a headache, probably from the heat, so I’m going to take meds, make more tea, and get the fuck out of here.

Heat

Feels like Hades here…and yes, I know Arizona is hotter and so are parts of the Middle East, but I choose not to live there. And yes, this happens every freakin’ September, sometimes August, sometimes October, but it never feels good when it happens. I am glad to be working because there is A/C at work, so at least I get a little respite from the heat, but then it’s crazy there, so there’s that. Actually, mostly the labs and kids have been doing OK…there’s just been some outbursts (like literally sound coming out of mouths in ways I did not need to deal with)…although my co-teacher had broken glass. Oh wait, I had that too. We’re down a radiometer. Again. Every year. I need a plastic one. Or a sturdy childproof one. Yes, these are 13-year-olds. No, they are not gentle with things. Or people. Plus it’s hot. Did I mention that? I haven’t been able to get a lot of schoolwork done at home with the heat. I suspect I will need to just take my computer somewhere airconditioned tomorrow to grade. The library? Somewhere that serves caffeine…good caffeine. Will have to think that through.

I finished ironing the piece down to the background…a light one for once.

I do like me a dark background, but there were enough dark things in this that I didn’t think it would work. Last night, I stitched the whole thing down…

Yes, I stayed up a little too late to do it.

Now she’s ready to sandwich, pinbaste, and quilt. Which I could also probably do in a night, except I need to do some embroidery too. I might do that before I sandwich it. I don’t know. I’ll decide sometime today.

The plan is to (1) survive labs today (no outbursts or demands to be reseated or to go to the bathroom when you haven’t done any work). (2) Set up classroom for next week. (3) Go to ceramics. It’s OK…it was supposed to be 105 degrees and now it will only be 102. It’ll probably be 90-something in the studio, but if no one else is there (and why the fuck would they be on such a hot day), I can find all the fans and point them at me. Then the Man and I are going out to dinner, because he has a wedding to play at tomorrow (no fucking way am I going to a wedding), so he’ll be gone from 10:30 AM to probably 1 in the morning, maybe later. I, however, have to pick up some art from Liberty Station, get my brain and neck scanned (2nd brain scan in 6 months…fun times), and go to two art openings…that part is cool except they are miles away. It’ll be fine. It will ALL be fine. I’m hoping to have an hour or two between the MRIs and the art openings to grade stuff. Because I didn’t do it yesterday or today or the day before because it was too hot and I mentally couldn’t. But realistically, I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull that off. I’m also keeping an eyeball on my old kitty and this heat. She’s not a fan. She also HAS a fan…in my office, that I am keeping on at this point to try to cool this room off. She’s cranky as shit, keeps trying to bite me, but doesn’t have it in her. Because old. And hot. Poor thing. So we’ll see.

Wednesday night’s book club, I did a little stitching.

Still doing the inner borders of Homegrown. It’s not difficult, but it’s not fast. And I haven’t been doing a lot of it because school. Sucks up time.

OK. So yeah. Hot today but mostly gonna be inside. With kids who wear sweatshirts and sweatpants when it’s over 100 degrees out. Some of these kids are funny and kind and amusing and a little weird. As always. I feel like we have more of those this year, and I appreciate that. Some of them are not those things. And some suck up a lot of my energy. That was yesterday. So hopefully today is better. One can only hope. And then be pleased or disappointed. Or accepting. Because it’s like this every year, right? I also have to do some fluency/literacy thing. I recorded the kids reading, but I’m supposed to mark this form in some weird archaic way that makes sense if you were trained to teach kids to read, which I wasn’t. So it’s just more work for me. And kind of silly, really. But whatever. Looking forward to some art time and reading time (I wish I could read during an MRI…I wonder if they can put in my audiobook?). And just not being at school for a few days…although it is airconditioned. Hmmm.