There were all these things I was waiting for info about on Friday and absolutely NONE of them were solved on Friday (of course), but they all came in by this morning. Ugh. I know I sign up for some of this, but then I second-guess myself, and now I will be dealing with it. Also, this is like school schedule, except a little tighter. I like a leisurely morning of shower, feed all the animals, eat and wake up, drink the tea, then drive to work and function. Well this week, it’s that, minus the drive to work. And I don’t really want to wake up an hour earlier to give my brain time, because that feels even more awful, so I’m going to do professional development on very little sleep and probably a lot of tea. Although it’s unknown if I am allowed to get up from my chair and MAKE tea or, possibly more importantly, pee, so I may not have more tea, unless it magically appears. That would be a useful superpower, y’all.
So I have 11, no 10 minutes, to finish this, my breakfast, taking my meds, making a backup cup of tea? Is that a thing? It could be a thing.
I’ve been drawing…it was going slowly and then Art Brain kinda kicked in yesterday. On Saturday night, I had a bunch of penciled-in stuff…
Basically, I did a bunch of Supreme Court Justice research the night before and then started drawing their faces. Didn’t finish. Faces are hard.
And what to do UNDER their faces is also hard. But at some point on Sunday, things started to solidify…
Sometimes drawing is easy. Sometimes it’s a slog. It’s been a lot of slog. You can see on the right side that there is still some thinking happening. There’s pedestals with just words and nothing else. It’s OK…the brain is processing.
Ugh. I don’t think I can finish this before I need to be in my Zoom class. I get a 15-minute break at some point…hopefully I can pee outside of those breaks? Things teachers constantly have to think about. Sigh. Although my mailperson the other day needed to pee really really bad as she was getting postage due from me. So there’s that. OK, back in a while, not that you’ll notice.
Yeah. Ugh. Not awake. Listened to a lot of talking. It’s hot in that part of the house, where the internet is consistent. In here is not so bad. Ten degrees cooler. This was my workspace yesterday.
Today there is a computer there.
Nova likes UNDER.
My new workspace bookshelf for stacking shit. My whole house is a repository for stacking shit.
Reading Margaret Atwood short stories…this is about pre-cellphone times.
“Space-time is denser.” True that. OK, so gotta go back to the computer for another two hours before I’m allowed a longer break. Fun stuff. Still need to find a rubberband. They didn’t tell me I’d need a rubberband.
Um I still don’t know what day it is. Problematic sometimes. I’m pretty sure I have a class all next week and will need to keep track. Challenge for Sunday night, whenever that is.
It’s been hot here, if that helps explain it. Not even as hot as it often gets, more often in September than July, but hot enough to sap energy and brainpower. I’ve finished one quilt and started another. Although I may toss another one in the middle…still thinking about an October deadline. Because the one I’m drawing will be relevant no matter what. Unfortunately.
So I did go buy binding, but my dryer still isn’t fixed…so this is currently set up in the driveway for laundry…
Luckily that warm weather means things dry pretty much instantly. And no, I didn’t just buy the binding fabric. I don’t know how to do that.
Wednesday night, I got the binding sewn on and started the hand sewing, which I find very meditative.
I spent most of Thursday stabbing my middle finger with a tiny needle. But also got the binding done and used that laundry drying rack for a photo…
This weekend, hopefully it will be off to the photographer.
I had already done some preparatory drawings for the next quilt. I copied it at 250 and 300%, then taped it together. I knew I didn’t want to use it as is, but as a draft, so I cut paper for the actual drawing and laid that over the drawing. My computer is tuned to the SAQA Art in Place conference going on this weekend. Some great info about artist residencies and how artists work. I’ve enjoyed the videos, although it was hard to concentrate on drawing while listening to this.
I did some tracing and some drawing last night…still thinking and processing how I want to picture things.
So it might change again. A lot. Who knows.
The Torrance Art Museum posted this picture of the upcoming show Art & Med, opening July 22 from 6-9 PM.
I’ll be at the opening. My piece is on the right side.
Cat antics…Luna doesn’t like the heat.
And Nova is a little whack.
Bee update…they did finally leave.
I waited a day and then scraped the honeycomb off and then cleaned it with hot water and soap to hopefully remove the pheromones that attract them.
Boychild is at a fire up in Riverside again.
So it’s still hot this week coming up. I’m hoping to get the drawing to the ink stage, at least, or getting there. It’s big. I don’t like NOT working on something, so yes, I’m not taking a break. It’s summer so the other options are yardwork and housework. Eh. Screw that. Make art.
You know, as a teacher, I often put off repairs until I have a break from school, just because the time and effort (and sometimes need to wait around for a professional) isn’t something I can do during the school year. So I’m sitting here waiting on a dryer professional because we tried to fix it and the Amazon part failed almost immediately. It’s OK. I haven’t had a working dryer since June 25th or so. It’s hot and dry here, so we can put things out on the line. It sucks for towels, but works for everything else. At least this isn’t happening during the school year, right? Meanwhile, the house requires other fixes and improvements and I’m trying to get those taken care of. Broken and leaking hose faucets, need to replace some lattice pieces, plus putting in a pathway. At the moment, though, I’m dealing with a bee swarm issue. They gathered in the backyard composter while I was gone, but I managed to get one of the guys responsible for my stuff to pull the lid off and they left. They didn’t go far…to the composter in the front yard, and by the time I noticed (and was home, honestly), they were pretty well established. I waited until nighttime and pulled the lid off, hoping they’d leave…but it’s been over 36 hours and they are still there. Sigh.
That might be more money out of pocket for the summer. When I don’t get paid. Fun stuff. I do have a possible copyediting project coming up, but it will only pay for the dryer fix. Which is insane and annoying, but whatever. I’m also doing a professional development next week that will give me a chunk of money, but I don’t know when I’ll get paid for that. Probably the end of September. That’s the way it usually goes.
I needed to get this quilt done this week. So I got the quilting started on Sunday night and finished yesterday.
The outlining wasn’t too hard…
The background…well, I started with a super tiny filler background and then had to continue with that. It wasn’t too bad…
But it took longer than I thought it would…
It took a little over 4 hours for the stitchdown and a little over 8 hours to quilt it.
I finished around 6 PM last night, so I didn’t have time to buy binding. I don’t have enough of anything here to bind it with. So I need to go buy fabric today. As soon as I finish this and the retirement webinar I’m listening to. And then wash the fabric and hang it up to dry. It’ll dry fast today…supposed to be in the 90s.
But it also meant a minor moment of “holy shit what am I working on next!?”. Don’t panic. I already sort of know what I’m doing, but I need to copy and enlarge an existing drawing that needs major reworking, but it’s a start. Also gonna do that today. It’ll be a big one.
I’ve been doing some of this each evening…
These blocks are complicated, but I enjoy the stitching.
I also did some stitching on this…it’s been sitting around for YEARS…
All the things need to be stitched down. These are from Anna Maria Horner’s applique packages. I like the freedom of just randomly cutting bits out and putting them together. I have a ton of them and I am lame about getting them done. Limited time to make things…I have to make decisions about priorities. And the big art quilts get that priority.
It’s gecko season.
Nova loves this time of year.
Love this tree…
Don’t have room for another tree on this property.
Yeah this is me. I should rethink it. I’ve been living in shorts and just transitioned into no sleeves…I was holding out because of my laundry issues. Today, underwear is an issue. Sure, I could just buy more, but that would mean storing more. Trying not to do that. It’s fine. The boychild is here and can help me put the laundry dryer rack out. It’s heavy. For now, I’ve got another 30 minutes of this webinar (my brain is exploding, but I think I have my retirement date…even though I will need to continue to work after that), and then I get to commune with fabric and maybe my book…speaking of books, while I was quilting, I was listening to a book on Audible (I suck at this…have to rewind pretty continuously) AND reading a book on the iPad. I don’t usually do two books at a time because confusion happens between stories, but it seemed to work in this situation. This task is this book. Everything else is the other book. So yeah.
Read, bind, launder. Don’t think about work.
Amusingly, I walked away from this and forgot to post it…so most of the errands are done, but one that wouldn’t fit in my car…and I forgot the other one, so I’m gonna go do it now. It’s hot.
So I have about 27 minutes to write this. Not really true. I have 27 minutes (26) before I need to leave, and I like to finish things before leaving. We’ll see how that goes.
We got back Friday afternoon, the most trouble-free trip I’ve ever taken. Uber, then light rail, easy TSA, flight was not delayed, flight was easy, got off, picked up baggage right away, walked out front, and there were my parents, ready to pick us up. No problems on the way home, walked in the front door. Ahhh. It’s nice when it works out.
I managed to do some stitchdown on Friday night…
Kitten spoke to me clearly about how she felt about my being gone for so long…
Not pleased. Saturday I had a short meeting that I stitched through…
I feel like I will never finish this.
Then it was the Man’s birthday and he wanted a short hike/walk and dinner with a good burger, so we wandered through some trails I’d never been on at Balboa Park…
Had dinner at the Balboa (good burger, weird drunk guy)…
Selfies are not something we’re good at…
But this one wasn’t bad. Getting older and having birthdays is weird. This one was pretty quiet and chill. He says he was OK with that. I get it. Plus we’d been gone for a while and were just tired.
There was a confused bird…probably a fledgling or a mom trying to take us away from the nest…
I stitched more that night and got close to the end, but finished it up Sunday afternoon.
The last views of the back…
Before it gets shut up into the quilt…
A reminder of the line drawing…
Then I pieced a backing, found the batting, and had to clean a floor and wait for it to dry. So I cooked a complicated dinner that I never have time/energy to cook during the school year, but that I like to eat, then watched a show with that and finished one June Homegrown block…
And started another…
I finished about 1 1/2 blocks on the trip, compared to the 7 I brought with me (wishful thinking). I also brought 4 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of jeans, a pair of leggings, and a sweatshirt that I never wore. Plus a pair of shoes I only wore once. It is what it is. You never know.
After dinner, I laid it all out, sandwiched…
And pinbasted it.
It’s not a particularly big quilt, because I had a deadline.
And then I started quilting it last night.
My goal is to finish quilting today, bind it tomorrow, have it done Wednesday. We’ll see how that goes. Then turn those two Supreme Court drawings into something usable. Combined with what’s in my head.
Sleepy Kitten. But first, I have to pee a puppy and go to lunch with a friend, and maybe figure out a dog walk in the afternoon. We’ll see. Certainly the dog needs it. I probably do too.
Hey. It’s Friday. But it’s not a work week for me, so what does that mean? Not much, except for the people around me who are working are doing their stuff, so I guess that affects me. It’s a nice place to be finally, although yesterday tested my summer break self on the first day I actually felt like I was on break. It’s still all up in my head, so I’m going to do my best today to dispel it and do the things I want to do.
The quilt is progressing, although let’s just ignore yesterday, because progress yesterday was nil, nada, nichts, nothing.
The previous day, I sorted all the pieces…
Super fast when there are only 500 and something of them. Then I started ironing it together…
As always, although my numbering seemed logical at the time, in reality, it’s a clusterfuck. I can’t fit all the background swirls on at the same time, so I did most of the 0-100s and then laid out the 100s for the next bit, but that was where I got tired and couldn’t do any more. And last night was not conducive to doing any art, so hopefully today will be a million times better, because I wanted to be further along than this.
Part of yesterday’s issue is that I took the dogs out for a 3-mile hike to try to tire them out before a Zoom call I needed to be on (mostly the puppy was the issue, but it turned out that Simba barked during the whole thing).
It was a nice walk, not too hot, mostly breezy.
The dogs were much better after the first mile.
Although trying to keep the puppy on her side was an issue. We were all tired when we got back, but Annie did sleep for most of the Zoom, so that was good.
Yes. On the bed. Where else? Oh yeah, also here.
After that, things just kinda went downhill. So I’m not focusing on all that doom and gloom (except I say that and my brain doesn’t like to leave those things alone), It’s not the end of the world. Everything will be OK in the end. We’ll all be dead in the end, actually, but it should get better significantly before that. Meanwhile, I’m on break and I don’t have to think about all the things right now. There are books to read and wontons to make.
The girlchild made it to San Francisco, by the way…here are the two days with her dad helping.
If you want to know about the crickets, Google Ekko, Nevada. Then be glad you’re not there. She went into her job in person finally (she’s been on Zoom for weeks) yesterday. Big changes. She needs to find a real place to live and get settled. Easier said than done, yeah? Her dad comes back today to pick up the puppy. We get two days off from extra dogs, and then my parents’ dog comes while they are in Seattle (and coincidentally, me too…wait, not a coincidence…my nephew is graduating from high school). So I won’t be here for most of Katie’s visit.
Find the cat.
Nova has not been thrilled about Annie’s visit. Luna has chased Annie down the hall two or three times, so she’s living her real thug life, but Nova is just hiding.
OK. Shower. Make wontons (my reward for existing right now). Eat wontons. Save some for later. Pick up ex from airport, pass over dog. Iron some quilt pieces while watching British murder mysteries. Maybe do some more weed whacking, find the art for tomorrow’s meeting (if I can get my head around it…yesterday, I couldn’t. I tried.), read my book some more, don’t think about things that suck. Oh yeah! Go see an art quilt exhibit that has been on my list for a month. That’s my treat. Doing that.
Well I have a few more hours left of the school year. I have to go in and put the last three things away and then be officially checked out by admin. I’m not allowed to put my name on the checkout list until 10:30, so I’m not rushing over there right now. A mylar balloon hit a power line near school yesterday and blew out electricity, A/C, and wifi, plus there was a weird burning smell, so lots of chaos. That was AFTER graduation. But it’s good to say adios to this school year. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think in November I really thought I just wasn’t going to survive it, and I did, but I’m exhausted y’all. Looking forward to just one grade level of science next year with way more supports than this year. But that’s a couple of months away. Today it’s shut the door, lock it, walk (or dance and sing) away.
Some photos from the graduation thing…I suck at taking photos, I realize. Me and my co-teacher with our mascot (who is one of my kids)…
One of my favorite and top students this year (and last, honestly)…
Her outfit was amazing.
And another of my favorites, who like me, hates having her picture taken. I’ll miss her…
Also she was wearing combat boots. So cool. She gave me flowers, which I appreciate…
And so does Kitten…
I have to hide the flowers from the cats so they won’t eat them.
The day before was promotion practice and then a carnival all afternoon…I spent most of it here, yelling ‘Ready Set Go’ and/or ‘Wait!’.
It was strangely fun. Fun to see them having fun.
Meanwhile, I did get the sun ironed Wednesday night…
Lots of yellows and oranges for that…
And then last night, after graduation, electrical issues, getting all the kids off campus finally, going to our end-of-year party, then driving to get my quilt from the photographer (I’ll post pictures later), then home, then Zoom meeting, I somehow managed to iron Venus (the planet) together.
The planets are actually human-like figures in this quilt…well some of them are. I couldn’t do all of them without making it massive and being unable to finish it for the deadline. I started on Earth (with the blues), but was so exhausted I just went to bed. I didn’t sleep well because of the dog, who was growling and barking at these babies…
But over the next few days, hopefully I’ll start to catch up on the sleep and feel a little more human. Maybe. I’m certainly going to be ironing a lot. Although today is chaos…need to pack up two quilts for shows, one to deliver and one to ship, plus check out of school, and take the dog to the vet. Plus IDK what else, because I walk through the house and it’s a disaster (it always is at the end of the school year). Cleaning, getting rid of stuff, organizing stuff, but also reading and artmaking and a little bit of travel. That’s the goal.
Yeah I guess I’m woke then.
OK, gotta go back to school now. Wearing my unicorn NOPE shirt. You know, I might only have 6 more years of this. Maybe 7. Depends on the money. It alternately sounds like not much and way too much. It depends on the people and the work load. I am lucky to have the people…just gotta work on the other part. Peace out 2022-2023 school year. It makes me cry a little to say that, out of lots of relief and some joy and some sadness…but it’s good to move on.
Hmmm. Wednesday. Long week so far. So much chaos. A 3-hour school-board meeting last night full of crazy misinformation. Y’all, apparently I am performing trans surgeries in class, and that is why the people hate my curriculum so much. I’m also grooming all my students out of the cis-gender status that their parents made them and want them. AND I do not appreciate the American flag enough. I am boggled. Oh yeah, and I do not espouse East County values, which apparently align with white supremacy. So yeah, I guess they were right about that. Giant Ass Sigh.
Otherwise, we’re getting ready to graduate a bunch of kids who I hope listened enough to take care of their own bodies, be kind to others, work hard, be responsible, relax, chill out, reduce drama (unless they’re on stage), and maybe think about climate change and not buying food at places that espouse racist ideologies. But probably they didn’t get all of that.
On top of all that, the Man’s company laid off like 20% of their staff yesterday (not him! because holy crap, that was scary when he didn’t answer for a few hours), so he’s a mess and stressed while I’m actually mostly chill. Except when some dumbass is claiming I am a groomer. One parent said we (the teachers) are here for “ABC, 123, and plus/minus.” You will NOT learn multiplication! It is not allowed! OK, well, that was funny. But no science? No history?
Today is promotion practice. Not graduation…promotion. We line up in a really long line and march the kids in…the two words are SPACE and PACE…at which point, my kids were confused, not THAT space (the one we learned about in science). The one where you’re not climbing up the butt of the kid in front of you. Last year, they practiced all day, because the chairs weren’t set up right, and we all peeked out our windows at our boss throwing chairs in the quad. Fun day. It is long though and we are not allowed to bring a book (well the kids can, but I can’t). I’m not a fan of sitting or standing around for hours, but that is what I will be doing. Outside. In the UV light. Sunscreen, hat, at least it’s not supposed to be hot. And repeat tomorrow for graduation.
The afternoon is a carnival for the 8th graders, which sounds fun and I hope is, but the teacher who was supposed to be covering my class or the other 7th-grade class didn’t know about it yesterday. So that’s fun. Yesterday’s chaos continues.
I’m glad to have an exercise class today and a chance to read my book later? Maybe? We’ll see. Plans for later this week? Check out of my classroom, take the dog to the vet, ship a quilt to Virginia, and get the dryer fixed. Also fun stuff.
I haven’t gotten much ironing done, but it’s not unexpected. This is Monday night, after I finished (well, actually, not all of them) grades.
I ironed some planets and some asteroid belts.
Last night, I only had 30 minutes to iron because I didn’t even get home until 8:30. Blood sugar crashing. Irritated by “East County values” and the other bullshit. So my 30 minutes was another planet…
Slow progress. Maybe more tonight. I actually finished grades Tuesday at the last minute during my prep period because I had like 7 toothpick bridges still to test. I’m bringing all the broken bridges to the bonfire on Saturday night for a burning ceremony of some sort that I promised the kids I would record. One of my co-teachers is doing the bonfire…we bring the question cards from sex ed and burn them after reading them out loud. It’s cleansing.
Nova had an issue with the chair last night…
I missed the best of the wibbly wobbly.
She’s a chub. But a cute chub.
And although the owls don’t seem to be hanging out on the owl box much, here was one checking out their old home nest…
They are still here and screeching at each other. For a few more weeks at least.
Well, I don’t feel prepared for all the outside that today will be, but at least I’m not teaching. All the teaching is done. It’s just clean up and graduate them and get them out of here. 7th grade has their field trip today, so my 4th period will have double the kids…all the 8th graders who should be upstairs with the teachers who are on the field trip. Luckily, both classes are small. We’ll just finish the horror movie (I found one that was PG-13) that we started yesterday. Unless practice takes too long and then it won’t matter. We’ll go straight to lunch. We can hope for that. Pros and cons.
Then pilates after school with lots of deep breathing. Fix dinner, chill out, iron some planetary shit. Got it. Still one day at a time around here, but it’s working at the moment, so don’t fix that. It’s not broken. It’s just inefficient.
Ugh. It’s Friday Yay. Last Friday of the school year with kids. I feel like Ugh though. There are so many things for school that I am trying to keep straight in my head. I’m tired, really tired. I feel like I might just sleep the entire week after we get out of school. And that would be OK. Except for all the shit I have to get done that week…minor issue. All the stuff I haven’t been doing for the last 10 months. That.
But some cool stuff happened yesterday at school…we started testing these toothpick bridges. Some of them are pretty…
Like that’s classic.
By the way, we break them all. I have a bridge graveyard in the back of the room right now.
It held 6 1/2 pounds. Not bad.
But this one. Doesn’t look like much.
27.6 pounds before it broke. Seriously solid beast. Amazing. At one point, I looked up, and the entire classroom was gathered around as the kids said, “put another 1000 ml in it, Ms. Nida.” It was cool. Love moments like that. Holding onto that, because some of the classes are not cool. They’re just hard.
We still have more to break. Monday.
It’s exhausting doing this stuff, but rewarding.
At home, I am trying to keep the focus on the art. I do have grade stuff to do too, but I’ve been trying to get it done at school. Almost done with all of that. It almost doesn’t matter any more. Yay! Until next year. But the thought of 9 weeks with no grading, no worrying about lesson plans on Sunday afternoon, setting up on Friday after school? That’s delightful. No desperate searching for curriculum that makes sense. No ordering materials at the last minute. Lovely.
I got a bunch of Wonder Under cut out Wednesday night during book club and after…
Just a little bit left, but bedtime loomed. Last night, I finished it…
With Kitten for size comparison. That was about an hour of cutting. In total, 5 hours and 22 minutes to cut those out. Tonight, hopefully, I will sort them, and tomorrow, start ironing to fabric. I need to figure out a background fabric. I might need to go buy some tomorrow. Keeping that in mind. Fewer pieces goes faster. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the big quilts. The next one will be big, I think. Maybe. Gotta look at deadlines and see if there’s anything that I want to make art about.
I did have my stitching meeting last night.
Didn’t get much done. Tired. Distracted. Just worked on the window. Sue Spargo Homegrown. Been working on it for a long time. Will still be working on it next year at this time.
Look! The sisters like each other.
You can’t really see it in this picture, but Luna has a nasty scratch on her nose from her sister…some altercation. We’ve been calling her Harry Potter because it looks like a lightning bolt.
OK. I have to go to school. It’s a field trip day, to the local amusement park (super small, one roller coaster, a few rides, some games). The reward for getting through 8th grade. I’ve never done this field trip before, so that’ll be interesting. But then I come back and continue teaching 7th grade about STDs. Tiring. I’m going to bribe them…good behavior? No quiz. I have one class that will be fine with that. The other one has been awful the last two days. Better yesterday, but still pretty bad. I requested one kid be held out today so I don’t have to deal with him, but I’m pretty much guaranteed to have him next year too. I figure at least he’s the annoyance that you know. There will always be an annoyance (or 20).
Tonight, we’re going to an art opening; tomorrow, the Man has a show. Plus getting grades done and doing art. Close so close to a bit of freedom.
Always wear gloves to trim bougainvillea. I have three infected bits in my hand that probably have boug parts in them that need to be dug out. I never learn.
You know you are overwhelmed/tired/done when the email from Chewy that mistakenly tells you that you need to upload the vet authorization elicits an actual surge of anger. I mean, really. It’s not that big a deal. They do already have it. Maybe don’t bite their heads off. Which is something I need to remember for school today. If I can.
I wasn’t planning on trimming the boug. I was going to do the backyard. That’s my reasoning there. The other? I AM done. Mentally. I’m trying not to be, but some of the kids are also done, which is understandable, but if they could just chill out, like most of them are, waiting for glue to dry, instead of trying to put glue all over each other and/or poke each other and/or break the rulers? Yeah. Even in 8th grade, it’s the boys and they can’t just chill. So then I have to babysit stupid behaviors and I don’t have the fucking spoons for that. Seven more days. Two of those are different, not academic, probably easier because of that. IDK what stupid games we’ll be playing on the last day with 8th grade, but I also need to get my room cleaned and locked up, so I’d appreciate more just chilling than I got yesterday.
They’re building toothpick bridges. Hopefully we’ll be testing the first of them tomorrow and then finishing Monday, maybe Tuesday. Friday is a field trip. So it sounds fine, survivable. Until I get to three or four groups of boys.
Some are further along than others…
I’ve always taught sex ed at the end of the year, which keeps kids’ attention pretty well, but my (dumbass) school board limited what we could do this year, so 8th grade needed something interesting that wasn’t hard. More hands-on than brainiac. So this is a good choice, but there are still kids who are messing around. Not a lot. Just enough to drive a tired teacher bonkers.
And y’all, IDK how this bridge is even going to stand up, but that’s not MY problem.
Anyway. So today I’m giving them a short quiz (because I’m a bitch, that’s why…no, because there are actually forces in bridges and I taught them and hopefully this is an easy question…I mean, I think it is, but who the fuck knows what they will do with it) and then they need to get their bridges glued together so we can test some of them tomorrow. I also copied a bunch of mazes to hand kids who are goofing off (if you get a maze, it is because you are not chilling). Meanwhile, all of 7th grade will see an actual childbirth (on video; hard to get guest visitors to do that) and then move on to STDs. Scaring them into abstinence, as one of the teachers said. They weren’t chill yesterday either, but they had a sub in an earlier class and that shit makes them lose their fucking minds.
Yeah. So. I’m done. So done. I need to sleep for like a week straight. And it’s only Wednesday, so it feels like a vast expanse of the week is left.
Pros: It is the middle of the week. The boychild is home so he had the dog in HIS bed last night so I slept five hours straight without waking up. I have lots of Wonder Under to be cutting out, so I can just sit and watch a movie and not think too hard (except I picked a sci fi movie and spent most of it picking apart the science mentally, even though I don’t know enough about space to really do that).
Here’s the Wonder Under once I finished tracing…
Three yards and a bit. Not bad. Normally I can do a yard in an evening, depending on how complicated it is. Lots of big swoopy pieces and a ton of smaller pieces between them. I started cutting on Monday night…didn’t get far.
Last night, I finished the first yard and did the little piece as well…
I read a bunch last night, plus had a late pilates class, and then after I had eaten, while we were still watching our show, I worked on this background…
Of another Sue Spargo quilt, because I will never finish all of them, and that’s OK. This is brainless applique and I should have been cutting out Wonder Under, but my brain was too beleaguered to remember to do that, so this is what I did.
Tonight is a union meeting and book club, though, so IDK what I will get done. Probably more Wonder Under. And the last 23 minutes of that movie I was watching. Trying to decide who’s gonna die. Probably the older guy, even though he’s married, because his algae is all dead, so he can’t do the research anyway. The young woman has too much empathy; plus, she’s the doctor and they’re gonna need her.
Easier to think about that shit than anything else. I’m at 85% in my book too, but I don’t have time to read today. Sigh.
This cat, Nova, came out and sat on everyone yesterday because there were no dogs.
It was sweet. She asks nicely. Puts her paw out with one claw pulling at your shirt or pants. Can I please sit there? Yes. You may.
There was a baby bunny in the yard yesterday. I realize I have three to five barn owls on my property at the moment, so who knows if the baby bunny will survive that…
Certainly my indoor predators were offended by its existence.
Yup. Here’s where I’m at.
It’s not even stress right now. I don’t need to lesson plan, I’m mostly done with grading, I just need kids to not be assholes. Chill the fuck out. Put your head down if you can’t handle it (except don’t fall asleep during the pregnancy video, dammit). Ugh. I started planning next year’s calendar and I’m noting the issues. Not that there are solutions to the end of the year. Ever.
OK. Bridge building, testing, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections or diseases or whatever. Union meeting. Book club. Maybe water and/or do knee exercises in between that, if there’s time. Also need to pick up cat meds and go to Home Depot and maybe my quilt will be ready for pick up sometime soon? Who knows. I do need to go to school though. Like now. It’s my job.
This is the last full week of school. It’s a doozy, of course. Nothing like next week, but still a ton of stuff going on, both at school and in the evenings. Fewer kids turning in late work this trimester. A blessing for me; maybe not so much for their grades. No more lesson planning really though. That’s a plus. Spent so many hours over the last school year trying to do that. Desperately doing that. Can’t teach if you don’t know what you’re teaching. Glad that’s done. Mostly. Yeah. This week is pregnancy and STIs, plus bridge building and maybe breaking, plus a field trip, but coming back and teaching afterwards. Ugh. It’ll be fine. Right? It will? It will be something.
I did get some significant progress done on the new quilt…traced a chunk of time on Saturday…
Before a hike and after dinner. Made it more than halfway.
Then last night, I was going to grade another thing (I graded all afternoon), but then a kid, two kids really, cheated in a truly annoying assholular way, so I quit. Did not have the mental stamina to continue. So I traced instead, which may always be the healthier option.
There’s only 60 pieces left for tonight, and then I can start cutting.
Simba curled up on the couch. Yeah, I had hoped to be done with the tracing yesterday, but I did other things instead. Got a lot of things crossed off the to-do list, which is good. Feels less overwhelming at the moment.
The next goal is to be totally cut out this week and ironing to fabric by the weekend. Hopefully. Gotta put a lot of stuff away in the studio for that to happen, and I’m not sure I have a background fabric that will work. We’ll see.
I drew a little at dinner…
I don’t know if I posted this one, from the last two weeks of dinners…
Some places serve food super fast and I don’t have time to really finish a drawing. This sketchbook is almost finished. It’s a perfect size to fit in my purse. I probably have another one in my stash that will fit.
I went to my quilt guild meeting and worked on this. The never-to-be-finished scarf.
Almost got the body done. Still need to do the face and then decide what else I’m doing. I’m not covering all the black. I think.
We also hiked the dogs…mostly trying to tire out the puppy.
We tired the old man (the dog, not the Man) out pretty quickly…
But Annie was still zooming around at the end of 3 miles.
She was pretty good…a few moments of chewing stuff and she peed and pooped in the house in the first hour, but then figured out how to tell us she needed to go out. Good thing; she’ll be back in two weeks when the ex helps drive the girlchild across country. I’ll be off school, though, so hopefully that will help. Or not! Who knows.
Lots of blooming going on in the yard…
Lots of my chipping away at weeds, cleaning up the yard, trying to make it nicer. A little bit at a time. It probably needs more than a little bit, but that’s what I have time for. That and reading and making art. Lots of reading to do…looking forward to more of that. I do have a school training I have to do in July, and I really should plan things (but not sure how that goes…probably need to meet with my 8th-grade team at some point, but one is a newbie to our school and the other one is as burnt out as I am). Hmm. Not worrying about that right now. Maybe later this week.
Annie meets Kitten. Pretty sure I have scratches from this meeting.
9 days y’all. I might actually survive this school year…it felt pretty desperate last November…but I seem to have managed it. Not sure how. OK. Monday. Go to school.
Kathy Nida 