Super Flat

I’m gonna just start writing. Nothing is downloading properly, so who knows when the photos will show up. Not a lot going on anyway, just some justices being ironed super flat, although I couldn’t really get Kavanaugh to flatten out. Damn him. Gave up on download and used email. Who the fuck knows why certain technology works sometimes and not the others. I don’t. But I do know lots of workarounds.

OK, so Monday night, I managed a healthy chunk of ironing time and got Thomas done AND Kavanaugh’s legs.

Well really just his shoes and a bit of his ankles. Fun fact, none of the justices’ feet are accurate. I kind of decided what kind of shoes I thought they should wear, even though, of course they’re wearing solid black dress shoes with their robes, so Kavanaugh has on some ratty blue tennies with dirty white socks. Felt appropriate. Alito is totally wearing leggings. I can think what I want. Thomas has some flash red shoes.

Last night, I got a late start…a combination of pilates AND trying to work AND make dinner AND actually have a relationship with the person I live with…which just means talking to him by the way. I am perfectly capable of not talking to anyone once I get home because the day has trashed me. So I had 41 minutes of ironing last night and that meant going to bed late and falling asleep while meditating and being woken up by the dog barking like a hellbeast. Woo! Not recommended. And I only got the rest of Kavanaugh done…

He’s got beers though! Next up is Coney-Barrett. Also all their names and ties (or accoutrement) are in rainbow colors, because I can and will fuck with them in that way. Especially Amy. She doesn’t like rainbows by the way. In case you don’t know.

Here’s a side view with Kitten…

Who has been hiding.

I pulled that drawer out because someone (probably her) peed in it and I’m trying to get the pee smell out of the fabrics (it took some doing) but I haven’t put the drawer back because I need to refold stuff and I haven’t had the time (I need an assistant) and plus there’s a cat in it. So yeah. I don’t think she’s feeling well because she keeps finding holes to hide in. And/or to knock everything down. She got hair all over the blue drawer and now refuses to sleep in there. Also she threw up in there, so that’s another drawer I need to clean out. Also might be why she won’t sleep in there. Yes I have tried cat beds. She’s not a fan.

Man. Old cats. We love them, but they are not fun to clean up after.

OK. Today, teaching will be hard. I already know that. I had some insight as to why my kids this year were different. They are like sloths on anything that takes more than a day. Should be fun with the upcoming project. I don’t know what it means going forward, except that, as always, some days will be a slog. Hopefully this one will not be too bad. Ha! I end with the lowest class, worst behaviors. They’re not horrible, but they’re not great when it gets hard. So yeah, that’s today. Not really looking forward to it…girding my loins and all. Also a union meeting, so today is the first of three days in a row with 2-hour-long meetings after school. Which wipe me out, honestly. Not fun. But I’ll be ironing tonight. It’s nice to have this goal of a Justice a night…makes it easy to force myself to get to a certain point, but if I want to go on and iron someone’s feet because I have time, that also works.

Still wishing wars didn’t happen and innocent people weren’t being hurt by anyone else. Wishing doesn’t change anything though…so people are gonna have to do the work. Peace to the world.

It’s the Spider’s Fault…

So Saturday night, or maybe it was Sunday morning, I kept waking up and trying to puzzle out what day it was. Did I have to be up early for school? Was I ready? Had I planned? What the hell? It’s true I did absolutely no schoolwork on Friday night or all day Saturday, so I get the panic, but Saturday nights should be clear of most of that, right? It’s 2 AM and my brain is trying to figure out what clues I have for what day it is…no dog, so that’s one of three nights a week. What did I do the night before? Ah, there’s a drawing, so it must have been a Saturday.

There’s more in the finished drawing…it took a long time to get the food. Pro: more time for drawing. There’s little enough of that going on these days.

I had a quilt guild meeting on Saturday and worked a little more on my incredibly slow stitching from 2020? Or was it 2021? Can’t remember.

My brain thought about staying and doing the post-meeting activity, but I really just wanted to get back and iron the Supremes. So I did.

Well, this was Friday night…after a long semi-difficult day that ended with my 56-year-old self trying to figure out how best to break up a fight without getting injured myself. Fun times. I think I came home and slumped on the couch for two hours before I started functioning again.

I did eventually find the missing ‘C’ on Sunday night…

Then Saturday afternoon…

I spent a couple of hours doing the goddess’ legs and toes and all…

Then went for a 3-mile hike by myself…the Man was not feeling well.

Sunset is getting earlier. I was just about OK on time…

It was warm at the start…despite being October, it was in the 90s during the day. But by the end, there was a cool breeze…and this sweet little California Horned Toad/Lizard…

I love these guys. They’re hard to see, so it’s a treat to actually see one.

After dinner, I ironed some more…here’s Gorsuch.

His ‘O’ disappears later. Not sure where. I’m sure it’s here. There was a spider that I think dropped from the ceiling, right on him (ironic?), so there was some scuttling of things to catch it, then forget I had caught it under something and recatching it. I suspect the O succumbed to all that scuttling. I’ll find it. Or recut it. It’s the spider’s fault anyway.

The whole piece so far.

There’s a lot going on in this quilt. I also ironed a bunch of money that’s floating around all those justice’s heads…

Sunday there was less ironing time. Almost 3 hours on Saturday was delightful. Sunday was just over an hour…

The ‘O’ is gone, but there’s Alito. It takes about 70 minutes to iron a Justice. It’s mostly the fingers and the face…all the details. I iron the ears, then the eyes. Then pull the eyes off and do the rest of the face so I can place the eyes well. Stitching will help with the details too.

I’m in the 1000s, about halfway through them, so also halfway through the quilt. I figure a Justice a night…but I’ve got a hellaciously busy week. Three nights with 2-hour meetings. Today’s 1-hour meeting got canceled, and I get to be in charge of the department meeting, so I suggested grade-level was fine, get your stuff done. We don’t need to meet. We already meet Tuesday and Wednesday during prep.

I worked from about 2 PM until 9:15 PM, with an hour’s break to make lunches for the week, and another hour’s break to make dinner and eat it. I didn’t finish. I never do. I did get some major stuff done, though, so I can at least get through this week and the start of next week. I think. Not quite. Gonna use my prep and after school today to make more sense of it…and to make copies. The Man will be gone for 6 days to hike the Trans-Catalina Trail this weekend. AND it’s the Interpretations opening and artist talks and artist dinner at Visions this weekend. Super busy. Two weeks behind on grading homework, but I should be able to get through that this week…we’re doing stations, plus writing a CER (that’s high-maintenance), and then doing a project. So I should have some free time in at least SOME of the classes to get work done. Using time efficiently. Sit next to the kid(s) who need help, but grading at the same time. We all do it.

Hello Kitten. She’s still here. Older by the minute.

I had a drawer of fabric that she (or someone?) peed in so I spent some time this weekend trying to get the pee smell out. Not quite there yet. Frustrating. They’re usually really good about that…which is why I think it was her. Losing control a bit. Giving her lots of love while she’s still here.

OK. Donuts and voting this morning. Teaching. Collisions and momentum. Tried to find a good simple video about conserving momentum that wasn’t too mathy. Wasn’t successful. Could be problematic. Almost done with my book, so suspect I will be doing that tonight. Hoping anyway. And ironing. Thomas is next. He’s complicated…in more ways than one.

Hearts and love to everyone trying to survive in Israel right now. More wars. Do we need them? More death? Sigh. Religion and hate make such a mess of things. Sending good healing and loving thoughts in that direction, hoping it helps. Maybe if we all do it, the warmongers will get hit so hard by the blast of good feelings that they’ll just stop. We can hope. I certainly don’t have any better solutions.

Unchaos

Oy. It’s Wednesday. That was quick. I’m getting not much done on anything. I mean, I must be doing something…I just don’t see a lot of progress on any of it. Ah well. I do like progress. I like to check things off boxes and cross things off lists. I like lists to get shorter. Probably shouldn’t have become a teacher then…they don’t get shorter until summer. At some point this week, I will get more efficient. Just not sure when. I got one lab set up, another one put away, then another one set up. I have sub plans for the literacy afternoon tomorrow, but not for Monday’s knee doctor. That could be problematic. I think I can do that one as an EdPuzzle, but it’s gonna take me an hour just to set it up. Grades still due. Evaluation paperwork still not done. Can’t even get my head around that one. Sigh. Whatever.

Art stuff has been limited this week too. I did finally finish cutting things out on Monday! A miracle. 21 1/2 hours of miracle.

I finished during book club. Like the Christmas socks? My feet have been cold at night. Nothing else is.

Then I set up the sorting chaos…

I guess it’s really the sorting unchaos. That box on top is all the pieces I cut, and then I sort them by 100s to make it easier to iron them together. Can’t imagine shuffling through a box of over 2000 pieces to find one. I spent almost an hour getting to this point.

Sorting the little tiny pieces takes forever. I put a pile in my hand and just sort one by one. This table is actually missing three more boxes sitting off to the side for the 1800s-2000s.

Last night, I went to the gym, which was good. I also finished my book and cooked dinner, and tried to grade a little, but yeah, was not efficient, so I didn’t start sorting until after 10 PM. Not great. I still have all these to sort.

It’s probably 30-45 minutes worth of sorting. So that’s tonight. I have pilates but I don’t have to cook. I do have to grade first. But I’ll set an alarm to remind me to stop. I swear.

Here’s a video tour of all the boxes except those last three…

This is boring, I must admit. I get tired of standing there and sorting. It does serve a purpose though. Makes the next step a million times easier.

So yeah. Getting there. Not there yet. Don’t see a big chunk of time in the next week to work on this. Will demand my Day Job Brain allow for an hour a night. Day Job Brain is freaking out about workload. Shhh. Nice Brain. Be good. It’ll be fine. We’ll grade like the wind. I just looked at Saturday’s schedule. Ha! Fuck. OK. It’s fine. It’s Wednesday. I could be super efficient between now and then.

Forgot this picture…when I got home yesterday, all the animals were in one room. It was weird. They don’t really socialize much. It’s usually one in this room, one in that room, and one that follows us all over.

I guess my homecoming was exciting.

Anyway, so I’ll be finishing the sorting tonight and then coming in here to the studio to try and straighten up enough that I can iron. I have two boxes of fabric I need to wash because of the cat…maybe I’ll start that tonight as well. Who knows? I could be amazing tonight. Last night? Nope. Was not. Not at all. Finished a book, though. That’s a thing. I’m allowed to do that. Should do more of it.

Giant Holes

Up early. For me. Meeting in the morning, and due to all the crazy stuff last Friday, my room’s not ready for teaching today. So I need to do that before the meeting. Then three meetings after school. Seems like enough. This week should be easier than last week, at least in terms of hours spent after school doing school-related stuff. I might even get paid for some of those hours. Not all of them. Did you know we don’t get paid for Back-to-School Night? It’s considered one of our duties, so being at school until 6:20 PM is unpaid. Yup. Exhausting too.

The girlchild was home this weekend. I fixed 6 pairs of her pants and put giant holes in the other pair. Don’t ask. She got a cheaper replacement. Also we hadn’t seen her in months, so it was nice to see her. Even if she brings the dog to the table…

My poor parents are still jet-lagged from their Ireland trip, but this is when she was home, so we got takeout and hung out.

She’ll be back in December. Miss her already, although I should just teach her to sew her own hems, at least the fixit ones. Just didn’t have time to deal with it this weekend. Or energy.

I also packed up a quilt and delivered it to Visions…the opening is October 14.

There are also supposed to be artist talks on the 15th…I just don’t have details of that yet.

And of course, I did cut little things out all weekend…Friday night, while watching a movie with the kids…can’t remember the name. Animated. Elemental?

Got through all the robes…then Saturday night after dinner with the fam…

I watched some strange Irish movie, not on purpose because that’s where the parentals had been, but because Hulu had movies that are/were Oscar nominees. Does that make sense? And this was one of them? Maybe. I don’t even know. I thought it was labeled as a comedy, but it wasn’t funny. The Banshees of Inisherin…and yes, it’s labeled a comedy/drama. More drama I’d say. Maybe not the best choice for a Saturday night. Ah well.

And then Sunday night, after driving the girlchild to the airport and an interesting dinner…

I got about 4 1/2 hours done this weekend, and I’m down into just a few of the 600s, mostly 500s, so that many left. I’m hoping to be done trimming this week, maybe even sorted, although we’re going camping, and no way am I taking this box of 2000 little pieces with us. Can’t sort it in a campground anyway. But hopefully I’ll be ironing this together next week. That will take a good long while, that’s for sure. Back to standing up every day after work. It’s been nice to sit for a while.

Speaking of camping, the Man has upgraded the camping bed yet again. Says the getting down and up off the mattress on the ground is getting to him.

We tried it out. It’s still bouncy. Because it’s still an air mattress. We’ll also be taking his new hiking tent so he can set it up. It’ll be the camping man cave. When he’s tired of the big tent, he can go to the little tent.

Seriously, sometimes you have to take just as much stuff for a 2-night trip as you do for a 10-night trip.

This was last night’s dinner. It sounded good and then I started thinking about all the ingredients and faltered. Told the girlchild all the ingredients and she wished me luck. But it was good! It has beer and salsa verde and Frank’s hot sauce and cream cheese and a bunch of other stuff.

Somehow it all melded together into tasty. Not sure how.

The old lady…15 now. Sort of eating. Sometimes.

I bribe her with treats and smears of the other cats’ food.

One of our students drew this. I love that we are standing on them…

Both me and Bailey need to smile more? I feel like I’m OK in class…it’s the extras that are dragging me down. The planning-alone stuff is back and I could do without it.

Ah well. It is what it is. When my principal asks what I want to work on for my evaluation year, I’ll let him know ‘work-life balance’, although it’s definitely not one of the standards they give us. Yay! More work!

OK, set up classroom, meeting #1, teach vocab, meetings #2-4, home. Possible collapse. Start New Book (I’m allowed). Do all the things I didn’t get done over the weekend because girlchild was here. Cut things out. All good.

Must Be September.

Apparently I woke up to the alarm this morning, exclaiming OH MY GOD. It didn’t feel like long enough. Also I didn’t sleep well, which often happens on a Sunday night. Pre-school Oh-Shits. Although I’m still adjusting to just one thing that I’m teaching, I need to often prep for two things. Like all last week. And this week. This week is meeting hellacious. Two hours today…thought it might run shorter, but no…literacy in the second half. It’ll go until the end of the 2-hour mark. Then union meeting on Wednesday (2 hours), sex-ed curriculum on Thursday AND Friday, plus Back-to-School Night on Thursday (many hours total). Not sure why this week has to be hell. And the girlchild is coming to visit this weekend, which is awesome, but her room is a disaster and it’s all my fault. And the parentals are coming home. It’s just chaos. Today after the two hours of meetings, I have three places I have to go to pick up mail, buy slats, etc. Art to deliver over the weekend, need to get it ready. And it feels like nothing got done this weekend.

Must be September. My brain knows that by the end of this month, routines will be better, all the extras that school likes to throw at you will have adjusted, and the weather will probably have calmed the fuck down. It was hot yesterday. However, the end of this month is quite a ways away and I’m not sure I will get there unscathed.

Did I mention I drove to LA on Saturday? Yeah, it was our California Fibers’ Influences/Influencers exhibit at Craft in America. I had one piece in the show and all everybody could say was, “That’s the smallest piece I’ve ever seen of yours.” Well, yeah, it’s 16×20″. But it has over 800 pieces in it.

Obligatory selfie…

Wall of pieces: Doshi on the left, Marilyn McKenzie Chaffee, then Charlotte Bird, then me.

So you can see it really is small. I gave her two or three other choices that were bigger. It’s OK…it’s a cool piece.

It was a busy opening eventually. It’s a pain driving to LA though. I left at 10:30 AM, sat in a cafe and graded for a bit, then after the opening, got home at 8 PM. Lost day, really. Felt exhausted by the end of it. I know the LA members of our group love shows up there and I can see why: all their friends and family can come. Ah well. It’ll be up for a while…through December 2. You should check it out!

Around all that, I cut stuff out. Not a ton, but an hour and a bit a night.

Friday night…doesn’t look like much.

Saturday night looks like more…

Two episodes of something instead of one. I’m rewatching the Sherlock series Elementary, because I don’t think I saw them all. I was watching Madam Secretary, but the real politics are too close and I needed a break after the first season. In the middle box are all the pieces I’ve cut out. The bottom is what still needs cutting. Because I put them in there in the order I ironed them down, they are pretty much in backwards numerical order. So I can kind of keep track of how far I’ve gotten. That’s the Supreme Court building I see there.

I got all of that cut out last night, along with most of Roberts. Not his robes…all the robes are further down. But that’s Sotomayor’s hair right there. So I’m somewhere in the 1400-1500s, but the robes aren’t done yet. So maybe 500 pieces cut out. Cutting out is usually faster than ironing. I don’t have to think deeply about cutting out…I just do it. Ironing requires thought. Well ironing to fabrics does…ironing it together, you just follow the pattern and the numbers.

I spent about 6 hours working for school yesterday. So yeah, things aren’t settled or pretty yet. Not sure when they will be. It’s my fault, because I could just copy shit the way it’s handed to me, but I know how my kids learn, and so I’m editing from that perspective. Which sometimes means retyping stuff. I did (not) have help…

Thanks Nova. I think she knocked down my very important post-it too.

Sigh. Feed me dinner, lady.

OK. I will. Get up off the couch and do the things (this was Friday night. I napped when I got home.).

Today. Long. Cutting things out sits at the end.

A Train on Steroids

Ah a Monday off of work. The sweet sound of children screaming in next-door’s pool. The delightful challenge of installing a dryer vent with at least two trips to Home Depot, plus the scintillating smell of cat pee (gotta wash the litter tray completely out and or throw it out and buy a new one). I finished (almost) all of my work yesterday so I wouldn’t have to do any today. I would’ve done more, but the (um WTF is another word for delightful but when you don’t really mean it) ENCHANTING trait of one of my co-teachers to NOT upload the things I need to plan ahead NOR to answer emails or texts means I can do no more. Lucky that, I guess, although I’ll pay for it later.

This weekend has been a lot of gardening and house stuff, trying to get things under control, because the next three weeks are a little out of control already. I see them barreling at me, like a train on steroids. No worries. Really. It’s like this every year. Adding in an opening in Los Angeles next weekend and camping two weekends after that. Because there’s nothing like a little crazy when it’s already nuts.

I did manage ironing. I’m about 4-5 hours away from done, I think. I don’t think I’ll get there today, but I will sometime this week. Which is good. I’m in the mood to cut things out for a while instead.

Friday night, I ironed the rest of Kavanaugh down…

And started Coney-Barrett.

Saturday, I was much more effective…got Coney-Barrett done, plus Brown-Jackson, and started Kagan…

I did some before we headed out for some art openings and dinner…

And some after all that.

It’s getting pretty chaotic in the fabric bins.

There’s a lot of black and flesh tones in this quilt…

I added more after this…but I also took some out of the far left bin. They didn’t work.

Last night, I ironed the rest of Kagan and all of Sotomayor.

Just Roberts left…and Bader Ginsburg. I’m in the middle of the 1500s. So about 500 pieces left, but I’ve done a few of them already, Roberts’ robes I think. What’s left?

The rest of the goddess, which includes the Supreme Court building itself, then all the things planted on top of the goddess’ arms. So like I said, I’m getting there. The next bits should go a little faster. Maybe. When it’s more about what’s in my head and less about trying to realistically match a skin tone or make a decision about eye color…might be faster. I’m 27 1/2 hours into the ironing. Epic.

So Friday after work, I headed down to the water for a friend’s mom’s retirement party.

It was delightfully cool and oceany, unlike my entire week.

And it was good to hang out with the other work team for a while.

Her mom had lots of smiles on, which is a good thing.

Saturday afternoon, the Man and I went to two related art openings, one at City College and one at Art Produce. I loved Bhavna’s piece at City College, I Found a River in My Body.

Some of her smaller pieces are available at Art Produce. There is an auction going on to raise money for more art stuff. You can find the link at the Art Produce site.

We had a drink while waiting for the second show to open, and then went back to the same place for dinner. There are more bars and restaurants opening in the area, which is cool, because Art Produce has been there for a long time, waiting for the rest to show up.

Lots of art in the area, including this Gloria Muriel mural…

Yesterday I planted all the succulents that have been lying around after being trimmed off something else. I think I need to water today too. Plus iron. Plus book club is tonight, rescheduled. I really just want to lie on the couch, drinking tea and reading my book. I’m feeling a bit off, not quite well. Drinking lots of Vitamin C and hoping for the best.

Kitten is overseeing the ironing like a boss.

Sometimes she is more demanding than others…

Ah yes, thanks for Labor Day all…someone posted this wonderful reminder by @ricardolevinsmorales…

Really, that’s all teachers want. Less of the work, more of the rest and what we will. It’s too hard with what has been put on our plates so far. Certainly, I’ve probably done 8 hours so far this weekend. Most weekends it’s 5-6. Plus all the after hours stuff. Ugh.

OK. So for the rest of the day, I am going to read for a bit, then look at the to-do list. I’m going to iron as well, get myself through the last of the living justices. School this week will be short but probably painful (two early morning meetings, not my favorite). There will be a lot of grading coming the end of this week and the start of the next, and I won’t have a good chunk of the weekend. The neighbor kids have hit an unreasonable noise level that probably won’t let up for 5 or 6 hours, unfortunately. Ah well. And tomorrow, back to work. No more days off until November. The long stretch of September and October is here. Not a fan, although October weather can be lovely. Hopefully. Bright blue skies with cotton ball clouds. A bit of a breeze but not so warm. It’s actually like that today, but not for long…warm days are coming.

Everything Is OK with Everything…

It’s supposed to be very warm today. I’m hoping the A/C at school keeps up. I’m already sweating at home. I made dinner last night for Tuesday, which is the last supremely hot day…supposedly. For now. I wanted to be able to go to the gym on Tuesday and come back and just throw something together, and so we’ll see if that works. I have to really scramble sometimes to make sure I can exercise on top of all the other stuff, especially in the first few weeks of school, with my parents gone, trying to get back in a routine. Blah blah blah. I realized around 6 PM last night that I hadn’t actually made posts for this school week. They weren’t exactly like last year’s, so I couldn’t just copy from the old class. I still need to make a demo video of one of them. And finish setting up labs. I was at school on Friday until 6:15 setting up labs, after a remarkably useless meeting. Today is another meeting, but I think just one. Oh yeah, the dryer died again, so I gave up on it, even though it is just under 8 years old, and bought a new one. Good thing I did that extra work this summer. So I got home on Friday to a dead dryer and decisions about that. I also booked camping for the end of September. So stressful to pick the ‘right’ campsite. Luckily there weren’t many choices? Is that lucky? Probably waited too long. Hopefully it won’t be over 100 degrees that weekend. Our Fall looks a lot like Summer. Also dealt with a sprinkler issue at the parents’. Had to call Ireland for that one. Anyway. Hopefully everything is OK with everything now.

This quilt. Man. It’s because there are so many discrete little things on it, and each needs to be considered by itself but again as part of the whole in terms of fabric and color. It just takes forever. I snuck in a little extra time this weekend on the ironing, and still haven’t hit halfway. I think. It’s hard to say. So many tiny pieces.

I ironed Friday night, the umbrella I think…

Oh yeah. And I picked the justice robe fabrics for the three I like. They got black with color.

Then Saturday, I worked on the goddess’ legs and lower torso, finally.

A closeup on the box.

Sunday, I ironed three whole pieces to fabric. I had a late start because I was cooking two meals, had to run to Staples for toner cartridges (the printer’s like, ‘Imma run out of ink’ and then that was it…it was out. No real warning where I could order stuff. Just done.), then getting stuff graded and ready for teaching this week. I don’t have help on a couple of tasks, and I have a new task (well, we used to do it before COVID, so not REALLY new? But it’s been a few years.), so I’m not in the routine yet. I need to do more during the school week, but last week was a doozy. So this one should be better, and then the next one is OK too, but the one after that is a clusterfuck and a half. So there’s that. I didn’t even iron BIG pieces. I ironed an earthworm. It’s pink. See it?

Yeah, but I did lay out all the other justice robes, the bad guys. I used two runs of four black fabrics.

Kitten did not help. I didn’t iron any of these, because it was almost 11 and that’s a goodly chunk of ironing. So that’s tonight.

I pulled from all the boxes from the 800s to the 1500s, and then I left piles of the rest of the justices: what they’re holding, their feet and hands, and their faces. Watch the video for details.

So I still have to go back and iron all those faces. Complicated. Probably gonna need runs of 6-7 fabrics for each. I’ve got some runs of 4-5 in one of the bins from some other part of this quilt…that’s going to be the complicated part.

So I’m in the 800s, but I’ve done some of the 900s through 1500s. This makes it very hard to know where I’m at in terms of the whole thing. I might be halfway? Certainly close. And I’ve been ironing for 18 1/2 hours, just to give you an idea. This might be the most complicated, time-consuming thing I’ve ever ironed. It’s a marathon. So my revised estimate for finishing the ironing to fabric is this weekend, mostly because it’s a 3-day weekend, so I have some extra time. I also have nothing planned (I blew off one of the things I was supposed to do on Saturday). So that helps. This is not a side job. It’s another job. Two jobs y’all. Plus the copyediting…that’s a side job.

Saturday, we went for a hike at 6 PM. It was too hot before that. 6 was just about right.

My parents’ dog Katie is not used to 3 miles, but she did it. She’s getting older, but she was a trooper. Except when she kept trying to turn around. She gets a walk every day with my parents, but I can’t do that when I don’t get home until dinnertime.

Anyway. She slept well Saturday night.

We noticed these new anthills. There’s always been these spread-out hills, but I haven’t seen these tower things before.

And deer tracks.

Or big hare? Possibly. We know there are deer out there, even if we don’t see them. I really am trying to get that hike in every week. Heat and time don’t help.

The cat condo is currently in the bedroom to give the cats some space from Katie…although to tell the truth, I think they’re fine.

I’ve watched both cats walk right past her to get to the food and then back out into the living room. She just stares at them. She used to chase them. No longer.

Yeah. Well. Sometimes. Feel free to explain electrical hookups to me. Or space. But not the English language. Some issues. Some issues from 8th-grade boys! Oh fun.

OK. Energy preview today. Staff meeting. Hopefully efficient use of prep time and meeting time. Grade some stuff (I didn’t get through all the school stuff in the end). Survive the heat. Go to Lowes and return the stuff they said I had to have to install the dryer (even though I already had those things) plus get a refund for the thing they said I had to have and they didn’t bring. Pick up the parental mail, because the store was closed all weekend. I was supposed to go Friday but didn’t leave school until after they were closed. READ MY BOOK. Seriously. Fuck the world if I can’t do that every day for at least a little while. Then iron some justice robes tonight. In here. Where it will probably still be 90 degrees. Woo hoo!

See the Chaos…

Oh my. First full week of school. Started losing my voice yesterday (again)…but I made it one more day this week! Yesterday I talked all day. Nonstop. Ugh. Lecture/notes stuff. It had to happen. Today? Today they make slides. By themselves. The second most common question from a middle-school kid (after “how old are you?”) is “Can we work with partners?”. Not today. All next week? Yes. Not today. I have this one kid who might be on the spectrum and he’s kinda driving me nuts. He is constantly raising his hand, which shouldn’t be annoying, because at least he doesn’t just yell things out, but when his hand is in the air, he’s not listening, so I’ll get the same answer I just got from another kid. He always raises his hand. For everything. I’m working on getting the rest of the class to answer right now. Might have to resort to popsicle sticks for answering questions. It wouldn’t be the first time.

There are some parts of school that are easier this year, but I’m at 7 hours of afterschool meetings after the one this afternoon. In one week. Too many. In September, there’s one week that might kill me. It’s a lot. I’m really looking forward to this weekend, except there’s no dinner plan for tonight and that is always a mistake. And I have to start grading, which kind of sucks. Because once I start, I have to keep going until June. Seriously. No breaks.

So I’m struggling to get ironing done around all this. Wednesday night, I got home after 6, after 2 hours of a sex-ed curriculum meeting. The pro is that the state has our backs. They wrote something (California Healthy Youth Act) that is on our sides, not the kneejerk parents’ side. I just need them to opt out, but one actually said, “I thought this was a meeting to decide what our children were going to learn.” Sigh. And if you think that, please go get your teaching degree and credential and join us. Or homeschool them. Because I’m tired of people negating my 21 years in the classroom and educational/professional experience. You know better? Then you fucking do it. I need to teach ALL the kids, the kids with two moms, the kids going by names that you don’t think match their gender, the kids who are attracted to the same or both genders. I teach ALL of them. I respect and honor ALL of them. Not just your kid. And I don’t hold your idiocy against your kid. I hope they do better.

So I ironed after that, after dinner, after IDK what else.

So this is what it really looks like while I’m ironing. Piles of fabric that I pull out, I go get more from my drawers, I pile those up, there’s piles and piles. And then I put them all in the bins to make it neat each night for the photo. This thing has a lot of fabrics in it and I’m not even halfway.

I ironed a lot of body parts.

Little ones. There are a lot of people in this quilt. Twenty-six? If you count the Swamp Thing (I didn’t), it’s 27. And they each need different shades of fabric. Last night, I did their clothes.

I didn’t quite finish. I have one more to go. Then IDK what.

Usually I would crop photos like this so you only saw the fabrics, but then I was like, no, let them see the chaos. Iron on the edge because all the boxes of the rest of the pieces are taking up so much room, teacup full of tea, unfinished stuff everywhere, fan on because it’s still warm in here at the end of the day. It’s supposed to be 102 degrees next week. Not a fan (ha ha I’ll need a fan though). So this was clean up. Put all the piles in the bins so I can see them. The bin on the top left is all flesh tones, and I’ll need to go darker still for some of the justices. Probably pinker too. Lots of pink. Too much pink. Next up? The umbrella and then, FINALLY, the goddess legs. That will go quickly. Dirt and roots.

I’m about 20 pieces away from 700. That said, I’ve already ironed some of the numbers higher than that. So let’s say 700. Only 1350 to go! Woo! JAYSUS. In the last 7 days, I’ve managed 7 hours of ironing. The previous week? 9. Before school fucking started? 14…well, that was the week I went back for 3 days. The week before? 19 hours. Sigh. Fucking sigh. Last night, we had to deal with the dryer, after a 2-hour sex-ed meeting, after my stitching Zoom (which I appreciated, don’t get me wrong, even though I didn’t do much). So I didn’t start ironing until 9:50 pm. May tonight be better. Please.

Well, on top of all that, Nova has a bladder infection that might be part of a genetic issue, so she’s on meds. Kitten’s gastro stuff got significantly worse, so the Man picked up 5 meds for her last night because I couldn’t get to the vet in time. She doesn’t feel well; she actually hissed at me this morning. That said, she took all her meds and is back to sleeping in the blue fabric drawer of fabrics I will have to wash to get clean at this point.

And Katie is here.

Katie is absolutely chill, but the cats remember times when she wasn’t, and they are freaked out. They walk right past her though, in the dark, so IDK what the issue is. Everyone is adjusting.

SO! Don’t talk at school today if I don’t have to. Get the energy labs set up. Finish cutting out all the energy cards. Roll around and talk to all the kids today (I roll around on a chair…it’s fun) (wait, I said don’t talk…don’t talk LOUDLY). Survive the meeting after school…I didn’t even tell you how someone came in my classroom and stole the bag all my literacy books are in, but I have to take them to multiple meetings and now I don’t have a bag for all that shit. So frustrating. It’s fine. It’s almost done. The week is almost done. Write warmups for next week. Let all the stuff I had to do last year to survive planning 8th grade go and start planning with the new teacher, who may or may not be willing to adjust/adapt. She needs to be. I don’t know how to flat out tell her that, but I suspect I will need to at some point. I need so many things right now. It’s fine. Really. I got this. More tea though.

New Babies…

OK. Mondays. They are just hard. I’m awake. The alarm took care of that. And the shower. And the first half of a cup of tea. Plus it is daylight. Some neighbor is already making gardening noises, so if I weren’t back to work, I’d be irritated by how early it was. But it’s supposed to be hot today and right now it is overcast and cool, so I get it. I’m an evening gardener as opposed to a morning gardener. It’s just my thing. I’ve been planting cuttings from a few succulents that have gotten too large and fallen over in the last week. One yielded about 15 large cuttings; the other, only 4. Plus I think there are two more floating around somewhere. I love succulents for their ability to regrow, to just lie around for a while and then find the dirt. Some I had just lying on the ground, ready for transplanting, but I waited too long and they rooted there. Whoops. Makes it easy for those like me who are not GREAT gardeners. I water. Sometimes I fertilize. Sometimes I forget to water, although I find it meditative to wander around the yard, checking on plant status, looking for caterpillars or new growth.

Like this one…broken off the main cactus, which was grown after I carried a piece back during COVID, filled my hand with stickers because it LOOKED smooth. I put this little piece in a pot months ago and it curled over and broke and I’m like, well that’s it, it’s going to rot away now, but NO. The joy of new babies.

Check them out. That’s exciting. One of my weird old lady habits now.

So. I know, I just posted, but I wrote that Friday morning. Then somehow walked away from the computer (probably panicking about time) and didn’t post it. It was missing a title and a photo and that was it. So here’s Friday and the weekend.

A 3-hour staff meeting…but I forgot my sketchbook. I meant to drop it in my bag, but no. And they logically made us put our computer lids down. So we could answer questions and talk to each other. OK. Well I don’t function well under those circumstances, so I drew all over the question paper.

With the only color I could find in my bag.

These would make cool little quilts. I don’t have time for that right now, but someone remind me later, eh? Because I don’t have a million little drawings lying around. Ha! Here’s the one from Saturday night, which I started last week somewhere…

It’s still not done. I don’t draw fast enough or they bring the food too fast. No, I don’t know if they’re being shot out of cannons or planted in toilet paper tubes. Hard to say. Is that grass or fire on the right? Unknown.

Friday night, I finished cutting all the Wonder Under.

It took 11 hours and 38 minutes. I stayed up too late to do it, because I had an opening to go to before. Then Saturday night, I sorted all the pieces…

That was 2 hours and 11 minutes. And 21 boxes. Significant.

Then last night, I picked my background (luckily I had enough of something that worked, because I forgot to go to the quilt store) and cleaned the studio, putting all the fabric away from the last quilt. I laid out the first 100 pieces and started with the volcano.

I hang the drawing up so I can see it. Yes there’s some chaos going on below the drawing. I don’t know what to say about that except I need more storage or to clean up what I have, but time for that takes away from time for this.

And I have limited patience for that. Barely a start there, but a start. Looking forward to the next probably 25 hours of ironing these…hopefully more than an hour a night, or it will take me until September. Ugh.

Friday night’s opening was at the San Diego Downtown Library, in their 9th-floor exhibition space, which is very nice. My crooked photo of the blurb.

And there’s my piece, Doctor’s Orders…

Plus me! After a very frustrating day at work managing a lot of other people’s stuff instead of my own. I came home, showered, changed, and left again. With more tea in me. This show was mostly Allied Craftsmen, but a few other people added in.

I made an Instagram reel of this video of me rolling around my very undone room. It might be better with the music.

Many people were like, it looks great! Good enough! The only thing I had done was open/unlock cupboards and move the tables and chairs. Literally nothing in the eyes of what needed to be done. All those boxes needed to get OUT of the prep room so we can use it.

It’s OK. This was after three hours on Saturday…

I also went in Sunday and mopped the prep room floor because it was disgusting. Plus made a bunch of copies because they needed to be made. Today, I have two meetings and hopefully I’ll get a big chunk done. Hoping. Saturday, I was feeling very stressed about all of it. I’m still having issues. Also, the A/C isn’t working. So it’s warm. Not great. Supposed to be in the 90s this week.

And I also did a reel of this, so you could see what 2 hours of sorting pieces looks like. The plus of the reel is not listening to whatever I was watching I guess.

For each one, I’m looking at the number and finding the box with that number. Sometimes with the little pieces, I put them in my hand and pile them up by number, which is a little faster.

Sunday, I also cut out pieces for a revision of a tattoo quilt I’m doing.

We did a short hike.

The Man’s back is bothering him.

Plus it’s hot. But check out that thundercloud! It did not make its way to us, unfortunately.

And Kitten this morning. 15 years old. Definitely slowed down. Poor old lady.

Yes, she has taken over that drawer of blue fabric.

Anyway, that’s it. And I have to be at school in 30 minutes. Need meds, brush teeth, etc. More tea! Totally more tea. One meeting this morning, then one this afternoon. Hopefully my room will be presentable by 1 PM for that one. Or not! Then home after a couple of errands, to maybe go to the gym with my book, definitely ironing to fabric tonight. Definitely.

Wishing That…

Late again, lost my days. Not many left until every week is prescribed, Monday this, Tuesday that. So it’s OK that I lost one? Maybe. I was doing something else, posting for an art group I’m in…and then had to drive forever for a meeting for another art group. I have more of that to do today for another art group and some organization for yet a third art group. Volunteering is hard.

I’m still tracing, but I’m close to done.

It’s funny, because I’ll comment on social media on things, like this necklace…I knew I was making it harder for myself by drawing this, and one part of my brain thinks it’s stupid, but I know I can do it, so it’s OK, but people are like rushing to give me alternatives. It’s OK.

I know what the alternatives are. I chose to do it this way. My brain already had that conversation. I guess people just want to help…and I’m help-adverse. Independently minded. Nope, I’m good.

I traced just under 2 hours on Thursday, because we went to a concert that afternoon/evening. Then Friday, I did a few more hours.

This is where I’m at…in the mid 1700s, so about 300 pieces to go. I’ve finished the justices except for Ruth and all of the Supreme Court building. I’m up into the goddess and all that stuff. Almost done. Maybe today? Who knows. Today’s to-do list is massive.

One of the things I need to do is get this piece of a jade plant that broke because it was too heavy into the ground, probably in pieces.

Poor thing.

Annie getting pets after being peed…

Only a couple more days I can do that I think before I go back.

I walked Simba one morning, but it was already too hot.

I had water, kept him in the shade as much as possible, and kept it short. He was so excited though.

I also want more walks but am too hot. Not as hot as he is though. So I’m careful with when and where I take him.

Nova guarding the Wonder Under box.

Also there’s a breeze up there on the light table.

Simba excited about bedtime for some reason.

Or maybe just excited to be him.

So the concert we went to was Danny Elfman…

Yeah, he’s old. And it did show in what he could do, but it was still fun. We were invited by the Man’s brother and SIL to join them in box seats, which were pretty awesome.

Space around us, nice padded seats, drink service, etc. Nice touch. I’ve avoided the big stadium-like shows for years, but this was very nice.

They played some Oingo Boingo, some from his new album (which was eh), and lots of musical scores from movies and TV shows, with clips, which was cool.

I didn’t realize all the things he’d done music for…

I really want to watch all the video behind him again…there were some truly inspirational things going on, very surreal, sometimes not so nice, but some very cool stuff. I’m sure they’ll make a video/movie/doc and I can watch it again then, right? Anyway, we had fun, but I think we’re still tired from it, two days later. Because we’re old. And I don’t sleep.

OK, it is Saturday. I’d like to walk the dog (and ourselves) later. I need to get that jade plant in the ground, and then get some things crossed off the to-do list. I have a quilt guild meeting first though, so I should do that, with more caffeine. This is my last Saturday before I go back to school. I don’t feel like I have it in me this year, but I’ll figure it out. I never get particularly rah rah about going back anyway, but it would be nice if it didn’t take me 2-3 hours to fall asleep every night. Yeah. Wishing that for myself.