Tag: cats

Not This Year…

Two days off from writing…as always with this time of year, it’s busy. I’m really tired too…not sleeping well. Last night was the sound of rain…isn’t that supposed to be soothing? It was a lot of rain. Over an inch. And wind. Not so soothing. I feel like yesterday was the end of all the not-sleep and over-activity. The family stuff is done (well, mostly) and the holiday crazy is over, so now I can just focus on art and sleep (maybe?) and getting work done. Perhaps some down time? That might be a good plan.

Monday, I packed up 4 quilts…some needed slats, some needed labels. It took a good chunk of the day to get my fuzzy holiday brain on task and get it done, but then I shipped them all on Tuesday morning, which was the good thing. Four fewer things to worry about.

Then we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (no longer the Wild Animal Park) with the man’s family, on one of those safari caravan things, where you get to feed the animals. That was way cool…

I suck at names, but this giraffe is female and very food-oriented.

And only a little in your face…

I think we all enjoyed the tour…

We also got to feed a couple of rhinos and ask lots of questions…

Apparently I win on questions. Not suprisingly. I told her I was a science teacher.

Casual. Giraffe over shoulder. Plus the tour guide went through the master’s program with my co-teacher…small world.

Baby rhino!

Rhinos are the weirdest looking things…

I didn’t know about the prehensile lip thing…

I’d never seen one this close…

I kept asking about everyone’s teeth. The animals…not the people. Anyway. It was a very cool thing to do, followed by food and wine and then coming home and being too exhausted to do anything but space out and go to bed. So I didn’t draw on Christmas Eve. I thought about doubling up yesterday, so I would still get my 24-drawing count, but it’s not meant to be a law like that. So I let it slide.

Christmas Eve, we moved the tree off the hearth, because it was supposed to be cold on Christmas Day and we wanted a fire…

I think she can sit in the entryway for a couple more years before we have to plant her out…although she might want to get out of that plastic container before then.

Christmas morning, the kittens and Kitten were all in the same space without violence…

That’s a good sign…we’ve seen a few instances of co-existence. There’s hope for the old lady.

Christmas Day was a lot of presents and a lot of food…my mom and the girlchild giving Simba all the loves…

Which he totally deserves, yeah? He even got a present…

The animals all get presents, although we think someone ate a catnip mouse. Probably someone large…

Hmmm. Maybe.

My dad sits on a chair behind the couch and surveys the room…

It takes a while. We eat the foods. We clean up. Then we all do our own thing for a while…some cook, some sleep, some walk…

Some put cat trees together…

Stronger minds than mine…

I even sat down at the machine again…trying to finish the stitchdown so I can get this quilt done.

Realistically, the other January deadline I had is not gonna happen. Not sure what happened in late November/early December, but I kinda lost the creation mojo. Too tired, too overwhelmed with all the stuff that needed to happen. Not surprising. It’s fine. Someday this week I’ll reevaluate where I’m at and decide whether I’m going to just blow off deadlines or make something for something.

Christmas dinner was nice…girlchild did a good job…

I started a drawing while waiting for dinner…and added a bunch of leaves afterwards, mostly because I couldn’t think of anything else to draw. The wonder of a tired brain…

Weird dogs. OK, maybe just the one on the right.

After the drawing, I finished grading one assignment and input five into the online gradebook. It needed to be done, it’s brainless, and this one was asleep in one arm while I did it…

Sweet baby.

Today is one more family thing, and then I’m hoping to finish the stitchdown, pinbaste the quilt (which means cleaning the entryway floor), doing another drawing, SLEEPING. Yeah. Not. Because the solar people are coming back tomorrow morning, so they’ll be here early, stomping on the roof. Sigh. I do sometimes go back and read past years on the blog to remind myself that it always takes a week, easily, to get relaxed in winter. It’s just chaos until after Christmas. But this quilt will get done and another started, and the grading will get as far as it gets, and I will be ignoring that parent who wants me to call them until I actually go back to school, and then I will be happy to call them. Although it’s going to be the same shit I told the kid twice now, so I’m not sure where the conversation will go from there. I’m going to read some of the 17 books I got for Christmas and maybe do some yard stuff and some hikes and some drawing. It’s good. I’ll get there. The family stuff was good…it just doesn’t leave much energy for anything else. This year, anyway. Some years, I’ve been ironing Christmas Eve and quilting Christmas afternoon…but not this year. No judgement. Just reality. Hope everyone had the holiday they needed or wanted, and if not, you now are getting to do something you do want to do. Or feeding a giraffe…because that was pretty cool.

I’m Useless Right Now…

I’m tired. I had to get up early for jury duty. Once I was there, I panicked. They had three trials lined up with panels of 40 for each. I don’t think there were 120 people in the room. So I rescheduled for April, and will reschedule again for the summer after that. The nice woman said I could do that. I was afraid I’d get stuck on a jury for the next three days (minus Christmas), and we have big family stuff for tomorrow and hopefully hiking on Thursday. Whatever. I will still be irritated by jury duty in the summer, but at least I won’t be as limited or planned out then. I find the whole mess annoying, but whatever…at least I wasn’t the guy yelling, “This is fucked up!” in the jury lounge. I mean, I could’ve been that guy…

I made it to the grocery store again, this time with the boychild. Yesterday was the girlchild, but we didn’t get all the things. As it is, I still need one more thing. But it’s cold and rainy and I’d like to stay put for a while. Maybe I’ll go to the gym later. If I wake up.

Yesterday was a lot of errands and prepping stuff and now I need to pack up a bunch of quilts and ship them…gonna do that next. Absolutely NO PROGRESS on this damn quilt. My brain is off. Welcome to the teacher on break! My co-teacher is diligently grading quizzes, because she’s leaving the country in two days. I’m not…so I should make a plan for grading things, but my brain is fuzz. I have one assignment partially graded and another one mostly graded. Welcome to inconsistencies! Woo hoo!

OK, I plan to finish both of those today, as well as shite…am I making dinner tonight? I don’t remember. Fuck. The holidays kick my ass. NO. I am NOT cooking. Phew. OK, I also will pack up the three quilts that need to ship and the two that need to be delivered next week, which means I need to do two labels I think, and then put labels on the other one that needs to ship and just ship its ass outta here too.

Then maybe I can stitch down the current quilt. Or sleep in. Or something.

I’m still doing a drawing a day…this is Saturday night…

First time I’ve drawn pussy willows? Nah. I think my Sightlines quilt from a million years ago has pussy willows in it.

There are lots of kittenish things going on, mostly with them sleeping…

Because otherwise they are moving too fast to photograph.

Blurry. This went well until Luna sneezed.

I need to sleep more.

Dinner at the parentals last night…apparently Simba likes limes.

He made a face but went back for more…freak.

Tree is finally decorated. Sort of. I’m done with it anyway. Kitten is never done with it.

She’s on the lookout for needles to gack up.

OMG more sleeping…

They are cute. And entertaining. Even when they want to stand on the things I’m doing…which is really more Luna than Nova. Nova was watching the pen move.

I almost fell asleep many times while drawing this…

Which might explain a lot about it.

Anyway…more drawing tonight, lots of organizing stuff to ship this afternoon. I spent a chunk of time looking up all the Expanse novels I hadn’t read. Apparently I missed one. I have no idea how I did that. Right now? More caffeine please. And less rain. Eventually. Maybe a nap. Sheesh. I’m useless right now.

The Relaxation Part…

3 AM wakeup worry: need to make sure kids know tectonic plates don’t float on water. (Shut up, Teacher Brain!). It takes me a few days to get my brain to realize it’s on break. Sometimes it take it a whole week. I need a grading plan. I need a quiltmaking plan. I need a sanity plan. I brought home a huge pile of stuff. It’s unfortunate but necessary. This job…

I got home from a long day (it was gonna be long, no matter how long it was)…and there was an envelope from CraftForms with a catalog-type thing and a certificate, but also a check! That was nice. It took me a while to figure out what it all meant, which is funny…

My brain was not functioning. I should have just read the certificate. Could not focus. I’m taking all the awards I’m getting from now on and dumping them into the remodel account…because my studio is one of the rooms that needs work. Not a lot of work…well…I have ideas, but not all ideas that I can afford.

I went to pilates after…it was great. I am really liking the control and relaxation that comes with pilates. Weird, I know…and I still need hikes and the gym, but this is also good.

I didn’t grade anything at all last night. I often do on Fridays, because my brain is already in school mode, so it’s easier to bang out one assignment or class and get it out of the way, but I was too tired. I wasn’t the only one who was tired…

He ran around a lot yesterday at the other house…the solar got started today, but it’s not done…so the boychild kept him at the other house and he tired himself out.

Kittens are both lap cats…here’s Nova…

When they want to sleep, they want to be on you…I got Luna…

They nap for about 20 minutes, and then race around again.

After that, I started my Winter Break drawing practice, a drawing a night (or day…no judgement here). I don’t think too hard about these…it’s really just about the practice.

I did this last year and really enjoyed it.

So there’s 12/20…this is a 9×12″ sketchbook. And I really do just like to fill spaces, in case you’re wondering. So that’s 24 days of break (well, I included last night…there’s only 23 days), so 24 drawings. Sounds exciting!

I went to bed early. I was tired. I always give Simba special pets and then crate him (it keeps him quieter at night…he’s a barky asshole sometimes)…but Luna followed me down the hallway and then sat on his crate…causing perturbed puppy…

He’s like, um…mom…there’s a cat up there. I don’t like that.

The kittens haven’t been down the hallway to the bedroom much…so even Kitten was perturbed…

Hmmm. Well, at some point, the kittens probably won’t be crated at night and the bed will get more crowded, based on what we’ve seen so far. They are very people-oriented cats, which is nice.

So today is Saturday. I need to pick up a quilt, pack up three more for shows, then clean the girlchild’s room because she’s coming home tonight. I want to finish the stitchdown of the quilt. I will be doing one drawing. There’s a bunch of cleaning that needs to happen. I need to decide how much decorating I’m doing on the tree etc, and then put the rest of the stuff in the garage. I need to make a grading plan for the next three weeks. I have jury duty Monday, so that fucks things up. I have pilates tomorrow, grocery shopping for a holiday week, and the girlchild has a hair appointment that I usually go to as well. Dinner with the parents? I need to make that phone call. And Tuesday (hoping I don’t get on a jury) is a trip to the Wild Animal Park and then holiday party. Wednesday is the normal family stuff. Holy shit, that’s a lot! Yeah. This time of year is hard. There’s a lot going on. So I need to make time for the stuff that I find fun and relaxing. I have a book to read too. That’s important!

Hope you all are managing your time well, especially the relaxation part. That’s the harder part for me. Always. I’m working on it. Kitten pets and purring helps.

One of Those School Dreams…

So I was trying to fall back asleep around 4:30 AM, like you do, and then the Man’s alarm was going off and I realized I was dreaming about school, sort of, because it’s never really your school or work or whatever. It’s tweaked. But I’m running (RUNNING) home from school because I forgot to take a shower (WTF Nida) and I had my teacup and my bag and I ran into one of my current students and she had a big platter of Christmas goodies she wanted to give me (this shit never happens in real life) and she really was worried and wanted to do it right then (kind of realistic actually) so we went into a tea shop and I put my stuff down and took her goodies and thanked her and all that and then RAN home, but for some reason, I never got there; I was running toward school, except it’s that dream school I have that looks a lot like the high school I went to, but not quite, and then I’m still trying to take a shower, but realizing I left my teacup and bag in the tea shop, and I keep looking at my watch (I haven’t worn a watch in years) and ONE minute has passed and then ONE MORE minute has passed, and there’s only a shower in the science department, but they just had a huge meeting (we only have maybe 9 teachers max in our ‘science department’) and they’re all breaking up and using the bathroom, so the time is getting later and later and I still haven’t had a shower and my TEACUP is not here; it’s in the tea shop. I don’t even know what I did with the treats from that kid and then my alarm goes off.

For Fuck’s Sake, brain. You could be more creative than that.

Yes, today, everywhere, teachers will be teaching with their hair on fucking fire. Just think good thoughts. (I showered, by the way.) Send treats. Find my teacup.

My solar is being installed today. It was supposed to be Monday, but it’s supposed to rain a lot, ironically, so it will be today. I won’t be here. Hopefully they won’t fall through my roof.

I am going to go to school and try to make 164 kids (oh, who the hell are we kidding…at least 20 won’t show up, maybe more by the end of the day) finish the essay (it’s SEVEN whole sentences y’all) they started yesterday, and turn all their shit in, so I can spend break grading it. Uh huh. It’s a stupid system. Not sure how to improve that part.

We have an assembly at the end of the day, which should be a lot of standing and eyeballing kids doing stupid shit (that’s the audience). It’ll be fine. Then I hand out progress reports. More fun. No really. And clean my room so the custodial staff can clean my room. And pack up a pile of crap to grade.

Which is why, last night, I stayed up grading an assignment instead of doing art. I needed at least one more gone before break started. Which is also why the only photos I have are of kittens.

I went out for a drink after work, which I almost never do…and it was Thursday, so then my brain thought it was Friday (it wasn’t). I came home and we had dinner and I graded an assignment in between being a Kitten Landing Zone…this is Luna…

And this is Luna chewing on her sister Nova’s ear. In my face.

This did not end well.

But eventually they came back and settled and purred and slept and then the Man made me get up to fetch dinner…

I graded more, which was fascinating to cats because paper makes crinkly noises and pens are just fun to play with. But eventually they offloaded onto the Man…

Which made it easier to grade.

They are cute. And fascinating. I finished grading one assignment, which took a long time (probably because I was watching the new season of The Expanse, which is also fascinating). And then I went to bed. And today I gird my loins and go off into battle. Then I spend the next three weeks avoiding all those assignments, and DRAWING EVERY DAY. Yes, I’m doing that again, starting tonight. Looking forward to letting my brain spill out on paper every day. Wish me luck.

Rocks Are Hard Yo…

Yesterday. Was a slog. Apparently 12-year-olds don’t like rocks as much as I do. Plus I had to act out a wind turbine, which was hard because (a) I forgot the sound effects (whoOSH) and (b) my arms won’t turn like that, so I just look like a crazy woman. What’s new, right? I made the SECA laugh anyway. The kids think I’m nuts though, and rocks are hard yo. Ha Ha. They usually ARE hard. I want that shirt now. Rocks are hard. OK, this is how you know we’re close to break…the stupidest shit makes a teacher laugh until she cries. Rocks are hard.

OK. That said, I had to push and shove and yank them through the understanding of mining and the rock cycle yesterday…today we finish with the copper mine and then they write the CER. QUIETLY. For reals. Sigh. I can’t help anyone when I have children losing their minds because I asked them to write 7 whole sentences. In two days, it’ll be fine. FINE, I SAID.

I went to pilates right after work. That was pretty smart. The class was half empty (it wasn’t supposed to be) and it was good. Relaxing in a shaky-muscle kinda way. When I made it home, someone else was cooking for once (yay!) and I finished grading one assignment and input it and another one, and then made a list of all the things that needed grading over break unless I get some of them done in the next two days and I lost my mind. Eyes rolling back in head. Seriously behind. Always. Never caught up. My eyelid is not twitching though…yet…so that’s a good sign. Although my neck is close to frozen in place. Massage! To the rescue!

The kittens are very energetic…

And in everything, EVERYTHING. They tried to climb one of the quilts on the wall yesterday, so we moved some stuff to stop that. This is my sewing bag. Or a cat carryon. Hard to say.

They completely shredded this toy after pulling it out of a box and dragging it around…

I wish I could get a good photo of them leaping through the air, but they are too fast…

Sometimes they even slow down and let you pet them…

They are sweet. Although the house is currently a lot of animals trying to eat poop or attack things.

Kitten is still avoiding it all…by living in my office…

Calli wants to play too…and eat poop…

Simba is in the eat poop category…but also how much cat food can he steal.

I did stitch down for about an hour. I don’t have much stamina at the moment.

My brain is all over the map, stressed out, trying to get everything done and out of my head onto paper.

I’m more than halfway around, two full figures done and started on the third. It won’t take long to finish it. I just need the mental space (as always) and the energy. At some point, I’m going to need to sit down with my art deadlines and realistically decide about the next one. I’m not there yet. Certainly with two days of school before break, that is NOT the time to reevaluate anything (except my job choice of course).

Which means I need to go to work. It’s Decade Day. I’m 90s grunge, even though I always dress this way and I have to wear my school shirt because it’s also the staff picture day. And during the 90s, I was giving birth to my children, so 90s grunge was all about breastfeeding and diapers. Well, the last half of it anyway. Whatever. Happy holidays y’all! Especially sending good thoughts to teachers everywhere. Don’t kill them! It’s not worth the jail time. Joke. Mostly.

It’s My Favorite Day of the School Year…

It is my favorite day of the entire school year. No, not the last day. I hate the last day. It’s stressful and annoying and I have my homeroom kids for 3 hours straight which is just nuts. Not fun. It’s not the day before Winter Break…then they act like they’re on crack and they can do totally stupid shit because three weeks is forever for them and they don’t think they’ll EVER get in trouble for acting out, plus sugar, plus Christmas makes them LOSE THEIR MINDS, and there’s an assembly, which just hurts my head even more, so no, not this Friday. Today is my favorite day because it’s…pajama day. You heard me. I get to wear pajamas to school. It’s like heaven on Earth. Oh yeah. I’m so happy.

Which is good, because I’m teaching about mining and spending my lunch giving quizzes, so none of that is fun at all. Well, mining isn’t bad. It’s just getting them to understand what the rock cycle has to do with it. It might be really obvious to YOU. Not so to a 12-year-old.

Anyway, I can survive three more days of school. I’m up early for yet another random meeting. Yesterday, during tutoring, I sat with an exhausting table. Sometimes I walk around and help random kids, but yesterday there was a group of kids who are mostly mine who needed science help. Literally one I had to say…now write the next sentence about farts. Seriously. Don’t even ask. Please. The rest of the time was like having WWII fighter pilots bombing you from above and trying to avoid the bombs, plus answer all the questions, and keep the pilots on task, because they wanted to go over THERE or over THERE and not do their job. EXHAUSTING. I really appreciate the other teacher who stayed late because all the other teachers ditched yesterday and I was gonna be all alone.

I came home and wrapped some gifts and talked to some people in person and on the phone and made dinner yet again (not sure how I ended up with double duty, and I’m pretty sure someone was supposed to help last night and didn’t, but when I looked over to ask for help, he had two baby kittens snoring on him)…spaced out a little, watched some TV, read 6 pages of Trump’s crazy-ass letter to Pelosi (how did he write that much? That’s a lot of words, albeit crazy words), and came in here and set up to do stitchdown…

This isn’t going to take very long. It’s very meditative…

Ah, spacecat. I only did an hour’s worth. More tonight I think…

I should be grading shit, but I couldn’t deal with it after being in tutoring. I was tired of it. I’ll do some today. I swear. There’s some easy stuff I could (should) get out of the way. I don’t want to be grading all break. Although there’s a few significant assignments this week. Ugh.

It’s really hard to get good pictures of these beasts sometimes. They’re constantly racing around…they wanted out this morning after the man left, but I knew I was leaving too, so I told them no…

They’re not really big enough yet to be let all over the house unsupervised, especially with my sweet girl (um. Well. She’s not so sweet.) in the house.

I had a moment last night…it’s the second time…where I really wanted to go to Craft Napa up in…well…Napa. It’s mostly art quilt stuff and it just sounds fun to take a class and mess around, but it takes forever to get there and I am back at school and I’m taking a class the weekend before in Palm Springs, which is a ways away, but nowhere near as far as Napa, so UGH. I had to persuade myself out of it again. Plus it would be really expensive to get there and stay there and take classes, so no, no, no, you can’t. Plus you have another quilt to finish before the end of January and it doesn’t even exist on paper, so I don’t know how the hell you think that is going to happen if you are traipsing all over California.

OK, I also need to wrap presents and pack quilts for shows tonight, so I should do some of that. I bought the boxes yesterday to get ready for it. And I have pilates right after school…I’ve never done an early class like this, right after school…I’ll need to change at school and go over there. I’m hoping it’s really relaxing and helps me slide into the evening. Because remembering to bring all my shit with me and actually leave school on time is a little stressful.

OK. I’m rocking pajama day. Happy to be in flannel. Already more relaxed than I would normally be.

Portland in Review

We’re back from Portland. I haven’t slept much. I’ve been awake since 4:42 AM. I did go to bed early, so I think it was about the same amount of sleep. It was a fun trip, too short of course, but I think I might be able to handle the rest of this week. We’ll see. Perhaps the sub notes will send me over the edge. Certainly some of the student emails I got over the weekend might. I’m getting a shirt that says “It’s not fair…” and then something pithy. That my students won’t understand. Like most of my shirts.

Anyway, we picked Portland just because. We had to use a flight before the end of the year and we didn’t have much time, so we didn’t want to spend it all flying. Portland was a good distance, had some entertainment stuff we liked, had some friends we liked, and the man had never been there. Plus we might do a camping trip up there sometime. A ways out. So this was just kind of checking it out.

My ex-San Diego friend Susan (she’s not my ex-friend…she moved to Portland recently) picked us up and pretended to be our Lyft driver. We fed her lunch, which we don’t do with our Lyft drivers…

She then dropped us off at our Airbnb…with a stop at a grocery store for some supplies. We did talk about the street art and the homeless population…comparing Portland’s treatment to San Diego’s…

No spiky rocks planted there to keep them from camping out…

It was a longish day of travel…we were up early…so the man crashed out for a couple of hours. He needed it.

I graded stuff and drew and read my book. I’m good at entertaining myself.

Our Airbnb was up a huge hill, right next to Forest Park. Pros: right next to Forest Park and great views. Cons: huge hill.

We did walk down for dinner. The cold is not something we’re really used to, but we layered up. Ate dinner. Decided not to walk back. I would have. The man called a Lyft.

We got up at a reasonable hour the next morning, ate breakfast, and walked the half block to the first trail…

This was cool.

It’s been a while since we’ve hiked together…and it was good. Lots of dogs and misty rain and runners and green, so much green.

We went out Wildwood Trail for a good 4 miles or so, and then hiked down to the road coming back. It was shorter on the way back, but a healthy start to the day. Then we did a bunch of stuff that involved two Lyft drivers, wandering through Powell’s Books mindlessly, some chicken wings and cider or beer, plus seeing an old high-school friend, his wife, and their dog (dog is sweet), plus more walking, some more cider or beer and some food, plus this…

That’s from a dollhouse in the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium…

Which reminded me a lot of an alien museum in Roswell, NM, that we enjoyed…although I wanted to file a complaint about this…because that’s not needlepoint.

So there.

Drawing in bars…my specialty…although this was a bottle shop…

This was a painting outside a food co-op…

And this was the drawing I finished on Friday…

Sort of out of order. Here’s Saturday’s drawing…

finished in the bottle shop. I persuaded the man to walk back to the house! I know. He probably had a bit too much beer in him, but we made it! I think that was 7 miles total.

Sunday, we got up, ate, packed, and our lovely not-Lyft driver took us to the airport…on the plane, we saw the first sun we’d seen since we left San Diego, plus one of the volcanic majesties around Portland. We saw two, so this might be Mt. Hood…it might not.

Someone knowledgeable will tell me. Drawing 3 happened in the Las Vegas airport, surrounded by people with hangovers…

And then we were home…the man left to go get the babies, who got spayed last week…and are quite recovered. They look sleepy there, but that was after 3 hours of rampaging around the house…

They are officially ours now…paid for and our problem.

I consoled the old lady, who missed us. Maybe.

She helped me grade more stuff. It’s always good to go on a trip right before grades are due. I really only graded in airports, except for the 2-hour nap thing. No, I’m not done. I’m close though.

This morning, babies are up and crazy again…

Stitches my ass. They are not feeling it now.

OK. Gotta go to work. Teach kids. Ignore the whiny It’s Not Fair crew. Grade some shit. Give a test! Whatever. Hopefully art this week, beyond just drawing…not that I don’t like to draw. I truly enjoyed giving myself that time this weekend. Keeping that in mind for the future. Oh yeah, Portland…we’ll be back…maybe with a tent and more hiking time to spare…

Doesn’t Look Like Much…

Well it’s humpday. My brain is confused by days. As a teacher, I should have this down. What day is it? I write it on the board every day. You’d think I’d have a clue. This week is weird, though. I’ll be out on Friday, so I need sub plans and a video explaining shit. Plus packing and laundry and grocery shopping. No worries. Two meetings tonight. Not sure how all this will get done.

I have two more periods of grading this hellacious assignment. Grades are due Tuesday, less than a week away. I’m in Portland for three days. Grading will happen on the plane and in airports, but I don’t want it to happen once we get there. There honestly won’t be time. A stressful trip but hopefully a fun one too.

The sunset last night from the chiropractor’s office…

It was prettier in person of course.

The kittens went off to their spay surgery location last night…spay today; we’ll see them on Sunday night (well, the man will see them tomorrow night). Apparently one really didn’t want to get in the cage at the foster location. Awww. We are no longer fostering by the way…they’re ours. Because they were gone, though, Kitten came out to explore her favorite thing this time of year, the Christmas tree. Yes, it only has one ornament on it. I’ve been busy.

Really, she just wants to eat pine needles and throw them back up. It’s a strange ritual.

I graded until about 10:30 PM. I don’t think I’ll be able to do that today with the two meetings. We’ll see. Maybe I can grade some in class, but I doubt it.

Then ironing…I so want to be done with this step, but life is busy. I got everything ironed except the last head…

And the center bit…and I laid out all the 800s…but to keep ironing would have put me well past 1 AM, so I stopped at midnight. Ish. Sleep is a thing I need. So I have a head to do, the center bit, and the space cat, about 72 pieces. Then I need to figure out the background, which is a bigger deal. Because I have no idea what I’m going to do about that. Maybe give up and go shopping on Thursday after work. I wanted to piece this background and this was going to be the perfect piece for that, and it might still be, but I haven’t had the time to see if I can pull it off. Too much time being responsible and shit.

Oh yeah, she’s headless…

Here’s some loose bits that will hang out around the women…

A spaceship and a monarch butterfly. You know, like you do.

Look! That’s all that’s left…

Doesn’t look like much because it’s not. I might not go to book club tonight. I might do this instead (shhh). Or I might get out of the first meeting too late anyway to traipse all the way across town.

It’ll all get done eventually. Even decorating the tree. Cleaning the girlchild’s room (she’s coming home in 10 days, 15 hours, and 18 minutes. Give or take. Winter Break. It’s soon too. All good. Really. OK. Off to NeedyTown. We play a game today. It’ll be OK.

Which Way Is Up…

When I’m ironing a quilt together late at night, the little tiny voice that remembers how tired I will be the next day is very quiet. It’s overwhelmed by the art brain, which is stomping around and excited about what happens next and why can’t we just finish it now and WTF is up with your needing a day job what happened to us being starving artists. Yeah. So sometimes I don’t hear the little voice until it’s late and sometimes I don’t hear it until it’s REALLY late. Luckily last night was just late. And I did see the clock. And I realized I had a parent meeting this morning. And I just didn’t care. Last night. This morning, I care a little bit more, although I’m functional. Art brain is muttering about how we could have FINISHED the ironing last night (always true. Not always smart.). It’s OK. We’ll finish tonight. We’re close, it’s true, but not close enough.

Speaking of close, while I was grading, somehow I ended up with this…

She made it hard to type, but how can you resist? Sweet (bitey asshole) baby. No really. She is a bitey asshole. Her sister will confirm. “I want to clean your ear. And then I want to bite it.” Eventually Nova left. No bites.

But first, a requisite family photo…

Nova definitely upped the weight gain last week. They’re getting spayed tomorrow. Hoping they’re both OK. We won’t see them again until Sunday night. I think we temporarily named them Flower or Sweetness (on the left) and Butthead (on the right) last night. Significantly different personalities.

I was trying to grade through all that. All that was after spending about an hour and a half standing in pharmacies, arguing with my medication insurance company about their fucked-up stupidity…always fun. Eventually solved. Someone lost or stole my meds in Compton, so they never showed up…getting short-term replacements is a Pain in the ASS. It doesn’t matter that your doctor approved it. Your insurance company needs five levels of approval and at least one Giant Fuckup on their part before they’ll OVERRIDE. I apologize to everyone in CVS last night who heard me go off on the LAST person I talked to. Love insurance. Really. Mostly. Sigh.

I gave up on grading after 5 essays. Between the residual holiday party annoyance, the pharmacy irritation, and kitten interactions, I couldn’t concentrate any more. Which sucks, because ideally they’re all done before I leave, and I’m less than halfway there. Ugh.

I ironed. It was 10 PM. It was fair.

Yeah, that’s upside down. See previous comments about which way is up. Because I don’t know. Figure 3 in progress, new iron…

It’s large. Probably more likely to hit the floor.

I need an iron that knows how (and when) to levitate.

Figure 3 is done…now comes the fun part of trying to make Figure 4 fit everything together.

Hard to do…I got a start on her, but she’s missing some chunks. I did make it work though.

No holes! My original background choices aren’t going to work, I think. Too much dark in the figures to go on a relatively dark background. I’ll have to think about it. And go through the stash, because I’m probably piecing it. I don’t have time to go buy anything new, so it’ll have to be pieced.

Anyway, that’s after today’s day at work, which includes a lab and managing the sweet dipwads who haven’t finished all their work. Plus tutoring. Where the kids who don’t need it show up and the kids whose parents are forcing them to go show up and say they don’t want to work on science because history is easier. Then when I walk away, they go back to whatever game they were playing that I can’t catch them at. Yup. It’s December and progress reports are coming.

I Killed an Iron…

Happy Monday! I know. It’s Monday. I’m trying a positive attitude. I actually did OK this weekend and am feeling OK about going into this week. Not awesome, but OK. As always, I’m tired. I’m behind in grading. And the floors are dirty. What’s new? I know, right? It’s not raining. That’s a plus. Today’s classwork is a known thing. Also a plus. The lab is tomorrow. That will be harder, but it’s a pretty easy lab. I’m only working 4 days this week…at school…because I’m ditching school for a day to go to Portland. Why Portland? No good reason. We had a free flight that needed to be used before the end of the year, so we picked somewhere relatively close. Honestly, if we sit in the Airbnb for the whole time, it will be OK.

So I did a lot of artmaking this weekend…I think that’s why I’m feeling OK about it being Monday. This was Saturday afternoon…

It was a delightful afternoon. I gave myself about two and a half hours to iron.

It’s a great form of meditation…

Kitten break. They finally got big enough to be spayed…it’ll be this week, mostly while we’re gone. Poor babies.

These are the 200s, all laid out for ironing.

This thing is going together pretty easily. Here’s the start of Figure number 2…

Saturday night, we had the man’s work party, on top of a downtown building again.

It was OK. Snacking food is hard for a diabetic. There was gambling AND a murder mystery AND a masquerade. Seemed like a lot. The man won pizza socks. Lots of them.

Sunday was slow-moving, like my dad in his truck, carrying a lime tree from a friend’s house that is about to be sold to my house where it will live in the ground quite happily. Hopefully.

I grocery shopped, did laundry, and even graded. But I ironed for another 2 hours. I actually killed my iron last night…

I’ve dropped it multiple times, super-glued the base back together twice, but this was The Death of It. Seriously, pieces went flying. Everywhere. It’s gone.

Luckily, I keep a spare.

Kitten interaction in between things…

That’s my leg, Luna.

Kitten (the real Kitten) likes to hang out while I iron.

Sometimes right in front of the screen. There’s Figure 2, getting ironed…

Then she has eyeballs and she’s right side up.

The hardest part of this quilt might be deciding which way is up. This will be the third quilt this year where I’ve had that issue.

Starting on Figure 3. That’s where I had to go to bed.

I won’t be done tonight, but I’ll be close. Stitchdown by the end of the week. Then hopefully quilting next week.

Here’s my top nine on Instagram for 2019. Interesting…two aren’t quilts and two are old quilts. But that’s OK.

And one has no face. That’s just weird.

OK, today is the festive (not) forced holiday party at work for 2 hours. Shoot me now. Then I can come home and iron to my heart’s content. Well, I have a grading goal, but THEN I can iron.