The Good Meditative Stuff.

It’s my first day of nine days off of school. There’s about 40 hours of grading in there, but let’s ignore that for now, eh? Honestly, all I really want to do at the moment is avoid human interactions. People. Anything needy. Well, except for kittens. Kittens are needy but fun, so I’ll deal with them. And I can deal with a few people. OK, maybe one. At a time. But not before 9 AM. So far today, I’ve done a pilates class (actually talked to three different humans. Maybe four. No, five. But most of it was short and sweet. Take my package. I had knee surgery. My name is Kathy.). I need to go sign all my paperwork for the loan to put solar in. That’s exciting. I will probably need to speak to one person for that. I need to buy milk. No need for speech, y’all. There should be an introvert line at the grocery store. No Need to Ask Me If I Found Everything OK. Seriously. Don’t speak. Yes, there’s self-service in some of the stores, but I’m aware of that taking away people’s jobs, so although I personally prefer the self checkout, sigh. Please just don’t make them talk to me.

After signing papers, I have hours of alone time with my grading and my ironing. Gonna do both. Might have to talk to people tonight. Or not. Maybe not. I just don’t know. I’m OK with not.

So I finished Figure 2 last night…and all the bits in and around her. I’m ready for Figure 3 this afternoon.

Then Figure 4 on Sunday, start cutting out. Be done by Tuesday? Night? Then start ironing together. I’d really like it all ironed together by the time I go to Lake Arrowhead on Friday. Sigh. Then I can draw the next one while I’m in Arrowhead. Get it ready. Because time…it flies. Erratically, yes, but flies.

My right eyelid is still twitching from last week. And people. People are making it twitch.

Sometimes I’m OK with people. I worked on this on Thursday night at my stitching meeting…started the lion…

And finished the tree…

This is Sue Spargo’s Folk Tails 2015 Block of the Month. Yeah. I’m slow. This is September’s blocks. I’m getting closer to done. There were three people there. They were fine.

You’re always getting closer to done if you keep working.

I spent some time with kittens and my book this morning…my toes are fascinating.

Then again, everything is fascinating when you are a kitten.

They love to play…

It’s hard to get good pictures because they are always moving. We are still mulling over names. This is hard.

How do we climb the curtains?

Devious little beasties.

They met Simba. There was fear and confusion all around. A little bit of hissing…

Hopefully they will all get along.

OK, off to the bank. Then back here to grade and iron. It sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, minus the grading, but let’s just understand that it has to happen. I’ll fit in the good meditative stuff around it. Make that eye twitch go away.

Reading to Kittens…

Ah Friday…Friday before 9 full days off from the neediness and the having to be ON ALL THE TIME. Nine days of peeing whenever the fuck I want. Nine days of grading, yes, that too, but at least I don’t have to do it all at night after working all day. Or if I’ve been working all day, it’ll be on my quilt. I do have a shit-ton of grading to do. It’s a pain. It’s not fun. And we’re not fully planned for the next unit either, so that’s panicking me slightly. We’re close. Not there yet. And then we need to plan the NEXT one. Sigh. This job. Sometimes. Is just so hard and so much.

OK, so think about kittens and art instead.

I got home and went in to the cat condo to let them out and run around…we have them sort of (not really) contained in one room in the house, but it doesn’t have a door, so it’s a problematic thing. A baby gate wouldn’t help…they climb right up the cat condo walls like it’s a tree. So you distract them. I read to them from my book.

They were fascinated, but mostly by the light. And things that move. I should put cat TV on for them. They do spend a chunk of time in the large cat condo while we’re gone…

And sometimes when we’re here, because you have to keep eyes on them constantly and that’s exhausting. I did play a lot with them though before I came in to play with MY kitteh and iron some shit.

She still likes me. I take her in to see kittens and she doesn’t really like it, but I hope she warms up to them. Sigh.

So this is Figure 2 getting ironed down. I’m pulling a run of 7 fabrics for each of them.

Trying to make them all different. Might have to rethink my background options though. They might be too dark. We’ll see.

So the box in the middle is the two runs of flesh. Then everything else of course.

I still need to do all the funky stuff on Figure 2…hair, eyeballs, heart, etc. Then on to Figures 3 and 4. This is a good place to be in for going into a long week off…I predict getting it all ironed together and hopefully stitched down by the time I go back to school. OK. Wait. That might be a little too much for me to be able to do…but I probably should get that far. OK. It’s a busy week. No matter what.

For now? I’m going to school and hoping the kids continue to be as good as they have been (although two periods yesterday pushed me a little over the edge). Then they can turn in the million things I have to grade and I will finish the worksheet I’m drawing (yeah, that’s a little crazy, but whatever). And then it will end with an assembly and I can come home and read my book to the kittens again. Sounds good.

Almost Relief

Well. That’s done. And a relief. Too many people in my classroom, my poor kids stressed out (OK, well, some absolutely blossomed with that many adults in there, good to know for next time). Super long day, a million steps, very tired, they canceled tutoring (oh hallelujah), but I had a meeting later…which was fine, except I’ve never ever seen that Starbucks that full, so we had to sit outside and it was raining (it was covered but cold and dampish). And I was able to come home and finish grading Unit 2, although that was more difficult than you would think due to kittens.

But I can go into the last three days of school before a week off with almost relief. I guess there’s still a shitload of stuff to do. It’s just less high stress. We even got the field trip lunches ordered, so that was a miracle. I’m feeling pretty chill. Knock on wood. Because that never lasts.

I’m back to insomnia though…at least the falling-asleep kind. Brain won’t shut up. Hopefully a week off will help with that.

Until then, there will be lots of kitten photos. Because they’re cute. This is Diva. She’s super cautious and not Diva-like at all.

I suggested calling her Frida. She seems the thoughtful painterly type.

This is Sue-Bob. She is aggressive and boisterous and adventurous. We both have accidentally called her a he, which says more about our social/cultural shit than it says about her. She’s a strong, opinionated female.

She should maybe be called Gloria, but since these are not mine to name, and people names on cats is a little weird, we’re probably not going to do that. I suggested Pussy. That did not go down well.

Oh yeah, here was my outdoor, slightly damp seat at Starbucks, waiting for my meeting, while fixing the holes in my sweatshirt.

We’ll see how it holds up.

By the time I got back, the man was cooking and the kittens were locked up, because they needed a nap.

Oh yeah. Cute.

The man goes to bed lots earlier than I do, so he asked me to supervise the little beasts until I was done. I had grading to do, so I sat in there and tried to grade with the little twerps.

They chewed on units, my fingers, and my toes. Sue-Bob tried to escape about 15 times. Diva almost went down the back of the desk into the never-never land behind. They tried to grab my pen and my phone, and definitely went headfirst into my tea. I forgot what babies are like. Holy Shit.

Uh huh. Thems my toes.

When I was done, I put them back in their giant-ass crate (seriously could fit 50 more kittens in there) and they mewed at me and I felt bad, but Kitten was waiting for me in the studio…

She’s being standoffish. I take her to watch them play or sleep. She’s not keen on this. I’m hoping she warms up to it. Because I think we all might have already bonded. Oops.

I didn’t get a lot done…there are four figures in this quilt and each one will be slightly different. I did all the flesh tones…

I still need to do the heart, hair, uterus, and all that floofy stuff.

I have book club tonight…hopefully I’ll get some ironing in after that. We usually meet outside, so I’m not sure what will happen with that. Not my problem.

OK, need to get to work. It’s raining. Just lightly for now. The downpour comes later. Makes the old lady dog nervous, makes the roads dangerous. Also waters the plants. I’m good with that. I think today is a Plant My Butt on a Rolling Chair Day. We’ll see if that really works. Hopefully.

Nida As Is…Plus Kittens!

Today is a crazy day. But once it’s done, I think things will just slide into a week off (a week off that includes lots of driving and grading and all that stuff, but still a week off, dammit).

My classroom will be full of people today…I had to pick kids to teach during my prep, just to show politicians what science looks like these days. I love that two of the science classes they’ll be going to are focusing on environmental science…because that’s a thing. I’m hoping it goes well…I’m just going to teach like I always do. They keep saying dog-and-pony show, but I don’t dog OR pony well, so they’ll just get Nida as is, maybe minus my commentary on “It sucks to be you.” Or not. I did cherry-pick my class…so it’s way smaller than any real class I have and no one is an asshole. It’ll be interesting. I’m not a fan of this crap, but these are the people trying to figure out how ESSA and NCLB will work, and they need to see real kids in action. So maybe I should have cherry-picked some of the more challenging kids, true, but…my sanity is part of this picture.

Meanwhile, back home, we are fostering two kittens with the plan of adopting them…

They are dilute calicos, which means they have more recessive genes than they know what to do with…both girls, sisters in fact. For now, they are residing in this kitty condo so we don’t lose their tiny bodies in this house, plus dogs and other cat have a chance to get acquainted.

One tiny kitten already voiced her objection to Simba, thus crushing his dreams of being their bestie. That might change.

Kitten has visited them multiple times without incident…

She was the real worry…we want her to have good years as the oldest cat in the house, but we also hope she will love them and play with them. She used to play with our oldest cat back in the day…so we know she has it in her. And with Satchemo dying, she’s been out and roaming the house and playing and running around, and we want that to continue…that’s kinda why we picked kittens, plus we want them to have someone to play with no matter what, so sisters is also good.

They have lame names. We haven’t figured that out yet. This is Diva…

She’s more shy and retiring and cautious.

This is her more aggressive sis, Sue-Bob. No really.

She’s into the love. Likes pets and playing like a maniac, plus pushing her sister out of the way. So I guess there will be a lot more kitten pictures. We haven’t let them out into the house yet. These are the man’s cats really, so he is taking the day off work to bond. Really just to play with kittens.

I did grade last night…just one more night of the big project is left, and then I have about 9 hours of reading CER essays (claim, evidence, reasoning). Then I ironed for an hour. An hour a night is better than nothing, and this was an easy hour…continuing around the background, I did the hills and the mountains.

The hardest part was finding all the pieces, because they were in three different boxes.

Next I start with the first female figure…each one will be a different flesh run, so that’s complicated. But not yet. I think I have to do the clouds and sun first. Can’t remember.

Anyway. Gotta go to work. Yesterday, I got to school and as part of the prep for these important folks coming to our school, they “cleaned” our rooms over the weekend without telling us. All the tables, chairs, technology, anything that was on my teacher desk, and all the lab materials we’d left out on Friday were all shoved in random places. It took me 40 minutes to put everything back. My co-teacher had a morning meeting, so she didn’t have that time. Let’s just say things got managed, but it was a clusterfuck. I didn’t get the stuff done in the morning that I needed to get done, unfortunately, so I’m still behind and I have field trip stuff that has to happen today. And I don’t have a prep today. It’ll be fine, but it’ll be better when the day is done. After tutoring. Plus I have an evening meeting. So a little nutso today.

Ironing tonight though…I hope.

Four more days.

A Weird Wind

A weird wind came through yesterday afternoon, and now I can see too much of my neighbor’s house (leaves fell off the two trees that normally block most of my view). I guess it’s good because I get more light in here, but I’m not a fan of seeing the neighbor’s house, so there’s that.

I haven’t been sleeping well. Can’t fall asleep, brain is in overdrive, could be school stress, could be life in general, could be hormones, could be caffeine, although I haven’t changed my intake, so why now would it keep me awake? I dare you to send me another article about more sleep and health. I’d do it if I could…I just don’t do it well. Maybe the hot flashes and weird blood sugar numbers are on their way back in with the insomnia. Who knows.

I did an artists’ talk on Saturday afternoon, after a different art group’s meeting…

One of the bathtub quilts…gotta do another one of those. I have no idea what I said. But I said it.

Saturday night was mostly grading stuff, but also visiting these two babies…

We’re fostering them as of tonight, I think. One of them is more extroverted than the other…

Hey. Play with me. Now.

Hopefully it will all go well with this old lady…

who was caught with her head in the handle of this plastic bag. We’re hoping she wants to play with kittens more than plastic bags. Let’s see how it goes.

We got another campsite booked for our Spring Break trip. I call this the Easy Bear Access campsite.

Right down that hillside. No, seriously…it’ll be a good time. No showers for 5 days, but that’s all good. Dad’s like recommending more campsites after this, and I’m like, 5 days? I’m gonna need a bed. An actual bed. Never mind the shower.

I graded a lot this weekend. We went to dinner at the parentals and I made lunches for the week (that’s one thing less to worry about) and finally, around 11 PM, I made it to the studio to iron stuff. This is where I realized that all the water, hills, and mountains behind the figures should be all the same fabrics, so I numbered stuff illogically. This pile is all the water, and includes pieces from the 100, 200, and 400 boxes.

That’s not annoying to do at all. So I’ll be continuing to do that tonight. Searching through boxes looking for 7 specific pieces. Hopefully. Got two more classes to slog through on the big grading unit.

All the 100s laid out…will move on to hills and mountains next…then the body starts in the 40s, I think.

Something like that.

I’m watching Mars…which goes back and forth between reality in 2016 and fiction in 2033. I’ve been trying to take notes for my students, blurbs they could watch…but it’s hard to do that AND iron.

I should recruit Kitten as my secretary.

My goal is to get everything ironed down by the end of the next weekend, then cut it out and start ironing. I don’t know if I can do that. I already have way too much to do next week.

I’m not really a fan of Thanksgiving week. It’s always full of work and driving. But at least there’s no kids or labs or politicians traipsing through my classroom (that’s tomorrow). And I can pee when I want. That’s a thing. Seriously. Maybe I can even sleep in a morning or two. That’s a thing too.

OK. Five more days. Head held high. Food healthy. Deep breaths. Maybe try to remember to meditate in between the panicked moments.

Not a Waste…

I’m always a little discombobulated at the beginning of a new trimester. I had my head down and was grading like crazy, and now I can relax a little. Only a little. The stuff I have to grade right now isn’t very portable. I do want it done before next week, but I don’t think it will be. Not based on yesterday…needy kids who can’t work independently. “Miss, there’s no websites on turtles in San Diego County.” “There are 14 million websites…see that number right there? Have you considered scrolling down?” They would totally scroll down if they were looking for game hacks or videos of their fave person. Two kids yesterday: “This is boring.” Ah youth. I told both of them, “You’re boring. Go find out something new.” The need for entertainment is constant.

So. Trimester 2 has started. I’m up early because I agreed to something crazy. As usual. Hopefully it won’t be too bad. I wasn’t expecting multiple meetings over it. Ugh. Oh well. Stop volunteering! I didn’t actually volunteer. I was sideswiped. Plus there will be politicians involved. I’m intrigued by that.

Yesterday, after school, I kamikazed to an educational professional development meeting on special education and the law. It’s funny…I’ve been a union rep for 15 or 16 years, and I never feel like I know anything, but as I’m sitting through this info session, I’m thinking, I already know that. I do know stuff. I just don’t know ALL the stuff. I will probably never know ALL the stuff. I’m OK with that. I’m OK with knowing a goodly chunk of the stuff. The meeting ran late though and I was tired of listening to the Question and Answer section, which turned into a Complain and There’s No Answer to That section. There are laws and there are people and there is no funding for the laws (yo, politicians…give us the money to DO what you say we should do), which makes it all very frustrating. Also, the instructor paints a picture of a Special Ed department that is very different from the one I’ve experienced recently. Which is also frustrating.

I came home. I did some school stuff, just because I needed to. I actually made a worksheet and started a table of contents for the next unit while I was at the meeting. I can’t just sit and listen at that hour. I’m too tired. I’ll fall asleep. I need to engage other parts of my brain to keep me awake. I remember that when I’m planning instruction, but I’m not sure how to get around it when I can’t even get a kid to pick up a pencil some days. Let alone to read and think about what they’re reading. Independent learning? Yeah right. And maybe someone could let me know when I’m getting new kids in my class? Like especially when they’re transferring from an existing class on campus. Did I miss an email? I might have. Some woman at pilates on Monday was complaining that she had been gone from work for two weeks and had 290 emails to go through. I’m like, that’s it? Sheesh. That’s a week’s worth, maybe. At certain times of the year, that’s a few days.

Yesterday, while writing the blog…well, resizing photos anyway.

Weird. Reminds me…I have some blogposts I need to write for the art group I’m in. Time! I need time. Always.

I spent about an hour cutting another yard of pieces out…with furry butt involvement.

Apparently she heard my car come up when I got home and ran for the front door to see me, but then ran away when I opened it. The reality of me was too scary. She’s a scaredy cat. We were talking about fostering kittens last night. We’ve asked her. Who knows what she thinks. We do know she’s a lot more playful and visible right now than she has been for years. That’s something. She might like kittens. Who knows?

OK, another long meeting today. I’ll be planning shit for December and maybe January while taking notes. Otherwise I’ll fall asleep. I do have my sketchbook as well. I used to draw during union meetings, but then I had too much work to do to waste that time. WASTE. Not a waste. Sigh. I WANT TO DRAW. Maybe you should just draw then.

When I get home, I’ll be able to cut out the next and last yard of Wonder Under, maybe even sort the pieces, if I can stand up for that long. Wait. That means I’ll be ironing pieces to fabric this weekend. Ooohh. I like that. Nice.

It’s Light.

Pro: It was light when I got to get up. I woke up earlier. My brain was confused. So were the dogs. Plus the man gets up earlier than I do and that wakes me up. Con: I’m still tired. I sorta forgot about Daylight Savings and the time change because my phone did it for me. The clocks in here are still wrong. Whoops.

Saturday I talked to a solar guy…he’s the first one who didn’t say I needed to cut my trees down. He designed a system with the trees. A miracle. This might actually happen. I mean, I’ve grown this one from a tiny plant. It’s a volunteer. I love trees.

Yeah. I know. Trees can cause problems. So can people and I don’t cut them down. Well. Much.

There’s been a lot of dog sleeping going on here…

Lots of dogs too…

And lots of grading. It gets frustrating at times. Sometimes I feel like I’m just recording that they did stuff and I’m not even sure what they’re getting out of it…

Please don’t ask me what she meant by this. I really don’t know. Hopefully texture.

I don’t have any choice with quizzes and tests and projects. I have to grade them. This one amused me.

Physical change vs chemical reaction on scrambling eggs. Yeah. Sigh.

So my co-teacher and I keep searching for the solution to grades. I’m not a fan, but the kids don’t work without something to motivate them, although grades is not always a good motivator. I’m not willing to run a candy-based classroom.

Ah yes. More dogs…not my house, because that fluffy over-shedding one in the middle is not allowed on my couch.

That’s why she looks so guilty.

Meanwhile, Kitten has actually been playing.

She carried that purple mouse into the living room. Brought it right to me.

Good kitty. 6 hours of grading later. Ugh.

I did do art stuff…I went to another opening. This is in Hillcrest…

I think it’s time for another bathtub quilt. Not that my schedule fits that. Wait. A minute. Hmmm. I gots an idea.

I traced Wonder Under finally on Saturday night…see Kitten on her new perch? No fear.

Tracing is meditative. Not enough, because I’ve been grinding my teeth for a few weeks. But better than nothing. Working on that…took a pilates class for the first time yesterday. Gonna try three months. See how it goes.

Core strength would help. Plus my neck and back need it. Strangely, the only thing sore last night was my left foot. It’s better this morning.

I added a space cat to the quilt. I had a conversation with an artist’s spouse on Friday night about the cat in one of my quilts. And I realized this quilt didn’t have one. So I added one.

I guess I’m up to 872 pieces now. I traced again last night…I’m at piece 288. Not bad. I’m looking forward to some down time over Thanksgiving week to get a chunk of this done.

So far, my Thanksgiving plans include cooking my own turkey for December turkey sandwiches, getting my Real ID, going to pilates twice, going on at least one hike, and IDK what else. I guess I’ll figure that out.

Today is prep for a lab and a 2-hour staff meeting. Ugh. Well. OK. First I need to figure out what to do with all these dogs. Doing that now.

Until the Cows Come Home…

Fires are back. Winds in California. Crazy stuff. Hope everyone is safe. It’s a pain to replace buildings, it’s sad to lose all your stuff, but people (and animals)…let’s keep them all safe. It’ll be interesting to see if PG&E is the cause of the fire in Sonoma after all their squawking about turning things off. Humans like to control things. Nature does too. So far, San Diego has not had a major fire…but we still have wind predicted today.

Something about the hot dry air messes with my head. I’m not headachy like usual…just fuzzy. OK, maybe that’s a long week and it’s Friday more than the Santa Ana winds. I did finish reading all the science essays. Well, I finished all the ones that were originally turned in. Now I need to go grade all the late ones. Ugh. I know what I’ll be doing all weekend. Grades. Yup. Well. Once I finish the quilt.

No, it’s not done. It’s almost done.

There’s something about having a huge quilt on your lap when it’s hot and dry (ugh) that is exactly no fun. But I got all the binding and one sleeve done. I have part of one sleeve yet, and then I need to ink, iron, and dehair. That’s tonight.

Kitten assist. She’s really not very helpful.

I am really tired this morning. This is not surprising.

Kitten gets to nap all day. But then she wants to hang out with me the rest of the time. These guys too. Unless my ex is here. They like him best. Something to do with food or play or IDK what.

Basically whoever comes in the door is their new best friend…especially if they run around with them a lot. I don’t think I’m walking dogs today. It’s still too hot. We’ll see.

So I came home and saw this. I was so tired, I looked at it and thought, well that’s an interesting design. Did the boychild find that in the shed?

I wonder how it works? Oh yeah. It’s broken. Duh.

He also broke this…

It’s just the shed roof. It’s fine. He was trying to clear fire danger from the house area, and we knew the roof was deteriorating. But I’m not ready to get rid of this shed. I will, but not yet.

OK, I’m going to survive today. Labs all day. Then come home and finish the quilt and find the other one that has to be delivered to a show tomorrow. The man is playing a short show, but I’m not going. I should tell him that. Then I’m going to grade until the cows come home…which is gonna be a while, because we don’t have any cows.

Can’t Dig Out

Well, brain, thank you. I appreciate your dreaming about grading. Because it’s not enough that I have to DO the grading when I’m awake and WORRY about it when I’m doing other things that don’t seem as important…you need to make me stress over it in my dreams. Nightmares? Perhaps. I’m currently listening to a podcast about daily, weekly, and monthly lists to get shit done too…something I actually do. It doesn’t tell me how to get done the stuff I don’t have time for and don’t want to do. It’s OK. Well, actually, she says that if it stays on the list long enough, you probably don’t need to do it. That’s an interesting thought. I can roll with that. It probably explains a lot of things around here.

I’m really tired this week. I’ve even been going to bed about 30 minutes earlier every night. Getting up early yesterday was annoying because then the parent didn’t show up. So now we’re rescheduled for next week. Great. Fun. Thanks.

I’m a little worried about today and Monday’s assignment. Our kids are not the best at getting stuff done. I’m thinking of a card on Monday that they have to complete as a table…with maybe three questions on it. I didn’t even finish the video yesterday. Sigh. Haven’t finished grading the units…almost! Haven’t graded last week’s homework and today they’re turning in more. I’m gonna panic soon. (see why the brain is dreaming like that?)

OK, it’ll be fine. The podcast just used the phrase “can’t dig out” to describe October. Oh yeah, baby. That’s it. Totally.

I made it to the second opening of the Metamorphosis show last night, but only part of me because I was so tired. There were fewer people there, so I got to see the work better. It was nice. My friend took this picture…

Where I look as tired as I feel. Seriously.

At some point, I’ll post the whole show. I’m not sure when.

I came home, ate late, finished some art stuff, answered an email, and then took the extra 57 minutes to finish cutting pieces out.

It took a total of 14 hours and 41 minutes to cut all the pieces out…and another 47 minutes to sort them all into 100s…

Yes, I did that after 11 PM at night. Hence the tea. But it’s done, so when I’m finished working tonight, I can iron. Well, the room is a mess, but I think it won’t take long to get it all cleaned up. I’m looking forward to this stage. Plus I need to make a video for this weekend. Maybe I should have done some stuff at all the openings I’ve been at…oh well. Brain is not good right now. Hence the need for to-do lists that keep track of my brain.

Tomorrow I drive to LA…kamikaze trip to see my cousin. Then back for grading and ironing. Maybe a date night in the middle of all that.

Kitten was out and friendly last night…no dogs. It’s nice to see her out. OK, school. Apparently I need to grade. My brain says so.

The Trees Will Bend*

I got up this morning and both Kitten and I were looking around for Satch. Hard for the non-awake brain to remember shit…like where I put my phone and the fact that a cat died. Sigh. Kitten…it’s hard to explain it to her. She’s been coming out more, but she’s still super cautious, looking for him around the corners.

I’m up early for a parent meeting…plus I need to get my class in order for today. We’ll have two teachers out on our team, plus my science co-worker is out, so there’s some chaos on campus. Yesterday had a bit of that as well, the day after the mood-checking lesson, some people (mostly 12-year-olds) had forgotten how to behave. This is a hard year for behavior, certainly. It’s just nonstop. And parents don’t seem to be helping.

Tonight is the full opening for Metamorphosis, the Mingei/Allied Craftsmen exhibit at City College downtown. I’ll be going down with one of the other artists, hopefully to see a bit more of the exhibit. Maybe I’ll get a picture of me with my art! Hopefully to see all the students in there too. It does make for a long day, though. Yesterday was a union meeting, plus the gym. I really enjoyed having time for exercise and reading my book, plus I posted a few things students had done on my teacher Insta account in between weight machines. I’ve been lax with that. And I haven’t been able to figure out how to link it to the correct Twitter account. There should be an easier way. There doesn’t seem to be, though. Technology…making an intrusive mess since 1990. Or so.

I was hoping to get the cutting done last night, but I had guessed that pile had more pieces in it than it looked like it had, and I was right…

He did sit by me for a little while. He’s fussy about couch sitting. But you can see why it took longer…them’s some fussy little pieces.

This is after two hours. The pile on the right is all that’s left…

But it’s probably another hour. Maybe less. So tonight. And then I’ll sort them. Does that mean I could be ironing Friday night? It does. That’s nice. Because I’m running out of time. Sound familiar? Yeah. I know. Every time. Iron it together, stitch it down, quilt it, bind it. Deep breaths. This is how I roll.

Another view of Swallow Me Whole in Beyond the Surface…

I love that piece.

Boychild has been chopping away at the backyard bushes, trying to make sense of them, plus retain the not-view of our neighbors as much as possible. Need to work on that part, I think.

He’s still walking around with a boot on his foot…hopefully the toe is healing. There’s a hike at the end of the month. Plus I miss our weekly dog walks. I’m freaked out about trying to take the dogs out alone with the coyotes who have been around.

Anyway, need to leave. Go to work. Keep my cool. Get them through it. Hopefully.

*R.E.M., So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)