Make More Tea…

Well I’m a bit tired. Not uncommon I know, but cat night shenanigans were at an extreme level last night (not mine; she was quietly asleep by my leg) and my sleep was stolen with a pillow over my head mostly. It’s always fun to go to school when you are already really trying to get your eyes to open and you’ve already had your shower. It’ll be fine. Really. It will. Grades are due, mine were done, until I realized the ending date had been set wrong (not by me…higher up), so the last stuff I put in is not counting. The district reset the date to January 14 now (it was December before), but no clue why, because the trimester closes on a Friday? Whatever. If you want your employees to stop giving a shit, keep doing random things that make their jobs more difficult. Seriously. I guess the kids will have the grades set as of December because I don’t have time to go back and redo everything, and it won’t even count the one grade I input for that week because it was due the 16th. Whatever. I do the best I can for the kids DESPITE the adults. It’s all I can do.

Still trimming tiny pieces. It gets hard to tell the days apart by looking at the bins, especially in the middle. Here’s Wednesday night…

And last night…

I got through a big chunk of the flesh pieces, so it looks like a lot. I don’t have a clue how far along I am; I just know I probably won’t get much done tonight. The Man has a show, and although he’ll be done early, the second band is friends of ours, so we’re probably staying. That said, we’re both exhausted and cranky from the cat crap, so maybe he’ll want to come home early (I’d be OK with that). This weekend is also a shit show of meetings, plus I’m trying to regrade the things kids did this week so the improved scores go on their progress reports, but realistically, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to pull that off.

Scribble wants to help…

You know, usually, she just sits next to me on the couch and sleeps when I work here, but lately, she wants to be asleep on my lap, which is cute but more complicated. Easier to just read with her there.

Apparently she was interested in the book, because the boychild sent me this yesterday.

Bowie is still isolated in a room, so she hasn’t had him to play with. I’m hoping he can come out soon too. We offered it last night, and he hid under the bed again, which is really unlike him. He is eating more and peeing, but has a hard time seeing water in the bowl…that has always been an issue. Anyway, not sure what is going on with him, but the Man has been sleeping in there with him and his other two cats were scratching at the door all night, which is why I had a pillow on my head. UGH.

I finished the last Sue Spargo Rooted block last night, finally.

This was a fun mini-block-of-the-month…

Now they just have to be trimmed, sewn together, and bordered. I think there’s more embroidery on the border, but not as much as on the last one. These are a nice size of block to travel and stitch on. They’re fun to do. I can’t really carry my art quilts with me when I travel, and these are more mindless for me, so easier. Not that I travel a lot, which is why it takes me forever to finish anything. I do have the next one all appliqued down and ready for stitching. I didn’t sign up for the mini one this year…I have a lot of these; I’m way behind, and sometimes they don’t appeal to me…like this year’s. The Christmas tree one my mom and I did together…that was nice because she got to do all the embroidery and keep it. I think I have three minis saved up. Plenty to work on. Hell, I always have plenty to work on.

OK. Today. Will be long. Luckily, no meetings today, just teaching digital and analog signals, and mostly, it’s the kids working independently. Halle-fucking-lujah. I’ve been ON for days. ON ON. ONONON. Singing too (frequency, highs and lows, and my voice is shot). Played guitar, explained cassette tapes and records and old phones and video recorders and cameras (actual FILM cameras) and CDs and Walkmans. It’s been a lot. So it’s good that today is more on them than me. We’re behind in planning, so I just finished Monday’s worksheet last night and copied it after school because one of the copiers is down. So I have worksheets for Monday and Tuesday…don’t need one Wednesday, and I have no clue what’s happening after Wednesday. Light, I think. So hopefully the copier gets fixed. My partner has dance performances coming up, so she’s trying to grade at school, and so I’m trying to do things on my own, and realizing my teacher brain needs someone to bounce stuff off of…which I knew, seriously, that year when she was out was hard, but I’m not sure this one is easier. Her kids are lower than mine; I have all the honors kids, so we do kind of plan alone…together…sometimes. And support the new guy. And then all the union crap. And walking field trip crap. And and and. It’s a lot. It always is. I haven’t gotten home before dark any night this week to paint the wall next to the deck so I can start putting plants back up against it. Hell, I haven’t been able to do anything with the deck since Monday. Ah well, we do make decisions as to what to do with our time. I will be at ceramics after school this afternoon before coming home in the dark and then heading downtown for the show. It’ll be fine. It’ll all be fine and eventually we will get more sleep than last night and everyone will stop being so cranky (cats included). Maybe. Until then, I’m gonna make more tea.

No Peace…

Hey. Weird week again. I don’t know what day it is. I think that starts in mid-December and continues until my first full week…which technically is next week. Maybe then I’ll feel less discombobulated. Or not. It’s not like this year has started out stable and balanced. I just had another art deadline moved up last night, by a month. I have nothing for that show at the moment, due to some subject restrictions. I might not enter. I might not be able to. I have a couple of ideas that could happen relatively quickly, but I need to finish this one first.

I’ll be trimming all week…here’s Monday’s progress…

And here’s what I had to deal with…

Every stage is new for her, so she has to explore it.

Which is sometimes problematic.

Last night’s progress started like this…

And eventually turned into this…

Which meant I could do this…

I see progress, but it’s slow. I was grading stuff last night and in an art zoom, on top of all of it, so trimming was only an hour. I also worked on this last night…

I’m going to add a bunch more colors around the spirals (or as spirals?). The black is like a base for it. Yes, this bowl already has 7 1/2 hours in it. Seriously unaffordable. I mean, I love working on it, so it’s OK, but seriously never making money at ceramics. It was nice to be there though, just glazing and carving. And I bought more clay for the next artsy piece, which has been in my head for a month now.

OK. Today. Teaching geese and canaries (sound waves). Bunch of kids will be in and out for high school meetings. Yesterday, there were probably 15 phone calls pulling kids in the last three periods of the day. While I’m trying to teach. Fucking irritating. They gave up on calling me at some point (I couldn’t hear the phone through the oscillators and piano keyboards) and sent a kid with a note. WAY BETTER Y’ALL. So many interruptions to the job. I finished my grades (mostly) last night, a week early, because the principals decided to change the dates and no one told the teachers. Fuckers. It’s fine. I can’t do them this weekend anyway. I have three art meetings. It was four, but I wasn’t going to that one anyway. Too far. Too much other stuff I need to do right now. I do have pilates after school though and then this is the one night this week when I don’t have something on Zoom or in person (thank goodness). So I will sit quietly, read my book (that goes back to the library on Saturday), consider Greenland as its own free country, send good strong independent thoughts to Minnesota, and hope for world peace. I’ve been watching Homeland lately and it’s really not the best for a sense of peace. I do realize it…but am also sort of OK with living in that discomfort at the moment. Because a huge chunk of our country is living in similar discomfort. Sigh. Why do we treat people like this? It’s all money and feeling safe and power, but there’s no empathy in it. And I can’t live in a world without empathy.

Cocooning…

Friday. Last Friday of Winter Break. I’ve been really out of it this break…not sure why, although I can blame some of it on being sick for the middle third and then feeling like I never caught up. I’m never ready to go back, so it’s a moot point to say it again, but here I am. In terms of classwork, I have one class of packets left to grade, one whole academic assignment, and two smaller one-class assignments. Plus I need a worksheet done by Thursday and my notes from December make no sense. So there’s that. Fun times. I might figure that out this weekend. Or not. I’m not really motivated to get ‘er done in terms of school, except to finish the grading because progress report grades are coming up. Soon. And I have this quilt to finish, plus the deck railings, which are taking forever to paint. It’s been wet and cold and nothing is drying until today, when it’s still cold, but there’s a breeze and that’s helping. So I have three coats plus primer on 3/4s of the sides and I need to do the other side. I was hoping this project would be done by this weekend, and that’s not happening. It never does. Seriously. DIY is torture. School feels the same way sometimes, and so does housecleaning.

I did manage to finish trimming all the Wonder Under; honestly, I finished the first large chunk of it in the first day, then the last little bit last night.

Scribble slept through most of it.

Then after I finished trimming last night, I sorted them all…

At this point, Scribble was less than helpful…she kept seeing shadows under the bins and shoving them apart to get to them.

Fun times. I managed to get it all sorted despite all that.

I also bought background fabric, so I’m hopefully ironing down to fabric starting tonight. The office is a bit of a mess, and I need to fix a pair of pants first, plus put away fabric from the last quilt and move some stuff out of the way so I can get to the fabric bins. But it’s not a lot to do. Hopefully I’ll finish ironing to fabric in the next week and start trimming. We’ll see how that goes with going back to school.

I went out to meet stitching friends last night…this one is almost done.

It’s the 9th tree in Sue Spargo’s Rooted, so the last of them. Plenty left to do on it.

You’d think when it’s this cold that all the cats would be curled up. This was only because Bowie wanted the blue blanket and me.

And Scribble was already there.

Babies sleep a lot.

Anyway. Next step in the quilt. Scribble tends to follow me, so presumably she’ll be in the office while I iron. She’s set herself up before in the sleep spot Kitten used to frequent.

I wish I had something insightful to say about the ICE shootings in the last few days, but it’s beyond me. I just finished an ICE-related quilt with a body bag in it, not because I can see the future, but because people had already died in ICE custody. This is heinous. It’s not law enforcement, it’s not making my world safer. My world is not safe at all, and I’m an old white lady. I can’t imagine the fear and anxiety being a person of color or someone in the middle of the immigration process must feel…I just know it’s wrong.

There are a lot of wrong things in the world right now…some of them have always been there, but we’ve made some attempt to make them better. And now that’s not even happening.

This one applies to so many things…

Back to vaccinations and health recommendations. So many idiots. So much not learning happening.

Anyway. If you like my work, odds are your brain is going through the same confused contortions mine is. With no solution in sight. So many lies. So much bad information. So disheartening.

It’s late in the day…I need to go buy some cat food and figure out where to get one skein of DMC floss. Then grade some stuff and clean some stuff so I can iron later. Read a bit. Eat something healthy…or not. Resign myself to going back to work in a few days. Fight for the time to have a life outside of my job. Go back to ceramics…it’s been two weeks since I’ve been there. Sucks. Work on getting the gym back into my selfcare regime. HAVE a selfcare regime that isn’t just about cocooning in the house with sweats or pajamas on. OK, maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Didn’t Finish…

I downloaded photos on Friday for a post, and that’s as far as I got. I think I briefly considered it on Saturday, but then got sucked into other things that needed doing and lost track of that thought. Last night, while I was trying to fall asleep, my ever-helpful (not) brain was trying to remember if I’d posted on Friday or not…not is the answer. So here we are, back to Mondays, back to school, three weeks of crazy to survive on many levels, not ready for any of it…except the next stage of the quilt. Oh wait. Not ready for that either. It’s chaos in here and I can’t iron a quilt together in chaos. So. Yeah. But I’m going to have to…and that might just be the best explanation of most of my adult life right there: can’t do it; gonna have to.

OK, quilt…the quilt that I’m a week behind on…easily. Here’s more cutting out, with Scribble.

And more cutting out…

with Scribble’s tail. And more cutting out with Scribble.

And the final push…

14 hours to do it all…

And I have a lap cat. Which is nice. She quickly learned to keep her paws out of the bins, until last night, when I started sorting…

She definitely wanted to be IN the bins. But wasn’t violent about it (unlike Bowie a year ago or so). I didn’t finish sorting last night…started late and then was tired and needed to go to bed to get up early this morning.

More Scribble pix…she is allowed in the sewing room if I’m in here.

Although she has already found Kitten’s cave, where she hid on and off for the last 6 years of her life…

I mean, it’s full of batting. Why wouldn’t you want to hide there?

The girlchild is here; Scribble is friendly.

Which everyone appreciates.

She just settles in and lets the other three cats try to figure her out.

Even Bowie is starting to come around; he wants to play with her, but he’s not sure how.

Three cats vertically in a row. So it’s been a good transition so far. Of course, today is the first work day, when there’s no one around for most of the day. That will be different. But she seems very adaptable…

Strangely enough.

The Man and I hiked again on Friday, because…

we had my family’s Thanksgiving on Friday…

Both kids cooked…nice food choices.

My dad fell asleep on the couch with Annie…

I think he was in her seat.

Saturday night dinner’s drawing…

Not finished, but I only have the time from when we come in the restaurant until they serve the food.

I finished the pomegranate seeds on May’s Forest for the Trees block.

At the moment, all I can handle is the applique. I’ll get to the embroidery, but who knows when? Going back to school has sucked up any loose time I had.

I still think we’re not allowed…

But I appreciate the sentiment.

OK, there’s so much school stuff I didn’t finish over break. Always. I have seating charts written for 2 of my 6 classes. Today is chill, though…starting a new unit, so just vocab and cover page and a short lecture on how to bring your grade up and it doesn’t involve Google or AI. Then staff meeting(s?) and hopefully ceramics. I need a porcelain patch kit from Home Depot too…purposely didn’t go get it this weekend, but I still need it. I also need to finish the other sgraffito frame at the studio before it dries out. I had plans to go Saturday and Sunday, and both fell through. It’s fine; other things happened and it was good, but I need to go today. And tomorrow. And Thursday. Or something. Three weeks…I can do three weeks. I think.

People and Carbs…

This week is just never relaxing. I’ve been to the grocery store four or five times, the pet store twice (I know, that one is my fault for adopting a new kitten), plus trying to catch up on cleaning (ha!) and yardwork (double ha!), and to finish grading? (triple ha!) …nothing is happening the way I’d planned. What’s new? Nothing. It’s always like this. I try to steal moments for reading or artmaking, but there’s other stuff that snuck in…like all the emails about stuff I needed to do that I totally ignored for the last three weeks? Yeah, those. And the four things that need renewing, but now I can’t find the renewal emails. Ugh. And then being invited to be on a cool website…awesome, but it required an hour of photos with the boychild (thank goodness he has a clue, because I don’t) and I’m sure he spent a ton of time resizing, and then I had to find art photos too and send all of them, plus fill out three pages of forms. I appreciate the opportunity, but I don’t have extra time lying around for all of that. So the bathrooms are still dirty and so are the floors. Oh well.

The kitten is adjusting. She has a name finally…Scribble. She’s like a little ADHD and very balls to the wall with the other cats. Right now, she’s sleeping, after racing around for 5 hours this morning. She’s definitely a curious little thing and won’t let her inability to jump high enough stop her.

We started out with my hanging out with her in a room with no other cats, but once we let her out…man, she didn’t want to stay in.

That said, she’s not banging on the door to be let out when I do put her in the room, which is when I leave the house, because I don’t entirely trust the other cats with her yet.

This was a very tentative moment between Scribble and Nova. Both wanted my lap.

I think we’ll all be OK in the long run…it just might take a while. Certainly last night, when Scribble was all puffed up, jumping sideways, I’m Big! I’m Big! toward Bowie and he’s just staring at her like she’s the scariest thing in the world…I think Bowie is having the hardest time adjusting. But he does appreciate an animal that will run around and parkour like he does, so he’ll come around.

One of the boychild’s photos.

OK, so artwise, I’m mostly still cutting things out.

Which is not particularly fast…

I really wanted to be ironing things together by now. Oh well. I’ve got another 2-3 hours of trimming, I think. I’m going to go do some more in a bit. I might do some yardwork first, before it gets dark.

I also spent a couple of hours at ceramics on Monday…and did most of this. It’s very relaxing.

I need to fix the cloud and a couple of other spots, but I think otherwise it’s ready to fire. I was hoping to get there today as well, but so far, that hasn’t happened? Maybe in an hour. We’ll see.

Found this in the yard.

Such a perfect mushroom.

This…I know some people are leaving for legit reasons, like being afraid of deportation…that’s a real thing and I don’t blame people for leaving. Detention or deportation to Venezuela or whatever other psychotic thing this government has come up with are legitimate fears. Go. Be well. Come back when the crazy is over (knock on wood that this ends at some point).

But if you’re a rich white American-born citizen and you’re leaving? You’re not staying and yelling with the rest of us? WTF. Seriously. I guess it’s easier than living here and being stressed about it, but those of us who don’t have tons of money and the ability to just up and go, we’re here and loud and not putting up with it, and y’all with money need to stay and be part of the fight…OR…take those fucking billionaires with you, the problematic ones, the racist misogynist ones. Take them. I mean, we can’t get rid of the ones who aren’t even here legally and have committed multiple financial crimes, but we’re trying to deport Native Americans. It’s just nuts. And if there’s no one with power and money left behind to yell louder than the rest of us, that’s on you, what happens next. You ran away? So stay away. Because you’re making it worse. You’re not helping.

Sigh. This is a frustrating world we live in. By the way, yes, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving, but there’s so many cultural things wrong with this holiday. So much that’s made up. So much violence toward the native cultures that was just shoved aside for the pilgrim story. So I’ll be thankful for a hike tomorrow, and thankful for spending time with family, and thankful for good food (although at the moment, the thought of people and lots of carbs is not really something I want…I’ll get there. But going to the store yet again today made me want to pillow fort for about a week), but remembering all along that we white people are appropriating disease-carrying xenophobes who don’t really belong here. Positive thoughts to all. It’s a rough week for a lot of people.

Best-Laid Plans and All…

Ah, the best-laid plans and all…I was doing so well. Graded all day Friday, cleaned Saturday, then got a kitten. Yeah, I know. I should’ve known! I’m not getting much of anything done except kittening. Which is fine…I’m a little stressed about some of the other stuff, but I’ll figure it out. Because Kitten! Except she doesn’t really have a name yet. We’re tentatively calling her Mouse, which is weird, because the kitten we didn’t take was actually called Mouse (and was very much more mousey than this one). Names are hard. Anyway, we took the older one because she seemed like she’d be better with our crew, more outgoing, less scared, more playful.

As I show you a picture of her hiding in a sink. Well, it’s all new so she’s a little nervous, but very people friendly and lovey. All the first few pictures of her were blurry because she wouldn’t stay still…

But people wanted to see her face.

Very people-oriented. Bonded very quickly, which is nice. She’s a dilute tortoiseshell. There’s a glut of them and dilute oranges locally. There was a house with a ton of babies all with similar coloring. The other cat we were looking at could have been her cousin. I’m less about what they look like and more about attitude, and she has that.

She hissed and blew herself up as big as she could for the dog and for Bowie, and a little for Nova. We let her wander the house this morning, and apparently it was so traumatizing to the big cats that they all hid under the bed. We’re bringing her out in short stints. She’s very growly about it, but also very curious about everything.

For now, she’s in the girlchild’s room, but the girlchild is here on Wednesday, so not sure what happens then. I do have a crate and other spaces, but I’m hoping she can be out during the day with us by then. We’ll see.

Until then, here was my makeshift cutting station last night. Yes, she wanted to sit in all the boxes and play with fabric pieces (who wouldn’t?), so I played with her until she was tired enough to settle and apparently watch TV.

So I’m not getting as much art stuff done as I’d like (or honestly, as I need to), but that’s where we’re at right now.

It’s not a bad thing to slow down a bit…although this quilt has to be done and photographed by the first week of January. Eek.

She’s similarly unhelpful with the grading. I think I got four graded and then had to go get the toy on the string again for her. It’s all good. She’s going to be my kitty (the others are the Man’s), which I realize is a strange distinction because we live together, but Kitten was definitely my baby and the others are definitely his. They love me and all, but daddy is first.

So. Today. I need to pick up meds and find green beans. I have no clue what’s going on with Thanksgiving dinner; not my problem apparently. I am going to ceramics today to work on my frame. I tried (notionally) to get there Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and failed across the board, so today it is. It’s hard to make myself leave the house on break. I just want to stay in my pajamas and not even go outside…although the weather is quite nice out there. Not too hot, not too cold, a little cloudy. I should do some yardwork honestly. Or not. I should do a lot of things, and that is always the problem with this week off. There are worse problems to have, though, so I’ll stick with this one.

Teacher Dreams

Wrong day. I’m all discombobulated. Usually I work Fridays. Well, I still worked Friday; I graded all day. But not at school and not with kids. I finished one big assignment; today, I started the second one and got side-tracked by the possibility of a new kitten tonight plus having to clean out the girlchild’s room for new kitten AND girlchild (not at the same time), and then took all those assignments (packets in plastic bags, cat toys!) back to school and went for a hike and then came back here and continued to try to organize quilts and the room. Didn’t finish. I can’t get a handle on storage at the moment. I have some ideas for boxing stuff up and putting it in the garage at this point. I don’t know that I still need all the books I used when I started teaching school. I don’t use them any more. Not quite ready to totally get rid of them, but close. Because I use the internet now instead of books. So much more. But organizing takes time and this week off never has enough time to do a lot. Too much family and other obligations. Plus grading is always an issue. It’s not enough time off for all of it.

Anyway, so I’m still in the stage of hoping to get a lot done but haven’t gotten a lot done. Fun times. I forgot to write yesterday because it didn’t seem like Friday. I don’t know what day it was, but it wasn’t Friday.

So Wednesday night, I ironed things down…

And didn’t freakin’ finish. So frustrating.

Thursday night, I finished.

18 hours and 54 minutes, 152 fabrics. That’s a lot. There were a lot of small detailed things in this quilt…stuff I love, but that is time-consuming on all levels.

Here’s everything that needs to be cut out.

And then I barely started cutting things out.

It never looks like much. Last night, I did some more…

We went out and watched friends of ours play in a different band, so we got home at 10:30, but I still had about an hour in me.

This is the Chameleons, which is really the lead guy and then whoever he decides he wants to play along with him…

But three of those people are in the Radio Thieves, so we got free tickets and hung out and watched them and talked to some friends, and then skipped the main band, because we’ve seen them before and we were both tired. The Man did actually go to work yesterday; and I am tired all the time, so there’s that. There will be no sleeping in during break. Cats don’t care that I need more sleep, and I stay up later, so I’m fucked. Ah well.

I did manage to gently chisel the base off the head; I used the base to hold up the head in the kiln and the clear glaze dripped down and attached them.

And managed to seat the head, although not quite how it originally fit.

There’s going to be acrylic paint on this thing. No way not too. And there’s a lower part too. Anyway, I’m hoping to epoxy these three pieces together, but also to get the tree for the top of the head into the glaze kiln too. And add the wire for the coathanger, and then design and make the little quilt that goes in the belly area. There’s so many hours in this thing, it’s insane. It’s definitely been a learning experience. So many things broke off so many times.

I did hike about 3 miles today to make up for not moving at all yesterday.

It was nice and cool out.

Threatening rain with no rain.

As I was walking, I thought I saw something up on the hillside, but it didn’t move. I even walked forward a little ways and then came back, decided it was a tree stump, then took a photo of it as far as my phone camera could zoom, and still couldn’t decide. It still hadn’t moved. I hiked on and figured I’d check the spot on the way back.

Of course, looking at it now, that’s a fucking coyote, but at the time, I really was seeing a tree stump. My eyes vs the camera’s eyes. It seemed too dark to be a coyote.

I got home to a beautiful sky.

We had a lovely cool, rainy in bits but not horrible, week. This coming week holds no rain, and then it comes back the following week. It’s pretty cold at night (for me)…definitely in my sweats and socks and slippers stage. I must be getting old, because my neck gets cold, but I hate turtlenecks. I have a couple of scarves, one a friend made and one the Man brought back from Denmark? I think? They are doing the trick.

I saw these on a friend’s reels and loved them.

Please pause. I shall return in a better place. I will be pillow-forting for a few days first. Don’t mind me.

Yup. That too. Bingewatching bad TV, reading books, and dreaming about all the things I could finish if I just stopped sleeping and eating and peeing. Really.

These sweet boos.

It must be cold for them to not be killing each other. And I’m about to shake up their existences with another cat. Woo!

This is too real.

Anyway. There’s no school all next week, and I am thankful for that. I am thankful for being done with the packets, and for getting a new furry baby tonight. Whichever one I pick. I was interested in one and then someone else had gotten in before me (this was the third time it had happened), and I’d been offered a slightly younger one, and figured it would be fine from the description, and then the 3rd one came back up as available, so I’m meeting both tonight and somehow I’m supposed to decide. Which is why there are two carriers in the back of the car right now, just in case. Then home to acclimatize whomever ends up coming home with us, some cutting stuff out, some kitten time, more cutting stuff out, more kitten time. You know how that goes. And grading. I should do more of that unfortunately. Ugh. But also relax and hike and read and pee when I want. Plus drinking my tea warm instead of cold. Teacher dreams.

Finished One Thing

I didn’t forget to write Friday. My team texted me that we were meeting before the meeting, and it was in about 20 minutes. So I sped everything up and thought, oh hey, I’ll write Saturday morning. Ha! I graded Saturday morning…and afternoon…and then Sunday evening. Grades are due tomorrow and I’m almost done, which is a relief, even though it all starts up again almost immediately. I already have four assignments from last week for the new trimester, which starts today. It’s fine. Really. This is how the job is. I could do without all the last-minute extra crap (this week is full of it), but that doesn’t seem to be changing this year. So I didn’t write Saturday. I completely forgot, honestly, until this morning. I have a routine, so when I bounce out of it, I forget everything.

I don’t think will get better in the future unfortunately.

So I did finish trimming Wonder Under. I should’ve finished Saturday, but the Man had a show and I worked right up until it happened and then went and came back and had a snack and went to bed. So I finished last night. Here’s Wednesday night…

Thursday night…

I think that was the last bit of the fourth yard? Maybe?

Friday night (Halloween), I finished the fourth yard and started the last 1/3 yard.

Then last night, I finished that.

Exactly 7 hours to trim them all. Now to sort them tonight and then start ironing to fabric. The office needs to be straightened up first. I did have the presence of mind this weekend to buy some possible background fabrics, so I have that going for me. Ironing to fabrics tomorrow probably? Although tomorrow is a school board meeting. I’ll be sitting around for 3 hours. Fun times. Maybe they could just pay us enough to cover the healthcare increases? That would be nice. All my other expenses have increased. The money stuff is stressful.

I’m not sure how to prepare for a dying empire.

This one made me laugh…the second part.

Both good though. I have to say, my co-teacher and I have beat the AI issue by not letting them have computers during academic assignments…or running them in assessment mode, so they can’t open anything else but the test. It’s saved us that stress point. Not sure the other stress points aren’t still there (it takes so much time to grade their writing). Working on that. Always.

And this. I love this.

And leave me alone. OK, I mostly was left alone this weekend, minus the Man’s show, where he wore a silly hat…

And the one art meeting I had this weekend, to vote on new members. Interesting conversation about being a master craftsperson but having no new ideas since the 1960s. Not sure how to deal with that. What’s more important? If they are equally so, then are they in the group? Good points made by all.

The Man found a slug on Simba after I’d put him in bed…

We released it to the wild. Glad we found it before lights out.

I do worry about people getting fed.

I’ll be looking up donation info for the San Diego Food Bank later today. It’s on my to-do list, after teaching new vocabulary and finishing grades and maybe going to ceramics. We’ll see. Those are all first-world problems, although the one where I do my job is what makes sure I have food (and money to donate). So I’ll keep doing that. I can’t believe how people are spinning some of this stuff. But please, build a fucking ballroom. Finance Argentina. Tariff Canada. Deport some US citizens. Wander all over the carpet with your post-stroke gait, while the rest of the world looks on with amusement tinged with horror. Meanwhile, I’ll be wearing red so my district realizes that their piddly offer (less than cost of living) is gonna piss us off, in a classroom, saying ‘6-7’ as many times as I can while trying to educate the future generations to think critically. Someone should.

There Is No Free.

Ah the challenge of existence. In one class, every time I say the word ‘job’, half the class gasps and groans. Oh hey, I get it. That’s how I feel at the moment too. I was getting ready for bed last night, and four separate student emails came in and I ignored all of them. They had all already been answered during the day. I will have to deal with all of them again today, because apparently once (or in one case, 17 times) is not enough. I think maybe 10% of what I say in class sinks in for most kids. That may be normal but it’s also exhausting. I’m trying to get caught up on grades, but have to deal with all this other stuff: this kid wants to move to a class with their friends (no; so many other reasons why that kid can’t move), this other kid wants to move to be with HIS friends (still no, not jamming everyone into my morning class to accommodate your friendships), this third kid wants to move with her friend and sister (also no), I finally email counseling and tell THEM to start saying no (OMG what a load of crap). Then the same kid who emailed 6 times on Saturday, 2 times last night, questions that were already answered during class…every day since last Tuesday. I take ashwaganda for all that. It’s not enough. Also, you should teach and plan and grade and fill out forms for this kid and that kid and then go to meetings for this other kid, and that other kid (there’s three this week) and then there’s an emergency meeting on the one day you thought you’d be free. Ha! Not free. There is no free.

Aack. That’s probably a statement for the year now. And for some groups, always. Land of the Free, my ass. I just watched yet another video of ICE hauling off an American citizen. And you know what? I don’t even think they should be hauling off someone who is illegal. Unless they’ve committed heinous crimes, which most of them haven’t. So many of them are in the process of being here legally, or they came here legally and we changed the damn rules on them. So stupid. They pay taxes. They contribute to a working economy. They are part of a community. This shit is stupid.

Really trying to keep my chill today. It’s a lab and I have a few kids who lose their minds with labs. I need the materials to stay usable and unbroken today. Oh, we also had to fire our teacher’s aide yesterday, a student, because of his other behaviors. So now we don’t even have that. Frustrating. It’s fine. School is always some level of frustrating. I’m just finding it overly so this year. Again. Sigh.

Art! I am finally shipping my newest quilt off to its owner. Got the photos back. Here is Humanity Is in Your Hands…

Lots of crazy stuff going on in this quilt.

First quilt I’ve had someone give birth to the Statue of Liberty. NOT the first quilt with ICE in it, scarily.

First quilt with ALL of the planets; I’ve done some of them before, but not all of them.

Anyway, hoping the owner likes it. She’s good about showing the work she owns, which I greatly appreciate. On to the next one! I’m still trimming stuff.

Didn’t get a full hour the last two nights. Stupid day job.

But there’s progress. I’m in the 2nd of the 4+ yards. I thought originally I could be done by tomorrow night, but ha! Life says no. I’m supposed to have a finished approximate size by November 5. I think it will be very approximate. Pro? I need a background and the damn store isn’t open late enough for me to go until Saturday, so I’ll be doing that. And not wasting time trying to iron things without a background fabric to compare the fabrics to. I’m so discombobulated this week that my weekly bullet journal isn’t done yet. It’s fucking Wednesday. I’m sure there’s shit I need to be doing (besides what’s in my phone calendar); I’m just not sure what it is (order needles. vote. buy slats and boxes to ship a quilt or two.).

I wanted to go to ceramics yesterday, but I needed to buy the stuff to ship the quilt and then put a label on it and pack it up and prep the box. The Man is being nice enough to have them pick it up from his work, because it needs insurance paperwork and picking up from school is problematic. Today is pilates, which I really really need. Tomorrow is now an emergency union meeting. Luckily it’s on Zoom, so I might be able to pull off going to ceramics AND sitting through a Zoom (we’ll see if that’s a thing). Because the head is out of the bisque kiln and ready for glazing.

When they trimmed the trees down below, there’d been a squirrel up in those trees and we were worried. We don’t see many squirrels around here. Well here’s one. And there was another one in that tree, so maybe it’s the same one? I don’t know. But I never trim all the trees at once (who has that kind of money?), so there’s always somewhere for them to live.

Fence squirrel.

You know, every morning, I take deep breaths and try to find some zen for school.

Also that’s Newton’s third law, which I was writing a worksheet for yesterday.

It’s Spirit Week at school and we’re supposed to wear a specific thing each day, and for some weird reason, the staff is competing with the kids (no one is winning). Today for staff is supposed to be something with 6-7 on it (if you’re not a teacher or living in a house with a teacher or living in a house with a kid, you probably have no idea how annoying 6-7 is right now), so I refused…I’m twinning like the kids are. But I would have worn this (and gotten in big trouble for it).

Tomorrow is pajamas and luckily it won’t be 97 degrees tomorrow like it’s supposed to be today. Fall, my ass.

And this…

We could feed the poor if we weren’t assholes.

OK. Sigh. Lab. Newton’s first law, inertia. Crashing cars into each other. Should be fun. Then pilates, then grading, then shit, I think I have to cook again (ugh this week sucks), and finally cutting things out. Maybe earlier because of the last two nights not successfully getting an hour. I will GET AN HOUR. Oh man, I hope so.

Seriously Bad Plan

OK, I think I remembered everything for today. Maybe. I’ll find out later if I did. I did come home yesterday and just finished my book. Because I wanted to. I worked too, unfortunately, but that’s a given with this job. You’ll come home and work at least a few nights a week, sometimes all the nights (ugh), or you’ll stay at school or come in really early to do it. Unpaid overtime. Fun times. Yesterday, my job was to get my rosters in order, figure out where all the special ed kids were (I mostly knew that) and read all their IEPs (individualized education plans)…they give us these short versions and they are mostly useless. Also, we have kids who should have these plans and don’t, because no one has ever identified him or the parents don’t want to know. The stigma…is apparently worse than your kid struggling in school. So I have one kid who doesn’t talk and another who never stops and two with Tourette’s but so far, no diabetics, kids who need heart monitors, organ transplants, or vision or hearing issues, beyond the normal “I have glasses but won’t wear them” and “I can’t listen to an adult because my brain is not fully developed”. No cerebral palsy or other diseases that will shorten their lives. We’ve had all of those. And they packed my classes full of neurodivergents, which is kind of my people…although I’m technically not one? Or am I? Hard to say. Art brain is a little whack and no one really tries to categorize it. So my rosters are done, my seating charts are mostly done, the first assignment is mostly handed in, and I’ll have to start grading things soon. Not today. Today I need to plan some during prep with the other two 8th-grade science teachers…and probably doing that for the next few preps. We’ve avoided it so far because brain power low. But we’re gonna have to psych ourselves up and do it. Ugh.

The art is slow right now. I only barely get an hour a night; partly, that’s my fault for reading when I get home and sometimes, if my blood sugar is running high after eating, I have to get on the stationary bike, and you know, one thing I can’t do on that bike is cut out little pieces of fabric. Unfortunately. Because I’d do it if I could, y’all. I totally would. So here’s Monday night…

So close, looking at the bottom of that top box of untrimmed pieces. Also, Nova was still supervising, but from below.

She likes to be around. Then last night, I keep thinking I might finish, but it’s like the box is the same amount of full at the end of the hour…

OK, I know it’s not, because I can see more of the bottom of the box, but do I know for sure that I’ll be done tonight? I do not. And tomorrow night is an artist talk at night, so IDK how much I’ll get done after all that. Ugh. I might be sorting pieces by Friday? And then starting to iron Saturday, but I already know my Saturday night is co-opted, so probably ironing all next week though…I know that. When is the 3-day weekend? I’ll be ironing then. For sure. So close to done!

Last night, I was dogsitting Annie and trying to type up rosters and this is her uncomfortable, need to be right next to me, position.

Yup. Paw touching me. Head down. Blood running into brain. She doesn’t seem to mind.

We ask the kids what they’re most worried about for the year…I did explain that worry is not the same as scared, but I also know who wrote the note on the right and he’s never telling us what he’s worried about. The one on the left is telling though…that’s a 13-year-old.

Me too, friend, me too.

No ceramics the last two days; too tired. I do like owls though.

Makes me want to draw a whole bunch of weird owls. In my spare time. Also I got my kitty’s cremains back and they are in this tiny box. She was so small at the end. At some point before I die, I need to bury all these boxes and cremains of all the animals who have helped me get through all the days…but right now, they live on a shelf in the bedroom. Weird, I know, but whatever. Maybe that’s a drawing in itself, all of them watching over me. Anyway, it was hard to pick those up and then think about going to ceramics, where I might have to interact with humans. Like nah.

So. To school…finishing up the safety assignment and then…well, we’ll see how it goes. Then pilates…my body will appreciate that. Then come home and blessedly not cook, but maybe read and definitely cut things out. MAYBE FINISH THAT. Nah, probably not. We’ll see. Staying up late to finish when I have to get up early tomorrow and have a really long day would be a bad plan…do you hear me, Art Brain? Seriously bad plan.