In the Key That Our Souls Were Singing*

OK. Well that was an exhausting week. I got to sleep last night, despite 46 texts from my kids while I was asleep, plus a text and phone call from the pool guy, and a very insistent, apparently starving cat. I have lots of plans for the weekend, but as always, everything small and tiny takes up all the time. I’m still in pajamas (hey, I was in pajamas all day yesterday) and the first cup of tea hasn’t quite kicked in. Probably need to make cup number 2.

In good news, we made concrete and learned about superplasticizer and nobody died or got concrete up their noses, so we’re good.

What’s funny is that they all had the same recipe…but look at the results.

That’s a sign of what we deal with every freakin’ day. I’m laughing, actually, because otherwise I would be crying. Two more weeks. Two more weeks with a field trip and an official observation. I didn’t leave work yesterday until after 5:15, because we had to clean up all the concrete stuff, help the company who came out pack up all the stuffs, and then try to revise our field trip and notify everyone in the world that we were doing that.

I made it to gaming…but brought shit to cut out, because I’m trying to be DONE DAMMIT. I’m a little over 17 hours in…

Home to puppy. Fell asleep soundly for a good long time…

So I’m almost done. The bottom has maybe 10-15 pieces left. And then I’m done.

Did I mention that I was almost done?

So. I can’t work on that until I get through the second readthrough on the copyediting. Doing that now. Then finish cutting and sort the pieces. Then IRONING! Woo hoo! Finally get to see it go together.

I got into a cool show this week that will be at the Oceanside Museum of Art February through July, opening March 17 from 6-8 PM (I can put 4 people on the free list to get in). It’s called Artifacts, and will be opening with two other exhibits at the museum, all based on the book Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, about a future civilization where we have lost electricity and many other things that make our society go. I did read the book before entering. I’ve seen the work that will be in our exhibit, which is with Allied Craftsmen, and it is pretty amazing…wood, ceramics, fiber, basketry…a wide variety of good stuff. So that was good news.

And I’m looking forward to some music and drawing tonight…need some down time after all this.

*Earth Wind and Fire, September

Wouldn’t Turn Around and Break It*

Friday, I’m so glad to see you. Even though today will be another exhausting challenge of moving 12-year-olds from here to there, managing their stuff while trying to deal with guests on campus, at least (a) I get to take two days off as of 3:30…well, no, maybe 4:30…have to deal with field trip, and (b) it’s pajama day, so I get to wear pajamas to school. Really, that makes it about 100 times better right there. I think the only thing that got me through yesterday was the donuts that someone brought for our 8 AM meeting. It’s the little things, people. Actually, that’s something I’ve been trying to remember as I have a couple of students who I would like to have disappear from my world…but I know one has significant challenges at home, so I’m trying to figure out how to break through the teenage girl drama she throws at me. The other kid? Honestly, at the moment, I’m not dealing with him…but I will eventually. Yelling profanity at a teacher never appears from nowhere…you know there’s other shit going on, and it’s probably not because of me. It doesn’t make it any easier to deal with at the end of the day, but the logical teacher brain sees it not as an attack on me, but as some pushback against his world. Which unfortunately, I am part of…

I’m good with that. As long as I don’t have to see him today.

So yesterday, we did a sieve analysis of construction aggregate. Yeah, sounds crazy exciting, except it WAS. So there. I didn’t even have any crazy stupid behavior really, although the tendency of 7th graders to do stuff you didn’t ask them to do drives me bonkers during labs sometimes. The chemistry unit is gonna be whack this year. We might have to duct tape some kids to the walls to keep them from blowing the place up with hydrogen peroxide and vinegar (could happen…).

Today is concrete and admixtures. More concrete next week. It’s all good. Then we get to do volcanoes and earthquakes…way more fun.

Then I had quilt class, spent two hours cutting shit out.

Then I came home and Satchemo wanted lap time. Lots of purring and pets and cat hair left on me.

Seems everyone wanted attention. My tea got cold because of all the pets. They wouldn’t let me sit up to drink it.

Both on my lap…

Eventually I shifted them slightly and did more flowers on the right side. I’m officially in the last month of this. Then decisions about what next…

The plus is that I’m really close to the end of cutting stuff out. There’s maybe 100 pieces in that top box, maybe fewer, because the flesh ones are mostly pretty big.

That’s 15 hours of cutting in that bottom box.

This view might be a little easier to see…trash in the bag, top box has everything that’s cut out, bottom box is all that’s left.

PROGRESS. Almost done. I wanted to be done by now, but I’m doing pretty well.

And I was right…I didn’t do any copyediting last night. I won’t do any tonight either. I’ll get up tomorrow after a decent night’s sleep and finish the copyediting with a clear brain and then finish the cutting and sort the pieces and start ironing. That’s the plan anyway.

Yes, I probably need to grade stuff too, but I’ll look at that on Sunday…not Saturday. I have all day Saturday mapped out for (mostly) art. I’m not budging on that. Saturday night is booked, but that’s fine…I get a little too much in my head when I’m at this stage of a quilt, especially when I know it’s gotta be done and photographed by the first of January. It’s gonna be tight, but I’m pretty sure I can do it. But I do need to go out and be a non-hermit on Saturday night.

But first, I’m taking my pajama-clad butt to school.

*Cowboy Junkies, Sweet Jane

Don’t Pay No Mind to the Demons*

Copyediting is almost done (yay!)…it seems like I will never be done with cutting pieces out though. I’m sure that’s not really true, but some nights, it seems like I don’t really get much done. Tonight should be better…quilt class will give me a bigger chunk of time. Of course, I could come home any night and blow off all other responsibilities and just make art…wait, I do that already some nights. Certainly I haven’t brought any schoolwork home this week, unless you count printing new rosters. I had to add one kid and delete two. It was very time-consuming.

Anyway, the copyediting will hopefully be out of my hair sometime in the next four days. I potentially have another project coming up, but I’m still debating that one, and she may balk at price. We’ll see.

I’m waiting for this flower stalk to just burst out…it’s been getting taller and taller (no middle-school jokes here guys…I get those all day long)…

I did more flower-type things on the right side…

I may just do those all the way down. OR! I should do a flower stalk from an agave in here maybe. That would be cool…

This dog. Seriously. She sleeps in the weirdest positions…

And this one. He was not happy that I was copyediting instead of throwing the ball for him (no worries…my co-dog-minder took care of that later)…

I only did a few hours of copyediting…I’m on the second readthrough. And I’ll do a third, because I’m finding some mistakes in the second read. I hate that. But I worked for this guy before and he seems to like what I do to his stuff, so we’re good. But if I do it too late, I know I’m missing stuff.

Then I started cutting…this is a pile of fleshy pieces for the little heads and arms on the top of the larger head…

I don’t cut the super tiny ones out until I’m ironing, because I lose them too easily. But here’s a pile of all the stuff I cut out before I started in on the bigger flesh pieces, the ones from the larger figure.

At some point, Simba threw himself on my lap and refused to just lie next to me.

So it’s hard to see progress…but you can see I did get into the larger flesh pieces. What’s left to cut out is on the right…

I think once I get through the big fleshy pieces, I probably only have a couple hundred pieces to do. So hopefully tonight we’ll see some significant progress. I’m unlikely to be able to mentally copyedit (well) after 10 PM…and I have quilt class until 8, then dogs and dinner, so I suspect I might try to do one section (but that’s how I miss the mistakes). So I’m thinking 3 or 4 hours of cutting instead. We’ll see.

Yeah, even Simba thinks Calli sleeps weird.

I have to laugh. I’m expecting some art notifications in the next few weeks, and one came a day early, a rejection. I wasn’t expecting anything but a rejection from that one, but I keep trying. It’s an art gallery, but they have taken fiber art in the past…just not mine. The one I was supposed to hear about yesterday hasn’t sent anything, which sometimes is a rejection, right? I hate when they do that…but I suspect it’s just that they didn’t get done, based on previous interactions with them. There’s another one this month that I really want, but I won’t die if I don’t get it. I never do. Rejection is reality. But I did have two friends send me a link to the same entry notice…one they both thought my work was good for. And it probably is…and because I got the one rejection, I definitely have work I can enter! See…one door closes and another one opens. Sometimes it takes a while…but that’s OK. I keep making and the world takes some of them and not the others.

OK, visitors AND a lab in class today. Prepare for chaos. Tomorrow too. Don’t even ask me about next week. I might over-react.

*Phillip Phillips, Home

Born in a Brain That He Don’t Use*

Feeling much much better about the copyediting job this morning. A friend with way more experience than I have with this system told me about one box I could uncheck. And that solved most of it right there. ONE BOX. I made it through the first readthrough (finally!) and the Bibliography. I’m now almost done. Such a relief. I was freaking out, thinking I would have to start over. I’m still not done…but I’m significantly further along than I was Monday night.

Trying to copyedit on the side while teaching is not easy, as my left twitching eyeball will attest. We have volunteers coming on campus Thursday and Friday to run a lab and an outside experience with concrete, then a field trip next week that science is apparently in charge of, plus official observations on a unit we haven’t quite finished planning (but are already mentally revising for next year). And grades are due again in a week or so.

So I spent 3 hours copyediting after tutoring yesterday…and then another 2 hours cutting stuff out. I’m getting closer to the end…which is good. I have a goal to be ironing this thing together for a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday. To do that, I have to be done cutting out tiny pieces…

I added flower centers on the right side…need to add another flower in there too.

Then I started cutting, this time with the little dog.

It’s been cold here at night. Dogs like to cuddle in the cold. Cats too…I had one on each side most of the night.

You can see the box on the top is getting more full with the trimmed pieces, and I can actually see the big box getting emptier…I kept cutting after this…

More sleeping. Everyone in the house sleeps more than I do…

At the end of the night, I’ve started cutting out all the flesh pieces…which is the majority of the quilt really. I won’t be done tonight, but I’m getting closer…

I can feel it now. Getting excited about putting it all together.

So you know how you get all the shopping catalogs this time of year? Every year, I see all these cool fun animal slippers, but they’re only for kids. Sheesh. My feet are too big for these, but I want a pair…or all of them. Seriously.

I saw the news this morning about Matt Lauer getting fired. On the one hand, it’s so depressing to see people you thought were decent folks getting called on their shit. On the other hand, it’s about fucking time. I can’t tell you how many males in power have been inappropriate in the past, and honestly, I think I scare the crap out of most guys, so that’s saying something. If this is the only good thing that comes out of the Trump era (and may it be a bloody short one), then I’m good with that. As long as it STOPS it. I’m OK with every guy out there being terrified of saying or doing something inappropriate if it keeps them from doing the shit they were doing. And all the decent guys who get it will just continue being decent. That would be good. Unfortunately, one of the biggest offenders is still running our country. And some men are just stupid, so they’ll keep doing whatever they’re doing.

OK. School. Copyediting. Art. I wanted to go to the gym…maybe? We’ll see. Need time.

*Max Frost, Suspended Animation

This Is Reality

Ah the frustration of technology. Nothing went well last night, except dinner. Dinner was a piece of cake. The computer, the copyediting, Microsoft Word (I know, but there’s reasons we use it)…all a clusterfuck. Straight up. I have a plan for tonight when I get home…but it’s gonna be a pain. And that will be after school, after tutoring, my worst days usually, Tuesdays suck. Sigh. Giant sigh. It’s fine. It will work. It will all be good. Or I’ll have to start over and I won’t make any real money on the job due to time lost. That’s reality for you.

I did cut stuff out, but only for about an hour and 45 minutes. Not what I wanted. Oh well. This is reality again.

School wall…

Ahhh, staff meetings. Do your staff meetings include how to behave when there’s an active shooter? Maybe they do. That’s reality.

Some flower stitch that’s not done, over on the right side. I’ll finish it tonight with the second strand.

It was cold, so I got the big dog. I had the little dog earlier, but the big dog is so much BIGGER. She was quite happy to sit there while I cut out pieces.

So yeah, I’m not sure an hour and 45 minutes really LOOKS any different. I can see where the flesh pieces are in the to-be-cut box (they’re usually the largest pieces), but I’m not really there yet. It takes two pairs of scissors. The larger ones are supposed to have this spring thing in them that reduces hand fatigue, and honestly, although I could feel it Sunday night after doing 4 hours of cutting, I was fine the next day. I guess that’s a good thing.

The smaller ones are for all those tiny cutouts I do. And if it’s a really small piece, I just toss it into the box uncut until I’m ironing…means I’m less likely to lose it.

All this is moot, though, until I finish cutting all those freakin’ pieces out. I’m 8 hours in, probably still less than half. But I’m progressing. And I should be honest. When it’s cold and I’m cranky and the world is full of assholes and stupid computer programs that like randomly reformatting shit without your input, I like sitting on the couch with a warm dog snuggled up against my leg, meditatively cutting out piece after piece while watching TV. It’s relaxing. Move the scissors, follow the line, finish, toss it in the box, pick up another piece, evaluate how best to cut it out, move the scissors, follow the line. There’s a place in my life for that level of simplicity.

By a 99-Cent Store She Closed Her Eyes*

Ugh. Mondays hurt sometimes. Maybe if I had slept more, but no, school creeps into your nighttime sleepy brain and keeps poking you with a taser until you can’t help but stress out about the 17 million things you’re supposed to do. Today. Before noon. I did make it through the 62 emails about late work that I had from November 13 on. So there, you little widgets.

So we went to Lake Arrowhead for about 24 hours to hang out with my parents and the family we used to always have Thanksgiving with…so I hadn’t seen many of those folks for quite a few years…that was a good thing.

It was a gorgeous day, no need for long sleeves, beautiful skies and view of the lake…

Apparently it was snowing last year, but I missed that one…

And there’s the inevitable after-dinner slump…this picture could be any year, just move in one dog or another. That’s my dad. And Katey. Or however you spell her name.

I started cutting stuff out Saturday night (after I finished grading the major project…graded in the car on the way up and then finished in the living room at Arrowhead)…

We came home to happy animals…

Who probably missed us. Maybe.

I did two nights on this, both in the chain stitch area on the top left…although I added some stem stitch and buttonhole stitch to fill the space.

And I did a few hours of schoolwork: finished a worksheet, panicked with my co-teacher via text, did warmups, and dealt with those 62 emails.

Then I started cutting stuff out. I didn’t have the brainpower to copyedit…that will be tonight.

Puppy was very tired…

I know you just come here for the puppy pictures…

I cut for almost 4 hours, on top of the 2 hours from the night before, so just so you know, this is what 6 hours of scissoring (not that kind) looks like. On the left is the massive pile of stuff I still need to cut out. On the right is what is done. In the bag is all the trash bits, in case I need to cut something tiny out later that I lost.

It happens, all too frequently.

Here’s side views, so you can see that the to-be-cut box still looks like it’s almost full.

Oh yeah, I’m not even halfway done. No way. And I want to be done by Saturday. Uh huh. OK. Well. A ~~girl~~ woman can dream. I hate it when grown women are called girls. Or when our boobs are called The Girls. Sigh. I hate it when I have to justify not having taken my ex-husband’s name when I got married and then having to change it back. Just throwing that out there. Not sure why all that was in my head. Really it’s better if it’s OUT.

Anyway. I’ll be copyediting and cutting stuff out tonight. You can count on that.

*Tom Waits, Hold On

Anchored Down in Anchorage*

I’m feeling awesome because I’m three days ahead on the quilt! For now. Shhh. Don’t break the spell.

I had tutoring after school yesterday and taught a lot of one- and two-step equation-solving. Math…I used to be good at it, but now my brain freezes sometimes when trying to do it. I wonder if what I’m doing makes sense. I wonder if that’s because I don’t use it as much as when I was younger. I have to talk myself through solving a problem: I paid blah and he paid blah and we each owe half so without using an Excel spreadsheet, how do I figure that shit out? Ugh. I feel like quilting makes me Math all the time. Yesterday, I had to measure the drawing and figure out how much yardage I needed for the background. That’s math. I do have to draw it out, though, because I’m a visual learner. I don’t have a problem admitting that.

But first I graded more stuff, because that is the way of the teacher.

Some weird twisted chain stitch and some star stitches on the far right…

And then I cut for another hour, making it a total of 9 1/2 hours to cut out all those pieces. I started last Friday and now I’m done. Not bad.

I was tired and I knew I had to be up early for a meeting, so of course, I went ahead, grabbed all the boxes I needed, and started sorting Wonder Under…

There’s the requisite glass of wine, a boxful of pieces, and 14 boxes ready to go, all labeled with part numbers etc.

This is a new one for me. I don’t usually forget to write numbers on the pieces (then I can’t figure out where they go)…but I did it not once, but three times.

Sheesh. Brain dead much? It’s OK. It’ll be obvious what they are once I start ironing. It’s like the one kid who didn’t put her name on the test…if she’s the only one in that period, then it’s easy. It’s only if there’s more than one and they don’t have distinctive handwriting…then I’m fucked.

There they all are sorted. That took almost an hour. I wanted to quit about 300 times, but I persisted. As always.

So I can start ironing to fabric tonight? Well, first I have to clean up in here and put all the fabric away from the last one, plus I need a background fabric (hence the measuring and mathing from the night before). It’s on my calendar for after school. Looking forward to that. But first, I’m going to see what kind of chaos I can create in the classroom today (yikes…three days until vacation for the kids…this is where they turn into scary beasts, worse than a full moon). I can do this…

*Michelle Shocked, Anchorage (song note: I was born in Anchorage…some day I’ll go back)

So Take That Look out of Here*

My new oatmeal tastes funny. I couldn’t find the old stuff. Instant, but low carbs. I don’t need a million carbs for breakfast, but on a cold morning, a quick and easy oatmeal is nice. So the new one, ironically, being low carb, is way too sweet. I’m sure they’ve been uber-healthy and used some fruit juice or something, but blech. Yeah I’m a diabetic who doesn’t like sweet things. More irony. So I’m forcing myself to eat it because I need food and I hate wasting food (Hello Grandma…that’s you talking)…but yikes yuck blech.

Yesterday, my students started a new unit, so I got to draw…I know how meditative that is for me, but I was noticing how it worked for them on a Monday as well…just time to sit and color. To interact with the new content merely as pictures first. They were relatively calm for a Monday after a 3-day weekend…a Monday before getting a whole week off…

It didn’t take me all day to color it…I was done in 4th period…so I could grade stuff.

But then we had a 2-hour staff meeting afterwards, watching a video. The guy we were listening to was fine, although I don’t focus well at 3 PM on a Monday after teaching all day, so I had to draw to stay awake.

It was a long video…

I’m not disagreeing with the guy…I just think I’m already trying to do what he says. Not quite at the level he does, but I’m not sure I needed a video that long to get it. I fully understand the difference between equity and equality…there just aren’t enough hours in the day sometimes to do all the things teachers are supposed to do. Teach content. Take care of their basic needs. Give them the self esteem they’re lacking. Teach them the difference between their, there, and they’re. That one alone is a bastard.

I have no great insights after all that. But it makes me feel better about how I was trying to deal with the one kid a few weeks ago.

Home to the dogs and grading a couple of assignments (I’d really love to go into the week off with no grading…which is just about impossible)…Simba got his toy to stand up.

I did two nights’ worth on this…that weird chain-stitch R shape and some pistil stitches below it.

I don’t know why the dogs were so tired…they did nothing all day…

This one is really tired apparently.

I cut out another yard, the second to last one. I should have been more focused and finished, but I wasn’t. Tonight hopefully. Although I still have to grade.

Then I can sort and start ironing to fabrics…early! That’s a plus, for once. I’m looking forward to that part.

*Big Country, In a Big Country

You Put the Load Right on Me*

‘Twas a productive weekend…I finished grading 2 or 3 assignments, didn’t finish a bunch of other stuff, hiked a mountain, cut out a ton of Wonder Under, and replaced the headlight in my car (with help). That was an achievement.

We started late…the goal? Clevenger Canyon South, apparently 4.3 miles (a fact we questioned multiple times), on a day that was supposed to be cooler than it felt. The wonder of San Diego is the temperature can be quite warm in the mountains, even in November.

We climbed a lot in the first mile…and if you’d told me I was hiking to that rock (and beyond) that you can see on the ridge, I might have given up. But no. We kept going…

Looking back here on the trail we’d been on before going down into the canyon, where it was obvious one of the fires had gone through here (2007)…

So this little guy…I just about stepped on him. He never rattled…he never even moved. I noticed him, yelled snake, moved my foot further along than I had been planning, all in a matter of seconds. Yes, I realize we’re lucky he didn’t strike…because that’s a baby rattler and he wouldn’t have known to only dump some of his venom in my calf. It would have been an interesting hike, I guess…

From further up, the canyon is down where the green is, although there was still no water.

Evidence of burn even on the rocks…

Looking to the north…

And to the south…actually, my car is way way down there…

This was our goal: two metal chairs bolted to a boulder.

And a view to die for. Well. Not die. But we were glad to get there…

It ended up being 4.65 miles, mostly up for the first 1.7 miles.

And the way down was super fast. Yes…we were to the left of that rock most of the way to the far left peak. We didn’t do the last 0.2 miles to that peak. We had the view already.

Poles were helpful on the way down. The snake was gone on the way down.

More evidence of burn…

And then this was delightful…just remember that what looks like a scary dive bar on the outside houses a lovely bar with cool refreshing drinks and snacks on the inside…

Then last night, I did some feather stitching on this, above the righthand eye.

And I cut out a bunch of this…while watching a show in Icelandic. I think I’m semi-fluent now…

I think this was actually the night before…

There’s more of that in a bit, but these photos are from the Threads of Resistance exhibit, which made it to the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Minneapolis, Minnesota over the weekend. As always, I’m behind the sign…

And the curtain…

I kinda wish they wouldn’t hang the signs on the quilts…

But I’m in good company back there…

So I’m a woman of a certain age…who knows if and when I will ever have another period (NOT complaining), but the app updated and now it ignores perimenopause completely. I find this highly amusing.

And kind of a metaphor for women of my age (ignored). Whatever.

I graded more videos yesterday…at 3 minutes per kid, it takes a while, so I poured a hot cup of tea and grabbed my stitching, so I could listen better. It worked.

I got the hippo done and part of the sun…

For some reason, this month’s stuff is taking forever to stitch down.

Puppy was tired…but he wanted to be near me and my Wonder Under…

Sometimes more near than others.

I did about 5 hours of cutting out yesterday and 2 the night before, so I have a hefty chunk done…ahead of schedule.

Speaking of schedules, I need to get my butt outta here and to work. More progress tonight, I’m sure.

*The Band, The Weight

Happiness Hit Her Like a Bullet in Her Back*

I never get as much done on a day off as I think I can. Somewhere in there I lose about 4 hours and then it’s dark and dinner time. I can’t really explain it. Time travel or something.

Anyway, most importantly, I walked the dogs yesterday. It had been a while, just because of the weather and the time change and life in general, so I tried to walk them into the ground.

The puppy was tired about halfway in, but he always gets a second wind when we start back.

It was a nice cool day with pretty clouds interspersed with sun…

And very few people on the trail…

Mostly they were all at the beginning of the trail having their holiday card photos taken. Apparently a popular spot.

I wanted to tell the one girl she was probably standing in poison oak, but whatever.

Certainly if she stood on one of those gourd things with her spiked heels, she would never get the smell out.

I have no idea why these are flagged…

Maybe there’s seeds in there? I just don’t know…

Anyway, the dogs were tired out for a bit. They were very excited to be walking, so that’s a good thing.

I did something on the left. I used to be so good about telling you what stitch and where and what color. Not so much by day 314 apparently.

Then back to the tracing. This photo is for Sion…because yeah, they are smaller than my fingernail. I could stitch them or paint them or whatever, but I don’t. I cut them out of fabric.

I am aware of my insanity, yes.

So I finished…8 yards total…here’s 5 of them…

And the other 3…

I got one cut out last night, the easiest one, the one with a big empty space on it. Calli was supremely helpful.

It took 15 1/2 hours to trace everything. Usually it takes less time to cut out the Wonder Under.

I want it all done and sorted by next Saturday. It seems doable, although I do have a bunch of stuff to deal with this week.

Supposedly I am hiking today as well, but it might mean bouncing someone out of bed. Which seems mean, because I got to sleep in yesterday, but…with the day ending so early, it’s gotta happen sometime.

I’m really excited about this quilt. I think it will be very cool looking. I can’t wait to see it.

*Florence and the Machine, Dog Days Are Over