Red Sequins

ERG. Friday, yes. Kids driving us nuts. Also yes. Busy day. Yes. Trying to figure out where and when I get dinner. Or if I go home before 9 PM. It’s OK; the after school stuff is good; just maybe the timing is off. We’ll see.

So yeah, the students have decided summer is tomorrow and they don’t have to do any work, despite there being 28 days of school left. Luckily (for me), I was not the only teacher yelling at kids yesterday…so it isn’t just me (like some of them say). Like listen to instructions and then do what you’re asked to do. Don’t whine, don’t distract everyone around you, and no, you can’t pick your group because you’re literally incapable. We have one more day of posters and then next week, I made it something I could handle. Not sure what the fuck we’re doing after testing next week, but hopefully next week’s brain can figure that out. Because I’m trying to finish grades and the dumbassery in the classroom is not allowing me to get anything done. Honestly, the smartest, highest-level classes are the worst. The lower-level classes are doing the work. Mostly. Sigh. Anyway. I know it’s getting down to the end and it’s always somewhat chaotic, but it always seems worse than last year.

I did work on the green head the last few nights. I didn’t fall asleep one night and came up with the next part of it, then got that done in two nights…

Found fabrics, cut freezer paper for appliques, got one stitched on…then last night…

Stitched the other three parts and then stitched one sleeve down, which might have been a mistake, because now I want to do some embroidery and that thing is on top of the sleeve. It’ll be fine. I’ll just need to pay attention to what I’m doing. It’s close to done. Maybe. I think.

I mean, I do have a lot of red sequins.

I also started on the squirrel from Critters and Clover…

Didn’t get very far. But it reminds me that I have Rooted blocks done and should sew them together and put a binding on them. Maybe. I get distracted easily this time of year. I just need like brainless things that feel like I’ve achieved something. To make up for my country’s stupidity?

Highly possible.

Annie is visiting. She has been terrified of cats.

And wanted to sleep in the already full bed last night. Sigh. The boychild is hopefully coming home today to deal with all dogs. Because the dog is scared of the cats and the cats are scared of the dog and there’s just a lot of chaos and the Man is cranky about many things (just yelled something about the dogs not being trained and I reminded him of his cats and their obvious lack of training). ANYWAY. Holy shit. And grades are due. Stupid timing.

Today, the sweet dingbats finish their posters about homologous structures and I hopefully finish grades. Then I have a thing or twelve after school, including listening to Martha Wells talk, which I’m excited about, but the timing is rough. Hopefully my blood sugar complies. Ha! It hasn’t been. Stress levels have been high. And then a weekend…hey, mom, if you’re reading this, I emailed you about Sunday and you haven’t answered. I’ll try to call at some point between one place and another after school, but also, read your email :-). Wish me luck. Hopefully I won’t have to yell today. Ha.

Making a Heart…

Hey. It’s Friday. It’s also May. Not sure where April went, but it’s gone. Whoosh. May is state testing month. Kinda crazy. Already! My brain is trying to focus on what the hell I’m teaching right now and until the end of the year, but it’s really checked out and planning excitedly for my residency. And everything that needs to get done BEFORE my residency. All the doc appointments and house tasks and planning. The brain is going a bit overboard with the planning. I know if I start writing stuff down, it’s going to be better, it’ll calm down a bit. I can’t take everything with me. I won’t have time to do everything. I need to stay focused. Ha! Who am I again? Yeah. My foci are endless. And maybe not in a good way all the time.

I have finished four out of the five new bugs…

Just sewing them down to the canvas. Someone asked me what I use to glue them, and I was trained so early in archival stuff that I don’t glue.

One more to go. That’s tonight. Then back to the hair on the green face. I bought yarn yesterday. It’s hard to find what I want, but I think this’ll work. More importantly, I need to figure out what’s in the space to the left of her face. So letting my brain percolate on that. I don’t have a lot of brain power at the moment though. Hopefully it’ll pop up soon.

Simba helping last night.

Both Simba and Scribble help me all the time.

For some definition of help. I do like the love. I was resting here…the cough is not horrible but it occasionally make me stop and try to breathe. I think I’ve kicked it. Not whooping cough. The kids at school have been getting strep throat and I’m like no uh uh stay away don’t breathe on me. I can’t do that right now. I keep cleaning tables and washing my hands and walking away from the kids who are the sickest. Mostly they stay home. They stay home in droves sometimes.

This amuses me.

Agreed. Thanks to the king for reminding us.

So. Today. I’m teaching something…homologous structures? I think. Yes. I finished (?) a checklist for next week’s poster yesterday during prep. My co-teacher says she’s starting today? I don’t know how, but whatever. I’m checked out. This year sucks. The kids don’t. The kids are fine. Well, except for whale penis boy yesterday, who had to be put in a time away…without his computer. The honors kids are losing it. I might be a little too. Whiny little boys some of them. I don’t have the patience for it. Then ceramics after school. Making a heart today I think. Or bugs. Whichever. Or trees? Not sure. Then home to finish the last bug. And work on some hair. Or something. And a weekend! Woohoo! I need one. Totally. Like ASAP. OK, in 8 hours or so.

I’m a Big Girl…

Hey. It’s Friday. I say this once a week. I saw three squirrels cavorting on the slope this morning. I’ve only ever seen two at a time, mostly one. This was definitely three. Fun times. I definitely have the trees for it. And the one I’m watching right now? Definitely a young one. Not super tiny, but not an adult. Cool morning focus…on nature (even destructive nature) rather than the shitshow that is school right now. Behaviors have ramped up in all the classes, and I don’t think teaching sex ed early is helping. The baby squirrel went up one of the trees and is now coming down another one. Adorable little beast. Unlike boys during sex ed. I shouldn’t say ALL boys, because it’s not. But it’s a healthy number of them. Speaking of not all boys but way too many of them…

I mean, I guess I’m alternately shocked and not surprised at all that a ton of men checked into an online rape academy. Certainly I’m holding other men responsible for shutting that shit down if they ever get a hint of someone they know visiting that, but also, why is it allowed to exist? I’d love to have all those men outed. Names published. Fired from jobs. As we teach sex ed and little boys write on the question cards, “how many holes on a girl can I put my dick into?” Seriously disturbing sometimes. Also there has been a huge thing on consent, with parents monitoring kids’ phones and the kids saying they don’t have their consent, (and my laughing my ass off, because who pays for your damn phones and phone bills, you sweet dingbats), and then I explain how you can’t give consent under 18. And you know, it’s always the boys yelling, Bill touched me without my consent; can I hit him? Can I sue him? And the girls are sitting quietly in their chairs. I do mostly clump boys together on one side, girls on the other. Kids get to choose one person to sit with and there are some boy/girl combos. One set is dating and I warned him; usually I don’t let them sit together, but I think this pair is OK. The other pairs are friends and that is their support system. But one (annoying) boy noticed yesterday (on Day 4) and yelled out about it (because apparently we have to yell everything out), and one of the girls answered, “Maybe we just wanted to sit with our friends so we don’t have to listen to you,” and I’m with her on that. I’m kind of done with it, and we’re not even halfway through. My voice is shot; my patience is heading for the basement level. Deep breaths. It’s Friday. I can do it. I’m teaching pregnancy today. That should shut them up.

Artwise, I’m still embroidering. I have a lot done (it doesn’t look like a lot though)…

I finished that blue-green color and the lighter purple, and started the bright pink.

Then I need to find a proper purple; then sequins and beads. Another week? I may pause and do bug legs for a few days. I was too tired for them. They require thought and I’ve been doing yardwork every night and then grading and barely starting embroidery at 9:30 PM and hardly getting an hour in. Ugh.

I did go to ceramics last night because I have physical therapy for my knee after school today and then a show tonight (UGH).

She’s got two arms now and roughouts for hands. I’m trying to do hands differently…put something in them and then carve the fingers, because the fingers are always breaking. We’ll see how that goes. I have to make sure it doesn’t dry out too much so I can’t carve it, and my original plan for the arms changed mid-arm and then I still don’t have enough shelf space available to dry this or start the head and originally there was going to be a barn owl on the head/shoulders and I’m not sure how to pull that off. SO. Yeah. I’m rethinking.

She looks like she’s doing a low row in pilates. ANYWAY. I’ll get there. I don’t plan much in ceramics. That’s the point for me. Brain loosey goosey.

Speaking of loosey goosey, here’s Scribble.

She’s a sweetheart. But still kitteny.

Hey so I finished my taxes a week or so ago and I’m still pissed off that I’m paying for a war. And ICE. And those dumbass goons in the government who quote random shit and say even more random shit. Also my right eye started twitching today and I blame all of this: school and world.

Unfortunately, the monkeys are mine. Every day. In class.

Another photo of my piece at the No Boundaries exhibit at the Virginia Quilt Museum.

And my Stitchpunk piece at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. I always forget that they’re traveling around, although hopefully I’ll see this one in Oregon this summer. Or is that Fierce Planets? I can’t remember.

Woman 3.0. Hopefully dealing with fewer stupid men online.

Leaving you with Simba AFTER I stopped rubbing his belly.

No judgement in that face. I did rub his belly for a long time (not long enough, lady).

OK. Teaching pregnancy today. No videos of women giving birth, unfortunately. The school board thinks that’s too much. I think it scares them and it’s useful. Plus it gives me a break from talking. I talk NONSTOP for this unit with the new curriculum. Yesterday a boy yelled out, “Pregnancy, Why the fuck do we need to learn about that?!”. I calmly said, “well, I guess you never want to have sex with a woman then.” Fun times, y’all, fun times. After teaching that all day (it’s OK, the one class that got to the anatomy review yesterday shut up SO FAST…it was joyful), I will get my knee poked and prodded again, then remember to pick up my insulin (if I forget, it’s OK; I’ll be back tomorrow for the boob squeeze, version 1). Then the Man said I should NAP for the show tonight. Four hours long. But there’s a taco truck. But the three songs he’s in are the last of 43? So holy crap, bring my book and go read in a corner? We’ll see how I feel. Currently I feel like crawling into a pillow fort, but that’s not an option. I’m a big girl and I need to do all the things.

Need More Leg Parts…

Back to school today. No time has passed. The yard and house are still disasters. It’s all good. It happens every year…mostly because I like to travel over break (it makes it a real break from what I’ve been doing). The cleaning and yardwork are constants. They don’t go anywhere. Even when you clean, you will just have to do it again. So it doesn’t matter if you did it over break or on a Monday after school. I did clean almost all the floors over break, so that’s OK. The rest will happen or wait. Whichever works.

Did I finish grading things? Almost. But no. Grades are due in another two weeks, I think. Fun times. Sex ed starts in a week, early this year, thanks to the school board and the state, working against each other, but also against the teachers and the kids. Also fun times. Two-hour staff meeting today about stuff that can’t be done right now. Also fun times. In other news, I’m reading a good book and I’ll be going to ceramics today. Plus my bro is coming to visit. Not me, the parentals, but I’ll probably get to see him.

Artwise, I’m all over the map. It’s OK; I’ve been here for a while now. I’m working on embellishing this dye painting with Scribble’s help.

Nope. She’s really not helpful. At all.

So far, I’ve only done some of the blue-green color.

I’ll do some pink and purple and whatever that combo color is. And add some beads and sequins. Oh yeah, some black.

It’s time-consuming. Then I also started dealing with the bugs I ironed while I was in Virginia.

I’ve stitched two down and picked backings and found batting for all of them. Tonight, I’ll finish the stitchdown and start quilting. Some need more leg parts, but those are hand-embroidered after the quilting. Some of these from the previous make are on Etsy and some are at Visions Museum. Two of these are spoken for and the other three will eventually be on Etsy. Small brainless things right now…good plan. Although I need two more dye paintings done and photographed by June 1. Should be fine.

This is honestly when many afternoons look like…competition for my lap.

Usually this is when I read, but that’s my book on the table, so IDK what I was doing. Doomscrolling. Zoning out. Considering my options. The other option for Simba is to keep one of my feet warm.

Just one. Whether I need it or not. Nights are still chilly, so I’m good.

Bowie takes advantage of my open office window to sample Spring.

He likes it. Also he’s a klutz and knocks my tea over. Tries to be all sneaky to get up there and then is a disaster about it. He is a boy…

Well. There are times that this is totally true. And it’s not ‘drawn to’…it’s ‘appreciative of’. Mostly the men here are OK. They just have their moments. I’m sure I do too. Being a post-menopausal woman. Although young women also get it…

I spent some time yesterday deconstructing two big branches I pulled off a tree (they were dangling; they’d already broken off). The weeds are out of control. But my sinuses are OK (not great; just OK). IDK what it was in Virginia, but I was allergic to something there near where we were staying.

Let’s end on a positive note, because the world is a shitshow.

I am still trying. On all the fronts. Today, I’m teaching…well, I’m introducing a new unit that will be bisected by sex ed because my school board are idiots and the state doesn’t listen…or care, honestly, I think. Certainly, I couldn’t find anyone who had a brain in their head. Did I spell bisected right? It looks wrong. Shouldn’t it be like dissected? No. It shouldn’t. Glad we had that moment together.

Then staff meeting, then ceramics! yay! Where I have to decide what to do next. Minor issue. Don’t have a plan. Nothing new there. Then come back, eat dinner, read book, not in that order, and sew bugs. Repeat. Slight differences each day, but repeat.

Extra Hour…

If you’re a teacher, this is my day: it is Friday the 13th, a week before Spring Break, we have an assembly, and it’s supposed to be 94 degrees. And my air conditioning in the classroom is still not working. It worked for one day and then turned off again. Managed to keep it under 74 degrees yesterday with the use of a fan and opening and closing doors to other people’s A/C. But really not sustainable. So fix that shit! At least there’s no full moon though. Pro: short classes. Con: trying to get a thing done with short classes. All the kids who were absent yesterday when I explained how to do the project are on their own; I made a video of the explanation. I have to check every kid’s paper today before they can go to the next stage (this is the fun part). I’ve have no chance to grade the packets all week. I think I have half of one class done. HALF. Fuck me. I need that done before break.

In other news, I’m still working on four quilts at one time. I got the bindings pinned on Wednesday night…

Except for one, because I forgot to zigzag the edges of the seam. Yes, I do that. Crazy sewing training. Then last night, I started the handsewing of the binding.

Simba did not help. I did not finish even one quilt. I got about 3/4s of the way around. On most of them, maybe all of them, I’ll wait to sew the bindings down until the embroidery is done. I don’t want to embroider through the sleeves…that would make them nonfunctional and be very silly. Some people are probably wondering why I did the binding before the embroidery. Because I don’t have the creative brainpower at the moment to decide what and how to embroider. Hopeful that shows up soon, but currently in exhaustion mode. Wish me luck with that.

Last night was my monthly stitching-in-person meeting and I managed more of the raccoon.

Cute; not hard, but fun.

I had Nova next to me and Scribble decided to be on my lap and then bite Nova’s neck.

I swear, Nova is the most submissive cat sometimes. She just sat there, like “this is my fate”. So weird.

This is true.

And I know what I’m gonna do with it.

OK. Seriously, today is not a trivial day. Plus two meetings and trying to wrangle the sex-ed packets between grade levels. Last night’s parent info meeting was also not trivial. More parents than we’ve had in years, maybe ever. Long. Thanks to the translators. After school, I have to book out of there to get to the dentist to get my stitches out…finally. They’re driving me bonkers. Then hopefully I’ll feel OK enough to go to ceramics. More bindings tonight (handsewing…sitting on the couch, staring at the TV in between stitches), and sleep, beautiful sleep. Although the dog hasn’t been letting us sleep in past 7:20 AM. Ugh. Hopeful. I am ever hopeful for that extra hour.

Pain Meds…

Fridays. Fridays mean the weekend. This weekend? Time to catch up on grading; Trimester 2 ends today and there’s lot to get done. I’m almost there. I graded for a while yesterday (after dental surgery). Then I need to grade the stuff they turned in this week, which was an entire packet full of stuff. I’m kind of done with all of it…mentally…because you’re not done until that last week of school.

I’m still fussing along on the dye paintings. The background thread was being cranky on this one…

It’s thicker, so fussier. I didn’t finish it last night either, because I was in a stitching Zoom and trying to pay attention, and dealing with fussy thread wasn’t in my mindset at the time. I’ll hopefully be there tonight. I was trying to find some earth fabric for one of them, after getting profanity shot down for that upcoming show (sigh). I found something that might work online. So I trimmed that quilt and then another one. Couldn’t find enough of anything appropriate for a binding for the smaller one, but I did for the larger one, so I put a binding and sleeves on it.

No handwork yet. Might leave the sleeves loose for now. Not sure if the bouncing around between four projects is a pro or a con for me. It’s not how I usually work. But I have limited brainpower right now for anything. This would be a perfect time to trace Wonder Under or cut things out. Low-key, meditative, not hard but takes up brain space. The deadline on these moved back to early June, so I have some time. A chance to build mental space maybe. 11 school days to Spring Break. Not that my break is really chill…I’ll be gone for 7 days. Catching up on grading, yardwork, and housework will have to happen around all that. Spring Break is always a little like that…we usually do a camping trip in spring, but have moved it to summer to coincide with my residency starting. Different. Different can be good.

I had this picture that was supposedly of the Iranian girls’ school funeral, but it was AI. I still say our country needs to answer to that. 165 girls killed to our…6? Are we still at 6? I didn’t check yesterday. Meanwhile, Melania Trump was at some meeting about the safety of children in war zones. Yo, babe, it’s your man. Make him stop. Sigh. This is not making the world a better, safer place. Using your brain more than your penis probably would.

I had dental surgery yesterday. We were hoping to fix/save the tooth, but it was not salvageable. Unfortunately. More money, more stitches. Yes, I’m at school today. It’s not horrible. I have pain meds and I’m generally OK. I needed to do a hands-on activity today and that’s not something you leave for a sub. When I got home, I sat on the couch and finished the second book of the day (I had two nearing the end)…with these guys.

Nice. I graded a bunch there until the stitching Zoom. Then I graded some more after and stitched some more after that. Not a bad end to a day with 6 stitches in your mouth.

Today. Early meeting. Need to give test corrections at lunch. Work on grading stuff, preparing for next week. Duty after school. I had to panic-put together two independent study contracts for kids who are gone until Spring Break, or one, the week after break as well (like I have that shit planned out WTF). With 24 hours’ notice. Thanks parents. Appreciate that. So I lost yesterday’s prep to that. I have yet another long email from the parent who started last Friday. I’ve spent over an hour already on emails to him; luckily he included my team this time, so I have backup. Hopefully I will feel up to ceramics after school. My bowl was off the bisque shelf, so I assumed it was in a kiln, but I haven’t see it come out yet. I’m also hoping there’s room on the drying shelves for my current piece, because it is swiftly outgrowing my shelf. That said, I can add some stuff to the torso now. Then home to grade grade grade and hopefully do some art stuff and some yard stuff and not feel like I’m just a worker bunny.

Also, if I can not go to school and look around the room and think what it would be like if someone bombed our school and there were bodies everywhere. It’s hard not to think about that when you consider what our country is doing right now. It’s hard to drive to work in the sunshine and not think about what people are doing where it’s not so removed from the violence.

So that’s the Friday mood I guess. I’ll work on it. Go take some more pain meds maybe.

Don’t Really Know What I’m Doing…

Well. Here we are. It’s Monday again. I’m not sure how I feel about the last weekend. I did some things. I didn’t do all the things (I never do). I don’t feel like I did enough of the things (I rarely do). Sometimes though, it really feels like a dearth of productivity or enjoyment. So I sit here on Monday morning and remember that I did plan my summer trip finally; I actually have stuff booked. I should have done it two months ago, but I didn’t…but it’s good that I didn’t wait any longer. I had the mental space for that because the dog was up at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning and I just started and then I was done. I also started my taxes (see, this is why it doesn’t feel like a good time). My country started a war. You know, standard Saturday morning. What did you do today? Bombed a girls’ school. How about you? I accidentally shot my coworkers out of the sky. No biggie, right?

So let’s start with the art…I didn’t get much done. No ceramics on Friday because the dog needed to be let out. Adjustment in schedules for all of us when the boychild goes back to work. Honestly, we dissected eyeballs on Friday and I was pretty exhausted anyway.

Couldn’t go on Saturday because they were doing a class there. So it’ll be today. I quilted Friday night…

I’m adding a speech bubble. Gotta keep it clean for this venue. Then embroidery and binding.

Saturday night, I quilted the next one…

Definitely something needs to happen with the hair. Not sure what else.

Then last night, I started quilting this one…

It’s more complicated; requires more color changes. One of the colors was not happy about being sewn, so there was that. This one needs a lot of embroidery in the hair, I think. There’s one more after this to quilt, and then I can start the other stuff. I might put bindings and sleeves on first? Can’t decide…depends on if the sleeves will get in the way of embroidery. So maybe wait, since I don’t really know what I’m doing with that yet.

Four at a time? Unlike me. But it’s what I’m doing right now.

I hiked Saturday. By myself still. Which is fine. My brain wanders (not always good). So do my feet.

It was warm…over 90 degrees during midday, down to 80 or so when I hiked at 4:30 PM.

Lots of flowers out. Weird cloud formations.

Flowers were out at home too. I took a break from grading and planning and taxes at some point and watered things and moved a few plants.

Noticed some weird flowers.

Interacted with Simba.

Stressed about war.

And children.

And that’s kind of where I’m at today…not happy with my government…still…again. But I’m still going to work and doing the things. Although one of those stressed me out all weekend. Sigh. Parents using Chatgpt to make excuses for their kids. Fun times.

I’m glad I’m not a history teacher right now. Although we still get asked questions, stupid ones: “what do you think about the Epstein files miss?” WHAT THE FUCK do you think I think? Seriously. And I can’t really answer except to say, the man was in jail for a reason. In my head? More people should be in jail. Lots more. One big dumb one in particular.

So that was the weekend. Taxes are never a good way to spend time off, but it needed to get started. It’s fine. These things have to happen. Today, I give a test on the eyeball and kids turn packets in. Grades are due in a week. I’m behind in grading…still…again. Hopefully I get to go to ceramics after work and work on that piece that will soon need to go on a drying shelf, which means there needs to be ROOM on a drying shelf (there hasn’t been). Then home to read my book for book club (Wednesday, not done yet) and then more quilting. More fabric decisions, thread thoughts. Those are things I can look forward to today. I will have to grade before I get to that, but OK, I can do that. Keep it short, but get it done. Right now? I need to go take my meds and then drive the ex’s dog to doggy daycare so I can go to work. Deep breaths. Holding onto anxiety with this parent…didn’t read the last email. Didn’t want to lose more sleep over the enabling. Not worth it.

This Job…

I’m not sure why this week seems so long and exhausting. I mean, I’m glad it’s Friday, but I thought/felt like the last two days were also Friday. And tomorrow morning, I will wake up panicked, thinking it’s Friday again and I forgot to set my alarm. All silly brain stuff.

Glad it’s Friday anyway. Finally. For real. I started stitchdown on Wednesday night…

Didn’t get super far…but last night, I did better…

I’m probably halfway done with it? Could finish it tonight or tomorrow, sandwich, pinbaste, start quilting. My plan is to finish the quilting by Monday (?) and buy the binding then. I’ll have to make sure the quilt store is open Monday. Their hours are annoying for those of us who work a day job. The other local sewing store is carrying less and less fabric, so there aren’t a lot of options. Too hard to mail order something that needs to match in a timely fashion. I don’t usually have big enough pieces in my stash to do a whole binding. Anyway.

We photographed it in daylight, which is more accurate color…

Meanwhile, the other show I was panicking about, because the deadline had moved up a month…it moved back a month to June again, so I have a little breathing room, but I’m still going through with bordering the dye paintings and working with those for that show. I already had my next quilt drawing copied when this piece had to shove in, so I have a plan for after…it’s not political, but I kind of need a break from those. I may feel differently when I get there, but my brain gets overloaded if I’m always working on a piece that is a mental challenge. Yes, the world is a mental challenge right now, but I also have a pretty challenging day job and I need to make sure my brain has some outlets that are safe. Besides reading…

Oh wait, that’s me trying to grade with a laptop while another ‘laptop’ sits upon my lap. Top. Scribble is not very patient with my need for my lap sometimes. She believes it is hers.

So does Simba, so sometimes there is competition. The boychild is gone for a few days, so here is Simba’s bedtime sad face.

He only barked once at the neighbors’ pulling their trashcans in and once at the coyotes. By ‘once’ I mean he barked a bunch of times at each of those. After about midnight, he was quiet. Although the competition for lying on me was tense last night (3 of them, sandwiching the shit out of me).

I love this idea but want to know why they are all the same size.

That’s just weird. Then again, so is this, but in a very different way.

Why aren’t they all in jail yet? I don’t get it. Take them all. Lock them up. Throw away the keys (the abusers, not the immigrants). I don’t care who they are or how rich they are or what side of the political argument they are on; get them in jail.

Yeah. Like I said, sometimes the brain needs a break. I probably won’t get that today. I’m teaching light wave behavior, very much on the whole day, I think. It’s been pretty chill the last couple days, even though kids won’t get work done for science sometimes without calling them out. Stop rushing ahead to games and/or stuff for another class that you think is easier. Stop rushing through assignments just to get them done (hence your F). Lots of sitting down with kids and my computer and having discussions about the consequences of your actions, or what I see for reading ability, or how to get better at it and why you might care about that. I actually had a kid Googling yesterday if a teacher could say no to him wanting to go to the bathroom literally 5 minutes after he came in from a 30-minute lunch break. Sigh. Yes dear, I can. Plus a crazy email from a parent using Chatgpt and maybe a paralegal or a really bad lawyer. Fun day. At least it’s Friday and I can go to ceramics this afternoon, then come home and read a bit and stitch a lot and sleep in tomorrow if the animals let me. Three-day weekend (which is already filling up)…which is nice. But grading, yes, that. Unfortunately. Ah well. This job.

Hot and Crispy

So for the last week, WordPress has been using a tiny ugly font on the posts on MY end, but the posts you see are the same. This seems like a little thing, and it’s strangely happened before, more than once, and then eventually goes back to something bigger than 9-pt type. It’s weird and it bugs me, but it is possible that everything bugs me at the moment. Today, we’ve got what looks like Santa Ana winds (wind advisory, plus it’s going to be 90 degrees…in February), which notoriously messes with my head and my hair and my sinuses. Super dry, too warm, pressure changes in the atmosphere. Makes for a head that doesn’t function normally. For some definition of normal. It’ll be gone by tomorrow (the weird weather, not the general malaise).

Meanwhile, I got the whole image ironed together on Monday night…

Which took a little over 11 hours…and then last night, I ironed it to the background (which I had sewn together the night before).

Note Scribble. She posed with it. Sat right down next to it for the photo opp. Now this is at night, with me standing on the fireplace hearth again (I’m short). There’s a ton of details that will get quilted in and that don’t necessarily show up in a photo like this. I guess, that’s normal for me. I will start stitchdown tonight and hopefully get it sandwiched and quilted this weekend. This will most likely be at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA, in April…and then will travel to a few shows. Which is cool…more about that later, when it’s actually done.

I started a new artsy ceramic piece on Monday. I had a vision (very vague) of what I wanted to do back in December, but was trying to get the bowl done first…there’s only so much room on my shelf for building. And the studio drying shelves were super full; it was hard to find a place to put the bowl last week, so I waited until Monday and found a spot. This is not a very exciting start, but it’s a start…

Hopefully it won’t take a year to finish.

I need to get past some of these quilt deadlines so I can finish the last ceramic piece (which needs a tiny quilt). Not sure when the deadlines will chill the fuck out. The Man will say I need to say NO more often, but that’s hard to do when exhibition opportunities come up. Pros and cons: I love to have my work exhibiting, but it becomes a pressure that sometimes makes it difficult to work on what I want to work on.

Scribble is still adjusting to the nearness of a dog. Simba doesn’t freakin’ care…he wants to be next to me.

I try to come home from work and read for a bit every day. I usually get some sort of fluff to sit with me.

This is Nova while I’m trying to grade.

She was on my leg earlier (when I was reading). She sticks a single claw into my leg over and over again. Makes it difficult to concentrate.

OK. Union meeting this morning, finishing up the EM spectrum in class (hopefully all on task and focused, although one class…ugh…there’s always one class). Then pilates…I got in even though I only signed up two nights ago (I had to wait for the 3rd to be allowed to…did I sign up at 1:30 AM? I did.). Then book club…boom…boom…I finished the book last night at the gym. I finally made it back to the gym, where they have new equipment…took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get to the programs. The screens are sliding by; one of them could have instructions. Really. Yes, I’m old. I do read instructions. Gen X thing. Then grading in there somewhere, hopefully also at school; I’m behind again. Then stitching stuff down and going to bed and not having to get up early tomorrow. Inevitably Scribble will start playing with the strings on the blinds at 6 AM anyway. It’s funny how she’s matching Bowie’s kitten energy, the things he did that he grew out of. Poor Bowie…still freaked out about coming out of the room when anyone but his dad is around. Not sure why, but it makes me sad not to see him stomping around the house like normal. Hopefully he’ll come out soon. Weird times. OK, off to school. Hot and crispy day.

At Least It’s Friday…

Today is the shutdown. I’m with you in spirit, but as a public middle-school teacher in a Title I school, I’m going to be at school with my students. Also, Friday subs are the hardest to get for anyone, and we’re doing a lab, so I would have had to make up some filler assignment, because you don’t leave a lab with a sub unless you want no materials at the end of the day. And a friend is performing tonight, opening night, and we’re not blowing that off either. Need to support teachers in their life-affirming activities, like dance and art. But do we need to hit them where it hurts? Yes. Absolutely. Target sent me yet another “we’ll cancel your Target card” letter (the third so far, each with a 2-month deadline, which I ignore). I’m just avoiding them, Amazon as much as I can, anything else that seems dodgy or billionairy. Not a word, I know. But there are small, independently owned businesses going under right now due to tariffs and people just not having as much money (um, the grocery bill is still bad, y’all…it’s not great here), and it’s not OK that the tariffs are singling them out. Just trying to get art quilts to shows here from out of the country or vice versa has gotten so much more complicated.

Sigh. Things aren’t changing in the right direction fast enough.

In quilt news, the ironing is going well…

Well, as long as you don’t mind a kitten climbing on it (I do)…

She also tried to run off with the safety pins, so those are closed up again. I keep this door closed most of the time right now, because I don’t really trust her in here. It’s chaos and thread and pins and tiny pieces and not very cat friendly.

So that was Wednesday’s progress…looks slower because it’s a lot of smaller pieces.

And here’s last night’s progress…

I’m in the low 300s at this point…the body parts are next and that’s complicated. I have a thing tonight so odds are I won’t be ironing until tomorrow, but I’m hoping to spend a few hours tomorrow. The deadline looms.

I also went to ceramics last night and put the last two colors on the bowl, underglaze anyway.

I also did the fingernails and filled in the mouth areas.

That looks better.

Right now, it’s drying so I can put it in the bisque fire. I’ll clear glaze the outside and then find some shiny glaze for the inside. Realistically, I can never make anything in clay to sell…this already has over 10 hours in and it’s not done. It’s a good thing I’m not doing it for the money.

There’s competition some nights for my lap.

Simba was hesitant, but submitted that belly rubs made it OK. Scribble is unsure…

Really unsure.

The crazy shit that comes out of the government’s mouth is sometimes mind-boggling.

That and Kyle Rittenhouse and that crazy fucking couple with the guns. Like it’s a different story every time. And some people are excusing it every time. I’m hoping the reps start to stand up and yell more, prosecute, fire people, refuse to pass bills, demand for change, quite honestly, get that dumbass tested publicly, transparently, because no way he’s competent to be president right now. That said, neither is Couch Vance. I’d love to hear some of the conversations he and his wife of color have about some of the shit he says.

I read this and went, huh. Yeah. Ugh.

And then I read this one.

OMG yes. I guess that’s too much to ask? Certainly it doesn’t make as much money for the already rich.

Sigh. All I do is sigh and try to hide in books these days. Can’t hide unfortunately. My co-teacher and I had a short discussion of what to do if ICE shows up at school if we’re on duty (grab all the kids and throw them behind the gates). We can’t call our local police; they’ve been told by the mayor to support ICE, to help them. Fuck that. You’re not dragging middle-school kids out of here. Or their parents. Not OK. We are not OK.

Today. We’re doing a lab about light, mostly UV to start, just an exploration. Then duty (no ICE hopefully) and going to watch a friend dance with a bunch of people, then probably home to sleep honestly. It’ll be late. Then art tomorrow, and a hike, to try to get this blood sugar under control. It’s still whack and I still don’t know why. Sigh. SIGH. At least it’s Friday and more art time is near. I can do that.