Well. It’s Winter Break. And I am sick. A lingering gift from the school year. Thanks. Not thankful for it actually. I need a nap right now (only been out of bed for about 3 1/2 hours). Trying to be functional and mostly failing. It’s not COVID (I tested). It might be the flu (I had a flu shot, but you know how that goes) and it might just be a bad cold (the whole other team had that). I don’t really care. I just want it done.
I was OK over the weekend; didn’t really feel it until Sunday night. Although I had a sore throat earlier on Sunday, but thought it was just sinus crap, allergies, who knows what. So I finished stitchdown on Saturday night…
It always looks cool from the back, never to be seen again…
Sandwiched and pinbasted Sunday night…
My knee was not thrilled about this activity. It won’t bend fully, so it was difficult and painful. But quick, at least.
Then I quilted the whole thing yesterday…
It is in fact the only thing I did yesterday besides reading my book. I felt OK in the afternoon, so that’s when this happened. Nothing in the morning.
I need to figure out if I have enough of something that will work as binding fabric or if I need to find the energy to go to the quilt store this afternoon. Ugh. Pretty sure I don’t have the energy for that. Then trim and bind.
Girlchild arrived on Sunday night…
Simba was very happy to see her. She’s working during the day while she’s here…but it’s still nice to have her around.
Awww. Look. They tolerate each other.
OK, I have used up all my energy. Need to nap a bit and then think about the binding. I did shower today, so that explains less energy. Napping isn’t bad. It’s just that I always have so much to do and now I’m sick and can’t do it. Ah well. Universe slows you the fuck down whether you like it or not.
Aargh. OK, I have my ugly Christmas sweater(sweatshirt) on. It has T. Rex on it. Setting fire to a Christmas tree. I’m bringing Christmas cards and cookies to school today for a variety of gift things we are doing for staff. We have a 2-hour staff meeting after school today, but it’s at a local restaurant and there will be drinks, food, and gifts (nice actually…too bad I’m tired and not in the mood…hopefully that will change when I get there). It’s dark and fucking gloomy here…a needed winter rainstorm has dropped a little over half an inch with more to come (makes getting to school fun, plus getting the 17 things out of my car also fun). There is only a week of school until break, though, and I managed not to work most of Saturday, so that was a plus. I did iron though…
That was Friday night. That’s when my iron died, so some of those things are not actually ironed down…
This was Saturday, after I bought a new iron…which I still haven’t used, because the old one resurrected itself. Fucker. I did this in the afternoon, because the Man had a show that night that I went to, and I was way too exhausted afterward. I figured that would happen, so made sure I ironed for an hour or so in the afternoon.
I had already recut this piece Friday night…or maybe even Thursday. But I found it Saturday afternoon.
On the floor near the light table, so I’d dumped it out at some point accidentally (that’s where I sort) and it sat there, on the floor, for days and nobody noticed. Fun facts.
Last night, I had to iron some tiny things that go on top of stuff, so that’s easier to do in a section and then iron it on top…because I can’t really see through the fabric to figure out where everything goes. Tiny cars. Tiny factory spewing smoke…
This is what I got done Sunday…
Both arms done, she has cloud hair and a rocket taking off her head, plus one arm is a wildfire and the other is a highway. I’m in the 400s…just the head and all its crazy details and then the sun and the vomit. Oh yeah. There’s vomit. Might be the first time I’ve done vomit? Maybe? Maybe not. I know I’ve drawn it…just can’t remember if it’s showed up in an actual finished piece. I draw a lot more than make it into quilts.
Saturday night’s band pic…in costume…
And actually playing…
I think my ears finally popped last night…definitely should stand further away from the speakers. Maybe. This was an old crowd…older than me, mostly. Their next show is Friday night. I should be exhausted again by then.
The El Cajon parrots visited my eucalyptus trees yesterday…something tasty in the flowers. They are loud and boisterous.
That one is hanging upside down.
We did Sunday dinner at the parentals…Simba enjoyed some Grandma time…
He’s not allowed on the furniture. She says. He seems happy where he is.
Trying to work yesterday. I’m the damn teacher, Google. It’s me.
I talked to me.
Will I be allowed to sleep over break? I suspect not…
And our winter is never snowy. Although it’s apparently hailing somewhere in San Diego right now. Just raining here. So far.
Kitten just sleeps through it all.
I need to figure out where she’s sleeping right now so I can give her meds. Plus find my boots and my raincoat. I loaded all the crap in my car last night, bunch of folders I ordered for January that I need my TA to put labels on, plus some garland for the stupid door decoration, plus some rubber balls and pompoms for labs in January, and chips for the two classes that earned them, and cookies, and lunch, and IDK what the hell else. Water and goldfish for me. Make 8th grade write hard things (ugh), then make 7th grade write easier things (they will complain just as hard). It’s OK…tons of them will be absent because they are always absent when it rains. Wednesday is chicken egg drop…that’ll be fun. Or messy as hell. Maybe still fun. IDK. We’ll see.
I’m looking forward to getting that quilt ironed down in the next two days, then starting stitchdown. It needs to get done.
I need to find a way to turn off WordPress’ suggestions for what to write about. They’re annoying. Why do I write? To document. I’m a historian kind of person. I like to be able to go back and see what the previous years were like. Plus it makes me make work every night. I know what works. So I do it. Even when I’m tired. Actually the pro of being absolutely exhausted when I get home from work is that I fall asleep quickly (for once) and HARD. It’s the only time I sleep well. So I’ve slept well (although never enough) for the last two nights anyway. Got my X-ray of the knee yesterday…although I guess I don’t want them to find arthritis. The knee is finally starting to improve, which is good. It’s been rough getting up the stairs into the house. Problematic for the future. Need to design a winch for the front deck so I can get up when I’m really old (or finally need knee surgery).
Ugh. Well, it’s Friday. Finally. The first part of the week is slow and sloggy. Then it speeds up and it’s Friday. Cool beans. There aren’t actual beans in this post, in case you’re wondering.
I’ve been ironing this thing together…it’s not hard so far, because the fussy stuff is in the body, and I did the whole background first…starting on Wednesday night…
Then last night, after my stitching meeting…I didn’t think I’d have the energy, I was so tired on the drive home, but apparently one can be revived by an In ‘n’ Out burger (that’s my theory anyway), and I managed about 42 minutes of ironing to get to here…
Sky and landscape are done…now on to the body etc. That’s the fussy little stuff. Looking forward to it.
I stitched with friends in a Barnes and Noble Starbucks, like we do once a month. Got the roof done in a little less than 2 hours. It’s fancy. Looks cool though.
This is Sue Spargo’s block of the month Homegrown. It’s fun. This block will have a vegetable garden at some point…at the rate I’m going, sometime in 2023, obviously. I’m hoping to get a couple (three?) of my finished Spargo quilts quilted over Winter Break. We’ll see, because I need to finish that other quilt and get it photographed before the first of January, so that could be an issue. Time! It’s fleeting.
Driving up to Mira Mesa and back was tiring…but I’m glad I got to hang with my people…we like words and weird stuff and grammar…and of course stitching. Or things with yarn/thread/paper. Branching out definitely. I’ll remember to photograph my gifted ornaments at some point…because they are both cool.
Kitten has been bringing me things all week…she used to do it all the time and then stopped, but now is getting a little obsessive. I gave her a piece of wool, hoping she’d stop raiding my stitching boxes (she didn’t, so I had to find lids for all of them)…
She also brings me my napkin from the couch (I use fabric napkins and I don’t eat at the table…so there’s often one on the couch where I sit…yeah, that’s weird, but it’s how I roll) and an occasional dog toy (the dinosaur). It makes her so happy…she talks the entire time she’s carrying it. She’s old but seems happy.
I didn’t take this burrito Simba picture…
He was at the other house. Apparently he was cold (it has been cold at night, in the low 40s/high 30s…which yes, I realize isn’t THAT cold, but it is for us). He comes back to us tonight and will hopefully be quiet and happily ensconced in the down comforter that is now on the bed, thank goodness; I’ve been cold at night.
School has been OK the last few days…a few people being out helps. We’re doing hard things in 8th grade (ugh) and easier fun things in 7th grade (the hard stuff will be next week). I’m planning a lot, best I can, but also feeling overwhelmed by details. Too many details. Anyway. At least I know I can iron tonight. And maybe do some planning. And maybe tomorrow can have less (or even no) school in it. My weekend posts from last year did not have school on Saturdays. Ah. Well. This year, I am not so lucky. May the knee continue to recover. May the flu stay the fuck away. And COVID while we’re at it. May my prep period be effective. May the kids who make things difficult have a good day or stay home (seriously, yes, I said that). Happy Friday y’all.
WordPress is now adding a question to the previously blank blogpost, in case I logged in to write a post and had no idea what to write about. I guess that might happen. Maybe? The question is “what would I want to change about myself?” Um. So many things. That I’m not gonna write about here. But thanks.
This last weekend was the weekend of no sleep. There’s a skunk who has decided that late nights outside the bedroom window are exciting, and the little dog is also excited about this; in fact, everyone except the humans who have to function during the day and can’t nap for endless hours is excited. So I’m running on way less than optimal sleep. On a Monday. Ten school days before Winter Break. Also there’s an on-campus field trip thing tomorrow that only HALF of my 7th graders can go to and I haven’t dealt with that AT ALL and I’m not sure exactly HOW to deal with it because my teacher’s aide has been out and I occasionally am getting a sub, and I can’t send my kids if I don’t have a SECA that day. So how do I present that to a bunch of already problematic kids? Um you MIGHT get to do something cool and fun but only HALF of you get to go tomorrow, the rest have to wait until APRIL and OMG you might NOT get to go if we continue to have too many people out. Yeah. Sounds great.
I worked a lot on school stuff this weekend. The pro is that I am caught up (almost) on grading…I have about 6 redoes that need grading and that’s it. For today anyway. The con is that I didn’t plan all the way through the end of next week…this shit just takes too long. Everything needs editing because it’s too complicated, not helpful, and it’s PDF files, so the editing takes even longer. I beg steal and borrow from other stuff we’ve done to try to help with the planning, and it’s still so fucking time-consuming. I think I spent about 9 hours on the day job this weekend. Ugh.
I did also go to my guild’s holiday party. I took 3 fat quarters for that game they play (didn’t win…but I did last year, so I’m OK with that), but my prize for going to the party was 2 half yards. For you non-quilt-math people, I came out with an extra fat quarter. So that’s fun. We made fabric ornaments…
Which was fun. I did not pick holiday fabrics. And Kitten has already absconded with this. I need to get a hanger on it and get the tree in from outside so she will be less likely to steal it.
I spent a goodly few hours cutting stuff out this weekend…
Friday night with Kitten…
Saturday night after dinner…
And last night after all the things. I’m in the sky. So I cut out basically in opposite order from ironing, although I dumped everything into a bigger bin at some point, so I can see sky and flesh in there, and I think flesh was ironed after sky. So there’s still a big chunk of stuff, but I can see the bottom of the bin, so I’m getting close. Probably not tonight, but maybe tomorrow night. This thing has a hard deadline, so I’m really trying to stay on top of it. I’m behind my original schedule already. Sigh. When am I ever NOT behind? In everything really.
Kitten has been following me around…
This was Friday night’s sleep.
The other two are still cuddling against the cold…
Until Nova wants to sleep in the bedroom, and then Luna loses her fucking mind.
This guy won’t let anyone sleep because of that skunk…
Luckily, boychild is home tonight and can take over…the skunk doesn’t like the dirt outside HIS room as much as the dirt outside MY room. And then maybe I can sleep through the night. That would be nice. Seriously feels like there’s sand in my eyes. So tired.
Saturday night…finishing a drawing from the previous weekend, I think.
I don’t know that it’s actually finished. But I’m finished with it.
Too true below…
I am going in to the doc to have them tell me my knee is royally fucked and they will ask me about my period. The one I haven’t had for like 5+ years. I don’t have a clue when the last one was. Fun stuff.
Last night’s sky was (as always) much prettier in person than my camera will show…
Need a new phone. Sigh to that as well. Just paid the property taxes. At least I could afford that.
OK. Staff meetings today. One grade is doing an assessment (they will be fine). The other grade will have to read by themselves to fill out a chart. So that’s gonna go well. Independent anything has been difficult for them this year. It’s exhausting. But it’s short and I’m not cooking tonight, so maybe I can get more planning done and then cut stuff out for longer. That would be nice. That’s my goal then.
Good morning. Or as I am feeling it, Morning. So incredibly never ever ready to go back after time off from school. Plus the dog barking at a skunk last night while we were trying to sleep did not help. Luckily no spray…the skunk was outside and the dog inside, but the obvious intrusion into our personal area seemed to drive the little guy nuts. Eventually we got him settled and then tried to sleep again. Ugh.
In good school news, I finished grading the last of the stuff (except for homework, which will be quick), but lots of one grade level didn’t actually do the assignment in the first place, so there’s some issue with that. I don’t have time in the schedule to make them do it in class, so I made a video for those who want to improve. We’ll see if that helps. This year is certainly causing me to jiggle my expectations and revisit how I teach, just because they have COVID brain and can’t function in a classroom. Or maybe it’s just too many devices. Hard to say. Certainly it’s one of the hardest years I’ve taught…and I thought the Zoom year was gonna be that. Ha! The universe chuckles.
I was reading my old blogposts yesterday…sometimes I do that to remind myself that this is all cyclical. And sure enough, Thanksgiving week was a lot of food crazy, not enough exercise, plus a lot of grading, but didn’t finish it all, made some art, but it’s never enough…and it was Santa Ana windy hot! Just like last week. Some things never change. I don’t know if that’s a relief or annoying. Hopefully next year, I will look back at this year and think, oh hallelujah, it’s not that bad. That’s my hope anyway.
So besides grading, we did hike on Saturday…we went out to Barnett Ranch in Ramona…
This is not a hard hike or a long one, but we had the pup with us, so I was aiming for new and different but not too hard.
It’s a nice enough hike. Could have been longer…
Looking at our schedules, I think that’s it until Winter Break for me anyway. We’ll see. Got too much shit going on.
I also ironed both days, but not much…like an hour each day. Back to that sucky schedule…
Although I was more efficient last night…got all the way through the 300s (almost), so I’m about 2/3 done…
Just have the head and all its stuff and then the vomit. Like you do. I was hoping to be done with this part before school started, but no. Maybe I can get the rest done tonight, but it’ll probably take two nights. We’ll see.
I did get these out for the teachers’ manual for our curriculum.
I hate how I have to comb through tiny little print and multiple sources to get what I need to actually TEACH this thing. So frustrating. Plus have to have the headspace and time to figure it out. Hence when it takes an hour to plan one 51-minute class…that’s too much. There’s something wrong with that.
So yeah. Did not plan all three weeks out. Got 6 1/2 days done. Maybe. Not a good sign. Well I don’t have to grade anything but homework for a few days, so maybe I can plan a bit more. Ugh. Really just want to be able to come home and NOT do any of it.
Because that.
OK. It’ll be fine today…starting two new engineering projects on the same day…one I’ve taught before and one I’ve never taught before. Plus 2 meetings. Or 1. Depends. Ironing tonight. After cooking. Hmmm. Might be a tad on the exhausted side by then. So yeah, probably not done until tomorrow.
Apparently I have no clue what day it is. Not surprising, really. I get like this over breaks. One day at a time. Do the things for that day, then make a pillow fort and disappear into a book. I had a legit reason…the book was going to be sucked back by the library demons at 2:33 PM today and I needed to finish it before that happened. I’m not entirely sure I understand what happened in the book, but when the fourth (in the trilogy, yes, really) comes out, I will just reread all of the three previous books and maybe it will all make sense. I really liked parts of it; just wasn’t sure how they were related to previous parts. It was confusing.
I really loved that highlighted bit. Because my co-teacher and I joke about everything being fine, but it’s not. It’s just hard this year. So I missed writing the blog yesterday, even though I wrote it down in my bullet calendar list of things to do, which I’ve been mostly ignoring, except for the parts where I have to be places and feed people. This morning I have to be two places. So I’m up because of the dog and the cats, earlier than desired, but whatever. That’s because the boy left and the dog thinks daylight is an alarm clock. He distinctly does not understand sleeping in.
So yeah, I made a lot of food that is still feeding people, and my family showed up…well, some of them anyway.
Minus the last-minute gravy the boychild helped with, so I officially still have never made gravy, and the cranberry sauce I forgot was in the fridge, but remembered. It was good. I never liked cranberry sauce until I had it made fresh.
This was after all the eating and drinking, so most people are smiling. The next day was the Man’s family, well, some of them…
This time before the eating, and at a much prettier table.
Also, I didn’t have to cook, which I appreciate.
And then there’s the artmaking, which I greatly appreciate…I sorted on Wednesday afternoon, while the turkey was cooking and before people arrived…
And then I started ironing to fabric. This piece has relatively few pieces (630) and is smaller (much) than the last one (28×36″ image). Those are little baby mountains…
This was what I had ironed after Thursday, I think…
And yesterday, I graded all morning and through the England v USA World Cup game. It needed to be done. Also someone needed to score, but I guess that didn’t happen. I’m not done with grading or planning. It’s possible that I never will be. I have two harder assignments left to grade and about two weeks more of planning to get me through to December. But it’s been taking me about an hour to plan each day of this unit/project, crazily, so I don’t know that I’ll get that far through. We’ll see. Too much researching shit, trying to figure out how better to present it than our curriculum does (because even when it’s pretty good, it still isn’t).
I also finished my book. But didn’t exercise. There’s 78 things on the to-do list that aren’t done. The Christmas shopping is mostly done, though. I need to assemble some things and I’m waiting on some stuff and I have to pick up one thing today, but otherwise, I might be sorta done. Kind of. More done than I was a week ago anyway.
I spent a goodly chunk of time ironing yesterday afternoon and evening and night though. And that was good. This piece of sky is one of my hand-dyes. I occasionally like to do it myself. Find it fun.
But then I dye things that are hard to use. This will be good sky though. I made it through all the fleshy pieces…they started in the 100s, then through the 200s and most of the 300s, I think.
Of course, I only did the flesh. I still need to do all the non-fleshy bits: the bones, heart, lungs, burning trees, and polluting cars. So that’ll take a while. I might be halfway through? Not sure because of the numbering. Feels like I’m further on than that, but the head is complicated and so is the vomit. So today sometime I’ll work on the bits in the torso that aren’t flesh, and then I’ll have a better idea of where I’m at. I’m also going to pick up a quilt and hopefully hike/walk the dog and the Man. So here’s what I’ve gotten so far…need a bigger box, plus extra points if you can find the cat butt and tail.
Also need to grade at least one of those hellish assignments. Ugh. Don’t feel like it, but it has to be done. I know some people just don’t do any work over break, but it’s looming over me and I know how panicked I would be next week (or tomorrow!) if I hadn’t done what I did. I need my head above the water, not doing that thing where you’re kicking your feet to push your nose and mouth up a little to get air, which was the last three weeks. Sigh.
When I made it to bed, a bunch of animals followed me…Kitten settled down by my feet, which is not normal for her…usually she comes up later and shoves into my back.
She was there for quite a while before she wandered off to sleep on a blanket somewhere less crowded. Simba was squished between us most of the night…
Although this was before the Man came to bed. Luna showed up in the dark. Nova doesn’t come in on the bed any more. She would, but the dog freaks her out. Her loss.
OK. So I’m up. I need to shower, go get my quilt, pick up the Xmas thing, go for a hike, probably eat somewhere in there, grade some shit, plan some other shit, iron fabrics, probably do a date-night thing, and read another book (it’s OK; it’s short). Today is Saturday. I’m just writing that for my own assistance. I need to remember to do all the things tomorrow that get me ready for school, and the more times I remind myself that today is Saturday, the more likely it is that I will remember to do all the things on Sunday that will help me go to school on Monday. I’m glad I’ve had time this week to recharge without students around. To plan without panicking. To get caught up on grading. That’s good. Plus make a bunch of food and freeze it so my December self panics less. These are good things. Maybe next year I can have a break from school that isn’t full of grading and planning (ha!). Next year, I’ll have taught all this once and will have more help. Hopefully. For now, I’m thankful that it’s Saturday and not Sunday. I can do a Saturday.
Good morning. Less sleep than usual. My fault. My desire to sleep in is not matched by the dog’s desire to be awake, fed, and peed. I forget this. Unfortunately.
Also unfortunate. Or at least things to consider: Red Shawl Day on Saturday, which I noticed because I follow a ton of National Parks, and they were all posting about it…per their website, “American Indian and Alaska Native women are missing and murdered at a rate of more than 10 times the national average. Red Shawl Day is an annual national effort to bring attention to the horrible acts of violence committed against Indigenous people, particularly women and children. Throughout the week surrounding November 19, people are encouraged to wear red as a symbol of the loss of sacred lifeblood through violence.” Just proof that justice is not the same for everyone.
Then Sunday was the Transgender Day of Remembrance…”an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.” More people who do not receive equal justice. That followed by the LGBTQ-hate shooting in Colorado Springs by the grandson of my former Assemblyman, Randy Voepel, MAGA all the way down.
They redrew the district lines about 10 years ago, but this is one of the guys I used to email regularly because he didn’t represent ALL of his district, just the white conservative faction (and honestly, the far right). There’s a lot of that dumbassery out here, unfortunately. But sure, let’s make sure all the haters have guns.
I’m currently working on an environmental issue quilt, but guns are ruling for the next one. Or something. Hate? I don’t want to do another hate quilt. We’ll see. I’ve got a while before I’m done with this one.
That said, I finished tracing the Wonder Under last night…
By staying up way too late…
I guess the dog let me sleep in an hour after the Man left for work…that’s a plus. It’s only three yards…much smaller than the last one.
Oh yeah, and this bit…
The vomit. Hence its nickname in my data collection app. So that was 8 hours and 40 minutes of tracing. My hand and shoulder hurt last night…this morning, they are somewhat recovered. The next step is to cut stuff out. I really want to be ironing to fabric by Thursday. I have a lot to do in the next three days, including grades, a dentist’s appointment to finally get the crown I needed back in August, and a Wednesday Thanksgiving dinner…so clean the house and cook. Lots of cleaning and cooking. Plus walking the frantic dog? Yeah, probably. He’s losing his mind right now because the boychild just arrived after being gone since Thursday AM.
I spent most of Saturday grading science units…but we did manage a short hike…
Mostly to try to tire out the barky dog so he’d do less of that…
Plus drawing at dinner, finishing one from last weekend…
The two younger cats have decided to be friends again…less fighting. More cuddling…
The old lady is sleeping a lot…
She had gained weight by the last checkup, but she’s lost weight again this time. One of her meds is for her thyroid, and we’ve had problems getting the right dosage. Plus whatever is going on in her gut causes issues. The truth of it all is that she’s old. But she’s relatively happy and playful despite all that, so that’s a plus.
Oh yeah, Friday’s field trip was OK. Could have been an hour shorter and I would have been OK with it. Expensive place to go, Old Town. The Scavenger Hunt part was good. The kids participated and all. Apparently the 7th-grade group was not as good. I guess that’s the plus of having 8th grade this year.
The graveyard in Old Town…and some diorama thing where the little plastic dog had fallen down.
Anyway, not a bad end to the week. I am enjoying hanging out in my pajamas and not panicking about posting assignments and lesson plans…yet. That’ll be later this week. It’s not a stress-free week, though…never is. Need to catch up on grading and planning so the next three weeks aren’t insane. Need to do Xmas shopping and shipping. Need to catch up on cleaning and yardwork that’s fallen by the wayside while teaching. Plus read 10 books. Is that a thing? I also need to catch up on sleep, which isn’t going to happen if I keep staying up late. But my brain works better then. Sigh. OK. For now, I have one more class of science units to grade so I can take them back to school today. Easier than dealing with them next Monday, plus I have counseling today and need a space that is not inhabited by multiple humans for that. And I need to check the stash for the lab I’m doing next Tuesday. So I need to read the teacher manual for that. Busy week. Always is. But still thinking about all the hinky shit people are doing to other people instead of getting along. Sigh. May there be more to be thankful for as the week progresses.
Good morning. Splendid extra hour of sleep? Well, maybe. I mostly wasted it on checking my clock because it was light and I thought I hadn’t set the alarm. My brain went right into staying up an hour later though. I was working Saturday night well past bedtime (school stuff, unfortunately). I’m not done with grades. I have to do about 15 redo grades and then input everything, which is more than it has been in the past. There’s some new thing we have to check for certain students. The government doesn’t trust us to do certain things, so we have to check a box saying we did it. I’m not sure which teachers aren’t doing it, but if they aren’t, they’re still gonna check the box. So yeah. Didn’t fix that problem with more work, did we. I have not fully planned the rest of this week for 8th grade. Again. I’m not sure when I will get ahead. Ever. Like more than 5 days max ahead. I have through Wednesday planned, but only if I get the lab set up today. Lucky for me it is only a 4-day week, but we are camping this weekend, so I won’t have access to internet to plan, so next week’s gotta be planned before I go. I had Friday for that, but I added an exercise class because I can’t go earlier in the week, and then the cat needed to go to the vet, and then the Man decided he wanted to be out of here by 2 PM, and all of a sudden, the day is no longer mine to lesson plan, eh? ‘Tis how it works.
I also need to start the next quilt, at least on the drawing page. I managed to put all the bindings on Saturday…
That’s some old-school fabric there for the sleeve. Then the bed quilt…
Only got the art quilt pinned last night…
Other art stuff happened this weekend though. I went to the opening of Portraits of the Anthropocene at Dance Place in Liberty Station…and a bunch of my co-teachers showed up…
So did the Man…
I have two quilts there…
Through early January, so check it out…also some other very cool art there.
And after that, we ate…
It was really nice of them all to show up, and we had a good time.
The next day, I had a quilt guild meeting. Met an old acquaintance and made a new one. Also did some slow stitching…
Came home, graded for a while, and then went for a much-needed hike with Simba and the Man…
The weather was beautiful…just the right temperature…
Although all three of us are out of shape…
Saw a coyote…
It’s a little blurry. Every time we come to Crest, these days, we see a coyote.
Quilts=Art=Quilts is up at the Schweinfurth Art Center. You can see the whole exhibit here. I screenshot a couple of shots of my quilt.
Gotta love those orange dots.
I love seeing my work in a space I can’t visit, so this is awesome for me. It’s up until January as well.
I also voted. You should vote too.
And visited the parentals, who have had a week to recover from their trip and seem to need another week at least. Katie was happy to see us though.
Happy her parents are home too.
OK. School. Two-hour staff meeting. Dropping the sewing machine off to be cleaned/tuned up. Finishing grades. Setting up a lab. Cooking dinner. Hopefully starting to sew the binding on to that quilt and/or drawing the next one. I have high hopes for the next one. More time during the week to make art? Working on it. For now, gotta get up and at ’em. Whatever that means.
It’s weird. On the one hand, I seem to have missed most of the month of October. Busy as hell, not chill, no relaxation, very little down time. Pro: Time in this hellacious school year seems to be moving quite fast. Con: Time seems to be moving quite fast. I can’t get everything done. There’s probably a movie about this. Or a song. I don’t have time to look it up though. I get to the end of the day, and I realize, oh shit, I still haven’t called the vet for the cat’s retest or the sewing machine shop to get my machine cleaned, and now they are closed. Fuck. OK. Write it down for tomorrow. Do over! Except tomorrow is just as nuts. I realized yesterday that the end-of-trimester grades are due in less than 2 weeks. FUUUCK. I’m so behind. So I forced myself to grade one class of the harder assignments last night. I can do it in chunks. But either I lesson plan and kids have work to do or I grade and kids have grades. I’m having a hard time finding a place in the middle where they have both those things AND I get to exercise, eat, sleep, and (most importantly) make art. I stood at a school-board meeting last night for over an hour, listening to them bitch at each other, so we could explain to them that not offering us cost-of-living at the very least is a pay cut. They started at 2.5%. Inflation is 8.2%. We all have to pay our bills, pay for gas, food, school supplies (that’s kicking MY butt) out of our salaries. The district next door to us would pay me $12K more a year. Can’t afford to move to it, because I would lose most of my years. Such a stupid system. Of course, they do it to make us stay. So I spend valuable grading time staring at the school board and wondering why teachers have to fight so hard for a fair wage. Then I come home and grade. Unpaid. Yeah. Stupid system.
I do have some cool stuff coming up…there’s an art opening at Francis Parker School on Thursday from 5-7 PM. I’m coming straight from school, so I will need to bring extra pants to school, because it’s pajama day. It’s also bargaining, so I have to wear red. I decided to splurge ($20) on a pair of red pajamas to solve that problem. They have pockets. That’s a plus.
Meanwhile, I’m getting so close (but still not done) on the quilt. I forget that on a big quilt, the trip around the borders is LONG. It was about 10:15 last night, and I’m like, shit, I’m not even going to make it down one side. So I stayed up a little later and made it down one side. Achievement Unlocked! The night before, I did a bunch of the little bits in the center, filling spaces, and then started on the right side…
Not totally sold on the variegated thread. It will be fine from a distance. But damn, this thread is linty as shit. I feel like I need to up my thread game, but I don’t know where to start. Ah well. The rayons shred like crazy, but less lint. My local quilt stores focus more on embroidery threads than quilting threads. And everybody has their favorites. I may just go back to rayon when this is done.
So I finished half of the right side, then the bottom to there. Almost to the edge. Then around that corner, across the top, and down the rest of the right side. Feels like two nights. Then trim and bind. Got a crown that needs replacing (that’s not cheap) that will take up time on Saturday, the Man has a show (still don’t know if I can/want to crash it), plus lesson planning and grading. Neverending. Plus those two damn phone calls. I didn’t even finish my calendar bullet journal thing for this week, Sunday was that bad. Sigh.
But I got to cuddle with this guy last night…
It’s been chilly at night and in the morning. He’s warm and nice.
And the old lady is usually around somewhere…
Sometimes she’s just a little too much in my space. Funny, because this morning, I don’t know where she is. Gonna have to chase her down to give her meds.
OK, running a lab in 8th grade, cars on ramps, speed calculations. In 7th grade, plate tectonics stations. I had no aide yesterday in two high-needs classes, and I teach one station while the other two APPARENTLY work independently. Only if I glare at them. I have to get through two groups today, even if it kills me (and it might). I hate the sub shortage. They pull my SECA to help kids who need more help (I get it) and they don’t tell me, so I can’t even shift the class into a less needy situation (we have a lesson for this week that is whole group), because I don’t even know she’s not showing up until like 10 minutes into class and she’s not there. So frustrating. Odds are I will have to cover someone’s class during my prep tomorrow or Friday…lots of teachers out, few subs. I’m next on the list. So when do I grade/prep? At home. At night. On the weekends. Starting to think about the next quilt though. My brain is all over the place, mostly tired thoughts honestly. Quilts of women sleeping while chaos abounds around them. Wishful thinking.
Seems like last week was mostly a blur. I don’t expect much more of this week. I’ve got meetings and art openings and a shit-ton of work (that never seems to go away). I graded literally nothing this weekend, because I was planning for about 10 hours instead. TEN HOURS. Not kidding. Both days. Making labs make sense…I still have one I dreamed about and need to fix again. I had to review an entire engineering design project and backwards plan it into the calendar to realize I don’t have time to get it done before Thanksgiving Break. I should probably be panicking about grades as well. Again. Still. I just can’t get caught up. At all. Pretty sure I’ll have to sub on my prep period one day this week…too many people out, not enough subs.
I try to finish working by 8:30 PM…9:30 if it’s really bad. I’d like to go to the gym tonight, but grading. Fuuuuck. And the stuff I’ve ordered for labs is taking months to get to me. So frustrated right now. So overwhelmed. So the gym is a necessity really.
I did get quilting in every night…but man, gone are the days when I’d quilt all Saturday afternoon. It was even cold and cloudy…perfect weather for that. Instead, I redesigned labs and made sure I had all the materials and that everything made sense.
Friday night’s quilting.
More words. Then Saturday night, onto the body below…
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Dickhead.
Then last night, I finished up the outline quilting…
Which always takes the longest…
NOT a small piece. And started the background quilting…
I usually quilt with a rayon thread. I don’t know why…I’ve been doing it long enough that I’ve forgotten why. It has a bit of shine which makes it stand out better than a cotton? But I didn’t feel like driving all the way to JoAnns on Saturday (I hate Joanns…or JoAnn, as it is now), and my local quilt store only had cotton, so I got one solid and one variegated. I don’t usually use a variegated thread in the art quilts. Too much distraction from the image, but I think it’ll be fine. Just a little bit of light in some areas. Totally unpredictable areas. I got a chunk of the center part quilted, in between body parts.
Need to do all around the edges. Maybe done tonight? Probably tomorrow night. Then trim and bind. I did buy the binding on Saturday, because all the quilt stores close too freakin’ early during the work week. Such a pain. But it’s pretty close to done. Finally. Seriously. Two months later than I had hoped. This job is kicking my ass this year. Worse than last year. Makes me wanna cry sometimes. OK, more than sometimes. A lot. Science co-teacher is back the 7th of November. IDK what he’s gonna start with, though…probably won’t be on the same page as me, because his sub has been working with the other 8th-grade teacher. Oh well. It’s someone. A warm body (BRAIN!) who might be able and willing to help.
This is what I taught Friday…
OK, not really, and certainly the density explanation is a little weak, but I they were writing and I was trying to get them to see the difference between the two words. The destiny of the blocks is to be dumped over and over into the water. Their density was something totally different.
Simba gets it.
He’s so cute for a middle-aged man.
I updated my Current Shows tab up there for all the crazy stuff that’s happening right now. Shows here and there, shows everywhere! I think there are 9 pieces out? Maybe more. Two openings this week, another next week. Then three maybe four more pieces going out for next year. Need to make more. Need to go to work first. Dammit.
Kathy Nida 