Trying to Take Time…

Hope everyone’s holidays went well. We did OK with it…more sleep would always be nice, and we still have one family event tonight, but then it’s all done. It’s tiring and draining…but getting to see family is a plus. I think my theme for this holiday season is just tired though. Maybe I’ll get past that feeling eventually, but I haven’t yet. The only art I’ve been doing since last Thursday is the daily drawing (and I missed Christmas night…too tired). Here’s Christmas Eve.

And last night, which kind of sums up how I’ve been feeling…

Hopefully there will be quilting today some time. I do have copyediting to do still…I’ve made it through one readthrough and am starting the references today. Well, I started them yesterday, but I also had some sewing for the girlchild and some other stuff, so I didn’t get much done. Let’s just call it taking the weekend off the day job. And now I’m back! This week is a bit full of all types of work, but hopefully that will free up some of next week (although none of the grading is done. Ugh. Don’t remind me.).

The man and I made it on a hike on Saturday…

In between bouts of rain…

I appreciate how the outdoors makes me feel. Clears the cobwebs. Must add more hiking to life.

This is real.

I also read my book a lot. It’s due to the library in 3 days. According the the app, I have 4+ hours of reading to do in 3 days. It doesn’t sound like much, but I have a ton of other things to do. And it’s an electronic book, so they will just suck it back when the time is up. I wish it would tell me the exact time it was getting sucked up so I’d have a real deadline. Easier than “sometime in the next 3 days”.

Girlchild is only here for another day. She has been getting all the Simba loves.

He seems OK with it.

And she finally got the good picture of him wearing the hat that she wanted.

Good news.

Sometimes she does pet other animals though…

Not sure Simba is OK with that.

Last year, Dad was in a nursing home for Christmas, recovering from a fall that almost killed him, so it was a reason to take more photos this year…

Certainly, Katie is glad to have him around. But so are we…

The boychild refused to be in photos…but everyone else got their moment…their dad…

And me and the Man.

The girlchild cooked a nice meal…

Yes, we do wear the crowns. It is the way of our people.

I think this was my favorite photo though…

Good stuff.

Meanwhile the cats hide for most of Christmas…except for when the dog is gone and they can come out and play with boxes and new toys…I only caught Kitten in photos though.

The box from Seattle was very exciting for some reason.

And the last pic of the girlchild with the dog…napping.

Poor puppy. Not spoiled at all.

OK, so lots of copyediting and other stuff. Family event tonight. Hopefully some quilting to start finally. This quilt is totally a 2022 finish at this point. No way will I finish by Friday night. Not when I look at my calendar. It’s all right. No worries. More sleep, finish reading one book, finish copyediting the other one. I do envy people who are able to just not work the whole Winter Break. I did take on another job, it’s true…need to pay the bills though. I’m trying to take time around all that. Best I can.

Naps and Books…

Hello Christmas Eve! Full of rain and groceries that haven’t been bought yet. I am frightened of the task before me. First, we need a meat. Any meat I think will do at this point. I admit to having lost all momentum last night on the food front…I’m not really in charge of food. I just pretend I am sometimes. Definitely not when the girlchild is here. I’m leaving in 24 minutes to deal with all the foodstuffs though. WITH her. No way am I doing that alone. Uh uh. Nope. I do have a list…it was a series of post-it notes, but I can’t deal with that in the store. I’d be wandering around for days. So I spent time last night transporting info on post-its to info on my regular printed list, which is organized to match the aisles in the store. Because I haz the left brains AND the right brains y’all. I do both. And I’m not really happy unless I’m doing both. So there’s that. Organize it and then chaos it. AT THE SAME TIME.

I did finish all the stitchdown the other night…

Kitten was useless.

Total stitchdown was 6 1/2 hours…

I find the back fascinating…

I do actually stare at it for a while to find where I didn’t stitch…I had about three things I’d missed. And then, fascinating as it is, it gets tucked away inside the quilt, never to be seen again.

Then last night, after friend Zoom, I cleaned the floors (they were bad), washed the batting, pieced a backing (it was complicated, but I used most of a fabric I had left over…I think there’s like 3″ left of it), and pinbasted the thing.

While listening to the rain. It’s ready for quilting now. Not sure when I’ll get to that. The next few days are kind of busy. Apparently people want to do shit. I’d be OK in a pillow fort with my book, but whatever. I actually took a 2-hour break in the middle of that paragraph to do the shopping. It wasn’t bad, but the girlchild needs to make puff pastry from scratch (no worries there) and I have to make eggnog from scratch (doesn’t look hard, at least). And there’s no basil. Apparently basil is an important holiday spice. I did not know. Oh yeah, closeup of safety pins…

Just to prove I was down on my knees, poking myself in my fingers at 10 PM last night.

What else? Still drawing each night…here’s Wednesday…

And Thursday…

I Zoomed with my stitching group last night…we were supposed to meet in person two weeks ago and it got rained out, but this was a nice thing. Very chill.

Missing Ann in the picture…she’s 2 or 3 hours ahead of us and had to get up early. I’ve been working on the Chirp quilt from Sue Spargo, which she recently published, so I can show it.

There are 24 flowers in the border, 4 of each type. I’ve done 2 types, 8 flowers. This is taking a long time. I wonder if that’s why this year’s “easy” block-of-the-month didn’t have a fancy border? I like it, but it’s time-consuming. Then again, for me it’s more about the process than the product.

Girlchild is enjoying Simba…

I think they like each other.

OK, I have two cards to do, technically my Xmas cards too (but whatever), plus make the eggnog to make the breakfast casserole, then make the breakfast casserole, plus more copyediting, and I really need caffeine, because I’m still not awake. (Just want to read my book…have I said that?). And a family event tonight, two tomorrow, another Sunday probably, and one Monday. Am I grading things? Not at the moment. That will catch up with me though. Got to sew some things up for the girlchild as well. Need a nap. Christmas Eve should involve naps and books and little else. That’s what I think. For my future self maybe.

This Week Is Always Nuts…

Hey. Five days of school. With a rainstorm on the way. And a holiday party. But I get to wear pajamas to school later this week. Unfortunately, it’s on a day when I have to do something after school…they will just have to deal with my pajamaness. This week is always nuts. I got this. The copyediting job starts Friday. So yeah. From one job to another job without a day off…sigh. It is what it is.

The anti-anti-abortionists quilt (because I guess that’s really what it is…I’m not pro-abortion, like everyone needs to go get one…but I am pro-choice in the case of women’s reproductive freedoms…I mean, men have them, why can’t we?) is closer to done. This is the anti-abortionist bubble, where if you throw enough cash at them, they will let you get that abortion, right?

I worked on it all weekend, but not for any more time than I would during the week.

There’s some tiny shit in there.

I decided to make them all washed out, except for the one woman begging to get in. And there’s some embroidery that will go in this section.

Those are all the pieces left to be ironed.

Maybe 20 more in the other box. Plus then iron it down to the background. I might finish tonight? Probably tomorrow night. We’ll see how efficient I am at work today. I need to have a goodly chunk of stuff graded this week, so I can get this copyediting job done too. I’ll have two art projects to grade (ugh) and the stuff from this week, plus a small packet (double ugh). But not as buried as I usually am.

Saturday, we did the 3rd hike in the Coast to Crest Challenge, Scorpion Ridge to Santa Fe Valley.

It was nice and cool, or this would have been a draining hike. Although this might have been an easier crossing if it hadn’t rained recently.

It wasn’t bad though. There were some climby bits…but we made it to the Selfie Spot.

These photos are what get us the stickers and the patches. Crucial swag that.

Our new buddy.

Don’t usually see them in the middle of the day.

We had a sandwich and a drink after the hike, almost 5 miles, although my phone’s GPS must be failing. It can’t track me any more. The man’s is working fine, but he has a newer phone. So frustrating.

I drew at lunch too, but this was dinner. We might not have gone out again, twice in a day, but the man left Sunday morning early for 6 days of hiking. He made it to Zion by like 3 PM.

Definitely jealous of that view. Maybe not jealous of the cold though.

Meanwhile, I’m stuck here with all the furry beasts.

Some are more sociable than others.

I did get my tree in the house before he left though…

It only has one ornament on it so far. That might be ALL the ornaments it gets…we’ll see. The packages are piled up to keep the cats off it. This tree was a volunteer in my yard. I used to protect its tiny self with some rocks around it, then finally dug it up and put it into a pot. I think this is the third pot it’s been in. It’s definitely grown.

OK. I have to go to work. Engineering design getting taught today…and texture. Exciting stuff. Plus a holiday party. My introvert self is cringing. What’s new. December…it’s a challenging month no matter what.

What Kind of Crazy is That?

‘Tis the season for dealing with lost packages, yeah? I’m typing this on the iPad, because I’m in a chat on the computer, trying to replace the thermostat I need that was decidedly NOT delivered Monday night. At least not HERE. Sigh. At least it’s not a Christmas present, and the current thermostat is working. It’s cantankerous though and will probably die on one of these really cold nights. Good thing I have a bed full of cats, right? OK, the new one is arriving Sunday. Apparently. I’ll believe it when I see it…and hopefully I won’t be wandering through the yard with a flashlight trying to find it.

I swear I woke up yesterday thinking it was Wednesday already. So did my boss; he was talking about today’s meeting, which is actually tomorrow. Yesterday was a slog…started well, successful learning experience, fell into the deep turbulent water of What. The. Fuck. by the end of the day. It’s hard teaching such a wide range of abilities, but I also wonder what that group would be like in the morning. I never have them in the morning…just right after lunch or at the very end of the day. And I say things like “tomorrow, we will…” and there’s always this kid going, “We don’t see you tomorrow” (because of block schedule), and I’m lucky I even know what day it is and what I’m teaching…I can’t possibly keep track of who the hell will be in my class on the next day. What kind of crazy is that?

Last night’s post-8 PM texts with my co-teacher were “how do we change this assignment we’re in the middle of because ugh teaching it this way is painful and it could be worded better.” On the one hand, I really am grateful for a co-teacher who has a brain that works with mine. But maybe we should relax more at night and read a book or something. I did read for a bit when I got home. I wanted to be all good and go to the gym, but I’m tired…so tired. It was cold and I didn’t want to deal with it. This morning, I wish I’d gone. Oh well.

Ironing is what I do every night before bed, for close to or just over an hour. Not a lot…which is why it’s taking so long to get this done. Plus it’s complicated as hell. This figure is pretty small, but it’s hard to see the pieces under the teflon sheet and small means tiny pieces.

Lots of overlapping finger parts. Here it is upside down with cat butt.

And right side up…hanging over the ironing board.

Last night, I managed 78 minutes of ironing before bedtime. I pushed it a little late…been having problems falling asleep too, so that’s a fun thing. Ironing is the best thing though…it’s meditative. I finally pulled a separate sheet to iron this little baby in her hand, though. Could not see the pattern underneath, because this lies on top of the other figure.

Then I can just pull that piece off, all ironed together, and put it where it belongs…hoping always that it actually fits, because I’m not really perfectionist about it matching the pattern perfectly.

In fact, I’ve had two pieces that I debated putting in at all…they were so small and it wasn’t going to really make a difference to anyone but me. I left one out in the end. The other one is in there. So this is Figure 5…it seems like she blends in with the land a little more than I thought she would (stitching outlining will help with this), and I haven’t finished her right arm (damn fingers, so complicated), but that puts me squarely in the 900s with half of them already ironed (sky behind the other figures), but I still have some 300s and 400s, the other arm of Figure 2 and her head, that need to be ironed down. I wanted all this bottom stuff done, though, before I pull it off the teflon sheets and try to do that. I think I will iron the bubble all by itself and then make it fit. Maybe. We’ll see. Sometimes I have to stretch stuff or fuss with it to make it fit. That’s easier to do one small piece at a time than a big honking piece that has to carefully fit in. I think it will work though. So let’s say I’ve got about 600 pieces to go…that’s two thirds of the way done.

I’ve been ironing this thing together for 13-plus hours. Probably going to take me 20 total. So another 5-7 days. Wow. OK. Well. There we are. Copyediting job coming in too. Actually not sure I’ll be able to finish this quilt in 2021. We’ll see.

What else is going on? Animals. Notice Simba’s terrified look…cats have sharp bits.

But he’s the one who sat where the cats sit.

Luna climbs the Man Mountain.

She’s also pokey sharp.

Nice to see a block I embroidered in a finished quilt…3 down, 2 to the right. It’s huge!

I’m taking a class with Sara Trail of SJSA in February at QuiltCon. I’m taking two classes total, neither of them actually modern quilt stuff. Then again, I’m not really a modern quilter either. I’m still going through my stash. I got through the greens on the shelves (there are three more drawers of green) and four boxes of yellow. It’s going well. I hope they actually want all this stuff. I’ll find another charity group that needs it otherwise. Maybe divide it up. We’ll see.

I hit the 10,000 mark the other night…

Crazy. I think it helps. Sometimes it seems to help. Sometimes my brain can’t settle down even with meditation. That is the same brain that makes the art, though, so I guess there are always pros and cons.

OK. School. Rewrite yesterday’s assignment for my last, lowest class. Teach a bunch of other things today too. Then union meeting. Ugh. Long day. Then ironing. That’s good. I can look forward to ironing those damn fingers and then doing the rest of the sky.

Lots of Tea and Lozenges…

Ah yes. Back-to-school dreams last night…not really nightmares…they were too close to reality: kids not listening, kids not working, and people sucking up my prep period with other shit. Yup. That’s real. We’ve got three weeks before Winter Break, so hopefully the kids will check in and realize they have progress reports after Winter Break…it’s always a crapshoot this time of year. Luckily, we’re doing a fairly interesting engineering project on tsunamis…at least, WE think it’s interesting. No, it’s not a video game or Squid Game, so there’s that. Did I finish all my grading? I did not, but I did most of it. I’m good. Well, until the copyediting project starts, which shouldn’t be for another two weeks. Aaack.

Anyway, am I ready to go back to school today? Nope. I was at Urgent Care yesterday with a nasty sore throat that doesn’t seem to be wandering off like it should. It’s not strep, though, so that’s good…and it’s not COVID, although I will get tested yet again this week. So the physician’s assistant was like, well, here’s a throat lozenge (she only gave me one…I had to go buy more) and you should call your doctor and try to get an appointment, but also, if they refer you to Ear Nose Throat doc, then you will need to have been on Flonase for a week, so just go do that. Hmmm. So I did that. I already know the soonest video appointment I can get is two weeks out…if they need to see my throat in person just to give me a referral, it’ll be the end of December before I can just see the doc, let alone the ENT. Fun stuff. They did offer me a flu shot (did that in October), a vaccination (did that), a booster (did that), and just that one lozenge (took that).

So am I ready to talk all day? Nope. Am I ready for two staff meetings running an hour each? Nope. Am I ready for what I’m teaching today? Nope. It’s something about tsunamis…that’s all I know. Sigh.

Meanwhile, I am making art. I love to make art. I like to do that every day. So I do. How do I get so much done? I do it every day. Friday night, I finished cutting everything out.

Saturday night, I sorted all the pieces by the 100s…

That was a tough one. We hiked about 5 1/2 miles during the day and I was tired.

Then last night, I started ironing things together…

So far, it’s just the background behind the people…

With a requisite volcano. I was hoping to have this piece done by December 1. As you can see, that is not happening. I make art every day, but not as much as I’d like, unfortunately. And although this is not a large piece, it’s complicated. So it’s taking longer. It’s OK.

Back to the hike. We’re doing the 2021-2022 SDRVC Coast to Crest trail challenge, and this is our second hike of the five total. This is Blue Sky Ecological Reserve to Lake Poway.

It was actually pretty warm out, low 80s…

But neither of us had been to either the reserve or the lake, so that was nice.

There were more people than we usually like (we only like 3 people really), but most of the trail was pretty empty.

Three more to go.

Ah hills. We celebrated with cider flights at Serpentine…

And I remembered my sketchbook. Sometimes I think I should just make these little ones into quilts to sell, but then I remember they take a lot longer to make than people are willing to pay for.

Dinner’s drawing didn’t get finished…

My family did Thanksgiving dinner on Friday so I wouldn’t have to try to cook one dinner while eating another.

We have lots of leftovers. Which is always the point.

Girlchild had other plans. I’m not sure who looks more freaked out in this photo.

Kitten enjoyed the couch bits that I uncovered for company…

Normally all that is covered with stitching stuff. And Simba said hi when I came over to pick up the brined turkey…

So fierce. Ah. Missing Calli greatly this week. All the while thinking how to clean the carpets because she had an issue with a tumor at the end. Sigh. I don’t have time for that stuff right now, but I actually miss stepping over her in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

OK. I have to do the school thing now. Wish me luck. Sore throat is still there, but not as bad as yesterday. Lots of tea and lozenges.

Never Long Enough…

Ah hello. We are still sad. Calli (full name Calliope) was with us since she was 4 months old…she was the girlchild’s dog, but stayed here when she went off to college. We expected this much sooner, due to the sarcoma that was developing on her nose, but she was a stubborn old girl and hung on for a good long time. Not long enough, though…never long enough.

We’re in the stage of crying every time we see a photo of her. The top one is my favorite ever. She was a big loving goofball and we will greatly miss her.

Meanwhile, it is Thanksgiving week and all the food things are supposed to be happening, although for us, the one I have to cook for is on Friday, so that will be a little offset from the rest of you. Couldn’t figure out how to BE at one holiday party while cooking for the the other one. So we moved one. It’s fine. Not in the mood, honestly. Hung out with friends for tacos yesterday, read a lot of my book, cleaned house some, graded some, did a chunk of yardwork this morning (it’s never enough), got a massage because my chiropractor could not budge my neck at all last week, my muscles were so tight. Today is a long list of to-dos around the house and things I need to buy, from wiper fluid to a hanger for a piece of art. I hung three pieces of art on Sunday, and have two more to locate. One needs a sleeve, though, so I have to add that to the list. I entered an art show today and have some digital stuff to do for two other art groups I’m in. None of it is particularly hard…it all just takes time and when I’m teaching, I don’t have time for any of it. I’ve started dealing with Christmas gifts, mostly trying to find stuff that will give money back to small indie artists. That’s hard for some of my giftees, but I’m trying.

I’ve been cutting a lot of pieces out…

It doesn’t require much brainpower…down in the 900s here.

And last night, down into the 500s mostly. I see a few 600s still, but not many. Eleven hours in. At least 5 more to go, I suspect. Another couple of nights? Then sort and iron together. And think about the next one.

Hey, Nova.

She tried my lap, but it had quilt parts on it. Besides Daddy is more comfy. Maybe.

Anyway, we are quietly hanging out and cleaning up (well I am…the rest aren’t so much). The boychild is out working today but will be helping cook, because the girlchild will not be home…she’s spending Thanksgiving in Finland, of all places…ah, Boston, the home of cheap Euro flights. Enjoy kiddo.

OK, back to the to-do list and trying to figure out what to do with half-open bags of dog food and dog meds and a cone for a big dog. I mean, I’m sure I’ll have another big dog someday, but not sometime soon. Sigh. Miss you Calli.

Just Wibbly Wobbly and Blech…

It’s a Monday morning and I’m not at school. I am however soon to be on my way to the vet, probably for the last time with Calliope, who is a very good girl. Maybe there will be some miracle treatment that will make all her tumors disappear and persuade her to eat consistently, but I doubt it. I think this is the end and it is always so hard, even when they’ve had good long lives and honestly have survived longer than they said she would.

So there’s that, and I’m trying not to dwell too much on it right now.

I was sick over the weekend; got tested Friday and it was COVID-negative. Will probably get tested again this week, just to be sure, but most of it is gone…just a tiny bit of a dry throat and a cough. Never had a fever, never lost smell or taste. Just wibbly wobbly and blech. It’s a strange world where a simple cold is such a big deal. It meant that I didn’t get much done, mostly finished ironing the quilt down to fabric…which is actually a good thing. At some point on Friday night, this is where I was at…

All the people in the bubble had been ironed down, and I just needed to iron all the hair and shirts and signs. That might have been Saturday, actually. I don’t remember.

Yeah, I suspect this was Friday night…I got all the people ironed…the ones in the bubble are all those white fabrics.

Then Saturday, I finished the rest…this is the 199 fabrics I used in this quilt.

I think that’s my record. Not sure. It took 24 hours and 56 minutes to iron everything to fabric.

And then Saturday night, I started cutting them out.

The first two batches were just tons of letters. Tiny fussy shit. Kitten does not help. She wants to sit next to me and the boxes are in the way.

She tries to stand IN the boxes sometimes. I even cleared a space next to me and she rejected it for this…

Which didn’t last long. Mostly she wants pets. She is an old lady too. Sigh. This vet thing. Fuck. It’s not like you don’t know it’s coming…it just sucks anyways.

Last night’s cutting…the pieces are piled up mostly in order, so I’ve made it down from the 1500s to the 1000s.

I’m about 6 hours in. Probably another 15 to go or so. I am grading things too, slowly. And reading my book. And dealing with lightbulbs and crap that’s been piled on the counter for weeks, maybe months, and laundry and the yard. So much gets put aside while I’m teaching because there just isn’t time for it.

I pulled a drawer out to look at the fabrics in it, turned back around, and found a cat instead.

Petulant beast.

My quilt Womanscape at Quilts=Art=Quilts…

Nice tour of it here.

OK. Vet soon. The inevitable visit. Then book reading and crying and maybe grading and cutting things out in between all that. Ugh. She is a very good dog.

You Will Have No Title

I was trying to add a title to this but WordPress wasn’t having it. I get it. You don’t want me to post it? Ah well.

Beautiful skies this morning after a rough night. It’s November! As I look at the calendar, which says “Oh fuck, it’s nearly Christmas.” No joke there. It’s that crazy rush time. At least there’s some time off coming.

The weekend still had a lot of school work. I need it mostly done before I take the weekend off for an art/hiking retreat. I did cut more stuff out on Friday night…

And then finished it up, 10 hours in, on Saturday night…

And last night, I sorted all the pieces out by the 100s…

Tonight, I’ll need to clean up the studio, put all the fabrics away from the last quilt (which didn’t get into the show I made it for, ironically…or normally…however you look at it).

I do like this next stage, picking all the fabrics. It’s more creative than the last few stages, but still meditative. Lots of standing though.

We did break up the grading for a 4+-mile hike on Saturday, the other side of the Helix Flume hike that we did a few months back.

We really need to leave earlier if we want to meet in the middle…the parking lots all close at 6. There’s El Cap.

It was warm at the beginning, but cooled off nicely.

Once you get up to the level of the flume, it’s mostly flat. It’s the climbing before that which is a bit much. Starting on the El Monte Park side was easier…I think.

Definitely has been some fire damage up here, but a while ago.

Creative fence building. We only saw one group of people on bikes…otherwise, we were the only ones on trail. The only wildlife this time was birds and bugs. And fresh coyote poop, plus possible footprints that weren’t there when we went through the first time. It’s good to hike. This weekend, we’ll be hiking in Joshua Tree National Park.

The cats were glad to see us. Or maybe perturbed.

Nova looks perturbed anyway.

We tried the silly hat on Calli.

She goes to the vet today to suss out her tumor on her side. The one on her nose is the one that will probably kill her, unfortunately. Inoperable. But the one on her side is supposedly benign…just has opened up and is rather disgusting and smelly. Sigh. Poor baby. It doesn’t hurt her at least.

This was Saturday night’s dinner drawing…

They don’t get finished because someone brings the food. I don’t remember if I posted last week’s drawing…

This is about the only drawing I’m doing at the moment. There just isn’t enough time for all the work and the art and actual sleeping and stuff.

Old timey photo of the kids, circa 2005.

Back in the day. The neighbor kids yelled “trick or treat” from the driveway, where we left the candy in a bowl in the wheelbarrow full of dirt, a skelly arm, and a pumpkin. I wasn’t ready for 23 kids coming up the stairs to the door. I live on a tiny street without traffic, but the neighbors invited friends over. We don’t really have that many kids on the block. It just sounds that way.

Well it’s a short week for me, but I’ll need to do sub plans for Friday. Then next week is even shorter because of Veteran’s Day. Then one full week on and a full week off. Work to do before all that. Grades are due next week…which is difficult. Ah well. I did go to school on Saturday and get one art assignment out of the way…there are two due Friday though and I won’t be there to collect them, so that should be interesting. Bad timing on the retreat, but I didn’t pick the days, unfortunately. OK. Off to work. It’s time.

Dirty Floors and a Full Dishwasher…

I’m glad I’m an artist. I’m happy that I can come home and not think about how the floors need vacuuming and mopping and probably someone should empty the dishwasher and there’s a load…no…shitload of work from the day job to do, but you know? I’m home so I get to do some art. I actually want to finish my book as well (working on that…it’s been a shit month, y’all)…but I make time for the art because I feel like crap if I don’t. If I didn’t have that, if all I came home to was the dirty floors and the full dishwasher, I think I’d go bonkers. It’s like a whole ‘nother planet I can go exist on for a while, so that hopefully I can go back to work the next day without losing my mind. Or crying. Which is where I was at about 10 minutes ago. Then I sat down and resized the THREE whole pictures I have from the last two days, and realized I get some weekend time (flu shot, hike, lots of grading, mopping floors, watering the plants, maybe other shit, IDK at least I don’t have to be AT school because school is exhausting)…and that is a good thing.

I’m cutting a bit out every night…

On top is the rest of the 3rd yard, the part I haven’t cut. Then last night, I was on Zoom with friends for a couple of hours, so I managed more…

Got the third yard cut out and a goodly chunk through the fourth one, because it had lovely large pieces on it. I’m almost 8 hours in at this point. I do clump pieces together that will be the same fabric, like all the letters on a sign, so that saves cutting time at this stage. They don’t really need to be cut apart until the fabric stage. So there’s progress. I might be done by the end of the weekend. We’ll see.

I have a piece in this show, opening Friday, November 12, from 3-7 PM.

It’s at the San Diego Mesa College Gallery. Looking forward to the opening, since I have the day off. I might make an artsy day of it…there are a couple other shows I want to see that I haven’t been able to get to.

Girlchild sends costumes for Simba. He never really likes them. Apparently we need better lighting. We also need a dog who likes wearing the damn things. Speaking of costumes, I will be donning my Slytherin robes in a minute for school. I don’t know why we have Slytherin robes and it’s supposed to be warm today. These things are heavy as hell. We’ll see if I can keep them on. I also have a loaned Porg, since we are supposed to be doing Disney and I don’t love that. Oh well. What I need to do now is go to work and bang out 6 (I think it’s 6 now) contracts for kids out on pandemic concern (6 in one day…hopefully one will go away), make at least 2 videos for said kids, and do about 17 other things in a short amount of time without losing my mind. It’s not a safe bet. But classes are shorter today (those long block classes are more tiring for me than the shorter ones…I don’t know why)…so that will help. So will sleeping in a bit tomorrow. And cutting more things out tonight.

Today I Am…

Today I am efficient and on task. I finish many things. I make sure I leave my Friday classroom ready for Monday morning so that is not as stressful. I come home. I maybe exercise my dog and my self and maybe even another dog. Because we have an extra one at the moment.

What a dynamic group they are. It’s actually really hard to get them in one photo because they are all needy and jealous of the others. This was as close as I could get so far.

School is…sometimes fine, often overwhelming. I like teaching in person better. The kids and rocks…you know, rocks seem pretty boring until you listen to a bunch of 12-year-olds try to describe them and figure out what they are. We do a ton of hands-on stuff that our official adopted curriculum doesn’t even attempt to do. Hence our disdain for it. All that is exhausting on our part, though…prepping it, managing it, putting it away. So I’m kind of looking forward to a week when I don’t have to do all that. Well, until I’m in the middle of that week and a whole class is waiting for me to give them the answers. Then not so much. But hopefully today will be OK, fairly chill. Do this, finish that, do this other easy thing. We’ll see.

Teaching art is more of a challenge. I wish I could go watch the other teacher and see what she does. I feel so disorganized and ineffective. But then they do some cool stuff and I think, well, it can’t be THAT bad. Yes, some of them are just talented (and some aren’t), and some work hard and that gets them close (and some don’t). Just like science!

Anyway. It’s October now. Still a chance of hellacious temperatures (supposed to be over 90 degrees today), but hopefully all the beginning-of-school stuff will calm down. Wait. Except I have 5 or 6 pandemic contracts to do by Monday. And three kid meetings next week? So not so much. I was hoping for a week without a positive case, so I wouldn’t feel like I had to shove COVID testing into an already tight schedule. Yah no. That’s a no. Got tested yesterday.

I did finally photograph this.

She needs a name and a label, and then I’m mailing her to my patron on Patreon…hopefully this weekend.

Also this weekend? Starting a drawing for the new quilt. I stared at a bunch of artspeak statements and titles last night and was decidedly uninspired by two of them. Whatever. I will have to write statements that explain how I met those themes at some point, but not today. Today I can grab my sketchbook and just draw for a while. Hopefully. Looking forward to that.