I really wish there was a way to force the body to sleep better. Last night was a disaster. 2/10. Do not recommend. So many reasons: temperature, beasts sharing the bed (of all types), weird cramp in the left thigh, BRAIN (ok, most that). Plus I worked on the day job all weekend. Made it through two major assignments, thank goodness (because there are two more at school like them). Fuck. It’s fine. Really. Maybe.
I drew Friday and Sunday…Saturday was another thing. Friday night…
And Sunday…where I decided that two bathtubs was enough and I didn’t need (or want) three.
I’m still not entirely sure it’s done (it’s not), but it’s close.
Otherwise, all I did was grade. Seriously.
Nice. Thanks kid.
Judgy dog.
Same judgy dog, just at night.
And smaller? Not sure.
Here’s a judgy squirrel.
I apologize to him now for the fact that the eucalyptus are getting trimmed on Wednesday. I feel bad. That said, there are other trees in the yard. I hope it isn’t squirrel baby season.
This was Saturday night…
Lots of black light.
This was the whole week, honestly. Really bad.
I’m hoping this week is better, but I have a parent meeting this morning and she doesn’t speak English and I don’t have a translator yet because mom didn’t tell me she was coming until well after school on Friday. Sigh. Thanks mom. We might be using Google Translate.
This swear word from the future?
Perfect for now.
And this…I’m still waiting to hear about the girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa.
I can’t believe they’re still saying this is an actual group that exists, like Indivisible or the Proud Boys. What fucking idiots.
So true. It seems that all I have to show for the weekend is memes.
Which makes sense, considering all I did was grade and take occasional breaks to pee, eat, or scroll social media.
I did a little reading too. Which is where I got that great swear phrase.
Well, at least I currently have fewer meetings on the table for this week (knock on wood). I’m not going on Thursday. I won’t get up early for a wasted 45 minutes. I’m up early today for this mom and the meeting because the kid has been absent 18 days and has a low GPA and doesn’t talk. Mom and I went back and forth in Spanish (ah, Google Translate, you are a blessing) and I asked her to tell me when she could come in and I didn’t realize she wouldn’t tell me until the last minute. Ah well. Watch. She won’t show up. Anyway, two staff meetings after school, then clay. I’m glazing more. Then reading. Probably grading more. Then drawing? Or numbering. Hard to say. I did wake up in the middle of the night and type something into the notes app that needs to go in the drawing…like you do. And hopefully the rest of the week will be low key, no stress, just the normal stuff and not a hot mess of burning school oatmeal. One can hope.
Tuesdays have gotten so much harder lately. Not sure why. I feel like I’ve run a marathon in only two days of work, and then there’s a slow slide into the weekend. Sometimes that slide upends me into a pile of steaming compost before the weekend, but it feels like the hump, getting over that, is now Tuesday. I mean, the work doesn’t stop after Tuesday? There just seems to be an inordinate amount of it in the first two days…well, include Sunday, because I work then too. Maybe that’s why? Nah, I’ve always had to do that…well, always in the last 5 or 6 years? I didn’t always have to put in so much weekend time. Not sure why. So far, I haven’t managed to grade anything in class. Like the kids won’t chill out enough to allow it. That will hopefully change today. We’ll see. Some groups do well, some are incredibly needy (some for good reasons, lack of English skills and all), and some can’t stay on task to save their lives. I’m looking forward to October, when things seem to chill out a bit (weather and school)…but it’s still an awfully long way away.
The stitchdown is coming along slowly. I’m not getting a full hour at night…I’m coming home later and eating dinner later and then it’s 10 PM and I know I have to go to bed around 10:30. So I made it up to the sun and planets last night, and that’s all that’s left. I should be able to get that done tonight, but I have a union meeting after school and pilates late, so maybe not. Trying to fit in all the things I want to do with all the things I have to do and then the things I should do…ugh. But here’s Monday night’s stitching…
I got through one arm and most of the left side of the torso. I don’t remember where I was before that though. Last night, I finished the torso and the head and the hair, the hands on top of her head, and the barn owl…
And I found this in my yard…
There’s two great horned owls nearby, but I still hear the nightly screech of one of the barn owls, plus the occasional feather. Nice that they’re hanging around. They can all have the rats and gophers. Please.
This piece, Portrait of One Self, got into Quilts=Art=Quilts, so I’ll be shipping her later this month.
She’s got a lot going on too, much like me. Not often you see a fox sleeping with missiles. Or bunnies on body bags. Kitten is in there too…apparently I knew she was near the end, because she’s got angel wings. I miss her lots still. The Man says I can borrow his cats, and sometimes I am a good substitute for them, but mostly, they choose their daddy (of course). So I miss the kitty time. I don’t have the time or energy for a new kitty right now, though; the two dogs are enough. Katie is here! My parents’ dog has been visiting for over a week. She’s pretty chill these days, as long as you give her what she wants. She misses her people too, I’m sure. They’ll be back Sunday.
I have been having a hard time finding the time and energy to make it to ceramics, which sucks, because it’s very meditative when I’m there. I mean, the piece that needs to go in the kiln stresses me out, because I’m not even sure I can lift in into the kiln without breaking it…but the freeform head piece has been loads of fun.
I just keep adding weird shit to it. I actually need to go in when the owner is there so I can put the base back in the bisque fire and then try to get the torso in as well. Then I can just focus on the head, which is now going to have a tree coming out of it? I don’t know how that’s going to work. Shhh.
It was great being there yesterday…one other woman was there who I see on a regular basis, and about three other people just stopped by to drop off or pick stuff up, and then it was just me. Unfortunately, I only had about 90 minutes and then needed to pick up mail at my parents and then go home and cook dinner and do schoolwork and eventually get to stitch stuff down. Busy fucking days. I feel like I wake up running and don’t stop until late at night. And then the CGM has been off again. I’m wondering if my body is fighting this one even longer before it settles, and if that is the new thing. The numbers are still completely off and the alarm kept going off last night but it was like 50 points off. And I don’t have time to call them and go through all the phone call shit again today. Ugh. Why can’t things just work? Why does my body need to make it so fucking difficult. This thing has been really helpful for keeping my blood sugar in the right place. I’d really like it to keep working.
Sweet boy. Needs attention. I reread the same page like 5 times while he kept flipping around and smiling at me. Dork.
This is too true. Also, I think the Man is the caterpillar in Alice. At least right now. Maybe he’ll be the White Knight later on.
OK. Teaching energy while lacking it. Actually transformations today, which is different than transfer. Gotta make that distinction today as well. Then they get an INDEPENDENT assignment, for some definition of independent, right? Then union meeting and pilates and dinner and schoolwork and stitching, then sleep. Repeat some iteration of that. Ugh. September. Double ugh.
Well today started at 4 AM as a 5-skittle morning, thanks to my blood sugar alarm. Better than Saturday night, when the alarm kept going off because (according to the guy on the phone) my antibodies were attacking the filament of the continuous glucose monitor and I would just need to wait it out OR the monitor was faulty and he’d send me a new one. Sounds like something my antibodies would do. I love that all my medical staff is trying to figure out why my body doesn’t do what they think it should…when I ask about the early AM crashes, they move things around, meds, when I take my insulin, etc, and damn if those crashes don’t keep happening. Fun times. Yes, I do keep skittles in a drawer next to the bed; don’t you? I’m down to one crash a week, which is…um…still annoying as fuck. But maybe we’ll figure it out. Maybe they’ll start doing more science on women and how their bodies are different than men’s (ha! Oh holy fuck, not for another…1243 days? Is that fucking right? And that RFK guy? He’s a scientific dearth of information. He doesn’t understand anything since the early 1980s, I think. He certainly doesn’t understand how the food pyramid works (that we don’t use anymore). Froot Loops at the top of the pyramid…YASSS, because we’re not supposed to eat a lot of the stuff at the top you dumbass and you’re not supposed to eat a lot of Froot Loops! We’re all gonna have brain worms at the end of this. If Biden or Obama had put a guy in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services that was this incompetent, the Repubs would have lost their fucking minds, but now they’re all for it. Crazy shit. Absolutely batshit. Go get your measles shot if you’re like me and only had one as a baby. I feel like that’s gonna be our downfall.
Anyway. This was an arty weekend, as well as being a weekend full of trying to get my work head on straight. I have a bunch of pictures from the Oceanside Museum of Art opening that I don’t have time to deal with today (maybe Wednesday), but we did go to that and I’m glad…it was really cool to talk to some people there. I also ironed things together…here’s Friday night…
Didn’t get far, because I also had to lay stuff out…here’s the first 100…
Laid out in groups of 10…check out the tiny bones on the bottom. And then I had all these that separated…
This is after I paired up a bunch of them…so I’ll figure this out as I go. I’ve already found about four of them, but also had to retrace another 10 or so, which is annoying. Ah well…this is what happens with tiny pieces. And one of them that I retraced, I found it in the next box, so sorting is also sometimes tiring and hard and I fuck it up. Fun times.
Saturday night’s ironing…
With a closeup…
So you can see the skeletal hand that will look way more awesome when it’s outlined in stitches so you can see all the bones. Some level of insanity there. Then last night’s ironing…
I’ve ironed about halfway through the 200s, I think? There’s a pile of stars to go on that flag, and then I start on the little people who are kneeling on the edge of the flag. This is not fast, but it is pretty rewarding, because it’s the first time I get to really see it in color, besides in my head. I really love the red African fabric I used in the volcanic bits…it shades from bright to dark and looks really good. Yes, fabric makes me happy.
I also spent a shitload of time trying to get my classes organized and the basic shit documented. I didn’t finish grading, because there were two harder assignments and I wanted to save those (aka, not grade all weekend). I did read all the kids’ surveys though, for the first time ever. This kid is a snarky one…
Also, so many of them want to not work at all this year or at any time in the future. So that bodes well for the country…not really; I don’t have huge expectations for 13-year-olds. Also the kids who don’t want to be scientists; they want to be engineers. Um. Hello. What do you think an engineer does? So amusing. I wish them all luck in their futures.
I finally finished appliqueing all the border flowers on Sue Spargo’s Homegrown…
Looks really cool. Now I have to spend the next two years embroidering them all. No really. I don’t think this will be fast. It’ll be amazing when it’s done, but it won’t be fast.
Saturday was hot (real feel 103 degrees), but I need to walk/hike on Saturdays or I can’t eat what I want for date-night dinner…and we were going up to the museum show, so I had to go at like 3 PM, which is earlier than I would normally hike anyway, but still hot. I headed for the hike that was closer to the mounting rain clouds, and I did have a breeze and eventually it cooled off a bit.
I only did 2 miles instead of 3 because of the heat, drinking water and dribbling it over my head the whole time. The Man almost texted me at some point because he heard thunder (I was already in the car on the way back) and thought I should get the fuck off the trail. Yeah. Nobody else was out there, for sure. It worked, though. And so that’s my thing for Saturdays, when I can pull it off. Go hike so you can eat stuff.
This is too true. The pendulum of shit they do care about makes no logical sense.
You care about our health, but you get rid of programs that feed children. I guess it’s OK if they starve as long as they’re healthy about it.
The Man took this picture of his bug-eating plants…with an actual bug NOT being eaten.
Impressive.
And here’s my sweet, very hot, very panty boy.
He’s been a pain at night (because he’s hot and then he makes me hot and then he pants and I can’t sleep through it). But he is a sweet baby.
Speaking of not being able to sleep through it, our baby owl is still here.
So the deal is that they squawk when they’re hungry, expecting mom/dad to provide, which they were a couple of weeks ago. I saw a parent deposit a mouse/rat/small rodent on top of the box for the baby (much squawking ensued), but last week, I saw the baby in the tree outside my office, squawking very loudly about catching their OWN rodent and tearing it to bits (predator birds are impressive in that way), so I know it can catch it’s own food. In the past, we had a pair of babies and then triplets, and the mom/dad chase them off at some point so they get the fuck out of the nest and go take care of themselves. They would still come back sometimes, but not sit on the box and squawk all night. This one is an only, and IDK if the parent is the problem, not chasing them off. We’re pretty sure last year’s parent died in the box (not sure why, but we had two skeletons and one was definitely adult-sized and one wasn’t). We never got a fledged one last year. Maybe someone poisoned the rodents? Who knows. So owls return to the same nests every year, pretty much, so maybe this is one of the previous babies as mom? And she’s enabling the SHIT out of this baby. I’ve heard her a couple of times in the last week or so, screeching away, and then the baby leaves for a while, but keeps coming back. Last night, it was gone for longer, so maybe we’re close to being a big bad adult owl, but it just cracks me up that some parents let their babies live at home and take care of them for so long…I joked that housing prices are so high in San Diego that the baby can’t afford to move out. Too true.
OK. School. Teaching about AI today…responsible uses of it and unacceptable uses of it. It’s not going away, so I’m going full disclosure and how you will fail my class if you use it to take a test. Fun stuff. Then a 2-hour staff meeting after (ugh) and book club tonight on a book I didn’t love. But ironing after. And I think it’s supposed to be cooler today. So that’s a plus. Real summer hasn’t hit yet. We’ll go over a hundred degrees for some time in the future. Not looking forward to it.
OK. So I’ve been sick with COVID since Sunday night, apparently (sorry to my plane mates…I didn’t know). Yeah, I should have been masked, although I’m not sure where the girlchild and I both got sick. Hoping today is fever free. I am better…the first few days were very low energy and sleepy. I’m definitely increasing in energy, but was still running fevers yesterday on and off. I’ve canceled/rescheduled the dentist, exercise, lunch, not sure what else. I was planning on getting a booster shot this week, before going back to school. Oh well. Interestingly, the last time I tested positive, I had almost no symptoms. Not so much this time. Lots of sleeping and reading going on, and when I felt more energetic, I started appliqueing wool bits down to the borders of Sue Spargo’s Homegrown.
It’s mindboggling how long this takes.
Once I had tested for COVID, I moved into the girlchild’s room and my office, trying to limit the other people in the house from exposure. Hoping I wasn’t too late. It didn’t even cross my mind when I first started feeling sick. Silly really. The Man starts his new job on Monday and we’re hoping he doesn’t come down with it.
I’ve stitched down all the stuff on the top and bottom borders; I’m doing the side borders now.
Five flowers a side. Big ones. Time-consuming. Not hard though, which is good, because my brain is mostly nonfunctional. Amusingly, I’m also doing my district/state-mandated online trainings today, with about half my brain. Seriously, I’ve experienced over 20 years of integrated pest management and bloodborne pathogen trainings. The assessments are often stupid, making you memorize things that are not useful, like how big an opening a mouse needs to get in a building (all of them were small; you literally had to memorize which small thing they had mentioned in 28 minutes). I’m not saying we don’t need to know these things…it’s just a lot of minutiae.
Back to the stitching…there’s about 85 pieces that need to be appliqued down on the two side borders, and I probably have spent 8 hours so far. Not all of it this week…
Last night, I had Simba on the bed (past his bedtime) and Bowie coming to visit.
I kicked Bowie out later because he keeps climbing on shit and knocking things over.
Sleepy boy.
So I still have a ton of those to stitch down if I need more down time, which I probably do. I’d like to be energetic and well enough to stand in here (I’m in the office right now) and iron things to fabric…the thing I started before I went to San Francisco. I’d also like to have enough energy to go to ceramics, because it’s been a while and I’m worried about my piece. Not much I can do about it at the moment. I’ve had to move a bunch of stuff to next week that was supposed to happen this week, so it’s all of a sudden more full than I like. It is what it is, I guess. It’s now officially August and I have to think about school. Total mindset flip.
Meanwhile, the cats are all exhausted.
And hot…
Kind of with them.
There’s this…
No hubs but…and this is a joke, but I’d rather spend time making art, thanks.
OK, back to mandated reporter videos. I would like to thank them for making up a new complicated story for each year. Just watching this set of videos is traumatic. And having reported more than once, it’s too bad that humans can’t be better across the board. I have one anonymous card that I’ve kept for three years now. I do often wonder about that child and how they’re doing (multiple reports, police were involved, they sent the kid home with parents). Ah yes. And watching this training while thinking about the current government and the Epstein files? WTF. There’s a gap there that cannot be explained.
Sigh. Hopefully no fever today so I can be a little more active…starting tomorrow, I can be out of the house if I have no fever, although I need to track down a mask. Pretty sure there’s one in a purse or bag somewhere, or maybe in the car. I have a million at school…ironically. My gym bag? I’m glad I had enough books and brainless stitching lying around to entertain me, and furry beasts to provide sighs, boofs, and love. And someone to go out and buy more meds and food. Not that food is very exciting at the moment. I’m doing a lot of revising what I eat to get blood sugar to behave (hard when you’re sick). The CGM has been really helpful and I’m glad I finally agreed to it. Insurance is covering it completely, and if I keep up how I’ve been doing, my A1C will be coming down in the next three months. All good. Art. Health. Balance.
Oh yeah. Again. Lost days. I can’t remember WHY yesterday was a lost day, but it was. It wasn’t. I did things. I might not remember what I did, but I did things.
The current quilt: I’m trimming Wonder Under…
It’s remarkably slow.
I’ve made it halfway as of last night…
And it’s taken almost 5 hours. There’s two more yards to cut out. Just a lot of smaller complicated pieces. I won’t finish before I go on my residency. I’ll probably take the remainder with me, just as brainless filler. Along with other things. All the things.
I met with friends on Thursday and did some stitching on this…
I worked on it last night too, and it’s almost done. I’m taking it with me next week too. Like I said; I’m taking everything. Just moving the whole stash up to the cottage and then bringing it all back. Not really. But it kinda feels that way.
I thought I had finished all this until I was packing it up and realized the gun on the tank is not glazed.
In reality, I’m gone for a week and we’ll see where it’s at when I get back. This hand has broken off more times than I can say…it’s slightly lower than the board and the board doesn’t fully support it.
Stupidity on my part. Hopefully it will survive the next week. I am taking some clay with me…one thing that’s formed that I started carving into like three months ago. Another slab of clay to make something else to carve. I need to make the wet box today for that.
The girlchild is here for a long weekend. She cooked us dinner last night, but there is always time for Simba.
He likes it.
I screenshot this because I like it…
I actually have been trying not to use the word beautiful to describe people or smiles or eyes or hair or whatever. I’m not perfect at that though. But yeah, beautiful is not something I’ve ever been…and I’m OK with that. Or pretty honestly. And right now, I have another hole in my boob and an allergic rash from the adhesive patch and a scratch from Kitten. Oh, and acne at age 58! Ah well. I forgot to wash my face one night. So there we are.
Today. Today is packing and organizing and trying to be ready to leave tomorrow. Plus an art opening down in San Ysidro. And getting the office ready so Kitten can be in here without my carrying her out to the litter tray and food 5 times a day (yes, that is what I am doing at the moment.). Hopefully next week, I’ll be able to get lots of fun things done. And maybe blog on time (it’s my schedule, so it’s on time is what I say it is.). And maybe just be an artist for a week. I food prepped yesterday to help with that. I don’t need to think about what food; I just need food. Yeah. Looking forward to this, even though I am also anxious about it. That’s how the brain works. Art brain is racing forwards and the rest of my brain is trying to make sure there’s enough fabric. And it’s scoured. Crazy, right?
Well hello. I don’t know what day it is. Don’t ask me. I know my art residency is coming up soon and I should be maybe panicking more about packing for that. Although I’ve been collecting shit in piles for days. There needs to be more though. Really. Really? Welcome to my brain.
The Man says I can’t call this a waste of a day. Even though really nothing is getting done, it’s a day when a thing needed to happen, which is why I am currently strapped up in three Ace bandages with an ice pack on my boob. Fun times. I got less than four hours of sleep last night and then had a needle stabbed from the left side of my left breast all the way across to my cleavage. Also, I’m fascinated by the word ‘lavage’. It has such a nice sound for what it actually is. And I had an official ‘boob holder’ nurse who kept pressure on the bleeding hole while I walked across and through a waiting area and a hallway and another desk area to a lying-down place (it had a name), where she continued to squeeze my boob as we talked about school and art and her kids. I wish I could tell you I remember her name, but I don’t. The bleeding did stop. Eventually. I don’t remember the last biopsy being this annoying…it also wasn’t over 90 degrees out and I probably had more sleep. I slept on the couch through the middle of the day and then all of a sudden, it was 4:30 PM. Girlchild is coming tonight. I need to deal with her room, the compostable trash, and dinner. It’s fine. I’m fine. I’m annoyed by the compression bandage (who wouldn’t be?)…it’s uncomfortable and hot and itchy. That said, they found a thing they didn’t like and now they have sampled it and hopefully it is nothing and if it is something, then that boob will get a second scar, and it’s a good thing I didn’t get around to tattooing the first one, because they will be dueling scars. SIGH. Fucking huge sigh. Science is good. Really. Also, I found the acetaminophen (yeah, I knew I spelled that wrong, flipped the a and the o)…so pain relief! Well, no, because honestly, aceta…fuck…Tylenol doesn’t do much for me. Tomorrow! I can remove the 17 Ace bandages and take real meds.
So. Art. I have two openings this weekend, which is awesome. I posted about Infinite Rivers down in San Ysidro before; I will be at that opening (5-7 PM), and I know I’ve mentioned the Lubeznik show, Women to the Front: Artworks from the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Collection, but they sent installation pictures…so here’s those.
There’s my piece The Way Out in the center. And there it is again.
This is an amazing show.
Lots of cool people in there.
More installation photos…
Another one…
Another one…
And another…
More…
Looks like an awesome show. Wish I could check it out. Couldn’t figure out how to get there and see it without spending a million bucks, plus I had the residency and the other opening.
I finally finished tracing…
It was 17 1/2 hours total…
Bowie is so not helpful…it’s 4 yards…
Time to trim. Obviously not getting to the ironing before I go on the residency.
I finished making this a solid rectangle.
I’m not sure how I feel about it…I think I will be embroidering it. Words I think. It needs a good solid ironing too. Maybe tonight.
Maybe something about this idiot.
Maybe I’m confused by why you would need to advertise the baby, put the baby in a vehicle that has so many recalls, drive such an ugly stupid vehicle and then put this ugly stupid sticker on it? Ah well, they probably feel the same about my bird-poop-covered car with its National Park stickers.
This is too real. I have a piece of wall in the hallway that’s needed to be painted for over a year. I thought I had bought a roller for it but can’t find it…so I bought another one.
Sigh. But haven’t painted it yet (just bought the new roller yesterday though).
This is mind-boggling…
My Medicaid household member has a workers’ comp back injury. How is that gonna work? Are they going to drive him to wherever he needs to work? Are there farmers near here for that? Are they going to house the babies, children, and elderly who will be doing that work? The disabled? Absolutely so insensitive and idiotic.
Luna has toe beans to show you…
The heat takes it out of the animals too…
Poor Simba. His boy is gone again. No long-term fires yet though. Knock on wood. There was one down here, heard all the helicopters and sirens and got all the warnings on multiple phone apps. It’s under control now…stopped forward progress. It was heading for one of our local hiking spots. Gotta stop it (also houses, so there’s that).
OK. I usually would now tell you all the things I’m going to do today. I am feeling more human finally, although ready to rip these Ace bandages off…ugh. I might get some fabric pulls together for next week. I might read my book some more. I might drink more tea. Feed the dog, deal with trash, make dinner, go get girlchild. Oh shit, finish cleaning up her room. Gonna go do that now. So out of it…
I really hate my ironing board. I would like a new one, one that doesn’t have sharp metal feet that grab my toes. One that is stable and doesn’t threaten to fall over. That said, when I’ve tried to find ironing boards in the past, they’re even more tippy and unstable than this one…this one was my grandmother’s, I think. It’s ancient. I put a heavy board on top that I use for ironing quilts together, because I need a larger space. At the moment, I have to move it around a lot because I’ve been trying to clean up in here and it’s problematic…I can’t put fabric on one shelf where it used to be, because one of two cats keeps peeing on it. I’m pretty sure it’s the old lady, but it might be the teenaged boy…they regularly are vying over the space. Probably the old lady. I even had piled some towels up that I was using to cover the fabric bins there, and then she peed on those. So. Yeah. I’m having to store bins on the floor and this room is not very big anyway…with two desks, a table, three bookshelves, a computer, a sewing machine, and all my fabric (well, not really ALL my fabric…that’s funny), it’s just crowded. The ironing board is always open and I move it around for what/where I need to use it. And every time I search for a new one, I get sidetracked by options and reviews and can’t make a decision. Because there isn’t an ironing board store I can go to and look at them (OMG I am old), so I have to do it all online, and the thought of trying to return an ironing board makes me break out in hives. So there’s that. But we might be there.
So the stupid stuff, eh? Overwhelming. But I could focus on the big fat ugly bill or Alligator Alcatraz and why we think it’s OK to treat HUMANS that way or the campers missing in Texas after the floods (look! God took the white Christian girls! See, it’s not any better, is it? It doesn’t matter what the kids look like or where they come from…it’s not OK.). Sigh. Certainly didn’t do much celebrating yesterday. My country is broken. OK, it always was broken. Now it’s just more in your face about it. So I’m trying to live my tiny life in the middle of all that. Plus this week, the Man will hear about a job (yes please) and I have a biopsy (ugh) and the girlchild is coming to visit (yay) and I need to pack for my residency (yikes). It’s not the chillest week in the world. My response to that is to read more books. And try to clean and fix more things. With the help of the Ex, the sprinklers are now back up and running. I tried but there needed to be more things fixed than the one I did (it was a valve). The two sprinklers that really weren’t working were totally corroded inside (ah, hard water)…so replacing those (and blowing all the dirt through the system) helped immensely.
This was a big achievement. I’ve had this on my list for months. I replaced one thing and then nothing worked. Sigh. I tried to patch the gap on the deck too, but I couldn’t get the caulk to move. Might just be too old? Frustrating though. So I think I’m going to Home Depot later. Fun times. I ran some errands on Thursday (waited until rush hour like an idiot) and ran into a former student, a not-pleasant reminder of him. I had totally blocked him and his entitlement and his annoying parents (mom mostly) from my mind, and now I need to reblock him. It’s OK. He’s a kid. Even as an adult, I won’t need to deal with him…and maybe he’ll get a clue by then. He’s smart, just spoiled.
So artwise, I’ve been sort of efficient. I’ve made it to the ceramics studio more times than usual, which is good.
A bunch of stuff fell/broke (I think it gets bumped on the shelf) and I had to fix a lot, but I got the greens done. Went back yesterday and reattached and reglazed stuff that broke, but that damn hand broke off again.
I’m close though. Almost there. Honestly, it’s glazed except for the flagpole and reglazing all the broken stuff.
I just need to finish it and get it in the kiln. Like this week. Hopefully.
I pinbasted my Sue Spargo Folk Tails, which has been done since 2020? I think? Seriously.
Mostly I hadn’t done it yet because I wanted to finish the bird one first (the bigger one) before stashing a bunch of safety pins in something that would just sit in a pile for a while. It’s a challenge to quilt this…mostly because I need to go AROUND everything. Not hard, just a pain. So it’s next on my list to finish this summer. But before I do that, I’m trying to piece together the improv piece I did on Zoom with Irene Roderick…
It’s all these random shapes that need to fit together, and then I need to make it into a rectangle shape. So I worked on that yesterday. I have it all in three pieces at the moment, with a freaking Y seam (not the first). Almost there. This is so not my style, and I realized at Quilt National that all the Irene people’s quilts look similar, so I’m deciding how to make it mine. I’m trying to finish this so I can take the design board on my residency next week. Whatever gets it done, right? I could probably finish putting the top together today.
Then I cut out all the wool/cotton bits for the side borders of Homegrown (another Spargo…yeah, I enjoy making them), pinned them on, and am slowly stitching them all down. I won’t get this one done in 2025. Bet.
The embroidery will take forever and then I’ll put it in a pile for a year or two before deciding to quilt it. Let’s be real. It’s not about the finished product; it’s totally about the making.
In art quilt news, I’m still tracing Wonder Under…
The dirt was a lot of big pieces, and then I had a bunch of little pieces that fit in between all those big pieces.
I tried a bund of people and then started tracing gravestones. Right when those dumbasses passed a bill kicking a ton of real live people off Medicare. Including one I live with…yeah, it won’t take effect until after the November elections, and hopefully he’ll have a job by then, but there’s a lot of people who can’t work or can’t find work. So we aren’t taking care of people any more unless they’re so rich they don’t really need to worry about it.
Last night, I made it into the low 600s…of 1366.
Not even halfway. I was hoping to be done with tracing today, but I would have had to be way more focused than I have been for that to happen. So maybe that’s the other thing I’m doing today. I’m still only on the second yard of Wonder Under…lots of small pieces to drive me nuts later.
My little quilt made it to my SIL for her birthday.
I love the location.
I lost the dog in the ferns…he likes to pee in there.
Really, this is yet another part of the yard I need to control. Ha! This yard is beyond my ability. I’d need a gardener and even then…
I found these guys (screamed a little because a bunch were on my shirt) while trimming shit.
They become some kind of beetle. But for now, they are in the greenery trash can.
I saw this…and yes, I feel like I need that but also, no I’m not doing that.
I’m putting it here for when I’m really old and retired and maybe bored (will I ever be bored?). That dissociative state is looking nice.
Although honestly, making art helps with that. And it’s too hot for sweatpants, but the other night, I found myself tracing Wonder Under with shorts and a tank top on, but also fuzzy socks, because my feet were cold. Love old body. It’s so inconsistent.
This.
So frustrating. Incredibly.
Simba after three hours of fireworks on THURSDAY night (not even the 4th, y’all). He barked the entire time. And I was tracing stuff, so I wasn’t making him feel safe.
Last night, he was better…only a little. Mostly because the boychild was back. For how long? We never know. His sister is coming to visit, so if previous years are anything to go by, he’ll be sent to some fire this week.
This is amazing. This is Liberty Bleeds by Niki McQueen.
I wish I had enough wall space for her work (it’s available as posters to benefit the ACLU)…it reminds me of my own stuff, the cutting open part.
I think Nova is the big softie that both Luna and Bowie turn to for love and safety.
Luna is so paranoid. And it’s hot, so it’s funny when they curl up together, because I’m like, don’t fucking touch me, it’s hot. And yet there’s always a cat or a dog (or both) next to me.
This is always true.
So yeah. I think I already decided I’m piecing things and tracing things today. The Man has a show tonight downtown, so I’m probably riding the trolley down and then getting a ride back. Their regular lead singer has ‘quit’ (we hope not permanently), so they’re borrowing a singer from another band. Should be interesting. Luckily they are the opening band, so it’s not a midnight thing. I’m too old for that stuff? That’s a lie; I happily stay up past midnight doing art things. I just don’t like mornings. My goal for the week? Be chill. Stay chill. Make the things. Find the supplies for next week. So excited for next week. Meal planning now. And making sure I have materials. I don’t want to get up there and realize I need one chemical I left at home. Inevitably I will forget something though. Truth. 33 days until school. I can’t find a countdown timer that works with the iphone widget or whatever they’re calling it now. Frustrating. That and the ironing board problem are an issue for another day though. Right now, I need to eat, shower, and do some stuff that refills the cup. Or something. Finds the spoons.
Ooof. Well I am starting to function. Maybe. I was at ceramics yesterday and it was busy and I had forgotten my headphones, so I couldn’t completely dissociate, plus whenever there are people there, they always want to talk about my piece, which is taking FOREVER. I’m getting closer to done with the upper torso piece though. Lots of underglazing, because everything has to be painted three times for good coverage. It takes forever. And I’m not that great a painter, so I have to clean up a lot of the fussy little stuff.
Yesterday, I started with all the things that I thought would be white, moved into gray, then blue, then had to touch up red because of all that. Today, I think I’ll finish those two guys on the right arm and maybe move onto green? We’ll see.
And I broke the hand off again, then two fingers. It’s just very fragile at the moment.
I’ve been drawing every night, trying to get this thing to where I want it. Which I don’t know where that is, so that’s part of the problem. I’ve been penciling stuff in most of the time, because of overlaps and not being sure how things will fit together.
That flag has some tiny pieces in it. There’s some inking or embroidery that’s going to need to happen.
Definitely put the ICE agents in a swamp of their own making. Added some stuff up above.
The sky and the dirt are my current hold ups.
Although less dirt now.
Getting closer. So many pieces though. It wouldn’t be a summer quilt if it didn’t have a lot of pieces.
I’m still cleaning the office, sorting through stuff, trying to finish things. I’m trying to get all the flowers appliqued onto the outer borders…
Not even halfway. But closer than I was. It’s just time-consuming, but not in a bad way. I pretty much only work on it when I’m on a Zoom call or when I’m done with dinner and watching one show with the Man. Hence the slow. I am close to needing to trace and cut out the two side borders worth of flowers. That’s progress.
Bowie keeps coming in the office to harass the old lady, but also to sit in the window.
He’s alternately a sweetheart and a teenaged terror.
There is a constant fight for the space on my left thigh…
It’s popular. Nova left (fear!) and Simba took over.
OK. Today is Friday. I will be back at ceramics this afternoon. I finally found the busy time schedule (there’s times when the lower cost level of member can come in…and it’s more busy because of that), so I’ll be avoiding those days/times if I can. I’m hoping to get this glazing done in the next week so I can get it fired. I might need to build it a base though, and then that would have to dry too. Hmmm. Should have asked for more clay yesterday. Oh well. I’m also applying for a real cohort-based residency for next summer. I was a little wiffly waffly about it until I watched the video of their application process and heard more about the space and the insights from the people who have gone…and now I really want to go, but it’s complicated. It’s not close and the timing is hard with school, which is always the issue. But I’m applying today. I am. So that means writing well-thought-out answers to questions. Ha! Maybe shouldn’t do that? Sigh. I entered a show yesterday and messed up the file names, so I have an email in for that. Sigh. Stupid. Didn’t read the fine print. Ah well, it’s a pretty easy fix, so there’s that. And the boychild is home…didn’t get sent to a big fire somewhere…yet. I’m sure it’s coming. Let Simba appreciate him for a few days more. It’s all good.
Hey. It’s summer and the weather is still nice, not oppressive. I’m still exhausted. Doesn’t help that I had to be up early today to take the dog in for his teeth cleaning. I keep trying to sleep in. Doesn’t work. I managed to get most of the office cleaned up, packed up and delivered two quilts to San Ysidro for a show opening July 12 (you should come…yeah, I know it’s a long way, but you should come anyway). I still have fabric that doesn’t have a home in the office. Maybe I should focus on that? I’ve scheduled 70,000 things, talked to a diabetes nurse about why my blood sugar is an asshole, and read way too many books. Is there such a thing as too many? I’m still pretty braindead, despite being out of school for a week now. I’ll get there. I’m just NOT there yet.
I haven’t been able to draw anything the last couple of nights…mostly getting dinner late and then it’s 10:30 and then it’s midnight, and I don’t even know what happened (see note about braindead). I did put the bindings on Sue Spargo’s Chirp quilt.
And sleeves. I found some fabric that had been in a plastic bin on the desk I use as a sewing table since the girlchild was in high school…it’s faded in a few spots, and it had a bunch of cat hair embedded in it, from when Midnight lived on it…or Babygirl? Not sure which cat lived in that box. But I washed it and the other stuff in there, recycled bits, stashed the rest. Got rid of the damn bin! There’s a lot of stuff in the sewing room/office/studio (it gets called all those things) that I literally do not know with what to do. Random shapes of cutting rulers. I don’t piece. I really only need the two I use all the time. I tossed some stuff. I had gone shopping for thread, now that Joann is gone (the store, not some woman), and I found three large spools of thread I can use in the bobbin for the next three years, if I can figure out how to set up the stand for them. Mooommmm!
So I need to do all the handsewing of the binding. I got about halfway through it last night. This is not a large quilt. I do have one more wool quilt that needs quilting. It’s bigger and way more complicated. I’m not there yet.
Last night, I spent 2+ hours at a school board meeting…this is the third they’ve held on the same issue, and they tabled it again. I get why, but jesus. I stitched through most of it.
This is a complicated block. Part of Rooted. Fun trees. It’s very portable, unlike Homegrown, which is the whole quilt at the moment. Sewing wool in summer is not ideal. But it works for braindead…and school board meetings.
No ceramics since Monday…maybe tomorrow. I’m worried about the pup at the moment. He had some weird bloodwork come back and then they called me and asked if he could have been exposed to rodenticide (um no?). So I’ll just feel better when he’s home in a few hours. This was the look on his face when he realized I really wasn’t giving him breakfast this morning.
Sorry!
I also put away like 10 quilts or more in the girlchild’s room and my own. Had to find one of the quilts to deliver today, which meant unrolling one giant roll, putting another quilt in it, and manhandling it all back together. Then a bunch of smaller ones went in three other rolls. I still have four (?) on her bed…three don’t have an official home yet. I’m waiting on one to see if it gets into a show. One of them is supposed to go in a roll that’s up in my closet. I figured after asking the Man (who is injured) to lift up and down two other rolls, I wasn’t going to do the third. I’ll do that today maybe. I figure once I get them all put away, I’ll get into something and need to pull stuff out…but I think that would happen after the girlchild visits, so we’ll be OK. She’ll be here in two weeks. Looking forward to it…figure the boychild will be gone on a fire strike team by then. He keeps getting called out and canceled to local fires. Which is good! We don’t want big fires that need strike teams. Well, I don’t. Fire crews get bored apparently.
OK. So put away the last four quilts, which means pulling that roll down. Eat lunch. Read my book. Draw some. Pick up the dog. Go to pilates. Totally not in that order. Stitch some binding. Doesn’t sound hard. Oh yeah, need to finish filling two greenery trashcans so I can put them out tonight. They’re both mostly full, so just some more sweeping and trimming and then manhandling those damn cans out to the front. See, I have a plan! Even though I’m running late on everything. My version of late anyway.
Uh huh. Twelve days. Unfortunately, two full 5-day weeks, which sounds hard, because it is at this stage. Trying to grade everything, do awards, get ready to teach sex ed, we don’t have the right number of packets of anything and it’s all talking, all the time. Still recovering from food poisoning, thought I was fine, then Saturday kicked my butt. It’s fine. I’m just getting through it all a bit at a time, but I spent probably 4 straight hours Sunday afternoon doing just that. No clay, no nothing. I’m tired of that shit.
I did make art, not a lot, just a bit. I ironed the smaller piece together, with the help of Annie on my feet…
Dogsitting weekend. Almost wrote dogshitting. Still valid.
Small pieces go together quite quickly.
Saturday night, after being mostly off for hours in the afternoon, I stitched it down.
Sunday, I sandwiched, pinbasted, and started quilting…
I also stitched this down…
My SIL claimed it back in November and I promptly lost it for a few months. Found it! Not sure how I’m finishing it yet.
Way too many animals here this weekend. Both dogs helping me read my book Friday afternoon after a very long day of 45 egg drops and a principal meeting.
Sigh. I don’t really want the new principal who’s coming. He doesn’t have great reviews. Ah well. Should be a shitshow of a year.
We had Annie because her daddy was coaching soccer up north.
She has mellowed out. She’s also scared of cats and we have four of them.
And sometimes they like each other.
Boychild was at a fire and gone an extra day for that…
So Simba barked nonstop and the Man and I sent memes about dogs barking back and forth.
Totally Simba.
And when Simba gets going, Annie sometimes joins in, mostly out of nervousness of being left out, I think.
Survived the egg drops, although many eggs did not.
It seems anathema to sacrifice so many scrambled egg breakfasts in the name of science, but we did. It was good.
Happy Pride Month!!!
Maybe I’ll get my flag up this month. Might need an assist on that.
This is my answer to my local school board about everything.
Also that last bit, louder for those chatting in the back.
Want some owl video?
There’s definitely a baby. I hope there’s more. Even if they’re loud.
Yeah. The next quilt isn’t fully in my head yet. Not surprising, considering all the juggling and balancing going on right now. Two Zooms (emergencies!) just popped up in my email last night. Sigh.
Yup. That’s what I do. In rainbow colors (not just Pride…all the time).
OK. Teaching the first day of sex ed, where we talk about nothing. Fun stuff. Then a two-hour staff meeting where we might meet the new principal who we’ve already vetted with all our friends who work at the school where he’s not allowed back. No joke. It’s been a good run, y’all. I’ve had decent principals for about 13 years or so. I guess its’ time. OR. Maybe he learned his lesson after the last one, will turn over a new leaf? What are the odds. THEN, I get to be on an emergency Zoom while driving to drop art off downtown, because, yes, I got into the library show. It opens June 21, Saturday, from 12-2. I think I have a dentist appointment right before that, so I will be running late. Ah well. At least I got in. Then maybe I can come home after all that. Not sure when clay is happening. Tomorrow? Ugh. Midnight? Maybe.
Kathy Nida 