Midweek. Testing week. Warm week. Lots is going on. Science state testing. Science department interviews. Juggling doc appointments. Trying to fit everything in. Crazy to even try, right?
OK, I underglazed the heart for the ceramic sculpture I’m working on.
I still need to finish decorating the arms and then underglaze the torso, then get started on the head. There’s still nowhere to dry the torso, which is part of my problem. I might need to finish it before starting the head. Problematic. I have a neck sitting on the torso and am trying to keep it from drying out.
Meanwhile, I’m tracing the newest quilt…
It’s going well except for the part where Scribble tries to dive under it or sit on it and tore the drawing in three places.
Last night, I seemed to be able to persuade her to stare at geckos and attack her brother instead. Hopeful. Made it into the 200s last night. I’m going to be here for a while…1200 more pieces, to be exact. Also I’ve found at least 5 pieces so far that weren’t numbered, so I’m thriving. Really.
So I’m working on that every night, thank goodness, because it’s meditative and I need that.
The owls babies are all out and flying around the neighborhood, although there seems to be one that is always on the box. But I think there are three now. So check these videos out.
Definitely three…just don’t know if one is mom. I don’t think so.
Apparently they go to bed at about 5:30 AM.
So cool. Anyway, I have to run a short union meeting this morning. We have state science testing. The kids leave early. We get to go out to lunch, and then grade, and then interview. I have pilates. And more grading. And then tracing. It’s going OK, but I feel like I don’t get anything else done but that. So I might have to water some things and plant some seeds and weed a little. Also, I’m not sure the boychild is coming home today. Don’t tell the dog. Fires abound. It’s only May. Not enough rain. Focus on the owls, though. They’re pretty cool. I like to think I’m helping the barn owl population in my area. Which helps limit the gopher/rat population. Also good.
I’m supposed to be dressing like the 80s today…you know, neon, leg warmers, big hair…but I didn’t dress like that in the 80s. I was thrift shop, sewed it myself, leaning toward suburban punk. I don’t own 80s wear. So I’m wearing a Keith Haring shirt to commemorate all those who died of AIDS in the 80s…also wearing red, to protest my school district’s refusal to bargain. Fun day. They’re doing a Field Day instead of a staff meeting, because apparently we’re stressed and very busy and competition helps with that. The end of school is always such a crazy mess…this isn’t helping.
I dropped three quilts off for photography yesterday. I’m entering a show with them; we’ll see if they get in. I started tracing the next big one onto Wonder Under, but before I did that, I traced this little one that needs to go in a ceramic piece.
It won’t take long to make this little one.
I finished drawing the new big one Friday night…
I think I actually added stuff after this…
Oh yeah, a crow or two and some body bags.
I numbered it Saturday night…I thought it was around 1300 pieces, but no.
1454 pieces, assuming I didn’t miss any or double number things. I’ve done both.
Last night, I started tracing…
Exciting for Scribble apparently. I had to move her off the Wonder Under a few thousand times.
Barely started. A million pieces to go.
My piece for Soul Stories: Threads of Existence is at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. It’s been there since mid-April, but they had the ‘opening’ this last weekend.
Mine is the blue one on the left. There’s some amazing work in this show. It will travel to Birmingham, England, in August.
Besides art, I ran a lot of errands this weekend. Fun times. Shit that needs to happen. Some of it was fabric-related. I did finally start stitching the border flowers on Sue Spargo’s Homegrown. It’s all sewn together, so it’s big and not great for taking to meetings.
It’ll take me a while to finish this.
The little dog and I hiked on Saturday. The weather was lovely.
The rattlesnake was not. It didn’t even warn us until after it had moved back into the brush.
I did pick up the dog. His eyesight isn’t great and I didn’t want him lunging after the snake anyway.
The baby owls are out and flying around the neighborhood (sorry for the noise, y’all).
Much faster getting out and about than last year’s only, who hung around for weeks. I think this is still their homebase though.
I obsessively check the weather where my residency will be. Not sure why. Planning anxiety. I did order a bunch of stuff for the trip over the weekend. But look at the 15th.
Somewhat disturbing. Otherwise, the weather is not a lot different than here a lot of the time. A little colder, but it’s over 4000 feet in elevation. So that’s why. Summer will be warm.
Simba is irritable that Bowie is in his spot. Bowie is actually in MY spot and I am in Simba’s spot.
Whatever works.
Here’s a plan for the day…and the world apparently.
And here’s another way-too-real message…
Followed by this one, for San Diego and the rest of the world.
Way too real.
OK. Today. Teaching the last of evolution before the state science test on Wednesday (math is tomorrow). Then I’m probably missing the field day for an eye checkup. Still getting flashing lights in the right eye, over a year after vitreous humor detached. Then hopefully ceramics? And some stitching and grading (not in that order) and tracing. Getting close to the end of this year…that’s a good thing. They don’t seem to be getting easier. The adult part…the kids are fine (well, as fine as they’ve ever been…they should put their phones down more often). Gonna need more caffeine to get through it all.
Hey. It’s Friday again. It is a taco cart day (teacher appreciation is all about food…although I think we also get a sweatshirt…woo). It’s also an assembly day, which means we end with an hour of noise and nowhere to sit and did I say noise? Short classes all day; pros and cons to that. State science testing is next week, so I have two days left to impart all the knowledge. It won’t all happen, thanks to my school board getting us sued. Fun stuff. I’ll be handing out flyers to elect new school board members…these two are useless. So I can’t say I’m looking forward to the crazy that is today, but it could be worse. This unit is almost done. I’m not sure how much they got out of it…I wish I’d had another two weeks (oh wait, that’s how long the sex ed unit I had to move to before testing was). But oh well. Is it the end of the world? No. Do I want kids to look at the test and think, ‘no one ever taught me this’? No, but they will think that anyway, even if we DID teach it to them. So there’s only so much I can do.
Artwise, I’ve been drawing every night…
I did more on the top; it might be done? I’m not thrilled with the empty space above her head, but I’ll think about it, let it percolate. This ended with this happening…
Bowie tries to bully the girl cats, but Scribble turned around, bopped him, and chased him away. Just makes it hard to draw.
Last night was more chill…
I started working on the bottom, about redistricting and voting. I’m incredibly disheartened by the redistricting stuff in the South. This country, all those stupid white people, I’m just boggled. Rich white people. Throwing a maternal health conference and ignoring the maternal health of black women. FFS people. And losing even more representation in government…we haven’t taken a step back…we’ve fallen into a racist misogynist pit of the past. The vaccine stuff too, and the Vitamin K shots. WTF is wrong with people? So I’m not sure I can coherently get all my feelings about that into one quilt, but apparently I’m trying. It’s funny, though…I was really trying in the original drawing to find peace before school started last year, to draw something that wasn’t all politics and government (well, except for her head being on fire), and I’m not making that quilt any more.
I’m also thinking about 2027 residencies. I had heard about one that a fellow artist was going on and just got the prospectus…$9K??? Are you fucking kidding me? For two weeks. Yes, it’s cool and all, but I guess you have to be a rich artist to go. Not doing that one. Mine this year is free, except I have to pay for food and getting there. Not bad. It would be nice to have a stipend too to cover those extra costs, but we always go on some vacation each year and we’re doing that on the way up, and I would have to pay for food anyway. So it works out. Sort of. Mostly. Having to come up with extra money in the summer is always difficult (no, I don’t get paid in the summer), but I think I might be OK this year. We’ll see.
I did a little squirrel work last night.
We were supposed to have a stitching meeting, but we’re down to three of us and one is in Sicily or Italy or both and I’m tired and the other doesn’t like the drive, so we skipped. It’s hard meeting at night sometimes. We should work on some alternate times/spaces. In my spare time.
Ah yes, those damn files. They’re probably gonna be in the quilt too. Forcing women to have babies they don’t want…seems idiotic. Oh, also not helping them financially with said babies. Also stupid. I love returning back to the Dark Ages of women’s rights. And voting rights.
The baby owls are out of the box…there’s definitely two, maybe three (one keeps squawking from further away).
The lighter one is at 5:30 AM, which might be why I feel like I’m not sleeping. They are not quiet.
OK. Teaching something today…the end of the evolution unit. DNA? More rock layer stuff? Then an assembly. Then duty after school. Then ceramics! Yay! I got someone to take the afterschool meeting besides ME. Then unfortunately I have to cook dinner. I’m hoping to get my quilts photographed this weekend, but my photographer hasn’t answered. Also we’re going mattress shopping. Not sure how that’s gonna go. I will probably finish the drawing this weekend though and maybe start numbering it. That’s cool. Or crazy. Depending on how you look at it.
I woke up at 1 AM out of a deep sleep, heart pounding, dog growling, as the two adult barn owls screeched a threat call. I wouldn’t ignore that if I were another animal. I don’t know what was out there, but I do know the babies were back to squawking away within 20 minutes, so it must have been OK. Scared me though…and the dog. Maybe a barn owl needs to make it into this quilt too.
So this new quilt comes from a drawing from last summer, which I did at the first all-staff meeting (before kids showed up). They wouldn’t let us have our computers open and they literally read to us from the slides, so I drew. I had copied the drawing back in December or January, but got sidetracked by other things that needed to be done. Originally, I was just going to make it into a quilt, just the drawing, but the world impinges on that, so I added paper above and below, and started drawing a couple nights ago.
Yes, Scribble is lying on the part I was drawing on. Why do you ask? I got some stuff roughed out in pencil…
And last night, I inked that and added more pencil…
And last night, while I was trying to fall asleep, I took notes on a couple more things that could go up here. And more down below. Although I am enjoying branching out into the dye paintings, there is a certain sense of relief about going back to how I ‘normally’ make quilts. My brain likes it.
I also drew, inked, and numbered a baby quilt drawing…
It’s taken me a year to do this, I think. It’s supposed to go in here…
And although it doesn’t look like it’s the right shape or size, I’ve shoved the paper in there and it works, plus I added an inch all the way around for marginal errors. So that’s on my list too.
Monday, I made it back to ceramics…and decided I didn’t need to attach the heart…I could just lay it on there.
It turned out bigger than I thought, which is funny, because I literally had the torso there in front of me when I made it.
I added some veins to the fabric piece, and then flowers to the arm.
We have these punch things, not sure what they’re actually for…cookies? I’ve used the leaves before. I was going to make flowers, but these were more fun.
I made three. I’m going to go back and texture the centers and add stems and leaves and maybe bugs.
Fun stuff.
I was trying to finish my book…
My lap charges a premium.
Our school is doing teacher appreciation week this week. Yesterday was nachos, but they weren’t ready during my prep. I was supposed to eat them during lunch, except I can’t usually substitute like that. Oh well.
But yeah. Give me back my time, show up outside, do the things, follow through…please.
I’m in. Although I can’t really eat ice cream unless we hike three miles in the forest first. Hopefully you’re up for that part too.
OK. Today I teach rock layers. It’s really hard: the rocks where fossils are found usually form in layers. It’s sedimentary rock. The oldest rocks are on the bottom, so if you find fossils down there, they are usually the oldest. The newest ones are on top. There, I’m done. Y’all, it will take all period and some kids will never get it. I’m doing the speedy version, not the fun one where I give them cards and they have to figure out the layers. The state science test is in a week. I’m panicking a little. Oh well. I started planning next year, in that, I made a copy of this year’s calendar and I’m changing all the dates and holidays. That’s it. That’s what I can handle at the moment. It’s fine.
After school is a union meeting. I’m already tired. Tired of meetings and kid drama and adult bullshit. I should start a new book (seriously, I finished that other one last night, so I’m allowed).
I woke up in the early morning and panicked because I didn’t know what day it was. Would I have to be up soon? Could I roll over and not worry about it? What was I going to have to do today? It took me a couple of minutes to reconstruct yesterday, to realize today was Monday. I didn’t reach for my phone to check the day or the time. I let my brain get there, but then wondered WTF I must have been dreaming to wake up in such a time panic. Guess that’s where I’m at.
Grades are due today. Or tomorrow. Not sure. They keep changing shit. I finished grades Saturday afternoon, right when my boss sent an email saying there was no staff meeting today (Monday) so we could finish grades. Sigh. Thanks for that. Also, IT scheduled a bunch of maintenance for Saturday morning the weekend grades were due. I suspect they scheduled it ages ago and the principals didn’t tell them that they moved the grades to a totally stupid date. Honestly, there are times when I wonder how my frustration will allow me to get through the next three years of stupid decisions at my job (not to mention stupid decisions at the government level).
In other news, I finished the green head quilt. Named it. Named the other one, the pink one. Calculated time. They take notionally less time than my normal method…the pink one maybe not…maybe the same. The time I take on a quilt is compounded by the number of pieces normally. I guess the amount of embroidery on these. I embroidered around the bombs on Friday night…
I finished those on Saturday and added sequins, as promised.
I remembered last night that someone had suggested a bead as an earring on this one. I might add that tonight. It’s not going to the photographer until later this week. I love that I’m using my beads and sequins from crazy quilting days.
OK, to be honest, I bought more sequins last year to go to Quilt Con, for one of my classes, and then they didn’t come in time, but I already had a few sequins here and there from CQ days, but now I have a LOT and will have to use them all. Really. I already pulled four more dye paintings I want to work on next.
That said, I need to start the next big quilt, because I have limited time this summer for that. I’m not taking a sewing machine to the residency. Too big, too expensive for when we’re driving up. Too heavy. I had a drawing I copied back in January that I wanted to do as a lighter quilt after a few heavy ones. It was a drawing I did last August that I really liked. I’m not even sure why I was drawing that day…I could probably look back through the blog and figure it out. But it’s not political at all. It’s just nature. And a person. It was filling space. Oh, you know, it was probably a staff meeting. Or something like that. Anyway, I taped it together last night…
I had to make paper balls of the trashed bits I cut off to entertain Scribble to keep her off the drawing as I was trying to tape it. Then I added to the top and bottom, because this is a pretty idyllic drawing (although her head is on fire?) and the world is really NOT idyllic right now, so I can’t just exist in that space. I’m not sure how I’m going to express that in this drawing, but I am. Somehow. Without just being wishful.
So much for distracting the cat.
I went to an author event Friday night to listen to Martha Wells talk about Murderbot and other stuff.
This is the look she is giving the guy asking her all the questions. She was interesting to listen to. And inspiring, if only in the way that she made me think I could finish the book I started writing over 10 years ago. Plus listening to authors talk about their books and their thought processes is interested.
Shockingly, I stitched while waiting for her to show up. Bowie was not there.
I got the top of the acorn done.
Pretty good achievement, if you ask me.
Bowie is kind of cross eyed.
I always wonder if that explains some of his behavior. He’s a little whack.
I hiked 3.33 miles on Saturday. Not on purpose.
I mean, I meant to hike…just not that number. I was hiking behind someone, not by choice, pretty much keeping time with them. And I realized they were just gonna keep going the way I normally go and so I veered off on another path. There aren’t a lot of people on this trail usually and it was a guy, and I’m female, so I’m naturally always paranoid about that. Anyway, I turned around at about 1.5 miles, like I normally do, and was heading back, and there he was, heading back, must have turned back at exactly the same 1.5 miles. Ugh. So I didn’t follow him because now I was way too close (he must have gone into the bushes to pee), so I turned right and went up to where I normally stop, then turned around and was way behind him, although there were some places where my naturally paranoid brain thought, you know, someone could hide in there and jump out at you and you’d be totally unprepared for it, but here I was, preparing for it. Love that for me.
Yeah, this.
There’s been too many people lately.
Also this shit. So fucking frustrating.
We tried to make things better, a little bit, because shit’s not OK, and the people in charge are just dicks. Ignoring the voters, because you know, it’s not a democracy or anything.
And a lot of other arrested honestly. And war to stop and people to stop being illegally detained and that big old fat orange guy…needs to be gone.
It isn’t often that a Pisces meme/comic actually refers to me (I am an atypical Pisces), but this one felt appropriate.
That’s where I’m at. Also, here’s a bunch of owl videos…it’s definitely crowded in the box because mom’s been out.
I’m hoping I remember how to make them all public.
Lots of loud baby activity.
Last one…
OK, today. Giving a test on homologous structures based on the posters kids did last week in groups. Test is not a group thing though. It’ll be interesting. Then no staff meeting. I’m done with grades. I have to stay on campus for an hour, so I’ll try to figure out the next unit because I know my co-teacher is probably NOT done with grades. Then ceramics and I need gas (ah, Costco line) and to go to the other store and buy the yogurt and milk my store was out of and then pick up the dog and eventually think about drawing on those big empty pieces of paper on the top and bottom of my drawing. Something about voting rights maybe and the Epstein files and birth control and all that crazy shit. Fun stuff.
Hey ho, why is there so short a time to write this morning? I guess I did things, and then I watched the squirrels running up and down the tree (they’re young ones, so they’re kinda funny about who goes first on the branch thing. But not sure how it got this late. Also I have no photos of said squirrels. Sorry.
So. The weekend. Seemed short. I did things, sure, but not very many things. I planted 5 things, 3 ceanothus (one that had been sitting in a pot for two years) and 2 milkweed. I weeded. I’m always weeding these days. I confirmed that my owl cam is dead (weather damage) and ordered a new one. I bought new deodorant! This is a big thing because I have to go to a different store than the grocery store and it takes me forever to get errands like that done these days. I was on a Zoom for two hours. I went to an art exhibit. I hiked only two miles because the dog wasn’t ready for the third mile. I did some art. I had a mammogram. Ouch. Hopefully no biopsy this year…knock on wood. They don’t find that shit in the squishy mammo…they find it in the MRI. So that’s in July, I think. Fun times.
Artwise, there’s finally progress, although it still doesn’t look like it (there’s three squirrel babies, by the way, and I am distracted). All photos with cat interference.
This was Saturday night…with Nova. I didn’t do anything Friday night because the Man had a show and we didn’t get home until midnight or so. I finished the pink though and then had to search through my stash for a good purple. That was chaotic because I pulled it from something I haven’t finished stitching yet and I have to remember where it goes when I’m done.
Now with Scribble. I have a few blue-green bits I need to go back and do and then I’m going to figure out what beads and/or sequins I’m going to use. There better be less cat interaction with those.
Friday night’s music stuff…
A friend had a 50th birthday party and the Man and his former singer did the last three songs of the night. They did actually sing and not just posture.
Saturday afternoon’s hike with the pup.
He’s old and gets tired easier.
The art exhibit is at Art Produce; it’s a protest show. This is Linda Litteral’s, one of her Don’t Shut Up pieces about childhood sexual abuse.
This is Nicholas Danger’s work,
Tool of the Trade (the machete) and The Orange Monster. The hat says ‘maggot’. Legit.
Back of the machete.
This is Michelle Montjoy’s Bluebird of Happiness.
She must embroider much faster than I do (yes, I know she didn’t do the birds).
We went to dinner afterwards and I was fascinated with the light on the brewery tanks.
Did you hear that San Diego wants to cut almost all funding to the arts and libraries? And give it to the cops instead?
Frustrating.
And ignorant of what the arts and libraries do for the community. Speak up! I don’t actually live in the city, but this will kill the arts in this county. And remember this.
You CAN do both.
I don’t think I had that. I had about 10 minutes when I realized I had planted and watered the 5 new things and then I realized how much more needed to happen and I only had an hour and spent most of it walking from one part of the yard to another with a shovel.
This is the reality.
Except I cleaned nothing; I only did yardwork. Well, I did do the grocery shopping and the laundry. And I made lists. And I graded, because I am always doing that. I also went to ceramics Friday night and I don’t think I took photos? Or did I? No one knows.
Finishing up teaching about pregnancy today, then preventing unplanned pregnancies, then staff meetings blech and finally ceramics, where hopefully I really will take a photo AND find room on the drying shelf for my piece so I can start the head and the owl. Ha! Hasn’t been space for weeks. Then home to dinner, grading (ugh), and more embroidery…woo hoo! That’s a plus.
Friday. Last Friday of Winter Break. I’ve been really out of it this break…not sure why, although I can blame some of it on being sick for the middle third and then feeling like I never caught up. I’m never ready to go back, so it’s a moot point to say it again, but here I am. In terms of classwork, I have one class of packets left to grade, one whole academic assignment, and two smaller one-class assignments. Plus I need a worksheet done by Thursday and my notes from December make no sense. So there’s that. Fun times. I might figure that out this weekend. Or not. I’m not really motivated to get ‘er done in terms of school, except to finish the grading because progress report grades are coming up. Soon. And I have this quilt to finish, plus the deck railings, which are taking forever to paint. It’s been wet and cold and nothing is drying until today, when it’s still cold, but there’s a breeze and that’s helping. So I have three coats plus primer on 3/4s of the sides and I need to do the other side. I was hoping this project would be done by this weekend, and that’s not happening. It never does. Seriously. DIY is torture. School feels the same way sometimes, and so does housecleaning.
I did manage to finish trimming all the Wonder Under; honestly, I finished the first large chunk of it in the first day, then the last little bit last night.
Scribble slept through most of it.
Then after I finished trimming last night, I sorted them all…
At this point, Scribble was less than helpful…she kept seeing shadows under the bins and shoving them apart to get to them.
Fun times. I managed to get it all sorted despite all that.
I also bought background fabric, so I’m hopefully ironing down to fabric starting tonight. The office is a bit of a mess, and I need to fix a pair of pants first, plus put away fabric from the last quilt and move some stuff out of the way so I can get to the fabric bins. But it’s not a lot to do. Hopefully I’ll finish ironing to fabric in the next week and start trimming. We’ll see how that goes with going back to school.
I went out to meet stitching friends last night…this one is almost done.
It’s the 9th tree in Sue Spargo’s Rooted, so the last of them. Plenty left to do on it.
You’d think when it’s this cold that all the cats would be curled up. This was only because Bowie wanted the blue blanket and me.
And Scribble was already there.
Babies sleep a lot.
Anyway. Next step in the quilt. Scribble tends to follow me, so presumably she’ll be in the office while I iron. She’s set herself up before in the sleep spot Kitten used to frequent.
I wish I had something insightful to say about the ICE shootings in the last few days, but it’s beyond me. I just finished an ICE-related quilt with a body bag in it, not because I can see the future, but because people had already died in ICE custody. This is heinous. It’s not law enforcement, it’s not making my world safer. My world is not safe at all, and I’m an old white lady. I can’t imagine the fear and anxiety being a person of color or someone in the middle of the immigration process must feel…I just know it’s wrong.
There are a lot of wrong things in the world right now…some of them have always been there, but we’ve made some attempt to make them better. And now that’s not even happening.
This one applies to so many things…
Back to vaccinations and health recommendations. So many idiots. So much not learning happening.
Anyway. If you like my work, odds are your brain is going through the same confused contortions mine is. With no solution in sight. So many lies. So much bad information. So disheartening.
It’s late in the day…I need to go buy some cat food and figure out where to get one skein of DMC floss. Then grade some stuff and clean some stuff so I can iron later. Read a bit. Eat something healthy…or not. Resign myself to going back to work in a few days. Fight for the time to have a life outside of my job. Go back to ceramics…it’s been two weeks since I’ve been there. Sucks. Work on getting the gym back into my selfcare regime. HAVE a selfcare regime that isn’t just about cocooning in the house with sweats or pajamas on. OK, maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Hey there. I’m convinced Nature doesn’t want me to finish the DIY project I started Monday with the boychild. It poured this morning. I’m not sure it’s done pouring. I painted this morning. Fun times. It was lovely and sunny as I painted and then it was pouring. And then WordPress wants to charge me a million bucks for more storage. Did you know I’ve had a blog since 2004? And been on WordPress since I think 2014? Or something. There are things I can do, but they require time and brainpower. I’m debating things. Also, the last two months have been really expensive…nah, the last 6 months or so. I’m not ready to drop a shit ton of money this month. Or next month, to be honest. So it must be January…when all these things are in my head, plus grades are due in a couple of weeks (no, I haven’t finished grades) and I need to get this quilt done and I was sick for a week and now I stabbed my finger with a cactus spine and it hurts to type. It’s fine. Really. All of it. It will all get done. I don’t think I’ll finish painting today though. That’s a reality check.
OK, so I finished tracing Wonder Under pieces last night…
It took about 11 1/2 hours to trace it all.
Last night, Scribble woke up when I had about 30 pieces left and was quite insistent…at one point, putting her foot/claw through the Wonder Under as she realized it was not solid and she was over the edge of the light table. She caught herself on my hand.
In general, she’s not super bitey and scratchy, so that’s fine. And the hole is manageable…I’ve dealt with worse. So there’s the 4 1/2 yards of Wonder Under I now need to trim. Which I guess I have time to do with the wood needing to dry out again. Plus I’m not entirely sure it’s not going to rain again. Sigh. It’s progress at least.
My piece is still hanging at MOCA in Connecticut…
They posted this yesterday…
Which was cool.
This is not cool.
Whole milk and red meat. I guess it’s too much to hope that certain key politicians follow these guidelines as well as the vaccination schedules and succumb to the reality of that. Yeah. I thought so. I guess more people will have heart attacks. I do worry about the kids…I can’t understand why we wouldn’t want kids to have everything they need to survive. Mind-boggling.
Yes, I got my measles update. I have Hep A and B (I’m a teacher). I have all of them except the updated TDAP (sensitivity to the T part means I can’t get the DAP part). OK. Well. I’m going to get some painting done today…I got the first three sides of the primer on. Was about to flip it for the fourth side. Then I need probably three coats of actual paint. Looks like we’re installing Friday…so much for a quick job. Ha! I have some grading to do. And I can start trimming Wonder Under. I’m sure there are 78 other things I can do as well…I just don’t want to. Not shocking that. I go back to school on Monday and I will never ever be ready. It’s nothing new…happens every year. Get your shots, all. Eat healthy. Don’t let the brain worm take over. Read a book! Did you see the data that the majority of Americans didn’t even read one book last year? I read 120. I shouldn’t be making up for the rest of you. Go read a damn book (I know; my readership is probably not the problem).
Well. I just realized I haven’t written since 2025. OK, it’s only the 5th of January, but normally, I would have written on Friday…Friday was a shitshow. It’s fine. It was also the boychild’s 30th birthday, so in true son fashion, he disappeared and did his own thing. I love that for him…considering it for my birthday this year too. It was actually a health insurance issue, which in the end, worked out (well, apparently), which is better than all those sweet people trying to find affordable health insurance at the moment. It is one of the things our district does right…provide good insurance…although they keep threatening to make it cost more (it costs more every year almost, so it’s an empty threat). In general, though, the coverage is good. Except when they fuck it up…which is what happened on the 1st. Anyway, it made the day stressful for me, but eventually I got my meds and went to the knee doctor (good news…it’s not weak, it’s not ligaments…it’s just old. Still.). Back to physical therapy for me. Whoo. I’d rather do that than surgery, so there’s that. Anyway, I’ll blame all that and the remainder of this damn virus for making me forget to write. Saturday and Sunday were all about packing quilts up for the Virginia show, and then shipping them today.
In between all that, I’ve finished grading one whole assignment (only two to go…but both are big) and more importantly, finished the next drawing and started tracing. That’s been fun…tracing with a kitten in the house? Between Luna (attacker of paper) and Nova (eater of paper) a few years back and then Bowie (PARKOUR!), it’s been a bunch of kitten incursion into my artmaking over the last 5 years. Scribble is no different in her love of the process. So I wait for her to fall asleep…and then she wakes up anyway.
Here’s sometime last week, when I was still drawing…some cat (probably Nova) took a bit out of the drawing.
Scribble denied it. I have a system in which I cover the drawing when I’m not actually working on it so no cats can attack, tear, or eat it. Because they’ve done all those things.
Still drawing…this is last Wednesday night…so the same day as my last post. New Year’s Eve!
Everyone in the house but me went to bed early. I didn’t even make it to midnight, because flu. Thursday night, I finished drawing…
I have a size limit…and a time limit. It looks complicated (and it’s not NOT complicated), but not huge, so only about 760 pieces. I numbered it that night too…
About 6 1/2 hours to draw it, then another hour to number it. I think that night went past midnight…finally starting to feel well…ish.
I started tracing it on Friday night.
In this photo, Scribble is under the drawing. Makes it hard to trace.
That said, she’s not scratching, attacking, or eating it, like the other three did, so win-win situation here. Bowie is definitely tempted here.
He also knows now that it’s not allowed. I say that like it matters to him.
She’s cute. That might be what saves her. There’s Bowie, thinking about it again.
He definitely argues for equitable treatment. Sigh. Scribble is easier to pick up and move than the chonk Bowie though.
And she wanders off and plays with feathers in between.
Anyway, I’m more than halfway through the tracing. This one is on a super-tight deadline. I’d really like it traced in the next couple of nights. But also, I can’t just do this. The boychild and I are replacing the deck railing. We bought wood today and I spent a couple hours this afternoon trying to move planters for access. During COVID, I put up all these shelves and planters on the deck so I wouldn’t have to listen to/see my neighbors’ kids all the time. It’s gotten pretty overgrown. I accidentally broke two pots today; one was an Xmas gift, so I feel shitty about that. I still need to go back out there and deal with one shelf, a couple of pots, and an entire planter. I needed a break though.
Other stuff: we had a bunch of rain again and Simba doesn’t like to get wet. He has a raincoat. I’m not sure it helps, but he looks cute in it.
Scribble sleeps like a kitten.
Plays hard, zonks hard.
Then again, there’s been a lot of cat snarliness over that blue blanket.
Bowie covets it. Nova doesn’t care. I don’t know why none of them curl up with each other when it’s cold…except for the two sisters.
The boychild found a baby bird.
It’s a bushtit. We panicked a little and left it for mom…
It unfortunately did not make it and is now buried in the backyard.
I tried using Google Translate live to translate a video I was watching…not so effective sometimes.
Although maybe that is what she was saying (seems unlikely).
I find this amusing.
I tell it to fuck off constantly; same with Gemini. Like just go away. I’m using my brain now. Make Copilot clean the ceiling fan blades. I did that and wished I didn’t have to.
This is also too true. Damn US, the political bullshit in the last week has been nuts.
I’m not ignoring it. I’m just still processing the damn Epstein files. And the ACA. And Jack Smith. And now bombs? And kidnapping? I’m boggled. Also someone please tell Erika Kirk that we don’t need to do another round of Phyllis Schlafly. She was an idiot the first time around. Anyone who can’t see the parallels in this bullshit with Serena Joy in The Handmaid’s Tale? Either you want to stay home and be a freakin’ trad wife, or you want to have rights…you can’t have it both ways. Unless you want to be a feminist? I highly recommend it personally, but if you want the trad wife life, do it. Just don’t make the rest of us come along. We have brains that work too…and we want to do different things. Right now? I want to curl up on the couch and finish my book with a cat or two and a fire in the fireplace and a nice cup of tea. But no, I need to go finish hauling shit around on the deck and then probably stand and trace for a few hours after grading some shit. So there’s that.
Anyway. I’m thankful for a week that has mostly no plans (except the to-do list) and time to recover fully from the flu (I’m still coughing up a lungful of mucus) before I have to go back to the crazy. Although if the rest of the country could ramp the crazy down a bit, I’d appreciate that too.
Well hello, last day of the year. I am alive. Although still shaky on that front. Not really. Just not feeling 100% yet. Although I managed a pilates class today, plus two whole stores! And a shower! That was fucking amazing. I should do that more often. No really, I (and the girlchild) came down with some coughing feverish extravaganza on Friday night that downed us…well, like I said, I’m mostly functional today, but felt exhausted by having to break the meat up for the lasagne sauce. Yesterday, it was the walk down the driveway to the mailbox. I’m mostly upright today, but still need a rest…past the napping and fever though, but some coughing still pops up occasionally, mostly in the middle of the night, when I’m trying to sleep. Fun times. Got the old guy sick too, but mom, boychild, and ex seem unscathed. Trying to take it easy seems the best plan. Then Man overextended himself into another day on the couch earlier this week. It does seem like lost days, not getting anything done (because it is)…but I read three books? So that’s something? And slept a lot. And communed with cats and dogs.
Good Scribble, keeping mommy warm. Or maybe it’s the other way around.
I did start drawing a little on Sunday…or maybe Friday. I’m not sure. The days are a bit blurry.
Oh yeah, that was Friday. Then there was a massive blur of time on the couch in pajamas and some crazy stuff like going to get my labs done (shocker, my white blood cell count is low). You know, I had a damn flu shot. Fucking RFK and his minions.
Monday night, I inked a little and then had to lie down again.
This was in two batches on Tuesday. More standing, but then got nauseous. Nauseated. Yup. That.
Gonna do more tonight. Don’t know if I’ll finish, but it’s raining here and we don’t go out on NYE unless we have to (and we don’t), so the lasagna sauce is simmering, my drawing is waiting for me, and the Man might let us watch something that’s not just his choice (hard to say; he’s definitely still recovering but went to work yesterday for a half day).
Look, it’s Scribble on my lap again!
I always feel so bad when I have to stand up to do whatever. I mean, nothing is as important as being a cat couch, right?
Poor dinos get their extinction blamed on everything, don’t they? The poster in my room blames their not reading.
Seems fair.
Trying not to think about this…because I haven’t done much of it. I was doing OK and then the plague happened.
Fun times. I had to redo my year in books for Goodreads…they calculated it 5 days ago, before the plague forced me to finish four more books.
Forced me. Ha. I don’t think I’ll be finishing one tonight, so that’s it. Not bad. The most pages I’ve ever read while documenting on Goodreads. Not that it means much…when I was a kid, I read a lot. It does make you wonder though…I read to escape. Maybe too much escaping this year? I managed to make 6 full-size quilts too though, which is one of the other things I look at for sanity. So yeah, 2026…ugh. Please make us healthier, let us read and make art as needed, cut back on the day-job crazies, make the home life smooth and lacking major repairs (I already know that’s fucked). And all the best to y’all as well. May you have the equivalent for you of a good book and a warm kitten (oh wait, here’s where I admit that three of those four books weren’t that great). Ha! Happy New Year…if that works for you. If not, I suggest tucking into bed early with a nice meditation recording and hopeful thoughts.
Kathy Nida 