Fastly Better…

Whoaaa. Yeah. Morning feels. I tried to catch up on some sleep this weekend. I’ve had to take some allergy meds to try to deal with the reaction I had to adhesive tape on my knee, and the ones that aren’t supposed to make one drowsy do apparently make a small percentage of people drowsy. You know whenever you read that a small percentage of people will have a certain reaction? It’s me. Often. It really is. I’m the one in a million on many meds, and it is truly annoying. I finally went to urgent care on Saturday afternoon, because the next doctor’s appointment I could get was March 9 and she wouldn’t do anything without seeing the rash. My doc is popular? Yeah or medical clinics are short-staffed. Everyone is short-staffed. Where are all the people who used to work those jobs? If they’re all in Tahiti on a beach, I’m jealous. Hopefully they are pursuing their dream of a teahouse in the mountains somewhere or hiking the Andes or counting penguins in Chile or something. If they’re just sitting at home watching Netflix, sigh. Whatever. I can’t control all that. I can’t even always control my irritation with trying to make a doctor’s appointment for something that’s keeping me up at night.

Ironically, even after urgent care (which was helpful: new allergy med that has not been making me drowsy but isn’t as strong), the cream I needed for the rash would not be available until today. Of course. So I’ve made it through two more nights of not-quite sleep, trying not to rip the skin of my leg. It’s fine. It is slowly better. I would like it to be fastly better.

This weekend went by too fast. My right eyelid is twitching like crazy still. Maybe worse. I did get in about 4 hours of ironing though…more would’ve been nice, but I needed to grade stuff…and grade stuff I did. Head above water, but only barely.

I ironed Friday night…

After going to Liberty Station for a closing reception. I ironed arteries and a rakunk, I think. A rakunk is a hybrid skunk-raccoon invented by Margaret Atwood.

Then Saturday night, it was a bunch of bugs…

DNA bugs, a cyber/robotic bug, and a regular bug. Because there will probably still be some regular bugs in the future. They seem to have a staying power that we can’t beat.

Then last night’s ironing…

More bugs and some slime things grown in a lab and some skull flowers. I like inventing things. I’m still deep down in the dirt though…getting close to ironing flesh, but not quite. I think I’m in the 300s still…no wait, nope, still in the 300s. This is gonna take a while. I’m OK with that. I enjoy this part. It’s fun. I average just under 10 hours a week on whatever art thing I’m working on. Most nights, it’s just an hour, but I did an hour and 20 minutes last night. I had less this weekend than I wanted because I started doing my taxes…out of fear, honestly. I need to know now if I will owe money. Ironically, I made more money on copyediting and selling quilts last year than I normally do, and there may not be enough deductions to help me. So I’m panicking a bit. I’m not done though. So there’s more stuff to do. Time-consuming for sure.

Friday night’s closing reception was for this show…

They’ll be up until the 24th…and then hopefully my two will be going to Grossmont’s Hyde Gallery. We’ll see.

We stopped by Visions Museum of Textile Art for the new shows hanging there. I didn’t make it to the opening day, but this was nice. There are four different exhibits…one with Alex Gano’s fascinating work…

It’s paper and fabric…very cool.

Then Jeanie Kashima’s work about the Topaz Internment Camp, where she was born.

Ree Nancarrow’s environmental work…

This shows the changes in the environment at this tundra pond from left to right: lower water level, more sediment, supporting different plants and animals than before.

And then part of the Full Deck of quilt artists, which has been shown before, but is always enjoyable. Especially this one by Katherine Brainerd…

I also went to my quilt guild meeting and stitched a thumb and three fingers…

Finished up one science unit last week and already graded it. Finishing the other one tomorrow and will need to grade 18 roller coasters as well as the packets and academic stuff. Plus a makeup quiz that I finally got around to writing. Need to finish writing sound labs and get set up for magnets and chemistry labs this week. Exhausting trying to keep it all in my head. The car needs oil, I need the cream for the knee crap, that’s all after a 2-hour staff meeting today. I could do without that. Anyway, the taxes get done a little at a time; same with the art. I’m glad to have the art to keep me going. Wish I could do more of it.

Oh yeah, this…

I do climb on counters to reach stuff. I also often use a stepladder. I hate kitchen cupboards. I can’t reach things.

Also this…

Not sure what Steve did, but there we are.

OK. School. Prep labs for today. Get ready for stressed-out roller-coaster builders. Use my time wisely. All that.

Leaning into Bright and Crazy…

Ugh-a-rama. I did not go to the gym last night. Instead, I sat and read my book for 45 minutes. It’s quite good. Light from Uncommon Stars. You think it’s just a violin story until the aliens show up. I figured I earned it. This week has been exhausting. They all are. Barky dog at night though made it harder yesterday. He was better (slightly) last night. Then I graded for 2 1/2 hours (I did not earn that. I just have to do it.). I graded all the late and redone work from the last two weeks. It was a good thing, even though it was irritating to have to do that many more hours after I left school. It was only a 10.5+-hour day. I was standing in my room at 4-ish and couldn’t focus on anything, and one of my teacher friends was there, saying, hey, are you going home? I’m thinking, no, I should grade something, and I was so tired, so I didn’t. Came home, made cup of tea, read for a long while. THEN graded things.

It is Friday though. That’s good. I need a break from the stupid behaviors. In positive news, I had sent an email to the resource teacher for a bunch of my kids, and it resulted in those kids completing some work and their grades coming up. Yes! That’s what’s SUPPOSED to happen. For the first time in forever. So I feel good about that and will spread praise among those who need it (apparently including the teacher) so that it continues. And then add a regular email to my to-do list so it keeps happening. The work never ends.

So ironing is also happening, which I love doing. This is not something I have a hard time getting off the couch to do usually…and the best part is that I’m visualizing this quilt as bright and crazy, so I’m leaning into that.

Finished the 100s and laid out the 200s…

Followed by what I ironed on Wednesday night when I left my computer at school, which I should do more often, but I can’t afford to at the moment.

I actually didn’t iron much. I was exhausted.

Last night, I did much better, because I didn’t go to the gym and I was efficient with my time, just eating leftovers and the Man was at band practice so it was just me and the animals and quiet. So I got more than an hour in for once…

I ironed a small bizarre creature I made up in my head and then a lot of hills. Bright greens of Spring and genetically altered plant life. It’s going well. Albeit slowly.

Today at school, I’m hoping to be more efficient than yesterday (I really was braindead, although I did do the warmups for next week…well, for one of the two grades I teach anyway). I have a to-do list I wrote last night, so hopefully that will help. I have a closing reception for the show at Liberty Station tonight, and I’m hoping to stop by and see the Visions exhibit too, and then get dinner, and hopefully have enough brainpower to come home and iron. We’ll see how that goes. Certainly I’m not grading tonight or tomorrow if I can help it. We’ll see how that goes too. But I’m excited about ironing all these crazy things I drew in as many wacky colors as I can. The future world should be more colorful. Says the person who lives in black and gray. Ah well. My socks are tie-dyed. That’s how I roll.

And here’s how NASA rolls…

Specific and to the point. Happy Friday y’all.

Green Instead of Brown…

I’m semi-awake this morning. That’s interesting. I must have slept better last night. Some nights are better than others. I was definitely exhausted. Not sure why.

I didn’t bring my work computer home last night. I had a long day and I knew I wanted to go to the gym after all of it (which I did, dragging myself by the hair), so what’s the point? I have some time to grade/plan in class today for once (someone is giving a presentation), so I can give myself a night off. I also had an art show to enter and some other paperwork to do, plus something I forgot to bring home (oh well). So I did all the things I could and then started ironing a little earlier than usual. Which is nice.

Monday night, I straightened up the studio and put away the fabrics from the last quilt, which was the little one with the Christmas lights. So that didn’t take long. Then I set up for the new quilt, hanging the drawing up so I can see it…

Laid out the first 100 pieces…

They’re in piles of 10, numerical order. And laid out the detached Wonder Under bits…

Plus one unnumbered piece and one piece that was a line on the Wonder Under but had no number and pieces inside it, so I’m not sure how I fucked that up, but it will probably eventually become apparent. Probably I forgot to number it and I can use this to trace a new one without a hole in the middle. So yes, I’m somewhat of a hoarder, but there are reasons for it. Yes, I know they all say that.

I didn’t get many pieces ironed the first night…just some dirt and rocks…

Last night, I managed the right corner, mostly dirt and lava…there’s some ironed lava right there with Kitten.

Tonight I get to decide what color an iron snail would be in the future…

But before that, I have yet another early parent meeting (rescheduled from Monday afternoon), a day of 3/5 grading/not teaching and 2/5 teaching. Plus some dumbassery from yesterday that is still pissing me off. But whatever.

The boychild always tries to get Simba and Kitten to be friends, but Kitten has sharp bits and gets annoyed.

And Simba knows it.

Luna asking for pets…

And Kitten in her fabric/batting hidey hole up high…

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. Gonna pack my lunch, make more tea, take meds, shove everything in a bag, and go back to school. So I can come home and iron some snails and more dirt, or maybe I’ll make it into the grassy knoll tonight. Green instead of brown. That would be good.