I Worry As Much As I Hope…

It’s the middle of the week. I think this week was supposed to be easier than last week. I may have been clueless about that. I got home yesterday with a plan to go to the gym, but with a headache and level of exhaustion that said no. It was a relatively easy teaching day, but I felt like I was running around all day. I didn’t have my prep period and I fed three classes nachos…by the way, some middle-school kids are so entitled. Drives me bonkers. Say thank you for the food. Understand that I need to feed two classes after you. No you can’t have seconds. Leave enough for the kids after you. Sigh. I should know better on that one. It’s OK. It’s done. It’s cleaned up. Let’s move on. Try for no more absences from class until…the next literacy one. Or the MRI I need to have. Odds are I’m just dealing with osteoarthritis in the knees though. Which sucks, because my left knee hurt like crazy yesterday for no apparent reason. It’s part of why I didn’t go to the gym, but really it was the headache and tiredness. Ah well. Pilates today.

I had my pre-evaluation meeting yesterday, which went OK. Boss wanted to know what day to observe me, and I was like, whatever day, sure that works, I have no clue what I’m teaching that day, but it’ll be fine. No worries. Seriously, it won’t matter. It’ll be fine. Although I’m going to feel better if I get the next few weeks planned out. I’m working on it. I needed to get grades done. Now I can focus on planning. This feels a lot like last year.

Artwise, it’s a struggle some nights to get an hour to iron. Monday was OK; I finished grades at 7 PM and refused to do any schoolwork after that. Oh wait. I did work after that. Had to create a writing assignment for the end of the stations I’m starting Friday. So it was kind of necessary. I had an idea, anyway, and it’s better to go with it than forget what I was thinking.

I got in an hour that night…did Kavanaugh’s pedestal…

Oh yeah, and the snakes. I did OK that night. Last night, though. Ugh. I finished my book club book, but needed a nap in the middle of it (headache), then had to make dinner, plus more school stuff, got on a roll, but then distracted by details. So many details. The literacy program is a challenge…how do I fit this in with everything else we’re doing? I need paragraphs that are science-related, so I spent too long on a skate park paragraph with these specific suffixes, and then word counts, and how many words in a minute, and in reality, I’m not sure what I’m doing.

So I gave up (it was almost 10 PM by then) and went and ironed for a whopping 32 minutes. I didn’t finish Thomas’ column, but I got a healthy start on it.

Chained slaves. I wonder if Thomas thinks he is doing what is best for those he serves. I don’t think he thinks about it at all. I’m sure Coney Barrett thinks she is. I don’t know what Kavanaugh thinks at all except about how he likes beer. So there’s that. I realize we don’t really know the personal thoughts of these people who are our justices, but when I was drawing this, I read a lot of their statements and opinions on issues. So that’s where these drawings came from.

Anyway, I have pilates AND book club tonight. Not sure how much ironing will get done, but hopefully more than last night. It’s frustrating to come home from working all day and not feel up to doing the thing you love. There are things I love about work too…but the not-loved parts are heavy duty at the moment. It’s getting better. Slowly.

This is where I’m at right now…maybe this is my retirement goal.

Hey watching politics lately? WTF with Matt Gaetz. Who let him be in charge of anything? Man is a nut. I guess we have a lot of nuts in charge. I hope more for next year’s elections. But I worry as much as I hope.

The Man and I feel the same way about the engine revvers…

Although we usually diss penis size. There’s a lot of fancy sportscars around here that somebody’s daddy bought them.

Also, the Allied Craftsmen show at the library is only up through this week, closing the 14th. Vallo Riberto wrote an article about it and mentioned my piece, Doctor’s Orders.

He said nice things about it. Much appreciated. I did make this piece especially for the show, Waiting Room. I’ve got another deadline for Allied Craftsmen coming up in January, so it’ll be the next one I do after this one. Probably have to let my brain rest a bit on slave ships and missing indigenous women. But those are in my head. I need to be reading about space so I can plan a better space unit this year. Too much, y’all. Too many things in my head.

OK it’s supposed to be 90 degrees today, so we’re doing an outdoors lab with balloons that I’ve never done before. I’m probably going to be really tired, huh. Then pilates, then home, then book club, then ironing. Maybe collapsing will happen too. Hopefully yesterday’s headache will stay away. Losing my prep to another meeting. It’s fine. It furthers something useful. Hopefully I’ll get what I need out of it too. More time for art? Probably not, but I can hope.

Swamp Thing

Whoa. Hey. Monday. I worked a lot this weekend on the day job. Probably 12 hours? Maybe more. Not ideal. Grades are due. Am I done? Um. No. I will be. Whether I’m ready or not. Seriously, I have a small pile of late work to get through and one class of harder thinky stuff. I got through a lot of the thinky stuff on Saturday and Sunday, but couldn’t quite get it all done. I ran out of time. And energy. And ability to think straight. I have a knee doctor appointment today (FINALLY an actual doctor after 11 months), so I had to write a sub plan for my afternoon classes, and that meant recording a video like I was teaching the assignment, then turning it into a video with questions so the kids couldn’t just copy, they had to think. Probably harder than I would have done in class, but it will hopefully keep them occupied AND teach them the lesson. A teacher can hope. It’s not ideal to have a sub in there after having one for the literacy stuff on Thursday, so I’m bribing them with nachos. Reality…teaching is expensive, for the bribes alone.

So I also managed to get in a hike (by myself…the Man was feeling off)…

I wanted to be sure to do all the knee-challenging things this weekend before the doctor’s appointment, so it would be at its worst. I only had time for 3 1/2 miles, though…

The weather was weird…warm but with a chilly breeze…

There was hardly anyone else out there. Sometimes I get freaked out by that. There was some big guy sitting in his car in the parking lot…the only other car there. He was also still there when I got back after an hour plus. I shared my location with the Man in case I disappeared. Seriously. It was creepy. But I love to be outside and wish it never felt creepy.

This rattlesnake was cool…stretched out along the whole path when I walked up…

Never rattled. Just slowly moved across the path as I watched.

I rarely see them like this…

So it’s fascinating when I do.

Yes, I ironed…for at least an hour a night. Because I do my day job and I’m allowed to do my art. I didn’t get far on Friday night…mostly due to exhaustion.

Saturday night wasn’t a lot better, but a chunk of the swamp got done…

There was a family party, so that kind of put the nix on doing any more schoolwork. Talk about no brain power left…

Then last night, another hour, finishing the top part of the swamp and starting one of the pedestals on which the justices stand. This is Amy Coney Barrett’s pedestal.

She’s not a fan of the rainbow. Someone said there was an owl in here, but it’s actually the Swamp Thing. Some politician who’s gone native. There are a lot of them.

So that was the weekend. Grade things, plan things, hike a bit, eat a bit, socialize a bit, make a little art. This week is a little weird, but not as crazy as next week will be, so yeah. I’m not looking forward to parts of next week. Not looking forward to parts of this week either. I’ve got some serious rewriting or planning to do for the end of this unit. Not sure when I can get my head around that. Gonna have to, whether I like it or not.

Today? Teach independent and dependent variables. Leave early. Buy nacho stuff for tomorrow’s kids. Go to doctor’s appointment. Come home and finish grades…hopefully in time to make art. Another pedestal or two? Oh, there’s two snakes in there. Gotta do those first. I will be thinking of my friend above when I do that, although one’s a King snake…can’t remember what the other one is. Same old same old.

My Bandwidth Is Low…

Well I’m feeling better about grades right now. I managed to get some serious work done in the last two days, at the expense of making art and reading books, but yeah, that’s how it goes. I’m down to two assignments (both academic and reading) and whatever late work I’ve missed so far. I’m not totally ready for next week; I need a pretty substantial sub plan for Monday afternoon. It’ll probably take me at least an hour to put that together this weekend, plus the grading, plus the pre-eval worksheet, which I can’t even get my head around. My bandwidth is low, much like my computer at the moment, which keeps cycling and cycling. I’ve got two websites up and keep bouncing from one to the other to see if they’ve finished loading yet. I don’t have time to restart the router. Ah well.

So I will be spending a huge chunk of the weekend dealing with school. It sucks. That said, I finally finishing sorting pieces into boxes…

Two hours and 16 minutes total. Not too bad considering the number of pieces.

And last night, after my stitching meeting, I barely started ironing…

But I started! That’s about 30 minutes worth of ironing. These are the big pieces down at the bottom. It just gets tinier and more detailed as we move up. I’m looking forward to ironing for the next two weeks…maybe more. I have some stuff coming up that will take up weekends…the Interpretations opening at Visions will be in two weeks. Plus it’s not like school will go away. I’m just hoping it gets a little easier. It’s unlikely to at the moment, but after this weekend, I’ve got a bit of a break I think. Maybe. Knock on wood. I do need to revise a project and an assessment, which I’ve kind of been ignoring, plus set up at least one lab. Plus start doing this literacy stuff in science, which is fine…I used chatgpt to write a paragraph for my part of the literacy. Use the resources y’all! Use them.

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading The Humanity Archive and have images of African fighting queens and slave ships and plantations and revolts in my head. Not sure where to go with that, but it’s percolating. I have a deadline in January for another show, but it may just get whatever’s available. I feel like this Supreme Court piece is going to take another 6 weeks before I’m done. I drew a small original of this in Seattle in July. I came home and enlarged it, then taped it together on July 13, then started the full-size drawing on the 14th. I’m 3 1/2 months into this. That’s crazy. I might need a smaller quilt as a palate cleanser before jumping into slavery. I don’t know. We’ll see.

I did make it out of the house for NOT work last night…stitching meeting with the friends. I finished this June Homegrown block (Sue Spargo).

It’s been sitting around for a long time, maybe since Seattle. I haven’t had much time for stitching. I save the free time for the quilt in progress. So I have four more houses to do and then the centerpiece. Should be done in 2026. Or 2027. I’m still sitting on the half-quilted Bird Crazy (not its real name). That was supposed to be over the summer. Didn’t happen. The day job is nuts, has been for too long, so I don’t get enough art quilts done and they all get pulled to shows right away, which is awesome, or sold, which is also awesome, but then I feel like I have nothing to enter anywhere. Which is silly…I know. But as I’m staring at this pre-evaluation for school, I’m just struck that what I really want is more time for art, and what they really want is for me to spend more time on school. MORE time. I don’t have that. Not unless I give up the hour a night for art, and I’m not going to do that. As it is, I’m supposed to be doing this decoding/encoding training online, and I’ve made it through the first 15 minutes of 5 hours, so I need to start doing that while I iron. Which I can do. Plus the shooter training for school is at least an hour…need to do that video too. Maybe. Maybe my brain needs a break from school so it doesn’t make me want to give up on it.

Thinking that through.

Meanwhile, my co-teacher, who I miss every day, is cleaning out her parents’ house (something I dread that will inevitably be in my future) and she’s been driving around with some recycling in her car for two or three days. She challenged me to get my thrift shop bags (which have been in the girlchild’s room since August and the entryway since she came to visit) into the car. Which I did…

There’s more in the garage, but I can’t deal with that right now. So now, whoever gets them to the center first is the winner? It’s certainly more likely to happen if they are in the car. She’ll probably beat me.

OK. Today we are doing a lab. It is a pretty fun lab, so I’m hoping it goes OK. I’m hoping I’m totally efficient today and get more grading and organizing done. Same with the weekend. It would be nice to have grading done a bit early so I could get ahead on the planning, but also maybe read my book and relax a bit. Ha! I’m pretty sure that’s not happening, but I will try. It’s almost October, usually one of my favorite months, despite the lack of days off. The weather mellows out, although it’s been OK this month (knock on wood), the chaos of the beginning of school chills out a bit (two weeks from now looks like hell on wheels; let’s not think about that). Not thinking about doing another two months (or more) without my co-teacher/planning person, but it’s good for her and that’s what counts. I’ve seen progress in one of the newbie teachers, and that is a good thing. Plus today is Friday, and that is always a splendid thing.

Fingernails and Eyeballs

Friday is here. It feels like it’s early and yet…not. I have earned this Friday as much as the others. Next week’s Friday will be incredibly well-earned. Sigh. I’m waiting for a call back from my insulin pen manufacturer, because I have a defective one and the pharmacy won’t replace it blah blah comes in a box of 5 blah blah can’t give you just one blah blah looks like a defect blah blah. So I’ve been on hold with one place last night that never answered (24/7 my ass) and one place this morning that gave me another number and I waited and finally left a voice mail, so they will inevitably call during school hours and I will never get this solved. I do have more insulin coming today, luckily. Otherwise this would be a bigger deal. Worst case, I’ll have the doc do a new prescription in time for the next batch that should mail. Such a pain how they regulate meds. I had one batch of meds get lost in the mail and it took 4 hours and 2 pharmacies to sort it out. My mom made some text comment about socialized medicine and I wanted to say, YAH, let’s do that, because what we have is idiotic.

Anyway. I’m OK. My blood sugar wasn’t too high this morning, considering no insulin. I’m pretty active during the day and tonight’s dose will arrive today. We’ll be good.

For school, we finally finished the longest 6 (7?) days of labs I’ve ever done…well, since last year…and things are almost under control for next week. Maybe. I’m staying after school today to try to put away this whole lab. I have most of the next 7th-grade lab gathered for delivery to the other building. My co-teacher pulled through a shopping save last night after I had searched the entire world for the rest of the aquarium rocks. I still need to buy stuff for 8th grade, but I need a point clarified first. Well. I think 4 points clarified. Today the kids take a test (assessment?), so hopefully they’re quiet and on task. Ha. Yeah. I know. This 8th-grade group is more challenging than last year’s, which makes sense, because it includes some of our kids from last year. I did see one kid who apparently wanted to be on our team again, but I think I said I’d quit if I had him for another year. Good times.

I have a cold, which complicates all this. It’s not COVID…I’m up standing (not upstanding) and just full of phlegm and my voice is a mess. I have an opening in LA tomorrow and have to drive up and back…I’ll just be drinking lots of tea and not talking much. Also this is day 5? or maybe 6?

I think I already talked about the opening. Welcome to my brain on the lesser coronavirus.

So Wednesday night, I finished ironing. Finally. Well, there are three little pieces of Wonder Under that I found that don’t match anything and/or I might have already recut.

So I’m just saving them until the end, in case I need them. I know one is the Swamp Thing’s chin hairs and I don’t know if I redrew it (I circled it on the drawing…who the fuck knows what I meant by that in mid-August?) or just ignored it. And I’m not searching through that box for the 100s, which is where it would be. I’ll just keep cutting until I get there.

The ironing took 33 1/2 hours. That is a record for me. It also used 212 fabrics…another record. I think.

It’s not like I keep a spreadsheet of quilt facts. Lots of black, gray, and white. Plus all the fleshtones in that box in the top left.

It doesn’t look like much in the box because so many of the pieces are minute.

Last night, I started cutting…late, because I sorted the fabrics first. It’s really pleasing to me to see the colors sorted like that. It also makes it easier to put them away. Which won’t happen until I start the next one. At the rate I’m going, it might be October or November before that happens. This isn’t even that big a quilt. I’ve made bigger. It’s just detail heavy. So is the one that is showing at Craft in America, starting tomorrow…a small piece at 16×20″, but over 800 pieces in it.

This is And Then There Was One…about the kids leaving for college. Survived that.

Anyway, I did start cutting the Supreme Court piece out last night…

That’s about 40 minutes worth. It doesn’t look like much, but there’s a bunch of tiny letters down there and they are a pain in the ass. Don’t ask how many of those there are in this thing. It’s OK, I have 5 more seasons of Madam Secretary to get through. I’m hoping it doesn’t take that long to cut this out though. Cutting is generally faster than ironing. Some of the smallest pieces I don’t cut out until I’m ironing so I don’t lose them. I suspect there will be lots of those in this quilt. Fingernails and eyeballs.

OK. My cold meds aren’t great. I need to clean up a huge mess at school. I need to make sure the sub knows how to use Google Forms (she needs to make a copy…and I know I said that, but I probably also said I’d help her). I need to deliver lab stuff and go talk to a staff member again about something she reacted badly to yesterday (why is this my job?). I need to give a test to 135 kids and hope they do well. I have duty at the light. I might need to go to Home Depot…AGAIN. And tomorrow, I’ll spend 6 or 7 hours driving. Podcasts! Tea! No hike tomorrow…probably I don’t feel up to it anyway. I hate these first few weeks of September. School really drags on you sometimes. But I am glad to not be standing over an iron for a while. I’ll be back there in 3-4 weeks, sure, and that’s the most exciting part, putting it all together, but the thought of just sitting and meditatively cutting for a few weeks sounds nice.

Finish Ironing Ruth…

Short weeks are weird. They’re rare too. Except in February, when they happen 50% of the time. I personally think they should do Back-to-School Night on the short week, but it seems they always pick the week after and fill it with all the things. Today and tomorrow are a bit rough due to early morning shit, which is not my favorite, but there’s no other meetings, nothing but pilates and my parents’ stuff, which might be enough. It’s good that it’s short, because I’m fighting off a cold. No fever, just snot and tired. And no, I didn’t get it from school. The Man is about two days ahead of me in snot, so I should feel fine in a day or two. Today, however, ugh. Not so much. Actually, now that I’m upright and drinking hot tea, I’m doing OK. Last night? Not so much. I was going to go to the gym and my body said no, take a nap instead, so I did. Then cooked dinner. Didn’t do any of the other stuff I was going to do. Finally came in here to iron. The end of the tunnel is right there, within reach, probably tonight. Depending on everything else. Today is a bit messy.

So Monday, I got about 3 hours of ironing in, which was delightful.

In the first round, I got the Supreme Court building ironed…at some point, I wanted a flag fabric, and I wasn’t sure, but I thought…oh yes…

Found it! I don’t have everything in my stash, but I have some things.

Then I finished all of the goddess around all the justices.

Seven bins of fabric at the moment. Crazy. It’s a lot. The goddess is all earth colors…not earth TONES, mind you…some bright greens and blues, with rocks and dirt below with the roots.

That sort of fabric choosing is much easier for me to do…faster than realistic faces.

Then I started on the stuff above the goddess last night…

When I researched the justices, I picked about 5 decisions that were important to me: climate change, reproductive rights, abortion rights, LGBTQIA rights, gun control, and education. I looked at how each justice voted and read their explanations. I also researched any issues with them, mostly ethical. So that’s how I drew what I drew. On top of the goddess’ arms are the rights I decided were important. So I ironed three of those last night, plus Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s face and hands and the shredded American flag. Because that’s where I feel like we’re at right now: a shredded version of what we should be, heading backwards into stupidity.

I finished the 1800s and most of the 2000s, and started the 1900s.

This is all I have left to iron…

It’s Ruth’s robe and wings, plus hands reaching for a diploma, an LGBTQIA flag, and a hand with a gun. I’m hoping to finish tonight. It’s been a trip choosing all these fabrics. A long and sometimes torturous trip. Worth it, but not easy. Next up? Cutting them all out, then ironing them together. It’ll take all month, easy.

Man, the next quilt should be smaller and easier. The quilt that is currently at Quilt National (which was not small or easy) was the piece to ease my brain after doing the abortion quilt that’s currently in Virginia. I needed a break from thinking about the politics and the attitudes. As I’ve been making this quilt, the court never stays out of the news, mostly for ethical issues, which should so not be the case.

Anyway. There we are.

This weekend, I’ll be at the California Fibers’ opening in Los Angeles.

I have one small but insanely complicated piece in the show. I’m not looking forward to the drive, but am looking forward to the show. LA on a Saturday afternoon…ugh. Ah well. Lost day.

Finally saw another caterpillar on my milkweed.

We have about 15 plants all together in the front yard. The plants have been doing well, and there have been lots of butterflies…I just haven’t seen many caterpillars. It’s possible the birds are dealing with them. I just planted more seeds this weekend, but native ones. We’ll see how they do and what they look like, because I’m not sure what I bought…as usual. The ones I’m growing are popping seeds all over the place, but they won’t do anything without the deep freeze ahead of time, so I could try to gather some of them and put them in the fridge for the winter, see if that works. Maybe if I remember to go out there and collect them.

OK. Second to last day of labs for 8th grade today, hallelujah. I’m done. It’s like they’re slowing down instead of speeding up, getting more efficient. Meanwhile, I’m trying to prep 7th grade labs for next week because all the stuff is in our prep room and long story short, sometimes it’s easier to just do the things (I’m only doing part of it, just gathering stuff and making the rocks) than to have someone come in there and try to do it themselves. Because they don’t. They send a kid and that means I still have to do it. I’m frustrated. My team upstairs says just let all of them flail and do it themselves, which I’m trying to do. Much as I can. But I need the other teacher to be ahead of the newbies, not behind. Sigh. Today is the 8th-grade meeting and I think it will be tense. I hope not; I hope there’s a good explanation for why nothing is where I asked for it to be, but I can’t think of one. And I’m going to have to really scramble to get shit ready in two days either way.

Anyway. Whatever. Do school. Go to pilates. Hope I feel better. Water the parental plants and gather all their mail and do all their things. Remember the damn green beans for the dog (yes, I said green beans). Maybe take another nap. Finish ironing Ruth. All good. Short week.

A Train on Steroids

Ah a Monday off of work. The sweet sound of children screaming in next-door’s pool. The delightful challenge of installing a dryer vent with at least two trips to Home Depot, plus the scintillating smell of cat pee (gotta wash the litter tray completely out and or throw it out and buy a new one). I finished (almost) all of my work yesterday so I wouldn’t have to do any today. I would’ve done more, but the (um WTF is another word for delightful but when you don’t really mean it) ENCHANTING trait of one of my co-teachers to NOT upload the things I need to plan ahead NOR to answer emails or texts means I can do no more. Lucky that, I guess, although I’ll pay for it later.

This weekend has been a lot of gardening and house stuff, trying to get things under control, because the next three weeks are a little out of control already. I see them barreling at me, like a train on steroids. No worries. Really. It’s like this every year. Adding in an opening in Los Angeles next weekend and camping two weekends after that. Because there’s nothing like a little crazy when it’s already nuts.

I did manage ironing. I’m about 4-5 hours away from done, I think. I don’t think I’ll get there today, but I will sometime this week. Which is good. I’m in the mood to cut things out for a while instead.

Friday night, I ironed the rest of Kavanaugh down…

And started Coney-Barrett.

Saturday, I was much more effective…got Coney-Barrett done, plus Brown-Jackson, and started Kagan…

I did some before we headed out for some art openings and dinner…

And some after all that.

It’s getting pretty chaotic in the fabric bins.

There’s a lot of black and flesh tones in this quilt…

I added more after this…but I also took some out of the far left bin. They didn’t work.

Last night, I ironed the rest of Kagan and all of Sotomayor.

Just Roberts left…and Bader Ginsburg. I’m in the middle of the 1500s. So about 500 pieces left, but I’ve done a few of them already, Roberts’ robes I think. What’s left?

The rest of the goddess, which includes the Supreme Court building itself, then all the things planted on top of the goddess’ arms. So like I said, I’m getting there. The next bits should go a little faster. Maybe. When it’s more about what’s in my head and less about trying to realistically match a skin tone or make a decision about eye color…might be faster. I’m 27 1/2 hours into the ironing. Epic.

So Friday after work, I headed down to the water for a friend’s mom’s retirement party.

It was delightfully cool and oceany, unlike my entire week.

And it was good to hang out with the other work team for a while.

Her mom had lots of smiles on, which is a good thing.

Saturday afternoon, the Man and I went to two related art openings, one at City College and one at Art Produce. I loved Bhavna’s piece at City College, I Found a River in My Body.

Some of her smaller pieces are available at Art Produce. There is an auction going on to raise money for more art stuff. You can find the link at the Art Produce site.

We had a drink while waiting for the second show to open, and then went back to the same place for dinner. There are more bars and restaurants opening in the area, which is cool, because Art Produce has been there for a long time, waiting for the rest to show up.

Lots of art in the area, including this Gloria Muriel mural…

Yesterday I planted all the succulents that have been lying around after being trimmed off something else. I think I need to water today too. Plus iron. Plus book club is tonight, rescheduled. I really just want to lie on the couch, drinking tea and reading my book. I’m feeling a bit off, not quite well. Drinking lots of Vitamin C and hoping for the best.

Kitten is overseeing the ironing like a boss.

Sometimes she is more demanding than others…

Ah yes, thanks for Labor Day all…someone posted this wonderful reminder by @ricardolevinsmorales…

Really, that’s all teachers want. Less of the work, more of the rest and what we will. It’s too hard with what has been put on our plates so far. Certainly, I’ve probably done 8 hours so far this weekend. Most weekends it’s 5-6. Plus all the after hours stuff. Ugh.

OK. So for the rest of the day, I am going to read for a bit, then look at the to-do list. I’m going to iron as well, get myself through the last of the living justices. School this week will be short but probably painful (two early morning meetings, not my favorite). There will be a lot of grading coming the end of this week and the start of the next, and I won’t have a good chunk of the weekend. The neighbor kids have hit an unreasonable noise level that probably won’t let up for 5 or 6 hours, unfortunately. Ah well. And tomorrow, back to work. No more days off until November. The long stretch of September and October is here. Not a fan, although October weather can be lovely. Hopefully. Bright blue skies with cotton ball clouds. A bit of a breeze but not so warm. It’s actually like that today, but not for long…warm days are coming.

Honeymoon Over…

Whoa. This week. Exhausting. Doing labs every day is one part. The second part is that we are two weeks in, so the honeymoon period is OOOVVVEEERR. Oh yes. First fight, first referrals, first inability to listen during a lab, then a helicopter and police shutting us down into secure lockdown right before class gets out. Mayhem, y’all, fucking mayhem. And that was just Thursday. We still need to get through Friday. I blame the blue supermoon and also well it’s middle school and this is how we roll until we don’t. During the secure lockdown, parents were calling kids because the school sent out a call and yeah, parents, could you NOT? Your kid is fine. They are locked in a room with a tired teacher and your patience is noted. Also some kids have a sense of entitlement with their phones that can only come from their parents. One told me it was “after hours” so she could have it out (we literally kept them 4 minutes after the bell…FOUR minutes y’all). I hope these kids figure reality out at some point. But since their parents haven’t, it seems unlikely.

Anyway. I also made about 25-30 short videos of everything we’re doing in the labs so the absent kids and the kids who didn’t finish CAN finish…I downloaded and ordered them last night, although iCloud was being a cranky bitch, so I didn’t get all of them, plus realized I’m missing some, so I’ll get those today. Last-year’s self wanted to do it but never found the time. Next-year’s self will be happy with me. This-year’s self is fucking exhausted.

That said, I did iron. I peeled myself off the damn couch, stopped watching cat videos, and walked my ass in here to iron. I think I got 49 minutes last night. I also didn’t cook dinner. We ate all our leftovers instead. Seriously, I do like food, but at some point, it’s just fuel and I could swallow a pill and keep going and I’d be fine.

Wednesday, I ironed Alito down and started Thomas…

Well I laid out all the parts and ironed his shoes and shirt and tie. I gave him red shoes. Each justice has their name on their robe, and I made the names in rainbow colors because I can and then matched the tie. So far, all the baddies are men. Amy will need something. Yes, I am just ironing justices for DAYS. One a day, to be clear. And also yes, that’s two cups of different kinds of tea. Don’t ask. It was necessary.

Close-up of box…

Seriously just adding about 50 tiny pieces each night to the pile.

So last night, I finished Thomas’ face and then laid out Kavanaugh.

Did the shoes, his name, his shirt, his tie. Didn’t get to the beer bottles because I was really tired at that point. And I realized I was gonna have to figure out what fabric I used for the previous beer bottles. Didn’t have the brain energy for that.

I gave him dirty socks. Seemed legit. I have 22 hours into the ironing so far. Slow. I keep saying that. I’m in the 1100s though. And some of the 1200s are done. And once I pick the 5 face/flesh fabrics, it’s easy to iron that down. I’d like to think I’ll get a goodly chunk done tonight, but I’m going to a social thing and that does not bode well for energy this evening. So assume Kavanaugh’s face will get done and Coney-Barrett’s stuff will get laid out. And I’ll do her shoes and her whatever is under her robe (let’s not think too hard about that). Then I have three days off. Yes, I have a shit-ton of work to do. Yes, I am tired. But also, yes, I want to finish the ironing so I can spend a few weeks cutting all these tiny pieces out. I started ironing down on August 13, right near the beginning of school. It’s time to be done. So that’s my weekend goal…about 800 pieces. I can do that. Can’t I? Ugh. Also, I can’t do a bunch of the school work unless my other co-teacher uploads all her shit so I can start making sense of things.

I visited Annie yesterday…

She’s still a spaz.

But I like her.

OK. Lab day. Probably will lose my prep to subbing a teacher who’s been out all week for a totally legit emergency, but they never got a sub for him. Then social thing. Plus dealing with parental stuff. Haven’t heard from them, so presumably they’re fine. Hike on Saturday…required! It’s been getting cooler, so that should be good. We could even do it Sunday with the Monday off. We’ll see. I’d rather do two if I could. Lots of yardwork. Wondering if spiders are smart enough to realize their web in a particular area (the middle of the damn path) gets knocked down a lot so maybe they should move it? Not sure if that level of natural selection and/or Darwinism works with spiders. It’s been real this week. Hoping a lot of kids are absent today for the long weekend so I don’t have to deal with the crazy level we’ve been at. It would be a plus. Some chill please.

Men’s Lips…

So I don’t think I slept a lot last night. I tried everything. I exercised, but not too late. I mediated…really badly, honestly though. I tried ambient night noise. Nope. That made me anxious. I took melatonin, which usually doesn’t work, but nothing else was working either. I hate nights like that. I mean, it was hot and I had to close the windows because the pup was growling and barking at anything in a 5-mile radius that made noise. Today will be slightly cooler, and then it will really cool off, hallelujah. And based on the sleep I didn’t do last night, I should be exhausted by tonight, yeah? I’m hoping.

School yesterday was stressful. I suspect a lot of the to-do list made it to nighttime post-meditation brain and that wasn’t helping. The overwhelm hit hard…but I have a plan that I’m going to try to stick to, assuming there isn’t more shit waiting to fall into my lap. Teachers are already losing prep periods to cover absent teachers. Today, I have an 8th-grade meeting that I really need to happen or I don’t know what I’m doing next week (minor issue), plus I need to go do the mail and watering for my parents…after pilates. Still need to get through three classes of grading last week’s assignment, which I would normally bang through before or just after school, but that time gets eaten up by new/sub science teachers needing me, which is fine, except it’s part of the overwhelm. I know it will get better. It’s just a long way away. At least I’m short on meetings this week, although I realized yesterday that there’s an informal thing I really should do tomorrow. Ugh. For school. Of course.

Anyway, so Monday, I managed an hour of ironing…mostly getting all those robes ironed down and then starting Gorsuch’s other parts. I did his shirt and tie, his shoes, etc. I left his face and hands and a single ankle for Tuesday night.

You can see all his hand/face pieces laid out on the left. Above the box are all the other hand/face piles for each of the justices so far. Last night, I ironed his face, hands, and that single ankle.

He’s a super pale guy. But I also found myself googling “gorsuch eye color” last night, which is beyond weird. It was hazel green. Couldn’t tell from the photos.

Then I laid out Alito’s pieces. He has a fish, so I ironed that.

I made it pink and purple. Because I could. I only got about 32 minutes of ironing last night. I had a contract to fill out for an art thing, plus I needed to get one class of that assignment graded. I tried to get home early to go to the gym, but got side-tracked by humans and then needed to make a video and a post, etc. Not getting a lot of help on that stuff, so yeah. But after being interrupted three times, I finally got the video done! Woohoo! Even though it’s blurry, because whatever the problem is with my doc cam, it’s still a problem after replacing everything in the room. I should bring a tripod today. I need to make some more videos for a kid who will be out of my class. His fault, but I want him to succeed. My fault? Huh. Sigh.

Here’s the box in its current state of not fullness.

I did go to the gym, mostly to read my book. I needed it. So home late, dinner late, everything late. Tonight will be the same. It’ll probably be 7 before I get home from watering. At least I’m not cooking tonight.

That might be my retirement dream job right there. Except I’m not sure I’ll want to be around kids for a while.

OK. Make videos today. Bring a charger because my phone isn’t holding a charge and someone stole the charger out of my classroom. Labs all day. Walk walk walk help help help. Then exercise, grade stuff, iron Alito’s face, move on to Thomas. The faces aren’t that hard. That’s a plus. I was freaked out about them, but it wasn’t bad. Men’s lips. Men’s lips are complicated colors for sure. Gonna leave you with that.

Everything Is OK with Everything…

It’s supposed to be very warm today. I’m hoping the A/C at school keeps up. I’m already sweating at home. I made dinner last night for Tuesday, which is the last supremely hot day…supposedly. For now. I wanted to be able to go to the gym on Tuesday and come back and just throw something together, and so we’ll see if that works. I have to really scramble sometimes to make sure I can exercise on top of all the other stuff, especially in the first few weeks of school, with my parents gone, trying to get back in a routine. Blah blah blah. I realized around 6 PM last night that I hadn’t actually made posts for this school week. They weren’t exactly like last year’s, so I couldn’t just copy from the old class. I still need to make a demo video of one of them. And finish setting up labs. I was at school on Friday until 6:15 setting up labs, after a remarkably useless meeting. Today is another meeting, but I think just one. Oh yeah, the dryer died again, so I gave up on it, even though it is just under 8 years old, and bought a new one. Good thing I did that extra work this summer. So I got home on Friday to a dead dryer and decisions about that. I also booked camping for the end of September. So stressful to pick the ‘right’ campsite. Luckily there weren’t many choices? Is that lucky? Probably waited too long. Hopefully it won’t be over 100 degrees that weekend. Our Fall looks a lot like Summer. Also dealt with a sprinkler issue at the parents’. Had to call Ireland for that one. Anyway. Hopefully everything is OK with everything now.

This quilt. Man. It’s because there are so many discrete little things on it, and each needs to be considered by itself but again as part of the whole in terms of fabric and color. It just takes forever. I snuck in a little extra time this weekend on the ironing, and still haven’t hit halfway. I think. It’s hard to say. So many tiny pieces.

I ironed Friday night, the umbrella I think…

Oh yeah. And I picked the justice robe fabrics for the three I like. They got black with color.

Then Saturday, I worked on the goddess’ legs and lower torso, finally.

A closeup on the box.

Sunday, I ironed three whole pieces to fabric. I had a late start because I was cooking two meals, had to run to Staples for toner cartridges (the printer’s like, ‘Imma run out of ink’ and then that was it…it was out. No real warning where I could order stuff. Just done.), then getting stuff graded and ready for teaching this week. I don’t have help on a couple of tasks, and I have a new task (well, we used to do it before COVID, so not REALLY new? But it’s been a few years.), so I’m not in the routine yet. I need to do more during the school week, but last week was a doozy. So this one should be better, and then the next one is OK too, but the one after that is a clusterfuck and a half. So there’s that. I didn’t even iron BIG pieces. I ironed an earthworm. It’s pink. See it?

Yeah, but I did lay out all the other justice robes, the bad guys. I used two runs of four black fabrics.

Kitten did not help. I didn’t iron any of these, because it was almost 11 and that’s a goodly chunk of ironing. So that’s tonight.

I pulled from all the boxes from the 800s to the 1500s, and then I left piles of the rest of the justices: what they’re holding, their feet and hands, and their faces. Watch the video for details.

So I still have to go back and iron all those faces. Complicated. Probably gonna need runs of 6-7 fabrics for each. I’ve got some runs of 4-5 in one of the bins from some other part of this quilt…that’s going to be the complicated part.

So I’m in the 800s, but I’ve done some of the 900s through 1500s. This makes it very hard to know where I’m at in terms of the whole thing. I might be halfway? Certainly close. And I’ve been ironing for 18 1/2 hours, just to give you an idea. This might be the most complicated, time-consuming thing I’ve ever ironed. It’s a marathon. So my revised estimate for finishing the ironing to fabric is this weekend, mostly because it’s a 3-day weekend, so I have some extra time. I also have nothing planned (I blew off one of the things I was supposed to do on Saturday). So that helps. This is not a side job. It’s another job. Two jobs y’all. Plus the copyediting…that’s a side job.

Saturday, we went for a hike at 6 PM. It was too hot before that. 6 was just about right.

My parents’ dog Katie is not used to 3 miles, but she did it. She’s getting older, but she was a trooper. Except when she kept trying to turn around. She gets a walk every day with my parents, but I can’t do that when I don’t get home until dinnertime.

Anyway. She slept well Saturday night.

We noticed these new anthills. There’s always been these spread-out hills, but I haven’t seen these tower things before.

And deer tracks.

Or big hare? Possibly. We know there are deer out there, even if we don’t see them. I really am trying to get that hike in every week. Heat and time don’t help.

The cat condo is currently in the bedroom to give the cats some space from Katie…although to tell the truth, I think they’re fine.

I’ve watched both cats walk right past her to get to the food and then back out into the living room. She just stares at them. She used to chase them. No longer.

Yeah. Well. Sometimes. Feel free to explain electrical hookups to me. Or space. But not the English language. Some issues. Some issues from 8th-grade boys! Oh fun.

OK. Energy preview today. Staff meeting. Hopefully efficient use of prep time and meeting time. Grade some stuff (I didn’t get through all the school stuff in the end). Survive the heat. Go to Lowes and return the stuff they said I had to have to install the dryer (even though I already had those things) plus get a refund for the thing they said I had to have and they didn’t bring. Pick up the parental mail, because the store was closed all weekend. I was supposed to go Friday but didn’t leave school until after they were closed. READ MY BOOK. Seriously. Fuck the world if I can’t do that every day for at least a little while. Then iron some justice robes tonight. In here. Where it will probably still be 90 degrees. Woo hoo!

See the Chaos…

Oh my. First full week of school. Started losing my voice yesterday (again)…but I made it one more day this week! Yesterday I talked all day. Nonstop. Ugh. Lecture/notes stuff. It had to happen. Today? Today they make slides. By themselves. The second most common question from a middle-school kid (after “how old are you?”) is “Can we work with partners?”. Not today. All next week? Yes. Not today. I have this one kid who might be on the spectrum and he’s kinda driving me nuts. He is constantly raising his hand, which shouldn’t be annoying, because at least he doesn’t just yell things out, but when his hand is in the air, he’s not listening, so I’ll get the same answer I just got from another kid. He always raises his hand. For everything. I’m working on getting the rest of the class to answer right now. Might have to resort to popsicle sticks for answering questions. It wouldn’t be the first time.

There are some parts of school that are easier this year, but I’m at 7 hours of afterschool meetings after the one this afternoon. In one week. Too many. In September, there’s one week that might kill me. It’s a lot. I’m really looking forward to this weekend, except there’s no dinner plan for tonight and that is always a mistake. And I have to start grading, which kind of sucks. Because once I start, I have to keep going until June. Seriously. No breaks.

So I’m struggling to get ironing done around all this. Wednesday night, I got home after 6, after 2 hours of a sex-ed curriculum meeting. The pro is that the state has our backs. They wrote something (California Healthy Youth Act) that is on our sides, not the kneejerk parents’ side. I just need them to opt out, but one actually said, “I thought this was a meeting to decide what our children were going to learn.” Sigh. And if you think that, please go get your teaching degree and credential and join us. Or homeschool them. Because I’m tired of people negating my 21 years in the classroom and educational/professional experience. You know better? Then you fucking do it. I need to teach ALL the kids, the kids with two moms, the kids going by names that you don’t think match their gender, the kids who are attracted to the same or both genders. I teach ALL of them. I respect and honor ALL of them. Not just your kid. And I don’t hold your idiocy against your kid. I hope they do better.

So I ironed after that, after dinner, after IDK what else.

So this is what it really looks like while I’m ironing. Piles of fabric that I pull out, I go get more from my drawers, I pile those up, there’s piles and piles. And then I put them all in the bins to make it neat each night for the photo. This thing has a lot of fabrics in it and I’m not even halfway.

I ironed a lot of body parts.

Little ones. There are a lot of people in this quilt. Twenty-six? If you count the Swamp Thing (I didn’t), it’s 27. And they each need different shades of fabric. Last night, I did their clothes.

I didn’t quite finish. I have one more to go. Then IDK what.

Usually I would crop photos like this so you only saw the fabrics, but then I was like, no, let them see the chaos. Iron on the edge because all the boxes of the rest of the pieces are taking up so much room, teacup full of tea, unfinished stuff everywhere, fan on because it’s still warm in here at the end of the day. It’s supposed to be 102 degrees next week. Not a fan (ha ha I’ll need a fan though). So this was clean up. Put all the piles in the bins so I can see them. The bin on the top left is all flesh tones, and I’ll need to go darker still for some of the justices. Probably pinker too. Lots of pink. Too much pink. Next up? The umbrella and then, FINALLY, the goddess legs. That will go quickly. Dirt and roots.

I’m about 20 pieces away from 700. That said, I’ve already ironed some of the numbers higher than that. So let’s say 700. Only 1350 to go! Woo! JAYSUS. In the last 7 days, I’ve managed 7 hours of ironing. The previous week? 9. Before school fucking started? 14…well, that was the week I went back for 3 days. The week before? 19 hours. Sigh. Fucking sigh. Last night, we had to deal with the dryer, after a 2-hour sex-ed meeting, after my stitching Zoom (which I appreciated, don’t get me wrong, even though I didn’t do much). So I didn’t start ironing until 9:50 pm. May tonight be better. Please.

Well, on top of all that, Nova has a bladder infection that might be part of a genetic issue, so she’s on meds. Kitten’s gastro stuff got significantly worse, so the Man picked up 5 meds for her last night because I couldn’t get to the vet in time. She doesn’t feel well; she actually hissed at me this morning. That said, she took all her meds and is back to sleeping in the blue fabric drawer of fabrics I will have to wash to get clean at this point.

And Katie is here.

Katie is absolutely chill, but the cats remember times when she wasn’t, and they are freaked out. They walk right past her though, in the dark, so IDK what the issue is. Everyone is adjusting.

SO! Don’t talk at school today if I don’t have to. Get the energy labs set up. Finish cutting out all the energy cards. Roll around and talk to all the kids today (I roll around on a chair…it’s fun) (wait, I said don’t talk…don’t talk LOUDLY). Survive the meeting after school…I didn’t even tell you how someone came in my classroom and stole the bag all my literacy books are in, but I have to take them to multiple meetings and now I don’t have a bag for all that shit. So frustrating. It’s fine. It’s almost done. The week is almost done. Write warmups for next week. Let all the stuff I had to do last year to survive planning 8th grade go and start planning with the new teacher, who may or may not be willing to adjust/adapt. She needs to be. I don’t know how to flat out tell her that, but I suspect I will need to at some point. I need so many things right now. It’s fine. Really. I got this. More tea though.