Muttering

OK, it’s another short week. Political stuff sucks, but hey, tariffs on things I don’t buy are going down. Hope it helps someone. Maybe stop deporting people who are trying to follow the rules and deport some of those white guys who don’t follow rules back to wherever they came from. I was efficient at grading this weekend and got the academic assignment completely graded, but then spent probably 90 minutes obsessing over how to let kids make it up instead of sleeping. Good times. The shutdown is over…pro, people get paid. Con…nothing changed. Bring on the Epstein files! We’re ready!

Yeah, whatever.

I did iron a decent amount this weekend. Friday night…

I started late because I was grading, and then got all the water laid out for the second bathtub, but also needed to go to bed, because I needed to be up early. So I left part of it for Saturday.

Saturday, I finished the water and did all the fleshy bits of the figure in the second bathtub.

And last night, I did all the non-fleshy bits of the main figure: eyeball, heart, lungs, etc. I’m about halfway through the 800s, maybe a little less than that…so 200 or fewer pieces to go. Mostly her hair and everything on the last rug, plus a plant or two. Probably two more nights, maybe three, depending on how late I start. I’m mostly caught up on grading, though, so that’s a plus. I won’t be after Wednesday, but we get Friday off (really stupid if you ask me; just gives parents more of an excuse to pull them out even earlier) and I plan to grade all Friday so hopefully I won’t have a lot of school stuff to do over break.

I did make it to ceramics on Friday. Mostly I tried to underglaze this well…

It will be much darker when it fires. I’m planning on doing some sgraffito on these. We’ll see how it goes. I haven’t figured out how to make them stand up yet. Or hang. I should do that. I’ll be back there today after school, after a 2-hour staff meeting about stuff I am totally not engaged in. So there’s that.

I caught two photos of my piece The Way Out at MOCA in Westport, CT, part of the Enough Already exhibit of Sara and Michelle Vance Waddell’s work.

It’s looking good.

I appreciate it being able to show in so many places with so much other very cool work.

I took a demo class on Saturday about building figures with a local artist, Moni Bloom.

It was cool to watch; would have been cooler to do as well, but I had misunderstood the type of class it was. It’s OK; the hands-on workshop will be in 2026. I might do it; I might not. Either way, I did learn some stuff about construction that is useful. It makes me want to ditch the frames and build something new. Maybe not as big as the last one. I’m waiting on bisque fix to fix the tree, then I’ll try to make it all go together. Hoping I can get the base to detach from the head; otherwise, I might need to build a new head.

The Man has been tired at night and going to bed earlier than me, which is different. I came to bed Saturday night and saw everyone in there…

Although I put the dog up and then Nova left. Too bad. She’s a sweetheart. Often Bowie doesn’t allow others in there either. He’s kind of a dick. And we may be adding to the menagerie this weekend. I have a hold on a kitten. We’ll see. I’m ready. I think.

I do this all the time. And certainly, I spent a bunch of time this weekend muttering to myself about kids not listening and not reading instructions. It’s fine. Really.

OK, today, I have set up independent work for students to complete. Tomorrow, we start the academic assignment with some background research. Then test Wednesday. I feel like I’m going to need a filler assignment, at least for a couple classes, but I don’t have an idea for that yet. I don’t want more work, so I’m playing it by ear, but maybe a preview of the next unit. I can probably put that together today while designing a google form for redoing the other assignment so I don’t have to give up yet another lunch to makeups, but there’s kids going to away soccer games who miss my 6th period and then miss the makeup. Sigh. I can’t fix all the things. And I’m frustrated by the system that equates grades with the right to be on the stage. I think they should let each teacher pick one kid for the stage. And not have it be grade related. Because I still wouldn’t pick the kid that’s bugging me about his grades. Sigh. Anyway, hopefully it’s a chill day, but we know how that goes. It’s supposed to rain again, although not as much…enough that I should bring my raincoat again though. Just in case. Ceramics after school, some carving I hope, and then home to NOT grade? I might be able to pull that off tonight. And then ironing. Reading my book! I’d like to do that too, although this is a book club book and I’m not entirely sold on it. I don’t care yet. Maybe I will, but not yet. Not enough.

Glom On…

Short week, felt long, rain’s coming, another lab today. Collisions. And at least 5 kids per class period who didn’t show up yesterday and have to take the test today. Fun times. I have two kids who I think went home on purpose so they wouldn’t have to take the test. Ah well, they can miss the lab today. And the three kids who showed up yesterday for the first time in the last two weeks? Shocker for them. I read all these things and watch videos where they talk about treating each child individually, giving them what they need, but realistically, with 33 kids in the classroom and very little support, with 5 absent and a lab going, there’s very little giving kids what they need. I’m just hoping both my paraeducators are here today. And there’s an issue with a kid who didn’t finish after more than 90 minutes, with paraeducator support, plus tutorial, and there’s signs of cheating in the past (someone else is doing it for him), and our new anti-AI approach means he didn’t turn it in in time. So yeah. What do I do with that? I’m not sure. We’ll see. Today. If he’s here. Rain is going to scare some of our kids off. It’s not even supposed to be that bad today…it’s mostly tomorrow, but you know how that goes. Just easier to let them stay home? Meanwhile, my coteacher and I are planning our post-school duty post outfits (raincoats, boots, and umbrellas) because we’re responsible adults who do our jobs. Maybe too responsible. I rewrote an assignment last night, plus emailed parents (who responded right away, bless their hearts…some kid hates me today), and then dreamed vividly about a school reunion I didn’t go to and didn’t have anyone I recognized.

Thank you, brain. I see you.

OK, I did iron over an hour the last two nights though. Yay me! Here’s Wednesday night…

And Thursday…

Sometimes it looks like I just move the bins around and don’t actually do anything. I’m in the mid 500s, but I’ve ironed a few 800s. So I’m halfway, at least. So I should finish ironing down probably early next week, then start trimming. My hope is to get it all ironed down over Thanksgiving break. Which they’re now calling Fall Break.

I went to the Mesa College opening of Reimagining La Linea, an exhibit about immigration of all types. My piece is about forced climate migration…

It’s the purple quilt on the right, with Anna Stump’s pinata/balloons flying over the border wall paintings to the left.

Cupcake Over Trump’s Wall, Pink Pony Over Trump’s Wall, and Sheriff Over Trump’s Wall.

Gail Schneider’s migrating butterflies were all over…

Great use of materials…ceramic bodies and private property/no trespassing signs for wings.

Here’s the whole wall…

I was intrigued by Steve Harlow’s paintings…this is DEMOGRAPHICS 28 (Tijuana Kids with Bug).

And this large graphic painting, Isa Ybarra’s Water-bearer.

I have more photos from the show, but need to go to school before the rain pops off again. Like I said, lab today about collisions. Then hopefully not too rainy to do duty, then ceramics. I’m taking a full day ceramics class tomorrow, which I’m alternately totally excited about and completely exhausted for. It’ll be fine. More ironing tonight, hopefully less collapse than the last two nights. Wishing good thoughts for surviving today. For me. I’m wishing for me, to be clear. Also anyone else who needs it can glom onto my wishes. Here. Have them. They’re yours too.

Feeling Frictiony

Back to it. Back to school. Lab today. Might be a mistake, but the calendar is short before the Thanksgiving break, so what has to be done…has to be done. So I will do it. That sprinkler is still not fixed, although I spent more money at Home Depot to hopefully fix it in the future. I filled two trashcans with trimmings from trees and bushes, but not the third. I did not get to cleaning the floors or the bathrooms. I made choices. I did not completely finish grading stuff. I left the homework for this week, figuring kids would be calm enough tomorrow during their test for me to get through those. I should be able to grade in class sometimes. I realize if you’re not a teacher, you think we should always be teaching, always on, but that’s unsustainable, and honestly, not what’s best for kids. They need to work independently at times, so in their futures, they can do that at their actual jobs. It’s been rough getting these kids there, but they are getting there. We are one third of the way through the school year. We are behind in curriculum, and we will get more behind, thanks to the state and my stupid school board. But it’s OK! the district says it’s only going to fuck up the schedule for THIS year. Well, this is the year I’m managing right now, thank you very much. So I’d like it NOT to be fucked up because of something my school board did.

Anyway. It was nice to have two extra days off. I think we’ll be lucky to have good attendance this week unfortunately, but we’ll see. I’ll be happily surprised if we do.

I did iron both nights, although not really more than usual. I had other stuff I was working on this weekend. Here’s Monday night’s ironing…

Ironed a torn-up flag. About the only one we have at the moment.

Then last night…

Finished everything on that piece of the rug and did the edges of the second bathtub.

I also had signed up for the Forbidden Words National Quilt Project, where we make blocks with the words/phrases that the current government is either removing from use or questioning any work that uses those words. I had three phrases I picked probably back in August (my August self has great hopes for Fall self that are often somewhat nuts). And I was determined to get them done or mostly done this weekend. I traced all the letters, using the stencil we were supposed to use, and then cut them out during book club Monday night, and ironed them down to the white fabric at some point (not sure where in the continuum that happened).

I was trying to save space, so an ‘H’ wandered up. I got those all cut out using my ancient scissors that cut zigzags that…pinking shears! See, if I talk it out, my brain will find the words. And then ironed them down to the backgrounds.

We needs to use old shirts, so I had previously gone to the thrift shop to find shirts that would work. I just need to stitch them down, which won’t take long, but probably won’t happen until Thanksgiving break, honestly.

Nice to have progress on that though.

Also, we have squirrels. They might be ground squirrels. That go in trees. Hard to say. San Diego has multiple types of squirrels.

Although it was on the ground, it was just eating bugs or something (do squirrels eat bugs?) and then going to the next tree. Down one, across, up another. So who knows. If I see it again, I’ll see if the Seek app can identify it. Didn’t think of that at the time. Plus it doesn’t work well through window screens.

This might be what gets me through the week…

Or this…

Sometimes I think my blog is a place I store memes I want to reread next year. I do read the previous years of the month I’m in…it’s kind of a survival thing, like this month fucking sucks. Did it suck last year? Oh yeah, it did. I mean there’s pros to November in days off, but cons in kids being checked out due to said days off. So yeah. Two short weeks of school, pros and cons right there. This is where I’m at…

Too many adult things to do. Including leaving here and setting up the rest of the lab at school, and trying to remember how to actually DO this lab (can’t remember what the piece of wood is for; hopefully I made a video last year. Of COURSE I made a video last year…they’re not just for the absent kids!). And then an art opening after school at Mesa College; I have one piece in their current show. Then home to plan some more and read and iron. And sleep. And repeat.

Politics? Still suck.

I’ve got some ideas as to what should go in.

OK. Work. Tired. Always. Still? Friction lab. Feeling frictiony. No staff meeting this week though. That’s a plus. And it’s short. Go on, get outta here.

A Day Off…

Late start on this. And if you’re gonna tell me about how YOU don’t have the day off, well, you probably didn’t work through the last three weekends, did you? So there’s that. I did a bunch of things this morning, because I have the day off, yay brain. I went to the doctor, I went to Fed Ex and copied a drawing for the next quilt, plus shipped a quilt to a traveling show that is opening somewhere, but I don’t remember where, ah well. I’ll figure that out. I got dog food (for the dog), plastic wrap (for Wednesday’s lab…forgot to get it at the grocery store yesterday), a new sprinkler head (that seems to be problematic and probably won’t fix the problem; might need to consult with my sprinkler guy, who happens to be my ex husband), plus more glazes/clay tools (local clay place is only open M-F 9-4, so they get very little of my business honestly), and the ceramics studio, where I did things that I forgot to photograph. Like a ditz. Seriously. My head is still in the glaze kiln and my tree is still waiting to be bisqued…probably that will all happen tomorrow and I’ll see stuff on Friday. OR I have a ceramics class next Saturday and I’ll see it then.

Came home, tried to fix the sprinkler, failed, ate lunch, started the dishwasher, made a mammogram appointment (they are scheduling 6 freakin’ months out ffs), read a chapter of my book, and am now trying to get my head straight. It’s OK. I need to do yardwork, but it’s like 90 degrees out there. It’s freakin’ November. Too damn hot. And mosquitoes. Sheesh.

OK. So quilt progress. I’m ironing bugs Friday night

Purple and green bugs. Then Saturday night, I did the body bag and some other stuff, like faucets.

And last night, I did the water. A satisfying grayish brown color. Or is it a greyish brown? Hard to say.

I’m in the 200s, I think. But nearly done with them. I’m ironing stuff on a rug next. Or a darts target. Something like that.

Friday, I added these shapes to one of the frames.

Today, I underglazed this one in black and will start sgraffito on it on Friday probably. I added some shapes to the other frame and didn’t take pictures of either of them. Good times.

I allowed myself a little stitching on Friday night…

Almost done stitching everything down on this one…then embroidery. I’ve had so little time for embroidery or any handwork lately. I’m struggling to get the time to do any art. School is just such a timesuck. I graded all day Saturday, then finished the major assignment last night. I’m not doing school today, except for posting a video I took on Friday for the absent kids.

I’m Floating in a Most Peculiar Way is traveling with Fierce Planets. It’s currently at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center in Stamford, CT.

I’m hoping to see this show when it wanders west.

It looks nice.

I didn’t have time to put all the planets in my quilt…maybe need to do a bigger one?

That piece on the right is fascinating: Jennifer C. Solon’s Untamed Fury.

I have another piece traveling to Connecticut…The Way Out is part of Enough Already, work from the Sara M. +Michelle Vance Waddell collection. It’ll be at the MOCA in Westport, CT, opening November 13. I’m excited about how much it’s traveling with this exhibit.

Speaking of traveling, Simba and I went for a hike on Saturday.

He can’t go as far as he used to, but we did a solid 2 miles. He needed a bath after due to the unfortunate genetics of his butt fur.

Check Bowie out, sleeping like a normal cat. Not parkouring across the coffee table.

Not body slamming my teacup. He must be growing up. Might be time for a new kitten. He’s reached 18 months. Might be out of the velociraptor stage.

This is me always.

The night is better.

I did read the article. And sigh. But the comment above it is the best.

Because we all wanna know.

Anyway. I am not grading today or tomorrow. I have fabric to iron, a political project I joined that I need to do something for, lots of yardwork, some housework, books to read, always books to read, maybe some actual sewing. We’ll see. Short week of school. Nice. Chaos though, because I planned two labs. Like a fucktard. It’ll be fine. I’ll get in fast, won’t kill anyone, get out and take a day off. Sounds perfect. I think I’m giving them a test in between too. So that’ll be exciting. But for now, breathe deeply and wonder where winter…or even fall…is.

Fabric at the End of the Day

Watching the fog lift this morning. Everything seems calmer in the fog for some reason. There’s something about being encased in mist that is chill. Kind of trying to be one with that after yesterday. We’re blaming the full moon, Halloween after effects, the beginning of the new trimester, an upcoming 4-day weekend, and just general middle-school brain for the chaos we’re seeing. Feeling. Living. Glad for election results. Hopeful for the future. Taking deep breaths for the immediate reality of a Friday before a 4-day weekend. May the most annoying kids be absent (they never are). May learning happen. May it be chill and laidback, but effective. Ha! I’m serious. Not sure how this will roll. Ironically, we’re studying friction, so rolling will probably be impeded by something rough and bumpy.

Looking at a 4-day weekend for me too though. I will spend one day getting that damn academic assignment graded. The rest is yardwork and artwork and housecleaning. Not all fun and games, because some of it just needs to be done. Plus a doc appointment. Need to set up Wednesday’s lab today…might forget about that. That would be a mistake. Just put it on my calendar. Will write a post-it later. Then maybe I’ll remember.

Wednesday night, I packed up the quilt that needs to ship so I could get a shipping estimate and label through the art group showing it. It’s nice when they help. Then I started cleaning. I found all the fabrics from the last quilt and that I had bought in the interim (not a ton, but some) and organized them all by color…

And then I put them all away. It’s a tight fit on some colors. I need to cull again. I never culled ALL the bins, so this just complicates things when I put new stuff away in bins that might have been cleaned out already. Ah well. It’s a neverending battle, for sure. The only solution is to stop buying fabric, and that would suck.

I had a little time left before bedtime, so I laid out the first 100 pieces, ready to go.

And last night, I started ironing…

Not much of a start…a towel, a gun, some bullets and blood, and the beginnings of a bathtub. Tonight, there will be more. Hopefully there will be some solidly big chunks during this weekend. Around the floors getting cleaned and bushes getting trimmed and all that stuff. Maybe some cleaning of piles of stuff. That would be good too.

I can pause my panic attack for Tuesday this weekend. That’ll be nice.

Here’s a walkthrough of the Quilts=Art=Quilts exhibit, with mine at the front, to the right…nice location!

Today, I’m teaching friction. Hoping to get some peace and quiet at the end of each class, but we know how that rolls. I spent too much of yesterday explaining what ‘gentle’ means, fixing spring scales, threatening to pull next week’s lab, and telling kids to go check their grades. Sigh. Yeah. Long year. The sex-ed meeting after school where the state is going to impose an arbitrary deadline on us having to teach sex ed next year due to the kneejerk decisions of our school board? Well then I emailed the board of the California Department of Education. Because ffs I didn’t cause this problem and neither did my students. Long story. I’m pissed about it. I’m hoping we can change it, but you know how bureaucracy works…sticks are in the mud and won’t move even when it’s the right thing to do. So we’ll see if any of them deign to answer me. I’m going to ceramics after school and then home to cook dinner and iron a body bag in a bathtub. That doesn’t sound relaxing, and certainly there are parts of it that are NOT, like when I think about why I put that body bag there and what it stands for, and yes, the elections went well, and some daycare teacher still got yanked out by ICE agents. And there’s still a ballroom being built. And food is still expensive. Deep breaths. The world continues, and I worry about things, because it is my nature, and I rail at things, because it is also my nature, but there will be fabric at the end of the day.

Something Something.

Hey all, somehow Friday snuck up on me. I’m not mad. I’m still running marathons because of work and feel consistently overwhelmed, and sometimes wake up in the middle of the night needing to put things in my calendar (mostly art stuff that I don’t want to forget about because of the art job). Yesterday afternoon, I answered one complicated email about art stuff (complicated because I had to make decisions before I sent it) and figured out where my computer was hiding scans when the printer sent them, and emailed a contract for another show I got into. All good stuff, but it sometimes gets sidelined by the grading and lesson planning. I have a to-do list today for the day job that is physically impossible; no way can I get it all done. So I don’t know what the weekend looks like because of that. Not ideal.

Artwise, I finished stitchdown on Wednesday night, finally. It took 4 hours and 42 minutes. Not bad.

Then last night, I found a fabric that worked and was big enough for a backing, ironed and pieced that, cut the batting, washed it, drying it this morning. I’ll need to clean the floor tonight…wait, I need to embroider some words on the ICE agents and that’s probably easier when it’s a top and not a quilt. So I’ll do that tonight and see how much energy I have for the next step. But sometime this weekend, I’ll be sandwiching this and pinbasting it.

There’s the post-it to remind me to do the embroidery.

I met with stitching friends last night and finished the two leaves, but not a lot else.

This is the July block from Sue Spargo’s Rooted block of the month. I’m almost done with it.

And this.

My students wanted to talk about Kirk, but I reminded them that is a family conversation and they should also consider the two high-school kids who got shot in California (and then the shooter killed themselves) and the drones over Poland. I do think the world is a better place without Kirk, although I don’t think anyone should be murdered. And I feel for his wife and kids. But he advocated for guns and hate. So there we are.

I think that’s a turkey vulture.

It was huge flying in, whatever it is.

OK, the electric company is headed over to turn off my electricity for some solar-related reason I don’t really understand (probably so they can charge me for electric stuff even though I make more than I need). So I need to be off the computer. Fun times. He has all day to come, and he comes while I’m still here. Ugh.

School today, teaching something, planning something, fixing something, grading something. Then hopefully clay and some art this weekend. We’ll see.

Where I Really Want to Be

I think I just ran around all weekend. I don’t feel particularly rested. Well, there were two late nights. I can blame one on Art Brain…I would have gone to bed. The other one, I blame Delta for flying the boychild in 90 minutes late on an already late flight. It’s fine. And last night, the new glucose sensor is off by 40 points again so the alarm kept going off…which is when I silenced it (it still buzzes) and put it on the floor. It’s still off this morning, so it gets 24 hours. Last time, that worked. Annoying though.

I did get the top ironed together on Friday night. I was exhausted (long short week), and was just going to piece the background, but once I had it all laid out, I’m like, it’ll be fine. How long will it take? That’s art brain talking, because the answer is 90 minutes past bedtime.

Awesome sauce. Looks good on that background, which is always nice. I pick those out when I start ironing all the pieces to fabric, so I’m never really sure what it will all look like in the end.

I started stitchdown on Saturday night.

Going about 100 mph, while singing along (probably quite badly) to whatever my phone was playing. Good thing the Man was also on headphones. Then I left at midnight to go pick up the boychild from the airport; he’d been hiking part of the PCT up in Washington.

And last night, further on in the stitchdown. Lots of details takes a bunch of time.

It’ll look better with outlining when I quilt it. That skeletal middle finger will be obvious.

I did a lot of school work this weekend (ugh). I remember now how trying to do the house stuff, run errands, go to meetings, but still have some time for art, reading, and relaxation…it feels like you’re constantly running.

I took a little time to sew stuff down on this during dinner TV time.

I also worked on one of the Rooted blocks during my quilt guild meeting, probably the first one I’ve been to in 6 months. First Saturdays are hard. I’m gone for the next one; I know that. A lot of the people I like to hang out with weren’t there.

I finished a cover page in science…a miracle for the first month of school!

Yet another roller coaster.

This show, with two of my pieces (one in the bottom right corner), opens this Friday.

I unfortunately won’t be there…and will never see this show, because it’s at Coastline College in Newport Beach and they are only open part of the week, certainly not the weekend. Ah well. It isn’t the first show I haven’t been able to attend. If you go, send me pics.

I also hiked 3 miles on Saturday…

It’s been hot still, so I didn’t leave until like 5:30 PM. The Man’s back still bugs him too much to join me, but hopefully in the future. It was still warm, but there was a cooler breeze in the second half.

I met one human and her massive (unleashed) dog…who saw me, stopped, and then started loping toward me. Kind of nerve-wracking. She’s searching through her pack for the leash and calling the dog, who isn’t listening at all. Sigh. I don’t care if he’s the gentlest giant around; if I’d had Simba with me, there would have been a problem. Leash your fucking dogs, especially in wildlife preserves, where it’s required. Humans are annoying.

Seriously, he was huge.

I saw this while driving home.

I chose to read it as What Would Jesus Do? Get rid of those two buffoons. Also badly centered ‘Vance’, which might be a metaphor.

Back to teaching, this is part of my regular job apparently.

The kid typed the stuff on the left. I mean, it’s probably true, and I did tell two kids that Spanish was OK, but Turkish is out of my knowledge realm. How to get these kids to write in English! I mean, I could have them write in their native language, then use Google Translate, then have them read it to me in English, then write it in English, but that would mean the other 32 kids in the class are just sitting there while I do that for 10 minutes (there’s multiple language kids in one class). This kid, legit writes in English most of the time, so I’m OK with it, but the three Spanish speakers have been in US schools for over 2 years and won’t even try in English. Sigh. I can’t do all the things. There isn’t enough time for all of it.

And for those thinking Chatgpt is teaching for us, we had it read through a set of stations we did in the past and consolidate it into 3 stations, instead of 6. It produced a ‘worksheet’, for some loose definition of such, and I spent over an hour turning it into something usable. I’m not saying it wasn’t helpful; it was definitely a shortcut, but don’t tell me it produces stuff I can use right away. Because it doesn’t. It probably saved us an hour of trying to decide which ones to do and what to cut, and then formatting it slightly differently so it all fits on four pages instead of 20. Still needs a ton of work and planning brain.

OK. It’s Monday. Another full week. Trying to fit exercise and ceramics in…not sure how that’s gonna go, honestly. Today? I’m teaching forms of energy. Mostly notes…a couple of demos. We built in some independent time this week (we’ll see how independent they really are), so we could NOT be direct teaching (which is exhausting for us and the kids) all week. Also maybe we could grade some stuff at school instead of bringing it all home. We have a two-hour (torture) literacy meeting after school today, ugh, with lesson and all. Not fun. Hopefully useful. They haven’t been, really…just been performative, which is annoying. They did let us plan our own learning this year, individually (although me and my co-teacher are doing the same lessons). For once, we get to decide what our kids need. What a concept. Then home to deal with a broken blind and the guy fixing it, with two dogs in the house. Then book club. And some stuff in and around all that. I think I read the book. I don’t remember. Oh yes! I did. It was nice. Not amazing, but nice. Then more stitchdown! Which is where I really want to be.

By the Skin of My Pants…

Ugh. Head. Under. Pillow. Alarm. OK, I’m up. I swear. I’m mobile. Although the first thing I saw was yet another baby gecko who needed saving but was being stupid about it. I mean, we have a houseful of cats, and honestly, a small dog who loves to chase geckos and lizards. This baby has to be smart or it’s dead. It’s definitely not being smart and letting me rescue it…so I guess that’s fate. I saved one last night. Does that make up for the one in the window who won’t come out? Probably not.

Honestly, it’s more thinking than I can deal with this morning. I was at school for about 11 hours yesterday, minus the kamikaze drive right after school to come home and pee the old lady dog. My blood sugar was a disaster due to food and stress and exhaustion and trying to eat before people showed up and then once I got home and whatever. I can’t have all good days, right? Which reminds me…pause to take insulin. I forgot yesterday. I mean, I remembered when I was about 1/2 a mile down the road. So I came back. Then I did what I used to do…wrote INSULIN in big letters on a piece of paper and taped it to the inside of the front door. Six weeks to train yourself…and when I forget? It’s because I’m tired. I’m up too early, my routine is off, and I fuck up. It’s fine. I’m getting better at it.

OK. So the ironing together/down of the quilt got delayed by exhaustion. I had the rest of the planets done on Wednesday night…

The whole thing, which is pretty cool.

So I started teaching space…three or four years ago? And I’ve put the sun in SO MANY quilts, but none of the other planets, until I did the sort of mythological piece for the Fierce Planets exhibit…but never the whole batch of our solar system. This was cool. It symbolizes hope to me…the solar system is still out there doing its thing and will (but not forever, because you know, science…this one will destroy itself and another one will take its place) continue to do so. For a long time anyway.

I made a video of my decisionmaking process last night…

Because I almost just gave up and sat on the couch to read my book (my book is really good and I was really tired). But I didn’t. I did the video. And then I put the parts of the quilt on the background and decided, Yah, that’ll work, and then I ironed the background and trimmed the selvedges so I can sew it together tonight and then iron the whole thing down. And then tomorrow, which is Saturday, thank fucking goddess because I am so done (after a four-day week, y’all)…I can finally start the stitchdown. Which is relaxing and meditative and blissful.

Speaking of hope, there’s my baby barn owl and her olive branch.

I do think of all the baby barn owls we’ve had as girls. I know they’re not. I just like it better. One of them is hanging around…either the baby or mom. I hear them every night in the tree outside my studio, and I talk to them (her). Hi owl. Nice to hear you. Thanks for hanging around and eating gophers. Appreciate it. Thanks for all the owl pellets and the random feathers. Also, thanks for finally being quiet. Ha! Oh that last baby squawked for so long.

OK, yesterday morning, this piece of honeycomb was floating in the pool.

No bees. So weird. There is a tree above the pool? Still weird.

And when I was leaving school last night, the teacher who tends our tiny garden calls me over to identify the caterpillars on the apple tree, who are decimating the leaves.

It’s a moth. It’s not even a very exciting moth, like that Sphinx one I found…but the caterpillars are amazing. And he’s knocking them onto the ground. Meanwhile, one of my students, a girl, runs over and says she LOVES bugs and caterpillars and is trying to take one home (OK then)…weird world, y’all. (one of us…one of us…)

Today I am teaching. Like direct instruction and demos. Like an idiot. I mean, yesterday was bliss because we did cover pages (I forgot to take a picture of mine…which I did finish for once), and today is all gonna be talk all day (ugh). Next week was gonna be all on as well, until I said no, reminded us that we need breaks, and put in a day of independent work. Good times. We’re planned out about a week at the moment. By the skin of our pants…chins?…seat of our pants…but what is the skin one then? My kids always give me crap for not getting these right. By the skin of my TEETH (it’s biblical…)…no wonder I didn’t remember it. It makes no sense. Might as well say skin of my pants. I’d like to say I’m going to ceramics after school, and I will take my stuff, but I’m exhausted now, I have a meeting before school and duty after…and I need to check my parents’ mailbox…so maybe not. Maybe tonight I read my book and shit. I need to go make my lunch. Ugh tired. Art this weekend. Also school stuff. It is what it is. Peach out and plenty of sleep to all.

Maybe Not Even Then…

Oh my. I love a good school night when I don’t sleep until like 2 AM. Fun times. It was hot, there were way too many animals breathing and radiating heat and touching me, I had a bunch of mosquito bites that were distracting and itchy and oh my god get out of bed and put cortisone on like right now before I scratch my skin off the bones. And 2 AM brain, which remembered that one kid who was sitting outside the classroom yesterday morning, late, eating his breakfast instead of telling me he was present, 2 AM brain remembered that 10 minutes earlier, the Chromebook hospital kid tried to deliver his new Chromebook FINALLY (2+ weeks after starting school) but he wasn’t there yet, and yesterday morning’s brain forgot immediately instead of trying to send him to pick it up, so then he didn’t have one in Period 3, and I didn’t remember ANY OF THIS UNTIL 2 AM. Please, if there is a goddess in charge of postmenopausal brain power (if there is, she’s probably forgotten it), remind me at an appropriate time. Yes, I could put it in my phone, but I regularly ignore those notifications. Like a boss.

Aargh. Trying to teach when you’re tired sucks. I’m debating switching my Thursday and Friday plans so Friday is all chill and cover page instead of stressful demos. It’ll be fine. Yes, Back-to-School-Hell Night is Thursday. Yes, you will be dead on your feet. You already are…what’s the diff? I mean, you’ve taught one whole day this week. It’ll be fine.

Sigh. Ironing is going well at least…I finished the swamp trees on Monday night…

And did two rockets…or missiles…and two hands…

Last night, I did the barn owl as the real life one screeched outside my window.

There’s so much dark and depressing in the bottom of the quilt, so much terrifying stuff, that I had to have hope in the top. She’s carrying an olive branch for peace. Let’s hope someone sees it. And then I started the solar system in the sky…

I didn’t finish the right side (the left in this picture, which shows an upside down view). I have about 50 pieces left to do, and then I need to piece a background and iron all these down…hopefully tonight. Here’s a video of what’s left…

I really do have extra pieces. Not sure how. Or why. Whatever. Maybe there’s a fingernail missing somewhere. That’s the test…finding the missing pieces. Or not. I’m looking forward to (1) seeing the whole thing together and (2) doing the stitchdown with TWO fans pointed at me, instead of just one. I can point one at my FACE. Can’t do that while ironing because pieces will fly everywhere. It just won’t cool down in this room at night…it’s finally down to 79 degrees now, at 7:30 AM, but it was in the high 80s last night. Ugh. No breeze. Delightfully cool outside…can’t move it inside. It’s supposed to cool down a bit each day, so it won’t be so bad by the end of the week. Anyway, ironing tonight and hopefully stitching down tomorrow night. Oh wait. Tomorrow night, I’ll be dead on a couch somewhere after talking to the parents of 20 children (because that is all who will show up), which is still exhausting.

I’m not feeling particularly positive about the day job at the moment. It’s a bit of a panic across the board. It’ll get better. Hopefully soon. Right now, it’s chaos. Which I’m apparently good at, but tired of.

This is remarkably true.

OK. Today we finish a unit…if it kills me. And it might. Vocab plus put it all in order and hand the damn thing in. Which means I need to grade it. It’ll be fine. I think. I was sort of caught up. Until today. Now I will be incredibly behind. I don’t have pilates today…yet. I’m on the wait list. Figure if I get in, I’ll kamikaze home, pee the old lady dog so she doesn’t pee in the house, and go. But probably, I’m going to the gym instead, which is fine. I need to fit that back into the schedule anyway. I don’t have to cook tonight, hallelujah…then iron this whole thing together. Oh wait, also do seating charts for tomorrow. Ugh. Then fucking SLEEP. Please. Thank you. And to all those perimenopausal people thinking, oh, when I get to postmenopause, I can finally sleep, OMG Fuck That No Way Will You Ever Sleep Well Again. Until Thursday night, when you have hit exhaustion level. And maybe not even then.

Hot and Ironing…

There is a delightful breeze coming through the window of my office right now, unlike the last three nights, when it has been hot as fucking hell in here and I remember again why I consider putting a room air conditioner in here every year around this time. And it was only in the 90s yesterday…last year, it hit 109 degrees during September (knock on wood; it’s only September 1, so it’s still possible). This room holds heat like crazy and the sliding glass door is a combo of unusable and unreachable, which is silly. Need to remodel this room with A/C and a slider on a remote. I guess one or the other. It does cool down at night…outside…but not in here. Bad design and/or no insulation in the walls. Certainly we didn’t see any when we did all the fixes to the rain damage. Houses built in the 1970s…they still didn’t build them well. So enjoy the breeze (and the day off of work!) because it’ll be gone and/or hot as hell in a few hours.

So it’s really hard to iron when it’s hot, y’all. I don’t even try until 8 PM and then I sit in here and sweat anyway because the fan can only be pointed below the level of the ironing board, or I’d have pieces flying everywhere. Plus the iron is putting off heat in a room that is already warm. Just since I started writing this, the room temperature has gone up 2 degrees. Anyway, on Friday, I came home after ceramics and ironed for 3 hours.

I was working on all the body pieces and the stuff around or attached to the main figure.

When I went to bed, I was missing some hair pieces, but I found them in the trash bin (which is why I don’t throw that out until the quilt is finished). Then Saturday night, I did the head and some other stuff around it.

I did an explosion and one of the Starlink things and part of the swamp. Here’s a better view of the head…

So many of Musk’s things blow up. All the pencil cups and the stapler and tape are there to keep the weight of the fabric from pulling the teflon sheets onto the ground. As it gets heavier with more pieces, this gets to be a harder balance and I need more weights.

Last night, I worked on the swamp and got all the base parts done; just the trees are left on that.

There’s some embroidery of the police/ICE badges to go on later. This puts me in the 1000s, so about 300 pieces left to go. Two or three nights? We’ll see. I mean, I could finish it today if it weren’t supposed to be 95 degrees in here and I didn’t have a thousand other things to do. Next up? Input grades. I think I finished most of the school stuff yesterday though. Besides inputting them. Oh wait, and advisory. Fuck. Forgot about that. Ugh. I have not fully found my routine yet. It takes me about 6 weeks usually. And Friday was super stressful for trying to get all the things done. This week is back-to-school night, plus two morning meetings, plus 7 new kids (ugh) and 3 kids moving classes and whoa…just found the fly yesterday that was buzzing everyone in the house. Either it died or Bowie killed it and didn’t eat it. Mmmm. Dead fly.

I need to try to get to ceramics today (oh my, it’ll be warm)…I got things attached and underglazed and felt really positive about this project that is more than a little stressful at the moment.

Not even sure how I’m going to get it in the kiln without breaking it…again. Ah well. Hope survives. I need to underglaze the flesh, fix more cracks, and fix the one piece of the flag that keeps popping off, which is better than the entire flag popping off, which is what happened last week. So frustrated with this right now. Remind me to do some smaller, less complicated things next. Really. OK, still need to finish the head. Ha!

I crazily hiked on Saturday, by myself, at like 5:15 PM (still 90 degrees, I think, but there was a breeze).

Three miles. Then I can eat things that might kick my blood sugar up…because they are less likely to have that jump. Well, they should be, but I ate too many fries and blew that. Ah well. Still working on it. Definitely more under control than it was three months ago, but the blood sugar still crashes kind of randomly at times, like last night. No reason. Definitely think my Saturday night glass of wine does it, but I didn’t have any last night and was still awakened at 4:30 in the morning with a low. Ugh. Sometimes if I get up (to pee and check my blood sugar with a finger prick), it’ll pop back up, like it thinks I’m getting up (no fucking way I’m getting up at 4:30 AM; you’d think my body would know that), but then it crashed again an hour later. Fuck me. I’m sure eating skittles at 5:30 AM is not a good life choice, but I don’t have another solution at the moment. And when I asked the diabetes nurse about it, she didn’t either. She wanted me to get up and have a real snack, and I’m like, no, not doing that unless it’s really bad and continuing to crash. I’m TIRED. I work during the day…with KIDS. I need a full night’s sleep. And I already reduced my insulin…so if it happens again this week, I’ll reduce it again. Supposed to be contacting doctor about that stuff, but I haven’t yet…maybe this time.

So the baby owl finally got chased off by mom…well, or did she? She has finally stopped hungry squawking though…but the other night, I hear noises on the slope and then a screech, so I look out there and two owls are in the tree outside my office window.

The lower one is looking up at the other one…and is smaller. Might be baby? This was the same night but I think that’s one of the parents, probably mom.

They were staring intently down on the slope, where this opossum was digging around…

I’m totally OK with the owls prowling the slope. I’ve got gophers and they’re tearing it up. Annoyingly.

I mentioned it was hot, yeah?

Cat evidence of temperatures.

And there’s this…

Also, let’s talk about how many of them are white men. But sure, y’all will pick on the one thing you think made them do it. We could just take the guns away from the mentally ill (well, honestly, mostly everybody), and that might help.

OK. I don’t have to work today! Well, I do, but not all day in a classroom. This is a short but painful week; I will be mostly dead by Friday. Good times! It will also be cooler by Friday, which will help. It’s September! A fun month for school…where things change daily for no apparent reason sometimes. Also we think our A/C at school might be out. They’ll have to fix it quickly because there’s a new state law about maximum temperatures in classrooms. But the rest of the day, I can read, iron, plant things (I did some of that already), anything I can stand in the heat. Working on a wool quilt has been out (ha!). I keep thinking I’ll start the embroidery on the border flowers on Homegrown, but I’d have to have the whole quilt on my lap, so that is not happening. I’ll just keep sewing little things down on blocks I can hold in one hand. I have a huge to-do list in my bullet journal, but I won’t get most of it done; let’s be real. It is nice to have a day off…thank you unions! And no, I didn’t make it to the protest march today because I didn’t know about it until too late, but yes! Protest the bullshit! Also the Zoom yesterday…I’m so glad that the closing ceremonies for my dual show at the Virginia Quilt Museum will be during Spring Break, so I’m planning on going out there and meeting my co-exhibitor, Lena Meszaros. Should be an awesome show, opening in January…come see us in the last week of March!