Well. A deserted island is calling me. Nah, it’s only a week until SAQA Summit: 3 days of art quilt stuff and making without being at school. Yes, missing 2 days of school will kick my ass. Writing sub plans for that will kick my ass. But it will be worth it. I just realized I probably needed supplies for the class a couple of days ago, so panicked a bit, but I think I either have most of it or can get it easily. Maybe not silk habotai. I know I have some silk, but probably not that. Anyway, looking forward to that while panicking about the everyday school stuff, like prepping for labs (did a bunch of that yesterday) and making sure my planning is done (it wasn’t). Trying to get far enough out to WRITE sub plans and have stuff planned for the beginning of the next week, since my weekend is pretty full. Good full, but full nonetheless. THIS weekend? Empty. I think. Hallelujah. Need some time. I also want to finish my book. I went to the gym on Monday after school because UGH that day, and I just exercised and read. So I’m at 86%…just need to finish. Not sure when…back-to-school night was last night, union meeting tonight. Busy week too.
Anyway, I am still ironing, slow but sure…maybe just under an hour each of the last two nights.
Worked on the right arm (on the left side)…finished it last night…
Also finished a rocket and a cat. Tonight will hopefully be the left arm (on the right side). I was wrong about whatever pieces I said I was on the other day. I’m now in the 900s, but barely, so I must have been in the 700s on Sunday night. This is not fast. I’m working too many hours for the day job. It’s double everything, double plan, double labs, double thinking. Art at least was a repeat each trimester, and the art teacher and I had a basic plan I was working from. Now I have almost nothing…a curriculum that is confusing and repetitive with a subject I’m honestly not that good at. Fun. I did do two cover pages last week…well, I’m still not done with one. I finished 8th grade yesterday…
Then quickly drew 7th grade (still need to color it)…
I did that in the 20 minutes between science not tutoring (don’t ask) and back-to-school night where the mom who’s been berating me for everything under the sun showed up. Also fun stuff. I would like to thank 8 years of meditation practice for my response to that shit.
OK. School. Plan like the wind. Grade like a hurricane. Go to a union meeting and take notes. SLEEP (oh wait, not yet). Cook dinner. Trash out. IRON for as close to an hour as I can get. THEN sleep.
Yo! Busy weekend, mostly cool stuff. Work (day job) takes up too much time, as usual, and too much of my trying-to-sleep-dammit brain. But I got a bunch of fiber and art in there this weekend.
Quiltwise, didn’t get much done…didn’t iron at all on Friday night, and then did an hour or so each Saturday and Sunday nights…so this is part of Saturday…
Did the lower torso that is above the arm…then realized the whole damn thing was too heavy to keep on the ironing board, so pulled another Teflon sheet and started the upper torso on that.
It’ll all fit together at some point. Last night, I continued on the upper torso…
At this point, I have some arms to do. I’m in the 800s, almost done with them, I think. So more than halfway finally. Still a lot to do…another big head, her head, the arms, and some stuff in the background. Not a fast iron.
Friday night was a no-iron night because I went to see the Man’s band play…here he is pretending to be Exene of X.
That’s some neon green there. Pretty exhausting show for both of us, though. Friday nights are hard. I managed to get up and go to my quilt guild meeting the next morning to listen to Sara Trail of Social Justice Sewing Academy talk. Great talk, very inspiring. Put it on my calendar to do another remembrance block when I get a break from school. There are 50 or so here in San Diego County that need to be done, so volunteer! (wherever you are, there are unfortunately people who have been killed for a variety of sketchy reasons who need to be documented and remembered…).
I stitched while she talked…been a while since I worked on this, but I got a chunk done.
Mostly boobs.
On Sunday, I went up to the PHES Gallery to see the opening of FIG’s Portals show.
I need to post all those pictures sometime this week…but it is the first time I saw mine hanging. It’s much bigger than I had originally planned it to be.
Definitely commands attention. I’ll be participating in an artists’ talk on October 2 at 5 PM at the gallery with two other artists.
I drew some things for school…this was the hairy gravestone reject.
They were good until I put the hair on them. Don’t even ask.
I was really excited to see a monarch caterpillar in pre-cocoon mode…
But 12 hours later, it hadn’t done anything new and looked mostly dead. And this morning, it was gone…with three more green tomatoes. I know I have a tomato stealer; apparently they like caterpillars too.
I did find another one on there, so maybe there’s hope.
We have a lot of birds though. So I’m not incredibly hopeful.
So it’s Monday. Y’all know that. It’s a busy week: union meeting AND back-to-school night. Plus all the other stuff. I rewrote the whole 8th-grade month in my head while trying to fall asleep last night. Should really stop doing that, but it’s amazing what my brain is capable of when it should be sleeping. The weather has cooled off a bit, although it’s still muggy. The boychild left this morning for his new CalFire posting; not sure when he’ll be back, because there are crews on fires and his new one may need to do something. So either he’ll be back Wednesday or who-knows-when. I need to get to school and hope a copier is running somewhere.
The rain is here…Hurricane Kay is throwing us clouds and rain and eventually wind (not a fan of that…haven’t been able to afford trimming the trees on the slope…been on the list for a year, but the septic redo took all the available cash). The pro is that we need the rain (although not flood level) and it’s cooler today than it has been…still humid though. I have duty after school at the corner light…trying to find an umbrella (it might be in the car). The Man is hoping traffic isn’t bad this morning, and the Boychild is doing his (hopefully) final training tests for CalFire today. In the rain. But it’s rain! We need it. I’m still dripping sweat this morning though. Ugh.
I’ve gotten about an hour each night to iron…that’s it. Working on one of the two big heads…
That’s the first hour…
And this is the second hour…
The next step is the main figure’s torso, I think. I’m around piece 570 or so. Not even halfway. The Man has a show tonight, so I was going to go see that. Tomorrow is a bunch of quilt stuff. The next day is an art opening. Busy weekend. But hopefully I’ll get some more done. Slow but sure.
Meanwhile, I’ve got a meeting this morning (another one!), a ton of work to do for school, overwhelmed by all of it. The level of kid crazy I had to deal with yesterday was not appreciated. After school was all contacting parents and admin and writing stuff up. Very little “get work done”. I’m realizing this morning that I don’t really know what I’m doing for 8th grade…I was supposed to review it sometime this week, and I literally haven’t had time. So I’m searching for the videos that explain it as I drive to school? Possibly.
Last night, I enjoyed hanging with my stitching friends and doing a tiny bit of stitching…
Slow as molasses on this. And god forbid I actually measure and mark like she suggests. I’m pro-wonky in hand-stitched stuff. Good thing, because wonky it is.
OK, may the wind be kind, the rain spread out, the kids chill (oh that’s unlikely). May I find my umbrella and be super efficient today so I can feel better about next week before it happens. Also, it’s my half birthday, so where is my cake.
Still hot here. Today hotter. A/C still not working right in the classroom. I had three fans in there yesterday, but a state group is coming to inspect our school today, and ironically, it means I have to hide the fans (cords going across the floor, near water sources) to prove my room is safe (on a day when I have 700 lab materials out that could be considered unsafe if the kids weren’t following the rules, which they totally are). Plus the room will be too hot, so I’m not sure how the district will explain that shit on a day when it’s supposed to be 102 degrees. Whatever. Some of the shit teachers have to do (or are asked to do) is kind of mind-boggling. This inspection is mostly about textbooks, which is even funnier for science, because we don’t have any…everything is online. So then we have to teach the kids how to download a PDF to their Chromebooks that we never use. Just to make the state happy. It’s OK…I know this is holding districts accountable…just not for my A/C. The heat makes me cranky. It makes the kids cranky. The hot is going away by Friday, when we will get rain (!). I’m OK with that, even if the Man is not, because he has a show that night and there’s supposed to be a 1/2 inch of rain. Loading in and out could be complicated, but also, fewer people come to shows when it’s raining.
In good news, I got a piece into the Excellence in Fibers exhibit that will be in Fiber Art Now’s January issue, plus there’s a chance it will be at the San Jose Quilt & Textile Museum next year, which would be cool. I have one piece that will be there in October, but I’m juggling way too much that month, with my parents gone, a bunch of art stuff, the parental dog, the Man possibly taking off to hike for a couple of days with a friend, blah blah blah…at least it will be cooler! I guess I don’t have to go to San Jose for the opening…I could go another time just to see the show.
Ironing is slow but steady. I haven’t been starting until late. It’s too damn hot in here. By 9 PM, with two fans on me, it’s bearable. I got a bunch done on Monday night…
Finished the pelvic area…missing an ‘s’ on the ‘Property of’ label (those words will be inked or stitched, haven’t decided which yet. I like the Statue of Liberty’s head though.
Then I ironed the robes of the large Supreme Court figure on the left, but forgot to photograph it, and then detached it and rolled it up, because everything was getting too big and out of control. I started ironing the left big head down…well, at least the neck and the nuclear power plant that will reside on his chin…
Less than an hour last night, just. I had a stressful day at work, with science materials disappearing and reappearing, trying to get kids to move on to the next step (I’m so behind), then to the dentist to deal with my filling, which was a crown, and will be expensive, and will take more time than they are open, so trying to schedule it has been a pain. Plus the money. This month is not good for that…house insurance is due and it’s my first paycheck since the end of June. It’s always tight. I think we have solved it though…they may open on Saturday for me, which I really appreciate (although you wanna look at my weekends for the next 6 weeks? because there’s very few open spots). Sigh. Came home and graded some stuff, planned, put grades in the gradebook. I didn’t have to cook, hallelujah, that’s tonight unfortunately (so hot…), but I was exhausted. Kept saying “It’s only Monday”. Ha! Tuesday, y’all. It was Tuesday. And now it’s Wednesday. So today is trash out, empty dishwasher, empty sink, AND cook dinner. Hopefully those two grown men will help with the first three because it’s not my turn. Every morning this week is a student-related meeting on top of all of it. September is always a little hectic. Little is an understatement.
I need to get some boxes for shipping stuff too…if I have time before Pilates today, the store where I buy boxes is right there…but I’m usually kamikazing in at the last minute from school.
I didn’t sleep well last night. The heat…the noise and light from having the windows open…my brain doesn’t do well with either of those two stimuli. Plus this…
I work when I’m tired…but the art stuff suffers in the end. There are only so many hours in the day. I’m trying to lesson plan while kids are working on labs. I’m speed-planning during prep. I don’t feel like I’ve got a handle on any of it. Plus grading. I realized that all of 7th AND 8th grade will be turning in academic assignments at the same time. OK. It’s going to be busy for a while. Deep breaths (I do meditate every night). Be efficient…be be efficient. Then iron your heart out.
Today is a holiday for some, not all, as the boychild went off to training today, earlier than I wanted to be up, so then all the animals were ready for me to be up, in fact, I think Luna purposely got herself stuck under the dresser just so I’d get up (and then got herself remarkably unstuck) and the boys next door have new toy machine guns (seriously. I’m not kidding you) that they run around shooting at each other, rat-a-tat-tat, which is not conducive to sleep or thinking or anything but rage, honestly, or maybe less rage and more WTF toward their parents. Religious as fuck but machine guns. Anti-Satan (gasp!) but OK with killing. They seem like nice people. I just don’t get it.
ANYWAY. So I’m up earlier than I want to be, which has been the case since before the kids were born, so you’d think I’d be used to it. It’s still hot here, which make everyone cranky, although I think yesterday was cooler. We had clouds a lot of the day, and sure, they were monsoon clouds, so it’s humid, but not as bad as Saturday. Today dawned clear and hot, though…so all the fans are on and I’m in here typing before it hits 95 degrees inside. Even the internet is cranky in the heat. I was trying to do school work yesterday afternoon, and that was a no-go. Slow as hell and kept freezing. Could be the new loaner computer though. Either way, it gave me an excuse to quit working and iron instead. For whatever reason, my studio was cooler than the living room. There was actually a breeze yesterday. Not so much today…a little air movement, but not much.
So I finished the one figure…her right hand and face were all that I needed to do…
Then I started on the figure next to her…
That’s when I took a break to try to do schoolwork. Waste of time really. We went over to the parentals for dinner, brought side dishes and dessert (what requires the least amount of time in the kitchen)…then came back, it was dark and night and a little cooler, so I got the third figure done…
And started the large figure on the right, after the broken Statue of Liberty…
Some of my drawings are more stream of consciousness than others…I think of them as brain dumps or an anxiety drawing, how do I just get it all out of my head and onto paper. This is one of those. Whatever my concerns and anxieties are, for some groups of people (BIPOC/LGBTQ), this shit is way worse and doesn’t seem like it will ever go away. My old-white-lady concerns are ten million times worse for them. Anyway. I love that I made progress…hopefully there will be more today, but first, I really need to do schoolwork. Way fucking behind.
Friday night, we went to see the Threads of Inspiration show at Inspirations Gallery in Liberty Station. Here is my quilt Bill! Bill! Bill! about Bill Nye…who not only made all those awesome videos we know and love, but continues to advocate for the planet.
This quilt was part of the A Better World exhibit pre-COVID about people who make this a better world. So he’s traveled a bit. A friend of mine sent me this…
So I believe I am 4 or 5 degrees separated from Bill…which feels good. I hope he laughed.
The show is up through the end of September, so check it out, because there are some cool pieces…
It is a SAQA local show, so Southern California and Nevada…
If you’re coming the the first day of the SAQA Summit, the official artists’ opening will be that night.
I will be there for that. I will also probably be exhausted, but what’s new?
Lots of color in the show…
Some fun work…
If you want to see each of these pieces with all the artist info, I’ll be posting them on the SAQA SoCA/NV instagram page @saqa_soca-nv once I get done posting about Desert Diversity, the local show in Phoenix, Arizona, right now. Or stop by on Thursday, September 22, from 6:30-8:30. I think otherwise it’s open only by appointment.
The next opening is next Sunday, from 2-4 PM…
I delivered that piece Saturday. First time out in the world with that one. I will probably be at the opening earlier rather than later, depending on when the grocery shopping gets done. Sundays are a little crazy usually. This coming weekend is a little more packed than I like them. I like some down time, some art time, some reading time, some hiking time. Which means it needs to cool the fuck down enough to hike. Not happening today. Maybe Saturday.
I drew before we ate out on Friday night…it was definitely cooler at Liberty Station. Hungry man…
Didn’t feel like a serious drawing. So whimsical it was.
The view of clouds on Saturday reflected in the pool where I kept putting my feet to cool off.
I couldn’t find the energy to put on a bathing suit and go all the way in…so up to the knees it was. With my book.
Other bits and pieces from the week…I thought this drawing was a pretty effective explanation of yo-yos and energy.
Made me laugh anyway. And here’s the apples I brought home to compost from the apple batteries…they were getting buggy after four days…
Seems like a waste of food, but the kids learn a lot from this. Mostly they’re a little mind-boggled that apples have energy.
I keep finding caterpillars on the milkweed and on the citrus trees, but no cocoons so far…on either.
I think I have too many birds for the caterpillars to survive. Something has been stealing the tomatoes again too…I had one almost ripe one and it’s gone. Probably rats.
This…true…
What can I say? Black is versatile. Hides the spills.
This one was at my parents’ house, just hanging out on the grass.
Probably close to dying, but it was pretty.
I worked a tiny bit on Sue Spargo’s Homegrown. I think I’m still doing April’s blocks.
I had to read the instructions four times and then turn the book with the embroidery stitch instructions upside down to help me get this far.
This. Sigh.
And finally this…
Kitten is doing OK. She’s not great. We’ve been switching her meds around, trying to make her more comfortable, but also increase her appetite with giving her horrendous diarrhea. I think we’re closer to a solution, but I will be happy when I can stop giving her the medicine that makes her foam at the mouth.
OK, so all the things that need to happen today, on my holiday: cook lunches for the week (meat is in the crockpot already), laundry (I did not get to the washing machine first, so I will have to wait…also to shower), grade a bunch of stuff, post things for this coming week, pay some bills, get some posts ready for SAQA’s instagram, fix my website current shows and recent work sections, read my book (maybe), iron some art (definitely), and get ready in general for a short but packed week at school. I’m finally getting my lost filling replaced, got two parent-teacher meetings and one “how-the-fuck-do-we-manage-this-parent” meeting, got one stitching meeting, chiropractor with mini-massage before (that’s a necessity), plus a Pilates class. I think that’s it. I’m not counting next weekend. I wanted to hike but it’s too damn hot. So I’ll aim for next weekend for that. Plus there’s some stuff on my to-do list for the day that I’ve already forgotten, even though I only wrote it down like an hour ago. Hence why I write it down! At least this is a day off…I appreciate that, even if I haven’t been very efficient with my time. Hopefully the heat won’t be too bad today and I can get things done. I will feel better going into the week if I can.
I feel like this whole post is about energy, which is what I’m teaching the 8th graders. Less what I am teaching and more what they are learning. I just throw a bunch of materials at them and then they figure out the things with a little bit of help from me. Which is the way it should be.
Hello Exhaustion, my old friend. One part labs all week with 8th graders (which hasn’t been bad, just a lot of moving…a LOT a lot), one part first full week of school for me, one part 7th graders who need to figure out how Nida rolls (we got close yesterday…it was MUCH better than Wednesday, which made me cry), and a final part of no real air conditioning, in fact, I get warm air blowing in the classroom by the end of the day. Saps your energy, makes it hard for the kids to think, which makes my job harder. That said, I feel like I’m finally getting a handle on things (despite the exhaustion). Hallelujah for a 3-day weekend though. Today will still be long and tiring, but there is a light at the end of it. I have a meeting this morning, labs for three periods, and then something I’m hoping the 7th graders will enjoy (or at least be engaged in), then I get to stand by a traffic signal in the sun for 15 minutes (aka my duty after school, to make sure kids don’t get killed by parents driving like maniacs…not sure which of those is the bigger maniac, actually. The kids don’t look and neither do the adults).
Then tonight, check out the opening of the new SAQA local show opening at Inspirations Gallery in Liberty Station, San Diego, CA.
I’m just looking at this card now and seeing the artist reception will be part of the SAQA Summit, so I’ll be there. But I’ll also be stopping by tonight during First Friday to check it out, dragging the Man (who is as exhausted as I am) so we can check it out. Pretending to be normal and not old and tired. Ha ha. We do go to each others’ stuff pretty regularly. I just bought my VIP ticket to the La Mesa Oktoberfest, where his band will be playing later this month. I don’t ‘bier’ much, but I’ll hang out and watch him play.
My piece Bill! Bill! Bill! is in the SAQA show…
Maybe Bill Nye will stop by and check it out.
I’m delivering work tomorrow to a show that opens on the 11th…your first chance to see The Way Out, at the PHES Gallery in Carlsbad.
The opening is from 2-5 PM on a Sunday. I’ll be there, probably closer to the beginning of that time.
Meanwhile, although I am working many school hours (graded until 9 PM last night again), I am getting a tiny bit of ironing done. Wednesday night, I got everything set up, laid out the first 100 pieces, and started ironing the first figure…
I didn’t get super far, and certainly last night, I really didn’t get far…
Three whole fingers. I hadn’t seen the Man before he left for band practice (I was still at work), then I worked a ton, started ironing, and he came home, so we hung out and talked about life, liberty, and IDK what else, outside, where it was not 100 degrees. My house holds heat like crazy, and this weekend is supposed to be over 100 degrees. Not looking forward to it.
OK, off to the meeting and the school and then the art. There’s a balance in there somewhere. I mean, some part of me just wants to check into an air-conditioned hotel and read my book all day while no one speaks, but I realize that’s not an option…so I’ll do the things and maybe read later. Plus art…ironing in high heat is something I do around this time every year…why stop now?
Oh my. I’m not even halfway through the week and I feel like a truck hit me…not because of COVID…I’ve been fine except for some residual phlegmy grossness since last Tuesday. And yes, I just taught two days in a row for the first time this school year, but geez. I know I’m getting older, but man oh man. Three more days? It’ll get better…I’m doing labs all week with 8th grade, so that’s a lot of physical movement…a LOT…and then 7th grade is the mental thing…they still don’t know how to do 7th grade science and their behaviors are insanely inappropriate: yesterday was walking out without permission, arguing about observations (I’m right! The teacher can’t be!), throwing oneself across the table (not me, y’all…not me), yelling “he didn’t do anything” when I sent a student outside for a discussion (dude, not talking to you), plus a plethora of minor stuff, stupid noises, yelling out. My co-teacher uses a citizenship points system that I’m implementing just with 7th grade to try to curb some of this crazy. I know it’s because I was out for 6 days, so I will just need to stay the course and be that hardass mixed with personal conversations (had two good ones yesterday with boys who need attention, and yes, they do!) until they start to get it. There’s rules. Disappearing for 25 minutes during class is breaking some big ones.
Sigh. So it’s making it hard to get art stuff done…and I have a bunch of administrative-type stuff I’ve been doing…entering shows, cutting slats, putting on labels. All good, because it means showing my work. It doesn’t mean a lot of progress on the current quilt…but now that I know it won’t make the deadline I was hoping for, it doesn’t really matter if I speed through it. It’s all ready to be ironed together, and hopefully I will start tonight.
As I was doing all that stuff, Kitten knocked down a piece that has been hanging on a board in my studio that is basically hidden by a pile of batting (that Kitten likes to sleep on)…I totally forgot about this piece…
People have been trying to date it based on the fabric…I can tell you it’s probably early 2000s. But the best part is that I never finished the sleeve.
I swear, I have a million sewing pins stuck into an in-progress piece, which is why I keep having to buy more, because I run out. Mind-boggling if you think about it. I should finish that damn sleeve, yeah? Totally. FREE THE PINS!
So that night, nothing but admin. Last night, I graded late…trying to stay on top of things. But then I remembered that I had scanned some photos for a 9/1 deadline for a coloring book one of my art groups is doing, but I needed to clean them up. So I spent an hour doing that (stayed up later than I should have, probably not helping with the exhausted feeling this morning, but I wasn’t watching the clock).
Kitten is entirely unhelpful. She had her head on the keyboard at one point. Even now, her tail is whacking up and down in front of the screen. Anyway, drawings are done and emailed. Woohoo!
I did finish sorting all the pieces on Monday night too…it only took another 10 minutes…I was sure it would be longer. So here’s the whole quilt…
Doesn’t look like much right now. Hopefully it will look better in a week, although it’s supposed to be like 106 degrees this weekend, so I’m not sure how much ironing I’ll be doing. I’m just hoping they fix the A/C at school. Rumor has it they have the parts and they’ll be installed this morning, just in time for the beginning of the heat wave. Woohoo! Gonna need that.
Growing mushrooms at school…my co-teacher and I are trying to do a fun/tutoring thing with science after school once a week.
Hopefully will be successful pizza in a few weeks.
Here’s my first compost tomato (that wasn’t stolen by wildlife)…
Are cherry tomatoes just immature tomatoes? Or are they a different subspecies of tomato? Is this a cherry tomato? I just don’t know. It is awfully cute though.
Yeah. Did that. With a bang.
Now I’d like to move on to surviving the rest of the week. Or even today. Pilates after school. Then finish packing this quilt up so I can start ironing in the hottest time of the year. Woo! No really, I love the ironing-together part of quiltmaking, because it’s the first time I see all the fabrics together the way they are in my head. Really love it. First, though, finish this tea. Need more. Then get outta here.
I keep losing track of what day it is. The plus is that as of yesterday, I feel really good. Mostly well. Still a bit rough on the physical exertion and the phlegm isn’t quite gone, but no more weird spacy things going on with the head and brain. I read yesterday! ‘Twas lovely. I also finished the ironing yesterday…I did a little on Monday night…
Some hair and the other faces…
And then yesterday, I finished…22 1/2 hours total. Some of them pretty spacy…
I forgot to count how many fabrics…150. Exactly. Wild. Not supremely colorful when you look at the pull. Lots of flesh tones and earth tones. We’ll see what that looks like in real life, once it’s ironed together.
I continued cutting pieces out last night…here’s the pile before I started…
And after an hour or two…
There’s plenty left to cut out. I’ll do some of that today. So far, though, I’ve been working…school stuff and some art stuff. Saw the boychild…he starts CalFire for real (woohoo!) on Monday. He confirmed that I don’t know what day it is. I still need to write sub plans for tomorrow, grade some more stuff, set up my gradebook, figure some 8th-grade shit out (ugh), and finish my book. Crucial that.
So Kitten was stalking this poor baby in the pile of shoes by the back door…
It might be the same one as last night…it might not…because I just saw another one in the laundry room. It ran off before I could rehome it. Kitten likes to steal their tails. I told her it wasn’t nice. She doesn’t listen.
I’m sure I’ll be back at school at some point. Not sure when. Worst case…Monday. Or best case…depending on how you look at it. Might go make some peach cobbler right now.
Oh hey. I think I need to lie down while I’m writing this. Let me pop the pictures in and then head for the couch with the iPad.
Yeah I am definitely better…and then I’m not. Yesterday afternoon, I felt almost normal, same when I woke up this morning. Now I’m fighting (or succumbing to) a rancid headache. So back to the couch. Back to lying down. Back to not reading because the words get all tumbly. Hmmm.
Friday was ok. Not great. But I could cut stuff out and binge watch the telly by the evening.
I did quite well for an invalid.
Saturday was all cutting. Watched Shining Vale and The Bear. Much better than the Man’s binge-watching choices.
And holey moley, although Sunday morning required a nap while thinking oh so hard about the grocery list, I almost felt normal in the afternoon…completed tasks AND stood to iron for an hour or so. Such joy.
No such joy today. Head is wobbly, feel blah, need to eat, want to read or work or something, but head. Is. Ache. Also I may have over-ordered tests from the government. I started testing for school yesterday. Still positive. Also probably still incapable of actually functioning well enough to go back.
Meanwhile I did manage watering the plants yesterday…swallowtail caterpillars are back.
Last night, this baby gecko was on the ceiling in the studio. I lost sight of it. So it’s still in there somewhere.
I read some before the headache started up again. This amused me.
Ok that’s all I got. Maybe should eat something besides applesauce. Hoping for a few hours of functional tonight? I’m supposed to cook, so that would be helpful. The Man is back at work, so that’s good. I will be too…eventually. Until then…naps and forgetfulness.
So today is my first day back at school with kids…my room isn’t totally ready, I don’t have all the materials for a lab I’m apparently doing tomorrow (I feel like I should be more on top of this shit), and the Man tested positive for COVID on Monday. I’m still testing negative, but woke up with what feels like a stuffy nose? I’m writing sub plans in my head for the next 5 days (well, 3, because I don’t have to teach on the weekend, thank god), and it’s a cluster because it’s those first few days when everything is more hands on, supposed to teach them how to exist in my class, and who knows who might BE in my class if (when?) I test positive. I masked all day yesterday, will continue that. But I feel like I’m a giant-ass redwood about to fall, but not yet, maybe today? Maybe tomorrow? I just don’t know. Do I plan the labs and hope I don’t come back to my room being burnt down? I just don’t know. I’m not even done setting up our online classrooms because I just haven’t had time. The district sucking away that Friday planning time really…well…sucked. Yeah! I’m feeling better right now with a shower and a cup of tea in me, my sinuses have cleared, but my voice is off. Hell, I feel off, but that could all be in my head…I’ve done that before. Or my body is fighting it and let’s hope my immune system, two vaccine shots, and two boosters are all stronger than one variant. Ha!
Just stay away from me right now. For so many reasons. I have had a stuffy nose multiple days this summer…allergies related to weather and/or dust. So who knows.
I finished proofreading last night. That’s a good thing. It was kind of a mess. But it’s done. The mess was not because of me…I blame the copyeditor. But hey, IDK what she started with.
I’m still ironing, but pretty damn slowly. I might need to admit that I’m not going to beat that deadline. It’s OK. I have other pieces to enter, and this one will still get done. There’s just something about an insane deadline.
Piles of pieces in the 600s, 700s, and 900s…last night, all I ironed down was the cat. Hardly anything.
I think I did 16 minutes on Monday night and 26 minutes last night. Big time! Better than nothing. It is what it is. Even if what it is is frustrating.
Not a lot of color in this one. Well maybe there is, but it’s all chaotic-looking here. Lots of fleshy bits. I’m still ironing that pile of lungs/heart/whatever. So far behind.
Kitten is still depositing fur on the black fabrics in that box…
I have a piece in this upcoming show.
And another show in September in Liberty Station. I’ll post that one when I get a thingie for it.
OK. Well, I’m going to go do this first-day thing and hope for the best. It’s humid, I’m sweaty, I have meds for a stuffy nose, I have COVID tests (sorry kids, Imma test right now while you’re writing on that paper), I’m going to write sub plans during prep? I think? I honestly don’t know what to do. Right now, I’m going to print my class rosters and get to school and hopefully everything else will make sense from here on out. Wish me luck. Send the anti-COVID thoughts.
Kathy Nida 