Stupid Scissor Rules

Well. That was a weekend. I’m so glad I planned it though. I remember thinking, ah, no, you’re going to Boston the following weekend, it’s May, which is always a clusterfuck, LA is a pain in the ass, you’ll have to get somewhere to stay, blah blah blah, all the things you say when you’re trying to talk yourself out of something you really want to do. But I didn’t. Amanda Palmer was great. Amazing. A performance more than a concert, but riveting. Even though I knew some of the story, I hadn’t heard it from her, and that made a difference.

We drove up to LA, found our hotel, which was within walking distance of the venue, and hung out for a bit…

Hanging out looks like this after driving up to LA. Then headed out to get dinner early, because…well…so I joined Patreon originally to support Amanda Palmer. I had been reading her blog and she talked about it and I checked it out and went HEY. This is a thing. This is how we as a society support musicians and artists the way they want to be supported. This is how we back their projects and encourage them to do new things, better things, things that may not be very commercial, but are very much what we want to see. So I joined. And one of the things about her Patreon is she wants to hear from us and see us, so she sets up a photo shoot before every show. Ours was here…

And we needed to be there by 5:45. So we ate early…at Mikkeller…

Which has great art…

So we were at that park, waiting for AFP to show up and the security for the park? the buildings around the park? kicked us out. Because we were gathering on the walkways. They left the homeless guy on the lawn, but a bunch of liberal, semi-strange-looking people is definitely a danger to humanity.

Amanda showed up and talked to us…

Which was cool. There are many needy people who are fans. She is good to them, very patient. Much more patient than I would be.

I wish we’d had more time to walk around and photograph art around the area, but really, after the photo, we went back to the hotel for about half an hour and then headed to the venue…

The Ace Hotel is an old theater that’s been converted/adapted.

The inside is completely amazing…totally over the top…this was taken after we all left…

Our seats were in the lower balcony to the right. It was good.

She talked a lot, played a bunch of songs, there was definitely ukulele…it was emotional, sometimes painful, and funny on top of all of it. An amazing show. Four hours plus of amazing. It must be exhausting to do the show. I wanted the needy people to be quiet, but they never are. She handled them well. There are times to respond and times to ignore. I was worried the man would be bored, because he wasn’t really an AFP fan in the beginning, hadn’t heard anything since the Dresden Dolls, but she talked a lot about music and being an artist, and I think that dragged him in. He liked it. I loved it…it was a very personal experience, despite the hundreds of people and not being able to get through the bathroom line. It was worth the 5 hours of driving and getting not so much sleep and going to an iHop on Mother’s Day (oh hey, mistake) and not getting much work done and all that.

I did a drawing, but I don’t have the energy (or time for that matter) to get up and photograph it (find it first). I’ll do it later.

Yeah. Cool. Totally worth the trip.

I came home, rushed through all the errands, graded 96 emails worth of makeup work (ha!), came in here, and started ironing.

I was supposed to record the last bit for my Patreon video, but I forgot. So tired. So I’ll do that tonight. I wrote it in the calendar. After dog walking. It’s on the list.

I am nowhere near where I wanted to be with this quilt. I cut out nothing on the way to or from LA, because I did all the driving. I was too tired in the hotel. I’m about halfway through the 400s after last night, but that’s still about halfway…no, probably less than that. So I’ll have to decide if I want to bring it to Boston and cut stuff out. I can’t cut on the plane (stupid scissor rules). I could cut at three different graduation ceremonies though. Ah? Thinking about it. I have traveled with stuff to cut out before.

Anyway. It’s a busy week. I’m going to get done whatever I can. I’d like to be done with the ironing, but I can’t guarantee that. I can only try.

And oh hey…next weekend, we’ll be here…

to see the girlchild graduate. She matches the trees and the flowers.

It’ll Be Fine…

Want to watch my video explaining why you should be a patron of the Nida Arts Conglomerate? Here it is. Oh wait. I’m not a conglomerate. But I am a Nida. Watch on…

It’s highly possible that I shouldn’t record videos at 9 PM after going to the gym while waiting for dinner to cook. But realistically, when ELSE am I going to record a video. And hey! Then I edited it! Well. I did, but I didn’t do much to it. Mostly I fucked up a bunch of times and don’t really know what I’m doing (I’m using Lightworks and I watched one 7-minute video and should probably watch a lot more). I’m hoping for more experience with that in the future, which is guaranteed. Really. It is. Here’s the link to the Patreon in case you want to see other stuff.

Patreon sends me an email every day telling me all their success stories. I’m not really worried about being such a huge success that I need to quit my day job. I’d just like to quit the second and/or third job…as I debate when to open my copyediting account back up for the summer. Ugh. So that’s basically what I talk about…why give money to artists? Well, if you like their work and you’d like them to continue to make it, you can buy their work, you can buy products made from their work (embroidery patterns, posters, whatever), and you can support them on Patreon or GoFundMe or Kickstarter or whatever. One of my goals is to get enough money coming in that I can make a coloring book. What about a calendar…I could do that too, but that’s something I need time for…and time is a commodity.

Yesterday, I spent time at the gym. It was nice. I missed it. I got to read my book (which I need to be done reading by Wednesday, for book club). I came home and made dinner, and after that and editing the video, I ironed. I stayed up too late. I admit it. Sigh. My brain was running too fast…one of the hazards of working out late. But I’m not a morning person. I don’t gym in the AM. But I ironed a whole section…that I can’t show you…

I can however show you incredibly vague closeups. Even though I won’t be done ironing this weekend, I will be able to take some of these pieces with me to Los Angeles to cut out, I think. Don’t get excited. I’m not promising anything. I’m driving up to see a concert, sleep, and then drive back. Super quick trip.

It will fuck up the weekend schedule, though. And the man has a show tonight. I’m exhausted at the moment, but will somehow find the energy to go to the show.

So last night, I was done ironing…I didn’t want to start a whole new section and think about it as a whole and all that, so I sat down to watch the rest of the episode of Russian Doll that I was watching…and I can’t just sit and watch things, so I embroidered.

This is another thing I can work on in the car. I love that I pick dark colors, so that all the animal hairs in the house will show up on them. I spend so much time picking hairs off things. Sigh. I do like this red/orange/yellow variegated thread though. It has a nice flow of color. I need to trace the next stuff on this, so I can keep going. All the details. The rest of her hair. Her eyeballs!

Next weekend, I’ll be getting up at ungodly hours due to being back East. Looking forward to that version of lack of sleep. I hope the girlchild is ready for all of us to arrive. This is how far I got before my adult brain started yelling about how late it was.

Looking good. More to go. OK, so a lab at school today, a show tonight with three bands…hoping to go straight to bed after that and then I’ll do 700 things tomorrow. While driving to LA. It’ll be fine. You watch.

Teach Grade Art Repeat

So much prep to do right now! I was making lunches (healthy ones full of happy veggies to make me happy) last night at like 9 PM. Not ideal. But I had a union meeting that ran late and then I was grading stuff, but then remembered the lunches. I hate when it says “takes 15 minutes to cook” and then 45 minutes later, you’re still trying to get it all done. I feel like it takes an expert 15 minutes to cook, and it’s true I was trying to grade stuff at the same time, but hey, it still took that long to cook my protein, as they called it. Whatever. I had prepped it all earlier, before the man cooked dinner. Like I walked in the door from my meeting, fed the dogs, made a cup of tea, and started cutting veggies. That was the 20 minutes of prep. Which was close, I guess. Whatever. TIME. There’s never fucking enough of it.

I’m down to five assignments that need grading. I really really really want to go to my daughter’s graduation without having to grade shit on the plane. This may not be possible. I’m trying. I want to read my book and sew and draw on the plane. And watch a movie that’s not videos of kids trying to explain plastics to me (that was last year, at my son’s graduation). I’m getting there. I need to see progress. I finished two assignments yesterday. That’s good.

So in terms of art stuff last night, I started at 11 PM. Yup. Late. I really wanted to be so much farther on this quilt than I am. OK. Well. It still will get done. I can do this.

I got through the 200s. I really didn’t get a lot done last night, I’m realizing. And I stayed up too late. I don’t even know how. I must have been doing something else on the computer and I just am not remembering it. Sigh. I think half my brain is already on summer break. Sheesh. So above, those are some of the fabrics I used yesterday. I’m hoping to do more tonight, as always…but also the gym and grading. So time is always the issue.

Not for this guy though…

He just wants to know when it’s dinner time.

And this is her “Ima gonna whack you” look…

Sometimes she is just offended by my existence (I was reaching for the mouse to start whatever I was watching on Netflix, which was a lot more light-hearted than shows about dead baby seals and climate change, although before that, I was watching This Is Us while I was grading, and that wasn’t light-hearted at all, and this is all so ironic, because I’m watching Russian Doll and it’s all about her dying over and over. SUPER light-hearted. So yeah.).

Anyway, I need to go buy a few dozen donuts for my 2nd period class and try to work like I got enough sleep last night…it’s a skill. And then hopefully I’ll feel like I’ve accomplished something by midnight, so I can go to sleep then instead of later, which hurts more in the morning. Teach grade art repeat.

Grading Elves. Uh huh.

I’m looking for a good, relatively basic, free video editor recommendation. The internet is not your friend when you’re looking for such things. I could write a post right now about free video editing programs and I have no clue what I’m talking about. If you have a recommendation, let me know. I’m on a PC usually…I guess I could try using the Mac, but it’s my school computer, and I try not to do personal stuff on it. I just need to be able to string videos together really. Maybe someday I’ll get fancy and add titles or music. OK, I can probably handle titles. Maybe. Maybe not THIS week.

It was a long day yesterday…surprisingly tiring. Tutoring means you have to be ON a lot longer than normal. I made it home and was tired. I’m still tired. I even went to bed early, but according to my sleep app, I moved a lot. Or that might have been the cat. It’s hard to say. I do know the hot flashes right now are awful. Seriously, they’ve been horrible for the last week and a half. I’m not sure why, as always…my body refuses to keep me informed. I remember this happening last year, but later, like around the last month of school…they eventually went away. So there’s hope.

I was relieved that all the quilts I shipped across the country last week made it. I don’t really worry about when I send one or two quilts, but I shipped out seven in one day. It made me nervous.

I gave up on trying to grade stuff when I got home after tutoring. I was going to finish the assignment I’d been trying to get done all day, but then the phone rang and it was dinner time and I was tired, so I did this instead.

Cat assistance not particularly helpful. I need to trace the next parts of it…

I got a new tracing paper…it’s supposed to work better. We’ll see. Really the easy thing would be not be stitching these out on black. Duh.

Eventually I got up and went back to nature tv, although this was sad. It makes me sad to see how we’re destroying the world, but it also makes me sad when baby animals get eaten. Last night was both of those…

Speaking of which, here’s an amazing picture the girlchild took…

Unfortunately, those baby bunnies were dinner for someone. Nature, you are such a bitch.

More closeups of fabric, since I can’t show much right now.

Ironing this thing is not going quickly. I’m doubting my ability to get it all ironed by the weekend. In fact, there’s no way. Seriously. I’m only getting in about an hour to an hour and a half a night. I’m only in the 200s right now after three nights. There are 700 pieces to go. I’m going to try not to think about the next two weekends and how I’m not going to be able to work on this. It will all be fine. FIIINNNEEE. That’s what I say about the grading as well. It will all magically get done. By elves. Grading elves. Grading elves who know how to use computers. Yup.

OK, another meeting after school. Then home, need to make lunches for the rest of the week, plus get some grading done, and then ironing, blessed ironing. May there always be progress. And hopefully sleep.

Work Now, Art Later…

I see a lot of prospecti (prospectuses?) for art exhibits. I know what my work looks like. But then they put in phrases like “suitable for children and adults” and I don’t know what that means. I mean, I assume it means, don’t enter, Nida, because you’ve got the boobs and the uterus on there. Like why can’t they just say no nudity? If that’s what they mean. I’m assuming that’s one of the things they mean. I don’t think you should hide nudity from kids. Sexual violence, sure…violence in general, if you can, so ironic considering the video games. Sure, my kid can play this violent shoot ’em up video game where the goal is to kill everyone and get all the things, but those fabric boobs are gonna fuck him up. Sigh. Anyway. I guess I’m not entering that show.

I do have a bunch of shows to enter coming up, and I need to calendar them so I don’t forget. One of them says essentially “no boobs”, but I knew that going in and I think the overall goal is good, so I went with it. Plus this topic has no boobs in it. This time. That’s the one I can’t show online yet. It’s hard to work on a piece and not show parts of it. I’m very much a show-the-process person. Which is the video I’m working on for my Patreon…trying to show more of the process. I’m hoping to have it done by the weekend and posted. For only a dollar a month! You can watch me explain my shit. And decide I’m crazy. It’s OK…you won’t be the first one. I want to talk about how I do it and why I do it and what makes me do it.

So yesterday, we only took one dog for a walk. The old lady is limping and needs to rest for a week, we think. She gets arthritic at times, and probably overdid it on Sunday, running around. So we left her a treat ball (and she ate a magazine), and took the little one out…

So many flowers still! We had a little rain yesterday…

The mustard is growing like crazy here too…

And this little guy ended up covered in those twirly sticks that are a pain to get out of his fur…

These guys were talking to us…

Still new flowers everywhere…

I love spring. This guy was sparkly.

And large…

The weather was gorgeous…there’s something about those big rain clouds filling the sky…

We listened for coyotes a few times. Couldn’t decide if we really heard them.

We see them all the time, so we know they’re here.

We went up to see the vernal pool…it’s doing well…

Bigger than usual for May, for sure. We were trying to figure out if the little plants that are all over are the precursor to this flower. Couldn’t tell.

We’ll have to go back in a week and see what’s there. The progression of plant life as we get closer to summer is very different from normal. The difference between 4″ and 14″ of rain. Speaking of, around here is where it started raining on us.

It was short-lived but not light. Puppy didn’t like it. Here’s the vernal pool from above.

Ducks landing in it…I’m sure the frogs are fully developed from the tadpoles we saw a month ago.

We got home, I worked for a while…a time-consuming (and brain-consuming) grading assignment. I only did one period. It was all I could handle. And then in for the ironing! I watched all of Dead to Me, which I liked, and then went on to Our Planet, which I really liked. I am a nature show-a-holic.

As you can see, I’m ironing things. For the quilt you can’t see.

I’m using fabrics for that quilt…oooh…flesh tones.

Probably means there’s a person in it. I’m wondering when I last made a quilt without a person in it. Probably when I did the little bird and cat quilts…but not since then. I really am a figurative artist.

I have tutoring tonight, so we’ll see if I get any grading done. I need to do some embroidery, and I need to do a lot more ironing. Remember my plan to be done with the ironing by the weekend? Yeah. Well. I’m working on it. It’s just slow. Of the 924 pieces, I only have about 160 or so ironed. I got stymied by a design element that needs to be colored in a certain way…and I don’t know what that is. Plus I went to bed really late Sunday night, so I made an effort to go to bed earlier last night. Not that it helped…I just laid there and tried to fall asleep. Silly really. OK. Work now, art later.

Balance Shmalance.

This month is a little crazy. There’s a bunch of travel, and I don’t really usually travel much. Sometimes to LA for exhibits, one trip during Spring Break, the occasional run to Lake Arrowhead for a few days…that’s it. This month is Boston for the girlchild’s graduation AND a trip to LA to see Amanda Palmer. Looking forward to both, but there’s some prep that’s gotta happen…school prep especially, because I don’t wanna come back to hellishness. I mean, I might come back to that anyway, but balance…balance is this thing I’m always trying to get to and am always so far away from.

I just got a phone call that reminded me I’m not the only one stressed all to hell and back. If you know a teacher, give them a hug. Or a coffee. Or a glass of wine…whatever seems appropriate for that moment.

So I started this weekend with a crazy to-do list and I got a bunch of it done, but never all of it. NEVER. I graded some, I did some school prep, I went to an opening, I wandered around my own block with my neighbors, I raided a friend’s classroom…

So here’s my Patreon page…link is in the sidebar…

I’m working on the first video for it. Need to figure out what editor to use for that. Learning curve!

Then I washed and ironed these guys…

Need to send the official photos over…

Oh yeah, and in my house, if you leave fabric out at all for any period of time…this is what happens…

Cat incursion. Sigh. This was the next morning.

Went to this opening. Will hopefully have a post up later this week on this exhibit.

It’s an interesting show…

Sunday morning, I went to the classroom of a teacher friend who is retiring, and I stole a bunch of books.

Well, she gave them to me…

Along with a bunch of other stuff. I’m terrified to retire because of my classroom. I don’t want to clean it out.

This was on the deck yesterday. What? That cat thinks he’s a dog.

Simba is the only one questioning it. We don’t usually let cats out because of coyotes, but this cat…thinks he’s a dog. He also likes the outside. If we build a catio, it will be because of him.

Calli turned 10 this weekend. The bald patch on her nose has all of a sudden made her look way older.

She also sprained a leg yesterday and is limping around like a…well, an old lady.

After making dinner and grading stuff, I finally headed into the office to start ironing this quilt onto fabric.

I can’t show you much of this. It’s for a show entry and I’m not supposed to show it until jurying is done. So extreme and vague closeups it is! Oh yeah, fabrics…

That light blue one still had Midnight’s fur ALL over it…it came from her favorite drawer. Made me sad to clean it off. She’s only been dead for a year and a half, right? Sheesh. I miss that cat.

I didn’t finish the first 100 pieces. I was distracted. I had a hard time focusing. Hopefully tonight will be better.

Although I already stayed up too late last night. My art brain told me it was OK. Ha! Dumb. ‘Twas not. Too late it was. Today I feel it. OK, ready for school. Then dogs. Then working…school and then art. I can do it all! Balance shmalance.

From My Head Down to My Snakeskin Boots*

(I would never wear snakeskin boots. I think snakes should keep their skins. It just happens to be what I was listening to as I finished writing.) Debating how to get to school today. I could walk, but I should have already started. Plus I’m still sick and physical exertion is not a great plan. I could take the car that’s here, but that causes logistical issues later. Well. Or I just leave tutoring early if necessary. Not responsible teacher behavior, but maybe the easiest choice. I call Lyft. It’s not a long way and is reasonably priced, but my house is hard to find. Not sure I want to deal with that. Make the boychild wake up and take me. I could. But I probably should have told him last night then. And my brain was in fuzz mode. So I didn’t. Too many decisions. I have 20 minutes to figure it out. Easiest is to just take the car and deal with the consequences later. The car guy has had it since Thursday, trying to diagnose what’s causing the random stalls. I just want it working before we go to Utah in two weeks. I also want Utah to warm up slightly, especially at night, but that might not happen. Someday I’ll have enough money to vacation in a real bed. With walls. But still in cool places. Maybe just a trailer or something.

I didn’t get anything done last night for grades. Instead I applied for something that I think is important, but suspect I won’t be picked for…which is fine. I applied. I can let it go if it doesn’t happen. I’ll figure grading out during class this week. Hopefully. There’s only like 56 videos to watch. I should take my headphones to school with me maybe. Not today, because today is virtual reality day, and that requires me to manage, but tomorrow, when they start their posters…I don’t have to be as present for those. One ear in, one ear out, listening for whatever crazy. Not sure I can concentrate enough in class to do that.

We got a beehive removed from one of the composters yesterday. They built it in like 4 days. Resourceful beasts. Someday I’ll consider a beehive on the property, once I figure out how to take care of it. And away from the back door. I use a guy who takes the bees to his hives and installs them there. He’s a nice guy. Plus he sends me pictures of what he does when I’m not home, so my students can see the bees and the hive.

Normally I walk the dogs every Monday after school. Don’t let anyone tell you dogs don’t know the days of the week, because this was me when I got home.

Why aren’t you taking us out? Why aren’t you putting your boots on? Why? Needy at all guys? Wednesday. I’m aiming to be better by Wednesday. At least enough to hike 3 miles. Calli was physically pushing me with her nose, lifting up my arm, get up get up! Sorry guys. Don’t feel well.

I started the ironing late, probably 10:30…but all I had left were these four tiny bugs…

Awww, they’re cute. And then I ironed the whole thing to a background…

Yup. She’s about 30″ w x 50″ h. Tonight I should start the stitch down. I don’t expect it to take long. There’s detail, but it’s not a huge piece. I’m hoping to get it done in a couple of nights. Maybe 3-4 hours? Thursday night, pinbaste. Start quilting…not Friday, because I have a meeting. This weekend, it needs to get quilted. With everything else. Aack. No, I can do this. I can. I emailed the photographer. I’m committed now.

*The Hiss, Brass Tacks

It’s Not in the Paper, It’s on the Wall*

So I’m still sick and I had some very dizzy exhausting moments on Saturday and Sunday, but some of that may have been exertion or food-related (have to remember to eat even when I’m sick), so there’s that. I was apparently functional enough to iron almost an entire quilt together, but not to remember to actually buy the pasta for dinner tonight. Even though I had a list for everything we needed for the week, it wasn’t written on there, because why? Because foggy sick brain, that’s why. Like don’t put me in charge of anything today…besides the 140 kids I’m normally in charge of, plus teaching another teacher’s class, because it’s April Fool’s Day, so I’m gonna teach history (but just for a period, it’s OK).

Seriously, though, I put in 8 hours and 40 minutes into the ironing and I’m almost done. I’ll be done tonight, assuming I don’t collapse from exhaustion after school.

Here’s both sides of the hair complete.

I thought I was totally off on placement, but somehow made it all fit right…

Once I got the neck in, it made more sense to do the torso next…

Although that’s minus a butterfly. And then I attached the dirt, just to make sure it worked.

This piece is about being connected to nature. So yeah, that’s a volcano there. Attached to her nipple. Like you do.

Then I started on the face. I did the butterfly in there somewhere too…it’s peeking out on the bottom left.

Her face is covered in stuff. Um. I just coughed up my lung. Bad plan. Can’t remember when I got up in the middle of the night and took medicine. Let’s assume it was at least 4-6 hours ago and take some more.

Always iron the eyes separately. That way they won’t be too kittywampus.

Although she’s got a droopy eyelid. So at midnight, this is all I had left to do…4 tiny bugs.

It was tempting to just do them, but I was tired and I knew I would still have to iron it to a background, so it’s OK to leave it until tonight.

Here she is so far…

Looking good! I love this. And getting her all ironed this weekend was a good thing. I was seriously worried about being able to finish, but now I think I’m fine. Maybe. This weekend might be an issue.

Her face minus 4 bugs…

Anyway. I’ve already started drawing the next one, but I won’t be able to show any of it. That ought to be interesting. I will need to draw and embroider more to entertain you maybe. Or sing songs. For the next two months. Except I keep coughing, so singing might be an issue. So iron down tonight and hopefully start stitch down. I think I can be pinbasted by Thursday? Hoping? Then quilted by the end of the weekend, then binding. Photographer next week. I should email him, because the deadline is tight.

But first, off to school to pretend to know about the Reformation. Or the Illumination. Or some Tion. (Notes to self that art history is really the ONLY history she’s had since high school.)

*Sublime, April 26, 1992 (Miami)

Blame the Virus

Hi. I’m sick again. Twice in a month! Sheesh. The cesspool I work in…or live in. This one feels and sounds like it came from my bedmate. Not the cat. So there’s that. So I’m coughing up a lung. Or a planet. Hard to say. Plus no energy. So I didn’t feel well enough Friday night to do anything artistic. I graded and then I went to bed. First I fell asleep on the couch. I thought if I rested, I’d be able to finish the cutting out of pieces, and that didn’t happen.

But this is awesome. Spring has sprung!

I’m not sure I feel better today than yesterday, which is a little disturbing. Oh well. Life.

Another one released…

I finally got around to buying fabrics to stitch these up. I don’t know when I’m going to have TIME to do that, but that’s a whole ‘nother problem.

Yesterday I did no work. Sorry, job. Not sorry. I did finish cutting everything out…it took another hour and a half or so. So that’s 9 1/2 hours total cutting…and then I sorted yesterday. I had to take a short nap after sorting…

Standing was an issue. But then I mostly rallied. I started ironing…

I drank a lot of tea, I think. I took some breaks. I ate a little. I read a little. I watched a movie with the man who got me sick. Yeah. I forgive him. Not his fault. Blame the virus.

Ironing the dirt…

It’s a lot of rocks…

That’s the whole base done…ready to link into the body.

Then I did the sky…

This quilt isn’t huge. It’s not small either. But not huge.

Added all the things in the sky…

I think this was after the movie. Not sure.

This definitely was. I lost a leaf ball. I was trying to find it at about 11:45 PM. I remember that.

And I ironed a piece of the stem to the wrong fabric, so I redid it. This was somewhere close to midnight. I said I rallied. This was when I got tired. I had done part of an arm before and realized the head needed to go behind it, so it would make sense to skip ahead in the numbers, pull from the 500s and then the 400s, leaving the 300s behind for now.

Do I feel guilty for not doing any grading yesterday? Well, yes…yes, I do. But I need this to be done too. Progress report grades are due next Tuesday…so the project needs to be graded, but really…anything else can fall by the wayside. Again. Sigh. I really do try to do my best at ALL the jobs and then my body says no, you can’t. So no, I didn’t hike yesterday, even though I really wanted to. We’re aiming for next week…Saturday or Sunday. Hopefully my lungs will be back by then.

I do have about 50 emails to get through with kids’ late work. I should do those today. Plus laundry and grocery shopping and getting ready for the week. But ugh. I just want to laze around and iron a lot. Sigh.

This guy…best use of the stationary bike ever…

I mean, really…all the things are cat beds, right?

The Pile Is Still There…

That moment when your daughter, who is less than 2 months away from graduating college, tells you she’s dropping out to become a boudoir photographer.

It’s OK. She’s joking. I’m good. I’m laughing even.

Long staff meeting yesterday. It was supposed to be fun, a photo scavenger hunt, but I wasn’t in the mood for it. I have too much work to do. I wanted to get home and walk the dogs. Which I did anyway…

There’s still water in the streambed…

This guy wasn’t scared of the dogs…

Everything is so pretty now…

Lots of flowers and greenery…

Enjoy it now…it’ll be dead in a couple of months…

Walks are good for dogs and humans…pretty interesting flowers on this bush.

I know this bush is always there, but I don’t remember the flowers…

I’m just so happy when I make it out there, even though we got back at like 6:30 and then I had to cook dinner and it was late and I was tired. It’s OK.

Lots of these little guys…

Anyway, after dinner, I did not grade anything. I figured an almost-2-hour staff meeting that was mostly a waste of time (sorry…I wasn’t in the mood for interacting with people. Introvert problems) meant I shouldn’t have to grade at night as well. Plus I wanted to finish ironing…which I did! So 8 hours total of ironing to fabric, with 142 fabrics…

That’s a lot for a quilt this size. But there’s all the pieces…

Now I need to cut them all out. Ha! OK. Easy peasy. I only worked for about 30 minutes, because it was late by then, but I did a little.

You’ll be seeing this pile for a few days. Hopefully not a lot…but who knows. Meanwhile, work calls. Loudly. Sigh. I always feel bad when I don’t grade at night. Silly really. I should be able to take a break. But then I get to school and the pile is still there.

Gonna drag my introverted self out of here now. To school. With a million people. Yeah.