A Me Thing

Hello? I’m sorry…95 degrees today? 97 on Monday? It’s freakin’ October? Some people are wearing sweaters this week in other parts of the country. No thank you. Too hot. Not a fan. NEED a fan.

Speaking of weather, the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene to the southeast…distinctly awful. I’ve seen too many art studios that flood waters kamikazed through, and that’s not even dealing with lost lives and homes. We have a friend who was supposed to be moving to Johnson City this fall, but they had delayed the decisionmaking. I’m not sure what you do. I mean, I remember when I was living abroad, people would always shake their heads at living in California, with “all the earthquakes”…that was before we were Wildfire Central. There’s certainly no escaping the crazy weather patterns caused by climate change at this point…there’s just mitigation, remediation, and plain old survival…if you’re lucky. I’m going to donate to somewhere…just haven’t decided where yet.

That same weather has delayed one of my quilts from arriving, which is not a huge deal compared to what actual people are dealing with…I see it made it to Jacksonville…if I’d known a hurricane was arriving…who am I kidding? I shipped it the first day I could, based on grades being due etc. It’ll get there when it gets there. The gallery probably has a bunch of pieces they’re waiting on. We’ll all survive the delay.

Meanwhile, my art here is all bugs, all the time. I have things in my head, but I need to get the bugs done by next weekend for delivery. And sanity. So I got two sewn down to the canvases on Monday night…

The third was fussy. The paint needed to be redone (they all actually needed it…sloppy painting the night before). This one, there was a flake of something shiny in exactly the wrong spot. I think it was the paint off the paintbrush handle. My paintbrushes are all ancient. So I picked that off…should have painted it Monday night, but ran out of time. Painted it last night, and then ironed the ladybug together…

I did two of each bug: one normal bug colors (for that bug) and one NOT normal…tending toward rainbows. I also trimmed the Wonder Under for the last bug. I had bugs in different stages of the project so people could see what it looked like in the demo. So now I have four ready for stitchdown, and hopefully the fifth tonight.

I also went to ceramics on Monday. I had this thing that was supposed to be another mug (ha!), but was way too big (I will never learn), so now it will be a planter. I had painted it with all the leftover underglazes and started carving it.

Or here’s the picture…there were so many people in the studio on Monday. It was too many people for me, really. I prefer a quiet Friday afternoon.

I need to make a decision about buying more clay. I did some touchup on the boot vase and reduced glaze on the paper bag vase…need to touch that one up a bit. I’m worried the glaze is going to run everywhere.

This is the opening between my kitchen and the living area. It’s usually not blocked by a baby gate, but we have an inquisitive kitten who has decided this is where he will climb into the kitchen 17 times a night. So baby gate.

Don’t judge the mess there. I can’t seem to get it under control. It’s totally a me thing. Not a priority. Why would it be when I have bugs to iron?

OK. Wednesday. The last two days, kids have been sleeping in class. Today is a lab. Hopefully that will help. I can’t be amazingly entertaining all the time. It’s exhausting. I couldn’t get into pilates this week (ugh scheduling), so I went to the gym last night (and finished my book! yay!). Tonight is book club. I read the book and three more in the series. It’s light, but enjoyable. Ghosts and dead people light. Not traumatizing. Then hopefully more bug things. I’d like to be done with bugs soon, finish the clay pieces, and then start the next big quilt. I like working on big quilts. I like reading big books. I like coming home to things that I’m already immersed in and can continue to be immersed in, instead of trying to start new things. Also a me thing.

School Breaks…

Rough way to start a week. No, I didn’t finish grading. I’m not even sure I can finish tonight. Two-hour staff meeting plus book club. I have about 20 more of the academic assignment to grade and a pile of redoes on homework. Not a ton, but I have to process it as well. And there’s book club tonight; have I finished the book? Nope. Oh well. I’ll go. I need a break from school. This weekend was not a break from school. My tiny breaks this weekend consisted of allowing myself a chapter here or there of the book, washing the dog’s butt after he pooped on himself, washing the boychild’s bathtub after I realized where the old lady cat had been pooping (I had wondered where she was hiding it), and watering most of the yard. Oh yeah, I had to pick up and reposition a trellis that fell over. I also delivered a quilt and got my blood labs done for the doc; she’s been harassing me, but with a 12-hour fast, I needed to do it on a weekend. That’s about all I got done. I did allow myself most of an hour each night for the little quilts…

Friday night, I cut out all the pieces for both of them.

Saturday, I ironed them together…

They’re super small.

Last night, I did stitchdown…

One…

And then the other…

And then sandwiched and pinbasted them…

I quilted the little one before I needed to go to bed…

I had to be up early this morning to deal with school meetings. I’m exhausted again. Not enough sleep.

I did go to ceramics after school on Friday, spending about 2 hours doing this and that. I did more on the mug…

It might be done now? Not sure…

I had this bowl I made out of leftover clay and it’s been sitting around, underglaze just waiting for a plan. I had one on Friday.

Some more underglazing and a little carving. Although now I’m realizing I didn’t do the inside of that one heart. OK. Need to do that. I can’t go today though…it’ll have to be tomorrow.

The paper bag vase came out of the bisque fire. I was texting girlchild pictures of it and she reminded me of the plan we had for it. But I had wanted to try some underglazing with a wax resist and then glaze over. So I painted a little thing…

I had some leftover underglazes. I hate to waste that stuff. It’s expensive. So I made an underglaze coat on this pot/mug/whatever the fuck it is.

I also picked up the glazed base for the winged woman piece…

I love how the oil spills turned out. I also love how it fits with the rest of the piece…

Next up? Wings and headpiece thingie. Bowie is not so sure about it.

Have to hide the ceramic stuff in bathrooms and the girlchild’s room so he doesn’t knock them over. He’s still a kamikaze parkour cat, despite the neutering. Nova doesn’t necessarily appreciate him.

She’s mostly just shocked at his existence…unless she’s playing with him.

This did actually start out as play. But sometimes she goes places just because he can’t go there with her, like the hammock.

The Man’s band plays a wedding this Friday. The singer made a poster with a GoGos’ image, adding in the guys’ photos…here’s the Man himself…

So goofy.

OK. Two meetings this morning, before school. Both student-related. Then teaching balanced and unbalanced forces again. I tell you, I’m not sure what’s happening the rest of the week. Prep period is definitely grading. And screenshotting kids’ grades for the new 8th-grade team that goes together on Wednesday. Plus? I lose 10 kids. Con? The work to get them out. I feel for the combo teacher. I’m glad I’m not them, for sure. And none of them know what’s about to happen. I’m losing one kid I really like. Maybe two. The others I can live without. Three I’m quite happy to see leave, maybe four. Then a 2-hour staff meeting about poverty. Hoping it’s useful instead of just “your students and their families are poor”. No duh. I have duty before that, so normally I need to pee, make tea, and find food before coming over…I’ll be late and it’s in the gym, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to do the eating part. I’m going to need to. Blood sugar was low this morning. I’m feeling it. Then finish grades. For real. And book club. On the book I haven’t finished. Can I have a nap in there too? Not sure. Might be a contentious parent meeting with me as a rep (not one of my parents). Fun times. I’ll just be glad to be done with the first round of grades. The second round is due the weekend we’re going camping. I think. Ugh. OK. Going. More tea.

Find Some Zen…

Hey yo. It’s Friday. Before grades are due. So I’m going to roll into grading for 6 hours straight I think, because I can’t get caught up. Ah well. Hopefully I will get better at it throughout the year, because hey, it’s only been like 21 years of it. 22? Something like that. I spent an hour last night writing a series of paragraphs explaining the piece I made for the We Got the Power exhibit that will be in Miami October through December. I had just picked it up from the photographer’s and the due date is Monday…so I made myself do it. I started it once before but then the computer deleted the halfway-done Google form (just like it does to my students), so I had to start over. Ugh.

Here’s the piece that has no name…

It does have a name, actually. It was from the movie Chiraq and I wrote it on a post-it note that I think the ex’s dog ate. Or she ate most of it and it ended up in the recycling and I forgot that that was the only place I had written it down. So I will have to watch the movie again? Or something.

This piece is not huge at 12×24″.

But it does have almost 400 pieces. I drew an Earth Mother trying to protect the women and children from the violence of war (and men). The exhibit is in response to the play Lysistrata, remade in the movie Chiraq (sort of), where a child is killed and women object to the violence of war (gang war in the movie). Their response is to withhold sexual favors from the men until they agree to stop fighting (shooting). And it works! The original play was written by a man, as much as we know.

That man is holding a video game controller. I included Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Russia, the Ukraine, and the US as participants in current wars.

Me? I’m all about how to protect the children…make the world safe for them.

And shooting things up and fighting over territory is never going to do that. It’s a tough one, though. Ukraine gets our hearts because of the way Russia just came in and started to take, but the Gaza violence is so much more complicated. There’s no easy solutions even if we just think of the kids because people have all these ideas of what their kids need (a homeland?). Land rights. Sigh. Peaceful living together. Double sigh. So yeah.

This piece has sold…for when it comes back from the show. So that’s cool.

The two little quilts I’m working on, someone asked, because I called them ‘baby quilts’, are they FOR babies? Um no. They’re just really tiny. I finished the Wonder Under trimming and took two days to iron them to fabric…this is the smaller one.

This one took two nights…

Only because I did the other one first. And I’m running out of time each night.

But I finished last night. Damn that bird is gonna be bright. I need to figure out how to drill through the glaze that dripped into the holes I was going to use to hang these in the clay pieces…diamond bit, for sure. There’s always a risk the clay will break, which would suck. But hoping to cut things out tonight after grading for a million hours. Ugh.

I woke up in the middle of the night to the dog barking, but not in bed with me. I was really confused because there was a furry body next to me, but it was Luna, not Simba. He was brought back by the Man. But he was barky all night, so I kind of feel like a semi rammed through me.

This was after Back-to-School Night on Wednesday…

A Bowie/Nova sandwich. Sweet babies.

I found this nest in the yard the other night…fell out of the tree…

It’s always fascinating to see what they make the nests out of. There’s definitely some human materials in there. I need to go back to throwing thread snips out into the yard for them.

Followed this big truck to work yesterday…

Funny.

OK. I’m teaching balanced/unbalanced forces today. I’m hoping to grade homework from last week at the same time. I have slides to grade…got through one class last night and finally got into a rhythm. So hopefully will finish those tonight? Or tomorrow…let’s be realistic. I’m going to ceramics after school and it’s my turn to cook dinner. Plus it’s Friday and I’m already exhausted. Does not bode well for lots of grading tonight. My team is going through some drama at work…hopefully that will chill out and everyone will find some zen over the weekend. I am hoping to get these two little quilts cut out and ironed together this weekend, maybe even stitched down? That would be nice. And buy a drill bit. Sometime. Not sure when. Oh yeah, pack up a quilt for Quilt Visions and deliver it…that opening is coming up. I’ll be there. Come see it (mid-October). Otherwise, we’re sliding into October, one of my favorite weather months (but schoolwise, usually a long month…but we have two 3-day weekends this year…maybe that will help). It’s certainly been delightfully cloudy and cool all week. That won’t continue much longer, but I’m appreciating it while it does. OK. Gotta go to school for real now…

Heat

Feels like Hades here…and yes, I know Arizona is hotter and so are parts of the Middle East, but I choose not to live there. And yes, this happens every freakin’ September, sometimes August, sometimes October, but it never feels good when it happens. I am glad to be working because there is A/C at work, so at least I get a little respite from the heat, but then it’s crazy there, so there’s that. Actually, mostly the labs and kids have been doing OK…there’s just been some outbursts (like literally sound coming out of mouths in ways I did not need to deal with)…although my co-teacher had broken glass. Oh wait, I had that too. We’re down a radiometer. Again. Every year. I need a plastic one. Or a sturdy childproof one. Yes, these are 13-year-olds. No, they are not gentle with things. Or people. Plus it’s hot. Did I mention that? I haven’t been able to get a lot of schoolwork done at home with the heat. I suspect I will need to just take my computer somewhere airconditioned tomorrow to grade. The library? Somewhere that serves caffeine…good caffeine. Will have to think that through.

I finished ironing the piece down to the background…a light one for once.

I do like me a dark background, but there were enough dark things in this that I didn’t think it would work. Last night, I stitched the whole thing down…

Yes, I stayed up a little too late to do it.

Now she’s ready to sandwich, pinbaste, and quilt. Which I could also probably do in a night, except I need to do some embroidery too. I might do that before I sandwich it. I don’t know. I’ll decide sometime today.

The plan is to (1) survive labs today (no outbursts or demands to be reseated or to go to the bathroom when you haven’t done any work). (2) Set up classroom for next week. (3) Go to ceramics. It’s OK…it was supposed to be 105 degrees and now it will only be 102. It’ll probably be 90-something in the studio, but if no one else is there (and why the fuck would they be on such a hot day), I can find all the fans and point them at me. Then the Man and I are going out to dinner, because he has a wedding to play at tomorrow (no fucking way am I going to a wedding), so he’ll be gone from 10:30 AM to probably 1 in the morning, maybe later. I, however, have to pick up some art from Liberty Station, get my brain and neck scanned (2nd brain scan in 6 months…fun times), and go to two art openings…that part is cool except they are miles away. It’ll be fine. It will ALL be fine. I’m hoping to have an hour or two between the MRIs and the art openings to grade stuff. Because I didn’t do it yesterday or today or the day before because it was too hot and I mentally couldn’t. But realistically, I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull that off. I’m also keeping an eyeball on my old kitty and this heat. She’s not a fan. She also HAS a fan…in my office, that I am keeping on at this point to try to cool this room off. She’s cranky as shit, keeps trying to bite me, but doesn’t have it in her. Because old. And hot. Poor thing. So we’ll see.

Wednesday night’s book club, I did a little stitching.

Still doing the inner borders of Homegrown. It’s not difficult, but it’s not fast. And I haven’t been doing a lot of it because school. Sucks up time.

OK. So yeah. Hot today but mostly gonna be inside. With kids who wear sweatshirts and sweatpants when it’s over 100 degrees out. Some of these kids are funny and kind and amusing and a little weird. As always. I feel like we have more of those this year, and I appreciate that. Some of them are not those things. And some suck up a lot of my energy. That was yesterday. So hopefully today is better. One can only hope. And then be pleased or disappointed. Or accepting. Because it’s like this every year, right? I also have to do some fluency/literacy thing. I recorded the kids reading, but I’m supposed to mark this form in some weird archaic way that makes sense if you were trained to teach kids to read, which I wasn’t. So it’s just more work for me. And kind of silly, really. But whatever. Looking forward to some art time and reading time (I wish I could read during an MRI…I wonder if they can put in my audiobook?). And just not being at school for a few days…although it is airconditioned. Hmmm.

It Just Looks Easy

Hey. Short school week. But let’s shove a bunch of meetings and trainings in there and do labs every day and put kids outside for one station when it’s 95+ degrees outside. Fun times. Still don’t have a routine here. I’ll get there. By the end of September…that’s how long it usually takes.

Artwise, I ironed more on Monday…

About 100 pieces…and then I finished last night…

Stayed up a little late. Tonight I can iron it to the background, which is not dark, for once. I made a video of the first stage…

It may or may not be easier to see. Long and skinny is never easy to photograph. All the pieces in this show are supposed to be the same size though. Anyway…I’ll iron it down tonight and start stitchdown. Hopefully.

In ceramics, I worked on the mug…here’s the video so far…

And because sometimes the video is stupid…here’s some photos…

I underglazed the background…

Trying to carve on a bumpy, curved surface is a challenge…

I watch people doing it in videos and it looks so easy.

Practice, I know. I also think their pieces are more leather hard.

So I’m just messing around because I’ve never really done this before. So no, I don’t know what I’m doing. But I’m doing it. That might be the key. People always ask me “how did you get so good at…” and the answer is always practice. Keep doing it. Until it looks easy…which is usually like 20 years later. And even then, it’s still not necessarily easy…it just LOOKS easy. I’ll be good at ceramics in my late 70s. Maybe.

I underglazed this too, but I think it needs more coats on the outside.

But I ran out of time.

I’m going to carve it too. Somehow. My plans erupt when I sit down at the end of the day with the clay. Luckily Monday, I had off, so it was the middle of the afternoon…but my brain doesn’t always have a plan until I start working on the piece. Which is fine. These aren’t high art. They’re fucking around.

I just finished reading a difficult book, Know My Name, by Chanel Miller. It wasn’t difficult because of the writing…it’s very well written. It’s the topic. Miller is the woman Brock Turner sexually assaulted…the entitled Stanford swimmer…and the judge let go on a less-than minimal sentence. A friend asked, why are you reading it if it’s hard? Because her story deserves to be read. I knew so much about him and how it ruined his life (um…read the last bit here)…

She talks about Stanford’s lack of appropriate response, the court’s lack of care for the victim, society’s blame of victims, and how it all affects the victim. It’s her personal story of getting through the aftermath, as much as anyone ever gets through it. It also has her victim statement, which is difficult to read, but the book ends like this…

She deserves to be heard. Some nonfiction is a chore to read…and this was not. It was difficult because of the topic, and at times, I would close the book and go water some plants instead, but I’m glad I read it. We shouldn’t be hiding the victim’s experience…it should be known, respected, and heard.

Anyway, on that light note, I have a meeting in 39 minutes, I need to move my lab stations before that, I have labs all day…need to have a discussion about appropriate and kind behavior in lab groups apparently…then pilates (I was waitlisted, but got in!) and book club! for a book I just finished yesterday. Didn’t like that one as much. Oh well. It’s a long day. And it’s supposed to be close to 100 degrees…not liking that bit, but it is Southern California summer…it had to get hot sometime.

Relaxing for Me Is…

I love a good day off. A three-day weekend. We’re only three weeks in, but it’s appreciated. And my crazy school board has added two more three-day weekends to the fall. Why? I don’t really know. The board claims parents requested it for travel with their kids…and yet, I have four independent study contracts in the works for September, three for parents who are traveling with their kids…possible a fifth one coming up. I think it’ll be a pain when we get to June and have to add those extra weekend days on, but I don’t think anyone asked the teachers. We also know that the week after a 3-day weekend, it takes twice as long to get kids back on task, and by the time we do, the week is almost over. But I…I still appreciate the extra day. It gives me time to not stress about school. Today I’m going to make some scones for breakfasts for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to go to the ceramics studio (I would have done that anyway on a Monday), I’m going to read my book, and I’m going to rip the tape off all of the painted hallway. Oh yeah, I also need more paint from Home Depot. Ah well. I knew that might happen. I did finish painting the hallway…mostly. There’s some texture stuff I still need to do in the new drywall area, but otherwise, we’re good. I should touch up the ceiling, and I definitely need to sand and paint all the doors, but that’s not happening right now. Right now, I’m putting the art back up. One step closer to putting away all the crap that got spread out by the summer carpet extravaganza. I rolled two coats yesterday and used up every drop of paint. It’s good.

I sort of realized I needed to have this little piece shipped to arrive by October 1, so I spent some time with it this weekend. Friday night, I was still cutting things out. It felt like a lot.

Saturday night, I finished it, so it must not have really been a lot…and then I sorted it all, because I knew it would only take like 20 minutes or so, but half the time, I was trying to keep Bowie (the kitten) from knocking all of them over…no picture, because of that. Cut…

and sorted…

Remember this piece is small…less than 400 pieces. All small pieces too…then last night, I started ironing them down.

Got it more than halfway done. That’s over 2 1/2 hours of ironing. Little pieces are not always easier to iron than big ones. My goal is to finish tonight? Maybe? Stitchdown this week…I don’t have a ton of nighttime stuff this week. Get the damn thing quilted by the following weekend? Then decide what I’m doing next. I have lots of thoughts.

Friday after school, I went to the ceramics studio for a couple of hours. I forgot my glazes, so I couldn’t work on the mug…but I am trying to use up the last bits of the 25-pound bag I bought and the part of a bag that was a freebie. So I made a random bowl that I will sgraffito, and I again tried to slab build a mug. And again, it was way too big. IDK why I keep doing this. I did want to try to round the bottom with darts, and that worked pretty well.

But I’m thinking it’s going to be another plant pot. Which is fine. Everything else is drying…seriously, I have four things drying? I’m going in today and will remember the underglazes. Hopefully. I still have a little bit left of the clay on the right…I was saving some for a handle…for the teacup. Tea tureen? It’s huge. It doesn’t need handles. It might need a lid. No. Maybe I will make a little picture frame. I don’t know. Sometimes with clay, I have a plan. Right now, I’m trying to finish the plans I have and make a decision about what clay to buy next, but I don’t actually have room for any clay in my cubby until everything is on the drying rack. So there’s that. I’ll be carving for a bit, I think.

I finished a drawing at dinner on Saturday…I’d barely started it the previous Saturday when they brought the food, uber fast.

This place was slower. Good? Bad? It was busier. Eh.

We have a new friend to make Simba bark like a maniac.

There is no shortage of wildlife in the yard. Which is a good thing. Speaking of wildlife…

Cats in weird positions for the win.

OK. It’s nice to summarize when I don’t have to go to work. I need to shower, make scones (maybe not in that order), prep the crockpot (not sure there’s room for that in the fridge…could be problematic), do a little bit of school stuff so I’m ready for tomorrow, fold my laundry, go to ceramics and play around, iron some more, check art entries, pull some tape, hang some art. See, it’s a day off and I’m still busy! But some of it is stuff I really want to do and most of the rest is stuff I’d have to do around work if I were going today…which is why I’m writing this at 10 AM and not 7. It’s all good. Also go for a hike today. That’s important. OK. Gotta go start the process. I think I really am more about being able to check things off a list than sitting by a pool all day. I will sit and read, don’t get me wrong, but relaxing for me is the making art part…so if I get to do that for a few hours during the day, it’s all good.

Collapse?

I was sure yesterday was Friday again. Apparently my brain is prepared for 4-day weeks, not 5-day weeks, which means next week will feel fine. Three-day weekends are lovely. Except the kids come back kind of out of it. Me too really. At least I know what I’m teaching next week. I have three kids on independent study contracts and I haven’t been able to plan that far out, and we don’t have an alternative curriculum for this first unit…although I’m pretty sure I had to do this last year for some kid. I just need to find whatever I did. I had 40 minutes after school yesterday and was going to grade an assignment, but then got two new ISCs and had to try to find stuff for the next three weeks for them to do. Annoying…because I don’t have a textbook. Minor issue. That said, they are on labs for today and next week, so hopefully they’ll behave and slow down and read before doing (had a few issues yesterday).

Rolling into the weekend tired though. With about 17 thousand things on the to-do list. Not as bad as next Saturday though…it’s full and includes a brain scan. My EEG came back normal…so I’m not having seizures. Good to know. I suspect after all this they will just say, we don’t know what it is…live with it. And it’s not horrible…it’s annoying, especially at night…but I can still see and read and draw and all that. That niggling idea that it’s a symptom of something larger is hard to push away though. Thanks, anxious brain. Appreciate it. Suspect the next quilt will be about the brain thing. Maybe. I don’t know. I have to make a piece for a show in May…and NOT about that…plenty of time.

So I’m still struggling to get an hour a night of art, although last night included picking up three quilts from the photographer, organizing the pictures, and entering one show. So that was quite a bit of time. It’s just art business, which I don’t count in that hour.

Wednesday night, I finished ironing to fabrics…

It took a whopping 7 hours to iron these to fabric…lots of tiny details. And there are 77 fabrics in this little thing.

I started cutting things out last night…

That is 48 minutes of cutting. Doesn’t look like much, does it. Well there will be more of that tonight, after teaching labs all day and going to ceramics and coming back and watering and I’m not sure what’s for dinner because it was supposed to be leftovers and I don’t have any. Minor issue. I suspect the Man has leftovers.

OK. Here’s Seeking the Crone’s Protection…

52″w x 78″h…will post it in the Recent Work tab later this weekend…along with the other two. I need to go to work. I’m tired and need a ton more caffeine, but I still need to work. Really.

Oh yeah, Google Classroom (our main learning management system) went down during Period 3 yesterday…I tracked the crash and then it coming back by Period 4 (we couldn’t get the digital stuff done in Period 3…so we’ll have to do it today).

Fun times.

OK. School. Labs. Organize shit. Clay. Collapse? Maybe.

One Way or Another

Still trying to find a balance. It’s way too easy to fall into the habits of previous years, where work follows you home. I did work last night…and the night before…and the day before that. I’m not getting enough done at school; we’re setting up labs during prep and trying to figure out what we’re teaching next. There’s adjustments…plus not everyone has computers, so we still need stuff on paper, and then our building’s copier is broken (again), so we have to compete for a copier. And I’m trying to grade one academic thing because I know there’s another one coming today. It’s not hard; it’s all just time-consuming. Plus we had to meet yesterday to explain (justify?) the way we grade in science. And the teacher making the complaint didn’t even show up to the meeting. Love that. Well it’s done. And realistically, we never really hit a balance until the end of September. It’s not even the end of August. Yikes!

Art is slow too. Just getting the time and energy at the end of the day is hard. I’m almost done with this one…Monday night…ironed the main figure…

Last night, ironed a bunch of bits and pieces…

The two side heads, the eyeballs, etc. This is all I have left to do…

Some buildings, a bird, some hair, lips. I’ll be done tonight finally. Then cutting them out.

I did make it to clay yesterday…checked the boot…

I could underglaze it Friday…if I remember to bring the underglazes. I didn’t yesterday. The bag is also drying…but it will have glaze after bisque. Need to buy that glaze.

I worked on the mug…

Apparently I’m trying to make it as lumpy/bumpy and bulky as possible.

Seems that way…

It keeps me occupied at least.

Today. At least I don’t have to be at school early. Although it is unknown if the other teacher expects us to have prepped all her labs for today (I didn’t finish yesterday…we don’t start until tomorrow). I need to go fight for the copier because of the kids with no computers. I have one loaner and an iPad that I can’t figure out how to make it connect to the kids’ accounts. And more than one kid without a computer in more than one class. I have pilates after school. And I’m cooking dinner. So there are three more classes of that academic thing that need grading, and I’m not going to get to it at school today probably. Which is unfortunate. Not gonna think about that right now. Right now, I’m going to finish this cup of tea, wash my dishes, make more tea, take my meds, and head for school. The rest will figure itself out, one way or another.

There’s Always More…

OK, we’re back to feeling like nothing got done over the weekend. I remember this feeling. It’s frustrating. I crossed off some things, but more magically appeared. Or I made more just by existing. This morning, in the shower, I remembered things for school that I should have done Friday. Oops. Oh well. It’s either happening this morning once I get there or it’s possibly not happening.

I did do some art this weekend. That’s the plus, I guess, is that I push and shove to make time for that. I ironed all three nights, although not more than an hour each night, really. Friday night (with exhaustion)…

I had labeled the original pencil drawing with the flag colors and country names, and then photographed it, because I erased all of it to do the final drawing. I printed those photos Friday night to help me remember what I’d drawn in June.

Here’s ironing all the flesh of the minor characters…the warring factions.

Russia and the Ukraine, the US (embarrassed), Palestine, Israel, and Hamas. I’d like my country to stop providing weapons to wars…it’s complicated, though, because the Ukraine needed it to protect their country from Russia taking over. It made sense to help them. But Israel? Not so much. But not Hamas either. That whole conflagration…we should just be providing medicine and food and persuasion to knock it off and be peaceful. Not helping Israel kick Palestinians out of their homes…and killing innocent people. It’s a fine line, maybe. Anyway. This piece is about war…and how to stop it. Read Lysistrata.

What I finished Saturday night…

More than an hour. It was nice. Last night? Not even an hour…but a lot of little things got ironed down…

And I picked the fabrics for the central main figure…I just didn’t iron them down. I’ve done all the 0-100s and the 300s and some of the rest. I don’t think I have a lot left. On a small piece like this, it’s easy to bounce around and do all the missiles and bombs, then all the fires, etc. I suspect I’ll be done tonight or tomorrow night.

I wanted to do ceramics Friday after school, but I staying 90 minutes to set up for today and also to do seating charts. And then I was way too tired, so I went to the studio on Saturday instead.

I cleaned up the girlchild’s boot vase and forgot to take a picture of it again. It’s basically drying slowly. I then cleaned up the not-paper bag…

It had a cracking issue in the base, so I fixed that, but it’s also probably ready to dry. Then I worked on my mug…

I’m going to do a combination of relief and sgraffito, I think. We’ll see.

Normally I’d go in today to work in there, but there’s a 2-hour staff meeting and then book club at 7, so I don’t have time. No worries; I’ll go tomorrow. Maybe I’ll remember the glazes too.

I also got this one out of the bisque fire…

The top part is still drying. Color is pretty true to vision at the moment.

I haven’t decided how I’m going to handle this…whether I’m going to leave it bisque? I think so.

This one got glaze fired…some interesting things happened with the skin color.

Needed another coat? I don’t dislike it, but it wasn’t expected.

The back seems to have been glazed, even though I didn’t glaze it. It stuck a little to the ceramic cookie. Doesn’t really matter…this is meant to go on a garden stake. Interesting to try anyway.

We hiked 3 miles Saturday. It was cooler and nice.

We really have flailed on hiking this summer. Too much to do, too hot. Working on remedying that. Although the Man has so many music shows, it might just be me doing this.

This one…still up way too early in the morning, claws out.

Ugh. Sweet but psychotic. OK, I need to go to school, make more ice, figure the rest of Friday out, copy stuff, figure the rest of grading out, grade a thing, input grades, sit through that 2-hour meeting. I’m teaching energy today, ironically on a Monday when I don’t really have any. It’s OK…it’s not that kind of energy. And maybe the tea will kick in. Got some work done yesterday…finally caved and spent a few hours so this week won’t totally suck. Really trying to limit it though. Walked away with more to do. There’s always more to do though.

NOW It’s Friday…

OK. NOW it’s Friday. Yesterday was NOT Friday, despite my brain repeatedly trying to make it so. It’s fine. I’m tired. We’re all tired. We’re all already behind on school stuff. Very little that is supposed to be done by today is actually done. I stayed an hour at work yesterday to finally type my rosters up. Sure, I could use the school ones, but they drive me bonkers, and I add stuff like nicknames and tutorial teachers for the special ed kids so I know who to bug about missing work. Makes MY life easier. Once it’s done. I have to start grading things today. Fun times. I also need to find the demo stuff for today when I get to school, plus lock everything up because the district is doing this mock Williams Act thing where they inspect our classrooms and make sure every kid is assigned a book, except science doesn’t have books, so we have to show them digitally, but not every kid had a computer until yesterday afternoon (and some STILL don’t), so there was no point in going through the process until everyone had one. So they come today and we are explaining today. PLUS, we get a school board member touring today…stay the fuck out of my classroom. Yay!

Anyway, we’ll get to a routine. The kids are starting to test the boundaries with gum, food, games, phones, airpods, and dress code…fun times. Oh yeah, and throwing things. I might need to stay after school more than an hour today to get seating charts done.

So I’ve been short on art time most nights. I cooked late Wednesday because of pilates and getting all the trash ready for pickup and IDK what else I did. So I finished cleaning up the studio finally and picked the fabric for the background of this one, and laid out the first 100 pieces.

Not much…cleaning took a long time…a few hours. I swept the floor even…didn’t mop though.

Last night, I started late because I ate late because I had my stitching Zoom…but I got a few pieces ironed.

Honestly this piece isn’t very big…hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next few days.

At my stitching Zoom (during the Zoom? At the couch?), I worked on embellishing the flowers around the edges.

Not quick. But I finished one…that I started during dinner TV hour sometime this week…

They’re not hard, unless you’re tired, and then reading instructions is hard. Stitching is not hard. Progress.

Nova has taken to hiding in the hammock because the kitten can’t reach her.

His neutering is maybe scheduled. He was sleeping with me last night, and then he wasn’t (he bit my knee at some point), and then he was again, and then he wasn’t. I get it, Nova. I’d sleep in a hammock too if I could.

Bowie trying to figure out how to attack Luna from below. Luna contemplating landing on Bowie.

I don’t think I fell asleep until 1 AM because of the cats and dog moving around and making noise (barking at whatever was on the roof…nice, Simba). Not a lot of sleep all week.

Apparently the Man’s car resembles enough of a naturescape that this praying mantis was hanging out.

OK. Go to school, lock up all the cabinets so they think we don’t have chemicals in a science classroom, then find the demo stuff. Wait. Find the demo stuff, THEN lock everything up. Teach kids how to access a digital curriculum we never wanted and will probably never use, then teach about energy…while we have none…ironically. Get through the whole day, work some more after school, and then go to ceramics and try to figure out what I’m doing next. All good. It’s Friday.