All for Good…

Yo. So crazy right now. Need a secretary to prioritize things. I had a friend in town for the last two days and she helped with some of the errands I needed to run (I made her go to REI), but every time I would cross one thing off my list, I would need to write two more down. It’s freaking me out! Hoping to cross a bunch off today…gonna pack some stuff up to get it out of here, then go get some stuff. Not sure when I’m making it to ceramics. And I want to finish ironing the quilt top together today…sometime. Somehow. There’s only about 150 pieces left and then it needs to go on the background. Stitchdown, then pinbaste. I really need it pinbasted before I leave. Even then, I’m not sure I’ll be able to get it done for the deadline. Oh well. It’ll go somewhere…although at the moment, I don’t seem to get into any shows. That said, my Unsustainable quilt will apparently be at Houston with the Soul Stories show…there was a moment when it might not, but now it is. Woo hoo! I’m hoping to go, but money is always the issue. And time. As always.

So I haven’t been ironing as much as usual due to said friend in town, but here’s Monday night…

I didn’t get much done…the sun, one of the birds, some overlapping arm stuff, and the one smaller figure.

Last night, I did almost two hours (much better!)…yes, if I am ironing, it means I am not doing other things, like getting ready to go to Oregon. Or finishing painting the outside of the house. Or even watering, which is a bad thing. Plants need water, but I can only do it in the evening, and I have not been home in the evening for four days? Five? Not sure.

I got the rest of that arm done, plus the other smaller figure and most of the larger top figure. She needs an eye and then there’s three hands coming down and all the detritus that goes with them. Not a lot…at this point, the entire rest of the quilt is ironed together and rolled up at the bottom of this picture. Insanely. It’s a logistical nightmare, needs to be weighted so it doesn’t fall off the ironing board, and I’m constantly ironing around all those things that help it stay on the board. I’m close.

So who was I hanging out with? I’ve known this woman since middle school…

We see each other at least once a year, because she is very good about coming down, and now that the girlchild lives near her, I sometimes see her up in San Francisco as well. I made her walk three miles on the beach, fed her sporadically (OK, honestly, she fed me), made her watch half the Belgian/US game (ugh…it’s ok that we lost, really), and dragged her on a tour of malls and plazas of San Diego. I had an original plan of all museums, but then they were almost all closed, except for the Mingei yesterday…molas for the win!

Also indigenous glass…there were two pieces by Angela Babby that were just amazing…

Yup. Glass. Kiksuyapi 1890 (Remember, Don’t Forget) about the Wounded Knee Massacre. Her work is glasswork that is fired in a kiln. Check it out…it’s amazing.

The exhibit also had a bunch of more traditional glass art by indigenous peoples; beautiful work. I don’t remember why I thought going to the Mingei was a good idea, but it might have been this…

An entire bathroom, refrigerator, microwave, and fire extinguisher made out of wicker. Weird yes, but interesting and thought-provoking…and amusing. This is by India Thompson, an exhibit called Looks Like Home…does it though? Fun to see. I’m sorry we didn’t get to the other museums/exhibits, but they weren’t open, so that kind of sucks, because I don’t think I’ll have time to go before I leave. Ah well. Life happens.

See, we did eat food, just at weird times and trying to mollify my blood sugar, which was all over the place.

And last night, we went to dinner with our requisite male attachments…mine is celebrating his 60th birthday this week, so the poor waiter tried to light the candle about 6 times and it was there for seconds, we yelled “Happy B!” and it went out.

I didn’t even catch it. But we had a good time and good food. I enjoy hanging out with her and she made things a little easier by helping me shop…for a bathing suit, of all things. She also got some stuff…it was all good. But now, I am on the quest of getting everything ready to leave next week, plus making sure everything here is done. EVERYTHING. OK, not happening, but I do need to buy a few things for school (anathema!!) and the trip still, plus send out some packages, and enter some art shows, and finish some ceramics and I don’t know what else, because every time I turn around, there’s something else. It’s going to be fine, and it’s my fault for deciding I was taking the Man somewhere this weekend for his birthday…it’s too hard to come up with appropriate gifts (although I did think of one AFTER I booked this weekend…sigh). So I’ll be gone for like 24 hours, plus I had to fit all 8 July pilates classes into 2 1/2 weeks, so I have pilates like every other day, plus another 5 medical appointments. Hopefully no more than that. It’s summer, so getting test results takes forever…trying not to think about all those things. Occasionally I forget about being a teacher too, until I see this stuff.

Damn socialists…trying to take care of the people. I bet the Islamic Republic of Japan doesn’t do that (oh my, when will someone admit the Prez is losing it).

Lovely mural on the way back from downtown on one of my many trips to and from there to pick up my friend.

By DABSMYLA, a husband/wife team of muralists.

Gonna need to get gas this week. Need to pull all the camping gear out and start organizing what we’re actually taking, since we’re not really camping. Just camp cooking really. Definitely getting more excited…I mean, I’ve been excited about this trip since last October…so yeah. I’ve been taking notes on all the middle-of-the-night drawing ideas that pop up when I can’t sleep. Ready for those too. How many pairs of scissors will I need? All of them, I think. No, not really.

OK. Today. I have acupuncture for my foot…I have pilates. I need dog food and school supplies. I need to iron. I don’t need gas yet, but I will soon. I need to bondo the fascia wood. I need to paint and water. I need to fill at least one greenery trash can. So two of those things could be done before I shower, because it’s gonna be hot today and tomorrow. I say bondo first and then see how much time is left. If I bondo now, I can sand this evening and get this damn thing primed and painted. So no ceramics today…maybe tomorrow? We’ll see. So much to do. All for good though…getting the house taken care of and getting me ready to leave.

Readjusting…

Officially panicking about getting everything done that needs to get done. Pretend you’re a teacher and you have 8 weeks to catch up on life and relax and reset…but then you don’t have all those weeks to do the stuff that needs to be done at home. I don’t usually go on vacations during the summer, so I’m not used to this. I go during Spring Break and accept that nothing will get done during that time. So I’m readjusting. Trying anyway. I’d really like some things to be done for sure, but I keep adding more things. Like this wonderful kid…

There’s the girlchild, backpacking in the wilderness (beautiful place), and I just realized today that her birthday happens while I’m in the middle of nowhere and I need to deal with that before I leave. Next week. Hmmm. OK. Add that to the list. I tried to deal with cat litter yesterday but there was a lack of information. OK. Well. I guess I won’t be dealing with that. There is someone else who can. This is where you realize how much you normally manage. And it’s OK to leave and let others do it (or not, and then it’s late), but the list is there, living in my head.

So I ironed a lot this weekend. By choice. I should have done some other things, but this is fairly normal behavior for me during the summer. This is Friday night…

Made it into the main central figure…then Saturday night, after all afternoon down at the bay (more about that later) and then fireworks…

Got the torso and arms done…then last night and afternoon…

The head is done. I’m in the 1000s at this point. I’d like to just sit home and iron, but a friend is in town, so I’m racing around a bit, trying to get some of the to-do list done (and mostly failing, honestly) so I can hang out with her for a while. I’m hoping none of the doctor’s visits/tests require followups at this point, because I don’t know when I will do them. Last night was the brain MRI for the ocular migraine; not expecting any changes with that. I’ve had two of them already. They are fascinating to look at. Then dermatology and breast MRI later this week. Plus another acupuncture appointment. Dammit; I think I need to book another one of those before I go next week. Crap. OK. See? It’s crazy. The stuff that’s supposed to be helping me is stressing me out.

The fourth at the Bay…with the Man’s band, Radio Thieves.

I danced for a little while, but then was tired and hot. I read a lot too, which was fine. I had to kamikaze down early because the Man freaked out about parking…it was crazy down there.

Those overalls. Yikes. Anyway, we booked out after the second band, around 6:30 PM, got home, I ate (he ate there), then we went over to the street above my parents’ house (no we didn’t tell them…we were out of it) and watched the fireworks with the dog in the car so he wouldn’t freak out. He’s good, but whines and barks with all the noise. He got a big treat afterwards for being a good boy.

I saw this…is that a badger? Really? They have badgers?

I’m excited about that. Weird, I know. I am.

Last night, I packed a few beads and sequins for the two quilted, dye-painted quilts I’m taking with me for brainless slow stitching. I quilted this at some point over the last three days.

Ideally it will get a binding sewn on before we go. I painted this last year on my self-directed residency while waiting for the post-biopsy notification (it took 10 days, but it was fine). I also have to pack the box to ship…I have piles on the girlchild’s bed and I keep culling. Don’t take too much! But also, I’ll need bandaids because I’m like that. I got a serious scrape at the grocery store yesterday. Took forever to stop bleeding and it’s not small. Not stitchable though. I’ve been cleaning it and putting antibiotic cream on it and plastering it with a huge bandaid, but the timing sucks for an open wound. Hoping it starts to scab up before we leave. Added to today’s shopping list? Giant bandaids. Of course.

In case you think I stop thinking about science over the summer.

Those hands though.

This is for the political idiots.

A lot of sci fi focuses on the ideas of communism…but I don’t think most Americans do. But someone is obsessed with it. Ignorant, but obsessed.

Here’s the second sculpture; I went in on Friday and finished glazing it.

I still need to finish my other piece…I wanted to be able to bisque fire it before I left. Not sure I’ll be able to do that honestly. Running out of time.

I’d love to be able to do this…

Working on it.

OK. Today. Is a clusterfuck. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to get some of the shopping done that I need to do while dragging my friend along with me (sorry, not sorry…she just wants to see me and talk to me and get fed…those things will happen). I need to do one more thing before I leave for that. Hopefully I’ll be ironing tonight though…I need to get this thing at least pinbasted before I leave (ha! ha ha ha! Did I tell you I’m gone this weekend too? Yeah, I know). It’s hot here today; hoping it’s less hot at the beach; that’s where we’re going first. Not sure about the rest. All the museums I planned are closed today and most are closed tomorrow…which sucks, because it’s shows I wanted to see and they’ll be gone before I get back. Sigh. WTF world. Not doing a good job of relaxing y’all. Nope. Not. I’ll get there, but not yet.

The Eve of Destruction

Happy day before the 250th anniversary of our country…as it goes down burning. Arresting people for touching the reflecting pool liner, but pardoning all the crazy shit on January 6…and some of those people have gone on to do heinous things they couldn’t have done if they’d still been in prison. Not sure how to celebrate this level of crazy. Women being prosecuted for having miscarriages…women DYING for having a miscarriage. People being arrested by ICE for no legal reason. A president who admits his children are benefiting financially from his position…illegal, but hey, since when has that stopped them? A Supreme Court with justices who do not understand the letter of the law. A senator who has disappeared for 17+ days and is probably on life support, but we’re gonna hide that too in case they replace him with someone more woke, more left-leaning.

Today, though, today is the day before we celebrate all that. Today is the day…I go to the dentist for my 3-month cleaning. Exciting, I know.

I did start ironing the quilt together though…not sure how I’m going to get it done in time. As I get closer to my leave date, more and more shit gets shoved into those days. But here’s about 3 hours worth of ironing (for those who think it looks quick).

And here’s last night, after another almost two hours. I’m about 370 pieces in or so…out of approximately 1440. My days are full of tasks and people. These aren’t bad things, just complications to the art process. I can’t take this thing with me to Oregon.

I can take this thing though, so I sandwiched and pinbasted it. It’ll take about an hour to quilt it and then I’ll debate putting bindings on before I leave. I can do all the handstitching in Oregon. I have another one to work on as well that is quilted and just needs embroidery.

Yesterday, I drove the Man up to his show in Solana Beach, but had to wait for the show to actually start. Found a winery with the soccer on (although I also read my book).

They played at the Belly Up, opening for two other bands.

I was up front and could barely see the Man.

Luckily someone taller took video.

This is Bowie trying to intimidate Luna into leaving the cat bed.

This is Simba…super tired. He would like to go to bed earlier.

We already had these showing up at school. Annoying. I don’t want to police glasses and phones and watches.

I wish people understood political/theoretical systems better. I’m ok with a lot of socialist ideas, including this one.

Only Michael survived though…

Reality here.

And there we are going into the holiday celebration. The Man’s band is playing tomorrow down at the bay with all the crazy traffic. I’m going but we plan to come back before the fireworks, both for the dog’s sake and our own. He’s ok with fireworks; just barks at them. I know this because they were going off at 1-2 AM last night…and so was he.

I made it to the dentist, where I wrote half of this, and now I’m trying to finish it on my phone. I also made it to ceramics. More about that next week. Now I’m going to Pilates and then down to Liberty Station to see some art and eat dinner…then back here to iron. Looking forward to that part.

More Fun Than Ladders

Whoa. It’s been seconds since I realized it is now July. It is July, right? WTF. How did that happen? I know, the inexorable march of time forward blah blah blah. I’m leaving for my residency in 17 days. I did start making a pile of stuff on the girlchild’s bed. I fall asleep to lists of things I need to pack or ship (I need an iron for sure…do I need a ruler? Unknown.).

I have been chipping away at all the things…the back deck railing is painted. The fascia is a mess; I’m surprised the people putting the gutters up didn’t say anything (then they would have had to DO something). So I’m doing something. On a ladder. Fun times. I started painting the other half of the east-facing deck wall. At some point, I will need a ladder for that as well. I don’t like ladders. I got my car fixed and got the radio replaced. I’m very happy about that…I upgraded a bit so my phone connects. Excited about that (weird thing to be excited about unless you’re about to leave on a million-mile driving trip). OK, it’s not a million miles. Short route is only 847 miles. One way. So it’s not a short distance. Longer than we usually go for a vacation, but the Man is only going halfway. The first day of driving will suck, but it will be fine after that. I’m really excited. Trying to control the need to take everything I own with me. Hard to do. I’m a hoarder at heart. Yardwork is slowly getting done, but since it will never BE done, it’s fine. A little every day. Mostly. I figured out all my medications and how to organize that…that was a challenge.

In quilt progress, I cut stuff out on Monday night…

Yesterday, I finished cutting stuff out in a couple of hours, forgot to take a picture, and then spent 90 minutes sorting them.

I’ll start ironing it all together tonight. I might put a small dye-painted quilt together first, so I can add it to the pile coming to Oregon. I think I’m going to bring two of them with me and try to finish them there; I have so many shows coming up that I want to enter and so little work that’s available.

I went to ceramics the last two days…when I took the class, I wasn’t thinking about (a) where to store these things and (b) the fact that I needed to finish them. So it took about 2 1/2 hours to glaze the smaller one…

It’s Stroke and Coat, so it’s one and done. It’ll still need to dry for about two weeks before it can go in the kiln though.

This is 2 1/2 hours on the second one…

Probably another two hours to go. Here it was before I started glazing.

I think they’re just going to go out in the yard to scare the squirrels away. I like the idea of these. I might make more? I don’t know. I need to finish the upper torso of the other one and get it bisque fired before I leave. Yikes. It seems like I have plenty of time, but I have a lot of stuff planned in the next 2 1/2 weeks. The Man has two shows, we have a weekend away for his birthday, a friend is visiting for two days, and I have four different doctors’ appointments? Maybe 5. Plus getting the fabric prepped and entering a few more shows. Plus all the house and yardwork. It’s a lot. Plus I sat in the library parking lot today so I could return a book. I like to NOT leave the house if I can get away with it. It’s nice here; there’s a breeze, it’s sunny, but not too hot, and it’s quiet at the moment.

Anyway. So the day is almost done, but the car radio got done this morning. I think I’m going to go put gloves on and do the kind of dangerous fascia wood treatment, so I can patch it this evening. Sand it tomorrow? Maybe paint Friday? The sun has to be in the right place for all the painting stuff or it’s too hot. For me and the paint. I’ll keep letting my brain percolate about what to take to Oregon. I found the cute little iron mom bought me…so it’s going. I thought about that at about 1 AM, when the Man’s snoring took a turn for the worse. Fun times. Tonight, I’ll work on some fabric stuff, probably ironing stuff together and quilting. That’s the plan anyway. Looking forward to it. More fun than climbing up and down ladders.

The Word of the Day Is Chaos

I’m trying to get my writing back on schedule. My brain has been summer break fuzz. I did realize over the weekend that I’m leaving for my residency in less than three weeks, and I have 17 thousand things to do before I leave, so there’s a tiny bit of panic in there. But also, I’m still waiting to get my car back…it’s been gone since Thursday. I’m glad I took it in, because the radiator probably would have died and maybe the battery too and that would have sucked big time. So it’s all good. Still don’t have the radio thing fixed though. Sigh.

OK, let’s start with fabric…I finished ironing everything to fabric last Thursday…

I used 176 different fabrics.

I like to sort by color; it gives me an idea of what I used more or less of in that particular quilt. Although sometimes if pieces were small in one color, it won’t be as obvious in the quilt as when I use big pieces of colors…like I know there’s big gray clouds everywhere and some big fleshy patches plus a giant sun. So those fabrics will show up more in the quilt than they might in this color sort.

I actually started trimming them during an art Zoom on Wednesday, but here’s the first official photo of trimming on Thursday night…

Top left is trimmed, top right is not, bottom is trash, which I hold onto until the quilt is done in case I lose a tiny piece and need to replace it. I also keep all the sorted fabrics until the quilt is done; same reason.

Scribble likes to sit on my lap while I do this, which is not always convenient. No way can I reach my tea in this situation.

But I will rarely say no to a cat on my lap.

Friday night…flipped

Trimmed stuff is on the right.

Saturday night…trimmed still on the right…

More Scribble assistance.

Sunday night…

And more Scribble…

She doesn’t stay for super long. And she does bat at the loose bits. So at this point, I am almost 13 hours into the trimming and I probably have at least 2 hours to go, if not more. I’m hoping to be done today, but there’s a lot of chaos today that needs to happen as well, so we’ll see. I need a car!

I also took a ceramics class on Saturday from Moni Blom. I had gone to a demo class of hers before. Her stuff is just fun and whimsical…

However, I didn’t consider that whatever I made in class would need to be added to list of things I needed to get done before I left! I made two sculptures…you can see another student’s piece behind my blurry ones (obviously badly focused in the moment).

Plastic is covering my Fallopian tubes. You know. Like you do. I made two because the first one (taller) was starting to lean. My hand is holding the second one. In real life, you’d make all the parts and let them sit for a day before trying to put them together. I’m hoping they are still standing upright when I go in to glaze them today or tomorrow.

I dropped at least two of the parts doing this anyway. Fun things though. Would look great in the garden, if your garden was less chaotic than mine.

My heart made it out of the bisque fire.

Oh yeah, they said the sculptures needed to sit for 2-3 weeks before firing. That’s when I leave. Yikes. I’m a little stressed at the moment at the timing of everything. I’m trying to enter shows too, and that’s kind of a clusterfuck…can I ship before I go? Can I deliver before I go? Who knows. I dumped one because I couldn’t tell…not enough info. Frustrating.

More art-related stuff. This is the Instagram of the newish group I joined at the end of last year.

You should go follow it; this is a detail from a piece by Luana Rubin. We have a show just finishing up at the New England Quilt Museum in a few weeks, then it travels to Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. There will be an exhibit at IQF in Houston, Texas, but I unfortunately won’t have a piece in that. I was considering going, but it’s all a timing thing. Then it will all go to Road to California in January. There are more exhibits planned, but I will be making a new piece to travel at that point.

Here’s a photo Margaret took of me in front of one of her pieces I really liked, when I was up in San Francisco.

One of my favorite shirts too.

I had two work-related events in the last few days; here’s my whole teaching team at the retirement party of one of our principals…

Almost mentally on break. Soon. I said goodbye until August to a lot of people on Sunday. I suspect I may be on Zoom with this crew at some point before that though.

Ah this.

I’m eternally frustrated by humanity…and the lack thereof. Because this…

And this…

FFS folks. We work our asses off. And it’s so hard starting break and having people tell us we’re LUCKY to need this time to recharge so we can go back to working our asses off. Unpaid too. I won’t see a paycheck until the end of August. But at least we have this…

Thanks to my solar panels and the battery. They help.

But this happened today…

And the more disturbing part of this is the far right’s argument that childbirths are down and we need more babies. From teens? Who need more supports? Which you have also decimated? What the absolute fuck. So I’m considering a quilt about this. Maybe. I have so many things I have to do in the next 7 months quiltwise. The topics are up in the air though, so if I can get my head around what this would look like. I think I can. Certainly there’s falling…lots of falling and flailing with no help.

And lastly, because it’s summer…

Although not potatoes; too many carbs. It’s summer and my blood sugar is a pain in the ass. Plus I have two MRIs next week, and though I’ve done one with my glucose monitor in, when I called, they said no for the first one…so I think I’m going without the monitor for a week. Which is a little scary with the numerous lows I’ve had. My body is in recovery from school still. And the heel pain is still there, though walkable. So I have another acupuncture appointment set up. And I have a pile of exercises to get through. Plus a pile of pieces of fabric that need trimming. I need to be ironing this thing together in the next day or so. Yesterday, I started putting the 20+ quilts away that had accumulated in the girlchild’s room over the last few months, as shows returned work and I finished a few. I got three rolls of quilts dealt with, but I can’t fit one of them under the bed any more. Not sure how I fit it before, because I didn’t add anything to it…just tried to put back the six quilts that had come back. I can’t lift the other roll up onto the bed, so I’ll deal with those tonight. But I think I need to start a new one and I’m not sure where it’s going to go. I’m still storing other people’s art for a possible airport show that hasn’t come about yet. I feel like I’ve had those hanging around for a year or so. Ah well.

OK. Today. Need a car. Need to go grocery shopping (see ‘need a car’). Need to paint the back deck railing for the third time. Need to finish cutting things out. Need to get to ceramics if possible and glaze. Definitely tomorrow if not today. I’m doing laundry. Need to put quilts away. Need to lay out stuff I want/need to take to residency so I can get a good idea of what I’m shipping and what is going in the car. Need a walk, honestly, but it’s warm. And no car, so that limits my walkiness. I do have a lunch for today though. And I have paint and stuff to cut out. So if I can’t leave the house, there is (unfortunately) plenty to do. I need someone to help me lift this quilt roll up. Should have had the Man help before he left for work. Oh well. Plenty of yardwork to do (always…never ending). You know what I don’t have to do? Lesson plan. Grade shit. Go to school. Whoop whoop for that.

It’s a Lot…

I’m totally off on writing. Also on days. I have a vague sense of the week, but that’s what we aim for during summer…not knowing the day and the date because teachers have to know those things. That said, am I recovered yet from the school year? Hell no. I’m still short on sleep. I’m still not convinced school won’t start again next week. I’m not relaxed yet. I have a hard time at night not grabbing the computer to grade something (there’s nothing to grade, brain…you can stop now.). It’s only a week since school got out though, and it usually takes at least two for me to relax. Today, I am stuck at home without a car…it’s getting a tuneup for the trip to Oregon…and honestly, it feels good. I CAN’T go run errands. I’ve got no way to leave. Tomorrow might be an issue; I’m supposed to go to a pool party thing and I don’t have a car for that. I’ll figure it out. Or Lyft. Whichever seems easier. But no car is somehow freeing? Weirdly so.

Artwise, I’m almost done with ironing. So close. Could have stayed up late last night to finish, but had to be up early to take the car in. Need to make sure I get enough sleep. This was Tuesday night…

The piles look the same, really. Last night, I had about 100 pieces left, for real this time…

It’s felt like I’ve only had 100 pieces left many times. I did want to be done by last night…just didn’t happen. As soon as I finish writing this, I’ll finish ironing. It’s another hour or so. Three pink hands and the things they’re holding. That’s it.

I did start trimming yesterday during a Zoom meeting. No photo of that. Hoping to be done with the trimming early to mid next week, then iron it together, stitch it down…I don’t think I can finish this before I go and there’s limited time when I get back. I’m going for the deadline but don’t think I’ll make it. I have other stuff I need to do. I’ve been painting deck railings. I had to redo one of the ones from Winter Break…it bubbled. It rained when I originally painted it. The others are fine, but this one was cranky. The back railing also needs painting. It’s been washed, sanded, and has one coat of primer on it. I can only paint when it’s cool, so late evening, and the sun isn’t on the railings, still late evening. And then I need to let it dry. I also need to do the fascia on the back of the house, which is complicated by a thin deck back there…up and down the ladder. Then the rest of the deck wall, again, only when the sun is not shining on it. Complicated. Lots of yard work, lots of housework, plus trying to figure out all I need for this trip and getting it done. The car is one part of that.

I made it to ceramics yesterday finally. I was going Tuesday, but I had my first acupuncture appointment for my foot and it ran long. And there was traffic. And I was running up against the Tuesday night ceramics classes, so I went yesterday instead. Finished the sgraffito underglazing and can now go on to the rest of the piece.

I have more of that brown color for the body.

I was trying to keep it simple.

I don’t actually do simple well. I was going to go in tomorrow morning, but with no car, that’s not happening, so it will have to be next week. Multiple days in a row, I think. This thing needs to go in the kiln before I leave. I hope.

I’ve been doing some Spargo stuff. There are 16 flowers in the border of Homegrown, and they’ve been appliqued for a while. I did start stitching on them, but I’m going to be doing this for at least a year, I think.

This one is close to done. It’s the first one. Like I said, gonna be here for a while. It’s relaxing though. Better than grading. Much better.

One of the barn owls is still around. I hear her in the tree outside my office at night. I talk to her.

She leaves me feathers and pellets. I’ve collected quite a few skulls and bones at this point.

This is what cats do all day.

The fourth one is in the cat bed on the dresser. So hard to be a cat. Honestly, the dog is asleep somewhere too.

So many stories coming out about people not being able to have life- or uterus-saving procedures because of this stupidity.

People without medical degrees need to stay out of these decisions.

This is where I’m at right now.

I have the man for the moon stuff. He’ll be out on the deck at night, banging on the window so I’ll come out and look at yet another moon. Yup. That’s a moon. That said, I’m staring at the ground and picking up owl vomitous. So we do well together. Most of the time. I am definitely a different person when school is fully out of session, when I don’t even have to worry about what I’m teaching when I come back. My co-teacher claims she’s changing shit. I can’t deal with that right now. Neither can she, at the moment, but on August 1, when she starts thinking about it, I’ll be in the middle of my residency, fully out of school mode. Good times.

OK. Today. Trapped in the house. Where there are books and food and fabric and QUIET (it’s quiet here, so weirdly satisfying), no kids yelling, no construction hammers or mowers or blowers going. Just birds. And the dog occasionally barking (it is trash day). Even the squirrels are napping right now. Time to make some art. Whatever that looks like. Sure I’ll also be painting house things later and probably mopping floors and maybe washing bedding. Washing rugs definitely. And I have a book due in 5 days and another book I need to finish for Monday’s book club. And my weekend is FULL, so I’ll need to manage that today and tomorrow. It’s all good. I’m getting there, towards recovery. Really what teachers need in the summer…time to eat and pee when we need/want to, time that’s our own, a weekend without stress, no planning, no copying, no grading, just time to zone out. Because we spend 10 months a year on overwhelming time. And it’s a lot.

Decompress?

Note: I did NOT finish this yesterday in the airport, as may be obvious. I didn’t even finish it when I got home. It’s now Tuesday morning. It also did not process any of the photos, so I’m doing that now too.

Straight up, not sure I will finish this before I leave San Francisco. My flight was rerouted from SF down to San Jose, and it took some effort (and time) to get down here. More stress than I really need, but I got here in time, so all good. (The flight was almost empty, but this screaming 2-year-old girl with inept parents made up for that. That said, we got in mostly on time.)

I had a pretty quiet weekend with the girlchild (lots of World Cup games watched). I got to meet Margaret Fabrizio again (it’s been a while) and see her gallery space.

I might have to wait until I get home to load pictures; airport internet is too busy helping kids watch annoying videos without headphones 😂.

That is my piece above the fireplace; we traded a few years back.

I love that I see the negative space in these and not the clothing parts that make them. This is one of my favorites (I also totally see boobs and a weird stick figure).

I also really like this one.

After that, the girlchild and I went to Oakland/Berkeley. We watched one World Cup game, then shopped for thread for the girlchild’s new embroidery obsession…and fabric for me to make crazy pants. Then another game.

I embroidered through all the games.

Wait, here’s the night before after a drawing on the plane and a little embroidery in my room.

So you can compare.

Lots of bridges…

Actually maybe only one but in two versions.

Sunday was embroidery lessons and more soccer.

We practiced on a tea towel and then she went right into stitching her shirt.

Wait, this was after making a delightful breakfast from leftovers.

Both kids cook better than I do. She finished the shirt and wore it to dinner.

She actually was very fast and a very even stitcher. Good genetics.

I’m sitting her watching and listening to a woodpecker on the tree outside my office. I’ve been watching the birds and squirrels all morning. Very peaceful. I really need some major recovery from the school year. Trying to get there.

I didn’t go to dinner with her the last night (long story), but had a delightful meal in a fun little restaurant where I drew and read my book.

Good music. All the words were from the conversation next to me, which was a bit obnoxious.

This was the view out my AirBnb window.

I found this heart at the grocery store before I left…it said something about finding the heart and keeping it, so I took it to the airport and left it in the banana basket at the Pannikin. Hopefully some kid found it.

Here’s the insanely expensive fabrics I bought to make pants out of.

There’s an owl and a jaguar as well. The one on the right is delightfully chill. One crazy, one chill.

From the book I was reading…

Ideas for quilts.

Not as much art exposure on this trip…definitely more soccer in bars and at the girlchild’s place. But here was one mural on the walk home from dinner.

And a tableau the likes of which are only seen in a big city…

And more quilty ideas…

Plus these yarn paintings in the San Diego Airport, but so hard to photograph due to the lights.

I ran around doing errands yesterday, made it to pilates, then into the studio (sigh, relief).

I almost finished the 1000s. I was trying to remember if this had 1650 pieces or 1450. It’s the latter. If I had time today, I could finish, but I don’t. Haircut and meeting an acupuncturist…trying all the things to solve this foot problem without it taking another 3 years like last time. Not a fan.

This is so true. Watching them sing is a balm to the soul.

But humans are not always the best, are they.

Also, I did not know this…that people didn’t all have this.

Is it just silent in there? Weird.

OK. So I’m busy today. Hoping to get to ceramics in the afternoon; we’ll see how that works. Just added four more things to the to-do list this morning. Could do without that. Trying to explain to non-teachers how we play this game of catchup when we get to breaks, and that it’s INSANE how much stuff we put off because there just isn’t time. And they pile up, and this first week, I really just need to decompress, but I do it while running from one errand/appointment to another, like a crazy person. I need to leave soon because I don’t even know if I’m supposed to pay cash (new hair person) and I have like 7 dollars. Fun times. And it’s Tuesday and I normally post on Monday. Ah well. Welcome to summer.

A Bit of Sunburn

Well I’m sitting in an airport, which seems to happen every summer. It’s not a bad thing…it’s expensive if you need to eat, the process is annoying (although I think I got fast-tracked through security for looking like a benign old lady), but I get a lot of reading done. Trying to eat has gotten more difficult over the years…so many carbs! I’m currently picking the egg and chicken out of fried rice and wishing there were more veggies. And my flight was just delayed…only a bit. No worries. Just stressful.

Survived promotion, checking out of school, and the end-of-year party with only a bit of sunburn…the one place I missed with the sunscreen. Despite my exhaustion, sleeping in is not an option. Cats, dogs…even partners…I need quiet to sleep. I’ll take 7 AM over 6:30 though. I’ve been ironing, but not more than usual. I had a million things to do yesterday that got in the way.

A lot of years with this team…

I did manage some ironing each night after a million errands. Here’s Wednesday night, proving I make art no matter what…long day though.

And last night, after all the crazy stuff I did. Two Zooms, two medical appointments, three stores, gas, whoops, another store last minute.

Not sure the piles look that different. I made it to the mid 900s. I wanted to iron this morning, but I needed to pack, water, enter a show last minute, pay bills, and sew on a missing piece of a squirrel’s tail. Like you do. So there are about 500 pieces left to iron. So slow. My goal? Ironed down Wednesday, start trimming Thursday. I can trim faster than ironing, which is good, because I’m 17 hours into the ironing and less than 2/3s of the way through…so another 9 hours? Yikes.

Ironing is a type of rest luckily.

There’s Scribble helping me rest.

Not so my crazy country.

But yes to the hawk….

Ok. I now have an hour, a full cup of tea, air conditioning, two books, a sketchbook, and some stitching. I might need to walk in a bit to counteract the rice, but right now, I can’t read for a bit. May your Juneteenth be a radically left one…and may the colonized win their soccer games over the colonizers.

Last Day Number 24

Today is it, y’all…the last day of school. It’s promotion! The end of this school year has taken so long to get here, it’s crazy. Yesterday, I was at school for 11 hours…standing or walking for most of it. I got home and iced both knees and the left heel and took pain meds when I went to bed. Both hands were fucked up from squeezing the water spray bottle at kids (it was hot out, and we had to line up and walk three times in promotion practice). Somehow I am not sunburnt, although I am probably dehydrated. I’m definitely exhausted. Today should be easier…do promotion, ONCE (not three times), then finish cleaning up the classroom (mostly, this is done), officially check out, and then go to the end-of-year party. Return home, collapse. Tomorrow, do 17 million things because I thought flying to SF to see the girlchild on Friday made sense when I originally planned it (it does; mostly). Yeah. Crazy. And in between all that, I manage to make art. Somehow.

I ironed Monday night…

I think that was the sunflower on the arm…and some other stuff. Last night, I did the heart…and some other stuff.

I have 2/3rds of the 700s ironed to fabric, but also about half of the 800s. So I’m calling it at 800? More than halfway, I think, but holy hell, this is taking a long time. I think I thought I’d be done before I left for SF. That’s not happening. Ah well. And it’s a short, busy trip, so taking stuff to trim is probably a mistake. These are hard to travel with. I’ve done it, but only when I would be staying in one place for a while. So it’ll wait until I get back.

I also made it to ceramics Monday and did some underglazing of the sgraffito arm.

I’m not done. I had done over an hour and needed to get home to cook dinner.

It isn’t dry on the neck and chin here…hard to deal with glazing vertically and NOT having it drip.

I’m using tiny needle-tipped squeeze bottles, so honestly, it’s the ability of my hands to continue squeezing that is sometimes the problem. I don’t think I’m going to get back there before I go to SF? I don’t know when if I am…maybe Thursday night? If I’m not dead on my feet after 17 doctors’ appointments, Zooms, and phone calls. We’ll see. Plus pilates.

Yesterday, back from 11 hours at school, icing one knee. They tolerate each other.

This is not a friendship unfortunately. There will be slapping, claws, or snapping. Or someone leaves. I think they both left, actually.

I actually am having issues with this, due to a lack of other sewing supply stores in San Diego…

I need some stuff for my daughter and I’m not sure where to get it. I hate having to order online for stuff that should be easy to find locally. That USED to be easy to find locally.

And this…

When I don’t create, I start to get a little wiggy. So I make things. Every day pretty much. It works.

OK. Ugh. I need to find a lunch to take with me, find a spare set of shoes for later, get to school and remind myself how to pronounce all those kids’ names…correctly (don’t panic!). Then sit in the sun for a couple of hours. Oh wait, find the nicer sun hat before I go. I’ve got this. I’d tell you how many years but I’m not sure I can count right now…this is my 24th end of school year, but my first year was only half a year. So my 24th anniversary of teaching will be in January 2027. Long time. Only my fourth (?) promotion…I was always a 7th-grade teacher until after COVID. It’s always a relief going into summer, even as I’m planning for August so I won’t be panicked when I get back. It’s all good. The things will all happen. It’ll be fine.

Tell the Eye to Behave…

We’re in the last three days of school, kind of a chaotic mess of promotion practices and leftover class time with nothing real to do plus turning in computers and signing shirts and double award ceremonies. It’s a lot of being outside in the heat and managing hot kids and water and bathroom breaks, but still figuring out how to do the whole promotion lineup and process. Our AP who was helping to manage it just went out on maternity leave, which was not a surprise to those of us who know how this shit works, but apparently some people in charge were confused. I expect a lot of chaos, sweat, and bitchiness over the next few days until everyone is done with the promotion and checking out of our classrooms. I spent most of the weekend in semi-recovery, not really, because we’re not done yet, but I only had one school thing I had to do. Well, then two. And three. Because things. I think I lose my prep period every day this week, which only means, when do I pee and when do I eat? Always an issue.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to manage all the summer prep stuff both for school in August and for my trip, copying stuff for the new school year, organizing my meds before I go, all that fun stuff. My brain is a little explody.

Artwise, I got a lot of ironing done this weekend, about 6-7 hours…here’s Friday night…

Then Saturday, I spent a few hours during the day ironing and then picking fabrics for the main figure in this quilt…

That’s all the flesh tones laid out…from the 300s to the 800s. I pulled pieces from all of those bins, so I have no clue how much is ironed and how much I still have to go. Then I ironed all those pieces down Saturday night…

And then last night, I did another 90 minutes…

So the 300s are done and the 400s are about 2/3s done and the 500s? I’m not sure about the 500s…I think there’s only a few of them left? But a lot of the 600s need to be ironed…there’s a bunch of decorative stuff on the figure, plus the heart, that are all 600s…and some more of that in the 700s. So basically it’s chaos right now and I might have 5 or 600 pieces ironed down, but I’m not really sure. Give me a couple of evenings to iron and I’ll be better.

I finally made it to ceramics on Friday after school and started underglazing the sgraffito section.

A bunch of my underglazes are dried out and so I was trying to reconstitute them and do this at the same time.

It’s remarkably challenging to do this around an arm.

Hoping to be back there this afternoon. But my right eye is twitching, so that’s fun. And it’s hot, although when I went on Friday, the A/C was on. Here’s hoping it is today too. Bringing a lighter shirt and shoes just in case. The weekend was a series of texts about how many outfits we’d need each day to get through all the outdoor sweatiness at school. Award ceremony in the afternoon after being outside on and off all day? Pack the deodorant as well. So only three days, but three stressful days. I can do that. The Man was like, why don’t you already have a plan for this week? You’ve done it before…because it changes every year, man, that’s why. They don’t ever do it the same, so every year, we’re confused and discombobulated, and this year’s management is not helping.

A friend of mine visited the Grants Pass Museum of Art, where Stitchpunk is currently residing…here’s my piece Woman 2.0.

It’ll be there until the end of July; the Man and I plan to visit it on the way up to my residency.

She looks happy in that space. I’ve had work in this museum before, but it’s been a while.

The cats have been hot too.

Hi Luna.

OK. Promotion lineup, short version, where I explain the alphabet and their LAST names (they still think first names are the most important parts). Then IDK what for IDK how many periods (movie probably) until after lunch, when they turn in their Chromebooks. We have zero instructions for this and it’s happening today. Fun times. This is why the eye is twitching. We may or may not come back to that class period? Unknown. Then 6th period, definitely finishing Scorch Trials (movie), which is fine, because today is the last day I see 6th period. I think the last day I saw 1st period was Thursday? Not sure. It’s all nuts. No real staff meeting, which is weird…usually we have a little prep for next year, but whatever. I’m not in charge. Then ceramics and sweating and cooking and sweating some more and NOT GRADING ANYTHING BECAUSE I’M DONE (even though some kid just turned something in yesterday, ha ha ha). Then more ironing. In the heat. Because that makes sense. It’s good. Almost done. Almost there. Deep breaths. Tell the eye to behave.