I Blinked

OK, I’m pretty sure I blinked and the weekend was gone. I know I did things because the bathroom and kitchen floor are finally clean and there’s dead leaves in my hair and clean clothes in the laundry basket, but I honestly don’t remember much of it. Just took a deep breath in and it was over. What are the odds the school week will go so fast?

Five days until Spring Break. I have no clue what I’m teaching Friday (and I’ll have a sub for half of it due to pretty shitty literacy planning), so hopefully that will come to me in a dream or something. It’s actually more about not knowing how long this stuff will take to teach more than being totally clueless. I’m juggling a variety of things in my teacher brain, but I need to know how much time I have. I also need to write sub plans. All of that might be happening Thursday night, which I hate, but when you’ve never taught these lessons, it’s a crapshoot. Plus the kids are amazingly tuned out to grades and work completion at the moment, so sometimes I just walk around and look at the kids who are working and compare the kids who are fast to the kids who are super slow but still work, and kind of pick a place in the middle. The lazy kids who do nothing are not part of that equation. It’s not ideal, but it’s where we’re at. Hopefully some of their brains will turn back on after Spring Break (not expecting it really) and we’ll see some progress again. Ha! I’m not really counting on it.

Meanwhile, I did do some art this weekend…some more ironing…

I got the bugs done and the bird…

And the sun. And then ironed everything onto a background…

Looks good. That’s one of my hand-dyes…where I slop up all the leftovers with a piece of fabric. Works. So tonight, I’ll be doing stitchdown.

My ceramics studio posts a video when stuff comes out of the kiln…some of my first class pieces are in there!

Mine are all the weird non-cactus shapes. I made a bunch the first time. I think one of the coil pots might be mine? Can’t remember. Need to go back and look at my photos. I joined the studio last week, ordered my first clay yesterday, and have been writing down all the things I want to make, some of which are very utilitarian, like plant pots and a mug and a number sign for the house since my cheap plastic one is fading. But also, I’m making a list of art things I want to try. This is cool. I’m looking forward to spending some time there making new things.

I did read a book and a half on Saturday, started a third on Sunday…actually, no, started it Saturday night while waiting for the Man’s band to start playing. I might be hiding in fiction, y’all.

Beautiful. Plus I listened some more to another book. So LOTS of fiction. I know I wrote “mother tree” in my journal. That must be something. Certainly it feels like something.

I got my copy of the Fierce Planets catalog…

It looks like a really beautiful show, y’all. I’m hoping to see it somewhere. I can’t go to the opening…too far, wrong time of year. But it will travel, hopefully closer.

Dinner drawing, Friday night with the Man. Using up a restaurant gift card…

We had to drive to two locations. Long story. It turned out nicely. Weird drawing though.

There he is at his Saturday night show.

I didn’t make it all 4 hours. He barely did. He’s got some nasty cough. Both he and the boychild are sick, so knock on wood that my immune system is strong this week. Ha! Boychild went back to work today. His breakfast smelled better than mine. I should get that recipe. You know when you make something and freeze it to get you through the next two weeks, and then it’s OK, but not really great? Yeah. That’s this week.

Simba would totally eat it, if I’d left him.

Man, he has crusty nose again. Need to find the nose butter. He doesn’t like it, but it helps. Weirdly designed dog.

This popped up. Might be relevant in November.

In some states, much sooner than that.

OK. Teaching adaptations. Not hard, I think…but you know…Monday brains. I think my staff meeting after school is watching the staff-student basketball games. Last time, I felt like I needed to stay and watch the girls play, because they play last and everyone leaves, which I think is rude. Also, why can’t they play first sometimes? Sigh. What I really need after school is to get a handle on the rest of the week and the week after we come back from break, so I don’t need to come in and prep over break. We don’t have a nice trip planned for many reasons, which sucks. But I have shit to do around the house…hoping to get some of that set up this week. Yeah. Well. It’s just not a fun year. Parts of it are (the ceramic stuff) and parts are just keeping me going (all the books) and parts could feel better (the art in general)…so those are all things to think about that are more exciting than cleaning bathrooms and floors.

Problem Child…

Yo. It’s Friday. I woke up almost every morning this week hoping it was Friday. Exhausted. Daylight Savings has kicked my ass this week. That and my schedule. I know I voted for this craziness to go away, yet here I am, battling fucked-up blood sugar and feeling like a truck hit me. And my life is relatively simple. I get up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, get up. Right? Hmm. Not quite. Yesterday, I didn’t have a meeting right after school, so I came home and graded two periods of an assignment, and then felt relief that I had finished that. Although there’s another one I assigned this week. Ugh. I lost most of my prep period yesterday to just crap. Today’s needs to be focused as hell. But it’s Friday and probably we are short subs so we’ll see how that goes. And then I drove north to my stitching meeting. So not so chill.

So the little quilt for the show that opens in late April, early May, is progressing. I ironed two nights running…here’s Wednesday’s progress…

Lots of letters…

Then last night…

I was so exhausted after my stitching meeting and getting food that I didn’t think I would have energy to do this, plus it was already almost 10 PM, so then I started on the leaves, but then the arm spoke to me, and then I was going to bed late. I like it like this, actually, but I’m gonna add the bugs and bird and sun and see if that makes it better.

My next plan is either for a boob quilt or a crone quilt (or both!), and then I have a proposal with a venue for a possible duet show, except the other person just pulled out, so IDK what’s gonna happen. I thought I was the problem child, but we are all problem children, eh?

I had my stitching meeting last night and spent most of the two hours on the roof…

And didn’t finish. It looks cool though. I should maybe do more of the embroidery on these blocks and less of the applique, but the applique is so satisfying for some reason on a night when I am exhausted. All of them. That’s all of them at the moment.

Anyway. Today has no meetings. Oh wait, there’s one this morning; that’s why I’m up a little early. Then teaching Darwin (who apparently thought women’s brains were inferior to men’s??? WTF? Oh man, I gotta teach something about that bullshit. I’m sure this is how I’m brainwashing kids.) and giraffes and natural selection. Tonight we are using up a restaurant gift card so no one has to cook, and because tomorrow night (our normal date night), the Man has another show. Another 4-hour show. I have a ticket this time, but I don’t think I’m staying until midnight. I just don’t think I have it in me this week. Honestly, a quiet night at home sounds lovely. With my book (that I don’t really like, but need to finish for book club so I can read another book that I might like more. I mean, you can’t love ALL of them. That’s just reality.). And a cat/dog combo of some sort. Yeah. Sounds lovely.

Glorious Bit of Sky…

Glorious world. Hmm. Not a good start. Glorious SKY…that I can attest to this morning. Well, only in one direction. Don’t look south. Very grey and cloudy. Glorious BIT of sky. There we are. I can see that and stare at it. I should’ve gone to bed earlier…every night of my life, but I have not. Unless I was sick. Which I’m not (knock on wood; everyone else is). Yet. Wait, no, this is not a time for ‘yet’. I will NOT get sick. Ugh. Anyone else have a fuzzy brain? Hell, it’s not even fuzzy…it’s just like not vacuumed and the cat puked somewhere but you can’t find it. YET. There’s a good use of that word.

OK, so lets get through this because apparently I have to go to work. I checked. It’s a yes.

Monday night, I finished sorting. Or maybe it was Sunday. I think it was Monday. Fuck.

Apparently I also started ironing that night…

I didn’t get very far. And I laid out the 100s first for some inexplicable reason, and then didn’t want to waste the time to put them back in the box and start over with the less than 100s, so I just started at piece 91 like the brainless pile of art brain that I am right now.

I did none of it last night, because I was in school meetings and/or teaching from 8 AM to 5:30 PM (got to school at 7:40) and then went to ceramics, not home until 9 PM. Not ironing after all that. I did make something…

It may all collapse (the sponge and newspaper are currently holding everything up)…

The holes are for hanging fabric down into it. I don’t know that this one is as successful as what I did last week, which is still drying, but these are all experiments anyway, so we’ll see how it goes. I did sign up for a membership though, so there will be more. Experimenting. At least through summer. We’ll see how it goes after that. I need to be able to go in and work for an hour or so and then leave it to set up a bit before I go taller. So I need more time.

I have decided that every unit cover page I do for science this year (and maybe forever) will use rainbow colors in the title, just to fuck with the people in my district who say that rainbows are dangerous and should not be student-facing. Even though we teach the science of them.

Yeah, I still have some coloring to do. I realize I am so behind, so buried, at school right now that ugh. Fuck it. I am trying. I need all the to-do’s to go the fuck away. After I count cow eyeballs today. After I find the fucking screwdriver so I can get the damn bucket open. IDK what the fuck I did with it. The prep room and materials are kicking my ass.

Trying.

Yeah. I teach both at the moment.

OK. Fuck today. It’s nuts. Gonna get through it the best I can. Hopefully someone will feed me when I’m done.

NOT Being a Teacher…

(groans) What is this early morning hell? How much tea can I get into me before I start to teach? I didn’t even finish posting things for class yesterday. Why? Because I tried to spend a chunk of my weekend NOT being a teacher. Mis. Take. Well, not. But sheesh, this job. Last week. Deep breaths. I think I can get through the next two weeks. I’m gonna hafta.

Friday night, the Man had a show at the Music Box. Before that, I had made it home and was slumped on the couch, trying to decide what dinner might look like. Glad to say the boychild is a good cook, because he fed me…

Also luckily, the singer in the band, his wife had a table and let me sit at it, which is good, because I was exhausted. And they were the openers, so they only played for an hour. Much nicer than the four-hour show that’s coming up this Saturday.

Saturday morning, I crazily got up kind of early and took an online class from Nicholas Ball, who was in Wales…

At some point, he said, OK hold up your fish, and I had been diligently taking notes, NOT sewing. So I only did two and one has its fins in totally the wrong place (oops) and some people made like ten and I feel like a fish loser, but I will survive. Then I drove to Oceanside to drop off my piece for this show…

I’ll be at the opening on March 30. Hoping it’ll be a cool show.

Came back and persuaded the Man to go for a short birthday hike…

Three miles. But it was beautiful out. Spring has sprung.

And I love being able to make it outside like this.

Then boychild had the suggestion of San Diego Restaurant Week for dinner, so we picked a restaurant and navigated shitty parking…

That was in the bathroom. The food was good, different, which was nice. I drew a little, but the food came out too fast to finish.

Then we came back and I trimmed fabric pieces.

Sunday was full of all the normal get-ready-for-school-week things, but we ended the day going out to dinner with my parents…

And then I finished trimming everything.

On to the next step. I also shipped a quilt off to this show, opening March 24.

The Man is delivering another today for a local show. I have that announcement somewhere too. Sigh. I’m discombobulated. And buried. Two weeks until Spring Break…

I will have to speak to people unfortunately. Need to get the house fixed. And this will be the next two weeks…

Maybe not die…just internally die. I have books to read, though, and art to make. I should commit to making a fabric fish a night, and then I’d have 10. Except I can’t commit to that this week…3 out of the 5 worknights are going to be late and doubled up. Whoops. Oh well. No plans. Just wish teachers luck today. You know how tired YOU are? Imagine a bunch of 13-year-olds. Yup. It’s gonna be crap.

Do Not Touch Gimbals

Hmm. I am drop-dead exhausted. Hoping I’m just fall-slowly-to-the-ground exhausted once I get this cup of tea into me. We should never do field trips on Thursdays. Coming back to teach on a Friday seems like a mistake for everyone involved. And yesterday was a doozy. Not violating any kids’ rights here by saying that. But if you see a teacher today, you should just spontaneously hug them and tell them it will all be OK. They may push you away and stare at you funny, but most of us would just lean into that hug.

When I think about teacher training, I realize how little of it actually helped me do ANY of the things I do now. I haven’t been trained on most of what I do. It’s instinct, or I figured it out by trial and error or with my teammates or coworkers. Some of it is common sense. Sometimes Mom brain kicks in (or caregiver brain for those who aren’t moms, because some people have that and it’s not because they gave birth) and we do the things to make things OK. Or not. We do the strict things that aim for OK in the future. I just know that I had planned to take my book to the gym yesterday after school and I did not. I came home and just sat on the couch, staring at pictures, for a good hour or so before I started working. Because I don’t want to work this weekend (I’ll have to anyway, but I’m trying to limit it).

So I graded one thing and fixed the final grades on another thing and then input them for the parent meeting later today, which may be contentious. Imma be chill. I hope. I don’t have a lot of filters at the moment. I’m trying to rebuild them by drinking tea. Nova is being very helpful, by the way. She is actually lying ON the gradebook. Which I realize is her way of saying, mom, stop working, but I needed to get that done. It’s OK. When I got up to heat up the 17th cup of tea (not really), she took over my spot.

Cute toes kitty. I won’t usually move her. She snores lightly. I just sat next to her and finished stuff. Hopefully I’ll have a prep period today to finish other stuff.

Art stuff: I finished ironing on Wednesday night…

It took a little less than 3 1/2 hours…for 313(?) pieces. Not bad. Then last night, I started cutting them out.

I’m probably halfway? I have a bunch of letters to cut out next. They’re time-consuming. I need to pack a quilt tonight to deliver tomorrow, and the Man has a show at the Music Box. Thank goodness he’s the opener, so I can be home at a decent hour…to collapse into bed, because I signed up for a quilt Zoom class tomorrow morning. Like an idiot. Like an idiot who wants to do fun things and not just work. So that is why.

Yesterday’s field trip was to the Midway, which is not my favorite.

I prefer animals to badly posed mannequins.

Although, if I were more of an abstract artist, that would be fun to make as a quilt.

I could have used this in the kids’ bathroom.

And this just made me giggle…

Mostly because I don’t know what a gimbal is. And it’s such a weird sign if you don’t know what the things mean.

It’s a military boat. It’s a lot of walking, lots of ups and downs. It’s not the most exciting thing. I had a group that would not stay together. I lost one kid and found him (well, he found us) and then lost three at the end, which was a problem. So I walked about twice as much as I needed to (knees held up), and then came back to school to a major issue that sucked. Still sucks, but less so. Wasn’t how I planned to spend the last 90 minutes of the school day, but whatever. It’s All in a Day! Perky smile and face and tone! Oh I don’t do those well.

I did read for about 45 minutes last night. I do love this character.

Ironically the same name as the cat who was lying next to me. Weirdly appropriate.

Here you go.

Anyway. Meeting this morning. Teaching all day, which will be hard, I’m sure. Probably talking to some kids/classes about yesterday’s events. Duty after school. Contentious parent meeting after that with principal and team. Then home to pack a quilt to be delivered. Then eat something. Then show…home…sleep? Maybe fabric trimming somewhere in there. I’m not gonna feel bad if that doesn’t happen though. It’ll be OK. It’ll happen tomorrow.

Mit dem Geist sitzen…

I don’t know what’s happening to the school weeks, but it seems like the first two days are the hardest. Tuesday nights, I’m like, WTF just happened. And why? Yesterday was a masterful example of that. But I made it through…and am hopeful that today has less stupidity involved. But probably not. I had to hand back last week’s homework and tell them to redo it. They hadn’t been explicitly taught by ME how to do it, but I gave them everything they needed in order to do it. They just didn’t use any of it. Not the notes, not the slides, not the genotypes I had them write on their paper and told them to use. Mind-boggling. So I guess the plus is that I don’t have to try to come up with another homework before break. I had two and needed a third. Otherwise everyone (but 6 kids) would have started the trimester with an F. I saw a teacher video about apathy the other day. Yeah. I care way more than they do about their grades. And promotion. And going to high school. Sigh. That’s not entirely true. Some of them care. Just not enough of them. And I realize as a parent that a lot of the dumbass behaviors we are seeing is precisely because some of these kids are worried about going to high school.

So less of that. I had a sex-ed curriculum meeting after school…the ‘last’ one until APPARENTLY WE ARE MEETING AGAIN NEXT YEAR? WTF. I did not sign on for all this. Ugh. I left early to go to ceramics class, which was fucking awesome because it was slab night and all we did was slam clay into the table. I needed that outlet. That was fun. I had an idea last week to try to make ceramic bases/forms that could pair with fabric, so this was the first idea…

It’s a box that hangs on the wall, but the body parts are on top. I’m imagining a little quilt hanging inside the box. I’m hoping anyway. We’ll see how that goes. I also made a tiny tray, just because I wanted to try the rollers…

Not perfect; I ran out of time. Next week, it’s make what you want…so I need to figure out what that is. And then I think we glaze. And then I consider whether I can pull off a membership here. I want to. We’ll see.

I did iron Monday night…

Almost done…just have a bunch of bugs and a bird to do, hopefully tonight. I’m borderline exhausted. Or maybe it’s just people related. We’re going on a field trip. My team is driving me bonkers. I just need consistency and that doesn’t happen. Plus the kids are whinier than heck about going. ‘My friend isn’t going so now I don’t want to.’ Your friend got suspended for hitting another kid from behind. You should pick better friends. I’m not redoing all the lists. You’re going. Shit. I think I have to redo the lists if that kid isn’t going. Oh crap. I’m out. Seriously.

FOCUS ON ART.

This year has been burning me out since September. A teacher friend yesterday said something along the lines of ‘oh yay, we only have one trimester left,’ but I’m like, I don’t think I can do another one. I just don’t have it in me. Next time someone tells me to call a parent, I’m gonna quote the district on self care.

I wish that were true, but it’s not. I always give a fuck. That’s part of the problem.

My meditation app decided to teach me German last night.

Luckily he didn’t talk in German, although it might not have mattered, because I stopped listening and just started counting the breaths. It was all I could handle.

Final picture of Nova conquering the scratching toy.

Oh wait! I have video of Kitten making her toothless face…

She is a good kitty. And I love her goofy face.

OK. IDK what to say about today. It has to be better than yesterday. Well, except that clay stuff was fun. I just came home and read my book. I couldn’t do anything else. Tonight is pilates and book club. Hmmm. Not sure I’ll be mentally aware for either of those. Tomorrow is the field trip. Yikes. We couldn’t get buses for Friday…that would have been better. Coming back for a Friday…ugh. It’s OK…I’m going to finish ironing fabrics tonight so I can get to the next stage of this little quilt, so I can eventually start drawing the big-ass crone quilt that’s growing in my head. That’s a plan.

I’ll Need to Pick Another One…

IDK what happened this morning, but it’s already late and I’m not ready. Really, today, I’m sitting in my classroom while someone else does a presentation that will apply to maybe 10 of my students, if that, but it’s not MY decision to make, so I’m just going to use the time to work so I don’t have to do it all after school this week. Win maybe win? We’ll see. I know I need to put in a healthy chunk of time this week on work because I didn’t do it this weekend. I finished grades Friday night, then mostly blew it off for the rest of the weekend. I was busy with other stuff.

I went to my quilt guild meeting and worked on this…

Then went to a baby shower and handed over this…

Then went to dinner with this guy…

And drew this…

Friday night, I finished tracing this…

And Saturday night, I turned it into this…

And last night, it became this…

I had picked a background fabric, but I don’t think it’s gonna work. So I’ll need to pick another one.

This was me trying to finish grades Friday morning.

Thanks to our grading program. It eventually figured its shit out. Typical though. I also gave a quiz (it was one question) and then got to deal with this.

I guess. Huh. Fun times. Both A students. Come-to-Jesus moment for them. I guess.

I just now noticed Kitten had thrown up on the top part and under the keyboard. Sigh. Ugh. Cleanup is fun. And somehow I’m still late this morning. I wonder why.

Good explanation there.

OK. Sigh. This week. It’ll be fine. As long as the thunderstorms stay away from the field trip day and all the things work and nothing more breaks and maybe even some good things will happen, in between my boob hurting (still, apparently can for up to 4 months, shoot me now) and my stress levels. At least I have art at night and books on my iPad.

Loudly.

Lots of people ask me how I do art stuff every day (and I don’t…I’d like to, but…), and the reality is that I have a fairly hefty art drive that MAKES me make almost every day, and if I don’t, I start to feel off, cranky, bereft, pissed off, sad, ugh, growly etc. So I try to balance all the other shit I’m supposed to do AND make art every night, and one of the number one drives toward retirement is the way my day job has sucked all of that time away from me and just takes more and more and more. Since COVID in 2020, I can’t get that balance. I can’t get enough art time. And I just get more and more frustrated with the time demands. Beyond frustrated. Art Brain is like a little kid who was promised time to do something they really love (read a book, swim in the pool, go to the beach) and then it’s a no. And not a good explanation for why (because I have to work). So of course it pitches a fit. You would too. Right now, Art Brain is counting the days until Spring Break (21 days, 16 actual days in school) so it can do more fun things. I haven’t told it about all the house things we have to do, because we can’t afford a weeklong camping trip like we usually do. So yeah. BUT…I am going to start a big drawing between now and then (need to finish some art stuff first) so I have one going for the end of the school year. To get me through. To PULL me through, because I think that’s what it’s gonna take.

So all I’ve been doing the last two nights is sewing binding on (and grading shit because the trimester ends today).

I do like sewing binding by hand. It’s relaxing. And those two colors are fucking awesome. And it’s for someone I really love. So it’s OK. But I’m also glad it’s done. Well. Almost.

Nova is such a sweetheart. She bumps her head up and starts kneading the air (and sometimes me)…

She’d be ON me if I’d let her. But it’s hard to stitch when she is. So she settles for there. And when Simba is here, HE’S there. And those are good things. The quilt is done except for one area on the back where some stitches did something that I can’t quite figure out (looks like a knot), so I need to tease it apart, tie it off, and maybe requilt that bit. And THEN it’s done, which is good, because the baby shower is tomorrow afternoon. But when it’s done, I can do my own stuff. Well, sort of. Because I’m doing an interpretation of somebody else’s stuff first and trying to make it my own and I’m not at the point yet where it feels like mine.

I did have a mental aha moment Wednesday night when I realized how to combine the ceramics and the quilts. So I’m going to try that. The girlchild is also taking ceramics and we had a cool conversation by text last night about that stuff. I do appreciate the change in medium and want to try to continue. We’ll see how that works, if I can make the two work together. It’s worth a try.

In other news, it’s Friday (OMG THANK THE GODDESS). Stressful week…both in trying to get kids to think and do things, but also in trying to get stuff set up for the next unit and there’s a field trip that may or may not happen and OMG there’s some other counseling thing that they haven’t told us about yet. I just want to come home and read my book and draw for a bit and stitch for a bit and trace for a bit. And get some yardwork done before it overwhelms me (too late; it already has). And clean house things because they’re gross. And not feel like I’m not allowed to have the time to make art because the day job is so all encompassing…do it for the KIDS. Hate that. I do it for the kids all the time. On the daily. Constantly. Wake up to thinking about them, worrying about them, trying to figure out how to engage them and help them learn. Fall asleep to it. It’s never-ending. I need some time off from that. Also I need some time off so I can plan the next unit. Which is thinking about them. Ah well. Art. It calls. Loudly.

Owls Are Back…

So in totally awesome news, even though we trimmed the shit out of the trees, the owls are back! I finally got the camera up and working and there they were! I was so happy. I thought I’d heard them, but not the young one I’d heard before for the last 9 months…that one left after the tree trimming. We would hear it every night, going out to hunt. This must be one of the original parents. Much quieter. The male parent last year was loud as hell too. But so far, these are quiet.

It’s the weird little things that make my days.

This weekend was rough…I don’t feel like I got enough of any one thing done, unfortunately. Crunch time for school plus a lot of art things going on. I got a little bit done on the piece I’m doing with a partner…just some tracing done on Friday and Sunday night…

I think I had a whopping 26 minutes last night…

I was speed grading before that. I’m in the 200s…just about 150 pieces to go. I could finish it tonight, but I have a baby quilt that needs to be done by Saturday. Ha! Well. Hopefully.

I put borders on it Friday, then pinbasted it Saturday morning.

I did a little quilting on Saturday after buying an insane amount of thread, because I didn’t have the right kind.

I didn’t get any more quilting done all weekend unfortunately. It won’t take long…I just need to do it. Hopefully more tonight. But grades are also due and that’s stressful. So yeah. I’m trying to do all the things.

Saturday was the pop-up opening of Collective Retrospective, a show with a current piece and a piece that’s at least 10 years old. It started on Instagram. I only had the old piece, and it will be 30 years old in October.

This is The Cold Cement Basement of Our Love from October 1994. It’s a screenprint that I then drew all over with Sharpie…some things never change. Lots of words and DNA and a cup of tea. And sciencey things going on in the body. Before I ever taught science. I did work in science though.

I absolutely sucked at pictures of this show…I do know this is Judith Parenio’s piece…

And this is Berenice Badillo’s piece…

I got a picture of her speaking (there’s video of her rousing words on the Insta link above)…

Except this is before she actually talked. Cool things happened. But I was there for like 3 1/2 hours. Time. Sigh. There was a beautiful sky though…and friends came by to see me and my art.

The Man stopped by at the end to help me load my piece into the car and then we went to dinner…

He had a show the night before that I was supposed to go to, but he texted me while I was driving that they had stopped letting people in; the venue was full. So I turned around and went home and graded instead. He didn’t get home until almost 2 AM, so we’ve barely seen each other this weekend. Yesterday was two art Zoom meetings plus trying to grade.

Anyway. So I’m quilting this week, hopefully tracing, obviously grading and lesson planning. Listening to owls. Reading when I can. I’ve got my second ceramics class tomorrow…already have ideas. It’s coiling. I love coiling. Busy weekend coming up. Again. Lots of art going out, which is good. Wish I were making more of it, but it’s here. I’m getting there. After a staff meeting today, teaching pedigrees…actually, letting an assignment teach them. I did my part. It’s time for them to do theirs. Ha! Hopeful anyway. First full week of teaching since January…with holidays and COVID and doctors’ appointments. It will be weird.

Give Them Cookies…

My days are still off. Whatever. I think I know they’re off at the moment…certainly I chant the current day in my head over and over just as a reminder (THURSDAY THURSDAY). I’m kind of exhausted and braindead, but also getting stuff done, but really not all of it or enough of it. Y’all know how that goes. I know that my car key fob battery died yesterday, so I have to set the car alarm off to get in the car. That’s fun. I did it in the school parking lot, then went to one place to buy a battery (nope), set it off again, went to Pilates, set it off again, used the internet to find another place to buy a battery (double nope), set it off again, and then a third place (triple nope, the internet is a big bad fucking liar), set it off again. The Man says I can take his car today, which is good, because otherwise I would set it off at least four times that I can think of. Good times. I was so exhausted by the time I got home that I just sat on the couch for about an hour (reading and drinking tea and petting the dog) until I could deal with dinner. I had to deal with the trash and compost crap first when I got home. Not good times. At least I got to read. Always pro that.

It didn’t give me enough energy to work on the baby quilt, unfortunately. I got an email that I needed to meet today with the boss, losing another prep period, and I’ve already lost the other three this week, so I spent about an hour last night trying to make sense of (and find) all the assignments for the next unit. Trying to get my head around the logical story of it. Because the other (mostly newbie) teacher was like, oh yeah, I’m all over the place, and I’m like, hey how are your kids dealing with that? Hmmm. So yeah. Please ask me again why I don’t have time to do all the extras at school. So hopefully today and tomorrow’s prep-sucking meetings won’t take ALL my prep, so I can actually copy stuff and create stuff and make sure next week isn’t a clusterfuck. I mean, it might be ANYWAY. Yesterday’s assignment certainly threw them. Shouldn’t have. I blame Trimester 2 lazy ass didn’t do any of the work last week (so many blank papers). So I gave them more time (not a ton), and today we move on. Lots of blank stares. Lots of my reminding them that they have stuff in their folders that will help them. One kid is like, “so where do I find the answer?” and I gently touched his head. And nodded. Figure it out.

The next academic assignment will be easier.

ANYWAY. School. Fuck me.

Art though. Also maybe fuck me. All over the map. The kids and my ex gave me a ceramics class series for Christmas and I had my first class on Tuesday night. We started with pinch pots. I made a lot of random things. I didn’t have a plan (obviously).

I think I decided four of them were plant pots. That one on the right is too heavy on one side. It might fall over.

I can’t really explain any of it. I was just messing around. It was very meditative.

That’s definitely some sort of figure on the right. Anyway. Next week is coiling, which is my favorite, but they have an extruder, which I’ve never used before and am totally looking forward to messing around with. Woo! And I have to think about what larger project I’m going to do in Week 4. I might become a member. I don’t know. Maybe for the summer? It’s open 24/7 to members. I could go in there for three hours and build random garden ornaments.

I worked on this a little on Tuesday night when I got home. It’s cool. They need feet. Also they need to be a lot older for what I really want to do next.

But it’s a place to start. I tend to draw indeterminate/young age. I will need to practice old age. More wrinkles? Not sure.

And then I finished this one. Not sure about it.

But I numbered it. It’s small, but there’s 313 pieces (because I never know when to stop).

So blurry. Amazing photography. Really. I can start tracing tonight. No, I haven’t finished the baby quilt or the other art quilt, but this one is for a deadline, so I should do it first. Wah. Whatever.

I’m really proud of this. We have a certain publisher/author we use for all our homework assignments. They’re called thinking probes. But there aren’t many for the genetics unit. I made some other stuff, cobbled together from quizzes that were part of assignments I was giving (I don’t do a lot of quizzes), but I needed something for GMOs, and I’m sitting there staring at one of our thinking probes…I can do that. So I used AI to answer a question that AI created about GMOs, and then I used the names of the other science teachers as the friends…

Although one of them wants to change their answer to something about bringing dinosaurs back. Which I might change for next year, but I’d already copied them for this year. I’m so proud of this one thing. I was trying to use AI for a lot of things yesterday, because I don’t have anyone really helping with this grade level. AI is like a sort of competent and sort of knowledgeable friend. Not a great one. Either friend or competent or knowledgeable. Although it gave me a good BAD answer. ANYWAY. I did this one good thing yesterday.

Simba is stuck with just us this week with the boychild gone. We couldn’t find his lion toy when Katie was visiting…we hide all the toys because she eats them. But he found it and brought it to me the other night…

Wanted to make sure I saw it again last night…

DON’T TOUCH IT THOUGH. Yeah. I did.

I just don’t send it at that point. Really. Fuck that.

OK. Today. Is a lot. We have the district coming by to see what we are doing with literacy, which means a lot of outside during advisory with our kids, trying to get them to mingle and talk about the book so we can give them cookies. Sounds hard? You’d be surprised. Then I need to remember to do literacy in science (it’s been a rough month y’all…I’ve been slacking) so they can see it when they tour through, although if they don’t come in the first ten minutes, they won’t see it. So there. Then teach about pedigrees…next part of genetics. I revised a lot for this so they would have to do big chunks on their own. It’s my new thing. Less direct teaching, more putting them on the spot to do their own work. We’ll see how it goes. It helps me get the grading done, for sure. I just sit at the table with the kids who won’t get on task and grade…they are remarkably compliant then. Although some birdwalk like crazy. Whatever. So yeah. I need to make more tea and go to the place that exhausts me. Run errands after school. Hope my battery shows up so I can drive my own car tomorrow (my jellybean stash is in there). Zoom with stitching friends. On the couch. Stitching. Nice. SLEEP for fucks sake. Really need that. Start tracing that quilt and try to get my head behind it. Goalz.