Hopefully It Will Hold…

My oatmeal revolted this morning. I’m not sure why. I don’t know what I did differently, but it was like a hard cake of oatmeal instead of like a mushy cereal. I don’t know what I did to deserve that. Probably didn’t put enough milk in? But I remember measuring it. Cooked it too long? That is possible. I don’t remember setting it, wait, I did…I did the right time. Am I eating it? Of course I am. Not wasting food. Don’t really care about it that much. Not the tastiest. Could be worse though. Giant blobs of hard oats. Weird.

Also weird, what I’m doing artistically at the moment, which is mostly cleaning honestly. The studio rarely gets a good clean, and it’s not getting one now either…but I had a bag and a bin full of little tiny pieces of fabric that came from IDK where and I can’t deal with them taking up real estate any more. Some are precut binding pieces, and narrower than anything I would ever use, so they’re getting recycled. The rest are getting cleaned off (dust bunnies), ironed if necessary, and stacked up by color, along with some other monthly shipments I got for a while and I thought I had sorted into my bins, but hadn’t. So now I am.

My internet is being cranky this morning; hopefully I’ll be able to add photos by the time I’m done writing. Anyway, those are the piles so far; I’m about 1/3 of the way through the bin. I got all the way through the bag. I also need to pack a quilt and ship it. So that’s on my to-do list. Plus grades are due soon, so I’m trying to get through one class of tests a night, but really, I need to do two one night because camping this weekend. I think last night was the night I was going to try to do more, but it was errands, talking to dad (or trying to), because it was his birthday (86!), and then talking to my bro, his lovely wife, and his delightful daughter. All good things. Just can’t grade when life is happening. Sigh.

Top right of that picture has some fabric applique pieces I’ve made but not finished over the years. I was looking for a specific one and it wasn’t there. Sigh. I do have them on my list to try to finish, but I need to find all of them.

So I’ve been adding Inktense pencil layers to these two dye paintings. The small one needed a background color and the larger one, the two bottom heads needed stuff.

So I’ve been adding layers and then fabric medium and more layers. Last night, I ironed the smaller one, so I’ll wash it out probably tonight, see what holds. The larger one, I thought I was done, and then in the photo, noticed I’d forgotten the eyebrows.

And they’re totally obvious and bug me. So I’ll do that tonight. So it’s not an hour’s worth of truly art stuff, but the cleaning needs to happen. I’ll get there. The heads piece and another long skinny one need to be finished next.

I finally made it to ceramics and made some decisions. I was able to remove the ‘cloth’ piece from the arms and I’m putting it in the bisque fire.

Hopefully it won’t change shape much. I’ll try to glaze fire it in place. I just needed it out of the way so I could try to do a better fix on the arm. We’re at bone dry though and it’s problematic. It is a clean break though, so if I can fire it next to the main piece after I fix it, I’ll be able to make it all work I think.

I’d say I need to do something smaller next, but this was supposed to be smaller and maybe I just can’t do small? I also can’t finish things quickly. I do think the arm is more stable now, so that should help.

Speaking of help, here’s Scribble helping to grade tests.

She is ever so helpful.

I drove past this during errands yesterday. I like to let the GPS tell me which way to go, so I end up on random streets I’ve never been on.

Their reviews are average, but it’s worth a try to drag some kid there, yeah? Maybe just for coffee.

This is legit.

That man is so incapable of doing his job as it is.

OK. Today should be a chill day. Kids have an independent assignment to complete before a lab tomorrow. I have a million packets to grade and I really need to finish if possible. Or get close. Then I have pilates after school and need to set up a flood barrier for the rain that is coming over the next few days. I have an outside drain that isn’t working and needs to be cleared out, but I don’t have the time or the equipment. It’s on my list for Thanksgiving. The new gutter drains in an inconvenient location. Then I’m going to grade more than one class worth of tests, fix those eyebrows, and finish cleaning up in here. Maybe put a label on that quilt I need to ship (probably not; let’s be honest. There are only so many hours in a day). It’s all good though. At least I have a plan…hopefully it will hold.

Be Prepared

Pro: I finished a quilt. Con: Now I have to do all the other things I wasn’t doing because I was finishing a quilt. Friday night I finished the sleeves…

Still needed to be ironed and cleaned up, but that was the plan for Saturday morning…

And while I was trying to fall asleep, I remembered a set of mushrooms that needed embroidery…

So that was Saturday morning…

I dropped the quilt off with the photographer and then ran some errands. I came back and started to get some of the home and school to-do lists done, never enough. After dinner out, I remembered I decided to color the background of this. I’m using Inktense pencils, so after you color, you have to paint. But I think it’s OK. I might do another layer.

This is very small, but not small enough for an upcoming show I need to enter. It’s a drawing I did summer of 2025, then colored summer of 2026. Still not done.

Then last night (yesterday was crazy busy), I got about 15 minutes to work on this.

Mostly this piece is fine as is…or at least, it’s ready for the next stage. But the yellow person is still yellow. I got through the coloring part with the pencils but not the painting part, so I’m expecting (hoping) the yellow becomes less yellow and the purple hair gets darker. But we’ll see tonight. As of tonight, I have a ton of grading to do. We’ll see how that goes. I’m also hoping to finally make it back to ceramics, to deal with the broken arm. Sigh. We’ll see how that goes.

Another school shooting.

Tough one. Kid with a gun going back to his elementary school. Special needs kid, special needs classroom. We don’t teach kids to deal with trauma. As a classroom teacher, we see a lot of it, and the resources don’t exist in schools to deal with that and teach content and teach them to read and all the things we’re supposed to do. But this is not a solution. Guns are never a solution. Little kids. All of them. And this…

That.

My pilates studio has these skellys all around in pilates poses. For something a little goofy.

And this is too true.

Microsoft does some weird shit on my computer and I don’t really understand it all.

I do love this woman.

It’s definitely something to think about, maybe more now than later. Vote. A pedophile/rapist is in charge. Him not being in charge won’t solve all the problems, but if we can get more people against him in the government, it might start to reverse the crazy. Because it is crazy.

OK. Grade lots of things. Although I think not today…I think today is a lot of demos and stuff. Things where I have to be directly involved all day. Sounds exhausting. Then a staff meeting. And a grade-level meeting that is not relevant, I think, but I just don’t have the energy to argue about it. Grade-level matters when we get closer to promotion. Less now. Then ceramics, home and grade a bunch of stuff, then paint that stuff. Maybe color more on the other one. Somehow get the book I’m reading on my iPad to sync up with the same book on my phone. Usually it does; not sure why it’s being idiotic. It’s cooler today. Maybe. This fall has been ugh. I need to go buy some flood control stuff before the next storm shows up. That would be Wednesday, I think. Try to be prepared. For everything. Can’t possibly be prepared for someone jumping a fence and killing little kids. Not ever.

Lovely Rain…

So we got rain, a lot of rain, lovely rain. Still raining now, but pretty lightly. No flooding here, although I did a little sweeping, sand bagging (without sand or bags), and trimming in the rain. It came earlier than they said it would, so I was caught out a bit. Plus I’ve got a cold, so the body is not fully willing…or able. I’m functional…just tired and achy and a little spacey at times. Right now feels like “at times.” I’m hoping breakfast and some tea and the meds kicking in will help with that, but you never know. I have two relatively chill days here…although maybe giving a test isn’t a chill day with this crew. Hard to say. They do fight the power, albeit very ineffectively and with no real conviction. I wish them luck in their futures.

Temperatures have also dropped drastically from 105 degrees a week ago to the high 60s today. I’ll take it! It’ll be back up to the 90s on Friday apparently. October is always a little nuts weatherwise. It used to always be the beginning of Fall…and the end of it, honestly. Right now, it can’t decide. I was going to go to an art in the park event on Saturday after my art group meeting, but it was pouring rain by then.

So I managed to finish the stitchdown on Friday night…

This was after a 45-minute nap on the couch and a dinner that consisted of toast.

Impending cold, plus flu/COVID shot…ugh. Dog for comfort.

Then Saturday, I went to an art meeting and bought binding for this thing, because my quilt store is not open late enough during the week, and if I’m going to finish this in time to get it to the photographer, I can’t wait until next Saturday for binding fabric. Then I cleaned the floor, washed the batting, pieced the back, ironed everything, and pinbasted…

With kneepads on. Great suggestion from a friend. Totally makes it easier.

Then started quilting on Saturday.

I quilted a lot this weekend…

I got all the outlining done last night…

Almost 6 hours in. Background quilting starts tonight.

We’ve had some animal friends this weekend…this guy on the roof…

I also have video of what looks like him coming in the yard. And this video near the big hole we found near the tree…

We’ve always known there were coyotes around. This was around 1 AM. We have seen them in broad daylight though.

I did do some school stuff this weekend, although being sick made me forget about one thing I was supposed to do Friday night (I didn’t feel well…). So I did that last night. No emails from students, so I guess that’s how it goes. This week starts a new unit, but a lot of my coteachers will be out for a couple of days; I’m expecting some stupid behavior from that. Routines are good for kids! I’m just going to try to get as caught up with school as I can at school, so I can come home and finish this quilt. And rest up. Possibly more importantly.

There’s this…

I’ve never been much of a fan of religion, but especially not in the case of retribution and vengeance. It’s a little dark and evil for me. And I’m not a bright, sunshiny person in general. I would like to put all the pedophiles on an island (ironic) together. With no one else. Think Lord of the Flies but with the perverts. Works for me.

With that thought, I’m going to need to go to work. I’m medicated. I have tea. I remembered what I’m eating for lunch. I’m giving a test today (they will have a hard time with this one, for sure). And collecting more packets (ugh…I just finished grading the last unit). We have a staff meeting after school to cover some (cough) very important things. Plus meet with our special ed teachers (like we don’t talk to them all the time). I’m debating ceramics after. Not sure I’ll feel up to it, but I didn’t go all last week. I’m just thinking I’ll be too tired and I already need to get this quilt done. We’ll see. I have to cook tonight too, so that’s an added task that gets in the way of making art. I need AI to do THOSE things. Cook and clean and grade…it does a lousy job of the latter. Unfortunately. It’ll be fine. I’ll figure it out. And make art in the process. Been doing that for years.

Perhaps Too Much of It…

Well. It’s Friday. And some little widget at school got me sick. Also I chose to have a flu/COVID shot yesterday, thinking I might not be sick. Might not have been the best choice, but I’d already rescheduled once. I have another doc appointment today that was scheduled months ago. I’m pretty sure if I try to reschedule now, they’ll charge me…we’ll see how I feel I guess. I can always mask…but she does need to look at my face. Sigh. I don’t have time to be sick. Or the energy for that matter.

Hopefully it’ll be done with me quickly. I have a lot of work and art stuff to do this weekend.

Artwise, I’m in the stitchdown phase…

This is last night…

I don’t have a lot left to do…enough not to do it last night, but…the plan is to have this pinbasted and start quilting tomorrow. I do have a meeting tomorrow and a ton of grading to do (when does that ever change?)…and I’m sick. So there’s that. But it will get done. Possibly in between naps.

Today at school will be a shitshow. Lots of kids flailing on roller coaster build, so we’re simplifying. I’m setting up a few models today around the room, and will let one group at a time use each of them. They take too long to build (it’s been four days of it y’all; I’m out) and require too much maintenance to not do stupid stuff. I need them to get everything done today so we can finish this project and test on Monday. The next unit has to be done before Thanksgiving Break, so we are limited in time. We moved the test partially because there was supposed to be some drill during half of one class period today, so that was my original take…move the test; they won’t have time. And I emailed admin, and then another admin. Finally got an answer last night that no, the drill one admin said was happening was not. Another one was happening next week. The lack of communication is lovely. Really. A pleasure. Sigh. Also the info that finally came at 8 PM last night? From a Monday question? Whatever. I know they’re like, “It’s not a big deal.”, but it is if you are picking days to have a test based on their schedule.

Oh yeah, I forgot this…

It’s OK. It’s a silent letter. Those are hard. But if you do British English slang at all, oh my. I laughed anyway. Because I am a child. I ran into a student and parent last night, a parent I’d been trying to reach about promotion and attendance and grades. It was a nice trip to the grocery store. That kid. Seriously. Get it together and come to school.

ANYWAY. So today will be more controlled chaos (still chaos) with some direct instruction. Followed by a doc appointment I might reschedule. Some lying around and feeling sick. Some grading. Some stitchdown. Hopefully ALL the stitchdown. And piece a backing plus wash the batting. It’s cooler today again…a little every day…but then remnants of a hurricane starting Saturday night…rain, finally, but perhaps too much of it. Of course.

Dreams

Y’all, the day after Back-to-School Night is always the worst. I feel like I’ve already done a whole week. Usually I’m smart and plan independent work, a low-key day, but no…we’re doing a lab. Ugh. Bad plan. So yeah. At least I’m getting better from the weird virus I had…never really manifested as a cold…just sat around and made me feel like shit for four days. And grades are due, so I’ve been trying to get through all of that and plan for next week and copy stuff for next week and go to a million meetings…I have another one this morning. Most of the issues we’re having are either learning issues that should have been dealt with by 8th grade, but teachers dropped the ball (which is so annoying) or parenting issues…please don’t let your kids do whatever they want. We’re in the middle of some particularly exhausting parental bullshit. Fun times.

So I make art all through that, because it is my sanity. On Wednesday, I started sorting fabrics for the next figure. I did iron some stuff too, but not much because I was washing out a dye painting as well. Here’s the washout, but it still needs a couple more washes…

Another one of my summer pieces that needed more washing. There’s still more.

Here’s the beginning of laying out the second figure.

I didn’t finish on Wednesday. Thursday, I got home close to 7 PM after staying all day and working. So I didn’t work at home. I had a book that was getting sucked back to the library that I needed to finish for book club (it’s 11 weeks before I can get it again), so I was trying to finish that and gave up and went and ironed for almost two hours…

I ironed all of the fleshy bits for the second figure, which rolled into a brownish-green color, but I still have all the things in and around, like the heart and the eyeball and about a million fungal things with mycelial things.

All that stuff. And another bin full of stuff. There’s a tree in there too. So I still have no clue how many I’ve ironed and how many there are to go, which is how I predict how much time is left. It’s frustrating, but it’s my fault for numbering the way I did. I pulled from the 400s to the 700s for the 2nd figure, but not ALL those pieces. So I’ll be working my way through these tonight. I’m getting close, but I’m not there yet. And the weekend is a shitshow, as always. It must be September.

Rustic Sphinx moth last night.

The cats were fascinated. It was apparently throwing itself against the screen. The Man sent photos of all four cats enthralled. Cool moth though.

OK. Lab today. Meeting this morning. Kamikaze out to a new chiropractor after school. The neck is truly a mess. I need a new pillow and don’t know what to get. Hoping they have suggestions. Plus relief. Of some sort. Grading. Figuring out dinner. Ironing. Tomorrow, a lot of the same, although the Man has a show. So hopefully I’ll get plenty of rest tonight (ha!) for that. More than getting up at 6 AM anyway. Hopefully I’ll be efficient at school today and get through some of the grading while the kids follow instructions I explained yesterday. Hopefully no fights about vaping in the bathroom (not me). The right eye is twitching. Early in the year for that. It’s fine. I have art to make, shows to enter, residencies to enter. That’s where my brain is right now. And the stuff at school doesn’t make those dreams go away.

The Alternative

Being sick sucks; being sick as a teacher sucks even more. The job is physically and mentally challenging on a good day; trying to do it when you’re feeling shaky is harder, but the alternative is writing sub plans, assuming your classroom will be a disaster and no one will get anything done, and betting on the fact that you’ll feel better tomorrow…like is THIS the worst day of this illness? Or will that be tomorrow. And it won’t matter tomorrow because it’s a lab day (not leaving that with a sub) AND back-to-school night and one teacher on your team is already going to be missing. Plus you don’t really know how you’re going to feel until you get up in the morning, and then it’s too late usually to get a sub so a bunch of random teachers will have to be in your classroom. So yeah. That’s where I’m at. Today is NOT independent work mostly. There’s a bunch of talking and excitement I’m supposed to be pushing out (with what energy?) and then lots of walking around and encouraging. Meanwhile, the honors kids are trying to work ahead on everything, because it’s how they roll. They don’t know how to just let something sit. And wait. I understand that. I want the blank papers done too y’all.

I’m still ironing…so very slowly.

Not sure why it’s so slow.

Last night’s…

I just laid out the 400s. Some of them were already ironed to flesh bits, but mostly not. I might be halfway; I might not. It’s impossible to say. I feel like I’ve done a lot and question why I am not done yet.

I washed out the dye painting that needed repainting…

Doing some crazy stuff with distilled water in the laundry room, because I think my really hard water bleaches some f the dye out.

After drying…much better.

So yeah, the dyes I mixed at the end of July are still working.

I also washed out one of the glue resist pieces…

It needed more glue removal. I think it’s good now. They’ll both go through a regular machine wash at some point.

And then I finally made it to ceramics.

I’m done underglazing. Just need to figure out when it can go in the kiln.

I have a neck that fits in that hole sitting in my damp box, ready for me to build a head. And maybe a bird. That was the original plan anyway. We’ll see how that flies. It’s nice to have progress at least.

This AI conversation…interestingly, I heard one pundit talking about how we needed to stop separating AI from the techies who built it/own it. To hold them responsible.

They designed this system to make them money, and in doing so, endangered the future of billions of humans. And the big dumb guy says all we need to control it is a smart president. Oh well.

I’m sick. Definitely worse than yesterday. Hoping the meds kick in. I’m supposed to have pilates after school and it’s too late to cancel without a penalty. I’m watching a squirrel yell at something in the neighbor’s yard. I need to be better tomorrow. Doing a lab while sick is hard. Labs are hard anyway. It’s not even set up. I need to go in this morning and try to get through that. I started yesterday and it got too complicated. I really just want to go back to bed. Too late for that. Time to bully through. Ugh. And grades are due next week, so I just grade nonstop at the moment. Also not fun. Hope it gets better…the cold at least.

Ebb and Flow

Weird week. Really hot…supposed to be 105 degrees today. My studio was 91 degrees at 10:45 last night…right now, there’s a tiny coolish breeze coming in, but it’ll be gone by the time I get home again. This house just holds heat…it sucks. This is the time every year when I think about air conditioning. Because we barely slept last night…it was just too hot. Sigh. One more day of the really bad, then one just in the high 90s, and then some reasonable semblance of a fall temperature in Southern California. Low 90s sounds lovely. If you say 80s, I may swoon.

But today is still hot. And ironing fabric when it’s hot is hard. I did manage to do the small piece for the ceramic sculpture that’s been sitting around, waiting for it.

This piece is obviously not much of a rush.

Then I started ironing for the new piece. It has some really big pieces because I was trying to keep it simple.

For some definition of simple. Last night, I managed about 40 minutes of dirt before I gave up in here…

It was (still is) hot and I was tired. It was a long weekend and a long day. I’ve been taking care of my parents’ dog, and we knew she was near the end. Well, yesterday was the end. Poor Katie girl…a good long loved life.

It sucks. But it was time; she was ready. And she was a good girl.

Luna is also a good girl, but very much alive…and kinda flat.

All the cats are kinda flat. It’s hot. Looking forward to Friday’s temperatures. Sooner rather than later.

I’m unfortunately going to have to sit in the heat this evening again, trying to grade papers or iron in yucky temperatures. I could stay at school to grade for a while, but it’s not very comfortable. Can’t iron there. Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to stand it in here for a little bit tonight, at least an hour. This one is on a deadline. Aren’t they all?

I got two pieces into Quilts = Art = Quilts, so that’s cool. I had a dearth of acceptances at the end of the last school year, so it’s nice to get into a few this fall. Appreciate the ebb and flow? Or not.

Today, I’m teaching energy…despite my lack thereof. I might need to find some stuff when I get to school. Sand. Thermometers. Ice. For a demo! Not my shirt. Although last night, as I was attempting to fall asleep, I thought putting all the ice packs under the sheets wouldn’t be so bad. Union meeting after school. Then home to swelter, grade, and iron. Maybe sleep at night, but probably it will still be too hot in here. Ice packs, y’all.

You Never Finish…

Hey Monday. As always, you appear too quickly. Busy weekends make you show up even faster. Hoping next weekend is better…oh wait! It is! Three-day weekend for the win.

The heat wave has finally backed off a bit. It’s still in the 90s, but not the high 90s. It makes a difference. I was actually cold last night in bed. A freakin’ miracle. I’m still getting woken up by the low blood sugar alarm every night. We’ve reduced my insulin. I’ve tried a snack before bed. Nothing seems to work. And now I have the diabetes nurse AND my doctor giving me conflicting info. I guess the educator I talked to last summer is gone? It’s so hard to get a working relationship with a medical person when they so often leave. I’m sure there’s a reason. My medical group has laid off hundreds of people…thanks to the big beautiful asshole of a bill. I don’t see this getting better.

So I did trace all weekend and managed to get within 100 pieces of the finish…

Friday night…

Saturday night…it all kinda looks the same…except for the cat.

Sunday night…

I have about 100 pieces left…I keep finding pieces I haven’t numbered yet, so I’m not sure what to say about that.

I sat the Techne Art Center gallery on Saturday for 5 hours. Thanks to all the friends who stopped by…like this one from school…

She came dressed for an evening out with her husband. I sewed two of his buttons on his suit coat for him. Then did one for the boychild last night. See? A sewing education is useful.

I wandered around and took photos of everything so I could write a blogpost.

Not as many people as at the opening. Much easier to get photos without random people in them.

Not sure when I’m going to have time to write that post for that group, or the other two for the other two groups.

The ceramics are by Linda Litteral.

I hadn’t seen this one for a while. It’s fun…for a quilt about the onset of COVID. Good show…you should go see it.

I’ve got a couple of local shows coming up…one at Grossmont College opening in October…when I have the social media blurb for that, I’ll post it…and this one.

I’ll be at this opening, although not for four whole hours. But you should stop by. It’ll be nice.

Speaking of nice, the boychild graduated from his fire training courses this summer…he was gone for 10 weeks. The girlchild went up to support him and we got this awesome photo.

We’re very proud of him for getting to wear the fancy uniform with all the buttons. Plus the better job situation. He works hard. So does she, but she doesn’t get to wear fancy uniforms and have bagpipes at ceremonies. I watched the livestream at school on my phone with my earbud in…I did tell my students what was going on. It was short. They were being taught by a counselor during that period, so I don’t feel bad.

I do feel bad about the fucking climate change idiocy that doesn’t believe in that stuff. Because Nepal. And Ohio. And my lord, the list of places will just keep growing.

Maybe if the White House succumbs to a flood. Nah, they’ll just blame the Democrats for that.

Speaking of stupid…

I am totally ready for any lake to be named after Epstein if we can get all the files and then put some old white guys in jail for life. Plus bring home all those military people who don’t need to be at war.

And if you’re a billionaire, be like Dolly.

Bunch of wankers.

This car was parked where we were having dinner. I’m all for Hello Kitty doing some whack stuff (she had big teeth on the back of the car), but carrying automatic weapons?

Let’s not. This was not a small decal…it was about 3 feet high. Not a fan.

OK, I graded a lot this weekend, but didn’t finish (you never finish until the end of the school year). I did some other things. I realized that sometimes people don’t know how little spare time you have unless you tell them, and even then, if it’s not their experience, they probably don’t get it. Friday I spent a lot of time explaining food to students…like gumbo…which I’ve never had (seafood not good for me). Today though is hotdogs and they have to write about them and the pro is that it’s a pretty easy one. Which is great, because their reliance on AI is mind-boggling and they won’t have computers out today. Ha! But I need to put our surveillance software on them for the warmup, because it’s crazy what answers they will cut and paste without even trying to make sense of them. CRAZY. I fear for the future. But AI is gonna take over and get rid of us anyway, because we are causing all the bad shit. So it’ll be OK.

I have a staff meeting, I’d like to go to ceramics today, I need to finish tracing, and odds are, I need to grade more shit. What’s new? But it’s cooler. I can get behind that.

It’ll All Get Done

Oy. Friday. Hot. Hopefully just two more days of that before the weather calms the fuck down. I’m ready for that. I’m also hoping this feeling like I will never catch up or get things done will calm down soon…although it kind of is a school/teacher thing, so probably not. I have 5 hours sitting in a gallery tomorrow to get caught up. Oh wait, I’m never actually caught up. But I’m going to try. Also that means I lose all my Saturday artmaking/house fixing/cleaning time. Taking deep breaths. Weekends shouldn’t be stressful (but they are).

I’m still tracing. It’s going incredibly slowly.

It’s hot. I’m only getting like an hour a night. The pieces are complicated. I drew them, so it’s my fault.

I started my 4th yard of Wonder Under last night…a piece that wouldn’t fit in between all the other ones. In simplifying this piece, keeping the tiny details to a minimum (for some definition of that), it’s harder to fill in all the leftover bits. I’m in the high 300s. The last two nights, I have not been able to trace 100 pieces each night, like I prefer. I got through about 70 pieces last night, maybe 60 the night before. I’m hoping to spend a few hours tonight tracing…I can grade at the gallery tomorrow. Today at school, I need to prep for next week and clean up from the lab. The new teachers’ aide did a really good job of organizing the lab supplies and even WASHED things with a sponge. I love that for us. It’s a boy and they aren’t always the best at the cleaning/organizing tasks. I’m hopeful. But now I need to put them all back. Plus two parent meetings…AND the boychild is graduating from his CalFire program…he’s been gone all summer…and it’s on livestream this morning. Trying to figure out how to just watch that during a parent phone call and a counselor presentation in my advisory.

Life. It’s complicated. And currently very sweaty.

So many deaths. This one made me tear up a bit. She had such a hard time of it, but seemed to really get where she needed to be.

Hoping she has peace…and all the dots.

Lunar eclipse last night! I love all the bad photos going back and forth between friends.

Some professional photographer online will have amazing photos.

Unlike my blurry red dragon egg. It was cool to see it anyway. Even with the mosquito bites.

OK. School today. Teaching how to write in science. TORTURE. For me and them. We’ll survive. My co-teacher is back! I wish her a lot of pain-free moments today. Two parent meetings. Duty after school. Hoping for ceramics after school, depending on my exhaustion levels. I just need to glaze…it’s not hard. Then home…I think I’m cooking tonight. Ugh. Sigh. Then tracing. Grade tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be at the Techne Art Center in Oceanside from 1-6 PM. Come see the FIG show there, Master Glitch. It’s a cool show. Probably I’m supposed to write a blogpost about it…and three other shows. Sigh. It’ll be fine. It’ll all get done. Maybe.

You Will Keep Making Mistakes…

Hey. Halfway through the work week. Woke up out of a dream that I don’t remember, but I do know I wanted to finish it. That said, I want to finish the bad ones as much as the good ones, because I want to know how things end. This is how I end up reading the next book in a series even when I’m not really that into it. I’m not sure it’s a useful trait, but it’s the one I have.

I’m tracing Wonder Under this week. It looks pretty boring, but there is always a cat involved.

She starts out lying on everything and eventually gets annoyed with my moving her around and leaves.

Mostly I’ve been tracing a lot of big background pieces with the occasional burst of tiny mushrooms.

See? Side by side. The big pieces take longer to trace. I always like to get 100 pieces done in an hour, which is the amount of time I have most nights, but last night, I only did 90 because they were big pieces.

I’m in the 200s…I won’t be done until early next week. But there’s always progress.

Here’s one of the quilts that went to the photographer. It actually has a name, Interminable Wait.

Hand embroidery with light threads, so easy to photograph! Ha.

This one’s name is percolating. I have a potential…I’m mulling over it.

It’s coming. I’ll post both of them on my New Work page in the next couple of days with details of size etc. Nice to have real photos of them.

I’m exhausted from work and the heat…it’s so hard to sleep when it’s hot. The windows have to be open, so it’s light (full moon coming) and loud (cars and nature and the neighbor’s roosters…drive me nuts). I need to clean the kitchen and laundry room floors soon…here’s the natural detritus on the floor of the laundry room telling me how it feels about contributing to the dirt in there.

I did it right before I left on my summer trip. I haven’t done it since. TIME! I don’t have enough time. I come home and read a chapter of my book and then grade stuff and then deal with food. Yesterday I had a meeting that I thought would be 15 minutes go to an hour and then I had to drive to pick up my quilts, so I didn’t get home until 5:45 and I was half dead. I still feel half dead. Not sleeping enough. Plus we did a lab yesterday. Those are also exhausting. You know what else is exhausting? The world. One of my school board members and his wife do videos every week and last week, we saw a clip where she is claiming teachers are evil predator communists who turn kids into the opposite gender.

Lady. I just want your kid to wear deodorant, not lose all their papers, charge their Chromebook, come to school, and have a pencil. What the everloving fuck are you talking about? Please don’t vote for the two Project 2025 ignoramuses (ignorami?) in our district. Text me or email me for names. I’ll be canvassing against these sweethearts in September.

This was too true…and then Dolly Parton died. A good person. Instead of the other 80-year-olds who are performing evil predatory things on our country.

Reality is that we DO have to go to work and pay the bills and pack lunches. Plus this…

I made a quilt about that.

Meanwhile, this is me.

Always.

OK. Work. Finishing up all the lab writing stuff and starting to talk about how to write claim, evidence, and reasoning. Again. There was a minor bit of stupid behavior yesterday but no one was sent out. A couple people were told to stop touching things. Ever. Always. Never again. And the principal violated one of the safety rules. Good teachable moment there. Then pilates after that. It’s hot here; did I mention that? Then home to grade and cook and maybe clean a floor, if I have the energy for it (unlikely). Then tracing into the 300s. It’s all planned out. I need to make at least one video today…without my co-videomaking partner. Awkward. Bringing a tripod instead. Can’t replace her really, but it’ll have to do for today. Need to make some copies for later in the week too. Like maybe for tomorrow. Should really figure that shit out. Missing half my science teacher brain…I minorly messed up the lab in Period 1 and revised for the following periods. Glad I did that at least. Learn from the mistakes. Sometimes you can avoid making them in the future. But realistically, you will keep making mistakes all your life and you will need to do your best to fix them, and the sooner you become comfortable with that, the better.