Hey yo. Going into Friday with an attempt at zen that will probably dissolve into wack. British spelling. Means something different than what I might do to a mole. Anyway. So that’s my brain falling into rabbit holes. FOCUS Nida. Focus.
As I’m grading all this last-minute crap, that’s what I’m constantly telling myself. Some of them are doing a great job; it’s a joy to regrade their work, note the improvement, tell them how awesome they are. But then a chunk are just rushing it, they’re still not getting it, they’re fixing as fast as possible and still doing a crap job. Frustrating. And those are the ones sending me emails begging me to change their grade, or asking me “does ANYONE get an A in your class?”. Yes dear, but today? Not you. Can that change? Sure. Keep working. If I’d had her last year, she’d be there, but of course, this is the year where you have to have a 4.0 and outstanding in behavior every fucking trimester to get on the stage at graduation. This is one of the things I hate about 8th grade. The begging and pleading. Just listen to the instructions, turn your brain on, and stop writing random stuff. And then there’s the one kid who is using AI. But I’m worried about her. But I’m not letting her get away with it. Sigh. Plus the kids who are still turning in late work and trying to resubmit stuff when the deadline is past. Way past.
I have one more major redo to grade, and then a whole host of little bits and pieces to check. Plus a quilt to pack for shipping. Plus a quilt guild meeting. I want to hike tomorrow. Sometime. Daylight savings is about to fuck us over, so do it now! Hike!
Let’s talk about quilting. Because I finally am. There’s a lot of detail on this thing, but I can look back at the cyberpunk piece, which was a similar size and detail, not as many pieces though, and it was 14 hours of quilting. I’m going to buy binding this weekend though. Not because I need to this week; I could probably push it to next weekend, but because the week has been shit and I need to reward my hard-ass work with some fabric. Don’t look at my stash as I say that. It’s not warranted. But it is necessary.
So Wednesday night, I finally got everything ironed and laid out on the floor…
It was pretty easy, no fussiness. Which is nice.
It took more than an hour to iron stuff and then lay it out, so I didn’t get to quilting until last night.
I started late, because I was still grading crap at 9:30 PM. Fun times. Came home and that’s all I did except make dinner in the middle of that 5-hour time frame. Also the girlchild was on FaceTime with me as she tried to find parking near a Day of the Dead celebration, which unfortunately for her parking situation, was right near her apartment. I don’t miss parking troubles, for sure. Anyway, that’s about 55 minutes of quilting done. One chapter of Ursula K. LeGuin on audiobook. I have a hard time concentrating on audiobooks. I might need to not read book-club books that way. I don’t really hold onto the info. I need to see the words. I’m done with Chapter 3 and I’m still not really sure why this person is on this other planet. Hopefully in the next 10 hours, it will make more sense. Or I’ll have to get the real book and try again.
So I’ll be quilting for the next week. In case you were wondering. I’m good with that. I have the next quilt pre-drawn in my head, which is good, because it’ll be like a 5- to 6-week turnaround. Yikes!
Here was my grading setup yesterday…
Laptop has assignment I’m checking. Candy corn post-its are lists of whose stuff has actually be resubmitted on the form (I ignore the rest; they randomly resubmit without changing anything and it drives me bonkers). Extra monitor has the rubric up for whatever I’m grading. Judgy cat butt is there for general excitement. She’s looking for geckos. To her left is my notebook, propped up on a drawer so (a) I can note any grade changes and (b) Nova can eventually knock it off when she panics about something and jumps off. I’ll be there again tonight and part of tomorrow probably. We’ll see.
Ugh. Here’s one of the four books I’m reading…this is Margaret Atwood in one of her essays/speeches.
Sigh. I never feel like I do enough for that.
School is getting me down. Last year, I was losing my mind about now over 8th grade, but the teacher on leave was coming back at the beginning of November, so I saw a light. Well he didn’t support until mid-February, gave me 6 weeks, and then bowed out. I’m not seeing a light this year, and I suspect last year kinda traumatized me (OK, more than kinda), so I’m just depressed about all of it this year. Put your head down and get it done. Not a fan. That said, here’s a bunch of paper roller coasters half done…
Amusingly, they are supposed to BE done today. We’ll see how that goes. I remember now that the lazy sit-on-your-butt and do-nothing kids drove me crazy during this project, so I’m glad I shortened it this year. They’ll get it done…or not. I’m OK with that. They can still do the academic part without the coaster done; they’ll just lose effort points.
Today. They build. I manage. They have a quiz. Ha! I grade tonight. I quilt tonight. At least I don’t have to wake up in the dark tomorrow morning. Pro. And I think I get to hang out with some friends tonight, briefly. That’s cool.
Mmmm. No class today. Well. I say that and I signed up for a different kind of pilates class, just because I wanted to try it out and that shit’s harder to do during the school year. But I like pilates and it’s actually an exercise class, which is good for me. No more literacy class this week…I did learn some things, but more remembered that we need to do more to boost reading, and that takes time, and time is something we may not have a lot of, so there’s that. But with two+ teams doing it all together, hopefully we can make some progress with the kids. Here was my setup on the last day, with everything back in the purple bag, which will go to school, plus the stitching I did to help me focus.
I put away all the highlighters and pens and post-its. Now I officially don’t have to think about school until…the next crazy email comes from that one teacher who apparently has nothing to do over break, no books to read, no relaxing beaches to lie on (I don’t really do that anyway), no giant-ass drawings to finish. Oh wait, that one’s me. I’m hoping to finish the drawing today. In between pilates, laundry, cleaning, moving gravel (got a whole ‘nother pile of it that needs moving), keeping the pup from licking his shaved foot (he had a dental cleaning on Friday and is notoriously bad about licking a sore into shaved areas)…all the things. It’s supposed to be hot all week, so that will be (not) fun. Not sure what my plan is for that. The boychild is home but going to training all day and then leaves again on Friday for his regular shift. Exhausting. I guess I work all week, but not like that. Gotta take days off…he had yesterday off. At least he has the pup in bed at night, so I have some chance of a decent night’s sleep.
No one seems inclined to dust or vacuum or mop…even me, it seems. Oh! I also need to copyedit. I put my editing service back into vacation mode, declined all the other offers I’d gotten, so I’m down to the one. That’s the one I can handle. I have two weeks to do it, and it’s not very big, but I should actually start. Yeah. This afternoon. I will.
So the drawing. The drawing has progressed. My Art Brain has been engaged, now that it doesn’t have to think about Latin roots and spelling rules. And pretend teaching those. So Friday night, I drew the swamp. It was in my notes…and I’m realizing, I need to write a post that just documents all the stuff I took notes about and was thinking while I was drawing, because it may not be so so obvious from just looking at it. But here’s the swamp…
I hid a Swamp Thing in it.
Then what did I do next? Oh yeah, started working on the pedestals under the swamp justices.
Finished those last night…
So Gorsuch is all corporation instead of individual, so he is standing on individual people, who are sort of compressed by him. Alito has had some issues with a fishing trip and possibly some other money-related things, so he has the fish and the money. Roberts is a mess, with money clouding any decision he makes. He also seems to make decisions completely against his own race…he seems race-blind to me, or maybe if he does that, that’s how he gets the money. So I added a few chained slaves to his pedestal, because I’m not sure he remembers…I would like the Court to have more people of color, all colors, to make the decisions more diverse, more pro those groups who need support. I don’t think he does that. Kavanaugh likes beer. He also has some sexual issues of harassment in the past that popped up (ha!) before his confirmation, but it’s OK, because boys will be boys, right? Sigh. Let’s not use that as an excuse for bad behavior. Please. Amy. Oh Amy. Coney Barrett has People of Praise behind her. She claims she speaks for all people, that her religion doesn’t shape her decisions, but like the other swamp judges, I don’t find her trustworthy. Religion is fine unless it’s making decisions for a bunch of people who don’t subscribe to that religion…and reproductive freedom is something all five of these judges have voted against. Four of them have penises, so they have no right dealing with a uterus…and the other one thinks LGTBQ marriages are a sin. So should she be in the Court? Nah. I don’t think so…not representing the people and not interpreting the law appropriately for ALL the people.
So why is Roberts on the other side? Well, it was getting crowded on that side and occasionally he votes like a sane person. OCCASIONALLY. He’s also skating on a slippery slope. He has the key to the Court (being the Big Guy, the one in charge). I still think he’s pretty swampy, but…so I’m probably going to have to copy some of this into a Court post. I’ll do that. And go back and explain some of the other decisions I made. You may not agree. I’m OK with that. Unless you think we shouldn’t have rights, like all of us, then I’m not OK with it. Feel free to limit your own rights. Then get out of my face.
I’m still working on the left side. Literally and figuratively. But I need to go to class, so I’ll be back. You won’t even notice.
So the other thing we did on Saturday, which was a little nuts, was drive up to Los Angeles. I had an opening in Torrance (which wouldn’t have been as bad), but there was a show in LA that I wanted to see that closes in a couple of weeks, Faith Ringgold: A Survey, at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in LA.
I know I have Faith’s Tar Beach book somewhere in the house. I loved her people flying in the sky at night. In looking at her website, I might need to buy more books.
I also love her mix of paintings with quilts. Although here is one of her prints, also very cool.
The handwritten words on this one…
Very powerful seeing her work in person.
Strangely, the same gallery had some work by one of my university painting instructors, Judy Baca. She has created some fairly awesome murals in Los Angeles over the years.
Honestly, although her art and achievements are impressive, she was (for me) not the most present professor. The rumor was that she was working on a mural in Los Angeles the semester I had her, so the teacher’s aide ran (ha! he did nothing) the class, and then she would show up maybe once a month and berate many of us. I have some serious painting PTSD from her class. Maybe not all artists should teach art? I don’t know…your mileage may vary. Maybe it was a bad year for her. I just didn’t really paint after that class. I still don’t think I CAN paint. That said, a lot of the art classes at UCIrvine were just show up, get an assignment, and go make something that meets it. There was very little technical instruction. We were often just left to our own devices…so there’s pros and cons to that. I do appreciate the time to mess around and fuck with stuff, but sometimes, a little more technical know-how might have been useful (exploded my ceramics final in the kiln, which I don’t actually think was MY fault, but I made do…glued all the parts to a plywood board…most were whole and the ones that weren’t, I glued the pieces and then the shards and quickly rewrote my statement). Sometimes I think I’d really like to go back to art school now just with a stronger, more confident state of mind, but then my adult brain slaps my face and says NO NO NO, we are NOT getting another degree. But maybe more art classes would be fun.
Also in the Deitch gallery was Karon Davis: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, which was very powerful. I didn’t photograph the whole thing, because I couldn’t figure out an angle that showed how large and dominating the judge and flag were in the face of this figure of Bobby Seale during the Chicago 8 trial.
I had been scrolling through Instagram the day before we left (like you do when you are supposed to be listening to someone talk about teaching vocabulary) and saw an artist whose work I love post that her stuff was in a show in LA…hey, I’m going to LA…I could stop by if it’s close. It was close to the other gallery, and on the way back to the museum in Torrance, so we headed for a small gallery, the Seis Gallery. The show was called The Horror…
I took a tufting class from her before COVID, and it was fun, but crazy lots of work. I say that knowing full well my stuff is also a crazy lot of work…it’s just what do we want to do more of. Anyway, it was cool to have a chance to see more of her stuff in person.
Straight up, traffic going to LA was horrible. It was a long day. We saw good art, but were exhausted by the end of it.
I have another LA opening coming up in September. Makes you think about driving to these things. We spent over 10 hours going up, going to three shows, eating dinner, and coming back. And we were exhausted the next day too.
So the Torrance Art Museum had two shows, one of which I was in (hence the original reason for all this). Art and Med, curated by Ted Meyer…
Here’s a video of the whole thing…
I did take a few photos, but was mostly (as always) overwhelmed. Plus I forgot how to smile, so a lot of the photos of me look psychotic. A good look for the summer. But here’s my piece, Here Comes Life…
And here’s Bhavna Mehta’s beautiful piece, I Found a River in My Body #3…
With a detail of her embroidery…
The other show in the museum is Body Politics…
Which also had some beautiful work…Liz Young’s Skinning Spilling Soiling Swelling Stuffing Balls.
I did Google this one because I wanted to know more about the thoughts behind the piece. I really liked that the Art and Med show had explanations with the art, and I can see the point of having the art stand alone, but…I don’t know. There must be a fine line there.
Sherwood makes a lot of work highlighting disabilities, having had a cerebral hemorrhage and having to relearn the process of making art with her other hand. Her work was wonderful, incorporating brain scans into the paintings.
I’ll try to post more art from these two shows later this week. I know this post is already LOOOONG…all in all, though, a good art day. Though tiring. Says Nova.
Also here is my brain at the moment.
Or always. Not sure.
Friday night, we also found this in the yard.
It has flashing red lights, presumably so it can be found easily, but it made me think it might be a drone, so I left it there. Like I’m not bringing that crazy shit in the house. The Man stomped out there and then left it on the deck after talking to it, also thinking it might be a drone. But it doesn’t seem to have a motor. Just flashing lights, which can be turned off. You might think, just throw it back into the yard it came from. Well, we have kids on all three sides, so it could be any of those houses. So IDK what to do with it. I might text the houses above and below me, and if they don’t claim it, toss it over the back fence. Seems like a lot of work.
Oh yeah, forgot this psycho. Annie. Sweet pup. Has scratched the hell out of my arms. Still love her.
OK. Laundry is going (fixed dryer yay!). I need to eat lunch. I need to fold all the laundry I didn’t fold. I need a long-term solution to my clothing during the school year…not sure what that looks like, but the piles I currently have are not working. I need to finish that drawing and do some copyediting. It’s supposed to be hot all week, so honestly, the drawing part of the house is hot as hell for a goodly chunk of the day, although better after noon. The office part is cooler in the morning, as long as there’s a breeze. And honestly, I’m still on break. So there should be some reading and maybe a nap. I took a timed nap yesterday and Friday and I am pro. It’s still July. I’m still on summer time.
Um I still don’t know what day it is. Problematic sometimes. I’m pretty sure I have a class all next week and will need to keep track. Challenge for Sunday night, whenever that is.
It’s been hot here, if that helps explain it. Not even as hot as it often gets, more often in September than July, but hot enough to sap energy and brainpower. I’ve finished one quilt and started another. Although I may toss another one in the middle…still thinking about an October deadline. Because the one I’m drawing will be relevant no matter what. Unfortunately.
So I did go buy binding, but my dryer still isn’t fixed…so this is currently set up in the driveway for laundry…
Luckily that warm weather means things dry pretty much instantly. And no, I didn’t just buy the binding fabric. I don’t know how to do that.
Wednesday night, I got the binding sewn on and started the hand sewing, which I find very meditative.
I spent most of Thursday stabbing my middle finger with a tiny needle. But also got the binding done and used that laundry drying rack for a photo…
This weekend, hopefully it will be off to the photographer.
I had already done some preparatory drawings for the next quilt. I copied it at 250 and 300%, then taped it together. I knew I didn’t want to use it as is, but as a draft, so I cut paper for the actual drawing and laid that over the drawing. My computer is tuned to the SAQA Art in Place conference going on this weekend. Some great info about artist residencies and how artists work. I’ve enjoyed the videos, although it was hard to concentrate on drawing while listening to this.
I did some tracing and some drawing last night…still thinking and processing how I want to picture things.
So it might change again. A lot. Who knows.
The Torrance Art Museum posted this picture of the upcoming show Art & Med, opening July 22 from 6-9 PM.
I’ll be at the opening. My piece is on the right side.
Cat antics…Luna doesn’t like the heat.
And Nova is a little whack.
Bee update…they did finally leave.
I waited a day and then scraped the honeycomb off and then cleaned it with hot water and soap to hopefully remove the pheromones that attract them.
Boychild is at a fire up in Riverside again.
So it’s still hot this week coming up. I’m hoping to get the drawing to the ink stage, at least, or getting there. It’s big. I don’t like NOT working on something, so yes, I’m not taking a break. It’s summer so the other options are yardwork and housework. Eh. Screw that. Make art.
You know, as a teacher, I often put off repairs until I have a break from school, just because the time and effort (and sometimes need to wait around for a professional) isn’t something I can do during the school year. So I’m sitting here waiting on a dryer professional because we tried to fix it and the Amazon part failed almost immediately. It’s OK. I haven’t had a working dryer since June 25th or so. It’s hot and dry here, so we can put things out on the line. It sucks for towels, but works for everything else. At least this isn’t happening during the school year, right? Meanwhile, the house requires other fixes and improvements and I’m trying to get those taken care of. Broken and leaking hose faucets, need to replace some lattice pieces, plus putting in a pathway. At the moment, though, I’m dealing with a bee swarm issue. They gathered in the backyard composter while I was gone, but I managed to get one of the guys responsible for my stuff to pull the lid off and they left. They didn’t go far…to the composter in the front yard, and by the time I noticed (and was home, honestly), they were pretty well established. I waited until nighttime and pulled the lid off, hoping they’d leave…but it’s been over 36 hours and they are still there. Sigh.
That might be more money out of pocket for the summer. When I don’t get paid. Fun stuff. I do have a possible copyediting project coming up, but it will only pay for the dryer fix. Which is insane and annoying, but whatever. I’m also doing a professional development next week that will give me a chunk of money, but I don’t know when I’ll get paid for that. Probably the end of September. That’s the way it usually goes.
I needed to get this quilt done this week. So I got the quilting started on Sunday night and finished yesterday.
The outlining wasn’t too hard…
The background…well, I started with a super tiny filler background and then had to continue with that. It wasn’t too bad…
But it took longer than I thought it would…
It took a little over 4 hours for the stitchdown and a little over 8 hours to quilt it.
I finished around 6 PM last night, so I didn’t have time to buy binding. I don’t have enough of anything here to bind it with. So I need to go buy fabric today. As soon as I finish this and the retirement webinar I’m listening to. And then wash the fabric and hang it up to dry. It’ll dry fast today…supposed to be in the 90s.
But it also meant a minor moment of “holy shit what am I working on next!?”. Don’t panic. I already sort of know what I’m doing, but I need to copy and enlarge an existing drawing that needs major reworking, but it’s a start. Also gonna do that today. It’ll be a big one.
I’ve been doing some of this each evening…
These blocks are complicated, but I enjoy the stitching.
I also did some stitching on this…it’s been sitting around for YEARS…
All the things need to be stitched down. These are from Anna Maria Horner’s applique packages. I like the freedom of just randomly cutting bits out and putting them together. I have a ton of them and I am lame about getting them done. Limited time to make things…I have to make decisions about priorities. And the big art quilts get that priority.
It’s gecko season.
Nova loves this time of year.
Love this tree…
Don’t have room for another tree on this property.
Yeah this is me. I should rethink it. I’ve been living in shorts and just transitioned into no sleeves…I was holding out because of my laundry issues. Today, underwear is an issue. Sure, I could just buy more, but that would mean storing more. Trying not to do that. It’s fine. The boychild is here and can help me put the laundry dryer rack out. It’s heavy. For now, I’ve got another 30 minutes of this webinar (my brain is exploding, but I think I have my retirement date…even though I will need to continue to work after that), and then I get to commune with fabric and maybe my book…speaking of books, while I was quilting, I was listening to a book on Audible (I suck at this…have to rewind pretty continuously) AND reading a book on the iPad. I don’t usually do two books at a time because confusion happens between stories, but it seemed to work in this situation. This task is this book. Everything else is the other book. So yeah.
Read, bind, launder. Don’t think about work.
Amusingly, I walked away from this and forgot to post it…so most of the errands are done, but one that wouldn’t fit in my car…and I forgot the other one, so I’m gonna go do it now. It’s hot.
So I have about 27 minutes to write this. Not really true. I have 27 minutes (26) before I need to leave, and I like to finish things before leaving. We’ll see how that goes.
We got back Friday afternoon, the most trouble-free trip I’ve ever taken. Uber, then light rail, easy TSA, flight was not delayed, flight was easy, got off, picked up baggage right away, walked out front, and there were my parents, ready to pick us up. No problems on the way home, walked in the front door. Ahhh. It’s nice when it works out.
I managed to do some stitchdown on Friday night…
Kitten spoke to me clearly about how she felt about my being gone for so long…
Not pleased. Saturday I had a short meeting that I stitched through…
I feel like I will never finish this.
Then it was the Man’s birthday and he wanted a short hike/walk and dinner with a good burger, so we wandered through some trails I’d never been on at Balboa Park…
Had dinner at the Balboa (good burger, weird drunk guy)…
Selfies are not something we’re good at…
But this one wasn’t bad. Getting older and having birthdays is weird. This one was pretty quiet and chill. He says he was OK with that. I get it. Plus we’d been gone for a while and were just tired.
There was a confused bird…probably a fledgling or a mom trying to take us away from the nest…
I stitched more that night and got close to the end, but finished it up Sunday afternoon.
The last views of the back…
Before it gets shut up into the quilt…
A reminder of the line drawing…
Then I pieced a backing, found the batting, and had to clean a floor and wait for it to dry. So I cooked a complicated dinner that I never have time/energy to cook during the school year, but that I like to eat, then watched a show with that and finished one June Homegrown block…
And started another…
I finished about 1 1/2 blocks on the trip, compared to the 7 I brought with me (wishful thinking). I also brought 4 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of jeans, a pair of leggings, and a sweatshirt that I never wore. Plus a pair of shoes I only wore once. It is what it is. You never know.
After dinner, I laid it all out, sandwiched…
And pinbasted it.
It’s not a particularly big quilt, because I had a deadline.
And then I started quilting it last night.
My goal is to finish quilting today, bind it tomorrow, have it done Wednesday. We’ll see how that goes. Then turn those two Supreme Court drawings into something usable. Combined with what’s in my head.
Sleepy Kitten. But first, I have to pee a puppy and go to lunch with a friend, and maybe figure out a dog walk in the afternoon. We’ll see. Certainly the dog needs it. I probably do too.
My computer doesn’t seem to want to work right today. I’ve restarted it multiple times and it just gets slower and slower. It won’t do what I need it to do. My brain is having similar issues. I’ll be in the middle of a task, leave the room to get something related to that task, and I’ll start a whole new task without even thinking about it. Finish that and then remember the earlier task. It’s school-break brain. Or recovery brain. I’ve written a ton of things down so I don’t forget them…because forgetting is all I do at the moment. Plus there’s just a shitload of things that need doing right now. All the things I put off because I was teaching and there wasn’t time for much else.
Also I’m still so tired. Not sleeping well. Not sleeping long enough. I’ll get there. Just not there yet. Took a nap Friday. Considered it Saturday and Sunday but didn’t have the chance. And right now, I have a dog behind me and a dog next to me. Seems unlikely.
So Friday night, I started ironing Earth…
Saturday, I managed to finish ironing all the Wonder Under to fabric…
I’m pretty sure at some point (not that photo) I organized all the fabrics. But didn’t count them or take a photo (see note about brain above). Oh wait. I did take the photo at least.
Counting though. Hmmm. Could do that now. 114 fabrics. Very few greens. Because it’s in space? Space is not so green? At least in my head it’s not.
Then last night, I started cutting them out.
Didn’t get super far. Was hoping to be further along. Oh well.
Meanwhile the Man is trying to fix the dryer. Cheaper than getting some repair person to come in.
Can’t dry the laundry until he finishes. The part comes in today. Let’s hope it works.
Girlchild is driving across the US, moving from Boston to San Francisco. I’ve been tracking her and her friend Alessia, who is getting her to Denver.
Then her dad is meeting her and helping to drive the rest of the way.
Sorry, Cleveland.
I’m curious how being scared in a gas station bathroom is not a personal record. They’re currently in Nebraska…it’s going to be nice having her in the same state.
Yesterday, we headed over to the parentals for dinner and I actually remembered to take a photo.
There was this weird conglomeration of a 100 or more crows being really loud and flying around the neighbors’ house. Mom and I walked over and the crows were attacking a juvenile hawk. There were two of them. We stood around and eventually the crows left, so now we are crow enemies forever, right? They’ll remember us? The two hawks made it into a tree, but the one that was being attacked was making its I want my mommy cry.
Very strange to see so many crows involved. Nature can be so vengeful. Speaking of…
Seems legit.
OK well I’m on the couch with the ex’s puppy because he’s on a plane to meet the girlchild, I have 78 thousand things to do and can focus on nothing, and I have a webinar in less than two hours. This blogpost has taken forever to write on the iPad (finally gave up on the computer). Puppy has her nose on my arm. So sweet when she’s not trying to eat shit and/or escape. I’ll read for a bit, maybe nap, then be productive in some way. Maybe.
Dog kept me up a goodly chunk of the night. The boychild is gone at fire camp (work, really), and the dog has forgotten about this overnight stuff, so he lost his mind. Lots of fussing, growling, and barking at like 2 AM, which is when you really don’t need barking unless there really is a zombie apocalypse. Spoiler alert: there wasn’t. I’m sure being completely exhausted on an assembly day will be fine. Totally fine. We started sex ed yesterday and it wasn’t bad. I think I might survive until the end of the year. Maybe. I certainly didn’t think I would back in January, but somehow, I seem to have done it. 15 days left. That’s survivable.
I also finally finished quilting. It felt really long, but it was only 13 hours and 41 minutes. ONLY. Here’s Wednesday night…
I made it around the bottom and about halfway up the side. And then last night, I stayed up too late to finish…
At the end, I ran out of bobbin thread…
But that didn’t stop me. I just sacrificed sleep. As always. Tonight I can finally trim the thing and hopefully have the energy to get bindings on. Tomorrow, we’re hiking, which might be nuts, but whatever.
There’s this, after watching someone freak out over Target’s Pride merch.
You don’t like it? Don’t buy it. Simple. Same with books…
Frustrating world we live in. Some dumb person commented on my post about a particular banned book that any parent can buy anything. Wow. Tone deaf much? Some parents can’t afford books, or don’t care about books, or are illiterate themselves. Some people are elitist and don’t realize that many kids only see books at school, in school libraries, in school classrooms. So get the hell out of our classrooms and schools. If you don’t want your kid to read something, tell them not to read it. And when they do? Well, there we are. Guess your parenting didn’t work.
Ugh. So ending with some owl videos…we definitely have two babies and I think parents were working on number 3 the other night…although I think there was an earlier baby that died, so maybe this is number 4?
They’ve been very active lately.
Which is cool. Maybe they’ll deal with the rat that has been nibbling on the tangerines…
Enjoy the owls.
And Quilt National opens today. Wish I could be there but couldn’t swing the time or the money. My Desert Mother is there.
OK. School. Tired. Short classes. Assembly. Super Mario Assembly. Intriguing. Loud and fast is what I’m thinking. And then I’m thinking a nap. Will have to decide after that.
OK, only one state test left to go. I can do one more. Amusing…my kids are the ones taking them, not me, but the management is stressful too. Although at least my kids are actually testing today. Two-thirds of the school is done and they are keeping the kids for 3 hours…to do what exactly? Hopefully finish their science packets, because they sure weren’t done on Monday. This group has needed so much extra time…they are extra, actually. This year is extra. Let’s end on a good note! We did get the principal we wanted, so that’s a plus. The rest is wibbly wobbly as usual. Or maybe it’s not. We’ll see.
I do know I always plan to get so much work done during testing (I’m literally walking around, watching kids take a test; delivering snacks, water, and sharpened pencils; partially escorting them to the bathroom, and trying to keep them from rushing through and/or disturbing others. Not fun. But there should be plenty of time to do other stuff, and that other stuff is not getting done. And it needs to. I got a little done in the afternoon; kids leave at 12:30 and we have to stay until 3:30. Sounds like a lot, but we take a leisurely lunch, because we never get to do that, and then sometimes your brain is just done. Which it is a lot. So I worked last night after the gym, because my brain popped back up and could handle it. Of the 42 emails I sent over the weekend, 4 kids did work. Well. OK. That is about the same percentage as people that will respond to spam emails. Feeling good about that. Although now I need to send another email that says, hey, if you’re missing 5/7 assignments, doing 1 isn’t enough. You need to do 5. Or maybe even 4. More than 1.
Quilting is feeling a bit like that too, like sending spam emails into the world. Not really. But it’s endless blue vastness at the moment. Monday night, I quilted around the bird and down the right side of the body…lots of ins and outs in there.
Last night, I quilted for just as long, but it felt like nothing. I made it all the way down one side and a little bit along the bottom.
That’s it. I’ve got the rest of the bottom, the whole left side, around the butterfly, then finish across the top and down the right side about halfway. That’s a lot. I’m not finishing tonight. I’ve got another 2-3 hours. UGH. It’s fine. I just thought I was closer to done. The background stuff is kind of monotonous and I’ve run out of interesting podcasts. Don’t feel like listening to true crime or politics. I’m pissed off enough as it is. And the quilting ones are only interesting if I care about the person…like the Jane Sassaman one was interesting, but if it’s some quilt shop owner in wherever, I’m not sure I care. Unless they’re demolishing the patriarchy, and then I’d be interested.
Anyway. Maybe I’ll be more efficient today. Even though I’m stressed about them taking the science test today. They’d forgotten stuff we’d done in February, though, so…sigh. The kids who do well will do well. I can’t worry about the rest. I can just use it to decide what I change for next year. I get my last lunch out for this school year…and tomorrow I start teaching sex ed to the 7th graders. I was doing seating charts for that yesterday and just OMG OMG in my head. Both classes are 2/3s boys (well that explains a lot) and the kids who are friends all want to sit together. In one class, there is one boy that basically all the other boys want to sit with. Not happening. So yeah. Not a lot of hope for calm in those two. The 8th graders will be building bridges starting Friday. Or maybe I’ll just start them tomorrow. Might be easier. I wanted to give them a break of a day, but IDK if they can handle it. We’ll see.
Too many decisions to make. That’s what makes me so tired by the end of the day.
After school, pilates, then cooking dinner, then quilting! With any luck, I’ll make more significant progress today than yesterday felt like…finish tomorrow, trim Friday night? Maybe? Definitely Saturday, get the binding on this weekend, start drawing the next one, because there is limited time to finish that one. Three-day weekend…a blessing.
Here’s Anwen, the ex’s puppy…
She graduated her first obedience classes. She’s going to do more, because hey, apparently she’s still a puppy. She’ll be here next weekend, so prepare for destruction and outbursts of crazy puppiness. She may spend the whole weekend on a leash tied to me, but we’ll see. Someone should tell the cats to prepare…just hiss and bop at her a few times so she’ll leave you alone, y’all.
OK. School. Science test. Do the things. Get them done.
Well we are back to everyone in the house trying to leave in the morning. I’m not sure Simba realizes he’ll be alone all day today. The boychild is back to work this week, so schedules will be weird. Mine won’t. Mine is reliable through the middle of June, and then I’ll be home for a bit and then gone for a bit. Hopefully there won’t be any fires while I’m in Seattle or it will get complicated. It’s always complicated. I remember driving Calli to my ex’s every day so she wouldn’t try to run away, and forgetting she was in the back of the car until I got to work. She’d sigh and I’d go, DAMMIT Calli, why didn’t you tell me you were back there. Silly old dog. I miss her.
This week is the last week of state testing…math and science. Stressful. I’ve never proctored the science test…and I’m going to feel bad if they don’t feel like we taught them what they need. That said, I also know the state tests put stuff on there that is not in the standards, which is just irritating as hell. Ah well, hopefully the next principal does not obsess over data. The test covers 6-8th grade science, and 6th grade for my kids was the COVID hybrid year…or the Zoom year, for me. So they don’t remember much, unfortunately. That said, they didn’t remember much from last year either. I gave them some review questions on states of matter and chemistry…sigh. Ah well. What can you do? I would rather have them be able to think and figure stuff out than to know the differences between the molecules of a solid and those of a liquid. Although it’s cool info, I’m not sure it’s survival-level info.
There was a bunch of art stuff I was supposed to do this weekend, but for one, I never saw the invite info, and for the other, I ran out of time. I’ll make it to the other show next weekend hopefully (have an extra day!). Not sure what happened with the other one.
Instead, we did our usual late-afternoon hike, showers, and then dinner. But Friday, the Man had a show. I quilted a little bit before I left, but was out most of the night. It was hard to get a decent picture of him: he was in the dark corner.
Their lead singer was easier to get…
This was after dissecting frogs at the end of the school day…
I only saw one obvious female in my two classes…
The table that got her was very excited. Maybe a little TOO excited (they cut all the organs up in a really destructive way to get at all the eggs). Glad to be done with that lab. It’s cool, but exhausting. Luckily, I now know that my 7th graders will respond to CLASS CLASS (if you don’t know what that means, consider yourself lucky).
So I dissected with those kids, did my afterschool duty at the corner light, got my classroom ready for this week, came home, and napped. Seriously zonked out for 30 minutes. Then ate dinner, changed out of frog/teacher clothes, and drove out to Ocean Beach to watch the Man play. I was in bed around midnight, exhausted. He came home around 1, and then I felt the larger of these two earthquakes…
Late night partying in the tectonic-plate world.
Saturday I managed to get organized enough to run errands, including buying binding for this quilt, so I can finish it this week, hopefully. We hiked…
After I sent 42 emails to parents/kids about failing grades and the trimester cut-off date in less than 2 weeks. Down from 60 emails in April. Getting there. It’s been a rough year for my 7th graders. Or me. Not sure which was worse.
Tiny pink flowers that are a pain to photograph. We’ve been trying to do at least 3 miles a weekend; next weekend, we’re going to do a longer hike. My physical therapy is probably coming to an end, so we’re testing the knee out. I suspect my knees will always hurt, but at least I can get up the stairs at the moment. The Man is supposed to be hiking the trans-Catalina trail in October with a pack; he’ll need to start training for that soon.
He’s still recovering from a pinched nerve in his shoulder/back area…and talking about lightening the pack. Probably a good plan.
I did manage a good chunk of quilting on Saturday night…
I got the pigoon done and the rest of the wing/arm, then up into the fourth arm (three is NOT enough)…
And got the bird done as well. Went to bed a little late, and then last night, I did the head with corresponding eyeball tree (not the first, won’t be the last)…
And then started quilting the background.
I’m over 9 hours into the quilting, and there’s at least a couple more to go. There’s a lot of background filler in the upper half of the quilt, plus the borders around the bottom. So ideally, I finish tomorrow night, then trim it Wednesday, get the binding on, maybe ready for the photographer this weekend? Then on to the next one, which will be a difficult finish. I have a complicated idea in my head, but don’t have the time for the whole shebang before the deadline. Might have to tone down the complication.
Luna thinks that’s crazy.
But it might be what has to happen.
I asked my students a question about why National Parks were important…this kid…
Which is better than the girl who just wrote that she didn’t really care. Yeah. We know. Neither does half the planet. We’re aware. It’s obvious.
Anyway, we try. Yeah, I’m trying to brainwash your kids into caring about the planet more than I’m grooming them to be homosexual or trans. I still think the best answer to the teachers brainwashing kids thing is the fact that we can’t get them to turn any work in. I mean, that’s where I’d start. It would make my life easier, for sure, if they would just turn shit in. Stupid politicians.
OK. Today. Review for three classes, finishing up all the things with the other two. We had to juggle the schedule slightly. It’s fine; this is easier. It’s OK to make things easier sometimes. Then staff meeting, run to Home Depot afterward to get a sprinkler and some stakes for the lemon tree. Some more dirt too. Can never have enough dirt apparently. Then book club tonight…just finished the book on Friday, I think. It was good: When Women Were Dragons. Then quilting after that. Hopefully a chill day. That would be nice.
Yay Friday. Imagine that in a tiny little tired voice and you’d have it. Not enough sleep this week. A noisy bird (mockingbird, not owl). Lots of things waking me in the night. Could do without that. We’re getting close to the end with school, but not close enough, honestly. That said, there’s a bunch of stuff I need time to do, so it’s this crazy dichotomy about the strong desire for it to be over and the realization of the amount of shit you have to do to get there.
Yeah. Well. It’s kind of the same with this quilt at the moment. I quilted for over 2 1/2 hours yesterday…I did schoolwork until 6:45 and then had a Zoom meeting I quilted through, then ate dinner, and quilted some more. I earned that time. And I got a lot done.
The night before, I think I did over an hour, but only barely…and I only have video of it…
It seemed easier than trying to get a photo of all of the weird bits I’d worked on. Currently, the video is having issues; we’ll have to hope it works when I post.
Last night, I quilted all the things. Well. Not all of them, or I’d be done, and I’m not…even with almost 7 hours in.
I did the incubator (not in this picture), finished the legs, did the lower arm, all the torso, one wing, and the butterfly.
The butterfly was fussy. But it looks cool, so I’m OK with it. And I love this little character…
I’m past the halfway mark on the outlining. Then the background. Sometime this weekend? Maybe? I have a ton of grading to do, and the Man has a show tonight that I’m going to (although I have to say I’m not feeling it at the moment). His band will be taking a break so that members can heal up from injuries and surgery (they’re all getting old), so I think there’s only two shows left for a long while.
Also, I have to do a weeklong training this summer…and I will get paid for that, but I’d rather have the time, honestly. Hoping to get the approval for that soon so I can schedule it for right after school gets out, before I start relaxing. Also, the science teacher we wanted for the open position said no because our district wouldn’t OK 5 units of additional education to bump her to the next column on the pay scale. Apparently my district is unaware of the teacher shortage. So we’re hoping for number 2…and I’m hoping that whoever it is, I don’t have to babysit next year. Or plan all of it myself for the first 6 months. Or or or…yeah. There’s gonna be something. We’re waiting to hear on next year’s principal. We have a hope, but the district is notorious for doing dumbassery with admin.
Pros: there is another taco truck today. This week has been our school’s appreciation of teachers week, so we’ve had snacks, drinks, a coffee truck (that was nice), breakfast burritos, and now tacos. It helps. It doesn’t fix things, but it gives us a reason to get in the car and show up on time. Which for today, is in about 38 minutes. I hate early meetings. I’m so not awake.
The boychild found a hawk in the pool for the first time ever. SAD! I’m sad about it.
I want to put a fountain back in for the wildlife. But maybe it was attacked or hurt in some way. Never seen one drown before. Super sad.
Well hopefully I’ll have some quilting time tonight before I show up for the Man’s show. Hopefully frog dissections will go well and so will 8th-grade escape rooms. I graded one of the heinous assignments last night…took me about 2 hours and I probably should have been drinking heavily to counteract some of what I was reading, but I survived. There are still huge piles of work to do…but I’m getting there. I think I should buy quilt binding tomorrow, because this thing is big and I won’t be able to buy it during the week because the damn store doesn’t stay open late enough, so yeah…put that on the calendar for tomorrow. So this one is close to done, well before the deadline, giving me a chance to meet the second deadline that was one of my goals for the first half of the year. On track there. Nowhere else, but let’s focus on that track!
Kathy Nida 