OK, I thought it was Tuesday, but it’s Wednesday. I was so tired after school and pilates yesterday that I just lay on the couch and considered how it was only Tuesday. Really that was the fault of the pilates teacher…and my body. My knees mostly.
I’m ironing. I’m trying to iron a lot. I need to finish this piece. I think I’ll have time during break, but then all the Xmas stuff happens, and I’m fucked. So here’s where I was at on Monday night…
It didn’t look like much. I did the edges of the bathtub and the words and the flag; there’s stuff hanging off the top as well, but not much.
Last night was a little more impressive…
I got the lamp and some portion of the water done. There’s things floating in the water and then obviously the body in the tub (this one is alive and pissed off), so there’s a lot going on here. I’m about halfway through. I’ll be in the water again tonight and then maybe even tomorrow. I’m hoping to have it all ironed down or close by the weekend, so I can start the stitchdown Saturday. I have a big block of time. Maybe. At the moment. Also need to fix a bunch of things and deal with Christmas stuff.
I’m not putting a tree up until I’m home during the day, because…kitten. I did put some lights up on the deck so that’s festive. I have more lights but no timer…and it requires a ladder and a hammer, which I have, but I need to do it in daylight hours and I won’t be home in the evening in light until Saturday. Ah Winter. So many other things to do. A little panicky about that, as always. I’m teaching more magnety stuff today, hopefully less handholding than the last few days. They really do just want me to write the answers for them, and I won’t. Also, getting kids to talk in some of these classes is torture…or to talk about science instead of whatever they want to be chatting about. Crazy stuff. But maybe I can get caught up on grading before the next big assignment? It’s a goal anyway. Union meeting after school tonight and then about 17 errands, depending on what’s still open (not the post office unfortunately). Then did I mention ironing? I did.
Oy. Two weeks left in December to teach. On the one hand, thank goodness. On the other hand, holy crap, how do I get through it all? A bit of a challenge on multiple fronts. Trying to deal with Christmas shopping and shipping, but also school and just maybe a bit of sanity. We spent the weekend doing the local ceramics tour, which was really cool, but also time-consuming. I did manage to deal with three Christmas presents, which wasn’t bad. So I feel good about that. I also got to see a lot of cool ceramics and be inspired a bit, which is also nice. Did I get a lot of other stuff done? Hell no. How would I?
I did iron…Saturday night…
Finished the first bathtub, which has a body bag in it. Then started the rug under the second bathtub…
Finished that and started the second bathtub, barely. More on that tonight. Much as I love having the girlchild around, she had projects this time and I ended up not doing art stuff for that…which is still a good thing. Hopefully in the future, she’ll know how to frame stuff herself. This one, she cut the matt and then we covered it in fabric.
I did the complicated one…
But I made her cut the backing pieces. So she drove home with four completed pieces. All the frames came from thrift shops or the grandparents’ house (which is a different kind of thrift shop). She did buy three pieces of matt board and 3/4s of a yard of fabric. All good. I had a stash of hangers and archival tape and all the stuff I used to use to frame my prints, way back in the day. Way way back. Useful skill, though.
She left Saturday morning, but she’ll be back in two weeks-ish.
Scribble likes her. Scribble pretty much likes everyone though, so that’s nice. She inspected the two plant pots I bought on the tour.
I fits!
More politics…
I guess Cloud Walker was the best choice. Sigh.
I spent Friday trying to find all the lab materials I needed for today; missing a handful of magnetic rocks that may have disappeared. They’ll live without them, but it’s annoying. Because we had them before. I’ll go in this morning and check another location and recheck the original location. Teaching magnets today, then a staff meeting, then ceramics. Hoping to finish the second frame today. Not entirely sure what I’m doing next. I did get the tree for the top of the head out of the kiln. Now I need to make the little quilt that goes in the belly, but I can’t do that until I finish this quilt; it has a deadline and it’s coming up. So maybe I’ll make some bowls. I need some new bowls for the house. Then home to iron some more. Probably grading stuff too. I’m not entirely caught up, but I’m doing OK. The redoes are hard to do unless I’m not tired. I should have done some last night, but I did late work instead, because I hadn’t looked at that in almost a month. Too many things…not enough time. Always.
I downloaded photos on Friday for a post, and that’s as far as I got. I think I briefly considered it on Saturday, but then got sucked into other things that needed doing and lost track of that thought. Last night, while I was trying to fall asleep, my ever-helpful (not) brain was trying to remember if I’d posted on Friday or not…not is the answer. So here we are, back to Mondays, back to school, three weeks of crazy to survive on many levels, not ready for any of it…except the next stage of the quilt. Oh wait. Not ready for that either. It’s chaos in here and I can’t iron a quilt together in chaos. So. Yeah. But I’m going to have to…and that might just be the best explanation of most of my adult life right there: can’t do it; gonna have to.
OK, quilt…the quilt that I’m a week behind on…easily. Here’s more cutting out, with Scribble.
And more cutting out…
with Scribble’s tail. And more cutting out with Scribble.
And the final push…
14 hours to do it all…
And I have a lap cat. Which is nice. She quickly learned to keep her paws out of the bins, until last night, when I started sorting…
She definitely wanted to be IN the bins. But wasn’t violent about it (unlike Bowie a year ago or so). I didn’t finish sorting last night…started late and then was tired and needed to go to bed to get up early this morning.
More Scribble pix…she is allowed in the sewing room if I’m in here.
Although she has already found Kitten’s cave, where she hid on and off for the last 6 years of her life…
I mean, it’s full of batting. Why wouldn’t you want to hide there?
The girlchild is here; Scribble is friendly.
Which everyone appreciates.
She just settles in and lets the other three cats try to figure her out.
Even Bowie is starting to come around; he wants to play with her, but he’s not sure how.
Three cats vertically in a row. So it’s been a good transition so far. Of course, today is the first work day, when there’s no one around for most of the day. That will be different. But she seems very adaptable…
Strangely enough.
The Man and I hiked again on Friday, because…
we had my family’s Thanksgiving on Friday…
Both kids cooked…nice food choices.
My dad fell asleep on the couch with Annie…
I think he was in her seat.
Saturday night dinner’s drawing…
Not finished, but I only have the time from when we come in the restaurant until they serve the food.
I finished the pomegranate seeds on May’s Forest for the Trees block.
At the moment, all I can handle is the applique. I’ll get to the embroidery, but who knows when? Going back to school has sucked up any loose time I had.
I still think we’re not allowed…
But I appreciate the sentiment.
OK, there’s so much school stuff I didn’t finish over break. Always. I have seating charts written for 2 of my 6 classes. Today is chill, though…starting a new unit, so just vocab and cover page and a short lecture on how to bring your grade up and it doesn’t involve Google or AI. Then staff meeting(s?) and hopefully ceramics. I need a porcelain patch kit from Home Depot too…purposely didn’t go get it this weekend, but I still need it. I also need to finish the other sgraffito frame at the studio before it dries out. I had plans to go Saturday and Sunday, and both fell through. It’s fine; other things happened and it was good, but I need to go today. And tomorrow. And Thursday. Or something. Three weeks…I can do three weeks. I think.
This week is just never relaxing. I’ve been to the grocery store four or five times, the pet store twice (I know, that one is my fault for adopting a new kitten), plus trying to catch up on cleaning (ha!) and yardwork (double ha!), and to finish grading? (triple ha!) …nothing is happening the way I’d planned. What’s new? Nothing. It’s always like this. I try to steal moments for reading or artmaking, but there’s other stuff that snuck in…like all the emails about stuff I needed to do that I totally ignored for the last three weeks? Yeah, those. And the four things that need renewing, but now I can’t find the renewal emails. Ugh. And then being invited to be on a cool website…awesome, but it required an hour of photos with the boychild (thank goodness he has a clue, because I don’t) and I’m sure he spent a ton of time resizing, and then I had to find art photos too and send all of them, plus fill out three pages of forms. I appreciate the opportunity, but I don’t have extra time lying around for all of that. So the bathrooms are still dirty and so are the floors. Oh well.
The kitten is adjusting. She has a name finally…Scribble. She’s like a little ADHD and very balls to the wall with the other cats. Right now, she’s sleeping, after racing around for 5 hours this morning. She’s definitely a curious little thing and won’t let her inability to jump high enough stop her.
We started out with my hanging out with her in a room with no other cats, but once we let her out…man, she didn’t want to stay in.
That said, she’s not banging on the door to be let out when I do put her in the room, which is when I leave the house, because I don’t entirely trust the other cats with her yet.
This was a very tentative moment between Scribble and Nova. Both wanted my lap.
I think we’ll all be OK in the long run…it just might take a while. Certainly last night, when Scribble was all puffed up, jumping sideways, I’m Big! I’m Big! toward Bowie and he’s just staring at her like she’s the scariest thing in the world…I think Bowie is having the hardest time adjusting. But he does appreciate an animal that will run around and parkour like he does, so he’ll come around.
One of the boychild’s photos.
OK, so artwise, I’m mostly still cutting things out.
Which is not particularly fast…
I really wanted to be ironing things together by now. Oh well. I’ve got another 2-3 hours of trimming, I think. I’m going to go do some more in a bit. I might do some yardwork first, before it gets dark.
I also spent a couple of hours at ceramics on Monday…and did most of this. It’s very relaxing.
I need to fix the cloud and a couple of other spots, but I think otherwise it’s ready to fire. I was hoping to get there today as well, but so far, that hasn’t happened? Maybe in an hour. We’ll see.
Found this in the yard.
Such a perfect mushroom.
This…I know some people are leaving for legit reasons, like being afraid of deportation…that’s a real thing and I don’t blame people for leaving. Detention or deportation to Venezuela or whatever other psychotic thing this government has come up with are legitimate fears. Go. Be well. Come back when the crazy is over (knock on wood that this ends at some point).
But if you’re a rich white American-born citizen and you’re leaving? You’re not staying and yelling with the rest of us? WTF. Seriously. I guess it’s easier than living here and being stressed about it, but those of us who don’t have tons of money and the ability to just up and go, we’re here and loud and not putting up with it, and y’all with money need to stay and be part of the fight…OR…take those fucking billionaires with you, the problematic ones, the racist misogynist ones. Take them. I mean, we can’t get rid of the ones who aren’t even here legally and have committed multiple financial crimes, but we’re trying to deport Native Americans. It’s just nuts. And if there’s no one with power and money left behind to yell louder than the rest of us, that’s on you, what happens next. You ran away? So stay away. Because you’re making it worse. You’re not helping.
Sigh. This is a frustrating world we live in. By the way, yes, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving, but there’s so many cultural things wrong with this holiday. So much that’s made up. So much violence toward the native cultures that was just shoved aside for the pilgrim story. So I’ll be thankful for a hike tomorrow, and thankful for spending time with family, and thankful for good food (although at the moment, the thought of people and lots of carbs is not really something I want…I’ll get there. But going to the store yet again today made me want to pillow fort for about a week), but remembering all along that we white people are appropriating disease-carrying xenophobes who don’t really belong here. Positive thoughts to all. It’s a rough week for a lot of people.
Wrong day. I’m all discombobulated. Usually I work Fridays. Well, I still worked Friday; I graded all day. But not at school and not with kids. I finished one big assignment; today, I started the second one and got side-tracked by the possibility of a new kitten tonight plus having to clean out the girlchild’s room for new kitten AND girlchild (not at the same time), and then took all those assignments (packets in plastic bags, cat toys!) back to school and went for a hike and then came back here and continued to try to organize quilts and the room. Didn’t finish. I can’t get a handle on storage at the moment. I have some ideas for boxing stuff up and putting it in the garage at this point. I don’t know that I still need all the books I used when I started teaching school. I don’t use them any more. Not quite ready to totally get rid of them, but close. Because I use the internet now instead of books. So much more. But organizing takes time and this week off never has enough time to do a lot. Too much family and other obligations. Plus grading is always an issue. It’s not enough time off for all of it.
Anyway, so I’m still in the stage of hoping to get a lot done but haven’t gotten a lot done. Fun times. I forgot to write yesterday because it didn’t seem like Friday. I don’t know what day it was, but it wasn’t Friday.
So Wednesday night, I ironed things down…
And didn’t freakin’ finish. So frustrating.
Thursday night, I finished.
18 hours and 54 minutes, 152 fabrics. That’s a lot. There were a lot of small detailed things in this quilt…stuff I love, but that is time-consuming on all levels.
Here’s everything that needs to be cut out.
And then I barely started cutting things out.
It never looks like much. Last night, I did some more…
We went out and watched friends of ours play in a different band, so we got home at 10:30, but I still had about an hour in me.
This is the Chameleons, which is really the lead guy and then whoever he decides he wants to play along with him…
But three of those people are in the Radio Thieves, so we got free tickets and hung out and watched them and talked to some friends, and then skipped the main band, because we’ve seen them before and we were both tired. The Man did actually go to work yesterday; and I am tired all the time, so there’s that. There will be no sleeping in during break. Cats don’t care that I need more sleep, and I stay up later, so I’m fucked. Ah well.
I did manage to gently chisel the base off the head; I used the base to hold up the head in the kiln and the clear glaze dripped down and attached them.
And managed to seat the head, although not quite how it originally fit.
There’s going to be acrylic paint on this thing. No way not too. And there’s a lower part too. Anyway, I’m hoping to epoxy these three pieces together, but also to get the tree for the top of the head into the glaze kiln too. And add the wire for the coathanger, and then design and make the little quilt that goes in the belly area. There’s so many hours in this thing, it’s insane. It’s definitely been a learning experience. So many things broke off so many times.
I did hike about 3 miles today to make up for not moving at all yesterday.
It was nice and cool out.
Threatening rain with no rain.
As I was walking, I thought I saw something up on the hillside, but it didn’t move. I even walked forward a little ways and then came back, decided it was a tree stump, then took a photo of it as far as my phone camera could zoom, and still couldn’t decide. It still hadn’t moved. I hiked on and figured I’d check the spot on the way back.
Of course, looking at it now, that’s a fucking coyote, but at the time, I really was seeing a tree stump. My eyes vs the camera’s eyes. It seemed too dark to be a coyote.
I got home to a beautiful sky.
We had a lovely cool, rainy in bits but not horrible, week. This coming week holds no rain, and then it comes back the following week. It’s pretty cold at night (for me)…definitely in my sweats and socks and slippers stage. I must be getting old, because my neck gets cold, but I hate turtlenecks. I have a couple of scarves, one a friend made and one the Man brought back from Denmark? I think? They are doing the trick.
I saw these on a friend’s reels and loved them.
Please pause. I shall return in a better place. I will be pillow-forting for a few days first. Don’t mind me.
Yup. That too. Bingewatching bad TV, reading books, and dreaming about all the things I could finish if I just stopped sleeping and eating and peeing. Really.
These sweet boos.
It must be cold for them to not be killing each other. And I’m about to shake up their existences with another cat. Woo!
This is too real.
Anyway. There’s no school all next week, and I am thankful for that. I am thankful for being done with the packets, and for getting a new furry baby tonight. Whichever one I pick. I was interested in one and then someone else had gotten in before me (this was the third time it had happened), and I’d been offered a slightly younger one, and figured it would be fine from the description, and then the 3rd one came back up as available, so I’m meeting both tonight and somehow I’m supposed to decide. Which is why there are two carriers in the back of the car right now, just in case. Then home to acclimatize whomever ends up coming home with us, some cutting stuff out, some kitten time, more cutting stuff out, more kitten time. You know how that goes. And grading. I should do more of that unfortunately. Ugh. But also relax and hike and read and pee when I want. Plus drinking my tea warm instead of cold. Teacher dreams.
I’m two long days away from 10 days off. We’ve had enough days off this month, and I’ve just had two days when I didn’t have to grade very much and I was able to catch up in class, so it doesn’t feel horrible right now…not like a couple of weeks ago. That 4-day weekend was a nice recharge. Which is why it’s annoying that they tagged the other ‘free’ day onto an existing holiday instead of giving us another 3-day weekend. Apparently it’s all what the parents want, but since they take any days off as a reason to take MORE days off, I guess it doesn’t really matter. I’m doing a makeup test today and another tomorrow. Then I’ll have a shit ton of work to grade over break (like always) and I’ll use the extra day they gave us on Friday to hopefully do a huge chunk of it. Knock on wood. Shit always happens when I plan, so who knows if I’ll get to do what I want or need to do.
I’ve spent the last two days carving the two ceramic frames I made.
This was originally going to be a sun, but it looks more like leaves now. Might need to change my color scheme.
I put a sun on this one to make up for it.
It’s been a while since I’ve used the squeeze bottles with underglaze in them, so the yellow was completely glued in. I’m going to have to bring pliers next time and see if I can get the needle out. This is relaxing…this is also about 2 1/2 hours of work, just in the carving. So not fast. Nothing in clay is fast except those people on the wheel maybe. Even then, there are so many steps that it isn’t fast.
Ironing is progressing. It’s taking longer than I thought it would, but some of that is me, I think. Slow. Tired at night. Trying to get other stuff done before I start and then starting late. Here’s Monday night…
And last night…
All I have left is a bunch of little tiny objects on the rug, so each one needs to be considered within the whole, and then colors chosen for just that object. Then I do it again with the next object. So it takes longer than say the water, where I pick four fabrics and then find all the pieces that are those four colors and then iron them all down. Bigger space covered with less thought, although it may take a while to iron all the pieces. It’s not the same as having to consider all the colors around it and make sure it works. I ironed a snake, a plant in a pot, and a cat. That was it, I think. I really am almost done. About 100 pieces left. I don’t have to cook tonight, but I do have pilates and the trash needs to go out, so those are time suckers. But not huge ones. I’m looking forward to being done with the ironing and onto the lovely meditative process of sitting on the couch with an animal or two and cutting out a thousand pieces. It sounds delightful. Then I can go back to standing and ironing after that.
Things that are stressing me out: not having a table of contents for the unit packet after break; losing my prep period today to a parent meeting when I need to be working on said TOC; my car brakes squeaking; the leaky sprinkler; the pool vacuum not moving; whatever I haven’t done that I’ve forgotten I haven’t done. Yeah. That’s a silly one.
OK. Today I am giving a writing test. It’s not easy. Yesterday one kid said, “I watched all the videos but the answer isn’t in there.” Oh my. Yes, my dear. You will need to use your brains this time. Thinking. Hard. The worst part is having to monitor their access to the internet and AI and their older brothers and sisters. Like do your own work, please. I am also trying to get them all organized to turn in these giant packets, plus finish all their work, and that’s frustrating. But ultimately, their problem, not mine. Pilates after school. Probably some lesson planning. Then ironing. Hopefully finishing tonight. Please. It’s time.
Short week, felt long, rain’s coming, another lab today. Collisions. And at least 5 kids per class period who didn’t show up yesterday and have to take the test today. Fun times. I have two kids who I think went home on purpose so they wouldn’t have to take the test. Ah well, they can miss the lab today. And the three kids who showed up yesterday for the first time in the last two weeks? Shocker for them. I read all these things and watch videos where they talk about treating each child individually, giving them what they need, but realistically, with 33 kids in the classroom and very little support, with 5 absent and a lab going, there’s very little giving kids what they need. I’m just hoping both my paraeducators are here today. And there’s an issue with a kid who didn’t finish after more than 90 minutes, with paraeducator support, plus tutorial, and there’s signs of cheating in the past (someone else is doing it for him), and our new anti-AI approach means he didn’t turn it in in time. So yeah. What do I do with that? I’m not sure. We’ll see. Today. If he’s here. Rain is going to scare some of our kids off. It’s not even supposed to be that bad today…it’s mostly tomorrow, but you know how that goes. Just easier to let them stay home? Meanwhile, my coteacher and I are planning our post-school duty post outfits (raincoats, boots, and umbrellas) because we’re responsible adults who do our jobs. Maybe too responsible. I rewrote an assignment last night, plus emailed parents (who responded right away, bless their hearts…some kid hates me today), and then dreamed vividly about a school reunion I didn’t go to and didn’t have anyone I recognized.
Thank you, brain. I see you.
OK, I did iron over an hour the last two nights though. Yay me! Here’s Wednesday night…
And Thursday…
Sometimes it looks like I just move the bins around and don’t actually do anything. I’m in the mid 500s, but I’ve ironed a few 800s. So I’m halfway, at least. So I should finish ironing down probably early next week, then start trimming. My hope is to get it all ironed down over Thanksgiving break. Which they’re now calling Fall Break.
I went to the Mesa College opening of Reimagining La Linea, an exhibit about immigration of all types. My piece is about forced climate migration…
It’s the purple quilt on the right, with Anna Stump’s pinata/balloons flying over the border wall paintings to the left.
Cupcake Over Trump’s Wall, Pink Pony Over Trump’s Wall, and Sheriff Over Trump’s Wall.
And this large graphic painting, Isa Ybarra’sWater-bearer.
I have more photos from the show, but need to go to school before the rain pops off again. Like I said, lab today about collisions. Then hopefully not too rainy to do duty, then ceramics. I’m taking a full day ceramics class tomorrow, which I’m alternately totally excited about and completely exhausted for. It’ll be fine. More ironing tonight, hopefully less collapse than the last two nights. Wishing good thoughts for surviving today. For me. I’m wishing for me, to be clear. Also anyone else who needs it can glom onto my wishes. Here. Have them. They’re yours too.
Yean, school was hard. Yeah, I’m buried in grading. Yes, yes, I’m tired. YES, I even got a rejection notice this week, but hey, ya ya, I got into a residency I really wanted and I finished (and sold) a quilt. It feels good.
Video of me trying to get Nova off the quilt last night so I could finish stitching the sleeves on…
The actual quilt finished (not the official photos…gotta get it to the photographer for that).
Feels good. Looks good. Needs a title. I’m camping this weekend, so I’ll have brain space to figure that out. Plus a statement. It was hard to make. This kind of quilt always is, but I put space and the planets in there for headspace (ha!) plus protecting all the peoples. Keep doing that. All of us.
What’s next? I need to make a larger piece for a dual show in Virginia opening in January. It’s bathtubs. Don’t ask. You’ll see. It will still have politics. How can it not at the moment?
I also finished my book this morning…20 minutes left.
Fuck Greg seriously. I started another one. I’m supposed to be packing for camping (I’ve been doing that in between all the other shit). We leave after lunch. Aack. I have so much to do, I’m having a hard time breathing. It’s fine.
Aargh. And this.
White boys. They don’t listen. Some do. Lots don’t.
If you don’t understand the 6-7 reference, consider yourself lucky (and not a teacher at the moment.
The boychild is taking amazing nature photos…he’s in Montana at the moment. This is gorgeous…
Glacier National Park. One more thing on my list of places to go.
OK, but right now, I need to pick up something and then come back and cook chicken for tonight’s dinner and pack all the things and then get in the car and head to nature. And draw some more! And bask in the not-here-ness (because so many things need to be done here). And enjoy the great art stuff.
“This week isn’t so bad,” she says, as she prepares to start going and not stop until bedtime. Today is a little nuts. At least I don’t have a morning meeting, so I got to pretend to sleep in until 6:30 AM. If only the dog, the sun, and my brain would allow the sleeping in part. Meanwhile, the government is shut down but everyone still does their jobs…well, unless you aren’t getting paid for it? Nah, most of those people are still working; and there’s all those people who ‘chose’ to leave the government…or were forced out. Sending positive thoughts out for them; not sure how the job market is going at the moment…and certainly, if you’re not a white male in the military, I’m hoping your bosses are smarter than their bosses, after listening to some of the crazy shit those two white boys said yesterday to all those generals. There’s something seriously wrong with an administration who threatens its own people with military force. That’s not a democracy. At all.
So there’s that. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to get all the day job work done (ha! So far behind right now). I’m behind because I prioritize my art time, by the way. In case you were wondering. So Monday night, I had book club, where I loved the book and no one else did (it’s OK…) and I’m even reading another book by that author to see if it was a one-off. I was in the mood for whatever that was? Who knows. I did stitch binding, but you know, it all looks the same. I forgot to take a picture Monday night. Yesterday, I went to ceramics. I have the last bits of glazing done on the head, and I finally got to talk to the kiln person about trying to fire bits next week. No photos…it looks just like it did Sunday. Well, not exactly. I cleaned up stuff and added a little. And I graded a bit and then made dinner, which was tasty, but a pain, and frustrating, because it didn’t do what it was supposed to. Girlchild to the rescue with suggestions. For next time. Finally got to the stitching…
It’s been an insane balance, trying to get an hour to stitch and still get to bed at a reasonable hour. I’m failing on both. I stopped grading because I realized I had 18 left to grade and that was another hour, and I wasn’t grading past 9:30. But I had other stuff to do…I had to fill out an acceptance form because I got into an art/science residency in Oregon next summer, out in the Oregon Outback (east side, super remote). Totally excited. Will post more later. On the binding, I’m 3/4 of the way around and I still need to sew the sleeves on, and no, I still haven’t pulled out the thimble pads. Because I’m stubborn? I don’t know. I start stitching and I feel like it’s more work and time to find them and put them on, and the next morning, my finger is all sore from the stabbing. Not very bright.
Anyway, I’m not sure today is going to be much better for time management. The Man said something about my time management (and yes, I almost punched him), and really it’s just that there are too many things to reasonably do in the time I have. And that sucks and it’s super stressful.
It might even be fucktangular.
Today I’m taking my sewing machine in to be cleaned, I’m teaching the second part of a skate park simulation, but I don’t think it’ll take all period, but I don’t know what else they’re gonna do because that was on my list to figure out last night, and instead, I was texting my science team and emailing my principal about a possible new hire. So I might lose part of my prep period to that conversation, instead of relieving my anxiety about not being planned far enough out, which I realize is kinda driving me bonkers. After school, I have to drive to drop off the machine, and then go to pilates (that’s kind of a time crunch, but I can do it), then come home and take the trash out and probably deal with the gutter people and grade things and holy god, there’s another book club Zoom. Yeah. Plus grading and stitching binding. SLEEP! Maybe. Because I’m not very good at that. I’m not sure tomorrow is any better? We’ll see. Pro: camping this weekend. (Con: man oh man I’m already behind in lesson planning and grading.) It’s fine. It will all be fine. Deep breath in? Breathe out. It’s October now.
No matter what I do, I’m always sitting on the couch on Sunday night, wondering why I didn’t get more done over the weekend. Like I shouldn’t have gone to ceramics yesterday, despite not being able to get there all week, because I should have graded more. I should have finished that one assignment (I have a class and a half left to grade…at least an hour, probably closer to two). I should have finished grading the homework from two weeks ago (I have two classes left, maybe three? Can’t remember). I’m two weeks behind in grading advisory assignments. Ah well. And I’m going camping this coming weekend, so I won’t be grading then. Unless I can get the Man to drive (then I might get sick…hmmm) so I can grade homework on the way up. Meanwhile, I’m trying to not waste my ceramics studio membership by not going, I haven’t made it to the gym in weeks, and I have a quilt I’m trying to finish so I can start the one that has to be done by mid-December. Minor panic. I did manage to pick a binding from the three and get it sewn on…
Although Friday night, all I did was trim it. It was all I could handle. I graded a lot Friday night. On Saturday, I had more mental energy…so I got the binding sewn on and pinned down, and found a cat to sit on it.
Thank you, Nova. Then last night, I started the stitching and ritual poking a hole in my finger until I give in and find the sticky thimble things.
So I’ll be here a few more nights, then contact the photographer, and start the next one, which has been simmering on the Art Brain stove for a few weeks.
Ceramics has been frustrating lately; I can’t get there (I don’t have the energy or the time) and then when I get there, someone has bumped the big piece shoving stuff next to it, and it’s broken again. This is the head, though…and it’s almost underglazed…
Still some work to do on the hair…
And I think I did the teeth too? Maybe? I can’t remember when I took the photo. The mid-torso piece is hopefully ready to bisque fire, but that takes coordination with the person in charge of the kilns, and I haven’t been able to show up during her work time for weeks. I could just text her, I guess. I’m hesitant to commit to putting it into the kiln. I’m afraid it’s all going to fall apart, honestly, and if it does, I’m gluing it all together. There is a piece that goes on top of this, and the base needs to be bisque fired again, so there’s a lot going on…I just haven’t been able to get there enough.
When we go out on Saturdays, I draw until they bring us the food. I don’t always get much time (some places are super fast).
But it helps my drawing hand remember the things.
And sometimes people comment…this one got some random guy telling me it was good. Thanks random guy.
This one was two restaurants, two date nights.
The first one served way too fast.
This one too.
But it seemed mostly finished.
And yet, here is what I get from students…
I could just about read his writing. There were a couple that I really couldn’t read. This is the con to putting stuff on paper. The pro is that they can’t copy and paste from Google. The con is my brain explodes. This is what I didn’t finish. It’s not hard to grade, really…just time-consuming. What is that, you say? A person falling out of a moving car. If you stare at it long enough, you might see it. I only know that because the horrendously mostly illegible writing to the right explained it.
So more of that.
While I was grading, I was watching stuff, as you do…and this amused me. ALMOST?
So you have 26 pairs? Or you have part of a pair? Also, yeah, so do I, at least.
This after a conversation on Thursday with two staff members who admitted to originally being afraid of me.
It’s OK. This was found on Saturday’s hike before dinner…
Also the sun is going down earlier. I forgot that would happen.
Same cat (Nova) on another quilt.
It must be fall, the cat-sitting-on-quilt season.
This after the Man went out with man friends. Although they did actually ask some questions this time.
I ask stuff when he gets back, and he’s like, “We didn’t talk about that” over and over again until I’m like, WTF did you talk about?! I’m not invited anymore (it’s all just guy stuff, no gaming mostly), and I just wanna know how everyone is doing. And I can’t ask them.
Let’s finish up with my favorite disappeared female aviator…
Go Amelia!
OK. It’s a short week because our school board has set these idiotic 3-day weekends (the next one isn’t even a 3-day…it’s entirely stupid) because they say parents want them. It’s true that a bunch of our kids are absent on Fridays or Mondays…but it makes it harder to teach. I’ll take this one though…we’re going camping up in the local mountains. It’s a full week though…three Zoom calls at night (none are work-related), plus at least three meetings? Four? Not sure. I give up on keeping track. Teaching something today…ah, reviewing potential and kinetic energy for roller coasters, which they’ll start designing on Thursday. Fun times. Then two meetings or three, not sure (principal says one thing then says something different in the weekly email that comes whenever he feels like it…I miss the principal that scheduled them for the same time every week). Then I’m either going to ceramics or coming home and grading, because I have book club tonight. Good book for that one. And then stitching a hole in my finger. NO! Finding the sticky thimble pad, so I DON’T stitch a hole in my finger. That’s the plan.
Kathy Nida 