Too Far Out…

Yeah. Friday. Friday with a field trip: pros and cons. Pro: a day off (well half a day) from teaching. Con: I’m already tired and it’s a walking trip. They’re all walking trips, though, so that’s nothing new. It’s Old Town decorated for Halloween, so hopefully that’s cool. We’ll see. Hopefully some people are absent today and a bunch go home right after the field trip…except there’s a dance, so hmm. I went to all the dances in middle school. They were awkward. Nothing is new for that, I think.

So I’m still doing stitchdown. I’m 5 1/2 hours in. I still think my 8-hour guess is good. Wednesday, I had finished those pedestals and the legs up to the knees, plus everyone under the umbrella.

Last night, I finished the legs, the Supreme Court building, and the umbrella, and had barely started the justices on the left (all of their shoes and ankles are done).

So I need to do the justices, the Earth Goddess from the torso up, and everything on her arms. Sounds like 3 hours (at least) to me. I was hoping to be further along. I’m not sure I’ll get anything done tonight. Tomorrow is kind of a mess…art meeting plopped right in the middle of the day plus a shit-ton of grading to do. Ugh. I’m really hoping to get it done this weekend. I wanted to be pinbasting Sunday. It might still happen, but a lot of other things would have to disappear for that to happen. Unfortunately. I’m also panicking about school…I haven’t really planned the next unit. It’s rough. I’m trying to fix some stuff from last year. I’m trying to incorporate stuff from the newbie, but it’s disparate and I need an overarching story or idea and I don’t have one. Ugh. I think I won’t ever get 8th grade under control. I have this year, which is not going to be the year it all makes sense, then next year, and then I go back to 7th grade. Which does make sense. And will probably feel like a relief after this shit. Seriously. At least I know what I’m doing in 7th grade and can do it without any assist. Things to look forward to? Too far out. Doesn’t get me through the next week. Ha.

I think I posted this last year…

Still relevant. First trimester ends in a week. One third done. Two thirds left to kick my tired ass.

Here’s a video of the California Fibers’ show in Los Angeles…

I did not drive up for this meeting…it was a Sunday and it would have been an 8- to 9-hour turnaround. Talk about not having time for any of that shit. They’re doing a closing reception kind of thing in December. Not. I’m not driving up there. Too far. Too long. I don’t have that many hours to disappear to driving. Not unless someone else is driving and I’m grading or lesson planning the whole time. Not happening.

This week. The shit in Maine? More deaths because a whole state wants to carry guns without permits? I have family sheltering/locking down in Maine. This is fucked up. I keep updating the news sites, honestly hoping the mentally ill asshole with guns has killed himself. Sad but true. Meanwhile, Israel/Gaza/Hamas…we are the worst at humanity, y’all. We just suck. Take care of people. Help people. Care for people. Don’t kidnap them, kill them, bomb them, shoot them, stab them, or terrorize them. Sigh. I know, it’s simplifying a very complex issue, but that’s where I’m at. I can’t begin to understand all the sides (and I have friends on all the sides), but I can care for those who are being traumatized. On all sides.

So yeah. Meanwhile, in the US, Scholastic Book Fairs are back on my OK list after a brief WTF.

Let parents choose, not school districts. Because we’re talking about bringing these back at my school, or some equivalent. And I don’t want my school board to have any say in the books my students choose.

I actually got (forced) some stitching time last night that was not under pressure…

I love how crooked it is. It’s wonderful. Yeah, I should have been grading, but I was on Zoom with stitching friends, so I couldn’t grade and chat. I could barely stitch (needed to read instructions out loud, my brain was so fried). So it was a good break from all the things. Yes, I graded afterwards. Duh.

An uneasy truce.

Luna is saying, “Why the fuck did you put that dog on my bed?” I’m thinking, “Where the fuck do I go?” It worked out. Everyone furry ends up in the middle, sometimes uncomfortably. Last night, Simba was quiet. So that was good.

OK, field trip, survive last two periods of day by putting on a movie and trying to grade shit. Then duty at the light (no fights today…there’s a dance…priorities). Then going to a book signing tonight, I hope. Then home and maybe some stitching, if I can sit up that long. Tomorrow is a mess. Ah well. Survive it, get shit done, etc.

Rewind…

So I feel like I blinked an eye and October slid past. Weird. It’s usually one of the longer months of the year for school, but no, our field trip and Halloween are looming on the horizon, with the end of Trimester 1 (and grades due. Grades are always due.). November is easier; December has its ups and downs. Well, November is only through Thanksgiving. That last week is really part of December (ask a teacher; they’ll agree). I have not adjusted this year to anything, even the overwork. I cried on the way home yesterday, not for anything in particular, just feeling like lots of little tiny things that needed doing would eventually bury me. Managing other people’s shit. I could do without that. That is this year though. Lots of that. I came home and put together roller coaster groups for today…there are some definite issues that I can’t fix with those. Ah well. ‘Tis always the case. There’s always one kid that every group wants and one that no one wants. Then I went to the gym. So I could read a book and not think about school. Not so successful with school texting me, but whatever.

Giant ass sigh. The pro is that it’s very easy to get up off the couch (after working some more after dinner on school stuff) and come in here and do stitchdown. It’s meditative. I’m listening to a book, which is not always a successful endeavor for me…I tend to space out and then wonder what the fuck the reader is talking about. I wonder if I would like this book better if I were reading it myself. It has some good things, but some things are just not as good. It’s John Scalzi, Starter Villain, read by Wil Wheaton. You’d think those would all be good things. I’m not sure. I got a year’s subscription to Audible just for this purpose, quilting and stitchdown entertainment. But I do have a hard time listening to words. I have to rewind. Rewind? I am old. Anyway, I’ve managed about an hour a night…here’s Monday…

And Tuesday…

Everything under the umbrella is done, plus the goddess’ legs up to the knees, plus the swamp and cloud going into the swamp fires. So I suspect I’m doing pedestals next on the right. Three hours in. I suspect it will be 8 total. Ish. I only have 4 hours left of the book I’m listening to. There will be another, I suspect.

Got this (and a check) for the anti-anti-abortionist quilt…

Nice. Appreciate the vote of confidence. That piece deserves it.

I just washed all those, Kitten. After you threw up on them.

Sigh. This cat. She keeps eating bits of leaves and pine needles and then vomiting them all over the house. I cleaned one set of floors; I need the Man to do the other. Double sigh. He has a show this weekend, so that won’t happen. And the boychild has reneged on any household duties except his own room and bathroom. Ugh.

I woke up to a really weird unsettling dream this morning. I didn’t like it. It’s still hanging around my shoulders and I still don’t like it. Thanks brain. Appreciate those moments. Perhaps you could be more supportive? Oh yeah, this is you being supportive. Eh.

Then last night, while I’m trying to grade using all those papers, Nova just plopped in the middle of all of them.

It’s unlike her…but she kept trying for my lap and that wasn’t an option, so I guess everything else I needed was. That irritated look is because I just pulled half of them out from under her.

That project grades really slow. Not a fan. Trying to decide how to modify for next year.

OK. Today. Some parts of today will just be hard…it’s a lot. We’re starting roller coasters (built out of paper). Tomorrow will be more chill, but today is a little chaotic. I have way too many adults coming in and out of my classes for observations. The field trip is not fully planned, although I think I am fucking done with my part (and next time, y’all can do it, even if you don’t have all the kids. OK. I’ll probably change my mind about that. Maybe). I have pilates today and potentially four errands after that. Which is a lot. I might move one to tomorrow. It would be easier. Pro? I get to stitch later. While listening to a book. That I will partially ignore. Yeah!

Reminder of the Line…

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.

Zebras Rule the World

Middle day of a weird overfull week. It doesn’t chill out this week. I think ever. It’s just full. I get my head around one day at a time. Then last night, I didn’t sleep because my brain was wandering into next year and that’s just a mistake right now. Pros! Yesterday, I got to buy lunch away from school and sit outside with a bunch of co-teachers I don’t get to eat with because we have different lunches. I might get to do the same today! And today does not have a meeting on top of interviews on top of other things that had to be done.

I came home after a meeting and 5 interviews, 2 on Zoom (weird but understandable, although am I old? It’s hard to hear and my principal sneezed during a very important answer.). I had to edit a letter to be sent by multiple staff about next year’s principal choice, then find some other stuff for the current principal. Then I made chai tea and finished my book. I refused to work after that. I feel like I did all the hours. Plus testing is exhausting. It’s walking around the room 700 times and trying to focus on anything (cleaning? organizing? grading? planning? The last two are harder in this situation.). For 3 1/2 hours. Trying to keep the kids from flipping out for 3 1/2 hours. Most of them are fine. Lots of sleeping. I’m good with that. Puzzles! That was a blessing from my math teacher. They were engrossed. I had to make a puzzle board (well, I pulled one of the bases for roller coasters so we could slide it under the puzzle). It was fine. Today it will be less of a novelty and the test is harder and shorter, so it will probably be more difficult to keep them chill.

Today I also have a union meeting after school and then book club (that I just finished the book for), so full, but ending on a good note. Although it’s a murder mystery. So is it good? I just don’t know.

The other good thing (I’m really trying to get out of the mud brain here) is that I am on the stitchdown phase of the quilt. It won’t go fast, but it’s faster than the ironing was. I got the background pieced and the whole thing ironed down on Monday night…

She’s big, beautiful, and complicated. Love it.

Last night, I set everything up so I could start the stitchdown. I listen to podcasts or music and just stitch. I should probably remember to stand up more, but I don’t.

I got a healthy chunk of the bottom left corner done. The machine is behaving; that’s a plus. There’s just a lot that needs to be stitched down. I’m guessing 6-7 hours. Based on my evening plans for the rest of the week, um, yeah. Hopefully by the weekend. That would be good so I can sandwich it over the weekend and start quilting. Can’t guarantee it though. That’s a lot of stitching after meetings. We’ll see. I can only do what I can do. And I can only blow off the day job so much before I’m not prepared to do the things I need to do to teach. My brain wants to be on vacation, but I’m not yet.

There was a comment during the interview process yesterday about teachers who are referral factories. I feel that way with a couple of my classes. It’s been a rough year. I meditated last night, reflected on what to change for next year, felt some bad stressful shit, tried to sleep after that. Hmmm. That’s a no. OK. Well. It’s funny, I’ve got the science down; there’s still revising and planning changes for next year, but it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as it was for this year. This year was just bad. I’m so burnt out that the thought of doing a weeklong training during the summer made me completely shut down. I want a long expanse of time where I don’t have to work this many hours, fall asleep worried about planning or behaviors. And that’s the other part. This year has made me feel like I’m a shitty teacher in so many ways, and I know I’m not. I check in with co-teachers and we are all struggling. Phone behaviors, computer behaviors, lack-of-work behaviors, post-COVID behaviors, parent behaviors and attitudes. It’s exhausting. One of the things I have to do right now for one of my students is take a photo every time he falls asleep in class and send it to mom. Because she doesn’t believe me? I don’t know. I’m just tired. Very very tired. And today? Sad. Overwhelmed sad. I do love most of teaching. I have not loved it this year. Well, even that’s not true. Some of the teaching/learning has been awesome. So focus on that today. I suspect crying during testing is not preferred. I’m not testing…the kids are. I really shouldn’t be crying.

We did Natural Selection Comics to show understanding. I do have some absolutely awesome ones that I’ll share later, but these two…honestly, they both made me laugh, and the zebra one did OK on his grade. The other one? Totally off topic. But still made me laugh. And then hold my head.

Zebras rule the world. Even better, inside is white. I know he means the outside between the stripes, but I really really wanted to write, nah, inside is red, full of blood, dude. Still giggling.

This one though…

Does he have a pet snake named Fluffy? I just don’t know. Certainly there’s some interesting things going on here. None of them on the topic of natural selection. None at all. Nope. Gonna have to ask him some questions tomorrow.

So that’s it for today. Finish the first round of state testing. Get lunch with friends. Try to be productive for the second half of the school day (ha!), then union meeting, home, eat leftovers, book club, stitching with podcasts, sleep. Actually sleeping would be nice, because I mostly skipped that step last night and now the other eye is twitching in off time to the first one. Very distracting. There’s stitching though! Getting this quilt done so I can get to the next one…since the world is sucking my free time away from me. Yup. Gonna grab that back somehow for next year. Gotta figure that out.

Just Sitting…

Hoo. Boy. I spent about two hours last night yelling at my school computer and an app. My right eye was still twitching (hard) last night, but has stopped this morning. I have a canker sore starting in my mouth, which is one of my stress signs. WHY??? I am on Spring Break, dammit. I’m also fully aware of all the crap that needs to get done over break. And apparently my internet service will be down tomorrow for some period of time. Or will it be tomorrow? They keep saying there will be more info and there hasn’t been. Feel free to take my internet down while I’m gone. The boychild will not be happy, but I’ll be fine. So internet out means I need to find a way to get all the work done before that happens. Tomorrow. PLUS pack. Plus do all the other things.

Yesterday was not the most productive, or maybe it was and I just felt unproductive. I took two animals to the vet; one needed a referral to an eye doctor, and they haven’t called me back yet. The other one is fine. But that was an hour. Then I went to pick up quilts from a friend who had brought my work home from a show because I couldn’t get there in the time they allotted, which was super nice, and the conversation was good. I appreciate having time for that. Then JoAnns hell to get batting and thread (which I thought about the night before while trying to fall asleep). Then home, to the gym (yay! back on the schedule!), then dinner, then trying to grade that thing that has a giant-ass bug (not the first one). They still haven’t fixed the last bug I filed with them. So frustrated. I didn’t start stitchdown until 10:07 PM…on a vacation day. WTF.

Anyway, so I finished ironing together on Sunday night…

And then ironed it down to the background…

I’m having huge issues this morning with internet and getting photos to load, so I’m just writing words right now and hoping stuff behaves later. And here I am now, in the afternoon, hoping even harder.

Then last night, at 10:07 PM, I started the stitchdown. It won’t take long. I just have to be home and not doing something else to do it. Which seems problematic at the moment unfortunately.

This morning, I’m going to see a show at the Mingei with my mom–need to leave in about 2 minutes, by the way–so WordPress being a pain is truly unhelpful. (I already went. It really was having issues this morning.)

More about the Mingei later; it’s showing the 25 Million Stitches refugee stitched panels. Very cool. You should totally go see it. Them. Yeah.

So now it’s afternoon and I’ve seen the show, eaten lunch, planted the 8 jade plants I cut off the other main one that was falling over into the entryway path, plus watered a few things for the first time in like 5 months. Strange for us to have so much rain. Looks like we might be done, but a little more wouldn’t hurt at this point. Preferably not while I’m camping though. Please.

I need to start packing for camping, I have one more class of hellacious app assignment to grade, plus one pile of packets, plus two classes of another thing, plus homework. Plus lesson planning. Yeah, not all of that is happening before I leave. It just can’t. I need to prop up/restake my lemon tree…current stake is literally falling down on the job. Also weed the world. Literally so many weeds. Turn the sprinklers back on. Prop up the gutter downspout better, caulk the stained glass (all the while wondering how long the wood that is there will last anyway). Wishing I were more of a handyperson than I am. FINALLY after 7 weeks got the replacement faucet so we are no longer doing high-pressure dishwashing that sprays everywhere. Next time, I will just replace the whole thing. Remind me. Also, I think when I retire, I can hire out my services to bug-check educational apps. Like seriously…did no one actually make sure it worked? Sigh. Fucking giant sigh. They should at least send me a t-shirt or something. Oh yeah, also apply to that big thing that needs 47 things written for it. I have until the 14th on that one. Ha! I come back the 12th. It’s fine.

Also I feel very successful in my teaching now.

I laughed very hard. But was proud.

Amazon and its boxes…sigh.

Luna does know how to get INTO the cat tent, but she doesn’t always do it…

And getting ready to camp in mid- to high-80s? A friend rightly sent me this…

The cats have been lying around in all the sunny bits. I don’t blame them. The last two nights have been in the 30s here, but the sun is still warm during the day.

Not summer warm, but beginning of spring warm. That towel is supposed to be on the back of the fabric drawers, protecting the fabric. Kitten decided otherwise.

At bedtime, they follow us down the hallway. Luna is always first. Then these two negotiate the space.

And this morning, after my shower…

Bunch of weirdos. I have been appreciating the few hours of extra sleep, plus time to go exercise without having to worry about what I’m teaching the next day. I feel hopeful about the last 9 weeks of school. Right now. Right now, I feel hopeful. With another 11 days of break. Spring Break always goes so fast. I need to clean so many things and I am getting none of it done. Stitchdown! I need to do an hour this afternoon before pilates. Then hopefully finish tonight, pinbaste tomorrow in between last-minute camping shopping and packing. Looking forward to reading and drawing and stitching and hiking. And just SITTING without thinking about cleaning or weeding. Sounds great.

Draw Some of That Off…

I fell asleep late last night. As I was trying to fall asleep (which is never a successful endeavor, by the way…either you fall asleep or you don’t, but the harder I try, the more I fail at it), I was excessively stressing about all the work stuff I still have to do over the next three weeks, even though I will be on break, and then I remembered one of my favorite things to do this time of year: a Drawing a Day. Almost every day (and I have 23 of them before I have to go back to school) is to pull out a sketchbook and do a drawing a day. It really stretches me because I don’t have a theme and I just drew the day before, so trying to keep the creativity going and think of something new to draw is really exhilarating. Then I couldn’t fall asleep because I was trying to decide whether I would use the same weird-shaped sketchbooks from last year, or just bounce around, or what. And then I started thinking about the next quilt, because I emailed the photographer about having this one done by Thursday (WHAT??? But also yes), so I will be starting something new next week. And what will THAT be? I don’t know yet. So much art excitement about having the next three weeks off. No, the work stress is not gone (I cried a little about it this morning, no joke, this shit is sucky), but maybe I can draw some of that off. Ha ha…draw it off…get it?

Have I discussed how tired I am right now? Yeah. That. Today we survive and think of our brothers and sisters who are still teaching next week. Bless them.

I started stitchdown on Wednesday night…

This piece is small. Ish. It won’t take long. I did more last night…

I’m probably a little less than halfway? I think. I’m hoping to do some this evening. The Man has a show tonight, which I am going to, but it starts later, and I have to clean up my classroom a little and then go to Home Depot for slats, then pack up two quilts to deliver tomorrow morning, and THEN I could stitch for a while before going to see the band. OR I might nap. If I can. Which I often can’t. So there’s that. But assume stitchdown is done tomorrow and then sandwich and pinbaste, so I’m quilting by Sunday. Sounds good. You can see how I assumed I could be done by Thursday. Let’s ignore the fact that I need to wrap all the presents, buy a few more, clean the girlchild’s bedroom because she’s coming home Sunday night at 10:30 or so at night, and probably do some schoolwork as well. Yeah. Ignore that shit. Just do the art.

Whew. Going into this Friday on this little sleep and very few filters and just plain feeling overwhelmed…my 8th-graders should mostly be done with proposals and packets; they get a video about an egg drop in space. They can sleep through it for all I care. It’s a cool video, but they can live without it. There’s no point in starting something new though. The 7th graders are going to be pushing through the last day of their assignment. It was shitty yesterday. I’m not expecting much better today unfortunately. I can just hope that the worst of them are absent. Also we have short periods because there’s an hour + long assembly at the end of the day today. Pros and cons to that I guess. Then I have duty at the light, then back to my room to clean it so my floors will hopefully at least get mopped with a clean mop instead of a dirty one. Cockroaches on a regular basis. Fun stuff. Almost halfway through the year. Whenever I think I can’t do any more of it, I get a break and it gives me the rest I need to get through the next bit.

But there’s drawing at the end of this bit. So that’s awesome.

So I needed a refill on my insulin and my doc’s office screwed up and ordered an old one my insurance doesn’t cover anymore. Luckily the system caught it and said, hey, do you really want to pay this?

Um. Honestly? No. Start over.

And this is my kid-decorated door…

They did pretty well. I glued the title on for them. I also traced the title for them, but they did the rest. I brought stuffing and the garland and a glue gun too. I didn’t even know about the ornaments…they surprised me. They’re good kids. You know what one of the things I have to do before I leave is? Take all that off the door. Uh huh. I know. Well it was up for less than 48 hours. What can I do?

OK. Off to the place where the good kids show up and do their work. And I don’t lose my mind. Hopefully. Drawing. 23 days.

Aspirational Batting

Quilt Visions opens tonight…looking forward to seeing the whole show. Looking forward to my abortion-rights piece being out in the world. I started it about a year ago in reaction to Texas tightening up abortion laws. I really wasn’t thinking Roe v Wade would be a memory by the time I got it into a show.

My Body. My Choice. Lots of yelling in this quilt. It was a traumatic, stressful quilt to make. So much so that the next piece is all just pretty. That one got into Quilt National. Not bad for two quilts made in a year when I didn’t make much.

I will be at the preview opening tonight, the members’ opening tomorrow, my art time from 10:30-11, and then the show is open through January. Check it out! It’s always an honor to get into these shows…one I didn’t think I could attain 25-30 years ago. So that’s cool.

On average, I finish about 6 good-sized quilts a year. COVID has kicked my ass on that number. Well, COVID was the initial cause, but now it’s just my teaching job that does it. In 2020, I did make 6 pieces, but two were 12″ square or less. So 4 good-sized quilts. There were 8 in 2021, but two were small (12″ square or less) and one was a final finish on a quilt from 2001 or so. Two of the other 5 were relatively small pieces for me. This year? This year is fucked up for some reason. I’m on the 4th quilt of the year, but they have all been big, hefty beasts. That said, I finished the first one in January (it’s the one in Visions), and then the next one took me 6 freaking months to get out (the one in Quilt National)…then one over the summer, finished by the end of July, and this one, which I don’t even think is that big, is taking for-freakin-ever. I started it the end of July, early August, and I’m still not done. It’s the piddly I-can’t-even-work-for-an-hour shit that’s killing me. I did get exactly an hour last night, because I went to bed later. But I’m so frustrated. I so need more art time. I don’t know what is going to give (probably my sanity), because it’s not like I can just wing the day job. There is no useful curriculum that makes sense. So completely frustrated.

Sigh. The plus is that I’m getting closer to done on the stitchdown. Here’s Wednesday night…

I made it to the last head! I basically went in a big circle. And last night, I got one arm and her upper torso half done.

I’m pretty sure the other arm is half done? Maybe? Or not. So finish the torso and the left arm, and then I can sandwich it and start quilting. I bought batting on Monday. Let’s call it aspirational batting, because I thought I would be sandwiching earlier this week. Maybe not. I have a shit ton of work to do this weekend in between all the Visions things (which I’m really excited about!), but next weekend is pretty wide open. I’m hoping to finish stitchdown in the next couple of days, then sandwich is an hour or so, then get quilting this week. Stitchdown is taking longer than I thought it would (all those letters!)…I’m well into the 7th hour and have at least another hour, possibly two to go. So I am getting there…but I’m also evaluating the upcoming shows and seeing what I have that can be in those shows so I don’t have to make new work. I WANT to make new work, but let’s talk reality…I need to (1) make smaller work, (2) stop sleeping, or (3) quit the day job (can’t afford to do that yet). So that. Yes.

OK. School. Be efficient. Be be efficient. Don’t let the 7th graders get you down. Deal with the parents’ stuff this afternoon (was supposed to do it yesterday; didn’t happen). Enjoy the art time with other people this weekend…it doesn’t happen as often as I need or want, so enjoy. Get as caught up as possible this weekend. Keep making art.

Raising a Caterpillar

How to distract yourself from work: try to raise a caterpillar. First of all, I had to bring it home because it was eating so much that I was afraid it would starve over the weekend…

They ate through everything I had, so I offered them my own tomato plants, but they were a different subspecies and the caterpillar didn’t appear to want to eat them…

So I went to school Sunday morning, after watching the caterpillar pace around the edge of the container Saturday night and Sunday morning, and got the right kind of plant…no go! So finally I Googled some more details on the caterpillar and figured out…it wanted dirt! Well, that’s easy. I got dirt…

Oh, it was so happy. So was I. As soon as I put it back in, it started digging…

So in two weeks, hopefully we’ll see a moth. Things I will do to avoid grading and lesson planning, y’all. Totally. Although I did a bunch of that too. It felt like a lot until I got up this morning and realized all the shit I still need to do for this week. Whoops!

I delivered two pieces to a gallery curator/owner on Saturday, and she recorded me talking about them…

Apparently this post is mostly videos. I also packed up three more quilts for delivery tomorrow. I’d like to make art, but I’m spending a lot of time delivering and picking up instead. It’s a good problem to have.

I’ve done a little stitching over the last few days…

All letters really…well some stuff coming up to the letters on Friday, I think.

Last night, I managed to stitch the edge into the stitching, so I got to rip and restitch a bit…

Stitching down the letters is not a fast process. Nothing about those letters is fast.

Lots of video. Like I said.

Saturday night, the Man sang with another band, Sonic Moonshine.

I hung out and drew a bit…

This is Simba’s face after I got home…I was playing elk mating calls (don’t ask why…just know he was perturbed by it)…

This is remarkably true…

And this just made me laugh (as a non-church person)…

Well I’m going to take my container of dirt (and liquefying caterpillar) back to school, hope I survive the day (I’m just tired, still), and get to stitch some more tonight. This coming weekend is the Visions opening, which is nice…I think it’s also Quilt National 2021 with my sold quilt up at the San Jose Museum of Quilts, if you’re up there. I’ve got a busy week and I’ve only planned 8th-grade science completely about halfway through Wednesday. Minor issue. Ah well. I will get there. Somehow. I have three assignments, all in different stages of preparedness. One is typed up but needs slides and a video. One is barely started and only half a thought in my head (gotta navigate the stupid curriculum they provide us with). And the last one exists on paper in 5 different versions, so I have to make something out of that. So the first one needs about an hour, the second probably an hour, maybe more, and the third, at least an hour. Do you wanna know how much prep time I get at school? Not enough to deal with that and everything else, that’s for sure. So it will happen, but probably after hours. Along with the four meetings I have before and after school this week. This year is a challenge…and not in a good way.

I Did Not Buy This

This Friday kinda snuck up on me. Not bad. Appreciating its presence. Would appreciate it more if I knew what I was teaching next week in 8th grade. Spent a few hours last night Frankensteining a variety of labs together into stations and then searching through the house for materials to use…one of which was fabric…I know, I know, this shouldn’t be a problem, but it has to be two 24″ squares of fabric I don’t CARE about, and I care about a lot of my fabric. I did however find this…

I did not buy this. It came to me. I don’t know from where. But two chunks of it are going to school for science labs. Along with 9 plastic Easter eggs, which I had put out in the pile for the thrift shop, and 2 bowling balls that I liberated (with help from an employee) from a local bowling alley. THIS NEVER HAPPENED (he said, as he helped me put them in a bag). I’m waiting for 40 lids to 2-liter bottles (please don’t ask why I have bottles with no lids; I agree that it’s stupid, and it’s not MY stupid).

So yeah, work is complicated and requires a lot of work. Beyond my working hours. A lot more than last year. Probably equivalent to the Zoom COVID year. Although even then, there was already curriculum we had done; I just had to convert it to something they could do online. This year, the curriculum is mostly useless and boring, so I’m having to scramble. I have planned through Wednesday of next week, almost. Ha! Wait, not even all the way through Wednesday. Nope. FUCK ME.

So this may explain my slow status of the stitchdown. I’m not starting until after 9:30 PM most nights, and I need to go to bed at 10:30 or I don’t get enough sleep, so last night, as I was stitching and looked up and it was 10:38, you can imagine how this is going.

Wednesday night, I think I only got about 30 minutes in…

That said, it was a pretty good 30 minutes. No flags in uteri…

The thread is not happy though…it’s having spool issues and loopy issues. It keeps getting itself caught under the spool and then pulling every which way, or it loops up (just one loop) down below and catches on the foot. I’m not sure how to stop either of those things. I love that after a million years doing this, I still don’t know how to fix anything.

Last night, I started on an arm and the three young humans in the bottom corner, my titular folx…

I’m hoping to get a ton done this weekend, but please remember the science planning and wonder with me how that will be happening. Because I can do a little planning at school, but literally nothing NOTHING gets graded or done at all during the 2 7th-grade classes because they cannot self-start, self-maintain, or self-anything but yelling and drama. It’s really only about 6-10 kids per class, but that is enough to make me crazy.

Meanwhile, I got to school yesterday and the caterpillar had eaten everything and was (blurrily, sorry) waiting for me to get more food.

Which I did. Immediately. Also, I took pictures of their poop…

So you could see it. It’s actually sort of star-shaped. AND do you see the other caterpillar? I did NOT see it, which means it is currently in my trash. Ah well. Can’t save all the parasites.

Anyway. Fatso is hopefully going to be going to be liquifying themselves soon.

What else is going on? Sigh. Trying to figure out how to insure two pieces in a show that doesn’t have insurance. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Home insurance is not covering much. Also Katie is here.

She’s been good, but all the animals are a bit on edge with the newbie. Including her.

OK, going to work to feed the caterpillar, survive the last day of a unit with some classes, research day with some other classes, being super efficient with my time (ha! What a joke…I’m sure something will come up that fucks that over), getting a massage (short) and back pop later, plus need to water and pick up mail, plus finish all the planning for 8th grade for next week and grade all the stuff from last week that got subsumed under grades being due. LOSE MY MIND somewhere in there and maybe read my book. That would be good.

Hard Landing…

You know how sometimes a plane lands really hard? Like BANG. When I came back from Boston, we landed hard, and then we fishtailed. Kind of nerve wracking, honestly. But we were fine. That’s what coming back after Spring Break has been like. I’m still exhausted. The booster shot is still kicking my ass. I feel completely off, both mentally and physically. Trying to give myself some grace, just get through a day at a time. Trying not to get angry at the teacher who randomly transferred a kid into my class without talking to me. This is a kid who already had that class last trimester, so it makes no sense to give him back to me? Whatever. He failed mine before…he can do all the things he didn’t do last trimester. But maybe talk to me next time? However tired and irritable I am, I wouldn’t do that to another teacher. 36 days.

I Zoomed with my co-teacher to plan since she is still stuck in Germany. It was OK, although I still need to figure out what I’m actually posting and how to make the printer work with my computer, because it stopped. That’s today’s plan. Hopefully. And grade things. Because I’m still massively behind.

In other news, I finished the stitchdown (finally!) on the desert piece.

Only 7 hours and 44 minutes. Not bad, considering the killing of a free-motion foot. I bought a variety of feet that I didn’t have for the new machine, just to see if something else would work better, because the one I used after I broke the one I like was not my favorite.

Somehow I ordered 5 of the littlest one. IDK how. Late-night Amazoning. Always an issue. Bought two of the one that broke. That was on purpose. I’ll try the others too. There’s one other one I could try if I can find it online. Meanwhile, hey Husqvarna…fix your badly designed foot! It’s funny…I’d only broken one of those in years on the last machine. Anyway. Problem solved. Hopefully.

I was hoping to pinbaste last night, but I made the decision to go to the gym last night, and it ended up being late, and then I cooked dinner, and ate it, and then it was 9:30 PM. And moving my ass off the couch became difficult. I did though…ironed the whole top and found an entire arm that wasn’t stitched down. It’s not uncommon for me to miss a small section while I’m stitching, but a footlong piece? A little more rare. So I need to do that. And then I realized I didn’t have a big enough piece of batting that was already washed.

And then it was 10:30 PM. Not staying up another hour for that. So it will get done tonight, I guess. Although I have to cook again tonight. It’s never-ending! That’s not totally true…I mean, yes, it’s never-ending, but I have leftovers set up for tomorrow and Friday night, and honestly, probably Saturday too. Maybe. We’ll see if there’s any left by then. Slow quilt. This one is slow. I blame the day job.

Yeah, there’s been a lot of that lately. Yesterday was kind of one of those. Certainly it was a “No, you’re not crying on the way to work. Oh wait, yes you are.” day. It’s fine. I’m just tired and feeling overwhelmed. It’ll get better.

Saw a hawk on the neighbor’s swingset that is just on the other side of my fence…

Pretty bird.

I think the only way I’m going to get through the vacation photos is a little bit at a time. We had shitty wifi in Paso Robles, so that was the last bit I posted and it took forever. The first night, we went to something called the Light Fields at Sensorio, which is an artist installation of all these LED lights over the fields near Paso Robles. It was cool…

Also cool that the moon was out…

There were an awful lot of people, though, so realize that. And it’s not cheap.

I did really enjoy the light show though…some of them change colors as you’re watching. But the non-lit landscape was also cool.

The next day, we were going to hike but it rained all morning and we couldn’t get our acts together, so we read and tried to watch TV (see bad wifi) and I stitched some…

Those little bees were pretty fun to make…

Even though my cast-on stitches are not perfect. I’m OK with not perfect.

When it cleared up, we headed out to an area called Tin City that is all winery tasting rooms and a few breweries, packed full of people and dogs, and we hung out at one brewery for a few hours, people- and dog-watching, plus I drew, and we ate dinner.

It was entertaining enough. When it got cold, we left…next day? Pinnacles.

OK, going to work now. Today I teach all the things. Should be interesting. I’m not ready. I’m rarely ready, but these days, really I’m not feeling it. Let’s hope prep period is productive and I get a ton done and feel successful and on top of things. That would be nice.