Something Something.

Hey all, somehow Friday snuck up on me. I’m not mad. I’m still running marathons because of work and feel consistently overwhelmed, and sometimes wake up in the middle of the night needing to put things in my calendar (mostly art stuff that I don’t want to forget about because of the art job). Yesterday afternoon, I answered one complicated email about art stuff (complicated because I had to make decisions before I sent it) and figured out where my computer was hiding scans when the printer sent them, and emailed a contract for another show I got into. All good stuff, but it sometimes gets sidelined by the grading and lesson planning. I have a to-do list today for the day job that is physically impossible; no way can I get it all done. So I don’t know what the weekend looks like because of that. Not ideal.

Artwise, I finished stitchdown on Wednesday night, finally. It took 4 hours and 42 minutes. Not bad.

Then last night, I found a fabric that worked and was big enough for a backing, ironed and pieced that, cut the batting, washed it, drying it this morning. I’ll need to clean the floor tonight…wait, I need to embroider some words on the ICE agents and that’s probably easier when it’s a top and not a quilt. So I’ll do that tonight and see how much energy I have for the next step. But sometime this weekend, I’ll be sandwiching this and pinbasting it.

There’s the post-it to remind me to do the embroidery.

I met with stitching friends last night and finished the two leaves, but not a lot else.

This is the July block from Sue Spargo’s Rooted block of the month. I’m almost done with it.

And this.

My students wanted to talk about Kirk, but I reminded them that is a family conversation and they should also consider the two high-school kids who got shot in California (and then the shooter killed themselves) and the drones over Poland. I do think the world is a better place without Kirk, although I don’t think anyone should be murdered. And I feel for his wife and kids. But he advocated for guns and hate. So there we are.

I think that’s a turkey vulture.

It was huge flying in, whatever it is.

OK, the electric company is headed over to turn off my electricity for some solar-related reason I don’t really understand (probably so they can charge me for electric stuff even though I make more than I need). So I need to be off the computer. Fun times. He has all day to come, and he comes while I’m still here. Ugh.

School today, teaching something, planning something, fixing something, grading something. Then hopefully clay and some art this weekend. We’ll see.

Iterations.

Tuesdays have gotten so much harder lately. Not sure why. I feel like I’ve run a marathon in only two days of work, and then there’s a slow slide into the weekend. Sometimes that slide upends me into a pile of steaming compost before the weekend, but it feels like the hump, getting over that, is now Tuesday. I mean, the work doesn’t stop after Tuesday? There just seems to be an inordinate amount of it in the first two days…well, include Sunday, because I work then too. Maybe that’s why? Nah, I’ve always had to do that…well, always in the last 5 or 6 years? I didn’t always have to put in so much weekend time. Not sure why. So far, I haven’t managed to grade anything in class. Like the kids won’t chill out enough to allow it. That will hopefully change today. We’ll see. Some groups do well, some are incredibly needy (some for good reasons, lack of English skills and all), and some can’t stay on task to save their lives. I’m looking forward to October, when things seem to chill out a bit (weather and school)…but it’s still an awfully long way away.

The stitchdown is coming along slowly. I’m not getting a full hour at night…I’m coming home later and eating dinner later and then it’s 10 PM and I know I have to go to bed around 10:30. So I made it up to the sun and planets last night, and that’s all that’s left. I should be able to get that done tonight, but I have a union meeting after school and pilates late, so maybe not. Trying to fit in all the things I want to do with all the things I have to do and then the things I should do…ugh. But here’s Monday night’s stitching…

I got through one arm and most of the left side of the torso. I don’t remember where I was before that though. Last night, I finished the torso and the head and the hair, the hands on top of her head, and the barn owl…

And I found this in my yard…

There’s two great horned owls nearby, but I still hear the nightly screech of one of the barn owls, plus the occasional feather. Nice that they’re hanging around. They can all have the rats and gophers. Please.

This piece, Portrait of One Self, got into Quilts=Art=Quilts, so I’ll be shipping her later this month.

She’s got a lot going on too, much like me. Not often you see a fox sleeping with missiles. Or bunnies on body bags. Kitten is in there too…apparently I knew she was near the end, because she’s got angel wings. I miss her lots still. The Man says I can borrow his cats, and sometimes I am a good substitute for them, but mostly, they choose their daddy (of course). So I miss the kitty time. I don’t have the time or energy for a new kitty right now, though; the two dogs are enough. Katie is here! My parents’ dog has been visiting for over a week. She’s pretty chill these days, as long as you give her what she wants. She misses her people too, I’m sure. They’ll be back Sunday.

I have been having a hard time finding the time and energy to make it to ceramics, which sucks, because it’s very meditative when I’m there. I mean, the piece that needs to go in the kiln stresses me out, because I’m not even sure I can lift in into the kiln without breaking it…but the freeform head piece has been loads of fun.

I just keep adding weird shit to it. I actually need to go in when the owner is there so I can put the base back in the bisque fire and then try to get the torso in as well. Then I can just focus on the head, which is now going to have a tree coming out of it? I don’t know how that’s going to work. Shhh.

It was great being there yesterday…one other woman was there who I see on a regular basis, and about three other people just stopped by to drop off or pick stuff up, and then it was just me. Unfortunately, I only had about 90 minutes and then needed to pick up mail at my parents and then go home and cook dinner and do schoolwork and eventually get to stitch stuff down. Busy fucking days. I feel like I wake up running and don’t stop until late at night. And then the CGM has been off again. I’m wondering if my body is fighting this one even longer before it settles, and if that is the new thing. The numbers are still completely off and the alarm kept going off last night but it was like 50 points off. And I don’t have time to call them and go through all the phone call shit again today. Ugh. Why can’t things just work? Why does my body need to make it so fucking difficult. This thing has been really helpful for keeping my blood sugar in the right place. I’d really like it to keep working.

Sweet boy. Needs attention. I reread the same page like 5 times while he kept flipping around and smiling at me. Dork.

This is too true. Also, I think the Man is the caterpillar in Alice. At least right now. Maybe he’ll be the White Knight later on.

OK. Teaching energy while lacking it. Actually transformations today, which is different than transfer. Gotta make that distinction today as well. Then they get an INDEPENDENT assignment, for some definition of independent, right? Then union meeting and pilates and dinner and schoolwork and stitching, then sleep. Repeat some iteration of that. Ugh. September. Double ugh.

Nothing New

I read this terrifying article yesterday about the pronatalists…those who want more childbirths…some have some realistic concerns about decreasing birth rates, although their ideas about why that is happening are sometimes absolutely nuts. Honestly, there are too many people on the planet, so some restraint might be a good thing, but when you put their ideas together with some of the legislation that’s currently on the table, it does smack a bit too much of The Handmaid’s Tale. Why I would need to vote with a passport (those are expensive and difficult to get for many people) or a birth certificate (also sometimes difficult to get) IN PERSON, I do not know. I haven’t voted in person since before my kids were born. I know some people like to gather in groups and do tribal things, but I like to have all the stuff in front of me, read through it at my leisure, mark all the things, and then put it all in a freakin’ envelope to be delivered somewhere that I don’t have to talk to anyone or interact with humans. And I have transportation and the ability to move around without assistance. AND my birth certificate name matches my current name. Unlike many women. PLUS my job here on this planet is not to birth replacement workers.

But maybe that’s just me? Hard to say. By the way, burning the Teslas is not about the car, you dumbasses…it’s about the man. And we don’t just do it here…Germany and France and others are also protesting fascism. And oligarchs. Sometimes the far right’s take on things is just amazingly ignorant. I’m sure someone thinks the same of me. They can stay in the kitchen, giving birth, not allowed to vote apparently.

Sigh. Also, it’s not really ‘getting rid’ of the Department of Education if you farm out its responsibilities to departments that aren’t even related. Double sigh. I can’t NOT read the news. It’s impossible. So I keep making art.

Monday afternoon, I went to ceramics and worked on part two of the current sculpture. I built a tiny man with a gun.

He definitely needs a head, although he doesn’t have a brain. I also made a flagpole, but not the flag yet. I needed these to stiffen up a bit, so I just tucked them down in there, to be later attached to the arm. Hopefully Friday. Also pretty sure I broke one of her arms off again.

It’s my fault for not picking a bigger base and for making that arm lower than the base and then trying to transport shit. So IDK what the solution is, but I’ll deal with it on Friday.

Monday night, I did stitchdown…

Then last night, I finished it, washed the batting, cut a backing and ironed it, then remembered the floor where I pinbaste was horrendously dirty, so I mopped it at 9:30 at night. Hoping it would dry in time (it didn’t). So all that is ready for pinbasting…and then I started tracing the next one, the banned-book piece…

I also wrote out all the stuff I will need to hand embroider while we’re traveling. I’ll need to figure out how I’m transferring it to fabric and make copies of the drawings for travel purposes. I’ll be doing that probably tomorrow night. Tonight, I’ll pinbaste. After pilates and book club. Yeah. Long day.

We’re doing a teacher spirit thing all week where we all dress up and don’t tell the kids. Yesterday was dress like a kid (ah, those pimple patches) and Not a Cup (drink out of anything that is not actually a cup).

Today, we wear tiaras and sashes. That’ll be pretty noticeable. It’s just a way to help us survive that last few days until break. My boss came in my class yesterday while I was about to bang my head on the desk. Teaching Punnett squares isn’t hard, except for those few kids every period who don’t listen to instructions. Ever. They just want to copy, and they can’t. So they whine and tell me I’m not teaching them (read: I’m not giving them the answers) and by the end of the day, some figure it out eventually and some just don’t. But it can be frustrating for me. Plus with Eid, so many kids were still out yesterday, so they haven’t even started this thing that has to be done today. Fun times. I was hoping to grade homework papers all week, and I’ve gotten through three classes of one homework, and most of that was in my advisory class while we were listening to the book.

It’s fine. Really. It is. It’s nothing new anyway.

Not sure I believe that. Certainly. No. I don’t.

I do support this though.

I feel like all my fabric is emotional support fabric. And I support that choice.

OK. So more Punnett squares today…but it’s a test today, so that’ll be fun. I already have a plan for the one kid who never shuts up in class. The kids who come back today…well, I was going to make a video, but I don’t know if I’ll have time before school (meeting x2), and I think I need to use the phone because the doc cam won’t record unblurry, so that means I can’t post it until I get home anyway. Hmmm. Will think that over. Lots to do today. Gonna go do some of it.

Heat

Feels like Hades here…and yes, I know Arizona is hotter and so are parts of the Middle East, but I choose not to live there. And yes, this happens every freakin’ September, sometimes August, sometimes October, but it never feels good when it happens. I am glad to be working because there is A/C at work, so at least I get a little respite from the heat, but then it’s crazy there, so there’s that. Actually, mostly the labs and kids have been doing OK…there’s just been some outbursts (like literally sound coming out of mouths in ways I did not need to deal with)…although my co-teacher had broken glass. Oh wait, I had that too. We’re down a radiometer. Again. Every year. I need a plastic one. Or a sturdy childproof one. Yes, these are 13-year-olds. No, they are not gentle with things. Or people. Plus it’s hot. Did I mention that? I haven’t been able to get a lot of schoolwork done at home with the heat. I suspect I will need to just take my computer somewhere airconditioned tomorrow to grade. The library? Somewhere that serves caffeine…good caffeine. Will have to think that through.

I finished ironing the piece down to the background…a light one for once.

I do like me a dark background, but there were enough dark things in this that I didn’t think it would work. Last night, I stitched the whole thing down…

Yes, I stayed up a little too late to do it.

Now she’s ready to sandwich, pinbaste, and quilt. Which I could also probably do in a night, except I need to do some embroidery too. I might do that before I sandwich it. I don’t know. I’ll decide sometime today.

The plan is to (1) survive labs today (no outbursts or demands to be reseated or to go to the bathroom when you haven’t done any work). (2) Set up classroom for next week. (3) Go to ceramics. It’s OK…it was supposed to be 105 degrees and now it will only be 102. It’ll probably be 90-something in the studio, but if no one else is there (and why the fuck would they be on such a hot day), I can find all the fans and point them at me. Then the Man and I are going out to dinner, because he has a wedding to play at tomorrow (no fucking way am I going to a wedding), so he’ll be gone from 10:30 AM to probably 1 in the morning, maybe later. I, however, have to pick up some art from Liberty Station, get my brain and neck scanned (2nd brain scan in 6 months…fun times), and go to two art openings…that part is cool except they are miles away. It’ll be fine. It will ALL be fine. I’m hoping to have an hour or two between the MRIs and the art openings to grade stuff. Because I didn’t do it yesterday or today or the day before because it was too hot and I mentally couldn’t. But realistically, I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull that off. I’m also keeping an eyeball on my old kitty and this heat. She’s not a fan. She also HAS a fan…in my office, that I am keeping on at this point to try to cool this room off. She’s cranky as shit, keeps trying to bite me, but doesn’t have it in her. Because old. And hot. Poor thing. So we’ll see.

Wednesday night’s book club, I did a little stitching.

Still doing the inner borders of Homegrown. It’s not difficult, but it’s not fast. And I haven’t been doing a lot of it because school. Sucks up time.

OK. So yeah. Hot today but mostly gonna be inside. With kids who wear sweatshirts and sweatpants when it’s over 100 degrees out. Some of these kids are funny and kind and amusing and a little weird. As always. I feel like we have more of those this year, and I appreciate that. Some of them are not those things. And some suck up a lot of my energy. That was yesterday. So hopefully today is better. One can only hope. And then be pleased or disappointed. Or accepting. Because it’s like this every year, right? I also have to do some fluency/literacy thing. I recorded the kids reading, but I’m supposed to mark this form in some weird archaic way that makes sense if you were trained to teach kids to read, which I wasn’t. So it’s just more work for me. And kind of silly, really. But whatever. Looking forward to some art time and reading time (I wish I could read during an MRI…I wonder if they can put in my audiobook?). And just not being at school for a few days…although it is airconditioned. Hmmm.