I’ve Gotta Get Out of Here*

Seems like we can’t go two months without our current government giving us yet another reason to march so they actually see and hear our disapproval. I’m signed up for next Saturday’s Families Belong Together March here in San Diego. I don’t get it. I’ve been watching a discussion between high school friends on Facebook, with both Democrats and Republicans speaking out against separating kids from their families, with a few (straight up must be paranoid crazy) holdouts claiming this is what will keep them safe. Oh dear. Safe from? Shootings by white American men? Because trust me, I’m way more paranoid about white American men who own guns and can’t process their feelings than I am about refugee and immigrant families. The crazy that comes out of our government…these are human rights issues now, and we usually prefer to be on the side of protecting those.

At least we used to be. I don’t think we know what we are any more.

I need to go find Sessions’ phone number and make a call.

So it’s vacation. I see my teacher friends posting about turning alarm clocks off. I have built-in alarm clocks. They are small and furry and fucking intolerant of sleeping in. I think I got 6 hours…just like normal! Part of that was not feeling well last night and then not being able to fall asleep. Yes, I’m still grinding my teeth. I have too much on the to-do list already. July might actually be easier with no ability to plan anything. Maybe. Who knows. Right now, I’m still sleep-deprived, feel like I’m coming down with a cold, still have the leftover shingles vaccine rash, and don’t feel like thinking too hard today.

You know, there’s maybe 11 or 12 Sundays a year that I don’t have to worry about planning for the week, that I don’t have to write the parent email, that I don’t have to write warmups for the week and post them on Google Classroom. I regularly work 50-60 hours a week during the school year, sometimes more than that. I might get home at 4 (it’s actually pretty rare that it happens), but then I work at home…just an hour or two a night, that’s all…grading stuff or prepping for a future lesson. I don’t take sick days…it’s too hard to prep for them. I don’t schedule doctors’ appointments for a school day…I can’t just leave early without prepping for it. It’s more work than it’s worth. If I start to feel sick during the day, I work through it and come home and collapse. I don’t get to go out for lunch during the school year. If I forget food, I have a stash of popcorn and peanuts to get me through. Summer is our break from all that.

I worked Saturday and Sunday on stuff for next year, cleaning up calendars and folders for the school year that starts in August. Wednesday, I’ll be meeting to start putting the beginning of the school year together…or maybe the end, since we wanted to backwards plan the whole year.

My brain is not on vacation yet. It’s looking out at the pool, realizing not only do I need to trim and sweep around it, but I need to empty the filter and move all the composting piles. And I need to ship a box to Massachusetts and another to Seattle. Plus two appointments today. Plus figure out what to do about the car window that stopped working, go to school and rescue the food and milk in the fridge, come back and do more yardwork or housework or any of the other 17 things on the list. Find the deed to the house. Pack up a quilt. See that’s why the teeth are still grinding.

Saturday night movie watching…sleepy puppy, Where’s Waldo socks, and the last of those 96 damn Palestrina knot stems…

Yeah. I finished them. Finally.

Calli sleeps so cute.

I started trimming finally…

I didn’t get much done on Saturday night…maybe an hour or so…

I found this applique again. It’s ancient. It deserves to be finished. I pinned some stuff to it. Haven’t sewn anything on this in a million years. I used to think I could hand applique art quilts.

Takes way too long.

Interesting formation…

We owed the dogs a hike. It didn’t happen on Saturday because I was still too exhausted. I love these little tiny flowers…

Didn’t see any coyotes. No people either, which was fine. It was nice and cool and windy…

Very anti-summer.

I also love this bush, even though it’s invasive and nonnative.

Sunday night…I started the berry embellishment. There are six colors of berries and each one gets its own embellishment. I started with the red ones. 96 divided by 6 is 16. So I will do 16 like this. Approximately.

I started with the most complicated one. I’m also trying to do a little bit on the wool sewing for Folk Tails each night. Last night, I finished a tree and pinned a bunch more stuff on the September blocks…not that I photographed that. I figure if I just do one or two things a night, it will get done faster. I also borrowed some heavier sewing threads from my mom to test out…I have one Spargo quilt that is finished and has been sandwiched for quilting for like two years. I could probably quilt it fairly quickly, if I had the right thread. So I’m going to try these out and see if they give me the look I want. Then order the correct colors (or find them locally…they might carry them at those shops with all the machines that I never visit) and finish the damn thing. What a concept! I have another couple of quilts that are sandwiched that deserve finishing.

Then I cut more stuff out, for over two hours this time. Could not get the brain to shut up and chill out.

So it’s a bigger pile that’s done…but still a bunch left to do. Realistically probably won’t get back to trimming until after dinner tonight. I will try to do some, but there’s so much else to do. It’s cooler today than it’s supposed to be later this week, so I’d be smart to do a chunk of yardwork today.

OK. Well. So I need breakfast and a shower. And to get the stuff packed up to ship. Boychild is still in Seattle…he was going to leave today, but a request from his cousin to hang out until she gets back from the East Coast persuaded him to stay put for another week. So I have another week before I need to clear his bed. No problem. Part of that project includes finding 6 parts of a quilt that need to ship to Washington state. So I don’t have to do that until later this week. Some part of me just wants to go sit on a beach somewhere so I don’t have to look around here and see the to-do list in my face. Sigh. Vacation.

Probably I’ve used this post title before…

*Big Data, Dangerous

Pleasantly Caving In*

I woke up without a fever. That’s good. Knock on wood. I thought I was better yesterday afternoon, after walking over 5 miles in a bowling alley with my co-teachers, trying to keep kids from getting into trouble. I even went and bought dog food, but by the time I got home, that was it…I collapsed on the couch and slept for an hour. Didn’t even bring the dog food up from the car until later. This thing is kicking my butt. Sure they want an “increased immune response”. OK you got that. But I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to be THIS increased.

Today is the last day of school. Well, for the kids. We have to show up tomorrow…we have a meeting with our team and then we have to clean up our classrooms for checkout. For science, we have to clean up enough that the summer school teachers can’t destroy our stuff, which means finding cabinet space for everything and locking it all up, and in one case, using bike locks because the school locks don’t work. Plus changing the locks on the prep room so they can’t go in there. Sigh. This stuff is so annoying.

Then I had to shove every possible appointment into next week…every day is full of waiting rooms and paying money out. No paycheck in July, so I have to be careful. Normally I would spread it out more, but that’s not an option. The following week is 3 days of school stuff…it is stuff I chose to do, but a huge part of why I’m choosing it is that fact that I can’t get a raise for the next four years otherwise, due to how our district deals with years from out of district. My salary gets frozen essentially. So cost of living goes up every year no matter what, yeah? Sigh. So my choices are looking into National Board Certification and getting them to pay for it (easier than you might think, considering their thoughts on the frozen salary) or getting a PhD (not happening).

I’m hoping to get some rest and relaxation at some point. But my co-teacher and I will need some time to plan the beginning of the school year. We’ve done none of it. Just a lack of time and pure exhaustion, I think, have gotten in the way. I can’t even think straight about school right now. The team meeting tomorrow? I really wanted it to be closer to the beginning of school, when I might have brain power. But no. This job just sucks it out of you. We usually work 6 days a week, too many 10- and 12-hour days. We’re constantly mentally engaged with what next, reflection on the last thing, worry about this kid or that, figuring out how to do something, or just the nuts and bolts of grading things and presenting things. It’s one thing to come home every night and not have to work at all, versus having to work at home most days. It’s been so long since I just sat and drew.

So after an hour of complete physical collapse last night, I read a lot. I laid on the couch. I read and then I ate a bit and then I read some more. Pretty much all on the couch. I did some stitching for a little while…on the couch…

I have those three sets of stems to do and then one whole side left.

While I was reading, Simba decided I needed him lying on me to feel better. It worries the animals when I sleep during the day. They aren’t sure why, but they want to be involved.

I had these two earlier, but mostly because they both wanted pets…and the little one isn’t sure why the big one is getting petted when he’s not.

I can’t keep all of you happy. Only one hand is free for pets.

Anyway. I would love to come home tonight, still fever-free, feeling like I can get shit done. That would be lovely. This crap where I collapse and sleep for hours and feel like heated-up and boiling crap when I’m not sleeping? Yeah that can be done please. This is day 3 of vaccine reaction…I’m done now. Just move on. Go bug some other innocent bystander. I guess I have to hope that the second shot doesn’t do as much damage. Let’s hope I can finish putting everything away today and not kill my homeroom kids (the worst of them will not be here…but there are a couple more who are potentially an issue). Let’s hope the fever is gone for real. I’d be OK if the arm pain stopped too…

Because I have art to do.

*Queens of the Stone Age, No One Knows

Adult Some Shit

It’s the last week of school. I mostly finished grades on Saturday, after about 6 1/2 hours of plodding through the last bits of crazy leftover blah while on cold meds. My homeroom has one last assignment to get through in the first 30 minutes of class, before they have to hand over their Chromebooks. As part of today, I have to get their assignments in the gradebook by 2 (my prep is before that, hallelujah), entertain two periods without actually teaching them anything, be trained on how to take care of our health-challenged students (again), sit through a staff meeting (although it should be short), and go to the doctor to hear that stress and lack of sleep (oh sweet dear I wish I could sleep normally) are something I should stress and lose sleep over. Plus how she wants to change my meds to something that either dehydrates me or makes me pee all the time, neither of which work real well with my existence. The other thing she wanted last year was for me to get a shot once a month, another difficult task with my schedule the way it has been. I’m not sure why I thought life without kids would be slower or easier.

I’m doing it wrong. This week is not the week to analyze one’s life, though. This week is the one you survive and you come home and there’s nothing to grade so you can finish a book (hey that trick with putting the iPad in airplane mode worked! I finished the book yesterday even though it expired on Saturday night.) or finally feel like ironing stuff, except you’re sick and you’re tired and keep getting chills or hot flashes or some variety of both. So there’s that. I’ve scheduled about a million appointments for next week, avoiding Wednesday, in case curriculum committee meets then (which seems really unlikely at the moment), but none of them are early in the morning, because I really really need sleep. I went to bed early last night, but my brain wasn’t having it…between it and the dog barking at invisible invaders, there was no hope of a decent night’s snooze.

I did finish up a lot of things yesterday that needed to be done, though…that is always a positive feeling. Moved some stuff, tossed some out, packed some up…the stuff I have a hard time doing during the school year. There’s never enough time.

We watched a long movie over two evenings, and I stitched Palestrina-knot stems…

There are going to be 96 of them. I am more than halfway done with them. They’re not hard…I just have to think every time of what direction I’m stitching, so I can flip the quilt the right way. Simba is very helpful during this process.

I have two full sides done, one long, one short. I don’t think this thing is a square…

Then each ball needs stitching. We’re gonna be staring at this for a while. It would be nice to have it done…and in the to-be-quilted pile along with the last one. Maybe I should do some of that too. I remember what stopped me before was needing a thread that was thicker for the wool, so it wouldn’t sink down into it. I wanted the thread to show. I guess I could ask someone who machine-quilts wool.

I did finally make it into the studio for a short bout of ironing things. I’ve been avoiding it because I haven’t felt well enough to stand for long periods of time.

Stupid cold and chills and ugh. I ironed some thread, a pair of scissors, and a camera. Not a lot really. There’s still a huge pile of Wonder Under lying around. Maybe I’ll feel better tonight. If not, then I will just get a little done each night. It’s no rush at the moment.

In January, I did some embroidery on two blocks for this group…finally saw one of them show up in a quilt…bottom row, second from the left. I thought about outlining a gun on the right, but didn’t want to mess with the young artist’s idea.

I’m considering embroidering for them again. Not until my head is straight post-school. Usually takes about two weeks…about the amount of time I have until jury duty starts. Ugh. Can’t stitch at jury duty, unfortunately. No scissors, no needles.

Girlchild is working hard with no camera (water issues). Boychild sends pictures when he feels like it…which is when he sees cool things…like bison…

And these guys! I’ve never (that I remember) seen these in the wild…

But there they are, just by the side of the road.

So cool. I remember spending an entire 2-mile hike staring up into the hills as I walked, hoping I would see one. Makes me want to ditch the last 4 days of school and get in the car and just drive. OK, there’s a lot of things that make me want to ditch the last 4 days of school, honestly. But no, I am an adult and I adult things. I’m gonna go adult some shit right now.

Great Combination

What I’m supposed to be doing right now is finishing my grades for the 2017-2018 school year. You know, the last grades, the final hurrah, the penultimate (penultimate? Or ultimate? There’s some rule about that, but I can’t be bothered to think about it right now) the penultimate no goddammit, it IS ultimate, but I need a bigger better word for that…supreme? Eh. Anyway. It’s the last grades of the year. Until next September, when we do all this over again.

It’s OK…I’ll finish them eventually. But right now, I’m more obsessed with WordPress’ autosave thing not working and having to constantly tell me about its fucked-up self. Surely there’s a fix for that? IDK what…but annoying much guys? Yeah.

So I’m definitely sick now. Thought I beat it, but it’s back with a snotty vengeance. Plus sleep. Man I need sleep. I want a nap right now. But no. I am awake, it is the right time to be awake, I’ve had one cup of tea, I should be functional.

Yesterday, I made no art. I’d like to make some today, but who really knows if that will be possible. The book I’m trying to finish (and keep out of the hands of the e-library) is all I did yesterday and this morning. I’m a third of the way through it…but really, I need to be grading shit. Seriously…even this is a waste of time right now.

So. Artsy photo of one of my last lessons (nice font, eh?0…

Came home to Katie and a hummingbird…really need to get spot of dust out of phone. Damn Apple for refusing to do that (“we can replace the camera.” “the camera is new.” “oh. well. then. LIVE WITH DUST.”).

Katie has now gone on to live with my parents like normal. Good thing…the cats can freely wander again.

Boychild checked in from North Dakota. I didn’t know North Dakota could look like this.

I went to gaming and worked on a mamba…

Not the dance. While gaming. We’ve been meeting less often…too many other things going on in a variety of lives.

I got the mamba done…still need to do the wild dog.

I finished this block, although the instructions say something about some symbol near the hut, and it’s nowhere to be found in the instructions. Huh. Oh well.

That shit happens.

Anyway. Today, I’m expecting lots of staring at a computer (only two assignments left to grade, but then inputting a million things and finalizing the other shit)…maybe some hand embroidery while watching a movie…not sure if I’ll be able to handle anything else…it all depends on how long all the finalizing the other shit takes. But then I’ll be done with that until next school year, which is always a lovely feeling. The last 4 days of school still suck, because now you don’t even have grades to hold over their heads, but at least I’ll be able to come home each day and just chill. Mostly.

Until then…grades. Snotty nose. Spacey head. Great combination.

I Don’t Ever Wanna Feel Like I Did That Day*

Yeah, I’m up early. I was already awake…trying to remind myself in my sleep to wear my anti-gun-violence T-shirt today for Columbine. Things we remember: Reagan being shot, Columbine, 9/11. Fun stuff. Right eye is twitching. Yesterday was calmer. Today will be frenetic, because things are due to the teacher and you didn’t tell us! I did. You aren’t giving us enough time! Yes I am. Next week will be a little more chill. But we’ll be talking about what war does to a country, to a national park, to be specific, and that’s walking a fine line sometimes. Too many of my students have direct experience with guns and bombs falling. I think about that and I’m glad I grew up in sunny Southern California, where the only guns are in the workplace and at school. Whoops! No seriously, my growing-up time was also pretty chill. Same stupid drama you always see in middle and high school, but also dances and parades and homework and ditching school and dressing up for Halloween and all that stuff. No war, except the cold one. No weapons, except the nuclear ones.

The quilt I’m working on now isn’t about guns or even women’s rights or climate change or anything else political. It’s personal. I need a little mental space to work on it…it’s easier to see each piece as this particular shape than to try to tag it on social media with what’s important. What’s important? Across the board, how we treat people. All people…whether we’re trying to work with them in a group or teach them or love them or be with them or just stand in line with them in the grocery store. Or like that guy who was trying to drive up my ass the other day because he wanted to pass the truck in the other lane and he was in the wrong lane and I wasn’t going fast enough for him, so all I could see was the grill of his pickup truck and his middle finger thrusting at me in my rearview mirror. Really? I was doing 67 mph in an only lane that was exiting that freeway. Not fast enough. I wonder about his life that he thought that was an appropriate move. I hate that those guys sit in my chest and make all the feels.

I graded more yesterday. I’m trying to get caught up. It’s frustrating though, because then some kid emails me, completely confused about what I graded, but he never turned it in. So that’s a zero, sweetheart. I can’t (won’t) grade what you don’t turn in.

I had quilt class last night, which is just the two of us most times now…which is fine. I didn’t want to haul all the stuff to trace Wonder Under, so I just took the box of things that need sewing down. I forgot half my thread, but this is my quilt teacher, so she has that stuff. We like never run out of thread…the spools last seven thousand years when you’re doing applique…it’s such short strands. Even all the bindings I’ve sewn down…I think only the black and the dark blue thread are anywhere near empty…and they’re still NOT empty. When I die, it will be spools of thread and art exhibit announcements…and the FABRIC that drive my children bonkers. I’m OK with that. Maybe by then, I’ll be a mural painter and it will be my spray paint collection in the garage instead.

I got the lion’s body down, the two rectangles in the background, the body of whatever that gray animal is, and now I’m working on the tree. Still lots to do. Not even sure where the wool thread is for that blue hut.

This is Mind the Gap, a show I will never see in person, unfortunately, due to the stupid hours. It closes today, I think…pick up is next week. Good friends drive down and photograph the show for you. Mine is on the right…there’s more pictures, but I didn’t have the energy to download them all yesterday. I partnered with James Watts, whose kokeshi doll is being stared down by my angry earth mother.

I’ll post more later for that. I swear.

Then after dinner and grades, I started tracing the new quilt. At 1000 pieces (and it’s 1001…I just found one I missed), it’s going to be a while…

There are some big rug pieces in there that take up lots of space on the first yard of Wonder Under. There are three figures on this quilt…so there will be lots of flesh tones. The fireplace is gray stone. Something to think about. The background will have two colors: floor and wall. How will I get the contrast I usually love? Well I need to consider that. Red wall? Dark brown wood floor? Dark gray stones in the fireplace? We’ll see. Complicated for sure. It’ll be at least 10 hours of tracing, probably more like 12. So I won’t be done with that until the end of next week probably. Good to have goals.

Time is tight. 39 days. Will I be making the other one also? What…am I nuts? Sigh. Yes. Yes I am. It may not be possible. I may have to reconsider. I may have to work harder.

This was at school. I have no idea why.

Early meeting today. Long day today. But there’s a weekend and that’s a good thing.

*Red Hot Chili Peppers, Under the Bridge

For a Minute There I Lost Myself*

Most common nights that teachers don’t sleep: (1) The day before school starts in August (or September, if you’re on that track). (2) Sunday nights. I don’t even know why. I totally tried to shut my brain down. It just didn’t work. I was talking to the girlchild right before, but I also was just glad to hear from her (earlier that day)…the no-internet week was difficult. Meanwhile, boychild is sending me pictures of lost weather balloons (REAL ones, not the Roswell kind of weather balloons).

Some weekends just aren’t long enough.

Yes, I spent most of Saturday in a car. Then talked about my work and all the other quilters’ work (because I was the token quilter there). Then we took all the work down and shoved a bunch of it in my car and drove back. Woo hoo! Ugh. Sunday was like it always is…do some work, clean up, do some yard work, grocery store, prep some food, hopefully get to some art. And the art started early, because I had graded all the makeup work and couldn’t handle anything else. There have to be days of the week when you don’t work. And I already had.

I have my post-dinner routine that will get this quilt done…we finish watching whatever not-quite-an-hour-long show it is and then I sew more balls on until the show is done. I’m on the last thread color…I think. I missed one pink one and some of the red ones seem darker, but let’s just say I’m close to done with sewing them down. Then I need to embellish them.

I was actually looking up how to quilt wool last night, because the quilt BEFORE the birds has been pinbasted for a million years. I feel like it needs a heavier thread than what I usually use, but the woman I watched on YouTube used a thinner thread. So now I don’t know.

Anyway, so I am trying to get the other one done too…I guess this is number 3. I have all the wool cut out for September and October, but nowhere to put it. So I pieced September to one of the first blocks I embellished…

And then pinned down the beginnings of stuff.

I think the whole thing gets sewn together after that, which is a little scary. Don’t worry…it’ll be a while. I have a ton of embellishment left to do on the other piece that traveled with us throughout the Southwest. I didn’t get much done.

This was because the boychild needs to come home after college and may well be driving.

I was just curious. It’s about how far we drove over Spring Break. But with no help. Long way.

Then I started drawing…it was easier last night. I added an octopus and a jellyfish. So much for keeping it simple.

Then Christmas lights, of course…and the requisite bones.

Stardard fare…some ribs, a uterus, the inevitable iPhone, some stuff from the past, and gingko leaves.

Her hair on the right side…haven’t decided the left side yet. There’s more to add in there.

This might be a little crazy.

Found the other drawing I was considering for the time theme. This is good. It’s almost done, as far as the two figures are concerned…

There’s a third figure I need to draw…but I need to add paper to do that. I think I’ll try to do that tonight, because this deadline is earlier than the other. Honestly, I’m not sure I can finish both. So there’s that. Never let that stop me yet though.

Wow. This is a tired way to start a week. Ugh. Oh well. Must go on.

*Radiohead, Karma Police

Crawling in My Skin*

First day back to school after two weeks went just about how you would expect. Some kids still asleep. Some kids obviously got no attention for days and were so excited to be back where there were lots of people. And all the teachers. Well, we’re here. State testing is coming up…it’s when you look at the group of kids you personally will be testing with for four days and wonder how you will keep them going. I rely on cheese and crackers and juice boxes personally. Plus a lot of coloring pages. One year, I had a lot of small plastic animals that I gave out. Whatever works.

It did mean that I came home (after dropping my car at the car guy’s place, because although the check engine light had been on since Petrified Forest, it went off yesterday morning…it’s OK, it was back on by the afternoon) and I collapsed. Well. I didn’t. I played with dogs and petted needy cats and cooked dinner and THEN I collapsed. Eventually, and honestly, it took a long while, I got off my butt and did stuff. Sometimes I think knowing I will have to write the next day and own what I did (or didn’t) do is what gets me moving…which is fine. Motivation is motivation.

We started a new unit yesterday, so I drew…although honestly, I was kind of haphazard about it…

It’s done. That’s all that matters.

When I got home, there was a lovely package from Beth, thanking me for sending her all my trashy bits from the last three quilts…these will be beautiful in my flesh stash…very subtle and wonderful texture…

In my mail was this…which I finally opened…

And saw my quilt! If you want to hear me talk about this, it’s this Saturday at 2 PM at the Branch Gallery in Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, the show is closing this Saturday, not continuing into May. Long stupid story on that one. The quilt to the left is Charlotte Bird’s…

Part of my couch collapse still involves trying to sew all 96 balls on this thing. I don’t feel too bad, though, because I just saw someone posting that they had just finished this. It’s not just me!

I’m working my way around, one color at a time. I think I have 2 1/2 colors left, not that it means anything, because I can’t remember how many colors there were in the beginning…6 or 7? I just don’t know. It’s an endless twisting around, seeing if there’s another one that’s the same color (and some of them are pretty damn similar, if you ask me). And then I get to embellish all 96 of them. We could be here for a while.

Then sitting around on the couch, staring at stupid memes and crappy news until that drove me off the couch. I have two deadlines in June…I tried drawing for one of them Sunday night, and it’s not coming together. I have another drawing started that might work for that…but that meant pulling stuff off the piano (of course…don’t you keep all your half-done drawings on your piano?), and I wasn’t in the mood. So I picked the one that has to be an exact size and cut a piece of paper for that. I stared at it for a long time. And then started sketching in the shape of a body…you can clearly see that here.

Or not. I don’t always use pencil, but when I do, it usually requires a lot of erasing and redrawing. Honestly, it’s hard to fit something into a shape this long and narrow without a lot of erasing and redrawing. Luckily, at some point, I decided everything from the knees down was good enough. I’m not done with this section, but I have a solid start.

I’ve been trying those white-out things that have the strip you sort of swipe on the ink. I like it because it’s not bumpy, but it doesn’t do well in this situation. It’s coming up too easily…not sticking to the paper in a decisive manner. Ugh. Back to the liquid stuff? Maybe.

Anyway, expect to see this drawing for a while. I sit there telling myself to keep it simple (ironic…the bones aren’t even in there yet), and then I give them fingernails. Tiny little fingernails. Totally unnecessary fingernails. Ah well. I’m sure there’s a good reason for that. Things I draw automatically…fingernails…kneecaps…uteri.

Meanwhile, did I grade anything yesterday? Nope. Not really. Oh well. OK, gotta go to school again. Although all I really wanna do is work on that drawing. That’s good actually…it means it’s starting to talk to me. So that in itself will drag me off the couch, even if I’m tired.

*Linkin Park, Crawling

I’m Back…Physically…

Hi. I’ve been gone a while. Well. I’m back. Not READY to be back, but what’s new, right? Still need to clean out and patch the tent, but the sleeping bags have been aired out and packed up, the man’s head has been shaved, and very little grading is done. In fact, yesterday, while I’m trying to sit out on the deck in the lovely (not windy) weather, ready (sort of) to power through some grading, the app that we use to sign in to all our other apps decided I didn’t exist…

OK then. I still needed to grade. Luckily my phone and iPad still let me in to the app I needed, but it was slow and fussy, so I didn’t get much done. Oh well! This was the view…

No gusty winds, no 10% humidity or less…sleeping in my own bed. All good. Travel is nice, but it’s also nice to be home.

I have a drawing in my head. This isn’t it. This is the drawing I did to remind me that what’s in my head is better. It may take me a while to get there.

This is the pile of science units that I did manage to grade over break…so that’s not a small amount.

But there’s still a ton sitting around here that needs doing.

I worked on this on the trip…got all the wool bits sewed on. It actually took a lot longer than I thought I would to do that.

And that hut is significantly crooked. But I’m OK with that.

Mostly I worked on those two not-so-crooked huts and the warthog, who just needs his tail finished.

The instructions were like “use the instructions from January to complete this stuff” and I didn’t bring those. I couldn’t figure the flowers out, but for the baby warthog, I just looked at his parents and figured him out. So I didn’t get much done.

I did drive about 2500 miles though and went to a bunch of cool places, which will pop up in posts over the next few weeks, because it will take me forever to find all the photos.

But today, I go back to school…I just spent 20 minutes actually talking to the girlchild in Madagascar, so that was cool. Nice to hear her voice. And now off to work. Hopefully my brain will follow.

The Weight of the Things That Remained Unspoken*

OK. So I have multiple to-do lists and to-take lists and I keep crossing stuff off but I’m still stressed. Boychild left on a week-long hike today for his Spring Break. Tomorrow, girlchild leaves for her independent study project, so we may not hear from her for a while. I have not finished anything for school. ANYTHING. Whatever. It will still be there when I get back. And today I’ve been to two grocery stores, the UPS place, my photographer’s, the gas station, Target, and I tried to deal with the two car issues, but one is something that needs ordering, and for some reason, my tire place is closed. Do they close for Good Friday? Not clear. OK. It’s all right. It’s just a faulty sensor. It’s not the end of the world. Nothing really is the end of the world.

I finished the quilt, I entered the show. I have no quilts in my head right now (not entirely true) that have to be done. I can draw with wild abandon. Like I don’t do that anyway.

Here’s Birthing the Gender War…

I think she’s one in a series…because there are more genders, and honestly, I’m at a point where I believe we should start over on the gender stuff. Just dump our preconceptions and argue for fluidity. Not sure how I’m gonna draw that, but give me time.

Kitten enjoying our Spring weather…

I tested our new air mattress…hopefully no backaches this trip. Calli approved.

She would have approved more if I let her on it.

Simba just wanted love. Poor dogs have gotten no attention this week.

So one thing I want to take with me is this…for embellishment. I have the top block on the right and the two blocks before it that are barely embellished…

But then I added the July blocks in the row below…I’m still trying to sew all the wooly bits down…

And then the last row is for August. Even more things to stitch down before I leave.

Realistically, I’m not going to get all those on there. Then again, I’m going to a show tonight that is supposed to only be an hour of playing, but it looks like I might be there for setup before. I can sit out on the deck there and do this, right? No one will mind? Yeah, it’s somebody’s house, but I sorta know him. Considering this…

So I shipped two quilts out today, one for a show and one commission.

We have piles everywhere of stuff for camping etc. I finally got my clothes packed this afternoon…I was kind of freaking out. The temperature ranges we’re dealing with are kind of drastic.

No snow, though…not like the boychild.

Here’s the girlchild with her Madagascarian troupe (well part of them anyway).

They all separate into their ISPs now for 3 or 4 weeks before they get together again at the end. I think she made an awesome choice on this trip…still worry about her constantly (and the boychild too…he’s hiking by himself, of course. Sigh.). And I miss both of them. Apparently the girlchild’s housekeeper/nanny/cook gave her a gift for mamanao, which translates to Your Mom. Wow. OK. That’s so cool. I can’t even really send anything back. I guess I sent her my kid. But sweet Gina, thank you…for feeding her and washing her clothes (and all the stuff I don’t do for her!). I appreciate it.

Anyway, I need some down time and I’m going to enjoy it, even when there’s no showers and we’re being stalked by herds of javelinas and coatimundi…I can stitch, draw, read, and hike. It’s all good.

*Maroon 5, Won’t Go Home Without You

I Work ‘Til I Ache My Bones*

Well I finished the quilt. On time. It’s at the photographer. I’ll enter the show tomorrow, before I leave…well before the deadline. Mostly because the deadline is while I’m gone. It’s weird, though…I’ve been head down, finishing stuff, for months now…and now I don’t know what I’m doing next. There’s some deadlines, but I think they’re all in June. So yes, I need to work on them, but I need to draw some stuff and decide priorities first. I have other quilts I could start, drawings that are already numbered and ready to go, but I need to spend some time staring at deadlines before I make that decision.

I honestly thought yesterday’s finish would be a piece of cake, that I’d be done by dinnertime. Ah ha ha ha. Yeah. Right. I got up and trimmed the quilt, and then went through my stash, trying to figure out if I had something that would work for the binding. Nope. Nothing.

Simba was barking all morning at bugs and birds…or whatever other ghosts he sees in the driveway…

I found a cat sleeping on all the stuff I haven’t graded for the last 5 days. Smart move.

Somewhere around then, I made the trip to the fabric store and bought some fabrics that might work for the binding. Two older ladies commented positively on my choice of colors, and the woman who cut my fabric recognized my name on the credit card and asked to see it (I think she was not really happy with the image). Weird that. Then I came back and realized I needed to wash the fabric, so I started that. Then I have three quilts that have to go out this week, so I put labels on two of them and then realized to ship, NOW WAS THE TIME to finally give in and buy pool noodles. So I did that. Exciting stuff. I had already bought boxes on the way to the fabric store…

So I packed up the quilt I needed to deliver to my mom, so she can deliver it for me next week. I did that and then came back to the binding. The stuff in the middle was because I liked it. The two binding choices are on either side. Those older ladies in the quilt store were asking me what I was looking for…I said, “the one that makes sense.” Turns out that was the one on the left.

So yeah, not a blending binding. I got it all sewn on and then made dinner, and then proceeded to poke many holes in my finger, because I was too lazy to get up and find the pads a friend gave me to stop that shit.

I finished the binding at 11:30 PM. Pretty good. Not before dinner, but still on Wednesday.

Then this morning, I started thinking about the trip necessities…they don’t make my sunscreen anymore (I’m allergic to most of them)…so that will be interesting.

Yes. Jellybeans are a necessity. I won’t eat the white or black ones though. They’re gross.

I also need to get this stitched down so I can take it with me for embellishment.

Plus I think I’m supposed to stitch it all to something else, which I should do before I deliver my sewing machine for service later today. I timed all this kinda crazy. As usual.

So what do I do today? Grade Shit. Lots of it. Packing. Organizing. Delivering. Packing up two more quilts to ship tomorrow. One still needs a label. Probably a million other things to do that I haven’t even thought of yet. Seriously consider what art is gonna be made next. That might be the most important task of the day.

*Queen, Somebody to Love