Fold All the Laundry I Didn’t Fold

Mmmm. No class today. Well. I say that and I signed up for a different kind of pilates class, just because I wanted to try it out and that shit’s harder to do during the school year. But I like pilates and it’s actually an exercise class, which is good for me. No more literacy class this week…I did learn some things, but more remembered that we need to do more to boost reading, and that takes time, and time is something we may not have a lot of, so there’s that. But with two+ teams doing it all together, hopefully we can make some progress with the kids. Here was my setup on the last day, with everything back in the purple bag, which will go to school, plus the stitching I did to help me focus.

I put away all the highlighters and pens and post-its. Now I officially don’t have to think about school until…the next crazy email comes from that one teacher who apparently has nothing to do over break, no books to read, no relaxing beaches to lie on (I don’t really do that anyway), no giant-ass drawings to finish. Oh wait, that one’s me. I’m hoping to finish the drawing today. In between pilates, laundry, cleaning, moving gravel (got a whole ‘nother pile of it that needs moving), keeping the pup from licking his shaved foot (he had a dental cleaning on Friday and is notoriously bad about licking a sore into shaved areas)…all the things. It’s supposed to be hot all week, so that will be (not) fun. Not sure what my plan is for that. The boychild is home but going to training all day and then leaves again on Friday for his regular shift. Exhausting. I guess I work all week, but not like that. Gotta take days off…he had yesterday off. At least he has the pup in bed at night, so I have some chance of a decent night’s sleep.

No one seems inclined to dust or vacuum or mop…even me, it seems. Oh! I also need to copyedit. I put my editing service back into vacation mode, declined all the other offers I’d gotten, so I’m down to the one. That’s the one I can handle. I have two weeks to do it, and it’s not very big, but I should actually start. Yeah. This afternoon. I will.

So the drawing. The drawing has progressed. My Art Brain has been engaged, now that it doesn’t have to think about Latin roots and spelling rules. And pretend teaching those. So Friday night, I drew the swamp. It was in my notes…and I’m realizing, I need to write a post that just documents all the stuff I took notes about and was thinking while I was drawing, because it may not be so so obvious from just looking at it. But here’s the swamp…

I hid a Swamp Thing in it.

Then what did I do next? Oh yeah, started working on the pedestals under the swamp justices.

Finished those last night…

So Gorsuch is all corporation instead of individual, so he is standing on individual people, who are sort of compressed by him. Alito has had some issues with a fishing trip and possibly some other money-related things, so he has the fish and the money. Roberts is a mess, with money clouding any decision he makes. He also seems to make decisions completely against his own race…he seems race-blind to me, or maybe if he does that, that’s how he gets the money. So I added a few chained slaves to his pedestal, because I’m not sure he remembers…I would like the Court to have more people of color, all colors, to make the decisions more diverse, more pro those groups who need support. I don’t think he does that. Kavanaugh likes beer. He also has some sexual issues of harassment in the past that popped up (ha!) before his confirmation, but it’s OK, because boys will be boys, right? Sigh. Let’s not use that as an excuse for bad behavior. Please. Amy. Oh Amy. Coney Barrett has People of Praise behind her. She claims she speaks for all people, that her religion doesn’t shape her decisions, but like the other swamp judges, I don’t find her trustworthy. Religion is fine unless it’s making decisions for a bunch of people who don’t subscribe to that religion…and reproductive freedom is something all five of these judges have voted against. Four of them have penises, so they have no right dealing with a uterus…and the other one thinks LGTBQ marriages are a sin. So should she be in the Court? Nah. I don’t think so…not representing the people and not interpreting the law appropriately for ALL the people.

So why is Roberts on the other side? Well, it was getting crowded on that side and occasionally he votes like a sane person. OCCASIONALLY. He’s also skating on a slippery slope. He has the key to the Court (being the Big Guy, the one in charge). I still think he’s pretty swampy, but…so I’m probably going to have to copy some of this into a Court post. I’ll do that. And go back and explain some of the other decisions I made. You may not agree. I’m OK with that. Unless you think we shouldn’t have rights, like all of us, then I’m not OK with it. Feel free to limit your own rights. Then get out of my face.

I’m still working on the left side. Literally and figuratively. But I need to go to class, so I’ll be back. You won’t even notice.

So the other thing we did on Saturday, which was a little nuts, was drive up to Los Angeles. I had an opening in Torrance (which wouldn’t have been as bad), but there was a show in LA that I wanted to see that closes in a couple of weeks, Faith Ringgold: A Survey, at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in LA.

I know I have Faith’s Tar Beach book somewhere in the house. I loved her people flying in the sky at night. In looking at her website, I might need to buy more books.

I also love her mix of paintings with quilts. Although here is one of her prints, also very cool.

The handwritten words on this one…

Very powerful seeing her work in person.

Strangely, the same gallery had some work by one of my university painting instructors, Judy Baca. She has created some fairly awesome murals in Los Angeles over the years.

Honestly, although her art and achievements are impressive, she was (for me) not the most present professor. The rumor was that she was working on a mural in Los Angeles the semester I had her, so the teacher’s aide ran (ha! he did nothing) the class, and then she would show up maybe once a month and berate many of us. I have some serious painting PTSD from her class. Maybe not all artists should teach art? I don’t know…your mileage may vary. Maybe it was a bad year for her. I just didn’t really paint after that class. I still don’t think I CAN paint. That said, a lot of the art classes at UCIrvine were just show up, get an assignment, and go make something that meets it. There was very little technical instruction. We were often just left to our own devices…so there’s pros and cons to that. I do appreciate the time to mess around and fuck with stuff, but sometimes, a little more technical know-how might have been useful (exploded my ceramics final in the kiln, which I don’t actually think was MY fault, but I made do…glued all the parts to a plywood board…most were whole and the ones that weren’t, I glued the pieces and then the shards and quickly rewrote my statement). Sometimes I think I’d really like to go back to art school now just with a stronger, more confident state of mind, but then my adult brain slaps my face and says NO NO NO, we are NOT getting another degree. But maybe more art classes would be fun.

Also in the Deitch gallery was Karon Davis: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, which was very powerful. I didn’t photograph the whole thing, because I couldn’t figure out an angle that showed how large and dominating the judge and flag were in the face of this figure of Bobby Seale during the Chicago 8 trial.

Whitewashed. Beautifully painful work.

I had been scrolling through Instagram the day before we left (like you do when you are supposed to be listening to someone talk about teaching vocabulary) and saw an artist whose work I love post that her stuff was in a show in LA…hey, I’m going to LA…I could stop by if it’s close. It was close to the other gallery, and on the way back to the museum in Torrance, so we headed for a small gallery, the Seis Gallery. The show was called The Horror…

And included two pieces by Svetlana Shigroff. This is Sim-Ya…

And this is Refusal of Man…

I took a tufting class from her before COVID, and it was fun, but crazy lots of work. I say that knowing full well my stuff is also a crazy lot of work…it’s just what do we want to do more of. Anyway, it was cool to have a chance to see more of her stuff in person.

Straight up, traffic going to LA was horrible. It was a long day. We saw good art, but were exhausted by the end of it.

I have another LA opening coming up in September. Makes you think about driving to these things. We spent over 10 hours going up, going to three shows, eating dinner, and coming back. And we were exhausted the next day too.

So the Torrance Art Museum had two shows, one of which I was in (hence the original reason for all this). Art and Med, curated by Ted Meyer…

Here’s a video of the whole thing…

I did take a few photos, but was mostly (as always) overwhelmed. Plus I forgot how to smile, so a lot of the photos of me look psychotic. A good look for the summer. But here’s my piece, Here Comes Life…

And here’s Bhavna Mehta’s beautiful piece, I Found a River in My Body #3…

With a detail of her embroidery…

The other show in the museum is Body Politics…

Which also had some beautiful work…Liz Young’s Skinning Spilling Soiling Swelling Stuffing Balls.

I did Google this one because I wanted to know more about the thoughts behind the piece. I really liked that the Art and Med show had explanations with the art, and I can see the point of having the art stand alone, but…I don’t know. There must be a fine line there.

This was Bather (after Ingres) by Katherine Sherwood.

Sherwood makes a lot of work highlighting disabilities, having had a cerebral hemorrhage and having to relearn the process of making art with her other hand. Her work was wonderful, incorporating brain scans into the paintings.

I’ll try to post more art from these two shows later this week. I know this post is already LOOOONG…all in all, though, a good art day. Though tiring. Says Nova.

Also here is my brain at the moment.

Or always. Not sure.

Friday night, we also found this in the yard.

It has flashing red lights, presumably so it can be found easily, but it made me think it might be a drone, so I left it there. Like I’m not bringing that crazy shit in the house. The Man stomped out there and then left it on the deck after talking to it, also thinking it might be a drone. But it doesn’t seem to have a motor. Just flashing lights, which can be turned off. You might think, just throw it back into the yard it came from. Well, we have kids on all three sides, so it could be any of those houses. So IDK what to do with it. I might text the houses above and below me, and if they don’t claim it, toss it over the back fence. Seems like a lot of work.

Oh yeah, forgot this psycho. Annie. Sweet pup. Has scratched the hell out of my arms. Still love her.

OK. Laundry is going (fixed dryer yay!). I need to eat lunch. I need to fold all the laundry I didn’t fold. I need a long-term solution to my clothing during the school year…not sure what that looks like, but the piles I currently have are not working. I need to finish that drawing and do some copyediting. It’s supposed to be hot all week, so honestly, the drawing part of the house is hot as hell for a goodly chunk of the day, although better after noon. The office part is cooler in the morning, as long as there’s a breeze. And honestly, I’m still on break. So there should be some reading and maybe a nap. I took a timed nap yesterday and Friday and I am pro. It’s still July. I’m still on summer time.

Slow Draw

Six minutes. No way am I getting this written in six minutes. OK. Loaded pictures. Write when I can. Last day of training today…will be glad to be done, but I’m going right into copyediting. My choice, I know. Gotta pay for the dryer fix, which I think finally happened last night…hopefully.

Still drawing. Over 10 hours into just the drawing…

There are some things happening below.. I just haven’t drawn (and in some cases, thought of) it yet. It’s a slow draw.

Kitten is entirely unhelpful. Luckily it’s warm enough that she won’t stick around. I’m also watching a class online.

Finally got the last justice drawn and the bottom of the main legs, then started with the pedestals.

I usually draw fast enough that people don’t have time to tell me what they think I should be doing…not so much with this one. So lots of people telling me things and I know I don’t react well to that. When my daughter tells me she doesn’t like to be told what to do…and I know where she gets it from.

I have an opening tomorrow evening in the LA area. We’ll be driving up and going to one or two other exhibits and then the opening.

My piece in the show is about childbirth.

Looking forward to the opening.

I’ve continued to stitch while in the training. I really don’t focus or concentrate without that. Maybe I should teach my kids to stitch. I suspect that would cause more issues than it solves. Interesting idea though. Computer, stitching stuff, class stuff.

Same desk, yesterday, zoomed out so you can see the drawer being used as a desk on the left, plus stitching stuff on the right. It’s been crowded but it works. The light table is behind me with more class books and stitching stuff on it.

After class, I’ve been trying to finish spreading gravel back here. I was doing this early last year but then the septic fix happened and they dumped a bunch of dirt over some of it. Yes, it’s taken me forever to get to this. I also have gravel for a path that the boychild was going to help with…or not. It’s hot, sweaty work so I can’t do it for long in summer, but I’d like to get the rock piles out of the front yard.

When I’m done in the corner, Nova takes over.

She’s got that highlighter fully under control.

This is so true, especially during this training. I don’t get enough steps in during summer. Hot doesn’t help.

I had my last physical therapy appointment yesterday…he’s recommending I see a musculoskeletal specialist and get an MRI. Finally…it’s been since mid-November. Simba is getting his teeth cleaned, so it’s not going to be a fun day for him. I’ll be moving more gravel, stitching more stuff down, and drawing more. I need to test the dryer and get the pool to stop making that noise. I also need to start copyediting, write a bid for another job, and decline a third one. And then start prepping science calendars for the upcoming school year. It’s ok…I’ve got 19 days of summer left. It never feels like enough, and I certainly don’t feel like I’ve gotten enough done… but that happens every year and I just need to accept it. Until then, there are a lot of books to read and a lot of art to make.

Fight a Raccoon…

Hey guys, I just won a power tool set! As long as I send all my bank information to this janky email address! On it!

Summary of week so far: It’s hot, but it could be hotter. This drawing is slow, but it could be slower. This training has some things that are potentially helpful, but also a lot of it needs to happen in English class or Advisory. The science part can be beefed up to support the program. But it’s nothing new…we just haven’t focused explicitly on it before. We’ve tried many ways of teaching vocabulary, but we’ve never been particularly successful. Probably because our kids are such low readers…so we need to do something about that. Training though? In the summer? Always hard. We’re not even halfway through. Pros: Dad was sick and is better now, and boychild is back from wherever for about 36 hours, so Simba can get his boyfix. And I don’t have to sleep with Simba for two nights. A plus.

I’m not finishing this post before class starts. I’ll be back. You won’t even notice…well except that the post is late, for me.

Or if I totally forget that I haven’t finished this…which is what happened.

So I’ve been drawing all week. An hour here or there, mostly at night after dinner, when it’s cooler. I’m in class from 7-2:30 and then it’s hot and I’m tired, plus I’ve had an hour of reading to do each day after that. But it’s coming along. Although I didn’t start inking until Monday night…

I lied. I started Sunday night, and then as I was falling asleep, figured Ruth Bader Ginsburg needed wings, so I added the post-it for that. Some people are suggesting a halo…I’ll think about it. Not sure how I feel about haloes. There are issues with angels, angelic behavior meaning one thing vs when you look at actual stories of angels in literature…a troubling thing to think about.

Monday night, I added the wings and two of the justices…

It was slow. I also did some more pencil work, trying to figure out what might happen where. I’m adding things as I ink, so there’s some staring into space happening.

I did better last night…

I went to the gym in the afternoon, exercised, read a lot, got my head in a better place, and the things came easier. How to picture this or that. There’s a lot of this drawing that doesn’t exist in my head yet. Tonight will probably be the justices on the other side. We’ll see. There’s some confusion over there too. This is 8 hours of drawing so far. Not done yet.

Monday, I drew a little during class and then found that stitching stuff down lent itself to being able to listen and think and even take notes but not fall asleep.

Here’s the drawing…

Nova took over the space at night on Gecko Watch…

(There is no gecko in that picture)

Right now, I’m trying to type this with Kitten’s butt in the way. Annoying furry beasts.

Mr. Sad before the boy came home and cuddled him.

And then Kitten decided she needed to bring me red fabric…

She makes this strange yowling sound when she brings me fabric. I do then have to put it all away later.

I’m reading two books at a time. Because I can. This one is Margaret Atwood’s collection of short stories, Babes in the Wood. I liked how Orwell referred to us living folks.

I need that to be a quilt title at some point.

And this might be me at the moment, minus the getting drunk.

I can fight a raccoon any time.

I’m tired. I have 2 1/2 more hours of training today. I have a copyediting job, but they haven’t given me the files yet. I have another hourlong chapter to read. I might need a nap. Who knows. Oh yeah, pilates. And drawing. Still. Lots of drawing.

Backup Tea…

There were all these things I was waiting for info about on Friday and absolutely NONE of them were solved on Friday (of course), but they all came in by this morning. Ugh. I know I sign up for some of this, but then I second-guess myself, and now I will be dealing with it. Also, this is like school schedule, except a little tighter. I like a leisurely morning of shower, feed all the animals, eat and wake up, drink the tea, then drive to work and function. Well this week, it’s that, minus the drive to work. And I don’t really want to wake up an hour earlier to give my brain time, because that feels even more awful, so I’m going to do professional development on very little sleep and probably a lot of tea. Although it’s unknown if I am allowed to get up from my chair and MAKE tea or, possibly more importantly, pee, so I may not have more tea, unless it magically appears. That would be a useful superpower, y’all.

So I have 11, no 10 minutes, to finish this, my breakfast, taking my meds, making a backup cup of tea? Is that a thing? It could be a thing.

I’ve been drawing…it was going slowly and then Art Brain kinda kicked in yesterday. On Saturday night, I had a bunch of penciled-in stuff…

Basically, I did a bunch of Supreme Court Justice research the night before and then started drawing their faces. Didn’t finish. Faces are hard.

And what to do UNDER their faces is also hard. But at some point on Sunday, things started to solidify…

Sometimes drawing is easy. Sometimes it’s a slog. It’s been a lot of slog. You can see on the right side that there is still some thinking happening. There’s pedestals with just words and nothing else. It’s OK…the brain is processing.

Ugh. I don’t think I can finish this before I need to be in my Zoom class. I get a 15-minute break at some point…hopefully I can pee outside of those breaks? Things teachers constantly have to think about. Sigh. Although my mailperson the other day needed to pee really really bad as she was getting postage due from me. So there’s that. OK, back in a while, not that you’ll notice.

Yeah. Ugh. Not awake. Listened to a lot of talking. It’s hot in that part of the house, where the internet is consistent. In here is not so bad. Ten degrees cooler. This was my workspace yesterday.

Today there is a computer there.

Nova likes UNDER.

My new workspace bookshelf for stacking shit. My whole house is a repository for stacking shit.

Reading Margaret Atwood short stories…this is about pre-cellphone times.

“Space-time is denser.” True that. OK, so gotta go back to the computer for another two hours before I’m allowed a longer break. Fun stuff. Still need to find a rubberband. They didn’t tell me I’d need a rubberband.

It’s a Dream

Made it to Seattle, where it’s a different level of chaos for a few days. Lots of family interactions, which is alternately nice and overwhelming. I stayed up late last night just to read for a while…I think this last school year, or at least since January, reading every day has allowed my brain to rest, to stabilize. This explains the number of books I’ve been able to bang through so far…this current one is 900+ pages long, though, and there are a lot of people here and very little down time, so I’m behind on my reading…hence spending time with my book last night at midnight. Like a weirdo.

I did some quilt planning at the airport while drinking awful chai tea.

I mostly read on the plane. It’s not a hugely long flight, so it’s not worth it to pull stitching out, although I did draw, just to be doing something different with my brain and eyes.

I feel like complicated drawings that fill all the space. So that’s what I did.

Yesterday was busy with people and errands and talking, so I managed some relaxing stitching. I can never just sit, y’all. I need something to do.

I finished one block of Sue Spargo’s Homegrown and started another. I’ll probably take one to graduation just because there’s so much sitting-around crap and see above: I don’t sit around well.

I drew last night after everyone went to bed, watching some Alaskan reality show. I just needed some down time.

It’s not done. It needs more stuff. I’m not sure what.

There’s dogs that need walking.

And lots of pets…

Anyway…..gonna go shower and walk the dogs, then read, draw, and/or stitch through graduation. It’s pretty chill here, except for some interrupting school stuff that has caused some stress storms here. Next year will be um different. I’m channeling positivity from somewhere. Tomorrow is a bunch of trips to the airport with Zoom science teacher interviews interspersed. Then hopefully a chill afternoon and evening with just me and the dogs, plus a retirement webinar…I’m not retiring yet, but the level of insanity school has become is why it’s so much on my mind. I’ll probably still have to work after I retire from school, but I’m hoping for something I don’t have to bring home every night, that doesn’t dominate my weekends, and that I can actually take a vacation. It’s a dream.

Quiet Unfocusing

Slowly banging my way through this to-do list. One of the things on it is “weed whack” though and that’s a few hours of crap. The stupid battery on the weed whacker lasts a whopping 15 minutes, so that limits the time I can whack…pros and cons? The yard will never be done, but I can hopefully get two trash cans filled by tomorrow’s pickup. Last night, I was trimming in the backyard and kept hearing this weird mechanical sound. Finally looked up in the sky and saw a drone hovering over me. Flipped it off…continued flipping it off…it finally flew off, probably with its 10-year-old owner laughing his ass off at the old lady brandishing clippers.

I started cutting pieces out on Sunday, did a bunch Monday…

That puppy is totally unhelpful most of the time. Keeps trying to put her nose in everything.

But when she’s out, it’s fine. Last night, I cut for three hours because I just wanted to be done…

Annie still was so helpful. At one point, she got her nose under the tray where I was collecting the trash and tipped it over. But then zonked out.

Just under 8 hours to cut it all out. I am ahead of my original plan…which is good. I leave for Seattle on Monday. I’m thinking maybe I can get it ironed down to a background before I go? Maybe? I can get a good chunk of it done anyway.

Girlchild is in Nevada, hopefully getting to San Francisco tonight, since she has to be at work physically tomorrow. Crazy trip.

So today we need to walk the dogs, I need to fill another trash can with weeds, I need to sort the pieces I just cut out and start ironing this quilt together, I need to pick up cat meds, do the rest of my laundry (which means reattaching the vent because the Man fixed the dryer but pulled the vent partially off in the process), and read more…maybe eat food. Certainly I’m not sleeping enough because the puppy is not good at mornings. Anyway…it’s break. And I can tell that some people are irritated that I get time off and they don’t. Well yeah, I worked 12 months (probably much more) of hours in just 10 months…so it’s like when I did 10-hour days for 4 days a week so we could have a 3-day weekend (pre-teaching years). But I get that it feels unfair in the moment. Just remember all the nights and weekends I was working and you weren’t and maybe it will seem more equitable. Sigh. There’s a lot of unfair shit in the world…I’m just trying to appreciate the quiet unfocusing of a teacher summer.

It’s Good to Move on…

Well I have a few more hours left of the school year. I have to go in and put the last three things away and then be officially checked out by admin. I’m not allowed to put my name on the checkout list until 10:30, so I’m not rushing over there right now. A mylar balloon hit a power line near school yesterday and blew out electricity, A/C, and wifi, plus there was a weird burning smell, so lots of chaos. That was AFTER graduation. But it’s good to say adios to this school year. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think in November I really thought I just wasn’t going to survive it, and I did, but I’m exhausted y’all. Looking forward to just one grade level of science next year with way more supports than this year. But that’s a couple of months away. Today it’s shut the door, lock it, walk (or dance and sing) away.

Some photos from the graduation thing…I suck at taking photos, I realize. Me and my co-teacher with our mascot (who is one of my kids)…

One of my favorite and top students this year (and last, honestly)…

Her outfit was amazing.

And another of my favorites, who like me, hates having her picture taken. I’ll miss her…

Also she was wearing combat boots. So cool. She gave me flowers, which I appreciate…

And so does Kitten…

I have to hide the flowers from the cats so they won’t eat them.

The day before was promotion practice and then a carnival all afternoon…I spent most of it here, yelling ‘Ready Set Go’ and/or ‘Wait!’.

It was strangely fun. Fun to see them having fun.

Meanwhile, I did get the sun ironed Wednesday night…

Lots of yellows and oranges for that…

And then last night, after graduation, electrical issues, getting all the kids off campus finally, going to our end-of-year party, then driving to get my quilt from the photographer (I’ll post pictures later), then home, then Zoom meeting, I somehow managed to iron Venus (the planet) together.

The planets are actually human-like figures in this quilt…well some of them are. I couldn’t do all of them without making it massive and being unable to finish it for the deadline. I started on Earth (with the blues), but was so exhausted I just went to bed. I didn’t sleep well because of the dog, who was growling and barking at these babies…

But over the next few days, hopefully I’ll start to catch up on the sleep and feel a little more human. Maybe. I’m certainly going to be ironing a lot. Although today is chaos…need to pack up two quilts for shows, one to deliver and one to ship, plus check out of school, and take the dog to the vet. Plus IDK what else, because I walk through the house and it’s a disaster (it always is at the end of the school year). Cleaning, getting rid of stuff, organizing stuff, but also reading and artmaking and a little bit of travel. That’s the goal.

Yeah I guess I’m woke then.

OK, gotta go back to school now. Wearing my unicorn NOPE shirt. You know, I might only have 6 more years of this. Maybe 7. Depends on the money. It alternately sounds like not much and way too much. It depends on the people and the work load. I am lucky to have the people…just gotta work on the other part. Peace out 2022-2023 school year. It makes me cry a little to say that, out of lots of relief and some joy and some sadness…but it’s good to move on.

It’s Not Broken…

Hmmm. Wednesday. Long week so far. So much chaos. A 3-hour school-board meeting last night full of crazy misinformation. Y’all, apparently I am performing trans surgeries in class, and that is why the people hate my curriculum so much. I’m also grooming all my students out of the cis-gender status that their parents made them and want them. AND I do not appreciate the American flag enough. I am boggled. Oh yeah, and I do not espouse East County values, which apparently align with white supremacy. So yeah, I guess they were right about that. Giant Ass Sigh.

Otherwise, we’re getting ready to graduate a bunch of kids who I hope listened enough to take care of their own bodies, be kind to others, work hard, be responsible, relax, chill out, reduce drama (unless they’re on stage), and maybe think about climate change and not buying food at places that espouse racist ideologies. But probably they didn’t get all of that.

On top of all that, the Man’s company laid off like 20% of their staff yesterday (not him! because holy crap, that was scary when he didn’t answer for a few hours), so he’s a mess and stressed while I’m actually mostly chill. Except when some dumbass is claiming I am a groomer. One parent said we (the teachers) are here for “ABC, 123, and plus/minus.” You will NOT learn multiplication! It is not allowed! OK, well, that was funny. But no science? No history?

Today is promotion practice. Not graduation…promotion. We line up in a really long line and march the kids in…the two words are SPACE and PACE…at which point, my kids were confused, not THAT space (the one we learned about in science). The one where you’re not climbing up the butt of the kid in front of you. Last year, they practiced all day, because the chairs weren’t set up right, and we all peeked out our windows at our boss throwing chairs in the quad. Fun day. It is long though and we are not allowed to bring a book (well the kids can, but I can’t). I’m not a fan of sitting or standing around for hours, but that is what I will be doing. Outside. In the UV light. Sunscreen, hat, at least it’s not supposed to be hot. And repeat tomorrow for graduation.

The afternoon is a carnival for the 8th graders, which sounds fun and I hope is, but the teacher who was supposed to be covering my class or the other 7th-grade class didn’t know about it yesterday. So that’s fun. Yesterday’s chaos continues.

I’m glad to have an exercise class today and a chance to read my book later? Maybe? We’ll see. Plans for later this week? Check out of my classroom, take the dog to the vet, ship a quilt to Virginia, and get the dryer fixed. Also fun stuff.

I haven’t gotten much ironing done, but it’s not unexpected. This is Monday night, after I finished (well, actually, not all of them) grades.

I ironed some planets and some asteroid belts.

Last night, I only had 30 minutes to iron because I didn’t even get home until 8:30. Blood sugar crashing. Irritated by “East County values” and the other bullshit. So my 30 minutes was another planet…

Slow progress. Maybe more tonight. I actually finished grades Tuesday at the last minute during my prep period because I had like 7 toothpick bridges still to test. I’m bringing all the broken bridges to the bonfire on Saturday night for a burning ceremony of some sort that I promised the kids I would record. One of my co-teachers is doing the bonfire…we bring the question cards from sex ed and burn them after reading them out loud. It’s cleansing.

Nova had an issue with the chair last night…

I missed the best of the wibbly wobbly.

She’s a chub. But a cute chub.

And although the owls don’t seem to be hanging out on the owl box much, here was one checking out their old home nest…

They are still here and screeching at each other. For a few more weeks at least.

Well, I don’t feel prepared for all the outside that today will be, but at least I’m not teaching. All the teaching is done. It’s just clean up and graduate them and get them out of here. 7th grade has their field trip today, so my 4th period will have double the kids…all the 8th graders who should be upstairs with the teachers who are on the field trip. Luckily, both classes are small. We’ll just finish the horror movie (I found one that was PG-13) that we started yesterday. Unless practice takes too long and then it won’t matter. We’ll go straight to lunch. We can hope for that. Pros and cons.

Then pilates after school with lots of deep breathing. Fix dinner, chill out, iron some planetary shit. Got it. Still one day at a time around here, but it’s working at the moment, so don’t fix that. It’s not broken. It’s just inefficient.

Work I Love…

Yo! Last Monday of the school year. Am I done with grades? I am not. I’m hoping they are due tomorrow and not today. I should find that out. Tomorrow. Whew. I just thought of that. Nothing like going until the last minute. Trust me, I WOULD have been done by now, but we haven’t tested all the bridges yet and some kids forgot to turn shit in and I don’t even know what to do with the kid who at 2 PM on Friday, with an 11-day assignment due at 3:30, was begging for more time, and then STILL didn’t do anything. Sigh. So yeah. This is the crazy week. All the grades and awards and parties and promotion practices and actual promotion plus clean your room and lock it up because summer school will be in there and they will use all your shit.

Yup. Almost there. I can taste it. Almost. This week is actually really long. Friday night and all day Saturday I was convinced I was getting sick: massive headache, sore throat, achy all over, felt like crap. So I started with the immune protection stuff, emergen-c, and drank a lot of it. All day Saturday. I felt OK yesterday and this morning, so maybe I kicked it? Or? It will come back with a vengeance on like Wednesday, when I have to be outside all day. Yeah. Still taking vitamins just in case. Even if it’s all in my head. There are lots of things in my head. If it keeps me from getting sick right now, I’m good.

So Friday night, I sorted the Wonder Under…

It didn’t take long.

Then Saturday, I ran errands, bought a background fabric (two actually, but one was better than the other for this), and cleaned the office/studio…which started out like this.

I put all the fabric away, and then mopped the floor. It had been a while. It was driving me a little bonkers. But that’s all I got done in here.

The Man had a show on Saturday night and I was feeling well enough to go. In fact, there are times in my life when I feel like going out and dancing has kicked a virus out of my system. This may have been one of those occasions.

Also they played really local, which made it an easy decision to go.

It was a good time. They are taking a 6-month break because one member is having shoulder surgery and another one just needs to rest his shoulder, so this was the last show for a while.

They opened for Sonic Moonshine, which is also a good show.

Especially with the bubbles.

Sunday, I set up my ironing space…

Laid out the first 100 pieces of Wonder Under, picked the first fabrics…

And started ironing to fabric.

That’s where I’ll be every night this week, I think. With a few exceptions.

My post-eating stitching for the evening is still this Sue Spargo thing.

Brainless and easy. That’s what I need right now. Plus purple. Always good.

Simba agrees.

It rained AND his boy is gone. Very traumatic.

So traumatic that he was lying on my bedspace last night. Really, I think I was supposed to curl up at the foot of the bed, based on this arrangement.

I made him move. He was OK. Ever hopeful for that space.

The owls are wandering all over our little neighborhood, driving all the neighbors bonkers probably. Last year, they just hung out in our yard. This is a wide-ranging group. Which means we rarely see video of any of them on the owl box.

But we hear them constantly.

OK. Today I need to get through a whole lot of bridge breaking…Period 2 may be nigh on impossible. I think I need to do 7 of them in a short period. We’ll see how I do. Finish science and classroom orders, plus a staff meeting, finish grades. My quilt isn’t ready for pickup yet, unfortunately. I really need it by Thursday and I have limited time for pickup before that. Sigh. Ah well. Worst case, I’ll pay the extra for the ‘late’ entry (it’s not late, but there’s a cost break for ‘early’). I’m pretty sure I’m cooking (something) tonight, but there’s ironing at the end of it, which seems like more ‘work’, but it’s work I love. So that’s a good thing.

It Almost Doesn’t Matter

Ugh. It’s Friday Yay. Last Friday of the school year with kids. I feel like Ugh though. There are so many things for school that I am trying to keep straight in my head. I’m tired, really tired. I feel like I might just sleep the entire week after we get out of school. And that would be OK. Except for all the shit I have to get done that week…minor issue. All the stuff I haven’t been doing for the last 10 months. That.

But some cool stuff happened yesterday at school…we started testing these toothpick bridges. Some of them are pretty…

Like that’s classic.

By the way, we break them all. I have a bridge graveyard in the back of the room right now.

It held 6 1/2 pounds. Not bad.

But this one. Doesn’t look like much.

27.6 pounds before it broke. Seriously solid beast. Amazing. At one point, I looked up, and the entire classroom was gathered around as the kids said, “put another 1000 ml in it, Ms. Nida.” It was cool. Love moments like that. Holding onto that, because some of the classes are not cool. They’re just hard.

We still have more to break. Monday.

It’s exhausting doing this stuff, but rewarding.

At home, I am trying to keep the focus on the art. I do have grade stuff to do too, but I’ve been trying to get it done at school. Almost done with all of that. It almost doesn’t matter any more. Yay! Until next year. But the thought of 9 weeks with no grading, no worrying about lesson plans on Sunday afternoon, setting up on Friday after school? That’s delightful. No desperate searching for curriculum that makes sense. No ordering materials at the last minute. Lovely.

I got a bunch of Wonder Under cut out Wednesday night during book club and after…

Just a little bit left, but bedtime loomed. Last night, I finished it…

With Kitten for size comparison. That was about an hour of cutting. In total, 5 hours and 22 minutes to cut those out. Tonight, hopefully, I will sort them, and tomorrow, start ironing to fabric. I need to figure out a background fabric. I might need to go buy some tomorrow. Keeping that in mind. Fewer pieces goes faster. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the big quilts. The next one will be big, I think. Maybe. Gotta look at deadlines and see if there’s anything that I want to make art about.

I did have my stitching meeting last night.

Didn’t get much done. Tired. Distracted. Just worked on the window. Sue Spargo Homegrown. Been working on it for a long time. Will still be working on it next year at this time.

Look! The sisters like each other.

You can’t really see it in this picture, but Luna has a nasty scratch on her nose from her sister…some altercation. We’ve been calling her Harry Potter because it looks like a lightning bolt.

OK. I have to go to school. It’s a field trip day, to the local amusement park (super small, one roller coaster, a few rides, some games). The reward for getting through 8th grade. I’ve never done this field trip before, so that’ll be interesting. But then I come back and continue teaching 7th grade about STDs. Tiring. I’m going to bribe them…good behavior? No quiz. I have one class that will be fine with that. The other one has been awful the last two days. Better yesterday, but still pretty bad. I requested one kid be held out today so I don’t have to deal with him, but I’m pretty much guaranteed to have him next year too. I figure at least he’s the annoyance that you know. There will always be an annoyance (or 20).

Tonight, we’re going to an art opening; tomorrow, the Man has a show. Plus getting grades done and doing art. Close so close to a bit of freedom.