We Have to…

I’ve been thinking about the risks we take as artists…first, there are of course the risks of making the work. A lot of us have another job that pays the bills and then we make art “on the side.” Someone actually called teaching my side job the other day and I laughed. Because it is…and it isn’t. It takes too much time to be the side job. I don’t think of EITHER of them as the side job…copyediting is the side job. Anyway, so there’s a risk there of not putting enough time into either to be good at either. Plus the work I do has occasionally gotten me in trouble at my job…although I am mostly protected, my district could probably come up with some reason to fire me for my art…other districts have done that to other artists. If you are a full-time artist, kudos to you, but that is also a risk…if you don’t sell enough, you are constantly trying to fill in your income with classes or teaching positions or books or some other way to pay the bills. We’ve all donated to a GoFundMe somewhere for an artist who got sick or injured and can’t pay the bills. There’s no insurance that covers that. Then there’s the risk of sending your work out into the world: the risk of shipping it or delivering it, having it hang somewhere else, having someone else be responsible for it, of having it damaged there or on the way there or back. There’s stories of work being knocked over, of bleach being thrown at work, of work being stolen. All these are terrifying to the artist who spends so much time and energy to make the work. And as my son reminded me today, a lot of the work we make is flammable…if this house goes up in flames, what’s left? Artists have faced that in wildfires, in bushfires, in single house or studio fires. It’s devastating.

So Why the FUCK do we keep doing this risky thing? Well, because we have to. We have a brain that requires the art to be made, that means we have to spend the time, the money, the energy, the risk, the threat of loss or damage. We have to. Hopefully we understand the risks and we do our best to protect against those…and I’m amazingly lucky that my quilt was found before I ever knew it was lost. Sure, I could make it again (would I? Probably not). I have the drawing. I have photos. One of my smaller older quilts was burned in the Cedar Fire. The owner contacted me about fixing it…or really, about preserving it. I sent her the information I could (eventually, over time, it will not last). That’s a survival story. Certainly with all the fires we have here and with what Australia is experiencing, I expect more stories of damage to art and quilts and lives. There’s even a bit of a link here to the President’s threats to bomb Iran’s cultural sites. Because that’s a threat to a cultural artifacts that doesn’t need to be made. But that’s a whole ‘nother issue, isn’t it? Sigh.

Reflection on the practice of art. I drew this on Saturday night…

Trying to escape all the shit in my head and destruction on my planet.

By Sunday night, I was done with escaping…

I still don’t see solutions, but I realize we can’t go anywhere. This might be the start of the next big quilt, although I’m staring at one of my older quilts on the wall, about the Japanese tsunami of 2011. And the themes are similar. Sigh. The missiles are new. Isn’t that fun?

I really haven’t done a good job of making art this break. I’ve full-on sucked at it. I figure there’s a reason. My brain isn’t there. That said, I finally stitched the binding on with the machine last night…

And now I can sit and sew by hand for a while. I also went through a bunch of drawings over the last two days. I have two shows coming up that will require no nudity, and I don’t have a lot of those right now. I’m going to need to make a few of those. But not next. I don’t think. I don’t know. I have a week left before I have to go back to school. I’m trying to stay on top of the to-do list, but honestly, I just start panicking. My weekend coming up is totally full, so I have to be proactive about school stuff. I’ve been working all break, a little at a time. But ugh. This view.

Sometimes I sit on the couch and do it while watching TV; sometimes I sit here. It doesn’t help. I have to get up regularly and do something else. I can’t grade less right now. These are assessments. They require me to pay attention and focus on real answers and feedback. I can’t just throw them out. This is where I realize that I didn’t teach the kids some things, or even that I DID teach them and they didn’t retain it. It’s frustrating. But it has to be done. And it’s time-consuming. There’s no real way to figure out what they know with a multiple-choice test. There’s three different ways for them to show me here. And some got perfect scores. Some didn’t.

So I need to finish those and another assignment. Even though it hurts my head.

Today is a lot of errands though. Gonna get them out of the way and hope for some gym time and a hike later this week. Plus I need to read the book for book club. Minor issue. And pick the next quilt to make. Either I’m drawing a new big one that’s timely (that’s what I’m leaning toward) or I’m drawing a smaller one with no nudity (eh. Later.).

We always have cute kittens…

Even when they’re rampaging around, destroying things. Which is something they do. When they’re not considering playing with the old lady cat…

It’s a work in progress, that…

There’s nowhere to sit sometimes because so many furry things are sleeping. Which is nice. They certainly help clear the mind sometimes.

OK. Speaking of clearing minds, I need Motrin. And more tea. Off to the vet and who-knows-where-else.

2020…May It Be Full of Art…

It was a good New Year’s Day…I never got out of my pajamas…the only thing better would have been a hike, and we have that planned for tomorrow.

Today is the boychild’s birthday…

Wow. That hair. He’s much taller now, hair is longer. Pretty sure he started those bangs the girlchild has…after some revisions by mom. He makes better decisions now. Or at least asks first. He’ll spend some time with dogs and maybe kittens, relaxing. May 2020 be awesome for him, whatever that means.

We hiked with the dogs on Tuesday (yes, I am losing track of days). Simba needed a carry assist at some point…we thought he might have something in his paw, but it might have just been a pulled muscle.

We took them out 4 miles to try to tire the boy out…the boy dog, that is. He’s been in bark mode. Plus we think he misses the girlchild. It was a gorgeous day for a hike…

I love the outside. Plus there was lots of water to look at and stomp through…

Check out that tongue. We definitely tired her out…almost enough to ignore the fireworks on NYE.

I quilted a little bit every day…like one person’s worth…

It was a goal I could handle. Finish one person. Then you get a break.

It stayed that way, one a day, until yesterday…

Yesterday, I finished the requisite person and then had the background staring at me…

I stopped for dinner and then finished quilting the whole thing…

It only took 3 1/2 hours…

So Kitten/kitten play has been happening…a little…

Mostly around corners and under quilts…

There was no hissing here…just play bopping. And this was after Nova went after Kitten’s tail, which was swishing around quite temptingly.

I did my daily drawings…this one from NYE was a little strange…

Here’s the first drawing of 2020…

I always feel like this is such a good practice, drawing every day, but the reality of my days during school are less conducive to this. Unfortunately. I’ve tried instituting a drawing a week, like Friday night, but time is so limited when I’m teaching that I sacrifice the drawing time to actual artmaking instead.

Nova on my sketchbooks…

Not the best footing.

OK, I have two quilts to deliver, a binding fabric to buy (no, I don’t have enough of anything to use for binding), and pilates class…plus grading. I did one period of the UGH assignments (it’s really two assignments put together) yesterday. It took about 2 1/2 hours, but I wasn’t really paying attention well and I will get faster. Or not. I don’t know. Four more periods of those to go…really need to do one a day. Plus decide what art I’m making next. Oh yeah, recap of 2019…only 6 quilts, but 1 was huge…

All of them have been or are going to be in shows, which is cool. Two are traveling for at least a year. One won an award. All good. I feel like making work from my head is a good place right now. Although 4 of these were made for specific themes. My favorite, Swallow Me Whole, was not though. It was a thing in my head that needed to get out. So start 2020 with one of those, one I choose, no theme, just Nida.

Plus I did these last year…

These were a new thing…not sure how successful it was, but it was an interesting experience. I would stitch more of my drawings, but they take so much time, it’s hard to make it a profitable thing. Not that I make art for that…but maybe I’ll design a few for traveling/camping. They were good for that. You can find patterns and kits for these at Global Artisans…

2020…may it be full of art and time for that shit.

How to Make It Better…

So many people already saying Happy New Year…I guess that’s legit for Australia, but all you Americans just need to wait a bit. Europe too. Chillax. We’ve got the rest of 2019 to survive.

Speaking of Australia…all the fires and the animals and the people and the crazy fire weather, which doesn’t make the news here hardly at all…my heart goes out to you. Hoping there’s a resolution soon and people can rest easy…although the future weather/drought issues there will still be a problem. I didn’t realize there was such a huge coal industry there. It’s so hard to balance the needs of the world in general in terms of slowing climate change while also making sure people still have jobs and food and homes. It’s a huge mind shift…one that America doesn’t seem to understand either. Our core job needs to be taking care of people…not making money. So many politicians are ignorant (willfully or ?) of the science behind what’s happening and how we humans are making it worse.

Also on my mind…attacks on Jewish people…I hate my current government (because it’s not just the President any more) for encouraging this environment where people are emboldened to attack anyone who is different than they are. Have we learned nothing over the years? I read a friend’s comment about how we are raised to respect others’ opinions, but she was clear in that we don’t have to respect racist or hate-based opinions. I don’t hate you because you are racist…I don’t understand you. I hate your actions toward others. I hate your speech toward others. You are human and so obviously frightened of what is different or what you perceive as taking away from your rights (such an ignorant and limited view of the world). You don’t have the right to hurt someone else because of that…even if the President says you do. This last year has been hard to watch. So much anger and wrongness.

So that’s where I’m ending 2019. Sometimes when I’m drawing or making quilts, I think “this piece of art isn’t going to fix the government or racism or climate change or hate or anything else…” and I get disheartened about what I’m making. It’s not enough. I’m using materials that are causing more pollution, I’m using electricity, my privilege allows me to create art because I’m not trying to find food for my children or clean water…I don’t have tons of money to donate to worthy causes or tons of time to volunteer in worthy places. I try to educate my students about things when I can…there are times when I can’t be political because I teach in a public school…but I can be scientific. I make art because it helps me stay sane. It’s a drive I can’t turn off. I have been trying to be more thoughtful about fabric use in the last year or so…using up weird pieces that have been around for a while. I don’t have a solution for the world right now…I just know large parts of it are messed up and need fixing.

Tomorrow will be all about Happy New Year and looking forward. Today I’m in reflection mode. Ironically, I’m doing this program to help me reduce my school work hours, and they had suggested making monthly goals for school and other stuff, and I don’t know why that sounded like a good idea, but I set up the spread in my journal (which I do use daily…the journal anyway)…

And then. Well. Realized I’m not good at setting monthly goals. I set weekly ones, even daily ones, and ones that stretch out the length of a unit of teaching science (the next one is volcanoes and earthquakes, I think). Also ones that stretch out for the length of a quilt. Sometimes for summer or winter break. Not this break so much…but this isn’t working for me. I can’t get my head around it. OK then. I think I do OK on goals in general, so I’m just going to write this up as Tried, but Didn’t Work.

I did quilt for a while yesterday, the 2nd figure. I’ll do more today, I hope…though my original goal to be quilted by now so I could trim and bind today?

Not happening. So this will be the first quilt of 2020.

I’m still grading almost every day. I prefer doing a little at a time to spending entire days working on it.

This kitten is not at all helpful. Neither is the pup.

I did finish this assignment completely, and stayed up way too late doing another one, but now all that’s left is the three hellacious assignments. I’m just going to bully through one period a day, maybe more if it makes sense. Take a day off when it makes sense. Get through as much as I can. I have 12 days before I go back, and ideally I’ll be done. Which means more than one a day, I think. Sigh. OK. Good to know.

It’s also OK to do some of it when I get back from break. No matter what I was grading, there was always a companion…

These two eventually got off my lap…with some assistance from me.

Although Nova apparently thinks she is cuter than her sister, and should be in all the photos…

Eventually she sat on Luna. It’s nice having siblings…they are amusing.

I did my daily drawing…

This type of imagery shows up often. I was tired. Couldn’t think of what to draw.

This is one of the shows my work is going to be in, coming up in January…

That’s one of my two pieces…the art center is in Ojai, California. I don’t know if I’m going to the opening…it’s a long way for one day. Thinking about it.

OK, time to stop thinking and start doing. I need to put away the Christmas stuff, pack up some boxes to ship, walk the dogs, grade some shit, quilt another person, and IDK what else. Draw. But it’s New Year’s Eve, so I’ll get time for that while having to watch crazy TV. Ugh. I’m not a fan of all the NYE television, and I don’t need to go out and party. I do need to think about how to make 2020 better. Not for me…for others.

Fighting Broken Thread…

Solar guys are here early to hopefully finish the job. Did I go to bed early last night because I knew they were coming? Fuck no. I was too busy fighting broken threads on the current quilt to go to bed early. The parrots were also here this morning, migrating their asses all over my trees, squawking their green little parrot songs. Things I can’t sleep through: rain, wind, parrots, men stomping on my roof and screwing things down through metal. It’s actually a longer list than that…includes Calli licking her paws and Kitten cleaning her butt. Plus coyotes and TVs and light…can’t sleep when it’s light unless I’m dying of some illness…which luckily I’m not at the moment.

Every day right now is about how to get more energy and time for artmaking…and still get shit done. Yesterday was replacing the black boots that finally died…with the girlchild. Plus grading one class of the larger assignment. Honestly, though, if I only do one a day, I may never finish all the things I need to grade, so I might have to step it up to two a day. I don’t know. Sigh. Do you stuff a day full of grading? Or do a little bit each day? It’s hard to know which hurts less. Which annoys less. But at least one period will get done today. The girlchild needs her eyes checked, so that’s on the list. Continuing the drawing a day and quilting some more (hopefully with fewer breaks) is also on the list for today.

Kitten sisters love each other, but in a semi-violent way…

There’s a lot of play fighting that goes on here.

Calli only gets upset when someone tries to take her toy…

Calli was watching me grade stuff. Plus she was nervous about the weather, which is gone today! Beautiful blue skies…cold, but clear. We’ll take it! Tomorrow, we’re hiking…hopefully not in snow, but who knows? A lot fell in our mountains.

In the afternoon, post shoe-shopping and grading, I finished the stitchdown on this never-ending quilt, and then pieced a backing. I’m still using up what I have, best I can…

I ended up using some of the blue from the front and a piece of gray/black that I’ve had for a really long time…I think it was a hand-me-down from somewhere, but honestly, I don’t remember. I cleaned the floor just in time for the kids and dogs to leave…

And then pinbasted it…it’s not huge. I’m not sure what’s taking me so long right now. Best to let the brain do what it needs to do. Stop worrying about it and just do it.

I thought this was going to be an easy 2019 finish…but I think it’ll be the first quilt of 2020.

I generally finish about 6 decent-sized quilts a year…this one would have been number 7.

I still might finish it in time for it to be a 2019 quilt…but for show entries, it’s probably better to finish in 2020.

I need thread for the background…I don’t have that color of blue, I think. I will need binding at some point as well. And I need a decision about the next deadline.

I took a break for pilates and dinner and some TV plus drawing, which is hard to do with a kitten on your chest. But she was insistent…

So I dealt…until she started batting at the pen. Off my dear. Love you. Go somewhere else.

Bone garden…

The man went to bed…too many festivities, not enough sleep (he handles it by sleeping…a smart move, I must say)…and I started quilting. The thread broke at least 10 times in this little space. I changed the needle, rethreaded a million times, applied thread conditioner, changed the tension.

Then gave up and went to bed because who needs that? And sometimes it figures itself out overnight. I’ll try again today.

Here are my Instagram colors from 2019. That’s a lot of blue…

Interesting…because my photos are a lot of art and a lot of hiking and animals. That’s about it.

Plans for today? Shower. Ignore stomping on roof. A drawing, some quilting, grading an assignment, eye doctor with girlchild, thread purchasing, possibly Costco (is it too soon? It might be too soon…but I need stuff. Not a lot of stuff. It can probably wait until next week. I don’t like people right now. The grocery stores on the two days before Christmas were probably enough people for the next three weeks.). Introverting? Maybe. Might be at a show tonight, later. Just don’t know. Art though. Make art.

I’m Useless Right Now…

I’m tired. I had to get up early for jury duty. Once I was there, I panicked. They had three trials lined up with panels of 40 for each. I don’t think there were 120 people in the room. So I rescheduled for April, and will reschedule again for the summer after that. The nice woman said I could do that. I was afraid I’d get stuck on a jury for the next three days (minus Christmas), and we have big family stuff for tomorrow and hopefully hiking on Thursday. Whatever. I will still be irritated by jury duty in the summer, but at least I won’t be as limited or planned out then. I find the whole mess annoying, but whatever…at least I wasn’t the guy yelling, “This is fucked up!” in the jury lounge. I mean, I could’ve been that guy…

I made it to the grocery store again, this time with the boychild. Yesterday was the girlchild, but we didn’t get all the things. As it is, I still need one more thing. But it’s cold and rainy and I’d like to stay put for a while. Maybe I’ll go to the gym later. If I wake up.

Yesterday was a lot of errands and prepping stuff and now I need to pack up a bunch of quilts and ship them…gonna do that next. Absolutely NO PROGRESS on this damn quilt. My brain is off. Welcome to the teacher on break! My co-teacher is diligently grading quizzes, because she’s leaving the country in two days. I’m not…so I should make a plan for grading things, but my brain is fuzz. I have one assignment partially graded and another one mostly graded. Welcome to inconsistencies! Woo hoo!

OK, I plan to finish both of those today, as well as shite…am I making dinner tonight? I don’t remember. Fuck. The holidays kick my ass. NO. I am NOT cooking. Phew. OK, I also will pack up the three quilts that need to ship and the two that need to be delivered next week, which means I need to do two labels I think, and then put labels on the other one that needs to ship and just ship its ass outta here too.

Then maybe I can stitch down the current quilt. Or sleep in. Or something.

I’m still doing a drawing a day…this is Saturday night…

First time I’ve drawn pussy willows? Nah. I think my Sightlines quilt from a million years ago has pussy willows in it.

There are lots of kittenish things going on, mostly with them sleeping…

Because otherwise they are moving too fast to photograph.

Blurry. This went well until Luna sneezed.

I need to sleep more.

Dinner at the parentals last night…apparently Simba likes limes.

He made a face but went back for more…freak.

Tree is finally decorated. Sort of. I’m done with it anyway. Kitten is never done with it.

She’s on the lookout for needles to gack up.

OMG more sleeping…

They are cute. And entertaining. Even when they want to stand on the things I’m doing…which is really more Luna than Nova. Nova was watching the pen move.

I almost fell asleep many times while drawing this…

Which might explain a lot about it.

Anyway…more drawing tonight, lots of organizing stuff to ship this afternoon. I spent a chunk of time looking up all the Expanse novels I hadn’t read. Apparently I missed one. I have no idea how I did that. Right now? More caffeine please. And less rain. Eventually. Maybe a nap. Sheesh. I’m useless right now.

The Relaxation Part…

3 AM wakeup worry: need to make sure kids know tectonic plates don’t float on water. (Shut up, Teacher Brain!). It takes me a few days to get my brain to realize it’s on break. Sometimes it take it a whole week. I need a grading plan. I need a quiltmaking plan. I need a sanity plan. I brought home a huge pile of stuff. It’s unfortunate but necessary. This job…

I got home from a long day (it was gonna be long, no matter how long it was)…and there was an envelope from CraftForms with a catalog-type thing and a certificate, but also a check! That was nice. It took me a while to figure out what it all meant, which is funny…

My brain was not functioning. I should have just read the certificate. Could not focus. I’m taking all the awards I’m getting from now on and dumping them into the remodel account…because my studio is one of the rooms that needs work. Not a lot of work…well…I have ideas, but not all ideas that I can afford.

I went to pilates after…it was great. I am really liking the control and relaxation that comes with pilates. Weird, I know…and I still need hikes and the gym, but this is also good.

I didn’t grade anything at all last night. I often do on Fridays, because my brain is already in school mode, so it’s easier to bang out one assignment or class and get it out of the way, but I was too tired. I wasn’t the only one who was tired…

He ran around a lot yesterday at the other house…the solar got started today, but it’s not done…so the boychild kept him at the other house and he tired himself out.

Kittens are both lap cats…here’s Nova…

When they want to sleep, they want to be on you…I got Luna…

They nap for about 20 minutes, and then race around again.

After that, I started my Winter Break drawing practice, a drawing a night (or day…no judgement here). I don’t think too hard about these…it’s really just about the practice.

I did this last year and really enjoyed it.

So there’s 12/20…this is a 9×12″ sketchbook. And I really do just like to fill spaces, in case you’re wondering. So that’s 24 days of break (well, I included last night…there’s only 23 days), so 24 drawings. Sounds exciting!

I went to bed early. I was tired. I always give Simba special pets and then crate him (it keeps him quieter at night…he’s a barky asshole sometimes)…but Luna followed me down the hallway and then sat on his crate…causing perturbed puppy…

He’s like, um…mom…there’s a cat up there. I don’t like that.

The kittens haven’t been down the hallway to the bedroom much…so even Kitten was perturbed…

Hmmm. Well, at some point, the kittens probably won’t be crated at night and the bed will get more crowded, based on what we’ve seen so far. They are very people-oriented cats, which is nice.

So today is Saturday. I need to pick up a quilt, pack up three more for shows, then clean the girlchild’s room because she’s coming home tonight. I want to finish the stitchdown of the quilt. I will be doing one drawing. There’s a bunch of cleaning that needs to happen. I need to decide how much decorating I’m doing on the tree etc, and then put the rest of the stuff in the garage. I need to make a grading plan for the next three weeks. I have jury duty Monday, so that fucks things up. I have pilates tomorrow, grocery shopping for a holiday week, and the girlchild has a hair appointment that I usually go to as well. Dinner with the parents? I need to make that phone call. And Tuesday (hoping I don’t get on a jury) is a trip to the Wild Animal Park and then holiday party. Wednesday is the normal family stuff. Holy shit, that’s a lot! Yeah. This time of year is hard. There’s a lot going on. So I need to make time for the stuff that I find fun and relaxing. I have a book to read too. That’s important!

Hope you all are managing your time well, especially the relaxation part. That’s the harder part for me. Always. I’m working on it. Kitten pets and purring helps.

One of Those School Dreams…

So I was trying to fall back asleep around 4:30 AM, like you do, and then the Man’s alarm was going off and I realized I was dreaming about school, sort of, because it’s never really your school or work or whatever. It’s tweaked. But I’m running (RUNNING) home from school because I forgot to take a shower (WTF Nida) and I had my teacup and my bag and I ran into one of my current students and she had a big platter of Christmas goodies she wanted to give me (this shit never happens in real life) and she really was worried and wanted to do it right then (kind of realistic actually) so we went into a tea shop and I put my stuff down and took her goodies and thanked her and all that and then RAN home, but for some reason, I never got there; I was running toward school, except it’s that dream school I have that looks a lot like the high school I went to, but not quite, and then I’m still trying to take a shower, but realizing I left my teacup and bag in the tea shop, and I keep looking at my watch (I haven’t worn a watch in years) and ONE minute has passed and then ONE MORE minute has passed, and there’s only a shower in the science department, but they just had a huge meeting (we only have maybe 9 teachers max in our ‘science department’) and they’re all breaking up and using the bathroom, so the time is getting later and later and I still haven’t had a shower and my TEACUP is not here; it’s in the tea shop. I don’t even know what I did with the treats from that kid and then my alarm goes off.

For Fuck’s Sake, brain. You could be more creative than that.

Yes, today, everywhere, teachers will be teaching with their hair on fucking fire. Just think good thoughts. (I showered, by the way.) Send treats. Find my teacup.

My solar is being installed today. It was supposed to be Monday, but it’s supposed to rain a lot, ironically, so it will be today. I won’t be here. Hopefully they won’t fall through my roof.

I am going to go to school and try to make 164 kids (oh, who the hell are we kidding…at least 20 won’t show up, maybe more by the end of the day) finish the essay (it’s SEVEN whole sentences y’all) they started yesterday, and turn all their shit in, so I can spend break grading it. Uh huh. It’s a stupid system. Not sure how to improve that part.

We have an assembly at the end of the day, which should be a lot of standing and eyeballing kids doing stupid shit (that’s the audience). It’ll be fine. Then I hand out progress reports. More fun. No really. And clean my room so the custodial staff can clean my room. And pack up a pile of crap to grade.

Which is why, last night, I stayed up grading an assignment instead of doing art. I needed at least one more gone before break started. Which is also why the only photos I have are of kittens.

I went out for a drink after work, which I almost never do…and it was Thursday, so then my brain thought it was Friday (it wasn’t). I came home and we had dinner and I graded an assignment in between being a Kitten Landing Zone…this is Luna…

And this is Luna chewing on her sister Nova’s ear. In my face.

This did not end well.

But eventually they came back and settled and purred and slept and then the Man made me get up to fetch dinner…

I graded more, which was fascinating to cats because paper makes crinkly noises and pens are just fun to play with. But eventually they offloaded onto the Man…

Which made it easier to grade.

They are cute. And fascinating. I finished grading one assignment, which took a long time (probably because I was watching the new season of The Expanse, which is also fascinating). And then I went to bed. And today I gird my loins and go off into battle. Then I spend the next three weeks avoiding all those assignments, and DRAWING EVERY DAY. Yes, I’m doing that again, starting tonight. Looking forward to letting my brain spill out on paper every day. Wish me luck.

Rocks Are Hard Yo…

Yesterday. Was a slog. Apparently 12-year-olds don’t like rocks as much as I do. Plus I had to act out a wind turbine, which was hard because (a) I forgot the sound effects (whoOSH) and (b) my arms won’t turn like that, so I just look like a crazy woman. What’s new, right? I made the SECA laugh anyway. The kids think I’m nuts though, and rocks are hard yo. Ha Ha. They usually ARE hard. I want that shirt now. Rocks are hard. OK, this is how you know we’re close to break…the stupidest shit makes a teacher laugh until she cries. Rocks are hard.

OK. That said, I had to push and shove and yank them through the understanding of mining and the rock cycle yesterday…today we finish with the copper mine and then they write the CER. QUIETLY. For reals. Sigh. I can’t help anyone when I have children losing their minds because I asked them to write 7 whole sentences. In two days, it’ll be fine. FINE, I SAID.

I went to pilates right after work. That was pretty smart. The class was half empty (it wasn’t supposed to be) and it was good. Relaxing in a shaky-muscle kinda way. When I made it home, someone else was cooking for once (yay!) and I finished grading one assignment and input it and another one, and then made a list of all the things that needed grading over break unless I get some of them done in the next two days and I lost my mind. Eyes rolling back in head. Seriously behind. Always. Never caught up. My eyelid is not twitching though…yet…so that’s a good sign. Although my neck is close to frozen in place. Massage! To the rescue!

The kittens are very energetic…

And in everything, EVERYTHING. They tried to climb one of the quilts on the wall yesterday, so we moved some stuff to stop that. This is my sewing bag. Or a cat carryon. Hard to say.

They completely shredded this toy after pulling it out of a box and dragging it around…

I wish I could get a good photo of them leaping through the air, but they are too fast…

Sometimes they even slow down and let you pet them…

They are sweet. Although the house is currently a lot of animals trying to eat poop or attack things.

Kitten is still avoiding it all…by living in my office…

Calli wants to play too…and eat poop…

Simba is in the eat poop category…but also how much cat food can he steal.

I did stitch down for about an hour. I don’t have much stamina at the moment.

My brain is all over the map, stressed out, trying to get everything done and out of my head onto paper.

I’m more than halfway around, two full figures done and started on the third. It won’t take long to finish it. I just need the mental space (as always) and the energy. At some point, I’m going to need to sit down with my art deadlines and realistically decide about the next one. I’m not there yet. Certainly with two days of school before break, that is NOT the time to reevaluate anything (except my job choice of course).

Which means I need to go to work. It’s Decade Day. I’m 90s grunge, even though I always dress this way and I have to wear my school shirt because it’s also the staff picture day. And during the 90s, I was giving birth to my children, so 90s grunge was all about breastfeeding and diapers. Well, the last half of it anyway. Whatever. Happy holidays y’all! Especially sending good thoughts to teachers everywhere. Don’t kill them! It’s not worth the jail time. Joke. Mostly.

It’s My Favorite Day of the School Year…

It is my favorite day of the entire school year. No, not the last day. I hate the last day. It’s stressful and annoying and I have my homeroom kids for 3 hours straight which is just nuts. Not fun. It’s not the day before Winter Break…then they act like they’re on crack and they can do totally stupid shit because three weeks is forever for them and they don’t think they’ll EVER get in trouble for acting out, plus sugar, plus Christmas makes them LOSE THEIR MINDS, and there’s an assembly, which just hurts my head even more, so no, not this Friday. Today is my favorite day because it’s…pajama day. You heard me. I get to wear pajamas to school. It’s like heaven on Earth. Oh yeah. I’m so happy.

Which is good, because I’m teaching about mining and spending my lunch giving quizzes, so none of that is fun at all. Well, mining isn’t bad. It’s just getting them to understand what the rock cycle has to do with it. It might be really obvious to YOU. Not so to a 12-year-old.

Anyway, I can survive three more days of school. I’m up early for yet another random meeting. Yesterday, during tutoring, I sat with an exhausting table. Sometimes I walk around and help random kids, but yesterday there was a group of kids who are mostly mine who needed science help. Literally one I had to say…now write the next sentence about farts. Seriously. Don’t even ask. Please. The rest of the time was like having WWII fighter pilots bombing you from above and trying to avoid the bombs, plus answer all the questions, and keep the pilots on task, because they wanted to go over THERE or over THERE and not do their job. EXHAUSTING. I really appreciate the other teacher who stayed late because all the other teachers ditched yesterday and I was gonna be all alone.

I came home and wrapped some gifts and talked to some people in person and on the phone and made dinner yet again (not sure how I ended up with double duty, and I’m pretty sure someone was supposed to help last night and didn’t, but when I looked over to ask for help, he had two baby kittens snoring on him)…spaced out a little, watched some TV, read 6 pages of Trump’s crazy-ass letter to Pelosi (how did he write that much? That’s a lot of words, albeit crazy words), and came in here and set up to do stitchdown…

This isn’t going to take very long. It’s very meditative…

Ah, spacecat. I only did an hour’s worth. More tonight I think…

I should be grading shit, but I couldn’t deal with it after being in tutoring. I was tired of it. I’ll do some today. I swear. There’s some easy stuff I could (should) get out of the way. I don’t want to be grading all break. Although there’s a few significant assignments this week. Ugh.

It’s really hard to get good pictures of these beasts sometimes. They’re constantly racing around…they wanted out this morning after the man left, but I knew I was leaving too, so I told them no…

They’re not really big enough yet to be let all over the house unsupervised, especially with my sweet girl (um. Well. She’s not so sweet.) in the house.

I had a moment last night…it’s the second time…where I really wanted to go to Craft Napa up in…well…Napa. It’s mostly art quilt stuff and it just sounds fun to take a class and mess around, but it takes forever to get there and I am back at school and I’m taking a class the weekend before in Palm Springs, which is a ways away, but nowhere near as far as Napa, so UGH. I had to persuade myself out of it again. Plus it would be really expensive to get there and stay there and take classes, so no, no, no, you can’t. Plus you have another quilt to finish before the end of January and it doesn’t even exist on paper, so I don’t know how the hell you think that is going to happen if you are traipsing all over California.

OK, I also need to wrap presents and pack quilts for shows tonight, so I should do some of that. I bought the boxes yesterday to get ready for it. And I have pilates right after school…I’ve never done an early class like this, right after school…I’ll need to change at school and go over there. I’m hoping it’s really relaxing and helps me slide into the evening. Because remembering to bring all my shit with me and actually leave school on time is a little stressful.

OK. I’m rocking pajama day. Happy to be in flannel. Already more relaxed than I would normally be.

Finally Ironed…

One thing I love about this week is that feeling that starts to rise up…the one that feels like days off from work…the anticipation of not having to write lesson plans or create curriculum from your butt because your district hasn’t given you any for the last 4+ years and the damn standards changed or even just that glorious feeling that I can stay up late, sleep in the next morning (fuck, I’ve got jury duty next Monday…even earlier than fucking school, the bastards), and make art for hours without having to worry about that whole day job thing. But also, the panicked emails of parents who want a miracle for their student’s lack of work in the form of a parent meeting NOW it must be NOW why can’t you do it NOW. Fun stuff. It won’t fix the progress report that’s coming home. So meetings and emails…lots of them.

So now I have a quiz to grade…not sure I have the brainpower for it. We have a lab today anyway, so it won’t be happening yet. It’s a lab we’ve never done before exactly like this…so we’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping it goes well. It meant I had to traipse around to three stores last night trying to find two different types of chocolate chip cookie (long story), and also do the grocery shopping, and then cook dinner. Long day. I finished grades at school before I left, so as of now, they’re complete. Which is nice. I have tons of work to do at school still…they’ll make us clean our rooms so THEY can clean our rooms. Plus we need to make glaciers. Being a science teacher is a weird job sometimes.

It was late when I made it in here, but I entered a show, dealt with a bunch of personal stuff, emails, bills, figuring out that I need to ship three quilts this week alone…which means I need at least one box. And the girlchild comes home Saturday night, so her room needs about 40 quilts moved. Minor issue.

I bought the background fabric on Wednesday night last week, and then wasn’t able to get any of the ironing done. I had to stitch the background together first, make it big enough…

This was an easy ironing job…

Mostly one solid piece, not a lot of fussiness.

Calli helped.

Not at all. In no way, shape, or form.

Now they’re ready to be stitched down tonight. Hopefully that will be easy peasy…

And then I can finally quilt this bastard, like three weeks late. Sigh. Oh well. It’ll get done.

One of my students. I want you to see what I get to deal with…

Best part is his spelling of science.

I have a piece in CraftForms right now, at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, PA.

See if you can figure out which one it is…

It looks like an interesting show actually…lots of variety in materials and shapes and techniques…

Too bad I don’t live near Pennsylvania.

It’ll be there until February 1. Check it out!

OK, off to the mines. That’s what we’re doing today…mining. It’ll be good. Really. Then tutoring. I’m already tired. I think I’m cooking again tonight too. Ugh. OK. Work. Four more days. Translator canceled for this morning’s meeting. Could be difficult.