You know, just when you give up on ever hearing back about something, you inevitably get some weird voicemail about it. Guaranteed. So that’s one fuckup in 2023 solved in 2024. May there be more. I had a defective insulin pen. It only took them 4 months to issue me a voucher.
I’m getting lots done each day; it just doesn’t feel like enough. I started tracing Wonder Under for the new quilt, which has an insane deadline, on Monday night…
I spent more time than I usually do on a daily basis, because it’s break, and I’m allowed. Plus I cleaned and organized beforehand. Pay-off. I did the same thing last night, but that’s because I stayed up too late…
That’s not something I should keep doing, because sleep is one of my major focuses of the new year. Sleep affects blood sugar. And stress. Also stress affects blood sugar. And sleep. Annoying really. There should just be a button I can push to fix all of those. ANYWAY. I’m in the 400s…planning on finishing today. Then trimming the Wonder Under. Fast fast.
Unfortunately, this is the part of Winter Break where I panic about not getting shit done. I took the dog back to the eye doc today; his eyelid is healing fine and hopefully the growth will not come back and his eyes will not deteriorate super fast. We’ll see. He’s a good boy. I have a haircut later today, after a COVID-related rescheduling. Works for me. I have pilates today. That’s normal for a Wednesday. I started lesson planning yesterday with a little grading on the side. I still have one assignment that’s not done. Well, two, but one is super small. I should plan to finish those. I wanted to lesson plan first, though. I have a hellacious January, with 4 sex-ed curriculum meetings that weren’t supposed to exist (ah fun) and a whole host of other meetings, plus progress report grades are due. So I’m trying to preemptively get my head above water through February. Ha! Yeah, I know. I’m trying. I managed to get through 7 days of plans yesterday, but they had already been sort of roughly put together, so it was just finessing things and making sure there were rubrics and due dates etc. That’s almost the first two weeks of school, because of holidays and the like. So I’ve got another 9 days to get through for February, and they mostly don’t exist…and I’d really like to get a rough draft of the whole genetics unit, if I can pull it off. I don’t think I can, but I often set goals that I have no chance of achieving on time. I also need to ship some stuff today, write a blogpost I keep talking about writing, and do some organizing for a class I’m taking next week. NOT school related. Plus the quilty stuff for other people that I haven’t finished due to a shortage of time to do all the things. As always.
This was in the grocery store parking lot yesterday.
Chainsaw animals…always fun.
OK. It’s raining here. That’s a good reason to stay inside. I was up way too early. I need to put a label on a quilt and make sure I have hanging slats for it. Then head out for haircut and random errands. Busy day. Not enough hours. Always.
I’m trying very hard to eat my breakfast, type this, and babysit a rambunctious puppy before I go to school today. I’m not ready for school…mentally. Physically, I can do today. And then I’ll think about the next day. And the next day. Which makes it hard when your boss wants a lesson plan for some Thursday and he probably wants it earlier than the morning of. Or the night before. Which is where I’m at right now. I have stuff planned out in order, but no clue how long most of it will take, so who the fuck knows what I’ll be teaching on the day he wants to observe. I mean, I’ll know on the day. I hate not being planned better, but it’s physically impossible right now to get there. Again. For the fourth year in a row. So completely done, y’all. PRO! I finished grading things, so I have a few days of leeway before I have to get back on that. I really wanted to be fully planned out for the next three weeks, but it didn’t happen. I have a rough plan for two of them…some decisions need to be made, and otherwise, I just need to let it play out to get the timing right. Absolutely no help on that from anywhere. Sigh.
Moving on. So I finished tracing the quilt on Friday night…
It’s been really fast compared to the last one. Then Saturday night, I cut all the pieces out.
Luckily Annie slept through all that, although she did just about knock an entire box over when she woke up to Simba’s barking.
Yeah. All of them. It was about 4 1/2 hours. Delightful. Last night, I sorted them all…
It took a whopping 18 minutes. So funny. The last one was over 2 hours. I do love a big complicated quilt, but sometimes this is a relief, to do a smaller, less complicated one.
Then I started trying to clean up the studio, putting fabric away so I can start ironing to fabric tonight. I’m not done cleaning, but I’m not cooking tonight and I have no grading (just planning) to do, so hopefully I can spend a little more time in here tonight and actually start ironing to fabric. We’ll see.
Friday was also our Thanksgiving dinner, with my family…just the parents and the Man. The kids are still in the UK…actually, I think the girlchild is back now.
Mom is not fazed by dogs…even very in-your-face dogs.
She’s ripping borders off a quilt duvet she made so she can turn it into a king-sized duvet instead of a queen. Pain in the ass…
Dad also had a dog…
They were very patient with my turkey issues…it turned out fine, but took an hour longer than I had planned. As usual.
Kept it pretty simple. Yes, the dressing turned out great. Second time.
Small group. Lots of cooking and cleanup, but nice to see them otherwise.
This is a first…Nova and Simba on the bed together.
It didn’t last long. It’s like the bed is neutral territory and anyone (but Annie) can be up there together. Weird.
Also weird that we still have caterpillars on milkweed that is still blooming.
We’ll see if any of it survives to next year.
OK. Three weeks of school until the next break. That’s 15 days. Fifteen days with 1 assembly, 1 observation, 1 literacy meeting, possibly 4 sex ed curriculum meetings, 3 staff meetings, 1 union/principal meeting, at least 3 parent-teacher meetings, at least 4 labs, and who knows what else that I just don’t know about yet. I think I can do that. Maybe. Also a quilt to finish, hopefully sooner rather than later. We’ll see how that goes.
Ah Black Friday…when I rarely leave the house. Mostly because this is the day I do MY family Thanksgiving. At least this year. And last year. Anyway. So I’m cooking. And recooking, because I fucked up the first time. Send thoughts and prayers. It’s OK…I was making a half recipe anyway, so I had all the stuff to do over.
I don’t have a second turkey though, so let’s hope I don’t mess that up. I’m missing my two foodie children, who are much better at reading recipes than I am. It’s OK. I kept it simple. The stuffing/dressing just fucked me up a bit. The recipe actually has ‘simple’ in the title, but I was trying to rewrite an incomprehensible (not simple) electromagnet lab at the same time, and that didn’t help. Right now, everything is in waiting mode, although in 15 minutes, the turkey needs to come out of the brine and get rinsed and ready. Remind me next year to do a dry brine instead. So I might not finish writing this before I go womanhandle the bird.
I did finish grading everything, even the redoes, although most of them were absolute crap. I wonder sometimes why I talk in class or make videos, because no one listens to me. I meant to finish lesson planning on Wednesday and then not do any more schoolwork until Sunday afternoon. Yeah, that’s fucked. I didn’t start lesson planning until yesterday and the lab today is not even half written or rewritten. Some things on Teachers Pay Teachers are so convoluted and yet missing the most important crap. Much like my coteacher. Sigh. It is what it is. If I think too hard about it, I’ll lose my mind. But I do need to plan some more this afternoon so I won’t be too buried in the next three weeks. Because those weeks already look so bad.
I have been tracing each night…staying up way too late. As usual.
Annie checking out what I’m doing. I think she’d climb up there if I didn’t shoo her away.
Then last night, I got close to the end, but realized I hadn’t numbered one section, so I guess I have about 80 pieces left to trace. I couldn’t stay up THAT late. But I should be able to finish today and start trimming them.
There’s a dog in that picture too. Then I can go buy background fabric tomorrow. Finish trimming in a couple of nights, start ironing to fabric. In between lesson planning and too many meetings and trying to figure out Christmas. Ugh. Chaos. I did manage some of the chaos in the last few days: I planted all the baby succulents that were hanging out on the kitchen counter, I switched compost bins (it’s been on my list since September…welcome to the day job fucking up my existence), I got a bunch of pine needles and leaves swept up into the recycling bins, I moved the old trellises against the fence to keep the dogs from slamming into it to ‘greet’ the boxers on the other side, and I cleaned out the freezer (stuff in there from 2020 y’all…bad deal). I also cleaned off the table so we can actually eat there.
I still need to sweep and find appropriate dishes and finish the damn lab instructions and a bunch of other stuff. Mostly food related. But the quilt stuff is in there too.
We walked the doggos yesterday…
The weather was supposed to be cooler but there was a definite warmish tinge to all of it.
Then we went to the Man’s family’s house for Thanksgiving 1.
The food was good, and they decorate! They had Xmas up already. Oh my. I can’t deal. Nice people though…
They have more variety of foodstuffs than we will…more people too. More vegetables. I appreciate their gatherings because they are low-stress for me.
We came home and napped off the turkey and the hike.
She’s half in my lap.
The kids and their dad are at the wedding in the UK now…I think…
I mean, I know it’s today. They might still be at the festivities. They clean up well. I do miss the kids, but they’ll be here at Christmas, so that’s not too far off. And my Thanksgiving 2 is about 6 hours off. In fact, it’s turkey time. Wish me luck. Send more thoughts and prayers. I’m gonna need them. And then art time. Maybe more napping. Only three days left of break before I am back in the grind. Not ready. Never am.
Oh hey. Hi. School dreams every night. Can’t fall asleep for a good two hours, even though it’s midnight. It’s not even that hot. The dog is in the bed, my body hurts, my brain won’t shut the fuck up. All good. It is August. So school is on my mind. Heavily.
Yesterday was the first day I didn’t have copyediting. I had to deliver some art, but it was trouble-free and relatively quick (come to our opening at the downtown San Diego library on August 11!). Today I had my eyes checked (all good). I try to keep the last few days before school starts relatively open, so I can introvert myself into a pillow fort coma before all hell breaks loose. The to-do list might kick my ass. So yesterday, I had about 3 1/2 hours of online training for school (sexual harassment, mandated reporter, pest management, blood-borne pathogens…was that it? Nah, forgot cybersecurity…ironically.). I still have 45 more minutes on active shooters (as opposed to inactive shooters?). I also panicked about the planning calendars for this coming year. My co-teacher sent an email out and I thought, oh shit, newbies are gonna look at these, and I hadn’t touched them since June, so I touched them. Fussed a little with 7th grade just for the first few months…I’m not teaching it this year, but there were a few things that needed fixing. Then took a look at 8th grade. Oh yeah. Fuck. So I fussed with January through June. I’d done some stuff with December already and then stalled on August through November. I had COVID last year for the first 8 days of school, which was a clusterfuck, and the calendar reflects that. I’m hoping the new 8th-grade teacher is ready and willing to plan. Most of the issues are in February and on, but the 2nd unit needs something. I think. I have more to do on Unit 1 today and tomorrow, but I now have a better handle on what I need to do. Maybe. Until I don’t.
So. School. Need to order some supplies. Need to do some stuff with documents. Need to be ready for next week…going back. Not ready. Nope. Nuh uh. Never am.
So I also traced yesterday and Monday…progress! Still fucking slow, y’all. But I’m getting there.
This is what it really looks like when I trace. I usually have about 2 yards of Wonder Under out, one for big pieces and one for filling in with all the little pieces that need to go somewhere. I hate to waste Wonder Under. I blame my grandmother, my raised-in-the-Depression grandma who saved everything. And my mom who was raised by her. Hence the pile of hard, cracked rubberbands I tossed out at work back in June. It’s a thing. I always have rubberbands somewhere that should be tossed. And I never toss a paperclip unless it breaks. Or it’s inexplicably sticky.
I’ve been going through my clothes, trying to be way more organized than I have been. Thrifting some, sending some to a recycler, organizing the rest. We’ve banned the cats from the closet because they cause so much damage. I have clothes with holes from Luna catching them on her kamikaze way down from the top shelf and everything is covered in fur. So I washed a lot and will hang them back up and leave the doors closed. She doesn’t like it. Oh well.
This tracing stuff is hard on the eyes…
This was me tracing through all the trainings…
See tiny computer? Yeah. Well. I’ve heard some of these videos so many times I can ace the test the first time through. I feel like if you pass the test, you shouldn’t have to sit through the videos. Whatever. How about just a brief update on what changed? Nah.
I’ve got 4 yards mostly done and I’ve started the 5th yard of Wonder Under…
I’m 15 hours into the tracing and on piece 1199. So more than halfway. About 830 to go. I’d like it done. But IDK if it will be before the weekend. I have most of the rest of today, but need to do school and yard and house stuff too, tomorrow is wide open (I think? Oh wait, no, have a concert to go to and we’re leaving incredibly early), and Friday is a clusterfuck. Same with Saturday. Ah well. We’ll see. So it will probably be 8 or 9 yards of Wonder Under and 22 hours of tracing. That’s my semi-educated guess.
As part of cleaning out clothes, I tossed a few of my old school shirts, put three in a pile to take to school (I never wear them…one is just the wrong shape for me, so uncomfortable, and the other is polyester, and we are not friends). But I found this white shirt that WOULD fit just fine, unlike the new one I got at the end of last year, but I don’t wear white. I just don’t. I don’t even own bras that won’t show through (they’re all black, what can I say), and I just don’t like white. Ugh. Stains. Makes me even pinker than I already am. SO. I put it in a pile to tie dye and yesterday I decided not to wait any longer and did it on the dryer.
This is the before picture with the one glove I found (yes, the other hand has two blue fingernails right now). I’m letting it percolate and will pull it later today. I’m hoping for awesomeness.
As part of the yard work, I was trimming in the backyard, and was tugging on some ivy taking over one of my trees. I heard a ‘whoosh’ and saw one of the barn owls move to the eucalyptus.
It was STARING at me, like lady, that tree you’re tugging on is my daytime nest. Knock it off. And it makes sense, because we hear one of them vocalizing from the backyard and then around the deck almost every night. So yeah. I still have a barn owl in my yard. All good. There’s also a cat on the roof. We haven’t seen it anywhere else. I haven’t seen it at all. The Man is standing on the deck at night, hears a noise, looks up, and there’s a cat head silhouetted against the night sky. Twice now. Weird, huh? I moved my yardwork to the bougainvillea next to the bedroom window, where there is probably a skunk living, and at least two bunnies that I’ve seen, so that’s safe, right? The reality is that this yard is overwhelming on a good day. I’ve made some progress this summer, but not enough. It’s never enough. Pile of gravel is still there, although I’ve made it a little further around the corner. Ah well. Can’t do it all.
With that in mind, I have a list for today, and once this is posted, I will have done two of the things on it. Plus the eye doctor and Kitten’s meds because she’s not eating. Which I didn’t put on the list because they were on the other list. Hmmm. Don’t have multiple lists. Bad plan. So I’m going to go pee the ex’s puppy…all my wounds from her have finally healed. Then come back and eat lunch maybe and do all the other things on the list. Well maybe not ALL of them. There’s always too many things. Might be a mistake. Plus trace for a good long while. That’s pretty important.
This is the last full week of school. It’s a doozy, of course. Nothing like next week, but still a ton of stuff going on, both at school and in the evenings. Fewer kids turning in late work this trimester. A blessing for me; maybe not so much for their grades. No more lesson planning really though. That’s a plus. Spent so many hours over the last school year trying to do that. Desperately doing that. Can’t teach if you don’t know what you’re teaching. Glad that’s done. Mostly. Yeah. This week is pregnancy and STIs, plus bridge building and maybe breaking, plus a field trip, but coming back and teaching afterwards. Ugh. It’ll be fine. Right? It will? It will be something.
I did get some significant progress done on the new quilt…traced a chunk of time on Saturday…
Before a hike and after dinner. Made it more than halfway.
Then last night, I was going to grade another thing (I graded all afternoon), but then a kid, two kids really, cheated in a truly annoying assholular way, so I quit. Did not have the mental stamina to continue. So I traced instead, which may always be the healthier option.
There’s only 60 pieces left for tonight, and then I can start cutting.
Simba curled up on the couch. Yeah, I had hoped to be done with the tracing yesterday, but I did other things instead. Got a lot of things crossed off the to-do list, which is good. Feels less overwhelming at the moment.
The next goal is to be totally cut out this week and ironing to fabric by the weekend. Hopefully. Gotta put a lot of stuff away in the studio for that to happen, and I’m not sure I have a background fabric that will work. We’ll see.
I drew a little at dinner…
I don’t know if I posted this one, from the last two weeks of dinners…
Some places serve food super fast and I don’t have time to really finish a drawing. This sketchbook is almost finished. It’s a perfect size to fit in my purse. I probably have another one in my stash that will fit.
I went to my quilt guild meeting and worked on this. The never-to-be-finished scarf.
Almost got the body done. Still need to do the face and then decide what else I’m doing. I’m not covering all the black. I think.
We also hiked the dogs…mostly trying to tire out the puppy.
We tired the old man (the dog, not the Man) out pretty quickly…
But Annie was still zooming around at the end of 3 miles.
She was pretty good…a few moments of chewing stuff and she peed and pooped in the house in the first hour, but then figured out how to tell us she needed to go out. Good thing; she’ll be back in two weeks when the ex helps drive the girlchild across country. I’ll be off school, though, so hopefully that will help. Or not! Who knows.
Lots of blooming going on in the yard…
Lots of my chipping away at weeds, cleaning up the yard, trying to make it nicer. A little bit at a time. It probably needs more than a little bit, but that’s what I have time for. That and reading and making art. Lots of reading to do…looking forward to more of that. I do have a school training I have to do in July, and I really should plan things (but not sure how that goes…probably need to meet with my 8th-grade team at some point, but one is a newbie to our school and the other one is as burnt out as I am). Hmm. Not worrying about that right now. Maybe later this week.
Annie meets Kitten. Pretty sure I have scratches from this meeting.
9 days y’all. I might actually survive this school year…it felt pretty desperate last November…but I seem to have managed it. Not sure how. OK. Monday. Go to school.
I’m so off on my blog writing. It’s OK. I should have done it yesterday, but I read my book instead. In fact, there’s a lot of things lately where I think, “I should have done it…, but I read my book instead.” It’s OK. It’s a coping mechanism. It doesn’t make the right eye twitch less at this point. A week of sleep might, but that’s unlikely. Anyway, two weeks of school left. Some field trips, some promotion practice, some bridge building, some reproductive learning. It is easier. I still have stuff to grade, though. Brought a bunch of it home but have felt not at all like looking at it. Not a surprise really. Already mentally on break? Can’t really be there already. Next weekend will be a crazy batch of grading. This weekend, we are puppysitting. I did start tracing the new quilt though…people are always amazed that I go right into the next one without a break, but this one has been drawing itself in my head for almost 8 months. It needs to come out. I don’t like sitting down after school on the couch and NOT thinking about artmaking. My brain is on overdrive, often three or four quilts out, what’s next? Appease the art brain.
Anyway, I started tracing on Thursday night…
The first background pieces are large, long, and swoopy, so I didn’t get far. Last night, I finished those up and started on the sun.
Annie (Anwen) was trying to help by climbing up on the light table (the cats do it; why can’t I?). Not helpful. But I did get a goodly chunk of stuff traced last night; hopefully more today. I wanted to be done with tracing by Sunday night. Not sure I can pull that off. I do have a meeting today and we need to walk the dogs, tire the puppy out at least. And I do have things to do that are house-related instead of school-related. We’ll see how it goes.
So far, she’s peed on one couch, which led me to find a bra belonging to the girlchild (she hasn’t been here since December) and pooped on a rug. And scared herself with the cats. Both the Man and I are sporting claw marks (somehow we got in the way of the cats killing the dog). But in general, she’s fine. Sweet. Just puppylike.
Simba is not a fan.
But he gets the love from us anyway.
The good news is that I have two days off to semi-relax, maybe get a little bit more sleep than I have been during the week. I have plenty of books to read, possibly too many (is that a thing?), my meeting is in a quilt store, and school is almost out for the summer. It’s all good.
OK, normal work week, normal number of days with kids, let’s see if I can do the rest of it on schedule. Blog on the right days, remember to do the things after school, or even the things before school. Act like a normal human being, as much as that is possible when you are an artist and an introvert. Yup. All the things.
First of all, I finished tracing after some mammoth tracing sessions this weekend. Well, not really mammoth; just more than the normal 54-62 minutes I do during the school week. Friday night with my quilting group…
There was probably some Thursday night as well…since I didn’t blog on Friday…because I’m totally off schedule.
More on Friday night after dinner…
Most of the yardage was full up at that point, except for the most recent one. It had some tree parts, which take up a lot of space and leave a lot of open bits to fill in later.
Saturday night, I got the head done. There were about 100 pieces left, but it was already late and I knew I had to be up the next morning.
I pretty much always have to be up the next morning. So last night, I pushed, went a little late, and finished it all…
It’s 5 and a bit yards. Some really big pieces and a lot of not-big pieces. I’ll start cutting out today. That’s 20 hours and 41 minutes of tracing. So far, this quilt has 32 1/2 hours in.
I did a lot of grading stuff this weekend too, but then the grading program was having issues, ignoring all the grades from January (minor issue; only 1/3 of the grading period), so I had to stop. They’re due Tuesday and we have a 2-hour staff meeting today, so hopefully the boss will do something about that. He does know the system is fucked. We got that email yesterday afternoon.
We had some free/reduced tickets to the zoo that expire next weekend, so we had planned that for Saturday afternoon. If you’ve never been to the San Diego Zoo, it’s pretty cool. Here’s a photo dump from that…
That last one, the cheetah was lying down in her cave and then this little boy was squealing and running super fast like he was pretending to be a cheetah, and she totally perked up, like “that’s prey” perk up, and came out, and all I could think was, yeah, that boy is dinner. There’s always this thought that they’ll come out of the cage or through the glass. For me anyway. It was a good 3-hour walk. There were lots of people, but it wasn’t too horrible. Definitely worth it.
A little more after-dinner hand applique…
Hand appliqueing a hand. Ha ha.
Kitten venturing out even though…
Katie is here visiting…
Could not get these two to sit together. They’re not really friends. Mostly because Katie is much bigger and doesn’t realize it and basically runs Simba over.
Katie is a famous singer…
She’s kinda pitiful sometimes. Then we have the master barker…
Apparently I cannot have video going the appropriate direction. Sigh. Thirty minutes of coyote singing later, he finally stopped.
OK. Well. Grades aren’t done because they can’t be. A lot of frustrated teachers today; wonder if it is just our school. I don’t feel ready to teach at all. Nothing new there. I think Friday self set up the classroom pretty well, though (at least I hope she did), so I should be OK. Starting the roller-coaster building today…two weeks of it. Not sure how that will go, but I’m sorta ready. No I’m not. I don’t even have a sample. Shit. I just thought of something I need to prep before school starts. This is how it goes. Also we are officially halfway through now. Only.
Friday the 13th. In a middle school. Wait, what’s the damn moon doing right now…OK…we’re just waning gibbous. That should help. Yeah. Usually I enjoy a good Friday the 13th, but this week has been rough for everyone. I’m tired, the kids are tired. I thought yesterday went OK, but then I got an email. Sigh. Well I’ll hopefully deal with that today, with admin support, plus I don’t think I have a lot of grading for this week, because we just started a bunch of things (although I’m still playing catchup with stuff from December). I spent an hour yesterday dealing with late work for all but one class. I still need to do redoes. Where I let kids fix their work. So they learn from it. Even though it’s torture for me to try to regrade these, looking at what they wrote originally, what comments I left, what does the rubric from December or November say, and how did they change it. Ugh. Hate it, but it’s necessary.
Glad it’s Friday.
I’ve done a little tracing the last two nights…honestly, not even getting an hour in each night. Starting too late, trying to get back in the habit of going to bed earlier. I started training myself back on the 10:30 bedtime last week, but mostly failed at it. Ah well. Soon the exhaustion will help. Hopefully.
The first 150 pieces are mostly big dirt pieces with some smaller stuff interspersed. Big rock pieces take longer to trace because they’re big. And sometimes complicated. So it seems really slow.
I have to become one with the slow. I had to cut a second piece of Wonder Under because the weird shapes wouldn’t fit between all the other weird shapes and they’re all big. It’s OK…when I get to the little pieces, they will all fit between all the big pieces. It’s a puzzle.
I’m only 2 hours in…more this weekend, I hope. It’s supposed to rain most of the weekend. I’m hoping for big chunks of tracing time while listening to weird TV. Although I need to have a crown replaced, my neighbors are having some sort of dessert and drinks gathering, two animals need to go to the vet, we’re having dinner with the parentals…see, the days just get filled up.
Ah, complicated. This is the complicated I like.
Last night was my monthly in-person stitching meeting. Fun stuff.
Fun little house. Fun stitching. We spent time oohing and aahing at each other’s projects, complaining about work, looking up the pronunciation and etymology of syncytial, and talking about books. All worthwhile. This is still Sue Spargo’s Homegrown. I’ll be working on it all year probably. Easily.
Um. I am both of these. Except I don’t delete emails after reading them. I might need them again. I delete a LOT of them, but not all of them. And 12 tabs is nowhere near enough. On this computer, which I don’t use for work as much as I used to, there are 23 tabs open. You can imagine that the work computer is much worse. It is. I organize my Flair pens by what I use them for: writing on docs in class (dark so it’s easy to see on the doc cam), light and bright for grading (make it cheery!), ugly colors I will never use but will never throw out (because that’s anathema). But I also have an entire drawer, another box, and random other locations where pens go to die. Or live free lives, depending on how you look at it.
I think my right eye stopped twitching for maybe 2 days over break. It’s back.
Here’s Luna being sweet.
She didn’t even whack me after I petted her…she just reached out like she was GOING to whack me.
OK. School. Get classroom ready for today. Teach centripetal force and momentum (a little bit), give a quiz, get kids learning about the history of roller coasters, then pivot to atoms and matter, finish up the elements exploration lab that should have been done yesterday, make kids read an article even though they don’t know how to read (pretty sure we have a recording of one of us reading it) and watch a video where they have to pay enough attention to answer the questions. On a Friday. The first Friday back after break. That’s two grade levels there…I’m not teaching the same classes both roller coaster physics AND atoms and matter. Just to be clear.
Stand at a traffic light for 15 minutes, ready to call 911 if a kid crosses at breakneck speed while staring at their phone because some parent was in a hurry to turn the corner without looking for kids…around a school. Go home and spread some wildflower seeds for the upcoming rain deluge, PUT MY PAJAMAS ON, take my bra off, read a book? Drink some tea? Maybe grade some stuff that’s easy. Maybe plan something that’s easy. Maybe not. Maybe stare at cat videos for 45 minutes. Then make dinner (who thought THAT was a good idea). Then trace a bunch of dirt. More dirt. Lots more dirt. Things in the dirt. Dirt. Love me some dirt.
Is it midweek? Or just time for a nap? Hard to say. Back into school, actually sort of finishing grading all the stuff I was supposed to do over break (except for the late work and redoes). Yesterday should have been a chill start to a new project and a new unit, but chill is not the word I would use. Annoying would be a good one. I reviewed behavior expectations, got them started, had to deal with a huge number of behavior issues in two out of the five classes, and then the adult stuff, the district stuff, that’s what threw me over the edge. I think I give up. I mean, I don’t. I go off instead. Not at the kids yesterday. Education shouldn’t be a business. My classroom shouldn’t be a place where district advertising happens. But it is. I feel like my district is a significant part of my discontent. Hmmm. And yet, because of the way our salaries and benefits work, I can’t afford to go to another one. Yeah. Plus I love my team and most of the kids (yeah, really) and the school. So. I’d love more respect from the district too, but that would mean they were different than all the other districts out there (and there are some that are much worse). They actually sent us an email today about the difference between alcoholics and workaholics. Like they aren’t the cause of it all. It’s physically impossible to get it all done. It’s like what we spent part of Monday on…how do we solve problems that don’t start in school, that we have no control over, that we can’t possibly affect? Sigh. This is the job of my discontent at the moment. Live with that thought for a bit. Then figure out how to move on.
Meanwhile, I’m making art. I’m always making art. It’s my sanity. I finished numbering on Monday night…
I was guessing 1800 pieces, but I was delightfully wrong…
It was only 1574. Sounds good. Looking forward to all of it.
I started tracing last night, but I didn’t have my full hour…
Only 36 minutes…because I stayed at school to grade one class period of an assignment, then came home and went to the gym, then came back and graded the other class period of that assignment, all before I started tracing at 9:54 PM. So I only got some rocks and dirt done. I’m hoping tonight is better, but I won’t even get home until after 7 PM, so IDK how that will go. Maybe I will not be grading anything tonight. And here’s how it goes!
Work smarter, not harder. Or not longer. I’ve got some tweaks to do on the roller coaster stuff for the week after next, and I got a delightful planning period with my 8th-grade co-teacher for the first time this school year. I think this is going to help. I’m hoping this is going to help. Or I might lose my mind.
You know those delivery photos you get to prove your package was delivered? Simba is in this one, barking his little mind out…
What a good boy.
I was grading my advisory assignments on Monday (yes, during professional development…what ELSE do you do during something that doesn’t actually help you teach or prepare or self care or whatever?)…and this kid, whom I love…
I agree. Totally. Hands down the best answer.
The girlchild and I were talking about thriving (another thing my district thinks I am doing)…
Yup. Well. Not gaming, but certainly pillow forting with a book or art and a dog or cat or both.
OK, so I still have to grade a pile of late work and redoes, plus do that fussy shit for the roller coaster project, and maybe look at the stuff for next week, write some warmups, WAKE THE FUCK UP (omg when will I get enough sleep), get through today (notes in one grade level, plus one activity, then simulation in the other grade), then pilates followed by physical therapy (the knee is improving very slowly in terms of mobility, but the pain is still there, still an issue going upstairs, worse on some days than others). Dinner. Art. Sleep. Is that it? I think it’s all I’ve got right now. That and an intriguingly complicated quilt to make.
Usually I feel like there’s a bigger fanfare coming up to a school break. There’s a countdown. I mean, there’s a countdown in my head, but it’s mostly panicking because I didn’t have a plan for teaching everything this week. So I was panicking about that and not thinking about how today is the last day of school and then I have 9 lovely days off (well, there’s a lot of stuff that needs to happen, so not all of it is lovely, but that is the way of the world…and at least I’ll be able to pee when I want). Today, we are on a field trip…strange, though, because half the team is going to the Zoo and the other half to Old Town, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. But whatever. It’s done. We’re not at school. I don’t have to try to get a bunch of kids to do something they don’t want to do today. And the buses are picking up late because of elementary-school conferences, so we won’t get back until almost the end of the school day. Sweet. So no trying to teach two class periods after a field trip when we’re all cranky and exhausted. And for once, I end the day with 8th graders instead of 7th graders. Netflix? Check.
Then there are 125 or so science unit packets to grade. I got through exactly 9 yesterday (I had other stuff to do during class). I’d like to finish Period 1 and leave it at school, and then if I have the stamina, finish Period 2 (it’s huge) and leave it as well. I’d rather stay at school for an hour and kick those out than take them home. I’ll have to bring 7th grade home no matter what.
Last night, before my quilty Zoom meeting, I managed to post the first three days of stuff for 8th grade for after the break. I’m really hoping to have all the posts for that whole three weeks planned out before the end of Thanksgiving. I need to get ahead of stuff. I need to backwards-plan genetics and geologic time scale, and then see how much time is left for space and magnetism. Not much, I’m thinking. Ah well. This year is hard. I’m doing my best.
In art news, ah yes, the bliss of tracing stuff. I finished redrawing the new quilt on Wednesday night…
I didn’t change a huge amount, but cleaned up lines and added some stuff, especially to the earth head.
Then I stayed up too late and numbered it…
It doesn’t take a huge amount of time to number it…but it was enough to put me in bed late…
This one is smaller than my last few. It needed to be; it has to be done before the end of the year.
Only 630 pieces! Crazy. For me. Not a lot.
Then last night, I was a on a stitching Zoom with friends. I spent the first hour doing something for a Christmas present and the second hour plus another after the Zoom tracing Wonder Under pieces…
Yay! It’s very meditative and calming. Not enough, unfortunately, because I couldn’t fall asleep, and then something was crawling around outside the window, so Simba lost his mind and then I couldn’t fall back asleep. So I’m not awake. And I’m hopefully going somewhere I can buy caffeine. Or I’m taking it with me. IDK. Something. But now I can trace for the next two-three days, then cut it out, hopefully ironing to fabric by Thanksgiving Day. Big chunks of art, please. Yes, I will have to grade shit and plan shit and probably clean shit (fuck, I think Thanksgiving is here Wednesday night…so I need the vacuum fixed…yikes). But I need a break from the rest of it. I need to read a lot and contemplate silence. Or loud music of my choice. And less whining and neediness. That especially. Learned helplessness. Ugh.
OK. Here’s Nova this morning…
Such a sweetheart. Good thoughts for the day. We’ll be outside and wandering around Old Town and trying to find stuff on a scavenger hunt. Sunscreen. I need sunscreen. And a lunch…I bought a sandwich yesterday to take with me. The fun of being a diabetic. Ah, my head just twinged. Drink more tea. Make sure there is Motrin in my bag. I do actually love field trips. I’m just missing the zoo today.
Kathy Nida 