Catching It in a Different Order

I keep thinking it’s June. It’s not June yet. I just am panicking like it’s June. I should stop that. I’m being pretty efficient with like everything except sleep and exercise. Those aren’t happening right now. We got loaner computers so we can grade while the kids watch the pregnancy video. I really don’t know how to just sit and watch things. It’s hard.

You know what’s hard? And a totally first-world problem? My Tivo died. It’s OK. It was old. Although it took a bunch of stuff with it when it died (sigh). But then I spent 24 hours trying to figure out what to do about it. Get another Tivo? Get a different DVR? Ignore it? Assume everything will eventually show up on Netflix or Amazon? (It doesn’t). Sigh. Decisions. Difficult. But not really.

And even though we’re out of school relatively early this year, I already potentially have 4 teacher days for the last two weeks of June, dammit. Sigh. I took things on. I can’t not apparently. And July apparently belongs to the US District Court, so I’m trying to shove all the appointments into those two weeks of June as well. Eyelid twitching. Yup. There it goes.

I haven’t given up hope on getting this quilt done though. I graded all day in class, got about 20 minutes per period in, finished up two assignments completely, most of a third. I’m still watching videos. Need to rethink that for next year? Or revise? Not sure. Can’t think that hard right now. Which is interesting…because at some point, co-teacher and I need to plan next year…which means throwing it all up into the air again and catching it in a different order. Some day we’ll be easier on ourselves. Teaching this unit is pretty easy…done it enough times.

So yeah, even though I graded all day in class, I came home and graded some more. I just want to be caught up, whatever that means. I wish I had another week on this quilt…I’d be fine if I had another week. Sigh.

After grading, I cooked dinner…and then I kept cutting things out. It’s actually going really fast, which is nice…I’m about 3 1/2 hours in and I have one full yard and then maybe another third of a yard…unfortunately it’s a third of a yard with a lot of small pieces, which takes longer to cut out. There’s the puppy…

He’s a good couch dog…unlike this goofball…she was kicking me while rolling around in her sleep.

We’ve been watching the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale…it’s so hard to watch. A great show, but painful…and then because my students all binge-watched it, I’ve been watching the second season of Thirteen Reasons Why…ugh. It’s not bad…it makes some relevant points (episode 2), but then goes a little wackadoodle (episode 4). I have to remember I’m not the target audience…I just educate the target audience. Which can be hard…every year we have a student or two who does or says things that set off every alarm bell in my head, and it’s so hard to watch them go through the stuff in their own heads. And to worry about them. They’re our kids too…in a different way, but you still want to encourage them and keep them safe and sometimes beat them over the head with a pillow, just like your own kids.

So I finished cutting out the first yard, cut out all of the second yard, and that’s what’s left of the third yard…with a fourth yard lurking on the sidelines.

I think I should easily be able to finish cutting them out tonight AND sorting them. That puts me into ironing on fabric tomorrow night…hopefully finishing Saturday? Seriously. It’s gonna have to be quick. Much as my brain would like to stop dealing with school and spend some weekend time full-on relaxing, I can’t do that yet. I think I’ve got another 46 hours or so to put into this quilt, based on the last one…although I’m considering a facing of sorts instead of a binding…not sure if that saves time or not, since stuff still needs to be sewn down by hand, unless I do a pillowcase-type finish. Plus if it’s something I’ve never done before, that makes it take longer. You wanna know how many days I have left to work on it? TEN. Yeah. I know. But four of those days are weekend days (sorry mom, dad, but you’re not going to see me I think until later this month). But 4.6 hours a day? I’m really just hoping that I’m faster than on the last one, and also that it will just take less time because it’s smaller and has fewer pieces.

A girl can dream.

So girlchild posted this from Ithaca…I took this picture! Now of course she set up the camera and all I did was point and shoot. And then she looked at the picture and adjusted something (light) and made me take it again. I’m pretty impressed with her ability to take photos, actually. And I wish I’d moved slightly to the right so that guy in the background was gone…need to get her Photoshop so she can erase him with some additional greenery.

Anyway. Another early meeting this morning (this week is kicking my butt for those, but at least people will actually be AT this one, unlike the other two). Then more pregnancy videos and grading. Then home and grades and art. Wash Rinse Repeat.

More Than a Little Crazy…

Oh hellz ya a long day. Got to school early for a parent meeting where the parent didn’t show. Always nice. Then taught about pregnancy all day…certainly made about a million times more difficult by the fact that we don’t teach body systems any more. Then did tutoring for an hour, mostly sitting by one girl and listening to her mangle words…talked to her mom (well, mom didn’t speak much English) about having the girl read in English to her mom and her brothers and sisters. She says she doesn’t like to read. I asked about magazines and the library. Mom’s all for it. Drove out to my photographer’s, avoiding traffic (but not dumbasses) for once. Got my quilt…he called it “tame” compared to most of mine. OK then. House cohabitant asked me if it had a woman spreadeagled with vulva in full view or an obvious penis. Holy hell, this quilt IS tame. Interesting, because it doesn’t feel that way to me.

This is Heart-Shaped Box…

The first drawing was done in 2014 and had the two main figures in it.

The fireplace got added earlier this month? I think? No, in mid-April. That’s right. I remember now. I took the trip during Spring Break, and came back and started drawing this full size.

I added the fireplace and the backpack and the figure on the rug then.

The figure on the rug has been sitting in my head since July 2014, when I first drew this.

Weird how my brain works.

Calli is old, but she still plays…she was running around, throwing this up in the air for herself.

Weird dog. Then she slept for a good long while.

So after dinner, I graded for a bit…I can’t really ignore that. And then I finished tracing the new quilt…It took a total of 11 hours to trace the Wonder Under, and I think I did it all in the last week. Minus graduation weekend.

It’s a little less than 4 yards of Wonder Under. I found another double-numbered section. Brain fart.

And then I started cutting them out. If I base it on the last one, it’ll be about 6-7 hours of cutting…so 30 minutes last night…

Two or three tonight and tomorrow night, and hopefully I’ll be done by Friday night…sort them, and start ironing down over the weekend. Sheesh. I really don’t know if I can pull this off.

Simba just wants me to pet him.

Which I did.

I didn’t get far in 30 minutes last night…

More tonight. More of the CRAZY tonight, because this is more than a little crazy. Meanwhile, here I am, up early again, for another meeting (parent will show for this one)…just no repeat on the tutoring and quilt pick up today. I have two other errands instead, plus it’s my turn to cook. Twelve days of school left…

Put Your Money Somewhere It Will Do Good

So this is really early and only vaguely coherent…either that or it’s really late, but still vaguely coherent. I was trying to get myself to bed early last night to get up for this crazy-ass flight this morning, and honestly, I suck at the relax and go-to-bed part of my life, so we’d watched the end of one of the Marvel movies (don’t have to watch TOO hard) and I was tracing Wonder Under (only got to about 720 or so, more on that later) and then stopped drinking tea (don’t attribute my sleeplessness to that…it doesn’t matter…I’ve tried without drinking it and I still am wired until after midnight) and drank a glass of wine and stopped trying to trace and was trying to actually physically walk down the hallway to the bedroom, but I had this Facebook post I wanted to do for one of the groups I’m in, but I was missing one piece of information. So I went to the website to see if I could find it on my own, and I found out (about a month after the fact) that my gun control quilt, Rooted in America, won 2nd place in Fantastic Fibers. Wow. OK. Wasn’t expecting that (isn’t that the best kind of award? Yes. Yes it is.).

But (and I woke up at about 1 AM on this one) I’ve had this tab open on my computer for a GoFundMe that I really wanted to send some money to, but it’s the time of year when I have to make sure I have enough to get through the whole summer with no paycheck, and I’m not sure of that yet, so I was waiting on the donation until I got through the end of school and all the kid expenses etc. before I donated, because maybe it was going to be a significant donation because I think this group is doing really good work and maybe it was not going to be as significant because two months with no paycheck is kinda painful. So now I can gladly send the larger amount…which makes me happy.

So the awesome cause is one I’ve talked about before, Social Justice Sewing Academy. They’re doing a summer program for kids and will be matched dollar for dollar up to $10K. You should check it out here…and give them some money, if you feel up to it. Not only are their quilts amazing, but the kids they work with are our future and we need to get them involved in politics and change for all our sakes. So as soon as that check gets here, I’m pushing most of it back out into the world to do good.

Meanwhile, like I said, I traced some stuff, but not enough…I shall survive.

I started the fourth yard of Wonder Under…

I’m in the 700s…

I misnumbered…again! Pieces 670 to 699, and then I restarted at 670 again. AGAIN. So that’s 29 pieces with a’s on them (all on the back at the moment…hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out in real time when I iron)…plus one that wasn’t even numbered, so it got a b.

I’m leaving 5 animals in the capable hands of this guy…I’m sure he’s up to it, although he’s rethinking it right about now, when all three will start barking at the arrival of the car to take me to the airport…

This one was not sure at all last night as to why there was luggage and Katie (my parents’ dog) and all this hustle and bustle…

They will all be fine. With that, I gotta go get moving.

You Don’t Know Where and You Don’t Know When*

Well, the best-laid plans…you know the rest. Yes, the phone has a new battery…that’s the good news. The bad news was the camera has dust in it and they won’t just clean it out (ugh) and I had to drive to the Apple store twice yesterday, which is not a short distance from here. I survived, of course…even hit monster steps hiking all the way across the mall (fast, without stopping for anything, I hate malls) twice. Or four times, depending on how you look at it. I have today to survive (it’s another hike-across-town day…too many errands), then I need to come home and do laundry and pack, so I can get up in the middle of the night and leave town. I’m trying not to panic about getting grades done…or the next quilt, because I was strangely (WTF was I thinking?) believing I could finish tracing Wonder Under last night. What was I smoking? (I don’t smoke…)

So after dinner and running around the house looking for stuff I’m supposed to take with me (I always take kiddie scissors on the plane and couldn’t find mine, but then ended up finding two OTHER pairs of kiddie scissors AND the two tweezers I’d lost. So now I have three tweezers…is it PAIRS of tweezers or SETS of tweezers or just TWEEZERS plural? What is WRONG with me?), I finally got around to tracing Wonder Under at like 10:30. That was not my plan, but it is what happened.

I forgot to photograph the other fabrics I bought when I got the binding fabric.

I’m actually incapable of buying JUST the binding fabric. It’s crazy to do that. CRAAZY. Probably explains my stash. I don’t actually buy a ton of fabric a year…as you saw on the last one, I’m trying to use up my stash for backings…I do buy backgrounds, sometimes more than one because I can’t decide…but this time, I just bought one. And one binding. And those. Above. Yeah. Well. I like words and weird diagrams and I always need good yellows and pinks and grays and that periodic table just cried out and that brown is a really nice red-brown shade, like the green is a nice mellow medium green. So there’s that.

This is puppy’s face when he might be in trouble.

Notice the person’s sock and the cat’s tail. There were some inappropriate puppy actions going on. He gets snarly.

So back to the tracing. I think I hoped for another 2 1/2 hours last night, but honestly, I don’t think that would have done it anyway. There’s actually 904 pieces, not 800 and something…plus the little ones sometimes take longer to trace.

So even though I did the iPhone and the bird carrying the heart and the entire chest with heart and lungs and veins and arteries, I didn’t get a ton done…I’m at piece 627…so 270 or so pieces left. And that’s a good 3 hours. And I don’t have 3 hours tonight. I need to go to bed early and try to sleep so I can function tomorrow. I suck at sleep, as you well know, and going to bed early is usually a no-go…plus I have to pack and all that crap, so I’m already pushed for time. I may not be able to trace at all tonight…or sleep (oh my, laughing semi-hysterically at that one).

Although tracing is the one thing that’s helping me not grind my teeth at the moment. Does this look like an octopus to you? Well it’s a lot of octopus pieces…

There’s two yards laid out…mostly. I’m still on the 3rd piece…the bottom one is not filled…but there are big arm pieces next and so I’ll need a 4th yard of Wonder Under to get it all done. At least.

And since I won’t be home until late on Monday night, odds are I won’t get anything else done until Tuesday next week. It’s OK. If it doesn’t get done in time, it will still get done and it will still be an awesome quilt. I’m cool with that. Doesn’t mean I won’t go for it…it’s just not going to be the end of the world if I don’t meet that deadline.

*Modest Mouse, World at Large

Not Today

I have been looking forward to this weekend. No real events…just something tonight. No things I really HAVE to do, except work on these two quilts…which I should probably get going on. I slept in (but went to bed really late too). I need a swathe of unplanned time to just sit around in my pajamas and drink tea and maybe do what I want. Think what I want. Not really though. That’s what weekends SHOULD be…but I’m stressing out about school and getting stuff done and whether or not to give kids more time to finish something when I can’t really afford to give them that time. Because I need to grade it. Aargh.

Anyway. I don’t know who let all that shit in, because I was trying to keep it out. Deep breaths. Sip the tea.

I worked on both projects last night. I also wasted chunks of time doing hell I dunno what. Seriously. I really don’t know.

A student gave me a rose for teacher appreciation week (his mom made him)…I don’t pick yellow usually, but it’s pretty.

I traced Wonder Under for about an hour while my show was finishing up…I’m in the 300s? I think? All the way up both legs and now starting to do the stuff around that.

Then I moved into the studio and worked on ironing the second figure. He’s got legs…

And I did his hands (one hand is literally just the tips of his fingers)…

That hand was complicated. I like it though…and the arm attached to it.

I numbered the fleshy bits before the box he’s holding, so I guess I’ll iron all the body parts and then the box and then insert the box? Not sure. That was midnight last night and I was tired, so I quit…and then stayed up too late anyway. It happens.

Today I am braindead. So I’m going to eat, shower, drink more tea, and then start ironing I think. I have an event tonight, but I should be able to get a chunk done this afternoon. Kinda looking forward to it. Then tomorrow I can make a decision about whether to extend kids’ time or grade stuff or whatever. Not today.

It Could Happen

I really need to work on this thing where I sleep through the night. It’s like having a baby around…except it’s my brain or the dog or who knows what. Exercise seems to help, but I don’t always have the time or energy for it…like if I walk in the door at almost 6 PM and I’ve been working that whole time, except for a nice leisurely lunch with my coworkers because it’s teacher appreciation week and the only kids who appreciate me are last-year’s kids (I’m OK with that…we’re probably pretty annoying right now…by this time last year, they won’t still be annoyed by us)…well then I THOUGHT about the gym, but a wave of exhaustion hit me as I walked up the stairs to the front door. So I didn’t. I will later this week. I’ll just do it on a day when I get home before dinnertime.

I think mostly the sleep thing is stress. I have other signs: the twitching eyelid, the canker sore I always get, the tight jaw…yup. That’s stress. I’m trying. I really am. So last night, after getting some stuff done like rejecting one proofreading job because the timeline was too tight for someone who works during the day, dealing with beneficiaries on my life insurance (yo kids! It’s you! plus how did they spell my brother’s name wrong? It’s the same as mine!), and some other email stuff…I decided to start tracing the next quilt. Yup. I don’t hardly ever, as far back as I can remember, work on two at a time…except when I’m working on one and the deadline on the other is more important. Then I might set the less-important one aside to work on the more priority piece. But I’m doing these pretty much simultaneously. Mostly because I had a Netflix video that I knew my video-watching partner wasn’t going to like, and he was gone, so I could watch it while tracing, but not while ironing (two different rooms, only one has a DVD player. I wrote VCR. I mean, it has that too, but we don’t use it any more).

I traced for almost 3 hours. Meditative.

IMG_4249 small

I didn’t get super far…all the stuff in the bottom, ready to start on her feet. Maybe 150 pieces or so. Not sure why it took so long, but it did. My brain fighting the process. I’m still working on not bringing any work home…on getting stuff done at school and at meetings, so I don’t have to bring it home. Not sure that will last, but I’m trying.

I got a phone call this morning at 6:30 AM from a duct-cleaning place. Every other day or so there’s another message from one of them. That and the phone researchers…one called last night at 8:45 PM. Annoying…not sure how to get off those lists.

Early meeting today…hopefully I’ll wake up and find my brain by the time I get to school. It could happen.

Sinking Is All I Had Planned*

Took a day off from all the things. Looking ahead to May, I can see some stressful events and lots of meetings (three in one day? Really?), so I wanted to do a hike before all that. We originally were looking at a short one, but the weather was right and I had this hike that had been bugging me. Last June, I tried to do a hike with the boychild, but I had recently started taking a new medication, and it fucked with me…so I ended up having to get helicoptered off the mountain (that was a fun experience actually). The situation was scary, though, in that when that happens, you get paranoid that it will happen again, where you’ll feel like you can’t control or trust your body and do the things you want to do. So it’s been on my list since then to do the hike again (it’s one I’ve actually done 5 or 6 times anyway), just to prove to myself that (a) I can do it and (b) it was the meds, not me.

We go out Sunset Trail, then pick up Big Laguna back…pretty simple, not too much climbing, gorgeous views and a meadow.

It was a gorgeous day, weather was warm but breezy, not too bad. Probably better than last June, which was hot. The fires came through here however many years ago, so there are always new trees that have finally succumbed and are lying around.

This was a perfect time to go…lots of meadow and mountain flowers, plus the oaks have all their new pinkish growth coming in.

Seriously, there were flowers everywhere…

We didn’t see any animals, except lizards and birds…not even the cows that are usually in the meadows!

Looking down at Water of the Woods, which had quite a bit of water in it. There were only about 4 hikers on Sunset Trail, but a lot more (mostly bikers) on the Laguna trail. Bikes aren’t allowed on Sunset…that’s a plus.

This bird is loud and weird. Pretty sure it’s a
Red-winged Blackbird.

You can listen to one here…but the one I was listening to seemed to have been listening to a bunch of electronic music. He had a definite electronic twang to his song.

Walking up from the pond, that tree was just leaning there, most of its bark gone, just perched on its stump.

Some dead trees, some burned trees…

A view of Cuyamaca Peak, Middle Peak (to the right), and Stonewall.

Then we come to where I sat for about 20 minutes or so last June, waiting for the helicopter to show up. They had sent out the Forest Service guys who were already out there to check on me, and then the official rescue people hiked in from Penny Pines. Boychild and I had debated if I could hike another mile, mile and a half, to Penny Pines, but I was barely able to walk more than 10 steps without feeling like I was gonna pass out by then.

So the helicopter landed there. I had plenty of water, had drunk, had eaten. And yesterday, I was fine. No problems at all.

So we kept hiking.

A view of the meadow from Sunset Trail…

There were pinecones all over the place.

We kept going around the meadow, avoiding the mountain bikers…

Nature at its best…

And there’s water in the lake!

I’ve actually never seen this much water…then again, I didn’t hike there right after the rains last year…I’m sure there was more than this.

But it was nice to see this much anyway, along with the swathes of color across the meadows.

No cows. Girlchild would have been disappointed.

Heading back…

A little over 8 miles. Definitely tiring…I zoned out most of the afternoon, but it was good. It felt good. I’m glad to have conquered that.

Meanwhile, I did buy fabrics for the background of the new quilt. There’s a contrast challenge between bodies and fireplace and floor and background wall. The left is part of the fireplace, the middle is the wall, and the right is the floor.

I got these too. Maybe if my kids ever have kids, they will realize what all the alien fabrics are for. Or not.

These two are still nervous about each other…

Friday night I finished cutting out all the Wonder Under with Simba’s help…

This mermaid with two tails was in the Starbucks in the morning…

I finally got off the couch yesterday afternoon and sorted the Wonder Under…it didn’t take long.

We got dinner at the new Mexican place in town. I don’t believe that Frida actually said that.

And then I started ironing.

I didn’t get very far, because I was tired and it was late and standing hurt my feet at that point, but it’s a start.

Some blues for a backpack…

I’m expecting the ironing to take at least 10-12 hours…so all week, really. Hopefully I’ll be cutting pieces out by next weekend. That’s the plan anyway. Stay on task. I might need to grade some stuff sometime soon though. Sigh.

Today has a long to-do list, as always. Better get on it…

*Aimee Mann, Humpty Dumpty

In My Dreams…

Things that help: exercise, reading, interesting food, not bringing work home, even though you probably should. Things that don’t help: the weirdass dreams I’ve been having almost every night this week. I seriously wake up thinking I’ve lived this entirely different life in my head (and you’re all there, doing weirdass things), and my brain is confused by the alarm, by the bed, by the cat, by everything. I feel like I have to recite this mantra in my head: You’re a teacher. You teach middle school. You teach science. You will have to go to work today. Wait, I’m NOT discovering some weird anthropological creature in an underground dig in Mozambique? With my high-school chemistry teacher? Who’s probably dead by now (OK, maybe not…he wasn’t THAT old)? With 3 friends from elementary school and one from college, none of which I’ve seen in 30 years? OK. Brain reset.

Somewhat disorienting.

I went to the gym last night to finish my book. Oh yeah, and get some much-needed exercise. I’d forgotten how nice it was to do that. Must add back into calendar. Then I came back and made a lovely healthy meal. Also a good thing.

I pulled this picture of the girlchild’s travel group off the webs…

A motley crew for sure. They are all writing 40-page papers in the next three days, and then she’ll have a week of being a tourist, and then back home. Fast, eh? And then it’s less than a month until the boychild graduates from college, holy crap, when did that happen?

This is every teacher right now…especially as we realized yesterday that the full moon is this weekend…and that was fully apparent on our campus.

I have had to explain multiples times that they have almost TWO MORE MONTHS OF SCHOOL SIT DOWN AND DO YOUR WORK. Yeah. Rough year. Time to start teaching sex ed.

After the healthy dinner, I did more of this…not as much as I wanted to get done…

I only cut for about 2 hours, but I finished the second yard and started the third. I figure I’m about 2/3ds of the way through. Maybe another 3 hours? Sounds like tonight, eh?

I’m hoping. And then sort them and start ironing down…which means I should go buy fabrics today for the background. Store closes at 5…they used to have one late day a week, but no one (but me) used it. I can kamikaze over there after work…I try to never have meetings after school on Fridays. I need a break. Especially this week…it’s been meeting-heavy. And next week is May! Holy crap that was fast.

OK, today will be a lot of managing behaviors and pushing them through learning…hopefully it will go well. (in my dreams! ha ha ha…I don’t usually teach in my dreams…although I’m often at school. A girl can dream. Ha ha ha! I’m killin’ myself laughing over here.)

Tell Me Now How Do I Feel*

The early mornings are getting to me…I actually went to bed early last night. I know, it’s a miracle. I was tired though. Yesterday was three meetings before and after school, and the afterschool one took a lot out of me. When we teach reproduction, we have to allow the parents to preview the curriculum, which is fine. I’m glad they’re paying attention…but this was more about a culture clash than reproduction. Those are hard. I think it might have been just as hard for the dad. The parents can choose to opt their child out of a sexual education, which I don’t really agree with, but I respect their right to do so…so every year, we send letters home and do these meetings and then have parents who choose to have their kid NOT learn about how their bodies work. And no, it’s not just girls. Anyway…unfortunately, they don’t let US choose who to opt out, because there are some pure trolls and some incredibly immature (um boys) who make it a lot harder for us to teach this unit.

When I got home from that, which took longer than it ever has, I walked the dogs.

It was over 3 miles, and they were dragging at the end of it. It felt good, though. All of us need the exercise. Unfortunately, because of coyote sightings, I’ve limited the walks we go on now. I need to go out into those wild places and see if that’s still an issue. Of course, I know the coyotes are still there, but with daylight stretching later, it’s possible that I can go and avoid them.

When I came home, after eating dinner, I started cutting out Wonder Under.

I had (tired) couch companions…

He’s now licking his paw something awful, so there must be something in there. Unfortunately, he’s a bitey asshole, so he won’t let anyone else look at it.

This one also slept…

And I cut for almost 3 hours.

It’s a very methodical process, very meditative. Cut this larger section, cut the big pieces out, then down to the small pieces. Then pick up the next larger section. I got through one whole yard of Wonder Under and part of the next one…looks like it’ll take me three long nights to get through it, but I could potentially be done Friday night. I’m not caught up with grading at school, but I know there are many opportunities in the next week or so to get caught up, so I’m going to try to limit what I bring home. That life-work balance is a bitch for teachers.

I did book the girlchild’s flight home to San Diego (not until August) last night. I’ll see her in May in New York for the boychild’s graduation. She’s on short time in Madagascar now…hoping she stays healthy for the last bit and manages to get home safe.

*New Order, Blue Monday

Too Much Water Damage

This week is tired. I’m pretty sure I thought yesterday was Wednesday, which would make today Thursday, but you know it’s not. Tuesday inserted itself rudely back into the week, refusing to be ignored. Damn you, Tuesday. So now it’s Wednesday and there are two more meetings today which makes it long and tiring. Plus, let’s be completely honest here, I’ve stayed up too late two nights (or more) in a row, trying to get the Wonder Under traced. That said, even going to bed late, I find it hard to fall asleep…my brain is racing, stressed, on overdrive, wants to read my book, wants to work on the quilt, wants to do anything but slow down and relax and rest and rejuvenate. Bad brain.

Yesterday’s afterschool meeting was about National Board certification…something I’ve been considering. I need to get my district to pay for it, though. I love that the only professional development that might actually be useful for me is something I have to pay for myself…all the stuff they force me to go to is mostly useless. Sigh. So it was an interesting meeting…we’ll see if I decide to do that. It might be best to wait a year, until I don’t have to work three jobs to pay for college. Being one kid down in that respect is not necessarily helpful…the boychild had more grant money, so his payment was pretty small…in fact, we haven’t paid anything this year out of pocket…it all came out of the college money we started saving when he was a baby. That was nice. Maybe the girlchild’s will be similar. Going into the 5th year of college payments is hard…there’s nothing left. (Who am I kidding? There was nothing left after the second year.)

Then I came home and soaked my very-much-not-infected (well, at the moment) foot. They still have me on antibiotics until the culture comes back…one of the wonders of diabetes…the fear of foot injuries. I was multi-tasking…reading my book (that’s due in 3 days) while soaking. Of course. And then! I’m a character in the book!

So far, I’m kind of a lame character…but I’ll take it. Might be a true representation of the Nida character right there in the second-to-last sentence.

Then right back to this, because when I stopped Monday night, there were only about 230 pieces to go. And that’s doable in one night.

Well, it’s probably more doable when you start earlier, because it was well after midnight when I was done. Piece 1000 is in there, but honestly, last night, there were at least 3 numbers that were used twice and at least 4 pieces that weren’t numbered, so who knows what I’m really at. Somewhere AROUND 1000.

It took about 10 1/2 hours…not bad…almost exactly an hour per 100 pieces. I was on a roll! That’s 10 episodes of Agents of SHIELD too. I think. I must have watched something else too, because I still have quite a few episodes in there.

I spread out all the Wonder Under…it’s about 3 1/2 yards’ worth. Covers the light table and more…

Next comes about 7 hours or so of sitting on the couch and cutting them apart. Oh yeah, I never found two numbers on the drawing…so either they were hiding completely (sometimes I number illogically) or they never existed. The human brain is a messed-up device. Too much water damage.

Meeting this morning with the science department; after school, with any parents who want to see our sex ed program before we start teaching it. Yes! It’s almost THAT time of year. Oh boy. Seriously, they might wake up and pay attention…I’d be good with that.

If you want a copy of the catalog for the Things That Matter traveling exhibit, it’s available now on Amazon right here. All the quilt statements are in there too, which is nice. I still haven’t had a chance to read them all.

With that, I’m going to go deal with some other things that matter…