A short update...Day 3

 Apparently I am not as successful as I had intended...That being said, I am a bit overwhelmed with teaching and I have been very tired. I am having mixed feeling about continuing to be a biology instructor, grading is yucky. (3/16)

OK - so now we are more than a week later (3/26)...I have been not having enough "spoons" to make it through my work day sometimes.  

Last week was Spring Break and I really didn't want to go back to school yesterday. My Mondays and Wednesdays are busy, teaching/peopling all day. Today (Tuesday) and Thursdays are usually more chill, but today was "Spring Fling" on campus - a day to play and get some energy out. I spent 3 hours out in the sun chatting with students, other faculty, and administration. I did get to hang out with some of my favorite students and push my "gay agenda"

I am the faculty advisor for our LGBTQIA+ Student group (Equality Club). There have been some super-serious push back on (all) the student groups likely associated with the coming out (as a transgender woman) of a different club's faculty advisor and that club's creation of a supported (until the conservative "Christian" administration saw it) literary "Die-gest" of student-created horror stories and images. Nothing overtly gross/offensive, but there was use of "curse words" that apparently our President is not willing to say out loud ("the s-word, and G-D-!"). These are commonly used words, especially in the younger (college-age) crowd (and me). And a story that was "real" and set in a local community (where one of the Trustees lives).

BUT the Trustees!!!! BUT our FUNDERS!!! ($$)

False drama. In addition, this also led to the loss of a librarian that was pretty highly regarded and was a huge supporter of our students - both as students and supporting their First Amendment Rights (Free Speech). She was constructively fired for going to bat for our students to be able to create some literary horror stories and images. 

COVID (online teaching and associated cheating) was the start of feeling of the end of my enjoyment of my employment. This has been close to the final piece. The administration claims to "not discriminate on the basis of..." but their actions do not match their words - they are now manipulating the narrative to match their actions. There is a Title IX claim out now, but who are the ones that adjudicate that? Administration. And the two major manipulators are high-up people. It does not make for a safe-feeling place of employment. My direct supervisor (and co-workers) is a big supporter, but that is about as far as it goes. 

There are problems with leaving this job...

• *I really enjoy the students and teaching.
• *I need the income/insurance/benefits.
• I really love where I live and can't really imagine where else to go (though a more liberal community would be a HUGE improvement!)
  
• I am 54 yo, I have a PhD, and I have a lot of skills and as such, I would also want to earn the salary that would go with that. And someone younger/less educated is likely to not "cost" as much as I would. 
  
• I have ideas as to what I want to do, but no clue how to make it happen - I would still love to teach, but not have the grading/and hypocritical administration included. 
• I am very nervous, cowardly, and not-confident when it comes to interviewing - I am self-conscious and have been known to swear (say "shit") when I am stressed/interviewing...I am pretty good at not dropping the F-bomb.
  

I have been taking some time (over break) to do a little sewing. That was good. I have also recently become involved with a really cool gang of quilters through Zoom! It is an international group (at least Australia, New Zealand, USA, and Canada) and they are fun. I have really enjoyed being involved with a community of similar-minded quilters. I am feeling quite isolated in rural NC - the local quilt-group meets Tuesdays, early afternoons...not conducive to working people (grrr). 

Below are 4 squares that I have been playing with - making cats in the corners (no eyes/whiskers yet) and then the object that they are interested in. They were made starting with 6" scrap squares and trimmed to ~5.5" so, overall about 20 inches square. The inserted bits have been appliqued by machine. I will finish them some other time, for now they are chilling on the wall.

 

 

Anyway, this is going to be the disconnected day 3 short entry...I am not well-focused at the moment, and will take some time to try to re-focus and post again soon.

Day 2 of trying to blog again...

All I got for Christmas...

1. A chainsaw pruner (6 inch blade)
1. bar and chain oil
2. new safety glasses
3. new ear protection
   
4. new gloves
5. new soft paintbrush to clean it
2. Bras
3. Aloe-infused socks
4. A Starbucks gift card...tomorrow we get coffee/hot chocolate (and that will almost exhaust the card, not that the card is small, but that their drinks are $$)
   
5. A Visa gift card - that I used to buy 1.5 new dresses from Svaha...they have POCKETS and are 100% COTTON! 
6. Cat-treats
7. Naturally dyed wool yarn in three colors from Peru (very cool)
8. Some weird spoons that have cat-print shaped holes...
9. ~2.75 inches of rain...(Tuesday - Wednesday)
   
10.  
11. that flooded the back yard... (Wednesday)
12.  
13. And everything is back to normal now... (Wednesday afternoon)
14. A new defrost-sensor, circuit board, and fuse for the HVAC...(the guy liked all our yellow doors!)
    
15. Meds!
16. A new sewing machine foot and adhesive tape for Fonda
    

 What did we *need*? cat treats, chainsaw, bras, and dresses :) 

Happy New Year and Peace.

 

Hello Again...

 Hello Again...I am going to try to restart this blog...I am not sure what I will post, but it will likely be yard-plants, cats, yard-beasties, miscellaneous thoughts and photos, and maybe some school-related stuff...

A weird plastic tree mimicking the ceramic tree my grandmother made...very funny to see it in plastic. I am not sure it is worth $80.00 - HAHA!

Phobee-feet...she is sitting pretty, even though she is a snarky-bully-brat. 

our first flower from the winter-yard - of course I picked it and brought it in...it was smelly, in a good way :) 

One of the last blooms from the fall, with a long-tailed skipper (Urbanus proteus). Native in North Carolina. Very pretty and there were a bunch of them all over the lantana (Lantana sp. - Non-native) a volunteer in our back yard next to the gardenia (Gardenia sp. - also non-native, but planned).

Hopefully more soon...it is the start of winter break and I have been busy with house/body maintenance. I have also been doing a lot of cookie-making (I am hooked on @bromabakery - she has some FABULOUS recipes to download) and hope to do some crafting/quilt-making this break. I will post as it progresses.

Peace.

Weirdness

School is weird

School is good, though. I have really enjoyed being back in-person with the labs. My biggest issue is that my 2 classes have each been split into 2, so now I have 4 classes of 111 and I had 2 classes of 112. I begged out of the 2nd 112, though I am sure they might be a bit crabby about it. But I just couldn't do 6 classes...

Life is weird

Life is good, though. 

We are going a lot. Yard sale was successful (yay). Most of the rest was sent to thrift stores. Now, we need to find more things to pack so that we can move them more easily when Mitchell is here to do some renovations. 

• All floors replaced with "Life Proof" lighter flooring, even what is now carpet
  
• Kitchen
• all cabinets
• lights
• counters
• paint
• backsplash
  
• pantry...
• Katie bathroom
• plan is to convert the shower to a "roll-in" (curbless)
• tile on floors
• tile on walls
• detail on wall
• "soap dish"
  
• change 36" to 30" vanity
• move toilet
• tile floor 
• fold down bench
  
• heated floor (yum)
• paint
• Fonda bathroom
• change out the tub
• tile walls
• tile floors (no heat - bummer)
• change vanity
• paint

And if that isn't enough...full-time work concurrent with all this. And Mitchell will be living on the property (in his Camper, on the driveway). We'll see how it goes. Phoebee may be sent to the vet's office for a few days...💗

one day at a time. 

Peace, K

 Dang! it has been more than 4 years (almost 5!!) since my last posing...a lot has happened since then.

Summary:

1. Both Fonda and I had WLS in May 2018...
1. I have lost 140 pounds, and regained 30...holding steady and I am HAPPY with where I am and how I am doing. I will let you go to Fonda's blog to see her progress
2. I have stopped some medications and also fixed my biggest problem (right hip injury)
   
3. Fonda had some complications that lead to some long-term hospitalizations. She is out now and doing well and has been doing well for 1+years
2. I have celebrated 5 years at BCC and I am still (mostly) enjoying my job (see below/COVID)
   
3. COVID sucks
1. I taught remotely from March 2020 through May 2021
2. I have learned that I can do online...asynchronously, but I REALLY prefer in-person over online teaching. I miss my students. 
   
3. Mom-Cathy died of COVID in January 2021. She came down with COVID about 2 weeks before the facility where she was living was to start receiving the vaccine. 
4. Fonda and I got vaccinated ASAP, with different vaccines...hopefully this will protect us when I go back to school in 6 weeks.
   
5. We are still wearing masks when we have to be inside or close to people - I was the only person wearing a mask at an art-gathering on Thursday...What part of infectious disease with up to 2 week incubation/infection do they not understand?
6. The College plans to start in-person teaching in August. We cannot ask for vaccination status, etc. I am planning to request people to still wear masks, as there is an incredible amount of evidence that it works to slow transmission of viruses. I do not really see this to be a successful request as I cannot get them to keep their stupid goggles on when we are working with chemicals that could potentially blind them. Sigh.
4. The cat-population in the house has changed...
1. Wren, Webster, Sera (HBD today), Spot, and Franklynn have died
2. Tulip, Bjorn (AKA Mr. Jingles), and Tangerine (Tangy) - the 3 cats from our former neighbor - are still around, Tangy has become a bit less feral, but he still keeps us on our toes (even with meds!)
3. While Fonda was recovering from her 2nd surgery (~4 months in the hospital), I ran over a kitten on a very remote section of highway on the way to the hospital in Wilmington...I pulled over and went back to find her and then the rest is history - she is a foster fail/win. Her name is Phobee Anne. She is a brat. And I love her.
4. We are going for attrition, without hurry. When we are down to 1-2, we might find another one, but until then NO MORE CATS...(fingers crossed) :P
5. My plan is to take in less-adoptable kitties and help them have the best life they can. We'll see if that works.
5. I have been sewing and making tops and starting to quilt the small ones. I am trying not to buy more fabric that will sit in the boxes... I am trying to use what I have and finish ALL of my UFOs (UnFinished Objects). I just finished one this afternoon...except for hand-sewing the binding. That will happen soon. 
6.  I had a total hip replacement on the right hip in December 2020 - I decided that I was over it and even if I was "young" for it, it needed to happen because I was really hurting too much. 
1. I am now off the medication that caused me to not have the same surgery as Fonda. And I am at about 95% - mostly in flexibility and movement that I haven't done/been able to do without pain for YEARS. 
2. Right after the surgery, I was a bit iffy...What had I done? But the hip-pain was gone, at that point it was only the surgery pain that needed to stop. 
3. After some complications (superficial infection) I am doing well and even started doing yoga again! Though with some modifications (see 1, above). Every day is a little better.
   
7. We've had some Dad health scares that are scary in the moment, but everything has been OK so far.

Other than ^^^, all is OK. I had some other personal stress/issues this spring, but I survived the experience and I am grateful that I have insurance and supportive people in my life. This COVID-thing... No fun! 

OK...enough for now and I'm not even posting some pictures yet. Pictures will follow later. :) 

Peace.

Vacation - post the first...

So...we went on vacation.  A real vacation. Not just going back to Ohio and visiting family or traveling to a job interview that can also double as a sight-seeing tour.  This hasn't happened since we went to The Campbell Folk School way back when (at least 7 years ago!)...This time we went to Aikin, South Carolina.  I know it sounds fancy, right? Well, it is a very cool town...A lot of horse-type-people and a small college-town (USC-Aikin is in town, as well as Aikin Technical College).  

On the way, we stopped at 2 fabric stores and bought a little fabric (really!, not much).  The first was in Sumter, SC called Treadle Pushers... they had, like, 4 big "long-arm" quilting machines!  You could rent time on the machines...something to look into, though it is ~2.5 hours away...we shall see.

 

I loved the  No Soliciting sign - LOL...Except, I really don't care for thin mints (anathema, I know!)

Fonda had managed to find a yard-sale, too...it was amazing that we were able to get there on a Thursday and we actually found some fabric there, too...I bought the equivalent of  3.5 yards of fabric for $14...a very good deal...though I have no photos of the yard sale, you will see: It was HOT!!

 

 After that, we had lunch at a place the quilting women suggested - good, Baker's Sweets - I would recommend it if you find yourself in Sumter, SC - on Alice Street.

After lunch, we continued on to Lexington, SC just west of Columbia...There was a much bigger quilting store there and we bought some more fabric, and of course, found somethings we couldn't leave without photographing...a beautiful tuffet...I wish my mom had made one or found one she couldn't live without before she died... She loved the idea of the tuffet and now we see them everywhere...this one was especially nice, and I think Fonda's Mom will enjoy it, too...we did not buy it, just took a photo - we really can't afford one, or to even make one...they are a bit cost prohibitive.

Sigh.

Then on the final leg, we passed our obligatory SWIFT truck - on almost all our trips, we see these trucks and try to be the first to whisper: "swift" LOL.  

 

After a good night's sleep, we got up early to go to an estate sale that we found just around the corner from our hotel (everything in Aikin is just around the corner, I swear)... While there, I found these "peacock" stirrups and thought that my sister, Meg, might find them useful (I know I would have the last time I rode! ha, ha!  And maybe the next time, too - if there is a next time).  I didn't know what they were called and I called her...Fonda said: "Its 3:30 in the morning there!" I had to do some fast figuring and then decided it was 5:30 and she was already up and probably mucking out stalls or feeding...turns out she forgot to turn the ringer on and she *was* outside feeding :)  She also suggested they would be a good addition for our niece, Abigail (Elizabeth's daughter), who is learning to ride.  I hope they come in handy for her :)  

I guess that is all for now...that just takes us to the morning of the first full-day of our vacation!  More later :)

Peace

...and then there were two

We are back down to two and the kitties are feeling better.  Wren has stopped licking her belly naked (I think it took her a reality-check that things weren't as bad as she thought - Ha, ha!).  This only issue seems to be that Tulip has begun stalking Sera and Sera has not been using the litter boxes appropriately...sigh.  We just took Sera to the vet and found out that she has a UTI - that might be contributing to the issue.  Antibiotics and L-Lysine for her...sigh.  We hope she feels better soon.

We are seeing the household come back into normality, or as normal as it gets around here.  

It was just announced that we will be having the membership fees waived for the next year at the gym on campus!  What a treat!  They have aerobic machines, a walking track, and two pools - one shallow/warm and one deeper/lap.  I will be taking advantage of that again starting on August 8th, when we go back to school - Classes start on August 15th.  I will be teaching 3 sections of the exact same class - I don't know if I should be excited or scared - LOL!  I made a "class diary" last semester when I taught 2 sections of another class, but this will be a new experience - I think it will be good.  I am not sure about the exams...2 classes on M/W, and 1 on T/Th...How do test them without them talking to each other and spilling the beans on what is covered?  I guess I just have to be patient and do my best and suggest that they might not find it adventitious to blab.

We have had some neat weather around here lately. But most of it seems to miss us - we are not getting the quantity that we expect - most of it goes north and east of us - I guess that is because of the winds coming off the ocean - though we are ~10 miles inland.  

some really cool mammary clouds - though I thought they usually came *after* a storm, they came before the rain here...(we were at Lowe's Home Improvement, of course - we always seem to go when it is raining!) 

a bit better/closer view of the clouds.  I have only seen this type of cloud in-person one other time - In Columbus, with Mom - we were driving back from one of her treatments and we saw these over Riverside Hospital.

 

The next day brought more threatening weather... ^^ the view from the front porch... 

 

^^ the view from the back porch.  Neat.

I have also been working on a quilt for the youngest that was here - a monster quilt from a pattern in "Happy Quilts" a new quilt book by Antonie Alexander at Red Boot Quilts.  I love this woman's sense of whimsy and joy.  She has a TON of patterns for quilts and softies - the book has 10 quilts and a softie that goes with each - I do plan to make a softie that goes with the monsters, too :) ... Fonda has been helping me with balance and more...

First, we had to pick out the backgrounds and the associated borders (all black-on-black, white-on-white, black and white, and two grays) - You don't know how hard it is to balance this until you try!  Apparently we are not big on grays - it was a struggle to find some in our stash!  

so...I had to trace all the pieces onto fusible-web, then cut them out...then pick fabrics for each monster - thank you Fonda for helping: 1) choose colors, and 2) getting those that kinda matched! and then, 3) helping me to kinda put the right monster in each block.  I wasn't sure about the pupils - if they would be buttons or sewn on...the monsters don't look as cute without pupils (as seen above)...I decided that because it is for a 3yo I should not use buttons...so...

 

a bit *more* tracing and then a bit *more* fusing and cutting...and now the monsters have pupils and are starting to look kinda cute...now...to actually sew everything together...each piece got sewn around each edge with a coordinating color of thread...I thought I was finished, Fonda recommended I double check everything...so: horns, eyes, body, teeth...horns, eyes, body, teeth...ten more times (at midnight, when I need to be at school at 9am)...I forgot ONE SET OF HORNS!!!!!!!!!  Luckily, I had not put that thread away yet...done around 1am with all the sewing, pulling threads to the back, and tying off and trimming...

eventually - I got them put back together in the right order and then sewn together (as seen above) - I skipped the photo of how I threw them up there at 1am...it was a mess - ha, ha.  I am not sure how we got two green-guys together, but it works out OK.

 

 then on to the borders - again, trying to make the b&w/gray borders appear random - harder than it should be - ha, ha.  Gotta try to make the pieces not match the one next to them or the square inside!  Anyway - Fonda and I got it together and then I had to pick some colors for the inner border...

And *finally* the top is done (YAY!)...now, all I have to to is 1) layer it, 2) baste it some way, 3) quilt it, 4) do the binding, and 5) put the label on it...and then do the final 5 steps with three more quilts for the other grandchildren! This has to be a labor of love...If not, it wouldn't be worth it.  

I am officially on vacation (minus going to help with registration tomorrow [Monday])...I get to sleep in for the next few days and I am totally looking forward to it :)  

There are plants to plant and water and there are hummingbirds to feed...so I guess I am off for now...One more photo - of Wren the 2nd oldest of our clan...She is 17 yo and has recently taken to the basket on the table between our computers.  She is my original sweet-tart-girl.  

Peace.