I'm two long days away from 10 days off. We've had enough days off this month, and I've just had two days when I didn't have to grade very much and I was able to catch up in class, so it doesn't feel horrible right now...not like a couple of weeks ago. That 4-day weekend was a nice recharge. Which is why it's annoying that they tagged the other 'free' day onto an existing holiday instead of giving us another 3-day weekend.

OK, it's another short week. Political stuff sucks, but hey, tariffs on things I don't buy are going down. Hope it helps someone. Maybe stop deporting people who are trying to follow the rules and deport some of those white guys who don't follow rules back to wherever they came from. I was efficient at grading this weekend and got the academic assignment completely graded, but then spent probably 90 minutes obsessing over how to let kids make it up instead of sleeping.

Short week, felt long, rain's coming, another lab today. Collisions. And at least 5 kids per class period who didn't show up yesterday and have to take the test today. Fun times. I have two kids who I think went home on purpose so they wouldn't have to take the test. Ah well, they can miss the lab today. And the three kids who showed up yesterday for the first time in the last two weeks?

Back to it. Back to school. Lab today. Might be a mistake, but the calendar is short before the Thanksgiving break, so what has to be done...has to be done. So I will do it. That sprinkler is still not fixed, although I spent more money at Home Depot to hopefully fix it in the future. I filled two trashcans with trimmings from trees and bushes, but not the third.

Late start on this. And if you're gonna tell me about how YOU don't have the day off, well, you probably didn't work through the last three weekends, did you? So there's that. I did a bunch of things this morning, because I have the day off, yay brain. I went to the doctor, I went to Fed Ex and copied a drawing for the next quilt, plus shipped a quilt to a traveling show that is opening somewhere, but I don't remember where, ah well.

Watching the fog lift this morning. Everything seems calmer in the fog for some reason. There's something about being encased in mist that is chill. Kind of trying to be one with that after yesterday. We're blaming the full moon, Halloween after effects, the beginning of the new trimester, an upcoming 4-day weekend, and just general middle-school brain for the chaos we're seeing.

OK, so struggling to make art, but I have managed to get into a new show, get rejected for the first time ever to a ceramics show (!)...also never gotten into one, but that's OK, and mostly packed up another quilt to send to a show. Plus organized photos and sizes for a 2-person show in Virginia this spring, which needed to be done as well.

I didn't forget to write Friday. My team texted me that we were meeting before the meeting, and it was in about 20 minutes. So I sped everything up and thought, oh hey, I'll write Saturday morning. Ha! I graded Saturday morning...and afternoon...and then Sunday evening. Grades are due tomorrow and I'm almost done, which is a relief, even though it all starts up again almost immediately.