Tuesday, June 24, 2025: Trying Not to Wilt

image courtesy of -Rita- und mit  via pixabay.com

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Day Before Dark Moon

Pluto Retrograde

Heat Wave, Day 2

Hazy, hot, humid, sticky, yuck

I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Friday was very home-and-hearth, in and around my Solstice honorings. Took out the garbage. I had to water all the plants (with all the plants this year, it takes about an hour). With the high temperatures, we are also changing all the cats’ water every few hours, to make sure they have access to cool, fresh water (they are afraid of the fountains that keep running). I finally switched out three of the four red paisley winter curtains to the summer lace panels, in the living room and Tessa’s room. I can’t do the one on the front door until they paint the damn thing, nor can I put up the stained-glass cling film until that’s finished.

It’s amazing what a big difference it makes in the rooms. Fabric is my favorite seasonal mood enhancer wherever I live, be it curtains or on tables, or on the furniture.

Part of why I pack batiks, scarves, and some other fabric whenever I do a residency! Because studio and living space tends to be spartan for both convenience and to give artists a blank space in which to work, I bring what I need to nest. I do that in hotel rooms, too, if I’m going to be there for more than a couple of nights.

Did a run to the library and the grocery store. Meal planned on the fly, depending on what looked good and fresh.

Came home and gave myself the rest of the day off. I’m making some decisions and figuring out a few things. Percolation time is important.

Cooked a tuna pasta with pesto that will be eaten cold on the hot days. Cooked the regular dinner (perch, rice, spinach).

Over the weekend (Friday and Saturday morning), I read Graydon Carter’s memoir. WHEN THE GOING WAS GOOD. I liked the him he presented in the memoir better than expected. I also liked that it was less about name dropping and more about the actual damn hard work that goes into getting out a magazine once a month. I read VANITY FAIR for a lot of years, even when it annoyed me. VOGUE recently sent me an offer that’s tempting. Every few years, I purchase a discounted subscription to VOGUE, and then I get frustrated by the shallow white privilege stories. I should just not even be tempted. I used to be able to write off subscriptions to VOGUE and ELLE, when I worked in wardrobe, because keeping up with wearable art was part of my job.

Now, too often, the magazines make me tired and frustrated. For a magazine junkie, it’s tough out there. I’m tired of all the stories sounding exactly the same, no matter what the magazine. Writers’ voices are being too diluted.

Slept reasonably well, although woke up at 4 AM-ish with major sense memory stress. There was moonlight through the window and Charlotte there to make things better, so I calmed down and went back to doze (not really sleep).

Up early on Saturday, morning routine. Got the apartment as cool as possible.  The painters were here doing goodness knows what. Making noise? Not finishing the back balcony or the doors?

Got my act together, Real People clothes on (a dress and makeup) and headed to MASS MoCA for Community Day. I wanted to spend time with the Anselm Keifer exhibit I found so disturbing, and visit The Archive of Lost Memories before it leaves on the 29th.

Neither were open. Turns out they open at noon.

A friend who works at the museum said the Archive will be moved to a different location and extended, so maybe I’ll get to see it again.

If not, that’s the way it goes.

I spent some time in the Victor Valdez exhibit, which was disturbing for all the right reasons. But it was getting crowded. Even masked, I was uncomfortable, because there were people coughing up a lung who obviously should not have been out in public.

So I left.

I wandered the grounds a bit and took some photos, but I left.

Home, changed.

After lunch, I cut and pieced the bone compass. I was worried, if I did it wrong, that it would look like male genitalia, which would have made a statement somewhat related to the piece’s theme, but distracted from the main thrust, so to speak (pun intended). But it doesn’t. It’s obviously bones. Instead of folding under the edges, I will use a different stitch when I quilt, and it will be all good and somewhat disturbing.

Which is the intent.

I did the bone compass in the elemental colors, as I did the elemental compass, rather than in black and white fabric, because that would have just been appropriating, rather than telling a story through symbolism.

I placed the two compasses (compii?) on the background fabric. I need half of what I thought I did for the background, which makes it easier to build the borders. Next step is getting black fabric and then building the borders of black, then blood spatter, then black, then bone. Then I need to put on the backing fabric and the batting. Once that’s done, I can put the two compasses on and quilt as I fasten them onto the piece. From there, it’s adding embellishments. I’m still trying to decide if I want to do a binding on the piece or just leave it stark.

I’m intentionally not doing mitered corners for the borders, but if I bind it, I might do mitered corners for the contrast.

It wasn’t too hot in the afternoon. I looked at a bunch of dress fabric that’s washed and ready to cut. I’d pinned notes as to the patterns originally planned, but that was about a dozen years ago, and my style has changed somewhat. Some of the pieces are classic, and will work. Others, I would rather have different patterns. So I’m looking in my massive pattern library to find something better for a couple of pieces.

Once the quilt is done, since I have the machine set up anyway, I might as well do some clothes.

I found a favorite pant pattern that is only 3 pieces and takes about 2 hours from pinning to cutting to stitching to finishing. I added pockets to it from another pattern, when I did it before. It’s an easy pattern I could do up in a bunch of different summer and winter fabrics. If I didn’t want the cuffs at the bottom of the pants, I can just extend the leg a few inches and I’m good to go.

Cooked dinner. I set it up so we don’t have to cook in the heat wave. We can either heat up in the microwave or eat the cold tuna pasta with pesto (which is really good, by the way, and I  made it up).

Read in the evening, Josephine Tey’s THE SINGING SANDS. The Scottish descriptions are fun, but, overall, the plot isn’t working for me in the way it did with her other books.

Slept well until about 4:30, when I woke up with complete flashback to moving day. I mean, come on. It’s been 4 years. Can we not, already? So fed up with myself. The 22nd was the actual day the movers showed up, after not showing up when they were scheduled on the 21st.

Got up at the usual time, fed the cats, sat in meditation, which helped a lot. Had the fans running. We had a thunderstorm, which helped cool things down somewhat. The temperature projections for the day were already down a few degrees, which was helpful.

Tried to access the plays for today’s meeting. Yet again, could not. Which is frustrating, but not surprising, since I wasn’t told the issue had been fixed. I even tried it on a different browser, without any luck.

Puttered around and did some hearth-and-home stuff.

Picked up some plain black fabric for the borders, washed it, dried it by ironing it, and put the first border around the background map fabric. It was a lot of math, and by the time all four borders were done, I was wiped out, mostly due to trying to do math in the heat.

But it looks good.

I’m doing things so it’s just a little bit off, creating a bit of psychological discomfort. If you look at it from a distance, it will look like a cool quilt. As you get closer, you start to realize that one of the compasses is made out of bones, and that borders are blood and bones, and that some of the proportions are a little bit off. The measurements aren’t quite even, intentionally. Because it’s intentional, it needs even more math than if it was careless.

Which takes a lot of work.

I hope I can get more borders done this week, or maybe the upcoming weekend, but I have a feeling that most of it will have to be done over July 4th weekend. I’d like to get the backing and batting in and start the actual quilting by them, so in the following two weeks, all I have to do are the embellishments.

The text piece to go with it is percolating. I want that done by July 4th weekend, too.

Heated up some leftovers for dinner, because we’re not cooking from scratch in this weather. Relaxed and read in the evening, mostly Saska Viertel’s memoir of being a scenario and screenwriter in the early days of Hollywood and navigating the two World Wars.

It hadn’t gotten as hot as predicted, and I slept reasonably well. Woke up at 5, feeling the bone-weary exhaustion I felt during the move. Yesterday was the anniversary of the day we actually drove across the state with the cats and met the movers. We’d barely slept the night before, and left around 4 or 4:30, I think. At any rate, we were here by 8 AM. The movers were supposed to be here by 10, but got caught up in the road construction, especially in Adams, and were finally here by 11. So sense memory stress from today those years ago was mostly exhaustion, not the panic/overwhelm of the weeks leading into it, and then the weeks between now and 4th of July, when I was back-and-forth trying to finish clearing out the house.

Being kind to myself mentally and physically is important these next few weeks, and that’s the most difficult part of the equation. I want to be done with this already.

I had an idea for a story, with no idea where it will go, so I made some notes. I’m sure of the emotion and character development, but need a stronger plot to hang it onto. I re-read the CASTLE LYSENDE material I have so far. There’s something there if I can just figure out what it is. I did some admin work. I wrote one of the Llewellyn spells.

No painters, which made sense. They shouldn’t be up on ladders in a heat wave.

Tech issues for the literary committee were fixed, so I rushed to read the remaining scripts and write up my notes.

Stayed fairly quiet in the afternoon as it got hotter and hotter. Went through a bunch of books that need to go back to the library, some useful, some not. A friend shared a beautiful piece she wrote about the Summer Solstice. Another friend brainstormed some loglines. By evening, it had gotten up to 86 inside, even with the fans. Outside, it was 92, feeling like 103. We shut off the front porch to keep it from overheating inside, and it was about 10 PM before it was cool enough and enough of a breeze to open it up and let things flow again.

A family friend is adding layers of stress under the guise of being “helpful” and I’m just tired of this person not listening and thinking they know best. I’m trying to be polite and still honest, but this person is going to keep pushing until there is a less polite confrontation. I’m tired of the privilege and entitlement.

The fact that the ghostwriting client constantly puts me under deadline stress and then drags their feet until I can invoice is also adding another level of stress. The issues that should have been fixed by this new contract have not, because they found a way to work around them in their favor to my detriment. Good to know. And I will adjust accordingly.

The door-to-door solicitations have gotten out of control. Especially in the current climate, we do not live in a world where strangers can bang on the door. It is unacceptable. I’m making a sign so stating and taping it to the front door. We had people pounding on the door THREE TIMES yesterday who weren’t neighbors and had no business just showing up. I have sent angry emails to all those companies, and will put up the sign. I am also going to ask my city councilor if there is something that can be done.

It was difficult to get to sleep, but I managed, once it cooled down a little. Actually managed to sleep through until about 5 AM. Woke up with sense memory exhaustion as much as current heat exhaustion. Got the fans going (it had gotten down to 69F outside, 83 inside.

Fed the cats, watered the plants. When the temperatures go up a bit again, I will shut off the porch until evening again.

On today’s agenda: more fighting about my mom’s incorrect bills, work on Llewellyn materials, and some writing until it’s too hot. I received a request for more information from a potential client. I went to do that, and it was a series of ridiculous, repetitive, and inconsequential questions generated by AI. So I seriously doubt we will have a working relationship. And if Aquent is now doing everything by AI, I will remove myself from their ‘talent pool’. There’s a literary committee meeting for WAM in the late afternoon/early evening. I will probably attend via ZOOM.

I was going to run some errands this morning, but it looks like the temperatures will go up too high too early for it to make sense. It’s supposed to be 10 degrees cooler tomorrow, and that would make more sense.

This is supposed to be “the luckiest day of the year” astrologically, but I feel hot and grumpy and doubtful about it all.

Bea was initially afraid of the fans, but she watches the other three, especially her beloved Tessa, sprawl where they get a breeze, and she’s discovered that feels kind of good! We put fresh, cool water in all the bowls every 2-3 hours in this weather, so they always have a cool drink.

Stay cool and stay safe.