jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

weekly retro #44: poked, prodded, but not fully deflated

sometimes it's not until sunday when i can connect my exhaustion to the fact that it was a chaotic week. it happened again tonight.

photo of a mostly-deflated santa decoration outside of a bar during broad daylight

the week started off with me busting my ass on candle stuff, but also beating myself up for being some fake idea of "behind schedule." i felt i was dropping the ball in every aspect of my life. dramatic!

photo of voting booth screen that says "your votes were cast. thank you for voting." and then has an illustration of an oval "i voted" sticker with a waving american flag on it

there was a nice moment on tuesday where i was on the subway home finding out that james solomon won the jersey city mayoral run-off.

photo jamie singing "reviews of jamies" to the tune of eagles' hotel california. we're at larpa during his birthday party

it was jamie's birthday, which we celebrated at larpa with robot karaoke. jamie did all the work, though. anyway, that's the reason why i was probably the last jersey citizen to know the election results.

photo of what looks like a coloring book page diagram of the thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes

that high evening then went low for a couple of days as i went through my annual thyroid ultrasound and quarterly bloodwork.

photo of a few dozen empty blood vials with some different caps, on a tray in the room i got blood taken

i just hate the being poked and prodded, walking over a mile to have warm goo pressed into my neck and paying over $200 for it. just a lotta bullshit delaying my candle-making!

photo of my candle-making area, more than half of my L-shaped standing desk. i have dipped "apple candles" and some molds curing. it's organized and clean, but chaotic.

friday i finally launched the "leftovers" holiday shop on bugs rock. getting this out there was an uphill battle but i learned a lot, which i'll share more on in a future blog post.

photo of a trapazoidal coil pot i made, still a bit wet on the board here

one thing i learned was that doing hobbies really occupies time that otherwise i'd be using rotting or being mean to myself. i spent over 3 hours at the ceramics studio and it was like my brain getting a vacation. i haven't seen it yet, but i heard my tissue box cover survived the bisque fire! the photo above is a coil pot i made into a trapezoid shape, perhaps a future candle vessel

things i enjoyed this week

thanks to everyone who has ordered candles so far and helped motivated me this holiday season! i'm excited for a week of packing orders and melting more wax.

xoxo jenn

this was published December 7, 2025 under living working art weekly-retro robot-karaoke friends elections jersey-city holidays candle-making bugs-rock business

weekly retro #42: sick of the cold and my phone

i closed my retro last week with "i have a bit of a cold right now that i hope goes the fuck away after a good night's rest. i just need to work on the good night's rest part." well, she did not get a good night's rest and the cold did not go the fuck away. in fact, it knocked me off my ass to the point that i missed all my aerial and ceramics classes and couldn't visit my dad.

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weekly retro #39: hoping for a renewing november

happy november! this week brought a new month along with other new things and, after a couple of days of bad post-menstrual anxiety exacerbated by the senseless consequences of our government shutdown, i am feeling renewed and ready for november.

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weekly retro #38: the heat is on

yesterday i finally caved and turned the heat on, _started_ this retro, and then abandoned it as i suddenly had the urge and momentum (the edible hit) to design some candles for the holiday season. it's just crossed over from monday morning into monday afternoon, time for some retro closure.

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