jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

weekly retro #67: prepare to compare my good mood now to my mood after the heat wave

i'm starting this post in a great mood because i worked out, showered and got the news that my landlord will be able to put our air conditioners in tonight - in time for a 90+ F heat wave happening over the next 3 days. let's start this retro with all the irises i've "collected" in snapshots over the past beautiful week:

photo of purple irises with a yellow center photo of yellow irises photo of lavender irises photo of burgendy-ish irises with an orange center photo of royal purple irises

somehow this week had a lot of things scheduled. first thing on monday i had a dental cleaning - no cavities! there's a root that looked a bit wonky from a childhood injury so they asked me if i wanted a "proactive root canal" and i was like..."not in the budget" lol.

last week i started recording lots of video clips of pumagreg as we head towards his surgery. since one of my resolutions this year is to get better at video editing, i decided to start trying a weekly short that compiles said clips. anyway i posted the first one and will have another one this coming week. my goal is to get to a point where i post the video along with and in these retros.

photo of my black cat pumagreg laying all chill on the floor of a patient room at the animal hospital

speaking of pumagreg, i took him on his first ever trip to nyc for a consultation with the surgeon that's going to amputate his leg. i was SO anxious about this appointment, i slept like shit for like 4 days leading to it, but it went as well as i could possibly imagine - he didn't hate the car, the rideshare drivers i got were great, the hospital and everyone that worked there were so nice and professional, and the estimate for the surgery was reasonable. we have a couple of weeks between now and his surgery, so i'm going to pretend it's not happening until it does.

photo of a worksheet on the ceramics studio table diagramming the parts of a traditional matcha bowl

my ceramics teacher, atsuko, was teaching a hand-building matcha bowl workshop later in the week and asked us if she could test it out on us - what a treat and a privilege! my bowl is currently drying on my shelf along some vessels i plan to trim tomorrow before class.

photo of a doll head candle i made melting with wicks in the head and out of the mouth and wax has flowed all onto my table. next to it i put a comic coaster that says "let's just assume i do know everything"

i know i haven't been posting much about candles on here, but i'm still making core candles and fulfilling orders as they come in. i've been testing out some really wacky sculptures of doll heads, and making a big fun messes and learning a lot from them. i'll have more new art to share and sell once we get through pumagreg's surgery and recovery.

photo of jamie's computer on the floor of a storage room in the recurse center and we're testing out the song mama mia with lyrics coming from recurse center's social rules

jamie and i hosted a robot karaoke set at recurse center's 15 birthday party. while i've been busy making cups and finding someone to remove my cat's leg, he's been taking over infowars, so it's always nice when we can come together from those occupations to make karaoke harder and worse for others. we'll be hosting at wonderville on 5/25 if you are around brooklyn on memorial day and want to have a good time.

things i enjoyed this week

now that i'm freshly cleaned, cut, pumagreg-consulted and karaoked out, i have the next week to focus on ceramics, working out, and other activities i can do inside during this heat wave. but for now, i need to clear out my candle-making corner to make room for my landlord to install the air conditioner!

xoxo jenn

this was published May 17, 2026 under living health food tech weekly-retro pumagreg robot-karaoke haircut dentist ceramics flowers jersey-city nyc candle-making

weekly retro #66: spring showers and neighbors' flowers

the other day i was streaming and there was an incredible sounding rain. the chat and i sat in silence and just listened for a bit, it was so nice and refreshing sounding. it was like the earth was getting a nice, clean reset for the season. i hope that's the same for me.

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what i made during my third ceramics class

i said in my second ceramics class post that i'd be back in early may with a roundup of my third class pieces and, here we are, in early may. i brought my final pieces home on monday and i am so stoked to get to finally show them off. here's what i made during my third ceramics class

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weekly retro #65: may the third be with you

anyone who knows me personally knows i LOVE a reset. it's my favorite word in corporate, it's my favorite part of a new month, and it's also a word that literally means nothing to me but a chance to reflect before moving forward.

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weekly retro #63: there's a lot of depression in this one

this week was a rough one, but before i get into it i do want to say i'm feeling a lot better now. i was carrying the post-period lows with bad news, the anxiety of responsibility, and sweat from a heat wave that passed through. there was a point where i hit a vape - something i don't feel good about, but whatever - to set off the air purifier to get circulation in the room without dragging my depressed body 3 yards to press the button like a normal person would.

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weekly retro #60: spoony time

it's taking everything i've got to write this lol. i multi-tasked too close to the sun and burnt myself out from the computer, but at the end of this file and deployment is a scoop of peanut butter covered in chocolate chips waiting for me. i call it "spoony time". welcome to the weekly retro.

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weekly retro #59: kicked, burned, but still spinning

i'm starting to write this after seeing jamie off for his trip to london. he's going to be hosting robot karaoke for an event at the london games festival, which i recommend for any of you in the area. when he gets back, we're both hosting at wonderville together for all of you in the jc/nyc area. we're also super stoked to be hosting a special tax themed robot karaoke at caveat nyc on april 15th! it was a gorgeous day out and a bird shit on us outside my local taqueria.

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