jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

weekly retro #68: quiet before the scheduled storm

this was a week of resetting after doing a lot and before doing even more a lot. finding ways to ground myself is key to plan as i take care of responsibilities ranging from low risk (hosting a karaoke party lol) to higher risk than hosting a karaoke party (preparing the home for pumagreg's upcoming surgery). i've got some new books, a new ryobi vacuum on the way (lmao), and many projects to keep my brain going but not falling into despair - like weight-lifting, working on a new homepage, new candles, ceramics, and also my video editing practice.

in making this video, my second in the series and the first in which pumagreg talked in a lot, i stuck with imovie but added some splitting and overlapping of audio. next week plan to actually start researching other options for video editing software to graduate to. i'm going to try for something open source first and go from there. hopefully by the end of the year i'll be able to say i've used at least a dozen applications lol.

photo of a bush of pink peonies

but back to this week though. it started with a heat wave - like 95 degree days leading up to a big, cooling storm on wednesday. i have a feeling that this summer is going to be brutal, and i'm normally a huge baby when it comes to the heat, so this wave i really tried to power through. i went to the gym, did my usual errands, lifted even more weights...i know i'm not going to ever truly enjoy the heat, but i'm not going to spend this entire summer rotting in front of the air conditioner if i can help it.

photo of a black 6-sided die on the floor, every said says "we'll see" in comic sans ms

i was feeling very low energy in the middle of the week, which reminded me to set up my diagnostics appointments for my upcoming endocrinologist visit. not only do i have to power through the heat, i gotta also make intentional moves on how i move during these hormonal lulls. this time around, i had an impulse to use my little energy to rotate my entire corner-desk. this was, as expected, a game changer of a move, although i did break my first every hand-built pinch pot that was holding all my dice.

photo of a bunch of greenware pottery on a shelf

that's okay though, i've got plenty of pottery being potter'd. i got a couple of sessions on the wheel in, on top of our glazing class. our test tiles weren't fired in time so we went over carving techniques and so i sgraffitoed a closed vessel i made.

photo of a haiku typed out that goes "striking eyes that pierce, if batman were a muffin, healing on the way" and then is says "puma greg"

i went to a rave at the library to use up the rest of my energy reserves for what i was put on this earth to do (besides blogging): dancing with the girls. it was a fun, sweaty night surrounded by books that i'm glad i journeyed through the pouring rain for. there were two people typewriting free haikus. lisa wanted one for me about pumagreg. "if batman were a muffin" is perfect and simply came from me saying he's soft and has blue-green eyes.

photo of my black cat pumagreg laying on his back in my arms in bed and he's looking at the camera all cute

striking eyes that pierce... if batman were a muffin...

photo of the same pink peonies as above but covered in drops from the rain

healing (and summer) on the way...

things i enjoyed this week

tomorrow is robot karaoke and i'm going to soak in all the positive and loving and whimsical energy from there to help me power through what is going to be very taxing few weeks. but for now, it's time to Close Apps Before Scheduled Update.

xoxo jenn

this was published May 24, 2026 under living weekly-retro pumagreg ceramics flowers library friends vlogging video-editing