Did I tell you all about the glass-blowing bar by my cabin? It’s actually a super cool concept. You can do glass-working classes (you get a token for a free drink after the class) but you can also just go hang out and watch from the bar. Drives a ton more traffic in than just the studio alone for classes, retail and commissions.

That sounds like so much fun. I saw a glass-blowing demonstration once, in Italy, and it was fascinating.

I think I'm not going to go to services tonight -- it feels like I'm getting a migraine, and I'm really just too tired.

Hey Hil—one of my roommates from college asked this—do you know/can you recommend anyone?

The language is almost certainly Yiddish, from that time and place. If it's just a few pages, they can post them in the Facebook group Tracing The Tribe -- there are a lot of people there who can read Yiddish and will translate short things like letters. (It's best not to post those on a Friday night or Saturday -- most of the Yiddish-speakers observe Shabbat, and things posted then will get buried in new posts by the time they're back online on Sunday.)

Oh, man, hanging out with drinks watching glassblowing sounds like such a good time!

Sorry about the migraine, Hil

I think I’m going to bed at 8.

For some reason this shit today in DC has sent me over the edge. I’m so fucking angry.

For some reason this shit today in DC has sent me over the edge. I’m so fucking angry.

Oh my god, msbelle, me too. I'm so angry I think I made my migraine worse.

It’s been an enraging day. 8pm bedtime might be good for me too. Maybe I will be able to navigate all this better tomorrow

That’s sounding real good right now. Of course it’s just after eight already and I just made dinner. But in theory, I’m with you.

In bed at 9. Still seething.

Blacksmithing and glass blowing both sound awesome. I suddenly realize that the boring trip with my grandparents to the craft booths at Silver Dollar City when I was a tween would be fantastic now.

I would go to a glass-blowing bar.

In New Orleans, in the Warehouse district, there's a big glass arts building with multiple furnaces going and you can stand in the mezzanine and watch them work. It's fascinating.

FaceTimed with Matilda today. (Technically she was speaking from tomorrow.). She managed to handle her own difficult scheduling situation (they had shifted her classes so she was completely isolated from everybody in her program, and all of her friends at the language school), so that's a big adulting win for her, and a helicopter parent email I don't have to write.

Tomorrow she is going with friends to Nara which has the famous deer park.

She mentioned that she and her friends were talking about doing a weekend trip to Tokyo (of their own accord - not a school side trip) and I was totally down with it. She's 18. She's got the money. They know how to use the trains. They just have to find a hotel. And she won't be traveling alone.

I've been busy with various social schedules and have a few pending RSVPs to consider. So I've been fine without Matilda here. (And in truth, I barely saw her when she was here since she was downstairs with her friends in the Garden Apartment most of the time.).

I've been on a really good streak of striking up conversations with people at the bar lately. Being the gregarious bastard that I am, that's like bonus points socializing.

Last week I had a friend visiting from Rochester, NY so I cleaned the house rather thoroughly (which it needed). Also got to do Happy Hour with JenK which is always a treat.

Right now, aside from some onerous tasks, I just need to plan my trip to LA for my friend Josh's Celebration of Life.