snowing in corning

It's been snowing all week in Corning and the locals say that winter hasn't begun.

It's a brand new life, and I'm completely in love with it. I'm starting to make friends to blow glass with. Today, I spent all day in the shop renting time, and made a mildly successful mezzastampo. I'm learning, slowly, slowly. I'm studying at the Rakow Library, looking for furnace design and burner systems, combustion, electricity. Even the librarians blow glass and are down to rent time.

I keep meaning to blow ornaments to send to people for the holidays. There are a few people that I need to thank with glass for helping me get out here. But I get in the shop and I just want to try something I'm completely unqualified for, or beat the next problem. It's overwhelming how much there is to know.

I really loved Philadelphia, the city itself. I miss my neighborhood and trashpicking free stuff, and flea markets and farmers markets, the anarchist block, the coffeehouses, the neighbors with tattooed faces. Sometimes I miss Kline & Specter, and feeling like a professional something-or-other. I'm still a novice here. I feel like a blank slate. I'm reimagining how to blow glass. My whole life has been reimagined for me. I'm humbled and thankful.