You Ask, We Answer: AI Blues and Violinist Dreams

Doree Shafrir (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.

Elise Hu (0:17)

And I'm Elise Hu, and we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums.

Doree Shafrir (0:22)

And this is a You Ask, We Answer episode where we take your questions, your feedback, your comments, your thoughts, your concerns, your ideas, and we respond to them on this episode. It's like a mailbag episode. So please send us all of your messages. You can email us at forever35podcasts.gmail.com.

You can text us at 781-591-0390, and you can also send us voicemails by calling that number or emailing us a voice memo. So please do that. Elise, do you want to mention our giving circle?

Elise Hu (1:00)

So for our US-based listeners, you probably already know we are less than two months away from very consequential midterm elections, which could flip control of Congress and be a check on this administration. And in the states, you know, at state legislatures, where there are so many decisions that will affect people's lives, that's where we want to focus our giving and focus our attention. This year, Forever35 has a giving circle to give to Arizona, to try and flip the balance of power in Arizona for more progressive policies there.

We're already almost at $10,000 just from our regular recurring donors. We've set a $25,000 goal to try and raise that before election day in the US in November. So, we're going to link you to the giving circle so that you can contribute from our show notes and from the Patreon page. But please consider a contribution.

These dollars go to a lot of boots on the ground, grassroots kind of work. And with so much attention on these big congressional races, state legislatures can be overlooked. So check out our giving circle. We hope that you'll join us in trying to raise for Arizona.

Doree Shafrir (2:17)

Thank you. Elise, how's it going?

Elise Hu (2:20)

It's going well. I am hosting some moms tonight for a mom friend from my middle daughter's birthday. And the reason why I'm doing it is because I was watching Instagram, and I saw somebody make a gigantic table long charcuterie board. Like they made their dinner table, the board. And I was like, I would like to have one of these, but I would need to have people help me eat it. And so I had visions of this giant charcuterie board, and then had to reverse engineer. I was like, is it anybody's birthday?

And lo and behold, there's always a birthday. So there's one of my mom friends who just recently had a birthday, and we're going to have her birthday thing so that we can make a giant board. And then we didn't get enough RSVPs to actually necessitate a giant table long board. So now it's just going to be like a regular large board. My friend Jeannie is taking care of it. She's an excellent, like, you know, crafty, chef-y woman. And so she's just like, why don't you just drop your big board at my house, and I will bring it back over with everything on it. I'm like, thank you.

So I'm very excited about that, but it's been a good week. I was filling in on public radio all week, and having lots of conversations about news and culture. And Ava turned 14, my oldest turned 14 on Tuesday. Yeah, yeah. I mean, everything they say about the older we get and the faster time flies.

It's crazy that she's 14

Doree Shafrir (4:00)

It's crazy. Did you guys do anything?

Elise Hu (4:03)

She had her first volleyball game of the season. So the whole family went to that, but we haven't taken her out to dinner or anything yet. I think she wants to do hot pot. She likes hot pot for her birthday or Benihana. So we're gonna go to Heidi Lau at Century City, probably.

Doree Shafrir (4:18)

Fun.

Elise Hu (4:19)

Yeah, so that's all. So happy birthday to Ava.

Doree Shafrir (4:23)

Can I ask a kid question?

Elise Hu (4:25)

Sure.

Doree Shafrir (4:25)

Like, when do kids stop having birthday parties?

Elise Hu (4:29)

I think middle school, I've noticed a drop-off.

Doree Shafrir (4:33)

Okay.

Elise Hu (4:33)

And it's not like they're not having parties. Some are having pool parties. Some are doing escape rooms, karaoke parties. It's just not like every weekend party. You know how in elementary and preschool, you have birthday parties almost every weekend, which I still do for my fourth grader. So with my fourth grader, there's still stuff going on at Color Me Mine and at Sky Zone and all these places that people have parties. And now Tutu Fun, which is some party destination in Century City and the Slumu Institute for slime. There are so many party places. So that's all happening. But then I noticed in sixth grade, it was a lot of sleepovers. And this year, she wanted a trip. She wanted to go to Palm Springs for the weekend with her bestie. So if I find a free weekend, I will take them. But the fall is a little nutty.