00:00:08
Speaker 1: Read I invited you here. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. But you're a guest in my home. You gotta come to me empty, and I said, no, guests, your presence is presence enough. I already had too much stuff, So how do you dare to surbey me?

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Welcome to, I said, no gifts. I'm Richard Wineger. There's a lot going on with this recording today. We are in the backyard. Analise is not present. Analise is present and't digitally they're on the zoom over, you know, kind of watching over the recording, giving the blessing it needs. Meanwhile, I'm kind of running around stressed. I've just come from the most stressful brunch of my entire life. But we are in the backyard. We're going to calm down. Today's guest is fantastic. I think we're going to have a good time. No, I know we're going to have a good time. Listen to me, just kind of going crazy here. I need to just take a breath and introduce the guest. It's Alex Songshaw. Alex. Welcome to. I said no gifts.

00:01:34
Speaker 3: Hi, Richard, thanks so much for having me.

00:01:37
Speaker 2: Of course, I'm sorry to bring this energy. This you've seen me running around here.

00:01:42
Speaker 3: That's okay. I can kind of tell your stress, mostly because you've said it a bunch of times, but I will say, even your stressed energy is pretty calming.

00:01:52
Speaker 2: Oh that's good to Yeah, that's very good to know. It's Sunday afternoon as we record this. How's your Sunday morning, Ben?

00:02:00
Speaker 3: It's going well. This is the first thing I'm doing today.

00:02:03
Speaker 2: Oh beautiful.

00:02:03
Speaker 3: This morning, I just did my dishes. So I'm impressed that you. You already had a whole morning before this.

00:02:09
Speaker 2: I had a really uncomfortable morning, hours of discomfort. A friend recommended a brunch place that I was suspicious of. I should have put my foot down, but I thought, relinquished control. Let someone else suggest the rest.

00:02:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, So you went with the friend who recommended it.

00:02:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, and another friend and my boyfriend, and it went about exactly well, actually worse than I expect.

00:02:35
Speaker 3: Oh no, what happened.

00:02:36
Speaker 2: It was just a weird atmosphere. This restaurant I'm so suspicious of. But then we were we had ordered, we were sitting there and this waiter came up to the table and said to us, are you okay? In that tone. I said, oh, yeah, we're okay, everything's good, and she said I didn't mean it like that. I said, oh, what are you? What are we talking about? But like I had been up and so I was like, no, we're fine, We're fine. And then she left came back a few minutes later to apologize. She said something like I'm sorry about that. I'm tired, and I said that's okay. Maybe you should get some coffee or something. She said, I don't need coffee and then walked away. Oh, she was setting me up for all these traps.

00:03:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's also this like strange familiarity between you and this stranger.

00:03:26
Speaker 2: I'd never seen this person in my life, I mean as far as I know. And it was it set the table in a well I should not at the table. That's confusing for a brunch situation. It set the scene in a a bad way, okay, and the rest of the experience sucked.

00:03:44
Speaker 3: Oh no, it almost sounds like she's like out of a movie, or like a scene of sorts of just like she had she came in. She knew something was wrong. She asked, are you okay? You're sure you've never met this I've never met this person.

00:04:01
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe she's talking to her coworkers right now and she's saying, my old friend Bridgart didn't even recognize man and was so rude. But it was a bad experience. I won't name the restaurant. I will say it's on Glendale Boulevard, Okay, and so if that's the morning I'm dealing with Meanwhile, you're having a nice time washing the dishes.

00:04:21
Speaker 3: I yeah, I live pretty close to that area. And now I want to guess the restaurant, but I won't.

00:04:27
Speaker 2: Not a podcast, I will you'll see you never go there, or you'll say, oh, that's where my dear friend works.

00:04:32
Speaker 3: No, I actually have a guess right now for but I won't say. Because there's a place that I often go on Glendale Boulevard just because it's there, and every time the service is thereund I feel really bad. I don't like speaking a place's service, but right every time, I'm like, I don't know what's happening. I think maybe I've disappeared, but I'm still sitting at this table.

00:04:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean service jobs are very difficult, good services. I mean it's a challenging thing to do. So I do feel bad when I say someone did a bad job at it, totally, but yeah, in this particular scenario, I thought, this is I feel like I'm on a prank show.

00:05:14
Speaker 3: I do also love the trope of, like, you know, just listening to people tell stories of bad service, and then you always got to finish it with like, but I tipped really well, you have to finish it.

00:05:25
Speaker 2: That well this restaurant you had to tip beforehand.

00:05:28
Speaker 3: Oh then I don't know this restaurant.

00:05:30
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, so it really does feel like a complete track.

00:05:34
Speaker 3: Interesting. I did work in restaurants for a while, and there were like months at a time where I was just terrible to every customers.

00:05:42
Speaker 2: So a lot of customers deserve it, let's be honest.

00:05:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, sometimes they did. Sometimes I just was like I don't want to be here, so I'll just take it out on you.

00:05:52
Speaker 2: Did you ever have a like a an enemy customer that were like, oh he's back.

00:05:57
Speaker 1: Oh.

00:05:58
Speaker 3: Interesting. I think I didn't like remember the enemies enough, but there were like regulars who I desperately wanted to become friendly with.

00:06:07
Speaker 2: Oh that's nice.

00:06:08
Speaker 3: But I think one of the restaurants I worked at was like a fried chicken sandwich shop, and I think the regulars really didn't want to be recognized that they were coming so often.

00:06:17
Speaker 2: Oh sure, because they felt like, oh, they think my life is out of control. I eat a fried chicken sandwich for each meal. Yes, I know that, feeling extraordinarily and.

00:06:26
Speaker 3: I just wanted to be like, oh my gosh, it's so nice to see you again. Yeah.

00:06:30
Speaker 2: I guess there are some restaurants like that that have a little bit of built in shame because you know, of whatever dumb nonsense that you go to regularly, you kind of want to be incognito, kind of discreet.

00:06:44
Speaker 3: Have you ever had a place where you wanted to be recognized as a regular?

00:06:49
Speaker 2: That's a good question. There is a place I am recognized as a regular that's nice, and it's been nice. It's become my Cheers. That's really absolutely my Cheers.

00:07:00
Speaker 3: Like that's the dream.

00:07:01
Speaker 2: It is the dream. But then sometimes it's a little Sometimes you just want to be alone at the restaurant.

00:07:06
Speaker 3: Well, so maybe that's the burden of becoming a regular.

00:07:09
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, right, you just want to be there for the food, you and the meal and then now you're chatting with Nancy or whoever. But there's nothing wrong with that? Okay, So, but you never became friends with the regular.

00:07:23
Speaker 3: I get so I was cold to the people who wanted to be my friend or at least friendly with me, right, and then I was friendly with the cold I see where.

00:07:33
Speaker 2: I always go after those that don't want us, right to say, right where?

00:07:39
Speaker 3: This is what I did.

00:07:40
Speaker 2: So I assume you're a front of house at this restaurant. Yes, have you ever worked back of house at a restaurant?

00:07:46
Speaker 3: Yeah? Like, I worked as a runner at a restaurant in New York City.

00:07:52
Speaker 2: Well, I'm actually I know busser, I know waiter. What does a runner do?

00:07:57
Speaker 3: A runner just brings the food from the kitchen into the table. So you're, in a sense like you spend most of your time in the kitchen. But then you are I mean, I guess in the same way that a busboy is front of in the front of house sometimes that you do show your face to bring the food.

00:08:15
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:08:15
Speaker 3: And this was at like it saw itself as an upscale restaurant. So we learned how to hug the customer, the guest, which which is just that you don't put your arm across them to put the plate on the table.

00:08:29
Speaker 2: Oh, you put it behind. Yeah, I guess behind, like you're on lover's lane.

00:08:35
Speaker 3: Yes. And then you also couldn't auction off the food. You had to know which plate went to which seat. You couldn't say, I have the in this dish. Yeah, whose is it? Wow?

00:08:46
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever been to a restaurant that nice.

00:08:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't It was okay.

00:08:51
Speaker 2: Did you ever did you ever feel like the waiter was getting all of the accolades while you were doing all of the work.

00:08:58
Speaker 3: Oh, yes, constant, I feel.

00:09:01
Speaker 2: Like that restaurant, what is the purpose of the waiter is to just take the order and check in?

00:09:06
Speaker 3: I think, well, like I applied as a server, but I didn't have enough like experience at the time. I guess the raw talent. Yeah, but yeah, the server really is the point of contact for that table. They get the accolades. I don't know if they always get the blame if something goes wrong. But I also like bringing out the food. You also have to ask there's like condiments or other things right they need which could sometimes fall to the server. But we would also do this. Is this interesting to me?

00:09:39
Speaker 2: I love it. I love these dynamics, these things that we never hear about. I mean, was there any competition between you and the bussers, because it feels like those two were doing the waiters work and wanting to be waiters favorite.

00:09:49
Speaker 3: I think what felt bad about like there were definitely like like racially motivated, like who is what role? Wow?

00:09:59
Speaker 2: Really? Yeah, I don't know if that's.

00:10:01
Speaker 3: Pretty common, but like yeah, like a lot of times the bus boys or especially like the porters, uh, like washing the dishes would be like, oh they only speak Spanish or something like that.

00:10:12
Speaker 2: Right, that's nice.

00:10:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, but occasionally, like a busser would get promoted to runner, a runner would get promoted to the ladder.

00:10:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you decided you would leave it at runner.

00:10:23
Speaker 3: I would leave it at runner to take on a prestigious minimum wage internship is what I left that job for.

00:10:31
Speaker 2: Where did you intern?

00:10:32
Speaker 3: Oh? But yeah, just in the design department.

00:10:36
Speaker 2: Was Yeah, do you do design work?

00:10:39
Speaker 1: No?

00:10:39
Speaker 3: It was just so I went to n y U and and like all the late night shows were a place to to do internships. And then I guess if you knew somebody, you could get just in a random department.

00:10:51
Speaker 2: So I knew somewhere You're still okay? That's interesting. Did what was interning in the design department? Like, is it essentially just internship anyway? Just getting doing menial things?

00:11:04
Speaker 3: Yeah? I liked it a lot. It's like the same four designers who've worked there for like the entire run of the show.

00:11:12
Speaker 2: They're all one and fifty.

00:11:13
Speaker 3: Hundred years old. Yeah, oh, sorry, one hundred and fifty.

00:11:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:11:18
Speaker 3: And it's like taking lunch orders, like ordering cars at the end of the night, but also like reading sketches and like pulling up research for for what the sets might need and stuff. I was a very timid intern I remember taking lunch orders by always starting with the sentence I'm so sorry to bother you.

00:11:39
Speaker 2: I'm familiar. Yeah, Now back to washing the dishes this morning? How long total did that take you?

00:11:47
Speaker 3: That's a good question. I think it took me all morning.

00:11:51
Speaker 2: How many dishes did you have?

00:11:52
Speaker 3: It was? It was piled up. But I also am bad at completing a task, just like start to finish, like I away probably times.

00:12:02
Speaker 2: Right, walking away to do but walking away from the doing the dishes feels difficult to me? Is the because you have to turn the water off?

00:12:11
Speaker 3: Sure?

00:12:11
Speaker 2: Well, how was that situation unfolding?

00:12:14
Speaker 3: I also just got a dog, so so sometimes like you can call for my attention or or I would just get distracted and sometimes the water was too hot and I needed to step away from Yeah, I don't know what is your dishwashing process.

00:12:29
Speaker 2: Like my dishwashing process is largely staying ahead of the game. If I can't, okay, doing the dishes as they are dirtied, okay, or at least putting them in the dishwasher as needed.

00:12:42
Speaker 3: Oh, that seems like the way one should be with dishes.

00:12:46
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, I don't know what the the worry for me is. You know, I'm putting in dirty dish after dirty dish, and then it's not starting the washer for days at a time, and I feel like I'm putting these kind of dirty objects in this dark little cave. Is that like inviting bacteria? Is that going to lead to some sort of disaster for me at something?

00:13:06
Speaker 3: I don't know. But then when you do run the washer, it gets so hot that I assume the bacteria dies. But I don't know.

00:13:12
Speaker 2: That's true, very true. But should the bacteria gain enough strength prior to the washer being turned on?

00:13:20
Speaker 3: Right? So what's the balance, right?

00:13:22
Speaker 2: What's like, what's the few the time on the fuse for this before the bomb explodes? But that's essentially what I do occasionally, I like with everything, I let it get way out of control, okay, and then there's a sink full of dishes, or you know, like I'm in the last couple of weeks, I've started a new job and my email has become a true disaster, okay, piling up.

00:13:47
Speaker 3: I relate to that. Do you try to do like the inbox zero thing.

00:13:51
Speaker 2: Or what I do inbox two wow, which I try to get it down in like if it's two to four unready email, sort of unresponded to emails, I'm in a pretty good place, but once we get past four, I start shutting down.

00:14:06
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm really impressed by that.

00:14:08
Speaker 2: What's your current inbox situation right now?

00:14:10
Speaker 3: I'm trying to do inbox two.

00:14:12
Speaker 2: Hundred, which that's an interesting number to make because it's completely out of control. Well, it's out of control. But then there are people, I'm sure you know people who have like they look at their phone and it says thirty five thousand, totally right.

00:14:25
Speaker 3: It seems like two hundred seems like kind of a random number to think, oh, I've done a good job.

00:14:31
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's because it's almost manageable. Yeah, but not at all. Yes, I mean that would kill me.

00:14:37
Speaker 3: Right, I think it is killing me. I think if I could get it down to two or four, maybe I would just feel freer. But so's I tried to do inbox zero. I think maybe this was like four or five years ago at this point, where I just went through everything for six months. Everything older than that just got archived, and then I attended to like everything. But then since then it's just slowly increased of like, oh, shoot, now there's like fifty emails, but I'll get to them, and I've opened all of them. I like, so at this point there are emails from twenty eighteen that I think I will respond.

00:15:17
Speaker 2: Like from who are they? From?

00:15:18
Speaker 4: Friends, family, colleagues, colleagues, acquaintances, rainbow Sometimes there like it's like a very nice like compliment or thinking of you email.

00:15:29
Speaker 3: Oh and somehow that the emotional weight of it makes me.

00:15:33
Speaker 2: Scared that that's a hard email to respond to.

00:15:35
Speaker 3: And I've brought it up to those friends who've sent it, like either in person or like on a Zoomer show kind of catch up thing, and they've all been like, oh, yeah, don't worry about it. You don't need to respond. And I do think if I were to respond to one of those emails from twenty eighteen, it would it would cause more chaos than it right.

00:15:59
Speaker 2: That person has completely forgotten about it.

00:16:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I've thought about it for four years.

00:16:06
Speaker 2: Have you this has crossed my mind recently? Have you ever And I've never done it, but I'm getting there. Have you ever had an email you do need to respond to, but you delete it as a little treat to yourself, Just say I'm not going to respond. Doesn't that sound kind? If they need me, they'll they'll email again. WHOA I would love There are few emails currently floating at the top of the cream of my inbox and I feel like just deleting one just to release myself momentarily.

00:16:35
Speaker 3: Have you done that or is that like a fantasy?

00:16:37
Speaker 2: It's something I'm toying with. It's the idea of it sounds good and it seems like it could work out at least temporarily.

00:16:46
Speaker 3: That sounds very powerful.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, just delete it and see what happens.

00:16:51
Speaker 3: Because also, yeah, you're right of like, if they really need you, they'll email you again, and essentially it's the same thing that I'm doing by not responding for four years.

00:16:59
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, but you I have just releasing.

00:17:03
Speaker 3: Yourself rather than uh huh. I don't think I've ever really deleted an email archiving.

00:17:11
Speaker 2: Never deleted an email.

00:17:12
Speaker 3: No. Prior to trying in box zero for the first time a few years ago, I had never even archived. I just keep it. I just keep all of it. I guess I'm an email hoarder. I don't know what.

00:17:23
Speaker 2: Does archiving even mean.

00:17:25
Speaker 3: I think it just Okay, so when you do in box two or four, you're deleting.

00:17:30
Speaker 2: I am deleting. Oh wow, well, actually, now I'm just being caught in my own life. I'm I'm deleting some, I'm leaving some. I'll read it, respond and then leave it just and so like my I'll try to paint. And this is such a visual picture for everyone. Okay, you picture my inbox. There are a bunch of read emails, then two to four on read emails sitting on top of those, and then I, you know, I delete a bunch of stuff, especially like promos stuff that kind of thing. But the delete of anything important never really happens. Okay, you're archiving, which is sending it to some other.

00:18:07
Speaker 3: It just I don't know where it goes. But I think why I started doing that a few years ago was somebody like explained it to me. And the big issue I was having was that I open every email as it comes, but then I don't remember if I've attended to it or not.

00:18:23
Speaker 2: Scary.

00:18:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so archiving seemed like a way it just disappears from your inbox, but it still exists if you search for it or if you put it in a folder.

00:18:33
Speaker 2: Oh okay, So it's a little bit more organized version of what I'm doing.

00:18:37
Speaker 3: I maybe, yeah, okay.

00:18:40
Speaker 2: I mean I recently discovered the snooze button on emails, and that's become a real dream for me. My procrastination has gone through the roof with this. It's okay, you hit the snooze and then it will come back to haunt you at some other points.

00:18:52
Speaker 3: Right. I think I tried it maybe once or twice, and was like, this is not for me. It just comes back.

00:18:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. I do need them to remain unread, otherwise I forget about them almost immediately. And by the way, why haven't they figured out an unread text thing for yes.

00:19:11
Speaker 3: Absolutely, because I just kind of have to make a mental note that I haven't responded.

00:19:16
Speaker 2: To that, right, And the mental note never works. Yeah, I mean, i'll pin a conversation at the top, but sometimes I even can't see that and I forget about it.

00:19:23
Speaker 3: You'll pin it because you haven't responded, yeah, rather than these are your most important conversations or something.

00:19:30
Speaker 2: Right, I've never had an important conversation pinned. I've only had ones where I'm like, I'm not emotionally ready to respond to this yet, I'll pin it to the top and come back to it when I'm ready.

00:19:40
Speaker 3: I like that, Okay, I might try that because I I for a long time didn't have pinned things at the top, and I tried pinning recently and it's like my mom my best friend. And for a while it was the work thread, and then I was like, I don't want to treat work with that importance. I don't remember where the third thread is now, But now I find that it's almost harder for me to remember that those people have texted me. But because you can't start ignoring it, yeah, yeah, and it doesn't have the little message circle yeah, it's just the circle.

00:20:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, that seems inefficient to me. Also, I mean, are you afraid you're going to forget your mom and your best friend?

00:20:18
Speaker 3: Oh? I guess that's true. I'm not going to forget them, but I do feel a slight obligation sometimes to be checking in regulation.

00:20:25
Speaker 2: Oh oh sure, It's just like a little reminder these two need to hear from me.

00:20:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I love them right of course.

00:20:33
Speaker 2: Of course they're both obviously a huge obligation in your life that you resent.

00:20:39
Speaker 3: Well, I kind of see all email and text message as as obligations.

00:20:44
Speaker 2: I'm on the exact same wavelength. Are you in any group chats where you'll set your phone down for God forbid an hour and your return and it says like eighty three textbolutely, Yeah, what do you do in that situation? Do you read all of the correspondents? You do? I?

00:21:02
Speaker 3: Well, it depends on I have a lot of I have. I've muted some of those that like really blow up, right, But then also my phone is just always on do not disturb like beautiful feeling? Yeah, yeah, do you do that?

00:21:18
Speaker 2: I do it. I'm doing it more and more, okay, And it just feels incredible.

00:21:21
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:21:21
Speaker 2: I mean, I essentially was treating my phone as do not disturb basically since twenty twelve. I'm very hard to call. People get very frustrated trying to call me, text me. It's a you know, a problem for the people in my the people in my life are not thrilled with the way it's not.

00:21:38
Speaker 3: A problem for you. And I think that's beautiful because I think we shouldn't be obligated to answer people as soon as we get that little ping, right, I don't know.

00:21:48
Speaker 2: You should be able to do it on your own terms, and I have friends who do that. In an even more, I think it's really about setting a boundary of like the first time you get a text from somebody, maybe just don't respond to it for a few days so they know that they're never gonna be able to count.

00:22:01
Speaker 3: Okay, we're on the same page of a few days, not like yeah right, yeah.

00:22:06
Speaker 2: I mean when I open my if I return to my phone and a text thread has blown up past, I would say fifteen texts. Yah, full ignore. I'm not looking through that. Okay, they could be planning my death. I don't care. I will not look at the details. It's overwhelming for me, and I can't like what am I? It's not for me?

00:22:26
Speaker 3: Yes, I there's certain groups where I will well just ignore the whole thing, and then other ones where maybe I'm terrorizing them by like, oh, I finally get to it at like past midnight, and then I'm reading all of them and reacting to them me. So I'm like, Okay, you sent all these notifications, You're going to wake up to no new text messages. But somehow the notification says sixteen.

00:22:53
Speaker 2: The conversation is long over, but Alex has feelings about it, giving thumbs up parts this sort of thing. Well, I mean, speaking of terrorizing people. Okay, you agreed to be on this podcast just a little while ago. I never know anymore when someone agrees to be on the podcast, it doesn't really.

00:23:12
Speaker 3: And I will say, honor of my life. I'm really excited to be here.

00:23:15
Speaker 2: Well, I'm so thrilled to have you. I mean, I was thrilled to have you here. I was thinking, Alex will come by, we'll have such a great time, the weather isn't too hot, and we'll move on with our Sundays. And so I have to say I was a little surprised The podcast is called I said No Gifts, which is in the emails. It's in all correspondents related to this podcast, which you agreed to be on. It's out there for public consumption. So I was a little surprised when you came to my home. I said no gifts, HQ, and walking up the driveway, I see you're holding a bag. You know, I'm nervous to even bring this up. Sure, is this a gift for me? It's yes, okay.

00:23:59
Speaker 3: But I will say it's also I'm running my errands today.

00:24:03
Speaker 2: Oh okay. Oh, I'm just another one of your errands. I'm in the same category as mom and best friend.

00:24:08
Speaker 3: Everything in my life is an obligation. Nothing is joyful. I'm just trying to survive another day without getting in trouble. And it seems like I'm in trouble right now. And so in my defense, it was a pretty big bag that I walked up your driveway, but it's this is the only bag that I'm carrying today. So one of the things is just a thing I'm returning to a store that is near York.

00:24:35
Speaker 2: Oh. I'm good for you for putting it in the official bag. I'm the sort of person when returning an item, will throw it in any old bag, okay, and then it becomes a suspicious transaction, yeah, where they're like, this looks like it's from another store.

00:24:48
Speaker 3: Oh interesting, Okay, But.

00:24:49
Speaker 2: I mean we can bag. I think we can say the name of this company, Big Bud Press.

00:24:55
Speaker 3: Yes we've avoided any restaurant names. But yeah, it's a great company, great company.

00:25:02
Speaker 2: And I don't think that you. I mean, they have their own line of items, so I don't think there could be any confusion there bag wise, item wise. You're not going to show up there with a you know, I can't name a single brand name. What's a brand of clothing American apair, American apparel, perfect top and try to return it to them. You're not going to bring your Tommy Hill Figure jeans brand, excellent brand. We all love them. Yeah, I love the hill Figures.

00:25:30
Speaker 3: I am. Okay, So so I brought, I brought gifts. But it's really you're helping me out if that helps it all as a reframing of this is a bag of things I'm getting rid of today, and.

00:25:43
Speaker 2: So I'm on the dumping tour.

00:25:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, and okay, now I guess that's even ruder than if I had just admitted that I brought you a gift.

00:25:52
Speaker 2: This is your traveling podcast. Your home is a dump?

00:25:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, well should we get into it here?

00:26:15
Speaker 3: Sure?

00:26:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, as Alex has described, it isn't a large brown bag from the Big bud Press store with is the item you're returning in here? Currently?

00:26:25
Speaker 1: It is?

00:26:25
Speaker 2: Well we should talk about the heuse.

00:26:27
Speaker 3: Okay, as is my wallet because I wanted to prove to you that this is my bag for today.

00:26:32
Speaker 2: So this could It looks like I'm gonna have to parse through whatever is happening here to find out what actually has been brought to the podcast. So there is a wallet. I'm going to touch your wallet.

00:26:42
Speaker 3: Excellent wallet, thank you Christmas gift from my mind.

00:26:45
Speaker 2: I assume this yellow pant is on its way to Big bud Press.

00:26:48
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm debating whether to exchange or to return right as a saffron?

00:26:54
Speaker 2: Ooh, I mean, will you describe that as a saffron?

00:26:56
Speaker 6: Yes?

00:26:57
Speaker 3: So I went with a friend the other day to pick out a pant, and she also knew way more color names than I'm interesting.

00:27:05
Speaker 2: I mean, there are too many color names.

00:27:06
Speaker 3: Yes, I thought this was like a mustard.

00:27:08
Speaker 2: Yellow, but this could be a mustard.

00:27:11
Speaker 3: I think I didn't know what saffron was, so now i'll call it.

00:27:14
Speaker 2: Safro saffron afternoon sunset. Afternoon sunset doesn't make logical sense. It's a winter winter sunset. That's interesting. Okay. So the pants look great. I mean, I haven't seen you wear them, so maybe it's not like it doesn't work with your style. I can't say.

00:27:31
Speaker 3: I tried to go really oversized, just try to look like a skater.

00:27:39
Speaker 2: But i'd circa nineteen ninety nine.

00:27:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but I think I can't pull it off very well. So I'm gonna go one size small, more fitting.

00:27:46
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, I like a fitted clothing. Yeah yeah, okay. Then there's a button that says be nice to me.

00:27:52
Speaker 3: Oh, you could have that if you want.

00:27:54
Speaker 2: I'm not looking. I'm not. That is not what I'm currently doing. I'm not looking for things any of this. I'm just I mean, I've been given a bag to investigate, and I'm thinking, why not?

00:28:05
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, So the story behind this button was it came with the pants or they had They had all these buttons there, right, and my friend was looking at them and complimenting them and the store employees were like, you can take those, they're free.

00:28:19
Speaker 2: They give away buttons.

00:28:20
Speaker 3: I guess so. And then my friend handed me this one that says be nice to me, and my gut reaction, without having any thought, was oh, I don't deserve that. And there were maybe like three or four store employees closing down the store and my friend and everyone reacted with such horror that this person in front of them.

00:28:42
Speaker 2: Just doesn't think they deserve any level of respect.

00:28:45
Speaker 3: It's just admitted a level of self worth that was so shocking that they forced me to take this out.

00:28:53
Speaker 2: And now you have to go back and face those people.

00:28:56
Speaker 3: They won't remember.

00:28:57
Speaker 2: Oh well, let's see again. Oh no, look at this, you're a memorable person. They're probably going to welcome you with open hall.

00:29:04
Speaker 3: Oh that person who couldn't take.

00:29:07
Speaker 2: It be nice to me, But I could have used that at brunch this morning.

00:29:10
Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, okay, Well so maybe by the end we'll see who deserves over it.

00:29:15
Speaker 2: This is gonna end in violence. I feel like that.

00:29:18
Speaker 3: Part wasn't technically part. I do have a part that is a gift to you.

00:29:21
Speaker 2: The there is another bag within the bag, and I assume it's quite heavy. Yeah, it's like it's a like a lunch sack.

00:29:29
Speaker 1: It is.

00:29:30
Speaker 2: It looks like a baby to the bigger bag, because the bigger bag is kind of a brown bag, and this is a brown lunch sack. So I assume this is the thing I should be opening. Well, I wrote on this one, Oh it says something. It does a bridge or exclamation point. So I assume unless you have a brand of paper bags called Bridgers, this is for me, This.

00:29:50
Speaker 3: Is for you. And you know, I could have just brought this out.

00:29:53
Speaker 2: From the car, but look at the rich conversation that this larger bag has provided. And I even open your wallet. We could have gone into your financials, your you know, driver's license situation, what have you. God knows what happens in a wallet.

00:30:08
Speaker 3: So much happened.

00:30:09
Speaker 2: There's so many things that mine is stuffed with, receipts, et cetera. Okay, well, wow, there are so many paths I want to take right now, but I think we should get into this bag before.

00:30:19
Speaker 3: I okay, speaking of receipts, I am the one thing I am nervous about is somehow I could not find a receipt.

00:30:26
Speaker 2: Oh no, but on credit.

00:30:29
Speaker 3: Card I did and they gave me a little like return policy like postcard, and I can't and I usually keep receipts very well, so I'm confused if I ever received one.

00:30:39
Speaker 2: Okay, do they accept a podcast recording?

00:30:43
Speaker 3: I I'll ask, Okay.

00:30:45
Speaker 2: Tell them to check out. I said, no gifts in a few weeks. If there's any trouble. Yeah, because this has been a very honest, open conversation about the return of these pants. You're obviously you would have told me if they were stolen.

00:30:57
Speaker 3: I yeah, because it would be interesting.

00:31:03
Speaker 2: I didn't need to bring this bag of stolen pants into your backyard, but I thought we should talk about. Okay, well, with no further delay, let's get into this little lunch sack. And now I'm pulling out Oh what is this adorable little thing? I've pulled out a smaller. This is a Russian doll situation.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: There's a smaller, a slightly nicer.

00:31:22
Speaker 2: Bag, right, a very cute, almost cowgirl chic. I would say, I can see like kind of a rodeo queen carrying this small one of those monkeys that rides a horse. Have you ever seen that?

00:31:35
Speaker 3: Not in person, but I can see.

00:31:37
Speaker 2: One of those holding one of these. Absolutely, that would be so cute. Yeah, little hat, little skirt, and then it's got.

00:31:43
Speaker 3: This, yeah, the other hand on the reins.

00:31:47
Speaker 2: On the way to the store, what have you. Yeah, it's like a little leather textured bag that's light blue with some fireworks on it. Okay, is there something in here or is this what we should talk about?

00:31:59
Speaker 3: There is something in there, although this bag is I was just looking for bags today and this is from I was cat sitting for my friend Rachel Chapman, who gave me the keys, and then she always gives me a little like trinkets and gifts, and she put it in this ball.

00:32:13
Speaker 2: Oh that's so nice. Yes, this is a great little gift bag. Okay, well I'm going to reach in to this, the third bag I've seen so far on this episode, and I'm pulling something. Oh, oh my god, Oh my god. Wait. Okay, okay, so I apologies to everyone involved currently. I felt something soft and you know, a beautiful texture and began to pull it out and it was a succulent. But it looks like I have pulled the succulent out of the pot which was in the bag. No.

00:32:48
Speaker 3: I tried so hard to have a good presentation, and ultimately it wasn't functional.

00:32:54
Speaker 2: This is kind of my fault. I should have looked into the bag, but I tried not to look at it until I brought it out. But succulents are so your hearty, resilient creature. I'm not even remotely concerned about this, but I do want to Should I replant it really quickly?

00:33:07
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, sure, I'm sorry. I was just going to put everything in here, and then I was like, oh, that succulent needs some kind of more of a level right surface.

00:33:16
Speaker 2: Succulents can truly live through nuclear winter. So I'm not even remotely concerned about this one's health. Okay, So I and now looking in I'm seeing another object in here. So does it come does it belong with the succulent or should we talk about the succulent? First?

00:33:33
Speaker 3: All of the objects in the bag came from the same event yesterday.

00:33:36
Speaker 2: Oh okay was the event.

00:33:38
Speaker 3: It was a fundraiser for a dear friend, Julia John's, and people brought different products you could you could buy and to make donations. But the rest of what's in the bag, there's two of them, and one of them I would like to keep, but you can pick okay, but then we can have Matt.

00:34:00
Speaker 2: Oh my god, well yeah, let's see. So let's bring this out because you've kind of revealed slightly what it is. No, don't stop apologizing, please, I'm the one creating the issues here. There are two little bracelets that one says dua fupa and one says spicy tuna.

00:34:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's one that I want more than the other one, but I won't tell you.

00:34:24
Speaker 2: I have to decide. Don't make me give you one of these.

00:34:26
Speaker 3: So being my friend is really a trap. It's a series of tests and people rarely pass, and I view everyone who does as an complication.

00:34:39
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Well I'm gonna well, I'm going to trap you even further by mixing these up in my hand and then putting in my left and right. Then you have to tell me which hand, Okay, which I won't be trapped again today I've been trapped by a rude waiter, yes, and I will now be the trapper. So you're gonna tell me left or right. I'm gonna put the microphone down for one.

00:34:58
Speaker 3: Moment, all right, So then whatever happens is my fault. Okay, okay, to give to you or to keep to keep for yourself left or right hand? Your left hand, left hand.

00:35:14
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm going to open it up and you're going to give an honest reaction to what happens.

00:35:18
Speaker 3: Okay, Oh, this is the one I wanted.

00:35:21
Speaker 4: Spicy tunt I tried to look I was dishonest.

00:35:26
Speaker 3: I tried to keep an eye on on on.

00:35:29
Speaker 2: Which was did you the colors are.

00:35:33
Speaker 3: Slightly Yeah, I've cheated.

00:35:34
Speaker 2: Wow, this is me. As you know, I'm not a good master of ceremonies. Obviously, I'm not good at running.

00:35:41
Speaker 3: Day was really nice. I just really more so than I wanted to give you a gift. I wanted to keep the spicy tune.

00:35:50
Speaker 2: Why did you want spicy tuna so badly? You were willing to give up your moral.

00:35:55
Speaker 3: System arbitrarily, was like that's the one I like better yesterday, and then was like, I guess I could get dou a foopa for bridge.

00:36:08
Speaker 2: Well, now we've both got one and we're connected kind of cossicly. Now, is this created by somebody that you know? Or is this a s bender?

00:36:15
Speaker 3: Becky Yamamoto, Okay.

00:36:17
Speaker 2: You were just at a friend carnival.

00:36:19
Speaker 3: Yes, sorry, Yes, a friend carnival, just plugging their names on the pod.

00:36:23
Speaker 2: Right, just bring out the list, let's read them. Now. Are you a big jewelry wearer? Do you like a like a bracelet this sort of thing.

00:36:32
Speaker 3: I'm not. I'm trying to get more into like a necklace or something. And I feel like I've noticed a trend in like, oh, like some kind of a chain or like in layering them, and I'm trying to explore that more. I don't wear bracelets ever, but I did. I'd wore both of those yesterday and I like the feeling of them. So I have warn your Oh.

00:36:56
Speaker 2: You absolutely used as used as these pants being returned.

00:37:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's used yesterday. And also the story behind the plant was it was given to me as I was walking out the door and I had been eyeing the plants also as a potential gift for today.

00:37:12
Speaker 2: Right.

00:37:13
Speaker 3: But then in terms of thinking about keeping it, I don't like that it's fuzzy.

00:37:18
Speaker 2: Oh you don't like the fuzzy text. Yeah, it's one of these little succulents that almost has fur.

00:37:22
Speaker 3: Yes, And how do you feel about it?

00:37:24
Speaker 2: I love it. I'm I'm happy to bring any little plant into the backyard and just say, now you're on your own. Okay, let's see if you can make it in this climate.

00:37:33
Speaker 3: You can hack it.

00:37:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I feel like this one's going to be perfectly fine. It's so cute. I mean my fear it is pretty small. Will the wind blow it away?

00:37:41
Speaker 3: Maybe it couldn't even withstand an unboxing.

00:37:45
Speaker 2: I immediately ripped it out of its dirt. I mean, I could just plant it elsewhere in the yard. But I do like this little pot. Oh, it's so cute.

00:37:52
Speaker 3: You could use it for something else, the pot.

00:37:54
Speaker 2: I mean, we have a decent amount of wildlife passing through this yard, and it can all seems hell bent on destroying some element of my home. So who knows what will happen to this little baby. But I could put it on the sink by the kitchen, and then when I'm washing the dishes, Alex on the mind.

00:38:13
Speaker 3: Dishes and this plant. Yeah.

00:38:15
Speaker 2: Are you good at taking care of plants?

00:38:16
Speaker 3: No, I'm awful at it. You have so many plants here, it looks very lovely.

00:38:21
Speaker 2: Well, this is a there are a lot of plants back here. Outdoor plants are slightly easier to maintain, I would say. I mean, I've gotten better at indoor plants, which was basically just stopped watering them until they look absolutely desperate. Then you water. That seems to be the secret.

00:38:39
Speaker 3: Is that a real secret or this is just what you did.

00:38:42
Speaker 2: It's kind of the secret, I think, because most people tend to overwater, that's what I've heard, okay, and under light that's not a real phrase, but you know, don't put them near windows or whatever. And so I've gotten better about making sure my plants aren't soggy, they're not growing whatever it is that kills them. Sure, and most of my plants inside are now I wouldn't say thriving, but they're you know, they're living a decent life.

00:39:09
Speaker 3: Oh that's really nice.

00:39:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you kill all of them.

00:39:12
Speaker 3: My plants are barely hanging on, but they're not dead yet.

00:39:16
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:39:16
Speaker 3: I think part of me probably wants them to die. I also don't know what plants should be indoor, what should be outdoor. I brought two of my indoor plants outdoors because I have this like little alley area that is like fully secure that my dog can just be in, like he can't like crawl under the fence. Okay, but I really want him to like, oh, just like in the morning, go to.

00:39:42
Speaker 2: The bathroom there right right.

00:39:43
Speaker 3: To encourage him, I brought two plants out just to pee on. And so that's how much I respect.

00:39:50
Speaker 2: My per using the plants as baked essentially, and.

00:39:53
Speaker 3: It hasn't even worked that way.

00:39:56
Speaker 2: Now this I wanted to bring this up earlier. You mentioned that you just got a dog. What's the dog situation? And obviously we still need to talk about there's more in this bag, but I do more.

00:40:05
Speaker 3: It could all be garbage that I'm giving you.

00:40:07
Speaker 2: No, not yet, not yet, too charming little gifts. That's great, okay, but I do need to I always love to hear about a dog.

00:40:15
Speaker 3: I just got this dog two months ago, adopted him from may Day Rescue. I met him because my friend was fostering him and they had also just adopted their own dog. And I went over for a book club and met this dog they were fostering, and it's been great. He I, well, now I sound like I don't believe myself.

00:40:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're really questioning all of this.

00:40:45
Speaker 3: No, he he's like really changed how I live, but also made it. I still don't sound like.

00:40:54
Speaker 2: I'm funny, made it better. You didn't say change the way I live in a positive way. It's all all feels like this dog is a burden, But I.

00:41:03
Speaker 3: Don't believe he's a huge burden, and I love him. Somebody.

00:41:06
Speaker 2: What's his name?

00:41:07
Speaker 3: His name is bandit name. I gave him that name. My friends were calling him foxy because he looks like a little fox.

00:41:14
Speaker 2: Oh I have to this dog.

00:41:15
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he's my phone background.

00:41:18
Speaker 2: Let me say this. Oh, he looks like a bandit. He has a little he's off to rob a bank. These fox ask that's a fantastic How old is he?

00:41:28
Speaker 3: He's like a year and a half and he was a street dog. They found him on the street, so he's got a bit of like reactivity with other dogs. But I'm like working with the trainer and it's going okay.

00:41:39
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:41:40
Speaker 3: A conflict happened with my neighbor the first week I had him, and I think that's the like, probably the crux of me being like, well, he's wonderful and my life is so hard.

00:41:51
Speaker 2: Did he attack the neighbor?

00:41:52
Speaker 3: No, he ran after her dogs.

00:41:54
Speaker 2: Okay, smaller dogs.

00:41:57
Speaker 3: He's like ten pounds. The dogs are probably the same size. Fair fight, fair fight, But also I appreciate you just straight up asking did he attack the neighbor? Like, I think it implies that even if that happened, it's not the end of the world. I don't know. She justly I didn't see any contact happen, but she still was like, I took my dogs to the vet. I think they had a torn pop pad, which all my friends were like, that's not from a bite. Maybe her dog stepped on something, right, But she was very much just like, I'm not paying this bill. And I was like, okay, whatever you need. I don't hear from her for two weeks and then she drives past me calls me on the phone. A lawyer she got. She she calls me on the phone and says, I see you're in the front yard with your dog. Are you planning on doing that more?

00:42:47
Speaker 2: What do you think?

00:42:48
Speaker 3: I was speechless, and she's like, because if you're going to be in the front yard, which is just my yard with the dog, I'm going to report you to the city and to manage me.

00:43:00
Speaker 2: WHOA and a strong reaction.

00:43:03
Speaker 3: Yeah so so. Now So, at the same time, i'd been working with this uh for a different podcast. I got coached by a Dominatrix to try to learn to be more powerful.

00:43:17
Speaker 2: Oh incredible, Yeah, that's great.

00:43:19
Speaker 3: So this was between session one and two that this all happened, and so in an attempt to be more powerful, I I mean I was scared. I was so scared. She ended up like banging on my door with this big dude with the bill. I didn't answer. She texted me the bill. So I text a response of like, I'll take care of the bill if you need the help, but also like stay away from me and my dog.

00:43:43
Speaker 2: Wow, this is escalated in a way I cannot imagine.

00:43:46
Speaker 3: She texts back like pages and pages of this rant. It's I also, I'm so conflict of verse. I just I'd rather just disappear forever from someone's life than well, that's.

00:43:59
Speaker 2: What she wants. Yeah, exactly what she wants.

00:44:02
Speaker 3: So the next morning, I don't respond to this like long rant. I just vemo her with the Vemo memo back off.

00:44:11
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to say that on every Venmo. That's such a great thing. Back off.

00:44:15
Speaker 3: Also also, yeah, just hearing myself just the quietest.

00:44:22
Speaker 2: Bat that's great.

00:44:24
Speaker 3: Back off. And then I block her on the phone, and eventually also on Vemo, just because her picture kept popping up in my thing. But I was like, wow, I've been powerful. But then for a whole week I parked a block away from my own boy so that she wouldn't know if I was home or not. And I still I try to only leave my house when I know it's not her dog walking.

00:44:50
Speaker 2: Down undercover of darkness.

00:44:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't think I've become powerful.

00:44:57
Speaker 2: I mean the back off, that's a very that's a bold move. That's it's not you know, I am fairly conflicted versus as well, And the idea of telling anyone in any medium to back all is to me the strongest person that's ever lived.

00:45:11
Speaker 3: Wow. That's really nice. Because my friend who went to Big Bud with me last week, I told her this story and she was like, yeah, I guess that's so you vet you gave her money. So I don't know, maybe that's not so powerful.

00:45:28
Speaker 2: I mean, for all we know, this woman is working as a team with her dogs, and you're one of many of her victims. You know, she's got all this money pouring in various people she's just harassing and driving past.

00:45:39
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:45:40
Speaker 3: So I love my new dog. We're a little we're a little family now, and I'm trying to not to teach him to live like how I'm with him.

00:45:52
Speaker 2: Well, it sounds like he I mean, he came into this home with a very strong attitude.

00:45:56
Speaker 3: It's true. He's not conflicted versus right, he's going for us. Yeah. I a friend described him as yeah Bandit is so sweet until he sees or hears anything, and then he gets mad. So yeah, maybe I should learn to be more like him.

00:46:13
Speaker 2: Right, you have things to teach each other. Yeah, this is a beautiful beginning of a relationship.

00:46:17
Speaker 3: As far or something. Yeah, people talk about like, oh I got a dog and it it like got me out of bed in the morning and like really taught me what I needed to learn. And this dog has taught me to have conflicts in my life.

00:46:29
Speaker 2: It got you in a fight on Venmo. Yes, yeah, that's great. Who would have ever thought? And I mean, you're on your way to return these pants, and I always feel like there's that's a bit of confrontation, regardless of the store or item. There's always the moment of I don't want this anymore, I have to and who knows how the cashier is going to react?

00:46:47
Speaker 3: Absolutely, which is why I'm gonna exchange.

00:46:52
Speaker 2: Without receipt. I mean, you're not getting your cash back. Let's be honest. We know the world of retail too well. Okay, well, let me reach back in to this bag. Okay, okay, I'm getting I'm feeling fruit. I'm feeling I'm going to guess before I bring it out. Avocado.

00:47:10
Speaker 3: Yeah? Are these? They're from the tree in my front yard. I there are two of the damaged ones.

00:47:17
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm bringing out two avocados. Wow, this is just a full brag about whatever Garden of Eden situation.

00:47:23
Speaker 3: I only have an avocado tree.

00:47:26
Speaker 2: What are these lemons from the plant?

00:47:30
Speaker 3: I don't know if this plant will survive, but it's okay. The lemons, I don't know who or where they're from. But so I've had I've lived at this apartment for about a year now. It has this very big avocado tree. There's probably like hundreds of avocados. What a dream, it's It's somewhat of a dream. It has now become a burden to me, which I guess in.

00:47:54
Speaker 2: How many avocados are you reading a day?

00:47:57
Speaker 3: What I've learned in the past year is that I'm not really an avocado per do you like avocado?

00:48:03
Speaker 2: I love, I mean I love a guacamole.

00:48:06
Speaker 3: I do like guacamole, and I love to you know.

00:48:09
Speaker 2: I'll put throw them on any item. Yeah, I'm eating up. Although I feel like somebody recently put avocado in like sea caesar salad or something. I thought, what are we doing that doesn't that was the line for you? Yeah, there are some items that was like, doesn't quite mix with certain cuisines. Doesn't make sense logically for me.

00:48:28
Speaker 3: Interesting because I do feel like avocado is like a salad add on right frequently.

00:48:34
Speaker 2: But within within the realm of Italian salad, like a Caesar it just doesn't. I don't really associate avocado with Italian food.

00:48:42
Speaker 3: Okay, I never knew that a Caesar salad is Italian, but that makes sense.

00:48:46
Speaker 2: I guess it is, right. I mean, it's probably in quotation marks basically Italian. I can't imagine. I mean, I mean, Caesar's name is right there, right, I just never thought so. But it was probably invented in Long Island in nineteen seventy five or something.

00:49:04
Speaker 3: No, I feel like I learned something today, which is that Caesar salads are a.

00:49:07
Speaker 2: Talent but so you're not an avocado person outside of guacamo.

00:49:13
Speaker 3: I know. I do like avocado, but I think what I've learned from having just a very plentiful supply of avocados is that I don't think about them to add to what I'm eating. Oh I guess, like at a restaurant or like ordering a poke bowl or whatever has an avocado add on. I'll always think about it, and sometimes I do actually get it. But I'm not a person who in the morning am like, oh, let me have an avocado today. I don't know, or I don't know if anyone does that consciously.

00:49:49
Speaker 2: I mean, let's go through what you're making for each meal, breakfast, what's happening. I'm not putting it on a cereal.

00:49:55
Speaker 3: I don't always eat breakfast.

00:49:56
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a problem. Don't support that.

00:50:00
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Okay, So you could.

00:50:01
Speaker 2: Eat just a plain avocado with some salt and lemon.

00:50:03
Speaker 3: That sounds pretty nice, doesn't That sounds like do you have some coffee, I'll have coffee. Yeah.

00:50:09
Speaker 2: You have just this endless supply of avocados that I would be going wild over right.

00:50:14
Speaker 3: Okay, So with this tree, there was a I have a friend who's come to help me harvest them a bunch of times in the last few months. So these two are from his most recent harvest, where I realized that I don't really like having regular avocados. So he took all the like nice, blemish free ones, and I was like.

00:50:36
Speaker 2: The scarbage for me, I can I'll keep.

00:50:38
Speaker 3: Well, I used to be like, let me keep a bunch so I can keep giving them to friends. Yeah, you're inspecting the.

00:50:47
Speaker 2: Currently and they don't seem that bad to Okay.

00:50:51
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, if you slice it open and in.

00:50:54
Speaker 2: Its family of worms that have taken up residents in there.

00:50:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to lean into the fact that I brought you a bag of garbage. But yeah, so so this friend has come over a few times. The first time I had picked the avocados, and I gave him like a bucket of maybe like twenty avocados, uh, thinking that like, oh, I just have all these avocados in a bucket, let me he can pick them out for himself and then I'll continue on my journey of distributing avocados to friends. But he took all of them, which has happened av It's happened a few and then the second time. He well, so he has a nice story of like his mom, who lives in Orange County, makes breakfast for the family every morning and like uses avocados and.

00:51:45
Speaker 2: So okay, so has her supplier died?

00:51:48
Speaker 3: I probably before she bought them at the store and now it's just uh a bag of free ones. And he said that his mom was questing more and is it okay if he comes over to help pick some? And he picked maybe like I want to say, like one hundred and fifty avocados. We like tried counting running a machine.

00:52:10
Speaker 2: How was he doing that?

00:52:11
Speaker 3: He just really had a good time. And this is also after a year of like uh, like I would sporadically try to pick my own. Or there was also this guy who called himself Cowboy Max, who came over, like a lot has happened with this tree, and I've been thinking about moving a lot.

00:52:31
Speaker 2: Just because it's because safe.

00:52:34
Speaker 3: This guy named Cowboy Max, he came and said that he had been coming to this tree for ten years to pick avocados in exchange for like that day he gave me a watermelon. I was just sitting in my front yard having just moved in a year ago. He gave me a watermelon and I was like, oh, great, take take as many as you want. He was like, they're not ready yet. So he came back six months later, but he didn't like greet. I was inside the apartment, Uh, just like on zoom for work, and I see just a man get out of a truck and start taking avocados.

00:53:06
Speaker 2: Huh is it wearing a cowboy hat?

00:53:08
Speaker 3: He? I think he must have been. He was writing ahead. I should have I should have remembered. I thought it might have been him, but I like interrupted the zoom to be like, hey, I'm so sorry there's a man like taking avocados from my tree. I'm just going to go investigate.

00:53:25
Speaker 1: Uh.

00:53:25
Speaker 3: And it was him, and he I guess it's like a barter system. He like came back the next day with a twenty pound bag of rice and a jar of honey for me.

00:53:35
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, it is fascinating, And I.

00:53:38
Speaker 3: Was like, this is great. I like, I love this system. But then a few more times after that, my property manager, I guess, saw him and started yelling at him.

00:53:48
Speaker 2: Property manager's familiar with Cowboy Max.

00:53:50
Speaker 3: I don't know if she is. I would have assumed she would be, but so I saw him first, and he told me that like, oh this this woman had like yelled at him and like could I just tell her that? Or like he was like, you said it was okay, And I was like, yeah, I'm just renting. I don't know, but yeah, I mean I'm not taking as many as like there are in the tree, so like feels free. But then the next time he like knocked on my door and the property manager was with him, like I think because she had been showing the unit next door, and I just felt so like, oh, no, I don't know who to I was like, yeah, he said he'd been coming here for years, and she was just like no, he can't just like come to somebody's property and start taking avocado.

00:54:36
Speaker 2: Tell that to Cowboy Max.

00:54:38
Speaker 3: I yeah. And so I just felt so guilty of not being able to defend Cowboy Max to the best of my.

00:54:44
Speaker 2: Ability, especially after the rice and Honey.

00:54:46
Speaker 3: After the rice and Honey, do you think it.

00:54:48
Speaker 2: Was his own honey?

00:54:49
Speaker 3: Like, uh, he probably has a bunch of different places and people.

00:54:55
Speaker 2: From spots spot Yeah, yeah, in a real old passion way both or something.

00:55:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, just in his truck. But then like so I was scared that cowboy Max have been scared away forever. But then he came back a few days later and was like, so she's around here like three or four o'clock or like he was.

00:55:12
Speaker 2: I'm getting like deterred early childhood kidnapper vibes from this whole situation. A guy that shows up, Oh, your mom's not home, that sort of thing. Okay, yeah, now this is getting a little scary.

00:55:24
Speaker 3: This is good to know context. I haven't seen him since that that time where he was like, oh, what's a good time to come, Like, I haven't seen him since they so I'm not really sure what happened. But now my friend is like helping me pick avocados, and that time he picked like one hundred and fifty, he kept like seventy for himself and his mom. Oh and then the lemons.

00:55:45
Speaker 2: Are unknown source.

00:55:48
Speaker 3: So the tree is really conspicuous. So a lot of people, if I'm in the front yard, they'll like ask me about the avocados, and like, I'll give them some if I happen to be like picking them. Or there's like one lady who I've given some too, but I also see her all the time, like come to steal them, and I'm so scared of like confronting anyone or even just to tell her that it's fine, that I've like avoided going home so that she can steal them in peace. And then and then after.

00:56:22
Speaker 2: She I was just going to eventually not be able to get back home, going to be trapped.

00:56:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I can't keep no.

00:56:31
Speaker 2: I mean I didn't realize. I mean, I guess it makes sense. I just didn't realize that having an avocado tree would come with such a great deal of responsibility.

00:56:39
Speaker 3: I think maybe the way I've gone about it has led me to just.

00:56:43
Speaker 2: The total lack of boundary any old Cabory max wandering and.

00:56:47
Speaker 3: Then yeah, okay, so my theory about the lemons is, uh. There was one day where I was walking ban at home and this older man and his nurse, the two of them were walking down the street and I walked past them to go home, and they were like, oh, we were just admiring your avocado tree. And I was like, I was thinking about putting out a box at some point, and they were like, great, we'll be back, and I was like, oh, okay, I guess I have to do it right now.

00:57:12
Speaker 2: So I go into that timetable.

00:57:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this was right after my friend Will had like picked a bunch and like still left me nice ones and usually the blemish ones. I used to make guacamole. Right, But so I go inside. I put maybe like twenty or thirty avocados in a box, and I write the word free on the right right or maybe I wrote like take some. I think I wrote.

00:57:36
Speaker 2: Taking, Oh okay, interesting, take some doesn't quite indicate free. It almost feels like, yeah, I was going to, but I'm taking.

00:57:44
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure I wrote take some, Okay. So I bring the box out, I put it like on my front fence, and then eventually I see, uh, the older man and his nurse coming back towards me, and so I like take the box off. The legend was like, oh, hey, I like I made this box or I'm putting out this box, but like feel free to take some, and the man's nurse, who's also this like middle aged man, just takes the whole box and I and I did speak up. I was like, oh, I meant for like anyone could take some, and the nurse makes this joke of like, oh, well, we're such a big household, so we're going to take all of it, and I was like, oh, okay, and then he says, just kidding, just kidding, so he's they're not kept and then they walked away with the whole box of like thirty avocados. And so my only theory and I have given like all the neighbors around me like a little sack of maybe like six six avocados before. But then one day somebody knocked on the door, but this was in my hiding face, so I didn't open the door. But when I eventually was out, I came back and I saw somebody had left like a grocery shopping bag sized, like brown paper bag full of lemons. Okay, And I don't really use lemons for anything, so I've just had a lot of lemons.

00:59:06
Speaker 2: Have you used any of the lemons?

00:59:08
Speaker 3: I've used some because my friend told me that they're good for making the garbage disposal, like the sink things smell better.

00:59:17
Speaker 6: Right, of course, I've just thrown what is happening in your house? Yeah, slice it up and put it in some water, some iced tea.

00:59:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, Bridger, I don't think I'm okay, But now I have three mysterious lemons, two blemished avocados yes, a friendship bracelet yes, and a succulent that could be alive or dead nobody, somewhere in between the realm of living and dead.

00:59:49
Speaker 2: I will nurse it back to health.

00:59:51
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:59:51
Speaker 2: This is a fascinating roundup. Oh good, okay, I mean this is going I mean this could lead me an any direction in life. I'm very excited to see what happens. But I think it's time to play a game. Okay, great, I think we're going to play a game called Gift or a Curse. But I need a number between one and ten from you.

01:00:13
Speaker 3: Seven.

01:00:14
Speaker 2: Okay, I have to do some light calculating.

01:00:16
Speaker 3: Actually I don't want to do seven.

01:00:17
Speaker 2: You don't want to Oh interesting, Okay, that's fine. I support this. Actually I encourage you to get what you would want here.

01:00:23
Speaker 3: Sorry, just that's the answer everyone gives, right. Seven.

01:00:27
Speaker 2: People are all over the place.

01:00:28
Speaker 3: Okay, maybe two two.

01:00:30
Speaker 2: See that's a nice number. A lot of people do not pick two. They can usually go over five. Okay, nobody look that up. I'm pretty sure that's right. Okay, Okay, I have to do some calculating with the number.

01:00:40
Speaker 3: Two.

01:00:41
Speaker 2: You have the mic you can recommend, promote do whatever you want.

01:00:44
Speaker 3: I'll be right back. Okay, I have a show tonight, but this podcast will come out after that. I hope it goes okay. Is what unstructured mic time should be used for? I hope it gets cut. If not, what else has been on my mind lately is just like, what do you do with unstructured time? In general?

01:01:11
Speaker 2: Alex? You're you're basically promoting the recent past for the listener. But I hope that hopefully someone listening right now happened to be at your show tonight.

01:01:24
Speaker 3: Yeah maybe, which I gave no information about it.

01:01:28
Speaker 2: Right, So that's going to be a very once that it clicks in for them.

01:01:31
Speaker 3: It's a monthly show, but I still won't fully pack.

01:01:35
Speaker 2: Is it a bad show?

01:01:36
Speaker 3: No, it's fun. I think I still just have a love hate relationship with doing stand up that I'm like, oh, I can't fully I can't fully back it.

01:01:46
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully there's a show one listener who was at the show tonight that is now everything's coming together for them in a huge way in their life where they're thinking, Wow, I'm getting the full Alex experience.

01:02:00
Speaker 3: Do you cut things?

01:02:01
Speaker 1: Is?

01:02:01
Speaker 2: I certainly don't that promotional I've tried to move the succulent and it is actually getting worse. The wind's blowing it around. I'm going to just.

01:02:10
Speaker 3: Leave it be, Okay.

01:02:12
Speaker 2: I set it upside down for a minute, just to make it think about what it's done.

01:02:17
Speaker 3: But the show is the fourth Sundays at the Bigfoot Lodge. Oh okay, perfect, perfect at nine.

01:02:24
Speaker 2: So you might be on that show another time, or you might not. You might quit stand up altogether.

01:02:30
Speaker 3: I might quit the industry.

01:02:33
Speaker 2: Okay, this is how gift or a Curse works. I'm going to name three things. You're going to tell me if there're a gift or a curse and why. But I'm going to tell you if you're right or wrong, because there are correct answers. Okay, okay. Number one, this is a listener. It looks like we're getting all listeners suggestions. This game wonderful. Someone named Lizzie has written in Gift or a Curse fitness instructors who say you can do anything for thirty seconds.

01:03:00
Speaker 3: A curse and why I don't like a curse. Anything is too broad? Is that?

01:03:11
Speaker 2: Okay? Sure?

01:03:12
Speaker 3: Oh wow, you're very you have a very good poker face. Because I'm not I think I'm playing the game with the aim of trying to please you, and I don't think it's worthy.

01:03:25
Speaker 2: The only way to truly win this game is to follow your heart.

01:03:28
Speaker 3: Wow, Okay, I guess it's a gift because it's like, thirty seconds is not very long, and it's it's inspirational to think that, oh, okay, I can do the exercise or whatever thing that I find too challenging for thirty seconds.

01:03:45
Speaker 2: Okay, So it's a gift for you.

01:03:47
Speaker 3: I guess it's a gift.

01:03:48
Speaker 2: You're right, I think this is a gift. Sure, I think. I mean what we're looking at here is the fitness. When I'm working out and someone's yelling at me telling me to do these things, the power dynamic, the instructure is on top. So when they say something that's so deeply incorrect, and I know that it's incorrect, that's a little win for me. I know whatever they're about to tell me that I can do for thirty seconds is wrong, and so I get a little win during my workout and it powers me through the rest of us. So maybe that's the psychology they're using.

01:04:21
Speaker 3: Oh, you're saying that the instructor is wrong for.

01:04:24
Speaker 2: Saying yes, and I get to sit there and be right wow, and now I'm in control for a minute of the workout. I think my idiot instructor has this thing that doesn't really add up, and now I'm stronger because of it, and I can get through the workout.

01:04:38
Speaker 3: Wow. But then you still keep doing the things that the instructor is saying.

01:04:43
Speaker 2: Well, it depends. I mean, power corrupts, and in that moment I might become too strong for my own good.

01:04:51
Speaker 3: Wow. But power corrupts.

01:04:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolute power corrupts, absolutely, and in this situation, I might get completely out of control. Okay, But it's a gift, you know. I'm sure it does inspire some people. For me, it's just like I have the win here. The instructor's wrong, I'm right, wow, and I can do this.

01:05:13
Speaker 3: Okay.

01:05:14
Speaker 2: So we're i mean, at least as far as calling it a gift, we're on the same level.

01:05:18
Speaker 3: Yes, but our paths there are completely different.

01:05:20
Speaker 2: They're different. But that's the beautiful thing about life. Okay, So you've gotten one out of one, so are very impressive.

01:05:26
Speaker 3: Okay.

01:05:27
Speaker 2: Okay. Number two is from Amelia. Amelia says gift or a curse at a concert when the band stops playing and has the crowd singing the lyrics instead of the actual performer. Gift or a curse? Are you familiar with this sort of situation.

01:05:41
Speaker 3: Yes, first instinct would be that it's a curse, because you know you didn't you didn't go to the concert to hear other people who's not the band the singer sing this. But I'm inclined to say gift because I think there might be a trick here. Okay, so I think it's a gift because and I know I'm not following my heart. I'm again trying.

01:06:09
Speaker 2: Here we go.

01:06:14
Speaker 3: Because it gives the singer a break to keep doing a good job.

01:06:19
Speaker 2: After Alex wrong curse. First of all, anytime anyone's singing or yelling in Unison, I feel so embarrassed for everybody. I feel this deep shame. You know, cheers in high school or any of that. I was always like, this sounds so stupid, what are we doing? Second of all, not my job. I'm here for whatever whoever on stage is doing. I don't need to hear the person that's been bumping up against me for the last forty five minutes. Yes, yell in my ear. I don't need it. Absolutely I don't want it. I didn't pay the ticket price, the fees, the parking to show up to listen to you know, concert goer so and so ruined my night. It's a curse. It's absolutely a curse. There's no no reason any Maybe you can sing along with the singer, sure, it's just come on, we need a clearer boundary between performer and audience. I don't like when it becomes one and then it's we get into some tricky territory there and it makes me really uncomfortable.

01:07:27
Speaker 3: This was a lesson for me and interesting my heart.

01:07:29
Speaker 2: Yeah you were, I mean you tried to outsmart the game and it blew up in your face and I'll say it a disgusting way.

01:07:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, he sat there and watched as just crumpled.

01:07:41
Speaker 2: But that's okay. You've gotten one out of two. You have a chance to get at least one more correct. And this is from Michael. Michael has written in and said gift to a curse. Novelty mail boxes I e. In the shape of a farmhouse, dolphin, manatee, et cetera. I don't know why he picked two marine life things as mailboxes, but you get the general idea I give you're a curse.

01:08:02
Speaker 3: I've never seen one or heard of this before.

01:08:05
Speaker 2: You're kidding, I don't think.

01:08:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think I've seen it.

01:08:09
Speaker 2: But you can kind of picture a mailbox in the shape of a manatee.

01:08:12
Speaker 3: Yeah I can, Yeah, I can picture. I got so defferense. Yeah absolutely, Now, yeah, manite, everybody can picture that. Uh okay, I'll just follow my heart on this one and say curse. It seems like it would look look cursed, and I think, depending, Okay, this is from my imagination and not having actually seen one, I think there's a possibility that it could look charming, right. I don't know what they actually look like, but I'm gonna go with.

01:08:50
Speaker 2: Cursed, Alex, I hate to see the game. Just you know, you've tried one method and it didn't work for you. Now you've tried to I think they're a gift. What do you have against giving the mail person a little bit of fun. They get to open up to the dolph and the manatee, the farmhouse.

01:09:10
Speaker 3: I didn't even think of the mail person in this scenario.

01:09:12
Speaker 2: It's a charming bit of kitsch that I think everyone should have a mailbox in a shape of their favorite thing. I don't think that anyone should have just a regular mailbox, a nice you know, mildly tacky little object that gets to collect your.

01:09:27
Speaker 3: Mail that is nice. Well, can I ask you, Bridger, if a guest on your podcast I said no gifts were to give you a mailbox in the shape of a nice of your favorite object, how would that go?

01:09:42
Speaker 2: I would be thrilled, and I will there would be nothing that would stop me from enjoying it. Would I use it as my official mailbox? Is the big question? Oh interesting, I think what would end up happening because I had Actually, my mailbox is a kind of a nightmare. It's one of those metal boxes that it's like you drop it in rather than open the little door at the front. Oh okay, you know, like the old fashioned mailbox where you open the door at the front. There's no lock on it. I prefer that it's easier access, but obviously your mail's gonna get stolen. Mine's more like a little deposit box. Oh, it has a lot stuck to the front of the house. Oh.

01:10:18
Speaker 3: Mine also is you drop it in, but it's shallow enough and there's.

01:10:22
Speaker 2: No lock and you can fish it out. Okay, so you're getting the worst of both worlds.

01:10:26
Speaker 3: Oh great.

01:10:29
Speaker 2: So if I ended up with my own novelty mailbox, I think what would happen is it would go on my kitchen counter for you know, the mail that piles up on the counter.

01:10:37
Speaker 3: That makes it right, like after the mail has been brought in.

01:10:39
Speaker 1: Right.

01:10:40
Speaker 2: But my ultimate defense here is I will never reveal my favorite object.

01:10:46
Speaker 3: That's yeah.

01:10:46
Speaker 2: I mean someone would have to do years of research on me before they were able to pinpoint my favorite object for a mailbox, and I will never reveal it, maybe on my deathbed, okay, whisper to my grand niece or whoever my favorite object, and then they'll have to buy their own mailbox for themselves. Well, you got one out of three. That's let's be honest.

01:11:07
Speaker 3: That's bad. That's pretty bad, even the first one. I almost said you could have.

01:11:11
Speaker 2: Failed at victim. So let's look at the bright side. You're not walking away a total looser.

01:11:15
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you.

01:11:18
Speaker 2: And you also were able to try some different methods of the game you experimented, which is always exciting. Uh did it work out?

01:11:27
Speaker 3: No?

01:11:28
Speaker 2: But no one blames you for trying your hardest.

01:11:31
Speaker 3: Thanks.

01:11:34
Speaker 2: Okay, this is the final part of the podcast. This is called I said no emails. People? Are you right into I said no gifts at gmail dot com regardless of my feelings, and they ask questions, They beg for help. Every one of them is desperately seeking some sort of answer about a social situation or a gift giving situation. Would you help me answer one?

01:11:56
Speaker 3: Sure?

01:11:56
Speaker 2: Okay, here we go this when this one just starts out with a hard Bridger exclamation point which matches the bag, but does not address you as the guest, which is interesting. Usually they say Bridger and guest or but don't let that stop you from participating.

01:12:10
Speaker 3: Okay, bringing my advice would be unsolicited.

01:12:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, yours is fully unsolicited, kind of like this email. So you're you and the writer are on the same page for sure, says Bridger. I finally worked up the nerve to get my first tattoo, though I'd had the idea for several years. I teach theater for kids K through twelve and wanted to get a The comedy slash tragedy masks split up behind either ear I E Comedy left, tragedy right, and B the phrase, well, this person loves the theater because and B this phrase stage left on my left shoulder and stage right on my right shoulder. The artist was very kind and meticulous, and because it was a symmetrical design, he ended up readjusting the stencil for stage left several times and even reprinted it for best sizing. We're getting into a real tattoo story here. This is the most detailed tattoo story I've ever heard. After he got everything aligned, we powered through the tattoo. Remember it's my first tattoo. Unfortunately, somewhere in reprinting the stencil, the artist had mixed up templates, so now I have the phrase stage right printed on both my right and left shoulder. After realizing his mistake, the artist was really apologetic, I hope, so, offering to comp the tattoo and reschedule me for removal or redesign over a few sessions. I was too elated from the experience to truly process the permanent mistake on my left shoulder and left with a quote free botch tattoo. Honestly, Bridger, I'm probably going to keep the misprint because now it's truly unique. Also, if you're reading from a theater's house. Then the view over my left shoulder truly is stage right for the actor question slash dilemma.

01:13:56
Speaker 3: Here we go.

01:13:56
Speaker 2: So we've now been through a tattoo journey. What's the real situation? Should I contact this artist and try to pay, even at a pro rated rate for this tattoo? It seems like reminding him of the incident could make him feel worse. But also artists should be paid for their work, even if they occasionally mix up stencils. And that's from Julia. This is a fascinating one for a variety of reasons. I mean, this is really a one of a kind email to get on this podcast. So what are we talking about here?

01:14:28
Speaker 1: Yeah?

01:14:28
Speaker 3: I really love this person's attitude throughout.

01:14:32
Speaker 2: Very positive. They have nothing to do with your neighbor. Yes, that mentality that neighbor would have burned this tattoo parlor down.

01:14:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love even just the early details of like oh. The tattoo artists even beared with me in resizing and adjusting the placement of like oh. Yeah, I would assume that that should happen, I would hope, But I also I only have one to But I remember also feeling very like bad for taking too much time when I did want resizing or like whatever to happen with the temperature. But it is like it'll be on your body for it.

01:15:12
Speaker 2: You should be as close to what you want as possible.

01:15:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's just taking them a few extra minutes, right, Wait, So the question is about.

01:15:21
Speaker 2: Should they try to pay It seems like reminding him of the incident could make him feel worse. Basically, should I pay this person for the horrible work they did?

01:15:31
Speaker 3: And so they so? So that to me sounds like it was four tattoos was the.

01:15:36
Speaker 2: Whole thing, sod I mean, I honestly, I hope so, Okay, I mean I think bare minimum this should be a free job, right, That's what I was mistake.

01:15:47
Speaker 3: It is very it is very funny to have two stage rights on on on the two sides of your body. But yeah, that could because it's like four separate things, right.

01:15:59
Speaker 2: So you shoulder shoulders.

01:16:02
Speaker 3: Yeah. And then so they've already like left this experience. They're not currently at.

01:16:07
Speaker 2: The right I mean, they may be sitting at the with the tattoo artists as we speak and just waiting to hear word from us. Yeah, I guess we could just assume that or like, kind of they've been idling in their car outside of the tattoo shop for weeks. Yes, and are just thinking waiting for this answerer, give me an answer. And also I'm I'm just backing up slightly. It sounds like this person just some the details of this person's life. It sounds like they have a lot of off the shoulder looks when they're on stage, because they're talking about people will see this tattoo whenever they're on stage, so we need to keep that in mind. We need to keep in mind that they have a permanent mistake on their body, right, And.

01:16:50
Speaker 3: So it's not to the payment is just for the original work. It's not to take the artists up on the offer of fixing fixing it.

01:16:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that. I mean interesting, look, Julia, despite how many details you did give, there are a few key missing pieces that would really allow us to solve this in a tidy way. But to me, I mean, okay, again, she's been idling outside the tattoo artists home or what have you for weeks. I think it's time to just pull away. Nothing should be paid for here.

01:17:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's kind of it's not so much. Is her name Julie Julia Julia. Julia seems very worried about this other person in the story, whereas I don't think she needs to worry as much because even the payment thing, the concern there is like will it remind the tattoo artists of their mistake, rather than like do I need to be paying.

01:17:45
Speaker 2: Or nothing of this really has anything to do with Julia's well being.

01:17:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure they feel bad, but I don't think they lose sleep. Well, maybe they lose sleep over it, but but I don't think them being paid for it. They're like, well, now I feel about my mistake. But that said, I don't think you need to go back.

01:18:05
Speaker 2: Right, I mean, I think the real question here is does Julia retaliate?

01:18:09
Speaker 3: Right and.

01:18:12
Speaker 2: Resounding yes? Okay, I think not only do you not pay Julia that you have You're going to be living with this thing the rest of your life, and this tattoo artist is now going to be haunted by you. They will never be able to feel safe again, and so wants revenge.

01:18:29
Speaker 3: What's the best retaliation for this specific transgression?

01:18:33
Speaker 2: I mean, just off the top of the head of rock through the window, Okay, slash tire.

01:18:37
Speaker 3: I wanted something like like where it's pointed that like you place, oh interesting, the same words on me twice in the one of them in the wrong place.

01:18:48
Speaker 2: So how is this a situation where you like spray paint their garage stage right, stage right on each side.

01:18:56
Speaker 3: Oh maybe yeh, leaf theater masks somewhere.

01:19:00
Speaker 2: And like a like a like on their pillow. They get home at night, turn on the lights and there's this haunting mask.

01:19:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a bloody comedy and tragedy mask.

01:19:10
Speaker 2: I mean there's kind of I mean, Julia has been very creative with coming up with this tattoo. I think you apply that creativity to terrorizing this person.

01:19:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's somewhere energy can come.

01:19:20
Speaker 2: Right, that's a nice positive outlet where both of you will your lives change, and it'll feel justified, absolutely justified, for decades to come.

01:19:31
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I guess if it were me, I would enact the retaliation and then also send the money.

01:19:38
Speaker 2: Oh that's an interesting thing. So you send the money before the retaliation the beginning.

01:19:42
Speaker 3: Or maybe or yeah, I guess this is what I've done with my neighbor of just like I am a coward, but Also here is some revenge.

01:19:51
Speaker 2: Right, that's a nice balanced approach, I think, Yeah, which I think?

01:19:55
Speaker 1: Will?

01:19:57
Speaker 2: I mean, Julia loves to balance her tattoo, and now she's going to balance these life decisions, retaliate, pay and hopefully be more precise than this tattoo artist.

01:20:09
Speaker 3: Yes, the key here is precision.

01:20:12
Speaker 2: Precision, deadly precision.

01:20:14
Speaker 3: Julia.

01:20:15
Speaker 2: You've gotten your answer in a perfect way, and take that information, execute the plan, and now you have nothing left to worry about. Yeah, we answered that perfectly.

01:20:26
Speaker 3: Wow.

01:20:27
Speaker 2: Well look, Alex, I now have this kind of grab bag of jewelry, plants and fruit.

01:20:36
Speaker 3: Grab bag? Is it? Good? Word? And my?

01:20:41
Speaker 2: I mean, do you want to keep this little monkey bag?

01:20:43
Speaker 3: No, that's for you.

01:20:44
Speaker 2: Should I keep the monkey bag? Okay? Well, everyone can go to Instagram to see all of these items. Will take some photos, and hopefully everyone pray for the succulent. I've had such a wonderful time with you here.

01:20:55
Speaker 3: This is so lovely. Thank you so much for having me.

01:20:57
Speaker 2: I'll send you off to get your pants return.

01:21:00
Speaker 3: Thank you.

01:21:01
Speaker 2: Listener. If you have a return to make today, I hope you have your receipt. If not, try to be respectful to the customer service department and try to get that return as smooth as possible. I wish you luck. This is the end of the podcast, so and I've offered you the one option for your life of returning an item. But there, of course, life is full of possibilities and you can do other things. So do what you want to do. We'll talk again soon. I love you, goodbye. I said, No Gifts is an exactly right production. It's produced by our dear friend Analise Nelson, and it's beautifully mixed by John Brandley. The theme song, of course, could only come from miracle worker Amy Man. You must follow the show on Instagram. At I said no Gifts, I don't want to hear any excuses. That's where you get to see pictures of all these gorgeous gifts I'm getting. And don't you want to see pictures of the gifts?

01:22:00
Speaker 1: But I invited you here, thought I made myself perfectly clear. But you're I guess to my home. You gotta come to me empty, And I said, no, guess. Your own presences presents enough that I already had too much stuff. So how do you dare to surbey me?