Speaker 1: Hello. How's it going, Lyle?
Speaker 2: It's going good? Man? How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm doing good. I'm I'm at work right now and
Speaker 1: it's pretty slow. We're just back here cleaning party equipment.
Speaker 2: Uh, you're cleaning party equipment.
Speaker 1: Yes, I work for a rental company. H I mean
Speaker 1: we usually do. I'm usually on the equipment side, but
Speaker 1: things definitely slow down in the winter. So I thought
Speaker 1: you were taking calls and looks like I got through.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty I'm pretty shooking up right now.
Speaker 2: Honestly, what is the party equipment that you are cleaning?
Speaker 2: Are you cleaning like a mechanical bull? Are you cleaning
Speaker 2: a DJ boot set? What are you cleaning?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Are you cleaning a birthday cake? What are you cleaning?
Speaker 1: It's resin chairs that people sit on. It's it's pretty handy, Honestly,
Speaker 1: I like them.
Speaker 2: Do you ever just sit in the chairs because you
Speaker 2: can because they're in front of you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all the time. I'll eat lunch on them, and
Speaker 1: fucking rad that's badass.
Speaker 2: What's your name, Zachary, Zachary, Zachary, Zachary, Zachary. What brings
Speaker 2: you to call the Gecko Show today? Zachary?
Speaker 1: So I've been listening for a couple of years now,
Speaker 1: and in my time listening, I got I struggled with
Speaker 1: addiction for a couple of years. I'm a recovering drug
Speaker 1: addict and alcoholic, and I wanted to see if I
Speaker 1: can kind of share my struggles and share my story
Speaker 1: with you and ponder with you on some things and
Speaker 1: how far I've came, because I kind of came from
Speaker 1: some dark areas in my life as of very recently,
Speaker 1: and I went to rehab eight months ago and things
Speaker 1: have changed.
Speaker 2: I'll let you have the floor. Man, it sounds like
Speaker 2: you have a particular arc you want to share.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, I mean sorry, I'm headed to the break room.
Speaker 1: My boss was giving me the green light there. But
Speaker 1: so when I was I grew up and I kind
Speaker 1: of troubled home. Both of my parents are drug addicts.
Speaker 1: Their primary drug of choice is meth, and uh, I
Speaker 1: grew up in a pretty abusive home and I didn't
Speaker 1: realize how much that kind of fucked with me, you know,
Speaker 1: until I got a bit older. When I was in treatment,
Speaker 1: I actually got diagnosed with PTSD, which shook me up
Speaker 1: quite a bit when I was in there, because I mean,
Speaker 1: there's definitely a stigma around that that I thought of that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I didn't. I didn't think of
Speaker 1: voibeling myself that way. And as I sorry, man, I'm
Speaker 1: just a little nervous.
Speaker 2: You're doing You're doing fine.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: As I got older, I think I was twelve when
Speaker 1: I had my first drink, and I got really wrapped
Speaker 1: up in the crowd was like skateboarding, and the exposed
Speaker 1: me to a lot of other things. Stuff started escalating,
Speaker 1: and for a while it was just alcohol and cannabis
Speaker 1: and weed actually was my primary drug a choice. I
Speaker 1: was finishing a teach see cartridge within a few hours.
Speaker 1: I could finish two a day by the time I
Speaker 1: was like sixteen, and that started creating some pretty scary
Speaker 1: health issues in my life. Even at that age, my
Speaker 1: time perception and like my thought processes started changing.
Speaker 3: It felt like.
Speaker 1: It was pretty extreme, Like my IQ had a significant
Speaker 1: drop after Like some vendors you were, you.
Speaker 2: Were ripping an entire cart a.
Speaker 1: Day, Yeah, yeah, sometimes sometimes two. Once I got a
Speaker 1: little bit, you have.
Speaker 2: To how much do you have to smoke to rip
Speaker 2: an entire cart a day?
Speaker 1: It was, I mean I would just go until I
Speaker 1: passed out. There's a certain point I would get to
Speaker 1: where like I just wouldn't feel any any more high,
Speaker 1: I guess, but it was like it it was pretty bad, man.
Speaker 2: I mean I got myself when you're sixteen.
Speaker 1: I'm nineteen now, oh you're.
Speaker 2: Nineteen that well okay, yeah yeah, so this is when
Speaker 2: you were sixteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And then uh, I mean it just kept getting worse.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I started going to trap houses and got wrapped up
Speaker 1: in a party crowd. And I would go to raise
Speaker 1: and so I started getting wrapped up in harder drugs,
Speaker 1: and I was I got wrapped up felling drugs and
Speaker 1: making money that way. And I was constantly driving around
Speaker 1: drunk or high. And my dad started catching on like
Speaker 1: I would. I shared a room with my younger brother
Speaker 1: and he saw me passed out all the time, you know.
Speaker 1: And I stopped showing up to school because this was
Speaker 1: my senior year that I'm talking about now, before I graduated.
Speaker 1: That's when it was probably at its worse, and I
Speaker 1: was just I did not really care for my life anymore.
Speaker 1: I was just kind of throwing things away. And it
Speaker 1: got to a point where I brought myself. I was
Speaker 1: getting so fucked up that every after every bender, there
Speaker 1: was like a very very noticeable, like cognitive decline, and
Speaker 1: I started getting pretty pretty extreme withdrawal. I would wake
Speaker 1: up thrown up every morning and they're I mean, I'd.
Speaker 3: Just fucking horrible.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: I'd wake up shitting myself and like, there's it's shit.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Really, Like it's
Speaker 1: it's a really scary point to be in where instead
Speaker 1: of just like getting high, it's getting yourself normal. You know,
Speaker 1: just to be able to function, you gotta put some
Speaker 1: chemicals in your body.
Speaker 3: It's like it's a scary place to be.
Speaker 1: And at a certain point I ran out of money
Speaker 1: and I was just about to graduate.
Speaker 3: This was.
Speaker 1: Just in June, and I I couldn't finish a sentence.
Speaker 1: It was just like I knew at that point I
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be able to finish school. My grades were
Speaker 1: still fine, my attendance was bad, but I was able
Speaker 1: to I had a pretty solid GPA. It was like
Speaker 1: three point five. I just got my schoolwork in and
Speaker 1: I knew I was going to make a past finals.
Speaker 1: And there was some other things that were going on
Speaker 1: were really fucking with me and the withdrawals and everything,
Speaker 1: and I was I was at the point where I
Speaker 1: was so fed up with myself and some other shit
Speaker 1: I was dealing with at the time, along with addiction,
Speaker 1: that it was either going to be I get sober
Speaker 1: or you know, I kicked the bucket, and then I
Speaker 1: with having that thought like that I was planning on
Speaker 1: killing myself.
Speaker 3: I was just.
Speaker 1: I knew I had to talk to somebody. So I'm
Speaker 1: very very fortunate that my grandparents. I mean, my parents
Speaker 1: are not really somebody I would want to go to
Speaker 1: because they're not really they're they're not very functional people.
Speaker 1: But I got them to send me to rehab about
Speaker 1: eight months ago. I went through. I went through treatment,
Speaker 1: and honestly, it was it was definitely the best decision
Speaker 1: I've ever made. I've made some of I mean, there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of hard things that happened in there,
Speaker 1: but some of the best memories I've had were in there.
Speaker 1: I was eighteen then, and they put me in leadership
Speaker 1: towards the end of I stayed there, so the last
Speaker 1: two weeks, I was running all the meetings like an
Speaker 1: a meetings, get up in the morning and do the
Speaker 1: little morning routines, get everybody ready and do the AA
Speaker 1: readings and whatnot. Yeah, I graduated rehab and got back
Speaker 1: to work. I got really lucky. My my boss sent
Speaker 1: me to school to go to CDL.
Speaker 3: Did that.
Speaker 1: Now I have a damn good job security. Now I'm
Speaker 1: living out on my own with my roommate. It's one
Speaker 1: of my best friends, Jamie. He's helped me a lot
Speaker 1: through a lot of things too. And yeah, man, I
Speaker 1: now at the point I am in my life. It's
Speaker 1: probably the most fulfilling I've ever had it be. And
Speaker 1: it's I was doing kind of a quick summary. There's
Speaker 1: a lot more I can talk about, but that I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of where I can let you put
Speaker 1: in some input if you want to go any further
Speaker 1: into anything.
Speaker 2: My man, goddamn, So you're nineteen, yeah man, And so
Speaker 2: you're you're sober now?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, eight months cool.
Speaker 2: Very cool. Congratulations man, Congratulations, you're a you're a hardened
Speaker 2: You're you're a you're a real hardened veteran of this
Speaker 2: crazy world we live in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I could tell you some stories that I'm
Speaker 1: sure I grew up. My parents were. My mom had
Speaker 1: some mental health issues that I kind of had to
Speaker 1: step up while growing up, and I did a good
Speaker 1: part of reasing my little brothers seven years younger than me.
Speaker 1: So I matured a lot in that.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so yeah, I mean I got a lot
Speaker 2: of things. So you got a CDL. Can you say
Speaker 2: what that stands for?
Speaker 1: A commercial driver's license?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 1: I got a Class B. So I drive a rollback truck.
Speaker 1: I uh, it's it's kind of like a tot I
Speaker 1: think it is a tow truck. But I deliver excavation equipment,
Speaker 1: like for construction excavators, telehandler's worklifts, et cetera. It's a
Speaker 1: fun job. I actually I really enjoy it. In the future,
Speaker 1: I have aspirations of giving a firefighter eventually, but I
Speaker 1: gotta I gotta fulfill three years here. They paid for
Speaker 1: my school and everything, so m hm.
Speaker 2: And what's your relationship like with your grandparents?
Speaker 1: Very good, especially since I got sober before I went
Speaker 1: to treatment. They, I mean, they knew I was struggling.
Speaker 1: I think they thought it was more mental health stuff
Speaker 1: along with other things, because they knew how crazy my
Speaker 1: mom was. They she's done a number on sucking up
Speaker 1: a lot of my family's lives and she abandoned me
Speaker 1: and my brother when we were a lot younger, so
Speaker 1: I got closer to them then, and so towards the
Speaker 1: end of my reign in the aiction, they saw me
Speaker 1: more and more fucked up. And I think that they
Speaker 1: my dad when he was fourteen, he started using maths,
Speaker 1: so they've been through it before. But I think they
Speaker 1: were kind of wanting I was still living with my
Speaker 1: dad at the time. They were still wanting my dad
Speaker 1: to kind of be able to handle things or let
Speaker 1: him do things because he's sober off of myth. Now
Speaker 1: he's an alcoholic but functioning, So they they trusted him
Speaker 1: to do what he wanted to do with it. They
Speaker 1: wanted to allow him to keep his boundaries and let
Speaker 1: him parent me, but he just kind of I mean,
Speaker 1: I was, I was out of control. So eventually I
Speaker 1: had to I mean, that's really what it takes to
Speaker 1: get so over. You got to really fucking want it, man,
Speaker 1: no matter what anybody tells you, it's just denial and destruction.
Speaker 1: H Do you do you have friends acquaintances?
Speaker 3: I have?
Speaker 1: I have, I have a couple close friends.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And where are they from? Like not like like
Speaker 2: where are they from? In your life.
Speaker 1: So Jamie my roommate. I met him when I started
Speaker 1: working at the place I'm at now. I've actually been
Speaker 1: working with this rental company for coming on four years.
Speaker 1: But I mean it was when I was in high
Speaker 1: school and then when I they took me back after
Speaker 1: I got back from treatment. So I've known him for
Speaker 1: about four years now. And then I have my buddy
Speaker 1: Leonard very close with him. He's he's kind of always
Speaker 1: been by my side through a lot. I always have
Speaker 1: him to talk to. He's I got close with him.
Speaker 1: I did powerlifting in high school. I've always been really
Speaker 1: into well. When I was in middle school, I was
Speaker 1: I was obese, and uh, I lost a ship ton
Speaker 1: of weight. I got, I mean pretty underweight. I developed
Speaker 1: an eating disorder and then I from there eventually tried
Speaker 1: to work on it. There's a lot of struggles with that,
Speaker 1: but I got really into fitness. And he's kind of
Speaker 1: the Jim Bro.
Speaker 2: Cool Yeah you need that. This is like getting Yeah,
Speaker 2: doing all that ship alone is just sucks compared to
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it is what it is. I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna say it sucks, but doing all that ship with
Speaker 2: a bro is uh, you know, is a lead. It
Speaker 2: makes it so much better to have someone else trying to,
Speaker 2: you know, be on the same journey as you.
Speaker 1: It is yeah, yeah, I mean I go to I
Speaker 1: go to meetings and stuff I don't I don't do
Speaker 1: a regularly. I go to a place called I'm not
Speaker 1: I don't think this is gonna be docs in myself.
Speaker 1: It's it's in Washington. It's called the Recovery Cafe. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they have, I say've expanded outside of Washington,
Speaker 1: but it's a city funded area where we all just
Speaker 1: go and do our shares and it's a good community there.
Speaker 1: Do that once a week and then that's kind of
Speaker 1: the main meeting I go to for now. That's a
Speaker 1: good place for keeping in my recovery.
Speaker 2: How's how's your sort of relationship with your health now?
Speaker 2: Because it sounds like you like kind of did a
Speaker 2: lot of flip flopping and had it kind of on
Speaker 2: a roller coaster vibe. How is it now?
Speaker 1: I have been fucking locked in with I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: losing I'm losing weight right now. I got I put
Speaker 1: on a good amount of weight when I got first
Speaker 1: got sober. I mean in the last two months, I'm
Speaker 1: down thirty pounds and I've been really working on getting
Speaker 1: my lists up and sweet. I've been eating clean. Man,
Speaker 1: this is the cleanness I've ever eaten in my life.
Speaker 1: I'm actually pretty proud of myself.
Speaker 2: What's a clean eating day look like for you?
Speaker 1: I kinda, I mean I eat the same things every day. Really,
Speaker 1: I likely eat chicken and fish and freak yogurt and
Speaker 1: rice and rice cakes. That's usually That's usually my my
Speaker 1: daily feed.
Speaker 2: And do you have friends where you work?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was just I mean my coworker, Quileab
Speaker 1: I was talking to while I was trying to get
Speaker 1: on get on with you, right. I got a lot
Speaker 1: of good guys here. I like all of them.
Speaker 2: That's that's the one of the most important things in life.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm sorry to hear that. Uh, things are a
Speaker 2: little crazy with your parents, but it sounds like you
Speaker 2: do have a good community of other people to interface
Speaker 2: with on a day to day basis. So I'm glad
Speaker 2: to hear that.
Speaker 1: You ran.
Speaker 2: You ran through it a little bit like finishing school
Speaker 2: and whatnot. What are you what are your aspirations for
Speaker 2: the future.
Speaker 1: I'd want to stay sober for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm kind of still trying to figure that out. Man.
Speaker 1: I do the things I like to do, and I
Speaker 1: kind of just let things go as I think they
Speaker 1: should as long as I stay doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: I just try to keep myself occupied and not fucking
Speaker 1: just dopamine max if you will.
Speaker 3: Try to.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I, like I said, I have
Speaker 1: I eventually want to become firefighter one day, but that
Speaker 1: could change. I'd like to get super jacked and ripped
Speaker 1: one day, which I am in the progress of doing,
Speaker 1: in the process of doing. And shit, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have a family one day. I don't know.
Speaker 2: All good stuff, all good stuff. That's a lot. That's honestly,
Speaker 2: that's a full plate of aspirations. Considering where you're at.
Speaker 2: That's pretty good man. Mmm, so so you you not
Speaker 2: only correct me if I heard this wrong, but you
Speaker 2: not only attend the meetings, you help run them.
Speaker 1: I did when I was in rehab. They I mean,
Speaker 1: when I was in there, I was kind of one
Speaker 1: of the more responsible people, if you will. There's there's
Speaker 1: a pretty crazy, crazy jumble of guys and girls that
Speaker 1: they put in there. But when I was in there too.
Speaker 1: There was some like fuck up they had where they
Speaker 1: weren't This place I went to was for profit. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a nonprofit. I don't know if rehabs are always
Speaker 1: like that, but they weren't getting revenue for about like
Speaker 1: six months before I got in there, and they had
Speaker 1: just found that out right when I got admitted to
Speaker 1: getting in there. So they started letting people in and
Speaker 1: it was pretty overfilled. So there's a lot of shit
Speaker 1: that was going on that was going under the radar
Speaker 1: that shouldn't have been happening. But that honestly made it
Speaker 1: for a pretty fun experience in some regards. Some regard
Speaker 1: it made it a little scary, which I'm sure you
Speaker 1: can understand why. I mean, now, I just I just
Speaker 1: go and listen and talk and do that for an
Speaker 1: hour once a week, and then I go home and
Speaker 1: ponder on my life.
Speaker 2: So what is home like? Not the location, but are
Speaker 2: you dealer alone? Do you live with grandparents? Your roommates?
Speaker 1: So I have an apartment. It's a one bedroom apartment
Speaker 1: that I have with a roommate. I just live in
Speaker 1: the living room and we actually we just started. We
Speaker 1: have we have a good amount of space in there
Speaker 1: and we made it work pretty well. We got a
Speaker 1: storage container to put a bunch of shit in because
Speaker 1: it was getting kind of difficult with all the stuff
Speaker 1: that we have and what we're trying to do now.
Speaker 1: But we just started a like retro gaming collection me
Speaker 1: and my roommate that we're putting together.
Speaker 2: Dude, forget about dude, forget about all the rehab and
Speaker 2: drug stuff you buried the lead. This is what I
Speaker 2: want to talk about for the next entire duration of
Speaker 2: this podcast. No, that's fucking awesome, dude, what what?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: What? What kind of retro games? Are you a Nintendo guy?
Speaker 3: So I am?
Speaker 1: I am a Nintender guy. We don't have any the
Speaker 1: fucking retro and Nintendo consoles. The games are expensive as fuck, man,
Speaker 1: They're like all the games I want majorities of mask
Speaker 1: It's like one hundred and fifty. I mean I've spent
Speaker 1: I spent a good money amount of money on some
Speaker 1: of these, Like I have a we have a PlayStation one.
Speaker 1: That's the collection I'm only working on right now. Probably
Speaker 1: the coolest thing I have on that. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you're familiar with Salmon Hill, but that that's pretty rare.
Speaker 1: The one that I have. I bought it for I
Speaker 1: think it was around two fifty and if I were
Speaker 1: to resell it it goes around, I could get I
Speaker 1: could make some good money off of it. I'm never
Speaker 1: selling any of this ship, dude. It's priceless to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fucking I'm not a I'm not a big PlayStation guy,
Speaker 2: but uh so I don't know, Summitt Hill, but I'm
Speaker 2: a big Nintendo dude.
Speaker 1: What's your uh, what's your favorite Nintendo game of all time?
Speaker 1: Out of any out of any era?
Speaker 2: Super Smash Brothers Melee for the Nintendo GameCube? Easy call?
Speaker 1: That makes sense from what you used to compete, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I still I haven't. I haven't played in
Speaker 2: like a tournament in a long time, but I still
Speaker 2: I have like a deep love for that game and
Speaker 2: that uh tournament community. But wait, what year were you born?
Speaker 1: Two thousand and six?
Speaker 2: Two thousand and six, So your first console, well, you
Speaker 2: were born right around the time the Wei came out,
Speaker 2: and then you had to you had to develop a
Speaker 2: little bit as a human being before you could hold
Speaker 2: a thing. What was so, what was the first video
Speaker 2: game console you played?
Speaker 1: The the Wi?
Speaker 3: That was?
Speaker 2: That was I had we sports Twilight Princess.
Speaker 1: All of them, dude. I mean I was I was
Speaker 1: really young when I played Twilet Princess. But I think
Speaker 1: my favorite favorite games on the Wii was Super Mario
Speaker 1: Yalax two. Yeah and yeah, I got to replay Twilight Princess.
Speaker 1: I've revisited all the big Zelda titles, all the big
Speaker 1: Mario titles. I'm a huge as all the fan there's
Speaker 1: I got to get started on a Nintendo collection, dude.
Speaker 1: That's it's just expensive.
Speaker 2: I yeah, yeah, Nintenda shit is expensive. I've been ripping
Speaker 2: it on the switch. They re really I don't know
Speaker 2: if this is interesting to anyone at all, but I'm
Speaker 2: still going to talk about it. They re released Mario
Speaker 2: Galaxy one and two on the switch, so I've just
Speaker 2: been ripping them on the subway. It's so awesome. Uh yeah, dude,
Speaker 2: I like, I don't know, I don't know if I've
Speaker 2: talked about this before, but like I'm at a point
Speaker 2: in life right now where, fuck man, like the whole
Speaker 2: thing of like discovering your inner like not discovering like
Speaker 2: like being in contact with your inner child. Dude, all
Speaker 2: the shit in the universe. I mean I like life.
Speaker 2: I'm actually feeling like pretty good and gentle man. I
Speaker 2: have problems like everyone else does, but like I'm not
Speaker 2: you know, in uh some crazy existential depression modes that
Speaker 2: I've been in the past. Life's pretty good. But still
Speaker 2: but still, I have a thing where just when I
Speaker 2: see Mario, I'm just like, I feel so safe. I
Speaker 2: just feel so safe when I look at his face.
Speaker 2: He's just it's just the most pure I remember being
Speaker 2: like it just brings me back to being a kid.
Speaker 2: And you don't, you don't know all the crazy things
Speaker 2: you know, And I'm I'm I'm happy to I don't.
Speaker 2: You don't you don't want to stay that way. You
Speaker 2: I think it's good to know all the crazy things.
Speaker 2: But you just when Mario's around and you're jumping through
Speaker 2: colorful lands, I'm just like, fuck, man, this is forget
Speaker 2: about anything else, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: For real, dude, he's a beautiful man.
Speaker 2: He's a beautiful man. He's really he's a he's a
Speaker 2: real hero. What's your favorite video game of all time?
Speaker 1: The legend is Elda Majora's Mask never played the made
Speaker 1: In my opinion, you have to, dude, it's a fucking incredible,
Speaker 1: incredible game.
Speaker 2: So you have one roommate, yes, sir, And how do
Speaker 2: you know him? Again?
Speaker 1: Through work? He kind of got me my job actually
Speaker 1: is through I met him through his brother because we
Speaker 1: were friends in school, and then he his brother told
Speaker 1: me to get him my job I have now, And
Speaker 1: then that worked out very well because it supports my
Speaker 1: life and I could go to the gym and eat
Speaker 1: a lot of food and live and buy video games.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 2: Man, I'm glad you didn't kill yourself. Man, You've got
Speaker 2: a good life.
Speaker 3: I am.
Speaker 1: I think myself every day for the path I'm on
Speaker 1: now because it's it's incredible. Man. It's it's scary where
Speaker 1: I have brought myself, and it's scary where a lot
Speaker 1: of people can just go wrong and things can kind
Speaker 1: of get disastrous. I am very grateful for the life
Speaker 1: I have today.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, man, I mean shit, you're your folks uh
Speaker 2: being addicts like is uh that's a tough thing. It's like, uh,
Speaker 2: it's like a handicap on life. You know who so much? Dude,
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's crazy as I'm always thinking about
Speaker 2: this shit about like uh I think, dude, I'm very
Speaker 2: this is like a whole uh determinism versus agency thing.
Speaker 2: It's always better, it's always better to believe in agency, right,
Speaker 2: But even agency that you could go and there's a
Speaker 2: there's like an infinite mirror thing where you're like, well,
Speaker 2: how much of agency is deterministic? Blah blah blah. But
Speaker 2: it is interesting how much of your life is influenced
Speaker 2: by where you are born and who you are born to,
Speaker 2: and yet people are able to make it so far
Speaker 2: in their own direction regardless of those things. I always
Speaker 2: find that very amazing because it's so impactful who you're
Speaker 2: born to and where you where you're born.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so I I continue from making your own
Speaker 2: path in life. I think you're doing great.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was there was a lot of troubles that happened.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I mean my mom, she she, I mean my dad.
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful for him because he was still able
Speaker 1: to take care for me, care of me. But my
Speaker 1: mom growing up, she was just like a fucking villain.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: She stole my first couple of paychecks. She like, it
Speaker 1: was very I mean just very abusive and growing up
Speaker 1: and then now now now ever, since I got into treatment,
Speaker 1: I have blocked a number. I mean, she's homeless now
Speaker 1: and it's a lot harder for her to get to me.
Speaker 1: But when she still had a car and like I
Speaker 1: was able to get to places, it was just she
Speaker 1: was everything behind her path would fucking fall apart.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: It was a are grown up with that, And now
Speaker 1: that I'm kind of free of that and addiction, it's
Speaker 1: been able to allow myself to grow so much and
Speaker 1: to build the path where I really feel fulfilled and
Speaker 1: kind of that same thing. It's just that you were
Speaker 1: saying earlier, it's I'm happy that you are out of that,
Speaker 1: you know, depression and what was it?
Speaker 3: How do you say? Existentialism?
Speaker 2: Something like that, something like that, something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just being the best that you can be
Speaker 1: every day and showing up.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: It's it's not fucking easy, but if you do it
Speaker 1: for long enough, even if you just pretend to it
Speaker 1: for a little bit, eventually it gets easier and things
Speaker 1: just start falling into the place that they should.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, and I just to throw
Speaker 2: it out there before we go, because I'm invested in
Speaker 2: your story and I know that you're uh an evolving
Speaker 2: thing in process. But you know, I'm glad you told
Speaker 2: us your whole story is there, Like, m are you.
Speaker 2: Are you in any conflict right now moving forward that
Speaker 2: that you want to talk through or do you feel
Speaker 2: pretty confident about the uh road ahead and just where
Speaker 2: your brain is at.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's some things here and there.
Speaker 3: I tried. Uh, I had a little bit of trouble with.
Speaker 1: Dating when I first got sober, which I don't know
Speaker 1: because that was the best idea to get into. But
Speaker 1: it seems like things are going all right right now.
Speaker 1: Like I kind of gave up on it because I
Speaker 1: wanted to go just all all into fitness and fully
Speaker 1: focused on that. And I did that for a while
Speaker 1: and then, uh, this this girl that I was talking
Speaker 1: to for a bit just hit me up recently and
Speaker 1: I never even really had done anything with her weoever,
Speaker 1: but I'm planning on seeing her this weekend, so we'll
Speaker 1: see if that will happen. I mean, yeah, no, right
Speaker 1: now in my life, everything's going as it should.
Speaker 3: There's no.
Speaker 1: Nothing I can think about.
Speaker 2: I don't see you having any problems with dating.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: You gotta you have a very year I mean, uh,
Speaker 2: regardless of the tragic circumstances under which it was forged.
Speaker 2: You have a very mature demeanor. Thank you, and you
Speaker 2: know you're getting ripped, so you'll you'll be you'll be
Speaker 2: fine in that department. Zachary. You said your name is.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, you remembered it. That's that's awesome. MM.
Speaker 2: Good for you, well, Zachary. This is a pleasure talking
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you sharing your story. I'm I'm looking forward
Speaker 2: to see what you do in your life. I have
Speaker 2: a deep, deep respect for it, deep deep respect. I
Speaker 2: really mean this for anyone. I had this weird moment.
Speaker 2: I'll talk. I'll talk for a second. I had this yeah,
Speaker 2: like I said, like things are I'm feeling pretty chill.
Speaker 2: I mean not everything's perfect, but like the I was
Speaker 2: just walking around today and I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 2: I like thought many times I was gonna like die
Speaker 2: and I didn't die and we're still just life kept
Speaker 2: going and so you know these goods to take a
Speaker 2: second to be like, okay, all right this you know
Speaker 2: things have been worse. So I commend you. I commend
Speaker 2: you for doing all that, and I appreciate you coming
Speaker 2: on here and talking about it. Giving other people some
Speaker 2: hope that they can continue to thrive.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 1: Thank you for giving me the chance. Man, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: sot fucking happy I got on here. I've been listening
Speaker 1: to you for many years.
Speaker 2: Is there anything else you want to say to the
Speaker 2: folks of the computer before we go?
Speaker 1: Don't drink and drive, don't get high and drives. It's
Speaker 1: not worth it. It's never worth it. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: I love you, Lyle, Thank you, thank you for giving
Speaker 1: me this chance.
Speaker 2: Wait real quick, what's the most valuable thing in your collection?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: Probably that? Probably that Sound Hill coffee. I got a
Speaker 1: figure for it. It looks so fucking badass.
Speaker 2: Dude said, did you say Summit Hill Silent Hill?
Speaker 1: It's oh?
Speaker 2: I thought, Oh, I know fucking Silent Hill. I thought
Speaker 2: you said Summit Hill.
Speaker 1: No, No, it's uh I really I really enjoy Sounding Hill.
Speaker 2: Is that is that the Is it the pyramid? Like?
Speaker 3: Wait?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, okay, okay, now that I know what it is?
Speaker 2: What what is it a video game? Is it a figure?
Speaker 2: What did you say it was?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 1: I got I have a figure of the super Sexy
Speaker 1: Nurse that's like covered in blood and it says welcome
Speaker 1: and welcome to Silent Hill. Find it.
Speaker 3: I got it from ETS.
Speaker 1: Some guy three D printed it for me and painted
Speaker 1: it looks great and I.
Speaker 2: Got Silent Hill blood is it? Wait? Hold? Oh oh?
Speaker 2: This is the sexy nurse with the crazy that looks
Speaker 2: like she has no she has no uh face?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think we're called bubbleheads. I think I
Speaker 1: think her head popped or something. The pyramid head dude,
Speaker 1: he's from Silent Hill two. It's a great game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then Silent Hill won. Yeah. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: want to give too much away if anybody hasn't played it.
Speaker 2: Well, all right, Well, thank you Zachary. Good luck to you, brother,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate you calling.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I hope you have a good rest of the day.
Speaker 1: You too, Man, you too, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: See Zachary deus that gut rocks think got rocks. Good dude,
Speaker 2: Jesus christ Man. I I dude, that's crazy. That guy's nineteen.
Speaker 2: You could tell that all that shit aged him up
Speaker 2: like fucking ten years. Dude. Respect, mad respect, mad fucking respect.
Speaker 2: Also is interest like is I love? I love? Like
Speaker 2: you know, younger generation getting into retro video games and
Speaker 2: ship like it just always keeps that stuff is timeless.
Speaker 2: I could I I spared you guys, but I could
Speaker 2: have talked about retro video games. Uh with that guy
Speaker 2: for a full hour. Shout out Zachary, big respect? Hello, Hey,
Speaker 2: what's up man? What's your name?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: A J. I didn't think I was really gonna get home?
Speaker 2: What's up, a brother? How are you doing? My friends?
Speaker 3: I'm doing good? How about you? Man?
Speaker 2: How am I doing? I'm doing all right. I'm in
Speaker 2: a room with no windows that I don't know if
Speaker 2: I'm allowed to be in. But that's that just happens
Speaker 2: to you sometimes in life. Sometimes you find yourself in
Speaker 2: a room with no windows in the script that you
Speaker 2: don't know if you're allowed to be in?
Speaker 1: What room?
Speaker 2: What room are you in?
Speaker 3: A J? I'm in. I'm actually eating right now. I'm
Speaker 3: in my donner room. I guess you would call it
Speaker 3: the way my house is set up. It's kind of
Speaker 3: like the kitchen in the dining room is almost like
Speaker 3: in the same almost in the same spot. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess my dining.
Speaker 2: Room Adrian did anything in particular? A J. Why say
Speaker 2: Adrian AJ? Sorry?
Speaker 3: A J.
Speaker 2: I think I think AJ is the name of one
Speaker 2: of Timmy Turner's friends, Chester and A J.
Speaker 3: Yeah, hell yeah.
Speaker 2: Are you named after that kid?
Speaker 3: No, it's my nickname.
Speaker 2: AJ. Is there a particular thing that you wanted to
Speaker 2: call in to talk about today?
Speaker 3: You know, I just always because I've been I've been
Speaker 3: watching for like two and a half years now, and
Speaker 3: I always thought like it's crazy, because I always felt
Speaker 3: like when I would call, I would actually get on.
Speaker 3: But then like it happened, and now I'm here and
Speaker 3: I want to talk about like just life. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. They do a lot of changes recently.
Speaker 2: Well what kind of changes.
Speaker 3: I actually just got out the military in March and
Speaker 3: from there ended up picking up to a whole new
Speaker 3: city and now I'm here and now I'm just trying
Speaker 3: to figure out like this whole new place I've never
Speaker 3: been in before, and now I'm betting ready to be
Speaker 3: a firefighter in a fire academy.
Speaker 2: Get the fuck out of here. The guy we just
Speaker 2: talked to, the guy we just talked to before you,
Speaker 2: it's so funny. He said his goal is to be
Speaker 2: a firefighter, and now we're talking to a firefighter.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm not actually a firefighter. I'm getting ready to
Speaker 3: go to a fire academy.
Speaker 2: Guy, a gentleman becoming a firefighter. You're you're in the
Speaker 2: process of becoming a firefighter, right. Cool?
Speaker 3: Cool?
Speaker 2: Yeah, here, well let's get into a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 2: What what branch of the military were you in?
Speaker 3: I was in an Air Force?
Speaker 2: Cool? What did you do?
Speaker 3: I did well, they called it a for a functional
Speaker 3: code was foury oh x one. But it's really just
Speaker 3: like I worked with insurance that I could do. Uh well,
Speaker 3: this is all medical, anything medical. So I work with experience,
Speaker 3: and then i'd be like check in at the front dance,
Speaker 3: like if you got to the hospital, if you have
Speaker 3: to check inn somewhere, like any type of clinic or
Speaker 3: anything like that. I'm a front desk person. I'm a
Speaker 3: front desk person.
Speaker 2: So you were this was at a military health clinic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was actually up in Alaska. I just came
Speaker 3: from Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska.
Speaker 1: No ship.
Speaker 2: Wait, what's it like in Anchorage, Alaska? Dude, I'm trying
Speaker 2: to go there. I'm actually I have I'm doing a
Speaker 2: show there in October.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's cool, man. I always wanted to catch
Speaker 3: a show, like when you went on tour but I
Speaker 3: never got around to like it's fit in the perfect
Speaker 3: timing of my schedule, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: M hm, So what's so what's it like an uh
Speaker 2: when you come to d oh Well.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, no, I was saying, I'm up in uh
Speaker 3: North Carolina now, so I haven't got a chance to
Speaker 3: look at your list yet. But when you come to
Speaker 3: North Carolina, I'm not trying to shoot that show.
Speaker 2: I'll be in Charlotte. I don't know exactly when, but
Speaker 2: I will be in Charlotte this year.
Speaker 3: Okay. Cool? Yeah, man, me and my husband we watch
Speaker 3: you We watch you man where we get done smoking
Speaker 3: and stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what is the vibe in in Anchorage?
Speaker 3: It's cool. I grew up in the city, like I'm
Speaker 3: from originally from the Church, Michigan. But it really forces
Speaker 3: you to be an outdoors person. Like when I was there,
Speaker 3: I wasn't used to doing like snowboarding or anything like that.
Speaker 3: It's not really a whole lot that's really going on
Speaker 3: in the city. Like I'm used to like going out,
Speaker 3: like going to clubs and things like that, and it's
Speaker 3: only like a few this meant to like two, but
Speaker 3: it's not a lot of options mm, but it's more
Speaker 3: so like out for an outdoorsy person.
Speaker 2: Was your husband with you while you were there or
Speaker 2: were you guys a long distance?
Speaker 3: Yeah? No, we met there.
Speaker 1: We met there.
Speaker 2: Oh no ship.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been married for two years now. And we
Speaker 3: met in Alaska.
Speaker 2: No ship. And he was he also in the military.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, no. I met him Actually he
Speaker 3: was just living there. His dad was in the military
Speaker 3: and actually just got out, and so they were up
Speaker 3: there living there from where his dad had just got
Speaker 3: it out, and I ended up meeting him there. We
Speaker 3: met at the club.
Speaker 2: Interesting, what like what how how did that encounter go?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: What was the initiation?
Speaker 3: We It was no, we just kind of like I
Speaker 3: was a little loose, you know, I was drinking at
Speaker 3: that point, and I assume he was too, and we
Speaker 3: just kind of made eye contact and then we ended
Speaker 3: up dancing together and stuff because I'm a big dancer.
Speaker 3: You know, when I get some tequila in my system
Speaker 3: that I can dance a little bit, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. Yeah, So we just kind of started dancing together,
Speaker 3: and from that night we met, we just kind of
Speaker 3: never stopped talking. And we had actually been together for
Speaker 3: that long before we got married.
Speaker 2: How long were yougether for?
Speaker 3: Like five and a half months?
Speaker 2: Wow? What was it that made it so much like,
Speaker 2: oh shit, let's just let's get married.
Speaker 3: So I was just leaving Texas like I had just
Speaker 3: came there from Texas because I was there doing my
Speaker 3: my tech school there, and we it was a big
Speaker 3: thing to talk about, like if I had to get
Speaker 3: stationed anywhere else, to go ahead and get him on
Speaker 3: my orders and stuff like that. And also it was
Speaker 3: just like a good time, like we weren't it was nothing.
Speaker 3: We were really waiting on per se and I just
Speaker 3: always felt like he was my person. So I didn't
Speaker 3: really have the take when he actually asked me to
Speaker 3: marry him, which I never thought i'd have somebody like,
Speaker 3: you know, proposed to me, but it happened, and I
Speaker 3: made the decision to say yes. At the time, there
Speaker 3: were no it was nothing that was like telling me
Speaker 3: to say no at that point, so I just kind
Speaker 3: of like, you know, I went with it, and we've
Speaker 3: been together ever since. So mhm.
Speaker 1: Hm hm.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. And so what where did you Where did
Speaker 2: you move to from Alaska? You said, moved to North Carolina.
Speaker 3: I'm in a small.
Speaker 2: North Carolina, North Carolina. And what are you doing in
Speaker 2: North Carolina?
Speaker 3: I actually, when I got here, I was a manager
Speaker 3: at chick fil A.
Speaker 2: All Right, the plot thickens, The plot thickens, dude. I
Speaker 2: just came up with ten more questions to ask.
Speaker 4: You, because because because being because being the manager at
Speaker 4: Chick fil A is not like, at least from my perspective,
Speaker 4: it is not like you know, any old retail management job.
Speaker 2: Because the Chick fil A, I I don't know how
Speaker 2: they do it, dude, I don't know how they fucking
Speaker 2: do it, but they manage to standard the Chick fil
Speaker 2: A experience across the nation. So you go into any
Speaker 2: like cause you know, like there's shitty Wendy's, right, and
Speaker 2: then there's good Wendy's, and there's shitty McDonald's. There's good McDonald's,
Speaker 2: but all chick fil as a. No, I've never been
Speaker 2: to a shitty chick fil A in my life and
Speaker 2: I've been to Why is that? Why have I never
Speaker 2: been to a shitty chick Fila?
Speaker 3: Through that? Look? So, when I first started working there,
Speaker 3: they pretty much preached about quality. It's more so and
Speaker 3: if not even leaning towards more quality than anything goes.
Speaker 3: It's both they lean into quality and how fast you
Speaker 3: do it, so like they really like put it on you,
Speaker 3: especially for a manager. They put it on you to
Speaker 3: make sure that the quality of the food is always
Speaker 3: right and that we getting it out fast enough, because
Speaker 3: I bet you've never been out of Chick fil A
Speaker 3: for long either.
Speaker 2: No, I don't know how they fucking do do do?
Speaker 2: Let me here's the real question is, like do they
Speaker 2: pay well? Like how do they get people to give
Speaker 2: a fuck? Because because like pretty okay, because I like,
Speaker 2: you know, you go into a Wendy's and it's like
Speaker 2: this person doesn't give a ship about anything. But then
Speaker 2: it's also like, well, why the hell would they you
Speaker 2: know mm hm, I mean like, yeah, what are they
Speaker 2: putting that sauce?
Speaker 3: You know? I mean they pretty they paid pretty okay.
Speaker 3: I was making like because they don't Rocky because I
Speaker 3: stay in the city called Rocky Mount, and they don't
Speaker 3: really pay a whole lot here, so it's not really
Speaker 3: a lot of it's it's very cheap here, and so
Speaker 3: the pay at the Chick fil A was more so
Speaker 3: I think it was like I talked them up to
Speaker 3: nineteen fifteen, just because I had experience and stuff in
Speaker 3: the military, you know, leader and all that. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I talked about the nineteen stafty. I don't I never
Speaker 3: really asked I mentioned anybody else is going to pay.
Speaker 3: But they take me a lot to give a fuck.
Speaker 2: So pretty good, pretty good. I love it today. It's
Speaker 2: that's so fun. There's something funny to me about like, uh,
Speaker 2: like you're bringing your military experience to managing because that
Speaker 2: is really what it takes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, honestly, because the way that it was like runs,
Speaker 3: it's like a fucking it reminds me so much to
Speaker 3: the military, Like you have to keep a clean shave,
Speaker 3: you have to like have your shirt took t if
Speaker 3: you work in the France, and it's all different types
Speaker 3: of stuff that relates to the military. Chick fil A, honestly, did.
Speaker 2: You encounter more assholes? Uh, civilians or people working with you?
Speaker 2: Either one is to slump them all in. Did you
Speaker 2: encounter more assholes working in the military or at Chick
Speaker 2: fil a?
Speaker 3: H that's a good I asked question. Uh, I say
Speaker 3: Chick fil A. My military experience wasn't great, but I
Speaker 3: definitely net more assholes at Chick fil A, especially like
Speaker 3: the people that they just bring in, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, like to work. Like they're not really the
Speaker 3: smartest people, but I don't like they're they're they're fine,
Speaker 3: but some of them are just working. Did what about
Speaker 3: the uh?
Speaker 2: Like, I feel like there's something about Chick fil A
Speaker 2: where like, uh, I sorry for Dick writing Chick fil
Speaker 2: A so much. It's just I'm just it's it's not
Speaker 2: even Dick writing. I'm just like genuinely amazed. Like it
Speaker 2: seems like it's the kind of place where like, uh,
Speaker 2: like people at Wendy's are going up to the cashier
Speaker 2: and like screaming at them and stuff. Do you do you?
Speaker 2: Chick fil A? Seems like you don't have a lot
Speaker 2: of angry, yelling customers. Is that wrong?
Speaker 3: No, that's not wrong. I mean I've never really encountered
Speaker 3: a whole lot of like angry customers. But there are
Speaker 3: a lot of Karens that come.
Speaker 2: To chicks Karen's what I Karen is what I mean? Okay,
Speaker 2: so I was wrong. Karen's what I'm referring to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there are a lot of Karens that come
Speaker 3: to here.
Speaker 2: What is what are their main what are their main complaints?
Speaker 3: What was that?
Speaker 2: What was the nastiest Karen that you encountered?
Speaker 3: So I worked in the back, I ran in the kitchen,
Speaker 3: m M. I didn't really like encounter a whole lot
Speaker 3: with the guests. So there wasn't really nothing too easy
Speaker 3: that I can really like pinpoint right now. But we
Speaker 3: have somebody come in here and not even a Karen,
Speaker 3: like we have the only or we work because I
Speaker 3: don't wait there anymore. And I and I start Fire
Speaker 3: Academy the day after tomorrow because it's snow here in
Speaker 3: North Carolina. So but we're the only chicks fil a.
Speaker 3: So everybody from around the city comes here, no matter
Speaker 3: who for like who they are, and sometimes we get
Speaker 3: like just people that come in and they just like
Speaker 3: stay there, just to stay there, and they try to
Speaker 3: sell stuff in there, and then like they grab one
Speaker 3: of the managers from the back to be like, hey,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna easy to get out, and I've had to
Speaker 3: do that before.
Speaker 2: But they try to have people come out here probably right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like some guy was trying to promote his car
Speaker 3: washing business, but I'm like right home, I'm not right home.
Speaker 3: But you can't do that in here.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, did you get any like people making tiktoks
Speaker 2: in there and ship like that?
Speaker 3: Our fucking are Unfortunately, we do somethings on our whoever
Speaker 3: controls our like page, you know the not entertainment but
Speaker 3: not promotional, but you know whatever, like make videos for
Speaker 3: the for the stuff like that. Yeah, so sometimes we
Speaker 3: do TikTok, but I never like mate anybody in or
Speaker 3: see anybody in there do TikTok. It's a lot of kids,
Speaker 3: they're coming there. It's a lot of like babies. I
Speaker 3: always hear a baby crying at chickil.
Speaker 2: Me fuck another chick fil A thing because oh yeah,
Speaker 2: because I'll see uh dude, I'll see videos like that.
Speaker 2: Like I saw a video of a guy who brought
Speaker 2: a horse into Target. And I'm very conflicted about these
Speaker 2: videos because on one hand, I'm like, that's so undeniably
Speaker 2: funny to bring a horse in this funny. Some of
Speaker 2: those videos are not funny. Some of those videos are
Speaker 2: just people. Some of those videos are just people going
Speaker 2: in and making a mess and being assholes, which and
Speaker 2: I mean bringing the horse in there, you are making
Speaker 2: a mess and being an asshole. But but there's you
Speaker 2: have to really put in a lot of effort to
Speaker 2: get that horse into target. So I'm not gonna say
Speaker 2: I respect the content necessarily, but it's but the content
Speaker 2: is undeniable. I can't be like, oh, that's you shouldn't
Speaker 2: do that because it's just it's just an undeniable thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's probably more work for the people working there, but
Speaker 2: it's it's just an undeniable thing. Bring on, you know,
Speaker 2: I get what I'm saying, Like, what do you think
Speaker 2: about that? What do you think about the horse and
Speaker 2: the target?
Speaker 3: I feel like I don't know, man, I just I
Speaker 3: don't really like look at it on that whole deeper
Speaker 3: level like.
Speaker 1: You do.
Speaker 2: Okay, but no, no, no for real.
Speaker 3: But I just I just kind of look at it
Speaker 3: and I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you if you if you were okay,
Speaker 2: I'll ask you this and and then uh, I'll let
Speaker 2: you go a j If you were working in the
Speaker 2: back at the Chick fil A, right and someone came
Speaker 2: into the Chick fil A with a horse, would you
Speaker 2: be pissed off? Or would you be like this guy
Speaker 2: brought a horse into the Chick fil A? How would
Speaker 2: you feel?
Speaker 3: I would be like, what the fuck. I mean, because like,
Speaker 3: what the fuck just brings a horse in the in
Speaker 3: the fucking Chick fil A. It was just I don't know.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't do anything about it. I wouldn't be mad
Speaker 3: about it. It would be funny as hell, and I'm
Speaker 3: sure they'll get a lot of use for it.
Speaker 2: But did everyone everyone's search guy brings horse into Chick
Speaker 2: fil A and not everyone's he. Maybe he's he, maybe
Speaker 2: he maybe has done Chick fil A. His whole thing
Speaker 2: is bringing a horse to places he shouldn't do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I don't. I don't. I don't work at
Speaker 3: Chick fil A anymore.
Speaker 2: I just actually I know you, I know you. I
Speaker 2: know you don't. I was just if you have having
Speaker 2: had the experience, where did you say you work now again?
Speaker 3: I actually don't. So I just this whole time I've
Speaker 3: been in North Carolina, I've been working on getting like
Speaker 3: my benefits from the military because I ended up getting
Speaker 3: out like earlier than my contract. So I've been working
Speaker 3: on getting my benefits and I've just got one hundred
Speaker 3: percent disability. So I am I get paid like I
Speaker 3: don't have to work again if I don't want to.
Speaker 3: But I want to be a firefighter?
Speaker 2: Cool? Are you going to be like a wait, so
Speaker 2: wait interesting? So are and I assume are you able
Speaker 2: to still like, how are you able to qualify for
Speaker 2: disability but also able to be a firefighter when you
Speaker 2: become a firefighter or you not? Are you no longer
Speaker 2: able to get their disability?
Speaker 3: No? No, no, no no no. And I thought about that too,
Speaker 3: But they call it like permenading totaled or something like
Speaker 3: that where they can't they can't touch it at all.
Speaker 3: So but it doesn't prevent you from working either, like
Speaker 3: sometimes they put you on they put people on the
Speaker 3: disability where they can't like where they can't work, or
Speaker 3: they have to get it reviewed every like for after
Speaker 3: a certain amount of time. But I got the good one,
Speaker 3: So I'm good.
Speaker 2: Sweet sweet mm hmm, hey ja, I hope you are successful.
Speaker 2: I hope everyone on the podcast today is is greatly
Speaker 2: successful in any and all fighter firefighter becoming endeavors.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that and my birthdays just.
Speaker 2: Pad oh shit, happy birthday, brother.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it. It was on the twenty seven.
Speaker 2: What'd you do for it? Anything fun? Uh?
Speaker 3: Nothing too crazy? No, I just kind of went out
Speaker 3: to dinner you just went out to dinner and I
Speaker 3: had some tequila.
Speaker 2: Not too bad, nothing to anything take much for me.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: No, you go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, I'm just saying it doesn't It doesn't take a
Speaker 3: whole lot for me to know I'm one of those people.
Speaker 3: It doesn't take a whole lot for me to have fun.
Speaker 3: I'm saying, like, it doesn't take a whole lot for
Speaker 3: me to be happy.
Speaker 2: Did you get Did you get sucked up on your birthday?
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 2: He's saying it like it's an admission to something.
Speaker 3: I did. No, I did. I did because I told
Speaker 3: myself I would stop drinking because I'm trying to, you know,
Speaker 3: be locked in for this whole process. But I ended
Speaker 3: up getting blasted on my birthday, and then I went
Speaker 3: out to dinner, and then I came home and went
Speaker 3: to sleep. You know, it was it was cool. It is.
Speaker 2: It is pretty fun to get blasted.
Speaker 3: Hell yeah, mhm.
Speaker 2: Is there anything else you want to say to the
Speaker 2: people of the computer before we go?
Speaker 3: Uh? You can do anything you want if you want
Speaker 3: to do it.
Speaker 2: Swag. Thank you.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it talking to me.
Speaker 2: Man, have a good rest of your day, dude.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it Man, you too.
Speaker 2: AJ Forever. That was aj Man. That's crazy. If you
Speaker 2: got two firefighter becoming people, that's what I call someone
Speaker 2: who wants to become a firefighter. Is a firefighter becoming person?
Speaker 2: Two firefighters, one podcast. I hope they both become successful,
Speaker 2: and I hope that they get to take a ride
Speaker 2: around in the truck because it looks fun and you
Speaker 2: can spray people with the hose. I don't think you
Speaker 2: can just spray whoever you want with the hose. I
Speaker 2: think you get fired. If you do that, you'd be
Speaker 2: a fired firefighter. All right, Sorry, hello everyone, It's Lyle
Speaker 2: and this is a segment that I do on the podcast.
Speaker 2: It's called gek Mail and get this. It's when I
Speaker 2: read emails that people have wrote me to the email
Speaker 2: therapy Gecko mail at gmail dot com. We have a
Speaker 2: lot of emails, and I'm gonna read a couple of
Speaker 2: them just to sue this out as we end the
Speaker 2: program today, we're gonna read some emails. All right, this
Speaker 2: is from Tiffany subject line They're turning my workplace into
Speaker 2: a casino. Hey, Gek, I hope this email finds you
Speaker 2: well and full of taco bell or something you enjoy.
Speaker 2: I work at a live entertainment venue full time in marketing,
Speaker 2: and I can honestly say I have my dream job.
Speaker 2: I've always wanted to work in live music slash entertainment,
Speaker 2: So when I got the opportunity three years ago, I
Speaker 2: was stoked and planning on staying here and climbing the
Speaker 2: ladder to be a general manager. One day, my dreams
Speaker 2: all came crash ushing down recently when the city that
Speaker 2: this venue is in that owns the venue. Wait, the
Speaker 2: city that this venue is in and owns the venue.
Speaker 2: The city owns the venue. Hold on? Okay, whatever the
Speaker 2: city is in owns the venue is talking about getting
Speaker 2: rid of the music venue's entire campus and turning the
Speaker 2: complex into a casino. Okay, now I'm I don't I
Speaker 2: the idea of a city owning a music venue. Is
Speaker 2: that a thing? That's got to be a thing, right anyway?
Speaker 2: Yeah's that's a thing? Hold on? Is thatther thing? I'm
Speaker 2: an idiot? Are there city owned music venues? Uh? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: there's plenty, all right, there's several of them. There's cultural institutions. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm assuming this is like a cultural institution or something
Speaker 2: like that they're turning the complex into a casino, which
Speaker 2: means I would no longer have this job and would
Speaker 2: potentially have to move and start over in a different
Speaker 2: music venue hours away, which would be tough because my
Speaker 2: entire life is here, my family, my serious boyfriend who
Speaker 2: can't move with me because of his job in this
Speaker 2: small city that this music venue is in. The city
Speaker 2: has major money problems and is grasping its straws to
Speaker 2: recoup this money that was mismanaged years before. I love
Speaker 2: this city, but there are no opportunities for what I
Speaker 2: want to do here. I'm pretty torn up about it
Speaker 2: since it was announced, and although it's something out of
Speaker 2: my control and not one hundred percent done yet, I
Speaker 2: can't help but worry and feel like what I do
Speaker 2: at my job now no longer has any impact, and
Speaker 2: finding an opportunity somewhere else is going to be extremely competitive.
Speaker 2: Any advice, Tiffany, hm hmm. I wish I knew what
Speaker 2: city this was, but I'm just gonna assume it's like
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna say, if it's some city in buck
Speaker 2: asss Wyoming or something like that, no offense if you
Speaker 2: live in buck Ass, Wyoming is that a real city. No,
Speaker 2: it's not.
Speaker 3: Hmm.
Speaker 2: This is a tough one. I mean I think, first
Speaker 2: of all, as I would, I would figure out why
Speaker 2: you like this job that's going away. I'm sorry this
Speaker 2: job is going away. Why did you like it? Why
Speaker 2: do you like working in live music and entertainment? Why
Speaker 2: do you like working at this venue?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Really, if I were Tiffany, I would like a journal
Speaker 2: about the answers to those questions, because rarely is there
Speaker 2: just one thing that tickles our fancy. And if we
Speaker 2: and if there is just one thing in our brains
Speaker 2: that tickles our fancy, it tickles our fancy for certain
Speaker 2: reasons that could very well be applied to a different thing,
Speaker 2: should this thing no longer be a viable option for us?
Speaker 2: And so if you are like, well, I like being
Speaker 2: in a working in a music venue because I like
Speaker 2: seeing a show get put together, or I like working
Speaker 2: in music because I like I fucking like music, or
Speaker 2: whatever it is, if you boil down the reasons why
Speaker 2: this job was important to you, I don't know what
Speaker 2: time you live in, and I don't know what opportunities
Speaker 2: are or are or aren't there. But if you reframe
Speaker 2: why you like this job, and then you ask yourself again, hey,
Speaker 2: are there any opportunities in this town that I might
Speaker 2: be able to to to do. If the answer to
Speaker 2: that is still no, then I'm like, well, okay, what's
Speaker 2: the who's this boyfriend? What's his job? Is he so great?
Speaker 2: Who's your your family? Are they so awesome? You know?
Speaker 2: How old are you? Are you forty seven? And you
Speaker 2: really are like, I'm not going to fucking start over.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can you start over when you're forty seven?
Speaker 2: Who gives a shit? You can start over. You can
Speaker 2: do whatever, you can do whatever you want at any time, Tiffany,
Speaker 2: you whatever you want at any time. So that's my
Speaker 2: pondering of this is, see if if there are any
Speaker 2: opportunities in your town, once you boil down the actual
Speaker 2: reasons why you like the job and and not needing
Speaker 2: those those inner kind of core desires to have such
Speaker 2: a rigid four And then also if your family is
Speaker 2: that great that you can't move, Nothing wrong with starting over,
Speaker 2: nothing wrong at all with starting over life. It's good
Speaker 2: when you start over, you know, life should be. It's
Speaker 2: fun to live multiple lives. I think. Okay. This is
Speaker 2: from crash subject line porn parodies. Oh shit, this person's email,
Speaker 2: I don't want to fight out whatever. There's like numbers
Speaker 2: and whatever in it. But this person's email is a
Speaker 2: crash bandicouci, which they spelled it differently, so you're not
Speaker 2: gonna be able to end. There's numbers and letters and
Speaker 2: symbols and shit, but crash bandicoucci is a great email. Okay, Hey, Gag,
Speaker 2: I've been listening to your podcast since two thousand and
Speaker 2: one and I love the show. I'm noticing an uptick
Speaker 2: and talk about porn parodies, and I was wondering if
Speaker 2: you've seen this one enjoy and there's a link. There's
Speaker 2: a link here to e Porner dot com. Should I
Speaker 2: click on it? Fuck it? Okay?
Speaker 1: This is.
Speaker 2: What is this? Princess Leah sucks a dick and then
Speaker 2: is fucked by a spaceman and then two brunettes have
Speaker 2: lesbian sex. Okay, Oh holy wait, this one's kind of cool.
Speaker 2: Oh shit, what the fuck they have? Great dude, Greedo
Speaker 2: is in this. He Greto is in this and he's
Speaker 2: just like a CGI Greedo. Well, does Greto have sex? No,
Speaker 2: Greedo gets shot? Yeah, okay, Grido got shot, So he's
Speaker 2: not having sex with anyone. But this is real, this
Speaker 2: is produced really well, what is it's called? If search
Speaker 2: up Wicked Pictures porn parody? They have like actual CGI
Speaker 2: going on here, Wicked Pictures, Star Wars porn parody. You
Speaker 2: know what, I don't get what like, dude, I don't
Speaker 2: know about you guys, but like my like sex horny
Speaker 2: brain and my like sitting down to watch a movie
Speaker 2: brain are very different brains. I never understood what the
Speaker 2: appeal is of porn parodies, right, Like, it's like I
Speaker 2: don't like. I guess they're supposed to be kind of funny,
Speaker 2: but like, my sex isn't like I don't know, like
Speaker 2: when you're and I'm not talking about like sex as
Speaker 2: a con sex as a concept is funny, but like
Speaker 2: when you're really into it, it's not like I don't
Speaker 2: feel like it's humorous. You know, it's like a very
Speaker 2: not humorous part of the brain. So why is there
Speaker 2: all these like sex parodies? I guess I get it
Speaker 2: if it's it's like okay, you like people have a
Speaker 2: crush on Princess Leia or Marge Simpson or whatever, and
Speaker 2: they want to see her have sex. But a lot
Speaker 2: of these, a lot of these parodies seem like they're unnecessary. Okay,
Speaker 2: thanks for sharing that. Crash BANDICOOCI. Now crash BANDICOOCI. That
Speaker 2: is a porn parody that I would watch.
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: Uh okay, this is from Ken subject line come to
Speaker 2: the Nassau Reptile Expo. Yo, what the fuck? Hold on? Hello, Gek,
Speaker 2: my name is Kevin. We spoke a few months ago.
Speaker 2: I discovered there was a reptile expo going on in
Speaker 2: Nassau County on Long Island, not too far from New
Speaker 2: York City, and my friends and I are going to
Speaker 2: go hang out with reptile enthusiasts. I love reptiles, but
Speaker 2: I can't afford to own one since I'm still in school.
Speaker 2: So I'm getting a fix from this. I'm getting my
Speaker 2: fix from this. You should totally pull up. It seems
Speaker 2: like a cool vibe. Tickets are six teen bucks. That's honest.
Speaker 2: Sixteen dollars is a great value ticket for anything, and
Speaker 2: you can get them here. Oh crap, all right, it's
Speaker 2: this weekend the Nasau Reptile Expo. I'm gonna be totally honest.
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm gonna go all the way to
Speaker 2: Nassau to attend this. It would be kind of cute
Speaker 2: to do a video. It would be cute to do
Speaker 2: a video there. It would be cute to do a
Speaker 2: reptile You know what it is is it would be
Speaker 2: cute to do a video at a reptile expo. And
Speaker 2: I also, just as a human being, would enjoy going
Speaker 2: to a reptile expo. That sounds fun, But I such
Speaker 2: so little of my gecko existence is like, actually about geckos.
Speaker 2: That's all the way in Nassau on a Saturday. I
Speaker 2: don't want to.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Actually, I mean the days of the week. I guess,
Speaker 2: who gives a fuck? Hosted by Uncle Tony's Reptile Show.
Speaker 2: Let me read the schedule. What's on the schedule. Okay,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, wait wait wait, Okay, there's another. Okay,
Speaker 2: there's another rep Nasau Reptile Expo. They do it three
Speaker 2: times a year. Okay, I'll go to the next one,
Speaker 2: June thirteenth, twenty twenty six. I'll try to go to
Speaker 2: that one. There's no frequently asked questions. Let's see, Uh,
Speaker 2: what the heck is a reptile expo? A reptile Expo
Speaker 2: is a one stop experience for anyone with an interest
Speaker 2: in reptiles, amphibians, plants, or invertebrates. It's an exciting experience
Speaker 2: for families and seasoned reptile hobbyists alike. Dude, this is
Speaker 2: the kind of shit where I wish I had a kid,
Speaker 2: because I was like, like, I would take I would
Speaker 2: take like a five year old to the Nasau Reptile Expo.
Speaker 2: That's that sounds pretty awesome. Or I'd go myself. I
Speaker 2: don't know anyway, Thanks for sharing that, Ken, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate all of you guys. Thanks for listening to
Speaker 2: this podca Yes, thanks for uh, thanks for being a friend.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the show. My name is Lyle
Speaker 2: I dressed. I dress up as a gecko and I
Speaker 2: talk to people on the phone about life and I
Speaker 2: make documentaries. I'm working on the Ukraine one. I think
Speaker 2: it should be done hopefully in the next month or so.
Speaker 2: We shall see. I'm going on tour soon Therapy Gecko
Speaker 2: Tour at gmail dot com. Some of the dates have
Speaker 2: tickets available right now. Some I don't have the ticket
Speaker 2: links for just yet, but you can rs VP and
Speaker 2: I will text you when I do, and I will
Speaker 2: never text you ever again. I just for that one thing.
Speaker 2: I will not spam you or know you. I don't
Speaker 2: do that. So yeah, go to therapy, Gecko tour dot com,
Speaker 2: eat a piece of salmon, try not to kill yourself,
Speaker 2: play a play a game on your phone, watch a
Speaker 2: YouTube video, rink a diet coke, and live your life.
Speaker 2: Try your best. Everything's gonna be fine, probably for someone
Speaker 2: at least. Ghak bless you guys, have a good day
Speaker 2: until next time goes on the line taking your phone calls.
Speaker 3: Every night.
Speaker 2: Deacon goes to Ye's teaching you aloud in the mind
Speaker 2: of your life, but he's not really an expert.