00:00:08 Speaker 1: And I invited you here. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. When you're a guest in my home, you gotta come to me empty. And I said, no, guests, your presences presence, and I already had too much stuff. 00:00:35 Speaker 2: So how do you dare to surbey me? 00:00:47 Speaker 3: Welcome to? I said, no gifts. I'm Bridger Wineger. We're here together. Look, I'm coming in with a real hot energy. I feel like I don't know where this is coming from, but I feel like i'm speaking at it. I've had a more diet coke than I'm used to at this hour, so maybe that's where that's coming from. Look, I hope you've you're sitting still. I hope you've eliminated any distractions so you can focus. This is an important hour in your day, maybe the most important hour of your week. Please pay attention. Let's get into it. I'm excited. Our guest today is so funny and just fantastic. It's TN tran Ten. Welcome to, I said, no gifts. 00:01:28 Speaker 4: Oh, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm very honored to be here. I am. 00:01:35 Speaker 3: Well, I'm honored to have you here. And you're in your closet I'm in my I've spoken about this in my previous well last week's episode. I think I don't know what time means anymore. I'm sitting in my my wet apart, wet office thing that is probably growing mold, and I'm bringing this energy dn that I don't understand. 00:01:58 Speaker 4: It's okay and like more mold is it? I've dealt with a lot of mold. I actually dealt with mold this morning, so I understand where you're coming from. 00:02:07 Speaker 3: What mold were you dealing with? 00:02:09 Speaker 4: There are my en suite bathroom off our bedroom. We stopped using it because it was yellow and it was making like genuinely, it was just making me sad. We're renting, and so the yellowness of the bathroom reminded me of being. 00:02:27 Speaker 2: At a hotel. That was depressing. So we just stopped using it. 00:02:33 Speaker 4: And over the months, if you stop using a toy I did not know this, but if you like really just like straight up stop using a toilet, the mold just takes over. And it was growing out of the bowl like onto the seat. 00:02:48 Speaker 3: Nature had taken her back. 00:02:50 Speaker 4: Yes, I would just like to I would just like to clarify that I'm a very clean person. But we just let this one to get out of control and mother nature did reclaim her. 00:03:01 Speaker 3: How possible? How sad could this bathroom be for you to just completely shut it down. It's now a forbidden place. 00:03:10 Speaker 4: It's like think of like like bile yellow and there's there are no windows like it's it was. 00:03:21 Speaker 2: It's one of. 00:03:22 Speaker 3: Those bathrooms that's a that really is a playground for mold. 00:03:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you do? How are you dealing with your wet rooms? 00:03:31 Speaker 3: My god, I have no idea. I don't know what to do because you know, it rained like last week or whatever, NonStop, and this is my back office and I had been out of town, so I hadn't been back here, and just by happen happens? Stance? Is that the word we're looking for. I feel like I struggled with a lot. 00:03:51 Speaker 2: It works for me. 00:03:53 Speaker 3: My boyfriend came back here just he had no business being back here, but thank god he did. He comes back and it's just full of water, so we, you know, spent the day mopping and baling water all this and now I've never had to deal with this before, so it's like who do you turn to? And I'm talking to the insurance company. They're probably going to deny my claim. 00:04:15 Speaker 2: Who no one really turn to. 00:04:17 Speaker 3: I don't. I think there are oftentimes where I just think, maybe we just turned this into kind of your bathroom situation and just you know, shut it down and seal the door and just let mold take it. 00:04:28 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:04:29 Speaker 4: I don't know how the earth reclaim it. It's about time. Just let just let her have it. I'm ready for the earth to reclaim me. I just take me away, cover me in moss and stones, and I won't have to worry about this flooding situation anymore. Why not. I'm just picturing you now, like painted like Peta from the Hunger Gabes, just like your face peeking out from the rocks. 00:04:55 Speaker 3: I wish i'd become grandmother Willow or something. Have you ever dealt with flooding or anything? 00:05:02 Speaker 2: Yes? 00:05:03 Speaker 4: And it's funny that you asked that, because I hadn't before until this past year, and I had flown to visit my parents and it was like my first night back before a job, and I was just stopping in my parents. They live in San Diego, California, and my mom comes rushing into my room at three in the morning, and he's. 00:05:21 Speaker 2: Like wa a a wake a wake up. And I'm like, who the what. 00:05:24 Speaker 4: And they're babysitting my sister's cat at the time, and so my mom is like NORII just woke me up and is freaking out, and I run downstairs and the bathroom in the first floor office has flooded. And because the pressure was too high for the bathroom and the toilet, you know, the like little drain that connects the water to the toilet bowl, it had fallen off and was just like. 00:05:52 Speaker 3: Just like hissing around, just. 00:05:53 Speaker 4: Hissing around filling it. And it's like my mom and I at three in the morning bailing up a back bathroom like a sinking canoe, like a true cartoon, Like. 00:06:04 Speaker 3: It's the worst, it's the worst. Well, so what did they do with their situation? 00:06:09 Speaker 4: I mean, we just thankfully it was mostly bathroom and only like a little bit of the office. I think the water is probably still underneath there growing something weird, but we're just going to ignore it. And if there's like not an immediate health impact, I think that's fine. 00:06:30 Speaker 3: Okay, that seems like a decent is good, right? I feel like I don't I don't know what to do. We have people come over and they have like one of these little laser guns. They shoot at the wall and say it's wet. I'm like, of course, it's wet. 00:06:42 Speaker 2: Of course. 00:06:43 Speaker 3: I mean. I had a car flood in twenty ten oh from La Rain, and I equipped for La Rain. I'm not I truly have to today. I was just thinking, I truly should just move to Death Valley or something. I just need to go somewhere where it is impossibly dry, because I just keep running into these situations. And I obviously have learned nothing from the car thing. That thing I just drove to like a local gas station and sucked all the water out with their vacuum, probably destroyed a gas station's vacuum in mid city Los Angeles, and then the car just kind of smelled like a terrarium for the rest of its days. 00:07:25 Speaker 2: How long did you drive it? 00:07:26 Speaker 3: For? At least another six years? 00:07:31 Speaker 4: You know. I bet that experience, though, did have your body acclimate to the potential mold that you're experiencing now. 00:07:38 Speaker 3: So kind of a fungus, you know, container. At this point, my lungs are probably just covered in all sorts of moss, and it's working. It's working for me. Things get better and better, and I have no complaints. What's going on in your life? 00:07:56 Speaker 1: Tian? 00:07:57 Speaker 3: Enough about me and my water curse. 00:08:00 Speaker 4: Oh you know, just I'm in the Midwest right now. 00:08:05 Speaker 3: What are you doing in the Midwest. 00:08:06 Speaker 4: My partner is a professor, so like, I live with her. I don't know why that's so weird. 00:08:13 Speaker 3: To say shocking information, news flash. 00:08:18 Speaker 2: Live with my partner. 00:08:22 Speaker 4: And yeah, so like when I'm not working in La or wherever I'm here. 00:08:28 Speaker 2: Oh, that is lovely, it's really nice. 00:08:31 Speaker 3: Can you say where in the Midwest? 00:08:33 Speaker 2: I'm Champagne? Oh have you heard of her? 00:08:37 Speaker 3: I have heard of her? 00:08:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, Champagne or Banna? 00:08:41 Speaker 3: Are you like how many how long have you been there since you were working? Because you were on How I Met your Father in the yall that. 00:08:50 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's shot in the fall and that that is coming out in a couple of weeks. 00:08:54 Speaker 2: Which is very exciting, so exciting. 00:08:57 Speaker 4: And we've been here for like two and a half three years now. Okay, it's so it's so nice. 00:09:03 Speaker 3: Did you two meet in La. 00:09:05 Speaker 2: No, we met in Chicago. 00:09:07 Speaker 3: Oh, okay, I was. 00:09:08 Speaker 4: I was a Chicago person for for a very long time, right, for like ten years. 00:09:14 Speaker 2: I honestly have not spent that much time in La. 00:09:17 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:09:18 Speaker 3: I kind of just I think because of you know, stand up and your work in TV and stuff, I just kind of assumed you were in LA. But this is such a shocking revelation. 00:09:26 Speaker 2: I'm a Midwest gal, total mid time. 00:09:29 Speaker 4: I'm from Erie, Pennsylvania, which is like technically the Midwest as well. 00:09:34 Speaker 3: Now, is there an Erie Indiana? 00:09:36 Speaker 2: Yes? 00:09:37 Speaker 4: And when people mix it up like Erie Indiana, I think is spelled ee r i E. And it had a TV show, right, And when people are like you're from Erie, Indiana, right, and I'm like. 00:09:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I won't correct you. 00:09:52 Speaker 4: I'll just let that. 00:09:55 Speaker 3: No. I smell, I smell a reboot with you in Erie, Pennsylvania. 00:10:00 Speaker 2: What was that show? 00:10:00 Speaker 1: Like? 00:10:02 Speaker 3: Very scary? Did you ever see any of it? 00:10:04 Speaker 4: No? 00:10:04 Speaker 3: It was like it was four kids, but it was kind of like I think it was like Goosebumps adjacent that was like weird things going on, but only the kids knew about it. All I remember was an episode where there were like neighbor kids who were stored in giant tupperware containers. 00:10:22 Speaker 4: It feels like we're not scaring kids enough with shows like that anymore. 00:10:27 Speaker 3: I know. I think that there needs to be more just pure horror in the life of children. 00:10:31 Speaker 4: I think so too, not this reality that they're living, just even something scary. 00:10:36 Speaker 3: Right, We need them to We need to adjust the scales where reality is no longer pure horror. But the things were watching on television are scary. 00:10:45 Speaker 2: Were you scared by the Tupperware story? 00:10:47 Speaker 3: I remember being it was one of these shows that we would go to my grandparents' house and it would just be like on TV and just made me feel unsettled while we were bored at grandma's house. If that makes sense. 00:11:01 Speaker 2: Yes, I know exactly, I know exactly what you mean. 00:11:04 Speaker 3: Did you watch any scary stuff as a kid. 00:11:06 Speaker 4: I'm a bit of a scaredy cat, like true, truly. I don't like to be scared at all, period. Don't like I've been invited to. Not to brag, but I have been invited to some of those scary mazes, and I. 00:11:24 Speaker 3: Huge brag. 00:11:27 Speaker 4: Don't mean to make anyone jealous, but I've had I've been invited. 00:11:31 Speaker 3: And fens want me to come to things, friends, friends want. 00:11:33 Speaker 2: Me to come to be scared, and I refuse to go. I don't like it. I think I've only seen maybe one scary movie in theaters. 00:11:43 Speaker 3: Which movie was that. 00:11:44 Speaker 2: It was get Out. 00:11:45 Speaker 3: It's pretty scary movie. 00:11:46 Speaker 4: It was very scary, but I felt like culturally I needed to watch it. 00:11:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, and it also wasn't just like just for scares. It like you had a bigger thing going on and it was, you know, art and this kind of yes, so you felt like being part of the conversation. 00:12:02 Speaker 2: I love art. Do you do you like being scared? 00:12:09 Speaker 3: I thought you were gonna ask if I liked art, and I was gonna say, do you flat out no, despise art? The arts should be destroyed. But as far as being scared, I well, actually I used to love being scared. I used to love horror movies. I used to love going to haunted houses, you know, like the mazes and whatever. I used to love playing scary video. 00:12:31 Speaker 2: Games, sick stuff. 00:12:33 Speaker 3: I'm I'm it's my strength in that area has weakened. Scary movies. I've got to be in the exact mood. Scary video games I almost can't do. And what's the other thing, the scary mazes. I'm kind of just bored at this point because it's kind of just weird high schoolers getting too close to you. 00:12:56 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:12:57 Speaker 2: I'm over that too. 00:12:58 Speaker 3: Yeah. But something I have learned and like, like you're saying, like you don't like being scared, that's something I learned with my boyfriend where I was like, just watch the scary movie with me. Well, I don't see what the problem is. But for some people it is just not an enjoyable activity in any way. 00:13:17 Speaker 4: No, because for me, it's that I know it's not rational to take away some of the things from the scary movies. But like if I were to have seen the kids being trapped in tupperware when I was younger, I would have thought about that for days, Like. 00:13:33 Speaker 3: What about for decades? Like me, I've been haunted my entire life. 00:13:36 Speaker 4: Clearly, all your food is just loose in. 00:13:39 Speaker 3: The fridge, just rotting, speaking of mold. 00:13:44 Speaker 4: Um. 00:13:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, so you don't like scary things. You've seen one scary movie? Yeah, I think that's fine. I mean this goes into I didn't realize there was the term for a lot of these things, benign masochism. Have you heard of this? No, which is basically I read about it a few, well a couple of years ago, but it basically describes like why people enjoy eating spicy food or watching scary things or bungee jumping or whatever where like makes you feel like you're in danger but you're not. 00:14:14 Speaker 2: Okay, See, well, these are people that are living their lives. I was liked. 00:14:20 Speaker 4: I just like to not test the limits at all and just hope I float through in a sort of like soft numbness. 00:14:26 Speaker 3: You know, you just like a straight up benign Yeah. 00:14:28 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm just benign benign benignness. 00:14:32 Speaker 3: Do you like anything? Do you like spicy foods or bitter foods? Or why am not only describing flavors at this point? 00:14:42 Speaker 2: If you're asking me if I do like to live a little? 00:14:44 Speaker 3: I do? 00:14:46 Speaker 2: I mean like I'm a I'm a spicy food fan. 00:14:49 Speaker 3: Okay. Do you like a hot sauce? 00:14:52 Speaker 2: I love a Frank's Red. 00:14:53 Speaker 3: Oh I had some Franks Red I'm not kidding not two hours ago on what Well this is the problem. I put it on cottage cheese and it didn't taste that good. 00:15:03 Speaker 2: Have you done that before? 00:15:05 Speaker 1: Love? 00:15:05 Speaker 3: I love cottage cheese well documented on this podcast, and I'll put other hot sauces on, so I thought, why not this? And it didn't work. Have you tried it? 00:15:16 Speaker 4: No, I have not tried that, but I haven't eaten a lot of cottage cheese in my life. 00:15:23 Speaker 3: I highly recommend. 00:15:25 Speaker 2: I mean, I've heard great things. 00:15:27 Speaker 3: Speaking of again, benign, it's probably the most benign snack you can eat. 00:15:33 Speaker 4: But Frank's red Hot is a fave, and I would put that, put that on anything. I also do love a somball, the chili garlic, Oh my god, the best, the best. I think Saracha's way over hyped. And I'm sure your listeners would agree with me. 00:15:49 Speaker 3: And well, we'll come back to that. 00:15:53 Speaker 4: I do. I think I think it's delicious, but I think it needs to have like a quiet moment, like a like step away from the limelight for a little bit and let other sauces shine. 00:16:07 Speaker 3: I think it's doing that. I think it had its moment from about it really stole the spotlight from what would you say, twenty ten to twenty eighteen? 00:16:17 Speaker 2: No, I would, I would agree with that. I would agree. 00:16:19 Speaker 3: And now it's like kind of now it feels like kind of the elder statesman of hot sauces it step back some new hot sauces are on the scene. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that I really loving. There's this type of hot sauce at a it's more of a salsa that's black. At this taco place I go to in La that's almost like tastes like smoke or something. I think it's I don't know what it is. 00:16:47 Speaker 2: Do you like it? 00:16:48 Speaker 3: It's very dramatic. I love it. It's hot, it's extremely spicy. Yeah, I love that. 00:16:52 Speaker 2: I love a top of TiO, Love a top of TiO. 00:16:55 Speaker 3: All the thing I don't do is tabasco. Do you like a tabasco? 00:16:58 Speaker 2: No, I don't like tabasco. 00:17:00 Speaker 3: That one. We've just got to give the great too. 00:17:02 Speaker 2: Yeah, don't. I don't get it. 00:17:03 Speaker 4: I never have, And sometimes when I see it, I'm like, I'll give her a shot, and then it always disappoints. 00:17:09 Speaker 3: It sucks. It's not a good hot sauce. 00:17:11 Speaker 2: No, I don't like it. I don't like it at all. 00:17:14 Speaker 4: My sauce of choice for everything is a one steak sauce. 00:17:19 Speaker 3: Oh. I love an a one but you're putting it on everything. 00:17:22 Speaker 2: Oh, it goes on everything. 00:17:24 Speaker 3: It is a good flavor. I guess I've just never I have only ever had, you know, stomach. Yeah, I think so. And I'm eating one steak every five years. Like when am I at a steakhouse? When am I like grilling up a steak? But you're putting it on like vegetables, Yes, right, vegeta. Do you eat meat? 00:17:45 Speaker 4: Yes, I am. I am a big meat lover. 00:17:47 Speaker 3: Okay, so you're putting it on your chickens? Oh yeah, okay. I'm very easy to go out to dinner with because I have I will eat literally anything. I'm the person that no one needs to worry about. 00:18:00 Speaker 4: I really think that piggy eaters are are the worst, and to hang out with them is my benign masochism. Like that's my shot in the arm, is being around someone like that. 00:18:14 Speaker 3: Do you and your partner have pretty open palettes as far as eating? 00:18:18 Speaker 2: Yesia, Oh I'm so jealous. Oh why do you not have that? 00:18:22 Speaker 3: Oh my god? No, My boyfriend has a very difficult time eating out of his comfort zone. 00:18:29 Speaker 4: Is it like a a like he didn't grow up with it? 00:18:34 Speaker 3: Or like, yeah, he grew up eating like hot dogs and chicken palm and hamburgers and he now has literally a podcast called baby Mouth where the person comes on and introduces him to you. I mean, I've strongly encouraged it because I was like, maybe this will get him to eat new things. And I kind of blew up in my face because now I'll be like, you should try this. He's like, well, but I'd like to eat it on my podcast. So it's just ruining. I cannot escape this. 00:19:01 Speaker 2: Monster. 00:19:02 Speaker 3: Now do you two cook a lot? 00:19:04 Speaker 2: Yeah? 00:19:04 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, a big big time cooks in the kitchen. 00:19:09 Speaker 3: Do you like to eat out at all? 00:19:11 Speaker 2: I love? I love to eat out. 00:19:13 Speaker 3: And in your area? Is there a good places to be eating? 00:19:16 Speaker 4: Sure? 00:19:17 Speaker 2: Three that I can names. 00:19:25 Speaker 4: We've found our we found our faves, and we returned to it often. There's a beautiful, stunning barbecue place here that I love so much, slow smoked and just delicious, fall off the bone, like Saint Louis style ribs, the dream, the dream, and then they smoke their chicken wings too, and I absolutely love smoked chicken wings. Sometimes my partner gets a little freaked out about how horny I get for me, like because like I do, I love, I love it. And then there's like and amazed. There's actually a very large like Chinese international student population here. So the Chinese food here is amazing. Oh in Champagne, Illinois. 00:20:08 Speaker 3: That's crazy. Who would have guessed? That's great? Yeah, so you've got a barbecue place, a Chinese place. 00:20:14 Speaker 4: And it would be wrong of me not to mention Papadell's, which is the deep dish pizza place here. 00:20:21 Speaker 3: Oh, I love. I think I've been to that place. Really, it's like kind of outside of Chicago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yes, I went there a pre pandemic. It's so maybe twenty nineteen. Oh, it was phenomenal, delicious. 00:20:34 Speaker 2: Are you the cook in your fam? 00:20:36 Speaker 3: No, neither of us cooks. I'm the baker. 00:20:38 Speaker 4: What do you do? 00:20:40 Speaker 3: Waste money? Just eat out constantly? It's embarrassing. 00:20:46 Speaker 2: No, it's not. 00:20:47 Speaker 3: It's fitzy, immoral. No, no, no, I don't. I don't support myself in this. I think I'm constantly mad at myself that I'm not better at cooking. I am, like I think there was, I mean, we were cooking so much to during the pandemic, or at least I was that I got burnt out and then went the other way where I was just eating out basically at least well one to two meals a day. But now I'm like, I mean, you know, it's cold. I'm in the mood to make soup. 00:21:14 Speaker 2: You should do. 00:21:16 Speaker 3: You make many soups. 00:21:17 Speaker 2: I'm a big soup maker. 00:21:20 Speaker 4: I grew up with a lot of soups, so like Vietnamese cuisine is like, oh, of course, yeah, very soup forward. 00:21:26 Speaker 3: One of the most famous soups in the world. 00:21:28 Speaker 2: I think. So, I think the best soup in the world. There I said it. 00:21:31 Speaker 3: I don't care the listener we're talking about fa. 00:21:35 Speaker 4: Yes, we are, we absolutely are. It's my favorite. I still don't know how to make it. 00:21:42 Speaker 3: It seems complicated to me because it's like a very layered broth. 00:21:45 Speaker 2: It's very layered. 00:21:46 Speaker 4: My mom has taught tried to teach me, like multiple times, and I can never quite get it. And I ended up making just like hot beef water, which is. 00:21:58 Speaker 3: It doesn't sound so bad. Yeah, I would be very intimid intimidated trying to make a fusz soup because it's like you take a sip of it and it's like there are ten different flavors I'm tasting right now. 00:22:13 Speaker 2: Yeah, you're tasting a whole nation, you know. 00:22:16 Speaker 4: Yeah, just a beautiful story about a whole group of people, like just just it's stunning, it's lovely, it's lovely, And other soups I've tried to make that are like there are you know, once you get into fud and then you can go into other types of soup. My other favorite is muonbah Way, which is like a pork spicy pork based soup. 00:22:35 Speaker 3: Oh that sounds nice. 00:22:37 Speaker 4: And again I've tried to make it and end up with just like hot pig water. 00:22:43 Speaker 3: So like these, I don't know if you're just bathing farm animals, just using a lost. 00:22:53 Speaker 2: Sweat soup, I don't know. 00:22:55 Speaker 4: And my dear partner really sweetly is just like slipping down. It's like suggest like a ghost of a soup, and like, do. 00:23:06 Speaker 3: You know what soup I want to get going? I think that needs to be trending more. It's a Thai soup called Tomiam. Have you ever had Tomiam? 00:23:12 Speaker 2: I love it. 00:23:13 Speaker 3: It's phenomenal and I don't know why it's not more popular. 00:23:16 Speaker 2: It needs to be. 00:23:17 Speaker 3: It's so comforting and it's sour, it's spicy, it's got a little bit of everything, and I ate a lot of it years and years ago, and now that I'm cold, I'm getting it all the time. We need to get some more soups on the rotation here. I feel like, I don't know, LA is not a soup town. So I think that's part of the problem. I it would be nice to have one store that just has, you know, one restaurant that is just to count on for soup. I shouldn't. I don't want to like scour through menus looking for what soup do they have to after? I want to see nothing. 00:23:50 Speaker 4: But like you, so, you want the equivalent of like a Noodle's and Co. For soup, but for soup. 00:23:56 Speaker 3: Right, I mean New York. I haven't been to this place in a long time. In New York. It's called Halen Hardy. Have you ever been there? No, it's entirely soups. I mean the last time I ate there it was good, but that was twelve years ago. It might be horrible. Now. 00:24:11 Speaker 2: I had soup. 00:24:12 Speaker 4: I had soup for lunch today, well soup. I had a orzo lemon chicken. Oh my god, I know, have. 00:24:19 Speaker 2: You heard those words together before? 00:24:20 Speaker 3: Sounds delicious? 00:24:22 Speaker 2: It was amazing. 00:24:25 Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to stop myself now. I feel like I'm just going to talk about soup for another hour. We've got I have something else I need to talk to you about. Okay, look, you agreed to be on this podcast. I can't even remember at this point a month or so ago, and I was so excited. I thought, ten, it's gonna come on. We'll talk about soup endlessly. The podcast will end, and we'll move on with our lives. The listener will have a pleasant time, I'll have a nice time, and no feelings will be hurt. And so I was a little surprised. You know, the podcast is called I said Gifts. And recently I opened the front door and there was a box address to me, which I kind of actually, uncharacteristically just ripped into. Usually i'm a little bit more careful because you never know what's going to come to your house. But I thought maybe I forgot that I ordered something. I opened it up and stopped in my tracks when inside I saw a little bag, a little what can only be described as a gift bag. It also has a little note attached to it, which I haven't read yet, because you know, I don't want to. You know, I try to live life deliberately and carefully, and so I thought I'll read that when the time comes. And now I'm just going to ask you, is this a gift for me? 00:25:51 Speaker 4: I'm really sorry, but it is. It is, Okay, I said, I know you said not too, but I just. 00:26:00 Speaker 3: Right. So I'm just processing this, trying to just, you know, figure out how this fits into my life at this point. Do you want me to open it here on the podcast. 00:26:14 Speaker 2: That would be a gift to me. 00:26:16 Speaker 3: Okay. Now, I'm not in the business of giving away gifts, but as a special little you know, it is the new Year. I'm trying to be better in all arenas, so maybe i'll I'll open this here, please, I'll read this little note here. First it says, oh, it says, new Year, new you. I know you've been a bit afraid to take the leap, but maybe this will help ease you into the next stage of your life. You're gonna You're gonna look great. X O t M. And then it says again from ten trend. 00:26:57 Speaker 2: I think that was the message, Jing. We don't know how that works. 00:27:01 Speaker 3: But and there's also this envelope. Should I open this as well before opening the gift? 00:27:07 Speaker 2: Not sure what that is. 00:27:11 Speaker 3: It's going to be like compromising photos of me or something. Let's see here, this says, oh it's again the message. 00:27:20 Speaker 4: Okay, good, good, good, and they I meant to do that. I meant to say I meant to gift it twice, the message twice. 00:27:28 Speaker 3: You want this message, just repeat it over and over. Well, in that case, I'm going to read it. Yes, please, new Year, New you. I know you've been a bit afraid to take the leap, but maybe this will help ease you into the next stage of your life. You're gonna look great. X O t N from ten Trent. So, okay, it's time to open the gift. 00:27:49 Speaker 2: Yes, I'm so sorry. 00:27:51 Speaker 4: I'm so sorry, but I really needed to. 00:27:54 Speaker 3: I appreciate the apology, and uh, you know, I feel like we had such a bonding with the soup that I'm to look past it. 00:28:01 Speaker 4: Think of this as like benign benign. I was gonna say narcissism. 00:28:07 Speaker 3: That's my entire podcast, and then I thought you were gonna say benign Marxism, which could be another thing. 00:28:17 Speaker 4: Which is another thing entirely that I wouldn't even be smart enough to talk about. 00:28:21 Speaker 3: Neither of us has the intellect to dissect what that would mean. Okay, let's get into this. This is my little benign masochism moment. This is my hot sauce. This is my stumbling through a haunted maize. 00:28:35 Speaker 4: Okay, great bag is really we don't. 00:28:38 Speaker 3: Get this sound much on this podcast. We usually get like tissue wrapping, but I kind of like this. 00:28:43 Speaker 2: Whatever, what kind of material is that? 00:28:45 Speaker 3: It's impossible to say, this feels like something that could like you could would probably withstand a plate and crash. 00:28:52 Speaker 4: It's okay to tell Okay, on your next trip reaching in. 00:28:57 Speaker 3: Okay, now we've got a tissue. This is this company goes a little far with the wrapping. 00:29:03 Speaker 4: This is the first time I've ever done that, and I've never seen this far. 00:29:07 Speaker 3: Who wrapped this? What horse soul? I know? 00:29:12 Speaker 4: Tissue? 00:29:13 Speaker 3: Okay? Another? 00:29:15 Speaker 4: Oh oh my car, because I know, I know it's I know it's something that you have been playing around with. 00:29:26 Speaker 3: We've had multiple phone calls about this. I'll call you in the middle of the night and I'll say TN, do I need bangs? 00:29:33 Speaker 4: Yes? 00:29:35 Speaker 3: And you've been also, you've been wishy washy. There have been times you've supported so, there have been times you've said it would ruin me, which is not you know, I would have appreciated a little bit more of a direct answer from you. So this feels like the answer. 00:29:51 Speaker 4: Yeah, because I thought maybe, like maybe we just needed to see it, you know, like all our phone combos have been so hypothetical, and I really think that I think you could pull them off or it might ruin you. But now we have an opportunity to try. And it won't be like a permanent right, not not a permanent bang a bang. 00:30:16 Speaker 3: Now, listener, what I've opened here is essentially a clip on bangs. It's a It's like a little piece of hair that could which I will now I've i didn't have self view on Zoom until now. I've now turned it on as a little mirror for myself. I'm going to apply, or at least attempt to apply, these clip on bangs. It's like a nice Uh what would you say? That's like a chestnut? 00:30:43 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd really tried to match. But he feels options like, oh my god, this looks great. It's a total transformation. 00:30:57 Speaker 3: I look like this, it'd almost gives You've made the look of Parker Posey in Best in Show. I'm getting an angry dog owner. 00:31:07 Speaker 2: We just need to give you braces. 00:31:10 Speaker 3: Oh my god, if someone gave me braces. 00:31:12 Speaker 2: Okay, it is such a strong fringe. 00:31:17 Speaker 3: This is incredible. Look at this. Look God, look you. 00:31:23 Speaker 4: I feel like the way you're even trying it feels so natural, like you already know how to play with your own banks, talking it behind your ears, like flipping your fingers through it, just to fringe it up a little bit. 00:31:36 Speaker 3: You're natural just sitting on my head. I'm not even clipped in, and we're just in it. I mean, I look gorgeous. 00:31:45 Speaker 2: You look stunning. 00:31:48 Speaker 3: This is this might be my new look this What if this just is some new transformation for me that people are like, well that was before Bangs Bridger, but this is now post Bangs. This is a full on disguise for me. 00:32:05 Speaker 4: It is it has a There were a lot to choose from. 00:32:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, how did you like? What was the decision making process? 00:32:14 Speaker 4: I was really thinking about your face shape because. 00:32:18 Speaker 2: It's so it's so important to me. 00:32:21 Speaker 4: And I wanted a very strong fringe, not like, not any sort of like wispy art school bullshit, like. I wanted like a severe blunt cut with some fringe on the like some face framing. 00:32:40 Speaker 3: I could use some face framing right. 00:32:42 Speaker 4: Around your cheekbone, your beautiful cheek bones, just to like hit it right there, to really focus and highlight it. But I know it's something that you wanted to try in the new year, and you were nervous, begging. 00:32:54 Speaker 3: You to just give me, you know, give me a sign, give me an answer. Do I do bangs? And now here we are, and I think it's like could not be more clear. One needs to happen. I mean, I can't wait for people to see this. 00:33:08 Speaker 2: You look absolutely stunning. 00:33:11 Speaker 3: This is absolutely my look. This, I guess open behind my ears like that now looks like I've got absolutely I am someone not to not be trusted. 00:33:24 Speaker 4: Yes, I think transformations are supposed to make you look completely different. 00:33:31 Speaker 3: This is almost a Ramones look. 00:33:33 Speaker 2: I love that. 00:33:35 Speaker 3: Just depending on how it's sliding down my face. 00:33:37 Speaker 4: On a certain angle, you are giving a little like Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 00:33:42 Speaker 3: Oh my god, yeah, kind of a page boy. 00:33:44 Speaker 2: Like a page boy. 00:33:46 Speaker 3: Look at that. What if this is how I looked? 00:33:50 Speaker 2: What do you mean? 00:33:50 Speaker 4: What if this is? This is how I I need to start owning it, own it. 00:33:58 Speaker 3: Put a mask on. No one will ever know who I am. They'll just think, who is this scary person walking around the neighbors stunning person? Is this real human hair that I don't know? 00:34:13 Speaker 2: Does it say or did it just come in a plastic bag with no? 00:34:17 Speaker 3: Doesn't? It gives very few details, you know, it gives like product number basically, And I will say, I guess right, chestnut is a chestnut brown. Okay, so I'm getting better at identifying hair tones. 00:34:32 Speaker 2: I'm gonna say it's not real hair. 00:34:34 Speaker 3: Yeah, real hair is very expensive. I mean, but I will say, this is the finest semi wig I've ever owned. I mean, this could go also go on my dog. Oh, my god, of course I'm going to put it on her. 00:34:47 Speaker 2: My goodness. 00:34:48 Speaker 3: We'll take pictures of the dog, me and the thing. I'm gonna have a whole parade of photos of me. 00:34:53 Speaker 2: Oh, I can't wait. 00:34:54 Speaker 3: Wow, this is You don't have bangs. 00:34:57 Speaker 4: I don't, but I had them for they were a very big part of my personality. 00:35:05 Speaker 3: Not just of your appearance, but you're in hair. 00:35:10 Speaker 2: My whole being. Like when was this through childhood? 00:35:14 Speaker 4: Like I had the classic in grade school, I had my mom gave me a haircut and I had the classic like straight across bangs and like bowl longer bowl cut that look. 00:35:26 Speaker 2: I loved it too. 00:35:27 Speaker 4: And then in high school, my best friend taught me about a side part right huge, huge for me, so I had. I had the sweeping bangs like the which was very popular like Sarah Michelle Giller first had it to sweep and the. 00:35:44 Speaker 3: Flip, so I love the flip. 00:35:47 Speaker 2: We loved. I woke up. 00:35:49 Speaker 4: Every morning before middle school and flipped my hair out and. 00:35:53 Speaker 2: Like I tried so hard to be straight, didn't we all? 00:36:01 Speaker 4: I know? And then you know, the most difficult time I had with my banks is when in senior year college, I just went to a super cuts to get a trim on them, which was a supercut is great, but not for bangs at the moment. At the time, the person that I was working with did not understand what I wanted and cut my sweeping banks a little too short. To the point where my sister I have three sisters and two of them are older than me. My older sister and I were fighting so often for some reason, and then years later she was like, you know what, I think we were fighting because with those bangs. Everything you said was annoying. 00:36:49 Speaker 3: Oh my god, she just couldn't look. 00:36:53 Speaker 4: At you, She couldn't look at me, She couldn't look at me. 00:36:55 Speaker 3: How bad could they have possibly been? 00:36:57 Speaker 2: Not bad enough for that? 00:37:00 Speaker 3: And who knows? They were probably affecting every relationship in your life. 00:37:04 Speaker 2: You have, and and no one was brave enough to tell me. 00:37:07 Speaker 3: Well, they probably didn't realize what was going on. They probably just you know, it's a subconscious thing. The bangs were getting to them on a subconscious level, and they were making everyone hate you. 00:37:17 Speaker 2: I mean, that's why I'm friends with no one from nobody likes me. 00:37:19 Speaker 3: From coming just burned to every bridge with those bangs. Now I know how long did like, how long did it take you to get them back to a normal length? 00:37:30 Speaker 4: I mean, for that particular cut, probably probably like a month, like a month or two, So it was like a month or two of I guess sounding stupid because of my hair. 00:37:46 Speaker 2: But now I like grew out. 00:37:47 Speaker 4: I grew out my banks like a couple of years ago, and I feel like a new I really, do. 00:37:53 Speaker 3: You feel free? 00:37:54 Speaker 4: I do feel free because bang maintenance, as you'll learn, eager learn, eager to learn, is you need to take care of them. They're almost like a It's like a pet on your head, you know, like you you have to brush it the right way and blow dry it the right way or else it won't lay right. It can ruin your whole day if it's not done correctly. So you know something to think about. 00:38:22 Speaker 3: Do bangs require more like washing, more shampooing just because they're you know, near the forehead, which is kind of a grease territory. 00:38:31 Speaker 4: You know, looking back, I probably could have benefited from more washing and a little more shampoo use. I was into the like, don't shampoo your hair so much and just condition ends. But I would have to say yes, I think I think just a little bit more care of cleanliness would have helped. So help someone look at me with respect, with my. 00:38:57 Speaker 3: Bags, complete lack of respect. What would you describe your personality like in college? What sort of person were you? Oh? 00:39:07 Speaker 4: I was. I definitely was the I was a good student, I was kind. I'm a nerd. I was a pre med biology kid. 00:39:17 Speaker 3: Oh my god, genius? 00:39:18 Speaker 2: Then no, no, no, no. 00:39:20 Speaker 3: Oh, come on, I mean I'm handing this to you. 00:39:23 Speaker 4: Okay, fine, fine, I'll take it. 00:39:26 Speaker 2: I'm a genius. I'm a science genius, okay, And I was a I was definitely. 00:39:34 Speaker 4: Like the partier, Like I partied pretty hard, like wanted to be a part of a sorority that didn't exist. I went to a school that didn't have sororities, but like, uh, we acted like we did. And I was very very much into like being a part of the sisterhood and going out and getting drunk and like, you know, trying to find love. 00:39:55 Speaker 2: Bridge. 00:39:57 Speaker 3: What school did you go to. 00:39:58 Speaker 2: I went to Boston College. 00:40:00 Speaker 3: Oh, that seems like an easy place to party. 00:40:02 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 00:40:05 Speaker 4: You definitely don't stare into mirrors and have like an existential crisis at parties at all. 00:40:12 Speaker 2: That's never happened to me. 00:40:13 Speaker 4: I've never stared into a mirror and gone, what are you doing? 00:40:18 Speaker 2: How about you? 00:40:20 Speaker 3: My personality in college? Yes, I bet you could survey every single person I went to college with and they would have absolutely no memory of my existence. I get that I commuted, I didn't live on campus or anything. Just went tried to power my way through it. I had absolutely no purpose, no direction, stumbled my way through an English degree, made it out alive, and that's essentially it. I mean yeah, I was. I did not did not have an incredible time. It was perfectly fine. 00:40:58 Speaker 1: You know. 00:40:58 Speaker 3: It was just like, I know, I need to get through this so I have some kind of safety net for when I make the horrifying attempt at entertainment and so you know, when this all falls apart, I guess I can go back to copywriting or something. Not that copywriting's bad, but that's just not what I want to do. 00:41:18 Speaker 2: I was a copywriter before I got into Were you copywriting? Yeaheah. 00:41:23 Speaker 3: I was doing SEO copywriting, which is maybe the most maddening form of copywriting you can possibly do, because it means you have to fill paragraphs with keywords almost so people will search for them on the internet. What sort of copywriting were you doing? 00:41:38 Speaker 2: I was doing life science copywriting. 00:41:41 Speaker 3: Oh so that kind of made use of your degree. 00:41:43 Speaker 4: That it did, because I did that like thing where I'd be like I want to use my degree and be creative at the same time, and I was like. 00:41:51 Speaker 3: This doesn't work. 00:41:53 Speaker 4: It doesn't work. So for like my first six to like seven years in Chicago, I was working at like a at two different life science ad agencies. 00:42:07 Speaker 2: Can you believe there's more than one. 00:42:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, like I'm trying to even conceptualize what you're advertising. 00:42:13 Speaker 4: Yes, so it's business to business, So it was it was only like, you know, writing ads for industry. 00:42:21 Speaker 2: Labs. 00:42:21 Speaker 4: So like if a hot new PCR machine, what's coming? 00:42:26 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and you know that copywriting has happened now. 00:42:31 Speaker 4: Then I would have my boss be like, all right, guys, let's make this sexy. 00:42:36 Speaker 3: And I'm like, okay, not happening. 00:42:39 Speaker 2: Not happening. 00:42:40 Speaker 3: So it's kind of it was kind of like the sort of copywriting would probably be seen at like medical trade shows one doctor's offices. Yes, okay, well that's sort of stuff catches my eye when I'm sitting there waiting to get you know, the dermatologist or whatever. 00:42:56 Speaker 2: You've probably seen my work. 00:42:58 Speaker 3: I'm very familiar. Your fingerprints are all over the copywriting space in life sciences. 00:43:05 Speaker 4: I mean, I don't want to brag, but it definitely is. 00:43:12 Speaker 3: You left your mark. 00:43:15 Speaker 4: So you're telling me that college is not the best four years of your life. 00:43:18 Speaker 3: No, I'm still looking for like these best years of my life? When are they going to happen to me? 00:43:24 Speaker 2: Me too? Like when when? 00:43:29 Speaker 4: When? 00:43:29 Speaker 2: When? I don't trust people who say. 00:43:31 Speaker 4: That college was the best four years in their life. 00:43:33 Speaker 2: I don't try. I don't trust it at all. 00:43:37 Speaker 3: That's just people who I think you just are really get sucked up into nostalgia, just are total nostalgia suckers. Because I mean high school people saying, what are you talking about? Those are the best three years of your life? And then it was downhill, what are we talking about? 00:43:54 Speaker 2: What are we talking about? 00:43:55 Speaker 4: Nostalgia sucks the future. Nostalgia's an absolute it's a trap. No, you can occasionally glance back, but everything's kind of always a low grade well it's not low grade misery, but things are always just kind of fine. I think you're saying memories are terrible, is what you're saying. 00:44:17 Speaker 3: I'm just looking for four golden years that are just objectively perfect. I'm having the time of my life, yep. And maybe they'll come. I'm guessing maybe, Like I'm thinking for me, fifty eight to no, I'm going to say, fifty six to sixty are going to be my four best years of my life. 00:44:36 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:44:38 Speaker 4: I like those numbers a lot, I really do, because it's like, by then, I hope we have figured what we're doing out. Oh my god, I really hope. So just like the steady ship. Yeah, and everyone that I know that is at age, No, tons of people. 00:44:59 Speaker 2: Are really just like that. 00:45:00 Speaker 4: Retire like I want that retire, Like when I retire, I want to retire. So I would say that, I would say, like sixty to sixty four. 00:45:09 Speaker 3: That feels good, and I want to have your help. 00:45:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, And I want a tiny house. 00:45:16 Speaker 3: Just easy maintenance is not a problem. 00:45:19 Speaker 2: Don't want to go upstairs. 00:45:21 Speaker 4: It's not flooding, not flooding, totally dry, a completely dry, mold free home. 00:45:29 Speaker 3: An on sweet bathroom that you can stand to be in for more than two minutes. 00:45:32 Speaker 4: And there's like a soup farm nearby just because by irrigation ditches fall of soup exactly. By then we'll have figured it out. 00:45:44 Speaker 3: I love it. I think that we both that's attainable for both of us. 00:45:47 Speaker 2: I think so too. 00:45:48 Speaker 3: I mean, I think let's just mark the day, will mark our words, will mark everything we need to right now for me, fifty six to sixty Okay, that'll bleed into your sixty to six four. 00:46:00 Speaker 2: We'll just make it overlap. 00:46:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll be a nice over lap of eight years. And I don't know who knows what will happen after that, but at least we'll have those years. Okay, it's time to play a game. I want to play. Let's see, let's play a game, gift Master. I need a number between one and ten from you. 00:46:21 Speaker 4: Nine. 00:46:22 Speaker 3: Okay, I have to do some like calculating. When I return. I'm going to be gone for a minute, so you can promote, you can recommend, you can do whatever you want. You have the mic. 00:46:31 Speaker 2: I'll be right back, I guess at this time. 00:46:35 Speaker 4: Right now, I would love to talk about my favorite show Alone, if anyone has seen it out there, I would love to talk to any Alone heads. It's a survivalist reality TV show where people are dropped in the middle of the woods with ten tools only. I like to watch it because there's a lot of mental breakdowns later on in this later episodes, which makes me feel better about how I'm feeling right now in this time. So if anybody has any thoughts on the most recent season of Alone, please reach out to me. You can find me at hank Tina. I'd love to talk to you about it. I'd love to talk to you about the possibility of survivalist skills. If you could teach me some I'd love to trap. That's something that I'm very interested in. 00:47:35 Speaker 3: Enough about alone, Okay, I actually do want to watch that show if someone recently recommended it to me, and that sounds fascinating. 00:47:42 Speaker 4: That's all I can watch right now. 00:47:44 Speaker 3: It sounds calming and stress inducing. 00:47:48 Speaker 2: Yep, yep, now. 00:47:50 Speaker 3: We found it. We found your benign masochism. Oh yeah, maybe this is what it is for you, just the thought. 00:47:57 Speaker 4: Of someone else being by themselves. 00:48:02 Speaker 3: And also, of course we already mentioned it. But you're gonna be on how I met your father right and find her, you know, on various social media platforms. She's very funny all over the internet. Okay, time to play the game. Okay, this is how the game works. I'm gonna name three gifts, three potential things you can give away, and then i'm gonna name three celebrities, and you're gonna tell me which gift you're gonna give which celebrity and why does that make sense? 00:48:28 Speaker 2: Yes? Yes, all right. 00:48:30 Speaker 3: Today's gifts are Number one, this is less conventional. The gift is the middle name Michelle, so you'll be giving the person the middle name Michelle. Number two is a decent act score so we're not talking thirty or above. We're saying probably twenty five to twenty nine. Okay, and finally the voice of an angel. So that's a nice gift to get, okay, and you're gonna be giving them two? Okay, First up, as Ted Allen. Do you know who that is? He's the host of Chopped. Yes, we all know him, but his name is less known. Number two the teenage witch herself, Melissa Joan Hart. And number three kind of a oh, kind of grizzled actor Vigo Mortensen. 00:49:28 Speaker 2: You're familiar, yes, very familiar, dollgo. 00:49:31 Speaker 3: Also, that's probably his least famous for why am I calling? 00:49:38 Speaker 4: He was. 00:49:40 Speaker 2: Aragon? 00:49:42 Speaker 3: Of course? 00:49:42 Speaker 2: Yes, wow, I pulled that out of my ass. 00:49:46 Speaker 3: Or is Eric Gorn? All of our credibility is just leaking out. The fantasy community is going to shun up. 00:49:55 Speaker 4: They will, and I've seen all of those and I've played the video games. 00:50:00 Speaker 2: Let's say, mister A, okay, mister. 00:50:03 Speaker 3: A, okay, what are you going to be giving it to? Who? 00:50:07 Speaker 2: Right off the bat? 00:50:09 Speaker 4: I would like to give Melissa Joan Hart the middle name Michelle, because. 00:50:18 Speaker 2: I like the idea of her name growing. 00:50:20 Speaker 4: In length, just exponential exponentially as the celebrity, and it would be Melissa Michelle Joan Hart because you have to have the alliteration. 00:50:32 Speaker 2: There's no other way to do it, so she would. 00:50:35 Speaker 4: I just I just hope that from now on she just adds a new kind of whatever name as a middle. 00:50:43 Speaker 3: Name, Melissa Michelle Joan Hart. That becomes Melissa Michelle Joan Jean Heart. 00:50:50 Speaker 4: Yes, Melissa Michelle Joan Jean Heather Heart. 00:50:57 Speaker 3: This could go on for days. I loved it. 00:51:00 Speaker 2: This is the new Picnic game. 00:51:03 Speaker 3: Yeah, you start with that corm Melissa Joan Hart, and then like nine hours later, on a road trip, you've got like a thousand word name starting and ending with Melissa and Hart. 00:51:15 Speaker 2: I think we just came up with something brilliant. 00:51:18 Speaker 3: I think people are going to love that game. That is, that'll probably lead to the end of the world or something by some bizarre circumstance, But I love it. 00:51:29 Speaker 2: I hope. 00:51:30 Speaker 3: So Melissa Michelle Joanhart sounds like a mistake. 00:51:34 Speaker 4: Melissa, Yeah, it sounds like it sounds like the parents in the hospital panicked and we're like and we're like, what's the baby's name? And I don't know how I don't know what happens in the hospital when babies are but I don't know when the name's but like right after when everything's crazy and the mom is just like Melissa Michelle Joan Hart. 00:51:58 Speaker 3: I love it. That's a perfect play of that gift. 00:52:04 Speaker 4: Okay, the act score, the middling act score, A decent. 00:52:12 Speaker 2: A decent. 00:52:15 Speaker 3: I think is probably eighteen to twenty four. 00:52:18 Speaker 2: That's yes, Okay, no offense. 00:52:20 Speaker 3: To anyone who got in eighteen to twenty four. But let's call a spade a space. 00:52:24 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And tests are you. 00:52:26 Speaker 4: Know, testing is uh it hicks about how problematic they are. 00:52:31 Speaker 3: Yes, it's testing is not good. 00:52:33 Speaker 2: No, it's not good. 00:52:35 Speaker 4: I would love to give the the act score to uh Vigo Mortensen, oh, just because he seems to me pretty average. 00:52:49 Speaker 3: And there you go. I hate that you're listening right now this. You should have skipped this episode. 00:52:59 Speaker 4: I'm really sorry I said that about you, but I don't know your work that well, and honestly, I'm not thinking about it often. And I mean Bridgard named Hidalgo as you're like massive. 00:53:13 Speaker 3: That's not don't blame Vigo for my mistake. 00:53:17 Speaker 4: So and I could see Vigo kind of like, you know, not taking all the test prep courses that were needed to get a higher score. You know, I think it was more like I could see him just like rolling up. I know, I know so much about Vigo rolling up, just like from a night of partying, going into the classroom with like a broken number two and just half the answers weren't even valid because he couldn't scratch in the circles well enough. 00:53:49 Speaker 3: So like you'd just come for Vigo Martinston in a huge way. Well, I set him up with the Hidalgo thing and just made him a target for you. 00:54:02 Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but I think gifting him the what is it. 00:54:06 Speaker 4: Twenty twenty six to twenty eight, twenty to twenty eight? 00:54:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to say twenty five to twenty eight that because I feel like twenty nine and above feels like a good act score, right, that's like a remarkable. 00:54:18 Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so. So Yeah he can have that, And then Ted Allan, I would love to give the voice of an angel because I think he needs some more defining characteristics. 00:54:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, he needs something that makes him stand out a little more other than the glasses, which, yeah, probably time for a new frame. 00:54:39 Speaker 2: I think a new look. 00:54:40 Speaker 4: I do enjoy him on Chopped. 00:54:43 Speaker 3: He's very good. 00:54:44 Speaker 4: When you say voice of an angel, I do think singing is that okay? So I would love for him to be on Chopped and to turn it musical. So Chopped the musical starring Ted Allan. 00:55:04 Speaker 3: Kind of like a mid episode break where he just brings you know, just whales. 00:55:11 Speaker 4: Absolutely goes for it. 00:55:14 Speaker 2: It would be amazing. 00:55:16 Speaker 3: I would love that. I would love that too, just singing like a choir boy, I would. I think we would all support him in doing that. Ted, think it over Ted Jobs. You know we all love Chomp, but the formula is getting a little stale. 00:55:30 Speaker 2: It is baskets, weird foods. 00:55:33 Speaker 3: I mean, why not bring in some singing. 00:55:35 Speaker 4: Some singing and make everyone sing their dish? 00:55:42 Speaker 3: I thought, yeah, I mean you played that excellently at Bravo. I really think that the the Michelle to Melissa john Hart was kind of a left turn I didn't expect. 00:55:51 Speaker 2: And it worked perfectly. 00:55:53 Speaker 4: I'm so glad, thank you for those amazing setups. I haven't thought about Vigo Mortenson in such a lot. 00:56:00 Speaker 3: We're bringing them back. I'm using this to bring things into the public consciousness. We've got Tome I'm soup. We've got Vigo Mortensen. What will I popularize next? I'm excited anyone's guests. Okay, it's time for the final segment of the podcast. This is called I Said No Emails. Now people are writing into I Said No Gifts at gmail dot com. They've been doing it for years. I now have seventy pages of emails. To be totally honest, I'm probably gonna have to delete a bunch of these because it's an avalanche and I need to clear it out. People send in some new emails. It's if you didn't get an answer last time, maybe email it again. It's luck of the draw. We you hope me answer a question or two. 00:56:44 Speaker 2: Of course I would love to. 00:56:46 Speaker 3: Okay, number one, let's get up. Let's just get into this. It says, dear Bridger and insightful guest, which is a nice compliment to you. I am writing about a future present concern. Now I'm immediately confused as the we're present here, temporal or gift. I'm assuming gift because of the podcast, but just Annie. Let's see the person's saying Annie in the future, maybe say gift, because when you put present next to future that confuses everyone. 00:57:16 Speaker 2: Yeah, I am. 00:57:17 Speaker 3: Writing about a future present concern my husband's birthday in July, because the anxiety is year round. My husband's love language is presence, and gifts were never a big thing for me growing up. He says. It doesn't need to be anything expensive, just something that shows that you care and have been listening. What does this even mean? We had agreed to go to always go on a trip for our birthdays they are ten days apart, but COVID makes this hard. So now I've got to figure out what the perfect thoughtful gift is. I know that I can never go wrong with Lego sets, but my house has no more room for Lego. Okay, look what you live in a Lego store? None of my business background information. Loves to travel flying, he's a private pilot. Harry Potter nostalgia for the nineties. Oh no, we should Oh no, we are a little clear about nostalgia in this episode and trying new things. Any ideas, thank you, and that of course is from Annie Tin. I'm just going to say this right off the top here. I'm feeling a deep excuse about this traveling thing. Her husband is a private pilot, Yeah, there's no excuse. 00:58:26 Speaker 4: There's no excuse, but you should be flying non stop, NonStop if he's a private. 00:58:32 Speaker 2: Pilot, the ultimate luxury. That seems like a dream. 00:58:37 Speaker 3: So what where is the disconnect happening? It seems like she's looking for an excuse to buy more legos. 00:58:44 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:58:45 Speaker 4: I also do love that his love language is a thoughtful gift that shows you care, and she's asking a complete stranger. 00:58:54 Speaker 2: So that's. 00:58:58 Speaker 3: I think that's huge. I feel like Annie is on her way out. I mean, she's got excuses galore. She's writing into a podcast for a thoughtful gift two people. Yeah, for a thoughtful gift, soliciting advice from two strangers. The birthdays in July and look, look knock on wood COVID it's January. By July. If COVID is still as big of a concern as it is now, I am going to blow up Earth. Yes, so An, we're going to become a pair of super villains and just destroy a clean slate for the planet. So I feel like, Annie, You've got all of these things and you're just you're talking about legos. 00:59:54 Speaker 2: Yeah. Annie, It's it's chaotic. 00:59:56 Speaker 4: So I feel like, you know, maybe maybe do get like, don't get a lego set, but just get a smattering of legos that have no set at all, just various colored, various colored blocks with no planned. 01:00:14 Speaker 3: Final form, I think, and allow him to be a little more creative with it. Yeah, I think that absolutely works. And it kind of speaks to her obsession with legos, her kind of it's all she's ever thinking about. And it could you know, they've been around. They were around in the nineties, so that speaks to the nostalgia aspect. And then the we've solved the flying situation, Tell him to fly you somewhere. He loves to fly. He's a private pilot. You want to go on a trip. He wants to go on a trip. You fly to Los Angeles, California, to go to the Harry Potter Land or whatever the hell it's called done. And then you spring, you know, you open let me just paint this picture. You open the hotel room, you know, guide him in. He's got a blindfold on. You take off the blindfold. The bed is scattered with legos, kind of like rosebuds, you know, rosebuds. 01:01:15 Speaker 2: There we go, there we go. 01:01:17 Speaker 3: I don't see. Hopefully there won't be any complaints from Annie, because I won't be hearing them. We did a perfect job. We're gonna do one more. We have to do one more. I would love to do one more community service. Uh Hello Bridger and guest. This person wasn't as complimentary to you, and I apologize. 01:01:34 Speaker 2: That's fine. 01:01:35 Speaker 3: My wife is amazing. She works very hard for a nonprofit that does actual good in the world, loves hiking and gardening. Our anniversary and her birthday are coming up, and I need help with ideas of what to get her for either. She's hard to shop for because we're both people who just buy what we want or need when we feel like it. Any help, thanks, Nick, Nick, you're come on here to brag about your why doing good in the world. I know, while I'm answering a second email, like I'm not doing any good in the world. It's just hurtful when you send you know, I can't help but feel like I'm being compared to your wife right now. 01:02:15 Speaker 2: Nick, Yeah, it's like a there's no hierarchy of good. Nick. 01:02:20 Speaker 3: Thank you. 01:02:22 Speaker 4: We're doing just as good, if not better than your wife. 01:02:28 Speaker 3: Your wife's, for all I know, a criminal behind the scenes. I mean, she might be working for one of these phony charities. 01:02:36 Speaker 4: Yeah, no, nonprofit, it doesn't even mean anymore these days. 01:02:40 Speaker 3: It's a catch all. She's probably taking in a seven figure salary. And I hate to hear any of this, but we're going to try to give you some advice. 01:02:51 Speaker 2: Yep, we know she loves. 01:02:52 Speaker 3: Hiking on gardening. That's and she buys everything that she needs and wants with her you. 01:02:57 Speaker 4: Know, million nonprofit, millionaire money. 01:03:02 Speaker 3: She's not paying taxes. She's running an absolute scam. I can feel it. 01:03:09 Speaker 4: An anniversary and oh I know, and that creates another issue. No, people stop marrying near other events. Okay, just like you know when your birthday is just like spread stuff out for at least four months. Yes, either spread stuff out or do it close enough so that they can be one gift. The straddling middling side of things, where you like can try to get two gifts close to each other is rude. 01:03:36 Speaker 3: It sucks, it makes sense, creates your loved one, It creates the situation for your loved ones where they end up compromising on both gifts. 01:03:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a gift vacuum. 01:03:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, especially when you're already buying up everything you already need. It's you're creating just this game that old Nick has to play. We don't even know what job he does. Obviously not a very he's not doing any good for the world, so he's just living in shame and guilt all the time. Hiking, hiking, anniversary birthday. Okay, okay, zeroing in, I'm thinking maybe you buy some sort of tree, take her on a hike. 01:04:15 Speaker 2: Love that. 01:04:17 Speaker 3: Look, this is going to be strenuous. You are going to be dragging a tree up into the wilderness with shovels and burying it as your special anniversary tree. 01:04:28 Speaker 2: I love that. 01:04:29 Speaker 4: And make sure it's an invasive species so that that. 01:04:34 Speaker 3: Can it can absolutely disrupt the ecosystem. I think that's a beautiful idea. Maybe plant some mint and just watch as it destroys your local forest. 01:04:49 Speaker 4: Why not just like and say something like this, our love is growing. 01:04:56 Speaker 2: All over the world. 01:05:00 Speaker 3: Think that's a perfect idea. Do you have any other thoughts? 01:05:02 Speaker 2: I mean I love that. 01:05:04 Speaker 3: It's a I mean it's an excellent, perfect idea from a genius. 01:05:08 Speaker 4: I think from a Okay, I sorry, I said invasive species. 01:05:12 Speaker 2: I'm a scientist, and. 01:05:17 Speaker 3: You know I could you know I look great and bangs. So I've got a decent hang on things at this point. Yeah, Nick, I think you have your answer. I mean, I think maybe just ignore her on her birthday. That'll I'm sure she'll be happy for that to happen. 01:05:33 Speaker 2: I actually I love that. 01:05:35 Speaker 4: Make the anniversary gift, the hiking, planting, invasive species, mint, ecosystem destruction, and then yeah, ignore, I love ignoring the birthday full and then be like if she's like, oh my god. 01:05:50 Speaker 2: Why aren't you talking to me? Why are you ignoring me? 01:05:52 Speaker 4: And then you can be like you will you always get what you want, so. 01:06:00 Speaker 3: And you can be like, don't you remember what I did on our anniversary? It's like you don't care about what I do for this marriage? 01:06:05 Speaker 2: Yes, there, and then suddenly. 01:06:07 Speaker 3: You know she's always got this upper hand with the nonprofit. Suddenly the scales have shifted a little bit in Nick's favor, and I think that brings a nice balance to the marriage. 01:06:17 Speaker 2: I think so too, which. 01:06:18 Speaker 3: Is not happen is no longer happening in their local ecosystem. Perfect. We answered two questions, and I'm so proud of us. I think we did an excellent job. 01:06:28 Speaker 2: I think we did a great job. 01:06:30 Speaker 3: Dan, You've given me a whole new look. This is a I mean, this is a I think a first for this podcast where I'm going to undergo a transformation, physical transformation. 01:06:41 Speaker 2: It's twenty twenty. 01:06:43 Speaker 4: Two and Bridges and Banks, Bridges and Banks, Bridges and Banks sounds like a beautiful, like period piece Netflix show. 01:06:58 Speaker 3: I'll begin developing tomorrow. Okay, good, Thank you so much. I've had such a wonderful time with you. 01:07:04 Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. 01:07:06 Speaker 3: I'm oh, my god. 01:07:07 Speaker 4: I mean, I'm a fan of the podcast and have listened to friends who have been on it, and I have always wanted to, so I'm truly honored to I have. 01:07:15 Speaker 3: Had the time of my life and I come away with a beautiful gift. 01:07:20 Speaker 2: You look stunning. 01:07:21 Speaker 3: Thank you listener. This is now the end of the podcast, and I can't remember what we talked about at the beginning. I'm not going to try to, you know, I'm not relitigating the intro of the podcast. We're not getting back into that probably some painful memories for you, So I want you to now move forward. We've talked about nostalgia. We're not looking back, We're looking forward the future. Is in front of you. Take that first step by turning off the podcast and doing, you know, maybe some nonprofit work. I love you, goodbye, I said, No Gifts is an exactly right production. It's produced and engineered by our dear friend Annalise Nelson, and the theme song is by miracle worker Amy Mann. You must follow the show on Instagram at I said No Gifts, that's where you're going to see pictures of all these wonderful gifts I'm getting. You have to see the gifts. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you found me. And why not leave a review while you're there. It's really the least you could do, considering everything I do for you. And if you're interested in advertising on the show, go to midrol dot com slash ads. 01:08:46 Speaker 1: I invit, did you hear? Funa man myself perfectly clear. When you're a guest to Merha, you gotta come to be empty, And I said, no, guests, your own presence is presence enough. I already had too much stuff, So how do you dare to obey me