00:00:08 Speaker 1: Well, I invited you here. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. When you're a guest to my home, you gotta come to me empty. 00:00:23 Speaker 2: And I said, no, guests. 00:00:27 Speaker 1: Your presences presents enough. I already had too much stuff, So how do you dare to surbey me? 00:00:47 Speaker 2: Welcome to? I said, no gifts. I'm richer Wine girl. It's uh, you know, it's a wonderful day. It's you, it's me, it's maybe it's your phone, it's whoever listening to us. And I hope that we're going to have a good time here because we also have another person with us, another fantastic, extremely funny person that I'm so thrilled to talk to, Aparna Nancherla. Hello, Parna, Welcome to. I said, no gifts. 00:01:19 Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. How are you okay? I don't know how to answer that question anymore. 00:01:28 Speaker 2: I think you have to. I think the way to answer it is literally, how are you feeling in this literal second? Because outside of that, everything's spinning out of control. 00:01:36 Speaker 3: That's true, that's true. Then I would say I am maintaining a semblance of normalcy. 00:01:44 Speaker 2: Oh that's great. I mean, that's all anyone can ask for at this point. 00:01:47 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so, and. 00:01:50 Speaker 2: I think I'm the same. You know, it's it's been a perfect year and my mental health is an A plus, and you know, everything is just smooth. So I'm perfect. No, I really think that I all things considered, IM fine. 00:02:12 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:02:12 Speaker 2: Things could be much worse. Yes, I mean personally planet wise, things may not chance. I couldn't be. 00:02:26 Speaker 3: Pretty strong argument for things being rough. 00:02:31 Speaker 2: At the very least rough, but they are. You know, I feel like we've got a little light ahead of us. We've got you know, sort of vaccine, this kind of thing. Yes, Yes, if we could just hang in a little bit longer, maybe we'll it'll be fineish. 00:02:47 Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like a part in the movie where there is a glimmer of Yeah. 00:02:54 Speaker 2: I think we're like maybe seventy minutes into well, actually that would be like a ninety minute movie. And this has not been a ninety minute movie. This is like a three hour, fifteen minute movie. 00:03:05 Speaker 3: So we're going at this is an Avatar, yes, Titanic type scenario. 00:03:11 Speaker 2: This is a James Cameron directed picture, and we're like two forty five. I would say, yes, yes, So everyone needs to go to the bathroom. At this point, everyone's feeling a little hungry for dinner, but we know it's almost over. 00:03:25 Speaker 3: Yes, Now, I meet a realization recently about myself about horror movies or movies where, you know, thrillers, where everything falls apart around the main character and then at the end they're sort of left heroically looking around at the shards of civilization or their life. And I realized that I feel sorry for them, and I think, I think maybe we're supposed to be happy they survived. And I realized that I always think that they actually got the worst lot of everyone. 00:04:01 Speaker 2: That's very true, because they've lost everything. 00:04:04 Speaker 3: They've lost everything through all that, Right, Yeah, like, what is what's the best case scenario moving forward for that person? 00:04:19 Speaker 2: Right? Like the first person in the movie to die is kind of the person that we all want to be. You don't want to live through all that nonsense, Michael Myers killing everyone in the neighborhood and suddenly you're Jamie Lee Curtis and you're hiding in the closet. 00:04:32 Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. 00:04:33 Speaker 2: It's a lot to deal with, and then you're like the beginning of a movie franchise. You don't want to be at the beginning of a movie franchise, You've got all these challenges ahead of you. 00:04:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, and then by a movie three, who knows what state you'll be. 00:04:46 Speaker 2: In, right, I mean you've lost that at that point, multiple sets of friends and family, you know, it's too much. It's absolutely different. 00:04:56 Speaker 3: I made the mistake of watching the most recent How We Reboot because it was directed by I'm not like a huge horror movie aficionado, but occasionally I'll give myself once to watch as sort of a personal challenge. And I don't know why I decided I would watch Halloween, but I think because the director was the guy did Eastbound and Down, so for some reason, I thought it would be funny and it wasn't. 00:05:26 Speaker 2: Is there any comedy in it? 00:05:29 Speaker 3: There's I think one little kid who is a little bit of comic relief, but other than that, pretty much grim, grim slaughter. 00:05:38 Speaker 2: Is it scary? 00:05:40 Speaker 3: It's so scary. I made a darrible mistake. 00:05:44 Speaker 2: I've only ever seen the first Halloween, which I really love. It's scary, it's fun, it's like a movie you eat pizza with. And then I think I saw the third movie, where it's like about a haunted mask factory, oh, where like and puts on a mask and it brainwashes you and whoa. Jamie Lee Curtis is not involved with that one. Yeah, Oh that. 00:06:07 Speaker 3: One was like her sabbatical. 00:06:10 Speaker 2: Yes, she said, I'm going to take a step back. You guys do this one without me, and I'll come back in twenty years. 00:06:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, because this one. I only mentioned this one because it really is like, you know, twenty years later or whatever, and we're stepping back into James Leake Curtis's life and it's it's a horror show the way she has still lived. 00:06:30 Speaker 2: After What is she dealing with in this movie? Is it like about her Michael Meyers trauma. 00:06:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like about her trauma. And there's like a new younger character or like her daughter, I think. But then of course her daughter was raised with this like emotionally accent mother because everyone she knows died and you don't really blame her. And there's just a lot of lots in the house if I recall. 00:06:57 Speaker 2: Oh boy, and I feel like they made an another one that was supposed to come out recently. 00:07:02 Speaker 3: But oh, I don't even know that. 00:07:04 Speaker 2: I think because of the pandemic, maybe it got delayed. This also may just be something I've imagined somehow or some sort of glitch in my brain, but that feels right. I Mean, they're going to keep making those movies regardless. So sure, so you're occasionally watching a horror movie. I feel like most people are either they will watch horror movies or they won't. And you have these little challenges you're giving yourself. 00:07:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I really want to be someone who who is into horror movies. And then it's like I have this short term amnesia where every term I'm actually watching one, I'm like, I don't like this. Why did I do this again? 00:07:39 Speaker 2: What's your like your physical reaction to a horror movie. Are you like screaming or you're just nervous. 00:07:46 Speaker 3: I'm nervous, and then I cannot watch the anything too gory, Like I have to shut my eyes during that part. So if it's a very bloody movie, I'm I'm checked out for a lot of it. 00:08:01 Speaker 2: Right. I feel like I can deal with like suspense and being chased around Halloway is this kind of thing, but yeah, like a brain or you know, guts, it's a little difficult for me. 00:08:13 Speaker 3: Yeah, I love psychological or so I think I'm always in the mood like I think I'm in the right territory if I picked something that's more psychological. But then I don't know. If you watch any of Ari Astor's. 00:08:27 Speaker 2: Movies, Oh, like Midsummer. 00:08:31 Speaker 3: Midsummer and Hereditary, they kind of do both, which I didn't know. 00:08:38 Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, let's talk about Hereditary for a moment. Head out the car window is just one of the most jarring things I've ever heard. 00:08:50 Speaker 3: Miss. I'm so embarrassed to say I watched it on a plane. Not a plane movie. 00:09:00 Speaker 2: Those movies make you feel so uncomfortable and to be trapped on a plane with them. Good grief. He has something with bashing people's heads in Actually, now I'm thinking about Midsummar. You've got a lot of it, doesn't. Somebody have like a giant mallet and crush a head and then. 00:09:18 Speaker 3: He has a thing of like crushing the head and then flashing back to the head several times throughout the movie like you've forgot about it. 00:09:28 Speaker 2: It's and in case you missed it sort of thing exactly. Oh jeez, Well, I appreciate that you are at least willing to watch horror movies because I know some people just put the they have a hard fast rule, I won't even try it well. 00:09:42 Speaker 3: That The interesting thing I find is I'm a pretty anxious person, and I find that many anxious people can't watch them because they are just too far in the direction of things they don't want to think about. But then a lot of anxious people do watch them because I think it gives you a weird sense of control all over all of your worst spears of just watching it play out. I don't know, I don't even know. 00:10:04 Speaker 2: It feels kind of like a release to me in some ways. Yeah, It's like, yeah, it's like the things I'm constantly imagining are now in front of me, and I get to watch this poor person deal with it, yes, rather than me for an hour and a half. This is an interesting December conversation. 00:10:21 Speaker 3: Sure, sure days are short and thinking about it. 00:10:29 Speaker 2: Are you much of a holiday season person at all? 00:10:32 Speaker 3: I do like the holiday season, I think, I despite myself. I just like all of the sort of fanfare and verbal tea around it, like that everyone sort of just embraces it wholeheartedly. But I have found recently, over the past few years, I have noticed like the sort of seasonal depression, part of myself coming out more, and then it sort of has to negotiate, like how is this part of me going to feel about Mariah Carey's catalog holiday music. 00:11:08 Speaker 2: There is like a weird clash of emotions this time of year where you're supposed to feel cheery and happy and everything visually and audio wise we're hearing happiness. But then there's like reflecting on the year, reflecting on your life, that kind of the coldness, the darkness, it's a it's a real car crash. 00:11:27 Speaker 3: For Yeah, even that, what is the Scrooge tail Christmas Carol? That's like a yeah, that's like a big this is your life screwge? Like, how do you feel about as present and future? If any of us did that, none of us would come out looking too hot. 00:11:51 Speaker 2: No, I don't need to see any of that. I mean, you go anything beyond me being a baby. Sure, go back to that that past, that's fine, But everything else, the mistakes I've made. I want to look at these things. That story, I mean, it's essentially just a Halloween's story. It is. 00:12:11 Speaker 3: It's like a scary it's really just like a Dickensian kale of cancel culture. 00:12:24 Speaker 2: Did you see Have you ever seen the Muppet version? 00:12:27 Speaker 3: No, I don't think I have. 00:12:29 Speaker 2: Oh, you have to see the Muppets. 00:12:30 Speaker 3: I know, I do. I love the Muppet, so I don't know why I haven't seen it. 00:12:34 Speaker 2: If you love the Muppets, if you love ghosts, if you love Michael Caine, it's got it all. It's got it all, and it's extremely scary. 00:12:43 Speaker 3: It is scary even now. 00:12:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really a scary I mean the the Ghost of Christmas, which one's the scariest. I think future future. Yeah, that one's a real demon that he deals with. So I don't know. I think there was like an FX series last year where they tried to turn it into like a like a premium cable thing. 00:13:03 Speaker 3: I'm trying to make my boyfriend watch it because I was like, it's gonna be great, and we couldn't even make it through one episode. 00:13:11 Speaker 2: It was rough, it was so goth, and it was not for me. 00:13:19 Speaker 3: Some executives kid. 00:13:24 Speaker 2: Absolutely. I was looking at your tweets earlier and you revealed something kind of personal about yourself which I want to talk about, which is that you wear night socks and I actually really appreciate that, because really, I think night socks are deeply underappreciated. I mean, I will say, so you're sleeping in socks. 00:13:51 Speaker 3: I'm sleeping in socks. Yeah. 00:13:53 Speaker 2: And is that year round or just winter? 00:13:55 Speaker 3: It's just winter, but it is. I mean, pull this culdure. I'm on these antidepressants that make my toes really cold, so already like year round, but then it gets the worst in the winter, so I just have to bundle it up. 00:14:14 Speaker 2: I like a night sock, but I feel like it's the one piece of night clothing that's the biggest gamble because I never know what temperature I'm going to be in the middle of the night. Oh yeah, so you know, fifty to fifty I'm taking them off in my sleep. I'm waking up with socks on sweating. 00:14:29 Speaker 3: Oh yeah that. I mean, let me be fully clear. That happens over frequently time. 00:14:36 Speaker 2: Okay, well, then that makes me feel a little bit better about this, I think, yeah, go ahead, go No. 00:14:41 Speaker 3: I just think I don't know. I think I'm past thirty five, and I think it's like your body's just in free fall. I know that's probably so insulting to anyone over thirty five to be like this is the beginning of the end, babe, but it really does feel like my body kind And it was like, I don't, I don't. I'm not going by the old ways anymore, do whatever. 00:15:07 Speaker 2: Well, I think that night socks are nice. I mean the fact that I think they are a gamble because you know, you are waking up sweating a lot of the time. But when they work out, it's a nice insurance. It will keep you asleep, maybe even longer than you need to, and it's beautiful to just wake up fully comfortable. Are you somebody who likes to have the heat on at night? 00:15:25 Speaker 3: I think we do have We have in our apartment. We have heat that cycles on and off. We have that whenever that nest thing is that it's like reach is a temperature. Then it sort of turns off until you need it again. So I don't we leave it on. But yeah, it's not like crank in all the time. 00:15:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, this has been a debate in my house recently. My boyfriend wants to have the heat on on some level at night, and I do not. I want it to be freezing cold really, so yeah, I would rather just have a lot of blankets and be warm and rather than wake up with the sweat, it's too much for me, and I start to have like nightmares. And the heat does all kinds of things to you and yours. 00:16:09 Speaker 3: Nothing worse than waking up wet on your back. 00:16:13 Speaker 2: It's really the worst. And it's inescapable. You wake up hot. Good luck getting away from that feeling for the rest of the night. Your pillow is hot. Yeah, it's like you can't move. It's too much. It's absolutely too much. But you're in New York, I mean New York, yess, so I guess you have to take these things a little more seriously. 00:16:33 Speaker 3: It has been cold, though, yeah. Climate change. Climate change has helped us. 00:16:39 Speaker 2: In when I was living in New York, when I was interning there, like eleven years ago or something, I was living in this apartment where we had no control over the temperature, and so you know, they would just literally turn off the heat and you know, in the middle of winter, I would be wearing a beanie, I would be wearing my winter out, you know, two pairs of pants to bed, and then they would turn on the heat in the middle of the night in some of these eighty six degrees and I'm ready to go sledding. 00:17:09 Speaker 3: That's something with New York apartments, especially where you have like a radiator or something like, it really toasts up when they when they. 00:17:17 Speaker 2: Get they go that radiator is it's wild. It's like summer heat. 00:17:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's yeah. Now you sort of understand the noises that radiators make because there's some sort of demon in there that is cranked heat. 00:17:36 Speaker 2: It's just dragging that heat from the center of the earth. Yes, way too much, partner. I don't want to get away from talking about radiators and hops temperatures. I mean we could do this for. 00:17:47 Speaker 3: Hours, hours, hours, but I do. 00:17:50 Speaker 2: Want to I do have something I want to discuss with you, and I don't know how to even approach this. It is the holiday season. It's a tricky time of year to be receiving and giving and this kind of thing. Yet recently you agreed to be on my podcast. I said, no gifts. We live a continent apart West coast, East coast. There's a way diffulties. 00:18:16 Speaker 3: From you to me. Is the old spice road. 00:18:21 Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I mean, let's just be honest. Those spice roads have been used recently because I opened my door last night and there was a little package sitting there. Oh, kind of a mysterious package from an online retailer who will go unnamed. And you know, I'm occasionally ordering things for myself online and so I was a little confused because I don't I didn't remember ordering myself something. Okay, the last thing I ordered was one hundred and twenty Christmas ornaments for seventeen dollars. What a deal. 00:18:56 Speaker 3: A deal? 00:18:57 Speaker 2: I mean, probably a hundred of them are the si is of like for a mouse, so they're unusable. But the twenty that I did get are now on my Christmas tree. So I was thinking, what is this package? I didn't know what so, but I knew you were coming on today, so I just thought, why not confront Aparna and see if maybe this came from her? 00:19:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, well, Brett, you know that I when I agreed to do this podcast, I said that. Well, I expressed my reservations. I said, you know, we've known each other from things and from the internet, and we've made plans to hang out, but we've never hung yet out. And then now he wants me to talk with him for an hour straight, if not more and more, And how am I supposed to broach the divide. We don't have the rapport yet. 00:19:48 Speaker 2: So I was like, we got no raport. 00:19:51 Speaker 3: So I confronted my book of etiquette as I do, and I have a query, and it said send a little something. 00:19:58 Speaker 2: Does does your little book have nothing about you know, when the host has a hard fast rule, do you obey the rule or do you just ignore? 00:20:08 Speaker 3: Well? I come from South Asian culture, and the thing is there is a culture of refusal that is baked in, but it doesn't mean that you listen to it. When you're a guest. You have to be you know, liked. 00:20:32 Speaker 2: Okay, well, I mean, so I assume this gift is for me extreme. I mean, it's now sort of in this bag. It's just congratulations. 00:20:41 Speaker 3: Well, I didn't know what the occasion was. 00:20:46 Speaker 2: So this could be a congratulations for anything. 00:20:49 Speaker 3: I would say, it's a congratulations we are moving to the next level of knowing each other. 00:20:55 Speaker 2: Well, that's a good congratulations. Congratulations on another perfect year for old Bridger. Yeah, congratulations on yeah December. 00:21:05 Speaker 3: So yeah, sort of a year and just pat on the back. 00:21:09 Speaker 2: Okay, well, I'm willing to accept that. Should I open it here on the podcast? 00:21:15 Speaker 3: I think you should just to warn you it is fairly impersonal. 00:21:19 Speaker 2: Oh god, well, I mean this could be. This could really just set me on fire. I might be furious. 00:21:28 Speaker 3: You might as well been picked out by an assistant on a spreadsheet. 00:21:34 Speaker 2: Then I'm going to dive right in. Let's open this up. 00:21:38 Speaker 1: Let's see here. 00:21:42 Speaker 3: Okay, oh, yes, that is exactly what I kicked out. 00:21:49 Speaker 2: This is a light up a light up electronic word class. 00:21:54 Speaker 3: It's a word clock. It's a clock for when you're sick of looking at those numbers. It's all words. 00:22:01 Speaker 2: Wait. Oh, so it's a clock, but it's in word form. 00:22:06 Speaker 3: It's in word form. 00:22:07 Speaker 2: Okay. My initial thought that this one was going to be I thought it was like, is it like a word a day calendar? 00:22:13 Speaker 3: So there's no homework. I mean, there's reading, but that's it. 00:22:17 Speaker 2: This is this is really nice. 00:22:19 Speaker 3: I don't know. I felt like I didn't want to overstep us knowing each other by trying to pick something like, oh, I know exactly what Bridger would want. So I tried to pick something a little bit vague, and I was like, who doesn't need a clock? But you know, at the same time, we've all had clocks, and I wanted to pick a clock with something a little different about it. 00:22:44 Speaker 2: This is a really stylish clock. 00:22:47 Speaker 3: It is pretty chic. I mean it does look like, I don't know, it looks like it's from a James Bond movie or something. 00:22:53 Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like it belongs to a cool person. 00:22:55 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:22:56 Speaker 2: So I mean I'm going to run into some difficulties there. 00:22:59 Speaker 3: Well, I didn't want to presume you didn't think you were cool. 00:23:03 Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I mean, we'll get back into this, but I would like I want you to try to guess what's a personal thing you would try to get me. I'd like, I'd like to know what that would be. 00:23:13 Speaker 3: Well, see, I would only base it off of your work that I have taken it. 00:23:17 Speaker 2: Well, look, that's the information that you've got to work with. So I want to hear. 00:23:21 Speaker 3: Well, your choice was going to be a volleyball medal. 00:23:28 Speaker 2: That's not a bad idea. You had two winning options, then you couldn't lose. That's very impressive. Are you somebody who like are you a time conscious person? Are you someone who shows up on time as well scheduled? Or are you a mess? 00:23:44 Speaker 3: I am a mess. I'm a mess. Yeah, I'm a big mess. And I don't. I really don't think I'm going to improve my relationship with time in this lifetime. 00:23:55 Speaker 2: Look, you're over thirty five, Ye're in your ways. I feel like we're both stuck in our ways on this. 00:24:00 Speaker 3: I'm set. 00:24:01 Speaker 2: So what does that mean? 00:24:02 Speaker 1: Then? 00:24:03 Speaker 2: Are you showing up to things late? Are you not putting things in your calendar very late? 00:24:09 Speaker 3: I tend to be good at least about not completely faking out on things. But I also have this relationship to time where it's like, I the amount of time I think I will need to do something is probably like ninety percent off how long it will actually take me to do it. 00:24:29 Speaker 2: Do you have any recent examples of that? 00:24:33 Speaker 3: Even just work Like if I am like, okay, I have to uh, let's see what. Like I had to write an op ed recently and I was like, okay, I was to carve out two hours, and you know it was closer to like eight. 00:24:49 Speaker 2: Writing an op ed in two hours maybe for the New York Post two hours. That feels that is a that is a horrible perspective on time. 00:25:02 Speaker 3: I also don't don't factor in how much time that I used to just sort of hem and haw and get out sit down. 00:25:11 Speaker 2: That's two hours alone, just cling around the computer screen, just dilly dalling and so but wait, so when you wrote this op ed piece, did you sit down and just write for eight hours? 00:25:23 Speaker 3: No? It was very it was like what we're saying, where I thought about it, and then I opened a document. Then I answered some emails that I went to bed. Yeah, it's never it's never clean. 00:25:43 Speaker 2: Uh has the op ed been published yet? 00:25:46 Speaker 3: No, that's the thing. It's not even a guarantee. The editor I wrote it for was like, unfortunately, we can't guarantee we will publish it until we read the draft. 00:25:58 Speaker 2: I hope this is where you reveal it was just a let to the editor. You spent eight hours writing a letter to the editor, just full of misspellings. 00:26:08 Speaker 3: And then it was about that I that I don't like their process of submission. 00:26:15 Speaker 2: Wow, so this, Uh, who knows? What? Can you even talk about the op ed or is that against the rules here? 00:26:22 Speaker 3: I don't know, I because I assume by the time this comes out, it will either have made the cut or or not. On the floor. 00:26:34 Speaker 2: You occasionally will write an op ed for various things. 00:26:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't know if I'm allowed to say what it's for, But it's for like, you know, one of these digital uh opinion factories? 00:26:47 Speaker 2: You wrote a BuzzFeed or list. Yeah, it's a quiz list. 00:26:54 Speaker 3: And there were It's like, which, uh, which Harry Potter House are you most likely to quarantine? 00:27:03 Speaker 2: If that isn't fun already, I don't know what's happened to the internet. That's a beautiful list. Oh wow, so you're bad at judging time. I feel like I actually have an excellent internal clock. 00:27:18 Speaker 3: Really. 00:27:18 Speaker 2: Oh I don't know where it came from. I don't know how much longer it's gonna last, but I really think your set. 00:27:25 Speaker 3: If you have it, you have it. It's not going away. 00:27:29 Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. As I slowly lose my mind and just fall apart physically, I feel like it's got It'll be one of the things that goes away. But for now I really cherish it. 00:27:38 Speaker 3: So how do you feel like it kind of kicks in and keeps you on track? 00:27:44 Speaker 2: It actually has very few personal benefits, let's be honest. I mean outside of someone occasionally asking me do you know what time it is? And I can just guess and tell them, which doesn't Why not? Why don't. I just look at my watch or my phone or But it is little boost of self confidence when I'm able to say, you know, it's twelve twenty five, and then I look at my watch, Oh it's twelve thirty. But so I'm five minutes off right now here here, I am trying to show boat and I'm five minutes off. 00:28:14 Speaker 3: It's a hard though. 00:28:17 Speaker 2: It is. Absolutely people gather around scream. Bridger tell us the time. That's why. The only reason I could invite it to anything anymore. 00:28:27 Speaker 3: Well, I can't imagine how much of a hit that is. 00:28:30 Speaker 2: A New Year's Eve, everyone turns off Ryan Seacrest and they turned to me, and I camped down, starting at about ten thirty, I count for an hour and a half and then the party's over and I've lost all of my friends. 00:28:47 Speaker 3: But no, you're just Jamie Lee Curtis some time. 00:28:54 Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I am very punctual, and I'm proud of that. 00:28:59 Speaker 3: Proud I am. I'm ashamed to not be a punctual person. 00:29:04 Speaker 2: But here's the thing. Your benefit is that you never expect to be on time to anything. So when you're not on time to something, it's not a big deal. 00:29:13 Speaker 3: For you. 00:29:14 Speaker 2: When I'm not on time to something, I'm having a meltdown. Okay, I'm you know, I'm I feel ashamed. I feel like the one thing that I'm good at has fallen by the wayside. I've failed everyone and it's devastating. So you but when you're on time to something, I bet you're on top of the world. 00:29:32 Speaker 3: See here's the here's a fun bad new about me. I am also having a meltdown when I'm not on time. So I'm just constantly having meltdowns because I'm never on time. 00:29:47 Speaker 2: You're just a slow moving lava flow at all times. 00:29:50 Speaker 3: Because I think, yeah, yeah, because I think I'm I'm like, you know what, I'm going to become this on time person. Tomorrow is going to be a new day. And then I'm not again, and it's like little horror repeats. It's a groundhout day situation. 00:30:05 Speaker 2: What's getting in the way. Is it like, oh, I need to find something to wear, I forgot to eat breakfast, I've got to do these things or is it just like you're forgetting It really. 00:30:14 Speaker 3: Is like every time I agree to do something, I suddenly maybe a half an hour before I have to do it, or even get ready to go leave for it. I get this huge wall of resistance of like, why did I ever agree to do anything in my life? 00:30:33 Speaker 2: I mean, you and I have scheduled multiple times to hang out. I don't remember the last time I saw you in person. No, actually I do remember the last time I saw you in person, but it was because I ran into you outside of a restaurant in Los Angeles. Yes, this is yesterday. We were both headed in maskless. We were no, and again I have to be very clear, that's not a real thing. We're careful people. 00:31:00 Speaker 3: Maybe over a year ago. 00:31:02 Speaker 2: This was certainly over. I mean at this point you can definitely say it was over a year ago, because it's almost been a year since anyone was doing anything. 00:31:09 Speaker 3: That's true. 00:31:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was over a year ago. I think you were with Joe Firestone. I think I was with Matt Incabrets and nobody gives a shit, but yeah, that was the last time I. 00:31:21 Speaker 3: Saw These are a few easter eggs for the hardcore band. 00:31:26 Speaker 2: You've got to look up these names. You've got to put the pieces together, create a little collage on your computer to look at and imagine this situation. Yeah, this is all wild because you were on Corporate and I wrote on Corporate, but I still didn't even see you on that. 00:31:39 Speaker 3: I know. I think we saw each other at maybe like a party related to Corporate. 00:31:44 Speaker 2: Maybe, Oh, I mean, who knows when that would have even been. But the other strange aspect of this is me writing on Corporate, Like every day I'm going into work and thinking about Aparna, oh yeah, and thinking about what can Aparna do on this television? 00:32:00 Speaker 3: And then when I'm shooting Corporate, you know, I put up a wall of writers and I like a true crime detective, I try to solve who wrote what joke? 00:32:11 Speaker 2: Well, and then you have that lockett with my picture in it. Yes, so it's that you refuse to take off even while shooting. So yes, became a costume problem, but we just kind of wrote it into the show and that really made the series. But what was my point here even oh? 00:32:29 Speaker 3: Just that, yeah, that we've made many plans to almost that have never come to a fruition. But I'm honestly a surprise that I ever followed through on anything, based on just the waves of emotion that go through me through from when I first commit to it to when it actually happens. It's just a real roller coaster. 00:32:50 Speaker 2: I'm happy to commit to something, I'm happy to live the life of thinking it's going to happen, and then, like fifteen minutes before, if it's a social thing, I'm just like, why did I plan? I would much rather just continue to do the thing I do every single night, which is watched television. 00:33:06 Speaker 3: But then here's the thing, how do you feel after you do the social thing. 00:33:11 Speaker 2: I'm on top of the word. 00:33:12 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:33:13 Speaker 2: I mean unless it's somebody that I remember, Oh there's a reason I don't. I only see this person once a year, but that's I've pretty much gotten rid of most of those people at this point. A social thing, I'm having a fantastic time I get, you know, I mean, especially now, we took these things for granted. No sitting across a table at a restaurant with a friend and talking about all the people we don't enjoy. Oh, golden moments are. 00:33:35 Speaker 3: Most are the times, right, but we need back in our lives. 00:33:41 Speaker 2: Going to a movie with a friend that one I actually there's maybe one or two friends that I love doing that with. Otherwise I'm like, why didn't I just do this? Alone. 00:33:49 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I am also a fan of watching movies by myself. But sometimes it's wonderful. Yeah, but sometimes people seem to think it's odd or I don't know. 00:33:58 Speaker 2: I think I may have even spoken about this on this podcast before, But I love you get to go to the movie at the exact time you want to go. Yes, after the movie, you don't have to tell anyone your opinion about the movie. There's no what was your favorite part, It's just you get to think about the movie. 00:34:14 Speaker 3: Yeah, and you don't have to agree or disagree with someone else's opinion. Really, some of the most stressed out I've been in movie theaters is when the movie's about to start. I'm jostling around in my seat trying to see where Susie, you know, Salmon is coming. 00:34:31 Speaker 2: In your dear friend. 00:34:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, she's saved up, and I'm trying to save seats with the coat. It's not even winter. 00:34:43 Speaker 2: Oh and you're in New York, which is still shockingly a lot of the seats are not reserved. 00:34:48 Speaker 3: Reserve Oh yeah, assigned. 00:34:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, get with the program. New York City, how are you? I mean, one of the biggest cities on the planet and still people or fighting over movies. 00:35:02 Speaker 3: Movie seats. 00:35:03 Speaker 2: What's happening there? 00:35:05 Speaker 3: We know we have a few infrastructure problems. 00:35:10 Speaker 2: Now this is shocking to me. You painting yourself as the first person to be at the movie. I know. 00:35:15 Speaker 3: Why did I do that? Oh? I know because all of my I run late, my friends run late, so sometimes I'm still less late than the other person. 00:35:25 Speaker 2: I'm just going to make a public record right now, I will never see a movie with you because that I want to be at the movie before the trailers begin. I need to see every single trailer. I need to be there probably a good half hour before it. Are you wanting to be relaxed? 00:35:44 Speaker 3: Bo? Are you worried about? What are you going to do for that half hour? 00:35:48 Speaker 2: I'm going to look at my phone like I do in every other venue. Who cares? 00:35:54 Speaker 3: Then you have to do all those movie quizzes. 00:35:56 Speaker 2: Oh, I love the movie quizzes, the coke movie quizzes that are just the most obvious answers in the world. They make me feel a little bit like I know something. I go into the movie with full confidence, feeling like an intelligent person despite being like who is the star of Ghostbusters? Or whatever? 00:36:15 Speaker 3: You're a movie pre movie question. Have you ever been at a movie trailers come up? One of the trailers catches your eye, then you spend the whole movie wishing you were watching that other movie you saw. 00:36:28 Speaker 2: Oh that's a good question. I don't think I can say that I have because I feel like most trailers the movies are yet to be released, but I will think I will think about, oh, I can't wait to see that movie, right? Have you? Do you have a particular one you can remember? 00:36:47 Speaker 3: You know I said this hypothetical and you would think I had one ready to go, but I truly did. 00:36:55 Speaker 2: I love imagining you sitting through every movie just wishing you were out seeing Uh, okay, well do you have an example? 00:37:02 Speaker 3: Actually, because a lot of times they'll they'll preview a holiday movie, like you know, earlier, either in the summer or in the fall, and then I'll be, you know, sitting down to watch whatever Steve's zoo, and then I'll see this preview the holiday movie and then I'll be like, I wish it was the holidays. I can't wait for the holidays. And then I'm totally not in this zoo mindset. 00:37:30 Speaker 2: Suddenly you're thinking about Christmas either bells, jingling or whatever. Do you know what what will distract me while watching a movie is if I see a food that looks enjoyable. Suddenly I'm just thinking about that food and why I haven't had that food recently, And then I'm starving and You've got to keep the movie. Keep the good looking food for the end of the movie. Yes, otherwise I'm not going to be thinking about this story you've written. 00:37:58 Speaker 3: So yeah, I feel like when ever there's food on screen, you're really you're really playing a gamble. Even if you got a list actors, you know, it's not our for a good piece of cake to just steal. Focused. 00:38:14 Speaker 2: Absolutely, are you doing anything for the holidays? 00:38:20 Speaker 3: I mean, I guess in the way that any of us are doing anything right now. I'm not going anywhere right but we might buy a tree. That's a huge development around here. 00:38:34 Speaker 2: A tree is a huge, huge development in any home, and it's every year I'm I need to just write down how much I spent on the tree this year, because every time I go back to the tree farm or wherever, what is it a tree lot, I guess that's what you would call it, And I'm floored every time by how much you have to pay for a Christmas tree? How much is a plan that will die? 00:38:55 Speaker 3: I've never had a real one. 00:38:57 Speaker 2: They're like, I think this year we paid a ninety five dollars, which was very low compared to what we had seen. We went to one lot and it was like, this tree is one hundred and eighty dollars, which just to me seems absurd for a thing that's just going, which is essentially like a fire hazard and help. You're paying nearly two hundred dollars to maybe start your house on fire. So I feel like they float around one hundred dollars, which I don't know. Is that a lot of money or not? I don't am. I also a lot of my psychosis centers around money and saving money yea, and so I don't know that. Maybe people are like, who cares, it's one hundred dollars, but for me, that seems shocking. 00:39:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, that seems like a that seems like that's double digits. What do you call one hundred dollars triple? 00:39:45 Speaker 2: That's a triple digit I'm making a triple digit salary. Yeah, it's one hundred dollars. Seems like a lot to me. I feel like a Christmas tree should be sixty five dollars. That feels like a Christmas a good. 00:39:57 Speaker 3: Price because it's not insignificant, but it's not gonna break break your bank? Is that the. 00:40:07 Speaker 2: I broke the bank with a Christmas tree? 00:40:10 Speaker 3: But you're right, especially something that you know you're gonna throw. 00:40:13 Speaker 2: Out, right, that's the thing to me, Like, I have a hard time spending money on things that I know are going to last me ten years. No, So I don't know, do you have a Christmas tree place in mind? Or are you just gonna go blindly into the city and buy the first tree you see? 00:40:30 Speaker 3: I don't know. We didn't even talk through where we're going to get this tree from, so I don't even know if we're talking real orficial. 00:40:37 Speaker 2: Okay, I think artificial go artificial. 00:40:40 Speaker 3: Well, then we can just reuse it every year, right. 00:40:42 Speaker 2: Do you have a place to store it? No, Well, then you'll just leave it up here round. 00:40:49 Speaker 3: I don't know. Does anyone in New York have a place to store anything. 00:40:53 Speaker 2: Right in New York? I just don't know that. I mean, maybe they're the artificial tree technology has advanced to a place so that they're very storable. 00:41:01 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true, Like it compacts down right. 00:41:05 Speaker 2: I think a Christmas tree should come out like an umbrella. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pop it open. 00:41:10 Speaker 3: Yep, and then you can take it like a yeah, like an umbrella, and umbrella feels like the right. 00:41:16 Speaker 2: Comparison, right, And you should be able to hang it in your closet like an umbrella. You should be able to leave it in the back of a cab like an umbrella. 00:41:25 Speaker 3: Whatever, tree all over the city. 00:41:32 Speaker 2: I forgot my tree at the bar? Are you two getting each other presence? Is that something you do? 00:41:40 Speaker 3: We do? But we also, I don't know, we got we adopted kittens, like a few months ago. 00:41:46 Speaker 2: This is a huge revelation of the podcasts about it. 00:41:51 Speaker 3: Sooner, I guess I was like, I don't want to turn into one of those people just can't stop talking about theirs are children. 00:42:00 Speaker 2: Well now you've done it, Well. 00:42:01 Speaker 3: Now I've done it. But I think we were like, that's sort of our big financial investment this year. So right, maybe we don't need to get each other full amounts of presents, but I think we'll still get each other thing little thing. 00:42:15 Speaker 2: Okay, sure, do you have anything in mind for him? Or is it or is this hush. 00:42:19 Speaker 3: Hush, I already bought some stuff. 00:42:22 Speaker 2: Oh, you're kidding me. You're a you are a very good partner. I haven't bought my boyfriend anything yet. 00:42:29 Speaker 3: Well here's here's the true, sad truth, is that I have an online shopping problem and I'm always findings all the time, no matter the occasion or season, including word clocks. 00:42:47 Speaker 2: Okay, well do you can? You will it spoil it for him if you say something you've bought. 00:42:51 Speaker 3: Or well, one thing I bought is just like a sweater. 00:42:55 Speaker 2: Oh that's a great, nice sweater. Where did you get it? I could buy my boyfriend. I'm gonna call. I'm gonna write down what you're getting your partner, and I will write down I bought. 00:43:05 Speaker 3: It this UK company called lazy Oath. 00:43:10 Speaker 2: You lazy Oath. That sounds like a nice sweater. Actually, that sounds like it's probably a very comfortable sweater. He doesn't want to be a lazy oaf in a sweater. 00:43:19 Speaker 3: I'm not clear what age group they are actually marketing towards, but I am I am a customer. 00:43:29 Speaker 2: How did you find them? 00:43:31 Speaker 3: This is such a weird uh answer, But I guess on Great British bakeoff the Noel Fielding sometimes wears sweaters. 00:43:41 Speaker 2: Oh, he has good sweaters. Yeah, he has a really fun collection of clothing altogether. 00:43:46 Speaker 3: So they're are very like quirky companies. But I'm clear if they're marketing towards teams or adults. 00:43:54 Speaker 2: Well, Noel Fielding is probably in his Yeah. 00:43:58 Speaker 3: He's probably an adult, but he dresses young. 00:44:01 Speaker 2: He has a childlike sense of wonder that he shares with us, and so I think you're probably in a good position. Does your did the sweater you buy have any sort of particular design on it or what's the deal? 00:44:13 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like an Argyle cardigan sort of. 00:44:16 Speaker 2: Oh I love this. Yeah, Okay, I'm going to look up this company and probably not buy something for my boyfriend, end up buying something for myself and continue to be a bad partner. 00:44:26 Speaker 3: What are you? What are What is your gift buying process? If I can inquire, it's it's largely joyless. 00:44:34 Speaker 2: It's essentially trying to locate things they need, trying to improve their life, which can be difficult because most adults buy the things they need exactly. 00:44:47 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:44:48 Speaker 2: So, but I want to a gift to improve someone's life in some way, but I need to let go of that a little bit. And like, I'm trying to think of my sister's birthdays this month. I need to get her a Christmas present. I need to think of something that she'll just enjoy, something a little more frivolous. You know, I want her life to be largely improved. But I've just got to I've got to take a breath and just buy something fun. 00:45:12 Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I also think you're trying to improve someone's life. It's like the expectations are way. 00:45:17 Speaker 2: Too high, way too high, and then if it doesn't improve their life, you just feel like a loser. I know, it's like, just buy him some nice clothes. Then I don't know. 00:45:28 Speaker 3: And some people seem easier to shop for than others because I don't know, because there they collect spoons or something quirky where we're like, oh, I'll just get them another spoon, right, But then other people, Oh, they're just blank slates. You don't know what they want, and they don't seem like they want anything. 00:45:47 Speaker 2: Yes, this actually reminds me. I looked at my watch to see what day it was, because friend's birthday is coming up and he does have a specific interest, which I latched onto about two months to go and thought, oh, I know what to get him. It was so easy. I'll buy him a couple of these things he's interested in and then maybe a book, and suddenly it feels like a personal gift, but it's really I'm just exploiting the one interest that he tells people about. 00:46:14 Speaker 3: Yeah. The only danger I feel like if you were going to have an interest like that is like what if you just stand up with a house full of spoon Because the same gift. 00:46:24 Speaker 2: That feels like a is that like a monkey paw wish or something. It's like it just ends up being a curse. But look, there are worse things to have than countless spoons. 00:46:36 Speaker 3: That's true. The spoons are actually a useful thing to collect. 00:46:40 Speaker 2: Right. Do you have specific interests that people can exploit for gift giving? 00:46:44 Speaker 3: I love books, so I feel like that's a real safe one because everyone can buy you a book. 00:46:50 Speaker 2: But here's the thing with books. Do you have like a particular type of book you like? 00:46:58 Speaker 3: Like, well, I love fiction and so you know anything like the new hot uh, Donna Tart or whatever? 00:47:06 Speaker 2: Right? Right, but what was the last Donna Tarte book? 00:47:10 Speaker 3: I think it was the Goldfinch that. 00:47:12 Speaker 2: Was Yeah, that's about nine years ago. 00:47:15 Speaker 3: That's her thing, though. She's a recluse and she she she only right releases it when it's ready. 00:47:22 Speaker 2: She comes out swinging. 00:47:23 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:47:24 Speaker 2: Yeah, books are a good one. Although, and this is something that I probably have said a million times on this podcast. If it's not a good book, it's just a painful piece of homework. 00:47:33 Speaker 3: It's true, are you a completest? Like if you're reading something you don't like it, if you stop or can you. 00:47:41 Speaker 2: I'm slowly slowly learning that if I'm halfway through the book and I have not enjoyed myself for a second, I can probably stop reading it. But this is a very recent development in my life. I'm I'm finishing every book I'm opening, and often to my own detriment, where it's just like hurting my life. I'm not learning anything, it's not bringing me any joy. It's just like why am I doing this? 00:48:04 Speaker 3: That's me too, I don't know why. I think I get too involved in the author's feelings, and I'm like, well, they put all this time into this, the least I can do is finish it. 00:48:16 Speaker 2: They spend at least two hours writing this, and no. I with finishing a book, I think there's always maybe there's just a dumb hope in my brain. Yes, finishing it will be like, oh, this all came together and now I'm happy I did it. Yet that never, almost never happens. There's no key that unlocks my joy at the end of the book. It's just, Oh, I just wasted a week reading yep, I don't know. What. Is there anything you've read recently that you enjoyed? 00:48:45 Speaker 3: Yes? What was it? I just read this book. I've been reading so much lately that all the books kind of blend together, which I don't think is what authors want to hear. But but what did I read? Oh? I read this book of essays by Zady Smith that she wrote during Quarantine. So it's a little bit of a kick in the pants, but it's also very good. 00:49:11 Speaker 2: Okay, I'll have to look that up. I think i'm a little I'm not quite ready for Quarantine material yet. That's maybe in a few years I can take a dive back into this slog of a year and relive it. But right now I just I need some level of escape. 00:49:30 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I've been also reading this children's book series that I really like that. What is it called the Mysterious Benedict Society. 00:49:39 Speaker 2: I've heard of this, Oh, I've heard people really enjoy this. 00:49:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's fun. It's just it's the same genre as Harry Potter of like kids who are a little some of them are orphans, but they're kind of misfits, and they go on adventures and they all have talents. 00:49:55 Speaker 2: This sounds lovely. Yeah, this hit I think that sort of thing hits the spot for just about any Yeah, and it's we all want to be children that don't want to be discover something magic exactly Mysterious Benedict Society. Okay, well a part of Yes, enough about books, enough about time. I want to play a game with you. 00:50:15 Speaker 3: Okay, do you. 00:50:16 Speaker 2: Want to play a game called Gift or a Curse? Or do you want to play a game called Gift Master. 00:50:22 Speaker 3: I'll say Gift or a Curse? 00:50:25 Speaker 2: Okay, I need a number between one and ten from you. 00:50:28 Speaker 3: Should I say it out loud? 00:50:30 Speaker 2: Yes? 00:50:31 Speaker 3: Okay, four? 00:50:34 Speaker 2: Okay. I need to do some calculating for the next minute or so. You have the microphone. You can recommend something, promote something, do whatever you want, share a recipe. I don't care. I'll be right back all right. 00:50:46 Speaker 3: I'm going to share a recipe that I made recently. And I'm not a very proficient cook. So when I say that anyone can make this, I really mean anyone. And that sounds like I'm selling a credit, but I really mean that I trust you can make this. It is a recipe called Callflower, Cashew and pee Curry from the New York Times website. I'm happy to include the link in the show notes if Bridger will let me do that, but I don't know if that's something within my purview. But I guarantee you this recipe. As long as you have most of the ingredients, you don't even need all of them. That's a secret that you should know about most recipes. You don't need all of the ingredients. There's a couple of days just throw in there to show off, and it's up to you to figure out which they are. So that's my big plug, Callflower Curry. I clearly can't remember a single book I've read, so I can't recommend any more of those. But yeah, a. 00:51:55 Speaker 2: Part an excellent use of the time. I may have given you too much time. I get lost in these lists and I'm sorry, no, I hate to leave somebody just floating, but well, you do what you can do. 00:52:08 Speaker 3: I really just wanted to not, you know, lead your listeners astray. 00:52:14 Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I really appreciate that. Okay, let me tell you about the game Gift or a Curse. I'm going to tell you three things. You're going to tell me if there are a gift or a curse and why? Okay, there are. I have to be very clear, there are correct answers. So you can fail this game and it will be shameful, So just be careful. 00:52:35 Speaker 3: Okay, all right. That sounds like life number one. 00:52:43 Speaker 2: And now this is the other part of the game that becomes difficult for me personally because I lose all of the information. Oh, gift or a curse. This is from a listener named Casey. Casey has suggested gift or a curse wooden biodegradable utensils. 00:52:57 Speaker 3: Would in biodegradable utensils, I'm going to say that's a gift because you can reuse them. But then when you're tired of reusing them, you can just bury them and move on with your life because they will biodegrade and you don't have to feel the guilt of, you know, poisons being leached into the worms. 00:53:24 Speaker 2: A part of you got it right? 00:53:27 Speaker 3: Oh? 00:53:28 Speaker 2: I think that I love a wooden biodegrade A. I love they remind me of those little wooden spoons that come with that crappy ice cream. 00:53:38 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, just the little paddle. 00:53:41 Speaker 2: It's barely it is kind of like a hamster's paddle, like kayak paddle or something. I love that feeling on my teeth. I see nothing wrong with these, No, I mean, what's the downside? Maybe a splinter? 00:53:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, that was the one thing I was like, is there ever a possibility of splintering if you bite too hard? But it's I've never seen it happen. 00:54:03 Speaker 2: So right, And I think you'd have to be really going to town on your food in order for that to break in your mouth and then stick into your teak gums or something. 00:54:12 Speaker 3: Yeah. That sounds like you just need a remedial course in how to use utensils, biting box respoons in general. 00:54:23 Speaker 2: Okay, excellent work there. Let's move on to the second one. Let's see here, and again I'm struggling. It's this podcast is largely just about hearing me struggle through the things that other people have an easy time doing. Relatable gift or a curse. I'm just going to say gift or a curse over and over until I find it. Okay, Oh, gift or a curse of This is an interesting one. People telling you their dreams. 00:54:52 Speaker 3: Oh, people telling you their dreams. This one feels tricky because there's you know, it's such a common assumption that there's nothing worse than people telling you their dreams. And I'm assuming these are your night dreams, not yours. 00:55:08 Speaker 2: Yes, tell I suppose telling you about. 00:55:10 Speaker 3: The dreams they've had, the dreams they've had. 00:55:12 Speaker 2: So although telling you their dreams for life is all, I should add that to the list as well. 00:55:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a separate I feel like a lot of lift drivers in l A doing this. Yeah. So, I feel like the common assumption would be that it's a curse. But I'm trying to see if there's any silver linings I can think of for people telling you their dreams. I mean, there is the occasional perk up when it's like you were in my dream last night, which kind of helps give you an idea of how this person maybe contextualizes you in their brain. But I'm still going to say it's a curse because I think the person is asking you for back on something that feels very internal, and it feels like a real subconscious you had to be there. 00:56:14 Speaker 2: A part of I appreciate the reasoning you've put behind this. Unfortunately I knew it you you should have gone with your initial I think I've really come around on this, to be honest, I used to be so unbelievably bored when people would start telling me their dreams. Right, I really appreciate it. I know, I think you know it can't I mean, you do need to edit. People need to like, let's get the dream into a few sentences. We don't need a half hour description of what the dream was. But it's a fun little imagine everything. You get to see what's happening happening in their brain. I don't see I think we need to as a society, except that it's kind of fun to hear people strength. 00:57:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm I'm going to fully drop what I was pushing before and say I agree with you, And I also just think, why did they ever? Why did it ever become a thing that we thought was unpleasant? 00:57:17 Speaker 2: Right? I feel like there was like this wave where we all felt that where it was like, don't keep that information to yourself. Yeah, you're boring me. Maybe if it's the only thing you talk about, maybe that's a terrible thing to do. Right, But occasionally, if somebody tells me something they dreamed about, it's going to last two minutes. I get to hear some sort of wild story and maybe it'll give me a new perspective on this person's thinking. 00:57:43 Speaker 3: Yeah, and if anything, you don't have to you know, even if something horrible happened in the dream, you don't have to have, you know, have an actual series of correct reactions, because none of it actually happened. 00:57:56 Speaker 2: Right. I will say this, if the person starts taking personally, that's when we get in some weird territory. You've just given me a bunch of absolutely fully removed from logic, and I should be able to, like you said, I should be able to comment. However, I wish you mean like. 00:58:11 Speaker 3: The thing of like someone's mad at you because of something you did in your dream. 00:58:16 Speaker 2: Well, if somebody tells me I had a dream that I don't know, I fell in a river and what have you? And I say, well, it sounds like you deserved falling in a river, and then they're mad at me. Well, who cares. You've just told me a fictional tale that your brain did in a fever. Right, So just remove the personal Your brain wrote a little story that you told me, and I'll tell you whatever I want to tell you about it. 00:58:40 Speaker 3: Yeah, it really it really breaks open the possibilities of conversation. 00:58:46 Speaker 2: Right right. Okay, Well, I mean you did you did fail that one, but I do appreciate you at least admitting and coming back to your true self. Yeah. 00:58:55 Speaker 3: I think it just goes back to something I should remember, which is that you got to listen to your gut. Thing is my thing is second guessing my gut and it's not serving me right. 00:59:07 Speaker 2: But now you've learned publicly, and you'll never do it again. Okay. Final one, This is another listener suggestion. Someone named Sonia has written in and suggested gift or a curse? Restaurant leftovers wrapped in aluminum foil to look like a swan? Is that a gift or a curse? 00:59:28 Speaker 3: Okay? Point of order, I have only ever seen this in movies and never have experienced this. The swan that is supposedly making the rounds and the restaurants circuit. I've never seen one of these swans. I get it in that little plastic bag with the smiley face that says thank you. Sometimes, if they're really springing for trumpets, they'll have the paper bag with the restaurant logo on it. But where's this swan. I've never seen this swan in my life. 01:00:03 Speaker 2: Well, then I need you. I don't care if you've seen it one way or the other. I need you to tell me if it's a gift or a curse. 01:00:10 Speaker 3: I mean, I think just because it is essentially at this point, my white whale of dining, I'm going to say it would be a gift because I've never achieved it and it's all I want. 01:00:23 Speaker 2: Now. You'll feel like you've really made it if you get some a little bit of steak. 01:00:29 Speaker 3: I think Charlie's Golden ticket. 01:00:35 Speaker 2: A part of the swan made from aluminum foil that's wrapped around some lukewarm mashed potatoes is a curse. You have failed. It's a curse for a lot of these same reasons. I don't know that I've ever seen it, but I'm haunted by the impossibility. 01:00:55 Speaker 3: Okay, because my next question was going to be is their food in the swan's neck? 01:01:00 Speaker 2: Oh, that's interesting. That feels disgusting to me for some reason. It's fine when it's in the the the belly of the swan, but when we get up into the neck and mouth area there's food in there, it somedly feels like it's actually part of a swan. Well, that's why. 01:01:18 Speaker 3: I needed to get one, so I could do some quick surgery and just get to the bottom of it. 01:01:24 Speaker 2: I don't even know. I couldn't even guess at a restaurant that might be doing this. I imagine like a fancy steakhouse or something. 01:01:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, it must be one of these Ruth I was going to say, Ruth bader Ginsburg. 01:01:36 Speaker 2: That's not Ruth bader Ginsburg, Chris Steakhouse. The swan is kind of adjacent to the balloon animal, yes, which also kind of an unnecessary part of life. But I have had a balloon animal. I don't know. I think it's a curse, and I think that you've unfortunately, you've bombed the day. I just want out of three. 01:02:06 Speaker 3: Come on, really, I really got to step back and reevaluate objects. 01:02:13 Speaker 2: I think absolutely. Look, this is a little unconventional. Usually would go right to another part of the podcast, but I do want to I wanted to ask you about your cats. I want to know their names, I want to know what they look like, tell me anything you want. Just we could talk about this briefly, but I do love that you have cats. 01:02:30 Speaker 3: Yees. So I well you should know I've never owned cats before, didn't grow up with cats, So this is first time cat owner. My boyfriend has had cats. So they were coming into a home with one person fully not knowing anything about cats. The other person and their two sister kittens. They were bonded and they came together. And one is named Zazie and she's a calico and then Nanny is a tortoise. 01:03:01 Speaker 2: Show Oh this that's a great combination. 01:03:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, they're very cute. One of many. Her big thing is she doesn't have any bones. She's just like a long She's essentially just like a balloon animal. 01:03:14 Speaker 2: It's just a pile of fur on the floor. 01:03:17 Speaker 3: Yeah. Like she really the way she moves her body and like sleeps like it doesn't seem like she has bones. 01:03:23 Speaker 2: Wow. Initially I thought that was a real cat medical condition. God, bless bones in this boneless cat no bones. 01:03:34 Speaker 3: And then Zazi's thing is she's obsessed with food in a way, in an unhealthy way. 01:03:42 Speaker 2: Are you so as a as someone who didn't previously own cats? Are you enjoying your time with them? 01:03:48 Speaker 3: Yeah? I just learned the other day that curiosity killed the cat. I didn't even understand that that is a cat specific expression. I just thought it was like alliteration. 01:04:01 Speaker 2: Have there been any challenges, Well, like right when. 01:04:05 Speaker 3: We got them, probably within a week or two, Nanny turned on the stove in like two. 01:04:10 Speaker 2: A, Oh my god, that's curiosity killed the kettle. 01:04:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, so we had to get child safety knobs. 01:04:20 Speaker 2: How did you find out that the stove was on? 01:04:22 Speaker 3: My boyfriend has like a lot of insomnia, so luckily he was up and he heard like the clicking noise of like when it's trying to light. 01:04:32 Speaker 2: I love the cat just being like I'm out of here, I'm burning this place down. 01:04:37 Speaker 3: The good son mcaulay culkin. 01:04:39 Speaker 2: It totally is Elijah Wood is just watching McCaulay turn on the gas. 01:04:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, because she's also like the more innocent while like she's like gentler and the icy naughty one. But then this one's turning on the stove in the middle of the night. 01:04:55 Speaker 2: That's wild. Oh well, I'm excited for you. I'm very happy that you've brought these little cats into your life. Yes, I'm so excited that I'm willing to just derail the podcasts and talk about it. I don't care. I mean, it is my show. 01:05:08 Speaker 1: I'll do it. 01:05:09 Speaker 3: I want show. 01:05:10 Speaker 2: Okay, this is the next segment of the show. We have to answer some questions from listeners. This is called I said no questions people right into I said no gifts at gmail dot com. They're desperate. That's all you need to know. Okay, let me read this first one. It says deer Bridger and Wise guests. So this person has assumed you're whise. I feel like you've got a quiet wisdom. 01:05:30 Speaker 3: But they weren't around for that last game. 01:05:33 Speaker 2: That's true. Well, let's just just play the part. My sister is getting married this year in Arizona. I'm the maid of honor, but I'm unable to attend because I live in Canada. Another obvious reason for not attending is this pandemic. But she doesn't think doesn't seem to think these are valid reasons. Anyway, what do you recommend as a gift that shows love and support to an important event you are unable to attend. That's from Liz. Wow, sounds like she's her sister is a little out of control. The sister is not only hosting a wedding in the middle of a pandemic, she's making kind of a fuss about people showing up. 01:06:16 Speaker 3: Right, that's hard. I mean it's already hard if you have like a destination wedding or something to expect time. 01:06:24 Speaker 2: Yeah, do you like a destination wedding? 01:06:27 Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever gone. No, wait, I have gone to one. I went to one that was at a cabin in Vermont. 01:06:34 Speaker 2: Okay, it's a little I I'm sorry, but if I'm going to go on a vacation, I want it to be my vacation, not your special day. Don't do that. 01:06:44 Speaker 3: It's forcing someone to go on a vacation that you've customized to be your vacation that works for you, assuming that they would love the exact same thing. 01:06:57 Speaker 2: Yes, it's emotional terrorism, and it feels like they're just putting you in a spot where there's nothing you can do, and they're putting the relationship on the line, and suddenly you're spending thousands of dollars to go be at a mediocre party. 01:07:12 Speaker 3: I will say, this is the wedding I went to in Vermont. I had to come from a comedy gig, so I had to come late. And Okay, basically it involved me, some poor teenager in a golf cart having to show for me straight to the wedding ceremony. 01:07:31 Speaker 2: We cannot start until a parta is here. I hope you were officiating. 01:07:36 Speaker 3: I wasn't. I was just standing in the bag. 01:07:42 Speaker 2: Well, okay, so the sister, she's flying around Arizona, she's doing whatever she wants. She's demanding her sisters show up. Yes, but Liz is going to stick in Canada. She has to get her a gift and it needs to show her some level of support. 01:07:58 Speaker 3: This is but you get people for a wedding gift that they're not telling you to get them because I always thought there's a registry. 01:08:06 Speaker 2: Right, But I guess as a sister, like as a family member, there's like some expectation that you will know even more, right. But I'm sorry, I don't like that. I'm not a big fan of the sister. So I'm having a hard time giving her. 01:08:23 Speaker 3: Anything and getting her something supportive, no. 01:08:26 Speaker 2: Less, right, I mean, maybe send a box of masks for everyone who's there. I feel like any anything I would suggest would just damage the relationship, right. 01:08:37 Speaker 3: I was thinking, also, because she's in Canada and the sisters in Arizona, which are two completely different climates, get her something Canada specific, since you probably can't get that where she is. But I don't know if that's what you want for your wedding. 01:08:53 Speaker 2: Send her a goose down jacket and phoenix. 01:08:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, a maple leaf jersey. 01:09:01 Speaker 2: I mean, actually, in this situation, the mean sister, let's call her the mean sister, is kind of making a demand. So if I were the good sister our friend Liz, I would start making demands of my own. I'd say, for your wedding, I want to be a remote DJ. I want to be on a screen, and I want to play all of the music. Suddenly you're in control of the wedding. 01:09:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe that could be her gift. 01:09:27 Speaker 2: Right, that's the gift, and the sister cannot complain, and you're kind of present, and it's just kind of a tit for tat No one ends up that happy. 01:09:38 Speaker 3: I think that's a great solution, and she could, you know, put in that aura of support by saying, I will let you pick up to five songs. 01:09:53 Speaker 2: In the four hours. I will give you fifteen minutes of your favorite songs. The rest of it will just be noise, sheer, ambient noise. I feel like that these are all excellent options. 01:10:07 Speaker 3: Giving yourself a way to participate in the wedding too, so that really checks off all. 01:10:12 Speaker 2: The boxes, or just give her the card hold card hold am I saying that hard, cold, hard, cold is what I'm trying to say. Card ordered, cold hard advice to wait for the pandemic to end, Yeah, and then have the wedding. I'll show up. I'll get you a wonderful gift, whatever you want. 01:10:36 Speaker 3: A lot of people really trying to just get to that next lifestep during the. 01:10:45 Speaker 2: You've got a beautiful excuse here, just use it. Yeah, I mean, if you're not going to use this as an excuse, then nothing is ever going to stop you from doing anything. And there's something you need to set up some boundaries for yourself personally, because it's too much, too much. Okay, let's answer one more this Well, you're getting some good adjectives hybridger and esteemed guests. So there we go, wise and esteemed. That's a parna. That's the Aparna promise, this person says. And this is probably gonna get to this guy too late. My group of friends and I have decided to take part in a Secret Santa gift exchange. This year. Many of us have had to move out of New York, so this gift exchange is happening through the mail I drew my friend Jared. Hello to Jared. Jared is an engineer of some sort. None of us actually know, but I think he works on lasers for medical equipment. Okay, he loves comedy, he does acro yoga, and he's the only one of our friends with a car in the city. He is the nicest guy, but I'm stumped on what to get him. What should I get him? That's from Chandler, I guess in New York or maybe not in New York. Hard to tell at this point for the secret Secret Santa, which we've kind of given away because hopefully Jared is also a listener, but let's be honest, he's not. What is he getting Jared? This person likes comedy and works on lasers or something. And what's acro yoga. 01:12:09 Speaker 3: That's what immediately popped for me. 01:12:12 Speaker 2: Acro yoga is that like you're an acrobat, but you're stretching. 01:12:17 Speaker 3: I think so. I assumed it's like aerial yoga, like yoga, but you're suspended. 01:12:22 Speaker 2: Right things right. That makes sense to me, and that, to me is the gift area that I think we should focus on. 01:12:29 Speaker 3: That's what I was going to say, because that's its to the circus. 01:12:34 Speaker 2: Oh, Circus Sole, a DVD of Circus Sole with an accompanying mug right, maybe fill his home with the scent of cigarettes to give it the Vegas experience. 01:12:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:12:51 Speaker 2: That feels like a I mean, just right off the bat, we've got a personal gift. It's an experience. It's a DVD or. 01:12:58 Speaker 3: Maybe DVD with accompanying down track. Maybe he could play in his. 01:13:02 Speaker 2: Oh not or while he's doing acro yo. I wonder if this person is able to do acro yoga during the pandemic. I mean you have to have a decent sized space to be flying around or whatever. 01:13:16 Speaker 3: Yeah, and like some kind of place that you could uh straddle a hook in your ceiling, which in New York just seems difficult. 01:13:29 Speaker 2: Right, I mean unless this Jared who maybe he is super I mean. 01:13:33 Speaker 3: If he's scared of from Diamonds, then. 01:13:36 Speaker 2: He's always going to say Jared of Ivanka. Oh maybe this is Jared Kushner and we know that he's a mess of a person and kind of a weasel. Uh, that person doesn't deserve a gift, don't also. 01:13:49 Speaker 3: Kind of a nice guy? By this? 01:13:53 Speaker 2: Right? This person's if he's defending Jared Kushner here, then there's something wrong with Chandler. But let's assume this is not Jared of the Kushner fortune. This is Jared of the Diamond's fortune. He's got a huge warehouse space that he's flying around in doing his yoga. Yeah, how about a nice pair of stretch pants. 01:14:14 Speaker 3: Yeah, because you're not doing acro yoga and jeans. 01:14:18 Speaker 2: No, no, no, Although I'd love to see a full denim outfit doing acro yoga. 01:14:23 Speaker 3: I'm sure that's happening in Vegas for sure. 01:14:27 Speaker 2: The all denim circuit desole. I feel like, yeah, some sort of equipment or clothing, a unit tart, a leotard, something he can be doing this exercise in comfortably, stylishly and safely. 01:14:45 Speaker 3: Yes, I think no one, no one who does yoga is gonna, you know, throw a nice pair of yoga pants out of the bed. 01:14:57 Speaker 2: No, they're gonna slide right into them. Yeah, and they're headed down to the warehouse to start jumping over the net or what have you? Have you ever done any sort of acrobatic exercise? 01:15:08 Speaker 3: Oh though, I shot this show Space Force on Netflix that came out recently, and we had to do wire. 01:15:16 Speaker 2: Work because they're still work. 01:15:18 Speaker 3: We're supposed to be on the moon, which is definitely the first time I had ever done anything like that. 01:15:24 Speaker 2: Oh you're kidding. Yeah, was it enjoyable or were you like in a harness that was painful? 01:15:30 Speaker 3: You're in a harness and it does get a little painful after a while, just because it's really just squeezing you like a bottle of mayonnaise and all of your parts that are contained in the harness. But right, other than that, it's it's cool to kind of have someone else carrying your weight, Like when you jump, there's someone like pulling on a harness, so they're kind of holding you up. 01:15:53 Speaker 2: Oh that sounds delightful. Yeah, how long were you in the harness form. 01:15:58 Speaker 3: I mean at the moment it was like in terms of time, probably just like an hour or two, because then it just starts to get painful. 01:16:06 Speaker 2: And did you get pretty high off the ground or was it more like you know, moon gravity jumps. 01:16:11 Speaker 3: The actual stuff we shot was more just like moon gravity jumps, But we got to do a few like scenes where we were just playing around more and then we got to go up maybe like I don't know, ten, ten or fifteen feet. 01:16:24 Speaker 2: Oh that sounds delightful. Yeah, okay, so you have essentially done acro yoga. 01:16:29 Speaker 3: I guess I've done akro yoga in a way. 01:16:32 Speaker 2: You're an acro yoga freak. Okay, Chandler, take all of that information, put it in a blender, and suddenly Jared has the Secret centa gift of a lifetime, and if he doesn't enjoy it, he can take his diamond fortune and do whatever he wants. 01:16:50 Speaker 3: I also love that he was like, we don't know him that well, but then he said like several helpful things forget right. 01:16:57 Speaker 2: I mean, I think that this whole friend group the gift they need to give jar It is find out what he's doing for a job because he probably wants he probably wants people to know what he's doing, and they're like, he's an engineer and he does lasers. Find out what he's lasering. At the very least, is he lasering eyes faces? Yeah, I don't know, Jared Chandler, good luck. I don't know. I hope you have the happiest of holiday seasons, Aparna. I am thrilled about this. I mean, right behind me, I have these shelves that have nothing on them. 01:17:29 Speaker 3: Yeah. I do see that you have. 01:17:31 Speaker 2: Moved in here recently, and this room does not have what needs to be happening. So soon there's going to be this beautiful word clock just reminding me that our time here on earth is finite and that we're all slowly falling apart. Yep, thank you for being here. It's I've had a wonderful time. 01:17:54 Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. It was you know, it was only a matter of time before this came to fruition. 01:18:00 Speaker 2: Yes, we finally have done it. And go out there and enjoy yourself, and podcast listener, you do the same, or stay in and enjoy yourself. That's probably safer at this point. So either way, I hope we're all having a happy holiday season and do what you want to do. Now you can turn off the podcast. That's this is I'm giving you the go ahead, goodbye. I said, No Gifts is an exactly right production. It's engineered by our dear friend on Aalise 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. 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. And if you're interested in advertising on the show, go to midroll dot com slash ads. 01:18:59 Speaker 1: You thought I made myself perfectly clear, but you're I guess to my home. You gotta come to me empty And I said, no, guess, your presence is presents enough. I already had too much stuff, So how do you dare to surbey me