Embracing Empty Nesting and Creative Renaissance

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Welcome to the Talk Deep Travel Far podcast brought
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to you by Speezy Editions, purveyors of books,
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art, and merch. I'm Janet. And I'm Victoria.
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And we're authors, friends, and business partners.
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So let's talk. So the thing that's on top of
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mind for me is a story that you were telling
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me earlier about, isn't it funny how when you're
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working on a creative project, like it follows
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you everywhere? Kind of like when I bought a
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Jeep. or you buy any kind of car model and then
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you like see it everywhere on the road. You had
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an experience yesterday, right? Bringing your
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daughter to college. Oh my God, yeah. It was
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the funniest thing. First of all, I'm driving
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right into the heart of kind of like... Appalachian
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Mountain Country, which is the fertile ground
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that I've been writing about, right? And so we're
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going deep into what I call Moonwich Country.
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My story is called Night of the Moonwich. And
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so I'm following this car and it's this storm
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cloud, blue gray Ford. And I look at the license
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plate and it says Mystic Wolf. And I thought,
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oh my God, here I am. It totally fits your novel.
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Not only that, I'm driving into the town that
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I named my male hero after. Oh, wow. And then
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I'm following this mystic wolf car, and he's
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wolf -like. I thought, this is ridiculous. My
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daughter was sitting next to me, and I'm laughing.
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And she's like, what is your deal? Why are you
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laughing? Please text me with this because I've
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got to tell Janet. Sweet. What do you call that?
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Is that coincidence? Is it just that psychological
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thing where you notice stuff? What do you think?
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Is there a real mystical thing to it? I think
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I'm haunted by the stories. All right. It just
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happens too often and it's too specific. You
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know, I mean, the only thing that could have
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been more specific is if that license plate had
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read Moon Witch. I get pretty woo -woo about
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stuff and I love that and I don't care if it's
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real or imagined. I think it's cool. Me too.
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I want to be haunted, damn it. Right? I accept
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that it's a haunting. By good spirits, please.
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Oh, absolutely. Can I just congratulate you on
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being an empty master? I know. Notice the spring
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in my step and how I can't stop smiling. It's
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exciting too, because I'm excited for them. It's
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so fun to watch them on their early adult adventures.
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But I did for myself too, because I feel like
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I'm on the brink of a creative renaissance that's
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similar to the one you experienced when you became
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an empty nester a few years ago. Oh my god. At
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the same time that my first left the nest. Yeah.
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Same age. It's funny because that's partly how
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Speakeasy spawned. Oh yeah. So for listeners
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out there, you know, we open the podcast saying
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that we're writers, friends, and business partners.
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We also have a website, Speakeasy Editions, an
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e -commerce site where we sell art, merch, and
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of course books. I say of course books because
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we're writers. Victoria and I had known each
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other a handful of years when I became an empty
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nester. And we would start having these epic
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conversations. Like we're supposed to be on the
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phone, on Zoom, on different parts of the country.
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I was in Seattle, she's in Virginia. And we had
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these epic conversations about all kinds of things
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like historical places, historical settings.
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Part of it spawned from one of her books that
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was a Cold War thriller. And we were just talking
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about all these topics, travel, culture, history,
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blah, blah, blah. and then art and we started
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to bring it in to like oh my god let's let's
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like start selling art prints related to this
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and the whole thing has spawned but that all
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really spawned when I became an empty nester.
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Yeah. You know, what was so fun about those conversations
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first is that I hadn't had conversations like
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that with a friend since I was much younger.
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You know, the kind of conversations where you
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sit up all night and you're like smoking and
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all of that. And, and we would have those conversations.
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And I remember several times we would say, God,
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this would make a great podcast. You know, we
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are kind of censoring ourselves though, in some
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ways, because sometimes we just go off the rails
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and that should be expected today. I think since
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our first recording, we're going to be a little
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bit more cautious. with that and cautious, um,
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you know, cause any listener, your, your time
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is precious. I congratulate her on being an empty
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nester and it, um, for me, it spawned a lot more
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projects and stuff, but I'd have to say that
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for me, it spawned a creative Renaissance that
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was. Yeah, it did. I, and it was so fun to watch
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and I kind of made me salivate a little and I'm
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feeling that right now. I mean, I've been, I've
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been starting to feel it. I've been at the cusp
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of it, you know, but what's been so incredible
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and. You used to say this all the time, and now
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I'm really feeling it, is how it's opened up
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headspace for me to work tirelessly on multiple
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projects and feel energized going from project
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to project, instead of feeling that kind of,
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you know, where you just run out of energy and
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you start, you know, working like a toy whose
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battery's running down, you know? Yeah, I mean,
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my creative projects are like all I want to do.
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I have to definitely say, Janet, step away, do
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something for a bike ride, you know, like, Biking
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makes me feel like I'm 12 again or hanging out
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with my boyfriend or friends, whatever. But it's,
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um, it's crazy. The creative juices are like
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a drug for me right now. Me too. I, I'm like
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giddy sitting down to my computer. It's ridiculous.
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I mean, in the best way, it's not ridiculous.
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It's great, you know, but it's so fun. When's
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the last time you had, uh, like, have you had
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other creative renaissance? in your life? Yes.
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The last time I had a creative renaissance in
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my adult life was in the 1990s when I moved to
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Prague. And I lived there for a few years. That
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I felt like the same kind of raw creative energy.
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And I think the difference between that raw creative
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energy and this one, and interestingly, both
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were preceded by moving to a foreign country,
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is that in the time between my creative renaissance
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in Prague and my creative renaissance that's
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just beginning now, I acquired the skills to
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really be able to level up my creative projects.
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So two things, can you clarify, or I'll clarify
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actually, that you Victoria are currently in
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Virginia. but a year ago you actually moved to
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Doha in the Middle East and you've been here
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for the summer back in the U .S. or there I should
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say because I'm not in the U .S. and you you're
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headed back in a couple days to Doha. But first,
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you talked about how they were different, but
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what did the one in Prague look like back then?
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Because it was a super interesting time. Politically,
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it was opening up as the fall of communism. It
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was also the 90s pre -internet. What juices were
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flowing and how were you? It was incredible because
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it was flowing on so many levels. For one, my
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family's Czech. I moved there for a reason, not
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just because it was the hot place to go. That
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was a coincidence. I was never able to meet my
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family there because my parents, my mother was
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a political refugee and it was just a mess. I
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couldn't go. And so when I... Oh, prior to that,
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you mean? Prior to that, couldn't go. Got it.
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I mean, it was so completely available to me
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that it was like a white photo. Yeah. Sure. And
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so... I moved there, at first I moved in with
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my great aunt, then I found a roommate and it
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was just, the place was also stuck in a time
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warp, excuse me, time warp, which was so interesting
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because communism, it was almost like it took
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a still photograph of the place, a still black
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and white photograph and the place just didn't
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move for 40 years. People were still dressing
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the way they would have dressed in like the 50s
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and 60s. No, when I went there, when I went there,
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um after you and obviously I didn't live there
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and I don't have a Czech background but when
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I went there in the 90s as you know American
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backpacker um I remember being blown away even
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then after it had been open for a while by how
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dated it was and it was just in a time warp and
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it felt like I was walking in a black and white
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photo so I can't even imagine how raw that was
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were there really good description raw is exactly
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how it felt it was i mean even like the way i
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would have to heat up my bath water was so you
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know like nice and so that part of it was actually
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there was a hardship to it too because like i'm
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feeling that because you're in Mexico City which
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on one hand is like this vibrant modern city
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but then there are all these there's things that
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yeah but let's stick with you in Prague in the
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90s but um it what was so uh also kind of creatively
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juicing was that hardship strangely yeah yeah
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no i i can relate to that yeah the fact that
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especially in the early days i i would walk into
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a grocery store and all they had were onions
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And I'd be like, well, what am I going to cook?
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Boiled onions. Yeah. And my Czech cousin would
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be like, well, onion pie. It would look at me
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like I was crazy. Like, don't you know that when
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there's just onions, you make onion pie? I was
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like, no, I didn't know I'd make onion pie, but
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I guess we're making onion pie. Oh, my God. You
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know, it taught that kind of resilience. You
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know what I mean? And this sort of, well, you
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just got to make do with what you got. Do you
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know what I think of when I think of Czech food
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from that era? this is kind of gross but I don't
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know maybe I'm really naive to say this but I
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just remember when I went so when I arrived in
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the Czech Republic I was a vegetarian and I could
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not get vegetables it was so hard and even The
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vegetarian restaurants that I found from my Trusted
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Lonely Planet guidebook, every vegetarian place
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I went to, it was still, they were trying to
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imitate meat. So not just like with fake meat,
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but if there was a sauce on a potato, it was
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going to be like a fake meat sauce. I was grossed
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out, but I broke it. I wound up eating meat there.
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Towards the end of my stay there, I just remember
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getting like sausages with cartilage in them.
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I remember finding some statistic about how checks
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at the time were some of the largest meat eaters
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but the lowest quality of meat and I was just
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like, oh my god, just like give me vegetarian
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life again. I'm not a vegetarian now but like
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I actually have like body horror sensations when
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I think back on some of the things I ate and
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it's all meat related and the only place that
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I remember that you get decent vegetarian food
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was at the Hare Krishnas. Yeah. Yeah. It was
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okay. It was like, boy, if you wanted to go to
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the Hare Krishnas. Yeah, you could get dolled.
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That was a big thing when you're backpacking
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to find the Hare Krishnas. It was such a funny
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thing now because I don't think my Gen Z kids
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really have any idea what the Hare Krishnas are.
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I remember even in New York going to an ashram
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there, like the Sivananda Ashram, for a free
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lunch. Which was like doll. It was the same thing
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spices because you can't use garlic and onions.
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I should teach my daughter Free healthy meal.
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It may not be the tastiest About being a young
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broke person, you know is that you learn how
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But there's something about like being able to
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get by on like the change that you find in the
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cushions of your couch. Also just like your expectations,
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but now I don't want to get into a whole generational
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thing, but now it's just like I think social
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media has ruined their expectations so terribly
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that like they can't even imagine. I had a is
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actually a millennial person working for me a
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year or two ago. And she was helping me do an
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archival project for my late ex -husband. And
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this had to do with his diaries and his art collection,
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all that stuff. And so she read through a lot
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of his stuff, both his journals and sketchbooks
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where there were things written she couldn't
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believe like how we got by yes we were poor artsy
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people at the time but still she just couldn't
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believe like how simple things were you know
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and expectations and um yeah it's just super
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interesting and i think it was really nice and
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so we'd all just kind of get together and you
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know it felt very creative actually but wait
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what We had to be. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, no.
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Oh, you mean like living life was creative? Yeah.
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Because you had to be. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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In every way, you had to figure out how to eat
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well creatively, how to get your rent creatively,
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how to furnish your apartment creatively. I remember
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going to Goodwill and I got this mid -century
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modern couch and coffee table, which I should
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have hung onto. It would probably be worth a
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fortune, you know, for five bucks. Yeah, not
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everything was on demand. It wasn't like, oh,
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I feel like Ethiopian. Boom, it's there. But
00:14:08.539 --> 00:14:12.740
back to Prague, though, what kind of creative
00:14:12.740 --> 00:14:14.500
projects were you doing? Weren't you involved
00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:17.360
in theater there? Oh, I was. I was a partner
00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:19.440
in an English language theater there, which was
00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:21.860
a lot of fun. I mean, we did all sorts of crazy
00:14:21.860 --> 00:14:25.019
things. We did Czech plays. We did a communist
00:14:25.019 --> 00:14:29.460
propaganda play. I love, well, wait, I was about
00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:32.600
to say I love propaganda, but let's just say
00:14:32.600 --> 00:14:36.379
I love vintage propaganda, the modern -day propaganda
00:14:36.379 --> 00:14:40.159
I'm a little not happy with these days, but to
00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:43.460
look back at propaganda, and that is actually
00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:45.740
what part - We're not having to experience being
00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:47.799
propagandized by it so we can look at it as art.
00:14:48.259 --> 00:14:52.299
But that's just it. Now it's not as much, I don't
00:14:52.299 --> 00:14:56.120
think it's as artistic now. Part of my original
00:14:56.120 --> 00:14:59.080
idea with Speakeasy was selling propaganda because
00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:05.259
I loved propaganda art. To me, it was just incredible,
00:15:05.259 --> 00:15:09.460
whether it's the Red Cross or whether it's victory
00:15:09.460 --> 00:15:13.480
gardens or whether it's enlistment propaganda.
00:15:14.340 --> 00:15:16.019
Again, I'm just looking at it through the lens
00:15:16.019 --> 00:15:21.679
of the art, but it's fascinating to me. We don't
00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:23.899
have that same kind of stuff around our propaganda
00:15:23.899 --> 00:15:31.059
now. It feels a lot more covert. The propaganda
00:15:31.059 --> 00:15:36.500
design and graphic art of years past was incredible.
00:15:37.779 --> 00:15:41.500
The play we put on was God Awful, and it was
00:15:41.500 --> 00:15:43.740
the best one I could find by far. I mean, it
00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:49.440
was truly terrible. I have so much affection
00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:52.240
for it, but it's the biggest piece of shite I
00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:55.779
have been involved with. I mean, it's so bad.
00:15:55.860 --> 00:15:59.100
It was so bad. It was so, so, so bad. I even
00:15:59.100 --> 00:16:03.240
wrote an essay about it on my blog very affectionately
00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:04.879
because I have tremendous affection for that
00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.139
play. And it was actually, it's so funny because
00:16:07.139 --> 00:16:10.500
it was, I think it was one of our most popular
00:16:10.500 --> 00:16:13.360
plays, if not our most popular play because there
00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:17.559
was such a nostalgia about it. a lot of Czechs
00:16:17.559 --> 00:16:21.840
came to see it. And at one time, the play that
00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:27.159
we put on had been, it was required by every
00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:29.519
theater in the Czech Republic, in Czechoslovakia
00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:35.120
then, to be part of its repertoire. And it was,
00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:38.370
you know, awful. And so, the Czech theater directors
00:16:38.370 --> 00:16:39.990
decided that they were gonna play it straight,
00:16:40.169 --> 00:16:42.149
like Shakespeare, like it was freaking Shakespeare,
00:16:42.309 --> 00:16:45.429
that they were just gonna play it straight. And
00:16:45.429 --> 00:16:47.830
so the audience would laugh at all the wrong
00:16:47.830 --> 00:16:50.830
times because it was an unintentionally hilarious
00:16:50.830 --> 00:16:52.649
play, and the government couldn't do anything
00:16:52.649 --> 00:16:54.649
about it, because then they'd have to admit that
00:16:54.649 --> 00:16:57.330
it was just a cockamamie idea, and that the ideas
00:16:57.330 --> 00:17:01.799
in the play were just stupid. And so when we
00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:03.220
put on the play, the checks would come and it
00:17:03.220 --> 00:17:06.059
was very nostalgic to them. And they just laughed
00:17:06.059 --> 00:17:10.539
their asses off. It was so great. I have two
00:17:10.539 --> 00:17:12.420
things to hit on that you said that I don't want
00:17:12.420 --> 00:17:15.220
to miss. Number one, your blog is super cool.
00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:18.740
Can you talk about the origins of your blog and
00:17:18.740 --> 00:17:22.000
the name of it if people want to find it? Yeah.
00:17:23.019 --> 00:17:26.019
It's it's called cold. It's on WordPress. And
00:17:26.019 --> 00:17:29.019
I started. Yeah. But what's the URL if somebody
00:17:29.019 --> 00:17:32.059
wants to find it? Oh, Victoria Doherty dot WordPress.
00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:37.460
OK. And it's you know, I I was just sitting there
00:17:37.460 --> 00:17:39.500
at my computer one day and I thought cold is
00:17:39.500 --> 00:17:42.740
the way revenge is best served, the way a war
00:17:42.740 --> 00:17:44.559
was fought and the way a story should be told.
00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:47.690
And I was like, I just coined the the. the, you
00:17:47.690 --> 00:17:49.670
know, my blog right there. Yeah, it's just something
00:17:49.670 --> 00:17:52.049
that came up, you know, because I was and you
00:17:52.049 --> 00:17:54.329
were originally you were writing Cold War stories
00:17:54.329 --> 00:17:57.430
to write Cold War stories and I was writing about
00:17:57.430 --> 00:18:00.369
family lore because I just had so much of it.
00:18:00.670 --> 00:18:03.069
Right. Right. And that was sort of like a mini
00:18:03.069 --> 00:18:05.369
creative renaissance for me actually back then
00:18:05.369 --> 00:18:07.349
because my kids were really little and that was
00:18:07.349 --> 00:18:09.950
like my outlet, you know, writing cold. Yeah.
00:18:10.089 --> 00:18:13.329
And starting to write my my first novel, which
00:18:13.329 --> 00:18:15.650
was a Cold War thriller and all that. But yeah,
00:18:15.650 --> 00:18:20.720
I wrote It's kind of a combination collective
00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:22.980
of family lore, collection rather, of family
00:18:22.980 --> 00:18:33.500
lore and of essays on writing. And I love doing
00:18:33.500 --> 00:18:35.980
it and I still do it. I've hung onto it because
00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:38.220
I just can't let go of that blog. I love it.
00:18:39.339 --> 00:18:41.200
It's a happy place for me. Even though you're
00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:43.079
writing stuff very different that we'll talk
00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:45.589
about later. I'm writing very different stuff
00:18:45.589 --> 00:18:47.829
now. I'm no longer like the Cold War princess
00:18:47.829 --> 00:18:50.329
that I would always jokingly refer to myself
00:18:50.329 --> 00:18:54.470
as, you know? So, you mentioned something that
00:18:54.470 --> 00:18:59.549
I'm curious about, and I can't remember because,
00:19:00.170 --> 00:19:04.009
for me, the 90s are a little bit of a blur. You
00:19:04.009 --> 00:19:08.589
went in the early 90s. What year did you go to
00:19:08.589 --> 00:19:11.470
Prague? 91. 91. Okay. And I went in the late...
00:19:11.470 --> 00:19:15.099
90 and 91. I went first in 90, then I... So I
00:19:15.099 --> 00:19:18.779
went late in the 90s. I don't know. I think I
00:19:18.779 --> 00:19:22.920
went 98. It was already the Czech Republic. When
00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:25.039
was, you mentioned it was Czechoslovakia still.
00:19:25.079 --> 00:19:31.140
When did they split? 92. Oh, okay. And something
00:19:31.140 --> 00:19:35.599
that wasn't there when I was there in the 90s,
00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:38.720
but I took my daughter there for her 18th birthday.
00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:43.730
And one of my highlights other than Being with
00:19:43.730 --> 00:19:47.509
her and her best friend and my sister -in -law
00:19:47.509 --> 00:19:50.950
who I love we had an absolute blast like so the
00:19:50.950 --> 00:19:55.410
company was incredible, but my highlight of Going
00:19:55.410 --> 00:19:59.250
back to Prague was the Communist Museum. It's
00:19:59.250 --> 00:20:01.890
incredible And it's funny because you say that
00:20:01.890 --> 00:20:03.509
with a completely different background than mine
00:20:03.509 --> 00:20:05.990
Although I do have some Slavic in me. My background
00:20:05.990 --> 00:20:08.730
isn't like yeah. No, you're Italian. You've got
00:20:08.730 --> 00:20:14.160
the whole Sicily and Yeah, but I got some...
00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:17.119
I'm a mutt. I'm a total mutt. I'm a total mutt
00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:21.200
because I have some Polish in me. You know, it's...
00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:25.500
Anyway, I am such an American mutt. It is insane.
00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:30.000
But I've always identified more with... I'm Croatian
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:32.500
too. I've always identified more with the Mediterranean
00:20:32.500 --> 00:20:36.319
and the Italian side of me. I think we grab onto
00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:38.440
that. I mean, it's so funny because like, you
00:20:38.440 --> 00:20:41.079
know, my kids are half... Irish and then half
00:20:41.079 --> 00:20:43.880
Czech and then they have some some Jewish as
00:20:43.880 --> 00:20:48.259
well and like Josephine relates the Irish part
00:20:48.259 --> 00:20:50.900
Charlotte and Eamon relate more to the Slavic
00:20:50.900 --> 00:20:53.940
part. It's can we can we pause this? Yeah, no
00:20:53.940 --> 00:20:56.660
names. No, don't mention your kids names on a
00:20:56.660 --> 00:20:59.019
podcast. You're right. That's like this is and
00:20:59.019 --> 00:21:01.640
that's hard. I got wrapped up in the conversation.
00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:05.619
Yeah, I know don't okay, we should not use no
00:21:05.619 --> 00:21:08.940
names. That's actually possibly dangerous someday.
00:21:09.579 --> 00:21:15.359
So yeah, I really identify with the Mediterranean
00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:20.220
and specifically Italian stuff in my bloodline.
00:21:20.539 --> 00:21:24.099
Yeah, I should tell you a slightly funny story
00:21:24.099 --> 00:21:26.640
about bloodlines because when I was living in
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:29.839
Prague, I had some Czech Jewish friends and they
00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:33.339
would always assume I was Jewish or at least
00:21:33.339 --> 00:21:36.559
part Jewish. And I'd say, no, I'm not. They'd
00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:39.640
be like, really? And then they'd ask me for my
00:21:39.640 --> 00:21:42.400
family background. And I'd tell them. And they
00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:45.740
asked for my grandfather's last name was Lonsman,
00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:48.240
L -O -N -S -M -I -N. And they were like, it's
00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:50.539
not Lonsman. And I was like, no, it's Lonsmien.
00:21:50.619 --> 00:21:57.099
It's French. And years later, I mean, like maybe
00:21:57.099 --> 00:21:59.920
just 10 years ago when my Um, when my grandmother
00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:02.579
was dying, I, I learned that actually we are
00:22:02.579 --> 00:22:04.640
part Jewish and then it was, I was just going
00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:07.440
to say, you could be, you could be French Jewish.
00:22:07.740 --> 00:22:10.299
You know, I was like a conehead. We're from France.
00:22:10.460 --> 00:22:12.539
You know, I mean, nobody, nobody gets that reference
00:22:12.539 --> 00:22:14.039
anymore. It's an old center at live reference.
00:22:14.500 --> 00:22:17.680
Um, I had no idea, you know, I really genuinely
00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:19.859
had no idea. I was like, no, why wouldn't they
00:22:19.859 --> 00:22:25.000
tell me when I, when I get my, when I got my,
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.000
um, DNA results. Like I'm just sitting here saying
00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:30.660
I'm a mutt because I have this that and the other
00:22:30.660 --> 00:22:42.019
thing. My DNA is so insane because I have like
00:22:42.019 --> 00:22:45.839
ancestry from the Caucasus. Yeah. And in part
00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:49.880
because where my there's a lot going on with
00:22:49.880 --> 00:22:53.380
my mother's side, which is the Polish and Ukrainian
00:22:53.380 --> 00:22:57.460
side or Polish and Croatian side. And you know,
00:22:57.980 --> 00:22:59.880
my family was there before Poland was Poland.
00:22:59.880 --> 00:23:02.960
So that's the whole thing too, right? But then
00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:07.500
in Italy too, where my family was in Southern
00:23:07.500 --> 00:23:11.539
Italy, it was a crazy military stronghold where
00:23:11.539 --> 00:23:15.779
there were a lot of people coming in from the
00:23:15.779 --> 00:23:17.900
Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, all that stuff
00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:21.440
coming in there. And so we're peppered with all
00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:26.660
kinds of DNA. It's shocking. It's absolutely
00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:29.779
shocking, but cool. I mean, I'm way into it.
00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:36.220
It's part of why I like to write about, I want
00:23:36.220 --> 00:23:39.539
to say family lore, but it's not quite lore.
00:23:40.779 --> 00:23:45.079
I don't know. There's a lot more secrets in my
00:23:45.079 --> 00:23:47.660
family. No, there are tons of, there's a lot
00:23:47.660 --> 00:23:55.029
of lying in my family. That's the stuff that
00:23:55.029 --> 00:23:58.109
I'm interested in nobody's talking about. Yeah,
00:23:58.250 --> 00:24:00.609
like nobody's talking about that. I know more
00:24:00.609 --> 00:24:02.650
about my family and I'm the black sheep of the
00:24:02.650 --> 00:24:05.809
family. I know more about my family. My family's
00:24:05.809 --> 00:24:08.710
real history than anybody on both sides of my
00:24:08.710 --> 00:24:10.990
family. Are you comfortable talking about like
00:24:10.990 --> 00:24:13.309
a secret that you uncovered that you find particularly
00:24:13.309 --> 00:24:15.789
juicy about your family lore about your family
00:24:15.789 --> 00:24:31.019
background? Well, just I think the biggest thing
00:24:31.019 --> 00:24:37.000
that The biggest thing that I've really dove
00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:44.220
headfirst with no water below into is The fact
00:24:44.220 --> 00:24:47.000
that and this is something that people have whispered
00:24:47.000 --> 00:25:01.210
about but the fact that My father was born and
00:25:01.210 --> 00:25:06.230
given from his birth parents to another couple
00:25:06.230 --> 00:25:13.269
in the family to be raised as their kid. And
00:25:13.269 --> 00:25:16.049
that he was one of a handful that came out of
00:25:16.049 --> 00:25:20.630
this illicit union and were passed around the
00:25:20.630 --> 00:25:24.420
family. Amazing how that happened, and it was
00:25:24.420 --> 00:25:27.700
so common. It's kind of, well, not common, but
00:25:27.700 --> 00:25:29.299
it wasn't unheard of, let's put it that way.
00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:32.400
It wasn't unheard of, and so I've really gone
00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:36.640
into that, and I was trying to find out about
00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:39.339
that from other people in the family, and nobody
00:25:39.339 --> 00:25:43.640
wanted to discuss it. And the one person who
00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:47.000
had information, actually, she was in her 90s
00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:49.779
at the time, was like, I'm not talking about
00:25:49.779 --> 00:25:53.480
that because that that's going to ruin the image
00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:56.880
of my daddy. She was 90 and saying this too.
00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:00.839
It was just so crazy. And I was so desperate
00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:04.859
to find out more about that lineage for a number
00:26:04.859 --> 00:26:09.779
of reasons. And then I kind of dropped it for
00:26:09.779 --> 00:26:11.400
a while. I mean, this is something I've been
00:26:11.400 --> 00:26:16.960
researching really for, I don't know, 20 years
00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:21.160
now, 15 years, 15 or 20 years. I was so desperate
00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:25.759
to find out the truth of who was who was what
00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:29.319
in part because my father's passed away now but
00:26:29.319 --> 00:26:32.819
I knew that that really broke him when he was
00:26:32.819 --> 00:26:39.599
in his 30s late 30s and found out that his sisters
00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:41.359
were really his cousins and his cousins were
00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:43.339
really his brothers and sisters like that whole
00:26:43.339 --> 00:26:46.759
thing and you know his his Father was really
00:26:46.759 --> 00:26:48.460
his uncle and his uncle was really his father
00:26:48.460 --> 00:26:51.460
and all that stuff was so heartbreaking to him
00:26:51.460 --> 00:26:56.079
and I don't think he ever got over it to the
00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:59.119
day he died. So I really wanted to uncover that
00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:03.339
mystery and I learned a lot. I learned a lot
00:27:03.339 --> 00:27:06.180
and then I dropped it because the people who
00:27:06.180 --> 00:27:09.000
could give me information wouldn't give me information.
00:27:10.480 --> 00:27:12.440
And the people who knew about it. I just wanted
00:27:12.440 --> 00:27:14.240
to know what they heard about it and nobody wanted
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:19.059
to talk to me about it. So I dropped it and then,
00:27:19.059 --> 00:27:24.559
thanks to DNA, I get a message from this dude
00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:28.019
who's like my dad's age and it's a brother that
00:27:28.019 --> 00:27:33.660
my dad never knew he had. And so as much as there's
00:27:33.660 --> 00:27:36.859
been a lot of heartache in the family, the people
00:27:36.859 --> 00:27:40.420
that were around the situation, I am so grateful
00:27:40.420 --> 00:27:46.220
that I now know my uncle Bill. Who and he never
00:27:46.220 --> 00:27:48.180
knew my dad my dad never knew him. They never
00:27:48.180 --> 00:27:51.619
knew one another existed and My uncle bill has
00:27:51.619 --> 00:27:54.980
shared documents from my dad's birth mom like
00:27:54.980 --> 00:27:58.380
letters checking in on my dad as a baby Wow,
00:27:59.019 --> 00:28:02.579
you know, so that's a beautiful thing But people
00:28:02.579 --> 00:28:04.759
don't want to hear about it and it bums me out
00:28:04.759 --> 00:28:08.200
and and bill and his age has I shouldn't be I
00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:09.940
didn't want to use names But I'm sorry. I did.
00:28:10.220 --> 00:28:13.259
Sorry bill if you're listening Bill tried to
00:28:13.259 --> 00:28:16.599
reach out to some of his siblings that he didn't
00:28:16.599 --> 00:28:21.839
know about, but I knew about. And, you know,
00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:23.519
they didn't, they didn't want to talk to him.
00:28:23.720 --> 00:28:26.519
They were like, I don't want to dig up old stuff.
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:30.079
But wait, people are afraid, you know, people
00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:35.240
are afraid. And maybe when you get as old as
00:28:35.240 --> 00:28:37.319
they are, they're all in their eighties now.
00:28:38.099 --> 00:28:40.500
I think maybe when you get to that age, you just
00:28:40.500 --> 00:28:43.019
like don't want to deal with any crap. Like,
00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:47.460
why? What's the point? You know, it really, I
00:28:47.460 --> 00:28:54.019
get that the worst part though, which was I feel
00:28:54.019 --> 00:28:56.319
like it was a little callous and I should have
00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:00.279
been a little bit more delicate with it, but
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:04.880
I didn't know how to be delicate about it. I
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:11.400
wound up telling In my story about how everybody
00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:14.440
was related, I wound up revealing to Bill that
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:16.500
his father wasn't who he thought he was, who
00:29:16.500 --> 00:29:20.240
he thought his father was. Wow. He didn't even
00:29:20.240 --> 00:29:24.640
know he was Italian. What a spider's web. Yeah.
00:29:25.259 --> 00:29:29.319
You know, it's really interesting. I have two
00:29:29.319 --> 00:29:33.460
friends who discovered siblings through 23 and
00:29:33.460 --> 00:29:35.880
me. and got to know them. And in both cases,
00:29:36.119 --> 00:29:39.140
it was a good thing. It's so funny because my
00:29:39.140 --> 00:29:42.819
one friend, when she told her father about this
00:29:42.819 --> 00:29:51.400
child he had, he said, just one. One that you
00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:55.500
know of so far. He was shocked that he only uncovered
00:29:55.500 --> 00:29:57.500
one. He was like, I would have thought there
00:29:57.500 --> 00:29:59.700
would have been a lot more out there. I've been
00:29:59.700 --> 00:30:03.380
asked by I've been asked in my family if there
00:30:03.380 --> 00:30:07.799
if I've uncovered any more half siblings of mine.
00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:11.220
I'm like, no, but that's interesting. But I wouldn't
00:30:11.220 --> 00:30:14.599
I mean, my dad was definitely a philanderer to
00:30:14.599 --> 00:30:20.279
say the like, yeah, big time. So I won't be surprised
00:30:20.279 --> 00:30:23.440
if in my lifetime, somebody reaches out and they
00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:27.900
turn out to be a sibling. But not yet, to my
00:30:27.900 --> 00:30:32.210
knowledge, this one. It bums me out because I
00:30:32.210 --> 00:30:35.470
can't find out. I have a lot of dotted lines,
00:30:35.470 --> 00:30:38.750
but there's some specific gaps that I'd like
00:30:38.750 --> 00:30:42.250
to be able to understand, even from a historical
00:30:42.250 --> 00:30:46.230
perspective. But there's just no documentation.
00:30:47.109 --> 00:30:50.289
I know. That's the hardest part. And that's why
00:30:50.289 --> 00:30:56.349
I just call it family lore. Because what I find
00:30:56.349 --> 00:30:59.420
is that when you talk to enough people, you start
00:30:59.420 --> 00:31:02.420
to find the threads of truth that bubble up.
00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:05.259
So you can sort of cobble together a story of
00:31:05.259 --> 00:31:08.839
how it probably unfolded, because there are enough
00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:11.079
common elements with people who don't even necessarily
00:31:11.079 --> 00:31:12.740
like each other and don't want to support each
00:31:12.740 --> 00:31:17.039
other's worldview, you know what I mean? And
00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:21.400
it sort of bubbles up like a myth that then has
00:31:21.400 --> 00:31:27.019
this universal truth, if that makes sense. Yeah,
00:31:27.019 --> 00:31:29.000
it doesn't work out like that in my family. On
00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:32.099
my dad's family, nobody will talk about it. And
00:31:32.099 --> 00:31:35.740
then my mom's family is just such a cluster of
00:31:35.740 --> 00:31:39.200
lies between the people who have the information.
00:31:39.579 --> 00:31:46.220
And I don't even know if they know it's lies.
00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:49.539
I know it's lies because I have now seen the
00:31:49.539 --> 00:31:53.299
documentation and it's like, no, no, no, no.
00:31:53.420 --> 00:31:56.569
Like even in terms of when people came to the
00:31:56.569 --> 00:31:59.730
United States and what their first city was in
00:31:59.730 --> 00:32:01.609
the United States. Like, you know, I mean, I
00:32:01.609 --> 00:32:04.529
have a paper trail of my grandmother or great
00:32:04.529 --> 00:32:14.150
grandmother. Like the stories were just. Maybe
00:32:14.150 --> 00:32:15.650
they weren't lies, maybe they're just stories.
00:32:15.829 --> 00:32:18.730
I don't know. Lies makes it seem like it's. I
00:32:18.730 --> 00:32:20.849
think sometimes people convince themselves of
00:32:20.849 --> 00:32:24.509
things, too, and they tell the story enough times.
00:32:24.920 --> 00:32:27.720
And that's not letting liars off the hook, because
00:32:27.720 --> 00:32:30.640
I generally think that liars know they're lying.
00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:33.759
That's my experience. Like when I hear the term,
00:32:33.980 --> 00:32:36.279
it was an unconscious lie, I think, no, most
00:32:36.279 --> 00:32:40.819
lies are really conscious. They're, they know.
00:32:40.819 --> 00:32:43.619
Maybe it was a, maybe it was a, what's the word?
00:32:43.859 --> 00:32:49.799
Like an, no, or, or an, there's, there's conflated
00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:52.460
mem, I mean, We all have a different reality.
00:32:52.660 --> 00:32:54.920
Like you look back, you know, I'm writing a memoir
00:32:54.920 --> 00:32:58.099
now. Yeah. And when I write the memoir, when
00:32:58.099 --> 00:33:02.000
I write certain scenes that contain my brother,
00:33:02.940 --> 00:33:05.599
my brother has a different memory. Memories are
00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:08.640
not facts. No. Do you know what I think is really
00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:12.160
interesting about a memoir? I never maybe call
00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:16.400
me stupid. It's OK. I've been called worse. But
00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:25.799
we say memoir. And in Mexico here, I don't know
00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:28.279
if this is all through Spanish -speaking countries
00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:32.220
or Latin America, but in Mexico here, they say
00:33:32.220 --> 00:33:35.079
when you're writing a memoir, you're writing
00:33:35.079 --> 00:33:39.920
memories, which is, I don't know, it's such a
00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:43.680
different concept to me. It is a different concept.
00:33:44.339 --> 00:33:48.089
Memoir implies more curation to me. you know
00:33:48.089 --> 00:33:50.089
what I mean? Whereas writing memories seems more
00:33:50.089 --> 00:33:52.470
like journal entries of trying to really remember
00:33:52.470 --> 00:33:54.690
how something happened. Whereas a memoir is trying
00:33:54.690 --> 00:33:57.410
to string it together into a narrative, like
00:33:57.410 --> 00:34:01.369
into one story. But that's, and that's the problem
00:34:01.369 --> 00:34:05.069
when I've read a memoir here, literally A, there's
00:34:05.069 --> 00:34:09.750
one that I've read. And I'm like, these are like,
00:34:09.750 --> 00:34:12.570
essays that aren't strung together. Oh, so it's
00:34:12.570 --> 00:34:16.010
literal. Yeah. And I don't know if that is the
00:34:16.010 --> 00:34:20.400
standard here. I really don't know, but in the
00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:24.119
English speaking world or in the U .S. and probably
00:34:24.119 --> 00:34:29.280
the U .K. as far as I know, a memoir is an excerpt
00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:33.840
of your life and you write it more in story form.
00:34:34.820 --> 00:34:38.480
Not story as in fake, but structure. Structurally.
00:34:39.400 --> 00:34:43.440
I mean, words matter. So I could see how the
00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:46.900
way it's described would affect the way people
00:34:46.900 --> 00:34:50.969
write it. But you know what's funny? So I have
00:34:50.969 --> 00:34:53.329
a temper thing. This is my Italian side. I definitely
00:34:53.329 --> 00:34:55.429
have a little bit of an inflammatory temper,
00:34:56.050 --> 00:35:04.590
if I do say so myself. So my boyfriend is Mexican
00:35:04.590 --> 00:35:08.889
and a writer. He's been a journalist for many,
00:35:08.949 --> 00:35:14.869
many years. Now he's written a book of memories.
00:35:17.200 --> 00:35:22.539
But it always kind of like twists a screw in
00:35:22.539 --> 00:35:24.920
me when he said when I'm like, I got to write
00:35:24.920 --> 00:35:26.579
tonight or something like that. And he'll say,
00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:31.539
Are you writing your memories? And I just know
00:35:31.539 --> 00:35:40.340
I'm not like I love him. But like, when he says
00:35:40.340 --> 00:35:45.389
that I'm like, It's a memoir. I just feel like
00:35:45.389 --> 00:35:48.769
I'm, when he says are you writing your mem memories,
00:35:49.150 --> 00:35:53.230
I feel like I'm not in my bed writing in my journal
00:35:53.230 --> 00:35:56.449
that I'm going to lock and put away. No, you're
00:35:56.449 --> 00:35:58.789
contextualizing them and trying to make them
00:35:58.789 --> 00:36:01.829
make sense. It's like a real exercise. It's like,
00:36:02.170 --> 00:36:07.730
I swear it's as important as your articles. It's
00:36:07.730 --> 00:36:11.400
funny how something even something like Writing
00:36:11.400 --> 00:36:15.000
a memoir and what that means is different cross
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:16.579
-culturally. You know what I mean? It's just
00:36:16.579 --> 00:36:20.500
different in a different country and that's part
00:36:20.500 --> 00:36:25.219
of what is so interesting about Going somewhere
00:36:25.219 --> 00:36:28.119
new going somewhere really new whether it's within
00:36:28.119 --> 00:36:30.539
your own country or outside of your country Which
00:36:30.539 --> 00:36:32.039
is really really new because you're having to
00:36:32.039 --> 00:36:35.219
deal with another culture and the way that kind
00:36:35.219 --> 00:36:40.559
of it feeds our stories I'm on fire since coming
00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:44.940
to Mexico. I've seen it and it's incredible.
00:36:48.860 --> 00:36:51.900
It's definitely another creative renaissance.
00:36:52.079 --> 00:36:54.179
I think this is my third creative renaissance
00:36:54.179 --> 00:36:56.559
that I've experienced and I hope it's not the
00:36:56.559 --> 00:37:00.679
last. My first one though was in the early days
00:37:00.679 --> 00:37:04.780
of my relationship and marriage to my late ex
00:37:04.780 --> 00:37:08.530
-husband. um who was a painter like I've alluded
00:37:08.530 --> 00:37:13.050
to before and he was very inspirational for me
00:37:13.050 --> 00:37:17.730
like um was encouraging of me to not just write
00:37:17.730 --> 00:37:20.289
because I've always written almost obsessively
00:37:20.289 --> 00:37:23.630
but he encouraged me to do things that I always
00:37:23.630 --> 00:37:27.139
said I can't do that, like paint or I did a lot
00:37:27.139 --> 00:37:29.320
of pen and ink drawings. Like he was always like,
00:37:29.460 --> 00:37:31.380
try this medium, try that medium. And then I
00:37:31.380 --> 00:37:33.940
got into film and photography and all that stuff.
00:37:34.460 --> 00:37:36.960
So he was just kind of like just the creative
00:37:36.960 --> 00:37:38.860
life is doing it all. It doesn't have to just
00:37:38.860 --> 00:37:42.559
be one thing. Right. And that was incredible.
00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:46.539
And it's actually when he passed and I got his
00:37:46.539 --> 00:37:49.400
art collection to archive, it was crazy because
00:37:49.400 --> 00:37:54.389
I found a lot of my art that he had. What'd you
00:37:54.389 --> 00:37:57.230
think of it? Did you like it like were you like
00:37:57.230 --> 00:38:00.610
hey not bad or so there's a couple pieces that
00:38:00.610 --> 00:38:05.010
are I Wouldn't say they're good. I'd say they're
00:38:05.010 --> 00:38:07.630
cool. Yeah, they're cool. They're not they're
00:38:07.630 --> 00:38:10.849
not good. They're cool for me I probably would
00:38:10.849 --> 00:38:15.070
never show them to somebody else. I Did find
00:38:15.070 --> 00:38:19.469
some things that were awful. I mean awful, but
00:38:19.469 --> 00:38:23.829
really important to me and in fact One of them
00:38:23.829 --> 00:38:26.929
is part of the inspiration for speak easy editions
00:38:26.929 --> 00:38:30.329
for us starting this and for the project that
00:38:30.329 --> 00:38:32.489
you and I are working on. I'll call it time travel
00:38:32.489 --> 00:38:36.389
romance for we're being general now because we
00:38:36.389 --> 00:38:40.309
don't have a pub date of that joint project.
00:38:40.349 --> 00:38:42.909
So that was cool. Like this inspiration that
00:38:42.909 --> 00:38:46.449
stuck with me that has just really for whatever
00:38:46.449 --> 00:38:48.289
creatively it's been near and dear to my heart.
00:38:48.289 --> 00:38:50.869
And I wanted to write about it or, or incorporate
00:38:50.869 --> 00:38:53.300
it into a story somehow. But for the most part,
00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:56.480
it was all like, seriously crap, like almost
00:38:56.480 --> 00:38:58.480
journal writing, if you will, the equivalent
00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:00.699
of journal writing that, but it just happens
00:39:00.699 --> 00:39:03.400
to be in like, drawing form or something like
00:39:03.400 --> 00:39:05.539
that. But I was really happy that he kept a lot
00:39:05.539 --> 00:39:07.900
of that stuff. That was super cool. It's very
00:39:07.900 --> 00:39:10.559
touching that he kept that. It's funny because
00:39:10.559 --> 00:39:13.579
there's a lot that's very touching about my ex
00:39:13.579 --> 00:39:18.739
-husband, even though we had an explosive breakdown
00:39:18.739 --> 00:39:21.159
of our marriage and family. But there was a lot
00:39:21.159 --> 00:39:24.300
that was really beautiful, which I'm also writing
00:39:24.300 --> 00:39:28.380
about. But this coming to Mexico is almost like
00:39:28.380 --> 00:39:30.940
a grown -up version of that creative renaissance
00:39:30.940 --> 00:39:35.119
back then, obviously, 30 years have passed since
00:39:35.119 --> 00:39:40.019
then. I date myself, I'm old, but, and it's interesting
00:39:40.019 --> 00:39:42.260
because, you know, I fell in love with Mexico.
00:39:42.559 --> 00:39:44.980
This isn't my first time in Mexico city. I was
00:39:44.980 --> 00:39:47.900
here 25 years ago, was on a pit stop here on
00:39:47.900 --> 00:39:50.380
the way to go move to Italy. And I wound up staying
00:39:50.380 --> 00:39:52.280
here because I loved it so much. And part of
00:39:52.280 --> 00:39:54.420
what I loved is the creative juices that were
00:39:54.420 --> 00:39:57.619
flowing also because I get to bike everywhere
00:39:57.619 --> 00:40:01.079
here. Biking also drives my creativity for whatever
00:40:01.079 --> 00:40:03.880
reason and the colors and all the kind of stuff.
00:40:04.760 --> 00:40:10.119
The weather, but what kind of kills me, not kills
00:40:10.119 --> 00:40:13.619
me, but the thing that stifles me right now is
00:40:13.619 --> 00:40:19.099
that I sold all my belongings in Seattle when
00:40:19.099 --> 00:40:21.820
I came down here, so I don't have art supplies.
00:40:24.039 --> 00:40:28.440
I'm itching to to exercise my creativity outside
00:40:28.440 --> 00:40:32.340
of writing. So I've picked up some supplies for
00:40:32.340 --> 00:40:34.960
stuff for, like I like to do mixed media collages.
00:40:35.260 --> 00:40:38.659
I've been collecting stuff for those collages
00:40:38.659 --> 00:40:41.940
and I like to mix that with drawings and paintings.
00:40:42.440 --> 00:40:46.000
So I'll get there. Right now it's just kind of
00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:48.440
collecting, but that's the only thing I feel
00:40:48.440 --> 00:40:52.000
stifling, but it's like my project list, my pipeline
00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:55.539
of projects is growing so rapidly because I'm
00:40:55.539 --> 00:41:01.340
so inspired here. It's insane. Yeah, that's been
00:41:01.340 --> 00:41:06.079
really fun to watch. I feel like that in Doha,
00:41:06.219 --> 00:41:10.539
too. It's been such a change of lifestyle, the
00:41:10.539 --> 00:41:14.059
change of weather, completely change of meeting
00:41:14.059 --> 00:41:17.940
new friends, just everything. The newness of
00:41:17.940 --> 00:41:21.480
it really does so much in lighting that creative
00:41:21.480 --> 00:41:25.260
fire, that creative spark. And it's funny because
00:41:25.260 --> 00:41:30.530
we've talked about how we each have like a raw
00:41:30.530 --> 00:41:34.309
intuition for design, you know? But we don't
00:41:34.309 --> 00:41:37.230
have the skills, and it's so frustrating because
00:41:37.230 --> 00:41:42.289
- It's so awful. We want to do it all ourselves.
00:41:42.369 --> 00:41:44.789
Like, I would love to do all of our book covers.
00:41:45.050 --> 00:41:49.670
I'd enjoy doing it, and yet it's so, like, hypnotic
00:41:49.670 --> 00:41:53.650
because of the skills. I lack so many of the
00:41:53.650 --> 00:41:55.949
skills, and I don't have the time right now to
00:41:55.949 --> 00:42:01.179
get them. I'm spending a lot of time right now
00:42:01.179 --> 00:42:06.639
trying to get more fluent in Spanish. Yeah. Because
00:42:06.639 --> 00:42:11.159
fluency is a spectrum. I'm on the opposite end
00:42:11.159 --> 00:42:14.400
of fluency. So I'm trying to pretty good. It's
00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:16.099
actually pretty exciting to listen to you speaking
00:42:16.099 --> 00:42:19.639
Spanish. It's amazing. Well, my my reading comprehension
00:42:19.639 --> 00:42:22.239
is great, but it's very bipolar. My reading comprehension
00:42:22.239 --> 00:42:25.199
is here and my speaking is like, you know, second
00:42:25.199 --> 00:42:28.530
grade. something like that, first grade. But
00:42:28.530 --> 00:42:32.269
so I am putting a lot of time and energy into
00:42:32.269 --> 00:42:34.929
that. But I do want to learn some more design
00:42:34.929 --> 00:42:38.989
skills, even if it's just to be able to be more
00:42:38.989 --> 00:42:41.369
creative director, like more directing somebody
00:42:41.369 --> 00:42:45.489
else in execution. I find it very difficult to
00:42:45.489 --> 00:42:52.369
communicate my design vision. And so. Oh, my
00:42:52.369 --> 00:42:55.909
God, for my memoir. I did a placeholder cover
00:42:55.909 --> 00:42:59.349
and it's so embarrassing to look at, but the
00:42:59.349 --> 00:43:02.230
concept is there. I just have no idea how to
00:43:02.230 --> 00:43:05.070
execute it. Great though, because the concept
00:43:05.070 --> 00:43:08.809
was a record album and it is a pocket of a, all
00:43:08.809 --> 00:43:10.369
right, all right, I won't even go there, but
00:43:10.369 --> 00:43:14.530
the concept was very cool. But it's so terrible
00:43:14.530 --> 00:43:17.210
in execution. It's embarrassing, but I needed
00:43:17.210 --> 00:43:20.269
a placeholder, so the placeholder exists, but
00:43:20.269 --> 00:43:24.039
I am trying to have somebody rework it into a
00:43:24.039 --> 00:43:30.280
real one. And it is insane. Um, in this, in the
00:43:30.280 --> 00:43:34.599
self publishing world, how bad many of the book
00:43:34.599 --> 00:43:39.079
designers are. It is, and I feel bad that I just
00:43:39.079 --> 00:43:42.460
said that and I am tempted to edit it from this
00:43:42.460 --> 00:43:44.860
podcast, but I don't know that I will because
00:43:44.860 --> 00:43:48.000
it is It is kind of unforgivable that they're
00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:51.019
charging people for this, when to me, it looks
00:43:51.019 --> 00:43:53.980
almost like a modern day version of the old clip
00:43:53.980 --> 00:43:56.260
art. When I could do better, and you could do
00:43:56.260 --> 00:44:01.360
better, and much better, I'm angry. That's the
00:44:01.360 --> 00:44:05.340
problem right there. But then also, it's lazy.
00:44:06.079 --> 00:44:09.880
I did give all this book information, including
00:44:09.880 --> 00:44:12.980
comp covers and all this stuff, to this one design
00:44:12.980 --> 00:44:18.039
company. who was recommended by someone, by a
00:44:18.039 --> 00:44:22.639
couple people, and they came back with a written
00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:25.480
concept before they would execute, and the written
00:44:25.480 --> 00:44:30.820
concept had to be written by AI. They didn't
00:44:30.820 --> 00:44:33.119
execute creatively, so I had no visual, which
00:44:33.119 --> 00:44:36.679
is very hard for me to picture, but it was so
00:44:36.679 --> 00:44:44.360
bad. I was like, anybody with real design skills?
00:44:45.179 --> 00:44:47.340
Anybody who can actually call them a designer
00:44:47.340 --> 00:44:50.840
should not be coming up with this concept. It's
00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:56.219
so so bad. I want to say simplistic, but that's
00:44:56.219 --> 00:45:00.719
not even that implies something else. No, this
00:45:00.719 --> 00:45:05.300
is so bad, like torn paper from a journal crumpled
00:45:05.300 --> 00:45:07.599
tape to the wall, like all this stuff. And I'm
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:11.280
just like, oh, my God. But it's a cliche wrapped
00:45:11.280 --> 00:45:14.659
in a cliche wrapped in another cliche. Yeah.
00:45:14.809 --> 00:45:18.909
Yeah. And some people have great design skills,
00:45:18.909 --> 00:45:20.909
but they just don't make a good book designer,
00:45:21.289 --> 00:45:23.829
a book design that's going to sell or be provocative
00:45:23.829 --> 00:45:25.849
or whatever. So a lot of people wind up just
00:45:25.849 --> 00:45:27.809
doing template stuff and I don't want to do a
00:45:27.809 --> 00:45:31.289
template thing. Aside from book design, like
00:45:31.289 --> 00:45:34.289
there's other design. I mean, we have definitely
00:45:34.289 --> 00:45:38.909
have an aesthetic. We definitely, you know, like.
00:45:39.210 --> 00:45:41.389
Sometimes I just love looking at our website
00:45:41.389 --> 00:45:45.579
and looking at. The historical photos like in
00:45:45.579 --> 00:45:47.800
portraits of beauty and like all those artists
00:45:47.800 --> 00:45:51.920
models from the early 1900s in Europe I just
00:45:51.920 --> 00:45:54.739
love those so much. I just want to be able to
00:45:54.739 --> 00:45:56.940
I mean those are photographs But I and again
00:45:56.940 --> 00:46:00.039
like the propaganda art just want to be able
00:46:00.039 --> 00:46:06.159
to design my own version of that so I Am gonna
00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:08.639
start taking some design classes. But again,
00:46:08.659 --> 00:46:10.960
I don't know if it's stuff that the public is
00:46:10.960 --> 00:46:14.039
going to see or if it's just to be able to mock
00:46:14.039 --> 00:46:16.519
up a concept for a real designer. By the way,
00:46:16.519 --> 00:46:19.159
if anybody out there is listening that has design
00:46:19.159 --> 00:46:22.159
skills that you think would be good for our brand,
00:46:22.380 --> 00:46:25.099
please do reach out because we need some help
00:46:25.099 --> 00:46:28.239
and it's obvious and we get that. We need somebody
00:46:28.239 --> 00:46:31.000
who gets it and gets the historical references
00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:33.400
and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, because we
00:46:33.400 --> 00:46:36.039
have a very strong point of view. We have a very
00:46:36.039 --> 00:46:38.239
strong artistic point of view, a strong story
00:46:38.239 --> 00:46:42.559
point of view. and aesthetic, but it's a skill
00:46:42.559 --> 00:46:47.119
to learn how to translate that. I'll just speak
00:46:47.119 --> 00:46:49.139
for myself. I don't have the experience to do
00:46:49.139 --> 00:46:52.179
it yet. I don't have those skills. I have art
00:46:52.179 --> 00:46:58.920
references. I have a lot of art references, different
00:46:58.920 --> 00:47:01.820
artists, different scenes, different eras, different
00:47:01.820 --> 00:47:04.639
movements. I don't know how to talk about it.
00:47:04.670 --> 00:47:07.409
I don't know how to communicate it and I certainly
00:47:07.409 --> 00:47:10.050
don't know how to execute it. So I'm hoping at
00:47:10.050 --> 00:47:13.909
least some of the design training that I get
00:47:13.909 --> 00:47:17.349
can bridge the gap for somebody else to execute.
00:47:18.989 --> 00:47:21.909
You know, but I don't know. I don't know. I have
00:47:21.909 --> 00:47:29.510
dreams. I think this is also part of what we're
00:47:29.510 --> 00:47:31.309
talking about with this creative Renaissance,
00:47:31.530 --> 00:47:34.449
because it hasn't just been about writing and
00:47:34.449 --> 00:47:37.309
storytelling, although it is about that. It's
00:47:37.309 --> 00:47:41.010
been about the kinds of things we love to have
00:47:41.010 --> 00:47:43.130
around us, the prints that we love to put on
00:47:43.130 --> 00:47:46.869
our walls, the merchandise that we like to have,
00:47:47.630 --> 00:47:50.389
what we like to drink our coffee out of, the
00:47:50.389 --> 00:47:54.070
way we want to be able to make our own designs,
00:47:54.210 --> 00:47:57.429
to make our own... By the way, none of this is
00:47:57.429 --> 00:48:01.530
mine. None of this is mine. I'm in Mexico in
00:48:01.530 --> 00:48:05.469
a furnished apartment. Well, this is actually
00:48:05.469 --> 00:48:07.809
all of ours. Because I'm still in our house in
00:48:07.809 --> 00:48:10.989
Virginia. But in Doha, almost none of it is ours
00:48:10.989 --> 00:48:16.590
either. I miss my books. However, I'm trying
00:48:16.590 --> 00:48:18.789
to get some books shipped to me, but Mexican
00:48:18.789 --> 00:48:23.510
Customs has decided to hold my books hostage.
00:48:26.140 --> 00:48:30.260
for 21 days now and they're charging me by day
00:48:30.260 --> 00:48:34.719
for storage. I'm like, are you kidding? I don't
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:38.820
want storage. I want my bunks. Your accuracy
00:48:38.820 --> 00:48:42.079
is so mean and petty, isn't it? I mean, it's
00:48:42.079 --> 00:48:45.719
just so, it's so mean. I think it's so greedy.
00:48:46.579 --> 00:48:49.519
Yeah. Well, it's also apathetic. Sometimes it's
00:48:49.519 --> 00:48:52.420
not even greed. It's just meh. No, no, I'll get
00:48:52.420 --> 00:48:54.860
around to it. But this is like, you know, I've
00:48:54.860 --> 00:48:57.039
already had to pay a deposit to get my stuff
00:48:57.039 --> 00:48:59.440
out of there. I already had a higher customs
00:48:59.440 --> 00:49:03.340
broker pay an enormous deposit and another bill
00:49:03.340 --> 00:49:06.539
is coming. Yeah, it's like that. That's what
00:49:06.539 --> 00:49:11.980
it is. That's what it is. It's. That's what it
00:49:11.980 --> 00:49:15.960
is. It's like there's it's just insane. And then,
00:49:15.960 --> 00:49:19.420
you know, it's so funny because. I'm in a foreigners
00:49:19.420 --> 00:49:22.480
Facebook group and someone's like, contact the,
00:49:22.480 --> 00:49:25.980
contact the American embassy. And I'm just like,
00:49:26.679 --> 00:49:30.619
you know, I guess one could do that, but this
00:49:30.619 --> 00:49:33.599
is the way business is done here. So as much
00:49:33.599 --> 00:49:39.199
as I want to complain, every country, every locality
00:49:39.199 --> 00:49:42.360
has a way of doing business. And who the F am
00:49:42.360 --> 00:49:46.780
I? to come in here guns blazing I'm gonna contact
00:49:46.780 --> 00:49:49.519
the Merkin Embassy like I don't know I just think
00:49:49.519 --> 00:49:53.039
that's stupid yeah I kind of I kind of agree
00:49:53.039 --> 00:49:55.460
with you because first for some boxes of books,
00:49:55.920 --> 00:49:58.159
for some boxes of books. I don't think it helps.
00:49:58.360 --> 00:50:01.320
It takes up more of my time and mental energy.
00:50:01.519 --> 00:50:03.159
It's kind of like going to small claims court.
00:50:03.300 --> 00:50:05.639
It's like, boy, this this better mean a lot to
00:50:05.639 --> 00:50:07.940
you because it's a lot of energy expended. You
00:50:07.940 --> 00:50:10.920
know what I mean? Just for. Yeah. Like like you
00:50:10.920 --> 00:50:14.400
better be really mad at that person. And and
00:50:14.400 --> 00:50:17.119
I kind of feel that way about about it. I'd rather
00:50:17.119 --> 00:50:19.159
work with the bureaucracy than against it because
00:50:19.159 --> 00:50:22.440
going against it takes. just zaps all of my energy
00:50:22.440 --> 00:50:24.159
and I don't want to I don't want to do that.
00:50:24.440 --> 00:50:28.960
I don't. But also, honestly, we're talking about
00:50:28.960 --> 00:50:32.760
boxes of books here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if it
00:50:32.760 --> 00:50:35.079
was something way important, like, and I think
00:50:35.079 --> 00:50:36.940
about, you know, it's a trade off, like, let's,
00:50:37.139 --> 00:50:38.920
let's just say the embassy would do something,
00:50:39.039 --> 00:50:41.699
I think their energy is better suited to fight
00:50:41.699 --> 00:50:45.340
bigger problems. Me too. Or support bigger causes
00:50:45.340 --> 00:50:49.800
than my boxes of books. Totally agree. Yeah.
00:50:50.440 --> 00:50:53.659
I don't know. It's part of the whole, for me,
00:50:53.719 --> 00:50:56.159
it's a little related to moving. I mean, I know
00:50:56.159 --> 00:50:58.059
your situation going to Doha is a little bit
00:50:58.059 --> 00:50:59.940
different because like you always say Doha is
00:50:59.940 --> 00:51:02.900
like Vegas or the Middle East or something with
00:51:02.900 --> 00:51:08.099
everything like new, but well, I know. But in
00:51:08.099 --> 00:51:11.139
terms of new builds, new builds too, and new
00:51:11.139 --> 00:51:14.579
and shiny new, and here it's very much not like
00:51:14.579 --> 00:51:22.050
that. But this customs thing. is definitely annoying
00:51:22.050 --> 00:51:26.849
me and eating up energy every day. However, it's
00:51:26.849 --> 00:51:31.309
related to how much I think about comfort now
00:51:31.309 --> 00:51:34.389
and what is like you leave your comfort zone
00:51:34.389 --> 00:51:40.570
when you move to another country. But also the
00:51:40.570 --> 00:51:42.889
level of comfort can be so different, like things
00:51:42.889 --> 00:51:48.179
that I took for granted that were comforting
00:51:48.179 --> 00:51:53.039
or we're comfortable in the US do not exist here.
00:51:53.280 --> 00:51:55.579
And I'm okay without it. Yeah. You just kind
00:51:55.579 --> 00:51:58.440
of work around it and then find a different way
00:51:58.440 --> 00:52:03.420
of doing things. Or don't. Or don't. And just
00:52:03.420 --> 00:52:06.599
adapt. Like I think one of the biggest things
00:52:06.599 --> 00:52:10.500
here has been, so I was back in Seattle playing
00:52:10.500 --> 00:52:12.760
with my storage and seeing friends and family
00:52:12.760 --> 00:52:17.889
a few weeks ago. And I met up with a Salvadorian
00:52:17.889 --> 00:52:21.369
friend who has been in the U .S. a while. He
00:52:21.369 --> 00:52:24.329
goes back every year to El Salvador and we're
00:52:24.329 --> 00:52:26.969
in a coffee shop. It's a beautiful day in Seattle,
00:52:27.110 --> 00:52:29.329
like Seattle, Seattle. Like think of the weather,
00:52:29.329 --> 00:52:32.170
right? But it's a beautiful day in Seattle. He's
00:52:32.170 --> 00:52:34.269
like, do you want to sit inside or outside? And
00:52:34.269 --> 00:52:36.610
I look around and I'm feeling all weird. I'm
00:52:36.610 --> 00:52:39.050
like outside, of course. So as we're walking
00:52:39.050 --> 00:52:40.949
out, he looks at me and he's like, oh, what?
00:52:41.349 --> 00:52:44.840
You can't handle air conditioning anymore. And
00:52:44.840 --> 00:52:48.119
he's so right, it didn't feel right. And even
00:52:48.119 --> 00:52:50.199
in Seattle, where it's not that hot, there's
00:52:50.199 --> 00:52:52.699
a couple days that are hot in the air, but it's
00:52:52.699 --> 00:52:57.219
not that hot. And I was shocked at the climate
00:52:57.219 --> 00:53:01.840
control everywhere. Here in most places don't
00:53:01.840 --> 00:53:05.460
have heat or air conditioning. Yeah, you just
00:53:05.460 --> 00:53:09.800
have to either put on a sweater. Yeah. Or, you
00:53:09.800 --> 00:53:12.079
know, feel comfortable in your own, well, in
00:53:12.079 --> 00:53:14.579
your own skin, sort of, I mean. That doesn't
00:53:14.579 --> 00:53:16.980
quite make sense, but I think, you know, it kind
00:53:16.980 --> 00:53:19.980
of is though. It kind of is like when I was going,
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:22.099
I went to the university for two months here
00:53:22.099 --> 00:53:26.099
in my attempt to learn more about Mexican culture,
00:53:26.219 --> 00:53:30.179
geography, and of course, Espanol. And I was
00:53:30.179 --> 00:53:33.539
sitting in these kind of mid -century classrooms
00:53:33.539 --> 00:53:38.920
with. You know, there's like a breezeway out
00:53:38.920 --> 00:53:42.730
there. The hallway is open. And you go into the
00:53:42.730 --> 00:53:44.650
classroom and there's windows on both sides.
00:53:44.929 --> 00:53:46.969
So you get air coming through and everything.
00:53:47.429 --> 00:53:49.909
But it's just like, you always had to have windows
00:53:49.909 --> 00:53:53.030
open for one reason or another. But I just remember
00:53:53.030 --> 00:53:55.550
thinking like, I can't imagine being in a school
00:53:55.550 --> 00:53:59.409
like this in the United States. Like, I just,
00:53:59.409 --> 00:54:02.929
I just can't, I absolutely cannot. And I really
00:54:02.929 --> 00:54:08.820
liked it. It felt so natural to me. places where
00:54:08.820 --> 00:54:10.840
I've seen schools that have like those breeze
00:54:10.840 --> 00:54:13.280
ways that you talk about I've seen them in California,
00:54:13.699 --> 00:54:17.099
but I went to one in Texas as a kid, but they
00:54:17.099 --> 00:54:19.599
had air conditioning. They had air conditioning
00:54:19.599 --> 00:54:21.900
air conditioning would still exist. Yeah. Yeah,
00:54:21.900 --> 00:54:24.480
that that didn't probably heating where I was
00:54:24.480 --> 00:54:27.179
growing up in Chicago because the the winners
00:54:27.179 --> 00:54:29.920
are I mean the weather is so inconsistent and
00:54:29.920 --> 00:54:32.420
so god -awful in the winter and hot in the summer.
00:54:32.880 --> 00:54:36.500
That's That's different. Those are weather extremes
00:54:36.500 --> 00:54:39.840
and Seattle, you get the rain extreme, but you
00:54:39.840 --> 00:54:41.739
don't really get a lot of weather extremes. And
00:54:41.739 --> 00:54:44.320
I think it's just so interesting where was it
00:54:44.320 --> 00:54:46.500
Henry Miller that wrote the air conditioned nightmare?
00:54:47.280 --> 00:54:51.420
I just, I think of that a lot now with respect
00:54:51.420 --> 00:54:56.739
to the United States. Like I understand that
00:54:56.739 --> 00:54:59.380
there's a lot of places that need air conditioning,
00:54:59.380 --> 00:55:03.519
but I also think like as Americans, we abuse
00:55:03.519 --> 00:55:06.780
the hell out of climate control. I think so too.
00:55:06.780 --> 00:55:10.960
I think we get very accustomed to it being a
00:55:10.960 --> 00:55:13.880
certain temperature. Yeah. You know what I mean?
00:55:14.260 --> 00:55:17.840
Yes. And it might fluctuate a little bit in the
00:55:17.840 --> 00:55:19.260
summer. You might want a little cooler in the
00:55:19.260 --> 00:55:20.780
winter. You might want a little warmer, but it
00:55:20.780 --> 00:55:25.940
stays within that range. I mean, it's and it's
00:55:25.940 --> 00:55:29.320
never quite comfortable. But what's funny is,
00:55:30.179 --> 00:55:33.519
yeah, so I grew up, I mean, as a small child,
00:55:33.659 --> 00:55:36.239
we lived in Texas, but then I grew up in New
00:55:36.239 --> 00:55:39.500
Jersey. And so I did not grow up in the Pacific
00:55:39.500 --> 00:55:41.460
Northwest. And I never gelled with the weather
00:55:41.460 --> 00:55:44.300
there. It was always, well, first off, it was
00:55:44.300 --> 00:55:46.699
far too rainy. I don't care what they say. I
00:55:46.699 --> 00:55:48.760
don't care if it's just spitting. It's far too
00:55:48.760 --> 00:55:51.199
rainy because that meant there was low gray cloud
00:55:51.199 --> 00:55:54.239
cover. I felt like it was monotone. and dark
00:55:54.239 --> 00:55:56.739
for me and my mental health. Yeah, it was not
00:55:56.739 --> 00:55:58.960
a good thing. And down here, it's like vibrant
00:55:58.960 --> 00:56:02.239
colors. I love it. But still back to the weather
00:56:02.239 --> 00:56:06.000
thing specifically, one of the things that felt
00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:08.840
uncomfortable to me all the years that I lived
00:56:08.840 --> 00:56:12.940
in Seattle was that. And now, mind you, growing
00:56:12.940 --> 00:56:15.199
up in New Jersey, living in New York City, a
00:56:15.199 --> 00:56:18.809
good chunk of my adult life. There's, you know,
00:56:18.929 --> 00:56:21.510
the three H's in the summer, hazy, hot and humid,
00:56:21.670 --> 00:56:25.730
right? Those days are unbearable. But in Seattle,
00:56:27.190 --> 00:56:29.630
it never felt like summer because I never broke
00:56:29.630 --> 00:56:34.170
a good sweat. Yeah. And so here, I'm really digging
00:56:34.170 --> 00:56:37.230
the fact that I can cycle through different body
00:56:37.230 --> 00:56:40.650
temperatures and room temperatures. And it might
00:56:40.650 --> 00:56:43.969
be uncomfortable, but it's going to be fine in
00:56:43.969 --> 00:56:47.530
another 15 minutes or an hour or whatever. Like,
00:56:48.090 --> 00:56:50.610
I don't know. I like it. It's so funny because
00:56:50.610 --> 00:56:54.250
I didn't love San Francisco weather when I lived
00:56:54.250 --> 00:56:57.210
there. And I know that everyone says that San
00:56:57.210 --> 00:56:59.030
Francisco has the best weather in the country.
00:56:59.449 --> 00:57:02.829
Here's why I didn't agree. Of course, sunny and
00:57:02.829 --> 00:57:05.690
beautiful. There are spring like days that are
00:57:05.690 --> 00:57:12.369
magnificent. But summer is cold. Yeah, I it's
00:57:12.369 --> 00:57:15.389
it's And I want a warm summer. I mean, I just
00:57:15.389 --> 00:57:18.349
I just want a warm summer and you know, I always
00:57:18.349 --> 00:57:21.530
think of It's a Mark Twain quote right where
00:57:21.530 --> 00:57:23.510
he says, oh, yeah, hold this winter I ever spent
00:57:23.510 --> 00:57:25.750
was a summer in San Francisco and then yeah true
00:57:25.750 --> 00:57:29.530
and then the winter is just Cold and rainy like
00:57:29.530 --> 00:57:32.610
in the 50s and rainy which I find miserable I'd
00:57:32.610 --> 00:57:35.170
rather that it's freezing and snowing You know
00:57:35.170 --> 00:57:38.150
what I mean? So there were just so many almosts
00:57:38.150 --> 00:57:41.150
for me in the weather, even though it was incredibly
00:57:41.150 --> 00:57:44.369
temperate and I love San Francisco, though. I
00:57:44.369 --> 00:57:47.050
know, I know. I love San Francisco, but I agree
00:57:47.050 --> 00:57:50.070
with what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, I do, too.
00:57:50.710 --> 00:57:57.099
And what I always felt never quite. Right. Like
00:57:57.099 --> 00:57:59.699
the weather changed so frequently in all the
00:57:59.699 --> 00:58:02.039
micro climates. Oh, throughout the neighborhoods.
00:58:02.260 --> 00:58:04.559
Yeah. Oh, God, I have to pull out a sweater now.
00:58:04.860 --> 00:58:08.199
OK, now I'm hot. You know, it was just I found
00:58:08.199 --> 00:58:11.820
that really kind of annoying. And I could and
00:58:11.820 --> 00:58:14.099
I didn't have air conditioning there, but I could
00:58:14.099 --> 00:58:17.619
never acclimate somehow. And I think back to
00:58:17.619 --> 00:58:21.000
I had a nudist acquaintance when I was when I
00:58:21.000 --> 00:58:23.380
was in Chicago when I was a young woman. Oh,
00:58:23.380 --> 00:58:25.320
in Chicago. I thought you were going to say in
00:58:25.320 --> 00:58:28.559
SF. It was in Chicago, counterintuitively, because
00:58:28.559 --> 00:58:30.300
you're thinking, what are nudists doing there?
00:58:30.739 --> 00:58:33.139
But he was a true - Freezing their balls off.
00:58:33.340 --> 00:58:35.300
Freezing their balls off, exactly. He was just
00:58:35.300 --> 00:58:41.039
a true nudist. He loved nudity. And when I would
00:58:41.039 --> 00:58:42.219
talk to him about it, I'd be like, well, how
00:58:42.219 --> 00:58:45.139
can you - I mean, the weather is just so messed
00:58:45.139 --> 00:58:49.019
up here. How can you possibly just be nude all
00:58:49.019 --> 00:58:51.000
year, especially - I mean, granted, obviously,
00:58:51.059 --> 00:58:53.559
he was nude inside his apartment all year. It's
00:58:53.559 --> 00:58:56.170
not like he went to work naked. And he said,
00:58:56.170 --> 00:58:59.010
you just acclimate. You just do. He said, I barely
00:58:59.010 --> 00:59:01.469
turn on the air conditioning in the summer. Did
00:59:01.469 --> 00:59:04.230
turn on the heat in the winter, because it gets
00:59:04.230 --> 00:59:09.969
really cold. Chicago, yeah. But you do adapt.
00:59:10.570 --> 00:59:12.489
You do adapt. And he didn't fiddle with it much.
00:59:12.750 --> 00:59:14.269
It wasn't like, oh, it's cold. I'm going to go
00:59:14.269 --> 00:59:16.110
turn up the heat. It was just like, no, it would
00:59:16.110 --> 00:59:19.030
be at this temperature. And then he would just
00:59:19.030 --> 00:59:21.929
sort of, if it felt a little chilly, he could
00:59:21.929 --> 00:59:25.949
just shrug it off. Yeah, I feel like I'm definitely
00:59:25.949 --> 00:59:29.389
learning adaptability by moving down here with
00:59:29.389 --> 00:59:33.469
a lot of things, but it's not like the great
00:59:33.469 --> 00:59:36.289
adaptability. It's just kind of like, yeah, whatever
00:59:36.289 --> 00:59:40.449
that stuff doesn't really matter. You know, it's
00:59:40.449 --> 00:59:44.369
like my priorities have really shifted. Yeah.
00:59:45.010 --> 00:59:48.070
Although I kind of felt that anytime I've had
00:59:48.070 --> 00:59:51.769
to adapt significantly to something, my priorities
00:59:51.769 --> 01:00:02.079
shift. So you've had a major shift, though, in
01:00:02.079 --> 01:00:06.739
terms of moving from Virginia to the Middle East.
01:00:07.099 --> 01:00:10.760
And yet something that I find really interesting
01:00:10.760 --> 01:00:12.639
that we're going to be talking about more on
01:00:12.639 --> 01:00:17.340
the next episode is that you are actually writing
01:00:17.340 --> 01:00:20.940
about Appalachia from the Middle East. How's
01:00:20.940 --> 01:00:25.780
that been? That's interesting. Well, I am excited
01:00:25.780 --> 01:00:29.239
because in our next episode, we're going to be
01:00:29.239 --> 01:00:33.579
diving more into Appalachia from someone who's
01:00:33.579 --> 01:00:35.820
spent a lot of time there, but then also has
01:00:35.820 --> 01:00:37.880
a little bit more outsider perspective because
01:00:37.880 --> 01:00:40.739
you've been spending the past year halfway around
01:00:40.739 --> 01:00:43.219
the world. Yeah. And I didn't grow up here. I
01:00:43.219 --> 01:00:48.099
didn't grow up in Virginia. Yeah. Very cool.
01:00:49.420 --> 01:00:52.119
Very cool. So you're moving, you're evolving
01:00:52.119 --> 01:00:56.619
out of your Cold War era. I am into something
01:00:56.619 --> 01:00:59.380
different. This is going to be super cool. It
01:00:59.380 --> 01:01:04.059
is. Let's say goodbye for today. And we'll see
01:01:04.059 --> 01:01:08.139
you guys next week. Adios. Amigo.