Made uh dess a face sunny sun on. I hadasione nice so Rache,
what's up? Everybody happy for crying out loud day? Hello? Why don't
we have our for crying out? For crying out loud day? Jersey Shore
kids have a Jersey Shore Day? That just happened. Good. Yeah,
they threw them a parade and everything. Where's our parade? I just remembered
something that I have to tell you about too. Just reminded me of something
that Okay, but first let's say hi to everybody. Aaron landis Aaron Landho
Aaron who is? Rachel Stole a newcomer, Randy may Ames, you got
a lot of names, Nikki call your girls. And Ashley So she can
Leslie, she can't stop. She's hanging out in front of the seven eleven
instant everywhere. You're You're very seeing yourself. Leslie. We we we see
you. We're on to you. Jacob is so Growley, Rita rocks that
basinet full of Elizabeth Williamson's one hundred kids. Hero's got a fan club?
Yeah, basically, Kathena, You've got a fan club from me and Lennette.
That's we love you, Polly, We love your pancakes. Valerie,
Bubba Fenwick hits out of the park, Katerina, good girl, that Moeler,
Gabby and Missy. There's a warrant out for the first saw that on
the crawl and there's an APB. Yeah, APB, she hate it on
When you're listening to a crime podcast and they say they put out an APB
that means all points bulletin. Yeah, we know, then just call it
all points bulletin if you're going to have to explain it. Yeaholo, Yeah,
be on the lookout. Yeah, they'd say that, and then it's
like, well, then don't say bolo in the first place. I thought
it was one of those skinny ties that cowboys wear. I didn't know.
Thank you anyway, Cute Kelly Branch's not your aunt, but she will take
you to plan parenthood. Alicia Esquealante Leslie with the coughing, already coughing,
Sarah Stefano, Yes, Stefano's my Paisano. Jennifer, get up, Sandra,
it's not easy being green. CHRISA gets stroop. You make Stephanie stinker
wrinker. You know what's so funny? As Sonny came to my uh my
door, in my room the other day. Uh, because he goes to
school on the late freight, he goes an hour later than Italia. So
anyway, he comes to on Friday. Uh, he's like, so Ma,
he goes, we had to write a letter to a senator. Oh
and uh in our in our government class last week, and everybody picked these
different So he goes, I picked. He goes, do you know Dianne
Feinstein? Yeah, Sonny, I know, Oh Diane. He goes,
you know she died, Yeah, I know, she died today. And
he goes, So everybody picked all these different senators. I for some reason
just picked her. So I wrote a letter to her. And I was
like, well, I want to read your letter. And he's like,
it's at school and he goes, and we're supposed to mail it to them,
and he goes. I showed it to Hendrake and he his friend,
Hendrake Spinniley friend Hendrake. He's smart as fuck. Uh, he goes who.
He goes, you picked Diane Finestaing And he looks her up and he
goes, she's ninety. She'll probably be dead before you get the letter,
before she gets your letter. Oh wow, yeah, got so Sonny and
I go oh and then if the person writes back, they get like a
five dollars coupon to like slurpies. Oh that's not fair or so I know.
So I said, I go, what's gonna happen? Are you gonna
get a free slurpee out of it? Are you disqualified? And he goes,
I don't know. He goes, I'll find out when I get to
school. So I don't know what happened. But yeah, no, funny
got its wild a in an interesting Alanis Morris at way. Isn't it ironic?
Don't you think, kaylin Hi, you had a a first Yeah,
tell us. We finally took the girls to the movies for the first time.
There's a new Paw Patrol movie out. It's scary taking your kids to
the movie theater for the first time. Yeah, yeah, I was a
little I was a little nervous, But then again, it's like, okay,
this there's only kids in this movie theater anyway, So even if they
start acting up, it's like, it's gonna be fine because their old parents
are gonna understand. But it's funny because you know, they started watching Paw
Patrol and they got kind of into it and now when we, you know,
go to you know, it's like, Okay, what do you want
to watch? They never pick Paw Patrol, Like, they never really choose
to watch that show, but in their minds it's still kind of their favorite
show. I got them little like Paw Patrol stuffed animal for their birthdays and
it's become like their go to like they need, like if we don't like
the blanky Is Blake's, the things that cannot happen to these things the Blanky's
Blakes and I always got a little panda, So that's been their number ones
ever since they were babies. But their secondary ones are these little Paw Patrol
stuffies that I got for them, and they take them pretty much everywhere they
go. But like I said, they don't really watch the show that much
anymore, but it's funny that in their minds it's still like their favorite show.
I think we're gonna do that for Halloween. I'm not sure. Yeah.
Yeah. So So when you took them to the theater, did they
look up at the screen and go what that? Wow? Well, we
prepped them for that, were like, oh, there's gonna be a screen.
It's bigger than the house. It's gonna be great loud, and they
seem pretty excited about it. Loud dark. So yeah, we took them
there. We got them some popcorn. We got there real early too,
and it was one of those theaters with the chairs that moves so you hit
it and they were clins. Yeah yeah, yeah, so yeah, only
one I'll go to. You know me too, oh spoiled. Yeah,
Blake was having a bit too much fun with that. I had to tell
her at some point. And yeah, Blake got really excited when she saw
her little stuffed animal up on the screen. And Blake did seem to enjoy
it. She was having some fun. Did you have to explain what previews
are because did you have to keep going like this isn't the movie? Yeah?
Yeah, well yeah we did. It's like why isn't it starting?
Why is then't It's like, no, no, it's coming after this one.
Okay, no after okay, no, after this one, It's coming.
And then they did a weird thing. It was like it was some
weird like Door the Explore mini movie. Oh okay, institu Yeah, I
thought it was like a trailer for a Door the Explore thing, but it
wasn't. It was like a whole story that they did that probably took like
ten or fifteen minutes. I was like, this is strange, but okay,
finally the movie starts. The lights go down, and I was not
super into it. She doesn't really seem to care. She's not like crying,
but she's not very excited either. Blake seemed to be a bit excited
for a little while, but she mostly just wanted to move the chair around
and then sit on mommy's lap and then go back and said on my lap
and uh yeah. And then afterwards I was like, nah, I didn't
like it. Wow, the writing or the acting, like the voice acting.
Yeah, she wasn't into it, and I was like, oh,
okay, well that was kind of a letdown. But Blake liked it,
I guess, And so yeah, maybe it'll be like Disneyland where it'll hit
him later and they'll be like remember when we went to that movie, right,
Yeah, I'm guessing that's what it'll be like. But yeah, oh
my god, I was so bored. Yeah. Yeah, the movie's like,
well, the good thing is is it's a movie with other kids,
so you're not yeah, now you're watching Shindler's List or something The worst movie
I ever sat through kids movie was the Emoji movie. Oh Got I mean
it was like torture. I felt like I was being tortured. I was
like and the kids where I think I believe too young to just like leave
them in there. And I kept thinking it was gonna be over any minute,
because you know, it's a kid's movie. It no story. It
was just like, hey, kids love emojis, right, let's just put
some fucking emojis and make a move and just nothing happens. There's no pla
like. It was just like and another thing I don't like about a lot
of kids movies, even like the big ones that everybody loves, there's always
a part where just things get chaotic and there's a lot of noise and a
lot of explosions, and like it's every movie starts out kind of quiet and
like, yeah, builds up a little story, and then it's like there
is some kind of hurricane and you know, everybody's blowing up, and it's
like and it's got you got to sit through. Tell it's like an hour
of okay, you know, dialogue. Then the big action starts right and
tension builds and how are they going to get out of the situation they're in,
right, And it's loud and obnoxious for forty five minutes, yes,
and then when it comes I know the rhythm because I would take the kids
and movies and fall asleep and I'd go brace myself because I go, I
know it's gonna get loud in about an hour and ten minutes and I'm gonna
have to sit through that. I know. It's just it's like and then
you think to yourself, like, how do these movies get green lit?
Like this is your script? There's not even a story. Okay, it's
a moji movie, but like have a story, right. I was surprised
at how loud it actually was, considering, you know, there's just a
bunch of kids in here. I mean, obviously this is Paw Patrol,
so they you know, they solve crime, and so of course there's tons
of explosions. That exact blueprint is how the movie unfolds, and there are
lots of and I was like, wow, this is really loud for even
like I was not. I was expecting them maybe to turn it down a
little bit. Yeah, No, it's freaking loud too. Yeah. Yeah.
I remember when I took lb to her first movie ever. It was
Shrek. It must have been Shrek two, even Shrek, maybe Shrek three.
We get in the theater, lights go down, Elbe's done like she
the curtain open. Elbe was like no way, started crying, screaming.
I had to bring her out of the theater. She was like and then
I had to just I had been driven there with my friend and her boyfriend,
so I had to basically just like walk Elby around. Yeah, the
I think we were at like Hollywood and Highland. Yeah, she walked around
for like. Yeah. I was worried Ila was gonna be like that because
she's kind of like me. She's a bit of sensory issues. You know,
things can tend to be a bit too much for her. That's like
how I was when I was a kid. Uh So I was thankful that
at least that didn't happen. We didn't have to leave. She was she
seemed fine. Yeah, I can't remember my kids' first movie. I'm trying
to think, like way back, I know that they were so into cars
the movie cars, and at some point cars too came out and we were
just like, no, this is not good. If you like the planes
in the mix. Yeah, yeah it sucked. Maybe it was planes.
It wasn't playing. There was another movie playing that was that one was sucked.
Yeah, no, Pixars. They're falling offul together because all Pixar movies
were so good, every single one of them, every single one of them.
Monsters ain't such a good movie. Incredible, incredible. Yeah. Toy
story, yes, really great movie toy stories. Yeah. Oh yeah,
all the toy stories. And now I think their last like really good one
was Inside Out. We watched that. That one's really good, but I
don't think that they've really been Yeah. How's those swimming lessons? Oh those
have been done for a while. Yeah. So now it's just I was
in soccer. Soccer, Yeah, soccer is going well. She scored more
goals this weekend, and one other girl on the team gets super into it,
and so it's them too, and then the other. Then there's a
third girl that's like, she's into it, but she gets very emotional,
very quickly, so a lot of running back to her mom and crying when
anything happens. But at least you know she's doing her part when she needs
to be the other two they could not give a fuck. They just stand
around waddling and they're just kind of in it, not really and yeah that's
kind of the dynamic of our team right now. You're gonna get so competitive,
Yeah, I could just picture it. Or you're just gonna be like,
come on, just wait, you pick up your feet. Were yelling
at the parents like get your kids like side out even though it's in soccer
now. Yeah, it's gonna be uh, it'll be fun if they stick
with it. Yeah, she seems to really like it and she's pretty good
at it, which is nice. And then today she's starting dance again.
So now we got dance and soccer and then whatever thing they're doing for the
schools, which is every now and then. So it's getting busy and like
it's not even doing any of it yet. So yeah, by this time
next year, I don't know. I am so excited that I'm at the
point where the kids tell me what's going on. Like I get the all
the even though they're in high school. I get all these emails like it's
spirit week this week. We just got back and I had Sadie telling me,
oh, it's tomorrow, as we're going we have to go as our
favorite like cartoon character. Really what should I don't know what or animated?
No, it's something animated. And I was like, I got nothing.
I don't know the Incredibles. I told her, I have a T shirt
for John that's a Banana Splitz T shirt. But then I was like,
no, that's actually was live action from like the sixties seventies. Anyway,
Sadie just looked at me, just gave me serious side and then and then
came in and was like, Oh, I'm going as Kim Possible or something,
and Xander was going Xander was going as a maybe Xander was Kim Possible
and Sadie was something else. Xander always said Xander had an eyeliner on Oh
really yeah, very cool school. It's you know, it's funny when you
were talking about your stuffies with your kids. Yeah, and that was what
I got. So lucky on that one, by the way, because there's
this indoor playplace I've talked about where we take them and they're always kind of
in the windows, and you know, we would get them a lot of
stuffies over the years and they would really like it for like a day or
two, and then it just goes on the bed or in the pile or
whatever, and I just like, I took them one day and it was
Isla's birthday, so it's just the one off. I was like, I
took them there, Amy took them home, and I went, you know
what, let me just buy one of these for each of them. They
didn't even seem to be into it that much anymore, but right, what
do you know, that's like their favorite. They won't let them go now.
So I looked out with that one. Well, I was going to
tell you about the stuffies? Is that you never know? Yeah, because
on this college trip with Natalia, she's got her blankie in her suitcase like
she travels, and she when she was younger, she i at she had
a pink one and he had a blue one. She took Sonny's blue one,
and she to this day travels with that blue blankie in her and she
uses it as a pillow, like that's her pillow. Alb has a purple
blanket does It was from Pottery Barn kids. I think it's like a little
it feels like oh uh huh. It's that kind of that kind of feeling
like a valori and it's a kind of like a thick and I always had
it since she was yeah, literally like a few months old. Yeah,
and Natalia still travels with I couldn't. I mean Sonny. He still has
his pet and his hourly owl and he uses those. Those are his two
stuffies. The pd was a pet, the panda that when they got their
pacifiers taken away at age three, I said, we can go to build
a bear and you can get you know, this will be your new pacifier
kind of thing. So he went to build a bear. He built his
panda and he it has the thing where you squeeze the hand and it goes,
I love you, I love you. Natalia snuffed that right out the
life out of Paty like early, like a dog. She likened. She
broke his arm so like his little pot like a rattles. It makes a
rattle. Say it does not speak anymore because and Adam and Sonny will say,
yeah, she she snuffed a life. But he still sleeps with with
p D and Ali and his owl, and he uses them as pillows.
I don't think he brings them with him if he spends the night. But
he took it to a band with him and he goes when he goes to
Monterey with Adam. He takes p d and Ali owl with him. Oh
my god, right now, I wonder if that's like a very common thing.
I think it is. Xander Sadie needs nothing. Sada's look really tough.
But Xander had these little we call him, uh, well, this
is gonna sound so goofy, but we call it his. It's his fuffuff
Oh yeacause our friend had there were these little blankets that came from Target.
They're like a square, They're like a big square, and they have little
tags on them. Taggy blankets. Yeah, they have these little like ribbony
tags all over the well. Xander loved it so much when he was a
baby that we ended up getting like four of them because when Casey lost one,
like they all look exactly the same, and so we would you know,
if one got lost or one time one fell off on his way to
the park, and like we we had to anyway, That's when I was
like, oh, we got to buy we gotta buy some more backups.
Right, still has like three of them in his bed. It's fufuzz.
That's funny because if Ila's panda, it's like a little it's fairly small.
My mom got it for her at some handcrafted store over in England. I
mean, we didn't know that my mom still has my panda, like my
stuffy that I called it Sugar. That was my panda that I loved when
I was a kid. My mom kept it, gave it to Ila and
she has it on her bed. She likes this other one that my mom
got her instead. But then Ala took a liking to this little panda and
liked it so much. We were like, Okay, we need to get
another one of these. Moms. You gotta go. You gotta go over
to that store and get another one. She had to like, She's like,
oh where did I get it? I go back there. She was
looking for it for a while. She was able to get one that looks
ninety five percent the same that maybe just without some of the wear and tear,
and brought it over and it's not going to fool Eielay. She knows
that's yeah. We can't interchange them out. It's clear. Even yesterday we
had to throw a pant in the wash because he was getting a little dirty,
and I tried to get her to go take the second one out and
she wasn't halfing it. Oh they know, it's like the way it smells,
the way it feels. Yes, yes, yes, But Elbie is
going to be nineteen and she still sleeps with purple blanket and I will still
see her sometimes, like when she's tired or maybe like stressed or something.
I'll be talking to her in her room and she'll be holding purple blanket and
just kind of like stroking it, like yeah, running her hand back and
forth over it. Her face. Isn't that so it's so interesting? Yeah?
Yeah, you know what, you know, it's comforting. Today's show
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com slash f coo. So last night, Sunday evening, I uh just
get back with an Italian In the afternoon Sunny's home, Natalia is chilling with
her boyfriend, phone not working, half on, half off, and I'm
like, you guys want to eat. I'm gonna make a dinner again.
And I've been looking at you know, I love TikTok, this thing called
TikTok because it gives you all these different recipes and like like a snap and
then you get inspired. So do you search for recipes? You know,
it's because I follow uh Mommy, No Napiya, she's so freaking cute,
No Napia, what's for dinner? And her grandson the way he talks to
her, it's just the cutest thing. So because of that, there's this
other hot Italian guy that shows up in my feed now that is showing off
his you know, cooking, and he made like this pasta that looked so
fricking good. And the reason why I'm wearing slippers today is because of I
made dinner last night, and I'll tell you why. So it was kind
of confusing the weekend because I was taking Natalia out of town. Sonny was
gonna be staying at home now, Adam, I guess, you know,
we do have a schedule, so it was his weekend to be with the
kids, but I, unbeknownst to me, he was traveling, so Olga
was there. Now, Sonny can be fine by himself, but I think,
you know, Olga was around, like you know, she's got a
grandchild now, so she was coming late in the evening and just I guess
spending the night and then leaving in the morning. But she's told me this
a couple times and I completely forgot. But yesterday she was around yesterday and
she which is un She's usually not around on Sundays. I was like,
why are you here. She's like, well, I'm gonna be gone for
two weeks, and I was like, oh okay. So now it's you
know, how's Natalia getting to work kind of thing. That's why I gotta
like, she's got to get to work and she's got to get picked up,
you know, every day except for Fridays or whatever and Wednesdays. Now
I think I don't know it reduced her hours yet now, not yet.
I mean, she only she's only there for like three hours to begin with,
but she should I think. I think during I think she's gonna keep
going till Christmas break. I think I'm not sure, but that's what I'm
hoping for it anyway. But anyway, and then there's other stuff just kind
of you know, the house is getting shown a lot, and if that's
the case, you know, we gotta clean the place and the place's got
to be vacuum the fill, hair fills. Another story. Oh my god,
this guy got out again while I was in the backyard. He I
think our fence doesn't clatch. There's another fence that a gate that's like way
far off the property. Why you giggling, Kaylen. It sounded like you
just mixed together. I was like, that works, it works, Yeah,
it doesn't. You know, it doesn't close or latch. Yeah,
that's my point. I'm trying to get to the point. So anyway,
he's been getting out, so that the point is is that goes down in
our house, you know, And there's days that I'm not there, so
now I'm gonna be there a lot more. But anyway, last night I
was like, I'm gonna cook dinner spur the moment. So I made this
bukatini. Have you ever made bugatini? It's my favorite pasta. I don't
even know what it is either. Okay, it's not linguini and it's not
spaghetti. It's around the same thing. It's not angel hair. No,
it's thicker, it's pretty. It's not thick, thick, but it is
a step above spaghetti and a step below linguini in my opinion. And it's
it's looks like spaghetti, but it's it's actually if you look at it,
it's round. It's like a tube, but without an open it's without a
hole, Okay, if that makes sense. Yeah, so it's a it's
a round pasta okay. And it's long like spaghetti. Okay, it is
freaking If you see it, you'll and I'll post pictures of it. So
this guy on the video is making spaghetti, but I love Bugatini's my favorite,
and we had it. So I made olive oil with guards is the
cooking show now, but like olive oil. The guy like you like he
gets the olive oil boiling almost like in the pan uh huh, coats the
pan, but like with maybe a two inches worth of of olive oil,
and then takes the gar like I would slice the garlic like in good Fees,
but this guy takes the garlic gloves and smashes it and makes it flat,
puts it in and then it sizzles and the garlic gets cooked. And
then right after you turn the heat down. Then I cut up cherry tomatoes,
yellow and red cherry tomatoes, cut the cut those up, put some
salt over them, through those oh basil, and all the screwed me because
she was like, I was gonna go to the store, and she's like
she was leaving and I was telling her what I was gonna make, and
she goes, no, no, we got basil. We got basil,
No, bitch, we didn't. We had only a little bit. And
this calls for a lot of bae basil. It would have been a lot
better with more basil. But anyway, we had one of the little containers
and some of them were dark and rotten already, right, so that's what
I was working with. But anyway, so put the tomatoes and you just
like sauteam and then a little bit of water and then you cover them.
You cover it, and then they kind of steam and then they get like
mushy, and then you so you do all that anyway, and then and
then you boil the bugatini and then you take after the spaghetti's ready, you
put it into this the saute pan. Just I always think, you know,
you take the spaghetti, you put it on the plate, and you
pour the sauce over it. No, no, no, this guy took
the spaghetti from the pot into the pan and mixed it all up with tomato
and garlic and basil, and then he took the takes the parmesan and regatta,
regatta parmesan. Uh romana. It's the mix of is it romano?
Romano? Sorry? Romano and parmesan. I had just parmesan, So I
sprinkled all the parmesan cheese and uh in there, mixed it all, get
all that sop up that sauce, put it on the plate. Kids freaking
loved it, really loved it. Yeah, and they all ate dinner with
me. But my point with the slippers is is I thought I was sleeping
there because I didn't you know, you travel you forget, and I was
just thinking, oh, Adam's out of town, so and he was having
ogus stay here, so I thought, oh, it's Sunday. I don't
know. I was just I got back from the trip. I'm making dinner.
I'm sleeping there. Well, then I get a text like he's on
He's going to be home in like an hour. So I'm like, and
at that point, dinner's not even ready yet. So I'm like, you
know, and I don't care if he comes, like whatever, it's up
to him, right, But I guess he was tired. It was Sunday
night. So anyway, I was like, I told him, I said,
I made dinner, and he's like, I'll wait. So like he's
outside. So anyway, I gather my stuff, I get up, I
clean up, put the food away, and I leave and I go to
my condo and I don't have any tennis shoes, any other shoes at my
condox up for high heels or flip flops, and so now I'm wearing my
slippers today. Where are your shoes at the house. That's what happens when
you do this nesting thing. You know, it's like someplace there's some stuff
at my condo, but most of the stuff is at my house. And
you know, I was traveling, I kicked off my shoe who was at
home, put on my slippers and then not that and then I I don't
have any kind of shoes at the condo. Let me ask you, like
a personal question. Yeah, does Adam like clean that much? Or like
when you go to sleep in your bed, do you have to feel like
like I want to wash the sheets or you know what I mean? Yeah,
no, no you do like does he change the sheets or do I
change? Just because I know he doesn't. He's not into having like a
housekeeper. No, no, she doesn't clean. No, she's not the
only thing she she she does like the dishes or whatever, and she'll she'll
vacuum up dog hair in the kitchen, but no she doesn't go and do
bedroom. Now, So do you feel like you have to come home and
like I I do all that, like you know, twice once every other
week, and I do like a cleaning day and I change the sheets.
And although like the bathroom is my the master bell, like he's got his
space downstairs, like his office, that's where usually he's his clothes and all
his grooming stuff is in his bathroom downstairs. You know, we're lucky enough
to have this situation, so I have my own space upstairs. I mean,
yes, he does pee and the sink I'm kidding, I'm kidding,
I don't. I think the sink is too high this house. But you
have to make sure it's clean for when people are coming over, right,
Oh that yes, yes, oh yeah, yeah, he's not cleaning and
yeah, I mean the house needs to look like a showroom like so each
room. In fact, the kids have stuff for their bed that is folded
and put it into their closet. Right, So when the people come to
look at the house, Pete and Ali, I'll get covered up with the
nice bedspread. So is it all really planned for when people are gonna come
by? Or is there ever any Yes, there's fun because the house is
still for sale, so we'll take what we can get. If the realtor
is like, hey, I got somebody wants to come today at three o'clock,
I gotta get over there. Or if I'm not there, Olga's there,
So somebody's got to get there and clean up the right mess. Have
there been a lot of people coming? There's been some people I like I
said, we had to put a pause because of the mold, right,
but now it's been back in action and there's been some people coming by.
But like here we are, I mean, look at I was like thinking,
oh god, we're gonna move in the middle of senior year, you
know, but so far we're staying put until the house gets sold. So
we'll see, got it. Yeah, so a lot a lot going on.
And then there was a dog that ran into our backyard last night while
we were outside. Oh wow, little his name was Compass and Sonny and
he got lost. So he like, he's a little like this a little
dog, and he came and ran it. He saw Phil, so he
came up and said hi to Phill and like squeeze through the fence and was
in our backyard. But then they were calling for him. They weren't,
you know, the owners weren't. But then they left and Sonny goes,
it's ironic. The dog's names Compass and he got lost. So yeah,
before last week, Yes, I read my book for Audible. Yeah,
yeah, I cannot wait for that freaking book because Stephanie, I was traveling
and I wanted a book to listen to. It. It's oh to you
have to listen to it, right, yeah, so that I think the
audible version doesn't come out until like when the book is released. But uh,
yeah, it was. It was kind of crazy. I mean,
it wasn't crazy, but it was like you're really reading. I read.
So they set me up for three record days, okay last week, and
then there were supposed to be three record days this week. They thought it
was They estimated it would take between twenty seven and thirty hours to read the
whole book. They based it on like how many pages is, et cetera.
But I got it all done in three sessions and it yeah, so
it was from ten to three day, one day two, and then the
last day it was like ten to like one thirty. I was done.
So how does this work? Like, so you do you have a director?
That's that's so you sit in a booth and I had. So.
The funny thing is that the last time I recorded books was a long time
ago because I haven't written a book since Gummy Bears. And when I recorded
Gut I recorded Gummy Bears, it was a pain in the ass. Like
I remember, of course, I wanted to record myself this book because I
wrote it, so I know how things should. I know how it sounds
in my head, and I want to say it the same way. You
don't want to like listen to your book and know that somebody didn't quite get
the joke that you were making, or you know, I don't know,
not that I'm so good at it, because I'm not. And there were
a couple of times where I was like, oh, I'm having to try
to do different voices. That's what I'm talking about, Like how is that
ye? Or like if I'm if I'm doing like John's voice, I try
to differentiate it and I sound like I'm doing like kind of a douchey like
oh, Stephanie, you know, but like you got to kind of differentiate
it a little bit. Because I don't write every I don't. I try
not to write, she said, he said, she said, I said,
he said, Like it's it's too repetitive sounding. If you do that,
if you're looking at a book, you can see that a different person
is talking right right right, so you can you can understand what's going on
when you're reading it, but if you're listening to it, you have to
somehow make it clear that a different person is talking, so you have to
at least put a little something extra on the other voice. But anyway,
my point is when I read Gummy Bears and then I had to go back
in to do sippy cups and nap time, I was working with this guy
who was like he was basically the engineer. He was the one recording it
for me, but he was very argumentative, like there'd be a word or
if I try to say something, even just change one word like an A
to the he'd be like, Nope, gotta go back and do it again,
where sometimes I'd be like yeah, but like the meaning, like the
way I'm saying it is how I would say it, you know, even
just making a contraction like I cannot believe. I'd say I can't believe,
and he's like, nope, you have to say it the way it's written.
Really, it was kind of a dick, so I was braced for
that. But the guy had a guy super nice. And then somebody from
Simon and Schuster was like my director, but she didn't really direct me that
much, but she was super nice, very compliment like every time she'd be
like, oh I love that read, or you know, she had me
take like a line or two over here and there. But wow, is
it hard to read listen to your own voice? Really for five hours?
Just I mean we didn't take a lunch or it was just me just reading
my book. But I will say that like I wasn't I wasn't mad at
it. Yeah, like you know, you can you know, it can
just be you. I was braced for having to read the book and being
like, ah, hey, this part's not good or whatever, but I
was like, oh, like it's pretty good, Like I love art on
it. Yeah. So and then at the end. I don't know if
you saw the Sex and the City reboot and just like that, I've been
watching little bits and pieces of it. Well there's an episode where Sarah Jessica
Parker has to read her book and she's getting emotional during part of it,
and I was like, oh my god, that kind of happened to me.
And the second to last chapter is about my father and I was like,
oh, I got a little like choked up. But then they were
like do you need a minute, and I'm like, nah, I'm fine.
Just just for a second. I was like, oh, it's like
yeah, I'm going to take it home and read it. You can just
wait. It's good. It'll be on audible. You can listen to it.
Although you listen to my stupid voice for hours every week. I like
hearing your voice, I'm telling you. Like, I was like, it
would be great if I had Stephanie's book on audible to listen to. We
should see if they'll do like an early release for friends, likely release written
book they have that, Yeah, why not audible for people who need the
audible? Yeah, send me the file. All right, let's take a
quick break, right, yep, Okay, we're back. I thought that
story would be better than it really was. Take that date on my life.
Yeah, Like in podcasting when you think about like, oh, I'm
gonna talk about this story and then you bring it up and it's like,
no, that was really no, But I'm that was interesting. I'm glad
you brought up the audio because I don't know how, like when Teresa was
talking about it too, like you know, I don't know how they you're
in a room. Yeah, So like it was interesting because this part was
sort of interesting because it was just at a house. So they took this
house just on a residential street and they turned it into a studio. So
all of the bedrooms are these suites, so they don't look like bedrooms anymore.
So there's an area where the engineer sits and is like doing all the
you know, okay action, you know. But I was in a little
soundproof booth. I couldn't see anybody. So I've got the producer or the
director from Simon in my ear. I have headphones on, I can hear.
It would be like if Kaylen was in his booth and we were sitting.
You were sitting in a studio, but I'm in like a little box
and I'm reading my book off of like an iPad. Well, I'm sure
it was just like our old studio with all the things on the walls.
Yeah, he was in a kind of a room like that. And then
I was sitting in a little like it was like the size of a little
closet, just room for a chair and a desk. And then I have
the iPad and I can talk, and I have headphones on, so I
wasn't looking at anybody, so I was just literally like by myself. Yeah,
that's so bizarre. And I had to have my phone on airplane mode,
so it'd be like we'd read for a while a chapter and then we'd
take like five minutes and I'd check and see if anybody was, you know,
right, because I got add so I'm like, yeah, you can
only do it for so long, like sit there and focus on the words
on the page. And there would be times where I was like I don't
even understand, like I can't say that. There were certain sentences that I
was like, this is like a tongue twister. I literally can't get this
sentence out articulating right, you know, because you have to just be careful
and articulate each sentence so people can understand it, but then also sound conversational.
It was hard get you get in your head and then you're like,
I don't I sound weird now that word sounds weird? Yeah, And then
like when you're high and stoned, it was like that, I swear to
god it just because I was also hot. Like at one point I was
like, I'm going to pass out, but I'm going to try to this
chapter. And finally I was like, guys, I gotta i gotta take
a break. Yeah I can imagine. Yeah, Wow, I'm excited though
things It made me excited to see that. I was like, oh,
it's already October. Isn't that great When you like you did a product,
you're reading it and you're like, wow, it's pretty freaking good. I
have to say, like, well, you're proud of considering. Yeah,
And every day writing it was kind of torture. I don't there's nothing that
makes me more anxious and like than a writing deadline where you're like, I
have to write a book and it needs to be good, and then I
every day I'm like, God, I cannot believe someone's paying me to write
a book. I suck at this, like I you know, it just
it takes a while to get back in the mode of writing. But my
whole goal for this book was to try to sound conversational, you know,
and not try to sound like a tryhard like trying to make floweries. Because
sometimes I go into this thing where I'm like trying to sound good, you
know, like and then and trying to make it like like yeah, like
so I sound like a real writer. And then I write it that way,
and then I go back and read read it and I'm like, oh,
do I think I'm kidding? It doesn't sound like stupid? Yeah?
Yeah, I mean like I mean, I can't cannot compare at all.
But like reading the kids's essays and helping them write their essays is a little
daunting too, like you know, like you want them to put their best
foot forward, especially with my kids, you know, and and their their
you know, their grades and stuff. So like they really got to put
together a really polished essay and I want them to have the And Natalia was
just gonna send it off without me reading it or anything. And I gotta
say, like her college counselors, I don't know if writing's not his strong
suit, but like what like at one point, she said she was trying
to describe her dad, like what her dad does, and he kept putting
celebrity and she's like, I changed it out. I don't want to use
the word celebrity. And then she gave it to him again and he changed
it back again, and she's like and I was like, Okay, now
I know we're dealing with like no, no, no, no, can
I like I want to like, let me help you, let me help
you, And I'm a writer. Does the celebrity aspect though, like kind
of little influence into their decision to let someone into the school, Like if
that's the case, then that's what I was thinking. Maybe he's just like,
oh well, maybe this I can help. It's this, that's what
I and I should talk to him too, But like about that. But
there's other ways of saying, like my father is a you know, professional
broadcaster slash comedian, Like I think that's all you need. Yeah, it's
just a professionals And it's implied, right, She's wanted. She wants to
say what her father does for a living and he didn't go to college,
like her whole thing is he didn't go to college, and he thinks,
you know, hard work and you know, finding out what your passion is
is, you know, can be better sometimes than going to college or whatever
it is. So you know she's trying to so anyway, I see what
she's trying to do, but and what he's trying to do. But yeah,
they're like, there are other ways of saying somebody's a celebrity without saying
celebrity. Elbe. When she was doing her essays, if this makes you
feel any better? Yeah, not that I thought her college counselor was that
great because she didn't know what an impacted major was, right or she did,
but she didn't think that applied to anyway. It doesn't really matter.
The point is she was great at helping Elbe form her essays. So like
LB was brainstorming and then she was like, okay, you need this part
to open, and then you need to describe this, and then like here's
how you know, and then an ending. But when it came to the
actual writing one of Elbe's she basically like cut the balls off the thing.
Like I was like, well, the part that's interesting and fun and personality.
She crossed it all out and Elbie re read it to me and I
was like, oh, hell no, no, that was the good part
of the essay. She made it sound like a super standard, generous sounding
essay. She took your personality out of it, put your personality back in.
Yeah. Yeah, So I just told her. I was like,
listen, you gotta go with your own instincts on certain things. But for
sure, Elbie read me a couple of hers that were like not good,
like they needed a full rewrite, and I was like, okay, so
how did you do that? Like did you? I saw her? Well,
we when we got to the point where I was getting mad because she
wasn't you know, remember when she came in and was a guest and said
there was a part where my mom was like, you're not leaving until you
do this, because she thought it was just going to be way easier to
write than it was. So she wrote kind of half asked it. So
I was like, okay, let me hear them, right, mar what
you got? Yeah, you're sitting home before you send it off. So
she read it to me and I was like, hmmmmm, the one that
you worked on really hard, that one's good. We're good on that.
The second one needs a little bit of finn but the third and fourth ones
I was like, no, no, this is not a fully fleshed out
idea. Even so then we talked it through. She didn't get upset.
She was just like okay, And I was like, look, why don't
you I don't like. I was like, how do you feel about this?
Like what is the thing that you're trying to say? And then she
sort of articulated it to me. I was like, okay, write that
down, and then I really I helped her. I was like, what
if you open it like with this? And then I wasn't like dictating it
to her by any stretch of the imagination. It would have sounded like an
adult wrote it. But I was like, what if you opened it like
with this part and then now write something about that, Now write something about
this, and then and then she and then she'd be like, oh,
I have an idea, okay, and I know how it's going to end.
And then then I left her alone. She rewrote, came back in,
listened to it. I was like, Okay, this is much closer.
I still think the ending needs to have this. And then I would
try to get her to take out a few things because she would get married
to everything she writes, which I totally understand. Right, She'd be like,
but I think that part sounds really good, and I was like,
I think you already said like four descriptive words about that. I think you
know right, less is more anyway, and then like that. But it
was painstaking. It took I mean it took with two days. Yeah,
I told Natalia, I said, you know, well, first of all,
we were going to work on it on the plane ride home, but
as I described previous podcast, right, it was a big kashaw right,
No, nothing was working anyway. Then we get home and everybody's exhausted,
so anyway we have that we have. I told her, I said,
I want you to carve out a few hours so that I can sit with
you and we can like re you know, not redo it, but like
polish it. And but this like it's a good it's maybe Stephanie, you
should teach like a side thing on how to how to help your child write
their college essay. I mean there are people that really do that. There
are college essay There's one called the college essay guy. You can outside of
your college counselor do like a little service where they it's not even like a
class. They'll just help your kid with their essay send the essay to them.
But I mean I can do it. I could. You could.
She could send it to me if you want. Well, I just I
was thinking, like how to sit with her and have her like give her
ideas and you know, just then hasten to it and you'll tell you'll know,
like, Okay, this isn't sounding so smooth or like it needs a
better slightly better ending. How else could you end it? You know,
just ask her questions about it, like how do you feel? How did
this make you feel? Like make sure there's some passion in there, make
sure it doesn't sound too stilted to like, and then I feel that it
Also one thing that helped me was I went online and I looked at a
lot of essays. Winning college essays, uh huh yeah, and then go
with the ones that are the most like, don't worry about if the style
is something that's not what you like. Some of the ones that get kids
into college are super fucking braggy. And that's not what Elbie was going to
be doing because a regular kids, she doesn't have a million. She's not
talking about how she like, you know, came up with a cure for
cancer, you know, have a light bulb moment happened for her when she
looked at cell A and sell like, that's not going to be her essay.
So I kind of tried to keep in my brain some of the ones
that most college essays feel like you're telling a story. They shouldn't sound really
dry, yeah, I think. And and then Sunny read me one of
his and I actually was like, Wow, that's really pretty good, Like
I understand like what he was getting at, had the passion he used,
you know, his vocabulary was really great, you know, but I still
want to work with, so I have to set him some time with him.
She's more on a deadline though, because she wants to do this early
decision stuff. So and he's coming up on his deadline too. But they
both said that they would carve out time to let me. They never let
me help them with anything. They never want to share any like can I
read it before you go, like even their homework and stuf like I got
it, I got it. I'll show you when I'm done, you know
kind of thing and just tell him good to know that now they will,
Yeah, I say, they don't have a choice. And it has to
be proof read, like you have to hear it for if this something is
really off. Yes, sometimes they won't notice it right. Oh and when
they read it, like Sonny was reading it out loud. See, I
was like, that's why you have to read it out loud. You make
sure to read it out loud because there are times like he was stumbling a
little bit and he's like, oh that doesn't sound right, and he fixed
it. So yeah. So but they both said that they would that they
understand that that this is important for their common up right. This is their
like personal statement or whatever. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, so
all right, all right, well I think it will go great and I
fingers crossed, thank you. She wants to go to the world to go,
but keep you posted. All right, Well, before we go,
let's we have a couple last shout outs. Kelly from Wilman Freda got to
plan our Palm Springs or Palm desert. Uh brunch, we need to plan
another, Yes we do. They have a holiday menu, so keep them
in mind for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They do, you know, lots of
just delicious foods. You guys know, woman and Frieda. Also, uh,
Christine Black is with Storybook World Travel. You can find them on Facebook
or Instagram or you can email her at Christine with a C C H R
I S T I N E B at Storybookworldtravel dot com. Yeah, yeah,
and it's not there. There's no fee for it. And uh,
they don't just do theme parks. They do like any kind of travel.
And then as always, Adam Lerner Car Broker three one zero nine nine eight
seven zero four eight website is Adams gotacar dot com. He can help you
get a lease, a brand new car, a used car, whatever you're
looking for. He can help you. He loves it, he loves doing
any he loves. Just text him and go like, hey, I'm not
ready to buy yet, but this is what I'm looking at and see what
he has to say. Yeah, yeah, nice, all right, thanks
Kaylin, Thanks everybody. Your parent now, don't f it up. It's good letting