And driven by Victor. It's bilified the Bill Moran Podcast. Well, hello
and welcome. Thanks for getting your pot on, Thanks for telling a friend.
That's how we spread the word about the pirate ship. Thanks for sporting
ohs who support us. Very excited because I've had my mom on the podcast.
I've had my son on the podcast. A couple of my sons,
Jamison and Jordan Jackson probably coming up later this summer. But now sitting across
from me, he seems to be a little reticent here, doesn't really want
to do it. Is my brother Kevin and his beautiful bride Morgan. And
I'm very decided because I have bragged about you for years. You you have
some very interesting things that I've some things I've never really talked to you about
that I'd love to to talk to you about it. I'm a very serious
guy, I know, I know. Pull that closer to you. Yeah,
just pulled the microphone. You're gonna have to lift up for the base.
Yeah, she's all right, there you go. Yes, I well,
you are a serious guy. You're very serious and you're very funny at
the same time. Well, yeah, I mean you seem to balance.
I mean you balance it. But do you you have that? Well here,
let me start here, because I don't really know what you do.
That makes two of us. Okay, no, but I mean, well,
so I always admired a couple of things. But well, we'll kind
of backtrack to that in a minute. There's one one thing I always admired
that you did. But the h what is your job? So I,
uh, yeah, it's hard to explain because I worked for a hotel.
So everybody who works or says they work at a hotel, they think,
oh yeah, they're they're making beds, They're they're checking people in. Um
I sit and as I even tell people in the telling, I'm like,
I'm putting a basement. Man, I'm with the mushrooms. I'm on the
bottom ground. But I'm my job is really forecasting. So I do a
lot of economic forecasting for the hotel. Okay, I'm looking at all kinds
of fun numbers and things that people never think about when they're checking into a
hotel. But I'm looking at how people are booking. I look at guest
behavior, how far in advance they're booking, right, Because we're making a
lot of beds, We're making a lot of predictions based on the revenue that
we're going to drive in. So that's really what my job is. It's
just you know, trying to be accurate, trying to make sure that we're
painting the picture ahead of time for investors. So that that's a pretty serious
job because, as you just said, it's investors that are putting their money
up and you need to show an ROI return on investment. You got to
look at Yeah, hold a microphone to the edge of the table, A
fun stuff that there you go, right like that people don't realize. And
again it's like any business, right, you know, if you're to go
into a baker's, Yeah they make muffins. Yeah they make muffins, but
they also have to keep the lights on. They also have to make sure
that they're paying for the labor. Yeah, they're paying for the rent.
You know, you're looking at the cost of goods, all those things.
Uh that you know, again you don't you don't think about it in a
day to day existence where most people don't. But that's kind of where I
play. Hotels are interesting just on the fact that they have a really good
return on investment if they're if they're operated properly. Yeah, But like any
business, the biggest challenges always labor um. If you let labor be too
high or be too low, it's going to cost you. So again it's
trying to find that fine balance. So is that all part of your budget
line? You're the guy in charge all that. Okay, so all this
is very serious. But I just want to say this. And you didn't
know seeing but I didn't know. But but here's the thing. Like our
dad was extremely extremely funny. I mean he's still like, yeah, he's
got some good he does, but he's always been very, very funny and
very quick, but yet at the same time very serious. And I remember
because my friend Molly franz Owen's mom had this novelty shop in pine Planes,
and I think it was just like she was a boardhousewife and she got her
husband to buy her a store. And she's really creative and smart. She
had a master's degree in biology and stuff, and she would substitute once in
a while, but she had these You wound him up and it was like
a bouncing penis that came across and Dad went in there and he must have
done like an HBO special where she was laughing in all this stuff. And
I would see her and she tell me how much she loved her dad.
I love your dad's so funny, babba. And then one time outside the
auditorium at the school, after a performance, a band performance or something,
she came up to him and said, oh, I've got and said something,
and he like went cold cold, like that was not well because he
was always buttoned up right. That wasn't gonna be he wasn't playing there right.
And I always felt like, honestly, there was always this serious side
and this playful side. I like the playful side more. Thus radio and
all that stuff. But even in radio there was news and more new side
of stuff. And I'm listening to you, you juggle fire, you went
to clown College. You've done all these fun things and these are no but
but you're just explaining right now, is like that's really serious stuff. That's
kind of a high pressure. There's pressure, man, Yeah, there's a
bit of pressure. But again, so the clown school. I think I've
gotten more mileage out of Clown School than any other degree that I have.
Um, And it comes in, it comes in quite a bit, especially
when I'm dealing, right, I mean, you got to you gotta picture
that some of these meetings that I'm in and and and I'm you know,
representing the numbers all the kind of nuts that these guys are playing in their
private jets. Yeah right, they're playing in there's you know what, what's
that returning gonna be? Okay, we're gonna make X millents of dollars?
What does that look like? How does that float out to the bottom line?
So you know, I can go, but you're working for it,
like one group of guys. Can you say, dude, you are you
comfortable saying where you are? Yeah? I mean so yeah, So I
work worked for a little hotel it's I like to call it up in me
and it called a little hotel me and but uh, cliff House, Maine.
So it's a great it's great property. Uh, it's an incredible looking
place right on the luxury property. It's a luxury property right moregan, it's
a luxury resort. But it's it's been an hour and a half north of
Boston, and um, I've been there since it opened. You know,
it's been around. Well, let's let me go back a couple of steps.
It opened eighteen seventy two, is opened by one family owner for five
generations. Then they sold it to um some local owners investors, and then
they needed additional financial backing, right, so they worked with another major hotel
group. Okay, okay, and that's how they got the private equity into
this thing. Uh, they repositioned the hotel. So what do we move
up there? Twenty sixteen? So twenty sixteen, okay, So we opened
up the hotel August of twenty sixteen. And you're repositioning a hotel, all
right. So you used to have the old you know, folks that would
come in and you know, they would pay probably like two hundred twenty nine
dollars and nine in the summer. Over the years, we had a reposition
the hotel and start to look at a different demographic and all that fun stuff.
So look at the marketing, looking at where you're where you're pulling out
of. What are your regions? Again in Boston, we look at New
York. I would pull some out of Europe in terms of guests. Um,
you know, Florida is a big market too and for me, so
you're really trying to reposition in the hotel and at the same time, what
you're doing is you're still trying to grow the quality of the product. All
right, So you're going from like selling four hundred dollars a night and over
the years you get higher and higher. Right, we have suites in the
hotel now that sell for over two thousand a night, two thousand and a
night, and they sell and they sell and they sell, and it's and
it's a beautiful hotel. So how do you when you're talking about you,
you've got you pull from Europe, you pull from Florida. Those are places
that aren't close. Boston's fairly close, New York car right away. These
other places aren't. So how are you finding those guests? Is there a
marketing it's an online Yeah, no, there's marketing. So there's a lot
and again like anything else, right, so you look at the marketing site,
say, oh yeah, you go out, you put up the billboard.
Yeah, you can do that. But you also work with a lot
of pr agencies. Okay, so we work with some pr agencies or we're
doing things to get ourselves into um, we just have another article the other
day. They came out with Travel and Leisure about the hotel, about the
hotel, and then you're looking at how you positioned the hotels over the year
years we've really worked on getting a Forbes or rating. So hotels and a
lot of things were measured by Forbes, and you want to get Forbes for
like and you gotta work, you know, you're just busting your town.
Then they come in the secret chop you and they do all these things.
But the hotel, Jeff's got rated as a Forbes four star hotels hotel,
it's the only Forbes four star and there's not even a five star in Maine.
Uh in Maine, so we're the only hood. Do you get the
five star? Jesus, you practically have to, like it's NonStop. Yeah,
yeah, it's gotta be like do they do they come in and nudge
you awake in the morning, but everybody get a butler and that's the only
thing, right, yeah, a yeah. You gotta look at the you
know the value, right, and there's some great value as you can.
You need to build up and you get to this this higher echelone. As
you start to look, there are people that are looking it's like Zagate rating,
right, look at the restaurants. People want to go to a four
star, five star, and that's where you start to get to right.
So as you're looking, people are saying, hey, you know, I
want to go I want to go to New England. Right, So they
reach out to their travel advisor or they old I always picture the old travel
agents of beam strip Ball, but some of these folks are a little higher
than that, and they're looking can they just say, hey, I want
to go to I want to New England. So these folks are then really
trying to align this phenomenal vacation for these folks if they're flying in a private
jet that sort of thing, or however they're getting up there and they're looking
for the hotels, they're looking for the right experiences. Do they want to
go to bar Harbor? Now? Bar Harbor's about three hours up the road
from where we are. But you start to see how they're able to kind
of get this new demographic, right, folks that come in and they're alerted
to the hotel because again we're working really close with the travel agent community in
some ways, travel advisors and then obviously you know having that special rating too.
So where are you in the ranking of the hotel high aerarchy? Do
you understand what I'm saying? In the management structure of the hotel. Where
where do you fall I don't know, like a vice president president. I
mean, if they were going to do it that way, well, within
the hotel, I'm you know, we have an executive committee. I'm on
that, okay, so you have the managing director and then right to that
person and some people under me. All right, So maybe what I'll do
is we'll take a break here and then we'll go back, because you started
flying planes before you had a driver's license, and and that was going to
be the path. And then I'd like to just kind of meander through how
you ended up sort of to hotels. But but it's not far off from
all the things you talked about, right, It's it's not at all.
And but there's also this one move that you did that I always thought,
man, that's that was great and I and to me, I think,
I I've never talked to you about it, but I think it may be
one of the best things you ever did for yourself. Yeah. That could
be Toronto Dental, my friend doctor Eduardo Toronto. I'm a patient there.
The best dental care I have ever had. I have gone to places where
they said we should really put a gold tooth in there. So I went
and I got a gold tooth in the back of my mouth. I go
to other dentists and they go, why do you have a gold tooth?
See at doctor Toronto's. They're gonna talk to you and give you all the
options that you have. They're gonna work with your insurance agency. They're gonna
work with your health savings account to minimize your out of pocket expenses. But
in the end, you ultimately choose the treatment that's right for you and what's
going to be the best. And if you're a senior, they offer a
generous senior discount. Toronto Dental give him a call. At four four two
nineteen hundred Cobblestone on made and Webster, Oh what a great place to go
and hang out. My friend Dan Bresnahan and his family own it. They
took an eighteen hundred cobblestone church, they thoughtfully renovated it and it is a
great space. The food is fantastic. They have live music there, but
let's say you go there and you're really not in the mood for live music.
You kind of want to have a quiet dinner with someone special. You
can go into the back since it's two cobblestone buildings. The acoustics you can't
hear. It's just like light dinner music. It's fantastic. They have a
party room downstairs that'll fit up to forty five people, so if you have
a special event, maybe graduation coming up. And the great thing about this
you can rent that room. But it has its own private entrance. Well
that's very helpful because if you're bringing in balloons or any kind of stuff,
you don't want to be banging around the restaurant trying to work your way down
into into the party room. So they have that and you can find out
all the information about everything that goes on at Cobblestone at Maine on their website
at Cobblestone on main dot com. Or give him a call in five eight
five six two sixty four fifty weave bilified a voicemail anytime. I'm a Victor
Chrysler Dodge Jeep ram line at five eight five two h six eighty eight sixty
six. Hey, Bill, just caught up with a last couple of Concast
and I hope you were kids. I hope you and Greg were kidding the
bolt of vodka not having much sugar in it, and the other thing that
I felt was hilarious. Remind me of the kid that made the joke about
school bus monitor. You guys were talking about Marcas Stewart. I'm just glad
and see that she finally won two SAG Awards. But anyways, you got
to google Ripping in Tarn, buddy, because you guys are ripping in Taran.
Can't wait to hear tonight, and be sure to like and subscribe to
Milified wherever you get your podcast. I hope everybody's having a great kick off
to summer twenty twenty three. So let's go back to when you were a
kid and you started flying planes because you used to fly over the roof.
I used to fly over our house. Yes, and our dad was redoing
the roof, so it's him. A couple of years I did it.
Did it? Oh? I don't remember that because he always says to me.
He goes, yeah, your brother would fly over top and say,
hey, you really need to get that done. It looks like ship from
the sky. It did. You would have been a shame because I wasn't
the only one that flew over it. But yeah, it was. It
was. It was separate colors. Yeah, I didn't need there. It's
probably about a fifteen month break there. Do you remember when he used to
mow and then all of a sudden he would stop, and you'd have like
in the lawn, like we had a big yard, but in the lawn
you'd have the unmowed part and then the part that he did mow, but
that then needed to be mowed again, so you had two levels. It
was like you had a lawn that had a mullet. It was like feel
you know what I'm saying. Yes, that's what it was, Morgan,
That's exactly what it was. That's what our dad did. But but talk
about your interest in planes. Did that come from our uncle being a pilot
or where was that from? I think it came. And it's kind of
funny because here we are in beautiful rhyme back New York. But it was,
um, it might have been a little bit from you know, from
his experience. But then also, you know, a field trip in first
grade. So I kind of laugh because Dylan's going in the first grade,
um and going to the rabbig airy drum flying in a biplane. So I
think all of them, oh yeah, you know, kind of tied it
together. You know, I was never a great student in high school.
I think like you, we both were counting down the time to get you
have to get out right and and you know, probably to our dutchment in
some ways because we didn't study too hard. Um. But yeah, so
you know, obviously the last kid and Marga Bill not carrying as much.
I said, well, they swindle them into getting me flying lessons. So
yeah, yeah, but you know it was great. But you were like
fourteen when you started, weren't you. No, it was I think I
had my license. I think I might because Dad kept all that. That
may be true. I thought you had it when you were before your I
thought you were flying before you had your drivers. No, because they would
have had to driven into the airport. Because Dad used to say they were
going to do that was a beautiful bicycle to ride a little. They did,
didn't they? But another thing that I loved because I mean I took
biking because you did, so you did. That's so funny. So what
you've done is where my mother, by the way, it's in the room.
We're at her house, doing this from her dining room. She's laying
on the couch and giving us the peculiar look. But uh, my dad
was very very proud of that for you, or as he would say,
proud, yeah, proud for you. You can't be proud of someone,
you have to be proud for you. But his point was that if you
got any kind of trafficking fraction, you would lose the pilot's license. Yeah,
so I had all kinds of trafficking fracts. I mean I had tickets,
and I mean I was in trouble and arrested and it's a crap.
So I had set the president. It wasn't hard to be better than me,
that kind of stuff. But then from there, you when you graduated
high school, flying was the thing. You went out to Indiana State,
went to Indiana State and you're there, and that was kind of the first
time really taking other classes and kind of looking outside and saying, hey,
wait a minute, I don't you know, I don't want to be a
pilot. There's someone where I want to learn. Yeah, which is funny
because I never thought that I would think that way. Um, and then
wound up Yeah, after one year, said hey you know, let me
take a break. Let me so they pull back, let me, let
me back up just a little bit, because I remember there was a restaurant
and where we grew up. And even here in Rhyanbeck, you're ninety miles
outside of Manhattan, there were a lot of very I used to call it
the land of the hats and have nots, right, because you had people
that really were I mean pick them up and put them anywhere. And they
were rednecks, a rednecks, a redneck, right, you had kind of
that. And then in the other end you had you know, I was
doing landscaping in Mary Tyler Moore's house. You were a waiter, right,
And it was Rick Rick o'kasick from the cars, but also the guy from
FedEx. Yeah, and he was the one he said to you when you
graduate. I thought he told you maybe I imagined all this. Did he
say something to you about let me know when you graduate and he would get
you a job as a pilot for FedEx? Right? Yeah, I mean
I thought that was yeah. And again, so that was the interesting time
though, because they came home right and went to community college? Did he
hear? And I think going going to Indiana State from me longer I made
sense because again, a lot of kids that are students at the time.
You know, they're treating like its their thirteenth year when they were to community
college. Ye what I did, But you had already done a year away,
done a year, and I had gone back to recalibrate and to look
at other things. Um, and I learned quickly that if you want to
do well, take night classes, because everybody in the night classes going back
better than themselves they're older. Yeah, So I took all my economic classes
at night and through the community college at the community So but when you were
flying, I had heard stories in Indiana that there were two incidents. Once
there was an engine stall while you were in the air. I lost an
uh no, what do they have? I had? And then there was
a wind sheer. I thought I had a wind sheer in Poughkeepsie. A
wind sheer in Poughkeepsie. See, yeah, where I thought I was gonna
crash the plane. So the wind shears were two fronts collide and they basically
the wind just shoots straight down and you'll see it in woods and stuff where
it hits, and it's blunt trees and everything else. And again you take
somebody and I got a young pilot, and it's probably not you know,
making the best decisions. And you know, I remember I was turning and
trying to land the plane and just dropped, you know, dropped a few
hundred feet. Yeah, oh my good. Right. It took me a
little bit. And I was like eighteen, nineteen years old. Um,
so that was that I had in Indiana. I lost radios once. Um,
flying up to Chicago and had to land and Kankakee. You know,
fun stuff like that. Nothing, nothing too crazy. Um has something else
happened too? I lost the airport trying to fly into West Lafayette. Purdue
founded eventually, Yeah, but you know, but again, all all good
learning experiences. So after a year, I went back to Pokeepsie did community
college. And what I wanted to do because Kate had traveled, right,
she's gone to Europe. I knew that if it's gonna be a pilot.
My whole thought, right, you're eighteen year being I wouldn't be in Indiana
until I get picked up by carrier or some sort. And I was like,
I just didn't want to be in Indiana. Yeah, well, didn't
you go to somebuddy from the college's house. They're all board again, preachers
and everyone's sitting around and yeah, I mean somebody late down. Yeah,
the guy lists his lag and rips out the largest part, you know,
and yeah it's like the pastor and everybody like I'm like this play this is
disgusting. Yeah, and again now I can sit around rip ass all day.
No, I understand that, right, but um, you both can.
That's right. So thanked it for Morgan she married it to but witness
still at all. Yeah. My whole thing was I wanted to study abroad,
and through the community college, I was able to come up with a
program. I mean they signed off on anything bring in front of us,
will do it. So through another school I was able to do because I
lost a semester, credits and all the shit. So I wound up doing
a full year at Duchess. Yeah, and then was able to do a
semester in England to wrap it all up right, all right, Um,
while I was at Duchess, that's and I was waiting tables right you're saying,
So I was waiting on like Rick okay, sake may the time the
more Liam Neeson that was Duchess. Okay, I got the timeline. Yeah,
I was like doing the Duchess and you know, yeah, met the
FedEx guy and all that stuff, and I was kind of going back and
forth with if I wanted to fly again. Um, but I had these
customers came into the end of the day and I remember it was like nine
o'clock at night and like the person I had, they were in their section.
They didn't want to wait the table. So I was like, yeah,
I'll do it. So I started talking to him. I'm like,
oh, yeah, what are you doing. I was like, oh,
I'm going to community college just what I want to do, and I want
to maybe be a lawyer. Like what you should look at Cornell? Yeah,
there's no way in helling into Cornell. So there's no, no,
no, there's a school labor relations school. Sounds like something you'd like to
do. So I rode down on the cocktail napkin and then stuffed in my
bag. When I went to Europe, I couldn't sleep at night. So
you know, nobody had computers. You know, you didn't have your iPhones
or any of that stuff. So I go to the computer lab and I
started working on the application for Cornell and then did all the essays. So
this is over over in England. I was Nottingham and him. Yeah,
so you did do that, that's right. So just just to follow the
path Indiana, Indiana, you went to Duchess, but you went to Duchess,
you took night classes knowing that that's where the more serious student was,
right, not the person who's going to treat it like the thirteenth grade.
Then through there you decided, Hey, I want to really go over to
Europe. I'm going to find a way through the community college to make that
happen. Yeah, what's the motivation with all this stuff? So what?
Because here's the thing. It's like, there's no uh, there's nothing in
you that's saying I can't do You understand what I'm saying. Like, there's
no you don't have any barriers that are in your mind even to say I
can't do this well. And that's the thing. Is it because people had
done it like Katie our sister had gone before or oh no, it's an
adventure, right, you just got to keep plotting an atle it's an adventure.
And you know, and again, if you start telling other people,
right, a lot of people are gonna doubt what you do. Oh yeah,
I'm a big I'm a big don't tell anybody. And you know,
so I mean you could you could keep asking people, well, you know,
for advice, right, you know, and they'll tell you what they
think. And they're doing it, you know, out of the kindness,
highness and safety people, you know. And you know, when you're twenty,
you don't have much to lose. You have money, Yeah, I
owe thirty three, When when do we have mouth? And I realized,
shit, there's some stuff. You were a little older than I was,
but um, thirty two. You were thirty two. She's ten ten um.
So when I was thirty three, I knew it was time to grow
up. Yeah, but you're also at this period of time, you were
substitute teaching. Yes, in the area. No, no, no,
no, that that's a little further down the road. So what happened was
I do remember this? Yeah, but wait, hang on though, don't
don't get too far because you go, you do this, you get to
England and yeah, and then you start filling out the Cornell application Cornell application,
and I had nothing else. So I had nothing else I was thinking
of. I thought, well, shit, I could go to Saint John
Fisher maybe like study history. And I would go because well, they paid
for you, they'd have to pay for me. But I applied to no
other schools although I didn't and I didn't know, you know, like I
kind of knew it was an Ivy League school. How that meant I knew
all the smart kids in my school went there, right, all the kids
grew up. And so it was I don't want to say there was this
innocence, but there was just not knowing. I wouldn't even say being naive.
Just dumb fucking luck, that's all it was. Um. So I
started filling out the application and then UM, you know, paid for it
whatever day. I gave me this credit card to do and did it online
for whatever, ninety bucks for the thing. I was like, I'm okay,
let's see what happens. Um. And then they called and said it
were to send an email or whatever and saying we really want you to come
in for an interview. I was like, I apologize, I'm in Europe,
I can't do it. That's fine, we'll do a phone interview.
So that's great. And it was like nine o'clock at night because it was
five or six hours out of time, and um, so that day,
you know, it was living in a sweet with all these guys and I
vacuumed my room. I tighted everything up. And the funny thing is,
out of all my college experiences, the guys I stay in contact with the
most are the ones from England. Yeah they are. We're like Fozzie Steve
right from Australia and Scottish Scottish and John and John and we see them annually.
Yeah. John and John was the other. He was the He was
your typical American, the ugly American that would hear. And we've been and
we've all been great friends over twenty years. Yeah, so we're we're all
really close. Is it all those guys that you did the uh you went
to who got married in Italy? Yeah? Yeah, and then you did
the calendart Scottish scott Scottish, that calendar, the calendar that our grandmother loved.
You guys all they all got naked, but they strategically invine in a
vineyard and had these pictures. Who took the pictures? Stacy's wife wife and
your guy? Were you all naked? Were naked? We had our nuts
coming out of like the leaf. Great, Yeah, we're all. Yeah,
we're like rolling around the dumbest stuff, and she took the pictures.
Yeah, she had to be laughing her ass off. We all still have
the calendar in our home. Our grandmother had the calendar and she used to
say to me all time, Oh, Billy, did you see Kevin's calendar?
That like it was the greatest thing. But this is what I'm talking
about. So all this serious stuff and then all that, well, you
gotta have fun. I mean, that's well, I'm believe me. I'm
a big believer in that. But okay, so the Cornell thing you do
the interview, what is that like over the phone? Had to be weird.
It's totally weird, you know. And I you know, I put
on a button down sure I remember, I like, you said a fact
of my room. I wrote down questions I thought they would ask. Yeah,
But as though, So here's the interesting thing. This is a time
where we don't have FaceTime. There's no zoom. They can't see you you're
cleaning your room. But all that stuff does to me, gets you in
the right frame of mind, right, gets you in the right frame of
mind. I think that putting on a button down shirt, if I'm doing
an interview, it's the same thing I say about going into the emergency room,
you're gonna get treated better. But also the thing I never say is
better about yourself. Yeah yeah, you're in Yeah, but yeah I mean
it. And for me it was like, you know, listen, I'm
not I'm not a great student, never was, you know. So you're
talking about somebody who's like a's and bees. You know, I'm not like
I'm about breaking down any walls. But these campuses are trying to have well
rounded So somebody who's been to Europe, who was in flight school, I
mean, you've got some stuff here. Yeah. Yeah. So did the
whole interview, and then it was like I was coming home for Christmas and
the issue was finals at U in England. They were in January, all
right. I was coming home and Kate said, hey, the mail came
because I think Katie was home at the time, and she's like, there's
something from Cornell's like open, just like you didn't get in, so go,
oh my god, you got in. So I was like, oh
shit, because did you now where were you? I was in England?
Okay, she opened? Did you think she was fucking with you? No?
Because Katie and I no, no, we have a pretty honest relationship
and sure, you know Dylan and MoU so like yeah, and that was
yeah, and that was a cool thing. So yes, she over and
I'm like, oh shit, this is great, but I still have stake
finals. I'm like, let me tip this. And I didn't want to
um, and I didn't want to go to college right away. I still
wanted to take time off. So you know, I called them and said,
hey, thanks, I got in for the spring semester, but um,
I wanted to defer and they said, okay, you can refer to
the fault, but why, I'm like, starcing back back Europe. So
and he did. I did so. Yeah. I took my finals and
was kicked out of the dorm and you know, flew to to I think
it, flew to Barcelona and had a rail pass and had no idea what
the fuck I was doing. Yeah, and I was like, well,
I'm going to figure it out. So I made my way into Barcelona and
spent a couple of nights and spoke some hash on the beach and any by
way around Europe for about sixty days wow, And then wound up back in
England. I saw my buddies and then flew back home. What was the
what was that sixty days? Like? It was great? Yeah, it
was great. It was exciting. You know, it was before the year
scary at all? No, nothing, no, no, there was never
a scary time. Okay, um, And that's what I always think.
It's kind of cool. But I've never had a period of my life where
oh my god, I'm really scared. Yeah, but yeah, you know,
it's before the euro. So you know, every country had its own
currency, right, so when I started to run though on money, I
could just go to the next country. I didn't want to get any more
out of the ATM and uh yeah, So I did Spain and wound up
in Portugal and then back into Spain. It worked my way through south of
France, and then Dad was teaching at the time. He came out and
he met me, uh in oxon Provence in France, and I again,
you're talking before cell phones or anything, and we kind of just randomly met
in the train station and went to Nice, France, and he went with
me, I think, to Italy and then he flew at the Milan and
I made my way down gosh where the I wound up in Rome, caught
the ash Wednesday Mass that the Pope. I got some special tickets for it.
Interesting, how did you get those? Because those are ones that pretty
high demand. Yeah. It was funny because I was walking through Aunt Sharon,
you know, she wanted some reckless metal of some sort and again not
being a Catholic or any of that stuff. So I went to the gift
shop and I got it, and I said, hey, are these blest
and like, yes, everything in the Vatican is blasted, okay, And
then she said, you know what, I have tickets to the I have
tickets to um the Pope's private Mass. If you want to go to it
tomorrow. Great. It's like we got to show up back by store at
seven thirty in the morning. So I'm across town in this hostel and I'm
like, oh, I need to kind of look somewhat nice, and you
know, your back back of for a few weeks. So I wound up
getting there and then you're scored into the back and I have this golden ticket.
It was really cool. I still have the ticket in our basement.
Yeah. Um. And then wound up back there. I'm like, this
is gonna be amazing. Like I'm just thinking, like here, I am
and I'm like, oh my gosh, all these Catholics around. It was
like going to a cheerleading event. It was people look like they just rolled
in there. They're screaming, they're announcing the different organizations. They're all getting
up, they're channing, they're doing it. And I'm like, holy shit,
these people. Like I thought it was gonna be like, you know,
like you're watching the Coronation or something, not at all. And and
it was cool. So that was Pope John Paul, and it was just
amazing, Like you're in this private chapel and you know, you think it's
gonna be this amazing thing. It's this old like Art deco in nineteen sixties
building. But yeah, but it's away from everything else, you see.
So that was a cool thing. And then I wound up i think in
Greece, and then made my way up into Switzerland and some other places.
Wow. Yeah, yeah, that was into Switzerland too, huh. Spent
Yeah, I spent like three or four days in Switzerland. Yeah, I
didn't I didn't know any of this. Check was in the check Yeah,
Germany all you know. And you know, so when you went through you
were in youth hostels. Yeah, stayed in youth hostels all the way through.
Um, if you can make it work, you know, you'd sleep
on a train sometimes, you know, sometimes you just stayed up all night.
Yeah, and he just you know it just did random stuff. Um
yeah. And I think my favorite was I was stuck in Bruge in Belgium.
There's a train strike and I stuck for like three days. And if
there's any place to be stuck at Bruge, Belgium, I mean it is
amazing. And I learned how to play dice with a guy who claims he
was some the Godfathers, some mafia out there and dry all kinds of great
wheat beers and it was fun. It was really cool. And then made
my way into Paris and spent some days there and then went worked my way
back into England. Yeah there for a few days. That's that's amazing.
But I mean just to have the like again, the balls in the in
the idea to figure it out. I mean I've had some of that myself,
but not to that level where I went and did these kind of things.
But it wasn't like you were jumping off a ledge, right because again
you're there in Europe, right, and I had done some trips, so
we you know, my buddies, the guys I'm still friends with, you
know, were at some greenpeace type organizations, so we could get a trip
for ten pounds too, and we stuck it and then and we we blew
up. We were the we were at the at the Higue and it was
like, you know, there was rioting and it was all over the Kyoto
protocol. Yeah, we didn't know what that was going on, right,
So there's all these police and shields. We're there riding with everybody chanting and
hockey and then we're supposed to do a day too, and we're like that,
we're gonna go, and we left. We went up to Amsterdam.
The goal was to go and get stoned. Yeah, we bought off the
bus driver. They're interviewing the guy from Australia because he's got that you know
Australian. Yeah, I'm going yeah Austi. Yeah, gets interviewed on TV
by like I mean, now the guys like a secret cop in Australia.
But yeah, but yeah, so all these things like so you did all
these small trips, so like it wasn't like you're diving into the unknown.
Because he got it right, got to Ireland. But but but it sort
of is the unknown in that it's not as though somebody in the family had
done that. Yeah, you know, nobody had done that, right like
Kate did. She didn't do that. She didn't do that. I don't
know what she did. I don't think I don't think she did that.
I think she certainly traveled and that and and I don't mean that anyway.
I'm just saying like she didn't do hostels in sixty days backpacking through Europe.
So you wrap that up and then you come back and you go to Cornell.
Well, no, I came back and then I had to wait table
she was right, because I'm penniless. Is now in April? Oh you
came back in April? Yeah, yeah, okay, So then yeah,
I wound up at Cornell all right, time out because I want to I
want to go. I want to do the Cornell because we came to visit
you, and I was very impressed with what something you did at Cornell.
When Jackson, your nephew, who's now like six seven and twenty two years
old, was a baby, he was eleven months and all the girls in
the dorm came out and they were all cooling con over him. But the
funny part is, just like what you had done, I thought this was
very interesting. And then we'll get into Cornell and after Cornell, and that's
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Everything on Despatch Drive in East Rochester open every day Bilified He's on location driven
by Victor Chrysler's Dob's Cheap Ram on location from Mom March's dining room. But
this is a fascinating conversation with you. I mean, I know you don't
think so, or maybe you don't think so, but I find it really
interesting. I had no idea. I'm learning stuff about you that are very
very busy. You you know, you're we're different parts in our life,
right, Yeah. But I mean I think that I had a singular focus,
and that was to be on the radio and much probably like you with
flying, I got there pretty early, you know. Um, and then
I even when I went to Fisher, Uh why, I had to take
a year off and I wound up living with our uncle for a summer and
coming back and I needed to get a job. At that point. Dad
used to just send me money to party at Fisher. I don't know if
you need this, like every two weeks fifty dollars should show. Yeah,
he would send anybody. Yeah, that never happened for us. So again,
so let's get back and the things that you impacted. What did I
impack? Yeah? Yeah, well I had to pay my own insurance.
That I did. I always did. I always had to pay my own
insurance. That's good. Yeah, But the free car, you're right,
I did. I wrote in the free car are for everybody. I remember
that, and then Dad would send me money. But then when they went
back the last year, he said, you got to get a job,
and so I just sent a tape to see him f and they hired me,
and I just I stayed and that and that was it. But I
admire all this shit you did, because then there's Cornells. Now we go
up to visit Kevin at Cornell and at the time, I'm married and Jackson's
a baby. He's eleven months old and I am. I think Jenna might
have been pregnant with Jordan at the time. I don't know because he was
there only sixteen months apart. These guys, so we're around there. So
he Kevin had put up, had been already hired by a sorority to come
and juggle fire. Don't remember Kevin had put up. If you are looking
for you put you know how they have these bulletin boards and it's like some
people put numbers, you know, guitar lesson or laundry service or whatever.
Pull Kevin made one with Hey, girls, if you're looking for somebody who
will fall down, and just to make you laugh, the jester flo yes,
the Jester. He had this whole thing. There were all these girls.
We walked in, girls he had been on campus for two weeks.
Morgan. We walked in, and everybody's like, oh Kevin Kevin, Yeah,
we love Kevin. Kevin had already juggled Fire out of the corporate STI
picked him up to Jungle Fire Kevin Jungle Fire hold on. So I to
say something here, up up to this point in the conversation, I've known
all of this up to you didn't know this moment. I forgot no clue.
Well, why would you know about you were the sixth floor Jester,
I mean you are? You are he did this our current um friend group
and our lifestyle. Yeah, I knew all of these other Oh no,
he put this. He put all this stuff up on the boat and board
and there were these girls and like all these little girls who came out and
they're like, oh you're you're Kevin's nephew. Oh hi. David Jackson's like
he doesn't know. He's just bombing around the hallways. Yeah, running around
and yeah, and we had to change him in your doll. This is
good because I feel like this is um foreshadowing for Dylan to be honest,
it is your son. Yeah, why what do you mean? I mean
you've met him, Like Dylan's always out to make you laugh and crack a
joke, and sure he I mean he told you earlier in his interview with
you he wants to be a donutmaker, right, Like he just wants to
have fun and make people happy. Right. So yeah, this one,
this is a good one. I've never heard. But see, that's like
I keep trying to peppering in because that whole thing in the beginning where you
talk about your job, and that's it sounds high pressure. You've got guys
who are flying in on private jets and they're there for one reason. They
want to make sure that they're invested, they're getting their running confident. Right.
Yes, they want to feel confident their investments, right, But so
you have to. But but here's the thing. You have to instill that
confident in confidence in them right in what you're doing. So that's a serious
job. And yet on the other side, this is the guy who you
like, was just clowning around and doing all kinds of funny and silly shit
and still hold on because like, listen, I go to these meetings too,
and I've got like brownies and gray rabbits are gray hairs, and I'm
whipping out all these little things out of my pocket. Out of these guys,
I've I've shot chickens atto before you got Yeah, the owners, right
guys, because you have to keep they have to buy into you. Yes,
and so so I always realized you have to have a little bit of
humor with anyone. Yeah, so they can feel and they can feel like
human element. To the point where you've taken me to a U haul storage
facility to meet former old clowns. Well, they're having a deal. They
were they were having a s they were retiring, they were selling their equipment.
And you said, I need some of these things for some of my
meetings. And we had to show up to groups in Maine to a have
some here. Yeah. Wait, you you pull these clown tricks. Oh
yes, whatever, hold on one. I remember I'm in a meeting.
I'm loaded. I've got some kind of clown ship in one of my pockets.
Like, oh yeah about I mean, I've had like the owners,
and is it to break the breaks? You know? And and and what
I've learned again, you know, it's everything psychology to some extent, but
they need, as I was trying to say before, they need to see
that human element. They need it, right because you can deal with you
know, people just talking numbers all day. You'll be out of your fucking
mind because they're boring a shit. But you know you have to you have
to be able to breefe life into the numbers. Yeah. And that's and
that's kind of what what that does. I can helps break it up.
So that's, you know, just something I've learned over the years. Um.
But yeah, so Cornell, Right, so there was that and well
we yeah, let's go back. But Cornell love Yeah, I love it
there. Um, I love the school. I really like the labor relations
school. Was a small, intimate group. Um. But what was so
different is that I learned there that there was a world of people and a
lifestyle that I had never seen before. Yeah. You know, you had
kids that you know, went to boarding schools and they were they were they
were raised to go to a school better than Cornell, and they just didn't
get in. Um and you know, they they had privilege, losing out
of every poor Yeah. Um, and I just remember being like, holy
shit, this is kind of funny because I didn't, you know, and
I don't mean it that way, but like I didn't, I did.
Well, we didn't even understand it. And these were Hampton's and flying off
the Europe people. Yeah, these are you know, it's the Corps family,
is the Johnson and Johnson family. You know, there's a lot like
that, you know, legacy families that were there, you know, five
generations that went to the same school, you know. And and it was
cool because you know, two ways you look at it was like, oh
my god, I don't belong here, Like, holy shit, this is
really cool. Yeah, I'm here with these people. We're all kind of
going after the same thing. Yeah. Um. And I think for me
going into a couple of years later, right, I think it's like twenty
one when I finally got there, Um, was beneficial, you know.
And and then I had some buddies and some guys that lived in my floor
that you know, had done the Navy for a couple of years and like
they pretty much dropped out of high school to the Navy Community College, um,
and then wound up at at Cornell. One of my good buddies he
went on to law school and he had into Harvard and he had into the
University of Chicago. There was a great law school, some of the best
of the country, both of them, and he and he's like, yeah,
I got more money, I think. He's yeah, I got more
money to go to Harvard's like, but they're just too pretentious. So yeah,
he's like, I don't want to go there. So was the University
of Chicago another like the Ivy League of the Right, and so it was
neat Right, You're dealing with people like of all different shapes and sizes,
especially the ones that transferred in because at the time they had a dorm the
transfer right, so it was all and it was probably two hundred three hundred
kids, but they were all the ones that transferred in. So you had
a lot of different experiences which made it. Yeah. So after Cornell,
you get a job in New York City. So another great thing that the
school like that does is a blue sunshine up your ass. And they did
a really nice job, right, So I assumed I'd, you know,
I graduate and I get this job in New York and I'd be living in
some really nice apartment on the Upper East Side. And I think the best
thing that happened to me is I wound up getting a job at the Mayor's
Office labor relations. Yeah, so that was doing one for New York City.
It was a labor analyst for the for the Mayor's office. And what
they did was that they represented the city and all the contracts. Yeah,
so whether it be the fire teachers, sanitation, all these so. Um.
What was so cool is a lot of the classes I was taking at
Cornell, Yeah, these professors and they'd be expert witnesses and they were oftentimes
expert witness is for the unions. So I remember once it was I think
we're doing yeah, we're doing the police arbitration because he could never get to
a contract and the contracts are sold. But it was really neat right.
It was a really cool experience to take what I learned move forward, get
a job in the heaviest union city in the world, right in New York.
And you know, I was speaking thirty two thousand dollars living in a
fucking basement in Queens for a year, paying six hundred fifty dollars cash.
But what was really cool aside from that was you know, you were a
part of this. You know, you were you were seeing how this stuff
works, right, so you know you'd be in these law offices because you
know, again it would be these high, high end labor firms that were
hired. You're at Madison Avenue and you're a part of this. It's like,
this is amazing. And I remember once I was in the bathroom and
after round like, hey, professor Katz, like a professor I had.
He was there too, and he was an expert witness for the police.
Yeah, you know, so it was really really cool. You know.
I remember one sneaking into the into our breakout rooms because you know, they're
all catering all the stuff. So I walk in and I went to the
bathroom, just dicking around, and then oh, cookies are out. So
I'm like eating cookies and I'm shoving a cookie in my mouth and these guys
start walking into the room and they're all in suits and they're talking to their
arms clear clear, and they're like, hey, how are you. I'm
like hey, I'm good. And then Bloomberg walks in, Oh, and
bloombergs I'm like hey. He's like hi. I'm like Bloomberg, I'm like
good, I know I worked for you, like at the cookies and looked
really good, but you know that it was cool, you know, and
there was just times like that. You know, it was a great job,
and I think, you know, I realized at the time I didn't
want to be a lawyer and I didn't want to work for the mayor's office
forever. You know, it didn't pay well. I was frustrated with a
few things at the time. So, um, I made a bet with
a body. I was like, I'm just gonna quite what are you gonna
do? Buy a bicycle right across the countries? No you're not. No,
I am so I wanted to buying a bike. Okay, So how
did that happen? Because I thought that was and maybe again I'm conflating stories
something, but I thought there was a guy that they brought out a cake
that was celebrating thirty years working there, and you went, there's no fucking
way I can do this. Yeah, I think I think that was part.
Yeah, I mean there was that, right, you other guys like
you did forty years in the city and they just you know, they looked
like they were dust. Yeah, right, And I realized, I'm like,
this is not what I want. This is not and and anything I
did from there I realized I either had to go back to school. I
didn't really want to be a lawyer. You know. I was doing the
calculations at the time, like, oh, I'll be twenty seven, we'll
be so old and all those But you're forty three and it doesn't matter how
old you were. Yes, but again, time has a different meaning,
you know, at every stage of life. But yeah, so I you
know, I just decided, like I hate where I live, you know,
I don't like my job, I don't like all these other situations,
and just said I'm gonna quit. I'm gonna I'm gonna pull myself out of
this. And that's when I bought a bicycle. You did, and he
did do this? Yeah, and you went out to Seattle. Well here's
you bought the bicycle in Seattle. I did anybody here? So here's here's
the funny part of the story. So March and Bill came down. I
think it's your birthday. Remember you came down. Oh yeah, yeah,
so my buddy Jason. Yeah. But so I worked with my buddy Jason,
and so he's like, oh, yeah, I want to meet your
parents. So we went out and we had a couple of drinks. At
a bar, and then we wound up in the village. March has like
three or four margreds and we then we wound up in Central Park at a
concert and just fukid it was. It was like, well the ustful green
alcohol. So it wasn't yeah, it wasn't your good. But so,
um, that was the day I told my boss and we got quitting.
Now you told him earlier in the day, Yeah, I told him that
day. Did you tell March and Bill that he would quicked? I knew,
oh yeah, because I think I had already bought the bike by then,
and you know I was talking to like the bike shop back you know
here, Yeah, and um or the Pleasant Valley Bike Pleasant Valley Bike Shop,
which was funny because the guy I got a discount there because the guy's
daughter I got into the ILR school too. He's like, I'll give you
fifteen percent of if you knew my daughter. I bought all the ship and
I know I got fifteen percent off, which is what I needed. Um.
But yeah, so the whole So I quit that day, or told
him I was quitting, and I came. I would come here on the
weekends and I'd ride the bike and I wrote it twice, like thirty miles.
And then here's the funny thing. And I thought about say because we
would de Pete's famous diner. Right. Yeah. So we're at Pete's and
I see this bike and it's all decked out. It's got all the gear
for somebody who's riding across country. And I see this guy. It's like,
hey, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm about to do this
now. It's mid July. Yeah, people start this thing in mad Yeah,
they do, right. The weather is yeah, it's pretty good everywhere.
Yeah, but weather's good. You get some time. So talking to
this guy, I was like, yeah, actually, I'm about to fly
out next weekenday, So you're never gonna make it. He's like, it's
you're You're never gonna make it. You haven't trained, you haven't done anything.
I'm like, oh my god, this guy's a total dick. Yeah.
And I was like, oh man, and and he was like eating.
He's like, I'm like, where are you going next? I'm gonna
ride my way up to Boston. And then he's like I started down in
California and I rode up. Yeah, he rode up from like the border
in San Diego all the way up and then came across the country and did
all this other stuff, and he's like, you're never gonna be You're gonna
run out of time. It's not gonna work. I like, this guy's
a dick. Yeah. Yeah. So I wound up buying getting the bike,
flew out to my buddy's house and seat all. I just started riding,
and I decided, I'm like, well, if I can get you
know, if I can go three days, right, just keep going.
And the advice I has given us, ride as far as you can in
the first day, Second day, ride as far as you can. Third
day, you're gonna be in so much pain. Keep riding as far as
you can that day, and then by the fourth day you can feel okay.
And I just kept doing it. So I rode across the country.
So no real training for this job, just the desire. Had a change
of five tire on the bike when I started, just the desire to do
it. Nothing else going on. Yeah, just quit my job, I
know, but yeah, and to take me back because I have the same
parents you have now. I certainly did whatever I wanted pretty much, but
that would be a scary thing when you had a job, you had benefits,
you had graduated college, and as parents, you kind of go,
okay, the last one's kind of settled here, and then it's never settled.
No, but I'm just saying, but like to quit your job and
then you go as you're saying, I got nothing going on, and you're
going out there. When did you fly out? Well? I thought I
thought you went August. Was it July? It was like I might have
fallen at the end of July and I started August fourth, Okay, yeah,
I remember it was August September and you came home. You were back
by October October six, I finished, Yeah, I rode, yeah,
so you we'll go back though that. So that trip, that fourth that
third day, how bad was it? It was bad? I mean,
but it was manageable, right, I mean, you know you're sore,
you know, like, yeah, your ass is gonna be so wear and
it was. But you know, after that you just started to get it
together. And the way I worked it was I turned it every day like
I was at work. You know, you get up in the morning,
get apparent six thirty. You know, I had a tent Like at first,
I didn't even have the camping situation figured out, Like I'm staying.
I'm like, I'm going to burn out of all the money I have,
right, I stay in hotels and like it's kind of weird because once you're
west of the Mississippi, you can camp anywhere nobody cares, like Blm lands,
you can do whatever you want. Really, yeah, you get east
of the Mississippi, it's a whole different world in terms of you know,
regulation, camping, regulations, money. So yeah, So could I bring
it a little full circle for a minute? Sure? So Nick, you
flew out to Seattle, yea when you were starting this trip, and you
stayed with your friend Nick, who went up with ye here and who you
started flying with. Well, he was one of the flu Well so here,
Yeah you could, Yes, you could do the full circle thing.
And I think there, um, Nick and I flew it was the field
trip. We wound up in the biplane because his mother was a chaperone,
March was a chaperone. Nick was a fat kid, so I was able
to kind of snug in the seat next to him, so I felt safe,
Okay, And Nick's always been his first Yeah, but he's always been
like so you know, Nick and I have always had that relationship, right,
We've been very close over the years. But um yeah, So anyway,
so I'm riding across the country and again, as you're riding, this
is like pre Facebook the iPhone, my phone would be out for like four
or five days because I'm in the mountains march. But he didn't from you.
Yeah, he's a shit. I'm like. But now, like,
I mean, I even me. I'm like, I've got my watch,
I've got this, I've got air tags, my wallet, you know all
that stuff. But um, so I'm riding across the country and you know,
you stop at a diner and you sign your name and all the stuff.
Well, I'm made it. I made it my job. Did you
go across the country going on what a total dick that guy that I met
in ryan Beeck was? So that was almost a motivating factor for you.
It was just for me that was a sport. No, that was not
a motivating okay, no, no, no. What I meant was a
motivating factor to finish. Yeah no, no, no, no, no,
okay, the motivating factor to finishes because I started, Okay, I
had nothing to do that. Okay, you know I wasn't gonna end it,
um, but it was just I just remember people like, oh,
yeah, there was this guy and you started, I'm like, he's a
total asshole. I remember like being at a couple of bars, like you
know what, I like, guy, it was an asshole. Oh he
was amazing. I'm like, guay, I heard he was a dick.
And then so I just went through and in some places I'd write next to
name, asshole, did you know the guy's name? And you would see
his name, so I knew, so you could figure out, like what
his name was. I was able to check logs like and again it's all
like it's almost like you know, colonial times, right, people wrote their
names and stuff so you can see all this. So yeah, I went
across the street. So okay, that had to be maybe the best thing
you ever did. It's a guy, it's up there. I mean,
it's an experience, yeah one. But I had to have some really challenging
days. It was. Yeah, I think there had to be weather issues
and you had everything you had weather, you know, And I think at
the end of you know, the trip, what I realized and throughout the
trips, like you could get angry, you get frustrated, right, and
you can just start banging. It's not gonna fix anything, right. So
through that, it really taught me a problem solving. Right now, you
get through it, you know, you got to stay calm and I do
stuff. But overall, no, I think, um, you know it
was it was a good trip. It made sense, and then I wound
up back home with margin bill yeah anyless. Yeah, but I also knew,
you know, I was never a great math student, right, you
know, numbers whatever, And I also knew the majority of people are afraid
in numbers as well. Yeah, And my biggest thing was I needed to
get a degree. Whatever I was going to do next, I needed a
degree, a master's or something of that sort. So that's when I went
to Albany and got a master's in economics. Because the whole thought to me
was, let me learn how to explain numbers and then I can interpret them.
Nobody's ever gonna tell me, you know what I mean, I need
to be the wall because people are really afraid of them. Yeah, and
I was never listening. I'm never going to be deep in down analytics.
I'm never gonna be your PhD guy. I knew I was. You know,
I'm not going to get into all this theorem shit, but I needed
to be comfortable enough to explain it. And that's where I decided, Hey,
let me get a master's in economics. And I went to Albany because
it was a year long program and I was paying for it, right,
So I wound up there and it was hard. It was a hard,
hard program. You know. I was twenty eight, I think twenty seven,
twenty eight at the time by six twenty seven, twenty seven when I
started, and you know, I would sign up. I had tutors,
I did everything I could. I was meeting with people. I was meeting
with professors all the time, just so they knew that I was in it,
right. That was the biggest thing. And the chair of the department,
I remember talking to him once and because because oh, you went to
Cornell, you'll be fine, you'll get through this. I'm like, I'm
not one of those kind of smart kids. You'll be fine, You'll be
fine. And they had this program where it was the forecasting program, so
it's like a slightly higher, a little more advanced, and you're supposed to
do all the ship to get into it. He's like, don't worry about
I'm gonna sign off on it. You'll get it, and you're fine.
So you sucked me off on this program. So now I'm sweat because now
you're gonna do even more work. But that's what you do now. But
I yeah, and I do it. But like believing, when you're learning
the stop the theorems and all that shit, it's a whole different world from
what I do on a day to day basis. But um, yeah,
So I did that program and then when I finished, I'm talking to the
guy, I'm like, what am I do with this? Too? Great?
Like where the hell am I gonna work? And I was working a
running store and I was in turning out the state and um He's like,
oh yeah, oh these companies are hiring and this is like February. He's
like he listened like Disney has like an economics department. You know you should.
He's like, I got a friend whose wife works there and his friend
taught an RPI. Was like right, So I met her once like a
Panera bread and just talk to her. That was it. I wasn't looking
for a job. It was February and then June's like, hey, are
you still looking? For a job. But again, I'm waiting to hear
back from the state because I had applied for a job there where it's in
turning. They gotta sender me your resume again, wound up having a phone
interview and then wound up They're like, hey, we want to fly you
down. It's like all right, and I lived. To keep in mind,
I lived in Auburn. I don't know if you have been to that
apartment was fucking great. It was great. It was on the third floors.
This sketchy building looked like the stairs are gonna fall off, but then
you got up to the floor and it was perfect. It was amazing.
I Tho walked down the stairs. I mean you were like, like everything
looks awful. Yeah, a barstore there, and he walked down to the
Capitol and catch all the concerts. It was really, really cool. It's
a great place. And I remember Dad helping get in the furniture up.
I'm never moving this down. Cool, look getting the shit out of here.
So I was like all right. So Disney is like, yeah,
they hired me, right, and they're like, here's you know, we're
gonna relow you all right, what's that mean? Like well, we're gonna
pay a ten k to take the job, and we're gonna take all your
shit in your car and ship it down and fly you down. All right.
I couldn't say no to that. And then you're just gonna stay on
for a year. I'm like all right. So I'm like, great,
I'll stay for a year. Um. So they moved everything. I mean
I had dirty clothes, dirty dishes. They wound up in boxes, wound
up. Wait, they packed everything. They had packers and movers come.
They a car, a truck came and picked up Helen's car. That's fancy
and oh yeah, and like they dead grandma stuff, a lot of dead
grandma stuffy shit and it all got shipped to Florida. Yeah, so now
where does it go in Florida? Did they set you up with the place?
Well, they flew me down to like like yeah, I'm like twenty,
So it makes it now. I can see it. Like if I
was like, you know this stage of my career, A yeah, you
need to fight, you gotta figure out schools, you figure all that.
I didn't give a shit, right, Like, I'm like fine, And
you know, I remember talking like the aged they had one crooked HR guy
that was dealing with that Disney and he's like, dude, you need to
move downtown. He's like, all the flight attendants are down so much fun
and anyway, so they had somebody show me around all these apartments and I
went up moving like not downtown but in this area, like yeah, not
too far from Disney. But didn't you launch your kayak in the pool of
Oh yeah, So the k they took, all that ship was delivered,
everything, everything wound up in far and all that was helen shit. Ye.
And then they gave me like ten thousand dollars just to like set up,
and then there was all kind of like all the money like it was
nuts, like and again I had no idea because if I in retrospect,
I should have done some other things like payoff I student loan, right,
Okay, yeah, but I didn't. So it was fun, and you
know, it was like handy Land, and you know, I'm hanging out
and doing all kinds of dump stuff and yeah, yeah it was good.
And you worked at Disney, yep. So I got a job and was
doing revenue um revenue management, which is economics for the hotels. Okay,
and then that got me kind of moving ahead. Yeah, all right,
and then you and you met Morgan. Yeah, so um yep wound up
um dating somebody for a little bit. Oh I think I remember yeh.
T Bax was a little older, so that's why we named her t Bax
like t Rex. And then we were going through a breakup and I moved
like all kinds of silly stuff. But then you know, uh, Morgan
and I had a mutual friend at the time. It's like, oh,
I'm going out to you know, um Epcot. Yeah, everyone hung out.
Yeah, everyone hung out at Epcot and all kinds of shit. You
just like your Disney money, you just spent the back in place. Um.
And she's like, yeah, you should come, that's great. And
it was Morgan spartathday, so kind of matter. I was like, yeah,
it's kind of cute. And then I'm screaming on the phone with the
other one and asked while I'm trying to get rid of her and shit.
But I realized that Morgan, you know, from an economic perspective, was
the best package because she had who breaks it down like this, she just
had her birthday. Oh yeah, I know. Yeah, your clean for
a year, clean, give your rolling. You're rolling sixty days into the
holidays. You didn't have to any holidays because nobody wants to like meet somebody
like you know, you're not meeting families two months in right, Yeah,
And that was kind of how it all started the spring. I mean,
there's a little more to it, but sure. Yeah. So March is
um, March comes down and we're both playing a different softball two yeah,
and we're at ESPN, rolled out of sports doing her softball thing. And
she's a cute girl. Look that one over there. Yeah, we're not
in socks. Did you sell your Yeah? But then March shirts waving to
me while I'm in my little cute converted So I said, I said,
socks with my son. You really looked at Vomo. I'm not consisted.
Yes that I didn't. I did, and I was the one that I
called the promiscuous one then so so then I said, Billy, so so
hold on, here's the thing. So that I told Mars we can get
back at her, and she's like, what do you mean? It's like
you say to her, So I heard you've been in my house because we
went because I because Morgan flew up and we met up with my buddy Jason,
and we all went whitewater around here in Rhinebeck hold On. We went
to the Atronics, but we caught up at the house and then we all
drove up together. You were somewhere I think you guys are still was living
in Yeah, you were. I don't know you were somewhere. You were
there because I told you that I was gonna any of my buddies were gonna
stay at the house for a night. So then I said, Hey,
tell her that I heard you've been in my house. Did she yeah,
Mars did she said to you? Yeah, what is that like? Then
I sat back and left my Wow, that's really funny. That's very funny.
All right, we'll take a moment and then find out from Disney to
where you are now and what's going on, and then maybe some childhood jokes
that we did play different things like that. I want to tell you about
my buddy Mike Mack. He has a really great business. You know,
if you've got a list of stuff. I always think of this. People
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only got so much time on the planet. That's why I say, I
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keys. Well, if you've got a list of stuff around in your house
that needs to be fixed or you need to get to it's gonna take time,
and maybe you don't even really have the skills. This is where Mac
comes in. Mac of All Trades can come in. They can fix your
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The name says it all. It is Mac of all Trades. He
built the studio that we normally broadcast from. We love it there and he's
you're gonna love whatever Mac of All Trades does for you. Find out more
online at macavall Trades dot net or by calling five eight five two zero two
ninety two eighteen. It's food trucking carrying season at Jimmy Place in Shakes dot
com. Well Conrey's Irish Pub is a little touch of Ireland, right along
the historic Erie Canal in Fairport, New York. Took my mom there once
and she said to me, every time I'm in here, it's like a
party, and it is. You walk in there and it's just fun coming
up. You've got Canal Days and that's gonna be a big party. And
then throughout the summer there's a number of events, including the Fairport Music Fest.
And and I'll tell you what you should make Mulconris your headquarters because everything
seems to kind of emanate from there, right along the historic Erie Canal.
The food is fantastic. Gets something like the Mulconrey's Burger, or you can
even go and get yourself some Shepherd's pie. I love that the beer is
called the cider is cold. And they have that beautiful deck that overlooks the
canal right up on top. Maul Conrey's Iris Pub seventeen Liftbridge Lane East in
Fairport and online at Mulconres dot com. Tonights me it's twenty of your buddies.
This is one of my buddies. Chris Trapper has become a friend of
yours. Yeah, Chris. Yeah, we've developed You're having a really good
relationship over the years for sure. Yeah, that's interesting. I would love
to uh get huh, I get Chris. You could get Chris on your
show? No, yea, no, look I'm more's there's believe me,
there is no I have There's no shame for me to say, can you
get that guy on that? But that really wasn't even I was thinking,
I just think it's it's cool, and I thought I would bump with that
because Chris Trapper has been somebody that I've been aware of for years. Uh,
there were guys at the radio station that really loved It's great too.
Yeah, I would This was one of the ones I always liked. Um
but Keg and my coffin was a big one, right that. That was
my first introduction to him outside of the Push Stars. And then uh when
you became friends with him, you know, I remember he came up and
he didn't play at the hotel. Yeah. So the whole thing with Chris
Trapper, I mean, this is where it's funny because growing up, the
music that I listened to her was the Push Stars. Yeah, but we
would listen to we get, we'd hang out with a party again my buddy
knicks garage and listened to the Push Stars and it was it was kind of
the music that when I think of grown up that comes to mind. You
know, the Stones, all that that, you know, learning from you
and those pieces. But when I think of, like, you know,
the music that really kind of aligned to growing up, those those years of
Keen Nan Janks, it was really stop yeah uh and and the push stuff.
So um, I was in back in Ithaca right and going to school
there, and I saw a sign it was like push h yeah, Pushed
Oars, Pushtars are playing the Anchor Bar or something downtown, and it's like,
oh my god, this is amazing. I'm telling all my buddies like,
we gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go to the Pushtarts.
I'm like, nah, I don't even know who that there. No,
No, it's gonna be a great show. So I rallied a few
people together and I got really drunk and we went down and we saw the
show. At one point I stuck backstage with another buddy of mine and we
just started drinking all their beer. Jesus Christ, where was this Cornell?
So so that was the only thing. So then they they're you know,
and they're touring and I'm like, this is amazing. They're going cross coaching
and they have like a white van. Right, it wasn't anything. These
guys are probably in their early thirties right there, he's about your age.
I thin he's getting you there on you. So they're and they're kind of
talking. One are the guys from pokeepsim go to Dukeeps and they're just leave
us the funk alone, all right. That was kind of the attitude.
So finally my buddies pulled me out and then you know that that was that.
So then years later, you know again living in Maine. All right,
so we're living in Maine and I caught I went up to Chris Trapper
show the summer we're moving up there. Yeah, we had a no no,
I think, Yeah, I went solo show. I was either pregnant
or we had just had a baby. And you were like, oh,
Chris is coming up, and I'm like, go go to the show.
So I went. So I went to the concert and it was it was
great. And then you know during COVID with the hotel, you know,
you're trying to come up and with creative ways. Right, hold on,
you got to back up at that show with him. You're like, hey,
listen, I when I was, you know, twenty years younger,
I drank a ton of year beer. Oh that didn't happen that. No,
that didn't happen there. Let me get to that point. That didn't
happen, because what happened was I was waiting because I was gonna talk to
him then, like I'm gonna be like one of these bohemian weirdos hanging outside
wait unto this guy him out of an old church, right because it was
it was it was an ulch. Yeah. So I never talked to him
at that point. But I but for some reason, like we were buddies
on Facebook and he had texted me something. I was like, hey,
you should come to one of my shows. I was like, yeah,
if you ever play up in Maine, yeah, sure, And so it
was like two weeks later he plays. So I went up to the show.
But what happened was during COVID, right. So the hotel you're trying
to be come up with it like everybody was. So you're trying to unique
ways to drive demand U and one of the things was you know, we
started to come up with this series called Concert on the Cliff and we would
get Adam Gardner. He would come down and he would play from Guster,
because you really have in Scarborough and these guys couldn't play. They were just
like they're tied up. They were frustrated, right, they couldn't get out,
and you know, you had to do limited seating and all this other
stuff. While I wast on the guy my Boddy, who at the time
was the director of sales, I was like, dude, we gotta get
this guy, Chris Trapper. He's like, I don't even know who he
is. Like, no, no, no, we gotta get him.
We gotta get him. So I'm pumping gas one day and I see,
right, they have like the TV screen on the gas pump and it's ra
Thomas and he's wearing Chris Trapper shirt. Yeah. So I'm like, all
right, Chris, I'm like this is a side. Yeah, like I
need you like listen years ago. I just you know, I want to
let you know that I stole beer and you know, I came up to
your concert and all the stuff. So he so he came up and he
saw Adam Gardner play and he's like, this is amazing. So he just
came to witness it. I told him I come on up to the hotel
stay for the night. He was really like he was bombed because his tours
were getting caned. Sure, I watched him do some live stuff. He
did all the live stuff. Yeah, he would dress up and do it
right before his kitchen or something. Right. Yeah, So he came and
and he watched Adam Gardner play and um, I had no idea that they
toured together back in the nineties. So it was really cool. And then
he started so we would get Adam and Chris and they play a few times
together at the hotel. Okay. So and that's how it kind of that's
how that's how it all. But but but the thing to get him there
was to say, I stole beer from you twenty years ago. So he
came to So he came and then he watched the show, and the next
day I caught up and I'm like, hey, listen, you know I
want to tell you the story years ago go in Ithaca, and his wife's
there's like this is the funniest thing, Like, yeah, I stole like
honest beer from here. So I'm like, think of this as me apologizing
and staying at the hotel for free, you know, doing these shows.
So but it worked out and you know, and they come up and what
we did is trade with them, and um, so he and his family
come up and uh, it's it's cool. Yeah, it's kind of a
cool thing, you know, to get you know, somebody in and playing.
And so go back. You're you're at Disney, right, you were
living. I had gone down to see if you had launched the the kayak
in the pool. You've done all this fun stuff, but you were working
at Disney. Yeah. And then there was a point and you had always
talked about wanting to open up basically youth hustles in the United States for people
too, maybe the Appalachian Trail. I don't know what the plan was,
right, and that was yeah, And now one goes back to you know,
biking across the country. It was, oh my god, it would
be amazing. One of the things that what are we missing that all the
countries have, right, we don't obviously we don't have a rail system.
We don't have a way to get as the country. We'd see you know,
you'll always hear when you talk to people that you know, travel around
the world, right, they get to America, but they do they buy
a car in California or and they drive across the country and then they dump
it when they get to wherever they are. Yeah, but there's no way
to do it, right, So I said, this would be amazing.
And and you know, you're kind of young and you're thinking about, you
know, through these ideas. So, yeah, hospitality has always been a
peace right. You know. I'm not one of these folks that kind of
grew up with that ladder, but um, yeah, that was kind of
where my mind was. Um. And then Disney, Yeah, you know
you were down there, right, you came a few times. I had
a great neighbor, yeah, ninety plus years old, and he was he
had a lot of wisdom, you know, and you just I would sit
and talk. Yeah, and it was and I've and over the years,
you know, his son is our parents, Like he's in the seventies and
and we've become really kind of close and just talking. But just always had
a lot of really cool wisdom and insight in terms of how he looked at
life. Right. Now, here's a guy who was a World War two
veteran right skipped out of high school seventeen eighteen years old, joined joined the
navy. Um they asked him if he had a craft. He said no,
and the guy said, well, you're in the high school band,
so you're yeah, you're a musician. And so he stole his clarinet from
the high school, wound up wound up on a p T boat and was
all over Europe. And you know, he would tell stories. He never
really talked about the hardships, but he was there D day and sometimes he
would talk about these things that happened and just really you know a lot of
that stuff kind of helped, you know in terms of as you look at
things right and you see how he lived his life and all this stuff.
But he was a guy that you know, went back after the war and
they were they were told, hey, get your diploma based on your your
life earned credits where you can, you know, take a few more classes
and graduating a year. As he get the GI bill. Of course,
when you go to school, why not, like I'm getting paid, you're
the everyone's yeah. Sure, And he wound up going to Harvard and getting
his degree in electrical engineering, building jet engines all kinds of need stuff.
Um, but yeah, he was always kind of fun to talk to,
well, very interesting, full of life right at it. And we just
saw him. We just saw him. We were down in Florida last month
and he and his son Wayne Menace at the air board. Yeah, just
to catch up. So but here's again another like odd twist with you that
I find and not maybe not so much you, but you're at Disney,
and did you reach a point where the corporate world of that level wasn't really
what you wanted to do? Yeah, the day I walked into teams right
now, the day I walked into Disney, and who wasn't the job that
I wanted? And Disney must have known that for a lot of people,
because I think one of the things you said earlier was they said, you
have to give us a year. Yeah, you have to give us a
year. Right, Yeah, they're going to invest in you. So so
and how long did you end up doing? Seven or eight? Seven?
Eight years? So you meet Morgan, you guys get married, you have
there was Mallory, you had that townhouse and but Morgan, you were from
Tallahassee, right, yeah, Florida, But you've never lived outside of the
state of Florida. No, not at that time. No, never had
lived out of the side of the state of Florida. So now you in
North Florida and Central Florida were very different in terms of, uh just living.
You know, it was very different cultures, very different uh everything.
Well, North Florid, I would assume it's almost pretty much like really the
South Florida. Central Florida is almost like transplant land. Yeah, you're right
right, that isn't that funny? Yea. So but then you start looking
for jobs and I remember there was talk of you going out to San Francisco,
but you said, I don't want to raise my kids there. Denver
looked like it was going to be an op and there was that possibility.
And then the next thing, You're going to Maine. Yeah, and I
think this is where you were all on board. Yeah, Morgan, you
were all game for I was thing. It's like, I don't think there
was any like, hey man, I've never lived outside of Florida, you
know, I mean there was there was hesitation, right, So like San
Francisco, like we looked, I put my energy into what does this look
like? How how does that? Um, what does that look like right
for for our family, for our friends, for our lifestyle. Does that
look like? I mean the whole thing though, like, and I think
the piece so prior to any job, look was we weren't moving right because
we talked about we weren't going to move to the next place based on the
job. We're gonna move based on the quality of life. Yeah, And
that's a hard thing to grasp because then it's looking a holy shit, how
did we make this work? And I really think we did make it work,
but it was the whole idea was, let's not go after that golden
egg, you know what I mean, you could be making tons of money,
and you know, we were those come with those come with traps,
right. I mean it's not even that though, I mean, because it
could be like the same. But like we went to Chicago and I ran
the marathon, right, and it's like, there's no fucking way we're gonna
live in Chicago. It's all shitty suburbs, you know. I mean there's
some niceries, but like that's not what we wanted. We wanted quality of
a life was kind of the thought first. So when I was interviewing and
I went to you know, Mountain, San Francisco, Like, I can't
walk over a crackhead every day right now, it's fifteen crackheads that you're walking
over every day. So that was stupid, Like that's no, no,
thank you, thank you, appreciate it. So there's hotels, like I
was looking at an independent management company at the time, and Nope, that's
not one. You know, I thought it would be Charleston. You know,
we talked about I think we both thought it. I think we started
looking at homes to buy in Charleston. Like Charleston was where both thought,
Okay, this is good. This works for us, right, like this
works for what we want out of life. This works. And then it
wasn't. Maybe we were very quickly told nope, it's not Charleston. Yeah.
So so there's a job, and it was with the same hotel group.
So at the time, there was like a hotel group at ninety hotels
and they would just saying, hey, what about Denver. It's like,
yeah, maybe Denver, but I didn't like being in separate time zones with
the kids. Now, we kept asking to stay on the East Coast.
Yeah, right, like all of our family, every single person in our
family is on the East Coast. So then they're like, hey, listen,
we're you know, we're looking at a hotel at Main so you can't
talk about it. We think about that. I don't know, like it's
cold up there. And when you you came home on like a Tuesday night
and you were like ah. So they said, like that was a favorite.
What do you feel about Maine? And I said, I don't know.
And we put Mallory to bed, and I was like, can we
google it? Yeah, like I had ever been to the state of and
we were there like what to a Katie and National Park. I think he
was too, he doesn't really remember it. And so we we put Mallory
to bed that night and we opened a computer and we googled it. We
googled yeah, Maine. So that was and that was cool because yeah,
it was like all right, And then more I have a friend that wasn't
man like it's a big fucking state, like the chance they were in the
same town. Um, And then it turns out like he's Jackson you grew
up at the time, and we're like the best family friends. We're all
yeah, well, at the time, he owned a restaurant in the area
where we were looking to move and I was like, oh wow, this
like person I grew up with. It's actually in the same area in this
large state. Yeah, where we're looking to move right that. I reached
out and I was like, hey, I know mean's a big state,
but like I think we're moving there, and um, do you like know
of daycares and like can you just help with those kinds of things? And
he was like, well, where are you moving? And I happened to
say, well, this is where my husband's job is going to be.
And he was like, oh, yeah, you're right here. You're you're
right where we live. Right. So here's a realtor, here's a daycare,
here's a pa, here's all of it. Well, the whole thing
though, like that was so fun. Is I signed for this job in
December. We hadn't even been up there. We didn't know we had so
you know, we threw we threw a hail Mary there and we went up
in January. It's probably the coldest week, and the closet thing it was
like a snow story like there, yeah, they're blizzards, all kinds of
stuff. But when we were flying back with it, we're gonna get stuck.
But anyway, so I think for both of us, because we landed
in Manchester, New Hampshire. We drove out, We're like, holy,
how this is the most amazing place. Yeah. Like we hit the beach
and you know, it's negative five degrees out and you look out, we
should see lighthouses, waves crashing and it's like, oh, we go look
at all these seals and it wasn't seals, it's people surfing. Yeah yeah,
and then with west suits on, yeah they do it. Yeah.
And then it was people walking and it was being active and we were like,
okay, this is it. Yeah right, like yeah, so we
moved there for the active lifestyle. That game thirty pounds, so you know,
yeah, but but we've maintained that active lifestyle, like we can't.
Your friend Jackson Ye also did some private work for the Can we say the
Bush family? Yeah, we totally say. You guys both of us have
Yeah, you've met the Bushes and you had I know you've met George.
You have a picture you when George drinking a beer. Yeah, I mean
I have no George. George does not you were were you drinking a beer?
Maybe you weren't either, I don't know what the picture was. I
don't know why. In my mind, I just put beer. I look
at you and I think you're drinking. Yeah, but it was the it
was Pete tonight. But oh yeah. So we've done a lot of like
Jackson and I. Jackson's a chef. He is a phenomenal shelf um well
trained, and I just kind of came in and started doing like the execution
of a lot of the events that he was for the bushes. Jackson has
been cooking food for these people for years and I have been doing you know,
arrangements in teeble settings. They love having him at the head. Sure,
they do great. Well, we've been I've been to Jackson's house.
Yeah, yeah for Christmas, Yes, for Christmas Eve, like, yeah,
it's you arrived a bit late, but that was Dad. That was
Dad driving and he's got the wrong way and I'm telling him one way.
So he was ready to he he wanted to go home. By the time
we hit the driveway. He goes, I'm ready ready to go home.
If this sucks, we're out of here. And then we went. It
was great. It was delightful. The whole thing was wonderful. Yeah,
it's wonderful. All right, we'll take a moment and then go back.
I have questions about things that we did as kids. Want I probably I
owe you an apology. I think I've I don't think I've ever sincerely apologized
for something you'll find out. And then then there were just other things that
Kevin did that I always always very highly entertained by. The Plug in the
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White and Brew rock dot com. Put the cag on my coffin, and
think of me every so often, have a loser's name prayed for all my
friends. Drink up life like a river till the beats Man delivers. Smile
and know I loved you till the end. Here's what to do when my
time comes to pass. But Charlie told me to the reflection in his glass.
Don't waste time praying because I'm never coming back to store. Party in
my name and put the keg on my coffin and think every so often I
have a loser's name raid for one. I think this shill be the song
they cover one of us. It's Kevin's play as the backs out of them.
Oh that's Chris Trapper, keg in my coffin. Uh So, when
we were growing up, I used to you looked like the Chucky Dollar.
You were this little kid, he had the curly hair, and we wound
up calling him Chuck. I to this day call you Chuck. I just
blurted it out the other day in the store we're together, and your kids
looking be like, how crazy? But uh? And then I used to
play a game because I'm eight years older than Kevin, and I would take
these stuffed animals he had a red fox stuffed animal, and I used to
take it by the tail. I would pop out from around the corner as
he was starting to walk, and I would try to sweep his legs out
from under him and watch his little body go horizontal and land. Well,
that's so horrible because I would like kill my guys, my sons if they
did that to each other. Marge had Marge, Bill had no clue,
and you started to scoot to the point where Mom was concerned that you didn't
know how to walk. But you got around, you got your toys,
you got everything. And she was very, very worried about all this,
had to get doctors and stuff. But you were fine, and it was
just me being an asshole. And but you adapted, just like you figured
out how to get through Europe, or how to ride your bike across the
country, or how to navigate through Cornell get your master's degree. Say how
hard that was, but find all the answers. I think that you learned
to adapt early on in life, very early on in life. It's well,
that's it, right, It's just gonna be able to maneuver the ebbs
and the flue. Is this the last ass grab pictures. Oh god,
I'd love to put this up on something. I mean, you can tell
she's very much. She's like she's got they and you don't screw with Allison.
Alison is no joke's not electrical engineering. She attack. She didn't like
a joke. She didn't like that, I'm sure, but service to her
country. Yeah. Now, when I was I remember as when we were
kids, I was out of the house, but our mom and dad and
probably mom bought these reindeer that lit up and they were made out of vines
some kind right like old vineyard mindes that they came through. People see these,
they spray paint them white and they decorate them. And one would go
up on its hind legs. One So Dad calls me and tells me that
you you had he had to deer mounting the other deer in the front lawn.
And Dad said that they come pull it back up the road. He
look, so here he goes. Christ was going on Kevin and the dear
fucking each other on the problem with everything, because you used to have like
cows and stuff. I would have them like on top just mounted each other.
See. I was always like accused of doing things that I. Uh.
There was one time where our grandmother Helen showed up and she got it
was a plant had a fountain in it, so it was all these plant
It was like a plant display. And I had a fountain that was running
a little battery pump or whatever, and it sounded like someone was peeing.
That's what it sounded like. So I said to Kevin, you know,
it would be really funny if someone died that yellow. So Kevin goes and
gets food, die and he dies a yellow, but big splotches land on
this white oriental rug. Our parents had this wool rug. My father was
ready. Does he get mad at Kevin? No, because you son of
a bitch. You saw him. It sounded like someone whispy, and he
wants to make you laugh. He goes in. I got my ass showed
like forever, and then the house did burn down. That's true. But
I remember like we used to torture Kevin two because there was a one eight
hundred number to what's called Home America. So my buddies and I in college
knew you were home alone, and we would call you and we would tell
you that we could see you. We would just go douche bag and he
would get all nervous. You could hear him at first getting nervous. Then
I think he figured it out after a while. Bro took me a week.
We would torture him with that. But then Kevin also like you had
parties, right, didn't you dig up the backyard? Yeah? And like
I wasn't around for any of that stuff. Well that was yeah, that
was yeah, because marsh Bill would go to Europe for two weeks and then
they would leave me home. So I think it's like my junior and senior
year, and I would cut a hole out of the grass. But I
mean it wasn't like a great landscaping anyway, was terrible cut and then I
put rocks on it and I'd have this great fire. Yeah I did the
fire would la. Didn't the neighbors come over and complain to you once?
For once? They while they complain because that's dripping the tractor. They said,
we know your parents are at home and our babies trying to sleep,
their babies now only twenty four or twenty five. Uh, you were driving
the tractor at what time? One in the morning? I can he just
stop driving the tractor? He's driving the one? Yeah? Sure, Ray
absolutely put the grass bag. Yeah, like a couple of days. They
would never know, and they never knew, they never knew. Well,
that one tis I don't believe you. I don't believe I'm like, yeah,
these great parties, I don't believe it. He could show me.
So I started pulling up patches of grass. You told on yourself later on,
Yeah, because he needed to prove I didn't give a shit. Yeah,
And he started pulled up patches of grass. And what did he say?
He's like, holy shit, it really did. There's not even one
burn, Mark tell there's not like all the wood I pull up in the
well. He always Dad always admired that you did it with a little bit
of Potashan style, like Kevin could get get away with anything. Get away
with that. He would always say to me, Sometimes they don't. Well.
And then Kevin was telling me a story today that he and our sister
used to work at the same place and the right department and they used to
play supervisor. So well, how did supervisor so yeah, because Katie.
So, Katie is a vegetarian, which is the funniest part. Yes,
since she worked she is, She's been a vegetarian since she was like mine.
So we worked at you know, the local grocery store in the meat
department, and I was more on whatever, it's fine, but you know,
Katie would play. She was there a couple of years longer than I
was for some odd reason, and we worked there during our breaks, right,
but we worked there during our breaks from college, and so we decided
we start playing these games. And she would pretend that she was the supervisor
and I was just the bad employee. This is allid act, all that
to entertain themselves in front of the customers. So I would put the sausage
in the chicken case. The chicken would be putting this, and she would
say, hey, listen, you know you've been written up twice this week
about this. She would do this other people, and we do it in
front of a customer, and I don't want to have this conversation right now,
but we need to. We need to start seeing some more improvement here.
And then people would say, they would they polar size it's really hard
being a supervit, and then we would talk about it. It wasn't a
supervin We just played this game. And then the other game that I put
with Kate would be because we'd see people, right, we'd see like random
people who knew from like growing up at church of a Kate you know who
that is, and she's like yeah, yeah, it's like, oh,
let's go say hi. So if you're forcing meat back into the into the
cooler or whatever, like hey, can't come on right here. It's missus
light. Um, this is we haven't seen you until year you Kate's here,
Katie's timing and this is the ship. We would know it's the ship.
You did that. It's super What was it the other day? There
was something that was so funny that you were telling me either you did and
I said, let's wait for the podcast. I wish I wrote it there,
but I don't remember what it was. It was something extremely funny.
But there's always been stuff, yes, dumb, but but but fun stuff
for sure. And I think that that I always had a great time with
you. I mean you and I. We went to a cousin's wedding and
tore it up. I think we were the hits of the wedding. For
Megan's wedding. Oh that's when we turned off the chocolate fun when they get
off a chocolate fountain in Florida. What does that fucking off a chocolate co
existed? Sticking our faces in there, We're doing all that, and then
at our grandmother's funeral street he streaked and I locked I locked him out and
he's banging and somebody's we like locked him at the hotel? What do you
get there? Oh god? It was just a lot of a lot of
good times. But I'd have to say, if there's one thing that I've
I've learned tonight because I was kind of thinking, like I was going to
ask you what did the flight school and the flight stuff, what did you
learn there? And I don't know if if you did you learn? I
think you know on that side, you learn process, right, you learn,
and you you learn organization some ways, and you learn you know,
that's the verity of the situation. So flying, I think it's a great
it's a great field to just understand. Right, it's life or death in
some ways, but it's not. But it's not like oh out die.
But you learned the process and you learn, yeah, you know some of
these strategies that kind of help you go forward. And I'll probably get back
into flying once the kids are older. Yeah, but the uh what I
was thinking, Like, one of the things that I've learned is there's never
been uh, I can't in your vocabulary. Well, I just didn't say
today, no, But I mean I I really, I mean some of
the things we didn't talk about were you run marathons. You would go party
till one o'clock in the morning, and then you ran the Philly Marathon,
one of my best you know, I'm one of one marathon actually was eleven
years ago this weekend. Yeah. So it was the Vermont Marathon, the
shittiest marathon I ever ran. And the reason why I was so shitty is
because I trained for it. Yeah, and I didn't drink the night before
and then but you went party with our pregnant and you said, I'm not
gonna drink because my wife is my Yeah. So yeah, most marathon I
mean, I've gotten marathons. I've baked. Yeah, keep roughing, thro
Rob, you're nippled, bleeding. Oh my god, I just run through
the bay. But but I mean that was all after doing the cross country
right or before the in between. Yeah, you know, I haven't run
a marathon ten years, but I'd like to get back into it. It's
a time commitment or sure, and I need to get back to that piece.
I think it did a half last year. Yeah, I did a
half marathon last year. But um, but yeah, no, they're running
that. Those are the things I need to get back into that and really
kind of you know, for me, it's just like any job, right,
you know, you can get really absorbed into it. At a certain
level, you can start to get more absolute time. Yeah, but I
needed to really kind of make sure them. Well, it sounds like,
uh, there's been a good balance. I mean some of the other things
we did, we didn't you as a family ski all winter long, the
kids ski Dylan who is now six, my nephew has been on ski since
he's been three, right two two, And so I always feel like there's
a good life balance. I mean, if you were looking for quality of
life, you certainly you've certainly exercised it. You could maybe find it any
where, but you certainly exercise it, and you like where you are.
And I was up there, you have a you had. I don't know
if you're doing it. I think COVID kind of screwed it up. But
around your birthday, that end of the year bash where everybody comes and camps
on your property and it's like a two or three day pride. We're slipping
sliding into the pond. Yeah yeah, I think we did it. Yeah
no, we still do it. Yeah yeah, No, that that balance
is for sure. It is. We try to maintain it as much we
can and the kids. Yeah, making sure that there are in those sports
that like transcend this seasonal boundary, right, like you can't you can't live
in a space that's like, oh I'm gonna I'm gonna hibernate in the winter.
Yes, no, we don't allow that to happen. And so and
we we yeah, you do. So, Like I think where we live
though, I think we're very very fortunate where we live because you know,
we have friends that live like one road over and it feels in the suburbs.
So you know where we live. That piece of property is really cool.
It allows us to just be fucking assholes and do it well. You
have a nice yeah, the fish and pond. But the but for you,
like all the way through, what was it? Because you've had that
all your life. Every story here on the podcast today has been somewhere where
maybe there wasn't the perfect work life balance. So you sought that. You
quit a job, you buy a bike, you cross country, you you're
in Indiana. You didn't really like that wasn't what you saw. That wasn't
where you wanted to be. You come home, well you don't. You
don't want to live at home. You want to do this Europe thing.
And so you're always looking for that that bunt. What was that? That
that? Maybe I missed that and was that something our parents taught us?
Because I wasn't there for that dinner conversation. You're for me. It's always
trying to strike that balance, right, So you know, work gets a
little more aggressive, and then you have to get more aggressive on the other
shid right, you have to kind of really buy back that time. That's
how I look at it again. You know I look at it, but
I'm even watching with your kids. You know, you'll you take them and
it's I think there was something with ice cream where you go off and everybody's
getting these big sundays. Or you took Mallory while you were here and you
were off to Old Navy and you're buying a bunch of well yeah, because
I mean, it's not a shopping trip to Old Navies it's an investment,
right and buying cheap close for them for the summer. So that's fine.
But I think for me, one of the great things is that I was
older right when I got married, when we got married, when we had
a kid, I was older, and I had done a lot of the
dumb shit that people need to get out of their systems. Maybe I don't
know, you know, as I'm still going through it, I got a
lot of that done. So I have no regrets. Yeah, and that
so that makes it when I'm dealing with you know, life right now,
there's never I wish I should have I could have. Damn it. You
know, you held me back from you know, being able to out and
I'm gonna, you know, and having it because I see, I see
friends. I have friends right now who you know you held me back.
Or I need to go out and I need to go hang out with my
buddies at the bar. I don't have that. I don't feel that,
and I think it's because of I've set time for that earlier in my career
and now I can kind of focus on the two things, which is family
and work. Right. I was, you know, some of the something
else that we did not mentioned at all though in terms of that fun and
balance you were the royal reveler that I am shocked that had not come up
yet. But I know, I guess I shot past that not even thinking.
But when Kate and William got married, yeah, uh, you went
over for the wedding and Dad made you sequenced tails red white to do sequenced
tails. Did you have a top hat? Yes, I had a top
hat. I had, Yeah, I had you made balloon animals on.
I had two suits. I had one that had the Uni jack. It
was a vest that I wore out on the first night, so I guess
that would be the rehearsal dinner night and then and then I wore the other
the other suit. But yeah, Dad was living in Florida at the time
and he made that costume. I think that we still have them. Yeah,
oh yeah, I still have that. But that was before he made
the clown costume. Oh yes, yes, definitely, those were the errors
of the really good clown costume and that yeah, because that was before Mallory,
like that was almost a solid year before and were you I was pregnant
when you graduated from Clown Clown College class Clown Class clown of the clown class.
You were the class clown of the clown class. Yes, it was
so. Yeah, these are fascinating stuff. Let me let me go back
to the Royal Reveler though. You went over there one other guy, Ja
Jason, my buddy Jason, and you were going to camp out. Yeah,
and I did yeah, and he said yeah, So I went.
I flew over for three days I think it was three days. Yeah.
And the whole thing was again, I was cheap. I was living in
Florida and I didn't have cable, and then there's like a free cable package,
so I got it and I watched them on the morning shows are going
on, Hey, if you haven't booked your flights to come to Europe,
you still can you can camp out. Oh great, well this is what
I'm doing. So that night I booked the flights a dad, I got
two weeks for you to make me a costume. I need tails, and
I knew you hate this. You said this too. Yes, holy shit,
he got right on it. Here's even funnier. My best friend at
the time from college was the mayor's daughter. Okay, and and her I
are still very close, very good friends, and I'm like, hey,
we're together, like you should be my date to this wedding, and he's
like, I have to go to another wedding. I have some intend to
different wedding. Way, so you blew her off to go to the royal
wedding. He blew off the mayor's daughter, the Mayor's daughter, the Mayor
of Orlando's daughter. Yes, she's now divorced. And you made it to
the cover of the Irish Times, the Daily Mail. And then I made
Yahoo's like top ty Who's top twenty photos of the Royal wedding? Yes,
and because people I think that looks like Kevin, but I don't think he's
in England. Yeah, yeah, that was Kevin. Okay, Royal I
made two lumbirds kissing in her heart. That was my blue animal. Yes,
you were the most energetic Royal wedding reveler. Yeah. And then where
did the balloon animals? That was clown college or No, No, that
was just something you have some book. Right, So this goes back when
my kids were a little No, like I was in high school. Okay,
I don't think here, I don't even think Yeah. And so it
was around Mother's Day. Yeah, and I was joking with the kids,
said, well, I'm a motherfucker. I'm gonna buy myself a Mother's Day
gifts. So I bought a book on how to make boot animals, okay,
and I taught myself how to make boot animals and then I was blowing
them up and doing all that stuff. And yeah, because used to do
it for the boys. Jordan loved it. Yeah, and uh, I
never really But here's the thing. I always like to say that, you
know, I never get too deep into this stuff, like I just do
it like good magic, dumb bad, like yeah, you know, they're
you can make. And I did take some classes lord how to make these
other bloons, but like they did just become a fucking weirdo. Yeah,
I don't want to do that. Like I got to talk about the kind
of boons I have, so um yeah. So yeah, I went over
to the wedding and yeah, I made a bunch of love birds and hearts
and people throw the money at me, and you know, these people were
going out and drink and so I met all these British folks and like for
the for the coronation, like hey, you coming over, Like I wrote,
not my king, but I'm like, yeah, I think that'll be
our family ships. Oh, that would be very funny about And the clown
college, that's a that's a real thing. He went in the Orlando Yeah,
and that wasn't you know? That's this one gets the most out of
all the stuff I've done. It. This is the one that gets the
most legs. It's usually the clowns school thing. But yeah, there's a
clown alley, so clowns. So for the whole idea of clowns. Clowns
they called the clown alley because the alley would be between the two caravans that
the clowns came in on, and that was kind of their space. Yeah,
you know, behind the circus. That was their their private space.
So these clown alleys, that's kind of like the Elks Club more or less
now, um so they I joined the clown Alley in Orlando and it was
in like this dirty church, right, and it was the most interesting weird
people. You'd you would even associate with these people during the day. Who
are they? But it was great because I would hang out with them at
night two to three nights a week and do the clown school thing, and
then two to three days at four in the morning, I was running with
the top type a personalities like CEOs, all these people, and I was
in a running group like on the other side of Orlando, like and these
and so like I would go some days I'd be like op at four in
the morning running and then I'd be in like some dirty church church with these
people that like you did You're like, where do they even sleep? And
it was so cool because you're dealing with all these personalities and I really enjoyed
that. Yeah, I've always been a fan of that myself. It all
walks a life, all walks the life. It was very interesting. This
has been maybe one of my absolute favorite pid not maybe, but absolutely one
of my favorite podcasts. I don't I don't say that everybody rapper, but
Chris Trapper would be fun Rochester for my Oh he is what's she doing?
Party? The party? All right? Wolf? Hang on? We might
have to pause this. I do this once in a while where I don't
exactly wrap up the show. But I thought I was having six three Rochester,
New York, Buffalo on the second and Geneva on the fourth, So
what I wonder where he's playing on the third I'll have to find out what
day of the week is that. That's a Saturday, that's this Saturday.
Second is a Friday, Yeah, this Saturday, Sunday. Sunday is the
fourth, Sundays the fourth. So he's playing the fourth. We're okay,
well we do the podcast. Oh shit, sorry. Third, he's playing
Geneva on the fourth. Third, he's playing Saturday. Yeah, that's what
I mean. Yeah, but yes, it is. It's very close.
It's very close. Maybe we can get him in that time. That would
be very nice. I would love that. Chris trapperd for Kevin Moran,
for Morgan Moran, and I'm Bill Moran. We'll see you tomorrow. I
woke up in the hotel, didn't know what to do. I turned a
TV you rule a letter to you, and this is talk. Didn't go
to day the Morda