Speaker 1: Hello, friends, and welcome to Theme Party the podcast. I'm
your party host, Moretta mos. In case this is your
first time listening to a TPTV episode, here is what
we're doing. Every season, I pick a theme and our
team comes up with their own ideas for an audio
drama that somehow fits that theme, even if it only
fits if you ask everyone really nicely to ignore all
the ways it doesn't. Once they've made their episode, I
invite them to talk about it and I am thrilled
to be here with my party guest, Nedda. El say
it Hi. In a previous life, Nedda was a dentist,
but now she's in the electric sector. She dabbles in
voice acting as well as plays D and D and
a variety of games. Bay Area based Nedda loves to
travel at ten concerts and comedy shows, snowboard and can
never say no to brunch. Nedda, please say hello, Hi, Ritta.
I've been starting off these episodes by describing the kind
of party I think you are as kind of a
way to tell the audience who I think you are
as a person, and maybe you can either agree or
disagree to further in the people of like what they're
getting into with our conversation here today. So the kind
of party that I think you are, and bear with
me here because I know this is not people's traditional
definition of a party, but I think you would be
a first date, and by that I mean I'm imagining
that there would be a fabulous meal. And I understand
that I have also talked extensively about food with everybody
that I've interviewed so far, and that was not on purpose.
But it's okay, a fabulous meal because I think that's
how you show your love is either by experiencing good
food with somebody, or by making good food with somebody
or for somebody. I think also that your first date
would involve an adventurous activity or something like that that
gets you out of the house and moving, either like
a hike or snowboarding as you mentioned, or a concert
as you mentioned, followed by a cozy end to the
evening with just like a little bit of like enjoyment
of getting to meet this person and celebrate starting whatever
the future holds together, or just celebrate like, hey, I
don't have to do this ever again, depending on how
the date goes. So that is that an accurate portrayal
or not?
Speaker 2: I would say yes, because funny enough, I do have
a new boyfriend. Yeah, and yes, he he's on a
completely different level and I'm I'm very happy. Our first date,
we were supposed to meet up for like a drink,
that sort of thing, and I ended up scratching a
company car day because I was trying to park in
a very tight garage area and I'm not I drive
a Prius. I'm not used to trust.
Speaker 1: Oh no, is this something I have to cut out
of the episode? Does your boss know? That's not okay?
I just wanted to check it.
Speaker 2: No, No, they know because it was a rental.
Speaker 1: Oh they know, they know, they were well aware.
Speaker 2: I got I got in touch with them immediately.
Speaker 1: Okay, Ah, dang that sucks.
Speaker 2: So he was very sweet. He was like, oh you
sure you you know you don't want to get a
drink that sort of thing, and I'm like, you know,
I'm I'm too stressed out right now, let's put a
hold on this Q. About a week and a half later,
we actually finally do have a date. We go see
Superman and we had some lovely ty food after and
it was just really good. We ended up like spending
six hours.
Speaker 1: Together something like that whoa on a first date?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was really good.
Speaker 1: Congratulations. Oh I love that Twitter painted phase where you're
just like so into each other. I mean, I shouldn't
say phase. Some people are probably just storid to painted
all of the time. That must be amazing. The theme
for this season is family Traditions. Did your story fit
the theme?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yeah, yeah, yes, Listen.
Speaker 1: I tell everybody to shoehorn their ideas and as much
as possible if it fits it. Anyway, it fits a theme,
that's good.
Speaker 2: It definitely fits because, like you know, I basically talks
about a whole year of activities, So yeah, it does.
Is it necessarily family? No, but I was very distracted
at the time and I couldn't really think of anything
else to write.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Also, like the concept of found family, like it's not true.
I mean, I know, the story centers around your relationship
with this person, but you know, there's also the factor
of the friends that you guys spend a lot of
time with and the interactions with his family and your family,
and he did not end up becoming family per se.
I don't know what your friendship status is with this
person anymore.
Speaker 2: At it he's a friend. That's it? Sure in the circle,
that's yeah. No, no, no, Necessarily direct communication is needed, gotcha?
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I will say still that I think your episode,
even though it's not focused on your interactions with blood
family member or even somebody that you would consider to
be found family necessarily, I do still think that the
periphery around the main story still falls in line with
that theme.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, you have a point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look at me, I got there. Well, your episode
title is first and last. Would you please read for
us your log line and your tagline.
Speaker 2: The narrator reminisces on memories created with a loved one,
but their current form of relationship must end. Role for chemistry.
Speaker 1: Check nice Netta's roles in making this episode include producer, writer,
and actor. Let's listen to a sample of your episode.
Speaker 2: We hit it off right away. You gave me a
reason to laugh every day. I was in a dark
place processing my dad's death while also starting out as
a state, all while dealing with keeping an estranged family
at arm's length. I would definitely want koftaburgers and fries.
I would have to be the grill master again. Since
you're color blind, you would have a hard time telling
when the burgers were done. These traditions we meet together
and the ones we haven't been begun will never be
more than what they are now.
Speaker 1: NEDA. What podcast production role did you take on for
the first time and how did it.
Speaker 2: Go For the first time? There was writing. I'm not
much of a writer, so that was interesting to do.
That was the biggest thing. Actually, I've done a little
bit of voice acting before, so nothing new there unrelated
to theme party. But I have been delving into the
sound design for Peculiar Radio and that has been fun too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's so exciting to dive into sound design, and
every time I learn a new skill in sound design,
I'm like, look at me. I could do this professionally
for money.
Speaker 2: It's very satisfying of having the audio effects line up
correctly with the voices. Oh, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: I was like, yes, this is so good. What was
your favorite part about writing for the episode?
Speaker 2: I guess because of the topic of it. It was
just cathartic. Yeah, it was good to express those feelings
in a healthy avenue.
Speaker 1: You started writing this when it was still really fresh
and really raw, right.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, No, My original plan was to write about
like Ramadan and the Ads, and like how it is
in comparison between like the US and in Egypt. And
I was just very, very distracted by this breakup, so
that was all I could think of.
Speaker 1: We'll have to have you back for another episode in
the future so we can find out whatever it was
you were going to write about for Ramadan and Aid. I
would love to hear that. That sounds very interesting. Do
you want to tell us a little bit about how
they're different between the US and Egypt right now? Like,
don't give anything away if it's going to be an
incredible episode for the future.
Speaker 2: But I hones say the biggest difference, like out of
personal experience, is just it's in Egypt. I have a
lot of family there, so it's just a very very
family oriented event and vibe in comparison to what it
was here in the US because usually it was just
our family, so we'd be just going to the mosque,
have the prayers there and get some free candy since
we were kids and you know, some money. My sister
and I there's only a year and a half between us.
We have to wear matching dresses of course, as it.
Speaker 1: Goes very classic for little girls.
Speaker 2: And yeah, that pretty much sums it up for the
US more or less. Oh, I love that, But in
Egypt it was definitely more enjoyable, I would say, just
because there's more family people.
Speaker 1: More extended family. Yeah, how inclusive of extended family are you?
Because my family gets together every summer with extended family
out to my cousins and like my aunts and uncles
and my kids generation. Right, we do family reunions that
like branch out farther down the tree, but it's not
as well attended as it used to be, and it's
certainly not around a special holiday or something. It's you know,
just gathering together like the local community center kind of
thing and having some pot luck.
Speaker 2: So I don't really deal with my dad's side of
the family family history thing. We hang out always with
my mom's side. It's basically whenever there's an opportunity. Because
some of the family members live closer than the others,
we tend to like just meet up in the countryside
because that's what's easiest for one of the family members.
Every so often, maybe at least once a month, we
would go down there, spend the weekend at the very least.
My mom is always on the phone with her every day.
Speaker 1: And this is in Egypt, or this.
Speaker 2: Isn't no, this is in Egypt, okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And here in the US, we don't have a lot
of family members here. Yeah, it's a more sparse.
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds dreamy to have like a bunch of
built in friends to go and visit them for fun
family events.
Speaker 2: And I will say though, in comparison to when I
was a child, the celebrations now is definitely more lax.
We don't really have time to do outings or anything
like that. So with some family friends, old old family friends,
we would get together, like on the weekend at the
very least of the week of the celebration, just get together,
have breakfast and hang out. Oh so that is that
is wonderful.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for sharing that. I cannot
wait to hear what you intended to write about it
for your episode. We'll have to come up with a
theme that I can work around your story. Well, speaking
of family and gatherings, I think you told me the
last party that you hosted was a wedding.
Speaker 2: Yes, not me per se, it was for it was
my brother's wedding.
Speaker 1: Well I didn't I didn't even apply that you went
to your own wedding, the last party you went to
when you have real quick with this new boyfriend. Dang,
that would be quite the reveal in the what ten
minutes we've been talking about.
Speaker 2: I mean, let's put it this way. He's very serious.
Speaker 1: Oh dang, Okay.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and he has gone kind of all out
like he's already on his own starting to learn Arabic.
He even signed up for classes. He's met my family,
he's met family friends.
Speaker 1: And how long have you been dating?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: What's that giggle for?
Speaker 2: Well, because I know for a lot of people to
be like, oh my god, that's so fast, it's been
like now two months, two and a half months. But
here's the thing. And this is what it really blew
me away in his perspective, because when I was telling
him like I can't believe that you're actually already learning
this or you know you're interested in doing this, and
he's like, well, because we met over Hinge, you expressed
in your profile how this is important to you, so
then that means it should be important to me. Whoo.
So it's like, oh, is that how it's supposed to be?
Oh my, It's like, oh, I didn't know that. This
is how this works.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Yeah, congratulations. Wow, all right. Do you want to
talk about your brother's wedding or do you want to
just talk about planning your own? Oh no, this.
Speaker 2: Nowhere anytime soon. But it feels good, It feels good.
Speaker 1: Happy for you. That's wonderful.
Speaker 2: Thank you. But if you want to go back to
the brother's wedding, that was a lot of fun. We
went to Egypt for that.
Speaker 1: What's a wedding like in Egypt?
Speaker 2: So there's a thing like at the start of a wedding,
there's a thing called a zepha, which you have a
bunch of musicians and dancers that show up at the
beginning and they kind of walk the bride and groom
across the area to where they're going to be sitting down.
It's just a whole ceremony thing with a bunch of
horns and drums and it's very enjoyable after that. Wedding
could be as Western or Oriental as you want, essentially,
but it's it's typically very Western. We have the DJ
dance floor, buffet dinner thing. My brother married his childhood sweetheart.
Speaker 3: They were oh yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've known each other since they were kids. And
fortunately finally she heard from the embassy she'll be having
her interview so she can come over finally because they
got married earlier on like on paper, so they can
get that paperwork going. Sure, And then we did did
the full celebration last May.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, well, I'm what a happy ending. Married your
childhood sweetheart and she gets to come live with you.
Speaker 2: It's been a process.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Well, I'm glad it's working out. That's good
to hear. Yeah, congratulations to your brother and his beautiful bride.
Pretty much opposite of a wedding to your childhood sweetheart.
What is your opinion on surprise parties and has anybody
ever thrown a surprise party for you or have you
ever thrown a surprise party for someone else?
Speaker 2: I think surprise parties can be pretty fun, but you
got to time or know what kind of mindset that
the person who's getting surprised. That is the key point.
Don't want to have them come in and having a
very bad day at work and then suddenly be surprised
with a bunch of people when all you want to
do is wind down and shut down.
Speaker 1: Or even I like surprise parties agreed that you have
to be bindful of somebody's mindset for the day and
if they're going to be interested in this. I also
don't like surprise parties where people are led to believe
that everyone has forgotten about their birthday leading up to that,
because that is cruel. What makes somebody feel like they
have no friends and then surprise, You're not a loser,
you know, like that's it's so sad.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That didn't even cross my mind of the fact that,
you know, even friends would pretend like I know that happens,
But in my head it was just like, Okay, everybody's
here surprise, but not even the mindset of actively being like,
oh is it today, what's happening today? No, that did
not cross my mind.
Speaker 1: I would like to think that people involved with participating
in or planning surprise parties would work around that and
not make that the situation. But I think I think
it has to happen sometimes, right, like where people plan
a birthday surprise on the day and everybody is trying
to be hush hush about what the actual plans are
and being probably pretty flaky about celebrating in other ways,
And yeah, I mean, I guess as you get older,
like birthdays also don't feel as important unless it's like
a milestone birthday kind of thing. So maybe it's not
that big of a deal. Then that's true. But man
if I were thirteen and none of my friends did
happy Birthday, oh gosh and surprise me, I would be devastated.
Speaker 2: That's trauma right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you carry that forever.
Speaker 2: Yeah. To answer your other questions, I've been a part
of one, one or two surprise parties back in the day,
like during the college years. Essentially I was never the planner,
just participant and helped with it after the fact. I've
never actually had a surprise party.
Speaker 1: Would you want a surprise party?
Speaker 2: I think would be interesting to try it, But I
mean it's not something that's like I must have this.
I think it would be How would I say this?
It's like the concept is nice because then it's like, oh,
you know, people do care kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the extra effort it takes to keep that secret
is nice, and the yeah, the masterful deception. I don't
know if somebody's gonna be good at thinking around. I
don't know what the redeeming qualities are of somebody who
can throw a good surprise party except that, Hey, that's
neat that you lied to me like that and it
was for good reasons, I suppose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Wow, that's valid.
Speaker 1: I don't even know where to go from this anyway. Well,
speaking of big and a slump, from knowing how to
transition out of that weird place that I ended up
about surprise parties, how do you get out of a
work slump if it feels stuck around motivated or something
like that, what do you do to get the creative
juice's flog again?
Speaker 2: So here's the funny thing, don't I don't really feel
work slumps. I feel more of like just a constant
cycle sort of thing. So it's like, how do I
want to get out of that feeling of just repetition? Essentially,
I usually tend to do something that I don't usually do,
so it's like, okay, you know what, I'm going to
go to the movies, or I'm going to go take
a walk, or I will tour the city sort of thing,
Like I need to do something out of the normal
to break things.
Speaker 1: So more like a life slump than a work slump. Yeah,
it's like getting out of the rut.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because this is kind of bullshit of me to say.
I don't know if I could say that, but he's
at him.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, all right.
Speaker 2: All right, this is kind of bs for me to say, but.
Speaker 1: I gotta believe it's fine.
Speaker 2: But I don't commonly get slumps because I usually just
go into a work mode and just like I keep
going until it's done, essentially, and then I'll be like,
all right, I need to do something different. I need
to get out of this sort of feeling. But yeah,
I tend to be a work horse, not healthy.
Speaker 1: But it sounds like you've got a good method for
like shaking it off when you're done, so you're not
carrying it through to other aspects of your life outside
of work.
Speaker 2: I try to as much as I can.
Speaker 1: Good good, I'm glad to hear that, Netta. You're invited
to a party. What are you told to bring to
the party.
Speaker 2: Usually I'd be told to bring bougie foodie thing, because
I'm the foodie of the group.
Speaker 1: Essentially, give me a list of boo things.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, a lot of it is Middle Eastern.
Speaker 1: I love Middle Eastern food. Tell me what it is.
Speaker 2: So like, there's this dessert call well, everybody knows what
it is now knefa yep. But it's not just like
the dried little pastry bits. It's an actual dish and
the filling is usually of nuts or some cheese cream
like consistency in They're very delicious. When someone else was
hosting a benicotta, everybody had to bring different ingredients. I
brought a whole variety of mushrooms. Like, I'm not keeping
it just to portobello and white. No, that's boring. Let's
get some chittaki, some trumpets, oyster, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Do you want to announce here now, what the best
mushroom is? Do you have one?
Speaker 2: You know what? I honestly don't because I just really
like mushrooms general. I would not say no to mushrooms.
Speaker 1: I will agree, I think a blend is the best overall,
But if I had to pick one, I think I
would go oyster mushroom. I think their flavor and texture.
You have a point, They're so good in everything.
Speaker 2: They really are very adaptable.
Speaker 1: Other bougie foods that you need to bring to parties.
What else?
Speaker 2: M Well, my mom kind of makes some of it,
but then I finish it off something called mashie. That's
an Egyptian dish. It's something stuffed with rice. So in
this case, there's cabbage rolls, grape leaves, zucchini, eggplant, peppers,
and there's this rice. It's very herbaceous and it has
a tomato sauce base to it. You cook it in
chicken stock or beef stock, and it is really good.
I sacrilegiously, I like to dip it and ketchup, but
not a lot of people agree with me.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I feel about that, and I
eat ketchup. Listen. I can't tell other people how to
eat their food, though, but I yeah, if it's good,
that's great. I love that part of you. You mentioned
that your mom makes a lot of food for you
to bring to parties or for parties that you host.
Is there a recipe that your mom taught you to
make that is particularly special or that you guys make together.
Speaker 2: Maybe? No. She is more of a hands off kind
of person.
Speaker 1: What do you mean, Oh, like like your hands off.
Speaker 2: Out, my hands off, my hands off? Yeah, I reverse that,
that's okay. The recipes, she doesn't have anything written down right,
It's just all in her head and I know all
the components and all the ingredients, and that's actually just
enough to be able to do it, because nothing's measured
out all just by feeling. And while her food will
look good, mine won't necessarily look good, but it will
still taste.
Speaker 1: Great, and that's what matters exactly.
Speaker 2: I will say, though, that I am now solely in
charge of Thanksgiving. What she got tired of me commenting do.
Speaker 1: You do an American style Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2: Or American one hundred?
Speaker 1: So your cooking the turkey and the potatoes and the stuff, Yang,
that's a big responsibility. Congratulations for having that pisode upon you,
and also I'm sorry that you had upon you.
Speaker 2: You know what, Actually I don't feel bad about doing it.
I look forward to it because it's like, oh, I
made this, and it's it's better than what you would
have ever scample.
Speaker 1: What were you unsatisfied with in your mom's interpretation of Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2: Oh, she did a typical American style too, but it's like, oh,
the brutus maybe a little bit dry, or the cranberry
sauce is a little bit too sweet, you know, maybe
you should add some orange to it. And she got
kind of fed up and I'm like, all right, I'll
do it, and I immediately got myself like, you know,
one of those injectable things for the turkey.
Speaker 1: So yack, the giant turkeys are ringe.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I just went all out and she has no complaints.
I can say that much.
Speaker 1: You know what, for making you be hands off in
her kitchen to entrusting you with all of Thanksgiving, that
is a huge leap, and we'd love to see growth.
We love to see a comeback story that's good. After
telling us about all these bougie foods that you're responsible for,
can you tell us what poor ban's cranberry juice is?
Speaker 2: Oh? Okay, So this is This is hibiscus and tamarind
boiled together essentially, so it's like a herbal tea, but
you just add enough sugar because tamrend adds a bit
of tartness to it and the hibiscus gives that kind
of floral fruity note. So with the sugar, it just
kind of ties it all together. And it is truly
the poor man's cranberry juice.
Speaker 1: I don't think of cranberry as being a rich man's drink.
Speaker 2: No fair okay, So fair point when I say that
so okay, I when I said that, it's kind of
more in reference to when I was living in Egypt. Oh,
because cranberries are not very common there. Like the only
kind of cranberries I've ever seen is ocean missed jelly.
Speaker 1: That is it. I make my own cranberry sauce every
year for Thanksgiving. I still like this stuff out of
the can. I will eat that one hundred percent if
somebody is serving it.
Speaker 2: So oh no, well, I mean we did eat it.
I mean, but the thing is, it's like it's the
only thing there's Like, cranberry juice does not exist essentially
unless you're buying something from a supermarket that has foreign foods,
which is extremely expensive in comparison to regular food. So hence,
why the term of poor Man's cranberry juice, because it
was a very good comparison to that.
Speaker 1: Gotcha, and can you tell me how poor Man's cranberry
juice fits the theme of your episode.
Speaker 2: You can keep having good thoughts, good things happening and happening,
but if there's no real substance, because hey, you'd rather
have the cranberry juice right over having the poor Man's
granmary juice right Let me just have the real thing.
It's a lot less work because it's a lot of
less work exactly. I think, yeah, that would be its
comparison to it is just you know, not saying that obviously,
anybody hearing the episode will know it's it's not all bad's,
but it's not all good either, and it's I guess
it's just in comparison to all the time and effort
and the outcome was poor Man's cranberry juice when you
really wanted the cranberry juice instead and just couldn't get that.
Speaker 1: Wow, I've kind of blown away yet I have to
keep talking, I guess. Thankfully we're coming to the end
of the episode, so I won't have to keep talking
for long. It's been a pleasure chatting with you. But
before we go, could you please tell the people what
you're promoting or celebrating right now, if anything.
Speaker 2: Not promoting anything in particular. Halloween is around the corner,
so I'm looking forward to that very much. If anybody
was in Vegas this past weekend to see when we
were young, you guys rock.
Speaker 1: This past weekend being mid October, because this episode is
coming out in November.
Speaker 2: That is correct. Thank you, no problem.
Speaker 1: I doubt that they're having multiple versions of that concert
repeating weekend to weekend.
Speaker 2: That would be something omen a residency or you know, right,
one can wish.
Speaker 1: Your promo got me thinking, though. You do talk about
Halloween in your episode. Is there a costume planned for
this year?
Speaker 2: Yes? There is. Oh, my boyfriend and I we're going
to a Halloween party this Saturday, actually, and we are
going as very bad Hawaiian tourists. So we have like
the typical red flower t shirts, the khaki shorts. If
you notice in the corner, I got some.
Speaker 1: Lais there.
Speaker 2: A bad hat? My boyfriend is gonna have some. He's
all right. I'm gonna have to say he is very white.
He's going to have like some white face paint on
the nose for the sunscreen. Yeah, even got coconut cups.
Speaker 1: Like your drinks. Amazing. Are you guys going to have
like old style cameras? I hate to call him old
side cameras because people still have like DSLR cameras or
like point and shoot cameras that are not phones. But
you're gonna have those or.
Speaker 2: It's actually not a bad idea because that would be
fun just to take pictures.
Speaker 1: Y I like that.
Speaker 3: Okay, you're welcome, make a note of this right now.
I am a happy to assist her way over here.
Oh incredible, I guess I just demand to see those
pictures then when you are done having the Halloween party.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent yay.
Speaker 1: And Nedda, where can people find you?
Speaker 2: I am typically on Instagram. I don't post often, just
like whenever I'm doing something fun. Tag is doctor NMSY.
You can see me there and uh yeah all right.
Speaker 1: I highly recommend if you are interested in seeing some
exciting adventures, going over and checking out Nedda's Instagram pages
because Nedda is always getting up to some really really
fun things. We've mentioned the snowboarding and the concerts and stuff,
but Nedda loves to travel and loves to eat, and
it is a delight just to go over there and
see what she's up to. You could also check out
Nedda in episodes of Peculiar Radio, in the collection of
Moira Graves and just live in life. That just leaves
me to thank Ntda el Sayed for coming to my
theme party. Thank you also to Bad Machine for making
our shows music, and to Alyssa Esteban for our show
art and art story development. Another huge thank you to
Netta and everyone else involved in making firsts and last.
If you want to learn more about the episode and
all of our shows, you can visit our website Lengthytangent
dot com. We've also got a Patreon page for everything
from Lengthy Tangent soapop on over there to see what
we've got to offer. Be sure to follow us on
social media, subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and
rate and review if you've enjoyed the show. Our next
episode will ask what if ordinary light bulbs were sentient
and had very human problems. It's called light Bulbs and
it was created by Tyler Hurtchuk. Once again, our theme
for this season has been family traditions. I've been Miriamo's
and this has been an interview episode of theme Party,
the podcast Celebrate Creativity. I want to hear more about
this boyfriend. I don't want to ask too much. A
hold on, let me pause. We'll just edit that part
out Lengthy Tangent