Speaker 1: Made a decision a face sunny sun on Iheadvision night.
Hey everybody, what's happening?
Speaker 2: How are you heny?
Speaker 1: Stephanie?
Speaker 2: Hi?
Speaker 1: How you doing pretty good? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean the world is on fire, not literally this time,
but figuratively on fire. But you know we're here. We're
here here giving you a show.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: We're not all about us, and that's right, We're about you, guys.
We're about like, take a break from you know, people
stealing your social Security numbers and you know, hijacking the
Treasury Department.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about that, Like listen to us, just you know.
Speaker 2: Talk about our days. Right, yeah, you know what, you know,
we should say hello to our peeps. Are fantastic stick
Patreon Like Dick, who is frolicking around.
Speaker 1: He's still frolicking.
Speaker 2: He's the sweetest.
Speaker 1: Kelly Katie's rolling on e she thinks her ship don't stink.
Speaker 2: M Nikki call your girl, Elizabeth Williamson. She's uh got a.
Speaker 1: Lot of kids, a lot of kids.
Speaker 2: Rita is putting him in her basiet and just rocking
them to sleep. Mmm like a hero, Polly, we love
your pancakes. Valerie, you're hitting it out of the park. Katerina,
I need to get my molar filled, so you should.
Speaker 1: Want you guys go together.
Speaker 2: Two for one, two for one, two for Gabby and Missy.
Speaking of two first, Sean bosh Peg too cute, Kelly Brandt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she'll gash you up and take you where you
gotta go.
Speaker 2: Yep, Alicia Ascalante for the City El Monte, Leslie, stop coughing,
and you're a dirty Sanchez, Jennifer, get up, Sandra, it's
not easy being green. Athena, you're you have beautiful makeup,
and Stephanie is a stinker wrinker. Hello, we love you guys. Yes,
so I have a little update. Oh yeah what.
Speaker 1: Hot dog talk? Uh Phil, I was telling you how
he was coughing.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Yeah he's pregnant.
Speaker 2: Just kidding. Ah, oh my god. I had a moment
where I was like, wait, what Like on Tuesday, when
I talked about how I go back and forth, I
would be you'd convince me that male dogs can get pregnant.
I'd be like, I didn't know that. What happens?
Speaker 1: He's transient now he transitioned. He has pneumonia. Oh no,
got up? Yeah, had up? He they took his chest
x ray, he's got fluid in his lungs. And I guess,
I don't know, like he must have got it. He's,
you know, want to while he'll go and on these
hikes with other dogs, and he might have picked it
up from some other dog. I guess. I mean, you
didn't get it from me. I don't know how else
he would have gotten it.
Speaker 2: So what's happening? So they give him so when you
brought him in, So he brought him in, he was coughing.
Speaker 1: The videotaped him like he told me to do right,
and but I didn't need to because he was coughing
when he got there. He's been coughing a lot and
like coughing up like phlegm. Yeah, just like you know,
like you know, just fucking up Loogi's pretty much. But yeah,
and he's also had some diarrhea here and there. And
I can't. I couldn't leave him at home because he
had to go to the bathroom all the time, couldn't
leave him for a long periods of time, for days
even after he starts. So anyway, they gave him. They
gave him ten days of medication and they told me
no exercise. He needs to just rest, which he's been doing.
But now he's starting to get his groove back. He's
not coughing anymore because the medicine. It's been now seven
days of medication, so it's kicking in. But it's hard
not to take him for his walks because he loves
to go on his walks. Yeah, And I took him
on a little one and I was like because then
we got back and he was white. I mean, it's
like somebody having pneumonia. He was like wiped out. You
could tell he was coughing. He like just crashed the
whole rest of the day. So he's been taking it
easy and chilling and uh yeah, but it's.
Speaker 2: Not contagious, not to me, to other dogs.
Speaker 1: They could I guess yet. And well, yeah, I'm not
gonna let him around any dogs anyway, but they could
have been. I guess he could have picked it up
from other dogs. Yeah, I don't know how else he
would have gotten it. I know, God, he know.
Speaker 2: My dog's doing something weird and we have to take
her to the vet. Uh, she's doing this thing where
she it's like she has TMJ or something. She keeps
like trying to open her mouth and then she heard
she has a like a jaw spasm and it's just constant.
Now it started. I saw it, like, I saw her
do it a couple of times. Yeah, do you want
to see a video? Do you want to see her
doing it?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I know it's not like good podcast.
Speaker 1: So she opens her job. Watch I'll show you, and
then she like can't close it. She like it gets
locked here. Let me see, let's see alone. Oh she's
opening it. Oh her mouth is like is her mouth
open like that? Like, oh, like she's she's spassing like
a muscle spasm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but she keeps what she does is she like
opens her mouth like she's yawning, like she's like trying
to like it's her jaws uncomfortable or something like. She
keeps opening her mouth and she's also going like like
to her teeth all the time. So we I've looked
it up and I posted it in our group, and
what it seems like is like a dental issue, like
maybe she has an abscessed tooth.
Speaker 1: Or something in her is bothering her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have to have her. But you know
she's also so old, so like the idea of putting
her under to do dental work is like, it's kind
of they don't like to put older dogs under anesthesia,
but obviously something's going on, so you got to bring
her in to look at that.
Speaker 1: So when are you taking her?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know, because this morning last night it
was the worst it's ever been. Like before we were like,
I don't know, that's weird, but last night it was bad.
It was just pretty constant. And then this morning so
I was I'm going to call as soon as I
get home and see how quickly they can see her.
Speaker 1: Woo, she's so good.
Speaker 2: I know we have those babies. We love our babies.
Speaker 3: We do.
Speaker 1: There are babies, yes, they are. Well he's my baby. Now.
Speaker 2: I know these kids get older and then they don't
need us.
Speaker 1: And they fly the coop. Yeah, I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2: It's so weird. I got sad yesterday. Then I was
making myself sad or listening to like sad music a
little bit, and I was like, I just had this moment,
and tell me if you've had it at all, where
I was just like I miss Elbie. She because she
came home and she was home for basically like an
afternoon into the evening, and then we drove her back
to school, and I was like, it's never going to
go back, like I know, and I get it, and
all the people that are like, I know, but it's different.
But you're gonna love having like an adult daughter. No,
I know that it's a different stage. But yeah, it's
never going to go back to where they're You're never
going to go back to my baby where she can
go to the grocery store with you anytime you you know,
when you ask her to go and stuff. And also
just like I started to miss with her, never the
baby stage. Don't get me wrong, I'm not missing the
baby stage, but I miss I miss the like four
five year old stage with her, maybe not four even, okay,
like the five six seven where they're like because she
was so freaking fun at that age, Like she really
was like a fun kid and just that full like
just picking her up from preschool and like, you know,
having our little we had our little like private jokes
and play things. Because I remember when the twins were babies,
it was a lot and I had I was writing
a book, so I had my nanny Liz was helping
me with the twins, but she was not she had
she was not in charge of Elb. She adored to Albi,
and you know, but Elbie was my responsibility. So I
would write all day while Liz helped me with the twins.
And even though I had a nanny, I still like
Sadie was having to have a lot of therapy because
she was so little and having all the issues. So
I was always, hey, it's not like it's not like
lit I was out of the house. I was home,
so when they cried, I would have to come in
and like comfort yours. It was there, so like, yes,
sometimes she would take them for a walk because I
would be like, oh my god, I please take them
out of the house. Please take them to the park
for a while, because otherwise she'd hang in the house.
And I was like, you might as well not be
here at this point because.
Speaker 1: And you're trying to write and concentrate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because every so often they're crying or and
I can't. I'm not a monster. I'm not going to
just be like, well, good luck with that. Like I'd
have to come out because there's two of them anyway,
all the things like while I had Liz as a nanny,
Sadie had a feeding tube installed, and like there was
a lot going on with them when they were babies,
so going to pick up Elbie from preschool was kind
of like my respite. It was like, oh my gosh,
I get to just go and have time with this
kid who's pretty freaking fun. She was the latest she
had little tantrums, was really honestly like two. So by
the time she was in pre fully in preschool, like
four years old. She I mean, I'm sure she had
her meltdowns here and there, but she was pretty fun
and she loved preschool. So I'd pick her up and
then she'd want to show me stuff and like, you know,
she'd always had a great day.
Speaker 1: Yeah she's the same, Yeah she is.
Speaker 2: Every day is like the greatest day. Yeah, go pick
nothing's changed. You'd pick her from preschool and she'd be like, mom,
we got they buried little jewels in the sandbox.
Speaker 1: Come see, and it would just be like, yeah, we
did the greatest thing today. We didn't dress up and
you feel like cool, you know, and then I'd it
was so easy to please her afterwards, you know, because
she wouldn't want to leave preschool.
Speaker 2: But then I'd be like, do you want to go
get a happy meal? And she'd be like happy meal,
and then I'd try to make it last longer, you know.
I'd take her, let's eat at McDonald's, let's hear, let's
eat in, Let's take the scenic round. Sometimes i'd take
her to the dollar Store, which was the ninety nine
cents store, Yeah, and like let her loose in the
toy aisle, and she'd act like, you know, she was
getting like a shopping spree of Bobbingdale's.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: She'd be like, what, I could pick out two toys.
Speaker 2: You're the greatest.
Speaker 1: Movie ever, you know.
Speaker 2: And then I'd come home the screaming twins and Liz
would be like, I'm out like a dealer who's finished
her ship in Blackjack.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, those are the days when they were
young like that. And it was just I was looking
I updated my phone the other day and then it
when you quinn't Natalia called it shows it didn't it
shows her like little picture at the top of the
screen or whatever. Anyway, I was playing with it and
I picked a picture of her when she was like
four with her little pigtails, and I was looking at
it and I was like, God, I miss those days. It's
so long ago. But now it's like, you know, she
calls me a lot in between classes. She's been calling
me a lot, which is nice, and I but I
do I miss them, you know. I mean it's hard
because they were there and now they're both gone, you know,
so it is it's a big adjustment.
Speaker 2: And it's fun. It's nothing to take away from It's
fun to be their friend. Yeah, but it was also
fun to be mommy.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: It was needed in a very visceral right all day long.
And I used to hate it. I used to hate
the all day long nature of it, and now I'm like,
I mean, it's going to revisit one day that would
be fun of being such an important part of being
like they're everything. Yeah, we're just not there everything anymore.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like, see, Kaylin, you got to enjoy
this time. I remember when we were we were complaining
where you were at years ago. But yeah, yeah, I
mean I just remember like getting them up in the
morning and taking them, making them breakfast, taking them to school,
and like you know, playing like their favorite like each
kid took a turn to hear what song they wanted
to hear. Okay, on the way home. Then it's my
turn to pick us song. You know, they would pick
like Foo Fighter songs. It was just like so nice,
like that time in the car with them was fun,
just you know, just those times you just miss I know,
like what am I going to ever go driving in
a car with Natalia or you know, unless whatever, But
you know what I mean, like on a daily basis,
that's never gonna happen again.
Speaker 2: I know. And I don't even have to miss Lbe
that much because she comes home all the time. And
also she's still the same way like if I if
I say, like, hey, you want to go get lunch,
She'll be like, yes, right, say less, let's go off lunch,
and then she'll download me the gossip and like, you know,
it's still super fun. But mm hmm. But then you
know what, Kaylin is going to remind us of how
it's not always fun right with little kids, because aren't
you having like a little shit show in your house
right now?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean our whole household has been sick
for the past week. It actually kind of started, I thought,
because I was hearing it starting to go around. Everyone's
going like everyone's getting sick. Everyone's like, okay, great.
Speaker 2: So they loose everyone. Uh, well, I.
Speaker 3: Guess it's school. It starts at the school. A lot
of kids out at school. And then I, you know,
I had a podcast that was canceled because the host
was sick, and then I was just hearing about everyone
getting sick. And then so I kind of got like
it'll bit this time last week and I just had
kind of like a sore throat and then I got
over it in like a day or two. It was nothing.
And then both then first Isla got sick, and when
I loved, she doesn't normally get that sick. So when
Isla got sick and she was like out for the day,
I was like, Okay, this is serious. Then Amy's mom
got it and she was out. Then the day after
Blake got it and she was out, and so Blake fever, yeah, fever, tired, hadache, dizziness,
the whole thing. Yeah, and Ilak got over it in
like about two day, three days. Amy's mom is still
down with it, Blake is still coughing with it. And
then I got it again on Saturday. So Saturday Sunday,
I was sick again. After I thought I was better. Yeah,
so you had a fever. I didn't have a fever, no,
but I was like super dizzy. I was very you know, congested.
Speaker 1: And yeah, kid, that's Susanne has COVID and now like
her sister's got everybody in her family has it. Her
sister had to come stay with her for a little
bit in between the fire stuff, and then she got it. Yeah,
they got COVID over there. I know. But listening to
Kaylin just reminds me it's like remember that time of year,
like when it would get after the Santa Ana wins
and it's like in the middle of winter February March,
which like gets cold and rainy. That's when every all
the kid's friends were sick and everybody was staying home
from school. Everybody's sick. I just remember, like that's all
the journey time. It's so interesting, like then you grow
out of it, they grow out of it.
Speaker 2: Then they get it again, because like when Elbe was
moved to school and living with their eight of them
in her apartment, oh and one, Oh my god, she
was sick for months and months. She just could knock
it over it because it's just like I think they
just goes around to one person and then it just
keeps coming around you. You can't get over it. She
was coughing for so long. I honestly feel like she's
only recently really stopped coughing.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and it's February. Yeah, I mean she started
school in late September. I mean she really had the
cold that just would not go away, and they all
had it, and like it happens when they start preschool,
then it happens when they start kindergarten. Then like you know,
get a whole new batch of germs. Yeah, and then
the dog gets sick pneumonia, doc gets sick. What is
happening with our lives right now? You know? I don't know.
Knock on wood because we're plastic for this table is metal,
because we seem to be healthy. And thank god, because
my kids' school is like they are freaking attendance Nazis.
It's insanity how much they harp on attendance this year.
Oh my god. They constantly send updates about which which
class is has the best attendance rate, and you know,
then they send home reports on how often your kids
were out. Although my kids have a above a ninety
five percent attendance rate, so that's good. At first, I
got mad at first when I saw the thing of
like you're an attendance report for Sadie, I was like,
are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 1: Back off?
Speaker 2: And then I read it and it was like, no,
she's doing well if there's so many times she was absent,
but it's fine. Yeah, okay, better you better be saying
she's fine. So my kids are doing Greece at school,
the musical, and oh my god, there's rehearsal like every single.
Speaker 1: Day is it?
Speaker 3: Did they watch the movie?
Speaker 2: Still?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: And I have still not watched it. Do you know that?
So in my writing class, which I'm starting up another
new writing class late late this month, please come sign
up for it, go to my website. But some many
of the writing people are from listen to the podcast,
and seriously, I got so much flack. My friend Misty,
who's one of who listens to our show, was like
she saw she logged onto the zoom a little bit
earlier than everyone else, and she was like, Stephanie, I
listened to the show, what is this I'm hearing about?
You've never seen Greece? What is going on?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with her?
Speaker 2: Where different people were upset.
Speaker 1: I don't get it, like how do you never see Greece?
But also your kids now are going to do it?
And now they don't they don't not interested in watching it.
Speaker 2: They really do need to see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so they got every day after school's rehearsals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just it's like Xander's schedule these days and
CD two. I have never had my kids be more
busy in my life, Like there's something every single day
I feel bad for. And then Xander has a job
walking our neighbor's dog once a week, so like today,
I'll pick him up at six pm. And also, why
is it so dark at six o'clock? It's like pitch
dark out. I mean, this is never freaking ending.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel though it is has gotten a little
lighter earlier because it was getting dark at five now
it's like five thirty.
Speaker 2: But yeah, but yeah, but by six o'clock when I
picked him up, it looks like it's midnight.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: So it's a drag because then I have to bring
him home, and you know, when it's really dark, it
makes the kids feel more tired, you know, Oh it's
all right, So then I bring him home, then he
has to go right, he can't even eat, he has
to go right to the neighbor's house walk their dog
because he's already late. And then by by he's just
so dead tired all the time. And it's just a
lot anyway I say that, but you know what, let's
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promo code f col. Yes, okay, okay. So Xander's playing
Sonny in Greece, uh huh okay?
Speaker 2: And Sadie is uh the radio girls. She's in the bay.
She's the band that plays on prom night. So she's
in a bunch of unsellable things. But then she has
a song for the prom it's raining on prom nights,
so she has that song that people might know about.
Speaker 1: Well, you wouldn't know because you didn't see the movie.
Speaker 2: I didn't see the movie, so it means nothing.
Speaker 1: I've heard you even hear the soundtrack.
Speaker 2: Of course. Of course is the word grease?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know that all the summer nights.
Speaker 2: I know all the songs. Yeah, and now I know
this particular song as well, that's from the musical. I
think this song is not in the movie, but it's
in the musical anyway. Yeah, that's happening. But also, Xander
had a speech and debate tournament and I was a judge,
and oh my god, am I into this?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Can I I don't know, somebody let me know. Is
there a way to just do this as a profession.
Can I just be a professional judge at speech tournaments?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: I wish it paid.
Speaker 1: Maybe at the college level.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. First of all, let me just say something.
A lot of these judges have no fucking idea what
they're doing, and like, I'm not here for that. Like,
if you want to judge speech and debate, and I
know I'm making it sound really fun, watch a video,
learn a little bit about it, because I have access now.
So there's this thing it's called tabroom, And on tabroom
you can see all the rounds, all the scores and
where people ranked, and you can see all the judges
and like what they ranked people.
Speaker 1: Oh you can.
Speaker 2: After the fact, after everything's over, you can go in
there and you can look up the results and you
can literally find your kid and find what judges gave
them and how they were ranked. And there is no
rhyme or reason. So Xander, So, okay, remember I told
you that it's called breaking if they go to the
final round. So they have three rounds and depending on
how they do, if they break, they go to the
final round and then they go to an awards ceremony.
So Xander's speech his original oratory speech. He did not
break this time. He was very sad, but.
Speaker 1: It was different speech than last time. Same speech, same speech.
Speaker 2: Okay, same speech that he won second place. Last time,
he didn't even make it to the finals. This time.
He was really bummed out about it. But he also
did something called improv duos. You know, he loves improv,
and I think I told you last time he also
did improv and he did he made it to the finals. Well,
this time he made it to the finals and he
came in second in place overall in the whole competition
for improv.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: But he wasn't like he was like, yeah, whatever you can,
because improv is not an event at the state level, okay,
So it was like something fun for him. To do
leading up to the qualifica qualifiers for the state. But
it's not something that he can like win. What do
they do with the improv thing?
Speaker 1: Do they say?
Speaker 2: So they give them a topic. They have their teams.
So he was on a team with my friend Tamra's son. Okay,
the jewelry Tamera Gray by Tamramella, her son and Xander
teamed up to do improv together. So they they come up.
The judge gives them choice of three topics. One is
like a movie. They can do a parody of a movie,
or they can just make up a scene. So like
one scene they got assigned was a crazed yoga instructor
basically a crazed yoga instruction or in somebody taking the
yoga class. So they played. They made it that they
were husband and wife and they were taking a yoga
class together and the wife had gotten the husband to
try yoga and the yoga instructor was crazy. So Xander
played the wife and also the yoga the crazy yoga instructor. Wow,
And apparently there was like they were swearing and like
being really funny and that one of the judges feedback
was like, yeah, I'm not real clear on the rules
of like how coarse the language can be.
Speaker 1: But hey, I liked it.
Speaker 2: It got big laughs and I can see why, and
you guys were really funny that judge ranked them number one.
Speaker 1: Do they have to do it like they is it time?
Speaker 2: It's five minutes? Okay, five minutes, So they have five
minutes to do their scene, which you know with improv
can be long. That's a long time. Yeah, you know,
sometimes the joke's over in like a minute, you know,
but they have to keep it going, so they have
to like escalate it and whatever. But there were a
lot of contestants for that event, and they came in
second over in the whole competition.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: But he was really bummed when he found out he
wasn't going to finals with his speech. So I got okay,
So it's funny. So remember I told you last time
I was My thing that I was judging was called extemporaneous,
which is where they get a political A lot of
it is like political and it's all shit that I
don't know nothing about, like international politics, like what is
good you know, one of the ones. So I got
that event again and I was like, oh no, oh,
but it was a little better this time. But one
of the like prompts was like, what is Claudia shinebaumb
the new president of Mexico? How is she going to
something about like immigration? I don't even remember what it was,
but I was like, oh, I didn't even know about
I don't I didn't. I wouldn't have known who Quaudia was.
But thank you. It just makes you feel so dumb
and uninformed, right, and then these kids come out come and.
Speaker 1: Tell you they school you and they know everything.
Speaker 2: My god, this time the prompts were like more a
little bit more understandable, except for that one and like
a couple others, these kids are such freaking high level nerds,
but they're so they're such smarty pants. They're all people
we would have hated in high school. Like they all
like know it all and like you know, apple polishers,
like you know everything. I wasn't right, But now that
I have some distance and I'm in my fifties, I
can kind of be like, you guys are knocking it
out of the park. But for you, now that I
don't feel directly attacked, you know now that I feel like, okay, yeah,
it sucks that I don't really know much as you
guys do, but gosh, it is really kind of inspirational.
It makes me want to like read the paper or.
Speaker 1: Right, these kids were so good, crazy, yes, but.
Speaker 2: Like every batch, there's usually like one where you're like, oh,
that wasn't good, So this was like interesting to me.
I also judge this round called impromptu, So they're given
three options for topics and then they have to they
get two minutes to prepare and then they have five
minutes to deliver a speech on this topic. And most
of these kids again are just like so good, but
every once in a while you get one that you're like,
oh my god, like they're so bad where you're like,
first of all, what are you even talking about? Second
of all, that just there they seem like nervous or
really really distracted or or just like they don't care,
they don't want to be there, And then they give
this weird half assed speech with really repetitive and it's
not even done the way the other kids set them up,
and it's just wandering and like crazy like points they're
making and you just go like, oh boy, okay, so
I had one of those. But the interesting thing is
later I look back on other judges and what other
judges thought of these people in different rounds. I'm like
that freaking kid that I was like, oh by far
the worst, like somebody's number two, you know where you're like, wow,
what is happening with other people that are so wrong?
Speaker 1: So wait a second, they're doing the same thing.
Speaker 2: So here's what happens. You get a group of kids,
like let's say there's twenty competitors in the impromptu event.
They split them up into different rooms, and then each
room has one judge, so there might be four rooms.
Let's just say there's four rooms with six kids in
each room, So you get six different judges and that's
round one. Then they mix them all up, send them
to another for round two. That you get a different judge,
and then the kids are with different against different people,
and another judge ranks them all. Then round three they're
another judge ranks them depending on who's in their room.
So like one through sixth place, let's just say then
depending on like say one kid gets first place in
one round, but then they have a different judge and
that judge ranks them sixth place. It happens that way
where you're like this kid could get first place in
one round, first place from another judge, and then some
other judge ranks the sixth. That's what I think, because
half the judges don't know what they're doing, or I
really think that, okay, here, there's another thing. You're supposed
to give them points between seventy and one hundred. Most
judges you give points. You're going to give points between
like ninety one hundred. If they're the most the best
you've ever seen, you're going to give them one hundred.
If they're really kind of shitty, you're going to go
like eighty eight.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Right, then you look at some of what these judges
do and they're like seventy two, and you're like, what
you'd have to have like died on stage to give
them like and not finished at all to go seven
to give them anything in the seventies. But I just
think some of the judges they don't listen to instructions, right.
Speaker 1: They're volunteers, right.
Speaker 2: They're volunteers. They don't want to be there. They don't
do any homework ahead of time to train themselves. They
don't watch any videos on how to do it. They've
never heard of any of it. Before and then the
teacher their speech coach is like, please, we need parents
to judge. So they're like all right, and then they
just are assholes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a shame for the kids.
Speaker 2: They're not like me.
Speaker 1: No, I like studying up on it. I want to
do this every day, cauching YouTube videos on how to.
Speaker 2: I'd be so mad if like Sander was like too
sick to go to a competition, I'd be like, sorry,
I'm going.
Speaker 1: It sucks for you and they're soup in the fridge
and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get really into it and like I am
a good I am such a good judge.
Speaker 1: I think, I well you, it's well, I'm sure you are.
You should train the you should say they should hire
you to train the other like give the moms like
or the other judges some sort of you know, at
least like a ten minute you know how to something.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I have to tell you something so
funny that happened. That happened there, So, Caitlin, I need
you to look something up for me though. Look up
bath and Body Rant, and it's gonna bring you up
a video by this woman named Angela. It's Angela Bath
and Body Rant, and then yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm seeing two here, well angela verse Bath and Body
Works rant by candle Lady, or I might boycott Bath
and body Works rant YouTube Hazy.
Speaker 2: Four, and yeah, play play play a couple of second,
play a couple of minutes. A minute, Yeah, just play
a minute of it because so because I want to
see if you remember this. It was a viral video
by this crazy woman and she's it's she's totally serious
and she's really mad about that the Bath and body
didn't have the candle fragrances that she wanted and she
and she's from Wisconsin, and it got like it's gotten
like millions of views. Okay, listen, listen to this for sure.
Speaker 4: Hello everybody, this is going to be extremely explicit. So
if you don't like swearing or angry people from Wisconsin,
then turn your mother acting camera off.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: I just got back from Bath and Bodyworks, and I
am going to start from the very beginning.
Speaker 2: She's chewing.
Speaker 4: I'm so mad right now, you guys literally have no idea.
I was shaking, like for the past hour. I have
been shaking to the point where I couldn't even make
a video because I was so mad.
Speaker 1: So let me backtrack. If you guys have been.
Speaker 4: Watching my videos, you all know that I have been
searching high and low. Ever since they had the candles
sale two for twenty candles at Bath and Bodyworks. I
have been searching for two since. I have been searching
for the winter candy apple and the ice.
Speaker 1: Gingerbread like we all do.
Speaker 4: This is the last day of the sale Sunday. I
have been calling my store in Appleton, Appleton, Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: I want everybody to know, Okay, you can.
Speaker 1: Stop it, Appleton, Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: So this thing goes on for twelve minutes and she
gets she gets like, she gets madder and madder at
like what's happening to her. And then she starts ranting
about like that she went to this store and they
were supposed to have these candles and then they didn't
and that she's like and then they brought out this
manager named Jen, and Jen was such a bitch and
she was so mean to me. And Jen was like,
I'm sorry, we don't have those candles, and she Okay,
So in this category that I was judging, it's called
it's called dramatic interpretation. Okay, okay, I'm gonna hold this story.
And like let's do our finals.
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Speaker 2: So okay, so I'm this is my I was doing
the final round. So that's all the people that made
it past round one, two and three and got put
in the finals of this category called dramatic interpretation. Now,
dramatic interpretation is you take a piece of published work
and you are delivering it.
Speaker 1: It sounds like what you've done many times on Patreon.
Speaker 2: My dramatic readings. That would be a dramatic interpretation one
hundred when I do my emails. Yes, so, but this
is like most of dramatic d it's called d I.
Most of them are super serious. Okay, So like one
girl was doing you was doing a piece about from
the point of view of the mother of somebody who
I don't know. I don't think it was a mass shooting,
but it was like somebody who murdered somebody else, right,
And she's this character is like baking pies and then
talking about how she still like loves her son or whatever,
but then going through all the emotions of getting really
mad at him and like why did you do this?
And why didn't you let me help you? And it's
like so you know, sad, sad. Now in the final round,
there's three judges because you want to get an average.
It's going to weigh heavily in where they place in
the whole competition, so they're going to average the score
of the three judges. So so it's me a woman
who like a woman who seemed like very super serious,
and then like an older like guy. Okay, so anyway
this we're all what, we all watch these things and
then we have to make a ranking for them. So
it's like a couple of those. Then it's a woman
who's talking about being this Asian woman escaping from North
Korea and like there's like rape, Like it's like, you know,
she's getting she's thirteen years old and getting raped by
like you know, it's like real serious. Yeah, right then
I think it maybe he even went last, this guy
who wins all the time. All of a sudden, I
look down and I see the name of his piece
is Angela Versus Bath and Body. And I'm like no,
I'm like, that can't be, because okay, I was obsessed
with this video when it came out many years ago.
It just went viral and then people were doing like
like this this little sketch group made of a really
funny parody of it. Okay, so if you look up
mockumentary of Angela Versus Bath and Body, you will find
it's you don't need to play it because it's basically
these actors acting it out, but you with her voice
going on like so their lips sinking right, and they're
in costumes. So there's somebody playing Angela like at the
Bath and Body counter arguing, but it's all her voice
coming through it. So, oh my god, I'm well acquainted
with this and I'm like, that can't be. That's that
can't be. Oh yeah, this guy did the entire higher rant,
like as Angela, I mean from it was so they
have ten minutes so and as Caylin said, this is
a twelve minute video. So he only cut off a
little bit of it. He pretty much did it from
beginning to end. I was laughing so hard.
Speaker 1: It's the whole thing, and he just he just recreated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he just recreated and did it. But of course
he made it even extra dramatic, right, like he was
getting really mad. At one point She's like you mother
fuck her and then she's like, well, I didn't say
that out loud, but that's what I was thinking in
my head. So he was doing all of that, like,
he did the whole thing. He reenacted the whole thing.
When I tell you, you know me, I was laughing.
No one in the room is laughing because it's a
very serious mood because all of everybody up in the okay, oh,
this girl had to follow him actually, so that he
wasn't last who had a whole thing. From the perspective
of kids in a lockdown when there's a school shooter,
like in their building, all of these pieces are very serious.
There nobody's doing something from The Handmaid's Tale.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I know it's.
Speaker 2: Supposed to be pretty serious, So I don't know how
he got away with doing something that was straight up funny,
because there's also another category that's called humorous interpretation. So
none of us could understand why he was entered into
dramatic But whatever the reason, I can't argue that it's
not for me to determine where he should be entered.
I was laughing. I couldn't help it, and you know
when you're like trying not to laugh out loud, but
I would be like it probably sounded like a weird
mouse because I was like squeaking and going good and
to the point that then there was one other girl
who one of the students who was observing, who was
also laughing. But it was very quiet in there. This
guy is going out. He's this very flamboyant gay kid
and so but which is making it one hundred times funnier.
He like so so into it and passionate, and you know,
it was like killing me soft for this song. I'm like,
is this just for me?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: Did he know it was going to be? How did I?
Because in my mind, I'm like I guarantee you that
not one other judge had any fucking clue what he
was doing. No, it's not possible. No, Like I have
a comedy background, like this is my thing, right, right,
I've done a deep dive on this video. I've watched
all different incarnations of it. Right, nobody could have possibly,
And I do think you could enjoy it on its
own merits. But I feel like it's just funnier if
you have the background that it's this is like a
real person.
Speaker 1: Right, because could you imagine watching this kid do this
in the midst of all these other really you know,
somber topics, right topics, to come out and do this
and you have no idea this video exists or whatever
he's talking about.
Speaker 2: Right, because you can't know. You don't know anything about
the piece. You only know what it's from, so you know.
Speaker 1: So he said that this is from a YouTube video.
Speaker 2: I said, this is Angela versus Bath and Body. You
know it's a something from a video.
Speaker 1: I guess I means that must have been going through
the mind of the other judges.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the other judge we talked after we
put in their rankings, and the other guy also ranked
him number one. You just couldn't help it because he
was being so funny. But I did look at the
rankings in other rounds and you could definitely tell that
not everybody got it. Let's just say that, right, you know.
But then I got to give him feedback, like when
you judge, you also get to put in notes for
the person. So I just got to be like, Okay,
you got the right judge on this one. He's always
does well in the competition. But I was like, oh
my god, this is one of my favorite videos. And
I was like, do yourself a favor and check out
the mockumentary of it by this girl. You will love it.
Like I was like, I was the one. I was
the judge who was laughing out loud through the whole thing,
which probably made everybody else uncomfortable. But I couldn't help myself.
It was that, you know. So that's one of the
also the plus sides of getting to that's awesome.
Speaker 1: That's amazing that you can. Of course, you got like,
that's so funny that you got that kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So but then poor Xander, Yeah he got ranked
fifth twice and ranked second in one room. But I
took I showed him all the different rankings. Like there
was one girl who in her final, who went to
the finals, she got first place, second place, in second place,
and then she went to the finals and had three judges.
One of them gave them her first place and the
other two gave her last place. I was like, there's
just no it's arbitrary. You don't know. These judges are
not professional judges. They're just people off the street, right.
They may like vibe with you, and they may just
be like, I don't really get it. You an't that
funny to me. It's like stand up comedy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 2: I told him. I said, you know, when I used
to do stand up, I would get so scared because
I could have a bit that kills, kills, kills, and
then for no reason, like an audience is just like
it's not funny, right, And then I could and you
just don't know, so like, and it's sometimes it's not
the audience because like the person who goes before you
could have like a great set and then you go
out there with your tried and true thing that's been
done really great, and like everybody just stares at you. Yeah,
so you don't you just don't know, and you have
to just go and do your thing and lock in
and don't worry about what the judges are thinking. And
also you have one judge, So imagine like you get
some old bitty with a stick upper button. It doesn't
yet Xander's jokes. He's gonna be like, well, I don't
think that's very funny.
Speaker 1: Exactly. That's gotta be tough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have one chance because you have three rounds,
but like you might get about you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just so how many weekends does he have of this?
Speaker 2: So the next one coming up is in March, and
that's the state qualifier, So that's the whole ballgame. So
it'll be a Friday after school we'll have that'll be
a Friday night, and then all day Saturday, and then
by Saturday night he'll know if he qualifies to go
to state.
Speaker 1: And if he does, then what we're it's.
Speaker 2: It's actually in Culver City this year. Last year it
was in Fresno and he didn't make it. So but
this year it's in Culver City, So that will be
in not until May.
Speaker 1: The good feeling he's gonna make it. Oo, yeah, I do.
Speaker 2: He's really he really really wants it. But I was like,
you got to let go of the results because it's
you're gonna get.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 2: It's so caught up and like I said, there just
is no rhyme or reason.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wish they could do I wish they could
have better judges have you know. I mean I know
that they probably don't have a budget, but it would
be nice if they had people that were like you,
that were into it and wanting to be there, know
what to look for.
Speaker 2: Well, that's why it's really fun because these other I
hang out with these other couple other moms and they're
just like me, and then all we do is like debrief,
like we were always hoping that we get the next round,
like we want to judge all the rounds, and we
take it real seriously. Yeah, afterwards, we were all on
the phone like going over like looking at what other
judges gave people and were like, that's insane. That person
was amazing. I can't believe they got this judge that
sixth place. Are you high? Huh? You know?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we were really into it. So it's fun. Yeah,
people to like debrief with.
Speaker 1: Well you would think too, Like parents that are having
their kids in these speech and debate tournaments would really
be into it because I remember remember when my kid
was playing basketball all the time, like all the moms
are really into it and they knew the score and
they knew the everything, and you would think that a
lot of parents would be into it. But again, I
guess it depends on people's tastes too, like it's that's
what I'm saying, that's that, Yeah, that's sometimes.
Speaker 2: You know, Xander's speech has a lot of kind of
subtle jokes, and there are a lot of people who
English is not their first language that are judging, right,
you know, that don't understand the rules, They don't even
understand what's going on, and then you have to expect
them to understand subtler jokes that, you know what I mean,
maybe plays on words or you know, and so they're
so sometimes what works better with those judges is speeches
that are just very over the top and like that's
super polished and a lot of act outs, and like,
you know, those will get Xandra will be rolling his
eyes at some of those, like, oh my god, it's
so performative. It's not authentic. It's not funny, but that
person will get like number one.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, anyway, that was nice, that's hilarious.
Speaker 2: I got to bring you with me to one of these.
I would really feel like you would have fun.
Speaker 1: I would love to do it. If they need an
extra judge, I'm there, I'll do it.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I just have to add this one
little thing that happened. So there was a guy, he
was a dad who was wanting to shadow me. He's like,
I'm not judging anything today, but I want to like
learn the ropes. So I'd like to, like, can I
come and shadow you? Because I know I guess I
was pointed out as having a lot of experience. Our
whole little table was so he's like, well, can I
come with one of you guys? So I was going
to be judge the round that his son competes in,
but not his son wasn't in my room, so he
came with me. Oh my god. This guy was so
fucking annoying. He so he was arguing with me about
every like, so we watch all the kids and I
take my notes and then I go okay, so like
and now I'm going to rank them, you know, And
I was like, so this person's gonna be my I
really liked blah blah blah, and he was like, yeah,
I really. I didn't really feel he was being so
harsh on your check. At one point, I was like, dude,
there these are high schooler kids, you know. He's like, well,
I didn't feel like he took the quote and really
examined it from blah blah blah. I was like, it's
a quote and they're allowed to interpret it any way
they want to. I found myself having to kind of
argue with the guy, and finally I was like, okay,
so like, remember how you're shadowing me. I was like,
so I'm actually there's only one judge per round, and
I'm the judge, so like, I can't. I have to
just go with my own instincts. I was like, but
as soon as you judging around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, go for it, dude.
Speaker 2: He wanted to give the guy like super low points
one of the guys, and I was like, no, I
really don't give anything lower than like an eighty seven.
That's pretty much my lowest. And he was like, well,
I thought the points though, go from seventy to one hundred,
and I was like, yes, but it's kind of like
an unspoken rule that you don't give anybody in the
seventies unless they're horrible or break violation like they read
instead of memorized, like that would be the only And
he was like, oh, well, well then why do they
like every single thing? He was like arguing, well, then
why do they have the points in the seventies. I
was like, I don't know, but we.
Speaker 1: Just we just usually yeah, yeah, and he just couldn't. Well,
I mean, let him do it then, now you taught
him whatever?
Speaker 2: And I tried, yes, very argumented, tell.
Speaker 1: Him to like make it like scram disappear.
Speaker 2: I was like, this is the kind of guy who
brings his dog off leash. You know he's one of those, right,
he's a off leash guy. Beg, yeah, yeah, I just
do things my way, like my dog's fine, Like no,
I like to give points in the seventies. That's just
how I do things.
Speaker 1: Like all right, bro, then you can look them up
and see how how he scored. Right, can't you do
that next time? Next time?
Speaker 2: If he's there, Yeah, if he's a judge, next time,
I sure can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh my.
Speaker 2: God, I'll find he's like all seventies.
Speaker 1: Right, And then he can give him a talking to.
Speaker 2: You know what it is though, too, It's what you
have said you always warned me about. It's like people
that have like no power in the rest of their life.
You give him a little juice, they just they just
go crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah now they know everything.
Speaker 2: Yes, Oh, now I get to be the judge. Okay, Okay,
I hate my job at work, but like now I'm
going to take it out. I'm like, I'm in the
power seat.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you if you get a seventy Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't like that kid's jacket seventy five it anyway,
all right, this has been fun for me. This has
been like my therapy. Sorry I talked about But we
have a couple more shout outs like Jacob Crowley who
upped his contribution to freaking help out with the fight
for our trans children's rights. So ACLU guys. ACLU is
bringing the fight for all people, not just about trans issues,
but about immigration, about a lot of things that we
need to fight against unconstitutionality.
Speaker 1: Right now, look at their website because I went there recently.
You've got to read what they're doing.
Speaker 2: Give as much money as you can to the ACLU
they're going to like save our democracy. Also ASPCA, our
friend Sergio gives us money to that. We're still dealing
with the aftermath of these fires. We still have a
lot of displaced pets and the ASPCA is really doing
a lot to help these animals, so please give them
some money. Also, our friend Maren has a small bakery
and gift shop called Sugar Skull on the island of Kawaii,
so if you're vacationing there, check them out, and you
can also go to their website Sugar Skull eight oh
eight dot square dot site. And uh Krista Stroop is
giving some attention to the Chase Haley Project Chase Haley
Project dot com and they are trying to They're on
a mission to break the stigma surrounding suicide. This is
our friend Christas Troop's friend who lost her son to
suicide when he was only twenty one and he was
three months from graduating college. So this is close to
all of our hearts. So see if you can help
by going to Chase Haley Project. Also Wilmanfrida. Get you
some salmon at Wilmanfrida if you are in Palm Springs
or Palm desert desert yep. Absolutely, And last, but not least,
every week, Adam Lerner car broker. You know what to do.
Go to adamscot acar dot com and let him take
all the hassle out of like figuring out how to
get the best deal, et cetera, and the financing. He'll
do it all.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, thanks everybody. Thanks Galen your parent.
Speaker 1: Now don't lep it up, letting go