Tinsel Tantrums & Nostalgia Goggles

The holidays always seem softer in memories — twinkle lights, cozy nights, childhood magic — until you remember the chaos underneath. This isn’t the glittery Hallmark fantasy people pretend to have. This is the season of gift-giving guilt trips, nostalgia goggles that lie, emotional overstimulation, and the exhaustion that hits somewhere between wrapping gifts and crying in your car about nothing and everything.

In this festive fever dream, Anthony and Nalee peel back the tinsel to reveal the real holiday experience: awkward presents, unhinged traditions, burnout, coping methods that aren’t doctor-approved, and memories that only feel magical because time blurred the chaos. Between messy detours, family flashbacks, and brutally honest confessions, this episode blends comfort, comedy, and seasonal delusion in peak Twin Tangents fashion.

We’re diving into:

🎁 Tinsel Tantrums & Gift-Giving Guilt Trips → insult-gifts, Secret Santa trauma, regifting rules, and the emotional math of “is this enough?”
 😵‍💫 Holiday Survival Guide (Unfiltered Edition) → Xanax revelations, driving rules nobody follows, and choosing your coping method wisely
 ✨ Nostalgia Goggles → the “magical” memories that were actually messy,

⚠️ Twin Tangents: Because Therapy Was Booked ⚠️
 Unfiltered. Unapologetic. Unhinged (just a bit).

Hosted by Nalee & Anthony—this is your safe, spicy space to spiral. Expect adult content, hot takes, and high-functioning chaos.

And yes, we call our listeners H.O.E.S.
 (Hilarious. Over it. Emotionally unstable. Spicy.)
 It’s not an insult. It’s a hoe-mmunity.

What if we did choose chaos… but thoughtfully?

Nalee’s Hypothetical Hotline delivers advice that’s 70% emotionally intelligent, 20% petty, and 10% “please don’t actually do this.” Send in your hypotheticals that are absolutely not hypotheticals, and we’ll help you navigate your main-character energy with just enough restraint.

Growth. With seasoning.

This isn’t therapy. This isn’t mediation. This is Twin Tangents Court.

Where group chat screenshots become evidence, red flags are entered into the record, and absolutely no one leaves unjudged. From dating disasters to roommate crimes to petty indictments, we bring the gavel down with dramatic precision.

New cases drop every other Friday at 8 AM Central. Bring your receipts. Prepare for sentencing.

A playful, no-nonsense reminder from Anthony and Nalee to hit that follow button, leave a review, and share the pod with your favorite chaotic friend. Set over a snappy, upbeat jingle, this mid-roll blends humor and honesty to encourage listener support—because subscribing helps fuel the tangents, rants, and revelations you didn’t know you needed.

Just when you thought the chaos was over—Anthony and Nalee invite you to keep the tangents going. With a soft outro vibe and one last wink to the listener, this post-roll points you toward the Twin Tangents website and socials for more unfiltered content. Because if you’re still here, you clearly get it… and we love that for you.

🎙️ Stay connected with Twin Tangents Because Therapy Was Booked
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Transcript

Cold Open: December Chaos Arrives

SPEAKER_05 0:46

Ho, ho, holy hell! December is frickin' here, and so is the chaos.

ANTHONY 0:53

That's right. While you're stress-wrapping gifts and pretending to like eggnog, we're here to give you the unfiltered survival guide nobody asked for, but everybody needs.

SPEAKER_05 1:04

Plus, we're putting on our nostalgia goggles to drag all of the holiday memories that weren't as magical as we thought they were.

ANTHONY 1:13

This is your reminder that holiday cheer comes with a side of exhaustion, a splash of dysfunction, and maybe a Xanax. Which I just got prescribed.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

Hey, that's fine. Alright. Oh, yeah. I'm gonna be coming over here real quick.

ANTHONY 1:29

They help, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_05 1:31

Okay. Well, anyways, let's talk about survival. Because holiday chaos isn't optional, it's tradition.

ANTHONY 1:39

And spoiler, Grace doesn't come in gift wrap. Let's dive in.

SPEAKER_05 1:44

Alright, so our first holiday segment, like I said, is holiday survival guide, unfiltered edition.

ANTHONY 1:49

How to survive the holidays without losing your mind or your bail money.

SPEAKER_05 1:54

Alright.

Survival Guide And Substances

ANTHONY 1:55

That Xanax is gonna that that Xanax, that should be my Christmas gift for everybody this year. Oh I'm just gonna wrap up a little pill.

SPEAKER_05 2:04

Is Xanax supposed to like chill you down? Yeah. What is it for?

ANTHONY 2:08

I think it's for like anxiety.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

Is it?

ANTHONY 2:11

Yeah. I think.

SPEAKER_05 2:13

Well, I feel a little anxious over here. Maybe I should get anything. Do you need one?

ANTHONY 2:17

Oh, you can't drive on it though.

SPEAKER_05 2:18

Oh, really? Does it make you drowsy or something?

ANTHONY 2:20

There's a risk of drowsiness.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

That's just like weed though. Have you tried it?

ANTHONY 2:25

You shouldn't be driving on weed either.

SPEAKER_05 2:26

Well, I I say no no yeah.

ANTHONY 2:28

I had this conversation with a friend of mine.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

I was like, I say no no yeah.

ANTHONY 2:31

I have no problem with anybody who wants to smoke weed, do gummies, whatever they want to do. I do okay, I do have an issue with like illegal drugs, but like when it comes to weed, please do not drive. Treat it like you would alcohol. Do not drink and drive. No, it's worse than smoke and drive.

SPEAKER_05 2:47

I will give you. We've ex we had a story on this. Weed is like, yeah, it's worse than alcohol.

NALEE 2:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:52

Alcohol, I could make it home. I could make it home. Maybe I might be a little shaky, but weed, yeah, tunnel vision. That's a no for me.

ANTHONY 3:01

That's a no for me for sure. And to answer your question, yes, I have taken one.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

How does it make you feel?

ANTHONY 3:07

I didn't get really tired, but I got very like in a funk.

SPEAKER_05 3:12

I was just like Were you loopy?

ANTHONY 3:14

I wouldn't say loopy. Like I was able to do everything. I just felt like I was moving at like the pace of a snail.

SPEAKER_05 3:21

That's how weed makes me feel like that.

ANTHONY 3:22

So slow moving.

SPEAKER_05 3:23

So maybe I should just take gummies instead of Xanax.

unknown 3:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:27

I don't know, but they're all expensive. We'll see. I'd rather have loopy than fucking chaos. What?

ANTHONY 3:35

I said the Xanax only cost me like two bucks.

SPEAKER_05 3:37

Did it?

ANTHONY 3:37

Well, I mean, after insurance and everything.

SPEAKER_05 3:39

Oh wow. Is that an addictive pill?

ANTHONY 3:42

I don't think so. What's the what's the Well maybe it is, because I did have to show my ID to get it.

SPEAKER_05 3:48

Interesting. What is that thing that people get like to that is like considered very like addictive?

ANTHONY 3:56

Oh, oxy.

SPEAKER_05 3:57

Oh, that's right.

ANTHONY 3:59

Oxycodon.

SPEAKER_05 4:00

I've had it before, but I don't know how people could have the addiction to oxycodin, though. Because I had it when I had like a toothache.

ANTHONY 4:06

Yeah. Is it just because it like an abscess though, right?

SPEAKER_05 4:09

Yeah.

ANTHONY 4:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:10

Is it because it just numbs you? That's how I felt. Like it just snubbed my mouth.

ANTHONY 4:14

I don't know. That's a good question.

SPEAKER_05 4:16

Like To you drug drugie people out there, when you take when you take your daily dose of oxy, what does it feel like? Can you explain to us?

ANTHONY 4:25

What does it feel like when you can't get it when you need it?

SPEAKER_04 4:29

Yeah.

ANTHONY 4:31

I always think about that. Like, what drives people to their addiction?

SPEAKER_05 4:38

I don't know. For me, my question is, what do you feel?

ANTHONY 4:43

Yeah, but I mean that's well, I mean, that's part of what I mean. Like, what keeps you wanting it? Yeah. Like what about it makes you be like, I want more oxygen?

SPEAKER_05 4:53

Yeah. Well, I mean, if you talk about it like that, let's put alcohol in person.

ANTHONY 4:58

I knew it. I knew as soon as I said it, I was like, this bitch is gonna bring up my alcohol.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

Oh no. I'm just saying, because for me, when I drink alcohol, I don't like it. I don't like the feeling of it. That's why I don't really drink alcohol.

ANTHONY 5:11

You don't like the feeling of alcohol when you're drinking it, or you don't like the feeling of alcohol the next day.

SPEAKER_05 5:16

Everything about it.

ANTHONY 5:17

Really?

SPEAKER_05 5:17

Yeah, like I don't like that tipsy feeling. Because for me, I'm very self-like conscious of myself. So like when I'm drunk, I'm always apologizing. I'm always like, I'm sorry. Like I'm so drunk right now. I'm so sorry. And I think people who've been drunk with me know that like that's the same, that's the thing that I will say the most. Like, I'm so sorry. Like, I'm normally not like this when I'm not drunk. I'm very classy, I promise. I'm this is just drunk me. Like I get very self-conscious about myself. And then obviously, when I'm drunk, like if I drink a lot, like I'm those bitches where it's like zero to a hundred. Like it's either I'm not getting drunk or I'm getting drunk drunk. And so when I'm drunk, drunk, I have like that's normal. Is it? I th I feel like that's well before I had more control. Now I'm just like, I'm ready to fuck shit up. So then I get like blackout drunk.

ANTHONY 6:06

Did you like go through the whole like early 20s, mid-20s, like go out drinking, go to the bars, go clubbing?

SPEAKER_05 6:13

Yeah, I did that with my girlfriends. Yeah.

ANTHONY 6:16

Really?

Driving High, Oxy Talk, And Addiction Curiosity

SPEAKER_05 6:17

Yeah. I went through like this is probably gonna, I don't know, make me look at a bad light. But when I was like four, I started drinking, I think like when I was 14. Don't look at me like that. So it was maybe not 14, maybe like, okay, I lied, 16. 16 to like that makes it better. 16 to maybe like 17, like that whole like year. I drank a lot. And like I used to get like drunk drunk, but it was those days where I felt invincible where no matter how much I drank, I didn't have a hangover. Yeah.

ANTHONY 6:49

Yeah. Oh god, I miss those days.

SPEAKER_05 6:50

Yes. And then those days were the days where you start drinking at two all the way to like 12 and you still be fine. But yeah, like in my, I would say from like 21 to like maybe 27, 28, like I would go out and drink with my girlfriends and we would get like wasted. But those are like the best times though.

ANTHONY 7:12

Yeah. Well, what the reason I asked was because you were like, you feel like you have no control now, or you you had better control then, which I find so interesting because I feel like when you're younger, you have no control. You're all in, you're drinking, you're getting drunk, you're partying every night. And then as you get older, you learn to control. You're like backwards. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:33

Because back then, like I I would drink, but then I had a limit where I'm like, oh, I have to drive, I need to drive, and stuff like that. So I wouldn't drink as much. So I did get drunk, but for me, like, I don't actually need to get drunk to have fun. I think that's the thing about me where I could still feel drunk while I'm not drunk.

ANTHONY 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:54

If you know what I mean.

ANTHONY 7:55

I do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:55

And so then I didn't necessarily one of those bitches that goes, I'm high, I'm live. Yeah, literally. Yeah. Yeah. And so then that was kind of me through that phase. And then like I would say from my like 29, 28, 29 to like now, like when I drink, there's no going back. Like, there's no like in between. It's either I'm blackout fucking drunk, or I don't drink at all. Like I don't touch a drip. So there's no in between. Yeah. And I think it's because of like probably life issues where I'm just like, I don't give a fuck.

ANTHONY 8:33

Like, that's why you would drink?

SPEAKER_05 8:35

Yeah, mama's getting drunk.

ANTHONY 8:36

Yeah, I think so too. I think that's part of like my reasoning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:40

But yeah, I haven't I haven't gotten like drunk drunk in a long time. And also I don't get drunk because I know that I'm kind of crazy. Like, I'm a runaway drunk.

ANTHONY 8:50

Like I used to be.

SPEAKER_05 8:52

Yeah, everybody could probably vouch to this. Like when I'm when I'm really fucked up, I'm gone. Like everybody'd be like, where's Nolly? And I'd be like halfway across this block, fucking running. I'd be like, chase me. But yeah. I mean, I have yeah, yeah, that's pretty much what it is.

ANTHONY 9:11

Attention seeking behavior.

SPEAKER_05 9:13

I have a lot of st stories about like when I was drunk and running away.

ANTHONY 9:16

And maybe girl.

SPEAKER_05 9:17

Maybe I can um break it into one of our maybe one of our topics.

ANTHONY 9:22

A future episode.

SPEAKER_05 9:23

Or a future episode too.

ANTHONY 9:24

Oh yeah, or a topic. Holiday Christmas getting getting drunk. Oh, that's my favorite. That the holidays are the best time of year to drink. I'm just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_05 9:34

I don't know. I feel like every day is a perfect day to drink. You can't. Come on from the person who doesn't drink. You can relate to this.

ANTHONY 9:41

Don't judge me.

SPEAKER_05 9:42

I feel like if I could drink, I would drink every day, but I just don't like how it tastes. That's why I don't only drink.

ANTHONY 9:48

Maybe you don't like what you're drinking.

SPEAKER_05 9:50

Maybe. Maybe I just need to find something that I really like to drink.

ANTHONY 9:55

Yeah. That could be it. Like you have to find your signatures, right? I love me some wine.

SPEAKER_05 10:01

Well, there's always a first for everything.

ANTHONY 10:03

There is. Do you want me to make you a martini tonight? Do you want to try a martini?

NALEE 10:07

No, it's okay. What? Oh, you were pressing something. Oh shit, was I? Yeah. Oh, whoops.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

It's okay. Uh huh. Oh shit, I was. I see that.

unknown 10:21

That's fine.

ANTHONY 10:23

It's fine. I'm like, yeah, it's fine. I can still read it.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Yeah. Sorry, that was my faboo.

ANTHONY 10:28

No, you're fine.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Oops. It's a mess over here.

unknown 10:32

But yeah.

ANTHONY 10:33

Your lives are a mess.

SPEAKER_05 10:34

Yeah, it is. Yeah.

ANTHONY 10:35

That's yeah, but no, I think you just probably maybe you just haven't found your drink.

SPEAKER_05 10:39

Maybe.

ANTHONY 10:39

Or maybe, yeah, maybe drinking just isn't your thing.

SPEAKER_05 10:42

Yeah, maybe crack cocaine is.

ANTHONY 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:47

Maybe.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

I mean, maybe that Xanax is what I'm looking for.

ANTHONY 10:52

Should we crush a Xanax and snort it?

SPEAKER_03 10:54

No, I'm too scared for that.

ANTHONY 10:57

Well, at the bright side, you know, this is prescription, so it's not like it's I guess it's not illegal. It's not like I got it from Jose down on the corner by the 400-pound club.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

That's rude. It's not Jose, it's Joaquin.

ANTHONY 11:08

Joaquin. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_05 11:11

What's like a gangster?

ANTHONY 11:12

Malaki.

SPEAKER_05 11:13

Malarki.

ANTHONY 11:14

Malake.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

Malake.

ANTHONY 11:15

Malake?

SPEAKER_03 11:16

It's malake.

ANTHONY 11:17

I was watching that today.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

Be nice.

ANTHONY 11:19

I was watching the church ladies.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Oh. Malake.

ANTHONY 11:22

Okay. Going back to this, this is going back to last week's episode, how we were talking about Keel and Peel.

NALEE 11:28

Yeah.

ANTHONY 11:28

I came across a new one. Do you did you ever see the one where they were both girls and they were fighting and they started like taking off their jewelry and they were like insulting each other. And then the shorter one, the one that does me get, yeah, like unzips and two little girls pop out.

SPEAKER_05 11:47

No, I haven't. That seems kind of intense.

ANTHONY 11:50

It was intense.

SPEAKER_05 11:51

I think I've seen it before. It sounds familiar, but I don't remember the unzipping part.

ANTHONY 11:55

Oh, it's funny. It's at the very end, and then she's the tall, bald one was like, y'all see that bitch turning two little girls, right?

SPEAKER_05 12:04

Okay. Side tangent. You know what videos I really love right now? It's the guy with the conjoined twins. Where like, you know who I'm talking about. You know, yeah. Yeah, I fucking love those videos. Like, I love how dark it is, but I love how like funny it is. Where the one that I love the most is where he's slapping one. He's like, oh, you're the wrong one. And he slaps the other one too. I'm just like, oh my god.

ANTHONY 12:29

The first one that I saw was with them doing that whole Nicki Minaj mashup that's going that's viral right now.

NALEE 12:38

Which one?

SPEAKER_05 12:39

The one where they're like, yes, so it goes into the bitches ain't that oh yeah, yeah, okay.

ANTHONY 12:46

Yeah, and it goes into that. That was the first one that I saw with those conjoined twins.

SPEAKER_04 12:51

Oh, okay.

ANTHONY 12:52

And I was like, it, you know, because it started on the first one. I was like, they're not the this is gonna be AI. This is not gonna be what I think of.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

This ain't real.

ANTHONY 13:01

And then it got to the Nicki Nut Minaj part, and I was like, Oh my god. The only conjoined twins that I've ever seen in my entire life were the conjoined twins on I've never seen any in real life. So when I saw this video and I was like, this has gotta be AI.

SPEAKER_05 13:21

Wait, the conjoined twins of Sarah Paulson?

ANTHONY 13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:24

That's the first time you've ever seen anything conjoined twins.

ANTHONY 13:27

I've heard it. It's a lie.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

Grey's Anatomy had a conjoined twin one.

ANTHONY 13:31

Yes, but I didn't watch I didn't start watching Grey's Anatomy until after American Horror Stories.

SPEAKER_05 13:35

Oh, okay.

Drinking, Control, And Growing Up

ANTHONY 13:36

Because remember, I wasn't a fan in the beginning.

SPEAKER_05 13:38

Yeah. Interesting. Um You weren't a fan of Grey's Anatomy in the beginning? No. Who got you into it?

ANTHONY 13:44

You did.

SPEAKER_05 13:46

Bitch, I always be putting you on shit.

ANTHONY 13:48

You did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:49

I was like, got you into Grey's Anatomy, got you into Superstore. What else?

ANTHONY 13:53

I caved and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna try this. But I've noticed that there are those shows that are like that. Like Scandal. Like I wanted to watch that when it was live. And I tried and I just couldn't get into it. Okay. And now years later, I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_05 14:09

I can ignore her mouth.

ANTHONY 14:11

Yeah, I can ignore her mouth. So what I'm big, we're not even talking about our topic.

NALEE 14:19

It's okay.

ANTHONY 14:20

So sorry to our listeners. This we tangent, we're twin tangents for a reason.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

It's supposed to be our holiday episode, but we talk in anything of a holiday.

ANTHONY 14:29

It's not our holiday episode, but we're getting into the holiday season.

SPEAKER_05 14:32

The holiday spirit.

ANTHONY 14:33

I can't stop watching, and I sent this to you in text, the next generation Africa.

SPEAKER_05 14:39

Did you just send it to me?

ANTHONY 14:41

No, I sent this to you and Melissa like last week. Nobody, nobody. I probably didn't watch it.

SPEAKER_05 14:45

I'm sorry, boo. My life.

ANTHONY 14:47

I didn't send you a video. I just sent you that's what I'm watching.

SPEAKER_05 14:51

Oh, maybe.

ANTHONY 14:51

And it's these two guys in Africa.

SPEAKER_05 14:56

Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yes, I did see that.

ANTHONY 14:58

Dance. And I just can't. Every they pop up in my algorithm now all the time. And I'm like, I don't want to watch it, but I can't not watch it.

SPEAKER_05 15:09

I get it.

ANTHONY 15:10

So I'll put you all on. All our listeners go out there and look, look up Next Generation Africa on TikTok. I don't know. I just find it so funny, especially the wig that the guy wears. Alright. So getting back on track.

SPEAKER_05 15:27

Three hours later.

ANTHONY 15:28

Three hours later. What I wanted to talk about this holiday season is guilt guilt. Gift giving guilt trips.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Okay.

ANTHONY 15:41

So I guess the first question I have for you is what's the worst gift that you've ever gotten for Christmas?

SPEAKER_04 15:46

Okay.

ANTHONY 15:47

Is there anything in your life that just stands out that a core memory that you're like, Yeah. What the fuck is this shit?

SPEAKER_05 15:54

Yeah. Okay, so I don't know. This is gonna sound like a pity party, but it's not.

ANTHONY 15:59

We're entitled to pity parties when we need them.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

But uh when I was younger, so I'm hoping I could tell this, not having to say so much, but like when I was younger, we've talked about like how we were pudgy. And I don't know if you know what venturing is, but it's kind of like a Boy Scout, but it's for girls and boys. So it's kind of like Girls and Boys Club. But Oh, that's nice.

ANTHONY 16:22

No, I've never heard of that.

SPEAKER_05 16:23

It's called Venturing. And my brother was an advisor or like a leader or whatever. So then all of our cousins, they were in it. And then at that time I was too young because they also had an age limit, or like you have to be a certain age to be in it. And so then at that time, I was young, I was like one of the youngest ones, but my parents wouldn't let me join it with my siblings. And so then it was Christmas and they all did like Christmas exchange. And I've mentioned earlier that like we are the black sheep of the family, so we didn't really get along with our cousins. But I mean, the gesture was nice, but like what they gave me, I don't really think it was like a nice gesture. Because at that time, I was in middle school, going to high school, and like I said, you know, like when you're in middle school, you are like you go through an ugly phase where you're just like you're not cute, you're not ugly, you're just kind of like bleh, you know.

ANTHONY 17:17

Speak for yourself. I was always damn good looking.

SPEAKER_05 17:19

Okay.

ANTHONY 17:20

Well, that's the bold face library.

SPEAKER_05 17:23

Yeah, you can lie to me. You can get on yourself. But yeah, and so then they like I think they felt pity for me because I wasn't in the venturing group or I didn't get to be involved in the venturing whatever. And the cousins that gave it to me, they were closely re close to my age, so they were able to join. But at this time, I was kind of bitter about it because I'm like, how could they could do it? But my parents wouldn't let me do it, you know? Right. And so then they did this whole holiday thing or Christmas thing at this like rec center, and then I couldn't go. So when they came back, m either my brother or one of the cousins, I think they came over and they had give given me a gift. And so then, you know, you're a little kid, you're excited, whatever. But again, I was like kind of pudgy. And so then when I looked at the gift, it was like this like very ugly shirt. Like it was like it was like this tube top, but like it's not a tube top, it was a halter top, but it was like very it was like a neon blue cheetah, like, and it had sequence on it, and I'm just just like e like either one, this is a fucking insult, and you guys are making fun of me, and that's why you guys are giving it to me, and it was fucking huge, like it wasn't fitting. It was like Rue 21, yeah, probably, but it wasn't fitting, like it wasn't, it didn't, you know, it was like it was really big, and then there was a candy cane in there with a shirt, and they're like, Oh, Merry Christmas, sorry, you couldn't join us for adventuring, but we thought about you. But I'm just like, Y'all could have just gave me money, like like I understand, thank you for the gesture, but at the same time, it was kind of like a back-handed compliment kind of a way where they're like it's like a bitchy gift, like you know what I mean? Like, it's no a hundred percent.

ANTHONY 19:13

I know exactly what you're saying.

SPEAKER_05 19:14

It's like they're making fun of me, the fact that I couldn't join venturing, first of all, and secondly, it's a Christmas gift, but it's a shitty Christmas Christmas gift. And on top of that, like they thought I was, and I'm not fat shaming or anything, they thought I was like 3x, but I was like not that big yet, you know? So I'm just like, I can't even fucking use this gift. You know what I mean?

ANTHONY 19:35

Like, so I let's be honest though, if you could have, if it was your size, you wouldn't have worn it anyway.

SPEAKER_05 19:40

Yeah, and so then I was just like, this shit's ugly. And so I'm just like, oh, thank you. Whatever, you know. I'm like, thanks for the candy cane, I guess.

ANTHONY 19:51

That's the worst feeling when you get a gift and you have to like fake it.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

Yeah.

ANTHONY 19:55

Like I'm at a point where I'm just like, I hate I feel like I can't even like fake it.

SPEAKER_05 20:01

Yeah, you can't. It's your face and the way you say it.

ANTHONY 20:05

Yeah. My face is very expressive.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

Yeah, I think I'm kind of getting there, but I'm also the people where like I will tell you what to get me. Like, I would be like, and you know this. Anyone who knows me knows this. I will be like, give me a gift card or give me money because whatever you get me, I probably will return it anyways to get what I want, you know? And this is actually me being nice because the thing is. Like when it comes to gifts, like I I appreciate it and I understand it's the it's the thoughts that counts, but it's just like, but is it really the thoughts that counts?

ANTHONY 20:40

No, no, no. It is the thought that counts, but it when it's a bad gift, the question remains do you not have good thoughts?

SPEAKER_05 20:50

Yeah. Like Yeah, like You know what I mean? Like Yeah. What about you? What was the bad gift that you've gotten?

ANTHONY 20:56

Okay, I hold up, we're gonna back up because I have follow-up questions for you.

SPEAKER_05 21:00

Okay, okay.

ANTHONY 21:01

So these cousins that got you this shirt.

SPEAKER_05 21:03

Yeah.

ANTHONY 21:05

Were they cousins? Like, was this normal for you guys to exchange gifts?

SPEAKER_05 21:09

No.

ANTHONY 21:09

Okay, so I'm putting money that, and if these cousins listen or if they don't listen, I don't think they listen. You should send them this episode. I'm willing to bet you that they like last minute were like, hey, we need to get something for now. No, we grabbed something and threw shit in a bag.

SPEAKER_05 21:25

No, we cut them off. Like our family cut them off.

ANTHONY 21:27

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 21:28

Yeah, like they they're not, yeah, they're not nice people.

ANTHONY 21:31

Oh, yeah. Sorry.

SPEAKER_05 21:33

I mean, clearly they got you an ugly ass shirt. Clearly. But anyways, yeah, they're just, I don't know, like, I must say with my chest, like, they're just not nice people. And maybe our cousins, like our other cousins that are mutual to them, they might see it differently, but well, everybody has their own experience. I just don't think they're nice people and they're not genuine people. They're always have they're calculated, they always have an alterator motive.

ANTHONY 21:57

See, and this goes back to our conversation from last week about your chosen family and like people who are like blood thicker than water. I'm sorry, but that's not always the case. Like it's okay to cut off toxic family members if it's detrimental to your mental health or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 22:15

Exactly.

ANTHONY 22:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:17

Any other follow-up questions?

ANTHONY 22:19

Yeah, I had one, but I forgot it now.

SPEAKER_05 22:20

Okay, sorry.

ANTHONY 22:21

No, that's no, it was my fault because it was right there and then I took a left and okay.

SPEAKER_05 22:27

If it comes back, you could ask again.

ANTHONY 22:30

Yeah, so for me, I don't think I feel like I always had good Christmas presents. I don't think that I ever got a bad Christmas present.

SPEAKER_05 22:39

Okay. Hold on. Did you guys ever bob apples at Christmas?

ANTHONY 22:42

No. We didn't bob apples at Christmas.

SPEAKER_05 22:46

Okay.

ANTHONY 22:46

I wish we would have, though.

SPEAKER_05 22:47

That would have been You had teeth though at this point, right?

ANTHONY 22:52

Yeah, as long as it was past 96, 97. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Just wanted to clear the air. Yeah.

Regifting Rules And White Elephant Ethics

ANTHONY 23:05

I mean, as far as worst gifts that I've ever gotten, I think that the worst thing that I've ever gotten was those annual every year at Christmas. I don't know if you got this when you were a kid, but I never failed that I would get socks and underwear. And I'm like, and t-shirts. I'm like, I fucking want this shit.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

Oh. I'd be like, you perv? What else do you think about?

ANTHONY 23:27

Why are you trying to look at my skivvies?

unknown 23:30

Exactly.

ANTHONY 23:32

How much time did you spend in the aisle looking at these?

SPEAKER_05 23:35

I'd be the opposite.

ANTHONY 23:36

You would love that?

SPEAKER_05 23:37

Yeah. I'm this is a weird fact, but I love having a lot of underwears and bras and shit. Like when I have a lot of it, I'm like, look at me, I'm well be.

ANTHONY 23:45

No, no, no, that's fine, but like, and I get it when you were a kid, like your parents who want something different. But when you're a kid, yeah, you want toys, you want something that you're gonna be able to bring to school and be like, I got this over Christmas.

SPEAKER_04 23:58

Yeah.

ANTHONY 23:59

And now as an adult, I would rather pick out my own underwear.

SPEAKER_05 24:06

Yeah.

ANTHONY 24:06

And my and and as far as the socks are concerned, and Anthony wears weddy titties, guys.

SPEAKER_05 24:12

Size small.

ANTHONY 24:13

Sundays.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

Size small.

ANTHONY 24:14

Size small.

SPEAKER_05 24:15

It'll fit one set of his, you know, wheat we socks.

ANTHONY 24:23

I was big on socks because you know me. I don't I don't like shoes. I don't like socks. I don't like anything on my feet.

SPEAKER_05 24:29

You always have the cutest socks we worked at the further. Remember? I would always be like, oh my god, I love your socks. Like the flamingo ones.

ANTHONY 24:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:35

There was one with what ties on there.

ANTHONY 24:37

There was one with ties on there. There's Argyle ones. There was flamingoes.

SPEAKER_05 24:42

Flamingo ones.

ANTHONY 24:42

Yeah. Palm trees.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

Yeah.

ANTHONY 24:45

I loved wearing those socks. I still have them, and I'm just like, I actually just I saw the I saw them the other day and I was like, I need to like throw all these away. And like, I don't know, when am I ever gonna wear them?

SPEAKER_05 24:56

That's true.

ANTHONY 24:57

I think like I need to narrow down and I need to think like that.

SPEAKER_05 25:00

Yeah.

ANTHONY 25:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:01

Like my shit, like I'm trying to do the Marie Kondo, I think that's her name, where it's like if you haven't worn in a year, if it hasn't like brought joy to you in a year, throw it away.

ANTHONY 25:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:12

I need to do that shit.

ANTHONY 25:13

That's what I need to do too.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

Yeah.

ANTHONY 25:15

Yeah, because I mean, where do I go? Where do I dress up for? So it's like I don't need all my dress shirts that I used to wear. All I need is one dress shirt if I ever have to interview for something.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

Yeah.

ANTHONY 25:26

No, two dress shirts. One for an interview, one for a funeral.

SPEAKER_05 25:30

That would got real fucking dark.

ANTHONY 25:33

Okay, this. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 25:35

But it's a valid point.

ANTHONY 25:36

This is a valid fact for anybody out there growing up and coming into their own like adulthood. One thing that you should always have in the back of your closet is a pair of dress pants and a dress shirt, like funeral attire. Yeah. To be ready because Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:54

You never know.

ANTHONY 25:55

You never know.

SPEAKER_05 25:56

And I mean And they're expensive too. I don't even know why.

NALEE 26:03

Corporate America.

SPEAKER_05 26:04

Yeah. It's just like corporate America.

NALEE 26:08

Who did I go off on today? Or the other day?

ANTHONY 26:12

I went off on somebody about the cost of something.

SPEAKER_05 26:15

At work?

ANTHONY 26:16

No, like personally. Like I was calling on, like, I don't know, paying a bill or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 26:22

Listen here, Shonda.

ANTHONY 26:24

Yeah, I'm gonna be like, God. I think I was calling to pay a medical bill or something like that. And I was just like, yeah, gonna make a payment. And I was just bitching about the cost of healthcare.

SPEAKER_05 26:38

Yeah. I'm just so the cost of healthcare in America is fucking crazy.

ANTHONY 26:43

Yeah. And especially where we live.

SPEAKER_05 26:44

Yeah, I can't even.

ANTHONY 26:46

We're the highest cost healthcare in the state. I'm fucking moving to Canada. I know. That's what I'm saying. Okay, so worst gift I ever gotten, socks. Never really got anything that I wanted. You got an ugly shirt.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

That sounds that makes me sound so ungrateful.

ANTHONY 27:04

Well, you did acknowledge it's the thought that counts.

SPEAKER_04 27:07

Yeah.

ANTHONY 27:07

But it is unfortunate when you get a gift that you won't use.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

Yeah.

ANTHONY 27:13

Which leads me into my next question.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

Okay.

ANTHONY 27:16

Is re-gifting smart or shady?

SPEAKER_05 27:20

Excuse me. I think excuse me. Excuse me. I think it's it depends. I will be honest, I probably have re-gifted some of my gifts because it's I know that somebody who I know would probably like this gift more than me. And for me, like when I'm regifting though, it means that I haven't touched it, I haven't used it, the tag is still on there and it's still brand new. That's a regifting gift that I'm like, oh, like I'm I don't have any use for this. Then yeah, okay. But if it's yeah, but if it's like it's funny you mentioned this because I have I have a story.

ANTHONY 27:58

Oh God, you're gonna regift me something.

SPEAKER_05 28:01

It's not me. But it's it's like it's like a situation that my sister ran into where like and I I I want your opinion on this too.

NALEE 28:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 28:10

It was for White F I think it was for White Elephant or whatever, but she gave my sister like a gift that was like a couponed gift. So it was like it was cheap, I guess.

ANTHONY 28:23

What do you mean a couponed gift?

SPEAKER_05 28:25

Like she used like she used it, like it was she bought it during couponing and stuff like that.

ANTHONY 28:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 28:34

And I think you could tell that like that gift wasn't like super like and again, this is gonna sound real ungrateful, but it was like a cheap gift. But it nonetheless, it is a gift, but I think they found out that she it was like a gift that she couponed. Like it wasn't like it was kind of a thing of like, oh, like I have it and I couponed it, but I'm gonna give it to you. But there's like no thought into it.

ANTHONY 28:57

Okay. And it was never used.

SPEAKER_05 28:59

Yes.

ANTHONY 29:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 29:01

So I guess I don't know where I'm trying to go with this. I had a point. I promise you I had a point.

SPEAKER_04 29:08

Sorry.

SPEAKER_05 29:09

No, it's okay, but I don't know. To answer your question all in all, regard disregarding my story. I think I think if it's like a brand new thing that you haven't touched it, I think it's fine. But if it's if it's like obviously if it's something that you've used, or let's say you're giving away like a laundry basket for like a housewarming gift or whatever, but you've been using it, then I'd be like, like that's shady. You know what I mean? Because like sometimes, and I got this idea from one of my friends, she used like we I would get like a laundry basket for like housewarmings. A laundry basket, you just fill it in with like house essentials. Yeah. And then you give it to somebody. But like that basket that you're using, if it's like something you've had for like years, but you know, it still looks decent, but it's something you've been using for years. Like if it's that situation, I'd be kind of like, Really? Yeah. I don't know. What do you think?

ANTHONY 31:01

I mean, as long as the basket was in like like in that particular situation in that story, as long as the basket's in like decent condition.

SPEAKER_05 31:09

Oh, you wouldn't care?

ANTHONY 31:09

No.

SPEAKER_05 31:10

Oh, okay. Then it's just me being ungrateful then.

ANTHONY 31:13

You ungrateful.

SPEAKER_05 31:14

New is always better.

ANTHONY 31:16

New is always better. But I did hear you mention a white elephant.

SPEAKER_05 31:21

Yeah.

ANTHONY 31:22

So this was for your white elephant exchange?

SPEAKER_05 31:24

No, this is just uh this is just an example.

ANTHONY 31:26

Okay. So, with regards to my question as far as regifting is smart or shady, there's multiple facets to this. So the first thing is I do think that it's really smart to regift. However, you have to be smart about it.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

Exactly.

ANTHONY 31:40

Because I'm not gonna re-gift something from Melissa to you knowing that she's gonna be like, hey, I got that same thing for Anthony.

SPEAKER_05 31:47

Yeah, yeah.

ANTHONY 31:48

You gotta be smart about it.

SPEAKER_05 31:50

Yes, yes, yes.

ANTHONY 31:51

I don't think that re-gifting is shady in its entirety. I think it's like and I don't know, this is obviously very subjective, but I think it depends on the way that you're re-gifting it and what you're regifting.

NALEE 32:15

Yeah.

ANTHONY 32:16

As far as whether or not it's shady. Hold on a second.

SPEAKER_05 32:30

So you're talking about how re-gifting isn't necessarily bad depending on how you use it.

ANTHONY 32:37

Yeah, so I don't think it's necessarily bad about how you re-gift it, what it what you're regifting. You do have to be smart about how you're re-gifting it. Now, where you don't need to be smart, and again, this is going back into how I saw there's different like facets and like regarding regifting.

SPEAKER_05 32:53

Hold on. White elephant is the game where you regift something, right, that you've already had.

ANTHONY 32:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 32:59

Okay. I just wanted to clarify that.

ANTHONY 33:01

And that's exactly what I was just about to say.

SPEAKER_05 33:02

Yeah.

ANTHONY 33:03

So in that instance, if you're invited to a white elephant gift, it's no holding it. Like all bets are off. All bets are off. You regift. I don't care if what Melissa gave me for Christmas, like Okay, what are the top three things that you shouldn't re-gift?

SPEAKER_05 33:20

Ooh. I don't think I'll name mine and you could decide.

ANTHONY 33:23

Okay, wait. Again, going back to the mul the different facets, are we talking about things that you shouldn't re-gift for a white elephant gift or things you just shouldn't re-gift in general?

SPEAKER_05 33:35

Like I think it apply to both. It could apply to both.

ANTHONY 33:38

Well, there's certain things that I won't re-gift in general, but I would re-gift for like white elephant.

SPEAKER_05 33:45

Okay. What are they?

ANTHONY 33:48

Well, I mean, just like uh that I would re-gift or that I wouldn't re-gift in general.

SPEAKER_05 33:54

Yeah.

ANTHONY 33:54

Well, I mean like bottle of alcohol.

SPEAKER_05 33:57

You wouldn't re-gift it?

ANTHONY 33:58

Not in general.

SPEAKER_05 34:00

Really?

ANTHONY 34:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:01

Why?

ANTHONY 34:02

Why would I do that?

SPEAKER_05 34:03

Because what if you didn't drink it or whatever?

ANTHONY 34:05

Honey, I'd suck the alcohol out the deodorant set.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

Okay, that's not an option. You saved a shot of fucking gray goose and hey, here you go. Merry Christmas. Well, I meant like a full bottle. That's what I was thinking.

ANTHONY 34:20

No.

SPEAKER_05 34:20

Yeah, like that ain't happening in this house. I was more of like.

ANTHONY 34:25

What are the yeah.

Boundaries, Burnout, And Saying No

SPEAKER_05 34:26

Yeah, I was more talking about like undergarments. I would not re-gift that. Like, for example, like Victoria's Secret stuff. Like, you know how like it's expensive, it's cute, it's very like, you know, it's Victoria's Secret. Like undergarments, I wouldn't re- I wouldn't re-gift that.

ANTHONY 34:42

I would probably re-gift that at a white elephant gift.

SPEAKER_05 34:44

You would?

ANTHONY 34:45

I would. Interesting. Depending on like the audience and who I'm with.

SPEAKER_05 34:50

Okay. Interesting. I wouldn't.

ANTHONY 34:53

Like I would live to be at a like holiday party with like you and Lorianne and Melissa and all of them and like do a gift exchange and have like Claudine open my underwear.

SPEAKER_05 35:07

That's funny.

ANTHONY 35:09

I would live for that shit.

SPEAKER_05 35:10

That's funny.

ANTHONY 35:11

Okay, so undergarments.

SPEAKER_05 35:12

Yeah, I wouldn't do undergarments. Cookware. I wouldn't do that.

NALEE 35:20

Used cookware?

SPEAKER_05 35:22

Yeah.

unknown 35:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 35:23

Yeah, I wouldn't use do we use cooked wear. Whether it's like pots and pans, like ladles and stuff, I wouldn't do that. And then the only other thing is probably like bed sheets and stuff. I wouldn't like re-gift that.

ANTHONY 35:43

I would re-gift that.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

You would?

ANTHONY 35:44

I would.

SPEAKER_05 35:45

Interesting.

ANTHONY 35:46

But again, to like but for that, I would probably regift it to family.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

Okay.

ANTHONY 35:52

Like my aunt. Yeah. Like if she needs like I actually did that once. I regifted, we had a bed spread that I gifted to her for Christmas. I was like, hey, here's a nice thick comforter and everything that you can use.

SPEAKER_05 36:07

Okay. I'm not judging you. I'm just saying, oh, interesting. Yeah.

ANTHONY 36:11

Your face does otherwise. Like, give you a life.

SPEAKER_05 36:14

No, I'm not judging you.

ANTHONY 36:17

Have you been to a lot of white elephants?

SPEAKER_05 36:19

No.

ANTHONY 36:19

Oh, you haven't?

SPEAKER_05 36:20

No.

ANTHONY 36:20

Okay, because I was just trying to think of the.

SPEAKER_05 36:22

This is probably like I would probably never ever say this again, but I don't normally like re-gift stuff. Like if I was to go to a white elephant, I'd get something new.

ANTHONY 36:37

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_05 36:38

Yeah, and it's technically not a white elephant anymore, but still, I'd get something new.

ANTHONY 36:43

We used to do we called it the white tortuga party.

SPEAKER_05 36:47

Okay.

ANTHONY 36:48

And same thing as white elephant party. And we would we would say that you could buy things, but we would put a like a certain dollar value on it.

SPEAKER_04 36:58

Oh yeah, yeah.

ANTHONY 37:00

And you couldn't just go to like Walmart though. You had to go to like Goodwill or Savers.

SPEAKER_05 37:04

Oh, that's a good idea. So technically it's used, but you bought it. Okay.

ANTHONY 37:10

I remember one year I got a box of like just variety of liquor bottles that have been like sitting and opened, half drink, undrink, unopened.

SPEAKER_05 37:26

Like is that good or bad?

ANTHONY 37:28

Honey, I drank the alcohol out of a deodorant stick. It was good.

SPEAKER_05 37:31

I hate you. Did you really?

ANTHONY 37:35

No, I would. Anthony. No, I wouldn't really. It's a joke.

SPEAKER_05 37:40

Like I'm like. Like I love alcohol so much, I would drink it out of a- You'd swallow it whole. You put it in your booty hole. Have you ever done that before, putting alcohol in your butthole?

SPEAKER_03 37:48

No. I don't know. That answer seemed a little sarcastic.

SPEAKER_05 37:54

You know people do that, right?

ANTHONY 37:56

No, I did not know. Oh, I did know that because I was in a movie one time. I would not personally do that.

SPEAKER_05 38:02

I'm not gonna lie. If I didn't have any consequences from it, I would try it. Because I heard that it gets you like drunk really fast.

ANTHONY 38:10

It does get you. I've heard, yes.

SPEAKER_05 38:12

But that's only if it's no consequences where it doesn't fuck me up or anything, which it probably will. So all and I wouldn't do it, but I would try it if I didn't have any consequences. But yeah.

ANTHONY 38:21

I Okay, we're truth telling now. Okay. No holds part on the podcast. Um I had to go in for a CT abdomen and pelvis one time.

SPEAKER_05 38:31

It felt good, didn't it?

ANTHONY 38:33

I well, it w no, it was weird because you didn't say no. So I no, it was weird because I didn't know that they did this, but they They put up your booty. Yes. They do? They did when I had it done. They injected the dye or like pushed the dye through through a tube in my butt.

SPEAKER_05 38:54

So you got like an enema kind of thing. Instead of it sucking it out, it's it pull it put it in.

ANTHONY 39:00

Isn't an enema supposed to get it out?

SPEAKER_05 39:02

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Is that instead of it sucking it out, they put it in. Because they put the dye in your booty hole.

ANTHONY 39:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:09

That's weird. I would have thought that they would like tell you to drink something or like inject you.

ANTHONY 39:14

Yeah, well, I thought they did it intravenously. It was so weird. Because they were like, all of a sudden they were like, lay on your side, and I'm gonna Who's this doctor? I don't even know. This is a sacred heart.

SPEAKER_05 39:29

Interesting. I didn't know they did that either.

ANTHONY 39:32

Apparently, I just have all the weird experiences. You got dead. Like when I went to the chiropractor. Remember when I was telling the story how I went to the chiropractor and he made me get undressed?

SPEAKER_03 39:41

Oh yeah. Who does that?

ANTHONY 39:44

Everybody said that to me. They're like, I all the people that went to the same fucking chiropractor, they're like, I don't have to get undressed.

SPEAKER_05 39:51

You were you were his favorite client.

ANTHONY 39:54

I was.

SPEAKER_05 39:55

Yeah. That reminds me, I don't think the guy sexually assaulted me, but it kind of felt that way.

ANTHONY 40:05

Okay, you probably shouldn't lead a story with, I don't think he's sexually assaulted.

SPEAKER_05 40:09

No, because I think at that time I haven't like gone to a chiropractor, so I didn't know that like, you know, like they do, they go into those kind of areas. You know what I'm talking about? Like, I was a little kid. It was I wasn't a little kid, but I was like in high school.

ANTHONY 40:23

So not only did he sexually assault you, but he was also a pedophile.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

I don't fucking know.

ANTHONY 40:27

I'm just kidding. Okay, go on with that.

SPEAKER_05 40:29

But like we got into a really bad car accident, and then we had to go to the chiropractor for like months. And so then the first time we went in, like he was like massaging, obviously doing the chiropractor stuff. And then like he was like massaging my butt. And I don't know if you I don't know if they did that, but I think they do.

ANTHONY 40:45

Yes. Yeah, and so then because that's where your your what is it, your cocks? Yeah, or your sacre sacred?

SPEAKER_05 40:51

It's your cocks, it's the thing on your butt. Your problem. Yeah. And so then, like, after we left, I was telling my sisters, but the thing is, they didn't do it to my sisters. He did it only to me. Because I was like, I don't know if I just got sexually assaulted because this guy was massaging my ass. And then my sisters in the because it was me, my law, and Linda. We all got into a car accident together and we all went to the chiropractor every, I think every Tuesday and Thursday after school. And when we went, like the first time, we were kind of nervous because what would happen is we would sit in the massage chair for like, I don't know, 15 minutes. Minutes and then he would like do his chiropractor thing like the last five minutes or so. And then sometimes it would be vice versa, where he would do that first and then we'd sit in the chair. And so then when we went the first time, like I said, after we came back, I was like, did any did he touch your guys' butt? Because he was touching my butt. Like, I don't know if that's normal or not. And they were both like, no.

ANTHONY 41:48

But you can also think of it from this perspective. If he was doing your exam and like maybe your spine was, you know, misaligned in that area where theirs wasn't.

SPEAKER_05 42:01

True. It could have been that. I don't know.

ANTHONY 42:04

It could have been that.

SPEAKER_05 42:05

I don't know. It was just weird.

ANTHONY 42:06

Because I know my like my chiropractor, when I would go to him after he allowed me to put my clothes back on. He would do this thing where he would like feel down each.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

Yeah, he would.

ANTHONY 42:20

And if I spasmed, that was the area that he would work.

SPEAKER_03 42:25

Oh yeah, that's where he would work. Yeah. So with your clothes off. I know.

ANTHONY 42:30

He really liked it when I clenched.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

I was like, ew.

SPEAKER_05 42:34

He's like, show me how it looks like. Show me that tight ass. Show me that pudding.

ANTHONY 42:38

Give me a wink.

SPEAKER_05 42:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

Ew. I hate you.

SPEAKER_05 42:42

That's so gross. But yeah, I don't know. Maybe that's what it was. But the thing is, though, my injury was more on my collarbones than anywhere else. That's why.

ANTHONY 42:52

That you could feel.

SPEAKER_05 42:54

That's true. I don't know. It was just weird. But I'm like, I'm not trying to play victim here, but I'm just like, why am I doing one getting my ass touched?

ANTHONY 43:02

It's okay to play victim. If you feel that you were sexually assaulted, you're okay to Yeah. That's your right. But nobody should shame anybody who I guess.

SPEAKER_05 43:13

But yeah. I don't know what it was, but it wasn't like anything. Like, you know.

ANTHONY 43:19

I was just- You kept going back though, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 43:22

But it's a thing of it could have been either or. I don't know. But I don't think it was. I think I was probably just thinking too much. Again, I was the only one getting my ass touched, so I don't know. But anyways, yeah, back to Wait, who was it again? Who was what?

ANTHONY 43:38

Who are your sisters that you were in the accident with?

SPEAKER_05 43:40

Mala and Linda.

ANTHONY 43:42

Oh, okay. Never mind.

SPEAKER_05 43:43

Why?

ANTHONY 43:44

Uh, I just needed to know.

SPEAKER_05 43:46

Would have been different if it was Pali.

ANTHONY 43:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:48

Oh. Because you and Melissa did her cavity check.

ANTHONY 43:51

No, just no, but I was that's what I was gonna say. I was gonna say, well, that's anyways. The last question that I had for you, and I'm low-key asking because I want advice on this. If you have any to offer, and any listeners out there, if you have any advice, please feel free to chime in. How do you deal with the whole spend more pressure? Like, personally, for me, like I don't want to spend a lot of money on like Christmas gifts, but at the same time, I feel like if I get like my uncle$9.97 cologne bundle from Walmart and that's it, yeah. It's like I feel like I should get like it's not enough. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 44:40

I feel like there is like a fine line between that because I think it depends on who you're you're gifting. Like if it's somebody who like you just met and it's like, hey, I'm gonna have a party, I'm gonna invite some friends over, you may or may not know them. The limit is like$15. If that's it, I would stick to that. But if it's like your uncle, where somebody you obviously cherish, somebody who you know you deal with a lot, I wouldn't mind spending a little bit more than I need to.

ANTHONY 45:08

Like, for example, like But where do you draw the line though? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 45:13

I don't know.

ANTHONY 45:14

Like, how do you know what gift is gonna be enough that you're not gonna be like underselling yourself or whatever? Yeah, like that's a good question.

SPEAKER_05 45:24

I don't know, because I have that issue too.

ANTHONY 45:26

I always have that issue. I never know what to get people.

SPEAKER_05 45:29

It's like I get it's like I get you one thing and I'm like it's not enough, and then I get you a whole bunch, and you're just like, damn, I just spent like a hundred bucks. Yeah. You know?

ANTHONY 45:37

And and then it's worse when you get to the gift exchange and it's like you spent a hundred bucks on me with like 30 different gifts, and then I got you a$20 gift card to Macy's, right?

SPEAKER_05 45:48

Yeah. I mean, if that's the case, like you shouldn't think of it that way, I guess. Because for me, like when I gift somebody, I don't like Nobody should.

ANTHONY 45:58

I shouldn't.

Social Battery, Work Parties, And Secret Santa

SPEAKER_05 45:59

Yeah. But at the same time, let's say if it's like a Seeker Santa thing where, you know, you have a$50 spending limit, and if you decide to go over that, it's kind of like it's your choice. You know what I mean? But let's just say if I gave you a gift that was a hundred bucks and our limit was fifty, and you gave me a gift that was just at fifty, like I'd be fine with that because it's still up to the limit. You know what I mean? Yeah. I wouldn't be like, well, I got you a hundred dollar gift. Why are you only giving me 50? You know what I mean?

ANTHONY 46:28

See, and unfortunately, that's my mentality is like if I get a gift that's like a hundred dollars and I only give it a few.

SPEAKER_05 46:34

You have like a low-key expectation.

ANTHONY 46:36

Well, I just I feel bad. So then I start getting on myself like Oh, like if you were on the flip side. If I'm on the flip s if I'm on the side that I gave, I gave you a$20 gift and you spent$100 on me. Now I'm like, I feel like a shitty friend or a shitty nephew or a shitty cousin.

SPEAKER_05 46:55

Like if there's it's that thing of if there's a limit and you've reached a limit, I think that's fine. But I know what you mean though, because sometimes I don't know, I feel like I'm kind of a good gift giver, so I don't have that issue. But because I do think about like what I'm gonna get somebody. And I will admit I am a cheap ass, but the gifts that I give are like I know that you'll like it. You know what I mean? Because I know you. And that's also the thing too. I don't know, like, even if it's cheap, if you know that that person's gonna like it, I I don't think you should feel bad about it. Because again, it all comes back to the it's the thought that counts. Like if you got me a gift that was like five dollars and it was like, I don't know, some friends-related stuff, like to me, I would be like, Oh, he knows that I like friends. I wouldn't even think about the price. I did that for you. Yeah. So it's like that. Like, if it's a genuine person who like I mean, I I'm just saying that I'm a genuine person, but if it's a genuine person who like doesn't care about the cost of the gift, I don't think it really matters how much it is. Like if I went to the if I couldn't get you anything and it was like a last minute Christmas thing, and I know that you like Snickers, and uh, that's all I could afford, or if that's all I got access to, and I give you a Snicker bar, are you gonna be mad at me? Probably. But I'm gonna be like oh I'm gonna be like, Well, you still ate it, you can't push it back up.

ANTHONY 48:23

That's what my aunt gets us every year for Christmas. She gives us a card and a candy bar.

SPEAKER_05 48:28

I love that. Like that's it. Yeah. Are you kind of like, that's it?

NALEE 48:35

No, I don't approach it from a that's it standpoint.

ANTHONY 48:41

And this could be an unpopular opinion from listeners from you. I just wish that she would put a little bit more thought into it.

SPEAKER_04 48:51

Yeah.

ANTHONY 48:51

Because it's literally every year it's the same thing. Like, I can tell you right now, I'm probably gonna get a Christmas card and a Kit Kat.

SPEAKER_04 48:59

Oh.

ANTHONY 48:59

Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 49:00

Like switch it up a little bit. Switch it up, maybe give you two candy bars instead of one.

ANTHONY 49:06

May no, maybe give me a Christmas card and a lottery ticket. Yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 49:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good gift, though.

ANTHONY 49:15

A lottery ticket or a candy bar?

SPEAKER_05 49:17

Both. Like the lottery ticket. I think being an adult, that's a very unpopular gift, but that is very like the scratch off?

ANTHONY 49:26

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:26

Like even if it's a one dollar scratch off, or even if it's like however much, that can never go wrong.

ANTHONY 49:32

I a hundred percent agree. And now that I'm an adult, I appreciate gift cards more.

SPEAKER_04 49:38

Yep.

ANTHONY 49:39

Like when I was younger and even in my 20s, I was very adamant, like, don't get a gift card. That's fucking that's the easy way out. That's cheap. It's there's no thought, there's no effort.

SPEAKER_04 49:48

Yeah.

ANTHONY 49:49

But now it's like, I don't know what to fucking get people. So you're gonna get a gift card.

SPEAKER_05 49:54

I prefer a gift card. Y'all already know.

ANTHONY 49:57

Yeah. So I'd be like, My uncle asked me, he's like, what do you want for Christmas? I'm like, here are your options. You're gonna get me nothing or a$25 Amazon gift card.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Yeah.

ANTHONY 50:07

That's it. That's good. Do not, my aunt and uncle always spends so much money on me.

SPEAKER_04 50:12

Oh.

ANTHONY 50:13

And I'm like, do not spend any money on me this year.

SPEAKER_05 50:17

Spend money on me. I could use that. Tell them I have a secret person on the side, so can you also give them a Christmas gift?

ANTHONY 50:27

Oh bye. I'm gonna send this to them right now.

SPEAKER_05 50:29

She's my you she's my lavender wife, remember?

ANTHONY 50:32

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:34

See? See. Okay. Anyways, well, did you have anything else to add? No. What you wanted to talk about?

ANTHONY 50:42

What did sh what did you want to discuss?

SPEAKER_05 50:44

Okay. Well, I wanted to sh I wanted to discuss about boundaries and burnout. I think this year of all years, I could definitely relate to this. Yeah, this segment. So have you ever said no to like a holiday plan or anything like that?

NALEE 51:07

Yes.

ANTHONY 52:05

So my uncle in Texas is he's pretty consistent about it, but he always like tries to ask, like, get me to like fly out there for the holidays. And he's like, I'll get you a ticket. Boy, bye.

SPEAKER_05 52:20

Give me the ticket.

ANTHONY 52:22

And I'm like, no. I almost did it this year for Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_05 52:29

Why didn't you? Oh, wait, because of Richard and the surgery and stuff. No.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

Just You're like, no, fuck Richard. I'd go if I wanted to.

ANTHONY 52:39

I don't think I told you. He's finally able to drive. So he drove up to Bloomer on Thanksgiving. Oh, he did?

SPEAKER_03 52:45

Oh, yay!

ANTHONY 52:47

Yeah. So no, I just I'm not feeling it this year. I'm so stressed and like, or I well now it's over with, but like, I wasn't feeling it. I'm so stressed after being in the hospital. I was like You know, everybody always says, like, my family's crazy. My family, they're I mean stressful.

SPEAKER_05 53:08

I'm just kidding.

ANTHONY 53:10

Right. Well, everybody says it about their own family. Yeah. But like for me, and with everything that I've had going on, the last thing that I wanted to deal with was family.

SPEAKER_05 53:20

I agree. Yeah.

ANTHONY 53:21

I just I need to get in a better, more consistent habit of saying no.

SPEAKER_05 53:29

Yeah, we've been we've been practicing that since we started this podcast. That it's okay to say no.

ANTHONY 53:36

It's okay to say no. No is a complete sentence.

SPEAKER_05 53:38

Yeah. Look at us.

unknown 53:41

Okay.

ANTHONY 53:41

So I need to implement that. But what about you? Have you ever said no? I feel like you do.

SPEAKER_05 53:46

I always say no. No. Really? Well, yeah. Well, I I used to. I would I'm definitely a yes person. We've talked about this before, but I think this year, with a lot of like with everything that's happening, it's not a sense of I'm saying no because I don't want to see anybody. It is. But there's also more to that. Like, I think because of my mental health right now and just kind of where life is at, like, like I love my family. And again, you know, you say your can't your family's crazy, but like my family could be a lot. Like that's what I'm saying. Everybody's family. We have like a we have a big family, and you know, I feel like it's not that I don't want to see them. It's not that I don't care. It's not that I don't want to spend time with them. It's just mentally, sometimes you have to prepare yourself when you surround yourself with your family. You know what I mean?

ANTHONY 54:36

100%.

SPEAKER_05 54:37

And like in my head space right now, like I said no to Thanksgiving. I didn't go because mentally I just can't focus. And, you know, and this year, you know, I don't think I'm gonna go to Christmas either because it's just like there's too much going on where it's just like I could, as an adult, especially, like when everything's hitting you all at once, you don't realize that it's okay to take like a mental break from life. It's okay to take a mental break from family, it's okay to say no. It's not, it's not selfish. It's just you need space. And I think sometimes like family guilt trips you like, oh, like you don't want to hang out with us, you don't miss us, blah, blah, blah.

ANTHONY 55:19

I'm just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_05 55:20

You know, but it's like that's not it. It's just right now I can't.

ANTHONY 55:23

It's not about you.

SPEAKER_05 55:24

Yeah, like I just can't. And the thing is, it's very hard to say no already on top of that. And when you get that added pressure, you're just like, I I don't I don't know what else to say to you.

ANTHONY 55:37

The added pressure from like a guilt trip.

SPEAKER_05 55:38

Yeah. And it's just like, I need space. Like, I just need space. And I think especially family, and I get it from their point of view where they just love you, they care for you, and they miss you. And I get that it's the holidays are the times where maybe sometimes it's the only time of the year that you see them, but at the same time, it's like sometimes you crash out after that, you know what I mean? Mentally.

Comfort Snacks, Cocoa, And Coping

ANTHONY 56:02

It's a lot going to holidays, like you said, like preparing yourself to be there mentally, emotionally, and then dealing with all the chaos and the drama that comes with being at holiday get-togethers, all the cooking, the cleaning, the the noise, the noise, the multiple different conversations, and this person wants to talk to you when this person wants to talk to you while you're talking to this person, and it's like it's it's a lot. It's a lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:29

And that kind of leads me back, leads me to my next question. Like, do you ever feel guilty protecting your peace or like saying no?

ANTHONY 56:37

All the time. I always feel guilty. I'm I feel guilty about saying no to anybody, not even just family. Like saying no, I always feel guilty. And I always feel like I'm letting them down. Yeah. Or I'm letting people down.

SPEAKER_05 56:55

Yeah, for sure. I get I like that's exactly right. Like, I feel that. Exactly. Like, even my thing is like even saying no, before I even say no, I already feel the guilt. I already feel the pressure of like fuck. Like, I know what they're gonna say. I know they're gonna guilt trip me into going, I know they're gonna say all this shit, but it's just like, no, like I can't, like, I can't. I'm sorry, I can't. And the thing is, yes, it is maybe the one year that we see each other, but at the same time, they're still next year. And you don't just have to visit me during the holidays. Like, if you really miss me that much, visit me another time, you know, not just Christmas. Like, it's that thing of like, why do why do holidays only have to feel special? Why can't it be a why can't it be a fucking Tuesday and you come and visit me because you miss me, you know?

ANTHONY 57:54

Yeah, because they've been hyped up so much that this is the time we need to cherish our families and really yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:04

Yeah, and it's not a sense of like, oh, like you never show up or whatever. It's like maybe I'm not in the mental space to show up. And maybe it's okay. And you know, you just have to kind of accept that. But you know, there's some family members where like, no matter what you say, no matter what you do, they'll still be like, oh, you don't give a fuck. You don't care about us. You never show up, you know? But protect your peace, y'all.

ANTHONY 58:28

Mental health is very like My mom always used to like gaslight me and like put me on guilt trips for not wanting to like spend time with her or go see her. Can't blame you for that, though. Exactly. That's what I'm like Make it make sense. With that whole situation, she was a very selfish person.

SPEAKER_05 58:50

So it was just like it's unfair, yeah. It's very unfair.

ANTHONY 58:54

Yeah, one other thing that I wanted to say, going back to your your first question about saying no to a holiday plan. Okay, and I guess this ties in with like family guilting me. Like when my uncle would always invite me when he invites me down there, like I would another issue for me is like I would love to be able to go.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

Yeah.

ANTHONY 59:17

But like at the stage of his life, at the stage that he's at in his life, good for him he's able to be like, you know what? I'm not gonna work this week. I work paycheck to paycheck. Yeah, I get like 2.72 hours a paycheck.

SPEAKER_05 59:35

Yeah.

ANTHONY 59:36

I go on one vacation a year, and respectfully, I don't want to spend what little PTO I have on going to visit family for a holiday when again I go on one vacation a year.

SPEAKER_04 59:49

Yeah, that's very true.

ANTHONY 59:50

Like, I would love to be at a point in life where it would be like I could go on vacation every two weeks, twice a month for a week at a time.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:00

Must be nice. Yeah, yeah.

ANTHONY 1:00:03

But that's not the reality that my life is at right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:06

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:00:06

If and when that happens, awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:08

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:00:09

But like there's always multiple, you know, factors like that, like people don't think about.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:14

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:00:15

I can't just say I'm taking off work.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:18

And that's a very good point, too. It's just you can't afford to, whether that's because of work, whether it's your time. Yeah. You know, it's just you just can't afford it right now.

ANTHONY 1:00:28

Yeah, I can't afford it.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:29

Yeah. So that's a very good point. My last question in regards to like boundaries and burnout. Do you think boundaries make the holidays better for you, or does it make it lonelier for you?

ANTHONY 1:00:41

I think it makes it better.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:43

Wow.

ANTHONY 1:00:45

For multiple reasons, but the first and foremost is that I would be pro like if I'm setting boundaries, I'm prioritizing myself and my mental health.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:53

Beautiful.

ANTHONY 1:00:54

Now, with regards to making them lonelier, yeah, I may be home alone on Christmas Day and physically alone, that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying my time.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:07

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:01:07

I got my fucking bottle of alcohol up there.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:10

You ain't alone now.

ANTHONY 1:01:12

I got a Christmas story on TV, might have snow falling, got the fireplace on, snuggling on the couch with Duffy.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:18

Like You living your life.

ANTHONY 1:01:20

I'm living my life.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:21

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:01:22

So yeah, I think. And actually, now that I say that out loud, I'm gonna say, I'm not gonna say that it makes the holidays better, but it doesn't make the holidays lonelier.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:31

Okay. I like that.

unknown 1:01:33

Yeah.

Nostalgia: Magic Vs Reality

SPEAKER_05 1:01:34

What about you? I'm in agreement to that. I think. I think throughout the years, I realized that I could entertain myself. So I don't think I'm ever lonely, to be honest. And I just realize that, saying it out loud, that I think that is true. Like for me, like I could entertain myself.

ANTHONY 1:01:53

I can picture you entertaining yourself.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:55

Yeah. A fucking crazy bitch.

ANTHONY 1:01:59

You can do the stupid two Barbies, and I'm like, Kith. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:06

Yeah. Look, they're thithering. No, but and I think that's that's something I'm prideful about is that you know, I could be by myself. Maybe it's not a good thing. Maybe I could be in a good thing, but I could be. In a loony bin, I don't give a fuck. But, anyways, yeah, like I feel like that's a lot of people don't have that where they could be by themselves.

ANTHONY 1:02:29

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:29

Like they always need company.

ANTHONY 1:02:31

This goes sorry, go ahead. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:33

Oh, you could say what you were gonna say.

ANTHONY 1:02:34

I was just gonna say this goes back to the conversation that we had before about people who are dependent on other people because they can't be alone or do things on their own.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:43

Yeah. Yeah, and that's it. And I think the reason why I'm now programmed that way is maybe because like throughout the years, I'm just like, no, like you need to do things your by yourself. And I just kind of put myself in that position, but it helped me along the way.

ANTHONY 1:03:00

Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:01

So like when it comes to holidays, I wouldn't say it makes it better, but mentally it helps me. Where, like, again, that scenario where we talked about that if everybody in the world that you know died, are you okay by yourself? And I think that's just something that I mentally prepared myself because it sounds kind of dark, but not everybody's gonna be with you all the time. You're not gonna always have family around, you're not gonna always have love lovers around, partners, friends. And you have to be okay staying by yourself, entertaining yourself, being a little crazy.

ANTHONY 1:03:36

Girl, you're getting me all for clumped over here. I'm longing for the day that I have a whole day with no interruptions, nobody to bother me, nobody to call me, nobody to text me, nobody to talk to me.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:46

Well, you're blessed. I think that's a good thing. But I'm just saying that like No, I know. Yeah, just to answer that question, yeah. I don't think it I don't think boundaries make you lonelier or if it's better, I think it just I think it's just okay. Like you know, if that makes sense. Yeah. Like it doesn't make it doesn't make it either or. It's just I think when you when you think of it that, oh, like I'm lonely, that's when you put your m your like your head space into feeling lonely. But if let's just say if you're like, oh, although I'm alone, I'm not lonely.

ANTHONY 1:04:28

You're only lonely if you allow yourself to feel like exactly.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:31

Yes, that's the perfect way to say it. Yeah. Chef's kiss. All right, the my next topic is social burnout. So what drains your holiday social battery the fastest?

ANTHONY 1:04:42

Good Lord, you and the burnout. We're supposed to be uplifting people this holiday season. Damn, Gina.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:48

Mental health, baby.

ANTHONY 1:04:49

Mental health, baby.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:51

Maybe it'll be cheerier next year, but yeah, this year.

ANTHONY 1:04:54

2025.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:55

I'm I'm bringing all the bad shit right now so that 2026 is all bright and new, baby.

ANTHONY 1:05:01

Yes, ma'am. What drains my holiday social battery fastest? The go, go, go and the expectations surrounding the holidays.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:12

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:05:13

It is just life is already fast enough, and then when you put in the holidays in there, it just moves that much faster.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:21

Yep.

ANTHONY 1:05:22

And there's so much. Like I when I was younger, I loved wrapping presents. Like, I don't know, my aunt had this big thing about wrapping presents, and so I inherently loved it too.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:38

You're really good at wrapping gifts though.

ANTHONY 1:05:39

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:40

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:05:40

That's from all my years of working at Inside Scoop in the Mall.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:43

Yeah, you have a talent for that.

ANTHONY 1:05:44

Yeah. My aunt taught me. And then working in the mall, yeah. And so I love doing it. But like the last few years, I'm like You're like putting a box here. I'm getting tissue paper and a fucking gift bag. I'm so sick.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:59

You give the actual Amazon box that it comes with to the person. Here's your gift.

ANTHONY 1:06:03

Richard does that.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:05

I don't blame him.

ANTHONY 1:06:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:07

I'm like, I should just They're gonna rip it up and throw it away anyway.

ANTHONY 1:06:11

Exactly. It's like, why do I spend all that time wrapping them or like making things look so nice just for it to be ripped open and go in the garbage?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:21

Yeah, it's society.

ANTHONY 1:06:23

Yeah. I mean, you could at least like if I'm gonna give you a nicely wrapped gift, at least take five to ten minutes to like appreciate the wrapping. Damn.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:32

But I do appreciate a good, like a really nice wrapped gift, though. Okay.

ANTHONY 1:06:37

I'll remember that.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:38

Yeah. Because people don't do that anymore. It's also that thing too where like people just give you Amazon boxes. It's like both, it's two-sided right here.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:47

It's like, I will give you an Amazon box, but you need to give me a nicely wrapped gift.

ANTHONY 1:06:54

I'll give you a nicely wrapped standard. I'm gonna stick it in a fucking paper grocery bag.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:59

Put your fist in a box and be like, here you go.

ANTHONY 1:07:01

God, I wish I could just give that.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:03

Do that to everybody. Yeah. Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:07:05

That's what I should do. I should get one of those like molds and like mold my hand.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:09

I can't. We're not talking about molded hands again. No.

ANTHONY 1:07:14

And just give the middle finger to everybody for Christmas. Oh, I'm totally gonna fucking do that.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:18

Put some candy in it? No, just my middle finger. Oh. Do you can you in your head, you don't have to say it out loud, but do you have a list of five people you would give it to?

ANTHONY 1:07:28

Oh, I was literally gonna give that to everybody in my life this year. I'd be like, fuck you. So now you're getting my middle finger. What you choose to do with it.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:37

My nose is gonna be real happy this Christmas. I'm just kidding.

ANTHONY 1:07:41

Your nose.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:42

Yeah, I'm gonna put up my nose. I'm gonna dig some gold. For me, what drains my holiday social battery the fastest? It's the drive to wherever I need to go.

ANTHONY 1:07:59

See, that's weird because you love driving.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:02

I do.

ANTHONY 1:08:02

And you're always you've you volunteer to make that drive to deliver fish soup.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:09

Yeah, but it's like, I don't know, it's it's like it's I don't know. I have to be in the mood to drive. And every time it's the holidays, there's a snow, there's traffic, and everything. So that's why it's such a dread. And like it's usually at my brother's house and they live far, you know? So it's it's it's comparable of a one hour and a half drive to a two-hour drive. You know what I mean?

unknown 1:08:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:36

I mean, I guess 30 minutes doesn't hurt, but when I think about the time coming back, it's just like, damn, another fucking two hours, you know? So yeah, it's the drive for me.

ANTHONY 1:08:47

That's totally fair.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:49

What's the worst holiday work party moment?

ANTHONY 1:08:54

Like one that I've personally experienced or just in general?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:57

One that you experienced.

NALEE 1:09:00

The worst holiday work party moment. Okay, so here's the thing about work parties, and I stand firm in this conviction.

ANTHONY 1:09:17

If you're going to have a work party, first off, you need to be able to separate like work life from like personal life.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:26

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:09:27

Right?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:27

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:09:29

And so I I understanding that it's a work party, you're not on the clock, you're not an employee. In my personal opinion, and my belief, I think that there needs to be a line drawn as far as what if you have a work party and there's alcohol involved, people are most likely to get rowdy at some point.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:55

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:09:56

That cannot and should not be held against them later.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:00

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:10:00

Like on the job.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:02

Because you guys are giving them the opportunity to be rowdy and to whatever. You know what I mean?

ANTHONY 1:10:06

It's like we had that conversation about love is blind. I'm like, here, let's get these people together who've just known each other for a few weeks, give them alcohol, and cause drama.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:16

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:10:17

You can't hold that against them. Yeah. Now, I will say that there is a line, like, okay, if somebody gets drunk and like sexually harasses somebody, yeah. All right, that's it's kind of a given.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:29

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:10:30

But like if somebody gets drunk and like licks the CEO's face. Licks the CEO's face.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:39

Like they can't get held accountable for that. Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:10:42

And I mean, no, I'm not even gonna say that, because that could potentially go back to sexual harassment.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:48

Okay. But yeah, I guess I don't know. I don't I don't think we've had I personally I don't think I've gone to a holiday work party.

NALEE 1:10:58

You haven't?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:58

I don't think so, because we didn't have any at the further.

NALEE 1:11:02

We didn't?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:03

I don't think so.

NALEE 1:11:05

Oh yeah, maybe we didn't.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:06

Yeah, I don't think we had any. But I will say though, to me, like the worst holiday work moment during the holidays is you already know this. I hosted a lot of the Secret Santa stuff.

ANTHONY 1:11:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:23

At the in general, I think, at the further. It was a fucking nightmare. Like, as much as I loved it, it was a fucking nightmare. Because really? Yeah, because everybody would forget or they don't like fill it all out. And then I would have to constantly remind them, and it's just like this is supposed to be a fun thing. It's now becoming a chore. You know what I mean? And you know, everybody's an adult. I feel like you should at least be somewhat responsible and turn it in time and fill it out like fully. And I could tell you, like, eight out of ten times, I had to always nag people. And the only reasons why I know you probably remember this, the only reason why I send a reminder every week up until the actual exchange happened is because again, I haven't even received it from like A, B, and C. And I'm just like, y'all, we're all adults here, like stay on top of it. You know what I mean?

ANTHONY 1:12:18

Okay, not trying to get off the holidays or anything and or off this topic, but that's so fucking annoying when you're adults, like, figure out your fucking shit. Like, if you said that you want to do this, do it, then fucking do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:34

Yeah. So, and especially when there are times where like people back out of it like last minute. I'm just like, now I have to redo it all over again. You have to find new people for each other again. And I think one year somebody that happened.

ANTHONY 1:12:48

Yeah, I remember that did happen.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:50

And I'm just like, seriously, like I get it, it's supposed to be fun. I know I bring the fun, I get it, but still, it's hard being fun, okay? Like, you know, like it sounds really stupid, but it's just like I'm trying to be, I'm trying to make it funnier, but you're making it hard to be fun. You know what I mean?

NALEE 1:13:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:09

Even though it's a small inconvenience, it's just kind of like, come on, like we're all adults. Yeah, yeah.

ANTHONY 1:13:16

Well, because you shouldn't have to do it. There's certain things in life that I I this is a hill I will die on.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:22

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:13:23

Like as an adult, there are certain things that you just need to do.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:26

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:13:26

You're not gonna like it. You may not like you, but you have to do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:31

You're not gonna agree to it, but you're gonna have to do it. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is, like, the Secret Santa stuff is voluntary. Like you chose to do this. You chose to do this. Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:13:41

And that, like, I mean, not to get off topic again, but like that was one thing that I told all of my team members when I got my lead position.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:50

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:13:50

I told every single one of them in our in our one-on-ones. I said, you applied for this job. Yeah. You read the job description.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:58

Dang, you were strict to you believe. I'm not being strict. That's what it is.

ANTHONY 1:14:02

It's literally what it is. You read the job description, you applied for the job, you interviewed for the job, you accepted the job.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:09

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:14:09

You know what the tasks are. I'm not gonna micromanage you, but I'm still gonna expect you to get your job done. And when you're not doing it, then if I have to get involved, I'm gonna be frustrated.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:19

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:14:20

Like if you don't want to be, like, I'm okay, I'm not gonna say his name, but we had that one coworker at the further that didn't want to be there. All right, dude, you don't want to be here, leave.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:32

Oh, that's right. And he was really bitter about it.

ANTHONY 1:14:34

He was really bitter about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:35

Yeah, that's right. That's right. And he like hated that place.

ANTHONY 1:14:37

I get it, because I hated the place too. But like, you're a fucking adult. Yeah, there's not a gun to your head. If you don't want to be here, there's the fucking door.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:50

Yeah, I didn't know that that was that was happening.

ANTHONY 1:14:52

Oh yeah, he would bitch about it all the time.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:55

But yeah, I mean, oh, and on top of that, I think the thing that sometimes sucks about like me being like the Secret Santa person is people just expected it from me. You know what I mean?

ANTHONY 1:15:11

Why do you look at me when you say that?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:13

No, no.

ANTHONY 1:15:14

Because I always made you do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:16

I know, but I'm just saying that like sometimes people just expected it. I'm just like, I'm not doing it this year.

ANTHONY 1:15:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:21

And then everything all goes to shit. You know what I mean? And it's just like, I'm sorry, I'm just not feeling it this year.

ANTHONY 1:15:27

I don't like when people expect things.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:29

Yeah. I don't think I did body test. The way you said it was like, it's the way you said it, I don't know why, but it's so funny. Okay. Do you have any other topics you want to talk about before we move on?

ANTHONY 1:15:44

The last thing that I had for this segment, this is a very long segment to our listeners, so I apologize.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:49

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:15:49

Okay. So the one the one thing that I wanted to talk about, or the last thing that I wanted to talk about for this segment was coping mechanisms. Okay. During the holidays, what is your go-to stress snack, drink, whatever?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:05

Obviously, hot cocoa, like hot chocolate. I love hot chocolate, especially.

ANTHONY 1:16:11

I love how you say obviously, and I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:14

Oh, yeah. I love hot chocolate.

ANTHONY 1:16:16

Well, I know you like hot chocolate, but I didn't know that was like Oh, wait, it wasn't you.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:20

It was Kiki.

ANTHONY 1:16:21

She got me like this gift of I look a lot like Kiki for our listeners.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:24

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:16:26

I look nothing like Kiki.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:27

I was gonna say something, but I'm not gonna say it because I think you'll call me a bitch.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:31

Do you want me to say it?

ANTHONY 1:16:33

Kind of, but it doesn't mean it's gonna make it in the pod.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:36

She has long hair. So you don't look like her.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:44

Ooh. Anthony's like, you can go home now. I don't need you.

ANTHONY 1:16:48

Why are you still here?

Kids Today, Clout Culture, And Traditions

SPEAKER_05 1:16:51

But you're right, you guys do look alike in the dark. Um, yeah, I like hot cocoa, but she got me like this variety pack of hot cocoa for Christmas, I think like a year or two ago. Yeah, I like hot cocoa. When it comes to snacks or like treats, I love peppermint bark. Like any kind of peppermint bark candy or those Hershey kisses that are peppermint. Bitch, I could eat that whole bag in like a day.

ANTHONY 1:17:24

I love those Ghiradelli peppermint.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:26

Oh, yeah.

ANTHONY 1:17:27

Remember when you got those for me at our at our holiday Christmas party?

SPEAKER_04 1:17:30

Yeah, it wasn't holiday Christmas party.

ANTHONY 1:17:32

It was our department, it wasn't our company, but yeah, and fucking taped all of them. She, this bitch individually.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:39

Why are you even surprised? Yeah. I'm such a fucking troll.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:44

I feel so bad.

ANTHONY 1:17:45

Every single one of those and then taped them all together. Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:48

It was so hard to unwrap. Anthony was so fucking pissed. He's like, I ain't even I'm not gonna even open this right now.

ANTHONY 1:17:52

And I was only pissed because I really wanted those because they're my favorite in the holiday season.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:57

It was a really heavy gift though. Because remember, it was your juice box.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:02

It was my juice box, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:04

Yeah. Good times. Yeah, I got I know. I definitely got a little too you remember. What?

ANTHONY 1:18:12

Oh, you didn't really do something. I was like, oh, this bitch is thinking she's gonna do it again this year.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:17

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. You remember the Pikachu incident? It was during the holiday.

ANTHONY 1:18:22

That was Halloween.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:23

Was it? Yeah, when we were at Oh yeah, why would they why would they dress up as Pikachu for Christmas?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:30

Was it for Halloween?

ANTHONY 1:18:32

I thought it was for Christmas. Nope, it was just a random Sunday.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:36

No, I swear I thought it was Christmas. I'm pretty sure it was Halloween. No, because we went to the dinner party and then we went to the hollow. What did the Christmas party? We went to We went to the Christmas dinner party. I remember that because I wore that blue sweater outfit. It was Christmas. It was that Christmas dinner, the exchange. It was.

ANTHONY 1:18:59

You're you're right. It was because we went to Milwaukee Burger.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:02

Yes.

ANTHONY 1:19:02

That's right, because then we went home.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:05

Yeah, and then you you dared, we bet, I think we bet money and we dared Angie to go touch the guy that was wearing a Pikachu outfit.

ANTHONY 1:19:12

Yeah, we asked him to go. We we dared her to go. We paid her, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:17

We said Pikachu, I choose yours almost.

ANTHONY 1:19:19

No, we dared her to go up to Yank's tail and say, Pikachu, I choose you.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:24

I have I think I still have the video. Stop.

ANTHONY 1:19:28

Do you really?

SPEAKER_05 1:19:29

I think so, yeah.

ANTHONY 1:19:29

You should randomly send that to Angie.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:32

I don't remember if I have a number anymore.

ANTHONY 1:19:35

Send it to me, I'll send it to her.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:36

Yeah. Okay. What about you? What's your favorite to go-to stress snack drink in December?

ANTHONY 1:19:43

Again, anything with an alcohol content during the holidays? Check. Check. My favorite go-to snack. Bitch, this we're going back to our Halloween episode right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:54

Okay, okay, okay. Candy corn?

ANTHONY 1:19:56

No. I bought candy the other day at High V- Because I specifically like the Reese's peanut butter cut or the Reese's peanut butter holiday, the ones that come like shaped like an egg, the lantern, the Christmas tree. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:16

So I ones with the the guy hocked a loogie on?

ANTHONY 1:20:19

Probably. Yep. Yep. And so I bought a bag of those the other day. They had white chocolate and milk chocolate, like half and half. So I bought a bag.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:28

$13 fucking dollars. How many was in there though? Was it like a big pack or was it tiny? It was just your typical, like. Why is it so expensive? I don't know.

ANTHONY 1:20:37

What the f that's my grocery prices aren't going down. I'm just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:42

Yeah. Um, egg prices, yeah. I'm just gonna leave it at that.

ANTHONY 1:20:48

Gas prices.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:50

Everything.

ANTHONY 1:20:52

Everything.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:52

Everything, everything.

ANTHONY 1:20:54

So those are my go-to stress things during the holiday. And if I'm truth telling.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:00

As we always do.

ANTHONY 1:21:01

As we always do, the alcohol isn't just only a go-to stress beverage. It's just a go-to beverage.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:08

Oh, okay. Did you have a good day at work?

ANTHONY 1:21:12

Pours a glass of wine. Do you have a shitty day at work? You are now a glass of wine.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:17

You are now having a good day.

ANTHONY 1:21:18

I didn't. Now I'm having a good day.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

Yeah. We could still turn this around with a cup of wine.

ANTHONY 1:21:24

With a cup of wine. Times four.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:26

Exactly. Might as well just throw the whole bottle in there. That should be on a t-shirt.

ANTHONY 1:21:32

Best Christmas gift I got. Okay. From our white tortuga gift, and I still have it. I don't use it anymore because I had a very bad experience with it. Okay. Somebody bought me, it looks like a wine glass, but then where the stem would be, it actually turns into a full bottle and it holds a whole bottle of wine.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:49

Oh.

ANTHONY 1:21:50

It's very uncomfortable to hold.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:53

That seems kind of heavy.

ANTHONY 1:21:55

It I mean, it is. I mean, I essentially I should have just drank from the wine bottle itself.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:01

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:22:02

Just for gripping purposes. But you're used to that already. That was a bad Christmas.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:07

You're used to gripping heavy stuff already, though.

ANTHONY 1:22:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:12

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:22:13

So.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:14

Yeah. So basically the holidays are just hunger games and festive sweaters.

ANTHONY 1:22:20

Exactly. And if survival mode is step one, nostalgia goggles are definitely step two.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:27

Let's flip the VHS tape and talk nostalgia, because nothing hits like remembering holidays that were both iconic and kind of a lie.

ANTHONY 1:22:37

Yep. Turns out holiday magic was usually just adults barely holding it together. Which is 100% true now that I'm an adult and I realize it and I look back and I'm like a thousand percent. I don't know how my grandma did it.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:55

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:22:56

How my aunt, how my uncle did it. There's so much pressure to get all those gifts and like hide them and make it magical for the kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:02

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:23:03

Which leads me to the first thing that I wanted to discuss: childhood holiday magic versus reality. When those holidays, when that holiday time rolled around when you were a kid, what about it just felt magical for you?

SPEAKER_05 1:23:19

I think from if I'm being honest, and when I really reflect back, I think it's when those moments where both my mom and my dad was just together with us. Like literally together and we're just kind of chilling. Yeah. I think that's probably what's best because like my dad, I think at that time when I was little, my mom and my dad, they both worked outside of the house. So we wouldn't really see them much. And when we do see them, it's like, remember, I told you I would wait till like two, three o'clock in the morning till my dad comes home. And at that point, my mom is already asleep, so she'd save his dinner and then he'd eat and then go to sleep. And then she'd wake up, go to work, and then they worked opposite shifts.

ANTHONY 1:24:02

Sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:03

Yeah, and we had a we had a big family. So then I would always see my siblings, but during the holiday, it's when like we both we all get to see both my mom and my dad, you know. So I think that's what made it special for me. And my dad, like, he's very he's a very silly guy. And I think he made Christmas a big deal. Like, even if we didn't get multiple presents, we got one really good present. And I think maybe that's where my gift giving skills came from, where you know, he really thought about what he got us. And yeah, he just I think it's just having both my mom and my dad actually being there and being present instead of just kind of coordinating and doing all that stuff. Cause you know, like during the holidays, the men they're just chilling and then the moms are always cooking, but at that time we're all just kind of chilling together, and we didn't really celebrate Christmas with other families. It was just us.

ANTHONY 1:24:58

Which is the way it should be. Yeah. Honestly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:02

So yeah. What about you?

ANTHONY 1:25:05

Like thinking back to like my childhood and like the holidays, what always felt magical to me was I don't know if they had this where you lived, but like, mind you, a little bit older than you, so I probably remember a little bit more of the 90s than you do.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:24

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:25:26

But like I remember driving to didn't even matter what time of day. Obviously, night was always better, but like driving to the local grocery store or something in like Main Street, they always, where I lived, they always like would tie like or attach, I should say, like banners across the main street that would say things like happy holidays.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:47

Yeah, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.

ANTHONY 1:25:49

And then they had these big like tinsel-looking lights that they would attach to the top of like the the light poles down Main Street. So it might be, it might have been like a a wreath or a candle or an or reindeer, and just like every single light post had one.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:07

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:26:07

And so it just looked like something out of like, you know, like a Hallmark movie.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:11

Yeah, yeah.

ANTHONY 1:26:12

So that really felt magical for me. And then obviously Christmas morning when you would wake up and like the Christmas, the presence would be under the tree. But then, like you said, the biggest thing for me looking back was like and again in the 90s, we didn't have cell phones, we didn't have internet like we do today. So we were a lot more connected. But like I love that, like that moment when the dust is settling on Christmas or Christmas Eve, kids were falling asleep with their toys, or and we were just together, just watching TV, talking, no cell phones. It was great.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:58

So were you guys the family that like slept through Christmas? Like Christmas Eve, you guys would sleep and then wake up and then open presents, or were you guys the people who stayed up until 12 till Christmas, quote unquote, open presents and then go to sleep?

ANTHONY 1:27:12

We okay, so we did it differently. So I lived with my grandma and she raised me, and then there was my aunt and uncle. So normally what we did is one of us would host Christmas Eve dinner, and we would open all of the presents from each other.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:31

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:27:32

And then on Christmas Day, we would go to the other's house and we would open presents from Santa.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:40

Oh damn, y'all got like double presents.

Holiday Movies, School Memories, And Joy

ANTHONY 1:27:44

Girl, I could I should find there's a picture of me. I got like a gun when I was a kid, and like you all the presents behind it, you could see.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:54

You're all like. This is super off topic.

ANTHONY 1:27:59

Oh my god. Here we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:00

Every time I look at you, I just see Murray from Stranger Things.

ANTHONY 1:28:05

Murray?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:06

Yeah, I don't know why.

ANTHONY 1:28:08

Who the fuck's Murray?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:09

He's the guy who I hope he's a guy.

ANTHONY 1:28:13

Thanks, Captain Hobbs.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:15

You don't know Murray. He's the guy that like tucks to talks to the Russian guy and Alexia and Murray, and like he's the one who Okay, in all fairness. Have you watched Stranger Things?

ANTHONY 1:28:28

Like the newest season?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:30

No, just Stranger Things in General.

ANTHONY 1:28:31

Yeah. But you also have to remember, I haven't been watching it in the the last season ended like three fucking years ago.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:38

Oh, well, Murray's my favorite one of my favorite characters. He's a guy that wears glasses that looks exactly like you with curly hair. Excluding Epha.

ANTHONY 1:28:45

I ain't got no fucking curly hair, you bitch.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:47

Sorry, sorry. Except for that.

ANTHONY 1:28:50

Is he in this new season of Stranger Things? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:52

He's been in season. I haven't tried it yet, but I've been. Well, he's been in season like two, I think. Or season three. Like when they were at the mall, and then he was well, anyways, you look like Murray in this in this light. You just look like him. But, anyways, sorry, off topic. I just want to add one more thing. You bitch! Stranger things?

unknown 1:29:13

See?

ANTHONY 1:29:14

I just Googled Murray. The fucker is bald.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:17

Oh, is he?

unknown 1:29:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:19

I like Murray. Well, he has hair in the eyes.

ANTHONY 1:29:22

I look like Murray.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:23

Yeah. I love Murray.

ANTHONY 1:29:27

You fucking bitch. Side by side on social media. You fucking bitch.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:32

You don't look like him. I meant that you remind me of the biggest.

ANTHONY 1:29:36

Listeners, did she not just say that I'm like, remind me of him?

SPEAKER_05 1:29:39

His attitude is the same as yours. He's very sarcastic and he's very like.

ANTHONY 1:29:43

Wasn't he eclectic to like, wasn't he like eccentric?

SPEAKER_05 1:29:47

No. He's just very like sarcastic. Like, it's not really a spoiler, but one of his favorite lines in this news season that I love the most, and he says, I'm giving away free hugs. And like when he said that, I was like, that's fucking Anthony right there.

ANTHONY 1:30:04

How is that me? The last thing on this planet that I would want to do is give away free hug money.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:08

Because he was being sarcastic. Like he was giving, he was like spoiler alert. It's not really a spoiler alert, but the scene that he was in that he said that.

ANTHONY 1:30:16

It is because I haven't watched the season.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:18

Okay. Well, anyways, when he says that line, you will know what I'm talking about. He was being sarcastic. And his energy and attitude is like exactly like yours. So, okay, let me rephrase it. You don't look like him, you just remind me of him there.

ANTHONY 1:30:32

Oh my.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:33

So I'm sorry you blew up, but that's all I wanted to say.

ANTHONY 1:30:39

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:40

But on topic, I did want to say that another thing that made me feel that made like the holidays feel special to me was I don't know if you guys did this, but you know, like there's certain areas, like the rich neighborhoods, again, they always go all out on Christmas lights. Yeah. My dad would actually take us around the neighborhood and we would just spend like an hour or two just kind of driving by and looking at all the houses. Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:31:04

I will still do that occasionally. I won't do it for that long.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:07

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:31:07

But I really would, I really should get back into just like the neighborhood and looking at all the lights. I remember there used to be a guy that lived in Altoona here.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:19

He still does that. If you're if I know if the one you're talking about, he goes out. Yeah, he goes all out on Halloween and all out on Christmas. Like his whole house is like filled with everything.

ANTHONY 1:31:29

No, this was a different guy. This guy was closer to your sister-in-law's house.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:32

Yeah. He lives like so the street.

ANTHONY 1:31:36

You're talking about the place by the further.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:38

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:31:38

No, there no, this was across from the tennis courts.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:41

Oh, is it?

ANTHONY 1:31:42

He doesn't he doesn't live there anymore. He doesn't do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:44

Oh, okay.

ANTHONY 1:31:44

But he used to do a big showdown like that guy. I know who you're thinking about.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:49

Yeah. What does he do? Like, he's always remodeling his house.

ANTHONY 1:31:53

I think he owns his own, like, something to do with construction. His own company.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:58

Yeah, like he's always remodeling his house. It's getting bigger and bigger, and his like stuff is getting more and more. And I'm just like, what do you do?

ANTHONY 1:32:05

It's too much.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:06

It is too much.

ANTHONY 1:32:07

Like he literally has to have at least seven grand.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:15

His house is probably filled with all the fucking decorations.

ANTHONY 1:32:17

Seven to ten grand is alone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:20

Where do you put all that?

ANTHONY 1:32:22

That's probably why he built that huge ass fucking garage.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:24

Probably.

ANTHONY 1:32:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:25

Yeah. But yeah, it's the Christmas lights for sure.

NALEE 1:32:29

Yeah, I love the Christmas lights.

ANTHONY 1:32:37

Do you think that kids today get the same magic that we got?

SPEAKER_05 1:32:40

Hell no.

unknown 1:32:41

I don't.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:42

Hell no. Kids these days, they're so entitled.

ANTHONY 1:32:46

Like thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:48

Yeah, like they're so entitled. It's like you don't get a tablet. Whang. Bitch, I was lucky if I got a fucking shovel for Christmas. And that's me exaggerating, but still.

ANTHONY 1:32:58

No, it's the truth.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:00

The cost of toys, the cost of yeah, it's crazy.

ANTHONY 1:33:05

We I used to do those angel tags.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:09

And yeah.

ANTHONY 1:33:10

So for our listeners, I don't know if you guys, if anybody, if everybody has angel tags, if they're familiar, but it's basically a program where you f yeah. You you have the opportunity to get gifts for those less fortunate, those families that can't afford to get gifts for their for their kids, or and the kids get to fill out a little sheet with their age, their gender, and like what they want for Christmas. Respectfully, bitch. I made it a I loved the concept and I loved the idea of doing it and getting these kids gifts and like really making their Christmas. Yeah. It's very unfortunate that we didn't have the opportunity to like see them receiving the gifts. Yeah. But like some of these kids were like, I want a tablet or like things that were like But you went all out though.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:09

I feel like you got them some really good gifts.

ANTHONY 1:34:11

I did get good gifts, but I made it a point that I would only pick a kid. I would get a boy and a girl, and I would only pick a kid that had at least one educational gift on their list. That was my stipulation.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:24

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:34:25

So if you're asking for Barbie dolls and what's that new Labooo?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:32

Laboooo, by Fucking La Boo-Boos.

ANTHONY 1:34:35

La Fufu. No, sorry. But yeah, that was my stipulation was how to have a lot of. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:42

I definitely love that idea too. But like we went from, you know, I remember like in a high school, we have this thing where we could do that too, where we could gift like kids who are less fortunate, like gifts. Like I think it was like junior and senior year. Cause I think at that time, like I was working already. So I was like, oh yeah, I'll do it. And I remember kids having like a deck of cards or a Barbie. But now it's like I want a tablet, I want Roblox, I want like Lego. Legos. Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:35:13

Those fucking Lego sets are so fucking expensive.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:16

Yeah. It's like 40 bucks for a legit one, you know? And kids don't want the knock, you know, the knockoffs because, you know, Legos in the in itself in the Lego world, there's the the cheaper brand and then there's the regular brand. And those don't fit together either.

ANTHONY 1:35:33

You know, there are cheap Legos.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:34

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:35:35

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:35

It's a different brand. But like, yeah, it's it's just crazy. Like, when it comes to like childhood traditions, I don't think that kids these days experience anything like what we did. Because on top of that, too, I don't know if you guys ever did, but sledding was always a traditional tradition tradition for us. Building an ice, I'm gonna say an ice glue, an igloo.

ANTHONY 1:36:01

I've never built an igloo. I've started to and I never finished it. Really? I've always wanted to, but then I'm also have that fear of like building an igloo going in it and collapsing.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:12

Oh well, if you build a good one, it wouldn't collapse. But yeah, or like even just going outside and playing in the snow or like doing snow angels. Like people don't do that anymore. And they're just stuck inside playing again, Roblox or Fortnite, you know? Like Don't you play Fortnite? I do. Guilty! But you know, like it's things like that where like I don't think kids these days will ever like understand the magic of Christmas or the magic of the holidays.

ANTHONY 1:36:44

The holidays definitely and here's an interesting question that I want to pose to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:50

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:36:50

So I'm speaking for me personally.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:55

You personally?

NALEE 1:36:56

I'm just kidding. Yeah, you personally I forgot what I was gonna say now. I'm sorry, that was my fault.

ANTHONY 1:37:08

No, it's okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:09

Okay, sorry.

ANTHONY 1:37:11

Do we think that the holidays have lost their magic because we've become adults? Or do we think that the holidays have lost their magic because of that thing in your hand right now? And my cell phone right now. Yeah. I I mean you have to admit, there's like with all social media and these tablets and our phones and computers right in our hand, yeah, like we're always connected that we're never not.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:42

Yeah, I think to be honest, I think we have lost it. I'm only saying that because a lot of the things that are the most intimate and the most special times of the holidays are unseen. And everybody's recording everything. Everybody's putting a camera at the corner and recording stuff, and it's not genuine, it's like played out, you know what I mean? And a lot of like the intimate stuff, you don't see that. And it's not genuine if you record it, you know what I mean?

ANTHONY 1:38:13

So you agree, you think.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:14

I I do agree that we've lost it. Yes, because of society, I would say tablets, internet. Yeah, because for example, like right now, like people care about oh, look at the biggest, prettiest tree I got. Look how minimalistic my presents are, look how expensive my gifts are. And everybody's so superficial. That's what it is.

ANTHONY 1:38:35

You know what we're doing right now?

SPEAKER_05 1:38:37

Showing off.

ANTHONY 1:38:38

No.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:38

What are we doing?

ANTHONY 1:38:39

We're s we're circling back to that episode where it's all for clout.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:46

It is, yeah.

ANTHONY 1:38:47

And again, this just perfectly relates back. Perfectly relates back to my complaint about like photo shoots.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:56

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:38:57

Nothing's intimate. You don't you don't get a photo shoot to hang a nice family portrait in your living room anymore. You get it to post on social media so people can like and fawn over you.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:07

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It's for the clout now. Yeah, it really is. For the clout. Unfortunately.

ANTHONY 1:39:16

Yeah, kids today will never know that matter.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:18

They will never know.

ANTHONY 1:39:19

I'd love to be able to bring that back, though. That would be great.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:23

You can become a Mormon or an Amish, live in the countryside.

ANTHONY 1:39:28

That's gonna be a hard pass for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:30

Why?

ANTHONY 1:39:30

So I don't do. I mean, I won't go camping. You think I'm gonna become Amish where they shower once or they bathe once a week? I can't. And they share the bath water with the entire family.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:44

I can't.

ANTHONY 1:39:45

There's no electricity.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:47

But you know what? There are those Amish who aren't actually Amish where they still use cars and they still use electronics.

ANTHONY 1:39:54

They're not Amish then.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:55

They are. They still dress like Amish people.

ANTHONY 1:39:58

Are you thinking of the Mennonite?

SPEAKER_05 1:40:00

I don't think they're Mennonites. Remember the Amish family that lives by the further in that cul de sac? They're Amish, but they still drive a car and they have cell phones.

ANTHONY 1:40:09

Those were Mennonites, sweetie.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:11

Are they?

ANTHONY 1:40:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:12

Aren't they the same as Amish?

ANTHONY 1:40:14

No.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:15

What's the difference? Give us a little lesson.

ANTHONY 1:40:18

I don't I would have to look into it. I don't know the full difference between Amish and Mennonite. Mennonite, but I do know that that family was Mennonite.

NALEE 1:40:26

Interesting. Yes.

ANTHONY 1:40:32

You're gonna Google that while you're Googling that. My last question that I wanted to ask you.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:37

I spelled Amish as Amish.

ANTHONY 1:40:39

Amish? My last question that I wanted to ask you, do you still cling to any childhood traditions?

SPEAKER_05 1:40:50

Why don't you give me an example of yours and I'll think about mine?

ANTHONY 1:40:55

Well, I I don't I guess I wouldn't really know if I wouldn't consider this a childhood tradition, but it is a tradition that I have had since childhood.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:05

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:41:05

If that makes sense. But I always keep my tree up like way longer than it should be up. I'm very specific about what ornaments go on my Christmas tree.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:20

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:41:21

I have all the ornaments that my aunt made.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:23

Like I love that.

ANTHONY 1:41:25

They're ornament a lot of them are homemade ornaments and a lot of them are like old from like before I was even born. So I just like looking at them and like thinking about the memories and where they came from. And I have certain ornaments that I have to put on the tree in certain locations.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:47

Okay. Or like hello, OCD to me, but okay.

ANTHONY 1:41:51

You think it's OCD?

SPEAKER_05 1:41:53

A little bit, but I don't think like I have any family traditions. I think the only thing that I try to keep up with is I try my best to make the my Christmas tree look like our old one that I used to have like when I was in childhood. And I like I know my mom and my dad again.

ANTHONY 1:42:11

I think that's what I was kind of like getting at. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Your mom and your dad.

Resetting: What We’re Leaving Behind

SPEAKER_05 1:42:17

Like my mom and my dad, when I think about it, I don't remember us putting up a Christmas tree. Tree. I remember there was already a tree. Like I think my mom and my dad did it when we were asleep, and then by the time we woke up, there was already a Christmas tree there. But yeah, like if you know what I'm talking about, like in the 90s, they had specific, like kind of like the star, like there were specific kind of designs on it. Like the one that we had, it had little like fringes in the light, and it was like different colored lights, and it was like a big star. I don't know if the best way that I could describe it is that where there's it's like red, green, blue, yellow, and then it's kind of spread out, but inside the light, there's like these little like I don't know how to describe it. It's like those little tinsels that are sticking outside around the light. Yeah, and like that specific light, like whenever I see something like that, it will bring me back to my childhood Christmas tree.

ANTHONY 1:43:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:17

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:43:17

Same. Yeah. I still use I have, I probably have like three treetoppers. And my go-to is to always go to the one from when I was a kid, which I think my grandma had. It's probab it's gotta be from the 80s, 70s, maybe.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:35

And it still works?

ANTHONY 1:43:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:36

Wow, that's crazy.

ANTHONY 1:43:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:38

Yeah. I don't know. I think like Christmas time, this is probably off topic. But like there's this like specific year that I remember. It was the year my oldest brother first got his car. But what made it special was this old house, it was like kind of creepy and had like an attic upstairs. And all of a sudden, like my mom and my dad was like, oh, something's happening, and we all need to go up to the attic. And the fuck? Yeah, yeah. It was trust me, we were like freaking out. We were freaking out. And so then it was like before I don't remember how long ago, but I think it was during like Christmas break. You know how like during Christmas we have those two weeks or whatever. And so then I think they couldn't find time to put the presents under the tree. So their trick was to let us know that there was something we had to go up to the attic and hide because something was happening. And what they did was they locked us up at the attic and then they went into their car and they brought all the presents in. But what they didn't realize was we had a big window in the attic.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:46

And the whole time bringing me the whole time, the whole time we were locked up there.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:53

We were we were scared at first because we were like, what the heck? Like, why are you guys locking us up here? Because again, the house is kind of creepy and the attic was super creepy. But then we had like this one light, it's really dim. But then it's a fucking attic. Yeah. And so then we're like, what the heck? And then my brother, he ran to the window. He's like, What are they doing? And then you just see my mom and my dad like rushing, bringing out all the presents and stuff, and we're just like, oh, so that's where all the presents came from. That's funny. Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:45:22

And then funny and yet fucked up.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:24

Yeah, yeah, it is. And so then when they brought all the presents in, they didn't know that we all saw. And so then they opened the door and they're like, okay, we're ready now. And then we went downstairs and we saw the presents and we were kind of laughing because we're like, ha, we saw you. Like, you guys brought it. And then that's when kind of for me, it shattered, and this is gonna shatter a lot of glasses, but that's when I believed that I knew that Santa wasn't real. That it was my mom and my dad.

ANTHONY 1:45:50

And yeah, and you're gonna get us canceled.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:53

It's okay. Somebody's probably listening to the show. We tell the truth here. We tell the truth here, okay?

ANTHONY 1:45:57

We tell the truth here.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:59

Yeah. And so then when that happened, my dad was like, my brother was like, my oldest brother was like, Oh, where's my present, if I remember correctly? And my dad was like, follow me outside, I'll give you your gift. And he gifted my brother a, I think it was like a red tundra.

ANTHONY 1:46:15

Very nice.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:16

Yes. So that was like his very first car, but I think he got into an accident like, I don't know, two, three weeks later.

ANTHONY 1:46:22

How old was he at the time? 16?

SPEAKER_05 1:46:23

No, he was I think he was like 17, 18.

ANTHONY 1:46:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:27

Yeah. It kind of sucked. They just bought and he like totaled the car, I think.

ANTHONY 1:46:31

Duffy. But no.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:33

But yeah, and so then uh yeah. So that was like probably one of my most memorable like childhood Christmas moments.

ANTHONY 1:46:42

I have a very similar story about when I found out Santa was well, not similar, but Let's hear it. My story of not finding out Santa was real.

SPEAKER_05 1:46:50

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:46:51

Or wasn't real. So we did our presents on Christmas Eve.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:55

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:46:57

And we stayed up, and I remember my brother being like, It's after midnight. Santa knows when you're awake and when you're sleeping, he's not gonna come, you're not gonna get any presents. And I was like, I'm gonna get presents.

NALEE 1:47:15

I always get presents on Christmas Day when I wake up. Yeah. Went to bed, woke up. No fucking presents. Damn.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:24

So I was like, y'all, this is fucked up.

ANTHONY 1:47:27

He ain't real.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:28

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:47:29

And how sad is that? My mind didn't even go to the fact that he Santa didn't come because I was awake after midnight. But my brain went to he didn't get me anything. He ain't real.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:43

Now that I think you're like, you're dead to me. Now that I think more like what I'm saying.

ANTHONY 1:47:48

I'm wondering if they like put out all the presents and they weren't supposed to, and so we opened all the presents so there's none left. Maybe to say it was from Santa the next day.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:58

Yeah. That's pretty funny though.

ANTHONY 1:48:01

Yeah, I should ask him if he remembers that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:05

Ugh. To be a child again.

ANTHONY 1:48:07

I know. Agreed.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:08

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:48:10

The other thing that I wanted to talk about was the gif the whole gift obsession.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:15

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:48:16

Like when you were a kid, was there ever one gift that you just like begged for or that you really, really wanted and you never got?

SPEAKER_05 1:48:24

I don't think so.

ANTHONY 1:48:25

Really?

SPEAKER_05 1:48:26

Yeah. I think like for us, like when we're kids, I don't think we had like the whole wish list thing. Like we kind of just accepted what we got.

ANTHONY 1:48:34

Seriously?

SPEAKER_05 1:48:35

Yeah.

unknown 1:48:36

Holy fuck.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:12

But the thing is, my mom, she worked at like a toy factory. So regardless of what we got, it was pretty cool. Yeah. Like for me, like growing up, I was a tomboy. And like my mom would always give me and my law, like, I don't know if you remember, but those porcelain dolls where like if you lay them down, their eyes closes, and then if like they sit up, they open. But they were really pretty. They were really pretty. They weren't like ugly or anything. But like my mom, you know, obviously because we're like little girls, I think she always got us those like kind of toys. And for me, like I was more into like coloring books and stuff like that, but I always got that. But I never complained. So I don't know. I don't, there's not really like a favorite Christmas gift, I guess.

ANTHONY 1:49:58

But was there well, you never made lists, so yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:01

So we didn't really make a list.

ANTHONY 1:50:04

I always wanted and I never got one.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:07

What?

ANTHONY 1:50:07

One of those, like you know, they have like the trucks or the cars or like the hummers that you like as a kid you could sit in and oh yeah, yeah, yes. I always wanted one of those and I never got one.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:20

Wow. I didn't even know that those existed until like my younger brother was born.

ANTHONY 1:50:24

Really?

SPEAKER_05 1:50:25

Yeah.

unknown 1:50:26

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:27

Because my dad bought it. My parents bought him like a hummer. It was a green, oh, it was a blue and yellow hummer. Yeah. I didn't even know that. But I used to sit in it anyways, because at that time I I fit in it, so I would I would write it instead.

ANTHONY 1:50:41

By the time I came even relatively close enough to one, I did not fit in it. So I had no option.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:50

Yeah. But I was used to get bitched up by my mom. She's like, You're too big for that, but I'm like, so? And I was I would always secretly used to hide it. Or I used to write it. Yeah.

NALEE 1:51:02

Behind your back?

SPEAKER_05 1:51:03

No, yeah, behind his back. He never wrote it because he was a baby. He don't know how to fucking write it.

ANTHONY 1:51:08

How old was he?

SPEAKER_05 1:51:09

He was like, I don't know, two. The only thing he knew how to do was just to do this. He didn't even know how to step and break and you know.

ANTHONY 1:51:16

Motherfucker can't even reach the pedal. He shouldn't have a car.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:19

Yeah, exactly. I'll utilize it for them. But yeah.

ANTHONY 1:51:23

Okay, my final question for you.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:25

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:51:26

Are kids more spoiled now or are they just differently spoiled?

SPEAKER_05 1:51:33

That's a good question. Honestly, I can't say because I don't have any kids, but what I could speak on is that again, we talked about it. The price of kids' toys is insane. It's crazy. Compared to how it what it used to be.

ANTHONY 1:51:54

So it is insane.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:56

What about you?

ANTHONY 1:51:57

I definitely think that kids are more spoiled now.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:00

I think so.

ANTHONY 1:52:00

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:01

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:52:02

I think that there are those certain parents out there that try to refrain from spoiling their kids, which is really good. And I admire those types of parents. But I think a lot of parents spoil them.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:16

Yeah, I guess. Like it's that cloud thing too, though. It's like, oh, my friend has a tablet. Why don't I get one?

Resolutions, Moving In Silence, And Evolving Traditions

ANTHONY 1:52:23

Because you're eight. You don't need a fucking tablet. Go outside and play. Go ride your bike. Kids don't even know.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:30

Kids don't even seizure attack. I'll take I'll teach it.

ANTHONY 1:52:34

Go practice your seizures.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:36

Exactly. Seizure attacks 101.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:41

The interrupter Nali. Yes. Yeah, I don't even think kids know how to play regular anymore. No. Which is kind of sad. Okay. But I do have like a mix of questions. It's holiday specials, pop culture, and school holiday memories. So it's going to be a mix of those questions, okay? What is a must what is a must watch holiday movie for you?

ANTHONY 1:53:09

Christmas story. You already know.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:11

What is Christmas story?

ANTHONY 1:53:12

We har we already talked about this with the pink bunny.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:15

Oh yeah.

ANTHONY 1:53:16

I'm going to make you watch that. This before Christmas this year, we are going to watch that movie together.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:21

Okay, sounds good.

ANTHONY 1:53:22

You're probably not going to like it. I don't think that it's going to be your type of movie, but Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:26

You why don't I watch it on my own and then I'll let you know.

ANTHONY 1:53:29

Because I know that you won't watch it.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:31

Damn it. You're actually right.

ANTHONY 1:53:33

I know I'm fucking right. It's just such a nostalgic movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:38

Okay. We could we could do it one of these days.

ANTHONY 1:53:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:41

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:53:41

What about you?

SPEAKER_05 1:53:42

Mine is Jingle All the Way.

ANTHONY 1:53:44

Such an underrated fucking movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:46

Love that movie.

ANTHONY 1:53:47

Turbo Man.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:48

Yeah, I love that movie. I think that movie, like, I don't know. It has like a special. It will always have a special place in my heart.

ANTHONY 1:54:00

Yeah. Yeah. Same. Definitely, like I said, it is a very underrated holiday movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:05

Yeah, if you don't know what Jingle All the Way is, it's the movie it's the only Christmas movie that Arnold Schwarzenegger was in. And yeah. And he was he was like a salesman, I think, and he was trying to find No.

ANTHONY 1:54:18

I think he worked finance, didn't it?

SPEAKER_05 1:54:20

Was he?

ANTHONY 1:54:21

I don't know. Whatever. Sorry, go ahead. Maybe. I don't know. He was a businessman.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:25

Yeah, he was a salesman. And he was like trying to find like the must-have toy, which was Turbo Man, on Christmas Eve for his son. And then turns out he was Turbo Man on the parade. And it's like it's such a good movie.

ANTHONY 1:54:39

Okay, you kind of set that up poorly though. It didn't, it wasn't that he turned out to be Turbo Man.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:44

Oh, well, okay. Yeah, he okay. I set it up poorly. Yes, you're right.

ANTHONY 1:54:48

But And he was supposed to get the Turbo Man for his son weeks before when it was first released, and he didn't. He didn't, and so he had to find it.

SPEAKER_04 1:54:57

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:54:58

And then it was like it's basically a rat race for him to try and find a turbo man for his son for Christmas.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:03

Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:55:03

And he the lengths that he went through went to to try and get it.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:07

It's such a good movie. If y'all haven't seen it, Jingle All the Way. Such a good movie.

ANTHONY 1:55:11

Second movie, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:14

I don't even know what that is.

ANTHONY 1:55:16

Are you fucking kidding me?

SPEAKER_05 1:55:17

No.

ANTHONY 1:55:18

Movie night.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:19

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:55:19

That those that movie and a Christmas story non-negotiables for me.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:23

Okay. Okay. Okay. Next question is. Did if you could live, I'm gonna rephrase it. I don't know what's wrong with your head. If you could live inside one holiday movie, which one would it be?

NALEE 1:55:39

Christmas story.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:40

A Christmas story? Why don't we be Mead Girls?

NALEE 1:55:44

That's not a holiday movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:46

Yeah, it is. It is to be. Twilight.

ANTHONY 1:55:54

Next thing you're gonna know, you're gonna tell me Die Hard's a Christmas movie too.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:59

I'm just kidding. Holiday movie.

ANTHONY 1:56:02

I would say you can live inside Mean Girls, but I wanna know why.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:09

I don't know. I was just kidding. When I think about Christmas, I or like holiday movies, I don't know. I don't know why Mean Girls just comes up for me.

ANTHONY 1:56:17

Because they're doing the Because they do the jingle balls.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:19

Yeah, yeah. But I don't know. I don't really watch a lot of holiday movies, so I don't know. Yeah. It's not a sad thing.

ANTHONY 1:56:29

It's the best thing for like Glee.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:33

There you go. They had Glee Gee.

ANTHONY 1:56:36

Glee did have that really yeah, they didn't really good Christmas episodes.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:39

Yeah, Glee. I love Glee. I forgot about that episode.

ANTHONY 1:56:43

Glee is where Leah Michelle and Corey Monteith were singing last Christmas in the Christmas tree lot when they were picking out a Christmas tree.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:52

Oh yeah. Ugh, Cory Monteith. Like he makes my heart hurt.

ANTHONY 1:56:56

R.I.P.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:57

Yeah, he was he was I can't even think about him. I have I'm still in mourning after all these years.

SPEAKER_04 1:57:04

I know, for real.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:05

Yeah, like Glee, I totally forgot it because Glee is actually usually my winter. I think you should know. I think you know this, but Glee's like my wintertime like binge. Yeah. Glee and Superstore. I always binge those two during Christmas.

ANTHONY 1:57:19

I should probably restart Superstore.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:21

Yeah, and for some reason, Harry Potter. But Harry Potter is an all-year-round thing, so I guess it doesn't matter.

ANTHONY 1:57:29

But I feel like Harry Potter does have that Christmas vibe to it.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:32

Yeah. Cause they in the snow and stuff.

ANTHONY 1:57:34

Yeah. Yeah. Like even just going to like what is it, hogs meet or whatever in a universal.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:42

Yeah. Like is there a lot of like winter looking stuff?

ANTHONY 1:57:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:46

And owls. I don't know. Owls remind me of like winter time.

ANTHONY 1:57:50

The white owl head.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:53

Okay.

NALEE 1:57:53

Yeah. What is an embarrassing classroom holiday memory for you?

ANTHONY 1:58:01

I think I told this story already. And I guess I shouldn't say it's embarrassing, but it kind of is. That fucking teacher when I was in like second grade.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:12

Oops.

ANTHONY 1:58:12

And I had to keep recoloring. Yeah, that I don't think I've really had a lot of like embarrassing holiday moments.

NALEE 1:58:25

Okay.

ANTHONY 1:58:27

In school.

NALEE 1:58:29

Interesting.

ANTHONY 1:58:30

I used to love making all those like things. I still have a lot of my things from when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:36

Like the noodle pictures, like the macaroni noodle pictures, or like the pasta necklaces and stuff.

ANTHONY 1:58:43

Or like turkey out of your hand.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:45

Yeah, or the marshmallow like snowman. Those are so fun. I'm I mean, I'm sure if we do it now, we're just like, what the hell am I doing? Like this ain't fun. But like when you were a kid, like it was so fun doing all that stuff. I don't know.

ANTHONY 1:58:59

I feel like it's a way to like unlock some creativity.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:03

Because I'd be like, why am I wasting marshmallows on this when I could just eat it?

ANTHONY 1:59:06

Ugh.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:07

I love marshmallows. Oh my god, that reminds me. Super off topic. I bought you a big bag of marshmallows. No, I bought you a b build puffed bar for you to try it. Yeah.

ANTHONY 1:59:19

I've tried well, I haven't tried this flavor. Okay. Yeah. What flavor do we get?

SPEAKER_05 1:59:23

It's salted caramel.

ANTHONY 1:59:24

Girl bitch, boy.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:26

Yeah. They're like my new favorite.

ANTHONY 1:59:27

These these built bars are so good. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:30

Yeah, put you. This is a put you on kind of a thing.

ANTHONY 1:59:32

Put you on.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:33

The build puff bars are so nummy nummy.

ANTHONY 1:59:35

Don't buy the Oreo flavored.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:37

Why is it nasty?

ANTHONY 1:59:38

They're not nasty. I think they're good, but in moderation. Like I wouldn't be able to eat them. Like every day.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:46

Oh, I love the cookies and creams one. Oh, it's so good. That's my favorite one so far.

ANTHONY 1:59:50

That's the one I was talking about.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:51

Oh, is it?

ANTHONY 1:59:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:53

It's so good. No, it's so good. That's my favorite one so far. And I do like the brownie batter, but I feel like brownie batter is where it's at. Yeah, I feel like that one's way too sweet for me.

ANTHONY 2:00:03

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05 2:00:03

Yeah. I could eat the cookies and cream like a whole pack if I really wanted to in one sitting because it's so good.

ANTHONY 2:00:12

I'm just picturing you right now sitting.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:14

Like you always do being a fat ass bitch on a couch like that.

ANTHONY 2:00:17

Chocolate all around your mouth.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:19

I'm classy, bitch. I ain't never like that.

ANTHONY 2:00:21

Yeah, you'll probably need it with fucking chopsticks.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:23

For me, I would say, yeah, I would. For me, I remember there's this one year. It was fourth grade, I changed like middle school because we moved from the cities to Blaine. And it was like my first I came like I would say mid-fall into this school, and it was during the winter time. And you know, like in I don't know if you remember, but like before class starts, you have to kind of line up before you get into the classroom and all that stuff so that teachers can do attendance and stuff. And I think our bus was like running late, so we were like one of the last ones coming into the school. And I was running to the classroom because our classroom, the first class that I was supposed to go into, it was like at the end of the hall. And so I was running, and it was like maybe two days before winter break. And I, you know, there's snow on my boots, and I was running, and then I slipped like from the middle of the hallway all the way to like past the door of where my classroom was, and everybody fucking saw. And I was just like, I'm gonna call my mom and my dad to pick me up because I'm sick.

ANTHONY 2:01:35

I literally cannot express to you the amount of fear and anxiety I have at the thought of like slipping and falling in front of people.

SPEAKER_04 2:01:44

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:01:45

Like even just like walking into the grocery store. And then once I'm in the grocery store, like walking on the like You're like, should I should I go in or should I just leave? I'm like, did I wipe my feet enough before I start walking?

Closing: Laughter, Low Expectations, Strong Cocktails

SPEAKER_05 2:01:56

Yeah. But you didn't have any embarrassing class or memory holidays? No. Or holiday memories.

ANTHONY 2:02:05

Okay. I really cherished like my childhood holidays.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:10

Yeah. Like it was very memorable. Yeah. Okay, my last question for this segment is was the last day before break the best? Or were you like sad? Because it's gonna be like a long, a long two weeks before you saw everybody else.

ANTHONY 2:02:26

I don't fucking give two shits about that.

NALEE 2:02:29

Are you fucking kidding me right now?

ANTHONY 2:02:33

I don't know that I would say that it was the best. It was the best in a sense of I'm leaving and I get the next how many ever days off. Yeah. Christmas is gonna be here, and I'm gonna get all the food and the gifts and the fun time. But it wasn't the best from a standpoint of I knew that today is the last day, so it's like, when the fuck that bell gonna ring.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on now. Yeah. For me, I didn't like it because of all the tests we had to take before then.

ANTHONY 2:03:10

They made you take tests.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:11

I think so, if I remember correctly, yeah.

ANTHONY 2:03:13

Bye.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:14

Like we would have to take Actually, I lied. It's usually like the d either the day before or two days before our break, because I remember during like the actual day before we would just like watch movies and stuff. So I lied. But like the anxiety of like taking the test those tests and stuff after was still like in my nerves. You know what I mean?

ANTHONY 2:03:38

But can we just agree that those teachers who assign homework before holiday break?

SPEAKER_05 2:03:47

Ugh bitches.

ANTHONY 2:03:49

There is a special place in hell for all of those fucking teachers.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:52

Yeah, how do you expect me to remember homework from two weeks ago? Like, it's called winter break. I'm supposed to take a fucking break from school work. From school, yeah. Yeah, like, bitch. Or like teachers was like, remember to read pages 110 to 130. When you come back.

ANTHONY 2:04:11

I'll remember to tell you when I come back that I didn't read the pages.

SPEAKER_03 2:04:16

I didn't even look at the fucking book. I don't even know what the title of the book is.

ANTHONY 2:04:23

True story.

NALEE 2:04:26

Throughout my entire high school. Uh-huh. Like education.

ANTHONY 2:04:31

You know when you're in English class and they assign books for you to read or Duffy, stop. And they assign books for you to read.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:41

Uh-huh.

ANTHONY 2:04:42

I only read one book.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:43

Oh, really?

ANTHONY 2:04:44

In high school. Really? To kill a mocking bird.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:46

Oh, that's such a good book though.

ANTHONY 2:04:47

I know. It was a good book. I'm glad that I read that book.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:49

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:04:50

But like every other book, oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:04:55

I mean I hate- You hate reading. Yeah, I hate reading too, but I had to do it because I'm a little I'm a little bitch. I'm a little goody two shoes. So I always had to read. Did you know that my birthday is the Ides of March? It's the day that Julius Caesar got stabbed.

ANTHONY 2:05:13

I did not. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:15

March.

ANTHONY 2:05:15

Did you know that Melissa shares a birthday with Chris Brown?

SPEAKER_05 2:05:21

I didn't. That's brand news. Brand new news to me.

ANTHONY 2:05:25

And did you know Michael Jackson died on my birthday?

SPEAKER_05 2:05:29

Did he?

ANTHONY 2:05:30

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:33

Did you know that you share a birthday with my nephew? And that's the only reason why I remember your birthday?

ANTHONY 2:05:39

I did.

unknown 2:05:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:41

Oops.

ANTHONY 2:05:42

Little throwback to episode one.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:46

Episode one throwback. That's what I'm gonna say every time we hit the thing. Every time you hit the money.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:51

Giving them a little flashback. Three. I'm what is three, two, one. Yeah. What are we saying? Circling back to episode one. Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:06:00

Remember back in episode one, we tabled this?

SPEAKER_05 2:06:03

Boosh. Yeah. I was listening to our audio for episode one. Bitch, it was it was bad.

ANTHONY 2:06:08

It was rough.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:09

It was rough.

ANTHONY 2:06:10

So we're still a work in progress, though. It's not like top tier. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:14

Thank you to everybody who made it past episode one.

ANTHONY 2:06:17

Thank you to everybody who made it past episode 20.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:19

Yeah. Thank you to everybody that's still here.

ANTHONY 2:06:22

Yeah. Stick around.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:24

Yes.

ANTHONY 2:06:24

We'll see what else we can create. What else did you have?

SPEAKER_05 2:06:28

That's it for the segment.

ANTHONY 2:06:30

That's it.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:31

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:06:32

Alright. Well, nostalgia goggles are cute until you realize you're romanticizing stress and expired cookies.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:40

Which brings us to the finale. How we reflect, reset, and maybe even laugh at all the mess.

ANTHONY 2:06:49

Alright. So let's end this chaos marathon with some reflection. Because if we don't unpack it, it's just seasonal trauma. Seasonal trauma in wrapping paper.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:01

And maybe, just maybe, there's something to be thankful for in all the chaos.

ANTHONY 2:07:06

Our last segment, Unwrapping the Chaos. Reflections and gratitude.

SPEAKER_05 2:07:12

Alright, so my first and only topic I have is the reset button. And I know it's only the beginning of December. Holy goddamn. But you know, it's not too late to or it's not too early to talk about like resetting. What's one thing you are leaving behind this holiday season? The whole fucking year.

ANTHONY 2:07:41

Yeah, the entire fucking year. I'm hoping to leave behind all the like. I don't know if I want to say bad luck, but it's just seemed like it's been just one thing after another all in 2025. So I just want to leave all of that behind. Start fresh, start optimistic. Start over.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:04

Yeah, I get that. This year has fucking sucked ass.

NALEE 2:08:07

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:08:10

Now I know for our listeners out there, not all of you know what's been going on in our lives. Those of you who know, you know. But and we're I I I'm not gonna speak for Nolly, but I mean, as far as me, I'm not trying to play the woe is me, pity me, give me a pity party, but like I understand everybody has life is lifing, everybody has things in life. But for me personally, like this year definitely like tested me. And I mean, it's I I have the month of December left, and we still don't know if I'm gonna pass this test or not.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:52

But we're taking it a step at a time.

ANTHONY 2:08:56

Yep, one day at a time.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:57

Yeah, I'd like to throw the whole 2025 year away into a fucking dumpster fire and burn away and go to hell and never ever come back from that shit. I'm manifesting that 2026 and the rest of my life is gonna bring me nothing but happiness, joy, abundance, financial stability, and wealth and peace.

ANTHONY 2:09:27

Amen to that. I I wish, I hope, and I pray for that for the both of us.

NALEE 2:09:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:09:35

If I if like if 21-year-old me could write me a message and be like, bitch, 2025 is gonna be the year that's gonna fuck you up. Maybe I would have been better prepared, but damn, this year has been a fucking shit show. And I'm over it.

NALEE 2:10:03

You're over it.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:04

Yeah, I'm not. We're I'm not gonna play the victim. I'm just ready to fucking get it done and over with.

NALEE 2:10:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:15

Fuck 2025. So that's gonna be the new logo on my car or my t-shirt or my life. Fuck 2025. Yep.

ANTHONY 2:10:30

I wholeheartedly agree with that, and I it's been just enough.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:35

Yeah, I'm done.

ANTHONY 2:10:36

That's been rough.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:37

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:10:37

Definitely has been a test.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:39

I'm gonna put it in a little box. I'm gonna fold it up, put it in a little box, dig a hole, put a pack of matchsticks underneath, put that box on top, put a long string of those candle things, cover it with a dirt. I'm gonna m light that string on fire, dig that fucking box back up and make sure that it's burned.

ANTHONY 2:11:03

It won't burn, sweetie.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:05

Well, I'm digging it up so that it burns. But yeah. I don't know. 2025 has been rough, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 2:11:13

It has been rough.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:14

Yeah. That's all I'm gonna say. I don't want to share anything personal, but those who know me, 2025 has been really, really rough. I'm sure I'm sure if you listen back from when we first started to now, I've been a really fucking bitter bitch. Like my trans yeah, my transition from like then to now, like, yeah, I'm a different person because this year has been so fucking rough. It's like one year after one year. It's like one thing after another after another after another, and it's just like that first problem isn't even solved yet, and a new one has started.

ANTHONY 2:11:55

Yeah, you know I think I mean for me, that's been my biggest struggle. Like, it would have been nice if like I probably wouldn't be so angry towards 2025 had it been like something happened in February, and oh, something happened in June.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:14

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:12:14

But it was it was it was literally It was like June 1st, June 2nd, June 3rd. It was literally January, February, March, April.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:24

It's been a rough year.

ANTHONY 2:12:26

Oh, May, nothing bad in May, June, nothing bad in July, August, September, October, yeah, November.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:36

It's been rough.

ANTHONY 2:12:37

Yeah, so two months so far this year, I didn't have anything bad happen.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:43

Yeah, I'm putting it in God's hand. God, I'm speaking to you right now as a child of not holiness, but a child who is worth forgiving. Like, please bring me happiness. Like it's been rough, y'all. It's been real rough.

ANTHONY 2:13:00

I'm gonna pull a selfish for any of our listeners out there who are I don't I don't give a shit whether you're Christian, Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, whatever religion or spirituality you are. I'm pulling a selfish here. Please just pray for Nolly and me.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:20

Yeah. Ask the Lord to if there is a higher power, a higher divine power, please just keep us in your prayers. It's been rough.

unknown 2:13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:30

Tired of it. Tired of people, tired of my life, tired of everything. Just give me a break for the rest of my life.

ANTHONY 2:13:39

I think about that every time that I like post like kind of going off topic, but not really.

SPEAKER_04 2:13:45

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:13:46

Anytime that I like post something on social media, like, because you know how I've been, we've discussed this like politically and everything.

SPEAKER_04 2:13:55

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:13:55

Like everything, every time I post something on social media, I instantaneously I think anybody who sees it, I'm I always wonder, are they wondering, like, what the fuck's wrong with Anthony?

SPEAKER_03 2:14:09

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:14:10

Like, what made him this way? What why does he seem so angry?

SPEAKER_03 2:14:15

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:14:16

And to those people that do think that and ask that question, you're not asking the right questions.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:22

But it's been rough.

ANTHONY 2:14:25

Yeah, it's just been rough.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:26

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:14:27

One thing after another. But anyway, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:14:31

Leaving that shit behind.

ANTHONY 2:14:33

2025 is considered one thing, and that's what the fuck leaving behind.

SPEAKER_04 2:14:36

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:14:36

Come December 31st, January 1st at midnight.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:41

Only good things.

ANTHONY 2:14:43

I'm gonna set it 2025 ablaze.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:45

Yes. All right, now while we're setting 2025 ablaze. Do you have any resolution resolutions that you set yet? Or, you know, are you just gonna be going off on vibes?

ANTHONY 2:14:58

I don't have any resolutions set yet. I'm still kind of pondering mine. I failed mine for this year, which I feel no regret about anymore.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:07

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:15:08

So I might try and redo what my resolution was this year. That was I wanted to read and or listen to one book a month.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:17

That's right.

ANTHONY 2:15:18

Because I hate reading and I'm kind of trying to challenge myself. I signed up for Audible.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:24

I love that.

ANTHONY 2:15:24

So if it's a listening book, that's fine too.

SPEAKER_04 2:15:27

Okay.

ANTHONY 2:15:27

So that for sure, I think I'm gonna put on my resolution list for 2026. And then the other thing for me is finding more me time.

NALEE 2:15:42

And carving out me time.

ANTHONY 2:15:45

Even if that means just like turning my phone off and being like You're really good at that.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:52

Right now.

ANTHONY 2:15:53

Adorable at that.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:54

What? I feel like you're pretty good.

ANTHONY 2:15:56

You mean turning my phone off?

SPEAKER_05 2:15:57

Like putting it on silent and not like touching it. Because you'd be like, oh, by the way, I'm like turning my phone off. And then you just, you know.

ANTHONY 2:16:05

Yeah, I might not message you. I might not even turn my phone off though. I'm probably sitting there scrolling on TikTok.

SPEAKER_05 2:16:10

Like this bitch. This fucking poisoning. I could have chopped off my toe and kept it to myself because you were scrolling on your phone.

ANTHONY 2:16:20

I'm just you can always call me in an emergency. I will always answer if it's an emergency. Yeah. But that's good.

SPEAKER_05 2:16:27

I love that.

ANTHONY 2:16:28

And then lastly, for for sure, one thing that I'm gonna do for 2026 is I know that we've discussed this and we've kind of been working on like ourselves for our listeners. Like I'm down over 30 pounds this year. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 2:16:44

Congratulations, Boo. You deserve a clock for that.

ANTHONY 2:16:47

Thank you. So my goal for 2026 is to lose another 30 at least.

SPEAKER_05 2:16:52

I love that. You got this, boo. Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:16:54

Thank you. So do you.

SPEAKER_05 2:16:55

Thank you.

ANTHONY 2:16:56

What about you? What's are you setting resolutions or just gonna go into 2026 vibe and out?

SPEAKER_05 2:17:05

Yeah. I've been like, I don't know. This year has been a fucking shit show. So I don't know. I think I'm just going with the vibes and the flow, and I'm letting Jesus take the wheel.

ANTHONY 2:17:21

I mean, that is 1000% fair. But the only thing I'm gonna say to you is you said we're gonna manifest. So you have to speak these intentions into 2026.

SPEAKER_05 2:17:30

That's true.

ANTHONY 2:17:31

So we have to.

SPEAKER_05 2:17:33

But I choose to plead the fifth because I'm learning that I prefer to move in silence. And I like that. You know.

NALEE 2:17:42

I love that.

SPEAKER_05 2:17:43

You'll see it when I choose to. Yeah, you'll choose you'll see it when I choose to show you it.

ANTHONY 2:17:50

So it's like Melissa McCarthy and Bridesmaids. You see this iPod? I'm gonna hide this iPod, and you're not gonna find this iPod until I want you.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:00

Exactly. Exactly. I gotta move strategically the next couple of years. So yeah. But yeah, I'm gonna move in silence. I really do believe that like the more people know, the easier it is for them to destroy what you want to work towards. And this doesn't mean anybody in particular. I'm just saying in general.

ANTHONY 2:18:25

100% agree. So have this conversation.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:28

Yes, exactly. And so again, I choose to plead the fifth. And when you see it, you see it. If I'm rich, there will be signs.

ANTHONY 2:18:35

So there will be signs.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:37

That's my manifestation.

ANTHONY 2:18:39

She can come out looking like Megan Fox.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:41

Exactly. But not Megan Fox. I like Angelina Jolie.

ANTHONY 2:18:45

Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_05 2:18:46

But yeah. Okay. That's all I had.

ANTHONY 2:18:51

All right. Well, my last thing was I wanted to discuss holiday traditions that you may have potentially outgrown. I mean, as far as your family traditions, do you have any traditions that once you cross a certain threshold or once you were officially an adult living on your own, like that you retired and you were like I don't know if that's on the the topic, but it's kind of similar to what we were talking about before.

SPEAKER_05 2:19:20

Like, I don't think you're required to go to every family function. And I think I kind of got that embedded into my head where like if we do something, you have to come and then you get guilt tripped for it. But I think as an adult, I've learned that sometimes like it's okay to say no and just kind of take it as is.

ANTHONY 2:19:45

So it's a complete sentence.

SPEAKER_05 2:19:47

Yeah. So just like don't think of it as a requirement. Think of it as you have options. It's not a one-way street kind of a thing. And it's okay to hurt people's feelings. I think that's a a big thing that I learned this year too.

ANTHONY 2:20:08

It is. I still struggle with that.

SPEAKER_05 2:20:10

Yeah. Yeah, I think I agree with that too. I have a really hard time not being considerate of other people, even if like I'm being treated like shit, or even if it's not like benefiting me. And I'm so considerate of other people where it's just like it sounds kind of counterintuitive, but like, are you dumb? kind of a thing. Where like I'm just like, what are you doing? You know?

ANTHONY 2:20:39

Like, are you dumb?

SPEAKER_05 2:20:41

Like, you're not even like, you know, like, I don't know. I don't know if that makes sense, but yeah. It comes back to the fucking uh trying to please everybody shit. But yeah, yeah, I think guys, that's how I am this year. I'm bitter because I'm fed up. That's it.

ANTHONY 2:21:05

Bitter ass bitch.

SPEAKER_05 2:21:06

Yeah, I'm a bitter ass bitch.

ANTHONY 2:21:07

You and me both.

SPEAKER_05 2:21:09

Nolly, bitter ass bitch, her. That's me this. That's the new name now. That's your new name. Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:21:14

This bitch changes her name like she changes her underwear.

SPEAKER_05 2:21:17

Period. Every fucking day.

NALEE 2:21:21

What about? Do you feel guilty breaking any traditions or ri rituals?

SPEAKER_05 2:21:33

Yeah. I think it's kind of similar to what we talked about earlier. Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:21:37

That like kind of just answered that. You were kind of jumping a jumping ahead.

SPEAKER_05 2:21:42

No, it's okay. But yeah, I do feel guilty because I've, you know, I've grown up in a household where like girls have to be obedient. They have to listen. Or just in general, like kids have to be obedient. And maybe this is just, I'm just, again, being a late bloomer and I'm finally hitting my rebellious phase. But like, I think my parents, they have really high expectations of us.

ANTHONY 2:22:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:22:07

And they like guilt trip us a lot. And I think now, even as an adult, like you could tell when they're just saying shit to guilt trip you compared to things when they actually genuinely genuinely mean it. You know what I mean?

ANTHONY 2:22:24

I agree with that.

SPEAKER_05 2:22:25

So yeah, of course I feel guilty, but at the same time, it's just kind of like You have to drop a home. Yeah, I'm like, I'm 32 years old. I'm an adult. Like I have to start making my own decisions. Like I can't keep like that's just it. I'm 32 years old. I'm an adult. Like I understand you love and I understand you care for me. You want you know, you know, you want what's best for me, especially when when it comes to like the holidays, there's so much tension. You know, there's so much stress and everything, but it's just like it's so unnecessary. Like this is all voluntary stress, if you really think about it, you know? Like it's voluntary. You don't have to do any of this. This is voluntary. But then you guilt trip people into volunteering to do things. You know what I mean? Yes.

ANTHONY 2:23:20

Yes, I do know what you mean. I'm just trying to Yes, it's voluntary to a point to a certain degree. Maybe no, maybe I'm just saying that just because I love Christmas.

SPEAKER_05 2:23:36

Yeah, yes. I mean, I get it. I think keeping up with family traditions is fine. And, you know, that's great if you're able to fulfill it. I think more power to you. But sometimes, like this year, 2025, it just drains the shit out of you. And you just don't have that energy.

ANTHONY 2:23:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:23:57

You know?

ANTHONY 2:23:58

And that's like I told you earlier before we started recording. I'm like, I don't think I'm gonna put up Christmas this year.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:03

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:24:04

Which this would be my first year in my entire life that I didn't do.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:08

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:24:09

Christmas.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:10

Yeah. Adulting is fucking hard, y'all. Don't be an adult, stay a child forever.

ANTHONY 2:24:16

For real though. Seriously, like if that was an option, like, I mean, think about it. When you were a kid, let's just say when you were 10 years old, if somebody had come up to you and said, you can eat this red Skittle and continue your life as you normally would, or you can eat this green Skittle.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:37

Oh, we'll do a matrix.

ANTHONY 2:24:38

Yeah, and stay 10 forever.

SPEAKER_05 2:24:43

That's the funny part, is that when you're little, you're so ready to grow up and you're so ready to be 21 and you're so ready to get married and you're so ready to get married. All this stuff. And then when you actually do it, you're just like, why can't I just be like five?

ANTHONY 2:24:58

You miss how this how you miss how simple life was when you were trying.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:01

Innocence really is bliss. And ignorance is really bliss.

ANTHONY 2:25:05

Yeah. Both statements stand.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:09

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:11

All I gotta say is to our young listeners, be fucking prepared.

ANTHONY 2:25:16

Yeah. Prepare yourselves.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:18

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:25:18

For sure. And I don't, I don't, I'm I'm I'm gonna speak for Nolly and myself.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:24

I don't think that we're meaning that in any form of cynical or pessimistic way, but more so a realistic way because if you haven't suffered at all throughout your life and you're like 40, 50 years old, that's beautiful. Like it must be nice. But like Do you think so? Yeah, like I disagree with you.

ANTHONY 2:25:44

I think that the actually kind of sad. If you have lived to be 40s, 50s, 60s, I'm just saying you've never suffered.

SPEAKER_05 2:25:52

Yeah, that's great.

ANTHONY 2:25:53

Because It's great from a standpoint that you've never suffered, but that also means that you're lacking that part of life.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:02

It's almost like I don't want this to be part of my life. I'd rather not suffer.

ANTHONY 2:26:06

Well, I'm sure, but it's also like you know, us bitching about 2025, like I said, I get it, everybody has struggles.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:16

You have something to be grateful for.

ANTHONY 2:26:18

But yeah, it's almost like it's a a rite of passage.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:22

I guess.

ANTHONY 2:26:23

Like if you don't suffer, you're not gonna grow.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:27

Even when people are suffering, they don't grow.

NALEE 2:26:32

You do, you grow from it.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:35

Some people don't grow. They stay in the suffering.

NALEE 2:26:41

Those people are sad as well.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:42

Yeah, so it could go both ways.

ANTHONY 2:26:45

Uh to those people, I just suggest getting some form of help.

SPEAKER_05 2:26:51

Yeah, but 2025 has been fucking rough, y'all. I'm over it. We're in December, it's almost over. Closing this chapter in the depths of hell.

ANTHONY 2:27:04

Before we close this chapter, I have one final.

SPEAKER_03 2:27:09

I forget we're still recording. We're still recording.

ANTHONY 2:27:12

Do you think that traditions should evolve or should they stay frozen in time?

SPEAKER_05 2:27:18

I think they should stay frozen in time. In a sense of I think like keep to old traditions. Yeah. You could I don't know if adding to it is evolving it.

unknown 2:27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:27:33

Is that considered evolving it? Well, then I'm in the middle, I guess. Kind of both. Like you should keep to some old traditions, but at the same time, do what works for you.

ANTHONY 2:27:45

You can keep to the old traditions and maintain that same value and and meaning of it while still evolving and expanding on it.

SPEAKER_05 2:27:57

Yeah. You've been completing my sentences today in this episode.

ANTHONY 2:28:01

It's like we're twin tangents.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:03

Yeah. It's like we're one, but separately. It's like we're twins.

ANTHONY 2:28:08

What is that from?

NALEE 2:28:10

I don't know. I just made it up.

ANTHONY 2:28:12

I feel like there's a movie.

unknown 2:28:14

It's like we're doing.

ANTHONY 2:28:16

Oh no, I'm sorry movie. I was thinking of Mean Girls where she's like, Oh, yeah, she's like touching her boots.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:24

Yeah, I that is definitely the mood that I was getting in my head. And I'm glad I delivered it. Because I was thinking about her saying, right now it's 38 degree chance of raining. Yeah, and it's fucking pouring.

unknown 2:28:38

Dumb bitch.

ANTHONY 2:28:40

Did you know she auditioned for Glinda and Wicked?

SPEAKER_05 2:28:43

Yeah. She has an amazing voice.

ANTHONY 2:28:44

She does have a really good voice, but she's not Glinda.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:46

She's not Glinda.

ANTHONY 2:28:47

Did you see Wicked?

SPEAKER_05 2:28:48

Yeah.

ANTHONY 2:28:49

Do you did you see?

SPEAKER_05 2:28:50

Not part two. I really want to go see it.

ANTHONY 2:28:53

Yeah, we're gonna go see it too.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:54

Okay. Nice. I know.

ANTHONY 2:28:57

I got you guys. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:28:59

All right. So yeah. The holidays might be messy, loud, and fucking way too long. But they always leave. But they always leave us with stories worth retelling.

ANTHONY 2:29:13

And receipts were still paying off by February. Alright, that's our chaotic holiday survival guide with a side of nostalgia goggles.

SPEAKER_05 2:29:23

Remember, you don't need mashing pajamas, gourmet dinners, or a Norman Rockwell family portrait to have a holiday worth remembering.

ANTHONY 2:29:33

You just need laughter, low expectations, and maybe a strong cocktail.

SPEAKER_05 2:29:39

Or five. Or a full bottle. We'll be back with more tangents next week, but until then, may your holiday chaos at least be entertained.

SPEAKER_03 2:29:50

Bye.