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This is Joy & Claire Episode 104: Britney, New Year’s Eve, and Product Recs
Episode Date: December 9, 2021
Transcription Completed: December 20, 2021
Audio Length: 46:12 minutes
Joy: Hey guys, this is Joy.
Claire: And this is Claire. Again.
Joy: You know why I’m laughing? Because I’m like, which podcast are we doing?
Claire: [laughing]
Joy: I was almost like… are we baking? What are we doing? I love that everybody today was sending us that picture about Chigs that’s like, “Chigs is keeping it on lock of whether or not he’s single.” He appreciated the crush, but he’s keeping it –
Claire: Okay. But also, I saw that Chigs posted in his Spotify Wrapped and his number one most listened to podcast is Joe Rogan, and it might be an unforgivable offense.
Joy: Really, that might be a deal breaker. It might be a deal breaker. if it was our podcast, maybe –
Claire: If it was On Your Marks, Get Set, Bake!
Joy: That would be a deal maker.
Claire: But it was a lot. Like thousands of minutes of Joe Rogan.
Joy: Aw, man, Chigs, you don’t need his voice in your ears. Come on.
Claire: Zero people need his voice.
Joy: Man. Okay.
Claire: Sigh. Also, speaking of the baking podcast, a lot of people were posting and asking if we are going to be covering the holiday one. We don’t have plans for that at this particular moment. We’ll see how we feel later on in the week. There is a new holiday special series that just came out on Netflix. So if you are really missing Bake Off. I just don’t really – I don’t know. To me, the holiday ones aren’t really worth covering because you don’t really know the bakers that well.
Joy: I mean, kind of call it in, phone it in, whatever. I just really wanted to comment on Prue’s hair because she dyed her hair blue for the Christmas one. And her nails looked amazing. You could just tell she was like, “Let me be Prue,” and they let her be Prue. I was just so excited.
Claire: Would you ever dye your hair blue?
Joy: Oh, absolutely. I want to dye my hair pink right now.
Claire: We know.
Joy: [laughing] We know. I was about to call my hair stylist. Because they got this new temporary dye at their hair salon. The last one I did for Moroccanoil just never washed out. I get it. It’s fine. It’s temporary. But that stuff stayed in my hair forever. It’s great if you want it to last, but I just didn’t want it to last that long. Anyways, so they got a new temporary tint at their salon. I’m like, I bet you that one is good and that one will actually come out. I was going to call her and be like, “Can I come by and get the pink one?” We’ll see. We’ll see.
Claire: Do it. What do you have to lose?
Joy: It’s not that. It’s just when you spend so much money getting your hair highlighted, I don’t want to just cover it with pink yet. But yeah, we know that Joy always wants to dye her hair. I would do blue. I would do purple. I like that filter on Instagram that gives you options. You can see what you would look like.
Claire: Yeah. I was talking to my hair stylist about this the other day, whenever was the last time I went in, like a couple of weeks ago. She was talking about how she has – you know, hair stylists I feel like are always changing their hair. I would be too if I worked in a hair salon. Right now, she has these super long extensions. Her hair is this cool grey. I said something about her color, and she was like, “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about going dark again.” Because she has really dark hair normally. And she’s like, “You spend a year getting it as light as you want, and then you immediately just want to go back to dark.” I was like, “Yeah, one day I’m going to walk in here and be like, we’re going blonde.” She was like, “Really?” I was like, “Yeah, one day. I just want to try it.” I just want to have platinum blonde hair for like –
Joy: It’s so much work. That was when I had short hair. I would do it again with short hair because it doesn’t take as long obviously. But I just remember when I was in the phase of changing my hair all the time, when I had short hair, I remember going in and being like, I want to do really really blonde. When you have a good hair stylist, they know when you’re ready, and you know when they’re ready. She looked at me and she was like, “F*** it.” And she just went and started mixing up the hair dye. Meaning, let’s do this. We’re both in the same spot to commit to this. It’s a lot of work on their end too, especially when you have darker hair. You don’t just put blonde dye on. It’s this whole process. Coloring your hair is such a science. But yeah, it was so fun. I look at pictures like, yeah, that was the fun days. But it’s so much work.
Claire: I loved your platinum hair. I just like that whole look.
Joy: Oh yeah.
Claire: One day I want like bleach blonde hair.
Joy: Let’s both do it at the same time.
Claire: [laughing] Mine would take so much – like, I would have to get a six-month head start because my hair is so dark.
Joy: It would take a long time, yeah.
Claire: Anyway, I don’t even know how we got on that tangent.
Joy: I don’t either, but we were talking about hair. Prue dying her hair blue. And we were talking before we hit record about more diet culture stuff. Is that still happening? Are we still doing that?
Claire: I somehow got signed up for text notifications from something. There’s this keto challenge this brand keeps texting me about. I’m like, I don’t want to do a keto challenge. I thought we circled back around and decided carbs were good again. It’s like you have to choose between carbs and fat. No, I want them both. [singing] “I want it all.” I just want all of the things.
Joy: Just give me the food without the rules. Is that so hard to ask for?
Claire: Yeah. So this is an actual brand doing this. I also regularly get those just straight spam texts that are like – literally I got one the other day that was like, lose 45 pounds in four weeks. I was like, oh my God.
Joy: No.
Claire: No. That sounds like a nightmare. I can’t imagine what your body would have to go through for that to happen.
Joy: That, and I wonder if people are still falling for that. Are people still falling for that?
Claire: Do you think you can lose 45 pounds in a month?
Joy: Right. Meaning, do people see that and go, “Oh, this is for me.” Maybe.
Claire: I don’t know.
Joy: It exhausts me. So we all know that Britney is free, and we’re very excited about it and we’re very happy for her. And recently she did a post about – she comments every once in a while sideways about her weight or how she looks. In my eyes, you guys, Britney can do no wrong. She can do or say whatever she wants in my eyes. She could murder somebody and I’d be like, I love you Britney –
Claire: [laughing] She could do it on Instagram, and then she’d twirl and just prance off.
Joy: She would flip her hair. She would flip her fake hair.
Claire: I don’t know if I would take it that far, but I do fully believe that at this point Britney has earned the right to literally do whatever the heck she wants.
Joy: I give her so much grace, and I have so much love in my heart for her. So she’ll comment every once in a while, and I’m just like, oh Britney. You grew up in that culture, so of course she’s going to be conscious about t-
Claire: Not just grew up.
Joy: I mean, the entire world –
Claire: Yeah, the entire world has been talking about her body since she was in puberty.
Joy: Right. So of course that is on her radar. It is her radar. So she made some comment recently –
Claire: She is the radar.
Joy: She is the radar. Truly, when I was in the early 2000’s, I was like, how do I get those abs? She recently made a post. I think it was with her fiancé. Maybe they got married? I don’t know. I’m not keeping up with all the Britney news moment to moment. Maybe this is old news by the time this podcast releases. But she made a comment about fasting and how she’s got to get her body in shape after eating all the turkey and lalala. I’m just like, Britney, I know you’ve been behind a lot of walls for the last 13 years, but we have moved a lot past this diet bullshit. Please, let us just wrap you in our arms and tell you that you are perfect exactly how you are. I just wanted to give her that –
Claire: You don’t need to earn your turkey.
Joy: You really don’t. You don’t need to dance off those calories. Just dance because it’s fun and you’re great at it. Yeah. I just love her so much.
Claire: Her Instagram – I will never forget the tweet that was like, “I’m going to go drop acid and see if I can figure out Britney Spears’ Instagram feed.” [laughing] Because I still feel that way. I still feel that way because there’s like a code that’s going to lead you to Area 51. [laughing]
Joy: Like we’re finally going to see where Martians landed. I think that whenever that tweet came out, apparently people were controlling her Instagram back then. Like, other people were posting for her. I don’t know. This is all – who knows? But I think now that she’s posting herself, I don’t see much of a difference.
Claire: That’s why I made that face. You guys didn’t see my face.
Joy: Like 80’s teddy bears and 80’s roses.
Claire: Right. Do you remember this thing that went viral on Buzz Feed probably a year ago that was like, “The difference between Kim Kardashian’s house and Britney Spears’ house. Kim Kardashian’s house looks like a high-end morgue, and Britney Spears’ house looks like an Olive Garden.”
Joy: Yeah, totally. And it’s so true whenever you see pictures of Kim Kardashian’s house. I don’t think there’s one piece of furniture, and it’s all white.
Claire: High end morgue is very much her aesthetic.
Joy: I’m vaguely following the Pete Davidson Kim Kardashian gossip.
Claire: I am not. Only enough to know what you are talking about, and only enough to have seen this very funny post from @commentsbycelebs, which is still one of my favorite accounts. It was a picture of Pete Davidson sitting in the floor seats at some basketball game. It was like, “Caption this.” One of them was like, “So, what’s new with you?”
Joy: I love reading people’s humor and comments. I love the thing where all of the sudden it’s like, I’m just here for the comments. I live for those moments. I just want to see what people are posting. Kind of like when Taylor Swift released the ten-minute version of “All Too Well,” and everyone was just going over to Jake Gyllenhaal’s Instagram, and it was so, so funny. It was so funny. I mean, Jake Gyllenhaal, they had some siting of him after that came out. I’m just like, this is great. I love this stuff. I think it’s so funny.
Claire: You love the palace intrigue.
Joy: I live for palace intrigue. I just want to know what happens behind those doors. I am that person that will zoom in on a photo and break it down. Like if Taylor posts a video of her and her cat, I’m like, what sheets does she use? I will zoom in. I’m that creepy person that is just so intrigued by their lives. She recently posted a video of her singing a song. They were doing a dress rehearsal with her and Aaron Dressner. I was just like, oh my gosh, I need to see this staircase. And it is a black and white photo, for crying out loud. I love that stuff. I love it. I love it. And I know it’s not as glitzy as I make it out in my head, but that just makes me happy. It’s almost like Cinderella. Let me have the fantasy.
Claire: Yeah, why not? Oh my goodness.
Joy: How did we get on that tangent? Oh, diet culture and Britney. Anyway, Britney’s free. We love her. Britney you do not need to go on a diet. If anything, just keep dancing and having fun. And eat whatever the heck you want.
Claire: Just keep spinning around in your crop tops. Stay cool, never change.
Joy: Say cool, never change. In those 90’s gym shorts.
Claire: Okay, also. Speaking of diet culture, not only are we in the middle of “don’t gain the holiday weight,” we’re also barreling headfirst into New Year’s resolutions.
Joy: Mom Sandy and I released an episode on the Girls Gone WOD feed this week, as this one drops, about creating new habits. You can go listen to that. I’ll talk a little bit about it here. I think it’s really helpful because so many times – I’m guilty of this. When we start the new year, it’s like “new year, new you.” When in reality, if you haven’t yet listened to the Brene Brown Dare to Lead podcast with James Clear. I have not yet read his book Atomic Habits. I know it’s a good book. There’s a lot of –
Claire: Okay, I’m going to –
Joy: Okay, go.
Claire: I’m going to let you finish, but –
Joy: No, go. Go, go, go.
Claire: I didn’t love Atomic Habits. I actually think you get more out of those two Brene Brown podcasts than the actual book.
Joy: Great. Because when I listened to the podcast, I was like, these are great, I don’t know if I need to read the book. And also, I’m not trying to be a know it all, but I know so much about human behavior and psychology.
Claire: I will say, if you are someone who never in your life has done any other reading about organizational thinking, the whole book might be useful. I felt like the book could have been about 30% as long as it was because I felt like the majority of the book was just him reexplaining the same concept in different anecdotes.
Joy: Right, I don’t love that.
Claire: And through slightly different angles. Okay, but you’re still just saying the same thing.
Joy: Alright, that’s good to know. Because I felt like I needed to read the book.
Claire: I listened to the book probably two or three years ago at this point and didn’t really care – it was fine, but I didn’t really get what all the hype was about. And then when I listened to the two Brene Brown podcasts over the last month, whenever they came out, I wish I had just listened to the podcast ones. Because not only do I think he hits all the main points, but it’s so much more interesting to listen to it as a conversation.
Joy: As a conversation. That really helps and saves me a lot of time, thank you. I was hesitating on reading the book because – I’ve said this before. I have some type of block when there’s things that I’m like, ah, I studied this for so long. I already know about human behavior and cognitive behavioral therapy and habits and behavioral change and behavioral activation. That I was really kind of having this adverse reaction to reading it. It was almost like a textbook for me. Because I love the podcast episodes. I agree. So if you have not yet listened to the Brene Brown Dare to Lead, there’s two episodes with James Clear. They talk about habits. It’s great. I was on this kick of, I really like how they approach habits and behavior change and developing something new in your life or adding something new in your life. I want to think about that for myself in the new y year. I do enjoy a new year. I enjoy it. I think it’s great. I like to look at life in chapters. We always look back in years. It’s just an easy way for me to think of my life and conceptualize my life and put it in my life as 2020, 2021. So that’s great. We could argue, “it’s just another day.” I’m not that person. I really enjoy New Year’s Eve. I think it’s really fun. And I like to wake up the next day.
Claire: The liturgical calendar situation, right? That you can turn the page, start going back around. That’s huge. Humans have always had their own ways of coming back around the bend. We can agree that December 31st at midnight is an arbitrary stamp to start that on. But nonetheless, here we are as a culture.
Joy: Nonetheless. I love it. Who cares? It’s fine. You do you. I love it. I think it’s fun. So I was thinking about this. We talk a little bit more in the Girls Gone WOD episode that you can listen to about how we think of habits.
Claire: Do you think you love it so much because it is the international holiday of glitter and sequence?
Joy: It’s absolutely that. I do love a New Year’s Eve glitter.
Claire: It’s not not that.
Joy: It’s not not that. I mean, let me just be honest with you. When you talk about New Year’s Eve, all I think about is glitter falling from the sky –
Claire: Yeah, and fairy lights and glitter and dresses.
Joy: So when you’re saying New Year’s Eve, anything New Year’s Eve, even though I won’t go out, I just think about what fake fur can I wear? What funny things that I can put on my face. Taylor Swift is selling her heart around the eye, for the glitter on your eye.
Claire: You bought that, didn’t you?
Joy: I haven’t bought it yet. I was waiting.
Claire: It’s in your cart.
Joy: [laughing] I’m trying to hard not to buy things for myself while I’m Christmas shopping, but man, it’s hard. I do think of New Year’s Eve, and all I think is glitter and flashing lights and the balls. Yes, I do love it because of that. On New Year’s Day, thinking of habits, thinking of the behavior change that I want to do. And I just really like thinking of it in the small, tiny little baby steps. So that’s all I’m going to say. I’m just going to kind of tease our other episode. But I will say, it’s very tempting – kind of like how we started this conversation – to go to the diet culture mentality, “I’m going to work out and go on a diet.” Let’s all just please refrain from that. Let’s refrain.
Claire: Pick something bigger. Pick something different. Just try something new. And we can talk about this. I mean, it’s only the first week in December.
Joy: I know, but we’re going to keep talking about it because you know I love a buildup.
Claire: You love a buildup. It’s just around the corner. Cringe.
Joy: [laughing]
Claire: Joy loves the buildup. I have been doing a lot of things on a whim lately, I would say. Things I have wanted to do and now finally am like, you know what? Screw it. Like I signed up for that surfing camp.
Joy: Which by the way, you follow their Instagram account and now I want to go on a surfing camp. It looks so fun.
Claire: Right? Just a bunch of women eating tacos and surfing. This is literally my dream. Which is great because I’m going to go do it. I signed up to learn how to hunt. Very excited about that. There is this organization called Hunt to Eat. I’m going to go on a deer/boar hunt. So you guys might not remember, maybe a year ago or more, we were talking about ethical meat consumption. This probably even goes back to early 2020 when we had Mark Ritchie on the podcast and talked about sustainable eating habits and regenerative agriculture. I started talking about my beliefs around sustainable meat consumption and the fact that I really wanted to learn how to hunt and that I felt like hunting is the most sustainable way to go about getting meat and finding it. Hunting is very closely regulated throughout the United States. I could go into that whole wildlife side of it. But I signed up for this women’s only, first time hunter. It’s four days long. It’s in Oklahoma. It’s bow hunting, which I also think is really badass. And also significantly lowers the chances that I’m going to actually hunt anything because I have never – I mean, I took archery classes when I was in elementary school, but that’s all. So yeah, really excited about that. I got a tattoo of a bear holding a croissant. Psyched on that.
Joy: Oh yeah, let’s talk about that decision. That just showed up on Instagram.
Claire: Yeah. I actually had not been thinking about it for that long. I have been wanting to get more tattoos and fill in my arm all the way. The tattoo artist who I see has had a hard time getting back into some form of organization since 2020. This whole year, she’s just been like –
Joy: I wonder why. That’s so weird.
Claire: She opened her own studio. It’s just been impossible to get on her books. She’s already someone who is very hard to schedule with. So I follow a bunch of other tattoo artists. I, a couple weeks ago, had this random idea, wouldn’t it be funny to get a tattoo of a bear holding a croissant? Similar to that artwork of the bear hugging the state of California, but instead of the state of California it’s a croissant. So then another tattoo artist that I follow randomly on a Saturday night was like, “Hey, I had a last-minute cancellation. If anyone wants to get a tattoo tomorrow, I’m free at 5 o’clock.” So I immediately DM’d her and was like, “If this is still available, I want it.” And she’s like, “Okay, great. What do you want to get?” I was like, “Uh, a bear holding a croissant.” I was like, this is going to go one of two ways. Either she is going to write me back and be like “That’s amazing,” or she’s going to write me back and be like, “Uh…” or she’s just going to ghost me. Luckily, she wrote back and thought it was awesome, so I got a tattoo of a bear holding a croissant on my leg. It’s right above my knee. I’m happy with it. I feel like I’ve turned a corner into someone who just gets random tattoos now, which I’m psyched about.
Joy: You’ve always been that person.
Claire: But not random. This feels truly like, this is a silly tattoo of a bear holding a croissant.
Joy: Alright.
Claire: Like, my other tattoos as least can sort of have a little bit more of – “Well, why did you get a tattoo?” I don’t know. I just thought it would be funny to have a tattoo of a bear holding a croissant.
Joy: Yeah, I can appreciate that.
Claire: I’ve always gotten tattoos, but a little bit less on a whim.
Joy: Yeah, tattoo and whim do not always go together.
Claire: I’ve said this before that people say getting tattoos is addictive. I think it’s less addictive and more that once you start getting tattoos, you realize they really are not that big of a deal. I think before you get tattoos, you have them built up in your head as this big life-altering event. And then you get one and you’re like, I’m just me but with a bird I can see sometimes on my arm.
Joy: Totally. Totally.
Claire: And you realize people out there don’t care anymore. Society doesn’t care about it anymore. It’s just not a big deal.
Joy: Nobody cares.
Claire: And they’re fun.
Joy: They’re very fun.
Claire: So I’m kind of like, this is so fun to look at. And if there is a deeper meaning behind it, it’s that I got it on a part of my body that is really not my favorite part of my body. Just my legs, I don’t know. My legs are not my favorite part of my body. But now I have this thing where I look down and look at my leg and I’m like, “Oh. Look at that guy.”
Joy: So cute.
Claire: Now I really like this part of my body because I have a bear holding a croissant on it.
Joy: That’s great. That’s great.
Claire: Why not? So instead of being like, I’m not a huge fan of my lower thighs. Now I have a bear holding a croissant.
Joy: I just want to say – this is not towards you at all. But I always wanted to be like, “Oh, your meaty thigh” because I used to say that to Cadet. It makes me really miss Cadet. She would always go on her back and want me to rub her belly, and I’d be like, “little, meaty thigh.” You have a cute little bear on your meaty thigh. But I’m just saying it in the dog voice. I’m not saying anything toward your body.
Claire: It’s okay. I’m not taking it –
Joy: Okay, thank you.
Claire: So I’m really excited about that. And then, I also got a new ring that I’m really excited about from this jeweler that I follow who I’ve always wanted a ring from, and I finally just bought one, because they’re expensive. It’s one of those – people release things and they’re sold out within two minutes. So there’s just a lot of little things where I’ve been like, you know what, I’m going to stop rationalizing myself out of this and I’m just going to do it, and it’s been really fun.
Joy: Congratulations.
Claire: I didn’t even need a new year to do that.
Joy: No. You don’t always need a new year. You don’t need the calendar to tell you.
Claire: But I had a new job, and then I had a birthday. There was some new energy in there.
Joy: Yeah, for sure. I think what I was thinking about too with the habits thing is that – okay, don’t judge me on this. I found myself finding the appeal of, let’s just say a fitness-related goal. So one of the Peloton instructors posted this thing. She’s so sweet. She’s so cute. She had a baby, I think, this year – last year? She posted this challenge for December. Every day, just move for 30 minutes. She’s doing a running or walking thing. But she basically was like, hey, join me. And posted a little calendar. I was just like, oh my gosh, looks so fun. It just reminded me of how fun it is to do something – there’s no pressure. It’s not like you have to run three miles. It was just, you have to move for 30 minutes a day and just be mindful of that. It didn’t feel diet cultury to me. I like her vibe. It just reminded me, it doesn’t have to be bad when it’s fitness related. I never want to come across like that either. Then it got me thinking about New Year’s and habits. It’s fun to do stuff together.
Claire: Yeah, I agree. And we also talk a lot about how physical goals are not inherently toxic. I feel like sometimes we swing too far in the other direction and say people aren’t allowed to have physical goals. Because then that means they’re a slave to diet culture. And that’s not true. You can make any goal you want for yourself as long as you are honest with yourself about where it comes from. I also think that there is a lot of freedom in having goals that are based on something outside of trying to look or weigh or be a certain body type that can still be very physical. I don’t ever want to be like, “You’re not allowed to want to lose weight” or “You’re not allowed to want to look muscular” or whatever the case may be. But if you’ve always set goals based on those things, maybe just try a different type of goal. And maybe try a different type of physical goal. Like, I want to work out 100 times next year. I want to do 100 workouts in a year. Or I want to do 200 workouts. That’s a lot, but have fun. Or for me right now, my training goal really has to do with my surfing thing. I really want to get there and not have to worry about being so sore the second day that I can’t enjoy myself for the rest of the week.
Joy: Exactly.
Claire: Or maybe you want to be able to outrun your five-year-old. I’m currently 99% sure Miles would beat me in a foot race. I have more endurance than he does, but purely because I’m older.
Joy: Yeah. But he could probably just sprint right past you.
Claire: He’s absolutely faster than me in a short distance race.
Joy: Yeah.
Claire: All that to say, get creative.
Joy: Get creative. Have fun. If it fits for you, great. There’s no right or wrong way of doing it. I’m going to leave it at that. Okay, let’s take a quick break to talk about this week’s sponsor, Ned. We have the stressors over the holidays. We are probably feeling run down. The year’s been a year. The past two years have been a year. We would like to introduce to you if you haven’t already seen the Ned products, the CBD products. High quality products. I’ve been using the sleep blend. I still get hotel sleep. Mom Sandy is a huge fan of the mellow. If you don’t want a CBD product, you can use the mellow, which is a magnesium. And you’ve been using that too, right Claire?
Claire: Yeah. And they just came out with a new flavor. Meyer lemon. So delish.
Joy: Oh, I love Meyer lemon.
Claire: I love a Meyer lemon. Okay, also, here’s my other note. Call me crazy. I’ve gotten to the point where taking Ned before bed is so intrinsically part of my nighttime routine that as soon as I brush my teeth, I cannot forget to take it. Because one time I had my toothbrush – you’re going to think this is nasty. Because the Ned products taste a little skunky. I love the flavor of them after I brush my teeth.
Joy: Really?
Claire: So I brush my teeth. Then I do my dropper full of Ned. And I sit there for a minute with it under my tongue while I get the other bottles of the other supplements that I take and pour them out. Then I swallow the CBD.
Joy: You’re creating a habit.
Claire: I swallow the CBD. Then I put the vitamins in, and I chase it all with water to get the skunky taste out. But I don’t know, there’s something about it.
Joy: That’s interesting.
Claire: You guys are going to think I’m crazy, but I love it.
Joy: Alright. Hot take, hot take. I typically do a little bit of a chaser afterwards, but it’s fine. Whatever works for you. But we do want to say that full transparency is Ned. They have third-party lab reports who farms their products, their extraction process, all right there on their site. So you can get a discount for the holidays. Even more of a discount. Our listeners get 20% off Ned products with code JOY. And when you spend more than $150, Ned is throwing in free gifts with every order. Visit helloned.com/JOY to get access. That’s helloned.com/JOY to get 20% off plus a free gift with orders over $150. Thank you, Ned, for sponsoring the show and offering our listeners a natural remedy for some of life’s most common health issues. Thank you, Ned. Alright, can I give an update on what’s going on with the bone marrow donation?
Claire: Yeah, please.
Joy: Because that’s taken some turns. So about a month ago – gosh, it’s probably been over a month – I posted about getting called by Be the Match, which is an organization that has a registry for bone marrow donation. Just to be clear, these are a lot of things I’m learning as I go along. Some people don’t know this that when you join Be the Match, when you join the registry, you’re not going to donate. Just joining the registry does nothing. It just puts your sample on a list. You may never get called. Just because you get on the registry doesn’t mean you’re going to get called. In fact, it’s rare that you would get called. I want to say it’s 1 out of 2000. Maybe 1 out of 1000 people will get called if they are on the registry. So I joined this registry about seven years ago, got a call about a month ago that I was a match with a patient. And that, hey, would you want to donate bone marrow? So fast forward, I was supposed to donate in November. That got pushed out because of the patient’s health declining and just not currently being in a state where she was healthy enough to get the donation. It’s still going to happen, but we just have to wait. For privacy reasons, obviously, I don’t know a lot about what’s she’s doing or how she’s doing. But I am hoping that at some point in the next month, I’ll be able to still donate bone marrow and save her life. All I ask right now is that people send her prayers, if you believe in that. But it really made me sad. I have to take filgrastim shots, which is a bone marrow booster, five days before my donation. And the day before I was supposed to start shot one, I got the call that it was on hold. So I was just psyching myself up, psyching myself up. And psyching myself up in a way of I hope that she’s okay too. Because I can’t help but think, how is she doing? When I got the call, I was like, aw man, I just really felt for her. All I’m thinking is that at any time a donor could just pull out and say, “No, I don’t want to do this anymore” and maybe she’s worried about that. Now her whole family is like, okay, she’s not doing the bone marrow donation yet. We have to wait, and we have to do more treatment before she’s in a state of health where she could get the donation. So it’s all very like, I just want to send her good vibes. I don’t know who she is. She’s just this stranger out in the United States. That is the update. Some wonderful listener recommended – she sent us a DM and she was like, “I don’t know if you’ve read this book yet, but I thought it might be helpful for you to read because you’re going to be donating to hear it from a recipient’s standpoint. The book is called Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad.” I can post the book in the show notes. I read it within a week. It was so good. I listened to the book, and she reads it. It really talks a lot about her journey with leukemia and getting a bone marrow transplant from her brother and how it impacts her life and how it impacted her life. And luckily, she’s still alive. But thank you, listener, for recommending that book because I really, really loved it. I really wanted to get into the head space of what the patient that is going to get the donation is going through. I can already imagine it’s so difficult. But I think I feel even more close to her. It’s just an interesting feeling to be this person that they are banking on me too, to follow through. I just can’t imagine what that feels like. Anyway, that is the update on the bone marrow donation. To be continued. My biggest fear – and this happens. I see it in the private Facebook group for donors. Patients die. I think my fear when my caseworker called me, because she was like, “Do you have a second to chat?” I was like, oh crap, there’s going to be a change. She doesn’t text me just to chat. It’s usually something that we’re changing course. She’s like, “Unfortunately” – and when she said “unfortunately,” I thought she was going to say the patient died. She just said, “They had a relapse, and we have to go through some more treatment before you can donate.” That could happen. That’s just my immediate prayer. I just hope that she gets to a place of health. I will keep you guys posted. Go to bethematch.org, get on the registry if you’re between 18 and 35. That is the population that they need the most right now. And specifically people of color.
Claire: So we have a few questions left from a couple weeks ago. We did some Q&A. Let’s pull those up and finish off our week.
Joy: Leftover Q&A.
Claire: My fave.
Joy: I can do this one. Recs for how to keep hands moisturized through the winter. I feel like everyone has an opinion about this. Do you have a favorite lotion that you love?
Claire: No. I don’t like the feeling of lotion. And I think because I’ve always lived here –
Joy: Your body is used to it.
Claire: My body is used to it. I’m not saying that my hands are not a little bit dry, but they don’t get dry the way that I see other people’s hands getting dry. Like, my knuckles don’t crack or anything.
Joy: Nothing is more painful than the split fingers on the tips.
Claire: I’ve never had that.
Joy: I get that as least once a year. I use the Kiehl’s ultra-moisturizing hand lotion. It is amazing. As well as the Aveda hand cream. So good. Don’t buy anything else.
Claire: I just always think of that scene in Ocean’s Eleven where Burnie Sanders is trying to negotiate the van purchase.
Joy: Bernie Sanders?
Claire: Not Bernie Sanders. [laughing]
Joy: I was like, Bernie? Did they put him in a chair in Ocean’s Eleven with his mittens? That’s all I could think about.
Claire: Bernie Mac. Bernie Mac. [laughing] I wish it was Bernie Sanders. That would be way funnier. Hot take. Brad Pitt, if you’re listening, get Bernie Sanders on board for the next Ocean’s movie.
Joy: Just prop him up in a chair with mittens.
Claire: Bernie Sanders. Bernie Mac is trying to negotiate with his hands, and he’s squeezing that guy’s hands really tight. He’s talking about his hand moisturizer. “Ideally speaking, we should all wear gloves to bed.”
Joy: [laughing]
Claire: I always think about that.
Joy: That’s good.
Claire: You have nice hands. Do you moisturize? No. I will say though. Truly, a ritual thing that I do is every night before I go to bed, I do put on my Ned chap stick.
Joy: Oh my gosh.
Claire: I literally can’t get into bed without putting chap stick on.
Joy: I lather my lips in chap stick, and Ned chap stick is the best. What espresso machine do you have? We’ve got a couple people asking about espressos.
Claire: I don’t have an espresso anymore. I feel like we have maybe covered this. I had a Nespresso machine. Not “an espresso” machine, “a Nespresso” machine.
Joy: George Clooney espresso. Doesn’t he do the ads for them?
Claire: I don’t know. I thought you were still going all Ocean’s Eleven?
Joy: [laughing]
Claire: I was like, man, we’re really going to ride this one out. I don’t have one anymore. I used to have one. I had it for like a year. I really liked it. When we started being at home more, I found I wasn’t really using it as much. Brandon never liked the Nespresso coffee, so what we would do is we would buy these reusable pods and fill it with our own coffee from the local coffee shop that we like. That was just a lot of work, which is fine, and I did it. In the end, it was not as convenient as I want it to be because I have to do this whole thing with reusing our pods. I think I still have a highlight on my Instagram if you’re like, “Reusable pods, that’s a thing?” It really was not that big of a deal. It was like a faff. Now we use a Cemex, which I love.
Joy: Wait, you have to explain “faff” for our non-British Bake Off listeners.
Claire: Okay, so if you do not watch The Great British Bake Off, there’s a contestant named Freya who is so funny. She was 19 and vegan and just all the things. And she all the time would say that things were a faff. So I started asking what the heck does faff mean. And people told me it basically means anything that is more effort than it’s worth. Now I just use it all the time because we all need a word for that.
Joy: And everyone told us what “ta” means so from Lizzie when she’d be like, “Ta.” It is shorthand for “thanks,” which I think is adorable.
Claire: Adorable.
Joy: I love Nespresso and I use it every morning. I have the virtuo line.
Claire: What’s your favorite flavor?
Joy: I hate any flavor coffee. So just give me a mild or dark roast. I cannot stand flavored coffees. So I think I get the stormio – I get whatever the typical Nespresso brand is. I don’t do any of the special stuff. Whenever they have special roasts every month, I don’t get those. But pro tip, I was so annoyed for the longest time that they don’t sell virtuo line Nespresso pods anywhere but in the Nespresso store or on the Nespresso app. Until Starbucks started selling them at Target. Just so you know, they are now at Target.
Claire: I also feel like I would have stuck with Nespresso if I had waited another year because when I was using Nespresso, it was before they sold pods anywhere other than online or at the Nespresso store. You could only buy Keurig, and no one else made Nespresso pods. They were only the third-party Keurig pods. That was another downside in my opinion.
Joy: You really had to plan ahead if you were going to order – whatever. Someone asked favorite brand of lip balm. I would say Ned. Let’s just reiterate, I really love Ned lip balm. I probably also have about ten different types of lip balm at any time.
Claire: I would say Ned. But Ned is not cheap. Evie went through this phase over the summer where she ate all my chap sticks. She ate them.
Joy: Oh no.
Claire: It was disgusting.
Joy: Wax in her poo?
Claire: It was so gross. A chap stick stick would disappear, and she would just gnaw on it throughout the day and then it would just be gone. Luckily, she did not eat any of my CBD chap stick.
Joy: Delicious.
Claire: But for a while there, I was just buying the cheapest chap stick possible because I was convinced she was going to eat it if she got her hands on it. Not that this is the cheapest, but I also do Burt’s Bees. I like their vanilla flavor. I don’t love their peppermint one. The thingy, spicy chap stick thing, I’m not into it.
Joy: Not a fan. Okay. Do you have any irrational fears?
Claire: Yeah. We know I do. I’m terrified of moths flying in my ears and laying their eggs.
Joy: I just wanted you to say it.
Claire: Guys, please don’t DM me with the stories of when this happened to you. This always happens. Every time I say I have this irrational fear of moths flying in my ears and laying eggs, and five people DM us like, “Claire, it’s not irrational. Here’s a story about the time that it happened to my sister at summer camp.” Why? Don’t tell me these things. Let me believe that it’s not going to happen to anyone in the real world.
Joy: We will absolutely get at least one person who will say, “I work in an ER, and I treated someone.”
Claire: Please don’t do this to me.
Joy: I will be on alert the day we release this episode, and I will be deleting messages so that Claire doesn’t see them.
Claire: True friendship.
Joy: But the funny thing is when we had our live show at Camp Timeout –
Claire: A moth landed in my ear, practically, and it was horrifying. I know.
Joy: That was so funny – it wasn’t funny, but it was. Because the irony. It just killed me. Your worst fear is coming true.
Claire: Live.
Joy: In a live interview.
Claire: Oh my gosh.
Joy: Alright, should we do one more?
Claire: Yeah, we can do a couple more. Somebody asked me what my favorite things were for a baby registry. I always love this question because I think baby registries can get so overwhelming. If you’ve never had babies before and you’re like, do I need a million things? My suggestion is don’t register for clothes. People are going to buy you clothes whether you ask for them or not. You’re going to get them. You’ll get hand me downs. One thing I learned very quickly is the first couple times someone offers to give you their hand me downs, you’re like, oh my God, thank you. You’re amazing. Now that I’ve been the mom trying to get rid of hand me downs that you are doing someone a favor by accepting those hand me downs. They have been sitting in a basement in a freaking trash bag for two damn years. Accept the hand me downs.
Joy: Please take them.
Claire: You are doing them a favor.
Joy: They’re so happy to get rid of them.
Claire: So don’t register for clothes. Everyone will give you clothes. Just buy jammies. You don’t need little outfits. You absolutely do not. But you need really to start out with, you never in my opinion can have too many swaddle blankets. Like the linen muslin ones. You can just use them for everything. You can never have too many diapers. Although I would hesitate to say any diaper any size. You’re going to find a diaper brand that you like. So all of this to say, guys, register for gift cards. Target. Amazon. Walmart. Don’t overthink it. If you have a new mom in your life, give them a gift card. Because as you go on through the first couple weeks of being a mom, you will quickly identify the things that you like and want more of and the things that are an absolute afterthought. So if you have gift cards, that will just let you make up your own mind. I know it’s not exciting. But just do that. Or grocery store gift cards. And the other thing is register for a postpartum care fund. There are a lot of baby registries out there that let you accept cash. Or if there is a postpartum doula organization in your community, most often times they will have gift cards available. Really cash is the easiest way to do that. Or if there are people out there that are like I don’t want to give cash, I want to give a thing. To you, I say, who is this about? You or them? Try to find a place that does a pedicure or a laundry service or a yard care service or a dog walker. What are the chores that you can help them with through gift cards and gifts? There’s my soap box. Don’t overthink it. Gift cards and services. Okay, let’s take this one and then we can wrap it up. I feel like this is one that applies to both of us. Somebody said, “I need to learn to cook for myself, but I don’t like cooking. Any tips to make it more fun?” And my answer to them on Instagram was, “I’m a firm believer in using shortcuts when critical activities are not enjoyable.” And then we always joke that you assemble. You don’t cook.
Joy: Yeah. And I recently just saw this book on… I think it’s New York Times Cooking. We’ll have to go look it up and I can post it. But it’s basically a cookbook that is no recipes. It’s just assembling. And the Sassy Dietician has a lot of assembling as well. She doesn’t follow recipes. She assembles. She’s great at it. And as we mentioned in our last GGW episode, she has a new book coming out that is all about meal planning. Not in a diety way, but just how to assemble food way. I’m all about assembling.
Claire: And what we mean by that is buying prepackaged items. Like stuff that you might still have to prepare a little bit, like a side dish that comes frozen or a rotisserie chicken that you break apart. Just not overthinking it and going into Trader Joe’s or whatever. Trader Joe’s is perfect for assemblers.
Joy: Totally. Oh my gosh, so good for assemblers. And then you basically just buy the things and assemble the things. But I don’t have the creative brain to be like, what kind of things do I feel like need assembling. I just get stuck eating a banana.
Claire: What’s your go-to dinner that’s basically just a large snack when you absolutely do not have any inspiration?
Joy: Oh man. Avocado toast. I can assemble this, and I can put everything on it, and it’s great.
Claire: Do you often have avocado toast?
Joy: It’s not often. But when they’re soft enough at Costco, I’ll just buy a big bag
Claire: Mine is probably popcorn. I have definitely been known to just eat popcorn and a bunch of pieces of cheese for dinner.
Joy: Yeah. It’ll usually be avocado toast or some type of toast. But you have to have enough substance on top of it.
Claire: You’ve got to have a little something in there. That’s where cheese comes in. A bowl of popcorn, couple pieces of cheese, a pickle to round it out. I don’t know why I think those foods go together.
Joy: Oh, that’s so great.
Claire: Alright guys, thank you for listening to this absolutely random episode. They are our favorite ones to do, and I hope that they are your favorite ones to listen to. You can find us on Instagram @joyandclaire_. You can find us online joyandclaire.com. You can email us thisisjoyandclaire@gmail.com. Don’t forget to support our podcast by supporting our awesome sponsor and you can get 20% off, which is more than our normal discount. 20% off through the holidays with code JOY. Go to helloned.com. Those little CBD bottles just go so well in a stocking, I’m telling you.
Joy: Yeah, it’s a nice little treat.
Claire: It really is.
Joy: It’s going to calm everybody down.
Claire: Just calm them down.
Joy: Calm those people that are talking too many politics, just calm them down. Just slip it in their drink.
Claire: We need an air freshener just full of CBD. Alright guys, that is all from us this week. We will talk to you next week.
Joy: Bye guys.
Claire: Bye.
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