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This is Joy & Claire Episode 116: Reel Life
Episode Date: March 3, 2022
Transcription Completed: March 19, 2022
Audio Length: 45:16 minutes
Joy: Hey guys, this is Joy.
Claire: And this is Claire.
Joy: Welcome back. It’s another week at the podcast.
Claire: It’s March.
Joy: It’s March. Someone mentioned last week on our Instagram page. I think you did a post around podcasting for nine years. Someone was like, “Oh my gosh, are you going to plan a ten-year trip?” I was like, we really should start planning that now. It would be summer of next year. Summer 2023, right?
Claire: Yes. Okay, before we get started, we do want to say that on this podcast we are not going to address the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We do not know enough about that issue for us to speak in a way that feels authentic, in a way that feels helpful or useful or like it would add anything to the conversation. I feel like right now there are some really great accounts you can be following. We will link a couple in our show notes. I just want to be very sensitive to that, to acknowledge that there is a huge global event happening right now. We are not trying to skate over it. We are not trying to ignore it, but we just don’t have anything to add to that conversation. We very much support the people of Ukraine. We very much are worried and –
Joy: We’re keeping up to date on our own of what’s going on.
Claire: Exactly.
Joy: I’m reading every day. I’m listening to a lot of podcasts of people that are actually there. If you haven’t listened to The Daily with Sabrina Tavernise, she’s doing real live updates of what’s going on. It’s heartbreaking. I think bottom line is because we are not posting about it or talking about it on the podcast at length, that doesn’t mean we don’t care. We are supporting Ukraine. We are sending all of our love. And also, we know that things are changing daily. We want to be responsible too about the content that we’re putting out about it.
Claire: I think the only other thing that I’ll add is that if you were looking for places to donate, the places I have donated are the UN Refugee Agency as well as World Kitchen. These are two organization that I either have personal experiences with or people close to me have personal experiences with working directly with those non-profits. So I feel pretty confident in those. I know there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and things are changing so quickly that it’s kind of hard to know how to help. Those are two orgs that I have a lot of confidence in. I can’t say I 100% know every single thing about them, but I do have high confidence in them. We will link those in the show notes as well.
Joy: Yeah, there’s a lot going on in the world.
Claire: So many things. Every day.
Joy: That’s really big right now, but there are other huge issues going on in the world. I am reading every single day about what’s going on. I try not to over flood my system with stress and news, but what I know I can manage is to make sure that I’m keeping up to date with what’s going on in the world so that I can appropriately act and donate to the right organizations. I think that’s something that there’s no right or wrong way to do it. That’s where it gets tricky is a lot of people can handle a lot of news. Some people can handle that. Some people can’t. So take your you. Stay informed. Shut it off when you need to. Fill your cup so that you can help others.
Claire: Okay, I know that this was not what we were planning on opening the podcast with, but I am curious, Joy, from your standpoint. I’m sure you’re hearing about this with your clients all day long. How can you practically set those boundaries and be guilt-free about that in terms of not feeling like you have to just be constantly – the whole don’t look away, don’t turn it off.
Joy: Right. And most of the time it has to do with comparison. I think we compare ourselves a lot to what other people are doing, what other people can handle. I think social media really needs into this. There’s always that dichotomy of, “We have it so well and I feel so guilty about that. We’re not suffering.” The main point to remember is if you feel depleted versus you have enough energy to help in small ways. Small ways could be, again, donating or just keeping eye son what movements are going on in your area that you could potentially help with. Like if you want to actually physically volunteer somewhere, keep an eye on that. Don’t get so depleted to where every single day you’re waking up feeling drained, feeling like you can’t handle any more information. I talk to a lot of people who will get so down the rabbit hold that they feel depleted. They just can’t think past any solution and then they go to this place of, “The world is shit, and there’s nothing I can do, so f*** it.” When you start to go down the case of the f*** it’s is when we you want to real back a little bit. That’s not helpful. I get it. It’s very scary. But we don’t want to get to the point where we just completely give up. Get to a place where you feel like you’re informed enough, but not to a place where you’re like, “Well, screw it. The world is burning, and there’s nothing we can do.” That’s not going to help anybody.
Claire: Yeah. And I think it’s also important in this case to realize that unlike a lot of the other issues that we’ve been dealing with in America recently, this is something that it’s really hard to address personally at this time. I think that’s something for me where I’ve been like, hey listen, my personal vigilance is not going to solve this problem. I am not nearly educated enough, nor do I understand the factors at play to even have a well-formed opinion, let alone feel like I’m adding anything to the conversation.
Joy: But I think the main thing that I think most of us can agree on, it’s a horrible thing that’s going on. It’s absolutely devastating. That is what feels so hopeless. There’s so many people suffering. We are so physically distanced from it. I think that with the right type of self-awareness of really educating yourself on something that is really serious of how we can help. Looking away because you’re so tired and you can’t handle it is not going to help the problem. We really need to make sure that we are taking care of ourselves in that way.
Claire: So I just wanted to start the podcast off with that because we did do a Q&A for this week, and we did have a couple people say, are you going to address the situation in Ukraine? Why aren’t more people talking about this? And first of all, if you are not feeling like everybody is talking about it, then maybe you could add some different types of people to your feed because I definitely feel like I’m seeing it constantly. So seek out some voices about it. But this is a situation in particular where – everything. Everything right now. Everything, everything, always. Check your sources.
Joy: Check your sources.
Claire: Don’t’ rely on the headlines. Read the whole article.
Joy: Yes.
Claire: Try to do your own – not fact checking, because fact checking involves typically research. But make sure that you can verify across a couple different news sources what you’re reading.
Joy: Right. Before you start to post things or repost. To quote Brene on a recent post, “read up before you speak up.” I love that. There’s so much flying around. Especially what’s going on, it can be potentially harmful to post something or repost something. This is just very, very scary.
Claire: So take care of yourselves. And if you are not in a place to feel like you can’t take yourself out of that mindset, then this week’s podcast episode might not be for you and that’s okay. If you do feel like you want to be in that mental space of really focusing and really taking in a lot of current events, then just know that that’s not what we’re going to be focusing on this week. If that’s not for you right now, that’s fine. But if you are sitting there thinking, actually, I do feel like I need a little bit of a brain break, then here we go.
Joy: Here we go.
Claire: Here we go. So we have a few life updates. One not so positive one, and one pretty positive one.
Joy: Yeah. And before I forget, I mentioned this at the very beginning and we just took a quick right turn to talk about the current events, which I appreciate. I also want to circle back and make sure people know that we are definitely considering a ten-year party of some sort.
Claire: Okay, yeah, I don’t want to overshadow that.
Joy: Let’s not overshadow that. That was kind of quickly glossed over. Let’s not gloss over ten years. So TBD. As for the updates, quick updates. One is at the end of last weeks’ podcast episode, I mentioned that I was donating bone marrow this week. That was again delayed. This has been about the fourth time it has been postponed. Certain reasoning behind it. But the bottom line is the recipient has to be in a state of health in order to do a transplant. This just keeps getting postponed for that reason, and that is all I know right now. I just want to keep sending that recipient love and prayers that she stays health. So that’s where I’m at with that. I think some of my friends who work either in the recipient side or the donor side are like, “Yeah, this is really emotional for you too.” I think the weird part about it is, sure, I had emotions when I found out just because you really do psyche yourself up the week of donation. And then to have it changed really last minute a handful of times now is pretty, woah. It’s just kind of whiplash. But at the same time, you have this space of – at least for me, I want to get over it pretty quickly. Because at the end of the day, someone needs me. It’s a life-or-death situation, and you feel like you can’t have normal human emotions. It’s kind of like that comparison… what’s it called? Comparative suffering. That’s just something that I think about. Yes, I’m allowed to have some emotions around it, but I also see the bigger picture. No question about it. It’s just a very weird scenario that you could never imagine. Like how you could feel about these things. But I just really hope that she’s doing okay. The second positive update, which oddly enough this was on 2/22/2022, so I really feel like something was going on that day. Especially because Slack shut down and everyone was having computer issues ae got all this very emotional news in one day. Not 20 minutes later from the phone call from my case worker at Be the Match, I get a phone call from Canine Companions. It’s the puppy raiser liaison. I know her very well. I’ve known her for years since she and I graduated. She called. I see Oceanside, California on my phone pop up. My heart just drops because it could either be good news or it could be like, oh, Cadet is coming home. Which also is good news, but you kind of hope that your dog doesn’t flunk out. So Becky said that Cadet has been chosen for the hearing dog program. That just means that after these three months of training, they have evaluated her skills and they’ve seen that she really thrives in a more energetic environment. The hearing dog program requires that the dogs have a little more energy. She’s also very food motivated. And the hearing dog training track does a lot of food-reward motivation for the skills they learn. So she will be joining two other siblings in her litter in the hearing dog program. That will still be at Oceanside, so she’ll stay at Oceanside. This doesn’t just guarantee that she is going to graduate. It just means that this is the track that she is going on. If all goes well and she passes through this program, that just means that she’s matched to a human, an applicant that is hearing impaired. She would graduate and move on to be someone’s hearing dog. It’s really cool. I was talking to my uncle, one of my mom’s brothers. My mom is one of six children, and she has five brothers. One of her brothers is hard of hearing. He knows sign language. He really cannot hear at all. So my whole life, he’s used sign language to communicate, and he also does lip reading. So we never learned sign language because he could kind of communicate with us, and he can speak properly. But he would always lip read. We text a lot, and he said he just lost his dog. I was telling him about Cadet. He was like, “Maybe I’ll get her. I’m hard of hearing.” I’m like, “You should apply for a hearing dog.” How has this never occurred to me? Probably because he’s also had a dog, but now that he’s lost his dog. I don’t know if he’s going to do it. I’m like, “You should apply for a hearing dog. That would be so amazing.” He’s kind of at that age too where he’s getting a little older. He has a partner, but wouldn’t that be cool if he actually applied and got approved? I don’t think he’d get Cadet per se, but just to get a hearing dog, that would be a nice full circle moment. So anyway. Great positive updates.
Claire: Two things. The first one is that I think it’s so amazing how the program really matches dogs. Because all of her evaluations have been like, “She’s a little high energy, but we’re working with it. She’s really food-motivated, so we’re going to work with that.” So the fact that there’s things that could be seen as an issue we have to work with is being channeled into, oh, we have a program for this.
Joy: Totally. It’s so cool how they do that.
Claire: The other thing is, I don’t know about anybody else listening, but now every time I see a CCI dog in the wild, I feel like I’ve spotted a celebrity.
Joy: That’s true. I still do it. We were at the mall with Cadet one day last year, and someone ran up to us and was like, “I raised a puppy too.” You instantly feel like you know the person because it’s this thing that only people know when they’ve raised a puppy. It’s really cute. Yeah, a lot of people have said that too. Or they’ll send pictures of a CCI dog that they saw.
Claire: Yeah, if I see a CCI dog in the wild, I send it to Joy. I’m like, “Look!” She’s like, “Wow, Claire…”
Joy: I get it. I get excited too when you see the gold vest.
Claire: Yeah.
Joy: I feel like that’s the one thing I’ve always found so amazing when they do match day. This is such a special day. So if you are selected to go to team training – and team training is that two weeks of on campus, you’re living there 24/7 to train and then get the dog matched with you. Either a service dog or a facility dog or a hearing dog. Match day is the third day that you’re there. So it happens on a Wednesday. Pre-matched just means after you’re matched with the dog that they think is going to work best with you, the trainers watch and observe to make sure it’s a good fit. They never want to say, “Oh, you’re matched” because they don’t want it to be this pressure situation where you have to make it work with this dog. They call it a pre-match. Because then they’ll watch you for the next week to make sure all is good. So pre-match day is this really big day at Canine Companions. The whole staff comes in the training room with all the graduates to see people get matched with their forever dog. It’s super emotional, and everybody cries. I will always remember that day when I was matched with JT, but also because you see how great these trainers are with matching people with the dogs and the strengths these dogs have and how well they match with the person that they’re going to go to. It’s never just a whoever’s next on the waitlist gets this dog. It’s so, so carefully thought of. That’s why I always get really adamant about people and service dogs and making sure the dogs are right for service or right for therapy, just depending on their temperament and what’s going to stress the dog out. So I just really appreciate that they take that into consideration. I’m really excited for Cadet, and we are just crossing our fingers to make sure that she’s going to keep going. I’m so proud of her.
Claire: So cute. Yay, dogs.
Joy: Yay, dogs.
Claire: I don’t really have any life updates. Nothing has really changed in my life in the past week.
Joy: Let’s give a really quick update, because we’re going to do a Q&A, but someone did ask how our new jobs are going.
Claire: Sure. So I’ve been at my job now, let’s see… November, December, January… I’m going into my fourth month. It’s been good. I really, really like my new job. It’s really flexible. I think I’ve talked about how I like having the option of being at home or going into the office. As things continue to open up more and more, I think going into the office will be a little more mandatory but still not every day. I still really like that. As you guys know, I’ve been feeling really cooped up for the last year. So my job itself is great. It’s definitely a growing team. So there’s always some hiccups to try and figure out what are the processes going to be? This team used to only be 12 people and now it’s like 30, so how are we updating the way that we work and working through those growing pains. But I’m really enjoying it. I have two people who report to me, and I really like both of them. And I hope they like me too, I guess. I know that’s not the goal as a manager, but I want to be a cool mom. Not a regular manager, I want to be a cool manager. Yeah. It’s a great location. It’s right in downtown Denver, which for me is a big deal because I get to have my time out on the town. Because otherwise I just live at sort of the edge of Longmont.
Joy: The end of the earth.
Claire: I live at the end of Boulder County. Literally the county line is a mile from the house. That’s my update. I really like it. In case you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, I work in marketing at a mid-size outdoor brand. The brand has a very large parent company. So it’s super fun. I’ve almost always worked in a situation like that where I’ve worked for a smaller brand that ladders up to a big company. It’s just a structure that I find I really like because you can have the agility of a smaller brand while having the resources of a bigger company, and that’s really fun.
Joy: Congratulations.
Claire: Thanks.
Joy: My update is I’ve been with my company for about three months. So it started with a smaller company, and then Headspace bought this other company right when I was getting hired on. So I work for Headspace. Which is a branch – they call Headspace Health because it’s more therapy. Headspace has traditionally been meditations in the meditation app, which is great. Highly recommend the app. And now, they offer therapy for certain types of funnels as far as contracts that they have, employers that buy them for therapy for their employees. So right now it’s not a BetterHelp where you can just call in and get hooked up with a therapist. But I’ve been doing full-time teletherapy from home working for that company, and I just love it. I love the culture. I love the people. I love the clients. They’re great. I like working from home, and I do like the flexibility of that. So I feel like it’s a really good fit. I just don’t feel, even with seeing patients all day, I don’t feel burnt out. I don’t feel the hustle and bustle of working in an outpatient clinic where they literally stuff you with patients all day, and you’re just so brain tired at the end of the day. They do a really good job. I love the CEO of this company. He’s just super rad. We do meditations before every team meeting. They’re just great. A completely 180 from where I was and the toxic crap I had to deal with. Karma has really thrown me a bone. So that’s really going well.
Claire: Alright, before we dive into too many more Q&A’s, let’s take a break to talk about our sponsor Ned. We love Ned. We love their CBD products. We have both been personally using Ned for years.
Joy: Years.
Claire: We started using Ned in… what? Would it have been 2018? And we absolutely love their products. Continue to love them even more. The more stuff they come out with is more stuff for us to love. This week, we are particularly excited about their sleep blend, which is new and improved. It’s going to get you an even greater night’s sleep. I love this stuff because I don’t have a hard time falling asleep, but I do have a hard time staying asleep. This really just gets me through that middle section of the night where I used to find myself awake randomly at 2 in the morning. I have not woken up in the middle of the night since I started taking this. I know that sounds like a wild claim, but I’m here to tell you that it is true. And then you wake up to your alarm and you’re like, oh my gosh, I did it. I slept through the night.
Joy: And you feel so good. When I use the sleep blend – you all know how I feel about it. My quality of sleep is pretty decent, but when I just really need to be like, look, I need to get a really good night sleep, the sleep blend is perfect. It’s new and it’s improved, and they are offering you an even greater night’s sleep. Who doesn’t need sleep?
Claire: So this new formulation blends CBN, which is a powerful cannabinoid that actually specifically promotes sleep, with 750 mg of certified organic CBD. Also has 24% more sleep-inducing botanicals by weight. So they are just adding more botanicals into the blend. As always, it is all third-party tested. So you can go online and check the batch number and see exactly what is in there. Not all CBD brands do this. They’re not required to. This is something that Ned does to go above and beyond to show you exactly what you’re getting when you take their product.
Joy: And I love here that they say, hey, it’s grown by Jonathan, who is an independent farmer. So when you’re buying their products, you’re supporting Jonathan in Paonia, Colorado.
Claire: Paonia. I just love saying that. Paonia.
Joy: Jonathan, he’s a farmer. Support him. And you’re also supporting the podcast. So here’s the other great thing. You guys ready? It is Ned’s birthday month. So you’re getting an even deeper discount by supporting the podcast and supporting Ned. It’s their birthday month. If you would like to give their new and improved sleep blend a try, our listeners get 21% off with code JOY for the month of March only. It’s their best offer of the year. Visit helloned.com/JOY to get access. That’s helloned.com/JOY to get 21% off. Thank you, Ned, for sponsoring the show and offering our listeners a natural remedy for some of life’s common health issues.
Claire: Yay. One last quick thing. I will also say, I take it with the mellow blend, and I just want to note –
Joy: Yeah, you’re really into that.
Claire: I’m really into mellow. I’m really into magnesium. It’s a great thing to combine. That’s not a doctor’s advice. But I did want to say after last week when I really promoted the mellow, was really excited about mellow. If you are not used to taking magnesium, it is the natural laxative. I just feel like I need to tell you that before you get surprised.
Joy: Just a little hot tip.
Claire: Just a hot tip.
Joy: If you’re going into a meeting, you might not want to take it.
Claire: Just don’t take it. It’s not like Colon Blow.
Joy: Wait for later.
Claire: You’re going to feel it in the morning, and you’re going to be like, “What did I eat?” It’s the magnesium, and it’s normal. Your body will adapt.
Joy: I really like the flavors.
Claire: Me too.
Joy: I like the lemon flavor the best. Alright. Thank, Ned. Love you. Love your stuff.
Claire: Let’s go into some Q&A’s. What do we got?
Joy: Oh my goodness. Alright. So I kind of laughed at this one. This one is from one of our favorite listeners, Mira. She says, “Hi, I’ve noticed a big uptick in reels in the past week. Is there a reason?” And I just wanted to laugh because the one today – oh my gosh, you have to tell that story.
Claire: It was like pulling teeth to get Joy to do this. I need you guys to understand. There’s two things you should know about Joy. The first thing is that the more mainstream something is, the less Joy wants to do it. Unless it pertains to reality TV. For some reason, reality TV gets a pass.
Joy: Yeah, that’s an asterisk. Yeah.
Claire: Everything else. Like Wordle, this woman will never do a World.
Joy: No. Stop posting about Wordle.
Claire: That’s right. Stop pushing Wordle on Joy against her will. This is a funny fact about Joy is that the more popular something is, and particularly in social media world, the more she resists it.
Joy: Yeah, I resist it. I will absolutely run the other way and avoid it and make fun of everybody who does it.
Claire: And the second thing that you should know about our dynamic is that for as long as we’ve had the podcast, one of the things that I’ve been the –
Joy: The voice of reason.
Claire: I was going to say “pusher.”
Joy: But this is also your expertise. So you know what the benefit, and I’m just like, “I don’t like it.”
Claire: So I work in marketing. My career is in marketing. I understand how important it is to have a presence on social media, to have a presence on our website, to do all of that stuff. So the answer and the reasoning is that we really were not active on social media in 2021. Things felt like there was too much going on. We did not feel motivated to really be super present or super active on social media for a wide variety of reasons. A lot of which had to do with our own personal lives. So coming into 2022, one thing that we have been talking about is, hey, how can we get more active on social media again? Because it is really the hub of our community. We love that you guys listen to the podcast. We know not everyone listens every week. We know there are some people out there that really only know us through Instagram. But the coolest part about it is there are long-time podcast listeners or even new listeners who the reason that we know you, just like Mira, the person who asked this question, I feel like I have a good pulse on Mira’s life because of Instagram.
Joy: I feel like I know Mira.
Claire: I totally feel like I know Mira.
Joy: I feel like I know so many of our listeners through social media. I love that too. I’m like – oh Donna! Donna became out friend through social media, and she also went to Camp Timeout. And now I Marco Polo her every day because we became friends.
Claire: Exactly. So it can happen. Real friendships can happen. That’s really the reason. So when we started realizing, okay, if we’re going to get back into the double Dutch rhythm of social media in 2022, we have to do reels. So we just hit the ground running. Because what we were doing before was posting, I don’t know, maybe two reels a month and it was getting us nowhere. So I’m like, you know what, if we’re going to accumulate ourselves, we’re going to have to do it every day.
Joy: Yeah, we just have to jump into that pool everyone has peed in.
Claire: Joy’s going to hate me for suggesting this, so sorry, Joy. If you guys see a reel that you think would be funny if we did it, please send it to us.
Joy: Yeah, why not? I mean, at this point – let’s just put it this way. I think the thing I get frustrated with is I’m just a lemming, that everyone is doing the same thing. It makes my skin crawl so, so, so, so bad. And also, I go to this weird place of, oh my gosh, am I just being a part of the problem? Because we’re just, like Iliza said, monkey see, monkey do. But at the end of the day –
Claire: You’ve got to think about the bigger purpose.
Joy: The bigger purpose. I get it.
Claire: Grow our community. Connect our community.
Joy: For sure.
Claire: Get to know people. Right. It just so happens we have to look stupid in the meantime.
Joy: We have to play the game. Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.
Claire: Right. Don’t be embarrassed for Joy. Be embarrassed for Instagram.
Joy: Yeah, it’s Instagram’s fault. I can get on board with that.
Claire: Okay, what’s next?
Joy: So that’s why we’re doing more reels. Okay. “If you could retire right now, what would you pursue?”
Claire: If I could retire right now… I mean, I think I would just do my hobbies more. I would ski more, I would garden more, I would surf more – which I am including as a hobby, even though I haven’t done it yet. [laughing] You guys know. You know how I feel about surfing. It’s a part of my personality, even though it’s not actually something I do. I would bake more bread. I would make more soup. Just do more of the stuff I really enjoy because I don’t get to do it all that often right now. I don’t want to have a wild, crazy retirement. I want to just live in a toadstool basically and eat bread and soup.
Joy: I wish everyone could see what you just did. You just did this little shoulder shimmy when you said, “eat bread and soup.”
Claire: I was imagining being inside my toadstool.
Joy: A toadstool shimmy. It was so great. It reminds me though that I was listening to this Audible podcast by Mell Robbins. She’s wrote a ton of inspirational books. Sometimes I’m just not in a place to listen to it where it’s a little too self-help, but she did have this great episode. You know that whole conversation we’ve had before about work your passion, do a job that makes you love work every single day? And she had a really good point that I think was just succinct and nice. Look, your passion shouldn’t be something that makes you super happy every day. That’s just completely unrealistic. Work a job that makes you grow. So I can get on board with that. That just makes me think of the whole, if you could stop working right now, what would you do. I still think I would look for things that would make me grow.
Claire: Yeah, great.
Joy: So I don’t know. For me, if I was to retire right now, I’d probably be raising dogs every day. I would probably be doing something active. I would probably be painting rocks in my backyard. I don’t know.
Claire: You took a taste of retirement earlier this summer.
Joy: I sure did. And it was great. I would sit in my chair in the sun, paint rocks, raise dogs. Alright, this one also makes me laugh a little bit. “Have you thought about joining a podcast network?” The reason I laugh is it’s almost as if we’re holding out.
Claire: It’s like, have you thought about going to Harvard? Not saying a podcast network is that helpful or exclusive or elite. But just more that you don’t just sign up for a podcast network. It’s pretty collaborative usually, like you know someone who is starting one. It’s not really – I think we did apply to the Gimlet network once.
Joy: We did at one point, but they don’t even take a look at you.
Claire: We have not heard back.
Joy: Crickets.
Claire: So the answer is we have thought about starting a podcast network but didn’t get anywhere with that either because it just seems like a full-time job that we are not willing to do. The few podcast networks, sort of smaller and niche podcast networks that have come into our radar as things that would be opportunities for us always felt too niche, so we just never pursued them. So I would say, never say never.
Joy: If the right one came along.
Claire: If the right one came along, totally. But I kind of like being the little Indie podcast, just here on our own doing our own thing.
Joy: Yeah. Not having to answer to the man. “If you won money that you had to donate, where would you donate it?”
Claire: Just to one? Should we just pick one. I have a laundry list.
Joy: I have a laundry list. The first two that came in mind to me were obviously Canine Companions, and the second one would be planned parenthood.
Claire: Yeah. For me, I try to donate typically to smaller, community organizations because I feel like smaller donations go further and I can’t really donate a lot of money typically. But even if I had a big donation, I still feel like it would go further. I always donate to the midwife group that I used when I had Evie, my pregnancy and birth with Evie. They are a non-profit, and they just do so much in our community for health equity for birthing people. I’m just a big fan of them. I feel like that is such a big part of women’s equity as a whole is healthcare equity. Let’s see, who else? Then I probably would donate either to Outdoor Alliance or a similar type of conservation non-profit that is focused on outdoor issues.
Joy: On a side note, JT is snoring really loud. I know you probably can’t hear it because of the microphones, they’re different. But it just reminds me of when we first got JT, and we would record his snore in the background.
Claire: Aw, JT.
Joy: He’s in here today. He wanted to spend some time with me. I like this one. “What is a simple, easy life hack that’s helping you make it through the week these days?”
Claire: Can I share my small moment of joy from last week?
Joy: Yeah.
Claire: I think it was Thursday or Friday, and I bought some shirts from Banana Republic Outlet that were on additional sale. So I got six shirts for $100. Highly recommend. Check out their sale. I don’t know if it’s still going on, but I feel like they always have a sale. And my small joy of the day was that they must have their email account set up where their first name is Banana and the last name is Republic because I got my order and then my mom also has the same problem as I do, which is we never buy stuff – I’ve talked about this before, where we talk ourselves out of purchases. So I forwarded it to her, and it showed up as an email from a banana. That was amazing. So that’s my answer is I’m looking for small joys.
Joy: [laughing]
Claire: Like emails from bananas.
Joy: My simple, easy hack – but I think this might piss some people off because people have different schedules. My simple, easy life hack is I try to do one easy chore a day to stay ahead of chores so things don’t pile up. Whether that be do a load of laundry or clean a toilet or whatever. I’ve never hired a cleaner. I have this weird thing that I clean the best, so I don’t want someone else to clean my house. I enjoy cleaning, so that’s something that I’ll do throughout the week. I also try to keep ahead of birthdays. So every week, I will think of whose birthday is it or what event is coming up to where I really want to plan ahead if I have to buy a gift or something like that. So I always try to keep that in the forefront of my mind so I don’t get two days before and I’m like, oh my gosh, I didn’t send somebody something. I’d love to hear people’s early life hacks because I think those are really fun. They’re always so different, just kind of depending on what’s helpful for them. “More details on surf camp, Claire. Are you going alone? Do you need prior surf experience?”
Claire: Okay, no. The organization I’m going through is called Surf with Amigas, and they have trips all over the world. Some are for different skill levels. Like some areas are just not good for beginners. The one I’m going to is in Mexico, and it’s all levels. The majority of their trips are all levels. Some of them are intermediate and above, but very few. So it’s all level. I am going alone, but it is a women-specific retreat. I’m going to have a roommate. So it’s very much like group travel. I’m not just shut up by myself on a beach with a surfboard. I want to say there’s maybe 12-13 people in the group, so relatively small. It’s pretty much surfing every day. There’s also a yoga component. Which fine, yoga. You guys know how I feel about yoga. I don’t love it, but I’ll take it. Mostly I’m just excited for tacos. I’m also really excited because – this is just a random additional fact. I’m getting Lasik like three weeks before I go. I’m just so excited to be in the ocean all day and not have to figure out my damn contact lenses, which is just another simple joy. I mean, not a simple joy. It’s a big deal. I’ve been wearing contacts and glasses since I was nine. So for 25 years, I’ve been doing this. I’m mostly excited about it. I have been meaning to get Lasik for ten years, and I finally was like, I’m getting Lasik for this freaking surfing trip. So yeah. Very, very excited. I’m going to – I forget the name of the town, but it’s about two hours outside Puerto Vallarta. So I fly in and out of Puerto Vallarta. You can fly directly from Denver, fun fact.
Joy: Oh, perfect. I love a direct flight. “How much do you plan your week in advance? Meals, workouts, fun things, etc.”
Claire: My weeks are planned within an inch of their life. Because I have no choice. I at the beginning of the week have to know who is dropping off the kids, who is picking up the kids, what are we doing for dinner, who is taking Miles to karate, when am I getting home, who is letting River out. Every single day is very planned. I kind of hate it. I don’t do a lot of meal prep in the sense that I don’t cook ahead of time. Some things I do. Maybe I’ll prepare proteins ahead of time, like I’ll pre-cook a chicken or something if I know we’re going to have it later in the week… which is pretty much all the time. If I know that what we’re going to have, I’ll defrost the meat ahead of time because we have a chest freezer with a half cow in there. Apart from not literally pre-cooking, I could tell you on any given hour of any given week what I will be doing and where my family members will be and who will be transporting who where at that time and forever and ever amen.
Joy: Yeah, I have the opposite. I don’t really plan much. I’m not really planning much these days. Obviously, the work schedule is set, but workouts, things I don’t really plan in advance. I have been thinking about doing more of a workout schedule, just to be more deliberate about – like in May, I think it’s May, I signed up for – I have a good reason. I’m doing it for Canine Companions because they needed a certain amount of runners for the race in Colorado in order to get a free booth. So I signed up for a ten-miler in May, which part of me is, okay, I can do ten miles. So I need to start setting a training schedule for that. But other than that, I don’t really plan in advance. “What food do you not like?” For example, this listener says, “I cannot eat a raw tomato or drink milk.”
Claire: I mean, I can’t drink milk. I don’t know if I would like to drink milk or not. But if I did, my body would just be so mad at me. Let’s see, I do love raw tomatoes though. The only thing that I will eat around are water chestnuts. I hate the feeling of crunching into them. I hate that watery crunch.
Joy: Oh really? So you don’t like jicama?
Claire: There’s something about jicama that’s okay. It’s not my favorite. To me, jicama is apple-like enough that my brain is sort of like, oh, this is an apple. Versus the water chestnut, there’s something about it that I just am not into. That’s honestly the only thing that I’ll eat around though.
Joy: That’s interesting. I was at a party a couple weeks ago, and they served very fancy food. One was this beautiful raw salmon. They were all like, “Oh, take a piece of this.” I felt obligated to take it, and I don’t like eating raw fish. I can’t. I cannot.
Claire: Oh, I love raw fish.
Joy: I can’t. So I was chasing it with other things. That’s the only thing I cannot deal. “What is something that you are particular about for completely irrational reasons?”
Claire: Oh my gosh, if you ask Brandon this question, he would say, “Everything.” He thinks that I’m so particular. I’m like, I’m not particular. There are just right and wrong ways to do things. He’s like, “That’s being particular.”
Joy: You’re like, “My way is the right way.”
Claire: Right. It’s not even “my way.” It’s the right way and the wrong way. This isn’t instinctively how I would do it either, but I understand that this is the correct way. I am pretty picky about things. I think that there is definitely a right and wrong way to load a dish washer. Not like down to the row. I know some people are super picky. But I definitely with rearrange the dishwasher if I come upon it and someone else has loaded it incorrectly. I feel very, very strongly that the first time you make a recipe, you should make it to the letter so you have a baseline to work with. I am not willing to take comments on that. This is my belief, and I’m sticking to it.
Joy: You’re like, it’s not up for discussion.
Claire: it’s not up for discussion. The first time you make a new recipe, you should do it to the letter. Otherwise, you don’t know what you’re working with. Let’s see, what else… I feel pretty particular about… I mean, so many things. There’s just so many options. What are some of yours?
Joy: Something that’s so stupid as I’m thinking about this are towels in the bathroom. They cannot be bunched up on the towel hanger because they’ll mold. Every freaking time for the past 14 years, Scott mounds his towel on the towel hanger. So I have to go out and straighten it after every time he showers. And he either doesn’t realize I’m doing it, or he just ignores the fact that I do it. So that’s something that I’m particular about. Hang the towel neatly so they can dry fully, and then they don’t smell. And then the other thing is I don’t need to have a very organized by color fridge, but I like things organized in my fridge. So I’m always rearranging. Like if Scott comes home with a bunch of groceries, I’m like, “I’ll do it. Let me do it. Let me put them away.” Because it’ll end up shoved things places. No, this doesn’t go here.
Claire: No, that’s where the eggs go. What is the salad box doing there? That is the egg section.
Joy: No.
Claire: Yeah. I get stuck with that. I completely agree.
Joy: Okay. One more. Oh, what does this mean, Claire? I don’t know if this is a real question. “I was wondering if Claire was liking her stepper?”
Claire: Oh, fun fact. I have a stepper. Right here.
Joy: What is a stepper?
Claire: You can’t see it. I was trying to angle it. So a couple weeks ago – oh, this is a fun crossover from my personal Instagram. It’s like a portable stair stepper. I need you to see this because this isn’t going to make any sense.
Joy: Like a stair stepper, okay.
Claire: Hold on a second. Pause.
Joy: We’re pausing. Okay, she’s holding it up. Okay. Alright. Little contraption`.
Claire: So it’s a mini stair stepper, and it basically is the size of maybe a…
Joy: It looks like one of those things you put on a bike if you’re using an outdoor bike to do indoor cycling.
Claire: Sure, yeah. It’s small. It’s got a footprint. It’s a bit as big around as a chair, like footprint-wise, and it’s maybe about ten inches off the ground total. It has two little foot pads that you put your feet in, and you do a little stair stepper motion. So a couple weeks ago on my personal Instagram, I was looking for a desk treadmill. Like a walking treadmill to put under my desk. Because days will go by where I get like 500 steps. And I’m not a big step counter, but I will sit `down at 8:30 and not get up until 4:30. It’s not uncommon.
Joy: Sure, yeah. And you’re like, hey, this doesn’t make me happy. I need to move around a little bit.
Claire: I feel like crap if that happens. And a lot of it, I am on so many calls. The one thing I will gripe about with my new job is that the meeting culture is out of control. So I’m on so, so, so, so many calls. If I could just have a little treadmill under here, this problem would be solved. Because rarely am I on a call that is so necessary for me to be talking the whole time.
Joy: Right, right. You can get away with a little bit of, like –
Claire: Yeah. So actually, Joy Jaro [UNCLEAR 00:41:42.22] who we’ve had on the podcast before recommended this. She said that her wife uses one. They were looking into it for the same thing of not wanting to spend $300 on a crappy treadmill but not wanting to spend $900 on a real treadmill and not really finding anything in between. So I bought this. And I really do like it, but I’ll say that I still think I might get a treadmill because it doesn’t really do what I want it to do. Think about a walking motion versus a stair stepping motion. This really does get you into more of a stair stepping motion. It’s not quite as passive as I wanted it to be.
Joy: You have to get it going.
Claire: And it’s quiet. If I truly was just standing here watching TV, that would be one thing. But I do need to be somewhat engaged in my calls. For the price – it was under $100 – it’s a really great little piece of equipment. But it’s not quite got me to where I want to go in terms of having a truly passive movement solution for my office.
Joy: Alright, keep us updated.
Claire: Is this like a code? What does this question mean?
Joy: I was like, what’s a stepper? What are we doing? That’s really cool though. And I think a lot of people can maybe give some tips of what they’ve purchased, if you want to send in recommendations.
Claire: Yeah. And apparently when I asked this question, I came to find – I don’t follow Melissa Urban of the Whole30 on Instagram. I haven’t for a long time. She is great, and also she was someone I unfollowed a while ago just feeling like I didn’t want to see so much restrictive eating content. I also know that she has some really interesting beliefs and opinions on things, and she also is really outspoken about a lot of opinions that I really respect. All of that to say, for what it’s worth, I don’t follow her on Instagram. But around that same time that I asked that question, she had done a blog post rating these walking desk treadmills. And basically what she came to was, yeah, they all have their pros and cons. There’s really no such thing as a really nice cheap treadmill. You get what you pay for. Some of them are worse than others, but none of them are a diamond in the rough, which is what I was hoping for.
Joy: Got it. Okay. Well good, alright. I think that’s all we got.
Claire: Alright guys, well, thank you so much for spending another week with us. You can find us online. Our Instagram is @joyandclaire_. You can find us at joyandclaire.com. As a reminder, all our episodes are streaming there. Many of them are transcribed. So if you want to go back through and just browse around, please feel free to do that. You can email us, thisisjoyandclaire@gmail.com. We love hearing from you. We love getting your emails. And if you find us on Instagram, fi you’re scrolling through reels and you’re like, “Man, this reel would be really funny if Joy and Claire did it,” please send it to us.
Joy: Challenge me.
Claire: It would really save me a lot of reels research.
Joy: I’m really just going to accept it and embrace it and hate it the whole time.
Claire: Really? Are you reel-y going to?
Joy: Reel-y. Aw, that was so bad. [laughing]
Claire: My goodness. Don’t forget to check out our sponsor Ned. That’s helloned.com/JOY. Check out their improved sleep blend. You will have some great sleep.
Joy: And be so rested. So alert. So happy.
Claire: So just pleased with yourself. Thank you for being here. We will talk to you next week.
Joy: Bye, guys.
Claire: Bye.
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