Popular conspiracy theories, Claire’s surfboard conundrum, update on Claire’s job and new house, and wonderful workplace appreciation.
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This is Joy & Claire Episode 140: Conspiracy Theories
Episode Date: August 18, 2022
Transcription Completed: November 1, 2022
Audio Length: 48:17 minutes
Joy: Hey guys, this is Joy.
Claire: And this is Claire.
Joy: Hi.
Claire: Hey!
Joy: How you doing?
Claire: Hey girl, hey.
Joy: Hey girl, hey. Now I can’t get that song out of my head something. “Something so strong” from Crowded House. You probably don’t know Crowded House Yeah, we were just talking –
Claire: I don’t know if any idea what you’re talking right now.
Joy: Well we just did another podcast episode, which we’ll share when it comes out because I don’t think it’ll be out for another month when we’re releasing this episode, but we were talking a lot about music and bands and I was talking about when I got hit in the face with a drumstick by –
Claire: When you got punched in the face by Regina George.
Joy: Yeah, Liam Finn, who’s Neil Finn’s son. Neil Finn was in Crowded House. And then I have a Crowded House song in my head. So there you go. Full circle. You’re up to speed.
Claire: Welcome.
Joy: Awesome.
Claire: Welcome. Okay, two things.
Joy: What?
Claire: First thing, dear listeners, I need to tell you that I almost had a rage stroke this morning. Not even a rage stroke. Well, hear what happened and then decide. So everyone knows my surfboard conundrum right now. I have ordered not one but two surfboards.
Joy: Do they know? Oh, wait. Okay.
Claire: I own two surfboards, one of which is like this beautiful custom hand shaped board. The other one of which is like a foamy basically. And I’ve been kind of trying to say like, because the surf trip I had coming up in Ireland, the website was like, you got to bring your own board, you got to bring your own wetsuit, you got to bring your own stuff.
Joy: It’s like right around the corner too.
Claire: It’s in two weeks. Yeah, you’re on your own. So I purchased a surfboard for this. I looked into like renting boards in Ireland There’s not a lot of options. I looked at everything I could think of to not have to fly with a board. I had reached out and I was like and was pretty much told like, “Nope, you got to bring a board. Here the rental options, but they’re few and far between. Would really be easier if you brought your own.” So I purchased a board. I purchased an eight-and-a-half-foot board bag, which is literally the length of this entire room. Like I can’t even stand it up straight because my ceilings are eight and a half feet tall. And this morning we’re in this like – they made this WhatsApp group for everyone. And this morning. I get this message and the WhatsApp group from the organizers. It’s like, “If anyone needs to rent a board let us know.”
Joy: No. No. [laughing] Oh my God. Oh no. You have been stressing about this for months. Months. Like, it is probably the top thing that you stressed about.
Claire: When I tell you I was speechless at this message.
Joy: Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
Claire: You guys, hundreds upon hundreds of dollars have already been spent.
Joy: So much time and money.
Claire: The board bag itself was $400. Just the bag.
Joy: Oh my god. Oh my god. So when you originally asked, they were like, “No, you’re on your own.”
Claire: Yes. And then a different person – so the person I asked was like the coordinator of this entire, is like the owner of the local surf company that this has been contracted through. But then the person who this morning sent that message is like the coordinator for the retreat and is a little bit like closer to the organizer.
Joy: Sure.
Claire: So I think the person originally asked who was like the person we were supposed to sign up with, she was the contact. It wasn’t like I reached out to the wrong person. The information she was given was like, no, you have to bring your own board. It says on the website bring your own board. So now, here’s my conundrum. After what, I’ve been signed up for this for like what a month or two? After daily stress about how I’m going to get to Dublin. Not even get to Dublin. From Dublin to Sligo, which is like a three-hour drive, with an eight-foot board. After figuring all this out, after buying all the things. I had to buy fins. I had to buy a wax I had to buy leashes. I am fully equipped now living in Colorado with these surf boards where I will never have a reason to use them, where like I will never be able to use these without putting them on an airplane.
Joy: Right.
Claire: Do I just leave them here to be wall decor?
Joy: You can’t return them at this point?
Claire: No.
Joy: Is anything returnable?
Claire: I think the board bag maybe could be returnable. But the boxes are long gone, and these things are very hard to ship. Like, the act of returning it.
Joy: Sure.
Claire: I mean, who knows, maybe the board bag because I got it from backcountry.com and they’re pretty good about returns. But nonetheless. I might as well keep the board bag because I have to keep the boards. I live 1000 miles away from the nearest ocean.
Joy: Anyone want to buy a surfboard?
Claire: if you want to buy a surfboard, I have eight-and-a-half-foot board. It’s a hybrid soft top. So it’s not like a full on foamy, like you still like need to use wax with it, but it’s soft on the top. And then another one that’s like a full-on fiberglass board. Don’t ask me how I ended up with two. It’s a story that I’m not willing to recount
Joy: Okay.
Claire: I mean, it’s nothing like dramatic.
Joy: But you just don’t want to talk about it.
Claire: I just don’t want to talk about it.
Joy: You’re over it. Yeah. So now you –
Claire: Speechless. So now, do I? I mean, it’s not a no cost game to get these. It’s probably going to be a couple hundred bucks to check these bags.
Joy: Sure. Yeah.
Claire: And then once I’m there, transporting them, I have figured it out and have just been charging forward with blind optimism in my own ability to carry a nine-foot board bag. It has wheels.
Joy: Yeah, but still pretty big for a small human.
Joy: Yeah, not a big human over here. Nope. I am not. So do I just reach out and am like, “Hey, actually, yeah, I do want around a board.” Or do I stick to my guns and say like, no, I’ve come this far. I’m taking these GD boards to Ireland come hell or high water.
Joy: I mean, my first reaction is like, there’s no way I would want to travel with something like that.
Claire: No way.
Joy: Convenience over, you know. I would just –
Claire: What do I do with these freaking surfboards?
Joy: I’m sure there’s a place to sell them. People take the weirdest stuff in Colorado. You never know. Someone could be moving to California.
Claire: That’s true.
Joy: You never know.
Claire: If you’re listening to this and you’re like, I have been really wanting an eight-and-a-half-foot hybrid soft top fiberglass board. Or if you want my eight and a half foot custom fiberglass board that is this beautiful mint color, please email me.
Joy: You really never know.
Claire: thisisjoyandclaire@gmail.com I have fins and wax and leashes, everything you need.
Joy: Fully outfitted and ready to go if you would like to go on your own surfing adventure and you need some gear.
Claire: And you need some gear. I’ll give it to you cheap. Yeah, just man. I’m speechless.
Joy: You’ve just put so much time and energy into the logistics of getting the surfboard there. And then you just get, I mean, this is like something I would love to know yesterday.
Claire: Exactly. Something else that could have been brought to my attention yesterday. Exactly. So again, I might just do it anyway. I have come this far.
Joy: Sure.
Claire: I will spend $400 to check these damn bags.
Joy: How much does it cost to rent, then?
Claire: I don’t know.
Joy: I would figure that out first.
Claire: It’s going to be cheaper to rent.
Joy: Yeah, then I would just rent it and not check the bags. Yeah.
Claire: Welcome to my Sunday morning.
Joy: Wowsies.
Claire: I know. It’s been an emotional roller coaster. Also, I have a question. And this question could go either way. Let’s take this in as lighthearted of a way as I could mean it, and you’ll see what I mean in a second. I was thinking about this the other day, I was driving down the road, and I was thinking about flat earthers, and it’s got me thinking.
Joy: Oh, don’t even call them flat. earthers. It’s like there’s othering – I’m kidding.
Claire: Yeah. Exactly.
Joy: Yeah, I just remember someone got mad because we were like, anti-vaxxers. And they’re like, “As if it’s just the others.” And I’m like, you kind of are.
Claire: I mean, I don’t know what to tell you.
Joy: You kind of are. I’m calling myself a vaxer.
Claire: Right. I’m a pro-vaxer.
Joy: I’m a pro-vaxer. Calm down, everybody, calm down.
Claire: It’s alright. I have anti-vaxxer friends, so I can say that.
Joy: Actually, let me let me stop you really quick before you move forward. Because I was talking with one of my good friends last night over text and she was saying like, “Oh, my husband doesn’t like this guy because he doesn’t call him a friend even though they’ve hung out a few times. He doesn’t call him a friend because he thought the election was stolen.” And she thought that was silly. And I go, “To be fair, I don’t think I’d be like – she’s like, “That’s kind of silly, isn’t it?” I was like, not really, not to make
Claire: I agree with that judgment call. I agree. Okay, so on that vein – and we’re already going down the wrong side of the road. So let’s back it up and take the other fork in the road. What are conspiracy theories that you kind of believe?
Joy: Oh, that I kind of believe?
Claire: Or that you fully believe. What conspiracy theories are you like, “Yeah, that could be true.” But like, let’s keep it lighthearted. Conspiracy theories, but don’t get weird.
Joy: Don’t get too weird. Well, can you give me some options that come to mind?
Claire: So my conspiracy theory, and this one is actually pretty dark, that I definitely could believe is that COVID was created in a lab. Not that it was like released on purpose by the US government but that like this is a virus that was created in a lab and like somebody didn’t change their shoes before they went home that night.
Joy: Okay.
Claire: That’s the conspiracy theory that I believe. That’s actually the main one. I’m trying to think of other conspiracy theories that I kind of believe.
Joy: Yeah, I will say okay, the one that comes to mind for me that Scott and I will joke about, and I think there’s a little bit of him that believes it, is that secret societies control the world.
Claire: Okay, I reposted me on this the other day. Like a tweet. They’re like, “Conspiracy theorists are so useless. They’re like, ‘five mega wealthy billionaires control everything,’ and it’s like, yeah, we know.”
Joy: I mean, it’s kind of true. I kind of believe that I do think there’s these underground meetings that happen. I don’t know where underground, but it’s in a basement. It has to be.
Claire: Remember the movie Richie Rich where they had like a lair inside Mount Rushmore?
Joy: Totally. Or what’s that movie? You know what I’m talking about. The bone something.
Claire: Austin Powers.
Joy: Yeah, sure, that one with a car that he can’t back up and he keeps backing up. I believe in that. I think that there’s something to that.
Claire: Do you think that the moon landing was real?
Joy: Yes, I agree. I do think the moon landing was real.
Claire: I just Googled mainstream conspiracy theories, and this is like top 30 conspiracies theories.
Joy: Oh.
Claire: Um, the Earth has been sucked into a black hole. I didn’t know this one. The European Organization for Nuclear Research is at the heart of a lot of crazy conspiracy theories, including the belief that when they discovered the Higgs Boson particle in 2012, it inadvertently created a black hole and Earth was sucked into it. These believers think the world ended in 2012, but we haven’t realized it yet. That would check out.
Joy: What do you think about UFOs and Area 51?
Claire: I don’t think I believe in Area 51.
Joy: Really? Okay.
Claire: Do you believe in like extraterrestrials as a genre?
Joy: I don’t know. But here’s the thing, I kind of believe in spirits. You know, I’ll see a ladybug and I’ll be like, “That’s my grandma.” So who’s to say?
Claire: If a ladybug can be your grandma? Why can’t aliens be real?
Joy: Exactly. So I can’t be too much of a hypocrite.
Claire: I definitely believe in aliens. I don’t know if I believe that they’re visiting us. Okay like, apart from whether or not aliens have ever made contact with humans, do you think there’s other life in the universe?
Joy: Yes. Because of those new pictures of the universe that just came out.
Claire: They’re like, oh my God.
Joy: Yeah. So it’s like, woah, we’re not alone. The X-Files is real. So yes, I think that there’s something to that. I’m going to stay open minded with that one.
Claire: Okay. Evie is in here again. Do you have the hi? She whispered, “Hi.” Can you hear here? Do you want to sing a song?
Joy: What’s your morning song? Do you sing songs in the morning? Or it’s too early for that.
Claire: Oh, this one is hilarious. Disney created Frozen as a distraction. People have long discussed the conspiracy that Walt Disney used cryogenic technology to freeze himself when he died. Even though the Disney family refutes that claim, reasonably so. However, a new theory that the Walt Disney Company created Frozen as a way to hack Google’s search algorithm and distract consumers from information about the late Walt Disney’s possible frozen procedure.
Joy: Woah, that’s hilarious.
Claire: Why would you care? Why would it matter if Walt Disney was cryogenically frozen?
Joy: Yeah, like, it’s fine. But do you remember the weird theories about like, secret things that were in movies that were like –
Claire: Oh, yeah. Some of those are real.
Joy: What was the one in Aladdin that was like, “Do you want to have sex” or something?
Claire: Oh yeah.
Joy: Or like the dust spilled out “sex?”
Claire: Or it was a penis or something?
Joy: It’s always something weird.
Claire: Yeah. Um, okay. This one is more local to us. Do you believe that DIA is the Illuminati headquarters?
Joy: No, definitely not. Definitely not.
Claire: There are so many conspiracy theories.
Joy: But the Blue Mustang –
Claire: Yeah, that’s real. He killed the guy.
Joy: Yeah, it’s very terrifying.
Claire: Okay, so people who don’t know Denver International Airport has so many conspiracy theories around it. I feel like we’ve talked about this before potentially.
Joy: Yeah, maybe.
Claire: Where people think that like it was constructed on like old Navajo burial grounds.
Joy: Which that could be true.
Claire: Sure. That could be very true. Or that underneath it is like underground headquarters of the Illuminati. Or there’s like all these hidden Illuminati references. Like people will say like, “Well, if you look at it from above, it spells this thing out.” Which anyway, I don’t believe any of the Denver International America, the DIA conspiracy theories.
Joy: Yeah. Now this takes me to more movie conspiracy theories. Did you ever see Three Men and a Baby?
Claire: Oh my gosh, like, I mean, that movie was from like, the early 90s, right?
Joy: Yeah. So I mean, it was a pretty popular movie when I was a kid. Look it up, Google it, but it was three big movie star guys. Tom Selleck was one of them, I think. So there was this scene where they’re in the baby’s room. You could see like a boy standing behind a curtain. And the lore was like, you know, there was a young boy that was killed in that room and like his ghost is in the scene. And it is kind of freaky, but I think it later came out that was like it was just a cut out of something like a prop that was stored wrong. But it does look a little weird.
Claire: That’s what someone would say. It was a prop that was stored wrong.
Joy: Right? Yeah, exactly. Like trying to cover it up. But if you look up ghost from Three Men and a Baby, you’ll see. So there’s things like that. I actually live for that stuff. I love seeing like random things in movies or things that are wrong in movies. Do you remember on Clueless when Tai and Dion are in the jeep, she hits something or she or she goes through a stop sign and Dion looks to the left and she goes, “You ran that light,” and she’s like, “I totally paused.” When Dion looks and turns around, she has a nose ring. And before she doesn’t have a nose ring, and then she looks that she does have a nose ring. Those misses are my favorite. I love stuff like that.
Claire: Um, okay, here’s one. Apparently, there’s a conspiracy theory that Prince Charles is a vampire.
Joy: I mean, where do you come up with this stuff?
Claire: I don’t know. I just Googled it.
Joy: But who starts this stuff?
Claire: Let me finish the explanation because that’s the first question. Why? Well, the Prince of Wales is related to Vlad the Impaler, who was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and many royals in Charles’s bloodline were known to have the disease porphyria, which is an iron deficiency that causes people to be sensitive to sunlight. That just sounds like inbreeding.
Joy: Well, I’m sorry Keith Richards is a vampire then because come on. He’s more of a vampire.
Claire: Okay, this is one of my here conspiracy theories. That Keanu Reeves is immortal.
Joy: Oh, I love that.
Claire: I love that one.
Joy: I kind of love that. I love Keanu Reeves. But so is what’s his name from like all those… Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
Claire: If you “Google “Keanu Reeves is immortal,” it’s great. Because there’s all these old like Victorian paintings where it has people and you’re like, oh my god, that doesn’t like Keanu Reeves. Y
Joy: Paul Rudd is immortal.
Claire: Oh, Paul Rudd, yes.
Joy: Paul Rudd is my favorite. I love him so much.
Claire: Do you believe in Bigfoot? Or what about like the Loch Ness monster?
Joy: Loch Ness monster. I will get into it when they have documentaries around it. Here it is, here it is. X-Files I want to believe like I want to believe. “Like I want to believe,” to quote X-Files.
Claire: I’m open to the possibility that those things are real.
Joy: It’d be so fun if it was. You know, people dedicate their lives to this stuff
Claire: Seriously. Which is bizarre. Okay, here’s are some ones that feel a little bit – we’re all really living in The Matrix.
Joy: I could see that. You know, we are. I think so.
Claire: Which could also then lean into this next one. The moon isn’t real. People think the moon doesn’t exist. They think the moon is simply a projection. The Titanic didn’t actually sink.
Joy: See, stuff like that will make me mad, like the Titanic. That that treads into, hey, people lost family members. You don’t mess around with that.
Claire: Totally.
Joy: You don’t mess around with it.
Claire: Like how people don’t think that COVID is real. And it’s like –
Joy: Oh, yeah. Or like, what’s his bucket… I’m not even going to say his name. But the guy that’s been in the news recently that – actually I’m not going to say it. But was talking about a shooting that was not real. I don’t even want to repeat it. But that level… to get money in just controversy. You shut your mouth right there. Now I’m all fired up.
Claire: That’s why at the beginning of the conversation, I was like, there’s two roads we could go down. Let’s keep it light. Let’s not go down that one that like is going to cause us to just… yeah.
Joy: Yeah, because that one just kind of set me off. But as far as like The Matrix, I think about, like how social media influences us. And then that’s a whole rabbit hole of – actually there is a great podcast about the rabbit hole. But how social media does influence us. And that scares me.
Claire: Oh yeah.
Joy: Of like commercials and ads and the content that you are fed, because we are constantly looking at our phones. I would love to be behind the scenes of what they decide that you see, really kind of are fed, especially around election season, when people are clicking on A, B and C and then they’re just kind of fed more conspiracy theories. There’s a lot of interviews around that.
Claire: Yeah, that’s really real.
Joy: Of people who are like, hey, I ended up on QAnon site and rest is history.
Claire: Right. But because you like started out in this pretty logical, somewhat logical place, and the links – it’s almost like being the frog in the pot of boiling water analogy where you don’t realize that the things you’re reading are more and more crazy because they kind of blend into each other. And you end up just sort of this natural crescendo into being a crazy person.
Joy: Yes. Which yes, if you’re in QAnon, we said that.
Claire: Yeah, not sorry about that. Um, here’s one that’s pretty popular in Boulder Chemtrails. Are you familiar with this?
Joy: No.
Claire: You know how sometimes planes will have like invisible jet streams coming out of them? People think that that is like chemicals that are being just like spread over the earth to various reasons. So it says, “As airplanes travel, they leave behind long water condensation trails called contrails. These cloud-like tracks dissipate quickly, and sometimes you can’t even see them. But to some conspiracy theorists, these condensation trails are much more nefarious.” I love that word. The “chemtrails” conspiracy theory holds that condensation trails are full of other chemicals that scientists and governments are seeding into the atmosphere. Why? Pick your reason? It might be biological warfare, population control, geoengineering, or an attempt to manipulate the weather.” I’ve heard this one a lot in Boulder. People think that they’re releasing who knows what into the atmosphere.
Joy: [laughing]
Claire: Oh, this is my favorite one. We’ll end with this. That birds aren’t real.
Joy: Oh my gosh, birds aren’t real. Who was that guy?
Claire: I don’t remember, but I love it.
Joy: A website like birdsarentrreal.com or something.
Claire: Peter McIndoe.
Joy: Great.
Claire: Birds aren’t real conspiracy is a movement developed by Peter McIndoe who started spraying the idea in 2017. Let’s see here.
Joy: And then it just took off and took off.
Claire: Yeah, they have birds aren’t real, but rather they are surveillance drones made by the US government.
Joy: I will say – this is weird. I want to know more about this is when we talk about things on this podcast and next thing you know people are getting ads about something weird, crazy, whatever. Right?
Claire: I mean, that’s all very engineered. If someone follows us, and we follow someone or we post a link that goes back to a site that tagged someone in it, or has it in the comments, or has it in the transcript or in the SEO. All of that’s connected. I was reading an article recently that was like, and I’m sure a ton of people have seen this, where it was an author who was like, “You know, I went and stayed with my mom for a couple of days. And next thing I know, I’m getting web ads for her toothpaste. I have never talked about her toothpaste. I’ve never purchased it. I’ve never even used it. But she has my whole life used this specific brand of toothpaste. And suddenly I’m getting Facebook ads for this type of toothpaste. Just from like being around her.” And it’s like, yeah, well, your phone can tell that you are with this person.
Joy: Yeah.
Claire: You guys are pinging the same locations, you guys are both checked into the movie theater or whatever. And so even if it doesn’t know who that person is your mom, you’re constantly being compared to other lookalike audiences. So it’s like, okay, let’s take everyone who has checked in at this restaurant in the last six months. And you know, like, have other similarities about them. And I will extrapolate from those similarities that you might have similar shopping habits and maybe in a similar socio-economic demographic. So I’m going to start giving you these products.
Joy: People will send us ads of things that we talked about on the podcast or funny things that we’ve said on stories. I think when I was talking about the Nordstrom vibrator, they started getting ads for vibrators. Yeah, I’m so sorry. Yeah, sorry. And I’m sorry that it did it again now.
Claire: [laughing] I’m sorry for repeating it again now.
Joy: Alright, let’s take a quick break, shall we? Speaking of sponsors and ads that we hope you get this one. [laughing]
Claire: Oh, no.
Joy: Oh, we’re just laying it on thick. Well, you know that our favorite sponsor Ned sponsors our podcast. They are loyal supporters of this podcast. I recently got my latest batch of the Sleep Blend. You know how I feel about sleep. You know that I love the Sleep Blend. It is such a great addition to my nightly routine because I know winding down, I’m going to be laying in bed. I’m going to just lull into this wonderful sleep. I sleep so well wanted to take the Sleep Blend, and daily routines are really important to us. And I think that when we’re talking about CBD products, you think about all of the products that are on the market. There’s so many CBD products to choose from. It’s really important to us that these products are science backed. They’re chock full of premium CBD full spectrum active cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, and trichomes. I don’t know if you know what those are, but they’re really good with Ned. Ned’s full spectrum hemp oil nourishes the body’s endocannabinoid system to offer functional support for stress, sleep, inflammation and balance. They have full transparency. They share third party lab reports, who farms their products, and their extraction process, all right on their site. They have over 2000 5-star reviews. If you heard Ret on one of our podcasts, he talks about the farmers, he talks about playing binaural beats while they’re bottling it. These products are so good and good for your body.
Claire: And so intentional. One of the main reasons that we love Ned and we love the brand and we love the founders, everything they do is so intentional. I think as part of that daily ritual, like just knowing that all the way starting at the foundation of the company through the farming through the bottling through every single thing has that incredible layer of intention. Even down to like the artwork on the little tubes that they come in.
Joy: Right. Handwritten number batched.
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Joy: Become the best version of yourself and get 15% off Ned products with code JOY, Go to helloned.com/JOY or enter code JOY at checkout. That’s helloned.com/joy to get 15% off. Thank you, Ned, for sponsoring the show and offering our listeners a natural remedy for some of life’s most common health issues. I want to ask for an update on how your job is going and how the new house is going. Because we haven’t heard about – well I shouldn’t say new job. It’s been actually almost a year, right?
Claire: Almost a year.
Joy: It feels new because we haven’t checked in about job. But more importantly, how’s your new house?
Claire: Yeah, the house is getting there. You know, we moved in at the end of May and then our whole family got COVID right away and then we just like dove headfirst into summer. And so it’s been kind of an uphill battle to get things organized and arranged. We finally have most of the main floor painted. We have the kids’ rooms in a pretty good spot to where we want them. Our room is fine. I feel like your own bedroom is always like the most neglected room in the house in terms of organization and decoration, which I think is ironic, but I even feel like celebrities – like when they would do Cribs, their whole house is immaculate, and then you’d go into their bedroom and it would look like just like a mattress on the floor.
Joy: Right.
Claire: A dirty duvet cover and you’re like, oh, celebrities are just like us. They don’t make their beds either. Do you make your bed every day? I bet you do.
Joy: Yeah, I do.
Claire: I would have like 50/50. A lot of times I’ll make my bed at night right before I get in. Just like make sure everything’s in place.
Joy: Okay. The reason I do it is JT gets on the bed sometimes. So I just can’t handle the thought of dog hair all day, so I have to make the bed, put all the blankets on top, so that he can lay on top of it.
Claire: Aw, JT. Everything we do, we do for JT.
Joy: We really do.
Claire: I feel like after you live in a house for a couple of months, you kind of start to be able to prioritize things little bit more and think, okay, what are the first couple big things we’re going to tackle? Luckily, nothing huge has come up in the first couple of months of living here. This poor girl who is on my team moved into this beautiful house in downtown Boulder, and within a month they had to replace their sewer line.
Joy: No!
Claire: Like 15 grand, like dig into the street.
Joy: That’s not cheap. What? Did that not come up in the like…
Claire: So, it did. It came up in the inspection. But what came up in the inspection was not as severe as what the problem ended up being.
Joy: Oy, oy.
Claire: So they were like, oh, there’s like a weakness in the pipe, and we can just sort of like put this sleeve over it and it’ll be fine. Then the sleeve wasn’t enough, and they ended up having to replace the whole thing. Knock on wood, nothing like that has happened here. I mean, I’m sure in the winter, like more things will come up. We have to replace our garbage disposal. It just got a hole in it. Apparently, it is very old. But other than that, we’re really loving it. I would say probably a third of our stuff is still in boxes.
Joy: And you sold your old house, right?
Claire: Oh, yeah. So we sold our old house. We closed on our old house sale like about three weeks ago. And I really feel like we dodged a bullet with getting our house under contract when we did. It was just like the week that we put our house on the market, the market just slammed on the brakes. And we were very much anticipating that our house would sell in a weekend, which is what the house we bought was sold in, which is when we bought the house, we had to get it in the first weekend. The market for the last I mean really like six or seven years has been to the point where every house in the market that is in livable shape has gone in a weekend. And suddenly with interest rates going up and everything, it just slammed on the brakes the first week of June and that was when we listed, and so it took us three weeks to sell our house. We were panicking. I mean, not panicking, but trying very hard to stay cool. We ended up getting less than what we listed for, which also has been unheard of. Which not by a lot but and thankfully like the buyer’s financing was totally fine and everything worked out. We even were able to close like a week early. So I felt really grateful that we were able to get that done. But when we bought this house, we somehow qualified for both houses, which I know I’ve joked about this, but I have a hard time if my grocery bill is like $50 extra or $100 extra that week. Let alone thinking that I can have another house just goes to show you what you can “qualify” for. A mortgage is just absolutely fake money.
Joy: That’s a conspiracy theory I believe in. Money isn’t real. Bitcoin all the way. I’m kidding, kidding, kidding.
Claire: Also definitely Bitcoin, definitely less real. Less real than real money. But yeah, that mortgage money is not real stuff. The amount that you can qualify for is not real and not based on anything. And it was also very mentally taxing to know that we still have that. Even when we’re under contract, we still had to go over there mow the lawn and make sure the sprinklers were running and make sure that like it didn’t fall into disrepair, basically.
Joy: Right, you go over there and you’re just like, “The pictures don’t look like this on the on the Zillow ad.”
Claire: Right, like shoot, we’ve got to update this. So that also has been the main reason that we haven’t gotten this house our current house into as good of shape was because a lot of the times like if we had an afternoon, we had to –
Joy: Right, you were managing the other one.
Claire: So anyway, we’re getting there. Like I said, I think about a quarter of our stuff in still in boxes. But of that quarter of stuff that’s still in boxes, probably half of that is stuff that like is like Christmas decorations or camping gear, that it’s bound for storage anyway. I’s in our garage right now, which I’m really hoping that we can get our garage to the point where we can park in it before winter. But I’m loving the house. I’m really glad that we moved. Having a little bit extra space is so nice. Having a table to sit at when we eat is so huge. Every night when we’re sitting down eating, it’s like this is what we’ve been missing.
Joy: This is what you’ve been missing.
Claire: Yeah. And our neighborhoods really great. We have wonderful, amazing neighbors. They have a three-month-old baby who we babysat yesterday and she –
Joy: Aw, three months old. Little nugget.
Claire: Yes, and the kids were like entranced.
Joy: Oh, that’s so cute.
Claire: They were just crowded around her.
Joy: How was Evie?
Claire: Oh my gosh, okay so the baby was smiling.
Joy: Evie is the baby is the baby, so she’s never right baby.
Claire: Right. She loved it. The baby was smiling and Evie was like, “She loves my dress.”
Joy: Oh, I love that so much.
Claire: Every time she would smile, she’d be like, “She loves me.” It’s like, “She does love you, Evie.” It was so cute.
Joy: Oh, that’s so cute. That’s so cute. Three months old.
Claire: She was born like the week before we moved in.
Joy: That’s so fun.
Claire: And then my job is going great. I love my job. I feel like everybody knows I work in marketing for an outdoor apparel company. Based in Denver, I love it. We’re getting ready to get go into a really busy season of like fall and holiday. The outdoor apparel company that I work for is very heavily based in like winter activities.
Joy: Are you not allowed to say it on the podcast?
Claire: It’s not that I’m not allowed to say it.
Joy: Okay, okay.
Claire: It’s like a well-known brand.
Joy: Sure. You just want to be respectful sometimes.
Claire: I think if people are paying attention, they could easily infer where I work.
Joy: Sure.
Claire: It’s more just that like, because I say things on here a lot of the time, not about my work, but like I wouldn’t necessarily – I like to keep the keep my worlds a little bit separate.
Joy: Sure. I totally get that. I totally get that.
Claire: That’s my only reason for doing that.
Joy: Yeah, I totally get that.
Claire: It’s not a secret. Yeah, I don’t have like an NDA. And again, it would probably take most people two seconds to figure out where I work.
Joy: Yeah.
Claire: But yeah, I just I also don’t want them like it like coming up in our SEO.
Joy: Sure. Oh, yeah. Sure. Sure. Sure. That makes total sense. Yeah.
Claire: So but I love it, I have a great team, I have really good work life balance, which I kind of hate that phrase. Here’s what I’ve landed on. In a job, I think in order to feel like your job is not taking over your life, your schedule needs to either be consistent or flexible, you need to know that you’re starting and ending at the same time, you’re working a certain number of hours, certain number of days and like have very little variance in those parameters. Or you need to have the ability to fit it in wherever. Maybe you don’t have a specific start and end time, or you don’t have certain days you work. But if you have to take off for two hours in the middle of day to go to a doctor’s appointment, you’re able to do that. With this job, I really have both consistency and flexibility. Where I am not expected to be at work before certain hours except on specific for a specific reason that I know well ahead of time. I’m not expected to work late except for specific reasons that I will know ahead of time. And also, you know, if I have to leave to go pick my kid up from school, I can just put a block on my calendar and there’s no questions asked.
Joy: That’s great.
Claire: It’s awesome. And you don’t have to lie about it.
Joy: No. Which is so silly.
Claire: I don’t have to say anything about it. But if someone were to be like, “Hey, is this thing on your calendar flexible? Can I schedule a meeting?” And I say, “Oh, actually, I have to go pick my son up from school. I can’t move that.” They’re like, “Oh, okay. I’ll find another time.”
Joy: Yes.
Claire: Like, I don’t have to pretend that’s not what I’m doing.
Joy: Yes, I think that’s so important. I
Claire: t’s hugely important. And I think that it’s also really modeled by my leadership, which I think is huge, where in the same exact way, I’ll reach out to my boss and say, “Hey, you know, I’m trying to schedule a meeting. Your calendar is really full. Do you have any flexibility here?” And he’s like, “Oh, actually, you know, that’s like that Friday, my son’s in a hockey tournament, and I blocked it off. I’ll be available by text, but I’m not taking any meetings that day.” And Friday is a bad example because none of us have meetings on Fridays anyway.
Joy: Right, that’s so cool. We have that at my company as well. And at first it because I came from such a horrible culture, coming into the company I’m at now everyone was like, yeah, can you just make sure your calendars are shared, just like that whole transparency thing. And at first, I was going to this place of like, oh, they’re just going to be micromanagy because that’s the culture that I came from. And what it is, is just no, we just need to be transparent. Because if I go look at other people’s calendars, if I look at a lot of the leadership calendars, they have the same thing. They’ll say, “Do not schedule, Sophie’s ballet practice,” or whatever. They’re blocking out time for their children, for their personal lives. It’s modeled, so you feel supported doing the same thing. There’s just something really lovely to that.
Claire: Totally. It’s wonderful. And it’s like, hey, this is the world that we live in now.
Joy: Yes.
Claire: We all have proven that we are trustworthy, we can work from home.
Joy: We can be productive from home. Like, I had to take JT to the vet last week, and I had to cancel a couple of clients that I did on my own. I just blocked out the afternoon and it’s no big deal. It’s just no big deal. And there’s no question. And I was going to tell you this. I was like, tell me what your reaction would be to this. My old company, one of my peers. So a fellow manager who also left, our boss used to schedule a standing meeting with her at 4pm on Fridays.
Claire: No. That is passive harassment.
Joy: So passive harassment. And that’s exactly the type of person she was. It was horrible. When this coworker told me that, I was like, “Are you kidding me?” And it was such a manipulative power move. And I [sound of disgust]. That’s all I have to say when I found that out. I was like, “Are you kidding me?” She’s like, “Yeah.” I’m like, [sound of frustration]. So happy to be out of there.
Claire: I mean, I even told the people who work for me like, hey, listen, I know we have a certain amount of PTO. But if you need to take a day and not enter it, if you are getting your work done, I don’t care whether you “take your PTO” or not, and no one else but me is checking. Don’t abuse that, and I know you won’t abuse it. That’s why I’m telling you this. But like, even there are some sort of corporate rules. And I’m not, you know, meaning to say that this person has even done that, or my team has even done that. But that’s kind of how I feel about it is like, listen, even when it comes to PTO, why are we still doing this? Why are we still limiting the amount of time that people need to go do what they want to do? Yeah, I will say that I appreciate PTO. Have you ever worked for a company that has unlimited PTO? That’s what I do right now. So the last time I worked for a company that had unlimited PTO, it was used in the other direction, because you didn’t have PTO that you had to take.
Joy: Right.
Claire: Because PTO is on the books, it’s a financial liability, like it hits a budget, and if you don’t use it, you have to pay off to pay it out. Right. And so in that way, you know, like, kind of in the beginning of the summer, when things slow down, they’ll send out things that are like, hey, please remember to use your PTO. You have it. Go out there and do some stuff. Not only do we want you guys to like use it and live your life, but also like it’s a financial liability. When that’s not the case, if you are in a toxic workplace, it will often turn into not having PTO. Where people will be like, “Oh, I haven’t taken PTO all year.”
Joy: It’s the badge of honor.
Claire: It’s a badge of honor that you don’t use your vacation.
Joy: Whereas now, when we were hired with unlimited PTO, it was kind of like one of the obvious benefits and every single place I’ve worked up to this point, has you either earn it, you bank it, you know, when you leave you cash it out, or whatever. So going into it, I thought, well, this is really amazing, because they’re really kind of putting it it’s like when you need it, just take it.
Claire: Yeah.
Joy: There’s never a time that I’ve felt – the odd part about it, because where I work now also gives us two Fridays off a month if we need it. No questions asked, you just don’t work on Fridays. And I don’t even use those because I feel so flexible. Sometimes I’ll just work like a half day. But because life is so much easier now because I can just walk into my home office and then I turn off my computer at the end of the day, and I walk out into my house that I don’t feel like I need all this additional time off to recover. So I do find myself swinging the other way where I’m like, I just don’t really need the time. And my supervisor will always be like, “Are you scheduling time off for yourself?” I’m like, “Honestly, I don’t know if I need it right now.” And she’s like, “Okay, just make sure you think about that.” I will. We don’t have any vacations planned. Like trust me, we’re good about planning vacations. We just haven’t really been in the space to do it. And I don’t feel like I need it. I don’t feel like I need all this like timeout to come down. Because when you work in a healthy workplace, you actually enjoy what you’re doing, and you don’t feel so stressed out that you need all this time off. So it’s a smart way of working. I don’t know if everyone feels that way. But I think it’s kind of genius.
Claire: For sure. I agree. So if you’re listening to this, and you’re like, these workplaces aren’t real. This is not what work is like. I feel so stressed out. I log on at 7am on Monday morning. I don’t log off till 7pm on Friday night. Or even like I never log off. I mean, some people thrive in that. They think it’s great. But if you’re listening to this, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, what you guys are describing is like a job utopia that is not real.”
Joy: It’s real.
Claire: It’s real.
Joy: It’s really real.
Claire: You too can have a job.
Joy: I’ll send you some job openings to come into my company. The thing that I remember in that my old work is I can see how you can get swept up into a work culture. So it’s very easy to think that that you’re doing well, that you’re really hustling, and to be so blinded by a toxic workplace. I think that’s also something that we really don’t understand until we’re out of it of like how bad it was like, I’m sure I’ve mentioned this, but there were times when after I left my previous company, I had two cell phones because I had a work phone and then I had my personal phone. And I remember I would always put my work phone in the kitchen on the weekends. And I would just turn it off. I’d turn off all notifications. I would just mute it so it wouldn’t ring or ding or anything. But I remember throughout the weekend anytime I would pass that kitchen counter I would turn on the phone to see if I got any messages. And I would always have this jolt of like [gasp] am I going to have something for my boss that’s like you know punitive and whatever, snarky because that’s how she was. So I was like, okay, I would always kind of brace myself. And after I left, I found myself walking by that same kitchen counter almost reaching for a phone that wasn’t there. And it took me so long to come down from that feeling of like, okay, what’s she going to email me next that’s punitive and mean? And it’s just a weird thing. Now I’m like, Oh my gosh, I can’t even imagine that coming from anyone at my office because everyone’s just so amazing. But those things once you’re out of it, you don’t realize how you’re like, yes, it can be better. There’s a better way. And it’s so much of “that’s how it is” that you’re in that culture. But everyone’s just trying to survive in that culture, that you think that’s normal. And it’s not, it’s not okay.
Claire: Totally. Alright. Well, all that to say, obviously, you’re enjoying your job too.
Joy: Yes. And we are both in good spots.
Claire: Yes. Yes. New jobs.
Joy: New life.
Claire: What’s the plural of us? New jobs new…
Joy: We…
Claire: Nope, uh uh. You asked some questions. Let’s wrap this up with a couple of listener questions from Instagram. And we’ve not left very much time for this, so we will get to most of your questions on our next episode.
Joy: Future. Talk about everyday versus bougie coffee order.
Claire: Okay. My everyday order is either an oat milk latte or a cold brew with a splash of oat milk, and my bougie coffee order is the sweet cream collagen iced latte from Just Be.
Joy: Whoa, that’s really good.
Claire: You remember that one? I actually just went to Just Be this week for lunch and Jennifer was there and she was so cute.
Joy: I love Just Be. Well, my everyday coffee order is the one I make at home because I love my Nespresso and yes, I still use it. I have the Nespresso Virtuo. Fun fact, if you are sick of ordering – because the thing with Nespresso machines is you can’t get the pods from a store until now. You have to either go to a Nespresso store or order them online. But now Target sells Nespresso pods.
Claire: Oh. I’m surprised it took that long.
Joy: Made by Starbucks because I think there’s like some connection. I don’t know if they own one another whatever. But Starbucks makes Nespresso pods.
Claire: Wait, wait, wait. Let’s just do the genealogy here. It’s a Nespresso Starbucks in a Target,
Joy: Yes. Nespresso pods
Claire: It’s Starbucks in a Nespresso in a Target.
Joy: Yes. You don’t get it in the Starbucks.
Claire: I’m trying to make a Starbucks in a Target reference here.
Joy: I love that very much. Yes. I just want to be clear, it’s sold in the coffee aisle. You don’t have to go into the Starbucks to buy the pods, but you have to go into the coffee aisle. Let me just look at this because we purchased a few incorrect ones. If you want the full coffee, you have to get the 8-pod pack. The 10-pod pack is an is an espresso.
Claire: Espresso for your Nespresso.
Joy: Yes, exactly. So if you got the 10 pack, just know you’re getting espresso pods. We want the eight pack if you want a coffee pod, so we will supplement our Nespresso order by getting the Starbucks Nespresso at Target.
Claire: Got it, got it, got it. What’s your favorite Nespresso color pod?
Joy: I really liked the basic ones so what I tend to order is – I do not like flavor coffees. Gross. I don’t like anything – like they’ll do like special chocolate fudge, hazelnut, caramel. No, thank you. So I will get just like the Costa Rica, Ethiopia. I like the Colombia and Mexico coffee for the virtuosos. So I get the basic stuff. Sometimes I’ll get like Stormio, Melozio. Intenso is good. Those are the standing like they’re always available to order, but I never buy like the special ones. So just so you know, Target sells those pods. They cost about the same, so you’re not like sending any big amount of money unless you have a Target Red Card, which I don’t understand if you do not link your target red card to your debit account what you’re doing because you’re saving 5% on every purchase, and that is not sponsored. I always am like, why aren’t people doing this more often? And if you have the app, you can get all those target circle discounts. It’s my favorite thing to do. Okay, and then if I am doing like a specialty coffee order, I will do the honey almond milk flat white at Starbucks because I love it.
Claire: ’m not a big Starbucks person.
Joy: I know you’re not. Or the lavender latte at Just Be. If we’re going to go to Just Be together, lavender latte. Oy, good.
Claire: Okay, let’s do one more question. That was a really long.
Joy: Yeah, we really went far with the Nespresso, but I really had to tell you all about a secret at Target.
Claire: It’s true.
Joy: I’ll answer this one really quick. Someone missed it. Any update on the bone marrow donation? It was cancelled. The patient went a different treatment route. I will be notified in the future if they need me. I will be here waiting. I think they were probably like worried about keeping me hanging for so long. And so they just canceled it for the time being because it sounds like the patient has other treatment options. So that’s a good thing.
Claire: Yeah. Okay. There’s really no other short questions.
Joy: favorite snack?
Claire: I feel like we answer that all the time.
Joy: But it changes all the time.
Claire: Okay, what’s your favorite snacks right now?
Joy: My favorite snack right now is the Wild Planet tuna salads.
Claire: Those little like –
Joy: Yes! They’re so good. You actually can buy them on… this is… I feel… actually, I’m not going to apologize because I wouldn’t make this on my own because it’s just convenience and they have sustainable packaging. But Wild Planet has these awesome tuna bean salads. And I order either from Thrive Market or they do sell them on Amazon, and I’m obsessed. I’ll have one for lunch every day.
Claire: They sell them at Whole Foods too.
Joy: Great. Yeah. That’s a snack or I’ll have like as a side dish with lunch or whatever. They’re delicious. They’re delicious.
Claire: My favorite snack right now is overnight oats. I really consider them to be a snack. Like I’m not going to eat that as my whole breakfast. It’s just not enough food unless they make like four cups of oats, which is not the experience I’m going for.
Joy: I love overnight oats.
Claire: I love that they’re cold.
Joy: Yeah, Sassy has got some good – Laura Ligos has great recipes in her cookbook if you want to go to her website and order her cookbook.
Claire: I will say – she’s great. It’s a great cookbook, two great cookbooks. I was posting about it on my personal Instagram and somebody was like, “What is your recipe for this? Because I feel like all the recipes are so complicated.” I go as basic as possible. I do a cup of vanilla almond milk, a cup of Bob’s Red Mill rolled oats, a scoop of protein powder. That’s it. That’s all that’s in mind.
Joy: Oh, protein powder? I’ve not tried that yet. That’s a good idea.
Claire: I just, I have a hard time getting protein in my day.
Joy: So do I.
Claire: So I like to kind of sneak it in.
Joy: Yeah, I think we all do.
Claire: Yeah. So it’s really easy to just put it in there. It just makes it a little bit sweeter. I use vanilla protein powder, but you could use whatever you want. And I sometimes will just like chop up a peach and put it on top right before I eat it because peach season in Colorado is a big deal and it’s here. And it’s only like two or three weeks long, and we’re right in the middle of it right now.
Joy: I just bought a huge pallet of peaches at Costco and I’m just like eating them constantly.
Claire: Yeah, yeah, get there.
Joy: I just really try not to everything. I know there are like a thousand recipes out there if you want to get fancy, but for me, it’s just about convenience. So that’s what I do. Alright guys, we’ll answer more of your questions in future episodes. We actually have a few weeks coming up because of my upcoming surf trip where I may or may not be dragging a surfboard across the world where we’re going to be recording much episodes ahead of time for that trip. So we’ll have a chance to get to all your questions. Thank you so much for being here. You can find us on Instagram @joyandclaire_. You can find us online at joyandclaire.com You can email us at thisisjoyandclaire@gmail.com Don’t forget to check out our favorite sponsor, Ned. That’s helloned.com/JOY or use discount code JOY for 15% off all your orders. Don’t forget that your first order has a 30-day money back guarantee. Give them a shot.
Joy: Got nothing to lose.
Claire: Support the brands that support our podcast. We will talk to you next Thursday, just like every Thursday.
Joy: All the time forever.
Claire: Bye.
Joy: Bye.
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