Food dopamine hits, Joy’s birthday party dream, 90’s fashion, Colorado moms and treadmill desks!
email: thisisjoyandclaire@gmail.com
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This is Joy & Claire Episode 137: Pick a Theme and Let’s Party
Episode Date: July 28, 2022
Transcription Completed: October 10, 2022
Audio Length: 40:39 minutes
Joy: Hey guys, this is Joy.
Claire: And this is Claire. Hello.
Joy: Happy Thursday.
Claire: Happy Thursday.
Joy: I just had some tortilla chips. It was a delicious snack.
Claire: Okay, I’ve been having the best lunch lately. I’ve been making fake ceviche and eating it with chips. My secret – this isn’t a secret. I eat shrimp for lunch almost every single day. I love shrimp. It’s one of my favorite foods. No one else in my family likes it, so I buy those big bags of frozen, pre-cooked shrimp, heat it up, boil it to thaw them. Drain them, put some cold water on them, chop them up into little pieces, add them to a bowl with a bunch of lime juice and salt and a little bit of this Korean barbecue sauce that I really like. Or Korean sweet soy sauce kind of thing. And then I eat them with chips as faux ceviche. I’ve been eating them every day right now.
Joy: That’s great. I love how you get into these modes of making the same thing.
Claire: Yeah, comfort foods.
Joy: It’s your comfort food.
Claire: Some people on Instagram or TikTok – I don’t TikTok, but I watch TikToks on Instagram, and they call them dopamine snacks.
Joy: Dopamine snacks.
Claire: But yeah, I do get into food phases. Mostly because I find something and it just becomes an easy routine and I don’t have to think about it.
Joy: Well yeah, you don’t have to make something different every single day.
Claire: So yeah, right now I’m in a phase with the fake ceviche. But even without the fake ceviche, I still have been eating shrimp every day for lunch for like a year. It’s just so quick and easy. I like it and I don’t get a chance to eat it any other time. From a nutritional standpoint, it is very, very high in protein, which protein is definitely the one macronutrient that I struggle to get as much as I want to have.
Joy: I think all of us do. I just never go for protein.
Claire: I’m never like, you know what I could use right now?
Joy: Just a slab of meat.
Claire: Just a slab of turkey. I mean, sometimes a slab of meat. But yeah, that’s also where the shrimp comes in.
Joy: Shrimp would actually be great. I need to add that to my diet. This is going to sound so weird. I get really tired of chewing. I have a very sensitive jaw. I’ve had TMJ stuff my whole life. So chewing – oh no, this is where the sleigh ride to 45 is showing.
Claire: [laughing]
Joy: I was like, oh no. It’s happening.
Claire: It’s happening. Right in front of our faces.
Joy: Right in front of my face. Chewing just feels really exhausting, guys.
Claire: A lot of work.
Joy: There’s so much chewing with meat. That’s where I get really tired. I’m not saying I want to wolf down my food by any means.
Claire: You just need to try the chopped-up shrimp.
Joy: I really should. I just need something a little bit easier –
Claire: And really, the key is that – if I’m feeling fancy, which I have not done this yet, but I can imagine a day where I might chop up a whole red onion, maybe a little avocado, some cherry tomatoes in there.
Joy: That sounds like my dad. He was so cute this weekend when we went out there. He gets in food dopamine hits too. Right now, he’s making a salad he calls the Kenny salad. Because when we were in Arizona, the friend we stayed with, the dad his name is Kenny and he made this salad while he was there. He was like, this was really good. So now he makes Ken’s salad. It’s just adorable. It’s just tomatoes and avocados. He just throws a bunch of stuff together, and he makes it every single day. It’s great. He’ll get in a phase like that. I think everybody does that. But yeah, I need to add that to my repertoire. I just had sessions all day and was like, I need a little bit of a snack, and I bought this huge Costco sized bag of organic tortilla chips. I don’t know why I needed organic, but they were just there. And they are delicious. They are restaurant style. They are so good.
Claire: I love a good tortilla chip.
Joy: It reminds me of going to a Mexican restaurant with my friends and just getting a whole bowl of the restaurant style tortilla chips. Every time I eat them, I am transported into a date with my friends, even though we haven’t done that in a long time.
Claire: I was actually just thinking about that. I saw a memory pop up of you, me, and Jess in her backyard in 2020. It was the first time we had hung out during Covid.
Joy: Yes, I totally remember that. I brought Cadet. Yes, oh my gosh, I totally remember that.
Claire: We all wore masks on the porch. I feel like I’ve only seen you guys one or two other times since then, and that was two years ago. We’ve got to go get tacos.
Joy: Well the other day, I was like, I just feel like we all need – and this is where in my mind, it sounds great. But if it were to actually play out, I’d be like, oh my gosh, I’m so tired already. Gosh, when was this… 2007? Maybe 2007. I think it was before I got married so it had to be 2007 when the Sex and the City movie came out. I mean, this was kind of the prime of when we were just dying to see some more Sex and the City. Because when it ended, everyone was devastated that it was over. So the movie came out, and all my girlfriends – I mean, we would have Sex and the City viewing parties. It was a real player in our 20s. So when the movie came out, we were just so, so thrilled. So we rented this huge limo. Which every time I say limo, I think of John Hays taking you guys to the airport in a limo. And we all dressed up in Sex and the City attire, which just think about what that is. You just dress up. And watch the movie. We all had drinks. It was just so fun. I’m like, I really need to do a night like that. And I’m not saying get blasted drunk. No one was blasted drunk. We just went out –
Claire: Make a whole night of it.
Joy: Make a whole night of it and get dressed up. And then afterwards, I think we went to a bar and danced a little bit and called it a night. But it’s just like that I was kind of Jonesing for a night like that. Where it’s just your closest friends and you’re like, we need to blow off some steam.
Claire: We should just do that for your 45th birthday. It’s a mere, what, 10 weeks away?
Joy: It’s on a Saturday. Would not be opposed.
Claire: It’s like six weeks away.
Joy: I would not be opposed to that. Hey. Everyone in the Denver area or even beyond if you want to drive down here, let’s all just meet somewhere and have a fun time.
Claire: Just have a margarita, eat a bunch of chips.
Joy: I just want to wear a fancy outfit. I want to wear my Samantha Pleet dress that I bought. Which I posted so many times. My cape dress. I posted it so many times, I was worried people were thinking it was an ad. No, no.
Claire: To be fair, real money was exchanged.
Joy: Real money.
Claire: Real American dollars.
Joy: She started following us. I don’t know if it was her or her ad team, but I got excited. And my friend Donna who introduced me to Samantha Pleet. If you don’t follow her, you need to. Her clothes are incredible. Anyway, saw this dress, waited forever because it was pretty expensive for a dress that I was like, how often am I going to wear this? But it would be the perfect birthday dress to wear.
Claire: The thing I love about that dress – if you guys don’t know what we’re talking about, go back on our Instagram to 1, 2, 3, 4, – about 5, 6 rows down. The thing I love about that dress was when you posted it, the next post was of Evie wearing a unicorn life jacket, and it looks identical.
Joy: It looks like they go together.
Claire: In fact, a lot of times when I see that post of you just out of the corner of my eye, I just assume that it’s Evie. They absolutely look like they go together, like you should be wearing this unicorn life jacket with your dress. Your dress is different crystals, and hers is unicorn shooting stars. Very much is the same.
Joy: I think we all need an event.
Claire: And just dress up however you want. If you had ended up buying a wedding dress and then having a Covid wedding, wear your wedding dress. If you would rather just come in a unicorn onesie, come in a unicorn onesie.
Joy: Yeah.
Claire: We should flesh this out some more.
Joy: I mean, it could be like a ball – I’m taking about a ball, like a dance. Do whatever you need to do. Whatever needs to happen. A disco ball. Pick your theme, and just show up. And Zac Anderson, I’m talking to you with your overalls.
Claire: Called out, Zac. Called out. I have exchanged many, many messages with him about those overalls.
Joy: I love him so much. And his nail polish. I want all of it. Or a romper, I don’t care. Or both. Do a change. Do a change like the Kardashians with their 50 wedding dresses. I don’t care. I just want everyone to be throwing glitter under a disco ball.
Claire: We can rent a limit.
Joy: This is now coming out of control.
Claire: Joy is already having introvert hangover, just describing this party.
Joy: Actually no. If it’s a party for me, I am all in. If it’s a party for me, I put introvert on the shelf and I go all out. Yeah.
Claire: Let’s do it.
Joy: It’s actually the only exception where my introvert goes to bed.
Claire: You put your introvert to bed, tuck her in, and then you go out.
Joy: You go out.
Claire: The introvert can stay home in bed. It’s like when you crumple up papers and then put your blanket over them to make your mom think that you’re sleeping.
Joy: Was Ferris Bueller a big movie for you growing up?
Claire: Oh yeah.
Joy: I just remember the manikin where he has it –
Claire: The trophy is –
Joy: Yes. I was just mesmerized by that movie. Okay.
Claire: It was a really good one.
Joy: Okay.
Claire: As you guys know, I’ve been working out at the local Y. No fancy gyms for this girl. I just love a Y. Actually, my friend Amanda got me into going to the Y. I was just talking about this before –
Joy: I love the Y.
Claire: I know.
Joy: That’s all I used when I was in my 20s.
Claire: So universal.
Joy: So great. I freaking loved the Y.
Claire: But the reason this made me think about it is because the last couple of times I’ve gone, I’ve really noticed a lot of late 80s movie power ballads. Today, the song from Dirty Dancing was on. The last time I went, it was the song from Top Gun.
Joy: Which Top Gun song?
Claire: You know – [sings]
Joy: Oh, that one? “Take My Breath Away?”
Claire: Yeah. You’re like lifting weights. And most people have their headphones, but for some reason I don’t bring headphones because it’s 5 in the morning and that’s too many accessories. But also, we were also just at the Y. Evie is going to start preschool soon, so we were doing a little tour of the Y. Shoutout to all the parents whose kids are starting a milestone grade in mere few weeks. Summer is rapidly coming to an end.
Joy: Rapidly. I’ve been talking to a lot of teachers, a lot of parents. When we’re scheduling our next appointment, I’m like, oh my God, it’s August. What? It’s weird how that happens. Summer – it’s unfair.
Claire: Summer feels particularly fleeting.
Joy: It’s unfair how fast that goes.
Claire: So an update on Maxine. Maxine has still been with us. She did not move into our house with us when we moved. She moved in with her boyfriend, but she has been nannying for us.
Joy: Oh, I didn’t know that.
Claire: Yeah.
Joy: So she’s not living with you?
Claire: When we moved, we had every intention of her moving with us. There’s a bedroom in the basement, bathroom in the basement. But it just so happened that at the same time her boyfriend who – it’s a long story, but her boyfriend moved here, and they moved in together. But she still had been our nanny. We basically got to the decision that we don’t really need a full, full-time nanny anymore, and she needs a full-time appointment. We really just couldn’t offer her those kind of hours anymore because we want Evie to start in preschool.
Joy: And her contract with you was supposed to end in June.
Claire: Yeah. Her status right now is kind of pending. One of her visas is waiting to be transferred. So technically she was with us until June, and we have continued to keep her on throughout the summer. We were just going to keep her on indefinitely, but she is finishing up with us. Her last week will be the week that I’m in Ireland. So basically the week before Labor Day. We’re really sad. It’s the right time. It’s the right move for everyone.
Joy: Sure.
Claire: Evie is ready for preschool. She is ready to be in a group setting. If Maxine didn’t need full-time employment, we would absolutely keep her on just in the afternoons or whatever. But I understand from her perspective, she’s like, yeah, I can’t live only getting paid to work four hours a day or less.
Joy: Yeah.
Claire: So she is with us still full time throughout the summer. And I’m not really sure if she has something lined up yet for the fall. She might end up starting some classes. TBD. So Evie is going to start preschool, and my life is going to start getting significantly more hectic. Having Maxine has been so wonderful. And if you guys are new here, Maxine is a woman who started out as our au pair. She moved in with us in January 2020, so really was so instrumental during Covid. We obviously had no idea what was going to happen in January 2020, but she is pretty much solely the reason that I was able to keep my job throughout Covid. With Brandon in nursing, I was working from home. Evie was barely one at the time. She turned one during February 2020. It’s really hard to work from home with a 12–24-month-old. Which I know a lot of you out there are like, “Yeah, I did it. It was horrible.” It’s sad. It’s the end of an era. I think it’s time for everyone. I think she’s ready to move on and find out what’s next for her. So Evie is starting preschool. It will be really exciting. But our backup care is basically going away. And then really interesting, one of the nice things about having Maxine is that I’ve only really ever had to get Miles ready. Maxine can help finish getting Evie ready in the morning. They don’t have to immediately get out the door and go anywhere. But Brandon leaves for work at 6:15, so I’m going to be getting up, getting myself ready, getting both kids ready, and trying to get everyone out the door in time for me to be in Denver between 8:30 and 9.
Joy: Right. Oh my goodness.
Claire: So Miles is going to be doing early care before school. Preschool opens at 7. You know, I’ll let you guys know how it goes.
Joy: A lot of moving parts.
Claire: A lot of moving parts. It’s going to be a lot of early mornings. A lot of getting up, doing my 5am workout at the Y, coming home, and trying to get myself completely ready by like 6:30/6:45. And then getting the kids up, having to get them out the door by like 7:30.
Joy: Send help. Send tips, everybody. This is where we need the efficiency experts getting ready tips.
Claire: I was in a similar position when it was just Miles. And even that was just so hard. Thankfully Evie is a lot easier to get out the door than Miles was at that age. But we got so far as Miles, to this day, does not sleep in pajamas because when we was 2 years old, he would put up such a fight in the morning about changing out of his pajamas and into his clothes that I just started having him sleep in his clothes. The kid has not worn pajamas in like four years. Because why are we worrying about this extra special set of clothes? He gets out of the bath at night, and I put him into the clothes that he’s going to wear the next day. Which to this day, that’s the move. And you know, he’s a kid. It doesn’t matter.
Joy: It doesn’t matter.
Claire: And 90% of what he wears anyways is sweatpants and t-shirts and shorts.
Joy: Yes.
Claire: It’s not like he’s going to sleep in jeans.
Joy: Close enough. Why are we making this so hard?
Claire: So I might have to start doing that with Evie. Although, she is a little bit more particular about wanting to wear her jammies.
Joy: Yeah. Because they’re probably really cute.
Claire: I was just about to say, she just got these jammies that are Minnie Mouse heads that are pink sprinkled donuts. You can imagine it, right?
Joy: I would like those.
Claire: It’s mostly because Evie loves an accessory so much. She really does. That girl. She loves an outfit. She loves an accessory. Her first words was “shoes.”
Joy: What can I tell you?
Claire: What can I tell you? [laughing] Where do you go from there?
Joy: You just go to the best outfits ever, and she rocks it.
Claire: Okay, speaking about kids. I was recently made aware that this comeback of 90s fashion is called Y2K fashion.
Joy: I wish everyone could see my face right now.
Claire: I saw that as a headline, “Y2K style.” I was like, oh gosh. I mean, it’s true. It’s very accurate to what I was wearing in the Y2K era.
Joy: It is true.
Claire: The fact that it’s like a vintage style now. Y2K just happened.
Joy: Y2K was the best New Years Eve of my life. It was one of the best New Year’s Eves of my life. So great. It was the year – I think I sent you this photo – where I wore a triangle, an upside-down triangle top. Is that what we’re talking about?
Claire: Yes. Imagine dELiA*s catalogs.
Joy: Yeah.
Claire: The bandana tops.
Joy: I think I still have these. Loved it so much. This was so great. MAC sold these mirrors the size of your thumbnail that would velcro into your hair. So I just had little thumbnail mirrors all over my hair was what I wore. So great.
Claire: That’s incredible.
Joy: We were flipping around. Sorry. Let me interject. Speaking of retro, we were flipping around Netflix recently where it was like “retro TV shows” and it was like Seinfeld. [Get the fuck out of here. Are you kidding me? Retro? So man.
Claire: Retro? By retro, you mean iconic. Can you imagine Jerry Seinfeld’s reaction if he were to find out that his TV show –
Joy: I was appalled.
Claire: Can you imagine if on the show he found out that he was considered retro?
Joy: He needs to come back just for that.
Claire: They really need to do a 2022 –
Joy: I think Arrested Development was on there too. We were both like, Netflix needs to sit down.
Claire: Netflix, GTFO.
Joy: So you were saying.
Claire: My Y2K New Years, I think I was like 12. I would have been 12 or 13.
Joy: Yeah, because I was –
Claire: 22 or 23?
Joy: Yeah, 22.
Claire: I was at a friend’s house because I was 12.
Joy: Appropriate.
Claire: And I just remember I was wearing so much body glitter.
Joy: So was I.
Claire: [laughing] Like blueberry vanilla scented body glitter that I got – not even from Claire’s. The Icing, which was supposed to be the classier version of Claire’s.
Joy: Yes. I remember the exact outfit I wore. I wore these pants that I got in Paris when I was living in France. They were these awesome, I don’t know, just boot cut black legging type things that had this awesome design on it. Really huge platform black loafers and that triangle top. And then my hair was all in a pineapple flippy up clip and then mirrors.
Claire: Which are also making a big comeback, those claw clips.
Joy: Are they banana clips? I got these in Arizona because all the girls are wearing them.
Claire: Yeah, those are coming back.
Joy: But this is not a true banana clip. They’re calling it a banana clip. And guys, I know you can’t see it. It just looks like one of those claw clips. But it’s extra long. I got it because my hair is too long. I need to cut it, which is another story. The banana clips – you know what I’m taking about? Like those guys.
Claire: It was more like a baleen whale.
Joy: I’m like, maybe a vagina-looking thing.
Claire: Just imagine some labia if you will. But with teeth.
Joy: [laughing] That goes in your hair.
Claire: And if you get bored, you can just open it and close it around your hand indefinitely.
Joy: It’s a fidget toy as well, which is the funniest pun that I think I’ve ever –
Claire: It’s a fidget toy slash piece of genitalia hair accessory.
Joy: That’s –
Claire: Oh no. I never really used those too much. I would always bonk my head on them, like I would lean back against them and I would bonk my head.
Joy: Yeah. Well mine, they never stayed up for me.
Claire: Yeah, also a problem.
Joy: You get the cutest little waterfall ponytail that was so cute, and then it would just start to fall.
Claire: Right, within moments.
Joy: Within moments. I mean, I guess you could really put a lot of product in there.
Claire: But that kind of defeats the purpose, in my opinion.
Joy: Exactly, exactly.
Claire: What is your favorite Y2K fashion trend? What are you excited that’s coming back. No, we talked about this last time.
Joy: We talked about this last time.
Claire: The Steve Madden slip-ons. What were some of your other favorite outfits?
Joy: I really did love the flared pants. I really liked those. There was the style that had low rise but flared pants. Love those. They did also have some more wide leg pants that were just kind of like pull on pants. What were those called? You know what I’m talking about. I had an outfit from, I think it was J.Crew that had these awesome pants that I loved, and I wore those with my Steve Madden slides. Gosh, I’m trying to think of shirt wise. Because most of the time, I would wear the stuff that was truly Y2K when we were going out. Did you ever in college go shopping for a going out outfit?
Claire: Oh, of course.
Joy: That was the best.
Claire: Charlotte Russe.
Joy: Charlotte Russe! Charlotte Russe, so good. But you know, I never could totally pull off the really skimpy stuff because I was uncomfortable wearing it.
Claire: Right, you weren’t going out looking like Christina Aguilera.
Joy: Definitely not.
Claire: Did you ever have the lace-up pants?
Joy: Oh yeah.
Claire: I really wanted those, and I could never pull them off. As soon as I went through puberty, I got love handles, which is just part of my body. I wanted the low rise lace up pants so bad, but it basically felt like I was trying to just… anatomically, it’s just not going to work out.
Joy: Yeah. It was a lot of graphic tees. I never really got into the Juicy velour jumpsuits.
Claire: I did get into the bedazzling. I had a lot of jeans with the bedazzling on them, a lot of embellishments. Everything was very embellished.
Joy: How about a good trucker hat? Did you ever do that?
Claire: Oh., I loved a good trucker hat. So also keep in mind that this was the first surge of my need to pretend I was a surfer.
Joy: Totally.
Claire: Which I’m currently having a mid-life crisis version of that, I think.
Joy: Sure.
Claire: But this was the adolescent version.
Joy: Which is very strong.
Claire: It was very easy. Hollister, everything. You go into Hollister, and they have a livestream camera of the Pacific beach. And I was like, “I’m watching surfing.” It was before webcams were really all that common. So it was a big deal that you could go and see, like, “Oh my gosh, that’s really happening right now.” Yeah, loved a trucker hat. I wore so much Roxy. Half my wardrobe was Roxy.
Joy: So I’m trying to think – I lived at J.Crew. I was more in the J.Crew Y2K era.
Claire: I was much more PacSun, American Eagle, Hot Topic.
Joy: So that was my style. Whatever J.Crew sold –
Claire: This is a little later than Y2K, but did you own a lot of bubble necklaces?
Joy: Nope.
Claire: Do you know what I’m talking about?
Joy: No.
Claire: Yeah, you do. Hold on.
Joy: [laughing] Yes, you do.
Claire: Will you just google?
Joy: Yeah.
Claire: Google “bubble necklace” and go to the image search.
Joy: Are we talking about J.Crew bubbles that lay like this?
Claire: Yeah.
Joy: Really? Yeah, I never got into that trend.
Claire: I mean, that was a strong trend.
Joy: It was very strong.
Claire: Probably a little later. That was probably more like 2010.
Joy: This is where I get weird where it’s too much of a statement to where I can only wear it like once a month.
Claire: And it’s a sherbet color also. They were like popsicle colors.
Joy: I never really got into it. Here’s the thing though. Jenna Lyons was a god to me. She could do no wrong. She was the head of J.Crew. Her influence, that was probably early 2000s into, I don’t know – when did she leave? Like 2010? So anything J.Crew was like, sign me up. I was obsessed. I was obsessed with her style. So that’s kind of where I put my focus in the early aughts.
Claire: Yeah. I think also because I was younger than you. I was very into dELiA*s. I loved a spaghetti strap tank top, even though we weren’t supposed to wear them to school.
Joy: I see Olivia Rodrigo and how cute she is, and I’m like, wow, the Y2K style and all of those outfits. It is so true that everything just recycles.
Claire: Yeah, it just comes back around with very slighted updated variations.
Joy: Yeah. Which is kind of like, duh. It does feel a little weird to be on the other side. To be the one that’s like, oh my gosh, that’s what I wore when I was a kid type of thing.
Claire: I will say these two things. I feel like a lot of people on here agree with this. You can have my high waisted pants and my thick eyebrows when you pry them out of my cold, dead hands. I will not be wearing low rise jeans, and I will not be tweaking my eyebrows into a single hair breadth ever again.
Joy: No. Let’s hope that trend is done.
Claire: Especially because now all the millennials got micro bladed, and they’re like, wait a minute.
Joy: That sucks to be you.
Claire: I on the other hand had to tweeze my eyebrows every freaking morning before middle school. Never again. Never again.
Joy: I was talking about this with my mom this weekend because we were in Westcliffe. I was with one of my friends I’ve pretty much known since birth. We have grown up next door to each other since we were born. We were talking about how we look at pictures of ourselves. We were joking about our wrinkles and our face. We were looking at old pictures of ourselves and how young we look and how baby faced we look. I’m like, “Oh, my wrinkles.” And my mom is like, “Wrinkles? You guys don’t have” – I was like, yeah mom, that’s right. No matter what age, you’re going to go through this. You’re going to go through some type of, “Oh, I’m in my 30s now.” “Oh, I’m in my 40s now.” So in some way, I just shut up because we’re all going to go through it. It doesn’t matter. All the 20-year-olds are going to go through it. But no matter what, it still feels weird. It feels weird to be on that other side of it. Or when Scott and I are watching Netflix and they’re referring to Arrested Development as a retro show or whatever. We’re just like, what world do we live in? We are turning 45 this year.
Claire: It’s decidedly middle aged. Speaking of that and feeling called out, that Colorado moms YouTube video that’s going around –
Joy: It’s so funny,
Claire: Somebody sent it to us. Somebody sent it to us on the very first day that it came out. If you guys haven’t seen it, just go onto YouTube and type in Colorado moms. It’s by – what’s the name of the guy?
Joy: Something dad, oh my gosh.
Claire: It’s like the dude dad.
Joy: Dude dad.
Claire: It’s painfully accurate. At the beginning, it’s like, “We should go for a bike ride.” And the person calls out to their kids, and it’s like – what are their names?
Joy: River, Skylar, Aspen.
Claire: Aspen, River, Chaco. I know people with all of these kids’ names. A guy that I work with, his older brother and his wife live on the East Coast and sent it to him and was like, “This is so weird. Can you imagine naming your kids that?” I was like, I know people with all those kids’ names. Some of them multiple times. Like, I know multiple Rivers. Not just my dog, but multiple children named River. Multiple Aspens. So many Junipers. So many Junipers. Several Willows. I have said those exact words about the Subaru Ascent. “I do love my Outback, but that third row of seats would really come in clutch.” [laughing] And I do need a ski rack because all the kids are in ski school. I was listening to it, and I was like, oh my God, I have a rock-climbing wall in my basement. When they were like, “Oh yeah, this tattoo, I’m trying to get it into a sleeve.” I was like, no, no, no, no no. It was like, “Yeah, do you have some sourdough starter? I have some right here.” I was like, no, no, no, no, no.
Joy: It’s all you.
Claire: Everything was so – the water bottle, Chapstick, sunscreen thing. Constantly. I’m constantly refilling water bottles. I have my car Chapstick, my room Chapstick, my office Chapstick.
Joy: I was wondering about the Chapstick. I was like, does Claire do the Chapstick thing?
Claire: Oh yeah. And back to the sunscreen thing, we have a whole bin of sunscreen.
Joy: Oh yeah. That’s so funny. If you haven’t seen it, I laughed so hard.
Claire: It’s one of those ones where it seems so out there that you’re like, people aren’t really like this. Let me assure you –
Joy: It is Claire.
Claire: Not only are people like that, it’s me. The only thing they were missing was that the person doesn’t have a dog. What they really needed – and if you can hear my dog barking in the background, speaking of which – what they really needed was some old farty lab to just come sauntering in like, “Yeah, you know, our dog Moab, she’s 15. She’s blind in both eyes and she has 25 tumors, but she was our first baby. You know how it is.” That’s everybody. Everyone has an old decrepit either cattle dog or lab named either Tahoe or Moab. They’re just riddled with fatty tumors. “But she was our first baby.”
Joy: I want to see people from other areas of the world, if there is a video that was done about them. Or their state, or the city you live in. Or just something. I would love to see that. I love to know the quirks of every area of where people are living, that they’re known for. Like the Californians on SNL. The Californians.
Claire: It stereotypes us for a reason.
Joy: [laughing] It’s so great.
Claire: But it did get me thinking about ridiculous baby names. And there was the funniest tweet that I saw. You kind of would have to read it. I still have a lot of friends who are having kids. And we always are talking about the weirdest baby names. The thing that always gets me is when people add a lot of unnecessary letters to a conventional name. Where I’m like, just spell it the way it’s pronounced, just please. Give them a conventional spelling. Not even spelling it the way that it’s pronounced, but give it the conventional spelling.
Joy: I mean, I would say a name, but for sure someone listening – I’m going to offend someone.
Claire: But the funniest one was a tweet and it said, “Hey there Deiyleigh, what’s it like in Salt Lake City?” I died. That’s a good one.
Joy: That’s a good one.
Claire: I know some children who their name is just Rock. Like a rock. One rock.
Joy: That makes me think of Gwen Stefani, one of her kids. I think it was her oldest that was Zuma Nesta Rock is the name of the kid. Great. I mean, rockstars, you can name your child whatever you want. I love that Gwyneth and Chris’ child is named Apple.
Claire: Fine. Why not? Are there any words where you’re like, that would be a really cute name if it wasn’t weird?
Joy: Well, when I was younger younger and I talked about – I did have a boyfriend at one point where we talked about baby names if we ever got married and had kids. This was before I was like, yeah, I don’t want kids. I wanted to name a kid [UNSURE 00:32:28.21] Zara, which was like my last name, but I would only do one “R.”
Claire: That would be cute. That would be cute. I mean, you guys all know that I wish we had named Evie Isla.
Joy: Do we know that? I don’t think we know that.
Claire: Okay, well now you know.
Joy: Evie, don’t listen to this podcast from the future.
Claire: I’m going to tell her. We named her Juna. Juna didn’t fit, so we named her Evie. But if I had my way, we would have named her Isla. But Brandon – which I don’t necessarily disagree with this, but whatever. Isla is spelled I-S-L-A. Her last name is spelled Koch but pronounced “Cook.” He was like, “I don’t want her to have two names that are not phonetic.” Okay, that’s fine. But I still love that name so much, and I wish that we had named her it. And then the other name that I wish we had given a little more thought to was Agatha and call her Aggie.
Joy: That’s cute.
Claire: But the name that I really, really wish that we would have given her is Margot with a “T.”
Joy: I do love a Margot with a “T.”
Claire: So cute. I love a Margot with a “T.” So if you’re waiting to name a girl out there, those are my free suggestions.
Joy: We just gave you so many names.
Claire: Aggie, Margot, Isla. I definitely know a lot of people where I’m like, huh, that’s an interesting name. A lot of them are named after nature things, like Rock. Where it’s like, you know, I could see it.
Joy: Do you know – oh, I guess I shouldn’t say. I was almost like, “Do you work with anybody with weird names?” Let’s not call people out.
Claire: No, nobody I work with has a super weird name. I did have a dream. One of my coworkers had a baby recently, and I did have a dream that she named her baby Oliver, but she made us all call him Liver.
Joy: [laughing]
Claire: Not the case. She named him Cameron. Scott Parrish just texted me. He says he wants to live the walking treadmill desk life.
Joy: It’s really funny. He’ll see our stories. He was very excited about walking treadmill desk and was like, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this.”
Claire: [laughing] I’ll tell him. But my disclaimer about this treadmill desk. If you guys didn’t notice this on our stories, I got a treadmill desk from Amazon. Maybe I’ll post it again. But I like it because it had wood sides. Not the most quiet thing in the world, but it’s not that loud. I can be on it during calls. The only reason I’m not on it during calls is I think it’s weird to watch somebody walk in place while you’re on a call.
Joy: Right.
Claire: But I can type and walk. People are like, “Can you really do that?” It’s not that hard. Think about texting and walking. If you didn’t have to worry about where you were going, it’s that amount of –
Joy: That’s true. Do you get dizzy though? I’m a little worried about motion sickness.
Claire: No. And I get motion sick from everything. If there was a person on this planet who was going to get motion sick from this, it would be me. I can’t even sit in hammocks, you guys.
Joy: Yeah, she’s not kidding.
Claire: I can’t. Don’t worry about that. The only time when I turn it off is when I’m working on a spreadsheet or something and I really need to lean into a screen. I will say that Melissa Urban of the Whole30 dynasty did a bunch of reviews on treadmills. She is apparently like 5’11” and her whole thing was these desk treadmills are not long enough if you have a long stride.
Joy: Oh, yeah.
Claire: And I could see that. I’m 5’3” and I’m on this treadmill and I’m not having any problem with it. But if my legs were 6” longer than the other, and my strict was there for about a foot longer, I might find myself stubbing my toes on the top of it more often. I will let Scott in on that little secret. Otherwise, I do really like it.
Joy: So does she list the top ones that she likes?
Claire: I think she did. Ultimately though, I think that she didn’t really find one that – I think her conclusion was get a regular used treadmill and set up a desk on it.
Joy: Now I’m thinking – you know why Scott texted you just now is because he knows we’re on the podcast and he wants us to talk about it. This is his way of interjecting into the show. He’s so funny.
Claire: Or maybe he was just like, oh that’s right. It brought me to mind.
Joy: That’s right. Joy is talking to Claire. I needed to ask Claire.
Claire: Oh, that reminds me, I need to ask Claire about this. I’m just going to text her now so I don’t forget. We will assume that Scott is not ambulance chasing after our very popular podcast.
Joy: He does get a little excited about us interjecting Scott’s take. He’ll give me content sometimes and be like, “That’s really funny.” To post on our stories. And I’m like, it’s not really our thing. There are some things that I kind of weed out. There are some things that I post that I’m like, actually that’s really funny. That’s really cute. He was like, tell me about your treadmill desk.
Claire: I still don’t know why we don’t have a Scott’s product corner.
Joy: Well, here’s the thing. Scott can really list products that he likes and that he knows that I would like.
Claire: That’s fine. I think we just need to give him some more scenarios. Like okay, there is a man from 40-45 who works in sales and is moderately techy, and we’re trying to find a gift for this person.
Joy: He needs a little more context, yeah.
Claire: I feel like we could create some archetypes here. We could create some personas.
Joy: Yeah. We did that for Valentine’s Day this year, and I got so overwhelmed. We got so many responses that I’m like, oh my gosh, I don’t even know where to start. So yeah, if we got like five personas, he could probably put together something.
Claire: Like a gift guide. Like the tech person in your life, for the sports fan in your life, for the outdoorsman in your life. We should start that now because there’s five months still until Christmas.
Joy: He’s so good at it.
Claire: He’s just so aware of what’s out there.
Joy: He’s so aware. It’s ridiculous how aware he is.
Claire: So one of my friends, she and her husband both have multiple siblings. Her husband has three brothers or something. The point of the story is, everyone in their family does a secret Santa. So you only buy for one other person.
Joy: Right, we used to do that.
Claire: So the expectation is since you’re only buying for one other person, you get them a good gift. This was the year that I asked – hey, this couple in Portland and they’re really super techy – and he was like, “Oh, Apple Home.” Like it just came out. It was like, okay, done, problem solved. Literally that’s what I got them that year. This was like three degrees of separation from Scott Parrish, and he still found the perfect gift.
Joy: Yeah. Or one year he was like, “Here’s a great charger system for all your devices.” I don’t know. Any time I need something or some idea, but it has to be a pretty good context to that person. But sometimes he’s really good about just coming up with random ideas. We definitely need to get him to weigh in on more of that stuff. His talents are going to waste by just being used on me.
Claire: Oh my goodness. Okay guys, I think that’s it for this week.
Joy: I think that’s it.
Claire: Thank you for hanging out with us, just for a good ole catch up sesh. A good ole chat. 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 there are some teacher wish lists still on our Instagram highlights.
Joy: Yes, support them.
Claire: We will be doing that again and posting some new lists in a couple weeks.
Joy: Did you ever find out about the –
Claire: No. This is a fun fact. One of the teachers that sent us their wish list, she thinks that someone accidentally – because you know when you select an address on Amazon, it saves it?
Joy: Yes.
Claire: And also if you send something from somebody’s wish list, it doesn’t necessarily give your identifying details. It gives your first name and your last initial at most. Sometimes a lot of your Amazon packages, they don’t come with a packing slip, right?
Joy: Right. Most of the time, they don’t.
Claire: Most of the time, they don’t. So she got somebody’s throw pillow covers. So if you’re missing a set of throw pillow covers and you recently sent something to one of our teachers, please let us know. Because we will pack them up for you.
Joy: She wants to send them to you.
Claire: She wants to reunite them with their rightful owner. Alright guys, that’s it. We’ll talk to you next Thursday.
Joy: Bye, guys.
Claire: Bye.
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