Hello, Hello, this is the Gecko guy.
No fucking way, what is your name?
I'm not that would be disgusting, Sammy. What's going on? What's up? Sammy? Did I catch you in the middle of something? Or am I? Am I bothering you?
Currently? I am in the car with my parents, but I can talk.
Yeah, you're in the car with your parents. Are you in the back seat?
I am, but I feel as though they already know anything that I would talk about. So so, yeah, what's up. I'm honestly just shocked. That was the first thing I texted you. I'm honestly just shocked that you called me.
Can I ask you? Where is the car going? Or what are you going to ride somewhere?
Yeah? We're actually at the beach right now, little family vacation.
Oh very nice.
Yeah, kind of horrible timing, but I'm just gonna go with it.
So all right, listen, I mean you sent me a text, uh huh, and you said, Hi, Gek, my name is Sam and I want to talk about how a PCP trip helped me turn my life around.
Yes, indeed, So, uh tell.
Me about PCP because all I've ever heard about PCP is that it makes people kill people and.
Bite their faces off. I might be convinced I might be confusing with bath salts, but go ahead.
I'm not PCP expert by any sense. I've only done it this one time. And sorry, my brother's in the car with me too. But yeah, so I I you know, I had been into the drug world for a good bit and I ended up essentially trying to overdose on PCP, and it just made me realize everything, all the harm that I have been causing to myself, my family, my loved ones, you know. And then it just sort of made me realize what I need to be doing differently, I guess, And I realized that PCP, like you said before,
has a lot of the opposite effects on people. For whatever reason. In me, it just sort of reset my brain and reconnected wires that had been disconnected, and it made it ultimately, it made me want to get sober. I put myself in rehab and I'm three years sober now.
Uh.
And I wouldn't say it's entirely to the PCP, but I would say that that had had a decent effect, decent positive effect, not saying that that I'll have that effect on everyone. But of course.
So you didn't start with PCP. It was along the road in your drug journey. Where What did you start with in your drug journey?
This is funny because I'm just in the car with my parents listening. But I started with with coke and then very quickly divulged into I went I pretty much speed ran uh drug addiction. Not as fast as you can essentially, but I I've done pretty much everything.
Where where did you go after coke?
My parents just told me I can speak freakly. So after coke, I went into UH. It started from coke, it went into UH per thirties, also known as fentanyl, but I didn't know at the time, and I was smoking those on aluminum foil. And then I got into mess heroin, I did, I did crack at one point, LSD, molly, pretty much everything.
Wow, where were you getting all of this stuff from?
Ye?
So not because I want to hook.
Up, Yeah, you want to plug. Well, I started off really like in the complete opposite world. I was like
a band nerd. You know, I was very innocent. And then I started dating a guy who's in the drug scene, and he was actually a coke dealer, so he had a lot of references, I guess you could say, and a lot of money and a lot of access, and so I was just kind of all of a sudden, I was in this world where I was getting a bunch of stuff for free, and I wasn't even I wasn't really capable at the time of saying no. So I just kind of got enveloped into this world where
it was all this free drugs and no sense of who I was, and it just kind of escalated from there.
How long did you date this guy for?
I think it was a total maybe six eight months. It was a very intense time period, though, like I would say, like I was staying over at his house a lot, it felt much longer than six eight months.
How did you meet him through?
Ironically enough, through my previous boyfriend at the time, and we were friends, like the three of us, and just some shit happened and I ended up being kind of a dickhead and leaving him for his friend.
So so you're with him for eight months, and that relationship is kind of what catalyzed all the drug.
Addiction essentially, I would say, I don't know if that was the exact catalyst. I think there were a lot of other factors that led to this sort of switch. Family issues, you know, friend issues, just sort of my whole Also, COVID had just sort of happened around the same time, my whole world sort of imploded, and I felt as though there was really nothing else to turn too, if that makes sense.
Yeah, how old are you at the time at the.
Time, I believe I was seventeen currently, So you were still in.
High school when you were doing all that drugs.
Yeah, it was my senior year.
And did you have a career plan at the time. Did you have like a thing you wanted to do after high school that you were either neglecting or that you were doing it concurrently with the drugs.
Hmmm.
I don't know if there was really anything specific in mind. I don't know if I really had a direct career path. I had always been really big into I had always really been big into like band. I think band was the big central say, my stepdad was the band director. Like band was just sort of like the center of my family in a way. So it had sort of been pushed on to me that I would just go into music.
I guess.
And how was your relationship with your family at the time.
At the time, honestly awful. I had just moved out of my mom's house and like completely cut ties with her, moved into my dad's full time. All of my friends were a year older, so they had all graduated at that point. Everything was pretty rough, honestly. Oh, and my mom had just like read my diary. I think that was somewhat a catalyst, big breach of privacy. You know, I know that sounds like such like like first world problems. You know, oh my mom read my diary or whatever, But.
Well it's it's not that it sounds like first world problems, but it is very funny in this context as you're talking about all these personal things while she's in the car with you.
I'm currently walking to the beach right now. But yeah, I mean, I mean, I've been pretty straightforward with her. That's how I have a relationship with her.
Now.
So are you still in the car with them right now?
No, no, sir, I'm walking to the beach on my own self.
But you're so you're cool enough with them. But so you're cool enough with them now that they know about all this. You gave your laundry list of drugs in front of them, like they know everything. Were they supportive of you during that time? Like were they helping you out.
During that time? No, I was not in contact with them other than my dad, my parents, and Star divorced. I was not in contact with them during that time. But I think once I got clean and once I got out of rehab, then I think they were just more so happy that I was alive than anything else and so, and they weren't the best for me either, So I think it my drug use almost made it even in a way, like we had both done bad things, so we just kind of chose to forgive each other, if that makes sense.
So for those three years that you were on your drug venders, what were you doing?
Were you just living at home?
Partially? I was either living at my dad's house it's just me and my dad. Or I was also in and out of rehabs. I've been to maybe four total. At first, so I'm in Virginia, but I went to my first rehab was in Mississippi, and then I went to California from there, and then I relapsed and then uh later on, I ended up going to rehabit Maryland and then back in Virginia. It's been a journey for sure.
What was the craziest thing you saw or experienced at any of these rehabs?
Oh? I mean, gosh, I mean besides like the sex and drug use in the rehabs, I don't, I mean a lot of a lot of crazy shit. Especially I was freshly eighteen, fresh out of high school. Yeah, I mean, I mean, here's a story in Mississippi. My friends and I somehow, uh some someone had to connect to a plug and they got them to like put fentanyl under the soles of shoes, and then they got their plug to ship the box of shoes to the rehab and since they were under the soles, we were just like
doing vent in the rehab. But I mean, I mean people were just like you know, there were like horse therapy centers, you know, like with like equine therapy or whatever, and people would go and hook up in the in the bathroom stalls, in the equine barns.
It sounds like it smelled horrible.
Oh it was. I was one of those people.
It was.
Yeah, super romantic, you know.
You think about it, but you had a rehab fling?
Yeah, maybe maybe a couple under my belt.
What's a rehab fling? What's a rehab fling.
Like, well, they called it fratenizing by the people who run the rehab, Like they would always say no fratenizing. I'd say they're pretty pretty awful overall. I mean, you're both in just terrible places, Like we're spots in your life. You're just looking for human connection in any way you can get it. I think there's a lot of desperation in places like that, and you get a bunch of desperate people together and they're gonna fuck.
I mean, but I don't go ahead, No, you go ahead.
Oh, I was just gonna say, I do look back, like sometimes I wish I could go three years clean now, and sometimes I wish I could go back to rehab just for the camaraderie of it all.
I was going, you know, it's funny, I was thinking it. I wasn't going to say it, but well, it's funny because it once you're out of high school and college, there are not a lot of I guess work if if you work in an office in person around people, which a lot of people don't, there's not a lot of.
Times where you're like.
Constantly in a community of other people, especially like living in dorms in the same places with them, and so.
Why even like college, I don't think it's the same type of connection you get in rehab.
It's right, there's also the camaraderie of everybody's at their absolute lowest point. Everybody has that weird shared connection in a sense.
So well, I get I get the I get.
The the conflicting feeling of I'm happy to be three years clean, but I also kind of missed the community of the rehab.
Sometimes sometimes like that's myself thinking, oh, maybe I can just relapse, so I can I can go back to that. But I'm not going to do that.
But yeah, join a fucking sewing club or something if you.
Want, right, Yeah, I have to learn how to sew first.
But do you still talk to anybody that you met and rehab, whether it was you know, just a friend or or someone you fraternized with.
Yeah, I'd say I've kept in contact with people. Some of them are dad now unfortunately, but the ones who aren't I have managed to keep in good terms with. It's hard, though, you know, you have to watch them. You know, people relapse and you got people asking you for money. It's hard seeing people that you care about uh, like, especially when you're clean yourself, having to see them just get deeper into addiction. But yeah, I still keep in contact with them. That's maybe from a distance though.
Yeah.
I was going to ask if that gets complicated, if you ever had to cut somebody off because you felt like they were kind of, I guess, a.
Negative force in your healing journey.
Oh yeah, I mean, of course, I feel like that's unavoidable. I'd say the hardest person that I've had, I haven't cut them off entirely, but a good a good bit. My boyfriend actually the one who introduced me to drugs, He actually passed away from an overdose, and I became friends with his best friend after his death, and I eventually had to once I got clean, I had to
cut off his best friend because of it. And that was really hard because that was sort of my last connection to my late boyfriend, you know, on good terms. It's just he's not on the the same journey as me.
Tell me about your life, now, what do you so? I mean, you're three years clean, right, you said three years?
Yeah?
I just said three years.
Last month, you're going on family vacations, you're hanging out.
What's your life.
Like now, I'm in my last year of college. I don't think my I'm majoring in sociology. I don't think I'm going to get a job in it, or do I really want to. But you know, my my parents are educators. They won't think education is important. And I'm trying to take an advantage of and be grateful for all the opportunities I have that many other people you know don't get. But I'm working as a baker. I'm hoping to stick with baking, even though the patient. But yeah,
I'm working. I'm doing school, trying to keep on good terms with my family, even if it costs my sanity. But I feel like it's hard to complain. Anything's better than being in withdrawals or you know, grieving or like like I feel like once you've gone through shit, I feel like you appreciate, uh, like the more, just like the average things in life a bit more. And so overall I'm feeling pretty grateful, trying to remember that everything you know. I my personal philosophy in life. I don't
think everything happens for a reason. I don't think there's reason to anything, but I think you can assign reason to what you want to assign it to like, because life is meaningless, you get to choose what has meaning. I don't know if that makes sense, but.
Absolutely just trying to remember that.
Yeah, before we go, can you tell me I liked what you said about how things being shitty makes you really grateful and appreciative for the average things, because like, I think about that sometimes. I think about how like the average things are like kind of like the most of what we have, because it's most of our life is you know, stopping at stop signs and you know,
taking shits and walking average stuff. What are some of the average things that you found yourself being being particularly grateful for.
H that's a good question, Lyle. You know, please to rest my head at night. Over my head. I like going by the creek near my apartment, and you know, I just look at the water. I think seeing the leaves change is a really nice reminder of just the finiteness of life. I guess, you know, I personally, I used to be really suicidal. I mean that's kind of how you get into drug use, is being suicidal or not or not just caring about your life. And I think now, uh, I feel very grateful to still be here.
I think I find a lot of beauty and in life, just like the stars in the sky I'm looking looking at the stars right now, or like the water, the waves crashing next to me. You know, I think for a long time I didn't see a point in life, and now I think I've come to terms that maybe, you know, maybe there isn't a point to life, and that's that's okay. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with just existing, you know.
Sam, thanks so much for talking to us about all this stuff. Is there anything else? Who I say to the people of the computer before we go.
I.
Don't know. I'm just just happy to be here. And you don't have to have a reason to keep living. You can just live and you don't. You don't need a reason for it. You don't need a reason to exist, you know.
Yeah, Yeah, I guess.
I mean, I guess that's what dogs kind of do, and they seem pretty Yeah.
I'd love to be a cat. I think I should have been born as a cat. They just get to sleep and ship all day and they don't have to pay bills.
Well, tell your parents, I said, what's up? I don't know if they know By that you're that you're talking.
Oh yeah, I know.
When you called, I said, I said, what if this is the get go? My brother gave me a headshake, he said, no, no way, it's him. But my my parents do not know.
If your existence tell your brother to eat my ship.
Dude, all right, I will do it.
Thank you, Sam, good luck, and uh, don't do PCP kuds unless I guess worked out for you.
But right not an endorsement for PCP. It may have worked out for me, I guarantee you it will not work out for you.
Thanks for calling Sam.
Anytime, Have a good night, lole you bye.
I really liked that call.
I've been talking about this a lot on the podcast, and I guess just in general, h I think a lot about kind of you know, as I do this podcast.
I've been doing it for about almost four years now, and I've struggled to answer the question of, like, what have I learned from talking to so many people because I just kind of have been like doing it repeatedly so much that everything just kind of goes in and out and I'm just like focused on the like work of doing it that I guess I don't internalize it as much and so I've finally come to one of the many answers to that question, which is that, like
a lot of life seems to me to be about perspective, you know, because you think about Sam and the way she was talking, you know, the things that seem as though they make her life great is just this perspective she has that.
Life as she lives it currently is enough and good. And I like that. And then you got guy.
Then you know, you got a caller who's like, I am upset because I could have made a lot of money in bitcoin, but I didn't, and.
So now I'm pissed.
And it's like, well, you can have so much and be miserable and not have a lot and be happy. And you can also you can also go outside, and you can also go outside and go ah anytime you want. That is that is something that you, as a human being or endowed with the right to do. Okay, all right, that's enough motivational stuff out of me. I gotta say something crazy to counteract the wholesome motivation.
What do I say?
I gotta see something crazy?
All right?
Okay? We did it.
All from Hello, Hello, Hey, what's up? Can you hear me?
Yeah? Tell you what's going on? What's your what's what's up?
I don't know, man, I just I would call in. I try, and this is my first time and I can't believe I got through.
What's your life? Like, Zach?
I don't know, man, I'm a pizza man. I delivered pizzas. I do some serving. I live in a house that my parents own, I rented with my girlfriend.
Do you like life?
Man? I don't want. I would think a lot.
What do you ever think?
But hmm, man, time be moving fast, dog sure does. And I don't know. I think about like how I'm getting older and like everything else is like of course getting older, but like I don't know, like you ever think about like I don't know how phrase is? I guess I do. I'm just like I'm on the spot. So I'm a little nervous.
Take your time, Take your time.
So like the other day, you ever seen that movie called Supersize Me?
Yeah?
That the main dude, like the main guy, I forget his name. I'm sorry.
Yeah, Okay, you want to hear something. You want to hear something crazy and I don't want to. I don't mean to intercept your story, but uh yeah, So the main guy from Supersize Me died.
His name was Mergan Spurlock. I also had a little bit of.
An existential crisis when I saw that he died, because he was only fifty.
Three, and I was like, damn, dude, you can just die. Is that what you were going to say?
Yeah? Yeah, dude, like that.
That's exactly I literally was feeling exactly what you were feeling yesterday when I saw that he died.
Dude, that makes me feel like so much better to know that I'm not like on like some weird different viewpoint than other people.
No, No, because that's the ultimate wake up call, is like, oh, yeah, you're gonna die. In fact, I almost think and it's kind of impossible because it's weird.
It's like, are you familiar with the phrase memento mori?
No, It means remembering death and just remembering your own mortality or remembering you're gonna die. And some people have this philosophy that the knowledge of your own death should be a daily thing to be thinking about and that it should have.
A really, really, really strong hand in influencing your decisions.
And it's interesting because some people do that, but in such a way that gives them a ton of anxiety. But really the idea is you do that in such a way that is empowering to you and prevents you from wasting time and influences your decisions such that you're prioritizing things that actually matter because you're gonna fucking die.
M that's a lot to lay on me. I ain't gonna lie.
Tell me what your experience has been with that. Okay, so yesterday you saw you went on Reddit, you saw Morgan Spurlock died. You were like, oh shit, that guy was here and now he's not, and now I'm gonna not be here too. What was going through your brain? Tell me you're telling about your existential thoughts.
Man, So like, I've been having a lot of that, honestly, of like, because I feel like a lot of like people I grew up watching have recently passed away in a few years, the last couple of years, and my christis is like, like, shit, man, I'm getting old. Like, Man, I'll be honest with you, I'm only twenty two. I know that I ain't old, like I'm I'm like self aware enough to know like I ain't old, like I
got time and everything. But it's still be like affecting me in some ways because like I got family that's old, man, and it makes me worry, you know, it makes me think, like, man, I gotta spend as much time with them. I gotta do this and that butts so like way on someone, m.
Hmm, what do you want to do before you die?
Man? I'm gonna be honest, there ain't much really, Like I got a decent place, I got a good girlfriend. Family's pretty cool most of the time.
I don't know, dude, Yeah, that's amazing. That's great. You sound like you're you sound like you're living the dream.
I think I am at the end of the day. But then you know, shit happened throughout the day and I just I get into it. Like what, man, I worked at a pizza place and I actually text you about this, but I didn't like specify who I was. But I serve at this pizza place, like it's more like a restaurant than like just to like come in, grab a pizza and go. And the night before, you know, I tried this edible and I guess I took too much, so like I was all fucked up all throughout the night.
Thought I was gonna die because you know, I was getting sick throughout must of the night. And then the next day, like I slept the entire day until it's time to go to work. I get to working, man, and there's like a line of people just wait in the door until we open, and it's my high school teachers. And I got served that day and I'm still like fucked up, and just that entire situation. Man, I was like on the brink of just like having a panic attack because
like that's a lot. I don't even know where to like go from here to They're like I'm I'm taking pizzas, I'm swinging out some water to people. I got collect and clean the tables because like we don't even have like bussers, Like I'd got to clean the tables.
I gotta do the dishes, like and you're all doing this while you're like tweaking out on edible.
Yeah, man, no, like and I'm like, dude, that stuff like that's not usual for me. Like I felt really bad, Like I get paranoia that like, oh, this person knew that I was messed up. This person does my parents? Dude?
So then so did did did your did this?
Cause the death anxiety that you were you were just talking about.
Honestly, it made it worse. But like, I've had that since I was a child. Like my mom's always brought up how I was scared of death when I was growing up. It's just been a common thing.
So tell me why. I guess.
So, I don't know if you were to make your decisions based on the fact that you are going to die, would you change anything?
Like what do you mean what decisions?
Just like just fucking life decisions, manh Dude.
Everyone's got things that they go back and they think, like maybe I would want to change a little bit here and there, no matter how perfect their life is, just like a what is anario?
Yeah, yeah for sure. Well also, you're still like, fuck man, you're still super young. But I mean, I give what you mean.
I feel uh actually lately I felt very very young, But I have I've had a lot of fucking times when I was like, like, I I'll read my journal sometimes I have something in my journal where I was talking about like, you know, I'm twenty four years old, but I feel dead.
You know, I feel old. Uh, But I actually lately I've been feeling pretty young. Do you do you feel old?
So you're I feel old?
Why do you tell me? How do you feel old?
Dude? Man? It's because like you already sit there and think about how like you brought up that guy from Supersize me and how he passed away and he was only like fifty three, you said, I think, and you know, that just shows me how short time can be depending on what you do. But sometimes life just sneaks up on you and throws you a hail Mary, you know, like,
and you don't know what to do with that. And I guess I feel old because like people are passing away that I know, you know, actors, actresses, people close to me, you know whatever, and like things are becoming outdated that were cool to me. Like I got a guy that's like sixty years younger than me at work. And I made a joke about this video game. I don't know if you ever played Sandy Blade on the on your phone. It was a mobile game with like splashing if your like fruit Ninja, but it was like
a night dude, that game was lit. Oh you're missing out, But that's besides the point. I brought that up in a joke as a conversation he just like had no idea, and that like huge disconnect made me think about, Man, what else don't you know? Dude? Like what There's just so much stuff that happens, like in history and time, Like there's so much going on it, time's constantly moving. You can never like fully grasp that. I guess, do.
You well, I don't know. Yeah, it's weird. It's a weird thing. I kind of.
There's something about when you graduate from the system of high school and college where you get to a point where nobody's telling you what to do anymore, and the age of which you reach that point, it then becomes like that for the rest of your entire life, and you're like, damn, for the rest of my life, nobody's ever going to be telling me what to do anymore, and I have to make my own decisions and guide myself.
And you know, ideally you have you know, people, and I guess certain certain things guide you, but ultimately you're signing off on it all.
So I don't know. Welco, what's your favorite flavor of pizza? What's your favorite pizza topping?
Dude, give me a ranch pepperoni with some banana peppers.
What the fuck banana peppers.
Well, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. You like you never have banana peppers on your pizza.
I'm not a pepper guy.
No, not really nor so I'll tell you this.
I'll tell you this. You mentioned Ranch. I love Ranch.
Uh, Barbie, what do you feel about? How do you feel about barbecue chicken pizza?
Hey, give me a barbecue chicken bacon pizza.
Yo?
Yeah, that sounds good. You about to get one?
Do you like? Can you tell can you tell me if this is weird?
This is uh?
This is one of my big quirks. It's one of my big idiosyncrasies. Is uh.
Anytime I go to a pizza the slice place, you know how when you get your slice of pizza, they'll take it and they'll put.
It in the oven to heat it up.
Right.
Yeah, I always tell them not to do that, and I just want it as is like a little cold.
You like that lukewarm pizza? Yeah?
I like it when it's lukewarm, because here's always happens. They put it in the oven and then when it comes out, it's way too hot to eat and the cheese is so hot that you can't even really taste the cheese because you're just tasting fucking burning, and the oil gets all uh dense, and it's just more greasy, and it it's hot, and the crust is so crispy and thin that you can't even chew on it and enjoy like a chewy piece of pizza. So I always
tell them not to not to heat it up. Sometimes I overshoot and the pizza is a little too cold. It's like it's been in the fridge. I don't like that, But I like when it's uh lukewarm. Sometimes you get it right of the perfect.
Temperature, you know.
But when you order pizza at a restaurant, sounds like you're more at a restaurant place. They always send it to you fresh.
But that can be good too.
Yeah, what's your go to pizza?
Uh, I'm gonna say, I'll get a Here's what I'll usually do. I'll get a slice of regular and then a slice of something crazy. So I'll do one slice of cheese as like a backup, as like a just in case if all else fails, we still got this one. And then I'll do like, you know, either a chicken bacon ranch or I want there's just one place they.
Have spaghetti pizza.
They just put a bunch of They just fill a fucking pie crust with spaghetti.
All I try that, So I'll.
Do one.
Right now, dog, Yeah, what's your favorite spaghetti?
No, you can't be talking to me about that right now that I can't about spaghetti.
You got on?
Yeah yeah that night that like that that night before I served. That's why I got sick on. Like my girlfriend was up like in the bathroom me like helped me out, Like I'm a die dog.
Because you ate spaghetti.
Look I so like I took them. We ate like dude. She she said, man, this She said, man, this is a lot. And I said, yeah, that was a lot. And she looked over and within like two seconds my bowl was completely empty. Meatballs, garg cheese, bread, all of it. Like I'm notoriously a fast eater. And then probably an hour later, after washing Cody agent Cody Banks, I was in the I was in the bathroom letting all loose.
I thought it was because you got high.
Yeah, like I got I got high. But like I get when I get too high, I get like motion stick, which makes me you know, bomb and stuff.
You know.
Sometimes I'll be eating and this is this ties back
into what we were talking about. A lot of the time recently, I'll be eating my perfectly lukewarm slice of pizza on a stoop outside of the pizza place, or just like kind of standing on the sidewalk outside of the pizza place, and I'm looking around, and I am like, I think this is it, you know, Like I like sometimes I'm like, I'm you kind feel like you're on a search for like what's the best version of life or what's like the real important stuff.
It's like, I think that's it. I think that's good. That's good stuff right there. It's eating a slice of pizza.
You know.
I'm kind of like I could die right now just eating nothing matters except the slice of lukewarm pizza.
You do anchovies on your pizza? No?
I hate ancho Well, actually, you know what, honestly, never them, never tried them before.
All right, we're good, then we're good.
Should I try anchoviies?
No?
No, Like, we don't serve anchovies in my place.
Actually, I think I tried them at some I don't know why I was in someplace.
I must have had them. But how do you think you're gonna die? What do you think? Do you think you're gonna get killed?
Man, I don't know. All my family's got like cancer. I don't know if that stuff like can just I don't know, like how that's not really work out. But I've been getting nervous about that stuff. But I think I got Chris seventy eight years in me. Yeah, I'm just piecing.
Out seventy eight years. That's a good run.
Yeah, I feel like solid fifty three.
Man, God damn, I swear to guy, it's so funny you're bringing this up. I thought the same thing.
See that dog died too.
Oh the dog. Well, dogs die all the time. Huh yeah the dog, Yeah, the dog died. I remember, Yeah, the dog, the doge dog.
Yeah, that old.
How old was the dose dog when he died?
Eighteen eighteen.
That's a ripe old age for a dog.
I think most dogs, like, if you're lucky, you get thirteen years. That's how much a Golden Retriever gets, thirteen seventy seventy eight. So I mean it's good. I'd like to do eighty. I think if I can do eighty, that'd be pretty sweet.
You want to be doing this until you're eighty like taking a call.
I don't know. I'm probably not gonna be doing this when I'm eighty years old. I don't think. I don't know.
I know I want to be doing I want to do something interesting my entire life. I think what I'm doing now is pretty interesting. So something as I'm doing something interesting that's cool with me, Whether or not that involves being a gecko and talking to people on the phone, do.
A live interview while skydiving, that would act. No.
No, I don't like doing No, I'm not into shit where I don't I'm not into like extreme sports. I don't have any interest in bungee jumping or jumping out of a plane or any of that shit.
Are you in the skies right now?
You got me there?
Why?
No, I'll probably just get cancer and die.
Don't put it that way.
What do you mean that's that's the bat. I mean it's way better than a skydiving accent. Skydiving accents, that's horrible. Give me cancer?
Hey, were you using that make a wish on it? Then?
What I'm using my that's a great question. Actually, why would you use your make a wish? If I was fourth?
Like I think most make a wish stuff is for like kids, and I was thinking if I was fourteen and I had cancer, my wish would probably be to touch boobs. That was my one thing. But now, as an adult make a wish, I don't there's nothing I don't I don't think I would have a wish as an adult. I don't think there's anything that I want that Make a Wish could give me.
Right now, what would you make? I don't know if that. I don't think that that means that I am happy.
You're complishing then, like you're you're in a stable position.
I don't think it means that I'm happy, but I think it means there's nothing missing from my life that I believe the Make a Wish Foundation could provide, Like I don't need to fight.
Uh.
I think one of the ones they did was like that a kid was Batman for a day. And I don't think being Batman for a day would be interesting to me as an adult or or make my life better.
But what about you? What we your wish be.
Oh Man taking me a space? You think they would do that?
You know what?
Uh?
Yeah, you know I'm stealing yours? That's that's Can they do that? Can they take kids to the space. I feel like they can. If they could do that, then yes, I want to see space.
Yes, I think that'd be fucking terrifying. Though right.
I'm getting hell of emotion sick.
Cause, like I understand how you get just like that rocket ship ride to get to space. That must be like, like, I'd be really scared of that.
Then you ain't taking like a gummy nothing. You ain't doing popping nothing where you go.
Fuck, No, I'm not getting high before getting on a ride. I would that would be the ultimate because you imagine being high in space that sounds awful or actually, no, that sounds kind of amazing.
Imagine you've seen the Earth, you you, and you've seen that Earth while you're high. Man, that's gotta be the craziest thing you ever see.
You ever play a Call of Modern Warfare two?
Yeah?
Yeah, Remember when the trailer for that came out and there was a cut scene where you're in fucking space that was so hyped.
I don't remember that. I'm gonna be honest, but that sounds odd. Maybe I'll watch you after this.
Yeah, I bet space is probably like it isn't in Monorn Warfare two, would you that, soh yeah, I would take that if that was a wish available to you.
Go into space, you know, and get your custom like get costume, like astronaut costume.
Yeah, make it all green and green and green and shit, that'd be cool.
That's pretty cool. Man.
Well, I'm sorry that I couldn't solve both of our inevitable deaths over the course of this phone call.
But you know, I'm glad we got to work it out.
Fuck that I got to talk to the GEK. That's that's already like that made me feel better. I do have one question, though, Yeah, what's up? So I see your tour dates? Man, how come you ain't coming back to like Indy or Columbus unless I missed that, you know.
I don't. I don't.
I don't know why. I don't really like. Uh, I don't. I don't decide a lot of the I mean I kind of do. Uh yeah, I don't know.
I'll try. I'll try to come back.
Please do man, please.
I had a fun I had a fun time last time I was in uh, Columbus, Ohio.
I like that place.
I like a lot of the comedy clubs are in malls, so I get to have an Auntie Anne's pretzel before the show, and that's my favorite part.
I will get you on if you come back to Columbus.
What's your name against?
Sir?
Named Zach Zach Zach Zada?
Thing else you want to say to the people of the computer before we go?
Hey, man, Yetta live once. You gotta have a good time, Jack Blass.
Thank you, sir. Have a good night too.
Now, imagine eating a lukewarm slice of pizza in space. That'd be a pretty good uh way to die.
Hello. Hello, Hi, it's Lyle Hi. Hello, Hello, what is your name?
I'm Cat Cat?
What's going on? Kat? Thanks for not much?
Not much?
Thanks for talking and thanks for talking on my on my little show.
Yeah, thank you for calling me. I'm just at my second job. I clean a preschool in the evening.
You clean a preschool?
Yes and yes, for one hour a day Monday through Friday, and some times I hold off till Sunday.
What kind of bodily fluids were getting into here? Snotpuke blood?
Honestly, they're potty training, so it's mostly urine and a little bit of species.
How'd you get into that line of work?
I've been cleaning for a few years, and slowly I went from house cleaning to school cleaning and this turned out to be a really nice gig. And yeah, that's a that's about it. It's just a series of jumping from one cleaning job to the next, and this has been a nice one.
So that this is your second job, you say, what's your first job?
My first job, I do cleaning for a casino.
Wow, it's funny because I really can't decide which one I think is Grosser's the casino, do you think? So okay, tell me tell me about the messes at the casinos versus the messes in the preschool.
The preschool is easy. I mean, the kids do a little bit of dribble here and there with the potty training stuff. But like the casino, you have days where someone will come in and just trash your whole bathroom, like your assigned restroom, and I mean like someone will come in and just shit all over like the whole floor, multiple stalls, and you have to like shut down the restroom and there's a whole process for cleaning that up. And it's everywhere, It's everywhere, and the smell never seems
to completely go away. So that's it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.
Now, are the messes made more by people who are losing and they're upset and so they take it out on the bathroom or by people who are winning and they're so a static that they don't give a shit anymore and they're taking it out on the bathroom.
I want to say winning. And it's most because when they're winning, they don't want to get up from the machine, so they're racing over there at the last second, and they don't They don't always make it.
Have you seen that video of these like old people who are just kind of mindlessly put in quarters.
Yeah, and they're tapping and tapping. Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you see that a lot?
Yeah?
That's that's that's a day at worked for me. Yeah, I see a lot of that. That's like a I don't get.
The slot machines.
I'm pretty sure I've said this on here before, but the slot machines are very disappointing to me because you go into the casino and they have all these like flashing lights and colors, and there's like a panda game and a fucking dragon game, and here's a they they've like licensed all these properties. So it's like, here's Willy Waka the game and all this stuff, but it's all the same game.
It's all just one button.
It's not like Dave and Busters where you actually get to you don't get to even play anything.
No, you're right, yeah, they're all it's all. It's all the same. It's just what theme do you feel like sitting at? I don't gamble, so I don't really get it. I guess I have no clue how any of those machines work, honestly, But so, how long.
Have you been cleaning stuff?
For almost four years? I started cleaning, well, maybe a little over four years. I started cleaning right before COVID hit. My first house house cleaning job was with the company, and I was like, this would be really nice.
It'll be quiet.
I'm going into people's homes and they're not there. And then COVID hit and everyone was like locked in and suddenly people were like following me while I cleaned their houses, and we're like really persnickety about it.
So the very first time you had to clean diarrhea was it something you had to get over? And now every time you clean diarrhea, it's like all right, I've been through this before, or is it still kind of hit.
You every time?
I don't think. I don't. I don't think that one hit me too too hard. One thing I have not cleaned yet is vomit. And I'll be honest, I have no clue how that's gonna go when that happens.
Four years of cleaning a casino in a preschool and you've never had to clean vomit.
I haven't had to clean vomit.
Now I'm lucky I had to clean. Yeah, I've had to clean a lot of diarrhea, but not not vomit. Surprisingly.
Okay, so I'm gonna and look, here's the thing. We could talk about vomiting diarrhea for the next half hour if you want to. But before we do that, I want to say, is there a particular thing that you called in to want to talk about?
No, I gave you a list. I don't know what you saw that you were the most compelled by. I'm open to whatever. I'm open to anything not on that list.
Whatever.
Okay, Well, let's see. I mean, I mean, I okay, sure, I mean you sent me a whole bunch of stuff. One of the things you said was I'm dating somebody who makes so much money that I feel intimidated to be in a relationship with them. We are discussing me moving in at some point and being a housewife.
Is that something you wanted.
To talk about.
Yeah, I'm hoping to talk about that.
Yeah, okay, go ahead.
I just I just started seeing someone. He's really really great. But I have always been I've always worked really hard and really like scraped for like just being able to survive. I live in southern California and it's expensive out here, and so I just started seeing this guy. He's really really great, and it turns out he makes so much money. He makes so much money and I feel like I have no business dating him because I'm not like the
same caliber financially. He's completely, like, totally cool with it. It's no big deal to him. He just likes me for me, and I do like him for him. There just is this weird financial gap. I guess it's it's I think I make maybe a quarter of what he makes in a year, so it's a lot. It's a lot.
I have to ask the what I mean, when you get into it and you really think about it, why does it matter?
If he seems to like you for you, and you seem to like him for him.
You know, I've been asking myself the same thing. It shouldn't matter, and in reality it doesn't matter. But I guess I worry about being too dependent on him or really enjoying the relationship for a year or a couple of years or a long time, and at some point it just turns into like I just live off of him or he I mean, I become completely totally dependent on him, and I don't.
I don't.
I don't want that to.
Be the case.
I don't think it would be fair to him. I don't think it would be fair to me, but more so, I don't think it would be fair to him to just be take taking care of another person like in that way. In any way.
Yeah, I think I actually, I actually think you're going about this really well because the awareness that you have of like, you know, I mean, sure, if he wants to take me to a nice dinner every now and then and blah blah blah, that's great, But I want to maintain my own sense of self and my own finances and not find myself for lyting on this.
Skuy. I think that's really a good goal to have and a good thing to keep in mind.
And I think as long as you're keeping that in mind and you're doing that, there's nothing for you to worry about. Are you worried that you're gonna digress on the goal of having your own finances in order as you get deeper into your relationship.
With this guy, Absolutely, I'm worried about becoming lazy, both financially and physically. Basically, I don't want to turn into like a permanent couch potato that just like has groceries brought to them and whatever else they want. Like, I don't want to become a lazy dependent. I want to be able to maintain Like like we're discussing me possibly moving in and taking care of the house, and he was saying, well, we could split it fifty fifty, like we can split the house chores so that you're not
like a house slave. But I'm like, if you're bringing in this much money and you're cool with me working less than I do now and making less than I do now and having that money I make the sort of like fun money for myself, then I at least want to give like one hundred percent to taking care of the household and those kinds of chores. I think it's the find are even still I shouldn't so.
He's but he so he suggested, why don't you move in and will split the cost of the housing.
Fifty to fifty.
He suggested I move in and he would take care of the cost of things. Thanks, are so a little murky discussing all of the exact numbers, and we're we're totally discussing hypotheticals. We haven't been dating very long.
How long have you guys? How long have you guys been there?
It's been about a month and a half.
Very brief, very brief.
It's very short.
Yeah.
How old? How old are you?
I'm thirty one?
Okay, Uh, look, dude, I'm not in the business of telling people what to do with their lives. I don't desire to tell people what to do with their lives, which is something I always say right before I'm about to tell somebody what they should do with their lives.
You do, yes?
I mean, dude? Like, here's I mean? Do you want my do you do you want my advice? Do you want my like?
Because I don't If you have this strong desire to maintain your independence, then hold true to that desire as long as you wish to. You know, like, if that's what you want. If you're like, I want to be independent, I want to pay for you know, my own housing and my own this and my own that.
Then you're the only thing stopping you from doing that.
No, that's very true. That's very true. Yeah, I definitely want to maintain my sense of self. I definitely want to maintain my sense of self beyond beyond financials and anything. I want to make sure that I'm still like doing the things that are important to me, spending time with my family, painting.
Why are you in a rush to move in with this guy you've been seeing for a month.
I'm not so much in a rush. I think that he is a romantic and dreamy individual, which is something I like about him, and he brought he brought up put me moving in. He's seems very set on me, and he's very kind in a way that I can tell is genuine. He's a genuine person, and I appreciate and respect that.
Okay, if you.
Want my advice, I would say that, you know, why don't you just keep seeing this guy and don't be in a rush to move in with him. And if the time does come where you're like feeling pretty confident that you do want to move in with him, and you're still feeling like and by the way, look, if you told me, I'm telling you this, if you told me I would love to be a housewife and have a rich guy pay for all my shit, I wouldn't
judge you. I wouldn't look twice. I would say, if that's what you want to do, then go do that. But if you're telling me that that's not what you want to do, and you want to maintain your independence and this is this is what you've decided you want for yourself, then then.
Then do that.
You know, no, that makes sense, that makes sense. So I definitely need to cool my jets, and I'm trying to keep that in check. It's not that I don't want to be a housewife. It's that I don't want to become a negligent human being because I became a housewife.
Are you So you're inferring this idea that if you become too dependent and what's the word, huck it, if you become too lazy, Because you're just having this guy bankroll you. You're afraid that that's going to be a detriment to your life.
Oh yes, yeah, that's a complete like loss itself.
Yeah, that's a smart I think that's a smart thing to keep in mind as you navigate that relationship. So why don't you just continue to navigate this relationship and have fun and get to know this person and you know, maybe uh don't You know, you don't have to move in with him immediately, but just keep keep that in mind.
Okay, you're the.
Only thing I will from I don't know if this guy unless if he has a hot tub.
If he has a hot.
Tub, move in with him tomorrow and let him bank that's pretty cool, that sounds And if he has does he have a PlayStation five?
I don't know if you care about that he does? Does he does he have a pool table in the house?
No, but I don't play pool. He does have a fantastic, U large bathtub that I am aware of and think about it.
Does the bathtub have jets in it?
Is it kind of like a half bathtub half uh hot tub hybrid.
It's being renovated, and I believe that there is a possibility there will be jets in it.
Okay, I take everything I said back. You should definitely should move in with this guy for sure. Sweet, Is there anything else you want to say to the people of the computer before we go?
All? Everyone, just keep chugging along. You're doing a good job, whether you realize it or not.
Beautiful, what's your name? Cat? Take care of cat? Thank you?
Thank you for all you do for the uh this nation's casino diarrhea.
Thank you, thank you. Lyle. Take it easy.
Yeah, hot tub sounds pretty cool, although you don't want to get fucked right because then like if you're like, all right, I'm gonna live with this guy and he's gonna pay for my housing and I'm gonna just clean up the house, then you're fucked because what happens if someone diarrhea is in the hot tub, then you're sitting there cleaning diarrhea out of the hot tub.
I don't know. It goes on the line, taking your phone calls every night, Everything goes to his I'm just teaching
You loud in the lin