TALES FROM THE TRAIL

All from Ivy.

Hello, Hey are you ghek?

Yeah? Who are you?

I'm Ivy.

It's nice to meet what's hey? Nice to meet you too, man. What's going on?

Nothing much?

I'm excited for Thanksgiving? Are you excited for Thanksgiving?

I mean, you know, it's a little bit depressing, but like, I don't care that much about holidays. I like, I'll tell you this. I like seasons. I don't care about days. Days are stupid, but seasons are nice. And I enjoy November and December. I enjoy Christmas lights. I enjoy the Halloween season, you know. I mean with the holiday season is October to December. There's not really any other like holidays outside of that time. And there's Valentine's Day and

What are you?

What's talk about?

Right?

Well? Fuck it? Why are you excited for for Thanksgiving? What do you like about it?

I'm excited for food. But I called you specifically because I wanted to tell you about my time on the appalach Trail and how you specifically pushed me through it.

I get the fuck out of here. I was in.

It's true.

I hiked the Appalation Trail.

Oh shit.

Really, I hiked not the whole thing, maybe like thirty miles when I was in seventh grade.

That's dope.

Man.

I didn't hike the whole thing either. I hiked about like one hundred and sixty miles of it. But you you helped me a lot. Because I don't have I don't have Spotify Premium, but I do have Spotify and they let you download podcast. I was like out in the middle of the wilderness and like the only my only company for a huge period of time, which just you and the wacky people who's on your street. And I don't know, it was it was, it was. It

Well, let me ask you this. So you went, if I was the only if I was your only friend on the road, who was Uh? Were you just by yourself?

Yeah?

I was just by myself. I graduated high school like three weeks. It wasn't too long.

Cool. Cool, Yeah, let's hear some stories.

So, uh, you know, the Appalation Trail is one of the most heavily traveled like like trails in the entire world. Right, But there's like huge long periods of time where you will see no one in like certain sections. And for a long period of time. There was this man who I was with and I would camp with him for like a couple just for a week or so, and that guy like as more I got to know him, like the crazier he got. So whenever we first meet, you know, it's just like, hey, what kind of fear

Yeah, of course.

I'm like I'm like, oh, I mean, I get it.

You know.

It's like it's it's you're nice in nature, you know, you don't have any responsibilities. I'm like, I'm like, oh, okay, so you know, are you just gonna like eventually stop doing mushroom? And he's like, no, no, because I quit my job. And he starts telling me about this really sad backstory. He's like he he was like sales guy, big sales guy, and he was really top of his company and whatnot. He almost gets hit by a car. His first thought after that is like, I wish I died.

Entire time, and yeah, go ahead, keep going.

And you know, I was just like, okay, I mean, fair enough, everyone has their hobbies. You know, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna like be mad at the guy for doing mushrooms. But like I had this weird encounter with them, like later that night, because I went to go use the bathroom and it's like late at night and I'm walking off into the woods and I look back and the dudes just like standing up and just staring off in the woods. I'm like, hey, dude,

If what if it was.

A skin walker? What if he saw a skin walker and I just didn't see it because I'm not on that same frequency as the skin.

I'm sorry, pause for a second. What is a skin walker?

Like, you know, like.

Native American like legends of like the appellations, like the skin walkers are like the spirits that live in there, and they had like bad ebgb's.

He saw like the blair Witch.

I mean maybe I don't know, maybe he was seeing the blair Witch, but I didn't see the blair Witch.

Wait.

Yeah, I was gonna say, you're saying that this guy who's been taking mushrooms for two weeks is hallucinating.

I mean probably, I mean I know, I'm thinking way too much about this, but I don't know. It just it just kept me up for a while because I thought that there was I thought there was something out there. You know.

No, that's kind of terrifying what happened in the morning.

So he gets up really really early and he's just gone, like he I think he just hyped ahead of me and just kept going and I didn't. I never eventually caught up to him. That It was like the last time I ever saw him was bad night. I knew he knew he left. So I mean, I think he's like he was like in like late thirties, like.

Man, and did he and he just he was just like at the sales company and he just got really fucking depressed from it.

Yeah, man, man, Yeah, I mean it happened. It happens to a lot of people, people with their jobs and then they just walk on the trail.

Yeah, of course, Well I think about I think about that kind of stuff because like, I mean, you know, if you can, why would you not exactly go on a little adventure.

I mean, I I loved it, you know, I would. I had like Lord of the Rings as like an audiobook, and I was listening to that bitch, and I was like, I'm fucking trodeo.

I'm so, did you encounter any other folks on the trail?

I did. I did. A lot of them weren't as crazy as him. Actually, they're really really nice. I met this This is like his mother out there and she just retired and you know, her kids are about to graduate. Me in her bonding because I had just graduated, and we ended up going. We ended up walking for the rest of the time. I actually almost walked the rest of the trail the rest of the time of the trail with her. And she was super super nice. Uh she you know, she was talking about going to Van Live,

You know.

So she was really really nice. But she also carried like a whole wine bottle on her like all times, and she would take it like a nightcap every single every single night, just just a glass of wine. Super cool.

And then you meet like a guy who just like is high all the time, and then you meet like you just meet a new person who's always on a new drug life.

I mean, yeah, effectively like you you learned a lot of life lessons out there. I learned I learned from this other dude. His name was Achilles. That was trail name.

Wait, that's he?

What bro?

What's your Did people really have trail names?

Tell me about the trail people have trail names? Trail names?

Was your trail name?

My trail name was old school because all of my camping gear was old as ship. I was like rocking ship from the nineties, old school.

I have to ask, yeah, the trail name. I feel like trail names are similar to nicknames, where you can't really give yourself your oh yeah, trail name you have.

You can never go into your trail name.

So I wouldn't have a story of you who gave you your trail name?

So, uh, would you believe it? If? If this this guy was not on drugs, but he was recovering from drugs, and he was out there about like this fifty year old dude, and we hiked for like, you know, about solid two hours together and he was just out there day hiking and we talked for a long time. He talked about going to Miami when he was younger and getting mess up on drugs. Eventually getting off of drugs is getting into real estate, right, and he's like, I

That's cool because yeah.

Exactly, I mean, I don't know, it's it's like crazy as like the applation trail can be. It's really peaceful up there because you know, you can just you wake up right and you just can look out in the sunset, see the mountains and see just like the animals and see just like in nature, and you're like, this is beautiful. I wish I was out here a lot more. And it made me realize that I wanted to get a job in nature.

So that brings me to what I wanted. What I want to know from you now is now that you uh and how so you you did this right out of high school? Yeah, okay, and so that's uh, that's cool. It's a smart move, man, that's a smart move because I feel like like, right when you're eighteen and you graduate high school and maybe if you got a little if you want to go to college, then that's cool.

Especially especially if you have like family that already has camping here. And just like because my grandfather he already had camping year from when he was younger, and he just gave me his old stuff. So, I mean, the trip and it only ended up cost me like four hundred dollars. Most of most of that was just food and just water purification, not much else. I didn't have

That's cool. That's a good Uh. I like that, man. I think that's a smart that's a smart smart move to do something like that right after school. Mm hmmm, what are you? What are you gonna do now?

I'm in I'm in college. I'm trying for I'm trying. I'm going on in biology. I'm like a biology major focusing on ecology. I want to get like a minimum wage, like a federal minimum wage jobs out in the wilderness, and just you know, work on trying to protect it, you know, because I want I want, I want people of further generations to be able to go out and the apple that flash it and just enjoy it and hopefully not get haunted by evil spirits.

You know, God damn uh you know that's cool because like what I like about this journey is that I think the idea of going on a crazy adventure for a lot of people seems like, uh, you know, it has to be I don't know, man, like going to Europe or doing some crazy fancy explosion thing.

But this is like a really neat and kind of efficient way of like putting yourself out there meeting new people, having experiences. Because you'll remember this when you're dying, you know, you'll, yeah, exactly, this time is spent so and you meet like.

So many people, so many people in the world go there. Like I met tons of people from Germany and England, and I even met a dude from like Japan. I only had like a small conversation with him, but you know, he was still out there. There's plenty of people that loved being out there and I feel like I feel like it's out there, people are are kinder, and it really like enlightened my Like it really made me feel for other people again, because at that point, like I was,

You must have had diarrhea plenty of times. What's that like when you eat so many of those fucking five er one bars and you have the diarrhea on the in the woods. It sounds awful.

I mean like you have to dig, Like you have to dig the hole you should in, right, and it has to be six it's be six inches deep, and you have to like walk far off the trail so no one like runs into it. You'll make sure that you're not in.

Near water, right, what if you have diarrhea?

So I actually did have diarrhea trail. I had eaten a bad freeze dried pasta mix, and uh, it was not fun because every single like an hour or so, I'd have to run off of trail and dig fiercely, like I'm digging as quick as I can in the fucking dirt to squat down and take a ship and ever it's painful. It was so painful. It was unbelievably. One of the worst experiences I've ever had is having diarrhea on trail and bad diarrhea that too.

Yeah, that's sounds.

But uh, a good thing is A good thing is is I've packed an entire role with toilet paper, but it took a little bit of cardboard out so I can make it s push down. So I never ran out of toilet paper. And that was a blessing.

Mm hmmm, dude, what's your name again, Ivy, Ivy, that's the that's your real name, not your trail name.

That it's it's it's a name I like going by. It's not my trail member. My trail name's old school old.

Let me let's take a couple of questions from the chat. Does the chat of any questions?

Of course? Of course I like this.

Man, Thanks for telling me about this. I find it very interesting. I always I like thinking about stuff like that, cool adventures, and I always think, I mean, everyone has different things that are important to them, but like you know, adventures, experiences, meeting people, that's very important to me. And I think that,

Oh?

So I hiked from the beginning in Georgia, also through the Approach Trail and into North Carolina to the NFC. And I didn't drive. I didn't, I was my grandfather picked me up because there was no way I was going to hike one hundred and sixty miles back to where I was going.

No, I'd see. Let's see if let me say one question, what would you say, is the absolute strangest thing that you encountered? Is it? Did you encounter anything stranger than that? Guys seeing skin walkers? I?

No, not really. There was bears. I never saw a bear in person, but I saw a lot of bear poop. And I would hear about this bear because there's this fifteen mile section in North Carolina on standing Indian mountains right where there was this big bear and they called him Omar because he's a big bear. Like, are you familiar with the wire? You know Omar from the wire? No? Okay, Omar like he was. He fucked a lot of shit up, He stole a lot of shit. And this bear, in particular,

I mean, throughout history, bears have been portrayed to us as as gentle folks. There's the bear in the Big Blue House. There's brother Bear. There's what's his name, Yogi Bear. I'm not I mean, I was gonna see how long I can name bears for.

Of course that's it.

Uh that said, I only know four bears. Go ahead, all.

Right, you know what? Yo be the bear he stole picnic bass.

But he never killed people.

He never killed people. And bears don't normally kill people. I mean, at least black bears. Black bears, which are normally a lot on the applation trails, they don't kill people. I mean, as long as you're not messing with their like you're not messing with the like a mother's cubs, you're fine. As long as you hang your fine.

Real quick somebody real quick, as somebody in the chat said Scooby doo. But I don't think he's a bear.

I think he's I think he's a dog maybe.

I mean think, is there anything else you want to say to the people of the computer before we go.

Yes, if you want to do something in your life, make steps to that goal. Because the appalation trail, I had planned that for months, and I had gotten help from the internet for my grandfather, from my mother. You talk to you, you talk to other people. You build slowly. Because I wasn't just like, oh, I'm going on at the trail, like right after graduation. I've been playing it for months. I was working up and saving it money for it. I was getting every single bit of food.

Thank you very much for calling Ivy.

I love you and have a wonderful Thanksgiving, even though you're not big on holidays.

Hey, you know what. Thank you for that. You know what? You have a wonderful Thanksgiving too. I'm you know what you've inspired me. If you've you've inspired the people of the who are listening. So I want to take a step towards a thing they want to do in life. And you've inspired me to spend at least sixty more seconds after this phone call trying to think of different bears.

Of course, best of luck to you on those that bear. Remember cocaine bear. That's another start.

And start me off on a good one. Thank you, Avy, Best of luck to you.

Too, Best of luck to you too, man.

Bye, I liked that call. That was a was a cool guy. Just just real quick. Uh uh, there's the bear. I know I'm cheating a little bit. I just googled bears. There's the bear from Open Season. He's a bear. There's the bear from Brickleberry. There's kung Fu Panda. That's that counts Panda bears norm from the North. That's a good bear. Oh Paddington Bear? How do not forget Paddington Bear? Oh the country bear, Jamboree? Any other bears? I think? Why

You don't have enough credit to make this call. Go to voice settings and add credit to your Google Voice account.

Wait can I fucking do that? Hold on?

All right?

Hold on calling rate. Let me see how much it costs to go to Denmark. All right? All right, so in Denmark? All right, So if I wanted to talk to Ethan for twenty minutes, it would cost all right, it would cost about forty cents. Ah fuck, all right? Hold on day If this works I'm gonna be stoked.

This call is being rounded by Google. The cost of this call is too since per minute?

Hey gang, Hey, what's up man? How's it going?

Hey, I'm good.

I'm good, says here. Your name is Ethan. You are from Denmark. For those who are for those who are listening on the podcast, I just put ten dollars of credit into Google Voice so I could make this call to Ethan, and it's going to cost about two cents per minute. I don't know why I included that information, but I felt like it was important to know that I am financially committed to talking to people from Denmark. You said, hi, Ghak, my name is Ethan, I'm from

Yeah?

Yeah, I guess.

Uh, what's what's going on? Ethan? Tell me? Tell me what's up?

Well? You know, people say sometimes they don't think, like they can't feel as much, you know, but I honestly don't think I feel I hold you right, I'm twenty twenty.

One, okay, and you feel like you don't feel.

Yeah, like I don't have like sympathy for people. And I heard like you were in a podcast unlike Spotify. You were like watching some Brueto Brueto ship on, like those leaking websites of.

People like dying. Yeah, yeah yeah.

And I just just don't feel anything. It's like sympathy for it.

Well, I mean, let's okay, let's start deep, because I mean it's one thing you know people you don't know. But let's start like, do you do your parents?

Yeah?

No, I don't. That's might be the problem.

Okay, do you have any friends?

Yeah? I have like three, like friends.

How long you've been friends with your with your three friends.

I'd say like ten years.

You do you enjoy their company and friendship?

Yeah?

Yeah, Like I have to like be with my friends or or else I can't like function.

Mm hmm.

Would you not classify that as a feeling? Nne.

Sometimes people have some feelings, but like it's just the main feeling, like the family oriented, the the girl friends, boyfriends, the vibing. I just I don't. I don't have anything like that, you know, Like the only thing the only thing like making me when I wake up is like like just nicotine, beer and my friends.

I mean, look those three things. That sounds pretty awesome. So I wouldn't beat yourself up? That too bad? But m do you have a job? Yeah, what do you do?

I'm like, I'm driving, like so, I just listened to your like podcast on podcast on there spite High pretty much like I'm alone, but I like it.

Okay, I guess what I mean. Look, obviously, being like addicted to alcohol and cigarettes is not great. But I guess what I'm what I'm curious about is I'm gonna Okay, I'm gonna make an observation after having talked to you for only four minutes. But it's a gut feeling that I'm having right now. And it's a normal thing and I do it too, and I think everyone does it. Are you like comparing yourself to some fantasy version of

Mm yeah, I think I like, I want to have a family like that. I do family, house, dog, kid's wife. But I just just I just don't have the feelings like the what do you say capacity to like do that?

I don't know.

I I.

Nothing you've told me so far indicates to me that you don't have feelings.

Well, of course you have some feelings, but there's just like I think I am, I'm like missing key feelings for like having a a life like a normal person.

What's your idea of a normal person?

M m hmm, Like just like a random nine to five job and just a normal family, house, talk, wife, kids, everything.

I mean, I have a few thoughts about this stuff. Uh, I think, Well, I think you're pretty young, first of all, for you know a wife and children and a dog.

Yeah, but I'm like that whole life. Like four years, I've been trying to like have a stable relationship, but it's it's just boring and I I just end up don't caring about them or anything.

Why Why is that so? How many? How many times?

Mm hmm?

How many times have you been in a relationship that failed because you just realized you didn't care that much about the other person?

Four? I think?

Okay, where'd you meet these people? Tell me? Tell me, give me, give me the most recent person. Tell me about your most recent relationship, how it went down, how you met them? Who they are?

Wo went to like just what you would like to make us high school meetting class just hung out like to of course, in the study was just like a like you she hit.

You know, but then you meet again and again.

And again and it just end up like catching feelings.

Hold on, so you you you caught feelings?

Yeah, I guess, but it's I don't if that's the problem. I don't know if it's feelings. Well, if it's just the need of like having someone to like like a comfort in life.

Maybe that's what I'm missing.

Is when you say, like, I mean catching feelings, is it like is it like a pure lust thing or is it just a pure like I need a girlfriend to check off the checklist of of of life.

I think it's more of like who else I'm I gonna like.

Say, just all the random things too, someone I can when I feel like lonely, it can just be there.

Mhm. And it's like a safety thing, I think. M h.

These all sound like I okay, if we could take a step back for like what's your name again? Either, if we could take a step back for like a second, yeah, just you you you texted me you started off this phone call by saying that you were a psychopath.

But it's like the feelings, I'm not like, like you know, the TV psychopaths killing like Patrick Bateman.

It's just.

I think there's any ways you can be a psychopaths like psychopath.

Maybe I just don't. I just and again, I don't know. You know, I've only been talking to you for ten minutes, but I just I don't know if you need to be walking I just I don't think that because you haven't had a successful relationship by the age of two. I don't think because you haven't had a successful relationship and the kids and a dog by the age of twenty one, that you got to be walking around with this like belief that you are a psychopath. So that's a little strong.

It's not just like the girlfriends.

Okay, and tell me about something that has something to do with that that you think makes you a psychopath.

Well, since I have like no parents like I had like these, but you could like categorize as like a step step family. Yeah, and they already have had kids, like they have two kids, and they were all, you know, every Friday night, they were like having fun, playing some card games or whatever, and I was just never there. It was just I just didn't care like that they were they were I don't know, tell me.

About what you're god, you know, go ahead, keep going.

Yeah, but I just don't know where you know, they had they had a healthy relationship with each other, and I was like, never there.

I just didn't care. I was out late.

Night, it just walking. It's just I feel like I'm missing some key feelings in life.

Okay, what about your friends? Like you you said to me, you said to me, you said, I one of the like if I couldn't be around my friends, I couldn't function. So you you're not like a complete You're not like, you know, sitting at home microwaving hamsters all day. You know, you you hang out with people who are your.

Friends just friends. I don't know, whatelse what do you mean?

I guess I get.

You know.

I I'm thinking about this because I feel like I've had similar feelings before of like looking at the world around me and like looking at you know, quote normal people and being like, I don't feel a strong you know, comparing myself to other people and and their relationships and how they live their life, and thinking about myself like, oh, why is that not appealing to me? There must be something wrong with me. But I I don't think that

They've used it, like.

I don't.

I don't categorize myself as a psychopath, So I just don't know what it's like else to call it like.

The odd one out.

I don't know.

But you have but but you have friends. Yeah, so I guess like not every person is going to be appealing to you to hang out with, Not every social situation is going to be appealing to you. But I don't know.

It's not like I'm social awkward or anything like I'm right open, right, But I think it's it might just be fake.

You know what do you mean fake?

Like I'm not open, I'm very like I'm shy, and I don't talk as much when there is people I do because I want to like seem like like normal, normal teenager. I like I'm trying to be someone I'm not right because.

You haven't there, because because you have this idea, you keep bringing it up of a normal part of a normal human being, and I'm not, by the way, I'm not fucking I'm not bullshitting you, right, I've had that same thoughts about myself, like when like I've been there before. I've had like, oh, there's a like normal human being who like wants to, you know, do these things or

Yeah, kind of.

Yeah, it's just funny. I mean to put it simply, it's just comparing yourself to other people, which is like the number one the way to hate yourself all the time.

But everyone.

Ha's like met like opened up to say the same thing, and it's just not working.

And everybody, what.

Do you hold on? What everyone you've opened up to about this says the same thing? What do they say? Did they say what I just said?

Yeah?

No, no, they just say to like talk to like therapy, real real therapy.

Oh yeah, you should do that too. That's that's a good idea, guy.

But I honestly like just a podcast helps more than like the real real thing.

I think.

But it's it's it's everyone has it says like go to therapy, and I've been there, but just doesn't do anything.

What do they tell you in therapy?

That's the thing.

I don't think I get anything out of it.

What did they tell you about that?

Mm hmm? Like they tell me, they'll tell me it's like important to like like speak when I feel.

Instead of keeping it.

In, you know, But I just don't to speak when you feel.

Yeah, So like when I feel when I feel something, I have to like show it, express it. I don't know, crying or something.

I can see why that'd be helpful, yeah for sure.

But it's I just can't. I don't know.

I know, last time I cried. It was in February two thousand and m So it's like I'm a clocked or something. Mm hmm.

I mean, look, I think continuing the Cereal Therapist is good, but I don't know, Man, If you get anything out of this conversation, I hope it's just the understanding that like there's no I mean, you can really fuck you can just really fuck yourself a lot by holding yourself to imaginary benchmarks of normalcy that are established by no particularly compelling authority.

You know.

I mean, you're you're you're the only authority on your own life and your own benchmarks and not And that's and that's that's, by the way, that fucking sacred. Okay, that's like that, that's like the thing that you get to have as a that's like your birthright as a human being, is that you get to set the own benchmarks for your life of how you want to be and exist in the world. Never give that up, ever, to some idea of normalcy. Okay, but I.

Just think I want the normal thing.

Well then then then go then then then what's the problem.

Yeah, I don't know that.

I mean just like I'm not there. I'm just I'm just not ready for anything, and I don't think I'm going to be ready ever for like having anything to do with a real relationship, because it just gets boiling, even even though I'm very attached.

Well, if it gets well, if it gets boring, then why do you want it?

I don't know, that's what I'm saying. I think it's a safety thing I need to feel. I just I think I like the feeling when people need me like some some sort of like power, like I have the power over someone.

Well, that's a terrible reason to get into a relationship.

Yeah, I know.

Uh Ethan Ethan Ethan. By the way, Denmark has the best fucking seven elevens in the whole world. There's this honey chicken. Do you live near a seven eleven?

Yeah?

Yeah, I just went in this to see bro.

The seven elevens in Denmark are awesome. They have this like honey chicken skewer thing. They have this like meat pie sausage thing with ketchup. It's so good.

When have you been to Denmark?

I mean I've been to Denmark twice. Do you live in Copenhagen?

No, I live in like like the complete outher side.

It's umble, it's up up, all down. I don't know.

See if I, if I, if I lived in Denmark, whenever I got the pressed, I would just go to seven eleven and just binge would be sick. It's boring, Ethan. I look, first of all, I hope you got some semblance of something out of this phone call.

But of course.

Don't. Don't. Don't be so fast to write yourself off, you know, I don't. I don't think that's I don't think it's logical for you to do that.

Yeah, I might not might not be healthy.

Is there anything else you want to say to the people of the computer before we go?

Ye would just take care and it's it's been a honor talking.

To hey man, it's a bit of honor talking to you too. I still, I still think it's crazy to me that like people in Denmark, people in like a random place in Denmark are listening to my stupid Gecko podcast. I think that's sick. So you know, it's an honor to talk to you too.

Man.

Oh, they have many you have many listeners and Spotify, don't you.

Way more?

Yes?

I guess well, I did a show in Denmark. I don't know if you were there Copenhagen. Sounds like it's far from you, but yeah, cool. So thanks for listening to my stupid thing. And I hope that you stop thinking you're a psychopath.

Yeah I don't. I don't know what to think, but thank you. Thank you for your time.

Take care of Ethan, you too, I think that. Well, actually i'll say this, I'll say this too, and this is I didn't. I didn't. I didn't touch on anything cultural in that phone call. But every where I went in Scandinavia. I did a tour of doing my live show in Europe this summer, and everywhere I went in Scandinavia before I did my show, somebody told me. They were like, don't be surprised if nobody laughs or talks or says anything, because the people in Scandinavia are known

Oh shit, Hello, Hello, how are you?

I'm doing all right? How are you?

Honestly I don't know for even some friendships. And my main text message or the text message, the text message I sent you was about my lawsuit. So I guess I'll talk about that.

Sorry, I'm nervous, No, no worries. What says here that your name is Kylie and you are quote in a stupid lawsuit situation over quote a dumb ass hat. What do you do you mean a dumb ass hat or a dumb ass hat.

Uh, it's a work hat. To be specific, I have a medical condition. It's an auto amine disorder called chronic earthticaria. So I'm allergic to my sweat and like a lot of parts of myself, which really sucks. So anyway, I was working at our local university here, and anyway, I was there for six years, and uh, this one lady ended up getting promoted, and I actually did a lot of her dishes because I was a dishwasher. So anyway, she got promoted, and so I hadn't been wearing a hat. Sorry,

I'm so sorry if you said this already, But can I ask where where do you work? What is this place?

It was the Universe or at the university? Sorry I should have specified it's called campus dining. I won't say where exactly.

But yeah, when you say when you say a hat, do you mean like when you because you said campus dining. This isn't something where like you're working with food and you need like a hair tie, right, This is just like a cosmetic hat.

Uh, it's it's a uniform hat. Yeah, chat saying yeah, So I basically denied. I denied putting the hat on basically because you know, for like a year or so here, I am thinking it's okay to not wear a hat, you know, and there's there's many managers and employees who are working alongside me, you know, serving the students' food and all that, and so anyway, A it's really funny.

I'm I'm I'm confused. For a second, are you suing them or are they suing you?

Oh? No, I'm suing them because essentially I was fired over a medical condition. Again, they asked me. They asked me for a doctor's note, and I got them that note, and they are trying to say that I quit, but in reality, they put me against you know, a hard place, or you know, a rock between a rock and a hard place essentially, So I don't know. I don't know.

Do you think you're gonna win this lawsuit? Have you talked to your Does your lawyer think you're gonna win?

Yeah?

He thinks I have a pretty good case, which is reassuring to a degree. I don't know.

I've never on the I'll say this on the bright side, your you, I assume would are going to win if if your lawyer's right, and you do have a good case, I assume that you're going to uh procure much more money than you would have procured had they had they.

Not fired you, right, right, Yeah, And my lawyer and I we've we've done a lot of the calculations. Again, it's been about two years, and I've lost uh I'm not too sure how many thousands of dollars, but yeah, maybe thirty to forty thousand dollars so far.

So okay, that's another thing. I was going to ask you, how much money in legal fee you're you're spending like forty thousand dollars at legal fees over the past two years to sue this, to sue this company.

Oh no, no, no, I didn't mean that, Sorry, I just mean, like the the amount of money that I've lost from losing that job.

Oh, yes, damages. Yeah, that's that's forty thousand dollars over the course how many years, Well.

It's almost been two years almost, so it's probably gone up by now. But yeah, and my lawyer was about one thousand dollars.

So yeah, so I let me ask you that this happened two years ago, what have you been doing in the meantime?

Right, So, so since they fired me, they tried to make it sound like I quit, So I was denied my unemployment for six seven months. So I was working with my dad mostly just trying to get by. And I'm still trying to pay off my invisil line, which is hard. So it was hard trying to keep up with that though. And uh so anyway, earlier this year, I plied at a grocery store. So that's about it, trying to get by.

I'm curious just and like, so this thing makes you allergic to your own sweats.

Right, It's it's stupid. And what made me what got my attention was I started breaking out in hives in the shower from the heat. So I think it's like, uh, I don't know, there's there's something in the sweat. Supposedly it's a it's like a protein. Not entirely sure, but I never had this growing up. It kind of came about, I don't know, six or seven years ago after a super stressful situation. So I think it's genetic. And uh, I guess mostly women get it. I'm sure men.

Are you? Are there any other like so like you you see it? You're you said you're allergic to other like parts of your body.

Yeah, so I'm allergic to my not I'm allergic to my bit. I'm allergic to my tears.

Wait, you're allergic to How does that? Like when? How do the allergies manifest themselves? Like do you just swell up when you cry?

Yeah?

My eyes just get really itchy, like my whole face. Actually it goes away though, Like it's mostly just discomfort, Like it's not life threatening or anything like that. But that's the.

Fucking kicking the ass that like something happens to make you sad and then you're you get double you get double sad.

No exactly, It's like, come on now, I don't want to be like ope, shit, yeah, at least.

The at least I hope I hope in those moments that the physical pain takes away from the emotional pain. That's the you know, last half full way of looking at it.

Yeah. Yeah, So it's just been really stressful. Like I actually gained like fifty fifty pounds because of the stress. And I think that it's also because of the anti de press that I'm on as well though, So, but stress, stress is so bad for us, Like just seeing how it's affected me, I don't know, it's it's crazy.

How how far do you think you are from settling your lawsuit?

Uh?

Well, our court date is November fifteenth, so fingers crossed that the jury is on my side.

You're gonna whip up some tears?

Oh I hope not.

Yeah, that's a see that's a double edged sword too. Is that you can't you know, you can't use your tears to compel a jury in a fourth case?

Yeah, it's sucks sing allergic to your own fucking tears, dude, It's it's not fun.

So what's your name again?

It's Kylie?

Like Kylie?

Well, Kylie? Before we go? Is anything I feel like we've only talked about the pressing things. I do want to know if anything good is going on in your life.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. And right back at you. I'm a DJ. I just try to work on music and I don't know, I'm just trying to win this lawsuit and just yeah, just trying to focus on the good and mostly just music.

So I have a great deal of respect for you being a DJ, because I feel as though a nightclub is a terrible place for a person allergic to their own sweat to be.

Tell me about it, suck.

Oh that's so funny.

Yeah, so you got you.

Got to attach some some fans to your deck.

Yeah, no kidding, I explain, need to invest in one of those like neck fans that you see people at festivals during.

Yeah, like that's cool, that's cool. I'm just glad. I'm glad this lawsuit's not like, uh, you know, in all encompassing every thought that you have in your brain and you're actually exerting some time and energy to a thing that's exciting.

Yeah, It's it's hard, man. Yeah, I guess just trying to be mindful and meditation is good because the more we the more I ruminate. I can tell like even my my skin symptoms start to act up. So it's like I have to kind of not let stress take over me.

Are you playing any gigs anytime soon?

No?

Not, I don't know.

I had a couple of gigs actually here at our local beach. But yeah, I think I've had quite a few in the last months. So I need a break.

If you win your core, if you win your court case, you can have a little you can throw a little party exactly.

No, that's my goal. I actually really want to be I mean some people think it's silly, but I really want to be a promoter. Like the town I'm in, we don't really have a good music scene like we do.

But what sound is it? Oh?

Like the music scene A lot of it's just tech house.

No, no, no, no, that what what what's what town?

Oh? Sam Luis Obispo.

I didn't even know what you just said. So the tracks that we don't have a good music scene there.

It's a it's right in between San Francisco and the way.

That you just said it. Actually that sounded kind of like a DJ beat. Santa Benevis is Yeah, Santa nas is gay?

Hey?

Yeah, what's your nick? Kylie?

Yeah?

Kylie? Is anything else gonna say to the people of the computer before we go.

Big up love you guys. I don't know, yeah, big up chat gak blessed.

I will I will manifest you winning this lawsuit. I don't know. I don't know if I'm one for manifestation, but god, I'll try anything.

Yeah, you never know, you never know. Oh, take care, Kyley, Yeah you too.

Bye.

Hello, folks, it's Lyle here. That's the end of this episode. But get this, I'm releasing a bonus episode this week. That's right, an entire extra hour of the podcast that you can listen to. By becoming a premium member of Therapy Gecko over at Therapy Gecko dot supercast dot com.

I had always collected skulls, like I always loved animal skulls. I have deer skulls and big cool elk antlers and just a big animal skulf. But then I guess I graduated to human skulls.

Do you ever think about the human that is behind the skull, like the human that the skull once belonged to?

I do, Actually, I think about it a lot.

How old are these people whose skulls you have?

It's hard to say. I have one that is a Tibetan capola, a skull cap used in Buddhist ritual stuff, and it's carved, but it's a very very small skull cap So I think that one was an adolescent or a child.

You have a Tibetan child's skull. If you want to hear this full conversation, you can sign up to become a premium member at Therapy Gecko dot supercast dot com, or find the link in the episode description that's therapy Gecko dot supercast dot com. All right, I have nothing else to say.

Goes on the line, calls every night, Everything goes to his hide. He's teaching new houses of your life, but he's not really an expert.