286: The One With Patrick Rhone

Overtired 286

[00:00:00] Brett: Hey, welcome to overtired. I’m Brett Terpstra. I’m here with my usual cohost, Christina Warren and Jeff Severns Guntzel and rounding out what is turning out to be a very Minnesota show this week. We have many, no St. Paul light.

[00:00:20] Patrick: Thank

[00:00:20] Meet Patrick Rhone

[00:00:20] Brett: word? Hi, Patrick. Rhone.

[00:00:22] Patrick: I,

[00:00:23] Brett: Welcome to the show.

[00:00:25] Patrick: I appreciate that quick correction.

[00:00:27] Brett: Is it St. Police though?

[00:00:29] What

[00:00:29] Patrick: here. Uh, so,

[00:00:31] Jeff: are you from.

[00:00:32] Patrick: and St. Paul, uh, collectively referred to as the twin cities are divided essentially by the Mississippi river. Um, Minneapolis is on the west side of the river and St. Paul is on the east side of the river.

[00:00:45] Um, my wife often says that St. Paul is the last Eastern city. Minneapolis is the first Western city. If you want to understand the kind of culture and, uh, and, and difference [00:01:00] between say old money, new money. Um, sort of feel of both cities,

[00:01:07] Brett: Even just to be clear geographically, it is not down the middle of this state or the country for that matter.

[00:01:13] Patrick: No geographically, that is not true, but certainly from a, um, from a general feel standpoint is a very easy way to kind of, um, come to one place and see kind of the, the division between east and west, uh, that happened, uh, as you know, the country was being settled further and further west, um, and kind of, uh, St.

[00:01:41] Paul being the first of the two cities to be settled, it kind of held on to it’s very, um, uh, turn of the century Victorian feel. Uh, whereas Minneapolis has not met a building, um, older [00:02:00] than 10 years, that it is not willing to tear down and

[00:02:03] Jeff: That is not willing to Clare down and erase from memory.

[00:02:06] Patrick: Yes. Yes. They have no problem doing so whatsoever in St.

[00:02:09] Paul, you would have like pitchforks and, and, uh, people with, uh, Firesticks, uh, trying to burn it down. If you

[00:02:17] Brett: Does this seem accurate to you, Jeff,

[00:02:20] Jeff: Yeah. Starting in the seventies when a lot of cities, but definitely Minneapolis. We’re like, Hey, it’s a new time. This kind of old stuff, that’s all ordinate. This is just old. Let’s get some new stuff going. And pretty soon it’s like, wait, what? I didn’t know new is going to be brutalist architecture. And like, you know, when, uh, you know, we destroyed so much of what, uh, would have been a real beautiful historic feel of this city and this downtown as specialty.

[00:02:47] Brett: but Minneapolis has all the biggest buildings, all the tallest buildings.

[00:02:53] Patrick: That is true. And in the state that’s

[00:02:55] Jeff: that’s not a

[00:02:56] Brett: that’s, that’s not nothing.

[00:02:58] Jeff: Let me tell you some of my city, we got [00:03:00] some tall buildings.

[00:03:04] Brett: So, I don’t know if you guys have ever noticed this, but, uh, we have a pretty heavy mental health bent on this show. Um, which is, which is, yeah, it, it, it happens on occasion. Uh, we have a whole corner dedicated to mental health, um, which is why I asked Patrick to be on this week. Uh, Patrick is the president of the board of mental health, Minnesota.

[00:03:31] Is that right?

[00:03:32] Patrick: That is correct. Yes. Mental health, Minnesota is a advocacy outreach and direct service organization, whose mission is, to , advocate for provide help for, and to really, help people, start handling, um, their, whatever mental health crises issues, whatever, uh, what they like to call before stage four.

[00:03:55] Right. Um, that, uh, the kind of, one [00:04:00] of our main things is to help people identify where they’re at provide peer support for folks that is a one step down from a crisis or one step before, um, crisis and the help to prevent it from getting to that stage.

[00:04:15] Brett: You were on like a support line, don’t you? Isn’t there a.

[00:04:18] Patrick: Yes. It’s called the Minnesota, uh, warm line, um, kind of a play on hotline because.

[00:04:25] Brett: quite a hotline.

[00:04:26] Patrick: It’s not a hotline, right? It’s not, it’s not a suicide prevention hotline. It’s it is a Warmline that is staffed by certified peer specialists, folks with actual lived experience, uh, and are, you know, mental illness survivors themselves, uh, who, um, are there just to talk to you when, Hey, you’re having, you’re having a bad day or you’re feeling like something’s coming on?

[00:04:52] You know, it’s not quite like I don’t, you know, I, I’m not thinking about suicide, but I’m really, I need to talk to [00:05:00] somebody who gets it, you know, and my therapist isn’t available because, you know, I mean, they’re hard to get and I only see them every other week and I don’t really have anyone to talk to, or I don’t want to talk to my friends about this, or I just want it to be anonymous.

[00:05:14] And so here’s a place where, uh, someone in that sort of situation can call and be able to talk to somebody who, who gets it. And who’s been

[00:05:23] Brett: Have you ever, have you ever personally Mandel lines?

[00:05:28] Patrick: Uh, I have not personally man, the lines, but I can say not anonymously that I have personally used the service.

[00:05:34] Brett: Alright. Um,

[00:05:36] Patrick: what’s great is that they have no idea who I am when I call. So, you know,

[00:05:41] Mental Health Corner

[00:05:41] Brett: um, so in our mental health corner, we all do kind of a check-in. Um, I was thinking I would let either Jeff or Christina go first, uh, just to give Patrick a feel for how this goes, even though he has listened to a couple episodes just to set the mood. Uh, [00:06:00] Jeff, do you want to say.

[00:06:02] Jeff: Christina, do you want us to start?

[00:06:06] Christina: Totally start. Um, yeah, so, um, I’m doing pretty well. I would say I I’m being getting’s I’m still, my ADHD is one of those things that I struggle with sometimes because there are aspects of it that can be beneficial and that I feel like I really have it under control. And then there was some weeks when I realized, oh, shit, I completely dropped the ball on this email or this other thing.

[00:06:31] And now I’m going to have to like, do some catch up time on it. Um, so I’m trying to kind of work that through a little bit, but otherwise I cannot really complain too much. I feel like changing jobs and, um, having a little bit more, um, structure and, um, excitement around what I’m doing for the day. Job has actually really improved my mental health over the last six weeks or so.

[00:06:57] So that I’m, I’m in a good place. I don’t have too much [00:07:00] to talk about.

[00:07:02] Brett: we’ll talk about.

[00:07:03] it in a little bit, but w Jeff and I both said. The last episode of the download that you did forget hub.

[00:07:09] Jeff: Yeah.

[00:07:10] Brett: That is a good hub production,

[00:07:12] Christina: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:07:14] Brett: It looks to me for all intents and purposes. Like you’re killing it at your new job.

[00:07:19] Christina: Well, thank you. Thank you. Um, yeah, so this is actually kind of a funny story. So the download started at Microsoft and, um, I’d been doing it for about, I had like, like 10 or 11 episodes before I moved over and we I’d had to have, I’ve had to. Um, you know, make a pitch to even like bring back a show that I’d been doing beforehand, um, called the speaker on channel nine.

[00:07:48] Um, we’d had time off and, and some formatting changes. And I, but I knew that the idea behind the show, which is basically to cover the latest developer news of the week at the time, it [00:08:00] was through a little bit of a Microsoft lens. Now it’s not, which is even better for me. And, and I think for the audience, um, and, uh, basically I read all the blog posts, um, you know, hacker news entries, things on Reddit, whatnot, distill it into.

[00:08:14] A seven minute overview so that instead of having to spend your week trying to catch up, you can be like, okay, these are some of the cool things that happened or, or big product leases or security notes, what have you, and in the show was successful. Um, but, uh, I had no expectation that we would be able to continue doing it at get hub.

[00:08:34] And so my plan was okay, well, I’m just going to, even though I just started this thing and we come up with the graphics and, and the editing style, I’m just gonna recreate this. Uh, but it turns out that it was doing well enough that, um, the Microsoft was like, well, we will still let you use our resources and an editor, but it will live on the GitHub channel.

[00:08:55] And now, um, the, the editor pro content will be, um, [00:09:00] broader because it will be for the GitHub audience. So, um, it it’s working really well and I think people are liking it. So thank you both for watching it. And I know we’ll talk more about it, but yeah, I’m feeling good about it. And that definitely does make me feel good about my job.

[00:09:14] Brett: All

[00:09:14] Jeff: Yeah, it was great. That’s fun to watch.

[00:09:16] Brett: that’s awesome. Patrick goes next.

[00:09:18] Patrick: Okay. Sure. Yeah. Um, well, I don’t know Kurt currently, um, you know, we’re a little bit before the episode, Brett and I talked about like my long history with staff and folks that don’t know me, you know, that are probably not, um, familiar to regular listeners, uh, kind of my history. So I’ll try to, I’ll try to briefly cover it.

[00:09:42] Uh, but, uh, I was diagnosed as Mac depressive when I was 14, which was kind of the precursor to bipolar. Bipolar is not even a word or term that entered the lexicon until I was in my twenties. Um, and so, uh, yeah, so what was [00:10:00] considered, uh, a manic depressive is now necessarily, you know, it’s kind of now called bipolar, so I guess that’s my.

[00:10:08] Diagnosis, uh, treated off and on my entire life, uh, for that, uh, various ways and reasons, um, you know, up and down with various medications, um, up and down with various, uh, styles of, of therapy, psychiatric intervention, um, a couple of suicide attempts, uh, attempts of my younger time, which led to, you know, various 72 hour holds and things like that.

[00:10:39] Um, and, uh, really, uh, you know, struggled for quite some time, many, many years with my mental illness. Um, As it stands today and has been the case for about the past 15 years. Um, I manage my illness, uh, [00:11:00] through a mindfulness and meditation practice. Uh, I, uh, do not currently take medication. Um, I’m not opposed to it certainly.

[00:11:07] Um, and, you know, think it works for a lot of people and especially, uh, as time has gone on, it’s gotten a lot better for when I was on it. Um, and so yeah, big fan, you know, drugs are good. Um, um, uh, even the recreational stuff, sometimes a is, is a big help. And increasingly, as we know, they’re, they’re finding, uh, you know, dropping little tiny hits of acid

[00:11:29] Brett: Oh yeah. Those hallucinogens can be great for depression and bipolar.

[00:11:33] Patrick: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m really excited to see a lot of the research that’s coming out about that. And Michael Pollan, Poland, um, wrote a book, uh, about that, um, which, uh, I have yet to read, but I hear is really, really good if you’re interested in such a thing. Um, and, uh, yeah, and it’s something that plays a factor throughout my family to various degrees.

[00:11:57] Uh, my, my young [00:12:00] youngest daughter, my 14 year old, um, um, deals with anxiety, uh, and, and, uh, working through that and, you know, has therapy, uh, for that both, uh, at school. Uh, she, they’ve got a great, uh, counselor, um, licensed therapist, right at school that she sees almost several times a week. Um, and then, yeah, it was not great.

[00:12:23] Um, uh,

[00:12:25] Christina: That’s amazing. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I just, I’m just like, that’s incredible

[00:12:30] Patrick: Yeah. Well, and I mean, you know, in fairness, she goes to a, a, to a private school, so that’s not a, you know, unfortunately that’s not the

[00:12:38] Brett: There’s the.

[00:12:39] Christina: Well, no, no, no, but

[00:12:41] Patrick: But even there.

[00:12:42] Christina: schools, I went to a private school and, and yeah. I mean, you know, like I, I had to go outside. I had like my private doctor and whatnot, but it certainly was not in a position where I could go a few times a week. So anyway, that’s.

[00:12:56] Patrick: Yeah. Yeah. But the, you know, the therapist at school is kind of there to [00:13:00] help her work through anxiety issues and, and things at the school they’re happening at the school. Right. And so she also has a therapist. She sees, uh, uh, every other week, uh, outside of school, um, to kind of talk about everything else.

[00:13:16] Um, and to just have that outside ear, uh, someone that’s not kind of invested in her life in any other way outside of just, you know, uh, the therapy portion. Um, but my oldest daughter, I’ve got two much older children from my first marriage. Uh, she’s actually, uh, currently, um, in voluntarily committed, uh, uh, institutionalized for lack of a better word, um, as she was, uh, certainly, um, Uh, well deemed incorrectly, so a danger to herself and others, she severe mental illness, uh, you know, uh, what, uh, used to be called, [00:14:00] um, split personality or most vulnerable personality disorders now, uh, referred to I believe his personality, this affective disorder or something like that.

[00:14:08] Um, this associate with thank you first, not only just associated with the disorder, um, as well as a hell’s hand basket of other, um, diagnoses, um, and, uh, you know, in and out of addiction, in her attempts to self-medicate, uh, in and out of regular, you know, therapy, unable to hold down a job, uh, because of the severe mental health issues.

[00:14:34] Um, and, uh, so about five years ago, she was, uh, committed. Um, and it’s about a month away from, uh, getting, uh, into a group home situation, getting released from there, getting out and putting it, you know, she’ll live in a group home for, you know, six months a year for our longest needed until she can kind of, uh, get back on her feet.

[00:14:55] But she is, um, you know, talking to her on the phone and [00:15:00] visiting her regularly down in St. Peter, Minnesota. I can honestly say she is as healthy as she has ever been in her entire life. And is the absolute best thing that could’ve happened to her is shitty the way that she ended up there. But the, I mean, it literally, uh, you know, assuming that she kind of stays on top of things and she really has, uh, she’s saying the right things and doing the right things and thinking in the right way and that sort of thing.

[00:15:28] I really think she’s got a chance for success at living in otherwise normal and healthy life, especially can, um,

[00:15:35] Brett: how are you passing?

[00:15:37] Christina: Yeah. Yeah. It, and I also, I just want to come and like, it’s amazing. I think I’m sure a lot of that comes with your role and your advocacy, but being as open about this stuff is, is really refreshing.

[00:15:50] Patrick: You know, here’s the deal, right? And that is that we really, we, we gotta be open and kudos to you all for talking about this every, every week and [00:16:00] laying your cards out on the table, because gosh, you know what I would have given at age 14 to have you. Have you guys to have someone out there talking about this stuff that I wasn’t, this like crazy person that I was someone, and now I’m going to start tearing up.

[00:16:18] Cause I, you know, I I’m, I’m one of those guys, um, don’t show me like an ingredient card commercials as I get really just like a complete public mess. But, um, you know, or anything involving like daughters and fathers and they’re coming home from college and any of those sorts of commercials, like there was an at and T one a while back.

[00:16:37] I was just like, every time it would come on, it just flow. But no, seriously. Um, I can’t tell you how needed this is and how much we need to keep doing this and how much we need to do this out in public to everybody at the dinner table at the, we need to talk about this stuff because I was alone, you know, 40 years ago I was all [00:17:00] alone.

[00:17:01] Brett: Yeah.

[00:17:02] Patrick: I felt that way at least. I didn’t know anyone who had any mental health illness issues and knowing one who was manic-depressive. I didn’t know anyone who was seeing psychiatrist or a therapist. I didn’t know anyone taking medication. I didn’t know anyone. And I had evidence all over my family that this was a issue genetically and my family, but I never connected those dots and no one ever talked about it.

[00:17:26] Brett: yeah. well, like 20 years ago, I, I should have been diagnosed as bipolar and ADHD, but even then I should say more like 30 years ago, the people I did know who, who had acknowledged mental illnesses were ostracized to an extent where I didn’t, I didn’t want to be diagnosed with anything. Uh, after, after some suicidal ideation, I was sent to a psychiatrist who, uh, said I was depressed [00:18:00] and tried to put me on lithium and it didn’t go well.

[00:18:02] And I just left and I didn’t try again for another 15 years. Uh, and, and because they’re just there, wasn’t, there weren’t any examples out there. And I feel like kids. Growing up right now have something that even, even the youngest of us, even Christina didn’t have as a kid.

[00:18:24] Christina: No, no, no, no, no, not even remotely. And in fact, um, you know, I was because I had to be, I, because I did not have an excuse when I was in high school, I had to be open with my teachers about the fact that I was going through the depression and the anxiety in the terrible, um, process of, of changing out medications and.

[00:18:47] That was impacting my schoolwork and they were not at all understanding at least at the first high school that I was at. I’ve talked about that before they were not, and this was supposed to be one of the best schools in the state and they could not have been less understanding [00:19:00] and cared less. And in, you know, um, a relatively short period of time that the behavior that, that they showed would be completely unacceptable now, which is awesome, which is great.

[00:19:15] And I think that the only reason it changes is because of people like Patrick and because we do more to get to show to, to, you know, have for the 14 year old us, doesn’t have to feel alone anymore. Right. Like I think that’s the only reason that we’ve had progress. And so, yeah, I, um, I mean, I could tear up thinking about it too, but it’s, it’s I’m so, so, so happy that 14 year olds today, um, not

[00:19:43] Patrick: Have therapists in their school for God’s sakes.

[00:19:46] Brett: Yeah.

[00:19:46] Christina: Right, but, but they don’t, it’s not it’s they don’t have to face the same level of stuff that we did. And, and that is amazing.

[00:19:54] Patrick: Yeah. Yeah, no, it’s, it’s so blessing. So I will answer the question, um, [00:20:00] you know, today I’m fine, but that’s today, um, every day is a different thing and I’ve, I’ve written about this. I’ve got to post, if people want to look it up called the piggyback guy, which is really the best way I’ve found, uh, to, uh, to describe what it’s like to live with a mental illness and more specifically with depression.

[00:20:21] Um, um, but, uh, uh, it’s on Patrick rhone.net. Just, just do a search for, uh, Patrick roam, piggyback guy, and you’ll find it, um, in any

[00:20:33] Brett: in the show notes.

[00:20:35] Patrick: Terrific. Um, so basically I describe it like this. It’s like having a 300 pound guy. Who’s mean and smelly and horrible, and he’s demanding a piggyback ride. That’s all he wants is simple.

[00:20:52] He just wants to be back. Right. And, um, you know, you don’t want to give him a piggyback. [00:21:00] And sometimes he’s off in the corner, just sulking and you barely even know he’s there and you know, you can just safely ignore him, you know, he’s there, you know, he he’s always there. He never disappears, but you know, he’s like he can’t hear them.

[00:21:14] Yeah. Some days you wake up, you know, and he’s like right over your shoulder and he’s just going in your saying, Hey, give me a fucking piggy rag, man. What’s your fucking problem. Look, look, are you some sort of asshole? Cause you won’t give me one. Cause I mean like I saw him asking for is really not much, man.

[00:21:31] Just give me the fucking ride, you know? And you’re kidding. Oh geez. I don’t. I know cause I know if I give you the ride, I know where the now no, no I’m going to be good this time. I’m going to get right off. It won’t be more and you just care me a block man, half a block. I don’t care. Just let me get on your back.

[00:21:45] Didn’t and you you’re fighting him all day long and he’s trying to get his piggyback right? And then he starts yelling at you. Like, you know what, you’re a fucking piece of shit, man. You’re a horrible person for not giving me a ride. What kind of horrible person doesn’t like, give his friend a piggyback ride.[00:22:00]

[00:22:00] You’re just like, maybe you should just die. Right? And, and like, you know, it’s, it’s really horrible and really hard to ignore them. Some days you wake up and he’s literally sitting on your chest and you can’t move, you can’t get out of bed. And he says, breathing in your face and he’s just brooding. And you know that the only way you’re ever going to get rid of this guy, the only thing that will give you peace is death.

[00:22:29] That you’re going to have to live with this asshole for the rest of your life. And every single day put up with some level of his shit. That’s what it feels like. And some

[00:22:41] Brett: Wow.

[00:22:42] Patrick: days he’s off in the corner and you can ignore. Last Wednesday for me, he was right over my shoulder and I don’t know why there was nothing that caused it.

[00:22:53] Right. And today I have no idea where he is, but I know he’s there. I can’t [00:23:00] see him. I don’t know I’m going about my life, but I know that the rest of my life, I’m going to go about it. Knowing he’s there somewhere, um, at various levels and degrees. And that the only way I’m going to be able to kind of, um, you know, deal with that live with that is to, um, you know, accept it, work my way through it.

[00:23:25] Mentally recognize that on the days when he’s really close, that may be a day that I need to rearrange some things, or I need to take it a little bit easier on myself, or I need to just go, okay, that’s that’s today. And that’s the way today is going to be. And I’m just going to be quiet and get through it.

[00:23:46] Brett: wrote a long piece a couple years ago about my bipolar addict shadow. And I don’t remember the exact metaphor I use in the piece and I never published it. [00:24:00] I wanted feedback on it, but I was too embarrassed to get it before I put it out. Um, but yeah, this idea of this almost outside force that, that I struggle against and with, and sometimes it come to that is just constantly against what I know is good for me.

[00:24:27] Uh, going against what I know I should, according to, you know, the rest of the world, what I should be feeling, what I should be thinking. Um, yeah, I, I, I hear you. I get that.

[00:24:39] Lies.

[00:24:40] Patrick: Yeah. Where the euphoria lies. Uh, one could take that as, as you know, where it lives, where it lays down and you know, but also where it lies

[00:24:51] Christina: But also we’re deceives you.

[00:24:53] Patrick: Yeah. Where it

[00:24:53] Jeff: under poet, but didn’t know it.

[00:24:57] That is nice. That is nice.[00:25:00]

[00:25:00] Patrick: I, I mean, I immediately heard it both ways.

[00:25:03] Brett: because you are a poet at heart.

[00:25:06] Patrick: Um, no, no, because you know, I, you know, words mean things and, and, uh, I, I find, I find it interesting when we choose them. So, so, um, uh, both, uh, accurately and ambiguously.

[00:25:23] Brett: that’s what makes you a great writer? Great writer, Patrick,

[00:25:26] Patrick: Thank you, Brett. I appreciate

[00:25:28] Brett: love of words.

[00:25:29] Patrick: I very much love you. You know that.

[00:25:31] Brett: I love you too.

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[00:27:07] White Anglo-Saxon Protestants or…

[00:27:07] Brett: So we have wasps and

[00:27:10] Patrick: Why, why do you have

[00:27:12] Brett: I

[00:27:12] Jeff: watch that

[00:27:14] Brett: I think there’s a nest. We have this vent that goes from our bathroom to outside and it gets a straight line from the bathroom fan to the side of the house where it goes out. And we’re pretty sure that wasps built a nest in there and. Me. I’m like, okay. So we call Orkin, we’ll get a bunch of chemicals sprayed in there and we just deal with this shit. My girlfriend, whoever is chemically sensitive and, uh, was not anxious to douse our home and chemicals. So what she came up with, she got a diffuser like this, like a Roma therapy [00:28:00] shit, uh, that like you put, you put your essential oils into and she filled it up with like highly concentrated mint, hung as a basket under we, we put a command hook on the wall and then there was a plant hook near the vent and she was strong.

[00:28:20] It she’s strong a basket so that it was within about six inches of the vent, plugged it into the wall and. Piped mint turned on the fan and piped mint through that vent for about four days straight. And I haven’t seen a wasp since

[00:28:40] Jeff: hold on, hold on. There’s an in-between

[00:28:42] Brett: cold. What, what?

[00:28:44] Jeff: there’s an in-between point. Cause that was on a zoom meeting with you when you were on your porch and had to step away every few minutes, like the mint, it wasn’t like this is going to end the wasps. It was like, this is going to make them disoriented.

[00:28:57] They’re going to fall out of here and I’m going

[00:28:59] Brett: [00:29:00] no. It was going to make them. move. The idea was to gradually make them so uncomfortable that they would decide to make a nest somewhere else. And for the last week, I really haven’t seen, there was one wasp in my fucking office that I didn’t see until it was four inches from my face. And I screamed like a, uh, a young woman. That sounded sexist.

[00:29:27] Jeff: that. I could hear your brain going. I’m not going to think girl, but

[00:29:30] Brett: I’m not going to

[00:29:30] Christina: Well, no, it was high pitched, you know, someone who hasn’t

[00:29:33] Brett: I screamed like a pathetic 43 year old man. Um, and, and, and Who’s scared to death of wasps. And I, I grabbed a, a magazine and I beat the shit out of that wasp. But other than that, I have not seen a single wasp and I am, I’m hesitant to say the problem is solved, but I honestly think [00:30:00] L’s mint therapy for the wasp might actually had done some

[00:30:04] Jeff: I don’t know if it’s the therapy that’s as which is more genius, the therapy or the basket strung between two points to

[00:30:11] Brett: It was very clever. She’s very

[00:30:13] Jeff: a lot of levels.

[00:30:15] Brett: what to look for at the store. Like it command hooks. I had never heard of them, but It’s a thing that like you can adhere to a wall and then it pulls off clean, beautiful stuff.

[00:30:26] Patrick: Yeah.

[00:30:27] Jeff: by bye local.

[00:30:28] Christina: I was going to say I, um,

[00:30:30] Brett: Minnesota should know that

[00:30:32] Christina: I was going to say, I, I should, uh, I I’m aware of that even though, like I have the messiest office in the world, but when I have like, plans of finally making it clean, I’m like, oh yes, I will use command hooks to adhere to things that, that I doesn’t leave a gross residue, but no, the basket and the men therapy.

[00:30:49] I hope that that is helping. I’m like you, I, I have a great fear of wasps, I think because I got stung by one when I was like two or three years old [00:31:00] and that has stuck with me. And it’s weird. Cause I’m not, I’m not really afraid of, of a lot of things. I don’t like bugs and I’m very allergic to, um, to, to insects, um, like, uh, nothing that would put me into like, um, you know, apoplectic shock, I don’t think.

[00:31:16] But, um,

[00:31:18] Brett: So far.

[00:31:19] Christina: so far, but no, I mean they’re there. can be out and there could be mosquitoes for a second. And people like, oh, it’s not that bad. And I’ll wind up with a welt so bad on my ring finger that they almost had to cut my, my wedding ring off of my ma my hand. Um, we were, fortunately I was able to get like a steroid, um, so that we didn’t have to do that.

[00:31:38] But, um, I, uh, yeah, I remember being stung by a wasp when I was really little and like, to this day, that’s one of the few things I’m like. Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope.

[00:31:48] Brett: the, to the best of my recollection, I have never been stung by a wasp, but when I was about 10 years old, I was hiking with my grandfather on my [00:32:00] dad’s side. And we were in Missouri and there was an underground, I think, yellow jacket hive. And I did were two people in front of me who both stepped on it before I got there, but I was the third and final straw.

[00:32:15] And I stepped on that hive. I got stung about 50 times

[00:32:19] Christina: oh my.

[00:32:20] Brett: and the weird thing is now I am scared of wasp, but I don’t give a shit about bees. Cause I’ve Been there,

[00:32:28] I’ve done that. Like I can survive. I can survive all the bees. You can bring no problem, but a wasp or a Hornet. Oh, I’m scared shitless.

[00:32:38] Christina: Well, and, and we all remember like, like the classic Macaulay Culkin film, my girl. Right.

[00:32:43] Patrick: yes.

[00:32:44] Jeff: didn’t see my

[00:32:45] Brett: see.

[00:32:46] Christina: Okay. All right, right. Patrick was going

[00:32:48] Patrick: Well, who was the female, sir? Was that true? That wasn’t true much. That was like one

[00:32:51] Christina: No, no, that was Anna Chlumsky.

[00:32:53] Patrick: say yeah. Is there you go? Yeah. Anna Chlumsky yes.

[00:32:55] Christina: who, who went on to be on Veep. Um, and, uh, yeah, I know, but, but, but, but [00:33:00] Macaulay Culkin spoiler alert for 30 year old movie, uh, is, is killed by a bee, a bee sting. And, uh, and it’s very, very, very sad. And if you are like of a certain age, that is one of like the defining, like childhood moments as watching most famous child star in the world, die from obesity.

[00:33:20] Patrick: Yes,

[00:33:20] Brett: by the way, mosquitoes do not fuck with my, uh, for years. Like every, everyone will be like swatting, mosquitoes, welting up. And I wouldn’t get a single bite.

[00:33:32] Patrick: Well, you know why that

[00:33:33] Brett: see me and they would run.

[00:33:36] Patrick: Cause they’re all fucking with me. Like every mosquito in Minnesota is on me. So they’re leaving the rest of you

[00:33:43] Brett: yeah.

[00:33:44] Patrick: I’ll take my, thank you now.

[00:33:46] Brett: There was two, there, there was two years where I suddenly attracted every mosquito and I would get huge welts from them. Like I would react way more than a mosquito bite. I would get welt and [00:34:00] then it ended. And now I’m back to mosquitoes, not fuck with me. So I’m happy.

[00:34:04] Patrick: So I just a FYI. Um, so, uh, one of the things that someone who. In a crowd is the only one who gets like bitten by mosquitoes somehow. Um, uh, I’ve actually looked into this. Um, and, uh, I’m also one of those people where the, when the temperature gets above 70, I just start pouring buckets of sweat. Like it doesn’t matter.

[00:34:30] Like, uh, you know, I’m very, very hot sensitive. I just get used to sometime around this time of year, just literally being wet all the time. I’m always wet. I need to change my t-shirts, you know, sometimes two, sometimes three times a day. Um, and mosquitoes apparently really, really love guys like me who sweat a lot.

[00:34:50] Uh, cause that’s what attracts them is that, that, that, uh, that sweat, that odor that does the saltiness and all of that, like that’s what, that’s why I’m so much [00:35:00] more prone to. That all leads to my question for Brett, which is, can you tie it to anything else that has changed around those times when you like, you know, did you make any mental note about, Hmm.

[00:35:13] You know, I switched to a different medication for my bipolar, or I did this, or I did that. And something changed about your body chemistry.

[00:35:23] Brett: That’s a really good question, which leads me to note that, um, I am really bad about drawing correlations or I’m really bad at drawing correlations. I do not pay enough attention to like, for example, I can have intestinal issues, but not tie them to what I ate the day before. Like my brain just does not connect the dots.

[00:35:47] And I have such an ADHD memory that putting together long-term changes like that is nearly impossible for me. So it is [00:36:00] very possible that, uh, that it was all, you know, tied to an event or a change that I will probably never remember.

[00:36:11] Patrick: Interesting. Yeah. I, I would be very curious to find that out. Um, you know, I, I, I know that it, it does have to do with your own personal body chemistry and that some people are more prone to getting, uh, getting bit by mosquitoes and others, just because of that. Also blood type plays a factor as well.

[00:36:32] Christina: Oh, does it, does it, I I’m curious about that. Cause yeah, I am. I’m extremely allergic to any sort of like, like, like, uh, mosquitoes and, and, uh, aunts. Um, any, anything like in the mosquito family actually, like aunts are in their family, but I’m allergic to ants too. Uh, but mosquitoes, like there, there’ve been a couple of instances when things in that family have been flying around and just kind of like bit me on the arm and in, you [00:37:00] know, 30 minutes, like it’s this gigantic welt and people are like, oh my God, do you have to go to, you know, like, like the doctor or something.

[00:37:08] So.

[00:37:09] Patrick: So, Christina, what you’re saying is that you will never be visiting Minnesota, that if I want to meet you in person, I have to come to you.

[00:37:16] Christina: Well, I might, I might, I just might have to, you know, find a way to be indoors. A lot of the time I will say this, I will never go on like a lake vacation sort of thing, and Minnesota, right? Like I’m not going to go to, like, I’m not going to do like the whole like great, like outdoors, you know, family park thing.

[00:37:32] Like what hot American summer thing that I’m not going to

[00:37:35] Patrick: No, no boundary waters.

[00:37:37] Christina: long as,

[00:37:38] Patrick: Yeah, no, no canoeing. No.

[00:37:40] Christina: no,

[00:37:41] Patrick: right.

[00:37:42] Christina: no. I, I mean, I mean, it, it depends. I mean, I, I gave it a try, but it would probably be painful for me. I, uh, so, uh, I grew up in Atlanta and we have a lot of mosquitoes and things there too, but like the worst moments of my life were always when my parents would force me to go to camp types of things, because I was just [00:38:00] like, I’m going to be so miserable because of the bugs.

[00:38:04] What happens at Bible camp…

[00:38:04] Brett: Did you have to go to Bible camp?

[00:38:07] Christina: No.

[00:38:08] Brett: man, I did

[00:38:09] Patrick: no, I’m so sorry.

[00:38:11] Brett: first homosexual experience Bible.

[00:38:13] Christina: I mean that, that tracks honestly, uh, my, uh, my, my friend, Andrew, who, my friend growing up, like in high school, my friend, Andrew, a very religious mom, very gay, a kid who did not want to be gay, but is just as gay as K can be. And his mom like bribed him with a car to like go to like a gay conversion camp and whatnot, where I, where I think he like flux the instructors,

[00:38:38] Brett: Sure.

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