303: This One’s Not About Taylor Swift. That’s Next Week.

This One’s Not About Taylor Swift. That’s Next Week.

[00:00:00] Brett: Hey everybody, this is Brett Terpstra. I’ve been up since 2:00 AM um, just working to make Overtired as tired as possible. I am here as always, with Christina Warren, Jeff Severances. Gunzel has the week off. Christina, this is gonna be a weird episode.

[00:00:21] Christina: It is gonna be weird episode, but I have to say, I’m super excited for Jeff to be on, um, next episode because You and Jeff both will have homework you will have to do, which is to listen to Taylor Swift’s midnights. But you’ve been up since 2:00 AM for a reason. I’ve, I went to bed late because Taylor Swift’s new album about the things that keep her up at night.

[00:00:41] That’s like, literally like what, what the, what the album kind of is about. Uh.

[00:00:46] Brett: obligated. You felt maybe you should stay up all night and listen to the things that keep Taylor up at night.

[00:00:51] Christina: Right. But also, I mean, I, I did go to bed at like 2:00 AM but like, um, two or three. But, um, the thing is, is that [00:01:00] this is like the Overtired Taylor album, and since we are a Taylor Swift podcast, it does almost feel fitting that it is just like you and I like for this. Like, I, like I said, I can’t wait for Jeff to join us for like a full, like, deep dive and, um, and, and, and get into it all, especially since he’s even less of a fan than you are.

[00:01:19] But, um, we are a Taylor Swift podcast and it’s a Taylor Swift pop album,

[00:01:24] Brett: I wanna add some clarity here. Um, uh, we have moved away from being a Taylor Swift podcast because, uh, we have become a mental health podcast. And then I believe in the tagline it says, Anne Taylor Swift for some fucking reason. Um, so yes, she’s still gonna come up, but I refuse to call it the Taylor Swift podcast anymore.

[00:01:49] The joke, the joke got old for me.

[00:01:51] Christina: Well, that’s fine. But, but,

[00:01:53] Brett: But we are a pop culture. I mean, we are absolutely a pop culture podcast, so,

[00:01:57] Christina: we are, but also we have to go back to the old [00:02:00] tagline, at least for one week, because she released an album Brett, about shit that keeps her up at night.

[00:02:04] Brett: All right. That’ll be the, the episode will be titled Something to do with Taylor Swift. We will make a huge week long Taylor Swift extravaganza next week.

[00:02:16] Christina: Excellent. Excellent. But it’s, it’s so, so, so you’re, you’re tired for real reasons. Um, I’m, And you’re in your grouchy and, um, I’m a

[00:02:29] Brett: Yeah, I might be. Um,

[00:02:33] Christina: Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. Um, and.

[00:02:36] Brett: a God Taylor Swift podcast. God damn.

[00:02:39] Christina: I’m tired of this joke. It’s been eight years. Christina. I’m fucking tired of this joke, Christina. No. Um, but, uh, yeah, so, um, how are you doing?

[00:02:53] Mental Health Corner

[00:02:53] Brett: I am, like I said up since two. I might, I’m like mania. I might be starting a little [00:03:00] manic episode. Um, should we, can we segue mental

[00:03:04] Christina: No, let’s just, I was just gonna say, let’s just go into the mental health corner.

[00:03:08] Brett: so I think I talked last week. If I didn’t, I was just talking to my therapist and. Didn’t talk about it here, but, um, I’m really curious as to whether what I have considered stable in the past with my bipolar, uh, whether it’s actually been just like low grade depression, uh, because like I get so bored and unmotivated when I am what I’ve always called stable.

[00:03:35] Um, and I like dream about the mania when I’m in those states and I’ve begun to realize through talking to my therapist and going to a talk with Ellen Forney that maybe I don’t know what stable is and maybe there is. A stable I can find where I can still be creative and productive and like a fucking [00:04:00] normal person with some energy.

[00:04:02] And, um, so I bought, I bought Ellen Forney’s two books, um, Marbles, which is kind of her like, she’s a, she’s a graphic artist, uh, a comic. Um, and she, not a, not a comedian, but she, she draws comics. Um,

[00:04:20] Christina: She’s a, yeah, she’s a graphic novelist, I guess.

[00:04:23] Brett: yeah, there you go. And Marbles is her kind of like story of her bipolar, uh, with a little bit of advice woven into it. But then as a result of the feedback to Marbles, she wrote a book called Brock Study, which is nothing but like, How she stays stable, like what’s important and like, I’m, so, I started reading rock study.

[00:04:50] I haven’t gotten marbles yet, but I feel like rock study is the more useful one. And I’m really hoping to find the secret. Like I’ve been up since two. I’m not positive, [00:05:00] I’m manic, but, um, I have been coding a lot. And what I’m realizing is if I knew what to do when, when a manic episode starts to prevent it from going full swing, and I could just get that like one morning of super productive coding and then fucking like chill and sleep the next night.

[00:05:21] Um, that would be kind of an ideal situation for me. I don’t need 10 days of hypomania. I just need that one first morning. Um, but anyway, that’s, that’s where I’m at. I’ll link Ellen Forney in the show notes for anyone who’s curious. Uh, the books are really good. Seeing her talk was just inspiring. I, I learned a lot.

[00:05:43] Christina: That’s awesome. Did you get to talk to her at all?

[00:05:45] Brett: Um, I got into the q and a, I was doing it over Zoom.

[00:05:49] Christina: Oh, gotcha. Okay.

[00:05:50] Brett: but I got to, I got to drop some questions into the q and a and interact with her a little bit. Um, didn’t, didn’t get to meet her personally though.

[00:05:59] Christina: Nice. [00:06:00] Oh, so she lives in Seattle actually. That’s cool. Um, as a visual artist, she created two permanent large scale porcelain enamel murals for Sound Transits Capital Hill Light rail station in Seattle. I live in Capital Hill. That’s cool. Um, no, I’m glad you gotta see her talk. Yeah. You mentioned last week a little bit of this, about how like you thought that maybe what you’d always classified as, you always thought you had bipolar.

[00:06:24] Brett: Yeah. Yeah. And there’s some other, I have, I still haven’t found the name of it, but some other, some something with the word cycle in it.

[00:06:32] Christina: Right. Well, it’s like rapid cycling. Is that what it is?

[00:06:35] Brett: well, that’s type two.

[00:06:36] Christina: That’s type two.

[00:06:37] Brett: Um, uh, there’s a, there’s another type that never hits, like full on depression. Like, I don’t get like suicidally depressed. Um, I just get unmotivated and, and lackluster.

[00:06:53] Christina: Right.

[00:06:53] Brett: And the idea that maybe there’s a word for going between [00:07:00] hypomania and, and, uh, lackluster minor depression, uh, rapidly and never finding stable in between. Like, that’s, that seems like me.

[00:07:13] Christina: Yeah, no.

[00:07:14] Brett: I will finish my research on that and come back and if I decided to fit for me, um, I’ll talk to therapist slash psychiatrist about it and if that’s the case, I will come back and make a definitive declaration and actually remember the word for what it is.

[00:07:30] Christina: Yeah. No, but I mean, I think that that’s, that’s definitely like interesting to to think about when we were talking about that last week about you, like figuring that out. It would be good to know, because maybe that would change how you could be treated and maybe you could find a better middle ground between the two.

[00:07:43] Right. Um, because, but, but I will say like, at least, um, the, uh, at least like you don’t have the suicidal depression because that would be if you had, if you were going like, okay, if you were like cycling between those states, between like a [00:08:00] suicidal depression and the mania that I, I’m gonna be honest with you, I, I, I don’t know if that would be

[00:08:05] Brett: Yeah. That was my uncle. It wasn’t cool. It wasn’t cool.

[00:08:09] Christina: no. Like I don’t wanna. No, I’m not gonna say what I’m actually thinking because that’s too dark, but, um

[00:08:17] Brett: My, my worst impression means that I think that everyone’s mad at me or, or everyone’s laughing at me. Um, and, and I get very anxious and concerned, but not like, harm myself or, or do anything like that.

[00:08:34] Christina: right. Which, which to be clear, that’s still like, not at all, like, uh, a good thing, but. At all. Like that’s, that’s, that’s in no way, like, I, I don’t want you to like discount that. Um, my worst suppression, um, I mean, it, it’s rarely gone into like self-harm things because A, I don’t find anything therapeutic about that.

[00:08:52] And b, the one time I did like overdose on pills, I immediately like, thought better, but I was like, You fucking [00:09:00] idiot, you’re probably just going to make yourself brain dead and that’s gonna be worse. So I had to call 9 1 1 and then go get my stomach pumped and all that shit, and it was a whole pain in the ass.

[00:09:09] And then like some fucking like, um, some bitch who had like masters and social workers, some shit came to like talk to me and I’m like, My mom has more qualifications than you get the fuck away from me. I have an actual psychiatrist. I was such a bitch, but I was also like, I was also like 20 years old.

[00:09:26] Brett: You see this brand on my arm.

[00:09:28] Christina: I can.

[00:09:29] Brett: That was the result of one of my early in my, uh, twenties after getting clean off of drugs, which make it really hard to tell, you know what?

[00:09:39] Christina: Oh yeah,

[00:09:40] Brett: is like, um, and also apparently could have caused bipolar.

[00:09:43] Christina: yeah, I’ve heard that. I’ve heard that, that that can like trigger something. Well, I don’t know if it’s so much that it causes it, like maybe it could change something in your brain or if it like could just be the proceeding fact, the precipitating factor that like wakes it up. I don’t know. I’ve

[00:09:57] Brett: but I didn’t, I didn’t know [00:10:00] how to get myself. I didn’t, I wasn’t diagnosed bipolar yet. All I knew is that I had gotten clean off of heroin and I was, uh, living at home and I didn’t have a job and I was dating a crazy, crazy girl. Um, and, and nothing seemed to be going quite right and I didn’t know what to do.

[00:10:23] And I like branded myself just to just so the searing pain would like snap me out of it. And it worked for like a day. I was like, I felt normal. Uh, but that’s the only self-harm I’ve ever really partaken.

[00:10:39] Christina: Yeah. Yeah. So, which, which I get, I’m glad at least that A wasn’t continued b, that like it did at least snap you out of it. Yeah, I had one, and again, like, I don’t wanna call it a suicide attempt because again, I thought better of it immediately after it happened. And I was like, again, I was like, you didn’t, you didn’t do this right.

[00:10:58] These drugs are literally [00:11:00] just going to maybe put you into like a vegetative state and that would be worse. Or do something that would like environmentally. So, you know, it was okay. Um, and, and that was also what we kinda had to tell the hospital so that I wouldn’t be sent on a 51 50 hold, which everybody agreed.

[00:11:15] They were like, Don’t do that. Um, but I’ve definitely had like moments where I wanted, I’ve been deeply suicidal. I just haven’t like, actually done the self-harm thing. But yeah, my worst depression has been like, literally can’t get out of bed and like, wanting to die all the time. And, and that I think like if I, if it was a cycle between that and mania, that’s what I’m saying, like that, that would be, I think an untenable situation to be completely honest.

[00:11:42] Like, I don’t know. Yeah. I, I, I, like, I, I, I don’t even know what it, I wouldn’t have any advice for that. I wouldn’t have any professional, I mean, I’m

[00:11:49] Brett: Yeah. When I,

[00:11:50] Christina: but I don’t even know how, what to do.

[00:11:52] Brett: when I first started seeing my therapist, um, he was very concerned about how I handled depression. [00:12:00] Um, and, and it wasn’t until we had talked a couple of times that he realized that my version of bipolar depression, uh, was not as deep as some of the people he had worked with before. Uh, that it’s, is there such a thing as hypo depression

[00:12:19] Christina: Probably, yeah, probably where you could go into like a major depression and like a major bad of media one, three the other, and that would, I would think would be really concerning. So I’m glad you don’t have that because we, I mean, realistically we wouldn’t be able to do a podcast. Like you wouldn’t be able to function, you know what I mean?

[00:12:34] Like it would be um, it would be

[00:12:37] Brett: Podcasts only when Brett is manic and then everything goes off the rails.

[00:12:41] Christina: Right. But also, yeah. I mean, God, I can’t even imagine.

[00:12:43] Brett: If I was having, if I was having the kind of mania that I saw my uncle have, um, I also wouldn’t be podcasting like he was, he was not someone who would sit down and have a sane conversa. He would call you at two in the morning [00:13:00] and tell you all about how he was gonna buy like a new semi trailer at like a, a, a truck and it was gonna be bright silver and he was gonna drive it all over the country and he was gonna be a traveling, um, chaplain and yeah.

[00:13:19] Christina: Yeah. Um, a, a person I was in a relationship with, um, in college, that, that was the situation. It was similar to that. And, uh, and, um, Ted Turner, um, who’s famously bipolar, used to call my father at two o’clock in the morning to talk about things like that. Yeah.

[00:13:35] Brett: I,

[00:13:36] Christina: randomly call him. And, uh, and my dad had finally gotta the point.

[00:13:39] My dad was like, I can’t keep taking these calls from Ted when he is not medicated.

[00:13:44] Brett: Yeah. My, my mania results in coding and my depression results in watching tv, and it’s pretty, pretty mild swings. Uh, both affect my productivity, but

[00:13:58] Christina: Of course, and, and both affect like your [00:14:00] personal and your, and your relationships and, and other things. Um, but I’m just glad that neither of them are swung in either direction so much that like, and that’s honestly, but it’s probably why it’s difficult to diagnose. It’s probably why you’ve been called type two, even though these cycles happen really quickly.

[00:14:16] Um, it might be this, this other thing they don’t know because they’re like, Well, I guess that’s what this is, just because neither of the swings are, are so bad. And also for some people, like, we never talked about this. Um, and I know that we should be getting to my mental health corner, but frankly I don’t have that much to add.

[00:14:33] But, but I did wanna ask you like how, I don’t know if we ever talked about how you were diagnosed with, with bipolar. You, you mentioned that, that it, the, the drug coming off the drugs might have precipitated it. Was it the incident where, where you branded yourself? Was that the thing that maybe got you to a hospital or, or how were you diagnosed?

[00:14:52] Brett: no, that didn’t get me to a hospital. Um, I went to the hospital after, um, basically [00:15:00] being. Depressed. Um, like I wanted to get off my ass and get a job and, uh, I wanted to get outta my parents’ home. And, uh, I just didn’t feel like it was working. So I, I signed up. My mom, I think probably, um, got me an appointment with a psychiatrist and I just kind of explained what was happening and he was like, Oh yeah, you’re bipolar.

[00:15:26] Um, and there were clear signs back before I was on heroin, but definitely after I had started drug use. So that absolutely could have been a contributing factor. Um, so yeah, I think, I think my mom got me in there. Um, and I started immediately on Seroquel and, oh, there was some other drug that it turned out my doctor was getting like major kickbacks for prescribing.

[00:15:54] Christina: Yeah, I had that incident. Mm-hmm.

[00:15:56] Brett: It wasn’t, it wasn’t an ideal drug. [00:16:00] Um, I can’t remember the whole story. I just remember finding out that oh, yeah, he literally prescribed that to every one of his patients with any, any similar symptoms, um, regardless of their specific needs. And

[00:16:16] Christina: Yeah, that, that was actually how I was incorrectly diagnosed as being bipolar.

[00:16:20] Brett: yeah,

[00:16:21] Christina: I think I’ve told you that story. I’ve probably told this on the podcast.

[00:16:23] Brett: someone wanted the kickback from the diagnosis.

[00:16:26] Christina: No, actually, what happened was she was mad that I called her out on the fact that she was getting a kickback. and she thought that my rapid thought in speaking quickly and just ability to just like fucking zone in and call her out because much like Taylor Swift, I do have the ability to zero in and I’m not proud of this.

[00:16:45] Um, and it’s not a good thing. Um, and, and it’s, I I’ve gotten a lot better with it, but I can usually pick out people’s weaknesses pretty quickly and I can say something that could just like level you, right? Like, [00:17:00] and um, I was, she put me on Wellbutrin because Wellbutrin was something she was getting kickbacks from and it had helped at first, it helped my depression a lot at first, and then it didn’t.

[00:17:11] And then like I was, I was in an, I was in this situation where I was both depressed and incredibly adhd and then I was stressed out cuz I was like, Look, I’m 15, like. I actually have to care about my grades and shit. Like I have to, you know, be able to, to focus and do stuff. And this was, I think this is before, this was, uh, this was shortly before I was, I was put on, um, Dexedrine for the first time.

[00:17:35] But, um, I didn’t have an official ADHD diagnosis then, although it was obvious now that I clearly was, but also the depression, like the Wellbutrin, it worked great for six weeks and then it just stopped working. And then I was not only like incredibly depressed, but ADHD and all these things were happening.

[00:17:50] And she kept insisting, No, no, no, you have to be on this. You have to be on this. And I’m like, It’s not working. And then she was also being weird about some other stuff, like [00:18:00] wanting to talk to me about my sex life and stuff. That was like not at all appropriate. We didn’t have that kind of relationship.

[00:18:06] And my dad was potentially going to see her, and I think she was also gonna, she was trying to shove both. You turned down his throat and it clicked me. I was like, You’re getting fucking paybacks. Like, like kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies, aren’t you? And she, she tried to kind of hedge off. I was like, No, you are.

[00:18:21] I was like, And that’s the only reason you say this. You don’t actually give a shit about me. You don’t care about anything else. I know what this is. I know what you’re doing. You’re a fraud, whatever. And then she was like, Well, you are bipolar and put me on lithium and I’m not

[00:18:38] Brett: Ouch. No. And lithium sucks no matter what.

[00:18:41] Christina: does, No, I was having shakes.

[00:18:43] It was shitty. It was like one, And then that honestly, that then kicked off one of the worst major depressive episodes of my life where because of all that like that, like that was the first time I got to like the truly debilitating state. Um, and um, [00:19:00] and then it, it took me finding like some doctors, like, what did one doctor who only wanted to do cognitive behavioral therapy And my mom was like, Look, I understand that this is useful, but she can’t.

[00:19:13] Get out of bed, we need something. And he was like not willing to give me any medication at all, really. And, uh, because he was only about wanting to, to do the, the, the C B T at first. And then we finally found Dr. Baker, who, um, was just like appalled with everything that had happened. And I was able to

[00:19:34] Brett: Isn’t it nice when you find a doctor that is as frustrated with your history as you are

[00:19:39] Christina: Yes, it is. Which is one of the reasons why, like, I still see my doctor, even though it’s inconvenient and expensive, because I don’t wanna go. I’m like, and he’s gonna retire soon. And I’m, I don’t know what I’m gonna do, like,

[00:19:52] Brett: This would be a perfect segue into our Zocdoc sponsorship, but first I wanna hear how you’re doing.

[00:19:58] Christina: Yeah, I’m doing okay. [00:20:00] I, um, I, um, I’m still having those digestive issues, uh, with a, I think from looking it up online, it, it seems like I, I, it’s some sort of reflux thing, but all the symptoms I have, it seems like I might have a hiatal hernia. The issue is, um, I don’t have any of the weight problems that are almost exclusively associated with that stuff, but the symptoms are like dead on.

[00:20:24] Like if I have anything that has alcohol, if I have anything that has, um, even the, the least amount of like acid, like even tomato sauce or whatnot, like I will wind up throwing up stomach acid. Um, and uh, and, and.

[00:20:39] Brett: gotta hurt.

[00:20:39] Christina: It does. And it’s like not great cuz I’m, I’m limited in terms of what things I can find myself to eat.

[00:20:45] I need to go to a gastroenterologist. The reality is I’m too fucking busy. I have too much work to do. I can’t do it. So where my mental health is, is that I’m having like, fit. And some of this also can be a manifestation of anxiety and um, and stress. But I’m literally at [00:21:00] the point where I am like, too, I’ve got too much shit to do that I cannot take care of my, like actual health.

[00:21:07] So

[00:21:08] Brett: you explained this to the people you work with?

[00:21:11] Christina: I have look, they’d

[00:21:13] Brett: Like, cuz it seems like, it seems like the kind of thing that they would be like, No, your health comes first. We’ll take this off your plate. You get this figured out. That just seems

[00:21:25] Christina: Well, yes and no, you’re not crazy. But it’s also, I mean, look, if I, There’s also a part of it where like if I sell them that then I don’t wanna like lose the opportunities and the things that I’m going to do. Like I really wanna host GitHub universe and we’re prepared for.

[00:21:39] Brett: But your fucking health,

[00:21:40] Christina: Yeah, but like my health, I can deal with like, I can deal with it after the

[00:21:44] Brett: you’re throwing up stomach acid on the regular. This isn’t, you’re, you can’t continue like this. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta pause

[00:21:54] Christina: I can continue for a couple, I can continue for a couple of weeks. I can continue for a couple of weeks. [00:22:00] I’m not gonna go beyond that. Yes, Yes. As soon as, as soon as Universe is over, I will, I will get it taken care of. I will continue for a couple of weeks. In retrospect, I should not have agreed to also do Microsoft Ignite, which was so close to Universe.

[00:22:14] That was too much. Um, I thought

[00:22:18] Brett: be too much, even if you weren’t throwing up Stomach acid

[00:22:21] Christina: No, you’re not wrong. Uh,

[00:22:23] Brett: That’s a lot of, that’s a lot of being on a hole in a.

[00:22:26] Christina: it’s a lot of being on and, and it was, uh, a lot of, um, meetings and stuff around it and juggling the two and, um, Yeah. Uh, they’re too close together. Um, I, I, I underestimated, like I overestimated my ability to do both cuz I was like, oh, well I’ve done so many of these hosting things that doing two of them their month apart.

[00:22:54] That’s

[00:22:54] Brett: do ’em in my sleep.

[00:22:56] Christina: Right. Because I, I, there was a time when I was doing [00:23:00] a lot of these things, I think even like, probably in some cases a month apart. Um, cuz I think that I did, uh, build one year and then we had something. It was definitely, it was within the same period of time later, but in that case it was, it was, What was that?

[00:23:14] Was that Inspire? It was tech. I don’t remember what it was, but it was one of those types of events and um, and so I just kind of was like, Oh yeah, I can totally do this. What I didn’t anticipate was, Just the level of involvement I would need for every facet of it, which makes sense. I just underestimated my ability to do it, and I should have said no.

[00:23:34] Um, but, uh,

[00:23:36] Brett: Overestimated your ability,

[00:23:38] Christina: yes. Sorry, I overestimated ability, I under, I underestimated the amount of work it would be and I

[00:23:42] Brett: I, I underestimate, I underestimate your ability all the time. And then you, you blow me away with what you can fucking accomplish and, and handle, um, in a day. Uh, but you overestimated your abilities. So,

[00:23:57] Christina: And, and, and you, I am always blown away [00:24:00] by like what you do, whether you’re manic or not, like you’re one of the most creative and incisive and productive and talented people I’ve ever met, but,

[00:24:08] Brett: thank you.

[00:24:09] Christina: But, uh, yeah, so, so, no, but my mental health is, is okay. Um, I’ve just, I’ve been busy. I was in San Francisco this week, um, for a couple of days doing some prep stuff.

[00:24:19] Um, and, and, uh, for, for universe, which, uh, which we’ll talk about after our sponsor break, but, um, because it’s gonna be good. But, um, I was, um, I was there. Seattle, right now, the weather, and this does impact my mental health, which is why I’m mentioning that we’ve had like, god awful levels of smoke. Like, um, like the air quality in some areas.

[00:24:46] It, I was out of town, but, and, and it wasn’t this bad where I was like, but yesterday, where I live, it was a hundred points higher than Beijing. The air quality was like a hundred points worse. And, and Beijing is bad, so it was very, [00:25:00] very bad. Like, like, like you, you go outside, you’re wearing an N 95 mask, and you can still taste like, The air, right?

[00:25:08] Yeah. Um, but somebody who, um, uh, I, I, uh, was talking to on Twitter, wherever they are in Washington State, it was like four 50, which to, to put that into perspective is again, that’s like, that’s like more than double as bad as Beijing, Right. Maybe closer to, Sorry, go

[00:25:27] Brett: someone on my feed posted a picture, I’m pretty sure it was from Northern California or maybe farther up the coast. And they said that the air quality index was 500. Um, and like it made for some good pictures cuz it looked like a nice foggy morning,

[00:25:48] Christina: Right. That’s the thing. No, it looks like, it looks like fog when I landed in the airport on, um, Wednesday. Like, you know, it looked like fog and it wasn’t, it was smoke. And then there was this [00:26:00] haze when I was, So the way that the um, Seattle airport works is that if you wanna get like an Uber or something, they have like this underground parking lot and of course it’s a little bit open, but, but not that much.

[00:26:10] Right. You know, cuz cars can drive in, but it’s underground. And so you get underground and there’s this haze of just smoke that’s been caught up underground. Right. And it’s getting your eyes and everything. The whole thing is just terrible. But you know, the guy that, um, that I was saying on Twitter, he’s at his house.

[00:26:27] He was like, even indoors, it was feeling like it was four 50. He was like, it’s just, you know, untenable. Because at that point, even if you have like a bunch of Dysons and air filters and stuff, like you’re, nothing’s, nothing’s working. I don’t even know what the solution there is. Like my solution when it gets hot here, because we don’t have Central Air because it’s fucking cheap ass building people luxury building my ass.

[00:26:48] Anyway, they um, My solution there is just to run a hotel room. But in a case like this, I don’t even know, like would you, do you drive someplace? Like what, what do you [00:27:00] do? Like, I, I don’t know, but, um,

[00:27:03] Brett: to Minnesota.

[00:27:04] Christina: Yeah,

[00:27:05] Brett: Nothing’s on fire here. As much as I, as much as I love the idea of living in California, uh, if I could afford it, um, the, the earthquakes and the fires and, and you know, the occasional flooding, we just don’t see that here in the Midwest. And we just, I don’t know, man.

[00:27:29] Christina: you have really bad winters. But,

[00:27:30] Brett: me wanna stay

[00:27:31] Christina: no, I was gonna say you have really, really bad winters, but that’s about it, right? Like you don’t have the other

[00:27:37] Brett: you can just make a fire and get cozy. It’s not, not the end of the world.

[00:27:42] Christina: Well, I, I, I dunno.

[00:27:44] Brett: disasters are

[00:27:45] Christina: That’s true. I think, I think a lot of people though, would just have a hard time. Like I, I grew up, you know, I lived in New York for a long time and New York winners can be brutal, but, but they’re, but they’re not like 20 below where that can be the case, you know, in, in, um, in like Minnesota and [00:28:00] North

[00:28:00] Brett: What is this? The Bahamas? We get 50 below

[00:28:04] Christina: you know what I mean? Cause like, uh, my, my, my dad, um, he grew up all over the place, but he, like a lot of his formative years he spent in, um, North Dakota and, um, that was always like his favorite. I think like that also was probably like one of the only stable periods of kind of his childhood. And so I think he relates to that for a lot of reasons.

[00:28:22] But this is, uh, but, but he always like, you know, whenever it would get cold, whenever it would snow in Georgia, like he’s like the most excited person in the world because, and it’s, it’s not even close to like, anything that you would experience, you know,

[00:28:36] Brett: Well, I, I have nieces in Georgia and they get just ecstatic with like one to three inches of snow. And if they come to Minnesota to visit and it hasn’t snowed, they get super bummed. Like their ideal vacation is to come to Minnesota and have at least a foot of snow on the ground and they will make [00:29:00] snowmen

[00:29:00] Christina: yeah. No, cuz it’s amazing when you’re not, when you have no concept of it, when it’s like an occasional thing. Like it really is like a nice treat. Um, but, uh, but yeah, no, I mean, look, I I, I, I rag on the, the Midwest a lot just because I don’t know why, honestly. Um,

[00:29:17] Brett: Oh, it’s easy to do.

[00:29:19] Christina: right. It is, it’s lazy,

[00:29:21] Brett: I mean, in comparison to the East Coast and the West coast, the Midwest is, is boring. It’s, uh, passive aggressive. It’s cold there. It’s not a hub of any kind of tech or, or commerce. I mean, Minneapolis is home to what Target. And, and we have like Cray supercomputers Best Buy, but we don’t have any

[00:29:49] Christina: and Best Buy is in Eden. So I don’t even know like how far away that is from Minneapolis, but I know it’s in Minnesota. But

[00:29:55] Brett: I mean, I mean headquarters, like Target is headquartered in [00:30:00] Minneapolis.

[00:30:00] Christina: no, I know, and I’m talking about Best Buys is like headquartered.

[00:30:03] Brett: Okay. Yeah. Um,

[00:30:05] Christina: I re I remember this from, from my years of indoctrination, uh, working there.

[00:30:12] Brett: but 90% of the companies you care about are in California or New York, and there’s just then the flyover states, But I gotta say, I’m happy here and,

[00:30:27] Christina: I’m glad you are.

[00:30:28] Brett: it’s so cheap to live here.

[00:30:30] Christina: Yeah, well see, this is, this is the problem, problem. The one part of the Midwest that I could see myself living in, the only part would be Chicago.

[00:30:38] Brett: I could, Chicago’s. Alright. My mom has watched enough Fox news that she is convinced that Chicago is just a crime-ridden hellhole now, like an anarchist burnt out city

[00:30:51] Christina: No,

[00:30:52] Brett: amazing. It’s amazing. She’s also convinced that California is like all satanists and, [00:31:00] and it’s like the most evil state. Um, Fox News has done a number on her

[00:31:05] Christina: Yeah. My, my, um, my shrink is deeply concerned about me living in Seattle because of all the Fox new stuff he saw about my neighborhood, actually. And the thing is, is that I was like, before the shootings and some of the other, like, before the, like, anarchists, like, like, uh, the, the, the fucking like occupy Wall Street, like, like fucking assholes kind of took over.

[00:31:25] Brett: zone.

[00:31:26] Christina: Well, right. Well, well, at first that was okay. And then when the fucking Occupy Wall Street, like fuckers took over and, and made it all about their bullshit. Yeah. Then I was kind of like, actually, yeah, this isn’t great. Um, so, so he’s concerned and, but he doesn’t need to be as concerned as he is, but he’s often, frequently concerned.

[00:31:46] He’s like, Are you sure you’re safe? And I’m like, You never cared when I was in New York. Right. Like, which is the hilarious thing. Um, and to be clear, I actually did feel safer in New York than I do in my own neighborhood. Sometimes I’ll, I’ll [00:32:00] be honest. Yeah. More people, more eyes. There’s a certain sense, like, not to say there aren’t parts of New York where you wouldn’t feel deeply unsafe, but I think for the

[00:32:09] Brett: that’s true. Like I, like there were definitely moments in New York where I felt, um, Like I was about to die, like, like death was imminent, but for the most part, there’s always someone you can reach out to for a hand.

[00:32:27] Christina: there, that there’s a comfort in that. There’s, there, there’s a comfort in that. And, and I think that, that, that’s the thing where like, because Seattle, even though the neighborhood I live in is starting to pick back up again, especially during the pandemic, there were some times when literally the only people that were out were people that like, are, you know, uh, struggle with like mental health issues.

[00:32:46] And, and, and, and drugs tend to be violent, right? Like that because of

[00:32:51] Brett: walk down the street and see a lot of people that appear to be having like a conversation on their Bluetooth phone, uh, their Bluetooth [00:33:00] headset, and then you realize they don’t have a headset and they’re just conversing with that, That freaks me out. Like I see that even in the Midwest. Like you walk through Minneapolis, you’re gonna see that.

[00:33:11] Um, but I, I remember, uh, New York my times in, uh, some of the uh, uh, Southern California smaller cities just had an excess of people having conversations loudly as they walked down the street. Um, and, and it, it, it makes me very nervous cuz I don’t know what to say to those people. I don’t want to interrupt them.

[00:33:37] Christina: right? Well, right. I mean,

[00:33:39] Brett: but then suddenly they’re talking to you and you’re like, No, go back to whoever you were talking to before.

[00:33:46] Christina: right. Yeah. No, it, it can be unsettling and, and at night and it can be, especially sometimes people can be erratic and uh, and there can be like feelings where you’re just like, I don’t know, but I didn’t have in New York again, like it’s just, there’s always people around. So even if [00:34:00] you have that, There’s, it’s not just that.

[00:34:03] And so there’s something that, that feels safer. Um, but, uh, it’s weird. Um, but yeah, but we should, uh, yeah. So anyway, that’s, that’s kinda my mental health update slash tangent. But we should

[00:34:16] Brett: of finding doctors,

[00:34:20] Christina: If, uh,

[00:34:21] Brett: I wrote you a brand new intro for the ZO Doc. Read. You ready?

[00:34:25] Christina: I, I am

[00:34:26] Brett: Do it. Do it cold.

[00:34:28] Sponsor: Zocdoc

[00:34:28] Christina: alright. If you’re a fan of it, sushi’s incredible. But gas station sushi not so much. Finding the right sushi makes all the difference. And the same goes for finding the right doctor. With OC Doc, you can find the right doctor for you in your network and in your neighborhood. One that makes you feel like you’re in good hands, you’re supported and your heard, even if you’re just telling them about your favorite sushi place.

[00:34:49] I love

[00:34:50] Brett: See how, See how that came back around.

[00:34:52] Christina: that’s very, very well done. Zocdoc is a free app that shows you doctors who are patient, reviewed, take your insurance and [00:35:00] are available when you need them. On Zocdoc, you can find every specialist under the sun. Whether you’re trying to straighten those teeth, Fix naked back, get that mold checked out, get you know your gastrointestinal situation sorted.

[00:35:11] Zocdoc has you covered OC Doc’s mobile app is as easy as ordering a ride to a restaurant or getting delivery to your house of sushi. You could say search, find and book doctors with a few taps. Find and review local doctors. You can read, verify patient reviews from real people who made real appointments.

[00:35:28] And now when you walk into that doctor’s office, you’re all set to see someone in your network who gets you. So go to oc doc.com to find the doctor that is right for you and book an appointment in person or remotely that works for your schedule every month. Millions of people use OC Doc. I’m one of them.

[00:35:45] I’ve been using them for well over a decade, is the way that I go to find doctors and, um, it, it’s, it’s great. So you can go to zocdoc.com/ Overtired and download the zocdoc app free. Then start your [00:36:00] search for a top rated doctor today mini are available within 24 hours. That’s zocdoc.com/ Overtired zocdoc.com/ Overtired.

[00:36:12] Brett: Speaking of feeling safe in New York,

[00:36:15] Christina: Yes.

[00:36:16] Sponsor: SimpliSafe