Seasons of Change: How to Let Go Without Losing Yourself

Change isn’t easy... especially when it means letting go of something that’s shaped who you are. In this heartfelt (and funny) episode, Kristy and Deb talk about navigating big life transitions, grieving old chapters, and learning how to move forward without losing yourself in the process.

Takeaways:

• How to know when it’s time to move on
• Letting go without losing your identity
• Why change can be both painful and freeing

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Transcript

There was a a little bit that I'm like, I don't I don't want to give this up. I'm not like digging my heels in the sand. Like, oh, I don't care if this is inconvenient. I'm not giving this up. This is for me. I fought it a little bit. I had reason to. As long as I still had my daughter in my class, like in my head, I'm like that as long as she could still take one of my classes, I want to be there. And this is it. So, I'm like, I was going to be sad this year anyway. So, I may as well point like this group is moving on. I was going to be sad about that anyway. I'm like, may as well just be sad. Sad about everything and be sad about all the things.

Okay. Everything's moved like a foot to the left, right? Uh it cuz it this whole setup is completely throwing me off cuz I'm like it's not touching the wall. It used to touch the wall, right? Well, ultimately my goal is to move everything over there. I can't wait to talk about this. So I Not now. You guys don't care. It's deep breath. We made it. It's deep breath. There was some major technical difficulties here. Very irritating technical difficulty before we got on. So hopefully frazzled and irritated and I've been crying. You know,

to be fair, I cry every day. So it's You're not alone. You're not alone. Yeah. Life is a lot. Life is a lot. I feel like this is an exceptionally hard season for a lot of you. Sure is. Yeah. But I have Deb with me today. Hi. Which is very exciting. I feel very unlike me today. This is not a normal out. This is new. I love it. I haven't owned a button-down shirt in I don't know how many years. Really? Other than a flannel, which doesn't really count. I just I I'm trying to find things that fit me right. I'm kind of struggling in that department. Thank you, Perry Menopause. I hate you. Um, so just trying to fill gaps in my wardrobe because I feel like I hate everything that I have. Yeah. So, I happen to be out. I found this jacket. I debated this jacket. I love it. It feels very Analin. I feel like I'm channeling Annaline in this jacket. Deb. And then the shirt. I just I'm like it it's a nice material. Usually buttondowns they get stiff and I can't I feel constricted and this is like nice and loose and it's soft. But white I'm testing myself cuz I don't wear white cuz I get stuff on it. Same. And I was like, I had a scarf on driving here today so that if my egg sandwich or or coffee dripped, I would be covered by the scarf and not be on the white shirt and have like a nice coffee state. And actually, it wasn't coffee. It was matcha. I have a nice green spot on my shirt. I don't think I knew that you were a matcha lady. I did. Okay. It um I do like matcha, but I like certain matchas and they don't always make it right. And I was just feeling one the other day and it tastes like grass after that. No, the problem is so if I I like I like the Starbucks matcha lattes. Dunkin Donuts is hit or miss because sometimes they barely put enough of the matcha in to make it taste like anything other than milk. Oh, gross. Yeah. So, milkshaky. Not even milk shaky. It's just like slightly flavored almond milk. It's just weird if they don't do it right. So, I'm not into that. Someone there is doing it right. So, anyway, this is a change. This is to keep in theme of what we're going to talk about today. This was an intentional choice today. I love it so much because we're talking about changing. We are talking about changes in life, changing of seasons and stuff. Yeah. And that kind of came up organically a few weeks ago because we were talking about changes that just in general that we're going through in life. I don't want to speak for you. Do you wanna do you want to share the change you're going through? Sure. Um, this change has been brewing for probably over a year. I've been thinking about it. So, outside of my job here, I also teach dance. This is my 10th year. Um, it came about completely by accident. I never really felt qualified to do that job. Impostor. I feel like an impostor all day, every day. Why should this be any different? Can I interrupt her for a second? could tell tell a very funny story. If you are on our social media and you saw our um guilty pleasures post and I made everybody contact me and be like, "What's your guilty pleasure?" I had a couple people be like, "I don't feel guilty about anything." And then there was Deb that's like, "I feel guilty about everything." All the things. Guilt all the time. Guilt and impostor. Anyway, uh yes, that was that was funny. Um, yeah. So, that's, you know, how I came about it was kind of on accident and it's something that my daughter and I share like she d she's in my one of my classes. Um, this is the last year she's in one of my classes. So, knowing this has been coming up um I've had in my head like when is it going to be time for me to close this chapter? Um, and I did feel like it was going to happen. just I'm I'm the oldest teacher there. Not that I'm too old to be teaching there, but I am I feel it more. Yeah. And I'm developing less patience and I put a lot of time into prep for these classes. Sure. Yeah. A lot of mental bandwidth goes into this. And in a season of life where I have no mental bandwidth to spare. Mhm. That was the only thing that was feeling like I could remove without a major life upheaval. But it means I'm letting go of something that meant a lot that I was even given the opportunity. Yeah. Because it's like this is part of who I am before I even knew it. Like I didn't take dance as a kid. Um, I didn't start taking classes till I was married. Oh, I didn't I don't think I knew that. Yeah, I took my first class actually the year I got married. I was 20. Wow. When I took my first class. Um, cuz we just didn't have the money for it when I was a kid. And it wasn't really a thing that anyone I knew did. Yeah. But all as a kid, like I would pull out my VHS tapes and I would record Yeah. videos. You enjoyed it? Like I didn't have we didn't have Tik Tok and we didn't have YouTube back then. So, I had the old school VHS. I would tape the Mickey Mouse Club, the new Mickey Mouse Club, you know, the ones with, well, it was before Justin and Britney were on, but Carrie Russell was on back then and she's a great dancer. So, I would like record all of those shows and I would learn the dance routines. A I want to see those tapes. Oh, I don't have tapes of me. I just have I probably I think I still have a VHS tape. That's what I'm saying. Get the VHS to me. the I can dig I can digitalize it. Anyway, so it was like always like music has just always connected with me. I know a lot of people that work at Corn are the same way. Like we're just music people. Um and for me it always translated into dance and I'll like I'll hear songs and I see movement and I see routines. I see routines I don't have the capability of performing myself. Like I don't have the skills needed for that but I can see it. So, this was like really cool to get this opportunity. Yeah. Um to to get to teach it and I feel like I've done a pretty good job. I teach about third through fifth grade mostly. I have one intermediate tap class that my daughter is in. So, and she's her and her group that I've been literally their only TAP teacher that they've ever had. They're all like eighth graders that are going to be moving on next year into the advance. And I'm like really close to them. Like one of them is her best friend that you know there's just a lot of them that have been there since my first year teaching there. Yeah. It's a long time. So I've known a lot of them since they were four. Yeah. Some since birth. So but this is like the last group that I'm really like connected to. Yeah. So there's was all of these signs that were kind of pointing towards maybe this year would be it. Um, but still it was really it's really hard to let go when you don't know what that means for who you are. Mhm. Like like I said, I started dancing as an adult. I took a break for about nine years when we bought our house and I moved further away. And it meant it was supposed to be a one-year break that turned into nine. Wow. Because life happens, right? Right. And I didn't get back to it until after I had my daughter. Wow. And so there's that fear. Now, I know we're kind of jumping ahead to like like this whole well, if I let this go, am I closing this whole door? Like, when am I going to have something to kind of fill it in a way that maybe isn't as time intensive? Like, there's just that whole identity fear thing. Yeah. So, I don't know if you got to look at any of the questions that I sent you kind of for reflection because when I was preparing for this, I thought, "Oh, man. There's so many good reflective questions for for you, for me, for for all of our viewers about just going through seasons of change in your life and kind of what that does to you mentally, the grief process of that. And then um your situation in particular like triggering that feeling of like you started to say how certain things can be tied so tightly to your identity that when you do make a big change, how you feel like you're giving up a piece of who you are and that can make that change so hard. So like especially like with a job, quitting a job, especially if you're transitioning careers and for you, you know, this was work for you, it was um creative for you. So like giving it up, it's tied so much to who you are as a person. How do you like reconcile doing that? Yeah. And that's that's the part that I'm still a little I'm still struggling with. Um, and and it's an extra layer for me, too, because this is something I do with my daughter, and we talk about it all the time. We're always talking about recital plans. It's like, what's what's this going to look like when we don't have this? Like, what are we going to talk about? Are we still going to have the same connection? Um, and I think it's it was a matter of knowing it was the right time for the decision that's kind of getting me through like I still don't know. I still don't know what things are going to look like. How did you know it was the right time? Cuz that was another thing that I wanted to ask you. Like how do you know um that was that was one of the really good questions I found. How do you know when you're staying out of love versus out of habit or fear? Yeah. So, it was definitely like like I said, I've been kind of feeling a little antsy or just not as like it was draining. It's been starting to drain me more than it's giving me. Yeah. For many years, it was just like, "No, this just fills me up. I love this. I love these kids." and I still do, but it's starting to shift how like because the rest of my life is so chaotic and is so full that I'm like I have no patience for you children not listening to me today. Yes. Like like there's just little things that like I could deal with. They were always there. But now I'm like now it's just draining me even more even though I still love it. It's like that weird. And then the the catalyst for me um was a hap was about August. I don't even know what month it is. It's October. Um in August, my mom had a doctor's appointment and um she's starting to have some health issues. My mom is older. She's 79 years old. So, she's starting to have some health challenges and it's going to require my sister and I being more available to help her out. And I'm like, where where is that time going to come from? It has to come from somewhere. I can't work less here and still do my job. I also homeschool, which is a big thing, too, cuz my daughter's in eighth grade, so that's a lot. Um, even though she's pretty independent, it still requires a lot of research and okay, is she getting done what she needs to do? Like, there's just a lot of talk. We have a couple. My husband has a business, so I do all the books for like there's just a lot of plates. And I'm like, there's nothing else I can let go of. Yeah. Except for this. And it's so funny, and I do this a lot. And I don't know if anyone else has the same issue. It's like I will overthink and overthink and grapple with something, but when it's clear, it's clear really and I don't have to overthink it. And it was like I've been struggling with this and try and maybe I needed that just to get used to the idea of maybe this is coming to an end soon. Um so that when that thing happened it was like it it was the decision was made instantly. I had a conversation with my sister about how this doctor's appointment went and I'm like okay this is time I need to Yeah. Like when you know you know I need to be done right. And I do this all the time. It's funny because I do this every year with dance because we do we have our recital in June and I try to get my dances done like taught to the class by April vacation so we have time to go over the whole thing. And I'm always obsessed with what's the routine going to be and trying to get the choreography and I'll be like oh I got to spend time doing this and I'm like I have to like figure this out and I don't know what goes in and I'll like get like I'll just go over it in my head over and over and over and try to force it and then what's going to happen is when I'm not even thinking about it Yeah. It'll just like something will hit my head like nine o'clock at night. I'll be like, "What about this?" And then just like that, I have two minutes of choreography. Wow. And I didn't even have to fight for it. Isn't that why do I fight? Why do I make myself have to fight so hard? You want it so bad. I overthink. I overthink. I rehearse conversations with people. I do like all this so relate to that that I'm like if I would just chill out for a minute and trust that the answer is going to make itself it's going to come when it needs to come and it's less of a fight. Yeah. But you know again maybe I needed the grappling to be okay about the decision. So, how are you kind of getting through the identity part of that? Giving up that like ident because you're ti you you do tie it so closely rightfully so to your identity. Like how are you grieving through that part of it? I'm trying to view this year as not I'm trying to not view it as like a year of mourning, right? I'm trying to make it more of like a year of appreciation, of celebration. Like I get to finish my time there with my favorite kids and we have something I have something big planned for them like and I'm really excited about what we're doing. Yeah. And then I still get to be a part of it afterwards through my daughter because she's still dancing there. And I'm like, I've already I've already told the owner, we've become good friends. I'm like, I'm you're not getting like I'm still around. I'm still going to be backstage. I'm still going to be looking for ways to kind of be involved here or there. Yeah. Um so it's like I get to still be in this world for a few more years. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I've also thought like once we're past that, I know of a couple studios that I have friends that go to that um have adult classes again. I'm like, "Hey, maybe I'll take a class again or what?" Like just trying to find other little ways that aren't going to be so timeintensive. And that's the thing like right now. And and I've kind of left it too and I told all my students this. It's like I need to stop for now. I don't know if this is forever. Maybe I'll be back. I don't know. Yeah. Um, but this is what I need right now to get life a little more in order. Now, this year, because I have to make this decision a year in advance because I'm tied in for the season, this year's going to be very hard. Yeah. And a little chaotic, but that actually is making me feel better about my decision. Good. Because I'm like, I don't like I'm so glad that this isn't like endless. And then at least I know, okay, come June and come June, this part of my brain I can just set aside for a minute and I can just do like I can still take, you know, classes myself or I do online videos. I don't have to do it for what can I teach them. I can actually just do it for myself, right? Which is hard because I don't often stick to things if I don't have a deadline or some sort of commitment. So just doing that is kind of hard to be like, "All right, what's going to be my incentive to actually do this?" Well, it sounds like you just you've you have opportunities and possibilities for yourself rather than just this open-ended like, "Well, it's just going to it's just going to end and then what cuz that sometimes that's the scariest part of change is not knowing what's coming." And you don't necessarily, but you have so much control over what could come. Yeah, I do have options. I don't like not knowing how it's going to feel like there is still that like what's that hole going to feel like I finally got to where like not that I finally like I said I still feel like massive impostor there cuz every other teacher has been dancing since they were three and I'm like oh yeah I didn't start teaching until I was like too old to start teaching now. Oh, you kill me. Cuz everyone loves you so much. And if you've been doing it this long and they keep coming back, there's got to be something right there. They keep coming back. I know. Well, like I said, I'm I'm proud of what I've done there. I'm proud of the kids. I've had some really great groups of kids. Um, and like I said, I've been able to have my daughter for many years. Um, and then my best friend's three kids also dance there. I've had all three of them. Mhm. Um, so it's like I'm not losing a lot of these. Yeah. You know, like I'm still connected to them and it's just cool to be like I was just a little piece of their their journey. Um, so but it's it's still it's it's very unsettling at times. Depends on the day how I'm feeling about it. Some days I'm like, "Oh, I can't wait till I don't have to worry about planning classes for tomorrow or whatever." Like even the last couple years, this is another way I I knew this was kind of coming. Like 3, four years ago, I was teaching six classes and now I'm teaching only three. Like each like had to like I need to drop one. I need to drop one more cuz like scheduling was getting hard and like cuz it's it's tough when our stuff is all at night when we leave the house and that's when my husband's home and he's gone all day when we're home all day. Yeah. So it's like how do we reconcile that as a family, right? That's been a challenge as well. And that was part of this decision is well, she's moving into classes that are all later in the evening starting next year and all mine are early. Yeah. Because I teach younger kids. Yeah. So I'm like, well, now we're going to be gone twice as long. It's so Yeah. It's just one of those it all all arrows were pointing to this being the right time. Isn't that interesting? But you have to be a open to seeing that because it's not the right decision isn't always the easy decision. Do you feel like you were fighting it? Um, a little. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I was a little I don't personal reasons probably, but yeah, there was felt that switch. There was a a little bit that I'm like, I don't I don't want to give this up. I'm not like digging my heels in the sand like, oh, I don't care if this is inconvenient. I'm not giving this up. This is for me. Blah blah. But um so yeah, I fought it a little bit and that's and again I had reason to as long as I still had my daughter in my class. Like in my head I'm like that as long as she could still take one of my classes, I want to be there. Yep. And this is it. So I'm like I was going to be sad this year anyway. Yeah. So, I may as well point like my daughter's oldest is graduating, so it's going to be sad. This this group is moving on. I'm going to be sad about that anyway. I'm like, may as well just be sad sad about everything and be sad about all the things. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Well, so how do you how do we relate that for people to um other career changes and getting over the fears of have you have you felt that in other is this the first time you've experienced that or have you felt that in other big career shifts? How do we relate that? This is the first thing that's really been something I was that attached to. Mhm. Um but I think a lot of the same principles apply like if you can think of more reasons to leave than you can to stay. Yes. Like if like you had said like are you staying out of habit? Are you staying out of fear? I mean with career changes there's a money factor. Absolutely. 100%. And we also had a money factor like I get her dance covered y by working there. like that's a double what I earn is like just so that was a that's a factor. So there's especially if you're a pri single income household or a primary income of the household like there's reasons that can be a big reason to stay longer than maybe you should doing something. Yeah. Um so you may have to be more strategic in how you go about making that change. But a lot of so much of it is mental. Are you ready to do what it takes to make that change? Yeah. If you believe something better is out there for you, you'll find a way. So part of it is do you believe you need to be like if you're in a role that you feel you've outgrown or you just it's draining you, but you can't just up like this is a side thing for me. I can let this go. Um what is that? I don't know. Something is beeping.

Can you hear that? I've never heard that before. Is that on the other side?

Or is it the alarm in the next room? Like over there?

This is weird. I'm never going to get that thought back.

What is I do? It is that way, right? It is that wall. Which way is it coming from? I can't. This way. You guys know which way it's coming from? Do you know where this is? I feel like it's there.

This is so Oh, it's definitely

Yeah. Great. That's not annoying.

I'm going to call Welcome to the Free Dive podcast. I'm going to call Seint Digital really quick.

Oh my goodness. Why don't I have Coint Digital on my phone anymore? Would you guys like to call the office with me?

Christy is calling the office. It's ringing upstairs. Hi, this is Christy at Coint. Um, the beeping next door is going off while we're podcasting. What do What do we do? Thank you. So,

What were we talking about? I actually I was trying to come to a point.

Oh my goodness.

So, I really hope the building's not on fire over there. I don't care if it is. I want to finish my episode.

We could just keep talking. Maybe they won't hear it. Can you hear that beeping? Yeah. It's done. Thank you, Bill. Okay. Before that starts again, because last time this happened, it did immediately start again. So, what were we talking about? Okay. Um Um, let's get it back. Jeez, that train of thought just took a detour. And where's the where's the drag? Oh, need when the change involves I'm going to go to my notes. Money is what I was talking about. Oh, mindset. A lot of it's about mindset where Yeah. Like if you really believe you can do something different or believe something better is out there, you'll find a way. Yeah. It might not be pretty the path to get there. Not everybody can just, oh, I'm going to quit this job and I'm going to start this new job in a different career. Or if you have your own business and you want to shift your business, that's hard when you know life is expensive and I feel financial obligations are real. Yeah. So, I feel like I've been through this like a number of times in life in different ways, like from big to small and cuz I've made I've made a lot of career shifts throughout my life. I have I am a believer in trying many things until you find what you're good at and what you like. And that can be hard too because you make a lot of investment either in money or emotionally into different things and and you pour yourself into it for years and then you hit like I hit this point where I'm just like man I invested all this into it and I don't like it after all this time. And I also when I work at companies just tend to bond with the habit, the people, company, the routine, um the lifestyle. And then it's really hard for me to rip myself out of it. And so I've done but I have done it multiple times. It's so funny as you're talking I can think of two other instances where I've had to do this in jobs. Yeah. Yeah. One was that job that I was at when I talked about last time with the jerk man. Yeah. That you know I quit shortly after that and I'm like I need to do something completely different. I had only ever worked in an office and I went to school to do nails. I'd worked in a salon for a couple of years. Oh wow. Like I need to do something completely different. And then I couldn't make enough money doing that. Yeah. And then I started working at the hospital. Yeah. So that's what it is too is it's like this fear of like, well, if I do give this up, am I going to make enough money somewhere else? Am I going to be happy? The grass isn't always greener. It's not always greener. So maybe it's fine that it's kind of brownish green here. Maybe it's fine that it's Or maybe it's equally hard, but it's the hard you need at that time. It's the devil. I know, right? Or sometimes it's the devil you don't that you need. like it might be just as hard. For example, what I was working full-time at a physical therapy clinic when I had when I got pregnant and I loved working there and I loved everybody I was working with and I had already had a plan when I was going to have when I was on maternity leave I was going to come back three days a week like longer days and while I was out I found out I couldn't go back at the schedule that I wanted. Oh. And I was going to have to work more days a week. Wow. And that was not it it was it was a dealbreaker for me. Yeah. And I had a different boss. So it's like I came back. It was like all again all signs point towards and I had already while I was out had been thinking about could I just work from home? Could I do something for myself? And I started doing research and then all this it was like all the signs. Why do I why why toil? Because all the signs point. Yeah. And so I ended up there for like another year. That's how much time I needed to get things lined up. Wow. And I started my own business. And starting my own business was very hard. Yes. And it was not a grasses greener and I didn't make as much and it was a big challenge for me, but it let me be home. Yeah. And it let me raise my daughter. Yep. So even though it was still a devil I didn't know. Yeah. It was the devil I needed at that time. Yeah. To for that season and that sometimes is respecting the season that you're in. Yeah. Should we move on to what's in your bag? Let's move on to what's in your bag. Let's do what's in your bag with Deb. Okay. Anything you want to show me in your bag? This is a heavy bag. I brought today cuz my purse is kind of boring. I don't have lots of good stuff in my purse. I told her bring my work bag. Yeah. So, this does not always stay with this stuff, but this is the stuff that tends to come with me to work. Um, I have an extra addition today. I brought an extra monitor cuz here's here's why. Okay. I have a monitor, a second monitor here. I was going to say you have a monitor and I have a second monitor at home. Okay. This is the third monitor. This is the travel monitor. So, one, if I want to go work downstairs because my office is super dark, but also I'm working on a quarterly report. I have so many windows and tabs. Oh. That a third I actually will set up a third screen. Wow. So that I can keep multiple things open. Because I am very much um once I look away from the number, I forget the number. So, I need everything to be visual in front of me. And having to switch between tabs is sometimes too frustrating. I didn't know if I'd need this today to have a third monitor. Wow. So, I brought a monitor. Um, I have snacks. Uhhuh. Because I always and sea salt. I want to try those. These are very good. I have I always need snacks. Yep. Always. When I don't, bad things happen. Hangry people ensue. Um, pens. Would you like How many pens do you need, babe? During the day, all of them. Clearly. Okay. Clearly. And they're not even all in here. I forgot to grab some on my desk. I have my erasable pens because that's what I do everything in my planner in. I see. Because that's smart. Yeah. I And I have to color code things. And then I have regular ones cuz my workbook notebook I do in a regular pen. I don't need to be as neat there. I don't erase anything in there. And then if I'm setting up my planner because I do a bullet journal. And if I'm having to like draw my lines, I use these. Oh, so and then the highlight. Yeah, I use ruler. I love that. I use all the things. This comes with me anytime I bring my blend. I kind of get it now. I get it now. I It's I get it now. I've tried I've tried to condense. I can't do it. And then I have my Oh, so I do have I do have the one. That's the main one, but appointments have to go in and color, you know, it's like it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. That's me. This organizes my semi-organizes my neurode divergent brain. Love it. Um, so there's that. That's the big stuff there. I got a couple things in the front pocket because you always Oh, multiple pairs of glasses cuz you have the ones that are just blue light. Okay. And then you have to have the readers. I actually have a third pair in my purse. And then these are more tinted, but then it looks like I'm wearing sunglasses inside. Oh, sometimes I want that. But I have a hard time with overhead lights. So, I brought those just in case. They do. But then it does look like I'm wearing sunglasses. So, I need some that are tinted a little better. But these are also readers. Nice. They're tinted readers. Fancy. So, I got all the glasses. And then we've got fidgets. Yes, there are fidgets in every bag that I have too. If I need a quiet fidget. Mhm. You got a little ball. This is my new favorite one. I love that. I've Yeah, I've used this. So, um, again, helps me to focus. See, I I don't love that one because it just kind of never ends. I I didn't think I would. And I do. No, I cuz I like the sound. No, I need my No, I need my snapper one. The click. I do have one of those, but my daughter stole it. Yeah. Oh, I have many of them. But I do have I have others in my purse, too. But those are the ones I threw in here. These are the bigger ones that don't stay in my purse. These stay on my desk. Gotcha. But I knew we were going to talk and I wanted something that was representative of my normal life. Love it. So that's what's in my bag. Okay. Um, what's in your bag, Christie? I am feeling more and more pressure with every time I podcast to have something cool in my bag because I keep going through my bag. A lot of work. I love that bag. By the way, if anyone's going to rob me, they're going to know exactly what they're getting for their money. Or they're just going to be like, "You know what? Never mind. Never mind. I know she has got pepper spray on her at all times. But as long as it doesn't leak. I I learned that in your podcast this morning. Did you learn that? I'm like, "Oh my goodness." And that's why I don't carry pepper spray. I do carry an alarm. Mine's often Mine's open a lot. Okay. Not good. I know. Couple things I'm going to show you. Yes. What have you got? Um because I've shown everything else. This is my new cover for my fob. Isn't that cute? My goodness. Isn't that so charming and cute? That is charming. So, is is it one that only has to be in the car and you don't have to Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I just liked that it was white. It's very pretty and very girly. And it came with this pom pom. And then Oh my goodness. It came with the pom. Well, that's perfect. Maybe it didn't come with the pom. I don't know. There's the K. There's the jellyfish. There's that. But anyway, you have a lot of things. I have a second PMP pom for my work keys. Smart. Yeah. Um, and then the only other thing I wanted to show you because I've shown everything else is I my new like obsession is these because the Touchland ones are literally $10 to 12 a piece for what these I'm finding. Uh this one $125 at I think no maybe I don't know you can get them for $120 now at Dollar Tree they raised their prices again whatever the economy dollar is in the name of the store I know uh this one actually I think was on clearance at Walmart for like two bucks and then this one five below so do you like them as much as the other ones the touchland one? Yeah. I don't even know if I've ever really used a touchless one. I haven't. I've just really The exciting thing is just the smell and being able to spray spray spray spray. So, yeah. Anyway, I have even more of them at home. I have I'm collecting them like a lunatic. So, yeah, I don't even Yeah, I don't even need them all. But anyway, that's all I have in my bag. So, that I'm willing to share. So, uh what's in your chat? What's in my chat? Lots of things are in my chat. Okay. I use my chat to help me make sense of my life and organize all the chaos. Um, I have, let's see, I use it for tracking food tracking. Uh, so I have that going. I I had to research the history of the shim sham. What's that? What is that? The shim sham is a tap dance started in the 1920s. I teach it in all my beginner tap classes and we're going to start it this week. And so I wanted to get a summary so that they could get some of the history of how the shim sham started. Cute. So I I have that. I also we went to the fair. We went to the sandwich fair which is sandwich is a town. If you're not from here, it's not about sandwiches. Um, and we were looking at the goats. Somehow I never knew cashmere comes from goats. What? I don't know if I knew. I'm a knitter, crocheter, no cashmere. Never knew it came from goats. Interesting. So, I had to then I saw it on one of their signs and I'm like, how did I not know this? And so, I had to start researching cashmere. Um, and I'm you been doing stuff with like supplements, like if I'm looking into a new supplement, like, okay, how does this Yeah. Does this replace anything I'm taking? How does this work with what I'm taking? Um, I look lab results I put in there to kind of be prepared for the doctor's my doctor's appointment. Same thing we did I did with my one of my mom's recent appointments. She got an MRI. I put the MRI results in. And it's like I need to know worst case scenario what we're looking at before I go to the doctors. Not like that I think the sky is falling, but if I know the worst option, then I'm not going to be blindsided by the doctor. Yeah. And like if that just came up in the office, Yeah. like something like drilling into someone's skull, if that comes up in the doctor's office, I'm not going to hear anything they say after that. So like I need to be prepared so that I know what to ask. So, those are the types of things that I have in here. So, anyway, I was looking up stuff on that. That's what was in my chat. What's in your chat? Uh, briefly in my chat, I was looking up um some David Foster Wallace rhetoric and why he's the master at that. I was looking I don't know who that is. It's an author. Oh, okay. I want I Yeah, I'm not going to get into that. Look it up. I will look it up later. Um, I was looking up I fixed I was trying to be a plumber the other night and fix my mother's uh bathtub cuz it was leaking. Trying to figure out if her her spout was a twist off or pull off cuz it has just been calcified for 30 years. 30, not 13. 30. Okay. And it's just like trying to hammer a rock off. So anyway, I was trying to be a plumber the other night. So, I was figuring out that. Um, I was look also looking up blood test results. Um, before we started this podcast, I was looking up my interface and why it was broken and I got it working. Thank you, chat. Um, blah blah blah. Some song lyrics also, and how to fix the uh heater in my truck. So, that's basically it. Very nice. Let's get to know the team members. Oh boy. I'm gonna pull up my list of who works here. Okay, let's see if I can I picked a fun one. A fun one, I think. Okay, I think it's fun. I trust you. Okay, you ready? What you got? This person who works here Mhm. is weirdly good at where's Waldo puzzles.

Okay,

you get three guesses. I get three guesses. Kevin Burns Stinking Rule. I know. Weirdly good at Where's Waldo? Courtney. Oh my word. Yes. How did you guess that? What do I win? Because Courtney has so much praise and admiration. Courtney, of everyone who works here, pays the most attention to details. She is all about the details. As soon as I saw her name, Courtney Grogan, did you hear this? I love you, Courtney. I don't think she watches these episodes. She told She told me that she does not. I'll have to tell her. I got that one. Oh, I am very That was quick. I am very had to be someone who was observant, who would notice something that wasn't quite right, which basically eliminated all of the men. It's never going to be a man.

Sorry. Love you, men at Z Point. I'll agree. Except maybe Adrien. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It would I I shouldn't eliminate all. I was just once I saw her name Yeah. Yeah, I was scrolling. I'm like, it's not Tim. It's not Belle. Like, it has to be someone who would who can find those little details. That would be Courtney. Wow. Impressed. Hey, good job. Look at that. Any final words? Last words. Famous last words. Famous last words. Change can be good. Yes, it can. Even though we might fight at kicking and screaming sometimes. Yeah. I, you know, I've been trying to to to tell someone in my life that who doesn't believe me. I'm also trying to tell myself that and convince myself of that cuz there's been many positive changes in my life and I just have to look back on them and be like, "Oh yeah, I'm so glad that change happened." Yeah, that's a good point. not to reopen this up, but what changes have we gone through? That could be something to reflect on. It does help to reflect and go, "Oh man, if that change didn't happen, then none of this would have happened or um none of these things." Actually, one thing I do every year that I highly recommend is I I make a list of every new person that I met that year that came into my life that I love so much. Oh, what a cool idea. because then I can look back and be like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so glad this year happened just because I met, you know, these five people." What a great question. I love so much. So then I get excited for 2026 coming because my brain just goes, I'm going to meet like five more people that I'm going to love so much this year. Wow, that's a great It's my reason for staying alive. Staying alive. But then I look back through my list and I'm like, "Oh, I met that person that year and I love them so much." It's a very sweet thing to do. Yeah, that's a really great thing to do. I've never thought of that particular look back on a year. Yeah. But those are all changes. Yeah. Yeah. So, wow. Aren't I smart? I love it. Dropping bombs. Dropping bombs. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me, Christie. Love your jacket. Thank you very much. Bring that jacket back again soon. Power jacket. Bring your power outfits back again soon. Power jacket. Okay. We love you. Love you. Come back you soon, too. Bye-bye.