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Listen to this podcast episode here: https://spoti.fi/3zDkBkc

 

Sinead: what’s up guys welcome back to the Shawties podcast with your host Sinead AKA Shonyx and my sister’s Shasha

 

Shasha: Shasha!

 

Sinead: I should let you say your name 

 

Shasha: That’s okay!

 

Sinead: and

 

Shalom: Shalom 

 

Sinead: yeah

 

Shasha: today guys we’re talking about juicy boy stories 

 

Sinead: yes awkward just awkward 

 

Shasha: yeah very embarrassing 

 

Sinead: yeah exposing ourselves

 

Shalom: yeah basically so who’s the star first

 

Sinead: oh obviously the thing is shalom has the juiciest one we’re gonna be honest here okay it’s just the funniest one to me okay that’s why I want Shalom to start off

 

Shasha: okay, since I only have a little bit of stories I’m gonna start with me

 

Sinead: really?

 

Shasha: yeah! 

 

Sinead: okay 

 

Shasha: so one time yeah so one time I was at church and we were uh it was like I don’t know a kids event or something like that and I was watching Shiloh because I’m you know back then I was you know those little baby students in church okay so anyways you know I forgot it was kind of some kind of VBS or something and a boy came up and he was like hey uh hey my friend kind of likes you and not him he’s friends and his friend kind of likes me did he point out the friend no he nodded my way and he nodded like hit the direction but I didn’t really look at that direction because I don’t really care and you know I was colder then I should have been 

 

Sinead: wait, what do you mean? What did you do? 

 

Shasha: I just stared at him, I didn’t even say anything

 

Shalom: well here’s the thing that boy should have come up to you instead of the friend and so, it’s like of course

 

Sinead: yeah why would a good friend be like yo! my friend, he doesn’t even point out the Friday because was there a group of guys there’s one?

 

Shasha: no just one and he walked up to me you know that took a lot of courage to walk out to me and say that don’t be like

 

Shalom: the friend?

 

Shasha: the friend 

 

Shalom: well yeah because like his friends like you 

 

Shasha: but you know what plot twist what if he liked me

 

[Laughter]

 

Shalom: plot twist

 

Shasha: I didn’t think of it just now, anyway, I was cold and he just walked off

 

Sinead: dang

 

Shalom: I don’t think you are cold, I just think you expected like are you gonna walk up to me or anything?

 

Shasha: no, I didn’t look confused, I just go ahead and looked at him 

 

Sinead: she didn’t look confused she was like, wait give the face that you gave to him

 

Shasha: it was like this

 

Sinead: no show the face of the camera 

 

Shasha: oh I like the word plant like this well you guys can’t see me if you listen to audio but

 

Sinead: it’s very stoic it is so, that’s like an old business face it was like

 

Shasha: because I think at that point I was kind of annoyed because it was super loud downstairs and too much going on I like being by myself so I think that was the reason why baby 

 

Shalom: yeah

 

Sinead: that is hilarious that is a 

 

Shalom: well I have a story too and this is a little bit more dramatic than that one so a couple of years back I really liked this guy and I guess he really liked me too and we would exchange glances every now and then like across the room and then like a gone said then we kind of waved and he will kind of wave as well one time when I was in the elevator he as the elevator was going to close he would wave at me until the elevator closed and I was like a wave back and stuff like that it was just like little moments like that

 

Sinead: okay

 

Shalom: and like one time during this church event as you know he was like kind of like the praise leader 

 

Sinead: yeah he was singing up in the praise like he was leading out the praise and worship he was singing and everything like that you know

 

Shalom: I still remember the song even to this day. Does anyone know like Fred Hammond? What’s that song?

 

Sinead: we’re blessed in the spirit 

 

Shasha and Sinead: [Sings]

 

Shalom: yeah yeah so there’s this part of the song where it goes and around and around 

 

Sinead: yeah

 

Shalom: yeah so basically he basically grabbed me into like a little dance and like turned me around in front of everybody everybody

 

Sinead: I saw I saw everybody’s faces they see this like this family like I think they’re pretty well known in the church basically

 

Shasha and Shalom: Really?

 

Sinead: when he yes when he took Shalom and spun her around I saw the faces of all the girls around them were like wait what

 

Shalom: exactly exactly 

 

Sinead: and that was a little confused like huh 

 

Shalom: well yeah it definitely made my day so basically, I was in my head I was like head in the clouds and basically, I just thought about that all weekend 

 

Shasha: awesome you know it is sweet 

 

Shalom: and it’s sweet and so like at one point I think after the event we traveled I think to texas for a little bit because we had an event 

 

Sinead: okay yeah yeah yeah 

 

Shalom: Yeah and then like he would like some old pictures I was like oh yeah I can’t wait to see him maybe that you know maybe this is a chance for him to like you know to ask me out or like you know something more

 

Sinead: right of course that’s what you would expect after something like that 

 

Shalom: exactly and so after a couple of weeks after we got back from texas yeah basically when I got it wasn’t as if he wasn’t acknowledging me it’s like I tried 

 

Shasha: He’s ignoring you

 

Shalom: well yeah basically basically basically and then like after a couple of weeks since I was like this is this doesn’t feel right he’s not acknowledging me at all like basically ignore me and he’s like oh maybe it’s just the game maybe like I don’t know maybe like that

 

Sinead: maybe it’s just the game

 

Shalom: Yeah and then I saw him with this girl and I was like 

 

Shasha: oh 

 

Sinead: with another girl 

 

Shalom: well basically they were sitting like in the pews and I was like hmm that’s she’s new I’ve never seen her before and so basically I see them like sit together talk together and it’s like now is this a friend is this maybe a cousin

 

Shasha: oh no

 

Shalom: and so I was like

 

Sinead: you thought it was his cousin that’s really thinking that 

 

Shalom: well when I was down back I was like oh you know what maybe I’m gonna you know to walk by them a couple of times they went outside I was like maybe I should walk by him you know just to remind him you know I exist so I would do certain things like that 

 

Sinead: Oh my goodness 

 

Shalom: no I’m basically yeah and I would do certain crate kooky things like if he was on the balcony I would go on the balcony if he was in the ground like that’s how 

 

Sinead: girl, girl

 

Shalom: that’s how bad I was and basically one time we were at this outlet mall and then I was you know

 

Sinead: outlet mall like the ones that are outside

 

Shalom: yeah yeah those types of malls and so one day we were with the whole family right 

 

Sinead: yeah it was all of us yeah 

 

Shalom: and we were walking back to the car and then I see these two people walking next to us I didn’t think much of it until I got closer and for some reason, I saw how this guy was like covering his head with his hands 

 

Sinead: huh 

 

Shalom: and so he was walking by and the girl wasn’t even paying attention to me or the family because she was on her phone and so when I glanced up I was shocked to see that it was actually the guy that I liked 

 

Sinead: oh my goodness

 

Shasha: What’s this guy’s name?

 

Shalom: what I’m gonna yell that’s a little bit dramatic okay so basically as he was walking by I stared at him like as he was walking by I turned around I stared at him he stood at me and then basically I kind of lost it and so I kind of ran away I kind of get gasped I got gasped and ran away towards the car and then my parents 

 

Sinead: did you hide behind a mom didn’t you try to hide behind her?

 

Shalom: no I ran like past you guys and then

 

Shasha: I remember this 

 

Shalom: my parents were like wait what’s wrong out loud and I was like and I couldn’t answer them because I was just in my moment you know that was my Hollywood dramatic moment 

 

Sinead: so he just saw you run off like you made eye contact with him and you just gasped first of all because it would have been 

 

Shalom: no my mouth was wide open too

 

Sinead: so you were just like and then you just ran off 

 

Shalom: look I was in my moment okay I was in my moment oh and I forgot to mention prior to that we were actually at Beyonce’s concert and I was like checking his Instagram like okay where is this guy why isn’t he not liking my photos anymore like what’s going on and I saw 

 

Shasha: He used to like your photos too?

 

Shalom: my old photos too 

 

Shasha: okay yeah

 

Shalom: and so I saw and I saw on his Instagram how he was on taking this other girl on out on dates and everything now granted he didn’t like nor dating or anything and we weren’t doing like there was nothing like he didn’t owe me anything and so i 

 

Shasha: but he danced with you right?

 

Shalom: yeah that one time so you know it it was just more on me, that I expected more 

 

Shasha: Nah he was playing you 

 

Sinead: He was playing with your emotions that’s the thing because

 

Shasha: no way liking your old photos covering his face

 

Sinead: dancing with you, and he was covering his face like he did something wrong cause why? You know

 

Shasha: I know because he was guilty, guilty of a charge

 

Shalom: yeah

 

Shasha: wow

 

Sinead: yeah I mean 

 

Shasha: this is a sad story

 

Sinead: Nah it’s funny

 

Shalom: It’s pretty embarrassing I couldn’t keep it cool and just walk off like you know kind of done something like okay whatever 

 

Sinead: I just understand why you didn’t just keep it cool just look at him be like yeah you know I’m better off without you anyway like why would you gasp in his face 

 

Shalom: okay because 

 

Sinead: and run 

 

Shalom: Okay it’s not my character to act cool and uh I’m a little bit more dramatic what about you Sinead?

 

Shasha: oh man 

 

Sinead: awkward stories are me you see I don’t have anything as dramatic as that I have like little awkward moments like okay so you guys know there was a guy that I liked a long time ago early teenage years whatever right just I just remember you know how you said you’re not in your nature to be cool I think for me it’s more like I’ll try to be cool

 

Shasha: wait what do you mean to try to be cool?

 

Sinead: okay well like I think I’m cool and then I’m like yeah I did this right okay so for example and I didn’t realize this until years later okay but at this moment we were doing some kind of hiking thing activity we were in some like girl boy scout kind of thing pathfinders that’s what it was called but basically, we were doing some hiking thing and basically, I caught up to him right and he was like oh hey what’s up he holds out his hand right he holds up his hand and I slap it hard I just

 

Shasha: what?

 

Sinead: just hold on your hand that’s how I did you know I just went

 

Shasha: why?

 

Sinead: yeah so I was like oh it’s like a lower high five or something and now he looked at

my hands at his hands so confused he’s like okay

 

Shasha: he wants to hold your hand 

 

Sinead: no no no no no 

 

Shalom: no he wanted to dab her 

 

Sinead: what I think is that he wanted like you know how you dab up like that kind of thing we just go like oh hey what’s up like that kind of thing like this like his hand was like this so it was like like look put your hand like that like you know like this you know like what’s up 

 

Shalom: yeah 

 

Sinead: that’s what I think he was trying to do but I don’t think I was supposed to just smack it as hard as I can like 

 

Shasha: Sinead that is the funniest thing ever 

 

Sinead: I don’t know why

 

Shalom: It is

 

Sinead: I don’t know the thing is at the moment I was like yeah I did that

 

Shalom: that is funny 

 

Sinead: not until I’m not even kidding not until maybe last year I was like wait a minute was It supposed to do something else

 

Shasha: that is so funny

 

Sinead: oh my goodness 

 

Shalom: oh my goodness okay

 

Shasha: and it was funnier is because I really thought he just wouldn’t hold your hand because he just 

 

Shalom: It was like the sweetest moment ever

 

[Laughter]

 

Shasha: and she slaps it.

 

Sinead: I don’t even know I just slapped it so hard

 

Shalom: no but it was like the opposite sucks like you’re like a girl like wanting to hold a guy’s head 

 

Sinead: that would be obvious I don’t think girls could be like yo dab me up 

 

Shalom: no but what if imagine if the guy just slapped it 

 

Sinead: oh I know that would actually be like I’d probably cry if I held up in my hand and be like just slap it 

 

Shasha: I probably wanted to cry.

 

[Music]

 

Shalom: all right I feel like I’m gonna tell the time where I was kind of rejected by two guys at once

 

Sinead:  what

 

Shalom: yeah so basically was it this year yeah this year me and Sinead was on this online dating thing 

 

Sinead: oh yeah the speed dating

 

Shalom: so basically yeah it was speed dating and it was basically

 

Sinead: wait what you mean you guys at once I got rejected by like 30 anyways so like

 

Shalom: okay no

 

Sinead: people go off no

 

Shasha: no no no wait wait wait wait the speed dating what is this?

 

Sinead: okay so basically, there was an app that was created for speed dating one-minute speed dating where you just talk for 60 seconds and let me tell you 60 seconds is not enough to even but you could barely say your name it’s 

 

Shalom: barely it’s like basically fifteen seconds

 

Sinead: I know most of the conversation is wow that’s a pretty name or like how do you pronounce it because who’s gonna pronounce Sinead right 

 

Shalom: exactly exactly 

 

Sinead: for Shalom, oh Does that mean peace? at least yours like they knew it Shalom med they were like “Sineed”.

 

Shasha: there’s a celebrity named Sinead, Sinead O’Connor 

 

Sinead: they don’t know Sinead O’Connor 

 

Shalom: okay so basically and at one point if you two if both of you matched up 

 

Sinead: then you can chat later

 

Shalom: yeah that yeah you could chat later so basically at the end of the night, I was talking to everybody I was talking to was old like

 

Sinead: oh yeah the problem is that the age range wasn’t like

 

Shalom: it was ridiculous

 

Sinead: setting stone so you know we got a couple of you know like maybe 60-year-olds from Africa or something like that

 

Shalom: I remember this one guy he was like really like grumpy and he just like hello and I was like hi and it’s like how are you doing and he’s like good 

 

Shasha: you’re probably his oldest daughter

 

Sinead: I remember like you’re so pretty you know I just like that kind of thing I was like whoa and it was like the old man I was like the thing is there was no hang-up button

 

Shasha: there was no hang-up button?

 

Sinead: no hang-up button you just have gotta wait for the 60 seconds to be out but it is like I can’t wait to get to know you more and I was like oh my goodness

 

Shalom: I think I know what you’re talking about cause we used to talk to the same person

 

Sinead: yeah the same person

 

Shasha: wait a minute so tell me about this the story you got rejected twice, Shalom

 

Shalom: rejecting twice okay basically at the end of the night the next day I actually um a couple of hours later two guys matched me and they’re like the kind of message me saying like hey I kind of get want to get to know you and 

 

Sinead: wait, oh yeah we can take it there 

 

Shalom: yeah they kind of wanted to get to know me I was like yeah I definitely want to know you too and so I talked to one guy and basically, the conversation was like hours apart like I was trying to play the game you know he’s just saying like okay like I’m going to try to text hours away from you know initially text well I guess I waited too long because I tried I answered like eight hours later and basically he didn’t answer back and I was like oh well forget that one and that was the one that I really liked and then the other one I was like okay so I was kind of talking to him more you know I basically told him about myself and stuff like that and then I kind of got a little weird 

 

Sinead and Shasha: what do you mean?

 

Shalom: So you know it was like basic conversations one word and one like yeah I do this I do that and then it was weird I think he was talking about we’re talking about camp right and then I told the story when we went camping back in 2014. 

 

Sinead: yeah 

 

Shalom: and so I did this wrong rant and it was basically out of character between my other texts that I did 

 

Sinead: You did a long rant?

 

Shalom: of camp yes it was super long

 

Sinead: like a bad rap about how you hated it or like 

 

Shalom: Yeah and it almost sounded slightly kiddish by the way I was testing it and then I think he got so turned off he was like oh okay like it was basically like okay bye and it never answered back and I was like okay forget it this is not for me 

 

Shasha: What?

 

Sinead: oh my goodness do you think it was spammy?

 

Shalom: no no no no because like the other conversations 

 

Sinead: she really hates camp

 

Shalom: no because like the private conversation I was talking you know kind of normal one-worded text you know 

 

Sinead: yeah like short sentences like small talk then all of a sudden

 

Shalom: but that one I decided on 

 

Shasha: he was like I triggered her

 

[Laughter]

 

Sinead: oh my goodness well at least you got two guys to message you but I did I get no messages after meeting like how many people did I think of 30 or more

 

Shalom: right right

 

Shasha: yeah I thought that was most people that went there though I mean Sinead you think that all of them got messaged back?

 

Sinead: maybe maybe not I don’t know but all I know is that I got nobody to message me back 

 

Shasha: I’m just saying

 

Sinead: I mean I didn’t message anybody anyways but I’m saying like

 

Shalom: well it’s their loss it’s their loss they don’t know what they lost okay?

 

Shasha: I gotta be honest, you really want to date someone up completely like a stranger from online?

 

Sinead: I don’t know you know honestly because you know that we have a friend that actually met someone online they’re getting married and it turns out like they actually have the same background and everything they meant online 

 

Shasha: oh 

 

Sinead: yeah so like online relationships could work out depending on the person

 

Shasha: I feel like speed dating now 

 

Sinead: speed dating don’t know about speed dating because literally, I’m telling you most of those conversations will be like so what’s your name how do you pronounce your name sinead Schneed Schneider sneeze Schneider no like honestly like what 

 

Shalom: at least you were the topic 

 

Sinead: either that was like how was your day I’m good nice um you like marvel movies yeah but what I’m sorry like

 

Shasha: yeah you can’t get married over speed dating guys

 

Sinead: I don’t know maybe it was me failing with the conversation may be another side I don’t know all I’m saying is that I kept my energy up as much as I could but by the end of it I was like no no 

 

Shalom: yeah yeah this is why I don’t think i

could deal with like things like tinder

or anything like that 

 

Sinead: yeah that’s a whole other beast out there 

 

Shalom: Yeah I mean like I like when people like to say that you know they met through Twitter because I don’t know I feel like that’s even a little bit more accurate

 

Sinead: you can’t see yeah but sometimes people don’t post their faces on Twitter so I don’t

understand that yeah

 

Shalom: no but they post their family sometimes like and themselves I feel like it’s a little more personal than Instagram it’s like a whole persona that you’re just like 

 

Sinead: I guess but you know people on Twitter have a persona too though I don’t know maybe it is more honest I just never really heard of a Twitter relationship worked

 

Shalom: Are you kidding me? I hear so much 

 

Sinead: well you know what I see people meet through Twitter, I do see that 

 

Shalom: yeah so much, well I have another embarrassing story

 

Sinead: Why do you have a lot of embarrassing stories?

 

Shalom: I just think about it you guys just like to block it off 

 

Sinead: well I just have like smaller ones like awkward conversations like I remember this one conversation and I’ll tell you later I let you tell your story first

 

Shasha: wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait tell us 

 

Shalom: yeah I want to hear yours

 

Sinead: yeah I just remember one time this is the same guy I just I remember one time he was like he came to me he was like hey what’s up you know we had this regular small talk conversation it was going so well and then it got going and then it got quiet for a second I didn’t know what to do but you know as a young teenager I’m like okay when in doubt ask what your favorite thing is I was like what’s your favorite movie genre he looked at me like what are you doing?

 

Shasha: wait, so instead of being a normal person who gradually gets up to like the first thing we like doing your free time on movies or you know you just burst out?

 

Sinead: I just burst out with what’s your favorite, no and there was a long pause of silence before that so and then I was like what’s your favorite movie genre? and he was like uh he answered I can’t remember what his answer was but then after that, he was like I got someone i

gotta talk to so I’m like I gotta go and be like I was like bye

 

Shalom: but I can tell that that same guy really liked you because remember the time when we were like we were all in a prayer circle right you know at the end of our Sabbath school, yeah and then like I had to do something I was you know you know

 

Sinead: you were right like here you were beside me yes 

 

Shalom: yeah I was 

 

Sinead: behind me 

 

Shalom: yeah I was beside you and you and he were holding hands about and we’re about to bow our heads and I had to move something I don’t know what I had to move but then I went between you and him as they as you guys were holding hands. 

 

Sinead: What?

 

Shalom: yes I went in between you guys and then he was like what is this and then he just moved aside and went to hold your hand on the other side because no one’s holding your hand on that side

 

Sinead: wait I didn’t you know see I remember that day because like I was like oh wow we’re holding hands whatever that kind of thing I was like but I remember I only remembered the part

where he held my hands on this side I didn’t even know that you had come between us on the other side like yeah

 

Shalom: yeah because I didn’t want to hold those strangers hands

 

Shasha: can you guys simplify the story I’m like what is going on 

 

Sinead: okay we were gonna do a whole prayer circle kind of thing Shalom was standing right next to me on my left she left to do something and he took the opportunity to hold my hand on my left.

 

Shasha: oh

 

Sinead: but then shalom came back stepped right in between us and then held my hand instead and he was like what in his head I guess and then he went around and just held my hand on the other side but I didn’t really realize that at the moment I just thought that 

 

Shalom: and by the way you guys for those who don’t know we had like these prayer circles where everyone would just hold their hands and just like bow your heads.

 

Sinead: yeah the whole youth group

 

Shasha: You know what Shalom that’s so funny how you just discharged them

 

Shalom: no I was oblivious I was totally, no I’m very oblivious and it was like remember that time we were at this other church in Florida right, and this guy and his girlfriend were sitting together right yeah and I didn’t know it at the time but like and then I as we entered into another sabbath school I went to go sit like in between them 

 

Sinead: why did you? how in the world?

 

Shalom: I’m very oblivious I don’t know why

 

Sinead: Shalom you’re telling me you saw two people sitting together and you’re like I’m gonna sit right in between them 

 

Shalom: and then it wasn’t until later I was like oh they’re dating when I saw them like talking about it

 

Sinead: Oh my goodness why are you

 

Shasha: You’re so funny 

 

Sinead: Why do you do this to yourself?

 

Shalom: I don’t know I honestly don’t know it’s like a

 

Shasha: what if they’re brother and sister though?

 

Shalom: no they’re really dating 

 

Shasha: no but they just sit next to each other they could be brother and sister you know

 

Sinead: but even brother and sister wouldn’t be weird if someone came up to us and just sat right in between us like

 

Shalom: I know because as sisters

 

Shasha: there’s like a free seat there’s a free seat 

 

Sinead: was there a free seat? or did you just like it?

 

Shalom: it was crowded and I was like oh like empty space

 

Shasha: yeah yeah I don’t see it as bad

 

Sinead: oh my goodness 

 

Shasha: it’s that empty space

 

Shalom: no but they both stared at me like what the

 

Shasha: well they should have been they shouldn’t have been um staying apart

 

Shalom: valid but still

 

Sinead: you feel awkward no but I don’t even think it was it was an empty seat or was it 

 

Shalom: it was sort of empty but I kind of was squeezing between them

 

Sinead: Shalom!

 

Shasha: Okay, I keep on trying to defend you but

 

Sinead: she’s really trying her best to defend you here man

 

Shasha: That is so much!

 

[Laughter]

 

Shasha: ah my stomach hurts, the more you talk about it the more it gets worse

 

Shalom: that’s such a little story

 

Sinead: I know that’s okay 

 

Shalom: you must just forget it but still

 

Sinead: the little things 

 

Shasha: no I’ve never heard this one 

 

Sinead: but me either I’ve never heard this

 

Shalom: I think you know them 

 

Shasha: no 

 

Shalom: I think one of them went to the college with you 

 

Sinead: no are you no was it really them?

 

Shalom: it was a girl, not the guy 

 

Shasha: you’re speaking in code

 

Shalom: no but you know what she looks like 

 

Sinead: okay okay oh yeah

 

Shasha: it’s on you say if they see you again

 

Shalom: no she’s graduated she’s long graduated

 

Shasha: trying to ruin a romantic moment

 

Shalom: have you guys ever done like accidentally

 

Sinead: accidentally like what get in the way of someone else’s relationship

 

Shalom: I don’t know I don’t even want to say that but like awkwardly

 

Sinead: okay 

 

Shasha: Shalom go running through while holding hands

 

Sinead: you’re going in between a couple no Shalom you seem like the opposite of the matchmaker here.

 

Shalom: I didn’t do it on purpose, you guys!

 

Sinead: Oh my goodness

 

Shasha: just kidding that was funny 

 

Shalom: oh yeah I remember when I was younger we’re at grandma’s house and this pastor came and he was a pretty young man and I was very curious about him I don’t know why as he was about to leave I asked him are you married and do you have children I asked and then my mom our mom and dad they were like whoa whoa

 

Shasha and Sinead: how old are you?

 

Shalom: I was very young but I wasn’t even doing that and out of interest in hey I was like I was very curious about this I was like hey like do you have children my age like I was just asking that 

 

Sinead: oh did you say that or did you say do you have children?

 

Shalom: no I think I asked are you married or do you have children it was one of those questions but it was just it was very very weird as a young person 

 

Sinead: that is a very interesting question to ask I just been hearing all these stories I never heard of

 

Shasha: that’s funny I thought you wait did you actually, say do you have any playmates 

 

Sinead: no no no she said do you have children are you married do you have children 

 

Shalom: no I think I asked are you married it was one of those because I was curious to see if you had kids my age because you know how you just like when adults come over there you know you’re always thinking like hey yeah maybe they brought home their children so we can you know hang out 

 

Sinead: okay but like that’s just I don’t think that you worded it right

 

Shalom: no I didn’t I did it I was very young I would say a lot of out of pocket stuff like 

 

Sinead: Why do you have somebody’s stories?

 

Shalom: one time we were at grandma and grandpa’s house and we just finished watching this Christmas movie and during the Christmas movie the children were crafted in this cabin and they had that Christmas in the cabin 

 

Sinead: okay 

 

Shalom: and I was very distraught and as we were about to leave I asked grandma and grandpa mom and dad they’re all in there and then they’re about to leave like mom what if we could crash our car then we get stuck in the cabin and then all the dust look at each other and they laughed and I was embarrassed and I just walked away 

 

Sinead: oh no

 

Shalom: that’s sad and funny

 

[Music]

 

Shasha: this didn’t happen to me but something embarrassing that happened in my school someone peed on someone

 

Sinead: I didn’t know they didn’t expect you to bring that up

 

Shasha: it’s a large I think of an embarrassing story 

 

Shalom: it’s more than here’s the thing I reach into the subconscious of my mind and I embrace that memory

 

Sinead: Oh I know I remember 

 

Shasha: Wait, can I tell a story?

 

Sinead: yeah tell your story 

 

Shasha: yeah so I was just sitting in class and then the guy came in and he had it was wet all over his shirt guys it was so sad he was like and then the guy okay first of all now that I’m old I’m like how’d the guy pee on him?

 

Shalom: no because you know-how in those boys bathrooms there’s like this open sink

 

Shasha: he was soaked how did it happen

 

Shalom: Shasha you know how boys like to play they like to like fool around especially at that age he probably was like

 

Shasha: That was so mean! Like a hose?

 

Sinead: Oh my goodness

 

Shasha: anyways he looked really guilty and I don’t know what happened to him I was

like oh shoot that was sad 

 

Shalom: okay so you’ve reached into your subconscious and you reached a memory of someone else’s embarrassment

 

Sinead: someone else’s embarrassment, oh wow Shasha do you not get embarrassed?

 

Shasha: I don’t remember getting embarrassed, oh one time I wasn’t in someone it was a church we used to go at I walked in on someone going to the bathroom but that wasn’t embarrassing for me I was more like oh man I shouldn’t have done that but I that was more embarrassing for that person 

 

Sinead: man I feel like that you have like a wheel of steel like emotions of steel where you don’t get embarrassed easily because I feel like that I get embarrassed but I just push it out of my mind I’ll never remember it again

 

Shalom: you see it you’re getting pretty high jokes at the thanksgiving Christmas or Christmas table you just pushed away all the funny memories

 

Sinead: i literally 

 

Shasha: first you guys do it to yourself you did not have to say what’s been moving you didn’t have to run away 

 

Sinead: you did not have to run away man that was 

 

Shalom: oh that’s on you though let’s focus on you 

 

Sinead: look look look can you guys bring up anything that I’ve said exactly so I don’t really have any I can’t think of any more embarrassing stories that I remember because I just don’t 

 

Shasha: not just boys in general like in general 

 

Sinead: not in general, I’m trying to think of times I’ve gotten embarrassed I literally push it out of my mind 

 

Shasha: oh remember when we were on the first day of our church um we were throwing up all-day

 

Shalom: I would say that that’s more sad more than that it’s embarrassing

 

Sinead: are you kidding my first time going to a new place with a bunch of new people a bunch of the people our age and they’re like wow the new pastor’s kids are here and we’re just throwing up we’re laying on the old woman next to us and she’s like she’s patting our heads like it’s okay man 

 

Shasha: but you know 

 

Sinead: we’re throwing up in the bathroom a couple every five minutes you don’t think it’s embarrassing 

 

Shasha: but that’s not really embarrassing we didn’t care we were just still sick 

 

Shalom: yeah I was too sick to care

 

Sinead: I mean that’s facts, but I’m just saying

 

Shasha: That’s not embarrassing 

 

Shalom: and by the way guys this all happened because we ate old supermarket food 

 

Sinead: yeah

 

Shasha: yeah I know another time I got really sick and threw up all day I ate chicken pot pie I used to not be I guess vegetarian so I ate that and I never ate chicken pot pie again okay 

 

Sinead: she gets triggered every time we said chicken pot pie

 

Shasha: I’m like, please please don’t, just call by the initials don’t even say the word literally 

 

Shalom: but why is it that the younger you are the more you throw up and then the older you are like you just never throw up

 

Shasha: that’s so true why is that well I don’t understand how Shalom doesn’t throw up every day because of the food sometimes she cooks it’s ridiculous

 

Sinead: She’s eating wild food.

 

Shasha: like dates and

 

Sinead: dates and avocado what is that?

 

Shalom: dates avocado with potato chips dip try it it’s good okay?

 

Shasha: Do you really have to put on oatmeal?

 

Sinead: no no

 

Shalom: yes! it’s good 

 

Sinead: no cause oatmeal’s already stiff enough

 

Shalom: no because it’s because it gets creamy

 

Sinead: no no it just gets even stiffer 

 

Shalom: you guys don’t listen to them I am a great chef 

 

Shasha: she’s a great chef but

 

Shalom: they don’t have an acquired taste 

 

Sinead: yeah you have to have a Shalom taste buds palette or something

 

Shalom: it’s good okay compared to me who is creative but compared to you who’s bland as

 

Shasha: yeah yeah 

 

Sinead: okay okay you don’t have to use that word you don’t say I’m bland 

 

Shalom: yes you are bland I literally see you take a piece of bread and just eat it like no butter no jam no nothing

 

Sinead: look sometimes you gotta do to just keep eating at least Shasha, she eats little pockets of things that are good throughout the day and you know she has a good choice of what she eats she even spices it up a little bit but you 

 

Sinead: look just because I can eat a salad without salad dressing does not mean you have to eat 

 

Shasha: ew that’s disgusting

 

Shalom: That’s disgusting 

 

Sinead: no because you know why because I just want to get it over with when I eat a salad I don’t want to like I don’t care to like spice it up or everything I’ll just be like okay I’m just shoveling this into my mouth and then pause and then I’ll just eat it quickly and that’s it because like I want to get to the other good food that’s why that’s what I do when I’m eating blandly 

 

Shasha: that’s like drinking water without seasoning at first

 

Sinead: what 

 

Shasha: you know okay okay so have you guys

been on tick-tock where the woman says

you know um this is how you season water

you put whipped cream

jelly beans and a whole bunch of other

stuff display with the water 

 

Sinead: I’ve never seen that in my life you’re capping 

 

Shasha: no I’m not I’m not capping you guys you guys see that her children don’t want to drink water it’s like what’s it called an s-a-t-i-r-e where it says

 

Shalom: satire 

 

Sinead: Saturn

 

Shalom: no you know how when it’s a comedy you know you don’t want to 

 

Sinead: oh satire 

 

Shasha: yes a satire comedy and she’s like my children don’t like to drink water so I put whip cream jelly beans and a whole bunch of stuff you guys comment down below you know what I’m talking about

 

Sinead: I’ve never heard of that

 

Shasha: it’s like a way of flavoring your water

 

Shalom: that’s so disgusting I probably didn’t like water when I was growing up but now I love the water I love water 

 

Sinead: water is the adult drink you know you’re an adult when you like water 

 

Shalom: I don’t even like juice anymore 

 

Shasha: me i like juice but every now and then it’s not a dude 

 

Sinead: it doesn’t hit as much as water ice-cold water

 

Shalom: Ice-cold water

 

Sinead: I know y’all don’t do you all

rock with room temperature water?

 

Shalom: I do 

 

Shasha: no

 

Shalom: I do no that’s when you’re an adult when you just don’t care about cold water anymore

 

Shasha: what do you mean? making stuff up now 

 

Shalom: no literally like you really want to wait a couple of hours for it to be cold-cold?

 

Shasha: yes 

 

Shalom: you guys 

 

Shasha: I’m more thirsty if I drink warm water

 

Sinead: that’s facts I don’t I will it doesn’t quench my thirst

 

Shalom: I don’t know I just think that’s healthy to drink temperature water

 

Shasha: you’re making stuff up now

 

Shalom: oh man 

 

Sinead: oh my goodness I have a question, what do you think is the best tip to say not embarrassed by anything?

 

Shasha: oh man

 

Shalom: you don’t I always think in your head people don’t care about you they care about themselves and with how they’re embarrassed 

 

Sinead: that is facts that are actually facts people are not really thinking about how the man they must be really embarrassed right now um unless they’re like a bully or something like haha I care about how much how embarrassed they are but like a regular person doesn’t think like a man they must be so embarrassed right now and they think about it for the rest of their lives no they actually don’t they’re not excited am I embarrassed

 

Shalom: wait actually I actually remember this one time

 

Shasha: another story?

 

Shalom: no-no but it’s like a very very lesser story I was entering this building on this college campus and this girl called out to me and she was like hey and she waved and I kind of wave back I was like hi and she’s like hi and I was like hello and then she’s like hi and I was like hi and I just like run away because I thought it was a little weird 

 

Shasha: wait wait 

 

Shalom: so maybe I do remember some people here I know she was embarrassed but I was embarrassed for her 

 

Shasha: why would she say hi?

 

Sinead: why were you embarrassed for her?  

 

Shalom: I think she was I think she mistakes me for someone else

 

Sinead: oh

 

Shasha: what?

 

Shalom: so you know how I just said that you know people don’t remember your embarrassing thing I remember her embarrassing

 

Shasha: that is so funny 

 

Sinead: Okay, in general people don’t remember other people’s embarrassing moments like the kid in Shasha’s grade who was soaked by you know and someone waving hi to someone who thought of someone else in general besides that people don’t remember your embarrassing

moments and I guess I’m trying to help people out make them feel like people are always watching 

 

Shasha: wait, what if she was just trying to say hi 

 

Shalom: no but it was why was she 

 

Sinead: yeah it sounds like she was saying hi like she knew her what if the embarrassing thing is that you actually didn’t know her and you just didn’t remember her 

 

Shalom: no because I saw this person in my life 

 

Shasha: well

how much enough you forgot

 

Shalom: I’m homeschooled I don’t remember most people I mean people I don’t meet a lot of people 

 

Shasha: that’s true 

 

Shalom: well any other tips on yeah just move on don’t dwell on it tomorrow is another day 

 

Shasha: right focus on in the present 

 

Sinead: but also when you embrace those embarrassing moments and be like ah that was a funny thing that happened to me and then that’s it like see it as literally just a funny thing that happened to you like

 

Shalom: exactly 

 

Sinead: you know see it as like a Reddit story that you just laugh at right it doesn’t have to be a huge deal because usually, it doesn’t necessarily completely change your life it’s just one you know small embarrassing moments happening at all of us even if I don’t remember it I feel like I blocked them all out but that’s okay in fact do what I do block it all out just forget it

 

Shasha: exactly 

 

Shalom: or embrace it and become a comedian or embrace it and become a comedian that’s a fact people love funny people guys if you’re funny I will love you I love funny I’m gonna marry a funny person because literally, I need that

 

Sinead: I feel like you’re already a funny person

 

Shalom: thank you that’s such a huge compliment you guys honestly when you embrace certain things that make me see that you are a confident person 

 

Sinead: that’s true because being a comedian you have to embrace every part of your life and be able to make it into a story a joke but there’s a sad moment the funny moments embarrassing moments the happy moments the awkward moments you got to embrace like all of those things you know and make it into comedy and that just shows that you’re confident in whatever you went through no matter what it is 

 

Shalom: yeah you see Shasha I see I love you know the confidence that you show even though you don’t get embarrassed I love the fact because 

 

Shasha: no but you’re more confident because you know why only if you’re tested a lot see if you’ve tested a lot with embarrassment and you’re confident like you sharing your stories that’s confidence 

 

Sinead: yeah if you were embarrassed you wouldn’t if you were still embarrassed about it you wouldn’t share those stories anymore like you’d be like 

 

Shalom: but I feel like that’s one element of you know confidence I feel like your confidence is that you don’t dwell on anything and even if you can’t really 

 

Sinead: you don’t overthink, you definitely don’t overthink

 

Shasha: It never happened to me though, you can’t overthink something if never happened to you 

 

Sinead: are you

sure it never happened or it’s happened

and you just don’t overthink it?

 

Shasha: no never happened I don’t, never happen

 

Shalom: but you know being embarrassed it’s a choice I honestly

feel like that’s a choice 

 

Sinead: really?

 

Shalom: yeah

 

Shasha: oh that’s controversial 

 

Sinead: no I think it is I don’t think you don’t have to be embarrassed if someone falls you can choose to be embarrassed or you cannot choose or choose not to 

 

Shasha: wait what was the emotions in Riley’s head 

 

Shalom: Riley’s

head? 

 

Sinead: in inside out?

 

Shasha: yeah 

 

Shalom: there’s fear sadness 

 

Sinead: disgust 

 

Shalom: disgust, anger, and joy 

 

Sinead: yeah

 

Shasha: so there’s no embarrassment 

 

Shalom: embarrassment is like, it can fall into one of the categories

 

Sinead: embarrassing like a mix of fear because embarrassment is like fearing what people are thinking of you basically, that’s what embarrassment really is 

 

Shasha: oh that’s true

 

Shalom: and that’s what I think and that’s what I find from you you don’t feel like other people think 

 

Sinead: you do not care what other people think and I think that’s why you don’t have an embarrassment 

 

Shasha: why do you think they did disgust then 

 

Shalom: because I think disgust is like a 

 

Shasha: no disgust isn’t even an emotion 

 

Sinead: it is 

 

Shalom: it is I saw this documentary actually where Pete doctor I think he directed inside out and he was talking about how he was studying emotions and how why he chose those five emotions actually 

 

Shasha: but disgust is such a minor oh by the way I don’t even touch what you guys said thank you guys know thank you so much for complimenting me on that I’m just still wondering though disgusting it isn’t even a big emotion like 

 

Sinead: oh wait now I remember another embarrassing story 

 

Shalom: really 

 

Sinead: sorry continue

 

Shasha: oh you know Marley’s staying where it was like a new memory like the vault

 

Sinead: oh yeah the new memory vault 

 

Shasha: You’re remembering it

 

Shalom: I love that oh wait before we move on okay so we talked about me and we talked even though you block out memories I’m glad that you don’t dwell on it and that’s the other thing that’s confident like you just don’t dwell in the past

 

Sinead: yeah because I don’t think I blocked it out because I was that embarrassed I just genuinely don’t remember

 

Shasha: oh yeah

 

Sinead: Things that don’t feel important to me I genuinely just don’t know terrible memory honestly 

 

Shalom: no no you don’t

 

Shasha: tell quickly then before you forget 

 

Sinead: oh no yeah yeah i

 

Shasha: if you want to say it 

 

Sinead: yeah no this is more of an awkward moment like basically the same guy

 

Shalom: the same guy wow this guy’s been through it

 

Sinead: the same guy so there was like a whole event down like you know we had those you know social events or whatever and he was there and I said hi to him we talked a little bit and this other girl comes right and she says hi to him because we haven’t seen him in a while she says hi to him she gives him a hug or whatever then he turns to me and of course it’s loud in this social okay i can’t really hear him well so he says something right and I’m okay this is a complicated story because i’m preoccupied I’m opening a candy cane and i know this sounds really good it sounds really random but I’m opening a candy cane for my little brother at the moment who was like open this for me you know with this little kid voice open this for me while he’s hugging this other girl right then he turns back to me and he says something I’m like you want a candy cane and I’m like he’s like what and he’s like no I was like where’s my hug I was like awkward side hugs and finished opening the candy cane gave it to my little brother

 

Shasha: you’re very helpful you’re very helpful

 

Sinead: no but like it’s the fact that I was like you want a candy cane

 

Shasha: wait why did Shiloh have his candy cane 

 

Sinead: no no no I was just like I was probably gonna tell them where the candy canes were like you know

 

Shalom: that’s my first time hearing that

 

Sinead: oh my goodness that was one that just kind of came to me right now

 

Shalom: that is so funny 

 

Sinead: oh my goodness 

 

Shasha: you’re very confident

 

Sinead: what do you mean

 

Shasha: I mean

 

Shalom: I think he liked it I think he liked your personality

 

Sinead: what my awkwardness?

 

Shalom: yeah I think it was cute

 

Sinead: I’m just you know what you said just said you’re oblivious I’m just oblivious because I was like

 

Shasha: no Shalom, you’re not oblivious if you were oblivious you wouldn’t have noticed that he was trying to hide his face 

 

Sinead: yeah that’s true

 

Shasha: you were very aware

 

Sinead: yeah the fact that you were aware of that you caught the details of that 

 

Shalom: it wasn’t two years later until I was like oh he was hiding from me okay

 

[Music]

 

Shalom: so guys the topics here embarrassment how to deal with the embarrassment 

 

Sinead: and some other random topics that were kind of thrown in like how some of us eat very bland and some of us eat very weirdly 

 

Shalom: and like throw up for some reason 

 

Sinead: yeah okay yeah this was quite an all-over place kind of 

 

Shalom: no but I feel like the main thing was embarrassment embarrassing awkward moments

 

Shasha: I have a question for you guys comment on your embarrassing balls

 

Shalom: yeah 

 

Sinead: yeah cause you know what I kinda want to read it I want to read your embarrassing like any embarrassing or awkward moments that anybody wants to share 

 

Shalom: and then we can react to it

 

Sinead: I would react to it 

 

Shasha: and whoever has the best embarrassing moment gets pinned in the comments 

 

Sinead: yeah

 

Shalom: I think so all right

 

Sinead: so uh thank you guys for joining us in this podcast we will see you in the next episode 

 

Everyone: bye

Listen to this podcast episode here: https://spoti.fi/3dxRLrm

 

Mirthell: like the grocery stores are there is a shortage in the grocery store there’s a lack of products that you’re having I know like I’m not even talking about like toilet paper like how everyone was running on toilet paper there is a shortage of food there is a shortage of supplies

 

Shalom: do you think it’s worse than when it was in 2020 at the be at the height of Covid 

 

Mirthell: absolutely

 

[Music]

 

Rita: Hello and welcome back to the onyx a family podcast where we talk about issues that families care about today we’re going to be talking about made on Netflix and how that was really triggering for at least me and probably the family because we’ve gone through a lot of those things and we’re going to talk about what’s happening right now with all the supply shortages worker shortages and then we’re going to end off with how do you prepare for what

could be coming okay so guys who watched made me know Shiloh didn’t but who here did?

 

Shalom: I watch maid 

 

Shasha: I did too wait

 

Sinead: Did you finish it? I finished it?

 

Shalom: I did finish it.

 

Sinead: oh man I still have like three more episodes or four more episodes

 

Rita: really?

 

Sinead: yeah 

 

Rita: I need to just binge it, oh I would love if I had three or four more episodes I loved that show I was just we were just hooked 

 

Mirthell: yeah we were hooked yeah definitely binge that

 

Shasha: I feel like a lot of people were hooked because it was so realistic

 

Rita: oh yeah absolutely 

 

Shiloh: so since I didn’t watch it can you guys explain to me what mate is 

 

Rita: Sure Maid is a series on Netflix and it follows a girl and her mother but mostly a young lady who has a child who is about two years old?

 

Sinead: yes about two years old 

 

Rita: and the financial struggles that she goes through once she breaks up with uh the father of the child and so she goes from um homeless well she goes to a domestic violence shelter and then she’s transferred from there to like this temporary housing to a more permanent place but the ups and the downs and especially the red tape with the government and trying to get benefits 

 

Sinead: and how twisted the benefits are like we’re like I remember seeing a part where she had to get something like she had to get a job but she had to have a job to prove she had a job she had to get a job to get a job 

 

Rita: oh yeah 

 

Sinead: it was weird like how do you get a job to get a job 

 

Rita: right the acting was phenomenal

 

Sinead: I do like her acting and 

 

Rita: I love that mother the mother Andy McDowell she was just like she needs an oscar

 

Shasha: isn’t she the woman from groundhog day? I looked it up it is her groundhog day

 

Rita: yeah it is her and on Maid, the mother and daughter are literally mother and daughter in real life

 

Sinead: Wait, are you serious?

 

Mirthell: yeah that’s why they had good chemistry

 

Sinead: oh snap I did not know that

 

Rita: yeah but it was really good but I want to go back

 

Mirthell: so, what was it a show about poverty do you think that that was one of the main reasons why they even did the show because you know every show has sort of an agenda 

 

Sinead: an underlying story like moral

 

Mirthell: right, an online story do you think that showing poverty and the difficulty in America?

 

Rita: I think in America for me it had a lot of themes one is how do you gain your independence after uh we’re breaking up 

 

Mirthell: and with a female

 

Rita: you know yeah and I think another one was yeah how do you navigate the system that is very confusing

 

Shasha: I thought it was going to be all about what was it called again trying to get our child back that’s it I literally when it ended in episode two I was like wait that’s it what’s the rest of the season

 

Rita: Right

 

Sinead: well I thought the whole thing just from the title was just about her being a maid she’s hardly cleaning like she’s like like what I mean like they don’t show that between people

 

Mirthell: but I think that they wanted to show a blue-collar worker from a female perspective and how they hustle to make it works for their family

 

Shalom: right 

 

Rita: yes I for me I actually really like reading books about these types of topics I remember years ago I read nickel and dimed the author that wrote that barbara I think Heinrich, i have to look at her last name but um she’s written a couple of other books that I’m currently reading right now and it’s always about people who are overlooked in society people who people tend to take for granted and it’s it’s just really stunning because you really think about life a lot of times within your bubble and when you’re exposed to what other people are going through it really helps me and I think everybody who understands it to really say wow okay now how am I going to treat this person or this circumstance if I come upon this so for example after reading nickel and dimed and that was many years ago and this is even before we had you know our life change with what we’re doing right now even as a nurse I would always tip people very very high

 

Mirthell: right

 

Rita: after reading that book and I understood

 

Mirthell: and why?

 

Rita: because in nickel and dime to talk about how there are people who work as waitresses in the food industry and how basically they really live off of the tips it’s not really based off of the salary it’s the tips

 

Sinead: right but that’s isn’t that more of an American thing?

 

Rita: yeah definitely just an American thing

 

Shalom: yeah I heard that I heard in different countries that if you tip you’re actually insulting them

 

Mirthell: right when I went to Italy they’re really not into tips yeah I know in fact I gave a pretty large tip and they’re just like oh no no no this is too big 

 

Rita: yeah I feel like that’s what shows well that’s where going back to the Maid that’s the issue is that there are so many things that are great about America but there are so many things that we need to work on we need to fix and one of them is why are people living off of just the tips and those tips are split too 

 

Mirthell: yeah 

 

Rita: and a lot of those places 

 

Shalom: but remember when we talked about a couple of months ago or was it last year how you know how the tipping system ever made

 

Rita: yeah 

 

Mirthell: yeah how was it well how was it made?

 

Shalom: well basically it was like I think it was in the 30s that it was established how African Americans because they were paid so poorly that they made the whole tipping system was they able to you know receive money only just by tips

 

Mirthell: really I didn’t know that that was it started with you know African American workers

 

Rita: yeah there are so many things that we don’t really realize and 

 

Mirthell: but it’s definitely not um minimum wage and that’s that that is a problem

 

Rita: well it’s less than minimum wage that’s

 

Mirthell: yeah it’s a lot less than minimum wage and I and I just think that there should be a minimum wage for waiters and waitresses and for people in the food industry 

 

Rita: but right going back to um like even made now there was a part where she was in the court remember that and remember when the wording

 

Sinead: yeah legal legal legal yeah illegal 

 

Rita: what do you guys think about that explain that to our audience what was going on

 

Sinead: so basically she was in court fighting for the custody of her daughter and the thing is that she was not really experienced in court so everything’s going over her head in here one ear out the other

 

Rita: because she represented herself too, she didn’t even have a lawyer 

 

Mirthell: she couldn’t afford a lawyer

 

Rita: right 

 

Sinead: right and it was kind of last-minute too they kind of just sprung it on her so she couldn’t even prepare herself so basically the scene went from you know so have you been finding housing for her to have you been legally her legally legal the legal did you legal the legal with her

 

Rita: right 

 

Sinead: stuff like that 

 

Mirthell: that was hilarious I like that part

 

Rita: and the other lawyer was going well my client is legally legal fully legally legal and this client over here is not legal at all like it was just like 

 

Shalom: but what I thought about it was that okay they did so well with the beginning in terms of different editings like that but I just wish they had some sort of continuation with that like you know finding different edits along with you know yeah because I was like the first two-three episodes but after that, there was like 

 

Mirthell: it was just a clever way 

 

Sinead: to capture the attention 

 

Mirthell: to capture your attention was funny but it was just a clever way of basically showing the court proceedings and how ridiculous it is you’re not going to understand it even if basically even if they said what was actually going on behind the scenes with the legal jargon, we would not have understood so they just basically said illegal legal legal 

 

Sinead: yeah that’s true

 

Rita: even when she was going through her paperwork when she got it from the yeah from her um what do you call the person? maybe her

 

Sinead: child

 

Rita: what do you call it what do you call it not advocate um this is the person her benefit worker

the person she goes to that helps her with her benefits and she had this stack of papers and they’re like finish it by tomorrow she’s like how am I supposed to go through it and then she was going through it and you can see the titles of the papers change too you’re not gonna ever understand all this you’re so dumb and all sorts of stuff because she that’s how people feel obviously when we see those stacks of paperwork and this let me tell you why that scene was very triggering for me because growing up Mirthell and me, we were you know middle the class you know we both were in our homes we just you know I never really struggled it was after I got married and we got married young that we started to really learn about whoa this is the real world and it’s and it was hard for many years because I was still going to school to get my degree my college degree um and I was having children at the same time he was working you know just started off as a pastor and we didn’t have a lot of money at all and the thing is for a time when he was in the seminary we were really struggling at first in fact we went into a breadline remember?

 

Mirthell: yeah

 

Rita: it was like a circle they said okay everybody they got all the pastor’s wives there and they were like okay everybody goes into a circle and we’re gonna hand out there are these rolls and I was like oh this is so cool we’re gonna get bread so okay you know I stood there and everybody got bread and I was like oh man I’m gonna need more than this I got like at the time I don’t think I had no I didn’t even know I was I don’t even know if I knew if I was pregnant with Shasha you were pregnant but you just I didn’t know yeah but I was like I think I had like two pieces and I’m like no I’m gonna need more like I have two kids at home so I went back in the circle and they were they did not like that, you were here already you can’t have you can’t get another one and I was like oh I didn’t know it was like one time

 

Mirthell: She didn’t know they had rules 

 

Rita: Yeah and they went and they got so mad at me and this was like my first foray into that world 

 

Mirthell: we started looking for different pantries to get more food different places that would help out people 

 

Rita: but no but remember we went to that one and they gave you like a bag and they’re like

whatever can fit in this bag you can take so we had this challenge right because without the reward.

 

Shasha: that sounds like a Mr. beast challenge 

 

Rita: yeah

 

Shalom: I didn’t know that we were struggling this much 

 

Rita: well because when we were at the seminary I wasn’t working yet well I think I might have just started to work as a cashier and and daddy wasn’t even having his full um salary paycheck salary it was like a stipend and so we were really struggling plus we were both in school at the time

 

Mirthell: but that’s when I found out that if you’re a middle-class person um making above a certain amount even if it’s just slightly above a certain amount, there’s no help for you there are no services there are no government services there are no community services it’s almost as though the only people that really have a lot of help are those that are severely below the poverty line or well if you’re wealthy then it doesn’t matter 

 

Rita: right but at that point in time we did get help because we were really down there because we were students 

 

Mirthell: yeah

 

Rita: and so someone said Rita why don’t you just apply and get food stamps

 

Sinead: food stamps?

 

Rita: and I was like oh okay so 

 

Mirthell: that was the first time in our lives

 

Rita: I don’t remember how we went down to I guess wherever that place oh yeah we went down to the place where the workers benefits are just like how unmade and I went over there they gave me the paperwork I filled it out and it seemed pretty easy and by this time I found out

I was pregnant with Shasha actually that makes it a whole lot easier because you start getting like a snap I think um

 

Mirthell: WIC

 

Rita: you got WIC and some other stuff so basically wick makes allows you to get discounts is it discounts or do they pay for it I don’t remember now basically like formula diapers are it even diapers I don’t know it’s basically stuff for child care

 

Shiloh: is it a sponsor?

 

Rita: no it’s the government it’s government 

 

Shiloh: yeah but like you guys like you’re promoting it 

 

Rita: no because people should know that’s what I’m saying that’s what these podcasts are for now so that families understand like what’s available to them 

 

Sinead: right because you said you didn’t think about getting food stamps

 

Rita: people should,  exactly I didn’t know about that 

 

Mirthell: we had never we have never qualified for anything and then 

 

Rita: exactly because I think actually what happened was like I applied for WIC and applying for WIC somehow they also were able to now direct me now to get like the food stamps and so I got and I think what was it was it 400 or 600 a month?

 

Mirthell: it was good like if it was like it was 400 we were just super happy and this was like the 400 or 600 and I mean yeah I went I remember going to the grocery store I was just overwhelmed that I could actually buy food

 

Rita: oh yeah 

 

Mirthell: and it was just 

 

Rita: and not really be stressed about it because at that time 

 

Mirthell: I was buying for our neighbors

 

Rita: right 

 

Mirthell: I was buying for other people because I was just like well I have to share with you 

 

Rita: we’re not supposed to do that 

 

Mirthell: we’re not supposed to do it but I was like 

 

Rita: we had to because we had money left over and there were a lot of people who didn’t qualify who were struggling right they didn’t have any food and I remember we did that a few times and every time the person would be crying in thankfulness because they didn’t have the money so there were a lot of people struggling but okay so now I’m you know I have Shasha a year is done and now I’m like okay they’re like okay you want to re-up it and I was like oh what I wonder what other benefits there are and so I went for just like what do you call it just the benefits when you’re not working unemployment because you have to be employed and then I don’t even know so basically though I went to do what that woman on maid does 

 

Sinead: right right

 

Rita: and then that was when I got a rude awakening because I went to I guess the social worker who was working there and she was like you didn’t fill this outright and I was like well I don’t know what I’m supposed to do and she goes okay well you know you have to report here tomorrow at eight and I was like a report for what she goes well you have to be here to look for a job and you have to like go on the computer there and you have to document not the resumes that job applications proving that you have spent all day looking for a job and it has to be like eight hours a day for you to be able to go and get these benefits

 

Shalom: but you can’t do that as a young mother I mean

 

Rita: I was in school 

 

Shalom: and in school

 

Sinead: that is that’s literally it was impossible

 

Mirthell: it was messed up we weren’t on it for long 

 

Rita: no no 

 

Mirthell: after that, we were just like

 

Rita: a year to be honest I don’t remember 

 

Mirthell: I think you went and got a job at like 

 

Rita: yeah I started I went and I went and got it it was a cashier who started as a cashier then I started as an aide

 

Mirthell: Nurses aide

 

Rita: yeah

 

Sinead: And you’re saying that you actually did go at 8 a.m and everything though 

 

Rita: no no no no no no we just 

 

Sinead: okay because you said that we weren’t we’re on it long so I was assuming that that’s

 

Mirthell: no we weren’t on the food stamps or EBT card we weren’t right we just decided to go a different route but um but it’s really difficult it was really difficult we were in our 20s

 

Shalom: yeah because she was 25 when I went and made it I was wondering how old are you guys 

 

Rita: um I was about 20 a little bit younger because I hadn’t had Shasha 

 

Mirthell: 22

 

Rita: 22. 

 

Mirthell: so we were young we were definitely young when we were struggling I remember I remember getting gas and literally pumping like two dollars gas because that’s literally all I had so when I so in maid it would show like the money and the show the money going down and it just was this I remember those days where it was just yo

 

Sinead: I saw him when I saw her here’s two dollars I saw her pump two dollars I was like that is that really gonna do anything 

 

Shalom: no but when she went over the gas like pump I started panicking for it I was like oh no no

 

Rita: and that’s happened with that oh yeah that has definitely happened it’s been very frightening

 

Shiloh: when does the maid series take place?

 

Rita: now, this month

 

Mirthell: no it’s modern it was a water take but I remember those days these are tough times if I found five dollars in my pocket I would celebrate it would be just like a party like

 

Shalom: I remember that 

 

Mirthell: oh my goodness five dollars, yeah you know it was really rough 

 

Shasha: what was that thing she did when she was going in each house and they slammed the door at her what was she asking for?

 

Sinead: oh the TBRA or something like that that the t-bird oh let’s see 

 

Rita: I am not familiar with that but I guess it’s some sort of like government assistance so that people can afford rent so then the paperwork the landlord would have to fill out that a lot of people don’t necessarily like to do all these extra steps and they don’t feel like they get they don’t get, I would say the money from the government on time and on top of that they don’t feel like they’re going to get the right tenants

 

Shalom: okay so you guys think that the system has changed 20 years ago from now you know?

 

Mirthell: I think 20 years ago it was a lot harder

 

Rita: what? I still think it’s hard

 

Mirthell: I think it’s hard but for instance for an instance when they got dollar stores like I’m talking about the real dollar store I’m talking about dollar tree you know what I mean when you could get everything for one dollar that was huge walking in and being able to get like spaghetti 

 

Rita: yeah but I think the government all the paperwork the red tape I think is even worse now

 

Mirthell: That’s even worse now

 

Rita: I think that’s even worse

 

Mirthell: but like dollar stores, dollar stores now are like that really helps people we never had dollar stores way back 

 

Shasha: speaking of dollar store you saw on the news right?

 

Rita: what?

 

Shasha: they’re raising their price they already rolled their prices it’s not going to be just a dollar now

 

Rita and Shalom: wow

 

Mirthell: well a lot of them were like that like

 

Rita: not dollars, wasn’t it dollar tree?

 

Shasha: dollar trees raising the prices

 

Rita: wow 

 

Shiloh: what about family dollar family?

 

Sinead: Family dollar has always been always having different 

 

Mirthell: they’ve always had different prices 

 

Sinead: yeah 

 

Rita: so the dollar tree buyout or is it dollar general it’s one of them bought out family dollars 

 

Mirthell: dollar general always was, it was never a dollar store.

 

Sinead: yeah, only dollar tree was literally everything is one dollar.

 

Rita: first of all, do you guys remember dollar tree Christmas?

 

Everyone: yes yes 

 

Rita: someone tells the audience 

 

Sinead: dollar tree barbies for Christmas dollar tree decorations dollar tree food or dollar tree Christmas cookies 

 

Shiloh: so I’m confused was everything in there a dollar or was did everything that you have with a dollar like

 

Sinead: no no no everything in the store cost one dollar no matter what it was it was only one dollar

 

Shiloh: okay if you had two things would be two dollars 

 

Sinead: yes yes oh oh you you’re saying that you grab whatever you want and get it for one dollar? 

 

Rita: oh my goodness

 

Shiloh: that’s what I thought when I was younger

 

Sinead: no no

 

Rita: dollar store Christmas or dollar tree Christmas was great 

 

Mirthell: they were fun

 

Rita: it was fun it was just like going there the only thing is that for example, we bought you guys like a barbie house

 

Shalom: was it the one with the antenna on?

 

Sinead: no that’s not on dollar tree.

 

Rita: we basically had to shape it and nail it 

 

Mirthell: right 

 

Rita: we put it together ourselves it wasn’t like and it wasn’t easy like IKEA either it was a lot

 

Shalom: I’m gonna be honest I don’t remember dollar tree Christmas I remember nook Christmas and I remember Hannah Montana house Christmas

 

Sinead: oh that’s those are good guys we must have been balling at that point or something

 

Mirthell: yeah dollar tree Christmases was those are those

 

Sinead: I remember dollar tree Christmas okay

 

Shiloh: Was I even born?

 

Rita: yes you were a baby.

 

Mirthell: yeah you were born but you would not have remembered 

 

Sinead: you know why I know dollar tree Christmas because those would be the dolls where you can’t even put shoes on them they had beach feet okay they had wide beach feet

 

Rita: like fat

 

Sinead: yes you could put no shoes on them

 

Rita: oh that’s so funny

 

Shalom: I don’t know why I remember every Christmas I remember going to grandma and grandpa’s house I remember that Christmas I remember pancake Christmas where we got I think IHOP or some sort of like cake or something like that that was the first time we didn’t like

 

Sinead: I think that you probably pushed out of your mind dollar tree Christmas 

 

Mirthell: yeah yeah yeah but probably years 

 

Rita: but that’s the thing like right now that was poverty back then but right now like I’m sure there’s a lot of people here listening or watching where they shop at dollar tree and that and that’s fine it’s just you know yeah that was it was I’m grateful for stores like dollar tree and dollars oh yeah our general and family doll I am grateful because you can go in there like you said to get good deals to find anything you need and be affordable and I think that we really went there for many many many years

 

Shalom: I remember shopping at dollar tree even more so than shopping at Walmart or target like

 

Rita: we were always in dollar tree, always

 

Sinead: Dollar tree was our supermarket

 

Mirthell: I would always go to the dollar tree that was my go-to place to make sure that I’m making meals for you guys making sure that we’re all eating yeah you know I mean oh my goodness I loved dollar tree, yeah you know what really over there what really got me was when I was watching maid and she got this job and when she got the job she had to pay for all the supplies she had to pay for 

 

Sinead: yeah that got me too! I was like what?

 

Mirthell: for her uniform and everything and it’s just like why are there so many opportunities that are not opportunities like they make you feel like it’s an opportunity but it’s not 

 

Sinead: yeah where you’re giving more than you can get 

 

Mirthell: right by the time you make it back up you could be fired you could be laid off 

 

Sinead: right

 

Shalom: look it was a cut this is kind of a spoiler but it was cutthroat when the permanent boss fired her because she took the other job I mean like I felt really sad for her

 

Rita: yeah but then I also think about it from the boss’s perspective because she’s probably barely making ends meet and so she can’t have workers that could be undercutting her so in this kind of position you do feel for both for example right now I don’t even know if it’s expired or not yet but we’ve had um rent or is it a mortgage moratorium that’s right or eviction moratorium i

should say um we’ve had just we’ve had things on both ends where it was 

 

Mirthell: policies that are trying to help

 

Rita: help right help everybody make sure that they stay housed but on the back end the people who own the homes are left going like and it’s not even corporations I’m talking about people who decided to invest in real estate

 

Sinead: right 

 

Rita: and become you know entrepreneurs and now they can’t afford the mortgage to the bank

 

Sinead: the bank is not giving letting up the bank is still knocking on their doors 

 

Rita: exactly so I see I see both ends because we were 

 

Mirthell: that’s a good segue to this to this topic about the situation that we the country is in right now right it’s in a very precarious situation

 

Rita: right so so we had a handyman that came today to fix a couple of things and he told what did he tell you today 

 

Mirthell: right so like in the industry right now you know people are not making phone calls to get things fixed.

 

Rita: right

 

Sinead: really?

 

Mirthell: so a lot of people are not and part of that is because you know some people just don’t want to get things fixed because they’re scared of having someone in their home so they’re utilizing the services less but not only that but a lot of their workers either are not showing up or they are getting fired for not showing up or now a turnaround of being laid off so this is happening in every single industry 

 

Shalom: so in his field that he’s in right now there are people not showing up for work?

 

Mirthell: there are some times that people are just not showing up for work and part of that is that there are policies that are in place that is giving people a check and this is happening not just

 

Rita: in stimulus check right?

 

Mirthell: it’s a stimulus check and so this is happening we had to hire some people in the medical field, aides to take care of some family members that we have and we found the same thing with them they were complaining that people are not showing up we noticed that a lot of people were not showing up 

 

Rita: right we would have liked a different nurse almost every week and it was like what’s going

on and the people the supervisors and bosses were like we are not being able to keep staff right 

 

Shalom: same with our shame with our young people we know that we have people to take our garbage and our in our boxes and stuff and they’re not even him wasn’t he just telling you how

 

Mirthell: yeah he this is the owner is

picking up some of the traffic 

 

Rita: so he said that his son moved back to work it um actually he graduated from college right and he worked and he came back to now work the garbage business with his dad this is the junk business, not the garbage like on the curb, this is like if you have like a ton of extra boxes and things like that and so he comes they come we call them pretty regularly to come and get like a bunch of our packages and things like that.

 

Mirthell: extra garbage that cannot fit 

 

Rita: and they used to be they were supervising like I remember sometimes they would come there’d be like five guys six guys seven guys 

 

Mirthell: even up to eight 

 

Rita: yeah and now it’s just several trucks it’s just the owner and his son

 

Mirthell: that’s it right

 

Rita: and then our handyman today said that he was the and this is what I was waiting for you to say yeah he was the only handyman that was working for the company for quite a few months now because so many people are either not showing up so things are 

 

Shasha: and also and also we um not to sound bougie but we were trying to hire a personal driver for us to drive us to uh to California because for our filming stuff but when we called they’re saying there’s a shortage of drivers too so 

 

Mirthell: every single industry went to go get some donuts one day and at the drive-through Christmas they all remembered yeah we went through the drive-through and all the people were there were new and they had to apologize and say these are all new staff because you know we didn’t have we had a shortage of staff nobody knew how to make the donuts nobody knew how to do anything 

 

Shalom: you guys, what is going on in this country?

 

Rita: you went to burger king yesterday was it yesterday or the day before and first of all there are new hours that are posted and they were like stay here at the first window and we’ll tell you when you can move up to the next one we were waiting there for a good while 

 

Mirthell: and we’re wondering like what’s going on

 

Rita: what’s going on I remember we had been there like a few times over the last several months and it’s they were always talking about their shortage and I don’t think it’s gotten any better 

 

Shalom: guys what is going on in this country why is there a shortage of everything 

 

Mirthell: right yeah we’re doing some renovation on our home shortage of materials so our home is not renovated we went to check out uh some property to look at some property in the state that we live in and the people that we’re gonna like to sell the property 

 

Rita: oh yeah yeah yeah 

 

Mirthell: they have a company where they would buy and sell luxury cars and they used to do very well 

 

Rita: parts right or the whole car?

 

Mirthell: well the whole thing 

 

Rita: yeah the whole car right 

 

Mirthell: and they were saying that the inventory is down more than a hundred percent 

 

Rita: where he was saying but he would do about three a hundred cars per month and now they were just dropped down to twenty-something

 

Mirthell: twenty-something cars that are just available like the cars are not even available to

buy and people are not buying the cars so it’s like literally every single industry is just crumbling 

 

Shiloh: do you think it’s because people becoming more uh entrepreneurs these days are 

 

Rita: no no this goes far beyond that because for many years we’ve had more and more and more entrepreneurs every year this is a combination of Covid people getting sick

 

Mirthell: some of it is due to just government policies where individuals are receiving incentives or they’re receiving paychecks because they’re unable to get their paychecks and then it turns around and now people don’t have the incentive to go to work

 

Rita: well because a lot of people were making minimum wage and it’s really not minimum wage in this country really does not meet the needs of what people need to really survive on so yeah when they get the stimulus checks or the unemployment checks things like that and it’s larger than they were making 

 

Mirthell: why would they go to work

 

Rita: exactly because they’re struggling

 

Mirthell: they’re now gonna start traveling they’re now gonna turn around and probably try to start their own business that they’ve been longing to so a lot of the individuals when they get these stimulus checks it’s not that they’re lazy I think some people want to paint it out that

everybody’s lazy but they’re not even making as much as some of these stimulus checks that are coming in and so they take this money and they think okay this is my opportunity to now start my own business or start to like you know make t-shirts or do something that I can work

for myself because let’s be truthful they’re not treated well in these in these workplaces you’re working at some of these restaurants or you’re working at some of these places and you’re treated like garbage and so you’re like okay this is my opportunity to change my life 

 

Rita: especially now that society seems to have gotten a lot more aggressive so now you’re really being treated poorly

 

Sinead: right right 

 

Rita: by the sometimes by your boss sometimes by the customers but

 

Mirthell: you’re a bus driver and you know that it’s more than likely that you’re gonna get covered because you’re driving a bus you’re gonna say I’m gonna take this stimulus check and protect myself right yeah because I don’t want to be constantly exposed 

 

Rita: exactly but like you had mentioned earlier how in maid now the how the woman the characters remember how she had to buy her own products and things like that and so every month she has to now figure out you know whatever how much he should take that out of her check like the cost of supplies and it’s not even like she’s working for herself she’s limited for her hours as well in the movie they talked about she could only work 30 hours no more but also there’s in the book nickel and dime that I had mentioned earlier they had a section on people who do cleaning and what they didn’t touch on in the series which they could have is the constant exposure to the chemicals 

 

Sinead: that is true 

 

Rita: actually causes health problems which then causes more er visits more doctors visits more prescription medication which then now takes is money out of their pocket so it’s well vicious fishes cycle well I did 

 

Shalom: well remember the part where she threw up after cleaning that one bathroom inside that yeah but that was like she saw a dead rat we’re talking about like the chemical 

 

Sinead: yeah exposure to bleach constantly smelling it you know you know that kind of stuff

 

Rita: respiratory issues and things like that 

 

Sinead: not just the cleaning supplies but going into places like that that have mold or dust and everything

 

Mirthell: so when you see people saying I’m not going to go back into work, this is no small decision that they’re making some of them are making life and death decisions or sick or well decisions and they’re saying I worked there because I felt I had to but now that I don’t have to I’m gonna try and find a better way for my family

 

Rita: so I hate to say it but I think everything’s gonna get worse before it gets better yeah and what do we do already see the shortages in grocery stores 

 

Mirthell: we haven’t even talked about that yet like the grocery stores are there is a shortage in grocery stores there’s a lack of products that you’re having I know like I’m not even talking about toilet paper like how everyone was running on toilet paper there is a shortage of food there is a shortage of supplies 

 

Shalom: do you think it’s worse than when it was in 2020 at the height of covid 

 

Mirthell: absolutely because now we’re having a short on gas we’re having a short on car parts like literally everything is like blocked up at the ports and some of them they’re not even being produced

 

Rita: Because it’s a global supply chain crisis so there if something is short in Taiwan it’ll affect us like for their time off for the microchips for the cars it just goes all over 

 

Mirthell: so so where is this going to be are we going to have food insecurities well

 

Rita: I definitely think we will you know there are companies right now for people who don’t know where you can buy like MRE’s but you know how it used to be just for people in the army it’s um like dehydrated meals that you add water to and then boom there’s your meal and basically there are people or if it’s a cold thing milk or something but basically meal their meal replacements and you can buy it by the buckets and they stay good for like 30 40 years you know or 20 years and so I remember we bought some um because we didn’t know where this pandemic was going I bought some a long time ago and so we have some so there are some companies right now though they are booming those people who are selling that they are making so much money right now because people are afraid that not only will they be shortages but that they won’t be able to afford food that’s another thing because of inflation and that’s another thing we haven’t talked about things are smaller but they’re more expensive

 

Mirthell: right right right right 

 

Rita: you know and that’s happening a lot 

 

Mirthell: everything milk oil everything and then of course gas a lot of people are really trying to get electric cars because they’re really sick you can charge yourself how much gas is going to be ridiculous and when the price is there’s a place in California I don’t know what town but there was a particular town in California 

 

Rita: right it’s in Monterey county and it’s like right now it’s like eight dollars a gallon

 

Mirthell: that’s that is incredible wow right so if things get so bad you know um people are probably not going to be able to travel they’re not going to be able to use their cars oh that’s just going to be a luxury car well I would say 

 

Rita: we had a funeral recently in our family and even prices for airline tickets are super high they’re sky-high right now and so there were a lot of people who couldn’t make it and so it affects everything so again we have to wonder and before I even get to that how does that make you guys feel you know because like right now like we’re talking like family to families right yeah and you know daddy and I have done a lot of talking you know as adults 

 

Sinead: the thing is those from in my generation and younger like maybe those of you who are watching who are younger or like around the same age as me I know that you guys are probably scared and worried because it’s something that none of us have ever experienced before I think we’ve been through a lot of I’m thinking like in the past 10 years things have never been this bad like people always be joking online like oh you know things are so bad right now but you know what it’s okay there’ll be people who make a lot, of jokes and dark jokes or whatever and now I feel like that we’re in actual serious time and I don’t know how like mentally everybody’s gonna handle it you know what I mean 

 

Shalom: uh yeah I definitely agree with that but I also um think that a lot of people are going through this even prior to the pandemic so I just feel like that it’s just true you know it’s just different people different stages you know maybe some people are just new at experiencing this more than those are being like oh yeah I’m just used to this like you know maybe you know

 

Sinead: because people have been going through this 

 

Mirthell: yeah that’s a good point who do you think is going to fare better I mean because individuals that have been going through struggles I remember when we were going through struggles we just learned about a thousand ways to make potatoes or you know we found those shops where you can get spaghetti for a dollar and making dollar meals that literally can feed the entire family for less than five dollars and so we just learned how I remember when we were going through the worst of our times we learned that maybe it’s not the best idea is to go and get some fast food for five dollars but maybe feed the family for five dollars right it’s just you know these are the kind of decisions that we just had to make

 

Rita: right so basically if you’re already in the mindset of hustling or making you know a dollar stretch you’ll be left better off right now what do you think Shasha

 

Shasha: man, just oh man this is just a lot and you must be feeling really overwhelmed

 

Sinead: do you feel overwhelmed I mean 

 

Shasha: sort of like you hear all the stuff in the industry, it’s more like what can you do you know what I’m saying

 

Rita: right how about you Shiloh

 

Shiloh: I’m not really overwhelmed at all because I mean I feel like I’m too young to really worry about that stuff I mean sure I enter high school and everything but like I’m talking like 12 to like 16 maybe you shouldn’t really worry about this stuff that much about the you know the industry and everything because 

 

Shalom: well here’s the thing a lot of people your age are you know trying to help the family out now trying to help support exactly like take care of their younger siblings you know work and stuff 

 

Sinead: yeah the thing is that you’re in a very different spot than 99 of people in the country you know 

 

Shiloh: 98 point

 

Sinead: 90 whatever over 90 of people your age you’re in a very different spot so I understand that you’re not really feeling overwhelmed but there’s a lot of people out there who feel like that they have to do their part to support their family and stuff

 

Mirthell: I’m seeing a lot of job openings I remember like one of the first jobs that I had to help out my family when we were going because I didn’t grow up privileged I grew up you know having to work and I remember one of my first jobs was working at a burger joint and just making enough money not necessarily to help my parents provide but my needs I was able to make a little additional money so that I can meet my needs and prepare for you know things that I had to get done so I just think that at this point in time I’m hearing a lot of people being pretty judgmental they’re saying oh this generation is lazy or this generation doesn’t know how to work or this generation you know is entitled I don’t think that that’s fair I think I think generations just keep on doing that they just always 

 

Rita: well I think those the people who say that in my opinion are people who don’t understand the work that this generation is doing now 

 

Shasha: right

 

Rita: because being on social media or starting an online business is no walk in the park it’s hard yeah and it takes a lot of work and so if people aren’t going and get let’s say getting a fast-food job or doing the other stuff that people are used to seeing they automatically think oh what are you doing just making a video or taking a picture and it’s like it’s a whole lot more behind it 

 

Sinead: yeah they do not know the behind the scenes 

 

Shalom: right yeah it takes work

 

Mirthell: I mean you guys are hard workers like I don’t I wouldn’t say that you guys are I think that you have the privilege but your privilege was not given to you guys actually worked really hard and consistent for it and there are so many kids in this generation I believe that are doing their part they’re working hard they’re doing their part they’re figuring out how they’re gonna make moves next and you know I actually don’t feel that pessimistic about this

generation I actually feel optimistic about this generation

 

[Music]

 

Rita: well you know again what can we do to prepare for it possibly getting worse before it gets better

 

Mirthell: well I agree with what the kids said first, you got to get your mentality right you got to be prepared mentally to know that things are going to change right now and it’s not going to be forever but it is going to be for a time and so you got to get your mind right to say okay I am going to make sure that I understand it’s not going to be the same so step number one mentality

 

Sinead: yeah Mentality right

 

Mirthell: what would you say step number two is though?

 

Shalom: step number two

 

Sinead: make a plan

 

Rita: okay make a plan so what would that plan look like?

 

Sinead: what would the plan looks like 

 

Shasha: stock up 

 

Rita: wait now when you say that people say oh don’t tell people to make a run and go and then now we’re gonna have toilet paper shortages

 

Shasha: well how are you gonna get stuff and you don’t stock up?

 

Mirthell: that’s a good point it’s true right I do think that each individual and each family needs to make an individual plan and part of that plan is going to be how are we going to make sure that we have some additional resources right and it’s not just-food

 

Sinead: buying out food and stuff at the market but it’s like

 

Shalom: it’s like rationing and stuff

 

Sinead: it’s planning out rationing but it’s also buying like the is it called MRE’s or 

 

Rita: yeah

 

Sinead: also buying things like that like that’s not necessarily going to sell out, right?

 

Rita: right 

 

Mirthell: right absolutely and I just think that um just making sure that you probably um are like for instance one of the things that we got is we got these planters where you can actually plant vegetables and fruit and different things like that and so that was one of our plans that we were going to have started to ensure that we are eating fresh food still because if we get can have a lot of sodium and you don’t want to always be depending on canned foods um you want to make sure that you’re getting fresh food and things like that so yeah

 

Rita: right I would say another thing too is like Shasha said I was just teasing her with the stock up she’s absolutely right you do need to stock up you do need to be prepared and if you do it more gradually then there won’t be like a shortage like if you wait to the last minute and then buy like 10 packs of toilet paper that’s a problem but you know 

 

Shalom: I also think you should do your study like you should study what other people have done in the past to see how they, you know how they stock up how they, you know we how to buy certain things because you know like you know how to like yes and you know just study the ways of how people are doing it even in 2008 because I feel like that we always forget about that year or not forget but like it’s always something that it’s just like exactly right

 

Rita: and that’s a good point though that you made earlier about people who already were feeling this way but prior to the pandemic because in 2008 even though there was a recession I didn’t feel any different for me really

 

Sinead: right 

 

Rita: but it was I was already struggling 

 

Shasha: wait how come it didn’t affect you?

 

Mirthell: we were already struggling for 2008

 

Sinead: we’re already struggling, it’s not gonna get much worse like they’re already used to it, they know what to do they have their plan they have their system 

 

Rita: yeah 

 

Shalom: but I definitely do think that this year is probably worse than 2008 I just feel like that’s just slightly different

 

Rita: I would say also just probably another step I think would start trying to get used to like a simpler life 

 

Shalom: oh yes 

 

Rita: like we are so used to eating what we want when we want especially here in the u.s 

 

Shalom: and shopping all you want

 

Rita: when shopping and all that stuff and I think we need to get used to a simpler life meaning you might have rice and beans every night for a while or you might have more spaghetti or you might have to wear the same clothes it’s fine

 

Shalom: I have to admit I actually was struggling with that not ordering amazon packages and not you know doing whatever you want in terms of like you know going out and writing and just like I feel like for someone who’s privileged as me I feel like that was my struggle

 

Mirthell: I think another great idea and we have done this before and we’ve alluded to it is helping others

 

Shalom: right 

 

Mirthell: you have some share it with somebody else just likes how we were saying like when we got our card we made sure that our neighbors were eating too sharing with others is what’s going to get us all through this so yeah sharing with others becomes really important and I’m a big believer in communities coming together because you know somebody may have one thing with which was food another person may be a mechanic and they can you know help someone  have to like bring back the barter system to sort of you know help one another in our communities

 

Rita: right and I think what you were saying about helping others with your knowledge like for example if you are someone that knows how to garden helping your neighbor

 

Mirthell: right 

 

Rita: if you are someone who knows how to fix cars helping you know someone else because I think there’s a lot of knowledge that could help you save money if we kind of pulled our knowledge together not just our resources right and so that we don’t have to be dependent on spending money every time now that being said there are people who are going to need work so there are people like for example our handyman that we use he has been a friend of the family now for years and so I’m not saying like I’m going to go like take his job or anything like that but you know he has a lot of knowledge so he might be able to if he wanted to like help us pass on the information and help others so it’s a really it’s a balancing act you know you want people to still be able to work but then also there are just times where you just don’t have the money and you need something done you know fixed or food or something like that 

 

Mirthell: and at the end of the day I think that it’s important to have your faith it’s important to believe that better is yet to come you know this is not a doomsday situation where we’ll never come back we’ll never be able to spring back from this we truly believe that things are going to get better soon one day it’s going to get better and what you want to do is you want to be the right type of person make sure that you have the right type of heart where you’re helping others loving others being kind being considerate because you know we’re going to get through this but we’re going to get through this being good people 

 

Sinead: yeah

 

Shalom: amen

 

Rita: right

 

[Music]

 

Mirthell: so I’d like to share a story uh with our audience um sort of like a closing thought 

 

Rita: okay

 

Mirthell: and um it’s all about your attitude it’s about your attitude because we have to have the right attitude as we’re going into these times so when I and Rita first met and after we had decided that we were gonna get married and we were preparing for our the wedding we went to our a person that would make us a cake it was actually in the south where we got married and this particular lady um invited us over to the home and she had like a whole bunch of cakes like sample cakes spread out for us and we tasted each one of these sample cakes and we were like okay we want this one and I think we decided to go with a rum cake right?

 

Rita: yes

 

Mirthell: but it wasn’t the rum cake that I am accustomed to 

 

Rita: yeah it was better

 

Mirthell: ah that’s what she thinks

 

Rita: it was good it was good 

 

Mirthell: there’s a Jamaican rum cake that is called black cake where it’s thick saturated it’s like

 

Rita: no, it’s not good 

 

Mirthell: it’s delicious

 

Rita: it’s not good at all 

 

Mirthell: and then it has this is like white icing with like these little

 

Rita: it tastes like a fruit cake with alcohol in it

 

Shalom: ew

 

Mirthell: it’s just divine so I thought when she said rum cake I thought I was gonna get that cake

 

Rita: no we got the good rum cake the one that’s

 

Mirthell: the fluffy white cake

 

Rita: I don’t even know how to describe it it’s like a regular cake okay with the rum flavor and it’s so good it was so moist and it was so good

 

Mirthell: anyhow

 

Shiloh: Was it really rum?

 

Rita: it was rum flavored 

 

Mirthell: rum-flavored it 

 

Shiloh: Was it actually rum?

 

Mirthell: it’s rum-flavored it’s not it doesn’t have the alcohol content 

 

Shiloh: Was it actual rum when you guys were together before I was born?

 

Mirthell: yes it was rum that had a flavor

 

Rita: What does that even mean?

 

Sinead: He wants to know, was it a rum?

 

Mirthell: Were we drinking? No, we’re not drinkers 

 

Sinead: Did you get drunk off your wedding cake?

 

Mirthell: we didn’t get drunk off of it bakes out 

 

Shasha: you can’t get drunk it’s a rum cake 

 

Rita: you know what it was like it’s like the rum cake we get on we used to get when we cruised because

 

Shiloh: that’s what I was saying because I didn’t want you guys to think that I was talking about the rum cake we had like did you actually have 

 

Rita: no no we had that same sort of rum cake what’s the rum cake we usually get on the cruise

 

Mirthell: it’s like

 

Sinead: Tortuga

 

Rita: yes oh my god it’s so good

 

Mirthell: Guys it’s like that kind of rum cake.

 

Shalom: y’all if I was there I would just reject both your cakes I do not like rum 

 

Mirthell: oh well yeah you wouldn’t, you would reject that

 

Rita: You like the rum cake we get from on cruises don’t you?

 

Mirthell: you don’t like that rum cake? How about the Jamaican black rum cake?

 

Shalom: no I don’t

 

Mirthell: yes?

 

Rita: nobody likes that

 

Mirthell: oh common

 

Shalom: never like that every time the church would 

 

Rita: and I know I probably offended every single Jamaican out there I’m just kidding

 

Shalom: she’s Jamaican

 

Rita: right my grandmother my grandmother’s father is Jamaican so

 

Shalom: guess what she only found this out this year so, she grew up peeking Jamaican

 

Shiloh: That’s like calling dad Irish.

 

Rita: he is his grandfather’s Irish 

 

Mirthell: but i really want to tell myself so anyhow when we were eating the cake she was giving us a story and she was telling us the story about how she gathered all of these things together all of these ingredients together to make the cake the day before and she’s talking about how she was so stressed out because she knew that she had to have all the materials to bake for us and all sorts of stuff so she was really stressed out and so she was telling the story of why she’s so tired now so what happened was the day before she was at the grocery store she drove there she went in got all the materials bought them and came out and found out that her car was stolen right so so she’s sitting there panicking and she’s looking in the parking lot and she’s just looking everywhere looking everywhere it’s like where is my car oh my goodness i don’t know where my car is oh i already i am behind on making all these cakes i got people coming i can’t believe this and then she calls the cops and she’s like listen someone stole my

The car they took a report and when they took the report she said oh you know it was a honda civic and they were just like a van

 

Rita: it was a van

 

Mirthell: no it was a car, it was a car that was

 

Rita: oh yeah that’s right yeah 

 

Mirthell: yeah it’s like a honda civic or something like that yeah yeah and so she was just like this honda civic and they were like oh yeah that that car goes missing a lot like there’s a lot of people that are breaking those cars so I understand why people want honda’s it was back in it was back in the 90s and hondas were like really good 

 

Rita: that was it 

 

Mirthell: like our first cars

 

Shalom: yeah all we would have was hondas 

 

Rita: right we love honda 

 

Mirthell: so so they took the report and she was sitting on the curb and then the cops after they took her report and everything the cops are like would you like us to drop you home and she said no it’s okay I’ll just have my daughter come and pick me up so she calls her daughter and she’s just like um you know honey could you come and pick me up you know because you know someone stole our car and she’s like the mom you didn’t drive the car you drove the van and right beside her where she was sitting was her van she literally was beside her van the entire time writing a report about a car that was stolen that was not stolen it was sitting at home

 

Shalom: I remember you telling this story 

 

Mirthell: and I was just like it just goes to show you that your mentality your mind can play tricks on you if you wake up and you’re like this is the worst thing or I’m going through the worst time you know you’re already setting yourself up for failure you can be having a tough time but it’s your perspective your mind how you choose to look at it can begin to shape your day so because she thought she had a bad day her day went from bad to worse but if she had the right mentality about the challenges that she had to face she might have had the clarity of thought to remember oh you know what I got my van she wouldn’t have had to go through all that stuff with a police officer so I just want to share that with you guys because we just want to encourage you to have the right mentality no matter what you’re facing you know um have that optimistic faithful perspective that you know what things are not the best or things may not be the best but it’s going to work out.

 

Rita: right 

 

Mirthell: it’s going to work out for us and we’re going to make a plan we are going to have a great attitude about this right we are going to survive this thing 

 

Rita: together and we’re going to do it together and we’re going to do it as a community and we’re going to help others and when you come with the right mentality and the right attitude your day won’t go from bad to worse your day will go from pretty challenging time to brighter days 

 

Shalom: because remember your car is always right next to you on the curb

 

Mirthell: exactly so um that’s that’s my story thanks everyone for joining us we really enjoyed our time we hope you did too here on the onyx family we love to tell the story feed the soul make you laugh heal the heart join us once again on Spotify

 

Rita: apple podcast um youtube anywhere where you listen to podcasts or you can watch us here on our channel all right guys

 

Everyone: bye