Guest: Suzy Waldo

Teabags, I’m so excited for this week’s guest because I have so much respect for librarians.  They are, in my opinion, the final level adults in the room.  Today at my kitchen table I'm joined by Suzy Waldo, who is a librarian, among many other things.

Suzy is the city kid to my suburban kid, and joins me to talk about the evolution of Pittsburgh neighborhoods, her days a bike messenger, and her path to becoming a librarian for the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh.  She also chats about being passionate about her neighborhood and community, long distance cycling, the many times she's almost died, and setting up your grandma's iPad.  This episode could easily be titled "The Many lives (and near deaths) of Suzy Waldo" or "How I've Traumatized Small Children."

Get cozy!

Intro riff by Dale Lytle (concert husband).

All content edited (I use that term very loosely) by Karen Shaak.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Teabags. I am so excited for this week's guest because librarians are like the final level adults in the room. And today at my kitchen table is Susie Waldo, who is a librarian, among many other things. Susie joins me to talk about all things Pittsburgh, her days as a bike messenger, and how she became a librarian. Spoiler alert, she was tired of being cold. She also chats about being a xennial, how Puck from the Real World ruined the bike messenger profession for everyone, and how being a librarian is a lot like being a bartender or a priest. And because a couple of her very close friends prepped me with some additional questions, Susie spills tea on all of the time she's almost died. Get cozy. So you're you're very solid, we check.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Yeah, it's technically um a xennial. The organ trail is that organ trail generation.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Okay. When does that start? I think 77.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

77. Interesting. It's like 77 to 80. It's like kids who had computers in their classrooms, but it didn't do anything except play the organ trail. That's right. That makes a ton of sense then. Yeah. I mean my classroom didn't have it, but presumably someone's did. Yeah. Who had computers in their classrooms? Like I didn't. Once I hit high school, my my high school had a lab of Macs. Okay. Like, you know, we're like first generation. Yeah. And there was no internet, so they weren't connected to anything except each other.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Yeah. I think the first computer lab I kind of remember seeing was maybe college.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Yeah, pit for me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Same. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

I had a word processor.

unknown 1:34

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

People who are younger or listening to this are like, what the fuck did you have?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

I know you couldn't, you could never go back and read anything.

unknown 1:44

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

What a terrible idea that was. It was like worse than a typewriter.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

It really, I mean, you're better off just writing by hand or using a typewriter for sure. It's funny though, when I hear when I heard you talk about having sex ed like right smack in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, it took me back to um, I had a one of my friends that I who recorded with me. We started talking about like all things Gen X and and the fear sort of that we all kind of grew up with. And we sort of decided like that I should put together a panel episode of Gen Xers. Oh my god. Like maybe three or four of us to sit around and actually have that conversation, like the weird fear-based things that we like the satanic panic.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

And I mean, there was a point where my parents would have been thrilled if I just got pregnant. Mine definitely were. Like way to not get AIDS, kid. Like it was scary. It was so scary.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I'll have to keep you in mind for my my Gen X panel. Because I think we should have a Xennial on the panel too. I am, yeah. And I'm a I'm yeah, I'm considered young Gen X. And see, I'm like middle of the road Gen X, because I was 74.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

And what is it? 65?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

65.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Yeah. And my husband's 73. Okay. So every once in a while we have a weird, like, I'm like, what are you doing, man? That's crazy. Like he does like a very solidly genite thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

And I'm like, Yeah. Stop it. I might have to have you both. He's the most interesting person I know, so highly recommend. It's so funny. You all say that about each other.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

But we all, yeah, but we always, you know, like I can tell in the way he ways I pick up technology and he doesn't necessarily. Okay. Or like he just, he's over it. Yeah. And I'm more just like, all right, here's another new stupid thing I have to learn, and I just learn it.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

That kind of makes sense. Yeah. There is a little bit of a mixed bag for us, I think, because we've had to do it every single time. I think the only thing I didn't grow up with technology-wise were eight tracks, but it was like everything else after that. So we've had to redo our music libraries like over and over and over again. How many VCRs and then Blu-rays? And that's like just in entertainment tech. That's not even like computers and shit. So exactly.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

I I do not have the capacity to learn one more form of social media.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

No.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

So anything else comes out, I don't care. I'm missing it. I'm I'm done with that. I I totally am on board with perimenopause, done with the social media apps. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

Yeah, it's like, is it actually a Gen X thing or is it just perimenopause where we're like, you know what? I hate everything. Yeah. Exactly. I'm hot. I'm hot. I'm cranky. I don't know how this works.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

My road rage. My road rage, which sounds like depression in the car.

unknown 4:35

I know. I know.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Oh, well, I am so happy to have you here and chatting live in person. Um, before we get started, I would love it if you would just share a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Well, hi, my name is Susie Waldo. I am a native Pittsburger. I have a wonderful spouse named Walter. I'm a librarian. I'm a bike rider. I have a lot of cats, um, which is a very, I think, typical librarian thing. You are holding up a stereotype. I am. Oh, I'm doing, I'm doing it hardcore too. And I am I'm super psyched to be here. I I I'm gonna thank CJ and Jason for recommending me. Yeah. Um, I really appreciate it. It's super nice to meet you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

And uh no, I'm just psyched. I'm excited to be here. Awesome. Yeah, and you actually talked about a couple of different things that I want to make sure that we talk about today. So as Susie mentioned, Jason and CJ recommended her. And if the teabags who haven't listened yet, please go back. I implore you and listen to CJ McDermott's episode and Jason Hill's episode, and you'll understand how I now have this pipeline into the most interesting people in the world. So you said you're a native Pittsburgh. What kind of kid were you growing up?

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Um I think, well, we you know, we've had the Gen X conversation. So, like feral. I was This is my favorite word, by the way. It's true. It is. You know, you you went outside as soon as you you had your bowl fruit loops, or in my mom's case, like we're something, no sugar cereal at my mom's house. Um and you went outside and you didn't come back until it was dark. And you and it was so funny because growing up I had one roll and it was a curfew. But it was literally like I was in McKee's port. But as long as I got back by 11, no one, you know, they didn't care where you were. Yeah, it was amazing. Um, it was a really I was a scrappy kid. I I was fighty, I liked to fight. I was like athletic, but sort of like angry about it. How like I like now I need to understand what that's like alternative athletic. Like, I didn't want I was good, I was really good at softball. Okay, but also like I wanted to listen to Depeche Mode and the cure. Sure. Somebody once told me I am very similar to Natalie from Yellow Jackets. That's that's a good one. I'm right, I don't know about that. Um, but flattered nonetheless, I guess. Um I did I haven't eaten any people, so that's you know a lot of people. I think that's a that is already you're like a step above. And I think like a lot of people, um like kids who grew up in the city, I was I was hung out with a lot of criminals and I saw a lot of stuff that probably kids my age were definitely not supposed to see or hear or know about. Can you give an example? For sure. So do you remember underage clubs? Sure. Okay, so there was one in Westview, which is like a the northern Pittsburgh borough, called Club Nitro, which I loved. I love to dance. I was not a big drinker or drug user when I was in high school and younger. What about now? I'm kidding. Give me all the drugs now. But for example, uh, those were nights because the the club closed at midnight where I was allowed to come home late because I was somewhere special, and someone's mom usually picked us up or we took a bus home. And we we saw some gang activity where someone ran someone over. Oh, okay. And then backed up and ran back over them. Very 100%. This person was dead in front of a bunch of like 14-year-olds, and we just went about our night, you know, and I I I think I still think about that occasionally and I'm like, what on earth was that? What happened there? Um, because it was really intense for a bunch of kids, and then you think we're the challenger generation. For the teabags who are not aware of what that means, explain that. So when I was in the second, I was in the second grade, I think, when it happened, uh Christy McCollow. Krista McCollow was a teacher going to space, and it was a huge thing, and it was in highlights and it was a big deal, and all the schools rolled a television into your classroom to watch the challenger, and it blew up five seconds after takeoff. Yep. And they all died. Yes. And instead, and no one, and then they just put took the TV away. And I mean, the joke is like gave you a math test, but that's really what happened. It is. I was like collective trauma, yes, that's never been addressed.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

And I don't know what's better or worse, honestly. There I know that there are a lot of people from our generation who are like, wow, things were so much better when we were growing up. And it's like, were they though? I mean, I wouldn't trade it. I'm glad for the experiences that I've had, right? But at the same time, do we maybe need to do a better job protecting kids? Like, maybe we've overcorrected now. I and I get sort of that sentiment, but yeah, I mean I definitely yeah, I think we've overcorrected. Yeah, like but it wasn't right. Like, I don't, it was definitely not normal to just go back about your school day after you just watched people blow up. Yeah, and not they didn't make it to space. They did not make it in the sky. They just blew up in the sky. There was no space for those people.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

No, yeah, no, I think we did we didn't get comfort. No. That's the word I would use. We no one no we were never comforted about anything. So, and I think that's why there are a ton of people my age who are like, Yeah, I was scrappy and I was fighty. Yeah, and I started smoking very young. And I drank, but unfortunately, the very first time I ever drank, I got arrested. So I didn't drink again. I didn't drink again. So you learned a lesson. I really learned my lesson. You learned a lesson very, very much so. But yeah, so yeah, that was the kind of kid I was. But I was, you know, I was a writer. I found out years and years later that I'm actually more of an introvert than an extrovert. Okay. And that explains a lot of what was going on with me in high school, where I, you know, I wanted to be part of things, but I'm also just not a joiner.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

And it's a really hard thing to sort of reconcile. You know, like I want to write and I want to be part of the literary magazine, but like I don't want to go to meetings every day.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

Yeah. Like, yeah. It's also, do you find yourself sort of being more of an observer? Or have you have you kind of corrected for that now too? Like, are you would you consider yourself a little bit more extroverted now?

SPEAKER_02 11:13

I'm more extroverted by default. Okay. Um, because of my job, sure, because of of you know, activities I do in my community, you know, I'm I'm part of the chamber of commerce and and that kind of thing. It's just as an adult, I have the tools where you know, if if I know, like for example, this week, like I had to work late Monday, I have this tonight, and I have a thing on Friday, I know that's enough things. Yeah. And I'm not gonna schedule any more things. Yes. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Because you now need to recharge.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Right, yeah. So when you're a kid, no one gives you that that flexibility, you know. So uh uh no one can figure out why I'm melting down on the 4th of July. And it's like it's because I'm so overstimulated and I've been at Point State Park for 12 hours. Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Like I'm losing my shit. It's time to go home. Yeah. One of the things that we had talked about in our background convo really was centered around you growing up, like it in the city of Pittsburgh, but also, I mean, I know you said your mom was sort of more in the suburbs, but still pretty close to the city, right? Like you're sure. Yeah, not very far outside of the city. And we talked about how you've been able to sort of see over time like the decline and resurgence of some of the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, which I find fascinating as a person who I don't live in the city. The only time I have ever in my life lived in the city was maybe a year or two of college and then still moved outside and commuted then um to school. So I'm just curious, like from your perspective, what are some of those things that you've seen over time that maybe surprised you because it like came back around? And what are some of the things that maybe you kind of wish hadn't changed, like had maybe stayed the same?

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Oh, sure. Well, so I grew up, um, my dad and um actually my dad and my mom's whole family is lived in in sort of the Woods Run area of Northside. Okay. Um, which I guess they call, I don't know what they call it now. Brighton Heights, maybe or Marshall Shade Land. But when I was a kid, we just called it Woods Run. You know, my mom literally grew up on Woods Run Avenue. And it was an amazing place to be a kid because there were tons of other kids. Yeah, there was a park, there was a library, there was a basketball court. You could walk to the pool, you could walk to Riverview Park. Up until I was a teenager, there was actually a public swimming pool right next to um Western Penitentiary. So, which is where I did my swim test and I passed. And I and I, you know, and I don't know if it was, I don't, you know, because I'm not an urban planner or anything like that, I don't know what came, I don't know if white flight came first. I don't know, I just I just know the neighborhood like went from like us being able to walk to pirate games and uh, you know, to the stadium and walk to West Park and uh walk to the pizza place in the corner store and all that stuff where sort of the crack epidemic hit the north side really, really hard. Yeah. Um, like the Mexican War streets, for example, just went so far gone. Um, you know, there was Charles Street, super dangerous, Oliver High School got super dangerous, and and all of those families left. And the ones that didn't ended up sort of trapped. So, like that the houses I grew up in on that street are either gone or just falling down. Yeah. And I do feel like that area is coming back a little bit, like the Davis Avenue Bridge, pedestrian bridge just reopened, which is a huge deal for that area. Yeah. Um, I have friends buying buying houses there. Okay, they're gorgeous. Yeah, you know, so I feel like that area is coming back really nicely. Obviously, the Mexican War Street's, you know, one of the most desirable zip codes in Pittsburgh. It's crazy. Like if you're not from here, you don't even realize like when you've seen that neighborhood go from like an amazing, thriving neighborhood to like a horrible, crime-ridden, cracked in, you know, to what it is now. And I mean, I can't speak to gentrification. Sure. I don't, I don't know. I don't live, I haven't lived there in 30 years. Right. You know, I moved this, I moved out of my parents' house two days after I graduated from high school and I never moved back. So since June of 1995, I have lived in in the city. Yeah. Um, and I first lived in Squirrel Hill, which I liked, but I was a college student and I I wanted more college students. Of course. And I moved to South Oakland, okay, which I hated. Okay. And then eventually settled on the South Side, and I just never left. So were you still in school when you landed in the South Side? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I was in school for a long time. We'll get to that. We'll get there. I'm in school for for many, many neighborhoods. But I think, you know, you said other neighborhoods. You know, I remember when the strip district had Metropole and Rosebuds and was like a bumping place. You know, it was it was the first place I ever saw a concert without my parents. Yeah. It was, you know, as a young adult, the some of the first places I ever had a drink. Um, and it in, you know, what I guess it was just their turn in the barrel. And there was, you know, crime and and drug use and the whole neighborhood kind of, you know, the businesses moved out, and it was uh, you know, deserted, and then gentrification, and you know, now it's it's a totally different place.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

It really is, totally different vibe. It's interesting. I think part of my miss the original vibe. I will say that. Right, yeah, right. And I think that's part of what I'm so it just makes me so interested to hear some of your perspectives because I came here to go to college. So I was born in Pittsburgh, but I moved away when I was two, and then I moved back to go to school, and then we stayed. And I will say I kind of caught the tail end of all of that. The south side was actually the dicey spot, really. When I was in school, it was the other beehive. The other beehive was, I know RIP. I miss both beehives heartfully I know. Um, I God, I loved that place. I loved going into the one in Oakland and just studying. Like you would catch me there way more often than like the library. That's so silly. I never used the library in college. But I remember being able to like catch the bus and go down to the strip district and hit Metropole and hit Rosebud, and I saw I saw fish at Metropole right up against the stage. Just like walked in, grabbed an ashtray with my smokes on the stage with just like right there, right in front of me before the diction. Yeah, crazy. And then it was like it all went away. Yeah. And I don't have super strong opinions on gentrification. I there are aspects of it that are very bad. Then there are other areas where I think it's like, well, it's it's made it really cool. Like the War Streets, I would say, for example. I mean, it's a lovely spot, and like there's defin definitely different like cultural things that you can do kind of in that whole area. Oh, for sure. Yeah. That are really awesome.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

So I mean, I remember when I was a child, the children's arts festival was in that park.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

You know, and I and I, you know, in the ice, the ice ball, you know, Gasanyayas, yeah, and in the aviary, the children's museum, yeah, Allegheny Center Mall. I mean, that used to be a mall. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

I used to, we used to take a bus to that mall. Is that so Allegheny Center Mall? Is that like where Nova Place is now? That was a mall. That was oh my gosh. And it was a real mall. I mean, there was like a Sears okay. I mean, it was a mall mall. Yeah, and it's all like businessy now.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Yeah, yeah. It was a great mall. It had a great arcade. The arcade. Did you ever hear Pappins restaurant? There was a Pappins mall. That was my grandma's favorite. Yeah. And it was the only mall you could get to on a bus. Yeah. You could take the tea to South Hills Village, but that was a lot of work.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

Yeah. That was like a special occasion mall. That would take extra time. You're not, you're not necessarily gonna hit your curfew at the end of the night if you have to take the tea anywhere. I've actually encountered some Pittsburgh-based folks on social media who like to throw shade at the city for sort of losing the arts and being more tech and healthcare focused. And so I guess what I would love to know from your perspective, because you are super involved in your community, your husband, he's like kind of a punk rocker, is that right? Correct. I mean, yeah. So there's an element of the arts that he probably follows that he would have some perspective on as well within the city. Like, do you feel like we've lost some arts here? Or do you feel like it's always there and just people don't know where to find shit anymore?

SPEAKER_02 19:44

I think I think it's there, people don't know how to find shit, but because we're literally faced with a fire hose of information every single day of our lives, yeah. That it's so easy to not know that there is a huge community doing this weird little thing that you love. Yeah, like um, I got really into doing mosaics because I worked with a community project for the Oakley Street steps, um, which is amazing. It's this huge mosaic project. But I would have never done that kind of artwork if it hadn't been for that community program. Right. Um, and I'm certainly not like an I'm not selling anything, it's just my own art that I like to do. Sure. But I feel like there's tons of stuff like that happening, and it's just hard to find because it is it's not centralized. Yeah, we're very fragmented. There used to be neighborhoods where it was like, here's where all the art stuff is. Yeah. You know, Southside had so many galleries. Um, you know, Silver Eye and I can't even remember them all. There were a lot of galleries on the South Side. Yeah. Um, and I feel like a lot of that stuff has moved up to Allentown, it's moved to Lawrenceville. Yeah. It's, you know, and I and I get that we had to be, you know, tech and meds because people need to make money too. Sure. We need a tack, we need tax base.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

Well, we needed something after we lost steel.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

So and as much as I love like live performance, sure, wasn't gonna replace steel mills.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Probably not. So um, but I mean we have such a we have an amazing theater community, you know. We have the city theater, we have the O'Reilly, and then we have so many little neighborhood, um, you know, new Hazlitt. And so I think if you're interested, you can find it.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

Yeah, but it's almost like you have to know, but you have to go looking for it. Yeah, yeah. That's fair. Um, you had a really cool job, and you mentioned it in your intro in your 20s as a bike messenger. Yeah. How did that come about?

SPEAKER_02 21:40

So we were talking about the strip district, and I, you know, one of the uh reasons I really love the old vibe is because in my very first year of college, I delivered produce for a tiny little produ wholesale produce store in Squirrel Hill, and I used to go to the yacht. Which was like the produce yards. Yeah. Like four in the morning to get produce. And it was such a really amazing, weird little part of Pittsburgh. And it makes me sad that cell phones didn't exist then because I could have had the most amazing photos. Yeah. But honestly, my boss, who in retrospect really was only a couple years older than me. Right. And I just was over it. Yeah. And he and he said something to me about my attitude, and I freaked out and I quit. And then I was like, shit, I live by myself. I don't need a job. Like, I don't have any food or money. Um, and there was literally an ad in the classified section of the newspaper for this company called American Expediting, which was on the North Shore. And I borrowed someone's Huffy in a book bag. Wow. And I applied and I got it. And basically, they just give you a pay, they gave me a pager and said, when we paid you, call us. So I'd and there were still payphones. So I called them and I'd get a call and I'd go do it. The problem was that company was not from here. They had almost no business. So I was making no money. So it turns out there were a whole bunch of companies in Pittsburgh. You know, there was Courier Express, there was Jet Messenger, there was Triangle Messenger. So I worked for Courier Express and American Expediting at the same time. Oh wow. And then and then summer ended, and I went back to my student working job, which I did not like. And I went back to school, which I also did not like. And I lasted about a semester, and then I came back and I went to core back to Courier Express in January. Yeah. As a bike messenger in the middle of winter. Winter. And then I just never stopped that job. I did move to a different company called Jet, where I made way, way, way more money. Um, I actually made a really decent living there. It's all commission-based. Yeah. So if you're willing to go to work and you know, I was never on time, but I'd stay late. So, you know, but I wasn't the worst messenger ever. Uh, but it was consistent, you know.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

Did you feel like it was a good job for you knowing the city well, or did you end up getting to know the city a lot better just from the yeah?

SPEAKER_02 24:13

So I I definitely was humbled. Um, I really thought I knew the city. Yeah. And then, you know, my first couple calls, I was like, I have no, I don't have the slightest clue. And they were from Philly, so when they gave me directions, they gave me the worst directions ever. Yes. So it was like, you can get to Craig Street if you just take Center Avenue on a bike. Right. Like just envision, right? Yeah. So now, yes, I have a really, really close, intimate knowledge of the city. Yeah. Really, really, you know. Um, I love this city so much, and I loved being a bike messenger. Yeah. It was um, you know, I know like Puck from The Real World ruined it for everybody, but most messengers were just like pretty chill, cool people, like any job. It was the freedom was really nice. I was never ever depressed.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

You're just out and like you're ex you exercising. Exactly. Um, which actually kind of leads me to um, because Jason was like, you have to ask her about he was like, you know, she wasn't just a bike messenger, like she's done like long distance bike rides. And so now, of course, I need to know. So, like you do like bicycling, like actual cycling.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, like being a bike being a bike messenger, there's so many people that say they could never do it. If you can ride 10 blocks, you can do it. It's not you're not putting in hundreds of miles a day, you're bopping from place to place to place.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Um other than the stress of probably dealing with traffic, which would be a bit of a nightmare. But it's terrible.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Yeah. Um, the advent of cell phones did not improve traffic.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

I can't imagine it would have.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Um but no, so now, yeah, uh years later, I sort of re like re met or re-hooked up with a bunch of people that I was messenger with, and we started doing these camping trips on the Gap Trail, yeah, which turned into like, well, now we're gonna ride our bikes from Homestead, Florida to Key Largo and Key Largo to Key West, and we're gonna camp and we're gonna ride back. So, you know, I've done that ride a couple times. Um I very I did a bike ride from Pensacola to New Orleans, wow, which I do not recommend. How far is that? It's only like 250 miles or so. Only. But it's awful. Yeah. Because like all that stuff they say about Alabama and Mississippi is just true. Mississippi is the most miserable place I've ever set foot in.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

In what way? Um, the people were miserable, the food was awful, the climate was terrible, they don't maintain their roads. So the shoulder of the roads, everywhere else I've ever ridden is somewhat maintained. Like at least mowed, not in Mississippi.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

We were riding through weeds. I would have guessed climate for sure. I don't know that I would. I've never been in Mississippi.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

That's don't that you're good.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

I know, but I have to because we have this goal to go to all 50 states. And what that means is it can't just be like a like a pass-through. Like we actually have to stop and like spend money. Go to the loxy. Okay. Go to the beach. Okay. Don't don't do the golf.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

Don't get in there.

SPEAKER_03 27:15

Okay. All right. Noted. But how do you do a 250-mile? I mean, I know people do it, so I'm sure I sound silly when I ask it, but seriously, like how many, how many miles a day do you ride? Honestly, that ride we did 50 miles a day.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Really?

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Any more than that, it would have been that hurts my legs. It would have been a total nightmare. Um, like like Pascagoula, Mississippi. It I found out later that we rode our bikes through two Murdoch capitals of the country, which well done, Suze. That's also my superpower, is finding the worst neighborhood in any city in America. But um, like, like I had a panic attack after we rode through there because it was so scary and such a nightmare. But like, for example, if you do the gap trail, so from here to DC, it's like 300 and some miles. But it's all on a trail. Yeah. And it's lovely, you know, it's really pretty. Um hard. Yeah. Like you have to you have to have some capacity for suffering, you know. I mean, because that hurts. It does hurt. Yeah. Even if you're in decent shape, it's you're you're still after 60, 70 miles on a bike. Yeah. Your legs are gonna be tired. Yep. Things are gonna hurt. But there is this huge feeling of satisfaction when you get to the very end, um, which I guess is maybe what it feels like to win a Super Bowl or something. I remember rolling in, I because I just did the DC trip last year for the second time. And I I remember rolling into like Georgetown, like the mile zero, and uh turned out for what came on by little John on my headphones.

unknown 28:46

Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

And I started crying. Oh wow so there's a lot going on. You can overcome very like ha ha. So yeah, you just yeah, you just you can you can go a lot of miles on pride. Not pride.

SPEAKER_03 28:59

If you're if you're me, I guess. I was gonna say, because I don't know how proud I am. Like I've been very super excited one time when I biked for 12 miles and I was like, but is anybody start somewhere? I mean, everybody did their first 12 miles, their first 20 miles, you know. That is true. The gap trail, is that the one that starts like in is that in Maryland? No, it starts right at Market. It starts in point like here. Point State Park. Point State Park. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Yeah, wow. That's mile zero. And then basically you just follow, you follow the Mon all the way to McHugh's port. Okay. And then you follow the yacht. Gotcha. All the way, you know, past Ohio Powell, past Confluence. Yep, yeah. It's beautiful. It is I recommend anybody on earth do it.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

It's I feel like it's so I think we have we've talked about because we always strap the bikes on when we go to Shinkatique. And so we've talked about like, what if we just took an extra day and there's that point that you hit in Maryland, and I can't remember if it's near like Hancock or Hagerstown or whatever, where I think that trail, like you're you're riding through, right? It's Hancock. Okay, and it is part of that trail.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

We stayed at like the Hancock Hotel.

SPEAKER_03 29:57

Okay, yeah. So you went from Pittsburgh to to there, like, and and that was a stopping point for you?

SPEAKER_02 30:03

That was one of them. One of them. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

I think we did five nights.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Connellsville, Confluence, Cumberland, Hancock, Harper's Ferry. Okay. So, and then DC. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I'm ever gonna grow up to do that, but it is very cool. And I imagine you kind of have like a nice little community that you that gets created, right, out of the shared riding.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

You know, I think my group, because we are sort of like the island of misfit toys, you know, it's like former messengers and then like people in bands, and yeah, and at this point, none of us even know how we know each other. Yeah, that's the best though. Like, I don't think e one of us even considers themselves like a cyclist. Really? You know, and we kind of make a little bit of fun of the people dressed in head-to-toe spandex. Yeah, oh my god. I was that was my next question.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Do you do spandex or I don't.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

No, no. I'm fine with just shorts and a t-shirt. It's you know fair enough. It's not the Tour de France. Right. You're like, I'll get, you know, I'll get there. Um, and I would also say a lot of the times I'm the only woman. And and I feel like I don't think I've ever said this out loud before, but I feel like I'm representing all of us. So like I can't complain. You're carrying torture, suffer. I can't be upset. I, you know, I can't, no one can carry my stuff.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

Like it has to be, even if I'm gonna, even if my arm is broken, you know, like yes, and it's that's a little exhausting, but well, but I it kind of now I think becomes a little bit clearer that whole point of pride thing, you know. You you really can go 60 miles on pride. You can. Oh, you can. Um, and so okay, so bike messenger, you kind of did through college, and as you mentioned, you took a little bit of a meandering path through college. I did, yeah. And so talk to me a little bit about like what did you originally go to school for?

SPEAKER_02 32:02

So I so I I will preface all this by saying I hate I never liked school ever. Okay. Like I didn't like the second grade, I didn't like the sixth grade, I didn't like high school. Like I didn't like any of it. I hate it. Could you find like even one thing?

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Like, did was there any teacher that was a good idea?

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Oh, for sure. Okay, for sure. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. No, I had lots of really good teachers, and and my experience, my actual experience wasn't bad. Just hated it. I just hated it. Yep, fair. Um, I hated getting up, I hated being told what to do, like I just hated it. And I I initially didn't even want to go, and I didn't even apply to college until March of my senior year. Yeah. So it's a little late. A little late, a little late, you know. And I actually got accepted to Pitt Maine somehow. Okay. And then uh they accepted me, and I was just like, what? Um, and I initially was pre-law. I really wanted to be a lawyer because I was a good writer and I really liked to read, and I thought that would be a really good fit. And then I took pre-law classes and I was like, oh, this is not for me. Yeah. Not for me. The professors were all just such slimy dicks. I just couldn't. I was like, I can't do this for a living. Yeah. Um, so I my major ended up being just writing. Okay. And I took the journalism track, which I I actually was I had I had a really good grade point average in my major, and I and I was a I had a really good grade point average as a journalism student. But you know, introvert.

unknown 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

And the fact that I kept making people cry. Or I kept, you know, for school projects, I'd interview someone, I'd make them cry. Or I you know, I had the editor of like in Pittsburgh furious at me because of my my article about him. Okay. And it was like, I in retrospect, I was probably doing really good. Right. But I hated the way that made me feel. Sure. I was like, I don't want this random dude to hate me. I don't, you know, I just followed the directions of the assignment. I don't want to make this hardware store owner cry because this business is closing. Like I felt awful about it. So I graduated and was just like, well, the end of that. Yeah, you know, it's just eight years to graduate.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Yeah. I did full-time, part-time, part-time, full-time. I just went. Yeah. Yeah. What kept you going? I didn't, I had to go. I didn't know how to do anything else. I was gonna be, you know, I'm part of that generation where it was like, if you don't have a degree, you're worthless, you know. Yes. Which I probably should have just been a carpenter and been done with it.

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Isn't that I would have been way happier? Yeah. Again, again, the perils of our generation was we were part of that generation where parents were telling everybody it was like you were less than if you didn't go to college. Yeah. That was such a thing for us.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

And what degree do you get with a writing degree?

SPEAKER_03 34:48

Yeah. It's so funny, there are so many parallels, by the way. I from the time I was like seven years old, I told people I wanted to be a lawyer. Um, English writing is one of my minors. Like I'm like, other than the fact that I'm not a librarian, we're like sisters. Oh sweet.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

My little only child heart saying.

SPEAKER_03 35:09

You have siblings.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Yeah, I yeah, I I mean it's so hard because I I really loved writing and I loved my writing classes, but I didn't like anything else around it. Yeah. You know, I I didn't I don't care about the history of jazz. Why are you making me take this class? Like, I don't care about biology.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

Why are you making me fail this class twice?

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Yes. I was the dumbass that took um like ancient Roman history and then the following semester took ancient Greek history to fulfill like gen eds. Oh yeah. I was like, why this is rocks for one and two.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

Geology one and two. That at least I think could have been. I like rocks. Like that could have been interesting. But ancient Greek and Roman history, Jesus. Like, that's I took four years of Latin.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

So Okay. Well, I was I was thinking about that on the drive over too. I why I wanted to tell you I took four years of Latin and now I can't remember it. Well, you it probably would have been I love you. That's about that's yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

What do you remember from Latin? Yeah. Oh, so it takes you eight years, but you get the degree and you you stayed a bike messenger like the whole time, yeah. Yeah, off and on for sure. Okay. So then how did you land on library science? So I was it was cold.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

That is the best way I can describe it. It was cold, and I was tired of working in the cold, you know, and I you know, I didn't know it at the time, but the library had had had really big terrible funding issues for a couple years and had just had a bunch of funding reinst reinstated. Okay, and was doing this giant hiring push. So I just applied because I needed a job, you know, which makes you know a library other librarians so mad. It's so hard to break into now. Sure. But at the time, they just needed bodies. You know, I'm sh right now, if I had applied with that same resume, there's no way I'd get hired. Right. But you know, but they were hiring in groups because they needed people so bad. So I started, you know, at the very bottom of the scale as a as a library clerk at the time. I think eight bucks an hour, maybe something like that. Which is still way better than what minimum wage. Right. And I had help I had health insurance for the first time as a you know, as a an adult. And I had a 401k, yeah, which blew, you know, which I didn't even know what the hell 401k was.

SPEAKER_03 37:32

Sure, I was like but it sounds very yes, you feel like you're checking boxes.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Yeah, I'm a grown-up. And I was I worked at the East Liberty branch um before East Liberty was East Side. And my first day, I was just like, why did no one tell me about this job? Like, I love this. I get to talk, I get to bullshit with people all day about books. I I get to do all this sort of anal retenive stuff, like straighten stuff up, like file stuff and put it in order, which I had no idea I love so much. Turns out I do. And and there was a purse snatching at the front desk. What? Like the first day. Well, like it was just so exciting. It's like exciting, it's intriguing. So much is happening. Yes, there's drama at the library. So I stayed there and I, you know, I got promoted nine months later, and I became a manager, and I've actually been a manager of some sort ever since. That's awesome. So so I'm honestly a tad burned out on the managing thing. But I wanted to be a librarian, and the only way to do that was to get a graduate degree. Yeah. And I was just like, God damn it. I thought I was done with this. Yeah. To the point where I I kind of told my mom, like, listen, I didn't go to my my undergrad graduation because it's pit. It's 10,000 people who cares. Yes. But if I do grad school thinking I'm never gonna do that, I'll do the graduation ceremony. Yeah, well. Um chickens come home to roots. Oh, they shorted hardcore to like a five-hour graduation ceremony. Yes. But I was lucky enough through Carnegie Library to get a full ride. That's really incredible. My grad my graduate degree was paid for. So that's incredible. Yeah. I honestly don't know if I would have gone if I had had to pay for it. Yeah. Now, did you do that in like the I did that like two two or three years? Two years? Two years part-time. And I actually did it. And I got like a 3.9 or something. That's awesome. I did really well. Yeah. So you hated school, but you were good at it. I was okay at it, yeah. Yeah. In this, I I just I finally had like an end point where I knew that what I was doing had a point. And that I think that made me focus a little bit more. I still wasn't a super great student, attendance-wise for sure. But I but there wasn't there was a reason I was doing it. And I think that made it a lot different from everything else that I had done before. Yeah. Also, I had my husband sort of kicking me in the ass and going, like, dude, go to go to school. Yeah. Like, we need money. Go we need money. Like, we want to buy a house someday. Like, get your shit together, go to class.

SPEAKER_03 40:00

You can't be feral forever. Exactly. Yeah. You know, despite our best efforts, you have to start.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

I just, I just was really, I was really lucky in a lot of ways when I hit CLP. Um because, like I said, a huge hiring, huge hiring event was happening. Um, my supervisor gave me a lot of leash to just sort of do whatever I wanted and experiment and find out what worked and and how I could help people. And um, she really kind of let me just do whatever I wanted.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

Yeah, it's very cool. Yeah, yeah. Timing is like it's so funny when I go back and think of like some of the key things that happened or more critical things, even if I didn't recognize it at the time, like in hindsight, you can kind of recognize like timing is everything. It's dumb, dumb luck. It's a lot of times. It was uh it was cold, and I didn't want to be on a bike anymore. What can I do in the warmth?

SPEAKER_02 40:58

What can I do that's indoors even?

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Maybe where I can read a little.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah, I did apply for coffee shops, okay. Um, because I had worked at a coffee shop earlier, and um I think it was there was a coffee shop called Tuscany or Tuscan, something like that on East Carson Street. Okay. And I I went to this interview and I'll I was hungover. And we were like an hour and a half into this interview at a coffee shop. Work at a goddamn coffee shop. Jesus. It was I remember it was a young, it was a guy younger than me, and he was just like, So why do you want to work in coffee? And I went, Jesus, dude. It's not NASA. I just need a job.

SPEAKER_03 41:38

Didn't get that one. I did not.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

But I still use that. Like it's not NASA. Yes, you know, it was insane.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

Why do you want to work in coffee? I just like I don't.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Because I don't want to starve.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

My friend.

unknown 41:50

I don't, because I don't.

SPEAKER_03 41:52

I would like to pay my bills. Yeah. Well, I love libraries. I love librarians. And I just I think I told you this, they really are. I told you this on the Zoom, and then even before we started recording, I was chatting a little bit about Shinkatiague. Like, I feel like librarians are, for me, at least now at my age, they're like the last adults in the room. Because I find now that I look around a lot and I'm like, oh fuck, it's me. I'm the adult in the room. And that's such bullshit. Exactly. Who put me in charge? Right? But librarians are kind of like final level bosses of the adult in the room. But when we chatted about it, you kind of compared librarians to bartenders or priests, which I also thought was actually a very cool analogy. Can you share examples of kind of what you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02 42:44

Oh, I mean, yeah. So I'm the manager and I, you know, and I have this lovely little office right as soon as you walk in the library. And I can't tell you how many regular customers I've had in the past, you know, I've worked at this branch for 13 years who l who literally just want to come and tell me they found a great lunch spot. Or show me pictures of their grandkids, or you know, give me a magazine that they get that they think I'll like. You know, I'm I'm very much part of people's lives. Yeah. You know, whether I'm whether I actually think I am or not. I know I I really am. Yeah. You know, but I you know, I've had customers uh pass away that I, you know, I've gone to their their viewings, and it's really um, you know, this actually just recently happened. And and also you get all the neighborhood gossip. Sure. And it's and I'm not gonna lie, it's fun. It is super fun. Other people's drama. Yeah, like other people's drama is amazing. You hear about how this person hates this person and this community group is mad at this community group, and you're just like, I can't believe this is insane.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Um and I get paid to be here in the past.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

I get paid to listen to this yeah, this soap opera that's happening on Carson Street right now. You know, this business owner hates this business owner, and yeah, it's super fun.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

Super fun. Yeah. I know. And it also helps that I live and work in the same neighborhood. Yes. And I actually do kind of want to talk about that too. But it's funny, just as you were saying that, it sort of reminded me I had chatted with um another guest for the podcast, owns her own little business in like a small town, and it's like a little almost grosser. But she actually said kind of the same thing where some days it people just pop in and they're not buying anything necessarily, or they're maybe grabbing a cup of coffee or whatever, but they just want to chat. And so she'll find herself like chatting, and it's like people needing community. And sure. Oh, I absolutely, yeah, you're like sort of at the center, right? Of as a librarian, you're a little bit of the center of a community.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

I actually had a uh a younger person that works for me say that that people my age seem to have a lot more in real life friends. You know, he he's he's he pointed out, he's like, you always have people coming to see you and say hi in person. And he's like, I can't remember the last time I saw like an actual friend of mine. Yeah. And I was just like, Well, I don't know, I don't know what to say about that. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

Go find a friend. Going out in these. There are so many bars and bars so many friends. Go find a friend. So many friends here.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Yeah, there's ruggers, there's the pole, there's you know, you can, it's easy. Yeah, it's very easy. If you live here in work here, yeah, you can't. Yeah, you know, people are gonna ask you for the bus schedule in Giant Eagle. Just it is what it is. That is true. People will give you books to return. Oh, yeah. Oh my god, for real? They just wow. I don't I helped a lady set up her iPad in my driveway because she knew I was the librarian, so she got me on my way to work. Yeah, and we set it up, you know, because parents, kids buy their parents all these electronics. Who do you think is setting them up, man?

SPEAKER_03 45:52

It's the librarian. It's us, it's not them.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

It's us. I'm setting up your grandpad. Oh my god, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 46:01

You are super connected to your community, which I, you know, obviously I think happens anyway, because you're a librarian, I'm sure is part of it. But would you have said, even if had you never gone into library science, would you still do you think you're curious about people? Like, do you still think that you would be as connected or involved in your community? Is that just like part of who you are?

SPEAKER_02 46:23

I think so. I I actually think I would be a little bit more connected, um, or maybe more involved in community stuff. But the fact is I help people all day long. Yeah. Um, by the time Saturday like cleanup day comes, I like I don't I'm tired. Yeah, you're like, I don't wanna I don't want to help anybody. I want to sit on my couch, yeah. I think but I think it's uh I feel like a little bit my my dad my dad didn't necessarily volunteer in the community. He was like he coached, okay, and uh he you know he coached a lot of sports and stuff, but I don't remember my dad like doing a cleanup or anything like that. But he but it always was important to him that you were part of the community. Like I'm I can't coach anything, but I can do this, I can volunteer for the step track, yeah. You know, I can sit at a tent and hand out water, I can be part of my community and help that way.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

Um, so I yeah, I think my dad a little bit made me realize that it was important that you sort of give back. Yeah, you know, as corny as it sounds. No, I think there's monetary donations because that's very easy.

SPEAKER_03 47:27

Yep, yeah, you know, yeah. It's I it again kind of going back to the whole like, you know, I grew I grew up a suburban kid. And in fact, where I went to high school, I would argue at the time was less suburban and more rural. Like if if you wanted to call it suburban, it would almost have been a suburb of Baltimore. I was in Pennsylvania, but right over the line from Maryland. And that was sort of where people moved when they didn't want to pay Maryland state taxes, was they they moved over the line. Gettysburg? No, further east of Gettysburg. I was in York County.

SPEAKER_02 47:59

Oh, okay. Yeah. They have the largest, or they used to, I don't know if they still do, the largest used book sale in the country.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

Really? I don't think I knew that. So there is something good about there. What there you go. But yeah, it's it's interesting to me when I think about like how we just have an utter lack of involvement in our community here. And and it's terrible because it's a lovely little community. And we used to when my kids were little and we ran the youth sports, and so we were very involved in fields and maintenance and cleanups and you know, um, like they would do every year, like a little town fair or whatever. And it was like once the kids got out of that, those ages, we just kind of stopped. And I don't know, it's funny, like we even now I couldn't tell you who most of my neighbors are. I know a handful of them, but we don't really engage with neighbors. Whereas what I miss about like even just my short time at Pitt, like you have to engage with people. There's like you don't have a choice, you don't have a choice, and you almost are forced to explore, like and it and exploration is fun, yeah. And so yeah, I just I don't have that. So I'm like absolutely fascinated.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

Yeah, and I I live on um the very last street of the slope, so I'm on the very top of the hill. Okay. Um, so I don't, it's not like I live right next door to the library, sure it's still my neighborhood, but uh when you know, when we when we were looking for houses, my mother-in-law, who is a gem, told my husband, if you make her move out of the south side, she's gonna be miserable. Yeah, you know, because we were looking at Brookline and we were looking at Brentwood because that because there was more room. Sure. And you could get you could get more house. Sure. Honestly, you know, for for the amount of money we had. Yeah. But I would have, she's right. Yeah. I would have been miserable. Yeah. I would have been I I would have been really sad without the community that I've I've built. And, you know.

SPEAKER_03 49:55

For for the teabags who are not Pittsburgh familiar, I do I try to do this occasionally where I I can or where I think it makes sense. The south side is sorry. I don't even think about it. There's someone in Germany going, what in the heck am I y'all talking about? I have a listener in Singapore. It's like Jason and CJ have the German listener. Sorry, Singapore person.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

She'll explain it.

SPEAKER_03 50:16

But the south side is it's so it's on the the other side, like if you're looking at the triangle of Pittsburgh, the south side is is opposite the triangle of Pittsburgh and all along the river. And you guys have it split, like I don't want to speak for your neighborhood, but there's the the Carson Street, which is where if you listen to CJ's episode, he does talk about the fact that I'm pretty sure at one point there were more bars per section of that street than like on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Um, so that's like Bar Row, or it used to be. It's less so now, I would say. And then you have the flats, right? So that's like that's like the area all right behind that main street that's like basically on the river, and then the slopes. So it goes up like a fairly big hill. Yep. Okay, and you're like kind of at the top of the hill. Very top. So you're almost like Mount Washington level, but not Mount Washington. Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. Okay. Setting the scene.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

So and we have a beautiful view. Um, we have a driveway, you know. Yeah. So we have all those things that we we could have gotten the suburbs when we just really lucked out with this house, to tell you the truth. Um, but like you said, we don't we have to know our neighbors. We don't get to not know our neighbors. No, we're on top of each other.

SPEAKER_03 51:27

Exactly. Um, and you have to learn how to get along. I think that's another thing that is removed for some of us out in the suburbs. You really don't have to. You can kind of hole up in your space and bitch about your neighbors in a way. Sorry about parking and you know, you don't have to share, you don't have to dig each other out, you don't have to, yeah. Exactly. Well, that's and that's the thing. Like when you're city of Pittsburgh, like snow removal becomes a whole different animal than it is like out in the suburbs. So you do kind of have to like you could totally hate your neighbor, but also if you need help, like you got to count on that guy to help you.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

Our neighbor snowblown our driveway for us, really, like but you like your neighbor, I do.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

He's great.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

No, I mean, but we have a lot of neighbors we really like, so we're you know, we're lucky that way too. Obviously, there are a couple duds, but mostly our neighbors are pretty cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:13

So, one of the things that you mentioned that you were involved in is your chamber of commerce, and you just helped to run a soup contest fundraiser. It was amazing. Um, can you talk a little bit about what that fundraiser is for and how you got involved in the chamber of commerce?

SPEAKER_02 52:27

So I've been on a couple boards. I um when I first started at the Southside Library, I was on the Southside Community Council board for like two and a half years, and I was the secretary and I kind of rolled off of there. Um I was on the Brashier Association board. Brashier is in the hilltop area of Pittsburgh, which is um right next to the slopes. So um I was on their board for three years. And uh Brashier Association, for those that don't know, is sort of a social services agency, you know, food pantries, um, book bags for kids, toy drives. Yeah. Um, they have a whole building where, you know, you get lunch, there's kids programming. It's a it's an amazing organization. Um, and then I rolled off of that board and just sort of ended up on the chamber board because I because I'd already been involved with doing the soup contest, you know, through the library. I'm friends with several people on the board. And it just seemed like kind of a good fit at the moment. Um, I don't know if I'll be on it for life, but where I am in my career and where I am at the library and where the board is is just a super good fit um because the the Southside Chamber of Commerce, um, we had this amazing building that was burned down on purpose. Someone burned it down, and we kind of went dormant because it was just honestly devastating.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

And they they we've sort of roared back to life. And I feel like this year's soup contest, it's the first one in years that we've actually sold out. Yeah. Um, so 900 some tickets. That's so crazy. Um, 20 soup stops. So the idea is you pair a restaurant with a business. The restaurant makes soup, brings it to the business. So now you get to test the restaurant and you get to go into Southside businesses. Yep. Um, so we had 20 actual stops, and then we had like three bonus stops. So the pretzel shop gave out pretzels, Smoke and Joe's gave out tater tots. It was amazing. It was a really, really great day, and it just really felt like we were sort of bringing a lot of energy back into the community. Yeah. And um the board president actually just sent an email out about how like he's just been hearing amazing stuff about you know all the work that everybody's doing. But my friend Michelle is the the chamber president's wife, but you know, uh she does tons and tons of work. Sure. Um and she's just been doing such a cool job. Like, we're doing these red ribbon cuttings and welcoming new businesses to the Southside. Yeah. And it's just it's fun. Yeah. It's fun, you know. Like this is a fun group of people. Yeah. You know, they want to have dinners and wine and and have events. Yeah. You know, it's a good time.

SPEAKER_03 55:07

It is. And like flower baskets and I wasn't supposed to be in town, and then I was unintentionally in town when the soup contest was happening, and I was very upset to find out that I could not get a ticket because they were sold out. We sold out because it's like you guys set up a soup crawl. We set up a soup crawl crawl, and it was 65 degrees out.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

Yeah. So it was a perfect day for it.

SPEAKER_03 55:29

It was so green. I want to do a soup crawl. Like, I want to soup crawl during the day and then like bar crawl at night. I think that's like a good uh lead-in. A lot of people do that, right? The Carson Street deli has soup flights, really.

SPEAKER_02 55:41

Yes, yeah. Well now we're gonna call it. I think on Monday or Tuesday nights. Okay, yeah. Soup flights and bacon flights.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Okay, I mean just definitely. I mean, you don't even have to. I love the deli, so I'm I will You said bacon flights. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. That is very cool. It is a very cool idea, and I love the fact that I don't spend a ton of time on the South Side. I used to go when City Books was on the South Side. I love City Books. Although they're is it the same City Books now that's over like just off of the War Streets, like near is it? What is the name of the biscuit place? There's like a biscuit place um back behind the aviary, and I'm pretty sure City Books is right across County, country, county wise, country wise, biscuit, whatever. I'll figure it out. I'll put it in the notes. But I think City Books moved over to the north side if it's the same City Books. That's what it's called. Yeah, but I used to go down there. I would go um for like poetry readings and whatever. I would hit bars there occasionally, but that's never bars are not not my scene necessarily. It's not that I will never go, it's just not like a oh, let's go to the bars. So I've been reintroduced to the South Side because of book club, because we have our book club um on Sundays, and so we'll go to Vellum. And I love Vellum. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. It's so anyway. My overall takeaway is just that there's such a vibrancy on the South Side that is really cool to see, and it's sort of reminds me in a similar way, just different in how it's set up, but of the vibrancy of like the Mexican War Streets. It's like it has its own sort of energy. Oh, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 57:24

For sure.

SPEAKER_03 57:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:25

I I love the South Side.

SPEAKER_03 57:26

Yeah, I'm never leaving. I'm never leaving. No, it's my neighborhood. Do you have a sense that there are more people or fewer people participating in local activities?

SPEAKER_02 57:37

Yeah, you know what? I think at this point it depends on the activity. Okay. But I think people are tapped out doing community gardens. Okay. I just interested. And I and I don't blame them because it's really hard. Yeah. I've done it, you know, with the libraries for a couple of years, had a big this big community garden, you know, thing.

SPEAKER_03 57:59

What is it that makes people like kind of exhausted of them? What makes it difficult? It's physical labor just physical labor.

SPEAKER_02 58:04

I mean, it's just hard, hard work and it never ends. Okay. It's not like a tree planting day or a riverbank garbage pickup day.

SPEAKER_03 58:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:13

It's like net it never ends. Okay. You weed, you water, you plant, you you weed, you know, like it just never ends. And I feel like it always ends up being like two people who do it, you know. Like the Southside Garden was definitely like the Susie Walden Memorial Garden. Like it was like by the end of it, it was just me out there with like a shovel in my dress and boots, you know, like, all right, I guess we'll put a tomato in, you know, like because we had this huge space and no one was doing anything with it anymore. But I do I think we're I at least I feel like the chamber and then some of the south side groups are doing better at bringing younger people in by appealing to sort of what younger people uh are interested in. Um, you know, right now we have a ton of f families with little kids. So for them, the fact that the intersection at Carson and 22nd is an absolute shit show is a big deal. Yep. You know, um, because there's the library, and right behind the library is the rec center, and right behind the rec center is the park. So that is a family, family area. Yeah. Um, and I think by addressing those concerns, I feel like a lot of the groups are are definitely pulling in the younger, more active people that we need. Yeah, because it can't be all, you know, these senior citizens who have been doing it for 35 years. Right. Gen X can't carry it forever. We can't carry it forever either. So But yeah, people I people considering the political climate as well, there's a lot of sort of mutual aid stuff going on, I think.

SPEAKER_03 59:48

Yeah. Oh, so a couple of things that I want to talk about before we get to before the before we rap. So we're we're pre-before we rap. Okay. Um, because I feel like I am I'm compelled to ask these questions now. Oh no. CJ. No, no, no, no. I was told what did he do? I was told CJ told me to ask you uh oh how many times you've almost died. And it and in what ways. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:17

CJ, you're so funny. He's not wrong. That's the like that's the that's the hard part. So let's see. So I have I I wrecked and I hit my face off the ground. So I have this big scar. Oh no. And I got a concussion. I had 42 stitches and 22 were the inside stitches. Oh. Where?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

Is that your head?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:39

Right here?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

No way.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

Yeah. Above my eyebrow. And um, so no joke, when I pluck my hair, my eyebrow, my eyebrow here, I could feel it here.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Because I'm no. Oh my god. So for the tea bags, like where she's pointing, like where she's pointing, her scar is like above her eyebrow, but she's pointing at a pain response like halfway back her scalp, which is actually fucking insane.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:01

So yeah, I got a concussion that time. I fell off a roof doing what? I I will tell you the truth. I was mad at my husband. And we were we were it was a bachelorette party and we were all locked out, and I tried to climb the roof, which in my defense I had done a million times. Okay, except not totally drunk wearing one shoe. And and I've rolled, I just rolled off the roof and I hit a fence on the way down. Oh no. And I was fine. I got up, danced all night, and I woke up the next day and I was like, oh, I should go to the hospital. And as soon as I walked in, they gave me a morphine drip. Oh boy. Yeah. So it was really, really bad. What did was there like what damage was? I was fine. You were just fine. I was just in a lot of pain. In a lot of pain. Okay. It looked terrible. Okay. I got car doored. I got hit by a car door. Um, and I hit a newspaper box after I went over the car door. Were you hit? Was that like on a bicycle? Messenger? From the cane club. Okay. Oh. Yeah. A passenger opened the door into traffic. Oh my gosh. And I hit their door. Wow. And then I hit a newspaper box and then I had the wind knocked out of me, so I didn't breathe for a minute. Oh my gosh. This little kid started screaming that I was dead. So then I had to, I didn't want to traumatize this child, so I had to like pull it together and just be like, oh fine.

unknown 1:02:18

It's fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:20

Oh my god. I'm like limping, my bike's all crumbled. It's great. Everything's great. Yeah, I'll be okay. Let's see. Oh, I I'm a type one diabetic, and I didn't know that until I went into diabetic ketoacidosis.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:32

That's right, because you were actually misdiagnosed.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:34

I was misdiagnosed. Yeah. And um, I was in the ICU for five days and I was really, really, really sick. I weighed a hundred pounds. Oh my god. Which I'm not a person that weighs a hundred pounds. Let's see what else. Oh, and last year, I forgot. Last year I fell on vacation and I hit my back on the shower. Okay. I was getting ready for dinner and I slid on a bath mat and I hit my back on the shower on the shower ledge and I broke five ribs. And then I got in an airplane to come home and my lung collapsed. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:11

So you like legit almost did die. Yeah. You had to be, you had to be taken care of like in flight, right? No. No.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:18

I I we had a a layover in Atlanta. Okay. And I we were I stuck it out in Atlanta, flew to Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:28

With a collapsed mom.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:29

Yeah. Drove went to the shutt, got on the shuttle, got to my car, and then drove my car to the emergency room. How in the world?

unknown 1:03:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

And I could feel it. I could feel my lung flapping. It was so gross.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:43

How does what does it feel?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:45

Zero stars. Absolutely zero stars. I'm gonna pay Jamaica. Which is hilarious. Like, but from just now I'm just like, no. We're never going there. We're never going there again. Yeah. Well, the State Department says do not go to their hospitals. Okay, fair enough. So I got hurt on a Friday and had to wait till Monday to come home.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:03

Oh my god. Okay, so see, I was under the impression because they okay, CJ and Jason mentioned like the whole airplane thing, and I was like, holy shit. So I'm under the assumption that this happens, and then you have to go to the airport.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

Not that you like stayed and then had to wait until I actually laid in bed all day Saturday, and then Sunday and Monday at least got up and went out and about. Wow. I like ate, you know, went out to eat, went, went swimming. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

Yeah. What does that feel like in your chest? Like I'm I'm struggling to even understand how you do it. What do you compare that to? Um well I don't know. If you've ever had broken ribs, that's just awful.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:39

No. Like I mean, I'm I'm glad I shouldn't say it like that. Don't be so darn. Yeah, you don't you're not missing. Oh, darn. Um so broken ribs is pretty agonizing, and there's nothing they can do about it. Yeah. They're like, eh, sorry. Yeah. You know, it takes a pegular. The collapsed lung, I it it felt like a little flap in my chest, like going, that is one. And for the longest time afterwards, um, every time I bent over and stood up, I could feel it moving around. Yeah. It's I'm fine now. Yeah. I'm totally healthy now, I promise. Yeah. Knock on wood. And it was like the dumbest, but it was so stupid. It wasn't, you know, you you want you want it to be like some interesting, dramatic story. And it was like slid on a bath mat, geriatric, you know, like it was, yeah, it was embarrassing almost to say, you know. And it's so funny because my mom, my mom is a former ICU nurse. Okay. So she knew what was up, you know, when I got a chest tube. And she asked my husband why he let me get on a plane. And he was like, We're gonna take a fucking boat. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:43

Like we had to come home. Yeah. What are you talking about? If the choice is Jamaican hospital or airplane, I felt so bad for him.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:54

You know, like what was the answer to that? We had someone had to. It's a great moment. Mom question. It's a great mom question, though. I just live here now. Start my new life in Jamaica. Where I'm probably gonna get sicker. Yeah, exactly. So oh, that's so funny. But it was, yeah, but like I wish it had been an interesting story, and it completely wasn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:16

But do you have other interesting stories? Like it's not it's not every day that like you crash into a car door and also I almost traumatize traumatize a child. You've went, you know, head first or whatever into a newspaper box, which again, we've mentioned newspapers a couple of times, and I feel almost like we need to explain what a newspaper is to people. They were pretty cool back in the day. They really were.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

I really in I'm glad city paper's coming back. Can I also say that like I traumatized that child? Yeah. Um, when I wrecked my bike and got this um on my face, I traumatized a whole classroom of children. Oh, how did you how uh because it was in front of the aviary during a foot trip? Oh wow. And I stood up and my glasses were stuck in my head. Oh Jesus. Like and I'm sure you were just bleeding profusely because head wounds. And then because it was a child, I I was like, it's fine. You look like a horror movie, but you're like, everything's fine. And um, when I was a children's librarian, I traumatized an entire preschool class with my dramatic reading of Corduroy. So you I'm just running around, running around being you have a lot of power over children in the city of Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:27

Hurting, hurting children, hurting and traumatizing children.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:29

They're never gonna forget me.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:30

No, that's right. They won't. They will not forget me. They will not. I love it. Um, I mean, look, not all the stories are gonna be you drunk with one shoe on on a roof and falling off of it. They're not all gonna be like that, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:41

Wish they were.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:42

Sometimes you're gonna have a collapse law in Jamaica from hitting a shower. Uh and then so Trista actually brought up another thing that I this isn't something I even feel compelled. Is it involved deviled eggs? No. Damn it. But now I need to know that. No, she said you have to ask her about the time someone stole her cat and she stole it back. And I'm like, you know, we talked for a long time on Zoom, and we didn't talk about anybody stealing her cat, and now I need to know that, and we didn't talk about your collapsed lung, and now I need to know that. So ma'am, so was cat lady librarian.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:21

It was a really long time ago, but I was so I was living, I was living with my husband and his two roommates, just sort of temporarily until we found a place we wanted together. So my cat was there, we weren't allowed to have cats, the apartment was getting painted. So a friend of mine was watching the cat. In retrospect, not the friend that should have watched my cat. Like my bel like, I'm not even kidding, like my beloved cat. Yes. Cat got out. I am devastated. Like, you know, crying, crying, crying. I'm I'm looking for him after work every single day. It's right by the um the get-go on 18th street. Okay. Is it's the alley right there. I have posters hanging up, I'm crying. Walt, who uh well, I honestly will say didn't know me that well at the time, even though we lived together, was like, I'm never getting late again unless I find this goddamn cat. So he's hanging up posters, he's looking every day. You know, I'm in the rain, it's so dramatic. I get it's been 12 or 13 days at this point, and I'm crushed. And I we go back to his apartment in Shady Side, which we both hated, and I get an anonymous phone call that says, There is a cat matching this description of my neighbor's window. And he gives me the address, and I'm like, you have to be shitting me. We drive down there, I go in front of the house and I call him, he comes up to the window and I'm like, Jack! So I'm like crying, banging on the door, no one's answering the door. And I'm like, I'm getting my cat. So I go to the back door and I'm knocking on the back door, nobody's answering, and I see his little feet coming out the bottom of the door, and I'm like, back up, kitty. And I kicked the back door in. No, you did not.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:07

And I scooped up my cat and I ran. Do you think they were there and just not answering, or do you like genuinely think they were not home? I have no idea. They didn't feed him.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:16

He was like this little skinny, and he was like a chonky orange boy, you know, like dumb as a you know, sack of wet mice, but like this best animal ever. Like, like I said, I scooped him up and just bolted. Yeah. And Walt said it was the funniest thing seeing me running out of this alley with Jax's head like all over the place, like, because I'm like, go, go, go. Cause I just broke into someone's house basically. Yeah. Yeah, and I stole my cat back.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:43

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:44

And he lived another 10 years.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

Oh. Yeah, yeah. Awesome. That was my baby. Well, he needs to be with you. He did. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:51

Every time I walk past that house, I'm just like, what's wrong with you, P?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:55

Right? So rude. You don't take people's cat.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

No, you don't. Ugh. Yeah. So, yeah, I stole my cat back. I love it. Also, the deviled eggs thing is um when we were youngins and we would walk home from the bar at two in the morning, Trista used to buy deviled eggs at the freaking crossroads. And I can't believe she didn't die.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:14

There are things you do not buy in little stores. And sushi? Yes. Deviled eggs? Yes. Deviled eggs, Trista? Nothing mayo-based. Why what's wrong with you? Yeah. Why do you why are you not getting death dogs like the rest of us? I wonder if I can't see. She's been elusive. I have not gotten her to agree to sit for my pocket.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:31

She'll do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:33

Because now I now I need to know about the deviled eggs. What possesses you? What possesses you? All right. So before we actually wrap, sorry. It's not the pre. No, no, no, no. We're good. Um, this is my podcast. We can talk as long as I want. That's yeah, good point. So I never like research for these things because it's normally just a conversation, right? You're just telling your story. But I thought I'm going to because I want to make sure I'm as precise as I can be. So, according to the National Literacy Institute, 79% of adults are considered literate, but across a broad range of proficiencies, about 54% of adults have a literacy level below sixth grade, with multiple factors impacting that stat. One of the first questions that I had for you in our background session was what is it like to be a librarian during a time when our collective literacy in this country is what I would consider low? And I thought that your response was really awesome because here I'm kind of being a little bit snarky about it. And I'm sure I'm sure I probably sounded elitist and like a snob, whatever. Your response was really, really awesome though. Can you share what that was?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:39

Hopefully, I said something along the lines of that we still circulate way more books than we do anything else. Yes. That we have tons of readers, that we our story time for preschool kids is completely mobbed. Our we have active book clubs all over our system. We have a book festival at the end of May that it will be out of this world. Yeah. I think you know, there's so many people that think just being literate means just reading books. You know, and and don't get me wrong, I love I read books and I read a lot of books. I read eight books on my vacation. Yeah. You know. But I'm reading the stuff I like. Sure. I'm happy. Sure. My husband doesn't read books, but he's one of the most well-informed, well-read people I know. He just doesn't sit down and read a novel. Yeah. Um, and I and I think we don't appreciate how much people really do read. Yeah. We just sort of consider it like it doesn't count. Yes. You know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:35

Even though people are reading all day. Yeah. I think that that's a really good distinction. And I'm actually glad that you said it that way. The word you used when we chatted was hopeful. And you did talk about some of those same things that you just brought up, but I think also with the advent of the e-reader, it has made it more convenient as well for people to be able to read. So digital readership has has also increased.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

But I think that's like digital increase or digital reading has gone through the roof. Yeah. I mean, it is. And obviously, COVID was a huge, huge push for that. Yes. Um, you know, people were downloading our apps to read. Um, you know, we have Libby app, we have Hoopla, we have a lot of really great reading resources. But I do feel like there's a huge group of people that previously weren't reading, yeah, who wanted to, who would have loved to sit down and read after dinner each night, but just didn't have the energy or the time or to get to the library. Sure. And Libby made it so easy. You can order a book, it's delivered right to your iPad or your candle. You can read it whenever you want it. Yeah. You can take it with you. It's, you know, as someone who's I've worked for the library for 22 years. Yeah. And digital reading apps, I think, are the biggest difference I've seen in all that time. That's fair. Or even more so than audiobooks, like books on TV and stuff like that. Yeah. Personally, yeah. In my, you know, in my own experience, it just seems like the the convenience has just it's made it so much more accessible to people and people who can't get to the library. Right. Because there are tons of people who would love to come to the library, but I mean, let's face it, the the South side isn't especially accessible for people in wheelchairs or for people with low vision. That's true. But we have we have apps that that will talk to you, you know. So it's yeah, that's really awesome. That's really cool. And you know, and and and thankfully, Carnegie had the sort of foresight to have, you know, there's an there's an entire department devoted to sort of digital access and and that kind of thing, which I don't know if every public library system has that benefit. Or foresight, even. Um, you know, CLP's pretty far ahead of the curve. Yeah. Um, which I never really thought about until I went to conferences. Yeah. And then was like, you're doing what? Oh my god, you're like a decade behind. There's the atheism. There I am. There it is. But yeah, no, people read. People like to read. Yeah. They really do.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:06

Or I but I do like that distinction. Yeah. Just because I do think, even I do sometimes tie it to book reading, and I know it's not just about reading books, it's about whatever it is that you are ingesting. The it's the comprehension and it is the ability to, you know, word recognition and and and and and so um I think that that's a really important stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:26

I mean, I'm reading like a Julia Quinn Bridgerton novel, and my husband's reading the New York Times. Correct. Like, right. Honestly, who do you think's reading it like a high removal? Don't and don't knock it higher enough.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:40

I will I will eat up that stuff. Sure. But um that's me. It's funny, like, for as much as and I'm an avid reader, but I'm a pop culture junkie. I'm like a pop fiction junkie. Like, if you ask me about the greats, like some of the okay I've read them. Sure, I've read some, but not, but I've read almost every I've read every Nelson DeMille, I've read every Jonathan Gellerman, I've read every Jeffrey Deaver, like, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:08

I grew so I grew up with a mom who reading was really, really, really, really important to her. And actually, she I she told me once that she couldn't abide having a stupid child. When I was still a child. So is your mom still around? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:24

Okay, because now I want to meet her.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:25

No, she's pretty awesome. Go to House for Easter. You know, her argument was always like, as long as you're reading, you're learning something. So if I wanted a comic book or a graphic novel or a babysitter's club, she was always pretty accommodating in that regard. Yeah. You know, um I she bought a lot of books. Okay, you know, and she was a big reader. So I saw my mom doing it.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:46

Yeah. My mom was a big reader too, but she ran to um like Harlequin romances. That was not my jam. So she had like shelves full of those Harlequin romance paperbacks.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:57

And my mom loved true crime. Oh, but it's like I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:01

That's where I got it from. Right? And rule. Oh my god. That's amazing. I came to it. I mean, I've all I was a reader from the time I was like a little kid. I used to pretend like I was reading. My my aunt used to read poetry books to me when I was really little. And so when I was like two years old, I would sit with a book open. I had it memorized just from hearing her. And so I would say words and I would run my finger along the page. My grandmother used to get the biggest kick out of it because her friend would be like, Oh my god, is she reading that book? And my grandmother would be like, Yes, she is. Like, she's two! No, she's not reading the book.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:36

She's gonna write a first-person essay about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:38

Right. She's about to do a dissertation, just stay a little while longer. Yeah. But I've I've always loved books, but I think for me it was moving. I moved from the outskirts of Philly to southern York County um the summer between seventh and eighth grade, which is a shitty time to move, by the way. Like absolute shitty time. Awful. Yeah, I'm so sorry. I knew nobody. And we were like in this very rural area, but I have my 10-speed bike. And so I would cruise all over the place and just explore. And I came across the town library, and I just parked the bike and I went in and I was like, Can I work here? And they were like, No, what? And I'm like, no, no, no, no. Like volunteer, can I just do it for free? I was like, because your shelves are a mess. And they they put up with it, and I spent the entire summer there just volunteering. And as part of that, I read every Stephen King book that they had in the library, like everything I get in my hand. Reading above your pay grade. Totally. Well, that was also the 80s. Like what made us so freaking weird about rabies. Cujo, man. Exactly. And also, it's like, who else could write a book about like a basically haunted car and make it interesting? Like terrifying. It was like that. It was such a great book. Yeah, anyway. Yeah, that would and that was my intro at 12 years old was to to Stephen King. The library kind of saved my life. Did you do flowers in the attic? No. I know you missed it. I kind of want to go back and do it now, but I feel like it's like, is it gonna be just lost on me at this point? Like would I have appreciated it more as a 12-year-old?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:13

No, no, you'll just be horrified that it exists. I recent not that recently, but a couple years ago reread the whole series, like six books or something. Yeah. And uh, and the writing is just atrocious. I mean, it's it's bad. Bad. Um, but the story is still just as with WTF as I remember. We're like, why am I rooting for incest? What's this happening?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:38

Well, now I'm gonna have to read it. I never did something wrong with me. Never read it. That's awesome. That's one of her favorite things.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:47

Why am I in the sixth grade reading this?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:50

I feel like that was my entire life. Like, looking back, it's like all the things that I did at those ages where it's like, oh, I I remember not letting my daughter read um, oh, it was the Twilight series. And it came out when she was like a pretty impressionable teenager. She was probably like 13-ish when those books came out. And I read them first because I was like, Well, I don't know. I don't know if this is something you should read. Like, I should be gatekeeping anybody's reading, right? But so I read the first one, I'm like, that's mostly fine. And I read the second one, and I was like, absolutely not. I was like, You're she is like depressed beyond depressed over a boy? Absolutely not. Like, wouldn't let her till she was older, and then she was like, I can't believe you didn't let me read this.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:31

I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:31

I was like, Well, you were very impressionable. I didn't like the message, I did not like the message. If she's a badass, it'd be one thing. That's totally different. Yeah, yeah. She's whiny little bitch. Oh my god, I don't. They were terrible. I read all four of them. Of course, I did too. One also, because I can't start a series and then not finish it. Oh, I could do that. I can't. I'm just now at 55. Finite.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:51

Finite days on earth. I know. I'm not wasting it. I know. I know I know a lot of librarians sort of have like weird formulas where it's like, okay, my age in half plus 10, and that's how many pages I'll read. That's interesting. I love the superstition. Yeah. I just I can usually tell the first couple pages that I'm just not. Yeah, you know, or or it might not be what I'm in the mood for at the moment. Okay. That I get.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:18

I'm very much like that with books. And I'm also very much like that with music. I'm a mood listener.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:23

I get very, yeah, I'll get very interested in like a specific specific topic. So I'll read a bunch of books about the same. Like, I was really into the French Revolution for a while.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:32

Um, I was really into Thomas Cromwell for a while. Okay. For a whole summer, which asked my friends how much they enjoyed that. All my Thomas Cromwell facts. Yeah. So you but you have to be, yeah, you know, in and at the moment, like this time of year, like I want to read romance novels. Yeah. I don't want to read movie deck. I don't want to read hard stuff. Yeah. It doesn't have to be all Hemingway all the time. It can be you can read Bridgerton.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:57

Yes. Exactly. Or you can read like a Scottish kilt guy book. Yes. It's great. I would love more of that. Please. Yeah. Guys with no shirts and kilts. I kind of feel like I need to read the Heated Rivalry series now. Same. I didn't even know it was a book. So right? Yeah. So I think that might be next on my yeah, my TBR, adding to my TBR. Yeah. As we were like, oh yeah. I know. Wait a minute. Does the library take book donations?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:22

Once we 37, I'll be getting to it.

unknown 1:23:25

I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:28

All right. At my kitchen table, we do to close out three good things about your week. Rolling seven days. Anything you want. I just do it as a way to like, I don't know, what are some of the awesome things that happened over the last seven days or things that I'm grateful for or whatever. So three good things about your week last seven days.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:47

Okay. Um, my sinus infection is finally going away. Woo! So don't everybody expect this sexy voice every time you see me. Um, I'm just congested up to my eyeballs. My irises all are sprouting.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:03

Love.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:03

And I'm really surprised because they were not looking good. No. Um, and because I have a new roof, the storms from the past two days did not hurt my house. That's awesome. Yes. That is awesome. That's such a good feeling. There is no just sort of sitting in the kitchen praying that my roof is gonna hang on for another storm. Yeah. Yeah, it's really nice. No leaks. No leaks. Roof is staying on. Guts three really awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:27

It is really awesome. What about you? What are yours? Oh, I don't ever get asked what my three good things are. Let's see. Well, you're here. And that is really fun for me. Like I started kind of doing this as a way to just like connect and talk to people about their stories and just because I'm curious about people. And so I'm kind of now in this layer of people that um were recommended to me by other people who had agreed to to do the podcast. I love it. And so yeah, you're sort of in that layer of the thing. Work through my friends, man. Yeah. I know the most interesting, I do know lots of interesting people. Yeah. I'm really lucky in my friend group. For sure. I think so. You guys all seem to have like just these really solid, amazing little communities that you have built. I've built different ones. Like I definitely have obviously have friends, but oh for sure. Yeah. I have friends. I'm just lowly podcaster. I know. Just little little around the kitchen table. But I do find that I have um I have a couple of really close friends in the area, but I do have friends that are like in other places because I worked a job where I traveled all the time for work. And so I've got really good friends in California. That's cool. Colorado. And it is, but it can get a little bit like, oh, well, not all of my people are here, so it's hard. Like I'm not just gonna go do a bar crawl with them. So I've lived in the same basic neighborhood for 20 years. So yeah. Um, but yeah, so you're here, and that is awesome. Um, I did a background Zoom with somebody just late last week, um, that I think is also going to, I'm gonna add to my collection of like super interesting people. Like she was she just has like a million stories and it could go in like a million directions as well. So I'm kind of excited about that. And then I signed a contract today to do like just a four-week contract job. So I'm kind of excited to to dive in and like work on this this project um in this temporary capacity for this company. So yeah. Well, awesome! Congratulations! Thank you, and thank you so much for doing this. I appreciate it. I made it. I hope you had fun. Thank you.