No Biscuits in Bangkok with Annika Wolters

Annika Wolters

intro

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[00:00:27] Death and the Macbre the occult,, all those crazy scary, confusing words. And, uh, you know, I'm just kidding. It's not, it's about candy. It's about candy and it may be used to be about some pagan stuff. You know, I don't even know I should have researched that. That'd be a good thing for this intro, but I didn't today.

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[00:01:10] And it's really cool. I'm excited about it. We have a wide, the river is supported by the. Get on over there and sign up at Patreon.com/ramblebytheriver. And you're going to have to do that through a web browser. I was informed by a friend that they couldn't find me in search when they use the Patreon app.

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[00:01:49] It's a little bit spicy, or sometimes, you know, it's a little bit behind the scenes, some of that exclusive hot content. So if you're interested in that stuff or you want to support the show, or you just feel like being in the cool [00:02:00] kids club, get on over there at Patreon.com/ramble by the river.

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[00:02:22] Correct. So it's pretty simple. All you do is sign into your Patreon, go up and click on the profile pic in the right hand corner. And that will open a little menu for you. Click manage membership under memberships , click the t-shirt link, select your size, add shipping address, bippity boppity, boop.

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[00:02:58] So yeah, that's how it is. [00:03:00] It was either that or having to up the subscription cost. And I don't want to do that. So this is the way we're doing it and it's going to be really cool. I hope everyone can get behind it and support the show. So Halloween, Halloween, I always did love Halloween. You know, me, I love candy.

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[00:03:44] I don't know if that actually happened anywhere or not, but that was definitely what I was told as a child. And I'll be completely honest. It barely deterred me. I'll risk. It I'll risk it for a baby Ruth, but some people [00:04:00] weren't willing to take that risk. So a lot of years, instead of going door to door panhandling, basically in a costume, we would go to church.

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[00:04:33] You know, the out, down at the fire hall, that's where my friends were all going, but, you know, the church was cool. It was really cool. We had a cakewalk and I was the master of that thing. I mean, they were giving out whole cakes. I used to take home two or three of those cakes. It was the best. We had a box tunnel that me and my dad and brothers would build out of windshield boxes.

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[00:05:13] It's been a long day. I got up at four in the morning and went to work, worked tail little afternoon, and then went out and picked mushrooms for a few hours and pick almost 20 pounds of mushrooms. And then I came home, took a shower, grabbed my computer and loaded up the truck with El Sam, where I'm waiting for her to finish her ballet class.

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[00:05:59] [00:06:00] And so we, we basically grew up in the same place for the first 20 years of our life. And after college, she took a very different paths and pursued her dreams and went out and accomplished them. She's a really impressive person. She's got a master's degree. She's got her dream job with the associated press.

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[00:06:44] Checkout ramble by the river.com. If you want to leave a donation or check out the latest episode or see any updates, it's a work in progress, but you know, it's improving little by little. So check it out and see how it's going. If this is your first time listening to [00:07:00] ramble by the river, please go over to apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever it is that you're listening to this podcast and leave a review and a five star.

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[00:07:34] That's a name that I. That I practiced the art of deejaying under just last weekend and it went over well. So I think it was a good choice. If you're interested in hiring DJ nasty bits, the cost is $2,000 and you can reach me by finding the email in the show notes. Thank you very much. Okay. Without further ado for [00:08:00] real, this.

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MAIN

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[00:00:05] So that's, um, you feel free to adjust that however you want it won't affect the recording and yeah. So if you like it loud, you can Jack it up and not turn it down. Wow.

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[00:00:23] We got tea. Oh yeah. I brought my own water, but I didn't need it. Yep.

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[00:00:31] Annika Wolters: You've painted. There's like sound egg crates. What is this? What is this like

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[00:00:41] Annika Wolters: when you bought it, what was it?

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[00:00:49] Not very creative, but , the funny thing is they're exactly the same as like, um, kind, you'd buy it to like roll out. , valuables then when you're moving, [00:01:00] same, same stuff, different price way different like 10 times more expensive for oh, acoustic panels. That's what they call them. This stuff. Yeah.

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[00:01:08] Jeff Nesbitt: way more. Um, works about the same. Yeah, I know. I mean, mine's kind of mismatched because I bought them as I could afford them and they didn't always have the same colors, but it looks better than egg crates.

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[00:01:37] I haven't been listening, um, recently, so I have some catching up to do, but yeah, I'm a longtime listener.

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[00:02:06] Ready. And then, so season two will launch. And I basically, I want to just get my brand and like the, everything that can be kind of streamlined, get it streamlined so I can cut the workload down. Right. It takes like 20 hours a week. Right now. It's too much, too much. That's too much work for free for free.

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[00:02:35] Annika Wolters: subscribers. So that's awesome. You too can be a member of the Ram fam

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[00:02:46] I drug my feet on it forever to. Hate asking people for stuff for anything, but especially money

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[00:03:13] And so, you know, it doesn't, it takes a passion and you, that's what you get paid back in as well as dollars, hopefully.

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[00:03:30] Uh, it's kind of shocking still. Oh my God. People actually hear this. Um, it's pretty cool. But anyway, let's get the mic set up. Uh, they're probably pretty good, but

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[00:03:45] Jeff Nesbitt: How does it sound?

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[00:03:50] Jeff Nesbitt: voice.

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[00:03:58] Annika Wolters: Testing [00:04:00] one potato two potato three, potato

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[00:04:15] Annika Wolters: Thailand. I live in Bangkok, Thailand, Bangkok,

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[00:04:31] Annika Wolters: um, okay.

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[00:04:37] No,

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[00:04:44] Annika Wolters: um, Thai but muy thai is the, the sport, the boxing sport that you,

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[00:04:53] Annika Wolters: isn't Joe Rogan. Um, um, I've lived there two and a half years. , I moved there in [00:05:00] February, 2019 and, , it was really kind of like a random, , experience I was already going on vacation there.

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[00:05:27] I never thought of living there. I never even visited Asia before. And so, I mean, the hangover two was probably my best reference once upon a time. Um, but I've since come to know, you know, learning, um, uh, I have a tie tutor. I get paid and tie bought the currency. Um, I have a Thai bank account. Um, I have a tie driver's license and,

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[00:05:55] Annika Wolters: on the opposite side of the road,

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[00:05:58] Annika Wolters: our side, not our side [00:06:00] and everything else is opposite to the steering wheel.

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[00:06:09] Jeff Nesbitt: on the side of the steering wheel, like where the, the

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[00:06:23] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. I switched between two different trucks or three actually. And I don't even remember, which is which my hands know it when I'm in the truck, usually off, I'll do the right one, but on one of them, the windshield wipers is on the left and on the other one, it's. , oh yeah. On one of them, the windshield wipers is like the switch for the turn signal.

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[00:06:42] Annika Wolters: driving a Chevy, like a GMC or wow, whatever that is. Same

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[00:06:49] Annika Wolters: Okay. Yeah, those are nice. And, um, the switch for the windshield wipers and the blanket are on the same stick. So at least that way I don't get confused.

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[00:07:07] Jeff Nesbitt: current moment. Okay. Hello, Buddha spacing. Poor ventilation.

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[00:07:20] Jeff Nesbitt: than LA population wise or

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[00:07:30] Jeff Nesbitt: Metro, not that many Americans would probably

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[00:07:34] Right. And I think, , New York has like eight or so. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy.

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[00:07:54] Annika Wolters: it turns it well, , I would say that it's, um, [00:08:00] uh, at first as like a westerner, you kind of have like this, you know, similar to the opposite road situation.

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[00:08:24] And so I, I, at first, you know, you think, you know how you should operate, you know, I, I get on the train, I go to work, I get a ticket. I, , get in the elevator or whatever, but. You start to notice that like, just culturally, there are people doing things differently. Um, people generally walk slower.

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[00:09:12] And, um, um, I'm just, I need to adapt to the slower way. And it's like a, you know, you kind of have to stop when you're walking slower. You just kind of reflect on the meaning of life. Anyway, you look around a little bit.

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[00:09:28] Annika Wolters: before you opened it?

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[00:09:37] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Yeah. I've been, I would be frustrated by that. I feel like I walked faster than everyone here. Everyone's walking so slow.

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[00:09:48] Um, , and in general, I'd say in public, it's not rude to whip out your phone and put it in your face. Like that's kind of the general way of how you avoid any awkward contact. I don't know if [00:10:00] it's like that here anymore,

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[00:10:06] Yeah. But yeah, they do people do that here. I try not to, but so did you get pretty used to that? Yeah.

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[00:10:28] And if you like, sometimes if you have that awkward, it lingers the eye contact lingers sometimes with a stranger, you kind of have to do this nod, smile and nod. Yeah. You don't have to say anything, but just like nod your head.

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[00:10:47] Is that the language I'm thinking of? Like is to have almost like a song like sound to it? It's tonal, tonal. That's the

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[00:11:01] Jeff Nesbitt: That's tricky. It is so. How did you learn that?

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[00:11:07] Annika Wolters: Okay. I have a, , a tie tutor who I used to meet, after work every week. But, recently we've been doing Skype lessons and I pay her, I don't know, maybe $15 an hour. It's 500 bucks an hour, 500 an hour. And she's very good. Yeah. Shout out to

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[00:11:28] Annika Wolters: Yeah. Anyone who wants to learn Thai? I highly

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[00:11:40] Annika Wolters: Like it's, even though it's not connected to like, it's totally different than Spanish.

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[00:11:56] Jeff Nesbitt: again. . Yeah. That maybe that alternate language mechanism in your [00:12:00] brain is already a little bit juiced up from learning the tie.

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[00:12:18] Um, but that was really cool. And um, so did you go straight from the. Pacific Northwest life to Thailand?

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[00:12:45] And I double-majored, it had a communications and journalism degree, and then I had a minor in leadership. Um, and I D I did five years and three summers there. Back on it. Like I definitely got my money's worth [00:13:00] of education. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, but I feel tired when I think about it too.

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[00:13:05] Jeff Nesbitt: It's an exhausting period of time.

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[00:13:10] Annika Wolters: journalism

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[00:13:17] Annika Wolters: I love video producer for the associated press in Bangkok.

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[00:13:20] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. That's a big organization. How'd you get involved in that?

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[00:13:36] Jeff Nesbitt: oh, we'll come back to it. Sorry.

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[00:13:44] GRE test. And then, , I applied to, the Cronkite school at Arizona state university in Phoenix. And that's when I moved to Phoenix. I packed up all my stuff in my Nissan Pathfinder with my boyfriend Kaia, and we drove down. , and I started school.[00:14:00] , I started a master's program there in sports journalism, and, um, that was just a year long program.

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[00:14:26] And I was like, wow, I don't even, like, I don't even remember applying for this job because I was applying for so many, you know, and like the, in the storm you're kind of panicking and you are just filling out applications at one point. And so, yeah, she had called me with my dream job. I said, yes, please.

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[00:14:42] Jeff Nesbitt: That must've felt great. It was really cool. All those years of hard work finally paying off. Yeah.

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[00:15:01] During that process is when I saw the AP job for video producer in Bangkok and wow. I applied. Yeah.

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[00:15:11] Annika Wolters: used to, yeah. And, , uh, I think I started in Phoenix at, I think it was 2017 it was, uh, I walked to work through like this park and it was 110 degrees every day.

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[00:15:37] Jeff Nesbitt: you're just you take the footage and cut it up and make something out of it. Are you the one who's actually editing or you're overseeing stuff or?

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[00:16:07] take in their footage and to just kind of, um, quality control it, if you will. Um, cause in a hurried circumstance, it can be tough to put a perfect package together. , and so, uh, I guess I'm on the, I'm on the assembly line to put it in plainly.

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[00:16:34] And it used to be something that people really held in very high regard, because like you said, it's people going into dangerous places behind enemy lines and doing really, really difficult things. And do you feel kind of like what the fuck, everybody, the way that people talk down about journalists it's rampant and if you don't check out Twitter,

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[00:16:58] Yeah. I'm on Twitter. You can follow me on [00:17:00] Twitter. Um, they add it's it's. Tough, you know, um, hearing half the time, you know, a lot of people don't even read the news, I'd say more than half. Yeah. Yeah. And, and just knowing the work that my colleagues go through to bring that information out of such a, um, difficult situation, um, to have it be shut off or turned down or ignored is, um, it gets frustrating at times.

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[00:17:54] Normally when I hear that, that like, oh, the media, this or the media that [00:18:00] I, , I point I say to the person normally, like, you know, I hear you because you're frustrated because what you're reading or seeing is lazy or inaccurate. Right. But to, to point out the media as such a big term, without citing your sources are really picking out the story that pissed you off is lazy and inaccurate.

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[00:18:22] Jeff Nesbitt: If you're going to bitch be specific, tell us what you don't like. So whoever's in charge can change it, but just to just blanket statement about how terrible the media or the government is things like that is, is really not very helpful or effective.

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[00:18:57] So you don't have to worry so much about, you [00:19:00] know, what people are going to think, just because of who you're associated with. Like, if you work for Fox,

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[00:19:08] At least, maybe not, maybe not

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[00:19:10] Annika Wolters: I feel that first year. I don't. Um, I should also say that, like, while I'm here, everything, I say, it just represents me personally. And, , I can speak for nobody but myself. So, I do love working for the AP and, and having, uh, uh, um, a fact-based organization rather than like an opinion based one.

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[00:19:43] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. I think we got a pretty good, yeah. Yeah. Protection. You have protection. You're allowed to say what you want to say. That's

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[00:19:52] Jeff Nesbitt: and yeah. In other countries there's just not, it's just not always an option.

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[00:20:01] Annika Wolters: No, my stuff is all stationary. I work, um, remotely. but I do take in stories from all over Asia and sometimes, other parts of the world because in Asia, daytime, it's nighttime elsewhere and things still happen at night.

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[00:20:17] Annika Wolters: um, I don't talk about that. I'm not an expert.

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[00:20:41] But, um, let's just move on from that. , Oh, you know what I'd like to talk about student loans. Oh yeah. Um, so we, we both went to the same school and you actually got a degree that you took in and you built on and built a career out of it. So I imagine that was probably a good investment.

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[00:21:23] Oh well. And I paid several hundred dollars a month. So it's, it's really discouraging. It's

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[00:21:31] Jeff Nesbitt: Yes. Well, it's S my payments are slightly enough, just barely enough to get it to go down every month, but only by a couple of bucks. It's really?

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[00:21:47] Um, mine's in like, Thousand neighborhood, um, masters though. Yeah. In and out of state and program.

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[00:21:59] Annika Wolters: Yeah, it [00:22:00] was. Um, and uh, yeah, I

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[00:22:07] Annika Wolters: I feel confident that it's going to get paid someday. It's going to go down. But, um, so, , because of COVID right.

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[00:22:34] Yeah.

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[00:22:54] what do you think they should do for student loans? Like in the United States?

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[00:22:58] Annika Wolters: I'm avoiding it until I [00:23:00] have to think about it. Um, and then that's not the best way to go. But,

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[00:23:12] I think you just get points like knocked up. If you, if you did this, you know, that's a, that's a point. Um, if you, if you, uh, I don't know,

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[00:23:26] Annika Wolters: That'd be cool. That don't sound

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[00:23:34] Annika Wolters: volunteer and you're a good person and you don't hurt nobody.

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[00:23:45] Jeff Nesbitt: that actually is a great idea. Pay all your bills and show proof of it. You don't have to pay your student loans and we forgive you. I could even do it month to month. Like, man, that'd be a pain in the ass, but

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[00:24:17] You

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[00:24:28] Annika Wolters: places. I always thought that like, if you try to negotiate somebody, you get

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[00:24:35] They're like, well, there's one place you can live on the street if you want. But if you want to live in a house, it's this much. Okay.

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[00:24:48] Jeff Nesbitt: oh, don't worry. I have lots of people want it. There's a 20 different families who are waiting in line.

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[00:25:02] Annika Wolters: She was, yeah. I saw that HGTV. Yeah,

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[00:25:08] Annika Wolters: Beach house bargain.

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[00:25:13] Annika Wolters: I, uh, believe she did more than one episode.

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[00:25:25] Annika Wolters: her car? Yeah, of course. You've seen her car. It's all wrapped up. That's pretty cool. It's hard to miss. I'm pretty sure it glows in the dark actually.

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[00:25:43] Jeff Nesbitt: lost her. That's kind of a cool name. Sounds like philosopher. Raptor.

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[00:25:54] Oh yeah, yeah.

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[00:26:16] I've actually never seen anybody use that feature in real life. Just like a lot of new cars have it actually, my truck has it. Uh, I've never used it other than just to show people what does it do? Nothing. Okay. It's just, it's a transmission. , that is lets you shift it if you want manual option, but the shifter is like a button that you push on the regular shifter.

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[00:26:58] I thought you were just making [00:27:00] trips or going on extended vacation. So honestly, I don't, I see people's pictures come up and anytime they're traveling for some reason, I just assume that they're coming back. So I had reached out to you and said, come on the podcast. It'd be cool. And, , well you eventually did.

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[00:27:27] Annika Wolters: I hope that suffices, you know, I'm really, I want to thank you Jeff, for making this podcast because you know, it can be isolating to live so far away from all your family and friends and to, , be able to sit at my computer and listen to people that I haven't seen forever.

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[00:28:13] Good. And then some ways, you know, I wish I could be how I was before the pandemic, but, um, yeah, what I mean by that I've been really nervous lately. I'll be honest. I've had a lot more anxiety. Maybe I've had, I've always had like some, a bit of anxiety in my head, but I, I don't think I ever really called it that or recognized it as that.

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[00:28:54] Jeff Nesbitt: want to.

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[00:29:08] Annika Wolters: Yeah. It was tough, you know, I mean, um, uh, you started to kind of see the shift, , because it was, if, you know, when it was first emerged or when it was first discovered in China, you know, it's very close to Thailand.

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[00:29:49] Jeff Nesbitt: that feeling of when the China story started hitting and it's just like, that is terrifying, but good thing.

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[00:30:13] But once those first cases hit this continent, it became a fucking madhouse. Everybody just lost. Yeah.

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[00:30:24] Jeff Nesbitt: became real.

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[00:30:36] Jeff Nesbitt: to have it like that

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[00:30:38] Yeah. And so when that happened, it was like, I remember we were still in the office still like working normally, but it was like, everybody was very nervous. Nobody was really touching anything or shaking hands. And then I would go out on my lunch, break out to like seven 11 or, um, Cornerstore convenience shop and nobody had hand sanitizer and nobody had a wipes [00:31:00] and it wasn't even like, things were still open.

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[00:31:20] Oh yeah.

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[00:31:23] Annika Wolters: Oh yeah. One, one and done

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[00:31:49] So I was freaked out by the idea of putting a vaccine into my body that had just been created regardless of what it was or who made it, or what it [00:32:00] was meant to treat. But, um, when it came available, I was immediately, I was just all those worries. I just had to push them away.

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[00:32:28] Could I might have Spiderman powers and penises depends on where it grew. It depends on where if it just grew right off the end of my old one. Sure. I'll take it off the end of the old

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[00:32:40] Jeff Nesbitt: No, I don't think

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[00:32:44] I didn't know that. I

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[00:32:47] Annika Wolters: I don't know, just in case there's sharks,

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[00:32:52] Annika Wolters: rows of tea.

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[00:32:59] [00:33:00] It's just filled back in. Yeah. But yeah, once it was, once it was time to do it, it was just like, Hey, we're all in this together. I don't want to take a scary vaccination any more than the next person, but you just do it anyway. That's what at least what I kind of how I felt about it.

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[00:33:25] Jeff Nesbitt: I was just grateful that I'm not a vulnerable population because , they are way more at risk and they have a lot more to be nervous about what the vaccine or the illness. Like my parents are a little more at risk than me. My mom has, , auto-immune issues. So she's a. Scared for the last two years, basically.

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[00:33:54] Annika Wolters: um, I don't know. And you can't it's you never, you don't know what to tell people. You [00:34:00] don't know what to tell people.

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[00:34:19] Jeff Nesbitt: but seven seems like it would be enough. Yeah. So first symptoms

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[00:34:25] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. So do you have friends in Thailand? Did you make, did you make friends or are you still just kind of trying to live through the computer?

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[00:34:38] Jeff Nesbitt: are you able to go out and meet people? Yeah.

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[00:34:46] It is scary. It is a pandemic

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[00:34:51] Annika Wolters: in a foreign country. Um, uh it's but if I, if I had to be anywhere, I mean, it's, it's paradise the beach is still very [00:35:00] close. The mountains are still very close. , it's very friendly. The people are very, , kind and, , accommodating,, it's a culture of like making merit.

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[00:35:24] Like they go out of their way to write. Um, sometimes like the next day or, uh, extended period of time.

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[00:35:38] Annika Wolters: if someone steals something you're like, not even

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[00:35:45] I was actually on Sandridge so like going through Nakota and we were driving down the road with my mom and we just see money on the road. And we were just like, there's money, pull over, pull over. And so she pulled over and we ran out, hopped out, gather up all the money and found a [00:36:00] wallet and put all the money back in the wallet, track down the guy.

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[00:36:21] He probably did. I'm exaggerating. Okay. But he wasn't like, I wanted you to hate him. He wasn't very grateful, not grateful enough. I mean, you give a kid, finds your wallet. You give him 10 bucks. At least it's just common courtesy. I even waste. Um, a few months ago I was driving through Olympia and I held a whole family in the truck with me.

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[00:36:57] I'm walking here, that kind of stuff. [00:37:00] And I'm not the kind of place you get out of your car. it's a lot of traffic. So we're way back from the stoplight and we're moving up and not everyone gets to go on every green, you have to just move forward and wait in line.

[: 00:37:12

[00:37:33] And I look a little bit further and there's another one. And I see another one and I look up the sidewalk and there's like a ton of cash just like fluttering around in the wind. And as I'm seeing this, my kids also see it and they're just, they start screaming, there's money, there's money. And, , they start like getting out of the truck and we're in traffic.

[: 00:37:55

[00:38:22] It's just going to flutter away into a gutter somewhere. It's like, Hey, Hey, look at the ground. Look at the ground right in front of you. And she's like, what? As like, look at the ground, there's cash, there's cash everywhere. And I was just like screaming across traffic to this lady. And she got it. She, she grabbed all the money and we drove away.

[: 00:38:42

[00:38:58] Annika Wolters: it, his lower [00:39:00] reward. And then see in that, is that the karma that merit, that it comes back to you, it's the happy ending.

[: 00:39:05

[00:39:18] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah, there's nothing better than finding $20, maybe finding $50, but reach your hand in your pocket. Have a pair of pants you haven't worn for a long time or a jacket and pulling out cash is the best.

[: 00:39:31

[00:39:47] Annika Wolters: treasure treasure in them

[: 00:39:49

[00:39:51] You're looking over toward those Hills. They're literally as treasure in them. There are Hills. Yeah. There are, uh, according to some historical accounts, [00:40:00] some pirate buried his treasure in the hill behind my house. What's his name? I don't know. Yes. Right? Oh, I'll Google it. I don't believe this. You know, who would know?

[: 00:40:08

[00:40:16] Annika Wolters: So new last name, Madeline Mattson. Is it, is

[: 00:40:22

[00:40:23] Annika Wolters: that? I feel like it's Madison with a T hidden son. Uh,

[: 00:40:27

[00:40:30] Okay.

[: 00:40:32

[00:40:34] Jeff Nesbitt: I haven't even met her. It is Manson. Mattson. Yes. Shout out foggy. Mattson also, I assume, right. Follow the happiness to you. I haven't met him yet, but he looks like a fun loving guy, boat, always smiling on those pictures. Yeah. Yeah. Which is great. You want a happy person?

[: 00:40:53

[00:40:55] Annika Wolters: Ah, you know who it is. It time was time. It's time.

[: 00:40:58

[00:41:02] Annika Wolters: dating? Yeah, I've been with my boyfriend Kaia for five years. Wow. We actually met, um, during that short time at AmeriCorps. Oh yeah. Here at the BG. Yeah. Um, was he also an AmeriCorps member?

[: 00:41:15

[00:41:22] Jeff Nesbitt: My older sister did AmeriCorps. Yeah. And she was kind of perfect for it, like very, very qualified and really up her alley, but they pay so little that it made it so that her life was miserable

[: 00:41:37

[00:41:41] Jeff Nesbitt: you

[: 00:41:42

[00:41:46] Jeff Nesbitt: Is there any benefit whatsoever to the volunteers?

[: 00:41:51

[00:42:01] And so I was just like, happy that something came up and it was in a place where I knew it was at home basically. And so it, it served a purpose for me. And a lot of people are like great at it. But, um, just at that point, it wasn't nobody's fault. Just, I didn't belong at a Walker high school when I was a kid and I didn't belong there as an adult.

[: 00:42:21

[00:42:35] And it is, it is, you know, go to school kids. But I, you know, at the time, if, if I don't want to be there, I couldn't tell them that they had to be there. So I had to quit that job

[: 00:42:46

[00:42:58] Yeah. The ones who, [00:43:00] like, I don't know, the ones who are gonna listen to you are already there.

[: 00:43:03

[00:43:17] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Did you like high school?

[: 00:43:21

[00:43:31] Jeff Nesbitt: you were fast. You still run?

[: 00:43:33

[00:43:41] I don't think anybody had a great time.

[: 00:43:42

[00:43:45] Annika Wolters: Um, but it was a it's unique growing up at a town where there's only one school.

[: 00:43:51

[00:44:12] You just, you come out of it a totally different person than you went in. Not just because of the age maturation, but just experiences happen.

[: 00:44:20

[00:44:32] I don't know something, something about that. That's cool. It definitely works. I was thinking actually the last time we saw each other, I think, do you remember when we drove from Bellingham to long beach for

[: 00:44:43

[00:44:48] And it makes it look like I just forgot and I'm pretty sure I think it was actually, yeah, actually I think I saw you at the Depot restaurant, like the next day. Uh, so I think that was [00:45:00] actually the last time. I

[: 00:45:01

[00:45:02] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah, it was, it was really close. It was like the , same week.

[: 00:45:07

[00:45:09] Annika Wolters: there or was I eating there? I don't remember

[: 00:45:11

[00:45:15] Annika Wolters: sure that I was not working there. If, if we were in college, I was not working there at the time. That was my high school job.

[: 00:45:23

[00:45:25] Just probably eating. Do you eat? Yeah, I

[: 00:45:27

[00:45:43] Jeff Nesbitt: That's great. I was supposed to go to the Depot this weekend for my wife's birthday, but they had a plumbing incident had to close. Yeah. That's one of my very favorite restaurants. Shout out Mike and Nancy. Oh, their food's so good. And the whole atmosphere and there's very warm and inviting. It's [00:46:00] great.

[: 00:46:00

[00:46:03] Annika Wolters: It was a good first job. I bet it taught me a lot about, like not only hospitality and service or like manners, how to eat, right. Or like what, what food is, uh, how to pronounce certain things. Um, but , yeah, just like how to treat people. I think if I were in charge of the world, I would require that everybody did a year of waiting

[: 00:46:25

[00:46:38] Like you've got to spend a year as a server. You have to spend a year as a garbage man. Or a woman . You got to spend a year. What's another good one. Probably, maybe a soldier,

[: 00:46:47

[00:46:52] Jeff Nesbitt: That'd be good. And then

[: 00:46:55

[00:46:59] No, but [00:47:00] everybody needs to know how to. W

[: 00:47:02

[00:47:14] Annika Wolters: stuff? I do not. I, um,

[: 00:47:17

[00:47:19] Annika Wolters: will. Oh, well, , and hopefully I get on that before I pay student loans and before they becomes even more, um, like in, cause like, I don't know.

[: 00:47:28

[00:47:34] Jeff Nesbitt: but yeah. Oh for sure. Yeah. Especially something has fall tile is crypto. You could lose it and then who'd pay your student loans part

[: 00:47:41

[00:47:45] Jeff Nesbitt: for the yeah.

[: 00:47:47

[00:48:07] Roll the dice. This could end badly or it could end really well. And you just don't really know. I like the way that

[: 00:48:14

[00:48:18] Jeff Nesbitt: really

[: 00:48:18

[00:48:20] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah, it is because I can do research. I've talked about this a few times. Uh there's there's resources where I can look and see like trends.

[: 00:48:29

[00:48:50] And then when I finally started making money, I just didn't gamble. I already, I already, I had already established that in my personality. I was just like, don't do [00:49:00] it. Don't gamble.

[: 00:49:01

[00:49:13] Jeff Nesbitt: So that's basically what cryptocurrency is. Talk to me, those, the coins that they give you in those games. Imagine if you could take those coins with you when you leave the game and you can go spend them on real things in real life.

[: 00:49:24

[00:49:36] Annika Wolters: something that you have bought with CA with crypto.

[: 00:49:39

[00:49:45] Annika Wolters: Um, like you cashed it out, you went and you bought

[: 00:49:48

[00:49:52] And when you cash it out, it becomes, well, it becomes cash again. So it's an income and you have to pay taxes on it. [00:50:00] But if you swap it for another cryptocurrency, you don't have to do that. for example, Bitcoin is at $55,000 right now, per one coin. That's a crazy amount of money. Well, it's here at 55,000. If I just decided to swap, let's say 10,000 of that into USD coin, which is another cryptocurrency, but it's called a stable coin. So it's pegged to the dollar. So a USD coin is always a dollar it's worth the same. Give or take a couple cents all the time.

[: 00:50:33

[00:50:54] And then I could take that same exact money, swing it right back into Bitcoin at a much lower price [00:51:00] and take a bunch of profit. But you have to be really vigilant and you have to constantly pay attention to when you think it's going to break from the current trends.

[: 00:51:08

[00:51:28] When the value gets that high, everyone who bought down here is all that pressure, all that profit is burning a hole in their pocket. So they're going to eventually they're going to sell and then the price will drop it's. It's a, it's a, really, a very good system to maintain value, but it's a lot of work, a lot of research

[: 00:51:47

[00:51:47] Yeah. I'm a, I'm a watcher. Yeah. Before I do anything, I'll definitely be, um, I, uh, Yeah. To listen to the Bitcoin podcast

[: 00:51:58

[00:52:05] Annika Wolters: Uh, Ned was involved in the track team. Yeah.

[: 00:52:08

[00:52:37] I've been dreaming about it. So like, uh, , I'm doing it all day. And when I'm working, I'm listening to podcasts about it when I'm consumed. Yeah. I'm doing research or I'm looking for potential purchases or most of the time, I'm just trying to analyze trends. So I'm on Twitter or I'm on discord and I'm just trying to see what's hot.

[: 00:52:57

[00:53:10] Annika Wolters: Yeah. Okay. No, it was gains. That's got that's you're speaking my language.

[: 00:53:15

[00:53:22] Jeff Nesbitt: Well, that's how you get the enormous pressure.

[: 00:53:25

[00:53:26] Jeff Nesbitt: builds. Yeah. So anyway,

[: 00:53:29

[00:53:32] Jeff Nesbitt: I apologize again for dipping back into the crypto topic. I can't help it.

[: 00:53:39

[00:53:42] Yeah, that would be great. Yeah. Thank you. This is very fun.

[: 00:53:47

[00:54:17] Um, because I had spent my student loan money on chocolate. Bulk chocolate, like a ton of it, buddy. Yeah. Without really thinking of like, where am I get more money to buy regular food for myself? Yeah. And so I, because I had just got a wild hair and I was like, I want to make some candy. I would like to become a chocolate tier, please.

[: 00:54:38

[00:54:59] [00:55:00] I had like no food. So I was like eating a lot of chocolate. And, I bought the, the chocolates turned out great. I was very proud of them there. I had candy molds for him and everything and

[: 00:55:11

[00:55:13] Jeff Nesbitt: the whole thing made, uh, yeah. Made the ganache centers , I had this candy mold I made the ganache is like, I still remember actually it's one cup of chocolate, chopped, and then you put it into like a steel bowl and boil one cup of heavy cream and , not quite boil actually just about to boil, just about to boil when it's getting the little bubbles little bubbles, and then you dump that in the bowl over the chocolate and you.

[: 00:55:39

[00:55:58] And , , once it gets real smooth, [00:56:00] pour it in the mold, each little glob, they were like Reese's peanut butter cup size. The miniature ones,

[: 00:56:05

[00:56:16] So they don't melt. Like you were ahead, I'm covered in a blanket or something. And I was like, what the fuck is he got back there? Like, and then I was like, and then it was like a five-hour drive. And I was like that bastard didn't even offer me a truffle. They were all

[: 00:56:28

[00:56:30] It's okay. I thought about it though. I should have given you, I was giving them out. I would have given you some, it must've just been embarrassed, but yeah, the

[: 00:56:40

[00:56:43] Jeff Nesbitt: so I'm not done after I got the, the center's done. So you let those chill and then you take them out.

[: 00:56:49

[00:57:08] That one didn't go well. Oh, I hate candy canes.

[: 00:57:11

[00:57:17] Jeff Nesbitt: I'm having a deja VU. We have we done this before. Um, no, the, the candy canes got all, you know, how they get in moist climates. Just get all sticky and gross.

[: 00:57:28

[00:57:32] Jeff Nesbitt: that's gross. So those ones were a waste, but yeah. Well,

[: 00:57:38

[00:57:42] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh, a weeks. I cause there's lots of test batches. Yeah. Okay. I lived basically alone. My roommate, if this was the year I'm thinking it was, I think

[: 00:57:53

[00:57:54] Jeff Nesbitt: Burnham wood.

[: 00:57:55

[00:58:08] I was bored. Uh, I had already broke my electric drum set, , and I just didn't have a lot to do so I was cooking and I wasted, I went into credit card debt, buying ingredients to make delicious meals feasts, for one there's nobody even around there. This is depressing.

[: 00:58:25

[00:58:28] Oh yeah. Yeah. I love that.

[: 00:58:30

[00:58:43] Annika Wolters: that tends to happen when you live alone. I live alone now too. And I have lived alone.

[: 00:58:48

[00:59:00] Jeff Nesbitt: You just live by yourself the whole

[: 00:59:01

[00:59:12] , one roommate and a two bedroom apartment. And then, and then I got my own space. She transferred and, , then I was just like solo. I lived in this building called the Alamo. It was on garden street and maple, maple and garden.

[: 00:59:28

[00:59:30] Annika Wolters: karate church. Yeah. Yeah. It was right down the hill

[: 00:59:33

[00:59:48] Like, no, that wasn't me living alone. That was all me. I was also messes though. Not for me. Then I had a real fruit fly problem at the time. Um, in [01:00:00] undergrad. Yeah. I've put up a curtain and I put the trash can in the kitchen and the curtain separated it. So all the flies were in the kitchen. And, um,

[: 01:00:09

[01:00:11] Which

[: 01:00:12

[01:00:17] Jeff Nesbitt: Mia and Colton had a place up there with our buddy Thomas and.

[: 01:00:22

[01:00:43] And it took hours of searching and we finally found it wasn't hours, I guess I'm exaggerating. But I figured out that there was a bag of potatoes that somebody left in a drawer. It was turning the black goo.

[: 01:00:56

[01:01:07] It was, and you don't know where it's coming from. And yeah, , one of our roommates had moved out and she had left us a present. Was it potatoes? It was a bag of potatoes. She was gone for a long time. And we were like, how long has that been there? Um, yeah. Yeah. It was like, you hold your nose and you're gagging while you throw it out, potatoes go so bad.

[: 01:01:28

[01:01:47] That's so bad. It is bad.

[: 01:01:48

[01:01:53] Jeff Nesbitt: What's the most disgusting thing you've ever done or ever had to do? Not, not, I mean like work, I'm going to like, uh, [01:02:00] I'm talking, cleaning up vomit, you know, having to wash a shitty baby.

[: 01:02:05

[01:02:07] Annika Wolters: the toilets at the Northwest Washington fair, the Northwest virtual fair. Yeah. I had a, um, uh, someone called and said that they had was a time when it was like summertime and, , I needed money and someone was like, Hey, we have this, you know, this wonderful job. It's at the fair.

[: 01:02:24

[01:02:39] I got all my cute little outfit on. And then the lady's like, uh, we're, you know, we're cleaning the toilets or yeah. Yeah. Here's your, a yellow vest and your brew. Uh, yeah, there's there was, uh, uh, multiple bathrooms and th it was always like, it was more awkward when we went around in pairs [01:03:00] and, um, yeah, but it was the worst one.

[: 01:03:02

[01:03:06] Jeff Nesbitt: like, yeah, it does. It's not a good feeling to have to go to the bathroom and have someone be like, Nope. To clean it.

[: 01:03:14

[01:03:15] Jeff Nesbitt: for cleaning. Yeah. But it's a worst feeling to be cleaning a bathroom and there's a bunch of dudes shitting in it still.

[: 01:03:22

[01:03:26] Jeff Nesbitt: always right after somebody shit at the fair. Oh

[: 01:03:28

[01:03:47] And it's like, it's a dilemma. You're kind of, it's that weird? Like how old is too old?

[: 01:03:53

[01:04:11] he's got to just stand there and watch it in a very tight space. He's not having a good day. He's not happy

[: 01:04:18

[01:04:27] I feel like he could be

[: 01:04:29

[01:04:32] Annika Wolters: no, no, that's a child. Like you can bring a baby into the bathroom. Of course. There's like changing stations on the wall for that. But when you're walking and talking and feeding yourself, I feel like you can sit outside for

[: 01:04:42

[01:04:42] Yeah. Especially when it's that direction. Um, like, you know, a boy going into the women's room that seems like the age would be a little bit different than like, like my daughter's three and it's, I don't like taking her into the public men's room because she it's [01:05:00] not necessarily that it feels inappropriate at this point but lately she's been doing a lot more.

[: 01:05:06

[01:05:26] And so do I, that's why I have a podcast about it. Yeah. But she, you know, she needs to work on her timing a little bit. Just schedule these kinds of personal questions.

[: 01:05:39

[01:05:47] Annika Wolters: Yeah. I, you know, I bet. Well, so that was something that I didn't think of that I was going to run into a wall cleaning toilets. Yeah. Yeah.

[: 01:05:54

[01:06:08] And I, you know, I had one good vomit in the hallway and, uh, everybody knew I wasn't done. And my mom grabbed me and she like ripped me towards the bathrooms and, uh, started dragging me into the women's room. And I was fighting with her. I didn't want to go in the women's room. I thought it was weird then.

[: 01:06:24

[01:06:42] I had basically two plates of like bread pudding and, you know, all the, all the good stuff from old country buffet. And then I put a piece of fish on there to please the parents and it tasted horrible and made me vomit. You

[: 01:06:54

[01:06:54] Jeff Nesbitt: the end. Not too. Yeah. I know. See, I should have trusted my gut.

[: 01:06:58

[01:07:01] Annika Wolters: No, I did the on the school bus. Yeah. That's terrible. Once on the school bus and then another one's on the track bus.

[: 01:07:09

[01:07:10] Annika Wolters: sick. Uh, I think I ate too much. Yeah. Ate too much pizza.

[: 01:07:15

[01:07:18] Annika Wolters: food, rod donuts, uh, uh, you know, the granola bars with the frosting on them.

[: 01:07:25

[01:07:25] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah. I mean, there's a time when, if we were going to Safeway, I'm getting a full pie.

[: 01:07:30

[01:07:39] Jeff Nesbitt: today. Yeah. Track is so fun. I love that sport. I think it's a blast.

[: 01:07:45

[01:07:58] Jeff Nesbitt: it? Yeah. Yeah. It's similar [01:08:00] to rowing in that way. Uh, like how, you know, you do a lot of training on your own, and it's really appealed to me to also a similar kind of people that it seems like the sports that involve just like one movement, a lot of like kind of more jockey nerds will do those sports.

[: 01:08:17

[01:08:22] Annika Wolters: goals? There are types. Yeah. I think that a lot of, you know, when you say those sports, you picture a

[: 01:08:28

[01:08:38] The culture that surrounds each one of those sports creates a different need for a different type of person. Like I remember in rowing, the people who were involved in that were, were kind of, you know, subject. Bunch more than I would expect from athletes. And it was because like, they're getting up at five in the morning to go row on a dark lake.

[: 01:08:57

[01:09:13] Annika Wolters: I know one time I went fishing really early in the morning on lake Samish. I think it was, and, was early morning, you know, you're like half asleep anyway. And, uh, you get the, you got the pole and you got the line in the water. And then I see these lights like coming toward me and they're slowly like, kind of coming wider.

[: 01:09:32

[01:09:49] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. They make a lot of noise that the coaches are always yelling out there. And , the boats themselves though, are so quiet because there's no motor.

[: 01:09:56

[01:10:10] Annika Wolters: cool. Yeah. I like a kayak. Kayaks are great.

[: 01:10:13

[01:10:29] Jeff Nesbitt: So what have you done since you've been here?

[: 01:10:31

[01:10:33] Yeah. The air over there is not, um, not the same bad air quality, bad they're yeah, they're having air. I haven't like, uh, you know how you have an app for the weather that I have an app for the air quality and it will tell you like, oh, today you should wear, uh, today you should wear a pollution mask more today.

[: 01:10:50

[01:10:50] Jeff Nesbitt: okay. Is it the same mask that you use for COVID? Yeah. You had

[: 01:10:54

[01:11:01] Jeff Nesbitt: I'm 95 and 95 and,

[: 01:11:04

[01:11:14] Yeah. Not everybody, but a lot of people and, and the, um, when you walk into a store, you have to scan your hand or take your temperature. Someone takes your temperature. Um, no matter what, that's, stuff's great.

[: 01:11:28

[01:11:34] Annika Wolters: Yeah. But the air, I don't know, the air really got a lot clearer. It seems as air traffic and car traffic slowed down. Uh, I dunno, it was kind of interesting cause now I'm in like a, uh, changing gears here, but now I'm like in a, but destination really I'm in Bangkok and, and there's nobody here.

[: 01:11:56

[01:12:11] Jeff Nesbitt: did that make you feel like more of a local, you know, I

[: 01:12:15

[01:12:21] like Wat Pho was a famous temple and theirs has a lot of beautiful, , Architecture and, and, and everything. It's just like, it's just breathtaking on a normal day. But then on a normal day, there's like B L people shoving you out of the way, or you are, it's just crowded. And for them to be empty, it was just like, it was even more special or, um, uh, yarrow watt road on Chinatown.

[: 01:12:45

[01:13:01] Jeff Nesbitt: And it's like, yeah, that's also, that's a spot on Denzel.

[: 01:13:06

[01:13:28] It was lonely, but it was special. Yeah.

[: 01:13:30

[01:13:34] Annika Wolters: it's it's, it's filled back up a little bit. Yeah. There's still, there was when I left a couple of weeks ago, there was still a curfew, a 9:00 PM curfew, but, a lot of things have.

[: 01:13:45

[01:13:52] And I knew very little about Thailand at all at the time, other than what I knew from the hangover too. [01:14:00] And, , this stuff captivated me, the temples that they had in Thailand and Cambodia. And I think just that whole area. Yeah, really, really cool. Have you ever been out to explore them? I believe they're Buddhist temples. Is that

[: 01:14:14

[01:14:19] Jeff Nesbitt: everywhere, but I mean like these really old, I have the book of mine. Um,

[: 01:14:23

[01:14:31] Jeff Nesbitt: in your head?

[: 01:14:31

[01:14:33] Annika Wolters: Yeah. , I did visit, some historical parks and, uh, , east on like the Northeastern part of Thailand. And there are some like, kumai temples. The one I was went to was called Phimai historical park. And then, uh,, they're just like, , very humbling. Like how did people build these things? Yeah. Back in the day,

[: 01:14:55

[01:15:00] Annika Wolters: couldn't even tell you. We should probably do that. You know, that thing in the episode where you input the thing, know thing Phimai historical park.

[: 01:15:08

[01:15:09] Jeff Nesbitt: would be a great episode for that.

[: 01:15:11

[01:15:23] The temple marks one end of the ancient Khmer highway from Angkor in Cambodia. Which is just across the border from Thailand.

[: 01:15:31

[01:15:50] So it is suggested. Did you have been an important city in the Khmer empire? Most buildings are from the late 11th to 12th century and even though the [01:16:00] Khmer at that time were Hindu. The temple was built as a Buddhist temple since the inhabitants of the.

[: 01:16:06

[01:16:11] The first inventory of the ruins was done by French geographer I Aymonier in 1901. The site was put under Thai government protection by announcement in the government Gazette. Volume 53, section 34 on September 27th, 1936. Most of the restorations were done from 1964 to 69 as a joint Ty French project.

[: 01:16:34

[01:16:40] Angkor Wat, or temple city or city of temples is located in Northwest Cambodia. This is the one I was actually thinking of. So not actually Thailand, Cambodia, but very similar area, very close. They border each other and they were inhabited by the same. People's [01:17:00] historically.

[: 01:17:00

[01:17:06] It measures 162.6 hectares or 401 acres at the center of the temple stands a collection of four towers surrounding a central Spire that rises to a height of 65 meters or 213 feet above the ground.

[: 01:17:22

[01:17:45] They did not have the ability to do a true arched roof. On. So the way they're built is smaller rooms connected by open areas.

[: 01:17:54

[01:17:59] [01:18:00] Breaking from the tradition of the previous Kings Angkor Wat was dedicated to Vishnu? Although the temple construction was started. As a Hindu temple. In the late 12th century, Angkor wat gradually transformed from a Hindu center of worship to Buddhist one, which continues to present day.

[: 01:18:16

[01:18:36] But in the 20th century, A considerable amount of restoration work went into Angkor Wat. And gradually teams of laborers and archeologists pushed back the jungle and exposed the expanses of sandstone. permitting sun to once again, shine through to aluminate the dark corners of the temple and expose some of this beautiful artwork.

[: 01:18:55

[01:19:19] And has controlled Angkor Wat since that time. It is safe to say that from the colonial period onwards, until the sights nomination as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1992, this specific temple of Angkor wat was instrumental in the formation of the modern and gradually globalized concept of built cultural heritage.

[: 01:19:38

[01:19:43] I depiction of Angkor Wat has been part of the Cambodian national flag since the introduction of the first version circa 1863. From a larger historical and even trans cultural perspective.

[: 01:19:54

[01:20:16] The findings also include evidence of low density, residential occupation in the area with the road grid, ponds and mounds. These indicate that the temple precinct bounded by a moat and wall may not have been used exclusively by the priestly elite. As it was originally thought,

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[01:20:48] Jeff Nesbitt: cause I wanna, I want to add the thing about the book. I have this book in my house. I still look at it now because of the art and it's really cool, but it goes all the way from like India through China and all, all kinds of [01:21:00] art. I'll be able to get the names of the ones I'm talking about.

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[01:21:21] Jeff Nesbitt: temple, right? Yeah.

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[01:21:29] I think if you've seen like a lot of travel shows go there or food shows, I think somebody feed Phil to stood next to the reclining Buddha. Sorry. Um,

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[01:21:50] Annika Wolters: um, well, I'm not expert, but I believe they're different people.

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[01:22:20] Yeah. Yeah. You know, he's got them. Jesus looks so raggedy sometimes. You know, he ever just like, you know, Buddha is very well decorated and very, uh, uh, beautiful. Yeah. I think, yeah.

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[01:22:34] Annika Wolters: Oh, , well at the temple, sometimes he's like wrapped in some silk, like put clothes on.

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[01:22:41] Annika Wolters: But Jesus, you know, he doesn't look plain

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[01:22:46] Annika Wolters: He's got like Goodwill clothes on and then she's all dirty and yeah. Yeah.

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[01:22:56] Annika Wolters: He's uncut, but he's ripped. Oh [01:23:00]

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[01:23:05] Oh yeah. Well, my Jesus is . Yeah, I suppose so. But he's not a big guy. I always thought of him as a smaller guy. Okay. That's why it's so impressive. He carried that damn cross. Yeah. You know, I think it was heavy, but no, he, he, he was a middle Eastern guy. He was probably dark complected.

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[01:23:24] Annika Wolters: Yeah. They don't make them hairy enough.

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[01:23:34] Annika Wolters: right? Yeah. Oh yeah. Uh, bronze or copper or something.

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[01:23:43] Anyway, the, the Buddha thing, I've always wondered that I should Google it. Oh, um, you're

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[01:24:00] Jeff Nesbitt: what he is.

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[01:24:15] Annika Wolters: Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know. I think like Jesus on the hundred dollar bill with like the grill.

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[01:24:34] Annika Wolters: Yeah. It doesn't make you angry though. Um, I think, I think it does make me angry.

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[01:24:41] Jeff Nesbitt: Buddha tattoo. Yeah. They might, but not as angry as a Muslim who saw you with that Muhammad tattoo?

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[01:24:49] Jeff Nesbitt: be, they, they are completely against that. That's what I call iconoclast.

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[01:24:56] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. I'm all for respecting other people's religions. I [01:25:00] think that's, I think that's pretty important. It's buttery, but at the same time, not to take your own so seriously. Yeah. Because we're all just full of it. We don't know what the hell is going on.

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[01:25:25] Not every week. Occasionally, occasionally I did go to dues Bible camp

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[01:25:31] Annika Wolters: I knew all the songs. I'd still know the songs. Yes. And, I dunno, Thailand is very Buddhist. I think it's like 90 something percent Buddhist.

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[01:25:40] Annika Wolters: It is.

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[01:25:44] And to have the, like, to hear this. , five times a day, uh, from the mosque, it's beautiful in itself, but it's also feels

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[01:25:54] Annika Wolters: And then the mosque that I live next to like my balcony overlooks this, uh, like a [01:26:00] Muslim neighborhood in this got its own mosque and five times a day, they play a song.

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[01:26:09] Annika Wolters: Um, but it's nice to, even though that's not my religion, it's nice to know that, other people are praying near me and they're not the dominant religion either.

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[01:26:18] Jeff Nesbitt: I like seeing the cultures mixing and that kind of stuff. It's cool. I do always feel like I'm so much of an outsider that people might not want me to look at , their spiritual practice as a novelty. so I would feel weird about going to like a Muslim service or, or a Buddhist temple Buddhist.

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[01:26:59] Annika Wolters: to [01:27:00] see, um, in Bangkok, a big city like that, it's, there's a lot of, , you'll see it, a Hindu temple here.

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[01:27:29] Like there are, I don't know, everybody makes it, and it's very nice to see, such a mixture

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[01:27:48] Annika Wolters: And, and I find that in, in Bangkok, there's a lot of people that come from other

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[01:27:56] Annika Wolters: Yeah. It could be that I'm stuck in the [01:28:00] ex-pat bubble too or something, but yeah. Um, we find each other, I guess I do have friends. You were asking me, I have friends.

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[01:28:26] Jeff Nesbitt: know, what's the black population like in Thailand

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[01:28:51] Where do I get my hair done? And we have those answers as a group of us. It's, it's basically, it's a big group chat, but there's also like a, there's a new, a brand new app for it too. [01:29:00] So, , they're getting sophisticated with it as like an organization.

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[01:29:11] Do you guys ever just hang out, you meet them in real life?

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[01:29:29] So. Uh, friends giving that's cool. Yeah, I, I tried, man. Um, uh, I don't know. I'm still getting used to it. I don't know how I'm going to, I don't know what I'm going to do this year. Um, I'll tell you the first year I went, um, I went to KFC thinking that I was going to get a bunch of biscuits and in Thailand, I guess they don't do biscuits at KFC, but I didn't know that they don't do biscuits at KFC and Highland.

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[01:30:03] Jeff Nesbitt: what do you do then?

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[01:30:27] Wet biscuits. Yeah. Like this is not the same. And um, and I got a rotisserie chicken because a Turkey will cost you like $200 over there. And, , I got, I think I bought a fried fish from like a street cart and, , uh, oh, I did get mashed potatoes from KFC, so I assembled my Thanksgiving dinner.

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[01:30:52] Annika Wolters: I don't think so.

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[01:31:01] Annika Wolters: Food. Yeah. Yeah.

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[01:31:04] Annika Wolters: Oh, uh, I liked the vinegary slide. I don't like the Manny

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[01:31:12] Annika Wolters: raisins.

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[01:31:15] Okay. Basically the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever had broccoli salad with, with raisins in it? Yeah, the raisins are the worst part. It's really just broccoli with some raisins. And I think Manny's also, there's a lot of weird salads you want to

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[01:31:37] Jeff Nesbitt: Uh, I think favorite salad would have to be, uh, oh, our crispy chicken Caesar was pretty good.

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[01:31:45] Annika Wolters: salad? Um, there's a, well, there's a lot of Thai salads actually. Um, and I don't know if she's, if they're not represented very well on the American Thai restaurant. I

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[01:32:00] Annika Wolters: Uh, they, they make it. Okay. So, um, papaya salad. I like it. It's called Tom, Tom.

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[01:32:26] Jeff Nesbitt: Fish sauce is something that I had to come to terms with. Cause they put it in everything, anything good?

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[01:32:37] Annika Wolters: Never hurts me. It looks gross.

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[01:32:49] How could I never know this, but it's

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[01:32:53] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. I've never eaten anchovy in my life plain. And I've bought them several times and that was another good for, [01:33:00] ya know, I don't think I have, that's something that I just saw on TV and on cartoons and shit, but I never see people order that in real life.

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[01:33:26] Annika Wolters: When I moved to the desert, I got, I developed like a Twitch in my eye, a high here and I, um, I believe it was because I was low on magnesium because I had been raised on such a high seafood diet my whole life. Oh, wow. That's what I mean. That's what I believe, because anytime I do eat more seafood after that, the it instantly, uh, is better or it goes away.

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[01:34:08] Annika Wolters: Um, I love it. All the oysters, salmon, sturgeon, every, anything, everything that we have here, everything we have

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[01:34:22] Annika Wolters: come back.

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[01:34:25] For those of you who are not aware, my son recently spent six weeks. In Alaska. Fishing on bristol bay with his papa

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[01:34:43] Jeff Nesbitt: Didn't want to talk about it. He's not very, , talkative on the podcast. , it was, it was good. He was gone for six weeks and he made, made good money and worked really hard and he's back. , It was probably a good experience overall and I'm glad we let them do it so great. [01:35:00] Yeah. His, his mom's happy that

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[01:35:03] , it was like a day trip crabbing. Um, and I was like, I wasn't, but like eight years old. , and it was my mom's birthday and we went out on, I forget the name of the boat, but, , I had just had to be involved, like I had to be counting crab or measuring crab. And then by the end of it, I was like throwing pots and pulling pots.

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[01:35:31] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. That sounds like fun. I

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[01:35:35] Jeff Nesbitt: see that? I saw your watches, all that, all

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[01:35:41] Yeah,

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[01:35:55] Annika Wolters: oh yeah. The, the fish and wildlife. Yeah. They got to show. Yeah,

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[01:36:05] I think you're

[: 01:36:06

[01:36:07] Jeff Nesbitt: neat. So, and there's a lot, there's a lot about this place to love the people would be interested in. Yeah.

[: 01:36:14

[01:36:17] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah. Have you, have you heard of this book called deep river? No. It's about this area, this like, uh, took place a long time ago. It's about like logging camps in it.

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[01:36:45] Annika Wolters: I read our only mate Emilia when I was a kid. Yeah. I named my daughter after that book.

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[01:36:51] Jeff Nesbitt: It's one of them, one of my favorite books because it's around here. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. They talk about a school being on an island in that book [01:37:00] and they call it baby island in the book. But what we've always called baby island is technically, technically called round island. Do you know what baby island when I'm talking about?

[: 01:37:09

[01:37:22] Annika Wolters: you just keep going past the bridge.

[: 01:37:24

[01:37:35] And I found out later that it's, they called baby island something completely different, which was on the other side, up the nasal river. So like around, out of the bay and into the river. And, , now it's just like a big swamp, so you can't see anything there, but I love looking at maps and, and seeing like, okay, so if in the book they're talking about, this was here then, and she got on a boat and paddled to it.

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[01:38:16] Annika Wolters: or the Goonies when they say no, go down into a cave.

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[01:38:30] Annika Wolters: We're going on record ladies.

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[01:38:32] Annika Wolters: Jeff Nesbit. Hey

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[01:38:37] Annika Wolters: band teacher. What he ever do to you?

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[01:38:40] Jeff Nesbitt: I'm listening. Did you ever take band? I did he, Brian Bergman at the best. I played the clarinet. Hmm. Did you like it? Did you still play? No. You didn't like it that much?

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[01:39:03] It was. So I had to make it right. Yeah. Yeah. I had to make a choice at the time. So I, I quit band and I started

[: 01:39:10

[01:39:22] Annika Wolters: You can lift weights. You guys

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[01:39:26] I'm still trying to learn. Okay. Well we all learn it. No, I know. I just, I, I just visited Jeff Hilton right before we did this. I I'm feeling particularly small today. Um, have you seen his Facebook or anything lately? Um, I guys

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[01:39:43] I'm not sure. Like he was lifting something and he could have just been really sweaty.

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[01:40:01] Okay. Brian Bergman, oh, for some reason he had things going on in his personal life or, or he had doctor's appointments, whatever it was, it was uncalled for. And he had subs come in sometimes into band class. And these subs only had access to one film. And every time we had a sub, basically for like four years, we watched the Goonies and I got to where I just couldn't stand the sight of, of that movie.

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[01:40:46] Way too many. I feel that way

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[01:40:51] Jeff Nesbitt: that and band that was also okay. Maybe also meant big fat Greek wedding until somebody told their mom and [01:41:00] their mom freaked out.

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[01:41:08] Annika Wolters: yeah. I think that I have one Harry Potter once in a class of ours too. Yeah. Kind of parent does that.

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[01:41:21] I can see that. I don't agree with it, but I can see it, but you're going to call the school, like God, get a life, get a job, do something else, read a book. Speaking of which do you read any good books lately?

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[01:41:42] Jeff Nesbitt: I'm almost impaired. What does that a romantic novel?

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[01:41:52] Jeff Nesbitt: little synopsis.

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[01:42:10] Like it's an interracial love story. And nobody tells you that when they tell you to watch Bridget and the queen is black, there's like black royalties. I know. I was like, I didn't watch it for a long time. And then I was like, wait, the queen is a, it looks like me. And so nobody told me that before. that actually sounds okay.

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[01:42:33] Jeff Nesbitt: Jane Austeny type of stuff, but fresh and up.

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[01:42:41] Jeff Nesbitt: W what is it? What does she made? Something trendy?

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[01:42:48] Okay. So

[: 01:42:48

[01:42:49] Annika Wolters: drama. Yeah. But it's based on books that are written by an author named Julia Quinn. And so now I'm reading the books. Yeah. Yeah. [01:43:00] Uh, yeah, that's good. It's not like, you know how, um, uh, some of the Jane Austin stuff was just like difficult to read because it's so old, is a little bit yeah.

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[01:43:18] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you do audio books?

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[01:43:21] Jeff Nesbitt: No. I do a lot of audio books. They're so much better for me than actual reading. Cause I'm, I guess a slow reader.

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[01:43:47] So if, if I really want to learn something really, really well, I would read it out loud to myself and that way I would hear it and you know, just make it more reinforced in my head, but it took so much more time for some reason [01:44:00] now. It's the opposite. I was like, if I want to get through something fast, I'll just listen to it.

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[01:44:20] Annika Wolters: getting old sucks.

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[01:44:27] Jeff Nesbitt: Wow. That's crazy. you guys always feel like you're so young, you're not that young anymore. It's bizarre, like people who are young adults were born in the two thousands.

[: 01:44:39

[01:44:54] Jeff Nesbitt: Oh, that didn't even exist when you left. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's gotta be bizarre. It's

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[01:45:01] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Do you have any nieces or

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[01:45:04] Oh, tons. Yeah. So I'm my mother's only child, but, , my dad has, , five other kids and I'm the youngest and, , yeah, everyone has their own families and , yeah. So I'm like the crazy aunt. I'm also the lightest one. So I'm like, like the crazy light-skinned and they can't really figure out like, why I'm so weird or different.

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[01:45:39] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. I get to be a fun uncle. Yeah. It's nice too. I like that a lot. My nieces and nephews are really, they're just cool people.

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[01:45:50] Annika Wolters: It's what, today?

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[01:45:55] Annika Wolters: Um, I heard that on Cooper's episode. Right. [01:46:00] And that was an excellent guest if I can say so, like I had this, I remember, you know, you like, remember some of these people you've had on the show and you're like, oh wow.

[: 01:46:08

[01:46:12] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. His was great. I hadn't seen him either. I enjoyed getting to catch up with him and he just happened to have a great story on top of it. So I was real stoked about that episode. That was cool.

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[01:46:24] It was very, very

[: 01:46:25

[01:46:26] Annika Wolters: heavy. Yeah. I got a breast reduction. Really? Yeah. Thank you. So if I may talk about my breasts,

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[01:46:47] I'm going to look. It looked great. Thanks. Nice job. I don't remember what they looked like before, but I assume they were big. Very, very big. Yeah.

[: 01:46:57

[01:47:08] Yeah. And, uh, I don't know, come to find out that it's very affordable to do in Thailand. And it's like one of the, it's one of those places where people go, like somebody will disappear for a summer and then they come back with a facelift and you're like, where did you go? You're like, oh, I was in India or Thailand or something like that is a yeah.

[: 01:47:25

[01:47:44] It's something that I had, like always wanted to do. And then, , the pandemic happened and then I was working from home. , and then for a few months, actually there was like, there were like no reported cases of COVID in Thailand. So I just figured this is the time like [01:48:00] I had, this was,

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[01:48:04] Annika Wolters: uh, I took like 10 days off of work and, , I was still a little, maybe tired or drowsy when I went back, but, , it was very, uh, I was working from home anyway, when I went back in. Um, and you just had, you just gotta be patient with, , your exercise and, , your healing, I guess. , but yeah, I mean, I feel a lot better.

[: 01:48:26

[01:48:49] Yeah. And had it, um, biopsied and looked at, and it wasn't like it wasn't cancerous, but what do they call it? It was like a fibro a, I think it was called. And [01:49:00] I think they're semi common, but it's still

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[01:49:03] Annika Wolters: It was uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. And it was in a place where you could like really feel it.

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[01:49:13] Jeff Nesbitt: and get it all. Yeah. That stuff is freaky. The, the breast tissue being the cancer attractor. That it is a,

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[01:49:36] It's just like, if it's not a good, it didn't make for a fun teenage years and it doesn't make for fun shopping or like fun.

[: 01:49:43

[01:49:52] And the thought is not a pleasant one because it just it's, it's honestly, it's a strange thing to think about. Cause it makes me feel kind of [01:50:00] like angry and there's no one to be angry yet, at least not yet, but you just, I just, you know how things go, you know how men are, and it's not that the men are choosing to notice girls because they're , developed early, but they do still.

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[01:50:19] Annika Wolters: He just wanted towards everything. Yeah. Have you done that thing? I haven't experienced this myself, but I hear that a lot of ladies or the, uh, fathers will take their daughters out on a

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[01:50:30] Oh yeah, for sure. Um, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. I, I should do that. We, I, I love going out with and taking my girls or whoever really, I love going out to eat, but, , especially with my daughters for some reason, cause it just feels special.

[: 01:50:44

[01:51:01] That would be actually really fun and kind of a special thing. I'm going to have to steal that idea and do it before it's too late. She's, she's grown up so fast

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[01:51:12] Jeff Nesbitt: think you'll have kids? No, never, no. How

[: 01:51:15

[01:51:23] My dreams. Um, I don't know. I just, I always have this conversation with my mother the other day, like when we were kids or like, you know, when they sat us down in the auditorium and we watched the movie, uh, like, you know, the, the sex

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[01:51:37] Annika Wolters: girls. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I came away with a message that as soon as you get pregnant, your life is over or like, you know, uh, you got to drop it, you know, it's not going to go the way you want it to go.

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[01:51:52] Jeff Nesbitt: a price. Yeah. No matter

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[01:52:06] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. I think that more power to you. I think any choice that somebody wants to make in that way is the right choice.

[: 01:52:12

[01:52:34] A lot of dads don't stay and that's, that's the sad truth.

[: 01:52:38

[01:52:44] Jeff Nesbitt: It's not easy, but it is fun.

[: 01:52:45

[01:52:48] You know, I, I stop and I Marvel at a cute baby from time to time, you know, I don't hate them, but yeah,

[: 01:52:54

[01:53:06] even drive my kids to school, even drop them off and stuff, that stuff is it's pretty fun, but not all. But waking up in the middle of. To a toddler standing in the dark wiping asses wiping asses is the least of my worries. Vomit out of carpets. That's the worst.

[: 01:53:22

[01:53:24] Annika Wolters: fair. That's it? That's worse. Cause it's, you know, that's in your house.

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[01:53:38] Annika Wolters: announcements?

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[01:53:53] Jeff Nesbitt: journalist, she's very choosy person. She's a very, very busy journalists. So you know what? She has a master's [01:54:00] degree.

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[01:54:01] Annika Wolters: Thank you. Thank you. And leave Jeff alone to all y'all. Yeah, you're okay. Jeff, I don't care what anybody

[: 01:54:06

[01:54:14] Annika Wolters: know.

[: 01:54:14

[01:54:16] Jeff Nesbitt: next year. Come on back and do another episode. Okay. All right. Bye everybody. Bye.