Mini-Ep 401: Free Bowl Lessons Learned
Doree and Elise hear both sides of the free bowl experience, get a parent friend story with a surprising twist and a listener gives Elise a real blast from the past.
Mentioned in this Episode
Sonia Kashuk eyelash curler
To leave a voicemail or text for a future episode, reach them at 781-591-0390. You can also email the podcast at forever35podcast@gmail.com.
Visit forever35podcast.com for links to everything they mention on the show or shopmyshelf.us/forever35.
Follow the podcast on Instagram (@Forever35Podcast) and join the Forever35 Facebook Group (Password: Serums).
Sign up for the newsletter! At forever35podcast.com/newsletter.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.
Transcript
Doree: Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Cha.
Elise: And I'm Elise Hugh. And we are two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Doree: And this is a mini episode where we hear from you, we share your comments and your thoughts, and we answer your questions to the best of our ability. But please remember, we are podcast hosts. We are not mental health or medical experts, and we may encourage you to seek support first and foremost from one of them.
Elise: Important disclaimer,
Doree: Important disclaimer. Elise, how is it going over there?
Elise: Man, we are in summer. It's hot.
Doree: We are,
Elise: I'm sleeping in much better after the school year ends. I still wake up for a good couple of weeks. I still wake up at seven or before seven because I'm used to having to wake up for school, but now I'm getting an extra hour or so and sleeping until 8, 8 30
Doree: If I can. Oh, that's so nice.
Elise: Yes. So that's feeling good. What about you?
Doree: Well, so Matt took Henry to play golf early this morning.
Elise: Nice.
Doree: So I also slept until eight. Good. But I had woken up in the middle of the night at two 30 in the morning, so I was up for an hour overnight, but then I slept till eight. So I feel like it kind of evened out, but I wouldn't have been able to sleep till eight if Matt hadn't taken Henry to play golf. So I was very grateful for that situation.
Elise: Yeah. I did have Luna climbing on me at five in the morning and I was like, what are you doing? And she said that she didn't feel well and Lu and I was like, you can stay so long as I get to sleep. So she didn't bother me and I just put a pillow over my head. And then when I woke up, when I woke up again, I was super mad. Has this ever happened to you where your spouse does something betrays you or does something terrible in a dream and then you're mad at them when you wake up? This happens to me occasionally. Rob did to me in the dream. I don't really remember what happened
Doree: And I
Elise: Woke up and I was like, I'm so pissed at you am so upset. He's like, oh, I'm going to have to pay for whatever I did in your dream all day. Now.
Doree: Now do you think it was like your subconscious trying to tell you something?
Elise: Well, it's always my subconscious telling me something and I do dream analysis with my yoga and dream analyst, but it's usually not about whatever you dream about. So what I've learned is that dream analysis is very so cystic, so everybody who shows up in one of your dreams is actually you.
Doree: What?
Elise: Yes. So Rob, I'm mad at Rob, but he could be a representation of my animus, for example, like my masculine energy. And so something about my masculine energy might be betraying me, but I was pissed at him. And so the poor real Rob, he was just making his coffee this morning and he was like, oh gosh, it's going to be one of those days. You're going to be mad at me all day. Oh no. With something that I didn't do.
Doree: Right. That's actually just a projection of your own issues shoes. Oh no,
Elise: I did sleep longer though. So
Doree: Well see Sleep per chance to
Elise: Dream. Yes, indeed.
Doree: Indeed. I did play tennis this morning.
Elise: Did you see the Federer documentary?
Doree: No. Should I watch it?
Elise: Yes, I cried.
Doree: Did you?
Elise: Yes. So Amazon has this Roger Federer 12 final days, and he led a camera crew in for his 12 final days of his professional playing career, which was summer of 2022.
Doree: And
Elise: He really wanted to play one last time with his longtime friend, bromance partner rival Raphael Nadal, who was also injured or something at the same time as Federer. And Federer had to retire because he was like 41 or 40, but B, he had had so many knee surgeries that his body just couldn't take it anymore.
Doree: And
Elise: Then Nadal obviously has been beset by injuries also, but he got Nadal to play a doubles match with him for his final professional match on the A TP tour. It is so moving.
Doree: Oh, I definitely have to watch it.
Elise: It's on Amazon Prime tv.
Doree: Wow. Okay. That reminds me that if you haven't listened to it yet, last week we released an episode that is our pop culture Rex for July. We can add this one.
Elise: I don't know why I didn't think to talk about this, but we are doing these every month. So I will talk about this in August for our August drop.
Doree: Yes, great, great. We're doing them pretty much around the first of the month, so keep an eye out.
Elise: We recommend books, music, tv, movies, maybe even other podcasts, and there'll be a Roundup episode and a roundup post on the Patreon where you can see and be linked to all of our
Doree: Recommendations. It'll be great. And if you have recommendations, we would love to hear those too. Which reminds me that you can email us at Forever35 podcast@gmail.com. You can call or text us at (781) 591-0390. You can join our patreon at patreon.com/forever five. We have a newsletter at Forever35 podcast.com/newsletter. And again, call or text us (781) 591-0390. Email us Forever35 podcast@gmail.com. We're doing these mini episodes weekly, so we love to get your questions, your comments, your feedback, your concerns, your suggestions, all the things, if we can offer any kind of advice, if you need product recommendations, whatever you need, we're here for you.
Elise: This is probably my favorite type of episode to join you as a co-host on the many apps.
Doree: Oh my gosh, that's so fun
Elise: Because they're so community oriented, they actually get to be in conversation with you, the listener, and I feel as though this is my first summer to guest host. And so I have gotten to know so many of y'all just from your questions and our ongoing conversations and sometimes by extension some of your husbands because there was one listener whose husband corrected me or pointed out the word play and my favorite iced tea. So thank
Doree: You. Yes, I love that. So before we take a break, we actually do have a question that was asked in the Discord, which is where conversations among our patron supporters happen and this listener wrote, hi all. I'm a Canadian heading to the US for a weekend shopping trip. Next month I plan to go to Target and just wondered what your favorite non-perishable target products are. I already have the Cozy Nights candle on my list.
Elise: I responded in the Discord already that I am just such a sucker for end caps, so this Canadian already knows my answer, but Doree, what are your recommendations for favorite nonperishable target products?
Doree: Well, these aren't target brand products.
Elise: These
Doree: Aren't house brand target products, but I do think Target has really upped their beauty section game lately for sure. So I'm not sure what is available in Canada and what isn't, but a few of the brands that I really like that are available at Target are Sid. They make a really nice cleansing balm. They also make a really nice moisturizer. It is the versus Skin Soak Rich moisture cream. It is a delightful thick moisturizer that I really like. And then their cleansing balm is the dissolved cleansing balm. And then they also have a day moisturizer that I really like, which is their Dew Point moisturizing gel cream.
Elise: Now I want to try some of this stuff out. It reminds me that I like the Target has Long had the Sonya Kuk line of
Doree: Makeup
Elise: Tools and so I love the Sonya Kuk Eyelash curler and some of their brushes, they're brushes I would put up against Sephora brushes or brushes that you can buy at Sephora.
Doree: That's a good
Elise: Call. Any of those makeup brushes or travel makeup brushes, the Eyelash Curler by Sonia Kasek, those are always great and they're at Target.
Doree: And another one of my favorite brands that is available in store at Target is Hero Cosmetics. So I love their sunscreen. They also make really good pimple patches.
Elise: Oh, I didn't know that. Okay.
Doree: Yes. If that is something that you are in the market for, I would check that out as well.
Elise: Yeah, I'm always in the market for them. Every time I cycle, every time, every 28 to 30 days
Doree: You're in the market for them.
Elise: In my T-zone,
Doree: The trendy viral star face pimple patches are also available at
Elise: Target.
Doree: So those are kind of fun.
Elise: We got those for my tween at Target.
Doree: They are so popular amongst the tweens.
Elise: It's a badge of honor to have pimples now then you get to put on your little star face pimple.
Doree: There's also a line, there's a target goop line of beauty products of skincare that I have not tried, but might just be a fun novelty. If you want to try it
Elise: Purchase while you're here.
Doree: Just while you're here, you might as well just try the Target Goop collab.
Elise: We are in one of the cities where you can actually go into a physical goop store and a couple years ago, probably during pandemic time, people were gifting those goop candles that were candles that were labeled with this candle Smells like my vagina.
Doree: Oh yes.
Elise: Did you see those? And a friend of mine really wanted one and we went into the Goop store I think earlier this year, 2024, and they said that they don't carry 'em anymore. So it was this very hot selling item, the candle that smells like my vagina or whoever the gifters vagina and now they don't. It's done. Yeah, it's not available. I guess you have to buy it on eBay now.
Doree: Wow. But whose vagina will it be smelling? Like you don't
Elise: Know. I know they're probably going to change the formula. Yeah,
Doree: Exactly.
Elise: If they reup re-up it.
Doree: Yeah. If you have more target recommendations for our Canadian friend, let us know. And Elise, we're going to take a short break and then we'll be back with some listener comments and questions.
Elise: Okay. We'll be right back.
Doree: Okay, Elise, we are back. I kind of love how Kate's legacy lives on in the free mugging conversation.
Elise: It will not die.
Doree: It will never die. And
Elise: People feel so strongly about this one way or the other.
Doree: People feel really strongly about this. So we actually got two text messages that just really cracked me up because up to me, they just illustrated the two sides of the free mugging coin. So first we got a text that said, Hey, DoreeElise just listening to episode 3 0 8, and I'm loving hearing your banter develop on the pod. This episode truly delivered on the request and I can't wait to hear more. I also have an argument for a free bowl, safe food. I never free mug, but you can often catch me eating warm oatmeal on the way to work. I figure at least it can't really spill. Anyways, love the pod. Thanks for the laughs. You figure warm oatmeal can't really spill.
Elise: I guess it depends on how watery versus clumpy your oatmeal is.
Doree: I mean, I would argue that I would definitely spill warm oatmeal and it would look like puke if it spilled in
Elise: My car. It probably look like vomit.
Doree: Yeah.
Elise: Or wet sawdust.
Doree: But look, I mean if that's working for you, then great, congratulations.
Elise: And if you've prepared your oatmeal such that it's so goopy that it sticks to the mug, you could probably flip it over and it won't come out. So it depends on the consistency of the
Doree: Oatmeal. It depends on the consistency of the oatmeal. Are you an oatmeal person, Elise? Do you like oatmeal?
Elise: I used to really oatmeal and then dressing it up with my brown sugar and my fruit and maybe some tree nuts. But now I rarely have time to eat breakfast, so I don't have a fancy breakfast thing. I just eat whatever my kids haven't eaten on the way out the door. So now I think because I like them to have a protein breakfast, I end up eating savory breakfasts. I'll have the last bacon strip or a bite of scrambled egg or half of a fried egg or something like that. I like those Starbucks. What are they called? Egg bites.
Doree: Egg bites, yeah.
Elise: Yeah, those are
Doree: Yummy. Do you get the ones at Costco? So I'll get those.
Elise: I did buy a giant pack at Costco.
Doree: We have those too,
Elise: But they don't taste as good when I prepare them.
Doree: Well, yeah, because I think the only way to get them to taste remotely similar is to put them in the toaster and that takes 12 minutes. It takes quite a bit of time. Kate Spencer made them for me in the air fryer and they were good, but they tasted the same as they do in the toaster. I don't think you need an air fryer for this express purpose. So we got that text. Then we got another text and it said, this is why I cannot be a free bowler slash mugger. This is from a different person. Also, to be clear, it wasn't like the first person was like, wait a second. I decided to not put the top on my Tupperware container because I was going to eat as soon as I got in the car, did not even make it into the car before spilling it all over the garage. I thought of Y Allall immediately because I was like, free bowl fail. And then they included a picture of what looks like a shattered bowl. A yeah. And maybe some sweet potato. I was like, is this chicken? What is this here?
Elise: Oh, this is exactly what would happen to me if I tried to free bowl. And it actually, it has happened previously, which is why I do not this
Doree: Actually.
Elise: It's a cautionary
Doree: Tale really. It is a cautionary tale. And we just brought up Costco, and this is sort of reminding me of something that happened to me the other night, which is I was making dinner and I went to get Do you ever get the two pack of the REOs tomato sauce from Costco?
Elise: Yes.
Doree: And it comes connected. It has a thing on top.
Elise: Yeah. Love Reyes.
Doree: Okay.
Elise: Yes.
Doree: So I tried and it was in a cabinet that was sort of at eye level. It was kind of a high up cabinet, and I tried to get one of the jars of tomato sauce free from the little thing holding it with one hand.
Elise: Oh no,
Doree: Elisa did not go well. It went very badly.
Elise: Did it look like a murder scene?
Doree: Yes. And Matt was like, what was that? I was like, oh, a large jar of tomato sauce and it's like a big jar from Costco. So
Elise: Was the jar okay?
Doree: No, it all broke the jar broke, everything broke, broke. It shattered. Oh, everything broke and tomato sauce exploded all over my kitchen. It was bad. Matt, bless him, cleaned it up because I was trying to finish nerve also. Thankfully it was a two pack and I had another jar. Right.
Elise: See, aren't you glad you bought in bulk?
Doree: I was, but also that was what caused the crash, so I was sort of like it wasn't great.
Elise: It's both the poison and the cure. Yes,
Doree: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. The whole spilling Costco just really hit on a lot of our themes.
Elise: Lessons learned.
Doree: Lessons learned, lessons learned. I mean, I will never again try to liberate one jar of tomato sauce with one hand. Also, it was my non-dominant hand. It was just, it was a lot of poor choices, quite honestly.
Elise: It was a cascade of error.
Doree: It was a cascade of poor choices and errors. Yes. Well, I'm glad our listeners are still engaging on this topic. All right. We're going to take another short break and then we have a couple more texts that we're going to read. Alright, we'll be right back. Okay, we are back. Elise, do you want to read this next text?
Elise: Sure. This is a topic that we've been engaging on for the last few weeks, and I can't wait to read this kind of a hilarious follow-up slash warning when it comes to parent friends, one day you might finally find your people and become best friends with a family. Then the respective eighth graders in each family will start dating first boyfriend girlfriend for them both. Then of course, because they're in eighth grade, they'll break up. Suddenly. Family gatherings together are slightly more awkward. We just had that family up to our cabin for a weekend and the two middle schoolers managed to not speak the entire time. Oh my God.
Luckily my daughter is very laid back and said she doesn't mind hanging out with them despite the awkwardness. She said she likes his family a lot and we'll just talk to them. And luckily you are absolutely right that as they get older, you don't need the kids to hang out, for the parents to enjoy time together. Wow. That's like a very successful parent friend group match situation. But then these can go awry. They are in middle school. Those sweet kids. I mean that must've been torturous if for one, if not both of them to have to be in a cabin together. But it sounds like they just dealt with it. They just kept to themselves, huh? Didn't chat with each other.
Doree: These are the things that you don't think about when your child is about to enter kindergarten and no, you're thinking about parent friends and
Elise: It is so cute that they got
Doree: Together though too. It's really cute. But also
Elise: I wonder, both families must hear different versions.
Doree: Oh, totally.
Elise: Of the story. And then do you share information?
Doree: I will say it also sounds like the parents did a good job of staying out of it.
Elise: Out of it. Yeah. I'm like this when there's dispute between kids. If there's a school dispute between my third grader and then my good friend's third grader, I try not to, we don't need to discuss it because it'll blow over. We try to just let the kids learn how to work through the conflict
Doree: Themselves
Elise: Because we're not neither there to witness it, nor are we there to intervene if it's going on at school. So many emotional landmines.
Doree: It's true. It's true. All right, let's get to this last text. Hi, Jian Elise, first, miss you forever. Kate Spencer, but loving learning more about and listening to Elise second. Elise, did you participate in a motherhood around the World Series for the blog cup of Joe?
Elise: Yes.
Doree: I was reading through the archives recently and wondered if that was you In the soul entry. You can't hide, Elise, you cannot hide from Forever35 listeners, they will find your
Elise: Cup of
Doree: Joe motherhood around the world entry.
Elise: That was from nine years ago.
Doree: Last one more question for Elise. You mentioned you have a Fitbit. Do you like your Fitbit? Which one do you have? I'm considering the Fitbit Luxe, but the reviews on Target aren't so great. Cheers, all
Elise: Thank you for the questions. I have to say that I now know how enduring and well-read Cup
Doree: Of Joe
Elise: Is because despite all of the reporting that I have done all around the world for major broadcasters and appearances on cable TV and writing for publications, more people mentioned that Cup of Joe article that I participated in, I didn't write than anything else. They were doing a feature on motherhood around the world and they had different moms talk about what their lives were like as moms in New Zealand and in Northern Africa. And my part was for seo and you share little photos of where you live and the activities you do with your kids and all those things. And I shared a little bit about giving birth in Seoul because second and third daughters were born in South Korea. And this article is so far back in the archives that my third daughter didn't even exist. It was about the birth of my second daughter, the now third grader that I was just referring to. And so Wow. Listener, you really went back. That's a deep cut. That's a deep cut in cup of gel
Doree: Deep cut.
Elise: But people still talk about it because it has a photo of me eating a cheeseburger while I'm on all fours in between contractions. Oh, the point being that when you're giving birth in soul, well, I was at a birthing center and not in a hospital. And they let you I was going to say they let you eat up until the point of pushing. Yeah, yeah. You just eat the whole time because they're like, this is a marathon, not a sprint. And they'll feed you. And they were very on schedule. They had, it didn't matter what you were going through, how far your contractions were, how dilated your cervix was, they would still come in and bring you breakfast, lunch, and dinner, bring you a menu to order your breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was there for late breakfast. I think I had just missed breakfast by the time I got to the birthing center and into my room. But I was there for lunch and then I needed to push at dinner, but they were like, oh, it's dinner time, but since you're going to be pushing, we should probably bring you something like a stew or a porridge. Oh my God.
And so for my lunch, I had this cheeseburger that they had to run down the street to buy because I wanted a Western meal. You could choose an Eastern meal or a western meal. And I wanted a Western meal, which was cheeseburger and fries. And so they went and brought it for me and I endured my contractions on hands and knees because it just felt better for me. They let you kind of move around and so in between I'm just chomping down on my burger. It's a funny photo and we'll link it for, I can't get rid of it on the internet anyway. It's embarrassing, but I can't take it off the internet because Cup of Joe is so popular. That is so
Doree: Funny.
Elise: So even if I ask Cup of Joe to take it down because it's embarrassing,
Doree: It's
Elise: Going to endure,
Doree: It'll never die.
Elise: It's cashed, it's cashed. So now I'm just like, fine, whatever. It's there. As to the Fitbit question, Doree, what are you doing for your fitness tracking? Do you wear an aura ring or
Doree: I wear an Apple watch.
Elise: That's right, we've talked about that before. So I am still on Fitbit because I have so many years of data
That Fitbit has been keeping that I'm sort of like, well, this is where all my data is. This is how I feel about Spotify. I don't really want to switch and migrate it. Oh yeah. Yes. Anyway. I understand. So I don't love, I wear a Fitbit Lux. I will say that I have had it since 2020. I've had this one since 2020, so it has lasted for years plus now, and I don't love it. I feel like the battery charge, I'd love for the battery charge. I'd love to go a week without charging the battery, but I have to charge every three or four days or so. But it's very lightweight and I accidentally get it wet constantly. The data has been consistent though, and on the sensitive setting it monitors my sleep pretty well. So I like it enough. Yeah, I'd give it a solid b plus or an A minus with the flaw being that I'd love for it to go longer without a charge.
Doree: I mean, I feel that way about my Apple watch, so I get
Elise: It. I think it's just true. I mean, I wish we didn't have to always be charging everything correctly. So it's really more of a philosophical, true or existential problem I have with devices. I shouldn't blame it on the Fitbit.
Doree: Well, Elise, so it's been a joy. I'm now going to go look up your cup of Joe. I as told to. Can't wait to read it. Thanks listeners. We will talk to you soon. Bye
Elise: Bye.
Doree: Bye.
* Transcripts are AI generated.