Mini-Ep 405: Simple Is Good

Doree and Elise hear from listeners about the Kamala-nomenon, dealing with dry skin postpartum, a powerful nighttime sleep suggestion, and you wrote to offer advice for the listener who’s starting new anti-anxiety meds. Come for listener questions, stay for the TJ’s and Costco recs!

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Transcript

Doree: Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.

Elise: And I'm Elise Hugh. And we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums.

Doree: This right here 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, which includes the caveat that we are podcast hosts. We are not experts. Please, if we say this is out of our area of expertise, please seek support from a medical and or mental health professional. We would appreciate that.

Elise: Yes. And just a reminder, there's lots of activity and fun extra content bonus stuff on our Patreon right now at patreon.com/forever three five. There's conversations going on in the comments for $5 a month, you're getting all sorts of bonus content like the download of our skincare routines, the monthly pop culture episodes where we do our pop culture recs for books and films and television. We have July and August up now, and you can also get ad free episodes at a different tier. So just a reminder to join us at our Patreon at patreon.com/forever. Three five.

Doree: Thank you, Elise.

Elise: I'm trying to hang out there in the Patreon. I don't know if y'all have noticed. I'm just popping in and I

Doree: Know. I love it. I love it.

Elise: It's fun.

Doree: It's totally fun. I like how casual it is. I also, I started a chat in the Patreon the other day in the Patreon app, just kind of playing around with that. Also,

Elise: People saw it. I saw some of the community jump in. Yeah, cool.

Doree: Yeah, we'll do

Elise: That more often.

Doree: Yeah, I think I will, as listeners know, I have been sort of looking for a full-time job on and off for the past few months. And a Forever35 listener actually put me in touch with someone who I'm now doing some stuff on contract.

Elise: Oh, that's great.

Doree: For, which is super cool. So thank you so much, Emily. I really appreciate you, but I'm still also looking for something full-time because life, I had applied to a job at this company a few months ago, and I got to the final round and then they told me I wasn't getting the job. This has been sort of recurring over the past few months. It's very demoralizing. I know a lot of people are in this boat also, but there seems to be this tendency that if you don't fit the job description to an absolute T, they are like, no, there's no more on the job training or like, oh, you just don't have this one thing, but that's fine. We can teach you. No, you have to have every single thing checked off in the job description, or if you try to apply for a lower level job, you're overqualified. So you're really in between a

Elise: Rock. And so you're damned if you don't. Yeah,

Doree: Exactly. So this job that I had gotten rejected for a couple months ago, someone reached out from the company recently and they were like, we have this other job, but it's not, but there's no benefits. It's a contractor job. The pay for what the job was was, in my opinion, pretty abysmal. It sounded like a ton of work, but I was like, okay, I'll interview and I interview and it was the thing where they asked me about a couple specific skills and I was like, no, I don't have those. I wasn't going to lie. You know what I mean? Because if they asked me any questions about those skills, I would not be able to answer. And they emailed me today and they were like, we're moving forward with another candidate. And I was like, okay, whatever.

Elise: You didn't want that job. I

Doree: Didn't want it anyway, but it's annoying. And the other thing that I have learned, and maybe if you are listening and you're also applying for jobs, but what I've learned is if you end an interview and the person says, we're just talking to a few more candidates and whatever, if they say they're talking to a few more candidates, you have not gotten the job. That's it. Oh

Elise: Yeah. Like the interview.

Doree: Yes. If they

Elise: Want to

Doree: Move forward with you, they will say, okay, so next steps are going, we're going to put you in touch with X, Y, Z person,

Elise: Interesting,

Doree: Blah, blah, blah. Because across the board, whenever I've made it to the next round of something, that's how it happens. It's never like, let me wait for a few days and see what happens. It's always on the spot. And then if they don't want you, they are like, we're just talking to a few more people and we'll let you know about next steps next week or something. Then you're like,

Elise: That's a really good insight that you have gained from all this experience. Good job reading the room.

Doree: Thank you. I mean, it's taken me a minute, but as soon as they said last week we're just talking, I was like, no, A, I'm not getting this job that I don't want

Elise: Whatever job, don't let the door hit you.

Doree: I'm also just like, you know what? I wish people would just say that. Why pretend that you're even still considering me? You're not. Well, and

Elise: I don't know that that's completely true because say there's candidates who are more qualified than you because they have that one specific skill that they asked that you didn't, they may not take the offer if

Doree: Totally if offered the job. So there's

Elise: Such a complicated matrix that is happening and in play.

Doree: Yes. But

Elise: You are right that you can generally tell if you've sold the interviewer in the room on you.

Doree: So anyway, those are the nuggets of things that I've learned in the last few months and I think I'm going to stop applying for jobs.

Elise: You say that, but there might be a good job that comes up, right? No,

Doree: I think that the current job market is so fucked that it's too demoralizing. I also have other creative projects going on forever, 35 other stuff that I'm doing and I'm like, that's what I should be spending my time and energy on, not these interviews that are going to get me nowhere that take time and take time for me to prepare for and great.

Elise: Lean in on your own

Doree: Creative graduates for sure. Of course, of course. But I think what I also learned in the last couple of years is there's a lot to be said for stability and having a steady paycheck, and that has really been shown to me over the last couple of years. So it's like, okay, yes, in an ideal world I would like that scenario, but maybe that's just not realistic anymore. But what I have now learned in the last few months is that it is also not realistic to expect to get a full-time job. So alright, corporate America, you've won. Thank you very much everybody. You've won

Elise: This round. Only this round once America is made great again, everything will change.

Doree: Oh my God, you're so right. We just need to make America great again.

Elise: It's four words, Doree, make America,

Doree: How

Elise: Come no one has thought of that America? Great. Again,

Doree: Speaking of that, we actually, because we have been recording stuff so far ahead of time, we actually haven't talked about Kamala.

Elise: We're in the middle of a Kamala phenomenon.

Doree: Yeah, the coconut tree, I mean things were immediately MeMed. We got a question from a listener who asked, are we doing a states project for the 2024 election? I loved participating last time. Also, how are we showing up for Kamala? Any wrecks? So yes, our state's project, so

Elise: Fill me in on the State's project and what y'all were up

Doree: To. The State's project is an organization that tries to get Democrats elected at the state and local level. They only concentrate on state races, so don't so vital. And also not on governorships either. They really focus on state legislatures and I mean they've pretty much been credited with flipping the Pennsylvania legislature and we raised a ton of money for them. I mean, I think we raised over $70,000 for them, which is super cool. And I actually have to touch base with Melissa Walker, who is the person overseeing all of it and she's been on, maybe we'll have her come back on and talk about how we can motivate and raise money for this election cycle. She'll come on for a quick five minute. Here's what we're doing. So thank you for that. Reminder listener. And then in terms of what we can do for Kamala, I know Elise, you have already started mobilizing. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Elise: I signed up over at crooked dot com's vote Save America, where you can sign up for a region, you can do Team East, team West, and then they will plug you into all sorts of ways to get involved, whether that's door knocking or making phone calls or writing postcards. Those are all things that you can do. There's also, there's so many pleas for donations right now from so many packs and from the DSEC and the D CCC and all these different arms, and it's hard to know where to give. So I do like if we're going to do anything consolidated at Forever35, I like us getting back in with the states' project, so we have kind of a directed way for our community to help though. You should totally.

Doree: That

Elise: Should not preclude you from helping in all kinds of different ways locally. I take part in this organization called The Hangout Do Good, which we'll put a link to too. Oh

Doree: Yeah, I'm part of them

Elise: Too. Yeah. And Hangout do good. The kids will help make fresh lunches on Sundays because they have a Sunday lunch drive for the unhoused and there's various places in LA where you can drop off your lunches that you make and they get driven to one central place downtown so that they can be distributed. And there's all different organizing that they do for congressional races as well. But we will also follow up with our contact at the States project to see what we can do in these final hundred days or so until November.

Doree: Cool. Let's remind everyone, please call or text us at (781) 591-0390. Email us at Forever35 podcast@gmail.com on our website Forever35 podcast.com. We have links to everything we mentioned on the show. We're also on Instagram at Forever35 podcast. Our newsletter is at Forever35 Podcast do com slash newsletter. And we have had several requests for the link to the famous hotdog heat lamp, KA, the candle warmer, which I have on right now, and we will link to that in the show notes. So keep an eye out for that. All right, we'll be right back. All right, we are back and we got a text from a listener who writes, I'm newly postpartum and I'm desperate for a new moisturizer wreck, especially for nighttime. My forehead has gotten so dry since having my son. I typically use the ordinary CeraVe skin renewing night cream and add a layer of the Aquaphor stick to seal it in, and this just isn't enough. My skin feels like sandpaper when I wake up in the morning wake and my morning routine can't catch up on my skin barrier either. Help do. And Elise,

Elise: Did you have this situation when you were postpartum?

Doree: Not that I recall. Did you?

Elise: I had hair loss. I had

Doree: Pretty significant, oh yeah, I had hair eyed, major hair loss for sure.

Elise: I feel like some of my hair on one side of my head will just never completely come back, but not excessively dry skin. What do you make of this routine so far?

Doree: So I would simplify things. I would cut out the ordinary and I would maybe switch the moisturizer to Vanna Cream, which I think is the thickest and best for sensitive skin. It sounds like something is irritating your skin. In addition to it being super dry is what I'm kind of hearing here. So I would just do a super gentle cleanser and a Ravi for dry skin, although you are using CeraVe skin renewing night cream, we don't know if that's irritating your skin. So I don't know, maybe the Cetaphil or a Balm. I love a Balm cleanser. I think they're super gentle. And then I would do the Vanna Cream for Sensitive Skin. No fragrance. There's nothing in it besides moisturizer. Actually, they also have a facial cleanser, so you could try that. Maybe it also doesn't have any fragrance in it, and I would just do that.

Elise: I would totally agree with you that there is such thing as overusing hyaluronic acid, so it's possible that using HA too often or too consistently is actually affecting your skin negatively. Yeah, that's

Doree: What I'm

Elise: Wondering. So drop it for now. And again, I'm no dermatologist, but that's what dermatologists and estheticians have told me. The other thing I'm curious about is just the environment too. Would it be helpful to have a humidifier in your room? Is it too dry or drafty in your overall environment? Are you in a dry place? Are you in Palm Springs or Beijing is another place that's very dry. Are

Doree: You in

Elise: Beijing? Dusty? Are you in the Persian Gulf? So that might be another consideration to make.

Doree: Okay, great. Great point. Alright, we are going to move to a different topic, which is I've been also complaining about my sleep, and we did get an email with a suggestion. Do you want to take this, Elise?

Elise: I sure will. Okay. Hi. I had a pause the pod moment and wanted to share this tip for Doree to help with sleep. I use the podcast, nothing much happens and it helps me fall asleep and stay asleep. It's literally stories where nothing much happens, but it's enough to keep your brain slightly interested to get you to drift off to sleep. The story is told twice with the second telling slower and quieter, but honestly, I usually don't even make it through the first round. The stories are sweet and neutral and it's just lovely background sound. Why didn't I think of this idea? If I wake up in the night, I put it back on and it helps me settle back to sleep in no time. I use soft headband wireless headphones so I can continue to lie down while listening. This has truly saved me many sleepless nights as the podcast host mentions, the more you use this, the better it works. Love the pod, keep up the great work.

Doree: Wow,

Elise: I haven't heard of this, but now I'm like, why didn't I corner the market and coming up with reading stories that have no points? This genius.

Doree: Totally. Matt just bought the headband with the Bluetooth headphones built in. And maybe I should check that out too, because I don't even like sleeping. I don't like sleeping in pods. I find them uncomfortable because I sleep on my side a lot. So this is an interesting suggestion. Thank you. And then another listener wrote in to say, hi, Doree Elise, I'm an OG and I love the podcast. Just wanted to write in and suggest, Doree, there's a very good chance your sleep problems are due to perimenopause, such a common symptom. You could talk to your doctor to get your hormone levels checked and maybe HRT would help. It helped me tremendously. Love you both. Yeah. A couple people wrote in to say this,

Elise: This happens. It's a plot point in all fours by Miranda July. Oh yeah. Because she was around 45, 46. Well, the main character in this work of auto fiction was having trouble. She was getting up around two in the morning and having trouble getting back to sleep. Then she went and got on some progesterone or something and it helped.

Doree: Here we go. This is how it happens. But

Elise: Think of the sponsorship opportunities.

Doree: Oh my gosh. They're endless. Endless. All right, we're going to take another short break and we'll be right back. Okay, we are back. These next couple of texts are related to a listener question that we got recently about anxiety. So this first person wrote to the listener who just started searcher line. The only regret I have is that I didn't start it sooner. Frankly, I never realized quite how much anxiety I had until searcher line turned down the dial of my incessantly anxious thoughts. Adjusting was a bear though, and I found great relief in reading others reviews on drugs.com. Reading others experiences helped me navigate my own. Give yourself time and be gentle with yourself. You got this.

Elise: Oh, I that was

Doree: Lovely love. Thank you.

Elise: Thanks Kat from ct.

Doree: I love an endorsement. That's like my only regret is that I didn't do this quicker or sooner,

Elise: But as we talked about, talk to your doctor first. All our bodies are different. All our bodies react to medications different. This is where our caveat at the very beginning of the episode really applies because we are no pharmacists, we are no doctors. And speaking of that, yes, we have another text on this.

Doree: Yeah, do you want to read this one?

Elise: Alright, here it goes. Propranolol is a beta blocker, not an SSRI. It's a heart medication that blocks adrenaline from hitting the heart. So that is why it is sometimes used as an anti-anxiety medication. It works right away and does not have the same side effects or lasting chemical changes provided by an SSR. I probably best for the caller to talk to their doctor. Smiley face. We agree. This is all in response to a caller who had said she had recently started on Propranolol and was just trying to get used to it. And did we have any tips about adjusting?

Doree: Yes. So thank you for this suggestion. Alright, lastly, we have a voicemail.

Voicemail: Hello. Long time listener here. Like many have said Miss Kate, but am loving Elise so much. I love the Patreon. I'm super happy you have going, especially the casual chats. They've always been a favorite of mine. And as I'm listening, I was wondering if Pete would ever be willing to see a casual chat guest. Oh, obviously it's not something she's interested in or you all are interested in then, but I thought maybe it might be a fun way for us to get some life updates from Kate. Maybe like quarterly or twice a year or something. Or even just one time. Anyway, you may have already thought of this, but yeah, like I said, love Elise. So glad she's here and I'm so happy you got the Paton going. Thanks. Bye.

Doree: So sweet. Thank you for this suggestion.

Elise: And I for 1:00 AM constantly asking if we can get Kate back to do a casual chat. So I'm also thinking about the same thing. I also love Kate and we miss her.

Doree: We do.

Elise: What do you think Dore?

Doree: I mean, look, I want to be respectful of her boundaries and I think she also, it seemed like she also didn't want to, how

Elise: Do I put, be one foot in, one foot out?

Doree: Yeah, kind of. Exactly. So definitely not wanting to have her back as a recurring thing, but maybe she would be willing to come on at some point and just have a little chat with us. We'll definitely, we'll propose it. We'll propose it to her. But thank you for this suggestion. And then lastly, Elise, I mean I think the answer to this for you is probably no because you've been away, but I'm just wondering if you have any Trader Joe's or Costco Res this week?

Elise: I have been away, so I can't remember the last time I purchased something at Trader Joe's that was sort of newish. So no, I don't have anything fresh. What about you?

Doree: So the only thing I will say is that, I don't know if this is true at all Costcos, but at our Costcos here in Los Angeles, cherries are like $6 for two pounds.

Elise: What?

Doree: Yeah.

Elise: Is it because the kind of end of the season?

Doree: I don't know,

Elise: Maybe I shouldn't ask questions. Maybe I should just rush to my local

Doree: Store and get some, yes, go into that produce room and pick up some cherries because they're so good. They're the exact same ones that are at Target for twice the price. And yeah, just get in on those cherries. The other thing I will say is that at one of the targets we frequent here in Los Angeles, we're equidistant to two targets. So sometimes we go to one, sometimes we go to another. One of them already has more Halloween stuff than the other, and they have a six foot tall animatronic werewolf.

Elise: Is it going to be in your yard this year?

Doree: I don't think it's $250. It seems like a lot to spend on an animatronic werewolf, but I'm very tempted. I have to say I love

Elise: H. Love Halloween.

Doree: If you are in the market for such a thing, see if your Costco is carrying an animatronic werewolf.

Elise: So exciting.

Doree: And that about does it for the Costco and Trader Joe's segment of the podcast.

Elise: What are they going to sponsor? We need to get them to sponsor.

Doree: I know. What the heck. I feel like Trader Joe's doesn't advertise and does cost, but

Elise: The Fearless Flyer has some of the best writing.

Doree: That's true. Have you ever

Elise: Picked up a fearless flyer at Trader Joe's? Oh yeah. That is some sharp copywriting.

Doree: It's very entertaining. Alright, well thanks Elise. I'm glad I caught you before you jet us. So much fun elsewhere. But it was great to get to talk to you again.

Elise: Same to you.

Doree: Bye bye

Elise: Listeners.

*Transcripts are AI generated.