Mini-Ep 452: The Dream of the Nineties
Elise preps for her ’90s kegger party and Doree preps for a playdate at her house that Henry orchestrated. Then, they hear from listeners about the microjoy of lactase, how to celebrate milestone birthdays, what to do in LA for a weekend, and facial hair removal recs.
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Transcript
This episode transcript is AI generated.
Doree (00:10):
Hello and welcome to Forever 35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise (00:16):
And I'm Elise Hu. And we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums,
Doree (00:20):
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 not experts. We're podcast hosts. We always encourage you to seek support first and foremost from a medical and or mental health professional as needed.
Elise (00:37):
I don't have a serum to talk about today, but I do want to sing the praises of a new discovery that I made at Walgreens, which is aloe spray. So now they're delivering aloe by spray, like in a sunscreen spray bottle instead of as goopy, as a goopy pump bottle. And so you just spray that aloe all over you after your sunburned or sun kissed as I have been, and it's so soothing and then you get it all over your body or I'm sure I wasted a lot of it too, just like we have said about spray sunscreen. But yeah, I just saw it at Walgreens over the weekend and I thought, why didn't this exist before?
Doree (01:23):
What will they think of next?
Elise (01:28):
Is it new? I don't know. I mean listeners, you'll have to tell me, but they are now letting us deliver aloe to our bodies via spray bottle and aerosol spray bottle, not just like spritz spritz.
Doree (01:41):
Wow,
Elise (01:43):
What a time to be alive.
Doree (01:47):
Yeah,
Elise (01:48):
Innovation. Innovation everywhere.
Doree (01:51):
Truly. Oh gosh. What's going on with you besides spray aloe?
Elise (02:00):
I mean that's the most exciting thing that has happened to me all week, but we've been doing a lot of birthdays over here. Today is Rob's birthday. Yesterday was Issa's birthday. Issa made a card for Rob that had little crabs on it, cancer buddies or birthday buddies, and then Rob has his birthday tradition of having ice cream first thing in the morning, and we all did. We all joined him and it's a little much Oh, nice. Ice cream for breakfast. I was delighted to have it when I did, but then afterwards I was kind of grossed out. I was like, I didn't really need this to be my first meal of the day, a pre coffee giant bowl of, we did a mix of Haagen-Dazs and Ben and Jerry's, but we were just eating ice cream for breakfast in solidarity. I asked him why that's been a tradition and it turns out it was because when he turned 10, which is the same age that Issa turned, he was on vacation. He was on summer vacation in a piazza in Italy with his family, and there was a gelato vendor that was already selling stuff, and so they had gelato for breakfast when he was 10, and then his parents continued the ice cream or gelato tradition each year for 40 years. For 40 years.
Doree (03:22):
Look,
Elise (03:24):
And here we are
Doree (03:24):
Now. Yeah, we love consistency.
Elise (03:27):
Yeah, it's a lot of dairy, a lot. I like heavy sugar and dairy for me, but I took one for the team this morning. Otherwise, no major headlines. No travel for another 20 days or something. That's
Doree (03:44):
A long time for you.
Elise (03:46):
It is. I'm really actually looking forward to it. I was telling Rob when we were in Phoenix on Monday and it was like 112 degrees. I was like, I'm going to be staying put for a while and really looking forward to it. And he was like, oh, you actually want to stay put, but when you're in such hot temperatures, it kind of beats you down. So I'm looking forward to a little consistency. As you know Dory, I'm having a backyard party that is college kegger themed and by college kegger themed, I mean it will be a kegger, so I have to secure a keg and then I'm going to be making jello shots and I got an extra table for beer pong. The food doesn't have to be fancy college party themed so I can put out some bags of Cheetos and some popcorn and call it a day, maybe some pretzels if I want to be charitable.
Doree (04:44):
No, you know how to do a party.
Elise (04:50):
You know what? Domino's Pizza, I mean that's a good kind of throwback, but still it's more substantive food. I'll think this through, think this through a little bit, but we don't have to get fancy.
Doree (05:01):
Should you have Well, throwback to the nineties, right? I was going to say for Loco, but that was more of a Ts late Ts
Elise (05:11):
Thing. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it was late TS Obama era. Right. Since it's nineties throwback, late nineties throwback. I feel like the drink of that time period was Zema. Do you remember Zema?
Doree (05:24):
Oh, I sure do. Zema. Oh
Elise (05:25):
Yeah,
Doree (05:26):
Zima was a little earlier. I can attest because
Elise (05:31):
Do they make Zema
Doree (05:32):
Anymore? I don't know. But I was in high school in the mid nineties and Zema was quite popular among all the younger age drinkers, among all the underage drinkers because it was drinking like a soda. It was drinking an alcoholic, clearly Canadian. That would be a good throwback. Some clearly Canadian for your friends.
Elise (05:58):
Yeah, I could try and find that.
Doree (06:00):
I'm trying to think what we drank in college. We drank forties, which are gross
Elise (06:06):
Malt
Doree (06:06):
Liquor. Yeah, that could be a throwback. It wasn't like a pretty time.
Elise (06:13):
No, no. We made a lot of hooch or various juices that we called or punches that we called them that were different and themed names for them. I remember making a lot of those in bathtubs and in trash cans. Yeah, so pregaming before parties, we would do get a hotel room or something and then make some sort of alcoholic punch that was laden with Everclear in a bathtub. But just to bring it back to the theme of this show, now we take much better care of ourselves, but I am going to be making Jello shots. Very excited, very excited about that. I might even get the kids involved. I don't have to tell them the ingredients.
Doree (06:54):
No, of course not. I picked het from camp yesterday and he was like this friend of his at school, I'll call her Sarah. He was like, Sarah and I made plans for Saturday, and I was like,
Elise (07:14):
Oh, on their own.
Doree (07:16):
Yes. I was like, okay. He's like, yes, we're going to have a play date from nine to one at our house. And I was like, okay. And he had a whole plan, which is just so funny because I think I've mentioned before, he doesn't, he's not proactive about play dates. He'll go on them, but if I'm ever like, do you want to have a play date with someone? He's like, he doesn't really care. So it's always, but every so often he did this once before with a different friend. He was like, Steve, I'm going to call this child Steve. Okay, not Kenneth, but okay. He's like, Steve and I want to go to the dinosaur themed indoor bounce house place on Saturday from 10 to two. He always sets these very specific times. It's very sweet. So I did reach out to Sarah's mom and she confirmed that that was also part of the plan because I didn't mention the time in my text to her and she was like, Sarah says the play date is from nine to one. I was like, yes, that is correct, but I actually think Sarah is not available this weekend, but I think we're going to do it next weekend, but we don't have a lot of play dates at our house because the house is typically a mess and Bo is here, but this I think will be motivation to clean the house and to clean the outside area.
Elise (08:47):
Well, you have a pool, your house is the perfect one. Pool.
Doree (08:50):
Henry was like, we'll swim in the pool in the morning before the sun gets too hot and then we'll go inside and we'll play in my house. And I like that he wanted to have someone to his house, you know what I mean? He hasn't really articulated that before, so I was like, okay, I want to make this happen for you. And Matt and I had been talking about how the heck we are going to clean the outside of the house. We'd already been talking about it. And so now it's like, okay, now we have a specific date and goal in mind.
Elise (09:29):
I'm very deadline driven. I feel like that's part of the reason I have so many parties and random gatherings because it gives me a deadline to be like, oh, now I'm going to clear that stuff from my parents' house out of the garage because the band needs to use the garage.
Doree (09:43):
Yes, yes, exactly.
Elise (09:45):
Good job
Doree (09:46):
Kids. So I just want to note Elise, that we got a text with a picture of a, I would call a jumbo sized box of Costco of Kirkland brand fast acting lactase pills 180 tablets, and this person wrote, my micro joy is this comically large box of lactate. It's generic from Costco so that I can eat my nightly bowl of ice cream in comfort. Elise, go treat yourself to a box and eat cheese to your heart's content.
Elise (10:26):
Aw, so sweet. My dad would be so proud. He would always say to me, Elise, your pediatrician told you you had lactose intolerance since you were like seven years old. Why do you just continue to suffer and not take the enzyme? Oh my God, he's a pharmacist. He was also the one who was in my hospital room when I was giving birth and I refused to take an epidural and he was like, just take the epidural. It's around for a reason.
Doree (10:52):
Oh my God. Yes. It's so true.
Elise (10:56):
Very good reminder about this lactate that's actually just called generic fast acting lactase available at Kirkland Brand. Thank you.
Doree (11:04):
Yes, exactly.
Elise (11:05):
I would feel better after my breakfast ice cream just now.
Doree (11:09):
Yes, exactly. Okay, and then we also got a voicemail that is also directed to you. You've had several things come up lately that are listeners have been very helpful with. Yes, thank you.
Listener Voicemail (11:25):
Hello ladies. This message is for Elise regarding your charger theft situation. I was watching Shark Tank within the last year and there was what I thought was the silliest product, which is a charger that you kind unscrew the outlet and the charger attaches and screws into the outlet so you physically can't remove the charger from the outlet. That's so silly, and I never really thought about it again until the listener just called in with a recommendation and it jogged my memory. So you should put those in the outlet because while I think having a charger designated as the kitchen charger, for example, is an amazing idea, man, kids, they're going to take that stuff. They are not rational. I'm sure if you googled shark tank outlet charger, it would pop up and I think that could fix all your problems. You guys are great.
Elise (12:24):
This is an amazing suggestion because after I designated the charger and base as the kitchen charger just a couple days ago after the suggestion from our listener this morning, my girls went out of town and I went downstairs to the kitchen and what did I find? The kitchen charger is gone. No, even after I had this family summit and I said this is going to be the kitchen charger, I was ignored. So just as this listener with the Shark Tank charger suggestion said, these kids man, they can be Little Rascals and just ignore my decrees, so
Doree (13:11):
I'll check
Elise (13:11):
It out. Do you know what it's called, what this product is called?
Doree (13:15):
Yes. This person left a follow up. It's called Perma Plug.
Elise (13:20):
Perma plug. That's what I need. I need a perma plug.
Doree (13:23):
You need a,
Elise (13:23):
I just helped these Shark Tank people sell their product because this is the exact problem that they described and that they solved.
Doree (13:31):
Totally. Okay, Elise, we're going to take a break. Before we take a break, just a reminder to call or text us with your pictures of comically large boxes of lactate from Costco Shark Tank chargers, anything 7 8 1 5 9 1 0 3 9 0 and email us at Forever 35 podcast@gmail.com. We also have our website forever 35 podcast.com. We have links there to everything we mention on the show. Follow us on Instagram at Forever 35 podcast. Our newsletter is at forever 35 podcast.com/newsletter and you can shop our favorite products at shop my us slash forever five and we will be right back. Alright, we are back and we have an interesting text as an OG Forever 35 listener. I've always looked forward to my 35th birthday, but now it's only a few months away and I don't know how to mark the occasion. Do you all have any ideas for milestone birthdays?
Elise (14:38):
I don't treat milestone birthdays is any different than any birthdays because I love birthdays. I'm actually on the board of something called the Birthday Party Project. That's how much I love birthdays. I think that birthdays are so equalizing, everybody has one. It's not like other events that we celebrate that tend to be socially normalized that you might not get a wedding or a baby shower or something like that, but everybody has birthdays and so I love birthdays. I love what I did for my 30th was a trip, like a friend trip, and we did that together. So that can, again, not special necessarily just for a milestone birthday, but it's a great way to bring some people that you love together and spend a bunch of concentrated time in a new place as a community. So that was awesome. And then I love a theme party, so I would suggest that for any birthday as well. I feel like none of these suggestions are specifically milestone birthday suggestions, but since it is your 35th birthday, you could look to the year that you were born and do some sort of theme party or a costume party or get together. That is from the year. What year would be, it'd be 1990, so you could do a 1990 theme thing.
Doree (16:02):
You recently went to a very fun and I would argue elaborate milestone birthday.
Elise (16:11):
Yeah, the 40th that I went to for my friend Meredith, which we talked about on this show, she did it almost like her own wedding. She had a party planner and rented out a venue and there was a dj. So it just depends on your own party style and your budget of course, but if you're wanting to just get people together and celebrate specifically the fact that you're 35, then looking back on the year 1990 could be a good way to do it. We just did Dory's birthday in May and there was a whole round of trivia questions about 1990 news events, whether something happened before 1990 or after 1990, and so like 1990 fashion is probably interesting. Could be a lot of fun. So yeah, I guess that was the beginning of grunge. Y'all could just do flannel. There's lots of stuff, so I don't have any suggestions that specific to the 35th milestone except looking back 35 years.
(17:22):
But yeah, trips are always great. Theme parties are great. Getting your friends to dress up is great. Getting your friends to do something that you really love to do is awesome too. Let's say all your friends are really spread apart, but your favorite food is some random chicken sandwich at Popeye's. I'm just riff here. Spitballing here. Yeah, just spitballing here. You can make all your friends go to and get a chicken sandwich, their original chicken sandwich or whatever it is, and take a picture with it and then you'd have all your friends kind of paying tribute to you on your day. So that's another fun little thing that you could do. I dunno. Dory, do you have any milestone birthday ideas that really stand out?
Doree (18:04):
Well, I actually wrote an article about milestone birthdays last year for a newsletter called Gloria, which is for middle aged unquote women. It's a very cool newsletter. They have a lot of great content and I spoke to a bunch of women about how they had celebrated their milestone birthdays, so we will link to that article, but one woman got a tattoo that was very meaningful to her. There were a few people who had done big trips. One woman has a family tradition where they do a surprise trip for their milestone birthdays, so the birthday person doesn't know where they're going and they do it with her sister, brother-in-law, brother and sister-in-law. So it's like a big family trip. She said, now you wake up and you throw some clothes on and it's like, we're going to the airport. Someone else is packed for you, which is like, I love that. That's really, really fun. So, so there might be some ideas in there. I don't hate the idea of celebrating a milestone birthday. It's like why not? It's a fun thing to do to celebrate yourself.
Elise (19:31):
Yeah. Happy birthday, by the way.
Doree (19:34):
Yeah, and happy birthday. All right, one more question here, Dorie Elise, any forever 30 fives in LA I need your Rex. My husband and I are taking a last minute trip there next month for a concert. He's never been, and it's been almost 25 years since I've been. All I know is that the concert is at Exchange LA and we'd probably want to stay fairly close to there if possible. I think we'd both prefer an Airbnb situation but are not opposed to a hotel. However, since this was a spur of the moment decision and we have other travel planned over the next couple months, we need to be mindful of our spending. We'll have two to three free days and I have no idea where to start with planning.
Elise (20:14):
Okay, so fun. I'm so excited you're coming to la. I have been meaning to put together a list of my favorite LA restaurants, so maybe this is just the excuse that I need, but since you're going to be at this concert in Exchange la, which I believe is in downtown, I just did a quick search. There's a hotel downtown that has this great walkway and I think murals for photos and it's great for just drinks, pre-show drinks called the Figueroa Hotel or the Hotel Figueroa. Yeah, maybe Hotel Figueroa.
Doree (20:48):
I think it's Hotel Figueroa.
Elise (20:49):
Yeah, so you'll be near there. So that's somewhere I would suggest for pre-show drinks. And then downtown is very close to K-Town, my very, very favorite neighborhood in all of Los Angeles that is always alive in vibrant, especially at night. So at night after the show, definitely go to K-Town and get yourself dessert or go to one of the many bars that are open late in K-Town. My favorite is this one called Don Sung sa, which is like a trip back in time. I think they still let people smoke inside there. It's open until three or four in the morning.
(21:30):
It's Korean, but it's sort of like an old school, and this is where Japanese and Korean history kind of collide, like an old school zaki where you can get small bites and great beer and soju and it's just, it's very, it's very vibrant in that it's mixing of cultures. There's a long line outside, but if you show up there late after the show, I imagine it won't be that hard to get into, but I really like Don Sung sa. And then if you have a few days, obviously I'm going to suggest if you're in LA to get out to the coast and get out to the beach, rent an e-bike and do the bike ride from, I don't know, say the Venice Pier up through Santa Monica, up into the Palisades, even up to Will Rogers Park, and then come back down and you'll get to meet and see all the weird and lively characters of Venice.
(22:30):
You'll probably spot some celebrities. Ben Affleck is always at Huckleberry, which is in Santa Monica. It's this great bakery and yeah, I can get more specific, but when I have friends in town, I make sure that we spend some time actually seeing the water and the coast. And there's a great sunset view from the Hotel Irwin in Venice. So if you do have a day where you're on the west side of la, you can go and sit, do the rooftop bar at the Hotel Irwin and watch the sun come down and eat some nachos. And that's very enjoyable. And it's kind of sometimes you see some people that you would expect to be in Southern California and people who are super, super dressed up is what I mean. Or skimpily dressed or scantily clad. Scantily clad. Yeah. And so that happens at the Hotel Irwin.
(23:31):
I love the Red Booth Italian restaurants in la, so if you want, I should just do a list. But I really like John and Vinny's, which is local and there's a few of 'em. They have great pizzas and they have great red sauce, red sauce, pasta, and then there's great Asian food. Obviously in K-Town there's great Japanese food in Satel, which is over by me, Thai town, really iconic Thai places. So yeah, spend some time in the sun and near the surf, spend some time having that real iconic mixing and melding of cultures in K-Town, art and history tour. Are there places that you like museums or any other things you wanted to
Doree (24:21):
Suggest? Downtown has the last bookstore, which is an amazing, really cool bookstore that has new and used books and it's just in a really cool building and that could be a fun place to just hang out and browse and look at some books. Also, grand Central Market is downtown and that's super fun. There's tons of different food stalls. A lot of them are pretty inexpensive. Little Tokyo is also super fun and there's a lot of cool little shops there as well. In terms of museums. There's the Broad, which I think is free, and Mocha, the Museum of Contemporary Art is also down there.
(25:16):
So those are a couple of suggestions. If you're staying downtown, I think it's called Grand Park is also a nice park that's right by Walt Disney Concert Hall. So those could all be cool things for you to do. I would say you don't need to do the walk of fame or really do Hollywood per se like that because Yeah, I skipped that. Yeah, it's kind of grimy. It's a tourist trap. Yeah. Yeah. And I say this as someone who lives not that far from there. So yeah, I think you can skip that. Oh, another thing that is really fun, and again free is the Griffith Observatory. You do have to pay for parking if you park close, but the Griffith Observatory is really cool. Not too far from downtown Griffith Park in general. If you're into hiking or anything like that, it's really nice. So you could hike and go to the Griffith Observatory and check that out. I think that will probably occupy you for two to three days.
Elise (26:25):
Two to three
Doree (26:25):
Days. Yeah. I think we've given you a bunch of good discuss. That's two to three days. Yeah, exactly. All right, Elise, we are going to take another short break and when we come back we have another request for recommendations.
Elise (26:38):
Okay. Okay.
Doree (26:39):
Be prepared and then you have a recommendation.
Elise (26:41):
I sure do. Looking forward to it. We'll be right back.
Doree (26:43):
All right, we'll be right back. Okay, we are back and we got this text. Hi Dorian Elise. Any recommendations for gentle facial hair removal? I've been using a small battery operated Panasonic trimmer for years and it's great, except you'd have to use it multiple times a week because it only removes hair on the surface, not the root like waxing. I'm pale with dark hair, so even though it's fine, the hair is noticeable and bright light after only a few days. I've sensitive skin so I can't wax wondering if there's a bleach option I should consider. Thanks. If you are pale with dark hair, you are a prime candidate for laser hair removal. That is the easiest combination to do laser hair removal on. If you can swing it, I would do that because it'll be pretty much permanent. It's a little expensive, but I think it's worth it if you can afford it. I did it on my bikini line years ago. I got a group on to do it at Bliss in New York. Do you remember Bliss? Yeah.
(28:01):
So there might be something like that where you could get a discount. I would just obviously vet the place you're going. My other suggestion is to use one of those tinkle razors. I have those, I use them. It has the same issue as your Panasonic T trimmer. It only will remove hair on the surface. So that's just something to note. And then I remember before I started using tingle razors, I remember this so clearly because I also sensitive skin and so I used to get my lip wax and I would just break out. It would be terrible. But Jane Marie used to have a beauty column on Jezebel and someone wrote in with this very question and she said, just shave it with a regular razor. Your the razor you use to shave your legs? Yes, just put some, are you supposed to do that shaving gel? I did it for a long time. It was fine. Oh, and it didn't irritate my skin in the same way. I have never used bleach, so I can't really, can't speak to that. Elise, do you have any other hair removal suggestions?
Elise (29:16):
Just to build on that, with the laser hair removal, Groupon still exists. It's obviously a shadow of its former self, but it still exists and there are so many laser hair removal deals on it. I found this a few years ago actually, and I just checked to make sure it's still around, but I actually wanted to do some touchup laser hair removal on my armpits, which I had done in Korea, and there were so many deals for 70 bucks I could get three treatments or something like that.
Doree (29:41):
That's awesome.
Elise (29:43):
Yeah, so check out Groupon for that and yeah, no, that's our top recommendation.
Doree (29:49):
Nice. Okay. Alright. Well Elise, you had one more recommendation, an unrelated recommendation. Yes.
Elise (29:59):
This is not related to hair removal and I don't want us to get confused because it has nothing to do with hair removal. I just wanted to shout out the Trader Joe's Barta cheese. It's sold in packs of two or packs of two or three in the cheese section. I got a bunch of them to make an American flag fruit and cheeseboard for July 4th and it was so good. I drizzled some olive oil on it and then after I smashed it, I forked it and then I drizzled some olive oil and just put some salt and sprinkled some salt and pepper on it. It was so good with just french bread, just a baguette and it was a big hit at a party. Big thanks to an Instagram influencer that I follow. Ain't too proud to Meg at. Ain't too proud to Meg who makes all the boards. She makes all sorts of boards. I mainly just watch it because I find it's soothing to watch her put together boards. But I actually tried one of her boards, this burrata board and then fell in love with the Trader Joe's Barta and it's a very good deal. So shout out.
Doree (31:06):
Love that
Elise (31:07):
For that product.
Doree (31:08):
Okay. Alright everyone, thanks so much for listening and we will talk to you soon.
Elise (31:16):
Okay, call us in Texas. Bye. Bye.