Laughter is the Best Medicine

Summary

In this episode of the Ginger and Chocolate podcast, hosts Mike and Lindsay discuss their personal experiences with anxiety, fitness goals, and the importance of humor in stressful situations. They share lighthearted stories from Mike's military training, Lindsay's dating disasters, and the significance of body work and stress management. The conversation emphasizes the balance between tension and relaxation, both in physical fitness and in life. In this engaging conversation, Lindsay Hiken and Mike explore various themes including the impact of tension on injuries, the importance of perspective in a vast universe, and the challenges of navigating polarizing conversations in the workplace. They share personal anecdotes from their experiences in food service management, highlighting the chaos and unpredictability of working with young employees. The discussion also touches on empathy in the face of addiction, emphasizing the need for understanding while maintaining professional boundaries.

Takeaways

• Lindsay reconnects with her coach to manage anxiety.
• Mike is focusing on building muscle and feeling strong.
• Military training often includes unexpected humor.
• Lindsay shares a hilarious dating disaster story.
• Body work is essential for managing stress and tension.
• Staying loose is crucial for performance in high-pressure situations.
• Humor can be a coping mechanism for anxiety.
• Regular body work helps prepare for stressful times.
• It's important to have fitness goals that focus on overall well-being.
• Dating can lead to unexpected and funny experiences. Tension can exacerbate injuries during accidents.
• Meditation and reframing can improve mental well-being.
• Finding connection with others helps in difficult times.
• Polarizing topics can be power plays in conversations.
• Maintaining composure in challenging discussions is crucial.
• Food service can be chaotic and unpredictable.
• Learning from unusual workplace experiences is valuable.
• Empathy is important, but boundaries must be set.
• Young employees often lack awareness of professional norms.
• Humor can be found in the chaos of work life.

Thanks for listening to the Ginger and Chocolate Podcast. Check out our website at gingerandchocolate.com to get in touch with us. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram @ginger_and_chocolate_podcast; and please subscribe to the show and select automatic downloads on your podcast app.

Transcript

Mike (00:01.216)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the ginger and chocolate podcast. I'm Mike and my co host Lindsay is with me. Lindsay, what's up?

Lindsay Hiken (00:08.088)
Hmm, let's see. I've been doing a lot of working out. And as we discussed, I've been doing a lot of looking at memes. I have some generalized anxiety right now. And so I'm doing my best to take care of myself. And one of the things I did was I reconnected with my coach, Jess Smith. So I now have because I have the team I have the team sheep are

Mike (00:18.199)
Yes.

Lindsay Hiken (00:38.011)
but then just as individual. And I now have a training peaks full of everything I need to do on a daily basis, which is helping me because I can just feel overwhelmed and then not do anything for myself.

Mike (00:53.612)
Yes. huh.

Lindsay Hiken (00:55.761)
How are you doing?

Mike (00:58.17)
similar. got a little, a little just anxious about all the unknowns going on right now. but I am supplementing my anxiety with a lot of good quality memes, a lot of good quality dog time and yeah, dog times great. And then, then I also have a coach that's just prescribed me a weightlifting workout. So I'm doing that.

Lindsay Hiken (01:18.875)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (01:28.593)
Nice. Nice. How's the weightlifting going? Do you do like, are you trying to get heavier and heavier weights or what are you? is sort of the goal there?

Mike (01:29.378)
Yeah.

Mike (01:37.28)
Yeah, I mean goal one right now is just to build up some muscle and tone and unfat myself a little bit. I think that's the scientific term. So once I get unfatted quite a bit and then I will go to get a little bit bigger and more defined because I he asked me about goals. I mean this guy's a former Olympic weightlifter and helps

Lindsay Hiken (01:53.616)
Mmm.

Lindsay Hiken (01:59.814)
Wow.

Mike (02:01.07)
is a strength trainer for Olympians now, but he's a, he's like, what are your goals? I was like, I don't have any specific, like I want to bench 300 pounds, you know, kind of goals, any numbers there? Cause I was like, I've been out of the weightlifting game for a while. So I just want to look better. I want to feel strong. I want to be so I can run three to five miles, but still be able to lift heavy things. So

Lindsay Hiken (02:24.913)
Mm hmm. Sounds like a good goal. And then you have to run 13 in September. Don't forget that because we're doing it. I keep forgetting that we're doing a relay and I'm like, I do need to ride. I do need to ride. I can't just not ride this year. And longer than 30 miles. Well, I think because of. Just the.

Mike (02:28.152)
Yeah.

Yes, I do. Exactly.

Mike (02:37.614)
Yeah, exactly.

Lindsay Hiken (02:52.621)
overarching feeling of doom and gloom out there. I think today, maybe we could talk about fun stuff, lighthearted stuff, tell some funny stories and just have a chat that is not based on anything doom and gloom. Does that sound okay? All right. Do you have a story to tell?

Mike (03:00.878)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (03:08.344)
Yeah, exactly. Sounds great.

Mike (03:17.714)
Excuse me. Yes, I do actually. I'm telling people a lot of people when they asked me about my military experience and what it's like to be in the Marines, you know, there's a lot of expectation of a lot of serious stuff and there was a lot of serious stuff. However, you know, when we talk about boot camp, basic training, whatever we want to call it.

One of the hardest things besides getting in really good physical shape and this, just the stress of getting yelled at the whole time. Believe it or not, one of the hardest things was not laughing because there'd be some comedy gold happening, you know, from the drill instructors and we'd have to stand at attention and not, know, keep, keep, keep our bearing, not laugh.

Lindsay Hiken (04:01.637)
Really?

Lindsay Hiken (04:13.969)
Were they trying to make you guys, were they trying to make you guys laugh or were they just saying stuff and it.

Mike (04:14.239)
It was... What's that?

Mike (04:20.138)
I think so. And I think they do it for their own entertainment and, just to see how far they can push it with, with people keeping their bearing because, and you think about this too, any high pressure situation, when something remotely funny happens, it makes that exponentially funnier. So yeah, one of the, one of the best ones that I had was on Sunday's,

Lindsay Hiken (04:23.023)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (04:38.287)
That's true. That's absolutely true.

Mike (04:48.692)
our senior drill instructor, that's like the main guy would sit down with us and he'd take off his big Smokey the bear campaign cover and sit down and just talk and like talk to us kind of like man to man. And they call it core values. And I remember that and I'll never remember what the guy was talking about, but he was, you know, rather imposing.

Lindsay Hiken (04:57.553)
I'm

Mike (05:13.326)
a strong guy, you know, think of a Marine. That's what he looks like. You know, like just we had three drill instructors, little guy, a medium guy, and then the bigger guy and. Yeah, three bears, yeah. Yeah, and so he's sitting there, you know, tall, strong African American drill instructor. You know, you can picture drill instructor, very loud imposing guy.

Lindsay Hiken (05:26.275)
The three bears, like Goldilocks and the three bears.

Mike (05:42.946)
And he's telling, he's telling us something and all of a sudden it's, know, it's kind of quiet and a guy, another recruit sitting a couple of guys away from me just lets out this little squeaker fart just goes like that. And the look on this guy's face, this trailer instructor was like, what the no, did that really just happen? And he looked at him and he goes, boy, did you just fucking fart?

Lindsay Hiken (05:54.449)
You

Mike (06:11.234)
Well, I'm well, I'm talking to you and he goes, Yeah, yes, sir. And and he's like, well, suck it up. And so he like puffs up his chest, you know, like kind of suck up his posture. He's like, no, suck it up. And he said, no, boy, I said, eat that fucking fart. And and I'm watching him go like this, he's like, make the sound effects. And so I'm watching this guy go up and I'm sitting there while this guy is trying to eat a fart out of the air.

Lindsay Hiken (06:28.715)
my God.

Mike (06:42.168)
just like, I'm like, I'm pinching my fingernails. I'm curling my toes. I'm like trying to like bite my tongue, like it's all so I won't laugh. I'm like, what is happening here? And he's, he just sounds like Pac-Man. Just he's like, no, it's so many of it's over there. And he's going, it's over there now. And I'm sitting there forever. yeah. So it was moments like that were, were some of the hardest. I'm like, what, is going on right now?

Lindsay Hiken (06:57.393)
You

Lindsay Hiken (07:11.793)
That poor guy, he was probably holding it for the longest time. I don't know why bathroom humor is so fun, but even at my age, anything to do with like farts just kills me. I don't know why. Yeah, there. Well, I have speaking of bathroom humor, I have a story. Did I read? Well.

Mike (07:13.048)
That good.

Yeah, that was wonderful.

Mike (07:29.07)
They're pretty good. Pretty timeless.

Lindsay Hiken (07:40.517)
I don't know if I told you or not, but I went on a, an internet date. So before Josh and I started really dating, were friends and we used to work out together and go for runs and things like that. And I had a big crush on him and you know, he definitely had a crush on me too, but is, what's the word for it?

Mike (07:53.155)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (08:09.231)
commitment phobic to a certain degree. He doesn't like change, any change. So we're spending all this time together and then we kind of hooked up. And he said to me, well, I don't want to date anybody. I just want friends with benefits. And I was like, no, I'm 39 years old. I'm not doing that. I have self-respect. So we're not, that's not what we're doing. And he was like, well, I'm not ready to date. And I was like, that's fine, but you're not going to see me.

Mike (08:11.33)
Hmm

Mike (08:33.41)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (08:38.661)
you know, without and so I was kind of like, go away till you figure out your shit. And but of course I was very sad about this and about a month later, girlfriend of mine or maybe even longer than that, it's probably six weeks later, a girlfriend of mine was like, let's make an online profile for you. And I'm like, I don't I don't know.

She's like, let's do it. And she said, I found one for athletes. I don't remember what it was called, but there was like a dating app for specifically for athletes. mm-hmm, yeah. And I don't know how well it worked for others. Didn't work for me and you'll hear why in a minute. But so I went on, she helped me make a profile. This other friend took a picture of me and went on there and said, you know, I'm a triathlete, et cetera.

Mike (09:13.776)
really, wow.

Lindsay Hiken (09:33.271)
And this guy reached out who said he reached out for a coffee and so and he was a triathlete from the East Bay and I was like, okay, and he was a little like my age range. He was at the very youngest part of my age range and I was like, hmm. And I said, you're a little young, but

Mike (09:52.014)
Thanks.

Lindsay Hiken (09:56.301)
And he was like, no, no, no, I, you know, whatever. So went to coffee immediately knew this guy was not going to be. I was never going to date this guy. Never. Yeah, I was like, no. And that's a no. But super nice triathlete. And and he was a swim coach. So we were talking about open water. It was a good conversation, just not dateable guy. And so he said, do you want to go get something to eat? And I said, of course, you know, we eight.

Mike (10:06.641)
Within the first like few seconds or like and that's a no.

Mike (10:19.502)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (10:25.167)
And then we realized we were both parked in the same parking structure in Palo Alto. And he was like six, four or something. He was really tall. So it's an underground parking lot. I go down.

Mike (10:36.878)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (10:43.537)
with this guy into an underground parking lot, this guy that I don't know, which women know that that's just dumb. You don't do that. But I had not been on the I had not been on the dating scene for a long time. Never been on the Internet. It just wasn't even thinking about it. So we get there. We're underground. And he's talking to me. He's standing pretty close talking to me and.

All of sudden, he got this weird look on his face. And that's the moment I was like, Oh, my God, I'm down here with this guy by myself. There was no one else in the park. I'm like, what the what am I doing? You know, this is sketchy. And I hear. And I'm like. And I thought, oh, he farted like, and it was like kind of juicy. And I was just like, oh, so I looked down for a minute.

Mike (11:27.565)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (11:31.729)
because I just thought, he's probably embarrassed or whatever. I would be.

Mike (11:34.35)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (11:36.951)
He's standing in a puddle of diarrhea.

Mike (11:40.494)
Diarrhea... Yes! On a first date!

Lindsay Hiken (11:42.435)
He this man looked me directly into my eyes and shit himself.

Mike (11:50.67)
You had that power out of you, Lindsay.

Lindsay Hiken (11:55.409)
I was like, are you okay? Which is the dumbest question to ask, because no, I just shit myself. But I said, are you okay? And he was like, and I said, I have a towel. And he's like, I guess I better go. I guess I better go.

Mike (12:13.39)
Oh my God. I would just drive my car off the Bay Bridge if that happened.

Lindsay Hiken (12:20.793)
Well, so he he he kind of hesitated and I was like, brah, I mean, and then he he walked off right to his car and I just got in my car and was like, OK, God, I get it. I'm not ready. It's not my time to be doing this. And during this time, I had spent been spending all this time crying over Josh and, you know, I'd go for these runs and cry because we weren't even hanging out as friends and we'd been hanging out as friends. And I.

You know, I was leaving the parking structure. was like, dang, one of the first people I would tell about this would be Josh. You know, this guy should himself. But I couldn't call him. And, know, a couple of days later, I got an email from Josh saying, I miss you, blah, Friends with benefits. I didn't mean it. And so we ended up getting together. We've been together ever since almost 15 years. And but I did tell him, you know, the first time we hooked up for coffee, like right after he emailed me.

Mike (12:52.942)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (13:15.695)
I did tell him I went on a date and he got all like, I mean, you went on a date that so fast. You, we were just, and I was like, hold on before you get all jealous, homie shit himself right in front of me. we're good. My girlfriends were calling a mudslide. I mean, it was horrible. And,

Mike (13:27.681)
BOOF

Mike (13:35.567)
you can't live that down. That's just, that's just like, well, I guess I'm moving to Akron, Ohio now.

Lindsay Hiken (13:45.141)
And you know, he emailed me this guy, reached out on the app and was like, yes, he's like, I had a wonderful time except for, you know, he's like, I wanted to let you know, I'm OK, blah, blah, blah. And except for that, I had a wonderful time. And I was like. I wish you the best in life, you know, I just wrote back and was like, I'm glad you're OK, all the best, because there are some dating rules. And one of them is you can't.

Mike (13:48.748)
No.

Mike (13:55.18)
What?

Lindsay Hiken (14:10.257)
lose control of your bowels in front of somebody and expect them to go on another date with you.

Mike (14:15.502)
That's one of those unwritten first date rules. You don't shit yourself in a puddle.

Lindsay Hiken (14:19.665)
Yes.

Well, I was like, geez, dude, like, you're six, four. This this was a long, know.

kind of quite a journey all the way to the floor here. So he really had some issues. I don't know why. I guess maybe he got food poisoning or something.

Mike (14:37.622)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Mike (14:45.693)
God, how unfortunate.

Lindsay Hiken (14:47.257)
I was like, only me. that was it. I stayed with Josh. Even when I met him, I'm like, yeah, remember the dating scene out there. What did Josh do? Not put away the dishes. You're going to live.

Mike (14:56.813)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (15:01.25)
What do you what would you what if this guy's a listener mudslide? Hey man, hope you're doing well. Hope this one coaching is going well.

Lindsay Hiken (15:05.947)
hey, what's up, mudslide? I really hope, wish the best for you and I hope that you found somebody. I hope that you were able to maintain control of your bowels. See, here's the thing. I've had men in this situation tell me, you don't stand there. You run, even if you never see her again. You don't stand and look in her eyes while you're doing this, like.

Mike (15:18.637)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (15:34.299)
Josh is like, you would have never seen me again. He's like, I would have run so hard and you would not have even known why I was just taken off running. The second I realized I was losing it.

Mike (15:34.74)
my god.

Mike (15:39.437)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (15:45.785)
And then.

Mike (15:46.318)
Just make up any excuse. Yeah. my cat has an orthodontist appointment. I gotta go

Lindsay Hiken (15:51.579)
Gotta go. And then this guy who's on my team, he has a theory. He's like, no, no, he meant to do that. He wants you to take care of him. Like he's like one of those like because he was younger than me and I was like, I don't want date younger people. And he's like, no, no, no. And so he said, you know, he's like, he yeah, he wants a nurse, mommy to take care of. Put him in his little deity. I was like, I almost want to throw.

Mike (16:04.168)
God.

Mike (16:09.723)
Ugh. He wants a nurse, mommy?

That's so gross.

Lindsay Hiken (16:20.005)
He's like, that's why he stared at you. He was trying to figure out how you're going to react to that. And I was like,

Mike (16:25.044)
Exactly. I did my part. Ball's in your court, Lindsey.

Lindsay Hiken (16:28.209)
And I'm trying to give you the towel that I used to wipe my dog off after the dog park. That was what I was doing. It's like, here you go, That's got to be one of the worst dating stories out there. And I've had girls, you know, say, I'm I'm I'm afraid to go online, but I guess it's the way everyone does it. And I'm like, yeah, it is. I mean, go for it. I have one story for you. But outside of that, I'm sure it's all good.

Mike (16:38.007)
my god.

Mike (16:43.906)
That's...

Mike (16:57.67)
intentional or unintentional, we'll never know. Yeah. Good Lord.

Lindsay Hiken (17:01.195)
Mm hmm. That's probably enough for the for the. hmm. Mm hmm. So how are you? So you're coping with memes and working out. That's what you told me before. And is all the workout strength working out? You're doing some running as well.

Mike (17:08.44)
Pooh humor? Wow.

Mike (17:18.306)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mike (17:23.742)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I haven't ran for the last couple weeks, but yeah, mostly lifting. You know what helps a lot too? Stretching.

Lindsay Hiken (17:35.921)
Yes, that is true. You know what I forget to do a lot? Stretch. I'll remember when I can't stand up straight.

Mike (17:41.678)
stretch. Yeah.

Mike (17:48.136)
Yeah, when you have no choice, but when it's just a like a nice lower back stretch or I love a lower back stretch where I move my legs side to side and I keep my back still.

Lindsay Hiken (17:57.115)
Dear.

Lindsay Hiken (18:03.267)
And are you laying down? Or are you? Yeah. So do you have a routine you do? Stretch?

Mike (18:05.026)
Yes.

Mike (18:09.614)
Not really. just kind of as needed and just whatever needs needs to be stretched out of that and like one of those trigger point foam roller things. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (18:14.641)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (18:22.287)
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Foam roller is good, but it's also like a little torture device for me. hmm. So Jess, my coach, puts mobility in training peaks every day. So there's like. 10 minutes of strength and 10 minutes of mobility, it's not.

Mike (18:29.462)
Yeah, yeah, you can make it as difficult as you want, that's for sure.

Mike (18:41.507)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (18:48.046)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (18:48.345)
It's not too long. Sometimes I forget to do it like last night. I forgot to do it. But just doing I noticed last time I was working with her, just doing that 10 minutes every day made such a huge difference. And when I was taking my yoga teacher training, I was very, you know, limber.

Mike (18:59.534)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (19:11.663)
And that really helped my running help run injuries from stopping I mean, not having run injuries. But one of the things that we learned in yoga teacher training is that stress, you can carry that, you know, in your body, in parts of your body. And as you release that, as you stretch that that part of your body out, it will kind of release some of that toxic stress that you're holding in your body.

Mike (19:13.581)
Yeah.

Mike (19:26.488)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (19:38.412)
Yeah, yeah, that's definitely true. That's that's definitely true. I've had people when my good friends and body worker, Sonia's was doing some work on me too and old war injuries. And she she does trauma informed work. So she was working on me and said like, what's this? Like, I don't know, not in my muscle. She's like, No, there's what happened.

Lindsay Hiken (19:55.057)
Mm.

Mike (20:06.67)
I was like, oh, that was when I was pinned against the wall, getting shot at. And she's like, oh yeah, can tell something of that was trapped there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I know how to get stuck in the body.

Lindsay Hiken (20:16.133)
That's pretty amazing that she could feel that, that trauma. That's awesome. Do you...

Do you get body work still quite a bit?

Mike (20:29.184)
I haven't for a little while. I think it's about time. I think it's about time cause it's, it's, it's better, I think to get regular body work done, especially during stressful periods. If you can.

Lindsay Hiken (20:47.985)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Agreed.

Mike (20:50.126)
Cause then, then when things get really stressful, then you're more ready for them as opposed to like accumulating, you know, more and more tense muscles.

Lindsay Hiken (20:58.808)
Right.

Lindsay Hiken (21:02.737)
You should tell the listener how you described the whole tense if you're a fighter, being tense versus not tense in a situation.

Mike (21:10.733)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. When we're talking earlier, we're talking about being stressed or tensed and, I think our relationship with consuming media and news and what, what I've was taught in jujitsu when I was doing that was that if you're a fighter and you're ready for, fight, or even if like, let's say you're, you work emergency services and you're waiting for, know, to get the call.

You can't stay tense the whole time. You'll burn out because if you stay tense the whole time, then when the moment arrives, you've drained your energy as opposed to intentionally staying loose. So when the moment arises, you know, like for a fighter, when you throw that punch and then you tend to the right moment, you're ready. And because you're ineffective, essentially, if you stay tense and stress the whole time.

Lindsay Hiken (22:02.513)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (22:10.641)
Mm hmm. That's true. Even to the extent like now, this is not the same thing. It's not positive. But you know how drunk drivers get in an accident and there are accidents that a normal person who's not drunk would. Be in pretty bad shape and they aren't really hurt because they're just loose. Because the the.

Mike (22:22.414)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (22:30.381)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (22:38.481)
I wouldn't say it's the ability to not tense up. It's just the inability. They're just not tense up because they're drunk. Makes a difference in terms of the outcome of that accident because just the tensing of the body can cause additional injuries, apparently. And so that makes. I mean, I not thought about it before you said it, but that makes perfect sense to me about. About being tense and I'm going to try to do some things to.

Mike (22:43.647)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (22:48.49)
you

Lindsay Hiken (23:05.743)
detensify myself. You know, when I'm in a workout or after workout, I do feel a million times better. I do feel a million times better. And also doing some meditation and just trying to like, reframe things in for me in the context of the universe, like we are a

Mike (23:08.042)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (23:14.242)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (23:33.115)
grain of sand, not even that big drifting through this huge, wide, vast universe, multiverse, we don't even know really what it is. I mean, what we do know now shows that we're tiny or nothing. And we don't even know the extent of the whole thing. It's only yes, we're only gonna get smaller. And so today in this moment, it's like,

Mike (23:42.253)
Yeah.

Mike (23:46.967)
Uh-uh.

Mike (23:50.574)
Right, it only gets smaller from there, right?

Lindsay Hiken (24:02.137)
All of this stuff that I'm holding onto is not really the most important thing in the world because nothing is when you put it in the context of like how tiny we are. Like my daily angst about whatever, about society or just even my own crap, you know what I mean?

Mike (24:15.256)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (24:22.604)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I think...

you know, even if we're facing, you know, real consequences, decisions.

of things happening, it's still important to come back to just find connection with a living being, whether it's a person or an animal, ground yourself, feel yourself in your body, and just stay in the moment.

Lindsay Hiken (24:58.737)
Well, that's really good. And the people in your life that have you being strong in the face of them are really lucky. know, it's it's it's helpful for me when I when I'm facing something that's real, that can have, you know, will have real impact on me to have someone else with me who is, you know,

staying strong is helpful. It helps me stay strong too. Like, okay.

Mike (25:31.95)
That's so helpful, isn't it? When you look at somebody and somebody, they're not unconcerned, but they're holding steady. Yeah, yeah, that's... I've been talking to my colleagues in different offices and just saying, you know, just if you can do anything today, choose to keep your heart open, choose to be strong, choose to be brave.

Lindsay Hiken (25:38.533)
Right.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Mike (26:01.082)
and you know keep putting one foot in front of the other and sometimes that's the best we can do.

Lindsay Hiken (26:06.949)
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yep. So I put on a brave face the other day and it wasn't. It was in the face of my new boss telling me and I don't know why she felt she needed to tell me this, but.

She was telling me how, you know, she and her husband did the research and they don't believe in vaccinations and they use the. Whatever that horse one was, people were using. Yeah, yeah. And. She just kind of went on this whole. Thing about. You know. huh, I know I was like, OK, lady.

Mike (26:39.529)
Ivermectin, that one?

Mike (26:49.932)
That's a fun office topic to have.

Mike (26:57.526)
It's not polarizing at all.

Lindsay Hiken (27:00.195)
And I'm like, you're my new and you know, when someone's saying something kind of what they know could be outrageous or like that, that could be sort of so she was kind of looking to see how I was going to react, you know, and I don't have a poker face, you know, and so and I know this and the only thing what she was talking is like, keep your face together, keep your face together, keep your face together because

Mike (27:10.774)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (27:19.576)
Ugh.

Lindsay Hiken (27:30.329)
I could tell she wanted to see, you know how, and so I just said, yeah, yeah, we all have our own approaches to medical stuff. you know, for me, I got the vaccine and I felt like it was the right thing to do. But I mean, we all get to choose what we do with our own bodies. And, you know, I was kind of like.

Mike (27:42.702)
Holy God.

Mike (27:53.934)
They're diplomatic. Hey, you know, Lindsay, this lady, like, like your boy on the date, she verbally shit herself and looked for your reaction.

Lindsay Hiken (27:56.912)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (28:01.489)
Why is everyone trying to do that?

She totally did, like is this an appropriate conversation at work? Especially with a boss and a new employee. It was a long conversation too, like it was like 20 minutes of this. But afterwards I just thought, okay well I got through it, she seemed to be happy with me when she got off the phone. I managed to keep my face together and.

Mike (28:20.43)
That's weird.

Mike (28:27.886)
my god.

Lindsay Hiken (28:40.889)
And I thought, I've learned something here, which is I don't need to share my opinions about my physical health, about my going to the doctor, with people that work with me or that I'm managing. Like I learned something. don't, there's dumb stuff you don't need to share. Although I think she had a motive, which was to see how I would react, but.

Mike (29:03.891)
Ugh, yeah, it's fun.

Lindsay Hiken (29:05.263)
And I kind of wonder like what would have happened if I'd been like, ugh, what? You took horse dewormer or what? I don't even know what it was. I don't I just all I know is horses. And she even said she was. I know, I know. People say it's horse stuff, but it worked for us. and I thought. I mean, I guess you're lucky to not be really sick from taking like large animal meds. But, you know.

Mike (29:09.676)
Yeah.

Right, right, right, right.

Mike (29:30.094)
I just think in general, if you're bringing up something that's known to be polarizing, just to see how someone else reacts, it's like, it's a power play right there.

Lindsay Hiken (29:39.949)
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. I was like thinking, good. This is going to be this is my boss. Like this is going to be this is a long term relationship. I'm in here. On the upside. She, you know.

Mike (29:49.698)
Mmm... Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (29:59.643)
There's not that much more that she's going to be able to say that I'm not going to be able to keep my face straight. Like this was a big one because it came out of nowhere. So now I'm ready. I'm staying loose, but I'm ready. Bring up the next topic. I got it.

Mike (30:06.882)
Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. You're advanced.

Yeah, exactly. Let's talk about religion and politics and then we'll move on to diet. That's a fun, friendly conversation.

Lindsay Hiken (30:29.935)
I'm sure she's going to go religion and politics next. It's got to be. If we're lucky, we'll get to race and some other, you know, fun topics. But so I have a story that has nothing to do with anything we've been talking about, but it does have to do with me being a boss and.

Mike (30:44.195)
yeah. Yeah.

Mike (30:51.65)
Okay.

Lindsay Hiken (30:56.741)
how I reacted to something that was happening. And I'll just tell you right now, I reacted by firing the person like on the spot, which sounds really bad, but as you'll see, there was nothing else I could do. I they didn't shit themselves, so it wasn't as bad as it could be, but this is in my restaurant that I owned. And, and.

Mike (31:06.647)
Wow.

Lindsay Hiken (31:24.337)
So we had these, we had a prep cook. He was amazing. he, and we sold sandwiches, salad soup, like that, like that kind of lunchtime stuff. So he would make these giant vats of tuna because we made a tuna melt and people really liked it. So we went through a lot of tuna. So this was like a huge bucket of tuna. And I walk into the walk-in and I watch an employee.

stick her bare hand into the vat of tuna and just bring it to her mouth and shovel it in.

Mike (31:51.426)
Yes.

Mike (31:55.828)
Yes, exactly. OSHA approved. I love that.

Lindsay Hiken (31:59.505)
Well, and here's the thing, every shift they worked, they got a free lunch. Like you could have a sandwich and a drink and then chips. So people aren't starving on their shift, you know?

Mike (32:10.252)
No, no. You know when you do that and when it's appropriate to do that when you're a slave on a Viking rowing ship and you get like a two seconds to like scoop into the bucket of fish. Yeah, yeah, outside of that it's kind of hard to justify.

Lindsay Hiken (32:16.273)
Exactly, because you're not getting fed. So I go. You're right, if you're desperate, I mean, and that's the thing, I would have still been pissed. If she was desperate for food, because I would have been like, let's take the scoop. There's a scoop in there. Like, mind you, there's a scooper in this vat. But she chose to just turn her hand into a scoop and get it right in there.

Mike (32:30.542)
Yeah

Mike (32:44.834)
bare handsome

Lindsay Hiken (32:47.033)
And I go, what are you doing? And she turned around. She had tuna all around the outside of her mouth. She had tuna in her hand and she's like, and I'm like, you can't do that. She was just like, she didn't have anything to say. I she just had tuna all over her face.

Mike (32:57.262)
Should've tuned the mustache.

Mike (33:09.906)
What, like, what do you say? There's no, this is the justifiable reason for me sticking my dirty ass hand in a barrel of food that we're gonna serve to people.

Lindsay Hiken (33:16.561)
No.

Lindsay Hiken (33:22.201)
And they used gloves when they're prepping the food. So she took her glove off and stuck her bare hand in the tuna. You know what I mean? And I'm like, I would have been mad if the glove had gone in, but I would have been less mad because at least she wouldn't have ruined the whole event. I mean, I had to throw the whole thing away. I said, I'm really sorry, but you can't work here anymore. And then I was like, how much tuna have I served? Because she was there for probably six months before I caught her doing this. It's like, how much tuna have I served?

Mike (33:24.376)
Yeah.

Mike (33:33.301)
Hmph.

Lindsay Hiken (33:52.485)
that this woman has just been sticking her dirty hand into. my gosh.

Mike (33:55.822)
Yeah, I wonder if she ever got a straw and tried to like drinking out of there

Lindsay Hiken (34:04.332)
I don't I I was like, I just never understood it. I'm like, I don't you could have a sandwich. You could have your bag of shit if you were really starving on your shift and it wasn't lunch yet. You could have let me know. I could have done something about it. You could have used the scooper. You could have put your glove on. I mean, there's a million things. She just ran in there and she's like, no, I'm not with a tuna. And I'm like, what the hell?

Mike (34:28.386)
Yeah, that's some Cookie Monster shit right there.

Lindsay Hiken (34:30.303)
Yeah.

Oh, God. Only that place was. Never I was never bored. I was never bored there. Not not a second. Yeah. If I had been able to maintain it without thinking I was going to. Get into an early grave, you know, I would have stayed because just for the entertainment value, I had. I didn't think about it at the time, but I should have sent off the like my security footage videos and.

Mike (34:39.447)
No kidding.

Lindsay Hiken (35:02.865)
I probably would have been able to get on a show or something on the food channel because it was just chaos in this deli. mean, I had 20 full time. It was really busy place. So 20 full time people and some part time people and 20 full time for food service. A lot of young people who don't have any sense of like what, you know, call in if you're not coming in that kind of thing.

Mike (35:18.49)
wow.

Mike (35:23.64)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (35:29.59)
my god, yeah. So much chaos, unsupervised, especially young. Yeah, I worked at a bakery for a little while in my senior year in high school. My friend, Jonathan, would, his favorite thing to do was, especially with pumpkin pies. So the decorations they have for cakes, they had like these plastic clowns with plastic balloons that they'd hold.

Lindsay Hiken (35:34.245)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (35:55.569)
huh.

Mike (35:58.986)
And so the plastic balloons you could take off the string and they're just these plastic balls. He'd stick them in the pumpkin pie and like sell it to somebody. And then people would inevitably call in and or come in the shop and say, I ate this pie and I bit into this plastic ball and with a straight face, he would look him dead in the eye and be like, wait a second, you ordered a plastic ball in your pumpkin pie?

Lindsay Hiken (36:06.545)
You

Lindsay Hiken (36:25.553)
I

Mike (36:26.03)
No, no, no, no, no. I bit into one. Somebody put it in there. He's like, wait, you wanted me to put a what's happening? That's kind of weird. And then people get more and more mad and just leave. I'm like, that is diabolical. I could never look someone in the eye and do that. And it was hilarious.

Lindsay Hiken (36:32.337)
Ha

Lindsay Hiken (36:36.689)
Thank you.

Lindsay Hiken (36:45.937)
What was his name? Because I think he probably worked for me, to be honest. My god. I definitely had some young men who were out of control with their shit.

Mike (36:47.957)
Hahaha

Mike (36:58.452)
yeah. Yeah. And like, unsupervised boys, they need to be you need to take them out and have them run a few laps, do a few pull ups, be like, Come on, boys, let's let's get the energy out. And then we can go back and be civilized.

Lindsay Hiken (37:02.329)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (37:12.401)
I wish I had thought about that because they needed something one night. So I had like a supervisor type. I called them supervisors. They basically could close the store and put the money, put the money in the drawer and count the money in the drawer. And I was during a period where.

Mike (37:25.197)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (37:34.929)
It was hard to find good employees like that kind of ebbed and flowed like so for a while I'd have really good employees and then they'd move on and then sometimes it was hard to get anyone good. So this guy who was this closing supervisor is not someone who I would have normally picked, but I needed somebody because I couldn't do I had to go do like the payroll and all that stuff. So someone else had I had to have someone help me. So I got this guy and he was.

Mike (37:50.178)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (38:03.889)
fine, but he was a dumb dumb. you know what I mean? Just a 23 year old or 22 year old, just dumb dumb. And we'd have we had closers. So there was always three closers, the supervisor and then two others. So there are people that kind of were rolling out their shifts. So they were, you know, closing and then there was the last three that had to do finish up.

Mike (38:05.644)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (38:27.069)
So I would look from time to time on the security cameras because I had it on my phone. I could see like live on my phone. I see I look one evening. I could tell like music was on because they were kind of dancing and stuff as they were, which was totally fine by me. But then I look and I see a bottle of Malibu rum off to the side. Now, the supervisor was like 22.

Mike (38:43.021)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (38:50.453)
boy.

Lindsay Hiken (38:55.771)
but the other two people were underage. And I'm like, my God, and I see them, they take a shot, or they each take a swig off this bottle. I'm like, my God. And one of them, I see him, he's got his hand up in the air, he's like, doosh, doosh, doosh, and he's using the meat slicer without the guard on. And I was like, my God. So I call.

Mike (38:58.869)
Awesome.

Mike (39:20.448)
Hell yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (39:24.453)
I call in the store and I'm like, hey, just checking on you guys. Wanted to see if you're there. Because I was like, I'm going to go in and talk to them face to face tomorrow. And they kind of got it together a little bit after they're like, Lindsay called in. You could see them kind of like scramble a little bit. So the next morning I get in there. These dum-dums. So we didn't serve any alcohol at this place.

Mike (39:31.79)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (39:39.342)
You

Lindsay Hiken (39:48.741)
These dumdums left the bottle of aloe vera. It was empty, by the way, and they left it in the right sitting on this table because they forgot. I'm like, you guys are idiots. So I brought it into my office and. And when when Elvar came in, I was like, can I talk to you for a minute? And he walks in, I just hold up the bottle and he was like, shit. I'm so sorry. I mean I was like, you know, I gave him a write up. I didn't fire anybody.

Mike (39:56.078)
God.

Mike (40:06.124)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (40:16.581)
But I was like, you guys, can't serve minors. Like I could have cut his hand off. I mean, he was just using the slicer without the guard.

Mike (40:23.022)
Not even drinking anything cool Malibu

Lindsay Hiken (40:27.289)
I know.

Lindsay Hiken (40:31.441)
Well, I think it's like, I don't know who brought it in. I don't know if it was him. Totally. Like the bottle looks because the bottle is white and it's got a picture of the beach on it. It's like, yeah. And these two 18 year olds, they don't know what, know. Anything. Yeah, I'll drink anything. I just have so many, so many great stories, and sometimes I miss the place and I'm like, oh, you know, I had so much fun. I miss that kind of work. And then I remember like.

Mike (40:34.574)
That's such a 22 year old move too.

Mike (40:41.268)
Yeah, exactly.

Mike (40:45.324)
Yeah, they're just like, ooh, alcohol. Any shape or form, yum.

Lindsay Hiken (41:02.735)
the time that I hired a crack head and I had to like chase him out of the bathroom because he was smoking crack in the bathroom.

Mike (41:05.223)
Hahaha

Mike (41:11.828)
have that talk you like look I really appreciate it if you didn't smoke crack at least during your work shift on scene

Lindsay Hiken (41:15.025)
you

Lindsay Hiken (41:21.809)
I was like, get out of this bathroom. I was like, through the door, I'm like, get out of the bathroom. And he comes out, he's like, what, I had to take a shit. I'm like, dude, we all have noses. you're not taking it, we can smell that you're smoking crack in there.

Mike (41:22.242)
Hmm

Mike (41:28.59)
What a nightmare.

Mike (41:39.494)
Literally, my god. Yeah, shocker.

Lindsay Hiken (41:40.997)
And by the way, you're fired.

I'd rather work down a man than have a crack head trying to make a sandwich.

Mike (41:48.43)
How's your day? Yeah, had to the crack out to stop smoking crack in the bathroom during work.

Lindsay Hiken (41:54.809)
in the bathroom. So he's, you know, that poor guy. I did feel being being sober. I did have empathy for being an addict, you know. But that doesn't mean you get to keep a job. But I did feel for him, you know.

Mike (42:06.808)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (42:14.947)
just in the sense that I didn't get fired from a job, but I quit as they were walking down, you know, a couple of times, like they're walking down the hallway to fire me essentially, you know, and I was like, I'm out of here. huh. Exactly. Well, I think we, we did it. Do you have any other stories or anything you want to tell?

Mike (42:25.357)
Yeah, yeah.

Mike (42:30.862)
You gotta break up with them first.

Mike (42:42.816)
Not for today. We'll sprinkle in as we go. But yeah, speaking of smoking crack, I got to go make breakfast for little kids and spread peanut butter and toast.

Lindsay Hiken (42:45.402)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (42:50.833)
You

Yeah, little kids are can be like crackheads sometimes. They make no sense. They're aggressive. They're crazy. All right. Well, we will be back next week. Thanks for listening, everybody. And as always, please like and subscribe on your podcast app or on YouTube and, you know, share our podcast with someone you think would like it. See you next week.

Mike (43:04.78)
Yeah.

Mike (43:23.522)
Bye.

Lindsay Hiken (43:24.229)
Bye.