A Few of Our Favorite Things
No, we’re not Oprah, but like her, we do love the small things that make life a little better…like coffee, a nice pen, and some warm slippers.
It’s funny how the little things really do add up to making life better.
Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:02 Happy weekend, Cathy.
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Happy weekend. Super excited about this weekend. It is. I, you can’t really see it, but I’ve got my like fuzzy sweater on.
Speaker 0 00:00:12 You do. It’s
Speaker 1 00:00:13 Like really poofy and fuzzy because it’s finally cold enough in Texas to like bundle up and have a hot chocolate.
Speaker 0 00:00:20 I would probably still be like, Oh my God. Is the air conditioning on ? So funny. So funny. Oh my God. We have
Speaker 1 00:00:30 An actual, Go ahead.
Speaker 0 00:00:32 Oh no, go ahead. I was just gonna say,
Speaker 1 00:00:34 Oh, I was just gonna say, we have an actual freeze warning tonight, so I have to like move stuff and that’s not supposed to happen this early. So weird. It’s
Speaker 0 00:00:42 Pouring rain right now, so it’s damp is cold. I don’t mind cold, but damp cold is just like, it just gets in your bones. And somewhere I think in the deep recesses of my linen closet on a shelf that I probably can’t reach is an electric blanket that needs to go on my bed.
Speaker 1 00:01:02 And
Speaker 0 00:01:02 Yesterday I thought of what to do with it. I have smart plugs and I’m going to plug my electric blanket into the smart plug so that no matter where I am, 30 minutes before bed I decide to go to bed. I am turning that sucker on and getting into a warm bed. It’s
Speaker 1 00:01:16 The little, That’s it. That’s it. My husband’s stole my electric blanket cuz I had that, you know, and like when I was in Arizona, you could use it like for one month out of the year, but Right, right. It was the best. Cause like the thing with living in the south, it was like something I didn’t really know until I moved to the south is that the houses here are really designed to like, shed heat. So like the, the heat comes out of the ceiling and there’s like really tall ceilings and so it’s really warm like four feet up there from where I am. But down here it is unpleasantly cold, so the houses here are just not ready for it. So like all of the keep warm without, without any, uh, heat. Things that I learned in the north coming.
Speaker 0 00:01:59 If only you were 12 feet tall.
Speaker 1 00:02:01 If only,
Speaker 0 00:02:03 Well, I’ve got a question. I’ve got a, We never, we tell people this all the time, We never know what we’re gonna talk about. We just kind of like, what happened this week? Where’s the week? Brought us all this kinda stuff. So I have a question. I have a question for you today.
Speaker 1 00:02:15 Okay.
Speaker 0 00:02:16 And I feel like, um, okay, this is inspired by Oprah, I’m not gonna lie. Right. So Oprah, every year right around this time, she would have her Oprah’s favorite things. So I wanna know, what are your favorite things? Whether it’s, I mean obviously we love our family. Like, I don’t wanna get like philosophical about it. I just wanna talk about like stuff, like stuff and places and whatever. So like, what are like three to five to, I don’t care. 50, However many you wanna tell me of your favorite things And I’ll tell you some of mine too.
Speaker 1 00:02:48 All right. My favorite things coffee.
Speaker 0 00:02:54 Oh my God. Yes. That should be on top of both of our list. How, how do you take it though? I’m a cream and sugar girl.
Speaker 1 00:03:01 Um, just cream.
Speaker 0 00:03:02 Okay.
Speaker 1 00:03:03 Sometimes I’ll go just, you know, black. But, and in the summertime I will definitely do like the iced coffee before I used to be like iced coffee, you know, when I lived in the northern. But yeah, no, I’m really happy to be, uh, back into cooler weather where I can, uh, I’ve got my, uh, my work camp. Oh yeah. Can you see the I do. It’s like a Star Wars theme and it’s like yellow inside
Speaker 0 00:03:28 May the fourth. So coffee
Speaker 1 00:03:29 You ? Yes. That was from Word Camp Sacramento, Jennifer b and the team up there. I did that.
Speaker 0 00:03:35 So cool. I only
Speaker 1 00:03:37 Have it.
Speaker 0 00:03:37 Um, yes, I will agree with you on the coffee. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:03:41 What are some of your favorite things?
Speaker 0 00:03:43 Okay, so I had lunch today. We actually pushed this back so I could finish my lunch. Thank you. I had a garbage plate for lunch. And if you’re garbage not from West. Exactly. If you’re not from the Rochester area, or at least Western New York, if you say, Well, I ate a garbage plate today. People are like, What? What, what? a garbage plate is our local delicacy, also known as a heart attack on a plate. There is macaroni salad on the bottom, and then two either hot dogs or cheeseburgers or hamburger patties. Like not the bread, but you know, like the, the meat on top of that. You can get them with eggs or other things if you are vegetarian or vegan. And then it’s smothered in a meat, hot sauce. And you can get different sides. Usually people put chopped onion on it. Not a fan myself, so I don’t do that.
Speaker 0 00:04:32 Baked beans, you could put french fries or tater tots with it. Like there’s lots of different ways that you can arrange this garbage plate. But the mac salad, the meat and the meat hot sauce are like, you know, the, the, the, what do you call it? The, the, the main part of what makes it a garbage plate. Yeah. So I had a garbage burrito from lunch from the local place. And so all of that stuff was wrapped in a burrito. You know, shell, A tortilla shell. Yeah. And then deep fried, like I’m telling you like I should not do anything fried for like a year now. But it was so good. Wow. So yeah, it’s gotta be a favorite thing. I can’t do it on the regular cuz then it’s like ugh. You know, But every once in a while my garbage plate or garbage burrito. Oh so good.
Speaker 1 00:05:17 Wow. That sounds really good. Yeah, my every once in a while thing is pizza. You know, we’ve talked about like too what too much pizza can do on previous ones in previous episodes,
Speaker 0 00:05:27 But yes we did.
Speaker 1 00:05:29 But oh boy, I love a really good pizza. New York style, uh, Chicago style. Um, Detroit style is really good. And there’s like some boss, there’s a place here in Texas, believe it or not, that has Boston, I guess they call it south something. It’s really good. It’s kind of Detroit ish actually. So I’m gonna, I might have that for dinner tonight. So that’ll be my, I don’t
Speaker 0 00:05:54 Like you.
Speaker 1 00:05:55 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:05:56 Be your dinner.
Speaker 1 00:05:57 Love, love pizza.
Speaker 0 00:06:00 I love it too. You’ll have to try a garbage plate next time you’re in Rochester
Speaker 1 00:06:03 Cause Totally. I’m gonna have to ask my husband about that cuz he lived in Rochester for a while so.
Speaker 0 00:06:08 Oh, he’ll probably know when it is then. Yeah, for sure. Remembers. Okay. What’s another favorite thing?
Speaker 1 00:06:14 Um, favorite fuzzy sweaters. I’ve got my fuzzy sweater.
Speaker 0 00:06:20 It’s so cute.
Speaker 1 00:06:22 Love that. And I sweat. I all the comfort. I don’t like dress up to be like fancy. I dress up for comfort and if it looks good, great. Hope you enjoy it too. It’s on my body. It’s all about what am
Speaker 0 00:06:37 I, what am I comfortable? That’s what makes, that’s what’s number one for sure. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:06:41 Yeah. So cozy, comfy things. How about you?
Speaker 0 00:06:45 A pen that writes well. Oh, right. That like doesn’t scratch across the paper. That flows nicely. That feels good in your hand. Like absolutely. There’s a pen. I, I have to get online and order this time. There’s a pen I’ve seen in ads on TikTok that I don’t even care how it writes. I, I want this pen. It’s called the Crush metrics pen. You’ll have to look it up when you, when you push the plunger at the top, the whole side goes and like, like forms of pattern out of like, I don’t know. It’s, it’s magic. I’m sure it’s just magic. But I,
Speaker 1 00:07:21 Wow.
Speaker 0 00:07:22 I, I like things that I can fiddle with cuz I do have a little ADHD in me and stuff, you know. And so this pen, like I would annoy everybody else. Like I would totally annoy people with this pen, so I have to leave it at home to play with it. But I want, this is the pen that I want. I, it’s, it’s one of my favorite things that I don’t even own it yet. But yes, A good pen that writes well is definitely another one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1 00:07:42 Yes, I am with you on that. My husband used to buy these, I guess they’re just paper made profile, but he used to always get ’em in like purple. Oh yeah. And so I have like boxes of these. I’m like, I guess I’m gonna use ’em. But they write really super nice. They’re like really smooth gel-like pens. So
Speaker 0 00:08:00 Those are always good too.
Speaker 1 00:08:02 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:08:02 And also a good sharpie is good. Like if you really wanna write with a sharpie, like nothing beats the actual Sharpie. And I don’t sniff markers. I don’t wanna give the impression of that but does when you’re using it and you smell the marker like, and you know it’s a sharpie. That’s just always like a little fun thing too.
Speaker 1 00:08:18 Yeah. Did you ever, when you were a kid, did you ever have those markers that like each color had its own scent? Yes.
Speaker 0 00:08:25 I
Speaker 1 00:08:25 Loved those.
Speaker 0 00:08:26 When the teacher pulled those out it was like everybody was like, I swear we all went home with like colorful noses cuz we like shoved them up our noses. I wanna spill the cheery one. The blackness one though. Anybody could have that one. I did not want that.
Speaker 1 00:08:39 Definitely. Yeah. I was all about the red one too.
Speaker 0 00:08:44 I can’t remember if green must have been like apple or something. Cause I don’t think it was mint, but
Speaker 1 00:08:49 Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:08:50 Yellow’s always lemon, so there you go. But yeah, those were fun too. Brown was cinnamon or something maybe.
Speaker 1 00:08:56 Yes. Yes, I think
Speaker 0 00:08:57 So. And orange was orange. Yep. And
Speaker 1 00:09:00 Then purple was grape. Definitely.
Speaker 0 00:09:02 Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 00:09:03 Yeah. All those are so much fun. Yeah. Good office supplies. Good office supplies.
Speaker 0 00:09:09 Yes. I, if I walk into like, um, uh, Office Max or like one of the Home Depot, not Home Depot. What’s the other one I’m thinking of? Um, Staples
Speaker 1 00:09:19 And stuff like that.
Speaker 0 00:09:19 Staples? Yeah. Staples. I like, I swear it’s like I’ve come to the mothership and I just start, I start to drool. Like they must have like the paper clips I like, cuz you can’t just use any paper clips. Some people like the ones that are wrapped in the rubber. I do not like colored paperclips. It has to be a certain size. I’m a happy girl. I love binder clips. Like yes. I can’t help it. It makes me happy. You could fill an entire Christmas stocking for me just with office supplies and I would be like, you know me, you love
Speaker 1 00:09:49 . Totally. See the cool thing when I was, when I was a little kid, my dad had an office equipment and supplies store. So I would go there and like, you know, after school or whatever and I would just like spend all this time just going up and down the office supply aisles and playing with puns and you know, then there were the big fancy, you know, silver and gold puns like cross I think was the, the brand name. And so I got to play with those and it was like, it was just like Mecca for me as a kid because it was like I got to play with all this fun stuff and typewriters. I’m aging myself. But it was so cool and fun just to play with all the,
Speaker 0 00:10:30 There are some stores that when those electric doors open, like the sensor sees you and it should just like go Ah. Right. Like you, you’re here. It’s heaven on earth.
Speaker 1 00:10:42 . Yes, definitely All the good toys.
Speaker 0 00:10:46 all the good toys. All of them. I, I agree. I love office supplies. I, I own my own comb binder. I own a laminator. Like I own the long arm stapler and the thick stapler because I had one project once and I didn’t just borrow it. No I had to own it. Right. Like I own all of these things. They’re sitting in a closet someday they may come in handy again. But yeah, those are um yeah, totally with you on that . Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:11:13 Yeah. So much fun. And I’m really like kitchen stuff too. Like I have like the craziest can opener. Like I don’t want an electric can can opener. I don’t want like single use items on my counters, but like a can opener that works really well or mm-hmm. measuring cups that don’t get like, like that are, you know, stainless steel, like solid equipment. Like I’ll spend money at Williams Sonoma just to get like good stuff that’s gonna last for a super long time. Or like the stainless steel pans that I’ve had for like forever . Yep. Don’t wanna date myself.
Speaker 0 00:11:48 And they
Speaker 1 00:11:49 Work and I’ll be able to pass ’em on the all clad, you know, I spent so much money on ’em but at the time, but oh my gosh, I don’t have to get a pan every other year. So that’s nice. If I could only figure out how to fry on like without nonstick. I’ve got like this frying pan that’s like not nonstick and it’s just like getting the temperature right and everything.
Speaker 0 00:12:11 My ex-husband. But
Speaker 1 00:12:12 I love that stuff.
Speaker 0 00:12:14 My ex-husband brought into our marriage and then Adam divorce took it back with him as well, which is fine with me. This giant cast iron skillet.
Speaker 1 00:12:22 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:12:23 Which was great if you couldn’t pick it up. I couldn’t pick it up so heavy. Oh
Speaker 1 00:12:29 My gosh. Really?
Speaker 0 00:12:30 If I didn’t have to move it, it was fine. If I was like baking eggs or something I could pull, but if I had to like pick stuff up and dump it out of it, I’d be like, come and help me in the kitchen. I couldn’t do it. It was so heavy. I’m okay that now. So funny. Oh, what else Got anything else that’s a must have favorite thing?
Speaker 1 00:12:51 Um, geez Louise. I’m trying to think like good, good sheets. I’ll spend money on good sheets. Mm-hmm and like, you know, sheets that are gonna last in sheets that after, I love like fresh sheets, like after you’ve washed ’em and you get ’em on the bed and mm-hmm. , you go through the struggle of getting ’em on and off the bed and then you’re rewarded with like, oh the perfect sleep. Yes. I love, that’s like a favorite thing. And then just like a Saturday morning to enjoy all of it where nobody is asking me for anything. And it’s nice and quiet. Even the dogs aren’t even that interested in bothering me and I can just like So how many
Speaker 0 00:13:32 Years has been since you had one of those?
Speaker 1 00:13:35 You know, my husband sleeps until like he sleeps. Oh that’s good. 14 hours a day. I think it’s cuz his brain is rewiring itself. Mm-hmm. and so he sleeps like just a ton. And the teenager, she’s not getting up much anymore. So it’s just Oh
Speaker 0 00:13:48 So you got your, you got your Saturday mornings back.
Speaker 1 00:13:51 I am getting my weekend mornings are bliss. I’ve got my coffee it, I can go for a walk, hang out, the dogs play amongst themselves and I’ve got a little bit of peace and quiet. I’m savoring it so nice. Some quiet too and alone time. Yeah. Is a favorite thing. I’m pretty easy. I just like nice things and leave me alone.
Speaker 0 00:14:15 Nice things. The time to use them without all of you . Whoever, whoever that applies to. I’m also going to add to that list. Really comfortable, nice slippers. Like there’s nothing like putting your feet in slippers that actually keep your feet warm. When I was a teenager, I honestly wish I knew it and I can’t ask him now cuz he is passed. But I wish I knew where my dad got these slippers. I think it might have been Sweden but I, I just know it wasn’t in the United States. And he was on one of his trips and he came back and for all three of us kids, Yes there’s six of us now, but at the time there was only three of us. He brought back these leather, soft, pliable leather slippers where the fur was on the inside. I don’t know if they, I think they might have been rabbit.
Speaker 0 00:15:02 And they were brown on the outside and stitched together and they like, you put your feet in those and they were warm within like a couple of minutes and eventually you had to take ’em off cuz your feet were too hot cuz they were so good. And I wore them through like I wore the leather out on the bottom of those slippers and my brother wasn’t wearing his so I was like, Hey, can I have your slippers? So I actually got his two, they were too big and I still wore them and if I could find those slippers again, I would spend any kind of money to have them again. Cause they were that wonderful.
Speaker 1 00:15:32 Oh wow. Nice. I’m gonna have to go research those. That sounds I know. Amazing.
Speaker 0 00:15:38 I’ve looked all over the internet. I’m clearly not using the right search terms cuz these have to exist somewhere. Like I don’t care if they’re $200, I would spend $200 to get these slippers back in my life. .
Speaker 1 00:15:49 Wow. They sound amazing.
Speaker 0 00:15:52 Right? I know it’s the little things. It’s the big thing but it’s a little thing. Right. So it’s it’s the cumulation of the things that make you happy. Pens that work, time to reflect good coffee, nice sheets, good slippers. Yeah. All of those things that just kind of work together to make life just a little bit nicer, a little happier.
Speaker 1 00:16:12 Yeah, it is. It really is. The little things, you know, I went to Target last night and I’d been going to Walmart for the past couple of weeks just because, you know, they’ve had some stuff that I’ve needed and, and then I went to Target. And Target has these shopping carts, like they are so quiet and it it, I normally am a target person rather than a Walmart. Anyway, I’ll pay the extra just so I don’t have to go to Walmart. . Um, the shopping carts were so quiet and I’m like, oh these, it’s something you don’t even really notice until like you’re, you don’t have it. Yeah. But like little things like that in experience, just Yes. Nice. Less crowds and a shopping cart that doesn’t like pull me in one direction and is quiet.
Speaker 0 00:16:58 Yes. Peace of quiet. I use the writing carts at Walmart, places like that. Target doesn’t have very many so it’s hit or miss if I can even go to Target because I can’t walk through the stores, I just, I don’t have the stamina or whatever. But the, the ones at Walmart, if they run out, they, they’ve, they replaced a whole bunch of ’em now, but like, they used to run outta juice. So like, I’d be like halfway across the store and that would just stop. Oh. And
Speaker 1 00:17:24 The trick is, do
Speaker 0 00:17:25 You turn it on and go another five feet, turn it off, turn it on and go another five feet. Literally like limp your way to the front of the store. But if you’re still shopping then you gotta find another way or you just abandon it. You gotta find a way to get to your car. So annoying. But um, with even the new ones, they move so slowly. Like people walk past you so fast. And when I was in Kentucky earlier this year, my sister’s mother passed eight days after my, after our dad. It was a weird year. I was down in Kentucky with her and we went to Walmart and she was laughing at how slowly I was just like tling through. It’s not like the scene from bad grandpa where he’s like ripping past everybody and knocking everybody down. No, this was just like Sunday drive down to Walmart and if you go backwards at all, you get the beep beep, beep beep kinda thing going and Oh my goodness. But I’m grateful no matter how slow it goes, I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to shop by myself and do those kinds of things. So Yeah. But it’s funny but yes, a good shopping cart without the wheel that’s always going round and round and pulling you the wrong direction and stuff.
Speaker 1 00:18:35 Yeah. Little things, little things like that. It just, you don’t, I mean I’m, I’m not gonna be like, oh well I have to go to Target because of the carts. But when you have those, just to be able to have like one small thing and see it, notice it and appreciate it. Like getting a cart that has enough juice to get you around the store so you can take care of what you need to do. Like having some, just a little bit of gratitude for the small things because they really do add up. It’s not like a big thing though that lottery win last week. I’m wondering like who got that 2 billion? That’s
Speaker 0 00:19:08 Why did I not buy a ticket? I should’ve bought a ticket. ,
Speaker 1 00:19:12 I actually played in a pool and I got 17 cents so I was like, I won the lottery. Wow.
Speaker 0 00:19:18 Where you gonna spend it?
Speaker 1 00:19:21 Probably had another lottery ticket. I
Speaker 0 00:19:22 Dunno. There you go. Well
Speaker 1 00:19:24 Like it’s going anywhere.
Speaker 0 00:19:25 Um,
Speaker 1 00:19:25 But yeah, like those big things, everybody’s like searching for that like really huge big exciting thing to change your whole life but you can change your whole life with like building blocks of lots of little things and appreciating them.
Speaker 0 00:19:37 Yeah. Agreed. And and it’s so, it sounds like such a platitude to go. It’s the little things in life that make a difference. But it freak is there’s a reason it’s a platitude cuz it’s true.
Speaker 1 00:19:47 It really is. It really is. Just, you know, be that things are working that the computer that the internet’s working that mm-hmm , the camera’s not going blurry on me. I’m using the good one today though. So it’s
Speaker 0 00:20:00 I’m not, it’s on, I’m in the other office that from where I was last week with the good camera, the lighting. I’m just like the harsh lighting. Like you look like you could be on like 60 minutes and I’m over here like the lady at the grocery store who’s like trying to go, don’t, don’t leave your home without, without your shoes on or I dunno, I’m just making stuff up now, but yeah. . Oh my goodness. Anyway. Well if, if you’re out there listening and you have things that make a difference to you, your top things and your favorite things, tell us about ’em. Cause sharing those favorite things can be like really cool if you just say slippers, that’s great. But do you have a brand? Can you find the ones I’m looking for? . Send me a link if you do. Yeah. Like those kinds of things. Good. Favorite be like your favorite coffee. Tell us, tell us about these things we love, we love to hear them and we wanna be able to share them. And I want to like see if they were my favorite things too.
Speaker 1 00:20:54 Yeah, I love it. And this is, uh, good to know. Now I know what to get. Michelle for
Speaker 0 00:21:00 . Likewise like wink win’s, getting coffee and nice sheets. What size bed is it? ?
Speaker 1 00:21:08 Well, long story, but I’m going from, my husband had the king bud and that’s upstairs and so I’m trying to get that downstairs and then I take my old queen and move that upstairs. So I’m like sort of in between. I’m on a queen right now, but I, I have to sleep between cats. I’ve got a cat on either side of my head and they both want snuggles, of course . And so I, I just, I just need a little more room from the tails and the fights.
Speaker 0 00:21:36 you, you gotta get em. You get’em both purring at the same time. So you’ve got like that white noise. . Yeah, fall asleep too. .
Speaker 1 00:21:45 It actually does work. I just need a little more space. So one of these days look at the beds moved. So
Speaker 0 00:21:51 Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:21:53 A
Speaker 0 00:21:53 Little things. It’s the little things . Absolutely. Well I hope you experienced lots of good little things this weekend Cathy. And if you’re listening to us, we hope the same for you.
Speaker 1 00:22:04 So definitely thanks for listening. It was always good to talk to you Michelle. I love
Speaker 0 00:22:07 Doing this. Yeah, likewise. Me too, me too. I hope. I hope other people enjoy it too. But at the very least we’re having fun and that’s what’s important too.
Speaker 1 00:22:14 That’s what’s important. I’m here for us
Speaker 0 00:22:17 . We’ll.