May 3, 2023
Season 5, Episode 11
In the season 5 finale, Eric and Gil discuss hot topics and reflect on their growth during the season and hopes for the future.
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Music by Spell with Spellone Productions with Sound Lab Studios (Starting season 5)
Art by Diane with DemTees Designs (Starting Season 5)
Transcript
Eric:
Hello and welcome to the Q Lounge, a podcast where we discuss news, stories and life situations as they relate to the lgbtqia plus experience. I'm Eric. And I'm Gil. And we want to thank you for joining us. I know we did not drop an episode last week. We really did try, but we had a lot of technical difficulties. We've just had a lot of technical difficulties this season.
Gil:Yes. And I like 90% of that 95.
Eric:Yeah. So we're sorry, but we had it where he couldn't hear me and then he was breaking up and it was just a lot of. Yeah, craziness. We almost didn't even get to record this episode because Zoom didn't wanna let us in. So then we had more technical difficulties on my end. So
Gil:it's the curse of season five. It, I don't know what it is. It's
Eric:just, it's been an odd season. It's been a season, it's been a very odd season between the technical difficulties, guest issue scheduling, guest issue. Yes. And then, yeah, it's, and then you getting sick and me getting sick. Yeah. It's just been a crazy season. So unfortunately, this is gonna be the last episode for this season, correct? Yes. And then we will be back in the fall?
Gil:Yes. We're putting a knife into this situation. Yeah.
Eric:So we're gonna just be done with this season. So that hopefully we can get all the technical shit situated
Gil:on our hands, like with it like lavender and just bless the micro microphones. My goodness. But we thank you guys for listening to us.
Eric:You guys hung in. Yes. Thank you so much. And I know all three of you who listened to us. Hi Chris. Yeah, so thank you for listening to us and sorry that we aren't, we seems like we slacked this season, but we really didn't. It was challenging. It was just a weird season.
Gil:Weird. You would normally, we would get this off the first season. This is like a first season kind of thing. And yeah, it, we got delayed
Eric:apparently. I think the first season we were like definitely finding our footing and I think we probably still are, but we were definitely finding our footing and our flow and everything else. Yeah. And then this season it was just like, this issue. So I guess it's good that we didn't have them simultaneously, cuz we probably would've been like, fuck, season two we're done. We
Gil:done burn.
Eric:Because we missed last week or dropping an episode last week, we had a lot to discuss. I think a lot of that stuff is probably irrelevant now as this season. It seems like there's new news coming up every single day. So yeah. Half of our episode, updated episode season are irrelevant. Gil and I just spent three hours doing a precast. Yes. Trying to get all that situated. And I have to plug in my computer cuz it's about to die. Why not? More technical difficulties.
Gil:But I'm glad everyone could hear me now on a normal mic versus using my little AirPod. I think it was like second generation or whatever. I was like, come on, baby. Survive.
Eric:Yeah. So hopefully this audio will be better too, because you had to use the AirPods for a couple episodes, didn't
Gil:you? I did. I had to use it for a couple episodes and they were at always at the end of recording, I was down to 4% in one ear, 7% of the other ear. Yeah. It was just hope getting it through.
Eric:Yeah,
Gil:so that's why you got a new mic and then it's not connecting to the headphones or then headsets. I'm just like, I don't know. I don't different yet.
Eric:Technology, it's great when it works. I know when it works, but we don't know how to live
Gil:without it now. Very true. Very true. I could have, could you imagine how to go back to the olden days with it? Oh, no. No, I
Eric:can't imagine that. No. I almost don't even remember life without a smartphone, let alone a cell phone. Like we,
Gil:before we had the flip phones when we were, yeah,
Eric:we took the highly pixelated,
Gil:grainy pics. Oh yeah. I looked like a Lego. It was sexy. Yeah. Then we got the hd. You're like,
Eric:oh, we all had the same build. We were all just very blocky.
Gil:Oh yeah. I re I remember that. And your phone actually called, that's what you used it for. Yeah. And then you were charged per text. Yes. Like you get 50 50 We're
Eric:that old guys. Yes. You got charged per text and you're like, oh, we have to call after 9:00 PM and on weekends, cuz that's when it's free. Oh
Gil:yes. Oh my God. I found my old razor.
Eric:Oh you had a razor.
Gil:I had a razor and I had my old, I found my Nokia and I'm like, damn,
Eric:I never had a razor, but I had a Krzr. What's
Gil:that? I didn't,
Eric:it was the smaller, thinner form of the razor. Oh, okay. And it was supposed to be like better for playing music or something. Uhhuh. So I had the Krzr. I never had the razor.
Gil:Yeah. I had, Chris was all about the sidekick.
Eric:I, I just found my sidekick box. Oh did you? I was cleaning and I threw the box out cause I was like, I don't need this anymore. Cause of course it was a nice little like box. I was like this metal box and I'm like, they don't give you phones like that anymore.
Gil:Oh God. It's practically in a Ziploc bag. And they're like, here you go.
Eric:You don't even get a charger
Gil:nowadays. I know. Fucking ridiculous. I can't believe it. And then they changing damn
Eric:ports. Yeah, they're changing it to, for Apple users. They're changing it to USB-C now, aren't they? They are. Because of
Gil:Europe. But now they have to come. Yeah. But now they have to come with the damn charger. Cuz that was the challenge in Europe. Yeah. It's like how? How can you sell a phone and stupid. Yeah. Oh my God. We've been doing this with technology. Technology is just it's fun. It's not going away. People, I don't know why people, stuff in their heads like, oh, just gonna go away. It's not, ain't going away. We know that. No, that's not going away. Yeah. It's just like the internet. Remember when am like for me, I used to actually buy books off of Amazon Uhhuh, as we remember. And that's what Amazon was all about.
Eric:That's what it started out as. Yep. It's a bookstore.
Gil:Bookstore. It owns everything.
Eric:Yeah. And everyone sells through Amazon now.
Gil:I know. It's just funny when you start looking back oh by the way, if you want to feel even older, I am eligible now to hire people from born in 2007. Let's put that on your radar. What was happening in 2007? Oh yeah. You are Uhhuh. I am eligible cuz I got my first one and I was like, what year? The interviewee was like, I'm 16. And I'm like, bless your heart
Eric:well, couldn't she? Oh yeah. 2007. It was, the person
Gil:was born in January of oh seven. Yeah.
Eric:Okay. My math wasn't math for a brief second, I was like, wouldn't she be 17 so you can actually ha. But then I was like, no, wait, no though. Sorry. Yeah.
Gil:No. So that's just fun things. I would just crack it up cause like I was like, I remember. So when you were born, I was being a sloppy mess. Eric was putting me together. Was that time good times? Yeah, it
Eric:was oh seven. Oh wow. Yeah. That was just a, she was born a few months before that happened. Yeah.
Gil:Crazy, right?
Eric:Yeah. I'm a good friend. Yes. Just
Gil:kidding. Oh my gosh. Yes. That's where we're at. Oh my goodness. Okay, let's go ahead and kick it off then, cuz we have, there's a lot to cover. There's a lot to cover.
Eric:Everything's on fire at this point. Yeah. Yeah. The country's just, let's just, I say this all the time, let's just blow it up and rebuild and start over. Yeah. That's like right now, that is the only way to solve this is just blow it up and start over.
Gil:And I'm really hoping that like, when we go forward every time a generation dis, starts losing its power, which the one needs currently the boomers, let's just call it what it is. That generation is refusing to unhinge, like un clinging to their power, and they're doing everything in their power to destroy it on the way out. They're self-centered generation. We know that
Eric:you do have some millennials in that
Gil:they fall into it. They're trained by 'em. Yeah. You have some Gen X that are gonna be mixed into it. Yeah. But it's still a lot of the residue from it. No, absolutely. And that's where I'm just, it's, I'm hoping when we transition millennials eventually lose our power. The power we never really had down the road and let's call it what it is. Like it was completely, I think, I
Eric:think X and millennials were basically had no power
Gil:at all. Yeah. It was gonna be Gen Z's throwing themselves, so perfect. Bitch down. Whatever you need to do, we'll be there. We're just the supporting cast. Pretty much just, and that's what I'm hoping, that it just becomes this nice, leave it better than what you inherited. And that's what I'm hoping for Gen Z Alpha and as you work your way through, because that the current generation, that boomers, I swear to Jesus, they, there's a special place in hell for them.
Eric:Kick us off with something. Gil, what's going on?
Gil:Let's go ahead and kick it off with, and this is kinda how our podcast restarted again, was the attack on the trans community on already a marginalized area. How many states are attacking us now?
Eric:Oh, there are so many states right now that are attacking. I don't have the exact figure, but I wanna No,
Gil:let's list them my name because they need to get the beautiful spotlight on there back ass ways of life, as if somehow we're gonna go back in time. Yeah.
Eric:We have Florida of course. In Kansas, of course. And Indiana. Ooh, and North Dakota. And Idaho and Georgia and West Virginia. Arkansas,
the
Gil:most, the most recent ones. Yep. What do they all common? Tennessee. These are all Republican led,
Eric:Alabama, Mississippi, sorry.
Gil:No. These are all Republican LED states. Yes. These are all the big, anti-big government. Yes. Yet, what are they doing? Complete fucking opposite of what they preach. Yes. And what are they asking it us for the children. And
Eric:let's not forget, we, and I didn't mention this state. Cuz I think we're gonna go into more detail with this state. But Montana, look what Montana just did. Actually, let's go into Montana. Let's go into Montana. Let's, I'm not gonna visit Montana. I'm not gonna actually step foot in Montana, but let's, yeah. Let's go to Montana. Let's do Montana now. Let's
Gil:go to Montana. So we have, as we know, we have a representative from Missoula, Montana. Gorgeous college town, by the way. Yeah, absolutely. Go. I've not been, but I've seen photos. I've heard amazing
Eric:stuff about Missoula. Yeah,
Gil:absolutely. I even like the name, I'll call Missoula. It's cool. And what happened to her? First
Eric:wasn't she like silenced? Like her mic was turned off when she was trying to speak on be when she was speaking out against an anti-trans bill that they were trying to introduce. Correct. Okay.
Gil:Yes. And then eventually she is now, from my understanding, barred. She could zoom via zoom, watch, observe, but she is not allowed to argue in it. Yeah. And the rest of the fis arrest of
Eric:the year, and she wasn't kicked off her committees, but she's not allowed to have a voice or an, or share an opinion. Correct. So the, her 11, 11,000 of her constituents were there in protest.
Gil:Yes. This is getting vibes of something. I don't know that happened in Tennessee. Yeah. With another Republican led, I don't know, house. Something like, I'm just saying there's common themes
Eric:here. This also sounds very reminiscent of the 1930s across the Atlantic Ocean. Huh. But we don't teach history,
Gil:yeah. We got rid of that. Nothing happened before 2000.
Eric:Yeah. So I know she finally has some people siding with her. Correct. But it's disgusting because A, you're silencing her. Yes. And she is a trans woman. She is actually giving you very detailed firsthand knowledge of experiences. Correct. And you're trying to quiet her, you're trying to muffle her, stifle her, whatever. And she's also the voice for her constituents. Yes,
Gil:absolutely.
Eric:And I'm just, and this is just, this is purely speculation and a reach in the dark, but I'm sure that I'm probably more right than wrong when I make this next comment. She probably also is the voice of people not in her district who have gone through or are going through or are in the process of accepting parts of themselves that she has experienced being a trans woman. And they've probably written and confided in her. Or she could be that voice for those people or those that population. And so that's well
Gil:put. Put.
Eric:And you're silencing all of them. You're taking away all their voices because she's also speaking on behalf of her constituents for things that happened in Missoula.
Gil:Yeah. This represents a bigger thing where it could have been, look at Montana, they elected their first trans, trans individual in being this big celebration. Look at how diverse, we're not, we're bucking the trend, right? Yes. We're not like the rest of those other conservatives we're conservative, but we're not conservative when it comes to social issues. They could have been, that's a, because that's the historically balances between a democratic governor, republican led house kind of thing, within their assemblies and all that. It's a very mixed bag there. They're not all conservative nor all liberal. It's it's always fluctuated, but once they started doing this re, like I said, the Republicans now, especially, they have the balls to do it. They think they do. This is, it's dangerous. This is dangerous
Eric:territory. And they're still in the, sorry, I'm just gonna cut you off with, they're still in the mindset of balls makes you strong when we all know how delicate balls really are. Yeah, they are. I mean they exactly. Just even like slightly graze it with a finger nail. Oh yeah. We go down very quickly.
Gil:No I agree. And that's why it's just, it's so disappointing cuz she, we know she represents other people because we see it. When we like it's thinking of like when we watch movies. You suddenly saw that in Love Victor, you saw the representation of somebody like your story. Not exactly, but it was nice to see a Latino, a lead. And he's not the back character or he's the joke. Yeah. It, it was really nice to see it there. He, they brought in the religious aspect. There were not all white agnostic parents welcoming in the kid. Like in love Simon. I love Simon. Don't get me wrong. So do I. But we all can't relate to that story I at all. Because there were some complications to it from being a minority. And that's what that representation matters. Visibility matters. And that's the same thing when they're silencing, like when they're ing to black gentlemen in Tennessee, exact same situation. It's so much bigger. It's kinda when they're doing this. But these are also all Republican led areas, these of the country. Yeah. They're silencing voices and I don't understand how people still vote for them. That's the part I just can't comprehend. I don't understand it either. The Democratic party did this. Do you think we'd really be standing here saying, most so vote Democratic boo like fuck, we will absolutely not. Are you kidding me? We're fighting on like how much more we can give to the people. I'm more left than you and we will go down like that versus we can't even join us one party at times. I know. Cause it's like her before. We do. Cuz we think True. The Republicans don't. They're just like, we're gonna vote together. It doesn't matter. They know it's wrong. We, I they have to know it's wrong. Yet they would rather pick party over country. Yeah. Cause
Eric:it's all about personal interest. It is. It's money. Agreed. Yeah. It's lobby. Yeah.
Gil:I mean look, it's same thing with all these trans laws. It's ridiculous. Are you fucking kidding me? But the same thing when one, like when Roe v. Wade went down, I knew, I was like, you and I were talking about it. Floodgate. Yes. Yep. Because it's our arguing it under privacy, which is not protect well explicitly, I should say protected. I did. It's implied.
Eric:Didn't we like, come on and do like a special episode when the Dobbs decision hit? We did because I was like, we were both just like fuming.
Gil:Oh yeah. I'm I just, I'm, we both
Eric:are beside results. Yeah. I'm, I still fume over that.
Gil:I just, like I said, there's some things to me within the Constitution, it is a living, breathing document and you've heard everyone's on this damn thing. Heard me say over and over. People in Europe who've listened to us, have heard me say it at this point, but, and they're
Eric:laughing at us cause of how pathetic our country is.
Gil:Yeah. But it's a living, breathing document. That's the thing. It's supposed to evolve with the people, but look at what it
Eric:represents. But look at what just happened too with, they were trying to get the Equal Rights Act put into the constitution. Yeah. And the Republicans blocked that because you need the 60 vote majority. And two Republicans did cross the aisle, Murkowski and Collins. Yeah. Shockingly, I know they're the more moderate of the repub of the right side anyway. And the right wing side, not the right side, but the right wing side. Yeah. But I was still sh it's, that tells you every, that tells you a lot right there. When they're trying to block the Equal Rights Act, they're trying to suppress the vote. Oh yeah. They're
Gil:attacking. Look what they did with Obama. Their only goal was to make the only, the first black president fail. That was their number one objective. Yep. Call it, that's what it is. That's racist McConnell. He could go to Fucking hell. Oh yeah. The tortoise. I might distaste for that man who's married to a minority.
Eric:Yes. And she's a token.
Gil:But yeah. I. And that's the same thing. It's just, it is disgusting. And this is something that I just, I can't comp every time I come in on this podcast with you almost was like, how have they shocked me today? What's going on today? We're not even, may, we're almost gonna break 500 anti bills. Granted, they're not go to pass. No. There's some sane people out there who, you know, but the fact that many went through already when they did the statistics at npr, the last four years combined didn't even match a fourth of this. Like why all of a sudden it's,
Eric:it's their diversion tactic. It's their new newly made crisis that we've discussed that they like just Yeah. Come up with these new crises that we're going to save the culture. We're gonna, this is a, it's a culture war.
Gil:Culture water doesn't exist. That doesn't exist straight out of Reagan's world, the eighties.
Eric:It's the thing that war drugs. Oh, I know that. The DARE program, the war drugs is such a racist thing. It's this whole thing though, like we've talked about with, especially with the anti-trans bills. Yeah. It's all the apprehension is on what cis straight men would be doing. Correct. I don't want a man in a bathroom with my daughter. Yeah. There's no man in the bathroom with your daughter. You are legitimately thinking of some cis dude, probably some cis white dude who's going to go into the bathroom and do whatever. Yeah. And he asked a
Gil:Catholic
Eric:priest. Yeah, exactly. You want to talk about and the faith, right? You wanna talk about where the harm to the children are coming from? Look at your churches. Look at your Boy Scouts. Yep.
Gil:There was a lawsuit on that.
Eric:Yeah. They just settled. There was a huge lawsuit for that. They're paying out crazy amounts. Didn't they file bankruptcy? I think
Gil:pretty close at this point. Yeah. It's a absurdity amount of money that they've had to shell out. But these were men treatment called what it is. It's funny where we decide to turn that our head turn that blind diet and what we choose not to, I don't know. I always, I don't know, I've always just found it very, just it's just odd to me. Like I shared that story about, the, when I was literally getting food in front of the church. The church is passing out free food and then they turn away the homeless guy. Yeah. And I'm just sitting there staring. I'm like, wait, I'm confused. They gave it up to all the parishioners or they're coming in, but they turned away the guy who clearly needed it the most. Like I just find that very odd. Yeah. It's ironic like that. Yeah. It's the whole thing's ironic or it's the. We always root for the underdog. But as a society, we hate the underdog. We literally vote against them. True. We don't want the minority to win. No.
Eric:We don't even want That's, we have all these rules in place. We don't even want the whole we ha we love the sentiment of it takes a village but we never want to lift up the marginalized, You just want to keep oppressing them.
Gil:It looks good in movies, it looks, sounds great in songs, but it's te it just, we know it doesn't. Work or does it happen in practicality? Because this whole system is not set up for that. It's not, it's the same thing of for us in the bay areas, the housing crisis, you get San Franciscans are the loudest ones of, oh my God, we need, more fair housing and better apartments for people. Make it cheap. But then once they plow, plow it into a fairly, relatively nice area, like they're trying to propose right now, they're up in arms.
Eric:It's also and I'm just gonna say this, it's a lot of your neo libs. Yeah. The, like your neoliberals that are just like, oh, this and this. We have to like, it has to be fair. It has to be that as long as it doesn't affect me
Gil:and that's what it comes out to. Yeah. It's that individualism of America. And it really does. It's the same thing. Why I, as much as I love the, I I consider myself when I graduate for poly sci, a socialist Democrat, Because I believe in a lot of the socialist ways and things that, how it could work, but it will never work in the modern way because we like to reward. Cuz to you it's, I work my ass off, therefore I deserve more than you. Yes. Because if we were all paid equally there, you would not like that. Because look at the, like I said, fast food workers immediately, people $15, the fuck is it gonna affect you? The prices go up regardless of what you feel. We know that. It's been proven Exactly. Have gone up. And the thing is, but that's the thing. We don't like that we want to be rewarded. Same thing with heaven. If I do really well on planet Earth, I'm gonna get in a better spot in heaven. Cuz you're rewarded. That's why it comes. You know it. I've talked to those. I have to do great things because I'll be rewarded. It's like a fucking
Eric:child. But you're not doing great things is the thing. God.
Gil:Yes. and that's the most ironic part of the whole thing, because this is the issue I had that I had dealing with in Washington. I had, there's a lot of liberals up there. And I i, it's not to knock us, but I'll be very frank, I'm dealing with people up there. Everything is, I support my minorities until they move into my neighborhood. Then it's a passive regressive look. What are you doing here? Oh, honey, this is the wrong step code. Let me go show you where you're actually supposed to be, because I got it. I got
Eric:looks, I got that a lot in Denver actually too.
Gil:Denver's race is a fuck. Yeah. We know that.
Eric:I'll be like, oh, this is a nice neighborhood now because the white people are moving in. Correct. And be like, oh, okay. What was wrong with it before? Oh, it was the barrio. It was very Latino. I'm like, and that's bad. Why?
Gil:Yeah. Weren't they here before?
Eric:And like even when I lived in Iowa. Yeah. I'm just batting a thousand here, aren't I? They would be like, oh, don't go east of campus because it's the bad neighborhoods. And it's two blocks of, to the east was like two blocks worth of were the, was a highly black population. Oh shit. And they'd be like, don't go to the, don't go to the area south of the campus. And that was the Latino area. Uhhuh. I'm like, these houses are nicer than where I grew up. And I grew up in a fairly nice middle class neighborhood. You did? Yeah. I'm like, these houses are nicer than what I grew up in. Like how is this a bad neighborhood?
Gil:Cause it's the minorities. Yeah. It's what it comes down to. And the same thing is you would never see a billboard, god forbid, into a fairly affluent white neighborhood. But you will see one near a minority based group, and it's also the zoning that kind of plays into it. And that's a whole nother ballpark. Yep. Of,
Eric:That's why I like the type of stores and
Gil:Yeah. H hoa the Homeowner Association is another form of discrimination. A hundred percent start in the 50 fifties. Benny who, sorry, super diver.
Eric:No, but this is all the, yes. This is all the reason though too, that like the United States ranks 24th. Yes. When it comes to personal freedom, even though we are nicknamed the land of the free. But we ranked 24th and we're just gonna go, ahead of us is Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Estonia, Luxembourg, Ireland, Canada, Iceland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Australia, Japan, Austria, uk, la, Latvia, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Italy. I'm Enter price. Ban's not on there, but anyways,
Gil:Italy's as high as it is. Okay, continue.
Eric:But and that's all based off of, we are considered a gun sick nation. We have the worst yeah. Maternal mortality rate of any peer nation. We are 120 ninth out of 163 when it comes to peaceful societies. We spend more on healthcare than any other country, and we have no better outcomes to show for it. And Gill and I had a 75 hour discussion about healthcare, which. We could go into, but you guys don't wanna spend 75 hours with us talking about healthcare. The US is definitely not great for women. Definitely not great for the trans community. And it's not great for the L G B T community at large. No, we do not rank anywhere near number one when it comes to education. We are just simply not the greatest country in the world, but we are sold to that idea. Correct. From
Gil:childhood, from the greatest generation ever. Yes. Damnit. Ugh. It's just funny. And like I said, this is just part of being a citizen. You should be critical of your government. You should be critical. Oh, absolutely. Of who you put in office. If they're not meeting the sta, just think of it like at work, right? We all get reviews. You're not meeting the standards, you're not meeting what the mission statements or whatever you guys wanna call it. You will be put on restrictions. Your job might be lost. Things happen. So I don't understand why we No hold are elected people. You voted for officials to the same accountability or even the country as a whole. Is the system working for you?
Eric:I think it's just, it's a legit question. I think it's disgusting that our politicians who make our laws are held to a much, much lower standard than any other person. Talking about that person at McDonald's who's fighting for that $15 an hour Yeah. Yeah. Is held to a much higher standard than your congressman, than your senator, than your justice. Yeah. And they get a lifetime pension. Yes, they
Gil:do. So we don't, no. And we've been working.
Eric:And the thing is too, they're like, oh, it's supposed to be a minimum wage job. Okay. That's all. In not politicians, which I'm running back to the McDonald's thing really quickly. It's supposed to be a minimum wage job. You can't live on a minimum wage job. Yeah. Even $15 an hour now, honestly is like starvation wages. I'm just speaking on new me for New Mexico right now, but an apartment in New Mexico is gonna run you like $1,600 a month. So a New Mexico is not even that expensive compared to a lot of other states.
Gil:I'm trying to even figure out what was the last thing the federal wage has been even raised. The federal minimum wage. It
Eric:hasn't. It's been, what hasn't it been like 20 years?
Gil:7, 25, I think is the federal minimum wage. Yeah. Since I, God I don't even, hold on. Sorry. I'm gonna look this up. I'm just curious.
Eric:July 20th, 2009.
Gil:So it's been the same since oh nine? Yeah. Wow. Wow.
Eric:I'll say at least New Mexico is 10 25 or 10 50. Correct.
Gil:And I'm glad that states are, each state and city are gonna be a little bit different, but the federal minimum wage, that is fucking ridiculous.
Eric:Yeah. And the thing is you're wanting people to survive on that. Yeah. And then, like we were talking earlier, and we're not gonna get into all the healthcare disparities, but you have a lot of older adults, seniors who don't make a whole lot on social security, so they have to go back to work. It's not that they want to go back to work, they have to go back to work. And they're having to work these types of jobs. But then also people don't wanna hire you if you're over a certain age either.
Gil:That's true. That is a very true statement.
Eric:So I know I'm just jumping around a lot, so I apologize. The US house just passed an anti-trans bill banning trans athletes from female sports. I know Biden said he would veto it and would not sign that. If it passed the Senate, which I don't think it would pass the Senate, but he's not gonna pass the Senate. He said he wouldn't sign it anyways. I know he did just launch his reelection campaign. Did. How do you feel about that?
Gil:We have a silent generation candidate running against, more than likely whatever Republican's gonna throw it as a boomer or something like that. Again I. I think this is a question for the Democratic party of they need to start figuring out, this is probably gonna be the last time somebody of his age will ever go against for the Democratic party. And they need to figure out what is the pathway for us going forward. Because even when you're talking about, oh, we're gonna throw Bernie, Bernie is up there also. Oh, absolutely. You're talking about 78 year old versus a 74 year old. Yeah. And a fuck difference. I'm sorry, I like him both, but Bernie more. But it's still, it's that same thing of,
Eric:I know Bernie said he wasn't gonna run, so no,
Gil:no. He made that
Eric:clear, but still he's No, exactly. His I totally agree with you. Yeah, he's, I, he's probably aged out and I'm gonna be quite honest I'm not thrilled that Biden's running again. I thought that I wasn't expecting him to, cause he's the incumbent, so of course he's gonna run again. I'm not thrilled. I'm not a huge fan of his. But there's no way in hell I'm voting for what's on the other side. So this is still gonna be the less too evil kind of situations. But yeah, I guess that's my opinion on the whole thing. And
Gil:that's what I'm curious is what, with the Democratic party, who, what are we doing about it in sense of, are we waiting for, is it like a Gavin Newsom kind of thing? Are we waiting for I'm waiting for aoc. Like an aoc, I'm just curious kind what? I
Eric:want an aoc, Katie Porter tickets.
Gil:Oh, Jesus Christ. That would be
Eric:phenomenal. I think I just came that's much of that.
Gil:Like I said, I, once Katie Porter says she's running for the Senate for California, I'm like growing up my money. Here's my vote. Whiteboard in your honor. No, but I mean it's the same thing of the Democratic party is thinking short term. They're like, this is the best we got. Yeah. To win on the national level. And it could be because he's a white guy going against another, more than likely white guy. Yeah. But we need to get away from him at some point. Cuz this country isn't going to be white very much longer. No.
Eric:But again, thinking of the younger, the power
Gil:grab, it's the power grab. Because as I was looking at that statistic, it was like the last 12 elections were Boomer versus silent generation boomer versus it was before the silent generation, you had the de What the fuck was it? Why am I blanking out on it? The great, considered the greatest generation. So you have those kind of candidates, but Booers have been pretty active in it. So it's the same thing of what are we doing? What are we doing with the party I think is we need to find the exact direction or who are we grooming to become the next candidates? Are they gonna take on a national level, that national name recognition, we can be pinning everything. Hillary's gone. So the evil witch, as everyone likes to pin everything on Hillary, she's not in the picture. Yeah. So what are we doing? Who is a o C as polarizing? What are we looking for?
Eric:I love I mean I love me some A O C. I'm not gonna deny that I love me some A O C I do fear she could be a bit polarizing. Yeah. Because she's somehow considered too extreme for a lot of people. Yeah. I don't get it. I think she's right on, but then I can probably be considered a little too extreme for people.
Gil:Yeah. So I think that's I'm just curious because who were they thanking for 2028? Probably if Biden doesn't survive. It is a Kamala Harris the way that we're going? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I'm just curious. I'm just, it's one of those same things that I'm not sure where we're going with it.
Eric:Yeah, no, I think that's fair. I agree.
Gil:It's the same thing of like when Bush won, hyphen you say he won the first election it was questionable in itself. You wanna have a questionable one. I'm still bitter. I feel bad. I think Gore really won that one, we had to force accept that one, which is fine. But we picked John Kerry in oh four. Would we have picked John Kerry? If we didn't, if Bush didn't win because you were trying to go after that military vote. Oh, okay. Yeah. And I'm just curious did we pick Biden because we're like, oh, that's the one white guy who could, I don't know, beat their white guy. Yeah. Beat their white guy. So are we still playing retroactively to what, or, re reactively to what the Republicans are choosing and still letting them guide us. Fair. That's why I'm just curious. I'm just, I don't know, I don't know the answer for this one because my choice is I voted, I want a woman president. I would like a minority president. I want someone to look like me. That's, I, we genuinely, I have voted when I was, my first primary was actually, I voted for Hillary because I wanted a hill, a woman over a. Minority president over and I did, I voted for Hillary over Obama cuz I wanted a woman. I wanted someone different. I did want another guy. Different shade fair. I didn't want it. That's the, I genuine, I'm being very honest and I know I took some slack for that, but I'm like I don't want something different. And I voted for Elizabeth Warren over Bernie Sanders cuz that's what I wanted. I, like I said, one day I'm gonna see a female president.
Eric:Yeah. No, I mean it's overdue. The guys
Gil:have done enough. We've putting the wars on the women.
Eric:Yeah. No, it's, the state of the world is purely based on men. Yeah. That's why I, having a pissing contest, trying to like measure and see who's got the biggest dick real. So none of you are porn stars and none of you guys are even in the race. Yeah.
Gil:I don't know. I'm just curious. In time. I would like somebody more liberal. A lot more left leading. Progressive, younger. Yes. Much younger. And I, yes, I know we just talked about the whole thing of, oh, we're being ageist. No one's gonna hire them. But at the same time,
Eric:but no, but here's the thing though. We talk about, yeah, we do talk about the ageism, so it seems like hypocritical in a way. But our saving grace with that, and this, I do think this is true, we expect people to retire at 62, 65 years old. I know they're trying to increase it now to 70, but still, but our politicians are like 89 and 94 and 77 years old. Yeah. They don't get to re, they don't have to retire. They get to serve 75 terms. Correct. And age out to 150
Gil:because they have the best healthcare. Because
Eric:they have the best healthcare for sure. And. Older adults should be able to just retire and enjoy their life. They shouldn't have to work. Yeah. If they want to work, cool, awesome. Great. They should not have to work. And yes, these politicians are wanting to work, but they're wanting to work so that they can shape and sculpt and mold everything into what they want their own life to be. Yeah. And they think everyone should follow. They wanna be the PI
Gil:Piper. I, yeah, I always. That's the part I never understood with the United States, where you have some, you're the number one economy on the planet. You have more money than any anyone could dream of yet. Why is your not,
Eric:if that tax ceiling goes, it doesn't go through,
Gil:but we don't have, like poverty is manmade. There's no re they have more than enough food. We produce more than enough food and housing doesn't have to be an issue. You kick people out because they can't pay from a standard you've placed. And that's the thing with, especially with the elderly. I just don't understand it, how you could do that. Just that was someone's grandparent, that's somebody's, they mean some something to someone. And you're like, sorry, there's the street corner for you. Yeah. And I, I just can't I can't understand that. Like when you're explaining about the Medicare for them Oh yeah. The medic, yeah.
Eric:Oh, that was in the precast. But
Gil:yeah, in our precast. And stuff like that. I just, I don't understand. I said, you're on a fixed income.
Eric:Yeah. And then you have to pay Medicare. That's just what we were talking about, is that older adults should not have to pay Medicare when they're on a fixed income from Social Security. Cuz a lot of people don't have retirements anymore because the crash of the early two thousands wiped out most people's retirements.
Gil:Or hell, even the most recent one. Same kind of situation. Yeah. Not as severe, but it's still a lot of them took hits. We know peop, we're gonna take a hit. Yeah. And
Eric:then assisted living or like older adult communities Yeah. Are fucking hella expensive. Yeah, they are. And then you're expecting them to have there somewhere between 850 to maybe two or $3,000 a month that they get from Social security maybe. Yeah. And then that 3000 is being very generous and liberal. That might be if you have two social securities coming in at once. Yeah. But still that's not a whole lot of money. You, that's still 36,000 a year. Correct. That's not that much money.
Gil:I couldn't imagine living $36,000 in California. Are you kidding me? I should say if you're on the coast. You might get away with it like towards the valley or something like that, perhaps. Or up North Sacramento
Eric:or Yeah.
Gil:Fresno. But still it is expensive to be living out here. And if this is the only place you ever grew up and that's, where I've complained on this podcast before
Eric:That's so privileged cuz he's the coast baby
Gil:host baby. I could get priced out in my retirement years. My golden years. I'm gonna have to sunset somewhere else. Shit. They were like, sorry kid, we're
Eric:gonna be the golden boys or the golden girl. Like the golden girls. Yeah. So I call Blanche, I get to be the blanche roll. We all, we have a train coming through that every hour.
Gil:I love Blanche though. She's my favorite. She's fantastic.
Eric:The human mattress, that's like my idea, that's my goal in life, is to be a human mattress.
Gil:But it wouldn't surprise me if we, in our retirement years, suddenly it's like us, like four P, five p, all friends living in the same house, just to make it through. It wouldn't surprise me. That'll be our senior living. Yeah. But as this kind of country I don't understand why it should be like that for the elderly. I, it really doesn't. Especially if you worked your ass off until then. Yeah. You gave it at all. It's like why are you
Eric:should be able to enjoy that time of your life. I was watching, I think it was a TikTok or something, and I'm sure you guys have all seen that thing, like name one thing that's That's a, what is it? Something that's been so accepted, but it's actually a scam. Have you seen those? I've seen those portions of it. Yeah. And someone interrupted and said, the fact that we work most of our life, like two thirds of our life to maybe enjoy a good 10 years afterwards. Yeah.
Gil:Yep. And
Eric:like I watched that and that actually resonated really heavily with me. And I'm like, yeah, like I wanna go to this place or that place. I want to go hike this and hike that. And by the time I'm able to retire, if I can even afford it. Yeah. And with the chronic illnesses that I have, like who's say what will happen, where I'll be at then like I, I should be able to enjoy it now. Yeah. And you look at other countries, you look at other countries and they actually have required P T O. Yeah. Or oh yeah, go travel for the next two weeks and have fun, and then come back and you work a couple months and you have time off again.
Gil:But I must say on the other side where I questioned some people. Because there's been people that I've seen, like all online where I'm just like, it cracks me up. I'm like, I think you only work maybe twice a week and you're gone. You have nine months worth of p t o. I'm just curious how you're doing this or how are you functioning? Oh, yeah. Because some of them, I'm like, I know the job you have and there's no way you're financially able to do it. So I'm just curious how the hell they manage that one. Because I look for good deals too, but I'm like, what the fuck?
Eric:No, and that's fair too. And like I said, like I, I think I said this like a couple episodes ago. I don't work as much as I could. Yeah. But I also just take the personal time off, but I also don't travel that much either. I see them, they're
Gil:travel all over the planet, and I'm like, oh, God's green Earth. Are you doing it? Because I can tell you it ain't cheap. And I look, I do look for discounts. It's not like I'm saying at the Ritz Carlton every time I go to Europe, no, I'm in the fucking Airbnb, cheapest price I could look at, but I'll staying in an hostile I'm looking for good, affordable flight, so I can still enjoy, enjoy myself. But I just laugh. I just look at us like, what the hell what is going on
Eric:here? It could be loans, it could be.
Gil:It could be whatever sugar, be a sugar daddy. Everyone.
Eric:It could be Maybelline. Hey, Maybelline.
Gil:Yeah, I just, I was always laughing that I was like, God damn it. But no, I say enjoy your, if you're able to go enjoy it, because the same thing, it's like Europe as much as we give, like it was so cool from a historical standpoint that shit ate a d a appropriate to save their life. That cobblestone. I could only imagine trying to be a 75 year old brittle bitch trying to walk that thing. Oh hell no. Yeah. The people there could do it. They're used to it. Yeah. We're Americans, we're, are you kidding me? No. So I, it's fun. That's why I'm like travel if you can now.
Eric:I agree. Impossible. I think so.
Gil:After I just bitched about people traveling all the time.
Eric:That's get out of the US I would say for sure. Yeah. Absolut, absolutely. You have so much just going on right now. What's happening in the uk?
Gil:What is happening in the uk?
Eric:They're releasing their, losing My Mind. I know they're releasing a new reality show called I Kiss the Boy. Oh, that's a gay dating show.
Gil:Oh, cute. Okay. Hella drama probably.
Eric:Oh, I'm sure there's gonna be hella drama.
Gil:Oddly intrigued. I'm like, okay, go off.
Eric:And then we also
Gil:have, that was also the summer that we did the IA Girl when we talked about 2007. Oh, was that? Wow. Oh no. Was it oh eight? It was, no, it was oh seven. Yeah.
Eric:Oh, wow. I didn't realize that. Yeah. Moving. And then you have as we're speaking like Hollywoody or Pop Culturey kind of stuff. Lucas Gage and Chris Appleton got married in Las Vegas. That was a quick romance. Congratulations. Congratulations. Yes. It was Noah Ried from Schitt's Creek. He played Patrick. He's going on tour so you can find out all his dets on that. The book Red, white and Royal Blue, which is about, I believe like the pre, like the first Son and the Prince fall in love with each other. I have to read that book still. It's on my, it's on my Audible list. I haven't Oh, it's, oh, I haven't listened to it yet. You, yes, I'm read to, I don't read. I'm read to, but that is actually coming August 11th on prime Video. And then August 3rd, this is a UK tie in August 3rd will be Heart Stopper. Ah, exciting. This is the second season of Heart Stopper, so Yay. Yay. Okay. I love that show. So glad that Yes, we get a second season of it. And then I was super, super excited that Noah's arc is coming back. Holy
Gil:shit.
Eric:That's exciting. I watched Noah's arc before I watched Queer As Folk. Yeah. And I actually identified more with Noah's arc than I did Queer as Folk
Gil:Queers. Folk to me is it's a show. It's clearly a show. Yeah. But not relatable. Yeah. Versus Noah's arc. It's like you've been there. Yeah. At some porter, some part of it. Oh, they, the way that they left it, oh my God. Oh, I know. They left it in a cliffhanger and that was the end of it. And it was like they
Eric:had the movie to tie it up. Did you see the movie? Yeah. Yeah, I did. But there was a lot of like loose ends.
Gil:Yeah, so because it's not like it, it, the shows were able to, like I said, show to a movie. Movie. It's normally just quick, it's so
Eric:weird too because Noah's arc was like the, like one of the highest rated shows on logo and then they just dropped it after the second season. Yeah. You're like, like why would you drop the show that's like doing so well for you. Yeah, so I believe that they're doing another movie. I was like super excited thinking it was a show, but I think I read somewhere and I wanna say it was Daryl Steffens, cuz I follow him on Twitter and Instagram. He's one who played Noah? Yes, I believe he said that it was a movie. Okay. But I know the creator was like getting an award and said that he was happy that he could now speak about the return of Noah's art. And I believe it's all the original cast, which means Jensen Atwood and I love me some Wade. Yes. Wait. Wait. Is like my crash. Oh, that's exciting. So I was very happy to hear that Noah's arc is coming back.
Gil:Oh, that's exciting. I can't wait. But August seems like a great month.
Eric:August is gonna be a great month for L G B T Q cinema and Gill. I know. Honestly, we have a whole bunch of shit. More shit to talk about from like abortion rights and. Library book Ban Fights, New Mexico. We have a Christian group here who's trying to ban books in New Mexico and if you're gonna ban books, and I want the Bible ban from my library too, cuz my tax dollars go to paying for the library. And the only books that they wanna ban are lgbtqia a plus books. But I know we have a lot of stuff to talk about, but I feel like we should leave this season on a happier note, even though I just talked about some stupid shit. Yeah, let's leave it a happier note. Let's leave on a happier note. So August is a good month, like you said. Yes. For L G B Q T Q. Hopefully they can still show all that stuff. I don't know if you, I sent you a thing on LA Pride. That looks amazing. Carly Ray Jepson?
Gil:Yes. Oh my God. Yes. And
Eric:Charlie Xcx, Krewela Bebe Rexha. Faith Evans. Damn Big Frida. Misha, Le Trina, Haley Seinfeld, Deb Brat. You have Yeah. Ellie, there's way many, there's a lot more performers. Yeah. I'm just grabbing a few. That looks really good.
Gil:It does look actually really good.
Eric:So I'm excited for Pride Month. That is also the same week as Albuquerque Pride, and so I Oh, LA's With Albuquerque. Yeah. Our pride is June 10th in Albuquerque. Wow. I won't be going to LA Pride, even though it's, I'm sure LA Pride's gonna be way better, but I won't be going to la. But I have a question. I have two questions for you, Gil. Ooh, go ahead. How, so we've been doing this whole season, we've been doing this, like, how have you grown this week kind of thing. Yeah. I'm gonna expand it. So if it's like a two-parter question, so it's not, maybe it's not actually two questions, but it's like a two-parter question. I don't know. So I'm gonna, but I'm gonna expand the first one. It can either be like, how have you grown since we last recorded? Or like, how have you seen growth from the beginning of this season to today? Oh, wow. So that's gonna be, that's, I'm going to, I'm gonna lump that all in as one. So you can either tell me how you've just grown this week, or you can just tell me like what growth you've seen just this season within yourself. Second part of my question is What things do you have hopefully planned, or how would you like to see yourself grow more in the future before our next season?
Gil:Ooh, before next season. Oh my God. Yeah. Get, and I'm
Eric:not answering these questions, so this is all on guilt. No, just kidding.
Gil:Let's see. So this season I grew a lot more in being more open about more of some health and personal stuff that are happening because I tend to be more on the private side or I just, I don't, I just don't talk about it really. Or I keep everything on that surface revealing about, Chris and I going for the adoption, doing that whole thing. What we're doing the foster to adopt is what we are like right now. I literally, before this podcast was on a Zoom call. Doing the whole introduction of okay, what does the process look like? So we were actually meeting a person explaining it for our county. That's awesome. So that was, a huge, huge step and kind of take, how do we make it a reality kind of thing. Congrat, congratulations. Health thing, I literally came out of a sleep center the day before, actually early this morning. But like I said, those are stuff that I would've never talked about to people or I don't reveal the friends cause I don't want people to worry or, is that privacy part of me always that kind of, keep it to yourself. You're, it's okay, you'll be fine. It might be the Asian upbringing, I don't know. But, and I need to, I'm trying to be more vulnerable about stuff. That's the way I'm trying. I've been, I grew from this season because like I said, everything else I keep, I think of every season that you guys have heard me, it's, where I stand politically, those are stuff you can look up on my MySpace for fuck's sake. If you found me on my MySpace many moons ago, what's your favorite color? What's your political leading? I put it all there, but like actually knowing me or trying to get to know certain parts of my, myself, it's, I don't reveal too much necessarily. Eric knows because he's seen me at my worst state possible. He even saw me without product in my hair, which I don't allow people to see. Even at the sleep clinic, I had my hair put together.
Eric:But I will say there are, there have been certain things that I've also never known that you have shared, and I'm like, oh, I didn't know that. Oh, yeah,
Gil:yeah. And I'm, it's the same thing. I don't know if it's, I'm just trying to be a mystery, but. I've always just been very, I could be private about things and I'm like, no one's gonna get to know you. I complain myself like, no one knows me. You don't say shit, not everyone observes and that's fine. And that's one of the things I just need to, let people, and also the common ground kind. Like, where do I say I understand. Cause I understand, like I get it. I've been there too. But anyways, that's something that I've definitely grew and challenged myself this year to be more, and like me, I've been trying to be more health focused and sense of figure out, what are wrong with what's wrong with me what are some things that are fixable? Some things are genetic. It is what it's, my cards were dealt from the get go. And it's not to blame anyway. That's what it is. Every, we're all affected by it.
Eric:We're according to Chinese medicine and East Asian Medicine, we are our product of our past generation's. Karma dumps. Oh shit.
Gil:Which, so I got
Eric:some stuff in store. No, but but if you think about it too, like generational trauma Yeah. Absolutely. Is a karma dump and what you, yeah. What your grandparents went through, they instilled into your parents and then they instilled that into you when like unresolved issues also get put into you because that's how you get raised and that's what your environment becomes.
Gil:It's like that, the movie that won. Yeah. But yeah, I understood it cuz one was like, oh yeah, this makes sense. But yeah. And that's what I'm, for me, health stuff, trying to get ahead of some of it I know probably is inevitable. But also just, just being smart about it. Because I know death is at the end, we all know that's gonna be the end game. Just the goal is to try to enjoy some of the retirement age that I stressing about, making sure that at least I get there. And when I go under my. Hopefully my choice. I don't want somebody hovering over me. We're like, time to pull the plug. And I'm like, oh, hell no. That's the goal. Something for the summer, or at least until we come to the next podcast hopefully by then. Let's see. My sleeping should be under control, so that should be a good thing. Hopefully I'm not broke, completely broke, but if I pay for all this
Eric:shit, thank you. US Healthcare
Gil:System. Thank you guys. And this is what we were talking about pre podcast for 75 hours. And then one of my, let's see, what else do I want to work on? Eating for me would be the correct eating. And I'm not trying to starve myself. I'm not trying to look to be a 28 ways that, that she gone, those days are gone. Because before I could eat like a snicker bar and then, barely move my hip and it, bam, I lost the weight. My, no, it don't, I've never do that anymore. So my metabolism is shot. So it's just just being smart about it. Just moving and grooving and, I like to dance, not like Eric's kind of dance. The words beautiful and rhythmic. I have some bumps here and there little shakes and jolts. But I call my rhythm.
Eric:You realize that if anyone ever meets me, which I'm sure no one even knows what I look like, so they wouldn't know that they were meeting me, but they're gonna expect like this, like amazing dance. On the dance floor, and I'm gonna be like no,
Gil:I have seat, I have bear witness to this. I'm just sitting there what am I doing? I'm just like, look like Whitney Houston next to Janet Jackson. God, Whitney dancing.
Eric:My God, I'm not, I'm dead with that. Who with that analogy?
Gil:Oh, that was my rhythm. But any who my, my goal is just from a, just health-wise, that's why for me, when I'm losing the weight, it's mostly just for, it's pure health. It's not for the full vanity's sake. I, no, just as for me to live megana as part of my endgame.
Eric:I think changing your relationship with movement, whether it's like. Just walking more or dancing more like going to the gym, however you want to equate movement. I'm just saying more movement. Just more movement. Doing something you enjoy is gonna make you do it more. Yeah.
Gil:So I like music I like to listen my music and
Eric:dance. Yeah. So that's what I, that's what do that. Yeah. I like to do that. I also like to go to the gym. Yeah. But I think if, I think it's a really good thing to be able to change your relationship or your real Yeah. Your relationship with movement in general. So when you look at it as I'm moving because I want to be healthier, not I'm moving because I want to look like this. Oh. Like me, like I'm in the gym now, not because I want to look like this. I'm in the gym now because I want to have better movement quality, Yeah. I can dance. I'm not saying I'm not gonna be humble with that. I can dance, but I want to be able to dance better and have stronger movements even though I don't perform anymore. Yeah. I want to still be able to move, like I do. I still want to be able to go to a club in my old ass age and have grandpa show up to 22 year old on the dance floor. Yes. Yes. Which I have done. Yes, you have. So I look at tra my training now is a, it's meditative for me. Yeah. It's a way for me to just focus on myself and for me to just be at one with myself and then B, it's a way for me to move better. It's a way for me to keep my quality of movement where it's at and build upon that. And C, it's for my health, which C should probably be like A or B, but that's how I look at my relationship with movement Now. That's good. Rather than it was. Oh, I would need to, I need to be in the gym this many times a week and doing this many hours of gym time. And I still get in like a good 10 hours a week. Correct. But no one needs to do that. Yeah. Three hours a week is fine, whatever. But it's not because I'm like, Ooh, I want to look this certain way. It's, no, I want to do all this other stuff. I want to test my body and see what crazy things I can make it do this time.
Gil:Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, cuz that's for for me, I wanna make sure at least I am like strengthening. If I can't with my boats, I wanna make sure that I'm still gonna be limbed enough to be walk, I love walking, like I could walk for days. That's why walk in Europe did not, I didn't stress, I was like, I got this walk up stairs. Gotcha. Running different story. I think my allergies kick in and I can't breathe. And you also conditioning.
Eric:Yeah. It hurts my joints. And you have like oxygen debt and oxygen deficit playing into that as well. Correct. Then you lived in Queen Anne and when you lived in Seattle and that was some up some hills. That was a wicked
Gil:hills there. Holy shit. I've been sitting in the city, like I just paced myself and I woo. Yeah. All the way up the hill. Like I said that I'm trying to do things and challenge myself. Like, why the fuck am I gonna send in an hour and a half worth of traffic? Go to the beach, go walk the beach. And I'm also breaking my routines. Because I can be very I wanna get home, it's the inner cancer, go home, go be home. There's traffic. Boo. What are you doing? Yeah. And then I'm stressing out, sitting in traffic because people don't know how to drive, or I'm critiquing how they drive. I probably not the great thing drive for myself, but anywho, they're all terrible. Of course I am, but it's just I wanna break routines and doing things a little bit differently. So that's why I'm be working on. So hopefully when we return for season six, which will be phenomenal. And after Labor Day yes.
Eric:And hopefully with less technical difficulty. Yes.
Gil:Geez Louise. We'll get this fixed. Sorry. Season five was race Season five. Hot mess. Oh. With Leo. Leo. I can't, not my,
Eric:not my face. It'll be my turn to have the technical difficulties and I'll be like, the Will and Grace reboot
Gil:people we love Will and Grace, but there's, it had his flaws still shortcomings. Yes. Eric, so you your turn. What is your said? I
Eric:said I wasn't answering the question. Come on. Just kidding. One thing I've noticed about myself this season is I'm recognizing my relationships with parts of myself. I think I talked a couple episodes ago I've trying to change my relationship with food. Yeah. Whereas rather than villainizing food and thinking that food's the ultimate evil I need to learn to enjoy food and learn to enjoy eating food and just have a more positive experience with food. Not that I don't starve myself people and I have before in the past. Yeah. And that always seems to be my default when I want to lose weight is to starve myself. Yeah. I am changing that relationship. Very nice. I'm being mindful of how I eat. I'm not correct. I'm not one of these lucky people who can go to McDonald's 13 times a day and have 75 Big Macs and still have abs. I'm not that person. I can look at a Big Mac in any AB that I might have had, has gone, but I am not punishing myself for if I do have an indulgence. And, but I've also learned that as far as like my relationship with certain people, like maybe I'm not putting in quite the effort that I should on my end or if there's, if I'm noticing patterns with how people react to me, then it's something that maybe I need to look at myself for and recognize that I do play a role in that as well. And if I don't care enough to change it, then maybe I just don't care enough to have that relationship and I need to look at that for myself as well. So that's where I'm at now also, I'm still trying to figure out where the universe is gonna take. Cause my life is just like in limbo right now. What I'm hoping to do between now and then, or at least I don't wanna say like fully accomplished, but at least get the ball rolling on. Okay. Because I'm not gonna put a time limit on are you ha before this next season starts? You have to have accomplished this. That's not how life is. But I want to work through some of my fears that I've talked about, like things that are holding me back from going forward in my life and experimenting with things in my life and exploring things in my life. I want to deal with that fear. Okay. So that's what I'm hoping to overcome. I have taken a couple steps. Like I am going on at least two trips this summer by myself. Ooh. Yes. And going to events by myself. That I'm just gonna have, I've already put out shelled out some of the money for it. So Yeah. I am going to really work on be, I'm gonna, I guess that's, I'm, this is how I'm gonna put it. I'm going to work on being more comfortable with myself by myself and no longer let my own fears dictate and hold me back. That makes sense. That's
Gil:what I'm working on. Are you gonna date someone with a gap tooth gap in between Michael Strahan? Possibly girl, we'll cross that bridge.
Eric:Things will slide in and e in and out easily in that gap. I think I've also changed in that way too. Gil's referring to something from years and years ago, but I think I've changed a lot in that regard too. Yeah.
Gil:I think your, our tastes mature over time and it some of the vanity stuff that we might've looked at back then we don't anymore. Yeah. I it's nice that'll, before is all about that looks and that prettiness and you realize that dumbest forever Exactly. Looks go away. Looks go away for
Eric:most people, not all people. I do know some people who are like damn beautiful and they're also sweethearts too, which, Just makes you hate them even more. But then you just love them because they're just dope ass people.
Gil:Yeah. I know some words that are like good looking, but then once you start speaking you're like, oh, wow. Just, ooh, scratch your head. Words are coming out. I'm confused. That's good, Eric. I like your, yeah, you've definitely grown, especially from our, when we're looking at our first season when we even began this. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's part of growth.
Eric:I can't believe we've done, we've been on, we've been doing this for, it's only been, what, three years, but it's still five seasons. Yeah. That's still a long time.
Gil:It is bizarre. During the pandemic, apparently it doesn't exist now,
Eric:which, yeah, I just saw a statistic where there's still like at least 13,000 new cases a week. Yeah.
Gil:And there's still, you're also getting diagnosed
Eric:with it. Yeah. And there's still an average of I wanna say A thousand deaths or something. So covid is not over people. Yeah. It'll never be gone. It'll be no, it'll not be. No.
Gil:No, yeah, that's good though. That's good. But this season,
Eric:like I say, and I'm on prep too, so
Gil:go ahead. I was say this season's been fun with that, the growth part of it. Yeah. I
Eric:agree. Yeah.
Gil:So go ahead. I was gonna say, it's also been really good to acknowledge, I think that's for all of our listeners, something like that. It's okay to congratulate yourself on growing also as a person and you wanna have to focus always on the negative about yourself. Cause it's easy, it's for super, absolutely. I did this wrong. Oh this. But sometimes look at yourself like, you know what I over, overcame X, Y, Z and you get through normally the dark stuff.
Eric:I think that's a great. Note. And that's very true. I I, that's, that is a thing I'm definitely working on is telling the negative talk side of myself to just be quiet and sit elsewhere. Have you ever read The Untethered Soul? Have you ever read The Untethered? It's a great book. I would definitely recommend reading that book. Okay. Or listening to that
Gil:book I was gonna about sound like, Eric, you being listened to the book. Ok. I got
Eric:you. Hey, I did read the mountain as you though. Oh, you did? And then I found out, like after I finished it, damn it was on Audible too, because I did an initial search for it and I couldn't find it on Audible, so I just bought the book and I read it. Yes, he did. From cover to cover. And then I was like, it's still in my, it's still in now. It's in my audible wishlist though, just in case I need a refresh on it. I can just have it read to me. But The Untethered Soul's a very good book and there's a section on there. There, it's a great book in general, but there's one thing that really stood out to me, and it's it's early on in the book where when you're having that negative talk you tell that side of you to go sit somewhere else and have that discussion elsewhere because you don't need to hear it. It's none of your business. I need that.
Gil:That's a good,
Eric:and so I have, I work really hard on implementing that as part of my ritual. When I start saying, you suck. You haven't accomplished anything. No one likes you. You're ugly. No one's ever gonna want to date you. No one's ever gonna want to do this with you. You're sick because of this and blah, blah, blah, and da. And yeah. Then I'm like, you know what? I don't need to hear that. Go have your conversation elsewhere. Yeah. It doesn't pertain to me. You're just hating, shut the fuck up and go sit over there where I can't hear you. Because
Gil:you wouldn't take that from someone else. No. Somebody sat there and just reeled, just grilled you down about it. You'd be like, ha, no. Yeah. Not today, Satan, you Yeah. And I admit, like for me, it. Something. I don't know if you know that. Oh shoot. I hit the mic. Don't kill the one last thing. This one thing He's
that
Eric:he's that animated with it. I didn't even think about the, don't kill the last audio piece that's working. But didn't you had to buy a new mic this season too,
Gil:didn't you? I did, yes, I did. On top of this, God damn it, not to get a new headphones is my next one. No, like something for me that I don't think people know like I've had to work on. And something I should learn from you is being that little bit more positive, the body positive positivity for me. Even at my skinniest, I saw if I saw myself completely naked in front of the mirror, I would immediately start grilling myself. I take one glance eyebrow raises and I'm just like, what the fuck is this? And that's something that I've had to work on. Even still now I am, I still look at myself and I'm like, what? No. Already pinpointing every error with my body. And that's something that I've had to work on and be like, Gilbert, you look at your photos now from, 20 years ago and you're like, oh, you were good. You were skinny then I'm like, why are you are nice now. You weren't saying it back then. Cause I could tell you now, they were worse back then. And it's something that I've had to work on cuz me fully clothed, I'm fine, I, confidence. But once I stripped down I was like, different conversation. And I noticed something I had to work on with that. But I'm from you with that. Oh,
Eric:thank you.
Gil:Yeah. Not kind.
Eric:Thank you guys for listening to us this season through all the trials and tribulations. I don't know if it was really trials, but it's just all the tribulations, right? And we hope you guys have been able to grow and have some growth and happiness within you. Remember to live authentically and just be sincerely who you are and be proud of who that is, and don't be afraid of growth and change. Yeah, and if you ever want to contact us, please feel free to do so at info dot the q lounge gmail.com. You can follow us at the Q Lounge on Instagram and Twitter at the Q Lounge podcast on Facebook. You can visit us at the q lounge podcast.com and you can also find us wherever you get your podcast. Please remember to tell your friends
Gil:happy. Listen, that's what these write in the yearbooks, right? K I t K I t.
Eric:Keep in touch.
Gil:Have a great summer.
Eric:Don't change stupid after I just said feel free to grow, right?
Gil:But don't change.
Eric:Thank you guys so much. We really appreciate you guys joining us and hanging out with us. Bye.
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