Hoorf! Radical Care in a Late-Capitalist Heckscape

Elle and Ricki's super secret solstice swap

• Elle Billing • Season 4 • Episode 6

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Elle Billing and Ricki Cummings celebrate their annual holiday episode, filled with unexpected questions and amusing side journeys. Elle and Ricki each share about the future directions of their creative endeavors. They explore the idea of starting their own religion, with Ricki torn between a humanist approach, or one based in dog-based intercession to a higher power. Elle tells a meandering story about a favorite snack food, and Ricki dishes on her Color of the Year.

Links to connect with Elle and Ricki, and all other resource links, are **in the full show notes at hoorfpodcast.com

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Elle Billing:

Hi. My name is Elle Billing. I am a chronically ill queer femme, and I'm tired. I'm here this episode and every episode to dig at the roots of our collective fatigue, explore ways to direct our care in compassionate and sustainable ways, and to harness creative expression to heal ourselves and to heal our world. Welcome to Hoorf: radical care in a late capitalist heckscape. No, I do not want to start with the AI companion.

Ricki Cummings:

Oh God, that friggin thing.

Elle Billing:

Yeah, pops up when I'm like, Ah, that's usually the face or the sound I make, hi, it's us.

Ricki Cummings:

It is. Hang on one second.

Elle Billing:

Ricki could edit that out if she wants to.

Ricki Cummings:

I'm going to,

Elle Billing:

oh, wait, you're Ricki.

Ricki Cummings:

I am.

Elle Billing:

It's true. And it's our annual something, something something Christmas. Mid Season, throw some spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Episode, Tra, la, la.

Ricki Cummings:

We actually have a recipe for the spaghetti this time.

Elle Billing:

So we do well. We did our first season too.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, we didn't, yeah.

Elle Billing:

And this year we decided that we needed to be less depressing.

Ricki Cummings:

Oh, yes, much less.

Elle Billing:

So it's good to see you. I'm sorry you can't see me,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah,

Elle Billing:

but I'm adorable today.

Ricki Cummings:

It's my fault anyway, so we'll get there.

Elle Billing:

It really isn't. I didn't want to have Windows 11 on this laptop. So you're like, I can put Ubuntu on it. And then after doing so, we found out that this webcam on this laptop is-- they've never figured out how to make it run, which makes it hard for me to record. And my other laptop that I had been using to record, because it does have a working webcam, had a weird little glitch in it, because it's one of those, like pieces of tech that got gets rescued from being e-waste,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah

Elle Billing:

and my brother tried to fix the glitch, and it got fixed so good that I can't use the computer at all, and he's like, Oh, but I have webcams. I can give you a webcam. I couldn't go to my doctor's appointment in Fargo this week because the weather was so bad. I did telehealth instead. And then my brother was in a vehicle collision, and now he has no car, so he can't bring it to me either. Yeah, um, like, it is just, like, I can't even say a comedy of errors, because none of this is actually funny. Like, I'm really worried about my brother.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, that was the same phrase that was in my head, but like, I wasn't laughing either, really exactly for the Yeah, it's not funny. No, it's annoying.

Elle Billing:

Like the Chuckle is like, yeah, there's a song by a band I like --the band is Over the Rhine--and there's a song there's called "The Laugh of Recognition." And,

Ricki Cummings:

oh yeah,

Elle Billing:

"it's called the laugh of recognition. When you laugh, but you feel like dying."

Ricki Cummings:

Oh yeah, that's, that's it, that's the thing.

Elle Billing:

That's, that's the thing, yep. Oh shoot, we went there. We weren't gonna make this episode depressing, Son of a biscuit. Okay, so this episode, I--in our work, in our work notes--I have called the Super Secret Episode, because we prepped, but we didn't prep in our shared document

Ricki Cummings:

yeah

Elle Billing:

that we use for all our prep, because in the middle of the night, I got the idea, what If we each asked each other three secret questions, which is, like, the opposite of how I prep for every other episode, which is, I send the questions-- like I get, I take, do an intake form, I do a bunch of, like, research on the guest, I send them my questions. I'm like, how do these sound? Is this what you want to talk about?

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah,

Elle Billing:

but I didn't. I was like, what if you and I asked each other secret questions with the with the understanding we're not gonna, like, make each other, yeah, super uncomfortable. Like, we're not gonna be mean, yeah?

Ricki Cummings:

Like, the whole idea was to be more spontaneous than usual, right?

Elle Billing:

Because we have a relationship built on trust already, like I don't have that with my other guests.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah.

Elle Billing:

So, so do you want to go first, or do you want me to go first? Should we flip a coin?

Ricki Cummings:

I don't have a coin.

Elle Billing:

I was just gonna say, Do I have a coin? I'm holding a roll of tape right now as my fidget. washi tape.

Ricki Cummings:

I have a guitar pick.

Elle Billing:

Does it have two distinct sides.

Ricki Cummings:

One side is printed. It has a little rhinoceros on it. Okay, see, and then the other side is not printed. So, okay,

Elle Billing:

well, the other option was, I have your set of of dice--

Ricki Cummings:

Oh, yeah,

Elle Billing:

from D & D sitting here on your-- because I'm you sitting at your desk.

Ricki Cummings:

yeah.

Elle Billing:

But I think flipping a coin is probably easier than trying to come up with dice based rules.

Ricki Cummings:

Oh, it's, that's easy. You're even I'm odd.

Elle Billing:

Sorry. I screamed, um, there's a box under the desk, and I banged my knees on it.

Ricki Cummings:

Oh, yeah, yeah, there's several boxes under there. Anyway, um, do you want to do the rhino side is heads and not printed side is tails.

Elle Billing:

Sure, yep,

Ricki Cummings:

okay, call it

Elle Billing:

heads.

Ricki Cummings:

It is tails. Okay, I will start then,

Elle Billing:

okay.

Ricki Cummings:

These are just in the order that I came up with them.

Elle Billing:

So yep, that's what mine are in too.

Ricki Cummings:

What is one skill or area of knowledge that you want to develop in the future? This is any time frame. This doesn't have to be like a New Year's resolution or anything. It's just one thing that you want to learn, either how to do or more about

Elle Billing:

just in general, like, not necessarily related, oh gosh, there's so there's so many. This was a terrible idea. Whose idea was this? Oh shit, it was mine. Because, like, I have three right off the top of my head. Oh, shoot. Now I have four. Okay, I could either explain one in depth or list four.

Ricki Cummings:

Um, let's go one in depth.

Elle Billing:

Okay, I want to learn how to do encaustic painting. Are you familiar? Do you know what that is?

Ricki Cummings:

I think you talked about this once before, like, several years ago. I think we talked,

Elle Billing:

yeah, because, like, I tried it and it was really cool. I just don't have proper ventilation for it right now.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, is that, like, the one..?

Elle Billing:

encaustic is with hot wax

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, that's what I thought

Elle Billing:

it was. And I let, I'm trying to move my a studio progress, like, over a period of time, slowly and sustainably, over to more sustainable materials? So I have been using primarily acrylic paints since I started in art because they're easy. They're like a really easy entry level, like anybody can start with acrylics. Acrylics are plastic,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah

Elle Billing:

and I'm trying to move away from those as much as I can, either by moving into, like, I've been researching more sustainable types of acrylics, like hydrocryl or bio based acrylics or plant based acrylics, or just ditching acrylics entirely and moving into, like I do, watercolor, but the type of mixed media I do, I'm still working on how to make that work with watercolor. I have a big project I'm starting right now, and I'm -- it's a watercolor based collage mix media, and I'm like experimenting, like really hard with lots of different ways to make it work, and I don't have the ventilation or the space to get into oil painting or the patience,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah

Elle Billing:

it's that's a lot slower. And I, well, not, I mean, I'm a slow painter, but, like, I like my layers to dry fast, yeah?

Ricki Cummings:

And I was just gonna say, like, there, there's art hanging in galleries right now that, like, the oil is still drying.

Elle Billing:

Yeah, yeah. So encaustic, you can, you get to use layers and scrape back, and I do a lot of scraping wet paint. But like, within encaustic, you can, like, scrape it back once it's hardened, and you can use pigment sticks, which are basically pure oil based pigments. So it's like a combination of sustainable materials, but in a way that isn't the way I've played with them in the past, I like better than what oils offers me as far as work time.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, yeah.

Elle Billing:

And there is some cool stuff out there that people do with encaustics. And I like it, because you can still layer that mixed media stuff in there, yeah, which is, like, I'm huge, like, I'm really big into, like, using vintage paper and, like, natural fibers and stuff. And that's what I did the first time I tried it. I layered in pieces of fabric and paper and other cool stuff. And I would like to get into that,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah, and not giving up, what I think is like a signature of your style, as well as like that. That sort of layering is just kind of the thing that you do. If you didn't do that, I don't think it would quite be the same work that you've been evolving over the last several years, right?

Elle Billing:

And so that's artistically, that's something I would like to get into, yeah, and I've even thought that maybe this watercolor project that I've been trying to wrap my head around. Because the reason I picked watercolors is because the two companies I want to buy paint from use earth based pigments, or pigments and soil to make their paint. I've been thinking, Maybe I just need to get raw pigment, yeah, and and just do it encaustically. But I've, I've already pitched the project to several grant funders a certain way, and I don't know if I can change,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah

Elle Billing:

how much? Like, I'm waiting to hear back from several funders, and I don't know how much I'm allowed to change the proposal. And I like, I like working with watercolor, and I want to bone up my watercolor skills anyway, and the development sketches that I've come up with, I really like the direction I'm going with it in watercolor, so I want to kind of see that through anyway, yeah, but I also feel like there's some place I can go with it, with encaustics as well. That said, it is too hot in North Dakota in the summer to play with hot wax.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, yeah. It's it gets gross out there, yeah.

Elle Billing:

So that's my long answer,

Ricki Cummings:

interesting.

Elle Billing:

So my first question for you is, what was your most favorite creative success this year?

Ricki Cummings:

That's a good are we talking, like, on a macro level, or because, like, obviously, I finished The Failure Experiment and we got that all put together, and that whole thing got released this year. But I've been doing other stuff throughout right here.

Elle Billing:

I know you've had a lot of, like, creative successes this year, so like, What's your most favorite?

Ricki Cummings:

Um, I think, I think it's probably one of the poems in my upcoming like, the project that I'm working on right now, I'm intentionally writing discrete poems for and it's probably one of those sections, but I can't think of it off the top of my head, because so just as like a top level organizational thing I'm doing is a series of poems that are based on the Major Arcana from the tarot deck. And I think the one that I wrote for The High Priestess is really good, like, really, really good. And I don't usually say that about my own work very much, but I think that whole project is something that I'm going to be really proud of at the end of it, like at least as much as Failure Experiment, but in a different way, because Failure Experiment was a very personal, insular, niche sort of thing where there was very little difference between me as an author and like the narrative persona that's in the poem, whereas this one comes from a lot of different viewpoints. So it's an, it's a new, different sort of project. And so the level of pride that I have in it and the level of success that I feel with it is different, but probably something in like a to it to a similar degree. I guess we'll say, yeah, so probably that.

Elle Billing:

some of those poems have been real bangers.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, yeah. The one that I wrote yesterday with like that one felt really solid. I sent that one to you.

Elle Billing:

You're like, I think I like this, yeah, and I was at work, and so I didn't reply, and I'm sorry, no, that was two nights ago. Yeah, because I didn't go to work last night.

Ricki Cummings:

I basically, when I finish up home or a work or something like that, I have, I usually have one of two reactions, and it's like, "I can't believe I wrote this"-- laudatory, or "I can't believe I wrote this"-- derogatory.

Elle Billing:

Yes.

Ricki Cummings:

having something that falls somewhere in between feels especially, in a different kind, k,ind of way, like the when I when I write something that I don't know how I feel about it, that probably means it's more applicable for other people. Usually, if I write something that I really, really, really like, it feels like it's up its own ass, like I always worry about just being like, huffing my own farts too much.

Elle Billing:

On the other end of the spectrum, you have written request po-, requested poems for me that you're like, I will disown this. You can never say I wrote this.

Ricki Cummings:

Right, right, right, right.

Elle Billing:

This never happened.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, yeah.

Elle Billing:

I understand they were terrible,

Ricki Cummings:

and not even that they were terrible, but they said terrible things famous people.

Elle Billing:

Oh, I-- No, I was thinking the one about me.

Ricki Cummings:

Oh, yeah,

Elle Billing:

well, I'm not famous yet.

Ricki Cummings:

Not yet.

Elle Billing:

But no, the other one, yeah, I forgot about that one, yeah.

Ricki Cummings:

So knowing that I can still surprise myself, I think, feels more successful to me than knowing that I like knowing I did real well. I guess, if that makes sense in any way,

Elle Billing:

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ricki Cummings:

You ready for your next one?

Elle Billing:

Yep,

Ricki Cummings:

okay, you know, obviously you're never supposed to meet your heroes or anything like that, have your illusion shattered or anything. But if there's anyone that is an artistic influence of yours that you could meet and they were actually like the weird, parasocial fantasy version of them that lives in your head. If, if you could meet that person? Who would it be?

Elle Billing:

Oh my gosh, I don't know. I barely leave my house.

Ricki Cummings:

For what it's worth. I don't know what my answer would be, either, yeah, like I was terrified that you would turn that question aroundmon me, so,

Elle Billing:

oh no, it's not on my list.

Ricki Cummings:

Don't, don't, don't, don't be like, well, what's your answer? Because I don't know either.

Elle Billing:

I'm just like, I don't really have any content creators, you know, that I'm like, super into and most of like, the social media people that I follow and repost are people that I like have already become friends with or like that I kind of have gotten to know, like, I would like to hang out with Andrew Gurza someday.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah.

Elle Billing:

Like, there's a reason I keep having him back on the podcast.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah.

Elle Billing:

they are cool people, like, I've already had several zoom conversations with Andrew, and I'm pretty sure Andrew's basically the same in person as they are on Zoom as who they are, yeah, so I don't know that that's even like a parasocial. I mean, it is kind of para social, yeah, but, and, but that's not really an artistic

Ricki Cummings:

you're right

Elle Billing:

either. It's just like a cool, disabled, queer person that I like to hang out with online. But like, that's how I am on a lot with a lot of social media, is like, I have no problem sliding into people's DMs and saying, Hey, I think you're cool. Thanks for doing what you do. And then we chat,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah,

Elle Billing:

because I'm a weirdo, and I, when I get people for the podcast, I have that squee moment when we first log on to zoom, I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm so excited, like when I interviewed Car Reigger, because we both got that same award. And I, the first time I emailed Car, like, oh my gosh, I'm so excited that we both got this thing, and they felt the same way about me, like, oh wow, great company. And I'm like, we're both doing the thing where we. This is one of those things where, if I'd had time to prep, I could have come up with somebody really cool. But like, off the top of my head, my brain is completely empty because, like, I've already had the problem of, like, people that I've looked up to have been disappointed by, and so I don't, yeah, like, follow them anymore.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah

Elle Billing:

that was a really long and non answer, answer. You know what? I really want to go to-- I want to go to one of Connie So- my mentor. My mentor, Connie Solera. I want to go to one of her in-person retreats. Like, I've worked with, worked with her three different times. She's my mentor. It's not like a parasocial thing. I want to hang like, I want to do an in-person retreat with her,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah.

Elle Billing:

Like, that's the closest thing I can come up with. Like, I want to hang out with, I want to hang out with her in person and do one of her in person mentorships or retreats. Yeah. Like, that's those are the things that I'm coming up with are, like, people that I've interacted with enough online, where I'm like, I think we should hang out in person.

Ricki Cummings:

Now that I'm thinking about it like I wouldn't-- As far as my musical influences are concerned, I can't really think of it that many people that I would actually be able to, like, talk to about things,

Elle Billing:

like, if we could hang out with Hank Green and, like, take turns--

Ricki Cummings:

yeah

Elle Billing:

infodumping that would be cool, yeah? But, like, it's not like a goal I have.

Ricki Cummings:

yeah, but like, I think of people, like, in my case, I would think of like Kirk Hammett from Metallica, the lead guitar player from Metallica. Like, his life has been dedicated to playing guitar. And like, I'm just a dork who doesn't know where the notes are half the time, if you give me, like, 10 minutes, I can figure out what I'm doing. But, like, I don't know off the top of my head, or, like, Alessandro Cortini, who does a lot of the synth programming and ambient stuff for Nine Inch Nails, and he has his own, like, solo career too. Like, I would like to, like, talk to him, but I think his level of knowledge is at a point. Like, I don't even know that we would connect. I don't, I don't think I could talk shop with people like that, you know, as cool as that would be, you know, and so, like, yeah, I would probably aim towards someone that I've actually interacted with a little more and isn't like, who isn't necessarily that foreign to me?

Elle Billing:

Yeah, you know, it's funny, I didn't turn the question around on you, and you answered it anyway.

Ricki Cummings:

I know I did anyway, because it I actually I thought I started thinking about it.

Elle Billing:

Are you ready for your next real question?

Ricki Cummings:

Yes.

Elle Billing:

Okay, so I wrote these questions down when I thought of them and I thought of all of them on the same night, and this is back- background for why this question is on here, because this was inspired by something you said in our group text with my sister and her husband,

Ricki Cummings:

okay,

Elle Billing:

if you could start your own religion, what would it be? Because there was that one night in the group text when you said you were starting your own religion,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah, yeah. I'm actually thinking really seriously about this. Hang on.

Elle Billing:

I can see that on your face. And I was gonna say, can-- you can have a serious answer. You don't have to answer funny, like we were in the group text.

Ricki Cummings:

I have a feeling that it would, like it-- I suppose it depends on how you define religion, which is like a conversation that we have all the time-- but I think it would be less of like a metaphysical, cosmic sort of thing, and more of like a like a set of humanist morals and ethics, I guess. Because, like, obviously, they're big, they're the big ones, of like, don't hurt anyone, don't kill anyone, don't take someone else's personal property, things like that. But like, I don't feel like that needs to come from a spiritual place. I feel like those things are different, and a lot of religion, quote, unquote, religions have a tendency to combine those things to, like allied them into both an explanation for the universe and a way of living. I don't necessarily think that those two things are connected. So that's as close as I can get. My other one would be probably, my other answer would be, dog-based intercession to a greater power.

Elle Billing:

the one we talked about in

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, where, where, where all of the saints are dogs of various dog skills, so,

Elle Billing:

because all dogs are certified good,

Ricki Cummings:

oh yeah, like all dogs are holy, even the little ratty, yippy, bitey ones,

Elle Billing:

dog based intercession,

Ricki Cummings:

yep.

Elle Billing:

which makes sense, since this the, you know, the mascot for our podcast is Saint Winkus of Buttzville.

Ricki Cummings:

Well, yeah, yeah, that was, that was the

Elle Billing:

Yep, thing. And her cousin Nero is the Patron Saint of explosive shits.

Ricki Cummings:

There

Elle Billing:

Yep.

Ricki Cummings:

You know, things like that.

Elle Billing:

When you got tummy trouble, you pray to Saint Nero.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah. So there, there's like, the serious answer and the silly answer. And I'm honestly not sure which one of them I would actually prefer to be real, I guess.

Elle Billing:

Yeah

Ricki Cummings:

so

Elle Billing:

I I understand. Thank you for your answer.

Ricki Cummings:

You ready for yours? Your last one?

Elle Billing:

Yep.

Ricki Cummings:

We've been friends for a long time. I mean, we've, we've tried to figure it out, but as far as we can tell, it's been something like 20 years. Not quite,

Elle Billing:

Yeah, like 18 maybe?

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, somewhat somewhere in there, it's fuzzy in there. Anyway, what is something that you think would still surprise me about you?

Elle Billing:

I really like this question. And while I think about, in the back of my mind,of things that might surprise you, I'm going to tell you why I love this question, and it's because when I was 18 years old, my parents had been married for 20 years, and there was a commercial for, like, an album set, and it was like, all, like, the collected works of Elvis Presley or something. That's not what it was called, but that's what it was. And my dad was like, oh gosh, that sounds really, really good. He's like, I really like Elvis music. And my mom looks at him and goes, what, since when? And he looks like, I've always loved Elvis's voice. And my mom is like, well, that's news to me. And I remember thinking, like, how does she not know these things?

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah?

Elle Billing:

And my mom's like, oh, well, you know, part of being in a relationship with someone is always being surprised by new things you learn about them! I'm like, is it really? You know what? I live with my parents now, and they've been married for 42 years, and I still look at them and go, How do they not know these things about each other? It's, you know, like there is, there are just things that, just, like, it never came up well. And now, with my mom having dementia, she gets to be surprised all the time about things, you know, my dad can tell her, things that they've done together, or, like, things that he'll tell a story and she won't remember it from the time before. And, yeah, so it's, it's, that's a different dynamic. But yeah, she thinks he's the cutest person in the world, and I love that. Yeah, so something that would surprise you about me.

Ricki Cummings:

I know I got a good one when I got you to be quiet for a little bit.

Elle Billing:

Yeah, no kidding. Like I'm just racking my brain, like, Well, what was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me? And I don't even know, because, like, I don't really get embarrassed around you anymore, yeah, you know. So, like, even telling you an embarrassing story wouldn't be embarrassing, right? So, like, something about me that would surprise you, I-- you know, I love barbecue sauce and I like barbecue potato chips, but I did not like barbecue potato chips until I was sick with influenza one time and a couch surfer was staying at our house. This was when I was still married, and I ordered the burger, fry and pie from Idaho Joe's. I needed comfort, I needed comfort food, and I ordered it with barbecue sauce, and it came and it didn't have-- like we, I like ordered it and my husband picked it up for me and brought it home, and it didn't have barbecue sauce on it, and we didn't have any barbecue sauce at home because, like, we didn't ever cook anything that needed it. And I was so disappointed. It's like, the whole point of the burger, fry and pie, the veg-- and I ordered it with a veggie patty-- the whole point of the burger, fry and pie was so I could have, like, barbecue sauce,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah?

Elle Billing:

Like, I was just distraught, like, which is, like a very silly thing to be distressed over, but, like, I was sad.

Ricki Cummings:

I mean, you were already in a in a place

Elle Billing:

I was already very ill,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah.

Elle Billing:

So the next day, our couch surfer, who was just this really, really wild guy from Germany, who was basically ended up breaking his arm in two places while BASE jumping, while he was staying with us

Ricki Cummings:

that bridge, I tell you,

Elle Billing:

Oh my gosh. That whole experience with that BASE jumper was wild. He walked to-- he had been riding a bike, right? But because he broke his arm, he couldn't ride a bike anymore. He walked to the grocery store and came back with, like, a gallon of mango orange juice for me and a bag of barbecue potato chips,

Ricki Cummings:

huh.

Elle Billing:

Because he knew I needed vitamin C, and he knew I was sad about the barbecue sauce,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah.

Elle Billing:

And I was, like, so touched that he would, while he's high on, like, oxy, go to the grocery store and buy these things for me, that I sat and ate the whole bag of barbecue potato chips that, at the beginning I didn't even like, but by the end, I liked them. So like my people pleasing-- this probably doesn't surprise you, now I get to the end!-- my people pleasing is the reason I like barbecue potato chips. I, it, we get to the punch line, and it's not a surprising story anymore,

Ricki Cummings:

honestly, though, like every time you tell a couch story, surfing, story, I forget that you guys did that for such a long time.

Elle Billing:

Yeah? Like we had somebody stay with us pretty consistently, almost every week for like, four years.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah? And like, every time you tell one of those stories, it's different, like, it's a different person.

Elle Billing:

So we did have some repeat people who stayed

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah.

Elle Billing:

but that guy had stories you think, I mean, that's probably the tamest story he could probably tell from his experiences was the time that he bought us mango juice and potato chips,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah,

Elle Billing:

but he like, so he had been BASE jumping and jumped off the bridge, which is in between two counties. And so his friends took him to one ER, where they, like, sort of treated him, but like not fully. The next, a few days later, he had to go to a different hospital to get treated, and they didn't want to treat him because he was not from the US, and they were worried they wouldn't get paid, even though he had Travelers Insurance. So by the time he found a doctor to treat his arm, they had to re break it to set.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, yeah,

Elle Billing:

yeah,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah.

Elle Billing:

Wild. He ended up having to go back to Germany to get surgery on his arm,

Ricki Cummings:

and I bet it was a lot cheaper there

Elle Billing:

Probably. all right, are you ready for your last question? Okay, this is inspired by recent-- Oh. This is ripped from the headlines, inspired by recent events. Okay? See, you know you got me good when I'm like, dead quiet, and I know I got you good when you have to back up from the microphone so you don't cackle directly into it.

Ricki Cummings:

Yep.

Elle Billing:

What is your color of the year for 2026

Ricki Cummings:

Oh, Jesus. Um. So the way that I understand Pantone's Color of the Year is it's literally just paint marketing. They're just trying to sell more of one specific color.

Elle Billing:

It does end up influencing

Ricki Cummings:

Right? Like so many people are like, Oh, this year is forest green. And so we need to forest green, yeah?

Elle Billing:

Like, Wedding, wedding colors too, right? Like, and so it get it filters into things like those, like Azazie, where you got your Bridesmaid Dress for Katie's wedding, like, they end up adding an entire section of, like, cloud dance,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah.

Elle Billing:

The La Croix of whites.

Ricki Cummings:

But I'm not about that. I'm not about new for the sake of new. So I would probably just pick what is generally my favorite color, which is like a wine or burgundy red. It's the color of my favorite guitar.

Elle Billing:

It's the colors, the color of your Bridesmaid Dress for Katie's wedding. Um, oh, that was more purpley, wasn't it?

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, mine was, that was more purpley. Um, it's the color of my favorite nail polish. It's the color of this piece of foam that I have that's like, blocking some reflections. It's the color of your front door, like,

Elle Billing:

Oh yeah,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah,

Elle Billing:

and our shutters,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah. And I've just, I've always liked that color. The guitar that I have, that's that color I've had since 2001 or something. It's the only thing I have left from that relationship. So I guess I would have to say it's like the my color of like The Forever, my color of the century, at least of the decade. I have been kind of leaning towards purple of late, but like, that's just, that's just coincidence.

Elle Billing:

Do those colors symbolize anything for you? Or is it just a color you really like?

Ricki Cummings:

I think it's just aesthetics. I really like jewel tones. I really like deep colors. I think it's because they're just less painful on my eyes.

Elle Billing:

That makes sense.

Ricki Cummings:

You get a lime yellow or a lime green or something like that, and it just it feels like it's assaulting me, whereas a more subdued satin or semi gloss, like jewel tone, like a wine red, like that would be. It feels more homey, more cozy, but also now that I think about it. Like, jewel tones were really in, like, right around the time I was graduating high school and not long thereafter. So maybe it was just, like cultural, cultural osmosis that I didn't pick up on, but I just, I think they're very good colors, and I think they look good on me, and that has a lot to do with it. Yeah, that's what, I think. That's what I would say is probably that wine red,

Elle Billing:

that's pretty

Ricki Cummings:

yeah and not, not white.

Elle Billing:

Our dog is signaling the this episode is over.

Ricki Cummings:

It is just about, we are at the 43 and a half minute mark. So yeah,

Elle Billing:

she's good. Well, she's also probably concerned that I haven't eaten yet.

Ricki Cummings:

So yeah, probably neither of I, for that matter, so I should probably go turn the oven on.

Elle Billing:

I'm gonna go find something to eat. Yeah, dad went to Costco yesterday before his dental appointment. He bought a pack of cookie like the chocolate chip chocolate chunk cookies, and he bought the loaf.

Ricki Cummings:

Oh, geez,

Elle Billing:

yep, among other things, like, he got my tofu. He sent me a picture of it. He's like, is this what you need? He's like, I don't know how to buy tofu. You just gotta find it. That's the only thing there's there.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, we actually went thing Wednesday. I think we went and we found a new kind of ramen that we didn't know that they had, and that seems to be a hit now. So

Elle Billing:

is it the ramen I have?

Ricki Cummings:

no it's, it's, can't remember the brand of it, but it, it's one of the bowl ones. It comes in a bowl rather than like a little brick. But both Nat and Dani seem to like it, so that's good.

Elle Billing:

All right.

Ricki Cummings:

All right.

Elle Billing:

Hooray for Costco.

Ricki Cummings:

Hooray for Costco. Everyone gets Costco for Christmas. Yay. I hope you like 700 rolls of toilet paper.

Elle Billing:

You know, we go through a lot of toilet paper,

Ricki Cummings:

seriously, so do we.

Elle Billing:

I broke the toilet again last night.

Ricki Cummings:

Oh, geez.

Elle Billing:

See, that's why it was so hard to come up with something that would surprise you, because, you know, like all the worst things about me,

Ricki Cummings:

yeah

Elle Billing:

now so does --

Ricki Cummings:

okay, I wouldn't go that far

Elle Billing:

--my podcast audience.

Ricki Cummings:

I don't think that's true. I bet that there's something that you're just super that--

Elle Billing:

I've repressed, that's not breaking toilets.

Ricki Cummings:

I'm not trying to, like, draw it out or anything, but I think there's probably something in there that you're like, Oh, I can't. You can't know this, because I think everyone has those.

Elle Billing:

Besides breaking toilets,

Ricki Cummings:

Right? Yeah, yeah, that's pretty tame. I think

Elle Billing:

I can sure turn it into an exciting story. All right. Well, thank you for doing the Super Secret Episode.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, thank you for coming up-- Actually, what I think is interesting is we both came up with the idea kind of independently, because, like, you told me about it, and I was like, I was thinking about that, but yeah, thank you for coming up with it, slash acquiescing to it, I guess.

Elle Billing:

Heck, yeah. Well, we'll talk soon.

Ricki Cummings:

Now I have to think of better questions to ask in the car.

Elle Billing:

I don't think we'll have any problems with that.

Ricki Cummings:

Yeah, okay, bye. Bye.

Elle Billing:

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Hoorf to get the complete show notes and all the links mentioned on today's episode, or to get a full transcript of the episode, visit HoorfPodcast.com Join the Blessed Herd of St

Winkus:

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Ricki Cummings:

Hey everyone, it's Ricki. I totally forgot that we didn't actually say Merry Christmas or Happy holidays or anything like that. So Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and stuff like that.

Contributor

Ricki Cummings

Producer