Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
This is what the world needs now: two free-thinking “seasoned” Black women speaking their truth and inspiring others to do the same. Shaped by 45 years of friendship that began at the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School through the Ivy League, medical school, marriages, divorces, triumphs, parenting queer children, life-threatening illness and many many amazing adventures. Each week, besties Leslie Osei-Tutu and Angella Fraser will push against boundaries in love, culture, careers, faith, politics and out-dated assumptions about women of a certain age. Remember, you’re never too old to change your mind…or your hair! (but more on that later :-)All views are our own and do not reflect the views of our institution/company. Information provided is not intended to serve as medical advice.
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Back Together Thrifting & Thriving
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Laughter warning: they're together again! After an intense work month at the theater, Ang visits Les to hit the thrift stores for a wardrobe update. In this delightful episode, Ang is in pajamas not knowing that while she slept, Les was called in to work on a case at the hospital at 5:00AM.
The Besties have gotten thrifting for clothes down to a science - quality, style, fit (alterations are never a problem because they can both sew, remember S1 E1), and price. Les tends to push Ang a bit out of her comfort zone and she's here for it! New outfits are one way to feel fresh, joyful, and sexy and it can be done without breaking the bank.
Spirits are high because the besties are both on new eating and exercise plans after their lab results (committed to in S2 E8 with guest Registered Dietician Chesha Hodge) showed elevated cholesterol levels. Maybe the increased endorphins from daily exercise had something to do with their decision to try-on pasties and share the hilarious outcome.
This episode is as much about fashion and fun as it is about health and wellbeing. Enjoy!
For behind-the-scenes content on the pasties, join the Bestie Quad Squad on Patreon
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.
Hey, what's up, Lass.
Speaker 2Hey Aunt.
Speaker 1How you doing, doing well. Welcome to another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn, brooklyn. I'm going to try not to laugh so much after every time I say that, even though it's hilarious to me that we do that.
Speaker 2I do that every time. It's like the first time and you wait for me.
Speaker 1You wait for me. I cue you, you cue me. Yes, you cue me, so as you can see. Well, if you can't see, I'll describe what we look right now. Leslie is gorgeous, as usual, but she also has on street clothes, as we used to call it, street clothes lipstick. All the things I'm still in my pajamas.
Speaker 2And no, you're in my pajamas.
Speaker 1I am in her pajamas.
Speaker 2But guess what? But you gave them to me.
Speaker 1Not only did I give these to you, I have the same pajamas, so to me they're mine. I'm just leaving them here and when I go home I'll have mine, so I'm in pajamas. Leslie looks like she just came home from work, and I did it's because she just came home from work and when we went to bed last night I had no idea that you were going to work.
Speaker 2What happened 5.30 in the morning. We need you stat for an OR case. I won't even say what type of case it was.
Speaker 1No she could not. But I had to run out, so here I am, since you all know I need my seven hours. If I don't get seven hours sleep, it shows up on me all day, just in how I feel, and I also believe that there's a link between a lack of sleep and Alzheimer's. I've seen that in research. My mother died from that horrible disease and she was not someone who slept a lot, and so there's so much kind of cleansing of the brain that happens during sleep.
Speaker 2On a cellular level too. Self turnover and things like that.
Speaker 1You a doctor or something? I play one on TV. And so I have increasingly made it a practice to get at least seven hours sleep and poo-poo, the naysayers who think I should wake up earlier. If I stay up late, I do still get my 12 hours. I wish my seven hours sleep. So anyway, I get up and I see that she's all like looking like that you were still under the covers and I'm like did you know that I even left?
Speaker 1I did not know. I didn't know until, because I think you came and closed the door so you wouldn't make noise and I saw that you were all dressed. I thought that she had some unauthorized shopping going on, because we've been doing some. It's been authorized, but we've been doing some shopping guys.
Speaker 2So that's why we're together, because we're usually on two separate screens but we're in two separate states.
Speaker 1See, look, I can touch it Side by side. We're usually states apart and I decided after the last play that I worked on. It ended on a Sunday and I came up the following day. Despite being delayed for five hours on the trip up here, I knew I wanted to be here. Can I admit the main reason why I came? I'll tell you.
Speaker 2I'll say it. You said, Les, I'm coming up because I wanna go thrifting. I wanted to go thrifting. See, we need to have a whole episode about that we do Because we're big time thrift shoppers. In fact, any city we travel to, we make a plan to go to thrift shops in. Wherever we are, it's the most fun thing, we had a really nice experience up in.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh, when were we?
Speaker 2Not. Montecito area but we were in Montecito area but then it starts with an S.
Speaker 1We were in.
Speaker 2Santa Barbara, santa Barbara, and that was amazing.
Speaker 1Listen did you hear about that suitcase episode with Leslie? We don't know what it was, but anyway that suitcase was born out of a thrift shop experience and. I think it was in Santa Barbara that you got that. No, you bought it there, but you took it to Florida.
Speaker 2I think I did get it in Santa Barbara to bring home the loot that we got. But you got there.
Speaker 1Yes, that's what we did.
Speaker 2But it's gone now. Do you want to hear the story? What happened?
Speaker 1No, no, no.
Speaker 2You have to listen to it. No, no, no. So it's hilarious by the way.
Speaker 1So, anyway, I wanted to make some big changes to my closet. I still have a lot of my stuff in storage and I was just getting bored of what was in my closet.
Speaker 2But it was more than just boredom, because it was revealed that you are in the midst of making some much larger changes in your life than just closet changes which we'll talk about on a later podcast, but the clothing refresh was just a part of that it's a part of that.
Speaker 1And clothing, clothing, clothing was really the vehicle through which I was dedicated to being in joy. I wanted to be joyful in what I wore. I wanted to not just oh it's there, so I'm going to put it on. You know, I've been pretty good at losing some weight. Oh, you know what happened? Remember we said tell them about what we did, go ahead.
Speaker 2Well, we did a few things.
Speaker 1So we got our laps done.
Speaker 2We did.
Speaker 1We got our laps done.
Speaker 2Back in season two we met with the nutritionist, Chisa Hodge, and she, among other things, she explained the importance of knowing your labs, knowing your numbers and just being on top of your medical condition. And we made a pact at that time in public that we were going to follow up and look at our labs. We looked at our lipid profiles and things like that.
Speaker 1Our cholesterol. Is that a part of the lipid profile? It is. I knew that I was just testing.
Speaker 2We needed to make a couple of changes.
Speaker 1Just some tweaks.
Speaker 2We needed some tweaks. I looked at one of the papers and I'm like this is not. These are not my results. This is not mine this is not mine, but you know what's funny? It wasn't that bad Our cholesterol.
Speaker 1you know the good and bad cholesterol. Those numbers were different but overall our cholesterol numbers were pretty similar and they weren't crazy high to be put on medications, but it was time to like make some dietary modifications. Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2So I had a follow-up evaluation, a personal session, with registered dietitian Hodge and she laid out a plan for me and I've been following the plan. When Ange got her results, she's been following a plan 10 pound weight loss on your part. And that's in what a month and a half.
Speaker 1Not even it hasn't been that long. Beginning of July. So this is what. So I know that going on a low carb way of eating affects my cholesterol in a really positive way, like I've seen that in my history, and so I immediately thought, okay, I need to get on a low carb eating, and so I did that with not too much difficulty, because it wasn't about weight loss, it was about being healthy, and we've got stuff to do. We have stuff to do on this planet.
Speaker 2Oh, but that's true. So we need to be around a little bit longer than next year Exactly, and I don't want to be clutching my chest, or you know, infirm.
Speaker 1What do you call it Assistive devices? I don't want any of that.
Speaker 2I don't want any cardiac stents, none of it.
Speaker 1I don't want any peripheral vascular disease as you know. God willing. Yeah, to the best of our ability, but I'm gonna help. Yeah, I'm gonna do my part.
Speaker 2I appreciate it.
Speaker 1Yeah, so anyway, I've been eating low carb just in time actually, because usually when I'm working on a, on a plane, working in the theater a lot, it is when I have little regard for what I eat, because you eat as you can and when you're taking breaks, I usually don't take breaks, yeah yeah, and, but I I started this.
Speaker 1what do you call it? Food delivery service? I'll tell you about which one in a week or two, when I decide if I really love it and would recommend it or not, because you're still testing it out.
Speaker 2I'm testing it, but so far you okay. I am.
Speaker 1But so far so good, so far so great. Actually tastes really fantastic, and so I've been able to really stick to that. It's a little difficult now that I'm here with Leslie, not because of anything that you're doing but I have a grape grapes thing. I love grapes, I love mangoes. You should have told me not to bring my grapes, I forgot.
Speaker 2I put it in the fridge for you. I didn't realize.
Speaker 1I forgot. And so all of that stuff at home I've taken care of. It's not. It's not a distraction for me at all, but I come, I'm a little tired, hungry, because my flight was delayed a total of five hours and it wasn't all in one go, it was like 30 minutes here, like 50 times they changed the the date anyway, so I got here and I ate some grapes, but overall been been doing really well.
Speaker 1Yeah yeah, and but the one of the main reasons for coming outside, of just being with Leslie and wanting to make sure that this is what happens when my energy is always high, when I'm with Leslie, I can do what I want to do, right, if I need to study, if I need to work, if I need to have fun, if I need to shop, whatever it is she's so freaking accommodating I am.
Speaker 1Yeah, we matched this is what I mean we matched, and so I just wanted to have some time away. It's been really intense.
Speaker 2Except when we were in Florida and you kept watching that show on loop like that binge, watching that Australian little house in the prairie. I was just thinking like it was like three in the morning.
Speaker 1You're still watching it A place to call home. That was the name, but I still thought.
Speaker 2so that was when I was starting to lose it.
Speaker 1I'm like I think that could have ended our friendship, but at least put a big dent into it.
Speaker 2But other than that I'm very accommodating.
Speaker 1And so you know, I knew that you would have to be going to work, and that works out perfectly because I can do my work while you're there. So, anyway, I wanted to go thrifting, you know. So I wanted to change my closet, right, I do a lot of editing and I thought about okay, I don't want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars, you don't need to, and if you know about thrifting, like we know about thrifting, we know how to pick clothes.
Speaker 2The goodies, the goodies.
Speaker 1The things that look good, feel good will wear well.
Speaker 2We look at fabrics, we look at how to clean them. Designers, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1The fit, all of that stuff. And so I wanted to come to a place where I would have a lot of options of nice places to thrift and, you know, going to consignment shops and so on. Plus I get to be with Les, plus I get to do some work, plus we get to do some podcasting in the same place. So it was like a win-win-win-win-win-win-win-win.
Closet Additions and Lingerie Shopping
Speaker 2The only downside for me was that I just didn't need any more stuff, and I have trouble. Yeah, it's hard for me to say no. I made some additions to my closet yes, go ahead, tell them what.
Speaker 1I did so. We made a commitment. I didn't. I made the commitment for her.
Speaker 2I said no, no, no, it was me.
Speaker 1But I didn't impose it on you, I mean no no, no, no.
Speaker 2But I said I will not bring not one more item in without exchanging what I have for what I bring in. Right, so that evening I had to open up the closet and look around and pick out items one for one. Yes, before they could go in and I did.
Speaker 1And it was fine. I'm very proud of you. I don't know if, when I went to bed, that this one went back.
Speaker 2One did, one did, it did, sir, it went down. Damn you know Scoundrel. Scoundrel. But listen, but listen, it was over. I was not one to one. I was actually removed, purging more than I was bringing in. So, I'm still on the positive side. I'm still removing more than I bought it.
Speaker 1But I did put the um a little bit of foil on the shirt back in the closet, did you? Really.
Speaker 2I said I can wear that on the jacket, the one that we did with um.
Speaker 1Akron, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Oh boy.
Speaker 1Okay, so another thing that we bought. So I needed some um, uh, what do you call it? Shapewear. I don't wear it really, but Leslie likes me to wear things that push, push me to the limits push me, pass my comfort zone, and whenever I say yes to those things, it's always a win for me, Right?
Speaker 1I remember we were going to a high school reunion one year and she saw this stringy thing on a rack in Marshal's or something like that. She was like and I'm like Leslie, I'm not wearing that, I'm not wearing it. We have a picture of it.
Speaker 2We will show you the picture, so we'll put that picture on the website.
Speaker 1And it's smashing. It's one of my favorite dresses. It just does all the things. It holds everything up. It's very sexy, it's all the things. Beautiful colors. It's a little like 70s vibe. Yeah, Paisleyish. So I've learned to listen to her. But for my comfort I need to just have some smoothness going on. So we went to the lingerie section.
Speaker 2Here we go OK.
Speaker 1And we got some stuff that we want to show you what we got Not while it's on, not yet, but we want to see.
Speaker 2So there are a couple of low cut outfits that we plan to wear, and we can't imagine what kind of brazier you're going to wear with these very low cut, beautiful dresses that we got. So we found a solution.
Speaker 1Well, we think it's a solution because we've never tried them before and if you have not seen us on our YouTube channel or you've seen us but you can't really tell how different we are I have a very ample bosom and Leslie's ample-ness is elsewhere.
Speaker 2So we're kind of opposite. I like the way you look for that yeah.
Speaker 1We're kind of opposite I'm top heavy, she's bottom heavy, and so I had to hold her up in the store to not fall down laughing when I said, hey, let's try these, let's see. So this is mine.
Speaker 2All right, and I have mine.
Speaker 1OK, I couldn't get, so these are the largest ones. These are the largest ones that they have.
Speaker 2See, you had to get extra large.
Speaker 1No, it was L slash XL, but I really need like four XL.
Speaker 2You need four XL. And I think I could do with the one size fits all, the one size.
Speaker 1Mine is one size, yeah, but I don't think her breasts are the size that she thinks they are. I think that they're smaller. But you know, what do I know? Mine are so big that I don't have a good frame of reference for it.
Speaker 2But so we got these pasties. Oh, it says it looks like it can be worn with or without a bra, but I would need this. But I understand we need to wear it without because of the outfits that we choose. But we can also use it with a bra for extra lift.
Speaker 1Oh, I don't need that, because you know I spend on my braziers. I'm telling you I spend money To me. It doesn't make sense that you would spend $200 for a pair of shoes that you wear occasionally and not spend a lot of money on good braziers that you wear all the time.
Speaker 2I mean the numbers.
Speaker 1I understand the numbers, it doesn't make sense to me, so my girls are always locked and loaded. I'm not right now because I'm in pajamas, but I mean in general. That's something that I take pride in, thanks to my firstborn, who told me all about how to get myself fitted properly. That's something that I would recommend that you take some time to do is to go to either a brush store or a place like Nordstrom and get yourself properly fitted. For a brazier, it makes all the difference when you figure out where they're supposed to be and not supposed to be Right, right, right.
Speaker 2And where the strain is, you feel differently.
Speaker 1You feel different, and for me the smallest part of my body in terms of circumference I guess, is the area right under my breast area. I have a wider waist and so I want that to be free and available for things to fit me well, and if they're kind of sagging, then that you know it doesn't really work, so anyway is it enough about these?
Speaker 2Almost think it's enough about these. They feel so good.
Speaker 1You should feel them. I just can't wait to see it. They're so good, so we're going to actually try them on today. I can't wait to see it fail on you.
Speaker 2I can't wait to document the failure, no, but I believe that these will work. They don't have to be.
Speaker 1They just have to have enough gripping power to be lifted. It doesn't.
Speaker 2Listen, I think it's going to happen.
Speaker 1And so we're going to try it, what we're going to do, because we don't want to, of course, show any inappropriate content. We may, if you join our Patreon, by the way.
Speaker 2yes, let's remind them about the Patreon.
Speaker 1You can join our active now Patreon, it's active. Go to patreoncom that's P-A-T-R-E-O-N like Nancycom, and look for slash. What is it? Is it black boomer?
Speaker 2No, it's quad oh oh. Is that?
Speaker 1what its name is.
Speaker 2It's Bestie.
Speaker 1Quad Squad. It is a subscription service that a lot of podcasters and content creators use to share extra content with their subscribers. You can subscribe at the $5 or $10 level, so not a lot of money, but if you subscribe at the $10 level, we will provide extra content. So we're not promising, but you may in fact see how these work or not work If you become a subscriber on Patreon at the $10 level. So anyway, we got these excited about it and I got so much stuff I have to ship a box home.
Speaker 2Which is good. That's why you came.
Speaker 1It's a good thing, successful visit, very happy. I didn't get anything in excess. I think I got what I needed, what I wanted, what makes me feel good and just to kind of commemorate this great time that I'm having with you. So how was work today?
Speaker 2Very interesting but successful. These are the kind of things I don't mind leaving the house at five in the morning on a Saturday morning for. So it was good, yeah, excellent. This is the day I made a difference.
Speaker 1Oh, wow, that's so awesome. I love that. Okay, guys, we are going to just bring this one in for a landing. We are between seasons. We have finished season three with episode nine that posted last week or whenever it was, and so we're going to be doing some shorter episodes until we go into season four.
Speaker 2Oh, you know what I wanted to mention before we close. We were speaking about thrifting and we were talking to the professor. Oh, my sister, she's an anthropologist and she is actually developing a curriculum around thrifting.
Speaker 1Oh, like you spoke to her about this. She presented this semester.
Speaker 2So, in addition to the type of thrifting that we were doing, they're all kind of social implications and she's actually going to speak about the impact internationally about ready to wear goods. What do they call them? Fast fashion Fast fashion and things like that, especially about clothing production that ends up in thrift stores and things like that.
Speaker 1So she's developing a whole curriculum around this and there's a whole export market around clothes that especially come out of the US and probably some countries in Europe also. So that's so interesting, I tell you.
Speaker 2you think anthropology is only about some of these bones and skulls and looking at the wrong one. Was that geology, archaeology, archaeology?
Speaker 1Oh, oh, oh oh.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1No, that's the other one. Anthropology is the study of the study of anthro People, man and all of those things. But she has such an interesting takes on. The study of anthropology and medical anthropology is her field in particular. So things like you know the way that people like you, medical doctors, how they deliver medicine, what language do they use? Are they really communicating well?
Speaker 1with people in rural communities and things like that is kind of one very small example of how anthropology and medicine come together. So anyway, that's my brilliant sister. Maybe we'll have her back to talk about that.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Shout out to all the thrifters out there. Shout out to all the people who want to kind of make changes that bring joy to your lives. You do have so much control. This is not a big money spend situation at all. This is not. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and I didn't have to spend a lot of money, and you're going to see some of the outfits. I got some. What do you call?
Speaker 2it.
Speaker 1Leisurewear. I got some new Nikes, I got all the things Shoes, shoes, all kinds of things. So anyway, that will come up. So let's call this a wrap.
Speaker 2Okay, it's a wrap. Thank you for another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
Speaker 1Bye-bye.
