Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
The LA House & Pet Sitting Update: Is It Worth It?
Angella dishes about her recent “date”, her house-sitting adventure in Los Angeles. She and her adventurous sister swapped plans for a trip to Mexico for a local escapade instead, finding joy in the simple pleasures of life in a beautiful home and area of LA with a sweet dog (it was all love!)
She described the transformative potential of house-sitting as a way to experience life in new places, both locally and abroad. The TrustedHousesitters app provides a gateway to affordable travel, new experiences and an unconventional way to embark on global adventures.
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Get Angie’s eBook: We’re Too Old for This Shit! The Inquisitive Older Woman’s Guide to Joy
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.
Hey Ange.
Speaker 2:Hey, Les how you doing.
Speaker 1:New year, new me Indeed.
Speaker 2:No no.
Speaker 1:What I really want to say is new year, same old me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's okay, but you improve as the days go by. Exactly Okay, did I do that okay.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I don't need no new year to be improved Is the money you paid me well spent, yes, excellent. Hey, so happy new year pal.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have a lot to share. I have some updates on my house sit in LA, and so we're going to be talking about mostly that today Some of the things I learned, some of the things I would do differently moving forward. And you know, we're going to do some meandering. Maybe even Leslie will do some meandering as we focus on that.
Speaker 1:I need to say first welcome to another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
Speaker 2:Brooklyn. Ooh, my name is Angela and I am here with my bestie of almost 50 years, leslie. That's her over there, her over there. You'd think I'd learn which way to point. But anyway, we are two intellectually curious older Black women and we started this podcast because we wanted to encourage you, invite you to think deeply and to act boldly. Boldly so, if you've been following us, even over the last few weeks, you know that I had this house sit slash pet sit lined up for the holidays.
Speaker 1:In other words, Angie was dating a city.
Speaker 2:I was dating a city. I was dating a city and the city is LA. And this whole thing about dating city the reason why this came up is because I learned, through Stephanie Perry and the Exodus Summit community, that house sitting and or pet sitting is a great way to travel across the country, across the world, and explore new places to either visit or take a sabbatical in or actually relocate there. And so I decided to start this house sit thing say that three times fast in LA. Really, I'd hoped that I would be traveling to Mexico for the holidays, but it just didn't make sense to pay the huge airfares. So I said, let me just wait and do that next year, when it's a little less expensive to pay the huge airfares. So I said, let me just wait and do that next year, when it's a little less expensive, and do something more local. And so I found this house in an area where I actually stayed for six, seven weeks in 2022 when I was on my joy journey, my peace journey, my peace out journey, and so I decided to go back there, because this time I took my sister with me.
Speaker 2:And, um, the other thing that's kind of very aligned, very, you know, kind of god thing about this is. This area is um, I would not have been able to take that long six week stay if my sister hadn't agreed to watch my dog at the time my topaz. She has since passed away, but it was very generous of my sister to watch my dog for that long so I could take this trip. So now I got to invite her to come with me on this house sit, to the same area, and we did some exploring and it was just really great. How long were you there? I was there for a week and a half. I was there for a week and a half and I know that you made some jokes last time about Fifi and going under the bed and maybe drawing back nubs because Fifi was not happy with me. So I need you to take that back If he was not happy with me.
Speaker 1:So I need you to take that back. I take it back because I became a little bit FaceTime acquainted with Pooch Georgia. Pooch and Georgia is a really cute dog and well-mannered and well-behaved and she didn't take off any of your limbs.
Speaker 2:She did not. Let me tell you she was the sweetest dog, but I didn't know this because Leslie kind of scared me a little bit.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to like invite that negativity in but I was like, okay, wait a minute, wait a minute. So I'm gonna ring the bell, right, or I'm going to open the door because you know they gave me access. Obviously I'm gonna open the door and the dog don't know me from adam or eve, like what makes me think the dog is just gonna greet me right, right, right, hello, good morning so I had some trouble getting the door to unlock, and while while I'm doing this stuff, the dog is like going nuts on the other side.
Speaker 1:Oh, my gosh Going nuts. You're so lucky you're a dog person, because that would have frightened many people.
Speaker 2:No, I was okay Cause I um, I'd mentioned to the host, you know, do you think that she will be okay? And she, they were like, yeah, she's going to be fine. So I just talked to her through the door and eventually I got it to open and, you know, as most really good dogs do, they sniff you, they make sure you're cool. I'm talking to her, I'm not trying to touch her first, just lowering my hand so she could smell. And once the tail started wagging, and she started kind of licking my hands a little bit.
Speaker 2:I was in and, oh my gosh, such, such, such a sweet dog. She's really the first dog that I hung out with since Topaz passed away, and so it was actually really lovely.
Speaker 1:How was that? How did that feel?
Speaker 2:It felt really good because she had Topaz energy, like she didn't look like my dog at all. But what I mean by that is, at one point I was don't laugh at me I was putting on her harness and she didn't need a harness. She's a pretty small dog not small, but maybe maybe the small end of the medium sized dog. But I was putting on her thingy and you know clicks, whatever all these things, and I wasn't sure if I was putting it on right.
Speaker 1:So and did she say, no, stupid, you put it right here. Did she reach back with a paw and like idiot?
Speaker 2:She was so excited, she was like jumping around and so I couldn't get it connected right. Plus, I wasn't sure if I was doing it properly. So at one point and I'm talking to her I'm like okay, I'm trying, okay, is it this? And eventually I know she was like okay, let me just calm myself down, because it's going to take a while. This is not helping.
Speaker 1:This is the one that she didn't beat while she was waiting.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So I'm like, yeah, she has Topaz energy, so she just sat down and let me, you know, lift her leg up or whatever I needed to do to get it on, and it was great.
Speaker 1:Put her into her suit, that's nice.
Speaker 2:It was so great. It was a very hilly area, it was in Mount Washington and so a lot of hills and I got to tell you this real quick. So you know, going down the hill is fine. Right, I'm going down the hill, it's fine.
Speaker 1:It's all fun and games. It's all fun and games. It's all fun and games Until somebody gets their eye put out.
Speaker 2:It's all fun and games until it's time to go up the hill, up the hill.
Speaker 1:After a day of gallivanting and walking. Do you?
Speaker 2:know what I mean. So I'm walking up the hill and we're 62. And I'm like, wait a minute, hold up.
Speaker 1:It didn't feel like this Am I going the right way? It didn't feel like this. It didn't feel like this going up.
Speaker 2:So I'm starting to talk to myself, right, I'm like, ange, you don't have to go fast, you just have to go, you just have to keep going up.
Speaker 1:And then I'm like, okay, so I'm seeing if I recognize.
Speaker 2:So okay, I see the numbers were you at least going with them numbers, at least moving. I was, I was moving forward but the numbers could not go fast enough. I'm like, is that all I've been doing? I only moved two houses up and that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you what that reminds me of. Not too long ago, right, I was in Brooklyn with my friend right, and I was crossing the street and the light was about to change and it was like come on, let's run, we can make it right. And I started running, but he said to me you're not moving. And I didn't make any lateral movement, the only running.
Speaker 1:I did to make the light was. I just kept going up and down but he said you're not going forward. So that's what it reminded me of you like. Oh, am I only two? Two houses up, like I've depleted all of my energy from building 40 to 44.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So you get it. It's completely the same thing. And then it's like Was Georgia looking at you like, come on, you need to step it up, pal Georgia was fine because she was smelling every bush.
Speaker 2:So she was perfectly fine, she gave you rest time Exactly, but anyway, that was just like it really just kind of put me in my place and now I look for areas where it got a little more level so we could take longer walks.
Speaker 1:I love it. It was really great. So tell me about were you nervous about your first house sit? Were you like, what was your comfort level?
Speaker 2:So yeah, first of all, that's a good question and I'm going to answer it this way. The whole idea of house sitting and pet sitting, I would say it's not for everybody, right, because some people get all in their head about being with other people's things. You know they think well you.
Speaker 1:Some people, like I was going to say sounds like somebody I know you talked about.
Speaker 2:Listen, if you don't want to sleep on somebody's sheet. If you don't believe that the people just washed the sheets before you came, then wash the sheets.
Speaker 1:Take your own sheets.
Speaker 2:Take your own pillows.
Speaker 1:But Ange, that's like. I told you in my call room yes, yeah, right, I have not slept on the bed overnight. I sleep in a chair. I've never slept in the bed. Right, so you do, but it's the craziest thing, because somebody said to me like why do you think that the chair is any cleaner than the sheets that they change every day? So it's you're right, so go ahead. So tell me about mental.
Speaker 2:First of all, the home was spotless. It was. It was spotless. It was pretty minimalist. You know, it was kind of mid-century modern style, which I really like, and it looked like it was newly renovated. And they just I mean the hosts were wonderful. They left all the instructions for any type of not only emergencies but anything.
Speaker 2:you know, the dishwasher will have a light come on on the bottom so you can see it on the floor, if it's all the things, and they had wine and some um sweet treats laid out oh, that's so nice, it's it was really really wonderful um and I I think within two days it was I felt totally at home.
Speaker 2:I felt totally, totally at home. That's important. I'd gotten into a routine with the doggy and then when my sister got there she got there a day after I did. She's used to spoiling dogs, she used to spoil Topaz, so the treats that we had for her we ran out of treats. Why? Because my sister, oh you're going out. Let me give you a treat. Oh, you're coming in. Let me give you a treat Like what are you doing?
Speaker 1:Georgia is like four pounds heavier after you all left. Now Georgia has trouble getting up the hill. Georgia has trouble getting up the hill.
Speaker 2:Georgia has trouble getting up the hill, yeah, so anyway, it was wonderful. We actually our host left us tickets for this beautiful garden slash library called Huntington, and they had guest passes that were going to expire at the end of the year, so they left them there and so we had a beautiful day trip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, it's like one of the things that is about house sitting and, first of all, when you do a house sit and the app that I use is called Trusted House Sitters, by the way I have a 25% off link that I will send to the first person who gives me their email in the comments or who goes to our website and leave their email there. If you feel more comfortable or in some way make me be able to get in touch with you, I will give you the link to the 25% off that I have to join.
Speaker 1:And what does that do? Oh, 25 off the joining fee.
Speaker 2:Correct, so it's a month. It's a yearly fee. I don't remember what it is. It's not very expensive, it's less than $200,. I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So let me ask you Ange, yes, let me ask you. I know that you wanted to date a city because you are looking to expand your horizons. Where might I go, and all of this stuff Right, to expand your horizons? Where might I go and all of this stuff Right? Were you able to spend a lot of time in the city itself, outside of the house? Good question.
Speaker 2:What do you think? Good question, Okay. So here's the thing I definitely want to use trusted house sitters or house sitting pet sitting, to date cities right, but I'm really interested in dating cities abroad. The reason why this is still going to LA was still in line with that goal is because I feel so confident now in doing pet sitting and sometimes you know, when you're doing something brand new, it may be easier. It is easier for me to start with something that I'm a little more comfortable with.
Speaker 2:And familiarity Some people actually house it in their own area you know like in their hometown just to test it out. And so only one thing is new versus everything everything new.
Speaker 1:Isn't that a great idea? I mean, yeah, it's really an idea because I live so close to New York City. What if I want to stay in the city or if I have theater tickets and I don't want to pay $800 a night for a hotel.
Speaker 2:I could you know? Right right, and the house sits are sometimes a few days long, they're not weeks or months, and house sits sometimes don't even include pets, because some people just need you to watch their home, watch their plants or things like that. To watch their home, watch their plans or things like that. There's someone that I was listening to on YouTube and she actually she and her husband are planning to move abroad next year, and so what they did is their kind of farewell tour in the US.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, but I'm not All right, I'll stop and then we can edit this Wes you, okay? I'm sorry, but I'm not.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, I'll stop, and then we can edit this.
Speaker 1:So top heavy, you know, with this balancing this thing.
Speaker 2:I do know it's okay. I have mine propped up, to be honest. No, mine is. I screwed the legs off to travel and I didn't put them back on.
Speaker 1:I'm going to just hold the mic. Oh, you know what I need to take this, the spit thing.
Speaker 2:I actually put the spit thing on the base and propped the mic up on it, like on the edge of it, like the. The gooseneck part is actually like like the base of a table, like around base of the table, a curve base of the table.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, and then the that makes so much sense, yeah, so two years into our recording, this is what you tell me now. I was this many years old when I decided not to drop the mic off the table Shit it almost spilled the coffee all over me. This is perfect, Jesus.
Speaker 2:That's why you keep me around.
Speaker 1:Okay, we'll come back in now.
Speaker 2:So what she and her husband were doing because they're planning to move abroad in the next year, they're getting houses in all of the cities where their family live and then going what, what a clever mind blown mind blowing mind blowing if you think about it like lodging is a lot of the expense of traveling.
Speaker 2:It is, it is Right, and so, yeah, so that's what they're doing. But I don't know if I mentioned last time, but it's looking like Panama is going to be the place that I actually it's going to be the first landing for me, and so Ding ding, ding, ding ding ding, because you know I'm interested in going to Panama as well, sure, sure, so have you lined anything.
Speaker 1:Any house sits up in Panama.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing. What I'm thinking is for my first trip I probably will not do a house sit, because I don't want to have to come back, because Georgia could be away for three or four hours Right Without any problem. But wherever we went, we had to make sure that we came back so we could put her out, and so on.
Speaker 1:Sure Sure.
Speaker 2:So, because I probably wouldn't want that for my first visit, because I'll probably be going to different cities and so on visit because I'll probably be going to different cities and so on, I will likely do that maybe for my second or third sit there. You know, use house sit as an option, especially if I narrow down to one or two cities. I will then date those cities through house city after.
Speaker 2:I narrowed down to maybe two or three places. I'm not sure that Panama City is where I want to land, but I am going to check it out, I'm going to check it out. So yeah, so probably my second trip, I will do a house sit, and until then, maybe Mexico, mexico City.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's an idea. Maybe Mexico, mexico City? Oh, that's an idea, so Mexico City. Would that be another possibility for you to relocate? I mean because you've lived there for a brief time before.
Speaker 2:I did, it is. But even if Panama becomes my place, I will continue to use house sitting to travel Right, right, traveling Right.
Speaker 1:So yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's what. That's what I'm planning to do. I am oh, this is exciting, isn't that cool? Oh yeah. I forgot to mention I saw Kim while I was out there, so hopefully we'll get to put some pictures in of some of my time in LA. So I hung out with Kim. It was supposed to be a short little get together just to kind of hug, but of course a short turned into a couple of hours of hanging out and, like it was, it was hilarious, as you can imagine.
Speaker 1:And so we had a great time. Would you?
Speaker 2:do it less. Would you do it now that you know what my experience was like? I?
Speaker 1:might visit and join you on your house sits, Okay, but I told you I still have a little trouble with Airbnb, Although the only few times that I've ever tried it it worked out great, you know Right, but I still have a little. I don't even know what. I couldn't even put my finger on the reticence and why I feel the way I do.
Speaker 2:So, as you go into 2025, is this something that you're going to work on? No, okay.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Maybe 2027 I'll I'll have time to. There are so many things on my list of working on that. Um, figuring out how to stay in an airbnb yeah, that's a little lower on the list, but um, yeah, it's a new year and it is a new year, babe, it is.
Speaker 2:It's unbelievable. Today was the first day that I actually had to write a date on a piece of paper. Well, it is only the second of the month. Yeah, second of the year, and you failed. And you failed, I failed.
Speaker 1:I got it right what? I looked at the date and it said 24, but it was the wrong. It was a different page. So okay, so I got it right, I did.
Speaker 2:I wrote I didn't get the month right, I didn't get the year right.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad that I got it right and you got it. You didn't get it right. I'm so glad.
Speaker 2:That's one for me. That's just one for me. Here's something else I wanted to share. I really lazed around and I forced myself to not feel guilty by not I can count the number of times I opened up my laptop. I did do some work while I was really.
Speaker 2:I'm working on a project. I did do some work, but when I wasn't working or walking the dog or you know these specific trips, I was crocheting, I was binge watching stuff that I like I hadn't seen. Oh, I watched the six, eight, eight, eight. Is that the six?
Speaker 1:Yes, I watched that.
Speaker 2:I watched this Gosh. What was this show? It was about law enforcement on reservation. So it was.
Speaker 1:It was just the story unfolded in a backdrop of a reservation in okay so that's not something that you typically do, so that's really not, yeah, and I thought how did it feel?
Speaker 2:it felt. It felt amazing after the first like and did you really just do that for three hours after that? I just listen, this is what a break feels like and I just totally enjoyed it and that's kind of what's. That's the difference between doing a when you were just trying to experience what retirement can look like. I didn't want to feel like I was just going all the time Like I was just going going, going, going going.
Speaker 2:I want to see listen. If I can choose what I want to do today, what would that look like? And for me it looked like a lot of crocheting. It looked like a lot of crocheting.
Speaker 1:Listen. You know I can relate to that, because our listeners don't know that I have been away from work for a number of months now, actually. So I can relate to what it feels like not to know what day it is or the date it is, or what am I going to do today? You know, in a future podcast I can talk about, about, you know, what I've done over the last couple months and why I took time off, but I really wanted to feel what stepping away from the grind felt like. And you know, for me and my type a, and what I used to think of myself as just a chill, calm person, until you had a real wake up.
Speaker 1:That didn't, it didn't sit well with me initially, even day one, I believe. It's like I don't have to get up at 5.30 today. What am I going to do now? You know, and I really late, got into it, you know. So I think that that's something that we can talk about going forward, about just arresting the need to push, push, push. If your body is tired, we say, hey, your body's tired, but we just got to do one more, one more thing, one more thing, and it's not out of my blood completely, but I understand and I like the way it feels when I'm not grinding and sleeping in and things like that.
Speaker 2:Listen, rest is required. Rest is required to be at your best. Required Rest is required to be at your best. So, if you have to think of rest as just preparing, slowing down to speed up, right, think of it as I'm just doing it. I'm not done, I'm just taking a little break because I can run after or think of rest as this is your time to plan right.
Speaker 1:You don't have to be in this kind of active, active. Active, yes, doing. You don't always have to be doing something, but you know, I would prefer not to look at it as resting. To speed up in the future, I want to get used to a three-quarter pace life yeah, yeah you know, three-quarter.
Speaker 1:You know that's you don't want to do a half or well, I might start, you know, and I, I gotta ease into it, you gotta, I gotta ease into it. You know, it's like I can't start the exercise every day, because by day four it would be done.
Speaker 2:I'd be done. Well, you know, like. So one of the things about crocheting or any kind of projects where I'm using my hands, it kind of feeds that desire in me to be producing something. So I'm actually making something but it's not. It would be really hard for me to just sit and just watch TV. That. I would really really struggle with.
Speaker 1:But with crocheting.
Speaker 2:it's like okay, I'm working, at the end of this I'll have an idea and you see something.
Speaker 1:Yes, I see progress.
Speaker 2:I see, you know, for me, creativity is just transferring from one state to another. So I'm moving away from this to this. That's my creative juices that are going. So it's really satisfying, but yeah, so that's how I did it. That's how I did it. So it was good and I'm looking forward to my next one.
Speaker 1:All right. So let me ask you this Yep, would you go on a second date to LA?
Speaker 2:Yes, as a matter of fact, we've already reviewed the host and I. You know we each have to review each other. If you've used Airbnb, you know how it works. Yeah, yeah, I do a review but you don't get to see the other person's review until they're both done, kind of thing. Um and so we both reviewed each other, and they've already invited me back, and I've already said it would be great to have a second Um.
Speaker 2:And yeah, we left left them gifts too, cause we bought some gifts that we thought they would like when we went to the um oh, what a nice idea, yeah, so we have something for them to remember us.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was all right it was really highly, encourage it highly.
Speaker 2:um recommend trying this like putting aside all the, all the what if, ifs, you know, and just Right, because, from what you've told me, trusted house sitters is a safe.
Speaker 1:they provide a safe environment and they're a safe portal for you to go and travel in this way. I do have one more question, though, when you were there.
Speaker 2:have one more question though um, when you were there dating your city did?
Speaker 1:Georgia, try to go all the way with you. Listen, did she get? Did she get past first base?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna send you a picture of our first night together. Were you spooning together in the in the dog on the dog's cot? Only, leslie. You see what I have to put up with.
Speaker 1:Hey, what can I say? I envy you Cause you know I miss my pooch. But yeah, I know you do.
Speaker 2:Oh man, and so many times I almost called her Simba. I'm not sure why, but yeah, she kind of had a Simba-ish face, yeah, but yeah, highly recommend it. And don't forget to find, if you give me a way to reach you and to be able to send you the discount thing, I will send it to.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so nice, okay All right, All right babe.
Speaker 1:Oh, thanks for the update. Thanks for the update forward to a new year that's healthy, that's mentally and emotionally healthy, that's prosperous in not just a monetary way, but in a spiritual way and in a love way. So, um, oh, this is going to be just a wonderful year and we're going to bring you all a lot new things. We're entering Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn. We've collaborated with a few groups. I don't want to tell you yet because it's early and I want you to be extra excited for it. All right, this has been another episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn, brooklyn.
Speaker 2:Bye, thank you.
