Episode 76 🎪 Parenting, True Crime and Choas: Pool Plunges, Vampire Lore & AITA Couchgate – Mother’s Day Cake & Book Club Confessions

Hosts: Stefanie Navarro & Meredith Hill
Run Time: ~60 min
Theme: Poolside chaos, parenting teens, Appalachian vampire conspiracies, Mother's Day sweet tooth cravings, and a suspenseful book club breakdown.

🎧 In This Episode:
In true circus fashion, Stefanie and Meredith kick off this week’s episode with soaked sweatpants, teens testing every ounce of patience, and a collective craving for chocolate cake. They dive into vampire folklore (spoiler: it may have started in the Appalachian Mountains), debate the absolute audacity of a certain AITA couch situation, and wrap up with a juicy review of No One Can Know—a dark, twisty murder mystery with more secrets than suspects.

💬 Topics Covered:
💦 The Accidental Pool Plunge:
Stefanie drops her phone in the pool… and takes a freezing hoodie-clad dive to rescue it. Yep, it’s one of those weeks.

👖 Teen Trouble & Air Fryer Battles:
The moms vent about late-teen apathy, money-motivated chores, and parenting hacks that work—sometimes.

🧛 Appalachian Vampire Origins?!
Forget New Orleans—vampire legends may have started with Romanian settlers deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Are you even surprised?

🍰 Mother’s Day Cake Manifestation:
Stefanie declares her only wish this year: a personal chocolate cake with white icing, no plates necessary.

Eiffel Towers SOLD & Bahamian Pig Warnings:
From a conman selling the Eiffel Tower TWICE to swimming with the pigs can make you violently ill, the internet is doing the most—and we’re here for it.

🧠 AITA: Couchgate at the Couples’ Weekend
When your bestie invites every other couple—but sticks you on the couch and forgets your partner—are you wrong for heading home early? (Spoiler: NO.)

📚 Book Club – No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
– Three sisters. One murder. Secrets that just won’t stay buried.
– Trauma, mystery, emotional twists—and a husband we all hated.
– Final verdict: dark but addictive. 9/10.

📖 Next Week’s Read:
Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kane – A husband goes missing… but his wife already saw the body. Or did she?

🧠 Quote of the Week:
“The Eiffel Tower was sold twice by the same con artist. And honestly? Icon behavior.” — Meredith

📢 Announcements:
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🎪 Until next time, keep the cake fork-ready, the vampire stories wild, and the kids only mildly feral.
This is our circus—and these are definitely our monkeys. 🐒

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to, this is my circus, the podcast where we embrace the chaos and keep it real about parenting, pop culture, true crime, and the books we can't put down because let's be honest, life is one big circus and we're just trying to survive with caffeine, sarcasm, and a little true crime obsession. So if you love unfiltered conversation, questionable parenting hacks, and deep dives into the things that keep us up at night, you're in the right place. Buckle up, grab your popcorn, and let's get into the chaos. I'm Stephanie. I'm Meredith. And welcome to, this is my circus. So we're zooming today. Meredith was not feeling well yesterday, so we postpone recording. So we are dropping this late on Thursday, but we got it done. Yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry to everybody. Life happens. promise you would not have wanted me, um, to have been recording yesterday. It was no bueno. So sorry. Life happens. It's a circus and here we are. Well, you know, it's, I think that people don't expect anything but craziness when are not recording. True. Yeah. They don't like expect perfection, that's for sure. Right? That's not what they're here for. No, they're here for all the mishaps. Yeah. Our podcast is a outtake, you know. Oh, speaking of outtakes. Is your phone good now? Yeah. I dropped it in the pool while I was cleaning it, and I had to do the polar plunge to it. Oh, no. I would've donated stuff. I would've donated some funds for that, for the plunge. It was so cold, and I had on sweatpants and a hoodie So it went in and I went like right in after it. Yeah. So I went into the pool in sweatpants and a hoodie and it was not good. Oh, so there was no standing there? Like, do I fish it out with a net? It was just immediate. No, there was a, there was a swear word and then there was a splash. Well, did you get the pool finished cleaning out? Not yet. I asked Dylan to, work on scrubbing it the walls and, um, and typical teenage fashion. What I asked him to do is on the, the, the bottom of his list. I think they're all just in moods right now. I don't know if it's there. So it's like the almost summer vibe. They're over school. They're kind of like, Jackson's super busy right now, busier than normal and just has no energy to gimme any kind of conversation or barely communicating. And I was talking to a friend and her daughter's the same way right now, which girls I know are a whole other thing. I texted him today. I'm like, if you don't start handling your stuff, like you are gonna be grounded. And every time I have to tell you to do something again, it will be another week because I am so sick of repeating myself. I don't think that child has been grounded more than a half of a day his entire life. Like. Ever. Gretchen's the same. He's not really been grounded. I mean yeah. More than I know. Or it's the whole thing of, I know you've seen the memes or the little videos on socials where it's like, why do I have to lose my shit in order to get any kind response? And, and then like, why are you yelling hundred percent? Like why, why are you going crazy? You know, Brian's go-to when, when that start happening, starts happening and I is to fold towels. Like, because there's like a never ending laundry basket of clean towels around here that is just like on the. Bottom of to-do. Mm-hmm. Like they're clean. They're just not folded and put away, which that's, that's okay. But I'm gonna put all the other clothes away first that might get, you know, that need to be put away. Mm-hmm. So his go-to when I start losing my shit is like, where's the towels? The towels? We fold them. Well he is very self-sufficient. He does his own laundry. Yeah. But like, he asked to use the air fryer the other day, so he pulls out the air fryer'cause he was making chicken fingers or whatever. I'm like, yeah, just make sure you wash it and put it away, like wash it, dry it mm-hmm. Away on the counter for two days. And every day I am like Dylan. Go wash the air fire before you leave. Oh, I'll, oh, I, I gotta go pick up with you. I'll, I I'll do it when I get back. Mm-hmm. Still sitting there. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. And Jackson does that similarly, and I can't remember what it was, but same thing. I had been asking him to do something over and over again from days in a row. That was not a huge thing, but it was just something he had done that I needed him. And I was like, for every day you don't put it back. You've gotta give me like 50 bucks.'cause you know, they, they hoard their money in their cash app or whatever because they wanna spend our money. So he was like, seriously? And I was like, yeah. So the next day I was like, did you do whatever? And he was like, no. I was like, send me my money. And he was like, are you're serious? And I was like, yeah. I said, if you do it today, I'll pay you back 25. Like I'll give you some back, but you owe mean 50 for yesterday and 50 for today. And I, you know, so that helped. Yeah. But it's just, I know. It's like such small little easy things. I'm like, just do it. Right, right. Yeah. But you know, like he calls me and mom, can I borrow or can you spot me a and he expects me to drop everything I'm doing and I'm like, that's not gonna happen anymore. Like, you don't get my Drop everything. Yeah. For, for little things that you want and not be able to do a simple chore. Right. Well, especially when we are going in a thousand different directions with all things, multiple jobs, multiple roles, multiple things we're juggling. It's just they, and especially with them being older, it's not like they're six and they can't do it. Yeah, maybe that's the problem. Maybe I should have started Jackson doing some of his stuff when he was six. Same, same. Like I'm realizing the era of my ways. Right. So all you new moms out there, don't be like us. Yeah. Well, I mean, he started doing his own laundry at like nine or 10. He, yeah. Yeah. I mean, he, he was doing things. It's just like he wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it, and Yeah. Which is typical, but I'm like, dude, just do it. Yeah. He gonna be, like as soon as he is old enough to move out, do you think he'll wanna move out and get his own place? I, I don't know. He doesn't wanna go to like a four year school. He is just gonna go, um, for mm-hmm. A trade. he doesn't have to, but you know, I'm sure, yeah. He'd rather. Yeah, well, you know, Jackson's plan is to go to college on a sports scholarship. He has no desire to do college, but he wants to continue playing sports. And I'm like, how is this dude gonna live? I mean, and again, he knows how to do, he knows how to do his laundry. He knows how to do the things. It's just he doesn't actually doing it. Yeah. And I can only let it go so far. I know. Before I have to jump in. Well, and the other thing is I feel guilty'cause he is so busy right now that I'm like, yeah, I'm with you. So I'm with you. I hear you. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about something fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Enough complaining. Enough complaining. Yep. So I still take him to school'cause he has done driver's ed, but he is not done his driving time yet, so he can't get his license yet. So. I was taking him to school and the whole way to school, I had this whole conversation with him about something I needed to get from the Dollar Tree. And I was like, I need to just run and get, get that there. I need to go get that. We're gonna do this, this da da da. Like the whole right there. By the time I dropped him off and turned around and two minutes later passed the Dollar Tree. Mm-hmm. I had totally forgotten what I was supposed to get I ended up emailing him because you know, they can't have their phones at school. Yeah. But, you know, sometimes I send him a little email and I was like, do you remember what I was supposed to get from the Dollar Store? He was like, I have zero idea what you were supposed to get. And I was like, okay, thanks for the help. So I know, I know. So I'm looking into some supplements right now for memory. I'll let you know how that goes. I, I've given up on that whole. Have you? Yeah. Not given up on my face serum. I need to order some more. I just got that. And did you see that they, that same company came out with a super like absorbing thing that you put on before you put that on? No. So I This stuff up though. Mine, mine does too. But that stuff is amazing. I'll put it on right now. Yeah. Am I beautiful yet? You are always beautiful. Oh, do I look 16? In the Zoom. You do. It feels so good. Like my skin is just like, Ah-huh. No, I did not see that they had it. Did you get the new one? I did product. Did it come in? I did. I just got it like a day or two ago, but it was bundle. Mm-hmm. I love a good bundle. I know Well, is this itty bitty little spatula. Oh. It's got like these like bubbly things in it. Oh, are they like things that you pop and get the serum or something out of'em? I don't really know. I didn't read the directions yet. Good to know. Good to know. We're always searching for the fountain of youth, aren't we? We are. Rather than actually eating healthy or like doing nutritious. You eat healthy. Well, I don't eat so well. There you go. I told Dylan I crave sugar so much. And so because I'm not like eating, but like I'm grazing all day and then a lot of it is like. Sour patch kids or chocolate. I crave sugar so much. Yeah. And I probably just need to go on a sugar detox. And so that, that sounds terrible, but it sounds like it would be so good for our bodies. Sure. It would. I would be miserable. And I told Dylan, I'm like, you know, I don't, I don't really drink. I don't like smoke marijuana. I don't like, I don't do anything. I I can't eat pizza. I can't eat like dough. I can't eat bread. Yeah. I'm like, I'm not giving up sugar. Yeah. So you cur you're craving like the sweet sugar, not like, like breads and stuff.'cause you know, you can't have it. I don't want like, gimme all like the gummy stuff. Yeah. Like gummy bears, Swedish fish, sour patch kids. So on that note, and on our note of ranting about our, fantastic children, um, mother's Day's this weekend. Mm-hmm. I told Brian and Jackson, we don't, I mean, Brian usually brings me flowers or they'll get me a card like I don't expect and nor do I want any, you know, like major. But I was like, this year I know what I want. And they were like, okay. And I was like, I want a chocolate cake with white icing. They were like, okay. And I was like, I seriously, that's, that's what I want. I want my own chocolate cake with white icing. No need for a plate. Just give me a fork. So Brian was, uh, I saw him on, I was like, what are you doing? He was like, I'm ordering your cake. This was yesterday. I was like, what's size cake? Because you know, he's not ever run to have ordered a cake before. I don't think like. Not really sure how this is gonna go. Mm-hmm. I was like, what size cake did you get? Like, I could see him getting like a whole sheet cake. I'm not talking about that. I just want even like an eighth of a, you know, just like, so I can have like a piece a day over the weekend. I'm fine. I was able to eat cake. My favorite cake was the Publix, triple chocolate, whatever, like the little like uhhuh, tiny cake uhhuh. But it is so freaking good. I love chocolate cake with either a chocolate icing or like a buttercream. I'm not a fan of the whipped icing. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And the past, like two times, well this has been several, several months ago, but I had bought cupcakes and they were marked as not whipped, icing, whatever the other kind was. And I was like, they look like they're whipped, but I'm gonna go with it here. Got it. Home. They're whipped. None of us ate'em. I don't want anything to do with that stuff. Yeah. But yeah. A oh, chocolate cake with white icing. When we were in Tennessee, we would go watch because it was like before satellite TV or streaming or anything. We would go to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch football on Sundays and uh,'cause we couldn't get the Eagles game on like the regular tv. So we would go there on Sundays and we would usually have the same waitress. And she was awesome, fantastic waitress. Every week I would get a piece of chocolate cake and ice cream. I love it. Vanilla ice cream. And she would give me the biggest pieces of cake, but it was like chocolate cake with chocolate icing, and then chocolate chips. And it would come out warm and then like the. Big scoop of ice cream on it. Oh, so good. Oh my gosh. That sounds delicious. Does Dylan like sweet stuff like you do? He does, yeah. So does Jackson. So when we had gone to get ice cream at the beach when we were there last year, we walked across the street, little ice cream place. I figured he would get chocolate. He's a chocolate kid. Mm-hmm. Doesn't fall from the tree. He got, I'm trying to remember what exactly it was. I wanna say it was a chocolate cone. Chocolate ice cream. Chocolate sprinkles. And I wanna say it might have been like dipped in chocolate. Like it was everything chocolate that they had. Yeah. Sign me up. Right. Do you like sprinkles? They're okay do you call'em Sprinkles? They were, Jimmy's isn't Jimmy's. Oh, I'm sure they are. But I, we, I've always called'em Sprinkles. Well, I remember, somebody that I used to know from Pennsylvania. called'em Jimmy's, I wanna say it's Pennsylvania maybe or somewhere else. But I was like, what's a Jimmy? Why's Jimmy can class Jimmy on your ice cream? But yeah, that some places call'em Jimmy's. They're sprinkles to me. I'm glad to hear that you call them the same. I was like, am I calling it the wrong thing? You know how you start questioning yourself? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. A hundred percent ice cream glitter. I like that. Ice cream accessories. Yes. So we had talked a little bit about, I. Orleans last week. Yes. And we had gone in hard during Halloween, like the month of Halloween about vampires. Yep. And I was scrolling of course, and saw that there are like lores in the Appalachian, Mount Appalachia, how do you say it, Appalachian? Yeah, sure. I think in those mountains because I guess people from Romania, settled there like in the mountains and stuff. And so they say that vampires started in the mountains and not in New Orleans. Really? I have never heard this I have grown up going to the Appalachian Mountains, um, which is for people not familiar, like Boone blowing rock. Um. That stretch. I can't, I'm drawing a blank on the other things, but it's like North Carolina, Tennessee Mountains or the Appalachian Mountains. Mm-hmm. Now I know there's a lot of, what do you need to do an after dark on this? Yes. Um, because there's all kinds of craziness with a lot of the mountain people. And I feel like I can say that because I'm kind of a mountain people. Well, I was just fascinated. I was, I had never heard of it before. The guy had like three different stories of Wow. Like real people, accounts of what had happened there. Did they, do you remember what, like towns or, it probably wasn't even near town. It was just down the hills. It didn't say a town. It was just, saying everybody thinks that this started in New Orleans. That really, it started here when the Romanians settled here. That is crazy pants and I'm here for it. Me too. That sounds fascinating. I'll send you the link to that guy'cause he's got all sorts of really cool stories like yeah, please do. Because that sounds utterly fascinating. Yeah. I'm trying to think what I've been seeing a lot lately. Oh, well, here's what I've been seeing a lot lately, because I guess my algorithms know that I like alligators. I'm seeing all kinds of alligator stuff all over. Good stuff or bad stuff. Just entertaining stuff. So one it was actually more than alligators. It was like all Florida stuff, but it was like this, somebody being at I assume was like a rental home in Florida and you know how the pools there have all the gate or fence meshed? I don't know what it is, but they're all protected. Yeah. And the person is like filming the pool area and they're like, why do you guys have this around your pool area in Florida? Every single house. And then it does clips to like alligators being in the pool or bears drinking out of it, or snakes swimming in it. Like all the things that you could possibly imagine going on in the pool. Yeah. So I saw that. I see a lot of, like them feeding gators like in, the wild, like throwing a chicken to'em and stuff. I don't know. My algorithms all jacked up. It's between that and like skincare and a couple of recipes. But I went down this rabbit hole this morning I think it was this morning on Mama drama, one of our favorites. This dude was 18 years old, and he was in from Sumter, South Carolina. And he was missing, well, they're like, you know, check the comments. So I go find the original post. Look at the comments. They were looking for him for, I wanna say, domestic violence against his girlfriend who was pregnant. He was having mental issues, but the, the thing that made it so entertaining was his mom and sister were on the thread. Mm-hmm. Like, yeah. And, their spelling was not great. I know we're all surprised at that, but their, comments, their use of there and there, like let me criticize them for things that, you know, for that kind of thing. But it was the mom and the sister going in hard on, on this, you know, and then the other family started going in and then somebody else said something about what he was like in school. So it was just like small town stuff that I was wasting my time on. Best kind of drama. I know anything that doesn't involve me, but I want all the deeds. Well, you know Nick Cannon, right? The Yeah. Yeah. On a be drum actor. I like to think of'em as drumline. Yeah. That drumline. Yeah. Or wild and out on MTV. Yeah. So his baby mama just said that he got, you know, he's got like a billion kids, like the man has in children, like scattered everywhere. So one of his baby mamas just leaked that he got his testicles insured for$10 million. Like he doesn't need to get those insured, he needs to get those snipped. The world does not need anymore Cannon babies. No. Is he the father of Mariah Carey's kids? I believe so. I'm looking it up. he just needs to get that taken care of and be done. Like Yeah. He has 12 children. Yes. 12. And you, after you have a certain amount of children, you don't have to pay child support. Yeah. It like caps out at like eight or something. Yeah. Uhhuh. So, yeah, I, well, I don't even know what he's doing these days while and out. Okay, so I'm gonna read you his stats on his babies. So he's got twins with his ex Mariah Carey. He has three children with another lady named Brittany Bell. And with Abby Delarosa. He has another set of twins and a daughter named Beautiful. And then he has children with a lady named Brie, lady named Isha Alyssa. And then one that had passed away from the brain tumor. I remember that. Mm-hmm. He's got so many baby mamas. Yeah. Nope. Mm-hmm.. Speaking of wanting all the tea, the Diddy trials started, or the jury selection started. So there's people, going every day to sit in court and watch it. And you're not allowed to have cameras in there, you're not allowed to have any phones in there or anything. They're confiscating everything before you go in. Okay. So they're just, and then reporting on it. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. But I am hoping that they stream the hearing like they did the Johnny Depp hearing.'cause I was, I think we would have to, unless they don't, to try to protect any minors, innocent, whatever, but, well, I think it's gonna be so graphic that I don't know if it's Yeah. Gonna be okay to stream. Yeah. But they have started, um, naming names, not necessarily that they were doing anything wrong, but that they'll be involved in the trial. Uh, and one of them was the dude that played Austin Powers, michael Myers, Mike, and then Michael B. Jordan. But he was, because he dated Cassie after Diddy. Okay. And I think Diddy may have, threatened him. Mm-hmm. I feel like I've heard that before, where this has happened in Manhattan, right? I think so. Yeah. Yeah, I think so too, I saw though with that, I mean, jury selection has got to be crazy, right? Like, oh, I mean, how do you pick people that haven't been tainted? Yeah, one of the people on that was reporting on this said that the, and I don't see how this can even be legal, that the, the pro or not the prosecution, the defense team had sent a like 70 some odd question questionnaire to the jury. Pool. Pool. I wouldn't fill it out. It had such like invasive questions Oh, really? Of like, have you ever, have you ever been a swinger? Have you, I mean like, just like, like very, very, like, have you ever had a, same sex interaction of in, in the interview? Oh, really? Yeah. Like such invasive questions. Oh, there is no way I would fill that out for the, for them to have on record. Right. No, I wonder, I mean, I guess. I don't know, but it don't to be legal. Like you have your questions that they do when you're in the, in the courtroom of like, do you have any family that are police officers and Right. Would that, you know, hinder your being able to be, impartial? Right. Like those questions Yes, I get it. Don't they also do the, or is it just like a rumor that they do the, how do you feel about the death penalty or whatever? I don't know. They should ask that one. I was on the jury. Yeah. They just ask like, do you have any, but I, I'm sure it goes like case by case too. Depends on what might be on the table. Yeah. Because they had asked, had any, Essay done to them. And would that hinder you being able to be impartial? Yeah. For the Diddy trial, that was like in the courtroom. But this wasn't in the courtroom. Like this was like sent to the jury pool to be filled out. No, I'm not. No. There's, I'm not on trial. No, you don't need to know all of this about me. Mm-hmm. But then I'm going back to you. So what do you, what do you want to be on this jury? The Diddy jury? Mm-hmm. I don't need to, I can tell you what I'm gonna say anyway. No, I'm just kidding. I don't, I don't know. I don't know. I, I think it's just gonna be so, disturbing. I don't know. So I don't, I they're trying to get it so that the jury sequestered. So that means you don't see your family until this jury No, this case is done. That could be a year. Yeah. I mean, like, the amount of people that they're gonna be bringing in this thing can go on forever. Well, and I hate when they do that because who el They did this with somebody else. It might have been oj. And they sequestered the jury, and then it was so long and they were locked with whatever, they couldn't, their locked jury that they were just like, whatever. Let's just say whatever. So we can get outta here kind of thing. Yeah. And no, no. Good. No good. So I, the nosy part of me is like, it'd be kind of you get all the details, firsthand, right? Yeah, yeah. But then the same part of me is like, he's gonna see everybody's, he's already threatening people, like from jail, is he? And. I value my life. I value my family's life there's no way that I would want to be any, I wouldn't wanna, I wouldn't even wanna be in the jury selection pool. Yeah. He's got too many people. He's got too much money, and he is got too many people in high places that are willing to do whatever. I agree with you. I don't think, no. Mm-hmm. No, there's no way I would, I would. Mm-hmm. Now, I think it would've been fun to been on, on the, um, Johnny Depp one. Amber heard That would've been different. That was a little more, not lighthearted, but not involving. It was so funny. Yeah. I don't feel like that's, that's gonna be the vibe of this. Oh, it's not. They are saying that the judges like cracking jokes and lighthearted during the jury selection. Oh, really? Really? Why don't they block out the jury? Well, I think it should be like the one way mirror. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure attorneys could still get access to the list of names and there's ways around it. If you have enough money, they'll find out. Yeah. But for the average trial, like I still think that that's what it should be. Right. Agreed. They should do something to protect, I don't know. What do we know, right? Nothing. And then I just saw Danny Masterson, who's from the seventies show, who's Yeah. Serving like 30 years in prison right now for, saying, is he, yeah. Oh. Mm-hmm. For, I did not know that. This is what it was being said. I don't know if it's legit or not, but it said that, um, he's serving right now, 30 years in prison, but wanted to see if he can get a deal because he has video evidence of Ashton Kutcher, NP Diddy, that he is willing to supply to the prosecution if he gets a lesser sentence. What, and Danny Masterson is who Ashton Kutcher called that night when that chick got Uhhuh. And his girlfriend at the time, Danny Masterson's girlfriend at the time, said to Ashton Kutcher on the stand. Something to the effect of, and I know who you called and what was said that night. So I don't know. Well, you know, Mila Kuni lied about her age to be on that 70 show. Mm-hmm. She was only like 14. Yep. And I can't remember how old Ashton Kucher was at that time, but he was older. Like 19, 20, 21 something. Yeah. Yeah. that was always gross to me. Especially had him together and that was like her first kiss ever. Um, yeah. Super gross. Mm-hmm. Super gross. Are they, are they still married now? Do you know? I think she filed for divorce once all this p Diddy stuff started. Oh, did she? Or she filed for separation or something? She was trying to distance herself from it. One thing I did like, well I don't really know much about her other, she is from Ukraine. Mm-hmm. And, did you ever see that interview where, I think it was her and just in Timberlake were in the interview and one of the reporters or whatever was like mocking him and, saying stuff about, like, why don't you stick to music? Why are you trying to act? And she went off on them in Russian. Did you ever see that video? It was pretty cool. Like, she had his back. She was like, why don't you stick to whatever you do? So that was pretty cool. I always liked her. I think she's like a great actress. I think she's beautiful. I do think she is pretty, but yeah. Huh. Kind of switching a little bit of gears I'd right before I got on, I saw this article and it, did you hear, it was like two weeks ago, I guess now. In Alabama there was a 4-year-old that was at school, like pre-K or whatever. You know how at our schools they go for pre-K at the regular elementary. Yeah. Um, so it was similar to that, I guess. And the mom goes and picks up the kid and the kids in the nurse's office. They had called her like two minutes before dismissal and the kid was unresponsive or wouldn't wake up from the nap. Instead of calling 9 1 1 or you know, calling some kind of doctor emergency services. Right. Whatever. They took him to the nurse's office and kid was like passed out so mom and dad are like, what the heck? Rushed the kid to the hospital. He's in again, four years old in ICU for two days for his blood alcohol level being a 0.29 at four years old. What did he get? They don't know. Like the, the school doesn't know what he got into or like how it was there if it was alcohol or if it was like, hand sanitizer. Yeah. Yeah. They don't know. But you know how much you would have to ingest? I have no idea. But at four, I mean, what's he weigh 40 pounds, but hand sanitizer, like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,, the kid's gonna taste it and be like, well, you know, like it doesn't taste like candy. Yeah. Something doesn't sound right there, does it? Mm-hmm. School had no answers. And he was in icu. Where, do you remember where that was? In Alabama. In Alabama, okay. Yeah. That is crazy. Yeah. Could you imagine? No, not at all. So you, they ran all the tests at the hospital trying to figure out why he was unresponsive and blood alcohol. That's terrible. That's like twice the amount for an adult. Three times almost. That's terrible. Yeah. Crazy. Hmm. I saw something. Speaking of weird, illnesses and ailments, have you ever heard of swimming with the pigs in The Bahamas? Oh yeah. Yeah. I would never wanna do it, but, yeah. Well, I didn't wanna do it. And then I saw they were little cute pigs and I was like, okay, I can do it one day. So that was kind of like on mine and Jackson's list to do. Apparently you can get really sick from doing that. This, girl did that and the mom actually has pictures of her doing that and holding the pigs. I mean, they're, they're little, you know, cuddly size. I know, I know. But they're small. They're not like big hogs. So she's like sitting, sitting on the beach, holding them, playing with them and all of a sudden, a little bit, uh, after they went, like days she started having symptoms and they could not get to the bottom of it at the hospital on what was going on with like spinal taps, all kinds of things. Come to find out these pigs had given her something. I don't know what it is, but they had made her really, really sick. So don't think we'll be doing that anymore. Yeah. Or take out the list. I just thought like. I don't know. I saw videos and stuff of it, and there was just all sorts of, feces Yeah, exactly. And stuff in the water. And I was like, that just doesn't look like a good time to me. I'm, yeah. Yeah. And that might have been more what? Like, I don't know if you really do swim with them, like, I don't know if you get in the ocean. Yeah, you do? Mm-hmm. Okay. I mean, I, I know swimming, but like I'm with you. Like, I would see that and be like, no, thanks, I'm good. I'll sit on the beach and pet'em. But yeah, that's gotta be really disgusting. No, thank you. I'm good. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, uh, there's a lot of dumb things I'll do, but especially if an animals involved, that is not one of them. Yeah. We won't be doing that one. Did I talk about that show? The, good American family last week. I feel like you did, somebody did gimme a synopsis, and I'll tell you, it's about a girl that gets adopted from, Romania, I think. And the family thinks that she's lying and, and she's actually an adult because she has dwarfism. Oh yeah. I, yeah, you did. And I'm looking it up right now. I you, I think you mentioned it. Did you watch it all? I did. It's two seasons. I watched the whole thing and, but I didn't realize it was based off of a true story. Shut up. Yeah, I know. I've seen that online order. I'm like, oh my gosh. Because all the stuff that happened in the second season, and I was like, and it was all based off of a true story. Crazy. And so a girl on TikTok, Who is around the same age said that they're, she was from the same orphanage as, the girl in the, in the show. Mm-hmm. Natalia, I think, or Natalia Grace, I think is her name. Okay. And they were told that they, they thought she was like sold off her body parts like organs. Was she, disabled in any way? She had a walker, but it, it was because of her dwarfism and, Okay. The family didn't get her the surgeries and stuff that she was supposed to have. In the show it, it says that the adoption agency told them she had these surgeries prior to her being adopted. Mm-hmm. And then as the show develops, like there's no records of any of these surgeries and Yeah. Whatever. So she had a lot of issues, um, as far as like her feet and her legs mm-hmm. As she got older. But, like mentally she was all there and Wow. I'll just added that one to my list and I told you about the other one. My sister was telling me about Ransom Canyon. Mm-hmm. I need that one's on my list too, but I'm still digging Gossip Girl right now. Mm-hmm. Or do you really identify with Blair more than Serena? Yeah. I like, I like Blair better than Serena. I get, I get it. Okay. So it's not that identify, take that, take that out. I was more of a Blair fan than a Serena fan fan. It's pretty good though in season, towards the end of season two. So it's, it's twisted enough that I mm-hmm. cool. Oh, you are like a history buff word. Yeah. Me, not so much, but this, I get these weird emails every day and it has like these weird facts and I don't know how I got signed up to it, but I'm like, oh, well this here's my weird fact for the day. Did you know? And I was like, oh my gosh, Meredith is gonna love this, so give it to me. The Eiffel Tower mm-hmm. Was sold twice, like in a fake sale, twice by the same guy. How and what I, Victor Lustig, I don't know if that's how you say his last name, but sold the Eiffel Tower. Not once, but twice. In 1925, the well-established conman moved to Paris in the summer and set his sights on fooling top French scrap metal companies out of their money in an elaborate ruse, first he had stationary made up for himself, adorned with the official seal of the French government, making him appear as though he had held an official government job. On the stationary, he crafted letters to several large names in the French scrap metal industry, inviting them to a meeting with him at the hotel day. To discuss, I can't speak French, to, to discuss the future Me, we, we, To discuss the future of the iconic French landmark. At the meeting, he reportedly told them, because of the engineering faults, costly repairs and political problems that he couldn't discuss, they were tearing down the Eiffel Tower. Because it was now a liability. The Eiffel Tower, of course, was not actually going anywhere. The meeting attendees were none the wiser though, and competitively bid in an effort to be the one to buy the tower. Lustig received his payment and they in return, received nothing. This happened twice. Oh my gosh. Lustig continued to con his way through the world for 10 more years, and ultimately was caught in 1935, sentenced to 20 years at Alcatraz. Oh my gosh. Yeah Lessig Con worked so well, obviously because there was no like tracking back then either. But yeah, as he was so hard to catch, he reportedly had 50 aliases pens of fake passports and concocted allure so complex and confusing that the name he was officially logged under at Alcatraz, Robert V. Miller wasn't even his real name. That is crazy, right? I I have questions like, why did he think he was gonna get away with it? Did he have any connections to, I mean, I know you don't know the answers, but he did get away with it for 10 years. Right? But I mean, but why did he think that? That nobody was gonna, I mean, it's not like a little thing you can hide. Could you imagine though, like the, so the crew comes to start like taking down the iPhone tower. There still people at the top. Somebody's getting engaged up there. He's down on one knee and all of a sudden some beams are falling. then I'm like, how much did he get away with it? Didn't have the amount that he got away with Yeah. In the article, but, and then I'm like, is that what he got arrested on or was it like his other cons that he was Yeah. Trouble around the world doing probably something stupid and probably something like tax evasion. Like, Al Capone, they get arrested for something, but he, he was like shoplifting Yeah. Parking tickets that had backed up. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So that was a good one that I saw. I was like, oh, this is fun. That is fun. Fun might be the wrong word. No, I'm just kidding. That was fun. Well, do you wanna do I, am I the A-hole? Yeah. Okay. Am I the a-hole for leaving the weekend friend trip after being made to sleep on the couch? Uh, female 29 and Josie Female 30 have been friends since high school. We live apart but still keep in very regular contact. I was invited to stay with her and her husband, Leo Male, 30 for a few days because their town was having a huge annual festival that we were all interested in attending. They had asked me to come early this year, maybe a month or so before they'd informed me. They invited some college friends to stay for the weekend as well. I was excited for this because I have only met their college friends a handful of times, and I know they're really close. The plan was for me to stay Thursday through Monday. I should also preface that when Josie and Leo bought their home, I stayed with them for a month while I was between jobs. This was many years ago now, but since it's been dubbed my room, it's obviously not actually mine, but I've stayed in it every time I visited them since I drove four hours to their place on Thursday when I arrived. Their college friends were there already and I was just shocked to see it wasn't just them. Josie and Leo had invited their friend, Shane and his fiance, and their friend Sarah and her husband. I've met Shane and Sarah before, but not their partners. I was immediately irritated because it felt like a couple's get together already. I have a partner of nearly three years who I live with Oliver, who Josie and Leo have met several times, and he was not invited on this trip. I tried to get over the awkwardness and exchange pleasantries until I went to go upstairs and put my bag away, and Josie and Leo stopped me and told me Shane and his fiance were staying in that room. I was like, whoops, my bad. I should not have assumed and asked if I was in the other smaller guest room. They said, no. Sarah and her husband were in there. They told me then that they hoped I was okay with sleeping on the couch. I was really trying not to be annoyed or cranky about this, but I had just driven five hours. And was under the impression I was getting a bedroom for the weekend, mostly because we had this weekend planned for months and they had never mentioned otherwise. I would not have been opposed to a couch sleep for maybe one night, but there was no way I was gonna sleep on the couch for the entire weekend, especially since we'd been drinking and partying pretty heavily. I asked them why they didn't tell me plans had changed so I could get a hotel sooner, and they insisted they didn't think I'd have a problem sleeping on the couch. Apparently Sarah and her husband were planning on getting a hotel but waited too long and couldn't find an affordable one last minute. At this point, I was really irritated by both the partner situation and the sleeping arrangements. I called Oliver and he was upset for me. We both looked for hotels in the area, but couldn't find anything affordable for the entire weekend. I told Oliver about the couples and he was annoyed to not be invited since he likes Josie and Leo a lot. Finally, after like an hour back and forth, Oliver asked if I wanted to come home and honestly I did. I privately told Josie and Leo. I was uncomfortable by the situation. Almost every wished everyone a good time and drove back home. I got a call Saturday morning from Josie and she was really disappointed. I'd acted so rashly and she wished I had stayed. I told her that I didn't understand why she didn't update me on the sleeping situation as soon as she knew about it, and she told me the only reason I was booted to the couch was because Sarah and her husband both couldn't fit. So then I asked why she didn't invite Oliver if she invited all the other people's partners, and she said Sorry. They just hadn't thought about it. I told her I was upset and hurt about the situation. I didn't regret leaving. I received another message from her last night saying everyone had left and she was really disappointed in me that I ruined her weekend because she was upset the entire time. I'm starting to feel bad and also FOMO from not being there. Fear missing out, right? Mm-hmm. I had really been looking forward to the festival and hanging out with everyone. Anyway, am I the a-hole for leaving there's two edits. Do you wanna talk about it before we get to the edits? Yeah, I, well, first of all, if I was drinking, I wouldn't have cared where I was sleeping. Like me personally, I'd whatever, if you are partying and, and drinking like a couch is totally fine for me, but whatever. Yeah. But I would be mad that my significant other wasn't invited when the other ones were. And like for it to be so dismissed of like, well, I just didn't think about it. Yeah. I just think about it. They had her on the couch. Right. It's not like it's a new, a new partner, it's somebody she's been with for years. Yeah. That really likes these people. But my thing is I can afford my own hotel. So if I'm gonna go somewhere, I'm not gonna sleep on a floor. Like, or you know what I, and that's me. That's how I, how I feel. Some people are totally fine with it. I feel like they've been friends long enough that they should each kind of know how they are with what they'd probably be okay with and whatnot. I don't think she's an a-hole either. it'd even be different. I'm not saying it'd be better or worse, but different if she were single Yeah. And all the other were couples. Right. I don't think she's an a-hole at all. I don't, yeah, I don't think so either. I love that her significant other was very supportive. And Me too. Yeah. Just drop, like, just deal with it for the weekend. No. Like, do you wanna come home? Are you uncomfortable? Come home. Yeah. I like that too. A lot. Let's get into the edits. Edit one. As I'm reading through the comments, I'm untangling some of the feelings I was having. I'm upset by being assigned to the couch, especially because it was last minute and I was not told beforehand. An entire weekend of partying with an uncomfortable sleeping arrangement and no privacy really sounded miserable. And I agree that's part of it too. You're asleep on the couch. You never know when people are gonna come in and walk through. And it's not necessarily the uncomfortable physical part. It is the lack of privacy and lack of space. Mm-hmm., An entire weekend of partying, no privacy sounded miserable. I'm not 22 anymore, she says. But I do think I'm more upset about Oliver's exclusion and just didn't piece it together. Really held onto the couch as an excuse. It really did feel like it was made into a couple's weekend. And somehow Oliver and I were excluded from that. I hated immediately feeling like the seventh will. I get that. And then this is just a really quick edit. Number two, I did not know Shane and Sarah's partners were gonna be there literally until I walked in and saw'em. I a hundred percent feel like she was completely in the right and I met her friend, gaslighting her with all the text messages saying, you've ruined my weekend is complete. BS like, yeah, the selfishness of that. Forget it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Forget it. That was, not okay. I, so many of these people that are still friends with their high school friends that I just feel bad for because of the stuff that they have to, they, they, the dynamics are different now, like, right. Okay girl, you are not the a-hole though. Mm-hmm. No. Um, Alright, so we are going to do our book review. Yep. So if you're not a bookie piece out, if you have not read, no one Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall and you want to read it and you don't want to have spoilers, now is your time to leave. Please exit the building and, but we love you and please leave us a route and tell a million friends that you love us and to listen to us. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye. Okay. Alright, so we read No one Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall. Mm-hmm. And my chat GBT says, 14 years after their parents' murder, Emma Palmer returns to her childhood home, still co-owned with her. Estr sisters desperate and pregnant, forced to confront the trauma. She's kept secret as the sisters reunite, long buried tensions and mysteries resurfaced. Pushing Emma to question what really happened that night. The deeper she digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes and the more she wonders what her sisters might do to keep it hidden. So I have, I read this like probably like two months ago. And I really liked it. It kept me interested the whole time. Absolutely. There was like twists kept coming, one after the other. I really, really, really like the book and I've read other stuff by this author and I like her other books as well. I've tried to read other stuff by her since I read this and I can't get into them. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. But I, wait, what was her name? Do you have the name? Kate Alice Marshall. Yeah. I tried to read something the other day by her and it just didn't hit me the same, so I'll need to try another one. But I did like this book too. It was different. I had a lot of thoughts on how she make all this work out or where is this going to, tie together. I had no idea who done it. I remember thinking, what if, what if it was, well we already said spoilers, so what if it was like, you know, murder, suicide or whatever, but how would that have worked? Like, I remember thinking that, but then, the way they talked about it, it just didn't seem possible. But then like all of the little, like sprinkles of the past, coming to light. From everybody and there were so many different possibilities. Mm-hmm. That made sense. Yeah. That, I mean, from the, from the cop that the mom was having the affair to, I mean, I just all over the place. I Right. I I had no clue. I was clueless. Yeah. And then I thought that Emma's husband had something to do with it somehow. Like I thought, like he was somehow I did. I did too. I, okay. So I did not like him at all, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. Did not like him at all. Yeah. And I was like, is he the son of whoever killed him? Like, I was trying to find a connection in there with how Yeah. With you. Like how is he involved in this?'cause there's no way she really likes this guy.'cause he's just a jerk. Yeah. I was trying to figure out if he was like friends with this group that hung out in the little abandoned clubhouse or whatever it was. Yeah. There. And she didn't really know, you know, I, my, my brain went in like every direction possible when I listen to this book Uhhuh. And that doesn't happen very often. Like, I don't get super hooked where is this going very often. Yeah. But it was just such a different take on like a murder mystery. It was, it was, and I think this was probably one of the darkest books we've read. I felt like that because there was so much, trauma and just like the abuse from the parents to the girls and they would just brush it off. Mm-hmm. Like, well it's, you know, he doesn't leave Mark, so it's not a big deal. Um. Um, between that abuse and then just other situations I don't know, I just felt like this was a very dark book. Yeah. But a book I liked now, I really liked it though, but I feel like there's a lot of innuendo with things. Like there was a lot she didn't say as an author, like, I need you to come out and tell me what's going on. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I appreciate the suspense of things. Mm-hmm. But then when it's time for me to know, I need you to put it in black and white. Yeah. Or loud audio, like there, because there's some stuff that I, and I don't even remember what they are at this point, but I remember thinking, well, is she like, is she gay? Mm-hmm. And yeah, she was, but like they, it's never like flat out said. Yeah. Yeah. So there was a lot of things like that that. Didn't really affect the story too much, but I still wanted to know. Mm-hmm. I loved it. I love this book. Yeah, I did too. It again, because I'm sure I missed stuff. Right? That's what I'm sitting here thinking. Maybe I, maybe I should do it again, but I a hundred percent love this book. I'd give it a nine-ish, maybe even a 9.5. Same. It was, it was so good. Easy to follow. Like I said, there were just some pieces that I'm like, come out and tell me what exactly you're trying to say. You wanna little bit more. Yeah. I think that's just her style. It's just to keep you hooked too. Very good, very good book. Yeah, I, I was all in on it. Um, yeah, I'm glad we changed books. We moved to that one. Speaking of changing books, I started reading our next week's book, and I don't, I was, I was looking at the list and I saw there were some things blacked out on it, so I didn't like it. And so I think we can just move on to, p we'll skip over o okay, so pretty little wife. Pretty little wife by Darby Kae do you have a blurb for it? I do. Okay, so Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kae will be for next week. Leila Ridgefield lives in the idyllic college town, but not everything is what it seems. Leila isn't what she seems a student managed months ago. Now, Lela's husband Erin, is also missing. At first, these cases were treated as horrible coincidences until it's discovered that the student is really the third of three unexplained disappearances over the last few years. The police are desperate to find the connection if there even is one little, do they know that? They might be stumbling over only part of the truth. While the small town is in an upper, everyone is worried about the whereabouts of their beloved high school teacher. Everyone except for Lela, his wife, she's definitely confused about her missing husband, but only because she was the last person to see his body and now it's gone. That sounds good. I just downloaded it. Um, alright, well thank you guys for listening. We hope that you enjoyed our craziness and we love you. Please leave us a review, tell your friends and thank you. We love you bye. Alright, that wraps up another episode of, this is My Circus. If you survive this episode and somehow still like us, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, share it with your friends, or just send us caffeine. And don't forget, you can join our VIP circus crew for the full video version of each episode. Also exclusive bonus content, access to merch, and so much more Until next time, keep the drink strong. The book's coming, and the kids only mildly Ferrell because this is our circus and these are our monkeys. Love ya.