Coffee and Cuddles Season 2 Episode 11 Year In Review

Our yearly wrap up. We talk all things milestones for 2024.

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Transcript

CC Season 2 Episode 11 Year in Review

Good evening, or good morning or good afternoon wherever you happen to be listening. Welcome to Coffee and Cuddles. I am Craig aka coffee by my side, as always, is the effervescent, ebullient, um, extravaganza that is my girlfriend Anna, aka cuddles. Hello. Welcome to the end of the year or as we like to call her on here A Year in Review, subtitled what the hell do we do all year? I don't know. So what did we do? Oh, so many things. I don't even know where to begin. Well, begin. You must, must I? You must. I pass it to my fair haired, fair sex partner over here. Oh, well, thank you so much. So let's see. We're going back to the beginning of the year, the 1st of January, 2024. Well, I need to go just back a little bit before that because we started this podcast. Roughly a year and five days ago. Okay, so there's that. Okay. So we began our adventures into this podcast. We did. There is a lot of stuff that happened with you in school. I'm sure way too much that is that has happened. I oh gosh, you know, in 2024, I finished a year and then had my, my summer off. And then I started another year. So I teach second grade, which is quite an adventure as I can have upwards of 27 students. Um, so I finished a year with, I think I was at 27 when I finished, and I am currently at 21 students, so it's it doesn't sound like a big difference, but it is. It's. Fewer students, more opportunity to, you know, work in small groups and really help them with the things that they're missing. I'm over here nodding my head as if you can see me doing that. I was watching you then, and then I realized nobody else can see you do that for me. That's right out there with you pointing at things. So we're even. Well, now, before everybody says, oh, so 20, 24, she points at things. I think that's just a bad habit I have when I'm talking to somebody and they're not in the same room with me. And I say, well, if you look right here and then I realize that I'm pointing at things, that I'm the only one who can see that. She points at the screen a lot when I'm like, with my back to her sitting on the couch and say, can't you see it? I'm looking at, no, I can't, I'm I'm good, but I'm not that good. I mean, I do have eyes in the back of my head as a parent, but I can't see like around corners yet. Well why not? Maybe next year maybe. Ooh, that would be that would be interesting for 2025. That's a stretch goal. That is that's a very lofty ideal. You. Uh, let's see. 2024 while I started. I start school in May of 24. I think you did. Yeah, I started I started going to Lapu in May and I'm done with several semesters there. I think I did three, three semesters, which is roughly 12 classes. Yes. Yeah, it's about 12 classes because each semester is cut in two and there's two classes in each one. So yes, it's a lot of classes. Thankfully I'm done. I'm done with the traveling. Hopefully I'll be starting at a new school after the first of the year. We'll see how that goes. You know, I don't know if they've got until until Friday. I hadn't heard back or Thursday, I hadn't heard anything from the school forever. And they said, well, we thought you weren't done with your other one until the 20th, but if they're out of work because of the holidays, I don't know how much time they really have to get me enrolled and get the classes I want and get me set up in the system and all these other things, so it maybe get pushed back until I think they have another, another class starting in March, February or March. So I may just tell them, look, it's too much, too much of a rush. I don't want to be trying to figure out your website and your school on my first week of a new semester. That's too much pressure and too much, too much. Ah, so we don't we don't want that. So you may be having an extended vacation. That would be oh I'm jealous. Well, that would be good because that would give me time to work on all the new projects that I'm working on, like our Substack account and our beehive account and whatever else I can come up with. To keep myself just enough busy so I can't get anything done. Yeah, that that's like me and I tried very hard this year to have like, notes written down. You know, this needs to get done. This needs to get done, this needs to get done. And I've gotten better about it. But sometimes my my post-it notes tend to disappear or they get stuck on other papers or in my head I wrote the post-it note when it never actually came, went from my brain on to said post-it note. I do that too, I think. I think I've done something in like days when I realized I didn't do it, I was supposed to do so and so it was an exciting adventure. When you can't figure out where notes are. Or didn't I write that down somewhere? No, no you didn't not not even a little bit. But in the back of your head you saw yourself writing it down. It just never came to fruition. Fruition. Fruition. Not fruit. Fruition. And then McCoy was jumping up here. He's our our little studio mascot. Our studio mascot, for lack of a better term. Didn't we have, um, his one year celebration with the rest of his letter mates? Yes. That was February. Yes. So he'll he's coming up on two, which he's coming up on the net somehow because he, he started as this tiny little dog that would lay on my forearm and now pointing to a forearm, I am running my hand on my forearm for those playing along at home. And now, of course, you know, I think one of his legs can lay on my forearm. Not the dog, just the leg of the dog. So we had a birthday party with his brothers and sisters and, um, one of the people who adopted a dog from the litter already had a dog, so I can say he, the McCoy, had a party with his brothers and sisters and his his cousin, his cousin Vinny, his cousin Vinny, which is just absolutely adorable. We here at the podcast mean no copyright infringement with a movie by a similar name. So he's he had a birthday party this year. Um. What else has been going on? Um, sadly, uh, Saturday night, we lost our cat this year. Oh, yeah, a few months ago. Not to bring it back down, but she crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Um, September. You know, it's it's hard for me to remember now to keep that date in my head. Um, blue is. And I just. I can't put it in past tense, but blue is my oldest. She's been with me. Oh, gosh. She's been with me from my first apartment to my my first house. And it was very hard to realize that she was really starting to struggle with, like, things, being able to get to her litter box and then her hiding behavior. And I cannot have gotten through this without you. Um, I feel the same way. I couldn't have done it either. Having to actually speak with, um. Of that to to go through the to go through the process and to explain. Right. You know, this is what's happening with the cat. And I think it's time to actually I can't even put my name on the paperwork. I had to beg you to do it because I just I couldn't sign it and then. Right. Um, see, that's that's one of the things that I like about us is. And this is true of any of you out there to have what I consider to be a real, a real partner, a real wife, husband, boyfriend, whatever best friend. It doesn't have to be a relationship like we have, but I think that's one of the cornerstones of a good relationship, is being able to step in when the other person absolutely can't do something. I know when I was put on insulin this last year, that's another milestone for the year was going on insulin. I'll talk about more of that in a minute. But when I looked at the needle and they're not big needles. They're not they're not big around. They're not they're not long. It's a tiny little piece of metal, really. But I looked at this needle and I said, I absolutely can't do it. And you had said, I don't know what I'm doing, but if you need me to, I will give you your shots. I think I actually did one. You helped with one. I said you had to do it and then you, then you. Yeah, I actually I actually had to do the needle and push the plunger and. Right. So I'm very thankful to you for that. So. Anytime that you can have a partner that does that for you. And like I said, it doesn't have to be your because we're not a typical we're not a typical typical couple. Easy for me to say. We have we have people that we know from online that want to date online people and they say, well, it worked out for you guys. I'm like, yeah, but you have to look at it from a standpoint of both of us came into this with like a combined what, 50 years of relationship at least. Mhm. Relationship crap and trauma and baggage and and there there are good things mixed in. I don't want you to think it was all bad or anything. All the experiences that we went through were all bad. But we came at this from a totally different aspect than most people do. Most people meet and they they start hanging out, they start dating. They get, you know, they get really involved. They move in together, all these things and then realize, what did I do? Or how did I end up here? Because I don't know how I ended up here because you're not the person I thought you were. So we came into this from from the mindset of, okay, here's all my crap, there's all your crap, and we're not going to combine. We're not going to combine them. But we're going to be like, okay, this is what we need to do and this is how we're going to work things out. So we always tell people that we are not typical couple material, and we always say almost every episode. We're not experts. We just talk about what works for us and what doesn't work for us. And if it works for you, great. If it doesn't work for you, hey, that's fine too. We're not trying to be role models here, because I don't know that we're really role model material based on our track records, but hey, we're human. We try, you know? So one more thing. I want to tie back into the insulin. I've been insulin for not quite a year now. I think I forgot I started like six months ago for the past week or more. Two weeks. I don't think it's been two weeks that I've been that. It's only been since. So I've been a little over a week that I've been. Oh, because you said something about two weeks earlier today. It's close to two weeks. One of my goals that one doctor gave me was she wanted to see my my resting blood sugar below 100, or when I wake up in the morning, I want to see below 100. And I thought, that's a goal I'm never going to get to. No matter what I do. I'm too old. I'm just setting my ways, my body is too messed up, whatever. And for the last week or two, my waking numbers have been like 70 and 80 and 94. And if you have diabetes or you know somebody does, you know that those are amazing numbers. For somebody that was told that they would be on insulin forever and be on metformin forever. So. With the help of my amazing partner I am, I'm getting closer and closer to getting off all the stupid meds. First we're getting off the insulin and then I'm getting off the metformin. You know, and I'm going to keep pushing and I'm never going to go back on these stupid medications again. Thank you. Um, let's see what else has been going on. Um, it seems a lot of school related stuff. Yeah, there has there has been a lot of. I made my first children's book in Canada this year. Yes, you did, and you did that. Um. There was some, like, video. Or maybe I'm just thinking of the children's book because they had a lot of different components to it. I had to do a, um, a podcast type thing for my art class, which, when I saw one of the choices they gave me was a podcast. I'm like, I know how to do that. So I'm just gonna I'm just gonna whip one out real quick or whip one up or whatever, whatever it is. I'm going to cast a pod real quick like, and do that. Um oh, I tried blogging this year, which you did, and then it kind of went okay. And then it fell short because of all the stuff I deal with in my day to day at my job, but I'm gonna give it another go. So I'm going to start it again. Yes. Before this year ends. Okay. You can look for that on I'm not sure if that's going to go on Substack or Beehive. It may be I don't know. Wherever it goes, I'm going to put the links in the show notes, so you'll be able to subscribe to us there and follow along. It's going to be a mix of blogging and articles about coffee and coupling and, um, cuddles and everything to do with the show will be there in some some way, shape or form so you can follow along there. And eventually we will have we will have merch. Uh, I'm trying to design our I, I made a new logo, but I'm not 100% happy with it yet. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to find a logo designer to really make us a professional logo, and that way it will already be in all the formats that we're going to need. So for obvious reasons, the first product we're going to have is going to be a coffee mug. And then we'll go to other stuff from there. But I think that that'd be great. And maybe our research department, J.W., will be able to help us with that. We actually have a researcher now. So look at us. Watch us grow. Um. What else? Oh. So, um, somebody that I've known for. Oh, gosh, I think I've known her for 6 or 7 years. Brianna. Oh, yes. So. Yes. Um, so it is possible to, to do adult adoptions. Yes. And, um, I decided that, you know, I'm I'm going to make this, you know, I'm going to make this happen for us. We treat each other like mother and daughter, and I think. Both of us kind of need that that missing piece in, in our, in our lives. So, um, I told her about it this year and hopefully I will be able to get that going very, very soon. Um, I've learned a lot about how things work with. Um, how things work with courts, and I visited the IRS building this year. Um, that's a milestone that, you know, that I never want to have to repeat that. Um, that was quite an interesting experience to not realize that they really want you to have an appointment and then showing up, and they won't let you go upstairs because you don't have an appointment. And then you finally get up there and you explain your story and they tell you, you know, you could be waiting a couple of hours, and next thing you know, you're actually talking to somebody while everybody else is shooting dirty looks, because they've been sitting there waiting because they had appointments. But hey, it's a shame that you had to wait. We're sorry for that. But I got it. I got that squared away. Um, we went to, um, Ovation Hollywood this year. That was a first for us. It was all that was shopping center. That's kind of outdoors. It's with a courtyard. It's got to explain it. Okay, so think of the malls of the 80s where all the shops were inside a building. So imagine them taking the outer walls off. And now the stores are on the outside, but there's gathering places in the center, and that's pretty much what ovation is. Um, I survived actually driving there, which driving in Los Angeles is extremely intimidating for me. People go very fast and they don't realize there are other cars on the road. And, you know, I'm usually in a death grip on my steering wheel like, oh my gosh, are we going to get there? I think they're real. I think they don't care. You're in their way. That's that's how everybody drives in L.A. it's like you're I'm sorry that you're on my freeway now, but you're in my way. And I'm going, whether you're in the way or not. It's it's very anxiety causing. I think I do better every time we have to go into LA, but it's still one of those, you know, my hands hurt by the end because my knuckles, fingerprints in the steering wheel, my knuckles are totally white and my fingers hurt from gripping the steering wheel like, oh, we're never going to get there. But we have, um. We've done other things in LA, but I can't. I can't quite put my finger on. We went to, um, an L.A. library. Yes. When that's, you know, many floors high and two city blocks on. Yeah. That was that was an adventure. Just trying to figure out, you know, what staircase and and elevators to take. Um, we learned that not all libraries let you sign up for cards like we went to one. And because we're not homeowners and said city or work or our students and said city, we were told to get library cards was going to cost us $150 each. Yes, for one year. Yes. To be able to go to this. So as much as I like libraries and supporting libraries, I'm not I'm not paying $150 for the privilege of checking books out of your library. Now. So, I mean, we can go into the city of Los Angeles to those libraries. So we've got a card for that. And then like where we live, they're county they're L.A. County libraries. So the L.A. Public Library is not connected to the L.A. County Library, even though LA is in LA County. So I just figure, you know, I'll just show both cards and say, which one do you take? Um, we also signed up for Long Beach because we, I guess we live close enough to Long Beach where they they really don't care if you live there or not. So. Well, the way our city is designed, I mean, you take one step to the side and you're in one city. You take a step forward, you're in another city, you take a step backwards. You're in a different city. Although technically I didn't start this year, but this year I made my first blanket as a Christmas present for Anna. It is the warmest, most. Comfortable thing in the world. And. And the reason for the, the color yarn is because we belong to a group called good B, Long Beach GSL. B someone gave me contractor sized garbage bags full of of yarn. Some was wool, some was acrylic. And I had this, I don't know, it was like a £3. If you do any work with you on, you can imagine how big this is. It was like this. Excuse me? The size of a football. It's it's Burnett baby blanket yarn. And the color pattern is pitter patter, pitter patter. So it's not really adult colors, but I'm like, hey, this is nice. What are you thinking? She said, oh, that's nice and soft. We should do something with that. And that got the gears rolling. So I learned how to I learned how to knit and I've made other I've made scarves and things, but I never made a blanket before. But I learned how to knit so I can make a blanket for her and make other stuff for her. So and this is the year that she got me good with Christmas, I wasn't. Oh that was. If you listen to last week's episode, you'll know she got me good. So that that was the first for her. She made me speechless. Absolutely. I was like. Now I've made him speechless before. Um. Like this. Like with the straight. No or no, Dave. Cause or cause was. Yeah. Dave Koz tickets. You got me here, too, because I mentioned it. And then you're like, next thing I know, it's like, guess where we're going? Like where? Straight, no chaser. What? But she's very sneaky. Hahahahaha! Well, when it comes to giving gifts, I like to know things that people like because I would feel awful if I, you know, went out and got something found out. You know, that's a color that they detest or that's something that they'll never use or it's going to wind up in the back of a cabinet somewhere. So I really like to try to get things that I know somebody is going to appreciate. And it's great when people make wish lists, but at the same time, it's like there's got to be things that people. You know, are wanting and they just, you know, they've never mentioned it before. So he had actually mentioned. Can I say what it is. So he's actually mentioned the Nintendo Switch before. And it was kind of in the back of my mind. But you know, price wise, you know, I just was never really sure because I'm trying to be very good about getting other things paid off. But this year it's like, I don't want to get him, you know, crafting stuff because I feel like I've been doing a lot of that lately, and I wanted something where he just be like, oh my gosh, that's something that I've been wanting. So then it was a matter of, you know, shoot, I don't know which one. And if I ask him, he might know what I'm up to. So it was just kind of okay, let's, you know, see if I can find somebody who can deliver this in time. Because by the time I, you know, made up my mind, it's like, oh, shoot, can I get this delivered in time? And to see him, like, literally not be able to say a word, his jaw bounced off the couch and popped back into its socket, and he was just completely flabbergasted. Flabbergasted? That was a good word. Yes, so I was I was very glad to, you know, do something that he was just like. In shock. I mean, the other one, you were kind of. No, you weren't really. Well, I guess you were kind of sort of like, yay, I got this, you know, I got the Cologne. Yay! I like my smell. Good stuff. You do. You're the first. You're the first person I've ever really worn that on a regular basis for me, because it makes you happy. So my philosophy is if I can do something that and not because it doesn't cost me anything, but if I can do something that is really no extra effort, that makes my partner giddy and happy, why? Why wouldn't you do it? I don't understand people that have to be trifling and and ridiculous about oh well, yeah, they like that. But I'm not going to do it because I don't want to. Or because I had a dream where I was mad at them in a dream. So now I'm going to be mad at them in real life. Well, don't you know what you did in my dream? How would I know? I you know, I, I don't I don't understand it. I don't get it. You know, I feel like there's other, other things that happen this year, and I'm just drawing a blank. I'm sure we'll think of something tomorrow, or I'm going to end up thinking, you know what's going to happen? It's going to happen at 3 a.m., I'm going to be awake, because somewhere in the 3:00 hour, I have a tendency to wake up. And that's when I'm going to realize, wow, we should have talked about da da da da da da da da da da. I'm drawing a blank I really can't think of. And like you, I'm sure there's other things that are that we did that we had this year or. Oh, we saw the 70th anniversary of White Christmas on the big screen in VistaVision. That was cool. We saw the 20th anniversary of, um, Polar Express. That was such a blast. And if you're thinking, wait, Polar Express is not more of a kid's movie. Yes. And when it comes to Christmas, I'm a great big kid. Um, there wasn't a lot of people in the theater, but it was primarily adults. Yeah, and the kids who were in there, you weren't happy when you saw how many were walking in, but you were very pleased with with how they acted. What's the movie star? They all shut up and they were all well-behaved and like, oh, I like this, this is nice. Mhm. And when we went to see um, White Christmas, we were in a theater with a lot of people who were also confused about the theater that we were in, because the theater changed from when we bought the tickets. Yes. And we're like, I mean, oh yeah, same movie. All right. Now I guess we'll sit here and we'll find out together for all wrong or not exactly. And we'll find out if any of us are in the right seats. Um, other than that, now let's see, by the time this is released, it will be, um, we're thinking. I'm thinking. I'm thinking we're going to release it on, on on Wednesday, the New Year's Eve. That would be cool. So yes, Tuesday. So we can release it on Tuesday that way. Oh, that'd be awesome. You're in your view. Or the first? That would be the first. I don't know. Between Wednesday and Thursday we'll get it out to you. So the next. So when this gets released we will be all cheering for 2025. So we want to wish you a very Happy New Year. Yes we hope we each and everyone who has an amazing 2025, that would be awesome. It's got to be better than 24, right? Exactly. I'm not going to say the other part of that where it can't be. Um, the 24 was oh, okay. Yes. Well, we don't want we don't want to poke the bear. You know what? Here's here's how you should treat 2025. I'm going to give everybody an assignment. I want you to every day of 2025, write down one amazing thing from that day. Stick it in a jar. And at the end of the year, you will have your own year in review. Sounds like a plan to me. All right, I think that's going to do it for us. Thank you for being with us for the last year and two seasons. We appreciate each and every one of you. This is just our $0.02 worth. Your mileage may vary. As always, we love you all. We wish you a Happy New Year and God bless and we'll talk to you soon.