Post-Vacation Babbles

Ushering in the summer season just a little bit early. Eileen recalls some of the more obscure products long forgotten from the 70s, were they too legit or just full of Formaldehyde? GLP-1s are giving major side-eye, but why? Plus, don't miss a Gen-X Spotify Hack for those of you who are sick of the algorithm trying to dictate your mood.  Listen to the all-new minisode now!

Transcript

Eileen Kelly (00:00)
Other people living their lives and being happy and getting what they want doesn't take away from you living your own life and being happy and getting what you want. Most of us know that. Some of us don't.

Eileen Kelly (00:33)
Hi, welcome to Strangers with Kittens. I'm Eileen Kelly and I'm really glad you're here. And if you're watching this, this is Kermit sitting next to me With whom I do not have a license to converse. However, I was gifted him back in 19, I don't know, 78 maybe. So does that give him the right to sit in on our session?

I hope so. I got into podcasting in large part because it was not a visual medium. But then there's social media. And I really thought this bun was a good idea, but now I'm rethinking it. So if you're only listening, consider yourself lucky. I feel like I'm going through like a Romanian gymnast phase, so apologies for the less than stellar bun making abilities on my part. ⁓

It's Memorial Day almost. I can't believe it. I feel like we had such a cold winter that suddenly it was like boom, spring, boom, summer. And I know we're not officially in summer yet, but unofficially it is the kickoff to summer. And I am excited for this summer. Again, maybe it's the brutal winter that we had, but man, I don't recall looking forward to a summer. So.

enthusiastically since I was a kid or teenager but I cannot wait and I'm not even a really a summer person I'm saying this now once July hits and it's like 90 whatever my Irish blood will be like put me in the air conditioning with a cup of tea but right now I'm super excited I can't

wait to garden. I can't wait to just be in the yard. No like exotic, fantastic plans. I just can't wait for sunshine and greenery. And the beach. And I'm not even that much of a beach person. I love the Jersey Shore. just, I don't know, life happens and I don't get there nearly as much as I would like. And that's one of my goals for this summer is to make more time for things like that. We're not getting any younger.

And we gotta, I don't know, just clock more joy, you know? Just shoehorn it into wherever we can. I started rewatching Ted Lasso, because season four is coming in August, I think. so I started rewatching it, and I hadn't seen it since they originally aired. And I'm in season two now, and it's so good. It's so just,

life-affirming. So that's my goal for this summer is life-affirming, joy-seeking. ⁓ You know what else I was thinking about?

All the products that we used to have that have disappeared, like, I'm not gonna lie, the GLP-1 shots intrigued me. I don't think I'm alone in saying that we, putting on weight in midlife is not the greatest and your metabolism is definitely weird and not what it used to be. And I have quite a few friends who've had

Great success on GLP-1's. Shout out for anyone for whom that is the right choice. I read this really annoying, obnoxious article in New York Magazine about this person who...

Eileen Kelly (04:07)
this article about a woman who stopped being friends with her friend because the friend went on a GLP-1 for weight loss. And ⁓ I don't want to get into a big, controversial conversation here, but haven't, we reached a point where we live and let live. I don't know. It was so bratty and there's a lot of brattiness going on. feel like it's like the resurgence of brattiness.

I don't know, this like backward sort of trajectory of not letting people live and let live. I feel like we were, really on a good roll in the 2000s and the 20 teens with just being like, I'm going to stay in my lane. You stay in your lane. Good luck to you. Your cup of tea might not be my cup of tea. And that's cool. We can both drink our different teas and,

be great I don't know, I feel like there's a lot of backward movement with people not being able to mine their own biscuits. As Kacey Musgraves says, mine your own biscuits. What I tell my dogs when they're getting all like hyper about who's getting a treat first or who got the bigger treat, I'm like, your own biscuits. Mine your own biscuits and make your own gravy. That's the Casey Musgraves song.

and I think the song's called Biscuits, it's pretty great. ⁓ yeah, I feel like there's this sort of...

backlash, which like, why would there be a backlash against people just doing their own thing? But there is.

Other people living their lives and being happy and getting what they want doesn't take away from you living your own life and being happy and getting what you want. Most of us know that. Some of us don't.

Back to the GLP ones. So it does intrigue me, however, like I said, I have friends who have had a lot of success. I've had friends who've had to try two or three different brands to hit on the one that, ⁓

had the least side effects for them and gave them the most success. I just am not down for the side effects personally. so anyway, I was thinking about this because I've really been trying to get in shape and just be really strong, know, like just be really fit and strong. It's my goal. don't care about numbers or weight necessarily. just, ⁓ I wanna get in shape.

And I was thinking about all the ways, I mean, it was really toxic when we were kids in the 70s and 80s and the sort of body type that

the media, was trying to sell us was weak and scrawny and not a healthy physique, but there were so many weight loss options to help you achieve whatever your weight loss goals were. And, and they've since disappeared. Like the AIDS diet plan.

For those who didn't live through it, yes, we lived through AIDS where people were dying. And there was, unfortunately, before that became really known, there was an AIDS diet plan, spelled differently, AYDS, these chocolate chews that I think had ephedrine, ephedra.

⁓ Fen-Fen, I think they also called it. In the chews that it's a, it's speed, it's speed. So it curbs your appetite and gives you energy and Dexatrim, which might still exist, but now it's just got like green tea in it. Whereas before it had.

ephedrine in it, I think. I never tried that because I didn't need it back then. I mean, we were kids, I don't know anybody really who was on it. We also had one that a friend of mine, two friends of mine used to take called

Fiber trim, And it was just, I don't know, I think it was like Metamucil in a capsule kind of thing. it was just like concentrated capsules of fiber. So when you ate them and then you drank a bunch of water, it blew up in your stomach like one of those capsule sponge dinosaurs that your kids get at parties for party favors.

It would just expand in your stomach and make you fall. So you didn't eat, which where did those go? What was the harm in that? Let's get those back. All it was was fiber. I mean, it was the 70s and 80s, so who knows? It could have been asbestos, but they helped.

There were so many products that were so good that went away and I don't know why. Because we still have lots of chemical stuff around. So it's like, what's anybody got against Crystal Pepsi? It was good, it didn't have artificial color in it. Why don't we bring that back? ⁓ Nail polish. What was the nail polish that made it so good before and why do they all suck now? I know...

Months back, I was talking about this nail polish, this kind of gel nail polish that I bought this gel system, but it's not real gel. It's not a UV light. It's an LED light. But it's like so many things. It works really well in the beginning and then it doesn't. And I don't know. It's slightly better than Essie in terms of peeling, but not much.

You know, maybe you get three days before it starts peeling instead of one. And then I paid 27 extra dollars to get Dazzle Dry at my manicure last week. And it chipped after like four days. So yeah, a little bit better. But do remember how just your basic Sally Hanson, Hard as Nails or Cutex or Revlon.

Revlon Mango Mango, remember that color? It was so fantastic for summer. I don't if it still exists. But They all changed their formulas. And I'm sure it's because they had formaldehyde or something terrible. But they used to last, I mean, at least a week, more like 10 days. And you didn't have to do anything special. They took a while to dry. And maybe that's what it is. Maybe with the quick drying option, it's like a trade off.

If it dries fast, it chips, and if it dries slowly, it doesn't, but it's a pain, because then you gotta just sit there with wet nails for an hour. bring back the long-drying, long-lasting nail polish, please. I miss a lot of those products that worked, and were just easy to get a hold of, and were fun, you know?

Eileen Kelly (10:52)
I could talk about getting our old nail polish back until the cows come home and it won't get our old nail polish back. I don't know if it's oh, there was formaldehyde in it so we can't use it anymore. It might just be the nail polish companies figured out that if nail polish chips in two days instead of 10, they sell more nail polish.

I mean, that's true, right? But back to the GLP-1 article. I'm sure it's one of the most shared articles because many people have to feel the way.

I feel about it, which is just like mind your own business. People have such strong feelings about weight loss drugs. And I don't really understand why you wouldn't be happy for your friend who's happy.

So this friend hid her GLP-1 use from her other friend because her other friend, the one who wrote the article, had long recovered from an eating disorder, which I understand to be an ongoing process, lifelong process.

That's your...

responsibility. I'm not trying to be cruel or callous. just, the mentality of the whole world needs to do things that suit me, that conform to what I need.

is ludicrous.

And I feel like we got that for a while, and now we're backsliding. It's this childish mentality of you need to do things the way I need them done. so this woman was friends with this other woman for many, many years.

The woman who, was using the GLP-1 drug, was an exceptional friend. Gave this friend a place to live when she couldn't afford her rent, like really above and beyond self-sacrificing, really solid friend. And hired her friend to watch her cat.

also, I think, in part because she knew her friend needed money. And why not help? know, like if you need someone, hire your friend. And then you help them, and you help you. All very solid, all very considerate and conscientious. And while this friend was entrusted with her other friend's apartment and belongings, which is

something that should be handled.

carefully and with respect. She opened up her fridge and saw that there were vials of GLP-1 and she was furious and claimed that she was mostly furious because her friend had kept it from her. But really

The real reason that she was upset is because she had had an eating disorder when she was young and felt that this was wrong and that this was going to potentially tip her over into dangerous territory. So ⁓ that's a you problem.

Maybe you start going to therapy, maybe you go to a group, maybe you turn to a different friend for support on that. But your friend who's using a GLP-1 doesn't have to live her life for you. It was just such a bratty, entitled, selfish point of view. And

It got me so angry. just, I don't get how people feel like they have the right to say how someone else should live their lives.

How does someone choosing to use a GLP-1 for weight loss affect you? You could choose to or not. Either way, someone else's decision doesn't affect you. Maybe you feel jealous. Maybe you wish that you had the weight loss without the side effects. Well, that's not how it works. And your friend...

may have side effects and and that's their choice right they they weighed the pros and cons and felt that this was the best choice for them and they're going to do whatever they need to do to be successful and get the results that they want and along with that might come hard work some side effects whatever but that's

That's on them, And other people having such an opinion about it is just so bizarre to me. I guess it's feeling like people are cheating maybe, which...

I also don't understand because none of us are starting from the same place, Life is not fair. Some people start on third base. Some people start in the outfield. They're not even in the infield. And they're expected to run all the bases and make it to home. And the people that start on third base are saying to the people that start in the outfield, maybe not even in the outfield, maybe...

Out of the ballpark. And the people that start on third base are like, what's their problem? Look at me. I'm almost at home. Good for you. That's where you started. That's your journey. And other people have to try a lot harder or do things differently. And that's their journey. And it doesn't affect you. I have a friend who is on a GLP-1.

has said for years how I feel like it's, unless I've just been sleeping on this, I feel like the term food noise is fairly new. But she used to describe what I now know to be food noise, but how it was just this background chatter vying for her attention at all times. it would be like right after breakfast and her brain would be thinking about

what was she gonna do for lunch? Where was she gonna go for lunch? did she need to order something did you do that? It was just like this incessant I don't know anxiety around it I Have not ever had to deal with that so

For me to say someone should or shouldn't take a certain approach to weight loss would be so bizarre, because I'm not them. I think that's the secret to life, really, is to just...

understand that you're not somebody else.

I just got back from a trip to Turks and Caicos, which was amazing. And I was in the ladies room off of the beach and I had seen this woman outside by the beach with her toddler daughter who was adorable. And then this woman when I came out of the stall was in the ladies room and I said, I saw you outside with your daughter. She's so cute. And...

she said, oh yeah, thank you. And then she was just saying that her daughter was being so annoying because she didn't want to walk on the sand. The daughter looked like not even And I said, is she in bare feet? And she said, yeah. And I said, well, the sand is really hot. And she doesn't have any calluses on her feet. She's a baby.

And this mom was like, I hadn't thought about that. She was just like annoyed and kind of getting angry with her daughter.

You're not her and she's not you and you're not me and I'm not you and we don't experience things differently. So if we just keep that in mind at all times, those of us that love fireworks and those of us that hate them because they re-traumatize us and remind us of some horrible

war situation or gunfire from our past or something else that rattles our nervous systems, two things can be true at the same time. And if we just keep in mind that I'm not you and you're not me and understand that there can be myriad ways of experiencing the same thing.

We'd all get along so much better.

Eileen Kelly (19:59)
All right, I don't know how I got from Dexatrim and Crystal Pepsi to Formaldehyde Nail Polish to GLP-1s to everyone just being more empathetic, but I think it just comes back to Free to Be You and Me, the Free to Be You and Me album. It taught us everything we needed to know about life. I think we all just need to put that on our summer playlist.

do you know I make playlists on Spotify that are five albums and then hit shuffle and I pretend that it's the five disc CD changer? I like that better than an algorithm making the decision for what I'm gonna listen to. And yes, sometimes there's a song that isn't the same vibe as the other songs on the album and it's kind of sticks out like a rusty nail. But,

I don't know, remember when we put five CDs in our stereo and just go with it put free to be you and me in your five disc CD changer summer playlist and just vibe out to that. We'd all be better off.

I feel like I'm babbling a bit. Post-vacation babbles. I think this is the post-vacation babbles.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend. I hope you have the best weather. I hope you get to see people that you like. I hope you get some joy out of it and just live your life and let everyone else live theirs. Bye.