Ever wondered what it's like to uproot your life and move to Orlando during a global pandemic? Well, we've been through the eye of that storm and came out the other side with stories that are just too good to keep to ourselves. Join Dustin and Ashley on "Orlando Unplugged" as we crack open the vault of our personal journeys, from the emotional highs and lows in the City Beautiful to our shared love for the quirks of our hometowns. We weave through our experiences with everything from theme park escapades to the poignant remembrance of lost loved ones, all while throwing in a mix of laughter and the occasional kombucha spill.
Pull up a chair and listen as we get real about the tattoos and tunes that have shaped us, the Broadway musicals that have us singing from our seats, and the job hustle in Orlando's famed theme parks. It's not just about the glittering attractions though; we dive into the heart of Tennessee's rich history and the personal impact of the Gatlinburg wildfire tragedy. Plus, who can resist a behind-the-scenes look at the moonshine distillation process? Certainly not us!
Wrapping up, we don't shy away from the complexities of famous cases like that of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, offering our nuanced take on the matter. Looking ahead, we're bubbling with excitement for future episodes, where we'll uncover more hidden gems and make a few unplanned stops along the way. So, whether you're gripping the steering wheel on I-4 or chilling at home with a mocktail, let us be your guides through the unscripted, unpredictable, and utterly captivating journey that is Orlando Unplugged.
Ever wondered what it's like to uproot your life and move to Orlando during a global pandemic? Well, we've been through the eye of that storm and came out the other side with stories that are just too good to keep to ourselves. Join Dustin and Ashley on "Orlando Unplugged" as we crack open the vault of our personal journeys, from the emotional highs and lows in the City Beautiful to our shared love for the quirks of our hometowns. We weave through our experiences with everything from theme park escapades to the poignant remembrance of lost loved ones, all while throwing in a mix of laughter and the occasional kombucha spill.
Pull up a chair and listen as we get real about the tattoos and tunes that have shaped us, the Broadway musicals that have us singing from our seats, and the job hustle in Orlando's famed theme parks. It's not just about the glittering attractions though; we dive into the heart of Tennessee's rich history and the personal impact of the Gatlinburg wildfire tragedy. Plus, who can resist a behind-the-scenes look at the moonshine distillation process? Certainly not us!
Wrapping up, we don't shy away from the complexities of famous cases like that of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, offering our nuanced take on the matter. Looking ahead, we're bubbling with excitement for future episodes, where we'll uncover more hidden gems and make a few unplanned stops along the way. So, whether you're gripping the steering wheel on I-4 or chilling at home with a mocktail, let us be your guides through the unscripted, unpredictable, and utterly captivating journey that is Orlando Unplugged.
What are you drinking?
Ashley:I am drinking kombucha Kombucha it's good for my gut.
Dustin:It looks like pee in a cup. It's a fancy cup. It is very fancy, but it's like a. I'm drinking because someone since the party the last party we had remember how I bought two mean bean Java monsters.
Ashley:I do.
Dustin:Someone drank the other one.
Ashley:I did.
Dustin:It's not there. You drank it.
Ashley:I did.
Dustin:You have her.
Ashley:You can't bring coffee in this house and not expect me not to drink it.
Dustin:When I went to go make my drink, there wasn't that. I used some salted caramel, vodka, some ice, obviously milk, and then a little bit of just that original coffee creamer that you had in the fridge, very nice. It's like a nice little white Russian.
Ashley:She's nice and frothy. She's good.
Dustin:It is, but you know what I think this means.
Ashley:What does this mean?
Dustin:I think that our listeners should grab a cocktail.
Ashley:Or a mocktail, or a mocktail, and we are going to. We already screwed it up. Yeah, we did, yeah, we did.
Dustin:Let's try that again.
Ashley:Are we doing let's, or are we doing we? I?
Dustin:like we and while we and while we. So grab a cocktail or a mocktail while we unplug Orlando in living color. I don't know about you, but I think that intro is a vibe.
Ashley:I love her. She's like a whole mood.
Dustin:I do, I like it. Well, hey there everybody, and welcome to Orlando, unplugged. I'm Dustin and I'm Ashley, and we have known each other for two months, two ish months. At this point I'm brand new to Orlando. You are newly returned to Orlando and we've hung out a couple times and we've just had an absolute blast. And so I own another podcast. And I was like Ashley yes, it's New Year's, why don't we make our own podcast?
Ashley:And I think I jumped so high and went absolutely, let's do this, let's go. How quickly can we get this started?
Dustin:And it's been like two weeks and now here we are. Excuse me, I have eyes for my mouth, so what are we doing here?
Ashley:We need to talk about everything. There's a lot to unpack.
Dustin:There's a lot to unpack, to talk about. We want to talk about us. We want to talk about our Lord and Savior, gypsy Rose Blanchard.
Ashley:Yes, we do. She is the queen and all sorts of stuff.
Dustin:So we definitely plan on doing a lot of fun stuff. We're already talking about doing trips to Universal and Disney.
Ashley:Yes, and a trip up to the Knoxville.
Dustin:Yes, knoxville, I will be going up to Knoxville. Later this month I will be introducing Ashley to Chocolate Fest.
Ashley:Oh, I cannot wait to eat my bodyweight in chocolate. It's going to be fantastic.
Dustin:So Chocolate Fest is a convention that I've worked on since 2016, I believe, and it's just a giant day of chocolate, and it's at the no, not the World's Fair Exhibition Hall. We've been at a couple of different locations. It's at the Jacobs Building, which is at Shell Howey Park, which is next to Zoo Knoxville, if you are familiar with the Knoxville area. So I'm super excited to take you back to my hometown and show you around and show you what all we have in my favorite restaurants and stuff.
Ashley:I can't wait. I'm so excited, I know.
Dustin:So I guess for.
Ashley:And they need to find me a country boy while we're up there.
Dustin:So be on the lookout, there'll be some there.
Ashley:I need to find me one oh let's do it. One that's obsessed with another chocolate that I am.
Dustin:I won't comment on that.
Ashley:That's for the other podcast.
Dustin:Yes, yes.
Ashley:Oh, my God.
Dustin:The cough. The cough is still here.
Ashley:She came, she left, and now she's back.
Dustin:It's been. I've had it since Christmas Eve, so I got sick. I'll tell you all about that here in a little bit. So but for today's episode we want to just kind of get to know you guys. Let you guys get to know us. I say that like we're going to have a million followers on this first episode we're going to have so many.
Dustin:I believe it. But before we jump into that, we want to tell you guys a little bit about Orlando Unplugged. So we've got a ton of social media channels that'll be coming online.
Ashley:So so, so, so, so many.
Dustin:Ashley set all of those up the other day. So the first thing I guess we want to give you guys some of our handles and some of the things that we have. So the first thing that we want to give to you guys is a way. If you guys ever want to contact us you have questions, comments, concerns, ideas please feel free to reach out to us at OrlandoUnplugged13 at gmailcom. You can also follow us on other social media, such as our Instagram at Orlando underscore unplugged and our Facebook page.
Ashley:Give us a like, give us a follow at Orlando Unplugged. We've also we've jumped on the Tic-Toc train. We've done it, we're doing it, we're a part of it. Are we now like Tic-Tockers? Is that what we are now? Is that what the kids are calling it? I guess, I guess that's what they're called.
Dustin:They're just going to call us old.
Ashley:Yeah, they are.
Dustin:We're too old for Tic-Toc, but we're going to be on there. I don't know anything about like editing Tic-Toc videos or stuff like that.
Ashley:No.
Dustin:That's what our friends are for.
Ashley:Yes, it is, but we are there, we are. We are also under Orlando Unplugged on our Tic-Toc as well as on our Twitter page, so you'll have to give us a shout out and a follow.
Dustin:Are we Look it up right now? Pull it up your phone and pull it up, because I told you I tried to look us up on Tic-Toc and I couldn't find us.
Ashley:Let's see, let's see, let's see. Can we talk about the fact, though, that Twitter has changed its name from Twitter to X?
Dustin:And I don't know a single person that calls it X.
Ashley:I can't do it. I can't, I can't not call it Twitter.
Dustin:The last job I had in Knoxville right before I left. I can't talk details because I signed an NDA, but it was a marketing company. So I worked in digital marketing and specifically I was a digital media analyst for a pretty large banking institution in the US. And it was really funny because even at work, you know we deal with nothing but social medias and we would always talk about Twitter to the client and the way that we would talk to them about it. We would say X formally Twitter In emails, literally in meeting, like we would be in a Zoom meeting, and someone would be like yeah, so our KPIs are performing really well on X, aka formally Twitter. And it was just the funniest thing because you'd say X and people would scratch their heads but then we would be like formally Twitter and they'd be like ah yes, I lied to you guys already on the first podcast.
Ashley:On Twitter, we are Orlando Unplugged. That is our hand you Gigi. We Gigi.
Dustin:We Gigi.
Ashley:No, no, no, just one G.
Dustin:So Orlando.
Ashley:Unplugged. Unplugged Orlando Unplugged.
Dustin:I like it. Yeah, she's cute, it's the present. Well, I felt like with Twitter.
Ashley:We got to shorten and sweet and simplify everything on Twitter because you have that darn character that you are stuck with. Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, you have no choice but to only put a small amount, so I went. Well, if they're going to limit what I say on my tweets, then I'm going to limit my handle.
Dustin:I mean, yeah, I guess it works. I like it.
Ashley:It works for us.
Dustin:All right, yeah, so there's all of those. And then if you guys really enjoyed this show and you're into history or specifically like East Tennessee or Appalachian history or Dollywood most of my followers on my other podcast follow me because I talk about Dollywood- so much I would follow you for Dollywood content. You don't follow me.
Ashley:I mean, I do follow you and that's the reason I do follow is because of the Dollywood content.
Dustin:But yeah, you guys can follow my other podcast that I have, which is Tennessee Roads podcast, and it streams on Apple podcast and pretty much anywhere that podcast stream. I'm on Google podcast, which apparently Google podcast is either shutting I think it's shutting down Stop. I got a notification the other day that was like after January 26, 2024, you'll no longer be allowed to listen to podcast on Google podcast and I was like that's so sad.
Ashley:Where are they going to go? Spotify YouTube. Apple, I mean I'm to be honest with you, though, I think I'm an Apple kind of podcast girl and not a Spotify. Don't come for me.
Dustin:I am not a.
Ashley:Spotify fan.
Dustin:I'm not a Spotify fan. I used to work at Starbucks and we got free premium Spotify, but I could just never get Spotify to work the way I wanted it to. It always wants to like shuffle and do this weird thing, and I just didn't like so.
Ashley:If I wanted shuffle, I read download Pandora.
Dustin:Yeah, and I get it. People are like oh, but you can do Spotify for free. And I'm like, yeah, you can do free Spotify for free, but not premium for free, correct. And they're like well, you have to pay for it with Apple. And I'm like yeah, yeah, and I don't ever have to buy music. Correct, I've got just about everything I want.
Ashley:Literally.
Dustin:I also get. Podcasts are roped into Apple music. I get it all.
Ashley:I literally get it all.
Dustin:I know and I love it.
Ashley:Everything is in one convenient location, correct, and I have it nice and organized, because I'm that OCD crazy person, so it's all like neatly done and I've got like 1700 different playlists. Are you a playlist person or you just a? Pick a random song, pick a random album, let's go for it.
Dustin:So I've got a couple of playlists actually on my phone and we're actually let's, we're going to do this right now.
Ashley:Oh, we are.
Dustin:Because I only have a few playlists on my phone. We have you, but you're going to laugh. So I've got Cabana Bay Beach Resort vibes.
Ashley:Of course you do.
Dustin:Because I love anything that's century modern. For those of you that don't know, cabana Bay Beach Resort is a resort at Universal Studios here in Orlando, florida, and it's my favorite resort.
Ashley:I just visited that resort for the first time.
Dustin:For the first time.
Ashley:For the first time when I, when I, when we met that was my first time at Cabana Bay ever, wow, yeah.
Dustin:So that was actually so. That was Thanksgiving weekend. Another friend of mine we both are transplants here in Orlando and neither one of us have family. So we were like let's go stay at Cabana Bay for Thanksgiving and we had an absolute blast, let's see. And the next one I have, of course, any any good gay or any good person that has ever worked at Dollywood as I did for seven and a half years. I have the Dolly Parton Essentials playlist.
Ashley:Of course.
Dustin:Of course. And then I have one of the most amazing video games of all times fallout 76 playlist that has a lot of the music from Appalachian radio from inside the game. I've got the Heartstopper Pop Anthems featuring or featured in the LGBTQ plus show on Netflix. That's a whole thing that we're going to have to talk about after we sit down and watch. I can't wait. I've got drag ideas, because I do, I don't, I don't do drag, but I dabble. I do it for the CreepyCon Halloween and Horror show that I'm also taking back to Knoxville in August for this year.
Ashley:My next one is probably one of my convention ever.
Dustin:I'm excited for it. You're going to love it. It is amazing. It's everything Halloween and horror for three days.
Ashley:It's going to be great. It's going to be great. The mocktail is better be strong.
Dustin:And then I've got okay, I've got three more playlists.
Dustin:I've got Fuck Tyler, who is an ex of mine that just like dumped me completely out of the blue, completely out of the blue, and it was actually the first time in my entire life I was dumped. I, like all my other, I had two relationships prior to that that were serious relationships and I was the one that ended those. And those relationships were years long. We're talking like one of them was four years, the other was three years, and here's the here's the really fucked up part about the Tyler situation.
Ashley:Lay it on me, I'm here for the tea.
Dustin:We only dated for five months.
Ashley:Get out.
Dustin:And I was literally ready to ask this man to marry me. It was the first time in my adult life that I was in a healthy relationship. We had a good time but then, suddenly, just like overnight, everything changed and he was just like I need to find myself. I'm not happy with my life, and you know I totally respect that. You know that's fine. I'm not happy with my life, but I was so heartbroken. It took me a year to get over it.
Ashley:Stop it. Can we talk about how wide is that? Men seem to give that as their response when they get out of breakups or are trying to get out of a relationship. I need to find myself.
Dustin:Well, I mean he's, he's young, I mean.
Ashley:I'll give you the timeline. That was pretty traumatic.
Dustin:He moved. He moved to Nashville to pursue education in like special effects, makeup and stuff, and I followed him for a little bit and then I didn't. I haven't, I don't follow him on like anything anymore, I don't think. But suddenly on my Facebook of all places the school, the makeup school that he's going to- pops up on my Facebook like as a suggested post and it was a post of his makeup and his name and it was like our student and I was just like what this was literally like four months ago Stop it.
Dustin:So this is like two years after we've broken up, and it was. It was one of the situations like it popped up and I was like what the fuck? And then I was like, oh, okay, I don't care, Like my my, my, I didn't feel bad about it or anything which was really nice.
Ashley:So yeah, so we're doing good. I need to get to that level, though I don't think I'm going to be, I don't care anymore level because I'm not. I'm not at that level yet.
Dustin:It. You know, I think it takes a while because you, you know when you, when you, when someone creates this feeling in you, to where you finally you feel appreciated, you feel loved. And you know I had. I didn't have the worst upbringing but I had a pretty rough childhood. I had a mother that tried to get me to literally smoke crack at age 12.
Ashley:Stop it. Um so you know, I got some, you got some mommy issues.
Dustin:Oh honey, we got a.
Ashley:We got mommy issues here. We got daddy issues here. This is good. This is going to be an interesting podcast.
Dustin:We've got enough content to last for a long time so long, and this is just day one. But yeah, um, but you know it, definitely it. Everyone processes their feelings differently and for a long time I just kind of bottled up all of my feelings with my past relationship.
Dustin:So this was the first time I didn't bottle up my feelings Because I allowed myself to become vulnerable. So it took me a while to take it over it and be okay. And you know, now I am and he doesn't pop up in the dreams anymore. When his name does scroll across my social media, it doesn't bother me and I do wish him the absolute best of luck. I hope he's doing well out there. I know like I think the last time I spoke to him was like six months after we broke up and there was a tornado that went through Nashville.
Ashley:Hey, did you die? You didn't Okay.
Dustin:And well, there was a thing I texted him to be like. Hey, I know you may not want to hear from me, but I just want to make sure you're okay, because I know there's a tornado in Nashville and I don't even remember if he responded to me or not.
Ashley:You do that friendly little check-in.
Dustin:Yeah, but, but yeah, so I hope he's doing well, I hope he's doing good.
Ashley:I hope you're doing well. Good job Now that we've now that we've opened, that we've opened so much.
Dustin:I created. Shortly after that breakup, I created another playlist called in my feels.
Ashley:Of course.
Dustin:And I like in my feels. The song ghost town by Benson Boone is like the number one song that I play on there and it's so good. If you guys don't know who Benson Boone is, you need to check him out. He became super popular on Tik Tok.
Ashley:Yes, the Tikki Tokies.
Dustin:The Tikki Tokies and it's just. I have a lot of like. The songs in here are really sad, but they are really good, listen.
Ashley:it's labeled in your feels. For a reason, you're in your feels.
Dustin:And then I've got, you know, a workout playlist.
Ashley:Absolutely.
Dustin:And then I have my favorite playlist, which is random but good beats, which is when I find like random artists on Tik Tok. So I've got not a game from Dylan Hatch, which is a really good one, I love him. Stick season by Noah Kahn.
Ashley:Of course, if there's not a Noah Kahn on anybody's playlist, there needs to be Noah. Noah needs to grace all of you with his presence so he can wrap you up in an emotionally delicious hug and make you feel better.
Dustin:Do you know who Ian McConnell is? Who does the song Friends?
Ashley:Yes.
Dustin:Yeah, he's on there to love him. A little bit of Paramore.
Ashley:Of course she's the queen.
Dustin:And then I've got what's? There's a song, miserable man, by David Kushner. That's a good one. And then I've Got Orange Trees by Rose Betts who I also found on TikTok who became super famous from making a song about a first date that she went on and it was a good date, but she didn't like it, so she made a song about it and then it blew up.
Dustin:Oh the poor man, and she became super famous and she, well she, it wasn't like she didn't dog him down really bad in the song or anything, but then they it's called Driving Myself Home, by the way, if you guys want to listen to it. Love it. And then she ended up like reaching out to him and being like hey, I wrote the song about you. I just want you to know because it's super, super popular. But that's my playlist, so what do you have on yours?
Ashley:The question isn't what I have. The question should be what I don't have.
Dustin:Taylor.
Ashley:Swift oh, she's the top one.
Dustin:Oh.
Ashley:God Listen. Her set list for that Ares tour is on their top. She's probably, that's probably the top one I play, and then I'm gonna repeat Okay. All my Taylor listen all them Swifties out there. They're gonna come for you, they're gonna come for you Okay, so here's the deal.
Dustin:I don't consider myself a Swiftie, oh. I do Like I'm not obsessed with her. Oh but I do like Taylor Swift and I like her music. I'm not gonna go out of my way to have a Taylor Swift party.
Ashley:So you're not. You're saying you wouldn't spend, you know, a down payment on a house to go see her in concert.
Dustin:Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, the only concert I've ever paid to go to I gotta think, make sure I've got this right it was a Beyonce concert.
Ashley:Stop it. It was the formation world tour. You know, I've never seen her and I am not a cult following obsessive person.
Dustin:We were in the nose bleeds at Nissan Stadium. Is it Nissan? Yeah, in Nashville, Uh-huh. And my ex now. At the time he was a Beyonce guru.
Ashley:Like he loved it. A Beyonce guru.
Dustin:His legs, his knees were shaking Still and I'm like she looks like an aunt from up here.
Ashley:We're so far away.
Dustin:But he, he was happy. It was a gift that I bought for him. We had a blast. I did enjoy it. It was fun. I ended up getting a headache by the end of the concert, but it was fun. I love that. But no, I would not spend more than for two tickets. I wouldn't spend more than $500.
Ashley:Oh yeah, no definitely spend a little bit more than that on tickets. So, and I probably will do it again, my next up playlist now, no, nobody's allowed to judge, because I listened to everything classical rap, country, all of it, and that also includes Broadway.
Dustin:Heck, yeah, baby.
Ashley:I am obsessed. And what's funny is I have never, ever seen a Broadway play ever.
Dustin:Oh, my God Never.
Ashley:I know it's on my bucket list, but I'm obsessed with them.
Dustin:Do you have a favorite?
Ashley:Do I have one favorite? Yes, do I have multiple favorites that I would go see 100%. I have five. Wicked Waitress, hamilton, obviously I feel like you have to. I'm also just recently got into the six lately.
Dustin:You know, I saw six.
Ashley:Stop.
Dustin:I saw six the week before I moved here at the Tennessee Theater.
Ashley:I need to see it I need to see it. So good. And then I just recently I know this is going to sound crazy, but I just recently got into Shucked. It's a musical about corn. It is.
Dustin:I've heard that it's ending its Broadway run.
Ashley:I know I'm so sad.
Dustin:Someone that I used to work with at Dollywood is in New York and he got a third row seat to Shucked the other day.
Ashley:I love that. I'm also a Dear Evan Hansen fan. I mean, how can you not Ben?
Dustin:Platt no tattoo.
Ashley:No way.
Dustin:Did you not know that that is a Dear Evan Hansen quote? I did not, yeah, so I'll post it on our socials. But I have two tattoos. One I have the pumpkin from Halloween Town with Debbie Reynolds line of being almost vastly overrated.
Ashley:Absolutely.
Dustin:But then on my other forearm I have a Grim Reaper and he's riding a little hobby horse. Stop.
Ashley:And on his staff.
Dustin:He has a sign that says you will be found, which is a song lyric from Dear Evan Hansen, the musical.
Ashley:Yes, it is.
Dustin:And it is a metaphor for me that through death you're found.
Ashley:Yes.
Dustin:Because the same person that I am the person that I was three years ago when I got dumped by Tyler.
Ashley:Is not the same person you are now Is not the same person that I am. Correct, so Correct I feel like, okay, wait, if you're talking about your tattoos, then I have to talk about my tattoos because we all know Wait, did you finish your playlist, oh? God, no, we could be here for hours with how many playlists.
Dustin:I have. Okay, give me like three more playlists and then we'll talk about the tattoos.
Ashley:Okay, whitney Houston's Essentials is on there, because I just love how her music makes me feel like if I am having a bad day, whitney Houston just brings me back to life. I feel that I love her and I have a hymn playlist of the X of the songs that remind, the songs that shouldn't and I have the ones that you know. He, I feel like, slowly healed slowly or slowly healing me. I was in a oh, here we go. You did your breakup, now it gets to be my turn, I guess.
Dustin:All right.
Ashley:It's juicy, you get. You got what? Five months, four months.
Dustin:Yeah, it was about five months.
Ashley:I got five years. Yeah, did. The house had the ring.
Dustin:Buy a house or rent a house.
Ashley:Buy, we own.
Ashley:You had a mortgage, baby, we had a mortgage, a mortgage we had I had the rock on the left hand getting ready to add a little band to it and everything. And you know I it was. I think the, the finding himself was the, the key component. I guess that that took away that whole relationship of mine. So, but yeah, no it. It's been rough. It's been about a year and I feel like at times I'm doing great and then other times I'm like what the hell am I doing? I feel that, but I think now I'm also like the anti-relationship person. Now, anybody in relationships, I want to vomit all over them.
Dustin:That's that you know. That's kind of how. That's kind of how I've been is it's like now that I've been single and I've had the freedoms, so like I was in relationships all the way through my twenties?
Ashley:Yeah.
Dustin:I just turned 30 this past October and you know I've been since like 28, 29, 30. I've been on my own.
Ashley:The last time I was on a date was I was 22.
Dustin:I'm 27.
Ashley:27. You know, the dating pool and how we date is so different from now, back when I was 27.
Dustin:Girl Trabi and Gayen doing it.
Ashley:I don't know. It's hard enough being straight and doing it.
Dustin:It's not fun.
Ashley:No.
Dustin:You know, since I've been to Orlando, I've had, I've had a few people that I've been introduced to that I feel has like shown some interest. But these people are also kind of around the edges of the friend pool that I've started making and I'm like, first off, I'm new to this area. It's too close to start dipping my toes into the friend pool.
Ashley:Are you like an anti-date in the front pool? Because I was. I felt like I could be an anti-date in the front pool and I probably should be. I feel like we all should be, because I feel like it makes things very toxic, Like I mean, it's what happens if it goes south and yeah, and you never know, because there are times that it can go south and you can still be friends, like.
Dustin:I have a friend, his name is Thomas that when after me and Tyler broke up, it was a couple months, it was into the next year.
Dustin:So I got dumped in October and we met the week between Christmas and New Year's and he's actually from Asheville, north Carolina, so he came over here for a few days and then we hung out a little bit and then I went to Asheville and we went to Biltmore and we went to like these random breweries which Asheville is full of, and we really enjoyed our presence, like in our time with each other. We had a lot of.
Ashley:Did you just see this kombucha? I just fell all over.
Dustin:I did, but I wasn't going to say anything.
Ashley:It's condensation from my wine glass, because Condensate.
Dustin:Oh no, chloe, the condensation. I love her, I love that whole.
Ashley:I love the fact that our shows when we were kids are now becoming popular.
Dustin:Yes To kids nowadays like to that generation which is going to get courage, the cowardly dog in there. That okay, that terrified me that's a little bit before my time frame. Oh yeah, you are a baby, you are super old compared to me. How old are you?
Ashley:again 27.
Dustin:27. I'm only 30.
Ashley:Yeah, you're older, a lot older. I'm not going to listen. Aarp is not going to your car or your window what you got in my kombucha girl. Listen. Okay, so in my house we have this concept that I live with the three people. Okay, so I live with my, my 18 year old brother, and then I live with my best friend, zach, and his girlfriend Julia, who who, I guess like somebody, lives with me and then somebody doesn't live with us.
Dustin:She has. She has her own home. She spends a lot of time here because you guys are literally right next to each other, Right next to you when they work. Yeah.
Ashley:Yeah, we're right next door to it. Um you, you could literally throw a rock and hit it. So we have this, this whiteboard in our house that has our calendar and next to our calendar has all of our names on it. So anytime any of us does anything stupid or says anything, we get the arrow. So me telling all of you guys that I just spilled all over her, that the car door is knocking about the AARP would definitely, if they were all here, would get me the arrow. So don't worry, guys, I moved it.
Dustin:I'm so proud of you. Thank you so much.
Ashley:I think admitting that I'm the one that did the stupid thing is the step in the right direction.
Dustin:None of them are here. They're all at work.
Ashley:They are, they are. It's a very quiet house I have now. It's weird.
Dustin:The cat hasn't even made a noise.
Ashley:No, Bruce is just staring out the window. Bruce is just she's in her own world. This is Bruce's world. This is also Bruce's house and we we pay Bruce to live here.
Dustin:I believe that yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Ashley:I think for all my new friends. I have a cat named Bruce. Her full name is Dr Bruce Banner and yes, you heard correctly.
Dustin:She was supposed to be a he, but she didn't turn out to be a he.
Ashley:No, and I she's embracing her boy name and I love it and she loves it and I love that for her. Plus, she, you know, like her mother, has a flair for the dramatics.
Dustin:So I think, I think Bruce would be a tomboy if she were a human, totally 100% 100%.
Ashley:I mean I have a couple, you know, piercings. She probably have her eyebrow pierced.
Dustin:Most definitely, most definitely. What are we talking about?
Ashley:I don't remember, oh tattoos. Can we finally go through mine now?
Dustin:Sure, yeah, let's talk about that.
Ashley:I mean, can we talk about, though, the stigma I'm glad is going away with tattoos?
Dustin:I know. So I, when I got down here and started interviewing for jobs and I interviewed for that my current position there's a couple of different work locations and they actually came in and offered me a job at the location that I'm working at. But then they came back in and also offered me a job at another location and I was like so I have tattoos on my forearms, so which of these places has a uniform that covers it so I wouldn't have to wear like tattoo sleeves? And the HR recruiter just looked at me really funny, and they were like are they offensive in nature? And, first off, who are we to define what is offensive?
Ashley:in nature. Can we define what's offensive in nature? I mean literally actually define that.
Dustin:So for me personally, what I would consider like graphic and nature, inappropriate nature For tattoo-wise would be nudity, gore and profanity.
Ashley:Absolutely.
Dustin:Only because I am very respectful of other human beings, other races, religions.
Ashley:And also how you were brought up. If you weren't brought up that way, me saying fuck would probably rudely offend you, especially if it's tattooed right across my knuckles.
Dustin:Yeah, and I'm a firm believer that I'm here for body positivity and women being able to bear the boob.
Ashley:Let's bear the boob. Not just the boob, but I want to bear the booty.
Dustin:But, at the same time, I also believe that it is our responsibility as adults to give children an opportunity to grow up and make their own decisions themselves and decide what they consider to be wrong and right Now. That being said, I live my life as a non-religious. I choose to live my life morally respectable for the human race.
Ashley:I love it.
Dustin:So that means I don't fall into any creed or religion when it comes to how I present myself to the public, but I just consider what is kind and appropriate to other people. So to me, nudity, gore, profanity, those things I consider would be inappropriate. Tattoos Do I think a grim reaper with a hobby horse is inappropriate? No, I don't, Because grim reapers, while yes they mean death in many religions and cultures, they're also the grim adventures of Billy and Mandy from Cartoon Network, which was a cartoon which was funny.
Ashley:Absolutely hilarious.
Dustin:So it's to me.
Ashley:It was great.
Dustin:But they were like, yeah, you don't have to wear tattoo sleeves, so it was great. So, what do you consider?
Ashley:I'm kind of going down the same path, but I was pretty much raised in a household where I get the. I had a father that was an anti-tattoo person. He truly, truly believed that if you got any form of tattoo, any form of piercing that wasn't the single little. I was a girl, so I had my one bottom low pierced I would not get a job, and a very serious job at all. So I think it's partly the reason why, after he passed, I got my first tattoo was his heartbeat and I went here you go, dad, oh my god.
Ashley:And it's funny, my entire family has some sort of tattoo. To my father, who was the anti-tattoo man, like full on. The man had a reputation for being the anti-tattoo person, did not believe in it. My sister wanted her nose pierced for the longest time growing up and he was like you'll never get a job. And now she has a nose piercing and a tattoo and enough piercings in her ear. So and I, as the big sister, lead the way now with I have the most in my entire family because I'm now a firm believer that when you get one, we end up getting 12.
Dustin:So what do you have?
Ashley:OK, so my first one is my father's obviously his last heartbeat. And then I also have a right. After that lovely breakup of mine, I got the biggest tattoo I have and it is on my hip. It goes down to pretty almost like the top of my knee cap and it's a hand holding the universe, because I am a firm believer that we decide what we're doing in life. It is our choice, it is our decision and we have an entire universe to kind of figure that out.
Ashley:And then I also have a little baby bruises paw print on the back of my arm and a cute little bee and I have the word let it be, which is my favorite Beatles song and it is also the motto I live by. It is what it is, so let it be how it is. And I, yes, I have the Florida State tattooed on my arm. And then I have a little palm tree in where Tampa is, because I was born in Tampa. And then I have a little mini shot of Tequila, because before I decided not to drink, I drank, and Tequila and I we get along real well. She's my best friend.
Dustin:I love Tequila.
Ashley:And I make all my decisions using Tequila. That's how I made the decision to come back to Florida. It was based on Tequila.
Dustin:Based on Tequila and a coin flip.
Ashley:Tequila and a coin flip. Tequila and a coin flip, yeah.
Dustin:So OK. So now we've talked about so much random stuff.
Ashley:I love it.
Dustin:Let's discuss a little bit about who we are, where we're from, what brought us here? Absolutely, because you said you were from Tampa.
Ashley:Yes, so it's playing this is great All right, let's do it. So I was born in Tampa and we lived there for about seven years and my father was military Probably the reason why he hated tattoos and we moved up to Michigan where we got stationed. So I grew up in the state of Michigan. I froze my butt off. Graduated high school, graduated college, all from up there. I have a degree in civil engineering. Do not use it. My entire job in history is all food and beverage and I have a degree in engineering.
Ashley:I'd just like to be the smartest person in the room. I really do. I have two siblings. I have a younger sister who is my best friend, and I have a younger brother who lives with me, and Rob is oh, he's the best.
Dustin:I love your brother Rob is the best.
Ashley:Rob is the nicest person on the entire planet.
Dustin:He is. Do you know?
Ashley:the other day we were out to dinner with him and his what was his friend, His best friend, James James, who was visiting for a little while. Thanks, james, for coming to hang out with us. Yeah, because I know he's listening to our podcast now. I really like that kid, he's so great, he's pretty cool.
Dustin:He needs to come back down here and be a part of the group.
Ashley:He's in college. He got a full right scholarship up to Wayne State up in Michigan. So he's college first. He needs to finish college first and then he needs to come back down.
Dustin:Yeah, and he comes to be a part of the friend group. But we were at our local watering hole, the Sloppy Taco Palace.
Ashley:I love her and if you have not visited the Sloppy Taco Palace, you need to add that to your list.
Dustin:Yes.
Ashley:Like immediately.
Dustin:It's fun Run there, get a tequila shot a couple of them.
Ashley:Eat all the Sloppy Tacos and the Tater tots and just put a dollar bill up on that wall, like all of us have.
Dustin:Yes, well, I haven't yet.
Ashley:Well, yes, yet It'll be a documented series, don't worry.
Dustin:So we're at SDP and we're all talking, and I had been talking and everything, and then suddenly it was like my battery just drained for a few minutes and I was kind of sitting there and I realized after the fact that I had resty. Well, I had like resting, bitch face going on and I kind of zone out and my phone buzzed and I like looked down at my phone and I was like what? And it was Rob who's? Sitting two seats away from me Correct.
Dustin:And he was just like hey, are you? Ok, you seem sad.
Ashley:Yes.
Dustin:And I was like, oh no, it's just that like Matism's kicking in, I just overstimulated and it's truly what it was. I had just gotten overstimulated and then I stopped talking and I kind of just crashed out for a few minutes, and that's just what it was, and so him and I we had like a little conversation for a minute and then he sent me a meme and I was just like this kid, right here is a homie.
Ashley:He's great, he's the greatest.
Dustin:He's a bra.
Ashley:He is a bra.
Dustin:A bra.
Ashley:He is a bra. Every single person that interacts with him. I truly believe their lives are for the better because they get to just have a couple conversations with him and he's great.
Dustin:And this is for your mom, who I've not met yet, but she is on my Facebook as people you may know.
Ashley:Shout out to Shan.
Dustin:Shan, this is for you. You're both of your children.
Ashley:All three of them. You've got to meet the sister too. I do.
Dustin:Ashley from what I've seen in Snapchat some conversations very hard worker, but I was super surprised in Rob getting his first job down here and I'm so proud.
Ashley:I'm such a proud big sister.
Dustin:He's always at work.
Ashley:Always.
Dustin:And he comes in. I've heard stories from one of his managers that just how hard he works.
Ashley:And he never complains and he will show up 30 minutes before he has to clock in and just sit there and so that way. But he's there in case, like, his bosses need him to start early and he's the last one to leave. It's probably because he's seen his big sister work so hard. Bruce has decided she's joining our podcast. She's like I'm in here, I'm here, mom.
Dustin:Bruce stop.
Ashley:Ma'am, I'm going to need you to get off this coffee table.
Dustin:You're going to knock all of that off the coffee table.
Ashley:I'm going to need you to get your butt off this coffee table right now.
Dustin:Don't make me sick. The mother ship on you, mother ship.
Ashley:She's afraid of my fan guys.
Dustin:She's just like what she will.
Ashley:Bruce.
Dustin:She's just looking at me like what.
Ashley:She can't decide what she wants to do. She's going to knock that cup over. I can feel it.
Dustin:She's going to knock the clipboard. Everything's going to go flying.
Ashley:We're going to take a move there we go, we got it.
Dustin:I was like I'm really comfortable.
Ashley:I don't want to have to redo. But yeah, and then my dad passed away. It was just four years, on the 2nd of January, very unexpected. None of us had a clue, so we did all that. So I had a pretty good uprising, it wasn't bad.
Ashley:I had my mom stayed at home while my dad worked, pretty much up until I was a freshman and then my mom started working. It was great. It was a time. And then I realized I was in actually a pretty nasty relationship up in Michigan. It was horrible. I was an unfortunate victim of that old domestic violence. It was fun for me. You know, I just actually processed that this past year. I just accepted that I was a member. I was a member.
Ashley:I was a member. It's like an elite club, like I'm a member of the Dead Dad Club, which I proudly represent because it's such a terrifying group to be a part of, but you also realize that there are, unfortunate, so many members of it, so it's a group that, as much as I hate it, I really love it because there are so many people that are there for you if need be.
Ashley:And then I'm also an unfortunate member of that DV group, that domestic violence group, and that is nasty. That is a not so fun group and I realized I needed to get out of it. And the best way I figured out how to get out of it was to apply for the Disney College program.
Ashley:So, I started working for the mouse, I moved all my stuff in two suitcases with my dad and I moved down. That was it my entire life in two very massively large suitcases. And we came from up north, got on a plane that's it With two suitcases.
Dustin:No car.
Ashley:No car, no nothing OK.
Dustin:I hear so you don't. Actually, if you're part of the Disney College program, you don't need your car.
Ashley:No, because.
Dustin:I know there's Flamingo Crossing.
Ashley:Correct. But they have their own little city, every thing it is, it's like, and it really is a city.
Dustin:I really wish that. The whole reason that I moved down here is because Orlando is the theme park capital.
Ashley:Yes, it is.
Dustin:And I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of the hospitality which I am and the job that I have. But I don't work for Universal or Disney currently and I just wish that they provided housing, like they do for their college program, for the general public.
Ashley:Correct and I've done that program. I did that program for almost a whole year of my life. And you get out of it and you have no place to live and your want is to stay with that company, or it just at least picks a company that's close to it. So you got your choice to be their SeaWorld, or you have your choice of Universal, and nobody offers any of that. So, mind you, you kind of only get to know the people that are in your group. You're either getting to know your friends at your venue or you're getting to know your roommates. So when that program is over, we all sit there and go, ok, what do we do now?
Dustin:What do we do so. Did you stay in Orlando when the program was over?
Ashley:I did because I met that boy. I met that boy and we moved in. Literally we were together for like three months.
Dustin:No shame, and I moved in.
Ashley:I knocked on the door with one of those rubber-made bins and went hi, my lease is over. And he goes all right, come on in, and that was it. And then life happened, and it was. I could not find a job, I couldn't find anything. Disney was going through a hiring freeze, per usual.
Dustin:What year was this?
Ashley:This was 2019.
Dustin:So this was right before the pandemic. Yeah, yeah, this was in the beginning of 2019.
Ashley:So this is like January, February 2019. So I couldn't find anything. Nothing. I was waitressing at Kiki's slash managing, so I was their assistant manager sometimes.
Dustin:What is that?
Ashley:Oh, kiki's, you've never been to Kiki's, the breakfast restaurant that's over here.
Dustin:I've never even heard of it.
Ashley:OK, all of our listeners tell me do you prefer Kiki's or First Watch? That's a big question, because I am a Kiki's cult member. However, I like the fact that First Watch sells alcohol, so I can have a mimosa with my waffle and that's a whole experience.
Ashley:So I was waitressing for that, making nothing, and that boy I was living with had just lost his job, so we could not afford anything. So his mother went hey, move back up to Ohio, come live here, come figure it out up here, there's a theme park. For others that don't know, you have Cedar Point, you also have Kings Island, and where they lived they were about 30 minutes from Kings Island. So we went all right, cool, we're doing it. So we packed up all of our stuff and a little Hyundai Sonata, sunny the Sonata.
Dustin:Oh god, I love that I loved Sunny the Sonata.
Ashley:She was great RIP. She did pass on and I was very sad about it. I did cry for a hot minute. So I moved up to Ohio and I started working for the Lord's Chicken. I started working for Chick-fil-A. I was their executive director. I ran two of their locations Two, two, two.
Dustin:Gotta love the Lord's Chicken I love the Lord's Chicken.
Ashley:You know what I like about the Lord's Chicken. What the fact that I had every single Sunday off.
Dustin:No question.
Ashley:But that was my only day off.
Dustin:No fun.
Ashley:But I loved it though, because Sundays I'm a firm believer that Sunday is a nice, fun reset day, so it was nice to get to reset to do that. And then my father passed away and I needed to change the scenery, so I left the Lord's Chicken. You're going to hear some noises. Bruce has this newfound ability to knock over anything because she deems it needs to be knocked over.
Dustin:If you hear it, Correct, she's great She'll do it with everything.
Ashley:So I leave the Lord's Chicken and I go and I start running. Probably one of the best restaurants I've ever worked for Rusty Taco $3 tacos, $5 margaritas and.
Dustin:I loved her. Pretend you're shot.
Ashley:Oh yeah, sticky floors. I'm pretty sure you probably, if you peed in that bathroom. Best of luck to you. You may or may not be liable for some money back.
Dustin:Rusty's tacos. I just love that.
Ashley:I love it, I loved it. It was a blast. And then COVID happened. Covid happened and we decided during a pandemic that we wanted to move to Orlando. Interesting In the middle of a pandemic. Do you know how difficult it is to get a rental car and movers in the middle of a pandemic?
Dustin:Rental car I would see being easy, but movers I could see that being a problem just because of the distancing.
Ashley:No joke, they showed up to our house. We had a cute little three bedroom apartment. Oh my god, the three bedroom apartment I paid up in Ohio is probably my rent in this apartment.
Dustin:For just you, for just me.
Ashley:Isn't that insane.
Dustin:Yeah, that's kind of how it is in Tennessee to hear.
Ashley:God, I kind of miss that northern price range. But they showed up to our house. We had all of our stuff. We were advised to pack all of our stuff into moving boxes and then we had to vacate the building. We were not allowed to stay inside our apartment, we had to stand outside. Mind you, it was raining and snowing. Because we moved in Ohio in the middle of it was like not in the middle of it, it was probably in the beginning of Ohio.
Dustin:Early 2020?.
Ashley:Late 2020.
Dustin:Late 2020.
Ashley:But Ohio shut down. When COVID happened. They got very scared. They got very, very scared and they went. We're not doing anything. Nobody can go anywhere, which is kind of nice because sort of Michigan, and my mother would actually sneak across the I don't want to say border, because I guess that's not right, but the state line, and she hid in my house with my siblings for like three weeks because Michigan was so boring.
Dustin:Oh, that's fun.
Ashley:We had nothing to do, so we all just hung out. It was really nice, though, because it was right after my dad died, so we all got to spend a lot of time together. But we moved down here and I started working for theme parks different ones. I've literally I can actually say with all honesty that I have worked for all three major theme parks here in Orlando. I worked for Universal, I worked for Disney and I have worked for SeaWorld. I have hit the trifecta.
Dustin:Triple threat.
Ashley:The triple threat, the triple threat, and then that breakup happened. And it was bad and I, at 27, needed my mommy Ain't no shame, ain't no shame. Listen, I love Shan. Shan is a goat. Shan is like the OG. Shan is everybody's best friend and it is well deserved.
Ashley:My mother. I owe my mother a lot like a lot. Good, I think all three of us would probably take bullets for our mother. She's the queen. Love you, Shan. I know she's listening, Supportive mom, Thank you. But yeah, I needed my mom and I kind of needed some noise that wasn't the noises in my head. So I moved back up to Michigan and I did a Michigan. I did eight months up in that cold wet with my cat. We got on a plane. I got pretty drunk in a Delta first class with my cat being underneath. Oh, she just kept pouring him. She pounced it back because I'm crying and drinking at the same time. Oh god, oh, it was so sad and the people behind me had just gotten married.
Dustin:They were honeymooning in Orlando and I'm sitting here crying in my bourbon.
Ashley:Yeah it was bad. It was bad. So I go back up to Michigan and I love it. Hated, did all the things got tattooed, got pierced, Spent a lot of quality time with my family, which was great. I got to see my brother, Bold, in high school. He was on the varsity bowling team, so I got to watch him compete and do all of that and he is very, very good. He'll probably correct me at some point if I'm wrong, but he is, I want to say, the 19th bowler in the state of Michigan. That's how good he is.
Dustin:Well, not anymore, because now he's in Florida.
Ashley:Yeah, Now he has to beat some kids' records down here. So I got to do that. And then I got to watch him graduate high school, which was great. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my sister. And then I went hey, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm kind of cold and I miss my home and I miss my friends and I miss my circle, and went all right, we got two options here and I poured a shot of tequila in one and I poured a shot of water in the other and I flipped a coin and took a shot. What?
Dustin:was the point of the coin. The coin told you which shot to take.
Ashley:Which shot to take? Correct, ok, and water meant what? Water meant I was staying and tequila meant I was moving To Orlando. Ok, and you flipped that coin. I got flipped the coin and here we are and I don't regret it a bit, I love it and I think this will probably be my home for the rest of my life.
Dustin:I don't plan on moving anywhere. So you've been back in Orlando for how long now?
Ashley:I moved back in October of 2023. I moved about two to three weeks before Halloween. I was here during Halloween horror nights, so it was nice and crazy and hectic and busy and I've been here since and I love it, I love it. I oversee the Food and Beverage Department for a pretty well-known hotel company down here and keeps me incredibly busy, so busy.
Dustin:Yeah, so, so busy. Yeah, because you like to not open my Snapchats for hours on end, because most of the time I'm in a meeting. That's unacceptable.
Ashley:That's fine. It's my 2024 work goal. It's to open more steps at work.
Dustin:I will hold you to that.
Ashley:That's fine.
Dustin:Every episode. I'm going to tally how many times I had to wait for you to open my Snapchat.
Ashley:It's going to be a lot. There's going to be a running count on some sort of social media platform. God bless, yeah, it's going to be great, but yeah.
Dustin:So what would your advice be? We're going to take a break here in just a moment, but before we do that, what would your advice be to someone who wants to move to Orlando?
Ashley:Do it, do it and do it and don't be afraid to do it with anybody, because I've done this twice now and both times I was terrified, absolutely terrified. But you get here and the community and the people and the friends you meet, and they're just so, they become like a second family, and I don't even want to say second, I think they just become a family. They wrap you up and they hold you and they go OK, we're here for it, let's go. And they pick you up when you fall down and they're there when you're standing up and giggling and they're supportive. So I say, do it, jump the train and even if you don't moving to Orlando and you move somewhere, let's do it. If that's what you want and that's what brings you joy. That is my 2024 quote. If it brings you joy, do it.
Ashley:OK, I'm totally here for that I love it.
Dustin:All right. Well, I think we're going to take a little break because my drink is empty and I need more of a cocktail, and you still have a tea and you get to tell your life story after us, and then I'll tell my life story. So enjoy this little break.
Ashley:Woo.
Dustin:From the birthplace of Dolly Parton to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Tennessee Roads is a podcast where we will look to the rich history and culture and to the bright futures of all the towns and communities that make up the foothills of the great Smoky Mountains. So pull up a chair and sit with me as I tell you about my people. People, isn't that so cute? Well, now you get to talk to us about your people. I will.
Ashley:Yeah, so that obviously is. That was actually the very first ad.
Dustin:I did for Tennessee Roads podcast. It was my preview and I just I recorded that on my phone in my car I love that On the Anchor app, so it had the background music attached to it and everything and if you do listen to my podcast, it's fun to listen to because you can hear. By no means is it amazing. I love that you can hear. By no means is it amazing. I'm not a sound engineer, but it's interesting to hear the quality change as I get as you learn.
Dustin:As yeah, because I started that in the beginning, before the pandemic. I think, no, no, no, I think late 2019, narrowly 2020. And then I went through some creative woes.
Ashley:Creative woes.
Dustin:Yeah, so I'm in the second season, about to start the season number three of Tennessee Roads podcast. So yeah, if you guys enjoy history or you just want to learn about Dollywood or the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville and all that fun stuff, talk a little bit of true crime as well, about cases in East Tennessee. So that's fun, but OK, wait wait, wait.
Ashley:How far are you from, so from Knoxville, how far are you from Katlinburg and all the Smoky Mountains and all the moonshine tastings?
Dustin:Well, technically OK, let's start from the beginning because it'll just it'll make more sense. So I was born in 93 in Blunt County, or as everyone up north calls it, blount County.
Ashley:Blount County.
Dustin:Blount County, wow, which is so that Blunt County has the city of Mariful and the city of Alcoa.
Ashley:OK.
Dustin:And both of those are very Famous towns. But it's funny because you talk to people from anywhere in the world. You're like, oh, I'm from Marival, and they're like where? And you're like Knoxville and they're like, oh, okay great got that, so the interesting thing about that is You've got Marival on Koa or right next to each other, and then you have the airport McGee Tyson Airport.
Ashley:Uh-huh, now that's where we're flying in.
Dustin:Right, that is where we're flying in and that is actually the city of Knoxville. So the city of Knoxville bought this parcel of land and it is completely Enclosed in Blunt County and the city of Knoxville bought it and they said this is the city of Knoxville, so they could have an airport love that so it's really funny when people say, oh, the thing in Knoxville, it's actually not Knoxville, it's Marival and Oka and Blunt County.
Dustin:But yeah, so I grew up right part of something they do but I grew up right next to the airport, actually just within a few miles, and and when I got older, I graduated and I worked for a year at Starbucks and Alcoa I love.
Ashley:okay, can we talk about how delicious?
Dustin:I do enjoy Starbucks Now. That being said, I don't think they're the best on the planet. I like a lot of okay, chain wise. Chain wise. Yes, they're my favorite. I come for me. I don't care, but Duncan Donuts is just sugar, sugar water with milk?
Ashley:Yes, but I do every once in a while run on Duncan.
Dustin:So well, here's my. Does Duncan actually like grind espresso beans? And I don't think so.
Ashley:I think they're just straight coffee, like I don't think concentrated. Correct. I don't think there anything of like anything into you. Every time I go to Duncan I only get there. My sister will be like no, correct it, because I know I'm gonna pronounce it wrong, but it's like the it's Starbucks version of the vanilla bean frappe.
Dustin:Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there. I'm gonna stop you right there. Oh, go ahead. The word is frappuccino. Starbucks copyrighted the word frappuccino Stop it I once had a shift supervisor. These two girls pulled in the drive-thru and then, coming up to Carmel frappes and he was like, yeah, I need you to pull forward, exit the drive-thru, turn right, go down about a half a mile and go to McDonald's, because that's where they have frappes, it's called a frappuccino.
Ashley:I love that All right. Well, I will never ever call it a frappaya for a gun.
Dustin:Not, it, not at Starbucks, you don't.
Ashley:and now, while you're present in the room. I swear.
Dustin:So, but yeah, so I worked there for a year and then in early 2013, dollywood announced that they were going to be opening their first Resort. The dream or resort had over 300 rooms and it was really gonna put Dollywood on On more of a map. Absolutely it was a part of a $300 million expansion project, so I Left there and I started working at a restaurant that was owned by a girl, went to high school with small man dad. It was a.
Dustin:It's called Osaka okay and they do Habachi and teriyaki entrees and that's like that's all they do. They just do teriyaki Habachi entrees and then they have like salad, spring rolls and a couple little appetizers, but like they don't know soups, they don't know sushi. The restaurant is actually probably about as big as your apartment.
Ashley:I got all the walls. I love that. I don't. I don't have that. I mean she's pretty big, but I don't think she's big enough to hold an entire. It's a small, it's a small a small strip mall size. I love it.
Dustin:So like a small strip mall, little store, and so I went there and I worked for a year because I wanted food and beverage experience so I would be able to get a job at the resort when it opened absolutely and and.
Dustin:So we make it to January of 2014. Actually, it's February 2014 and I was like, okay, now's a good opportunity for me to go get a job at dollywood, because the resort opens in 2015 and It'll give me an opportunity to work for the company for a year. So my name will be known, I'll have my foot in the door. Yes, so I started working.
Ashley:I know who you are.
Dustin:Yes, so I went and I interviewed for a position and I was one of 13 people chosen to be an Opening team member for fire chaser express in 2014, which was the nation's first family-friendly dual launching roller coaster. So it launches you forwards and backwards and it was really cool because the entire team that opened that ride we were all brand new to dollywood, with the exception of our trainer and our lead, so everyone was brand new to the company and we got there for the first day to open and and Low and behold, the door opens and in walks, dolly rubbeck apart, and stop it.
Ashley:Did you like cry?
Dustin:I it was.
Ashley:It was a surreal experience, like I've met celebrities before yes, but it's dolly, but it was dolly, it's dolly like you can smell her for an hour at she. She's so like you have to do, you have to listen. Every single person that is listening to us right now Wants to smell the air that dolly parten smells.
Dustin:It's very floral love that, and and I mean it is very, it's very old lady perfume and I'm not saying old lady perfume is a bad smell. I think it's. Actually. I'll enjoy that smell, but it's very strong. But that's the thing is. You know, people say that she wants you to smell her after she's gone.
Dustin:And we did I remember she actually came into our break room and Actually the people came into the break room and they were like is there a restroom in here that dolly can use? And we started panicking because her own restroom yes, because our, our break room existed for a previous attraction. So through the construction of the, the ride being built, the construction workers were going in so there was red clay mud staining the concrete so we're like cleaning fiercely.
Dustin:We're and and she walks into the room and she's like oh, hi y'all and then immediately, you know, they turn her off to the, to the right where the restroom is, and then she goes into the bathroom and like five I'm not even kidding five people follow her in in the bathroom, into the bathroom.
Ashley:They never closed the door stop it, poor dolly, do you, do you want to pee? I'd like to ask her do you want to pee alone? I Don't know, she jokes just used to it.
Dustin:She jokes that she's sewn into her outfits.
Ashley:Oh, that's probably what it is. Got those long nails.
Dustin:Yes, she does so.
Ashley:But I mean.
Dustin:I would love to be. I would love to be that kind of royalty that you know when you go to the bathroom you have an entourage that goes with you.
Ashley:Do you think the entourage is who wipes her cuz of nails?
Dustin:I am not discussing this.
Ashley:This is. This is who I am. I will ask the uncomfortable questions Because it makes people go. Oh, is it right if I people walk into a bathroom with dolly partin? I mean, she is the queen and I would, if I was one of the five, would happily, happily walk in and see, see, miss Partin do it her business, lord knows do you think when she poops it smells like flowers, smells like the reading rainbow.
Dustin:Please do not come for us dolly.
Ashley:No, I just genuinely want to know, like I genuinely want to know.
Dustin:I don't know, I don't like. Well, I don't think we'll ever know that.
Ashley:Listen, does it tell all if she's a guest on our podcast, I mean that will be the question I will ask her. Yeah, who knows, miss partin, love you so much would give my blood and my one Strong kidney to you.
Dustin:I've got more. I've got more on her and my time at dolly wood. So so, as time progressed at dolly wood, it got to the point where they were ready to start hiring for the resort and I had just fallen so in love with Operations and the team that I was with.
Dustin:Yes, I had been promoted to safety trainer in that summer and I'd found out that at that time I was the quickest Promotion to a safety trainer and I was also the youngest safety trainer that the company had. I was, let's see, in 20. I Was 19, 20 years old and I was the youngest safety trainer that the company had had, which was funny because shortly after that, like they started getting younger and younger safety trainers, one of my exes became a safety trainer at the wild eagle and I got to go on and I worked with Rudolph and friends. So dolly wood did a three-year contract with Rudolph from the original like claymation movie from the 60s. I might have gotten the wrong, but I got to be friends with Clarice. When her other friend became ill and needed to leave for the day, I got to be Clarice's friend for the rest of the day which.
Dustin:I'm sure Most people who work in the industry understands what being a friend of At least if you were either.
Ashley:You've either worked in the industry or your friends with somebody that has worked in the industry. Yes that you understand that concept.
Dustin:Yes, so for how do I do this delicately for those? That don't understand what being friends with Whenever.
Ashley:Well, you take a step in their shoes when yeah you literally take a step in their shoes.
Dustin:So, yes, I got to take a step in Clarice's shoes and be her friend, and it was funny. The reason that they put me With Clarice was because of the size that I was. I could only Be Clarice's friend because we would make the the feminine poses where we like archer back and we like bend her knees. Yes, and that was the only way that it would work. Yeah, I was too big for to be Rudolph's friend.
Dustin:Wow so that was really fun. So I got to do that which was, and it was, it was so much fun, it was a total blast. And then I got to do the Dollywood Christmas parade. I was an elf in the Christmas parade. I got to walk beside Rudolph in his Rudolph got to sit in a PT cruiser and I got to walk beside Rudolph.
Ashley:Because Rudolph is royalty.
Dustin:So yes, and then they got a brand new parade, the parade of many colors, which coincided with the coat of many colors movies that Dolly released. So we got all new costumes. I got to wear my own coat of many colors and I was the snowman cart driver, so I had like I had a parade flow. That was an electric cart that, like food and beverage, would move stuff in the theme park. And I drove that and it was just a giant light up of little snowmen and that was fun.
Dustin:And Then, in 2016, I was the safety trainer. Well, no, I skipped over 2015 altogether 2015. I worked for this guy, it didn't it was not a fun year for me. It was. It was actually a rough year for me. My grandfather was terminally ill at the time and I owe a lot to my grandparents in life and in bringing me to the world of Dollywood. Like if my grandmother wouldn't have taken me to Dollywood so much growing up, I wouldn't have worked for Dollywood.
Ashley:Absolutely so that year. I think that speaks of everything for complete. Yeah, somehow, some way, you work for a theme park that you grew up going to.
Dustin:It's the reason.
Ashley:I connected so hard with Disney is I grew up going to Disney.
Dustin:Yeah.
Ashley:I didn't go to Universal until I was 22.
Dustin:Yeah, I realized that what I wanted to do at Dollywood was I wanted to give an experience to a small child and a family that Dollywood host gave to me when I was a child, absolutely. And so that year I Through, through coincidence, I was actually working with the administrative assistant to the company's president, craig Ross, at the time, and she was asking me and a Couple of the other guys you know who are you, what do you do at Dollywood, why did you get started here? And I explained to that story of my grandparents. And this was the day before homecoming, which is a big event where Dolly comes back to East Tennessee and she comes to Dollywood and there's a big event, she goes to all of the shows at Dollywood and she has a private event in the celebrity theater and then she would be the master of ceremonies for the Homecoming parade that took through downtown Pigeon Forge.
Dustin:Love that and the woman looked at me and she was like, where do your grandparents live? And I was like, oh, they're in Marival, it's just like 40 minutes away. And she was like, do you think they could be here in the morning? And I was like, what do you mean? And she goes well, do you think that they could be here at about 8 30 in the morning? And I was like, well, let me see. So I you know. I called my grandmother and I asked.
Dustin:I said hey, Pretty good please I said do you think that you and Paul can come to Dollywood tomorrow? And she said well, let me ask them, because usually when he would have his chemo treatments, the cup like one or two days after, he wouldn't be feeling super well. And so I said I can't tell you what it is, that's a surprise, but I really need both of you to be able to come to Dollywood, so they. Came, my grandfather came and I got to. It was great because I got to see them that morning.
Dustin:Yes and I was like, okay, so I gave them their little VIP badges, they got the IP badges and they got to go into the area of the park calls it adventures and imagination, and that's where Dolly's closet is, her museum is, and I didn't even go into the area. Like I took them there and I went to and I started doing work, stuff for the homecoming and I realized that they were in there with, like politicians and other celebrities and like all these, all these people that like they're somebody they're high ups and they got like free breakfast and they didn't go into Dolly's museum that morning.
Dustin:But I later found out that she was in the museum that morning.
Ashley:Stop it.
Dustin:So they didn't get to go to the museum, but then they got to go and sit in the celebrity theater. For her event and for me, this was a moment that I am Like it's one of my. It's one of my proudest moments because my grandmother grew up. She's three years older than Dolly. They grew up 45 minutes away from each other. She's never seen Dolly live, she's never seen her perform in a concert, and that day she got to watch Dolly sing 9 to 5, code of mini colors, a couple other songs and.
Dustin:And talk about dream more, because dream more was gonna be opening in just a month afterwards, and so they ended up both getting a one night stay at dream or resort, and they chose. They took it with them and they ended up deciding not to go because at that point, you know, he was just really sick. So being in to be in a theme park was probably not the best situation to have someone with a compromised immune system, excuse me. So they ended up giving their two one night stays to my cousin, jennifer, who had gotten married, and so her and her husband yeah, her and her husband Brandon got to go, stay at dream or resort for their honeymoon stop it.
Dustin:So that was a lot of fun and I got to do a lot of things at the resort for its opening. I got to do a lot of help and it was a moment that meant a lot to me because I had met Dolly a few times and I had a few interactions with her. Bruce is trying to get something out of the fridge or out of the sink, and I Went and was at the resort one day and Dolly came down the hallway and to me this meant a lot because she didn't see my name tag but she remembered my name and she was like hey, paul, how are you? And she asked how my grandfather was and how my grandparents were. And that meant so much to me because she meets thousands of people and she may not remember these interactions now and that's totally fine, but at that time, in that moment she had been, you know, two months since she Learned my story, as she got to learn, you know, about my grandparents and that, and I never got to like I've never sat down with Dolly and got to have a one-on-one conversation, but it was enough that for that season and the season following she knew who I was when we saw each other and she would call me by name and she would say hi, and I, you know, I would say hi back.
Dustin:But I'm a very, very firm believer. I will never in my life a Procraste celebrity in public and be like, oh my god, can I have a picture? Can I have an autograph? I am a firm believer to. When I see them like, I'll be like like if I were to see Adele or Lady Gaga. I would walk past and I would just say, oh, hi, lady Gaga, hi Adele. I would say hello to them, I would wave to them and I would keep going because I am respectful of them and their personal time. They're not at a concert. I didn't pay for a meet-and-greet and if they choose to speak more to me after that, then I'll talk to them.
Ashley:That's not that's. I think it's their decision.
Dustin:Yeah. So that's just kind of how I didn't, and you know so. Then I went back and I worked for entertainment for a little while. I helped debut. It's a wonderful life at Dollywood. And then the Geltlenburg wildfire hit that year no, and it hit right in the middle of our Christmas season. We were I ever. The park was closed that day and I remember At no point in time was I in any act of danger. Oh, excuse me where I lived was on.
Dustin:No, that was to be honest. It was a burp. I Lived on Winfield, on Parkway Highway 66, out towards the interstate, so I was actually the. The wildfire was on the far side of Geltlenburg. So then you had Geltlenburg, then you had pigeon forge, then you had severe vol and then you had where I lived, which was technically right outside of the city in the county, but I was a stones there. You know, I was 10 miles from Dollywood and At one point I was 10 miles from the fire. It had got that close. It actually encroached on the Dollywood property. Dollywood lost 13 cabins. We a co-worker of mine lost his wife and his two daughters in the fire. We had, I think it was 13 Dollywood family members lost their homes, but they, you know, fortunately as forever you do. We lost 14 people that day.
Dustin:That's and that fire? I mean it came, it came out of nowhere. I saw a video. I worked part-time at Sugarlands moonshine distilling sugarlands. It's the best.
Ashley:Wait, do you think it's better than old smokies?
Dustin:I do so. Old smokies distills their moonshines six times and six times. In most places only distilled two or three. The more you distill it, the smoother it's gonna be right. And when people walk in and they said this ain't real moonshine? No, it is, it's a hundred percent real moonshine. People, people are like people are like this doesn't smell like acetone and I'm like that'll make you go blind.
Dustin:That is that is what you call the head of the moonshine. So in a moonshine barrel you have the head, the heart, the tail yes, the tail has impurities, and that's what gives you the hangover. The heart is the good stuff. That's what sugar and shells and the head is the stuff that is really bad for you and it can make you go blind.
Ashley:So but but it also put some hair on the peaches and it doesn't, you know.
Dustin:But one of our distillers lived in the city limits of Gowlenburg and he was not able to evacuate the city. So there's a video. He's standing in downtown. He went to downtown because it was the safest place. The fire was on both sides on the hills and he took a video of the fire as it came across the backside of the mountain.
Dustin:So you've got sugarlands in the video and then behind it you just have this inferno and it literally a hundred percent looked like actual hell on earth stop it it was the scariest thing I had ever seen, and about a week after that Actually it was the Monday following, so exactly a week afterwards the city reopened to companies, businesses, so if you were a business you could get back into the city. Okay, and it was, I mean, it was like World War Z apocalypse level, like I mean it looked like.
Dustin:The government, the military you had to know you had. We had to go through security. The highways, the roads were all shut down, they had barricades across them, they had police floors I believe the Tennessee National Guard was there. So those mill it like military presence. We had to go through, we had to show our IDs and the company had to show proof that we worked for them. And we went in and a 15 passenger van and and we pulled in to as we were as we got closer to the city. It was just, it was so it was almost like a tornado, because this business was spared and that business was spared, but then this hotel was completely burned to the ground. And then you go to the next hotel and then the lobby was burned to the ground, but all the hotel buildings Stood. And then you would round the corner and you would see these businesses, these hotels, these mom and pops that had been a Part of Geltlinburg for you, 60 years gone. And they're gone.
Dustin:They were just completely gone.
Ashley:It really was like a world war z situation it was and we made it to.
Dustin:This was in 2016, oh my gosh and we made it to sugarlands. And right beside sugarlands is the historic Geltlinburg chairlift. Yes, it is that takes you to the top of the mountain.
Ashley:And it was drunk on sit sugarlands and I tried to get on that lift after it was closed.
Dustin:Yeah, you probably shouldn't do that.
Ashley:That's a whole nother story of another podcast.
Dustin:But the chairlift was. It was so ominous because it was charred the chairs like everything laid on the ground everything was just for a while and.
Dustin:But it was amazing to watch the city rebuild, to watch helicopters come in and the helicopters. It was like six months later the helicopters came and they Detached the towers from the chairlift and they attached them to the helicopter and the helicopter lifted them up and carried them away and and it's. It's not in no way, shape or form. Was this the blessing? No, in disguise, in any way safe perform. It was not. However, some of the some of the businesses for them has given them an opportunity to start anew and start fresh. And you know, the chairlift in Geltlinburg now is Something that it was not before and it could not have been. It's new, it's modern, it's high-tech. They've got the sky bridge up there, they've got observation towers. These businesses have come back stronger than ever and it's.
Ashley:It's a curse at that way of her. It's a when. Hey, it happened, but we're gonna put it in their review mirror and we're gonna jump Headfirst into something new and something well.
Dustin:That's. That's not completely true.
Ashley:Oh boy.
Dustin:A lot of the businesses and a lot of the residents. To this day, if you ask them, they're still animosity there because we weren't warned. We had no warning. A friend of mine's boyfriend lived in Geltlinburg at the time and he lived in the basement of their house and his basement had a sliding glass door to his room. So he went upstairs to make something to eat and he came back downstairs and when he opened his bedroom door he was like I didn't leave my light on oh no and that's when he realized that the fire was at At his door.
Dustin:Oh my god, it was already burning up the side of their house and he grabbed a dirty Basket of dirty clothes, got upstairs, got his mom her purse, they went outside and his car was completely engulfed in flames. It had already wrapped her out of the front so they jumped in her car and they drove, and they drove, and they drove and fortunately they made it out and there's tons of video footage, if you get out there, of people they're driving and there's nothing but in front of to their left, the right above them, there's trees down on the road.
Dustin:At points people were literally running down the side of the mountain stop, that's terrible it and it was because we received no warning, because it was just a phenomenon of nature. We had winds of 80 miles an hour that day.
Ashley:That's not helping that fire and that's you know.
Dustin:People are saying that's what took so long, and there was a breakdown in communication, a breakdown in policy.
Ashley:And I think that point, I think you know, I think our people, well, they couldn't send out an amber alert.
Dustin:No, they had to get in order to send out an amber alert they had to go through it was like three different channels and they had to let go to Nashville, and it's Thanksgiving weekend. These offices weren't posted. The National Weather Service in Morse town Wasn't able to do anything because they had to have official Permission before they can post anything, so they weren't able to broadcast anything. So nothing until it was like 10 o'clock and it was like three hours into it and the fire was approaching. Now, pigeon Forge oh my gosh, that was. We only had news coverage, we had local news coverage and they were saying you know, get out of town, go the opposite direction, and all of these tourists, they don't listen to the local news stations.
Dustin:So the the spur was drunk the spur was backed up, got one, but the good thing, though, is the air quality was so bad in Severe County because the fire had been going for a week in the chimney tops. Oh my gosh and the air quality was so bad that a lot of the businesses in downtown Geltgenburg closed. Sugarlands closed at like 4 pm that day. Otherwise it would have been fully staffed with like 13 employees and hundreds of people.
Ashley:How crazy that would have been. It had all of these places, with the air quality had not Been an effect. Yeah so I think there would have been a lot more people. That had probably passed.
Dustin:Yeah, so, so, so. So that was the the 2016 wildfire. You know our community suffered from that. You know Dolly did an official Advertisement to welcome people back to the Smokies and to let them know that we were still there and we wanted to welcome them. And you know we moved on from that and I worked at Dollywood until 2019 and I left Dollywood in early 2019 to go work for Starbucks again to get free college tuition reimbursement, and I went in full-time at Starbucks as a shift supervisor and started going to Arizona State University To get a bachelor's degree in hospitality and recreational management. Well, in February of 2020, the pandemic had gotten so bad doll, I know it was March Dollywood opened for One day, for a season pass holder preview day, and it was determined that that day the park would be closing for two weeks to help Stop the spread of COVID.
Ashley:Here's what it looks like.
Dustin:have a great day, yeah at that point Starbucks nationwide had said we are going to close our stores for two weeks. We're leaving it up to the individual stores, correct? You will get paid. So there were three stores there's three corporate stores for Starbucks in severe County and we kind of all got together and we talked about it on the barista level. Uh-huh and we made the decision it's our due diligence To close our store to help aid in tourists going home.
Dustin:It's one less thing for tourists to do, so hopefully they'll go home. So we closed for two weeks, and then that two weeks turned into a month and a half.
Ashley:Oh my gosh it.
Dustin:You know the pandemic started to get worse and worse so they refused to list come back. So then we finally came back to work. We were getting hazard pay, so we were getting three dollars more an hour to come to work, hazard pay. I know we were drive-thru only, so the lobby was closed and our lobby was closed for almost a year. Oh my god, we were drive-thru only, which was kind of nice because we were able to we had to.
Dustin:We had two hot bars and one cold Bar, so we were able to fully focus on drive-through. Now. Our drive-through times were horrible.
Ashley:I'm sure.
Dustin:But then slowly we reopened the lobby for mobile order pickup only so people couldn't order.
Dustin:Yes but they could mobile order pickup. And then we started to where we did mobile order pickup. You could order in the lobby but everything was to go and our bathrooms were closed. And then it got to the point where we were Having altercations with guests because they wanted to use our bathrooms and, like they would push the bear, they pushed the barricades out of the way and we're like call the police. And I was like I mean, what are we gonna tell these people? No, you can't use the back. I like I had to tell this tiny little old lady she could. I felt like shit, I felt horrible for telling this woman.
Dustin:She couldn't go to our bathrooms and and then, you know, slowly everything kind of reopened. But we were on block schedules and and our morning shift would get sick with COVID and then they would be gone for two weeks and they'd come back for like three days and then they would catch COVID again and everyone on the AM block had to isolate. So it was me and another shift supervisor essentially running our store and it was miserable and I hated it. I hated my life. So I got a job working.
Dustin:Yeah. So then I got a job working for a convention center in Sevierville and I landed a salary job and you know we were still under COVID protocols but the convention center it was open, we know we were having events but the staff wore masks. And then it was a couple months into that we no longer had to wear masks and I had gone back to Dollywood part-time working as a conductor on the Dollywood Express and that was fun.
Ashley:Is that a whoop whoop, or is that a choo choo?
Dustin:That's a choo whoo.
Ashley:A choo whoo.
Dustin:First and only time I've ever cried at work was Working on the Dollywood Express, because this woman was so hateful to me over our COVID protocols and she said that she worked in a pharmacy and that COVID was a lie. And all of these things and another guest like Swooped in to save me Every single person.
Ashley:I know the COVID vaccination.
Dustin:Yeah, so. So I did that for a little while, and then I had to stop working at Dollywood again because my schedule at the convention center was just too Demanding yes and then I ended up going back to Starbucks for a little bit part-time.
Dustin:And they worked around. My convention schedule was much easier, and so I did that for a while until I was like I Am not enjoying what I'm doing at this particular convention center Just because of some of the policies, and the way that we handled events to me was just too In inside the box. Yes, you know, when you work in the event industry, you have to be able to think outside the box, you have to come up with creative solutions, and we didn't really do creative solutions there, so, yeah, so I was like, okay, this isn't the location for me. So at that point I ended up getting a job at the Tom Briss company, which is a full-service Independent marketing agency, and there's a difference between full service and not full service. So we would do SEO, search engine Optimizations, we would do programmatic buying, we did social media, we did organic social, paid social social media platform.
Ashley:Looks really nice, no.
Dustin:No, so the job that I did, I was like a pencil pusher.
Ashley:I did the invoices in the billing, I'm gonna need you to go back so you can. You can work at them and their social media.
Dustin:Okay, okay so I worked there for about a year and a half and I can't really go into full details to why I left. It wasn't because of anything bad, but I left because I felt that me leaving would give an opportunity to some of my co-workers. That Potentially wouldn't happen if I stayed.
Ashley:It's not sad. I think that's so sad.
Dustin:Well, there was a there's all. There was a lot of moving parts as to why I made the decision.
Ashley:I did some summering tea. You can't. It's not ready to boil, just well.
Dustin:So long story, long story short the client that I worked for. But we were gonna lose that client and they were gonna go somewhere else. So I I thought that if I left, hopefully that was good news for my teammates and that if cuts had to happen, my teammates wouldn't. Yes, and they all went to college for this. This is what they wanted to do For me. I took it on the recommendation of my friends that used to work there, because they said this is a great industry and I think you'll do really well in there. And I feel like I could have done really well in there and I was on the track to do so, but it wasn't what I wanted to do. And at that point my friends here in Orlando were like come down, come to Orlando. So I thought this is it, this is my opportunity. It's that little voice.
Ashley:Yes.
Dustin:I've been trying to make it to Orlando since 2014, when I took my first vacation here with my friends from Hollywood.
Ashley:I took my vacation.
Dustin:I took a vacation with one of our mutual friends. Yes and he had since moved down here. And then I had another friend that moved down here, and then I had two more friends that moved down here, and the two more friends were the ones that were like We've got spare room in our house. Come move, it's okay. If you don't have a job when you first get here, we'll work with you absolutely, and they did.
Dustin:They've been absolutely fantastic love them and so I got down here and immediately started looking at Universal in Disney, and there was nothing nothing nothing. Well, I take that back. There are things. Universal has a lot of postings right now, but it is for Positions. Well, no, not even food and beverage right now, it's for epic universe. It is, but it's project managers and engineers and all yeah things that I will openly admit. I am not qualified to do that.
Ashley:I don't even think any of us could make it like fake it till we make it with those ones.
Dustin:No well, I mean, it's like, it's like engineering.
Ashley:Yeah, you gotta be able to build them, yeah, and right now Disney.
Dustin:When it comes to park operations, disney is looking for Ambassadors from foreign countries for their culinary program. So they're looking for, like Japan, sweden, mexico. We need a cop pavilions as what they're looking for essentially worked in the up couple million which one.
Ashley:I worked for France, france, france.
Dustin:Palais vous, france, yes, we.
Ashley:Loved it I ate. That's probably why my love for croissants is so thick.
Dustin:She's she thick so. I moved down here with a few credit cards that had no balance on them.
Ashley:I like this story. This is where I catch it. This is the story, the part of the story that I know. Yeah, this is the part where you come in.
Dustin:So I moved down here and then immediately struggled to find work Correct. I have put in probably no less than 10 applications with Starbucks at various stores, not a day but in total Haven't heard anything, nothing, not a peep.
Dustin:for many of them I put in jobs with. I did apply for several positions with Universal. They had some stuff going, stuff that I feel very confident that I am qualified for and that I could bring a lot of my expertise in the theme park world too. Absolutely, but it is again. It's not their entry level positions. So, I feel like Universal is going to choose to go with someone they already know or someone that's already within the company, versus taking someone.
Ashley:I think that's any theme park, though their concept is to hire within. It always looks better, I think.
Dustin:Well, and I also think it depends on like in this industry. I don't think it looks better.
Ashley:Maybe that's the wrong phrase but, like I definitely think that theme parks or any well-known company because you know my company is the exact same way I was their first outside hire- in 10 years.
Dustin:Oh, my God yeah.
Ashley:My, my company only hires within.
Dustin:They promote, yeah, promote from within, yeah.
Ashley:I mean they have people that have been with this company for decades.
Dustin:Oh well.
Ashley:And I'm like I've been with you guys for three months.
Dustin:Hey, I'm doing great, so I think that's the thing.
Ashley:I think that the internal hires is the reason why people on the outside are struggling so hard is because they're there. I don't know if there's a stigma to it or if these companies just feel like they, but I guess that speaks very well to how they, they train these people, that they feel that, okay, you, you, you've been here for this amount of time. We feel you're ready for this next position, so let's try it with it.
Dustin:Yeah, and I know, I'm sure, and I've keep I'm keeping a close eye on it because I know that Universal is going to have some job openings as we move as we navigate through 2024, because Epic Universe is opening. I'm so excited.
Dustin:Um and so, yeah, but anyways, um, so I kept looking and then I had some friends reach out to me and they were like, hey, this company is hiring. Yes, they are. Um, so I put in an application with this company and they are very. It's a very large company in this area, has to deal with some of the theme parks down here and, um, I didn't realize, was it separate from this specific park? Um, so I was like okay, sure. So I applied for this company in a position that, um, I know I'm qualified to do. I probably could have applied for a couple of other jobs, but I was like I don't know anyone at this company and I don't know anyone working for this company, I just will put your toes on the sand.
Dustin:I was like why don't I just start right here? Um, start the bottom, work your way so it's definitely a different income and salary than I'm used to. Or lack of and I miss Well you're doing great.
Ashley:I think you're doing great. Listen for for this being your first time to move to Orlando, I think you're not burning out as many as fast as other people. Like I'm, sure there are people that would look at your situation and go yep, time to go back. Yeah, time to go back.
Dustin:No, I'm enjoying it. I mean, I don't absolutely love the job that I'm doing right now, but I love the industry that I'm in. I'm in the industry that I want to be in and it's giving me an opportunity to learn how these companies do function, because, because universal and Disney function completely different from Dollywood.
Ashley:Dollywood is a function completely different from each other.
Dustin:Yes, they do.
Ashley:As somebody who's worked for both and I have worked for Disney through the college program and then I worked for them as a a outside entity, because I mean France, all the countries in Epcot are not owned and operated by Disney, they are third party companies. So and I've worked for Universal they all operate so incredibly different it is. It is night and day. Their operation, their night and day their process, all of it is is completely different from each other and everybody kind of I think the a lot of people will just group them into one group and go nope, they're a theme park.
Dustin:Enjoy.
Ashley:I mean they even try to group that, uh, that little aquarium down the down the street from us into that group, and I think you can't even group SeaWorld into that. I think all three of those they they hire train.
Dustin:They act so differently from each other. There is not another park that I have been to that is like SeaWorld. It's so different.
Ashley:SeaWorld's the wicked step sister, I think, of all three parks.
Dustin:I have a love hate relationship with SeaWorld right now. I think we all do.
Ashley:Um.
Dustin:I enjoy it, but then at the same time I'm like I just wish you were bigger, correct?
Ashley:You know what I really wish? I wish they could just pick up Bush Gardens and put it right next door to SeaWorld One because I'm like, really, is that where iron quasi is?
Dustin:Yes, yes, yes In Tampa, yes, In Tampa.
Ashley:Can we go to?
Dustin:Legoland.
Ashley:I would love to go to Legoland.
Dustin:I want to go to Legoland, let's go to Legoland.
Ashley:Let's go right now.
Dustin:Yes, At seven o'clock at night on a Absolutely On a Saturday Saturday.
Ashley:Is it Saturday In January? Oh God, we'll freeze.
Dustin:Actually it was rather warm. Today it was 80 degrees.
Ashley:today it was but it was gross and raining and I did not like that.
Dustin:When did it rain?
Ashley:All this entire. Well, I've also been up since five o'clock this morning, so it was raining this morning.
Dustin:I had a really bad day at work yesterday and hung out with a co-worker after work. I didn't get off. I got off work at 1 30 this morning and I didn't leave the parking garage until 3 am. That's I didn't go to bed till after four.
Ashley:That's gross. I had a work emergency.
Dustin:I went to bed right before you woke up.
Ashley:I got woken up by work. That happens, I love it.
Dustin:Okay, well, I think that we have gone on forever.
Ashley:Yes, and we haven't even gotten to the best part.
Dustin:What's the best part?
Ashley:We haven't even talked about our Lord and Savior, Gypsy Rose.
Dustin:Oh my God, that's so right. Okay, all right, we've got to talk about Gypsy Rose for just a few minutes, and then I think it's time to go, because I'm sure everyone is probably like, oh my God, they won't shut up, but they haven't hit the pause button yet, so they're enjoying it.
Ashley:Correct. So, I mean, I've been familiar, I think, a little tidbit though, into what our podcast is going to look like.
Dustin:Yeah, so I have been very familiar with Gypsy Rose since the actual happenings of it and it actually branched onto the news originally. And then, you know, I watched it, listened to it, and then they came out with a Netflix series or not Netflix the. Hulu series, the docuseries, the act, and so, for those that don't know, gypsy Rose Blanchard was a victim of munch housing by proxy. Yes, um, she, for what everyone thought was completely wheelchair bound, had cancer had everything had a feeding tube.
Dustin:their family her and her mother got a home built to them by Habitat. They got a free car, and when that car broke they got another car.
Ashley:How many Disney trips A?
Dustin:lot. She did make a wish, a lot, um, and it, as it turns out, um, everything is not as it looked.
Ashley:No, no, she, she was fine. You know. What killed me, though, Is that this entire thing was happening and I had no idea who she was until she started to get released from prison released from prison. And then I was like hey, somebody tell me who this girl is and why the entire nation is obsessed with her.
Dustin:And I showed you the first episode of the act.
Ashley:And then I watched all of it in two nights.
Dustin:Heck yeah, and now, I love her. Yeah, so for those of you that don't know um, Gypsy Rose ended up having her mother murdered by her boyfriend that she met online. So it turns out that Gypsy Rose had nothing at all wrong with her. She was not wheelchair bound, she did not need a feeding tube. She had no allergies, no leukemias.
Ashley:Can you imagine those sitting on your couch watching her court on tape, like on TV? And then seeing her like being one of those people that gave her money or built her house, and then she just walks into the courtyard or the courtroom.
Dustin:Like.
Ashley:I. So this is why I'm super excited.
Dustin:So she was in prison for 10 years.
Ashley:Yes, Um and.
Dustin:I think she actually only served eight of those years.
Ashley:She got out two years on that good behavior.
Dustin:She was released? Uh, was it January First? No, was it December 28th, december 28th, december 28th, yeah, cause she got to celebrate New Year's. And only know that because I now follow her on every social media platform. Yes, Um and she was released from prison and yesterday she had her like premier for the prison confessions of Gypsy Rose Belanchard.
Ashley:Yes, is this on the lifetime?
Dustin:It, I think it was lifetime. We need to figure out where it is so we can watch it, so we can talk about it more next time.
Ashley:100%.
Dustin:Um, but I Did a lot of research on this as time has gone on, and I do side with Gypsy Rose. I think that she made some bad decisions.
Ashley:Absolutely.
Dustin:Um, but I think when you're constantly drugged 24 seven, you, what choice do you have? You're tied to a bed, yes, um, you're forced to do these things, where your mother physically abuses you and squeezes on you If you say the wrong thing to a doctor.
Ashley:That's terrifying. Yeah, it absolutely is. Um so we, I give. I give Gypsy some credit, though, Like do I agree with the choice she made to kill her mother? No, but I understand why she did it, but I also. The girls got some balls. I mean, she literally slept with the man in a movie theater.
Dustin:Men's bathroom.
Ashley:Men's bathroom While mommy was watching the movie send all these watching Cindy and Gypsy Rose is getting the D. I mean it's not. I guess it's not near as good as the the D she's getting currently, though she, she did come out. Did you see that? She came out and said that she is married, she is married. She is married and, uh, she she came out and said that this man that she is married to is gives the golden D, and I believe that is an actual quote that came from her the golden D.
Dustin:I feel like that's an award we need to have.
Ashley:The golden D.
Dustin:The golden D.
Ashley:I'm dead. Yes, all right, yes.
Dustin:All right, guys. Well, we want to thank you so much for joining us for our first episode. We we did. We did go a little longer than planned, but we were enjoying it. We wanted you guys to get to know who we are and what we've got going on. So, um, our goal is to do at least one episode, hopefully per week.
Ashley:Yes, it is.
Dustin:Um, bear with us for the next couple of weeks. It may be one episode every two weeks. We'll see what happens where we're. We're working currently on our work schedules and other things that are happening, and I always work evenings and she works in the day. So it makes it a little hard, but our goal is to do that.
Ashley:I'm going to start doing these podcasts at like two, three o'clock in the morning. Oh, I'm here for it. Your roommates are going to hate us, but that's fine.
Dustin:They'll be fine, um, but yeah, so make sure you guys follow us on our socials. We don't have anything on any of our socials currently. Hopefully, as this episode comes out, you'll start to see content. Um, we are. What was a question that we had earlier we'd we'd talked about? Oh, yeah, so we want to know your opinion. We're going to post it on Facebook, yes, we want to know your opinion. What do you consider morally offensive?
Ashley:tattoos. I want to know.
Dustin:Um, and keep in mind that we respect all people, all opinions. We celebrate all colors and walks of life, so there is no wrong answer. And if you're interacting with others on our social media, we're not. We're not snowflakes, we're not safe spaces, but please be respectful of other people, be kind, be kind.
Ashley:The world has enough eagerness.
Dustin:Exactly Put yourself in their shoes? Absolutely.
Ashley:Um, we don't have an outro.
Dustin:We didn't think about this.
Ashley:Listen. I think we should just tell them all to live life colorfully.
Dustin:Live life colorfully.
Ashley:We didn't really think of this outro. No we definitely more thought of our intro. Well, listen, cheers. Thanks for for, I guess, being a co-host with me. This has been a blast.
Dustin:Yeah, this has been fun. I can't wait to do our next episode. I don't know what we're going to do it on yet, but it's going to be great.
Ashley:Some fun, absolutely.
Dustin:Oh, I'm vibrating. Why am I vibrating? Is it anything good?
Ashley:No.
Dustin:Oh, my screen won't come on. Oh, I get a TikTok, notification. Oh, that's exciting. All right Well.
Ashley:I love it.
Dustin:Peace, love. Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.
Ashley:Hey, and wherever you are, if you're in Orlando or if you're somewhere else, find out what, unplug it and let us know while we help you Unplug Orlando. Unplug.
Dustin:Orlando Orlando unplugged.
Ashley:Close enough. We're getting it, we're doing great Da da da, da da Bye.