64: [Bit of Fun] Sustaining Adult Friendships with Low-Cost and Creative Friend Dates

Back when we did Episode 20: [How-to] Overcoming the Challenge of Making Friends as an Adult, we wanted to help you find your people because we all know it gets hard once you move from the school-age years to the adult-life working years!

In this episode, we step it up a notch by giving you ideas of ways to connect with your friends for free or cheap, as well as in unique ways rather than the go-to happy hour that might be few and far between these days.

We hope you love these ideas and reach out to your friends to connect after this!

As always, please leave a rating and review if you haven't already!

CHEERS!

Reference for Friend Statistics

Article about loneliness being worse than smoking

Pottery Palace Address: 504 S Main St. Grain Valley, MO 64029

Transcript

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With the idea if you were, no, that's so smart. Okay. Okay. Mic's on. Mac is, I'm gonna take a sip of my coffee. Yeah. Oh, so freaking good. Good. Okay. Okay. You ready? Yes. Alright. One, three. Welcome to the Fill Your Cubs podcast. We're your host, Morgan and Daily. Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the show. We are so glad that you're here. Mm-hmm. Whether you're on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube, we are so called or. I don't know. Wherever you find your podcast. Yeah, wherever you find your podcast. I feel like those are the main ones. Yeah. Like Jared listens on some kind of web browser thing, so Oh, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so thanks for being here. Yeah. We appreciate it. We are going to talk today, it's kind of an expansion or an addition to a previous episode that we had. Mm-hmm. All about making friends as an adult and. Friend dates. Really? Yeah. So I'm gonna give you some ideas of things that you can do that are free and or unique and just yeah, fun things that you can do with your friends, because we all know that making friends as an adult is kind of a struggle, honestly. Yeah. It can be kind of hard and like knowing what to do can be kind of hard and. We have a lot of ideas that are like in the house. Some are free, some are cheaper, some are out of the house. Mm-hmm. So like I feel like that can be hard sometimes of knowing like maybe, maybe you've got some kids who you're like, I really can't spend four or five hours outta the house. Yeah. That's okay. We've got ideas for in the house or like. Maybe you're on a budget. I really don't have time to spend all this money. That's okay. Like we've got lots of different ideas for you. So yeah. Yeah. Before we get into the episode, Bailey, what's filling your cup? I've got my waters always. And then you made me some coffee as well. So that's what I've got today. How about you? What's fill in your cup? Exactly. Same. And I just realized we both have pink water bottles and we both have dog related mugs. Aw, cute. That that one that you have, it says, I woo you. That one. A little dog, our friend Courtney gave to me. So cute. And then this one has pictures of Ed and Kathleen. It was a gift from Kathleen Keegan, I think, combo gift. Do you think it was like the first year you had him? No, it was a little last Christmas. Really? Yeah. Aw. Yeah. But I think Jared provided the. Oh yeah. I guess he is bigger in something. Oh my god, he's a little baby. I love Ed so much. I love, I love that boy. So we do have a shout. Yeah, we do have a shout out. Do you wanna Yeah, share our shout out? Yeah, absolutely. So I think it's about two episodes ago now. We did some of our favorite mantras that just keep our cups filled and keeps our lives overflowing with love and happiness and patience. Honestly, were a lot of my quotes. Um, and we asked our listeners what some of their favorite marches were, and we got a ton of responses. Yes. So we're just gonna share a few of some of our favorites and ones that hit pretty well for us. Um, one of them is shared from our friend Lindsay Dot Northup. And do you think that's how you say last name? Northup? Yeah. Okay, cool. From Lindsay Northup and she said, when I'm stressed about making the right decision, I remind myself that I am making the best decision I can with the info and resources I have at this time. I love that quote. It reminds me of the, you don't know what you don't know. Yes. We also have a few more. We've got Hailey ALD seven. She said Movement is medicine. So true. 100% true. I feel like we have said that and we truly believe in that mantra. I love that too, because isn't she a physical therapist? Yes. Yeah. So I feel like that. She's like speaking truth. Yeah. Yeah. She knows what she's talking about. Yes. And then we've got another one from Molly Colburn 10. She said, in 10 years you'll look back and everything that you are stressed about now will have all worked out. Ugh. I love that one. Me too. I think that's a good reminder to like slow down. Look at where you're at and say It will all be okay. Yeah, it'll work itself out. And we did. We got a ton others, so if you did share. Oh, so many. Thank you so much. We aren't gonna share them all'cause it would take a while. But Molly, I loved yours. I needed to hear it because I have been stressed lately. Yeah. Whoa. Do you think they could hear that thunder? I don't know if you can. I hope it makes it kind of cozy. That would be kind of nice. It's got a little thunder here. Yeah. But Molly, I love that quote. I definitely needed it'cause I've been stressed lately. Yeah. But also I just loved, I loved all of the mantras that people shared. They were all so good. A lot of them were like reminders and I was like, oh yeah. Yes. That was a really good one. Yeah. There was one that got shared that I felt like was really applicable in my life at. For what I've been going through and I was just like, oh, I love these. Yes. So yes. Thank you guys so much for sharing. We say this every time, but we love seeing what you guys say actually makes a difference to us. And fills our cup. It fills our cup so much. So yeah. Thank you guys so much for always participating and always. Being a great listener. Yes. Thank you. So, getting into the episode, I did wanna share a little bit of how this idea came about. Mm-hmm. Because if you, you may remember that we went into depth. About how to make friends. It was our, it was episode 20 and the title was How to Overcoming the Challenge of Making Friends As An Adult. Mm-hmm. So we went into depth about that and we actually had someone at our Failure Cups birthday party, we did an epi, suggest an episode basically. Mm-hmm. Activity that people could do and someone wrote down making friends as an adult. Yeah. And so I wanted, since it was top of mind again, I wanted to refer back to episode 20. So you can listen to that one about how to make friends. Mm-hmm. But this one is almost sustaining friends. Yeah. Like once you've got those friends, once you've made them Yeah. Here do with them. Whatcha do. Yeah. Whatcha gonna do. So hopefully it gives you some ideas to sustain those friendships. Mm-hmm. And I know for me, my friendships are starting to look different. Yeah.'cause as you get older, as you have full-time jobs, as you start growing families and things like that mm-hmm. Things just look a little bit different. Mm-hmm. And so. Yeah. And so I just think that these are some different things that you can do. Mm-hmm. And a lot, I, unfortunately, I feel like the generation before us, a lot of them, once they did start getting full-time jobs or growing families or things like that, kind of let friendships fall by the wayside. Yeah. And I think our generation is doing a better job of prioritizing those. Yeah. And keeping your friends whenever, even when you do have lots of other things taking up your time. Yeah. And so hopefully these are some ideas that can help you continue to do that. Absolutely. No matter what age you are. Absolutely. I also love it'cause we have done an episode of date ideas with your partners. Mm. And I think that this is a fun one because partner relationships are, or I'm sorry, friend relationships are just as important as partner relationships. Yeah. And so I love that we're like, wait. Here are other date night ideas to do with your friends. Yes. Friend dates. Yes. Friend dates, yes. They're really important and I'm excited for them'cause I'm needing a friend date, so, Ooh. I'm like, I'm like, Ooh, I wanna listen to these ideas and then get one on the schedule. Yes. I love that. Well, I did wanna share, I always like when there's some stats to back up our episodes, so I did find this was on mastermind behavior.com. I will share it in the show notes, the link from where I got these stats. But. It said that research shows that loneliness and isolation, actually this was crazy to me, increases your risk of heart attacks, strokes, depression, and premature death by up to 26%. That's a huge percentage. It's freaky. Yeah. It's like one fourth, I dunno. Yeah, what that math is, but like one in four people. Yeah. So it was basically, yeah. So whenever I saw that, I was like, okay, friendship is really important. We don't wanna be lonely, we don't wanna be isolated. It is. Have you ever heard the thing like loneliness is worse than smoking cigarettes or something like that? Like No, but I believe it based on that percentage. Yeah. It's, it's like more dangerous to your health than smoking cigarettes or something. Oh yeah. But also that same website, it said that people, American adults. Are reporting more frequently that they have no close friends. So it said that back in 1990, so 15 years ago, only 3% of American adults were saying they had no close friends. And now 12% are so four times as many people. Oh, that's a huge jump. Yeah. Yeah. And it makes me sad and I It does make sense because I do think we get glued to our phones. Yes, that's what I was gonna say. And we, that's part of it, so, damn phones. Yeah. And it's part of the isolation, you know. Element of it. So I think that it does make sense that people are having fewer close friendships. Yeah. But that's why we have to be intentional. Mm-hmm. And mindful and cont, as you know, it's only gonna get harder as you get older. Really? Yeah. The longer time you go without seeing someone, the harder it is to reach out and you know, so yeah. So I think that's actually something I have noticed in my personal experience is that I really let, like I, I have a lot of friends, which is funny'cause if you would listen to this podcast at the beginning, I'd be like, I have no friends, blah, blah, blah. But I really do think at this point in my life, I have a lot of friends. I have a lot of people who I consider friends, but I think that. I did not prioritize, like spending time with them or mm-hmm. Like I'm so terrible about texting back and just following up, like I'm really, really bad at it. Mm-hmm. But then I don't, everything changed for me when I got pregnant. I think, like I think I had a total mindset change all of a sudden that I didn't know what I was gonna have, but I just realized, I was like, okay, at this point my closest friends are my husband and my sister, and I was like, which are great to have. And will always be there for me. But I do think it's important to still nurture other friendships and other relationships. Yeah. And I think at that point I was like, okay, like I need to make sure that I do have other outlets that I can explore and go through, especially as I'm having a baby with my husband who is my best friend. But like it's important to have these other avenues that I can, you know, trusted sources and just, just people to. Help and support and do life with. And I think I realized that I had isolated myself so much mm-hmm. On acts like I didn't mean to, I just didn't care or like, just didn't wanna put in any effort kind of thing.'cause I thought it didn't really matter. Mm-hmm. And then I was like, wait, no, this actually really does matter. Yeah. And so he, here I am like. Kind of turn around and Yeah. Say, guys, I'm here. Yeah. Like, I'm sorry, I was kind of a bad friend for like a year, but I'm here. Well, and most people probably aren't thinking that'cause it goes both ways. Right? E, exactly. Like you have so much going on in your life. Yeah, but I get what you mean. It's, yeah. You know, inaction is still action. Inaction is moving you toward a different direction than you have to be. So it's. Yeah. Not making a decision is the same as making a decision. Yeah. It's just all those, all those things, what you aren't changing, you're choosing, so. Mm-hmm. If you're not intentional about it, and it's like you're not intentionally isolating yourself from people, but you're also not intentionally maybe connecting with them. Yeah. And so it's something that you wanna change. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I like trying to do, yeah. And I know for people like me, I'm such an extrovert. Yeah. I love making friends. I wish it was my job. I, I feel like I could be a professional friend maker. Yeah. Should be like a matchmaker for friends. Right. Yeah. I, that's kind of how I feel with book love. I mean, yeah. But, but yeah, so I, I love making friends and I love reaching out and when I, when I see something like an event on Facebook or something. It makes me think of a certain person and I'm like, Hey, I wanna go to this. You know? Yeah. So, so I think it's good to have both our perspectives because mm-hmm. I'm such an extrovert. You're more of an introvert. Yeah. And you, even though you're outgoing. Mm-hmm. You, it's your first thought is not, who can I do this with? Yeah. It's so much easier for me to be by myself or like, yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's so much easier. Genuinely. Yes. Yeah. So I think having both of our perspectives is good. Yes. And as we give you these ideas, this is just a bit of fun episode where we're gonna kind of like go through a list of ideas that we came up with, but as we give them, we'll give examples in our own lives. Yeah. And kind of expand on how we've done this or who you could do it with, that sort of thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do you wanna get into our list? Let's dive right in. Cool. Well, the one that was top of mind for me that I loved, so we're gonna start with the free and inexpensive friend dates. Mm-hmm. So the first one that came up to me was I just had a like homemade happy hour at home. Happy hour is what I would call it. But with some friends and,'cause we were all kind of just chatting and we were like, maybe we should get together. You know, we've never seen your house and she, and it's so cute. Mm-hmm. And whatever. And so like, I brought a salad. One of the others brought some charcuterie and then the other one was in charge of drinks. So fun. Non-alcoholic and alcoholic. So yeah. So we just kind of divvied up drinks and food. Mm-hmm. And it did, it was kind of. Honestly more of a dinner.'cause it was a little bit, but it was happy hour. So we just got together on like a Wednesday after work. Yeah. Which, and just for an hour and a half, two hours didn't have to be a lot, you know? Mm-hmm. And this is also something that I. After I did it, I was like, this would be really easy to do with you. Or even with, with someone with a kid just going to their house or them coming to mind or whatever. Yeah. And them still being able to do that. Mm-hmm. I love a good at home happy hour because it's so easy during that time. You just catch up, you just chit chitchat. Yeah. But you have the snacks in your hand, you got the drink, whatever it is. Yeah. So, no, I love it. Whenever we had this idea, that was my first. Thought was an app at home, happy hour. Yeah. And however it goes, whether it is alcoholic drinks or not, or whether it is a charcuterie board, or maybe you've made. Pasta. Like who cares what it is, but it's nice and it, it's a very easy task. Yeah. And you can still be home and in bed by like eight. Yeah. Literally the next one on our list, and this was the second one that came to mind for me. Nice. Is a park or a walk. So walks. You guys know we love walks. Yeah. We really stand by them. And it's a great way to just get out there, get some movement, get outta your house. It's free. Yeah. And you can just go and literally talk with your friends while you're doing this walk. It doesn't matter how long it is. Doesn't need to be a full mile. It can be a couple laps, whatever. Mm-hmm. Um, so no, I love that. And I also like the idea of just going to a park because if your friend does have kids or does have a dog or something like that, they're like. Actually, I would love to bring these people with us. Perfect. Yeah. Like perfect. I wanna be involved in your life and however works best for you. Yeah. So, no, I love those. Bring the stroller, bring the dog if it's mm-hmm. They're good out there. Yeah. And you could even, you know, pick up coffees on the way Yeah. Or something. You know it, but yeah, it can be totally free. Mm-hmm. It again, you can do this. You could do this over lunch hour, you could do this at a happy hour, you know? Mm-hmm. You could, you could do this really anytime. Mm-hmm. Saturday, Sunday morning. Some of those times that are a little bit easier. Yeah. For adults, I feel like, because Yes. Because I do feel like it's hard to work in the time when your schedules are so busy. Yeah. But this is a really easy thing. You could just do it for an hour or two. Mm-hmm. Catch And we're going into the fall, so it's about to be so beautiful outside. Yeah. Perfect time to do it. Agreed. Yeah. The, the next one is one that I have done before, but not in a while, and I love the idea of doing it. So I save. Do you save a bunch of recipes off like Instagram, Facebook? Oh yeah, Pinterest. Okay. So I do that a ton. So you basically have this whole library of recipes, Uhhuh, and how many of them do you actually make? Hardly any of of'em. Four. But a lot of the time I will see one. And it reminds me of something that someone in my life would eat Uhhuh or would like or whatever. And so I love the idea of. Sending that recipe to them and being like, we should make, like, we should make this at one of our houses. Yeah. Go over and make it with them. And so I just think that it would be, and again, this could include. The kids or whatever. Yeah. And it's at home and it's mostly free. Mm-hmm. You gotta, you gotta buy the ingredients. Mm-hmm. But pretty, pretty easy to do. Yeah. And just a fun way to do something a little different. Yeah. I love this one. I feel like around the Christmas time, I always wanna do this one, but like with baked goods. Mm-hmm.'cause I am not a cook. I'm not a cook, I'm not a baker. I have a really hard time following recipes. I don't know what it is, but I guess I should just read'em, but I don't want to, um. And so I always think it would be so fun, like I really wanna have a date one time. I tried to get you to do this last year, but it was too last minute, so put it in your calendar now. But I wanna decorate for Christmas with a friend while also baking something. Yeah. And like having on Polar Express or Christmas music or whatever. But I think that that would be so fun. So that's what this one reminds me of, is like saving those ideas and Yeah, it doesn't have to be a full meal. It can be a little treat or Yeah, something like that. And you both get to take it home. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, I, I'm realizing that the holidays are gonna come up way faster than I know what,'cause even, you know, Halloween is right around the corner. I mean, literally from the time that this episode comes out, we've got four back to back. Yeah, you can. Labor Day. Yeah. Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Yeah. That's so crazy. I know. I really like that one. This next one is. Pretty much the only one I actually do. But it's watching TV shows with your friends. It's a great way to connect. And if you don't have a show that you're both into at the same time, you can always find a show together or be like, Hey, I've been interested in this show. Have you seen it? Would you wanna watch it? Mm-hmm. I think those are great ways to connect and have fun. And also, I think that this could be a good idea for if you still. Cannot find time in your calendar. You guys can watch'em at your separate homes and text about them. Yeah, or like I do that with one of our friends, Courtney. Like every time there was a Oh, shut up with different shows. Ah, yeah. Mine was Little Island. Every time there was an episode we'd be like, oh my God, have you watched? Or I can live texting each other while it's happening. So we text about the voice and we text about, there was this show recently Build the Band. Oh yeah. If you haven't watched that, it is so good. It's on Netflix. So yeah, I text Courtney about the boys. I build the band. But the reason that I came up with this one because it is daunting to, I know you and Mason watch. Big brother with your friends, like every week? Pretty much. Yeah. We have him over, but yeah. But sometimes that feels daunting to commit to that. Mm-hmm. And I know when I was watching Bachelor with my mother-in-law every week I was like, this is actually a lot, you know? Yeah, it can be. It can be a lot. But when Courtney and I were watching the Voice, we. We had plans to watch just the finale together. Now we didn't get to,'cause she had a baby, but she was in labor that night. But you don't have to watch every episode together. Yeah. You can just text about them and then maybe watch a finale together. Yeah. Or catch up when you can. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And, and this one. Obviously I've been doing,'cause one of my ins for 2025 was TV show, watch parties. And then Yep. One of my ins for the summer was watching things that I could read beforehand. Yes. And so me and yeah, my friend Kristen did that. We read a book and then we've been watching the show together. Mm-hmm. Some, some apart and some together. Mm. Yeah. So anyway, long rant on the TV shows, but I just think it's such an easy way to connect. It's, and there's so many shows these days. Yes. You can find something that people like, you know? Yes. Maybe your friend is into reality TV shows, maybe they're into drama. Mm-hmm. Maybe they're into anime. Mm-hmm. Jared and I just sort of knew anime. Okay. And may, you know, so you could find anything. There's so many things you could find something that is appropriate for their kids, you know? Yeah. Whatever. So. Yeah, TV shows. Great way to connect. Yes. Like my favorite way. Yeah. The next one that we have is, oh, I just thought this was easy because I, when we were in Charleston, we. Found that the city market there is open literally every day Monday through Ooh. Like all, every day, all day. It's really cool. They have tons of vendors, but even if your city market isn't, almost every city has a farmer's market or a city market. Yeah. Or one nearby. And so I just thought this was another easy one where you can go, the ambiance is fun. You can check things out. Mm-hmm. You don't have to spend money if you don't want to. Mm-hmm. You can just walk and talk. And get out the house. Yeah. And shop a little if you want. Mm-hmm. You don't have to. Mm-hmm. But come home with little bouquet of flowers. Yeah. Another easy one though, that you could also. Bring the stroller. Bring, yeah. Some places you can bring the dog, you know? Absolutely. I really like that one. One of our last ones on our free slash inexpensive list is puzzle and pizza. I love this one. You can invite your friends over, or you could go to the library or a bar, whatever you wanna do, and just do a puzzle and then have them over for like a lunch or dinner. Yeah, I think that that one's so fun. I have done this one, but it, instead of like a puzzle and pizza or like a puzzle and a dinner kind of thing, we did a puzzle in a happy hour. I love it. And it was so fun. We just had our little like picture of margaritas and we were just doing the puzzle the whole time. Oh, I love that. It was a really good time. And then because we didn't get the puzzle finished in one. Sitting, we hung out two more times after that. So we go get the puzzle done. That's great. I know, I know. That's a great way to kind of ha make sure you have a follow up. Yeah. Yeah. And it was so funny'cause as they were leaving they were like, okay, don't work on the puzzle without us. Like we're coming over tomorrow. And I was like, okay. I love that. It was really fun. It was hard not to work on the puzzle. I bet it was. I was like, I can't be in the same room as it. Yeah. I, I love the, i I wrote puzzle and pizza'cause I just like the alliteration in it. Yeah. But obviously it doesn't have. To be pizza. But yeah, I think that's so fun. Yeah. And I was thinking, you know, a lot of these are in the home. Mm-hmm. And maybe you don't have a big enough house, or you, for whatever reason, you don't like to invite people over. Mm-hmm. But I always see at the library, they always have like a community puzzle going. Yes. Oh, I love it. You could go there and. That way. You don't even have to provide your own puzzle if you don't want to. Mm-hmm. But you could bring your own puzzle and do it there. But yeah, the library would be a place that you could go, yeah. Again, totally free. Mm-hmm. And yeah. And so. I think that's a super fun one. Most people also have some puzzles at their home, but if you do not, Morgan, I have lots. So let us know if you need to borrow one. Heck yeah. I just took like three from my mother-in-law because I just found out she's a huge puzzler. Oh my gosh. And Mason's like, oh yeah, do you wanna borrow a puzzle from her? And I go in there, she's got like 50 puzzles. I was like, yeah, wait. That's crazy. I know. I was kind of mad at him. I was like, um, it's been eight years. Yeah. Have you not told me about this? You know how you say they're hard to buy for? For like Christmas. You should get her a puzzle that's like a family photo or something. Oh my God, I should. Last year we got her a, uh, Nutcracker puzzle.'cause she loves Nutcracker or she loves Christmas so much, but it was like a 300 piece puzzle. But that's a really good idea. Yeah. Like, or like, because they have those get her like some glasses that No, yeah. You, but you can actually. There're websites that you can actually like, yeah, you can take a family photo. I love that. That, and then it'll make it into a puzzle. I'll get her like a Beckett one. She would love that. She would love that one. Cute. That one would get framed so fast, would, anyway. Alright, well that kind of wraps up our free and inexpensive friend dates, and then we just wanted to kind of go through ones that are a little bit more unique. Mm-hmm. Wouldn't have thought of on your own because you know, I do feel like the going out to eat or happy hours are kind of like the thing. It's the go-to. It's the go-to. Mm-hmm. But again, it can become hard if you have little ones that can't sit in a booth easily. Yeah. Or you know, things like that. Mm-hmm. Or maybe your home's not big enough. Maybe you guys live really far apart from each other. Yeah. Yeah. So just kind of wanted to. Give some unique ones. Mm-hmm. Now the first one that I thought of, I don't think that you could really include the little ones. It'd be kind of hard, but, and that's okay. Not everyone has little ones. Yeah. But this is really great for also when a friend is visiting or something, or when you, you know. Someone's from out of town or something. Mm-hmm. We did this when we went to another city somewhere with a group of friends where we did like a DIY food crawl. So there are food tours that you can book places. Yes. But this is kind of one where you can just. Pick a, pick a place that you think would have really good appetizers and then move down the line to another one that has really good, oh, main dish. That's fun. And then one that has drinks or dessert or whatever. Yeah. So you go to three or four places. Yeah, and I think. Especially in Kansas City, this would work really well on the streetcar.'cause you could just, oh yeah, you could like hop off, off and go somewhere for drinks. Go somewhere for dinner. Yeah. Somewhere for dessert, whatever. I love that. I feel like this is a really fun one. And if you get decision fatigue or you're like. Don't love coming up with places on the fly. You could also find a couple places beforehand. Yes, and like I've seen, people will like write down several different options and then like draw them out of a cup or something and be like, okay, this is where we're going for appetizers. I love that. Or things like that. Yeah. There was also a TikTok filter for a while. It was just fast food places. Mm-hmm. But it'd be like, where are we getting drinks at? Where are we getting our entree at? Where are we getting our dessert at? Yes, you could do the same thing and make your own. That's super fun. Super fun. I actually really, really like that idea. Um, our next one, and I have done this with my friends before, is pick a movie that the other has not seen, and you both watch it in that one night. I think that is a really good one because it has a time limit on it. Yeah. So you're like, we are not hanging out for five hours. I do have to go to bed at dying. Like, you gotta get, you gotta leave at some point. But one of my friends and I, we have a list. Or like a shared notes app uhhuh, where we put movies on there that we're both really interested in watching. And then we pick a Friday night that we both can do it. So far we've only done two and we wanted to do more, but it's been really nice so far. Mm-hmm. And then we like slowly check it off and we're like, wait, should we watch this one? Like it's available on Max this week, or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And that's another, I guess I didn't realize that's another freer and expensive one. Mm-hmm. But, uh, the thing I like about that is, again, it has like a built-in follow up. So if you constantly Yeah. Have a list going or say that you, you don't wanna watch both movies in one night? Mm-hmm. I watch your movie. This day. And then at the end of the night we're like, okay, when are we gonna watch your movie? Yeah. And you watch it the next time? Mm-hmm. And so you make plans for the next time to watch? Yes. Each other's movies. Have you seen where people do themed movie nights? Yes. I really love it. And they do like the food and the drinks. But yeah. That's so cute. Yes. I have one saved in my Pinterest board for a Ouie night. I love it because I love Ouie, the movie so much, and it was like, here's how to have a themed Ouie night, and I saved it for my future children, but I probably will wanna do it with my friends now. I love that. If you wanna have a Ouie night, let me know. That's so funny. Oh my gosh. I probably won't eat the actual ouie, but we can make something up. Yeah. I don't even really know what Ouie is. Squash. Oh, I think squash. And it's like, yeah, you would probably, you would love oui. You like tomato sauce. Yeah. Okay. You would love ouie. Yeah, I probably would. Yeah. No, I would not, but I can eat. I can eat pasta that come in all the different colors. It'll look like, oh, fun. Mm-hmm. The next one that we have is going to some sort of hobby class. Mm-hmm. So I really like this one. Pickleball was on the brain because I went to this pickleball conference, but I went to a pickleball. Beginner's class with someone. Mm-hmm. One time. And it was really fun. That's fun. Super unique, super different. But you could do painting, pottery, a dance class. That was a really fun way. I feel like we connected with people on your bachelorette. Yes. You could do that anytime, you know? Yeah. And I feel like people think of dance lessons as. You go with your spouse, romantic thing or whatever. Yeah. But I think that it would be so fun to go with a friend. Mm-hmm. And it automatically gives you something unique to talk about too. Yeah. And kinda laugh about. Funny to do. You've also gone rock climbing with a friend before. Yes. I know that one. Like, yeah. Super fun. You're not a rock climber. Nope. But you just went and had fun. Did it? Yeah. We've also done like. The yoga at the Nelson. Yeah, like those are good hobby ones. There's a place, I should have tried to look for this already, but there's a place in downtown Grain Valley that is painting a pottery. Oh yes. Pottery painting. Pottery. Pottery Palace. Yeah. I feel like this would be a great place. It's a tiny little place that they already have the pottery done and made for you and you get to choose which one you wanna paint. Yeah, you just paint it. I think that would be such a good friend date. Uhhuh. It gives you something too, if you're. If you're with like a newer friend, for example. Yeah. You kind of have an activity to focus on. You're not just sitting there learning about each other's lives, like staring at each other. Yeah. Maybe you don't have that much to talk about yet at hour. Yeah, no, really. I have some friends that I'm kind of in the process of making right now, Uhhuh, and it's always nice whenever we have something. Do you know? Yes. Something else to focus on. It's nice to keep your hands busy in some type of way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can do that over drinks and food. Mm-hmm. But I feel like. Having a project or something to focus on is really cool. Yes. And then gives you something automatic to talk about. Yes, it definitely does. My sister-in-law, Abby just had a craft night for her birthday party, and it was all of her friends, but obviously all of her friends did not know each other. So I did not know most of the people that were there. And it was a really good way to talk to everybody.'cause I'd be like, oh, like what? What craft are you working on? Or like, oh my gosh, your painting's so cute. Or. Wow, how'd you do that? And I felt like that was a really easy way to like kind of icebreaker Yeah. And get everything open. So maybe that's another one you can do, have a little craft night. Yeah. And whether it's making friendship bracelets or we painted pots and we did so much. Yeah. Different things, but, and you can usually find. Not for the at-home ones, but you can usually find, if you just go to Facebook events, I spend so much time on Facebook events because I love to see what's going on. But you can find yoga classes, painting classes, like, you know, usually they're 15,$25, something like that. Mm-hmm. Depending on what you're doing. And then you can, it's so easy to just send it to someone and be like, oh my God, this looks so fun. We should go do this. Yeah. You know, I, I feel like you can find those on Facebook. Eventbrite too, but I feel like Facebook is better'cause it filters what's close to you. I agree. You know, and it shows you like who your mutuals might be. Yeah. Like what Mutuals said that they were interested in this. Yeah. And then it, it pretty, it does. You already said it. Sorry. No, you're good. So, so yeah. So I feel like Facebook is a great place to find this. And then our, our last one you can also find on Facebook. Mm-hmm. But I like to look up restaurants or bars. This came to mind recently because Kelly's. Down in Westport, Uhhuh, my friend Molly actually, who we shouted out, she and her husband go to, it's called Meet Bingo, and it's every last Wednesday of the month Uhhuh. And for some reason I'm always busy the last Wednesday of the month, but finally in August. I'm not busy the last Wednesday of the month. Oh gosh, you are now. Let's go. Yeah. And because she always invites us, but it's so unique and I feel like, again, having something unique. Just gives you something different to talk about with someone. Uhhuh, it gives you, again, like an activity that you can do, but finding a bingo, you know, I feel like that Casey WinCo place, they always have Yes. Music. Bingo or Disney bingo or what, you know, we're doing Disney bingo for John's birthday. Yeah. Stuff like that. So there's always, which was found on Facebook. Yeah. Which we found on Facebook. So I feel like it's really easy to find. Bingo is a really accessible one, I think. Yeah. And then if you've got a group of friends, trivia is great. Yes. I just started doing trivia with our friend group. We haven't, we've talked about doing this for years and haven't done it since college, and so it's been like four years or something like that since we've actually done it. But the place that we go is called the Goat Brewing Company, and it's a Lee Summit and they do trivia every Monday night. And I kind of like it because they have actual rules, which is really good Uhhuh.'cause I don't like when people cheat at trivia, but you can only have like a team of six. Our friend group is huge, so normally we split up in like two teams at some point. Um, but it's a super fun one. It's, yeah, Monday nights they also I know have music. Bingo. And they have, yeah. Well, specifically music Bingo is one that they have, and. They have all types of fun events there all the time and that just, we just happen to randomly find it. A lot of pubs, breweries, bars. Mm-hmm. Which are also, honestly, I feel like breweries are super baby friendly personally. Oh yeah. I have had so many friends say, it's just so easy'cause they, like, you usually don't have someone specific waiting on you. Yeah. And you usually, it's usually open seating. Mm-hmm. And really easy. They usually are, have little events throughout the week to incentivize people coming in, not on the weekend because Yeah. Well they want people to come in on the weekend, but they don't have as hard of a time. Mm-hmm. Weekend they need to get traffic. Yeah. Yeah. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, there's usually trivia bingo, like something going on mm-hmm. That you can go enjoy. And so honestly, you can, you can look on Facebook, but you can also just like look up local places near, near you. Yeah. And. Find something like that. It's super fun. Yeah, super fun. I know that a lot of bars downtown will also do themed nights in some type of way where they'll have something going on or like when Love Island was on a bunch of people having like watch parties or Yes. If you are. If your friends are super into sports or something like you can always find restaurants or bars or there's this place called Side Pockets, that's a, yeah, like a pool hall and they're always showing the fight or the whatever sport thing is on. So yeah, those are good ways to connect as well. My good friend Mandy, she. Did like a love island. They, she did a love island watch party at a bar or something. Well, I think it was a watch party. Yeah. They might have even had some sort of bingo activity or something with Uhhuh it. I'm not sure. She posted it on Instagram and I was like, that is so smart. Yeah.'cause so many people were obsessed with it. Yes. It's such a good way to get together with your friends. Yeah. I, I know when I see Taylor Swift related things or whatever, I quickly will send it off to my Taylor friends Uhhuh, you know, and so it's just, yeah, it's really easy. I think that the key. So since we're kind of like done with our list of ideas. Yeah. I feel like the key is when you see something that reminds you of someone just kind of immediately sending it to them. Mm-hmm. First of all, even if you don't go to the thing, you're showing that you're thinking of them. Yes. And that's a great way to sustain a friendship. But then second of all, it's. It does give you an opportunity to meet up somewhere or whatever, or Yeah. Just show that you want to get together. Yeah. And so I really like it. I love how in our book club, anytime there's something book related going on in the area. Yeah. People send it there. Mm-hmm. But you know, you have, you have your friends and humans, our brains naturally categorize people. Yeah. So you have your friends that love Taylor Swift and you have your friends that love. Books and you have your friends that love, love Island, you know? Yeah. So it's that those categories, it, I've encouraged people, that's how my brain works as an extrovert. Mm-hmm. As soon as I see something, I think of someone. Yeah. And that I want to go do it with someone. So just, I would encourage you like those categories that you have people in just. Find something that matches that category. Yeah. And do it with them. I completely agree. Yes. Let this be your sign to have intentional friendships to invite those friends out. Maybe you're even sending this episode to that friend saying, I'm thinking of you. Pick one. We should get together. Yeah. Pick something. Let's do it. I think that it gets really important and you don't wanna, you don't wanna end up. Not having any friends or feeling like you don't have any support or feeling like no one has your back, but you have to make sure that you're giving in what you're wanting. Out of it. So, yeah. Mm-hmm. Definitely. And I think that's, that's what I realized when I realized like, okay, hold on. My best friends are my husband and my sister, which I love, but also I'd love to have some other friends and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, well, I'm not really putting anything into them. Why would they reach out to me? And so I'm like, lemme start reaching out to them. Yeah. And now, yeah, it's kind of, and sometimes it feels scary when a lot of time has passed, but more than likely they're not thinking of it like that. Like more than likely. If you reach out, they're excited. You know? Yeah. I find that with people that I, I don't hang out with a ton. They're always like, yeah. I'm just really, I'm really glad that you reached out. Yeah. And that we did something and got together and it wasn't weird that we didn't hang out for three months or something like Right. Or six months long. Life happens. Yeah. Yeah. It was just that neither of us reached out, and then one of us did. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Mm-hmm. I, yeah, I definitely encourage you to. Reach out to a friend after this. And I would also encourage you if you made it all, all the way to this part of the episode, please, please, please, if you haven't left, left us a rating and review, we would super appreciate it. It does help us get mm-hmm. More exposure. Yeah, more exposure. So I know on. Spotify, you can just do a reading. But if you listen to us on Apple Podcasts or you even have Apple Podcasts on your phone and you don't listen to us there mm-hmm. But you wanna leave us a review, please go do that. We appreciated a ton and yeah. Yeah. Woo. Well I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I feel like it was a fun one and if you hear from me it's because we just did this episode and I try to be friends. Cheers and we'll see you guys next week. Cheers. Cheers.