Jennipod
It's ya girl Jennifer, ya know, from Fairfield.
Jennipod
Jennipod Episode 15: The Kroger Starbucks IS a high-end coffee shop
Life hits everyone with challenges, and this week I'm acknowledging the difficult news many of us have received while celebrating the podcast reaching 1,000 downloads. From medication confessions to awkward interactions, this episode navigates the humor and humanity in our everyday experiences.
• Reaching 1,000 downloads and setting a goal of 100 listeners per episode
• Contemplating merch options and looking for someone to redesign the podcast logo
• Confessing to taking up to 40mg of melatonin and discussing my traumatic experiences with Benadryl
• Reflecting on awkward service interactions at Toyota and the universal annoyance of blaring TVs in waiting rooms
• Navigating anxiety about trying new coffee shops and sticking with comfortable choices
• Sharing the adventure of my 19-year-old blind cat Cinders who escaped outside for nearly two hours
• Enjoying Cincinnati Reds games and the inevitable tension between phones and televisions
Thank you for supporting Jennipod! Please rate us and follow the podcast on Apple and add to playlist on Spotify. On Instagram follow along @thejennipod. Email jennifermeadevo@gmail.com for any Voice Over inquiries.
What's up everyone? Welcome to Episode 15 of JennaPod. First off, I would like to say if you received bad news this week, I am here for you. I am with you in this situation. I know multiple friends and friends of friends who've just had horrible things happen or received life-changing news. I received some really bad news this week. Will I ever talk about it on here? Maybe talk about it on here, maybe. Ooh, cryptic information. No, it's my iPod, it's my podcast and I will share what I want and what I don't want. Like I have said before, everyone is going through shit Everyone, even the hot people on Instagram. So be chill on people out there.
Speaker 1:From a young age, my dad told me to be nice to everyone. I try to uphold that. Now, if I've ever been an asshole to you, I'm sorry. We hit a thousand downloads this week. Downloads, listens. I'm still not clear on the difference, even though I am trying to educate myself. So thank you everyone. It does mean a lot. I heard on the Buzzsprout podcast this week that 100 people listening an episode is considered a large podcast, so let that be a new goal.
Speaker 1:My friend Jillian is ready for merch. What kind of merch do we want? All the terrible stuff you get at a work conference, like a notepad, keychain, bottle opener Pen, those weird bags with the drawstrings. I really need someone artsy-fartsy to redo my logo. I'm sure a 10-year-old can probably go into Canva and create something for me. If you would like to submit designs, have at it. You will receive a $10 Starbucks gift card in return.
Speaker 1:Today is Sunday, april 13th, one week until Easter. It got real, real cold again. But I'll take it because, yes, did it kill some of y'all's flowers? Sure, but it's killing some of the bugs. No tornado warnings. This week I learned from the Twitter that the first tornado to be detected by radar was April 9th 1953, so 72 years ago. Happy birthday. I swear this is the only time I will mention tornadoes in this episode. No more NATO talk, no more Naders. But you know what happened this last week in Tennessee. Allergy season started. Them storms came through and tossed around. All the pollen and whatever else makes us all feel like shit.
Speaker 1:I take Zyrtec every night of the year and I'm scared to quit it. Can you go to rehab for Zyrtec? I recently cut down on a major addiction to melatonin. I was taking up to 40 milligrams, that's right, and sometimes I still didn't even sleep. I'm down to 5 milligrams of melatonin right now. Thank you very much. I'll skip over the part in my life when I had to dabble in the trazodone for 2.5 years. Everyone has that.
Speaker 1:One over-the-counter drug that they had a bad experience with. Mine is Benadryl. I had many night terrors in a short period of time taking Benadryl Kind of like the sleep paralysis type shit. It would occur in the first 10 to 15 minutes of sleep and I would be screaming and thrashing and my husband would have to come in and attempt to wake me up and calm me down. Zero out of ten recommend. This is an anti-benadryl podcast. Except when your dog has allergies, it's safe. Consult your vet on dosages.
Speaker 1:What am I currently streaming on ye olde Roku TV? We have one more episode of Reacher Season 3 left. I am three episodes into Paradise on Hulu. You know I like the weird end of civilization type genres. Now, really exciting news. I mentioned before using my girlfriend Shannon's Hulu. Well, clarification, I have my own account under hers and let's just say a true friend adds you to their streaming platforms. Merry Christmas. Sorry, tara, that we don't have Disney Plus anymore, so you can watch Hamilton. Anyway, shannon has now ordered HBO to Hulu, so guess who has HBO now and can watch the Last of Us and and and White Lotus.
Speaker 1:I feel very left out not having seen White Lotus yet. I want to understand all the memes and comedy shorts. I did watch the new Kate Hudson basketball show on Netflix. It was cute if you just need something cutesy, funny and not having to pay attention much because, let's be honest, we are all on our phones anyway. We are all on our phones anyway. If I am lucky, we watch one episode of a show a night, so maybe I'll have White Lotus done by the start of football season when the University of Tennessee debuts their new starting quarterback Drama.
Speaker 1:My husband played baseball in college and I'm like can you go back for a fifth year and get some NIL money? With NIL I would have been trying out for every sport at Miami University, just kidding. I went and worked out with the track team twice and I was like there is no way. Some people think that NIL is bad and some people think, finally, these little athlete babies be getting some cheddar. If you aren't a college sports fan, wikipedia says in college athletics in the United States, a student athlete who participates in a varsity sport on any level, is eligible to profit from their name, image and likeness. Hence the letters NIL. There is even a student manager for the McNeese State University basketball team who has marketing deals with Tick Pick, Insomnia Cookies and Buffalo Wild Wings. In college I would have been sponsored by Natty Light, jagermeister, jimmy John's and Slim Fast. Shout out to my parents who did sponsor me in college Yay, bachelor of Arts.
Speaker 1:I didn't personally use my air fryer this week. I was barely home because I was all over Middle Tennessee for work. I have been keeping Simple Truth chicken breast bites in the freezer, because who doesn't like some starving emergency nuggies? My husband successfully made burgers, so we are on the right track. Monday morning I drove down to Toyota and worked there for about two hours as my car was being serviced.
Speaker 1:In life, I am a believer that if you're going to have an interaction with a person for more than a couple minutes, it is proper to introduce yourself. I like a name. I want a short story. A man came up, give or take my age and starts with what are we here for today, sir? I have an appointment and I know you know my name is Jennifer and you don't even have a name badge on. Eventually we make it over to his kiosk computer table and when I say we stood there for four minutes in silence, not even a speck of small talk, it was so weird. And I sway back and forth when I stand, I can't stand still and I never have been able to. I also do this in the shower, have been able to. I also do this in the shower. Is this normal? I was a very hyperactive child.
Speaker 1:I have had three teachers in my adult life say I was ADHD, one of those being my mother-in-law. But actually when you Google the Mayo Clinic 12 symptoms of ADHD I think I barely only have two. One of them is frequent mood swings Um heller, I'm a woman in my 40s and the other one was trouble coping with stress. But like who is on their resume, like yo, when it comes to stress, I fucking annihilate that shit. Give me a break.
Speaker 1:So I go sit down in the waiting area which, at the Cool Springs Toyota, is wonderful Lots of large black comfy chairs and plenty of desk space to set up a laptop. I got up to go get a coffee from their free computerized coffee machine. The damn thing isn't working. Fantastic, this thing acts up a lot. A random employee tells me Well, I'm about to act up if I don't get a second cup of coffee. At my desk working space, I am near the large flat screen TV which is blaring, and I mean blaring HGTV. How, as a society, did we decide that HGTV will be the one station on at all communal spaces? And you know, if HGTV is on, then House Hunters is the show. That show had us all in a chokehold for a decade. Even after we found out it's heavily produced and fake, we still are like yeah, I need to find out which house Kimberly and David buy in Key West. While HGTV is blaring, there is also music blaring in the showroom. So I have Whitney Houston and Kimberly telling me what she hates about this house. Luckily, a Toyota employee saw the tears in my eyes and came over and turned the TV down to nil.
Speaker 1:Nothing Got out of Toyota paying $389. That seemed pretty good, but what do I know? I'm just a girl. One of the characteristics of ADHD that I do not have is impulsiveness. I am the least impulsive person ever. Like I've said in older episodes, there always has to be reservations for dinner or I'm not going. If go with the flow means a full itinerary I'm in.
Speaker 1:After I left Toyota, I had time to kill and thought I'll stop somewhere in my suburb and get some coffee before I work out midday. Now this is where my anxiety about trying new things kicks in. There are a ton of cute non-franchise coffee spots in my town where I could get a fancy coffee, good vibes and see some pretty people. Not Jennifer, I'm going to go where I feel comfortable, aka my cheers, where everybody knows your name, folks. For the third time ever I went and worked at the Starbucks inside of my Kroger. I even tried to hype myself up to go to the other Starbucks across the street, but at the last minute I said nope, I can't do this. It's just me sitting there on my laptop, the 80-year-old woman working the register and 10 feet from me, the two employees making sushi. Now, sushi is a Japanese, east Asian cuisine, so for this story I will assume the two employees working the sushi counter were of Japanese descent. The reason I thought this was because when the older gentleman started speaking Japanese, I was mesmerized because it sounded like a mix between Fozzie Bear and the Star Wars characters hanging out at the Star Wars pub where the Star Wars alien band is playing. I know zero Japanese, but I liked his vibe. So the Starbucks Kroger is great, except the wooden chairs for your booty Comfort zero out of ten.
Speaker 1:On Tuesday I had to drive up to Hendersonville, tennessee, for work. That morning I had heard that the musical Jesus Christ Superstar would be coming to the Franklin Theater in 2026. Jesus Christ Superstar is a stage musical that premiered in Midtown Manhattan in 1971. It then became a concept album and then a movie came out in 1973. I have seen the stage production once and the movie many times.
Speaker 1:So when the podcast ended that I was listening to while I was driving, I chatted it up with Siri through my AirPods and I said hey, girl, can you play the Jesus Christ Superstar station on my Pandora with commercials? All of a sudden, the most ridiculous music I've ever heard comes on. I can't understand it. It sounds German and it also sounds like a heavy metal concert. Even though I had a Jesus Christ Superstar original cast station, siri decided to create a new station featuring the Slovenian and Yugoslav avant-garde music group Laibach I don't even know if I'm saying that right whose fifth studio album was called Jesus Christ Superstars, which was released in 1996. Now, I love 1996 music, but not so much the industrial, electronic, neoclassic, dark wave type music. Get it together, ai.
Speaker 1:I got to my destination safely. Is there anything more humbling than someone not remembering you that you have met before? I walked into this church that serves home-delivered meals and said, hey, lady, and she said, nice to meet you. My stomach dropped. We've met before. I'm so unappealing. This woman didn't remember our 60-minute interaction three years ago. Luckily the other employee remembered me, so slay. But the lady will remember me now because her son is in show choir and we yappity-yapped about that for a good 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:On Wednesday I drove out to Ashland City, tennessee, for an all-day meeting. Now, on Sunday my mom had given me a 99-cent black suede blazer that she got from Goodwill and I wore it and it looked sick. I mentioned Goodwill last episode. Sometimes I will get something from Goodwill, wear it two to three times and just return it back to Goodwill. It's basically my version of Rent the Runway Last episode.
Speaker 1:Best friend Reby had told me she was leaving me. All of her Kate Spade, crap, crap. Best friend Reby is not a morning person. When I'm in town I'll be like hey, can I come over at 7 30 am for breakfast because we have a lot going on and she's like, no, but I come over anyway and she makes me cinnamon rolls. She voice memoed me that one night this week she set her alarm for 2.40 am I repeat, 2.40 am for the Target Kate Spade collection sale. She told her husband there's going to be a Target situation on the credit card, lol. So now when Rebby passes, I now get even more Kate's Spade clothes, shoes, purses, children's clothes and home goods. As I was writing this up I didn't realize Kate Spade passed away in 2018. Rip Kate Spade. Thank you for making my best friend happy and also her credit card happy.
Speaker 1:Thursday of this week I took Cinders, the 19-year-old, mostly blind goblin cat, to the vet. She weighs 8.4 pounds and I was shocked. It was even that much. Our old vet closed and I had to find a new one and frankly, that was a pain in my ass. Luckily, the small town right next to us had two more vet offices Two to three years ago. I took her to the vet and you would have thought there was an exorcism going on. I think being mostly blind worked out to our advantage, as she had no idea what the hell was going on. So she was just purring to the sound of my voice as she sat in her little Jeff Bezos cat carrier. No big issues with the goblin, I just had to establish care and get all her prescriptions situated.
Speaker 1:Now fast forward to Saturday morning when there was a situation. My husband had to get up early and leave the house around 5 am. I slept in until about 6 30 am until about 6.30 am, finally getting up around 6.45. Yes, that is sleeping in for me. 22-year-old Jennifer cannot with that information. Anyway, I walk into the kitchen and I'm like where is the goblin? She's not on her blanket or near the water bowl Opening the back door for the dogs. I thought I'll go search for her in a minute, but first coffee. The German short-haired pointer goes out and I hear an audible meow scream and hello, cinders, why are you outside? That's right, folks. Cinders had been outside blind and in 40 degrees temps for an hour and 45 minutes. I wasn't even upset, I laughed. This bitch is like I'm gonna go on adventures. Did she fall off the deck or go way out into the middle of the yard? We will never know. She was completely fine, cinders, if you are listening to this. You are a lunatic, but I like your gumption.
Speaker 1:Hot take. My parents aren't enjoying Carrie Underwood on American Idol because she doesn't have a personality. Now, I wish someone had been with me to experience this conversation and how we got to this point, because for two minutes it was them confusing American Idol with the Voice. And also, which show was Katy Perry on and was Carrie Underwood on the Voice? I don't watch either show, but this conversation was like watching a tennis match with the back and forth, until everyone agreed it was Carrie on American Idol. Is anyone else agreeing with my parents or is this a hot take, boomer take? We can all come together, though, and say Carrie has wonderful toned tan legs. God bless America.
Speaker 1:Update on the Real ID. My neighbor Kyle pronounced Kiel because people in Mississippi are weird will be at the Nashville airport Wednesday May 7th, the day the Real ID goes into effect. We will have direct boots on the ground. People L-F-G. So in four weeks, hopefully, we have some great intel for the podcast.
Speaker 1:We and by we I mean my husband subscribe to the FanDuel Sports Network self, so we can watch every single Cincinnati Reds game at home. Hooray, I have watched more Reds games the past two weeks than I have in 15 years. And I know it was 15 years ago because I remember August 31st 2010,. When Aroldis Chapman, aka the Cuban Missile, debuted for the Cincinnati Reds. I can still remember his first pitch. I looked up his stats. I don't understand all of them, but let's just remember his nickname was the Cuban Missile. Them, but let's just remember his nickname was the Cuban Missile. So, anyway, maybe I'll actually learn all the players' names this year. I do enjoy watching Eli de la Cruz While the Reds game was on this week and, inevitably, as we all do, I opened an Instagram reel and some obnoxious loud music started playing, which I quickly shut off.
Speaker 1:My husband paused the game, looked over at me, sighed very loudly, which I call a huffy puff. I looked him dead in the eye and said Did you ever think your TV is in the way of my phone Mic dropped? Suck it. The Reds are on the radio. I hope everyone has a great week filled with little snippets of good news. Jennapod is directed, produced and edited by me, your girl, jennifer. Please rate, review and subscribe to this on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you are listening to my lovely voice Laters.