S2 Ep 12: Coffee, Cancun & Choosing Boldly | Marnie & Alisa | Bench to Bold

What happens when Marnie and Alisa ditch the guest and just talk? In this solo episode, the Bench to Bold hosts run through a round of "this or that" that takes some unexpected turns, morning routines, sleep socks, bad perms, Charlotte weather, and what it really means to choose boldness in everyday life. Alisa also shares the story of a 24-hour trip to Cancun that ended with a taxi, a buddy pass, and a hard-earned lesson about who you choose to do life with.

EPISODE NAVIGATION:
00:00:20 — This or that: coffee vs. tea (and Alisa's Starbucks confession)
00:02:43 — Morning routines, early bedtimes, and the case for sleep socks
00:06:36 — Starting the day right: meditation, gratitude journals, and feeding the dogs first
00:08:47 — Favorite seasons and weather preferences
00:11:10 — Bad perm hall of fame  freedom perms, banana clips, and Randy's stripping days
00:13:55 — Night in or night out? Alisa's rain radar habit and the Charlotte FC game they skipped
00:17:05 — What's been the highlight of doing Bench to Bold
00:19:15 — What would you tell your ten-year-old self?
00:22:21 — Favorite places: Florence, Jackson Hole, and Alisa's legendary 24-hour Cancun escape

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS:
Marnie Schneider and Alisa Hood are the co-hosts of Bench to Bold, a podcast about the moments, the benched ones and the bold ones that shape who we become. With candid conversation, contagious energy, and a knack for getting people to open up, they've built a show where every guest (and every episode) proves that everybody has a story worth telling.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BenchtoBold

Follow Bench to Bold on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benchtobold

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hi everyone, welcome to Bench to Bold. I'm Marnie. And I'm Alisa. And it's just the two of us today. Alisa. I love it. Okay. So um let's do some this or that.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Okay. Okay. So I'm sitting here and I was I'm looking at your cup and I so coffee or tea? Tea. I know, but I thought you were a coffee.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

I am.

unknown 0:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

I had to switch. Okay. I've already had three. I I didn't sleep good last night.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

So I had three cups of coffee, caffeine.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Um, and then I thought, you know what? I s I'm I was cold. It's cold as shit here this morning. I know. So I felt like, you know, I needed some something hot. So I got I went to Starbucks. I I went to you know you're you're a Starbucks. Yeah, you're a Starbucks girl. I'm not, but I do like their tea. So I got mint tea, which is good and healthy for you. Okay. No caffeine.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

No caffeine. All right. Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

So I um contributed to the Starbucks fund today.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

I know. I d I do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

I I've contributed to I'm watching these ladies walk out with all this, you know, frappuccinos and caramel macchiatos, and I'm listening to the lady ring her up and I'm thinking, oh my God, yeah, you can go broke.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

It's expensive. It didn't used to be. The thing is, like, they were really smart in their business model where like they kind of got us hooked.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Like, you know, they reeled us up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

And when I when my kids were younger, like I could get into Starbucks, okay, with the three kids and me. And I think if they got like each got a little treat or something like that, it was like $11. I would get a you know, a mocha. It was like $250 or something like that. And then they would each get something, maybe we would they share a frappuccino or whatever, and then get something to eat. And now you'd have to like, I'd have to sell my kidney to feed everybody at Starbucks.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

It's crazy. And you know what? The food. I looked at the bagels, and when you compare apples to oranges, bagels at Starbucks to pop-up bagels. Well, there's no comparison. There's no comparison. I'm like, I'm not spending my money on that. It probably tastes as horrible as it looks.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah, the bagels aren't. I mean, pop-up bagels and the other place. We don't have one. We're, you know, on the other side of the universe. Um, but uh, all right, so uh, all right, so tea today, but typically coffee.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, what about you?

SPEAKER_00 2:34

I mean, I'm I'm coffee, but I'll drink tea before bed. Like I like to do meal. Yeah, I like to do that. Some like sleepy time or something before bed.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

You feel like it works?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

I do, but I'm so tired when I go to bed anyway. Like I get up so we're such early people that by like 8 30 or 9, I am like ready for Yeah, at 8 o'clock, I'm looking at my watch.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Oh yeah. And I'm like, God, if I go to bed now, I'll be up at 3 a.m. But you sleep all night.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

I do, I do. I take the dogs out like at 8:30, it's kind of like then I tell them it's bedtime and they get excited. They're like ready to go. And then we all get in bed. But yeah, like 8:30 or nine. If it would be unusual if I'm up at like 10. Last night everybody was home, so I could hear everybody in the kitchen. And so um I was up a little bit later, but I wasn't in participating in the um regaling in the kitchen. But uh yeah, so for me, yeah, definitely I like tea at night, but like decaf tea.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

And then um I can't have caffeine after two o'clock or um it distorts my sleep.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yeah, I I guess I could, but it would keep me, I I can feel it. Yeah, I can definitely that's as part of also aging.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Yeah, the aging I want to be tired when I get into bed at 8 30 or 9 o'clock. Well, I want to be able to fall asleep because I'm not a get in your bed read, you know, to get sleepy. I I want to get in the bed, have the lights off, not even look at my phone and go right to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yeah, I I have a little bit of I I do like to read a little bit, but also this might be controversial, but uh I wear socks when I sleep.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Socks while you sleep. You don't get hot.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Well, the idea is, okay, that you're supposed to wear socks while you sleep. And it's creepy as it's just creepy. But I have like sleep socks. Like I have actually like wool sleep socks, like not so you don't have like socks that you put like um compression.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

No, that you put um lotion in to soften your feet.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

No, I have like special like wool sleep socks.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

And what do they do?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Well, they keep your body, your temperature regulated because I also keep it pretty cold in my room.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

What do you keep your thermostat on?

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Well, I just turn it off at night. So I mean it's like probably in the 63, 64 degrees. Yeah. I mean, I don't have the uh keep it like around 64, 65, like between that and we keep ours on 67. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

And you can tell if it's 68 or something.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Oh, yeah, I can't sleep that way. Yeah. It's a bit, yeah. So I um have sleep socks that I have ordered and um they they definitely I think keep me sleeping. Now, yes, you can you can get hot from them, but not really because it does it actually supposed to it, it's what it's the idea is that it regulates your whole body, your whole temperature.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Well, it kind of does, right? That's why you wear those when you go like skiing or doing winter sports, because it kind of keeps your feet from getting, I guess, frozen hypothermia. Right if you wear the smart wool sock. The smart wool, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

And so that's what I yeah, I wear wool socks, not polyester, like not like a gym sock or whatever, but um a smart wool sock. And um, they're very thick. So they don't and they don't give you like a it's not like they hurt your ankles or whatever. Okay. When um uh all right, so yeah, so that um so tea before bed, some sleep socks, and I'm good to go. And then uh obviously I was gonna say morning person or night person, but we know you're more of a morning person than a night person.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah, I get up early. I love it. I get up with the dogs. Randy, you know, he is awake, um, but he lays in bed and does work. Well, he works all night. Um he he never shuts down, basically. But um, yeah, so I'm a morning person. I like to get up, get the dogs fed, get them outside, you know, get them back to get their get ready to come back in the house and and they usually take, you know, have their little morning nap while I do my work and my social media stuff and drink two or three cups of coffee to start my day.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah, that's a great, I mean, for me, that's like the perfect way to start the day. Like if I have to if if I don't have that like meditation time, I I have a gratitude journal and I med do like some, you know, whatever meditation stuff. But if I don't have that time, but I always try to make that time, I can tell that like I'm not feeling as you know, grounded. And I like getting up with the dogs and taking them and feeding them and all that stuff, like because they enjoy it as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

And uh, and I think that um there's like an old um a rabbi told me we were talking about this, not that I talk to a lot of rabbis, but I have in my day. But that like in the Jewish world, like you're supposed to feed the animals first before you eat or before you drink. And it's a nice like taking care of others and like doing those things. So um it that's just like how I've done it. Like I'll when they're eating, then I'll put the push the coffee button.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Well, I feel like you always take care of others before you take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Well, thank you. I mean, I probably do, but I mean that um, but I definitely feed there they're like I can tell my dogs are hungry in the morning and they're like, feed us. I'm like, oh, okay, fine. So yeah, and they eat a lot. So um, but now they're only down to like they're we're trying to keep them on a good diet.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

So we have Daisy on a diet. Coco, not so much, yeah. Um, she's still in her puppy growing stages, but um, okay, so it's cold in Charlotte right now and it's spring, you know. It's and we're into April, we're almost in the middle of April. Oh my god, I can't even believe that. So are you uh, you know, it's supposed to warm up this weekend, but are you more of a winter girl or spring or summer? What season do you like and why?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Okay, well, first of all, wait, let's go back for one second when you said that I yes, I think that I do you we're both very similar in that caretaking and enjoying that. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

So we had to, you know, care for our sick parents. And yeah, yeah, so it was yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

It's uh being thoughtful is um is a life skill.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

It is.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

It is. I mean, I think being thoughtful, because it doesn't take a whole lot, but being thoughtful, all right. So, you know, I grew up in Philadelphia, so like the winters were a disaster because you're cold. I went to a school where we had to wear uniforms, and every other month they would change the rules. Like one month you could wear tights, the next month you couldn't wear tights. So it was like you had to wear a school uniform, which, you know, to not look totally frumpy, we would hike them up as short as we could go, and then we'd want to wear tights, and then they'd be like, no, you can't wear tights this month. Uh so I think that I like spring and fall. I've if have my way. When I lived in Southern California, I felt like it was mostly spring and fall weather.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Um, but I guess like I would prefer to be hot than cold.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Well, you can, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

I'd prefer, like, I mean, I like cute winter clothes better. Like, I don't like summer clothes. Like, I've never been like, let me just show my body. I'm not like I'm very self-conscious of that. So it's never been like, let me put on a bikini and do all those things, but when I have them, but uh uh, so I prefer turtlenecks and coats and cover it, cover as much hat as possible up. See my eyes. That's pretty much it. Um, but I like the actual temp I but the temperature-wise, I I don't mind it when it's in, you know, warm. My hair looks a little puffy, but yeah, mine too.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

I have I think we both have similar hair. Yeah. When it's humid, it gets wild. Yeah, wild.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Yeah, it gets wild.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

I call it nappy.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Yeah. It just, it just gets, I mean I could never live in Florida. Uh Florida's tough with the hair. I the best place. Like if I was gonna live someplace for my hair, it'd be Arizona.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Oh my gosh. Not Vegas, because Vegas still gets a little bit of humidity, but my hair looks 10 out of 10. Every like I can step off the plane in Phoenix and be like, all right, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

It's amazing how it changes as soon as you get into that climate.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

It's just I could be literally I get off the plane, whereas other places flat. Absolutely. If I go to Philadelphia in the summer, it is like all bets are off. Yeah, not good.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

But do you think it'll be hard to hold curl in your hair in those climates?

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Um, I think it's probably harder. Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I think it's like if you want to used to having straight hair.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yeah, I'd have to get like a perm.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Oh god, no.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

My friend Cindy. We've talked about this. My friend Cindy, her mom got a freedom perm. It was like 1976. So of course it was like freedom and it was like tight ringlets, freedom perm. Mrs. Manning.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah, we we had that conversation. I had that done to me in ninth grade. Oh my God. It was a disaster. I was so embarrassed. I had to wear my hair in a damn banana clip for God, I don't even know how long. I think it was half the school year.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

My stepbrother, uh boys got perm. My stepbrother got a perm.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Yeah, it was bad.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Okay. Like it'll start to grow out around the base of his neck or somewhere, and he's you know, it gets real tight, curly. Yeah. Yeah, he has a picture hanging on his parents' wall of him when he was a hot 18-year-old with brown, curly, curly, wringlet, curly hair. Oh wow. Yeah, and a mustache. Oh my gosh. I'll have to share that picture with you.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

I want to see it. Yeah, the mustache. That's pretty uh yeah, that's pretty funny. I feel like I just escaped like the guys having mustache thing. Oh like when like Burt Reynolds. Yeah, no, like I mean, I'm old enough to like I remember it, but like in high school, there they didn't allow facial hair in high school, but like even in college, like the mid to late, like the late 80s, like no one was really doing the mustache. I think like a little bit beforehand, like early 80s, that was like the mustache thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yeah, he had the whole mustache thing going on.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

I mean, imagine my husband, he used to strip in Charlotte in bars for money and wear, you know, baby blue suits and white um patent leather shoes and take it all off down to a hammock. A banana hammock. A banana hammock. Yeah. Yeah. I would have loved to have seen that.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah, that's um Randy with a mustache, curly brown hair, and a baby blue suit with patent leather shoes, stripping in Charlotte bars.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Well, you know, it's not how you start, it's how you finish, Lisa. That's what I in anything. Yeah, you know, you know stripper to lawyer. Right, exactly. So not just remember everybody, this is bench to bold. It's not how you start. Right. It's how you finish. That's it. And just you gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

You gotta keep going out with a bang.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

You know, right. So, I mean, and that's true. I mean, and so uh, yeah, I mean, obviously uh we like our bench moments because they give us the bold moments. Like without those moments, you don't have any ability to navigate and to understand what it takes to get to the next level or how to what you want for yourself or any of any of those things. Okay, so let's say, um, all right, uh would you rather have like a night in or a night out?

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Well, that depends.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Okay, I hate rain. So, and all most people that know me very well know uh two things. I hate rain and I love candy. Um I hate rain. So if it's raining, I I'm staying in. I'm voting to stay in.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

And where did this um dislike of rain?

SPEAKER_01 14:16

I just hate rain. And I well, uh okay, so funny, we were just talking about hair. I think because you can't look good in your clothes or go, you can you can't really, you're s you know, it's pouring rain and your hair is a mess when it rains, especially when it's summer and it rains. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

It's humid.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Yeah, so I think you know, uh uh the first soccer game this season, you know, I look on the radar. Here's I'm like a my mom said, You should have been a meteorologist. So I look and I tell my husband, you know, and it was a big game. It was a home opener Charlotte FC. They had all things planned. We got invited to this thing before the game started, and I look on the radar and and it says rain. Now we all know in Charlotte that it can rain in South Charlotte and not rain at the stadium.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

However, you know, I told my husband I looked at the radar and it was going right over the stadium for most of the night. Right. So we opted not to go and go watch it at our restaurant and we had fun. However, they they won. It was a great game, and there was no rain at the stadium.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

I mean, it does. Like we're I mean, out, like it just yeah, I mean, there's certain bubbles. I think that that is interesting about the about the weather here in the Carolinas is that there are these pockets where it might rain in one area and it's like uh it's not raining where I am. It's the same thing with snow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

You know, it can snow at the lake, right? Yeah, well, 85 is like the corridor of snow. It can snow north of 85 and south of 85 be dry.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Same thing with rain. You get a ton of rain at the lake. Yeah, you know, it storms, it feels like it goes over Iredale County in the summertime really bad. It always storms at the lake.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Well, it was really good when my kids were in school because with the weather, because we were at we're at the tip of the county and it goes pretty far north. And so if they got snow far north, which we didn't get any snow, but because they would um I mean call school off. They would call yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

So it'd be like, all right, there's no school. I mean, and that was always a great thing. I mean, I always liked having growing up and having snow days, that was like the most fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Because you didn't have them that much in California. No, we never had them.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

I created my own snow days with my kids. I'd be like, you know what, it's snowing in Philadelphia, no school today. I love that. And then we would just hang out and pretend it was a snow day. And uh that was always a fun thing to do. Yeah, because we didn't have we had earthquake days occasionally.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

That's what I was gonna say. We had earthquake days.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Yeah, I mean, those were not so fun. I mean, thankfully, we never had any real problems with it, but but you do get earthquakes. I mean, you do natural disasters or just part of, you know, where you know, wherever you live.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

No, we get them here. Yeah. Smaller ones on much smaller scale, but we there's a fault line that goes right through, you know, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yeah. All right, so we've done a bunch of episodes to Ben on Bench to Bold. What has been the highlight of doing the show?

SPEAKER_01 17:13

I guess, you know, the highlights meeting so many interesting people. Like today, we had two interesting women, and we have one, you know, an interesting gentleman that's gonna be on our show later today, but I mean, just interesting stuff. We've had some great um people on our podcast. Yeah. I've found out things about people that you know you would never imagine.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

I mean, they're doing great things. Right. And I think people really do want to, I mean, everybody what what there was this there used to be this segment on I for maybe it was CBS or something, CBS that Sunday morning show, which I used to really like. And it was uh, the idea was like everyone has a story. So the guy would go, whatever. He would kind of he would take a blindfold himself, have a map of the country, throw a dart at the map. And that's where he'd go. Yes, but it got even more precise. And he would go to like say it was, you know, Altoona, Pennsylvania, okay. He would get to Altoona, and then he would go back when there were phone books, he would go to um look up a phone book, okay, and just kind of randomly just turn the phone book or whatever it was, and then find a person, identify that person, and then go to their house and ask them for their story. And now I'm sure some people would be like, go away, you're weird, with a whole news crew or whatever. But most people would share their story and everybody has a story. Everybody has a story. Everybody does. And it's like, that's what's so interesting. That obviously some stories are certainly more interesting, maybe, or more exciting, or maybe more visually interesting. But the fact is everybody has a story, even if it's not some large wild story of success or whatever it is, but everybody has a story.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

I think everybody has a bench to bold story. Yeah, everybody regardless how successful you are, you're there's still areas of your life where you're really bold. Yeah, then you and you have been benched.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Yeah, I mean, because that's just you know, unfortunately, you know, that you have moments that are that are hard. And and I think, you know, this is like I've seen these things like what would you tell your 10-year-old self? You know, what would you tell your 10-year-old self?

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Oh, what would I tell my 10-year-old self? I mean, probably what my parents instilled in me still today is to be independent, don't depend on anyone. Yeah. Which made me the person I am today. Get the education. Get the the education got me the jobs. You know, had I not had a graduate degree, I wouldn't have been able to have some of the jobs that I had because they required a graduate degree. So I would tell my 10-year-old self, still the same thing. I mean, I would take a little bit different trajectory. Um, but you know, that that's what we really, you know, are fortunate if we have parents to, you know, as mentors to lean in on to give us that that trajectory that we all need to, you know, be successful. And some of some people don't have that, but they ha obviously, you know, thankful that some mentors, coaches, and um teachers are able to be mentors to kids that don't have parents at home to actually mentor them. But I I was fortunate, you were fortunate to have that, um, who shaped us and made us who we are today. Being independent women and doing big things.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yeah, I mean, and it's really something I think that uh that having the uh somebody, you know, somebody just to and and it could be, you know, we were fortunate we had family members to to do those uh to do that guidance for us, but not everybody has that. So I think that um, but that's really what the whole thing about everybody has a story. So, you know, with bench to bold, I think that we can uh connect with our viewers on the fact that we're really relatable in many ways because we're all human and we're all making mistakes and we're all learning and trying to figure things out and doing things. And, you know, some of us are doing many things at the same time, and that's a great thing. Some of us are, you know, doing whatever it is that they're choosing to do, but that when we have people on, that they share their stories about uh how they've got to where they are and where they were, and that they're um willing to come and talk about it with us is something that's such a huge compliment because not everybody wants to share their stories because not every story is uh, you know, people want to completely download, but I think it's something that I I've really enjoyed getting to, you know, hear a lot of things and see a lot of people that have, you know, gone the circuitous route. My mom would always say it's like it's never a straight line, it's always a circuitous path.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Always and stories help other people, you know? Yeah, it helps them figure out a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Yes. Um, we know that you love candy. I think I asked you this last time, but you're more but you you like more like gummies over chocolate.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah, right. I mean, I love chocolate, I said that before, but if I'm going to choose. I'm that girl that's gonna pick a fireball or gonna pick a Tootsie Roll. Right. Or Laffy Taffy or um that kind of candy.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

All right, so uh this isn't a this or that, but well it kind of is. What's the most okay, where has been like what place have you visited that you that was like the best place you've ever gone?

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Well, you know, I love New York. Right. But outside of that, um my heritage is Italian and I love Florence. I mean I love all of Italy I've not seen all of Italy. We're actually going to Milan for the first time in a in a month or so. So I'm excited about it. We're going to Milan and um the Dolomites in Venice. I've been to Venda Venice before Randy has not um but I love Florence um of out of all the places that I've visited in in Italy uh Florence is probably my favorite place. I think maybe Milan's gonna be a a favorite for me too because you know I love fashion. Um so I'm really excited about going to Milan for the fashion but um but I love travel traveling abroad. I mean it you get to see things that and learn things that we can't do here and learn here in the United States. I mean there's so much history you know traveling abroad. I mean there's a lot of history here in the United States too but my favorite place on earth will always be New York but second to that would probably be Florence. What about you?

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Um well let's see I mean I I certainly I I like the um I like being out of the country and I've you know experienced many great places I think that beauty wise my favorite place um is probably Jackson Wyoming just because I mean I I I love uh Pebble Beach also up in Northern California but to me uh it's just a I I like places that um uh like it has a lot of things that I enjoy just the nature part of it and um I think that it's just it always looks different to me. So like each time I go it'll be and I haven't been in a couple years but the mountains have snow on it or they don't have snow but it's like those kind of things and I've got great memories from from being there. So I think that that's a great place. And um but if I wasn't there I would say um uh certainly like Northern California has some pretty places as well you know but you know it it's what they say is it's not what you do it's who you do it with it's who you do it with and like what you make of it.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Yeah and you know I've been great places and I'm like oh gosh I just want to go back to my bed let me get out of here please oh yeah tell me about it I traveled big sur and A1A with two different men that I was like are you freaking kidding me get me back to Winston Salem now. Like you want to hear a funny story before we end this okay I spent 24 hours in Mexico. Oh my gosh I'm working in a nursing home in Greensboro North Carolina I was in my tw early twenties ended up dating a guy that worked as a physical therapy assistant in this nursing home he invited me to go with him and 14 friends to Cancun okay Miss Little Winston Salem had never been out of the country so I head to Cancun, Mexico with him and 14 others he asked me late so they had already booked their trip they did an all-inclusive in um one of those big hotels in Cancun and he said I don't know if you'll be able to get the armband um to get all the drinks free and all the things right and I said well that's fine and had and they also had their plane booked plane flight booked their plane was sold out so my aunt worked for the airway she gave me a buddy pass because they still gave those away at that time now granted this was almost 20 years ago and uh so so I get a different we my plane leaves around the same time and we get to Cancun or about the same time. So we land it's um probably four o'clock we get to our hotel we you know we sit in this uh in the lobby we all get in this room where they have us come in we're in a circle and they're giving out the armbands so they give me an armband they thought I was just one of the people they didn't check any kind of ID or whatever you do so I get the armband now you know I don't drink so I didn't care about the armband or not yeah well I cared more about the food than the than the drink but I think the arm if I remember correctly I think the armband was for alcohol so I'm like okay I could care less about this armband. So everybody goes upstairs takes their bags up to the room changes getting their s gets into the swimsuit or whatever and I'm thinking damn it's you know it's getting ready to be five o'clock when are we eating people are you know I'm like what are we doing now? Now mind you these people like drink the guy I was with his go-to was wild turkey rare breed okay so I I I don't even know what that is I you know I knew what wild turkey was but I didn't know there was one called wild turkey rare breed so okay we start they start drinking you know we go okay so it's like 7 38 and I'm going um when are we gonna eat like can I get something to eat? Well they had I didn't realize this but they had something in the in the restaurant in the downstairs of the lobby of the hotel that was all inclusive. So I go in there and get a little you know appetizer we'll call it we're going out but we're going to you know we're not going to like nine or ten o'clock and I'm like oh my God you know so okay so I'm rolling with it so we and I'm like where are we going? Senor frogs so here we go to Senor Frogs we get there it's 10 o'clock you know everybody's I I don't even remember what the food was but anyway it was all I could see was drinks flying you know and I saw this big red drink and I asked what it you know I'm like in my mind I'm thinking what is that it looks interesting and it I'd never been out of the country and you know this is what they do in Mexico apparently in Cancun and it's called a hurricane and it had like 10 straws in it. It was huge have you ever seen it?

SPEAKER_00 28:01

I've seen a scorpion bowl it's the same idea.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Same idea. So here we are everybody's partying and having a good time so I'm curious you know I'm like what is this so the waiter walks over the server walks over and I and asks if I want it and I said you know I'm talking just him and I it was a guy him and I and mind you the guy that I was with had already he was already three sheets to the wind so we we'll call it and he sees this guy and I talking and I'm just asking him what this what is what is this? I'm interested. So he's telling me the guy's explaining what the drink is he goes away and I'm standing there and here comes the guy I'm with and lays me out like what are you doing every time I walk away yeah you're talking to some dude so I get in the you know I'm thinking okay what are we gonna do here? So now it's we had touched down at four o'clock it's you know six hours we've been in Cancun I get in I le he was a hot mess and I'm like okay so I'm like okay I'm I'm I had to be strategic here so I'm like you know what I'm gonna go out get in myself in a taxi go back to the hotel room and that's just what I did. So I go back to the head got back to the hotel room and number one, you know, I'm 23 years old I believe at the time 23 24 I get into a taxi cab with some strange man that doesn't speak English. He was very nice and dropped me off at the Los Something Americana and I go in get in my little 90s and get in bed and I made a plan. I thought you know what tomorrow morning I'm gonna wake up I'm not gonna spend the rest of my vacation this way. So Friday morning I wake up well let's back up he comes in it's like five in the morning and I'm like pretending to be asleep and he stumbles in and we were in a two-step kind of condo he it's all all obviously ceramic tile in Mexico he falls down that gets in the you know finally gets into the bed passes out and I'm like okay now I can get up get out so I get up and I get out and I'm tiptoeing around and I'm like oh gosh you know I had my jewelry and stuff was locked in the safe so I'm like looking for the key they had a key to the safe it was not one of those computerized safes so it was a key so I found the key in his suitcase get into that accidentally I really accidentally did this accidentally hurried up and just threw my stuff in the suitcase changed threw the key in my suitcase to left locked it back and threw the key in my suitcase and didn't mean to and left with it get to the air call my get in the car get in the taxi call my aunt that told her to get me a buddy pass home don't ask any questions just get me home I literally got on a flight the airport was closed the morning because there was one flight out a day one flight in one flight out I had to sit at the airport like outside for like two hours before the airport opened then I went in sat there all day until I think the flight took off at one o'clock touched down in Charlotte was back in Winston Salem before 24 hours.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Yeah good for you yes yeah good for you I mean that what else were you gonna do? Yeah yeah so I can't that was a long story but yeah it's not what you do it's who you do it with it's who you do it with and I am so glad that we are doing this Elisa likewise this has been fun it's been a fun journey yes so right remember folks make sure you choose wisely who you do things with yeah I learned a lot from that well that's I mean part of it is that those are moments that you do learn and you take the you know you take the licks and then you just keep on going.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

That's it but it was a good story.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yes a great story thank you for sharing that and to be continued I kind of want to ask more questions we're out of time yeah but uh thank you everybody for uh you know following along on our bench to bolt journey we are very grateful I'm Marnie and I'm Alisa and uh until next time that's right see y'all soon with the website