ClarkCast Chapter 17: Elizabeth Mink is Awesome!

My good friend and St. Vincent De Paul Catholic School teacher, Elizabeth Mink, joins us on the ClarkCast Podcast. She's a diehard Swiftie and big-time Jonas Brothers fan. Elizabeth once told me a story about the Jonas Brothers that was 20 minutes long with no interruptions. Can she top her record? 

Transcript

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Clark Cast is on the air. Elizabeth Mink, you're about to do something cool. You're always doing something cool, though. Uh, you do a lot of really cool things. But anyway, your walk-up music. You're about to go to bat, you're walking into a room. What what's your song was playing? Bejeweled by Taylor Swift. Of course it's something by Taylor Swift. It is. It is, in fact, by Taylor Swift. It's either a Taylor Swift song or a Jones Feather song, always. But Bejeweled is my song. That's it, huh? That's that's the jam. Not uh, not bad blood, not uh what's the other one? No, because don't put me in the basement when I'm at the penthouse of your heart. Right on. True, true. That's it. True words have never been spoken. I've known Elizabeth for, I don't know, a long time now. Since Charlie was two. Yeah, since Charlie was two. So about for about 10 years or so. Um Elizabeth and I attend St. Thomas Church together. Uh her she, you know, and full disclosure, she teaches Charlie. She's Charlie's teacher right now. We're super happy about that. Um, Elizabeth loves music, and that's kind of how we became friends, talking about Taylor Swift and other things, you know, just through um through the years, like picking up Charlie from school and stuff. But enough about that. Thank you so much for doing this. I'm so happy that we're gonna do it and chat. I'm excited. I'm I've never done anything like this before, and I'm pumped. I'm ready. There is, if there's one thing you're not gonna have a problem doing, it's gonna be talking, right? Heard, heard. Never once in my life. Christmas uh at Christmas in the past. You were you came over to our house, we're hanging out with us, we had this great time. You literally told me a story about the Jonas brothers that lasted 20 minutes. Like it had a lot of parts, and and you were unabashedly, like you we were not bothered by that at all. It had a beginning, it had a middle, and we had to get to the end. Yeah, it was a lot. It was a light, it was a crazy day. It was, it was, it was a magical day, and that wasn't even uh was that your latest Jonas Brothers concert you were telling me about, or was that like a one prior? That was the first concert of the year, actually, which was actually one day it had two concerts in it. Ah, yeah, what uh what what was the first concert you remember going to? Um, my first ever concert was the wiggles. Oh wow, the OG Wiggles, right? And I was so mad at my parents because they never um you could buy a rose, and one of the wiggles would come get a rose from you for Dorothy the dinosaur. My parents wouldn't buy me a rose. I actually went to two Wiggles concerts, and I never got to give them a rose. No rose either time, huh? Nope. Your parents were probably two of the most practical people I am fortunate to know in my life. They were like, There's gonna be so many other people with the rose. And I said, but I don't get to meet a wiggle if I don't have a rose. So which wiggle was your favorite? Bernard. Jeff was Jeff was the one that was coming to our section, and I wanted to meet him. I was always Greg because I had until Christian was born, there were four of us. So I was always Greg, the main wiggle, the singer. And then my brother Nathaniel was Murray because he was his favorite color was red. My brother Sebastian was uh Anthony because he ate everything in sight, and then Alexander was Jeff because he always wanted to take a nap. So let's talk about that, you know. Growing up, the only girl amongst uh four brothers, four brothers. So so give me the pecking order. Oldest, I know Kristen's the youngest. Yep, I'm the oldest. So I'm 27, and then Sebastian is 25, and he um is married now to his wife, Caroline, who's also 25, and they have a baby, Henry. He'll be one in August. Already. Um, yeah, wow, that that has really flown by. Yeah, yeah. Like I thought I was gonna say, how old is he? Like three months, but I had no idea the year already. Yeah, he's he's close. Um, she actually just started talking about having to plan his birthday party. So he's coming up, and then Nathaniel is 23, and Alexander is 20, and Christian is 15. And Alexander is a soccer player, correct? Yep, right on. Yep, the soccer player who is Charlie Clark's biggest fan at church. Really? Right. Yep. He told me the other day I said, All my kids ultra-serve during holy week, and he said only one of them should have Charlie Clark. And I was and I he loves Charlie, right on, man. And and and same. Charlie, Charlie loves you and and your family, Christian. He is a good kid, and thank you for saying that. You know, you I'm proud of him, but it's always nice to hear it from other people, especially you know, someone who's with him, you know, many, many hours a day, you know, and yeah, deals with his anxiety and and and all my guy. He just needs some extra love. It's all good. He's a he's a good dude. Um, so so the firstborn, you know, you have you know, you have all the attention and stuff. Then hey, mom and dad are like, hey, we're having an you know, you're having a brother or sister. Did were you upset because the uh attention economy was about to change, or how'd you react to that? If you remember, you know. I I don't remember it, but the story goes that I was a great baby. Like everyone agrees I was one of the best kids, of course. Um, or one of the best babies. And then uh Sebastian Sebastian came along and he cried a lot. And apparently, um, at his first Christmas, he was a month old. My parents had left him, like mom went out of the room for a second, he was in his car seat, and I was just walking around and he was crying. And apparently, I went and bit his toe because I was annoyed that he was crying. And um the story goes that my dad has never been that mad at me in my life. Wow, and my mom had to pick me up and move me from to another room because my dad was he was like, She bit the baby, she bit the baby, she can't bite the baby. I don't know. I was I wasn't even two yet. Yeah, exactly. So I was just a baby myself, and then hey, guess what? The attention economy's changing again for a third and fourth time. Yep, and a fifth, yeah. It's it was I it was always the I don't remember really anything past like when Alexander was born, I was upset because we didn't know any genders until babies were born, right? And then um, so I always like held on to hope. Me and my friends, we were saying prayers every day. We were like, it's gonna be a girl, it's gonna be a girl, it's gonna be a girl. Never. Um, but the only baby I remember like the full birth of, like the full whole thing, was Christian. And they didn't know anything about Christian until he was born. So they didn't know he had Down syndrome, they didn't know that he had that he was a boy, they did not know anything about him, um, other than that he was a baby that was gonna be born. That was all they needed to know. So my friends and I came up with like the names for him. Like we got to help pick out the name and we got to do all of these things, it had to be nine letters. All of our names have nine letters in them. Um, so it was all like I remember that whole process because I was in fifth grade whenever she got pregnant with him. She actually announced that she was pregnant at my um 11th birthday at my birthday party. Yeah. She happy birthday. And by the way, I had just finished opening up all my presents. Everybody had kind of scattered, and then they were like, Elizabeth, go get your brothers for another present. And I was like, It's my birthday. Why do I have to go get my brother's? It's my birthday. And they were like, No, no, no, it's a gift for everybody. And I was like, Oh my god, it's a dog. The whole thing was we couldn't get a dog until all the kids were not babies, and Alexander was five. So I was like, Oh my gosh, we're getting a dog. I'm rounding up all my brothers, and I can't find Alexander. And they're like, Oh, we have Alexander in our room, don't worry about it. It's fine. So I'm holding my little cousin Marley, who's one at the time and or almost one. And here comes Alexander walking out of the room with a shirt on that says big, I'm a big brother. And I am like clueless. Everyone behind me is screaming, like, oh my god, oh my god, clueless. Until my friend's mom tapped me on the shoulder and said, Elizabeth, read the shirt. And I said, What? It says that he's a brother. I know he's a brother, he's my brother, I know that. And she was like, the whole shirt, read it out loud. And I finally read it, and I was like, Oh, okay, yep, there we go. So I didn't let my mom wear blue, like I didn't even let her wear blue jeans. I was like, I don't want to see the color blue touch your body. My 11-year-old brain was like, You're you cannot do anything that's gonna remotely make this baby want to come out a boy. Right on, and then we got to the hospital and I made them take his diaper off because I didn't believe them. And uh, you know, you know, Christian, that that's your that's your BFF. Like, you know, that's my guy. That's your guy. I mean, you you guys are together all the time. He he comes with you to school. Tell me about you that relationship. Um, so I was almost 12 whenever he was born. I was in sixth grade. Um, he like so when he was born, he also he had inhaled, um, he had had feces in his in the womb, and so his lungs were underdeveloped and stuff. So he was like, I was so excited to have my own baby finally. Like I was gonna have my real life baby doll. And then um I couldn't hold him for four, he was in the NICU for 13 days, and then he got home, and everybody had to be super careful. But I had this was my fourth time, I knew what I was doing. So that I mean, like I took care of him. His bedroom was across the hall from my parent from my room, and my mom's and dad's room was on the other side of the house. So it made sense that I would go help him at nighttime. Um, as he grew up, he started to sleep in my bed. And to this day, like I'm gonna have to go sleep in his bedroom with him because he won't sleep by himself. Um, I was in, I can remember a time in middle school whenever we all went to the mall together and my parents were buying clothes for my brothers, and so Christian needed to be fed. So I was like, I'll sit out on the bench and feed him while y'all get the boys done, whatever, so that y'all don't have to worry about it. And uh the stairs, uh, because I've always looked older for my age, especially whenever I was like in middle school and high school, and he looked younger because of the Down syndrome. So that dichotomy there, um, everybody thought he was my kid. So everybody thought that I had a kid at 13. And so he became like all the time when we're out in public, mom, what does he want? And I'm like, my brother would like this for so long, and now I just like it is what it is. I'm never gonna see you, I'm never gonna see you again. So it's not like I need to worry about what you're what you think about us, type of thing. Um, but he is, he's my like my ride or die, he's always with me. Um I am his biggest hater, and he is my biggest bully all the time, as a brother and sister should be, right? Um, like we get in trouble by the family all the time because I treat him the same way I treat the other boys, and they're like, you have to be nicer to him, you have to be nicer. I'm like, no, I don't. He's still my brother, like he's still my little brother. I still get to mess with him, I still get to to fight with him and stuff. But like, um, my parents went on a cruise this week, and so it's just me and him at home. And we are like planning our outing for Saturday. There was a point in time whenever he was younger when my parents would travel with my brothers for soccer stuff, and we'd have each other for the whole weekend, and we had a set schedule every Saturday at 11 o'clock. We go to Chick-fil-A, and then after we went to Chick-fil-A at noon, we'd go to Petsmart and walk the dogs that the Humane Society had brought, and then we'd go back home and we would go to the park for an hour, and then we'd be home for the day. And we did that every weekend for almost two years, right on because it was just the two of us. So, I mean, it's always me and him forever and always. And that that that's amazing. And uh, you know, he loves Charlie too. He uh he is a big brother to Charlie, likes to give Charlie some pointers on altar serving. Yep, you know, he he he definitely is a pro at it and you know gets a little irrit irritated with Charlie when he's he's not following the instructions. But uh, you know, I love when they serve together. I mean, I just I I I I think it's awesome, you know. It's it's he loves he loves getting to alter serve with with kids, especially kids that like he sees outside of church, like those kids that are in my class, like he loves to alter serve with them. Um, but he specifically loves Charlie because Charlie lets him like hug on him and play rough with him and stuff, and he calls Charlie his baby brother. Oh he says, I big brother, Charlie baby brother. So he eats up Charlie. What uh what what made you decide that you wanted to get into education? Like I I I know when we met you were a teaching assistant at the school when Charlie was in like pre-K2, I guess, or pre-K three, or I wasn't even an assistant teacher yet. You were just there, just I was just there, right on. What uh what what made you decide that that's the path you wanted to take? So my family, my dad's family, the Minks, have a huge history with St. Thomas Church, um, and St. Thomas School. It goes all the way back to the beginning. My uncle is actually Bruce that works in the cafeteria. Right. My grandma and their other sister used to all work in the cafeteria together. My dad was an assistant teacher at St. Thomas School, and um, that's actually where my parents met. Was my mom and dad met on my mom's first day of St. Thomas School. So there's deep rooted like history with education and stuff. I was in first grade. Like my mom keeps a book of every year we write down like all the little things that happen in a year, and at the bottom it says what I want to be when I grow up. I wanted to be a fairy princess in kindergarten. And in first grade, I wanted to be a teacher. And from first grade on, it has been some sort of teacher, um, specifically a teacher at St. Vincent, uh, because that's where my heart and soul is. I have loved that school since I stepped foot in it in pre-K three. It's what I know and what I love. And there are some things that are not where I remember them being in my childhood. And I know that I have the stamina and the ability to get things where I would like them to be. And so I put all of my effort into um into that, into making St. Vincent the best that it can be. But I decided I want to be a teacher and when I was in first grade, I was in teacher academy in high school. Um actually had one, we're supposed to go, you have to go like on a practicum type of thing and visit schools during teacher academy. It's part of the curriculum. And I put St. Vincent on our list of schools to visit because I knew I wanted to go there. So it was just, it's always been I'm I haven't cognitively known life and remembered life, not wanting to be a teacher. Right on, and and you have the the like true blessing of getting to teach with your with your mother as well, right? You both teach fifth grade, mink and meek, and and you're obviously different people with very different teaching styles. Very different teaching styles, but it works. It she's very think ahead and like has the idea, but doesn't know how to like make it work. She's like, I want to do this really cool idea, but I don't know how to design the worksheet for it, or I don't know how to get the materials for it, or I don't know how to teach it the way that the kids are gonna understand it. And I'm like, got it, understood. And I can formulate it so that it works for the both of us. Um, and that's a really cool part of that. We work well together at school when it comes to the kids. Like we can get things done that need to get done. Um, because we both are in it for the kids. As tired as we may be, and as overwhelmed as we may be, if it's something important to the kids, it'll get done no question. Right on. You know, you mentioned St. Thomas Church, and I definitely wanted to to talk about that because it's such a huge part of my life and my my family's life. But you know, we're not we're not OG St. Thomas members. I mean, we only moved here 10, 12 years ago. Um, no, I guess like 11 years because Charlie's not even 12 yet. So I know you went, um, Father Louie was there, who's a rock star, like everyone loved him. I came after that. Like I started going there when Yeah, you would have gotten there right at Father Cuddy. Yes, I was there for for Father Cuddy. Um, I love Father Braxton and Father Satish. I just want to put that out there. I think I say that on every podcast that I have that we that I do of just how much I love those guys and how much they brought to that church. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it so much. I talk about I talk about it the same amount of um, probably the same amount that you talk about it. I'm a huge fan. I am so Father Louis had already been there. Let's see, I was born in '99. Um, he was there a total of 22 years. He left in 2015. So for eight, six years, he had already been there for six years. He was supposed to leave my the year I was born. Um, but he got to stay because of oh, he would he hit his second six, he re-upped for his second six, and then uh Katrina hit. And so he stayed until his retirement. Uh he was like a second grandfather, he left in the hardest month of my life. Um, I had my favorite teacher die, my grandpa die, and Father Louie leave all within a span of three weeks. Um, but I was a huge fan of Father Cuddy. And I love Father Cuddy first, you know, and not at first, because at first I was like, this man is nothing like Father Louie, and I've never known another priest, and I don't like this, and I'm not a fan of this, and like go away. And then we slowly like he loved Christian. Oh my goodness, he loved Christian. Like Father Cuddy owned socks with Christian's face on them. And he took them to Ireland to show his family. Oh, wow. Loves Christian Mink. And so we loved Father Cuddy. Father Cuddy used to come to our family like gatherings and stuff. We used to always invite him. And then when he left, I was like, I can't do this again. I was like, I just like I don't want to do this. Um, and when Father Satish came in, at first I was like, there was a kerfuffle in the family, and I was like, I don't know about this guy, I'm not a fan of him. Like, I loved Father Vincent, so I was like, it'll be a little bit more. Oh, he was so sweet, like it's so jealous. I love Father Vincent. Um, so I was really just like, I don't know about him and love him. He's great. We I love to see him around. Like, I chit chat with him. Him and Alexander, best friends. Uh, we joke about it all the time. Anytime we need something at the church, we're like, Alexander, call your bestie. We every time Father sees him, it's great. Um, I was in high school when Father Braxton did his summer seminary with us. Love him, have loved that man ever since. Have always wanted him to come back. So when I heard he was taking Father Vincent's spot, the sadness I felt with Father Vincent leaving was not nearly as much as the other priest because I knew who we were, like I already knew the person coming in. Right. And I have loved every single second of Father Braxton being there. Sure. I love his involvement with the youth. I love his involvement with um Christian Mink specifically, because every other priest lets him do whatever he wants, not Father Braxton Nikes. If Christian Mink does something wrong, Father Braxton's gonna tell him to fix it right now. Right on. And we I love him for that. It's great. I I I I love it. I feel like uh I don't know. And and again, I'm only someone who's been in the church a few years. Like I just love this period of St. Thomas, you know. It's it's it's definitely it's definitely my favorite period. I mean, I wasn't Father Louis left right before I turned 16. So like I knew I was in the church, right? But I wasn't really active. Um, I love being active in the church in this period. Yeah, so do I. I I I really do. And I I say this on here to almost every time as well. Like, I'm at a point in my life where 99% of my friends are parents from Charlie School or people I go to church with or both, you know. Yeah. You know, it's good. It is. It's great. We got good people. We got good people. Faux show. Um, Taylor Swift. That's your your your your favorite, right? That's how you and I started. We started having this conversation about Taylor Swift one time. Um, when was the first time you saw her perform? At the Airs Tour. Right on. Oh, really? I didn't, I did not get to go before then. I was, I my parents brought home her debut CD whenever she released it in 2006. And my dad, I remember when my dad handed it to me, he handed me this CD and he said, I saw this at the store. It's a new up-and-coming country artist, but she's got blonde curly hair. I thought you might like her. Right on. And so every time he complains about it, I remind him it's his fault that I have this obsession. Um, but I never got to go see her on tour. My cousin Marley went to the reputation tour, but I never got to. So that's the one I went to. Yeah, I didn't get to go to, I didn't go to any tour before then. Um, and then my friends and I got tickets, lower bowl tickets to Houston night one, and it was great. We got Wonderland as a surprise song, which is a Target exclusive. So so pumped about that. And then we got You're Not Sorry, and I'm a Fearless Girl. So I was pumped. My friends were like, What song is this? And I said, Oh my god, it's my song. It was great. Um, and then I told everybody, everybody, I'm going to see Taylor Swift in New Orleans. She's got the Tortured Poets Department, and I want to see it live. I'm going in New Orleans. So I mean, like iPad open during school hours. Sorry, Miss Church. Like refreshing the ticket master. As soon as they set the stage up, they release new tickets. And so I'm like refreshing, refreshing, refreshing, hoping for something. Never could get tickets for like a price that I could afford at the time. So I was like, whatever, it's fine. And then on Saturday, I went to the aquarium because they put friendship bracelets on the penguins, and penguins are my favorite animals. So I was pumped. And I was like, I'm just gonna go see the penguins and see their friendship bracelets, and it'll be great. And then I turned it into an assignment, which was awesome. But I then I went and ate lunch and I was just scrolling out. I was like, one last hit. I'm just gonna look on Twitter one more time, see if anybody's posting any sort of like single ticket for sale or anything like that. And five minutes before I had opened up my phone, a girl posted that she had tickets for Taylorgate, which was like a tailgate party at the fifth floor of Benson Tower, where like the official Saints Tailgate takes place. It was a $150 ticket that her cousin won for free. And she just needed somebody else to go with her because it was a party she felt we were going by herself. I said, Me went with a total stranger, had no clue who this girl was. Um, it worked out great. She was only a year younger than me, and she had actually gone to Houston night too. So we bonded over our Houston Eras tour like stories. And I told her I was like, I'm not coming back on Sunday because it's on Saturday. I was like, I'm not coming back on Sunday to try to find tickets. Like, if I find tickets, then I'll come over, but I'm not like searching for them anymore. And she said, Okay, well, if I find any, like I'll text you and see if you want to come before I text anybody else. And I was like, go for it, girl. Like, whatever you want to do. I had gone to dinner with my cousins. I went and dropped one of my cousins off. And as soon as she closed the door, I got a text. $130 obstructed view tickets. It's yours if you want it. And I was like, I'll be there. I was like, two hours, I'll be there. Called one of my other cousins that was going to the tour that night, and I said, Can I hitch a ride to New Orleans? She said, What are you doing in New Orleans? I said, I'm going to the tour. Right on. She was like, There's no way that I told her the story. She was very concerned that I was going with a stranger. And I said, She's not a stranger anymore. I met her yesterday. It's fine. There you go. Yeah, old friends at this point. Was there ever a point in that where you thought you're gonna like lose a kidney, or were you scared, like a little apprehensive going to Benson Tower day one? And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because her dad um was an old Cajun black man who lived in New Orleans and he had a Hey Arnold cartoon shirt on. And as soon as I saw that man, I said, I am safe. There you go. As soon as I saw him, I was like, if you're gonna trust anybody in New Orleans, it's an old Cajun black man. That's who you trust. With a Hey Arnold shirt on for sure. That's what I told my parents. They were like, You got because I had to park, there was no parking, so he was dropping her off, and he was like, If you park here, I'll drive y'all to the like to the superdome, and then I'll drive you back to pick up your car later. And I was like, sure, like no issue in my brain. And then he pulled up and I saw him and I was like, I'm good. I heard his accent over the phone and felt safe. And then I saw him and I was like, No, I'm good. But again, you know, it's Taylor Swift, so you know, if you got stabbed, it's gonna be fine, sure. Yeah, um, they put friendship bracelets on the uh Superdome, right? Yep, and then it traveled to the rest of the Aerostore stops. Wow, New Orleans did it first. What's uh what's your favorite Taylor Swift album? Ooh, let me say this. Do you get tired of hearing men such as myself talk about how much we love the one with Bonavere on it? Like that's any. I think any guy that loves Taylor Swift, like that's our album. No, I don't because it's a good album. It's a good album. I think so. My favorite all-time album is Speak Now. Right on. Life of a showgirl is up there, though. Really? I was talking to someone about that recently, and they're like, I don't know. I didn't really like the lyrics, didn't really, but you yelled with it. I so I stayed up and I like recorded my reactions to send it to my friends, um, like after the song. Like I listened to the song and then I recorded my thoughts just so that I had them, but also so my friends had them so I didn't forget what my original thoughts were. I recorded Eldest Daughter as an eldest daughter. I was like, this song is either gonna be my new anthem or I'm going to sob my eyes out. First, two words out of her mouth, and I'm bawling. I'm like, can't breathe. It was so uh it like the album is just so good, it's so fun. I'm I'm a listen to music to pull you out of something, not listen to music to sit in it. So, like all of my friends like really sad songs, so like their albums are like ever more in folklore, and I am like all about that. I'm like fearless and debut and speak now and life of a showgirl. I want to be all up, like I just want to be happy and joyful, and you can't listen to Opalite or the Fate of Ophelia and not just want to dance. I remember like you know, folklore, I guess, came out of what? Like during COVID, right? Like 2020. Yeah, yeah, you know, and it was like such a weird time, and that was like such an introspective album, and she had that great special where they show, you know, the Disney thing where they showed a recording it or performing the Long Pond studio sessions, yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, you know, and it really like it it blew me away. I mean, it's just like I remember that very specifically being part of the COVID narrative in our house of listening to that album, you know. It was it was a a time, like it was just and I wasn't a fan of folklore when it first came out, folklore or evermore. They were both albums that had to grow on me because I'm not like I'm an upbeat. You the song that I liked from folklore was Betty because it sounded it was upbeat and it was fun, and it was like it was a good song that you could like move to. Um, and then I like I sat with it for a minute and I was like, oh okay. Like these are this is good. This is good. I I liked the production of it. I mean, you know, it was just so much of that album that that I that I really really liked. And I like I like 1987 of you know, I'm I'm not hating on that for sure, right? Oh yeah, no, that's that's one of my friend's favorite albums, is 1989. The he loves 1989. I call it 1987. I don't like it that much, obviously. Old, you know, is out of the woods is his favorite song, right? Which I think is I it's a good song, right? It's grown on me, but like I just don't know that it could ever be my favorite song. I like blank space, that's a great hit. Like, you know, it's it was it was exactly what she meant for it to be. Right, it was a pop hit, it was a chart, it was a uh chart topper, like it was just a good dance-around, fun. Like, I've got a blank space baby, and I'll write your name. Like it did exactly what she wanted it to do. Yeah, and we think that was written about uh the guy from the 1975. Is that when they were courting or what you know more about this than I do? Like, and and everything. I don't know who Blank Space was written about, right? Actually, um no, my actually, one of my all-time two of my all-time favorite. Um can you hear the whistling behind me? That's Christian. Sorry, it's just I'm sorry, you can hear the train coming by my house, so it's all good. Um, my two favorite songs by Taylor Swift are from her Fearless album, one from the vault and one from the actual album is Mr. Perfectly Fine in The Way I Loved You. And I do know who that's written about. They're written about my one of my guys, Joe Jonas. Oh, yeah, forgot. Um, you know, and I like those, I know that those two are written about him. Um, I know Style is written about Harry Styles. I'm like a fan, I'm a fan in the sense that like my TikTok for you page is Taylor Swift fans. And so if I watch their videos, I learn information. I'm not like seeking out the information. I am a little bit crazier about the Jonas Brothers in that regard than I am about Taylor Swift. Really? Like you you actually actively seek information out about the Jonas Brothers. Um, but if I hear something, I'm like, let me Google that real fast about the Jonas Brothers. About Taylor Swift, I'm like, I'll learn that information within two or three days. So I'm not worried about finding that. I'll say this about the Jonas Brothers. Their Saturday night live performance is one of the best things I've ever seen. Walls. Walls. Are you referring to Walls with John Delion? It was amazing. It's that song live, like the studio album, the studio version of that song does no justice to that song. None. Hearing it live is an out-of-body experience. I recorded it blown away. I was like, oh my gosh, you know, these guys are doing it. So good, it is so good. You've uh and you've seen them how many times? Six total, but I saw them four separate times in 2025. And you saw them perform in Nashville, they played the middle with Marin Morris, right? Yep. So I was at Hangout Fest covering it a few years ago. It was one where Marin Morris played. Uh let's see, Leon Bridges, Post Malone, Dogecat, blah blah blah. I think Doge Cat actually ended up canceling, but uh Zed was one of the acts too. So Maren Morris played, had a great slot late in the afternoon, sun was going down. Zed came out, was doing his set. We're like, is he gonna do it? Is he gonna do it? Is he gonna do it? Boom, out pops Marin Morris, and they did the middle, you know. And it was like, and that's one of my favorite songs, one of Charlie's favorite songs. We've seen her live a couple of times. Yeah, yeah. So how was that? Was that a was that cool seeing that national? It was it was so fun. So I went with my childhood best friend, Emily. She um, she and I went to see the Cheater Girls three times together with our cousin Bailey, and then we also went to go see Hannah Montana together with our friend Bridget, and then we never got to see the Jonas Brothers. That was like the the third person we needed to see in order to like complete our childhood concerts, but we never got to go see them, and then they broke up and we never thought that we would. And then the first Jonas Brothers concert I ever went to, I took Emily and then one of our former friends, and it was so fun, but we're not friends with the third girl anymore. So it kind of like that memory was a little bit tainted. So when they were going to Nashville, when I was at JonasCon the first two times I saw the Jonas Brothers last year, she FaceTimed me at JonasCon and um to tell me that she was engaged. So when they announced their tour at JonasCon, I was like, I'm buying us tickets, I'm buying us tickets as your engagement present. We're going to see the Jonas Brothers. So we went to um we went to the Jonas Brothers concert at Nashville. And actually, our friend that went with us to Hannah, Montana, ended up also going, and we ended up spending the night at her house. It was like a little reunion for us. We got to have a sleepover at her house and stuff. And we I got us what I thought was lower bowl tickets. And then we get there, and the lady is directing us to her seats, and she says, Go down these steps. And I said, Down? I've never gone down in a concert. What do you mean? And she said, Go down these steps. So we went down and we were on the aisle, and we ended up being in the aisle, the actual aisle, the entire time because the person in front of us had a huge sign we couldn't see. So we were just dancing in the aisles. And at one point during vacation eyes, everybody's paying attention to Joe up at the front at the catwalk. Kevin is in the back and he's drinking, he's taking a sip of his drink, and Emily and I are screaming at him. We're like, Kevin, Kevin, he's our favorite. We love him. And he turned and he waved to us. Um, and so I have a video of Kevin waving to us on um that night. And then a couple songs later, Marin Morris came out, which was so fun. They also brought out Sierra Farrell, who Oh wow, she's amazing. She has a song with Joe on her new album, and she also has a song with Post Malone on his on uh F1 or the his country album. And her song, American Dreamin', is the first like non-Jonas Brothers song played at the end of the concert as they're walking off stage. American Dreamin' is the first song that plays, and so they brought her out and she sang American Dream'en, and then she sang us her song with Joe. So that was really cool. We got two surprise guests. Oh, also, for I keep forgetting that this happened. Court overstreet came out when Delisa was doing his set at the very beginning, like his opening set. Um, Court Overstreet from Glee. That's how I know um the Troutie Mouth uh Sam from Glee. He was on, he came out and he sang his song. And I can't remember what the song is now, but I looked at Emily and I like hit her and I was like, that's that's that's oh my god, oh my god. He starts singing. It was great. Um, it was just a fun night overall, and I would do it 25,000 times again if I could. Um, and then uh like a oh, the week before that, actually, I had bought tickets whenever they announced they were coming to New Orleans, and so I bought Ashley, who works at the school, tickets for her wedding. She had never been, but they were one of the bands that we bonded over. And I was like, they're coming the week before your wedding. We can't not go. And she was like, I'm not going the week before my wedding. And I said, Yes, you are if I buy the tickets. And and y'all like not only went, but y'all left like at five or six in the morning. Like it was a whole day thing for you. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, we we did so she um her wedding lead up was a little bit like chaotic. So we never got to have a bachelor. I was the maid of honor in her wedding, and we never got to have like a bachelorette party type of thing. So I said, we're gonna go to New Orleans, I'm gonna spoil you. We'll have we'll start the day doing some fun stuff, and then we'll end the day with um the Jonas Brothers concert. Sounds perfect. So we woke up and went over to New Orleans, ate beignets, cause duh. And then we went to the Titanic Museum because it was raining. We were gonna go to the zoo. She had never been to the zoo either, but it was raining, so we couldn't go to the zoo. We went to the Titanic Museum, super cool experience. And then um, they ended up having their the Jonas Brothers merchandise warehouse is in Lafayette, and so they had a warehouse sale in a little like pop-up store thing. So we went to the warehouse sale and got a couple of merch items for cheap. And then we went to eat dinner, and then we got to the venue, and we got to go see, we saw Franklin perform first, and then we saw Jesse McCartney was our opening act, and then the Jonas Brothers came out, and it was we got four seats. I upgraded us to four seats two days before we left because I wanted to. I had never been to uh to the four seats with and like to the Jonas Brothers before, and I wanted to be close, and then this kids helped us make signs at school the Friday before, and we made signs to to hold up, and I got to see Kevin Jonas perform his solo song, which was life-changing, still cry thinking about it. It was amazing, and it was just like Jesse McCartney live, crazy. So, yeah, that's interesting that they have that uh that warehouse on Lafayette because you know what else they have in Lafayette? Swig and Dutch Brothers Coffee. This is my my dirty soda of the day. It's actually my second dirty soda of the day because I have a problem. So, and I and I think you you may watch this show too. Like I think we've had this discussion, but my lovely wife likes to watch a show about Mormons. Yep, you know, the Mormon wives may be. Yeah, and they're they're doing shenanigans and and cutting up and shenanigans. And anyway, I guess that turned her on to Swig. And so we've been to the Swig and Lafayette, and then we've been to the one in Houston, you know, several times. And it's a whole thing, you know, it's uh it's very interesting. Yeah. I um when I went to Nashville, my Emily lives in Nashville, and the first time I went and visited her, we went to Swig because I'm a soda person. So we went we went to Swig and I was obsessed, but there's nowhere down here to get it, nowhere close at least to get it. So it was super sad because I was like, now you got me addicted to this, and I can't even drink it. No frets inside shout out. They know I love them. I'm about to fill out another uh punch card. Um, the people inside of Victoria Lynn at the Outlet Mall and at the Edgewater Mall have a dirty soda shop inside of the Victoria Lynn. That's where I got this. I have no idea. I walked in today and they said, Do you want your regular? There you go. That's it. It's the vitamin T's 2026. I remember when when everybody liked the vitamin T's, it tastes like Flintstone vitamins. Yeah, I uh you know, my I I came in one time and you know, Dana kept telling me, Oh, you know, I'm watching this show, and then and I came in and I was saw about five minutes and I was like, wow, I can't watch this. So, you know, there you go. And uh she never let Charlie watch it, thank goodness. But it was it was pretty saucy, you know. It's it's definitely it's one of those, like, if you like to know the drama, but you don't like to be in the drama, that's what reality TV is for. What uh, you know, gonna kind of ask a more serious question now. Like, what's your biggest challenge of being a teacher, you know, or like what are some of the challenges that that that you face doing that? I mean, I know because I'm married to one, so I I know it from her perspective, but like what are your challenges? Um, so spit like me personally at St. Vincent, I have babysat a quarter of the school. These kids have known me as Elizabeth since they were babies. Um, and so my biggest challenge with the kids is like that code switch where it's like I'm not the or they they met me first as the sub Miss Elizabeth, or as the like the fun sub or as the the discovery teacher who played escape rooms with them and stuff. So the hardest thing with the kids is that code switch that like and it's hard. I I do the same thing, like I am very much just as guilty as them. That like switch to serious adult, you have to sit down and listen to me. Like that relationship is a struggle. I don't know that I I mean I work on it every day. It's definitely been better since last year, but that is the hardest like kid thing outside of the kids. I'm not gonna lie to you, these parents. Or something else. Yeah, parents, you know, Dana Dana fa faced a lot of challenges with parents in in in in the school and stuff. You know, and every parent wants the best for their kid, you know, and it's like what though what they see is best and what you see is best, it just it all doesn't always align, you know. No, and it's not even difficult. Yeah, it's not, it's not even that like the the alignment of what each per person wants, it's it's the delivery because I am that's the other thing about being a young teacher. I'm so much younger than than a lot of my parents that they think that I don't know what I'm doing. And like I have been I've the only person that works at St. Vincent or has ever worked at St. Vincent that has worked in every single position at the school, minus Miss Church, like minus the principal. I used to sub in the office all the time. I've subbed in every elective, in every single classroom. I've worked with every single age. Like I know the school. Um, I know the school like the back of my hand. When I was in teacher academy, I got a perfect score both years on my state test. Um, I got I passed all of my like foundations of reading practice tests, like all of these things on the first try with relatively high scores. Like I know what I'm doing. And but because I'm young and because we do have fun in my classroom, a lot of the times people think that I like if their kid is acting up, it's because I'm not doing my job effectively. And I tend to disagree with that to an extent. Like, there are some times that I definitely am feeding into some misconduct and I know that. And I will like apologize to the kids whenever that happens, whenever I realize like I'm part of the problem. Um, but then I also think about it my class gets the most amount of compliments outside of my classroom from elective teachers, from other people, other than walking in the hallway. It's the only thing we struggle with. But outside of the classroom, like every time I pick them up, they're like, they were my best class today. I always look forward to your class coming. And so I take it as like uh when they act up in my class, it's almost like how kids act worse for their moms and like for their parents and they do out in public. That's because they feel comfortable, right? Like I had kids last year who were never acting out and their parents were like, they never act like this. And I said, I've never known your kid any other way. But it's also because anytime there was a problem, I was the person that was called to help them like talk them through it. So I went from being their safe person that they could talk about anything to to being the person that was in charge of them. So like I was always the person they could express their emotions with. And then whenever I became their teacher, they're like, oh, I can just express my emotions all the time. Right. And now there's that, that's the issue. So it's just, I mean, it's a learning curve, and it's gonna be this is only my second year in a full-time classroom with kids all day long. So I'm not gonna be the best right out the gate, but I know that I'm doing what I'm meant to do, and that as long as I'm trying to be better, progress is not linear and progress doesn't happen overnight. So as long as I'm getting, I tell the kids this all the time. I'm like, if you come into my class at 25%, you have to leave at 26%. That's all I'm asking of you. You have to be a little bit better than when I found you. I tell Charlie every day. You know, if you do one thing 1% better and you do it for just over three months, you've gotten 100% better at it. Yeah, I mean, that's I mean that's how it works. And so I tell them, I'm like, if you are at sometimes I'll look at them and I'm like, hey, we're at like a 50%. Yesterday we were at a 60, which means we're not where we need to be. We got to fix that. And it's like, we'll stop and reassess because we're gonna have down days, everybody's gonna act up, everybody's gonna have in some kids have down months where like they were doing so well, and then something sets them back, and it's just three steps back, and we have to work up it is what it is. I can't, I'm not perfect, so I can't expect perfect out of the kids. But but what a great thing to be able to help them get back on track and to help them find themselves again and and correct and go. You know, that that's gotta be very rewarding. It's I would think I I um I joke and say that last year um two of my biggest accomplishments were that one kid who was always the class clown, I like not necessarily saw through it, but I realized that part of the reason he was acting out was because he wasn't understanding stuff. And so he would act out so I would have to reteach it. And then whenever I realized that that's what he was doing, I stopped and I said, Hey, if you don't understand something, just stop listening. At the end of class, it's on you if you're gonna stop listening to come up to me and I will gladly, I will lose my entire break to sit with you and explain it to you one-on-one if that's what you need. But if you keep interrupting my class, then nobody gets to learn and everybody suffers. But if you want help, then we'll do this. And he went from um being like a BC student to being an A B student by the end of the year. He got student of the month. The kids vote on student of the month in fifth grade, and he was voted student of the month for his first time ever at St. Vincent. Um, and then he ended up going to public school this year, and he is an A-B student and he comes and talks to me all the time about how much he learned and how much like he's like, they're teaching this in class right now, Ms. Elizabeth, and I already know it because you already taught me and I remembered it. So I'm helping other kids like learn it. And I like one of my proudest moments is that he feels so much more confident in himself. Like he asks questions in class now and he does everything that he's supposed to do. And then my second biggest accomplishment was these two girls, and they are like, I am their ride or die. Like the anything that happens, they're in my room asking advice about it. And they're my mini-mies. Both of them are so much like me, and they hated it, like despised that there were two of them. They all they had fought every day since kindergarten. They were never friends, and now, like, we got to recess and they're the only two playing together. And I'd say, like, I tell people all the time, I'm like, that was me. I was like, I took a lot of beating from the two of them to get them to that point. So, like, that's one of my like, it's not even acting, that has nothing to do with academics. But seeing them finally like get to a point where they can be friends, and they it was in fifth grade. They've been they've been in the same class for six years and had never gotten along. Anytime, like they had they were one of those kids that like don't put them in the same classroom together because they're gonna fight the whole time. And when we were going through classes, I said, put them both in my class. I'm fixing it, I'm fixing it this year. And I did, and so that's one of my like, because I don't I don't think as a teacher, the only thing that I should be worried about is their academics. There's so much more to a child than what they learn out of a book. So if I can get any part of them better, then I've done my job. What uh what what are your future plans in education? Do you plan on getting your masters or you know it it it changes, it changes all the time. So, like I would really love to be like a religious director. Um, I think right now my dream job is to be the religious director of the school and of St. Thomas at the same time because they're both kind of like like connected in a way. Um because then you get to see all the kids. It's one of my least favorite parts about being in a classroom is that I don't get to see all of the kids anymore. So I was so used to seeing all of the kids all of the time. So being a religious director, I never really saw a principal in my in my like future, but uh recently it's been like there's been this little voice that's like you could do it if you wanted to go back. I don't like being a student. I don't like being a student. I'm a very bad student, like in terms of of listening to things being taught to me. Like, I know I'm a terrible student. I like there was a class in college, and the the teacher was like, you can retake the test as many times as you want. You just like you take the quiz once and it'll tell you what the right answers are, and you just go back in and you can get a 100 on it. And I did not agree with one of the answers, and I ended up with a 99 in the class because I refused to take one of the tests because I thought that it was wrong. And so, like, I know I'm not a good student because I don't like I don't like to be told things that I kind of like already know. And I also hear that like certain master's programs are not anything but a bunch of paperwork and you don't really learn a lot. So I don't I don't know if I want to necessarily get my master's degree or what I want to do in that regard, but I don't know that I see myself in a classroom forever, but I do see myself at a school forever, doing something. Well, the uh the the last thing I want to ask you, and I asked this out of all my guests. This has been an amazing conversation. How do you stay awesome? Like, what's the secret to your success, the method to your madness? How do you stay awesome? The method to the madness is stay busy all of the time. I have I don't, I said at the beginning, I don't know what a break is. I've never had a break. Um, I spent all break helping my grandma out. I just we grew up in a house where you had to be awake by 8:30, nine o'clock because you had to be a productive person. And so my brothers did not keep that. And my brothers can sleep until 2 p.m. and be fine. My body naturally wakes me up and I'm ready to go. I don't like to sit still. I don't like to just not do anything, but that's also why I have the ability to like I paint banners and I paint windows now. And that's because my friend asked me one time on break if I was bored enough to paint her windows at her store. And I said, Yeah, sure, let's give it a try. And now I'm painting my third separate store windows, and I'm about to paint a mural on the inside of the store, which that'll be my first time doing that. And it's all because I just I don't say no to things, which I don't recommend. Um, because you will get used for that, but it also like being open to opportunities, that's how that's how you get stuff done. That's how you get to see stuff. That's how I got to go see the Jonas brothers last year four different times. So right on. And and there you go. Yeah. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to sit down and talk to me. This is this has been amazing. Absolutely. I'm so excited we finally got to do it. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Absolutely.