Welcome to the Thick AF podcast. This is Dawn Mitchell. I am Sarah Wright's mom and a guest
on the show this evening. Woo woo! We've been talking about it for a long time now. Yes.
I'm visiting the Birmingham area from way up north. Thawing out from the winter. The
frozen tundra. The frozen tundra. And you guys went to the beach. So how was that? It
was so good. Except for it was really the first time that I've ever experienced two
rain days while we were there. It was very weird. Usually, you know, even last year we
sat through like a 15 minute like real aggressive like rainstorm. But it cleared up after that.
But we had two almost two full days where we could not do anything. Like the entire
day. Yeah. Did y'all go like, I don't know, what do you do with rains? So the first day
that it rained, we really didn't do a whole lot. Like, I don't know, it was bad outside.
Like it was real stormy. We went out to lunch somewhere I think. That was on the second
rainy day though. That was on the second rainy day? Yeah. I think we were just we just arrived
the afternoon before and we went right to the pool. Last year we went to the same condo
complex and the pool was closed for renovations. So this year we got there and it was really
pretty so we said let's just unload and go right to the pool. So we did do that. So we
kind of got an extra little bit of half day of sun. Yeah, we knew the next day was going
to be really rainy. So it was bad. Like we didn't I don't I think for dinner that night
we like picked up pizzas or something instead of you know trying to go out anywhere because
it was just really ugly outside all day. But then the next day was beautiful and we had
a full day on the beach and then the the next day so this so it was rained Thursday was
perfect on Friday rained again on Saturday. We went to like a real late lunch I guess
at Sea and Suds in Gulf Shores and then we came back and we're able to go to the pool
again that day. Well at least we got to go to the pool. Speaking of pools so I have like
an FMK for you guys. Oh my gosh. Okay what is it? So I don't really have a third one
yet but let's go with so when you're at the beach do you would you rather go to the pool
the beach or shopping? Yeah yeah yeah. Because I feel like those are the three things that
you would do mom. Or like you could go on like do like an excursion like a jet skis
or something. I mean that's though I kind of want to marry that because I like to do
that stuff but. You go first mom. Well I'm marrying the beach. Okay it's my happy place.
It's in the butt crack and all. Yes the beach is my happy place and that's my first choice.
Okay. I guess I'm going to. You have to F something so it's like you have to do it like
one time. Yeah. It's not forever and then you got to kill something else. Yeah we can
we say the F word. Yeah. If you would like to say it you can if you don't want to say
it. I will F the jet ski parasailing adventure. Every time. F it or kill it. Or kill it. Yeah.
I'm going to kill it. Yeah sorry. And the pool I guess I'll F. I feel ya. Which is a
good place. Yeah. I feel like my if I was at like a local beach like Orange Beach you
know Gulf Shores you know Panhandle area that would be my choice as well. If I was at like
an all inclusive then I might not kill the excursion portion. Yeah or like shopping excursion
type of thing. I don't want to shop ever. I don't want to go to outlets. I don't want
to do anything. I don't either. She's already like tomorrow she's like it's only 73 I don't
know if it's going to be a good pool day. I'm like oh that's the perfect pool day. She's
like but I may go to the outlets. I'm like well if you do that then I'm probably going
to check my work email. You're supposed to be a snowbird. What if the 73 is like hot
for you right? So yeah so I feel like I will marry the so I used to be different. I will
I'm going to marry the beach of course but when I was younger I hated going to the beach
because I would have to come back and I'd have sand all over me and so I always wanted
to go to the pool and I had this boyfriend and he liked the pool too and we both always
would go to the pool and we'd like get down there early and make sure we had our seats
and all that stuff and everything set up and then we would kind of go to the beach sometimes
and then come back but now I cannot stand the pool because I think about all the people
and their bodily stuff floating in the pool and us all just like yeah and then the kids
that get in the pools down there they're just like listen those diapers are just holding
the stuff in there. Oh yeah. They're not those diapers like this isn't pandemic this is kind
of generated thought. No this has been just for a while yeah well yeah because I was a
lifeguard like for a while and yeah. I also think you have some germ issues. Yeah probably
but I just think about it my mom loves the pool but if honestly I think if my mom heard
me talk about this she probably would never want to go to the pool again and she she always
makes us so we have to go to the pool after we go to the beach. Oh you have to. We have
to because she does not want sand in the house and if you get in the pool the sands coming
off of you but I'm like can't I just get straight in the shower. Yeah. And so I we fight every
time. Listen I've about gotten to fight with Brandon this weekend so I've obviously this
is my first like real kind of real vacation like I know that he went to the lake with
us or whatever but like that was that was only a couple of nights you know it wasn't
a handful of nights and it wasn't the beach and to me the beach is like a very different
situation where like the sand is something you know about right. Right. So you're like
very careful about your movements on the beach not to like stir up sand or you know when
you bring everything back that you've been out. I'm just imagining all the things that
could have gone wrong with this. Oh my god. Well first of all yesterday he just like kicked
sands like all over me at one point and I was like what the fuck Brandon. But the thing
that really got me was after our first day on the beach there was he bought this bag
and this is a massive tote bag because I told him I'm not carrying your shit. I'm not. It
doesn't have that much but he still bought a big effing bag and it's like a mesh bag
so all the sand and shit can get up all in there. Yeah. And it's not mesh on the bottom
so it just collects on the bottom. This mug came back up to our room to the condo and
put that fucking bag on the on the bed on the bed. And I heard Sarah screech. I was
like do not put that bag on the bed. This is like a love is blind thing. Oh my god.
With the suitcase on the bed. I was like you did not just do that. Oh my god. Don't ever
do that again. First of all that beach bag would not have made it into my parents condo
because my mom would have been like nope hold it right there. Go dunk that thing in the
pool or leave it outside. Well and it's funny because like Jerry has kind of taught me over
the years like buying the Costco Tommy Bahama chairs you know have the cooler and the zipper
pocket and I'm like you can pack shit in that chair and not have to also bring a beach bag
like a cooler separate unless you know you're only going to have a couple beers and then
it'll fit in the back pocket cooler whatever. But so day one I brought my little zipper
bag like cosmetic bag that has like my sunscreen hair ties chapstick you know what have you
just random shit in there that typically goes inside of my pool bag. Well I just bought
that little bag down but it's behind you so every time you need something out of that
sucker you got to get up unzip your pocket and then you know get stuff out of it or whatever.
So day two Brandon was like you can put your stuff in my bag. I knew that you would end
up doing that and I'm like oh my gosh that one got the big one. Oh my god yes and it
took everything that I had not to be like okay you're like kind of right but also I'm
still not carrying your stuff. But this is your first time to the beach with him. Yeah
y'all are getting used to each other and well I mean that's the longest we've ever been
in the car together before too. Well my thing is okay so when you go to the beach or to
anything you should carry your own things you should if you need that stuff you should
carry it. 100% which is why I said get your own bag. You're not carrying everybody else's
stuff. Right. Everybody fend for themselves on the stuff. Yes. Honestly though like if
we're making sandwiches and put pack in a cooler like you know a lot of times one person
will do that. Of course and we did. We had a food cooler you know whatever. If you want
to bring a radio and some balls or whatever you're gonna play with. No I don't want all
that. I've got my own stuff and I'm not carrying it. So I was. Oh my mom makes us carry all
of her stuff. She doesn't carry one thing. She might carry a towel but she doesn't.
I'm pretty sure my dad carries her towel. So my husband and I have a routine. He carries
the cooler. I carry the beach bag. Yeah. And then we both carry our chairs on our back
and that's pretty much it. So my parents got older and they are spoiled. They've spoiled
themselves. Let's just say that they instead of we used to carry the chairs down and they
have bought the you know you can get like they have like the rental chairs and they
buy the whole year. They pay for it up front. So they have those so they don't have to carry
any chairs down. They don't have to carry an umbrella or anything like that. They just
like my mom shows up. My dad brings everything down for her. She shows up and it's done.
But she does. She packs it. Makes everything. Yeah. Does all the work and then he actually
just carries it down there. He does the physical labor part of it. She does the organization.
Yes. Well and I will say this. Brandon carried a lot of stuff. Like he didn't just carry
his stuff. Like he carried like the snack bags and you know whatever. He carried additional
stuff other than that. But I think my biggest beef with him over this weekend is like the
non acknowledgement of like the sand and wherever it is it will follow you everywhere. Yeah
and it multiplies. You think you've got it gone. Right. But no there's a little piece
right there down the corner. I know. It was wild. But like we had a good weekend. Nobody
got I didn't even get drunk the whole time. I mean I had a good buzz going a couple times
but like I didn't get drunk. I was asleep before midnight every single night. That's
still kind of late for you isn't it? I mean kind of. I mean yeah I don't know. I would
say probably asleep by 11 then maybe. Well Brandon gets up early too. So the tendency
is when the first person starts yawning and they've been up he because of his work he
gets up early so by nine ten o'clock he's yawning. Yeah because he still gets up and
I mean he even took a wicked cool like time lapse video of the sunrise. I'll have to show
it to you but it was super nice and he got up in time to like do that but he wakes up
and so then by nine thirty he's tired every fucking night and I'm like dude you peak too
soon during the day on vacation. You gotta sleep in. Take some drugs. I don't know. Every
morning when I opened my curtains from the master suite there was Brandon. If he wasn't
there I would have been worried like seriously. Well because he would get up and like make
coffee and just drink his coffee. And he didn't have anything else to do except for sit outside
and we didn't want to be loud. Well he went down a couple of times and walked on the treadmill
and you know just like watched a movie on his phone while he was on the treadmill or
whatever but like yeah I mean for the most part he's up waiting for like two three hours
for somebody else to get up. For me if it's if I if I wake up if even if I'm like can't
sleep or whatever if I wake up and everybody else is still asleep and I know they're gonna
be asleep forever I'm not getting up and making coffee I'm laying back down I don't care.
He doesn't function without coffee though. I know but like I would just like get back
in the bed and just like lay there for a while. Yeah but Emily you have to realize that he's
not in the bed by himself he's in the bed with me and I'm snoring sleeping good and
he's leaving me alone which I appreciate. Go away if you're awake and you're gonna wiggle
worm in the bed. Oh I don't know I just if anybody else is awake I also can sleep like
all day long for the entire day. Like honestly I think about it sometimes and I'm like I
should probably just be dead because I sleep I could sleep for the entire weekend. Well
you were one of the latest risers what time did you wake up that first time and it was
so late? 1115. Woo! I would love that sleep. But the most common played. Couch bed rotation.
Yeah. Yeah I'm pretty sure next year we're just gonna go ahead and get a four bedroom
chalk it up to that so when everybody has their own room to go in and then. If somebody snores
you get an extra room. Well not yeah but. They literally have like 365 days to get a
solution to his snoring. Does he have sleep apnea or something? No. But I'm just saying
we need to get four bedrooms so then if somebody needs to go sleep elsewhere they can and then
nobody's in the living room that's my problem with it. I don't like I think it's unfair
that everybody else has to tip toe around in the morning if somebody's sleeping on the
sofa. Yeah that's true. And I mean I understand why y'all are doing it but it's just you know
it's slightly inconvenient for other people. Yeah well that and then like my parents what
they would do because my mom. Or get a bunk room. A small bunk room. Yes that's what I'm
saying. Yes. They sleep my parents snore bad and my mom snores really bad and then she
says no that was your father. And I'm like no it wasn't I was in the bed with him like
we were literally in the same bed it was not him. And you can hear my mom snoring from
like outside. You probably can hear me snoring. Was I snoring today when I took a nap? In
fact I said to Brandon you're a better man than I am because he's been and he said normally
I'm asleep before she is. But it is true my husband can saw wood like nobody's business
and drinking. Makes it worse. Right worsens it so that's the problem like he is staying
up later than normal probably drinking more than usual and so then it just relaxes the
jaw even more so it just. It's probably a deeper like couldn't even handle it. Yes see
my earplugs I had to order I was at the beach last time and my earplugs I was like I think
it's my earplugs. I got on Amazon and ordered these like earplugs that said that they were
going to block out all the sound. Had them delivered like next day because I was like
going to be there for like however many days. Did it work? No not for my mom. Do you want
to know what you need to use? I just I discovered this and I don't know if you've flown with
them before but your AirPod Max's. I know but I can't sleep with them because I sleep
on my side. I know and I was thinking about I understand I just. Eric put his on last
night. Those things are insane in the membrane when I flew to Philly a couple weeks ago I
wore them on the plane. They're so good. I slept on every all four flights that's how
I couldn't even hear the hum of the airplane. What is what are they called? They're my AirPod
Max blue headphones and they have noise canceling. Yeah they're the best. I'll let you try them
on when we get home. You should let me wear them tonight. You have to sleep like this?
That's okay. Okay yeah. You saw me when you checked on me the other morning how was I
sleeping? She was I'm I opened the door the other day because I was like Jerry how long
do we let her sleep and she was like I don't know just let her sleep. I went in there she
looks like she's in a coffin except for one foot out of the covers. Her eye mask on. Or
her arms crossed across her chest. Well no she was all this. Yeah but she's got covers
all the way up to her chin and she's just I mean light light light snore but she was
snoozing I was like I'm just gonna leave her. Good listen if somebody leaves me to sleep
I usually get woken up like at the beach I usually get woken up because I'll end up being
on the couch or whatever and then my dad wakes up at the crack of dawn like Brandon and he
comes in there making breakfast waking up my niece and then she comes in there she just
stares at me and I pretend like I'm asleep still because I want her to leave me alone
but she's real sweet about not waking me up but she wants me to wake up so she's like
any little move if I make a move she's like Emily's awake Emily's awake and I'm like oh
don't don't move. Can't even breathe right now. How old is she? She's five. She's so cute
I love her. Such a great age. But normally you know honestly if it wasn't for her coming
over there and doing that I wouldn't like it would be sad for to wake up anyway I'd
be like oh I'm going back to bed. Yeah I know that but those those things are great I just
oh my gosh it was the wildest thing. Yeah but I'm like you I sleep on my side I start
my night so whatever side my head's on the pillow because I wear the airplane ones that
are connected I just pop that side out. Okay. And then if I go the other side. Yeah because
you're right like it hurts when you lay on them. I've had that problem so bad and I'm
like oh these hurt. I've woken up before and just been throbbing ear pain because it was
pushed in so far. But it's like the the risk you have to take to get a good night's sleep
I guess. I tried to use the earplugs that they used last summer when we were at the
beach because Melanie and I were staying so we stayed the same condo just in a different
unit this year and so the room that Melanie and I were in had two twin beds because she
doesn't want to share a bed even if it's a king size bed she would rather sleep in a
twin than sleep in the same size bed with me. I don't know when this happened to her we
used to sleep in the same bed all the time when we traveled. Because you snore probably.
So does she. Oh. So does she. And so every time that we travel together and we stay in
the same room regardless of you know what the bed situation is we will fight back and
forth on different nights with who's the more tired and snoring and whatever but I tried
to sleep with those earplugs. I can't. They feel like they hurt. Some stuff in my ear
hole. I hate it. Yeah it's hurt it's painful. But I have so I saw someone on Amazon that
you put like a you do like a mold kind of like those things that you do in your teeth.
Yeah. I saw that and I'm like a little nervous I was like I don't know how I feel about like
trying stuff in there. I've tried just every earplug there is available. They just don't
work that well. I know. It's very difficult to get a good night's rest sometimes. Yeah.
When you're traveling. We really struggle. That is one of our biggest struggles is we
are so tired when we get home because we sleep in separate rooms. Well that's probably what
you need to do is start working up to sleeping in the same room for a couple weeks before
you leave so then you're just you're not totally throwing your routine off. Because it is.
Because even in the hotel rooms we get separate queen beds and we're far enough apart. That
it's not. Make sure he's way over there in his bed and I'm way over here. So your earplugs
are actually working a little better because he's further away. Right. So I'm OK in a hotel
room. It's when we're in this even if it's a king bed. If he doesn't go far enough over
away from me I can still hear him. Yeah. Part of my problem is the earplugs and the eye
mask. Oh I wear the eye mask too. I do too. I wear mine almost every night. I do. Do you
really. Yeah. I just can't get used to the eye mask. So really. Oh my gosh. I mean I've
got a couple of it. Is it on your eyes or is it like pressure or something. I have one
that's adjustable. No it's indentations and it's adjustable and everything like it accommodates
for your lashes and your eyes. See I don't even wear one of those. I just wear a black
silk one. I would just rather wear the earplugs and leave the eye mask. See I'm more sensitive
to the light than I am to the sound. Somebody said I think it was Pete that was like I said
something about how I needed to put my eye mask on to go to sleep because and he's like
well doesn't that just like shouldn't you just like close your eyes and it gets dark.
There's something about it doesn't. No it doesn't. It's the pressure of it on your eyes though
that help I feel like. It helps me feel like warm or something. I feel like I'm in a womb.
And I'm just like ooh so nice. Absolutely. There are times where I'm trying to go to
sleep at night and like I have blackout curtains but there's still like a little bit of light
that comes in at the top and I did put them like six inches above the sill but there's
still a little bit of light that comes in but I'm just so sensitive to the light that
like I'll find myself not falling asleep. I can put that mask on and be out in ten. Oh
my gosh I have a like my okay so you know how like some outlet plugs have like a little
dot on it to tell you or like a little there's one in my bathroom and it stares at me from
my bathroom and it's like my room will be blacked out and then it's just that one little
green light and I'm like oh my god. I totally agree. I put little post-it notes over my
room. That's a good idea. Cable box because the lights they're in blue. And it like illuminates
the entire room. My whole room is lit up. Crazy. So I found that if I take post-its
and double them and stick it on the top that it'll mute it. Oh such a good idea. It really
works and I pull it off in the morning set it on the side and you can also use your remote
it'll go through the post-its. Oh cool. Nice. Yeah so I put it on there even when I get
my bed. I don't have a TV in my bedroom anymore. So that's good. Okay I have one in there now
but I used to not have one in there. The only reason I've moved it in there when I get sick
and I like lay in bed all day I like to have the TV when I'm in there. In the background.
I don't like to have TV when I'm in there because I feel like your bedroom is for sleep
and other things if you do those other things. I don't do those other things obviously. I
have one. I have one person. Me and my dog's cuddle but that's about it. But you know what
I mean? Like and sleep it's hard enough for me to get like a good night's sleep even though
I could sleep all day. I just don't get a good night's sleep I don't think but for me
to have the TV in there I will just be like oh I'm gonna watch the show all night and
it'll be like two o'clock in the morning and I'm like oh my gosh it's two in the morning.
Oh see I don't have that problem at all. I can't go to sleep with the TV on and I'll
get tired enough and turn it off but I think my original theory when I moved into my two
bedroom was I'm gonna be working from that other office so if I want to like work and
watch TV at the same time then I have a TV in there to do that. Oh okay yeah. That's
a good thought. That is good. That is really a good thought. I never watched. You wanna
take a break and put the television on. I very rarely watched. It was like you said
when I was sick and I would like need to be in the bed all day or whatever then that was
really the most that I utilized. I never watched TV in there nightly. Never. I don't either.
Sometimes I turn it on in the morning like to watch the news while like getting ready
and taking the dogs out. You have the news? Like YouTube TV. Yeah. I watch the news a
lot more. So this is one of my big travel things. We rented an Airbnb in Mobile where
Sarah's sister lives and of course the whole streaming thing. Oh yeah yeah. Oh you don't
you don't have you have a cable box. So we are cable people so. Boo. Yes. Basically nobody
in the world has cable except for if you're 60 or plus you're. Yeah and now even now that
you have you're the only ones that have it it costs like $400 a month. Oh yeah. It's
ridiculous. And you rent an Airbnb and you're fumbling through the streaming and you're
you know you gotta have your passwords if you do have any like Prime video or anything.
One thing that I want to teach you about as far as this goes and I understand I'll let
you finish but I want to teach you how to create a note in your phone so you can keep
your passwords there instead of in a notebook. You should also have it in a notebook somewhere
just in case like something happens and nobody can get in. And I travel with my notebook
that has my password. How big is the notebook? Like a little one? Okay so we should delete
that from this podcast so that nobody like mugs you. Right. You know like. All they're
gonna be able to do is. Get all your passwords and take your text. They're not gonna be able
to do anything. You know she probably got like her. No they have someone do their taxes.
That's not yeah. They're not doing them on TurboTax. Oh I did my TurboTax. I did mine
on the last day to do it like five minutes before it was due. It takes. Listen last year
I paid extra money like $350 or however much it was to have them the TurboTax people do
my taxes because I bought a home and I was like. Yeah. Maybe I don't know what I'm supposed
to do. I've never bought a home before so I don't know what type of weird stuff I have
to do. Oh my gosh. You don't have to do anything extra really. I'm sure you just had to have
your paperwork and fill in the blanks. Yeah put paperwork in fill in the blanks. It took
longer with the girl doing it from TurboTax. Any tax forms that you need will be sent to
you. Yeah. Email to you. So they send it all to me. And I just had to do it. Anything that's
emailed to you that says for tax purposes. Yeah. We use an accountant but also you know
when there's a death in the family and there's you know other things going on you especially
want to have an accountant make sure that everything's in order. Yeah see I don't have
a lot of like assets or like things like that. I don't have you know I just have like a job
and like a job and house or a car. A business and we got like a business going. We would
have to like figure that out. This is a business. Well I mean like you know what I mean. Yes.
So you will want a professional. Yeah. To be involved. But like it took me it took me
like less than an hour to do my own taxes with the people that paying to do it. It took
like a week and a half. I was like seriously. I sent them all my stuff too. And she was
like I need you to send me this and this. And I'm just like why is this taking so long.
Like why are why do you suck. And I feel like it shouldn't have been that way. There was
like a four week turnaround for our accountant. Which is normal when somebody else you're
outsourcing it to someone else. So you have to get everything together early because you
know then by the time you're done you go meet with them and have to electronically sign.
No I paid to I gave my stuff to my dad one time and I paid for his accountant to do it
and it cost me more than TurboTax has ever costed me. And I will never do it any other
way. I don't have anything crazy going on. Yeah it's like and if you do it asks you all
the questions. Yeah. Do you have this. Yeah I do. And they're like oh this is exactly
what you need to do. It only costs like not that much. Yeah. Yeah like a hundred dollars.
Yeah. I was like wasted my money last year. That was ridiculous. But at least you did
it right this time. I know you're getting older when you need an accountant to do your
business. Well I think here's my beef with stuff like that. When we were in you know
high school and college nobody taught us how to do this shit. No. And they want to talk
about you know home ec classes and the things that you need to know. I don't need to know
how to sew a damn pillow or make a fucking bag. Drawstring bag. I need to learn how to
do my taxes. Well they thought we were gonna all be white season. I need to learn how to
invest money. I need to learn how to not accrue credit card debt. Like those are the things
that I should have learned. So I've been talking about this forever about how they need to
change that and put it in schools and stuff. Yeah. But they have. I believe they are starting
to. Yeah. I know some of the schools in our area are adding more financial planning. Yes.
Almost for young people to help them understand budgets and things. But don't you think that
younger people that are in school because of the technology maybe. I don't think that
that matters at all. No. I mean you gotta think about all these people that are influencers
right. What are these kids doing? Some of these kids are 22 year old influencers. Have
they ever had a job with a W-2 that you know takes taxes out for them. Most of these things
are like 1099 type situations with these companies that only maybe a six month contract. Are
they. Those taxes aren't taken out for you. You have to pay taxes on all that income and
that is something that we are not taught. Nobody told me that they were even. I didn't know
there were tax brackets until like seven or eight years ago. I was like what there's a
different tax bracket. I thought we all just paid the same taxes. And it makes me feel
dumb when I find I know and I'm like 35 years old and I'm like huh. Oh well then again I
had trying to buy a house too. I had no idea. And my parents my parents are the type of
people like I got mine you get yours. Like I try to ask them questions and they'll just
be like oh they'll teach they'll tell you how to do that stuff. The realtor the realtor
they act like you know you've done this before. And I'm like calling my mortgage lady and
I'm like well I don't know how about this and like I'm asking all these questions and
I'm like I'm so sorry that I'm asking so many questions. But like I've never done this before
and nobody's told me how to do this. It's completely valid that I mean I've never bought
a house before when it comes that time. I don't know all the things that I was confused
about. I still don't know. Getting your own attorney because you have to have your own
attorney to represent you. My parents were very helpful in that respect that my mother
was a banker for many many years. And so one of the things we did when we were growing
up was we were taught how to write a check. We all had our own banking bank accounts savings
accounts. We our grandparents you know gave us savings bonds. In fact my children have
savings bonds from their great grandparents. That's what they purchased for them every
year for Christmas was a savings bond. My mother was a banker and you know savings bonds
were a safe investment. And so Sarah still has savings bonds. I've got like they would
give us stock for ExxonMobil stock for Christmas and birthdays. And I was like 10 and I was
like thanks. Doesn't seem like fun at the time. But I still have to pay taxes on it
now and I'm like I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know. I have no idea how much stock
I have because I like they send me stuff in the mail but it's all like different accounts
and stuff. And so I'm like real confused about all that. I need to call somebody. But anyway
my father was in the insurance business so we all knew about homeowners and life insurance
and renters insurance like the first thing we did when we got out of college or when
we were in college renting an apartment. They were like did you get renters insurance. And
I'm like no. And they're like yes you get renters insurance and you know how to bundle
your home and your vehicles and things like that. My parents had earthquake insurance
in our small hometown. Oh my god. I just canceled it after my mom's passing. No way. Grim Joan
had it for that long. Yes. So there was a fault line that runs near underneath you know
in the core of the earth near our hometown. And my parents and a handful of people they
had an earthquake there many many many years ago. So an earthquake is not included in an
insurance. See that's crazy to me that you can have like something like a flood. So flood
flooding doesn't count. And so now they've changed my place. There's a creek back here
and it was not a flood zone when I bought this place and now it is apparently. And so
they're gonna I'm gonna have to start paying. Our HOA dues went up and because we have to
pay for the outside and the inside. So I'm going having to pay all this extra money for
flood insurance. But like. But you do have to qualify for flood insurance. So that's
the other thing. Which means that we have to be in a flood zone right. Yes. If you're
in a flood zone at least you qualify for that. Other places get flooded that weren't in a
flood zone and you can't get flood insurance. You do not qualify to buy flood insurance.
Oh I thought you could. No not in every state. So I think that's based on whatever state
you're in. That's crazy. Because we had a flood in our basement at one time and I tried
to buy flood insurance and not in a flood zone. So I don't qualify. No way. Well so
that may have been what happened. I went when I worked at my last previous job. Listen we
went to. After Hurricane was it Katrina in Houston. No Harvey. I think I don't know.
Hurricane. I have a hat. I forgot which one they said. Whichever one that flooded Houston
basically. I thought that was Harvey for some reason. I don't know. Maybe it was Harvey.
I don't know. One of those. It's usually a female that floods. Right. Opal. Iris. Katrina.
I don't remember which one it was. Although Hurricane Andrew caused quite a bit of flooding
in Homestead Florida. Oh really. Yeah. Well but usually people in Florida like I think
that they qualify but this place their insurance they had you know they had they were not super
rich or anything. They were like probably lower middle upper middle class kind of thing.
And he the husband was like I think he had like autism or something. So he worked in
a different in an interesting like field. But the their insurance they their house flooded
like all the way to like she had to get somebody somebody came to rescue her on a boat. Oh
and their house is in the middle of there's no water anywhere to be found. Like and we
felt when we went out there to help them rebuild their house and like we had to pull down all
the walls and put up new. Can you imagine that feeling. It's crazy that because they
couldn't the insurance wouldn't pay for anything. They didn't have a house to live in like.
Because they weren't in the flood zone. No. Yeah. It was an act of nature. Yeah. So when
you have an act of nature there are certain things that will not be covered. That should
be the insurance though. Like that's like. I totally agree with that. I think that that's
wild. Like insurance. It's a natural disaster and nobody plans on that happening. And even
if you tried to plan on it happening you still can't pay for it. That's where FEMA comes
in. That's where FEMA comes in. That's the federal government comes in and gives people
money but only if you qualify. And then you have to go through all the stuff to get it
and it's like a whole thing. Yeah. I just remember then it was so sad because you know
you don't think you think about like a lot of times people that are like not as well
off that they're poor. They don't a lot of times don't have insurance at all. Right.
And you would think about like helping them but you don't really. I mean I didn't. I was
like well these people have like it seems like they would be able to fix this house
but like honestly if it happened to me this I'd be in the same boat. I'd be like oh my
god what am I going to do. And you still have to pay your mortgage. A flood like that ruins
everything. Yeah. Like everything. Yeah I mean you had to take the. They had to. I mean
it was bad. I mean they probably even had to get rid of furniture clothes. Oh yeah.
100 percent yeah. I mean you're starting from ground zero when you still like she just said
to have a mortgage to pay. And then you got to you know rebuy everything. I think she
said she was in the in like the attic or something. I can't remember where she said she was. I
don't know. And she was like I think she said she was like taking stuff like pictures and
stuff up to the highest like then to the attic just in case because she didn't know how high
it was going to go. I mean you could see when you went in there where the water level stopped
it was crazy. And it sat there. The water sat there and got molded. And right outside
of Houston. OK. OK. Is it Galveston. Somewhere near there. On the water. Well no no no. Galveston
wasn't. It was somewhere outside. Galveston. They're all on the water. Somewhere right
outside of Houston. But yeah. We have a little memory box that we keep. Oh you do. What do
you keep in your memory box. So we were gifted this glass memory box when we got married.
You and Mitch. Paul Mitchell and myself. Mitch. Yes. And no his name is not Mitch Mitchell.
So relax. Yes it is Paul David Mitchell but he's always. Just give his full name and a
social why don't you. Didn't he say that he's like named after a butcher or something too.
Oh their local butcher. And the local butcher. We were talking about that the other day.
I forgot who I was talking about. That is true. I was like Paul Mitchell and some kind
of butcher. And I was like that's so funny. Yeah but everybody asks him like the hair
guy. No so when he introduces himself as Paul Mitchell he says not the hair guy. Not the
hair guy. And so now when he participates in like March Madness and like the football
bowl pulls of my dad and whenever like my dad will like recap the week or whatever.
So it'll be like you know the top three and then like the biggest movers and shakers or
whatever and he'll always call Mitch you know Paul Mitchell not you know Paul not the hair
guy Mitchell. Yeah I was going to look him up because I was like I remember what Paul
Mitchell looks like but I can't remember exactly. And so I look. I just. John Paul Mitchell
was his name actually. Oh it was. The Paul Mitchell hair guy. Well he does not look anything
like your husband. Your Paul Mitchell. So I was like maybe they look alike. No. But
we have a memory box and it's glass and every year around our anniversary or sometimes before
like will our beach trip now that we take our annual beach trips will keep a memory
from our beach trip or somewhere. What's going in there this time? Well we haven't decided
but I don't know. Birdie's an option. Birdie cocktail napkin. Birdie's napkin. Is an option.
It's like a little white cocktail napkin and it has a picture of my cat on it and it says
Birdie a gentleman and a scholar and he has a little bow tie collar on. So Birdie's an
option but we you know we have concert tickets you know different things like that. We have
napkins matches back in the day. We would always grab a pack of matches from. We all
have to put Birdie and something in from the Poconos. Yes we're going to the Poconos.
Poconos on the way home. Which I always thought the Poconos. Do you know where the Poconos
are? No. I always thought the Poconos were like. An island. Yeah. Like tropical. It's
like the mountains of like what New York. Pennsylvania. On the border of like New Jersey
and New York City and Pennsylvania. So you know how they say Virginia Beach is for lovers.
The Pocono Mountains is like for lovers in northern New York. In northern Pennsylvania.
Yeah so it's not far from our hometown. It's probably only about five hours away. But for
some reason we've never been there and they've developed it even further like they have an
actual NASCAR race track up there where they have a Poconos race every year. I thought
it was an island too. Or like some. The Poconos Islands. I want to talk about something else
though. You just said five hours from home it's not that far. How far is Birmingham from
Canton New York? Approximately 20 hours. 18 to 20 hours. And this lady will not get on
an aeroplane. What year. What is the last year. I need you to tell everybody the year that
you last flew on an aeroplane. Probably 1990. Okay and where did you go? To Dallas. What
were you two years old Sarah? Yes. And Jerry was a wee baby. A wee one. Yeah. Yes how sad
is that. So why? What's the justification for no aeroplanes? I just had a bad really
bad flight like when Sarah was a baby and we Sarah was a baby. She wasn't even 12 months
old. We drove to Sumter South Carolina. My brother and his wife lived there. My brother
was in the Air Force and they had a three year old daughter I believe. And she was expecting
another baby from our hometown and so we drove there and flew together to northern New York
State to have a baby shower for her. And it was really really cold and it was during the
winter months. In fact Sarah you were quite young because your dad had injured his knee
and you and I I think he was in a leg cast or something when we left. So you were only
two or three months old I think at the time. Anyway on the way back from we flew I think
from Syracuse New York to wherever Columbus South Carolina I think and we hit turbulence
and everything like went flying and she was basically in my arms and the drinks went flying
and we had an emergency light come on and everything. Did the masks come out of the
ceiling? Yes everything happened on that flight. Yeah I probably wouldn't go on an airplane.
And I was a new young mom and it scared me to death. Even though she was with me it scared
me to death and it made my brain rethink the whole flying thing and with or without your
children or whatever. And the interesting thing is my brother works for American Airlines
and has for almost 40 years and we could fly standby on his tickets do anything. He's been
in aviation when it was in the Air Force at the age of 18. He's now almost 65. Aviation
has been a part of his life the whole time and he always would tell me it's safer than
driving in a car. It is I was going to say I do realize it's way safer. Yes. Especially
that 20 hours you're only going to go on a couple hour flight. The risk is so much higher
in the car. But it scared me to my core. So I think I flew maybe a couple of times after
that. So one time was when Sarah was young and of course we were flying standby tickets
from Birmingham to Dallas. It was a no brainer up and down really and it was fine but then
there was something I don't know there was just still something that was just very. It
was off. Yeah. Right. Yes. I mean I have flown from New York to LAX and different places
but for some reason that reset. Well they say go with your gut instinct for some things
because that means there is a sometimes it means it's a problem. Well there's also anxiety
medicine and cocktails that can get you through and I both Jerry and I keep threatening her
that we're going to get married you know somewhere to make it. No we're going to make her get
on a plane. She's not going to miss a wedding if she does that really really hurt my feelings.
Where are you going to get married at. Not here. Not in Alabama but like like yeah. Like
a destination or something sort of something easy. Yeah. Gotcha. I don't give a shit. I
don't want to be the center of attention. I don't even really want to get married in front
of anybody. I just think as I have a doctor that's probably prescribe me anything to go
to my daughter's wedding. So guys in the next couple of years let's hope that Donnie gets
on an airplane. Pray for me. Everybody on the flight. Make sure you say or something
like you know what you could take a train like to the Caribbean. Oh no. Oh my god. I
said something about taking a long boat trip to Europe. I said something. I said no that
was Jerry. I said something about Mexico and she was like we crossed the border in Mexico.
Yeah I've been there before in a car. No actually I walked. You walked across the border. Walked
across the border. Where? Where in like San Diego or something. Yeah we went to um right
across Cabo. No. She was she was she's a what do they call them refugees. I'm sorry I'm
having a brain fart. Right across from San Diego. I know what you're talking about Tijuana.
Tijuana. Tijuana. Yes. I still have. I knew it wasn't Juarez. I still have blankets. Me
too that you got on the way back. Yes. In the line. I have this like big huge like leopard
print one that's like we've had it for a hundred years. It smells like Tijuana. Yes. I was
in nursing school with a friend who ended up living in San Diego and I flew to LAX.
My brother lived in Riverside at the time and a friend of mine and I flew from Albany,
New York. That was my first cross country flight and we had a great time and we rented
a car and drove to San Diego to see our friend who worked with us in Albany, New York at
the hospital and she married a guy that was in the Navy on a nuclear sub and they landed
in San Diego and she's like if you're coming to see your brother you better come see me.
So we did and and we got a ride to the border and walked across to Tijuana spent the whole
day had a blast. Where did you eat some good food? Oh yes. We went we found some like random
like we literally drove down a road like a dirt road I think it seems that way it might
have been paved but like cactuses, cacti all over the place but nothing in sight for miles
except for this one little Mexican restaurant building and it was like something in a weird
movie and we went to it and it was so good. Who was this? The shrimp were like this big
like as big as my head. Who was this with? Me and my family, my parents. I was like twelve.
Oh okay. Eric I wasn't twelve I don't know how old I was but Eric was in or he was in
the Marines and so he was stationed in San Diego. Your brother was in the Marines? I
didn't know that. My dad was a Marine. Oh cool yeah. I did not know that. Hurrah or whatever
yeah Eric was in the Marines. Cool. Yeah. Wow did he go overseas? He did not luckily
he didn't have to but he was in boot camp during September 11th and that happened like
he was and he was 17 so his birthday was 18th. Was he in Camp Lejeune? Yes his 18th birthday
was September 13th 2001 and we were all like he just gone he was in boot camp you know
being trained and he didn't they didn't have TV or anything they had to get letters of
people telling them what was happening and we were like oh my god he's gonna go he's
gonna go to war like immediately but he didn't have to so okay so we want some stories about
Sarah when she was little like funny stories you got anything good? Funny stories about
Sarah? You're not gonna hurt my feelings at all this is fair game. I was gonna text you
guys before and say hey y'all need to think about what you can't talk about. I don't care
at this point. Can I not hurt your feelings? Yeah go ahead. So the Cabo Valley Church of
Christ on is it Cabo Valley Road or? No Caldwell Mill. Caldwell Mill Road yes. Do you remember
this story? No. With the cradle and the baby doll? Nope. Okay so I worked part time Monday
Wednesday Fridays I believe I had a hospital and Sarah started they had this mother's day
out have you ever heard of that? Yeah I have. Before okay so they had a mother's day out
and I believe the hours were 9 to 1 and so Tuesdays and Thursdays I believe on my days
off was they started this mother's day out and of course you know the guilt that you
work three days a week your kids are with the sitter and then the two days that you're
not working all of a sudden you put your child in mother's day out. Right because you have
to have time to do things. Well right and my friends were like Dawn you know give yourself
a couple day you know what I mean so anyways she started going to mother's day out and
one day I went to pick Sarah up. I'm nervous. And you do I'm like what did she do? And y'all
are not moms but one day if you become a mom and you go through the pick up circle and
they say can you pull around and park and come in and get Sarah today and I'm like yes
sure you know whatever I had no idea. She's like what did this bitch do now? And let's
just be clear anybody that knows Sarah knows that she's an overachiever in all aspects
of her life right. So you know potty trained at 18 months because we're having another
baby and it was not a problem for her sleeping in a big girl bed at about 20 months you know
what I mean. Like everything she just overachiever. So I can win and they said we need to have
a talk and Sarah's sitting there and I'm looking at her and she's kind of like no eye contact.
Like she's looking at the ceiling and around and I'm trying to figure out how old she is
maybe three four something maybe and I said what happened? Well she and a friend were
playing with a baby doll and Sarah wanted the baby doll to put in this cradle and the
other girl wanted the baby doll to play with herself and apparently when she didn't get
the baby doll Sarah picked up the cradle and hit the other girl in the head with the cradle.
Sarah! It was her nap time she needed to take a nap. Right and it was her friend too her
little friend. Am I still friends with this person? I don't even remember the girl's name
but we went to church with her parents too which is always great. That is hilarious.
You know when you take your child to Mother's Day out and most of the kids that are you
know participating in Mother's Day out and the parents are go to church together. So
of course you know then you go to church on Sunday hey. And everyone's like not all the
pop pop in the head. So of course you know we had to do the whole apology thing and Sarah
was like. Oh my gosh you just made the Sarah face. She just was like no. She ain't doing
that. So we were like there for quite a while convincing. I think the greatest story of
all though is the Disney story. Oh God bless America. What's the Disney story? Oh my gosh.
I kind of had put that out of my mind but yes so we took the girls Sarah's dad and I
took the girls to Disney World because I love Disney World. Believe it or not it's like
one of my favorite places to go. Are you serious? Would you be one of those like Disney honeymooners?
Totally. Ew. If I could get Mitch to go. I think it's cool but it's very expensive and
like you have to go on rides. Yes exactly fun rides. You don't go on roller coasters
mom. I go on all kinds of rides at Disney World. I love Disney World. It's a small world. When's
the last time you've been at Disney World? Speaking of it's a small world. It's creepy.
This is really creepy that you just said this. Oh yeah. Oh is this your story? Yes this is
so this is Kismet. So Jerry Murray was four Sarah four and a half six and a half whatever
and of course their dad was like I don't think they're old enough. Yes perfect age let's
go. Anyway we're having a great time. We go to it's a small world after a blah blah blah
blah blah blah. And I'm not sure if I know exactly all of it but you know by the time
you do get off that particular ride which I don't believe they have anymore. What they
don't have it anymore? I do not believe they have it's a small world anymore because I
was reading something and I don't think that's one of. Oh my gosh well good because that
thing is creepy. I thought I was somebody that's gonna come out like the shining and
like murder me. So you know that you can drop coins in the water you're on the boat I don't
know if you've ever been and I don't know exactly the turn of events but somehow this
child ended up with a coin in her hand. I was gonna be a softball star what can I say?
Right so she used her overachieving muscle throwing softball arm. Six and a half year
old arm. To throw a coin which lands in a man's eye that's wearing eyeglasses and they
immediately crack and break. Oh yes. Obviously unintentional. Did they know it was you? Oh
hell yeah. Or were you all just like covering your faces like nada. They were behind us
in the boats in behind us so we immediately get off the ride and this man's furious no
less. He's furious and Sarah's dad is furious. Well because he was fussing at me. Yes. The
man was. Oh the man was? Yeah. Well I mean you were the one that did it. Yeah but I was
also six and a half years old it wasn't like I'm a grown teenager and can take care of
myself like I didn't mean to do it. I don't know six year olds are I mean if some little
six year old did that to me I would probably yell at him too. So anyway we get off the
ride and that man immediately just beeline it for us right and I mean we were mortified.
Absolutely mortified and I mean we offered our names like we will pay for your glasses
here's our phone number the whole nine yards her dad has the grip of death on her arm.
Oh my god like you will apologize. Another apology moment. But the good news is though
is that I'm really good at apologizing now. Are you? Yes Tom. So what did you say to him?
Do you remember? Hell no. Do you remember throwing it? Nope. That is hilarious Sarah
I feel like I'm learning so much about you when you were a younger little baby. I was
the worst I was bad kid. What why? That is the truth. That is a moment right there. I
wasn't I didn't listen. Ownership. Even throughout high school my theory was and I even said
this to her face when I was in high school I play sports and I get good grades you can't
tell me what to do. That was my quote unquote. That was my theory on life. I got good grades
in school and I played sports I played three sports a year. Can I tell you another story?
Can I tell you another story? Oh no no no that doesn't mean you get to break the rules
and I get that but like sometimes it's like okay. The character rules still apply. That's
true the character rules but like you know if you're going out like doing fun things
I don't know you can go I get that. If you're doing. Oh they did fun things believe me there
was lots of fun in her life there was no shortage of fun for crazy training. No there wasn't
and it's also the invention of drawing the lines on the liquor bottles and then also
learning how to drink watered down vodka. Yes. So let me tell you a story about. Oh
listen I used to water down the vodka too and I know my mom knew. I just lost my story
too. What was I going to tell her the story about? I can't remember now I've lost the
story. I don't know high school. Oh no we removed the door from her bedroom right off
the hinges. More than once. Because we have a slam the door problem you know what I mean?
Well also they were those doors that were like bullshit doors they weren't even like
hard doors like they were thin just. Oh those ones that you can punch a hole in. Yes 100%
they were not even a real wood door but then also we didn't have central air so when it
was warm outside the windows were open you I mean two fingers closed that hole and it's
gonna slam like I mean you threw it again. Oh yeah when the windows are open yeah. That's
your story and you're sticking to it? Yes it is. I get it I used to get it. If I accidentally
did something like growing up my parents I got in trouble like I did it on purpose. So
like you can't accidentally do anything wrong because. No I did all that shit. You did it
on purpose. I did all that shit on purpose. The overachieving softball arm knew how to
slam that door just perfectly. Anyway she's trying to get her point across. I will tell
you her stepdad my husband Mr. Mitch is a very kind chill individual but that was one
of the times where he said enough is enough and when Mitch said enough is enough you listen
and honey that door came right off the hinges. So about three weeks later you know Mitch
says are you ready for your door? Nope I don't want a door anymore. Oh my gosh. I love not
having a door but the remnants of not having a door I still have the manufactured door
on the linen closet with the dent from the big clog heel that you threw at it. I don't
remember that. Sarah you are wild. Those are memories. So every time. I know this. I'm
not denying it. I love it. Listen if I my curfew was midnight I think from like maybe
like sophomore junior senior year and then it was like 1230 after I was done with high
school or whatever if I came home at 1159 passed out not paying attention to me probably
not asleep but like I thought she was asleep whatever if it was 1215 this bitch was in
the driveway wait let me smell your breath. What happens if it smells like alcohol? Nothing.
I mean I don't know. I don't know let's ask our next door neighbor who is a retired tripper
Oh lord yeah that's not good. Oh my god. Did I ever tell you all about the test? So my
dad would wake up. You asked for this you said you're not gonna hurt my feelings. It doesn't
hurt my feelings because that was like a way one-off situation. Sarah was 15 years old
trying to leave in a car with five boys. Oh I think you told me this story haven't you
told me this? And I said you may not leave this house we called the neighbor who was
a trooper state trooper in New York State and he came over to kind of let her know what
the consequences would be. Was this like that thing like that TV show where they take little
kids that are being bad to the prison and show them like this is yes. Pretty much. I
forgot what it's called. Outline juvenile detention for her. She did not get in the
car and she did come in the house but we suffered the car. That's probably around the time she
had the door taken off another time. It got better. It did get better. Well what about
the time I went my jammies to go get you. Where? On a Sunday night when you were saying
you were staying at your friend's grandmother's and you were at a party and we went to the
friend's grandmother's and she said. Whose friend's grandmother? Elise? No that is not
what happened. That was in the falls. That no that is not what happened actually. That
was the very first time I can tell you the story that was not what happened actually.
She threatened to come get me. She did not come get me. It was the very first night I
ever drank alcohol. I had three and a half regular Smirnoff and I was so hung over the
next day. It was during the summer and I usually yes this is well this is a story anyways.
I came home and during the summer I used to sleep in the basement because we don't have
central air and it's cool down there and I got home that morning and Jerry was sleeping
on the futon and I was like girl move over. I am hung over and so she moves over and lets
me get in the bed and then Dawn decides that she's going to make taco salad for dinner
and I was like oh my god how am I going to eat this taco salad for dinner after I've
been hung over all day. That sounds good to me. Well at the time it didn't it look like
puke on a plate and I was like I can't do this. This is terrible. I ate as much as I
possibly could and I went and even when we're sitting at that dinner she goes you hung over?
I was like no I'm not. I'm good. I did everything I could and then Jerry the little snitch that
she was got in trouble like three months later and then told on me and then I got grounded
like way after the fact. But we did have a Sunday night. I don't remember this. It was
like. Was this during the summer? Veterans day or something the next Monday and you got
school was out on Monday but I still had to work because it's not a federal holiday really
for non-federal employees and you were going to have friends to spend the night and we
always ask for the phone numbers. Is this the same person that was staying that was
with me at Corey's? Yes. Okay. So one of the things that we did kind of when cell phones
were kind of coming around where kids were parents were buying them cell phones or whatever
I always asked for the landline number. Yeah. So they thought they would be funny and only
give me cell phone numbers because then you don't know where they are and so she gave
me a cell phone number. Well I ended up finding the landline number and called. Because it
was probably in the phone book. Oh my gosh remember those? The phone books. You can't
think of it all when you're a kid okay. You can't think of it all. No makeup jammies Mitch
and I got in the car and we went to where she was supposed to be and we were told oh
no they're not here right now they're at so and so's. I don't even know where I was. You
were at Corey's. Oh again. Was it Fuller Road or something? Fowler. Fowler whatever and
we showed up and said get in the car you're going home and here I am in my full glory
of pajamas. And she's probably like putting her. She's like mom why are you here in your
pajamas? That's not my mom. And I used to tell them. She's kidnapping me. She's kidnapping
me. And I used to tell both of them when they were growing up when you become a mom that
is your full time job. No matter what you do whether you work two other full time jobs
your full time job is to make sure your children are safe. Except for when they become of age
and you don't want to pick them up from the bar and you make them walk home. After the
years and years of if you need a ride call me anytime then you're 21 and you call for
a ride home and it's nah girl you can walk. One time. One time. I was so tired. I'll never
forget it. One time I was so tired. That is actually not true. There were two times. The
time that I got rug burn on my face when I was at Joey Trim's house in Colton and Zach
Lawrence picked me up that night. Right. Okay well hold on. Where did you get rug burn on
your face? We were having an 80's party and I had on these dumb stupid wedges and like
this just stupid outfit and we were at this guy's house. He like lived in a double wide
or whatever and it was where you know when like carpet and like linoleum will meet and
they'll put those like gold. Yes. Metal stripes. Listen I decided that night. Threshold strips.
I decided it was a really good idea that night to play beer pong with straight Jaeger and
so I had done that and I tripped over this metal stripping and I didn't even put my hands
out to catch myself. The rug caught my face. Oh my gosh. And then after that I was so upset
because it happened. I called everybody in my phone looking for a ride home until I got
all the way down to Z who was my fourth grade boyfriend Zach Lawrence and he took me home.
But can we talk about Zach Lawrence? Zach Lawrence. I think we do need to give me kudos
for all the times I did come pick your friends up early in the morning because their parents
would have had a stroke. Yes. Had they had to call their parents. Sarah Wright always
would come in and say mom I need your help. I need you to go pick somebody up and I would
I've never to this day ever told one of the parents ever when I picked their child up
because I just picked them up took them home made sure they were safe. Yeah. And that I
think there's only hand that somebody's safe is all that really matters. And I will say
this much like what I move back to Canton now. No probably not. But I have absolutely
no regret about growing up there because it was such like a safe community as far as like
families taking care of one another's kids go like I there's absolutely no way that I
could have pulled any of the bullshit that I pulled. And I wasn't always bad. I will
say this like I mean I worked. Her mom is shaking her head yes. No she wasn't. Oh she
wasn't. I wasn't. I wasn't always bad. I thought you were saying oh no yes you were. Sarah
worked. Like we we had kind of an understanding that in order to learn responsibility and
I think that is one of the things her work ethic and her understanding of responsibility.
I said I want you to get your license and you know like I worked with her dad or dad
got her a car and then we got insurance. But I wanted them to also work and earn their
own money and have their own accounts and pay for a part of their insurance. That was
all part of the deal like learning responsibility because I think the most dangerous thing that
a parent can do is send your child off to college and pretend like there aren't dangers
out there and there are responsibilities out there. And that was my biggest thing that
my parents taught me is when you leave our home we want you to have all the tools that
you need to be safe and make good choices and be responsible but also own those mistakes
because they help you grow. Yeah and it wasn't like she kept me on lockdown either because
like there were times like I had my license and I you know even had a car and stuff like
that but like when like even my junior and senior year of high school like I played my
sports I also worked at Josie's the pizza place on the weekend. Still the greatest pizza
ever if you ever visit Canton, New York go to Josie's it's literally the greatest pizza
you'll ever have. 100% true. Oh my gosh this is the greatest. But like she if I had a sporting
event on a Friday night like she was always at my games there was I mean very rarely I
don't even know if there was ever a game that she missed but I would you know get done with
that come home take a shower get ready whatever and she would like drop me off because there
were kids we lived in an area that was so small that these communities were all super
close together even if we didn't go to high school together but we also had two colleges
in the town of Canton so there were a lot of kids that were older than me that were
already in college and had like local apartments and like she went to high school with their
parents and I just so happened to like make friends with them and so she would like drop
me off at somebody's apartment like on a Friday night and like that's where I was staying
or I would get a ride home and like I wasn't drinking and driving and stuff like that so
I mean it was the greatest experience growing up because I wasn't sheltered but I also wasn't
like a complete psychopath and we also knew all the local police officers and the chief
of police that it came in handy a couple times. Oh Lord. Because they knew us and they said
go home get out of this environment and go home or they would call us and say hey your
kids out here. Yes they would. Your kids out here act foolish. They knew she wasn't a bad
kid they knew she was just with a group of friends and maybe the environment became a
little more dangerous you know then she needed to be in her stepdad was the editor of the
local paper he knew everybody in the community and he was well respected. Which wasn't a
ticket to get off scot-free either. No it wasn't but it was a respectful thing it was
a thing where they said hey your stepdaughter needs to get out of this. If I had been drinking
and driving and gotten caught it Mitch wouldn't have had a choice but to write it up in the
paper. Right. So as Jerry Marie her sister would say yeah one day we were driving down
the road and Mitch didn't have a seatbelt on and Jerry Marie is very young and she says
Mitch you better put your seatbelt on or you'll have to write about yourself in your own paper.
That's so funny. So what else did you do that was bad? Some bad. Let's talk about some of
the good things. Okay. But I didn't I mean those were among the worst things I guess
I like I wasn't that bad I mean I think I say I'm bad and. Well not bad I'm trying to
say I'm just trying to get the funny stories. The fun stuff. You know the funny stories
where you like did something. Well I remember like going on AAU basketball trips with her
and all her friends like there's an example small town group of girls playing AAU basketball
travel basketball team together the parents would all get together and decide are you
going to the tournament or whatever we always went to the tournaments and we transported
lots of her friends. Well and you went to high school with the two other moms of the
girls that like I was close with and those girls were in high school together I wasn't
with them one was older than me and one was the same age but it was hysterical I mean
we would go to these tournaments in like Vermont and Rochester and I don't even know Plattsburg
and wherever else and like this was back when like going to the mall was like a thing so
like in between games of the tournament we would just go to the mall and like sit in
the food court and just like everybody. Go to players and afterthoughts and get like
whatever food that they wanted to get and then we'd go like sit outside the mall until
it was like ready to leave or whatever and these hookers I don't know if they were drinking
yes the moms I don't know if they were drinking or not. We would drink when we got back to
the hotel we would not drink before all the games were done. No no no they were still
just wicked funny together regardless and they would be like because there were other
people on our team that were more talented than we were but we all had so much fun and
we were good like we weren't bad I mean you had to qualify to be on this travel basketball
team and they would be like we'll give you a dollar every time you shoot the basketball
because we all used to pass to these other people and just like get a million assists
in a game but we would never shoot and so they'd be like every time you girls shoot
we're gonna give you a dollar and so we'd go into the next game and be like all right
we're gonna do this and then we'd make like three dollars. But they'd go to the mall to
buy clairs to go shop because you could buy how many earrings for a dollar of clairs.
If anybody's out there remember clairs. But we just we would have so much fun and it was
such like you know innocent fun. We'd have music on in the car and we'd be singing and
those were good times. That sounds like fun. I remember we would go on these choir trips
and I was in high school and they would the choir was huge and we would go take huge charter
buses multiples of them and drive up to like New York or wherever and go sing and go on
whatever go see it you know tourism and stuff like that. Well I can't remember where we
were. I think they did it every time but when we would stay in the hotels probably the first
time they did it I think we were in Chicago and they would tape us into the door into
the hotel room so that if you open the door to leave after a certain after your curfew
they would know because you can't you can't re tape it from outside. That's what we did
during the pandemic at our hotel. Did they tape it? Yes when we traveled during the pandemic
when we were able to finally travel we would go to the hotel and it would be sealed with
tape. Really? Yes that would mean that room was sanitized. So this is hilarious. Yeah
they used to tape us in and so if and if you your entire room it wouldn't matter if it
was just one person you're in everybody in your entire room would be sent home then your
parents would have to probably pay for the ticket it was a whole rule thing. Wow. So
like you had to make sure all the other three people in your room were not like gonna escape.
Oh my god. But they it means when you've got like you know 200 kids or I don't know how
many we have probably a hundred or so. And not enough chaperones to keep up with them.
Well one year this was when I was in college or it might have been recently maybe like
seven or eight years ago they had the parents apparently got in trouble they were on like
the news and stuff because the parents were caught drinking and they weren't supposed
to like but everybody was in the hotel room and they were chaperones they went down to
the hotel lobby. On my senior trip our chaperones got hammered. Which I don't understand like
if they're all all the kids are locked in their rooms. I mean they were slacking. The only
reason why we got drunk though was because one of our friends came from his cousin's
college graduation or. Who was that? Nichols. AP. Oh yes. And came from a cousin's either
military graduation or college graduation so that cousin was old enough and his bag
didn't get checked like everybody else's because they met us we went to Virginia Beach for
our senior trip so he met us there. They got checked at the school when they boarded their
buses. Yes and his didn't because he met us there. He met them there. But also he was
like really smart and a goody goody and so they're like he's not gonna bring anything
let's not check his bag. And it's true. We got drunk. So were your teachers like this
is your senior trip. Yes but there were less there were 89 of us who graduated. So there
yeah I mean we're we're 18. I guess you were in the yeah so. But we only had like four
or five chaperones because our class wasn't very big. We graduated with like 86 or 89
people and not every one of those went on the trip. We had like two different trip senior
trips that happened at Mara Place. There might have been more people that but two big ones
and it was like the people that like to party and the people the goody goodies is what we
call them. The people and the people with like the goody goodies they all kind of went
on a cruise and like the teachers went like as chaperones and stuff and they had other
parents and stuff. Our crew our thing was like an all inclusive cancun resort with all
the drunk parents. Like I'm pretty sure we were like my side somewhere and the guys were
like getting naked. It was crazy. That would not have happened with the teachers. 18 year
old boys love take the clothes off. Right. Yeah. No that that was and I'm gonna talk
about him real quick and hopefully he doesn't get mad at me for saying this but I'm pretty
sure that Dave Parker found he I'm pretty sure he found this French girl who was on
vacation there and had a good make out. I'm pretty sure that AP had to do the translating
for him as well. Yeah. That's funny. This is funny though thinking back though. I mean
we did have a lot of really fun times like the community we live in is you know some
people would say who would live there. It's literally with I think it's hard to understand
the Canadian border. The winters are freezing. Well they are cold and sometimes harsh but
I can tell you the people that live up there they snowshoe and they ski and they snowmobile
and they ice fish and they play hockey and they skate. It's definitely a very active
community. I think without like spending a significant amount of time there it's hard
to understand why somebody would live there. Correct. I think that's what people think
about Alabama too. They're like why would anybody want to move there and then they come
here and they're like oh this is actually really nice. Yeah I mean even just to kind
of wrap it up and come full circle with all this like when I was telling my co-workers
they were like where are you going to the beach and I'm like I'm going to Orange Beach
and they're like where is that and I'm like it's in Alabama and they're like oh I didn't
know that Alabama had beaches so like it's just one of those things where I know but
if you if you don't know you don't know and you don't think about it like that because
I mean for all these years when you say Alabama all people think about is like rednecks and
confederate flags and racism and that's not what it is. But in our hometown people have
discovered Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. Right. So we have some friends that do a well they
need to quit telling anybody about it. Right they do an annual trip down here to Gulf Shores
and Orange Beach and I said keep it a secret and they're like no we're sharing it with
everyone so everyone in our hometown is instead of going to Myrtle Beach which many of them
still do on spring break in our Easter break go to Myrtle Beach you know. It's not the
same though. Hell no. Well right but they're discovering the beaches of Alabama and the
Gulf Coast and we're like shhh you know what I mean. Keep it a secret of course them down
you know along the beach and all the businesses want people to come but I think they're going
to not be able to accommodate everybody that's discovering it because it's everywhere. I
read on my phone the other day a story about like the 10 best beaches in the south and
of course Orange Beach was like number six and I was like shhh don't tell anybody. Stop
stop reading this in the newspaper. We don't have enough places for everybody. They probably
paid that company to like put them on there you know what I mean. You don't have to pay
anybody to say that Orange Beach is beautiful because it is. And now we're putting it all
over our podcast so here we go. So alright I think we're gonna wrap this up. Mom thank
you so much for being here. Thank you for coming all the way. You did so good. You were
nervous in the beginning do you feel good now? I do. Good. I do like this is fun. It
is fun and you guys look exactly the same. It's the weirdest thing. We what? Look so
similar like obviously she came from your. Our photo for this week's episode is just
gonna have to be me and Dawn. Yes. Well it does need to be. I was gonna try to take a
picture of you guys but your butt was kind of hanging out of your dress a minute ago
so I didn't take it. I was like never mind. I appreciate that. We took a good one at the
beach so I've got something for us to post. I'm proud to be Sarah Wright's mom. Thank
you. I'm appreciative of you accepting like this podcast and supporting us and listening
even though you didn't do your job on the way down here and get caught up on all the
episodes. You'll have to do it on the way home. We definitely started at the last minute.
We also had a there's a guy that Mitch works with and he did a whole flash drive of like
music that we like. Haven't listened to one. Oh my gosh. We forgot. We were just like totally.
I don't know. We we chat a lot when we're driving. I'm just gonna say we live in the
same house together but honestly when you're driving for many hours at a time you know
sometimes when you have children and maybe one day you'll both find this out it's hard
to talk face to face with a child but when you're in a car there's something about the
flow of conversation. Sure. True. So you can't really escape it. My husband and I have I
think great conversation when we're in the car that maybe we don't have on a daily basis
at home with all the work stuff and you know just home maintenance stuff. Well I think
that's fair because you're talking about the everyday life. Yes. So it's it's always great
for us. We reconnect in our travels. So when my parents go in the car on the like on the
road they drive to the beach a lot and I know that they've gotten sick of talking to each
other when there's nothing on the radio because they'll call me. They call me and be like
hey what are you doing? And I'm like they want to they'd rather talk to me than but
it helps their conversation because they'll start talking to each other and then at some
point my mom will be like sick of talking to me and she's like okay we got to go by.
I really wanted you to meet Saucy but it didn't work out so we'll have to do it again. Yes
I look forward to that. Also I wanted to say I'm also proud to be Jerry Murray Wright's
mom. Fair enough. We'll try and get her on the podcast at some point. Jerry do need to
do it. All right thanks. Hey let us out. Sarah give us that extra detail for people out there
who need to send us stuff. Thank you for joining us today. It was wonderful to have you. You
can follow us on Instagram at Thick AF Podcast. You can send us an email at thickafpodcast.gmail.com.
You can find us where we find your podcast. Like, rate, review, subscribe and give us
those five stars y'all. Thanks. Bye. Bye.
Peace City EFT. I have to go. I don't know why it's so good.