Episode 18: Discount Skeletons and Election Bureaucracy with Krissi Brott, Greenville City Clerk

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stef (00:13):
I am Steph Reed.
I am the director of theFlat River Community Library.

Veronica (00:21):
I'm Cassie Vargo, the Marketing and Outreach Librarian

Krissi (00:26):
I am Chrissy Brott.
I am the clerk of the city of Greenville

Cory (00:32):
Welcome to the Flat River Front Porch.

Stef (00:36):
What we all need is just, like, beanbag chairs with the mic just coming

Cass (00:40):
a mic just coming down.
Down and over.
Boom

Veronica (00:43):
in the very distant future, I'm just

Stef (00:46):
distant future.

Cass (00:47):
Podcast room.

Stef (00:48):
Yeah, exactly.
With a big, giant.
one of those TikTok beanbag things.

Veronica (00:53):
Which,

Stef (00:54):
I now have,

Veronica (00:55):
I'm so jealous.

Stef (00:57):
I'm jealous of myself.

Cass (00:58):
but one

Stef (01:01):
but one of the giant closets, um, I emptied out all the boxes.
So it was just like the floorwas empty and I filled it with
the beanbag and that's my beanbag

Veronica (01:11):
So you just have like this like sensory deprivation

Stef (01:15):
yeah.
It's my, it's my special place.
Like I've got really dark curtainsand I'm putting in led lights
that like change color and stuff.
Yeah.
I'm going to ignore my
children entirely and be like,mommy's in her closet now.
Leave me alone.

Cass (01:30):
This is mama's safe

Veronica (01:31):
It's been a long

Stef (01:32):
yes, exactly.
I've like, I've startednapping in there like a dog.
Like it's it's my it's my dog bed.
Yeah, like,

Cass (01:40):
it's your own personal comfort closet.

Stef (01:41):
right.
I mean, like,

Veronica (01:42):
Yeah.
I will say, the one that Iwant is the giant Snorlax.

Stef (01:47):
That sounds like something from Dr.

Cass (01:49):
Right?
It's

Veronica (01:49):
Pokemon.
It's Pokemon.
I'm sure if I'm wrong, I willget roasted by our Pokemon fans.
Um, but I'm pretty sure it's aSnorlax like, this giant blue tubby
Pokemon and like, they have beanbagchairs that are like 10 feet across
that like five people can fit in.
And it's like amazing.
And it would be perfect in the teen area.

(02:10):
Yeah.

Stef (02:11):
and it's like amazing, and

Cass (02:14):
we

Stef (02:14):
be perfect in teen area.
Exactly the amount of comfort in theteen area and space sharing in the teen
area that will allow them to be studiousand appropriate, that's what we want.
As someone who has worked with thatage group at length and has had to be
very purposeful about buying furniturethat they can't fit multiple butts on,

Cass (02:36):
fair.

Veronica (02:37):
That's fair, that's

Cass (02:38):
or

Stef (02:38):
or sit on each other's lap, they find really inventive ways to do that.
Um, so no.
Giant beanbag?
No.

Veronica (02:46):
in the staff All all right,

Stef (02:54):
On that note, I'm going to actually do our introductions again.
I usually, you know, try to getthe last time I did one with, um,
Amanda, I think it took us almost20 minutes to actually get it.
Cause we were talking aboutfruit for a really long

Cass (03:07):
time.
She really likes
fruit.
She

Stef (03:08):
So shall we start on this side?
Go ahead and
introduce

Cass (03:11):
I'm Veronica Pitchford, the assistant director.

Veronica (03:15):
And I'm Cassie Vargo, the Marketing and Outreach Librarian.

Stef (03:18):
Okay, and as always I am Steph Reed.
I am the director So we're cozyingup for the season a little bit.
I've been slowly moving my officein the direction of turning
it into this, bliss space.
I've rejected my, overhead lightsaltogether because fluorescent lights

Cass (03:37):
I feel like they're not good for you.

Stef (03:39):
Yeah, they're not.
luckily my office is on its own littlenetwork so I can just turn them off.
And I've got these glowy lamps.
I just keep adding lamps.
I keep going to the restorebeing like, I need more lamps.
I've got my big cushy chairs now and,

Veronica (03:53):
Again, I'm, I'm just very thrilled with the sticker.
Thanks for watching!
that
comes from

Stef (03:58):
that comes from TikTok too.
I've got my ever growingsticker collection

Veronica (04:04):
much like, you know, you visit the doctor's office and, or the dentist,
and here's your little treat after yourone on one with Steph, you get a little
sticker, you can play with a fidget,

Stef (04:16):
This is how much you've grown this

Veronica (04:18):
a good job on

Stef (04:19):
They're all skeleton, so it's kind of a weird vibe, but yeah,
um,
and

Cass (04:23):
the season though.

Stef (04:23):
Yeah, and then I'm, I'm obsessed with fidgets.
Like this is my new thing.
I need to have everykind of fidget there is.
Most of them are over there, but I havesome over in my little station too.
I've got like a pen that haslike a little basketball hoop on

Veronica (04:39):
it.

Stef (04:39):
I'm not sitting around playing with all these things unless I
need just a couple of minutes, but.

Cass (04:44):
But when you're thinking, when you're thinking things through,
sometimes it's nice to have somethingto do with your hands to help you

Stef (04:50):
Happy Fall everybody!
I do genuinely think though that, thatas we evolve as human beings that we are
ultimately moving towards a space where weall get to be as comfortable as our pets.
we give our pets all thesecozy, comfortable space.
We give them, like, little caves tohang out in and, we want, I want a cave.
Yeah, I just, I want a big, youknow, those, like, egg chairs where

(05:11):
it just, like, wraps around you.
Those are awesome.

Veronica (05:14):
Ikea has one for children and I'm so mad that they don't
have an adult version that has alittle hood that you can close.
And I'm like, I want alittle sensory egg chair.
Give me a closeable egg pod,

Stef (05:27):
We, we have arguably more stress than we need it more.
Why does this not exist?
Um, and then you've got the flip sideof that, which, um, all of us, I would
say, are fairly enthusiastic about,which is, um, the comfort things that
would be less comfortable for people whoare not, um, Um, Halloween So, um, so

(05:52):
my comfort things in my office besidesthose things are like my, my evil clowns.
I've got multiple evilclowns at this point.
I, I made Pennywise from it.
I made, I crocheted that.
Yeah, I've got lots ofsquishy things here.
But yeah, like I've got so many skeletons.
Like I've got people skeletons.
I've got the, the rainbow.

(06:12):
I've got multiple snake

Cass (06:13):
skeletons.
I was
gonna

Veronica (06:14):
noticed that
You have a
new

Stef (06:15):
Uh huh.
Well, Meijer is doing all of these,like everybody's, Everybody's
getting into the skeleton thing.
Like it's, there's still the peoplewho are buying, who are spending
200 and whatever dollars on thatlike giant 12 foot skeleton.

Veronica (06:30):
You mean the skeleton that you're going to buy for the
library that we're going to put

Cass (06:34):
right

Veronica (06:34):
where we put the Christmas

Cass (06:35):
I like the one that's climbing out of the yard.

Stef (06:38):
Oh yeah, that's a
good

Veronica (06:39):
what if we put one out in the yard and then we put the other
big one, not necessarily inside, but
on, it'd be amazing!

Stef (06:51):
Somewhere in this, I still have to find a line of professionalism.
okay for me to put this stuffin my office, but I don't
want to terrify any children.
we do have to set some sort of
dividing line of, like, how much ofour taxpayer dollars should be spent
towards 12 foot skeletons.

Veronica (07:09):
But if anyone wants to donate a 12 foot skeleton, we would happily

Stef (07:13):
100%.
Yeah, if you just got an extra one

Veronica (07:17):
Yeah, or you know, you just want to really make
the outreach librarian happy.

Cass (07:22):
It would be great if we could have it going out the children's
window out there towards FranklinStreet, like half in, half
out of the,

Stef (07:29):
We did have

Cass (07:29):
like coming out at ya.

Stef (07:31):
we did have the, like the three foot ones that were like
migrating around the
building
for a while

Veronica (07:36):
last
year.
Yeah.
They'll, they'll show up again.

Stef (07:37):
Yeah, they're just, yeah, they don't, they don't
spark joy in the same way.

Veronica (07:41):
Yeah.

Stef (07:43):
Uh, it's not, it's not a one to one scenario.
It's not like the, the 12 footis four times more exciting
than the three foot ones.
It's an exponential thing,
mathematically,
if we're, if we're talking math here.
Yeah, it's quite a bit more than that.
Um, They have dogs now, too.

Veronica (08:01):
I saw those.
I saw those.
I kinda want

Stef (08:04):
I latch onto the concept of Septemberween, which is probably not
a thing, but basically like, It'sthe cliche of It's September, so we
need to bring out the pumpkin spiceand the scarves and stuff like that.
Except it's like, yeah, but like, let'sbring out the fake blood and the, really
gory, slightly upsetting stuff that isjust borderline acceptable for general

Cass (08:28):
consumption.

Stef (08:30):
Like it's
just trying to find that beautifulline because we do kind of torture
kids around Halloween with some of this

Cass (08:36):
Oh, absolutely.
It builds character.

Stef (08:38):
Right, exactly.
Yeah, haven't really grown upunless you have accidentally
watched part of a horror movie
that like stuck with you forever.

Cass (08:45):
Yeah.

Veronica (08:46):
watched part of a horror movie that like stuck with you, ever.
Um, I remember my dad having to takeme on an errand somewhere, and I was
like in the back of the pickup truck,because that was okay at the time.
Um, and I'm like, Oh my god, somezombie is just gonna come right

(09:06):
up over the side of this truck andeat me, going 55 miles an hour.
Like I was just, you

Stef (09:10):
Well, yeah, because they're They're, they're ingenious that way.
They figure out a
way.

Cass (09:16):
yeah,
yeah.

Stef (09:16):
Well, I mean,

Cass (09:17):
Friday the 13th.
Right at the end where they comeup out of the, she's floating in
the water in the boat, draggingher hand, and he comes up it,

Stef (09:25):
Well, that's what it always is.
It's the things that come up over
something.

Cass (09:29):
Yep.

Stef (09:30):
I think it was, The grudge, that movie is so mediocre, but, um,
the thing that stuck with me was the,like, grabbing onto the feet in bed
thing.
Like, that is the, like, I was really
paranoid about

Cass (09:44):
my

Stef (09:45):
for a long time.
Like,

Cass (09:47):
Don't dangle them over the side of
the bed.

Stef (09:49):
Don't
don't look under the bed.
If you think you hear noises, do not.
Just, just,

Veronica (09:53):
If you
think you heard something, no you didn't.

Stef (09:55):
yeah.
It's only there if you check ifyou don't look, then you're good.
I saw the grudge in college.
That wasn't my, that wasn't my kid thing.
you still have those things whenyou're an adult, but my kid thing was

Veronica (10:05):
poltergeist.
Yeah.

Cass (10:07):
Oh, going, getting sucked into the TV?
Or?

Stef (10:09):
There are so many little moments in that.
The,
um, the end with the swimming pool and the
skeletons coming up out of that.
That was bad.
And the creepy clown andgetting sucked into the
closet.

Cass (10:21):
was the worst part
for me too.

Stef (10:23):
Those things stick with you though.

Veronica (10:26):
I mean, I guess that's the mark of a good horror movie
if you're still creeped out
20,
30 years later, you know?
But

Stef (10:34):
I feel like a lot of what, what horror movies do now, like
good horror movies, don't tend to bethose moments as much as necessary.
It's just like a sense of

Cass (10:43):
Oh yeah.

Veronica (10:45):
Mm-Hmm.

Stef (10:45):
discomfort.
Like, I tried to watch, um, The Babadook.
Have you seen
the
Babadook?
Yeah.
I know you're, you're
like a borderline horror person.
yeah, the most uncomfortable aspectof it is that it's a single mother
with her son who is having someDevelopmental slash mental health
issues, and she's a single mom.

(11:05):
She's on her own.
And that's what's the scariest about it,
She's got no support system.
She's just a single mother trying to keepher kids safe and just scared to death.
And, that is ultimate scary right there.
That's why I couldn't finish that movie.

Cass (11:21):
movie.
There was one, I don't even rememberthe name of the movie that I saw, but
it was about this author who wouldmove into the house or move into the
town where a murder occurred and hewould research and write a book on it.
And then he moved his family into the,the house that it happened and didn't
tell them and like his kids startedcontorting out of a box and like it was

(11:44):
just weird and um, there was a box in theattic with videos of how all these other
families had, had died, like how this.
Person.
Yeah, and I'm just like, butonce that kid contorted out of
the box, I'm like, I'm done.
No more.

Stef (11:59):
remember what movie it was?
I

Cass (12:00):
I know
it starts with an S, but I'll have to

Stef (12:03):
up.
Is that the one with Ethan Hawke?
Cause it's got elementsof that, it sounds like.
And I can't think of what that's calledeither, but they move into a house and
he finds a bunch of, like, reel to reel

Cass (12:13):
There are real, and he drink, he he

Stef (12:15):
yeah, that, I
mean, there's so many cliches
of

Cass (12:18):
Well, and and one

Veronica (12:20):
it could be a few

Cass (12:21):
they, they were, they happen, it happened in a swimming pool

Stef (12:24):
yes.
Oh my God.
That's what it is.
Cause that's, that's the partI had to stop because they were
being, they were like on those

Cass (12:30):
Climbing,
yeah, into the pool with, andweighted down so they couldn't,
yeah, so I'm

Veronica (12:37):
of this so that

Stef (12:38):
we'll
find
it.
We will.
I'll when we take a
break
here, I'll double check what it is.
Yeah, yeah, that one.
yeah,

Veronica (12:44):
There's somebody who's just screaming at the podcast right now with

Stef (12:47):
Yeah.
I think you're right that it starts withan S though, but yeah, it's, it's like the
found footage stuff can be really creepy.

Veronica (12:53):
I will say the Blair Witch doing the found footage, they
were like one of the first ones.
I watched that in the theater when Iwas, I don't know, probably about 13,

Stef (13:02):
And no one had really done it before
then.

Veronica (13:03):
No, no, and it was for, you know, a couple weeks,
everybody's like, is this real?
But to this day, it's still, I, Iwill not go into a dark basement,
dark murder basement on my own.
Just be like,

Cass (13:14):
Oh hell no.
Well,

Stef (13:15):
I
mean, yeah, that seems like good sense,to not go into murder basements, yeah.
I mean, someone took the trouble to callit a murder basement, don't go in there,

Veronica (13:24):
man, I was recently with a real estate agent.
She called it a murder basement too.
Unprompted.

Stef (13:28):
I feel like that's not great realtor

Cass (13:32):
trying to sell it to somebody who really is interested in that.
I guess,

Stef (13:36):
I guess, but how would that have come up in,

Cass (13:39):
Casual conversation about, here, here's a lovely house
for you and it's a

Veronica (13:43):
it

Cass (13:43):
basement.

Stef (13:44):
honestly my new house They're the back room in the bay because there's it
the the basement is a two room thing.
it's not Total Michigan basement, butIt's dirt floors and it's yeah and the
back room There isn't a light right there.
You have to, like, go backinto it, what was it, there was
some movie where they had, like, the red,room that they found in the basement.

(14:09):
Maybe it Amityville.
don't know.
I can't remember, but that like theylike they found this extra room that
had been blocked off and it just likethe walls were painted red and it
I know I didn't make this up, butI can't remember which But, um,
and the walls are not painted red.
It's just rock.
there's like the coal chute down there.

(14:30):
Cause
this, you know, this is
an old house.
Um, but it's just like, what?
servants died in this?
That's because that's what I think.
I'm like somebody, somebody camedown here to get more coal and then
just got buried So I think it's onlyfitting that we transitioned here from.
All of our Halloween spooky season stuff.
That we are.
A little bit behind on, it's.
Never too late for Halloween stuff.

(14:50):
But at this point, since it'sNovember, we're a little bit.
Uh, past it and moving intothe rest of the holidays.
But as we're approachingelection day here, our.
Very timely guest for this.
Episode.
Is.
someone Who gets very busy thistime of year as we start early.
Early voting And as tomorrow is theOfficial day of elections So our

(15:16):
guest this week is from the city.
We have Greenville.
She is the.
Manager of all things, election relatedin the city of Greenville, her name.
Didn't you ever have one of those bigFisher Price, tape recorder things
where it had the um, microphone on likea phone cord and it only went like a

(15:38):
foot and a half and you could record

Cass (15:41):
I would love to say yes, but no, we shopped a lot at Goodwill.
We, we did not have such coolthings as like tape recorders and
stuff as a child, so it's okay.

Stef (15:50):
this is going to like severely date me as a millennial too.
There was that one year afterHome Alone 2 Lost in New York

Cass (15:58):
York.
The
Talkboy!

Stef (15:59):
it had like a little retractable microphone guy, and yeah.
And Kevin had it in Home Alone 2, and heused it to record his uncle in the shower.
Which, in retrospect, HomeAlone 2 was just a disaster.
Like, all

Cass (16:14):
well, let's be real, they kind of all were in their own
way except for the first one.
So I'm, but there'slike seven of them now.

Krissi (16:20):
now.
See, and I think after

Stef (16:23):
After,

Krissi (16:24):
for this?

Cass (16:25):
how many times can a single child get left behind
and lost after the first time?
Even if you have that manychildren, I'd like to think that.

Stef (16:33):
come on Catherine O'Hara, get it together.

Cass (16:35):
Look, she's a queen.

Stef (16:37):
She is and it wasn't even, she wasn't even like in Moira mode
from Schitt's Creek at that point.
she was still attemptingto be a responsible parent.
She just had, she's, shehad to stop having kids.
Like that's what it was.
She had too many kids, um,and a house that, I mean, how
did they afford that house?
They had like eight kids.

Cass (16:55):
Okay, so in fairness, they did not, because in the first
movie, they had the brother'sfamily there too, and the brother's
family had like three or four kids.
But Kevin only has likethe brother and sister.

Stef (17:09):
No, that's not right.
That's not right.

Cass (17:11):
only, it's only like a family of three or four kids.

Krissi (17:13):
four kids.
I think there's four kids.

Stef (17:15):
There's, oh my god, I can't believe we're, there's Buzz.
Everybody knows Buzz.
That's his real brother.
There's the blonde, Linny.
Why do I remember this?
Um, there's the kid from Peteand Pete, the red headed guy.

Krissi (17:27):
his, either his

Cass (17:28):
I think that's his cousin.

Stef (17:30):
Are you sure?
I feel like that's his brother.

Krissi (17:32):
I feel like I'm getting IMDb

Stef (17:34):
that's not a feeling, that's a fact.
you ought to know that.

Cass (17:37):
Okay, in the McAllister family.

Stef (17:40):
In the giant house in Chicago.

Cass (17:43):
right, so Peter McAllister, you're right, they do have five kids.
Okay, they have five kids, yep,so, so Peter and Kate have Buzz,
Megan, Linny, Jeff, and Kevin.

Stef (17:55):
Who's Megan?
Oh, Megan's the brunette, isn't

Cass (17:58):
the oldest daughter, yep.
the Ohio McAllisters dohave four children as well.
And then the New York McAllisters,which are also the Paris McAllisters,
have four children as well.
This is a massive

Stef (18:12):
sounds like feuding families from like the Appalachians or something.
Like got the, the Oregon McAllisters andwe've got the, the Mexico McAllisters and

Cass (18:22):
I mean,

Krissi (18:23):
you

Cass (18:24):
you

Stef (18:24):
and the ones from County Cork.
I I don't know why I'm going Irish.
McAllisters actually, thatwould be Scottish, wouldn't it?
To be fair, because it'sgot the Mic at the front.
So my Scottish accent is notup for, up to snuff though.
Not that my Irish one was, butthe distinction is, can you, can
anybody do a Scottish Jackson?

Cass (18:41):
no,

Krissi (18:41):
Not

Cass (18:42):
I'm not even going to try.

Krissi (18:44):
I would have to watch So I Married an Axe

Stef (18:46):
Oh,

Krissi (18:47):
I know

Cass (18:47):
a good movie.

Stef (18:48):
everyone knows Mike Myers has a phenomenal Scottish accent.
Which is asked him to reprise it as, ashis, I will, I will not say his character

Cass (18:59):
Yeah, let's

Stef (19:00):
from, Austin Powers.
Okay, so now that we've established howmany kids there are in the Home Alone
family, Um, Let's introduce our guest.
so it seemed only fitting as we're comingup to election day, which is, you know
how many days it is apart, I know you

Krissi (19:17):
I
wish I knew what day it was today.
Um,
think it's 12

Stef (19:21):
Okay.

Krissi (19:21):
It
might be

Stef (19:24):
Okay.

Krissi (19:26):
It's

Stef (19:26):
I mean,

Krissi (19:29):
sure somebody

Stef (19:30):
this is, this

Cass (19:31):
gonna, this is gonna come out

Stef (19:32):
Isn't this like 75% of your job, like knowing how
many days away the election is?

Krissi (19:38):
true.
But see, I know how many daysaway it is, like, I do the short.
So November 1st is the last day thatI can, I have seven days to mail
out ballots, like, if somebody asks.
So I know that.
I
have, you know, like,

Stef (19:53):
I know how it affects me and no one

Krissi (19:55):
Exactly.

Stef (19:56):
Okay, but now that I've chastised you, it's very fitting that there are a
certain number of days until the election,a, a small number of them in this case.
Um, and our guest

Krissi (20:05):
11.
There's 11.

Stef (20:06):
we go, well done, well
done.
She caught I'll you introduce yourself.
I

Krissi (20:12):
I am Chrissy Brott.
I am the clerk of the city of Greenville.

Stef (20:17):
So, so she's going to be really busy here really soon.
what does your agenda look likein the next week and some change?

Krissi (20:24):
training and setting up is now what I turn to, while also,
issuing ballots and accepting ballots.
So, and training is not my strong suit.

Stef (20:36):
You're training the, the election, the poll workers.
Okay.
Oh, the inspectors.
Okay.

Krissi (20:40):
I don't call them.
call.

Stef (20:44):
Someone's expecting you to do your job right now.
So what I just cut out for those of youwho have been brought back into the room
here, um, is that you got a call aboutyour actual job, and stuff coming up with
the ballots and what is a spoiled ballot?
So

Krissi (21:01):
So a spoiled ballot is when, the voter no longer wants,
um, That ballot either because theymessed up or because In this case,
this person never received it.
So in order for me to give them anew ballot, I have to spoil, I'm
using air quotes, I have to spoil the

Stef (21:23):
Uh huh.
Just like voiding it, basically.
Voiding it,

Krissi (21:25):
it, yes.
But we call it spoiling it.
Because you can rejectit and you can spoil it.
Spoil it means it's out there somewhere,but we're not going to count it if I get
it.
Rejected means, It's, it came in or theperson did something like moved or died.
And so now if that comes in, I have to
reject it.
Okay.
so then that person hadn't receivedtheir absent voter ballot, so

(21:48):
they have to fill out a form.
'cause I don't just give out two ballots

Cass (21:52):
Oh Yeah.
Yeah.

Krissi (21:54):
or three or
four.
Fun fact

Stef (21:56):
to me it's fun.
I, I don't know, I'm one of thosenerds who loves bureaucracy.
I'm like, ooh, tell me more.
Tell me how these thingswork behind the scenes.
But I mean, it's, it's useful information,I feel like, just to underscore the fact
that this is a very complicated process,but there's a lot of precision to it.
Like, there's a lot of workin making sure that everything
going the way it's supposed

Krissi (22:16):
And on the topic of being a nerd about bureaucracy, you kind of
have to be a nerd for bureaucracy.
You have to think like.
a bureaucrat when you'rea clerk because you
are, but also it has to be public.
What's the most transparent way to do
this?
You know, how do I makeit so that it's fair?

(22:36):
And I try to, educate people.
Yesterday I had a lady who camein and said, so now what are you
going to do with that ballot?
And we stood there for 30 minuteswhile I told her what we were
going to do with that ballot from.
You know, the time that she turned it in.
There's a fun thing goingaround that I open the ballots.
I will tell you a fun secret.

(22:56):
Clerks do not open ballots.
We do not open them.
We do not.
I
don't look at ballots.
Unless I have to.

Cass (23:05):
correct me if I'm wrong, but ballots don't even get counted,
don't even start getting counteduntil the day of the election.

Krissi (23:11):
election.
Correct.
In, in Montcalm County at least.
Now, I don't know about other states.
Um, and some cities now areallowed to process, which means
they open the envelopes, I think.
I'm not sure if they're allowed to

Stef (23:27):
I would think that that would only be if.
Um, and I'm not sure if there'sa recount or is that under other

Krissi (23:33):
ballots?
Or anybody needing to open

Stef (23:35):
Or anybody needing to open them

Krissi (23:37):
are opened by the election inspectors on, on the day of.
But you're right, there are,
um, but yeah, the only time I ever see
a ballot is if there's a recount.
Now, I've never had to havea recount in Greenville.
I have participated in recounts asa volunteer to help count, which
is an Another, I'm such a nerd.

(23:59):
It's another fascinating

Stef (24:01):
I mean, yeah, it sounds fascinating to

Krissi (24:03):
I mean, just a bunch of people counting and talking to each other
and you have to have different parties.
You know, we don't declare in this state,we don't declare our parties in the state
except for when it comes to elections.
So, you don't actually know whatmy party is, but I have to say I'm
either a Democrat or Republican.
that's what I have tochoose whenever I sign

Stef (24:24):
sign something.
Oh, interesting.
Just at random.

Krissi (24:28):
Well, I pick the one because I'm fairly honest.
I pick the one I lean towards soI'm not cheating, you know, so.

Stef (24:35):
sense.
That makes sense.

Cass (24:36):
Transparency is
important.

Krissi (24:38):
Yeah,
yeah.

Stef (24:39):
and there's obviously.
a number of controls in place
with all of this.
Like there's,

Krissi (24:44):
Yes.

Stef (24:45):
yeah, this shouldn't be a surprise to you, Chrissy.
Please don't say, Oh, like,Oh, that's interesting.
There's controls

Cass (24:50):
Ooh!
Fascinating!

Stef (24:53):
like, like

Krissi (24:54):
interesting.
Ooh.
Meaningful.
It was sarcasm.
Like balances.
Yes.
Like, Yeah.

Stef (24:56):
like, like, yeah, there we go.
Let's bring out that civics civicseducation from the 11th grade.
Yes.
Check some balance.

Krissi (25:03):
Yes.
like also, so, I didn't reallyknow what the word canvas meant
when it's spelled with two S's.
Until I started working elections.
Canvas means you check thateverything's been counted correctly,
basically, in the world of elections.
Now, Michigan is a state that doespretty much a canvas for every

(25:24):
precinct before they hand it tothe county to be canvassed again.

Stef (25:30):
Okay.
And

Krissi (25:30):
so the board of canvassers has to make sure that
all the numbers are correct.
are to certify the election.
if everything is correct, their only jobis to certify the election, but they work
hard and and I don't know them, which isfunny because it's kind of like, I don't
know who the Board of Canvassers are.
I've never met them.

Stef (25:47):
Well, and it stands to reason, that they would all be, all these components
would be separated from each other.
I apologize to anyone who findsthis to be incredibly boring.
But the point is, is that to acertain extent it's supposed to be
boring.
It's
supposed to be.
Yes, there's no
secret

Cass (26:06):
no, It is a set process.
There's no, there's no guesswork in

Krissi (26:11):
yeah.
I
happened to watch, a Time Magazinevideo that someone had posted
called, uh, Democracy Defenders,and I thought it was a great piece.
It had the election supervisorfrom, Marion County, Florida,
An
election supervisor from.

(26:31):
a county in Ohio.
The, our Detroit's,our own Detroit's city,

Stef (26:37):
woo.
Woo, woo.
woo.
I mean, we're Russetters,we don't care about Detroit.

Krissi (26:42):
But she's, but she went through a lot.
I mean, obviously she went through a lot.
And then I think there was, Oh,the person from Wisconsin, the
election director for Wisconsin.
So we don't, we'redecentralized in Michigan.
so clerks are in charge oftheir elections, but, in other
states like Florida, Ohio andWisconsin, they have the county.

(27:04):
And so these are county officials andthen one city official from Detroit,
but they have the same experience andthey were all very different people.
I just want to meet allthese people and hug them.
he was like, I like elections becausewell, there's yes or a no, that's it.
And that's why I likeelections is because.
There's a yes and there's a no.

(27:26):
There's no trickery.

Stef (27:27):
there's a hanging chat where you might be accidentally
voting for Pat Buchanan.
Another millennial

Cass (27:32):
You

Krissi (27:33):
You know what?
I, I'm technically GenX and that was my first
election.

Stef (27:38):
Yeah.

Krissi (27:38):
was 20.
So that was my
first

Stef (27:40):
and I was 18
and the funny thing is at the timeI was just like I just feel so
disillusioned about this I'm notsure I'm even gonna bother voting

Krissi (27:50):
Really?

Stef (27:51):
Yeah, I didn't actually end up voting in my first election because
I'm like these are my choices If theif 18 year old me could see into the

Krissi (27:58):
the future.
I know.
Like

Stef (28:01):
It's like you think you're disillusioned now

Krissi (28:03):
Wait a minute.
I'm a Southeast Missouri girl,which I grew in a, in a town,
which I thought was very small.
Ha ha.
It's got 40, 000 people in it.
That's not small.
that
was my first election, I was like,I don't even know why I'm doing
this, but I know that there arepeople who are alive right now who

(28:23):
didn't get to do it who were women.
And that was literally
the

Stef (28:26):
okay,

Krissi (28:27):
I
voted.

Cass (28:27):
like that.

Stef (28:28):
bad already.
I just, I was just likeRepublican, Democrat, whatever.
I guess I should have been Gen X.
We are, but we are righton that cusp there.
We are, we're

Cass (28:42):
Xennials yeah,

Krissi (28:44):
I
thought there was an elder millennial
that

Cass (28:46):
That too, that too.
Which I prefer over geriatricmillennial, personally.
Oh, oh, the children, the children.

Krissi (28:53):
children.
The youths.

Stef (28:55):
are killing me today.
I, I like it

Cass (28:56):
It's rainy.

Krissi (28:58):
Yep.

Stef (28:59):
Yeah,

Cass (28:59):
to
your forties.

Stef (29:00):
but yeah, we're in that weird, in between phase where some of us
are less tech savvy than others, butwe, we remember the 2000 and we, um,
we had our teachers turn on the OJ
verdict

Cass (29:15):
I remember that.
Yep.
Because

Krissi (29:18):
has academic

Cass (29:20):
remember watching The Chase on TV, man.
That was, that was a thing.
We turned it on in school.

Krissi (29:26):
Well that, that chase though was in the summer.
And I know that because my grandmotherdied two days before that chase.
We were pretty sure she died of a heartattack in her chair because the O.
J.
Simpson whole thing was likeruining her soap operas.
Not to get weird,

Cass (29:43):
But in fairness, that was the peak of, like, soap opera time.

Krissi (29:47):
and listen.
Yeah.

Cass (29:49):
don't interrupt the

Stef (29:50):
boring chase ever.
They

Krissi (29:52):
was like we really doing this?
Like, why

Stef (29:56):
Yeah.
We're gonna.

Cass (29:57):
even driving.
wasn't
even driving.
Yep.

Krissi (30:02):
Why were they, anyway,
I think he was

Stef (30:03):
having a, he was having a little bit of a hissy fit.
He was like, you guys are being
mean to me.
Let's just pick on

Krissi (30:09):
Oh

Stef (30:10):
OJ now that he's dead because

Krissi (30:12):
yeah, I

Stef (30:12):
in the
spring.
since this is election season,we want to make this as timely

Krissi (30:16):
timely as

Stef (30:17):
as possible.
We got Home Alone in here.
We got some

Krissi (30:22):
All the 90s.

Stef (30:24):
We've got, yeah,

Cass (30:25):
I'm wearing an MTV shirt today,

Stef (30:27):
mean, there we go.
there we go.
It's our, it's our happy
place.

Krissi (30:31):
happy place.
The 90s.
Everyone's like, Oh, I wish Icould go back to some other time.
I'm like, no.
The 90s were where I was at.

Stef (30:39):
I don't want to go back to the 90s.
I

Krissi (30:41):
I want to be an adult in the
90s.

Cass (30:43):
Yes, I want to be an adult

Krissi (30:45):
to be an adult and have my I want to be an adult and have
my The same money I have now.

Cass (30:50):
a house in the 90s.

Krissi (30:51):
know!

Cass (30:52):
Yeah.
That's

Krissi (30:53):
That's what I want to do.
And gas.

Cass (30:56):
Yeah.

Krissi (30:57):
go anywhere anymore because everything I
have is here.

Stef (31:02):
When I got my driver's license, I think it was like 95

Cass (31:05):
90, yeah, it was like 97
cents.
Yeah.

Stef (31:09):
Yeah.
I was like,

Krissi (31:11):
I could give a 10 bill and pretty much fill up the tank of my Ford Escort,

Stef (31:16):
it was a beautiful gas guzzling

Krissi (31:18):
Yes!

Cass (31:19):
would literally leave high school and then like go drive like somewhere
like an hour or two away to likevisit friends and then like go home
eventually but like gas was not a concern

Krissi (31:30):
No!

Cass (31:31):
It
was great.

Stef (31:32):
your parents weren't paying attention to

Cass (31:34):
Um, no, well, my parents gave me a

Stef (31:39):
We don't need to get into trauma

Cass (31:40):
no, no, I mean, it's okay.
I'll, I'll give you alittle bit of my trauma.
My parents gave me a very long leashbecause I was diagnosed with cancer
when I was a junior in high school.
And so they just get, they'relike, yeah, nope, she's fine.
She's just, you know,
doing what Yeah.
So
I

Stef (31:56):
Do you want ice cream, honey?

Cass (31:58):
Yeah, no, I got a lot of leeway my junior and senior year
of high school because of that.
Um, I'm fine, by the way.
It was okay.
It turned out fine.

Krissi (32:06):
Yeah.

Stef (32:07):
us down,

Cass (32:08):
Oh yeah, no, you know, I got all
the,

Stef (32:10):
now that we've gotten that out,

Krissi (32:12):
out.

Stef (32:13):
I'm curious, I was going to ask this question anyway, but like,
you just made it nice and awkward,

Krissi (32:18):
so welcome.

Stef (32:19):
Um, you know, I'm always,

Cass (32:21):
that's why I'm
the marketing

Stef (32:22):
about, yeah, there we go.
Marketing and outreach, let's tell
awkward
stories
our childhoods.
Um, no, what I was going to ask you was
like, What got you into this role?
Like, did you have, were you an electionfanatic when you were in school and
you're like, I want to count ballots

Krissi (32:40):
No, my bachelor's degree is in criminal justice.

Stef (32:43):
Oh, okay.

Krissi (32:44):
I dropped out of college to move to Florida,

Stef (32:48):
as one does,

Krissi (32:49):
one does,

Cass (32:50):
In the early

Krissi (32:51):
in the early 2000s, and my friend and I looked at each other because we
were, she wanted to be Cinderella, and

Stef (32:59):
Cinderella.
Like, in
real life, you Oh, okay,

Cass (33:03):
Florida, so that

Stef (33:04):
is this like a Napoleon thing?
Like, like, I'm Cinderella.
Okay, honey,
take your

Cass (33:10):
delusional.
It's

Krissi (33:13):
it gets better guys she worked with me at my little Blue Cross Blue
Shield job, and she was a claims person.
And I was a 20 and 21 year oldgirl who was like making copies.
I was like, really wanting toget out of this quote unquote
small town of 40, 000 people and
move out.

Stef (33:33):
from The

Krissi (33:34):
I was for a little bit.
And then I just said,Yeah, I'll go with you.
we moved.
And I remember distinctlydriving my 1984 Buick LeSabre

Stef (33:43):
Nice.

Cass (33:44):
Yes!

Krissi (33:45):
packed to the gills with, of course, very important
things like clothes and TV.
We did not have jobs.
We did not have
any any house.
We had gas money because it was cheap.
And we get to Lake Eola, which is in thecenter of Orlando, Florida, in the city.

Stef (34:01):
Yolo?
Y O
Oh, okay.
I was

Cass (34:04):
I heard the same thing,

Krissi (34:05):
Sorry!
And we get out, and I'mlike, so, what's next?
We had planned to get there,but not to do anything

Stef (34:15):
your 20s.
It's such a

Krissi (34:17):
your
20s.

Stef (34:18):
stupidity.
It's, it's like, let's not eventalk about what we're gonna do
until we literally get out of the

Krissi (34:25):
get

Cass (34:26):
at a lovely roadway inn.
Okay.
With, uh, plastic
wrapped donuts

Krissi (34:29):
stayed, we
stayed a lovely roadway inn with,wrapped doughnuts for our, and coffee.
You don't
nutritional

Stef (34:38):
anything nutritional at that point.
Like, you half

Krissi (34:42):
your breakfast.
That's your continental

Stef (34:43):
a powdered sugar donut and get heartburn like you do in your 40s, but

Krissi (34:48):
And we went out and we got jobs and, um,

Cass (34:51):
I just, I love it how it's just like, just so casual, and
we just, we got

Stef (34:55):
we're getting the details about the donuts, but we're, we're,
we're yada yada ing the job part.

Krissi (35:00):
We worked at a very fancy hotel and I had so much fun.
And I did not have anyplans to go back to college.
I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I wanted to have fun.
yada, met a dude who was
super,

Stef (35:11):
we, it was gonna, yup.
It was

Krissi (35:14):
super abusive, and then I had two kids who are awesome,
and then I moved back to Missouri,and then I started school.
And I was like, well, I don't reallycare what I do here, and then I
really got into criminal justice.
I worked for lawyers, and thenI worked at a university, and
I helped somebody right there.
abstract for

(35:34):
their
abstract for a Dissertation.
I a lot of really cool thingswith my kids with the school.
I was very, I was a single mom, so I waslike super creative about what we did.
We had to have fun.
And then I decided, that Iwould go online and date.
And then I found a Michigan boyI was on this catholicmatch.

(35:54):
com thing and they said, if youdon't find a date in 30 days, we
will give you another free month.
And I was like, cool, so I wouldtalk to people and they were awful.
They were horrible sometimes.

Cass (36:06):
I mean, that's online dating, I

Krissi (36:07):
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
So then I'd run out of all of thepeople near me that I wanted to talk to.

Stef (36:13):
So you literally moved because the dating

Krissi (36:15):
Yes, that's true.
I was

Cass (36:17):
That's a
fair reason to
move

Krissi (36:19):
of the
Michigan.
Is it states both
start same

Stef (36:23):
same two
letters.
So Let's
it.
It's not even

Krissi (36:26):
even
alphabetical.
You're
going
backwards.
Exactly.
Well, no, I just moved

Cass (36:30):
just expanding that bubble.

Krissi (36:32):
I moved my search from 500 miles to

Stef (36:35):
Oh, okay.
Or did
it alphabetically and like, let mefind the alphabetical states that are

Krissi (36:40):
the alphabetical states

Stef (36:42):
and then Montana.

Krissi (36:44):
and Montana?
Ugh, Mississippi, but no.

Stef (36:48):
No, that's
still before, isn't

Krissi (36:50):
isn't it?
Yeah, it is still
before.
Right next, when you click that, no.
that's how I ended up here.
And then I decided to do my master's.
And I took one public policy class.
And I was hooked.
And so I changed my master'smajor to public administration.
And then I got a job as adeputy clerk in Cascade.

(37:11):
And I was like, elections are cool.
And I don't think they were, theydidn't want to hire me because I
didn't have any elections experience.
I had

Stef (37:19):
sounds like you had experience in literally
everything

Krissi (37:22):
had
experience

Stef (37:25):
I've lived life.

Krissi (37:26):
literally

Stef (37:27):
they don't, they don't,

Krissi (37:28):
I've,

Stef (37:29):
as much credit as they ought to these

Krissi (37:31):
I have, I did spend, this isn't funny, but I find it funny.
This is my humor.
I did spend nine months ina safe house in Florida.
I mean, how many people can say that?
do I get out of this safe house?
All right, we'll give you alawyer, but you have to go
find a job and clean your room.
Perfect.
I went and found a job and I slappedthe papers down on their desk, and
they said, nobody ever does that.

(37:52):
I was like, well, you told me.
That's how I get outta here.
I don't wanna stay here.
like,

Stef (37:55):
we go.

Krissi (37:57):
but

Stef (37:57):
No one should have to go through something

Krissi (37:59):
that, Sure.
Yeah.

Stef (38:00):
but I, I would argue that, that it gives you some perspective on the
experiences of, of a cross section ofpeople in the community that you live
in because, you know, everybody comes
at, their involvement in thecommunity based on whatever Their
story is, and I feel like a certainamount of empathy is necessary

(38:22):
um, you need to be willing to seeother people for what they are, that's
hard for a lot of people, I think.

Krissi (38:27):
I think it is because just for what, what you said
is that they don't know.
So I'm always the girl who's like, Hey,I was on food Here's what you need to do.
You don't get free money.
It's a daunting task.
It's a people don't wantto be on food stamps.
I don't want to be on food stamps.
It was awful.
You had to go in Missouri.
You have to go into yourboss every six months.

(38:48):
And get them to sign

Stef (38:49):
months and get

Krissi (38:51):
Like, it's It's humiliating.
Why would anyone want to do that?
Um, so, yeah.
It gives me that perspective.
So then when people come to mywindow and I see that they are
just wanting to vote but maybethey don't have a spot to live in.
Guess what?
They still get to vote.
They're still citizens.
If you're a citizen, you get to vote.

(39:13):
You don't have to have an ID.
You have to prove where you live.
If you can't prove where you live, we'regoing to figure out how you can vote.
might have to use theaddress of the shelter.
And it takes a lot of time.
But I'm willing to take that time.

Stef (39:26):
Right.

Krissi (39:27):
I'm willing to do that.
Because I don't understand fullywhat everyone's going through,
but Gosh, if somebody wants tovote and I made it so that they
couldn't vote, I'd feel horrible.
Because that's my job.
And such a simple thing.
And so you make it work.

Stef (39:43):
I think at the core of a lot of what we struggle with these days, politically
and in terms of how divisive thingsare now, I think a lot of it is that
people just want to feel like they havesome control, Of their lives and of the
world that they live in and that sortof, feeling disenfranchised is powerful
and

Krissi (40:03):
is You just
want it.
in regular life, people do not attack me.
Thank goodness.
there have, there arepeople who attack me.
And sometimes I take articlesI read a little too personally.
I do have a friend from back home acomment about machines twisting votes.
I said, I am so sorry, privately.
I want to make you feel comfortable.

(40:24):
I don't live in your state anymore.
Can you show me the articlesthat you're talking about?
Most of the time people don'tshow me the articles because
they didn't actually read it.
She did read it and sheshowed me the articles.
And I was like, wow, that's prettyscary that that happened or that
that guy said that happened.
But, and then I gave her differentpoints whatever instance she
was talking about happened,

Cass (40:44):
I feel like I saw the same article.

Krissi (40:46):
About a guy pushing a,
party, like a candidate, andthen another thing shut up.
We don't know.
The problem with that story beingspread is that voting is private.
And we don't know what thatperson actually, why do you
believe that guy so quickly andnot that maybe he made a mistake.

Cass (41:04):
those lines can be small if they're digital,

Stef (41:07):
People are so quick to assume, like, diabolical intentions
when anything goes wrong.
Let's all remember that we arehuman beings and our brains just
don't do things correctly sometimes.
the vast majority of the time if weirdstuff comes up it's because in the midst
of bureaucracy, in the midst of somethingthat is kind of mundane, There are gonna

(41:29):
be moments where one thing gets done alittle bit wrong purely by accident And
that doesn't mean there are people outthere that are like, how can we count?
Votes from people's dogs andcats like that's not a thing

Krissi (41:41):
And that's like the funny thing is like, I did tell this person, Oh my
gosh, but look what happened is that
they, he checked it andthen it got corrected.

Stef (41:52):
Right.

Krissi (41:52):
They didn't say, Nope, sorry, you're done.
Off you go.
That's your vote.
That's your last chance.
They corrected it.
as a bright eyed new deputy clerk threeyears ago, I was like, if I just tell
them what's going on and what theythought they saw is not true, they'll
go on and they'll tell other friends.
no, they do not.

(42:13):
It perpetuates.
Yeah, it's like, um,internet review culture.
People remember the negative things.
things are supposed to goright, but if they go wrong,
Watch out.
that person, you know, was a classmateof my sister's, I actually do feel badly
that she does not trust her government.
It, it does make me sad.

Stef (42:34):
once that's shifted in someone, it's hard to shift back
because, how much of the machinedo you have to see in order to
feel like it functions properly?

Krissi (42:44):
I have heard former County Election Director Jared Uzarski ask
somebody, so I've told you this, this,and this, so when are you going to,
which thing are you going to believe?
What's going to make you believe this?
What do I have to do?
I don't know.
To make you believe it.
It does bother me that, like,say anything on the Internet.
And

Stef (43:04):
the things that cause a, like a visceral,

Krissi (43:06):
Yes.

Stef (43:07):
reaction into that,

Krissi (43:08):
I'm going to quote George Masonic.
Watch manager.
even know knows I'm here.
but he said, you know, Whenthings feel really good, they're
actually not as good as you feel.
And when things are really no, but whenthings are really bad, it's not as bad.
They're all sometimes in the
middle.
And, and that actually,

Stef (43:28):
Everything is mediocre in the,

Krissi (43:30):
everything's mediocre and I'm fine with it.

Stef (43:32):
words of George mediocre.

Krissi (43:35):
he's going to
kill

Cass (43:36):
is mediocre.
Oh god,

Stef (43:40):
He's, he's used to being
misquoted.

Krissi (43:41):
know, yeah,

Stef (43:43):
Okay.
So when you are not
like riveted by, by the infrastructure,what do you do with your time?
What do you
enjoy doing?

Krissi (43:53):
your
time?
Napping.
No, that's what, that's

Cass (43:57):
I wake up just hungover from my naps and it's just so much worse.

Krissi (44:01):
Oh, if I did that I'd be like, you
know what, that's the cost of the nap.
The other thing I like todo, I enjoy true crime.

Stef (44:08):
Are you

Krissi (44:10):
change.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Cass (44:12):
Are you a true crime podcast person?

Krissi (44:14):
Um, when I had to drive to Grand Rapids, yes, I was.
So when I have time, my husband is soannoyed by, we try to watch Dateline
and I'm like, oh, I already heard this

Stef (44:23):
ago,
I

Krissi (44:24):
years ago.
I know exactly what happened.

Stef (44:26):
So you're one of those people, you're like a mile wide okay.
Is there a specific aspect of, causetrue crime is a big, it's a big
boat.
Like there's a lot, I mean you canbe into true crime, but like have
nothing in common with anothertrue crime person like, Oh, I'm
only interested in serial killers.
Oh, I'm only interestedin unsolved crimes.
Oh, I'm only interested in like the

Krissi (44:46):
I'm only interested, I do like the mob, I like most true crime.
like everyone asks me whofinds out that I like.
True Crime asks aboutthe Menendez brothers.
Let me set the

Stef (44:57):
Oh, okay, that's
not what

Cass (44:58):
I I mean this is relevant right
now.
Yeah.
it

Krissi (45:00):
It is I don't like it because if there's a chance that they
shouldn't be in prison and they'rein prison, that makes my skin crawl.
I can't deal with it.
You would think I'd be okay with that.
I guess my claustrophobia runsdeep because I can't even imagine
somebody being, unjustly in prison.

Stef (45:18):
Well, I
mean, they def they definitelykilled their parents.
about
that.
They definitely did.
But
like that one is one whereit's not so black and white.
you hear cases like the justice systemwent horribly wrong and somebody,
somebody had absolutely nothing to do with
it well the one that's comingto mind is the, the Damien
Eccles and the, the West Memphis

Krissi (45:38):
I was

Stef (45:38):
what I was

Krissi (45:39):
thinking of that.
That one is horrific.

Stef (45:41):
Yeah, that one was,

Krissi (45:42):
I can barely get through it.

Stef (45:43):
that one is a 90s reference that, that, yeah, as are the Menendez
brothers it's that like, to what extentcan we hold them culpable if they've
been really and, yeah, that's, that's

Krissi (45:54):
And I, so, and I always, you know, try to pull out some of my, my criminology
is that, you know, the pendulum swingsin this country as far as, you know,
are we punitive or are we, to restore.
Restorative.
Right now we're still punitive.
it's partly because of ourprivately owned prisons, but that's

Stef (46:13):
Well and it's the culture too.
Yeah.
We are a vengeful people.
if people have caused suffering,we want people to suffer

Krissi (46:19):
back.
Right.
So I really like unsolved mysteries,

Stef (46:23):
Yes.

Krissi (46:23):
the show and the actual
literal unsolved mysteries.
I think it stems from the factthat my mother has a brother who
went missing.

Cass (46:33):
Oh.

Stef (46:33):
Oh.

Krissi (46:34):
she was like five or seven or

Stef (46:36):
Did, and they never found him?
Never

Krissi (46:38):
found It doesn't bother me.
Like it doesn't bother me in theway that like being falsely in
prison, but it bothers me like,well, well, where did he go?
Like,

Cass (46:51):
Oh yeah.

Krissi (46:52):
I remember my little brother, he thought he was helping, and he,
he asked my grandmother, what if wejust put it on Unsolved Mysteries?
And then she cried, andwe had never seen her cry.
and so he got in trouble.
That's horrible for him probably.
I remember thinking, well,that's perfectly reasonable.
Like, why wouldn't we putthis on Unsolved Mysteries?

Stef (47:11):
it's hard to understand that kind of trauma when you're a kid.

Krissi (47:14):
Yeah.

Stef (47:15):
so I'm going to rapid fire some, cases at you to see what's your
opinion on some stuff that's there's

Krissi (47:19):
While my brain is
mushy.
Yeah.
Okay.

Cass (47:22):
It's Okay,

Stef (47:22):
Not in the sense, let's, you know, who cares about elections?
It has absolutely no effect onhuman beings and their day to day

Krissi (47:28):
on

Stef (47:29):
JonBenét Ramsey, who do you think did it?

Krissi (47:32):
know.
Did

Stef (47:32):
somebody in the family?

Krissi (47:33):
I think it was the

Cass (47:36):
How old was the brother at the
time

Stef (47:38):
nine.

Cass (47:39):
Yeah,

Krissi (47:40):
was, I thought that, I thought he was older

Stef (47:41):
No, he
was only like nine years

Krissi (47:43):
Oh, then forget that.

Stef (47:44):
everybody, people suspecting him after he did that interview
when he was kind of like,

Krissi (47:48):
of like Oh, maybe I'm still on that.
I don't really watch

Cass (47:53):
yeah,

Krissi (47:53):
Crimes Against Children

Stef (47:54):
that one is rough.

Krissi (47:56):
that one is rough, yeah.
But they know.
Those parents

Stef (47:59):
Well, of course they, yeah, they definitely

Krissi (48:01):
know.
They knew.
And
as I It was very weird.
Like, let's lock them up for the whole

Stef (48:08):
Well, she's dead.

Krissi (48:10):
she
is.

Cass (48:10):
Yeah, she passed away a

Stef (48:11):
of cancer quite a while ago.
But, and

Krissi (48:14):
that's a
weird
case.

Stef (48:15):
she write the, did she write the ransom note?
Because um, handwriting.
this is a random one.
Uh, Lizzie Borden.

Krissi (48:26):
that poor girl.
It's come out recently, I think,that she may not have done it.
Or that she was mentally ill.
And in either case I justdon't think she, she did it.
I mean.

Stef (48:39):
The amount of time between when the maid saw the parents, and when it
occurred, was like ridiculously short.
It was like three minutes.
It was really
fast.

Cass (48:53):
And she couldn't have, she couldn't have changed either?
Like,
the
way yeah,

Stef (48:57):
she would have been covered

Cass (48:58):
She would have been covered in blood

Krissi (48:59):
way they dressed,

Cass (49:00):
the
way they dressed she couldn't haveundressed and then redressed, especially
herself, so that, you know, she couldhave gotten rid of the evidence of her Did
anyone

Krissi (49:10):
did anyone find the bloody clothes, these
bloody clothes that she Exactly,
I, also wonder, I wish that wehad better detective skills.
like forensic skills back then.
But to their credit, they

Stef (49:24):
that

Krissi (49:24):
didn't have DNA.

Cass (49:25):
They did their
best with what they

Stef (49:26):
me think of that John Mulaney joke about, back in the day, you just, let's
draw Chuck, outline around the bodyand that way we'll know where it was.
and then,
It's like, the killerleft a pool of his blood.

Krissi (49:39):
Mop

Cass (49:40):
it
all.

Krissi (49:41):
Mop it up!
so, a thing that I fall asleep to,
Besides
forensic
files, is Murder, She Wrote.

Cass (49:50):
Yes!

Stef (49:50):
Angela Lansbury.

Krissi (49:51):
Guys, I am convinced more than ever that she is killing all

Cass (49:57):
characters.
Absolutely, 100%.
In important

Stef (49:59):
or in reality?

Krissi (50:01):
not both?
Yeah, exactly.
It is such a funny show and so whenHudson, my youngest, could not sleep, we
would turn on the TV and that show wouldand so then we got really into it and then
he got to where he would fall asleep tothat and like my dad thinks that's the

(50:21):
funniest he was really a kind of homesickAnd he said please turn on murder.
She
wrote

Stef (50:28):
with the unsolved mysteries thing too.
Like there's somethingweirdly comforting about that.
Like really

Cass (50:34):
like, really, unusual.
no,
no, this, this scarred me as a child.
So, like, in my, yes, in, when, when Igrew up, we, uh, our bedroom was a loft.
And so, like, you could heareverything that was on the
TV, like, and so I was young.
You know, 6, 7, and like that musicwould just scare every time it came on.

(50:57):
We'd be like, please turn it off.
But now I'm obsessed with true crimeand murder and paranormal everything.
So here we
are.

Krissi (51:05):
point might

Stef (51:06):
the listeners at this point might be a little true crimed and like,
like,
I know it's October and

Cass (51:12):
teeth,

Stef (51:12):
Okay, so let's let's finish
off with.
What do you miss most from the 90s?
Like the, like what sentimental orlike cultural thing that would have
any significance to anybody else?
are you like, Oh man, why can't,

Krissi (51:28):
music,

Cass (51:29):
wonderful era.

Krissi (51:31):
wonderful
era.
of it.

Cass (51:36):
was

Krissi (51:37):
Jam.
I

Stef (51:39):
I think of Pearl Jam as having like no actual lyrics.

Krissi (51:42):
I
Somebody put on the reallyrics, and I was like, that is
not what I thought that said.

Stef (51:51):
Yeah.
Not at all.
Okay, so grunge specifically and in

Krissi (51:54):
Well, I liked a lot of, 1996 rolled around, and I was exclusively
listening to Dave Matthews band.

Cass (52:01):
You and Michelle.
He just got inductedinto the Music Hall of

Krissi (52:05):
And that makes me feel old.
I really like him.
I mean, I don't think I could go through a
whole

Stef (52:10):
he is a
good musician.
I will give you that.
1996 just makes me think of Atlantis and

Cass (52:14):
1996 just makes
me

Krissi (52:15):
think
of Atlantis.

Stef (52:16):
better or for worse.
The, the girl rock backthen was, it was a mixed
bag.

Cass (52:20):
I

Krissi (52:21):
was Sarah

Cass (52:21):
I loved the angst.

Stef (52:23):
Okay.
She has ruined dogs for

Krissi (52:27):
I love I talked to

Cass (52:28):
TikTok to that the other day.
Yes, I did.

Stef (52:32):
that?
I
will remember you.
Oh God.

Cass (52:35):
oh no, Arms of the Angel.

Stef (52:36):
Oh God.

Krissi (52:36):
That

Stef (52:37):
one's,

Cass (52:38):
I know, but no, I took the June books that we pulled from the
new
section and I'm like, you cangive these books a temporary
home before they go intothe main collection.
It did not get a lot of likes.
I was kind of

Krissi (52:53):
Do you know what's sad about, this is just, my kids are gonna
die that I am telling you this.
So, I'm on TikTok.
Except I can't favorite Follow
And I've asked several times to thetick tock people, what's going on?
They're like, Oh, we think you're fake.
So my, my oldest kidsthink that I am hilarious

(53:14):
And then they tried to teachme how to not be a bot.

Stef (53:17):
I thought you just like, you just followed people.
I
didn't know that was a thing.

Krissi (53:21):
I can't follow

Stef (53:22):
You
just hit the little plus

Krissi (53:23):
You do but then It won't let me follow them.

Cass (53:27):
I hate to be like this, but have you logged in and logged out?

Krissi (53:29):
logged in and logged out?
I
don't know.
I haven't.
Have

Cass (53:32):
Yeah, did you turn TikTok

Krissi (53:34):
did

Stef (53:35):
you clear your cache?
You don't interact, youjust, you just absorb.

Krissi (53:39):
See, and that's what I was

Cass (53:40):
If you're trying to, if you are trying to build your following
and gain interaction, then you
have to

Stef (53:46):
that's just creepy.
There's something about

Cass (53:47):
it's

Stef (53:48):
is the
millennial in me that's like,Oh, it's creepy when people are
trying to get followers and stuff.
Like,

Krissi (53:53):
I'm just trying to, to be able to follow

Stef (53:56):
No, I get it.
I get

Krissi (53:58):
it.
Like, because I want to,

Stef (54:00):
is the oldest conversation.
Oh my God.
I got, out my, my Commodore 96
and I
try to get on TikTok
and my, I can't figureout why it's not working.
I just have
two, two

Cass (54:10):
just playing
Atari?
And just
playing pong.

Krissi (54:14):
Just pong, back and forth.
Literally.

Stef (54:17):
what's
your 90s

Cass (54:18):
Not having smartphones.

Krissi (54:20):
Oh
man.

Stef (54:20):
Not

Cass (54:20):
Not
having smartphones.

Stef (54:22):
of smartphones, okay.

Cass (54:23):
Honestly, because like, um, I remember, like, being in high
school, and I had a flip phone

Stef (54:29):
flip phones when you were that

Cass (54:30):
There very much were when we were juniors and seniors in high school.

Krissi (54:33):
you guys are younger than me.
Yeah?

Stef (54:36):
my first cell phone was when they still did the Nokia

Cass (54:39):
I had a, okay, so I had a, I had a bar phone too.
Like I had a bar phone and thenmy, I guess my flip phone must
have been in, in like 2001, anyway,so, um, I remember, I know, right?
I remember turning my phone off because Iwent into a movie and like I just had it
was like, you know, just a simple phone.
It's not like I texted or anythinglike that because you know,

(55:01):
it costs money to text then.
Um, and I just remember feelinglike no one can reach me and
it just felt really weird.
And now I'm like, I justcarry my smartphone on me
24 7 and it's constantly on
And I'm just really glad thatI got that analog childhood
and that analog adolescence.
And then, you know, obviously we'redigital natives, so we've grown up

Krissi (55:23):
internet.
I will say I was such an awkward girl.
It's probably just best that I didn't have
the

Cass (55:31):
There's still photographic evidence,

Krissi (55:33):
yeah, there is.
I'm

Stef (55:34):
on
the fence with, I get what you're saying
with
like not having a record, but at thesame time, like, I see how young people
have access to community when they feelisolated in their own local environment.
And I see how they can connect with otherpeople, like they can get into fandoms.
They can,
they can like, I feel like there issome social benefit to that, that

(55:57):
like, that we kind of missed out on.
I look back on being an adolescent andthink, God, it would have been really
nice to not feel like the school weirdo.
I am so jealous of how much peopletalk about mental health now, and
how nice it, like, It would havebeen as an adolescent to have some
transparency with that conversation.

(56:19):
Cause like having anxietyin the nineties was rough.

Krissi (56:22):
rough.
Yeah, you were just going, I mean,you're masking, you were, yeah.
I didn't realize all the little thingsthat I did were because of anxiety.
I used to count, and this is maybe akid thing, but I used to count steps.
I know all of the steps in
I know all the steps.

(56:44):
how many there are.
Yeah.
I didn't realize, and I was tellingher, I said, I went to private school
and we weren't really allowed to be
fidgety.

Stef (56:54):
to count
things?
Yeah.
No counting for you.

Krissi (56:57):
Well, I didn't tell anybody.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.

Stef (57:01):
do that.
I'm gonna go a much more trivial direction

Cass (57:05):
What do you miss?

Stef (57:06):
Delia's.

Cass (57:07):
yes.
Oh my god,
those

Stef (57:09):
those catalogs.

Krissi (57:11):
I'll just take the catalogs.

Stef (57:12):
all, we were all in that, I would assume anyway, I'm extrapolating
here, in that, economic bracketthat, like, you just had to fantasize
about Delia's.
Like, I might ask for, like,one specific skirt for, like, my
birthday or something, but, like, get

Krissi (57:29):
Uhuh.

Cass (57:30):
uh.
Like if you, you circled what youwanted, and then like you might get
something for Christmas if you're lucky.
That really cute crochetedpurse with, the daisy

Krissi (57:44):
Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about.

Stef (57:46):
platform
shoes and

Krissi (57:49):
Here's, here's where

Stef (57:50):
The maxi skirts.
God, I miss

Cass (57:52):
skirts.
I mean, you can still buy
them.

Stef (57:54):
know, but like, they only, they only really work when you're like, 115

Cass (57:59):
Valid.

Krissi (58:00):
Yeah.
And six feet tall.
Well, I never, like, I would look atthose and wish, like, if I had money,
I could buy those, but would I wear it?
Because I would be afraid of being
Would I be seen as a Like remember that

Cass (58:16):
I mean, that's valid.
I feel like we were all under thatkind of social pressure in the

Krissi (58:21):
you're not supposed to wear that And I don't think anyone ever
told me that like I think that was all
up here

Stef (58:26):
it was pervasive.
I think I, I mean, I was a theaternerd and I went the other direction.
I'm like, I am not gonnamatch on any day ever.
And like if I look as ridiculous aspossible, then it will look intentional.

Krissi (58:39):
You were brave.
That's why I

Stef (58:41):
I don't miss the nineties.

Krissi (58:42):
I know, as I said earlier, and I will repeat it,
I want to be an adult in the
90s.
In Portland.

Cass (58:50):
So the thing that I enjoy about kids these days, and that makes me feel very,
very old just saying kids these days,
Um, I could have, I could havesaid that, um, about this current
generation of teens, is that, They'rea lot kinder than we were in general,
and I think that they're all justlike, yeah, do your own thing, vibe.

(59:11):
And I really, really appreciate that.
Um,
I
saw a TikTok a while ago whereit was, these girls were like,
negging this woman for like, whatshe was looking at in Target.
But then one of the girls was like,Don't don't pay attention to what we're
saying just because we wouldn't wear itdoesn't mean that you shouldn't because
you Like it like you should wear what youwant to wear and not care what anybody

(59:35):
else thinks and I'm like heck Yeah,good job teens like cuz I don't care
what anyone thinks of what I look like.
I'm comfortable in whatI'm wearing and that's

Krissi (59:46):
fine.
Right.

Cass (59:47):
I'm,

Stef (59:47):
the beauty of your 40s,

Krissi (59:48):
Me too.

Cass (59:49):
genuinely is, and I fully acknowledge that, and I, I totally
acknowledge that, you know, Someoneyounger than me might not feel
this way, but I'm just like, look,
you're never gonna, you areprobably never gonna see me again.
Or vice versa.
So why should you care what I think?
Or why should I care what you think?
Unless you are someone who is notablein my life and it affects your life too.

(01:00:13):
am I gonna, am I gonna wear somethinginappropriate to my in law's house?
Probably shouldn't.
Um, might I?
Maybe.

Krissi (01:00:23):
I have three kids, but sometimes I split them up because
they're completely different eras.
I
have a 7 year old, an 18 year old,and a 20 year old, so my oldest kids
are very kind, like, when it comes to,I mean, except when it comes to me.
they'll tease me.
But they don't, make funof clothes or bodies.
in fact, if they even think I'm gonna dothat, they'll be like, hey, don't do that.

(01:00:46):
Like that's body shaming or
something.
So I'm like, wow, how much of mychildhood is just not funny anymore?

Stef (01:00:52):
it's interesting trying to share stuff from when I was
younger with Jonah, because I feellike I need to give warnings with
everything.
You know, it didn't age well, rolled doll.
Oh, so many fat jokes.
So many fat jokes.

Krissi (01:01:08):
so we were listening a couple years ago to a Dixie Chicks, or
the Chicks song, um, not the Dixie

Stef (01:01:15):
chick's

Krissi (01:01:19):
weird.
It does!
Goodbye, Earl.
And we were cracking up and my sweet sweetdaughter said And we're like, wow, what a
great song, you know, like that's a goodsong She goes did they they kill them?
Right?
I was like, well, yeah.
Oh, yeah She goes that's horrible
I

Stef (01:01:38):
it,

Cass (01:01:38):
I mean, Earl did deserve it, but.

Krissi (01:01:40):
was like and we all were really quiet.
We were all like, oh,
okay

Stef (01:01:44):
and
that song was like really like ahead ofits time cause it was referencing domestic
abuse in, and, you know, empowering
women
experiencing really wasn't

Krissi (01:01:58):
Yeah.

Stef (01:01:58):
about before then.
So that song rocked.

Krissi (01:02:01):
It was a good

Stef (01:02:02):
I mean, don't, don't murder people, but

Krissi (01:02:04):
But like, it was great.

Stef (01:02:05):
abusers suck.
it was nice to, settle back intothe nineties for a few minutes and
then remind ourselves why we're
glad we're not there anymore.
there we go.
When can people start voting in person?

Krissi (01:02:18):
People can start voting in person on October 26th for
the nine days of early voting.
And if you're in the MontcalmCounty, you will go to Stanton.
really easy, it's behind the MontcalmCounty Sheriff's Department jail complex.
For It's called the Pandemic ReadinessBuilding and the folks who work there,

(01:02:39):
I don't know them personally, butthey're working there every day for nine
I believe, or at least a majority areworking and they are there from 8 30 to
4 30, except for Wednesday when they'rethere for from 11 to 7, I believe.

Stef (01:02:54):
believe.
Okay.
So you can, you can vote early in person,but it is not at your polling place, it's
specifically at the, in the county seat.
Okay.
And then

Cass (01:03:03):
you
can check your polling location, um, andwhere your local ballot drop off is on

Krissi (01:03:11):
vote

Stef (01:03:11):
and and double check that your registration is current,
too, because, like, it can expire.
I
don't have

Cass (01:03:20):
still register.

Stef (01:03:21):
I don't have any clue why it expires or what the
circumstances are, but it can happen,

Krissi (01:03:25):
you can have moved and think that you check the box at the Secretary of
State and then you didn't or, you know,it may have been two weeks ago or too
long I am never, I don't care who you are.
If you want to check thatyou're registered, call me.
at City Hall, and I will let you know.
And sometimes I can tell ifyou're registered somewhere else.

(01:03:46):
I mean, I don't want really, I'm notsaying if you're from another place that I
can give you good answers for stuff, but Iwant you to call me if you have questions.
I want you to, even if it's notelection time, I want you to
call me if you have questions.
about Yes,

Cass (01:04:02):
Yes.
Yes.
She's not

Krissi (01:04:03):
so, I'm just twiddling my
thumbs.

Stef (01:04:05):
because this time of year is

Krissi (01:04:07):
It's just dead.
Yeah.
do want to say that I love being a clerk.
I love representing the city of Greenville
is where

Stef (01:04:17):
Make sure you Get out there.
There's a lot going on.
keep in mind too that, that, we areall very aware of everything that's
going on at the federal level becausethere's no way to avoid it at this point.
It's everywhere, but, do notforget how important the,
municipal level elections are.
Like, so much of what affectsour day to day lives is going to
really happen at the local level,

Krissi (01:04:38):
I hate to say what's more important, but in my opinion,
my very humble so important to

Stef (01:04:46):
see the effects much more clearly
that
way, and so, so do your research, learnthe ballot this time around, and, and go
get out the vote.
And

Krissi (01:04:54):
out the vote.
And

Stef (01:04:56):
just vote.

Krissi (01:04:57):
Yes,

Stef (01:05:01):
as soon as all of the stores started stocking, the random, and
the decorations get more and more.
random each year

Veronica (01:05:09):
what it is.
so diverse.

Cass (01:05:12):
skeletons of animals
that don't, have skeletons.
Oh yeah,
They don't, some of thesedon't have skeletons and
they're making them skeletons.

Stef (01:05:21):
they're just like cartilage and stuff like that.
But it's fun!

It's nice and spooky.

Cass (01:05:25):
I mean, I'm still shopping for home decor.

Stef (01:05:27):
Yeah.
How, how many times have you beenat Marshall's in the last two

Do

Stef (01:05:34):
we want that recorded just in case your

Cass (01:05:36):
not.
I came back from Aldi the other day and Ihad bought a treetop, like spooky little
tree, um, with little pumpkins on it.
this is literally the day after heput my black Christmas tree in my car.
To bring here.
because I was cleaning and I'mlike, why don't you put that in
my car so that I can take it to

Stef (01:05:54):
can take it to work.
This

from your house.
You're right.

Cass (01:05:57):
No,
no, no.
This is like, I'm going to use this atwork for, you know, display purposes.
And then it'll, it'll find

Stef (01:06:03):
For display purposes.

Cass (01:06:04):
whatever.
the next day I walk into the house withanother tiny tree and, he just kind of
gives me this look and shakes his headand I'm like, you know what you got

Stef (01:06:12):
Yeah, they multiplied.

Cass (01:06:13):
knew this
when you got into

Absolutely.

Stef (01:06:15):
sprinkle enough magic over any one of these and they multiply,

Cass (01:06:19):
I'm just saying, like, there's a reason why there's just Halloween
stuff in my house all year long.
Like, we got spider webs to install

Stef (01:06:29):
don't

going on
the

Cass (01:06:30):
webs

Stef (01:06:31):
Well, and you know, all you have to do is just not clean for a

Cass (01:06:34):
That's true.
There's that too, I

Stef (01:06:36):
Although it's not, it doesn't evoke the same imagery if you like
have actual just Spiderwebs in

Cass (01:06:41):
No, and apparently I'm allergic to dust, so

Stef (01:06:44):
Well,

Cass (01:06:45):
of those things now, so.

Stef (01:06:46):
Yeah.
you do?
Do
you have any, like, favoritefinds from this year's?
I'm

Cass (01:06:51):
any, like, favorite finds from this year's haul?
No, actually I think my favoritething is the, is something that I kind
of like ripped apart and made new.
forever ago on TikTok I was like,I'm gonna roll these book pages
and I'm gonna, slap them on this,creepy little wreath I've got.

(01:07:15):
I sat here for two years and thenI finally just, I'm like, I'm just
taking it home and then finally Ijust got enough, momentum one night
and I'm like, I'm just gonna do this.
And so now I have a, a spooky,soft gothic, page wreath that has,
like, flowers but, like, blackaround it and it's just very, deco

(01:07:35):
goth and, but still librarian and

just screams Cassie.

Cass (01:07:41):
it really does.
It really does.
What about you?
What's your favorite that you got this

Stef (01:07:45):
um, it's all a blur.
while you were talking, I was sittinghere thinking, and I'm like, I
don't think I can remember anythingbecause I block it out once I've
gotten it because it's just house.
Cause, this is a fun timeof year to get random decor.
they can make bowls out of anything.
Anything that looks weird can be turnedinto a receptacle to hold something else.

(01:08:07):
And the stuffies are stuffies.
And yeah, you can never haveenough skeletons in your house,

Cass (01:08:12):
It's true.

Stef (01:08:14):
last week I almost, hit Joanne's and Michael's and Grand Rapids
and see what they got going on.

Cass (01:08:20):
If you want to buy Halloween supplies for the library, we only
have three totes of Halloween, uh,

Stef (01:08:26):
Clearly insufficient for like four weeks.

We are, what, 23, 000 square feet.
we've got a lot

Stef (01:08:33):
can just, we can just, If you get this, like the stuff that
just sticks to every surface,we can just shoot it out like,
like Ghostbusters style
do you do the, Halloween decoration stuff?

I, I don't.
I don't have kids at home anymore.
And, you know, if,

Stef (01:08:48):
this has nothing to

Cass (01:08:49):
is not our children.
This is
just us.

I
just, I just don't.
Um, I haven't decorated in years.
But when I do, it'susually kind of witchy.
The boiling cauldrons and, you know,those, those are the fun things for me.
Or I like the, the yard ghosts, theones that, like the, the chicken wire,

Stef (01:09:08):
Oh,
yeah, yeah.

yeah.
those are super cool, but, yeah,I haven't done that in years,

Stef (01:09:14):
Yes, in all fairness, some people do take it.
a funky direction.
There was a house down the street fromme when I lived in Belding that had
a just a bunch of, baby doll heads
hanging from from their tree out front.
And there were a lot, 50, 60, 70 of them.
So they individually hang everysingle, like, that's dedication

Cass (01:09:35):
also collecting that many

Stef (01:09:37):
yeah.

Cass (01:09:38):
like that's

are they collecting or are they just storing what's left?

Stef (01:09:42):
Are
they
repurposing?
Yes, it's a, it's a big recycling project.
They're doing this for the earth.

Cass (01:09:48):
I just

But then the question bodes, what happened to the bodies?
Like, what are they doing with those?

Stef (01:09:53):
don't

Cass (01:09:55):
Those are in the murder basement.

They must be.
Oh, and speaking of MurderBracelet, we got to tell them
what the name of that movie was.

Stef (01:10:01):
Oh, yes.
What was it again?
Sinister.
Sinister.
yes.
That was the Ethan Hawke movie.
that apparently had the Spoiler, the badguy was a Babylonian god, which is not
what you would think with, found footage.
Like, why is he using Super8 to record his, who knows?

Cass (01:10:20):
He just got
into it like really hard.
He's like a hipster

Stef (01:10:24):
right, yeah, yeah, he listens to everything on vinyl while he
does this, and yeah, really tight
Um, I think there's something tobe said for I'm Changing Gears.
for just sort of embracing that,witchiness all year long, though,
it is fun decorating for Halloween,but let's just be all year long.

I had a, I had a great big book handmade
it's huge.
It is huge and it's wrapped inleather and it, it's sort of
like the book from Hocus Pocus.
So it's got an eye on the front andif I could just leave that out and

Stef (01:11:01):
I
mean, you can.
Who says you

just let people write in it when they come and visit me.

Cass (01:11:06):
don't
have children, so you could.

So, I've, I've just got to set the stage for it,

Stef (01:11:10):
I, I'm hearing a bed and breakfast
yeah.
I mean, Hocus Pocus came back inpretty hard the last few years.
You could, yeah.
You could stay with the

There you go, yeah.
Eyeballs

Stef (01:11:25):
Eat eyeballs for breakfast or

I always like seeing the little recipes on the reels that I
see, you know, the Halloween recipes.
Like, here's how you make an eye, andI'm like, that is very time consuming.
Why would I, why would I do that?

Stef (01:11:40):
it's kind of like those terrible five minute craft
videos you see that you're
like, why
are you doing this?
Why are you taking all of thesecrayons and then melting them together
and then putting them in this, like,silicone mold and then, chopping

a candle!

Stef (01:11:55):
yeah.
Well, but it's never something

Cass (01:11:57):
It's never something

Stef (01:11:59):
it's like we're gonna pack this all together and then we're gonna
shave a bunch of it off and it's gonnabe a bowl that we probably could have
bought for, like, 10 if we hadn't

Well, that's the whole thought of, like, when you go
shopping, it's like, oh, I can, I canmake that myself, but are you gonna?
You know,

Stef (01:12:12):
Well, I mean, there's this, there's the upfront stuff where like, can you
learn pottery or something like that?
This is just like, what troubled, drugaddled mind came up with this idea?
Because I mean, the whole concept isjust people just being like, what?

Cass (01:12:29):
It's
just, it's rage
bait is what it is.
I don't know if you've seen thewoman, everybody's so creative.
And she watches like recipes of peoplejust making these noxious things
that they're just jumping stuff in.
It's like, Oh!
Oh!
Now we're gonna put Skittlesin with the bologna.
That looks amazing!
And it's
yeah.

Stef (01:12:49):
it's, like you're putting something together and it's supposed to look like
it's just a sloppy mess but then whenit finishes it's supposed to be like,
oh it just flows together beautifully.
It's like, no, it's a sloppy mess.
Like this is not magic that you're doing.
fall is always a greatseason for programming.
summer is a lot of fun because we doa lot of big things, but I feel like

(01:13:09):
we do a fair number of smaller, butstill super awesome stuff in the fall.
Um, when people still feellike leaving their houses.
I'm looking forward to the fact thatwe've got, Reg Pettibone and his family
coming back to do the Native Dances again.
It was such a cool program whenwe did it a couple years ago.
So if you missed it, this is a greatopportunity to get to see them in action.

(01:13:31):
that's the only one I rememberfrom November because I just
remember off the top of my

Cass (01:13:35):
in November and

in November.
And we are closed for staff in service
on

Stef (01:13:38):
That's true.
That's less exciting, atleast for people listening.
Oh, we've got, self defense coming up in

Cass (01:13:45):
Stuhon, third degree black belt.

Stef (01:13:48):
The way you said that just sounded really weird,
but
it's,
gonna, it's, it's, we've done it acouple times and it continues to be
something that people take an interest in.
we've still got our bi weekly drop intech help going on, every other Friday.
So, um, if you you need assistancewith a device or trying to figure
out something technology based that'snot way above and beyond what we can

Cass (01:14:11):
fixing a computer, we'll do our

Stef (01:14:13):
Please don't bring your entire computer into the building.
we've got a follow up fromour herbal tea program of last
winter.
Um,

that was so

Stef (01:14:20):
making herbal teas, tinctures, and oils.
So we

that one.

Stef (01:14:24):
Yes, yes, that was, I forgot we had the pirate cutlass
class for the teens, too.
Tiffany keeps bringing in theswords, and it's, it's a good time.
then it's all going to wind downslowly to our epic dollar bag book
sale at the end of the year as well.
where we pull out all of the materialsthat we've been slowly weeded and try

(01:14:45):
as easily and cheaply as possible, so.

And into the hands of our

Stef (01:14:49):
Yes, so, that'll start, middle of December, so we're a ways out from
that still, but, you know, put it onyour Since we don't have Friends book
sales in November anymore becauseit got to be a little bit too much.
But you still have that on the horizon,in the meantime, keep putting up
those skeletons because it is waytoo early to think about December.

cauldrons out

Stef (01:15:10):
Yes,

absolutely.

Stef (01:15:12):
Yeah, I'm not reading The Shining this year, by the way.
I'm abstaining this time around.

Cass (01:15:17):
Any reason?

Stef (01:15:18):
I've read it too many times.

Cass (01:15:20):
time.
That's fair, that's
fair.

Stef (01:15:22):
I'm taking a break from the Stephen King.
I'm trying to get towards some slightlydifferent, horror authors and then
I'm gonna hit my limit I always thinkI like horror until I start reading

Oh, I can't do that.
I can't, I just can't read itin my, I intensify everything so
much in my head I scare myself.

Cass (01:15:39):
I did finish, Grady Hendrix's upcoming book,
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.

Is that more a like, fun read or spooky

Stef (01:15:47):
His are kind of borderline.

Cass (01:15:49):
they're kind of borderline.
I think you would be fine reading it.
Um, it's about, girls that havebeen sent away in the late 60s,
early 70s to go have their babies.
it's just this, girl'shome that they're in.
this, um, mysterious librariangives them a very And
it might be And it might be witchcrafty.

Stef (01:16:07):
Yeah, his are always just ever so slightly outside of the box.
he did one of my favorites that's justabsurd, which is the Horror Store one,
which is based on a something that isnot Ikea, but is very much like Ikea.
It's
Horror Store spelled S T O R with anumlaut on top of the O, and the entire
book is supposed to look like an

(01:16:28):
Ikea catalog.
And it's set in Ikea.
It's set overnight in this,store that's modeled like
Ikea, and it's, you know what?
Haunted Ikea in the middle of the night?
That is a scary concept.
You, everybody's seen The HauntedHouses, nobody's seen The Haunted

Cass (01:16:45):
Ikea.
I actually have it on my cart right now.
Like, I have it

Stef (01:16:49):
Yeah, it's a good one.
That's a good one to actuallyhave the physical book, too.
Each chapter is named after a story.
A different made up Danish,like, furniture piece.

Cass (01:17:01):
Flugenhaven.

Stef (01:17:02):
so I hope you're doing something spooky this time of year.
If that's something that'sin your comfort area.
If not, go watch Casper again.
I don't know, there'slots of cutesy things for

Cass (01:17:13):
And I'm making a movie display right now and Casper is on it,

I hope Halloweentown is

Cass (01:17:19):
stuff too.
I didn't see that we had Halloween

Do we have the Good Witch?

Cass (01:17:23):
Yes, that is

Stef (01:17:24):
I mean, give me, give me the list and I'll make it happen.
You know, you know, I canwave my magic wand and
yeah.
Okay,
on that note.
All right.
Thank you so much.

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