September 1, 2024 • 30 mins
In this episode, we dive deep into two significant aspects of Reggie's life: his hair journey and his commitment to learning Spanish. Reggie reflects on the fast-paced nature of time, marking the beginning of September with a sense of nostalgia and the need to focus on the present.
Reggie shares his experiences with hair care, detailing his transition from a neat, low-maintenance ball fade to embracing natural twists. He talks about the challenges he faces, including dealing with keloids and maintaining a receding hairline, and his efforts to keep his beard and hair in check with various products and treatments.
The episode then shifts to Reggie's passion for learning Spanish. He discusses his long-standing interest in the language, influenced by his high school education, time in California, and his relationship with his Venezuelan husband. Reggie describes his journey with the Duolingo app and his recent decision to invest in the "Speak Spanish Faster" course by Rocky Rodriguez, which has significantly improved his comprehension and confidence.
Reggie also shares a heartfelt and candid attempt at speaking Spanish, illustrating his dedication to becoming fluent to enhance communication with his husband and niece. He concludes with updates on his social media handles and ways listeners can support his journey.
Join Reggie as he navigates the complexities of hair care and language learning, offering insights and encouragement for anyone on a similar path.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:43):
Hello it is september 1st yes i'm stamping
today's date it's the first of september man
this year has gone by fast i have to say it has
gone by you know pretty fast and we're
nine months into this year and yeah i've i've i've yeah looking back at it it
(01:05):
just seems like it's you know i mean the older you get the more time zips by
i mean before you know it you You're celebrating,
you know, eight years in your house, 10 years married or 10 years together,
nine years married, two years, you know, since your niece came.
(01:26):
And it's interesting because, you know, most of the time when we look at time,
we're looking back at it.
We're looking at it in the past tense, you know, which probably means we need
to do more focusing on the present.
So that's why they call it a gift.
(01:47):
So i went back i listened to last week's episode
and the two things that i missed talking about was my hair and also learning
spanish and once i get going y'all it's it's it's a done deal and i try to remember
as best i can i got my notebook here next to me to keep me back on track.
(02:08):
So we're going to talk about a little bit about my hair.
And this episode is going to be mostly about me learning Spanish.
So, and, you know, my journey with that and my reasoning for,
you know, wanting to learn Spanish.
So last week I wanted to talk about my hair because I'm at an interesting crossroads with it right now.
(02:36):
I haven't had a serious haircut in my head or on my head on my hair since May of 2024.
So at this point, it's about three months, four and a half months or four months,
give or take since I had a haircut.
And the way I was getting my haircut before was pretty short.
(02:57):
It was a ball fade. And.
You know, I like it because, you know, it's neat, it's clean.
It's the best way to show you got a haircut, you know. So, and it's less maintenance.
I don't brush my hair as often as one should or as one I feel should.
(03:18):
And I just like to, you know, if I'm going somewhere, brush and go.
And that worked well for me. Had a lot to do with laziness. I know.
I'm pretty lazy. I don't have a problem with telling myself or telling anybody that.
And yeah, it is what it is. So I started to grow it out in me.
(03:39):
And that was because I have keloids on the back of my head. So I had them.
I got my first set of keloids at about 17.
And it was from a local barber. His name was Myron.
And yeah i guess he
didn't clean his his his clippers or
(04:01):
maybe i just is a cut because what i know from keloids is this keloids is scar
tissue right it's an overgrowth of you know a wound you know it produces more
skin so maybe it was a cut back there And,
you know, it just kind of grew into, it was two bumps and then it,
(04:24):
I was going to say metastasized, which it did.
It, you know, broke into a, maybe a two inch scar on the back of my head.
Some people think that it is a burn. It looks like a burn.
Well, I say that because my barber yesterday that I got my haircut,
which wasn't my normal barber.
(04:45):
He said that he thought it was a burn. And a lot of people don't notice it.
Since 2018, I really took a big treatment in it.
Over the years with the keloids in the back of my head, I, you know, have gotten shots.
I've gotten frozen nitrate, yeah, frozen nitrate, liquid nitrogen.
I don't, liquid or frozen nitrogen, I can't remember. I remember over the years
(05:08):
and it, you know, that stuff is painful, you know, going directly into the wound is very painful.
So for a number of years, I could not disassociate the pain that I had with it.
So I didn't. But in 2020, 2018, I decided to go ahead and get the needle or
the injections back in my head again, because I just wanted to be free of having that consciousness,
(05:31):
self-consciousness about it.
So I treated it. it was probably over a course of
six months and you know that lasted for a good portion and then i would say
probably within the last year it started to you know bleed again become itchy
again and start to be irritated easily irritated and that had everything to
(05:53):
do with because i was keeping my.
My haircut close because, you know, like I said, I was going with the ball fade.
And for a guy like me, that's not the best thing because I do get,
you know, razor bumps and keloids and all that other stuff.
So, you know, I don't really want to, you know, have all that.
(06:13):
So I get to the point, Reggie. So back in May, I decided after I got my round
of medicine to treat my keloids again, which I have to say is great. It's been amazing.
The skin back there now is almost non-existent.
It's pretty flat. I don't have irritation anymore. I treat it every day with medicine.
(06:36):
I don't know the names of the medicines that I put on it, but I have two that
I put on during the weekend and then the other two I put on during the week
and it's worked amazing.
So anyway, Anyway, I stopped cutting my hair and, you know, let it grow.
So, you know, I am a low-maintenance person. I've been a low-maintenance person for a number of years.
(06:59):
So, you know, it's kind of a, it's a journey for me when it comes to hair.
So recently, I would say probably within the last couple of weeks,
I made the decision that I want to do the twist.
And I don't know if you guys remember, like, 2014, 2015 to about,
you know, 2018, 2019, a lot of people were doing the twist brush,
(07:19):
those styrofoam brushes that have the holes in them.
And you could just kind of rub it over your hair and it twists your hair for you.
I decided, I was like, you know, I want to go back to that. So I did.
And I went and I got some Cantu curling butter.
And I also got some leave-in conditioner.
And your boy, you know, it's high High maintenance, I have to tell you.
(07:41):
With my beard, I got beard oil.
I like more the oil as opposed to the butter type thing.
And, you know, it's been a plethora of, like, smells and, you know, like, a level of...
You know attention that i haven't given myself in
a long time so but yeah i have curls in
(08:02):
my hair now or you know twists in my hair and
i ultimately want to let it grow but i do have we call them cowlicks but i have
a receding hairline on the sides of my head not really the side not the side
of my head but like in front where my hairline is i have a portion that's kind
(08:23):
of like an island on its own in the front.
And then the side, my hairline kind of, not kind of, my hairline goes back a little bit.
And it's not completely bald. It has, you know, fades of hair there. It's really thin.
And, you know, I'm just trying to navigate that. And at first,
for a long time, I didn't grow my hair out simply because I,
(08:45):
you know, I had those colics, you know, or receding hairlines.
I had that, and I've had that probably since my mid or late 30s.
You know, and now my beard, it has a little gray in the front.
It's the only section that's gray and I'm letting that grow too.
(09:06):
And, you know, I have a lot of breakage in my hair, but I say all that to say, I want it to grow.
I'm probably not going to get it cut as short as I was getting it cut again for a while.
I haven't been doing weddings, so there hasn't been a need for me to get it
cut as frequently as I was getting before. before, but yeah,
(09:26):
it's a nice little, it's a nice little chunk.
I got it. I like to call it a mini Afro and you know, I get it lined up like
yesterday. I kind of got a blowout if you will.
I don't know why they call it that, but my barber, he's a guy that I knew worked
at Sprint a number of years ago and you know, he's a barber now.
So yeah, he did a really good job. He did a really good job of sculpting my
(09:47):
beard and he did a very good job of cutting the hair.
Cause I, I didn't want it to be cut, you know, per se, because that just eliminates
what my ultimate goal is.
But I do want to look, you know, presentable. I want to have,
you know, I like that edged, you know, clean cut look.
And I think, you know, getting that fresh haircut and keeping it maintained
(10:08):
is the best thing to do to, you know, keep it looking good. So that's what we're doing.
So, yeah, so it's been a journey for me. There has been days where I haven't
felt like combing my beard.
I'm trying to keep it soft. I get discouraged sometimes because it gets the
breakage and I see a whole bunch of my hair in the sink, but I don't know if
(10:32):
that's just from dryness or what's causing that.
I also know that split ends could happen too.
And maybe I'm combing the split ends out or maybe I need to cut my hair because
I feel like it's kind of gotten to a plateau it's not growing so i think i probably
just needed to i probably need to cut you know some of the split ends and i
(10:55):
think the guy did that yesterday.
He did that yesterday, so it's clean. It looks good. It looks good.
So I didn't go to my normal barber because sometimes it's difficult to communicate
with my barber because he doesn't speak English.
So, you know, I'll be one of the times I want to cut the flyways.
You know, I want to keep it full.
(11:15):
It's hard for me to go into detail, you know, with him, even with Spanish words
because they don't translate the same. So my friend, he did a very good job
with what I had yesterday. I'm very happy with it.
So, you know, whenever I do get my hair cut, it might be a treat for me to go
get him to do it and, you know, keep it going.
(11:36):
You know, because I like to experiment with my hair. I'm not,
like, you know, attached to anything.
I mean, had he messed up or had he, you know, cut it too short,
it wouldn't have been an issue for me, you know. But I do like to do different things.
Sometimes I like to keep it short and I like to grow it. And then I like to keep my beard long.
(12:00):
And then I like to do more of a mustache and a goatee separated in the middle.
So I have a whole bunch of different looks from having a head full of hair that
I still have a tendency to maintain and desire to do from time to time.
Because I don't want to be held down to anything.
I don't want to be held down to anything. I like to, you know,
(12:23):
like to switch it up every now and then, you know.
So that's where I'm at with my hair. It is grown significantly.
If you guys want to take a look and see what that looks like,
you got to go on my social media.
And please forgive me. I know there's some rough days, you know, with my hair sometimes.
But navigating that journey and, you know, it's starting to get easier and easier every day.
(12:44):
And, you know, I'm learning to, you know, maintain it. and maintaining it,
it does take a, you know, it takes time, effort, and sometimes I don't want
to do it. I have to push through it.
But I will say the only question I have is like, you know, now that I have the,
you know, the twist in my hair, how often should I be washing it?
(13:05):
You know what I'm saying? So I try not to, you know, with the leave-in conditioner,
I don't want to wash it all the time, you know, because that would just be wasting
product and all that stuff.
And I don't think it's something that you should put in your hair all the time,
but that's what YouTube's for.
So, you know, your boy will hook it up with that and we'll see.
So, you know, my next topic I want to go to is learning Spanish.
(13:27):
I've had an affinity to Spanish for as long as I can remember.
I took Spanish in high school, Spanish 1 and Spanish 2, which were basic courses,
not enough to learn to have a conversation.
And then when I got out of the military in 2020 or 2004, I moved to California,
and I learned a great deal of Mexican Spanish and Mexican slang to be able to navigate over there.
(13:54):
I used to say that I was fluent and I would say that I could speak without having
to think about what it was.
And I think that's a level of fluency, but I probably, you know,
anything outside of like, you know, the Mexican reference that I had,
I probably didn't know much.
So, but when I moved back East, I didn't have a need for that.
(14:17):
Spanish was not as prominent.
I mean, And when I lived in Jacksonville at the time, I guess in the circles that I happened to be in.
But yeah, I mean, I had a friend of mine.
She's still a friend who her husband was the same nationality.
And my husband is Venezuelan.
And she, you know, she knew Spanish.
(14:38):
And my friend is very country. Country is hell from up there in South Carolina.
She knows Spanish well. And, you know, I think that kind of reinvigorated my
desire to be like, okay, you should, you should try to learn.
So, you know, just over that time, you know, men I've dated,
(15:01):
things of that nature, it was just very like, you know, like,
okay, you know, just admiring from afar kind of thing when it came to the language.
And I think that, you know, my desire to learn Spanish was, you know,
initially rooted in wanting to understand,
you know, because I know English can be very difficult to learn as a language,
(15:25):
but it seems like everybody knows English.
I mean, you go to the UN, you go to Kenya, you go to, you know,
there's going to be somebody there that knows Spanish, English,
you know, when it comes to Spanish, there's a novelty there, I guess.
And, you know, it's, it's a language that I've just always been interested in.
Being married to Carlos over the last, you know, nine years, we, he,
(15:47):
you know, he speaks English with me, but his world is Spanish as much as I would
like to think, you know, because he works, you know, where he works, he,
you know, speaks English often, but most of his co-workers are Spanish speaking.
Family members are Spanish speaking. We now have his niece live with us.
(16:08):
She's Spanish speaking. speaking, he's not really in the English language as much.
So it wasn't until recently where I realized just with our communication styles and stuff like that,
that there's a lot of misunderstanding that he and I have simply because neither
one of us can fluently speak the language of each other well.
(16:30):
And my primary language is English. His primary language is Spanish.
But when we have arguments or disagreements and stuff, you know,
it really relies on him understanding the words that I say.
And I have a vast vocabulary when it comes to English.
And, you know, sometimes that might not always be easy for a,
(16:55):
you know, native Spanish speaker who has a very, you know, high understanding of English,
you know, in a way that, you know, yeah, he can carry on a conversation and
get a little deeper into topics and stuff like that.
But when it comes to, like, feelings, emotions, thoughts, and things.
It's a, you know, it's a little different, you know? And, you know, he could...
(17:19):
There are times where I've seen the confidence when it comes to speaking English,
like, drain because even though he might, you know, his extension of,
like, emotion in English is, like, sad or happy,
angry, bothered.
And there's, you know, a whole gamut of feelings that he may not even know.
(17:41):
Like, I brought up the word miffed before or, let's say, indifferent.
You know what I'm saying? Like, you probably translate it into Spanish,
but indifference in English and Spanish may be different things.
And I can say, I'm indifferent, which means, hey, I don't have a feeling one way or another.
But, you know, in Spanish, it can mean something completely different,
(18:02):
you know, more mechanical word of indifference, you know.
So, you know, it's that desire or that disconnect to me when communication,
you know, is a big thing for me in our relationship.
I want to be able to communicate with him on a high level, whether it be English or Spanish.
(18:24):
So I really just took a step back. I have, you know, been doing Duolingo for 566 days.
I probably have had the app on my phone more than two years,
two years plus, but I've had a streak for 566 days.
And I'm very happy about that.
But I do understand that there's going to be way more English or Spanish that I need to learn.
(18:49):
And I don't feel like I'm I don't feel like it's any different than where I was at before.
You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't feel like I know more.
And I really have to put myself out there with learning. So I purchased a course
called Speak Spanish Faster.
Rocky Rodriguez, he's somebody I just, I've seen a lot of his videos, excuse me.
(19:10):
I've seen a lot of his videos and I just really like how his approach,
his personality, who he is.
As I mean, I don't really know him, but just how he presents it.
It's a very, you know, conversational and warm, you know, introduction when it comes to Spanish.
And some of the stuff that he's, you know, kind of explained in terms of like
the way to understand it is, has been really helpful, you know,
(19:34):
with me retaining a lot more of the language than I had in the past.
You know, I feel strong enough now to be able to weave in and out of Spanish
and have a conversation with somebody as I did before.
I can tell you for sure I did not have that thought or feeling when I was just doing Duolingo only.
So his course, you know, it's a decent, you know, chunk of, you know,
(19:57):
learning, you know, some with conjugations. He don't really dig too much into that.
But the thing about it is, is once you purchase the course, you know,
he updates pretty regularly. you know, different things that he does.
He likes to decode Spanish songs and, you know, decode conversations that he has.
And, you know, it really is helpful to, again, his method, you know,
(20:18):
of teaching Spanish is a lot more immersive than I've seen in other places.
And I just like him. The other ones, you know, Babel, they all seem very scientific
in a way, And I don't really connect with that.
So he's the one that I chose. And I like the course so far.
I'm in week one. I finished week one, you know, on Tuesday.
(20:41):
But then I realized, you know, Reggie, you're probably going too slow or too fast.
So what I did was throughout the week is I went back and I listened to those
episodes again so I can just have a frame of reference.
And I am noticing that, you know, like I said, I'm retaining more and that the
words are starting to become a little bit more familiar and easier for me to understand.
So shout out to him. But I'm going to try something in Spanish,
(21:04):
a little Easter egg for you guys.
And, you know, I know I have pronunciation down well. My husband and his friends
often talk about how well I speak.
But when it comes to certain words, and I'm not doing this with any,
you know, I was going to do Google Translate.
But I was like, you know, I don't want it to sound like it is something that
came from Google Translate simply because sometimes the stuff,
(21:28):
it doesn't translate well. So here goes.
Mi nombre es Reggie. Yo tengo...
Yo tengo 10 años con mi esposo, 10 años juntos, matrimonio, 9 años this year.
(21:49):
Y viven, no, vivimos con mi sobrina, Stephanie, y tres perros, Carly, Rico, y Tusi.
Y yo quiero hablar o aprender español porque mi esposo y sobrina hablan español mucho.
(22:17):
Yo quiero entender, yo quiero hablar con ella y él mucho.
Pero muy difícil para mí porque yo pienso en inglés.
Yo necesito traducir en español.
(22:40):
So, difícil. Yo pienso mucho. Yo hablo en inglés mucho.
Muchas palabras no entiendo en inglés, en español.
Y yo tengo nervioso mucho hablar,
(23:00):
well, when speaking, cuando hablo en espanol, porque espanol,
Spanish speakers, hablar...
Spanish speakers. Hablan Espanol muy rapido.
(23:21):
And yo dice, yo digo, yo digo, despacio, por favor. I just learned how to say that.
So, you know. Pero de clase, yo tomo es más fácil.
Y mucho, mucho, mucho cosas y ejercicios yo probar.
(23:50):
That may not be the correct word.
Ejercicios en hablando, en hablar espanol.
But I want to practice a lot, talk a lot with other Spanish people, husband and niece.
(24:16):
But it's difficult. pero I want the I want the smoke I want to be able to,
bring it you know what I'm saying that's what I'm trying to say so that's me
speaking Spanish man and And, you know, my reason is to, you know,
for the connection with me and my husband.
I tried to say that in Spanish, as broken as it was.
(24:36):
And, you know, the journey, I, you know, it's been very, like,
casual, but I'm immersing myself.
I have changed my language on my phone to Spanish only.
I am going to be listening to Spanish podcasts, you know, for,
you know, as best I can. And yeah, I do want to, you know, become fluent, you know, more fluent.
(25:04):
Then your boy already is. So it's just some of the small things that you got to do.
And, you know, one of the things that Rocky said in his video is stop trying
to speak Spanish so fast.
You know what I'm saying? Like, okay, take some time to learn the language.
And then once you learn it, then try to speak it, you know?
But it's difficult because you want to try to apply the things that you've learned.
(25:26):
But as you can see, your boy did that and how messed up that was.
So all right guys that's all i got i hope
you enjoyed the episode thank you so much for listening please don't forget
to tell everybody and their mama about it if you do want
to want to support your homie you can reach out at reggie's expressions on patreon
and that's r-e-g-g-e-e apostrophe s expressions on patreon right now it's free
(25:50):
you know later on once i develop more i will you know start adding the tiers
and it is completely optional you guys can also find me on on Instagram at R.L.
Socorro Garner, and that's A-R-E underscore E-L underscore Socorro Garner, no dash.
And then on Facebook, you can find me at R.L.
(26:11):
Socorro Garner, and that's A-R-E space E-L space Socorro, S-O-C-O-R-R-O dash
Garner, G-A-R-N-E-R, and TikTok, Reggie's expressions, all one word.
All right. So you guys enjoy the rest of your day. I hope you you enjoyed the episode.
And as always, I would love to hear from you guys.
(26:33):
Interact and tell me what y'all think. All right. You guys have a good week.
Happy September 1st, and I hope your year's going well.
Music.
Music.
(00:43):
Hello it is september 1st yes i'm stamping
today's date it's the first of september man
this year has gone by fast i have to say it has
gone by you know pretty fast and we're
nine months into this year and yeah i've i've i've yeah looking back at it it
(01:05):
just seems like it's you know i mean the older you get the more time zips by
i mean before you know it you You're celebrating,
you know, eight years in your house, 10 years married or 10 years together,
nine years married, two years, you know, since your niece came.
(01:26):
And it's interesting because, you know, most of the time when we look at time,
we're looking back at it.
We're looking at it in the past tense, you know, which probably means we need
to do more focusing on the present.
So that's why they call it a gift.
(01:47):
So i went back i listened to last week's episode
and the two things that i missed talking about was my hair and also learning
spanish and once i get going y'all it's it's it's a done deal and i try to remember
as best i can i got my notebook here next to me to keep me back on track.
(02:08):
So we're going to talk about a little bit about my hair.
And this episode is going to be mostly about me learning Spanish.
So, and, you know, my journey with that and my reasoning for,
you know, wanting to learn Spanish.
So last week I wanted to talk about my hair because I'm at an interesting crossroads with it right now.
(02:36):
I haven't had a serious haircut in my head or on my head on my hair since May of 2024.
So at this point, it's about three months, four and a half months or four months,
give or take since I had a haircut.
And the way I was getting my haircut before was pretty short.
(02:57):
It was a ball fade. And.
You know, I like it because, you know, it's neat, it's clean.
It's the best way to show you got a haircut, you know. So, and it's less maintenance.
I don't brush my hair as often as one should or as one I feel should.
(03:18):
And I just like to, you know, if I'm going somewhere, brush and go.
And that worked well for me. Had a lot to do with laziness. I know.
I'm pretty lazy. I don't have a problem with telling myself or telling anybody that.
And yeah, it is what it is. So I started to grow it out in me.
(03:39):
And that was because I have keloids on the back of my head. So I had them.
I got my first set of keloids at about 17.
And it was from a local barber. His name was Myron.
And yeah i guess he
didn't clean his his his clippers or
(04:01):
maybe i just is a cut because what i know from keloids is this keloids is scar
tissue right it's an overgrowth of you know a wound you know it produces more
skin so maybe it was a cut back there And,
you know, it just kind of grew into, it was two bumps and then it,
(04:24):
I was going to say metastasized, which it did.
It, you know, broke into a, maybe a two inch scar on the back of my head.
Some people think that it is a burn. It looks like a burn.
Well, I say that because my barber yesterday that I got my haircut,
which wasn't my normal barber.
(04:45):
He said that he thought it was a burn. And a lot of people don't notice it.
Since 2018, I really took a big treatment in it.
Over the years with the keloids in the back of my head, I, you know, have gotten shots.
I've gotten frozen nitrate, yeah, frozen nitrate, liquid nitrogen.
I don't, liquid or frozen nitrogen, I can't remember. I remember over the years
(05:08):
and it, you know, that stuff is painful, you know, going directly into the wound is very painful.
So for a number of years, I could not disassociate the pain that I had with it.
So I didn't. But in 2020, 2018, I decided to go ahead and get the needle or
the injections back in my head again, because I just wanted to be free of having that consciousness,
(05:31):
self-consciousness about it.
So I treated it. it was probably over a course of
six months and you know that lasted for a good portion and then i would say
probably within the last year it started to you know bleed again become itchy
again and start to be irritated easily irritated and that had everything to
(05:53):
do with because i was keeping my.
My haircut close because, you know, like I said, I was going with the ball fade.
And for a guy like me, that's not the best thing because I do get,
you know, razor bumps and keloids and all that other stuff.
So, you know, I don't really want to, you know, have all that.
(06:13):
So I get to the point, Reggie. So back in May, I decided after I got my round
of medicine to treat my keloids again, which I have to say is great. It's been amazing.
The skin back there now is almost non-existent.
It's pretty flat. I don't have irritation anymore. I treat it every day with medicine.
(06:36):
I don't know the names of the medicines that I put on it, but I have two that
I put on during the weekend and then the other two I put on during the week
and it's worked amazing.
So anyway, Anyway, I stopped cutting my hair and, you know, let it grow.
So, you know, I am a low-maintenance person. I've been a low-maintenance person for a number of years.
(06:59):
So, you know, it's kind of a, it's a journey for me when it comes to hair.
So recently, I would say probably within the last couple of weeks,
I made the decision that I want to do the twist.
And I don't know if you guys remember, like, 2014, 2015 to about,
you know, 2018, 2019, a lot of people were doing the twist brush,
(07:19):
those styrofoam brushes that have the holes in them.
And you could just kind of rub it over your hair and it twists your hair for you.
I decided, I was like, you know, I want to go back to that. So I did.
And I went and I got some Cantu curling butter.
And I also got some leave-in conditioner.
And your boy, you know, it's high High maintenance, I have to tell you.
(07:41):
With my beard, I got beard oil.
I like more the oil as opposed to the butter type thing.
And, you know, it's been a plethora of, like, smells and, you know, like, a level of...
You know attention that i haven't given myself in
a long time so but yeah i have curls in
(08:02):
my hair now or you know twists in my hair and
i ultimately want to let it grow but i do have we call them cowlicks but i have
a receding hairline on the sides of my head not really the side not the side
of my head but like in front where my hairline is i have a portion that's kind
(08:23):
of like an island on its own in the front.
And then the side, my hairline kind of, not kind of, my hairline goes back a little bit.
And it's not completely bald. It has, you know, fades of hair there. It's really thin.
And, you know, I'm just trying to navigate that. And at first,
for a long time, I didn't grow my hair out simply because I,
(08:45):
you know, I had those colics, you know, or receding hairlines.
I had that, and I've had that probably since my mid or late 30s.
You know, and now my beard, it has a little gray in the front.
It's the only section that's gray and I'm letting that grow too.
(09:06):
And, you know, I have a lot of breakage in my hair, but I say all that to say, I want it to grow.
I'm probably not going to get it cut as short as I was getting it cut again for a while.
I haven't been doing weddings, so there hasn't been a need for me to get it
cut as frequently as I was getting before. before, but yeah,
(09:26):
it's a nice little, it's a nice little chunk.
I got it. I like to call it a mini Afro and you know, I get it lined up like
yesterday. I kind of got a blowout if you will.
I don't know why they call it that, but my barber, he's a guy that I knew worked
at Sprint a number of years ago and you know, he's a barber now.
So yeah, he did a really good job. He did a really good job of sculpting my
(09:47):
beard and he did a very good job of cutting the hair.
Cause I, I didn't want it to be cut, you know, per se, because that just eliminates
what my ultimate goal is.
But I do want to look, you know, presentable. I want to have,
you know, I like that edged, you know, clean cut look.
And I think, you know, getting that fresh haircut and keeping it maintained
(10:08):
is the best thing to do to, you know, keep it looking good. So that's what we're doing.
So, yeah, so it's been a journey for me. There has been days where I haven't
felt like combing my beard.
I'm trying to keep it soft. I get discouraged sometimes because it gets the
breakage and I see a whole bunch of my hair in the sink, but I don't know if
(10:32):
that's just from dryness or what's causing that.
I also know that split ends could happen too.
And maybe I'm combing the split ends out or maybe I need to cut my hair because
I feel like it's kind of gotten to a plateau it's not growing so i think i probably
just needed to i probably need to cut you know some of the split ends and i
(10:55):
think the guy did that yesterday.
He did that yesterday, so it's clean. It looks good. It looks good.
So I didn't go to my normal barber because sometimes it's difficult to communicate
with my barber because he doesn't speak English.
So, you know, I'll be one of the times I want to cut the flyways.
You know, I want to keep it full.
(11:15):
It's hard for me to go into detail, you know, with him, even with Spanish words
because they don't translate the same. So my friend, he did a very good job
with what I had yesterday. I'm very happy with it.
So, you know, whenever I do get my hair cut, it might be a treat for me to go
get him to do it and, you know, keep it going.
(11:36):
You know, because I like to experiment with my hair. I'm not,
like, you know, attached to anything.
I mean, had he messed up or had he, you know, cut it too short,
it wouldn't have been an issue for me, you know. But I do like to do different things.
Sometimes I like to keep it short and I like to grow it. And then I like to keep my beard long.
(12:00):
And then I like to do more of a mustache and a goatee separated in the middle.
So I have a whole bunch of different looks from having a head full of hair that
I still have a tendency to maintain and desire to do from time to time.
Because I don't want to be held down to anything.
I don't want to be held down to anything. I like to, you know,
(12:23):
like to switch it up every now and then, you know.
So that's where I'm at with my hair. It is grown significantly.
If you guys want to take a look and see what that looks like,
you got to go on my social media.
And please forgive me. I know there's some rough days, you know, with my hair sometimes.
But navigating that journey and, you know, it's starting to get easier and easier every day.
(12:44):
And, you know, I'm learning to, you know, maintain it. and maintaining it,
it does take a, you know, it takes time, effort, and sometimes I don't want
to do it. I have to push through it.
But I will say the only question I have is like, you know, now that I have the,
you know, the twist in my hair, how often should I be washing it?
(13:05):
You know what I'm saying? So I try not to, you know, with the leave-in conditioner,
I don't want to wash it all the time, you know, because that would just be wasting
product and all that stuff.
And I don't think it's something that you should put in your hair all the time,
but that's what YouTube's for.
So, you know, your boy will hook it up with that and we'll see.
So, you know, my next topic I want to go to is learning Spanish.
(13:27):
I've had an affinity to Spanish for as long as I can remember.
I took Spanish in high school, Spanish 1 and Spanish 2, which were basic courses,
not enough to learn to have a conversation.
And then when I got out of the military in 2020 or 2004, I moved to California,
and I learned a great deal of Mexican Spanish and Mexican slang to be able to navigate over there.
(13:54):
I used to say that I was fluent and I would say that I could speak without having
to think about what it was.
And I think that's a level of fluency, but I probably, you know,
anything outside of like, you know, the Mexican reference that I had,
I probably didn't know much.
So, but when I moved back East, I didn't have a need for that.
(14:17):
Spanish was not as prominent.
I mean, And when I lived in Jacksonville at the time, I guess in the circles that I happened to be in.
But yeah, I mean, I had a friend of mine.
She's still a friend who her husband was the same nationality.
And my husband is Venezuelan.
And she, you know, she knew Spanish.
(14:38):
And my friend is very country. Country is hell from up there in South Carolina.
She knows Spanish well. And, you know, I think that kind of reinvigorated my
desire to be like, okay, you should, you should try to learn.
So, you know, just over that time, you know, men I've dated,
(15:01):
things of that nature, it was just very like, you know, like,
okay, you know, just admiring from afar kind of thing when it came to the language.
And I think that, you know, my desire to learn Spanish was, you know,
initially rooted in wanting to understand,
you know, because I know English can be very difficult to learn as a language,
(15:25):
but it seems like everybody knows English.
I mean, you go to the UN, you go to Kenya, you go to, you know,
there's going to be somebody there that knows Spanish, English,
you know, when it comes to Spanish, there's a novelty there, I guess.
And, you know, it's, it's a language that I've just always been interested in.
Being married to Carlos over the last, you know, nine years, we, he,
(15:47):
you know, he speaks English with me, but his world is Spanish as much as I would
like to think, you know, because he works, you know, where he works, he,
you know, speaks English often, but most of his co-workers are Spanish speaking.
Family members are Spanish speaking. We now have his niece live with us.
(16:08):
She's Spanish speaking. speaking, he's not really in the English language as much.
So it wasn't until recently where I realized just with our communication styles and stuff like that,
that there's a lot of misunderstanding that he and I have simply because neither
one of us can fluently speak the language of each other well.
(16:30):
And my primary language is English. His primary language is Spanish.
But when we have arguments or disagreements and stuff, you know,
it really relies on him understanding the words that I say.
And I have a vast vocabulary when it comes to English.
And, you know, sometimes that might not always be easy for a,
(16:55):
you know, native Spanish speaker who has a very, you know, high understanding of English,
you know, in a way that, you know, yeah, he can carry on a conversation and
get a little deeper into topics and stuff like that.
But when it comes to, like, feelings, emotions, thoughts, and things.
It's a, you know, it's a little different, you know? And, you know, he could...
(17:19):
There are times where I've seen the confidence when it comes to speaking English,
like, drain because even though he might, you know, his extension of,
like, emotion in English is, like, sad or happy,
angry, bothered.
And there's, you know, a whole gamut of feelings that he may not even know.
(17:41):
Like, I brought up the word miffed before or, let's say, indifferent.
You know what I'm saying? Like, you probably translate it into Spanish,
but indifference in English and Spanish may be different things.
And I can say, I'm indifferent, which means, hey, I don't have a feeling one way or another.
But, you know, in Spanish, it can mean something completely different,
(18:02):
you know, more mechanical word of indifference, you know.
So, you know, it's that desire or that disconnect to me when communication,
you know, is a big thing for me in our relationship.
I want to be able to communicate with him on a high level, whether it be English or Spanish.
(18:24):
So I really just took a step back. I have, you know, been doing Duolingo for 566 days.
I probably have had the app on my phone more than two years,
two years plus, but I've had a streak for 566 days.
And I'm very happy about that.
But I do understand that there's going to be way more English or Spanish that I need to learn.
(18:49):
And I don't feel like I'm I don't feel like it's any different than where I was at before.
You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't feel like I know more.
And I really have to put myself out there with learning. So I purchased a course
called Speak Spanish Faster.
Rocky Rodriguez, he's somebody I just, I've seen a lot of his videos, excuse me.
(19:10):
I've seen a lot of his videos and I just really like how his approach,
his personality, who he is.
As I mean, I don't really know him, but just how he presents it.
It's a very, you know, conversational and warm, you know, introduction when it comes to Spanish.
And some of the stuff that he's, you know, kind of explained in terms of like
the way to understand it is, has been really helpful, you know,
(19:34):
with me retaining a lot more of the language than I had in the past.
You know, I feel strong enough now to be able to weave in and out of Spanish
and have a conversation with somebody as I did before.
I can tell you for sure I did not have that thought or feeling when I was just doing Duolingo only.
So his course, you know, it's a decent, you know, chunk of, you know,
(19:57):
learning, you know, some with conjugations. He don't really dig too much into that.
But the thing about it is, is once you purchase the course, you know,
he updates pretty regularly. you know, different things that he does.
He likes to decode Spanish songs and, you know, decode conversations that he has.
And, you know, it really is helpful to, again, his method, you know,
(20:18):
of teaching Spanish is a lot more immersive than I've seen in other places.
And I just like him. The other ones, you know, Babel, they all seem very scientific
in a way, And I don't really connect with that.
So he's the one that I chose. And I like the course so far.
I'm in week one. I finished week one, you know, on Tuesday.
(20:41):
But then I realized, you know, Reggie, you're probably going too slow or too fast.
So what I did was throughout the week is I went back and I listened to those
episodes again so I can just have a frame of reference.
And I am noticing that, you know, like I said, I'm retaining more and that the
words are starting to become a little bit more familiar and easier for me to understand.
So shout out to him. But I'm going to try something in Spanish,
(21:04):
a little Easter egg for you guys.
And, you know, I know I have pronunciation down well. My husband and his friends
often talk about how well I speak.
But when it comes to certain words, and I'm not doing this with any,
you know, I was going to do Google Translate.
But I was like, you know, I don't want it to sound like it is something that
came from Google Translate simply because sometimes the stuff,
(21:28):
it doesn't translate well. So here goes.
Mi nombre es Reggie. Yo tengo...
Yo tengo 10 años con mi esposo, 10 años juntos, matrimonio, 9 años this year.
(21:49):
Y viven, no, vivimos con mi sobrina, Stephanie, y tres perros, Carly, Rico, y Tusi.
Y yo quiero hablar o aprender español porque mi esposo y sobrina hablan español mucho.
(22:17):
Yo quiero entender, yo quiero hablar con ella y él mucho.
Pero muy difícil para mí porque yo pienso en inglés.
Yo necesito traducir en español.
(22:40):
So, difícil. Yo pienso mucho. Yo hablo en inglés mucho.
Muchas palabras no entiendo en inglés, en español.
Y yo tengo nervioso mucho hablar,
(23:00):
well, when speaking, cuando hablo en espanol, porque espanol,
Spanish speakers, hablar...
Spanish speakers. Hablan Espanol muy rapido.
(23:21):
And yo dice, yo digo, yo digo, despacio, por favor. I just learned how to say that.
So, you know. Pero de clase, yo tomo es más fácil.
Y mucho, mucho, mucho cosas y ejercicios yo probar.
(23:50):
That may not be the correct word.
Ejercicios en hablando, en hablar espanol.
But I want to practice a lot, talk a lot with other Spanish people, husband and niece.
(24:16):
But it's difficult. pero I want the I want the smoke I want to be able to,
bring it you know what I'm saying that's what I'm trying to say so that's me
speaking Spanish man and And, you know, my reason is to, you know,
for the connection with me and my husband.
I tried to say that in Spanish, as broken as it was.
(24:36):
And, you know, the journey, I, you know, it's been very, like,
casual, but I'm immersing myself.
I have changed my language on my phone to Spanish only.
I am going to be listening to Spanish podcasts, you know, for,
you know, as best I can. And yeah, I do want to, you know, become fluent, you know, more fluent.
(25:04):
Then your boy already is. So it's just some of the small things that you got to do.
And, you know, one of the things that Rocky said in his video is stop trying
to speak Spanish so fast.
You know what I'm saying? Like, okay, take some time to learn the language.
And then once you learn it, then try to speak it, you know?
But it's difficult because you want to try to apply the things that you've learned.
(25:26):
But as you can see, your boy did that and how messed up that was.
So all right guys that's all i got i hope
you enjoyed the episode thank you so much for listening please don't forget
to tell everybody and their mama about it if you do want
to want to support your homie you can reach out at reggie's expressions on patreon
and that's r-e-g-g-e-e apostrophe s expressions on patreon right now it's free
(25:50):
you know later on once i develop more i will you know start adding the tiers
and it is completely optional you guys can also find me on on Instagram at R.L.
Socorro Garner, and that's A-R-E underscore E-L underscore Socorro Garner, no dash.
And then on Facebook, you can find me at R.L.
(26:11):
Socorro Garner, and that's A-R-E space E-L space Socorro, S-O-C-O-R-R-O dash
Garner, G-A-R-N-E-R, and TikTok, Reggie's expressions, all one word.
All right. So you guys enjoy the rest of your day. I hope you you enjoyed the episode.
And as always, I would love to hear from you guys.
(26:33):
Interact and tell me what y'all think. All right. You guys have a good week.
Happy September 1st, and I hope your year's going well.
Music.
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