May 22, 2025 • 53 mins
Is the economy falling apart again or are we just paying closer attention this time?
In this episode, Adrienne and Kristen unpack the chaos of today’s financial landscape: soaring prices, rising tariffs, and some unsettling similarities to the 2008 housing crisis. With relatable insight and a good dose of sarcasm, they explore how everyday people are trying to stay afloat in a system that feels increasingly rigged.
And yes, this conversation goes off the rails in the best way. From odd jobs to wild side hustles, you’ll hear one story that’ll have you laughing out loud (and texting your best friend). You don’t want to miss it.
In this episode:
Why the economy feels eerily familiar right now
What late-stage capitalism looks like from two very different perspectives
Personal stories of hustle, hustle, and more hustle
A surprising career reveal that you’ll have to hear to believe 👀
Follow + Subscribe for more real talk about money, motherhood, and making it work.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hey everyone, welcome to High Heels and Hay Bales, the podcast
where polished meets practical, legal meets lifestyle, and dead
meets dirt. I'm Kristen, your resident farm
lady, keeping it real about motherhood, homesteading in the
funny side of figuring out life.And I'm Adrian, AKA the Ladylike
Lawyer. I'm here to help you make sense
(00:27):
of money, debt, and the legal stuff without boring you to
tears. So kick off your boots or heels
and let's get into it. Let's get into it.
Well, hello and welcome to the next episode of High Heels and
Hay Bales. I'm Adrian Hynes, the Ladylike
lawyer. And I am Kristen Paris, the
hillbilly, unfiltered homesteader.
(00:50):
Oh, we come in laughing. We've been giggling because we
should have hit record a little bit a little bit sooner because
we were on a roll today. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome
back. We're glad to have you with us,
and we're going to try and sharesome of our some of our deep
dark humor with you while just trying to laugh at the fact that
the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
It's on fire. Big fire.
(01:12):
My gosh, big fires, hashtag big,big fires everywhere.
But you know, what are we going to do?
We're going to I I was at the grocery store yesterday and I
almost got all the things for S'mores because I thought this
is such a big trash fire that weare dealing with.
I need to find a way to enjoy it.
Yeah, I don't blame you. I do find myself buying the
(01:35):
like, you know, shoving a littlething in my budget, like, you
know, an extra doughnut or something because we're not
going to be able to enjoy it soon anyway.
Speaking of how, how's business,Adrian?
Oh my God. I know you're asking this
because you know exactly how business is for me lately,
because I've been largely uncommunicative.
(01:58):
And I want to say that as a bankruptcy lawyer, I, I wasn't,
I hadn't been practicing law quite long enough yet when, when
the, but in 2005 and 2006, I started to get a sense that
something was afoot, right? And so I didn't, I wasn't able
(02:20):
to predict the housing market, but I sure sensed a shift in my
practice at that time. I can tell you that it feels
like that right now. I will ordinarily have most of
my life I've had maybe 5 or 6 clients, maybe a week, maybe 3
or 4 sometimes throughout the year who need to talk to me.
(02:41):
And the last seven days I've had17 clients and they are just and
that's how it's been for for weeks now.
I've just never seen I've never seen it this busy before.
I honestly haven't. I'm not surprised, honestly.
I mean, you know, you mentioned 2008 when in 2008 when all of
(03:03):
the housing market crashed and everything.
Jeremy, my husband and I, we didn't have anything.
We literally had nothing. We were living in a crappy apt.
I was bouncing from job to job because the job market was crazy
and I don't remember the 2008 recession being bad.
But we also didn't own a home, we didn't have credit cards, we
didn't have any of that stuff. We thought about buying a house
(03:24):
after everything crashed, but then we were learning about how
the interest rates and AP Rs andthe flexible whatever the hell
they are, I don't even know. But I can remember people
freaking out then and it's so much worse.
Now. So the fact that you are
non-stop busy when you told me 17 clients, I was like, is that
(03:48):
that's not normal. Like no, that's.
Not normal. I'm seeing, I'm, I'm taking
clients on Saturday and Sunday to try to, to try to keep up
with the flow because people arehaving like garnishments and
possessions and I mean, their lives are being very
significantly impacted and, and it's coming, it's coming at full
(04:08):
force. What, what's interesting about
2008, I sure hear you about that.
It was largely man made, of course, the 2008 housing crisis.
But, but without going into a, into a lot of detail, what
essentially happened is secondary lenders and mortgage
servicers really came in and like, let's say you had just
(04:30):
bought a house in 2005 for $100,000, right?
Like in 2006, you'd get solicitations in the mail
saying, Oh my God, your house isworth $160,000, let's give you a
$50,000 home equity line of credit so you can go do stuff
and build stuff. And Oh my gosh, you're so
wealthy. And it was all fake.
(04:51):
It wasn't real, right? And so these lenders were able
to just just come in and, and, and bamboozle people into
risking their homes. And people lost homes.
I filed bankruptcies, so many bankruptcies 2000, between 2008
and 2012 where people were surrendering their homes, right?
(05:13):
They couldn't stay in their homes.
The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau was created in response
to that. What's so frustrating is here we
are in today and you know, this is a self-imposed misery with
these tariffs and the problem isthe unpredictability.
At least in the 2008 housing crisis, we saw what the problem
(05:34):
was. We knew that it was going to be
a big fat pain in the butt to fix it when we were frustrated
and angry. But there was a way to fix it.
It's just the uncertainty of what's happening in America is
freaking out the markets, and it's freaking out the American
people, and it's freaking out, rightfully so, everybody who's
(05:55):
struggling to make a living and to get through the week.
Absolutely. Like when I mean, you've seen me
freak out. Obviously I've been kind of a
mess for several weeks at this point.
I've said this multiple times, had we not filed last year, so
many things would have screwed us out of being able to file
(06:16):
until it got even worse. And if I hadn't filed, I would I
would never question filing right now because there are so
many people just with the just from when the tariffs came into
play. I've been watching so many
videos about business as a smallbusinesses breaking down exactly
how it works and I'm like Yep, Yep, Yep.
(06:38):
Everything came from overseas. I have friends who get the
little pieces and and little, all these things that their
prices have just skyrocketed. So it does not surprise me that
people are flocking to bankruptcy and it shouldn't be
something that they're afraid ofbecause quite frankly, it's what
it's here for. I was listening.
(07:00):
I, I mean, I, I've been paying attention to, I mean, I don't
think people realize how much stuff is imported and, and I
and, and it's not just, you know, flowers, right?
You want flowers for mothers Thursday?
We got to get flowers from othercountries, right?
We pay more money. And that's just on the 10% or,
you know, the, the lower tariffs.
I heard somebody say very recently that, you know, if the,
(07:24):
the, the, the whole theory here is here is that America is such
a great manufacturing country and we are, we are amazing
manufacturers. But here's the thing, what we
have done is we have optimized manufacturing.
We have made it fast and, and the most profitable and the, and
(07:45):
the best way to do it because weoptimize it.
We don't make everything here. We take other countries and
create our final product here. And that's the part that people
don't understand. We say buy American.
There is no American company that makes a lot of the things.
I know we've talked about this, but this is how it affects
(08:06):
everybody. Exactly.
Even the little flower shop, even I can't even get flowers
for my mother without paying an arm and a leg.
And that means I'm not going to buy them.
I'm just going to buy as many flowers.
Remy asked me because his mom lives four or five hours away.
He's like, hey, we got to remember to send my mom Mother's
Day flowers. And I was like, no.
(08:28):
And he's like, why? I'm like, did you not hear me
crying yesterday because I was afraid of of not being able to
pay the bills? Like our $100 order for flowers
to your mother is now going to be 150 if not more.
So how about no? Send her a card.
We love you, have a great day. Yeah, Yep.
(08:50):
How about how about a Kroger gift card for groceries?
Right here's a gift card to the Piggly Wiggly.
Enjoy. I have to take a moment here and
tell you I was born in South Carolina.
My grandparents lived right outside of Greenville, SC, and I
spent every summer with them. And do you know that the Piggly
(09:11):
Wiggly and the Ingles were the only places we ever shopped?
And when I would come home from those summers visiting my
grandparents, like I lived a lotof places, but every time I came
home to the Midwest, nobody believed me that there was a
grocery store called the Piggly Wiggly.
Well, my mother-in-law lives like she only shops, I think at
the Piggly Wiggly and I think they're sure Wiggly now.
(09:33):
I don't know. But like there she's buddies
with all the people at the Piggly Wiggly.
And so she gets my kids shirts from the Piggly Wiggly.
It's a big thing, man. I didn't know that there was a
Piggly Wiggly until my mother-in-law moved down to West
Virginia and I was like, oh, that's great.
And I would. Like to be Wiggly Piggly
Wigglies, I believe started in the South and, and Ingles
(09:55):
started in the South as well. And that's when we had the S&H
stamps and I would come in the summer, my grandparents would
make me lick them and put them all in.
But I digress. It starts at the it's the
flowers, it's the clothes. It's, you know, I don't know.
I don't know where you get the all of the stuff to make
everything we need. What about all of the vape pens
everybody needs? I'm sure that stuff's made in
(10:16):
China. I'm sure it is all the little
electronic pieces, but and you said clothes.
I was telling my husband, I'm like, we need to start buying
clothes now for our kid for school.
And he's like, it's May. The school hasn't even ended.
I'm like, do you understand thatall the clothes come from
overseas, from China, from Vietnam, from wherever.
(10:38):
And I was like. Stockpiled.
They've stockpiled some and you know, we don't.
Well, listen, I also don't want to encourage people to be crazy
stockpilers. We have.
We have to find a balance. We do have to find a balance
here because maybe, maybe Kristen, maybe this is a forced
opportunity for us to reevaluatethe things we really need.
(11:04):
I think that is a big part of it.
I I really do. I mean, our consumerism has
gotten out of control. Look at my freaking house.
As a homesteader, I've been saying for years, support your
local homestead support, supportyour local farm, go to your
farmers market. And I, I have started our
(11:25):
farmers market back up in my city because we're yes.
I want, I want the audience to hear about about this because
this is a pretty cool, pretty cool thing that you've done and
I know that you've done a lot ofwork for it.
I'm, I'm crap in my pants right now, but two years ago I was the
one only vendor for the farmers market.
(11:47):
And then the organization was like, we don't have the, the
people. And so there was no farmers
market last year. And I kept hearing from my
little produce stand, Hey, why is there no farmers market?
What's going on? We need a farmers market.
I went to the organization, I said, hey, farmers market, let's
do this. They're like, hey, no, you do
it. And I was like, oh shit, OK, so
(12:08):
I did. And I was the squeaky wheel and
I, I started the farmers market and I went from.
Thinking what does that mean exactly?
You're, you're in charge now. So is this is this, is this a
lot of work for no money? What, how, how are you going to
monetize this? How are you going to find the
energy for this? How are you going to keep me
(12:32):
from having to come over every Saturday and help you?
OK, so right I. Don't want to?
I had to find vendors. I charge a fee because I do have
to carry insurance. I mean, I, I, I think if I were
a vendor, I would expect that whoever was doing this would
(12:52):
charge some type of fee for thatstuff.
Yeah, that makes sense. And I'm.
Probably not charging enough, but hey, whatever you'll have
learned. And so I charge a fee per week
per vendor or whatever. And so that's a little monetary
gain. But I also am bringing produce.
So I'll have produce from my farm, produce from the auction
(13:14):
we have. I was expecting like 5 or 6
vendors throughout the summer off and on because I'm being
very flexible. I have 19 vendors.
Oh my, you have 1918 and one of them because I advertised again
because I only have this is like.
A big This is like a farmer's market.
Yeah, it's turned into a. OK.
(13:35):
Where is this located at? I want all of our listeners to
know exactly where this fabulousfarmer's market is going to be.
It's it's in Elyria. OH, and it's downtown by our
Public Library. There's like this beautiful
space between an Arts Council and the Elyria Public Library.
It's amazing. What made me crazy was I was
(13:57):
still the only produce vendor. And I'm like, guys, I need, I
need somebody else. Like, I don't really want, you
know, competition, but I need it.
Well, the more, the more vendorsyou have, the more and the more
business it attracts. And, and I remember this because
in downtown Sandusky, we had, wehad a, an amazing new chef come
(14:18):
in and he started this little restaurant and then someone else
came in and started amazing restaurant.
And it wasn't competition. It was like, Oh my God, now we
have 2 restaurants to choose. And suddenly, you know, they
opened a third restaurant, a fourth.
And I became the place to go. And that's obviously the theory
with the farmers market. Right.
(14:38):
That's kind of, that's kind of what I'm trying.
I wanted it somewhere that it can be every Saturday, it can go
through the summer and it will be through the summer until I
think the week after Labor Day. I have finally had somebody sign
up, another small homesteader, farmer, whatever local to here
obviously, and she's bringing produce.
And I was like, yes, this is great, finally somebody else.
And then one of the largest farmers in the county that has a
(15:03):
store is now coming to be a vendor.
Well, you know what? That I, I, I.
They have a huge base. They have a huge base of people.
I don't know. I don't know where you see.
Regardless, this, this, this, this is life, right?
Like you successful because of failure.
(15:26):
We have to try things. You're going to try this and
something's not going to work. I don't know what's not going to
work. I can't predict out.
I mean, you're trying to trying to shortstop everything in
advance, right? Something's not going to work,
but you're going to learn from it and and you're going to, you
know, we're going to be better for it.
And who knows what what what this looks like by the end of
the summer and what it looks like next year.
(15:47):
Maybe the skills you pick up here, maybe maybe you start
something else. I mean I.
Don't know well but I love the fact that.
You grow on this hustling well. You're always.
You're just. You're just, you're just fucking
hustling. That's that's.
Always, but it it leads to the fact of what we were talking
about before about buying only what we need.
Yes, I have vendors that do likehand crocheted items and
(16:09):
T-shirts and pens. There's a lady that does herbal
teas, but it's my, my draw is tobuy local, buy from small
businesses because we are all suffering, you know, we all need
to support each other. And a lot of times at the end of
(16:31):
farmers markets, people will trade goods with each other and
all that stuff. And it's wonderful, but.
I love that, but this is so manyfarmers markets and I never knew
that secret thing happens at theend with all of the musculars
that. Makes perfect sense, yeah.
Perfect sense. Well, I don't want to you know,
I don't want to I don't want to make it, you know, press the
(16:52):
point too much, but I you're you're hustling.
I mean, things are things are tight and you're starting to
look around and I know that the farmers market was something
that made that you've been talking about for a while that's
important to you. And instead of sitting around
waiting for somebody else to do it, you're just going to do it
your God damn self looks like. Yeah, I mean, I, I kind of, I do
(17:14):
that a lot. I I, I don't know.
I don't know why I do that to myself.
But, you know, that's why the homestead is here.
I wasn't going to wait for my husband to do shit.
Because we're hustlers. Because you got to hustle, you
got to keep, got to keep moving.Got to eaten like sharks.
Yeah, you gotta keep moving. You gotta keep swimming,
swimming or else you die, right?Exactly.
(17:35):
And I mean, you're hustling withwell, you're not hustling.
Other people are hustling to you.
I guess I don't know the how to explain the whole everybody's
running to you for bankruptcy. Well, I mean, I mean, I'm
hustling because I'm trying to accommodate them, You know, I'm
trying to, you know, make hay while the sun is shining.
I don't really want to turn clients away, even though, even
though it's stretching our, our resources and, and, and
(17:57):
limitations to their very edge. It is, it's hard.
It's a hard time right now. So I'm proud of you, Kristen.
I wanted you to know that I'm really proud of you for the.
Farmers market and it starts. Hold on.
Oh, go ahead. No.
It starts June 7th. Is that what you?
June 7th. June 7th in downtown beautiful
Elyria, OH, by the Public Library.
(18:18):
You will find it. Saturday mornings.
Saturday mornings, right? Yeah, OK.
Saturday mornings, yes, it cuts into a lot of my 5K running
time, but I can probably work around that especially.
You know what this is in your area.
Well, that would be helpful, butalso, you know how I feel about
running. I'm only running in a in a
(18:40):
zombie apocalypse scenario and most likely I'm going to trip
somebody now I'm. Differently.
But we need to go back to you said you're proud of me.
I need to tell everybody how howproud I am of you because you
wrote a book and it's here. I did, I did.
(19:01):
I did write a book and I happen to have it right in front of me.
For those of people who are on the Youtubes watching this, this
is my book. It's called Bankruptcy magic,
The life changing power of debt,Relief with dignity.
The foreword is done by a friendof mine, a very good friend of
mine by the name of David Pepper.
(19:21):
David is an author and fellow atthe Kettering Foundation.
He's amazing man. I'm very proud to say that on
the very back I got a blurb. A blurb from Richard Cordray,
who was the first director of the Consumer Financial
Production Bureau. He was appointed under Obama.
(19:44):
I know him. He ran for governor in the state
of in the state of Ohio. He was a very nice gentleman and
he understood and understands what I'm trying to do here and
trying to take away shame and embarrassment from the
discussion of debt. So this book is available on
Amazon. It's nice and inexpensive,
Kristen, and it's 12590 crap. I can.
(20:05):
Afford. That $12.99 and it's very thin
and it was written for a regularperson.
It's not written for bankruptcy lawyers.
It's not written for the trustees.
And you know, they'll, they would read it and think, wow,
this is, is very simple, but it is designed to help people
understand, you know, how, how we got here, where they fit in
(20:26):
the whole world. And it, it simply explains basic
concepts about finance and debt so that you can kind of see what
your options are. So I'm very proud of it.
And it's, I'm also very proud tosay that this book was actually
published and our podcast was published by the nine month mark
(20:47):
after the death of my daughter. So I feel like I have spent the
last nine months being busy and,and moving towards the things
that are calling me, which are, you know, helping people.
My daughter was a big, big fan of this and, you know, leaning
in with my friendships with, with you and, and my other
friendships and pursuing those fun things that, that make life
(21:10):
worth living. So as miserable as life is,
Kristen, I really do enjoy spending an hour with you every
week shooting me too and, and, and complaining about money and
talking about all of our big plans that we're going to use.
You know, we're going to make money in big ways.
And then it probably never happened.
But putting it all in place, we're putting it in and we are
(21:32):
helping people along the way, and that's what matters, right?
Well, again, I am extraordinarily proud of you and
even though I didn't know Zoe orever get a chance to meet her,
she would be fucking stoked and so proud of you.
She would, she would, she was very proud of me.
She's very excited that I was leaving my, my job.
(21:54):
You know, the parts of it that Ididn't like to do this.
She, she, she was encouraged me to start to a podcast.
She encouraged me to write the book.
I had a meeting with my editor around that time, so she was
very much somebody who encouraged me to find my truth
and live the life that was destined for me.
So I'm very happy to say that I'm doing that.
(22:17):
I understand. I'm privileged to be able to say
that I'm doing that. So I'm here to help and, and,
and make people laugh. And I think that's, that's, you
know, that's what my legacy is going to be is to help people
and help them laugh. So that's the.
Goal in life. Yeah, I Yep, I agree.
So not to completely turn the tables.
(22:39):
Well, yeah, OK, we're going to turn the tables.
I, I didn't tell you I was goingto do this.
So, all right, I have a hypothetical for you and this is
this is this goes on the you're a bankruptcy attorney and let's
say somebody says I will give you $1,000,000, but you have to
(23:01):
tell Dave Ramsey that he is right about everything,
$1,000,000. Or you have to sit down with the
man that you despise and say, yeah, you're right, Bankruptcy
is the worst and and everybody should snowball their debt and
(23:24):
and suffer for the next 1520 years.
Yeah. So of course, my lawyer mind
goes first and foremost, what exactly are the terms of this
contract? If I say all those things to
him, can I record it and then use it as an ironic commercial?
Right. So I'd have to look at the
contract. I'm always going to look to the
(23:44):
body of the contract to see. No, no, there's no contract.
It's you get $1,000,000 and the only thing you have to do is
tell Dave Ramsey he's right and you can do whatever else you
want. Like there's no, there's no
restrictions. It's all this I mean.
Something then there's then thisis then this is very easy.
Of course, I take the $1,000,000and I tell the man what he
thinks, right? Because let's be honest, I'm
(24:08):
going to take that in for me. I'm going to take that recording
and I'm going to turn it into TikTok videos, Instagram reels,
YouTube videos that show exactlywhy I do what I do.
Because I mean, I would find if that's an option, like.
Oh yeah. That's an option.
If it if it was, you must tell Dave Ramsey he's right.
(24:31):
And you can and you can never, you can never say anything bad
about him. There's not enough money in the
world. You couldn't even give me $20
million. Crap, I should have added that.
I should have added that. See the contract.
The terms of the contract matter.
Kristen. They never matter.
If I can, if I can turn it into a learning experience by taking
the information, then believe me, I've, I've sat in courtrooms
(24:55):
and looked lawyers in the eye and had to negotiate with them.
And I would be able and, and I've been able to flatter them,
right? I've been able to flatter a
judge or two, saying things I didn't exactly believe.
I am impressed. Great shoes.
Come on. Like I can.
I can fake it. Really.
(25:15):
Wow, I'm a woman. Right.
We are bred to fake it. Corporate industry.
So believe me, I can flatter thecrap out of people and I can
smile and nod and I could say you are amazing.
But if I had to, if I had to buyit, if I had to live with that
comment, that is a whole different story.
And, and let's be clear, I, I dothink that a snowball method is
(25:39):
a, is a method by which you can get out of debt.
There's no question. It's a simple concept, right?
You pay off the higher interest cards 1st.
And to be clear, I mean, we, we do talk about that is something
I support problem, The problem that I have with Dave Ramsey
and, and most people these days who are in, who are not in my
(26:00):
camp, the biggest problem is, isthat they, they ignore and
completely dismiss the fact thatwe have to get through this debt
really, really fast, right? So if you had like 30 grand in
debt and you were talking to Dave Ramsey, he's like, you're
going to snowball it, you're going to do this and you're not
going to, you're not going to get a car or a house or anything
(26:21):
until this gets done. Well, the question is, how long
is it going to take you to do that?
Because if it takes you 7 years to do that, then that's seven
years. You're not contributing to your
retirement. That's seven years.
You're not starting that business.
And so the prevailing theory is,of course, we've got to get
through debt, but we have to getthrough it fast.
(26:41):
And the problem is that people feel like they can't get through
it fast because the fast way is to go talk to a bankruptcy
lawyer and people feel like they're personally responsible
for the debt. Thank you very much, Dave
Ramsey. If you're going to navigate
finances from a faith or you know, from a moral standpoint,
(27:02):
then you're going to get trampled.
You don't understand what's happening.
You're just going to get destroyed.
The I think it's a chump move. I think it's unsafe to tell
people that debt is their moral obligation because it's
predatory and people didn't know.
Most people don't understand that it was they got sucked in
(27:22):
through trickery, manipulation, relation, removal of laws, and
an an overall attempt to get them into unmanageable and
unending debt. I know that.
So while I, I do have some things I agree with people like
Dave Ramsey about the overall picture is that we have to get
through it fast because we just don't have time.
(27:45):
And somebody who's lost somebodytragically, you know, something
like that really shows you how much time you have left.
And every moment that you're notworking towards yourself and
your family is, you know, and trying to see the big picture, I
think is a moment wasted. That's my, that's my Ted Talk.
That's my soap fucks. I knew we'd get you on that.
I knew I could get you to chit chat on.
(28:06):
You know my triggers. Uh huh.
But here's my next question though.
Do you think because I mean as aperson who is poor, I see all
the shit rolling downhill right now and I say to myself, holy
crap, how am I going to make just the ends meet right F screw
(28:30):
all the other bills, everything else yeah, there is no saving in
four O 1K. There is no savings account.
There is that we are literally down to the nitty gritty, right?
So do you think more people are waking up to the fact, I mean
this is kind of fear based and Ihate that because it is
literally all fear based. Do you think people are, are,
(28:55):
are moving towards bankruptcy now because of the fear behind
what is coming and the garnishments and everything?
Or are they waking up to realizethe, you know, we need to get
through it faster and this is the faster way and we can start
rebuilding on the other side andit'd be a little easier?
Or do you think it doesn't? That's a great question.
(29:17):
I would love to think that all of the time that I spend on
social media trying to educate people has actually made
meaningful change in the psyche of the American people.
I don't think that has occurred yet.
I think people are just startingto really feel the pinch.
There's a couple of things happening.
I mentioned that here is that you know, student loans are are
(29:38):
are coming out of deferment. The save plan is sun setting out
and providing making a lot of problems for people.
We also have record mounts of unsecured credit cards.
Yeah. In America, I mean, sadly, as a
bankruptcy lawyer, my, my, my colleagues and I have all just
seen the masses moving towards the cliffs, right?
(30:01):
And they're starting to edge up along.
And there's, you know, starting to bunch up there.
I think that if people understand sooner rather than
later that that there are options out there, I think that
they're they would save themselves a lot of anxiety.
And it breaks my heart that people wait until the very last
(30:22):
minute. As you know, I've been taking
clients on the weekends. I have people with, because they
have wage garnishment notices. Like I talked to somebody on
Saturday and said if you get a 14 day wage notice garnishment,
we'll, you know, we'll, we'll expedite you, We'll put you to
the top. Literally 4 hours later, she
came back from the mailbox and took a picture and text it to me
(30:43):
like this. I was like, Oh my God, Oh my
God. Like I thought I had a few weeks
here to kind of manage all thesepeople.
So people have fallen behind on their homes and, and they're
starting to realize that that isnot an indefinite solution.
It feels like people are just looking around and realizing
that it's not going to change quickly.
(31:04):
Even if it can change, it's not going to happen quickly.
They have these flower, you know, flower businesses, people
who make clothing. They're starting to struggle
already. It's not going to take very
long. It's just not going to take very
long. And so I hope people do.
I hope people do get more comfortable with the concept
because I think a lot more people need to be looking at it
(31:25):
obviously. Oh, yeah, I mean, and we haven't
even hit like the peak or the start of the price increases
here. Yeah.
I mean, I've been, when I say I'm stocking up, I just did a
TikTok video that I haven't published it because I've got to
edit it because I realized my bra was laying on the thing
behind me Do that too. I was like, oh, that's my bra.
(31:50):
I'll do the whole thing. It turns out like I've got like,
like I've got like a like lettuce in my teeth.
I'd be like I'm. Like, yeah, no, no, no.
I did a video about stocking up on basic needs or things to do.
Like, hi, I'm old poor, welcome new poor.
And these are things you should do.
And I realized I'm like, I don'twant people to stockpile, like
(32:12):
just get a little bit of extra here or there.
Because once we start stockpiling and clearing
shelves, that's when it gets dangerous.
That's when people start fighting.
That's when that's when things start getting scary.
You know, there's right now is kind of the perfect time for
this because we can still grow food, we can still do things
(32:33):
like that. It takes a little bit of time.
You can kind of get through it. There's time to learn.
Like that's my soapbox. Listen, I saw I'm clearly it's
the algorithms, but I saw some seeds, like they're like like a,
a company is selling heirloom seeds, right?
And the one thing that they theymentioned in it as I was
(32:54):
watching the, the Instagram commercial or whatever was that
heirloom like heirloom seeds will will grow and produce
seeds. And I guess I didn't realize
that there's a whole set of seeds where you can't actually
get seeds from it. Is that common?
Or tell me, tell me how should people?
(33:14):
I mean, like all of a sudden I was like, wow, if I just bought
a bunch of how does that work? OK, so all right, let me.
I know. I have seeds everywhere.
Boy, we are. We are going off on tangents.
Today we are. I'm curious because I was
worried what if people are out there buying seeds?
And then. But then of course, every tomato
I've ever had has a seed in it, no matter where.
(33:35):
So, all right, so here is basically heirloom seeds are
seeds that aren't like, I don't know the whole scientific term,
but every time you grow that specific variety, you can get
the seeds, save them for the next year, right?
And they'll grow and produce more OK a lot of the times.
They're hybrid. They call them hybrids.
(33:56):
The. Hybrids that is hit or miss.
You can save the seeds, you might get something you might
not. And they're not.
Bred to continue growing becauseusually there's it's because
they're hybrid. They're not they're cross
pollinated. Yeah, they're genetically made.
But I say that this is somethingthat I need everybody to know
(34:19):
the US people, gardeners, nobodycan get seeds that are GMO
unless you are a farmer doing like soy or corn or wheat or
whatever. These every single packet of
seeds non-GMO. OK, that's good to know.
Look at you. Look at you out there defending
(34:41):
the seed the seed industry. I like it, it's just annoying.
Listen, I don't even, I don't even know what to do with my
snake plant she's getting. One of those.
Listen, she's, she's growing, she's growing up so much.
She's going towards the ceiling.And so I took on the role.
I became a plant mom couple couple of 2-2 years ago.
(35:04):
So this is my I've had two full years of plant.
I went down a big old big ass rabbit hole.
I went from zero plants to like 99.
I remember this actually. Yeah.
And the problem is, is that, youknow, pretty much figured out
what I can keep alive and what Icannot.
I can keep most things alive now, I'm very proud to say.
(35:25):
The problem is, is now that they're growing well, I don't
know what to do next. I don't know when to re pot
them. I don't know when to cut them
back. I don't know when to give them
haircuts. I don't know.
I don't know that stuff. So I will I I could come over
and hang out and and help you. Except don't you have a friend
that runs like a a botanical center or some crap?
(35:46):
Yes, but #1 she's not real, not real handy with with indoor
plants. Number one, she pretty much
knows. She's like, I don't know, that's
an indoor plant. I don't use those.
My one of my best friends is, isthe person in charge of the
landscaping and all the horticulture at a Botanical
Garden. So yeah, yeah, I mean, she's
(36:08):
really great, but she's also super busy because it's the
season now. Yes, but I also have a next door
neighbor who's really good with plants.
And so I've invited her over to come and help me figure out what
to do. Like no.
When do you try to cut down yourmonstera?
I don't know. It's doing so well.
I don't want to damage her. I don't.
Know your snake plant needs to be up potted.
I can see that just from where she's at.
(36:31):
She needs to be up potted. Okay, Yeah, thank you.
Thank you for that. I appreciate.
It at least I can help with one plant from a fall because I
remember one of our conversations you were at Lowe's
or something looking for more house plants and we were trying
to design like your wall on youron your back patio or something.
Yep, Yep, Yep. In fact, that that is going to.
(36:55):
I think we've talked about this before.
Going to TJ Maxx and wandering the aisles and looking at the
clothing used to be like my calmdown Zen jam.
It's how I would like regulate. But then it for a while it
became the Lowe's Plant Center because they have a big
clearance section. I always was imagining the
plants that I would save and which ones I would, you know,
(37:17):
bring to life. And I did.
I did. I saved a lot of them.
I've decided that trying to saveevery plant is probably not,
not, not in my best interest. It's right.
It would be. It would be.
It would make me cry every time.Yeah, I mean, yeah, it would,
that would be a lot. Cuz I've gotten to the point
where I used to try and save every single, every single
tomato plant or whatever I planted.
(37:41):
And I've got to the point where I'm like, meh, you're gonna
you're you're go away, go away. You.
You're not. When you, when you put, put
seeds, like every time I startedsomething for seed, I could
never, I never had the heart to pull the little one out.
Of course I strangled them. I I'm not a good farmer.
I'm not a good homesteader. Homesteading.
Is not my greatest job. It's not going to be on my jobs
(38:04):
list. It's my jobs list, but you nice
segue by the way, like that. I knew you wanted to get there
like that. So I do like that.
That was good. Homesteading is my job, and
obviously bankruptcy attorney isyour job where I'm going to say
we're podcasters now. But being that my entire life
(38:26):
has been a hustle and my entire life has also been finding new
jobs because let's face it, I'm a job hopper and I've had a lot
of jobs. Oh, I want to hear, I want to
hear some of the most interesting or unique jobs
you've had. Well, here's my thing.
Before we do this, I'm I am going to put this out to our
(38:49):
listeners. I would like to hear your
wildest jobs. Jobs you would think that nobody
would expect you to do, or something wild you've done to
make ends meet. Doesn't matter what it is.
With that being said, I've gone from corporate jobs to now
homesteading the job that will shock you the most.
(39:13):
I can't believe I'm about to admit this to the freaking I.
Love it. OK, so I was, this is a big
note. I was about 19 or 20, I think,
something like that, and I got ajob at a singing telegram
company because they were looking for people to answer the
phones and schedule, you know, telegrams and whatever and make
(39:36):
balloon arrangements because that was their thing.
What I didn't know when I started that job was they also
had adult dancers, so they had strippers from like just down to
a bathing suit all the way. And we kind of had to manage
that. OK, but hold on.
(40:00):
I worked the phones and I did singing telegrams.
I did a chicken singing telegram.
I did some gorillas that they were crazy.
And we, yeah, that was 10 years.How many 20 years in the past.
But we had a gal who was a plus size belly dancer and A plus
(40:21):
size stripper. And she was older and I was
working the phone one day and she called and she said, I can't
make any of my appointments. I'm really sick.
So I had to tell the owner. And they're like, this is like a
$700.00 job. We can't lose this.
What are we going to do? And they're like, you're fat.
Do you want to be a plus sized belly dancer?
(40:41):
And I was like, the girl laughed.
That just came out of you. Yeah.
OK, so being 19 years old like the.
Belly's like what is happening here.
This is about to take a turn. Adrian being a 1920 years old.
(41:03):
I was like shit that's money. Like that's 350 bucks for like
15 minutes. Sure I danced for this like 70
year old man. He kept shoving ones down into
my like this was the most janky belly dancing situation.
I had no idea what I was gettinginto so didn't think of it.
Went back to regular job, answering phone.
(41:24):
The lady calls. She's like, I can't make any of
my appointments this week. I'm really sick.
Like this was a couple weeks later.
I go tell the managers they're like, OK, fine.
They're like, this is what she has on her books.
She has another belly dance and she has three strip shows and
I'm like. Did you?
(41:44):
Did you? I I'm.
I'm impressed. I'm impressed.
I'm impressed. I'm I'm so impressed that you,
you did it. You.
I. Did it impression you did it?
Oh my God, you did it. I went the the 1st I'm.
So blown away. I'm blown away.
I also, I think it's like the I think it's like the most daring.
(42:07):
See, that's the kind I mean likelike I'm rooting for the little
guy always, right? I'm always rooting for the
little guy and I am so impressed.
Look at you. So yeah, that.
Took a lot of bravery. It took.
You must have really needed thatmoney.
I really needed the money. And this is what's ridiculous.
Like the first one, it was like down to boxers in a bra or
(42:28):
whatever. It was at a fucking bar.
Okay, I was in a bar doing a striptease and I had a friend
with me as like my backup bouncer or whatever, and I think
I blacked out during the whole thing.
And then the next one, it was atthis party, there was like 150
people there. It was nuts, dude, It was nuts.
(42:50):
And there's more like any video footage, Any.
Photos, anything. Absolutely not.
This was 20 years ago. I'm glad for you.
I'm glad for you, but bummed forme because that was hilarious.
I would have made so many memes out of that.
I would have made so many. So that's my dirty secret is I
was a plus size stripper about 20 years ago and it takes a lot
(43:16):
for me to tell anybody that, butI don't think I have to worry
about it because I just told everybody.
Girl, you understand, we have a,we are recording, we have a
podcast. Right and right between the two
of us we have almost 200,000 followers on TikTok.
So. Yeah, yeah.
Oh my God. I will also say that you are in
charge of editing my editing queen.
(43:37):
And so if this doesn't end up inthere, I guess.
It'll end up in there. It'll be fine.
It'll be fine. But yeah, so that is like my and
I say all of that. It is kind of, I was
embarrassed. I could not do it.
The people, the women, the men that do this all the time.
You guys are amazing. Like this is the oldest
(43:58):
profession in the book. It's it's there for a reason.
I support the hell out of you. I can't do it.
But hats off to the people that can because I've been to the
strip club with my husband and most of the time the women come
and sit with me and hang out. I, I have, I have been to a
strip club before with a, with agroup of people, with my
(44:18):
husband. Listen, I, I, I think that we
empower ourselves by taking control over the situation.
And while I did not, while all Igot was a round of beers, I did
enter a wet T-shirt contest whenI was 19 years old on spring
(44:38):
break because we were so desperate for money.
We didn't have any money for thehotel.
I won second place and so I got free round of drinks.
So I can't really say I did it for a job, but I would say that
that's probably the closest to that I ever came.
I'm really hoping for a little juicier.
(44:58):
My no, no, no, see, I but remember I, I came right out of
law school, went to, went to work with my dad.
I worked there for 28 years until last summer, right?
So there's still time to get youto be a stripper.
Well, OK, all right, all right. That would have been something
that would have been ideal for me when I was younger.
But man, the body changes. The body changes.
(45:20):
Kristen, I just have to tell you, I used to have, I used to
have great boobs. I really did.
I had great boobs back in the day.
And people who know me, I was also chubby.
So I had like, I had good chubbyboobs, like right, Like they
were right, but kids and running, losing weight turn them
into like deflated balloons. And then suddenly I understand
(45:43):
that there's just a whole different world out there.
So I'm learning to address. That's why I went to TikTok to
figure out how to how to look cute.
And even though I was maturing, right, mature skin, mature boobs
that droop, mature hair that's turning Gray.
But the jobs that I had, I had afew jobs along the way.
None of them were nearly that interesting, but I, I was dating
(46:05):
my high school, my high school boyfriend.
We went to college together and he came to me in spring of our
like maybe February, March of our first year, freshman year.
And he informed me that he had fallen in love with somebody
else. And we lived in the same dorm
and we lived on the same floor. And she was in the dorm room
(46:27):
right next to me. So this, this, this goes into
two stories. First and foremost, I worked in
the dining hall of our dorm wearing a hairnet and I was the
Jello square girl. My job to cut the Jello into
squares and put them in the little fancy glasses and then
(46:49):
put the plastic over them and then put them in the in the
little thing where people can come up and grab them.
And so I had to hand Jello to myhigh school boyfriend and his
girlfriend by the way he married.
And so I have to say he was probably right in dumping me,
but that that situation drove me.
(47:11):
I was so upset about what was happening that I, on a Friday
afternoon and spring, I marched myself to the, to the guidance
hall, right where you can go in and see what's going on and
apply for jobs. And there that day they were
doing interviews that day, interviews for water skiing
instructors in Maryland. And I was like, boom, this is my
(47:33):
calling. I've skied a couple times.
I, I've skied a few times. I can do this.
And I ended up going to be a, a camp counselor at a, at a camp
in Maryland and that, and that is where I met the next guy I
dated who we dated for quite some time.
That was nice, but that is also where I met.
(47:54):
That's also where I met Ashley Biden.
Joe Biden's daughter was in, my kid was in my camp.
So those are really the, the interesting things.
I'll, I'll tell you one more story.
It was when I was working for mydad the summer between college
and law school. I was working for him and I was
ending the summer gig, right? I was a little intern and it was
(48:16):
time for my summer to end. I was heading off to law school
and one of the lawyers in my dad's law firm wanted to do an
exit interview. He was partners with my dad, so
he held the same amount of power.
And he sat me down and he told me that I was too much, too
loud, too too playful, too immature to all the things and
(48:41):
that I should consider going into a different career.
And this was the last day I was working there and I was moving
to law school. Then the next couple of days,
like I already had the apartment, like everybody knew,
right? And so I will say that I think
that that is what made me. I never forgot that.
And it has been my life's mission to prove him wrong.
(49:01):
And I will say, mm hmm, I mean, it's been my life's mission to
prove him wrong. Point.
I think the point of the story is it doesn't matter who you are
or what you have to do, if you have self respect, brave and you
understand how to hustle, you'regoing to get through difficult
times and you're going to get tothe other side.
I think that's that's what you are an example of.
(49:24):
I think everybody can learn fromthat.
I think we all have a little bitof that in US.
Also, it feels like in your situation it's kind of out of
spite to show that guy who you really are.
You know, it took me 32 years, but I.
But you did it. You did it.
I did it. I would.
(49:46):
Argue that I'd become. I'd gotten to that point long
before that, but this is just the moment where I can say see.
Right, you have that tangible. Piece I feel like I'm got a
little bit more giddy up to say author now a podcaster.
You may have a podcast. I love it.
I mean, you've been in the New York Times, I've been in our
(50:06):
local newspaper. We're fucking famous.
Listen, we're gonna and Andy Cohen is gonna want us on Watch
What Happens Live. I'm telling you, he's gonna
We're gonna become so interesting.
Everybody's gonna want to know more about us and we're.
New Year's Eve, Times Square, You and Me, Andy Cohen and
Anderson Cooper. Imagine oh, don't, don't don't
(50:29):
even tease me like that, OK, that's that's becoming my dream.
That's the that's that is something that would be
absolutely maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe we'll hit some
numbers here. Maybe they will interview us on
New Year's Eve. Who knows, Let's make it happen
after. Ladies and gentlemen, let's.
Make it happen. Yeah, We need a vision board.
We need we need people to subscribe, like download, share
(50:52):
all of the things with our podcast so that we can get to
Andy Cohen and potentially Anderson Cooper.
I mean that that's that's yeah. On the plan.
Who? Knew that's where we would want
to end up at the end of the year.
Jesus. Wow.
We're we're doing. But yeah, so moral of the story
(51:12):
is everything sucks. The world is burning.
But if you laugh, it might not suck as bad there.
You go, and that's what we're here to do, right?
At least you can remind everybody that life sucks for
everybody in some way, shape or form.
And we still got to laugh about it.
So I think that's a good note toend this this week's podcast on
(51:33):
Kristen. Let's go out there and and
figure out. I'm interested to hear what kind
of vendors are coming. And let's see what the what the
what, what the summer's gonna bring us.
Let's hope it brings us meaningful changes in our
economy. Let's hope that our leaders, all
of our leaders, step back and recognize what matters to the
(51:56):
American people and get us all back on track so that we can we
can do great things for our families.
That'll be great. That's what we're trying to do.
It'll be great, they say, as they look scaredly from side to
side. Oh my God.
(52:16):
Well, yeah, we're going to make it through another.
We're going to make it through again and I'll see you next
time. All right, see you next time.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us today on high heels
and hay bales. If you laughed, learned
something, or just had a good time, make sure to follow
wherever you listen. And don't forget, we've got even
(52:39):
more for you. Head over to High Heels and
haybells.com and subscribe to our newsletter and Substack for
exclusive behind the scenes content, bloopers and tips you
didn't even know you needed. You can also connect with us on
TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.Send us your questions, funny
stories, or topic ideas and we'dlove to hear from you.
(53:01):
Until next time, stay grounded, stay laughing, and stay out of
trouble. Well, mostly.
See you next week.
Hey everyone, welcome to High Heels and Hay Bales, the podcast
where polished meets practical, legal meets lifestyle, and dead
meets dirt. I'm Kristen, your resident farm
lady, keeping it real about motherhood, homesteading in the
funny side of figuring out life.And I'm Adrian, AKA the Ladylike
Lawyer. I'm here to help you make sense
(00:27):
of money, debt, and the legal stuff without boring you to
tears. So kick off your boots or heels
and let's get into it. Let's get into it.
Well, hello and welcome to the next episode of High Heels and
Hay Bales. I'm Adrian Hynes, the Ladylike
lawyer. And I am Kristen Paris, the
hillbilly, unfiltered homesteader.
(00:50):
Oh, we come in laughing. We've been giggling because we
should have hit record a little bit a little bit sooner because
we were on a roll today. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome
back. We're glad to have you with us,
and we're going to try and sharesome of our some of our deep
dark humor with you while just trying to laugh at the fact that
the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
It's on fire. Big fire.
(01:12):
My gosh, big fires, hashtag big,big fires everywhere.
But you know, what are we going to do?
We're going to I I was at the grocery store yesterday and I
almost got all the things for S'mores because I thought this
is such a big trash fire that weare dealing with.
I need to find a way to enjoy it.
Yeah, I don't blame you. I do find myself buying the
(01:35):
like, you know, shoving a littlething in my budget, like, you
know, an extra doughnut or something because we're not
going to be able to enjoy it soon anyway.
Speaking of how, how's business,Adrian?
Oh my God. I know you're asking this
because you know exactly how business is for me lately,
because I've been largely uncommunicative.
(01:58):
And I want to say that as a bankruptcy lawyer, I, I wasn't,
I hadn't been practicing law quite long enough yet when, when
the, but in 2005 and 2006, I started to get a sense that
something was afoot, right? And so I didn't, I wasn't able
(02:20):
to predict the housing market, but I sure sensed a shift in my
practice at that time. I can tell you that it feels
like that right now. I will ordinarily have most of
my life I've had maybe 5 or 6 clients, maybe a week, maybe 3
or 4 sometimes throughout the year who need to talk to me.
(02:41):
And the last seven days I've had17 clients and they are just and
that's how it's been for for weeks now.
I've just never seen I've never seen it this busy before.
I honestly haven't. I'm not surprised, honestly.
I mean, you know, you mentioned 2008 when in 2008 when all of
(03:03):
the housing market crashed and everything.
Jeremy, my husband and I, we didn't have anything.
We literally had nothing. We were living in a crappy apt.
I was bouncing from job to job because the job market was crazy
and I don't remember the 2008 recession being bad.
But we also didn't own a home, we didn't have credit cards, we
didn't have any of that stuff. We thought about buying a house
(03:24):
after everything crashed, but then we were learning about how
the interest rates and AP Rs andthe flexible whatever the hell
they are, I don't even know. But I can remember people
freaking out then and it's so much worse.
Now. So the fact that you are
non-stop busy when you told me 17 clients, I was like, is that
(03:48):
that's not normal. Like no, that's.
Not normal. I'm seeing, I'm, I'm taking
clients on Saturday and Sunday to try to, to try to keep up
with the flow because people arehaving like garnishments and
possessions and I mean, their lives are being very
significantly impacted and, and it's coming, it's coming at full
(04:08):
force. What, what's interesting about
2008, I sure hear you about that.
It was largely man made, of course, the 2008 housing crisis.
But, but without going into a, into a lot of detail, what
essentially happened is secondary lenders and mortgage
servicers really came in and like, let's say you had just
(04:30):
bought a house in 2005 for $100,000, right?
Like in 2006, you'd get solicitations in the mail
saying, Oh my God, your house isworth $160,000, let's give you a
$50,000 home equity line of credit so you can go do stuff
and build stuff. And Oh my gosh, you're so
wealthy. And it was all fake.
(04:51):
It wasn't real, right? And so these lenders were able
to just just come in and, and, and bamboozle people into
risking their homes. And people lost homes.
I filed bankruptcies, so many bankruptcies 2000, between 2008
and 2012 where people were surrendering their homes, right?
(05:13):
They couldn't stay in their homes.
The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau was created in response
to that. What's so frustrating is here we
are in today and you know, this is a self-imposed misery with
these tariffs and the problem isthe unpredictability.
At least in the 2008 housing crisis, we saw what the problem
(05:34):
was. We knew that it was going to be
a big fat pain in the butt to fix it when we were frustrated
and angry. But there was a way to fix it.
It's just the uncertainty of what's happening in America is
freaking out the markets, and it's freaking out the American
people, and it's freaking out, rightfully so, everybody who's
(05:55):
struggling to make a living and to get through the week.
Absolutely. Like when I mean, you've seen me
freak out. Obviously I've been kind of a
mess for several weeks at this point.
I've said this multiple times, had we not filed last year, so
many things would have screwed us out of being able to file
(06:16):
until it got even worse. And if I hadn't filed, I would I
would never question filing right now because there are so
many people just with the just from when the tariffs came into
play. I've been watching so many
videos about business as a smallbusinesses breaking down exactly
how it works and I'm like Yep, Yep, Yep.
(06:38):
Everything came from overseas. I have friends who get the
little pieces and and little, all these things that their
prices have just skyrocketed. So it does not surprise me that
people are flocking to bankruptcy and it shouldn't be
something that they're afraid ofbecause quite frankly, it's what
it's here for. I was listening.
(07:00):
I, I mean, I, I've been paying attention to, I mean, I don't
think people realize how much stuff is imported and, and I
and, and it's not just, you know, flowers, right?
You want flowers for mothers Thursday?
We got to get flowers from othercountries, right?
We pay more money. And that's just on the 10% or,
you know, the, the lower tariffs.
I heard somebody say very recently that, you know, if the,
(07:24):
the, the, the whole theory here is here is that America is such
a great manufacturing country and we are, we are amazing
manufacturers. But here's the thing, what we
have done is we have optimized manufacturing.
We have made it fast and, and the most profitable and the, and
(07:45):
the best way to do it because weoptimize it.
We don't make everything here. We take other countries and
create our final product here. And that's the part that people
don't understand. We say buy American.
There is no American company that makes a lot of the things.
I know we've talked about this, but this is how it affects
(08:06):
everybody. Exactly.
Even the little flower shop, even I can't even get flowers
for my mother without paying an arm and a leg.
And that means I'm not going to buy them.
I'm just going to buy as many flowers.
Remy asked me because his mom lives four or five hours away.
He's like, hey, we got to remember to send my mom Mother's
Day flowers. And I was like, no.
(08:28):
And he's like, why? I'm like, did you not hear me
crying yesterday because I was afraid of of not being able to
pay the bills? Like our $100 order for flowers
to your mother is now going to be 150 if not more.
So how about no? Send her a card.
We love you, have a great day. Yeah, Yep.
(08:50):
How about how about a Kroger gift card for groceries?
Right here's a gift card to the Piggly Wiggly.
Enjoy. I have to take a moment here and
tell you I was born in South Carolina.
My grandparents lived right outside of Greenville, SC, and I
spent every summer with them. And do you know that the Piggly
(09:11):
Wiggly and the Ingles were the only places we ever shopped?
And when I would come home from those summers visiting my
grandparents, like I lived a lotof places, but every time I came
home to the Midwest, nobody believed me that there was a
grocery store called the Piggly Wiggly.
Well, my mother-in-law lives like she only shops, I think at
the Piggly Wiggly and I think they're sure Wiggly now.
(09:33):
I don't know. But like there she's buddies
with all the people at the Piggly Wiggly.
And so she gets my kids shirts from the Piggly Wiggly.
It's a big thing, man. I didn't know that there was a
Piggly Wiggly until my mother-in-law moved down to West
Virginia and I was like, oh, that's great.
And I would. Like to be Wiggly Piggly
Wigglies, I believe started in the South and, and Ingles
(09:55):
started in the South as well. And that's when we had the S&H
stamps and I would come in the summer, my grandparents would
make me lick them and put them all in.
But I digress. It starts at the it's the
flowers, it's the clothes. It's, you know, I don't know.
I don't know where you get the all of the stuff to make
everything we need. What about all of the vape pens
everybody needs? I'm sure that stuff's made in
(10:16):
China. I'm sure it is all the little
electronic pieces, but and you said clothes.
I was telling my husband, I'm like, we need to start buying
clothes now for our kid for school.
And he's like, it's May. The school hasn't even ended.
I'm like, do you understand thatall the clothes come from
overseas, from China, from Vietnam, from wherever.
(10:38):
And I was like. Stockpiled.
They've stockpiled some and you know, we don't.
Well, listen, I also don't want to encourage people to be crazy
stockpilers. We have.
We have to find a balance. We do have to find a balance
here because maybe, maybe Kristen, maybe this is a forced
opportunity for us to reevaluatethe things we really need.
(11:04):
I think that is a big part of it.
I I really do. I mean, our consumerism has
gotten out of control. Look at my freaking house.
As a homesteader, I've been saying for years, support your
local homestead support, supportyour local farm, go to your
farmers market. And I, I have started our
(11:25):
farmers market back up in my city because we're yes.
I want, I want the audience to hear about about this because
this is a pretty cool, pretty cool thing that you've done and
I know that you've done a lot ofwork for it.
I'm, I'm crap in my pants right now, but two years ago I was the
one only vendor for the farmers market.
(11:47):
And then the organization was like, we don't have the, the
people. And so there was no farmers
market last year. And I kept hearing from my
little produce stand, Hey, why is there no farmers market?
What's going on? We need a farmers market.
I went to the organization, I said, hey, farmers market, let's
do this. They're like, hey, no, you do
it. And I was like, oh shit, OK, so
(12:08):
I did. And I was the squeaky wheel and
I, I started the farmers market and I went from.
Thinking what does that mean exactly?
You're, you're in charge now. So is this is this, is this a
lot of work for no money? What, how, how are you going to
monetize this? How are you going to find the
energy for this? How are you going to keep me
(12:32):
from having to come over every Saturday and help you?
OK, so right I. Don't want to?
I had to find vendors. I charge a fee because I do have
to carry insurance. I mean, I, I, I think if I were
a vendor, I would expect that whoever was doing this would
(12:52):
charge some type of fee for thatstuff.
Yeah, that makes sense. And I'm.
Probably not charging enough, but hey, whatever you'll have
learned. And so I charge a fee per week
per vendor or whatever. And so that's a little monetary
gain. But I also am bringing produce.
So I'll have produce from my farm, produce from the auction
(13:14):
we have. I was expecting like 5 or 6
vendors throughout the summer off and on because I'm being
very flexible. I have 19 vendors.
Oh my, you have 1918 and one of them because I advertised again
because I only have this is like.
A big This is like a farmer's market.
Yeah, it's turned into a. OK.
(13:35):
Where is this located at? I want all of our listeners to
know exactly where this fabulousfarmer's market is going to be.
It's it's in Elyria. OH, and it's downtown by our
Public Library. There's like this beautiful
space between an Arts Council and the Elyria Public Library.
It's amazing. What made me crazy was I was
(13:57):
still the only produce vendor. And I'm like, guys, I need, I
need somebody else. Like, I don't really want, you
know, competition, but I need it.
Well, the more, the more vendorsyou have, the more and the more
business it attracts. And, and I remember this because
in downtown Sandusky, we had, wehad a, an amazing new chef come
(14:18):
in and he started this little restaurant and then someone else
came in and started amazing restaurant.
And it wasn't competition. It was like, Oh my God, now we
have 2 restaurants to choose. And suddenly, you know, they
opened a third restaurant, a fourth.
And I became the place to go. And that's obviously the theory
with the farmers market. Right.
(14:38):
That's kind of, that's kind of what I'm trying.
I wanted it somewhere that it can be every Saturday, it can go
through the summer and it will be through the summer until I
think the week after Labor Day. I have finally had somebody sign
up, another small homesteader, farmer, whatever local to here
obviously, and she's bringing produce.
And I was like, yes, this is great, finally somebody else.
And then one of the largest farmers in the county that has a
(15:03):
store is now coming to be a vendor.
Well, you know what? That I, I, I.
They have a huge base. They have a huge base of people.
I don't know. I don't know where you see.
Regardless, this, this, this, this is life, right?
Like you successful because of failure.
(15:26):
We have to try things. You're going to try this and
something's not going to work. I don't know what's not going to
work. I can't predict out.
I mean, you're trying to trying to shortstop everything in
advance, right? Something's not going to work,
but you're going to learn from it and and you're going to, you
know, we're going to be better for it.
And who knows what what what this looks like by the end of
the summer and what it looks like next year.
(15:47):
Maybe the skills you pick up here, maybe maybe you start
something else. I mean I.
Don't know well but I love the fact that.
You grow on this hustling well. You're always.
You're just. You're just, you're just fucking
hustling. That's that's.
Always, but it it leads to the fact of what we were talking
about before about buying only what we need.
Yes, I have vendors that do likehand crocheted items and
(16:09):
T-shirts and pens. There's a lady that does herbal
teas, but it's my, my draw is tobuy local, buy from small
businesses because we are all suffering, you know, we all need
to support each other. And a lot of times at the end of
(16:31):
farmers markets, people will trade goods with each other and
all that stuff. And it's wonderful, but.
I love that, but this is so manyfarmers markets and I never knew
that secret thing happens at theend with all of the musculars
that. Makes perfect sense, yeah.
Perfect sense. Well, I don't want to you know,
I don't want to I don't want to make it, you know, press the
(16:52):
point too much, but I you're you're hustling.
I mean, things are things are tight and you're starting to
look around and I know that the farmers market was something
that made that you've been talking about for a while that's
important to you. And instead of sitting around
waiting for somebody else to do it, you're just going to do it
your God damn self looks like. Yeah, I mean, I, I kind of, I do
(17:14):
that a lot. I I, I don't know.
I don't know why I do that to myself.
But, you know, that's why the homestead is here.
I wasn't going to wait for my husband to do shit.
Because we're hustlers. Because you got to hustle, you
got to keep, got to keep moving.Got to eaten like sharks.
Yeah, you gotta keep moving. You gotta keep swimming,
swimming or else you die, right?Exactly.
(17:35):
And I mean, you're hustling withwell, you're not hustling.
Other people are hustling to you.
I guess I don't know the how to explain the whole everybody's
running to you for bankruptcy. Well, I mean, I mean, I'm
hustling because I'm trying to accommodate them, You know, I'm
trying to, you know, make hay while the sun is shining.
I don't really want to turn clients away, even though, even
though it's stretching our, our resources and, and, and
(17:57):
limitations to their very edge. It is, it's hard.
It's a hard time right now. So I'm proud of you, Kristen.
I wanted you to know that I'm really proud of you for the.
Farmers market and it starts. Hold on.
Oh, go ahead. No.
It starts June 7th. Is that what you?
June 7th. June 7th in downtown beautiful
Elyria, OH, by the Public Library.
(18:18):
You will find it. Saturday mornings.
Saturday mornings, right? Yeah, OK.
Saturday mornings, yes, it cuts into a lot of my 5K running
time, but I can probably work around that especially.
You know what this is in your area.
Well, that would be helpful, butalso, you know how I feel about
running. I'm only running in a in a
(18:40):
zombie apocalypse scenario and most likely I'm going to trip
somebody now I'm. Differently.
But we need to go back to you said you're proud of me.
I need to tell everybody how howproud I am of you because you
wrote a book and it's here. I did, I did.
(19:01):
I did write a book and I happen to have it right in front of me.
For those of people who are on the Youtubes watching this, this
is my book. It's called Bankruptcy magic,
The life changing power of debt,Relief with dignity.
The foreword is done by a friendof mine, a very good friend of
mine by the name of David Pepper.
(19:21):
David is an author and fellow atthe Kettering Foundation.
He's amazing man. I'm very proud to say that on
the very back I got a blurb. A blurb from Richard Cordray,
who was the first director of the Consumer Financial
Production Bureau. He was appointed under Obama.
(19:44):
I know him. He ran for governor in the state
of in the state of Ohio. He was a very nice gentleman and
he understood and understands what I'm trying to do here and
trying to take away shame and embarrassment from the
discussion of debt. So this book is available on
Amazon. It's nice and inexpensive,
Kristen, and it's 12590 crap. I can.
(20:05):
Afford. That $12.99 and it's very thin
and it was written for a regularperson.
It's not written for bankruptcy lawyers.
It's not written for the trustees.
And you know, they'll, they would read it and think, wow,
this is, is very simple, but it is designed to help people
understand, you know, how, how we got here, where they fit in
(20:26):
the whole world. And it, it simply explains basic
concepts about finance and debt so that you can kind of see what
your options are. So I'm very proud of it.
And it's, I'm also very proud tosay that this book was actually
published and our podcast was published by the nine month mark
(20:47):
after the death of my daughter. So I feel like I have spent the
last nine months being busy and,and moving towards the things
that are calling me, which are, you know, helping people.
My daughter was a big, big fan of this and, you know, leaning
in with my friendships with, with you and, and my other
friendships and pursuing those fun things that, that make life
(21:10):
worth living. So as miserable as life is,
Kristen, I really do enjoy spending an hour with you every
week shooting me too and, and, and complaining about money and
talking about all of our big plans that we're going to use.
You know, we're going to make money in big ways.
And then it probably never happened.
But putting it all in place, we're putting it in and we are
(21:32):
helping people along the way, and that's what matters, right?
Well, again, I am extraordinarily proud of you and
even though I didn't know Zoe orever get a chance to meet her,
she would be fucking stoked and so proud of you.
She would, she would, she was very proud of me.
She's very excited that I was leaving my, my job.
(21:54):
You know, the parts of it that Ididn't like to do this.
She, she, she was encouraged me to start to a podcast.
She encouraged me to write the book.
I had a meeting with my editor around that time, so she was
very much somebody who encouraged me to find my truth
and live the life that was destined for me.
So I'm very happy to say that I'm doing that.
(22:17):
I understand. I'm privileged to be able to say
that I'm doing that. So I'm here to help and, and,
and make people laugh. And I think that's, that's, you
know, that's what my legacy is going to be is to help people
and help them laugh. So that's the.
Goal in life. Yeah, I Yep, I agree.
So not to completely turn the tables.
(22:39):
Well, yeah, OK, we're going to turn the tables.
I, I didn't tell you I was goingto do this.
So, all right, I have a hypothetical for you and this is
this is this goes on the you're a bankruptcy attorney and let's
say somebody says I will give you $1,000,000, but you have to
(23:01):
tell Dave Ramsey that he is right about everything,
$1,000,000. Or you have to sit down with the
man that you despise and say, yeah, you're right, Bankruptcy
is the worst and and everybody should snowball their debt and
(23:24):
and suffer for the next 1520 years.
Yeah. So of course, my lawyer mind
goes first and foremost, what exactly are the terms of this
contract? If I say all those things to
him, can I record it and then use it as an ironic commercial?
Right. So I'd have to look at the
contract. I'm always going to look to the
(23:44):
body of the contract to see. No, no, there's no contract.
It's you get $1,000,000 and the only thing you have to do is
tell Dave Ramsey he's right and you can do whatever else you
want. Like there's no, there's no
restrictions. It's all this I mean.
Something then there's then thisis then this is very easy.
Of course, I take the $1,000,000and I tell the man what he
thinks, right? Because let's be honest, I'm
(24:08):
going to take that in for me. I'm going to take that recording
and I'm going to turn it into TikTok videos, Instagram reels,
YouTube videos that show exactlywhy I do what I do.
Because I mean, I would find if that's an option, like.
Oh yeah. That's an option.
If it if it was, you must tell Dave Ramsey he's right.
(24:31):
And you can and you can never, you can never say anything bad
about him. There's not enough money in the
world. You couldn't even give me $20
million. Crap, I should have added that.
I should have added that. See the contract.
The terms of the contract matter.
Kristen. They never matter.
If I can, if I can turn it into a learning experience by taking
the information, then believe me, I've, I've sat in courtrooms
(24:55):
and looked lawyers in the eye and had to negotiate with them.
And I would be able and, and I've been able to flatter them,
right? I've been able to flatter a
judge or two, saying things I didn't exactly believe.
I am impressed. Great shoes.
Come on. Like I can.
I can fake it. Really.
(25:15):
Wow, I'm a woman. Right.
We are bred to fake it. Corporate industry.
So believe me, I can flatter thecrap out of people and I can
smile and nod and I could say you are amazing.
But if I had to, if I had to buyit, if I had to live with that
comment, that is a whole different story.
And, and let's be clear, I, I dothink that a snowball method is
(25:39):
a, is a method by which you can get out of debt.
There's no question. It's a simple concept, right?
You pay off the higher interest cards 1st.
And to be clear, I mean, we, we do talk about that is something
I support problem, The problem that I have with Dave Ramsey
and, and most people these days who are in, who are not in my
(26:00):
camp, the biggest problem is, isthat they, they ignore and
completely dismiss the fact thatwe have to get through this debt
really, really fast, right? So if you had like 30 grand in
debt and you were talking to Dave Ramsey, he's like, you're
going to snowball it, you're going to do this and you're not
going to, you're not going to get a car or a house or anything
(26:21):
until this gets done. Well, the question is, how long
is it going to take you to do that?
Because if it takes you 7 years to do that, then that's seven
years. You're not contributing to your
retirement. That's seven years.
You're not starting that business.
And so the prevailing theory is,of course, we've got to get
through debt, but we have to getthrough it fast.
(26:41):
And the problem is that people feel like they can't get through
it fast because the fast way is to go talk to a bankruptcy
lawyer and people feel like they're personally responsible
for the debt. Thank you very much, Dave
Ramsey. If you're going to navigate
finances from a faith or you know, from a moral standpoint,
(27:02):
then you're going to get trampled.
You don't understand what's happening.
You're just going to get destroyed.
The I think it's a chump move. I think it's unsafe to tell
people that debt is their moral obligation because it's
predatory and people didn't know.
Most people don't understand that it was they got sucked in
(27:22):
through trickery, manipulation, relation, removal of laws, and
an an overall attempt to get them into unmanageable and
unending debt. I know that.
So while I, I do have some things I agree with people like
Dave Ramsey about the overall picture is that we have to get
through it fast because we just don't have time.
(27:45):
And somebody who's lost somebodytragically, you know, something
like that really shows you how much time you have left.
And every moment that you're notworking towards yourself and
your family is, you know, and trying to see the big picture, I
think is a moment wasted. That's my, that's my Ted Talk.
That's my soap fucks. I knew we'd get you on that.
I knew I could get you to chit chat on.
(28:06):
You know my triggers. Uh huh.
But here's my next question though.
Do you think because I mean as aperson who is poor, I see all
the shit rolling downhill right now and I say to myself, holy
crap, how am I going to make just the ends meet right F screw
(28:30):
all the other bills, everything else yeah, there is no saving in
four O 1K. There is no savings account.
There is that we are literally down to the nitty gritty, right?
So do you think more people are waking up to the fact, I mean
this is kind of fear based and Ihate that because it is
literally all fear based. Do you think people are, are,
(28:55):
are moving towards bankruptcy now because of the fear behind
what is coming and the garnishments and everything?
Or are they waking up to realizethe, you know, we need to get
through it faster and this is the faster way and we can start
rebuilding on the other side andit'd be a little easier?
Or do you think it doesn't? That's a great question.
(29:17):
I would love to think that all of the time that I spend on
social media trying to educate people has actually made
meaningful change in the psyche of the American people.
I don't think that has occurred yet.
I think people are just startingto really feel the pinch.
There's a couple of things happening.
I mentioned that here is that you know, student loans are are
(29:38):
are coming out of deferment. The save plan is sun setting out
and providing making a lot of problems for people.
We also have record mounts of unsecured credit cards.
Yeah. In America, I mean, sadly, as a
bankruptcy lawyer, my, my, my colleagues and I have all just
seen the masses moving towards the cliffs, right?
(30:01):
And they're starting to edge up along.
And there's, you know, starting to bunch up there.
I think that if people understand sooner rather than
later that that there are options out there, I think that
they're they would save themselves a lot of anxiety.
And it breaks my heart that people wait until the very last
(30:22):
minute. As you know, I've been taking
clients on the weekends. I have people with, because they
have wage garnishment notices. Like I talked to somebody on
Saturday and said if you get a 14 day wage notice garnishment,
we'll, you know, we'll, we'll expedite you, We'll put you to
the top. Literally 4 hours later, she
came back from the mailbox and took a picture and text it to me
(30:43):
like this. I was like, Oh my God, Oh my
God. Like I thought I had a few weeks
here to kind of manage all thesepeople.
So people have fallen behind on their homes and, and they're
starting to realize that that isnot an indefinite solution.
It feels like people are just looking around and realizing
that it's not going to change quickly.
(31:04):
Even if it can change, it's not going to happen quickly.
They have these flower, you know, flower businesses, people
who make clothing. They're starting to struggle
already. It's not going to take very
long. It's just not going to take very
long. And so I hope people do.
I hope people do get more comfortable with the concept
because I think a lot more people need to be looking at it
(31:25):
obviously. Oh, yeah, I mean, and we haven't
even hit like the peak or the start of the price increases
here. Yeah.
I mean, I've been, when I say I'm stocking up, I just did a
TikTok video that I haven't published it because I've got to
edit it because I realized my bra was laying on the thing
behind me Do that too. I was like, oh, that's my bra.
(31:50):
I'll do the whole thing. It turns out like I've got like,
like I've got like a like lettuce in my teeth.
I'd be like I'm. Like, yeah, no, no, no.
I did a video about stocking up on basic needs or things to do.
Like, hi, I'm old poor, welcome new poor.
And these are things you should do.
And I realized I'm like, I don'twant people to stockpile, like
(32:12):
just get a little bit of extra here or there.
Because once we start stockpiling and clearing
shelves, that's when it gets dangerous.
That's when people start fighting.
That's when that's when things start getting scary.
You know, there's right now is kind of the perfect time for
this because we can still grow food, we can still do things
(32:33):
like that. It takes a little bit of time.
You can kind of get through it. There's time to learn.
Like that's my soapbox. Listen, I saw I'm clearly it's
the algorithms, but I saw some seeds, like they're like like a,
a company is selling heirloom seeds, right?
And the one thing that they theymentioned in it as I was
(32:54):
watching the, the Instagram commercial or whatever was that
heirloom like heirloom seeds will will grow and produce
seeds. And I guess I didn't realize
that there's a whole set of seeds where you can't actually
get seeds from it. Is that common?
Or tell me, tell me how should people?
(33:14):
I mean, like all of a sudden I was like, wow, if I just bought
a bunch of how does that work? OK, so all right, let me.
I know. I have seeds everywhere.
Boy, we are. We are going off on tangents.
Today we are. I'm curious because I was
worried what if people are out there buying seeds?
And then. But then of course, every tomato
I've ever had has a seed in it, no matter where.
(33:35):
So, all right, so here is basically heirloom seeds are
seeds that aren't like, I don't know the whole scientific term,
but every time you grow that specific variety, you can get
the seeds, save them for the next year, right?
And they'll grow and produce more OK a lot of the times.
They're hybrid. They call them hybrids.
(33:56):
The. Hybrids that is hit or miss.
You can save the seeds, you might get something you might
not. And they're not.
Bred to continue growing becauseusually there's it's because
they're hybrid. They're not they're cross
pollinated. Yeah, they're genetically made.
But I say that this is somethingthat I need everybody to know
(34:19):
the US people, gardeners, nobodycan get seeds that are GMO
unless you are a farmer doing like soy or corn or wheat or
whatever. These every single packet of
seeds non-GMO. OK, that's good to know.
Look at you. Look at you out there defending
(34:41):
the seed the seed industry. I like it, it's just annoying.
Listen, I don't even, I don't even know what to do with my
snake plant she's getting. One of those.
Listen, she's, she's growing, she's growing up so much.
She's going towards the ceiling.And so I took on the role.
I became a plant mom couple couple of 2-2 years ago.
(35:04):
So this is my I've had two full years of plant.
I went down a big old big ass rabbit hole.
I went from zero plants to like 99.
I remember this actually. Yeah.
And the problem is, is that, youknow, pretty much figured out
what I can keep alive and what Icannot.
I can keep most things alive now, I'm very proud to say.
(35:25):
The problem is, is now that they're growing well, I don't
know what to do next. I don't know when to re pot
them. I don't know when to cut them
back. I don't know when to give them
haircuts. I don't know.
I don't know that stuff. So I will I I could come over
and hang out and and help you. Except don't you have a friend
that runs like a a botanical center or some crap?
(35:46):
Yes, but #1 she's not real, not real handy with with indoor
plants. Number one, she pretty much
knows. She's like, I don't know, that's
an indoor plant. I don't use those.
My one of my best friends is, isthe person in charge of the
landscaping and all the horticulture at a Botanical
Garden. So yeah, yeah, I mean, she's
(36:08):
really great, but she's also super busy because it's the
season now. Yes, but I also have a next door
neighbor who's really good with plants.
And so I've invited her over to come and help me figure out what
to do. Like no.
When do you try to cut down yourmonstera?
I don't know. It's doing so well.
I don't want to damage her. I don't.
Know your snake plant needs to be up potted.
I can see that just from where she's at.
(36:31):
She needs to be up potted. Okay, Yeah, thank you.
Thank you for that. I appreciate.
It at least I can help with one plant from a fall because I
remember one of our conversations you were at Lowe's
or something looking for more house plants and we were trying
to design like your wall on youron your back patio or something.
Yep, Yep, Yep. In fact, that that is going to.
(36:55):
I think we've talked about this before.
Going to TJ Maxx and wandering the aisles and looking at the
clothing used to be like my calmdown Zen jam.
It's how I would like regulate. But then it for a while it
became the Lowe's Plant Center because they have a big
clearance section. I always was imagining the
plants that I would save and which ones I would, you know,
(37:17):
bring to life. And I did.
I did. I saved a lot of them.
I've decided that trying to saveevery plant is probably not,
not, not in my best interest. It's right.
It would be. It would be.
It would make me cry every time.Yeah, I mean, yeah, it would,
that would be a lot. Cuz I've gotten to the point
where I used to try and save every single, every single
tomato plant or whatever I planted.
(37:41):
And I've got to the point where I'm like, meh, you're gonna
you're you're go away, go away. You.
You're not. When you, when you put, put
seeds, like every time I startedsomething for seed, I could
never, I never had the heart to pull the little one out.
Of course I strangled them. I I'm not a good farmer.
I'm not a good homesteader. Homesteading.
Is not my greatest job. It's not going to be on my jobs
(38:04):
list. It's my jobs list, but you nice
segue by the way, like that. I knew you wanted to get there
like that. So I do like that.
That was good. Homesteading is my job, and
obviously bankruptcy attorney isyour job where I'm going to say
we're podcasters now. But being that my entire life
(38:26):
has been a hustle and my entire life has also been finding new
jobs because let's face it, I'm a job hopper and I've had a lot
of jobs. Oh, I want to hear, I want to
hear some of the most interesting or unique jobs
you've had. Well, here's my thing.
Before we do this, I'm I am going to put this out to our
(38:49):
listeners. I would like to hear your
wildest jobs. Jobs you would think that nobody
would expect you to do, or something wild you've done to
make ends meet. Doesn't matter what it is.
With that being said, I've gone from corporate jobs to now
homesteading the job that will shock you the most.
(39:13):
I can't believe I'm about to admit this to the freaking I.
Love it. OK, so I was, this is a big
note. I was about 19 or 20, I think,
something like that, and I got ajob at a singing telegram
company because they were looking for people to answer the
phones and schedule, you know, telegrams and whatever and make
(39:36):
balloon arrangements because that was their thing.
What I didn't know when I started that job was they also
had adult dancers, so they had strippers from like just down to
a bathing suit all the way. And we kind of had to manage
that. OK, but hold on.
(40:00):
I worked the phones and I did singing telegrams.
I did a chicken singing telegram.
I did some gorillas that they were crazy.
And we, yeah, that was 10 years.How many 20 years in the past.
But we had a gal who was a plus size belly dancer and A plus
(40:21):
size stripper. And she was older and I was
working the phone one day and she called and she said, I can't
make any of my appointments. I'm really sick.
So I had to tell the owner. And they're like, this is like a
$700.00 job. We can't lose this.
What are we going to do? And they're like, you're fat.
Do you want to be a plus sized belly dancer?
(40:41):
And I was like, the girl laughed.
That just came out of you. Yeah.
OK, so being 19 years old like the.
Belly's like what is happening here.
This is about to take a turn. Adrian being a 1920 years old.
(41:03):
I was like shit that's money. Like that's 350 bucks for like
15 minutes. Sure I danced for this like 70
year old man. He kept shoving ones down into
my like this was the most janky belly dancing situation.
I had no idea what I was gettinginto so didn't think of it.
Went back to regular job, answering phone.
(41:24):
The lady calls. She's like, I can't make any of
my appointments this week. I'm really sick.
Like this was a couple weeks later.
I go tell the managers they're like, OK, fine.
They're like, this is what she has on her books.
She has another belly dance and she has three strip shows and
I'm like. Did you?
(41:44):
Did you? I I'm.
I'm impressed. I'm impressed.
I'm impressed. I'm I'm so impressed that you,
you did it. You.
I. Did it impression you did it?
Oh my God, you did it. I went the the 1st I'm.
So blown away. I'm blown away.
I also, I think it's like the I think it's like the most daring.
(42:07):
See, that's the kind I mean likelike I'm rooting for the little
guy always, right? I'm always rooting for the
little guy and I am so impressed.
Look at you. So yeah, that.
Took a lot of bravery. It took.
You must have really needed thatmoney.
I really needed the money. And this is what's ridiculous.
Like the first one, it was like down to boxers in a bra or
(42:28):
whatever. It was at a fucking bar.
Okay, I was in a bar doing a striptease and I had a friend
with me as like my backup bouncer or whatever, and I think
I blacked out during the whole thing.
And then the next one, it was atthis party, there was like 150
people there. It was nuts, dude, It was nuts.
(42:50):
And there's more like any video footage, Any.
Photos, anything. Absolutely not.
This was 20 years ago. I'm glad for you.
I'm glad for you, but bummed forme because that was hilarious.
I would have made so many memes out of that.
I would have made so many. So that's my dirty secret is I
was a plus size stripper about 20 years ago and it takes a lot
(43:16):
for me to tell anybody that, butI don't think I have to worry
about it because I just told everybody.
Girl, you understand, we have a,we are recording, we have a
podcast. Right and right between the two
of us we have almost 200,000 followers on TikTok.
So. Yeah, yeah.
Oh my God. I will also say that you are in
charge of editing my editing queen.
(43:37):
And so if this doesn't end up inthere, I guess.
It'll end up in there. It'll be fine.
It'll be fine. But yeah, so that is like my and
I say all of that. It is kind of, I was
embarrassed. I could not do it.
The people, the women, the men that do this all the time.
You guys are amazing. Like this is the oldest
(43:58):
profession in the book. It's it's there for a reason.
I support the hell out of you. I can't do it.
But hats off to the people that can because I've been to the
strip club with my husband and most of the time the women come
and sit with me and hang out. I, I have, I have been to a
strip club before with a, with agroup of people, with my
(44:18):
husband. Listen, I, I, I think that we
empower ourselves by taking control over the situation.
And while I did not, while all Igot was a round of beers, I did
enter a wet T-shirt contest whenI was 19 years old on spring
(44:38):
break because we were so desperate for money.
We didn't have any money for thehotel.
I won second place and so I got free round of drinks.
So I can't really say I did it for a job, but I would say that
that's probably the closest to that I ever came.
I'm really hoping for a little juicier.
(44:58):
My no, no, no, see, I but remember I, I came right out of
law school, went to, went to work with my dad.
I worked there for 28 years until last summer, right?
So there's still time to get youto be a stripper.
Well, OK, all right, all right. That would have been something
that would have been ideal for me when I was younger.
But man, the body changes. The body changes.
(45:20):
Kristen, I just have to tell you, I used to have, I used to
have great boobs. I really did.
I had great boobs back in the day.
And people who know me, I was also chubby.
So I had like, I had good chubbyboobs, like right, Like they
were right, but kids and running, losing weight turn them
into like deflated balloons. And then suddenly I understand
(45:43):
that there's just a whole different world out there.
So I'm learning to address. That's why I went to TikTok to
figure out how to how to look cute.
And even though I was maturing, right, mature skin, mature boobs
that droop, mature hair that's turning Gray.
But the jobs that I had, I had afew jobs along the way.
None of them were nearly that interesting, but I, I was dating
(46:05):
my high school, my high school boyfriend.
We went to college together and he came to me in spring of our
like maybe February, March of our first year, freshman year.
And he informed me that he had fallen in love with somebody
else. And we lived in the same dorm
and we lived on the same floor. And she was in the dorm room
(46:27):
right next to me. So this, this, this goes into
two stories. First and foremost, I worked in
the dining hall of our dorm wearing a hairnet and I was the
Jello square girl. My job to cut the Jello into
squares and put them in the little fancy glasses and then
(46:49):
put the plastic over them and then put them in the in the
little thing where people can come up and grab them.
And so I had to hand Jello to myhigh school boyfriend and his
girlfriend by the way he married.
And so I have to say he was probably right in dumping me,
but that that situation drove me.
(47:11):
I was so upset about what was happening that I, on a Friday
afternoon and spring, I marched myself to the, to the guidance
hall, right where you can go in and see what's going on and
apply for jobs. And there that day they were
doing interviews that day, interviews for water skiing
instructors in Maryland. And I was like, boom, this is my
(47:33):
calling. I've skied a couple times.
I, I've skied a few times. I can do this.
And I ended up going to be a, a camp counselor at a, at a camp
in Maryland and that, and that is where I met the next guy I
dated who we dated for quite some time.
That was nice, but that is also where I met.
(47:54):
That's also where I met Ashley Biden.
Joe Biden's daughter was in, my kid was in my camp.
So those are really the, the interesting things.
I'll, I'll tell you one more story.
It was when I was working for mydad the summer between college
and law school. I was working for him and I was
ending the summer gig, right? I was a little intern and it was
(48:16):
time for my summer to end. I was heading off to law school
and one of the lawyers in my dad's law firm wanted to do an
exit interview. He was partners with my dad, so
he held the same amount of power.
And he sat me down and he told me that I was too much, too
loud, too too playful, too immature to all the things and
(48:41):
that I should consider going into a different career.
And this was the last day I was working there and I was moving
to law school. Then the next couple of days,
like I already had the apartment, like everybody knew,
right? And so I will say that I think
that that is what made me. I never forgot that.
And it has been my life's mission to prove him wrong.
(49:01):
And I will say, mm hmm, I mean, it's been my life's mission to
prove him wrong. Point.
I think the point of the story is it doesn't matter who you are
or what you have to do, if you have self respect, brave and you
understand how to hustle, you'regoing to get through difficult
times and you're going to get tothe other side.
I think that's that's what you are an example of.
(49:24):
I think everybody can learn fromthat.
I think we all have a little bitof that in US.
Also, it feels like in your situation it's kind of out of
spite to show that guy who you really are.
You know, it took me 32 years, but I.
But you did it. You did it.
I did it. I would.
(49:46):
Argue that I'd become. I'd gotten to that point long
before that, but this is just the moment where I can say see.
Right, you have that tangible. Piece I feel like I'm got a
little bit more giddy up to say author now a podcaster.
You may have a podcast. I love it.
I mean, you've been in the New York Times, I've been in our
(50:06):
local newspaper. We're fucking famous.
Listen, we're gonna and Andy Cohen is gonna want us on Watch
What Happens Live. I'm telling you, he's gonna
We're gonna become so interesting.
Everybody's gonna want to know more about us and we're.
New Year's Eve, Times Square, You and Me, Andy Cohen and
Anderson Cooper. Imagine oh, don't, don't don't
(50:29):
even tease me like that, OK, that's that's becoming my dream.
That's the that's that is something that would be
absolutely maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe we'll hit some
numbers here. Maybe they will interview us on
New Year's Eve. Who knows, Let's make it happen
after. Ladies and gentlemen, let's.
Make it happen. Yeah, We need a vision board.
We need we need people to subscribe, like download, share
(50:52):
all of the things with our podcast so that we can get to
Andy Cohen and potentially Anderson Cooper.
I mean that that's that's yeah. On the plan.
Who? Knew that's where we would want
to end up at the end of the year.
Jesus. Wow.
We're we're doing. But yeah, so moral of the story
(51:12):
is everything sucks. The world is burning.
But if you laugh, it might not suck as bad there.
You go, and that's what we're here to do, right?
At least you can remind everybody that life sucks for
everybody in some way, shape or form.
And we still got to laugh about it.
So I think that's a good note toend this this week's podcast on
(51:33):
Kristen. Let's go out there and and
figure out. I'm interested to hear what kind
of vendors are coming. And let's see what the what the
what, what the summer's gonna bring us.
Let's hope it brings us meaningful changes in our
economy. Let's hope that our leaders, all
of our leaders, step back and recognize what matters to the
(51:56):
American people and get us all back on track so that we can we
can do great things for our families.
That'll be great. That's what we're trying to do.
It'll be great, they say, as they look scaredly from side to
side. Oh my God.
(52:16):
Well, yeah, we're going to make it through another.
We're going to make it through again and I'll see you next
time. All right, see you next time.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us today on high heels
and hay bales. If you laughed, learned
something, or just had a good time, make sure to follow
wherever you listen. And don't forget, we've got even
(52:39):
more for you. Head over to High Heels and
haybells.com and subscribe to our newsletter and Substack for
exclusive behind the scenes content, bloopers and tips you
didn't even know you needed. You can also connect with us on
TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.Send us your questions, funny
stories, or topic ideas and we'dlove to hear from you.
(53:01):
Until next time, stay grounded, stay laughing, and stay out of
trouble. Well, mostly.
See you next week.
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