December 22, 2023 • 31 mins
Susan and Whittney reflect on 2023 and Season 3 of the podcast.
Website: susanandwhittney.buzzsprout.com
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Susan (00:37):
Whitney, you're the kind of friend who knows me so well.
You got me these figure skatingthemed earrings and a matching
necklace for my birthday thisyear.
I'm wearing them today and Ilove them.
Thank you.
Detached audio (00:47):
Susan.
They look great.
I'm so happy you like them.
Susan.
Speaking of birthday earrings,you also got me a fantastic pair
of earrings for my birthday, butthey weren't figure skating
earrings.
They were Wednesday Adam'searrings.
I was so excited.
You know how much I loveHalloween.
It's probably as much as youlove skating.
(01:08):
and, Not that Wednesday.
Adams is just Halloween.
Wednesday Adams, as you said,can be a a year round thing and
I will wear them year round, butI was so excited.
Thank you, Suze.
Oh, you're welcome.
It's so much fun giving eachother themed earrings.
And also quick shout out to theEtsy shop.
I got them from, it's calledHound in Hand, so definitely
(01:29):
check out that shop.
Really cute earrings.
Awesome.
Whitney, this is our finalepisode of season three, and
believe it or not, this is our10th episode of this season,
which is the most we've everdone.
It's double the content thisseason, so go us.
Yes.
I cannot believe how manyepisodes we produced this
season.
(01:49):
iT was a lot.
WE did a lot this year.
It was a lot of content and wewere excited and it showed, it
really showed.
So on today's episode, we'regonna be looking back on this
season and all the episodes weproduced and also talking about,
our words of the year for 2023and how we did on those.
(02:09):
And also just tying up someloose ends for the various
reviews of shows and books thatwe've talked about this year and
tying up some looseconversational ends.
So let's, let's dive right in.
Whitney this season.
Wow.
As, as we said before, our 10thepisode, ironically, we
attempted to produce shorter andless episodes, but we ended up
(02:31):
producing double and more andlonger.
So yeah, it wasn't less work atall.
Um,, but considering our yeah,considering our slogan is making
a short story long since 2004, Iguess it's not totally
surprising that this was ourattempt to do less and it was
actually double.
Yeah, I think, we have atendency to overachieve and I
(02:54):
think we did that this year.
And, I think it's just proofthat even when we think we're
making it easier on ourselves,that, you know, the
overachieving sneaks up on youand we just, we just didn't get
a handle on it until we arecounting our episodes this year.
That's right.
I know.
So it was a lot ofpost-production.
But I will say overall I'mreally proud of what we put out
(03:16):
there this season.
I think we had a lot of reallygreat episodes and.
Um, on another note, we actuallydidn't even do all the episodes
that we originally teased inour, our first episode in
January.
We talked about what was on deckfor this season, and we didn't
even get to some of those justfor a number of reasons.
Sometimes, you know,, you throwout an idea and you realize
later it's just not gonna workout.
(03:37):
Or maybe, we weren't really surethe direction to go or didn't
have a guess.
So, maybe we didn't do all thecontent we said, but we ended up
doing so many other episodesthat, just kind of was Going
with the flow of our lives.
Yes.
So, yeah, it, it took somedifferent directions and that's
what happens sometimes.
So, uh, just wanted to explainwhy we didn't touch on all the
(03:59):
topics, but, the topics that wedid touch on, I had several
favorites.
I think Some of my favorite onesfrom the season were
collaborating with Devin on theMad Honey Book Club discussion.
I thought that was a reallyintelligent Analysis that we
had.
And I also enjoyed discussingpersuasion, the Netflix
adaptation, which was reallyfunny.
(04:21):
Uh, just the show itself or themovie itself was very funny.
So our discussion of it followedsuit.
And I also really enjoyed allthe novel ideas that we did this
season, which was where wediscussed books and shows that
we were watching.
That was really fun to talkabout that with you.
And lastly.
I really enjoyed the survivingand thriving episode, which on a
(04:44):
personal note was about myselfturning 40 and a lot of my
reflections about hitting thatmilestone, and I thought we had
a really great discussion.
what about you, Whitney?
Well, Susan, first off, I justwanna say the Mad Honey episode,
in addition to being yourfavorite, was by far our
listener's favorite.
That episode has been downloadedmore than any other episode
(05:06):
we've done in our three seasonsso far, and so I thought that
was really cool.
and some of my favorite episodesfrom this past season also
overlap yours.
So you were discussing talkingto Devin about persuasion, which
I think that is always going tobe one of my favorite episodes.
It was so funny discussing therabbit section.
(05:29):
That's some of my favorite audiowe've ever done.
I think that I will always lookback on that one.
Fondly, I think, you know, thecontent set us up well because
the actual, uh, the movie wewere reviewing had a lot of
places that we could bring upreally funny things like, you
were talking about the entiremodern woman breakup references
(05:52):
that were integrated into JaneAusten in this one.
But again, Devin and I.
Mussing upon the rabbit isdefinitely going to go down as
one of my favorite memories fromthis podcast.
Oh, absolutely.
That was very funny to listenback to.
And I, I do have to give a shoutout to the Netflix adaptation
(06:15):
for even giving us that rabbitSo, as you said, the content
lent itself to funny commentaryand I really enjoyed, I really
enjoyed those episodes as well.
Yeah.
I also love talking stem with mycousin Elena, she's a, my real
life version of VeronicaSpeedwell.
You know how much I loveVeronica Speedwell.
And so I thought it was reallycool having her on.
(06:37):
not just because of her scienceknowledge.
Uh,, she also is a teacher, andso the two of you had a lot to
discuss and a lot In common thatyou know, you could talk about,
but I also loved how wediscussed encouraging women to
pursue STEM and how importantthat is.
I really enjoyed having Elena onas well, just because she was
(06:59):
such an interesting person, veryinspiring.
She, and in addition to Devon,she was our only other guest
from season three, and it'salways really fun having someone
else come on the show.
So thanks to Elena for joiningus and it was really wonderful
having her.
Yes.
And then I think my otherfavorite episode of this past
season again aligns with yoursentirely.
(07:22):
Our surviving and thrivingepisode I thought was great.
I think when we originallyplanned that episode, you know,
we knew some of the things thatwe wanted to talk about.
Obviously, your 40th birthday,we wanted to talk about, my
summer travel, but I think.
As we were discussing that thosetopics, as you and I would just
normally do in our regularconversations, we recorded it
(07:45):
and we discussed those topics insuch an engaging, genuine, and,
and kind of even a little bit ofa vulnerable way.
And I think that that reallyjust made it a great episode.
We talked about, you know, someof the perceptions that we all
have, and some of theexpectations that we feel to, to
be at certain places in ourlives and how, you know, that
(08:09):
doesn't always match up with,with reality.
And I just really think it was afantastic episode.
It was, it was a reallyimportant episode for me
personally, just to have allthose reflections about my
milestone birthday.
And it was really cool when Iwas listening back to it,'cause
I was wishing that my 30 yearold self could have heard how
far I've come and where I amnow.
(08:29):
And.
That was really great to havethat recorded just as Record And
also, as I was just thinkingthis morning, I was like, wow, I
need to go back and listen tothat episode now.
Because I talked a lot about myreflections in my career as a
teacher and how I finally wasable to see the culmination of
that at graduation and see whatI.
(08:49):
You know the purpose of this,right, purpose of why I teach.
And I think I need to listen tothat back now because now that
I'm in this point in the schoolyear, I'm in the throes of one
of the busiest times of theschool year, and right now I
need to go back and listen to mesaying like,, oh, it's really
worth it.
And you know, not that I don'tthink it's worth it on a daily
basis, but it does help to havethat reminder from when I was at
(09:09):
that peak moment of perspective.
Yes.
it is really important to havethese reflections recorded and
um,, hopefully other people canbenefit from listening to our
reflections as well.
Yes, that little extra dose ofmotivation for you at this point
in the school year.
Absolutely.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, it's, it's definitely atough time of year.
(09:30):
But with that said, it's also anice time of year to reflect
back on how the year has gonebecause we're getting to the end
of 2023.
So it's definitely some of whatwe're gonna do in this episode,
reflect back on our words of theyear, how things were going.
We also have some ideas for whatwe're gonna be tackling next
season.
Yeah.
So Susan, let's, uh, let'sdiscuss some of those ideas
(09:50):
about what we're thinking aboutfor season four.
Right.
So we wanna go back to what weoriginally had as our model,
which was a good solid fiveepisode model.
We had tried to do somethingdifferent this past season by
taking some of our segments andputting them into separate
episodes.
Our idea was that.
It seemed in the past that our,our regular episodes, would run
(10:10):
kind of long.
We used to have all thesesegments and surviving and
thriving or sunshine andmonsoons used to be one of our
original segments.
We used to talk about what, weread novel ideas, but we were
like, okay, how can we make ourepisodes shorter?
Maybe it makes sense to takethese segments and make them
into individual episodes, butagain, you and I, our way of
(10:30):
simplifying is by making morework for ourselves, So, you
know, we tried doing that, but Ithink we're gonna go back to the
model where we're gonna keepthese segments as part of our
regular episode instead ofmaking all these separate
episodes.
So.
To our original thoughts.
We're also gonna continue ourcollaboration with Devin, which
is always really fantastic.
(10:51):
So continuing with some of thesame, but you know, kind of
going back to our roots with howwe used to format the show.
Yeah.
And I, as we were discussingearlier, Devin is the not so
secret third co-host of thispodcast at this point.
We just love making episodeswith her and we can't wait for
whatever we are Going to do withher in the next season.
(11:12):
So if our listeners have ideasabout things they think we
should read or watch or, listento with Devin, feel free to
suggest those on our socialmedia or by sending,, sending us
an email to SusanandWhitney@gmail.com.
Another thing, Susan, that we'regonna work on in, in the coming
year and throughout next seasonis.
(11:33):
Creating some more social mediacontent.
This was an area that, because Ithink we did so many episodes,
we just didn't leave a lot ofextra time for sharing with our
listeners on social media.
So in the, you know, comingmonths and year, we're going to
share, especially more videocontent so we can share some
more timely updates with ourlisteners in between episodes
(11:55):
and so they can see what we'redoing and what we're thinking
and, what we're we're.
excited about and we haddiscussed the possibility of
doing an Instagram or FacebookLive in the future.
So if our listeners haveinterest in that or if they
wanna ask us specific questionsor suggest content that we could
discuss on the Instagram orFacebook Live, they can also
share those suggestions with us.
(12:18):
Yeah, that sounds like a lot offun to try out doing a different
format such as the Instagram orFacebook Live.
I've never done that, so I lookforward to potentially dabbling
with that this upcoming season.
So Whitney, let's switch gearsand I wanna wrap up some of our
reviews from the season.
As I mentioned, we put a lot ofnovel ideas, episodes out this
(12:38):
season in which we talked aboutthings we were watching and
reading.
So I wanna wrap that up and alsojust tie up any loose
conversational ends that we'vehad throughout the season.
So first of all, I wanted to askyou what was the favorite, or
maybe plural, what were thefavorite things that you read?
Or watch this season.
(12:59):
A theme that I noticed when Iwas, looking back on this, to
figure out my answer to thisquestion is, there's a Taylor
Swift theme to my answers forboth Reed and Watch, and.
Uh, we discussed previously,probably in great detail how
much I loved the, Amazon Primeseries.
The summer.
It turned pretty.
I know I talked to you about itand you watched it and loved it.
(13:22):
I read all the books as I thinkyou and Devin are also, well, I
don't know if Devin's readingthe books, but you are reading
the books and, Devin is, haswatched the series now.
So it's one of those, reallyfond memories.
I have from 2023 of watchingthis and The summer I turned
pretty.
I think one of the reasons Ilove the series even more than
(13:43):
the books is because of themusic.
And a lot of the music is TaylorSwift, because I am a hardcore
swifty and that is what speaksto my hardcore swifty soul.
And so I was, when I was lookingback over my favorite books that
I'd read this year, I noticed aninteresting tie, which was A
book that I just kept thinkingabout and going back to, and I
(14:04):
don't even remember if Idiscussed this in one of our
novel reads episodes or not, butit, it was called The Summer of
Broken Rules by KL Walter, Hmm.
it is a, a Taylor Swift relatedbook as well.
So it is a book that I found outlater after I'd read.
It was based on the lyrics tothe Taylor Swift song, Hey
(14:26):
Steven, Also KL Welfare.
Like Taylor Swift was born inPennsylvania, KL Walter was born
in Bucks County.
So not far from where you arenow, Susan.
And, uh, I just, apparently Thisyear with the Aris tour and, all
of the rerecording, I'm, I'mjust infusing Taylor Swift into
all of my facets of my contentI'm consuming.
(14:49):
And so that was, I think mypotentially my top read of 2023
I have not heard you referencethat book before, so that sounds
really interesting.
I always like supporting localauthors, so as someone who lives
in Philly, I'll have to checkthat out.
Yeah, it was, it was aninteresting way I learned about
this book, and I can't rememberif I told you this, just, you
know, outside of the podcasteither I'd read this this, uh,
(15:12):
article called books based onTaylor Swift Arrows.
And I was just like skimmingthrough it.
And they had one book for each.
Taylor Swift, album that theythought fit the vibe of the
album.
And this was one of the books onthe list.
This book was supposed to fitthe, the lover, album era.
And so it just lookedinteresting.
And then I read it and I reallyloved it.
(15:33):
And I thought you would really,like, one of the main characters
goes by the name wit, like WITWitt.
And so I felt like that was a, aname you would approve of for a
romance protagonist or a hero.
What were your favorite readsand watches?
I Was looking back at my GoodReads list.
I actually read so manywonderful books this year.
(15:55):
And there's different ones thatI, or there's ones that I like
for different reasons.
But I think overall my favoritebook of the year was The Heart's
Invisible Furies by John Boyne.
I've referenced that previously.
It was just such an incrediblejourney that you go on with this
character.
There's so much to it.
It would be a fabulous book clubdiscussion.
I just loved it and I, again, aswe always talk about, I love
(16:16):
books on audio, so I really lovethe audio.
I thought the audio Narrator wasquite gifted and that was
definitely my favorite read.
I think possibly a close second,was remarkably Bright Creatures
by Shelby Van Pelt and, oneItalian Summer by Rebecca
Searle.
Those were my top three as faras shows.
I did enjoy the summer.
(16:37):
I turned pretty a lot and so didDevin.
We were texting back and forthabout it, like Team Jeremiah,
team Conrad, and by the way,Whitney, so I was hard.
Very hardcore team Conrad for along time.
And by the second season, I wasdefinitely a team.
Jeremiah.
I just feel like in the endshe's gonna be happier with
Jeremiah'cause Conrad's socomplex.
And anyway, just it, that's atough choice.
(17:00):
But I do appreciate you bringingthat series into my life'cause
it was just a delightful summerwatch.
I loved it.
Yeah, I, I know, I know exactlywhere you are mentally with the
team, Jeremiah, but I promiseyou you'll be Team Conrad at the
end.
Okay, well, I have yet to readthe third book right now.
I just got the second book outfrom my library holds.
(17:23):
Um, the first book I was able tolisten to on audio, it's
narrated by Lola Tongue whoplays Belly in the series, and I
thought she, she's a delightfulactress.
She did a lovely job with theaudio, but the second book, they
didn't have available on audiofor my library, so I'm reading
it on my Kindle.
But again, I'll have to go intothe third book, and of course,
next summer, hopefully the thirdseries or the third, uh, season
(17:45):
is gonna come out.
And then I'll, I'll let you knowwhere I'm at mentally.
But, um, anyway, I'm, I'menjoying all of it.
It's, and Devin enjoyed it aswell, and I.
So, yeah, shows.
I feel like maybe that was oneof my favorites this year.
I think actually my favoritemovie, which we did talk about
in the last novel ideas, we werebriefly teasing movies that we
(18:06):
were gonna see, and we never gotto circle back to this, but I
think Oppenheimer was myfavorite movie of the year.
It's extremely powerful.
Um, it's tough because it isabout a very difficult subject,
so that's hard.
But I, what I liked about this.
Movie is that it challenged meto think about the perspective
of the man who built the atomicbomb and what he would be going
(18:27):
through during and after.
I thought it was incredibly welldone.
Killian Murphy is phenomenal.
If he doesn't win the Oscar, Iwould be shocked.
his eyes are incredible.
His eyes could win.
The Oscar Whitney Yes.
um, yes, he was incredible.
And I, I also wanna throw outthere too, just on the other end
of the spectrum, you and I hadalso teased this in our last
(18:49):
novel ideas and never got tocome back to it.
I was not particularly a fan ofBarbie, I thought it was okay.
It was kind of fun for what itwas like.
I appreciated the casting andthe set choreography, the
costume, all that kind of stuffwas really fun.
But I didn't really love thatmovie, so I just wanted to say
that that was something thatdisappointed me this year.
(19:09):
But, you know, I'd rather focuson what I did like, which was
Oppenheimer.
So Bravo to Christopher Nolanfor directing that phenomenal
film.
I second what you're sayingabout Killian Murphy's eyes.
I first, uh, encountered and Ifeel fell in love with those
eyes and Peaky Blinders, whichis an amazing show on Netflix if
(19:30):
you haven't watched that.
I have not.
yeah, it's, I mean, it's aboutgangs, but Like Birmingham,
England gangs, but it's um, it'sa good one.
I like it a Yeah, his eyes andhis cheekbones.
I just think he was the perfectchoice for the role of playing
Robert Oppenheimer.
And again, the film is just avery important film.
(19:51):
It's very complex with thehistory.
There's a lot going on there.
but I do think in the music,everything about it, uh, that
really left a big lastingimpression on me this year for
favorite watches.
So yeah, it was a good year forconsuming content.
Yes.
Agreed.
There, there was a lot to choosefrom on all of our lists.
Yeah, absolutely.
(20:13):
so Suze let's round out ourepisode by talking about our
words of the year for 2023.
We haven't talked about themthat much this year, only in the
episode where we introducedthem.
So, uh, how did yours go thisyear?
Whew.
Yes.
I was just reflecting back onthis this morning while I was
making breakfast, because you'reright, we haven't really
(20:33):
formally had conversations aboutour words this year.
I know in the past we did like amid-year check-in episode, which
we didn't do this year.
Maybe next year we'll uh, goback to that model.
'cause it was kind of nicehaving that midway checkpoint.
Um, so I think this year my wordwas open.
I think it went very well.
Uh, you know, as we alwaysdiscuss, it's never gonna be
(20:54):
perfect, and I think that'ssomething we have to be okay
with, is we're never gonna havethis unbelievably perfect
achievement of this word that wetried to embody this year.
But I think I did a really goodjob at getting close to that.
So I tried to be open as much aspossible to new ideas and new
experiences, new people.
I think that the word open alsomade me think about the fact
(21:14):
that I, Like, you know, thinkabout things that I do want to
be more open to in the future.
I think when I set this goal,maybe I didn't know exactly what
I was aiming to be open to, andnow I have more of an idea of
that for next year.
So, um, I'll have to considerthat when I'm choosing my word
for next year.
Like I.
Maybe, maybe the word's gonna beabout tackling new things or
(21:34):
something.
but as far as keeping mycalendar open, I tried my very
best with that one.
And I, I think I did prettywell.
I tried specifically to be opento incorporating more time for
dating, particularly in thespring.
I've honestly gotten away fromthat because I sort of lost
interest in dating.
Honestly.
It wasn't that I wasn't open, Ijust You can't be open to
(21:55):
something you don't wanna doMm-Hmm.
so there's that too.
Um, and I, yeah, and I did mybest for that in the spring.
I think I was really open totrying new things and keeping my
calendar available for that.
Um, in this fall, I've tried tokeep my calendar open just for
myself to create more time formy work responsibilities because
it is really hectic during thefall, as I said.
(22:16):
And in the past, maybe I wastraveling a lot on weekends or
whatever, and I specificallytried not to schedule trips on
the weekends.
I, I haven't been anywhere sincethe end of September, and now
we're in mid-November, so I dida good job with that.
But on the flip side, I've beenmissing my family a bit since I
haven't incorporated as muchtime to see them and.
Ironically, their schedules werenot open.
(22:39):
So even though I might have hadtime to see them, they weren't,
they were busy.
But, um, overall I think I didwell with this word.
I enjoyed trying to encompassopen, and now I just have to
think about what I'm gonna dofor next year.
What about you, Whitney?
Yeah, so I mean, similarly, Ifelt like the word I chose for
this year, which was listen, washelpful as kind of a guide.
(23:02):
It was.
It was mostly helpful, I think,in reminding me to listen to my
body, like my physical orinternal cues for things.
I, I really wanted to make thisa goal this year because I tend
to overthink things and I tendto just like let my brain spin
out about decisions and, youknow, what I, what I think I
(23:24):
should do as opposed to what isfeeling good to me.
And I, I definitely Did check inwith myself more this year, and
there were times that I sloweddown just because I was tired
and you know, the signals that Iwas getting from my body was
that I was doing too much and Ijust needed to rest.
And so I did listen to thoseand.
(23:47):
There were also other timeswhere I would pay attention.
Hey, this feels fun.
And afterwards my, my body feelsgood when I do this.
obviously the easiest things topoint out, um, for those cues
are exercise.
I.
You know, we've been doingpersonal training for a year and
a half now, and so keeping upthat schedule felt good.
(24:07):
I got really into pickleballthis year, and so that felt
great.
we now play like two, sometimesthree times a week, and it's
super fun and I really likethat.
But at the same time, if I'moverdoing it, my body tells me
and I, I have to pull back.
So it works on both the good andthe bad sides.
Right.
(24:27):
It helps When things are goingbad and when things are going
good, I, I felt like this was agreat word.
It was absolutely, I, I wasthinking the same thing for you,
that it's very important tolisten to your body and what you
need, and I tried to incorporatethe same thing when thinking
about Open.
like for myself, if I wasfeeling like there was too much
going on, I tried to think aboutkeeping my calendar open and not
(24:50):
putting too much on the weekendsor whatever to allow those
moments to breathe.
but again, I'm still thinkingabout what to do for next year.
It might be a word kind of alongthe lines of being open to
something specific.
Like meeting new people, maybesomething along the lines of
networking, making newconnections, something like
that.
I'll think about it, butoverall, I do think this year
(25:12):
went well.
It's not over yet.
We still have time to round outthe year positively, but
overall, I think it was good.
Yes, agreed.
I am also failing the same way.
So, Susan, do you have any ideasabout your word for next year?
Yeah, not exactly yet.
Like I said, I'm still kind ofthinking about what's gonna make
(25:33):
sense.
Usually.
I do a lot of thinking aboutthat in between Christmas and
New Year's.
Um, I don't think I've ever beengreat with coming up with the
word like far in advance.
I need some time to finish outthis year and see how it goes,
and then.
Sometimes I even choose the sameword or variation of it twice.
Like the one year I chose bold,and the next year I was like,
you know what?
I'm not done with this.
I wanna continue.
(25:53):
And I made the word bolder orpicked the word bolder.
So who knows?
Maybe I'll do something elsealong the lines of Open, but
just kind of the next level ofthat.
But I, you know, I'll get backto you, When we record our first
episode for season four, wealways talk about our new Word
of the Year.
So that might be the point whereyou're gonna find out what it
is, one thing that's been comingup for me as I've been listening
(26:17):
this year is, simplifying, keepscoming back to me where I think.
In order to keep everything inmy life manageable and to
minimize the stress, I need tosimplify.
So I need to maybe decide onceas the lazy genius, Kendra
Adachi would say decide once,and that's what we do every
(26:37):
time.
Or just decide that this is theroutine for these certain
seasons of the year.
I'm thinking of this right nowas I think about like holiday
decorations.
I love holiday decorations.
I love Halloween decorations.
Christmas decorations are liketwo of my favorite holidays to,
to decorate for, and I can getcrazy over the top with them and
(27:00):
it can take me weeks to put themall up.
And then it takes me weeks totake them all down.
And then I'm trying to put themaway in a way that's like
organized.
Sometimes I just need tostreamline that.
I just need to focus on, two,two big feature areas and then
(27:22):
call it a day.
Right.
Or even with gardening.
I noticed this year because Iwas traveling so much for the
summer, I did not get to spendas much time outside in my in my
flower gardens, in my raised bedvegetable gardens as I did in
the past.
Simplifying those would'vehelped me out a lot.
(27:43):
Instead, I came home to a lot ofweeds and overgrowth that
Jumanji.
That's what my sister's husbandgardens, he has a huge garden.
He built a greenhouse this year.
Even when they came back fromone of their vacations, he said
it was like Jumanji in thegarden.
It was so overrun.
It literally looked like ajungle.
Yes.
So I, I can relate to that.
(28:04):
Sounds like simplify would be areally good word for you this
upcoming year.
And Whitney, if it makes youfeel any better, it's November
right now, and I'm still takingdown Halloween decorations.
I'm looking at my skullcandelabras right now, so I need
to put those away.
And I think everyone goesthrough the same struggles with
decorations, but it's a goodidea to just simplify and tackle
(28:25):
one room at a time or onesection at a time.
So I like your strategy.
Yeah, I did.
I did take down all of myspecific Halloween decorations
last week, so I'm ahead of myusual schedule on that.
And I've left up a handful ofpumpkins that can double as fall
decor until yes.
(28:47):
Christmas comes out of theboxes.
Yes, I agree.
I like Halloween and Fall daydecor, or Halloween and
Thanksgiving decor.
'cause there is a lot ofoverlap.
So actually my skullcandelabras, I did just turn
them around so you can't see theskull side, but they do still
look kind of creepy, so you needto put that away.
But away.
But anyway, there's alwayssomething to work on.
(29:07):
right, we're, we are all a workin progress, including our goals
for the year, that's a wrap forthe season three, Whitney.
Um,, thank you so much toeveryone who listened this
season.
We would love to hear from you.
Please tell us what episodes youenjoyed.
If there's something you wannahear us discuss, if there is a
book or a show or a movie thatyou think we should collaborate
with Devin on to discuss andanalyze, please let us know.
(29:30):
We really look forward tohearing from you, our listeners,
and.
Whitney, you and I look forwardto returning for believe it or
not, season four in in 2024.
I cannot believe it's seasonfour in 2024.
We really planned that well,didn't we?
We really did, and I rememberwhen we first started recording,
it was during the height ofCovid, so it's incredible to see
(29:52):
how far we've come, how far theworld has come.
It's kind of cool to follow ourjourney.
So thanks to everyone forlistening, and we're so excited
to come back Yes.
We'll see you all in season fourin 2024.
Four in 2024 have a wonderfulrest of 2023.
Woo.
All right.
Yay.
Whitney, you're the kind of friend who knows me so well.
You got me these figure skatingthemed earrings and a matching
necklace for my birthday thisyear.
I'm wearing them today and Ilove them.
Thank you.
Detached audio (00:47):
Susan.
They look great.
I'm so happy you like them.
Susan.
Speaking of birthday earrings,you also got me a fantastic pair
of earrings for my birthday, butthey weren't figure skating
earrings.
They were Wednesday Adam'searrings.
I was so excited.
You know how much I loveHalloween.
It's probably as much as youlove skating.
(01:08):
and, Not that Wednesday.
Adams is just Halloween.
Wednesday Adams, as you said,can be a a year round thing and
I will wear them year round, butI was so excited.
Thank you, Suze.
Oh, you're welcome.
It's so much fun giving eachother themed earrings.
And also quick shout out to theEtsy shop.
I got them from, it's calledHound in Hand, so definitely
(01:29):
check out that shop.
Really cute earrings.
Awesome.
Whitney, this is our finalepisode of season three, and
believe it or not, this is our10th episode of this season,
which is the most we've everdone.
It's double the content thisseason, so go us.
Yes.
I cannot believe how manyepisodes we produced this
season.
(01:49):
iT was a lot.
WE did a lot this year.
It was a lot of content and wewere excited and it showed, it
really showed.
So on today's episode, we'regonna be looking back on this
season and all the episodes weproduced and also talking about,
our words of the year for 2023and how we did on those.
(02:09):
And also just tying up someloose ends for the various
reviews of shows and books thatwe've talked about this year and
tying up some looseconversational ends.
So let's, let's dive right in.
Whitney this season.
Wow.
As, as we said before, our 10thepisode, ironically, we
attempted to produce shorter andless episodes, but we ended up
(02:31):
producing double and more andlonger.
So yeah, it wasn't less work atall.
Um,, but considering our yeah,considering our slogan is making
a short story long since 2004, Iguess it's not totally
surprising that this was ourattempt to do less and it was
actually double.
Yeah, I think, we have atendency to overachieve and I
(02:54):
think we did that this year.
And, I think it's just proofthat even when we think we're
making it easier on ourselves,that, you know, the
overachieving sneaks up on youand we just, we just didn't get
a handle on it until we arecounting our episodes this year.
That's right.
I know.
So it was a lot ofpost-production.
But I will say overall I'mreally proud of what we put out
(03:16):
there this season.
I think we had a lot of reallygreat episodes and.
Um, on another note, we actuallydidn't even do all the episodes
that we originally teased inour, our first episode in
January.
We talked about what was on deckfor this season, and we didn't
even get to some of those justfor a number of reasons.
Sometimes, you know,, you throwout an idea and you realize
later it's just not gonna workout.
(03:37):
Or maybe, we weren't really surethe direction to go or didn't
have a guess.
So, maybe we didn't do all thecontent we said, but we ended up
doing so many other episodesthat, just kind of was Going
with the flow of our lives.
Yes.
So, yeah, it, it took somedifferent directions and that's
what happens sometimes.
So, uh, just wanted to explainwhy we didn't touch on all the
(03:59):
topics, but, the topics that wedid touch on, I had several
favorites.
I think Some of my favorite onesfrom the season were
collaborating with Devin on theMad Honey Book Club discussion.
I thought that was a reallyintelligent Analysis that we
had.
And I also enjoyed discussingpersuasion, the Netflix
adaptation, which was reallyfunny.
(04:21):
Uh, just the show itself or themovie itself was very funny.
So our discussion of it followedsuit.
And I also really enjoyed allthe novel ideas that we did this
season, which was where wediscussed books and shows that
we were watching.
That was really fun to talkabout that with you.
And lastly.
I really enjoyed the survivingand thriving episode, which on a
(04:44):
personal note was about myselfturning 40 and a lot of my
reflections about hitting thatmilestone, and I thought we had
a really great discussion.
what about you, Whitney?
Well, Susan, first off, I justwanna say the Mad Honey episode,
in addition to being yourfavorite, was by far our
listener's favorite.
That episode has been downloadedmore than any other episode
(05:06):
we've done in our three seasonsso far, and so I thought that
was really cool.
and some of my favorite episodesfrom this past season also
overlap yours.
So you were discussing talkingto Devin about persuasion, which
I think that is always going tobe one of my favorite episodes.
It was so funny discussing therabbit section.
(05:29):
That's some of my favorite audiowe've ever done.
I think that I will always lookback on that one.
Fondly, I think, you know, thecontent set us up well because
the actual, uh, the movie wewere reviewing had a lot of
places that we could bring upreally funny things like, you
were talking about the entiremodern woman breakup references
(05:52):
that were integrated into JaneAusten in this one.
But again, Devin and I.
Mussing upon the rabbit isdefinitely going to go down as
one of my favorite memories fromthis podcast.
Oh, absolutely.
That was very funny to listenback to.
And I, I do have to give a shoutout to the Netflix adaptation
(06:15):
for even giving us that rabbitSo, as you said, the content
lent itself to funny commentaryand I really enjoyed, I really
enjoyed those episodes as well.
Yeah.
I also love talking stem with mycousin Elena, she's a, my real
life version of VeronicaSpeedwell.
You know how much I loveVeronica Speedwell.
And so I thought it was reallycool having her on.
(06:37):
not just because of her scienceknowledge.
Uh,, she also is a teacher, andso the two of you had a lot to
discuss and a lot In common thatyou know, you could talk about,
but I also loved how wediscussed encouraging women to
pursue STEM and how importantthat is.
I really enjoyed having Elena onas well, just because she was
(06:59):
such an interesting person, veryinspiring.
She, and in addition to Devon,she was our only other guest
from season three, and it'salways really fun having someone
else come on the show.
So thanks to Elena for joiningus and it was really wonderful
having her.
Yes.
And then I think my otherfavorite episode of this past
season again aligns with yoursentirely.
(07:22):
Our surviving and thrivingepisode I thought was great.
I think when we originallyplanned that episode, you know,
we knew some of the things thatwe wanted to talk about.
Obviously, your 40th birthday,we wanted to talk about, my
summer travel, but I think.
As we were discussing that thosetopics, as you and I would just
normally do in our regularconversations, we recorded it
(07:45):
and we discussed those topics insuch an engaging, genuine, and,
and kind of even a little bit ofa vulnerable way.
And I think that that reallyjust made it a great episode.
We talked about, you know, someof the perceptions that we all
have, and some of theexpectations that we feel to, to
be at certain places in ourlives and how, you know, that
(08:09):
doesn't always match up with,with reality.
And I just really think it was afantastic episode.
It was, it was a reallyimportant episode for me
personally, just to have allthose reflections about my
milestone birthday.
And it was really cool when Iwas listening back to it,'cause
I was wishing that my 30 yearold self could have heard how
far I've come and where I amnow.
(08:29):
And.
That was really great to havethat recorded just as Record And
also, as I was just thinkingthis morning, I was like, wow, I
need to go back and listen tothat episode now.
Because I talked a lot about myreflections in my career as a
teacher and how I finally wasable to see the culmination of
that at graduation and see whatI.
(08:49):
You know the purpose of this,right, purpose of why I teach.
And I think I need to listen tothat back now because now that
I'm in this point in the schoolyear, I'm in the throes of one
of the busiest times of theschool year, and right now I
need to go back and listen to mesaying like,, oh, it's really
worth it.
And you know, not that I don'tthink it's worth it on a daily
basis, but it does help to havethat reminder from when I was at
(09:09):
that peak moment of perspective.
Yes.
it is really important to havethese reflections recorded and
um,, hopefully other people canbenefit from listening to our
reflections as well.
Yes, that little extra dose ofmotivation for you at this point
in the school year.
Absolutely.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, it's, it's definitely atough time of year.
(09:30):
But with that said, it's also anice time of year to reflect
back on how the year has gonebecause we're getting to the end
of 2023.
So it's definitely some of whatwe're gonna do in this episode,
reflect back on our words of theyear, how things were going.
We also have some ideas for whatwe're gonna be tackling next
season.
Yeah.
So Susan, let's, uh, let'sdiscuss some of those ideas
(09:50):
about what we're thinking aboutfor season four.
Right.
So we wanna go back to what weoriginally had as our model,
which was a good solid fiveepisode model.
We had tried to do somethingdifferent this past season by
taking some of our segments andputting them into separate
episodes.
Our idea was that.
It seemed in the past that our,our regular episodes, would run
(10:10):
kind of long.
We used to have all thesesegments and surviving and
thriving or sunshine andmonsoons used to be one of our
original segments.
We used to talk about what, weread novel ideas, but we were
like, okay, how can we make ourepisodes shorter?
Maybe it makes sense to takethese segments and make them
into individual episodes, butagain, you and I, our way of
(10:30):
simplifying is by making morework for ourselves, So, you
know, we tried doing that, but Ithink we're gonna go back to the
model where we're gonna keepthese segments as part of our
regular episode instead ofmaking all these separate
episodes.
So.
To our original thoughts.
We're also gonna continue ourcollaboration with Devin, which
is always really fantastic.
(10:51):
So continuing with some of thesame, but you know, kind of
going back to our roots with howwe used to format the show.
Yeah.
And I, as we were discussingearlier, Devin is the not so
secret third co-host of thispodcast at this point.
We just love making episodeswith her and we can't wait for
whatever we are Going to do withher in the next season.
(11:12):
So if our listeners have ideasabout things they think we
should read or watch or, listento with Devin, feel free to
suggest those on our socialmedia or by sending,, sending us
an email to SusanandWhitney@gmail.com.
Another thing, Susan, that we'regonna work on in, in the coming
year and throughout next seasonis.
(11:33):
Creating some more social mediacontent.
This was an area that, because Ithink we did so many episodes,
we just didn't leave a lot ofextra time for sharing with our
listeners on social media.
So in the, you know, comingmonths and year, we're going to
share, especially more videocontent so we can share some
more timely updates with ourlisteners in between episodes
(11:55):
and so they can see what we'redoing and what we're thinking
and, what we're we're.
excited about and we haddiscussed the possibility of
doing an Instagram or FacebookLive in the future.
So if our listeners haveinterest in that or if they
wanna ask us specific questionsor suggest content that we could
discuss on the Instagram orFacebook Live, they can also
share those suggestions with us.
(12:18):
Yeah, that sounds like a lot offun to try out doing a different
format such as the Instagram orFacebook Live.
I've never done that, so I lookforward to potentially dabbling
with that this upcoming season.
So Whitney, let's switch gearsand I wanna wrap up some of our
reviews from the season.
As I mentioned, we put a lot ofnovel ideas, episodes out this
(12:38):
season in which we talked aboutthings we were watching and
reading.
So I wanna wrap that up and alsojust tie up any loose
conversational ends that we'vehad throughout the season.
So first of all, I wanted to askyou what was the favorite, or
maybe plural, what were thefavorite things that you read?
Or watch this season.
(12:59):
A theme that I noticed when Iwas, looking back on this, to
figure out my answer to thisquestion is, there's a Taylor
Swift theme to my answers forboth Reed and Watch, and.
Uh, we discussed previously,probably in great detail how
much I loved the, Amazon Primeseries.
The summer.
It turned pretty.
I know I talked to you about itand you watched it and loved it.
(13:22):
I read all the books as I thinkyou and Devin are also, well, I
don't know if Devin's readingthe books, but you are reading
the books and, Devin is, haswatched the series now.
So it's one of those, reallyfond memories.
I have from 2023 of watchingthis and The summer I turned
pretty.
I think one of the reasons Ilove the series even more than
(13:43):
the books is because of themusic.
And a lot of the music is TaylorSwift, because I am a hardcore
swifty and that is what speaksto my hardcore swifty soul.
And so I was, when I was lookingback over my favorite books that
I'd read this year, I noticed aninteresting tie, which was A
book that I just kept thinkingabout and going back to, and I
(14:04):
don't even remember if Idiscussed this in one of our
novel reads episodes or not, butit, it was called The Summer of
Broken Rules by KL Walter, Hmm.
it is a, a Taylor Swift relatedbook as well.
So it is a book that I found outlater after I'd read.
It was based on the lyrics tothe Taylor Swift song, Hey
(14:26):
Steven, Also KL Welfare.
Like Taylor Swift was born inPennsylvania, KL Walter was born
in Bucks County.
So not far from where you arenow, Susan.
And, uh, I just, apparently Thisyear with the Aris tour and, all
of the rerecording, I'm, I'mjust infusing Taylor Swift into
all of my facets of my contentI'm consuming.
(14:49):
And so that was, I think mypotentially my top read of 2023
I have not heard you referencethat book before, so that sounds
really interesting.
I always like supporting localauthors, so as someone who lives
in Philly, I'll have to checkthat out.
Yeah, it was, it was aninteresting way I learned about
this book, and I can't rememberif I told you this, just, you
know, outside of the podcasteither I'd read this this, uh,
(15:12):
article called books based onTaylor Swift Arrows.
And I was just like skimmingthrough it.
And they had one book for each.
Taylor Swift, album that theythought fit the vibe of the
album.
And this was one of the books onthe list.
This book was supposed to fitthe, the lover, album era.
And so it just lookedinteresting.
And then I read it and I reallyloved it.
(15:33):
And I thought you would really,like, one of the main characters
goes by the name wit, like WITWitt.
And so I felt like that was a, aname you would approve of for a
romance protagonist or a hero.
What were your favorite readsand watches?
I Was looking back at my GoodReads list.
I actually read so manywonderful books this year.
(15:55):
And there's different ones thatI, or there's ones that I like
for different reasons.
But I think overall my favoritebook of the year was The Heart's
Invisible Furies by John Boyne.
I've referenced that previously.
It was just such an incrediblejourney that you go on with this
character.
There's so much to it.
It would be a fabulous book clubdiscussion.
I just loved it and I, again, aswe always talk about, I love
(16:16):
books on audio, so I really lovethe audio.
I thought the audio Narrator wasquite gifted and that was
definitely my favorite read.
I think possibly a close second,was remarkably Bright Creatures
by Shelby Van Pelt and, oneItalian Summer by Rebecca
Searle.
Those were my top three as faras shows.
I did enjoy the summer.
(16:37):
I turned pretty a lot and so didDevin.
We were texting back and forthabout it, like Team Jeremiah,
team Conrad, and by the way,Whitney, so I was hard.
Very hardcore team Conrad for along time.
And by the second season, I wasdefinitely a team.
Jeremiah.
I just feel like in the endshe's gonna be happier with
Jeremiah'cause Conrad's socomplex.
And anyway, just it, that's atough choice.
(17:00):
But I do appreciate you bringingthat series into my life'cause
it was just a delightful summerwatch.
I loved it.
Yeah, I, I know, I know exactlywhere you are mentally with the
team, Jeremiah, but I promiseyou you'll be Team Conrad at the
end.
Okay, well, I have yet to readthe third book right now.
I just got the second book outfrom my library holds.
(17:23):
Um, the first book I was able tolisten to on audio, it's
narrated by Lola Tongue whoplays Belly in the series, and I
thought she, she's a delightfulactress.
She did a lovely job with theaudio, but the second book, they
didn't have available on audiofor my library, so I'm reading
it on my Kindle.
But again, I'll have to go intothe third book, and of course,
next summer, hopefully the thirdseries or the third, uh, season
(17:45):
is gonna come out.
And then I'll, I'll let you knowwhere I'm at mentally.
But, um, anyway, I'm, I'menjoying all of it.
It's, and Devin enjoyed it aswell, and I.
So, yeah, shows.
I feel like maybe that was oneof my favorites this year.
I think actually my favoritemovie, which we did talk about
in the last novel ideas, we werebriefly teasing movies that we
(18:06):
were gonna see, and we never gotto circle back to this, but I
think Oppenheimer was myfavorite movie of the year.
It's extremely powerful.
Um, it's tough because it isabout a very difficult subject,
so that's hard.
But I, what I liked about this.
Movie is that it challenged meto think about the perspective
of the man who built the atomicbomb and what he would be going
(18:27):
through during and after.
I thought it was incredibly welldone.
Killian Murphy is phenomenal.
If he doesn't win the Oscar, Iwould be shocked.
his eyes are incredible.
His eyes could win.
The Oscar Whitney Yes.
um, yes, he was incredible.
And I, I also wanna throw outthere too, just on the other end
of the spectrum, you and I hadalso teased this in our last
(18:49):
novel ideas and never got tocome back to it.
I was not particularly a fan ofBarbie, I thought it was okay.
It was kind of fun for what itwas like.
I appreciated the casting andthe set choreography, the
costume, all that kind of stuffwas really fun.
But I didn't really love thatmovie, so I just wanted to say
that that was something thatdisappointed me this year.
(19:09):
But, you know, I'd rather focuson what I did like, which was
Oppenheimer.
So Bravo to Christopher Nolanfor directing that phenomenal
film.
I second what you're sayingabout Killian Murphy's eyes.
I first, uh, encountered and Ifeel fell in love with those
eyes and Peaky Blinders, whichis an amazing show on Netflix if
(19:30):
you haven't watched that.
I have not.
yeah, it's, I mean, it's aboutgangs, but Like Birmingham,
England gangs, but it's um, it'sa good one.
I like it a Yeah, his eyes andhis cheekbones.
I just think he was the perfectchoice for the role of playing
Robert Oppenheimer.
And again, the film is just avery important film.
(19:51):
It's very complex with thehistory.
There's a lot going on there.
but I do think in the music,everything about it, uh, that
really left a big lastingimpression on me this year for
favorite watches.
So yeah, it was a good year forconsuming content.
Yes.
Agreed.
There, there was a lot to choosefrom on all of our lists.
Yeah, absolutely.
(20:13):
so Suze let's round out ourepisode by talking about our
words of the year for 2023.
We haven't talked about themthat much this year, only in the
episode where we introducedthem.
So, uh, how did yours go thisyear?
Whew.
Yes.
I was just reflecting back onthis this morning while I was
making breakfast, because you'reright, we haven't really
(20:33):
formally had conversations aboutour words this year.
I know in the past we did like amid-year check-in episode, which
we didn't do this year.
Maybe next year we'll uh, goback to that model.
'cause it was kind of nicehaving that midway checkpoint.
Um, so I think this year my wordwas open.
I think it went very well.
Uh, you know, as we alwaysdiscuss, it's never gonna be
(20:54):
perfect, and I think that'ssomething we have to be okay
with, is we're never gonna havethis unbelievably perfect
achievement of this word that wetried to embody this year.
But I think I did a really goodjob at getting close to that.
So I tried to be open as much aspossible to new ideas and new
experiences, new people.
I think that the word open alsomade me think about the fact
(21:14):
that I, Like, you know, thinkabout things that I do want to
be more open to in the future.
I think when I set this goal,maybe I didn't know exactly what
I was aiming to be open to, andnow I have more of an idea of
that for next year.
So, um, I'll have to considerthat when I'm choosing my word
for next year.
Like I.
Maybe, maybe the word's gonna beabout tackling new things or
(21:34):
something.
but as far as keeping mycalendar open, I tried my very
best with that one.
And I, I think I did prettywell.
I tried specifically to be opento incorporating more time for
dating, particularly in thespring.
I've honestly gotten away fromthat because I sort of lost
interest in dating.
Honestly.
It wasn't that I wasn't open, Ijust You can't be open to
(21:55):
something you don't wanna doMm-Hmm.
so there's that too.
Um, and I, yeah, and I did mybest for that in the spring.
I think I was really open totrying new things and keeping my
calendar available for that.
Um, in this fall, I've tried tokeep my calendar open just for
myself to create more time formy work responsibilities because
it is really hectic during thefall, as I said.
(22:16):
And in the past, maybe I wastraveling a lot on weekends or
whatever, and I specificallytried not to schedule trips on
the weekends.
I, I haven't been anywhere sincethe end of September, and now
we're in mid-November, so I dida good job with that.
But on the flip side, I've beenmissing my family a bit since I
haven't incorporated as muchtime to see them and.
Ironically, their schedules werenot open.
(22:39):
So even though I might have hadtime to see them, they weren't,
they were busy.
But, um, overall I think I didwell with this word.
I enjoyed trying to encompassopen, and now I just have to
think about what I'm gonna dofor next year.
What about you, Whitney?
Yeah, so I mean, similarly, Ifelt like the word I chose for
this year, which was listen, washelpful as kind of a guide.
(23:02):
It was.
It was mostly helpful, I think,in reminding me to listen to my
body, like my physical orinternal cues for things.
I, I really wanted to make thisa goal this year because I tend
to overthink things and I tendto just like let my brain spin
out about decisions and, youknow, what I, what I think I
(23:24):
should do as opposed to what isfeeling good to me.
And I, I definitely Did check inwith myself more this year, and
there were times that I sloweddown just because I was tired
and you know, the signals that Iwas getting from my body was
that I was doing too much and Ijust needed to rest.
And so I did listen to thoseand.
(23:47):
There were also other timeswhere I would pay attention.
Hey, this feels fun.
And afterwards my, my body feelsgood when I do this.
obviously the easiest things topoint out, um, for those cues
are exercise.
I.
You know, we've been doingpersonal training for a year and
a half now, and so keeping upthat schedule felt good.
(24:07):
I got really into pickleballthis year, and so that felt
great.
we now play like two, sometimesthree times a week, and it's
super fun and I really likethat.
But at the same time, if I'moverdoing it, my body tells me
and I, I have to pull back.
So it works on both the good andthe bad sides.
Right.
(24:27):
It helps When things are goingbad and when things are going
good, I, I felt like this was agreat word.
It was absolutely, I, I wasthinking the same thing for you,
that it's very important tolisten to your body and what you
need, and I tried to incorporatethe same thing when thinking
about Open.
like for myself, if I wasfeeling like there was too much
going on, I tried to think aboutkeeping my calendar open and not
(24:50):
putting too much on the weekendsor whatever to allow those
moments to breathe.
but again, I'm still thinkingabout what to do for next year.
It might be a word kind of alongthe lines of being open to
something specific.
Like meeting new people, maybesomething along the lines of
networking, making newconnections, something like
that.
I'll think about it, butoverall, I do think this year
(25:12):
went well.
It's not over yet.
We still have time to round outthe year positively, but
overall, I think it was good.
Yes, agreed.
I am also failing the same way.
So, Susan, do you have any ideasabout your word for next year?
Yeah, not exactly yet.
Like I said, I'm still kind ofthinking about what's gonna make
(25:33):
sense.
Usually.
I do a lot of thinking aboutthat in between Christmas and
New Year's.
Um, I don't think I've ever beengreat with coming up with the
word like far in advance.
I need some time to finish outthis year and see how it goes,
and then.
Sometimes I even choose the sameword or variation of it twice.
Like the one year I chose bold,and the next year I was like,
you know what?
I'm not done with this.
I wanna continue.
(25:53):
And I made the word bolder orpicked the word bolder.
So who knows?
Maybe I'll do something elsealong the lines of Open, but
just kind of the next level ofthat.
But I, you know, I'll get backto you, When we record our first
episode for season four, wealways talk about our new Word
of the Year.
So that might be the point whereyou're gonna find out what it
is, one thing that's been comingup for me as I've been listening
(26:17):
this year is, simplifying, keepscoming back to me where I think.
In order to keep everything inmy life manageable and to
minimize the stress, I need tosimplify.
So I need to maybe decide onceas the lazy genius, Kendra
Adachi would say decide once,and that's what we do every
(26:37):
time.
Or just decide that this is theroutine for these certain
seasons of the year.
I'm thinking of this right nowas I think about like holiday
decorations.
I love holiday decorations.
I love Halloween decorations.
Christmas decorations are liketwo of my favorite holidays to,
to decorate for, and I can getcrazy over the top with them and
(27:00):
it can take me weeks to put themall up.
And then it takes me weeks totake them all down.
And then I'm trying to put themaway in a way that's like
organized.
Sometimes I just need tostreamline that.
I just need to focus on, two,two big feature areas and then
(27:22):
call it a day.
Right.
Or even with gardening.
I noticed this year because Iwas traveling so much for the
summer, I did not get to spendas much time outside in my in my
flower gardens, in my raised bedvegetable gardens as I did in
the past.
Simplifying those would'vehelped me out a lot.
(27:43):
Instead, I came home to a lot ofweeds and overgrowth that
Jumanji.
That's what my sister's husbandgardens, he has a huge garden.
He built a greenhouse this year.
Even when they came back fromone of their vacations, he said
it was like Jumanji in thegarden.
It was so overrun.
It literally looked like ajungle.
Yes.
So I, I can relate to that.
(28:04):
Sounds like simplify would be areally good word for you this
upcoming year.
And Whitney, if it makes youfeel any better, it's November
right now, and I'm still takingdown Halloween decorations.
I'm looking at my skullcandelabras right now, so I need
to put those away.
And I think everyone goesthrough the same struggles with
decorations, but it's a goodidea to just simplify and tackle
(28:25):
one room at a time or onesection at a time.
So I like your strategy.
Yeah, I did.
I did take down all of myspecific Halloween decorations
last week, so I'm ahead of myusual schedule on that.
And I've left up a handful ofpumpkins that can double as fall
decor until yes.
(28:47):
Christmas comes out of theboxes.
Yes, I agree.
I like Halloween and Fall daydecor, or Halloween and
Thanksgiving decor.
'cause there is a lot ofoverlap.
So actually my skullcandelabras, I did just turn
them around so you can't see theskull side, but they do still
look kind of creepy, so you needto put that away.
But away.
But anyway, there's alwayssomething to work on.
(29:07):
right, we're, we are all a workin progress, including our goals
for the year, that's a wrap forthe season three, Whitney.
Um,, thank you so much toeveryone who listened this
season.
We would love to hear from you.
Please tell us what episodes youenjoyed.
If there's something you wannahear us discuss, if there is a
book or a show or a movie thatyou think we should collaborate
with Devin on to discuss andanalyze, please let us know.
(29:30):
We really look forward tohearing from you, our listeners,
and.
Whitney, you and I look forwardto returning for believe it or
not, season four in in 2024.
I cannot believe it's seasonfour in 2024.
We really planned that well,didn't we?
We really did, and I rememberwhen we first started recording,
it was during the height ofCovid, so it's incredible to see
(29:52):
how far we've come, how far theworld has come.
It's kind of cool to follow ourjourney.
So thanks to everyone forlistening, and we're so excited
to come back Yes.
We'll see you all in season fourin 2024.
Four in 2024 have a wonderfulrest of 2023.
Woo.
All right.
Yay.
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