June 15, 2025 • 53 mins
In this lively episode of 'Squirrels After Dark,' the hosts kick off with playful banter and a few beers, introducing their full cast which includes your host Sharon Da Boy’z, Sprinkles, Silent Peter, Otter Pup, T-Bone / Pup Titan, Jookyy, and Rick Hunter AKA Spyder-Pup. They welcome Darren Ho, Director of Health Services at Health Initiative for Men, and dive into discussions about their work, personal lives, and humorous scenarios. Darren shares his coming-out story and his supportive parents, as well as his relationship with his long-time partner. The conversation takes unexpected turns from retail experiences to the chaos of holiday shopping, and nostalgic mentions of interactive technology like 'Interactive Mail.' The episode concludes with quirky jokes and a reminder of a mental health hotline.
Links:
HIM Clinic
9-8-8
BC Crisis Centre
https://www.crisiscentre.bc.ca/
Pumpjacks Pub
Golden Parrots Pub
https://www.goldenparrotspub.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The episode. Very nice.
And that is the start of my show.
Hi everyone, welcome back. Welcome to what what are we
called Squirrels after dark, right?
Episode 11, yes. What?
What 11? 12 actually 1212 where have you
(00:22):
been I. Don't.
Know, Oh my God. How many beers?
How many beers in? Not enough.
Not enough to be that confused. Let's say between 4:00 and 5:00.
Probably. Maybe I don't.
Know possibly OK all right so fluff well there's the fluff
it's always the fluff. Squirrels After Dark, welcome
(00:46):
back uncensored, unscripted, andjust absolute chaos that we are
off the hop like to welcome you all, all of our new listeners
from all around the world and the new countries that we were
in. We always like when new people
listen and all that fun jazz andall that sorts of stuff.
(01:08):
This podcast is recorded and brought to you from the unseeded
and traditional territories of the Coquitlam First Nations and
we thank you for allowing us to be here.
With that being said, on with introductions.
We have a full cast today and a wonderful, very special guest
joining us today as well, and wewill get to the introductions
(01:30):
with him shortly. So intro of the cast.
We have the inquisitive and frugal sprinkles.
Yep, Yep, don't pay retail 'cause it's against my culture.
Wow. Joining Sprinkles, we also have
Silent Peter in the shadows, whowe love dearly waving away.
(01:54):
As well as the kids, we've got the cuddly, adorable Otter pup
Titan J Rod. There it is.
I also have a dad joke. Do we get to?
Hear. It.
Now, but I will wait. The anticipation builds this
(02:18):
sexy AF in his biking gear. We've got T-bone.
T-bone AKA Daddy. That's going to be.
Explored later that that that will be Yeah.
We'll, we'll we'll touch back onthat one after the incomparable
sultry voice of Juki. Oh.
(02:39):
Why? Thank you.
Who had a most successful Mother's Day weekend and another
event after that? I believe with the choir.
We did. We did a show for the
Alzheimer's Walk outside. That was an adventure.
Juki is. We'll explain to Darren what
(02:59):
your role is. I am a member of the Maple Leaf
Singers. We are a show choir that
performs around the Lower Mainland and our main the main
reason we do it is to go into seniors homes and bring music to
people who can't get out. That is too.
Awesome. Find it.
And we do a a public show a few times a year.
And yeah, when what? This one was a free one.
(03:19):
We were at the Alzheimer's Walk and yeah, being outside it, you
know, singing at 9:00 in the morning was an experience.
You guys must get quite a some some you, you guys must get some
rewarding response from older people, right?
Yeah. I can't imagine what it would be
like we can make. People cry with joy.
Yeah, Yeah. That's yeah.
No, I I went to her concert during the Mother's Day weekend.
(03:42):
And I'm not gonna lie, there is several times throughout that
show that I teared up like full on.
Oh, well, we, we teared. We were tearing up when we we
sang. Oh, Canada.
Oh yeah. Oh, yeah, Beautiful.
If we had to practice that multiple times before.
I could not get choked up doing that.
Yeah. That probably means a lot to
them, right? Yeah, you sing Alto, Alto.
(04:05):
Yes, Alto, Alto. All right.
On that note, back to the intradose.
Intradose. Intradose.
The intro Dees the loving husband who causes me stress in
Gray hair. Rick Hunter AKA Spider Pup.
(04:29):
There it is. Hi, Honey.
Hey Hon, love you. I love you too.
Mine causes me stressing as well.
Right. Oh my God, I was so thin and
beautiful before I met him. Now I'm Gray and old.
Ouch. Although that's what 20 years
(04:50):
together will do to you. Yeah.
On that note, now that the cast is dealt with, I would really
like to welcome Darren Ho, who is director of.
Health services at health initial for men him.
Hi the Him clip, welcome to the chaos that is my show.
(05:10):
Yeah, you, you. You've been interviewed in the
previous episode. You know, now you get to enjoy
yourself and it just have a goodtime.
I am so proud of the questions that I asked.
Actually, I was, I, I very much felt like sprinkles right there.
And you know. But I am thankful that you did
get to ask those questions because I was thinking it as
well. So as I said off air, thank you
(05:32):
for asking those because it's probably, if we're thinking it,
a lot of other people were thinking it too.
So it's good that it was addressed.
Hey, I learned a lot. I did have a very important
question that I forgot to ask. Yes.
If you were a tree, which tree would you beat?
A Willow tree I think OK, but I don't really have a reason.
I think I don't know a lot of trees, but there's a Willow tree
(05:52):
near where I live, so cool. I have lots of Willow tree quick
answer like. On that note, I would be a
weeping Willow. Wow, I'd be an oak.
I'd be a Christmas tree. Oh, you would be hardwood.
Yes you would. What's the one with the honey
that? 'D be a Maple tree.
Maple. Tree honey?
(06:13):
No no, that's Maple syrup. Honey comes from bees.
I I, I don't know, Sorry. She.
Just. I don't know yet.
I'm sorry, I don't know. Did you really think it came
from a tree? Wait, wait.
Wait, you're. Thinking Maple syrup?
Things just happened so fast. On On a bad note, welcome to my
episode, Darren. Thank you for having me.
(06:34):
Now you know what it's like. A little disturbed that you
thought that honey came from. Trees.
No, no, I thought that too. I was.
I was a part of this. Tea, that was.
That was epic. My brain was not braining.
Here we are. Your brain was squirrely.
Authentic. I love you so much because
that's so honest. That you thought?
(06:56):
That my brain was not braining. I just what can I tell you?
Anyways, let's go. Let's continue.
That's that's such the ADHD. The nest T-bone is in the tree
though of the piece. OK, but I have some really good
tree honey for you that I'll bring next week.
Awesome Maple syrup. Yeah.
Same same. So anytime you want to jump in
(07:17):
by, by all means please do so like.
Technically, I don't think any. J Rod, do you have a question,
Sir? I believe the name is Titan.
I don't know Titan. Snap, which I still disagree
with, but that's not. That's your opinion.
Yeah. That is your, but I'm pretty
sure we did not say hello to Spaz.
(07:39):
On the. First episode or spaz has been.
Very, very good. He's right down by my feet.
Underneath, yeah, he hasn't scared the shit out of anybody
in each episode yet, so that's why we haven't acknowledged him.
He's a good little cat, hides inthe corner and just disappears.
He's. Just really be soggy.
Yeah, so. Big main questions were out of
(08:00):
the way in the main episode for Darren.
If you want to know anything about that, please refer back to
the main episode for this Season3, Episode 12 of The Squirrel
Hour. Yeah, we got the bug.
You now you get to be yourself. OK, I got one for.
Which means my trademark question top or bottom.
(08:23):
OK, that's good question. OK, this is gonna sound so like
like silly and nerdy but. If he says he's not gay, I'm
gonna hit him. I mean I'm super gay but also
also because I'm like getting older.
I feel like nowadays I'm identifying as a side and back
(08:45):
when I was a young gay we didn'thave sides as a thing.
But now we do, and I'm thankful.What does that mean?
It means I don't. I don't like to put in the
effort to bottom and I don't like to put in the effort to
top. OK, can I tell?
Side things. I can I tell?
You I am side. Can I tell you a?
Secret. Sure, as somebody who's pre
(09:06):
menopausing and your body feels different as a woman I'm
appreciating top and side more because my body right.
It's things that they don't talkabout when you're premenopausing
for women is what position is comfortable with how your body
is changing top and side most comfortable.
(09:26):
I don't want to be turned into apretzel anymore.
I'm done with that phase. Not.
Flexible anymore? No, I get, I cry when I do yoga.
You let alone seen all these like drawings and books like
What are you doing? I do believe his definition of
side and your definition of sideare a little differently.
Different. Yeah, we might.
Yeah, we might be miscommunicating.
What? What do you think is the
(09:46):
disconnect here? Like how?
How is my side different from her side?
I mean. I think she just likes it lying
on her side. Oh, is that what you mean?
Yeah. What did you mean?
Oh, I mean, like, not insertive penetrative anal sex.
I mean, like, yeah, hand jobs, blow jobs.
Oh, we were talking about something else.
I'm so sorry. But I loved how like we just
(10:09):
learned. Something.
Thank you for catching that because I I didn't know that we
were not speaking the same side.Oh no.
You're still a top or a bottom even if you're on your side,
right? Yeah, we, yeah, that's what
that's. Yeah, side to the main dish type
of thing is that. Yeah, it's OK.
I mean, it's fun. It's.
(10:30):
Not the meat. You're still dealing with the
meat. Oh my God, if I could just have
a snack break in between I wouldlove that.
Do you like going to wreckage? Yes.
So my, my, that's more of a thing that my partner really
loves and I just like go with. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
First, we. Heard of our heart out of my
introduction. He's actually a big part of my
life. I just don't know why I didn't.
(10:53):
I was just gonna wait when you just, you know, make sure, you
know, if you actually listen to the show, Like, I'm like, I'm
sorry, you were totally left out.
In all honesty, we brought him here to drill him on the career.
Yes, that's what it's not, not. The personal stuff.
OK, so let's let's talk. About my partner, yeah, so he
(11:13):
loves Rock Beach. We've been together for 14 or so
years. Awesome.
Thank. You we married yet we are not
married. We are not married, but maybe
soon. I don't know.
We we also just we, we feel likewe have often.
OK, so we get asked this a lot like, oh, you've been together
14 years. How come you're not married?
(11:33):
And I'm curious to know your guys's decision.
We, we will tell you that. But for me and my partner, we
have just felt like we like our relationship how it is.
We just are fine. Yeah, we're just fine.
You're not required and I'm happy to hear that.
Peter and I have been together for hold on 16 years.
Really for? 16 years and we're not married.
(11:55):
Oh, you get it? Yeah, Yeah.
It's not. It's not required.
Yeah. For us, we decided, we said well
you know when we first started to get in together and we said
if we are together, you know, for our ten years, on our 10
year anniversary we will get married and we got married and
our ten years together. Oh, that's great.
So, and that was just something we decided that, you know,
(12:15):
we've, we've gone through our life together 10 years, then
yes, we will make that decision.And you know, now we're.
We were a monogamist for about 6months.
But The thing is, me being cheapand me being Muslim, East Indian
weddings are big. They're Bruters.
Yeah, and so it was just me not wanting to spend the money.
Understood. I can't because.
You have to. Don't your daddy need to pay for
(12:37):
that? He cheap too.
He was relieved when I was goingout with Peter, who's Caucasian,
because the financial pressure. It's it's a lot.
By 90%. Yes, but still on our side
there's a lot. I'm just glad to hear that
someone within the gay community, because I gained just
like straight couples, gays, it's nice.
It's even in the even in the gay.
(12:58):
Community Six months in a gay relationship is like a lifetime.
Yeah, so 16 years. So congratulations.
Welcome to, you know, welcome tothe show, Darren's partner.
Thank you. Yes, yes, bring my partner into
the show, but. Not we don't.
We don't have to reveal his name.
Does he have a nickname That might not be too revealing.
We can. I don't know, I feel weird
(13:19):
about. Saying I think it's because your
dimples are so cute. I want to call him Dimple lover.
OK. Yeah, because.
Like somebody gets those. Dimples, we're going to call him
DL. Nice, because he's on the DL,
yeah. Because you have the cutest
dimples. I'm a sucker for dimples.
Thank. You.
Yeah, no one's everything. That's why most of us always, we
all have our own, our nicknames and everyone uses that as a
(13:41):
synapses. We all have names in the show,
which is always a lot of fun. I don't want to be recorded very
nice in public, yeah. But again, I congratulations and
that's fantastic. I love hearing that.
Yeah, you know, and it's, and it's so hard for people to meet
now just in every culture to meet anybody nowadays.
Yes. It doesn't matter of your
(14:01):
orientation, just meeting peoplein Vancouver organically.
Is hard, absolutely. That's what I mean.
Like it involves every single culture like nothing.
It's just difficult to meet people period, right now. 14
years that yeah, that predates Grinder.
How did you guys meet? OK so so do you guys know the
Tumblr meme that's like and theywere roommates.
(14:22):
Yes, I do not now I feel old, but yes, thank.
You. It's a Vine that got popularized
on Tumblr, that's how. Chronically.
Online I am. I feel old.
Wait, it was what was it? It was they were sitting in a
hot tub and. 5 feet apart because they're not gay.
Yeah, that's why That's. Yeah.
OK. So me and my partner, his
brother and I went to Douglas College.
(14:46):
Like, we had a class at Douglas College together.
And then me and his brother became roommates.
And then my boyfriend moved to insulin.
The three of us were roommates. So our origin story is that we
were roommates first. OK, but I like how you.
Unlike dating. Apps you got to get to know
people in real life organically,right and that's.
(15:06):
The brother of your bestie from college.
Yeah, yeah, I know. It just worked out that way.
Isn't that isn't that a thing were.
You guys both out, out. So I was out, out, I was out to
his brother. And then one day his brother
said like, oh, you know, my brother has been like saying
things about how like he's bi, my boyfriend is bi.
(15:28):
And and so when I found that out, you know, I didn't
initially be like, OK, like my initial reaction was like, oh,
that's cool. I don't know your brother.
I'm not really into your brotherkind of thing.
But I mean, look where we are now.
I guess I was. Wrong.
Was it a slow build like? Was it a these?
Little. Signs.
Oh my gosh, you're asking the deep questions.
Was it? OK, so.
(15:49):
You thought the interview was over.
We. OK.
So we were roommates and so it was very like, like, like living
together. You saw him.
Walk around the apartment with the towel on after the shower.
It it, it was all of the typicalroommate things.
I don't know how to it was also a long time ago for me, but
(16:10):
like, yeah, slow, slow burn. It's like I'm.
A sucker for romance stories so I'm just invested in this.
Like I feel like we've we've gotten more romantic over time
and and like years and years ago, I don't know if we would
say that we were romantic, but now we are.
So just just out of curiosity, you are Chinese?
Yes, I'm Chinese. My parents are from Hong Kong
(16:31):
slash Shanghai, OK. And the partner?
My partner is from El Salvador. Very nice, yeah.
Very nice, yeah. Cool, but he has been here since
he was like one or two years old.
And OK do your. Parents like him or do they
think you need better or? So yeah, my parents really like
(16:52):
him. And I'm so fortunate and I'm so
grateful because I was not always out to my parents.
Like there was a time when we were dating and I was not out to
my parents. And then when I came out to my
parents, their first question tome was like, like, aren't you
dating the brother like his brother?
I'm like, no, the brother is straight.
I'm dating, you know, DL dimple lover.
(17:12):
But yeah, my parents, I really love him.
He gets along with my parents very well.
Great. We see my parents like once a
week and we have dinner together.
It's a it's like a parental instinct that no matter what,
they want to make sure that they're good enough for you,
that you know you're good enoughfor them, or vice versa.
Yeah, I'm very likely to have supportive.
Parents, I just want to say I absolutely love the fact that I
just, just the way you describedit, that when you came out to
(17:34):
your parents and your family that they, they basically
accepted you right off the hop. Yeah, and I did not expect that
cuz I, you know, I grew up with my Chinese family, very
traditional father and I just always assumed that he would not
be OK with it. I was just gonna say traditional
Chinese parents don't aren't. So I, I'm super grateful for his
(17:56):
support. Both of my parents support.
Yeah. I just, I'm so I, I feel super
lucky that my parents reacted the way that they did.
Oh, well, that's that's, that's fantastic.
But I think it's cute that they thought you were dating the
brother. That's the reaction.
Like, no, that's great. I mean, that's that's fantastic.
I mean as. It should be right wholesome.
Those, those, those of us that are, you know, gay or bisexual,
(18:19):
you know, kinky. No, the struggle it is to come
out to family, which is you can come out to all your friends all
you want and everything else. That's, that's the easy part.
The hardest part in your life, really, is letting your parents
know. Jay Wright disagrees for him,
but everyone's experience is different because I know Jay
(18:41):
Wright has a different experience and thought on that.
So it was a little challenging for me to come out to my parents
because I grew up going to prideparade and like I've always my
mom and my dad have always had gay friends.
So it was a little challenging for me to come out for to them,
(19:02):
but at the end of the day it wasthey were supportive and as
mothers go, they were a little protective so.
But it was. That's good.
Yeah. So my mom always said, you know,
just be safe, I guess. Good.
Bottom line, just be safe. Yeah.
Yeah. So that's pretty much it.
Well, you, you went to pride parades for years with your mom
(19:26):
as well. So.
I mean, it's not like. Yeah, in in a sense you could
almost say mom was kind of pre prepared just in case.
I wouldn't say she was prepared to have a son that was bisexual,
but I imagine she was a little prepared.
(19:48):
Yeah. But I just.
Better than not. Being, yeah, significantly more
accepting than those parents whoyou know.
Oh yeah, I've seen, I've seen the stories.
I've seen the videos. Yeah, some of them are weird.
That's. Just I that's.
Bad I came out to mom on Mother's Day it's like happy
Mother's Day. I'm gay, I'm currently
hitchhiking across the province to go, you know, meet the guy
(20:11):
that I fell in love with over interactive male chat line on
the phone. Who here?
Interactive. Does anybody?
Else I wasn't. I wasn't meaning spider.
No no no, this is my ex. No, no, prior to spider.
This was this was prior. So, so as the age group goes, I,
I, you know, I'm the oldest one here.
(20:34):
I'm the oldest. I always will be.
I'm pretty sure I'm all of our guests.
He's been the oldest. I'm pretty sure I'm the youngest
here. I think you're younger, so
Darren, are you in your 30s forties?
I'm in my mid 30s. OK, just kind of gives everyone
an idea of everyone, you know, without saying your age cuz
you're, you know, at the area. Yeah, I know.
We were at the community. And he's also Chinese, so he
(20:54):
looks like he's 28. Right.
Exactly. I thought never be ashamed of
looking young, I. Wish you look.
Young. Yeah, I've never been.
I'm the oldest pop in the community.
I'm almost 55. Are you gonna explain to us
Interactive male? What, what what?
What was the term? You said.
I remember. That I remember, if you don't
(21:14):
know. It I would remember seeing the
commercials. Interactive.
Mail No, no, I The look on Darren's face automatically was
like, I have no idea where. You're.
This is like before the chat for.
Real You don't know this I. Don't know this SO.
You gotta be you gotta be in your 40s to know about.
It you had to be in your 40s at least to know about interactive
mail. Is this love you?
Pre Internet. Yes, it.
Is this is pre Internet? Yeah, yeah.
(21:35):
We're not talking about chat room.
No no, this is pre Internet. This is phone line stuff.
OK, so there there was the OK, now I'm really going to fucking
date myself. The ads in the classifieds at
the back of the daily newspaper that got delivered to your
house. Interactive mail.
In the personal sections, there was little ads for, say, mail to
(22:00):
Mail, chat, chat. I'm phone chat, phone chat line.
There was night. Yeah, those didn't come on till
after 1:00 AM I watched for those.
So the cute thing was is that you would get a 60 minute free
account, 90 or was it 90? Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't as pro
as you. So you get 90 minute account for
(22:22):
a phone number. So The funny thing is you would
go, the account was linked to the phone number.
Yeah. So when you would go over this
was great. So or get this, it was like the
gaydar. So you would go to a friend's
place, your account was used up and you would go to your
friend's house and use their phone number to dial in.
(22:42):
Because if we give you an. Account number.
You could write that down and you can.
Log in that number from. Any.
Phone number. But if you went to your friend's
place and you use the phone number of like, this phone
number is already a link to an interactive mail account.
You're like busted. See for me.
It was busted. It was use the landline at
mom's. It was great.
(23:02):
Get my account for 90 minutes. Once that expired, I ran to the
corner payphone. Yeah, you get the payphone.
The payphone. Get the get the account number
for that one. Yeah.
Then I'd go to the next closest payphone and I was running all
over downtown Edmonton getting freaking free account numbers.
But once you get the number, it's locked up.
OK, so can you. What's the process though?
(23:24):
Like random people. 1st. 40 whatwas it 45 or 60 days?
You were able to get another account number but it would took
like almost two months, maybe 2 and a.
Half the number to be released. So this is for hookups and also
phone sex. Yeah, yeah, it's a total hookup.
Yeah, yeah, it's a total hookup.Line.
So you'd, you'd, you'd log in, you'd call in, log in, you know,
(23:46):
create your profile, you'd do a voice message.
It's like, hey guys, you know, I'm back in the day.
I was 18 quote, UN quote. No, I was for sure 100%.
I was 18. You know, you'd be like, hey
guys, 18 years old, you know, new to the system.
Just checking it out, seeing who's out there.
If you want to chat, hit me up so you'd hear that.
(24:07):
And you can scroll through the profiles by like pushing the
next, like 3 for next. You'd hear that, OK, you'd
listen, move on to the next one.If you like somebody, you'd send
them a message and then it wouldbe just like voice messages back
and forth. It's pretty.
Pretty complex for the time. Like it actually was.
And then you could actually, if you really like the person
you're talking, you could then you could connect live and it
(24:28):
would actually connect you like live, live phone call.
But the thing about it was, is it wasn't just local.
Anybody on the system, no matterwhere they were, could hear your
profile. Yes, voice ad and send you a
message, which is How I Met my ex.
(24:49):
Yeah, I was living in Grand Prairie, Alberta and I was on
interactive mail and I started chit chatting with a guy like we
were sending messages back and forth and it's a great thing.
The job that I had sent me to different towns so I was able to
get my 90 minutes free from a lot of different payphones in
northern Alberta. It was great.
(25:09):
So we were able to communicate all the time because that's how
we used to communicate long distance phone calls on cell
phones especially was ridiculous.
So that's how we communicated. And so that's that's how we met
was over through interactive mail and he was in central
(25:31):
Alberta. So he was, he lived roughly
about a six and a half hour drive from where I was just in
that in Alberta. So, yeah.
And that's how we met. And it's like we, we talked
every day for, I don't know, probably about four months.
(25:52):
And then I, you know, log in oneday and it's like, Oh yeah, you
have a message from so and so. And I listened to it and it's
like, well, no, By this point wehad exchanged phone numbers.
So I was at work one day and then I get a message from him
and it's like, hey, where are you?
I'm like, well, I just got home from work and he's like, why
(26:15):
aren't you at such and such place?
I was like, why would I be there?
He's like, because I am. Wait, what?
So he drove across the province to pick me up.
This was after we met and I cameout to my mom on Mother's Day
and I hitchhiked across the country to meet him.
You know, he drove up to Grand Prairie to pick me up, to move
(26:37):
him back to his home to live with him, which was fantastic.
And everything else because I was so head over heels in love
with this guy and everything else he proposed to me.
Oh. Wow.
And you know what that is? And no offense or anything to
those that identify as such, buthe was bye and I now know the
(27:02):
reason why. Bye means bye bye.
Yeah, we, we, we discussed this many earlier on in the episodes
and how this all led to be. Yeah, he was lost deep in me.
Yeah. And proceeded to tell me how he
had slept with a woman earlier that day and how good she was.
Please proceed to season 1 somewhere in the first year.
(27:23):
Yeah, with the bad audio. Yeah, with the bad audio that
yeah. I'm sorry you went through that.
Yeah, Hey, you know what? I.
Learned that you're re sharing it for those zoom.
In high def. In high def listen to that yeah
a better. Audio, You know what?
I in all honesty, after all thistime, I don't have anything
against him. I don't hold any regrets to him.
(27:44):
As far as I know, last I talked to him, actually, he had two
beautiful daughters and they were the most cutest things
ever, No. J Rod, Good Friends.
Really. Nice, we'll say this.
I've never been with a female. Look.
Fine, let's. You've been with us many a
times. I know.
(28:05):
I know you're our bud. Yep, it was fun right?
And many a beers were consumed on.
That we always have. We always.
On those nights. We always have a lot of fun.
What we do is every now and thenwe enjoy ourselves.
We get J Rod drunk and fuck them.
So we like the whole socials at our place.
Yeah. We had a big party a couple of
weeks ago. It was.
(28:26):
Everybody's drunk. Just to clarify.
Yeah. Jesus Christ.
Yeah, we're not. Taking advantage of anybody
here? No, it's all consensual.
J Rod usually starts it anyhow. Yeah, it was.
OK, send me those invites next time.
What we'll do is if you'd like is what we do, we'll have about
two more parties. The first one is the patio
opening party and just everybodybasically brings $20.00 for
(28:46):
pizza and you know bring some drinks and we last time we had
about 25 people. We'll do about two or three more
socials and if you'd like, I'll send you invite.
Oh my God. I would love to come, actually.
Yeah, like for. It's just a.
MB to the party when our phone number pops up on their call.
It's a lot of fun. Because they're like, this is a
$500 call right here. Answer that fucking thing.
(29:07):
Drop up everything else. Yeah, these guys get priority.
Yeah, if you'd like to God we. Come, I'll bring my tape player.
Yeah, we bring we it's open. We usually we have like, I mean
a lot of the pup community, we have everybody here.
We have some, some, we have the furries, couple of furry friends
that show up. Cool.
It's just a fun people. It's just a fun social.
Random odd straight female? Yeah, it's usually all females
(29:29):
that are straight that show up. Yeah.
So we'll do. We'll do a couple of more.
We'll probably about two more inthe summertime.
I'll send you the next two. And if you're free, it's always
on a Saturday. Cool.
And lots of advance notice and people do it, and people just
show up and it's a good time to meet, make new friends and meet,
you know, meet new people. And get drunk.
Sounds fun. That's that's.
A lot of fun and I. Usually bake a penis cake.
(29:50):
Isn't that for usually for? That's usually for my birthday.
Yeah, it's usually get a penis cake for my.
Birthday, No, but I brought one to your Halloween party and your
last patio party I brought a. Penis cake, Yeah.
No, she usually brings a penis cake.
So I in that case, I would love to have you.
I will make sure you get the invite and everyone's welcome.
It's an open, you're welcome. It's just disagree.
My Instagram I don't ever post anything on there.
(30:11):
Anything that posts on there is usually linked from my Facebook,
which I really don't do much on either.
So basically just look at my Instagram.
You just, Yeah. Yeah, I understood.
I share it, you know, the Instagram this, the podcast, all
the links and the pictures of today's episodes and all the
stills and the videos. So I like to do all of that on
that one end. Devon, you want to go first.
(30:33):
Sorry, I'm just when you did runout of minutes, how did like
like 90 minutes and you're talking for months, How did you
guys stretch that? Like I said, I went to the the
job that I worked for at the time had me travelling around
northern Alberta, so. You'd go to another phone.
I'd go to another pay phone. And put your name in with that.
No no no I what was the number? All you have to do is just call
(30:55):
in and it gives you a 90 minute free session and it tells you
your account number so you couldlog in from any phone from after
that it. Just kept making a different
account. Yeah, I kept hitting up
payphones and calling for my cell phone.
My cell phone bill was ridiculous.
By the way, I was on pay as you go and $50 card with Telus
lasted me like 3 days. It was horrible.
(31:17):
Oh my gosh, Jesus. Oh God, the old days.
The old days. Yeah, the the.
That's how the gays met. And I mean, I like, like I said,
I don't have any. You know, in hindsight, yeah.
OK. I should have saw the the clues
that were coming up to it because there was a couple of
situations prior to that whole situation between he and I that
(31:39):
I should have clued into but didn't.
And you know what? I have no hard feelings against
him and he's doing really well right now.
Like I said, he's got two. Last I saw he had two beautiful
little girls and Oh my God, theyare the cutest things in the
world. Awesome.
So oh honey, I love you. Love you too, just.
(32:00):
But that's just why when I meet somebody who's bye, bye, it's
like, OK, yeah, bye, bye, hey. Wow.
I know. Ouch, I know.
I'm still here. So for the record, yes, you are
bi, yeah. Yeah.
But you are gay, bi, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(32:21):
All right, that's fair. Yeah, go ahead.
Disagree with that one? No, no, I accept.
How dare. You how much interaction have
you ever? I went to, I was curious, but
I'm a pup involved in the pup community.
Hubby's involved in the more involved, not actively, but the
VML community. No, not involved.
I just. You just follow them.
Are you active? Are you, Is your husband
(32:42):
involved in any of the communities?
He definitely is not, I am like through work.
I I'm not involved in like the pup community, leather
community, bear community, but Ifeel like I have always been
like adjacent to like pup events, leather events, bear
events, cool. Like like I've seen them, I've
(33:04):
checked them out, kink events, things like that.
So, so it's not, it's not new tome per SE, but I don't know if I
would say that I'm like, but you're not immersed.
Immersed in any of particular one?
Yeah. But is there any one of those
communities that you've? Had more interest in I've been.
Experiencing that you that kind of has piqued a little bit more
(33:25):
interest where you would kind ofsteer towards going to that
event as opposed to that event. I'm interested in kink stuff.
I haven't like, I haven't reallylike experimented.
Well, I have experimented, but Ihaven't really found like a like
(33:47):
a, what's it like? Like a community.
Community. Yeah, for it I would.
Say my community is the public community which I embrace and I
fully involved in. It yes, yes.
So yeah, so I don't. Yeah, he went full on head and
dove into the deep end, just fully enveloped.
And yeah, so there's lots of crossovers I would say with like
(34:09):
there is like BDSM play leather.Absolutely.
You know, Yeah, yeah, you guys know, I feel like who am I?
Explain this. To you.
And I was just curious, I mean, you know, because and I mean,
obviously it's not required. It was just kind of a question
just to getting to know you and yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. So I'm not I'm not new too.
Yeah, So like my interest is I, I, like Spider said that I'm
(34:32):
involved with the VML, that Vancouver men and leather
community. I'm not technically involved
with them. I'm on their Telegram chat.
I do follow them. I ran every now and then
randomly participate in events with them.
I knew I know some some guys that are involved with the
VLVML. It varies.
(34:53):
I'm, I'm myself, I'm into the latex, rubber, leather aspect of
it. You know, like not, not the, not
the, the submissive dominant, you know, master slave side of
it. I just it's, it's more the the
attire and the appearance that is appealing to me.
(35:17):
What's your favorite drink? Alcoholic drink like red wine.
Rum and ginger ale. Very OK, that's very basic.
Cool. Wait, sorry, what was that?
Rum and ginger ale because people usually do rum and coke
or gin and ginger ale but I justmix it.
Up. I do that too.
I like that one. I was again just random
questions just thinking of like what's today's?
Question into rum and ginger. Yeah, I don't like rum and Coke.
(35:38):
Coke's too heavy. It's too sweet.
Yeah. Try Diet Coke, Raspberry rum and
Coke 0. Aspartame.
The best? It's protein.
So Juki is our, if you'd never got upset, our executive chef.
So she's our best friend. She also has a weed allergy, so
(36:00):
yeah, if you need to know where to go for gluten.
I said weed. That's what I thought you said.
Weed. Weed allergy.
You have a weed allergy. I heard.
Oh sorry I heard weed as well. I heard weed.
No, no, no, I said. Wheat.
Well, we all heard. Weed.
I know you have a wheat allergy,but.
With the tea. Get out of the damn gutter
(36:20):
y'all. So yeah, I said wheat.
So yeah. And we and our local pub which
is across the street is the Golden Parrots which we love to
promote now. So we.
Specialize in gluten free food. Oh, cool, cool.
Yeah. So just in case you knew anybody
that because it's more of a thing, just in case you knew
anybody in the community that and you know that really liked
it, It's nice to let them know. Cool.
I'm I'm excited for you to find out some of the other people
(36:43):
that you might be interested in to be on the podcast.
I'm. Excited for that.
Yeah, I'll think. I'll think there's more and then
I'll definitely let you know. Yeah, I I'm excited that, again,
it's just such a great way to meet everybody and have you back
on the show. And yeah, just be, yeah, not be
grilled with questions. Yeah, but I'm gonna grill you
with a question. What was the last concert you've
been to? OK, that's a fun.
(37:05):
Question. That is a fun question.
I went to my God, was it Ashley,Tegan and Sarah?
It might be Tegan and Sarah. It might have been churches.
I think it wasn't recent. It wasn't recent.
Who was playing at the P&E last year?
Wait. Lots of people I'm.
(37:25):
Trying to think who? Who did I like when I was?
Like at the P and I think Ace ofbase was there last.
Year. Yes, that's right.
Yes, OK, Aqua. Aqua, thanks, Peter.
Aqua, thank you. Yeah, well, I don't know.
I don't remember my last concertbut.
I saw Ace of Base in Edmonton atKate Ace.
Nice. That was fucking fantastic.
Spiritual animal. Wait.
(37:48):
Right. Spirit animals.
So I was gonna ask that questionand I love you for bringing that
question up, but Darren did not want to answer.
It I, I avoided the question because I, I was told I have
been told by some indigenous people that it's not appropriate
for non indigenous people to have a spirit animal.
But I'm here to learn as well, OK?
Which in all honesty, being an Indigenous person myself, I do
(38:14):
not believe that. I believe everybody has the
spirits, the characteristics of certain animals that they
identify with and that will represent them and protect them.
And I believe, and I'm pretty sure my Northern Alberta People
Treaty eight people will also agree as well, that everybody
(38:39):
has a spirit. Everything has a spirit and we
all resonate with each other so.Have we ever discussed it on the
podcast? I don't think.
We have. We.
Have. I'm pretty positive we actually
did discuss our spirit animal at1:00.
Point I don't think we've done spirit animal, we've done dogs.
I don't go. Back anyway.
But I'll. So I I will ask this as an
(39:02):
indigenous person, I am asking you which which spirit animal do
you feel represents you the best?
And in all honesty, it doesn't have to be like a as some
believe. It has to be an animal that is
current and now sure, but it doesn't have to be you can you
can identify and be represented by all sorts of animals.
(39:25):
I mean, I know Dragons are very popular in the Chinese.
Culture so you you thanks for reminding me of that option that
I can pick a dragon because I was born in the year of the
dragon yes and so growing up youknow Dragons were a big part of
like like my like parents telling me like why I'm special
(39:45):
you know parents tell you they're special whatever but but
my parents especially made. It all special.
My parents made it a big deal that like, Oh my God, you were
born in the year of the dragon and like, that's super
meaningful, super whatever. Yeah, yeah, I guess I would pick
dragon. I didn't think about that, I
guess before you mentioned dragon, the animal that I feel
like closest to would be turtles, actually.
(40:07):
Nice. And I don't.
I don't really have an explanation for that.
I think it's just that I like turtles.
I. I feel like they have like all
of the like they're like they were built with the hard stuff.
They. Shell, you know, soft center.
Yeah. Slow and steady wins the race.
Yeah. And.
Wise. Yeah, and they have that.
One Jukeie just already. If turtles had wings that would
be amazing. They have.
(40:28):
They have everything. But I'll say.
Shells. So Super Mario.
Brothers Super Mario Brother vibes, yeah.
I love turtles too and if you ever go to Mexico there is an
option to release baby C turtles.
Cool. Oh my gosh, she did that.
I did it it. Was amazing.
J Rod, you have something to askor say, please speak.
(40:50):
Turtle power. Nice.
Yeah, actually part of my reasoning for picking turtles
are liking turtles. That's what's called.
I grew up with the ninja. Turtle, yes.
Turtle power. I love I love Ninja Turtles so
much. Me too.
I mean. Favorite Ninja Turtles?
Have we talked about that? No, we haven't.
Leonardo. Leonardo growing up, but
Donatello now. So I have a story behind that.
When I was young, one of my absolutely favorite jobs is I
(41:14):
worked at a toy store which I loved and it was not toys and we
I wasn't Toys R Us. It was sex.
It was an no, it was an Eastern story.
It was called Toys and Wheels. We had the beer.
We had them here as. Well, did you?
So anyway, I was a third key holder assistant manager and I
remember the day. So basically a swing manager.
(41:36):
Yeah, so from McDonald's, when the there was a release in the
Mall of the Ninja Turtles, I don't know if it was a new
turtle, but there was a lineup of about 70 to 80 people all
down the the the mall waiting for this release to the doors to
(41:56):
open. At the door at the front of the
store, we have one of those little little tyke kid
playhouses that was there. And it was so bad that we
actually had to call security because there was a dad that had
basically hidden himself in the little tyke store with like 5
(42:21):
turtles while five moms were actually pulling him out by his
legs to steal the turtles from him.
It was a pull on assault. And I'm looking.
I'm like, you people are absolutely sick.
You're absolutely physically assaulting this man.
And these moms are like, it was as bad as a Cabbage Patch Doll
craze. Like, yeah.
(42:42):
I was I was just gonna say you have no idea what my mother as 5
foot fuck all of nothing that she is, went through to get me
and my sister Cabbage patch doll.
Back in the day of Zellers, my Mama threw hands like there was
nobody's business. I'm surprised that woman didn't
get arrested like so anyway backin 1985.
(43:03):
That was my Ninja Turtle experience.
They was. They was, yeah.
It was crazy. Know what this reminds me of?
The Tickle me Elmo. The Furby.
Yes, the fuck the Furby. The Furbies I just have.
Their toys. They were all.
They were. Yeah, absolutely.
Tickle me, Elmo. Like there's all.
Right, but this was before Amazon and you're going to Toys
and wheels. I encourage you and anybody
listening in yourselves YouTube,there's a guy who's uploaded
(43:28):
vintage 80s and 90s VCR like camcorder footage of him going
to malls from different seasons.So it's a time warp of just like
what the malls were back then. That's cool, but the funniest
ones are the Christmas lines. Yeah, there's.
One of toys and wheels Christmas.
(43:48):
Is Vancouver than Black Friday back then?
There's a video Toys and wheels Vancouver I.
Didn't know you had them out here.
Yes, we do. That's cool.
And you all know what chaos is. Now, of course, we have Amazon.
We have Aliexpress with bootlegs.
Oh, there's, there's a lot more,but yeah, one of my, my favorite
(44:10):
times in my life was being involved in, you know, being in
the toy store and watching that chaos ensue.
And I'm like, fuck you. People are insane, right?
You people are sick like. Yeah, in a way to like us all
being very alternative to your average, you know, lifestyle
compared to the 90s whatever. Where am I going with that?
(44:32):
We look at we look at normal people that are cookie cutter
and you see shit like that and you're like, oh, that's like
they they have the audacity to say that we're weird or whatever
and out whatever. But then you got people in the
straight community back in the day that were just doing crazy
shit like. That Oh yeah, no, it's, I don't
know. Does that make sense?
I've seen the ugly side of people growing up and having
(44:54):
done retail during Christmas time.
Oh yeah, so wait, who else worked reheat?
Yeah, I've worked retail. I've worked at at Guess the
clothing store. Oh my God.
For a short time for me, one of those gays.
So you usually you are gay. You worked at the gap.
Not the gas, gas. Gas, Gas.
(45:16):
Yes, yes. You know, like gas jeans.
That's not around anymore. No gas is still.
Around. It is still around.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
Well, the brand is around the company's store.
No, no, it's moved. It's moved to a different part
of Metrotown. Yeah OK, cuz I was like where is
it? I needed my butt to have the
triangle. Yeah, I, I don't know, it's
moved around a couple of times. You're.
OK. I walked into this conversation
(45:37):
mid conversation. It was this retail.
It's retail experiences. I think we were talking about
just gay retail experience. Over holidays, no.
No, no whereabouts before, Yeah.Gay retail experiences over the
holidays. It's a good topic.
On that note, so does him. Is that your full time or do you
have? Yeah, I work full time at him
(45:58):
health insurance for men now, and when I'm not working I just
avoid shopping malls. Avoid humoring.
Avoid. Yeah, Yep.
Shopping malls are the anxiety just because people are so
stupid in malls and I've seen the ugly side, especially
Toys-R-Us Christmas time. Yes, people are stupid in malls,
(46:19):
but you know what I absolutely love the most out of the entire
year is going to the shopping mall like Metrotown.
For us here in the Lower Mainland, this could be Chinook
Center in Calgary, West EdmontonMall in Edmonton, Mall of
America down in the states. I love going at Christmas time
(46:40):
just to sit and watch the chaos.I think.
That 100% is the highlight of mylife.
I love it. Silent Peter and I every.
I watch people walking into pillars.
Every year, with the exception of, I think last year, I did it
with my best friend Kent. We call it the Christmas chaos,
people watching. So because we've done all our
(47:01):
holiday stuff, we sit at the inside coffee shop in Metrotown,
the Bella Gelato place that's right by build-a-bear Inside,
and we just watch people. Or we'll sit on the couches and
watch people. And that's our Christmas
entertainment is everyone. That's rhyotic, I know, but some
people, especially the fathers, the husbands, trying to figure
(47:26):
it out. I hate gift giving.
Like try and find an open seat in the middle of the mall that's
not occupied by a dad. I enjoyed.
It yes. We went a couple of years ago,
We walked in. It wasn't holidays.
Well, we just watch this girl and she's just walking and she's
like booking it like Mach 10 andshe's just texting, texting and
she just smoked right into a fucking pillar.
(47:48):
Her phone went down, she went down.
We're dying. And I'm like, you know what,
there's no way I'm sorry. We everybody around her was
laughing at her and I'm like, you deserve this because.
And all on, I truly think this happened just before the
distracted driving laws came out.
Like Rick said, we were walking through Metrotown.
(48:10):
We were with a friend because I was helping him.
Oh, fuck. What the hell were you even
shopping for? I don't even know.
I don't. But we were with Dave.
Not important. Yeah.
We were walking down the hallwayand this girl just walked by and
we just happened to glance over just as she went full walking
speed into, Oh yeah, a temporarydrywall.
(48:32):
Because they were they. Were like in the process of
building like a kiosk in the middle of the mall.
So they had like a drywall wall up that was just.
It was great, temporary. She just went down.
She smashed it so fucking hard she she hit the ground on one
side, her phone hit the ground on the other side.
The battery shot off into the store across the hall that like
(48:56):
her freaking phone exploded into16 different pieces.
Her purse was all over the placeand we walked by and pointed and
laughed at this bitch because she had it coming.
Yeah, you're gonna stare at yourphone while you're walking and
you walk into something that's. Why no, it was an absolute does.
(49:18):
She was a mess all over the fucking floor.
J Rod. Somebody helped her up, right?
No, no, no, no, no, no. Everybody laughed at her.
Wait, my God, this nightmare fueled she.
Brought it on herself. She brought it on.
Herself. Yourself.
Because I've seen it so many times during the Christmas
chaos. Not as dramatic as your
incident, but I've seen it. And we laugh because why are you
(49:39):
walking and looking and texting in a busy mall during the
busiest time of the year? That's on you.
Oh, this wasn't even this was like the middle of the like it.
It was not even a busy time at the mall.
She was just full on texting, walking and just smash.
J Rod. Wouldn't that describe a certain
(50:02):
generation? Yes, and that's why nobody wants
to help them, because it's on them.
And we just want to go back to that too now.
We're not going to discuss that.We're not going to discuss that
at all. So we'll remind you to if you'd
like to do any of your shout outs or announcements before we
get ready to finalize the secondepisode.
(50:24):
Does anybody have any extra shout outs or anybody they'd
like to say anything to before? Shout out to that woman who
fucking face planted the drywalland exploded her world all over
the floor of Metrotown 20 years ago.
Shout out to you. Hope you're doing fine.
I. Hope, she learned for a minute.
Darren, is there any particular individuals or organizations you
(50:44):
like to do a? Shout besides hem clinic.
You can't shout them out, we've talked about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We ever tried.
Blue chairs about my colleagues and friends at him.
Sorry. Yeah, real quick question before
everybody at him clinic, they'reall volunteers, the nurses, the
doctors, everyone. No.
So the nurses are Vancouver Coastal Health nurses, and the
(51:06):
staff members who work behind the scenes are paid staff like
myself. But we do run a lot of our
programs because through volunteers.
So from the people that you might see like at reception or
like the what we call the ham ambassadors who are there to
like answer questions that a nurse can't answer, those are
volunteers. The people that you see just a
lot of the programs that we do is volunteers.
(51:28):
So not all volunteers, but volunteers make our organization
run very smoothly. Beautiful.
So shout out to them, I guess. Yeah, absolutely.
Volunteers. Thank.
You guys, it's awesome, yes. Would you like to choose the
second secret word for my stinkycups today?
Yes, yes, hold on. I'm trying to remember it.
Hermaphic, this is so hard, I'm kidding.
What? Where's your dad?
(51:49):
What is the word that you said? Mail.
Interactive mail. Interactive mail.
Interactive mail. Interactive mail.
Interactive mail. Interactive mail.
Because that's what I learned about today.
If you had just said like, oh, Darren, it's it's Craigslist,
but hard copy and not Internet, I feel like, yeah, that would
have done a little bit of explanation.
But I'm glad you went very deep dive into like the whole
(52:11):
payphone account thing. Oh my God, so much interactive
mail. And it was what was the other
one? Cruise line, Cruise line?
Cruise line was the other one. His dad.
Joke. I got a dad joke.
OK, hurry up, hurry. Good all.
Right. If athletes get athletes foot,
what do elves get? Anybody.
(52:34):
No. No, Anybody.
Mistletoes. All right.
I had a joke about gravity, but no no no, I actually had a joke
about anti gravity but it just wouldn't come down though.
Yeah. Yeah.
There it is, there it is. That's a better one.
(52:55):
Now you've got her. It's a good thing it's the end
of the show because you got her going.
You got her going. Yeah.
On behalf of Sprinkles, she saysthanks for being here.
Silent Peter and the kids love. Y'all love peace and chicken
grease. Thanks for tuning in.
We'll see you and talk your ear off in 2 1/2 weeks.
(53:16):
Barker. Bark 988 Mental Health It's a
thing. Call it If you need help,
contact your local providers. We love you.
The episode. Very nice.
And that is the start of my show.
Hi everyone, welcome back. Welcome to what what are we
called Squirrels after dark, right?
Episode 11, yes. What?
What 11? 12 actually 1212 where have you
(00:22):
been I. Don't.
Know, Oh my God. How many beers?
How many beers in? Not enough.
Not enough to be that confused. Let's say between 4:00 and 5:00.
Probably. Maybe I don't.
Know possibly OK all right so fluff well there's the fluff
it's always the fluff. Squirrels After Dark, welcome
(00:46):
back uncensored, unscripted, andjust absolute chaos that we are
off the hop like to welcome you all, all of our new listeners
from all around the world and the new countries that we were
in. We always like when new people
listen and all that fun jazz andall that sorts of stuff.
(01:08):
This podcast is recorded and brought to you from the unseeded
and traditional territories of the Coquitlam First Nations and
we thank you for allowing us to be here.
With that being said, on with introductions.
We have a full cast today and a wonderful, very special guest
joining us today as well, and wewill get to the introductions
(01:30):
with him shortly. So intro of the cast.
We have the inquisitive and frugal sprinkles.
Yep, Yep, don't pay retail 'cause it's against my culture.
Wow. Joining Sprinkles, we also have
Silent Peter in the shadows, whowe love dearly waving away.
(01:54):
As well as the kids, we've got the cuddly, adorable Otter pup
Titan J Rod. There it is.
I also have a dad joke. Do we get to?
Hear. It.
Now, but I will wait. The anticipation builds this
(02:18):
sexy AF in his biking gear. We've got T-bone.
T-bone AKA Daddy. That's going to be.
Explored later that that that will be Yeah.
We'll, we'll we'll touch back onthat one after the incomparable
sultry voice of Juki. Oh.
(02:39):
Why? Thank you.
Who had a most successful Mother's Day weekend and another
event after that? I believe with the choir.
We did. We did a show for the
Alzheimer's Walk outside. That was an adventure.
Juki is. We'll explain to Darren what
(02:59):
your role is. I am a member of the Maple Leaf
Singers. We are a show choir that
performs around the Lower Mainland and our main the main
reason we do it is to go into seniors homes and bring music to
people who can't get out. That is too.
Awesome. Find it.
And we do a a public show a few times a year.
And yeah, when what? This one was a free one.
(03:19):
We were at the Alzheimer's Walk and yeah, being outside it, you
know, singing at 9:00 in the morning was an experience.
You guys must get quite a some some you, you guys must get some
rewarding response from older people, right?
Yeah. I can't imagine what it would be
like we can make. People cry with joy.
Yeah, Yeah. That's yeah.
No, I I went to her concert during the Mother's Day weekend.
(03:42):
And I'm not gonna lie, there is several times throughout that
show that I teared up like full on.
Oh, well, we, we teared. We were tearing up when we we
sang. Oh, Canada.
Oh yeah. Oh, yeah, Beautiful.
If we had to practice that multiple times before.
I could not get choked up doing that.
Yeah. That probably means a lot to
them, right? Yeah, you sing Alto, Alto.
(04:05):
Yes, Alto, Alto. All right.
On that note, back to the intradose.
Intradose. Intradose.
The intro Dees the loving husband who causes me stress in
Gray hair. Rick Hunter AKA Spider Pup.
(04:29):
There it is. Hi, Honey.
Hey Hon, love you. I love you too.
Mine causes me stressing as well.
Right. Oh my God, I was so thin and
beautiful before I met him. Now I'm Gray and old.
Ouch. Although that's what 20 years
(04:50):
together will do to you. Yeah.
On that note, now that the cast is dealt with, I would really
like to welcome Darren Ho, who is director of.
Health services at health initial for men him.
Hi the Him clip, welcome to the chaos that is my show.
(05:10):
Yeah, you, you. You've been interviewed in the
previous episode. You know, now you get to enjoy
yourself and it just have a goodtime.
I am so proud of the questions that I asked.
Actually, I was, I, I very much felt like sprinkles right there.
And you know. But I am thankful that you did
get to ask those questions because I was thinking it as
well. So as I said off air, thank you
(05:32):
for asking those because it's probably, if we're thinking it,
a lot of other people were thinking it too.
So it's good that it was addressed.
Hey, I learned a lot. I did have a very important
question that I forgot to ask. Yes.
If you were a tree, which tree would you beat?
A Willow tree I think OK, but I don't really have a reason.
I think I don't know a lot of trees, but there's a Willow tree
(05:52):
near where I live, so cool. I have lots of Willow tree quick
answer like. On that note, I would be a
weeping Willow. Wow, I'd be an oak.
I'd be a Christmas tree. Oh, you would be hardwood.
Yes you would. What's the one with the honey
that? 'D be a Maple tree.
Maple. Tree honey?
(06:13):
No no, that's Maple syrup. Honey comes from bees.
I I, I don't know, Sorry. She.
Just. I don't know yet.
I'm sorry, I don't know. Did you really think it came
from a tree? Wait, wait.
Wait, you're. Thinking Maple syrup?
Things just happened so fast. On On a bad note, welcome to my
episode, Darren. Thank you for having me.
(06:34):
Now you know what it's like. A little disturbed that you
thought that honey came from. Trees.
No, no, I thought that too. I was.
I was a part of this. Tea, that was.
That was epic. My brain was not braining.
Here we are. Your brain was squirrely.
Authentic. I love you so much because
that's so honest. That you thought?
(06:56):
That my brain was not braining. I just what can I tell you?
Anyways, let's go. Let's continue.
That's that's such the ADHD. The nest T-bone is in the tree
though of the piece. OK, but I have some really good
tree honey for you that I'll bring next week.
Awesome Maple syrup. Yeah.
Same same. So anytime you want to jump in
(07:17):
by, by all means please do so like.
Technically, I don't think any. J Rod, do you have a question,
Sir? I believe the name is Titan.
I don't know Titan. Snap, which I still disagree
with, but that's not. That's your opinion.
Yeah. That is your, but I'm pretty
sure we did not say hello to Spaz.
(07:39):
On the. First episode or spaz has been.
Very, very good. He's right down by my feet.
Underneath, yeah, he hasn't scared the shit out of anybody
in each episode yet, so that's why we haven't acknowledged him.
He's a good little cat, hides inthe corner and just disappears.
He's. Just really be soggy.
Yeah, so. Big main questions were out of
(08:00):
the way in the main episode for Darren.
If you want to know anything about that, please refer back to
the main episode for this Season3, Episode 12 of The Squirrel
Hour. Yeah, we got the bug.
You now you get to be yourself. OK, I got one for.
Which means my trademark question top or bottom.
(08:23):
OK, that's good question. OK, this is gonna sound so like
like silly and nerdy but. If he says he's not gay, I'm
gonna hit him. I mean I'm super gay but also
also because I'm like getting older.
I feel like nowadays I'm identifying as a side and back
(08:45):
when I was a young gay we didn'thave sides as a thing.
But now we do, and I'm thankful.What does that mean?
It means I don't. I don't like to put in the
effort to bottom and I don't like to put in the effort to
top. OK, can I tell?
Side things. I can I tell?
You I am side. Can I tell you a?
Secret. Sure, as somebody who's pre
(09:06):
menopausing and your body feels different as a woman I'm
appreciating top and side more because my body right.
It's things that they don't talkabout when you're premenopausing
for women is what position is comfortable with how your body
is changing top and side most comfortable.
(09:26):
I don't want to be turned into apretzel anymore.
I'm done with that phase. Not.
Flexible anymore? No, I get, I cry when I do yoga.
You let alone seen all these like drawings and books like
What are you doing? I do believe his definition of
side and your definition of sideare a little differently.
Different. Yeah, we might.
Yeah, we might be miscommunicating.
What? What do you think is the
(09:46):
disconnect here? Like how?
How is my side different from her side?
I mean. I think she just likes it lying
on her side. Oh, is that what you mean?
Yeah. What did you mean?
Oh, I mean, like, not insertive penetrative anal sex.
I mean, like, yeah, hand jobs, blow jobs.
Oh, we were talking about something else.
I'm so sorry. But I loved how like we just
(10:09):
learned. Something.
Thank you for catching that because I I didn't know that we
were not speaking the same side.Oh no.
You're still a top or a bottom even if you're on your side,
right? Yeah, we, yeah, that's what
that's. Yeah, side to the main dish type
of thing is that. Yeah, it's OK.
I mean, it's fun. It's.
(10:30):
Not the meat. You're still dealing with the
meat. Oh my God, if I could just have
a snack break in between I wouldlove that.
Do you like going to wreckage? Yes.
So my, my, that's more of a thing that my partner really
loves and I just like go with. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
First, we. Heard of our heart out of my
introduction. He's actually a big part of my
life. I just don't know why I didn't.
(10:53):
I was just gonna wait when you just, you know, make sure, you
know, if you actually listen to the show, Like, I'm like, I'm
sorry, you were totally left out.
In all honesty, we brought him here to drill him on the career.
Yes, that's what it's not, not. The personal stuff.
OK, so let's let's talk. About my partner, yeah, so he
(11:13):
loves Rock Beach. We've been together for 14 or so
years. Awesome.
Thank. You we married yet we are not
married. We are not married, but maybe
soon. I don't know.
We we also just we, we feel likewe have often.
OK, so we get asked this a lot like, oh, you've been together
14 years. How come you're not married?
(11:33):
And I'm curious to know your guys's decision.
We, we will tell you that. But for me and my partner, we
have just felt like we like our relationship how it is.
We just are fine. Yeah, we're just fine.
You're not required and I'm happy to hear that.
Peter and I have been together for hold on 16 years.
Really for? 16 years and we're not married.
(11:55):
Oh, you get it? Yeah, Yeah.
It's not. It's not required.
Yeah. For us, we decided, we said well
you know when we first started to get in together and we said
if we are together, you know, for our ten years, on our 10
year anniversary we will get married and we got married and
our ten years together. Oh, that's great.
So, and that was just something we decided that, you know,
(12:15):
we've, we've gone through our life together 10 years, then
yes, we will make that decision.And you know, now we're.
We were a monogamist for about 6months.
But The thing is, me being cheapand me being Muslim, East Indian
weddings are big. They're Bruters.
Yeah, and so it was just me not wanting to spend the money.
Understood. I can't because.
You have to. Don't your daddy need to pay for
(12:37):
that? He cheap too.
He was relieved when I was goingout with Peter, who's Caucasian,
because the financial pressure. It's it's a lot.
By 90%. Yes, but still on our side
there's a lot. I'm just glad to hear that
someone within the gay community, because I gained just
like straight couples, gays, it's nice.
It's even in the even in the gay.
(12:58):
Community Six months in a gay relationship is like a lifetime.
Yeah, so 16 years. So congratulations.
Welcome to, you know, welcome tothe show, Darren's partner.
Thank you. Yes, yes, bring my partner into
the show, but. Not we don't.
We don't have to reveal his name.
Does he have a nickname That might not be too revealing.
We can. I don't know, I feel weird
(13:19):
about. Saying I think it's because your
dimples are so cute. I want to call him Dimple lover.
OK. Yeah, because.
Like somebody gets those. Dimples, we're going to call him
DL. Nice, because he's on the DL,
yeah. Because you have the cutest
dimples. I'm a sucker for dimples.
Thank. You.
Yeah, no one's everything. That's why most of us always, we
all have our own, our nicknames and everyone uses that as a
(13:41):
synapses. We all have names in the show,
which is always a lot of fun. I don't want to be recorded very
nice in public, yeah. But again, I congratulations and
that's fantastic. I love hearing that.
Yeah, you know, and it's, and it's so hard for people to meet
now just in every culture to meet anybody nowadays.
Yes. It doesn't matter of your
(14:01):
orientation, just meeting peoplein Vancouver organically.
Is hard, absolutely. That's what I mean.
Like it involves every single culture like nothing.
It's just difficult to meet people period, right now. 14
years that yeah, that predates Grinder.
How did you guys meet? OK so so do you guys know the
Tumblr meme that's like and theywere roommates.
(14:22):
Yes, I do not now I feel old, but yes, thank.
You. It's a Vine that got popularized
on Tumblr, that's how. Chronically.
Online I am. I feel old.
Wait, it was what was it? It was they were sitting in a
hot tub and. 5 feet apart because they're not gay.
Yeah, that's why That's. Yeah.
OK. So me and my partner, his
brother and I went to Douglas College.
(14:46):
Like, we had a class at Douglas College together.
And then me and his brother became roommates.
And then my boyfriend moved to insulin.
The three of us were roommates. So our origin story is that we
were roommates first. OK, but I like how you.
Unlike dating. Apps you got to get to know
people in real life organically,right and that's.
(15:06):
The brother of your bestie from college.
Yeah, yeah, I know. It just worked out that way.
Isn't that isn't that a thing were.
You guys both out, out. So I was out, out, I was out to
his brother. And then one day his brother
said like, oh, you know, my brother has been like saying
things about how like he's bi, my boyfriend is bi.
(15:28):
And and so when I found that out, you know, I didn't
initially be like, OK, like my initial reaction was like, oh,
that's cool. I don't know your brother.
I'm not really into your brotherkind of thing.
But I mean, look where we are now.
I guess I was. Wrong.
Was it a slow build like? Was it a these?
Little. Signs.
Oh my gosh, you're asking the deep questions.
Was it? OK, so.
(15:49):
You thought the interview was over.
We. OK.
So we were roommates and so it was very like, like, like living
together. You saw him.
Walk around the apartment with the towel on after the shower.
It it, it was all of the typicalroommate things.
I don't know how to it was also a long time ago for me, but
(16:10):
like, yeah, slow, slow burn. It's like I'm.
A sucker for romance stories so I'm just invested in this.
Like I feel like we've we've gotten more romantic over time
and and like years and years ago, I don't know if we would
say that we were romantic, but now we are.
So just just out of curiosity, you are Chinese?
Yes, I'm Chinese. My parents are from Hong Kong
(16:31):
slash Shanghai, OK. And the partner?
My partner is from El Salvador. Very nice, yeah.
Very nice, yeah. Cool, but he has been here since
he was like one or two years old.
And OK do your. Parents like him or do they
think you need better or? So yeah, my parents really like
(16:52):
him. And I'm so fortunate and I'm so
grateful because I was not always out to my parents.
Like there was a time when we were dating and I was not out to
my parents. And then when I came out to my
parents, their first question tome was like, like, aren't you
dating the brother like his brother?
I'm like, no, the brother is straight.
I'm dating, you know, DL dimple lover.
(17:12):
But yeah, my parents, I really love him.
He gets along with my parents very well.
Great. We see my parents like once a
week and we have dinner together.
It's a it's like a parental instinct that no matter what,
they want to make sure that they're good enough for you,
that you know you're good enoughfor them, or vice versa.
Yeah, I'm very likely to have supportive.
Parents, I just want to say I absolutely love the fact that I
just, just the way you describedit, that when you came out to
(17:34):
your parents and your family that they, they basically
accepted you right off the hop. Yeah, and I did not expect that
cuz I, you know, I grew up with my Chinese family, very
traditional father and I just always assumed that he would not
be OK with it. I was just gonna say traditional
Chinese parents don't aren't. So I, I'm super grateful for his
(17:56):
support. Both of my parents support.
Yeah. I just, I'm so I, I feel super
lucky that my parents reacted the way that they did.
Oh, well, that's that's, that's fantastic.
But I think it's cute that they thought you were dating the
brother. That's the reaction.
Like, no, that's great. I mean, that's that's fantastic.
I mean as. It should be right wholesome.
Those, those, those of us that are, you know, gay or bisexual,
(18:19):
you know, kinky. No, the struggle it is to come
out to family, which is you can come out to all your friends all
you want and everything else. That's, that's the easy part.
The hardest part in your life, really, is letting your parents
know. Jay Wright disagrees for him,
but everyone's experience is different because I know Jay
(18:41):
Wright has a different experience and thought on that.
So it was a little challenging for me to come out to my parents
because I grew up going to prideparade and like I've always my
mom and my dad have always had gay friends.
So it was a little challenging for me to come out for to them,
(19:02):
but at the end of the day it wasthey were supportive and as
mothers go, they were a little protective so.
But it was. That's good.
Yeah. So my mom always said, you know,
just be safe, I guess. Good.
Bottom line, just be safe. Yeah.
Yeah. So that's pretty much it.
Well, you, you went to pride parades for years with your mom
(19:26):
as well. So.
I mean, it's not like. Yeah, in in a sense you could
almost say mom was kind of pre prepared just in case.
I wouldn't say she was prepared to have a son that was bisexual,
but I imagine she was a little prepared.
(19:48):
Yeah. But I just.
Better than not. Being, yeah, significantly more
accepting than those parents whoyou know.
Oh yeah, I've seen, I've seen the stories.
I've seen the videos. Yeah, some of them are weird.
That's. Just I that's.
Bad I came out to mom on Mother's Day it's like happy
Mother's Day. I'm gay, I'm currently
hitchhiking across the province to go, you know, meet the guy
(20:11):
that I fell in love with over interactive male chat line on
the phone. Who here?
Interactive. Does anybody?
Else I wasn't. I wasn't meaning spider.
No no no, this is my ex. No, no, prior to spider.
This was this was prior. So, so as the age group goes, I,
I, you know, I'm the oldest one here.
(20:34):
I'm the oldest. I always will be.
I'm pretty sure I'm all of our guests.
He's been the oldest. I'm pretty sure I'm the youngest
here. I think you're younger, so
Darren, are you in your 30s forties?
I'm in my mid 30s. OK, just kind of gives everyone
an idea of everyone, you know, without saying your age cuz
you're, you know, at the area. Yeah, I know.
We were at the community. And he's also Chinese, so he
(20:54):
looks like he's 28. Right.
Exactly. I thought never be ashamed of
looking young, I. Wish you look.
Young. Yeah, I've never been.
I'm the oldest pop in the community.
I'm almost 55. Are you gonna explain to us
Interactive male? What, what what?
What was the term? You said.
I remember. That I remember, if you don't
(21:14):
know. It I would remember seeing the
commercials. Interactive.
Mail No, no, I The look on Darren's face automatically was
like, I have no idea where. You're.
This is like before the chat for.
Real You don't know this I. Don't know this SO.
You gotta be you gotta be in your 40s to know about.
It you had to be in your 40s at least to know about interactive
mail. Is this love you?
Pre Internet. Yes, it.
Is this is pre Internet? Yeah, yeah.
(21:35):
We're not talking about chat room.
No no, this is pre Internet. This is phone line stuff.
OK, so there there was the OK, now I'm really going to fucking
date myself. The ads in the classifieds at
the back of the daily newspaper that got delivered to your
house. Interactive mail.
In the personal sections, there was little ads for, say, mail to
(22:00):
Mail, chat, chat. I'm phone chat, phone chat line.
There was night. Yeah, those didn't come on till
after 1:00 AM I watched for those.
So the cute thing was is that you would get a 60 minute free
account, 90 or was it 90? Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't as pro
as you. So you get 90 minute account for
(22:22):
a phone number. So The funny thing is you would
go, the account was linked to the phone number.
Yeah. So when you would go over this
was great. So or get this, it was like the
gaydar. So you would go to a friend's
place, your account was used up and you would go to your
friend's house and use their phone number to dial in.
(22:42):
Because if we give you an. Account number.
You could write that down and you can.
Log in that number from. Any.
Phone number. But if you went to your friend's
place and you use the phone number of like, this phone
number is already a link to an interactive mail account.
You're like busted. See for me.
It was busted. It was use the landline at
mom's. It was great.
(23:02):
Get my account for 90 minutes. Once that expired, I ran to the
corner payphone. Yeah, you get the payphone.
The payphone. Get the get the account number
for that one. Yeah.
Then I'd go to the next closest payphone and I was running all
over downtown Edmonton getting freaking free account numbers.
But once you get the number, it's locked up.
OK, so can you. What's the process though?
(23:24):
Like random people. 1st. 40 whatwas it 45 or 60 days?
You were able to get another account number but it would took
like almost two months, maybe 2 and a.
Half the number to be released. So this is for hookups and also
phone sex. Yeah, yeah, it's a total hookup.
Yeah, yeah, it's a total hookup.Line.
So you'd, you'd, you'd log in, you'd call in, log in, you know,
(23:46):
create your profile, you'd do a voice message.
It's like, hey guys, you know, I'm back in the day.
I was 18 quote, UN quote. No, I was for sure 100%.
I was 18. You know, you'd be like, hey
guys, 18 years old, you know, new to the system.
Just checking it out, seeing who's out there.
If you want to chat, hit me up so you'd hear that.
(24:07):
And you can scroll through the profiles by like pushing the
next, like 3 for next. You'd hear that, OK, you'd
listen, move on to the next one.If you like somebody, you'd send
them a message and then it wouldbe just like voice messages back
and forth. It's pretty.
Pretty complex for the time. Like it actually was.
And then you could actually, if you really like the person
you're talking, you could then you could connect live and it
(24:28):
would actually connect you like live, live phone call.
But the thing about it was, is it wasn't just local.
Anybody on the system, no matterwhere they were, could hear your
profile. Yes, voice ad and send you a
message, which is How I Met my ex.
(24:49):
Yeah, I was living in Grand Prairie, Alberta and I was on
interactive mail and I started chit chatting with a guy like we
were sending messages back and forth and it's a great thing.
The job that I had sent me to different towns so I was able to
get my 90 minutes free from a lot of different payphones in
northern Alberta. It was great.
(25:09):
So we were able to communicate all the time because that's how
we used to communicate long distance phone calls on cell
phones especially was ridiculous.
So that's how we communicated. And so that's that's how we met
was over through interactive mail and he was in central
(25:31):
Alberta. So he was, he lived roughly
about a six and a half hour drive from where I was just in
that in Alberta. So, yeah.
And that's how we met. And it's like we, we talked
every day for, I don't know, probably about four months.
(25:52):
And then I, you know, log in oneday and it's like, Oh yeah, you
have a message from so and so. And I listened to it and it's
like, well, no, By this point wehad exchanged phone numbers.
So I was at work one day and then I get a message from him
and it's like, hey, where are you?
I'm like, well, I just got home from work and he's like, why
(26:15):
aren't you at such and such place?
I was like, why would I be there?
He's like, because I am. Wait, what?
So he drove across the province to pick me up.
This was after we met and I cameout to my mom on Mother's Day
and I hitchhiked across the country to meet him.
You know, he drove up to Grand Prairie to pick me up, to move
(26:37):
him back to his home to live with him, which was fantastic.
And everything else because I was so head over heels in love
with this guy and everything else he proposed to me.
Oh. Wow.
And you know what that is? And no offense or anything to
those that identify as such, buthe was bye and I now know the
(27:02):
reason why. Bye means bye bye.
Yeah, we, we, we discussed this many earlier on in the episodes
and how this all led to be. Yeah, he was lost deep in me.
Yeah. And proceeded to tell me how he
had slept with a woman earlier that day and how good she was.
Please proceed to season 1 somewhere in the first year.
(27:23):
Yeah, with the bad audio. Yeah, with the bad audio that
yeah. I'm sorry you went through that.
Yeah, Hey, you know what? I.
Learned that you're re sharing it for those zoom.
In high def. In high def listen to that yeah
a better. Audio, You know what?
I in all honesty, after all thistime, I don't have anything
against him. I don't hold any regrets to him.
(27:44):
As far as I know, last I talked to him, actually, he had two
beautiful daughters and they were the most cutest things
ever, No. J Rod, Good Friends.
Really. Nice, we'll say this.
I've never been with a female. Look.
Fine, let's. You've been with us many a
times. I know.
(28:05):
I know you're our bud. Yep, it was fun right?
And many a beers were consumed on.
That we always have. We always.
On those nights. We always have a lot of fun.
What we do is every now and thenwe enjoy ourselves.
We get J Rod drunk and fuck them.
So we like the whole socials at our place.
Yeah. We had a big party a couple of
weeks ago. It was.
(28:26):
Everybody's drunk. Just to clarify.
Yeah. Jesus Christ.
Yeah, we're not. Taking advantage of anybody
here? No, it's all consensual.
J Rod usually starts it anyhow. Yeah, it was.
OK, send me those invites next time.
What we'll do is if you'd like is what we do, we'll have about
two more parties. The first one is the patio
opening party and just everybodybasically brings $20.00 for
(28:46):
pizza and you know bring some drinks and we last time we had
about 25 people. We'll do about two or three more
socials and if you'd like, I'll send you invite.
Oh my God. I would love to come, actually.
Yeah, like for. It's just a.
MB to the party when our phone number pops up on their call.
It's a lot of fun. Because they're like, this is a
$500 call right here. Answer that fucking thing.
(29:07):
Drop up everything else. Yeah, these guys get priority.
Yeah, if you'd like to God we. Come, I'll bring my tape player.
Yeah, we bring we it's open. We usually we have like, I mean
a lot of the pup community, we have everybody here.
We have some, some, we have the furries, couple of furry friends
that show up. Cool.
It's just a fun people. It's just a fun social.
Random odd straight female? Yeah, it's usually all females
(29:29):
that are straight that show up. Yeah.
So we'll do. We'll do a couple of more.
We'll probably about two more inthe summertime.
I'll send you the next two. And if you're free, it's always
on a Saturday. Cool.
And lots of advance notice and people do it, and people just
show up and it's a good time to meet, make new friends and meet,
you know, meet new people. And get drunk.
Sounds fun. That's that's.
A lot of fun and I. Usually bake a penis cake.
(29:50):
Isn't that for usually for? That's usually for my birthday.
Yeah, it's usually get a penis cake for my.
Birthday, No, but I brought one to your Halloween party and your
last patio party I brought a. Penis cake, Yeah.
No, she usually brings a penis cake.
So I in that case, I would love to have you.
I will make sure you get the invite and everyone's welcome.
It's an open, you're welcome. It's just disagree.
My Instagram I don't ever post anything on there.
(30:11):
Anything that posts on there is usually linked from my Facebook,
which I really don't do much on either.
So basically just look at my Instagram.
You just, Yeah. Yeah, I understood.
I share it, you know, the Instagram this, the podcast, all
the links and the pictures of today's episodes and all the
stills and the videos. So I like to do all of that on
that one end. Devon, you want to go first.
(30:33):
Sorry, I'm just when you did runout of minutes, how did like
like 90 minutes and you're talking for months, How did you
guys stretch that? Like I said, I went to the the
job that I worked for at the time had me travelling around
northern Alberta, so. You'd go to another phone.
I'd go to another pay phone. And put your name in with that.
No no no I what was the number? All you have to do is just call
(30:55):
in and it gives you a 90 minute free session and it tells you
your account number so you couldlog in from any phone from after
that it. Just kept making a different
account. Yeah, I kept hitting up
payphones and calling for my cell phone.
My cell phone bill was ridiculous.
By the way, I was on pay as you go and $50 card with Telus
lasted me like 3 days. It was horrible.
(31:17):
Oh my gosh, Jesus. Oh God, the old days.
The old days. Yeah, the the.
That's how the gays met. And I mean, I like, like I said,
I don't have any. You know, in hindsight, yeah.
OK. I should have saw the the clues
that were coming up to it because there was a couple of
situations prior to that whole situation between he and I that
(31:39):
I should have clued into but didn't.
And you know what? I have no hard feelings against
him and he's doing really well right now.
Like I said, he's got two. Last I saw he had two beautiful
little girls and Oh my God, theyare the cutest things in the
world. Awesome.
So oh honey, I love you. Love you too, just.
(32:00):
But that's just why when I meet somebody who's bye, bye, it's
like, OK, yeah, bye, bye, hey. Wow.
I know. Ouch, I know.
I'm still here. So for the record, yes, you are
bi, yeah. Yeah.
But you are gay, bi, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(32:21):
All right, that's fair. Yeah, go ahead.
Disagree with that one? No, no, I accept.
How dare. You how much interaction have
you ever? I went to, I was curious, but
I'm a pup involved in the pup community.
Hubby's involved in the more involved, not actively, but the
VML community. No, not involved.
I just. You just follow them.
Are you active? Are you, Is your husband
(32:42):
involved in any of the communities?
He definitely is not, I am like through work.
I I'm not involved in like the pup community, leather
community, bear community, but Ifeel like I have always been
like adjacent to like pup events, leather events, bear
events, cool. Like like I've seen them, I've
(33:04):
checked them out, kink events, things like that.
So, so it's not, it's not new tome per SE, but I don't know if I
would say that I'm like, but you're not immersed.
Immersed in any of particular one?
Yeah. But is there any one of those
communities that you've? Had more interest in I've been.
Experiencing that you that kind of has piqued a little bit more
(33:25):
interest where you would kind ofsteer towards going to that
event as opposed to that event. I'm interested in kink stuff.
I haven't like, I haven't reallylike experimented.
Well, I have experimented, but Ihaven't really found like a like
(33:47):
a, what's it like? Like a community.
Community. Yeah, for it I would.
Say my community is the public community which I embrace and I
fully involved in. It yes, yes.
So yeah, so I don't. Yeah, he went full on head and
dove into the deep end, just fully enveloped.
And yeah, so there's lots of crossovers I would say with like
(34:09):
there is like BDSM play leather.Absolutely.
You know, Yeah, yeah, you guys know, I feel like who am I?
Explain this. To you.
And I was just curious, I mean, you know, because and I mean,
obviously it's not required. It was just kind of a question
just to getting to know you and yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. So I'm not I'm not new too.
Yeah, So like my interest is I, I, like Spider said that I'm
(34:32):
involved with the VML, that Vancouver men and leather
community. I'm not technically involved
with them. I'm on their Telegram chat.
I do follow them. I ran every now and then
randomly participate in events with them.
I knew I know some some guys that are involved with the
VLVML. It varies.
(34:53):
I'm, I'm myself, I'm into the latex, rubber, leather aspect of
it. You know, like not, not the, not
the, the submissive dominant, you know, master slave side of
it. I just it's, it's more the the
attire and the appearance that is appealing to me.
(35:17):
What's your favorite drink? Alcoholic drink like red wine.
Rum and ginger ale. Very OK, that's very basic.
Cool. Wait, sorry, what was that?
Rum and ginger ale because people usually do rum and coke
or gin and ginger ale but I justmix it.
Up. I do that too.
I like that one. I was again just random
questions just thinking of like what's today's?
Question into rum and ginger. Yeah, I don't like rum and Coke.
(35:38):
Coke's too heavy. It's too sweet.
Yeah. Try Diet Coke, Raspberry rum and
Coke 0. Aspartame.
The best? It's protein.
So Juki is our, if you'd never got upset, our executive chef.
So she's our best friend. She also has a weed allergy, so
(36:00):
yeah, if you need to know where to go for gluten.
I said weed. That's what I thought you said.
Weed. Weed allergy.
You have a weed allergy. I heard.
Oh sorry I heard weed as well. I heard weed.
No, no, no, I said. Wheat.
Well, we all heard. Weed.
I know you have a wheat allergy,but.
With the tea. Get out of the damn gutter
(36:20):
y'all. So yeah, I said wheat.
So yeah. And we and our local pub which
is across the street is the Golden Parrots which we love to
promote now. So we.
Specialize in gluten free food. Oh, cool, cool.
Yeah. So just in case you knew anybody
that because it's more of a thing, just in case you knew
anybody in the community that and you know that really liked
it, It's nice to let them know. Cool.
I'm I'm excited for you to find out some of the other people
(36:43):
that you might be interested in to be on the podcast.
I'm. Excited for that.
Yeah, I'll think. I'll think there's more and then
I'll definitely let you know. Yeah, I I'm excited that, again,
it's just such a great way to meet everybody and have you back
on the show. And yeah, just be, yeah, not be
grilled with questions. Yeah, but I'm gonna grill you
with a question. What was the last concert you've
been to? OK, that's a fun.
(37:05):
Question. That is a fun question.
I went to my God, was it Ashley,Tegan and Sarah?
It might be Tegan and Sarah. It might have been churches.
I think it wasn't recent. It wasn't recent.
Who was playing at the P&E last year?
Wait. Lots of people I'm.
(37:25):
Trying to think who? Who did I like when I was?
Like at the P and I think Ace ofbase was there last.
Year. Yes, that's right.
Yes, OK, Aqua. Aqua, thanks, Peter.
Aqua, thank you. Yeah, well, I don't know.
I don't remember my last concertbut.
I saw Ace of Base in Edmonton atKate Ace.
Nice. That was fucking fantastic.
Spiritual animal. Wait.
(37:48):
Right. Spirit animals.
So I was gonna ask that questionand I love you for bringing that
question up, but Darren did not want to answer.
It I, I avoided the question because I, I was told I have
been told by some indigenous people that it's not appropriate
for non indigenous people to have a spirit animal.
But I'm here to learn as well, OK?
Which in all honesty, being an Indigenous person myself, I do
(38:14):
not believe that. I believe everybody has the
spirits, the characteristics of certain animals that they
identify with and that will represent them and protect them.
And I believe, and I'm pretty sure my Northern Alberta People
Treaty eight people will also agree as well, that everybody
(38:39):
has a spirit. Everything has a spirit and we
all resonate with each other so.Have we ever discussed it on the
podcast? I don't think.
We have. We.
Have. I'm pretty positive we actually
did discuss our spirit animal at1:00.
Point I don't think we've done spirit animal, we've done dogs.
I don't go. Back anyway.
But I'll. So I I will ask this as an
(39:02):
indigenous person, I am asking you which which spirit animal do
you feel represents you the best?
And in all honesty, it doesn't have to be like a as some
believe. It has to be an animal that is
current and now sure, but it doesn't have to be you can you
can identify and be represented by all sorts of animals.
(39:25):
I mean, I know Dragons are very popular in the Chinese.
Culture so you you thanks for reminding me of that option that
I can pick a dragon because I was born in the year of the
dragon yes and so growing up youknow Dragons were a big part of
like like my like parents telling me like why I'm special
(39:45):
you know parents tell you they're special whatever but but
my parents especially made. It all special.
My parents made it a big deal that like, Oh my God, you were
born in the year of the dragon and like, that's super
meaningful, super whatever. Yeah, yeah, I guess I would pick
dragon. I didn't think about that, I
guess before you mentioned dragon, the animal that I feel
like closest to would be turtles, actually.
(40:07):
Nice. And I don't.
I don't really have an explanation for that.
I think it's just that I like turtles.
I. I feel like they have like all
of the like they're like they were built with the hard stuff.
They. Shell, you know, soft center.
Yeah. Slow and steady wins the race.
Yeah. And.
Wise. Yeah, and they have that.
One Jukeie just already. If turtles had wings that would
be amazing. They have.
(40:28):
They have everything. But I'll say.
Shells. So Super Mario.
Brothers Super Mario Brother vibes, yeah.
I love turtles too and if you ever go to Mexico there is an
option to release baby C turtles.
Cool. Oh my gosh, she did that.
I did it it. Was amazing.
J Rod, you have something to askor say, please speak.
(40:50):
Turtle power. Nice.
Yeah, actually part of my reasoning for picking turtles
are liking turtles. That's what's called.
I grew up with the ninja. Turtle, yes.
Turtle power. I love I love Ninja Turtles so
much. Me too.
I mean. Favorite Ninja Turtles?
Have we talked about that? No, we haven't.
Leonardo. Leonardo growing up, but
Donatello now. So I have a story behind that.
When I was young, one of my absolutely favorite jobs is I
(41:14):
worked at a toy store which I loved and it was not toys and we
I wasn't Toys R Us. It was sex.
It was an no, it was an Eastern story.
It was called Toys and Wheels. We had the beer.
We had them here as. Well, did you?
So anyway, I was a third key holder assistant manager and I
remember the day. So basically a swing manager.
(41:36):
Yeah, so from McDonald's, when the there was a release in the
Mall of the Ninja Turtles, I don't know if it was a new
turtle, but there was a lineup of about 70 to 80 people all
down the the the mall waiting for this release to the doors to
(41:56):
open. At the door at the front of the
store, we have one of those little little tyke kid
playhouses that was there. And it was so bad that we
actually had to call security because there was a dad that had
basically hidden himself in the little tyke store with like 5
(42:21):
turtles while five moms were actually pulling him out by his
legs to steal the turtles from him.
It was a pull on assault. And I'm looking.
I'm like, you people are absolutely sick.
You're absolutely physically assaulting this man.
And these moms are like, it was as bad as a Cabbage Patch Doll
craze. Like, yeah.
(42:42):
I was I was just gonna say you have no idea what my mother as 5
foot fuck all of nothing that she is, went through to get me
and my sister Cabbage patch doll.
Back in the day of Zellers, my Mama threw hands like there was
nobody's business. I'm surprised that woman didn't
get arrested like so anyway backin 1985.
(43:03):
That was my Ninja Turtle experience.
They was. They was, yeah.
It was crazy. Know what this reminds me of?
The Tickle me Elmo. The Furby.
Yes, the fuck the Furby. The Furbies I just have.
Their toys. They were all.
They were. Yeah, absolutely.
Tickle me, Elmo. Like there's all.
Right, but this was before Amazon and you're going to Toys
and wheels. I encourage you and anybody
listening in yourselves YouTube,there's a guy who's uploaded
(43:28):
vintage 80s and 90s VCR like camcorder footage of him going
to malls from different seasons.So it's a time warp of just like
what the malls were back then. That's cool, but the funniest
ones are the Christmas lines. Yeah, there's.
One of toys and wheels Christmas.
(43:48):
Is Vancouver than Black Friday back then?
There's a video Toys and wheels Vancouver I.
Didn't know you had them out here.
Yes, we do. That's cool.
And you all know what chaos is. Now, of course, we have Amazon.
We have Aliexpress with bootlegs.
Oh, there's, there's a lot more,but yeah, one of my, my favorite
(44:10):
times in my life was being involved in, you know, being in
the toy store and watching that chaos ensue.
And I'm like, fuck you. People are insane, right?
You people are sick like. Yeah, in a way to like us all
being very alternative to your average, you know, lifestyle
compared to the 90s whatever. Where am I going with that?
(44:32):
We look at we look at normal people that are cookie cutter
and you see shit like that and you're like, oh, that's like
they they have the audacity to say that we're weird or whatever
and out whatever. But then you got people in the
straight community back in the day that were just doing crazy
shit like. That Oh yeah, no, it's, I don't
know. Does that make sense?
I've seen the ugly side of people growing up and having
(44:54):
done retail during Christmas time.
Oh yeah, so wait, who else worked reheat?
Yeah, I've worked retail. I've worked at at Guess the
clothing store. Oh my God.
For a short time for me, one of those gays.
So you usually you are gay. You worked at the gap.
Not the gas, gas. Gas, Gas.
(45:16):
Yes, yes. You know, like gas jeans.
That's not around anymore. No gas is still.
Around. It is still around.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
Well, the brand is around the company's store.
No, no, it's moved. It's moved to a different part
of Metrotown. Yeah OK, cuz I was like where is
it? I needed my butt to have the
triangle. Yeah, I, I don't know, it's
moved around a couple of times. You're.
OK. I walked into this conversation
(45:37):
mid conversation. It was this retail.
It's retail experiences. I think we were talking about
just gay retail experience. Over holidays, no.
No, no whereabouts before, Yeah.Gay retail experiences over the
holidays. It's a good topic.
On that note, so does him. Is that your full time or do you
have? Yeah, I work full time at him
(45:58):
health insurance for men now, and when I'm not working I just
avoid shopping malls. Avoid humoring.
Avoid. Yeah, Yep.
Shopping malls are the anxiety just because people are so
stupid in malls and I've seen the ugly side, especially
Toys-R-Us Christmas time. Yes, people are stupid in malls,
(46:19):
but you know what I absolutely love the most out of the entire
year is going to the shopping mall like Metrotown.
For us here in the Lower Mainland, this could be Chinook
Center in Calgary, West EdmontonMall in Edmonton, Mall of
America down in the states. I love going at Christmas time
(46:40):
just to sit and watch the chaos.I think.
That 100% is the highlight of mylife.
I love it. Silent Peter and I every.
I watch people walking into pillars.
Every year, with the exception of, I think last year, I did it
with my best friend Kent. We call it the Christmas chaos,
people watching. So because we've done all our
(47:01):
holiday stuff, we sit at the inside coffee shop in Metrotown,
the Bella Gelato place that's right by build-a-bear Inside,
and we just watch people. Or we'll sit on the couches and
watch people. And that's our Christmas
entertainment is everyone. That's rhyotic, I know, but some
people, especially the fathers, the husbands, trying to figure
(47:26):
it out. I hate gift giving.
Like try and find an open seat in the middle of the mall that's
not occupied by a dad. I enjoyed.
It yes. We went a couple of years ago,
We walked in. It wasn't holidays.
Well, we just watch this girl and she's just walking and she's
like booking it like Mach 10 andshe's just texting, texting and
she just smoked right into a fucking pillar.
(47:48):
Her phone went down, she went down.
We're dying. And I'm like, you know what,
there's no way I'm sorry. We everybody around her was
laughing at her and I'm like, you deserve this because.
And all on, I truly think this happened just before the
distracted driving laws came out.
Like Rick said, we were walking through Metrotown.
(48:10):
We were with a friend because I was helping him.
Oh, fuck. What the hell were you even
shopping for? I don't even know.
I don't. But we were with Dave.
Not important. Yeah.
We were walking down the hallwayand this girl just walked by and
we just happened to glance over just as she went full walking
speed into, Oh yeah, a temporarydrywall.
(48:32):
Because they were they. Were like in the process of
building like a kiosk in the middle of the mall.
So they had like a drywall wall up that was just.
It was great, temporary. She just went down.
She smashed it so fucking hard she she hit the ground on one
side, her phone hit the ground on the other side.
The battery shot off into the store across the hall that like
(48:56):
her freaking phone exploded into16 different pieces.
Her purse was all over the placeand we walked by and pointed and
laughed at this bitch because she had it coming.
Yeah, you're gonna stare at yourphone while you're walking and
you walk into something that's. Why no, it was an absolute does.
(49:18):
She was a mess all over the fucking floor.
J Rod. Somebody helped her up, right?
No, no, no, no, no, no. Everybody laughed at her.
Wait, my God, this nightmare fueled she.
Brought it on herself. She brought it on.
Herself. Yourself.
Because I've seen it so many times during the Christmas
chaos. Not as dramatic as your
incident, but I've seen it. And we laugh because why are you
(49:39):
walking and looking and texting in a busy mall during the
busiest time of the year? That's on you.
Oh, this wasn't even this was like the middle of the like it.
It was not even a busy time at the mall.
She was just full on texting, walking and just smash.
J Rod. Wouldn't that describe a certain
(50:02):
generation? Yes, and that's why nobody wants
to help them, because it's on them.
And we just want to go back to that too now.
We're not going to discuss that.We're not going to discuss that
at all. So we'll remind you to if you'd
like to do any of your shout outs or announcements before we
get ready to finalize the secondepisode.
(50:24):
Does anybody have any extra shout outs or anybody they'd
like to say anything to before? Shout out to that woman who
fucking face planted the drywalland exploded her world all over
the floor of Metrotown 20 years ago.
Shout out to you. Hope you're doing fine.
I. Hope, she learned for a minute.
Darren, is there any particular individuals or organizations you
(50:44):
like to do a? Shout besides hem clinic.
You can't shout them out, we've talked about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We ever tried.
Blue chairs about my colleagues and friends at him.
Sorry. Yeah, real quick question before
everybody at him clinic, they'reall volunteers, the nurses, the
doctors, everyone. No.
So the nurses are Vancouver Coastal Health nurses, and the
(51:06):
staff members who work behind the scenes are paid staff like
myself. But we do run a lot of our
programs because through volunteers.
So from the people that you might see like at reception or
like the what we call the ham ambassadors who are there to
like answer questions that a nurse can't answer, those are
volunteers. The people that you see just a
lot of the programs that we do is volunteers.
(51:28):
So not all volunteers, but volunteers make our organization
run very smoothly. Beautiful.
So shout out to them, I guess. Yeah, absolutely.
Volunteers. Thank.
You guys, it's awesome, yes. Would you like to choose the
second secret word for my stinkycups today?
Yes, yes, hold on. I'm trying to remember it.
Hermaphic, this is so hard, I'm kidding.
What? Where's your dad?
(51:49):
What is the word that you said? Mail.
Interactive mail. Interactive mail.
Interactive mail. Interactive mail.
Interactive mail. Interactive mail.
Because that's what I learned about today.
If you had just said like, oh, Darren, it's it's Craigslist,
but hard copy and not Internet, I feel like, yeah, that would
have done a little bit of explanation.
But I'm glad you went very deep dive into like the whole
(52:11):
payphone account thing. Oh my God, so much interactive
mail. And it was what was the other
one? Cruise line, Cruise line?
Cruise line was the other one. His dad.
Joke. I got a dad joke.
OK, hurry up, hurry. Good all.
Right. If athletes get athletes foot,
what do elves get? Anybody.
(52:34):
No. No, Anybody.
Mistletoes. All right.
I had a joke about gravity, but no no no, I actually had a joke
about anti gravity but it just wouldn't come down though.
Yeah. Yeah.
There it is, there it is. That's a better one.
(52:55):
Now you've got her. It's a good thing it's the end
of the show because you got her going.
You got her going. Yeah.
On behalf of Sprinkles, she saysthanks for being here.
Silent Peter and the kids love. Y'all love peace and chicken
grease. Thanks for tuning in.
We'll see you and talk your ear off in 2 1/2 weeks.
(53:16):
Barker. Bark 988 Mental Health It's a
thing. Call it If you need help,
contact your local providers. We love you.
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