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265: Don't be a Heckler! Ft. Lucas Zelnick

120m 19s

265: Don't be a Heckler! Ft. Lucas Zelnick

The conversation blends humor and insight, exploring the value of surprise in daily life, such as treating every day as a treat. Hosts Morgan and Lucas discuss personal routines, like working from bed or improving posture, highlighting the importance of self-care and being present. A key anecdote involves a spontaneous encounter with a kangaroo in a vintage store in Oklahoma, which leads to a visit to an exotic animal ranch. The hosts are impressed by the ranch’s ethical standards and animal care, especially from a man who forms a deep, quiet bond with the animals. This experience is contrasted with other stories, like a man refusing to eat old spaghetti, sparking debate about trust, boundaries, and food safety. Another story involves a party where a guest drinks eight beers despite a rule of six, leading to a discussion on fairness, party norms, and personal responsibility. The final story addresses a first-time sexual encounter where a woman feels emotionally disconnected due to lack of attention and communication, prompting advice on how to set boundaries with kindness and clarity. The group concludes by emphasizing emotional awareness, the importance of mutual respect, and the value of simple, honest communication in relationships. These stories collectively reflect on personal boundaries, emotional intelligence, and the significance of mindful living.

Transcription

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English
Would you like a cake pop? Yes, please. Now you're just, and now I'm feeling kind of seen by you, to be honest. That's what we aim to do here. Yeah, I just feel like you've kind of read my vibe correctly, and you're like, "Today is about treats." "Every day should be about a sweet treat." "Every day should have the capacity, but I think if it's at a regular time every day, it no longer becomes a treat." So treats have to be. "Definationally, yes, surprising, or irregular, in nature, to be a treat." I like that. Well, this is a treat. It's a treat to be here. Now we're rolling. Okay. We're ready. Let's do it. Welcome back to another episode of Two How Tastes You Guys. I'm your host, Morgan. And today I've got Lucas Zellnick in the house. Beom beom beom beom beom beom beom beom thanks for having me. That was really good. You might put me out of a job with that. I mean, I think a soundboard would be the best, but. I know the buttons are too far. They're so far. And we're so comfy already. I know. And we don't wear headphones. I used to wear headphones, but no headphones anymore. This is like, I'm. It's already my favorite podcast I've ever done. It's. I'm reclined. I have a blankie. Your favorite? I love a blankie. I mean, I do my work from bed, like most of the work I do is from bed. So to feel bed adjacent, obviously I don't feel bed ridden right now, but to feel bed adjacent is meaningful. Bed adjacent, that's got a ring to it. Yeah. I'm bed adjacent most of the time. Even the couch. I'm like, kicked out, kind of reclined on the couch as I'm working. Yeah. I need to get a standing desk. I need to be more functional. You really want to do that to yourself? Let yourself enjoy life a little bit. I feel like I'm getting a hump. A hump where? You know when you have bad posture? Like the hunch. You mean like the hunchback of Notre Dame? Yeah. Like that? Yeah. And everyone's like, "Get trap Botox." And I'm like, "I feel like I could just maybe change my posture a little." Trapped Botox? That's real? Yeah. They'll literally inject your traps with Botox and you like. And then you just have to be. You're more erect. Yeah. You have to be like. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm like, "I think the standing desk is going to come Q3." I mean, listen, alternatively you could just not inject Botox into your traps and not get the standing desk and then just kind of see where gravity takes you. Oh, okay. People are like, "Where are you guys going with this?" That's a great question. You know, you might feel at this point in the episode. I'm heckling you. I'm giving you a hard time and that is something you come into contact with. I feel like every show. Nice. That was a good transition. Best hecklers. Well, I. At least from what I see. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I don't love it when they talk first, but if I'm talking to them, fun. Fun fun. You have to initiate it. Yeah. On my terms. Okay. On my terms. But all those clips are like the whole amount of that that's going to show usually. So it's not like all that, but it is always fun and I think people enjoy. I like learning about people and doing a regular stand-up show without it can be a little bit monotonous because you know what you're going to say. I mean, your goal is that everyone else is surprised and loves it. But when you get to meet people in the audience, especially when you meet people with crazy stories, it is. It's. Hopefully you can make it funny, but I'm also just like sometimes fascinated. Especially, like I was just in Oklahoma. Oh, wow. And it's like, you talk to anyone from Oklahoma and I'm interested just because I'm like, what is your. What's your vibe? Yeah, I grew up with my neighbors being from Oklahoma and they talked about like skunk bust in and possum hunting and like crazy stuff. I met a guy. So I was in. Wait, where did you grow up? Minnesota. Maybe I should know this. Minnesota. Duluth. Duluth. Okay. I've been to Duluth. Waterfront. Well, yeah, I performed at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Oh my God. It was a little fun. It was a little fun. It was a little fun. It was a little fun. Yeah. Yeah, you know Duluth. And so there's that water. Yeah. Canal Park. But there's that lake all. Lake Superior. And I would. Right. I should know that. Anyway. But then there's like all those good food places kind of right on the lake. Mm-hmm. You know what I'm talking about? Canal Park. Mm-hmm. That was awesome. Duluth is really underrated. It's very niche. It's practically Canada. But really crazy. You went there. But yeah, Oklahoma's wild. So I was. I was in Oklahoma and I was in a vintage store because sometimes what I do when I go on tours, I go to vintage shopping because it's my belief that that will lead me to the cool neighborhood. Sometimes true. Sometimes it isn't. But like if there's a lot of vintage stores next to each other, usually you're in that kind of like trendy part of town. Then there's good coffee. Then there's good brunch. So it's like vintage is for some reason the thing I picked. Vintage is the gateway to everything good in a community. Yeah, because I've picked good restaurants that aren't around other good restaurants and I've picked good coffee shops that aren't around other good coffee shops. The vintage seems to be around both of those things. It's up in your odds for sure. Okay. So I go to a vintage store and I'm looking at like, I don't know, t-shirts or something. And then I see probably a three-month-old kangaroo hop into the door of the vintage store. Real. Well, isn't taxidermied. Real kangaroo hopping. Kangaroo or Wallaby? Kangaroo. How did they get that? So I, obviously I'm looking for his owner and I find the owner. The kangaroo is also wearing a diaper and the owner- Kangaroo was just on its own. Kangaroo was on its own just hopping around freely in the vintage store, not even on the leash or anything. No chaperone in a vintage store is actually wild. The guy was like two rows down and just like hanging out and he was like, oh yeah, you want to hold my kangaroo? And I was like, yeah, I want to hold your kangaroo. Do you have a picture of the kangaroo? Yeah, I have a picture with me in the kangaroo. And so I ended up getting to talking to him and he is, in fact, the owner of an exotic animal's ranch called HQ Ranch in Oklahoma. Basically, but Joe Exotic. He knew Joe Exotic because Oklahoma is where Joe Exotic is from and the reason why all these exotic animal ranches exist in Oklahoma is because of their laws. Yeah, it's kind of the wild west. Maybe if you type kangaroo and pictures it'll pop up that helps sometimes. So yeah, well, this is me on the ranch. It didn't pull the wild. Okay, wait. So you got invited to the ranch? So he, so I get to talking to him. He's like, what do you do? I'm like, I'm a comedian. I'm just in town for the weekend. He's like, I've got this ranch. Do you want to come out and see the ranch? I was like, yeah, so okay, this is my dream. This is me in a giraffe. Oh my god. First of all, like, I was a little nervous when I met him. Because they, yeah, he was like very tired of it. I was like, I'm in Oklahoma. We had to drive, you know, an hour out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into just. Were you in his car? Yours. No, we had a rental. Okay. That's positive at least. So we drove in ours. And I was like, pardon me, I was like, is this kind of like one of these like, Doomsday prepping white supremacist freaking like, I mean, he could've been a Noah's Ark, modern day Noah's Ark. Yeah, we're like, yeah, like a religious thing, like flags with groups that I don't know, you know, that I want to stay away from. And so I was nervous, but I get there. It's first of all beautiful, it's his, it's him and his wife, they're taking amazing care of the animals. I was going to ask him like, how ethical, oh no, ethical. Like I was shocked. They do a lot of education. They do a lot of work for zoos. So they're like, are they on TikTok? It's called the HQ Ranch, shout them out, shout out. I told them I would promote them always because they were just so sweet to me and they took such good care of him. Oh my God. Yeah. Oh my God. This is him. Yeah, that's him. That's my guy. Wow. And it was just this is me in a Mongolian camel. Oh my gosh. I can send you some of this. You had the time of your life. Oh, it was a blast and I had this local opener, this guy named Caleb, who was like hosting my shows out there. Very quiet guy. Sweet guy. Very quiet. And he hadn't said much, kind of like the whole weekend, but we invited him out because we being the opener that I brought from New York, who's like a friend of mine that I bring out. And then you always like, you kind of meet a local who's working it from the club. I love that. And I was like, yeah, do you want to come out? And then when we got out there with Caleb, he just had this like special bond with all the animals. Like he didn't say much, but all the animals like gravitated towards him in a really strange way. He was like a silent, Savant, look, this is him like all the kangaroos were like flocking to him. And he had a pretty peaceful energy. He must have like some aura, like that just like he's putting off some energy. Horses. Can you hear your heartbeat from like eight feet away? Really? Yeah. So I wonder if he's just like admitting some energy. That's super cool. Super cool. Whatever it was, I wasn't admitting it. I love this draft. And drafts can be mean. They can headbutt. He could whip his neck up like a wall. Yeah. It was a girl in LA. I ended up like at a promoter dinner with her. And she got her nose broken from a draft and like Malibu. Really? Yeah. Swung and just took her out. Wow. I know. I know. But let's get into these stories. They're all crazy off the charts. Kind of like, don't be a heckler vibe. Okay. And we're going to, we're going to see what you think about it. [MUSIC PLAYING] (upbeat music) Our first one we've got here, coming from Am I the Asshole? It is titled, "Am I the Asshole for refusing to eat my wife's spaghetti after I found out what she put in it?" Last night, my wife made spaghetti and it smelled amazing. She said she tried something new and wanted me to just eat it before asking questions. I had a few bites and it kind of tasted off, but not terrible, just weirdly sweet and earthy. I asked what she changed and she told me that she blended up leftover spaghetti from six days ago and mixed it into the sauce to thicken it. I immediately stopped eating. I know it is technically the same ingredients, but the idea of blended old noodles mixed into fresh sauce made me feel sick. She got offended and said I already ate half of a plate so clearly it was fine and I was just being dramatic now that I knew. I told her that is exactly the point. I did not know. If I had known beforehand, I would not have eaten it. She said I was being wasteful and disrespectful and acting like she served me garbage. I ended up making a sandwich because I could not finish it and she got really upset and barely talked to me the rest of the night. Now she told her family and they think that I embarrassed her, but my mom thinks it's gross and I should not have been tricked into eating it. I feel bad for hurting her feelings but I also feel like I should get a say in what I'm eating. Am I the asshole? - Wow, are they lesbians? - No mention of gender or ages. - I just can't picture a man stopping eating that if he was hungry. - The minute I find out something's old though, like I love a leftover but six days, you're kind of bordering on mold. - Well, it's definitely yucky. I feel like I have a girlfriend and she's a great cook but she oftentimes likes to throw things in that's like, "Oh, let me experiment." Like that's part of her. - What's she doing to your phone? - I'm trying to think of like a time where I was like, "What did you put in here?" A lot of like, okay, I'm anist, I don't know anything about cooking so I don't know how normal these things are. But I know that like reusing the oils and the pasta water and pouring that kind of stuff in, she does a lot of like, she drains it out and then she takes the drained thing and then she drains that again and then there's like a leftover. - I mean, that's how you make gravy by like draining fat and whatever. - This sounds like a person that thought they were gonna, I know, we were just doing "Ashem" before this. - We don't cook. - Both of us trying to talk about cooking. We're like, "What is that?" - I'm like, I don't know if you're the asshole 'cause I don't know enough about the culinary arts. I mean, it's gross. You think six days is mold, mold, prone? - Yeah. - Okay. - Right? - I don't know. I mean, I don't like, I'll leave a pizza on the counter not refrigerate it and eat it for a few days. - What? - Days or one night? - One night, now that I've seen your reaction. - You days? - Maybe like, definitely the next morning and maybe more that day. - Oh, no. - So. - No. I don't know, I guess, you're not an asshole because you should decide. I think it's all, to me, it's all in the messaging. Like, you have to be grateful that your significant other is cooking for you because that is never expected. - True. - So, I think along with a healthy dose of gratitude, it is fair to say now that I know it's in the food, I don't wanna eat it, especially if you're worried that the food is unhealthy. - Yeah. - So I don't think that makes you the asshole. However, I think if someone feels disrespected when they cook for you based on your reaction, it's possible that your reaction is airing on the side of disrespectful. I think you have to be a little extra thankful when anyone cooks for you. - How are you envisioning the reaction? Are you envisioning a like, "Yuck!" I'm just, like, are you envisioning like outrage or just like, "I'm envisioning like a slow push the plate away, like, hmm, not gonna be able to finish that." - With a slow push the plate away, I think you're so not the asshole. - Okay, so reaction would matter here. According to Google, cooked pasta usually only last three to five days in the refrigerator before spoiling. - Oh no. - And this was day six. - Okay, you're not the asshole. Especially if you knew this, I didn't know this. - I mean, if you know that pasta goes bad within a few days. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, I mean, I would have thought to Google quickly before I'm like, "Let me blend up this old food that's kind of starting to stink into my new food." 'Cause wouldn't that make the new food spoil faster as well? - Probably, yeah. I mean, if you're introducing like mold to it, for sure. 'Cause then the mold could grow in the new food. Also, I have some unfortunate news about pizza. - Oh no. - Hmm, yeah, it's not good. Michigan State did a study. They sampled the pizza. - The Spartans. - I don't know. - Or the state of Michigan. - Michigan State, the school. - Okay. - Michigan State Spartans. - Yeah, food safety expert, Dr. Teresa Burgholz. And they swabbed pizza just six hours after it being out on the counter. And they've- - Or was in the swab. - Bacteria cultures already. - Does that mean that's gonna, you know what, you know what that's gonna do to me? - Make you eat the pizza right away and then put it in the fridge. - That is gonna change the way that I left over pizza forever. - I mean, six hours, you're still. She says it's still like very low level, but. - I put, I close the box. - I don't. - I don't. - I think it's more like- - I can't fly in through the box. - I think it's temperature. I think it's temperature. - Fuck. - I know. - This is like one of those things. So like, so my girlfriend's British. And when I travel all around like America for comedy, she wouldn't want to drink the tap water in certain hotel sinks. And I was like, no, if it's like a big hotel chain, it's totally fine. And Marriott's not gonna let me sue them because I got sick from their tap water. - I honestly don't think they're putting reverse osmosis systems in their stuff. - Reverse osmosis systems? - Yeah, it takes PFAS and like- - I didn't know all this about this. - I don't know. I'm weird with water. I like don't drink tap water. - So, okay. So this happens. So I start calling hotels like gradually. - And asking them about their water. - Asking them how the water is. And like at least 50% of the time, they were like, oh, don't drink that. And I was like, really? - Yeah, she was right. - And then I was looking up like different states. It turns out like many states have water that's sort of in violation of what you'd want it to be. - Yeah. - Think about poor Flint, Michigan. How long they went without drinking water? - Of course, of course. But I thought like, in my mind, I'm like, well, Flint was a national news story because they didn't have clean water. Ipsokato, the assumption is it does, but I'm from New York. So it's like New York has some of the highest rated. - People rage about the tap water there. - Tap water. - Yeah, people are kind of snobs about New York's tap water. They're like, I can't eat bagels anywhere else. Yes, the New York water makes the bagel. - Yeah, yeah. So. - So. - Yeah, it's frieved about. - I don't know. So now I'm like kind of off tap water and then you're drinking bottles. And now you're into micro plastic, they'll-- - Yeah, you have to get glass jugs, which they do have. But then if you look at the brand of water that's in the glass jugs, they have a class action lawsuit for like chromion or something. - Oh no. - It's just a whole thing. We can't escape it. - So what do you do? What's your practice? Do you ignore the micro plastic thing? - You know, I try to. - Yeah. - I try to. They're already in my brain, clearly. I think we see that every week. You can only do so much. - Sure. - So it's hard, but this is why like, I think colon cancer's shooting up. Just everyone's getting like-- - Yeah, I'm like always constipated. - How old are you? - 30. - Have you talked to a GI specialist? - No. I don't really go to the doctor. - What do you mean? - Because I find that more often than not, they tell me everything's fine. - Unfortunately, you do have to advocate for yourself. It's very unfortunate. Colon cancer is a big care in the two-hat takes universe. And March was colon cancer awareness month. And so we talked a lot about that. We've had a lot of listeners because of the show go and get diagnosed with colon cancer. - Really? - Mm-hmm. - So I-- - Nothing, that's what you have. - No, no. - But if you have stomach, bowel irregularities. - Constant constipation can probably increase your risk. - You get enough fiber? - I do, but isn't fiber one of the-- Okay, this is where I go with every health thing. - Okay. - You look into fiber. They're like, okay, if you eat fiber, it makes you poo. If you eat too much fiber, it constipates you. - It's a fine line with everything. - So it's like-- - Where's the balance? - Where's the balance? And then I-- - I feel it out. - I hope that I'm just getting enough fiber. But last time I went to get a physical, my doctor, I think I was like 23, so it's been a while. It's been like seven years Lucas. I know it's time. It's probably time. It's time. Just like even like get your blood work out your normal preventative care Dentist you should be going every six months. I'm not doing that, but I am going Probably once a year. Oh, do you get cavities often? I do usually have them when I go back Maybe every six months would be better no cavities. I'm questionably so and There's probably so many people listening where they're like I haven't been to the dentist in four years I guess right in like am I driving you nuts right now or are you feeling seen or maybe it's 50-50 We could do a poll we could do a poll last time you went to the dentist Yeah, are you being driven nuts by this lack of medical attention or are you I will say I'm a bit of a hypokondriac So like don't let my anxiety rub off on you well LA in general is a different culture around self-care physical self-care And so I think when I come out here, I just feel like a total piece of shit because in New York It's like everyone's like well, whatever we're all we live. We are the rats, you know But then out here it's like God The rats are gonna hate to see you coming or whatever that like what was that clip is like one of your like mayors or like public health workers I know you're talking the rat press conference. Yeah, yeah insert clip here. It's a big problem The rats are absolutely going to hate this announcement The rats don't run this city We do uh, oh last time I went for a physical the doctor Try to put his fingers at my butt. He said I'm gonna look around. I said I said he said prostitue exam. I said well What is the what is the risk of prostate cancer for a 23 year old? He said almost zero. I said let's pass then. I said maybe we cannot do this, you know Don't wonder why you didn't go back and I swear to God I go I go can we skip it and he goes Okay, I was like are you bummed? Yeah, he is Like either he wanted to palpate your prostate. I was like if you tell me you need to do this You better not be like what was the medical indication like what like what what was the way like what was his indication that he needed to do that I don't know. I think he just felt it would be good to start where he wants to pay to back then to no No, it's happening. No, I think he just wanted to see what was going on. Okay. Well, and I was like that scary It's scared me that he backed off of it so quickly. Yeah, like it's like if you're a doctor and I say I don't want to do this He should go well really, you know, it's it's important to do this But instead he was like it's fine Whatever he was like he's like we don't even have to do this. That's crazy. Yeah Oh my god, I don't even know what to think about this. Yeah, wow if we have any MDs In the in the chat Let us know what that was about. Yeah, let us know how normal it is for 23 year old male to get a prostate exam. Am I the asshole? It's my asshole the asshole. I'm just perplexed This spaghetti though. Mm-hmm top comment not the asshole. They quoted what OP said it tasted kind of off But not terrible just weirdly sweet and earthy and then they go you want to know what that earthy taste? Probably was mold oh Next comment down yep Next comment down this is the one you get an earthy taste in something that shouldn't taste earthy if you are tasting mold and fungus Now I'm like I've I've definitely took a bite of some earthy bread. I mean listen earthy is not always bad But well or so it is I mean in this case it is oh my god I'm gonna leave here like a different guy for the I'm gonna be like I'm gonna be like a germaphob when I leave here Well, this is I think this is the only like gross one. Okay good. This is it's okay Yeah, I guess yeah, we should all take good care of ourselves take good care of yourself not the asshole I know like people comment. They're like I know times are tough But like you may be saved two dollars by doing this and like your health and like getting food poisoning Is not worth the you know her more cost than you will yeah, yeah, so they're like do not do this people earthy taste would most likely be mold mold and rot Not they asshole leftover pasta can actually make you very sick That's that thing if you leave pasta out on the counter even like there's a time limit It can have this like rare bacteria you can like die pasta and rice there's like a cool down period you can't put it in if it's too hot and it it has to be in within like 30 minutes of a becoming room temperature This is like the food safety stuff they don't teach us and they really should I think I guess I Would rather they not because I would like never function Like it's like the tick have you heard of the tick that if it bites you you get allergic to red meat forever No, there's a tick And it's a you can look it up, but if it bites you it's in the northeast Like it's a version of lime disease. I think it it is it's it's certainly it's called alpha gal syndrome It's from the lone star tick Potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat and dairy for the rest of your life Oh, that's really tough, and I love a stake. That's crazy. That's scary for me. That's like a big piece of my food triangle Yeah, wow. Okay. We're gonna stop giving you guys nightmares and new things to worry about and move on to this next one Okay, this one is coming from amity asshole It is titled amity asshole for drinking the beers I brought to a party even though it was more than people were allowed to drink I 30s male I'm in a graduate program where most of my classmates are either fresh out of college or have had one or two years Since graduating I was invited to a party by one of my classmates early mid 20s male He said everyone was going to bring a six pack of beer and we would all swap and try each others My partner 30s male came with me But he said he didn't want to drink because he wanted to work on something the next morning My partner and I both chose a six pack of beer to bring nothing fancy just two types of IPAs We showed up and hung out and had a good time. I thought Everyone put their six packs on the table and everyone would just walk up and grab one when they needed another drink I ended up having eight beers that night my partner My partner didn't have any But then my classmate who invited me got mad because I had eight And we were only allowed six each I said that since my partner and I brought 12 it was okay that I drank eight because my partner didn't drink any Like as a couple we brought more than we drink But my classmate told me that was bullshit and asked me to pay for the two extra beers I drank Am I being crazy or is this whole thing unnecessary? Uh, you're not the asshole. You're just an alcoholic You ended up having eight who blinks and his eight beers in. I mean, we don't get a mention over how long it was It would have to be but so long for eight beers to go down without Noticing see and then I'm like this is how I know like I'm not maybe the best response on this because I'm like I'm from the Midwest and people there will bring a pack of natty light and just I'll have a beers But that's behavior when you're trying to get shit face. It's yeah. No, it's been drinking for sure And their IPAs which have like a higher alcohol content usually you're drinking like eight hamburgers Like those are like those are meaty beers. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But I I will say Overall the concept Regardless of him being you know, maybe having a drinking problem I think there is a little bit of injustice here. Oh, there's great injustice because if you bring 12 beers and you drink eight you should never be on the hook to pay no matter what the formulation of the party is that makes no sense What about those four other beers he left behind? Yeah, what about that? Are you gonna pay me for the four? Yeah I'll pay for the two. In fact, let's make a deal you have those four Yeah, and we're even Like what? What? No, that doesn't make any sense. I'm like are they just They might just hate you. Yeah, they're kind of like I don't know they're heckling, but like just kind of like a mentally fucking with him a little Are you leaving out the part where you Were so drunk that you punched a hole in the wall at this guy's house? I know. I'm curious if there's other I like to lie the asshole because I have eight beers. Sure. There's a couple hours of the night I don't really recall and then everyone's mad at me the next day Feels like it's about something else if it's just about this no way you're the asshole But it can't be just about this. I mean, maybe it's an age thing though. They're kind of younger 20s. He's mid-30s, but everyone's What this is a graduate program. Mm-hmm. Everyone's getting an advanced degree. I'm surely Do you think they could count? Yeah, and understand you think this wouldn't be a contentious Issue of everyone's paid for a six pack They've paid for two six packs Some people can't do basic math going on here. Some people cannot do basic math though I'd be curious what kind of graduate program it it is. Is it like anthropology? Let's see if we have any comments from OP the top comment is not the asshole first of all that's a ridiculous level of being counting for a party set up in this way. - Agreed. - Secondly, couples, contributions do count together, but never mind any of that. I would just tell this guy, "Okay, I don't agree with this, but I'll be the bigger person and give money to whomever ended up short." Oh, and by the way, partner brought six and drank zero, so when should he expect he had his money back and from whom? - Mmm. - Ooh. Yeah, someone responds to that and goes, "Oh, devious little creature. I love this." Yes, the partners should definitely get back money for four beers if they want to tango this way. Okay, let's see if there's any comments from OP here. Don't know where this guy's coming from, maybe he's still drunk. LOL. Yeah, this whole thing's weird to me. Like, "Okay, if you want to be mad, I drink too much, that's your prerogative, but it's not like you're the one who paid for it." Question mark. - Yeah, that I agree with. It's like if this is about something else, then tell him, "If you're mad, he drank too much because this was a six-pack party." Well, admittedly, if this is a six-pack party and everyone's supposed to have six, it's not crazy. Because once you're having six, like six beers is, to me, like a chill night is like two, maybe three. And I say this as a six-foot-two man. You know what I mean? Like, I could have more, but it's just not chill to have five-plus beers ever, in my opinion. Yeah, okay, so I was trying to put in the concept how many drinks that would be because I'm not a beer drinker. I have no idea the concept of beers. So I'm thinking like, "Oh, 5% alcohol, like, whatever." But if it was eight, 12-ounce beers, that equals eight standard drinks. But if they were stronger beers, like an IPA and larger, eight beers could roughly equal 10 to 16 standard drinks. Oh, yeah, if they're drinking tall boys. That's okay. That's insane. That's a problem. But I, okay, I'm going to assume they were just the regular like 12-ounce. I assume they were, yeah, I'm picturing like a regular, like a can of this size. But it's an IPA. Yeah. So you're not, that's not eight-bud lights. And by the way, eight-bud lights. Also a problem. Yeah. Okay, I'm getting more on, I'm like, "Oh, fuck." You know what I mean? Yeah. Because even six, to me, drinking a full six-pack is like, I'm watching the Super Bowl with my friends. Yeah. And I'm not too heavy of a drinker. So maybe I'm being a little prude in the eyes of the listeners. No, I think this is probably a healthy good take. I feel like now that I'm 30 at least, like in college, of course, you know, you're trying to binge drink pretty much every time you go out. Yeah. But we would drink hard liquor in college just to like actually get drunk because we were in such good drinking shape at that time that probably six beers would have just taken too long and my body would have been processing it too quickly. But these days, graduate school is kind of a, I went to graduate school and it's, "Okay, nice, where'd you, or what'd you do?" I got a doctorate in occupational therapy. Oh, shit. Okay, so you're-- I don't use it. So it's weird. Yes, you do. This is, wait, occupational therapy is different than talk therapy. Yeah. Yeah, occupational therapy is like speech pathology. Speech pathology is different. It's more comparable to like physical therapy, but we focus more, I would say on like neuro and in the context of like functional activities, like your day-to-day tasks or things like that, we don't help people find jobs we could, but it's more so like dressing, bathing, grooming, things like that. Got it. So there's not much connection between that and reading Reddit stories and then analyzing it. I would say very little. Very little. Sure. Well, I went to business school, which teaches you nothing about anything. Okay. So don't worry, I never have to wonder if I'm using your degree. Using it because you can't. There's no way to use it. I feel like you couldn't stand up, but okay. I mean, stand up is a little like entrepreneurial in the sense, but I can't necessarily point to too much that happened in business school that, you know, I couldn't have loaded with my own judgment. The economics of it all. Micro macro, what's going on there? Yeah, the fed rates don't really impact my ticket sales for my daughter's. But it was a big drinking culture. Is that a finance thing more so than like grad school? I think it's also like, I went because I was at a bit of an impasse of like, I just started doing stand-up comedy, but I wasn't ready to go all in on it and I wanted to plan B. And I think it was sort of, I was a bit lost. And I think a lot of people go and they're a bit lost and a lot of people go in their single and they're lost. And all of that kind of contributes to like a bit of a party party and hook up culture. It can be like college round two for people that felt they didn't do college, right? Which wasn't how I used it, but some people did. Yeah, mine. I would say was not super drink heavy. Like there were definitely nights out. But I would say like my, my group was probably a little more nose to the grind. No, what's that to the grindstone? Yeah, that one. So I didn't have that college 2.0 experience, but I also had friends that were like in my area because like my grad school was here. So right. So you didn't always be like in the community as much as some people might have been if they were away from them. Exactly. OP does have an edit on this post. Lesson learned. Don't party with grad students. Yeah, well that I will say this like so OP sounds like he's in a good relationship. Yeah. And I think grad school partying can be a bit of a single man's game. Like it can be, it can be clicky. It can be I noticed that when I was there. Well, like when people put it in a perspective in the comments too, is this really worth the confrontation over $4? People are like just pay it. Never party with these weirdos again. They sound like a missbook. Yeah. That's also true. Like if you have to be in grad school with them for another two years. Yeah, just pay it for a box, like maybe he really like definitely pay it because then otherwise they're going to go around and be like, he fucking didn't pay us for the, you know, there's going to be a story. Yeah, you know, there's going to be a story that like isn't what happened. So you always just pay it unless it's an amount of money that's like you, you simply have to. What's the limit? Like I feel like the most they could ask for, I mean, a six pack 20 bucks. Yeah, I think if they're saying the two beers, oh, this isn't Canada. No, no, we don't know, but like Canada beers. Oh, unless you're. Yeah, like how much are they really asking for? Like Morrison's. So expensive. Yeah, two beers would be maybe eight tops. Yeah, probably because they're like, they bought them in six packs. Yeah, divide by six. I think if it's over 20 bucks, you have to be like, guys, what's going on? Okay. I think under 20 bucks, as it approaches 20, like 20 would be kind of an annoying amount because keep in mind you've already each bought two packs. So now you're in for like 40 or maybe a few in your partner split at 30 each for this party that like you've left with a bad taste in your mouth. I think 10 bucks would be my limit. I'm willing to pay $10 to not deal with drama. But after that, I'm like the injustice and the principle of it all. No, fuck you. I think 20. Well, I've definitely paid more to not do with drama for sure. Really? But I also think it depends. I don't know. I had like a situation where someone that was working for me, we had a misunderstanding. Okay. Where I had I had offered a bonus for a certain project. And this person took it to me and that this bonus exists for all of his work. Like I basically he had been making clips for me. Yeah. And I said for every clip that does this well, I'll give you a financial bonus. Yeah. But it was attached with certain batch of clips. I was giving him. And then like three months later, he had a couple clips performed that well. And he was like, can I get the bonus? And I was like, you know what? You can. Because I was like a bit of a miscommunication. Yeah. I was like, one, I don't think you're acting in the wrong. And also I'm like, you did get the result that I was attaching the financial bonus to. But this isn't the same thing. This is very different. Move forward with that. I just paid him and I was like, I want to have a relationship with you over the long term. Like I'm sure if I tried to explain my perspective, he might understand, but I'm sure he also wouldn't feel good about it. Exactly. Yeah. No. So there's, I mean, there's times pick your battles. And this might be one of them. If it's under $10, that's my how to take. But not the asshole. I think these people are weirdos. I agree. But we'll see what we think about the next one. Yeah. This is coming from our slash relationship advice. It is titled, I 29 female slept with a new guy, 34 male for the first time and felt he was rude to me. Was he dated a new guy for a month? He was a gentleman and very kind towards me. He very recently just told me how much he liked me and that I'm, quote, pretty, but most of all, I'm a kind person with a good heart, which is most important above anything. End quotes. His intentions seemed genuine towards me. We had texted slash spoke on the phone every day up until Thursday when I came to his side of the city we live in and went out for cocktails and to watch a band. Afterwords, we went back to his place, which was around the corner from the venue. Everything felt right, and we slept together for the first time. First time I had had sex in 9 months. It was very good, passionate, we both enjoyed it. Everything I thought it would be. The second it was over, and he had finished, he exclaimed how good it was, then got off me, and walked into his kitchen to check his phone, which was charging on the kitchen worktop. He lives in an apartment, so I could see this from his bed. He then stood there and watched the football highlights. Then he started to type for a while, so I assumed he was replying to text messages. Then he went and sat on the sofa for a few minutes. He eventually came back in his room, didn't say a word, just plugged in his phone to charge and sat in an alarm for 7am. We both were off work the next day. He said, quote, "You can stay if you want, but just so you know, I'll be up at 7am, I want to go to the gym." Night, he said this while his back was to me. Then went straight to sleep, not facing me. I stayed on the other side of the bed, and eventually fell asleep myself. I felt awkward being there. Alarm went off at 7am, we both woke up, I said good morning, he replied in kind. Again, no touching or looking over at me, he jumped straight out of bed. We got to sleep at 2am, so I'm pretty tired, but I get out of bed myself and go to his bathroom. By the time I get out, he's looking through his wardrobe, deciding what he wants to wear for the day. I sit on my bed and book my uber. I attempt to make small talk and ask more about his plans for the day with his friend. Again, doesn't look at me while replying. Just looked through his wardrobe. At this point, I felt like I'd served my purpose the night before and was no longer necessary. My uber arrives, he walks me to his door, the uber driver has parked at the end of his street, due to the road work that had taken place over the week. He says bye to me as I walked down the road, this was on Thursday night/ Friday morning. No quote, did you get home okay, or I had a good night text, nothing. For over two days, until an hour ago, when he texted, simply, quote, recovered yet, I've not texted back and I don't think I even want to see him again. My friend is trying to convince me that he was just busy today, but being busy has never stopped him before, we had texted every day. And to be honest, I'm put out by how distant he was after we had sex for the first time. He knows I don't have casual sex and I hadn't slept with anyone for over nine months. I felt like his behavior was inconsiderate and I feel quite used. I wasn't expecting a marriage proposal after sex. Just basic eye contact, conversation, maybe a hug. My friends think I'm overreacting, am I? Okay. Here's what I'll say, she's describing a lot of micromoments. And so, it's hard to say without being there, how all these micromoments might have felt to him versus you. Like I think when you're getting to know someone, especially early on, especially the first time you sleep together, there could be a lot of moments that you may read as distance, that he may feel vulnerable in or shy in just, here's where I'm before, before I get in trouble with the girl is, I want to say this. I am leaning towards saying that she is not in the wrong at all. But before I do that, I just want to touch your eyes. Are you devil's advocate in a little bit? I mean, I'm a white man. This is my job to devil's advocate. This is, I went to devil's advocate university. You have to understand this, ladies, ladies, quiet down, it's, it's man time now. Ladies. Let me mansplain this for you. Let me explain something to you. No, but this is, this is important to know. Okay. First of all, he should have texted. I think he should have texted that day. Yeah. So I don't think you're overreacting in that regard. I think it's the polite thing to do. Did you get home safe? Any of those? Yeah. I think waiting two days is rude. I think waking up at 7 a.m. is a little psycho if it's not normal for him. But you've gotten to know him a little bit. Some guys are kind of psycho like that, like some guys have the day off work and they do want to wake up and I wouldn't, you know, I would want to, I would want to sleep in and get brunch or something if I, if I were into you, like I'd be excited about spending the morning together. Yes. So clearly there's something going on, which is that he's not gushing. This did not bring him closer to you in the way that it felt like maybe it brought you closer to him. So that's, that's without question. And I don't think you're crazy for picking up on that, noticing that and feeling some type of way about it. I think that's a pretty reasonable and, and, and normal way to react. So one thing I will say is when you come as a man, we do not unlock physiologically the same feelings that women, you do, I'm assuming this woman didn't come because it's the first time with, they had sex, but I don't know. I mean, she said it was passionate. She did say it was good. It was very good. Passionate. If, if, if women, if you enjoy having sex with a man, it seems, and I think this is backed up biologically, that a lot of oxytocin is released. Yes. You want to cuddle your feeling connected. Yes. And I do think and this, I think is also backed up by science that the second we come, we feel shy, distant, like a little bit vulnerable, a little bit embarrassed, like we want to get lost. Yeah. No, it's, it is backed by science. It's like, literally women have the love hormone and men get the opposite hormone and they're like, yep, I'm good. Bye. So, I'll say this, okay. When I really like someone, like my girlfriend now, I remember I was so nervous having sex with her for the first time because I knew I was so into her and I was like, oh, I don't want to fuck this up. Yeah. Like, it's got to be good. Yeah. And it was kind of clunky as a result. I feel like most first times with a new person are totally and when I came because I was so into her, I didn't feel that I want to get it. So, I think these things always come down to like, if he were obsessed with you, you'd know. And clearly it's not that. But what I will say is I'm not sure you can know right now how bad it is because if it's anywhere from, he's still getting to know you all the way to, he's really not into it. His behaviors could possibly be, I'm not going to say reasonable, but they could be, I wouldn't be shocked to see them out of a man who's maybe not the most socially aware and not the most thoughtful person. Do you confront him? Because I agree. I don't think she's overreacting at all. My instincts say he was just looking for sex and you kind of got love bombed in all of this. I mean, the line here, it's a beautiful line, beautiful line. I mean, who doesn't want to be told this? You're pretty, but most of all, I'm a kind person with a good heart, which is most important above anything, like, wow, okay, Mr. Darcy, like, okay, but I'm getting like, I'm like, was that real or was that just to get in my pants? Because then once you did, you're like, okay, take it or leave you. I think she said that she doesn't like to have casual sex from what I'm hearing. This is a pathway to casual sex. It's giving. Let me put you in the friends with benefit box. Yeah, especially the texting pattern recovered yet. It's just, it's also, yeah, it's just not, it's not warm. And if you're looking for warmth, I think you shouldn't go see this guy again. And truthfully, if he really fucked up and he seemingly has no self-awareness over that, if you say, hey, that, you know, I had fun getting to know you, but I think that's it for me. Ironically, he'll probably be like, what? Yeah. And he'll probably like try and chase you down and love on you again because these kinds of guys find it pathetic when they have the full attention of someone, but they find it completely hard to put their finger on when they don't. And these guys have like an insecurity problem. So when someone doesn't like them, when someone does like them, they're like, oh, of course, but when someone doesn't like them, they're like, what the hell is going on? So my guess is if you tried to poo-poo him, he would come running. But I think you might as well do that because whether you're into him or not, he's not showing the signals of someone that's looking to date you. And it sounds like that's what you're looking for and off that alone, you know? If you were interested in casual, solid sex with someone that's like not going to treat you like shit, I'm not sure he's treating you like shit. He's just being distant and not particularly warm. If that's what you wanted, like someone that you could just hit up and have sex with, then it could be up to you to suss out, okay, does he like, did something happen when we had sex that made him this way or are we just going to be like buddies who fuck sometimes? But if that's not what you want, I would cut it right there. You are on the money. So top comment says recovered from what? His personality and OP responds like the laughing crime emoji. And then someone down after that goes, like someone said in another thread, you really ought to reply. Sorry the sex wasn't good enough for me." to be interested in anything casual. Good luck to you. - Okay, well that, that is some wild. - It was kind of on similar to what you were saying. - Yeah, that's what you're thinking, but you don't have to say that to this fucking guy. - Someone does respond and goes, yeah, this is a devastating maneuver. Do it, OP. - Just like a little potsters. - Yeah, I think yeah, simple like, hey, I'm not, you know, this isn't exactly what I'm looking for right now, but it was really nice getting to know you is the most courteous way to go. - Okay. - I just, - You don't think he needs a punch to his ego? - I don't know, because the only thing that I know for a fact is the texting. We know the texting for a fact, you know? If I were there and he literally didn't look at her once, but I think a lot of these like micro things of like, he had his back turned to me or he was texting on his phone and sitting on the, I don't know, I mean, I can already tell I'm gonna get in trouble for invalidating the experience of a woman. But I'm just saying that when two people have sex, they may be experiencing very different realities, but I think the texting tells you exactly what you need to. - Well, yeah, I think I agree. There's one more comment where someone's like, OP, you could put it this way. Our experience answered all of my questions. I'm not looking for a repeat. Good luck to you in the future. It'll kill him and it's a whole lot more subtle than the other one. But I will say, I think that's like almost something with anxiety too. Like I, I think what she went through is probably pretty damn near close to how it happened. But maybe, you know, she had anxiety after like, was it good? Is he still in to me? And then she's looking at the micro like things in this experience and it's like, oh my God. Like I feel like anxiety can do that to a person. Like, you go to a family event and you're, I don't know what your partner isn't. Hold in your hand as much in front of the family and you're like, oh my God, is he mad at me? I think you just spiral or like, you know, so maybe that happened because like sex, especially if you're not in a casual sex is like very vulnerable. Yeah. And so she could have, you know, gotten one thing inspired but overall looking at it, I'm like, no. He went to the kitchen immediately after he hopped off her, climbed off her, whatever she said. No, no, I mean, I think without question, like this is not the behavior of a guy that you're gonna want to be dating, for sure. No, no. I will say this though, this is the last thing. Okay. Is if you really want to like chew this guy up and spit him out, you don't say from the man's perspective, you don't say something like, sorry, this sex wasn't good enough for me to do this again because when a man reads out, they go, oh, she's like bitter or something. Ooh. That what you do is you act sweet as pie. You go, oh my God, it was so great getting to know you. I just, you know, I really am like, I just don't think we should hang out again 'cause then it looks like. You lost a big catch. Well, it looks like you don't care literally at all because you're being so nice and that would drive me nuts as a guy is like, oh no, like she, like I fucked up the sex. Yeah, the Jedi mind trick of it all. Yeah, because if you read to me as pissed off, I know you cared, at least someone. That's true. And I know that it was me that did this to you. If you don't read at all as pissed off, I really wonder. Like almost like you feel bad. Like you're like, oh, how do I let this guy down? Picture, picture, set, picture. What would be the message you sent if you guys had sex and this guy was so clingy, the sex was bad and it was like a total turnoff? What would be the message you would send then? Send that guy that text and you will make him think about you for the rest of his life. But do not go back down the road. Yeah, you can't like then get love bombed again and go back down the road, which can happen. Like I went through the most horrific friends with benefits situation and like it went on for three years. Like it was brutal. And like it started, I visited him in Germany and had this horrible like last day of the trip where like I was like, this guy's an asshole. And then he came back to LA when I was here and like lived here when I was in grad school and so it was just like it was convenient. It was easy. And it literally took me meeting my partner and being like, oh my God, it actually feels great when you're treated nice and someone likes you. I'm like kind of like reminiscent of this guy. Like yeah, there's road work on the street but the fact he didn't walk you to the Uber. Like, like, I'm just like, the chivalry is dead in this man and like thinking about my partner now, it's like he would have walked me to the Uber. He would have actually probably called me the Uber or driven me home. And like, I'm just like find someone that likes you because when you do, it feels really nice. - Yeah, don't go back to this well. Don't go back to this well. Especially unless you know exactly what this is and you're okay with it, which it doesn't sound like you are. - No. - But on the message front, if you really want to fuck up that guy's day, do not send a message that reflects your state of mind. Send a message that you would send to someone who you think is pathetic. - Yeah, I really like this. - And you will destroy him. - I'm game, I'm game. I think a lot of people, I think you can take notes out there. - Take notes on that tactic for real. - Take notes. - Picture him as the worst fuck you've ever had and think about the message you would nicely send to let that guy down and send every guy. - It's me. - Yeah, I just have to work on myself right now. I'm so slant. I'm so sorry. Like I'm sure maybe in the future we could, you know. - Is it a little like toxic? I don't know, honestly, 'cause he was an ass. - I like it. - To me, it's less toxic than being like, you weren't even good enough for this. Like. - Yeah, 'cause he's gonna hear that and be like, I know that a lot. - Yeah, exactly. - Oh my god, okay, we're gonna love this. - Yep. - We don't have any updates from OP. We have a lot of comments. And I'll be sure to share the link for the post in the YouTube description. But I mean, the comments are never ending. Like, OP at certain points looks like she's fighting for her life, people being like, after a month you had slept with, you slept with him, that is casual sex. And she's like, we were talking every day, three dates a week for three weeks. I didn't feel like it was super casual. - Yeah, I think it so depends like the circumstances and the culture of the place. I mean, the more I travel, the more I realize like, in New York, it would feel very rare for me, whether you're serious about each other or casual about each other to be seeing each other from a month and not have already had sex. Like, in New York, I think people are dating very frequently and you would go on maybe two or three dates over the course of two weeks and then sleep together is like, I would think the most normal cadence. And then, you know, when I was in Oklahoma, I asked my opener how the dating scene is and he was like, girls only want men with land. And I was like, oh my, it's so hot. - Who was like, what was his name Caleb? - Yeah, so it's a different world down there for Caleb. - I was like, this is not a one size fits all approach, but if they're in a medium to large city, I don't think by having sex with someone in a month, you're sending a message that you want casual sex. I think it's a natural, you know, raising the stakes of getting to know someone. - I know, especially if you live in a city that has decent public transportation because you see each other a lot more. You can cover a lot more ground. There's one comment where OP just says, "Not only was he rude, he was cheap too." And he's also 34. I like, how do you look back at his age? - Yeah, he should about the Uber too. He should about the Uber. - Come on. - Yeah, you play in the way game. He should Uber you help. - That's what I'm saying. I did send OP a message. I was like, girl, I need an update. Did you ever respond back to this horrible man? So we'll see if anything comes through. - Did now people do you have a fancy reddit? Do they know you're you? - Yeah, but I have a fake one too. - Which one did you use? - May really. - Okay, so they know. - Yeah. I feel like that encourages responses a lot of times. - Okay, so don't fault me for not knowing this, but are these coming from just the reddit community or are they sent to you for this? They're all just coming from reddit, but we do have our own subreddit now, because I wanted a place for listeners to submit their write-ins, and I used to have a Google form, and that just got-- - You got blown out. - It got wait, it was too much. So then we started our own subreddit, so then people can go and post. - But these aren't out of your subreddit. - Not yet. - Hi friends, popping in for a quick story with Justin and Lauren, because it is time for the "Value Vibescap!" - Buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh. - Brought to you by McDonald's. As you all know, we live for drama on this show, but every once in a while, things feel a little bit too unhinged, so we need something to ground us again, enter the McDonald's McValue menu. It's consistent, dependable. There for you when everything else is not, we're talking your favorites for under $3 value, that's always a win, but especially when you're mid-spiral. And I love nothing more than a McChicken mid-spiral. Let me tell you. And this person, this person was definitely mid-spiral. - Okay. - This is titled "Am I wrong for not leaving work to help my wife when she ran out of gas. My wife, 38 female and I, 41 male, have been married for 11 years and have two kids, nine and seven. I work full-time and she works part-time while also doing online classes to finish her degree. She dropped out of college after two years and now wants to finish. She has ADHD and anxiety, and if I'm being honest, sometimes it feels like our entire lives revolve around her symptoms. Last Friday, my wife didn't have to work and decided to go visit her sister who lives in a small town about 45 minutes away. She didn't tell me she was going so I was very surprised when she called me shortly after noon. She was obviously upset when I answered and between sobs, I was able to make out that there was an issue with the car. Eventually she calmed down and told me that she ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere and didn't know what to do. Because she hadn't told me she was visiting her sister, I was very confused and had a lot of questions which only made her more upset. I was getting frustrated too, so I finally just asked her what she wanted me to do. She told me she needed me to come and get her. I told her I was at work and had meetings in the afternoon that I couldn't skip. I suggested she call her sister, but she went to work after my wife visited and my wife didn't want to bother her. I suggested she called roadside assistants to come and help, but she said she didn't know how to do that. I suggested she call an Uber, but she said she was in the middle of nowhere and it didn't show any cars available. I suggested she call a friend or someone else that might be able to help and she yelled at me to just come blinking get her. I tried to remain calm and reiterated that I am sorry she's in this position, but at this moment I'm unable to help her. I told her I had offered numerous suggestions that she could try to help herself, but I can't just leave work. She then hung up on me. My first meeting of the afternoon was starting in five minutes, so I tried calling her back and she didn't answer. I kept trying to text her during my meeting too, but she never responded. I tried calling again between my meetings and still no answer, which I admit pissed me off, because even if I was trying to come help her at that point, I couldn't reach her. She is the one who picks up our kids from school, so I was kind of freaking out at this point because I was completely in the dark about whether I would need to get them or if my wife was even okay. So I called the school and asked them to please let me know if my wife comes to get the kids because I can't reach her. I didn't include any details about why. The school called me back at pickup time and told me that my wife was there for pickup. When I got home at the end of the day, my wife refused to talk to me. She gave me the cold shoulder the entire weekend. I apologized for not being able to help multiple times. Finally, this morning she spoke to me, but all she said was quote, I can't count on you anymore. Did I really mess up that bad? Am I the jerk? No, this is excessive on her part. There were many options of things that so many. Yeah, so this is a rough one. She created so much chaos and I understand being panicked in the middle of nowhere. You ran out of gas, what do you do? I understand that. I've got ADHD anxiety as well. I run it close sometimes, put in my car on empty. But your husband just provided you with so many options, like calling roadside assistance and your response back to him was, I don't know how to do that. Yeah, that gets me. That would really bother me because if they didn't have that set up and if sister was out of town, then I understand being in the middle of nowhere and wanting your partner to come help you. But the fact that your partner is working hard, which is also helping to help you provide for you and you're asking your partner to drop everything before trying an alternate solution that would work just as well. It's gas, you know, it's not, the car didn't go and drive into a pond. It's, that would have been worse. Yeah, definitely it would have been worse. Yeah, I'm saying it didn't. She's not in a place where at least it doesn't sound like where she's in danger, she just needs gas. It could be so simple. Yeah, and so I think the fact that she's giving him such a cold shoulder afterwards for like an extended period of time is not, I don't think it fits the quote unquote crime. It's not constructive. No. Yeah, I think even if, let's say you weren't at work, let's say you were at home, it's the weekend, you're chilling. Still probably, if you already have the roadside assistance set up, it's still probably more convenient for both of you, for them to just come put gas in real quick and you just come home. I know. It seems like that's probably more convenient all around if we're considering all of our time unless you are in the middle of nowhere and it's gonna take forever for them to get you. Yeah. But it wasn't that impossible because you still made it to the school to pick up the kids. Exactly. So what method was chosen? I completely agree with the both of you. Also looking at the way he got ignored, stone walled, like, man, it does not need to be that big of a deal. You ran out of gas, that was on you. And maybe the card didn't be bad, you know. Sometimes they're quiet and sneaky. I get it, but that is still on you. So to freak out and create such madness and spiral out to where you don't talk to your husband all weekend, insane. I also don't know how people get away with that. I couldn't get away with that even if I wanted to. I'm kind of a side note, but my partner would literally not leave me alone. He would just be like, can we talk? Can we talk? Can we talk? I don't know how people get away with it. Mine is mine. Mine? Yeah. That's exactly what I was saying. Yeah, at least. I literally couldn't hold shoulders for a weekend, even if I wanted to. I mean, it's so unhealthy. When you're just taking it so far, right? I mean, you can be upset about the one instance that this happened, but you can't go, but you can't take it to, I can't depend on you. Because now we're casting this huge thing over the entire relationship of, I can't depend on you. After you've probably been able to depend on him many, many, many, many times before. So the one time that you made a mistake and it wasn't convenient because he's at work, has meetings and you're far away, it doesn't mean you can't depend on him, and that's a low blow. I feel like she could have been hangry in that moment too. She could have just been so hungry, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back, but it still doesn't excuse the behavior. That is when you go and get yourself a McChicken and McChill. There is a comment here that says, need more info. Did she ever explain how she resolved her issue? How did she get the car working again? How did she pick up the kids on time? Where exactly was she when she called? And OP responds, she has not given me answers to any of those questions, and I've asked multiple times. - What's the point? - Well, why isn't she telling him? - I'm kind of curious because this move is this to teach him a lesson so that he never does this again? Or is it just like so angry that you can't, you can't, you just can't get yourself to speak to him? - Or is she embarrassed? - And it's an eagre thing. - I don't know, because I think about it, and like I get really angry sometimes, but like, but being angry for like a whole weekend, that hurts me, like that hurts me, where it's like, I don't wanna feel that angry for that long, and so I'm just curious if like she really couldn't help herself, or if she was like, no, this is gonna teach him a lesson so he never does it again. - I feel like it's an eagre thing. I feel like it is teach a lesson. Top comment, not the asshole. Your wife just proved that she was in fact able to deal with the situation herself. I have zero patience for adults who can't manage situations like this. A, it was of her own making, and B, there were so many options for solving it, and dropping everything to go save her, that just enables her dysfunction further. It teaches her that she doesn't need to be responsible for herself. - What if she never actually feels supported from him in a, like in general, and it's been building up, where in terms of like his language, maybe, you know, maybe like when she's sad, she feels like he's really dismissive, and this was finally like the last straw for her, even though it sounds ridiculous to us. What if she's just was like, if he hears me cry and scared on the road, will he actually help me this time? And he didn't, and then she's just like, screw it. - I don't know. That would be pretty diabolical if it was a test, of course. - Yeah, and I feel like you'd be mentioned. If it's a pattern when people write these, it would say, and this is just another thing in the string of this happening many times. whereas it's not so much we need the other. perspective to gain that it would I feel like it would be part of it maybe yeah and it wouldn't be so isolated Right. Yeah, and I mean this is just like I'm just throwing stuff. Yeah, no, we can advocating it all a little Advocation for the other side. It's not even like I don't I won't even call it advocating It's just kind of more of like I'm just curious because we were talking about it a lot lately about like when we listen to these stories We're always curious what the other side would say and like how would she write this in? Would she be like I've been begging him for five years to just show me any ounce of support rather than just Question me and be like, well, why were you out there anyway? I just want him to be like hey like Let me like let's talk this through like deep breaths. We can do this and like maybe she you know Yeah You're trying to rationalize why it got so crazy right when it didn't need to be right was it inconvenient? Was it annoying? Yeah, yeah running out of gas is not fun. It's happened to me I drove an old car and my gas gauge was broken and I thought I had gas and I didn't and right in the middle of dinky Towns actually I was passing by a McDonald's in dinky town and Papa, Papa, Papa, Papa, but real bad place for your car to stop the dinky town is the Best McDonald's. It was I have great memories there. I'm not even kidding. I know That's where everyone used to hang out. No, literally. I'm not kidding. I actually kind of forgot about this, but truly Did you you were no you were St. Thomas so he missed out on that great experience was great like specifically when you were like Never mind. It was just so Well, we don't have an update from OP. That is all we got that is your value vibe check Brought to you guys by McDonald's because when it feels like everything is spiraling out of control It's nice to have something simple satisfying and actually reliable Unlike this gal's car had your nearest McDonald's to try the under three dollar menu and the four dollar breakfast deal McDonald's just gets it limited time only prices and participation may vary prices may be higher for delivery This one is also coming from am I the asshole titled am I the asshole for refusing to cat call a customer's wife Even though he asked us to Cat call okay I 32 mail work as a cook in a restaurant with an open kitchen So guests can see us and even talk to us while we work two days ago while things were slow a guy walks past our station and Asked us for a favor He tells us his wife would be walking by in a few minutes and he wanted us to cat call her while she walked past Stuff like whistling and telling her that she looks good There are three of us on the stations at the time me. I'm black a Hispanic guy and a white guy Before I could even process what he was asking me the white guy speaks up and says yeah, man, we got you After the customer left me and the other cook approached the white cook who had agreed and told him we were not comfortable with what he had agreed to do And that we were not going to do it He got mad and said we already agreed But we reminded him no we didn't he agreed Before he could reply a server came and told us the guy's wife was about to walk by I guess the server who took him to his seat told the other servers what was happening a Few minutes later his wife walks by and honestly she was gorgeous She was basically walking like she was on a runway and it was pretty obvious that she knew what her husband had asked us to do Because she was smiling the whole way to her table But only the white cook who had agreed was whistling and cheering me and the other guy just stayed quiet and kept working Once she sat down the cook who did it and some of the servers who knew about the plan Actually got on our case they said we were spoil sports and made the whole thing awkward by not joining in But I just didn't feel comfortable as a black man cat calling a white woman in a public space and felt it was totally different Situation for me then my white coworker now the vibe in the kitchen is weird because they think we were being too serious Am I the asshole here for just staying silent you're so not the asshole first of all Before the racial stuff which Totally changes it like totally makes it a different thing, but before that You're a cook. It's not your you don't have to cat call You don't have to do anything other than your job there and I get it It's like oh yeah, well, we're all trying to have fun We're doing and there's like a culture of the kitchen. This is so far beyond the bounds of where Reasonable fun can be had if you don't feel comfortable doing that then to add to it You're a black man who'd be cat calling a white woman in public. Yeah Totally you don't have to do No, not at all You're there to work and make food not participate in some customers weird side quest Slash kink. Yeah, like I don't want to be a part of this. Yeah, I didn't sign up for this Yeah, and also Everyone gets their own answer on that one. Yeah, no one can answer for the three of you guys to say we're all gonna do this No, and the guy did it. She laughed great. They all had fun You guys didn't want to do it. You didn't do it. That's fine too. Yeah, sounds like everyone It actually sounds like it was the best case scenario because The guy got one person in on it, which I'm still shocked even that I don't know where this happened. I can tell you that in a restaurant in New York if you asked cooks to do that there's no fucking way to say yes to that. Get the fuck out of here. I'm very curious where it is Also, you don't know when you're getting approached with this situation You don't even know if the wife knows like you don't know if the wife is on board for this and if this did happen and goes wrong Sexual harassment totally like then you're fired. You're without a job for someone silly little prank. Yeah, no I also fucking hate that shit When like a couple is like oh Come on mess with mess with my it's like I don't know you're You know I get this at shows where where people you know will be like Fucking destroy my boyfriend destroy my boyfriend And I'm like like roast him to shred and I'm like I don't know your boyfriend first of all I'm not in the business of wanting to destroy anyone, but like I'm not here to set. I'm here to do what I do And if that's so happens to intersect with what you want to happen wonderful But I'm not taking requests and nor should these people Specifically, I mean in my case, it's a little more reasonable because they're like oh, he's a comedian that does crowd work Maybe he would take requests. I don't but it's at least more reasonable to think I might if you're a cook You do not have to take requests for social things that happen at the restaurant. No Also, I'm like so confused about that roast my boyfriend roast my boyfriend. I'm like do you like him? And I get some people like have that sense of humor, but I'm like I feel like that's a paid-for request like you should find someone on Yeah, yeah, like go to cameo find some dominant tricks to do that, you know I don't like it. It's also not my yet. It's not my style No, so you don't know him. What are you exactly like? I feel like roast are kind of like a little personal Yeah, I like to have an inside scoop on the person. Yeah, how do you roast a stranger? Yeah, you can like do like oh you look like you know It's a blah blah blah and if it ever jumps out to me like if I see someone that really looks like Someone that I'm thinking of that I think is funny. I might say it. Yeah, but like I air on the side of never talking about how anyone looks which I think is A good thing for everyone. I love that Yeah, this is so crazy It's insane Top comment you do not have to participate in other people's kink Resounding not the asshole the whole situation was weird always follow your instincts when it can be twisted out of Perspective into something nefarious and a lot of people then start commenting About recording and how the husband could have been recording this to then put it on social media for like fake rage or Whatever like I just saw this video coming out of New York where this person was like walking in front of a restaurant They were like they just turned me away Because of blah blah blah blah and then the restaurant posted their security footage and was like he never came in He actually didn't step foot in our restaurant. So Not sure what's happening. Yeah, I didn't I'm probably it's like two night you see even think about that scenario But that's like totally valid. Yeah, do you I mean, I feel like every person has their own rules with recording But like no recording at your shows. It's typically a stand-up. Yeah, I mean, I don't I'm not like a Bulldog about it in that like I know at a at certain points I've been on stage and I have seen someone with a camera out and I sort of just keep an eye on it like if it's if it's out and then down pretty quickly the original risk I think was stand up is like if someone would record when you're jokes and put it out and then it would go viral and sort of like, quote, like burn that joke, right? Because like, I don't, so I do a lot of jokes at the live show, but I don't put them out for free. I save them because I want to sell them to like Netflix or someone and put them out as a special when they're ready and to have someone capture them either when they're not ready or when I didn't consent to them being captured. It's like, it's a minor concern, but the truth is like, if you want to record my joke and you want to put it out and it goes so viral that that joke is burned, I do see it as kind of helping me like all views sort of help. So I'm not crazily, you know, but one thing that does happen is sometimes I'll be talking to someone or like doing crowd work with someone and someone next to them will record me. That just gets me in my head. It's not that I care, but I'm like, what I say nicely is I go, I'm recording it and I can get you guys a copy of it. I watched one of your segments with that. I think it was in like, was it in Canada or something? Yeah, exactly. And it's like, I say things live on stage that I wouldn't put on the internet. Well, I think there's like a lot of like context within that room. And when you clip one little thing, it's like, well, you don't know what happened 15 minutes earlier that led us to this moment and how comfortable the room is with this train of comedy and where we got to. So it's really hard when people then start recording, but when when like with this one, you're like, Oh, no, like this is actually like this could have been disastrous, especially like all of these race implications, which someone does say like not the asshole very easy way to get fired. Someone else responds, plus Jesus Christ, asking a black and Hispanic man to sexually harass a white woman is absolutely a dumbass and potentially dangerous thing to do. Agreed. You absolutely made the right call. So you probably feel this way being, you know, the public facing nature of what you do similarly, but like you probably give more thought to being recorded, being paid attention to in public, how you act in public. What would you say? That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. I think like I'm still, I'm in a really, really sweet spot where like I really don't get recognized that much like it's, it's really nice. People will recognize my voice quicker than they'll recognize my face, which is great. I can still grocery shop. I can go to Costco. I can do these things. But once I notice that someone has kind of seen me and like you get that like double or triple take and you're like, Oh fuck. And then it's even it's like even more mentally like goofy when they don't say anything and then I'm in my head. I'm like, well, did they? And then I'm hyper aware of how I'm acting, which isn't so different, but it's a weird concept when you feel that everyone's watching you. Totally. Even if they're not. Exactly. All it has to happen is it happens once. Yeah. And then you're just more attuned to it than you would have been. Yeah. Even if you're wrong. I know. It's still the feeling that it might happen, but that causes you to be more thoughtful about these things probably like in my instance, I'm like, if I'm at a restaurant and I think the service is bad or someone's being rude to me, I do think about the fact that it's like in addition to, you should always do the right thing. Even when I'm frustrated or having a bad day, I try to remember that in addition to doing the right thing, it's best to just just ignore and keep a low profile and, you know, but the people that don't have jobs like these probably don't give these things a lot of thought. And then it's like someone puts you on the spot and this isn't an easy thing that he could have been like, yeah, okay, whatever. Just like to put it in. Exactly. And not make everything uncomfortable. But like, it's so sad that like him standing his ground is getting him all this flack. And like, you're actually a good guy for saying, like, there was a smart, it was smart snap decision to immediately go absolutely not overall vote on it is not the asshole. They killed it. There's no update. It's 19 days old at this point in time. We don't know where it is. It's just kind of this, that's where it ends, that's where it ends for us. Also, I feel like you have a pretty high emotional intelligence. I do. Yeah. I'm still reflecting on the fact that I'm going to get killed over what I said about the fuck boy guy. I think you're fine. I think I'm going to get killed. Well, here, I'll give you another opportunity to make amends. The guy was a dick. The guy was a dick. He's so scared. You guys be nice. Okay? The guy was a dick. No, I really do think the guy was a dick. I guess I'm just saying that when people are meeting each other and they're dating early on, everyone is overthinking what's happening and looking at the small stuff and wondering if there's meaning iscribed to it and sometimes there isn't, sometimes there isn't. That's my take. But do I hear often that I have a high emotional intelligence? I do hear that often. Okay. I like that. I can see it. Who think I'm a little bit more logic oriented than I should be in terms of relationships? Basically, Paul maybe did that to you numbers. Yeah. Like a lot of times when I have fights in my relationship, it's about the fact that I'm sort of trying to walk out the logical steps and sometimes it's not about that. It's about how someone's feeling, whether or not you get on board with their rationale. It's kind of irrelevant. So I come up short sometimes in that department, but I mean, even yourself awareness, you're like, I try to do this, which I know isn't what's needed in that moment. It's more about the feelings. I mean, you're saying it, so it means you're aware of it and working on it. Yeah. Working on it. We all fall short from time to time. Yeah. No one's going to have a perfect response 100% of the time. It's so interesting because in my relationship, what we need from each other are the opposite of what we need for ourselves. So like when I, when something like really pisses me off, I want my girlfriend to call me and be like, Hey, it's not a big deal. Yeah. You're going to get through it. It's going to be fine. She doesn't do that because what she needs for herself in that circumstances is the opposite. So when she's called you, what? Like have you ever heard like the question you just asked someone like, do you want a solution or do you want comfort? Yeah, exactly. And what's the solution based? No, no, no. She is a motion based. Okay. So when she, if she calls me and she's like this fucked up thing happen, the last thing she wants is a solution. The thing she wants is me to go, you're right, that is so fucked up and how you're feeling is absolutely valid. Yeah. And what I want is for her to go forget about, it's not a big deal. It's going to be solved this way. Sometimes what she does is she reacts the way she treats me the way she would want to be treated. And I treat her the way I would want to be treated. And it's not, the golden rule does not apply it in relation to it all the time. You got to treat them how they would want to be treated, not how you would want to be treated. I know. I honestly think it's just like best to ask to because like, I'm immediately like my brain jumps to solutions. I'm like, oh my God, how can I fix this? You can do X, Y and Z. And then the person is like, I just wanted you to tell me that was fucked up and let me vent and I'm like, oh, okay, I should have asked for that. But I'm bad at it at being like, yeah, fuck that because to me it, it doesn't feel productive. And I feel concerned that I'm just winding this person up. True. It's like you're increasing that spiral. Like I'm not helping them. Feeding into it. Whereas like to me, it feels most helpful to be like, well, let's just take a breath and like, let's, but, but I think to some people it's like, no, see what this is and be upset on my behalf. And like, don't just tell me to wind down. Like I don't want to wind down. I'm wound up, you know? And so that's, I struggle with that a lot. And, but I have learned, it's so funny. As you stay in a relationship as someone for longer, you learn to do it. And so like, I am learning to be like, fuck him, like fuck him. How long have you guys been together? Two years. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Okay. So you're kind of in that spot of like, we're really starting to understand each other, anticipate needs a bit better. Yeah. We've had a long term relationship where it's like, you've had the fights. Yeah. Now you were like, okay, we needed that growth. Yeah, I feel like you have the fights. Then you have the fights again, then you have the fight about how you keep fighting about the same thing. Okay. And then it all comes to a head and you're like, are we going to learn how to avoid these fights? Are we going to break up? Yeah. You learn eventually. And then eventually, like, I think we're entering this phase where it's like, oh, right. We've had this fight before and we've had the fight about this fight before and we've had a fight about the fact that we've fought about this a bunch before and I'm finally rousing like, okay, this is how we avoid this fight. I like it. It takes time. Two years. You're like, I feel like by the three year mark, you're like, okay, we know what a boundary is now. You can do this. Yeah. I love that. So you're about to be a best man. I am. Okay. I've been before too. Have you? This is my second. Another sibling? No. Because this one's for a best friend. Okay. Not your first rodeo. Yes. This one, I'm very curious what you think of coming from Am I the asshole titled Am I the asshole for making a kind of snarky comment at my sister's engagement dinner and now everyone's mad at me. Okay. So this literally just happened last weekend and it's still blowing up in my family group chat. So I need some outside opinions. My sister, 31 female just got engaged and we had this dinner thing at a kind of nice place like not a crazy fancy place, but still the type where you feel like you shouldn't laugh too loud. LOL. Everything was fine. We were doing toasts and stuff. Her fiance's giving this speech, and at one point he says something like how much he loves that she's so honest and never hides anything, which I don't know, just kind of hit me weird, because like she absolutely has hidden stuff before, specifically from me. Basically, when we were younger, like 10 years ago, she secretly dated one of my close friends for months, and I only found out because I walked in on them. It caused a whole thing, and I lost that friendship over it. She really never apologized, just kind of brushed it off as we were young, which, okay, but still. Anyways, I wasn't planning on saying anything, but I'd had a couple of drinks, and I just kind of muttered something like, quote, yeah, unless she decides to keep it a secret, and it got quiet fast. She immediately got mad and was like, are you serious right now? And her fiance was confused and asking what I meant. I didn't fully explain it. I just said it was old stuff and whatever, but yeah, the mood was dead after that. Dinner ended pretty awkwardly, and she texted me later, saying that I humiliated her, and that I always do this, which I don't question mark, question mark. My parents are also on her side, saying I picked the worst possible time, and should have just let it go. I mean, maybe the timing sucked, but also, am I wrong for still being annoyed about something? She never actually owned up to. I don't know. Am I the asshole? Yes. Yes. To me, yes. Because there's a different venue for this conversation. You're not the asshole for feeling some type of way about this. This is way in the past, and taking a moment that she is celebrating, a big moment for her, when any day of the week, you could have this conversation in the past. I mean, I understand why you were spurred by this comment. Have I never hide anything and why that might have rubbed you the wrong way in the moment, and you'd had a couple of drinks and fine. Like, it was that comment that triggered you to respond, but you don't have to respond. You don't have to respond. This is her day, her moment, and you can fix a relationship or not. Is this something that's on your mind a lot? If not, you can let it go. I actually think it's totally fair to hold on to something that happened when you're way younger, but not to air it out in front of your family, in front of the fiance. That is a private conversation. Yeah. And clearly, you didn't say it really ingest because it was received ingest, and you didn't even seem to think you said it ingest. So, yes, you're the asshole. Also, you didn't say like, oh, you lied to me about your ex. Like, you literally said, yeah, unless she decides to keep it a secret. No context. Yeah, it sounds very ominous. It's like, it almost sounds like you're accusing her of like cheating on her fiance. Thank you. Yes. Like, in my head, I'd be like, oh my god. Yeah, did you just drop a bomb? Are you accusing her of cheating right now on him? Yeah. That's horrible. Also, this is where I might have my hot take for the day. I don't know, but you might yell at me, you guys. I do think she's kind of ridiculous for holding onto this 10 years later. Sister was 21 at the time, and you're mad 10 years later that she lied to you about hooking up with one of your friends. I will take the other side of this. Okay. The reason is not because of the incident. Wait, was it, was it hooking up with one of the friends or someone that she was hooking up with? I think it was just one of her friends. It was just one of her friends. Yeah. Oh, I thought she had like stolen her. She secretly dated one of my close friends for months. Listen, when someone does some like shady secret shit, whether how shady it was is debatable. Still hurt. Okay. My view is I just like, when someone who's like, if it's my sibling or a best friend keeps something from me like that, I'm just like, okay, now I know this about you that you're like willing to lie to me. Yeah. In that way. Yeah. Like the trust is gone. Like, yeah, like you don't think I could have handled it if we just had a mature conversation. So like, I understand why that might be buried somewhere within her. Same reason why like, you know, every once in a while, I mean, I don't know if you've ever had like the misfortune of, you know, I've been to my grandparents, funerals, and you like know that your mom or dad has like a complicated relationship with them. And then you watch these like all ultra positive eulogies. And I just see my mom like, well, that's not always how he was. It's like, I understand why these moments were someone where you see praise being hept upon someone whom you have certain issues with. I understand why that's challenging because you're like, okay, we're just gonna ignore all the negative stuff. And the answer is, yes, at an engagement dinner, you ignore all the negative stuff. At a wedding, you ignore the negative stuff. At a funeral in the eulogy, you ignore the negative stuff. Or you say the negative stuff as a joke really diplomatically. But these are not the moments, you know, where you air out the shitty things about someone they get these days to be, to have the record whitewashed a little bit. I can completely agree. Like time and place for everything. I also just feel I'm like, if you're still dealing with this 10 years later, like it doesn't sound like she ended up with that friend anyways, I'm curious if it impacted their friendship. So greatly that like you lost that best friend of yours, then, okay, that really sucks and is obviously maybe more justified. We don't have any comments from a pee highlighting or alluding to any of that. But I would say like, if you couldn't keep it in at this very important dinner for your sister, you need to go to therapy, like you need to address this. And maybe it's therapy with her. Maybe you literally go and you're like, we need to hash this out because this feels like shit. Yeah, you got to hash it out, but like, not there. Not there. Not in these moments. Like, whether you still have a little bit of hurt inside over what happened 10 years ago, it shouldn't be so close to the surface that you're willing to to just kind of like refer to it to like backhandedly undercut her in this moment. Like it should be, you have to process it enough over the course of 10 years that I don't blame you one bit for that little light bulb going off where she goes, I never hide anything and you're like, fucking, yeah, you fucking do. Yeah. But that's, but that is not a moment for you to mention it. And overall vote did agree. Overall vote asshole. Yeah. Big red banner at the top. Top comment. You're the asshole. It wasn't kind of snarky. It was, I'm intentionally going to ruin this night for my sister because she hooked up with someone over 10 years ago. And I reacted so poorly to it that I lost a friendship over it. Now you get to lose a sister too. That might be a little harsh. Hopefully their relationship can recover from it. Imagine setting your makeup. Then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day, comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, do we hydrate it skin? That still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Maybelline New York. Maybe it's Maybelline. This next comment. You're the asshole. You held a grudge for 10 years and decided to make a snarky remark at her engagement dinner. How childish. Next comment. Hard you're the asshole. Grow up. You were kids choosing her wedding event to make a public snarky comment is appropriate and immature and they just keep just pounding it on. Add it on? Okay. I've got one last one for you. It's titled Am I the asshole for not putting a garden gnome on my lawn? I only ever take to the subreddit for stupid things it seems. Hi, 26 female here. I recently bought my first house in a cute little neighborhood. There's 12 houses in our street. No HOA. No rules about lawn design. Only a rule that roofs can't be black. Cool. Whatever. My neighbor will call him Mr. Thomas 65-ish male right across the street has his garden stuffed and I mean stuffed all caps with garden gums. They're everywhere. They climb up the water drain. They're on the porch on the grass. It's a whole thing. Not my style. But fine. I moved in the first week of March and the day after Mr. Thomas came to say hello. He introduced himself and brought me a garden gnome as a welcome gift. I thought it was absolutely hideous but I thanked him and then I put it in the shed after he left. The following day I brought all neighbors some self-made cookies. Mr. Thomas and his wife got some too and they seemed happy about it. Two or three days later I was walking my dog and Mr. Thomas stopped me and asked why I hadn't put my gnome in my front yard. I didn't tell him I hated the gnome. I just told him I had something else in mind for my garden which I just hadn't gotten around to yet and the gnome was doing a formidable job guarding my tools in the shed. He got really upset and snappy with me and told me that he's been living on the street for 30 years and every neighbor gets a gnome as a welcome gift and every neighbor puts them up in the front yard. I hadn't really paid it any mind up until that point but why? Once he mentioned it, I noticed that there was a garden gnome in every front yard. He mentioned how it's tradition, and everybody's got to do it. I asked him if he wanted the gnome back, if he didn't like where I put it, he said no. So I just calmly told him that I most likely wasn't going to put the gnome on the front lawn, thanked him for the gift again, wished him a nice day, and I left. For since then, I noticed that a handful of other neighbors have let their gnomes disappear. And now Mr. Thomas hates me. I get a stink guy, every time we spot each other, and my neighbor next door, the sweetest old lady bless her heart, told me that he's apparently complaining about me on the regular. I told my friends this story, and one of them said I should have just put the gnome on the front lawn to make the old man happy. Am I the asshole for not doing this? This is fascinating. First of all, you're not the asshole. You're not the asshole. That just goes without saying. This guy's obviously mentally ill. I mean, obviously. This guy has a thing with gnomes, and it's not your job to appease his thing for gnomes. No. That said, if you had taken me back to the debt, here you are. You've made your bet, and clearly you've started a bit of a revolt on the neighbors. They are rising up by their gnomes. Yeah, clearly. If the other gnomes are disappearing, everyone went, "Whoa, hold on, she's just not going to do this," so then none of us have to do this. So you've actually, you've started a movement from a revolution, and you are the messenger that will be killed as a result. I think at this point, you've taken a stand, and I respect the stand you took, and I don't think there's anything to do from here. I think he doesn't like you because he's a sick man. He's sick, and he's not, you know, it doesn't. The gnomes are a disease. The gnomes, he's not well. Well people don't behave this way. So he's obviously. The gnomes are a react badly to not put in a gnomes gifted, in both. Being overflowing with gnomes is weird, and it's an insid disease, and then caring whether you, you know, how you use his gift, and actually being like public facing about it, like bad mouthing you is weird and not well. But I would have said, if we were all to go back in time, but again, this does not make you the asshole, is I would have said, just put out the fucking gnome because you just moved into this neighborhood, and the last thing you want is a guy that lives next to you being pissed off at you for, like, some stupid reason. And maybe over time, you can slowly move it back every day until it's. Behind a bush. So yeah, you know, or just deal with it, like, I, so I move, I live in a co-op in New York City. Okay. And it's New York City co-ops are very famously like, very beefy, crazy, hard to get into. Fun. And I have, there's only four units in my building. Okay. And I have one of them. So, you know. Tighten it, group. Yes. My unit has the roof on it, and there's two portions of the roof. There's an unfinished portion of the roof that is basically like where the HVAC stuff, you know, like all the machinery that kind of, the generators and stuff lives. And technically, when you're in a co-op, everyone owns one fourth of the building. So technically, we all own one fourth of the back portion of the roof. And then I have a private area that came with my apartment, that is my private roof deck. And when I was getting the place, all of the people who were on the board to approve me were like, hey, one thing we've been thinking is we should take the portion of the roof that we all own and build it out and put like different stuff there and furniture and make it like a shared roof deck. Meanwhile, I'm thinking like, no fucking way, because like, I'm paying for it. My thing was advertised as you have the private roof. And though on a technicality, we all own this one fourth area of the roof. Like, I don't want that to be public access because one, it's right next to my bedroom. My bedroom's like a task. I was going to ask like, is your unit still like, do you hear them tromping around? I would lose a lot of privacy, a lot and I was not okay with that. So you lied. So I was like, yeah, let's just see. Like let's just vibe it out. Like I'm totally not opposed to that. Meanwhile on my head, I'm like, I'm totally opposed to this. But I'm like, let me just get into the building, let me build a relationship with these people. And as I built a relationship with them, first of all, no one has mentioned it since and I've been in there. I mean, granted I got in in the winter. So it's just, yeah, it's gonna be my first summer. So maybe it comes back, maybe I'll be watching this podcast, like fuck, I handled this wrong. But so far. No, because you got in. Yeah, I got in. There's no contract. You didn't sign anything. And so far, no one's mentioned it. And I think what I would do is, and now that I've built a relationship, now that I have a good relationship with these people, they're not unreasonable people. Yeah. So it's like, I just think you never want your, the first thing you do in a relationship to be like you poo-pooing someone because they will read you as a person. Even if you're totally in the right, which you are in this case, it's like you, by no obligation, do you have to have a gnome in your yard, but you never want that to be like the first thing that people know about you is that you're like a, you're like a no person. Yeah. So instead, you know, that I've said yes to now so many things that I'm hoping that if the roof conversation is raised again, I could politely be like, hey guys, I've given it some thought. It's really close to my bedroom. And like, I'm not going to fight you tooth and nail on this, but like, if we could not build that unfinished portion of the roof into a shared roof deck, that would really, really mean a lot to me and the way that I conduct myself in my apartment. And my hope would be, and I think this is correct, that they'd be like, yeah, fair enough, you know? Yeah. My seniors are crossed for you. My husband are crossed for me too. Well, I also have neighbor beef now, but it's from the other building because I have a dog and my dog pees on the roof on the unfinished part actually. And this neighbor, an older lady, has started to open up her window and just scream, get your fucking dog off the roof, but she doesn't live in our building. And so I've never seen her. It's only my girlfriend that's seen her. I've been on tour every time. But it's your roof. It's our roof. She has nothing to do with it. Where does it be? Go. Do you wash it? Do you like have a hose and spray it out? Do you have one of those grass pads? They made you get those. We did get those, but then we just kind of, there's drains up there. So we just kind of, and it's not a roof that anyone had habits like, there's no furniture on this. Gotcha. So it's like trash goes there, pee goes there. In New York, it's so different because like, I know, we don't have a yard. We can just lock her out. No, it's like, I literally was walking down the street the other day and like, just, I mean, dogs just have to poop on the sidewalk. It's a tough life for a city dog. I wish like we could just have a doggie door to a place where she could freely run and anytime she needed to go. I like the grass pad. When my dog had surgery on her hip, we ordered like the grass subscription. And it's like, it's literally real grass. Yeah, that's what we did. It's got a train. You rinse the tray, which I guess, I don't know, maybe it's the same if you just were in senior, we ordered it, but then eventually realized that it was ultimately kind of the same thing. Same time. Yeah. Yeah. Like, because we didn't need the space beneath the grass to be clean. Oh, that's crazy. But so she never went away waiting for you. Yeah. And she, I think her issue was like one time her dog was barking. So she yell, but it was barking at 4 p.m. on a Tuesday and it's New York City, like dogs bark in New York City. And then she was like yelling about the barking. But then the more she yelled at our dog, the dogs start barking at her. Of course. And then now the dog when the dog sees her, our dog barks at her. And so that makes her even more angry. And then the other problem is like, the roofs doesn't have like, add a quick guard rails. And so she's worried that our dog will run off the roof, which like, that might be valid. Fair. But she doesn't have to like scream at us about it. And also like, our dog's not going to run off the roof because like, our dog has walked up to the edge of looked over and realizes that it's a building. So our dog's not going to like kill herself. Well, I don't, I don't want to scare you. I'm going to get in trouble. No, no, no, no. Well, I think some sort of railing would be advisable. Well, yeah, our roof portion has, so what the back area has no adequate railing, she just goes out peas and then we leave. Gotcha. She doesn't like play out there or anything. Where does she play is we have railings. Yeah. So I had a German chopper and he loved balls, loved a ball. And his ball rolled off of our deck. He jumped off the deck and broke his leg. So they're smart until they're not. Yeah. Well, definitely we're never going to throw. Not unattended. Yeah. There you go. Off of our roof. Cause it is like, we didn't throw it. When he pushed, he pushed, he pushed it off. We don't have balls up there. There you go. You're fine. But she's a puppy still and I'm a new dog on her. So now that I think about this, I go, yeah, I've definitely seen her walk up to the edge close enough that I've screamed at her. Yeah. And I've been like, you say, don't, yeah, you stay away and now she stays away, but it is occurring to me. As you say, that's not an adequate level of just a fence, little fence. She's less likely to hop offense. I'm so sorry I've like literally sending you out of here with so many new fears. Yeah, I'm so fucked. I'm so sorry. This is just the way my brain thinks. I catastrophize everything. No, but this one will kind of all of them you've been right on. So I don't know if I might be under catastrophizing things. I may lack a level of anxiety. I should have. No, no, please don't don't know. It's an unhealthy world to live in anxiously because you want to know what my first thought. When I heard the story, I go, what's in those gnomes? Is there a microphone in those gnomes? Is he spying on all the neighbors? Is that why every neighbor gets a gnome and he's so adamant, put it on your front porch? He totally could be, but it's like, I know, but that's, I don't think Mr. Thomas is miking up the gnomes. I think it's just like, neighbor shit is so weird and it's political. Yeah, because people, they're, and this isn't where their heads should go in my opinion. Yeah. The first thought when you have any kind of issue with a neighbor isn't just, are we having an issue? It's, and then it's forever next to this person. It's like a marriage you didn't sign up for. And so people get extra worried because it's, it contains all this heightened emotion of forever. Yeah. When in reality, a lot of things are forever and relationships can be repaired. As can be, you know, I've been watching this documentary neighbors, I was going to bring it up. It's amazing. It's so good. Do you see the judge Judy one? About the cast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. It's on real. You guys neighbors on HBO. Check it out. Check it out. It's so funny and palatable and crazy and just. It's like kind of a weird mix to me between like, documentary and reality, because it's got kind of a reality element, but it's fundamentally shot like a documentary. Oh, good. It's great. But my view is like, things can be fixed and, and like, if, if this guy starts to make your life hell or like, if you're anxious, walking out your house, could you like, fuck him to run into this fucking guy. Then I'm bet you could still like, take the home, put it out somewhere where he wants it and be like, Hey, you know, I thought about it and like, it was really considerate of you to get us a gnome and I'm sorry for putting it in the shed. Like, that was really, you could just say something you don't believe. Just tell this old man what he wants to hear if you want or if you want or you can just be, but you're not the asshole. No, not the asshole at all. And like, I think in some cases, I do like placating people. There's a story I have saved. And it's this person who's like me and my, you know, X, we're getting divorced and he's making me sign a stipulation that he'll only agree to the divorce if I change my last name. And I'm like, what, like, we're just li, I just say, like, don't put it in the contract. Yeah. Because then if you sign it, but just say, yeah, okay, I'm, I'm for sure. I'll change it. Of course, I'll change. You don't have to change it. Yeah. I'm like, people, people probably like lines bad. I'm like, but in certain cases with certain people, it's just kind of the easiest way forward. And if it's a lie, that's like, I don't know, doesn't hurt anyone. Yeah. Or even, you know, I'm probably down. Like, you know, non-committal. Yeah. Yeah. I'll get to it. Because you don't know how you'll feel. Maybe you'll want to change your name later. Yeah. I won't. But it's like, just like the non-committal. Yeah. Just be non-committal. Yeah. That's a happy medium for everyone. Top comment on this one. I love that the other gnomes have been disappearing once they saw you take a stand. The idea that this gnom guy has been bullying the whole neighborhood with gnomes for years, and they were just waiting for a hero to come along to free them from the gnomes is so funny. Not the asshole. Amazing. You're great. Not the asshole. We do get an update. Hmm. Well, for the input, I gave the gnome a new home at my local secondhand shop this morning. Oh. Oh, shit. You've raised the stakes. So the people asking about the roof color, yeah, it's a heat absorption thing. And do the people worrying about me being ostracized from the community? It's literally just Mr. Thomas that I have an issue with. The rest is friendly towards me. Even Mrs. Thomas smiled back at me last night when I got home from work while Mr. Thomas ignored me. So I think I'll be fine. Yeah. The biggest thing is like, you don't seem anxious about it. So if it's not ruining your life, then it's totally fine. I honestly wish I had this level of confidence. Yeah. Me too. I'd be anxious. I'd be like, I would have put it out. I would have folded. Me too. I'm a bit of a people pleaser, and I would have definitely put that out. I respect her for not. But yeah, I agree. I would have just done it. Yeah. No update. I mean, for beyond that, I mean, he's only 65. Oh, really? 65-ish. I don't know. It's just like people that-- You were so optimistic a second ago, don't wish death upon him. I don't know. I don't wish death upon him. I'm just saying it. Don't do that. Once you get to the phase of your life where you're like hoarding gnomes, it feels like death is not far. Do not hoard anything? No, I don't think. You don't have any yogurt collections? No. That was a big story. This guy had a yogurt collection. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Do you have anything? Vintage furniture. I unfortunately collect vintage furniture with my dad, and we ran out of space, so we had to rent a airplane hanger, and now that's full, and so now I have to stay off Facebook marketplace. Whoa. It's a problem. That's really cool, though. Do you-- I've been thought of selling it? Yeah, I am. But we have to refinish it. Whoa. Hit me up. I love that shit. I'll show you. I'll show you some stuff. Fix some '70s. It's '60s, '70s. Yeah. It's from this one designer that was like in LA, and it's really cool stuff. Oh, I love that. I love like shit that looks like it's built in. Yeah. Oh. Seats within larger wood things. Yeah. I'll show you the design of my house, because we did like a '70s inspired LA type of vibe, but you can't go all the way in New York because it's New York. Yeah. You just can't have too much wood inside New York because then you look outside and it's concrete. It's all wrong. Interesting. But we did kind of that, and you might be interested. I'm excited to see it. Yeah. Lucas, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people find you? You're on tour. You have a podcast with your mom. Oh, yeah. So I'm dropping. It's going to be a limited series. If you like to my advice vibes, it's going to be an advice podcast, not dissimilar from this format, but with listener advice questions. But done by myself and my mother, and we're going to do a limited three to four episodes series in the three to four weeks leading up to Mother's Day, so it'll be there put on YouTube and then never again. Oh, it's right around the corner too. Yeah, it's not going to be recurring. It's just going to be those few episodes. And then besides that, I'm a stand-up comic. Check me out. LucasAlnick.com is all of my tour dates. And LucasAlnick on Instagram and TikTok, and then I'm on YouTube. Forget about what my YouTube handle is, but just look up LucasAlnick. It will all be tagged in the description, super easy for you guys to find and check out a show. I need to come to a show and witness all of you in person because you're inquisitiveness. I don't know. You're just so inquisitive with people. And the way you can handle such awkward situations and like sit in it and yet comfortably ask questions and move through it while being funny is just like such an art and a gift. So you guys definitely want to check out a show. You're doing like Netflix as a joke. So much cool stuff. So be sure to look at Lucas's links in the description and other than that. Until next time guys. Bye. Meet new grippy setting mist from Maybelline New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness. No stickiness. No residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. I knew grippy setting mist from Maybelline New York. Maybe it's Maybelline.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. The hosts emphasize that treats should be surprising and irregular, not routine, to maintain their value and joy.
  2. A relaxed, comfortable, and mindful approach to work and life—like working from bed or using a standing desk—can improve well-being and reduce physical strain.
  3. A bizarre encounter with a free-roaming kangaroo at a vintage store in Oklahoma leads to a visit to an exotic animal ranch, where the hosts are struck by the ranch’s ethical practices and the deep connection between a quiet local man and the animals.

Summary:

The conversation blends humor and insight, exploring the value of surprise in daily life, such as treating every day as a treat. Hosts Morgan and Lucas discuss personal routines, like working from bed or improving posture, highlighting the importance of self-care and being present. A key anecdote involves a spontaneous encounter with a kangaroo in a vintage store in Oklahoma, which leads to a visit to an exotic animal ranch.

The hosts are impressed by the ranch’s ethical standards and animal care, especially from a man who forms a deep, quiet bond with the animals. This experience is contrasted with other stories, like a man refusing to eat old spaghetti, sparking debate about trust, boundaries, and food safety. Another story involves a party where a guest drinks eight beers despite a rule of six, leading to a discussion on fairness, party norms, and personal responsibility.

The final story addresses a first-time sexual encounter where a woman feels emotionally disconnected due to lack of attention and communication, prompting advice on how to set boundaries with kindness and clarity. The group concludes by emphasizing emotional awareness, the importance of mutual respect, and the value of simple, honest communication in relationships. These stories collectively reflect on personal boundaries, emotional intelligence, and the significance of mindful living.

FAQs

Yes, it's common to feel uncomfortable when someone shows signs of emotional distance after intimacy. If the behavior lacks eye contact, conversation, or warmth, it can feel inconsiderate, especially if you're looking for a deeper connection.

It's often best to send a polite, clear message like 'I really enjoyed getting to know you, but I'm not looking for a relationship right now.' This maintains respect and prevents the person from feeling attacked or misunderstood.

Yes, if someone consistently shows emotional distance and doesn't engage in meaningful interaction, it's a sign they may not be looking for a committed or connected relationship. It's valid to step back and protect your emotional well-being.

If they're busy or tired, it's reasonable, but if this pattern continues without effort to connect, it may indicate a lack of interest in building intimacy. A lack of follow-up or emotional engagement is a red flag.

Yes, especially if it happens repeatedly and is combined with no attempts to engage, it can feel like a lack of respect or emotional availability, which may be concerning for someone seeking connection.

Absolutely. Setting clear emotional boundaries is healthy, especially if you've been in a long time without casual sex. It helps protect your emotional well-being and ensures you're not entering relationships with unmet expectations.

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