Episode 68
A Beer for Dad, Cards for Grandma
For my first Día de Muertos in Mexico City, Este helps me make an ofrenda. I put out a beer for my dad and a deck of cards for my grandmother. There’s also a parade, a giant skeleton and lots of tourists wearing terrifying makeup. Also, I drank the beer. Sorry, Dad.
The following weekend, I sat sweating in a temazcal in Tepoztlán screaming "forgive me".
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Transcript
Very fucking nice
Speaker:What episode am I even on?
Speaker:68. Holy shit.
Speaker:All right
Speaker:This is episode 68 of onefjef
Speaker:Mis amigos.
Speaker:Hola de nuevo.
Speaker:¿Cómo estás?
Speaker:¿Bien?
Speaker:Bien.
Speaker:It's Jef Taylor here with onefjef the podcast.
Speaker:Who else would it be, right?
Speaker:Who were you expecting?
Speaker:I'm on my terrace
Speaker:And it is Thursday evening.
Speaker:No, it's Wednesday evening.
Speaker:And I don't know why, but I've put off this episode a long
Speaker:time, like, uh, uh, recording it.
Speaker:I don't, I don't know why.
Speaker:Maybe it's because I feel like I have a lot to say, and I just haven't
Speaker:really felt like going into all of it.
Speaker:But now it's Wednesday night and I gotta get this thing out,
Speaker:because consistency is the key.
Speaker:Isn't that right, my friends?
Speaker:Anyway, apologize or not for the ambient noise that you're
Speaker:gonna hear in the background.
Speaker:Also, I think that I'm just gonna let this one go out unedited.
Speaker:I mean, maybe an edit or two if I say something really untoward or went
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Speaker:On with the show.
Speaker:Dia de Muertos.
Speaker:For a long time, I thought it was Dia de los Muertos.
Speaker:Apparently that's not correct.
Speaker:It's Dia de Muertos.
Speaker:So learning things, always learning.
Speaker:Dia de Muertos was two weekends ago.
Speaker:Lots has happened since then, but I said that I would talk
Speaker:about it on this episode.
Speaker:So here we are.
Speaker:Here I am talking about it.
Speaker:It was wild.
Speaker:It was both the same and different than I imagined it would be.
Speaker:What did we do?
Speaker:The first, I think we went to a parade.
Speaker:I forget what night that was.
Speaker:There was a big parade.
Speaker:Well, at first the city fills up with these, what are they?
Speaker:They're orange flowers.
Speaker:It's on the tip of my, magnolias, Mexican magnolias, I think it is.
Speaker:Is that right?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Carnations?
Speaker:No, that's a pink one.
Speaker:I don't remember the name of the flower.
Speaker:I think it's magnolias.
Speaker:It'll come to me at the wrong time.
Speaker:Anyway, this is the official flower of Dia de Muertos and they're everywhere.
Speaker:It's very beautiful.
Speaker:Like these yellow, orange flowers everywhere.
Speaker:Very pretty.
Speaker:First off, I suppose I should just do a quick recap of what Dia de Muertos is
Speaker:about, what the gist of this holiday is.
Speaker:It's a far bigger holiday than I imagined it was going to be.
Speaker:I didn't realize what a big deal this is in Mexico.
Speaker:It's a big deal.
Speaker:People get two days off of work.
Speaker:Two days off, that's a big holiday.
Speaker:I think it's probably second only to Christmas, but maybe it beats Christmas.
Speaker:Although you can't, you don't beat Christmas.
Speaker:I don't care who you are.
Speaker:So no.
Speaker:But it's really a beautiful idea for a holiday, and it's basically you are
Speaker:remembering the people that have passed, the people that were in your life and are
Speaker:no longer in your life because they are, have moved on to wherever we go, you know.
Speaker:So you make, people, you know, make these ofrendas they're called, which is
Speaker:just like a little, how do you call it?
Speaker:Like a little s- I don't know, setting stage little thing in your
Speaker:house that you get things that they liked to eat or do or whatever.
Speaker:You give them some food, you get them a glass of water because the
Speaker:idea is that you light these candles.
Speaker:You leave this all night, these candles all night, and then these loved ones
Speaker:come back, uh, I guess at night while you're asleep because, you know, I
Speaker:don't think you interact with them.
Speaker:But they come back and, you know, they need the water because they've gone
Speaker:through a long journey through the, you know, from dead to alive or I don't know.
Speaker:So there's clearly I shouldn't be even talking about Dia de Muertos
Speaker:because I clearly don't really have a good understanding of it.
Speaker:But let's, let's like zoom back out a little bit.
Speaker:It's just about remembering people who are dead.
Speaker:That's all.
Speaker:That's all.
Speaker:And, and that it's a really beautiful thing because a lot of cultures, I mean,
Speaker:I would say most don't spend a lot of time thinking about the people who are gone
Speaker:But here in Mexico, they spend, you know, three, four, five days
Speaker:thinking about them and celebrating them and talking about them.
Speaker:So as such, Estee, bless her heart, wanted to help me make an ofrenda of my own.
Speaker:And so I did.
Speaker:We went to the market and bought some of the flowers.
Speaker:I still can't think of the name.
Speaker:Anyway, the yellow flowers, the orange flowers.
Speaker:And bought these, I forget, the papel something.
Speaker:It's like this thin cut paper.
Speaker:You've seen this in Mexico, these paper cut out.
Speaker:Like it's origami-ish, but it's really thin tissue paper.
Speaker:They do all sorts of them.
Speaker:Mine are like skulls.
Speaker:A lot of death imagery around Dia de los Muertos, which is hard to
Speaker:It was difficult for me all weekend to understand it because it really is a weird
Speaker:contrast because it's a celebration, but it's also like death, death, death, right?
Speaker:But it's like, yay, death, right?
Speaker:Anyway, so those paper things.
Speaker:Again, apologize for the ambient noise here.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Really getting the vibe here of Mexico City.
Speaker:Noisy, noisy city.
Speaker:Jesus, so noisy.
Speaker:Speaking of noisy, um, I don't know if I mentioned all the apartment issues,
Speaker:like with the noise that I've had.
Speaker:I do love this apartment, but boy, there's been some noise issues, some
Speaker:construction issues and so forth.
Speaker:And now just starting this week, um, they are redoing the entire,
Speaker:uh, stairwell and hallways.
Speaker:So I-- it was a Monday morning, I think.
Speaker:I got up in like 9:00 in the morning, suddenly heard this insane banging,
Speaker:like they were banging right on my wall.
Speaker:And I hadn't been notified about this at all.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah, turns out they are doing that all week.
Speaker:So it's been noisy, but you know, noise-canceling
Speaker:headphones are very effective.
Speaker:Not as effective as you'd like them to be, but more effective than nothing.
Speaker:Am I right?
Speaker:I am right.
Speaker:Anyway, we're at the market.
Speaker:We get the papel, the thin papel with the cutouts in it.
Speaker:Mid different colors, of course.
Speaker:We got the flowers.
Speaker:What else do we get?
Speaker:Oh, you get these, uh, these skulls that are, like, decorated.
Speaker:They're about… You know, there's different sizes.
Speaker:The ones I got were about the s- half the size of my hand, I guess.
Speaker:And they're these skulls made out of sugar, so they're, like, solid, and
Speaker:they've got some decoration on them.
Speaker:So you get those.
Speaker:Apparently, that's part of the thing.
Speaker:Some of them are made of chocolate, apparently.
Speaker:Sorry, I need more water
Speaker:So I got two of the skulls 'cause I was doing, you know, one ofrenda for my father
Speaker:and one ofrenda for my grandmother, right?
Speaker:So I got two of the skulls, and, uh, I think that was it.
Speaker:And then we went to this Japanese restaurant that actually we were going
Speaker:to go to on our first date, but we didn't
Speaker:Because they didn't serve alcohol.
Speaker:I think that was why.
Speaker:We're not alcoholics, but you know what I mean, it's our first date.
Speaker:Blah.
Speaker:Anyway, we went to this place and, uh, boy, we were hungry
Speaker:and they really made us wait.
Speaker:We waited, um, and I'm not a patient person, as I've mentioned many times.
Speaker:And Mexico City, yeah, generally in Mexico it's slower than things
Speaker:are, but really not crazy slow.
Speaker:Like it's, you know
Speaker:But sometimes it's very slow.
Speaker:In this Japanese restaurant, it was very slow.
Speaker:We thought they'd forgotten about us, but they had not.
Speaker:But it's very frustrating when you're hungry, very hungry, and you're very
Speaker:excited about the food, and you're watching the food come out of the kitchen,
Speaker:and it's going to everybody but you.
Speaker:And you're like, you know, me and Este are like, "Did they-- That person
Speaker:got here after us. Did they order after us?" Like, you're indignant,
Speaker:or you get indignant about it.
Speaker:But then the food came, and mine wasn't as good as I was hoping,
Speaker:which was a disappointment, but the first few bites were good.
Speaker:Este really liked hers.
Speaker:Anyway, so then we made these ofrendas.
Speaker:Uh, I got a can of beer for my father.
Speaker:He enjoyed beer.
Speaker:I got a deck of playing cards for my grandmother, who very much enjoyed
Speaker:playing cards, and put them out there.
Speaker:Um, and the water and everything, and got pictures of them printed out at Kinko's.
Speaker:Not Kinko's, it's, uh, OfficeMax.
Speaker:Getting specific, very specific here, onefjef the podcast.
Speaker:Um, and yeah, it was lovely.
Speaker:It made me happy, I'll be honest.
Speaker:And, and I wanna do it again every year now because I think it's a
Speaker:beautiful thing to sit and think about the people that you've lost, so.
Speaker:So thanks, Este, for getting me to… not getting me to,
Speaker:or helping me make an ofrenda.
Speaker:Although I wouldn't have made one had it not been for you, so there you go
Speaker:Another thing I wouldn't have done if it wasn't for Este, and I'm going on
Speaker:a tangent here and I apologize, but last weekend we went to, uh, Tepoztlán,
Speaker:which is a town, um, I think it's south of Mexico City, but just south, like
Speaker:right on the border of Mexico City.
Speaker:And, uh, it's in another state, M-Morelos or something.
Speaker:I, I don't remember.
Speaker:But it was an hour and a half bus ride.
Speaker:Very pretty little town.
Speaker:Charming little, little town.
Speaker:We just went there for the weekend.
Speaker:A lot of people have vacation homes there, apparently.
Speaker:Um, very quaint.
Speaker:Very noisy though as well, which perhaps I'll talk about that later.
Speaker:But the thing that Este got me to do, we did this thing called a temesc- temescal,
Speaker:which is essentially a Mexican sweat lodge scenario, like a, um, a sweat
Speaker:tent I think is the equivalent in the United States with Native Americans.
Speaker:There's like Native American sweat tents.
Speaker:This was a sweat lodge, I guess, but lodge isn't the right word
Speaker:you know, I knew about these and I wasn't not interested in trying it,
Speaker:but I was also, you know, a little-- I would not have done it on my own.
Speaker:But Este wanted to do it.
Speaker:She did it when she was younger, so she wanted to do it.
Speaker:So we go to this place, just the two of us, right?
Speaker:We got our own whatever, igloo or hut, whatever you call it.
Speaker:And there's this, you know, this guy and you, you, you wear a bathing suit,
Speaker:although I didn't bring a bathing suit, so I was just wearing like gym
Speaker:shorts and underwear underneath, which wasn't great later, but live and learn.
Speaker:Again, sorry about the ambient noise.
Speaker:I think I'll call this episode Ambient Noise Very on the nose.
Speaker:Anyway, when we get there, he's like, you can-- They-they-- It's
Speaker:like in somebody's backyard kind of, but they have this… Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Here, they're gonna go by here.
Speaker:Go get 'em.
Speaker:Go get 'em.
Speaker:To this backyard of some sort.
Speaker:I don't know what.
Speaker:It was maybe a bed, bed and breakfast that had this in the backyard.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But it was in some backyard, and, uh, it was quite nice.
Speaker:And he's heating it up while-- when we get there.
Speaker:It's this loud noise.
Speaker:A lot of these use heated stones to heat the things up, these, these, these
Speaker:tent-- these, um, hu-huts up, I guess.
Speaker:But this guy had some sort of a, a device that heated it up,
Speaker:which plays a factor later.
Speaker:So, you know, we get into our bathing suits, or I get into my
Speaker:underwear, and she had a bathing suit.
Speaker:And, um, I go in first.
Speaker:We do some chanting outside, you know, it's a spiritual thing.
Speaker:We do some chanting outside, and he blows this, uh… I mean,
Speaker:this was kind of weird, though.
Speaker:He, he blows like a, like a seashell thing each direction.
Speaker:And I'm into spirituality, but it was a little strange to be in this, like
Speaker:a, like a bed and breakfast backyard with a guy blowing a horn right
Speaker:next to your face out of a shell.
Speaker:But I try to lean into these things, right?
Speaker:You gotta just… So then I don't speak… This is an important factor.
Speaker:I don't-- I speak Spanish okay.
Speaker:Like I, I'm getting better, right?
Speaker:But, like, I'm not that good, and this was all in Spanish.
Speaker:So a lot of it, I just didn't know what was going on.
Speaker:So then after we do the, the horn, uh, Este is like, "Okay." He says something.
Speaker:The, the, the shaman guy says something to me, and she's like, Este is like,
Speaker:"Okay, he-- you have to crawl into the, into the pla-- into the hut."
Speaker:So I'm like, "Okay." So I get on my hands and knees, and I crawl into
Speaker:the hut through this little doorway.
Speaker:It's very dark in there, and you can feel the heat just coming out of the doorway.
Speaker:Like, you can… It's intense.
Speaker:And then I get in there, and there's like a, there's like a center area
Speaker:with a, like a pool of water, and then there's a, on the outside,
Speaker:there was like a, like a bench.
Speaker:But then there was also a fl- a floor.
Speaker:Obviously, there's a floor.
Speaker:You're standing on it.
Speaker:So I go in, and I didn't know what to do, but apparently, I was
Speaker:supposed to go around the thing, like in a ceremonial way, and then
Speaker:s- then sit down on the floor.
Speaker:But I kinda just kept going, and he's just like, you know, "Keep go- go, go…"
Speaker:He's not saying it, and he, "Va," you know, whatever.
Speaker:And so eventually, I figure out I'm supposed to keep going around, and
Speaker:then I just sit on the bench 'cause I didn't know not to sit on the bench.
Speaker:And wow, um, it was very, very hot.
Speaker:Um, I have never felt like that level of heat, uh, in my life, in my life.
Speaker:And I was sitting on the bench, which was really the problem as it
Speaker:turns out, 'cause, you know, heat rises, so the higher you are in these
Speaker:huts, the, the much hotter it is.
Speaker:It, it was hot.
Speaker:It was hot.
Speaker:And I was in there for about five or 10 minutes, and I th- I'm thinking
Speaker:to myself, "Can I sit in here for an hour?" It was an hour long, the,
Speaker:the thing that we'd signed up for.
Speaker:And I'm thinking, "Can I sit here for an hour?" And after about
Speaker:10 seconds, I'm like, "I gotta get out of here." I just left.
Speaker:And I'm like, "I can't. I don't think I can do that. I'm out of
Speaker:it." I'm like, I, I, you know.
Speaker:And so we sat down, and the shaman guy was very nice about it, and he's
Speaker:like, well, maybe if I left… He was like, "You should s-" Number
Speaker:one, he was-- This is all translated.
Speaker:"First, you should sit on the floor 'cause it's much cooler down there, so it'd be a
Speaker:lot easier for you if you're on the floor.
Speaker:Also, we can leave the, the, the door, the flap door open a little bit
Speaker:just so some air gets in." And I'm thinking, "Okay, I can do this," right?
Speaker:Like, I'm here.
Speaker:We spent the money.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:So I go back in, and I sit on the floor, and it's okay.
Speaker:It's hot.
Speaker:Don't get me wrong.
Speaker:It's hot.
Speaker:I've been in saunas.
Speaker:It-- This, this is hot.
Speaker:And we-- And I sit on the floor, and then Este comes in and does the, you
Speaker:know, crawling around on the floor thing that I was supposed to do.
Speaker:And, um, and then the shaman comes in and closes the vent thing most of the
Speaker:way, not all the way, whatever, halfway.
Speaker:And then we're in there, and it's hot.
Speaker:You know, you're really, um
Speaker:Y- y- you really become pretty…
Speaker:I- like I understand part of it I think is just it's like a meditative thing because
Speaker:you can't not think about how hot it is.
Speaker:Your mind really can't wander all that much because you're just-- I don't know
Speaker:if it's a survival thing or if it's just like it's hot and I've gotta really focus
Speaker:on not like you're taking deep breaths, at least I was, just to like keep…
Speaker:Yeah, it's hot.
Speaker:And, uh, and so then the, the, the shaman is like saying things, and then he's
Speaker:like, you know, "We have to s- we're doing chants." He's r- repeating after
Speaker:him, and I am just gue- guessing some of the words because I don't, again, spe-
Speaker:know Spanish, so I'm just kinda guessing.
Speaker:A lot of them I understood.
Speaker:And as we go on, um, w- you know, he's getting louder, and we're making,
Speaker:you know, the tribal, like I forget we were doing huh-huh or something.
Speaker:Um, a lot of interesting things.
Speaker:And it doesn't seem weird at all because it's already weird you're
Speaker:in a hut in Taposlan, Mexico, in probably 200 degrees at least.
Speaker:I mean, it's hot.
Speaker:It's real hot, and you're just wearing a bathing suit, and you're pouring sweat.
Speaker:You're pouring sweat
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I've done a lot of hot yoga, but this, my friends,
Speaker:this was, this was no hot yoga.
Speaker:Anyway, so after about 20 minutes or so, like, I don't
Speaker:know how much time has gone by.
Speaker:You lose track of time.
Speaker:And then he starts he- like, threw water at us, like, it, uh,
Speaker:cold water, and it cools us down significantly and it's like, "Oh, wow."
Speaker:And I thought, "Oh, it's over." Right?
Speaker:Uh, I mean, it was great, but it was over.
Speaker:I wasn't sad or happy.
Speaker:But then I come to learn after about five minutes, like, he starts dumping
Speaker:buckets of water on our head, which is very refreshing for a while, and then it
Speaker:started to get cold because, you know, the-- it's cold, cold water, cold water.
Speaker:So then I come to understand, 'cause I don't speak Spanish, again,
Speaker:so there's a lot of being, being said that I am not understanding.
Speaker:Este's translating some of it, but there's only so much you can do.
Speaker:And part of me is like, "Oh, it's kinda fun to be in the dark." Although… Now
Speaker:that I think about it, when I was in Japan years ago, uh, we went to this meditation
Speaker:thing, this meditation training thing.
Speaker:It's up in the mountains outside of, like, Gifu.
Speaker:And I had no idea what I was getting into.
Speaker:Um, and I didn't, of course, speak Japanese really at all.
Speaker:You know, arigato gozaimasu, but that's all I got.
Speaker:So we go to this, um, and it's, it turns out it's this zazen meditation,
Speaker:which is where they, like, the, the, the meditation instructor, like, beats
Speaker:you with a stick, like this paddle.
Speaker:And we didn't know why.
Speaker:We didn't know anything about it at all.
Speaker:Like, I learned it was zazen afterwards 'cause I looked it up.
Speaker:And so we just go in there thinking it's just a regular kind of meditation
Speaker:thing, and I had never meditated before really, so I'm just like, "Oh, this
Speaker:is interesting." So we go in there, and we come to understand that we
Speaker:have to just kneel on these things, and there's other monks in there that
Speaker:are also meditating, so we're all in this big room, these wooden floors.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:and the first meditation session begins, and it's like a bell or something.
Speaker:And we all have our-- I, you know, I have my eyes closed.
Speaker:You know, I'm meditating as far as I know.
Speaker:I don't know really what meditation is at the time, but I'm, you know,
Speaker:doing what I, doing what I understand.
Speaker:Keeping my eyes closed is the main thing.
Speaker:And you slowly start hearing this guy, like, I assume the leader,
Speaker:walking around, like, between the people, like, down the rows, 'cause
Speaker:there's about 20, 30 people in there.
Speaker:There's about four of us who were, like, just the white people visiting,
Speaker:and then all the rest were monks.
Speaker:And he's walking around, and you can hear 'cause the s- the s- the floorboards
Speaker:are just very squeaky, so it's aah, aah.
Speaker:And it's silent beyond that.
Speaker:And then out of nowhere, you just hear this loud thwack And it's
Speaker:like he, it's, he hit somebody.
Speaker:He, he hit somebody and we had no idea who it was.
Speaker:Like, how the fuck do I know?
Speaker:Uh, it might be raining now.
Speaker:Anyway, he hit somebody.
Speaker:He hit somebody.
Speaker:And it was terrifying.
Speaker:We had no idea why people were being beaten.
Speaker:Um, I just was trying to meditate as best I could 'cause I assumed that it
Speaker:was because people weren't meditating right that people were getting beaten.
Speaker:So I meditated as good I could, and then there was a break, and then
Speaker:there's another session where people like, you just hear the whack, whack,
Speaker:and I have no idea who's getting hit.
Speaker:Come to find out at the end that they were-- you had to
Speaker:be re- you had to request.
Speaker:If you wanted to be beaten, you had to say, "You can go ahead and beat me."
Speaker:But they weren't just beating everybody.
Speaker:They were only beating people who had asked for it
Speaker:Anyway, there's another round of the heat hut, the temazcal.
Speaker:And so we do another 15, 20 minutes, very dark, but it's getting more intense.
Speaker:It's getting hotter in there.
Speaker:The temperature is going up.
Speaker:I start to sit on the bench for a bit because it really, once you get
Speaker:used to it, you want it to be hot.
Speaker:It's very strange.
Speaker:Uh-oh, what did I drop?
Speaker:Don't worry, it was my phone.
Speaker:Yeah, the second round was even more intense because then the chanting,
Speaker:it turns into just shouting.
Speaker:And at a certain point, I don't know if it was the second or third round,
Speaker:you know, it's 200 degrees in there.
Speaker:You're pouring sweat.
Speaker:You're almost like you're, you get into this weird, slippery, weird, hazy.
Speaker:It's, it's, it's like drugs a little bit.
Speaker:Not all drugs, but some drugs, if that makes sense.
Speaker:Um
Speaker:Uh, but eventually, you know, I know the s- little Spanish that
Speaker:I know, we're, like, shouting, like, "I forgive you, Mother.
Speaker:I forgive you, Father.
Speaker:I forgive you, my friends.
Speaker:I forgive you, my m- sister.
Speaker:I forgive you, my c-…" Like, it's all this, like,
Speaker:screaming, like, "I forgive you."
Speaker:And then it's like, "Forgive me." It's this very cleansing.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:It-- 'Cause you're in this very, like, almost black, like, hut,
Speaker:you know, 200 degrees or whatever, and you're just screaming into
Speaker:the dark with this Mexican shaman.
Speaker:So I don't know.
Speaker:It was a unique experience.
Speaker:It was a unique experience, and I'm glad I did it.
Speaker:I would not say… As-- After we got out, there were three rounds
Speaker:of the whole thing, and the last one was, like, ridiculously hot.
Speaker:He's just-- He'd got this, um… It's water, so he just dumps the water onto
Speaker:this heating element and just creates all the steam, and then it, like,
Speaker:burns your throat when you inhale.
Speaker:Like, it's that hot.
Speaker:It's wild.
Speaker:Um, a little lightheaded, I would say.
Speaker:That's a question you're probably asking yourself: "Did you get
Speaker:lightheaded?" Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:yeah, so after we're done, like, it's very refreshing and everything, and you get to,
Speaker:you know, cold shower afterwards and… And Este was like, "I wanna do it again."
Speaker:And I'm thinking, "Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take a break before I, before
Speaker:I hop back on that old horse again." I don't think I need to do a temazcal
Speaker:every week or even every month, really.
Speaker:I think it's probably a year, every y- year or two, I'd say.
Speaker:But Este, go to it.
Speaker:I'll cheer you on.
Speaker:Although I, I'd be worried about you if you were doing that every week.
Speaker:I'll be honest with you.
Speaker:I mean, people say it's just a sauna.
Speaker:No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Okay, I've been in a sauna.
Speaker:This is… This ain't, this ain't your mama's sauna or something like that.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Your-- This ain't your grandpa's sauna.
Speaker:I don't know if that works, and if it doesn't, it's okay, but I'm not
Speaker:editing it, so you be the judge.
Speaker:Did it work?
Speaker:Shoot me an email, onefjefpod@gmail.com.
Speaker:Anyway, Dia de Muertos We build the, uh, ofrendas.
Speaker:And, uh, then there was the big parade.
Speaker:It's a big parade that goes down Reforma, which is like the main
Speaker:street, to Centro, which is the, you know, the old-timey downtown area.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, I thought that this parade was, you know, an old thing
Speaker:that had been going on for years.
Speaker:But apparently it's only been going on for like 11 years, and the only reason
Speaker:that it exists is because there was a James Bond movie filmed here 11 years
Speaker:ago, I guess, and there was a big parade as part of the filming of the thing.
Speaker:And people liked it, so they just decided to have the parade every year.
Speaker:So it makes it a little less, um, authentic, I think is the
Speaker:word that would come to mind.
Speaker:But not that the whole thing, I mean, the entire, uh, Dia de Muertos, the
Speaker:whole thing is obviously authentic.
Speaker:But, like, the parade thing, it just seems a little strange.
Speaker:Um, anyway, we went to the parade.
Speaker:It was incredibly crowded, and really we expected it to be.
Speaker:But it wasn't… It wa- You know, we saw a little bit of it.
Speaker:I'm not a big parade person, as you could probably guess.
Speaker:So, you know, I wanted to see some stuff.
Speaker:But m- more interesting was, like, the amount of people.
Speaker:'Cause everybody, not everybody, like, I'd say a quarter of the
Speaker:people get their face painted.
Speaker:You know, you've seen it in the pictures and the videos of the Dia de Muertos.
Speaker:You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker:In the movie, the Pixar movie.
Speaker:You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker:I haven't seen the Pixar movie, so I don't know what I'm talking about.
Speaker:Anyway, a lot of people get their faces painted because there's all
Speaker:these face painters everywhere.
Speaker:Very professional.
Speaker:Like, it's amazing the art they do on these, on people's faces.
Speaker:And also terrifying.
Speaker:Like, it's, again, a very strange vibe because there's also people
Speaker:wearing costumes for, like, Halloween.
Speaker:And then there's people who have this terrifying face paint on, but
Speaker:it's not supposed to be terrifying.
Speaker:But it is terrifying.
Speaker:And then the parade is full of skeletons.
Speaker:Like, you know, giant skeletons.
Speaker:So, I mean, it's a strange… You know, if I was Mexican and I'd grown
Speaker:up with this, it'd be a different game.
Speaker:But I am not a Mexican, and I… You know, it's a unique experience.
Speaker:It's a unique experience.
Speaker:I will say that the number of tourists that were in town for it
Speaker:made it a little less, um… It, it, it, it, it harshed my vibe.
Speaker:Is that the phra- the phrase?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Um, because there were so many tourists in town.
Speaker:I don't think I've ever seen that many tourists in Mexico City.
Speaker:Like, it was a lot.
Speaker:A lot of white people.
Speaker:I'm a white person.
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:But a lot of white tourists.
Speaker:And it makes it also feel less authentic, right?
Speaker:'Cause it becomes a tourist thing.
Speaker:I could dig into this real deep, but I'm not gonna.
Speaker:I'm gonna spare you.
Speaker:So the parade, meh, fine.
Speaker:You walk down to, uh, the park there, the, um, Chapultepec,
Speaker:the Bosque de Chapultepec, Chapultepec Forest, as they say.
Speaker:And, uh, there's some cool, like, light-ups.
Speaker:Like, again, no skulls or whatever, but, like, this lit-up entrance.
Speaker:It was cool.
Speaker:It was neat.
Speaker:It was neat.
Speaker:Um, and then, oh, I forgot to talk about the Meow Festival we stumbled into.
Speaker:So when we got the… We went to the market to get the stuff for the ofrendas.
Speaker:Uh, it was in my- Old neighborhood in Roma Sur.
Speaker:So we s- just wandered around.
Speaker:I showed Este where I used to live, and we went to, um, uh, Huerta Roma Verde,
Speaker:which I'm pretty sure I've talked about.
Speaker:It was this, it's this cool, like, eco park near my, um, old apartment.
Speaker:There's, like, fairs there every weekend, and boy, did we luck out this time.
Speaker:The carnival, or the-- It was not a carnival.
Speaker:It's a fair.
Speaker:What's the difference between a carnival and a fair?
Speaker:I think a fair often doesn't have rides.
Speaker:Carnival usually does.
Speaker:That's all I'm saying.
Speaker:Anyway, we wander into this 'cause, you know, who knows what it is.
Speaker:It's the Meow Festival, my friends.
Speaker:It's a festival de- dedicated simply to cats and more cats and even more cats.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah.
Speaker:What a magical festival, fair, whatever.
Speaker:Festival, that's what it is.
Speaker:It's a festival, not a fair.
Speaker:Cat fair?
Speaker:What are we talking about?
Speaker:Cat festival.
Speaker:Meow Festival.
Speaker:As, as a matter of fact-- Actually, I don't think it was meow.
Speaker:I think it was the Spanish onomatopoeia for meow.
Speaker:Is that the right word?
Speaker:Onomatopoeia?
Speaker:Is that meow, bark, or is that the wrong…
Speaker:I don't know, onefjefpod@gmail.com.
Speaker:Anyway, the Meow Festival, we didn't stay long.
Speaker:Um, but-- And we barely saw-- We saw, like, one cat, one
Speaker:live cat the whole time.
Speaker:The rest of it was just cats on T-shirts, cats on coasters, cats on pajamas.
Speaker:Um, I believe there were some, uh, Frida Kahlo pajamas, of course, which
Speaker:doesn't make sense, but it's kind of the way of, the way of the world here.
Speaker:Frida Kahlo pajamas.
Speaker:What would she think?
Speaker:What would Frida Kahlo think if she came back and she saw what they had
Speaker:turned her likeness into here in Mexico?
Speaker:That they had turned her into a basic, like a commodity,
Speaker:like a touristic commodity.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Anyway, meow, meow, the Meow Festival.
Speaker:Um, didn't buy anything at the Meow Festival.
Speaker:So
Speaker:it's been a while now.
Speaker:So that-- Anyway, what did we do next?
Speaker:We went to-- One of the days we went to UNAM, which is, like,
Speaker:the biggest university in Mexico.
Speaker:It's where Este went to school.
Speaker:Massive, one of the biggest schools in the world, universities.
Speaker:And what they do is this thing called mega ofrenda.
Speaker:And all of the departments at the school, or most of them, Film and Television,
Speaker:I'm talking to you, make an ofrenda, uh, about their department, like a giant one,
Speaker:like one that's, like, you know, um, like, as big as a car, like a, like a, like
Speaker:in a car parking space, that big, right?
Speaker:Some of them are even bigger.
Speaker:Huge.
Speaker:And they make-- They put them in this parking lot of the school.
Speaker:And, uh, and yeah, and they, they, they're about, they're-- Like, it's about the
Speaker:department, but it's also about people who they've lost in that department.
Speaker:It's pretty cool.
Speaker:I mean, they, they're creative.
Speaker:It was neat.
Speaker:Wandered around there for a while.
Speaker:Um, mega ofrendas.
Speaker:And then I think the best part of The most memorable part anyway of the entire
Speaker:weekend was I think it was on the Monday we went down to Centro, which we'd
Speaker:avoided doing because of the crowds.
Speaker:Because it really, you know, there's 20 million people in the city.
Speaker:I mean, it gets crowded
Speaker:So we decided we wanted to go down Centro because there was the, uh,
Speaker:the, the biggest Catrina, which is the Catrinas is like the, the skeletons
Speaker:dressed like a woman kind of thing.
Speaker:There's a whole story behind it, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go
Speaker:there 'cause I don't remember it all.
Speaker:Member it all.
Speaker:Remember it all.
Speaker:Anyway, the biggest Catrina ever was in Centro in Mexico City this year.
Speaker:It's been confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records, and so we wanted
Speaker:to see this mega, um, c- mega Catrina.
Speaker:Mega Catrina.
Speaker:So we took the subway down there, and the m- I think we
Speaker:took a Metro Bus then a subway.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:Doesn't matter.
Speaker:Not an important detail.
Speaker:We go there, and, uh, yeah, there's a lot of people.
Speaker:Lot of people.
Speaker:But it was great.
Speaker:Like, it wasn't so many that it was, um, horrible.
Speaker:You could walk.
Speaker:You know, you could breathe, and it was a great crowd.
Speaker:Like, everybody's… A lot of people are dressed up, and no, I was not dressed up,
Speaker:nor was Estee, but we have, we have now agreed we're gonna do it next year 'cause
Speaker:I kinda felt bad that I hadn't dressed up.
Speaker:I have a lucha libre mask that I got a month and a, a year and a half ago
Speaker:rather, but I, I did not wear it.
Speaker:I had all the intentions of wearing it, but I always forgot it, which
Speaker:is a shame 'cause I got the moves
Speaker:Anyway, um, a lot of people are in costumes.
Speaker:A- again, the makeup, um, really unique costumes, funny costumes,
Speaker:but a lot of just skeletons.
Speaker:There was this costume of this, like a massive costume of this, like, woman
Speaker:skeleton holding, like, a baby skeleton.
Speaker:Very strange stuff.
Speaker:Like, if the context is important, I, I, I agree.
Speaker:But it really is, um, it really is a confusing… Like, it's
Speaker:a weird, it's a weird holiday.
Speaker:Halloween's weird too, but Halloween isn't as focused on death
Speaker:and dying as Día de Muertos is.
Speaker:And I don't mean that in a bad or a good way.
Speaker:I'm not… It's not a value judgment.
Speaker:It's just the way it is.
Speaker:And as an American who's never experienced it, it's a unique,
Speaker:uh, it's a unique thing.
Speaker:'Cause you walk down to Centro, and then there's a big crowd of people, and I, I…
Speaker:Like this, this giant skeleton dressed as a w- like woman skeleton, I guess,
Speaker:with this, like a hat on and everything.
Speaker:You'd know it if you saw it.
Speaker:It's in that movie as well, I think, the, the Pixar movie.
Speaker:What's that called?
Speaker:It's one word.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Very authentic apparently to Mexican culture.
Speaker:I have to see that.
Speaker:Anyway, massive thing.
Speaker:Huge.
Speaker:I mean, I don't know, 10 stories.
Speaker:I, I, I… It's a big, it's a big thing.
Speaker:And it's strange that, you know, if you were coming, like stumbling into
Speaker:this culture from, I don't know, as a space alien or something, and you
Speaker:just came on this day and ended up in Mexico City, and you see all these
Speaker:people looking up at this giant, massive skeleton lit up, and I would be confused.
Speaker:I mean, there's a lot of things about just the world that I would
Speaker:be con- I mean, crosses everywhere.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You need to explain it.
Speaker:I need to explain it.
Speaker:Or you just look it up on the internet or ask AI about it, which is what I did
Speaker:Anyway, it was really fun.
Speaker:Um, it was a fun weekend.
Speaker:I didn't leave the candles lit overnight because I was afraid
Speaker:that my apartment would burn down.
Speaker:Um, but I hope that-- And I drank the beer that I left out for my dad because
Speaker:he didn't come and get it, so I drank it.
Speaker:Sorry, Dad
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:Let me look at my phone and see what else I've written down.
Speaker:Uh
Speaker:This is a big city.
Speaker:I realized this.
Speaker:I was taking a taxi down to meet Esti at UNAM to see the mega friendas.
Speaker:And it's about a 30-minute taxi ride, depending on the traffic.
Speaker:In this case, it was good.
Speaker:But like I have not been out and about outside of like it's embarrassing,
Speaker:but I don't spend a lot of time outside of like the main area where
Speaker:I'm at because I walk a lot, you know.
Speaker:But, you know, every time I do leave the main, like not the main, but, you
Speaker:know, Roma Norte, Condesa, et cetera, I'm all like, whoa, this is big.
Speaker:It's a big city.
Speaker:It just goes and goes and goes and goes and goes.
Speaker:And it's just it's kind of incredible.
Speaker:Large, large city.
Speaker:Also, they use different playing cards here.
Speaker:Yeah, it's not related to the population, I don't think.
Speaker:But yeah, I guess Spain uses the same deck.
Speaker:There's a certain different kind of deck of playing cards that some
Speaker:Spanish-speaking countries use.
Speaker:Not as much as they used to, obviously, because like poker and everything
Speaker:has become more standardized with the deck that, you know, whatever
Speaker:the deck is that we 52, I don't know.
Speaker:And it's not that different.
Speaker:There's queens and kings or whatever, but they're called something else
Speaker:But it's not the same numbers and stuff.
Speaker:So little trivia for you there
Speaker:Just let you think about that for a little bit.
Speaker:Listen, I don't have to tell you folks to light, to like, rate,
Speaker:subscribe, and review this podcast
Speaker:So that'll save some time
Speaker:So last weekend, yeah, we went to Tepoztlán and we
Speaker:sh- we got an Airbnb and, um
Speaker:Yeah, the first night, the Airbnb, you know, it was nice inside,
Speaker:but the first night… You know, I understand Mexico's loud.
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:I, believe me, I understand it
Speaker:But the Airbnb was right on like, it was not a main street,
Speaker:and there's no main street.
Speaker:So like dirt roads in this town and like honestly like it's all brick roads,
Speaker:but not bricks, it's just stone roads.
Speaker:I've never seen these kind of roads, like these polished stone roads,
Speaker:and it's very hard to walk on.
Speaker:Difficult to drive on too, I'd imagine.
Speaker:Anyway, the Airbnb
Speaker:I think we're the only ones in there.
Speaker:There was like six different Airbnbs.
Speaker:We're pretty sure we're the only people in there.
Speaker:It's not important to the story I'm about to tell, but just a little detail.
Speaker:Thought I might add some color.
Speaker:So, um, yes.
Speaker:We go to go to bed.
Speaker:We were gonna go to bed early on the Friday night 'cause we were… I don't
Speaker:know why we were going to bed early.
Speaker:We were tired.
Speaker:We might get up the next day early to go to this hike.
Speaker:I don't remember why.
Speaker:We went to bed early.
Speaker:Um, didn't make any difference because there was a, it's like a, there was a
Speaker:restaurant/party venue across the street.
Speaker:Mostly a party venue, and there was quite the to-do going on there that night.
Speaker:There was quite the, quite the sock hop.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:These, they were, uh, like it's literally like almost right across the street
Speaker:from the, our, our, our hotel room, and you couldn't close the windows 'cause
Speaker:there was no air conditioning in any part of Tapotlán because apparently,
Speaker:I guess the, uh, electricity system doesn't work with that voltage or
Speaker:something, or that num- I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I'm not an electrician, okay?
Speaker:I am a podcaster and an editor.
Speaker:And, uh, what else do I do?
Speaker:A yoga doer.
Speaker:Play guitar.
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Look at my cell phone a lot actually.
Speaker:Anyway There was this party.
Speaker:There was a party, and they were having a great time, which is great, and they were
Speaker:playing, uh, a lot of very loud music.
Speaker:Like, and, you know, there's a certain genre, and honestly this is not a judgment
Speaker:call, but there's a certain genre of Mexican music that's just like traditional
Speaker:music, but it's not like old, old.
Speaker:It, it kind of… The only equivalent I would say would be like, like
Speaker:modern country in the United States, but this isn't really…
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know how to describe it, but it feels like modern country kind of.
Speaker:But people know it, and they sing along to it, and this was a lot of that.
Speaker:It was almost all that being played very loud and people singing along increasingly
Speaker:drunkenly, more drunkenly to it.
Speaker:I mean, by the end of it, I think it ended at 3:00 in the morning, and believe
Speaker:you me, I was losing my fucking mind.
Speaker:I was losing… And of course, Este's just sleeping through the whole thing.
Speaker:She w- Like, I have no idea how.
Speaker:At a certain point, there were literally just people, like, they were on the
Speaker:street outside of our window just screaming at the top of their lungs.
Speaker:Just screaming.
Speaker:And, uh, great.
Speaker:I'm glad you're having fun.
Speaker:I mean, the reality is that nobody calls the police on noise complaints 'cause
Speaker:there's no such thing as a noise complaint in Mexico City or Mexico, I guess.
Speaker:People just accept the noise.
Speaker:I, I, there's a, there's a moral issue to me in the sense of like,
Speaker:do you know other people exist?
Speaker:Like, are you, are you completely oblivious to the
Speaker:existence of other people?
Speaker:But it- that's whatever.
Speaker:If I was at the party, maybe I wouldn't.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Anyway, yeah, very, very loud.
Speaker:Like, and I h- still have no idea how Este slept through it.
Speaker:She would wake up every so often 'cause I'd be tossing and turning angrily,
Speaker:and she'd be like, "Are you okay?" And I'd be like, "No, I'm not okay.
Speaker:It's… I can't sleep, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:Losing my mind." And she'd be like, "Oh, okay," and she'd fall back,
Speaker:she'd fall back asleep like this.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, I mean, I'm happy for her, but boy, um, yeah.
Speaker:How?
Speaker:How do you, how do you do that?
Speaker:Um, she said that Mexican people are just used to noise, but, like, there were
Speaker:people screaming, just screaming outside of our window, and she's just sleeping.
Speaker:She doesn't snore that much.
Speaker:Very quiet snore
Speaker:She always asks me if she snores, and I say no.
Speaker:No, you didn't snore.
Speaker:The only time I've heard her snore was when I was trying to sleep,
Speaker:but it wasn't a loud snore at all.
Speaker:It, it was not-- It was drowned out quite a bit by the screaming in the
Speaker:street, by the, by the shrieking.
Speaker:Anyway, so I didn't fall asleep till probably four in the morning
Speaker:'cause by the time the noise ended, I was so triggered by it.
Speaker:I tried so many things.
Speaker:I put noise-canceling headphones on.
Speaker:I put a pillow over… I mean, I tried as many things as I
Speaker:could think of, but nothing.
Speaker:And then the noise finally ended, and I was like, I couldn't sleep still, and I
Speaker:think it's 'cause I was just jacked up from being so pissed off about not being
Speaker:able to sleep that I still couldn't sleep.
Speaker:I think that's ironic, right?
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's ironic
Speaker:Anyway, yeah.
Speaker:So I, I finally caught up on my sleep, but yeah, barely, I slept
Speaker:like two or three hours that night.
Speaker:And then we did the Tepozlán, the heat, the heat, um, hut thing the next day,
Speaker:which was part of the factor in like me not necessarily wanting to do it that day.
Speaker:But, you know, I was a camper, so I, I did it.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah, and then the next day we did this crazy hike up this, uh, there's
Speaker:this pyramid on the top of this mountain there, 'cause it's in the mountains.
Speaker:It's very pretty.
Speaker:You're surrounded by mountains.
Speaker:And, uh Yeah, there's a, there's an old pyramid that they built,
Speaker:or a temple or something they built on top of this mountain.
Speaker:So there's this hike you can do up to the top of the mountain.
Speaker:A lot of people do it.
Speaker:I forget the name of the pyramid or the mountain.
Speaker:I think it involves the word Tepoztlán or Tepoz or something like that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we did this.
Speaker:We got up quite early, 6:00 in the morning or something to do it,
Speaker:to beat the crowds, as it were.
Speaker:And, uh, yeah, it's a difficult hike.
Speaker:You're going up, I think, uh, 1,500 feet or so in this hike, and it was
Speaker:about an hour long, hour and a half.
Speaker:And it's a lot 'cause you're going up.
Speaker:You're getting some elevation.
Speaker:Um, there's steps, but there's also, like, you know, uh, some rock
Speaker:scrambles, I guess you'd call them.
Speaker:And there's not a lot of people, though, on the path, which is nice 'cause we're
Speaker:like, "Oh, it'll be all… I'm thinking it'll be all ours when we get there."
Speaker:When we get to the top, Estee's tried to go up this two times at this point.
Speaker:This is the third time she's made an attempt at this.
Speaker:The first time she was with friends, and they didn't wanna keep going
Speaker:'cause it's not an easy hike.
Speaker:And then the second time, I guess she was with her parents, and
Speaker:her dad was having knee issues at the time, so they turned around.
Speaker:So I was determined to be the one who she made it up to the
Speaker:top with, so yeah, we made it.
Speaker:Not that I wouldn't have gone all the way to the top, but it was hard.
Speaker:So we get there, and there's a there's a gate, and it doesn't
Speaker:open till 9:00, and it's, like, 8:00 in the morning at this point.
Speaker:So I didn't wanna go all the way up, you know, just to go all the
Speaker:way back down and not see the top, so we waited, and as we're waiting,
Speaker:more and more people are showing up.
Speaker:Um, I should say the name of the thing just for, like, the, you
Speaker:know, the, um, social, the, the, the search engine optimization.
Speaker:You know, I gotta…
Speaker:Maybe I'll just throw it in there somewhere, or maybe I'll look it up.
Speaker:Anyway, as we're there, we're waiting by this, you know, th- this giant
Speaker:staircase by this, um, you know, closed off fence, uh, for an hour, you know,
Speaker:which wasn't terrible, but more and more people show up, and by the time the
Speaker:thing finally opened, of course it's, like, 9:15, and there's a lot of people.
Speaker:There were about 50, 60 people there.
Speaker:Fortunately, they had food up there.
Speaker:We went up.
Speaker:It was very pretty, very pretty, you know.
Speaker:You can see… Uh, Tepoztlán's near, um, Cuernavaca.
Speaker:You've probably heard of that.
Speaker:I had heard of that city, but I had never heard of Tepoztlán.
Speaker:But Cuer- Cuernavaca, is that pro- pronounced?
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:I think that's how it's pronounced.
Speaker:Yeah, let me look up this, uh, Tepoztlán… What is that?
Speaker:Tepoztlán mountain.
Speaker:Tepozlan Mountain, uh, El Tepozteco.
Speaker:El Tepozteco or Sierra de Tepozlan.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:And a giant post-classical Aztec pyramid.
Speaker:I'll try to put some photos and videos up there on the Patreon page, um,
Speaker:for you to have some visual aids, those of you who are subscribing
Speaker:to the Patreon page, uh, which you should do if you're not doing it yet.
Speaker:I've asked you already.
Speaker:I know I have.
Speaker:I'm not gonna go through the whole thing again, but, you know, just a reminder.
Speaker:Just a reminder
Speaker:And then Kmos.
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:Um
Speaker:Oh, I guess to wrap up the, uh, temazcal, the heat hut.
Speaker:I don't-- I feel like I never… Did I end that story?
Speaker:After we got out of there, like, yeah, it's a cleaning out.
Speaker:It's a cleaning out of the, uh, of the… You know, we get so much, um, I feel
Speaker:like we get some, like we get like, like mental grit stuck in our brain, you know?
Speaker:Like all the
Speaker:I don't know, the unresolved, the, the frustrations, the, the confusion,
Speaker:the, all the stuff builds up.
Speaker:And sometimes you just gotta go into a hut heated to like 200 degrees
Speaker:and just scream it out, you know?
Speaker:So I understand that
Speaker:It was both heat therapy in a way and like screaming therapy because the screaming
Speaker:was, it's the combination of the screaming and the heat that really make it a, um,
Speaker:therapeutic and a bizarre experience.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Um
Speaker:I guess I've been talking for a while, so I'm gonna wrap this one up.
Speaker:Um, thanks for listening.
Speaker:I am sorry that I haven't edited this, but, you know, maybe it's nice
Speaker:to do it like this 'cause oftentimes I overproduce it, I feel like.
Speaker:I put a lot of the music and everything.
Speaker:A lot of that time that's just to cover up bad sound, to be perfectly honest.
Speaker:Um, but then it became a thing.
Speaker:So anyway, not this episode.
Speaker:Not this one.
Speaker:This one's raw.
Speaker:Unplugged, if you will.
Speaker:Um, and, uh, and yeah, I really appreciate you listening.
Speaker:I appreciate you always listening, and I appreciate you liking,
Speaker:rating, subscribing, reviewing.
Speaker:I appreciate you telling your friends about the podcast, maybe sending them an
Speaker:episode, because as I've said many times, it's very hard to grow a podcast, and it
Speaker:takes a village, and you are the village.
Speaker:We're all the village.
Speaker:We're all One F Jef Nation.
Speaker:We are all One F Jef Army, powerful and independent
Speaker:But if somebody would like to advertise on this podcast, just,
Speaker:uh, reach out onefjefpod@gmail.com.
Speaker:Oh, the confusion, the shifting viewpoints, everything and so forth.
Speaker:Um, what else do I need to remind you of?
Speaker:Oh, if you'd like to follow the podcast on Instagram, and you should
Speaker:absolutely follow the podcast on Instagram, like, what are you doing?
Speaker:That's @onefjefpod.
Speaker:That's at sign O-N-E-F-J-E-F-P-O-D on Instagram.
Speaker:On the TikTok, uh, you can go to @onefjefpodcast, just add the
Speaker:cast at the end, all one word.
Speaker:Both of these platforms are places where I'm putting these, uh, those AI sh-
Speaker:uh, promos that I've been telling you about, and they're quite entertaining.
Speaker:So if you are curious to see some of these animated promos, they're
Speaker:like 30, 60 seconds, uh, check 'em out at the Instagram, @onefjefpod
Speaker:or @onefjefpodcast on the TikTok.
Speaker:And also on Facebook, but I'm, I've been neglecting that Facebook group,
Speaker:which is very easy to do with Facebook.
Speaker:I feel like Facebook's a very easy-- Facebook's like a little bitch.
Speaker:You slap around a little bit, ignore it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It'll always be there.
Speaker:It'll always be there.
Speaker:Anyway, Facebook too, I think it's onefjefpod on Facebook.
Speaker:And then Substack, onefjefpod or onefjef, one or the other.
Speaker:And if you wanna hire me to edit your videos or your podcast, you can take
Speaker:a look at my work at onefjef.com.
Speaker:Throw it in there.
Speaker:Why not?
Speaker:And if you have a complaint or confusion or think you know a good
Speaker:guest for the podcast or think you'd be a good guest for the podcast,
Speaker:or if you've gotten an email from somebody pretending to be me asking
Speaker:you to be a guest on the podcast, email me at my real email address,
Speaker:which is onefjefpod@gmail.com.
Speaker:That's O-N-E-F-J-E-F-P-O-D@gmail.com.
Speaker:This will all be in the show notes.
Speaker:And there's a phone number.
Speaker:And if you'd like to leave a voicemail message and hear your
Speaker:voice over the podcast airways, as it were, or just vent, whatever.
Speaker:You can sing a song.
Speaker:You can do whatever you want.
Speaker:Be creative.
Speaker:Leave me a creative voicemail
Speaker:1-669-241-5882.
Speaker:Once again, that's 1-669-241-5882.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Trying out my real radio voice there.
Speaker:And let's find a quote to end this podcast with, and we'll try to do
Speaker:it fast so we don't have to edit.
Speaker:But I am rapidly
Speaker:going through
Speaker:Um, I don't know if I've done this one yet.
Speaker:If I have, I apologize, and if I have, you probably won't notice
Speaker:'cause, I mean, maybe you will.
Speaker:It's worth saying again.
Speaker:I'll end this episode with a quote from Carlos Castaneda
Speaker:Who said, "We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong.
Speaker:The amount of work is the same."
Speaker:I'll see you next week Very good, Jefrey
