Episode 61
You Can Call Me Gringo
I explain why the mezcal glasses in Mexico City cantinas have a cross on the bottom, why my apartment 601 is on the seventh floor, and why I'm not buying the Green Grow the Lilacs explanation for the word gringo. I also stab myself with an EpiPen.
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Onefjef is produced, edited & hosted by Jef Taylor.
Transcript
Onefjef There you go
Speaker:This is episode 61 of onefjef.
Speaker:Hey, episode 61
Speaker:I was walking out of my apartment building a couple days ago, and there
Speaker:was a guy coming in as I was leaving the building, and he was clearly a gringo.
Speaker:Like, like I'm clearly a gringo, right?
Speaker:But I still was like, "Hola." And he was like, "Hola," in return.
Speaker:And I was like, "Buenos, buenas noches," or whatever.
Speaker:It was buenas tardes at the time.
Speaker:And I walked away.
Speaker:We both did.
Speaker:And I was-- walked away, and I was like, "That was weird.
Speaker:We're both clearly gringos.
Speaker:Why did we not speak to each other?
Speaker:Why did we just go, 'Hey, how's it going?'" I don't know.
Speaker:It's a weird, like, um, how do you navigate that moment when
Speaker:you're saying hello in passing to who is clearly a gringo?
Speaker:But both of us did it, so it wasn't just me.
Speaker:If it was just me, I'd feel stupid.
Speaker:If he was like, "Hey, how's it going?" I was like, "Hola, buenas
Speaker:tardes," I would've felt stupid.
Speaker:But we both did it, and then we both kind of just walked away.
Speaker:Anyway, something to think about.
Speaker:Hello once again, my friends and friends and friends.
Speaker:How are we all doing?
Speaker:I ask this every week, and nobody ever responds.
Speaker:I never hear anything back.
Speaker:Perhaps it's the medium.
Speaker:Perhaps it's your laziness.
Speaker:I realize it's easier for me to ask you how you're doing than it is for
Speaker:you to tell me how you're doing.
Speaker:You'd have to actually, like, pick up your phone or get onto your email or
Speaker:whatever it is and just tappity tap, tap, and-- But I can just come on
Speaker:here and be like, "How are you doing?"
Speaker:And then get frustrated when nobody responds.
Speaker:But please let me know.
Speaker:Oh, and I think the power just went out in my apartment.
Speaker:It certainly did.
Speaker:Huh.
Speaker:There's no storm happening, so that's interesting.
Speaker:The only culprit I can think of as to why the power's out today
Speaker:is that there's construction going on, and it's been noisy all day.
Speaker:So either the construction made the power go out, or-- Although I still hear the
Speaker:construction, so no, it wasn't that.
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:Fortunately, this microphone runs on batteries, so, so
Speaker:I can continue to record.
Speaker:Thank you, God.
Speaker:There is, there is a God in the universe, and it has to do with batteries.
Speaker:Does the power go out a lot in your apartment there in Mexico City, Jef?
Speaker:I wouldn't say a lot.
Speaker:It's just probably the third or fourth time.
Speaker:The strange thing about it is it usually doesn't-- The times it's gone out,
Speaker:it hasn't gone out during a storm.
Speaker:It just goes out randomly in the middle of the day, like today, like right now.
Speaker:It's great that you could be here for this.
Speaker:It's very exciting.
Speaker:But yes, how am I doing?
Speaker:Well, I, I was doing great, and I guess I'm still doing
Speaker:great, but now the power's out.
Speaker:So I don't know if that affects my standard of living or quality of life.
Speaker:But I mean, right now it's not affecting my quality of life.
Speaker:But if it continues to be off, it will progressively get-- have more and more
Speaker:of an effect on my quality of life.
Speaker:But right now it's fine.
Speaker:There's no air conditioning, so it's not like I'm gonna get hot.
Speaker:Although it is hot outside.
Speaker:It's, it's been warm.
Speaker:Anyway I hope you're thriving, as I always do.
Speaker:And I mean that.
Speaker:I mean that.
Speaker:I really do hope you're thriving.
Speaker:I probably said that too.
Speaker:And I apologize for the sound of the jackhammer, whatever
Speaker:it is in the background.
Speaker:It's been, like, two or three days that's been going on.
Speaker:Whatever you're doing over there, guys, finish it up.
Speaker:Wrap it up, because I'm tired of hearing that.
Speaker:Tired of hearing it.
Speaker:Anyway, I am also thriving.
Speaker:Más o menos, I'm thriving.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What to talk about today?
Speaker:What to talk about?
Speaker:I was at a cantina with Estee last weekend drinking mezcal and listening
Speaker:to a, uh, traditional Mexican band play music in the corner.
Speaker:And I realized that, like, United States does not really have a traditional
Speaker:music scene like they do in Mexico.
Speaker:Mexico's got, like, mariachi bands.
Speaker:They've got other kinds of, like it's, like, what is that?
Speaker:Cumbia.
Speaker:There's all sorts of, like, traditional cumbias, not from… I wonder.
Speaker:I should probably look this up before I actually run my mouth about it.
Speaker:But there's many different kinds, from what I understand of, and it's very
Speaker:present of Mexican traditional music.
Speaker:There's mariachi bands all over the place all the time.
Speaker:You'll-- You can't wander around Mexico City without running into a mari-mariachi
Speaker:band at some point or another.
Speaker:And the United States, like, what, what's our equivalent?
Speaker:Like, bluegrass music?
Speaker:Country music?
Speaker:I don't know if that really checks out.
Speaker:But the reality is, is that Mexico is just an older country, like
Speaker:much, much, much older country.
Speaker:I mean, it's the oldest country in the Americas, so they've got
Speaker:a history that involves, you know, this traditional music.
Speaker:Whereas the United States, I mean, I guess we had a history that had
Speaker:traditional, you know, Native American music, but we quashed that real good.
Speaker:So I guess it would just be like bluegrass and I guess jazz, but that seems…
Speaker:I mean, blues, but yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I guess blues, but you don't really-- You're not seeing
Speaker:blues musicians just wandering around New York City playing music.
Speaker:Like, I mean, occasionally, but not like you see in Mexico City.
Speaker:People aren't hiring, like, a blues band to play all the traditional
Speaker:blues songs for their birthday party.
Speaker:Like, and they do that here
Speaker:Speaking of which, what I really wanna do, I have this terrace that I've
Speaker:mentioned like 1,000 times on the podcast, and it kind of overlooks a
Speaker:somewhat crowded area or is adjacent to.
Speaker:I wanna hire a mariachi band and have them play on my terrace for like one hour.
Speaker:So if anybody knows a mariachi band that I could hire for just an hour for, for a
Speaker:good price, I'll give you tequila or, you know, water or soda or tacos, whatever.
Speaker:I'll give you s- stuff.
Speaker:Just play, you know, play the hits, right?
Speaker:Play the hits.
Speaker:I, I, I would say "La Bamba's" gotta go on that list.
Speaker:I would say, uh, what is it?
Speaker:"Cielito Lindo".
Speaker:Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.
Speaker:It's a beautiful song, actually.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:Um
Speaker:La Cucaracha.
Speaker:Is that, is that a stereotype song?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I have not heard that song really since I've been here, so maybe it is.
Speaker:Anyway, mix it up, mix it up.
Speaker:But if you yourself are a mariachi band or are in a mariachi band or know
Speaker:a mariachi band that might wanna play on my terrace, that's 1-669-241-5882.
Speaker:Uno, seis, seis, nueve, dos, cuatro, uno, cinco, ocho, ocho, dos.
Speaker:Also, we were drinking mezcal, as I said, and if you've been in Mexico City
Speaker:drinking mezcal at like a cantina, 90% of the time the glass you drink, like the
Speaker:shot glass that y- you, they serve you mezcal out of has a cross at the bottom.
Speaker:Like you look at the bottom of the glass, and it has a, like a cross.
Speaker:You know, it's kind of like molded into the glass or whatever.
Speaker:And, uh, and it's because they, they got them from church.
Speaker:They're like the votive candle holders from Catholic churches repurposed as
Speaker:mezcal drinking containers, and nobody really agrees upon how it happened.
Speaker:I mean, there's obviously still churches, but like did they have a lot
Speaker:of leftover ones or… I don't know.
Speaker:Somebody told me that there's like a theory that mezcal producers used
Speaker:to like pray to get a good batch of mezcal and like light a candle, and
Speaker:they would use the same glass for the candle as the mezcal for some reason.
Speaker:I-- It's a strange story.
Speaker:And there's another one that said they used to-- Funerals, they would drink
Speaker:mezcal all through the night and they would run out of glasses, so they would
Speaker:start using the votive candle holders.
Speaker:Again, that seems like a stretch too.
Speaker:But anyway, they're from a church.
Speaker:They're from the church.
Speaker:They're from a church.
Speaker:They're from religious backgrounds.
Speaker:I imagine that they just make them with crosses on the bottom now as a tradition.
Speaker:They never were actually in a church, the ones that most
Speaker:cantinas or whatever have now.
Speaker:So there's a toast, hasta ver la cruz, which is until you see the cross.
Speaker:So it's like you gotta drink it like in one shot until you see the cross.
Speaker:Hasta ver la cruz.
Speaker:Kinda love it, but boy, that's a weird one, right?
Speaker:That's a weird one.
Speaker:Hasta ver la cruz, until you see the cross.
Speaker:Another weird thing that I was just thinking of, because the elevator was
Speaker:broken, uh, today and two days ago and two days before that, the elevator breaks a
Speaker:lot, is that the ground floor here, the, the ground floor is not one in Mexico.
Speaker:You don't start with one.
Speaker:You start with PB, was what the elevator will say, which is planta baja, which
Speaker:is like ground floor, basically.
Speaker:So if you live on the first floor, you live on the second
Speaker:floor in the United States.
Speaker:You follow me?
Speaker:For example, my apartment is 601.
Speaker:I'm in 701 because the first floor is planta baja
Speaker:I think I'm saying that right.
Speaker:PB.
Speaker:Very confusing for a while.
Speaker:Very confusing
Speaker:In Mexico, gringo usually refers to someone from the United States.
Speaker:I don't agree with this definition of the word.
Speaker:My definition of gringo would be a foreigner from any country who doesn't
Speaker:speak native Spanish, and that is based on the origin of the word gringo that is
Speaker:the most historically backed up, although not very widely believed, at least
Speaker:from people I've talked to in Mexico.
Speaker:A lot of people in Mexico believe that gringo comes from Well, a few places.
Speaker:There's a story about the Mexican-American War, and the soldiers, the American
Speaker:soldiers singing a song called Green Grow the Lilacs, and they turned
Speaker:Green Grow the Lilacs into gringo.
Speaker:This story is absurd, and there's many reasons why.
Speaker:First off, how many soldiers were singing this song that nobody's ever
Speaker:heard of, Green Grow the Lilacs?
Speaker:Never heard of it.
Speaker:The number of soldiers that would have had to be singing this idiotically
Speaker:named song would have been a lot in order for it to generate gringo.
Speaker:So no, absolutely not.
Speaker:That's dumb.
Speaker:In terms of a storytelling, fine, but in terms of, like, validity, it, it…
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Another one that I've heard is that the American soldiers wore
Speaker:green uniforms in the war, the Spanish-- uh, Mexican-American War,
Speaker:and so they would be like, "Green go," which also, uh, like what?
Speaker:What are you doing?
Speaker:We're reaching here.
Speaker:But I've had people insist to me that this is the origin of the word.
Speaker:The problem with this explanation is, is that the American military or the army in
Speaker:that war wore blue uniforms, apparently.
Speaker:So blue go, that doesn't work.
Speaker:No, doesn't work.
Speaker:Blue go, that'd be a weird way to call foreigners, blue go.
Speaker:Sounds like some sort of a skin disorder.
Speaker:You've got a blue go.
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:Or a rock band, Blue Go.
Speaker:"Hello, everyone, we're Blue Go." Anyway, where gringo most likely comes
Speaker:from and where I believe it comes from, because it was-- Before the
Speaker:Spaniards even came to Mexico, they were saying gringo in Spain, so it's
Speaker:not about any Mexican-American war.
Speaker:So that's out.
Speaker:The most likely explanation, the one that I've read the most about and seems
Speaker:the most plausible to me, is that the Greek people, their language sounded
Speaker:like gibberish, so it's like we in United States English speakers would say,
Speaker:"It's Greek to me." Gr- griego, gringo.
Speaker:That's how the word came from, gringos.
Speaker:In most of Latin America, I'm told it refers just to, like, non-Latin Americans.
Speaker:But in Mexico, most of the people I've talked to say that it just refers
Speaker:to people from the United States.
Speaker:So I don't know.
Speaker:I have my beliefs, you have yours, but it's very, uh… It's not-- And,
Speaker:and people think it's an insult.
Speaker:It's not.
Speaker:I don't feel like it's an insult.
Speaker:I feel like it's just a word you use to describe the
Speaker:people who are not from there.
Speaker:Like, every country has this.
Speaker:In Korea, it was… There was miguk, which meant people who looked
Speaker:Korean or had Korean origin but were foreigners, like grew up in the States.
Speaker:And then miguk was just other foreigners, like white foreigners
Speaker:or whatever it is, miguk.
Speaker:So miguk, gringo, whatever, you know.
Speaker:I'm fine with it Interestingly, there's a taco called a gringa, which is like
Speaker:a, it's like an al pastor taco, or it's got al pastor pork, I guess, but it's
Speaker:in a flour tortilla with melted cheese.
Speaker:And apparently that came-- the, the word gringa for that comes from the
Speaker:fact that the gringas, the women, I guess, female foreigners used to
Speaker:like to have this on their tacos.
Speaker:That seems like bullshit to me, but that's what I've read.
Speaker:So I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker:I don't mind being a gringo.
Speaker:That's my-- The long and short of it is this, that I do not mind being a gringo.
Speaker:Feel free to call me that.
Speaker:I'd rather you call me Jef, but if you don't know my name is Jef,
Speaker:then you can just call me gringo
Speaker:Those of you who know me know that I have had my share of issues with
Speaker:clogging toilets over the years.
Speaker:I may have told many of the stories on here at some point or another, and I'm
Speaker:not gonna tell them all again because-- but there's some doozies in there.
Speaker:But yeah, I've clogged my share of toilets all over the world, and the toilet in this
Speaker:apartment that I'm in is, is not good.
Speaker:It clogs, like, more than any toilet I've ever used in my life.
Speaker:Like, literally every other day.
Speaker:More than every other day.
Speaker:It clogs a lot.
Speaker:I mean, luckily, there's a plunger right next to the toilet,
Speaker:but, like, it's excessive.
Speaker:And I thought, "This can't be right." Like, after a couple months, I was
Speaker:like, "This toilet's clogging too much."
Speaker:Once every couple days is too many times for a toilet to be clogging.
Speaker:So I thought, "I'll reach out to the landlord, and certainly they'll realize
Speaker:that this is not the way a toilet should function and will get to repairing
Speaker:it." 'Cause I opened the back of the toilet up, and you could clearly see
Speaker:there's not enough water going in there.
Speaker:So I did looked it up on the internet and asked AI what to do.
Speaker:I sent it some pictures, and it told me to turn this thing.
Speaker:It didn't turn.
Speaker:So, I mean, I think that the bobber thing is broken, right?
Speaker:So I, you know, get in touch with the landlord.
Speaker:We're texting back and forth.
Speaker:I send pictures, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:They tell me to turn the thing that I already turned.
Speaker:I'm like, "Yeah, I already tried that." And then about a half an hour goes
Speaker:by, and I get a video of, like, how to replace the bobber valve on the toilet
Speaker:from YouTube with no commentary at all.
Speaker:And I wait for anything else, any kind of explanation, and so finally
Speaker:I'm like, "Hey, am I, uh, am I supposed to be fixing the toilet?"
Speaker:And the explanation I got was, "Yeah, because it's a personal preference
Speaker:thing. Like, just because the toilet is clogging more than you would like
Speaker:it to doesn't mean it's broken. It means that your preference is different
Speaker:than the way that the toilet is operating." Am I explaining this well?
Speaker:And I understand the point.
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:But I also would say if a toilet is clo-- I mean, one piece of
Speaker:toilet paper this thing clogs with.
Speaker:It's crazy.
Speaker:If your toilet is clogging every other day, there's
Speaker:something wrong with the toilet.
Speaker:I guess as long as it's flushing at all, then they're fine with it, as long as m-
Speaker:it continues to suck the waste into it.
Speaker:Which it does, but it takes quite a bit of finagling, quite
Speaker:a bit of, uh, sweet-talking
Speaker:And it's frustrating because it's a nice toilet.
Speaker:It's just seen better days.
Speaker:And it's even more frustrating because, like, I'm using the plungers a lot, a lot
Speaker:"Why don't you just replace the part yourself, Jef? They sent
Speaker:you a video of how to do it."
Speaker:And maybe I will.
Speaker:Maybe I will, but I don't really wanna have… I, I probably will
Speaker:What I should just do is get, like, thinner toilet paper.
Speaker:That's been another solution that's been posited to me, and I
Speaker:think that's actually a good idea.
Speaker:That's easier than repairing the toilet.
Speaker:Just get thinner toilet paper, because the toilet paper I have
Speaker:is actually, like, insanely thick.
Speaker:So maybe it is my fault.
Speaker:Gonna flip 180 on this one, so anyway.
Speaker:You don't have a good history with landlords, Jef.
Speaker:Like, the landlord from Columbus was, like, a psycho.
Speaker:The one from the last place in Roma Sur w- didn't give you your deposit
Speaker:back in spite of the fact that I hired a lawyer, and this one won't
Speaker:repair a clearly defective toilet.
Speaker:Maybe it's you, Jef.
Speaker:Maybe it's you.
Speaker:Maybe it is me.
Speaker:But what… Like, if it is, then what should I be doing differently?
Speaker:Please help me
Speaker:For those of you who don't know, I have a nut allergy.
Speaker:I'm allergic to all nuts and peanuts, which is a nut, but it's not a tree nut.
Speaker:Doesn't matter.
Speaker:But all the nuts.
Speaker:And I am usually, if not always, quite careful about not eating nuts.
Speaker:The last time I had a bad allergy attack or reaction to nuts was about 10 or 12
Speaker:years ago when I was living in New York.
Speaker:I was living with, uh, my girlfriend at the time, and she, and she
Speaker:accidentally, quote-unquote, "made me a veggie burger" that contained walnuts,
Speaker:and walnuts are one of the worst.
Speaker:Like peanuts, if I have a peanut, a little bit, I'm okay, but walnuts are really bad.
Speaker:And I went into anaphylactic shock, and long story short, I ended up
Speaker:having to go to the emergency room.
Speaker:It was a wild night.
Speaker:And on the box of veggie burgers, it said in big letters, "Contains walnuts."
Speaker:And w- our relationship wasn't doing very well at the time, so the joke was
Speaker:that she was, like trying to off me.
Speaker:Not a very funny joke, but nevertheless.
Speaker:It did actually, uh, you know, extend our relationship further than it
Speaker:would have been extended otherwise.
Speaker:It gave it another three or four months at that point.
Speaker:So in a sense, it worked, if that was the plan indeed.
Speaker:But yeah, I spent the whole night in the emergency room in Brooklyn, New York.
Speaker:It's a longer story.
Speaker:It's not pleasant, frankly.
Speaker:But I'm okay.
Speaker:I was okay.
Speaker:About a week ago, I had another allergy attack, the worst one I've had since
Speaker:that time 10 or 15 years ago I was over at my friend's apartment, and
Speaker:we were just hanging out and drinking some beers, and I was hungry, and
Speaker:she offered to make me some, like, egg, um, egg toast, egg on toast.
Speaker:And I was like, "Sure." And she made it for me, and then as soon as I
Speaker:finished eating it, or maybe about 20 minutes later, 10 minutes later,
Speaker:I started having this, you know, it was a tingling sensation in my mouth,
Speaker:which is usually how it starts.
Speaker:But I didn't think of anything of it at the time because the bread was
Speaker:sourdough bread, and the eggs were eggs.
Speaker:So there was nothing in this that would have caused me to have a reaction.
Speaker:But then I started to feel a little bit off, so I was like, "I should just go
Speaker:home. I don't feel great. I'm tired." So I left, and as I'm walking home, it
Speaker:starts to hit me, this allergy attack, and I'm having trouble breathing.
Speaker:Like, it's getting worse and worse to a degree that's, like, a little scary.
Speaker:Like, I'm really having to inhale deeply to catch my breath.
Speaker:And it was kind of raining, and so I couldn't get a car.
Speaker:So I was walking.
Speaker:It was about a 10, 15-minute walk back to my apartment, and I thought, "Well,
Speaker:when I get back to my apartment, I can just hit my asthma inhaler, my
Speaker:albuterol inhaler, and it'll be fine."
Speaker:But as I was walking, and I got closer, and it kept getting worse, I was
Speaker:thinking, "Well, maybe the albuterol's not gonna really help that much in
Speaker:this case." Anyway, I finally make it home, and by the time I get home,
Speaker:I was-- It wasn't, like, terrible.
Speaker:Like, I wasn't, like, gasping for breath, but I was having to do deep
Speaker:breaths to get all the air I needed.
Speaker:And I hit my asthma inhaler, like, three times, and it helps
Speaker:a little bit, but not a ton.
Speaker:I'm still… Like, I'm just sitting on my bed, and I'm just trying to, like,
Speaker:calm myself to re- like, relax my breath.
Speaker:And at this point, I know it's an allergic reaction.
Speaker:Like, this is the only… This is, like, anaphylaxis.
Speaker:And so I'm taking, like, very slow breaths, and it's not really getting
Speaker:better, and I'm starting to worry.
Speaker:I'm starting to think about my options.
Speaker:Do I call 911?
Speaker:911 is the same in Mexico.
Speaker:Do I, do I reach out to Estie and see if she can… I don't, I
Speaker:didn't know what I was gonna do.
Speaker:I was thinking about what happens if this continues to get worse.
Speaker:And then I remembered I have EpiPens.
Speaker:So I thought, "Oh, I've never used the EpiPens ever."
Speaker:I've always thought, "Well, if I have to use the EpiPen, like I know, if I have
Speaker:to sta-" 'Cause you basically have to stab yourself in the leg with a needle.
Speaker:Well, it's not quite as dramatic as that, but that's the action of it, right?
Speaker:You take the thing and stab yourself in the leg.
Speaker:Kinda like in Pulp Fiction when they stab the woman in the chest.
Speaker:That's, uh, epinephrine, I assume.
Speaker:When she's having an overdose, they stab her in the chest with epinephrine,
Speaker:but that's actually a syringe.
Speaker:This is just like, you don't see the needle.
Speaker:You just… Anyway.
Speaker:So I thought, well, maybe I have to-- maybe it's time I have
Speaker:to use one of these finally.
Speaker:And, uh, and then I couldn't find them.
Speaker:I always kept them-- I always keep them in my backpack, but they were in
Speaker:a different pocket than I normally keep them in, so I ended up going through
Speaker:all my luggage trying to find them, and meanwhile, I can't breathe that well.
Speaker:It was kind of comical if it wasn't so scary.
Speaker:Anyway, eventually, I found the EpiPens in another pocket, and I
Speaker:pull one out, and I ask AI how to do it, and it tells me, "Just stab
Speaker:it into your, like, outer thigh."
Speaker:And I sat there for a few minutes thinking, "Do I really wanna do this?
Speaker:Is this really something I need to do?" And then I thought, "Yeah, I should
Speaker:probably, I should probably do this.
Speaker:If there's a time to do it, I should do it now.
Speaker:I'm here in Mexico City.
Speaker:I gotta…" So I do it.
Speaker:I take the thing off, and I jam this thing into my leg, and it doesn't really hurt.
Speaker:It kind of… It's like a pin prick.
Speaker:And I didn't immediately start feeling better, but I did immediately or fairly
Speaker:immediately start feeling nauseous.
Speaker:So I go to the bathroom, and I kind of retch, but I didn't throw up.
Speaker:And, uh, then slowly but slowly, I started to feel better, but not, like, a lot.
Speaker:Like, not quickly and not a lot.
Speaker:And I don't know if that's because I used the epinephrine pen wrong
Speaker:or what, but it wasn't immediate.
Speaker:And there was a certain point where I thought, "Maybe I should use the other
Speaker:one," 'cause you can use them both.
Speaker:And apparently, that's why they sell two packs, because sometimes you need two.
Speaker:But I didn't use the other one, and I just kinda sat in my bed slowly just waiting
Speaker:it out, 'cause that's what you have to do.
Speaker:You just have to wait these things out.
Speaker:And slowly but surely, over the next hour, my breath thread returned
Speaker:to normal, and I started to feel slowly, slowly, slowly better.
Speaker:And I slept terribly that night 'cause epinephrine, like,
Speaker:jacks you up a little bit.
Speaker:But I'm okay.
Speaker:I'm okay.
Speaker:But it was scary.
Speaker:It was scary
Speaker:And I reached out to my friend the next day to see if there was,
Speaker:you know, if there were nuts in the bread or what, and nothing.
Speaker:Like, I still have no idea what caused it.
Speaker:No idea.
Speaker:And that's the hardest part, is not knowing.
Speaker:The most likely culprit it-- that I can imagine is that the store that
Speaker:she bought the bread at, she had it sliced in the store, that the blade
Speaker:had sliced some very nutty bread before it sliced the sourdough.
Speaker:But I really don't know.
Speaker:I really don't know.
Speaker:And the reason that sucks is 'cause there's no… Like, I already go out of my
Speaker:way to avoid nuts, but, like, what could I have done better in this situation?
Speaker:I, I just don't know.
Speaker:'Cause I usually don't have issues with cross-contamination.
Speaker:I've never had an issue with it.
Speaker:You know, all the packaging that says, "Made in a facility that
Speaker:manufactures with nuts," I have never once had an issue with that, ever.
Speaker:But if this is the case, in this case, then yeah, it's a little bit scary.
Speaker:It's a little bit fucked up.
Speaker:But it's also good to have a reminder of your own mortality,
Speaker:I suppose, now and again.
Speaker:Make you appreciate your life a little more than you do.
Speaker:Make you stop taking things for granted as much as you were for a little bit
Speaker:As someone who grew up with childhood asthma and has, you know, had issues
Speaker:with that my whole life, you become very familiar with the feeling of not being
Speaker:able to breathe or catch your breath
Speaker:And it's a very unpleasant feeling.
Speaker:Like, I've had it, you know, many times over my life, this feeling of
Speaker:not being able to catch your breath
Speaker:And I don't know if people who haven't experienced that can
Speaker:really understand how it feels to not be able to breathe properly.
Speaker:But it's not fun.
Speaker:It's not fun.
Speaker:It's scary.
Speaker:But at least now I know what using an EpiPen is like and that I can
Speaker:do it and it's not that scary, so.
Speaker:And I have one left.
Speaker:They don't sell them in Mexico City apparently or Mexico.
Speaker:Uh, they just sell like s- like, you know, vials of epinephrine
Speaker:and a needle, and I'm not sure.
Speaker:I mean, I guess in a real pinch I could do it, but I think I'd much rather do
Speaker:an EpiPen if worse came to worse again.
Speaker:So when I go back to the States, I gotta get some more EpiPens.
Speaker:But, but yeah, I'm okay.
Speaker:Don't worry about me.
Speaker:I'm fine.
Speaker:And there were several points during that night when I thought, "If I was
Speaker:living in the United States, would I have called 911 by this point?"
Speaker:And I don't think I would have
Speaker:I don't think I would have.
Speaker:I feel like there was a very definite line that I feel like I would have
Speaker:had to cross to get to the 911 part.
Speaker:And maybe many of you are thinking, "Oh, you should have called 911 right away."
Speaker:Maybe that's the case, but I don't know.
Speaker:I feel like I have a pretty astute sense of my physical well-being after, um,
Speaker:dealing with allergies and illness for a lot, you know, a big part of my life.
Speaker:So I'm pretty astute about that, and I feel like I, I have a pretty
Speaker:good gauge for when I need further assistance and when I don't
Speaker:Anyway
Speaker:Be careful out there, everyone
Speaker:If anybody's wondering what's going on with Pepe and Rojo, the squirrels,
Speaker:I have not seen them for a while.
Speaker:I think that it didn't take them long to just say, well, Pepe was
Speaker:the only one who got an avocado.
Speaker:Rojo never got anything.
Speaker:But I think Rojo suspected that Pepe had got some good stuff
Speaker:because Rojo was acting differently, like, after Pepe got the avocado.
Speaker:Maybe Pepe told him, but I doubt it.
Speaker:But, like, maybe Rojo smelled something.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But yeah, they were both getting in.
Speaker:Pepe, of course, was just coming right up to the screen, "Where's more
Speaker:food? Where's more food?" And then eventually has just stopped, I guess,
Speaker:coming, which makes me a little sad.
Speaker:But I think between having Pepe come and shit on my porch and not
Speaker:having Pepe come and not shit on my porch, I think I'll take the latter.
Speaker:I think I will.
Speaker:If Pepe could be a reasonable squirrel and just accept my gifts without immediately
Speaker:wanting more and being a dick about it, then maybe I would accept them.
Speaker:Maybe I'd be okay with her, I'm sorry, coming more often.
Speaker:But no, Pepe.
Speaker:Pepe's a greedy, spiteful little bitch, and I'm not sorry.
Speaker:Rojo, I don't know how you are.
Speaker:I haven't really interacted with you enough.
Speaker:You seem great.
Speaker:You seem old, though.
Speaker:Your tail's not looking so good.
Speaker:Anyway, that's what's happening there
Speaker:I was walking through Cibelis tonight, the traffic circle right by my apartment here,
Speaker:and I walked through, uh, this restaurant that I've gone to quite a few times.
Speaker:I've gone there, and then me and Este have gone there.
Speaker:It's, it's a cute little outdoor brunchy, also pizza place, two
Speaker:restaurants in one kind of a thing.
Speaker:Good enchiladas.
Speaker:I was walking through there last night, and there was, like, a guy playing
Speaker:clarinet in the middle of the restaurant.
Speaker:Like, it's an outdoor restaurant, and there's all sorts of activity happening.
Speaker:There's tables, people laughing and all.
Speaker:People having fun.
Speaker:It's Thursday night, whatever.
Speaker:It was just joyful, and I had a thought because what's happened to
Speaker:me lately, I think in the last month, I've been having trouble sleeping.
Speaker:I don't really know why.
Speaker:I mean, I kind of have kind of been playing it off to, like, oh,
Speaker:maybe, you know, I get in these-- everybody gets these ups and downs.
Speaker:It's like an ocean, you know, the waves.
Speaker:It's l- what the emotional life is like, I feel like, as a human being.
Speaker:It's a wave, you know, up and down, up and down, up and down, and you just
Speaker:gotta wait for the next up, really.
Speaker:But I don't think that's necessarily it.
Speaker:I think there's a lot going on with my brain this month because this month I
Speaker:feel like is the month that living in Mexico City started to feel normal.
Speaker:I was talking to my friend Greg on the phone yesterday, and he, he said
Speaker:something to the effect of, "Does it still-- does it feel normal there now?
Speaker:Does it feel like…" And it was a good question because I really hadn't
Speaker:thought about it, but I-- after we got off the phone, I realized,
Speaker:eh, it does kinda feel normal now.
Speaker:And maybe that's part of the problem.
Speaker:I've allowed my brain to start seeing this experience as being normal
Speaker:which, in a sense, it is, but also it isn't, and it never will be to me.
Speaker:Anyway, I was walking through the restaurant there in Cibelis, and
Speaker:there's the guy playing clarinet and many tables of people laughing
Speaker:and drinking and everything, and it was very Mexico City to me.
Speaker:It was just a, you know, the, the, the weather's beautiful right now.
Speaker:It's a beautiful night.
Speaker:There's a breeze.
Speaker:It's just-- It was just very pretty, and I stopped and I thought,
Speaker:like, "This is why I moved here," this moment right here, this.
Speaker:This guy playing clarinet in this cute little outdoor cafe.
Speaker:Like, this is why I moved here.
Speaker:I just forgot that this city was so charming, and I, and I lost
Speaker:perspective on my life here.
Speaker:It's funny how the brain does that, isn't it?
Speaker:And it's so fast and nefarious you don't even realize it happened.
Speaker:And then a moment comes around and you're like, "Oh, it
Speaker:happened. Now I gotta remember."
Speaker:And I guess that'll be it for this episode of onefjef.
Speaker:Why not, right?
Speaker:Let's make it it.
Speaker:We've all done a lot today.
Speaker:We've talked about quite a bit.
Speaker:As always, thank you for listening.
Speaker:I'll be back with another interview next week.
Speaker:I don't know who, but whoever it is, it'll be good.
Speaker:In the meantime, you can follow the podcast on Instagram @onefjefpod.
Speaker:That's @ O-N-E-F-J-E-F-P-O-D.
Speaker:You can follow the podcast on TikTok @onefjefpodcast.
Speaker:You can follow the podcast on Substack at onefjef.substack.com, I think.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Or you can call the podcast and express yourself at 1-669-241-5882.
Speaker:1-669-241-5882
Speaker:I'm really sorry about that, you guys.
Speaker:Um, yeah, and if you call that number, I will never make-- sing that version of the
Speaker:phone number song ever again, I promise.
Speaker:You can also email the podcast at onefjefpod@gmail.com.
Speaker:All you have to remember is onefjef and pod or podcast, and you can do all
Speaker:sorts of magical things with your life.
Speaker:Also, if you haven't done it, share this episode or another of your
Speaker:favorite episodes with a friend, a family member, somebody you feel
Speaker:like needs something in their life.
Speaker:And everybody needs something in their life, so don't tell
Speaker:me you don't know somebody.
Speaker:Growing a podcast is a difficult thing, as I've learned over the
Speaker:past year and several months.
Speaker:So any help you can give me would appreciate.
Speaker:Because this kind of podcast, it's like you never know who's gonna like
Speaker:it, and then somebody's like, "Oh." Oh, the power's back on, everybody.
Speaker:Everybody-- Nobody panic.
Speaker:Everything's fine.
Speaker:I'm glad you guys could be here for that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's like some random person will be like, "Oh, I like the-- whatever.
Speaker:However this guy rambles, I like that." So you never know.
Speaker:So you might know somebody like this in your life.
Speaker:You have no idea.
Speaker:So yeah, send this episode to them and say, "You might like this,
Speaker:or maybe you won't." Thank you.
Speaker:Patreon page.
Speaker:I've talked about it quite a bit, but I'll talk about it again very quickly.
Speaker:patreon.com/onefjef.
Speaker:Please go there, sign up.
Speaker:Sign up for a subscription, a membership.
Speaker:Help me help you enjoy this podcast.
Speaker:As little as $5 a month, you can show your support for this podcast and make
Speaker:me feel like I wanna continue doing it.
Speaker:Ugh, that's negative.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:And I'm going to wrap this episode up with a horoscope that I took a screenshot of.
Speaker:I, I… Let's see what year it was.
Speaker:October 6th, 2024.
Speaker:I'm a Sagittarius.
Speaker:I believe this is from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Speaker:I'm not sure if it's a syndicated horoscope or where they get it from, or
Speaker:somebody there just writes it, but… And they give you one to five stars
Speaker:as well for your day, which is weird.
Speaker:The three-star day for Sagittarius.
Speaker:"You are the traveler of the zodiac. Today, you're aware of the
Speaker:suffering in different countries and the plight and suffering of people
Speaker:of all ages. Tonight, you win."
Speaker:That's a funny… I mean, I don't think it's intended to be a joke.
Speaker:I think it's intended to be sincere.
Speaker:Anyway, good job whoever writes the horoscopes for the Cleveland Plain
Speaker:Dealer or whoever wrote them in 2024.
Speaker:I appreciate your, uh, creativity, I guess.
Speaker:Yeah, and now I have to edit this and release it to the internet and hope
Speaker:that the power doesn't go out again
Speaker:I'll see you next week.
Speaker:Very good, Jeffrey
