The Courage to Unpack

0:00Jacqueline Novak:Hi, I'm Kate Berlant. I'm Jacqueline Novak. And this is POOG, an ongoing conversation about wellness between two obsessive friends, two untamable intellects. This is our hobby. This is our hell. This is our naked desire for free products. This is POOG. Today's topic, loosely speaking, TV mornings, love ahead, standing POOG.

0:25Yo, yo, yo. Greetings. I'm into the spirit right now with Poog, with Eavesdroppers. Right. Which is this kind of, I don't know, it's like, and you know, the audio may suffer. Okay, but not really, not really. It's fine. And yes, this isn't going to be the plan forever. Like this mic, I'm going to get my setup better. crack on a sills and I just think walking poog you know closet fucking clean out poog this is real

1:03Jacqueline Novak:well guess what I'm packing for New York today? tomorrow I think my doorbell is about to get rung the tree trimmer is he?

1:17Jacqueline Novak:okay yeah one second I'll talk I'm also standing I need everyone to just calm down okay about the audio I'm gonna work it out I'm thinking standing poog okay it's I need I don't know what I need but we have to remember that you know this is our show and we can do as we please and we can authentically show up as we are. While Kate is talking to someone, I'm showing off my gardening vest, hand-dyed, hand-created, sewn, et cetera, from a hag. If we haven't already, I'll be posting a link to their work. It was pretty spectacular. I also got some beans, some lima beans, Christmas lima beans from a hag in a sack um with a little recipe on it that rocked i just i was going to tell kate about this so maybe i'll wait on this but i was looking i was on i did something wild last night which was i turned off the television by which i mean i said to chris i think we have to turn off the television as though like i don't know could we ever and then he he did it for me he was like yes we can turned it off because I was feeling like all right I'm gonna slip into avoidance and there's I'm so overwhelmed with all this shit I gotta do and whatever so anyway turn it off and then I go maybe I'll do the unthinkable and unpack my suitcase which is not something I normally do okay it's sort of sort of happens like oh wait where's my blah blah oh it's in the suitcase oh it's dirty okay I guess I'll go in the hamper or oh where's my blah blah oh it's in there oh it never go worn or it's time to and slowly things can't sort of make their way out of it and then the backpack and those kind of bags that are just filled with just not filled but there's all these loose things that are just hard to know what to do is sorry oh she's back don't worry I was monologuing okay I love that the tree trimmer is here I got a couple things do oh yeah just feel so on top of it power line going through a tree in the front got to get it trimmed for safety Is a trimmer not a surgeon?

3:38That's a different thing. No.

3:39Jacqueline Novak:Because you know they exist. I grabbed a spindrift. A tree surgeon. Yeah. Spindrift, unbelievable. I can't believe you're back on spindrift. I didn't know you ever were. Island Punch. Oh, wow. Spindrift is... Is there pineapple flavor in it? Passionfruit. Guava. Oh, well, guavas. It is. Isn't spindrift like a notorious podcast sponsor? Are they? I don't know, but... I've never seen it happen, but I'm ready for them to send us pallets. Oh, that reminds me, Mason, well, a couple of things I want to tell you. So I think it might be O'Shea. When I was in that Cascada hotel. That makes sense. Okay.

4:20No, but I thought it was O'Shea.

4:21Jacqueline Novak:We're talking about O-S-E-A, which by the way, they sent us the body oil, which I love. I used it once before and it has a pump, which means again, pump always. Yes, exactly. So, so yeah, I was, I was thinking we should do a full unboxing for them. So anyway, but you know, I was, I had a cold of everyone should know. I had the cold, the virus that I got in New York, which is, I guess, really going around and it's two weeks cold. And it lasted for me full, I'd say 10 days, 11 days. Cause Chris has had a long cold and he's been like, what the hell? Why do I still have this? And I was like, I was like, you know, Chris, like no one talks about it.

4:59People think colds are three days. Like sometimes colds are two weeks.

5:02Jacqueline Novak:So, and by the way, my, because my experience is usually, and I talked about this in the pod, it came on immediately in a scary way where I go, is it COVID? But I know three, four other people who have this and it's mild, I would describe it as, but long. And it was so long. Yesterday was my first day. I was able to do my 10 ,000 steps. I've been too weak. Oh my God. I haven't had the energy. I've been like, don't push through because you really do need to rest. I mean, the discussion about when you were weak in your bones trying to walk, but wait, I want to tell a couple of things that that i stirred up is that still remains a mystery to me sure sure you mean it couldn't have been the coming cold because it was before your trip or whatever yeah yeah but so by the way i just want to say this is one of the first ever other than i think when we had the faragon yeah standing poog okay and this might change everything what i want to know though is the audio quality because you sound quite tinny but i can't tell if that's just here it's fine for for now i'm all about it no no all right right we're not gonna right we're not gonna we're not gonna like a news you know like a news show or like when someone calls in and they're like on the outskirts of wherever the fuck it's a little that but um packing for new york austin texas get your tickets please i've sold like four tickets oh my god by the way yeah taking brain md happy saffron convinced it's already working day three i go shouldn't i've been taking it for two weeks or whatever wait really i didn't know that happy saffron no no no the one i pushed i'm just saying the opti remember the opti saffron like my research led me to okay this has curcumin good this this has curcumin and zinc a little zinc which i'm like I just need everyone to know this isn't going to be the audio, but they have to just trust it for now.

6:56Jacqueline Novak:This is for today. I'm a correspondent. It was this or no episode. No, exactly. Well, take that to heart. You stop first. It's true. Okay. And then what I'm going to do as soon as I get some wired headphones, I don't know, whatever point is just everyone have faith. Okay. So, but I'm standing and there's a lot here. I mean me being able to sort of sway this is really interesting Kate okay so we got that but the things like oh my god pushing through sorry really quick you know what was in my dream yeah an OCD balancing board like an ADD balancing board I know you know what I'm talking about you mean the kind that you work on your cerebellum and it was on my it was in my dream yeah yeah it's like a circle and then it has this thing in the middle and you're like yeah yeah you're like you're like this one guy's like this one guy's doing 60 or 90 standing on one right now i went and i stood on a meditation zafu and sort of creating the effect okay yeah yeah and he's like he's like reading aloud exactly reading yeah that guy's like 90 days of this we got fed that same guy which is amazing because he has maybe 2 000 followers like it's not a big well i know it's it's like they knew where to plant the seeds you know i have someone i want to beg for if we are really i'm sorry but peak tea peak tea peak tea where are you p-i-q-u-e where are you this is a final this is a final final warning what are you doing send the product now i'm ready to commit to you full time are you hearing this i'm ready to fully devote my life to peak tea is the answer tea has always been the answer i know because because they have the natural bags right sweetie dissolved no bag oh you rip it off right i forgot bagless powder travel powder what about when you have something in a supplement in a little like single dose powder thing right lipospheric oh powder no no one of the powder ones of something and it's been in a bag in a while for a while and the package itself gets wrinkly i know now armor i like that yes now nothing's wrong with it it still totally works but it really to me is is it's like the spirit of travel is the wrinkled supplement thing yeah like you put in there with so much intention you know like i've gone for three days i'm gonna take three of them and then they're loose and then yesterday i did the unthinkable as i was starting to listen before you got on okay so last night i go i'm sitting on my couch i'm in a fucking wild panic as you know i was in okay i was like losing my mind i come back after the walk that helped me and then I'm sitting there and it's like maybe we're gonna watch some tv whatever have some done food stew or I'd already had the non-food it doesn't matter I go oh god I can't I go I go I might have to go no tv for the next like months okay because it cuts into sleep time which cuts into work time in the morning yeah and it scares me right because but but once I'm watching tv like I can't guarantee that I won't watch for many hours right see but this is interesting i have this perception of you that you do not watch tv at me i don't want no listen we've been doing it lately like we watch a lot of and honestly it really rocks but you know because we don't really have a show right now you know you know what we end up doing we go to let's watch a show and then we end up on youtube for like two hours oh really but up on the tv up on the tv wow that's very interesting i almost think that would be like well i would get pulled What show are you watching?

10:22Jacqueline Novak:We do like Architectural Digest. We're doing travel videos, food videos. That's where we really live. I want to be swept away into like, you know, a world of story or whatever. I want to be completely taken away, right? I'm dying for that. I want a show. Like, oh, I'm trying to think if I've done a show recently. Oh, well, I mean, Widow's Bay, obviously. Cheer heaven on earth. Wow. Three seasons? Two? One, Kate. No, stop. Yeah. This is season one? Yeah, we're in season one. Okay, that makes sense because I never heard of it. Yeah. I'm curious. And I'll say no more. But I go, all right, I go turn off the TV and I just go, I'm going to wind down the whole thing.

11:02And I'm like looking at my bags and I go, maybe have the courage to unpack your bag from the road. Okay.

11:10Jacqueline Novak:I know. I go, all right, I unzip it. Okay. And it's like, what's easy, right? Dirty clothes, easy. Right. you go that goes in the hamper yeah i know what's hard okay clean clothes doesn't get worn you go it's still a little whatever but i'm fine with that a folded thing i don't care if it like was near the dirty clothes i just don't it's just fine it's not like the interior of the of the cotton patch of the underwear okay that was worn has been turned inside out and pressed to the chest of one of my fresh t-shirts you know what i mean it's curled in its own like hole and dirty underwear curled in his hole.

11:53So, so, um, I'm just thinking like dirty underwear is funny, you know, it's, it's, it's like, or worn underwear, whatever you want to call it. All right. So, so thank you. What do you do? Right. What do you do? What do you do? Remind me to tell you what happened to the coffee shop. So, so clean clothes. Okay. Yeah. Pull them out and go, all I guess this could go back with the clean clothes, which is exhausting in its own way, because right now my closet is non-functional. But then there's all this stuff. So a perfect example of like, right, is one of the wrinkly packets of something. OK, yeah, it's like so now I'm going to bring this to the kitchen and place it back in the original things box like that's just a lot.

12:41So then I go, no, maybe, maybe I keep it in here. for next trip right so the whole thing becomes this question of am i keeping all this shit in here for next trip and and then my backpack my tombin by the way i was in i was in line at the portland airport i'm glancing down i go that looks familiar that kind of technical fabric of the graph the lines this guy's got his bag zipper open but we're at the airport he might be going to be pulling the examines on purpose i go this is a tombin i wait you know five minutes thinking about how I want to approach this. It's like, why am I trying to talk to like a man, you know what I mean?

13:17In the airport? Like, and finally I just, I didn't like tap him on the back. Okay. That was too much. But when we turned a corner and he was sort of at 90 to me, I just go, that a Tom bin? Oh my God. Yeah. I go, I got two right here. Cause I had a little tote and my bag and I go, So, yeah, it's like, you know, like in order to make conversation, you have to go with extremes. I'm like, I'm like, are you obsessed? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn't quite the tone, but it's like it has to launch into extremes. Like, I'm obsessed with what? Are you? I guess like I also was like, what if like, I was like, is Tom been a Portland brand?

13:55Like, it wouldn't be shocked. I was like, what if it's the guy himself? You know? Can you imagine?

13:59Jacqueline Novak:Can I go, hello? Imagine he goes, I should be where I hope so. I am Tom. Oh, my God. I hope so. I hope so. It's my product. wait let's think of me more this is fun okay so you go sorry is that tom bin wait do that do it he goes no no he thinks it's he said my name no i'm i'm here now okay excuse me is that a tom bin if you're pointing at me the answer is yes okay okay no if you're looking at my bag the answer is also yes that's good okay or whatever this i got whatever this okay i got i got two is that tom bin because i got two right here Let me do it again. Let me do it. Act it out. You want to be the man?

14:36No, no, no.

14:37Jacqueline Novak:I'm going to ask you. Wait, I'm not ready. All right, fine. We'll try a different play. All right. Excuse me. Is that a Tom Bin?

14:47No, no. It's the question I need is I got two right here. Okay.

14:51Jacqueline Novak:Okay. So should I say? It doesn't really work. I know. Tom Bin? Okay. Tom Bin. Tom Bin? Who's asking?

15:02all right now just a couple more and this i won't have a planned answer to or anything just start conversations with me thinking that that these are tom bins normal and i just want to see what happens excuse me sorry about you are those uh tom bins oh yeah i uh oh wait i forgot i was him one more excuse me are those tom bins well there's actually three tom bins here backpack and this guy right here oh my god all right so so anyway all right but i'm going how do i unpack my top bin and it becomes like well what am i not going to leave a lip balm in here it becomes this i'm yeah yeah excuse to not unpack but it forced me to actually when you actually submit to i'm going to take the various crumpled up pieces of paper out of the bag what do i find a check from the comedy club i told them i lost because i thought I had.

15:56Okay. I'm like, there's a reason I prefer to be wired. Yeah. Okay. I can't, I mean, they hand you a piece of paper and you walk out of there soaring, you know, like it's insane. So anyway, I did the other thing and I'm pulling it out and I find a couple notes from hags. Okay. That were delivered in various fashions throughout my touring over the last couple months. And I just want to say, I wanted to tell you a tale of a hag. Okay. That's special. All right. You ready? I mean, it's nothing crazy, but just so I get to one of the venues. I'm trying to remember which city it was. And they go, you know, a fan wanted us to deliver these.

16:38It's a gorgeous bouquet flower arrangement in a heavy vessel. Yeah. OK. I go, wow. Right. Oh, my God. It's like it's like a heavy vessel. And it's not, you know, it's blooms. OK. It's green. And then it's got those really dark maroon, velvety, drapey, like, like, like kind of looks like a Susan Snead, which is just looking to see if I can see the note down here. So I go, that is so beautiful. And I'm enjoying it backstage. And I go, you know, I'm going to be leaving so early in the morning, you know, to take it back to the hotel is sort of purpose. I mean, I guess it could be, you know, but I go, why don't I at least my first thought was just, I'm going to take it out.

17:23on stage and have it be on stage and that'll be beautiful beautiful right totally then everyone in the room gets to enjoy the flowers okay and by the way I just want to say because this was tucked in there well we'll get to that in seconds so I have it on stage I have a really fun show according to me and then towards the end I go like oh my god my bouquet and I'm like I can't take it home I'm like what if I like gave out you know a flower to you a flower like yeah dispersed it to the crowd very sweet okay uh-huh and i go that's kind of fun right and i go where's the person who gave it to me you know what i mean and i'm like i'm like you're into that right like i was like it doesn't make you sad yeah yeah like if it makes you sound like being deconstructed and tossed to the walls you know what i mean i i figured probably not because i go i can't i won't take it with me right so and they're like they like nod with like sheer intensity of like they absolutely agree i think it's great whatever okay so i do that somehow it takes 20 minutes because of course it does right i throw every single thing down to like the last green stocks you know what i mean and then i go how about you take the vessel the original gifter she takes the vessel and just as i'm getting out of there okay i take the card because like the card is revealed as the bouquet is dispersed right take the card you know tuck it in my pocket take a night whatever later I pull it out are you ready for what the note had said okay these are flowers for you to enjoy now to be present with for much like the ice cream cone they're in the process of fading not meant to last wow love a hag okay beautiful so it was in the exact spirit and I hadn't even read the card yet amazing incredible and then by the way I just saw this and I assume it's got to be it for the sake of flowers is the card abby newbie co-founder and floral designer is this

19:19Jacqueline Novak:boston no i didn't go to boston i was given incredible flowers in boston it's a really beautiful gift i really like this and um look how pretty that is now what's funny is i'm treating it like i'm like was the hag abby or did the hag right right right because the hag didn't leave their name, but I've seen hags do this. Okay. Where they've almost been like trained too well by us or something to like not make it about them. Okay. Like, like, you know, like they're like apologetic if they like, you know, Oh, and you saw this, I've already shown you this, right? I don't know. Made by a hag. No. Hand delivered.

20:00Oh, by the way, I should tell you anytime anything is like this, they say, if Kate wants one. Of course. Of course. So this is a garden. This is a gardening apron because they know I love you know all that whole thing right now I don't have anything in it and and then they did a whole video showing their their creation of it for the show okay cutting and sewing right now I don't yet have anything in it except for are you ready you're not gonna believe this booze whisker I found it I found it on the ground and I said I'll put it in there anyway it's all natural like you know fruit and vegetable dyes or whatever it's fantastic so Their work will be.

20:37And then I told you the lima beans. Okay. Christmas lima beans grown. Okay. What? I'm being handed this. Okay. Another hat comes over and tucks a sack of beans. Okay. In a fabric bag. Tucks a sack of beans and goes, there's an Instant Pot recipe on the back. Okay. A little note inside. It's insane. The community is unbelievable. The lamb. Okay. We all remember the lamb. You know, I got that. The community is unbelievable. It's just, you know, something to note. Okay. I say this all to point out that gently unpacking my bag led to a kind of reflection on the touring I've just done and the positive aspects of it, you know, because I only like focus on the negatives or whatever.

21:23And so, wow, you know, one night kind of brings me back to my theory of TV mornings. It's like, it's like the worst idea, but maybe like, you know, doing the opposite of opposite action yeah where it's like get out of bed watch four hours of television yeah yeah become so like disgusted and rotted that I'm like thrown into wild action as a result but also inspired by the by the art I watch because that that happens

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24:03I say harvest now. This year, I'm definitely going to force story worth upon my dad and others. And when I say others, who do I mean? Myself. Because yes, I've already recognized an opportunity here. What if I did this to myself? Might I get a book of notions of me, me, me, me, me at the end of the year. Might others enjoy that? Not just family, but, you know, for profit. Can't help but optimize in my own direction. Still, I'm excited to give Dad a gift that captures who he really is before the stories get harder and harder to remember. Well, Father's Day is Sunday, June 21st. Order right now and save up to$20 at storyworth.com slash poog.

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25:00Jacqueline Novak:do you think i have a medical question i wake up often numbness in the hands not like in the morning but like middle of the night sometimes of course it's like you're laying on your fucking arm yeah sometimes i'm like my arms are above the blankets like i'm not doing anything weird why am I having hand hand numbness is it like one or just do yeah yeah is it a pinky ring finger yeah that's a whole thing I think that's like like and some of the people are shouting in their cars okay right now but it's like that's like the ulnar nerve or whatever there's like two nerves or something okay and one goes down and like specifically I had this like for a little while I think I talked about it on the podcast where it was like it's like if it's these two fingers it's that particular nerve so what you might want to do shit nerve flossing ew no it's great it's literally like this is it this ow see i can't do it that's a classic nerve thing a trainer once taught me this go like this you go like this and try to do upside down mask i can't even do it ow that's why yeah see i can do it on this side right pain free this side oh i can't even do it yep where's the pain like here like i can't even do it so gentle so i think you should do some heat okay get on your heat mat okay yeah and look up the exercise for the ulnar or whatever it is yeah and just do some gentle nerve flossing on that side see what happened but also you know i mean i can't believe how tight that is i think it's stress or something too because when i've had different periods where i test it i think like i mean you know i'm convinced that like a thousand things are going wrong and at all times yeah well these days I'm just or I guess more it's like here's what was wrong the whole time oh the hypermobile oh oh the cervical instability like the amount of you know I don't know man I don't know it feels different when standing up I have an Instagram like thing that's gotten in where it's like oh yeah I bought kiwis because I know because kiwis out there yeah I bought kiwis and I'm like I want to make rice paper treats like rice paper mochi I saw a cheeseburger recipe which is like you basically make a burger in like a rice paper it's like a rice paper dumpling but it's a burger yeah and um that's all just rice paper has finally gotten its hooks into me wow what is that shout out to rice paper by the way which is a or paper rice it's a build your own roll place and we had it two days in a row now when you say build your own roll meaning you tell them you're not literally with tongs or are you no this is no no this is delivery so it's like and they're really well done they're based in pasadena here in california but they do do delivery and guess what happened when i think about this we ordered it one night fabulous the next day i go god you know what i secretly want and of course my partner and i are on the exact same page we both want it again and there's no rules in life so we're so excited hysterical when i literally will go three months ordering the same thing every night but i love it it's totally normal okay for add i know and other get this we order it we're eating i notice in one of my rolls a hair no okay okay because i was like excited about this place no no still do it still do it but listen i don't care it's the truth because it was so good and i was hungry i was like are you joking i straight up don't care no no but i have the forethought to take a photo i take a photo i complete the meal i privately without telling my partner i didn't mention the the hair nothing oh good girl good girl i get on with doordash and i start complaining and i go hey but there was a hair privately i'm doing this all i get the whole meal refunded oh yeah can you believe that and i go well this is the joke of it was only the whole thing was 50 bucks yeah i go this is like order a twin dog dinner i found a hair and see what happens but then once you call by the way that's immoral and i would never do that but once you call a hair once you can't call a hair twice you mean at the same place like door dash no i'm saying then i ordered a twin meal there was a hair they're like i don't know hairs are pretty common i mean i've had to with with uber or whatever i mean a lot of times i get like you know something's missing or something's like and when it's significant enough you know you shoot you shoot them a message it's like which part of your order wasn't whatever and you know it's effective because they're like well here comes your refund I know and they they weren't refunding all they're just like you know refund we refunded you for the miso soup you know and the whatever that didn't didn't come yeah and it happens quick within like three taps and I'll say it does calm the spirit okay because like feels good to be heard in that moment I feel respected the respect I felt because I go maybe I'll refund one.

29:57I'm just laughing. I've always felt this, you know, this I've talked about this. Okay. To me, there's comedy in the entirety of the form while having intimate talk. Okay. There's a ridiculousness. So I've always thought poog video should be wide, like full wide shots. Okay. Like, like, like all the way back. Like I've always felt like, like we should be like our videos okay you'd be like yeah and then like there can be because not everyone can do what we can do as clowns you know what I mean okay it's like it's like you know what I mean you think the boys can do this you think the boys can bring this to the podcasting world you know yeah um and then I can also like this right now is really easy oh should I run and show or save it for product corner because there was something else we were sent we mentioned it anyway it starts with a b there's a box full of product i kind of want to like

30:55Jacqueline Novak:wait we just start to the b you can tease the name bloom with sex my box hasn't arrived yet oh shit okay well you know it hasn't arrived for me what if they sent everything to you well no because there'll be doubles what hasn't arrived for you lima probiotic and that arrived for you two months ago weird i gave them your address yeah right i did um i wasn't gonna show you should i pull a card a tarot yeah for you now you get to should you choose the deck first there's wild unknown archetypes kim krams the next one the next one whatever the next one is oh you feel that it's the next one yeah that's funny okay the next one is spirit daughter manifestation cards.

31:42Okay. Interesting.