DEEP DIVE: Things We Weirdly Enjoy

0:00Amy Wilson:This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Break through the busiest time of year with the brand new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus. Powered by Peloton IQ. With real-time guidance and endless ways to move, you can personalize your workouts and train with confidence. Helping you reach your goals in less time. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.com. It's all over for you, loser. What Fresh Hell, laughing in the face of motherhood. Hashtag this can't be fixed. With Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson. I would never get into bed wet.

0:41A podcast that solves today's parenting dilemmas so you don't have to. You gotta take happiness where you can get it.

0:55hey everybody welcome to what fresh hell laughing in the face of motherhood this is amy

1:00Amy Wilson:and this is margaret and today we're accentuating the positive we are talking about the weird things that make us really unreasonably happy things we weirdly enjoy steve jobs was being like we need this composition done and it needs feeling of like hopefulness and the future and joy and strength and creativity. And it needs to be 0.85 seconds long. And it's the sound that your Apple computer makes when it turns on. It's like doing. Yeah, the chord. Yeah. That it was done by a composer and that he had a whole vision for the composition and that it's one. It's just one half a note. That sound still gives me joy chills to this day.

1:44Amy Wilson:Apple products give me joy chills. And I'm really a sucker for all marketing because Pottery Barn gives me joy chills. Williams-Sonoma, I go in there and I imagine the type of person I could be living in one of those like icy white apartments where everything matches. And there's four beautiful like pastel books, which I open up and with my one always there perfect pen, I write my plans for the day. That aesthetic makes you really happy. It makes me extremely happy. And I have to not engage with it because sometimes I find myself buying the four pastel books as if I'm going to then come home to the icy perfect pottery barn apartment.

2:27Amy Wilson:And then I come back to my own house and the books just make me angry. It does make me really happy when I look at my coffee table and the sort of objets that I have arranged on are there, but nothing else. Not my son's leftover Chinese food and the three remotes and the dog's leash. She needs to be ready for the catalog. Yes, but I can never be. And that's why I have to not embrace it. Because my middle schooler's new habit is taking off their socks and leaving them on whatever table they happen to be sitting at. Whether that's the dining room table, a coffee table, an end table. And I do find myself becoming the mom from movies who is shrieking.

3:02Amy Wilson:What kind of monster thinks that I want to see your dirty socks on my dining room table? On an eating surface. I don't think you're wrong. Fight that fight. And this is the response I get. I'm sorry. As if like, okay, crazo. As if you've never said it before. As if this is a new rule just now. Are we animals? Like who wants dirty socks where they eat? You're not two. You're 14. No feet where we eat has been established since 2016. No socks where we eat should just be like understood. No socks. Socks do not rock. I mean, how do I market this, Amy? I don't know. I want to go back to the bong of the Mac computer making you happy because that's one of my things that makes me weirdly happy.

3:43And I think it's because every time you shut down your computer, you open your computer. There's just a moment of like, is this it? Is this the end? And then it goes bong. And it's just like, it's going to be OK. Everything I ever wrote isn't lost. It's all still there. My computer still works.

3:55Amy Wilson:today is the day like the potential for everything lives in today's opening of the computer. It just signals a certain kind of endless potential that sound to me. Mine to me is like it's more the reassurance like no no it's not broken like I'm here for you it's going to be okay that's what I hear. Yeah you're not going to get that folder with the angry face with the excise and like the Mr. Poison folder. What a way to let you know that your novel is gone. the mad folder who's like, it's all over for you, loser. No, but the thing that makes me weirdly happy is my rice cooker. And here's why. Because I used to have a rice cooker that would sometimes work and sometimes not.

4:34Like, they're kind of mysterious. Rice cookers, pressure cookers, all these things, right? You put them on that just says cooking, and it's just sort of taking as long as it takes. And I had a rice cooker for some time that just was, it was 50-50. It would be done, and then you'd open it. And sometimes you'd have rice, and sometimes you'd have, like dirty water and the hard rice on the bottom. Well, you always had rice, but sometimes it was cooked and sometimes it was not. Yeah. And you never knew you had to wait for the sound and then you'd open it and half the time. So I think I've been scarred by that.

5:00So I finally got a new rice cooker. I got this like fancy Japanese rice cooker that again, you press what you think is start things that it says, not in Japanese, but they just don't make any sense. You know, it's like it says begin session instead of start or whatever, but you press it. And then once you do what it has deemed is the correct number of buttons. It sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But when I have rice in this new rice cooker, I get again another like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, and perfect rice every time. Perfect rice.

5:30And that sound makes me weirdly happy.

5:32Amy Wilson:I'm still using my college rice cooker. That's like the white pot that has one button and you just hit it. And it always makes rice just fine for me. The steam comes out. It's like there's a new Pope. Like eventually it's Like, yeah, there's rice. Yeah, I just exactly. And then it keeps it warm and fluffy. I've been scarred by the only half the time you actually have rice. My new rice cooker makes me weirdly, weirdly happy. I love that for you. So, of course, we went to our Facebook group, facebook.com forward slash groups forward slash WhatFreshHellcast. Asked the Hellions to tell us what made them weirdly happy.

6:06Amy Wilson:And many of these are joy chilly for me as well. We should give a shout out, first of all, to Sylvia in the Facebook group, because this was her idea. Thanks, Sylvia. I would have just stolen your idea and not credited you. But look at Amy looking out for you. Yeah, we said we did this, but Sylvia did it first. She said, let's do an episode of Weird Things That Make Us Happy. And this was a good one. One of mine, says Sylvia, is washing things that aren't part of the normal wash rotation, like potholders, throw blankets, pet bedding. It just feels good. I'm going to really try hard not to yuck people's yumps, but I do not relate to the joy of that at all.

6:38Amy Wilson:I mean, I love Sylvia. First of all, I tried to steal your idea, tried not to credit you. And now I don't like your joy thing. Now you're like, that doesn't make anybody really happy. Yeah. Sylvia will be consulting on Kate's book, Crying Behind the Scenes, because I've done her wrong. But yeah, don't recognize that as something that makes you happy. But I do identify with Wendy's looking at the clock when all the digits are the same. Yes. You feel like you've accomplished something. Yeah. 11-11. I just saw it this morning and I was like, it's going to be OK. Everything's going to be OK. I only care about 1111.

7:10Amy Wilson:I don't care about any other ones. What did you wish for? I can't tell you or it won't come true. But it is a wish invitation. It's like a eyelash in your cheek. Yeah, I usually try to say one word that's like, this is what I need this for. You think to yourself, hashtag this can't be fixed. Well, it's funny because some days when I'm having a really bad day, I'll look at the clock and it's 1110 and I'm like, all right, I'm just about to get my wish. And then I'll look back and it's 1112 and I'm like, oh, I just cursed today. I have an old Deluxe Alert back in my day. Odometers, cars, used to have an actual like rolling odometer of the mileage.

7:44It wasn't just a digital display, which I guess would also be kind of exciting when it goes from 39999 to 40 ,000 miles. But it was actual numbers and you'd watch it rolling. My dad would basically almost get us all in a car accident. He'd be like, look, look, look, it's about to turn. We'd all have to, attention must be paid.

8:00Amy Wilson:And then like seven kids, because we didn't wear seatbelts, would like lean into the front seat all at once and start cheering. For the moment, the car got, you know, significantly less in resale value. Yes. Those were good times, friends. Good times. Let's all risk our lives to watch our car depreciate. This will be fun. But it was. Yay. But it was. It was really fun. I was weirdly happy. I have one that I was just talking to one of my kids about. One of my kids has a habit. And I unfortunately last night really pointed it out to them. And now I'm kicking myself because I think they might stop doing it.

8:36Amy Wilson:Every time I call this kid's name, every single time they respond, me? And it's just they've been doing it since they were three years old. It's every single time. So I'm like, hey, and I use their name. And you're calling them the right name. Well, I'm calling them by their name. And similarly, they also have a habit where I say, have you done your homework? And they'll say, have I done my homework? Like they just repeat everything in this really adorable way. And I was joking with them about it last night. And unfortunately, I may have put the kibosh on it because, you know, when you point out something cute that a kid does and then they consciously stop doing it.

9:11Amy Wilson:But there is something so cute to me about me. Yeah. Isn't that your name that I just called two seconds ago? It just gives me a rational joy. The way me, who me? It's just so funny. Although like the biscettis of the world, right? When the kids mispronounce things. and yeah regularly truck that was a big one of from childhood that there was only two kinds of trucks dump trucks and regularly trucks those are the only kind of trucks that existed when my kids were little and then someday some like great uncle is like young man it's pronounced regular and you're like want to throttle them they've stolen your weird happiness although you truly do not want a 12 year old going around saying regularly trucks so i get it it has to end at some point but this kid and me i don't know why it just absolutely delights me it tickles me Danielle has a weirdly happy thing that I have definitely heard before, the smell of rain.

10:01It's earthy, and I can't even explain why I like it, says Danielle, but it hits a core memory. This is a thing. I looked it up because I knew there was a name for it. It's called Petrichor. Australian scientists in 1964 coined the word Petrichor to describe the unique earthy smell of rain. It's caused by rainwater along with compounds like ozone, geosmin, and plant oils.

10:24Amy Wilson:I have heard somebody say when you get that first couple drops of rain, smell that ozone. Like it's obviously something people know about. But I would agree that that is one of the greatest sensations in the world. And I know you'll fight me on this, but that feeling when it's about to snow is the same for me. Again, it's total joy chills. Like the half an hour before it starts to snow, I'm like a dog, like running in circles. I'm so excited. I get that. I identify with like right before it starts to snow and while it's snowing, I was able to walk in the snow last month while I was at home with my extended family in Pennsylvania.

11:01And it was so quiet. And I looked that up, too. And like when the snow is still falling and there was that sort of, you know, dead still, it's because sound waves are bumping into the snowflakes and so they don't travel as far. So it's like that weird, crunchy silence of snow falling. I know it makes me weirdly happy.

11:16Amy Wilson:We're in the Northeast and we have not had, I mean, we had a dusting one night of snow, but we have not really had a lick of snow. And I'm like, where is my critchy, crunchy snow? I need the silence and then the critchy, crunchy, critchy, crunchy. Oh, it's so delicious. We'll be right back with even more things that make us happy. For some of us, tax season is one of the only times that we look at our finances fully. And once it's over, well, that was terrible. And it is completely understandable not to want to think about it for another whole year. But using Monarch and being intentional with your finances in an ongoing way helps you see where your money is going and how you can put your refund to best use.

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14:51Amy Wilson:Get a spring-worthy glow with clean, clinically tested skincare from Osea. And right now we have a special discount just for our listeners. Get 10 % off your first order site-wide with code FRESH at OseaMalibu.com. That's 10 % off your first order with code FRESH at, I'm going to spell it, O-S-E-A-M-A-L-I-B-U. OseaMalibu.com. Ruth says she loves the smell of when her heated blanket kicks on. I loved that because it was so specific. Yeah, that's a good one. I'm not a heated blanket person. One thing I struggle with with heated blankets, the lifespan of the heated blanket has turned me off. Like I've had four of them and I don't know, I can't get a heated blanket that works.

15:40You know, it's funny, your rice cooker has just been with you for decades, but the heated blankets, they let you down.

15:45Amy Wilson:Yeah, my rice cooker never fails. But the heated blankets, something about the connection always goes wrong. And I like the ones, there's some that have like wires that run all through them that are like, they bother me like I'm the princess in the pee. Like if I could feel the wire, I don't like it. I'm high maintenance and unhappy. I have not found a good heated blanket. Bree says she likes walking through the neighborhood and smelling dryer exhaust. That's a great one. That makes her weirdly happy. She says bonus points if it's a load run with bleach in it. I have the exact opposite of this.

16:18Amy Wilson:Yeah, you don't like that? My happy smell, and it's probably a source of concern, but I waited tables and bartended for years when I was a young person. There's a sensation when you open, you go into the bar or restaurant, you're the first person in there and you're by yourself. There is a very specific smell that is closed bar. And it's mostly, I think, because normally that smell is masked by all the people. But when I walk by a closed bar with an open door and I get that hit of like sticky old alcohol and cigarettes, I love that smell. I love it. It's just a sense memory thing of like opening the bar, you know, and being alone in the bar.

16:56Amy Wilson:It just gives me a happy feeling. I like it. I had to skip ahead my list here to go to Emily, who says that her thing that makes her weirdly happy is closing up the kitchen after dinner, especially if it was a really good meal. Less about the smell than the countertops, I think. but she has a satisfaction that comes from closing time. And she said closing up and it made me think of you. She clearly worked in a restaurant at some point. Yeah. There is something about a restaurant. They say that this is what drives people insane at work too, is like it's every day is the same. It's Groundhog Day.

17:26Amy Wilson:Like you go and it's clean and then you run the paces and everybody comes in and then it's crazy and then you wipe it all down and you close the doors and it's back to one. It's like a very, it's very cyclical, you know? Yeah. You could choose to find that maddening or like deeply satisfying, right? Like and put the sponge back next to the sink. And I'm going to try to get more like Emily about that. I can't say it makes me weirdly happy. Yeah, I mean, I don't get it at all. I look at it. It just definitely doesn't bring me any joy. No. Tara Lynn has a really good one that I don't identify with, but I get that this would be for some people.

18:04Tara Lynn says assembling anything. New Ikea bed frame. Let me at it. Slot car racetrack all over it. Hubby wants a new lap pull machine in the garage. I got this. The worse the instructions, Tara Lynn says, the better the challenge and the happier I will feel when it's done.

18:20Amy Wilson:My sister Anne has this gene and I am exactly the opposite. Whatever the brain, there's two things in the world that I, people say sometimes like, oh, well, you're just telling yourself the story. You can't do it. I don't care anymore. I can't do these things and I'm never going to be able to do them. Because it's true. That's why I tell myself that story. Assembling anything 3D off of instructions on paper, I cannot do it. I would have to watch a video of someone putting it together. I can mimic their movements, but I cannot translate from paper. And the other example of this, I cannot read the instructions for a game and then figure out how to play that game.

18:57Amy Wilson:Reading instructions on a board game, I cannot translate that into real life. I just have never been able to do it. Along with the pacemaker, one of the great miracles of modern life is that you can go on YouTube now and learn how to change a vacuum cleaner bag or how to play exploding kittens or whatever that you don't have to read the instructions anymore. Somebody can just show you how to do it. Exactly. No, I cannot do it. I have to watch another person do it in order to be able to do it successfully. Or else have Tara Lynn come over. Tara Lynn, you're on my speed dial. Tara Lynn, like when she's like the worst are the instructions, the more I love it.

19:31But see, that's where I would get stuck. I'm like, why are these instructions so bad? How could you have put this product out like this? Terrible people.

19:37Amy Wilson:No, my husband is like this, too. He likes to figure it. I mean, he's an engineer, but like he does. He loves the puzzle of it. So not interesting to me. What about Mariah, who says being the first person to open a peanut butter jar makes her weirdly happy? Smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy, as the song says. And we use a particular brand. I won't call them out because I don't want to lawsuit over this. I don't feel that strongly about it, Amy. But the peel away papery thing, it should peel off in one piece, but it peels off only in the middle. And then you've got to chase the edges and then it's not satisfying.