Insights Into Teens: Episode 157 ”Surviving COVID and Stuff”

Insights Into Things

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-z2a44-132d266

After a long break from the show we’re back catching up on what’s been happening with us. We’ll talk about how the Marching Band season ended, surviving our bout with COVID and much more.

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Show Notes

INTRO THEME]

  • [INTRODUCTIONS]
    • Insights Into Teens: Episode 157 “Surviving COVID and Stuff”
    • My calm and collected co-host Madison Whalen
    • Summary
      • After a long break and a lot of things that have gone on in our absence we’re back and we’ve got a lot to talk about.

[TRANSITION]

   [SEGMENT 1] 

  • Band Recap
  • Thanksgiving Recap

[AD1: SSE]

[SEGMENT 2]

  • COVID and the after effects

[AD2: ENTERTAINMENT]

[SEGMENT 3]

  • Stuff
    • Looking forward to the holidays
    • Challenges at school
      • Honor Society

[TRANSITION]

  • [CLOSE]
  • Closing thoughts shoutouts

[OUTRO AND CREDITS]

Transcription

00:00:01:20 – 00:00:41:12
Michelle
Insightful podcasts by informative host insights into things to a podcast network. Welcome to Insights Into Teens, a podcast series exploring the issues and challenges of today’s youth. Your hosts are Joseph and Madison Whalen, a father and daughter team making their way through the challenges of.

00:00:41:12 – 00:00:50:16
Michelle
The teenage years.

00:00:51:19 – 00:01:06:00
Joseph
Welcome to Insights and the. This is episode 157 Surviving COVID and Stuff. I’m your host, Joseph Whalen, and my calm and collected co-host, Madison Whalen.

00:01:06:12 – 00:01:07:05
Madison
Hi, everyone.

00:01:07:12 – 00:01:08:08
Joseph
How are you doing today?

00:01:09:08 – 00:01:10:13
Madison
I’m all right. How about you?

00:01:11:02 – 00:01:33:12
Joseph
I’m doing okay, I guess. So after excuse me, after a long break and a lot of things that have gone on in our absence, we’re back and we have a lot to talk about, not the least of which is surviving COVID. But before we get into that, I do want to implore, beg.

00:01:33:25 – 00:01:35:27
Madison
Plead, borrow one.

00:01:35:27 – 00:02:01:14
Joseph
My borrowing, anything. We’re really just trying to try. Yes, I know. Trying to entice people to subscribe to the podcast. You can find both audio and video versions of our podcast listed as insights into things, and we’re listed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, and so forth. I would also ask you to write in and give us your feedback.

00:02:01:24 – 00:02:32:12
Joseph
Tell us how we’re doing. Give us your suggestions for show topics. We’re always interested in getting feedback from folks. You can email us at comments and insights into things dot com. We’re on Twitter at insights underscore things. We also stream five days a week on twitch and Twitch, Dart TV, slash insights and the things where you get links to all those and much more on our official website at insights into things.

00:02:32:14 – 00:02:35:03
Joseph
Dot com. Are we ready?

00:02:35:11 – 00:02:35:24
Madison
Sure.

00:02:36:07 – 00:02:39:27
Joseph
That’s really not very enthusiastic, but. Okay. Oh.

00:02:39:28 – 00:02:42:04
Madison
Well.

00:02:46:07 – 00:02:57:06
Joseph
So a lot has happened. A couple of big things happened. First of all, as the audience can probably see at this point, you had your haircut.

00:02:57:14 – 00:02:57:27
Madison
Yep.

00:02:58:27 – 00:03:13:03
Joseph
So for the longest time since you were. Oh, geez, I don’t know, what, four or five years old. You let your hair grow and grow and you would get it trimmed periodically. But now you went and did a big cut this time.

00:03:13:11 – 00:03:14:17
Madison
Yep. Ten inches.

00:03:14:22 – 00:03:16:24
Joseph
What was the the impetus for that?

00:03:17:19 – 00:03:41:11
Madison
Oh, well, I guess the main thing was really marching band when I started to notice that my hair was really a lot of work and I when it came to marching band, I had to pull my hair up in a bun and I could physically feel the weight of the bun because I had so much hair and it was so heavy.

00:03:41:11 – 00:03:49:06
Madison
And I’d always have to get Mommy to always put my hair up in this big, complicated bun, because otherwise I couldn’t really do it myself.

00:03:51:06 – 00:04:14:20
Madison
And it all. And like, I had had issues with brushing my hair. It was really long hair and there was also a lot of it and there was and the going to a point where I kind of figured that what would it be like if I ended up cutting it? I didn’t want it to go too short, but I kind of wanted to get a decent amount off at least.

00:04:14:22 – 00:04:18:13
Joseph
So you said ten inches. What was the why was it ten inches?

00:04:19:13 – 00:04:40:28
Madison
Because because I had a lot of hair. I was planning on donating it because I ended up hearing I know that there was hair donations and such. And I remember that there was another girl who had really long hair that ended up cutting it short for donation. And then I figured like, hey, if I’m going to cut my hair, might as well put it to some good use.

00:04:41:07 – 00:04:50:18
Madison
Okay. And when we went to the hair salon, they said that basically the minimum amount to cut for donation would be ten inches. So that’s what we went with.

00:04:50:27 – 00:05:03:00
Joseph
Okay. So a noble sacrifice for years and years of hair care, of which I have to say I was partially responsible for when I used to brush your hair and braid your hair.

00:05:03:00 – 00:05:04:00
Madison
So, yeah.

00:05:04:26 – 00:05:05:17
Joseph
How does it feel?

00:05:06:04 – 00:05:22:18
Madison
Honestly, it feels a lot better, especially when like, I had first gotten it. It was it was a weird feeling. It was like it felt it was still too long, but also to short. It was a weird feeling. It’s like it felt like my hair was long because I had a lot of hair and I still have a lot of hair left.

00:05:23:09 – 00:05:42:03
Madison
Well, obviously, I still have a lot of hair left after ten inches were cut off and it felt weird having it like so short because I mean, you start going all the way down my back and now it only goes to my shoulders pretty much. And it also felt too long because it’s like, well, ten inches that I felt like that would cut off more of my hair.

00:05:42:04 – 00:05:46:07
Joseph
Right. So it was just is this what we’re sticking with for now or are you going to let it grow back?

00:05:46:25 – 00:05:51:00
Madison
I probably won’t let it go back. I might even cut it even shorter. I’m not sure.

00:05:51:07 – 00:05:54:18
Joseph
Okay. So it sounds like a mission successful?

00:05:54:24 – 00:05:55:04
Madison
Yep.

00:05:55:10 – 00:06:02:19
Joseph
Awesome. So the other big thing that happened was we got COVID despite our best efforts not to.

00:06:02:21 – 00:06:05:29
Madison
Yeah. More specifically, I got Cobra than I gave it to you guys.

00:06:06:00 – 00:06:08:19
Joseph
You did? And, you know, sharing is caring, right?

00:06:09:00 – 00:06:10:21
Madison
Yeah. That’s how all this is go.

00:06:10:24 – 00:06:17:08
Joseph
So let’s talk about that. First of all, how did how did COVID wind up in our house? Let’s talk about that.

00:06:17:11 – 00:06:40:10
Madison
So I’m not entirely sure when where directly came from, but my guess was that during our home shows where it happened because there were a ton of people there and we weren’t really wearing masks. So we kind of figured it was an outdoor area so it wouldn’t be that bad. But I’m assuming that’s where we got COVID, or at least I got COVID, so I didn’t really start seeing any major effects until Monday.

00:06:40:10 – 00:07:14:29
Madison
And like even then it wasn’t that bad. My throat was just kind of so a little weird. But at the end of the day, but I didn’t really think too much of it because I ended up having a specific zero. Boy, that kind of did that to my throat. So it’s like, yeah. And then Tuesday I started really not feeling well, but like, I still went to school and I went to band, but I was obviously coughing a lot more and I also felt really kind of stuffy, but it got really bad when it was Wednesday and it was to the point when I when Mommy ended up asking me in the morning, Hey, if

00:07:14:29 – 00:07:33:28
Madison
you don’t want to go to school, that’s fine. And because of my perfectionist attitude, I’m like, No, I’m still going to school. And like, I still wear my mask at school. So it probably wouldn’t have been as bad as if I didn’t wear a mask, so I wouldn’t have infected people. But we decided not to do it to do band because I just wasn’t feeling well.

00:07:33:28 – 00:08:02:02
Madison
Mommy also like mentioned that to me and honestly, I wasn’t complaining and you know, skipping our band, it ain’t that bad. And then we ended up now I never thought it was COVID. I just felt like I was sick and didn’t really feel all that bad. But just for a safety while me and you said I think you were the one that suggested that I take the test and Mommy ended up giving you the test and I was staying in my room.

00:08:02:02 – 00:08:15:23
Madison
Obviously. And then she came in with a mask and told me the test came back positive. Then we took another one and it also came back positive.

00:08:16:09 – 00:08:19:18
Joseph
So you pass the test really nice. You get them in the study.

00:08:19:21 – 00:08:33:10
Madison
Yeah. So I technically got it. Tuesday didn’t exactly quarantine but yeah. So I got COVID on my birthday. So that’s fun.

00:08:34:00 – 00:09:01:01
Joseph
So you wound up giving it to the rest of us. Being the generous individual that you are and I think that week Mommy and I started developing symptoms and I had a little tickle in our throat on Friday night. And then Saturday we didn’t feel good. We took COVID tests, but they came back negative. So we just figured we had the flu because we had just recently you and I had just gotten our flu shot.

00:09:01:07 – 00:09:01:20
Madison
Yeah.

00:09:02:04 – 00:09:04:13
Joseph
Which is what we originally thought it was with you.

00:09:04:13 – 00:09:04:23
Madison
Yeah.

00:09:05:02 – 00:09:35:27
Joseph
So we got our flu shot that previous weekend or the night? One of the nights during a week, I think we did, yeah. And then then the Sunday we, we felt worse. We took the test again because I wanted to make sure before I went back into the office that I wasn’t positive and we tested positive. And really, to be honest with you, the first five days, because I wasn’t allowed back to the office, I had to quarantine for five days from my office.

00:09:35:27 – 00:09:57:27
Joseph
Three of the first five days. It was really just the severe cold symptoms that I had. And the last two days I, I was pretty much fine. I was working from home. I couldn’t go back in. And so Thursday and Tuesday I did a half day remote. And then Wednesday I was able to work most of the day remote without a problem.

00:09:59:06 – 00:10:31:08
Joseph
And then Thursday and Friday I was fine. And then Saturday, Saturday I was okay too. I really didn’t start to feel bad again until Sunday and I’m still suffering from and this was almost over a month now since I had it and it was chest congestion. It was all up in the, you know, nasal congestion and everything. And it felt worse when that that rebound hit me.

00:10:32:10 – 00:11:00:08
Joseph
And then I went back into the office on Monday and Tuesday. While I was in the office, I had other issues. I had a low blood sugar count that made me feel woozy. I had a high heart rate and all kinds of weird things happened. And then I went home early and then I stayed home on Wednesday just to be safe and everything checked out fine.

00:11:00:08 – 00:11:15:26
Joseph
In fact, it was funny. My my boss was so worried about me. She actually had texted me and told me to just work from home the rest of the week, but I felt fine and I didn’t want to be be out. So I came in on Thursday and Friday and I was fine, but I just haven’t been able to kick this.

00:11:15:26 – 00:11:21:22
Joseph
How you been when you got better? Were you better or are you still having symptoms?

00:11:21:22 – 00:11:57:08
Madison
Well, the thing was, I had actually stopped ever since Tuesday. I’d been really not feeling well. The coughing was honestly a really big problem. I started feeling better around Saturday and by Sunday I was honestly much better. And I’ve since pretty much kicked I’ve I’ve pretty much kept most of the symptoms, but I have noticed that like I have certain times when I have a stuffy nose and then I’d cough, but I don’t really think it’s from COVID, mainly just regular sickness, but it could be a rebound, I’m not sure, but nothing like severe.

00:11:57:17 – 00:12:04:23
Joseph
Okay. And just for the record, you know, you were fully vaccinated or two vaccines and a booster, right?

00:12:05:00 – 00:12:05:11
Madison
Yeah.

00:12:06:13 – 00:12:31:12
Joseph
I had two vaccines and two boosters and we were scheduled to go that Friday for our third booster for Mommy and I. But when you tested positive, I said we better wait, because if you’re positive and we have it, we just are asymptomatic. We may have a compromised immune system. That’s a good thing. We did wait because we wound up testing positive two days later.

00:12:31:12 – 00:12:36:08
Joseph
So we’ve been masking everywhere we go except for the home show, obviously.

00:12:36:09 – 00:12:36:21
Madison
Yeah.

00:12:36:29 – 00:12:58:07
Joseph
We’ve gotten our vaccinations, you know, we’ve done everything that we should be doing. I think it’s just one of those things where everybody’s going to get this eventually, no matter how hard you try. I think we’re fortunate. At least I’m fortunate that I got it very late. I’m one of the last people that I know, especially from our own work.

00:12:59:18 – 00:13:27:07
Joseph
We’re one of the last families to wind up getting it. And I think if nothing else, that’s given my body a chance to get the boosters and all the other stuff into me. And I’m still not doing 100% at this point in time. I can only imagine how bad I would have been had I gotten it earlier. And I have you know, we’ve talked about it on the podcast, a number of underlying health issues as well that contribute to it.

00:13:28:18 – 00:13:33:06
Joseph
So overall, clearly it’s survivable because we’re here.

00:13:33:20 – 00:13:34:02
Madison
Yeah.

00:13:34:13 – 00:13:59:22
Joseph
Very different effects on you than it had on me. Yeah, I’m obviously older, overweight, health issues, stuff like that. So if nothing else, I think it’s it’s kind of a cautionary tale to to make sure you do everything right to to one, not get it if you can avoid it. And to make sure you seek the proper medical health when you are helping, you do.

00:13:59:24 – 00:14:23:03
Madison
Yeah, honestly, I think we’re honest. We’re kind of a good example of the lessons of you’re probably going to get sorry, you’re probably going to get it at some point. These precautions aren’t necessarily to stop you from getting it. What it really is, is a lot for you is to make it survivable to the point where you don’t have to be hospitalized and you don’t feel as strong of the effects.

00:14:23:16 – 00:14:40:27
Joseph
I, I agree 100%. And I think what we did was we rendered it survivable. So I’m going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we’re going to talk about band and some Thanksgiving recap and some other stuff. We’ll be right back.

00:14:40:29 – 00:14:49:10
Madison
All righty.

00:14:50:05 – 00:15:20:12
Joseph
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00:15:21:07 – 00:15:46:19
Joseph
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00:15:51:26 – 00:16:20:15
Joseph
Welcome back to insights in the teens today we’re talking about surviving COVID and stuff and now we’re going to talk about stuff. So we touched on some activity with band. Band season obviously is over. How does it wind up? What’s your overall impressions? How did you guys do your HCC, your Atlantic Conference Championships? Give us the whole band spiel.

00:16:21:02 – 00:16:44:15
Madison
All right. So this is technically my second year in band. I was now considered a veteran. Yeah. And basically this season, we ended up doing a show called Follow Me, which featured three different songs, one being theme by David Bowie, three Being Mad World by probably not the actual people that wrote it, but I don’t really know who wrote it at this point.

00:16:44:15 – 00:17:11:08
Madison
Starry and Grace Kelly by Maker. And basically the whole thing was basically a modern story about how you don’t follow influencers and to be your own person and stuff like that. And basically going through a self-discovery journey. Interesting how that was in marching band where you literally have to follow every move you’re told because otherwise you jeopardize the show.

00:17:11:08 – 00:17:12:25
Joseph
There is a certain irony to that.

00:17:13:06 – 00:17:41:07
Madison
Yeah, that that’s kind of what I was thinking during the entire show. But nonetheless, we had I got to experience what it was like to be a veteran. And basically I also ended up switching instruments. I went from trumpet to telephone because Porter thought it would be better for me. So fun. So I did the mouth on and I was the only mouth on players.

00:17:41:07 – 00:17:43:09
Madison
That was an interesting experience.

00:17:43:10 – 00:17:45:07
Joseph
Where Porco being your band director?

00:17:45:07 – 00:18:08:02
Madison
Yes, Porco being my band director who’d had on the show before. So basically it was funny. A lot of the mellow phone parts, I was mixed with different people in the beginning. I was mixed with the low brass, then I’d be mixed with the saxophones, and then I’d finally be mixed with the trumpet, which is technically where my often is supposed to go.

00:18:08:02 – 00:18:14:23
Madison
So, you know, it was interesting having to learn the different parts and not being able to really know what Krupa meant. So that was fun.

00:18:15:02 – 00:18:22:26
Joseph
So how did you guys wind up? So we did. We missed all of us. Missed one show.

00:18:23:15 – 00:18:23:23
Madison
Yeah.

00:18:24:08 – 00:18:33:00
Joseph
Then we. You went to the which I forget which one you went to where mommy and Daddy still weren’t feeling well.

00:18:33:00 – 00:18:36:25
Madison
I don’t know if it was called champion. No, I don’t think it was.

00:18:36:26 – 00:18:37:27
Joseph
I forget what it was.

00:18:38:03 – 00:18:39:09
Madison
Yeah.

00:18:39:09 – 00:18:45:18
Joseph
You had a really rough schedule this year. You had a lot of schedule changes, you had a lot of scheduling that fell through.

00:18:45:21 – 00:18:46:03
Madison
Yeah.

00:18:46:04 – 00:19:08:06
Joseph
So it was kind of a hectic year this year, not knowing where you were going and how many shows you were doing, but we wound up going to Atlantic Coast Atlantic Conference, Atlantic Coast Championship X Yep. And these were done at Hershey Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is kind of a cool thing to do with that.

00:19:08:08 – 00:19:08:19
Madison
Yeah.

00:19:09:00 – 00:19:17:07
Joseph
Last year too. They didn’t do it there because of COVID. Yeah, this year they did. And how did you guys finish?

00:19:17:07 – 00:19:20:24
Madison
We finished with a score of 93 point something.

00:19:21:08 – 00:19:22:27
Joseph
93 point something.

00:19:22:28 – 00:19:24:02
Madison
Don’t know what the ending was.

00:19:24:09 – 00:19:28:15
Joseph
What place did you land in third place? So you were third place out.

00:19:28:15 – 00:19:29:06
Madison
Of 90.

00:19:29:06 – 00:19:31:20
Joseph
Nine. Not too shabby.

00:19:31:25 – 00:19:32:07
Madison
Yeah.

00:19:33:12 – 00:19:40:00
Joseph
So last year after band was over. Yeah, we knew we’d had a kind of a rough first year in band.

00:19:40:06 – 00:19:40:17
Madison
Yeah.

00:19:42:09 – 00:20:10:12
Joseph
I kind of had a rough first year with you and band, too. I didn’t realize the demands that were placed on you from a time and scheduling standpoint, effort wise, band camp, you know, in the middle of summer there and stuff. So there’s all various challenges that you went through and you ended being last year teetering on the fence and whether you wanted to come back or not decided obviously to come back.

00:20:10:12 – 00:20:26:20
Joseph
You did a second year here. Where do you find yourself now? Do you find yourself enthusiastic in missing band and wanting to come back, or do you find yourself back on that fence again? Or do you find yourself teetering to the other side and not wanting to do band again?

00:20:27:09 – 00:20:51:12
Madison
Honestly, I’ve been teetering way more to the side of not doing band. Apparently. I know that I was on the fence after band ended and I wasn’t really on either side. I continued this year and the problems I noticed last year seemed to be slightly more amplified as well as even more problems ended up seeming to arise as well.

00:20:51:19 – 00:20:55:25
Joseph
So have you come to a conclusion at this point in time where you’re going to go with band?

00:20:57:18 – 00:21:19:06
Madison
Right now? I’m honestly kind of determining whether I’m going to go and do like the ending stuff of the season or not at this point because I don’t know, like I wanted to. My main goal is if anything else I was going to finish off the season, do the parades and stuff, and then maybe if I wanted to end it, I’d call it there.

00:21:20:02 – 00:21:33:01
Madison
But knowing how poor go tends to be when it comes to people in band and his skills and keeping everybody there, maybe it might be best to not even really go and do that far.

00:21:33:06 – 00:21:35:11
Joseph
So he’s a good recruiter, basically.

00:21:35:21 – 00:22:03:16
Madison
Well, I mean, I started off March. I started off with the idea that I was never going to do marching band. It was way too crazy. Porco convinced me to do Marching Band. I also decided, yet never going to do mellow phone. I don’t like that, he convinced me. Do new phone. There’s a pattern here and it’s come to a point where I kind of need to start voicing up and stop listening to him right now.

00:22:03:16 – 00:22:17:11
Joseph
If things don’t work out for him in the music industry, I’m sure he can always get a job in sales with a reputation like that. So you’re leaning towards not coming back for band next year. At what point in time do you what’s the make or break point where you have to make a decision.

00:22:19:22 – 00:22:29:27
Madison
Probably want to start? Probably the point when I really have to start making it is when the activities start like basically the fundraisers and when the parades, inevitably.

00:22:30:06 – 00:22:32:14
Joseph
Those parades are what, the beginning of summer, right?

00:22:33:10 – 00:22:34:12
Madison
Yeah, pretty much.

00:22:34:19 – 00:22:40:00
Joseph
Okay. Right. So you have some time. You can, you can sort of let it stew for a little bit and see what happens.

00:22:41:06 – 00:22:41:16
Madison
Yeah.

00:22:41:25 – 00:22:44:24
Joseph
So there’s no rush, I guess, is what I’m getting at.

00:22:45:08 – 00:22:45:26
Madison
Yeah.

00:22:46:06 – 00:23:12:01
Joseph
All right. So we’ll talk about that, you know, later on in the school year and see where we stand. So holiday season, right? We’ve finally got back together with the family for Thanksgiving, which was the first time since COVID struck. We went up to see GMA, who was also on the show in the past four years. How did that go?

00:23:12:03 – 00:23:19:18
Joseph
What was it? Was it nice to get out and have a holiday finally? Was it too much? Were there too many people? What are your thoughts?

00:23:19:27 – 00:23:55:08
Madison
Honestly, it was not that many people. It wasn’t our usual grouping. And there were only like three other people besides us. And honestly, it was actually pretty quaint and normal of the house is really crowded. But even then I kind of started finding myself kind of trying to avoid most people. I guess I just found it awkward to be in a room with everybody because even though there’s very few of us, they talk a lot and they have multiple conversations going on at once and it’s hard to hear who’s talking to who.

00:23:55:18 – 00:24:05:05
Madison
So I had to take a few moments to break, but overall it was nice to see some of our family again. Yeah, I’m not.

00:24:05:12 – 00:24:30:00
Joseph
I was never one who was big on crowds either. Part of my problem with that is, you know, my hearing isn’t that great. And when I’m in a crowd, it’s very difficult for me to distinguish individual voices from the chatter that goes on in a room. So it’s very hard for me to actually maintain a conversation with people, but it’s always fun to get up there and see everybody.

00:24:30:00 – 00:24:56:02
Joseph
But the house is usually stuffy, you know, I have allergies to cats and GMA has a cat, although I did much better because she replaced the couch, the one couch. Every year I’d go up there and sit on that couch knowing that I’m allergic to the couch, but I still sat on the couch and by the time I had an allergic reaction, it was very uncomfortable.

00:24:56:26 – 00:25:19:11
Joseph
I didn’t have that this year, which was nice. You and I got out and went for a little walk at one point in time, which was nice. We didn’t have. She has a enclosed porch in the back there which used to she used to have a swing on their porch swing. And it was comfortable to sit out there that wasn’t there this year.

00:25:19:11 – 00:25:35:25
Joseph
So we kind of had to make do. But the food was fantastic. In fact, I was under the gun to make my mashed potatoes and and cheesecake, so we wound up making £10.

00:25:35:25 – 00:25:36:08
Madison
Yep.

00:25:36:15 – 00:25:40:24
Joseph
£10 of mashed potatoes this year, of which you helped.

00:25:41:00 – 00:25:41:07
Madison
Yeah.

00:25:41:14 – 00:25:49:10
Joseph
And you contributed. This was the first year you officially contributed a dish to Thanksgiving dinner. What did you contribute?

00:25:49:19 – 00:25:54:13
Madison
I contributed my signature banana bread that I found on the recipe online.

00:25:54:14 – 00:25:58:21
Joseph
That old family recipe that we make all the time, that somebody’s family.

00:25:58:22 – 00:26:01:28
Madison
Somebody’s family, not ours. But it’s a family recipe. So?

00:26:02:21 – 00:26:09:28
Joseph
So how does that make you feel presenting a dish out there and getting people’s feedback on it?

00:26:09:28 – 00:26:19:29
Madison
You know, I tried that with band, didn’t really work because nobody else ate it. And I don’t think anybody ate the banana bread that I did bring. So, you know.

00:26:19:29 – 00:26:21:03
Joseph
Well, Roger did.

00:26:21:06 – 00:26:21:18
Madison
He did.

00:26:22:06 – 00:26:23:03
Joseph
He commented on it.

00:26:24:02 – 00:26:24:11
Madison
Oh.

00:26:25:06 – 00:26:30:09
Joseph
After I got into eating my cheesecake, too, I had I had to twist his aunt eat my cheesecake, too.

00:26:30:15 – 00:26:36:09
Madison
Yeah. I don’t really want to, to twist people into eating my banana bread, but.

00:26:36:25 – 00:26:41:14
Joseph
I had to learn how to do sales. Sales and marketing. That’s how you make the money. If you start producing stuff.

00:26:41:18 – 00:26:43:10
Madison
Maybe I get put. Go online with that.

00:26:43:13 – 00:26:48:17
Joseph
There you go. So Thanksgiving success or fail this year?

00:26:48:17 – 00:26:55:07
Madison
Honestly, success, especially after there’s was a decent amount of confusion on how we’d be spending it.

00:26:55:16 – 00:27:20:12
Joseph
And, you know, it was it was you’re right. It was nice. It wasn’t as large a crowd. I think it was a great way to kind of start easing back into some sense of normalcy. Hopefully we’ll have more of that moving forward. We’re going to take another break and come back and finish up with a couple of less bits of stuff to talk about Easter.

00:27:20:19 – 00:27:29:16
Joseph
We’ll be right back.

00:27:30:08 – 00:28:01:11
Michelle
Insights into entertainment, a podcast series taking a deeper look into entertainment and media. Our husband and wife team of pop culture fanatics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fandom. We’ll look at the interesting and obscure entertainment news of the week. We’ll talk about theme park and pop culture news. We’ll give you the latest and greatest on pop culture conventions.

00:28:02:09 – 00:28:26:16
Michelle
We’ll give you a deep dove into Disney, Star Wars and much more. Check out our video episodes at YouTube.com. Backslash Insights into things are audio episodes and podcast insights into entertainment dot com. Or check us out on the web at insights into things com.

00:28:32:09 – 00:28:54:20
Joseph
Welcome back to Insights into teens. We’re talking stuff now. So it is the holiday season. We just had our Thanksgiving celebration and we’re rapidly moving into our family celebration now where we celebrate two holidays. What do you tell us about the holidays that we’re going to be celebrating?

00:28:55:11 – 00:29:04:07
Madison
So we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas because Mommy’s do us and know mommy’s Jewish. And you’re not.

00:29:04:25 – 00:29:08:04
Joseph
Right. I’m not anything at this point.

00:29:08:11 – 00:29:21:01
Madison
Yeah. You know, so we do both holidays and it just so happens that this year Hanukkah ends up falling on one of the days of well, Christmas ends up falling on one of the nine two Hanukkah.

00:29:21:05 – 00:29:44:11
Joseph
Yes. So Hanukkah starts on the 18th, I believe, and it runs until the 26th. So the holiday season, I guess I can say it gets to extend one extra day this this year for us, because usually Hanukkah is usually over by the by Christmas or by the end of Christmas. It’s not that often and it runs past Christmas.

00:29:44:11 – 00:29:45:11
Joseph
So that’s kind of nice.

00:29:45:21 – 00:29:48:11
Madison
Yeah. Also nice that it’s not November.

00:29:48:27 – 00:29:49:19
Joseph
Yes.

00:29:49:19 – 00:29:50:10
Madison
That last.

00:29:50:10 – 00:29:53:26
Joseph
Year. Painfully early I think when that ends.

00:29:53:26 – 00:29:55:24
Madison
Yeah.

00:29:55:24 – 00:29:58:24
Joseph
So Christmas shopping, did you finish all your Christmas shopping?

00:29:59:02 – 00:30:08:21
Madison
Well, I finished my Christmas shopping for mommy. I’m planning on taking her out this weekend to do some Christmas shopping with you. You’re buying stuff for me? For you? Yeah.

00:30:08:22 – 00:30:38:03
Joseph
That’s awesome. There’s a $650 Darth Vader statue. I want Mommy. I’ll show you. You got it for that, right? Yeah. You can afford it. Whether they buy it for you, that’s a different story. So that the I started buying early this year actually I’m I was technically done buying before Thanksgiving, so I have all the required gifts I need to buy.

00:30:38:12 – 00:30:38:22
Madison
Yep.

00:30:39:00 – 00:30:40:13
Joseph
But I just keep buying stuff.

00:30:40:23 – 00:30:41:05
Madison
Yeah.

00:30:41:11 – 00:31:05:21
Joseph
That’s the one thing for me about the holiday is the one thing I like the most about. The holiday is giving gifts. It’s nice to receive them. I’m not like, if there’s something that I want, I’ll buy it. I won’t wait till the holidays. I’ll just buy it. It’s the same attitude I have about clothes I hate buying people clothes for Christmas.

00:31:06:13 – 00:31:28:19
Joseph
Novelty stuff is one thing, but like my mother used to be like, oh, I bought you socks for Christmas. Well, know if I need socks, let’s just go get socks. That should be a president should be a necessity. So that’s why I’ve always kind of had a thing about buying clothes for Christmas. In fact, we have a box of a Disney box that came today.

00:31:28:19 – 00:31:30:14
Joseph
I have to open up and see what’s in there. I don’t even.

00:31:30:26 – 00:31:32:24
Madison
Bother trying to find stuff.

00:31:32:24 – 00:31:49:14
Joseph
I see stuff that looks cool and I buy it and it shows up and I don’t even know what it is until I open the box. So it’s always a surprise for me too. And I think this time of year, my Amazon or Amazon delivery guys really hate because they’re going to bring some reebok’s to the house.

00:31:49:18 – 00:31:49:25
Madison
Hmm.

00:31:50:18 – 00:31:54:09
Joseph
Is there anything you are looking forward to for the holidays?

00:31:55:28 – 00:31:59:17
Madison
I guess what I’m looking forward to is kind of the decorations.

00:32:00:10 – 00:32:05:12
Joseph
The Declaration of Independence.

00:32:05:12 – 00:32:06:02
Madison
Are you kidding?

00:32:06:09 – 00:32:09:18
Joseph
Sorry, the dad jokes don’t get any better than that yet.

00:32:09:18 – 00:32:34:17
Madison
They don’t. But I especially enjoy decorating when it comes to the holidays. It’s always fun to kind of decorate our tree. It was really fun last year because we were specifically doing a Star Wars theme. Because we ended up doing this, we ended up doing a Haunted Mansion theme for the Trunk, a treat for band. Last year. And then we did Star Wars for Christmas.

00:32:34:27 – 00:32:39:03
Madison
We were going to do Star Wars for Trick or Treat. But, you know, you guys weren’t feeling well, but.

00:32:39:03 – 00:32:40:21
Joseph
You know, COVID, so.

00:32:42:00 – 00:32:50:21
Madison
So I think this year we were going to do a Haunted Mansion theme, so that’ll be fun to try out. You know, basically Nightmare Before Christmas.

00:32:50:21 – 00:32:57:18
Joseph
Is that would be fun. Yeah. It’ll be even more fun if we wait until Christmas, but that’s a whole nother thing.

00:32:58:02 – 00:32:58:24
Madison
Well, yeah.

00:32:59:15 – 00:33:06:11
Joseph
Anyway, so is there anything you’re looking forward to? Any presents you want?

00:33:06:11 – 00:33:20:16
Madison
Thing is, I’m kind of lenient with what I want would want for presents. There’s occasionally stuff that I’ll ask for, like the one time I asked for The Hunger Games box because I like the story and.

00:33:21:13 – 00:33:24:03
Joseph
A really good.

00:33:24:03 – 00:33:33:26
Madison
Yeah, right. And like occasionally there’s like stuff that I wanted to get myself, but I never got the chance to.

00:33:34:10 – 00:33:44:16
Joseph
So your fans are spending your money. You just wait to have us spend our money. That’s more like that. That’s fiscal responsibility, which we did a podcast on.

00:33:44:25 – 00:33:47:06
Madison
I know I’ve been here.

00:33:47:12 – 00:33:55:15
Joseph
So is there anything you want for Christmas? The one thing you would ask for was a purple sweatshirt. Purple hoodie?

00:33:55:20 – 00:34:10:14
Madison
Yeah, because it was basically the color for our class prior to whenever it was. And the one purple hoodie I had was getting very tiny on my body and it was very uncomfortable.

00:34:10:14 – 00:34:13:22
Joseph
It wasn’t the hoodie that was changing size, really. It’s you growing.

00:34:13:22 – 00:34:23:15
Madison
I know it’s me growing up and the hoodie wasn’t fitting me anymore, so I kind of wanted another purple hoodie so that I could still wear a hoodie if I wanted to experience.

00:34:23:16 – 00:34:25:10
Joseph
Was there anything else that you want?

00:34:26:10 – 00:34:32:22
Madison
I mean, I still kind of have the generic ideas, like still very into SpongeBob.

00:34:32:22 – 00:34:35:29
Joseph
Anything SpongeBob demonstrated by your shirt there.

00:34:36:06 – 00:34:47:06
Madison
Yeah. So anything SpongeBob related that I don’t already have, I guess okay. And then pushing, interested and pushing.

00:34:47:07 – 00:34:47:21
Joseph
Okay.

00:34:48:10 – 00:34:54:15
Madison
There’s the mini brands, you know, kind of just generic.

00:34:54:15 – 00:34:56:26
Joseph
Just the usual stuff you’re looking for all year long.

00:34:56:26 – 00:35:06:12
Madison
Yeah. The thing is, Mom actually kind of just takes me shopping, and when I see something that I like, she’ll just say, okay, now don’t look.

00:35:06:18 – 00:35:09:08
Joseph
So there’s no one big thing that you want then?

00:35:09:20 – 00:35:12:13
Madison
Not really. Not this year at least.

00:35:13:24 – 00:35:27:03
Joseph
All right. So there’s a there’s a trip that we’ve got coming up to where is that to you? Don’t even remember the Comic-Con. Yeah. Where?

00:35:27:03 – 00:35:27:22
Madison
I don’t know.

00:35:28:05 – 00:35:29:07
Joseph
Ocean City, Maryland.

00:35:29:27 – 00:35:30:12
Madison
Oh.

00:35:30:24 – 00:35:32:28
Joseph
You know where I broke my rib last year?

00:35:32:29 – 00:35:38:11
Madison
Oh, gosh. Bullshit. And break your rib. Otherwise, you would have gone to the hospital.

00:35:38:12 – 00:35:48:00
Joseph
No, I broke it. Trust me, there’s nothing they can do for a broken rib. I think I can literally feel the rib moving. So it was broken.

00:35:48:03 – 00:35:49:01
Madison
Okay, cool.

00:35:50:00 – 00:36:02:18
Joseph
So we’re going down there. Last year we went down for the first time for Ocean City Comic-Con and they did a big holiday light display down there in a park right next to the beach.

00:36:02:28 – 00:36:04:00
Madison
Oh, so that’s why we’re going.

00:36:04:03 – 00:36:07:25
Joseph
Yes. So we’ll be go. Not this weekend. I think the weekend after that.

00:36:08:15 – 00:36:18:25
Madison
Yeah I think I’m on the ended up saying that it was next weekend we were doing it you got and you guys were both working half days and she promised that she’d pick me up early.

00:36:18:27 – 00:36:19:22
Joseph
Well, there you go.

00:36:19:22 – 00:36:21:22
Madison
Well, not pick me up, but just pick me up.

00:36:22:05 – 00:36:36:10
Joseph
Just pick you up and then put you down. Pick you up and body slam you anyway. So that’s something to look forward to. I love doing the late shows. We’ll do that one. We usually do Shady Brook Farms.

00:36:37:23 – 00:36:41:29
Madison
Yeah, we haven’t done that. We didn’t do that for Halloween. I really hope we can do that for Christmas.

00:36:41:29 – 00:36:59:05
Joseph
Yeah, we should be eligible for Christmas. They have a couple in the area here now, which was nice. They had the one at the racetrack we went through that was less than desirable and there’s another farm near us that will do so. Hopefully we’ll highlight these on one of our entertainment insights to the entertainment podcast. Yeah.

00:36:59:05 – 00:37:02:15
Madison
And there was the other one with like Freeze Meister with like the one big.

00:37:02:21 – 00:37:20:16
Joseph
That’s the other. Yeah, that’s the other one. The other foreign that we went to. So that’s sort of the stuff that I get into this time of year going through those things. Or if we, if we go to Shady Brook and it’s not raining, we all sit by the bonfire there and roast marshmallows and stuff and that’s fun stuff.

00:37:20:17 – 00:37:20:28
Joseph
Yeah.

00:37:21:17 – 00:37:23:03
Madison
And then I’ll be terrified by Santa.

00:37:23:07 – 00:37:23:18
Joseph
There you.

00:37:23:18 – 00:37:25:20
Madison
Go. My excuse being that I was Jewish.

00:37:25:26 – 00:37:31:19
Joseph
Well, you know, at this point in time, there’s really no reason to be afraid of Santa. He’s just, you know, there now.

00:37:32:03 – 00:37:32:15
Madison
Yeah.

00:37:34:00 – 00:37:54:26
Joseph
So the last thing I did want to talk about is actually kind of one of the things that we had talked about during Thanksgiving, you and I. And that’s some of the challenges that you’re running into at school, some of the things you’re running into there and the big one, I think they kind of stuck out to me was the Honor Society stuff.

00:37:56:00 – 00:38:13:06
Joseph
So let’s let’s kind of touch on that a little bit there. So obviously, from an academic standpoint, straight A’s, you’re going to kind of ace your way in there. And when I was in school, that was really all you needed. Really needed good grades again and again to keep a certain grade point average to get in the honor society.

00:38:14:02 – 00:38:42:07
Joseph
And apparently you have to have a certain number of activity points. And depending on what you do, you get points. So for instance, being in band, you get four points. The big things, the big sports, the stuff that’s long term that has a lot of requirements, a lot of commitment. You get four points and then some of the other clubs you get two points for and there’s a requirement for ten points.

00:38:43:21 – 00:39:11:17
Joseph
What are your thoughts on Honor Society? Is it something you’ve wanted to do or are you motivated to do? Do you care about it? Is it is it on that bucket list or is it just like for me, I never thought I’d get into it myself because I didn’t have the the academics was for it. I wasn’t getting into it for my business class at the time, but it was never something I aspired to.

00:39:11:25 – 00:39:15:00
Joseph
Is it something that you aspire to? What are your thoughts on it?

00:39:15:21 – 00:39:30:27
Madison
To be honest, never really aspired to it, never really understood why I needed it, why it existed. I just knew. I guess a lot of it was just consistent. The smart people didn’t know why I had to be a part of it, never really aspired to it.

00:39:31:15 – 00:40:01:24
Joseph
Okay, so the requirements that are on there require ten points. So with band being questionable for next year, you in order to get into it, you would need ten points which all the other clubs you’ve looked at are two points each, so you’d mathematically have to participate in five clubs. Are there five clubs on that eligibility list that have caught your eye that you’re interested in?

00:40:02:11 – 00:40:09:18
Joseph
Are there any clubs that have caught your interest that you’re interested in partaking in?

00:40:10:06 – 00:40:18:04
Madison
I wouldn’t say that there’s five clubs, but, you know, some I’m kind of interested in. I did the one hour club meeting. I thought that was pretty cool, right?

00:40:18:24 – 00:40:46:03
Joseph
Were there anything were there any other clubs in there that you might be interested in doing? And and I asked that not under the idea of let’s do five clubs to get into honor society. I ask because these kids don’t join the clubs to get into honor society. They join the clubs to have fun, to socialize, to enjoy themselves, stuff like that.

00:40:47:03 – 00:41:03:25
Joseph
So you did the art club you were talking about doing the tabletop gaming club. You missed the meeting for that one, so I have to wait for that one. Is there anything else there that would interest you, regardless of whether or not you’re going for honor society?

00:41:04:29 – 00:41:09:00
Madison
I don’t really remember the list, so I’d probably have to look at them again.

00:41:09:08 – 00:41:09:22
Joseph
Okay.

00:41:10:08 – 00:41:12:15
Madison
Those were the two that I was focusing on.

00:41:12:21 – 00:41:24:26
Joseph
Is there any desire that you have to participate in different things at school or you find just going to school, learning and coming home?

00:41:24:26 – 00:41:47:21
Madison
I was kind of fun with all the clubs. I kind of wanted my stride. Well, something good. I wanted to do it. So what happened wasn’t really able to do it during eighth grade. Was going to do it during ninth, never really got into it. Like I said that like a forward kind of had a lot to do with my kind of disinterest and not really joining the clubs.

00:41:47:29 – 00:42:01:07
Joseph
Right? Yeah. I think I would. Crow was a great scapegoat for a lot of bad things that have happened the last couple of years, you know? Yeah. Do you have any of your friends that are in any of these clubs?

00:42:01:07 – 00:42:14:29
Madison
There weren’t too many people in our club. I’m not sure my friend Erin is going to join it because he he only ended up going into the club because he missed his bus and he knew that I was going to be there. So he just went there.

00:42:15:12 – 00:42:16:24
Joseph
Okay. Well, there you go.

00:42:17:09 – 00:42:24:26
Madison
Lucas’s my friend Lucas is in tabletop gaming, so hopefully when I actually get to go the meeting there, I’ll. It’ll be good.

00:42:24:27 – 00:42:30:08
Joseph
Okay. Anybody else, any in any other groups or clubs that you know?

00:42:30:18 – 00:42:31:24
Madison
Not that I know of.

00:42:32:09 – 00:42:39:13
Joseph
Is there anything that you’d want to do at school whether or not they’re offering your club or not? Is there anything that you’d like to do?

00:42:39:13 – 00:42:46:25
Madison
I mean, there was the Gay-Straight Alliance Club that I had wanted to join, but they ended up saying that that’s not going on this year.

00:42:48:00 – 00:42:52:08
Joseph
That we ever find out why was it just the lack of participation or.

00:42:52:15 – 00:42:53:23
Madison
I never really asked.

00:42:54:00 – 00:43:07:01
Joseph
Yeah. Like I don’t know what’s required. I don’t as a funding requirement for these clubs. If you if it’s a volunteer basis because I’m assuming you’ve got adults that are running these things, I don’t know if it’s a funding thing or if they’re just volunteering to do them.

00:43:07:11 – 00:43:07:22
Madison
Yeah.

00:43:08:22 – 00:43:38:28
Joseph
Okay, so that’s something I’ll have to take a look at list and see if there’s anything that’s interested. I did a couple of different things at school myself. Obviously, I played football briefly until I shattered my ankle. I did chess club, did choir, obviously, but I didn’t get all that involved in the extracurricular stuff. I was working full time from the time well, part time when I was in 10th grade on.

00:43:38:28 – 00:44:02:27
Joseph
So I didn’t have a lot of free time to do anything. And I kind of look back on it now and, you know, kind of wish I had gotten more involved, like stuff we one year for choir, we had done a musical and it was done pretty much like a stage production and I was, you know, as a member of the choir, I had to sing in it, but I didn’t have any lead parts or anything.

00:44:02:27 – 00:44:22:28
Joseph
So it was just background. But the one thing that I really enjoyed was building the sets for it and coming up with creative ways to present certain things. So I kind of wish I had been more involved in that sort of stuff in drama club building sets and stuff like that. So it’s one of those things you never know.

00:44:23:05 – 00:44:42:03
Joseph
You know, I never thought I’d be interested in doing anything like that until I wound up in that situation. So. So that was all I had all our stuff to talk about was there. You got a few minutes there? Was there anything else that you wanted to talk about?

00:44:42:03 – 00:44:46:06
Madison
Hmm?

00:44:46:06 – 00:44:52:08
Joseph
Talk about our adventurer’s trip to GameStop and you realize how many games you could buy for the switch.

00:44:52:21 – 00:45:04:04
Madison
Yeah, I guess that the only other thing that, like, is now open my horizon. Just, like, wow, there’s so many cool games out here. Wow. I really am uncultured when it comes to that.

00:45:05:19 – 00:45:22:25
Joseph
Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff. There’s a lot of stuff. So there’s a lot of online stuff too. I don’t know. I think they still have their subscription service where you can actually just download games right to it too. So that was really what I found interesting going to GameStop because I hadn’t been there with GameStop in years.

00:45:22:25 – 00:45:31:12
Joseph
I think they had more collectible stuff in there than they had video game stuff. It was like walking into a thinkgeek or something like that, you know?

00:45:31:12 – 00:45:31:24
Madison
Yeah.

00:45:32:10 – 00:45:55:03
Joseph
So that was interesting. So, all right, that’s it. I think this was a great way to kind of ease back into things. Hopefully we’ll get into the cadence of doing these on a more regular basis. Now, we did have a scripted episode that we were going to run today, but I wanted to kind of go off script and just sort of have this conversation and do a recap and set us up for next week’s episode.

00:45:55:03 – 00:45:58:21
Joseph
Next week we’ll be talking about fighting in school.

00:45:59:03 – 00:45:59:12
Madison
Yep.

00:45:59:26 – 00:46:15:14
Joseph
And hopefully we’ll have a lot more interesting podcast coming in the near future. We do want to do our our holiday. We’re coming up on the gun for our holiday special. So we have to put something together pretty quick for that. Yeah, but that was it. Did you want to have any closing remarks?

00:46:16:14 – 00:46:17:15
Madison
Not really, no.

00:46:18:02 – 00:46:56:09
Joseph
We’ll just sort of fade to black here, I guess, then before we do go, I would once again invite you to. That’s the word I was looking for in Vice. Couldn’t, couldn’t get it to come out before. I would like to invite you to subscribe to the podcast. You can get audio and video versions of this podcast listed as insights into things, pretty much anywhere you can get a podcast, Apple, Google, Stitcher, I think we’re on stage right up until video show up on Stitcher and a pod being I know we’re up one.

00:46:57:05 – 00:47:25:01
Joseph
I’d also invite you right into us. You can email us your comments and insights into things dot com. You can find us on Twitter at twitter.com slash insights underscore things we’re on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash insights into things podcast we’re on Instagram at Instagram dot com slash insights into things where you get links to all that and much more on our official website that insights into things dot com and you.

00:47:25:11 – 00:47:41:18
Madison
And don’t forget to check out our other two podcasts insights and entertainment hosted by you and possibly Mommy and Dinner Tomorrow, our monthly podcast hosted by you and possibly my brother Sam. Even though they’re not really a monthly podcast anymore, we’re going to see what happens.

00:47:41:19 – 00:47:54:07
Joseph
Yeah, we’re going to get back to into things. We we got a lot of stuff going on with Ben COVID and everything else. So a lot more podcasts coming out of us in the near future. That’s it, folks. None of it in the books.

00:47:54:08 – 00:47:54:27
Madison
By everyone.

00:47:54:28 – 00:48:21:04
Joseph
By.

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