Lauren Griepentrog - Balancing Goals and Life, Peru, and Adoption Stories - Episode #78

0:00 What's up friends? Welcome back to Rooter Wisconsin. Appreciate you for clicking another episode. Always grateful to have you here. Today's episode is with Lauren Grepentrog, photographer, social media marketer. She's the owner of Lauren McKenzie Photography. Fascinating conversation. She just got back from Peru a while ago. We talked about her path to photography. She started out in college as a physical therapy major, worked as a personal trainer for a while, and then dove head 1st and didn't look back into photography. And she's done an awesome job of it. Lauren, just a great human, great conversation. We talked about what it's like when she chose photography. At first, her parents weren't fully on board with it. We talked about working as a photographer and a creative. Her trip to Peru recently, we get into that and Lauren and I share another thing in common.

0:51 We're both adopted, so we talked about adoption towards the end of the episode and a whole lot more as well. Great stuff. Happy to have you here for it. A big shout out to our sponsors at Epic Mortgage, Human centered mortgage services getting you into your next home. Let's hop into a fun conversation with Lauren Grypentrach. again.

1:37 Do you? I know you travel a lot from work. Do you try to thrift when you do that too? Yeah. Oh, yeah, Chicago's like the the goldmine for thrifting for sure, especially in like the different neighborhoods. But yeah, if I go to Colorado or like I was just in Boston last weekend and I always save room in my suitcase for that. And I feel like, I don't know, it's just like, it's nice to be more like environmentally aware of, like, clothing and stuff. And I think over consumerism is like, super bad right now. And I know I fall into that category in certain ways, but like, whatever I can do to, you know, not be like that.

2:18 I try to but yeah. We all do. I feel the same way. It's weird. So, you know, marketing person developed into this thing that, you know, looks at consumerism in a different way. And I completely agree. Like the the concept of how clothe buying happens is is really kind of like fed to us, you know, and then there's marketing that happens all around it. And we had a really robust discussion this week about like, you know, speed $500 boots, like what makes $500. Boots the label. Yeah, the label. Yeah, it is sucks. And it's all Brandon, Yeah. It's crazy.

2:58 And like over time, like you look at these brands and the pricing just goes up and up and up and up and up to compensate for, you know, competitors and inflation. And it's just like it's. I have to draw the line. At. A certain point, you know, like I pretty much workout clothes are the only clothes I'll buy like new. But if I can thrift something, I'll try to do that. And it's not even like when I a few years ago, it was more of like, well, I need to thrift. You know, I was like on on a budget when I lived in Milwaukee like in my early 20s. But now it's just like, it's just like the resourceful thing to do and makes me feel better, but. Absolutely. And the little choices we can make because like, if it's something someone gets super passionate about, it's super daunting. And you move off the grid, you, you don't do anything. Like there's that dude in Wisconsin right now. Did you see him?

3:46 He is foraging his food for an entire year, so he's going to come on the pod. Really. Yeah. But I have to like when he's in Green Bay, I have to try to get him here because I'm guessing like travel is probably even unique for him because I don't know if he travels normally or, or does something with that. But yeah, I've been in. I I can't wait to. Talk. Yeah, that's actually really cool. It's going to be a cool episode, but yeah, like, that's so intense. You know, most people were in this system of like, I mean, he's, he's having a documentary and people follow him for a reason. Like it's a pretty wild thing to do. But like small changes, they over the, you know, they spread and grow and do different things. And I don't know there, there's a lot of different things we do in life to just like be comfortable when we lay our head on the pillow at night.

4:32 Exactly. In little micro, like micro habits, they always say, like when I was a personal trainer, I would always tell my clients like you can't realistically, like you cannot change everything at once. You know, you can try, but it's not sustainable. Like just building micro habits, like, hey, let's eat a better breakfast every morning. Like don't if you don't make it to the gym this week, fine. But as long as you stick to a healthy breakfast every morning, that's great. And it's just like all the micro habits compound into just a better lifestyle eventually. Yeah, the snowball effect. Start with one thing. I saw that somebody posted something on LinkedIn yesterday and sometime that gets a little fluffy for me, but it was a good one.

5:12 It was like, start with one word, like change one word in your profile and it was that same concept, right? You start at this thing and go. It's funny. That's a good way to start the show because that's actually how we met. I had like a week before it. It's such a funny story. I had hurt my back. During. The week before you and I met at the Yi was doing kettle bells. I don't think I ever even told you that about that part of it. But like a week beforehand I was doing kettlebell swings and I got done and I'm like, Oh my goodness, I must have went too heavy. Like my back hurts and I'm not like talk to people at the gym person. Yeah, I just kind of go there, get my thing done. I've since cancelled my Y membership and I put a sauna in my basement so. Oh nice. Talk to people at the gym.

5:54 Person. I was going to say I haven't seen you there in a while. Yeah, we cancelled our membership. My little dude stopped going, and my wife would bring him there the majority of the time for like a midday play, socialized, signature workout. It worked out awesome. But then it just evolved to it, you know, we didn't need the membership anymore. But I missed the sauna, so I was like, OK, we're going to do this. I got to get a sauna, but week beforehand I had hurt my back doing kettlebell swings and you were in there monstering out. It was like, it was like the 50 LB kettlebell or something. It was a lot. And you were just crushing kettle bells and I'm like, OK, I just hurt my back. I got to ask. I'm like, that's a ton. And you helped me out. You showed me the form and stuff. I still don't do them very much because I don't think I have it down, but that's that's a funny story of how.

6:36 We know that literally is so funny. And you're probably like, who's this dude? Yeah, right. No one wants to be talked to at the gym either, but I had to know. But you know what, it's almost like I feel like kettlebell and like functional strength training is like coming back now. Like it's more popular for people. Like do you know who sebum is? No, sebum is like Chris Bum said. He's like a huge bodybuilder, like Mr. Olympus numerous years in a row like. I do know who. This is yes, he has his own energy drink brand, but he recently posted that he's like going to stop doing so much bodybuilding and work on like functional movement and like functional strength training. But anyways, kettle bells are like one of the biggest vessels to accomplish that.

7:22 And as trainers, like we see so many people using them wrong. And like, you can seriously hurt yourself. Like a lot of people do overhead stuff with the kettle bells. And like, if you don't hold it correctly, like you could hurt your wrist and like, swings, it's really easy to hurt your back and like, upper back, lower back, hamstrings. So it's like, I'm glad, I'm glad when people ask, you know, about that because it's like, OK, I know that like, you could actually hurt yourself. Absolutely. Well, that's a lot of momentum swinging. Around. Yeah, that's actually one of my favorite things to do. Like the full snatch all the way to the top. And flip around the. Back I do it and just about every workout actually is even like a warm up depending on how much weight I do Yeah, it's it's like that's pretty much where I've transitioned to two.

8:05 There's a There's a time in my life where I told myself I was never going to lift weights again, Like after I stopped playing football I never liked. It I was like God. This is terrible. Because it's like you're forced to do it. Like, yeah. Yeah. And then now I just do, that's kind of what I'm thinking about. I don't like, I've never like made that connection, but I'm just like, I just want to be able to do the things that I like for longer. Yeah, exactly. And that's like the whole mentality of yeah, functional strength training and how, like, flexibility is more important than having huge biceps. You know, like, eventually it's like, OK, there's certain muscle groups that like are more important than others, even though they're not like visually making a difference, you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely.

8:48 It's the little things that matter, like the little muscle groups, but. For sure. Do you do? Do you do yoga at all? Are you a yoga person? Not really. Like every once in a while if someone asked me to go to yoga, I'll go. I could be a lot better about stretching, like a lot better. Nobody's perfect. But I don't know, I feel like for a while I like didn't want to go to yoga because in my head I thought, Oh, it's not I'm not sweating, you know, I'm not really getting a good workout in. So it was something, you know, in my head I'm like, I don't really want to pay for that, whatever. But it is something that I've thought about recently of like probably be probably be a good idea to get into, but I'm trying to be better about stretching When I like summers, I run a lot and you have to be good about stretching before and after running.

9:37 Like you learn that the hard way. So yoga? Not really. I've gotten into Pilates a tiny bit. One of my good friends is a Pilates instructor, so I'll go to her classes every once in a while and I think that's pretty fun. Just like body weight stuff, you can still get a good burn in, which is nice, but it's fun to switch it up. You know you get bored with the same lifts every week or running the same mileage, or you know you get bored so you got to switch it up. Yeah, Anything stagnant. I've I've fallen in love with yoga. I do it all the time. Yeah, it's so good. And it's not even really for the workout. It's more for my brain. It's meditational, yeah. So good, I found this YouTube page I really like 'cause like I thought the same.

10:19 Like I don't know that I've ever paid to go to a yoga class. I don't think I have. I did a couple of the why ones when I was there. They had like the Friday sessions that were pretty good. She was a good instructor, but I found this one on YouTube. It's called Boho Beautiful and like she's such like it's so calming. And I think she's a former like sprinter or something in Canada. And like she does crazy stuff. I like stay towards the like beginner level but like I feel so good mentally on the days that I do it. Yeah, it's just a reset. Do you do it in the morning or? Whenever I can fit it in. Yeah, ideally, if I had my perfect world, which is going to shift a little bit as my son ages.

11:04 Right now I do the mornings with him and that takes precedence. But ideally I would like to like sunrise yoga on my back patio. Yeah, everyday get the the sun started yoga and my body like moving. Yeah, but that's not how it works right now. So right now it's a walk in the morning. Yeah. And then which is still good. It is. Yeah. And that kind of centers me too. But yeah, whenever I can fit it in throughout the day, and it's kind of nice because it's not something that gets you all sweaty, that you have to like, read, enter your day. You can just pop it in. Like I wear joggers most of my days and just like I can. Just do your yoggers. Yeah, it's great. It's great.

11:45 When I discovered joggers, my wife taught me about them. I used to wear jeans all the time. I like dress pants. I went straight down and and like the button up and stuff. And as soon as I found joggers, my my casualness kind of went up. Completely worth it there. I mean, come on, the olive green. I think they were I. Think they were? Yeah. They go with everything. So cool that we started talking there because that's probably going to be quite of a bit of our conversation today. Like started very interested in it wasn't even personal training at the beginning, right? Wasn't it physical therapy? Yes, the original plan was physical therapy. Studied exercise science in school, and I just hit a point I almost don't know how to explain it in a certain way. Like, personally, my life was changing a lot at the time, like college years.

12:35 You know, I started thinking more about why did I want to be a physical therapist? You know, I had a shoulder injury in high school, and two of my cousins are physical therapist and I always kind of looked up to them. They're all much older than me. So I thought, oh, yeah, you know, that's a good job. I could do that. And I just hit, I started doing photography a little in college. I really liked it. In the back of my head, I was like, maybe I want to do something creative, you know? And then with exercise science, I thought, well, I might as well just get a personal training cert, you know, because I'm, you know, I'm qualified for it. I'm really passionate about it. I love fitness. I've always been super into it. And so, yeah, I worked at Western Record for a while, I think before, before I met you. I think so cuz it was at the Y so if you worked there you probably had a free membership.

13:25 So yeah. So did that for about two years until my business took off enough. But yeah, I, I've always been so into fitness and I almost, I miss training. I miss the people a ton. Like I still am in communication with a good number of my clients, you know, because they're just the people around this area that I became friends with and saw everyday and talk to so much. But I almost feel like my personal fitness and health has gotten better since quitting because I have more time to focus on myself. You know, I'm not worried about 12 other people's health every week and writing workouts. Yeah, different regimens, different injuries, different goals, different, you know, everything. And it was just took such a mental toll after a while. And when you're in the gym for sometimes 10 hours a day, I don't want to work out.

14:22 You know, I don't want to work out. I don't even want to go like, outside and run by the gym. I just don't. I just want to forget about it, you know, So I feel like, and I and I kept, I kept up with fitness, but it was hard, you know, trying to find the motivation after being there an entire day. I can imagine, like, I don't know, chefs probably feel that like you, you're around food all day. You kind of just aren't hungry or like don't want it, but that's kind of how I felt when training. Yeah, and a good friend of mine is a chef and I think when I when he's on the podcast, I can't remember exactly what he said, but he was like the best meal you can make me is the one that you make. Me. Yeah, seriously. Like that was the concept. Yeah. And it makes sense, right? And it's kind of like that care between do you make your passion a job or not? Because it changes the dynamic of it. And really, I mean, if you identify the root of it, supporting people like you get to do that now it's just in a different way in something that is more of a release than something like you're not going to. I don't think most photographers walk around and take pictures all day.

15:25 Every day, yeah, exactly. It's condensed to its timing, certain timing. And then I get to the art happens in the editing. And that's, I know a lot of, I've talked to a lot of photographers who hate editing. I get it's, it's tedious and it's takes a lot of time and you have to be very picky about it. But I love that part of it. It's almost like how I'm stimulated, like my brain throughout the day is editing. And then it's just like where the creativity comes in of like how, how do I take this picture that sometimes even, you know, like I have an associate now that comes with me to weddings. Her name's Sydney. And it's like, well, I'm not Sydney.

16:05 I didn't take the photo. Usually I can take the photo and picture exactly how I want it to look. So, you know, it's fun. It's being able to look through a different gallery that aren't mine and kind of still make it my own, you know? So it's like, I don't know, I love it. I love getting to be around the people and getting to direct and having that role present during a shoot. But then also I love being able to come home and just really like get into the nitty gritty of editing and and like my art style. That's good. Yeah. Is it, do you think some of it like I, I look for tasks like this and I think a lot of people do where it's one of those like it's not really a brain shut off task, but it's almost blinders because it's so focused that you don't think about anything else in life. Yep, Yep.

16:51 I actually had a friend stay with me for a while last year when I lived at my old place. And every night I would just be on my computer, Click, click, click. I'm just like tunnel vision on my computer. But I could still have, we'd still talk for hours. We'd be talking and having conversations because in a way it's, it's repetitive in a way. But like, I just get so zoned in that it's it's like nature to me. It's like a second nature. So I'm like able to have conversations outside of it while I'm doing it sometimes, not all the time. There are some albums that I just need to crank out and be silent for, but yeah.

17:34 It's nice because there's no audio element like I I ended a lot of the podcast like sitting next to my wife, but we don't get to have conversations I have to be off of. It because I. Have to like listen to where the cuts. Are and stuff, so I have. To be it's almost, it'd be like being in two conversations. So it's nice. There's no audio element. I can see that it's just, it's all visual. You're looking, but your body is washed. Rinse, repeat on it. So. Many times exactly. But then again, social media is different. I'm making reels for social media and there are some days where if I'm with someone, I'm like, hey, I just give me 10 minutes. I just have to like throw together an Instagram post quick and I'll be with the audio trying to line it up to the video like like, oh, sorry, just got to I'm turning it like as far down as I can, but I still need to hear it.

18:21 I'm just like, this sucks. Like I should have done this earlier, you know, But yeah, it's funny. Editing is like it's mindless but it's also stimulating. I don't know how else to describe it. Like, I love it. Some of those tasks like that are meditative, like when I hurt my foot playing basketball, I didn't realize that that was one thing that I got from basketball. Like when you're playing basketball, I never thought about playing basketball, but I wasn't thinking about anything else. It's just like this 2 hour retreat from your brain. Yes. That doesn't. Nothing else can come in because there's no space you're still in tune with. It. Yeah. And you don't have to worry about anything else when you're playing basketball. It's just about the game. Yeah, you know, And I feel that way too about editing and that part of my job.

19:04 Yeah, Yeah, that's cool. So one of the, one of the cooler like interesting parts of the story that I, I see of yours is I think you mentioned this in a class the first time, like when you came to speak to one of my class the first time I found out, but that your parents didn't particularly support your decision when you, when you made the decision to say, physical therapy's probably not going to be my path. And you forged ahead in, in spite of that, I guess you would say like, put yourself back in that moment. What's that like? Yeah, and I love my parents Mom, if you're watching this, love you and love my Instagram post Yeah, she's awesome. She and like even now, you know, they, I think they've seen, they see the vision now, you know, but putting myself in their shoes, when you graduate from physical therapy school, you have a job and you have a career and you have X amount of money that you're going to make yes.

20:01 And I could see from their point of view. How scary it is to kind of say, well, I'm not going to do that, You know, like screw that idea. And I definitely, I'm a very spontaneous person. I'm definitely a Spitfire. Like I don't know how they keep up with me honestly, but I think in my head I just knew it would work, you know, like I knew and I didn't even know when I ended up not going to physical therapy school. I didn't even think in my head like one day I'm going to be a full time photographer and like have a successful business. I didn't even think that. I just knew. I knew I'd figure it out. You know, I'm scrappy and I just knew I'd enjoy life more and not rehabbing people who just had knee and hip surgeries all the time. It's just like didn't sound fun to me after a while. So I mean, it was hard, but I'm a very independent person. I don't really need external validation, whether it's from family or friends.

21:00 Yes, it's nice. And I think we all need it to a certain degree, even if we don't want to admit it. But but I like that, you know, it's my business and I built it. And I still remember my dad was always like teaching me a lot about finances. And that was like a huge talking point growing up of just, you know, how to be smart financially. And I'll never forget the day I bought my first professional grade camera. I lived with my parents at the time and my dad found the receipt and was like, he sat me down and was like, this is a lot of money. Like are you, what are you doing? What are you doing?

21:42 Just. Terrified. I was like, I promise I'm doing something. And it actually was crazy. I had bought it because I was shooting like one of my first weddings. And I was like, well, I'm just going to buy a new camera for it to because my camera at the time was actually one that I had borrowed from my mom for a photography class in college. Like it just wasn't really like my own. And I had bought lenses for it over time, but I was like, no, I need something better. So yeah, they, they stuck it out. And since then, in the studio, my dad helped me build that office wall. He took time out of his Christmas vacation two years ago to help me with that, which I really appreciated.

22:28 And they're definitely like, they see, I think they see the vision. You know what I mean? Yeah. As a as a parent, they're probably just more scared than anything of, of you drifting off into the unknown where something was so written and prescribed compared to not. That's a great way. That's such a great way to look at it though. It actually mirrors. I'm wearing an arts fishing club T-shirt. For those just listening. I had the lead singer of that band on and he had a really similar sentiment. Like his view of it was, yeah, it's going to be hard, but I have 20 years to figure it out. Like, it might take me a little while, but I'm going to figure it out. And that's such a great way to look at life because you will figure it out. That was actually how I was going to start the episode today. I was we we started talking about something else. So I didn't have to.

23:13 But I was scrolling reels for a couple minutes this morning and I saw this JJ Watt reel and I was like, you know, Lauren kind of takes the JJ Watt work philosophy to the photography world. It. Makes sense, right? Like because you are I could tell like talking with you come to speak with you a couple of my classes and stuff. You're just a really hard worker and it's kind of like the it's, it's that what breeds that confidence of all figure it out because you know that you're going to follow through and put in the work. The vast majority of things in life, if you do that, there is progress and prize at the end of the tunnel, but you have to walk through it and then continue to do the hard stuff.

23:54 And you know, when you have that confidence, you can really make the decision to do whatever you want. And it's crazy. Like I was doing a lot of reflection for coming on here of like, OK, how's my career look versus two years ago versus like what I want it to look like? And even like this year I've cut my work down because like I think I went two years. I average probably 40 weddings a year for two years, which I know it's like only two years, but that's 80 weddings in two years and there's not that many more weekends leftover. And for those that don't know, a lot of those are out of the area you travel for a lot of weddings. Yeah, So I was on the go.

24:35 And then like senior photos is really big. I coached volleyball for a little bit at Notre Dame. So like I kind of got in the high school people circulating my name through seniors. I made it to all the high schools. And then over the years they just keep referring down and I love my seniors, but last year I did 48 seniors. So I really, I actually didn't have a day off last year from May to almost October, I didn't have a single day off of shooting. And I would wake up super early, workout, edit for hours, go shoot, edit till I wanted to go to sleep. And that's what I did for months.

25:16 And then I don't know, I just kind of did some reflection like last year at at some point I had went to Scotland with my mom for it was kind of a photography workshop that I had signed up for. And it was my first time out of the country. And I just, my eyes were opened and I thought there's so much more out there that I am too in the grind to even notice, you know, and I didn't think about how much travel benefits me and how much it helps me creatively and how much, you know, I can learn from it. And so I just decided this year, you know, these are the days of the week I'll take seniors. And when it fills up, it fills up. This is how many weddings I'm taking. I'm doing like not even 30 this year. And then just leaving time open to edit things more efficiently and have more time to, you know, cuz when you're at one point, I think I had almost 30 shoots in my queue to edit last summer. And it's like, I'm trying to put my best work out, but it's hard when all I'm thinking is deadline, deadline, deadline, deadline, deadline.

26:26 I need to get these done. Like, you know, it's just, it was, it was impacting my quality of work and even just like doing more travelling the last year from a non business standpoint, like as a person travelling and seeing the world and experiencing different cultures, like makes me happy. And I feel like it's very beneficial to me just mentally and emotionally. And I've never been the person who needs like I don't need time off work. I guess. Like I don't feel burnout necessarily. I just wasn't feeding myself what I needed to like be mentally better, you know, I don't know if that makes sense, but yeah.

27:09 So this year I, I'm just taking time off. I'm playing a lot more piano, like just little things here and there that it's like, OK, if I don't have a shoot, like I don't have a shoot today. And I mean, like, I'm not used to not having shoots everyday. So it's just like, OK, got up, came here, awesome. I can do an afternoon workout, play some piano and then maybe like maybe around like two or three, just sit down for a few hours to work, but I don't have to work until I go to sleep. You know where it used to be like that. So, but it's crazy how I went from training full time, also doing photography, I'd say full time to OK, this is too much, let me quit training.

27:55 And then photography just took off in that, I mean, my first year full time, I'm doing shoots everyday, you know, and I'm so thankful for it and like, it's just awesome. And it speaks to the community here, you know, and the referrals, everything like that to only two years later saying I need to cut back, you know, like, isn't that crazy? Yeah. It is such a blessing. Like I, I don't know what I would change about my life really, you know, because I think you always think how can my life be better? How could I improve my life? And like right here where I'm at today, it's like I feel so good about my life and where I'm at. And I'm like, I'm very proud of myself. And like, I've gotten so much closer with like family. I've dedicated more time to them and, and my close friendships, like I'm feeding into them more.

28:45 Whereas I, I'm pretty sure I went months without seeing my parents last year and we live less than 15 minutes away from each other. And I you just hit a certain point that it's like, that's not living. Like, yeah, I'm making, I'm making great money and yeah, I live on my own and I'm so busy and whatever everyone like wants me to photograph them, great. But that's not my life. It's a huge part of my life, but it's not my life. And it was becoming my life. It was my life. And I think still people, I'm like the working friend, you know, like I'm the workhorse, I'm the grinder. Like everyone knows, like, all right, Lawrence got to work.

29:28 And yeah, on the weekends, obviously, like, I'm going to have work, you know, I'm going to have to shoot weddings and stuff. But I feel like I'm trying to be like, hey, I, I can actually go to dinner with someone during the week and like, relax a little bit and not have to, well, I have to be home by 8:00 so I can edit for two hours before I go to sleep. You know, like, that's seriously, I used to talk to people like that. I seriously used to say that, or I'd be like, hey, I really want to see you. You got to come over though so I can work. Yeah. Like, seriously, I would tell my friends like, yeah, you have to come to my place so I can work while we're hanging out and spending quality time together. Right. And. Think about what your your friend's perception of that. Is, yeah, Two years that.

30:11 Yeah. And like, if I wouldn't have really taken time to reflect on it, I'd still be doing it, you know? Yeah. Well, I think that's a, there's a couple things in there. One is that I think any time you start like an entrepreneurial thing, you, you put this pressure on yourself. It's like this prove it mentality until you realize like, Dang, I kind of did it. And then and then you that can be some of the tension. But 2 is something I feel quite a bit and I can resonate with that is like, I don't really, I don't feel burned out either. I've started to recognize, but I think there's a contrast between that because I've started to recognize when I probably should feel burned out.

30:52 For me, it comes out in like my attitude towards life and others, and it's always particularly the ones closest to you, which is a bummer, you know? And then you realize that afterwards and you're like, it was me. It's inward focus. I'm working too hard. Like I don't feel this. I don't feel the stress, but it exists and it's coming out. Yep. I almost feel like a telltale sign for me is if I don't feel like playing piano or I don't feel like going to work out or I don't feel like running, I'm like, OK, the business is taking too much of my willpower right now, you know, and, and it's so I guess, yeah, it is burnout.

31:34 But I never felt like, Oh my God, I don't want to do my job today. Like I can't do it anymore. I've never felt like that because I'm so passionate about it, you know? But when it starts taking away from my personal things that are important, that's when it, you know, becomes an issue and I have to be aware of how to help and fix it. Yeah, yeah. And I think that it's a strange thing in life because it's a tremendous strength. I think both of us have probably leveraged it to in a good way to like have good things happen, quote UN quote good things, But it leads to a be a personal watch. I feel the same way.

32:14 Like even when I think to like my, you know, my college jobs where it was just like, I'm literally just going here to make money. And it does not matter to me. I still never was like, my God, I just don't want to do this to it might have been I want to do something else that. I need money for. Right, yes, that I need money for exactly. But the same like whatever it is, it's always just like I don't, I don't feel that thing of like I just want to sit right now and do nothing. But sometimes you need to sit and and and do nothing. And I think maybe that's what yoga does for me. Like it makes me feel, yeah, but yeah, you leverage it to success. But then the watch out is actually on the back where it's like, damn, this is coming out in all ways that I don't want it to.

33:07 I'm not recognizing it because I'm so hyper focused on a goal. And I'm sure like you 2 having a wife and a child and like a family, you could probably notice it more like with your attitude towards your family. Whereas me like I'm an extrovert. I guess for my job, I think everyone consider me an extrovert, but like I value my alone time. Like if I'm not out shooting, I'm typically at home with my cats by myself, you know? So like I don't really notice behavioral changes like that or how I speak to people or treat people. It's solely based on like my habits throughout the day and noticing like what I have energy for, what I don't have energy for, you know, like my productivity I feel like goes in waves too. Like someday.

34:00 There are some days I just look back on the day. I'm like, I really didn't do anything today. Like seriously. I mean, I had nowhere to report. I tapped around on my computer for a little bit, but then I went for a walk all day. And then I went to the gym and sat in the sauna. And then, yeah, I called up a friend, talked for a few hours on the phone. You know, it's just like, it's some days you just need that. And I, I'm gotten a lot better of like giving myself grace for like, I deserve a day off, you know? Yeah, for sure for me, yeah. And it's easy like in that in that scenario, so you can turn off the phone, like you can put it on silent, you can set it across the room and then that's easy. Yeah, you don't.

34:42 I guess that's true. It's a good way to look at you don't turn off a four year old like he's there. And a lot of my intention in life is actually trying to maximize my time with him and try to be more efficient with that. Because I know that that's a gradually, you know, declining shit that's going to get less and less and less. So I, and in that time, I, I just put a lot of precedent or, and, or importance in what it means for him too. So it's, it's like I have to carve that out. So yeah, that and it's probably almost harder to identify the internal ones because we do have all the blind spots where those things are so readily apparent.

35:24 It's like you can see it on someone else's face or look back on a situation and see how it could have went differently. Where it's not like, you know, the a lot of times we don't give ourselves the grace you were just talking about to, to recognize how we're feeling different, but we see how others feel different. That's interesting. And like I never my brain never used to work like this. It never used to. I feel like almost, I don't know, more of like in a spiritual way and like, how do I want to say this? I don't know. I feel like when I was, these are the last two years of just workhorse, workhorse, workhorse. Like I just truly didn't think I had to change anything. I just thought like, this is working for me and that's what I'm supposed to do.

36:12 And I feel like just the last year I've thought a lot about, OK, like my brain is, it needs separation from work and like I need to feed myself mentally and my personal life. And I don't know, I, I'm kind of the person who's like, life is short, you know, And I, I haven't even really, besides some grandparents, like I haven't experienced death like closely, but it's always been something that I'm worried about. I'm worried about like not learning everything that I can learn and not seeing everything that I can see. Like I'm very under that mentality of now. And it's just recently changed, you know, like I'd travel for work the last two years a lot, but I never really thought to take personal trips or never thought, OK, where do I want to go?

36:59 Where do I want to see? Who do I want to learn about until like going to Scotland, you know? And I just feel like it was kind of a spiritual switch for me of there's more to life than my business that I'm building. And I have to realize that. And I have to listen to the cues, you know, to of when to step back and when to grind it out. Yeah, that was one for me. I always recognized and in a lot of times in my life actually put too much motivation and attention towards other productive things then like the main productive thing.

37:40 So that's what's tough for me is identifying like which thing to to do because it's always our thing, but like which thing to like input my energy. To dedicate your energy too, yeah. Yeah, life is wild. Life's a trip. It it's it's crazy. It is the value of that, like what would you call it, the vacation reset. The value of that, though, is pretty like recognizable. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah. It you, you come back refreshed in a way that kind of reframes life. Yeah. Oh yeah. And for you, it seems like it's even bigger. Yeah, I went to Peru in March.

38:25 I don't know if you saw that at all. I think you posted like some hiking. Videos. Yep. Yep. And some pictures I took. But yeah, me and my best friend who lives in Denver, we went to Peru for like almost two weeks and we did like a five day trek to Machu Picchu through the Andes Mountains, you know, and it's there's no bathrooms, there's no showers, there's no anything, you know, like we hiked bar. I don't even know exactly the mileage, like probably over 100 miles. Nice. You were hiking 13 hours a day, tent camping, we're smelly, dirty at certain times. Like you're on a straight path for 8 hours. You can't see anyone in front or behind you. Like it was the most, the hardest thing I've ever done emotionally and physically.

39:18 And I'm not a super emotional person. I don't get sad and like teary eyed ever. I'm, I'm not that person watching a movie that's like, oh, it's so, it's so sad, you know, And I after Peru, like I've been so much more emotional. Like I could cry just thinking about like something sad, you know, And in Peru, like on that hike, I lost 12 lbs like in five days. It was physically and just mentally so demanding that getting back from that trip, I was in like just almost two weeks, like the beginning of April. I was just I felt so off. I was like, wow, like people and even just going to the city of Cusco and Peru, you know, people are poor.

40:03 People are poor and live like, I don't know, solace to dollars it's. I don't know the exact conversion, but I mean, I would tip someone $0.05 and they would praise you for it. These people, like all they have is their handcrafts and their craftsmanship and what they're good at. And the whole town kind of feeds off of each other. And it was amazing to see. Like these people don't need money. That's not their fulfillment. And even like our Airbnb host, his son, he's in his early 20s and we got to know him pretty well. And he he's just a painter.

40:46 He goes and paints murals in the city and that's it. That's his job. And he makes just enough to pay his dad rent and eat and go out for drinks with his friends on the weekends. And that's it, you know, and it's just coming back to, you know, this the place I live and how like I've set it up so well and I've decorated it and got all the cool furniture that I wanted. And I have my nice Mac computer. And half of the people in Cusco didn't even have cell phones. People don't even have cell phones, you know, and even like the trek to like we didn't have phones for the five days. And I can't, I don't think I can. I've never put my phone away for five days, you know, ever since I've had a phone, since I had a freaking slider phone in 8th grade.

41:38 And just the detachment of it and the realization of like, wow, my, my job revolves around my phone. And that's, it's just how it is. But it's like, there's so much more out there. I don't know. Peru is like intense. I couldn't even talk about the trip for a week or two after it because it was so much emotionally to like take in of like, wow, the people are just so different. And the experience itself was unreal, you know, It just makes me like, oh, where else can, where can I go next, you know? Yeah, I had a chance to do a Backcountry hunting trip in Alaska and like, no phone for I think it was like 9 days or 8 days or something and same feeling. It was very freeing for me.

42:25 You know what I love about that situation, though, And I've never been in that. What would you call economically downtrodden in an area or something? But I bet you still looked around and saw a lot of smiles, right? OK, that is so freeing to me, that happiness. It's, it's we all say happiness doesn't come from money, but that is the proof in the pudding that like a lot of I, I, I like watching documentaries a lot. And you, you see our perception of somebody living what we would consider poor or whatever, and they are poor monetarily, but not spiritually and humanly. Yes, and how you said like money doesn't make you happy. It was making me happy, you know. Oh, OK.

43:15 You know, like, especially like the last two years of just like grind, grind, grind. Well, it's hard not to as a it's hard now. Especially. You saw some success and you're like reaping the rewards. Yeah, and I'm, I'm single and in the near future I'll be single. Like I don't have a husband with, I don't have a dual income household. Like I need to pay for my own insurance. I need to I pay for everything. You know, I'm self-employed. I don't have a four O 1 Ki don't have health insurance. I don't have eye insurance or, you know, dental anything. You know, I'm fully responsible for myself. And so money is too hard to not be hyper focused on the money. But then after going somewhere like Peru, it's like that is the least thing in my life that makes me happy, you know, like the absolute last thing, like after getting down from the Andes mountains and like checking my phone and I'm just like, I don't care about any of this. I, you know, truly like it's not what matters, but you find a happy medium of it's still what I enjoy, you know, and it's still like, I like social media and I like the challenge of it and I like how it's changing all the time and getting better and, you know, things like that.

44:28 But at the same time, like on a more spiritual and just like tangible level, there are other things that I need to make sure I'm doing to be happy, you know? Yeah, that probably overlaps with there's probably a layer of healthiness to the emotions coming out. That's what I I'm an emotional person. Like I'm a, I'm a crier. Things can make me cry, especially real life scenarios, like especially happy tears. Oh, I'm a happy crier and I like it. Like I wish. And, and it makes, you know, it's uncomfortable to think about and all a lot of different aspects of life, but I don't know, that's when I there's certain things that make you feel truly alive. And I can think that's kind of what I'm hearing like middle of the middle of Peru in the mountains, you may have had that feeling of like, Dang, this is actual life or. Yes.

45:27 Or like the heck, going back to what you said earlier about your parents not talking to them for months, and then you realize like, oh, oh, you leave a conversation, you're like, this is actual life. And I think we, it's easy to separate those two things because you're, you're exactly right. What you were saying like there's this weight of what we need versus what we need to do to make that happen. And when you do it right, it's like or when you do it well, it's like, OK, I'm getting this figured out, this is good. But I think it pushes some of that other stuff back to actually question about that then. And it connects to the mission of the podcast. Like I, I see this glaring lack of community, the feeling of community in our society.

46:12 When you were in that scenario of those people who had to rely on each other, was there this innate sense of community that you felt? Yeah. Oh yeah. And I felt like we were a part of it. Like on that track, I don't know what the language is called, but there's a native language of Cusco that, you know, dates back years and years and years. And like only certain people know how to speak it. I mean, everyone spoke Spanish there, but it was just this native language that just sounded so like different. You know, it didn't sound like Spanish, didn't sound like anything. And we would go up. We're in, we're up in Salcantay Mountain or Peak, which was the highest point that we got to almost like 16,000 feet of elevation. And some people in our group, we're getting sick, like elevation sick, like to the point of wearing oxygen masks and like not doing well at all.

47:10 And so our guide, we found just a house, people that lived in the mountains and that's where they live. They didn't, that's it. They just lived up there and did their thing and didn't really have like, jobs or anything. I mean, truly just mountain people. And he'd go and ask them for horses to lend, for people to ride because they couldn't walk anymore. And he spoke the native language to them all the way up there in the Andes and it, and it's just, I don't know, in my head, I just think like how respectful of him to use their native language, even though like he even admitted like he wasn't super strong in it. But that sense of community of like looking at it from a point of empathy sometimes is like what we lack a lot. I think, you know, I don't know, it was just amazing. Like the sense of community there was unreal. Yeah, that, and that's completely where my mind's at when I think about it, is the the lack of empathy for your neighbor.

48:17 And and like, you know, someone broke down on the side of the road. People are going to drive by, someone laying down on the mountain that you're walking by, you're obviously going to help. Yeah. And we don't. I know of me. I don't lean on others. It's like we become. Self focused. Because we have this capability, but in turn that me with if if I don't watch out for it, that leads to my brain getting to you know, why is someone leaning on me for something when that is not good? Yeah, And I don't know, I think I'm guilty a bit more so in the past than I am now. But like sometimes it's a little irritating if someone is like, you meet a dependent person being so independent and it's like, why do you need my validation so much? Why do you need to talk to me so much? Like I don't get it.

49:11 But it's like, oh, we're human and it's we should be communicating with each other and we should be asking for help and receiving it openly, you know, And it's so, you know, I even think I always get the, oh, when are you going to find someone to get married? And voila, you know, you shoot so many weddings. When's yours like? Oh, classic, I didn't. I didn't even think of that, but that's probably miserable. Like, Oh my God, enough, but it's like I think of when I do find someone, how like how hard is that going to be living with another person? Like I just I love what I do. I can do whatever I want to do, you know, anytime and how thinking about having to depend on someone for anything is like, so not, I'm not used to it, you know, but it's like also the beauty of partnership and marriage and things like that. Just I haven't, you know, experienced it. Yeah, yeah.

50:10 And that that's thing the same thing that's a sense of community or the sense of empathy is is what makes it work. I mean, I'm still learning. My wife and I have been together for over a decade now, and you even like we were not the I always struggled with controlling type people. If they like tried to control my thoughts and actions. That's what I that's where I struggled. I married a woman who's not like that. My wife is wonderful. She doesn't tell me what to do. She doesn't tell me how to think like we're we're very that much way with each other, like, you know, nurturing the seeds. But you know, once you get to this level of like you've been together for so long, like we've it's aging me too. But you start to get asked this question like, Dang, that's a long time.

51:04 Like what? What makes it work? And it's like the same thing as community. You wake up and you choose it. Every day you just. Wake up and choose to like care. Yeah, and be a good partner. Yeah, and empathize and like, you know, there's that there's all kinds of cliches, like sometimes I'm the 90 and they're the 10 and sometimes they're the 90 and I'm the 10, blah, blah, blah. But that all boils down to you just wake up and choose it. And, and I don't see in our society, I don't see people choosing community, but I see people yearning for. Community. And I don't know that there's enough bridges built, but between social media, surely isn't it? I think, and I think it's part of the driver.

51:44 Why? Because it's so empty in a lot of ways, but it can like, it can tweak that nerve just enough for people that it makes you feel something that you're like, OK, I do have this, but then it's gone. That's 10 seconds of your life. And and there was no human connection in that. You're not going to remember that person's name in 10 minutes or face or whatever. So I don't know what the answer is. I hope something like the podcast, like when I think about it, I hope that's one of the end games is that it opens the eyes to truly that feeling because it is intimidating and scary and and full of emotions to inherently have that delicate dance of a of a marriage, of a neighbor, of a best friend, whatever it is. But I think there's so much value in it because of what it what we're meant to do as humans and being communal. Creatures agreed yeah and just again with Peru, like I'll never until I top that trip, you know, that's like the trip for me and just how I mean really those people were just worried about getting food everyday, you know, and when you're when it boils down to your biggest like problem in life is where's my next meal coming from?

53:10 You know, nothing else really matters, you know, and like, that's where the community comes in for sure for them. Yeah, the worst part. I'll never forget the worst part of my Alaska trip. We slept in a tent up in the mountain and it was very cold. It got down to like 20�� overnight and, and I was on Kodiak Island, so it's very rainy. So we went to bed wet and it's cool. I never, I learned this on that trip that you dry out in your sleeping bag and you that's how you like dry your things. But I woke up in the morning and I stuck my foot into a frozen boot and like, my boot was, it was like a block of ice and I just had to stick my foot in.

53:53 Yeah. Keep. Going take on the day and nothing in life is going to suck that bad. You know, outside of like death and and like the big things that we all feel. No matter what, nothing I do today is going to be bad. As bad as stick in my foot. Yes. In a frozen boot, yes. Yeah. In Peru, like when we were sleeping up in higher elevation, it got cold, cold. And same thing it was. It'd be hailing and raining on us for hours a day, like there's just nothing you could do but just look at the ground and just put your head down and keep walking and it's like, nothing is worse than this. Yeah, just. Embrace the stock. Yes, Yes. Embrace the stock. Exactly. Yeah. Did you, did you see shifting gears a little bit? Did you see any of like the ancient ruins of of Peru? Yep, we actually hiked to Machu Picchu. It was amazing.

54:45 I've recently become enamoured by this topic in general of ancient civilizations and what we know and don't know about them and. That's the thing, even going like I feel like I still don't know about it, OK. You know your interest though. Yes, for sure. I feel like we don't know a damn thing about it. I don't I don't think we know anything. And you know what's weird is there's a bunch of like academia stuff that like posits to know, like we know the timeline and we know exactly. I don't think we know shit. No, I agree. I completely agree. Seriously. Yeah, and it's so intrigued speaking to me. I'm trying to think of it. I listened to it was a podcast recently where it was like a three hour conversation about Peru specifically and I was completely enamored by something.

55:35 I think it was like a construction style that it like we can't replicate now. That kind of the the crux of like they're point, I guess, was that there was a way more civilized civilization than we have now. And I would just love to like lay my own eyes on it to get it like see if see if I concur. Yeah, yeah. And, and in Machu Picchu, our group was actually one of the first ones up there in the morning. So we kind of saw the sunrise on it. And I think it was just a very spiritual moment of like, we just did this really hard thing. And here we are like in one of those 7 wonders of the world. And we're all by ourselves up here, you know, and by the time we left, there was hundreds of people walking around and looking at everything.

56:23 But anyways, one of the things that you'd find interesting is the sundials. So these rocks just stuck in the ground, all cut up in jaggedy. Yet somehow, like NASA came out and studied the sundials in Machu Picchu and they figured out that it's one of the most precise time measurements ever created. Best awesome. Like how seriously it drives me not like how I do not, I don't understand it. And it's like even just going there and seeing the buildings and the temples and the freaking irrigation systems, How, how did they think of that?

57:07 It's just, I think things are just. So it was far more developed than we would think, you know. Yeah. And what was civilization like at that time? That's where that's where like if I had an infinite amount of time and money that I just didn't have to like do things to make money, I, I could see myself getting lost in that round because it's so fascinating. But the worst part about it is, and I think what ultimately would push me away from it is that I don't know that we'll ever know, you know, how do. You, I mean, truly, Yeah. And there's, like stories. And I mean, people say, you know, you find things that have been documented, but you don't really know. We don't really know anything for sure.

57:49 I just remember one of the stories that our guide was telling us about how like the Incas got taken over. They saw the Spanish coming and they believed that if their leader died, that fire would rain on the earth and destroy the earth. That's what they believed. And I obviously the leader told them that that guy made it up. So what did they do when the Spanish came? They killed him and nothing happened. And then they got taken over and killed. They thought that it would be. They thought it would take them all out. They thought, you know, just let's just end ourselves basically to save ourselves from this. But then it's like, who told you that? Who told you that happened?

58:34 Yeah. Like the guy. What guy? You know, like it's just you can't wrap your head around. It man talk about a great way to take over a civilization because then they leave aimless like they've got nothing they're. Like, they show up, the leader's already gone, all right? Nothing's burning. Yeah. OK, yeah, we'll follow. What do you have to say? Right, right. If I die, we'll be collapsed in water. Oh shit. Yeah, right. Well, you're, we're all going out together. Yeah. Yeah, like. It's so fascinating. It is, yeah, it really is. But. That's so did you say like I, I wish I remembered the name of the specific area.

59:21 It was one of the most fascinating things I've seen. I don't think it's connected to Machu Picchu. I think it's in like a very and I mean, if I'm, I'm not the expert here, but Machu Picchu is pretty remote in itself, right? And I think this was like even more remote, like hard to even get to it anyway, whether you have ATVs or anything like hard, but yeah, I don't know. That's just so I I can't that that's bucket list life stuff. Like I want to go to these like like I want to go to Egypt. I want to go to Egypt so bad. I was literally just going to say. Like there has to be answers to questions we have. Yeah, there has. And you know, you get up there and you see this community that's withheld the test of time. You know, these buildings that I mean, they didn't rebuild them. That's how they are and they stayed that way and the terraces on the mountain and everything and our guide. So, you know, we think we think that they started at the top and chipped away at the mountain to create stones. And you know, they didn't carry anything up is what they believe happened.

1:00:31 But it's like, but everything is so precise. It is like, did you bring tools up there with you? Like why? I just want. To. I know, right, like how did like we're explosives in existence at that time? Because how do you chip away at a mountain? Seriously, Like I they said it took, I think I maybe I'm wrong, but I think like 10 years to build, which is like a long time, but if you just have your two hands, like that's pretty impressive. Yeah, In the grand scheme of things, heck yeah. And that, I think that's part of my intrigue around it, is that I'm so unfamiliar with things.

1:01:12 Like, I don't, I heard you say that and I thought of Mount Rushmore. And then I'm like, I don't even know how they made mount. Rushmore Me either I. Don't know how I did it. Like, was that chipping in the rock? Like, I have no idea. So I, you know, you dealt with these things that blow your mind and then you're like, oh, God, that's too much right now. And then you leave. Yeah. And then you don't think about it. Yeah. It's wild. But so how? Like how long were you in Peru? You said it was 2 weeks. Yeah, like just about two weeks. OK. How much of that was in the like the small community we're talking about compared to like, hiking through the mountain? So we did 5 days of hiking and then we did one other day of just like kind of going on our own hike and then the rest of it a few days before the hike and a few days after was when we were spent time in the in the city.

1:01:59 How's the food? Amazing. Yeah. Yeah, it was amazing. I'm trying to think of like something gross say that I could tell you. Can you start with? Those Guinea pig, Guinea pig. I need a Guinea. Pig. Yeah, they rotisserie style it on a stick and serve it whole, like teeth and everything. Which I mean, some branzino. That's how people serve fish. What else? Well, alpaca is really good. I tried alpaca for the first time. I had an alpaca burger and I'm not a burger person. It was just like it was the night we got back from the track. I'd gotten carsick on the way back because we took this and that was like all over the like they had to stop the van for me seriously to throw up on the side of the road. It was a four hours in there. I'm starving. So we go get burgers and it was an alpaca burger and it was like the best thing I've ever eaten, alpaca meat. But trout, they could, they have a lot of trout. Every menu has trout, smoked trout, fresh trout. Trout is very popular there.

1:02:54 And then, yeah, like alpaca meat. I didn't really eat any like, chicken or anything going to the markets. I, I mean, there's like cow heads stacked on each other. And like how the markets were laid out was it'd be a meat section, you know, people actually cooking and serving food in the market, like whether it's super just rice bowls, whatever, like juice, fresh fresh juice cause of all the fruit, fruit section and then all like the homemade jewelry and clothes and stuff. But the meat section was like what gig just flies all over the meat? Like it smelled horrendous set. Me up with an apple. Yeah, raw meat everywhere, freaking cow heads stacked on each other, bleeding out on the table, people butchering things in front of you like it's it was gnarly. So I had to be, we had to be choice all about like what we ate.

1:03:49 Even like with the fruits, it's like, OK, we probably shouldn't eat this apple or you know, without like really washing it, you know, you rather get something that you can break open and has like a skin like mangoes and papayas and stuff. We ate a lot of. But there's this one fruit, I cannot remember the name of it, but it was like yay big. And you stick your thumbs in and RIP it open and the inside it's seeds, but it looks like little eyeballs, like they're like little Jelly balls. It was so good. Sounds. Kind of pomegranate ish. Pomegranate ish. I would say it was like kind of like a pomegranate, but it's a little bit smaller and it was green, like the seeds were green and.

1:04:30 It was really good. Yeah, it was super good. Nice. There was like a potatoes too are super common there. Yeah, like lots of potatoes. OK. I would definitely need a Guinea pig. Yeah, a Guinea pig looks like an. Edible critter. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, and well, then I don't, maybe my mom said it or someone was like, oh, like a Guinea pig, you know, people have those as pets. I'm like, I don't. Yeah, it it, it's so. I mean, people have, I don't know, cows as pets. Yeah, you know, yeah. It's just kind of the same thing. Like being a hunter, I think that's one of the important like facets of understanding of life, of where our food comes from and the relationship to it.

1:05:15 Like it's not some we created those relationships. Like we're the reason that I have two cats running around. The house like it's not the. Cat's choice. Not my cat's choices, if you. Think it is. Open a window and see what your cat does. Like it's not your cat. So actually a few day on Monday of this week, a large gust of wind blew my front door open while I was in my office on a phone call. I didn't even hear it. My door was closed because usually if I have my door open one of the cats is going to be like climbing all over me and just I'm getting in my way so locked him out front door blows open. Bunny who's my black cat is scared about going outside.

1:05:57 She'll never go outside. Cookie was a stray before I got her so she like has been outside before she. Knows what the outside. Holds. Yeah, she does. So lo and behold, I get out of my office. Who knows how long after the door opened she's gone. So I call actually a guy I used to train. His name is Perry. He's like in a 60s. My neighbor, conveniently, I'm I start crying. I'm like, Perry cookies gone, Cookie got out. I start running. I'm running down my block in socks, didn't even put shoes on. I'm panicking. I run up to this couple walking a dog. I said, have you guys seen a cat? Like have you seen a cat? And they're like, actually, yeah, just walked past us.

1:06:38 I run a little ways down the trail, the freaking Fox River Trail, and because I live right by right next to it and she's just laying on her back scratching herself in the freaking grass smelling a plant. I'm like, get your ass. I'd snagged her up. I'm like, truly. I mean, if I'd let her go, she'd be gone. Like it's not her choice. She love, I'm sure she loves being fed all this wet food a day and like getting all the love and all these little places in the sun delay but like truly she wouldn't be there. Yeah, I mean, she might come back. Yes, yeah.

1:07:20 So I learned last last summer that a common thing for, like, cats to do when they're outside, when they're like hunters, when they're in the actual environment, is they'll like, kill bunnies and RIP their heads off. So I found some, like, beheaded bunnies in my yard. That's when I found it. And it just goes to show you that like, yeah, that thing will come and it'll purr and nuzzle on you and everything, but it's still a creature. Yeah, it's still an animal. Yeah. And I guess circle back around that that's important to know Guinea pig, horse, cat thing, animal like we developed these relationships with it, not nature.

1:08:01 And I think it's more about the, the respect and the care and line of thought that we put into the consumption than it is the actual consumption. And I don't know that's, it's not readily apparent to us because our grocery stores aren't that right. Our grocery stores are a perfectly cut steak for you that comes on a platter. And I've probably talked about it ad nauseam at the on the podcast, But I've, I've had some conversations with people who eat meat but are like, how could you ever hunt? And I'm like, well, I need to tell you. Yeah. Interest. Yeah, Interesting. I grew up, my dad hunts and I grew up hunting. I don't anymore, just time wise, like doesn't really work out for me.

1:08:46 But I'll still like mooch off my dad for venison because that's the best meat you can get, you know what I mean? Like that's the best meat that you can get. And it has to have, I mean, in order to have it, yes, something has to, yeah. Yeah, you have to have and it's more of the ethical concern of like, how did it live? How was it killed? How was it cared for afterwards? So, you know, I argue that if that Guinea pig had I don't it wasn't was it a do they have wild Guinea pigs? Was it wild or I? Think so? I think they're wild, yeah. Interests. OK, so this is perfect for the argument then, because I argue I'll take a wild Guinea pig over a chicken that was stacked 10 boxes high in this warehouse that's never seen the sun.

1:09:34 Set me up with that. I'll take it out, Agreed. And then I'll eat that. Way more comfortable. About that, I feel like I've always tried to eat really healthy and but after that trip, their meals are so simple. Like they'd have potato cooked to perfection, seasoned to perfection, a piece of trout and some fruit. That was the meals, you know, like it's very simple. So like coming home after that I'm like, I don't need to make myself this like protein oatmeal every morning. Like why don't I just eat eggs and tomatoes and fruit and avocado? Like so simplified. And it's like, why have we again over consumerism?

1:10:16 Why have we turned every meal into this? Like how processed can I make it? Like how can I or even like the health and fitness world? Like how can I protein this? How can I make protein water? Like the clear protein drinks are like like water didn't ask to have protein in it. Seriously, that's enough. Like that's enough. That's. Funny as well. That's funny as well. Yes. And it's like that's the help and fitness world talking to you. But it's like, no, like we just need to eat food, just raw food. How it comes and how it's meant to be prepared and how it's meant to be consumed. Like adding all this additive stuff is like killing us. Yeah.

1:11:01 Oh, for sure, 100%. It's almost like those the a lot of the benefit of the Mediterranean diet, like it's, it's just these beautiful things that are in their form that they are. Yeah, I, I try to, I try to eat like that as much as I can. Man, I love a cheeseburger. It's a, it's A and a pizza. You know, it's, it's hard to get around. It I still think about that, I'll pack a burger. Like seriously, I'm like, I never have to eat a burger again. That was the best thing I've ever had. Nice. Was it a? Was it? Did they have cheese? Was it was a. There was no cheese. It was like a black sesame seed bun. Huge, massive Patty like this big, they made, they put Pickles on it. They put like a bacon jam, like a bacon Jelly on it. Yeah.

1:11:49 And some lettuce and tomato. Nice. Like that's it. And it was just amazing. Like it's the quality of the meat and just the freshness of everything was so good. It's funny, we, we were both like ravenous. So we'd went to the burger place with the Airbnb son, the painter, because he would just kind of be hanging around every once in a while. And we're like, yeah, yeah, come grab food with us. And they made my burger. And then they just forgot to make my friend Brooks and Mateo's burgers. So I sat there for probably 35 minutes staring at this juicy burger, waiting to eat it. So I'm like, maybe that's why it was the best burger I've ever eaten. Because like, I literally was withering away at the table.

1:12:33 Yeah, yeah. And well, especially when you do that much physical activity, you can't eat enough food if you just keep it coming and you'll eat it. You're a good friend. 35 minutes you waited while they. Were waiting oh come on just eat it like just eat it and I'm like I can't you. Couldn't bring yourself to do it table. Manners. I can't do it. I probably would have done it. I know. I think I would have done it. We were, we were all like nibbling off of it. I was going to say, there's probably an end game there where you cut it in thirds. Each have a. 3rd 3rd of each. And then you each have 1/3 of each bird. Yeah, should have done that. Yeah, should have done it. Because everybody probably would have had. And then you would have got to eat it when it was nice and warm. Imagine, Oh my goodness, you ate it when it was cold. Imagine how good it was when it was warm. I said, I literally said to her, I said we're coming back to Cusco one day and going back for those burgers. Like seriously, so good.

1:13:24 Nice. And I think the burger was like $2.00 U.S. dollars. Like that's the craziness of it is like avocados you would buy for like $0.05, you know, like, it's crazy. I just can't, I can't, you know, you can tell. I can't even conceptualize it still. Yeah. Yeah, that's a convoluted thing, right? How much you have versus how much you use and like what you produce that other people use in the world, how it all like comes together in this thing. And most of the time those places like they're clinging on because of one or two things that people in other places either enjoy or need. Like they they cling actually, what what is that there?

1:14:07 Do they have a thing like, I don't know what I don't know? I guess I, I, I would be purely guessing what it was, but they like in general, they have one thing that's like OK. Oh, that They're kind of in there. For well, it's their lifeline, Yeah, that's how they get resources because like somebody wants Colombian. Coffee. It's perused coffee. It's perused coffee. Too. That makes sense. Yeah, we actually on our trek, we stopped at a coffee farm and. You're such a coffee person, yes? I am, yeah. As I'm like drinking an energy drink. Yeah. I already had coffee this morning. But yeah. And we got to see kind of, we actually got to roast our own coffee. And they like, let us take a little bit home. And it's just like so potent and strong. And it's very different from Colombian coffee. Peruvian coffee, I would say, is more acidic. But that's their thing of like, you know, even if there are certain parts of Cusco that were a little bit touristy, I think way less than like going over to the UK and London and stuff. But coffee was like a huge selling point for them of just their their businesses and how they run. I guess it makes sense.

1:15:19 Probably still in the cocaine business too, but. What you got to do and which we we were offered but I. Imagine American dinero man. They're like they see 2 white girls walking around and they're like come on, come on. Yeah, they'd they. 'D go nice, sniff, sniff. I'm like no, no, we need help walking up the. Mountain, we'll have 15 miles. You got to need a little Gogo. Juice. Yeah, right. That's I bet that was a cool ass trip though. Oh my God, that would, yeah. I would recommend it to anybody who is like who I wouldn't recommend it to anyone actually, I shouldn't say that, but you know, someone who's like physically capable of doing something like that and can appreciate like a different culture and really like integrate themselves into it. I think it was like the best experience I've ever experienced and.

1:16:17 When you travel to a place like that, it's probably relatively affordable outside the plane getting there. You know the plane getting there is probably the worst part. But honestly, all together, plane track bought whatever I wanted, you know, like bought some really nice handmade sweaters, food we had to feed ourselves the whole time. I spent under $2200 on the entire trip. Nice. I took out I think $500.00 of cash. I transferred it to Solace and I had leftovers at the end of the trip and we were like out for every meal, you know, we go out for every meal, you know, you buy whatever you. Want throwing it around. Numerous coffees today, numerous matches a day.

1:16:59 We're talking like big like 5 course meals that we spent $12.00 on. You know, like I could not even. I was talking to one of my brides the other day, their wedding is in August. And she said, Oh my God, your trip to Peru looked so cool. And her and her husband are very adventurous people, like very spiritual adventurous, just like kind of free spirited. And I was like, you would love it, Like you guys would love it. And she said, Oh well, we've been trying to plan our honeymoon to Japan and it's like over 10K at least. And I'm like, girl, I spent like $1800, you know, like, you know, and like even, I mean, Scotland was different. Scotland and London like that was expensive and the hotels and everything, but our Airbnb for however many nights, like almost two weeks.

1:17:53 So 12 nights, 13 was 312 U.S. dollars total. I mean like. Nice. What? Yeah, it's hard. Like they don't flush their toilet paper down their toilets anywhere. Airport, public bathrooms, Airbnb all goes in the garbage. OK, every bathroom smells. No bidet setups? Nope. OK, everything smelled like the unsanitariness of it was a little bit of an adjustment, but if I knew it going in and I'm not like I'm not a clean freak. I'm not I'm very type BI like my things like neat and organized to an extent, but like I'm not anal about it. I could not imagine some of my friends who are like, very hell, very clean freaks like they.

1:18:43 I don't think you could even look past that and enjoy yourself, like in general, you know? I'll make that mental note. That'll be a river in Dada trip. Yeah, and send Mama can go to somewhere. Clean, Yes. Send mom to like Italy. Like, yeah, drinking wine. Yeah, we'll go there with her when we come back. We'll leave her at home for that one. Reading. Reading a nice book. Yep. Yeah, it was. It was an adjustment. But like, I get it, Like the plumbing systems just aren't developed enough to hold toilet paper down it. OK, Yeah, everyone's throwing in the garbage. I guess I will too. You know, like whatever. Pretty callous to that, having the what kid with the wipes that they go in the garbage. And it's just, yeah, that's. What it is. All right, well, we got a little bit of time left. I want to touch on one more topic I've never got to talk with a Root of Wisconsin guest about because we share something that's pretty uncommon in society. We're both.

1:19:33 Adopted. Yeah, I knew it. Yeah, yeah. And I've never got to talk with anybody about that on the pod. Not something that comes up in regular conversation. I can't even remember find why I found out because most of the time like. I think it was like before class started, like it had slipped in somewhere, like it was it. We were almost like walking down the hallway and just figured it out. Yeah, because it's one of those things that like I take very circular routes to conversation. And obviously I ask like some like even in not just on the podcast, I do this because I do this in my life. Like I ask people like real questions. I asked somebody yesterday if their 5th baby was an accident and the other person I was with was like you don't have to answer. That I was like, what's the big deal?

1:20:15 It's fine, like 5 days. Or so. No, it's. Crazy. Like if you chose the fifth one I'm going to look at. You as different. So I have to know, yeah, that's hilarious. So I take this route, But in all those ways, there's not really this path that gets to adoption, so it doesn't come out that much. How old? Like how old were you when you were? Adopting young like baby, OK, it's the same. OK. Do you know like where you were born and everything? Yeah. So I was born in Beloit, like Madison area. My birth mom and I think my birth dad were from that area. But my parents, my parents always lived in like Greenleaf area, like De Pere area.

1:21:01 So they adopt me from there and then just brought me back. So I I grew up only in like De Pere. Yeah, it's. And it seems like we've both kind of taken similar paths where like you get asked about it through your life and I'm just like, I don't know. And I think it's because we were babies. Yeah. Like there's just no other life that I know. It's like, these are my parents. Yeah, yeah. And I never really think about anything else. If there is something I do think it's weird, like once or twice the year it'll pop into my mind like oh I might have like a blood sibling out there somewhere, but even that I don't particularly. Care and I do. Oh, you know, did you do like the 23andMe thing or something or how do you know?

1:21:42 Yes, so I don't know if have you met your birth parents? No. So I when I was 18, I like asked to know who my birth mom was. OK. So you wanted to? Know very curious yeah, I was very curious and it turned into I met her and like, Oh well, she has two other kids now and after I met her she had the expectation that I wanted to be a part of their family again. So it turned into like come stay the summers with us blowing up my phone constantly because I was just 18 like getting into college and she was like, we have to make up for all these years not with each other. And honestly, I at a certain point I said I have parents like my parents are my parents and my mom is my mom. Like you're my biological birth giver, but like you're not my mom and like I haven't spoken to her since like it was and I'm like fine talking about it.

1:22:44 It needed to happen. Like, I think it, I think if I could go back, I probably just wouldn't have really explored it. Yeah, so that's what, that's what I, maybe that's the underlying reason why I don't ever, I don't know if I ever will. Like I can't say what I'm going to do 3 years from now, but up to this point in my life, I've never really thought about like my best friend jokes once, once in a while, he'll be like, just give me your blood, I'll send it in and then we'll know. But like, I think that's the part that I'm like, I don't even want to deal with that shit. I have enough like human connection in my life. That and the the complicatedness that comes with it. I don't need another lever level. The one thing that I would like to do somehow, and I don't know how it would ever work without having that happen, but I would like to express gratitude for choosing to spend nine months to bring me into the world.

1:23:41 And being selfless enough to give us up, yes. You know and know that you probably weren't ready. Like I think my mom gave me a bunch of paperwork a while back about my biological. Parents. Interesting. Like it has all the, it's redacted a bunch, you know, but it has like some health information and stuff like things that you might need as a human. And I think if I remember right, it says their age and they were super young. So it's. Like my birth mom was too. Thank you for not putting me through trauma that inevitably comes from that, you know, like, and thank you for making the choice to like, that's a big sacrifice in your life to do. I don't particularly want to go any further than that. I it's OK if we never talk. But I would like you to know that I am grateful that you made that decision.

1:24:24 Yeah, and I wonder too. So then after a few years of not speaking to my birth mom, she never told me who my birth dad was. And there was like a name on my birth certificate. It was, I don't even remember. It marks something. And like, you know, I one time I went on Facebook and started messaging all the mark whatevers in the Madison area, like trying to figure it out because I was just like, why wouldn't she tell me like who he is, you know. Well, I ended up doing 23andMe found like 1 paternal side match, but it was like a distant kind of relative and I reached out to her and she actually helped me like track all the way back like who my dad could be. And it was these two brothers that one died like not too long before, I think 2022.

1:25:16 And in 2020, fours, when I she was helping me, he died. The other one is like much older. So it like most likely was the man that had passed, but like, who else it could be lives in Florida and has a whole family. And I'm like, well, like, what's the point then, you know? And I don't even think he knew that he had a kid with her. I think that's the situation. It was sure she didn't know. Who the dad was? OK, so I'm just like, could you imagine? Like, yeah. You don't. Want. To be the letter carrier for. That like, and then then it just comes back to like my family's my family. Like I love my family, you know, my dad and I look like my dad, you know, like it's just weird things where it's like that's all it's ever been. So why would I?

1:26:04 Why would I try to make it different? Yeah, I mean, curiosity is a thing, but to a certain point it's just like being grateful for what you have. For sure, yeah. And I think actually, no, you were an only child for a long time, right? That's what it was. So I had an older brother growing up. Yeah. Yeah. And he struggles with things and ended up, you know, when he was probably 16, kind of going off in his own and never really hearing from him again, really. But then my parents, he ended up having a daughter who my parents took as a baby. So then she she's 9 now.

1:26:48 She just turned 9. But yeah, she's been around since my last year of high school. We we got her. So I. Remember talking about that. Real. Yeah, yeah. But for a while, throughout high school, I was like the only one at home. Yeah, that's and that's another conversation. People talk about the only child thing, but it's not as fun to talk about. Whatever. Yeah, I was the only one. Cool. I wasn't bored. Yeah, right. But yeah, it sounds like our, our parents, parents had a little bit different routes that I don't even know how adoption worked at that time. Me either. And I really don't know how it works now, but I know that I, I was in like a place, I think it was for like 6 weeks or something where I guess it'd be like foster care or something. Like I had a lady that took care of me. Now that Lady I would like to talk to because talk about that selflessness. Like, OK, I'm going to take the first six weeks of. The kid.

1:27:36 Like if you're going to pick any weeks, if it, if it ain't yours and yours, you're going to be giving it away six weeks. Like you ain't going to sleep. Like, sure, it's awesome and it's awe inspiring. Yeah, all that it's. Hard. It's yeah, like you're up at all hours of the night. And it's such a like, it's critical for the baby. That's the ultimate selfless thing that someone can do. Like, OK, I'm going to basically put my life on hold for six months. Yeah. That person would be fun to talk to. Yeah. And it was cool in that stuff that my mom gave me. I think she, like, has a letter written in there or something about, like, you know, informing the parents. Think about that. I think about that transaction. Like. You drive across the state and you're like, all right, coming home with a baby, right?

1:28:22 Bringing a human. Like, I mean people go like travel to get puppies and like. We were. We were. Kind of like puppies, we're just one of one in the litter, but like, we're puppies, you know? That's kind of how it worked. Well, back to just the creatures. We're all just creatures. We're all just creatures. Just needed a home and and these people gave it to us. Yeah, seriously. Yeah, that's the best. I, I think it's always surprising to me though, and I think it's got, it's like a lot of things in life, it's one of those if you don't experience you, you don't truly know how it feels. And that's why it's kind of cool talking to someone else who has a similar experience. Because I think like just judging by people's facial expressions and curious questions around it, I think they think it's a lot deeper than it. Is.

1:29:07 I think so. Too. And for me, it's not that deep there, there. Yeah, there's some questions out there, but I'm such like a person like even though I don't have any siblings, like my best friend is what I would consider a brother like it. It can't get better than that. So why make a bunch of like forced interaction? That is just because like we came from the same human Yep, doesn't make. Sense to me, I agree. And I feel like in society these days, like, unfortunately, like family units are easily pulled apart now and like, divorce is so common and like, you know, I don't know, you siblings go AWOL and you don't speak to them ever again. It's like it's just about who you love. Like your family is who you love, whether it's biological or not Like.

1:30:02 And what and what's the ratio of people that you've ever met that were like, I really love my step sister, Like she's my favorite human. Like they're out there, don't get me wrong. Yeah, but like. But it's it's the minority. Yeah, I'm not shaking the dice. Yeah, I really love my biological brother that I met when I was almost 40. Yeah, yeah, seriously. I guess she's not going to be the. Same like it's just not. I know it's not how it works. Yeah, I'll pick somebody that I like meet on a trout stream and I'll be like, if I'm going to give somebody a chance, you're. The dude, you're the dude, right? Even like I think of like my best friend Brooke, we met like for a brief time, I worked at Bonafide Juicery when I moved back home from Milwaukee and we met there and we were both working like in the operational side of things.

1:30:46 So like behind the scenes and me and her met and three months after that she moved to Colorado and we've been best friends for over 4 years. We never lost contact. Our friendship got stronger. We see each other three or four times a year. And I'm like, damn, that girl's my sister. She's my sister. Like, I couldn't imagine my life without her. And it took three months of knowing her to, like, know, you know, like, she's my soul sister. And that's just how I treat life and everyone, you know, Like, I didn't need to be biologically my parents to love my parents, Right? Yeah. Yeah, they did everything. For you, Yes. Yeah. Thank you.

1:31:27 Thank you. Yes, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, it's, you know, it's, I don't know. And, and it's strange because I think people know I'm a very deep and reflective person. Like I like thinking about it, but then we get on to this topic and it always ends up being a nothing burger. It's just like, it's not that deep, kind of. Yeah, yeah. Kind of conversation, yeah, but people, yeah. But that's true. People do think it's deep or a lot of times they. I think they're, they think they're stepping on egg shells around it. They're like, is it OK if I ask about your adoption? I'm like, yeah, yeah. It's just like if I'd ask you about your own birth, you know, like. Right. Yeah, yeah, It's not like I remember the. Days, right? You know, my first memory spread like what, five years old or something?

1:32:10 Like, it doesn't, I don't remember. It's the same thing now. I can see how it would be significantly different in other scenarios of, of like if you were seven or something and it happened all of that stuff, of course that's going to be a whole different ball game. But I was a potato. And two, well, I guess you would say four people, 3 or 4 made the decision to do what they thought was best for me. And I'm grateful for that, right. And that's about. All it is, yeah. And that's it. That's. It I got really lucky. Yes, same. I just think, yeah, I think about like, like you said, how your birth parents were so young, like my birth mom was young too. And I think about where would I be?

1:32:52 Yeah, right. If I wasn't giving up for adoption, like, yeah, I don't even want to think about it. I don't have to think about it because this is how like like luckily this is how it panned out. Yeah, for sure. Like you, you think about that stuff and it's like, OK, as a kid I was already like, too smart for my own good. Yep. Not, you know, and aimless. And then you add what a lot of so many people have to go through of like, trauma and all these different things that could potentially shift life's directions. And it's like, I'm just grateful that I was dealt the hand I was. And that's pretty much where I stopped. Like it. There's a lot of things up here that donk around that make me wonder and curious and all these things.

1:33:36 Yeah, this just isn't really one of them for me. Yeah. Did you question for you? Did you always know you wanted kids? Yeah, Yep, yeah, I I kind of always saw that in my future. Did you ever think about adoption? Yeah. No, actually, no, I never really did. That's strange. Yeah, I like, do you think about it? Yeah. Well, I've always felt this way. I have never felt like I wanted kids, like even even like dating, like I've told partners like don't expect me to be popping out a kid. Like I just I've never had a maternal instinct or desire to have children.

1:34:20 Like if anything I'm pretty like anti it for myself and I I have a lot of friends that have kids and I love their kids and I love my little sister Nevaeh. Like I would die for Nevaeh. But in my head like I just don't see that for myself. I almost, if I were to decide one day I would adopt, I think over having a kid. And I don't know if it's like just because I didn't grow up with biological family around me. If like I think differently because of it. But then, you know, you meet another adopted person that like knew you wanted kids. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. Yeah. You know, in all honesty, I that gives me more gratitude for my parents thinking about that because I think it would be really hard.

1:35:07 I think it would be a very difficult thing to do in a lot of different ways. Whereas like the natural way that we're kind of like created to do it, it's almost inherent where the other side, I think it's more effort and it's more try and it's more like selflessness. Especially because, like, you don't know what you're going to get. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I guess no, if I would answer that thinking just on the spot right now, I am. That terrifies me to think about, and that gives me. Even more, Yeah, see, in a way too, I think like, well, like my parents did a great job raising us.

1:35:49 Like we grew up out in the middle of nowhere, like playing in the woods, like we didn't have screen time as kids and ages. We had such a great upbringing. And like my brother suffers with like addiction and like substance abuse and like my parents don't struggle with that and I don't struggle with that. And it's like they couldn't have done anything else, You know, It just, it boiled down to genetically, like what in his brain was different and like what he suffered with mentally that you couldn't have prevented, you know, and even if it presented itself on not until he was a little bit older, 16 or 17, like, it's been difficult for my parents. And it's like, you don't know if you're going to get a baby with fetal withdrawal syndrome or if the birth parents suffered from bipolar, you know, anything really. Like it's such a dangerous, truly a dangerous game to play, especially if you're not going into it thinking no matter what, I'm going to love this kid.

1:36:51 Completely selfless. Completely selfless. Yeah. And I just think, like, thank God my parents were like that, you know? And I think you feel similarly. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. It's that has to be an outside of or you can maybe put organ donation with it in certain instances, but I struggle to think of something more selfless. I agree. Seriously. Yeah, than adopting. It's amazing. I actually watched YouTube video. I've been so onto YouTube. I like, I hate watching TVI never turn on TV.

1:37:32 I'm listening to music, audiobooks, podcasts or YouTube. That's it. And I watched this girl who was adopted by white family from Vietnam, and every single year since she was like, 3, they've taken her to Vietnam for a week or two at a time and learned with her about the culture and where she came from. And, you know, it developed into her just having a very strong sense of self as an adult and, you know, frequently traveling to Vietnam. And I mean, their house was full of Vietnamese artwork. And I don't know, it is interesting to think, like, some people wouldn't do that. Most people would not do that.

1:38:12 Like, that family is exactly who should be adopting kids from Vietnam and, you know, Guatemala and where, you know, they need the help. But some people like, I don't think realize that that's part of the commitment to, you know, like I could see myself adopting a kid from another country just even after like experiencing it. And my friend and I talked about going back to South America next year. We're thinking of going to Patagonia or maybe Guatemala and seeing the the volcanoes. But it's just after going, it's like, oh, we're so lucky. We're so lucky. You know, you come back to nice house and all my, you know, my eggs and spinach and tomatoes that I can eat every morning for breakfast and my freaking cat portraits I have up on my wall.

1:39:02 Like ridiculous, you know, like ridiculous. And how choosing to take a child from that situation is like, it makes you feel good, but it's like a huge commitment. You know, I just, I don't know, that story stuck out to me and how like, I hope those parents keep doing that, you know, parents like that and people like that. Yeah, and people like that, that's a great way to put it. Like if that's in you, mm hmm. That I don't think there's a higher gesture right in life. Mm hmm. I love ended up a nice. Point you. I know. Me too. I was like, how awesome, poetic. It was awesome.

1:39:42 Chad with you. Thanks you too. Yes, thank you. Always good. Always good to catch up with you. Oh yeah, keep going with those 50 LB kettlebell threats. Thank you. Yeah, we're up to 70 lbs now, actually. Crazy.