Bobby Bones Show Best Bits of the Week with MorganBest Bits: Mike D & Morgan Share Holiday Break Stories, Moments with Family
Happy Weekend! Hope everyone is staying safe with some crazy weather all over the country. Mike D shared if he’s joined a running club since our last Best Bits challenge and how he spent his holidays. Then Morgan shares all about her trip across the pond for New Years. Mike D and Morgan also get emotional talk about getting older and the hard things that come with age.
The Best Bits of the Week with Morgan, Part one, behind a scene with a member of the show.
What's Up, Everybody, Happy weekend? It is craziness just about wherever you live in the United States right now. We have fires, we have snowstorms, we have gosh everything. So Mike, welcome to the weekend.
There's a lot going on. I feel like our snow is probably the least of like the major problems in the world, but it does affect us.
Oh gosh, yeah, that's exactly how I feel. I'm like, give me the snow. Like my heart is breaking for everyone out in Los Angeles and that whole area right now and all the animals and just everything that's happening over there. Like I can't stop watching videos and crying. Like I literally had to put my phone down the other day because I was crying so much.
That seems to be the consensus of people of like you can only take so much of it. But then I also think of it as like I could just not look at it for a little bit. But people are going through that, Yeah, that's their life. Like for us, we can be like, oh, we should probably stop consuming that because it's affecting us. Mentally, but people are dealing with that, So there's kind of that balance of how much do I inform myself how much do I allow this to take a toll on me as well? But yeah, it's just it's it's the crazy time right now.
Yeah, I'm like sitting and waiting to figure out, Okay, where am I going to donate, what's going to impact the most, because it's always the you want to help right away, but you don't want to help the wrong situation or the wrong organizations. So I'm like sitting and waiting. I'm like, Okay, I want to help, but how and what am I going to do yet?
Yeah, that's always a weird thing because there's those scammers. Man, there's you want to do something good, and there's like, oh okay, here's this link. It's not a legit link. That just sucks that you have to think about that exactly.
So that's why I'm just like, Okay, I'm just gonna sit and wait and see what actually comes out legit. You know. I think there's been a few of like the Pasadena Humane Society was one, and then like the Los Angeles Fire Department. Those are like the two that I've seen where I'm like, Okay, those feel very legit, But everything else I'm a little sketched out on. So time will tell. But we do have lots to catch up on too, because we just got back from holiday break. Are you hearing all of my sounds? I got to make sure all of my things are closed out.
I don't hear your sounds.
Okay, good, I'm just making sure. I'm like, okay, everything stop closed down. I need an update. We are in twenty twenty five. The people need an update. Mike d Did you ever go and do a run club?
I never did. No.
We got to a new year and it didn't happen.
Doing one over break and then I just never went to one. It's still my goal for this year, and at this point, if it doesn't happen in the next few months, I don't know that I'm ever gonna do it.
Okay, how do we How confident do we feel that you are going to do it in the next few months.
I feel pretty confident about it now. It's just something that I think in the year that I'm going into, I want to invest a little bit more of myself, and that's investing in myself in every aspect of my life, and I think one of those is friendships. And I've been talking about it for so long it gets to a point of like, do you even want this anymore? Is this something you're just saying or is this something you're just thinking, like, ah, I'm gonna do this eventually. If I don't do it, then I have to stop saying that I want friends, because I'm not putting any effort into it.
There is there's definitely a situation there, But I think you want it. It's just uncomfortable and that's hard. It's a hard move to all of a sudden make yourself in this situation that makes you super vulnerable. So you know, I don't know that it's that you don't want friends, but it's just hard to do that. So I'm I wanted a better update, But I'm glad you're being honest with us.
Yeah, I mean, that's anything in life. If you want it, you have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. I do think I come from a place sometimes that I get a little bit comfortable where I am being in my little bubble. That going out out of that bubble to me sounds like the worst thing possible, like, oh, I could just not do that and not feel uncomfortable, but then you're not going to grow.
Yeah, yeah, and you gotta grow, especially in twenty twenty five. We are growing in twenty twenty five, Mike.
And for me, odd number years are always my favorite. So as soon as the calendar flip, I'm like, all right, odd number year, I'm good.
So we hated twenty twenty four, but we like twenty twenty five.
Any odd number year, the better things happened to me. I was born in an odd number year. I graduated high school in an odd number year. There are different moments of my life that happened in odd number years, so I always root for myself in an odd number year.
Did you meet your wife in an odd number year?
No, but we got married in an odd number year.
Okay, I was gonna that was my follow up question, so there was still something there in that. But see, not all bad things happen.
We met, we did meet in an even number year, got engaged in an even number year, but married in an odd number year.
You're really trying to make that good luck continue for the marriage.
With any numbers, like even if like for a run, I always have to end on an odd number. Even if I do eight miles, I'll do eight point one, so it's an odd number. There's just something weird that I associate good luck with odd numbers. I'm really big, too big into eleven eleven, So anything odd number I'm all about.
You know what's funny, Mike, is that you say that like you're definitely more into it than I am. But I've always been an even number person. Like I've always had even numbers for all of my like sports, my jerseys. I've always had, like wanted to have even numbers of kids. I always like just even like what you're talking about with running, like I always do the even numbers. Isn't that weird? How are your poor opposites in that?
Yeah, there's just some comfort I think in whatever number you prefer that you like seeing that, that's what it is for me. Even my favorite like sports players have even odd number jerseys, So there's just some comfort in me. I think for me, it's like a rule of three. I like to do thres, do things in threes that always feel as comforting to me. I think I've applied that to every aspect of my life and anytime there's an even number, I just associated with good luck.
Every time there's an odd number, you associate it with good luck. Right, So I got you on the even number team there for a second.
Odd even number. Yeah, odd numbers, that's so funny.
I like, and honestly, until you even said that, I hadn't even really thought or processed that. That's that's crazy. I wonder if there's some like backstory to that of why some people go odd and some people go even.
I don't know what it could be. I feel maybe it could be like a personality thing.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to do a deep dive into this that might be a take this personal and podcast episode and find out like there's some deep meaning to it. Oh man, what about word for the year. Did you choose a word for this year?
Yeah?
Invest, invest, tell me more.
I think I'm trying to invest a little bit more of myself in twenty twenty five. I think I've kind of realized that I want to do more things for me. I've always put my job ahead of myself and all aspects of that, which I love. I love doing that. But I got to the end of last year and I looked back on all my things that I've done, all my accomplishments of my career so far, and I just wanted to do more things for me, whether it's my podcast, whether it's me and my own creative endeavors. I just kind of want to invest a little bit more on myself because I kind of realized that, like, I'm the only one who cares about me as much like as anybody, and I think if I don't invest in myself, then it's not going to make other people want to invest in me. And I think I've done a good job of like investing in my health and both mental and physical, that I kind of just want to invest more in all the things that bring me joy. So whether it is professionally, whether it's personal, I just need to put a little bit more emphasis on doing things that make me happy.
Oh this is a really good one.
I like this.
I think you could also make it a meaning like amy and you invest like literally, Yeah.
I think that's part of it too. Yeah. I was always about the double meaning. I think even investing in things that just that I believe in and maybe could make me money down the line too.
Yeah, like you can invest in so many different ways. But I really like that word. That was a good choice.
Could you see people who like the people I look at that I want to be like, they have taken some risks. They've either invested money in something which I believe is something you have to do to achieve your dreams. I think that's something some people are afraid to do because you think, oh, I'm going to invest this money in myself, but I might not make anything back. I think it's worth it in the end. Even if you don't get what you were trying to achieve, you'll never look back and think, man, it's not the things that you try, it's the things that you don't try to end up regretting. So maybe you do lose some money on it, but at least you tried.
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. And it is it's the riskiest thing, right, because they're there's two things that we value so much. It's time and it's money, Like those are those are the two things that everybody is invested in. And time you can never get back, and money is one of those things that we are So we're either like so careless about or we're so frugal with there's really no in between, and it's hard. It's hard when you do believe in yourself, but you also believe that the world is hard and things are difficult, then they're not going to work out how you want them to.
And it's I think I took the last year kind of second guessing myself in my dreams. And one of my dreams has always been to create some piece of art, whether it be a book, whether I write a script, whether I write a comic book. And I spent a lot of twenty twenty four contemplating if I was even cut out for that. And I think it's because I'm in I'm thirty three. I'm at a point where if somebody there's like people my age, we are already crushing it in this and I think I let that affect me a little bit of like, ah, man, there are people already well established, and I'm here still in the beginning stages of it. And I think I just needed a little inspiration of finding out more about people who had success later in life in their forties, in their fifties. I was really inspired by the creator a Squid Game, who had been pitching that show for ten years, is in a much later part of their life and is now one of the biggest shows on the planet. So I think it was realizing that that there's really no timeline that you have to follow, and it's not too late to be anubie at something that I thought, you know what, this is something I've always wanted to do. It doesn't matter how old I am. It doesn't matter how much I'm going to suck at it in the beginning. It just matters that you start, you invest in yourself, because if you do it now, in a year, you'll be like, Wow, I'm at a totally different place that I'd never thought I could be.
Yeah, And if there's one thing I have realized is age doesn't matter anymore. You can do anything whenever you want to do it genuinely. And it's scary if you don't do it on the timeline that everybody else has done it on, or you're walking a different path. Absolutely that's terrifying. But you can and should do anything you want to do, no matter how old you are at any point in time, like, I'm so glad you're doing this for you and regardless of what comes for it, you did it for you and the hope is right that it's insanely successful, and if I know you, you're going to find a way to make it that way. But even if it's not, you did do it for you and it's something that you're going to be proud of no matter what.
Yeah. Yeah, I think that's what I kind of forgot about myself. Of Like, I looked back on me in my twenties and I was so I don't want to say reckless, but I had no worry about something not working out that I'm almost jealous of me in my twenties, who didn't think about failing, didn't think about like, oh, what's going to happen if this blows up in my face. Me in my early twenties was this is the only option, this is the only way out, This is what I'm going to do. And I just kind of want to have a little bit more of my younger self and me who was so confident and just did things without thinking about them and was always thinking like three steps ahead. I think as you get a little bit older, you get a little bit more worried about that risk. And I'm like, I just gotta it's not even that I have to dig it out of something that's never existed in me. It's like I just got to be like I was like ten years ago.
Yeah, I mean, if you think of it, you look at anybody as a kid, right, and as kids, we were so fearless. We asked so many questions, and we broke bones in our body and we would throw ourselves off of things with no care in the world. But you know, you get used to what's happening in life, and you're seeing things around you and you're learning lessons and knowledge is powerful, but it is also the more you learn, the more cautious you become, the more afraid we become. So you do kind of have to tap into the inner mic version, like the little kid in you who was absolutely fearless and did not have a care in the world to truly like probably accomplish something like this, which I think you also can. I mean, I'm looking at you right now, which by the way, we're we're on zoom because of this crazy snow, and I see your whole backdrop behind you, Like the kid is alive in you, Mike, Like there's no doubt about that, and I love it, and like that's who you have to embrace.
Yeah, and I think I have at least embraced that part of me in the last year where I felt a little bit more comfortable diving into that. And I think that's even why here in this home studio setup, I've put those things that inspired me early on that are comforting to me now that when I walk in here, I feel a little bit inspired just by looking at what's behind me. And I think it's being in tune with those things and not being ashamed of those things or thinking somebody to get to think I'm lame for being so into those things that's allowed me to get a little bit of that spark back and think, Okay, I've always loved this, It's always been a part of my life. I need to keep that energy with me and keep those things a part of me, because I think that's what's going to propel me into that next level.
Yeah, I totally agree with you. And it's so cool, Like it's I think it's awesome. I think you embracing like the truest version of yourself is the coolest thing anybody can do, and you're doing it.
I am, at least I hope you are.
My word isn't as exciting as yours is. But it's content or contentment. I guess you could do whichever one. But I am learning a lot about patience and understanding that I genuinely should be so content with where I am in my life and who I am. I think I've always spent a lot of time looking for the next thing and always ready for the next thing. That spending time in the present moment and here, the now, and really being proud of myself for everything that has got me to this moment instead of constantly looking to the future. So I'm really challenging myself this year to just be content, be proud of myself where I am, and not constantly trying to push myself forward. Because there's a there's always a time for that, and I can always be doing that. But what I'm not good at is like having patience and like sitting in the present and being proud of what's happening.
How do you implement that in like the short term versus the long term.
I think it's day to day life. You know, I'm not I'm not sitting here, which normally like what I would do is like, Okay, I need to make sure I have this this and this six months from now, this has to happen. Instead, it's like, just focus on today, like genuinely focus on this moment right now, what's happening today that you're so proud of and trying to really exist, instead of focusing on whether it's the past or the future, like just this day. And I think I've had a lot of experiences recently that have just taught me that, Like and you you know, you hear it all the time, like you're not promised tomorrow, you never know, and like it feels so cheesy, but it's so just true. And time when you when you really look at like I think spending time with my family has shown me that, like time moves really fast, and as you see people getting older and you see things happening, it just makes you want everything to stop and slow down and like why, you know, why is this happening? Why is everything moving so quickly? We weren't here and now it's five years and I've lost all this time. I haven't but that's how it kind of feels. So it's really trying to embrace the very very present moment, not anything for or not anything back. And that's not to say I don't have like goals or visions or hopes, but just really trying to make sure I'm putting myself in the present moment instead of always kind of putting myself like four hours ahead, five days ahead, just trying to live in the day, letting the day be the day.
Yeah, you said about spending time with family and kind of realizing that that is something that hit me over the holidays where I went home. I was only able to see my parents for like a day because they were going to Mexico. We went to Texas.
Oh wait, wait, hold on, I want to get into holiday break, but we're going to take a quick break and then we're gonna come back and I want to hear this all right, Okay, you may continue. Please please continue on the story talk about.
The family thing and tomorrow not being promised and all that mentality. It really hit me over the break when I was spending time with my parents, and I kind of realized now what you were saying, like when you see people getting older. My parents are in their sixties now, still mid early sixties, but I saw this meme going into the holidays, it just made me sad of like calculating how many times you go home, how old your parents are and how many times you're going to see them, And it was like you will see them maybe eight times a year in the next whatever, and it's like weird to think about, like each trip is almost numbered now when you only do like with being far away from my family, I see them at most twice a year when I go home, and being around them this holiday, I just tried to live in the moment a little bit more because I was like, man, like, I know they're not that old, but you think about how like old people who tend to be these this time, and like you think more about like how long they're going to be around. It just really kind of made me think, like I got to enjoy this a little bit more. And one of my favorite things to go home and do is have my mom's rice. She makes like this incredible rice that everybody loves. And it hit me for the first time of thinking like, man, she might not be around sometime to make this for me. I need to write this recipe down because it was just that weird thought of in my head. She's always going to be there, She's always going to be able to make that for me. But someday that's not going to be a thing, and it'd be one thing for her to not be here anymore. But also thinking like man, like I'll never be able to taste that rice again, Like I need to write that down.
Yeah, you don't realize just gosh, especially like when I'm even talking to my parents too, like I have super active parents and stuff, but even still, I'm like, guys, I need you to take care of yourselves. I don't care what it is I need you to take I need you around for as long as humanly possible, So please be taking care of yourselves. Like I see myself doing that now, and you know, ten years ago I wouldn't even have noticed or paid attention. But you feel that start to happen, and you're just like, oh gosh, I feel myself getting older, which means they're getting older, and you do start to treasure things like recipes and the cooking moments. And then just like just sitting on the couch when I was like talking to my parents, so I was like, gosh, I wish I could do this every day, you know, and living away from them makes it twenty times harder. You know, there's this big part of me, that's like, Okay, I just need to move home because then I'm never going to miss anything. But then it's also like, okay, well then I'm doing a disservice to me, me and to them by doing that. It's that internal adult struggle that's happening right now, I think for both of.
Us, and I think it never stops. Because the other side of this is my parents went to Mexico. My grandma, my mom's mom, is the only living grandparent I have left. She's ninety four years old, so she's lived in Mexico her entire life. They try to go at least once a year to see her, but it's like a seventeen hour bus, right that they take to get down there. And when they were, they spent like ten days with her, and they were leaving, and my ninety four year old grandma made my dad cry because she was like, hey, take care of yourself so you can be around for your kids. And even at ninety four, she still felt that way. She's still having those same thoughts that we're having and talking about right now. Yeah, was still telling them like, hey, take care of yourself, be healthy, because you should be around for your kids.
Yeah, but that's also so cool. She's like ninety four, you know what I mean, Like she's lived such an incredibly long, amazed life. But to be able to then pass that with their mom and say do this. But I also imagine for your parents because of that age, Like when we were towards the end of losing I also only have one living grandparent left on my mom's side, my grandma. But when we lost my grandpa this past year, he had just turned ninety four, and we had lost my grandma a few years prior. But I just I remember just seeing my dad experience that, and just every time we leave that it could have been the last. Like it even makes me like choke up thinking of that, because like you know, you don't want to see your parents hurt, and it hurts you because those are your grandparents, but like those are their parents. And then you have this whole like emotional roller coaster.
That you go on.
But every time you leave, it was like, Okay, is this the last time that I see you? And one time it was, and like that is so like, oh, do you want to talk about like hitting somebody like just right in the jugular.
It's that yeah, And I think that's what they were going through when they went to see her this past time, because she did have some pretty big health issues last year where they thought she wasn't gonna make it. She came, you know, she was able to overcome it. She's in really good health now, even though she's ninety four. She can still get around really well, and her mind is like super sharp. She's really big into watching TikTok Phone and she loved watching TikTok so like he has a great memory. It's like super sharp, funny and witty, and it's just wild to see at her age just how much with it she still is.
Yeah, God see, and that's what we should be doing that, Like, we should be able to be with it by the time we're ninety four.
I still want to be on TikTok. If it doesn't get Bann when I'm ninety four, I know, we.
May not even have it in the next week. Mike, So here we are, okay. Besides the we got the sappy emotional stuff. What was the fun part of your break that you just did.
We went on our entire Texas tour, which was fun. Every time we go back to Texas, it just feels like home, and I also love a road trip, so it was kind of the best of both worlds that we flew from Nashville to Austin and then drove all up and down Texas to see all our families. There's something just comforting to me of being in a car on a highway making decisions, like you want to go to the gas station. I love going to BUCkies. So we went to every single BUCkies that we three different BUCkies, and I was like, we got to see them all. We got to see the biggest one. We got to see and compare the toilets and the coffee. I just feel like the biggest one ever, it's the biggest one in Texas now, which every time they build a new one, it's always the biggest one, got it. I didn't really tell much of a difference between that one and the non bigger ones.
They're all large.
They're all just huge and massive, and they're just something comforting to me about going to a big gas station. And I love gas station coffee for some reason, Like as much as I love coffee, I don't necessarily love good coffee like some people are so in to the process of making coffee. I like cheap gas station coffee, And there's just something comforting to me about going in, getting a cup of coffee and then just hitting the road.
So is that all you get from a BUCkies? I was just about to ask what's your go to BUCkies? And then I was like, is there vegan options out of BUCkies?
For Mike? Pretty much? I just get black coffee. They'll have like cups of fruit. But I even love going, even though I don't eat it. I love smelling the brisket and the barbecue and here and then you know yellow when they make the sandwiches. I love the smell of that, even though I don't eat it. I just get coffees. They usually have some kind of like vegan protein bar that I'll get. So that's pretty It's just the experience for me. Got it.
You're going You're going for that whole environment versus the food experience. Okay, so BUCkies trip, you hit the biggest one in Texas? What else? What else were you guys doing?
So first week of vacation, that was just family tour. We were in Texas the whole time, and then we came back to Nashville and that was just a week. We dedicated to doing nothing. Do we what we wanted to do. I think we had both had a pretty crazy last few months of the year, so we just wanted to be like, Okay, we have no plans set, we don't want to go anywhere. We just want to watch movies. We went to the movie theater every single day. Ye regal unlimited where you can go as many times and that it's just unlimited. So any movie that came out, we went to go see it in theaters. We rewatched every single Harry Potter movie.
Love that great Harry Potter movie. Marathon is always is always amazing.
At Christmas time, yeah, I always associated with Christmas, even though they're not Christmas movies. In the first two at least, they really emphasized Christmas, so they always have that feeling to me of like being cold, not having anything else to do. We watched all those movies and then we both found ourselves being sad that there wasn't another one, even though the movies have been out for so long, but we really going to make another one. So now I'm really invested in that HBO Max show coming out that hopefully it's some kind of like Okay, at least similar to it, which I think they're gonna do. Each season is a book, which I think will be interesting.
It's not the same characters at all, though, right it's totally new people.
I don't know, I've seen different things. I've seen them, unless they just focus on different characters the entire time. But it seems like there's gonna make it where each book is a season of the show.
I love that. I love the idea. I'm hopeful. I mean, Max hasn't like butchered anything, but it's also like one thing I've realized what I don't like about some of the remakes is just the modernness of it. I think the reason I love a lot of these is because they're like, in other words, vintage. They're old school. They like the the Harry Potter movies, like the CGI stuff. It's horrible, right, but you love it because when you watched it in theaters, like you're getting the experience when you watched it when it came out, and the modern ones you don't have that same experience.
Yeah, especially in the first two you realize how bad the CGI actually was. They looked like straight up video game characters, and you're like, I think the further and further away we get from it the worst and worst it looks because we see everything looking so new and slick, and we're like, oh man, how did we buy this back in the two thousands? Yeah?
No, for real. But you know, once you've seen it, it's it's like one of those things like if you saw it when it came out, it's really hard for you to watch the remake if you never saw it, and then you watch it now, you're like, oh, this is terrible. Like that's my experience that I've had with anything that's like nineties, early two thousand's and then you know, the same happens like in that Vice Versus Switch, Yeah.
Which is what kids nowadays are probably looking at those movies and thinking this is terrible, the same way we saw movies from the seventies and eighties and thought it was old and crappy. Why do you love this stuff so much?
Yeah, that's like anybody to talk to, like Star Wars, because I watched it so much later in life when I like during COVID, when I went on that binge of all of that stuff and I watched Oars, I was like, oh, of course I love the later ones, like because I don't have any attachment to the really horrible ones at the beginning. But then you talk to anybody who watched them when they came out or like especially when they were younger, and they're obsessed with the older ones. I'm like, why it's so horrible? Oh man, Okay, so fun. That's a fun break though. I mean it sounds relaxing. You got to see family. Number one moment over the break that you had.
Number one moment was probably eating my mom's food. I think that is what I look forward to every year any trip I go home, I got to have my mom's food.
You know. I really feel like, does she still work at Taco Bell?
Yep?
I feel like she really needs to like implement her own taco bell, like she owns one, and then she adds some of her own recipes to the taco bell, like a spin on taco bell.
That is what my mom does. It works. She experiments and makes her own thing, and she'll make them so good that like the other her other people who work with her, like, hey, make me one of those. She'll mix different ingredients. She loves it.
See, but that's what she needs it like on the menu she needs her own Taco Bell.
I used to love going there because I would I would go to high school and then I would stop by Taco Bell because my mom would always hook it up and she would either make me something that wasn't on the menu or what I did order. She would just load it up with stuff. I'm like, yes, this is amazing.
Oh see, I'm rooting for Mike D's mom's Taco Bell. It's like Stacy's mom. But like Mike D's mom's Taco Bell.
She would crush it.
She would. Okay, I mean, I don't even know, honestly, where to start with mine. I went home for a week. I spent Christmas with my family, which was amazing. We played this. You've played the board game Life, right, I don't think I ever have okay, what we need to play Life? But do you know at least the reference, like you know the game Life game.
I don't really know how you play it. I've never played it.
Okay, Basically, it's like this. You are around about on this board. You at various points get children, and you could end up with like fifteen children and you have like it it's literally the game of Life, but on a board game, and so there's a version of this called like Redneck something, and so we played this redneck version of life and it was hilarious, Mike. We played for like five hours. We were dying laughing, this is my last night like home with my family, and they I was like, guys were playing a redneck game, which means like all of our country redneck accents have to come out, like this is where, this is the moment we can all shine. And I like, I'm not kidding you. We could not stop like talking, and I had my you know, everybody makes fun of me when my Lady Wilson's side comes out, but it was so strong and my sisters cannot stop walgging. They're like, where did this come from? I'm like, guys, like this is what I was born with. We just like really suppressed it. So we played that game. Highly highly recommend and definitely if you're gonna play a life game, I think you should play that one, Mike, because it's so much better. You had like they would tell you your name based on like rolling the dice, and I think I was like Bubba Jean or something was my name, and then they like pick your kids' names that way. It was just it was pure chaos, but so much fun. And then after that, of course, I went to Europe and we talked about that a little bit on the Post show. So there's that you have any questions about any of it, Mike. That probably helped me narrow it down.
Yeah, when it comes to leaving the country, because when we talked about it on the show, we said that leaving that going to different parts of North America really didn't count, which is all I've done. I've been to Canada and Mexico, I've been to Central America. What does that feel like leaving the country as far as like, I don't know just what is it. I feel like, I guess I feel like I've been out of the country. I feel like I've traveled a lot. When I thought about it, I was like, I guess I've never really left the country technically because I've stayed on this continent.
Yeah, and I you know, I still think it counts. I do think there's a level of it counting because you're speaking different English, like different languages. Mexico is being Spanish, Canada a lot of it's French, and then I don't know what in Central America is it also Spanish.
It's Spanish. It's like a different flavor of Spanish.
There's some differences, but yeah, Spanish, Okay, see, I do think it still counts, but it is different when you're literally, like when you're watching yourself fly across an ocean. I was like, oh, this feels weird. And my sister like sent me the location and she was like, in Kansas and I'm in Brussels. She's like, you're on a literal different continent because I've.
Done that, going to Hawaii. But that's still a part of the United States, even though that felt like an entirely different country like.
That because you were flying over the ocean.
Yeah, when you're just over the ocean for a long time and then being there, nothing in Hawaii felt like anything in America. So I know it technically a stay, but to me that felt like leaving the country. Yeah.
No, Hawaii really should be a country all on its own, because between Alaska and Hawaii, I'm not sure how they're connected to the United States because they look vastly different. Genuinely either though you would like Alaska, although it's freezing, like very cold. If you don't like the cult, don't go it's amazing but very cold. But yeah, it was weird. It was definitely weird. It was also like you should have seen me, Me and my little poor economy class that I was sitting in. I was like just crunched up in this little seat for like nine hours. But I was so fascinated with all of the like you could plug in and charge your phone and you can watch they had, Like Mike, you would have loved the movie selection. I mean, they had thousands of movies for you to choose from to watch. On this flight, I ate lunch and dinner on full dinner and breakfast is what it was.
On this flight.
I was like, dang, that was actually pretty good, like I was expecting, but that was good. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, I just had this meal. Like you should have seen me. You would have thought. I had never been on an airplane in my life. That was that experience that I had, just traveling internationally because I've just like I have been to Hawaii, but again, it just it was not the same experience as this, and like flying over like I took melowtonin to try and pass out. It didn't work. So I'm like groggy, and I'm using this like teeny tiny blanket that they give you, and I literally hit the map. I'm like, oh crap, we're in the middle of the ocean. I should have not looked at that. So, yeah, the flight there was eight and a half hours. I flew into Chicago and Chicago to Brussels, and then the flight from I went brought Barcelona to Newark, New York, and that was nine hours. So both of them were long.
Okay, that's that's closer than I'm want. I really want to go to Japan and that's like seventeen eighteen. Oh my gosh, hart about wanting to do that trip. And if you're saying eight hours feels like a lot, I remember Hawaii felt like a lot and that was like eight hours.
Yes, double, Okay, hold on, I want to talk about this more. We're gonna take a quick break. I like realizes, like I never took a break. Hold on, yeah, no, So Mike, I would literally fall asleep for like two hours. I'm like, surely we are close, Like surely I'd look it'd be like six hours left. I'm like, there's no way, there's no way I'm going to survive this. Flight running on.
The treadmill, We're like, oh, clearly I should be close to done. Oh I've been on here five minutes.
Okay, Yes, that's what it feels like. I think. I do think it's worth it, but it's just like you really have to prepare yourself for if you go overnight, like if you fly overnight on a red eye. I do think it helps with all the jet lag and stuff. But and had we honestly not stayed up every night until like four am, I think I would have been just dead to the world when I got back. But I think I confused my body so much it couldn't figure out what the heck time zone I was on. So that helps me out. But I do think that jet lag is horrible.
How much of everything on your itinerary did you actually get to versus how much did you not be able to do? Oh?
I would probably say half and half. But again I also had like a long list.
Of things that was not gonna be that's a lot of stuff.
I get really really adventurous when I start putting to something together and I all everything, knowing I can't make it to everything. But it's always like a in case I am around this area.
You're not one of those people like, Okay, this is everything on the list, we got to do this, we gotta be here, we gotta be here.
No, no, I didn't. I didn't do that. It was more like, okay, let's try or if like we're sitting there and we're like what do we do, I'm like, okay, well, let me go in my list and I'll pull some things out. But there was a day like in Barcelona's like we have to at least go and see some of these sites. Like I know, we're having fun and we're living like the local life, but we have to at least see some of these tourists the spots. And that's when I pulled it out and we hit like four spots in two hours. But yeah, no, I want to say like fifty percent we probably got We probably got a lot of it, and we saw a lot of it. But like, I didn't go in the louver. I'm not a huge like art person.
Museums that is my damn, So.
You would you would have loved it. But the thing is is like if you go on the lover, people say you can spend an entire day in there, And I had two days in Paris, and I was like, I can't be spending it in an art museum trying to see the freaking Mona Lisa.
See that sounds like what I would enjoy about that. I would like to go to the museum spend the entire day there. And I know it's a lot of things that you could see by googling online, but for me seeing something like that in person and just knowing that, I can always say, like, I saw the Mona Lisa in person, I saw that sounds like a dream to me.
Yeah, and you're right like it. Honestly, I haven't heard of anybody say they were like disappointed to go in and see it. I think it was more like, Okay, if I come back, that's something else I can do. For now. This is what I'm gonna like focus on. Because also the one thing we didn't do that I so so wish we did. You had to make a reservation, and we just didn't know. We were not experienced in enough in that area in Barcelona. But there was this place called the Basilica. It's this beautifully massive cathedral straight out of a freaking comic book. Mike like, doesn't even look real. Medieval. They've been building it for years, hundreds of years. It's still not finished, and I guess it's just insanely beautiful inside. And we weren't able to go in because we didn't have reservations, and that is one thing I do wish we like would have been able to go in and see, because I think it is absolutely worth it.
So the best landmark you saw versus is the most underwhelming landmark you saw.
I think it was iconic to see the Eiffel Tower. I think I wanted to hate it, like because you know, like everybody talks about it, and I wanted to be like, oh, it's not that cool. But as soon as I walked up to it, and at especially at night, when it started sparkling, and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna cry.
Is it as massive in person as it looks like or is it actually kind of small?
No, it's huge.
It's huge.
Like you to walk around it would take you miles, really, yes, and like even walking up to it, like you're literally like looking straight up and it just feels like it goes. The crazy part mic is too it would be covered by clouds, that's how tall this thing is oh wow. Anyway, Yeah, we'd look off into the distance and you'd only see like the middle half because the top half was in the clouds. Crazy. So definitely the Eiffel Tower. It's as iconic as everybody says it is. And then the most underwhelming one of the things we went and saw in Barcelona. We saw like so gall is like their architecture guy who was just well known and he's he's part of like the Basilica stuff, and that is obviously really cool, but there was we went to this place called Casa Botlow and I'm totally butchering that, I'm sure, but there was two different ones. There's Casa Miila and Casa Botlow, and Cosa Miila was totally worth it. Loved it amazing. We paid for the tour, we walked inside. They give you like headphones and you would like that, like you walk around and you get like the guided tour just by yourself. And we also did it in Bato, thinking it was gonna be really cool, but that one was definitely underwhelming compared to like all the other things that we had seen. So if I go back, I would just go to see the outside because the outside is beautiful and then like skip the tour. So probably those two and Brussels. Brussels was so much more beautiful than I would have given it credit for. Like I genuinely went because I'm like, I love chocolate. It's really what I want and I want to test my French. That was like that whole like kind of backstory on Brussels. But I did not anticipate how beautiful. There's this area called the Grand Palace and it's where all the shops and you can walk around in It is easily probably one of the cool ergest like central locations of all of those cities that we went to. It looked it didn't even look real like you if you looked at the buildings, we wouldn't think you could go in them, like they would just be like a storyboard, you know what I mean. But you can actually go in them, and there's like restaurants and bars and things inside of all of them, but they don't look that way.
After coming back, do you feel that you're a little bit underwhelmed by American food?
Now? Oh my god, yeah, so underwhelmed. So like I mean, I'm meaning like the chocolate and cheese, I'm like this is such a bummer. I really ruined this for myself.
Because I try to think of like when people come to the US, like what is the food you have to try here that's compared well?
And maybe because I don't eat barbecue and you don't either, that might be why, because barbecue, I do feel like, is the thing that they come here for. In general. I mean, you have a lot of different areas in the States that have like specialty barbecue, and maybe that's because, like because they don't really have that over there anywhere that like I looked on the menu, barbecue wasn't a thing. Neither was like hot chicken, you know, Nashville, Like so many of them knew Nashville for hot chicken, which was a crazy like thing. They're like, oh, yeah, you guys have a hot chicken, and I'm like, we do so and so maybe that's why. But in general, the food just felt so so fresh, like so much fresher. Like I wasn't eating you know, horrible ingredients all the time. It was like genuinely fresh food. Even the bakery items felt like I was having like actual fresh, like normal flour, not like processed.
Yeah, that's what I hear about people going to other countries and eating their food that like some people who can't have gluten in the United States can go to other places like Italy and have their pasta and have no problems whatsoever because it's fresh and like yeah, and.
I like I did have a little bit of that experience, Like I still had a little bit, but it's probably because I was genuinely inducing so many carbs into my body that I wasn't a great test subject. But I do feel like had I eaten that many carbs here, I would have been destroyed. So I wasn't horrible. I wasn't, but I'm still having a little bit of my reactions now. Granted, I do think Italy specifically is the one that they talk about, like Italy is super super fresh. Paris I think has become a little bit more commercialized, at least where we were going. If you're like, maybe the more local areas that's not as much the case. But for sure, just in general, it felt fresh. Even like the scrambled eggs I had in Paris, I was like, how did you make them like that? I don't even know what that is?
Did you ever if you went to another country, break your vegetarianism because it was a local cuisine that you can only have there and it's supposed to be amazing.
No, you know, Mike the Barcelona guy's tried really Yeah, there was some like I don't know, octopus dish, and I was like, well, have you guys not seen my octopus teacher, because like I can't eat that, Like I get it that that's yourious thing, but I can't. Like, seafood's really big there because they're on the they are on the coast, and so they tried a bunch and Julia was like, oh gosh, this is all so amazing. I'm like, I bet it is, but it's really tasty. But I did do one of their things, so you know green onions, like French green onions. They grill them, I think is what it is, and basically you have to like peel them out of the thing and eat it with this like what I would say is like our bloomin onion sauce basically is kind of what it tasted like, and you dip them in there and you eat the whole green onion.
That sounds pretty good.
That's like that thing. That's one of their like delicacies in Barcelona's and it has a name. I don't remember what it was, but I was like, this is so interesting. This is a French green onion and you guys are just eating it by itself, So that that was an interesting one that was vegetarian. But no, I don't. I wouldn't ever break it I because mine's just too like. One, I know I'm going to get sick if I eat it, like regardless of where I am. And two, I just I don't think I even have the desire even if it's like this is the specialty thing, Like if they come here and it's like barbecue, be like, okay, well, I guess I'm not eating barbaeu for me.
Like my dream is to go to Japan. I've been really looking into it. I don't know if this year is a possibility. But if I go there, I'm breaking veganism to have sushi, like real sushi. Yeah, but it's a long trip to get there, and I would regret it so much if I went all that way and didn't try the thing that they were known for and the thing they recommend, So I would immediately eat seafood country, different continent, Like it's fine, this.
Is true, and you always have your one like thing that you were doing. I don't think you do it anymore, but you're one day a year.
Yeah, I don't do that anymore. So I also I'm not vegan for moral reasons. It's more for health reasons. So I don't know how my body would react, because even though I do have that, I did have that one day where I would eat whatever, I've still never had meat.
On that day.
So it's probably been going on eight years now since I've had any meat. I don't know how my body would react to it. I think I would do probably fine with sushi, but if there was any meat, like I would just go forward at that point.
Yeah, it is your It's funny how your body like blocks things out because anytime, like even by accident, it'd be like chicken would be in some dip or something and I didn't know it and I would taste it immediately and i'd like spit it out. But like there's even the like cream of chicken stuff that was put in things and I wouldn't know because most of the time it's like a stalk, and I would get so ill, like almost immediately, I'm like, okay, put the cream of chicken in here, because like, my body literally went straight out. So I do think there is like your body does recognize when you haven't had something for so long. I think you can ease back into it and get it again at some point, especially for you, you're just a little bit different, only eight years mine being gosh twenty, however many that.
Has been a long time. Yeah.
No, if I try to do it now, my body's like, yeah, you're toast, there's no there's.
No coming back.
But do you even eat, like now, are you full vegan in that you don't eat seafood because I do know there's some vegans vegetarians that will eat seafood.
Nah.
No, seafood okay, So that would even be like a venture for you in there. Why sushi? Why is sushi the like thing you want to try?
That's what they're known for. I do like sushi, but it's all like vegan sushi. That's just like you know, the vegetable rolls and stuff like that. But I feel like I almost feel like that's not really sushi because sushi has raw fish, And I think I just love Japanese culture and I would want to try what they're known for.
Yeah, I guess I didn't realize that's what they're known for. Okay, where are the cities you want to visit in Japan?
I want to go to Tokyo and I want to go to Kyoto?
Okay? Is that near Tokyo?
I really don't know, You're like, I just know these two cities. I haven't done that much research into it yet as far as just getting to know from what other people have done there and from seeing pictures of Kyoto, it just looks like a place I want to be, so I want to experience the city, but also a little bit of just like the landscape of it. So I think that's why those are a little bit too different.
Don't they have? Is that where they have the Mario World?
Yeah? In Japan?
Okay, would you go to that?
Because that's another big part of it. Of all the things that I love, like Pokemon, Nintendo, anime, it's all from Japan, and I feel like going there and going too like the Pokemon stores, the cafes and all those things where it's just normal there. I think that that part of it would blow my mind. And even just going shopping there where you can go into a store and find like old school Nintendo video games and things that only they have, because Japan is like ten years ahead of us when it comes to some of that technology that I would enjoy just going shopping there and just finding things to bring back.
You're gonna have to have like a whole separate bag that it's just all your items that you bought there.
I'm just taking an empty suitcase and buying as much stuff to load up with.
You know, we did. When we were in Paris, we ate at a really cool restaurant, but we met a couple that was from Singapore and they just spoke so highly over there of just the whole area. But I think you should also add Singapore tier list because they like so clean.
They like.
The place that they compared it to was Dubai. And I don't know if you've done any research on Dubai, but it's like super clean and they yes, yes, and that's kind of how Singapore is. But it was funny. I asked them the question, I'm assuming you've seen the movie Crazy Rotasians. I was like, okay, I need to know it's Crazy rit Asians, Like, legit, how well did we do? They're like, yeah, no, not at all, not at all, so don't expect that when you go to Singapore. But they were really cool and they spoke highly just in general, but Japan was one of their thing, one of their places that they said is one of their favorites.
Yeah, I want to go. I think Dubai is one of those places that is so rich where you go out and look on the street and they're just like so many luxury cars driving around where everybody has one and it's almost not even a flex to have one because it is so normal. It's like seeing a Honda a Cord out the wild. And what they take pride in is their license plate numbers, because apparently you can pay for like a lower license plate. So if you have license plate that's just number one, you pay like millions of dollars to get that license plate, so that is thereforex it's not even the car is the license plate.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Dubaia is a different planet. I don't feel like it's actually you know, here with the rest of us. Also, wasn't it kind of like a made city, like it kind of was built from the ground up. It wasn't like it's not like Dubai's I don't know if Dubai the actual city and the name have been there forever, but like what Dubai is and what we know Dubai is now is not what it.
Was that I don't really know that much about it.
Okay, Well, there's like there's some I went down a rabbit hole one time where it was like it was basically like this made city basically take like an elon Musk and he like created the city. Is essentially what somebody was saying online. I don't know that that's true because I was on TikTok. Can't believe everything on tiktokk TikTok. Yes, this might be why they're taking it away from us. Okay, well, we are gonna jump out of here. I hope you get to go to Japan this year. I hope this is your year for Japan.
Yeah, that is my plan. I am starting to ask friends who have been like I think I'm My biggest worry is getting there and not speaking the language and feeling lost, because that's kind of how I feel like leaving the country. When I thought about you leaving the country of like what you said about we don't know many other languages and people there, you know, they do know English and they do it because we go travel there. I experienced that just going down to Costa Rica, where luckily I do speak Spanish, but they know English just because they know people are coming there who are going to know English, and they make such an effort to do that and learn other languages. We don't really do that here. We're like, you don't speak English to get out of here.
Literally we're the dumb Americans that won't speak other languages. And that's kind of like you have a second language, like you speak Spanish and I major or I'm minored in French. So like I had it, I tried, but I didn't. I wasn't able to keep it because there's nowhere here that I would have been able to practice that language. There was nobody else that was speaking it, like you know, not on my part, I probably should have just done Spanish and then at least I would have been able to try it someplaces. But it really is it's it's wild to me that they they not only speak their language English, but like they speak multiple majority of them speak at least three languages. Majority, And I don't say, like you know, they're so so fluent, but they're enough to communicate with you and like help you and be able to serve you if they're in the service industry or whatever. And that just like breaks my heart that there are people that come over here and they're just like cool, I don't get to speak like my native language, but I gotta speak gers.
Yeah, that's that's just a crazy concept.
Yeah, but you would be Okay. I do think Japan, especially in the last gosh couple decades, has definitely had a lot of tourism from America that I do think a lot of them speak English. So I don't think you would be you would if you went more local side. You would definitely feel it. Like anytime we were in a local situation, I felt it and I was like, oh, why am that? Like there'd be I'd make a joke and I'm like, that is not the same joke to them, So I'm just gonna let that one roll. But otherwise, like when we were not in the local areas, when we were definitely around like the tourism and stuff, you were totally fine. So I think you would be fine over there as long as you stayed there or had someone local to be able to help you in the local areas.
I think I'm gonna start practicing by watching movies from Japan and then watching them with English subtitles, so maybe I can start picking up on some things.
Yes, that did help, like even though I didn't have like all of my French anymore. Like even in Paris, like I picked up on words. Heck, I knew when a dude was making fun of us. I was like, yeah, he's totally making fun of us right now. So it does help some dialect, you know what I mean, at least to have like so you don't feel totally stupid like listening to them. But it's hard. It's also just hard in general to pick up a whole other language.
So yeah, I guess I just didn't want to go and feel helpless, like, man, I can't even communicate that I'm trying to check into my hotel room.
Yeah, I think on that level you would be. Okay, I think you would, so don't worry at least on that and for anybody who wants to travel abroad it Unfortunately, we will always be the dumb Americans that don't speak both languages. Okay, we are going to get out of here. Mike, thanks for joining me on this snow day. I'm pretty sure we've had multiple inches accumulate while we've been sitting here.
I'm curious to see what it looks like outside now.
I know, I know, but thanks for catching us up on the break. And we're going to be hopeful that by the next best bits you will have gone to a run club. That's the goal.
Yeah, even if it's in the snow.
Even if it's in the snow, We'll be so proud. All right, We'll tell the people where they can find you. Hear you, all that good stuff.
You listen to my podcast movie Mike's movie podcast Boiler Free Movie used a bunch of rink lists, and then you can follow me on social media at Mike destro and everything.
Love it and you can check me out What Girl Morgan New podcast? Take this personally. Have an episode with an actor actually, which is not normally the direction I went, but he had a crazy story about drowning and he remembered the entire thing. His name's Jesse Hutch and that's why I brought him on to talk all about that. He was in a new movie called Homestead.
Have you seen that one? Yet I haven't seen it. I heard about it.
Okay, so that's what he was in. But yeah, he came on and like we talked about the drowning for like thirty minutes of like he genuinely can remember every moment that happened, and that's insane to me. I was like that, like that has to feel hard to remember, and he was like, actually, like it helps me now. Crazy just crazy story that is wild. All Right, we'll see you guys later. Follow the show out Bobby Bone Show. Check out our YouTube page. There's lots of stuff up there. Bye everybody.
Bye. That's the best bits of the week with Morgan. Thanks for listening. Be sure to check out the other two parts this weekend. Go follow the show on all social platforms Bobby Bob Show and follow at webgirl Morgan to submit your listener questions for next week's episode.
