Latest / onefjef / You Can Call Me Gringo

Transcript

You Can Call Me Gringo · onefjef

0:01
Onefjef There you go
0:12
This is episode 61 of onefjef.
0:17
Hey, episode 61
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I was walking out of my apartment building a couple days ago, and there
0:37
was a guy coming in as I was leaving the building, and he was clearly a gringo.
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Like, like I'm clearly a gringo, right?
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But I still was like, "Hola." And he was like, "Hola," in return.
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And I was like, "Buenos, buenas noches," or whatever.
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It was buenas tardes at the time.
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And I walked away.
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We both did.
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And I was-- walked away, and I was like, "That was weird.
1:01
We're both clearly gringos.
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Why did we not speak to each other?
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Why did we just go, 'Hey, how's it going?'" I don't know.
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It's a weird, like, um, how do you navigate that moment when
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you're saying hello in passing to who is clearly a gringo?
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But both of us did it, so it wasn't just me.
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If it was just me, I'd feel stupid.
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If he was like, "Hey, how's it going?" I was like, "Hola, buenas
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tardes," I would've felt stupid.
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But we both did it, and then we both kind of just walked away.
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Anyway, something to think about.
1:31
Hello once again, my friends and friends and friends.
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How are we all doing?
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I ask this every week, and nobody ever responds.
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I never hear anything back.
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Perhaps it's the medium.
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Perhaps it's your laziness.
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I realize it's easier for me to ask you how you're doing than it is for
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you to tell me how you're doing.
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You'd have to actually, like, pick up your phone or get onto your email or
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whatever it is and just tappity tap, tap, and-- But I can just come on
2:01
here and be like, "How are you doing?"
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And then get frustrated when nobody responds.
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But please let me know.
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Oh, and I think the power just went out in my apartment.
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It certainly did.
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Huh.
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There's no storm happening, so that's interesting.
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The only culprit I can think of as to why the power's out today
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is that there's construction going on, and it's been noisy all day.
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So either the construction made the power go out, or-- Although I still hear the
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construction, so no, it wasn't that.
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Who knows?
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Fortunately, this microphone runs on batteries, so, so
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I can continue to record.
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Thank you, God.
2:48
There is, there is a God in the universe, and it has to do with batteries.
2:54
Does the power go out a lot in your apartment there in Mexico City, Jef?
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I wouldn't say a lot.
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It's just probably the third or fourth time.
3:00
The strange thing about it is it usually doesn't-- The times it's gone out,
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it hasn't gone out during a storm.
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It just goes out randomly in the middle of the day, like today, like right now.
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It's great that you could be here for this.
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It's very exciting.
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But yes, how am I doing?
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Well, I, I was doing great, and I guess I'm still doing
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great, but now the power's out.
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So I don't know if that affects my standard of living or quality of life.
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But I mean, right now it's not affecting my quality of life.
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But if it continues to be off, it will progressively get-- have more and more
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of an effect on my quality of life.
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But right now it's fine.
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There's no air conditioning, so it's not like I'm gonna get hot.
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Although it is hot outside.
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It's, it's been warm.
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Anyway I hope you're thriving, as I always do.
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And I mean that.
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I mean that.
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I really do hope you're thriving.
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I probably said that too.
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And I apologize for the sound of the jackhammer, whatever
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it is in the background.
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It's been, like, two or three days that's been going on.
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Whatever you're doing over there, guys, finish it up.
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Wrap it up, because I'm tired of hearing that.
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Tired of hearing it.
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Anyway, I am also thriving.
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Más o menos, I'm thriving.
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Yeah.
4:14
What to talk about today?
4:18
What to talk about?
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I was at a cantina with Estee last weekend drinking mezcal and listening
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to a, uh, traditional Mexican band play music in the corner.
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And I realized that, like, United States does not really have a traditional
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music scene like they do in Mexico.
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Mexico's got, like, mariachi bands.
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They've got other kinds of, like it's, like, what is that?
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Cumbia.
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There's all sorts of, like, traditional cumbias, not from… I wonder.
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I should probably look this up before I actually run my mouth about it.
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But there's many different kinds, from what I understand of, and it's very
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present of Mexican traditional music.
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There's mariachi bands all over the place all the time.
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You'll-- You can't wander around Mexico City without running into a mari-mariachi
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band at some point or another.
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And the United States, like, what, what's our equivalent?
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Like, bluegrass music?
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Country music?
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I don't know if that really checks out.
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But the reality is, is that Mexico is just an older country, like
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much, much, much older country.
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I mean, it's the oldest country in the Americas, so they've got
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a history that involves, you know, this traditional music.
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Whereas the United States, I mean, I guess we had a history that had
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traditional, you know, Native American music, but we quashed that real good.
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So I guess it would just be like bluegrass and I guess jazz, but that seems…
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I mean, blues, but yeah.
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I mean, I guess blues, but you don't really-- You're not seeing
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blues musicians just wandering around New York City playing music.
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Like, I mean, occasionally, but not like you see in Mexico City.
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People aren't hiring, like, a blues band to play all the traditional
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blues songs for their birthday party.
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Like, and they do that here
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Speaking of which, what I really wanna do, I have this terrace that I've
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mentioned like 1,000 times on the podcast, and it kind of overlooks a
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somewhat crowded area or is adjacent to.
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I wanna hire a mariachi band and have them play on my terrace for like one hour.
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So if anybody knows a mariachi band that I could hire for just an hour for, for a
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good price, I'll give you tequila or, you know, water or soda or tacos, whatever.
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I'll give you s- stuff.
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Just play, you know, play the hits, right?
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Play the hits.
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I, I, I would say "La Bamba's" gotta go on that list.
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I would say, uh, what is it?
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"Cielito Lindo".
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Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay.
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It's a beautiful song, actually.
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It really is.
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Um
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La Cucaracha.
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Is that, is that a stereotype song?
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I don't know.
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I have not heard that song really since I've been here, so maybe it is.
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Anyway, mix it up, mix it up.
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But if you yourself are a mariachi band or are in a mariachi band or know
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a mariachi band that might wanna play on my terrace, that's 1-669-241-5882.
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Uno, seis, seis, nueve, dos, cuatro, uno, cinco, ocho, ocho, dos.
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Also, we were drinking mezcal, as I said, and if you've been in Mexico City
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drinking mezcal at like a cantina, 90% of the time the glass you drink, like the
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shot glass that y- you, they serve you mezcal out of has a cross at the bottom.
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Like you look at the bottom of the glass, and it has a, like a cross.
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You know, it's kind of like molded into the glass or whatever.
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And, uh, and it's because they, they got them from church.
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They're like the votive candle holders from Catholic churches repurposed as
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mezcal drinking containers, and nobody really agrees upon how it happened.
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I mean, there's obviously still churches, but like did they have a lot
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of leftover ones or… I don't know.
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Somebody told me that there's like a theory that mezcal producers used
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to like pray to get a good batch of mezcal and like light a candle, and
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they would use the same glass for the candle as the mezcal for some reason.
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I-- It's a strange story.
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And there's another one that said they used to-- Funerals, they would drink
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mezcal all through the night and they would run out of glasses, so they would
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start using the votive candle holders.
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Again, that seems like a stretch too.
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But anyway, they're from a church.
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They're from the church.
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They're from a church.
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They're from religious backgrounds.
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I imagine that they just make them with crosses on the bottom now as a tradition.
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They never were actually in a church, the ones that most
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cantinas or whatever have now.
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So there's a toast, hasta ver la cruz, which is until you see the cross.
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So it's like you gotta drink it like in one shot until you see the cross.
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Hasta ver la cruz.
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Kinda love it, but boy, that's a weird one, right?
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That's a weird one.
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Hasta ver la cruz, until you see the cross.
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Another weird thing that I was just thinking of, because the elevator was
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broken, uh, today and two days ago and two days before that, the elevator breaks a
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lot, is that the ground floor here, the, the ground floor is not one in Mexico.
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You don't start with one.
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You start with PB, was what the elevator will say, which is planta baja, which
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is like ground floor, basically.
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So if you live on the first floor, you live on the second
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floor in the United States.
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You follow me?
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For example, my apartment is 601.
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I'm in 701 because the first floor is planta baja
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I think I'm saying that right.
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PB.
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Very confusing for a while.
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Very confusing
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In Mexico, gringo usually refers to someone from the United States.
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I don't agree with this definition of the word.
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My definition of gringo would be a foreigner from any country who doesn't
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speak native Spanish, and that is based on the origin of the word gringo that is
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the most historically backed up, although not very widely believed, at least
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from people I've talked to in Mexico.
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A lot of people in Mexico believe that gringo comes from Well, a few places.
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There's a story about the Mexican-American War, and the soldiers, the American
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soldiers singing a song called Green Grow the Lilacs, and they turned
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Green Grow the Lilacs into gringo.
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This story is absurd, and there's many reasons why.
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First off, how many soldiers were singing this song that nobody's ever
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heard of, Green Grow the Lilacs?
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Never heard of it.
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The number of soldiers that would have had to be singing this idiotically
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named song would have been a lot in order for it to generate gringo.
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So no, absolutely not.
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That's dumb.
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In terms of a storytelling, fine, but in terms of, like, validity, it, it…
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No.
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Another one that I've heard is that the American soldiers wore
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green uniforms in the war, the Spanish-- uh, Mexican-American War,
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and so they would be like, "Green go," which also, uh, like what?
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What are you doing?
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We're reaching here.
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But I've had people insist to me that this is the origin of the word.
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The problem with this explanation is, is that the American military or the army in
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that war wore blue uniforms, apparently.
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So blue go, that doesn't work.
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No, doesn't work.
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Blue go, that'd be a weird way to call foreigners, blue go.
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Sounds like some sort of a skin disorder.
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You've got a blue go.
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Uh, yeah.
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Or a rock band, Blue Go.
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"Hello, everyone, we're Blue Go." Anyway, where gringo most likely comes
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from and where I believe it comes from, because it was-- Before the
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Spaniards even came to Mexico, they were saying gringo in Spain, so it's
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not about any Mexican-American war.
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So that's out.
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The most likely explanation, the one that I've read the most about and seems
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the most plausible to me, is that the Greek people, their language sounded
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like gibberish, so it's like we in United States English speakers would say,
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"It's Greek to me." Gr- griego, gringo.
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That's how the word came from, gringos.
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In most of Latin America, I'm told it refers just to, like, non-Latin Americans.
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But in Mexico, most of the people I've talked to say that it just refers
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to people from the United States.
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So I don't know.
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I have my beliefs, you have yours, but it's very, uh… It's not-- And,
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and people think it's an insult.
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It's not.
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I don't feel like it's an insult.
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I feel like it's just a word you use to describe the
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people who are not from there.
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Like, every country has this.
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In Korea, it was… There was miguk, which meant people who looked
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Korean or had Korean origin but were foreigners, like grew up in the States.
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And then miguk was just other foreigners, like white foreigners
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or whatever it is, miguk.
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So miguk, gringo, whatever, you know.
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I'm fine with it Interestingly, there's a taco called a gringa, which is like
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a, it's like an al pastor taco, or it's got al pastor pork, I guess, but it's
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in a flour tortilla with melted cheese.
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And apparently that came-- the, the word gringa for that comes from the
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fact that the gringas, the women, I guess, female foreigners used to
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like to have this on their tacos.
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That seems like bullshit to me, but that's what I've read.
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So I don't know what to tell you.
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I don't mind being a gringo.
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That's my-- The long and short of it is this, that I do not mind being a gringo.
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Feel free to call me that.
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I'd rather you call me Jef, but if you don't know my name is Jef,
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then you can just call me gringo
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Those of you who know me know that I have had my share of issues with
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clogging toilets over the years.
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I may have told many of the stories on here at some point or another, and I'm
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not gonna tell them all again because-- but there's some doozies in there.
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But yeah, I've clogged my share of toilets all over the world, and the toilet in this
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apartment that I'm in is, is not good.
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It clogs, like, more than any toilet I've ever used in my life.
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Like, literally every other day.
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More than every other day.
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It clogs a lot.
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I mean, luckily, there's a plunger right next to the toilet,
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but, like, it's excessive.
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And I thought, "This can't be right." Like, after a couple months, I was
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like, "This toilet's clogging too much."
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Once every couple days is too many times for a toilet to be clogging.
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So I thought, "I'll reach out to the landlord, and certainly they'll realize
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that this is not the way a toilet should function and will get to repairing
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it." 'Cause I opened the back of the toilet up, and you could clearly see
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there's not enough water going in there.
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So I did looked it up on the internet and asked AI what to do.
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I sent it some pictures, and it told me to turn this thing.
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It didn't turn.
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So, I mean, I think that the bobber thing is broken, right?
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So I, you know, get in touch with the landlord.
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We're texting back and forth.
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I send pictures, blah, blah, blah.
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They tell me to turn the thing that I already turned.
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I'm like, "Yeah, I already tried that." And then about a half an hour goes
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by, and I get a video of, like, how to replace the bobber valve on the toilet
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from YouTube with no commentary at all.
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And I wait for anything else, any kind of explanation, and so finally
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I'm like, "Hey, am I, uh, am I supposed to be fixing the toilet?"
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And the explanation I got was, "Yeah, because it's a personal preference
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thing. Like, just because the toilet is clogging more than you would like
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it to doesn't mean it's broken. It means that your preference is different
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than the way that the toilet is operating." Am I explaining this well?
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And I understand the point.
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I do.
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But I also would say if a toilet is clo-- I mean, one piece of
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toilet paper this thing clogs with.
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It's crazy.
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If your toilet is clogging every other day, there's
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something wrong with the toilet.
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I guess as long as it's flushing at all, then they're fine with it, as long as m-
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it continues to suck the waste into it.
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Which it does, but it takes quite a bit of finagling, quite
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a bit of, uh, sweet-talking
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And it's frustrating because it's a nice toilet.
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It's just seen better days.
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And it's even more frustrating because, like, I'm using the plungers a lot, a lot
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"Why don't you just replace the part yourself, Jef? They sent
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you a video of how to do it."
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And maybe I will.
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Maybe I will, but I don't really wanna have… I, I probably will
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What I should just do is get, like, thinner toilet paper.
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That's been another solution that's been posited to me, and I
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think that's actually a good idea.
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That's easier than repairing the toilet.
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Just get thinner toilet paper, because the toilet paper I have
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is actually, like, insanely thick.
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So maybe it is my fault.
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Gonna flip 180 on this one, so anyway.
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You don't have a good history with landlords, Jef.
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Like, the landlord from Columbus was, like, a psycho.
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The one from the last place in Roma Sur w- didn't give you your deposit
17:46
back in spite of the fact that I hired a lawyer, and this one won't
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repair a clearly defective toilet.
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Maybe it's you, Jef.
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Maybe it's you.
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Maybe it is me.
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But what… Like, if it is, then what should I be doing differently?
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Please help me
18:11
For those of you who don't know, I have a nut allergy.
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I'm allergic to all nuts and peanuts, which is a nut, but it's not a tree nut.
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Doesn't matter.
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But all the nuts.
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And I am usually, if not always, quite careful about not eating nuts.
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The last time I had a bad allergy attack or reaction to nuts was about 10 or 12
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years ago when I was living in New York.
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I was living with, uh, my girlfriend at the time, and she, and she
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accidentally, quote-unquote, "made me a veggie burger" that contained walnuts,
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and walnuts are one of the worst.
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Like peanuts, if I have a peanut, a little bit, I'm okay, but walnuts are really bad.
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And I went into anaphylactic shock, and long story short, I ended up
19:01
having to go to the emergency room.
19:02
It was a wild night.
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And on the box of veggie burgers, it said in big letters, "Contains walnuts."
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And w- our relationship wasn't doing very well at the time, so the joke was
19:14
that she was, like trying to off me.
19:17
Not a very funny joke, but nevertheless.
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It did actually, uh, you know, extend our relationship further than it
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would have been extended otherwise.
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It gave it another three or four months at that point.
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So in a sense, it worked, if that was the plan indeed.
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But yeah, I spent the whole night in the emergency room in Brooklyn, New York.
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It's a longer story.
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It's not pleasant, frankly.
19:40
But I'm okay.
19:40
I was okay.
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About a week ago, I had another allergy attack, the worst one I've had since
19:48
that time 10 or 15 years ago I was over at my friend's apartment, and
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we were just hanging out and drinking some beers, and I was hungry, and
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she offered to make me some, like, egg, um, egg toast, egg on toast.
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And I was like, "Sure." And she made it for me, and then as soon as I
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finished eating it, or maybe about 20 minutes later, 10 minutes later,
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I started having this, you know, it was a tingling sensation in my mouth,
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which is usually how it starts.
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But I didn't think of anything of it at the time because the bread was
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sourdough bread, and the eggs were eggs.
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So there was nothing in this that would have caused me to have a reaction.
20:29
But then I started to feel a little bit off, so I was like, "I should just go
20:32
home. I don't feel great. I'm tired." So I left, and as I'm walking home, it
20:37
starts to hit me, this allergy attack, and I'm having trouble breathing.
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Like, it's getting worse and worse to a degree that's, like, a little scary.
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Like, I'm really having to inhale deeply to catch my breath.
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And it was kind of raining, and so I couldn't get a car.
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So I was walking.
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It was about a 10, 15-minute walk back to my apartment, and I thought, "Well,
20:54
when I get back to my apartment, I can just hit my asthma inhaler, my
20:57
albuterol inhaler, and it'll be fine."
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But as I was walking, and I got closer, and it kept getting worse, I was
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thinking, "Well, maybe the albuterol's not gonna really help that much in
21:05
this case." Anyway, I finally make it home, and by the time I get home,
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I was-- It wasn't, like, terrible.
21:13
Like, I wasn't, like, gasping for breath, but I was having to do deep
21:16
breaths to get all the air I needed.
21:20
And I hit my asthma inhaler, like, three times, and it helps
21:23
a little bit, but not a ton.
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I'm still… Like, I'm just sitting on my bed, and I'm just trying to, like,
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calm myself to re- like, relax my breath.
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And at this point, I know it's an allergic reaction.
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Like, this is the only… This is, like, anaphylaxis.
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And so I'm taking, like, very slow breaths, and it's not really getting
21:41
better, and I'm starting to worry.
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I'm starting to think about my options.
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Do I call 911?
21:45
911 is the same in Mexico.
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Do I, do I reach out to Estie and see if she can… I don't, I
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didn't know what I was gonna do.
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I was thinking about what happens if this continues to get worse.
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And then I remembered I have EpiPens.
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So I thought, "Oh, I've never used the EpiPens ever."
21:59
I've always thought, "Well, if I have to use the EpiPen, like I know, if I have
22:02
to sta-" 'Cause you basically have to stab yourself in the leg with a needle.
22:05
Well, it's not quite as dramatic as that, but that's the action of it, right?
22:09
You take the thing and stab yourself in the leg.
22:11
Kinda like in Pulp Fiction when they stab the woman in the chest.
22:14
That's, uh, epinephrine, I assume.
22:16
When she's having an overdose, they stab her in the chest with epinephrine,
22:18
but that's actually a syringe.
22:21
This is just like, you don't see the needle.
22:22
You just… Anyway.
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So I thought, well, maybe I have to-- maybe it's time I have
22:27
to use one of these finally.
22:29
And, uh, and then I couldn't find them.
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I always kept them-- I always keep them in my backpack, but they were in
22:35
a different pocket than I normally keep them in, so I ended up going through
22:38
all my luggage trying to find them, and meanwhile, I can't breathe that well.
22:41
It was kind of comical if it wasn't so scary.
22:44
Anyway, eventually, I found the EpiPens in another pocket, and I
22:47
pull one out, and I ask AI how to do it, and it tells me, "Just stab
22:51
it into your, like, outer thigh."
22:54
And I sat there for a few minutes thinking, "Do I really wanna do this?
22:57
Is this really something I need to do?" And then I thought, "Yeah, I should
23:00
probably, I should probably do this.
23:01
If there's a time to do it, I should do it now.
23:03
I'm here in Mexico City.
23:04
I gotta…" So I do it.
23:06
I take the thing off, and I jam this thing into my leg, and it doesn't really hurt.
23:10
It kind of… It's like a pin prick.
23:14
And I didn't immediately start feeling better, but I did immediately or fairly
23:18
immediately start feeling nauseous.
23:21
So I go to the bathroom, and I kind of retch, but I didn't throw up.
23:24
And, uh, then slowly but slowly, I started to feel better, but not, like, a lot.
23:30
Like, not quickly and not a lot.
23:34
And I don't know if that's because I used the epinephrine pen wrong
23:36
or what, but it wasn't immediate.
23:40
And there was a certain point where I thought, "Maybe I should use the other
23:42
one," 'cause you can use them both.
23:44
And apparently, that's why they sell two packs, because sometimes you need two.
23:50
But I didn't use the other one, and I just kinda sat in my bed slowly just waiting
23:54
it out, 'cause that's what you have to do.
23:55
You just have to wait these things out.
23:58
And slowly but surely, over the next hour, my breath thread returned
24:02
to normal, and I started to feel slowly, slowly, slowly better.
24:06
And I slept terribly that night 'cause epinephrine, like,
24:08
jacks you up a little bit.
24:11
But I'm okay.
24:13
I'm okay.
24:15
But it was scary.
24:17
It was scary
24:20
And I reached out to my friend the next day to see if there was,
24:24
you know, if there were nuts in the bread or what, and nothing.
24:27
Like, I still have no idea what caused it.
24:32
No idea.
24:35
And that's the hardest part, is not knowing.
24:38
The most likely culprit it-- that I can imagine is that the store that
24:44
she bought the bread at, she had it sliced in the store, that the blade
24:48
had sliced some very nutty bread before it sliced the sourdough.
24:53
But I really don't know.
24:55
I really don't know.
24:57
And the reason that sucks is 'cause there's no… Like, I already go out of my
25:01
way to avoid nuts, but, like, what could I have done better in this situation?
25:05
I, I just don't know.
25:06
'Cause I usually don't have issues with cross-contamination.
25:09
I've never had an issue with it.
25:11
You know, all the packaging that says, "Made in a facility that
25:13
manufactures with nuts," I have never once had an issue with that, ever.
25:19
But if this is the case, in this case, then yeah, it's a little bit scary.
25:25
It's a little bit fucked up.
25:27
But it's also good to have a reminder of your own mortality,
25:32
I suppose, now and again.
25:35
Make you appreciate your life a little more than you do.
25:41
Make you stop taking things for granted as much as you were for a little bit
25:47
As someone who grew up with childhood asthma and has, you know, had issues
25:50
with that my whole life, you become very familiar with the feeling of not being
25:55
able to breathe or catch your breath
26:00
And it's a very unpleasant feeling.
26:01
Like, I've had it, you know, many times over my life, this feeling of
26:04
not being able to catch your breath
26:08
And I don't know if people who haven't experienced that can
26:11
really understand how it feels to not be able to breathe properly.
26:19
But it's not fun.
26:20
It's not fun.
26:21
It's scary.
26:24
But at least now I know what using an EpiPen is like and that I can
26:29
do it and it's not that scary, so.
26:32
And I have one left.
26:33
They don't sell them in Mexico City apparently or Mexico.
26:37
Uh, they just sell like s- like, you know, vials of epinephrine
26:40
and a needle, and I'm not sure.
26:42
I mean, I guess in a real pinch I could do it, but I think I'd much rather do
26:45
an EpiPen if worse came to worse again.
26:49
So when I go back to the States, I gotta get some more EpiPens.
26:51
But, but yeah, I'm okay.
26:54
Don't worry about me.
26:56
I'm fine.
26:57
And there were several points during that night when I thought, "If I was
27:01
living in the United States, would I have called 911 by this point?"
27:05
And I don't think I would have
27:08
I don't think I would have.
27:11
I feel like there was a very definite line that I feel like I would have
27:16
had to cross to get to the 911 part.
27:18
And maybe many of you are thinking, "Oh, you should have called 911 right away."
27:21
Maybe that's the case, but I don't know.
27:25
I feel like I have a pretty astute sense of my physical well-being after, um,
27:30
dealing with allergies and illness for a lot, you know, a big part of my life.
27:36
So I'm pretty astute about that, and I feel like I, I have a pretty
27:38
good gauge for when I need further assistance and when I don't
27:45
Anyway
27:47
Be careful out there, everyone
28:02
If anybody's wondering what's going on with Pepe and Rojo, the squirrels,
28:05
I have not seen them for a while.
28:07
I think that it didn't take them long to just say, well, Pepe was
28:13
the only one who got an avocado.
28:15
Rojo never got anything.
28:16
But I think Rojo suspected that Pepe had got some good stuff
28:19
because Rojo was acting differently, like, after Pepe got the avocado.
28:24
Maybe Pepe told him, but I doubt it.
28:26
But, like, maybe Rojo smelled something.
28:29
I don't know.
28:30
But yeah, they were both getting in.
28:32
Pepe, of course, was just coming right up to the screen, "Where's more
28:35
food? Where's more food?" And then eventually has just stopped, I guess,
28:38
coming, which makes me a little sad.
28:40
But I think between having Pepe come and shit on my porch and not
28:48
having Pepe come and not shit on my porch, I think I'll take the latter.
28:52
I think I will.
28:53
If Pepe could be a reasonable squirrel and just accept my gifts without immediately
29:02
wanting more and being a dick about it, then maybe I would accept them.
29:08
Maybe I'd be okay with her, I'm sorry, coming more often.
29:12
But no, Pepe.
29:15
Pepe's a greedy, spiteful little bitch, and I'm not sorry.
29:20
Rojo, I don't know how you are.
29:21
I haven't really interacted with you enough.
29:22
You seem great.
29:24
You seem old, though.
29:25
Your tail's not looking so good.
29:26
Anyway, that's what's happening there
29:34
I was walking through Cibelis tonight, the traffic circle right by my apartment here,
29:40
and I walked through, uh, this restaurant that I've gone to quite a few times.
29:45
I've gone there, and then me and Este have gone there.
29:47
It's, it's a cute little outdoor brunchy, also pizza place, two
29:51
restaurants in one kind of a thing.
29:54
Good enchiladas.
29:55
I was walking through there last night, and there was, like, a guy playing
29:59
clarinet in the middle of the restaurant.
30:02
Like, it's an outdoor restaurant, and there's all sorts of activity happening.
30:05
There's tables, people laughing and all.
30:07
People having fun.
30:07
It's Thursday night, whatever.
30:09
It was just joyful, and I had a thought because what's happened to
30:12
me lately, I think in the last month, I've been having trouble sleeping.
30:16
I don't really know why.
30:18
I mean, I kind of have kind of been playing it off to, like, oh,
30:21
maybe, you know, I get in these-- everybody gets these ups and downs.
30:24
It's like an ocean, you know, the waves.
30:26
It's l- what the emotional life is like, I feel like, as a human being.
30:30
It's a wave, you know, up and down, up and down, up and down, and you just
30:33
gotta wait for the next up, really.
30:36
But I don't think that's necessarily it.
30:38
I think there's a lot going on with my brain this month because this month I
30:43
feel like is the month that living in Mexico City started to feel normal.
30:49
I was talking to my friend Greg on the phone yesterday, and he, he said
30:53
something to the effect of, "Does it still-- does it feel normal there now?
30:56
Does it feel like…" And it was a good question because I really hadn't
30:59
thought about it, but I-- after we got off the phone, I realized,
31:03
eh, it does kinda feel normal now.
31:06
And maybe that's part of the problem.
31:07
I've allowed my brain to start seeing this experience as being normal
31:12
which, in a sense, it is, but also it isn't, and it never will be to me.
31:18
Anyway, I was walking through the restaurant there in Cibelis, and
31:22
there's the guy playing clarinet and many tables of people laughing
31:26
and drinking and everything, and it was very Mexico City to me.
31:30
It was just a, you know, the, the, the weather's beautiful right now.
31:33
It's a beautiful night.
31:35
There's a breeze.
31:36
It's just-- It was just very pretty, and I stopped and I thought,
31:40
like, "This is why I moved here," this moment right here, this.
31:45
This guy playing clarinet in this cute little outdoor cafe.
31:48
Like, this is why I moved here.
31:51
I just forgot that this city was so charming, and I, and I lost
31:55
perspective on my life here.
32:01
It's funny how the brain does that, isn't it?
32:06
And it's so fast and nefarious you don't even realize it happened.
32:09
And then a moment comes around and you're like, "Oh, it
32:11
happened. Now I gotta remember."
32:24
And I guess that'll be it for this episode of onefjef.
32:29
Why not, right?
32:30
Let's make it it.
32:31
We've all done a lot today.
32:34
We've talked about quite a bit.
32:36
As always, thank you for listening.
32:37
I'll be back with another interview next week.
32:40
I don't know who, but whoever it is, it'll be good.
32:44
In the meantime, you can follow the podcast on Instagram @onefjefpod.
32:49
That's @ O-N-E-F-J-E-F-P-O-D.
32:52
You can follow the podcast on TikTok @onefjefpodcast.
32:57
You can follow the podcast on Substack at onefjef.substack.com, I think.
33:04
Yes.
33:04
Or you can call the podcast and express yourself at 1-669-241-5882.
33:13
1-669-241-5882
33:29
I'm really sorry about that, you guys.
33:31
Um, yeah, and if you call that number, I will never make-- sing that version of the
33:36
phone number song ever again, I promise.
33:38
You can also email the podcast at onefjefpod@gmail.com.
33:42
All you have to remember is onefjef and pod or podcast, and you can do all
33:46
sorts of magical things with your life.
33:49
Also, if you haven't done it, share this episode or another of your
33:52
favorite episodes with a friend, a family member, somebody you feel
33:56
like needs something in their life.
33:57
And everybody needs something in their life, so don't tell
34:00
me you don't know somebody.
34:02
Growing a podcast is a difficult thing, as I've learned over the
34:04
past year and several months.
34:06
So any help you can give me would appreciate.
34:10
Because this kind of podcast, it's like you never know who's gonna like
34:13
it, and then somebody's like, "Oh." Oh, the power's back on, everybody.
34:17
Everybody-- Nobody panic.
34:18
Everything's fine.
34:20
I'm glad you guys could be here for that.
34:23
Okay.
34:24
Yeah.
34:24
It's like some random person will be like, "Oh, I like the-- whatever.
34:28
However this guy rambles, I like that." So you never know.
34:32
So you might know somebody like this in your life.
34:34
You have no idea.
34:35
So yeah, send this episode to them and say, "You might like this,
34:42
or maybe you won't." Thank you.
34:45
Patreon page.
34:45
I've talked about it quite a bit, but I'll talk about it again very quickly.
34:48
patreon.com/onefjef.
34:50
Please go there, sign up.
34:51
Sign up for a subscription, a membership.
34:53
Help me help you enjoy this podcast.
34:56
As little as $5 a month, you can show your support for this podcast and make
35:02
me feel like I wanna continue doing it.
35:06
Ugh, that's negative.
35:07
Sorry.
35:09
And I'm going to wrap this episode up with a horoscope that I took a screenshot of.
35:15
I, I… Let's see what year it was.
35:17
October 6th, 2024.
35:20
I'm a Sagittarius.
35:22
I believe this is from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
35:24
I'm not sure if it's a syndicated horoscope or where they get it from, or
35:27
somebody there just writes it, but… And they give you one to five stars
35:31
as well for your day, which is weird.
35:33
The three-star day for Sagittarius.
35:36
"You are the traveler of the zodiac. Today, you're aware of the
35:40
suffering in different countries and the plight and suffering of people
35:44
of all ages. Tonight, you win."
35:52
That's a funny… I mean, I don't think it's intended to be a joke.
35:55
I think it's intended to be sincere.
35:57
Anyway, good job whoever writes the horoscopes for the Cleveland Plain
36:01
Dealer or whoever wrote them in 2024.
36:04
I appreciate your, uh, creativity, I guess.
36:08
Yeah, and now I have to edit this and release it to the internet and hope
36:11
that the power doesn't go out again
36:15
I'll see you next week.
36:16
Very good, Jeffrey