Latest / All About The Joy / Lottery Dreams and Life Lessons: What Would You Do With Millions?
Transcript
- 0:00Carmen Lezeth: Hey everybody, welcome to the private lounge.
- 0:06Carmen Lezeth: And all about the joy in the house is Cynthia, rick, mario and Alma.
- 0:11Carmen Lezeth: Hi everyone.
- 0:12Carmen Lezeth: So today's topic.
- 0:16Carmen Lezeth: Now I wanted to give you guys just a little bit of information as to why I'm into this topic about winning the lottery.
- 0:25Carmen Lezeth: You won it.
- 0:27Carmen Lezeth: What?
- 0:28Carmen Lezeth: Oh, you thought I was going to tell you that I won it.
- 0:30Rick Costa: We're getting my day off.
- 0:32Carmen Lezeth: Wait, wait, wait.
- 0:34Carmen Lezeth: You think I would have sent you an email being like here is the link to the private lounge.
- 0:40Carmen Lezeth: Well, you would have been a nice little gimme, I would have been like, first of all, all I would have had like my assistant that you guys would all of a sudden be introduced to like who?
- 0:50Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: is that a new assistant like shows canceled for today?
- 0:55Carmen Lezeth: forever.
- 0:55Carmen Lezeth: Carmen is on an island.
- 0:57Carmen Lezeth: I went and bought a lottery ticket the other day, because every once in a while I'll buy one, and the woman behind the counter she's very nice and she was just like just don't forget me if you win.
- 1:07Carmen Lezeth: And I was like, okay, I said it's a deal, girl, you know what I mean?
- 1:13Carmen Lezeth: Like I don't know.
- 1:14Carmen Lezeth: And so I got in my car and I went to work.
- 1:17Carmen Lezeth: I was feeling happy, because that's what happens when you play the lottery at least for me, because I don't play it all the time I start dreaming about the possibilities.
- 1:24Carmen Lezeth: Now, just for the record, I looked this up.
- 1:27Carmen Lezeth: I can't believe it's true.
- 1:29Carmen Lezeth: You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than you do winning the lottery.
- 1:38Carmen Lezeth: I'm not proposing that people should play the lottery.
- 1:40Carmen Lezeth: I know people who spend like lots of money all the time.
- 1:43Carmen Lezeth: No, that's ridiculous.
- 1:44Carmen Lezeth: I play like one.
- 1:45Carmen Lezeth: And the new thing with mega bucks, here in California it's $5.
- 1:50Carmen Lezeth: I said I don't need the mega bucks one, I'll take the $2 one.
- 1:54Carmen Lezeth: I didn't know that.
- 1:57Maurio Dawson: Yeah, that's super yeah, mega millions is $5.
- 2:00Maurio Dawson: Super lotto here in California is still two.
- 2:05Carmen Lezeth: What's mega?
- 2:06Maurio Dawson: bucks, then Mega millions.
- 2:07Maurio Dawson: That's the nationwide one.
- 2:09Maurio Dawson: That's why I sold, yeah, yeah.
- 2:14Rick Costa: Anyway.
- 2:14Rick Costa: So part of so do you win more with the $5 one.
- 2:16Maurio Dawson: Do you win more?
- 2:16Maurio Dawson: You do Well, because the mega millions is a multi-state lottery.
- 2:22Maurio Dawson: It's not just for your state, it's across the country.
- 2:25Carmen Lezeth: I love that Mario knows all about this, absolutely.
- 2:33Maurio Dawson: So you know, making millions is multi-state.
- 2:35Maurio Dawson: All the participating states across the country, they all put their pots in it, If you notice.
- 2:40Maurio Dawson: That's why it goes up so quickly versus the California lottery, California state lottery, which still can be very high because of our population, and we can go up pretty fast too.
- 2:51Carmen Lezeth: I don't even pay attention to it that deeply.
- 2:54Maurio Dawson: Listen, when you come from a who had an uncle who played the lottery faithfully every week for 40 years, you know these things.
- 3:03Carmen Lezeth: My uncle played a lot, did he?
- 3:04Maurio Dawson: ever win.
- 3:05Maurio Dawson: Yes, he did.
- 3:06Maurio Dawson: He never hit the mega number, but he hit five numbers multiple times, four numbers he would always hit, and then he'd turn around and reinvest it.
- 3:17Maurio Dawson: You know my aunt was a gambler.
- 3:18Maurio Dawson: Rest her soul, you know.
- 3:21Maurio Dawson: But yeah, so that's why I know this stuff.
- 3:24Carmen Lezeth: Well, the show isn't about the lottery.
- 3:26Carmen Lezeth: That's not what the show's about.
- 3:27Carmen Lezeth: The show is about if we did win, what would we do?
- 3:34Carmen Lezeth: But it is after you've done what we all dream about, which would pay your bills, buy your homes, take care of your family, set up your trust funds, do your nonprofit work blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 3:52Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Right, what would you want to do?
- 3:53Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: What is there left to do?
- 3:54Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You've done everything.
- 3:55Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You've traveled the world already.
- 3:59Carmen Lezeth: So the whole idea of this conversation I wanted to get to is trying to find what our actual passion is, because so many people's passion is tied up on not having enough money to do what they want to do.
- 4:16Maurio Dawson: Right, yeah, no, I think we, elma and I, talked about this once before where we said one thing we were going to do is open up a school for, you know, for kids in the community and develop more community centers.
- 4:24Maurio Dawson: We want to bring in fine arts for these kids, we want to make it.
- 4:28Carmen Lezeth: Is that missing in the schools now?
- 4:30Maurio Dawson: Yeah, we go back to definitely being creating a STEAM school versus a STEM school, and I don't know for people who don't know, I don't know what the difference is.
- 4:40Maurio Dawson: A STEM is science, technology, engineering and math.
- 4:44Maurio Dawson: The difference is a STEM is science, technology, engineering and math.
- 4:49Maurio Dawson: Steam is science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
- 4:52Maurio Dawson: So you put, you integrate all those things back into the schools and these are like schools that are really driven for those things, whereas a STEAM school, I think, is better only because it's more well-rounded.
- 5:04Carmen Lezeth: Are all the arts out of the school?
- 5:07Alma Dawson: system.
- 5:07Alma Dawson: No, not Okay.
- 5:09Alma Dawson: So no, they're not completely out, but it's not something that they do daily.
- 5:15Alma Dawson: So if the school can afford to, if they have it in their budget to, let's say, get a teacher for drama or for music or for something like that, the teacher will budget.
- 5:25Alma Dawson: To, let's say, get a teacher for drama or for music or for something like that, the teacher will come, let's say, once a week, yeah, once a week, and then the classes are kind of rotate, to like every semester we'll split the semester in two.
- 5:40Alma Dawson: Well, that's horrible.
- 5:41Carmen Lezeth: I didn't even okay, so I'm changing.
- 5:43Carmen Lezeth: I'm changing my lottery plan right now.
- 5:45Carmen Lezeth: I'm going to add to my list.
- 5:47Alma Dawson: So then it's like that and they did like the, they did give the schools like this extra money to promote taking the kids to art driven field trips.
- 6:00Alma Dawson: So that's how our school, like, took the kids to the Pantages.
- 6:03Alma Dawson: We took the kids to, you know, to go see.
- 6:06Carmen Lezeth: That should be part of the whole program.
- 6:08Carmen Lezeth: That shouldn't be an extra.
- 6:10Carmen Lezeth: It's a sad situation.
- 6:12Alma Dawson: It's a sad situation exactly.
- 6:14Alma Dawson: So, then, that's what I'm saying.
- 6:15Alma Dawson: So not all the schools have that.
- 6:18Carmen Lezeth: There are some magnet schools that are geared to be art schools, but not there are private schools that do that, because not I, but through their clients or whatever we pay ridiculous amounts of money for children in the seventh grade, you know, like forty thousand dollars a year yes for crossroads?
- 6:40Maurio Dawson: yeah, he's talking about like crossroads and yeah, so yeah but so that would be our thing.
- 6:47Alma Dawson: I think my other thing too is, um, like you said, like doing the school thing, but also me, my big thing is building a community center geared towards the older kids.
- 6:59Alma Dawson: Our older kids really don't have a lot to do unless they have a lot of money to go do things.
- 7:06Alma Dawson: So gearing it towards that, but also building in financial literacy, because I think that's one of the things that our community lacks.
- 7:15Alma Dawson: You know, things like that.
- 7:17Carmen Lezeth: Rick thoughts on what you would want to do after you've done all the big important stuff that you have to do to be now settled.
- 7:24Carmen Lezeth: What would you?
- 7:26Rick Costa: have to do to be now settled.
- 7:27Rick Costa: What would you want to do?
- 7:28Rick Costa: I would love to find, like a secret way, anonymous way to like help homeless people, people that are in need homeless people like carmen your best friend, like I heard I think was in canada, where like a guy like bought land and made all these little houses and he's like this is all what y'all just lived there and I'm like that's so cool, like that got me excited, like stuff like that, as long as I could do it anonymously, like why would it be so important?
- 7:59Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I'm just curious, why would it be so important to do it anonymously?
- 8:04Rick Costa: I don't need any glory or pat on the back.
- 8:07Rick Costa: I don't need that, nor do I want that.
- 8:08Carmen Lezeth: To be honest with you so yeah, I'm gonna hold you all to it.
- 8:12Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I gave you money I won the lottery I shared it.
- 8:16Carmen Lezeth: Every outfit you wear should be I love on the back.
- 8:22Carmen Lezeth: All about the joy.
- 8:23Carmen Lezeth: I love Carmen.
- 8:26Rick Costa: Another thing too.
- 8:28Rick Costa: I always had a dream.
- 8:30Rick Costa: So many people that have done it have said they've come back afterward and they're just changed Is go like on a missionary trip, maybe several oh yeah, I totally see that.
- 8:39Rick Costa: Yeah, they say when you come back from that and you realize, child, you ain't got nothing to complain about.
- 8:46Rick Costa: Look at how they're living.
- 8:47Rick Costa: It's like oof.
- 8:48Rick Costa: Yeah, that too, that too.
- 8:51Carmen Lezeth: I think that would be beautiful.
- 8:52Carmen Lezeth: I think the idea of giving homes to the homeless, I mean, of course, there's so much more involved in that, right, because of the bureaucracy that we're in.
- 9:03Carmen Lezeth: I mean, every state has their issues.
- 9:05Carmen Lezeth: I know California tries.
- 9:07Carmen Lezeth: They've tried the turnkey thing, they've tried so many things.
- 9:10Carmen Lezeth: But it's not just one problem.
- 9:13Carmen Lezeth: Right, homeless people are all different people.
- 9:16Carmen Lezeth: They're not all the same, they're not all alcoholics, they're not all this or all that.
- 9:20Carmen Lezeth: So everybody needs something else.
- 9:23Carmen Lezeth: And so what I would say is my just to piggyback on what you're saying.
- 9:27Carmen Lezeth: I thought about the same thing.
- 9:28Carmen Lezeth: I didn't even think about the anonymous thing, because I don't care.
- 9:31Carmen Lezeth: I would do a trust, so you wouldn't know my name.
- 9:34Carmen Lezeth: Anyways, you'd know what the trust name is and I would do the same thing.
- 9:38Carmen Lezeth: But what I would do that would be different is I would want to hire one person for each family or each person.
- 9:43Carmen Lezeth: So, for example, I'd hire another person and I'd pay them whatever 70, 80 or a hundred thousand dollars a year, depending on what part of the country you're in and that person would be like their sponsor, not as an alcoholic or whatever, but somebody that they can go to and say you know what, I don't know how to do this.
- 10:00Carmen Lezeth: Or, oh, yeah, I'm supposed to go in, uh, to go to the doctors this week, because I think one of the one of the things that people don't understand about homeless people is you lose your way because you lose a sense of self and time and understanding because you're in survival mode.
- 10:18Carmen Lezeth: Does that make sense?
- 10:19Carmen Lezeth: So this is one thing like like when I'm sad or I'm tired, I just come home and I'm like you know what?
- 10:26Carmen Lezeth: I'm not going to go out with my friends tonight, I'm going to go lay down on my bed, whatever.
- 10:29Carmen Lezeth: Homeless people aren't doing that.
- 10:31Carmen Lezeth: Homeless people are like this all the time Angst.
- 10:35Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
- 10:36Carmen Lezeth: And so for me, what I would add to what you're doing, rick, is I would want one person for at least one year.
- 10:42Carmen Lezeth: Is I would want one person for at least one year.
- 10:43Carmen Lezeth: Once we set up that person with that home, they would have someone to go to, no matter what, for whatever question, so that that person can then delegate oh, you need a lawyer.
- 10:52Carmen Lezeth: Okay, oh, you need a.
- 10:53Carmen Lezeth: You know an AA group, or you need to go to the doctors, or you know It'd be their resource person yeah, yeah, so that's you need your identification documents Exactly.
- 11:07Alma Dawson: Get all of your stuff together, yeah, and even if that person doesn't know it.
- 11:10Carmen Lezeth: they are resourceful enough because they they know where to go, and maybe we add that into the loop too right, We'd get all those people as part of that community, so that that sponsor person knows who to go to.
- 11:23Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You know so, and then probably, like after a year, the person that they help can now turn around and do it for somebody else.
- 11:30Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: That's right, yeah.
- 11:32Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, that's right, but it but it's about lifting people up, giving them the protection, giving them everything that they need to walk on.
- 11:38Carmen Lezeth: We all need somebody.
- 11:40Carmen Lezeth: We all need somebody to walk on through.
- 11:43Carmen Lezeth: You know, when you're homeless and you have no money, no job, no nothing, and you have issues like everyone else does, that you would be able to do that alone, and that's why so many of the programs that people try, especially in the state of California, fail every time.
- 11:59Carmen Lezeth: You can't just give somebody a home.
- 12:01Carmen Lezeth: Who's homeless I?
- 12:02Alma Dawson: completely agree with that, because then you know, piggybacking off of that, it's like when you do do that, like if you do you go and you buy the land and you build these homes, also build a medical clinic.
- 12:13Alma Dawson: You know also, you know what I'm saying, because they're going to need a community A community.
- 12:19Alma Dawson: They're going to need a community.
- 12:21Carmen Lezeth: And it takes time to build that.
- 12:22Carmen Lezeth: It takes time to build that stuff up.
- 12:24Alma Dawson: Yeah.
- 12:25Carmen Lezeth: Cynthia, what you got for us girl, she's going to stretch.
- 12:29Maurio Dawson: She's going to stretch.
- 12:32Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Because, I live in Boston.
- 12:33Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: What are you?
- 12:34Carmen Lezeth: doing?
- 12:34Carmen Lezeth: You're building Disney in Boston.
- 12:36Carmen Lezeth: Is that what you just said?
- 12:37Rick Costa: Yeah, yeah, I'm going to miss this.
- 12:39Rick Costa: Sign me up, I'll visit that one me up, I'll visit that one.
- 12:49Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Uh, no, I said, since I live in boston and there's such like homeless and a drug problem here, especially near the main hospitals and stuff like that, probably build more rehab centers, because that's one big thing that we're lacking here is rehab centers, and you know you have a lot of homeless who do drugs right out on the street next to these hotels.
- 13:07Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Like they built so many hotels.
- 13:09Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: It's like why we don't need more hotels just to make it look like new york.
- 13:15Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Well, yeah, to make it look all congested like new york.
- 13:19Carmen Lezeth: You know we need more places to get, for people to get help we need places for people not to get in trouble to the point that they need to go on drugs and alcohol or whatever.
- 13:28Carmen Lezeth: I mean there's so many systemic issues in what you're talking about.
- 13:32Carmen Lezeth: Like you know, the idea that you would fall that far is that's a far place to go, and I think because we just throw out the word unhoused or homeless or whatever we've now put them in this category category we don't realize what each individual person has gone through, their story, yeah, their whole story you know, uh, oh, I love this, we're gonna.
- 13:55Carmen Lezeth: So we solved hollywood and now we're like solving the homeless problem this week and children and and fixing our children.
- 14:03Maurio Dawson: They are the future.
- 14:04Rick Costa: Teach them well.
- 14:10Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Exactly.
- 14:10Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: This is the new White House cabinet right here.
- 14:12Maurio Dawson: Come on.
- 14:13Carmen Lezeth: Come on Let me start it, because you know we are all much more qualified than the people and you know what I wish.
- 14:19Carmen Lezeth: I was joking.
- 14:21Carmen Lezeth: Sorry, I wish I was joking.
- 14:24Carmen Lezeth: I keep thinking about Pete Hegseff, the Secretary of Defense.
- 14:30Carmen Lezeth: It's just, we don't talk about politics, we just talk about incompetence.
- 14:35Carmen Lezeth: At the moment, I'm just saying I have never in all my life turned around and been like you know what?
- 14:41Carmen Lezeth: I think I think I could run that department better than he is Like.
- 14:45Carmen Lezeth: I've never done that, ever.
- 14:47Carmen Lezeth: I've never seen a president and been like I could run it better than you.
- 14:51Carmen Lezeth: And that's how I know we're in trouble.
- 14:56Rick Costa: You know, what I like too about what we all just talked about is and I think Cynthia brought it up that you help the person fully as much as you can and then, when they're good, they're going to help the next person Like they don't have to, let's so I don't know, they don't have to no.
- 15:12Carmen Lezeth: I think that's important.
- 15:13Carmen Lezeth: I think I talked about this in one of our other episodes.
- 15:15Carmen Lezeth: When I came out to Los Angeles, the first place I went to was Compton not for any other reason, except that I had a light connection there and I started doing volunteer work at a place called Blazer House, and it was an afterschool program like what you were talking about for older kids, teenagers, and this man, benny Davenport, established this place out of his own home.
- 15:36Carmen Lezeth: He ended up getting some funding.
- 15:38Carmen Lezeth: I think it was Paul Mitchell it is Paul Mitchell who was helping him, whatever.
- 15:41Carmen Lezeth: And these kids and I was like you know what?
- 15:43Carmen Lezeth: This?
- 15:44Carmen Lezeth: These are my people.
- 15:45Carmen Lezeth: This is me.
- 15:45Carmen Lezeth: I grew up like this whatever, and after I don't know, I was there for maybe seven months.
- 15:50Carmen Lezeth: I couldn't do it anymore, and the reason why I couldn't do it anymore is because it was too close to me, it was still too like I.
- 15:59Carmen Lezeth: I, I was not effective, I was not helpful, because I would come home and cry all the time, or I'd remember, or I'd have my own little triggers, or you know what I mean.
- 16:09Carmen Lezeth: And I wasn't.
- 16:10Carmen Lezeth: I was destroying my own spirit and it's yes, it's about healing or whatever.
- 16:15Carmen Lezeth: But that's why I say I want to be careful on that too, because if they want to, that would be a great thing.
- 16:22Carmen Lezeth: But maybe their way of helping is becoming the people they're supposed to be.
- 16:27Carmen Lezeth: Maybe somebody is a great librarian or a teacher or an actress or whatever it is, you know what I mean.
- 16:33Carmen Lezeth: Or a construction person, whatever it is, you know.
- 16:36Carmen Lezeth: Or an engineer or a lawyer, because it's not just poor people who are homeless.
- 16:42Carmen Lezeth: So you know, I just want to be careful.
- 16:47Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: That's what I meant, though, like about turning around and them helping the next person, like they could be a resource for someone, like if they, you know, used to be a lawyer.
- 16:58Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Like you said, you know they can help somebody else with legal issues, not necessarily be the resource person.
- 17:04Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Yeah.
- 17:06Carmen Lezeth: I think the only reason I bring it up is because most people that I work for don't know my past, unless it's years later.
- 17:12Carmen Lezeth: Then they're like you have a book, you know what I mean?
- 17:14Carmen Lezeth: Like someday, do a Google search and they'll be like let me see who my right-hand person has been for the past five years.
- 17:22Carmen Lezeth: Let's do a Google search.
- 17:24Rick Costa: Carmen, you have a book.
- 17:26Alma Dawson: What's the name of your book, Carmen.
- 17:29Carmen Lezeth: But it's so funny because I mean, this just happened this past year.
- 17:34Maurio Dawson: Okay, but seriously, what's the name of your book so people can know?
- 17:36Carmen Lezeth: Canela.
- 17:38Maurio Dawson: Okay.
- 17:39Carmen Lezeth: C-A-N-E-L-A.
- 17:40Carmen Lezeth: Are you asking me for real?
- 17:41Carmen Lezeth: Oh, because you want yeah.
- 17:43Maurio Dawson: No, because this is all about the joy we are cross.
- 17:46Maurio Dawson: We are cross, uh referencing our product.
- 17:55Carmen Lezeth: There we go.
- 17:56Carmen Lezeth: Okay, thank you, mario.
- 17:56Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, if you go to Carmen Suarezcom, you can find all of our links, and even if you go to all about the joy, you can find all our links there.
- 17:59Carmen Lezeth: And yes, I wrote a book.
- 18:00Carmen Lezeth: It's a book about all the people that helped walk me through during that time period in my life, and it was really.
- 18:08Carmen Lezeth: It started off as letters, individual letters to mentors, and then I put it together in a book form, but thank you, so pick it up, check it out.
- 18:17Maurio Dawson: Now back to our show.
- 18:23Carmen Lezeth: Thank you, mario.
- 18:24Carmen Lezeth: But that's kind of my point is, like people, because you know how Joy was talking about the other day, that that's just one small part of her.
- 18:32Carmen Lezeth: You know that that's not all of who she is.
- 18:34Carmen Lezeth: It's like if I meet people and that's the first thing they know about me, that colors all the other parts of who I am right.
- 18:43Carmen Lezeth: I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but for other people it could be right.
- 18:46Carmen Lezeth: It could be that I love that, what we that somehow we got to this place of helping children and helping homeless people, because that's really good, decent, awesome people.
- 18:58Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
- 18:59Carmen Lezeth: Like you're good, you know you're my people you're my people.
- 19:06Maurio Dawson: You're my people, you know.
- 19:06Maurio Dawson: And I think, maybe probably because that's stuff we longed for, even though God bless my mom, because my mother struggled and put me through private school.
- 19:16Maurio Dawson: So I was afforded a lot of that stuff and she worked two and a half jobs, literally most of my young life, to put me in private school and I was like I want to go to public school.
- 19:29Maurio Dawson: She's like hell.
- 19:31Maurio Dawson: No, she's like I will.
- 19:33Maurio Dawson: She's like I will.
- 19:34Maurio Dawson: I will miss a meal, I will struggle, I will drive the raggediest car, do whatever it takes.
- 19:40Maurio Dawson: I'm pushing private school.
- 19:41Maurio Dawson: That's not everybody can't do that, right, but I wish everyone could have that same experience.
- 19:50Maurio Dawson: And then when I got older and had my own kid and put my own child through public school, she was still in a pretty good school.
- 20:00Maurio Dawson: They still gave her a lot of those things.
- 20:03Maurio Dawson: I'd say she's well-rounded.
- 20:06Maurio Dawson: She is a well-rounded child, but that's because of us, with the help of public school.
- 20:11Maurio Dawson: But all the schools don't have what she got, but we went to private school.
- 20:16Carmen Lezeth: Cynthia and I went to private, we went to Catholic school.
- 20:18Maurio Dawson: I think it was the worst thing we ever did.
- 20:20Carmen Lezeth: I thought it was the worst.
- 20:21Carmen Lezeth: When I look back on how bad our curriculum was.
- 20:25Carmen Lezeth: Going to catholic school did nothing for me.
- 20:28Carmen Lezeth: Actually.
- 20:28Carmen Lezeth: It put me behind to the point that when I did go to college I had to go to a summer program.
- 20:33Carmen Lezeth: Thank god they had that available because I was not up to par with my english and mathematics.
- 20:40Carmen Lezeth: But ask me anything about the Bible.
- 20:43Carmen Lezeth: I'm there, you know what I mean.
- 20:45Carmen Lezeth: That's all we did Religion and English, that was it.
- 20:49Maurio Dawson: True.
- 20:49Maurio Dawson: Now I went to Catholic school for high school.
- 20:53Maurio Dawson: I did not have that same experience.
- 20:55Carmen Lezeth: No, no, I'm just saying.
- 20:56Carmen Lezeth: I already experienced it.
- 20:59Carmen Lezeth: Didn't you go to Blessed Sacrament too, I?
- 21:01Alma Dawson: went all 12 years.
- 21:02Alma Dawson: Yeah, I said not.
- 21:05Alma Dawson: Catholic schools are built the same, you know.
- 21:08Carmen Lezeth: So, even though you know they're all catholic schools, they all set their own curriculum yeah yeah, and our school was in the uh, it was the sisters of poverty and they were not kidding they were poor as hell like, and we were poor that was it.
- 21:27Rick Costa: Yeah, but yeah and we just looked at the archdiocese, so we could go.
- 21:31Rick Costa: What rick I said I had the, the parents of poverty because we didn't go to we didn't go to public.
- 21:37Rick Costa: We went to public school, private school.
- 21:40Rick Costa: What's that?
- 21:40Rick Costa: I didn't even know.
- 21:41Rick Costa: There was such a thing for years as a kid.
- 21:43Rick Costa: What's a private school?
- 21:44Rick Costa: I didn't even know, yeah.
- 21:47Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I think, the schools in the neighborhood when I grew up.
- 21:49Carmen Lezeth: It's not that they were bad, it's that the Latinos in our neighborhood thought that the better school was the Catholic school.
- 21:57Carmen Lezeth: Because, I have to tell you, I remember knowing that Boston, latin, all them schools were better than our school.
- 22:03Carmen Lezeth: We knew it, that Boston.
- 22:04Carmen Lezeth: Latin all them schools were better than our school.
- 22:07Carmen Lezeth: We knew it.
- 22:08Carmen Lezeth: But our parents, because they were all very religious religious, I'm doing quotes because I don't know how religious they were, but they were religious they were like no, no, no, you're going to go to the caucus school, even if we have to pay and I know we couldn't really afford it, but they had sliding scales or whatever.
- 22:22Maurio Dawson: And that's how I was able to go afford it.
- 22:24Carmen Lezeth: but they had like sliding scales or whatever, or that's, and that's how I was able to go.
- 22:26Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, and I'd like, because you lived in the archdiocese and if you went to church 19 times a week or whatever it was, whatever the requirements were no, I wasn't catholic at all, still not.
- 22:36Maurio Dawson: But you know, and we have to pay, we have to pay more.
- 22:39Maurio Dawson: My mother had to pay more because we weren't.
- 22:41Carmen Lezeth: Catholic.
- 22:42Carmen Lezeth: That's horrible.
- 22:44Maurio Dawson: Yeah, we had to pay more because I was not Catholic.
- 22:48Alma Dawson: Huh, and we had to Wow, we would have just lied.
- 22:52Maurio Dawson: Even though we were, even though I was, on a sliding scale, my scale was higher and there was a lot of my friends who were higher, whose scales were higher.
- 22:59Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Look at him taking out the Bible.
- 23:01Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Yes, I'm not in the Bible, I'm taking out the Bible.
- 23:03Maurio Dawson: Yes, I'm taking out the Bible, yes, yes.
- 23:07Maurio Dawson: Oh no, it's, let's Take your Money.
- 23:13Carmen Lezeth: Chapter 3, verse 2.
- 23:14Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, and this is not.
- 23:15Carmen Lezeth: Look, I'm not saying all Catholic schools are bad.
- 23:17Carmen Lezeth: I'm not saying all private schools are bad, that's not what anybody here is saying we're just talking about our own experiences and that is unfortunate and I hope it is not allowed anymore to discriminate tuition-wise based on your religion.
- 23:31Carmen Lezeth: It's still going on.
- 23:33Maurio Dawson: Right now, yeah, wow.
- 23:36Rick Costa: Because it's private.
- 23:37Rick Costa: You can't say it's illegal, because they can't go to a Catholic school Exactly.
- 23:42Rick Costa: Still messed up.
- 23:45Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: My brother was the only one that got out of going to Catholic school for all 12 years.
- 23:49Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Where did he go so, from sixth?
- 23:54Maurio Dawson: and seventh grade.
- 23:55Maurio Dawson: Which brother is this?
- 23:56Maurio Dawson: Sean, my brother.
- 23:58Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Sean.
- 23:59Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Okay, he's older than me, okay.
- 24:02Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: So he went to Boston Latin for sixth and seventh grade and I guess it was too hard for him, and then he went to regular public school and then high school.
- 24:11Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: No-transcript.
- 24:14Carmen Lezeth: But the rest of us Fierce yeah.
- 24:17Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Yeah, the rest of us went to Catholic school for 12 years and my high school was an all-girl high school.
- 24:22Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: What high school did you go to, really?
- 24:26Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: St Clair's?
- 24:28Carmen Lezeth: Oh, I'm so sorry I did not know that I went to Mission.
- 24:32Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Mission Church.
- 24:33Carmen Lezeth: Oh, right it was like a joke.
- 24:35Carmen Lezeth: I'm not trying to be rude Again.
- 24:39Carmen Lezeth: We did nothing.
- 24:41Maurio Dawson: But you know the Bible, my wife she's a Valley girl, yeah, I was.
- 24:47Alma Dawson: So my public school I love my schools, all of my schools.
- 24:52Alma Dawson: But when it came to going to, you know, junior high school and high high school, my dad was trying to put me in a catholic school and I was like no way, no.
- 25:05Alma Dawson: And he was like well.
- 25:07Alma Dawson: So then I talked to my teachers and I was like well, how can I get around going to the neighborhood schools?
- 25:13Alma Dawson: So at that point was when they started this uh, permits with transportation programs in the public schools, in the LA public schools.
- 25:24Alma Dawson: So basically you signed up and they would pick a school that was at least however many miles away from your neighborhood and they would bus you.
- 25:36Alma Dawson: So then I ended up going all the way to chatsworth for middle school and high school.
- 25:43Maurio Dawson: So I would be, I would be on the bus at six, six, that's far just for for people who are not in la chatsworth is in the valley and and we are all the way yeah, we're it's far, it's a good hour drive every morning, yeah, so.
- 25:57Alma Dawson: I would be up every morning, you know, on the bus by 6, 615.
- 26:03Alma Dawson: And I did that from seventh grade all the way through 12th grade.
- 26:08Alma Dawson: So I did junior high and high school out in the Valley.
- 26:11Alma Dawson: I got a great education.
- 26:12Alma Dawson: Yeah, I really did.
- 26:14Alma Dawson: I got a great education.
- 26:15Carmen Lezeth: So I'll say this about education and don't get mad at me, alma, but we need a little fireworks anyway.
- 26:21Carmen Lezeth: So some of the people that we went to grammar school with that, we went to Blessed Sacrament with right, which was our grammar school, catholic school, whatever, they ended up not going to the same high school we went to and they went to Boston Latin.
- 26:32Carmen Lezeth: They went to all the other great schools Milton Academy, right, all the big time schools that you could get into.
- 26:41Carmen Lezeth: And these people I hate to say it, but the ones I'm talking about were all white and all had money.
- 26:45Carmen Lezeth: Now, they didn't really have money because they grew up kind of in the same area we did, but they had a car, you know what I mean they were wealthy or whatever it was.
- 26:53Carmen Lezeth: I'm being sarcastic, but we all thought they were richer than we were.
- 26:56Carmen Lezeth: But I know three people who had a better education, who and again, this isn't in deck, it's not indicative of education, but have failed miserably as it goes everywhere, for sure it's amazing, like because you would think I had the worst education right and I turned out pretty amazing, no matter what happened.
- 27:21Carmen Lezeth: And then there are people who and even the clients I have with their children and all the money they pay and their kids, end up becoming drug addicts or having issues.
- 27:32Carmen Lezeth: It's not the schools, but you see what I'm saying.
- 27:35Maurio Dawson: It doesn't matter, it's the choices.
- 27:37Alma Dawson: It is choices, right, it's work ethic.
- 27:40Alma Dawson: It is choices.
- 27:40Alma Dawson: It's work ethic.
- 27:40Alma Dawson: It's choices.
- 27:41Alma Dawson: It's parenting.
- 27:43Alma Dawson: Yes, most definitely.
- 27:46Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: It's the nuns.
- 27:50Alma Dawson: Even though I was all the way out there in the Valley.
- 27:52Alma Dawson: Guess who was there for the open houses and the future conferences and the hopping conferences and the popping in and checking in on me, even though it was all the way in Timbuktu?
- 28:04Alma Dawson: Trust me, they would be popping up and I'd be like, oh you know, checking in that.
- 28:11Carmen Lezeth: I was.
- 28:11Carmen Lezeth: It is about parenting and the people you have around you.
- 28:14Maurio Dawson: That's it.
- 28:16Alma Dawson: When I was involved in sports.
- 28:17Alma Dawson: They never missed a game.
- 28:18Alma Dawson: On the flip side, my mother never went to anything.
- 28:22Carmen Lezeth: I was, you know.
- 28:23Carmen Lezeth: I mean she was working, so she never saw me dance.
- 28:26Carmen Lezeth: She never saw me in color garden, nothing.
- 28:28Carmen Lezeth: She never, and neither did any of the other adults, even after she passed away, or whatever.
- 28:33Maurio Dawson: But look at you now.
- 28:36Carmen Lezeth: I don't mean it that way.
- 28:36Carmen Lezeth: I'm making a really good point because I think education is important, but it's about the adults you do have around you that care, that support you.
- 28:44Carmen Lezeth: My seventh grade teacher everybody knows Alice McIntyre because I talk about her all the time.
- 28:50Carmen Lezeth: Miss Theopolis, mr Bernanzani these teachers, they came to my performances, they supported me.
- 28:57Carmen Lezeth: Mr Bernanzani would come and pick me up and make sure I would go.
- 29:02Carmen Lezeth: He would pick me up at my house and he would take me to school, even though he wasn't my teacher and I know today people would freak out about that.
- 29:11Maurio Dawson: That's a big no-no now.
- 29:13Carmen Lezeth: I know, but that man did nothing so he cared about the kids, you know what I mean.
- 29:21Carmen Lezeth: So I wasn't the only one.
- 29:22Carmen Lezeth: He was like it's on my way and this way I'll make sure these kids don't fall through the cracks.
- 29:27Carmen Lezeth: And what it meant was for me was that someone cared and I had to be there because he was going to be there, you know, and it's kind of that thing.
- 29:36Carmen Lezeth: You know, who do you have around you?
- 29:38Carmen Lezeth: I wish we were more community driven.
- 29:41Carmen Lezeth: That's why I hope we win the lottery and I hope you do build your school, because it is about the community.
- 29:47Carmen Lezeth: I would not be here today if it wasn't for the community that made sure I didn't fall through the cracks.
- 29:55Maurio Dawson: Yeah, the other thing is, people are building schools, especially charter schools.
- 30:00Carmen Lezeth: I'm sorry, but you got to talk louder or none of us are going to let you talk.
- 30:03Carmen Lezeth: Go ahead.
- 30:04Rick Costa: Go ahead.
- 30:05Rick Costa: I'll just say, and for more information on that, Canela is available on Amazoncom.
- 30:09Rick Costa: There you go.
- 30:10Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Okay.
- 30:14Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, here I am trying to make sure you are in Now.
- 30:18Carmen Lezeth: I'm going to let you.
- 30:19Carmen Lezeth: You're never going to talk.
- 30:20Carmen Lezeth: It's going to be a show with me, omar and Mario, and then sometimes Cynthia, sometimes.
- 30:33Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: What I was going to say was like my mom was always there when fear of my mother in my soul, even after she passed that.
- 30:42Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I didn't ever skip school.
- 30:44Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I made sure I did my homework and I did all my extracurricular activities, everything like that, because I was like I still had that fear of God behind me, of God behind me.
- 30:55Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You know what I'm saying.
- 30:56Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Like I had my mom there with me that discipline because the rest of my family never came to my any of my shows or games or any of that stuff when I was in high school.
- 31:06Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: But I still went and did everything.
- 31:08Carmen Lezeth: I'm sorry, cynthia, I why wasn't I in touch with you then?
- 31:11Carmen Lezeth: So, for people who don't know, cynthia is my cousin.
- 31:15Carmen Lezeth: I am, I'm not going to say much older, but I am, although I'm cuter.
- 31:21Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm just kidding.
- 31:22Carmen Lezeth: I feel so bad because I I was going through my thing, cause the reason why Cynthia and I connected.
- 31:29Carmen Lezeth: It's going to be a therapy show, though, because Cynthia and I have a similar situation in that, at the same age of 12, even though I think we're 10 years apart, maybe a little bit more, a little bit more we both lost our mother and both did not have fathers.
- 31:51Carmen Lezeth: Now she ended up knowing who her father was later, right, um, but we have a similar situation where the people that you thought would come and take care of you comfort you, walk you through console, you take care of you at 12.
- 32:07Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean Did not do that.
- 32:09Carmen Lezeth: So that's how we are so connected now is because we realize but I, I will always say this and I know I'm laughing, but it's because I want to cry but I hate that I wasn't there for you.
- 32:23Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I couldn't be.
- 32:24Carmen Lezeth: I think you were already in California though at that time.
- 32:28Carmen Lezeth: No, I was in college.
- 32:30Carmen Lezeth: God damn it.
- 32:30Carmen Lezeth: I'm not that fucking old.
- 32:31Carmen Lezeth: What is wrong.
- 32:36Carmen Lezeth: Jesus Christ.
- 32:36Carmen Lezeth: No, I wow Jesus, not that old.
- 32:47Carmen Lezeth: No, I was in college.
- 32:48Carmen Lezeth: I think I was in college because your mother died.
- 32:51Carmen Lezeth: What year?
- 32:53Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: 91.
- 32:55Carmen Lezeth: I had just started my summer.
- 32:57Carmen Lezeth: Actually, I wasn't even in college.
- 32:59Carmen Lezeth: It was I was doing my applications for college, yeah, so because I, oh, no, no, no, that's a lie.
- 33:08Carmen Lezeth: I was going into my freshman year of college.
- 33:11Carmen Lezeth: That's true.
- 33:12Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: But you were still in another state.
- 33:13Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I was in Vermont.
- 33:15Maurio Dawson: Allegedly I graduated in 1994.
- 33:18Carmen Lezeth: I have no problemedly, I graduated in 1994.
- 33:20Carmen Lezeth: I have no problem telling people I graduated in 1994.
- 33:24Carmen Lezeth: But I'm laughing because she's like I think you were already in California.
- 33:31Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: She's trying to be kind.
- 33:32Alma Dawson: She's trying to be kind, okay.
- 33:36Carmen Lezeth: I am 74 years old.
- 33:38Carmen Lezeth: Everyone, thank you.
- 33:39Carmen Lezeth: You look damn good for 74.
- 33:39Carmen Lezeth: Right, I am 74 years old.
- 33:39Maurio Dawson: Everyone, thank you.
- 33:39Carmen Lezeth: You look damn good for 74 right thanks to Nilou see her, so you guys can see it right now.
- 33:49Carmen Lezeth: See it, it's gonna get.
- 33:50Carmen Lezeth: Oh my god, it's gonna get really deep it gets this long for those of you who can't see me here's my problem Like right now.
- 34:04Carmen Lezeth: I know my financial situation's about to get what everyone's is, so people are there, sorry.
- 34:11Carmen Lezeth: What's happening right now in our country.
- 34:13Carmen Lezeth: But so I'm trying to prepare and in my head I'm like you know what?
- 34:16Carmen Lezeth: I'm okay with the hair doing what I got to do, cause I don't give a shit.
- 34:18Carmen Lezeth: It looks like shit, but I don't think I can deal with this, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to do it, I'm not Again.
- 34:29Carmen Lezeth: If I had the lottery, you wouldn't even know, we wouldn't even know.
- 34:33Carmen Lezeth: Okay, let me ask you this, and I'm going to rick first so rick can get in there.
- 34:40Carmen Lezeth: Okay, rick, you know I love you, right of course, okay, all right.
- 34:42Rick Costa: I was thinking, though, when you said your mom.
- 34:44Rick Costa: You know she was busy working so she couldn't be there, but if it was today, she could have seen it from people taking videos, but we didn't have that yeah, you know what look it.
- 34:56Carmen Lezeth: I'll be honest, and this is no disrespect to my mother I I mean, I don't remember her that much and I know she was a powerful, brilliant woman based on what everyone's told me, and I hope I'm a little bit like her, but I don't think my mother, my mother, didn't take that stuff seriously.
- 35:10Carmen Lezeth: Like it was babysitting, like the like the fact that I liked going to do batutera you know it's like baton twirling I'm just saying it in spanish for people who don't know, but like I was like really into doing uh and dancing con doña felita and like we would all like I thought I was puerto rican for like the first, I don't know eight years of my life because we would always sing.
- 35:33Carmen Lezeth: You know we can't do and do the thing and do this.
- 35:37Carmen Lezeth: You know the whole thing.
- 35:45Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: For context, Doña Felita, she was the lady who choreographed all the girls for the Puerto Rican parade to do all the baton twirling and all that.
- 35:49Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Yeah, yeah.
- 35:49Carmen Lezeth: And I was addicted to it.
- 35:51Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I loved it because all of a sudden I loved like just performing and stuff and then.
- 35:55Carmen Lezeth: So then we moved up to Forbes street, which was, like you know, the white side of town.
- 36:00Carmen Lezeth: I don't know why, but we and so St Thomas Aquinas, the church was like across the street from us, and so my mother went over there and they were, you know, she was looking for activities for me to do and there was like color guard drum corps band and I was like can I?
- 36:15Carmen Lezeth: And of course my mom was like, yeah, it became.
- 36:17Carmen Lezeth: And I was like can I?
- 36:18Carmen Lezeth: And of course my mom was like yeah, it became like I was obsessed with it, but I don't think my mother ever.
- 36:23Carmen Lezeth: It's not that she didn't care about it, but she didn't care about it.
- 36:27Carmen Lezeth: That was not her priority.
- 36:28Carmen Lezeth: She was trying to make money for the fans a different time.
- 36:31Carmen Lezeth: You know, and the reason why I know this to be true is not to disrespect my mother, but my mother's other children also didn't care about it, Even after she died, like that was part of the problem is, you know, I was this Americana, I was this, I was a different kid, I wasn't like them, you know.
- 36:49Carmen Lezeth: And, um, I don't know if she.
- 36:52Carmen Lezeth: What I'm saying is, although I love what you said, Rick, I don't think my mother would have ever been like, oh, with this, let me look at the video I don't think it was that important to her because culturally it wasn't.
- 37:02Carmen Lezeth: Does that make sense?
- 37:03Rick Costa: You don't think she realized how much it meant to you.
- 37:07Carmen Lezeth: No, it's a, it's a cultural thing.
- 37:09Carmen Lezeth: It was more like a big.
- 37:10Carmen Lezeth: I'm not trying to disrespect my mother, I just I don't want to believe things that are not factual for me.
- 37:25Alma Dawson: You know what I mean, because then it actually takes away what I do remember of my mom.
- 37:26Alma Dawson: Okay, what I'm gonna yell, I think I will, I'll, I wanna, yes.
- 37:27Alma Dawson: Second, what you're saying, that it's definitely cultural.
- 37:29Alma Dawson: Yeah, definitely cultural.
- 37:30Alma Dawson: Um, and I guess, because I my mom says I came out of the womb fighting, I was always very vocal, very, always very vocal, like this day is my performance.
- 37:48Alma Dawson: This day is my performance and you have to be there.
- 37:51Alma Dawson: Like you have to be there.
- 37:53Alma Dawson: My teacher says you have to be there.
- 37:55Alma Dawson: And so, since my parents always made it such a thing of the teachers are the authority figure, well, my teacher said you have to be there.
- 37:59Alma Dawson: And so, since my parents always made it such a thing of the teachers are the authority figure, well, my teacher said you have to be there.
- 38:03Alma Dawson: So here's the information.
- 38:05Alma Dawson: It's on the fridge, it's on like I'm reminding you, like a month before, a week before, the day before that morning, like, so somebody is going to be there.
- 38:16Alma Dawson: Like I was always that kid.
- 38:19Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I was, was not when I told you I was shy and you guys all laughed at me.
- 38:22Carmen Lezeth: Cynthia, could you imagine me?
- 38:23Carmen Lezeth: You remember your mother, even if you don't remember my mother.
- 38:27Alma Dawson: Could you imagine telling your mother okay, I need you to go to my show, because the teacher said no, and, and I, and the thing is that, if you know my dad, my dad, my dad is this hard.
- 38:42Alma Dawson: Hard.
- 38:42Alma Dawson: I respected my father.
- 38:48Alma Dawson: I still respect him.
- 38:51Alma Dawson: It was that fear.
- 38:54Alma Dawson: I was like, whatever Look fear.
- 39:02Rick Costa: But it was that fear and I was like whatever look and so it was.
- 39:08Alma Dawson: You know, I mean, I think that's why my father and I always went toe to toe, but at the same time my father also encouraged that in me because I was so, I was very from the time that I was born.
- 39:24Alma Dawson: So he always, he always instilled that in me Be strong, you're.
- 39:31Alma Dawson: You know God loves you.
- 39:32Alma Dawson: It was all of these things that he just poured into me.
- 39:36Alma Dawson: So then I was a result of all the things that he poured into me.
- 39:39Alma Dawson: So then it was kind of like, well, you made me like this, and that's what I would tell him.
- 39:43Alma Dawson: I was like you, you did it.
- 39:44Alma Dawson: So you know, now you got it.
- 39:47Carmen Lezeth: I'm jealous and you're brave.
- 39:49Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I think for me it was more about it.
- 39:55Carmen Lezeth: This was I look at, I remember certain things when I was really little.
- 39:59Carmen Lezeth: I do remember certain interactions with my mom again in the book Don't say the name of it again Canela, canela, right, but it's just one of those things where it's like it's what I remember about me and dancing, especially especially when I would especially the break dancing and all that stuff, cause that was my time period.
- 40:19Carmen Lezeth: Right, you're talking about flash dance, fame.
- 40:21Carmen Lezeth: You're talking about that time.
- 40:22Carmen Lezeth: Man, I was fucking so good too.
- 40:24Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I was fucking.
- 40:26Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I was so good.
- 40:27Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You could have done the Olympics.
- 40:29Alma Dawson: I should have Well yes you could have.
- 40:33Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: because of that Australian woman I'm saying that was the Australian.
- 40:37Carmen Lezeth: because of that australian right.
- 40:38Carmen Lezeth: That was a disgrace.
- 40:39Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, that was a disgrace I could have done it now and done it better okay that's a clarifying question go ahead go back to what you were saying.
- 40:49Carmen Lezeth: You were great I think, because it was such, I knew that my mother, first of it, was more like she's busy.
- 40:56Carmen Lezeth: I always knew that you don't bother her or whatever If she wants to talk to you.
- 41:01Carmen Lezeth: And my mother wasn't mean or anything, it was like a respect thing, it was a culture thing.
- 41:07Carmen Lezeth: But I think I also knew for me it was a private thing that if I tried to share it with her because she wasn't really interested in it or it wasn't that important to her, it would somehow take away from it.
- 41:17Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
- 41:18Carmen Lezeth: Cynthia, you were really quiet as a kid too.
- 41:22Carmen Lezeth: You would have never, nobody would have told your mother that.
- 41:27Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Diane would have been the only one, my older sister, she would have been the only one to talk back to my mom and those two would have been at mom and then get kicked out of her.
- 41:35Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Yep, and then get kicked out, taking her keys away.
- 41:39Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Oh yeah, no, the rest of us forget it.
- 41:42Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You look at my mother, wrong?
- 41:44Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Oh no, no, no, my father for me yeah.
- 41:48Alma Dawson: Yeah, and I'll tell you, my dad was super strict.
- 41:53Alma Dawson: He was super strict but all of my older siblings did whatever the heck they wanted and then when it came down to me, I was on lockdown.
- 42:03Alma Dawson: And I think that because I was on lockdown and I couldn't do stuff with my friends that wasn't school involved.
- 42:11Alma Dawson: That's why I was so adamant Okay, I'm doing all the school stuff, you better be at my school stuff, rick what about you, I mean.
- 42:17Maurio Dawson: I know you that's the one she went to prom with, oh god why are you?
- 42:23Carmen Lezeth: doing this to me who'd you go to?
- 42:25Carmen Lezeth: Prom with I don't know her brother her marine brother.
- 42:33Maurio Dawson: That's wrong dirty low downdown.
- 42:35Maurio Dawson: Shameful, Just shameful.
- 42:37Alma Dawson: I mean, I love my brother.
- 42:38Alma Dawson: You know, he did that for me.
- 42:39Carmen Lezeth: No, no, it's not about your brother, because I'm sure he didn't want to go with me either.
- 42:44Alma Dawson: Well, he didn't.
- 42:45Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You know what I'm saying.
- 42:47Alma Dawson: Exactly, but he did it for me because if he didn't go with me I wouldn't have gone Right, wouldn't have gone right, so you know.
- 42:58Alma Dawson: So he did that for me.
- 42:59Alma Dawson: So you know, yeah, it was a bummer, but I still got to go.
- 43:00Alma Dawson: I still got to go and dance with my friends and do the pictures and I got a pretty dress made and of course it had to be white because he was wearing his dress blues.
- 43:06Alma Dawson: But anyways I digress I still got to do it.
- 43:10Alma Dawson: So I'm grateful to my brother because he still went ahead and went with but that's his name his name.
- 43:16Alma Dawson: Let's give him a shout out.
- 43:16Alma Dawson: Yeah, david, love you, david.
- 43:19Carmen Lezeth: David Love you.
- 43:19Alma Dawson: David.
- 43:21Rick Costa: My father said to us if you want to go anywhere, you got to be home by 10.
- 43:25Rick Costa: I was like by 10 is when they're starting to gather.
- 43:27Rick Costa: What are you talking about?
- 43:27Rick Costa: I didn't go nowhere, I didn't do nothing.
- 43:30Rick Costa: I did nothing.
- 43:31Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I'd be home by the time the streetlights come on.
- 43:35Maurio Dawson: That's even early.
- 43:38Carmen Lezeth: Let me ask you this question After you win all this money right, you have all this money, we're in that space, or whatever Is there something that you will keep exactly the same that you do today, whether it's in your daily life or if it's like maybe you'll get rid of Juan Cynthia, I'm just kidding, I'm going to get rid of wine when it's over.
- 43:58Carmen Lezeth: I was just wondering is there something that you would do that you still do today, that you would not be able to even let go of Interesting?
- 44:13Maurio Dawson: I would still go to our favorite restaurant, our little coffee shop, stuff like that, because everyday people wouldn't know.
- 44:21Maurio Dawson: I would make sure they wouldn't know.
- 44:23Alma Dawson: I would stay in our neighborhood.
- 44:24Alma Dawson: Actually Lies, Lies.
- 44:29Carmen Lezeth: In.
- 44:29Alma Dawson: California, just here.
- 44:31Alma Dawson: But I'm saying I would stay in the vicinity?
- 44:33Maurio Dawson: Yeah, true, in the vicinity, because I do love our neighborhood.
- 44:37Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I think people would know because you'd have to divulge in California.
- 44:42Carmen Lezeth: You can't stay Not.
- 44:44Maurio Dawson: everybody doesn't have to know If I'm going to my regular cafe and you know.
- 44:48Maurio Dawson: If they don't know my name, you don't know.
- 44:51Carmen Lezeth: Right, right, right, you would buy the cafe.
- 44:53Carmen Lezeth: No, I'm just kidding.
- 44:56Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I was going to say you don't know, right, right, right, you would buy the cafe.
- 44:57Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: No, I'm just kidding.
- 44:58Maurio Dawson: I was gonna say, warner, probably still go to dunkin donuts, but he'll probably own one by then right, right invest invest right, right right yeah, I just remembered.
- 45:06Rick Costa: I saw a video the other day.
- 45:07Rick Costa: I can't believe.
- 45:08Rick Costa: I just remembered it.
- 45:08Rick Costa: Now they said say you're a millionaire and tell me you are a marvel fan without saying you're a marvel fan.
- 45:13Rick Costa: And this guy literally had life-size statues all around his house of all the Marvel characters Thor, hulk, blah, blah, blah Life-size statues all around his house.
- 45:22Carmen Lezeth: That's a little creepy, though, right no?
- 45:24Maurio Dawson: not.
- 45:24Maurio Dawson: If you're a fan, you're the Rick Syken.
- 45:28Carmen Lezeth: That's what I would do.
- 45:29Carmen Lezeth: All right, rick, I don't know if I would do that.
- 45:33Rick Costa: I don't know if I would do that.
- 45:34Rick Costa: I don't know if I would do that Okay.
- 45:36Carmen Lezeth: What would you do, cause I feel like it's soon.
- 45:38Rick Costa: As far as what I would still do, I would probably still broadcast, but I'd have like a decked out studio like really cool looking oh yeah, yeah, see.
- 45:46Rick Costa: And I would probably like, as long as mom was still here, I'd probably still still keep checking her constantly.
- 45:53Rick Costa: She'd have her own wing, though, with her own private people.
- 45:55Alma Dawson: You can get your day off.
- 46:02Rick Costa: And get my day off.
- 46:03Rick Costa: Maybe I'll get Carmen a day off.
- 46:08Carmen Lezeth: We will never live that down.
- 46:09Carmen Lezeth: I made a mistake.
- 46:12Carmen Lezeth: Learn that children Never make one mistake.
- 46:18Carmen Lezeth: It will haunt you forever.
- 46:19Rick Costa: And then in my awesome, amazing studio we could have all y'all join me all the time.
- 46:24Rick Costa: Fly you in and everything yeah.
- 46:27Maurio Dawson: There you go.
- 46:27Maurio Dawson: I'm here for it.
- 46:29Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, all right, cynthia.
- 46:31Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I would have a game room, but a game room with all the old school like Sac man arcade yeah, all of those.
- 46:40Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: That's what I want.
- 46:42Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: That's my dream.
- 46:44Maurio Dawson: I'm coming to your house.
- 46:46Carmen Lezeth: That would be fun that would be fun, you have pinball machines too.
- 46:50Carmen Lezeth: Yes, can we also have like a bowling alley?
- 46:54Carmen Lezeth: Can we have like a?
- 46:54Carmen Lezeth: Not that I love bowling, but I want the aura of that.
- 46:57Carmen Lezeth: Can we have that like maybe a couple of?
- 46:59Maurio Dawson: well, you know, now they make the miniature bowling alley, so they have.
- 47:02Carmen Lezeth: You don't have to have a full one she's a millionaire, she's a hundred million dollars you can get like a regular one could be like a whole other, not a wing like a whole other.
- 47:10Carmen Lezeth: She could just build a whole building on her estate.
- 47:13Carmen Lezeth: It would be a game room, a game building.
- 47:18Maurio Dawson: That's too much space.
- 47:19Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Do you?
- 47:19Carmen Lezeth: have an outdoor bowling or indoor bowling.
- 47:21Carmen Lezeth: I'm going to have a movie theater.
- 47:23Carmen Lezeth: I'm going to have one of them fly movie theaters.
- 47:26Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: You know what I mean.
- 47:30Alma Dawson: In my house.
- 47:31Alma Dawson: Elevator Got to make sure I have an elevator for all the food I would have to have my craft room.
- 47:42Carmen Lezeth: There will be no craft room in my home.
- 47:44Alma Dawson: No craft room, they'll go back to each other Go back and forth, she and I.
- 47:51Carmen Lezeth: If you had to live in one location forever you have many homes where would it be?
- 47:56Carmen Lezeth: You guys would stay here in California, I would.
- 48:01Carmen Lezeth: I would.
- 48:02Carmen Lezeth: Mario seems like he's thinking.
- 48:06Alma Dawson: Switzerland.
- 48:06Alma Dawson: Oh well, yeah, that would be our other place.
- 48:09Maurio Dawson: Yes, that would be our other place, switzerland.
- 48:11Maurio Dawson: Zurich, zurich yeah for sure.
- 48:13Carmen Lezeth: You see how I felt that.
- 48:14Carmen Lezeth: I felt it, I was like I feel like he's thinking, he's like oh, we could do half and half.
- 48:20Maurio Dawson: It would be here and there, it would be half and half for sure.
- 48:21Carmen Lezeth: Rick, your mom is taking care of nurses around the clock.
- 48:25Rick Costa: blah, blah it's hard for me to say.
- 48:28Rick Costa: I've been around a whole lot of places to say like, oh yeah, that would be a good spot because I've just been here all the time.
- 48:33Rick Costa: I'm not saying I'm never going to go anywhere.
- 48:35Carmen Lezeth: You wouldn't have a house in Portugal.
- 48:40Rick Costa: Maybe Then I could just rent it out when I'm not there.
- 48:42Rick Costa: That's what I'm saying.
- 48:43Rick Costa: There you go.
- 48:46Carmen Lezeth: See how I'm helping you all.
- 48:47Carmen Lezeth: I just want you to remember I'm here to assist you when you make your millions.
- 48:51Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
- 48:52Carmen Lezeth: Help me, help you and pay my ass is what I'm thinking.
- 48:58Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I want a villa in.
- 49:00Alma Dawson: Italy.
- 49:00Alma Dawson: I think that what we would do is all of us would be go in together on all of these properties so that we could all house jump.
- 49:09Alma Dawson: That would be really cool.
- 49:12Alma Dawson: We can come to Zurich, we can go to Portugal, go to Italy.
- 49:15Alma Dawson: There would be investment properties but we can come to Zurich, we can go to Portugal, go to Italy, there would be investment properties, but we would also go stay there and then rent them out when we're not there, right, yeah?
- 49:24Carmen Lezeth: I would actually.
- 49:24Carmen Lezeth: I love California so much I would stay in California for sure.
- 49:28Carmen Lezeth: I don't know if I would stay in Santa Monica or the Palisades.
- 49:32Carmen Lezeth: Well, you know, god bless the Palisades.
- 49:33Carmen Lezeth: I just feel.
- 49:34Carmen Lezeth: Although Santa Monica or the Palisades, Well you know, God bless the Palisades.
- 49:38Carmen Lezeth: I just feel, uh, although one of my clients is rebuilding, which is amazing.
- 49:40Carmen Lezeth: Uh, it's going to take a year.
- 49:40Carmen Lezeth: So many people are rebuilding.
- 49:41Carmen Lezeth: Of course they are.
- 49:44Alma Dawson: Um but.
- 49:45Rick Costa: I think I would probably move to Santa Barbara Huh.
- 49:47Rick Costa: Three years Wow.
- 49:50Carmen Lezeth: Uh, I think it's only because, well, they're saying when everything is completely done, but now they're applying for permits and you know they're still taking out debris.
- 49:59Carmen Lezeth: So every time, I go to work.
- 50:02Carmen Lezeth: You can only go on this part of the Pacific Coast Highway if you live in the area, and so I have to loop around because that's where I go to get on the freeway and the trucks, it's all the dumpster trucks are the ones that are going in as we're trying to go out and they're.
- 50:20Carmen Lezeth: It's huge and that's every day, every day going and coming.
- 50:25Carmen Lezeth: So when I come home I see them.
- 50:26Carmen Lezeth: So that's a lot of debris to get rid of.
- 50:30Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
- 50:31Carmen Lezeth: So they're still working on that.
- 50:32Carmen Lezeth: So I think that's why they're saying like three years and that it'll be all said and done.
- 50:37Carmen Lezeth: But yeah, they redesigned the house and they're looking at the houses that didn't experience any fire because of their modern way in which they were built.
- 50:46Carmen Lezeth: There are homes that every home around them burnt, and then these modern ass beautiful homes that have, like fire retardant, blah, blah, blah and the way in which the wind of the fire will flow and all this.
- 50:58Carmen Lezeth: I mean I've never respected so much the whole idea of design and architecture when it comes to learn so much with this fire stuff, because it's not just designing a house, it's designing it so that it can withstand so many engineering to the materials.
- 51:16Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, so it's been interesting.
- 51:19Carmen Lezeth: but yeah, one of them is rebuilding, the other one's not, which is interesting yeah, but I would stay here, huh the one that's not as moving somewhere else, or oh, they have other homes, yeah, yeah, the, the, the two they're two clients of.
- 51:34Carmen Lezeth: So these are people who have a lot of money.
- 51:36Carmen Lezeth: So the other one they're just choosing not to.
- 51:40Carmen Lezeth: They have another home up north in California.
- 51:43Carmen Lezeth: So I problem with it, not necessarily these clients.
- 51:45Carmen Lezeth: People buy all this stuff and then these homes sit empty and they're paying staff to take care of the landscaping and take care of the whatever and blah, blah, blah and for what I don't understand.
- 52:08Carmen Lezeth: And some of them don't visit, like you would think, oh, but maybe they go there in the summer.
- 52:12Carmen Lezeth: You can't go to 10 homes in a year and use them no, you can't and you don't want to do airbnb with the I mean some of them do um, then they get upset because people break stuff or whatever and you don't want people in your homes, you know.
- 52:26Carmen Lezeth: But it's to me that's a weird luxury that I will never understand.
- 52:32Carmen Lezeth: I will never understand the need to have 10 huge mansions or three huge mansions for myself.
- 52:39Carmen Lezeth: I don't get it.
- 52:40Maurio Dawson: I'd buy apartments, I'd buy true investment property.
- 52:44Maurio Dawson: To me that's different.
- 52:46Maurio Dawson: Make it make sense.
- 52:48Maurio Dawson: If you're going to buy property, get a return from it.
- 52:52Maurio Dawson: You know what I'm saying, that I would do.
- 52:55Carmen Lezeth: I think they think that someday they'll sell it.
- 52:57Carmen Lezeth: So the idea is I agree with you, but again, so we think one way and then the people I work for think another way.
- 53:04Carmen Lezeth: They buy it because it will increase in value and when they die, when they leave it to their children, their children will now have this valuable piece of property.
- 53:13Carmen Lezeth: So they're thinking the same thing, like you are.
- 53:15Carmen Lezeth: It's an investment, it's just a bigger investment and you don't have to deal with renters or a management company or all the crap that comes with people living in your property.
- 53:23Carmen Lezeth: I think it's wasteful.
- 53:25Carmen Lezeth: I think it's part of the American dream, part that's ridiculous and I don't know when it became have as much material crap as possible, but don't use it.
- 53:36Carmen Lezeth: I don't get it.
- 53:39Maurio Dawson: But you know, as my kid says, if you love it, go off.
- 53:47Carmen Lezeth: All right, well, what else?
- 53:49Carmen Lezeth: Last thoughts on the issue of winning millions of dollars.
- 53:55Maurio Dawson: Don't call me, I'll call you.
- 54:00Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Right, oh, I don't know, man, just don't be greedy with money.
- 54:05Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Money's not everything.
- 54:07Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: Yeah, just do what makes you happy, and that's it.
- 54:15Carmen Lezeth: Rick.
- 54:17Rick Costa: I think it's in the Bible.
- 54:18Rick Costa: It says naked I came into the world and naked I will leave.
- 54:21Rick Costa: So for me it's very temporary.
- 54:24Rick Costa: If you have the ability to help, there's nothing more fulfilling than helping people, in my opinion.
- 54:29Rick Costa: Maybe some people are different, but to me helping people is very fulfilling.
- 54:34Rick Costa: Are different, but to me helping people is very fulfilling because you know why all this money and you're just sitting there doing what?
- 54:41Rick Costa: When people are in desperate need of help and you can help them.
- 54:45Carmen Lezeth: Not even in desperate need of help.
- 54:46Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I agree with you, but you could also just help people who'd like a shot.
- 54:52Carmen Lezeth: Like I wish I didn't have to work 50 hours a week and focus more on something like this, on all about the joy.
- 54:59Carmen Lezeth: You know, our Friday night show is growing so rapidly because you know what People need community People need a place to go and hang out.
- 55:07Carmen Lezeth: Why couldn't somebody who has millions of dollars be like you know what?
- 55:11Carmen Lezeth: Let's drop a few hundred thousand dollars on this show and see where it could go.
- 55:15Carmen Lezeth: Maybe it could pop up in other avenues other days.
- 55:19Carmen Lezeth: Maybe there's a way in which this could build.
- 55:21Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I mean, look, we got viewers from England and Italy chiming in on Fridays.
- 55:26Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: We don't even know, right.
- 55:28Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: And it's like three o'clock in the morning for them.
- 55:31Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: But that's kind of the thing.
- 55:34Alma Dawson: Go ahead Jumping off for them.
- 55:38Alma Dawson: But that's kind of the thing go ahead like jumping off of what rick is saying yeah, you can't take it with you.
- 55:42Alma Dawson: I love hearing when people go in and they just like pay all the layaways off yes and you know those type of things.
- 55:48Alma Dawson: Like you know what I'm saying, but it's like I love hearing that type of stuff.
- 55:54Alma Dawson: Like, okay, I'm, I'm going to go into the supermarket and I'm just going to drop this money.
- 55:59Alma Dawson: All the people who come in today, all of their groceries are free.
- 56:02Alma Dawson: Don't tell them as they're ringing now, it's paid for.
- 56:06Alma Dawson: You know what I'm saying.
- 56:07Alma Dawson: Like that type of stuff, it's like those are the type of things that I would love to be able to do in a bigger way, because I know you do them anyways.
- 56:16Carmen Lezeth: I know I do them.
- 56:18Carmen Lezeth: I think I already mentioned this before, but I always put $20 in my little bag of recycling cans that I leave out there and I just walk away.
- 56:26Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean.
- 56:28Carmen Lezeth: No one's out there, but I know that they're going to go through them because they crush them so they can fit more, and I know they're going to find that $20.
- 56:39Cynthia Ruiz Lopez: I'm like you know, like I just feel happy now when you drop off your kids.
- 56:43Carmen Lezeth: What's your address again, what time do you drop them off?
- 56:48Carmen Lezeth: Simple things like that.
- 56:49Carmen Lezeth: But I know what you mean.
- 56:51Carmen Lezeth: I'm like if I could do more, I would do more, no matter what your financial situation is.
- 56:56Alma Dawson: You can always do good and you can always help, even if it's just you see someone outside of the store, go in, buy, buy some snacks, buy some water and, just you know, give it to them, you know give a blessing.
- 57:10Alma Dawson: I mean, it would be nasty, exactly be like, exactly Exactly.
- 57:14Alma Dawson: And it's like.
- 57:15Alma Dawson: You know, I've never um, because I was that way when I was a child.
- 57:19Alma Dawson: I would see someone and I would just like I couldn't eat because they were outside and I knew that they were hungry.
- 57:25Alma Dawson: That's right, and so I would.
- 57:27Alma Dawson: Literally I would take my food and I would take it to them and then my mom would look at me and then she'd go order me some more food and then I'd be able to eat.
- 57:35Carmen Lezeth: But we've lost that.
- 57:37Carmen Lezeth: You know that for some reason we've lost that instinct of taking.
- 57:42Carmen Lezeth: That's why I was talking about my mentors earlier, like I wish people now cared as much about the neighbor's kids as they do about their dogs.
- 57:53Carmen Lezeth: Like it's hard for me to think I'm doing so well, and there's a homeless person who can't eat.
- 58:01Maurio Dawson: Can I say something real quick, Shout out to my wife, Because of my wife?
- 58:06Maurio Dawson: My daughter for a long time made packs, little Ziploc packs with face towels, toothpaste, little care packages.
- 58:15Maurio Dawson: That's so cool.
- 58:15Maurio Dawson: I'm going to keep them in the trunk of the car.
- 58:18Maurio Dawson: If she saw somebody who needed it, she's like Mommy, pull over.
- 58:21Maurio Dawson: She'd run and get it out.
- 58:22Alma Dawson: the trunk, we'd put not a lot like you.
- 58:25Alma Dawson: Five, ten sometimes a twenty and we would put a Bible verse in there.
- 58:32Alma Dawson: God bless you.
- 58:35Maurio Dawson: We're not trying to preach to you, just hand it to you.
- 58:37Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, exactly, I think I think giving a blessing is a kindness.
- 58:41Carmen Lezeth: It doesn't have to, it doesn't have to be justified in any way.
- 58:44Carmen Lezeth: I look at, I appreciate the conversation.
- 58:47Carmen Lezeth: It's not where I thought it was going to go, but that's what I love about these private lounges it's just so much fun and we just get on a roll.
- 58:52Carmen Lezeth: So, thank you so much.
- 58:55Carmen Lezeth: Thank you for being here and, yeah, I hope people learned a little something At the very least.
- 59:00Carmen Lezeth: I know I learned a lot about the character of who all the people are on this show, so I am just so grateful.
- 59:06Carmen Lezeth: I know right.
- 59:07Carmen Lezeth: So, thank you everyone.
- 59:09Carmen Lezeth: Remember, join us on Friday nights, 6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern.
- 59:18Rick Costa: That's 3 am in England.
- 59:22Carmen Lezeth: And, yes, and always on Sundays, our private lounges will air, always at 12 o'clock Pacific, 3 pm Eastern, and I don't know what time in England, but you can look it up and yeah, that's it.
- 59:34Carmen Lezeth: Thank you everyone.
- 59:35Carmen Lezeth: We'll see you next time and remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy.
- 59:39Carmen Lezeth: Bye, everyone, Bye.
- 59:41Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by.
- 59:44Carmen Lezeth: All About the Joy Be better and stay beautiful folks.
- 59:47Carmen Lezeth: Have a sweet day.