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My California: Through Fire Challenges to Why It Will Always Matter to You · All About The Joy

• 0:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Hey everyone, welcome to All About the Joy.
• 0:02
  Carmen Lezeth: This is Carmen Talk.
• 0:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Before I start talking about my subject today, I really want to encourage everyone to check out the live stream that we did this past Thursday.
• 0:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I did it from a remote location.
• 0:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I had to leave because of the fires here in Santa Monica, actually in the Palisades.
• 0:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Let me be very specific.
• 0:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I live in Santa Monica and we had an evacuation order and warning and so I did the live stream from there with Rick and Cynthia and it was interesting, to say the least.
• 0:49
  Carmen Lezeth: It was fun actually and it was nice to see them, even though I was very exhausted.
• 0:53
  Carmen Lezeth: And also my goddaughter, juliana, makes a special appearance, which is kind of cool and fun for me.
• 0:59
  Carmen Lezeth: I just love that kid.
• 1:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I talk in the live stream about all of the hate.
• 1:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I also made a few different TikToks as I was updating family and friends about what was going on, how I got really sad and upset at so many of the comments that people were making because they hate California so much, which I have to say I've been to almost every state in this country except for Idaho and Alaska, and I hope someday to go to Alaska for sure, but I don't think there is any state in the country that I have ever thought of as so painful and hate like hate filled to me that I would, you know, just continuously diss it over and, over and over again.
• 1:49
  Carmen Lezeth: The only one I can think of and this is all because I was born and raised in Boston, massachusetts is we have this kind of kidding kind of sort of hate with New York because of our sports teams.
• 2:01
  Carmen Lezeth: But even that, at the end of the day, is unjust and I will defend New York's honor any day of the week and twice on Sundays if I need to.
• 2:11
  Carmen Lezeth: But it just is quite an incredible thing to see and hear all of the hate that comes our way here in California and it really hit me hard during this situation, this horrible disaster that we are dealing with still, even though my area is, at least at the moment, in the clear because the Santa Ana winds have died down a bit and also because our fierce, amazing first responders, our fierce, amazing first responders firemen, volunteers have been doing their due diligence to just get this under control, and I am just beside myself seeing the stories of all of the people who are working so hard to save lives, to try to save property and to just get this fire under control.
• 3:04
  Carmen Lezeth: It is truly an incredible feat when you think about it.
• 3:08
  Carmen Lezeth: There are more than enough TikToks and Facebook posts and Instagram and Blue Sky.
• 3:15
  Carmen Lezeth: I've seen so many people talk about why California is so important to the rest of the country.
• 3:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Right, we supply so much in terms of just our tax base to help other states that never contribute, that do not contribute, that cannot contribute to the amount that we do.
• 3:35
  Carmen Lezeth: But there's just so much more, right, whether it's how much food we produce, whether it's just Hollywood and entertainment in general, it's just a massive, massive contribution to the United States of America.
• 3:51
  Carmen Lezeth: And without California, I really doubt heavily that the 49 other states actually, new York would probably be fine, massachusetts would probably be fine, but the rest of the states would have a bit of a struggle without California being the entity that it is.
• 4:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Besides the fact that I just think it's a wackadoodle thing to hate a state that most people who talk about it have never been to or, if they have been to it, they've been to one town, right, they've been to San Diego or they've been to, like, san Francisco, and that's how they base everything on on this one visit for this one moment in time and have decided that the entire state because usually they don't like its politics or they claim to be Christian or whatever all the reasons are have such a vitriol hate towards this state.
• 4:44
  Carmen Lezeth: It's just mind boggling to me.
• 4:46
  Carmen Lezeth: I wanted to talk a little bit about why I love California so much, because I thought that would be an interesting take on it.
• 4:52
  Carmen Lezeth: And so let me back up and just say that when I was a little kid, like most everyone else, I watched TV a lot, you know, and I really learned a lot of things about performing by watching some of the great TV shows and movies.
• 5:09
  Carmen Lezeth: And I remember when I was younger, watching things like Soul Train and I was like, ooh, I want to be one of the dancers on Soul Train, because I just thought they were amazing and to me they were all adults and in my head I was like when I'm an adult I'm going to be a dancer on Soul Train.
• 5:26
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that was my first understanding of wanting to be kind of a dancer, even though when I was like four or five years old, I was in this little dance group on.
• 5:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Maybe I was a little bit older, maybe I was six or seven, I don't remember, but I was a young kid and I remember being in a little dance troupe with Doña Felita.
• 5:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I've talked about this before and I just remember loving performing then and just I don't know the whole.
• 5:54
  Carmen Lezeth: That's in your blood, it just happens to you and you just love it and you just want to do it all the time and very quickly I learned that I couldn't sing right or I shouldn't say that I couldn't sing.
• 6:07
  Carmen Lezeth: But I was discouraged from singing really, really at a young age and it's unfortunate because I was in the choir at church and they gave me a solo for whatever godforsaken reason they chose to and I was so horrible that after that church service they turned.
• 6:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Did I do it?
• 6:29
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't even know if I made it to the church service, I think it was kind of in a rehearsal and I guess I was so horrible that you know they told me that I should just maybe go be in the band or something and told me you know, you're not a singer and I was told that as a really young kid and it kept me away from ever trying to sing again, which is okay because I'm an amazing dancer and that's what I ended up doing.
• 6:55
  Carmen Lezeth: But I always remember that right.
• 6:59
  Carmen Lezeth: But because of that I always thought of myself as a dancer, performer.
• 7:03
  Carmen Lezeth: I really got into being a choreographer.
• 7:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I wanted to then, you know, because Soul Train was kind of that, beginning when I was little, watching it on TV.
• 7:12
  Carmen Lezeth: But then MTV and the music videos, janet Jackson, michael Jackson, all of them were just I really thought that was where I was going to end up and then I would become a choreographer and then I would find my way to what I thought and I still believe today, is the gold star of being on Broadway.
• 7:33
  Carmen Lezeth: And even though I always loved the movies and television when I was younger I thought that was a harder thing for me to understand because I didn't see the structure of it, I didn't understand how a camera thing worked and I didn't understand how you would even get in there.
• 7:48
  Carmen Lezeth: But for me, the trajectory of being a performer and then, you know, being a dancer and then finding my way, maybe on Broadway, like in the chorus line, I mean I honey, when I dream this child's imagination is for real.
• 8:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, I was blessed with the gift of movement and a great imagination, but I had that all set in my head and I still love all of that and I don't think I'm far away from it, it's just a different trajectory.
• 8:21
  Carmen Lezeth: But inevitably I always knew I would end up in a place where I loved the entertainment business.
• 8:28
  Carmen Lezeth: And suffice it to say for those of you who've read my book Canela, or for those of you who know me, that my ideas of dancing ended pretty much when I was 16, 17 years old, because I had a really bad hip injury and to me that was the end of all of it and I then had to focus on how I could get out of the area and neighborhood I lived in.
• 8:53
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's how college ended up becoming an option.
• 8:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And I am both grateful and pained by it all.
• 9:01
  Carmen Lezeth: But I, you know, we are all given a set of something to deal with, right the cards we've been dealt, and you do the best you can with what you have in front of you.
• 9:12
  Carmen Lezeth: And let me tell you, I have won more games than I have lost in this bout or this game of life, if that's what we're going to call it.
• 9:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So I try to always be grateful, but because of my ideas of performing and because I thought I would never make it on Broadway, because now I had a hip injury and my whole idea of being a choreographer or being on MTV, you know, whatever all those things I, you know, changed the trajectory to someday being in California, because I loved, now, hollywood.
• 9:46
  Carmen Lezeth: I didn't know how or what I would do or how I would get there, but there was no doubt, especially in my freshman year in college, that I would end up in California, because the more I was in Vermont in snow, the more I realized I need to be in a place of warmth and a place where the entertainment business was part of its bloodline.
• 10:12
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean, if that makes any sense.
• 10:14
  Carmen Lezeth: There was no question I would never go to Florida or any other place because of weather, but I needed that combination and I had come out to California, to Santa I always want to say, oh, it was Santa Clara.
• 10:29
  Carmen Lezeth: And for a brief moment in time I came out to Santa Clara, california, and I just knew.
• 10:35
  Carmen Lezeth: I knew in that moment and I was young at that point I just knew that this is where I wanted to be and I was excited.
• 10:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Wow, I'm thinking about those times.
• 10:45
  Carmen Lezeth: But anyways, I never had any doubt that when I graduated from college I was going to go straight to California.
• 10:52
  Carmen Lezeth: It was in my head that the only way I would be able to stay away from where I grew up was if I made a huge change.
• 11:02
  Carmen Lezeth: And the only way I could do that if I just took the leap and moved to California, and that's exactly what I did.
• 11:09
  Carmen Lezeth: The first thing I noticed when I got here was the sunshine, and I don't want to just say it like oh, it's so warm here.
• 11:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, of course it is, but there is a difference in kind of the brightness of the sun to me here than anywhere else in the United States.
• 11:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I can't talk about anywhere else in the world because I've only been to a few different places outside of the United States, but I'm just saying that when I came here, the first thing I understood and realized was the warmth of the sun is so encompassing and you don't have this kind of humidity issue at all.
• 11:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Most people have been to Florida so they understand that when you get off the plane you just start with that dripping sweat at the back of your neck that goes down your spine.
• 11:59
  Carmen Lezeth: It doesn't happen here, because we don't have humidity in that way, and so the sun is just a warmth that I absolutely love.
• 12:10
  Carmen Lezeth: I also came out here specifically.
• 12:13
  Carmen Lezeth: You land at LAX and you're literally on the west side.
• 12:17
  Carmen Lezeth: When that happens, and wherever you take a taxi cab from at LAX, you're inevitably going to notice the ocean, you know.
• 12:25
  Carmen Lezeth: But I, specifically, was going to stay on the west side, and so that's on the ocean side.
• 12:31
  Carmen Lezeth: And I remember the first place I went to in Santa Monica.
• 12:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Everyone knows that there is a bench there that belongs to me.
• 12:42
  Carmen Lezeth: It doesn't.
• 12:43
  Carmen Lezeth: It was dedicated by somebody else years and years and years ago and the plaque is there.
• 12:47
  Carmen Lezeth: But for all intended purposes, that is my bench, and when I first landed here, that's where I found myself, sitting and gazing out at probably one of the most beautiful views that I've definitely ever seen, and it just overlooks the ocean and it also shows you on even a not so clear day, but on a clear day it's like chef's kiss beautiful.
• 13:14
  Carmen Lezeth: The mountains north, you know, which are currently what we're talking about the Palisades, malibu, you know.
• 13:23
  Carmen Lezeth: You're going that way to Point Magoo.
• 13:26
  Carmen Lezeth: You can see the beauty of the mountains all the way through and it's a gorgeous, gorgeous view.
• 13:35
  Carmen Lezeth: It's actually the same.
• 13:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I think I have it still on my Facebook header, and even blue sky.
• 13:41
  Carmen Lezeth: At this point, I have that viewpoint.
• 13:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I also see that every day now because I still live in this area and I actually live very close to that place.
• 13:54
  Carmen Lezeth: It's walkable to me and I try to do it on a regular basis as part of my workout.
• 14:00
  Carmen Lezeth: But my point is is, when you come to California, what you notice is not just the warmth, but there is this vibrant scenery that is so colorful.
• 14:12
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not just that.
• 14:14
  Carmen Lezeth: All the houses are different, right, because they're made architecturally different the Spanish villas and the non-brick looking places, because they don't use brick out here.
• 14:27
  Carmen Lezeth: Right, because of earthquakes, and so to me there was just such a beauty to it.
• 14:31
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's so funny because the other day I was talking to a friend of mine who called to check to see how I was doing, and one of the things he said was I just thought it wasn't that green out there, and it was one of the funniest things I've ever heard.
• 14:43
  Carmen Lezeth: But what he was referring to is that you know, california is a desert, but it's a desert in that the foliage is different here.
• 14:52
  Carmen Lezeth: He lives in Vermont and so it's all pine trees and oak trees and all of these other different types of vegetation.
• 15:03
  Carmen Lezeth: I am not a gardening person or botanical, whatever that's called, but you can hear me out right.
• 15:08
  Carmen Lezeth: I lived on the East Coast most of my life, growing up, from being a youngster to young adulthood, and so the foliage is very different.
• 15:18
  Carmen Lezeth: So when you come out to Los Angeles, there is more browns and it's a beautiful kind of lighter brown.
• 15:27
  Carmen Lezeth: There's kind of sandy looking areas here because we're beach and there's do you say, cacti I think you say some cacti Not really a lot, but you do see it but there's a lot of palm trees, of course, where I live and there is a lot of green where I live as well too, because we've had rain, not this year or not since, like May or something but we do have beautifulness in the greenery here, and it's just a different type of foliage, it's just a different type of environment, but it's gorgeous and it's beautiful here and that's the other part of it.
• 16:07
  Carmen Lezeth: There's a brightness to California and it's beautiful here and that's the other part of it.
• 16:09
  Carmen Lezeth: There's a brightness to California and it's not just my area.
• 16:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I have gone up the coast, I have gone from San Diego all the way through where I live in Los Angeles and gone up PCH to the Palisades.
• 16:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Malibu I've gone up to Santa Barbara.
• 16:25
  Carmen Lezeth: You can understand what I'm saying.
• 16:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Malibu, I've gone up to Santa Barbara.
• 16:29
  Carmen Lezeth: You can understand what I'm saying.
• 16:30
  Carmen Lezeth: If you drive that whole route, you go up to Los Gatos I've now skipped a whole bunch but you go up to San Francisco.
• 16:34
  Carmen Lezeth: It is one of the most magnificent, beautiful drives and everyone should do it at least once.
• 16:40
  Carmen Lezeth: The drive not getting on a plane and going, and it's going to take you six to eight hours to do and if you stop along the way it's going to take even longer.
• 16:48
  Carmen Lezeth: But I've done that more than once with friends.
• 16:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I've done it myself, which is a really funny thing, because I've stayed at hotels all along the way, up at Carmel and whatever, because I'm too scared to drive at night.
• 17:01
  Carmen Lezeth: But it is a magnificent view.
• 17:03
  Carmen Lezeth: It is breathtaking and gorgeous, and just part of what I think is the essence of what I love about California.
• 17:12
  Carmen Lezeth: That's not to say that the East Coast or anything in between of California right, there are beautiful other parts.
• 17:20
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just giving you that first vibrant thing that I love about California, which is not just saying the weather, it's saying there is a shine on this part of the country that I can't explain fully or well because I don't have the verbiage or the perfect articulation, but I'm telling you, it feels beautiful to be here when the sun hits your skin and you're looking out at that ocean or you're just taking that nice breath and being like, wow, this is a little close to heaven for me.
• 17:56
  Carmen Lezeth: That's how I felt and still feel, especially because of where I grew up and how I grew up.
• 18:03
  Carmen Lezeth: To me, this was just liberating.
• 18:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I think the other thing that hits me about California that I love is its people, and I don't want to just talk about the diversity, because that matters, but I would never not live in a place that there weren't a lot of different cultures, because I need that energy so much and also because I am not white.
• 18:26
  Carmen Lezeth: It is much more comfortable for me to live in a place where there is a lot of diversity.
• 18:32
  Carmen Lezeth: So and I'm only bringing that up because you know, I remember once somebody was like well, why wouldn't you move to like Memphis?
• 18:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Or, you know, atlanta, and those are lovely places.
• 18:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I remember being in Memphis, tennessee, and I've been there twice, and I just remember thinking like I could never live here because it's not my vibe.
• 18:55
  Carmen Lezeth: But in talking about Memphis I will say this I think that's a thing, right, it's a vibe.
• 19:00
  Carmen Lezeth: New York has its own vibe too and along with, like Memphis, tennessee and, you know, texas, I could never live in New York, and my friends who are born and raised in New York or you know, who live in New York now understand that I'm just not a New Yorker.
• 19:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm from Boston, massachusetts.
• 19:19
  Carmen Lezeth: I could never be a New Yorker.
• 19:20
  Carmen Lezeth: But it's not just that.
• 19:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Unlike the real real it's not my kind of town.
• 19:24
  Carmen Lezeth: It's too fast for me, it's too quick and everybody's like on top of each other.
• 19:29
  Carmen Lezeth: As far as living space, and what I love about California is that there's a real, honest kind of calmness to California.
• 19:38
  Carmen Lezeth: We are just the type of people that we do the work we need to do, but it's also like a really morning place to be.
• 19:48
  Carmen Lezeth: That's how I look at it.
• 19:49
  Carmen Lezeth: New York, to me, is like a nighttime vibey kind of place and to me, california has always seemed to be the most perfect place for me because I'm such a morning person.
• 19:58
  Carmen Lezeth: So you get up early, you do morning things like running, rollerblading, surfing, skiing.
• 20:05
  Carmen Lezeth: You do these things that make you get up in the morning, you go hiking in the morning, you go kayaking, you kind of do all these things that are outdoorsy.
• 20:14
  Carmen Lezeth: You do them early in the day.
• 20:16
  Carmen Lezeth: And one of the things I thought was funny about California when I got out here is because I was still looking for places to go clubbing at night and it was so not the right place.
• 20:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Now that may have changed.
• 20:26
  Carmen Lezeth: I've been here 30 years now, right, so I don't want to get people who are like, oh, you just don't know where they are.
• 20:30
  Carmen Lezeth: I knew where a lot of them were, but it's not the same as New York.
• 20:34
  Carmen Lezeth: It'll never be the same as New York or even Boston when it comes to kind of this nightlife kind of thing.
• 20:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Because what I think California brings to the table that I've not seen anywhere else is the ability to literally and I've done this because I used to hang out with a bunch of athletes back in the day and you know we'd get up in the morning and we'd head to Malibu and we'd go kayaking, and we'd go kayaking for an hour or so.
• 20:59
  Carmen Lezeth: We'd go, then have breakfast, we'd then go hiking.
• 21:03
  Carmen Lezeth: We'd go to Point Mugu and we'd go hiking, you know, and we'd do like a 7.2 mile hike and it was just magnificent and beautiful.
• 21:11
  Carmen Lezeth: And then we'd come down and we would do, you know, like a early dinner and they would be talking about driving up so they can go skiing in the morning.
• 21:20
  Carmen Lezeth: And the thing about California is you can actually do all of that.
• 21:24
  Carmen Lezeth: You can go surfing in the morning or kayaking in the morning and you can go skiing that afternoon because everything is here.
• 21:33
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not a big snow person.
• 21:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Everybody knows that.
• 21:35
  Carmen Lezeth: My four years in Vermont was more than enough, like I never want to see snow again.
• 21:39
  Carmen Lezeth: But if you go up to Big Bear, which I've been plenty of times, you understand how versatile and beautiful this place is when it comes to being able to do all these things.
• 21:51
  Carmen Lezeth: But my point is is this is to me it's also perfect because I love being a morning person.
• 21:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I am a morning person and I love being able to do all these things all the time.
• 22:05
  Carmen Lezeth: The other part that I absolutely love, of course, is that Hollywood is made here, and let me be very specific.
• 22:10
  Carmen Lezeth: But what I mean by that is it's not that you have to work in the industry, because even though I love this town and I have done a few movies and I've done theater and I've been you know, I worked for big time people who were in the industry from the management point of view, or even celebrities or whatever.
• 22:30
  Carmen Lezeth: That's not what I'm talking about.
• 22:32
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm talking about when you're here and, let's say, you just work at an insurance company or you work at a bar or you work in the medical field, you're driving to work and it is absolutely normal to see a camera crew or a whole kind of line of these, you know, trucks and wagons and whatever because they're shooting a film.
• 22:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And it just is one of the things that I get so happy about whenever I see it.
• 23:03
  Carmen Lezeth: By the way, it always messes up traffic if it's not cordoned off correctly, and I still feel joy in it because I love that they're filming something here or that you know that filming is happening.
• 23:15
  Carmen Lezeth: And then, of course, I get a little jealous because I'm like, why am I not filming?
• 23:18
  Carmen Lezeth: But there is just something in that energy that I love and we all go about our business no matter what.
• 23:25
  Carmen Lezeth: So I remember I used to go this one trail all the time and I'd start at this place called the golf course, or we call it the golf course, whatever, because you go outside of the golf course it's kind of fenced off and you can walk around or run around the entire golf course here in Brentwood and nine times out of 10, depending on the time of day or year you would absolutely see all the trailers out there, because they're always using some certain part of that area to film, or I don't know, maybe it was a series that went for a long time.
• 23:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I have no idea because I never asked, but I always loved just walking by all of those trailers and just imagining what they could possibly be filming.
• 24:08
  Carmen Lezeth: And so I don't know about other people in industries that they love or are a part of or wish they were.
• 24:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Maybe this happens to people who work near NASA.
• 24:17
  Carmen Lezeth: That's the only way I can think about it.
• 24:18
  Carmen Lezeth: If you live in Florida and you've always loved NASA and you're around the whatever that would be called jet propulsion, whatever thingamajiggy, Maybe you get that excited too, and maybe I'm just crazy.
• 24:32
  Carmen Lezeth: But these are the things that I love about California.
• 24:36
  Carmen Lezeth: People here are also incredibly kind and lovely, although in the beginning I realized like, wow, this isn't like my neighborhood, because people will live next to each other for like 30 years and not know who each other is neighbor-wise, which is really not my style.
• 24:54
  Carmen Lezeth: You can already tell I move into a place.
• 24:56
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm knocking on everybody's door so that they know I just moved in, and that to them is always very bizarre because it's not that kind of town.
• 25:05
  Carmen Lezeth: And that to them is always very bizarre because it's not that kind of town.
• 25:07
  Carmen Lezeth: I always explain to people that one of the reasons why there isn't a sense of community in the way that I saw it as I was growing up, is because we don't really have a transit bus system that everyone takes.
• 25:19
  Carmen Lezeth: And so when you're growing up and you take the bus every day or the train, or you have to wait at the subway, which is like in New York, there is a sense of community because you see the same people getting on the bus every day.
• 25:30
  Carmen Lezeth: You might say good morning, you might whatever, but here people use their cars all the time to go everywhere.
• 25:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Is what I'm saying.
• 25:39
  Carmen Lezeth: That may seem like a bad thing to me.
• 25:41
  Carmen Lezeth: It's adjustable, right?
• 25:43
  Carmen Lezeth: You make the community.
• 25:44
  Carmen Lezeth: You are in charge of making your own community.
• 25:47
  Carmen Lezeth: So I always, you know, whatever apartment I'm moving into or whatever neighborhood I'm moving into, I do go in and say hi to people.
• 25:55
  Carmen Lezeth: But what I do love unlike how I grew up, as I explained to people the other day I love that there's also a sense of privacy.
• 26:03
  Carmen Lezeth: We don't bother each other unless we necessarily have to, like in an emergency or something like that.
• 26:09
  Carmen Lezeth: People do keep to themselves.
• 26:11
  Carmen Lezeth: People do understand personal space here, and so I kind of like that too.
• 26:16
  Carmen Lezeth: It's a little bit different for me, but I really do love it.
• 26:19
  Carmen Lezeth: I was telling Ba'atah and Sebastian just last night or yesterday.
• 26:25
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that one of the things that was interesting for me growing up is all the gossip right there was.
• 26:31
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, we used to call the ladies at the end of the street ABC, nbc and CBS, because you could not walk by there without hearing some kind of news on whoever was happening.
• 26:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Even if nothing was happening, they had the scoop on.
• 26:46
  Carmen Lezeth: You know who was getting divorced, who's cheating on who, who's dating who.
• 26:50
  Carmen Lezeth: They always knew something, something.
• 26:51
  Carmen Lezeth: So this is a little bit different and I love it because Californians have a sense of privacy but are also very neighborly and will help when necessary.
• 27:03
  Carmen Lezeth: And you know, I kind of forced myself on my neighbors so they all know who I is, so I ain't worried about that.
• 27:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I think something else that's really important that matters to me is that the sense of being healthy out here matters, and one of the things I did when I first came out here.
• 27:18
  Carmen Lezeth: I was going to do it anyways, but I quit smoking.
• 27:21
  Carmen Lezeth: So I used to smoke since the age of 12 till the age, I think, of 26,.
• 27:27
  Carmen Lezeth: I think I was when I finally quit when I moved out here.
• 27:30
  Carmen Lezeth: It was so easy to do, not only because I felt like I didn't know anybody so I didn't have anybody to smoke with, because that was kind of, I guess, my thing, but I also just you want to try to be as healthy as possible out here, because everybody out here is doing something I'm not saying everybody's out here being athletic or whatever, but again, it's that kind of town where you are going to spend a lot of time near or at the beach or wanting to go to the beach, or you just have the sense I don't know how to explain it there's like an aura about eating healthy or being healthy.
• 28:08
  Carmen Lezeth: And look, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everybody in LA, I'm saying for me and my experience that's what I love about things out here and I love that people want to look their best, and I don't always think it's a bad thing.
• 28:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Like we get into this thing where we're, you know we're hate.
• 28:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Always think it's a bad thing.
• 28:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Like we get into this thing where we're, you know we're hate.
• 28:29
  Carmen Lezeth: We have all this hate for women or men who get Botox or plastic surgery or whatever, and I've already had these conversations with people and that there's all this pressure, blah, blah, blah.
• 28:35
  Carmen Lezeth: There's also just the sense that you want to look your best all the time.
• 28:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Now, you know, whatever we have done as a society to make little girls and young women think that they're not beautiful if they're not size X or have this kind of hair or teeth or whatever, that's a whole other conversation.
• 28:54
  Carmen Lezeth: That's not what I'm talking about.
• 28:55
  Carmen Lezeth: What I'm talking about out here is a sense of wanting to be your best, look your best.
• 29:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I think there's something beautiful and positive about that too, and so there's this healthy vibe.
• 29:07
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know any parts of where I've lived in Los Angeles where you don't run into somebody who's running or somebody who's doing something athletic.
• 29:16
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, something that takes a lot of energy, and that is also true, I'm sure, in a lot of places, but because we're really an outdoor kind of place, people aren't only necessarily working out in gyms, right?
• 29:34
  Carmen Lezeth: You see them everywhere.
• 29:34
  Carmen Lezeth: So I love that part of it too.
• 29:35
  Carmen Lezeth: I love the sense of health and I know for me personally I am the healthiest I've ever been.
• 29:38
  Carmen Lezeth: When I moved out here and I'll say this too I had a lot of allergies when I lived on the East Coast.
• 29:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I used to get allergy shots every month, especially when I lived in Boston, and what I realized is, when I moved out here, because of the different foliage, I don't need those shots anymore.
• 29:56
  Carmen Lezeth: I haven't needed them since I moved here and when I asked doctors about it and when I've had scratch tests to make sure you know the truth is, foliage matters where you live regarding your reaction, body wise, and I don't know the science behind it or whatever, but that kind of makes sense.
• 30:14
  Carmen Lezeth: So there's that too.
• 30:15
  Carmen Lezeth: I will say this again I don't understand the vitriol and the hate that people have, even people who have lived here and have moved have, even people who have lived here and have moved.
• 30:29
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't understand the amount of pain and anger that you could have as a human being, that you think it's appropriate to put that on people who are suffering from the fires during a natural disaster, and I you know people want to blame everything on social media.
• 30:44
  Carmen Lezeth: But we are social media.
• 30:45
  Carmen Lezeth: We are social media and the fact that people feel really comfortable or incensed enough to want to bring down people who live in a state that is in a disaster is quite telling and quite remarkable, and I always want to see the best in who we are or who we can be.
• 31:09
  Carmen Lezeth: But I have to say I've learned a lot during this tragedy of how horrible a lot of people are, and I understand that people have issues with governments and leaders and that we should fight back, but that's not what I'm talking about.
• 31:24
  Carmen Lezeth: You all know what I'm talking about People who are hating on celebrities because they've lost their homes.
• 31:30
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'll say this till I'm blue in the face the idea that you are upset that we care about celebrities is mind boggling.
• 31:40
  Carmen Lezeth: You know like I do care about you know, dick Van Dyke.
• 31:44
  Carmen Lezeth: I do care about Anthony Hopkins, I care about Milo I don't know how to say his last name, but the star from this Is Us.
• 31:53
  Carmen Lezeth: I care about all of these people.
• 31:56
  Carmen Lezeth: I care about so many of the people who have lost their homes here because they're human beings just like anyone else.
• 32:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Their income level, their status in the country, their ability to have an Oscar or not is not indicative of whether or not they are a good and decent human being.
• 32:18
  Carmen Lezeth: I had to intervene in a comment section of somebody dissing Anthony Hopkins and remind people that he is 87 years old and that he just lost his home and that his accolades and everything that he has gotten he has worked for.
• 32:34
  Carmen Lezeth: We all want to be able to say that we are successful human beings, so why you would bring people down because they are successful is ridiculous to me.
• 32:46
  Carmen Lezeth: It says more about you than it does about them in every way, shape or form, and I will tell you, as someone who has worked for and continues to work for people of wealth, of all different types of wealth.
• 32:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I will tell you this as an absolute truth Having money does not make you a bad person, and it sure as hell does not make you a bad person, and it sure as hell does not make you a good person, and I know just as many horrible poor people as I do good poor people, and it doesn't matter to me if you have lost everything in a place that you have lived for a very long time and you have lost those memories and you have lost your photo albums and you have lost your furniture.
• 33:28
  Carmen Lezeth: You've lost whatever it is.
• 33:30
  Carmen Lezeth: You've lost just your time in the place that you love.
• 33:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I am so sorry.
• 33:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I am so sorry that this has happened and my compassion and my empathy doesn't stop at your income level and I wish people would understand that the more you hate on people who have stuff, the more you do not understand who people are.
• 33:56
  Carmen Lezeth: And, by the way, you saying I care for the poor people who have nothing, I don't care about the rich people.
• 34:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Again, nobody wants your fake empathy.
• 34:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Nobody wants your fake empathy.
• 34:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Nobody wants your conditional love, your condition Like if you have X amount, if you only make $30,000 a year, I feel for you, but if you've been accomplished and have done well in your life, I do not feel anything for you and I wish you harm.
• 34:24
  Carmen Lezeth: That says more about who you are.
• 34:26
  Carmen Lezeth: You are a bad person.
• 34:28
  Carmen Lezeth: You are the person that I hope feels the amount of pain that you are inducing on comment sections and in your verbiage every single day to people who have just lost everything and I have no problem saying I will deal with the good Lord when I die, but I hope you feel that tenfold your hatred and the harm that you are causing people who are reading those horrible comments in the time of pain and suffering.
• 35:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I am so tired of trying to be the goody two-shoes and wish well on everyone.
• 35:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I really have turned a corner in my life where I'm like, if you're a bad person, I wish you hell.
• 35:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I really do.
• 35:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I will not do anything because I am not that person.
• 35:18
  Carmen Lezeth: But I am so sick and tired of trying to be above the fray all the time.
• 35:24
  Carmen Lezeth: And as much as I love Michelle Obama the good Lord knows I do and I wanted to believe and to a certain extent I do believe that when they go low we go high.
• 35:34
  Carmen Lezeth: But there's a part of me that's like you know what.
• 35:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm going to go middle.
• 35:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm going to go middle.
• 35:38
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just saying if you were this hurtful of a human being, you are showing me who you are.
• 35:44
  Carmen Lezeth: It is really easy to be a good and decent person when things are good.
• 35:51
  Carmen Lezeth: It is so easy to be generous and kind and loving and helpful when everything is okay in the world.
• 36:01
  Carmen Lezeth: But who are you when things are bad?
• 36:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Who are you when you have been hurt or lost everything, or see pain and suffering?
• 36:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Who are you in that moment is what I want to see.
• 36:17
  Carmen Lezeth: It is really, really more telling to me who people are when things are hard and difficult.
• 36:24
  Carmen Lezeth: That's where you shine as a human being.
• 36:28
  Carmen Lezeth: That's where you have the ability to show me the kind of person you are.
• 36:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Can you love anyway, can you help anyway, can you be a force of good and support and love anyway.
• 36:42
  Carmen Lezeth: And I am so happy to report that more people than not are the most beautiful spirits I have ever seen during those hard moments and they are shining right now.
• 36:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Those beautiful people, all the beautiful people who have been so helpful and kind and have been doing the volunteers.
• 37:07
  Carmen Lezeth: I went to the Westwood Recreational Center as one of the first places I went to because I didn't know what to do after I left work that morning and I had everything in my car and the people there who had left some of the volunteers there were from like Pasadena or wherever they had come in, because I heard some of them talking, unaware that their own homes were about to be engulfed in these flames or in danger, possibly, or whatever had come all the way from Pasadena which is not an easy or short drive to my area to help and volunteer, and I kept thinking to myself see, that is California, that is the best of humanity.
• 37:49
  Carmen Lezeth: All of the first responders, all the people who have donated so much money and food and clothing.
• 37:56
  Carmen Lezeth: It has been such a remarkable thing to see people my neighbors, you know checking in on each other, people making sure they're okay, text messaging and emailing.
• 38:08
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, that is the beauty of who we are when we care about each other.
• 38:12
  Carmen Lezeth: And with that said, I want to give a shout out to Firemen.
• 38:16
  Carmen Lezeth: People know I love Firemen anyway, but Firemen have always had this is not new supportlafdorg.
• 38:25
  Carmen Lezeth: It is their nonprofit organization.
• 38:27
  Carmen Lezeth: It's where I bought t-shirts for me and Cynthia and Juan, because we love the show 9-1-1, I wanted to support our fire department here in Los Angeles and they have t-shirts, but they also have wish lists.
• 38:40
  Carmen Lezeth: They also have things that the individual firemen need and before I get any messages I'm going to just delete them, by the way about how you shouldn't have to help or whatever, because, stop, this isn't about that right now.
• 38:54
  Carmen Lezeth: We can have conversations somewhere else about what needs to be changed or supported for our first responders or whatever.
• 39:03
  Carmen Lezeth: That's not what this is about For right now.
• 39:06
  Carmen Lezeth: If you want to support the Los Angeles Fire Department, you go to supportlafdorg, and they have so many things there.
• 39:16
  Carmen Lezeth: They also have a list of places that you can help for the California fires and um or support them individually.
• 39:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Please go and do your best to help and support California, but also the LAFD.
• 39:29
  Carmen Lezeth: They are doing a remarkable job.
• 39:31
  Carmen Lezeth: And also, you know, check on your own neighbors, check on your own friends.
• 39:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Make sure that everyone is okay.
• 39:39
  Carmen Lezeth: If you have friends in California, but I mean even in your own neighborhoods, wherever you are, whether you're in Arkansas or wherever, texas or wherever it is Mississippi, I don't care where it is If you have a moment to make a connection that you've never made before, I would say please do it, because I'm telling you that's been my saving grace, the love that I have gotten from the people I know in my neighborhoods and in my life I am so grateful for.
• 40:10
  Carmen Lezeth: So I want to say thank you to that.
• 40:11
  Carmen Lezeth: So, again, I am always grateful for the people that listen to my podcast and listen to our live streams and just are so supportive of allaboutthejoycom I almost forgot the name of my own company there, but I'm a little exhausted so I'm sorry.
• 40:29
  Carmen Lezeth: But I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone who's been so supportive, and we will be back on Thursday, 6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern, as always.
• 40:41
  Carmen Lezeth: We are so grateful.
• 40:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Check out allaboutthejoycom and follow us everywhere.
• 40:46
  Carmen Lezeth: The links are there.
• 40:47
  Carmen Lezeth: We really do need more support on YouTube, so if you can do that, that'd be great.
• 40:51
  Carmen Lezeth: But regardless, just love you all for checking in and we'll see you again next week.
• 40:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Thank you and goodbye, and I'm just so grateful.
• 41:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Bye everyone.
• 41:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by.
• 41:06
  Carmen Lezeth: All About the Joy.
• 41:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Be better and stay beautiful folks.
• 41:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Have a sweet day.