00:00:01 - Jenny GK
Hello, America. It's Tuesday. It is election day.

00:00:08 - Caitlin Kindred
Election Tuesday. This is a big deal. I am anxious. I am very anxious today, as I'm sure many of you are. So we're glad you're here. This is going to be a space of less anxiety. Right? But today you are back in your 8th grade civics class learning the things that I, someone like me, a former social studies teacher, probably taught you, and you may or may not have been paying attention and. Or remember. So this is how we pick our president, folks. This is what's happening today.

00:00:49 - Jenny GK
But first with me is Caitlin, who we could rename Chad because she's always good to hang.

00:01:01 - Caitlin Kindred
I wrote that one. That's a good one. Well done. You wrote it yourself. Well, she's exercised her right to vote. She is a powerfully awesome lady. That's Jenny, everyone.

00:01:15 - Jenny GK
Thanks, guys. All right, so my sources today are the literal constitution.

00:01:27 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. Well done civics teacher. Me says well done.

00:01:33 - Jenny GK
But there's lots of great articles on this that are written at a very accessible level on the National Archives and USA.gov but yeah, like, John Adams is like the author here.

00:01:50 - Caitlin Kindred
Thomas Jefferson. John Han.

00:01:53 - Jenny GK
Yeah, I'm like literally quoting Benjamin Franklin. So. Okay. All right, so first off, when is the next presidential election? It's today, November 5th. We elect a president every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. So much like Thanksgiving. It's one of these weird, like when the moon is in retrograde after the first Monday.

00:02:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. That's why. If it's. That's why you'll never have one on November 1st if November 1st is a Tuesday.

00:02:21 - Jenny GK
Because it's not after the first Monday.

00:02:24 - Caitlin Kindred
Right, exactly.

00:02:25 - Jenny GK
Okay, so I have a little table of data for us. This is a timeline of the four year election cycle. Okay. We are only talking about how we pick our president. Yes. There are lots of other elections. And let me go on the record right now of saying your local elections are more important than the four year.

00:02:48 - Caitlin Kindred
Presidential election in the sense that your personal life is more impacted by your local elections. If you don't think that matters, you're. You.

00:03:02 - Jenny GK
You're missing a chance. Yeah. You're missing a chance to actually make decisions that impact you on a daily basis.

00:03:08 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. That's. Your local elections are how the other issues get escalated up and up and up the chain. You have to pay attention. If schools matter to you, if local taxes matter to you, if transportation matters to you, vote in your local election.

00:03:25 - Jenny GK
Okay, so soapbox stepping down now. I'm here to talk to you about how we elect a president. Okay. So in the spring of the year before the election. So spring, in this case of 23 candidates register with the Federal Election Commission. Now, there is no deadline to register. Okay. So, but this is about the same time is in the spring, the year before. So about 18 months in advance, president or candidates are starting to register. If I wanted to run for president, I could register two months before the election if I wanted. I'm not going to. Okay. During the same time they announced their candidacy. If you are registering with the Federal Election Commission, that's public knowledge. So people know you're running, so you announce it. But like. Yeah, okay, yeah. So during that summer, moving into the spring of the election year, so for us, it would have been the summer of 23, moving into the spring of 24. This is when primary and caucus debates happen. Okay. This is when states start to think about what candidate their party wants them to. Wants to be represented by.

00:04:55 - Caitlin Kindred
It's important that you said debate there. This is not a decision. This is the discussion about what's. What the decisions will be. Right. This is the thinking before the decision.

00:05:06 - Jenny GK
Okay, so then in the first half of the election year, so again for 2024, would have been January 3, June of 24, we start to have presidential primaries and caucuses. This is when the decisions are actually made of what candidate will represent a party.

00:05:27 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:05:28 - Jenny GK
Now you can run without a party support. You don't have to be represented by a party. Running for president costs millions of dollars. So you probably need a party backing you. But I mean, Ross Perot, like, I got $4 billion, like, he did his own thing. Okay.

00:05:47 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:05:48 - Jenny GK
During the summer between July and September, parties start having conventions, taking all this data of primary and caucuses from different states and deciding as a party together who their candidate will be. This is also when that candidate selects and announces their. Their vice presidential running mate.

00:06:14 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:06:15 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:06:16 - Caitlin Kindred
And that's of the election year. That's.

00:06:18 - Jenny GK
That is the summer of the election year.

00:06:21 - Caitlin Kindred
Understood.

00:06:21 - Jenny GK
Okay, so then for the two months leading up to the election, this is when you start to see debates both between vice president and presidential candidates.

00:06:32 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:06:32 - Jenny GK
Okay. Election day, as we said, is the first Tuesday after the first Monday. So in this case, it's today, November 5th. But it could be as late as what, November 8th and as early as the 2nd.

00:06:55 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:06:56 - Jenny GK
Okay. All right. So this is when it gets hairy. This is the part where people are like, wait, what I. I don't understand. In December, the electors of the elector, college asterisk here I'm about to explain that in detail. In December, the Electoral College cast their votes. Congress gets together in January. So for us, it will be January of 25th to count the electoral votes. And then on the 20th of January every year, even if it's after the first Monday, is the Presidential inauguration day.

00:07:42 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:07:43 - Jenny GK
Okay. January 6th was a really big day because of some people trying to interrupt the count. Okay, so that. That's why. That's why it happened in January, because that was when Congress was having a joint session to do the count. Okay, the count of what? This is the Electoral College. This is the part where people are like, wait, what? I. No, this is so dumb. I don't understand it. We need to do away with it. It doesn't make sense. Or. Oh, yeah, this is a perfect system. We love it. It's amazing. It was actually neither. It comes out of a compromise, which, if you study the framing of our country, man, did we know how to compromise back then. There were some times that we made really poor decisions on compromises, like saying that a person of color is only worth three fifths of a white person.

00:08:40 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, my God. So gross.

00:08:41 - Jenny GK
But that was a compromise.

00:08:46 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay, that's so gross.

00:08:48 - Jenny GK
So disgusting. Okay, but this one actually. This one was like people actually crossing the aisle and figuring things out. Okay. When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, there was a group that wanted Congress to elect the President, and there was a group that wanted the general public to elect the president.

00:09:12 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:09:13 - Jenny GK
So what do you do when you can't decide? You eat both desserts. Okay, so they just did both. The way this works is you, as a member of the general public, cast a vote, and then the Electoral College also casts a vote. The Electoral College is not a place. It's not like the Agricultural Mechanical College of Texas.

00:09:47 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, my. I knew you were going to do that. I knew you were going to do that, and I just.

00:09:53 - Jenny GK
Yeah, no, it is actually a process. Okay.

00:09:57 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:09:58 - Jenny GK
First there is the selection of the electors. Then the electors meet, and then there is the counting of the votes. The Electoral College has 538 electors. Now, in order to be elected president, you must have a majority of those votes. You cannot just have the most. You must have a legal majority, which in this case is 270 electoral votes. Okay, so this is why people say, like, oh, it'll split your vote. They're talking about if there's more than two candidates, someone could possibly have the most votes, but not a majority thereof.

00:10:54 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:10:56 - Jenny GK
Okay, so the electors, the number is calculated based on how Many members of Congress. You have how many reps in the House and your two senators. But the number is not exactly the same as if we just added up the numbers of members of the House and Senate. Because Washington D.C. also gets to talk in this election.

00:11:21 - Caitlin Kindred
Fair point, right?

00:11:22 - Jenny GK
Yeah. I don't know if you have been there in the last 10 years, but their license plates might still say taxation with. Without representation. Okay, so if you happen to live in the District of Columbia, like actually have an address in D.C. there's not someone in Congress voting for you?

00:11:44 - Caitlin Kindred
No, there's not.

00:11:45 - Jenny GK
But in the electoral College There are three electors from Washington D.C. okay. Thanks to the 23rd amendment of the.

00:11:59 - Caitlin Kindred
Constitution, only 23 down. I mean hey, women got the right to vote for.

00:12:11 - Jenny GK
Okay, okay. So the group of electors are on what we call a slate. And the slate is normally chose by the candidates political party. Okay. But every state has different laws on how they choose their electors. This is part of the balance between the Federalists and the we want to have states rights group. What was that? The other one?

00:12:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Anti Federalists. I believe those are the two. Someone wasn't paying attention in her civics class. This is why I am not the one doing the lesson. Because it me it's more impactful when it comes from someone who had to stop study to learn this material.

00:13:04 - Jenny GK
Get a p. That is so good. Okay, okay, okay. Yes, the anti Federalists. So everything gets to choose.

00:13:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Professional podcasters. Fact adjacent content. You're so welcome.

00:13:28 - Jenny GK
Most states have a winner take all system. So whoever wins the popular vote in your state, all your electors vote for that person. But Maine and Nebraska both have a proportional representation. So they actually look at how the votes came out and then cast that way. Also, Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature. That is the only thing I remember from my poli sci class my freshman year of college.

00:13:57 - Caitlin Kindred
Tell someone what that means.

00:13:59 - Jenny GK
Instead of having two houses in their legislature, they only have one. So they don't have reps and senators, they just have lawmakers.

00:14:09 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. Uni one.

00:14:12 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:14:12 - Caitlin Kindred
There you go.

00:14:13 - Jenny GK
So that's what I learned in Poli Sci 20 years ago. That's what I remember. Okay, so after the general election happens again with the Wednesdays and the Tuesdays, the electors meet on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December.

00:14:37 - Caitlin Kindred
I know what we should do. Complicate this process even more with weird dates.

00:14:45 - Jenny GK
So you know, Thanksgiving happens on the third Thursday after the first Monday. Election day happens on the first Tuesday after the first Monday. And now the meeting of the electors happens on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday.

00:15:02 - Caitlin Kindred
Why did I think it was just the third Thursday?

00:15:05 - Jenny GK
It's the third Thursday after the first Monday.

00:15:10 - Caitlin Kindred
Well, all right, okay. So good to know.

00:15:15 - Jenny GK
All right, so there's a. The electors vote on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December. And then there's a joint session of Congress in January on the 6th where the members of the House and the Senate meet in the House chamber. Because it's a bigger room. Right. And they actually count the electoral votes. Guys. Because most of the states have the winner take all system, for the most part, we can predict how the election is going to go based on Election Day. That's why Maine and Nebraska really don't play that much of a role in the decision making.

00:16:03 - Caitlin Kindred
No, their numbers are small. That's why, like when you're watching Election Day coverage, that's why you'll see the votes.

00:16:10 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:16:11 - Caitlin Kindred
When they'll.

00:16:12 - Jenny GK
California went to blue.

00:16:14 - Caitlin Kindred
California goes for. Yeah, exactly.

00:16:16 - Jenny GK
California has more electoral votes than say, I don't know, Iowa, Nebraska.

00:16:24 - Caitlin Kindred
Iowa.

00:16:25 - Jenny GK
So why not. Because they have more representatives in the House. Because again, that was a compromise. Some states were small and they said, we want to have a same voice. And they said, okay, we'll create the Senate where everybody has two representatives that's equal. Then we'll have the House that's based on population. So more people live in Texas. More people are represented in the House, but we all have two senators. Again with the compromising. Okay, right. So during this vote count in the House chamber, the President of the Senate is presiding. That President of the Senate declares which persons have been named President and vice president. Okay, trivia. How do we select the president of the Senate?

00:17:18 - Caitlin Kindred
I don't remember.

00:17:19 - Jenny GK
They are the vice president.

00:17:21 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, yeah. So that makes me look really bad.

00:17:25 - Jenny GK
No, it's okay. It's okay. So this is really interesting because the speaker of the House is elected by the House. Right. It's a representative who then is elected to speak and serve as the presiding officer in the House. But in the Senate, the President of the Senate is the Vice President of the United States.

00:17:42 - Caitlin Kindred
The vice president. Right. Which is why. And I think also that's part of the whole people viewing the vice President as not having very much power sort of thing. But when you actually come down to. If there is a tie in the Senate, it comes down to the vice presidential vote. Right. So that. It's kind of a big deal. Why did I not remember that? Because we've literally just heard about this. Because that's Been a part of the information in this election cycle. So.

00:18:07 - Jenny GK
Well, and that.

00:18:08 - Caitlin Kindred
My apologies.

00:18:09 - Jenny GK
It is.

00:18:10 - Caitlin Kindred
There we go.

00:18:11 - Jenny GK
It is relevant to the 2024 election because the sitting vice president is running for president.

00:18:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:18:22 - Jenny GK
So she has the duty of announcing whether she won or didn't.

00:18:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Boom.

00:18:30 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:18:31 - Caitlin Kindred
Kind of a cool power. Just saying.

00:18:34 - Jenny GK
It'll be an interesting day. Okay, so then. And again, like, it's a little anticlimactic because with the exception of, like, a couple of times in US History, we can pretty much predict on election night where things are going. Okay. Now, the president elect takes the oath of office on January 20 and is sworn in as President of the United States. So we started this journey in the spring of the previous year, and then in January of the next year, not. Not the. Not. Not year B, but year C. Right. We have a new sitting president.

00:19:22 - Caitlin Kindred
This is why those text messages that you get for your party start a long time ago, what feels like a year before the election. Do you not have any idea how much of a relief it's going to be when those text messages.

00:19:36 - Jenny GK
Oh, my gosh.

00:19:36 - Caitlin Kindred
Coming. The number of times I've replied back, stop, stop, stop. Like, it's insane.

00:19:43 - Jenny GK
Yeah. No, I just reply back, I live in a country where I'm allowed to vote on a secret ballot. I will not be telling you how I'm voting.

00:19:49 - Caitlin Kindred
If you are my husband, you reply back with very unkind text messages.

00:19:55 - Jenny GK
Yes. It's entertaining in 2020. Okay, so, like Covid, people were knocking on doors, and, you know, they'd knock on your door, and then they'd stand eight feet away or whatever. John finally told someone, if your party knocks on the door again, I am voting for the other party. Take me off your visitation list. I am tired of getting masked up.

00:20:29 - Caitlin Kindred
And opening the door, coming to the door for you to tell me who.

00:20:32 - Jenny GK
I should vote for.

00:20:35 - Caitlin Kindred
I don't even care. I don't even care.

00:20:39 - Jenny GK
Come to my door again. I'm voting against you.

00:20:44 - Caitlin Kindred
That's almost like I would. That's like an Etsy sign.

00:20:46 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:20:47 - Caitlin Kindred
Right? Like someone should make that Etsy sign come to my door to solicit my vote. I'm voting for the other party. Please keep moving.

00:20:55 - Jenny GK
I remember many, many years ago, we're out front in our house digging out a pipe that had been, like, burst, sort of, because our crepe myrtle tree had put its roots through the plastic. Yeah.

00:21:12 - Caitlin Kindred
That happened to my parents. Yeah.

00:21:14 - Jenny GK
And we learned about this because the roots were then blocking the pipe, and everything exploded back into our house toilets. Blew off their seals. Our tubs filled with sewage. It was disgusting. So we had a plumber come out, and he said, look, guys, I don't normally tell people this, but if you do all the digging, you'll save yourselves about 500 bucks if I come out and all I have to do is replace the pipe and, you know, fix. Put new toilets in and new wax.

00:21:43 - Caitlin Kindred
Seals and all that and everything else.

00:21:45 - Jenny GK
But he was like, look it. A huge part of this quote is me getting out there and digging this pipe out.

00:21:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Wow. Good for him for telling.

00:21:53 - Jenny GK
It was really nice. So John and I are on our hands and knees digging through sewage mud to get this pipe, and someone is canvassing for a local election. State representative, I think. And she says, oh, what are you guys working on? And we explained the whole thing. And she's, man, I sure wish the state of Texas could help you with that. And I just look at her and was like, no, I do not want the state of Texas to help me with my plumbing belt, because I don't want the state of Texas to help other people with their plumbing bills, and I don't want to pay for the state of Texas to help other people with their plumbing bills.

00:22:28 - Caitlin Kindred
That feels like a really bad decision to say that, don't you think?

00:22:32 - Jenny GK
I mean, I was nice to the lady, but I was like, no, no, don't. Don't offer for the state to fix this one.

00:22:38 - Caitlin Kindred
I. That's not. No, that's not. And also, wouldn't that be a local issue and not ever?

00:22:47 - Jenny GK
Also, like, do I really want to wait for Congress to tell me when I can change my plumbing?

00:22:53 - Caitlin Kindred
It's already bad enough that you have to get, like, permitting that takes six months for your own home. Stuff like, no, no, I don't want an act of God to be the reason that I get to fix sewage. Good Lord, no.

00:23:09 - Jenny GK
All right, let's take a break.

00:23:11 - Caitlin Kindred
For links to resources mentioned in this episode, head on over to ckngkpodcast.com blog to find everything you need and be sure to follow us on social media. Head over to your favorite social media network and find us at CKNGK podcast. And now back to the show.

00:23:31 - Jenny GK
Okay, we're back. I hope that during the break, you voted if you did not already do early voting.

00:23:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Early voting for the win win pretty great.

00:23:40 - Jenny GK
In the state of Texas. Early voting, you can vote anywhere in your county. You do not have to vote right at your precinct.

00:23:49 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, super helpful.

00:23:50 - Jenny GK
If you vote on election day, I think you have to vote at, like, one of Your precinct houses. I don't think it has to be this exactly the same one. I think you have a approved list. Used to be you could only vote at your precinct house, but I think that's changed.

00:24:04 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, I think a lot of people are just in it for the Instagram sticker, so they go on.

00:24:09 - Jenny GK
Well, you know what? I accidentally got two one time and I put one in my bag and I'm saving in case I forget to vote. I can still look like I did.

00:24:19 - Caitlin Kindred
Ew. No forgetting.

00:24:21 - Jenny GK
No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

00:24:24 - Caitlin Kindred
No, I. I take two because I do it for the election day, and then I wear it on the day that I actually went and early voted.

00:24:31 - Jenny GK
There you go.

00:24:31 - Caitlin Kindred
Also, we're not going to get into a discussion about mail in voting, but do what works for you and what's available in your state to make sure that your vote counted.

00:24:40 - Jenny GK
Oh. Now, also know that in order to register to vote, you often in many states, have to do that before election day. In Texas, the deadline was October 7th.

00:24:51 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. There are a lot of. Well, not a lot. There are several states where you can.

00:24:55 - Jenny GK
Walk up and vote.

00:24:56 - Caitlin Kindred
You walk up and vote, you register that day. But this, Texas is not one of them.

00:25:00 - Jenny GK
So if you happen to live in Texas and you forgot to register to vote, just move real fast across state lines. Okay. All right. So before the break, I was telling you about my sewage mud that I had to dig through. Ironically, I had already decided that the obsession I was going to share this week was dirty water.

00:25:21 - Caitlin Kindred
Please explain, because I'm grossed out.

00:25:22 - Jenny GK
It is so disgusting and so, so great. What is the word that people say? Satisfying. It's satisfying.

00:25:31 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:25:31 - Jenny GK
So here's the thing. Abigail, as you know, plays flag football. She has two pairs of grippy football gloves. One that's her practice pair. One that's her game pair. Oh, okay. I soaked them in Oxiclean overnight, and I'm telling you, that water looked like iced tea. It was so disgusting and amazing.

00:26:00 - Caitlin Kindred
Is that like. Does it have borax in it? Oxiclean. Because there's the people who tell you to strip your pillows and you put them in the tub and you put borax in there and it will like.

00:26:09 - Jenny GK
It was turn your water Gross. Grody. I took the gloves out and hung them to dry, but saved the water because I cannot wait to show Abby how gross her gloves are.

00:26:18 - Caitlin Kindred
I can't. That's nasty. Ew. Like this color. Like the color of my clip.

00:26:23 - Jenny GK
Oh, darker.

00:26:24 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, darker.

00:26:25 - Jenny GK
No, no, it looks like a Glass of tea. It was not.

00:26:29 - Caitlin Kindred
That's.

00:26:29 - Jenny GK
No, it was. You can't see the bottom of the bin. And these are gloves that she uses for football. It's not like they were muddy.

00:26:37 - Caitlin Kindred
She's putting her hands in those every time.

00:26:40 - Jenny GK
It was so grody, so gross, and it was amazing.

00:26:43 - Caitlin Kindred
Gross. That's so gross. Okay. Well, mine is also related to my gem.

00:26:48 - Jenny GK
Oh.

00:26:49 - Caitlin Kindred
So for. For Mother's Day, I think it was this year, I got an acupressure mat from my.

00:26:54 - Jenny GK
Do you love it?

00:26:56 - Caitlin Kindred
I really do. I really do. And if you don't know what an acupressure mat is, I'm. I'm doing. This is going to be called show and tell from now on, because that's what we're doing. But, like, it's. It's a super spiky. I have a pillow, like, that goes underneath my neck, and I have a mat. And most of the time, I. Most mornings, I have built into my work schedule that I will take 10 minutes to meditate, which sounds a little kooky, and I'm not necessarily the best at it.

00:27:26 - Jenny GK
Do you have your granola before or after your meditation?

00:27:30 - Caitlin Kindred
After. Yeah.

00:27:32 - Jenny GK
When do you find time to make handmade soap?

00:27:38 - Caitlin Kindred
After I make my skirts out of wheat.

00:27:40 - Jenny GK
Okay. Also, I'm not going to make fun of meditation. Remember, I almost joined a meditation cult or I kind of did join a meditation.

00:27:47 - Caitlin Kindred
You kind of did join it. Yeah. Yeah. But then you unjoined. So I, like, keep, like, a rock and, like, a stone in my hand just to have something to hold on to because I get fidgety.

00:27:58 - Jenny GK
But is it a special stone, like one that you found or, like, you bought it? Or, like, what kind of stone is this?

00:28:04 - Caitlin Kindred
No, it came from what? Remember when I got a gift from parents and it was. It was. I was like, why is it so heavy? It feels like there's rocks in here. And it's because they had given me crystals.

00:28:14 - Jenny GK
Literally were rocks.

00:28:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, there are rocks in it. So it's one of those. And I just hold it in my hand, and that way, if I get fidgety, I can kind of, like, mess with that as opposed to, you know, not paying attention. And it's not easy for me to do. My brain goes a million miles an hour, as yours does. It's the adhd. It's. The meditation's hard. It's all those things. But I lie on the acupressure mat, and it really does feel a lot better. I can't. It's. It's something else to focus on, if that makes any sense. Like, because I'll, you know, have to arrange my neck so it doesn't. Doesn't hurt me, but it does actually feel really good on my neck. And I will find that if I just lie on it for 10 minutes a day, it feels really nice. It's almost like it. It just again changes the focus and like the nerve stimulation or whatever. But I really love it. But my gem is that I have. I have two cats there that are two years old. And the one that you think is the naughty one who like does like little tiny things to get himself into trouble is not the naughty one. The naughty one is the sweet one. He's the one who climbs up the shelves that are very high on my office and like plays with fake flowers and then knocks the vase onto the floor at 2 in the morning.

00:29:33 - Jenny GK
No.

00:29:34 - Caitlin Kindred
And I. That's a real thing that happened. Yes. So he decided he was going to climb up onto the desk, which is not very high. It's a desk. Whatever. As I was doing my meditation, lying on my acupressure mat. And he jumped from the desk onto my stomach while I was lying on the.

00:29:56 - Jenny GK
Oh, no.

00:29:59 - Caitlin Kindred
I had like a little. I had like stamps on my back.

00:30:05 - Jenny GK
Oh my gosh.

00:30:05 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh my gosh.

00:30:06 - Jenny GK
Oh my gosh. This is middle aged tramp stamps.

00:30:16 - Caitlin Kindred
How'd you get all those scars? It looks like chickenpox. No, no.

00:30:19 - Jenny GK
My cat jumped on me while I was meditating on my acupressure.

00:30:25 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. So I have all these like little. I have these teeny tiny little scabs on my back. They're going away now, so it's pretty smooth now. But this was just like a couple days ago and I had all these little divots. It was not great, but I was like this. And he's like my sweet angel baby who cuddles with me at night and like puts his little face like on my chin and stuff. He's so sweet. And then I'm like, you turd. Like, get away from me.

00:30:50 - Jenny GK
I mean, my mom is really into Stephen King and there was one night where she's up in bed because, you know, she has insomnia and she's reading it.

00:31:00 - Caitlin Kindred
I hate that book. I hate that movie. I hate clowns.

00:31:03 - Jenny GK
Because that book in that movie jumped on her chest as she is reading this book. I was not even awake, but I remember her telling the story the next morning so vividly that it lives in my brain.

00:31:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Nightmare fuel. That would freak me, right? But they just. Cats just have a way of, like, really bringing you back down to earth. Because this was. I was actually, like, focused on the meditation. He's like, concentrate on your breath. I'm like, I'll show you what I can concentrate on.

00:31:34 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:31:35 - Caitlin Kindred
You know, like, don't tell me what to do. But I was actually doing it. And then Ty jumped on my stomach.

00:31:41 - Jenny GK
And bad kitty hurt me.

00:31:43 - Caitlin Kindred
Bad kitty. Okay.

00:31:45 - Jenny GK
Do you have a gem? We have some words in our house that come from a time where we were still learning to speak. Right. You know that the. The room upstairs is the meteor room. Because it's. Right.

00:31:58 - Caitlin Kindred
The meteor room. Yeah, sure.

00:32:00 - Jenny GK
When you're cold, you grab a blanket. If you want to change the channel, you use the kermoke.

00:32:09 - Caitlin Kindred
Enemies.

00:32:10 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:32:11 - Caitlin Kindred
We don't have M M's in our house. We have enemies.

00:32:13 - Jenny GK
Yes, exactly.

00:32:14 - Caitlin Kindred
And yogurt beans.

00:32:15 - Jenny GK
Yogurt beans. Exactly. Exactly.

00:32:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:32:17 - Jenny GK
So the newest one is what you do when you're trying to dissociate and you have nothing else to focus on, and you sit there with your phone and you flip through Insta or tick tock or YouTube shorts or whatever you are. Doom squirreling. Oh, oh, there you go.

00:32:38 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, doom squirreling. Very cute. Okay, well, don't doom squirrel. Do. Go vote. Bye.