Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This is the Jen Ardrew Podcast. I'm here with Adam Karsh and Caitlin Green. Okay, that was one of the worst ones that I've done, but I am working on it. You stick with it though. Yeah, I keep promising like new little snippets of music that I am going to get. Russ and I, well, you're going on a little bit of a vacation, Caitlin, or you're having a week off. So when you come back,
You're going to be so shocked at what I have prepared and what I send to Adams. So just get ready for that. I love being shocked. Okay, right out of the gate, I'm looking at an article about a country of Germany. The government has decided to put some laws in place that will really help dogs of the world.
And basically what the public folks are saying in charge, that it is a law that would make it mandatory for owners to take their dogs for walks at least twice a day for a minimum of one hour. So in total, so your two walks, you know, maybe one walk could be four minutes and the other could be 56 minutes. I'm not sure how they're going to split it up, but all I know is that your dog needs to be outside. I love this so much.
because it's called the Proposed Dog Act. And it also states that owners cannot leave their dogs chained up or alone for an entire day. And puppies, you know, if you've ever had a puppy, they are, it's like having a baby. It's 24-hour care. They'd be required to have a person with them for at least four hours a day. So pets are not cuddly toys anymore.
So says Agriculture Minister Julia Klockner. I agree with Julia.
So do I. So what do you think? I mean, I, the reason I love dogs so much, I've, I had a dog previously in my last relationship, we had a French bulldog and she was the greatest thing. And my ex's hours were such that he could be home with her. He worked from home, he ran his own business. So she was really well taken care of and she wasn't alone. And if you know French bulldogs as a breed, I like to refer to them as potatoes with legs because they're
They don't need a lot and they don't really even want to go out that much. And they can't handle the heat. Like they're indoor creatures and they sleep most of the day. So she was a good breed in terms of downtown Toronto living. But I love dogs so much and I really miss having one. And I want one and I know the breeds I like and I can't wait until I can get one. But I am not getting one right now because it isn't fair to the dog.
Like I'd love to have a dog around when I want the dog around, but it's a huge responsibility. They're part of your family. When they're puppies, they're like babies. It's a little furry baby that needs and deserves your attention. And I just couldn't live with myself if I was gone and traveling all the time and didn't have the proper amount of time to bond with the dog and train it and do all the stuff you're supposed to do. Well, one of the things that has come out of the last five months of the pandemic is that
there has been an emptying out, a lot of shelters are saying, of dogs, especially dogs. Some cats, but pets in general, of people, oh, I'm home now. I've always wanted to get a dog. I've got the time. I'm going to do it, which is fantastic. But having said that, as the world starts going back to normal, I hate to even say that,
because normal's what got us here to begin with, you know, I hope that people will remember that dogs are not something that can be left alone. And if there was anything in the world that could show people what it is like to be
isolated, to be not able to go outside and enjoy the fresh air. It has been COVID. So human beings have had a taste of what it's like to shut a door behind you, go to your office for 10 hours a day and leave your dog.
I hope that's been a reminder to people like, oh gosh, not cool. Dogs are a privilege. I always feel like there should be so much more in place that allow people to get dogs. And I know even adoption rescues are much more stringent now in their vetting process, which I love.
You know, I've had friends say to me, oh, I tried to get that dog or that dog and I didn't make the cut with the vetting process. And these are pretty decent frigging people with jobs and kids. And they're like, didn't make the cut. It's like a regular adoption. It has become that. But I think...
They know that you have to really put the dog first or the animal first to make sure that it goes to a safe place. Anyway, this law is supposed to be in place by next year if it goes through. I would vote like 3 million percent in. I doubt it will get passed. I mean, I know Germany's super progressive.
Andrea Merkel's government is just, I'm so fascinated by her and all the amazing things she's done this past decade, really. But I don't know if they'll pass it. They certainly wouldn't pass it in you-know-whose world down south of us. Absolutely not. What does this mean up here?
Oh, that's so... Adam, who do we have with us today? This is my daughter, Ayala. Hi, Ayala. Oh, my gosh. And Ayala's six. No, she can... What's happening? What's happening?
What does it mean, Adam? What are we playing? Roblox? Yeah. On the iPhone? Yeah. What does it mean, Adam? What is... Oh, Ayala? Yeah. No, no. No, it's a beautiful name, but I mean, do you know how to help her with games, or are you one of those parents that has no clue? I'm pretty tech savvy. Daddy, what does this say? I'm going to Lula. It says on vacation. That's what it says. I'm in the middle of a radio show here, so can we get back to this?
But we like having Ayala. Listen, she's, she's, this is real life people. Usually I have a dog barking. You're so sweet, Adam. If I think if I'd come to my dad, you know, at that age, it would have just been hollering. Like I, we talked, we talked about parenting last week, but this is, this is so great. She's so cute. Oh my gosh. Your wife. Is that just like a mini wife? Although she does look like you too. She does. She has my cheeks.
She got my juice. Yeah, she's okay. Do you want my phone? No. Okay. Can I get back to the show? Ayala, it's really nice meeting you. Say hi to Jan and Caitlin. No, she's in her game. She's in it to win it. That's what I get like when I'm in front of a plate full of spaghetti. So I know. I get it. Anyway, yeah. Dogs. There was a post that my friend Sherry Vanstone, shout out to my friend Sherry,
There was a guy in Edmonton. I'm just going to stick with the animal thing here for a moment. But this guy in Edmonton in the clear light of day, you know, I don't know, 30 something, had a large mastiff type dog. And all these people were filming him at a red light because he was punching the dog in the head. And...
Of course, the people on the internet hopped into action saying, you know, find this guy. I don't have an update on it yet, but can you imagine this full grown man just slugging a dog in the side of the head? I don't understand people's sanity or what would make them think that that's acceptable or a good idea. One thing I do know in this country, we have to have harsher laws for animal welfare.
We just do. There just has to be harsher laws for it. I've reported neighbors to animal control before, actually. Do tell. Just negligent neighbors who left their dogs outside in the cold in the backyard all the time. They left their dogs outside in the backyard all the time, kind of like rain or shine. It was awful. And yeah, it really bothered me. And so after, you know, conversations with them directly that didn't go anywhere. And after, you know, lots of kind of hand wringing and, you know, you don't want to
It's that line between you don't want to tell other people what to do when you live next door to them, but you can't watch it go on. So you have to report them to animal control. And I noticed the dogs weren't outside in the backyard anymore after that. Either the dogs were taken away or honestly, I felt this was a case where those owners should have surrendered the dogs.
To be honest with you, I felt they could have done better in a foster home or they didn't belong in that household. Most people shouldn't have had pets because like you said, it's a privilege. They obviously didn't even want to have the dogs. That's the part I didn't understand about it all. I'll tell you right now to all our listeners out there, if you do feel overwhelmed, like
You know, COVID, there's one or two ways of looking at this. A lot of people have adopted dogs, as I mentioned, and rescued dogs. But a lot of people have felt very overwhelmed. They've found that they're very strapped. They're in a small space. You know, you may have kids. It may be financially not feasible with how jobs are so unpredictable. If you are struggling with a dog or a cat or a bird, please do not feel overwhelmed.
the least bit of shame or embarrassed or anything of the sort to surrender your pets. Don't you agree, guys? Couldn't agree more. That no one is going to point fingers at you. And I mean that. And if they do, they're a-holes. But you surrender your pet because they will find good homes for them. I think a lot of people worry about, oh, they'll be euthanized. I'll tell you what, right now they won't be.
They go the distance. Every rescue does not just the SPCA, but they will go the distance. There's some dogs that have been in rescues for six, seven years guys, because the staff, everyone chips in to help them. So if you're struggling, don't feel like you can't surrender your pet. So that's much better. And I think a lot of people think, Oh, I don't want anyone making judgments on me or I'm a terrible person or whatever. Follow your gut and, uh,
Just surrender your pet. That's my take on it. Really quickly, the one thing that you could take to a desert island, people, I've had so many women tell me to tweezers. I'm just like, oh my God. I would take an ax.
Because I want to build either a canoe out of a log or a house. I also want a weapon to protect myself or, you know, chop a head of a snake off. Adam, what would you take to like one thing to a desert island? My iPhone. Oh my God. Seriously, you're not going to have any wifi or batteries or anything. My, my, my tent that I take camping. So I have shelter. Okay.
You couldn't build something? Oh, I guess I could. I'd say a Coleman stove too, but no, I'd rather have an open campfire and grill my meat on a campfire. You're really good at this game, Adam. No, a tent or, okay, a tent. That's one thing. I guess if you and I were together, we'd be all right. Can I bring a boat? So I can just be like, oh, this island looks cool. I'm going to go though.
Yeah, a boater. Like one of those really, really like all-encompassing, it looks like the janitor's like key chain that you see at a big building where there's like a hundred keys on it, but like that version of a Swiss Army knife. I want all the doohickeys. Alrighty. Well, we'll see if we can find you when you're listening to the Jan Harden Podcast. We appreciate your patronage and we appreciate you listening. What are you doing right now? Are you walking? Are you driving? Are you eating a sandwich? Are you having a cup of tea? Are you nude?
Are you sitting in the middle of a forest? Are you home? Are you away? I don't think we'll be traveling anywhere anytime soon, but apparently there is a lot of anxiety. I mean, especially for someone like you, Caitlin, who's like an avid traveler adventurer. And most of my friends I know go away a couple of times a year and I travel constantly for my job, but people are saying, not going to do it, not getting on a plane, but
With that is a heck of a lot of anxiety and a lot of FOMO, you know, going on. So I don't know. I haven't seen my condo in Toronto for like six months. I'm going to send you and Adam, Caitlin to go make sure that I might have something in my crisper in my fridge. That's growing into a tree. Like there might be branches coming out of the refrigerator. Yeah.
How do you feel about like traveling? Like if you could say, if you could hop on a plane and go somewhere next week, would you go? No, I wouldn't. I'm dying to go. I'm dying to travel. I Google all inclusive resorts all the time just to have like a window into what it could be. But I would not. I would only travel if it was an emergency. I'm not getting on a plane. Would you travel within Canada?
On a plane? Like, yeah, if you could go to Gabriola Island on the West Coast or Prince Edward Island, I think they're still locked off to outsiders. I'm pretty sure they are. But I think there's some places, like I drove a couple of weeks ago and saw my friends in BC. It was just me by myself with a dog, seven hour drive through the Kootenays to something called the Slocan Valley. I loved it. It was such a great getaway. Being in my car was like,
I just felt liberated even to stop at a gas station with my mask and my gloves and gas up and pee really quick and get going again. I felt like, Oh my God, I'm really living large. I would travel. I would drive somewhere for sure. But I'm not ready to get on a plane. I'm not even ready to get on the go train, which is how I get into work. But so I'm not getting on a plane. I'd love to, but it's not happening.
Yeah, I'm the same way. Yeah? Yeah, I'm not getting on a plane anytime soon. We drove to Quebec. Love that. Did a nice trip there. Yeah, good for you. You just stay in your car and it's safe. And we were renting a little cabin in the woods. So, you know, our exposure rates or exposure chances were like pretty low. And PEI is open. I actually have a friend who's there visiting her sister right now. But the quarantine rules when you arrive for two weeks are really strict, which is understandable. So you'd want to go for a nice chunk of time. It's so beautiful there in the summer.
But yeah, beyond Canada and beyond where I could drive within Canada, I wouldn't do it. Because I think if I got on a flight afterwards, any tickle in my throat, any sneeze, any like slight fever, I would just be so worried. It wouldn't be, like it just wouldn't be worth the anxiety to me and it wouldn't be worth the stress. But I mean, eventually...
We're going to have to venture out, correct? I mean, yeah. Yes. Question mark. I don't know. It depends on the person. Cause like, I'm not aching to go on a long flight until I don't believe until there's a vaccine. And that's just, that's just me. It's a super personal call. I have friends who've gotten on flights to Vancouver. I have friends who went to Greece and like, I just think that their, their brain is made of a different material. They went to Greece. Yeah.
Yeah. From Canada? Yeah. On a flight out of Pearson? Yeah. Americans land here every day via plane. And where are they going? They're going all over Canada. And the people are bringing COVID here. Flights are landing. We have this whole big false sense of security around the fact that our borders are closed for drivers, which is great. And it's a measure that makes a lot of sense. But I think people are forgetting the fact that you can
still land here if you fall into certain categories for U.S. citizens or family members of Canadian citizens. There's lots of loopholes, like all the loopholes about people saying, oh, we're just coming to drive through Canada on our way to Alaska. And then they stop at a bunch of our national parks on the way. So, you know, like people are still doing it. They're doing it in such decreased numbers that obviously like it's still not it's far from normal. But it's all to say if people want to travel and they're willing to take the risk, they can definitely book a flight.
American Express did a survey. I'm not sure if it was for their cardholders. I'm sure it was. Almost 80% of the people that they surveyed said that traveling is one of the top activities that they miss the most right now. Yeah. So I don't know what the other activities were. I would imagine it would have been restaurants. I would imagine it would have been maybe theme parks or something, but traveling. And that surprised me.
of like that many people that missed traveling. I keep getting these notifications from, I had rented a house, nothing grand in Palm Springs. And I love going down there from Calgary. It's only two and a half hours. And I can take the dog. I was actually going to meet Cynthia Loist from social. And my friend Rose cousins was coming from LA cause she had a job there.
Anyway, that fell apart because that was April the 15th. So in the last, like, I'm going to say three months, I keep getting these notifications from the rental company that did give me a rain check. It was nice that they just didn't cancel it in its entirety. They just said, we will honor this. You spent blanketing amount of money. And, you know, I'm like, how long? And they're just like, you know, whatever, you know, in the next 24 months, which I think is pretty cool.
Um, cause I did not take insurance on it. That's one of the things that crossed my mind. I'm like, Ooh, maybe I should have spent 30 bucks getting that insurance. Um,
But anyway, now they're saying, come down. It's safe. We're going to all kinds of precautions to make your visit. You know, the pools are blah, blah, blah, disinfected, this and that, because it's a self-contained home. And it actually, Caitlin, crossed my mind for a second to go, well, maybe I could, you know, do the flight, not go to the bathroom, put a mask on. Like, I'm catching myself in those moments now.
Well, I think it's, and for a lot of people, like I should point out that my friends who've traveled on planes, whether it was to see family or for leisure or work, you know, again, I'm like knocking on wood for everybody, but they didn't get sick. They were fine. And so, you know, it's just, to me, it's just that risk. And I don't want to take it because I still think so little is known about COVID. And I read so many stories about how much it is flying around in the air.
And I think surfaces are fine. Like I'm not washing my groceries when I bring them in anymore, but it's just being close to other people, you know? That's a step up. Caitlin, that is a step up. It is, you're not washing your groceries anymore.
But I know people who've had COVID and I'll tell you, you don't want it. You don't want this. And they don't know what's going to happen to their health moving forward. They don't know when their energy is going to come back. They're cloudy thinkers now. And some have recovered fully, but others are like, oh, my sense of smell is just like permanently feels like it's permanently messed with now. And yeah, you don't want it. Even if you recover, you just, you don't want it. It's not worth it. Listen, folks, it's not worth it. It's like being hung over all the time. You're listening to The Janitor Podcast.
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Caitlin Green, Adam Karsh, we're talking about traveling and even just simple things. On the break, Adam said, I'd be happy to even drive to Buffalo, which made us laugh. I'm not sure why, because Buffalo's cool. I've played Buffalo. I've played a lot of upstate New York. And let's face it, upstate New York is kind of Canadian.
It's pretty close. They know it, but they're kind of Canadian. And also Niagara Falls, the best part is on the Canadian side. Completely. The actual falls are on the Canadian side, aren't they? Yeah. Yeah. The horseshoe falls. The horseshoe, the big one. The horseshoe. So...
I think traveling within our own backyards has really gone up exponentially. Like people getting in the car and taking trips. I know that petting, zoo, farm, visiting, stuff like that has gone through the roof. I bet your cornfields are going to be popular here pretty soon. Oh, yeah.
corn mazes and stuff like that. You guys got that in Ontario? Yeah. And usually it comes in the same business as apple picking. So they'll do apple picking and then they'll do a corn maze and then maybe like a hayride or like a haunted hayride. I think that'll be big. I think it's going to be so great. Well, there's something to be said for actually being sort of forced to
do day trips from your own city. I know I bought my parents a book, oh gosh, 10 years ago. And when my parents died and I was going through their books, I came across this gift that I'd given to them and it was called Day Trips from Calgary. And I have loved that frigging book so much. And I actually took friends of mine that were visiting from Tasmania of all places to Drumheller
Now Drumheller is really well known for the dinosaurs. Yeah. The Terrell Museum. It's fantastic. It's an hour from Calgary. And I took them. I have lived here all my life. I have never been to Drumheller before. I've done gigs, but it's always in and out. I was mind blown by Drumheller and the Terrell Museum. Shout out to the Terrell Museum. We're still looking for sponsorship. You know. We can include a dinosaur roar if you'd like. Yes.
But if you ever get a chance, I mean, maybe people should start looking at things like that, like day trips from Winnipeg, day trips from Vancouver, day trips from Toronto, day trips from Churchill.
It's huge in Toronto. There's a lot in our own backyards that we don't know anything about. Yeah, BlogTO is a really popular website here in Toronto for all things local news. And they've always had a lot of activity and it's always been a really popular feature on their site when they do day trips. You'll never believe that this hiking trail is only half an hour from Toronto or these aquamarine cliffs are actually in Ontario. And it gets a bajillion clicks.
And it's true though. These are, they're really cool. And I have to say there were always, there were a few before the pandemic. Now with the pandemic and especially in the summer, because people can actually go outside and travel safely. I'd say there's probably five posted per day. And on the morning show I work on, we were talking about our favorite day trips in day trips and like, you know, overnight trips in Ontario. It was one of our most popular segments. I was talking about some favorite hiking trails and provincial parks to go to. I've never received so many DMs in my life. Like everybody wanted to get out of town.
Well, tell people they can't do something. And it ignites this whole conversation in their minds of stuff they wanted to do. I guess it's just, it's weird to not be able to hop in your car and just go somewhere. I remember being in my early 20s and at midnight, a couple of girlfriends and I would decide that we needed to go get cheap beer. We would drive three hours to the border
and go into Montana to buy cases of beer because we could buy it there till like three 30 in the morning out of, uh, you know, the off sales. Remember when off sales was like, gosh, a dream come true to get off sales and you'd pay like $10 for a can of beer, but be so excited. But I mean, to, to actually not experience those kinds of
just to get up and go. I know Caitlin, you were talking about just you and your husband driving to Vermont. Yeah. Oh,
Well, we go to Quebec a lot. I love the Eastern townships of Quebec. It's one of my favorite parts of Canada. And so we usually rent a house in the woods there and we hold up and do some, you know, cooking and hanging out and hiking around, but we always go to Vermont and the place we rent is probably, I mean, it's no more than a half an hour drive from the Vermont border. And when you cross over into Vermont, it is so beautiful and so remote. And they have, I'm not even kidding you within an hour of the borders,
maybe just a little bit more voted frequently time and again, the best brewery in the entire world. Like the best beer in the world, like not just like, it's incredible that it's there and it's in the middle of nowhere in Vermont and it's called Hill Farmstead Brewery. And we go every time and we, we fill the car with their beer and we go on like, they have a cheese tour, like not at the brewery, but,
They do all these different like cheese sellers. I'm just picturing you guys in the front seat, just with your head poking out through bottles of beer. Yeah. Like a beer bouncy castle. It's not balls, it's bottles of beer. That's exactly what it is. But things like that, that we totally took for granted. Yeah, you miss it. You do miss it. Yeah. There's a lot of grieving going on.
I think even Michelle Obama said, you know, three weeks ago that she was absolutely suffering from low-grade depression. And that really sparked a conversation on, you know, mental health. I know we talk about that a lot, but it's amazing, you know, when you take away these things from our human lives, things that seem so simple, right?
And just so we just we just poo pooed it, you know, we just waved our hands through the air. It's like it was nothing. I think now we're realizing and maybe it's a good thing, guys, of just how precious our lives are and our freedoms are. So a lot of places in the world that with or without COVID do not have a choice in the matter about doing things like that. And I think about that a lot.
Yeah. I mean, we're so lucky to live in Canada and I have friends who live in the U S and Canadian friends who moved to the U S living in New York or California. And it's been obviously hard for everybody, but it sounds, it sounds harder for them in a way, just because the state of things.
in the US is so, it's just bleak. It's bleak right now. It's bleak politically, it's bleak socially. And obviously when you have that type of government and power that is politicizing what is really a health issue, you just can't get a handle on it the way you're supposed to be able to. So people don't feel safe and that's a really unsettling feeling in a place, I guess, where people felt safe for a long time. - I guess telling people to look on the bright side does not cut it anymore. Do you guys have favorite childhood travel memories?
Is there something that sticks out when you were a kid, a place that your parents took you to, Adam? Well, speaking of Buffalo, we used to go to...
We used to go to Buffalo. That was like our weekend. That's why. Yeah, I love Buffalo. I mean, and we would stay at the Marriott. I think it was like not downtown Buffalo, but like Niagara, Niagara Falls, New York. And there was a, I think it's in Lewiston, I want to say, which is just south of the
of the border, there's a steakhouse. It was called the Clarkson House. And it was, I remember we used to go there on our way home and it was this, just this really nice quaint little steakhouse. I mean, as a kid, I thought it was delicious. I don't know if as an adult, I would still think it's delicious. But it's stuck in your mind. I remember at the Clarkson, I can still taste the steak. It was good. And they had these like pickles on the table. It was one of those places. And it just, it was a good memory for me. Pickles on the table. I think those days are over.
I know. I know. Like when you got there, there was pickles on the table. Cantor's Deli in L.A., Adam. As soon as you sit down, this Jewish deli in L.A., you sat down.
And an 85-year-old waitress that had been working there since 1952 brought up, just slammed it on the table, a plastic bowl full of giant pickles that look very sexual. That's the best. Very sexual. I love a good deli. I'm a sucker for a deli. But sometimes they'd be cut in half because someone before you would take their little knife out and cut the pickle in half and just take half of it and eat it. Like people thought nothing of it.
When we come back, I want to talk to Caitlin about one of her childhood travel memories. And I've got a couple to share with you as well, which also include day trips from Alberta. When you come back, so much more to talk about. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. It's a world of wonder, a world of tears. It's a world of hopes and a world of tears.
It's a small world.
Welcome back, everybody. We're talking about now we've moved on to childhood. We started with dogs and now we're moving on to childhood travel memories. Adam was talking about the Clarkson. No, Clarkson. And it is in Lewiston, New York. And I think it's now called the Griffin House, which I don't understand. But I feel like it's I'm looking on the website and I think it still exists. It's in Lewiston called the Griffin House.
In 2030, when we're able to drive down to the States again, make sure you check that out. It'll probably have changed 10 times. Caitlin, childhood travel memories?
Disney World in Florida, for sure. Yeah. Disney World was a big one. So exciting as a kid. It was great. And they had the, so they're like, there's so many hotels, but in, in Disney World, they have the hotels that are like run and operated by Disney and they're all connected to the monorail, which is so cool. And we stayed at their Polynesian themed resort. I stayed there too. Yeah.
It's heaven. And like you walk in and I remember walking in and they have a giant indoor waterfall and they have like tropical birds flying around. And like, it's just so impressive when you're a kid and you have breakfast at minis. When you're 80, it's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, well, okay. I will say I went back to Disney world as an adult when I was in Florida. And how many years ago? Well, I was probably about 25.
I want to say. And, you know, you think like you'll get a kick out of it. And look, some of the rides are still so much fun, but I'll tell you, you go to like the adult part of Disney world where it's just a bunch of weird Disney fanatics getting hammered. I was like, this is bleak. I don't want it. So I didn't know there was alcohol at Disney world. They have a, I forget what the streets. Disney Springs. Isn't it Disney Springs? That's the more. Yeah.
I ran. I ran away. I know you can't buy gum in Disney World or Disneyland. Probably not. No, and I don't blame them because those black spots on the streets of New York, it's all gum. When you really notice it, a friend of mine pointed out, and we were literally talking about not being able to buy gum at Disneyland. She's like, oh no, you'd have those big black gooey spots of people spitting their gum out. I'm like, oh my God.
But look when you're walking down any city street as you go forward in life and you will see gum on the street. Anyway, I didn't want to crack that. But it is so exciting. Disneyland, Disney World. My dad took us when I was 15 or 16 to Disneyland. We stayed in Anaheim in a terrible motel.
I mean, my parents had no money. Our flights, we were on a charter for sure. We were crammed in there like garbanzo beans in a can. And we, but I just remember, I didn't sleep for two weeks leading up to that trip. And then we took a bus. We took a bus, another little charter that my mom had probably organized from Anaheim. We had to walk like a mile to catch this bus because my dad didn't rent a car.
And we went to Tijuana. So it was a border town. And I remember my dad actually letting me buy this beautiful leather vest. And it was probably like 15 US dollars at the time, which might have well been 8,000. And I had that thing into my 30s. And then I just lost track of it. I don't know where it went. But it is because we'd never gone anywhere in our lives other than the lake.
And it just is, it's an indelible memory. But I think about where my dad was too. And he was like drinking beer all the time. The first thing he did was went to go get beer in this little hotel room. I don't know, just it's a good memory, but it's a weird memory.
Like I felt like he was worried the whole time about how the hell are we going to pay for this? I'm sure everything was on a credit card. Oh, definitely. But that was one of the few trips I took. Yeah. I remember that from certain vacations. Like I remember just feeling like I could pick up on the fact that my parents were paying at a hotel with a credit card going, I really hope this goes through. I remember like when you talk about Disney world, Disneyland, Disney, our first family trip, like the, it was a really big deal for us when I was a girl. Yeah.
No, no. For me, when I was a kid, seven, like when I was seven or eight years old, that's when we went to Disney World. I remember Epcot wasn't even there was no Epcot even. It was just Disney World, the Magic Kingdom. And my mom told me she reminded me that for three months I would write in my journal every single day at school. I'm going to Disney World.
And it was the first time I ever went on a plane and it was a big deal. And we stayed at the Polynesian and I still remember our room number 1511. That's how much. Yeah. 1511. That's the only hotel room number I ever remember staying in. And it was the most wonderful, magical, beautiful trip. And I can remember like it was yesterday. And then when we went back, I went with my, my whole wife's family, everybody, there was 15 of us. And then,
And this is when my girls, and we went to the Polynesian again. And I hadn't been since I was a kid. You were a kid. And we had a character breakfast, and I totally got very teary-eyed because I'm like, oh, my God. Like, I'm back and now with my children. It was crazy. So I have super special memories of Disney World. That's fantastic. Nostalgia is important.
As human beings, when we go through the fallacy facts of our memory stuff, we really need those. Those are important things for us to draw upon when times are tough. And I think that's so great. I can just hear the emotion in your voice. Room 1511. Yep. Polynesia.
I think family traditions are what are really important building blocks. And I think, you know, you having kids now, Adam, you realize that those, your little girls, the things that you and your wife do, you know, now they're at an age where it's indelible. They remember this stuff and they're going to remember the minutiae hotel room numbers and what they ate. And, oh, I remember we walked, blah, blah, blah. When I was four years old, my dad ran out of gas.
I was four because my mom reminded me I was four. It is a memory. I would bring it up all the time of, I remember when dad ran out of gas and I remember walking, it seemed like we walked for about a thousand miles. My dad said, we walked for about 400 yards, Jan. I just, I just about made it to the gas station. But in my four-year-old brain, that walk seemed like it went, that we walked to Winnipeg. But I'm, yeah, it's...
Just family trips. I don't know. I hope we get back to traveling. I know we've been talking about traveling a fair bit here, but I think we will. I don't know if it's going to be this year.
But a lot of my friends, I see them taking selfies on Instagram and I see their Twitter feeds. They're like, well, I'm getting on my flight. I've gone to the bathroom for the third time and made sure my bladder was completely empty. I'm not eating anything. You know, they're scared to even take their mask down to shove, you know, frigging gummy bear in their heads.
But people are doing it. They're getting back to work. A lot of my actor friends, I think Lauren Hawley, I think I just saw her flying. It was probably Toronto to Vancouver, I would imagine. I think she was flying within Calgary. That's what it looked like. Anyway, I'll have to ask her.
But yeah, people are braving it and getting it, getting back to life. So I almost miss planning the trips more because like part of the fun is always the anticipation of going away and planning everything. So I feel like I miss that too. Like I love travel so much, but I know that it's going to be a little bit longer until we can go on one of those big, long, like fun two week trips somewhere far away. And, um,
I've been looking through, I don't know if you guys have done this, but have you been scrolling through your phones and looking at travel photos and videos from old trips? I do that all the time now. Yeah, I think in particular for me, it's work photos. It's touring stuff. It's venues. It's things like that that I've been...
kind of lamenting about. I mean, I'm really filled with gratitude. They're wonderful memories. And I, and I have no doubt in my mind that, you know, we're heading to greener pastures for sure, but it's, it's, it does fill me with gratitude and it reminds me to be thankful for the experiences that I had.
And to not, you know, not feel sorry for myself. I don't want to be one of those people, you know, walking on my bottom lip all the time. I don't want to live that way. I don't want to focus on what is not. I want to focus on what is. And I'm a really optimistic person. And I've worked hard at, you know, trying to bolster myself and keep my friends, family,
feeling, you know, up around me. And, and, you know, it seems like when I'm down, my friends are up and when my friends are down, I'm up. So I'm glad that there's been times where it hasn't been the entire group of us, like really down. I don't know how I would have done with that.
Yeah. And I think too, like it, I mean, really maybe it's because we're so used to like the instant news cycle or maybe, I don't know what it is, but it feels like as a society, we have a little touch of, you know, attention deficit disorder when it comes to withstanding stuff like this, because it really hasn't been that long. I know it feels like forever, but it really hasn't been that long. And I think
And I don't think that, yeah, and they really don't anticipate that it will be, you know, in the grand scheme of things that long until there is a reliable vaccine. Of course, it takes a certain amount of testing to be done, and that's a process in and of itself. But I think when you look back, it's like, okay, so if you had a quieter two years in the scheme of your life, it's not...
terrible. I mean, at least that's kind of like my perspective. And again, I'm saying this as a person who my favorite thing in life is to walk off a plane in a country where I don't speak the language and try to figure out where to eat and what to do and what to see. So I definitely miss it, but I think it's like, it's a nice slowdown period. Oh, and we've talked about this many times on this program is how many good things have come out of this. I think people have done personal work
and I'm not exaggerating when I say this, that could have taken five, six, seven, eight, even a decade of time. They've done personal work, looking into themselves, you know, thinking about the relationships they're in, thinking about what's important, thinking about their friendship pools, reevaluating their jobs, really thinking about what's important to them. People have had huge epiphanies in life.
in this last five months because stillness and, you know, those first two, eight weeks, 10 weeks when we were in the house is we were forced to be reflective. And I think that was a really important time. And I think it was a really useful time because I'll tell you what, and you guys both know this because I've seen you guys in your work environments. When we started doing this together, we were in the very busy bell building and
running around. I mean, Caitlin had to show me out all the time because I didn't know how to get out of the effing building. And you know, it was busy, busy, busy. You guys were going, going, going, going. It was crazy. It was crazy. And we didn't realize how crazy it was. Something would have stopped us eventually. Yeah. And this just happens to
been what it was. Is that the end? Gosh, Adam's giving me the wrap up. I know. Sorry. Well, anyway, be of good cheer, everybody. I know we've talked about a lot of things today. We appreciate you listening. Tell your friends about us. We are so happy to be here and chatting with you every week. Write to us at the Jan Arden podcast on Twitter and let us know what you're thinking. In the meantime, go walk your frigging dog and call a friend.
and pull up some old travel pictures and, and plan a trip because we're going to get back there. Okay, you guys talk to you soon. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.