Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Start your week smiling with your friends. Kathy's aunt and Michelle Frechette. It's time to get ready for some weekly motivation with WP motivate.
I was gonna say, happy Thursday, Kathy. It is Thursday. It's just Thursday.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: It's Thursday. I'm wearing.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: You saw it happen. I'm wearing a cup of coffee. I've ruined a keyboard. I've ruined a mouse. Half of the things on my desk. And there's puddles on, like, dripping through to the floor. My feet are still in a puddle of coffee, which I will just. This is my last appointment of the day. I could take a little time to clean up after this, but, yeah, it was a happy Thursday. Until now, I'm just wearing coffee with cream and sugar. So it's also sticky.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Freaking carrot.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: How do you keep a cat off your desk? That's what I want to know. Because that's what happens. She gets up here, I swatted her down, and, well, the rest is history.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Do you have a squirt bottle?
[00:01:00] Speaker A: I do, actually, but I don't. But you know what really gets her is that canned air. But she comes back like she always comes back. But I will have to remember that from now on. The canned air scares her. They don't like that sound. Yeah. And this one's almost empty. And I bought new, and it came yesterday from Amazon.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: I am armed already. Thank you for the reminder. I will be terrifying terrorizing my cat like she's been terrorizing me. Gosh darn it.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Sometimes you have to. You have to draw a line. Yeah, I've got a squirt. I have a squirt bottle of essential. With essential oils in it that is like an air freshener. It's a nice. It's got. I've got one with peppermint and one with lavender, but all of the animals hate them.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Yes.
That is a good reminder. Do you put a little, like, vodka or something in it as an emulsifier?
[00:01:49] Speaker B: No, just a couple drops of. Just enough. It's not super strong or anything, but.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: When I used to make them, I used to put just a little bit of rubbing alcohol. Has a real smell to it, right? So, like, you don't want to do rubbing alcohol, but, like, a little bit of vodka. Like, the cheapest brand you could finally buy. It breaks down the oil.
It's like, oh, it's a mint julep.
But anyway, it does break down the oil. And so you have, I guess it's called an emulsifier. Right. Breaks it down and lets it kind of mix a little bit better for the spraying.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: But anyway, is it bad things we do?
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Is it bad that my toes are pruning up in the coffee spill?
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, we'll get this over quickly so you can get the shower. I want to ask you about there. I have two things I want to ask you about, because first of all, the day that I know you went toward Camp Canada, so I want to know how that went. And then I also noticed that the day you were driving up there, your region of New York was, like, under Texas sized weather. Like, what was going on with that? That was the hurricane, though, right?
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It was leftover weather from barrel that made its way up into New York. And it's really interesting when you're driving on the three way and you keep getting tornado warnings, and it's like, seek shelter, go below ground. And you're like, I'm literally driving. If I see anything, I'll pull under a bridge. If there's one near me, like, into a ditch, like, I don't know what to do at that point. But luckily, we didn't encounter any. The weather was pretty bad, though. We had really nasty rain and wind.
But a tornado did touch down in Eden, New York, which is south of Buffalo. And then it was yesterday, the day before, there was another one touched down in Troy, New York, which is central New York, and destroyed a bunch of property. And I don't think any lives were lost. I don't remember, though.
But, yeah, scary weather. We don't usually we get snowstorms. Like, we're used to snow storms. We're used to people dying because they are stupid out in the snow.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Right?
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Like, I don't care that I'm a 78 year old man with, you know, four stents in his heart and a bypass. I'm going to shovel my driveway. Like, we're used to that, right? We're not used to tornadoes and.
But I grew up in the midwest, so I grew up with my mom saying, everybody get in the house. Tornado warning. Right? And this. You just had to listen for air sirens. Cause we didn't have cell phones and everything. Like, the radio was on the tv, but if it wasn't, you just, like, you'd hear the air signs. But my mother got really good at knowing what the sky looks like when it's possible. And I think if you live in those areas. So I know what to look for, too. But I live in a condo with no basement. So as soon as I moved in, anytime I move in anywhere, the first thing I do. Even though I don't live in Tornado alley is where will I go if there's a tornado warning? Like, what's the safest place in my house if there's a tornado warning? And I have an interior bathroom, and so that's. I would go in there, close the doors. There's no windows. There's no. You know, I mean, yes, the whole second floor could crush me to death in there. But if it's gonna crush you, it's gonna crush you no matter which room you're in.
So, yeah. So that's why I have a game plan. Every. Every place I live, I have a game plan of where I'll hide if we have a tornado.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Let the cat know if she wants to be safe, she should stop it over my coffee.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Or she's the dove that we send out to see if there's a sign of life. Right? Like on Noah's ark. And be like, you're the one out there. You come back.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
No more knocked over coffee or you're not into the safe zone.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Well, pain in my ass is what she is.
I rescued her, and look what she did to me.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: I always say they make them cute for a reason.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Well, jokes on her tonight. I'm telling her she's adopted.
Anyway, so working out Canada was great. It was a. Mostly, they did everything they could to make it accessible. I will say it's a brand new building, but there's no elevator to the second floor, and so what? I know. Crazy, right? But that's where, like, the green room and the quiet room was so, like, I had to just sit in the happiness bar with lots of noise to kind of look over my slides. That one last time that you do before you get up on stage because I couldn't access the green room and that. But that really. That was it. Everything else was pretty accessible, and the people were great. It was nice to see people that I know that I hadn't seen in a while and the people that.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Excuse me.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: That I know. That I have seen recently. You know, all of it was good.
I gave a talk on underrepresented in tech, the journey to amplify others. I thought that was a great title. And so I gave that talk, and it went over really well. And then on Saturday, I was also on a panel about underrepresentedness and what it means and how we can do better at including people. So nice. It was good.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: It was really good.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: But I did think about you when I was, like, driving and when the weather is, like, even yesterday I was like, oh, that looks like a tornado sky. Like, I'm looking at almost a yellowish tinge to it, the dark, but also like, why is it yellowish like to me? That's like, uh oh, tornado weather. So every time it's like, every time there's bad weather, I'm like, I need. I need a chainsaw.
Chainsaw.
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Like, Kathy, you know, my, my advanced forestry is pretty much done. I had. There was one, like, huge tree that was down that it. I mean, the log itself was just massive. My little chainsaw was going to get through it. So I. The neighbor had come back after his, after a trip, and I'm like, you know, whenever you get a chance, I could just use some help with your big chainsaw with that one bigger piece. And the next morning he went out there with his tractor and made me, like, little piles, like, the whole forested area where I'm like, oh, okay. Well, now I can see, like, how bad it's been for the past four years. We haven't really done anything because, you know, of everything that's happened with Mark, he went in to that whole area and cleaned it all up. So my, like, months of forestry done in like an hour with a tractor. And then he took all of those big logs and brought them out for the city to take away. And I'm done. And so now and then, of course, you know, as soon as that happened, I was like, wow, super thankful. But then I got sick. And when you're sick, you always feel, like, super alone.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: And so I've been like. And I was. And my therapist told me, like, because I had a therapy session earlier this week and I told him I was sick. And he's like, how'd you do? Because, you know, there's a depressive element that comes with, with the whole virus. And I. I'm like, yeah, thanks for mentioning that because I was not okay. But while I was sick and having, like, super negative thoughts going through my head, I would look outside at the piles and I would just say, there are angels everywhere. And my neighbor is an angel who came. I didn't ask for all of that to be done. I just like the big log. Please help. And he took care of so much. He took care of everything. Like, I don't have to hurt myself anymore.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: I've been thinking a lot about how, you know, there are angels everywhere if you just look for them, so.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Absolutely. Did I ever tell you my first, what I call angel story about when I was in high school? Did I ever tell you that one?
[00:09:28] Speaker B: I don't think so.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: I was in high school and I was in the choir throughout high school, and I was one of, I think it was two kids from every local school picked to sing with the Rochester Oratorio Society and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Messiah by handel. Handel's Messiah. You know that one, right?
So very excited. It's a wonderful opportunity. We're in like the nicest facility in all of Rochester. We have our libretto, which is the music book for that, and we're supposed to, I think we're presenting on Saturday night. So now it's Friday, I've gone home. It's now like 08:00 at night. And I realize I've left my libretto in my locker at school and I am terrified because I have to have this. Not only do I have to have it to be able to sing, but I actually have to have to turn it back in at the end. They weren't ours to keep. They're from the library there. And I'm like 17 year old terrified Michelle. So I get in the car and I go fly into the high school and there's like, there's nobody there at the parking lots. There's snow on the ground, there's no tracks. Like, there's literally no cars have come through, nothing. Well, I pull up to the front of the building, which is not where anybody usually goes in, right. Because we usually always go in the side entrance or whatever. I pull up to the front of the building and I'm determined. I'm going to go pull out those handles and see if I can get the door to open.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: So I go up to the front doors and I pull on the handles. There's nothing there. And I swear to you, I hear somebody whistling in the building. So I start pounding on the door, like, pounding, because I hear this whistling. And doesn't somebody just come to the door and open it? Doesn't ask me what I need, doesn't even listen to what I'm saying. I'm like, oh, I just have to run to my locker. And so I run up the stairs to go to my locker. I turn around and they're gone.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Right?
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Like, they're gone. I go to my locker, I get my libretto. I go back out the front door. My footprints are the only ones in my car. Tracks are the only one in. And just out of curiosity, I drove around the back of the building, like, well, maybe the janitors come in at the back. Literally no cars, nobody anywhere. And I was like, so I get in the car, I turn on the radio and the song. I kid you not, you cannot make this up. Earth angel comes on.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Really?
[00:11:46] Speaker A: All right. I guess I know what just happened. So that's my angel story. Yeah. I mean, other times in my life there have been people who were just like angels to me. But that's the only one where I was like, literally no explanation.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Literally, no. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I've had weird situations like that happen, but that's really cool. What a great story.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it always makes me feel pretty good about the world. I just wish now that I had a little coffee fairy who would come and clean up the mess that my catches made.
Oh, well, I'll get it.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Well, sven the other day knocked it. I took one of the hanging plants down cause I was gonna give it a good soak and clean knocked it on the floor, and it was to the point where I'm just like, that plant is dead now. You just killed it. And I don't even have a name for it yet. I always name them and then kill them as they're dying.
So it's like, bitch at them.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: There were a few my favorite plants that I had had, you know. Cause when we moved here, I'm like. Cause we had moved and I couldn't bring all my plants from Shasta. I had to give them away to neighbors because I didn't think they'd make it. And then in Arizona, I didn't have plants. Here, I've had plants, but there've been a few that are just like, ah, oh. We can't handle how you take care of us. And just so they get a name when they start acting up and I'm like, what the hell do you want? More fertilizer, less water, more light. Like, what do you want?
They get a name like Ashley and then they die.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: So do you ever name them after people you don't like so that as you watch them die, you feel a little bit better about it?
[00:13:26] Speaker B: A little bit.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: You don't have anything, Michelle, do you? Just checking.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: No, not at all. Not at all. And then I've got these fiddle leafs, my fiddle leafs now. Fiddle leaves, fiddle leafs. And I have fig have a thing where I've got three of them and one is like 6ft tall now. And I got it, it was just a tiny little thing and it's 6ft tall now. And the other one is just. I just repotted them too, so they're like, she likes us. I'm like, yes, I do. You're never gonna get named. They. Well, they're.
They don't hate me. And then I've got monsteras, and they. I don't know if you've ever. Have you ever had a monstera?
[00:14:09] Speaker A: No, but that's my daughter's favorite. She's got a bunch.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: Oh, really?
I only had one, and then it kind of got very large, and so I made babies. And now I've got, like, five of them, and I don't think I could kill these if I wanted to. They're just monsters. They really are. And they're just, like, my spot to just take over.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: I'm a little. Little bit scared of them.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Feed me, Seymour.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: They're very. They just. You put them in a spot, and they're just like my spot.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: This is it.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Yep. We're here. I'm here. And they take over. Yeah.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: Little shop of horrors going on in the corner.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Yeah, it's crazy. So how did I get on plants, but. Oh, Sven knocking over the plant and killing it. That was apothos. Like, they last forever. Like, I'll. That's what that guy is. That. That's a baby of. One of the. The one that. The one that's fun. Killed. He killed mom.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: Mom said I have Lego plants. They don't die unless somebody walks them over and they shatter into a million pieces, which. They're far enough back from the counter's house. The cats should not be doing that, but we'll see.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
They have, uh. Always something fun always wants on the counters.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: Oh, that's too funny, too.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: But I think it's so good, whether they're angels or friends or whatever, that we have people around us, however you wanna call them, that can help us. Like, I cried, I spilled a cup of coffee and, like, okay, I probably killed dollar 400 worth of equipment. Like, my Mac keyboard and my Mac mouse are literally dripping in coffee. I don't know if there's recovery from that.
I have backups, which is good, because I used to have a separate office. So I had an extra mouse and an extra keyboard in the drawer. So I'll be fine. I. But, like, it's just so frustrating, right? But there you were, talking me through it. Like, first of all. Okay, just cry. It'll feel better if you cry and then, like, tell you a funny story. And let me tell you something to make you mad and things to, like, pull me out of it so that we could actually record without me just sobbing through the whole time.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you've had. You've been through a lot. I mean going through a word camp takes a lot out of you and you've got your stellar event. Was it spark? Stellar spark event happening tomorrow that you have been just like pushing on that for a while but the day before, it's just so hard.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Oh, it's crazy.
Yeah.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: I know what you're, you're going through a lot.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: So streamyard training, training people how to use streamyard and I held so easy.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: I love streamyard.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: I do too. It's my favorite. I actually have my own account for other things that I do but this is through the stellar account. But yeah, there's just, yeah, there's just all kinds of. It'll be fun. It'll be great. Joseph, by the time people hear this, it'll have already been a thing in the past. But we will be putting them online. So if you want to hear hear them, you're welcome to go and listen to the talks. But Joseph is opening for us so she's doing our keynote which I'm super excited about. And then we just have a whole bunch of topics and presenters that I'm really excited about. The information that they're going to bring and share about how to basically how to do business but using WordPress. Right. So how you can do things with your customers and how you can make sure your site's faster and all of the things. So I'm very excited about that. But also I will be very happy when it's over because it is a lot of stress. And when we hang up after that last person, I'm gonna be like, okay, I'm going to bed now. And I recently bought in Canada, I bought a bottle of creamed, it's a liqueur. Cream. Maple cream liqueur.
I think I'll be having some of that before I go to bed tomorrow night.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: So well deserved.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you. So if you, if anybody DM's me or messages me tomorrow evening and I don't reply, I will be sleeping. You can catch me on Saturday.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: So good for you. You deserve it.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Thank you. And then next week is our stellar sale so there's even more stuff to do. But at least.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Oh really?
[00:18:20] Speaker A: That'll probably run itself. So I just gotta tee up all the social over the weekend. So we're good to go there and then. Yeah, it'll be good. All good.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Wow.
Summer. Summer.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: I need to plan another vacation.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: August. Hopefully August is nice and quiet for you.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: I don't even have a single wordcamp in August. I'm not traveling nothing. I'm. It'll be good. It'll be good. September is, is Wordcamp us. October is Rochester. It's not on the schedule yet because we're still finalizing our budget and things like that. But that'll be happening hopefully in October.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Cool.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: And then nothing else in the year. Absolutely.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: So. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think we had a message here except just rely on, let people help you and.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Be an angel if you can be.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that's the best, the best message at all is if you could help somebody else. Be an angel to them. Do it. Kindness is always worth it. So.
All right, I'm going to go wash my feet.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: Also well deserved. You're a trooper.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Change my wet clothes and coffee. If you just tuned in, it's coffee. I did not wet myself, so, yes, change one of my wet clothes, clean my, get my swiffer, clean my floor and get back to it. So. All right.
Thank you, everybody. We'll see you next week.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Bye bye.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: This has been WP motivate with Kathy Zant and Michelle Freshette. To learn more or to sponsor us, go to wpmotivate.com.
