Love + Heartbreak: Marriage Lit! Simone Gorrindo, THE WIVES: A Memoir
[0:02]Hi, I'm Sivi Owens, and I am the host of this podcast, Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[0:08]I am also a newly minted USA Today best-selling author of the novel, Blake.
[0:14]I've created a whole community of book lovers around this podcast, a publishing company,
[0:19]reading retreats, a bookstore, and more. Learn more at ZiviMedia.com or follow me on social
[0:25]at Zivi Owens or join the community at ZiviReaders.
[0:31]Simone Garindo is the author of The Wives, a memoir. Simone's writing has appeared in The
[0:36]New York Times, New York Magazine, Longreads, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Christian,
[0:40]Science, Monitor, The Best Women's Travel Writing Self, and Others. She has received fellowships
[0:45]and grants from the International Women's Media Foundation, the Georgia Council for the Arts,
[0:49]and the Cambridge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. She lives in Tacoma, Washington,
[0:53]with her husband and two children. Welcome, Simone. Thank you so much for coming on
[0:57]Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss The Wives and memoir. Congratulations.
[1:01]Thank you, Zivi. I am so honored to be here. Yeah, okay. Tell listeners what your book is about
[1:07]and congrats on it being a book of the month club take, by the way. So exciting.
[1:10]Thank you. Yeah, it's been an incredible experience putting it out into the world. So it's a
[1:16]memoir and it's really about the first four or five years of my becoming a pretty unlikely
[1:25]army wife, living from New York City where I was an editor to Columbus, Georgia. And all the
[1:31]things that came with that in terms of a real identity, a bending transition, as well as becoming
[1:38]part of a close knit group of women, the other wives, who were all pretty remarkably different from
[1:44]one another. But we got close in these really pressurized conditions. And it's really about that
[1:51]and just stretching to get close to people who are different from you and also to and really
[1:58]to navigate that to in one's own marriage and about kind of just the power of human connection
[2:04]despite our many limitations. I love that. In the beginning of the book, you set up the scene
[2:12]with you being in New York in about two weeks before 9 11, correct? Yep, two weeks before.
[2:17]Yes. And what was your experience like of that? Oh, wow. Yeah, I was 17. I'd never been east
[2:25]of Nevada. I was totally naive and inexperienced and pretty much everything. And yeah, I mean, really
[2:34]the experience of 9 11 was I was I had was working at my college and I was walking to work. And I
[2:42]got to the corner of the university place in East 12th Street. And everyone was just still,
[2:48]which is a really strength. I had only been in New York for two weeks. But even I knew this is
[2:53]not normal in New York. I mean, they were just crowds of still people. And I looked into the street.
[2:59]I had this feeling of like, it was a child run over just this the whole the silence had this
[3:04]horrified quality. And then I realized everyone was looking up. And I saw that the
[3:11]first building, there was a big fiery hole in it. And the second building had been hit yet.
[3:18]And I understood, obviously, that there were many people in there, but I was so young and so new.
[3:26]And it was such a shocking surreal thing to see. It wasn't really until I got to work. And actually,
[3:33]and this isn't in the book, but my boss came running in crying because her mother worked on the
[3:37]80th floor that I fully like, it fully hit me. And fortunately, her mom had gone on vacation a day
[3:44]early and she wasn't there. But it just, you know, after that kids came flooding in,
[3:49]everyone was trying to reach their parents. And then we were quarantined for two weeks in our
[3:53]neighborhood. And just the streets were just paperred with the faces of the missing.
[3:58]Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I'm sorry about your experience. You say that sort of kicked off
[4:04]just being at war, feeling like you're at war forever. And it's sort of prologue to being
[4:09]you know, an army wife or whatever tropes. So, you know, yeah, I think that it did. It made the
[4:16]reality. It certainly brought in the realities of war in a way that I, you know, I'd grown up very
[4:23]in the pacifistic family. I had listened to Vietnam protest songs, but that had been very much a
[4:29]thing of history and suddenly felt very present. And, you know, I marched against the
[4:34]invasion of Iraq a few years later. And, you know, so it was real, but it was also very distant.
[4:41]And I think that was also the way in which I opposed it. You know, I had strong feelings,
[4:45]but it was a very kind of comfortable opposition because, you know, my life continued very much
[4:52]the same every day way. And then you met the man who had become your husband. He was like,
[4:57]I'm thinking about doing this. You know, as you do during college, you're like, oh, yeah. Okay.
[5:03]Yeah. I mean, kind of. Yeah. After he was in college, but I was done. And because he went a little
[5:10]later than I did. And yeah, we were walking down the street. And he said, you know, sometimes I
[5:16]think about joining the military. And I said, I would leave you. And that just came out of my mouth
[5:21]because I was not something I expected him to say. We were from the same place, the Bay Area
[5:26]in California, really liberal place where, you know, both of our grandfathers had fought in
[5:33]World War II. But beyond that, we had no connections with the military. And he had spent the first
[5:38]years of his life on a hippie commune. I mean, it was really not what I was expecting. But he was an
[5:43]athlete. He is an athlete. He's a very intense guy. It's a funny thing. You know, later when I
[5:48]I would mention to people who knew him growing up, they were like, yeah, I was sort of shocked.
[5:52]And yet it makes all the sense in the world. He's a seeker. He wants to see like the way the world
[5:58]really works and is he's brave and curious and gutsy. And so it all makes sense in retrospect.
[6:06]But it was not a life I saw as living together. You know, he was very short from the beginning. We're
[6:11]going to, I'm going to marry you. I wasn't as short in the beginning, but I became hurt. And, you know,
[6:17]I just think, yeah, I think it was a, it was a shock for sure. But then you didn't leave.
[6:25]No, you wrote a book about it. Clearly. It's not called the other one. I did not leave them.
[6:31]Yeah, I, so he didn't mention it again for two more years. And he finished college in
[6:37]mid to New York with me. So I got to graduate school because we kind of didn't think I'd
[6:40]mostly been in New York all through my young adult, but I left for a couple of years. And it was
[6:47]during that time that it became very clear that he had not given up that dream except I think he
[6:53]was very afraid. I know he was very afraid to mention it to me again. But I, you know, found recruitment
[6:58]pamphlets. I found these really detailed workout regimens and he was working towards, you know,
[7:03]not just the conventional forces, but a special operations unit that would have it has a
[7:08]release selective difficult process you have to go through. And he said, yeah, I have not given up on
[7:15]this. And that it wasn't really until we were engaged and ended up in couples counseling. And he
[7:21]said, if it's you or the army, I choose the army that I really understood really the strength of
[7:28]his conviction and that it was kind of a calling. And that hurt. It felt in some ways like a betrayal.
[7:34]And at the same time, it's also what I've loved and admired about him. Like I love that he
[7:41]remained that passionate and that he follows his desires. So yeah, catch 22. But I decided, okay,
[7:50]let's do this. But it was not an easy decision and it wasn't an easy transition. I don't
[7:55]know what was particularly difficult that you hadn't expected. Everything. I mean, I think that
[8:01]it's funny. So I came from a background as a journalist. I really am like, oh, I don't understand
[8:06]something. Let's get out the books. Do the research. Ask the questions. And I will get it.
[8:12]And that's so once I was on board, that's kind of what I did. And I read a ton of books about these,
[8:19]you know, the global war on terror. I even reported on women's veterans issues. I mean, I try
[8:25]really tried to get as deep as I could. And so I felt like I also read memoirs by army spouses.
[8:31]And I was like, okay, I'm prepared. Like I can do this. I can quit my job. I can
[8:38]move to Georgia without a driver's license. And then I got there. And two weeks later,
[8:43]he deployed to Afghanistan. And I realized that none of it had prepared me because, you know,
[8:49]living something is a lot different than reporting on it. And there were many things that were
[8:55]surprising. I mean, I think that, but I think the wonderful surprise was how wonderful, but also
[9:02]hard in a way is that we are all different people thrown together. And so our really our main commonality
[9:10]was this life we had chosen. But otherwise, we were also radically different. And so people really
[9:14]didn't fit into any kind of stereotype. And I think that was a very like hurt and character
[9:21]broadening experience for me. But I think it also is sort of a foreign thing because I think once
[9:27]we get older and we get married and we have careers, we kind of become self selecting like
[9:33]our world's narrow narrow and become more homogenous. And you sort of like, no, we are going to
[9:38]walk in like when I was an editor, I was like, when I'd meet another editor, it's like, I kind of
[9:42]know, you know, some basics, but like some touch points to connect. But it wasn't this was totally
[9:49]different. And so I didn't necessarily know what a person's politics might be or their educational
[9:55]background or how they felt about the moors. You know, I'll...
[10:00]all those kinds of things.
[10:01]And so that was a really just learning
[10:03]to kind of communicate a new in the beginning, for sure.
[10:07]I think the perception is that it can be very challenging
[10:11]to be an army spouse, right?
[10:14]For all the people who are not,
[10:16]is there anything that sort of a bystander could do
[10:19]to help army spouses sort of get through
[10:23]when they know it's a tough time?
[10:25]That's a very thoughtful question.
[10:27]I think that army spouses,
[10:31]if we feel anything, we feel like
[10:35]there's a certain amount of lip service
[10:37]within the military that appreciates us.
[10:40]And then outside of the military,
[10:42]I think we don't even feel terribly recognized
[10:44]a lot of the time.
[10:45]You know, there's a military spouse appreciation day
[10:48]on coming up on May 10.
[10:49]I didn't even know that until a year ago.
[10:52]And so I think those words of appreciation
[10:56]are meaningful, but I think actions speak a lot louder.
[11:00]And so I think, you know,
[11:02]just like you would do with anyone else
[11:04]when they're going through a hard time,
[11:05]if you know somebody's spouse is being deployed or is gone,
[11:09]check in, drop a meal off at the front door, you know,
[11:12]basically be company because I think sometimes
[11:16]the hardest thing is that just you're lonely
[11:19]and we're raising kids on our own
[11:21]and we want to be raising, you know,
[11:25]our family with other kids and other families.
[11:28]And so I mean, the wonderful thing is
[11:30]is I've had that, I feel like I've had that in spades.
[11:32]And so it's like you lose this anchor in your family,
[11:36]but it opens this door for more love and like more connections.
[11:41]And I think I have so many more friendships
[11:43]and my kids have so many more friendships
[11:45]and like a village in a real community
[11:47]because I've had people step in
[11:50]and I've also learned how to ask for it.
[11:52]Like LinkedIn by me to your house this weekend,
[11:54]so my family doesn't lose our minds, you know.
[11:57]So I think just acknowledging that we're always
[12:02]in this transition and that sometimes we're gonna have,
[12:05]you know, our family all together
[12:06]and other times we're just gonna be navigating
[12:09]the hardships and also joys of life alone
[12:11]and that we don't and we want to do that
[12:13]with others who love us is just the same thing.
[12:17]Oh, yeah, I love that.
[12:19]I feel like you would be fun
[12:19]to like live in a cul-de-sac with.
[12:21]So yeah, it's fun.
[12:24]I'm social as a result.
[12:25]I mean, families sometimes get really kind of insular
[12:29]and I think you can do that too.
[12:31]Like when my husband's home, he's working a lot
[12:33]and I'm working a lot and the kids are doing activities.
[12:35]It's just like you suddenly wake up after the work week
[12:38]and you're like, whoa, what has even happened?
[12:40]I haven't even seen anyone outside of my family, my job,
[12:44]this all week.
[12:45]And I think, yeah, I think that's been like
[12:47]the wonderful gift of this life is that you sort of,
[12:50]you get more creative.
[12:52]So really, and I feel like much more connected
[12:55]to my community at large because of it, that's awesome.
[12:59]So you have this one seen sort of towards the end of the book.
[13:03]Can I read like a short passage, is that okay?
[13:05]Or yeah, I would love that.
[13:06]So it starts with this.
[13:07]I have a bread message, Vera said.
[13:09]The nature of the mission has changed
[13:11]and so has their timeline.
[13:12]I let out an exhale.
[13:14]I had been holding my breath.
[13:15]I realized for 30 seconds, two minutes, who knew.
[13:17]I stood up and walked out to the aisle.
[13:20]Everyone was alive, no one was injured.
[13:22]But the nature of the mission has changed,
[13:24]even for the army, this was vague.
[13:26]I cradled my phone between my neck and shoulder
[13:29]and struggled to free my bag from the overhead bin.
[13:31]A hairy arm came into view and grabbed my suitcase
[13:33]and I turned to see a tall man bringing it to the floor.
[13:35]I released his handle and gave him a stiff smile.
[13:38]What the hell does that mean, I asked Vera?
[13:40]I don't know.
[13:41]You don't know?
[13:42]The plane was suddenly stuffy.
[13:43]There were people on every side of me.
[13:45]I glanced back at my seat mate
[13:47]who was now standing behind me.
[13:48]There was a visible concern on her face.
[13:50]So I gave her a weak thumbs up with my free hand.
[13:52]They're not coming home in two weeks, Vera said.
[13:54]The flights are delayed.
[13:56]The line of people ahead had finally began to move
[13:58]and I felt some of the tension in my body
[13:59]ease as I began to walk down the aisle.
[14:01]No, they're extending the mission, changing the mission.
[14:03]I don't know.
[14:04]Could be weeks, could be months, months,
[14:07]and then you go on from there.
[14:09]How do you deal with that level of fear and uncertainty
[14:13]and not getting any sort of clarity?
[14:16]How do you, how, how?
[14:18]It's such a good example too
[14:20]because that's another wife calling another wife
[14:24]who are both in the same situation.
[14:26]But she's supposed to be this voice of authority
[14:29]because she volunteered for this gig.
[14:31]And she doesn't know what the hell is going on either.
[14:33]And it's like, keep questioning her and finally she's like,
[14:36]I don't know I'm freaking out too.
[14:39]And it's such a good example of how we all
[14:41]like have to lean on each other.
[14:43]And yet we're all enduring the same stresses.
[14:45]And sometimes it's like, that's,
[14:47]it's wonderful we have each other,
[14:48]but it's absolutely maddening to lean on,
[14:52]try to get clarity from somebody who has
[14:54]as little clarity as you do.
[14:56]And I don't have a great answer except that
[15:01]in the beginning, I think I say this sometime in the book
[15:04]is that, you know, I, one of those women
[15:07]who was what they're called key collars, you know,
[15:09]she I asked her because she was to have been
[15:11]through like eight deployments when I showed up
[15:13]and I said to says ever get easier.
[15:15]And really what I meant other than, you know,
[15:19]worrying about the person you love most
[15:23]is the uncertainty.
[15:24]Like our lives are really defined by that uncertainty.
[15:27]You don't always know when they're leaving,
[15:29]you don't always know when they're coming home.
[15:31]And then, and also you're really at the whim
[15:34]of geopolitics and that that that that breeze and that wind
[15:39]which is really terrifying
[15:41]because that's so much bigger than any of us
[15:43]and so much more powerful.
[15:44]And she said, you know, it doesn't get easier
[15:48]but you get used to it.
[15:49]And at the time I was like, that makes no sense.
[15:51]You used to them and it gets easier, doesn't it?
[15:54]But I would say that that's true.
[15:56]I feel like I've gotten used to the uncertainty.
[16:02]And so I live, it's like I've made bedfellows with it.
[16:05]Like I have welcomed it in and said, okay,
[16:08]like you're part of my life, let's be friends
[16:11]even though I don't always like you.
[16:13]And you know, and I think that that's also just being alive,
[16:16]right?
[16:17]I mean, I think being alive is just like having to welcome
[16:20]in the uncertainty because we do so much to keep it at bay
[16:24]but it's also it defines life
[16:28]is that you never know what's gonna happen.
[16:30]So I think I've had to become a little bit more
[16:32]like zen about it but I don't always achieve that.
[16:34]I'll tell you that as tough.
[16:37]And I were in a charter with kids
[16:39]because at that moment I was pregnant
[16:41]and now I have kids and it's much harder
[16:44]to explain to them than it is to myself.
[16:48]Oh, that's amazing.
[16:50]Tell me when you decided to make it a book
[16:53]and like when you got this done
[16:55]and how that process was.
[16:57]So I have been writing essays really about this experience
[17:00]ever since I showed up in Georgia
[17:02]and I had had agents reject me over the years
[17:05]and say I should write a book and I was like,
[17:08]I don't think so.
[17:09]There's so many operational security.
[17:11]There's privacy issues.
[17:12]There's all this stuff that I've to navigate
[17:14]and then they were like, oh, we should write a novel
[17:16]which is my next project and it's really wanted to be working
[17:21]on but at that time I changed against that idea too
[17:25]because I just felt like this is a reality
[17:27]people don't see into and I feel like it's
[17:30]if I'm ever gonna write it, I gotta write it true.
[17:34]Like I gotta write the memoir, I gotta tell people
[17:36]like this is life and so once I moved to Washington
[17:42]and I had a baby and I started really missing these women
[17:45]I become friends with in Georgia.
[17:48]I started writing about them
[17:50]and because I really realized it wasn't so much
[17:53]that I'd taken them for granted
[17:55]but I realized, oh, this full support network of moms
[17:59]who taught me everything about being a mom in this life
[18:01]I've suddenly lost them
[18:02]which should have been apparent when I was pregnant
[18:04]that I was going to but you don't feel it
[18:07]until the loss really hits.
[18:09]And so I started writing about them because I miss them
[18:12]and once I started writing about them
[18:13]it was just like it's slowly kind of started turning
[18:16]into a book and I really realized they were the heart of it
[18:19]like they were the heart of the book
[18:21]because I didn't want to just write about my experience.
[18:24]You know, it's hard in memoir
[18:25]because you can't tell other stories
[18:28]and at the same time it's really a collective experience
[18:31]where having both in terms of like modern day
[18:34]and also this is centuries old experience
[18:37]that I don't think has gotten enough air time
[18:38]so I wanted to kind of paint that collective feeling
[18:42]and it was, I decided I wrote a proposal
[18:47]and once the proposal was done, which was crazy,
[18:50]it took me literally forever.
[18:51]I would drop my baby out with a YMCA daycare
[18:54]and then pretend to work out
[18:55]and I would just like work in the lobby instead.
[18:59]I'd hit me probably two years
[19:00]and I had a partial manuscript and I sold it
[19:03]and I sold it during the pandemic,
[19:05]during lockdown and my husband was deployed.
[19:08]Oh my gosh.
[19:09]Which was absolutely nuts and it was,
[19:13]but it was like, that's great highlight of my life
[19:15]I've been working towards but then I turned around
[19:17]and I'm like, who do I celebrate this with?
[19:18]My two-year-old or my three-year-old.
[19:21]And so, you know, it's been a long journey since then.
[19:25]My kids are now posh.
[19:26]I mean, I guess they were two and four another
[19:29]five and seven.
[19:30]So it took a while to actually finish it
[19:32]and then get it out there and it's been a ride for sure,
[19:36]the whole experience.
[19:37]And I have loved it and it's been a joy
[19:40]and it's been amazing to watch my kids
[19:43]like come into understanding of what I'm doing.
[19:46]But I'm really looking forward to writing a book
[19:48]where my kids are not that small
[19:50]because it was kind of crazy
[19:52]which I'm sure a lot of mom writers can relate to.
[19:55]I mean, those ages in lockdown with no spaz at home.
[20:00]I mean, trying to write, trying to do anything.
[20:02]It was something.
[20:02]I didn't do anything.
[20:03]And I sold the book, and then I was like, sorry guys,
[20:06]I will not be beginning to write this for you or for about,
[20:09]you know, it's very, it was not possible.
[20:12]Just getting through the day was, don't, yeah.
[20:15]Last, anyone believe out there that I was writing this book,
[20:18]locked down when my husband was deployed, I was not.
[20:21]Okay, good.
[20:22]Click, click, click, click, click, click, click.
[20:24]I sold it and all that, but I sold it in the,
[20:27]longer deadline.
[20:28]It's very, sorry, sorry, sorry.
[20:30]What is the novel you were in?
[20:31]Oh gosh, I shouldn't have mentioned that.
[20:33]I, yeah, you should have.
[20:35]There's things that you haven't, I just started it.
[20:39]Okay.
[20:40]And it's, there is a friendship at the heart of it,
[20:44]and it is currently sent in Link Tahoe.
[20:48]That's all I'm gonna say so far,
[20:50]because I literally feel like everything about it could change.
[20:54]So we'll see.
[20:56]Okay.
[20:57]Well, we'll eagerly await the next two.
[21:01]Well, it's such a like, I don't know for me writing
[21:04]a special fiction, which I wrote years ago
[21:08]and had like once I went into journalism
[21:09]and creative nonfiction, I kind of left it behind.
[21:12]It's such a dreamy space, especially in the beginning.
[21:17]For me, I'm not the kind of person who sits down
[21:19]and has like an outline for every single chapter of the,
[21:22]you know, so I hesitate.
[21:25]It's hard to talk about when it's in this very nation state.
[21:29]Okay.
[21:30]I won't ask anymore about it.
[21:30]Yeah, that's it.
[21:31]See you now, man.
[21:34]Can't believe that book podcast,
[21:35]you're asking me about a book I'm writing.
[21:37]I know, with that.
[21:39]I know.
[21:40]So offer for it.
[21:41]I don't even know.
[21:43]What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
[21:45]Oh, I love this guy.
[21:48]Oh, I know.
[21:49]I mean, keep, you know what people will say,
[21:52]about you over and over and over again.
[21:56]And I don't think that was something I understood.
[21:58]I wish somebody had told me that instead.
[22:01]I had professors and colleges that you're really talented.
[22:04]It was like, you should say,
[22:04]you're really talented, but prepare for a lot of people
[22:07]to tell you you're not.
[22:08]And prepare for the door to be shut
[22:10]in your face and ever and ever again.
[22:11]And keep going because like you will,
[22:15]first of all, you will just get better and better.
[22:17]Like the writing is like truly a practice.
[22:21]Like I see it now, you know,
[22:23]whenever this book I probably threw up 50,000 words.
[22:26]And it's like, but that wasn't a waste.
[22:27]Like that was practice.
[22:29]You turn them out or they're in another document somewhere.
[22:31]I mean, you're not like,
[22:32]they do not burn them or bury them in the back.
[22:34]I'm like, I'll take your words.
[22:36]Or I could do 50,000 words.
[22:38]But honestly, like I looked back at them recently
[22:42]for some hitch I was doing and I was like,
[22:44]there's a reason most of these are thrown out.
[22:46]Like most of these are not good.
[22:48]And I think that that's okay.
[22:51]You know, like it's, it's just a practice.
[22:53]And so when someone says no,
[22:55]all that means is we don't need this right now,
[22:58]but it doesn't mean anything about you or your work
[23:01]or your ability to sell a book in one or five years time.
[23:06]And so just like try if you can
[23:08]to follow them up with a process of creation
[23:11]because you will always have that.
[23:12]And the more you follow them up with it,
[23:13]I think the better your work becomes.
[23:16]Love it.
[23:17]I mean, I mean, it was.
[23:19]Okay.
[23:20]And I don't know, it's really hard rejection sucks.
[23:23]Give one piece of advice to any military spouses listening.
[23:28]Gosh, I know it's so funny.
[23:30]Military spouses love to give advice.
[23:31]And I hesitate to give it
[23:34]because everyone I know was military spouses
[23:37]so much tougher than I feel like I actually am.
[23:40]I think it's just be open to welcoming other people
[23:43]over your threshold though, you know,
[23:45]literally and figuratively.
[23:46]Like you will be surprised.
[23:49]You might think you have literally nothing in common
[23:51]with a person and they might become somebody
[23:55]who is there for the birth of your child.
[23:57]Like they might become somebody who is like,
[24:00]you will never let go of who is, you know, found family.
[24:05]And that's like the gift.
[24:07]That's really, I think the biggest gift of this life.
[24:10]Amazing.
[24:11]Well, someone thank you.
[24:12]This was so great.
[24:13]Congratulations.
[24:15]Thank you so much.
[24:16]I really, I'm really honored.
[24:17]I really appreciate you back to you.
[24:19]I'm no crazy schedule you have.
[24:22]It's a joy.
[24:23]It's a joy.
[24:23]This is so fun.
[24:24]I love it.
[24:25]No, it's a joy.
[24:26]But honestly, like I just did book tour and it was so fun
[24:28]and it was amazing and that drew on her.
[24:30]I don't, but it was also exhausting.
[24:32]Like I came home and immediately got sick.
[24:34]So it's like, it would be a joy and also a lot.
[24:38]But don't jinx me with any sickness.
[24:41]Please, thank you.
[24:41]Oh, I'm sorry.
[24:42]That's okay.
[24:43]That's okay.
[24:44]If I get sick, it's now your fault.
[24:45]You can just, did you not get sick after your book tour?
[24:49]I have not gotten sick since February, but we'll see.
[24:53]That's a good immune system.
[24:54]I'm very pissed.
[24:55]You did a lot of cities and a lot of travel.
[24:57]Yeah, I'm tired now though.
[24:59]I got cleaned out now like, I can only imagine.
[25:03]Wait, tell me why I said I would go to Dallas
[25:06]for like three hours next week.
[25:08]Oh, well, it's like, I would say it's like cleaning your house.
[25:11]It's like when she didn't a zone, you're great,
[25:13]but if you sit down like you're done,
[25:14]that's like how the whole experience felt for me.
[25:18]I was just like, oh, I'm so in the zone, I love it.
[25:20]And then the minute I came home to rest,
[25:21]my body was like, okay, time to get sick
[25:23]and you've forgotten how to do any of this stuff.
[25:26]I'm getting back to the zone and stuff.
[25:29]I'm at the stage where everything's out of the closet
[25:31]all over the floor and piles.
[25:34]But nothing looks, so now I have to like,
[25:36]start putting them back in then,
[25:38]but now it's all on the floor.
[25:40]No, it's not even a Dallas.
[25:42]Next week, I don't know.
[25:43]Next, I like that you're taking my analogy this far.
[25:46]I know exactly what you're talking about.
[25:48]I'm not getting a book as like that too.
[25:51]That's always my analogy.
[25:52]It's like, you know, when you're just like,
[25:53]reorganizing everything and it's worse
[25:55]than when you started, I'm like, that's sort of what it's like
[25:57]to be in the middle of writing a book.
[26:00]It's like, what have I done?
[26:02]That is what it's like.
[26:03]That's truly an all good organism, put away.
[26:05]Yeah, exactly.
[26:06]You two for you as well.
[26:07]Exactly.
[26:08]I enjoy your trip, I hope.
[26:10]Thank you.
[26:11]Thank you.
[26:12]Thank you.
[26:13]I'm hurting him home.
[26:14]You too.
[26:15]You too.
[26:16]That's a good question.
[26:17]Thank you.
[26:18]Thank you.
[26:18]Bye.
[26:21]Thanks for listening.
[26:21]Two moms don't have time to read books.
[26:23]If you love it, please leave a review.
[26:25]And follow us on social at City Owens and at City Readers.