Interview 37

Biographic Information: English, Male, 26yrs

Themes: California vs. Las Cruces, Participant’s family (traditions), Participant’s life (childhood memories and current interests), Language use, Influence of Spanish and English, Cherokee language

Download the .DOCX at the link below:

Transcript:

[00:00] 

 
Interviewer: Okay. So first, I want you to tell me how old you are.
 
Participant: I’m twenty-six. 

I: Twenty-six. And where are you from? 

P: Uh, I guess now, Folsom, California. But uh by way of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
 
I: Okay. And how long did you- Or how long have you lived in California? 

P: Um, five years.
 
I:  Five years. And what’s your favorite part? What’s- what has been your favorite part? 

  
P: Oh, probably being so close to like you know, anything that like we could want. We can find a store that sells it, or a restaurant that makes that kind of food. There’s just a lot of culture in California. 

I: Uh, so then how long did you live in Las Cruces? 

P: Uh, ss- six years. 

I:  Six years. And then before then?

P: Lived in North Carolina. 

I: Okay. What were your favorite parts of living in Las Cruces? If you had any, um, I mean maybe outside of the people, the food. Once you have like New Mexican food, you can’t go back. A California burrito doesn’t compare. 

I: So what’s like, what’s specifically then, about the food like cause we’re, you know, close to the border, and like it’s more authentic like what? Specifically for you. 

 
P: Uh, part of it probably is I like that more sort of au- authentic style. Also there is that kind of uniquely New Mexican, you know, cooking more with the green chili and that kind of thing. I really like that. Um, doing sopapillas like that like pillows that’s actually, very uniquely, new Mexican, and I kind of miss that. 

I: Mhm. Have you, have you have you ever thought about maybe doing like things like that at home, or where in California now? Like making those sopapillas. 

  
P: Uh, I’ve never tried sopapillas. Um we’ve, we can get Hatch Chili here, and we do make like enchiladas sometimes, or um posole that kind of thing. 

 
I: Mhm. Okay, and then you said North Carolina before? 

P: Mhm.
 
I: And then how long did you live there? 

P: Uh, (3.0) I’m sorry. I’m trying to- 1997 to 2012. Fifteen years. 

I: Fifteen years. Okay, so the majority of your life then? Well for, for being in one part, I guess. Was it North Carolina. 

P: Mhm. 

I: ‘Cause you’ve lived out already outside, but- and then what were your favorite parts living there? 

 
P: Uh, sort of the, the natural environment. The area we were in was right up close to the Great Smoky Mountains, so it was beautiful green mountains and lush forests 

I: Very different from Las Cruces very dry. 

P: It was a big change. [Dusty. Yeah.] 

I: Okay. Um, so, okay, so the next question is, what is your favorite fram- family tradition? If you have one. 

  
P: Uh, for me, it’s probably the um we, we do a Christmas spaghetti sauce [Mhm.] That you know involves being cooked for more than a day most of the time. I, I like doing that each year. It’s kind of my, my project around the holidays. 

I: The the Christmas sauce. Um so it-  why, why would you say, though, is your favorite project?
 
P: Uh, it’s one of those things where there’s no other time of year, where I’d spend that much time working on a single dish. [Mhm.] You know it’s a i- it’s a huge amount of food, and it has to simmer for at least a day, or it doesn’t taste as good. 

I: Mhm.
 
P: and it’s, it’s fun to do that. But also I you know I do it at Christmas then I’m like, “Well, I’ll do that next year.” [Yeah.]  I’m not doing that again.

  
I: I’m not gonna worry about it. And then it’s not even um, it’s just a part of the main dish, too. It’s not even, your [Yeah.] spending more than a day making the whole dish. It’s just half it’s the, it’s the most im- [It’s just for the sauce,] yeah, it’s important part probably. Um, okay and the next one is what is a positive memory from your childhood? 

P: Hmm! (7.0)

I: [5:00] You can name more than one if [Um,] you want to.
 
P: Just the, the first one that came to mind for me was um, I went on a hike with my dad once in in the Smoky Mountains and um along the trail, we found some wild ramps. Uh and he dug them up, washed them off in a nearby stream, and we ate them there just on the trail [Oh!] and it was, ohh, you know, maybe not the best idea, but I loved it. 

I: (laughs) How old were you when that? 

P: Oh, I was probably maybe seven or eight. 

I: Oh. what are wild ramps? Or how-
 
P: Uh, so a ramp is, it’s kinda like a an onion. 

I: Oh, okay. Just eating raw onion. Was it good?
 
P: It was good. It was good. They’re they’re a little sweeter, a little mellower.

I: Okay

P: Than, like you- it- you can eat them raw. They’re they’re a little more palatable than (laughs) eating an onion like an apple. 

I: Right, okay. 

P: Maybe, maybe think of like a green onion. 

I: Okay. 

P: In terms of flavor. 

I: Yeah that reminds me of that movie Holes. [(laughs)] They’re eating onions. 

P: Yeah. (laughs) 

 
I: Alright next question is what are what are you passionate about? Or what, what are your passions? In you know, present present time?
 
P: Um, I’m really into baking right now. Uh, I haven’t done as much because it was hot, and so I didn’t want to run the oven for a long time, but like uh baking bread and especially sourdough bread um and also making nice coffee. 

I: Nice coffee. What kinda-  so you like to make bread you said sourdough bread?

P: Mhm. 

I: How long have you been doing that?
 
P: I started last year. Um, a, a friend who works at a cafe that bakes their own sourdough was like, “Yeah, if you, if you just come before we open, I’ll I’ll give you some of our starter.” 

I: Oh. 

 
P: And so I’ve been keeping it running since.
   

I: That’s, that, that’s nice. 

P: Yeah. 

I: Oh, I’m getting a phone call. 

P: Oh. 

I: Sorry about that. Okay. So and then coffee. You were saying, um, how long have you been in a coffee or well, ice coffee? 

P: Oh, nice coffee! [Oh! Nice.] Sorry. Nice. 

I: What’s nice? What is that? 

P: Oh, just like I like good coffee, [Oh, okay.] like trying to get better beans or making it with more like precision. That kind of thing. [Oh okay.] Sorry. 
 
I: Like, yeah, I see a lot of people on Tik Tok. It’s like, almost like a science. They’ll like, weigh the beans. [Mhm.] And they’ll way the gru- the grinds or the ground, coffee grounds. Yeah.
 
P: Yeah. Like that um, you know that coffee maker you got me. 

I: Mhm. 

P: I’ll, I’ll with that and the, the kettle sometimes, if I really wanna, you know put some work into it. I, I do the same thing. You get it set up on the scale and put put in exactly this much water. Wait for so long. Add more. It’s a lot of fun. 

 
I: it is. I, I agree. Sometimes I want to get into coffee like that, but I don’t. I don’t know. I don’t have time, and then I don’t want to spend the money on all the things and then be running late in the morning and have to make a K cup. 

P: (laughs) 

I: I’m like, really. So. 

P: I, I know what you mean. I mean. I, I didn’t- I would not have gotten like that nice kettle you got me, or anything like that, if you if you hadn’t bought it for me, [Yeah.] cause I kind of feel the same. I, I like to do it, but also a lot of the time, like I could do all that, or I can throw the coffee and water in the Mr. Coffee I have, and let that do all the work. [Yeah.]
 
I: Yeah. ‘Cause yeah, sometimes life gets in the way, and you don’t have time to make your your drink, or it’s like eight pm. And you’re like that would be nice right now, but then I won’t, I won’t sleep. [Mhm.] So I can’t really do that. But, alright, so those are passions. The next question is, uh, tell me about what it has been like. Well, I guess you didn’t really grow up much in New Mexico, um, but I guess you can tell me if you want to talk about like the differences, I, I guess, more culturally uh from North Carolina moving to New Mexico. 

  
P: Yeah. So the biggest change was definitely like you said the- it was almost an entire environmental switch. [10:00] 

I: Mhm. 

P: Um, in terms of cultural things there’s actually, a weird amount of shared foods between the South and like more traditional Mexican foods. 

I: Mhm.

P: like a lot of you know, whenever you want to use every part of an animal, because food is scarce. You end up kind of coming up with a lot of the same solutions. 

I: Mhm. 

P: Um, there’s even- I was reading about it today, ‘cause it’s something I had when I was little. My parents worked on the Cherokee reservation, so uh we got a lot of exposure to that culture, and there’s a dish, a Cherokee dish called bean bread, which is a sort of corn and lard dough with beans cooked in a corn husk so it’s it’s almost a tamal. 

I: Yeah.

P: Um, in terms of differences, there’s some like interesting little language things that you get, 

I: Mhm.
 
P: um because of the influence of Spanish. Uh, the biggest thing I ever noticed was, uh if somebody asks- you know, you’re doing a typical, you know might say, “Oh, how are you doing?” “Good and you?”  and that isn’t something I’ve really ever encountered outside of New Mexico. 

I: Really. 

P: Yeah. 

  
I: That’s interesting. So what [And] go ahead. 

P: And I, I think it comes from kind of a direct translation of, you know, “bien, ¿y usted?” 

 
I: Yeah, probably I didn’t. I mean, I don’t really travel much. And when I do, it’s usually like West. you know, [Mhm.] Arizona and California, and so [yeah.] and those those lan- uh, I guess English in those States also have a Spanish influence so I’ve always heard it like that. So then how do people greet each other? Or like what would be a an answer to saying like, “How are you?”?
   

P: Probably something more like, like, “How about you?” 

I: Oh, okay, okay?
 
P: Or you know, you might say, like, “Good good. How are you doing?” 

I: Oh. that’s interesting.

P: You know. It’s it’s not like a a huge difference. But it is one of those kind of funny little things. 

I: Yeah. And so the next question is, what career did you want as a kid?

P: Oh, man, that like changed every year. 

I: (laughs) That’s okay. 

P: Um, I think for a long time I wanted to be an astronaut ‘cause like who didn’t. [Yeah.] 

Uh, what else did, – for a long time there. I had no idea. I figured I’d just figure it out later. 

I: Yeah. Figure it out in college. [I was much more distracted

P: by running around and being a kid.
 
I: Yeah. And then, so what do you do now? 

P: I’m a, a computer engineer. 

I: Okay? And then, and then, what did you? What did you major in in college? Electrical engineering. 

I: Okay. When did you find out that’s what you, you know wanted to do?
 
P: I kinda got like pushed by my parents into taking some like introduction to engineering courses in high school and out of everything we did in those courses. I liked the electrical engineering work the most. 

I: Okay

P: So I just kind of ran with it. 

I: And uh were you good at it? You think you also picked it ‘cause you were, you came kinda easy, ish?

P: Oh. 

I: Oh, (laughs) 

P: That’s hard to judge honestly, I passed all my classes, so I was good enough. 

I: Yeah. 

P: Uh, but I also there were some of those that were a real struggle. (laughs) Yeah, I nearly dropped it whenever in my like introductory circuits class, I got a forty-nine on the second exam and I nearly switched majors. (laughs)
 
I: Holy cow. But you did it. 

P: Yeah, I made it through. Yay. 

  
I: And do you do you like what you do? 

P: Yeah, yeah, it’s pretty fun. 

I: Um, okay. So now I- we talked about family traditions. I guess you kind of already touched on traditions you do as an adult. But my next question was, as an adult what new traditions, if any, do you have? And they don’t have to be like um centered around a holiday, I mean, hmm traditions can be anything to do.
 
P: Sorry I’m trying to think about that one a little [15:00] bit. You know I, I’ve only been living on my own for years now, and it’s not a ton of time to develop that kind of thing. 

Mhm. 

Um, I don’t know if this counts or not. But even though Lolly and I have like a wedding anniversary. We also still celebrate the anniversary of when we started dating just ‘cause we can. 

I: Yeah. Yeah. That’s nice. And then um by celebrating I mean, you guys just do, do things out of the ordinary. I guess. 

P: Ye- Yeah, we might do a nicer dinner, or like, go, go to a restaurant that’s a little pricier, or I’ll, I’ll cook something a little fancier. 

I: Okay 

P: You know it’s not a big celebration, but it’s kind of a oh, it’s our, it’s it’s other anniversary. [Yeah.] Let’s go, you know, get dressed up and go somewhere nice. 

I: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s nice. You guys can celebrate each other, you know you should as much as you can. Uh, let’s see. And then I already asked that one. Mmm I’m gonna ask you if you want to tell us about your family. If, just if you want to talk about them. 

P: I’d be um- be- I- I don’t mind talking about them too much. 

I: Um, that’s pretty, that’s the whole question. (laughs) 

P: Oh, oh. [Yeah.] OH! Okay, sorry. That wasn’t a “yes” or “no”. That was a “will you” open [Yes.] ended, talk about them. Okay. Sorry (laughs) [No, it’s okay.] Uh, ok, um, both of my parents are clinical psychologists, who met in grad school. Um, they moved to North Carolina for jobs, working with tribal health and worked those jobs and then various other um clinical psychology jobs in the area. Basically, the whole time I was there. They also I went to a charter school. So at least one of my parents was on the board of the school the whole time I, uh, I attended it. Uh, once we moved to New Mexico they uh- they were mostly working in child psychology before, and they changed to uh, they got jobs with the VA. Um, doing like a men- uh mental health support for soldiers coming back home. Um, I also have one sister who I don’t really know what she’s up to nowadays, ‘cause I’m not really in touch with all them anymore. But (laughs). 

I: Okay.

P: That’s, that’s mostly the history on all that that. 

I: Yeah, okay [How,]

P: we ended up where we did. 

I: Alrighty, and it seems like, though before you were, you were close with your dad cause you guys ate raw onions together, you know. (laughs) True bonding. True, father, son bonding. 

I: Okay. So my next question is, what’s your favorite restaurant? And can you tell me about the last time you went there? It’s okay, if it’s more than one. Also. 

P: I was trying to think if there’s anywhere here in California. But honestly- and I, I know this place is like a, a maybe a more stereotypical place for uh, somebody I don’t know, what uh Andales in Las Cruces. 

I: Yeah.  

P: And it’s, it’s so good. And ev- every time we’re back home in New Mexico I make sure to get some. Uh, last time I ate there, uh I was getting together with a bunch of friends to play board games and we all got together and ate there, and then went to one friend’s house to play some games. 

 
I: Nice. What’s your favorite dish from there? 

  
P: They do like a, a burrito with um, uh beef and potatoes stewed in like a green chili sauce. [Okay.] And then I get that smothered in green chile. 

  
I: Okay. Those are good. Bur- I, I also really like Andales actually, I think it’s also one of my favorite restaurants in New Mexico or in Las Cruces. So, what what kind of board games were you and your friends gonna play? 

P: This was right around Christmas. So I had just gotten a game from Lolly and so we were gonna try that. And then the friend we were visiting Cole has like so many. So a lot of the time it’s kind of a we show up and just pick something [20:00] up off the shelf. 

I: Yeah. 

P: That looks fun. Give it a try. 

I: Uh, what kind of workings would you recommend to someone who doesn’t usually play? 

  
P: Sorry, I’m trying to think through what are some good ones. There’s a lot of like quicker and easier ones that are kind of- uh just as an example, we have one called Mountain Goats. 

I: Mhm. 

P: That’s about uh each of each player is a mountain goat trying to get to the top of the mountain. 

I: Okay. 

P: and the game plays pretty simple and doesn’t require a lot of setup. You just lay out some cards and get some little wooden goat figureines out. And so that kind of thing, something that doesn’t require a lot of set up, or you know, reading the twenty-page rule book every corner case. Just something you can sit down and play with a friend within five minutes. 

I: Mhm. Right. Yeah, sometimes- well I don’t- I don’t usually play board games, but I know that some of them can be kind of like you gotta think a little more, (laughs) [Mhm.] and usually, you know, board games happen at hangouts when you’re meeting with your friends, and you’re already tired and like my brains, are like cut off [(laughs)] so I wouldn’t be like- I’d be like what is happening. But- 

I: We, we got one from the library recently that was about like mice riding around a clock trying to like grab treasures or something like that, I’m like, oh, that sounds so cute. Let’s give it a try. 

 
P: We got about halfway through the rule book before we like, we’re we’re giving it back. (laughs) This is way too complicated for us right now. 

I: Yeah, I think, yeah, I think. I don’t know, I think if you played it and you understood it, then you could play it when you’re already kind of like half asleep, or you’re hanging out, and your energies is like, you know, declining. 

P: Yeah. You gotta get one friend who knows it and then they’ll just tell everybody else how to do it. [Yeah.]

  
I: Let’s see. Okay, so have you received any influential advice? If so, what did it consist of? 

 
P: You know, I don’t know if I have a good answer for this, I’ve never been the kind of person to really take inspiration from others. I usually just kind of try to do what I think is best. 

I: Yeah. In that case, then what advice would you give yourself at a younger age? I mean, you’re only what, twenty-six? 

P: Mhm. 

I: I guess like ten years ago, when you were sixteen, what advice would you give yourself? 

P: Probably something like maybe study a little harder. 

I: Study, a little harder. 

P: Yeah, like, what- ‘cause um I was starting to take college courses in high school and there were a few early on. There were a few too many courses that I thought I could just coast through like I did with some of my high school courses. Li- like that circuits class I was talking about, and I think I kinda did myself a disservice by not working harder to understand the material. 

I: Yeah, I- yeah, I can relate to that, too, sometimes. You think you can, you can do what you did in the past, ‘cause you got away with it. Then you just [Mhm.] kind of screw yourself. You’re all [Yeah.] “oh!” Should’ve thought twice. But um okay. S- what languages were used in your house growing up? 

P: Um, in my house. It was only English we did for about a year there, while we were still living in North Carolina, um there, there’s been a big uh sort of movement to um rekindle use of the Cherokee language. There was a year there where we were trying to pepper in bits of Cherokee that we knew and learn more, but that that didn’t really stick around 

I: Oh. Did you, do you remember any or no? 

P: Uh, just a little bit. I can say “Hello! How are you?” But I don’t remember how to say “Good-” like “Good, how are you?” And I know how to order coffee. 

I: Okay. Would you, would you mind like sh- like showing me? Or letting me listen? 

 
P: Sure, [25:00] yeah. So um if you wanted to say like, “Hello, how are you?” It’s (speaks in Cherokee language). 

I: Okay. And then how do you? [Or-] Oh, go ahead. 

 
P: Uh, there there is- I don’t know where the line is, but there’s a different dialect. Where you would say it, (speaks in Cherokee language). 

I: Oh. And then what about if you wanted to order coffee?

P: (speaks in Cherokee language). 

I: Oh. Interesting! Let’s see. Okay, what is the best gift uh you ever received? Can you tell me when and how you received it? 

P: That’s a tricky one. (32.0) You know, I, I don’t know if I have a good answer for that. I’m sorry. 

I: That’s okay. Mmmm can you thi- wha- can you tell me like the last gift you received?

  
P: I can show you I can actually reach it. The last gift I got was this pair of binoculars? 

I: Oh. 

P: That I had been sort of longing for for a long time. ‘cause I like to go bird watching whenever I’m like out on my walks. 

I: Oh okay. 

P: But a lot of the time, you know. I’m just sort of sitting there staring at a blurry shape. [Mmm] and so Lolly he got me these, so I can uh [watch the birds] do a little better. (laughs)

I: Watch for birds. That’s how often do you go on walks? 

P: Um, usually, I- it’s been kind of bad recently so like maybe once or twice a week, but when I’m feeling more energetic. I try for daily. 

 
I: Mhm. Yeah. 

P: You know, at least a few miles a day. 

I: Yeah. I tried. Yeah, I try to walk, too, only because of my dog. If he doesn’t get walked and we’re not, we’re not gonna sleep. So, so we have to walk him [(laughs)]. It can be like kind of discouraging, because I don’t wanna just walk him in the neighborhood like I wanna go [Mhm.] trails, but they’re all like kind of far. I gotta drive. And by the time I get home and get ready and then get in the car. It’s already gonna be sunset. I’m not gonna have time, so I have to do it outside in the neighborhood, but [Yeah.] when I have time, I also like to take him out on the walking trails. 

P: I, I kind of got lucky here. Our apartment is um maybe  twenty, thirty feet away from a a set of walking trails that run through this like protected nature area through the middle of our town. [Nice.] So I’m able to just kind of walk out the door and get on that walk.

I: Walk- It’s in your backyard. 

P: Yeah. (laughs)

I: Uh, well, okay. So okay. Can you tell me about the first day at work at your first job? 

P: Yeah, um so my- maybe is a little embarrassing. My first job was actually the job I have now. (both laugh) I, I hadn’t had a job until I started at uh my current employer and so I was, I was kind of terrified [Yeah.] ‘cause I was worried they’d be like, “You’ve never done anything before? What are you doing here?”

I: You n- you never had internships or anything like that? Oh, okay. 

P: Yeah, it, it kind of felt like a miracle when I even got the interview. (both laughs) But um so I, I came in. I was really sort of anxious, because um you know, f- it was my first job, and also it’s with a pretty big company. So, I walked into this big office with a whole bunch of other people who are all getting things started. And I was like- I was also . So I was kind of like, “Oh, God, they’re all going to be able to tell. I’m a I’m too young. I graduated early. I I’m a fraud.” 

I: No, you’re not a fraud (laughs). 

P: Then I, I, I met my team, and they’re all like within years of my age, and I was like, Oh, okay. this is actually a lot easier. [ good] and I ended up like making a decent amount of friends. I have a group of coworkers that I’ll- that I met all at that time [30:00] that are still around that we meet on usually Thursdays or Fridays. And like, we do a crossword together. 

I: Mhm. Cool. Um-

P: But it was, it was scary. 

I: Yeah, I can- yeah, that’s really scary, your car- yeah, starting your career as your first ever job, yeah. But, but you did it. And you’re not- [Yeah.] You’re not a fraud.

P: I’m not a fraud. (laughs) And I lived! 

I: And you lived! You lived to tell the tale. Okay, so some of my questions were repeats, I didn’t realize. So this is actually the last question. So, [Okay.] uh, do you remember the first pet you had? And can you tell me about it? 

P: Yeah. My first pet was a tabby cat named Rodney. Who, um I think my parents got him as a kitten right around the time that I was born. Um, he was just sort of a stray that they had been feeding on their back porch. And then one day they saw him, and one of his eyes looked weird. like it was permanently dilated. And so they took him into the vet and were like, well, he’s ours now. Um, we, we don’t know what happened to him. They. They guess that he was kicked by a deer or something. [Oh man.] He was otherwise fine. He just had a dilated eye the rest of his life um, [Put an eye patch]

I: on him. 

P: Yeah. (laughs) He uh was not a grumpy cat, but he, he wasn’t the best kind of cat for young kids, so there was like one time when I was little that I was- and this was, I was like three maybe I was just sitting there screaming at him and he responded by clawing my lip. (both laugh) I wasn’t hurt bad or anything. But I did learn not to scream in a cat’s face anymore. 

I: Yeah. that’s funny. [And then uh,] Go ahead. 

P: He stayed with us until shortly before we moved, until I was like fourteen probably, and uh yeah, he, he was a really good cat, really sweet, you know. Once you learn not to scream in his face. 

I: Yeah. Uh, why’d you name him Rodney? or did your parents name him? 

P: Parents named him. I have no idea why his name was Rodney. 

I: That’s a- that’s a a cute name. For a cat. Feral cat. Ci- now civilized, now tame. 

P: Got “My Fair Lady”ed. 

I: (both laugh) Yeah, he did. (both laugh) That’s his origin story. So that was my last question. So now we can just talk. I need to do I think until seven forty-five and then we’ll, we’ll be good- or eight forty-five your time? What time is it? 

P: O- other way. [Six forty-five] I’m I’m in a- six forty-five.  

I: Okay, hmm. So so what kinda- what are your hobbies now? Um, you mentioned walking, nature walking and bird watching. And [Mhm.] coffee. 

P: Yeah. 

I: What el- Oh and bread, and bread making bread.

P: Uh, outside of that um, I, I play a lot of video games. 

I: Mhm. 

P: I, I’ve got like a gaming. PC, and I’ll, I’ll spend a lot of time on that. Um, occasionally. I’m not very good at sort of motivating myself to do it. But um I do weave. 

I: Oh. Cool! That’s cool! How long have you been doing that? 

P: Um, I started in maybe 2017?

I: Oh, wow! 

P: Um, I was going with Lolly to- uh, when she was getting spinning lessons

I: Mhm and uhh

P: the person who was giving her the lessons was like, “Do you wanna do anything?” And she gave a list, and one of the things was weaving, and I’d, I’d always been interested since I was a little kid. ‘Cause we used to go to this thing called the John C. Campbell Folk School Festival, where they’d have like lots of crafts like that. And I, I wanted to- I loved seeing the big looms, so I wanted to learn how to weave. 

I: Right. And weaving is um, I don’t know how to describe it, but do you like- it- I don’t even know how to describe it. You can take scarves and things? Or is that, is that different? 

P: Um, usually with weaving [35:00] you’re making like it it makes like a piece of cloth, pretty much. [Mhm. Yeah.] So you can weave like a tapestry, or, in my case, I don’t have room for a full size lo- loom, because tiny apartment. [Mhm.] So I actually have a smaller lap loom called an inkle loom, and mostly what I can make with that is like belts. 

I: Oh, okay.

P: And b- bands, that kind of thing. Uh, most recently, I used it to make some bookmarks for a friend’s birthday.
 
I: Okay, so it’s like a thicker, thicker like cloth the way it comes out?

P: Yeah, yeah, pretty much. 

I: Okay. Te- and tell us about Lolly. (laughs) 

P: Hey there. I’m gonna talk about you now. 

I: Just for a couple more minutes.

P: Lolly’s my wife. We met in 2015. Uh, actually, I guess we first met in 2014, um both working at uh the um homecoming dance. We were both uh operating like a, a popcorn machine. Um, ‘cause we were, we were both on this clu- part of this club that was gonna take a trip to Europe, we were doing fundraising and we met then got along really well and then didn’t speak to each other again until we were on the Europe trip. Got along really well on the trip, chatted whenever we had the chance and then um we got back in like early July? I think. Or late June? And- I think late June, and it was like midnight. We were both exhausted, and she just remembered to get my number near the baggage check. Um, a week later we met up to go uh walk around Coas and grab burgers at Day’s Doughnuts, or Day’s Hamburgers. Sorry and um basically, after that started hanging out like once a week and eventually, by um October we were both like we’re kind of already halfway there. Do you wanna, do you want to actually make this official? Been together ever since. We got married in July of 2020. [Aww.] Been very happy ever since. 

 
I: Yeah, that sounds really nice. I’m very happy for you both. So, okay. I’m gonna go ahead and end the recording like.

P: Mhm.  

I: how do you stop it? (computer says “recording stopped”) Okay. 

[37:55]