Sniffles, Faucets and Brown Eyes Susans | Soft Background Listening

In Sniffles, Faucets and Brown Eyes Susans, Marco and Amanda ease into a softly spoken conversation while both feeling a little under the weather. Their shared sniffles set the tone for a mellow, gently meandering episode filled with small stories and light reflections. Amanda looks back on her university days with a warm, nostalgic lens, while Marco offers a few practical hot tips and fondly recounts some of his more mischievous gift-giving pranks — playful moments that feel cozy rather than chaotic.
As always, this calming podcast is intentionally unhurried and low-key, designed to help you fall asleep, ease anxiety, or quiet racing thoughts at the end of the day. The conversation wanders naturally from topic to topic, making it perfect for background listening while you wind down in bed or rest during a middle-of-the-night wake-up. There’s no urgency, no big reveal — just steady companionship, gentle humor, and the comforting rhythm of two familiar voices. Settle in, let your thoughts soften, and allow this quiet exchange to guide you toward rest.

​Sniffles, Faucets and Brown Eyes Susans
(Original airdate: May 28, 2025)

Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a calm conversation that's meant to help you drip, drift. Not drip, drift off.

Amanda:  You can drip to sleep.

Marco: You can drip. You can feel like you're dripping into your bed from a nice tea kettle.

Amanda:  Do you often imagine things when you fall asleep? Like dripping into a bed?

Marco: No, not dripping into a bed, but I. I imagine myself as some sort of snug sea creature.

Amanda:  Really?

Marco: Yeah, like a clam. Like I get the. I get all the blanket around me. A clam or a.

Amanda:  You imagine that you're a clam?

Marco: Yeah. What's that expression? Snug as a clam or something like that?

Amanda:  Definitely not.

Marco: What is it?

Amanda:  Bug in a row?

Marco: No, but what's the clam one? Cute as a clam. Clam up. Clam.

Amanda:  I clammed up.

Marco: No, there's something about a clam.

Amanda:  Pork and clams. Pork and clams is a delicious Portuguese dish. I envision that I'm on a raft, that I'm lying on a raft. Floating. Yeah.

Marco: That's cool.

Amanda:  Like, you know, on the water. Not like a deep ocean, but like a calm, kind of gently waving lake.

Marco: Wow.

Amanda:  Yeah, I imagine that I'm just like floating on a raft.

Marco: That's Great.

Amanda:  Not every night, but.

Marco: And sometimes I picture myself as like a. An eel in a cave, just laying there.

Amanda:  Really?

Marco: Yeah. Then again, I love sea creatures, so you know me. That's a relaxing thing for some people. An eel isn't the most relaxing thing, I think.

Amanda:  I think if you were anything, if you believe that you were an animal in a past life, I think you were definitely in the ocean.

Marco: Of course. Yeah.

Amanda:  What, you think you're an eel or clam?

Marco: No, I'm probably neither of the two, but. But yeah, something in the ocean.

Amanda:  What do you most identify with?

Marco: That's a good one.

Amanda:  I mean, is that too deep a question?

Marco: I think so. I think so. Both Amanda and I are a little bit under the weather.

Amanda:  More you than me.

Marco: True, true.

Amanda:  I. I don't know. It's the weirdest thing. I worked with somebody yesterday, and at the beginning of the day, he was sniffling a little bit, but that's not unusual for him. He has allergies.

Marco: Sure, sure.

Amanda:  So. And it didn't seem to be too much.

Marco: Oh. So we're getting. We're Nancy Drewing this. We're figuring out.

Amanda:  Well, I don't know. But anyway, he was sniffling a bit, and I said, do you have allergies? And he's like, oh, yeah, bad allergies. And I was like, oh, that's usual for him. But then by the end of the day, he didn't look great. And I was like, he's like, I'm going to go. And I was like. And he wasn't leaving particularly early, but he's often the last one to leave when we do the work that we do together. And I was like, are you all right? And he was like, I'm not all right. I'm not. I'm super sick. And I was like, oh. And, you know, it's that. That mix of concern for this person. And then also, I just spent, you know, eight hours in a room with you, so I'm not thrilled about that. So I did what I do, which is spray a ton of propolis into

Marco: my mouth, which I want to just re. Mention this. We've mentioned the podcast before. We really think propolis helps. So look into it. If it's right for you, get the spray kind. That's the kind that I like.

Amanda:  And especially I should have probably sprayed it, like, earlier in the day if you had known. Yeah. But it's a good reminder. I mean, it's just the world we live in, you know, and we. We. Lots of people come through our Doors. And I also think, like, viral load is a thing, right? Like, so if you're with somebody eight hours, that's going to be different than saying hello to somebody quickly, maybe. Anyway, sure. All this to say today. I had sort of one thing I had to do, but it was a bigger thing. And that was at 3:30. And then at around 11:00 clock, I started getting like fevery. And then I thought, okay, is this just psychosomatic? Am I in my head? You know the thing. So I started feeling fevery. Then I started feeling like, really, like lethargic. Not sniffly, but that's usually the last thing for me is sniffly. And then I felt like, oh, I am fighting something off. At first I thought it was just nerves maybe, but then I started getting the chills. Oh.

Marco: And they weren't electrifying.

Amanda:  They were multiplying, but not electrifying.

Marco: Little grease reference there, in case anybody's wondering.

Amanda:  Thank you. And I had a sweater on and a vest over that in the house. And the house was.

Marco: Speaking of which, the 75 degrees. The vest is a heated vest, although

Amanda:  I didn't have the heater sort of plugged in on it, but which we

Marco: love, by the way, those heated vests.

Amanda:  Vest gift. Your sister like scored with those.

Marco: My sister gave us vests that have a pocket where you plug in a. What do you would call them, Amanda?

Amanda:  A power bank.

Marco: A power bank. And then at the collar. Not at the collar, at the. Where you'd put a lapel.

Amanda:  Like a breast pocket area.

Marco: You press a button and you can change the heat designation.

Amanda:  You can. You can like rev it up. Super duper. And usually what it will do is mine. Anyway. Ours are different, but. But maybe they're not. Mine will rev up and then it'll be like, okay, this is the temperature we're going to chill at. And then it'll like, kind of go into like, this is our mode. But if you want to keep revving it, you can, but you'll use the battery faster.

Marco: It heats you up, but your arms stay nice. Arms stay nice and cool.

Amanda:  But I mean, it heats the core of your body up. And that's sort of the point. Anyway, I did not have it plugged in, but. And I did get sweaty and then I got kind of like nervous for my thing. And then. So once that was done, I felt a lot better. But. I don't know about you, but. But I have throughout my adult life realized that I can sweat out if I got a cold coming on. I can sometimes cure Myself by sweating it out. Have you ever had that?

Marco: Nope.

Amanda:  I remember, particularly in university, we had this. I'll try not to make this story too long, but I was the social chair of my residence.

Marco: You can make it as long as you want. That's what this podcast is about. Just don't make it too exciting, so.

Amanda:  Well, it really is not so social. So the school I went to was very residence focused. Right. I went to a small school, liberal arts school. It was all about, you know, it had a sort of. It's not an Ivy League school, but it definitely wanted to be and had that kind of vibe. The school is called Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.

Marco: For the record, I had never heard of it when I met Amanda. I still don't believe it's a place.

Amanda:  Thank you for that. In my school's defense, because I must. I'm sorry. It was ranked the number one undergraduate school in all of Canada.

Marco: How many years ago?

Amanda:  Many years in a row.

Marco: Okay.

Amanda:  In the last 20 years. Many years in a row. Actually, 30 years.

Marco: Still doesn't make me know it any better.

Amanda:  Fair enough. Anyway,

Marco: this is often a debate we have in the house, by the way.

Amanda:  Here's the thing. I mean, it's very true and very humbling because I, being from the east coast, obviously knew about it. And also being a kid that, you know, when you live in a rural area, you actually sometimes know about your country more because you know, it's not where you live, so you educate yourself on everywhere else. So all that to say. I was very educated at what the universities were, and so that's part of why I picked that one and so on.

Marco: But I went to York University, where they really tried hard to make you feel like a number, and they succeeded.

Amanda:  Now, that said, we have family members that are right now attending York. A family member, it's true. Who's doing her PhD at York. And she does feel. She feels anything but a number.

Marco: Actually, I will say this. York had a joint program with Seneca College, and I really valued that.

Amanda:  So, yeah, you got. You got two degrees in once. Why don't you tell everybody what you got? I have a frag up our university degrees.

Marco: I have a BA in linguistics, and then I have a college diploma in Radio and Television Arts.

Amanda:  You can just say certification.

Marco: Broadcast journalism.

Amanda:  Okay. Broadcast nernalism. You need some water here.

Marco: I need water. I'm like a clam that doesn't have water.

Amanda:  He never brings water. And I'll always be like, do you need water? And he'll be like, no, I'm fine. And then his voice inevitably does this and he starts coughing and then he's like, do you have any water? Anyhow, it was humbling because when I moved to Toronto, everybody was like, where's that? I've never heard of it. Because there you go. Because people in Toronto knew what they knew and they didn't have to go through the McLean's rankings and all that because. So that clank is Marco drinking my water.

Marco: It's true. It's true.

Amanda:  Anyhow, so all this to say it was a very, you know, there were ivy on the buildings and that kind of thing, and beautiful sandstone buildings home. We had a homecoming weekend, which was a big deal and all that stuff. So. And our football team, we, you know, cheered. We all would go out and cheer for versus like York has a football team. Would you even know what they're called?

Marco: I do, actually. The Yeoman.

Amanda:  No.

Marco: Is it York Yeomans? Yeah, I think so.

Amanda:  Really? Okay.

Marco: Pretty sure. And we didn't have ivy on our concrete walls. We had concrete on the concrete walls at my university.

Amanda:  If there were ivy, then somebody would surely rip them down, chop that.

Marco: Chop that growth down.

Amanda:  A Italians in that area. And they. They would not let a building get covered in. In ivy because it would degrade.

Marco: I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. No.

Amanda:  Okay. There was a lot of tree chopping.

Marco: My family chops a lot of trees.

Amanda:  So Amanda's complaining defense. When the trees are going dead, then it's good to chop them because they could wreak havoc. So I.

Marco: Let's. Let's be true and honest. My mom likes to chop down a tree.

Amanda:  She loves to chop down a tree and burn it.

Marco: She chops it and then she burns it as if.

Amanda:  And it just makes me laugh because it's at the cottage where, you know, there's beautiful forests and things, and it's like, oh, there's too much. I can't see out the window. Chop, chop, chop.

Marco: She likes to chop down a tree. That's all I can say.

Amanda:  Anyway, so I was the social chair, so that was a big deal because we were very residency. Like you lived in residence for the first two years, usually at my school. And so in my second year, I was the social chair of Palmer hall, which doesn't exist anymore because they chopped it down. They chopped it down. So too much ivy on that one. I think it was an old building. When we showered, we had to the rooms that had the baths and showers in them. Also had like three toilet stalls in them. So if you can imagine, it would be like three toilet stalls and then a shower in the room.

Marco: It sounds like a prison is what you're describing.

Amanda:  So when you flush the toilet and someone was in the shower, you had to yell flushing so that they could stand out of the shower because it would get really hot.

Marco: Stories like this make me like York more and more and more.

Amanda:  Anyhow, I mean, they tore Palmer down, but this was before that. And so we had a. Like a rally, like a pep rally for the houses, which I don't even understand. But the only reason I remember it is because my co social chair and best friend at the time and. And still Michelle lehay, who I've never

Marco: had on the podcast. I need to have her on the podcast.

Amanda:  She'd love it.

Marco: Yeah, I need to have her on the podcast.

Amanda:  She could tell you a lot about a lot of things. But rugby was something she was very into back then. A big rugby player. And because of that, she had a rugby game that night. And so she couldn't lead the house in their spirit. Cheers. So I had to do it. And I had no voice because I was so sick. And I went and I spent like three hours running around and doing these chants and doing all these things and there were games and stuff. And at the end of the night, as though. Even though I went in sick as a dog, I was just. I couldn't believe it. I was cured. I had like the cold that I had had and I was really quite sick going into it. I was like, how am I going to get through it? And I was fine.

Marco: Oh, there you go.

Amanda:  And so I learned that you can sweat your way. For me, anyways, I could sweat my way out of a cold. It was like a real finding. And I think I did that today because I had this meeting, audition, whatever you want to call it, and I was really nervous about it because it was important. Yeah. And I sweat a lot in nerve also because I was having the chills and stuff. But then once it was all done, you felt better. Felt a lot better. So maybe I got rid of it, but we'll have to see. I think we need a nice long sleep tonight.

Marco: I hope so. I like to be miserable and complainy when I'm sick and that classic sort

Amanda:  of lucky me

Marco: feel sorry for me,

Amanda:  the man cold or whatever they call it. Yeah, you're like.

Marco: I fall into it.

Amanda:  You are the stereotype.

Marco: I am, totally. And I. Well, I do want to say this. If you're Listening and you're feeling under the weather. I just want to say we're here for you. We all go through it, and we want you to know that you can listen to episodes and not think in your not feeling great. And just let us talk your way. You don't just think.

Amanda:  Be the chicken soup or for your ears. Chicken soup or in hot soup into your ears.

Marco: We should. We should.

Amanda:  We usually do Korean soup in this house, which is chicken soup.

Marco: We should trademark that. Chicken Soup for the ears is our podcast. I like that a lot, actually. Maybe I'll get a T shirt made like that. And our listeners can use soup for your ears.

Amanda:  Because the truth is, a lot of people that listen to the podcast. Yes. The primary reason is so they can have some light conversation to fall asleep to.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda:  But others use it simply to relax to.

Marco: Yeah. In fact, we have a new listener who is. Or a recent listener, I should say, who's a good friend of my sister's.

Amanda:  Yes.

Marco: Who listens to the podcast and then reports back to my sister who doesn't listen to the podcast. It's amazing about the goings on in our home. So she knows, or my sister's friend knows more about what's going on in the home than my sister. Julia is, I believe, is her name Julia?

Amanda:  I thought it was Lena.

Marco: No, it's Julia. Lena's also my sister's friend.

Amanda:  Okay. Well, hi, Julia. And hey, hi, Lena, too, if you're listening.

Marco: Lena should be listening, but she doesn't. Julia listens for everyone.

Amanda:  Hey, should we talk about the weird birthday present that we gave our friend this week? Because you and I haven't actually talked about this.

Marco: We haven't. And I just want to say this before I forget, a little hot tip for you. Oh, it's going to come out of nowhere. I'm just going to give it because otherwise I'll forget. If you have a faucet in your home and it's one of the.

Amanda:  This is really out of nowhere.

Marco: It's out of nowhere. So I apologize. I just don't want to forget. If you have a faucet in your home and it's one of the major brands like the Moen, the, I don't know, faucet brands. Roy Bell in Canada is a name. We happen to have a Roy Bell Rio Bell.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco: Never heard of it. But I was like, oh, that's the one we have. But if you have one of those brand names or if you don't and something goes wrong with your faucet. So for Us it had the spouty part that you can yank like an old toilet that you could yank the chain and would flush. What would you call that?

Amanda:  I would call it a flexible movable spout. So it's one of those. Picture the faucet that looks like a big gooseneck hook. Yeah, gooseneck is a better way probably. But just that sort of long curvature that dips back down and so you can pull the end to, you know, pull it and it. Because we don't have the ones that have like what my mom used to have the little spray one on the side. We just have this. It's sort of an all in one and you could twist the tip of it so that it either does like a full stream or spray stream.

Marco: Right. So when you yank on the thing we always yell flushing in our house.

Amanda:  We do not.

Marco: Anyways, that yankable hose around it was starting to get sharp.

Amanda:  So yeah, the, the, the.

Marco: Sorry, I start to laugh because.

Amanda:  Why are you laughing?

Marco: The yankable hose doesn't sound like a technical term.

Amanda:  But also the sharpness of it is a weird thing. But it was like the metal was so sharp that was painted on or plated on I suppose started to peel for whatever reason. And the peeling because it was a metal plate I guess was jagged. And I two or three times got cut on it. And then I kind of tried to warn you about it. And then you got cut.

Marco: I got cut. And so then I call them up and if you call these companies, they will send you replacements. So we're getting, we're getting a whole

Amanda:  new gooseneck and we got it like 10 years ago.

Marco: Yeah, so don't tell them that because I think I told them last year is when I got it.

Amanda:  But for sure we did not get it last year.

Marco: So if you have a faucet, to

Amanda:  be honest, it was nine years ago.

Marco: They had to look up our model cuz they no longer carry it.

Amanda:  But hey, you don't know until you

Marco: call and we're getting it. So that's just a hot tip for our listeners. But you wanted to talk about.

Amanda:  Well since you're talking about taking things back, I will say this. If you shop at Costco, one of the great benefits is. And this is also for my sister in law who doesn't want to have anything to do with. She's not a Costco fan. But I will just say this. They will take anything back.

Marco: They will take it back.

Amanda:  They will take it back.

Marco: They will also if you have like food that goes bad, like let's Say you bought something. You can take a photo of it.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco: And they'll take it so you don't

Amanda:  have to bring back the old milk or whatever if it went off. But they don't need the receipt. They'll give you. You know, they'll deal with it one way or the other. But they're really, really good at, like, you know, if you're like, I wore this twice, and then something happened to it which shows that it was faulty on some level, the button popped off or it shrunk or whatever, they'll take it back. They're really, really good with that.

Marco: Okay, well, thank you for listening to that hot tip section of our podcast. Amanda, you wanted to talk about the birthday gift we recently gave.

Amanda:  I like how the hot tip session was just plunked right in the middle. So we have a friend, and I don't know if you really this realize this, but we often theme his birthday presents. One year we had like a pirate theme for him. I'm trying to think of other themes. Anyhow, this year was a very specific theme. The theme was marshmallows.

Marco: I was gonna say something totally different. Oh, you'll know why I won't say it. Okay, explain the gift and you'll.

Amanda:  So we got him. He likes to play games, as do we. And we, when we get together with them, we play games. And so we got him this card game called Arshmellows, which is marshmallows with large buttocks. Large buttocks.

Marco: It's a German card game, if you will.

Amanda:  They're very well developed looking bums and legs.

Marco: That's what I thought. That's what I thought the theme was. That's why I didn't say it.

Amanda:  Well developed bums.

Marco: Bums or whatever. Harshes, if you will.

Amanda:  So we also got him a s' mores kit and sort of some fun retractable marshmallow. What are they called? Like tongs.

Marco: Tongs, sure. Whatever you can put in the fire.

Amanda:  Yeah, those actually. Those look nice.

Marco: They do look nice. And listen. So the theme was marshmallow, which is an odd theme. Not that our friend is a marshmallow, you know, fanatic or whatever. We just found the theme and we went with it.

Amanda:  Enjoys a good marshmallow, though.

Marco: He also enjoys a good laugh.

Amanda:  Yeah, he does.

Marco: So when you can't think of a gift for someone, lean into something fun and themed.

Amanda:  Do a theme, find a few things. Because we liked the card game, but I was kind of like, I don't want to just give him this and so then we rounded it out with other marshmallow themed items, which actually, I think is great. I mean, the other thing we try to do with our friends is, you know, games are a thing, but we do enjoy them, and we'll play them.

Marco: Or games. That is.

Amanda:  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But other than that. Or card games. Sure, Case. Same. Same difference, I guess. But we are all very conscious that we have too much stuff, so we try to do, like, consumables, whether it's, you know, something to drink or eat. We don't do too many gift cards, but every now and then we do. I know you went through a phase where you did not like gift cards, but I think you're better with them now. Right?

Marco: I still don't love them.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco: I don't love the fact that I then have to go and deal with the card.

Amanda:  Right.

Marco: It's not my thing. That's just not for me. Hey, listen, do I dislike a gift card? No.

Amanda:  I like a good gift card.

Marco: And because you're good with that. And Amanda will often be like, okay, today we're gonna use gift cards, and we have a fun day of going around and using.

Amanda:  And we did that.

Marco: We did that a couple weeks ago.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Marco: Maybe if I take myself out of my curmudgeonous. That is a lot of fun. When we do do well, you're extra

Amanda:  curmudgeonly because you're a little bit under the weather. I'm really hoping a good night's gonna sleep. And lots of vitamin C, which I've made you take in in the last hour or two. Will. Will help curb this thing.

Marco: Another gift I gave recently, which I'm very. I have a. I don't know what you'd call it. An odd sense of humor. I got a puzzle from.

Amanda:  You have a Machiavellian streak in you. You have a. I wouldn't say odd sense of humor. You have a different devilish sort of sense of humor. One of the things. And I knew this about you very early on in knowing you before I knew you very well. But one of the things I could tell. You love to set a sort of wheel in motion, Whether it's a little prank or even a little fun rumor. You love to sort of drop that in the water and then watch people try to deal with it. You just love it. So when we work together in theater, you know, it was improv and very interactive. So I would watch him maybe pass something around and see, you know, like, a little rumor. And I used to say to him, you're like Iago in Othello. You love to just drop a little suggestion and then watch and see what happens among the cast. Always in a very playful and I would say, harmless way.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda:  In a way that you would get such glee out of it. And so you also love to give gifts like this.

Marco: So our friend, it was her birthday, and so I went to a second hand shop, I guess you'd call them in England.

Amanda:  I've learned they call them charity shops.

Marco: Charity shops. Second ham shop, a donation center shop. Places where you can get things at a discounted rate and where, you know, you can find a lot of variety stuff. So I went and I got a puzzle.

Amanda:  Mm.

Marco: And it was a particular puzzle. I'm watching my P's as I say that. On the mic. On the mic. And I took the puzzle out of the box and I put it in a brown box.

Amanda:  But you should explain the puzzle.

Marco: I will. And so I gave the puzzle in the brown paper box to a friend and said, here's your birthday puzzle. Figure it out.

Amanda:  So she did not have a picture to base it on.

Marco: And the puzzle was rectangular. It wasn't a square puzzle. It was a rectangular puzzle of rays gliding themselves like a manta ray or stingray gliding themselves through the water. So it was very, very blue.

Amanda:  It was mostly blue with dark blue. And so just tones of blue, really, in the water, maybe a little bit of a gray, but mostly just blue on blue on blue.

Marco: And so she looked and she's like, it's all blue. And I said, have fun. Happy birthday. And so that's like your favorite thing

Amanda:  when she had to do that, that she had to work through that.

Marco: So her parents came over and she said, you know, it happened to be a day where my parents came over, and it was not actually Mother's Day, to be honest. It was Mother's Day. And we've had a cold snap here, so the weather hasn't been so lovely.

Amanda:  It's been a cold May friends, Very cold May.

Marco: And so they were kind of stuck in the house. And Dale, our friend Dale, friend of the show, said, do you guys want to do a puzzle? And her parents are like, yeah. She's like, I've got this puzzle. And she showed the picture on the puzzle, or I have this mystery puzzle that Marco gave me. And her parents are. And she goes, you decide. And they're like, mystery puzzle. And so they were building it. And you know how you oftentimes when you're making a puzzle, you do the edges.

Amanda:  I hate puzzles. So not really, but I guess you

Marco: do the edge pieces because they're. They're. They're flat.

Amanda:  You figure out your border, right?

Marco: And they couldn't figure out the border because it wasn't turning out to be square. And then Dale said, I bet it's not square. And they figured out that it was not square. And they figured out the rectangle.

Amanda:  A long, skinny, rectangular puzzle. Evil, Evil. Evil. Machiavelli lives in you.

Marco: I know. It was so good. And then they told me how they. Dale's daughter was able to figure out what the puzzle was based on the name that was, I guess, on a puzzle piece. And so I was really deep search. I was really proud. I was really proud.

Amanda:  They got pretty far. They got far as far as Dale's gonna get. She's like, we did the border. We figured out the thing. The rest of it is blue. And I think we're good.

Marco: And I'm happy. I'm happy. I didn't feel like they had to do the puzzle, but I just wanted them to challenge of it.

Amanda:  Just knowing that they were trying was what your true joy came from, of

Marco: course, and that it was frustrating and a challenge and all those things.

Amanda:  When I first met Marco, the very, very, very first moment I met him, he sat down at a table with a bunch of people who are now my friends, but I didn't know any of them because I was new to the cast, and he had been there at that point, you know, five plus years, so he knew everybody really well. Anyway, he sat down at this table, and he said, guess what? I just did. So I listened like the rest of the table, and he said, I got a bag of those. What are those flowers that are yellow with the brown. And I was like, brown Eyed Susans. And he was like, yeah, that's the

Marco: first thing Amanda ever said to me. Brown Eyed Susan.

Amanda:  And it's true.

Marco: Yeah.

Amanda:  Do you remember it?

Marco: Yeah, I think I can remember it.

Amanda:  Yeah. I was excited that I knew the name of the flower so I could add something to this conversation. And I was like, brown Eyed Susan. And you went, yeah, yeah, that's it. Brown Eyed Susans. Anyway, I got this huge bag of brown Eyed Susan seeds, and I planted it in my mother's backyard. And I kind of was like, I mean, I didn't know what your mother's backyard looked like at the time, so none of this really made sense. But the glee that you had, you're like, in the spring, she's gonna be like, not know what these are. And all These Brown Eyed Susans are gonna come up. And I remember thinking, if that was my mom, she'd probably just pull them because she'd think they were weeds. But what happened in that? I never got the end of that story.

Marco: So my mother had a long, beautiful garden at the time. It was long and rectangular, much like the puzzle that we gave. That had rocks in it.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco: And it was like kind of irises and colorful flowers. And all the flowers. Yeah. They all kind of work together in color and theme. So Brown Eyed Susans did not work in this scheme.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco: And my mother has a really gifted green thumb.

Amanda:  She does, yeah.

Marco: And so I planted all these.

Amanda:  As does mine, by the way.

Marco: That's true. And I planted all these brown Night Susan seeds and was happy to just see what would happen.

Amanda:  And what happened?

Marco: They grew in the most wonderful spots. And my mother was really impressed.

Amanda:  Really?

Marco: What she did. Yeah.

Amanda:  Is that actually the truth?

Marco: Yeah. They grew like.

Amanda:  It was like, I never knew the end of this story.

Marco: I thought they would pop up randomly.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco: But they only sort of popped up in certain areas of the garden.

Amanda:  Okay.

Marco: And they looked really pretty because they gave a different dimension. And my mother just thought she had planted them in front of them.

Amanda:  She thought she had planted them because

Marco: it looked so nice. And I was like, well, that didn't turn out the way I thought it would.

Amanda:  But I will never forget, forget this man. And I just kept thinking, this grown man. Well, one, I was confused because I was like, why are you at your mother's house? I didn't. Not, why are you at the mother's house? But I think you were living with your mom. And I was a little bit like, who lives with their parents?

Marco: No, because I had the house before I moved there.

Amanda:  You didn't have the house at that point, though.

Marco: Okay.

Amanda:  So I guess you did live with your mom at the time, which confused me a little bit because I was like, do you live with your mom? And then truthfully.

Marco: Well, I had lived.

Amanda:  You had lived away. I had lived in an Oregon moment in your life. You were living with your mom. It's not like you had only lived with your parents. But I didn't know that. And so I was just trying to process that. And again, that's not weird. It just was weird for me in that moment, truthfully. I also was just trying to figure it all out. So I was, okay, this guy lives with his mom, but also his idea of a good time is planting flowers that his mother doesn't know about. Like, it just. The whole concept of this story was, like, so foreign to me. Now it makes complete sense now that I know you and love you.

Marco: And there you go. And that's what you do if you love somebody. You plant flowers they don't expect in their garden.

Amanda:  Well, when you live with somebody and you, I mean, it's a gift. Those. Those Brown Eyed Susans might still be there to this day.

Marco: They might. They might very well be. All right, I'm going to call Flushing before I end this podcast episode. Thank you for listening.

Amanda:  We have to do it like we did in PA Palmer Hall, Flushing.

Marco: Flushing. I. I would recommend when you have your day tomorrow or later on today, anytime you have to flush, just sing that out to the family, see how they take it.

Amanda:  Or maybe do a little research on Flushing, New York.

Marco: Sure. Why not?

Amanda:  Why not? Why not just figure out Flushing in your life and how that applies. It's the word of the day for tomorrow.

Marco: If you're not feeling well or you have family members or friends who aren't, tell them that this is chicken soap, chicken soup for their ears. And they can.

Amanda:  And it'll flush out all the bad, all the toxins, as they say in yoga class.

Marco: There you go. Until next time. We hope you were able to listen and of course, sleep.