Redefining celebration, one stereotype at a time.

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, when everyone’s suddenly Irish and green beer flows, Maxine and Isabelle ask the question: Who decided what our passports drink? From Irish pints to French wine, national identity and alcohol have been tightly linked. But where did those stereotypes begin? And the women have been travelling; Maxine does a pretty spot on impersonation of her drunk fellow passenger on flight to Palm Beach and Isabelle talks about overreaching corkage fees in NYC! They’ve got opinions, and they’ll make you laugh! 

Please remember to subscribe to the podcast and to visit our website at:
www.happyafpodcast.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hi everyone, it's Maxine and Isabel, and we are here for episode 10 of Happy AF. We are happy alcohol free. And also happy as fuck, as always. Ten episodes in, it's still it still makes me laugh. Right, of course. It still makes me laugh. We're a couple of way, a couple of days away from St. Patrick's Day. I'm sure nobody can tell. Well, listen, with all the green. You have that lovely dark forest green. I'm in that, this like full-on bright green. And I'm wearing the Irish flag right now.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

All the emeralds I own, everything together. And also to piss the shit out of my sister. She's my sister is a uh Taurus, so Emerald is her stone. Oh, yeah. She's been dying to have these big emeralds, but I keep in those are all inherited, passed down by mother-in-laws. Yes, yes. And your other one is getting all the emeralds and makes her crazy.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Look at my I'm wearing my little emerald, so it's one of the only things I have from my mother, who was also a Taurus. Oh, yeah. So Emerald was was um is her. So yeah, we're talking about all things Emerald Isle. And actually, we're talking today about nationalities, associations with alcohol and drinking. And we are, you know, we're gonna redefine the whole celebration situation one stereotype at a time. But first, we need a little liquid joy. So we're gonna start with what we're drinking today for St. Patrick's Day. Um, you're drinking, so I love this. It's cedars, and they have a couple of them. This one's called Wild, and it's aromatic and spicy, according to this. Juniper, clove, and uh ruibus. How do you say that? I don't know, but I know that's tea. Yes. Yeah, yes. So this is, you know, uh I they call it cedars and tonics. It's supposed to be like a gin. That bottle is so pretty, by the way. The bottle is so gorgeous. I love it. So you're having that, and you're drinking that neat lady. And then this is um, I love this, Wilfrid's. It's a non-alcoholic aperitif, bitter orange and rosemary, and it's got a little bit of sparkle to it. And I mix it with um fever tree Sicilian lemonade. And it's like it's it's kind of summer in a glass, if you ask me, but um, it's a delicious uh alcohol-free beverage. Cheers, my love.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Cheers. You know, the first time I ever drank too much was on gin. So I have an aversion to gin. But this is really good. It was gin. I was in my friend's, we were at our mountain cabin, but it was a trailer. No disrespect to trailers. But you know, when you're 12, I was 12 or 13, it's all the same, but my cartoon brain now has just gone to the same. Like, how white trash can you get? Yes. My first drinking episode was drinking gin in a trailer, and we did not have seven apps, so we mixed it with Mountain Dew. Oh, that's you cannot get more white trash and rash. That's what we are.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

So we I remember saying on her back, gin is kind of high brow for your first drink example. Probably not the gin we got our hands on.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Okay, right, right. And in that trailer with Mountain Dew. So I developed an inversion for both gin and mine right now.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

You also only have some of your teeth. And there's well, actually, I have a gold one. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

I do have a gold tooth. I went all out when I lost it. No, listen, man. I I don't do the shit. I don't do the white trash halfway. I go all in. Trailer. I knew you were gold tooth. I know you were. I certainly was. Oh, wow. Who knew? This is all coming back to me. Oh, it's all coming back.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Shit. Well, cheers to that. Well, cheers to that. You know, everybody has one of those um uh the the drink that you got so terribly, terribly drunk on. So mine, and I think many people share this tequila. Tequila, because it was the shot thing. I was in grad school in London and it was my birthday. Right. And we went, I remember it. I remember I well, I remember it up to a point. Right. Actually, back then I wasn't drinking to blackout. I don't know. I think the blackout drinking came much, much later for me. But I was so I was I was in grad school, so it was probably, you know, 22 or 23. I remember it was a bar in um Covent Garden, uh-huh, and the bartender said, Oh, your friend said it's your birthday, so we're gonna do a shot for every day of the week. Oh, wash. So let me just tell you, and the 20-something magazine was like, I see you, I can do this, and I did it, and I was so I remember that-I get sick, oh, violently ill. I didn't even get sick. To the point that, and this was back living in London in my first apartment in London. I lived in a tiny studio by Hyde Park because I had this vision. I I I always go at things with a vision. I'm like, I want to live near the park. Right. I did the same thing when I came to New York, and all my New York friends were like, Are you are you a billionaire? You can't live by the park. Right. And I'm like, You're like, but if it's in the back alley. Correct. And I was like, so this is what I did in London. And I found this like little studio apartment that was one room. It wasn't a studio apartment. This woman had converted the house into studios, and it was a bedroom with a Murphy bed. It was a studio. You lived in one of those in New York. Murphy bed came down off the wall. No window. And you could. Oh, this had a big, beautiful window. And it was right, it was two blocks from Hyde Park. So I live was living the dream. I was like, Yes, I live by Hyde Park. And I and I remember it lying in that bed. These, I mean, this is burned on my memory. Lying in that bed until the tick la shots with no, I had to get it. I'm about saying it's burned in your memory until the tickala shots. Yeah, until the tick a la, tick a. I love how you were saying that now. It's tikala, the tika la shots. That sounds way better than tequila. But it the hangover was so bad. The apartment was so small, the studio was so small that you could touch the bathroom door from from the from the bed, but I couldn't make it to the toilet. So I had a pot. Yeah. A giant pot next to my bed. And after that, I never, ever, ever touched tequila. Again, the smell of it, when someone else would have it, I would be like, that's how I feel about gin.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

And by the way, I read in many places by doctors, not people that don't want to drink, uh, experts on addiction and stuff like that. That people such as myself, so for instance, didn't get sick on the gin episode. Okay. Felt like shit. But didn't get sick. And I rarely, I mean, I can't remember. Last time I got sick drinking, I was 14 years old and I drank a ton of beer. Right? Yeah. I didn't get sick drinking and I had seldom hangovers. And if I did have a hangover, they were brutal because I went all out. Yes, yes. No sick. And apparently, people like such as myself, I'm not alone, are way more prone to getting hooked on alcohol because we don't have really bad effects. Number one, and number two, something with the biology that makes you even more prone, right? Okay, okay. You can take it and your tolerance just go build and build and build, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Well, which I mean, I don't know. It sounds a little smarter than those of us who got violently ill.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

I mean, it's I look classier doing it, but I I felt like shit, but oh my god, the gin and the tequila.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

I've had plenty of the episodes where I'm like, you know, you're so, so sick vomiting, and I'm like, I'm never gonna drink again. And then, you know, four days later.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Speaking of that, like this weekend, I was up in Canada and my sister last weekend so kindly made a little like St. Valentin's Day, like dinner thingy with my mom and stuff. She was it was perfect, it was so sweet. And she had a girlfriend of hers that I know, and she's everybody's so nice. My sister's friends are so nice, and her friend was asking me, like, all of a sudden, goes like, Hey, Isabel, can I ask you? Like, why don't you drink anymore? Like, which cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

I'm like, hey man, I love it when someone's just straight up about it and asks you, versus gossiping and talking shit behind your back.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Right, but I didn't want to, I didn't want to dwell too much onto it because everybody there is like, oh man, I heard this shit like 5,000 times. Right. So I wanted to kind of be like, I try to summarize it. But then, so I summarize in like six words, and then she goes, So do you think you were an alcoholic? And I was gonna answer, like, I had zero problem with that. I used to say I was an alcoholic when I was drinking, right? But then after reading all about it, you know, some people debate, is there such a thing? Right, does that even exist? Does the label matter? Right. So I was gonna like kind of like do the PC thing about the label because I really don't give a fuck. Before I had time to say anything, when I thought my sister and my mom weren't paying zero attention, my sister quickly is like, oh, definitely. You're like, wow, I'm sorry. Are you answering for me? So I was like, no, I know how you really feel. So I was like, all these years, and now you're saying it like so. I thought it was really funny because it was like she looked like she wasn't paying attention or like when she heard the word alcoholic. She's like, Oh yeah, she definitely was. I was like, fuck you.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Okay, that's really funny. That is funny. So um, yeah, I speaking of Valentine's, I I when I oh, I was traveling, remember, and I was texting you. Oh my gosh, I haven't talked to you since that plane episode that I text you about. Why was it? The people next to me. Oh, but you didn't really go into details. So you're I mean, it was it would and it was also like people got like a no no so that to the point like the the the flight attendant was Well, give me start from the beginning. So start from the beginning. Um, on a lovely jet blue flight. Can't remember now where I was going because I've been on a plane every week. Um, where was I going? I was going to go down to California. No, I was going to um Palm Beach. I was going to Palm Beach. Borbora. I was on a jet blue flight, and the two women who got in next to me were so lovely. One of them had a dog, so there was a whole thing about the dog. There's always a thing about somebody in their dog. Anyway, she gets on board with the dog, and then she's swapping the dog. The husband is sitting in front of her. She's she's very young. I want to say, you know, she's probably in her 30s, and she has this pug with her that comes out and goes on her lap, and da-da-da. And I'm like, I don't know, this is a therapy dog or something. And then the other lady who sits on the inside and I'm on the aisle, I always have to be on the aisle because I pee like every 30 minutes. So they they, you know, the drinks come along, and I, you know, I order my diet zero coke or whatever. Ooh, don't drink that shit. It's full of chemicals. Go for the real. Listen, I really, rarely have it. I have it on a it's the airplane with the rom-com. You get a piece. Yeah, yeah. You get a piece. Coke zero on the airplane. It's just fine. Um, until they start. By the way, when are they gonna start serving alcohol-free freaking drinks on the airplane?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

They better start serving.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

You know, let's go. Everyone else is getting on board. Um, so anyway, the girl orders, and I knew as soon as she placed her order, I was like, oh, this is going downhill. She ordered a tequila and soda. Uh-huh. And then as the as the flight attendant gave it to her, she was like, you know what, you might as well just give me two. Oh, no. That kind of drinking. That kind of drinking. I was a good drinker. Was like, oh, you know, you're you're right. I'm gonna so she had two vodkas or two gins or whatever, and then the girl next to me had two tequilas. Now I then zone out. I was working, I was rehearsing my lines and my lyrics, and I was in the zone. So I wasn't really paying attention to how many times. So, but clearly, multiple times the drinks were passed in front of me.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

And by the way, I'd like to interject, which would be fine if they're the kind of alcoholic that I was that can keep it down. But that didn't sound like it because I would have ordered one of the things.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Slowly, but surely, uh uh, while I'm not paying attention, the wheels are coming off, to the point that then the flight attendant is like leaning over to me, and the husband is in the front. He's turning around, so I take my headphones out and I'm like, What's going on? I look at the girl next to me. This is probably like, you know, two hours into the flight. Yeah, she's bawling, crying. Oh no. The flight attendant is saying, Miss, you may not have any more. And she was like, I will tell you when I want more. And I was like, Oh god, then the husband is turning around. Now the woman in front of me, he was not drunk. He was not drunk, but he was he was embarrassed. I was actually sad because I was like, I wonder if this is an abusive relationship as well. Because he was treating her like a child. Oh, and she was behaving like a child, but he was like, Shut up, you're embarrassing me. And then the woman next to him, she starts turning around and she's wasted and she's slurring her speech. And I'm like, What am I? And then they're not friends, right? They're perfect strangers. So she's telling the husband to calm down. Oh no. And she's like, leave her alone, leave her alone. Listen, then she's weighing into the girl next to me and she's like, You're all right, honey. You're all right. Just don't drink anymore. Just don't. And I'm not, I'm like, oh God, I need to put my headphones back in. But all the time, I'm like, hey, everybody, I think I I think you should tune into our podcast. So then what happens?

SPEAKER_02 13:06

I love how you imitate the drunk. You have a good, just perfect drunk person, American account. It's not like it's when you're not gonna be around. Don't think you're drunk and you're insisting that you're not gonna do it. She's keeping it together. The lady in the middle was keeping it together. No, no, she was bowling her eyes out. The other one I think. Oh, the other one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, she was on the on the window and she was keeping it together, and she was like, and then the dog starts barking. And so the flight attendant comes up and she is. I mean, it was like, I was like, why is there not cameras? I want to be filming this. And you should have. You know, everybody's filmed their news or their fucking camera and their face. You should be like, I'm filming this. I'm like, guys, do you mind if I just capture some b-roll for my podcast? No, so it ended. We're about to land now. This is going on for the whole thing, and I can't get my my airbods pods to be loud enough to drown it out because the hot she keeps going. The woman in the middle is crying, and she's, you know, when you're repeating yourself when you're driving. Oh my god. So 1,000 times she said, I'm not. And I was like, please don't involve me because I really don't want to get involved in this. And and then part of me wants to be like, okay, I think you maybe need to like not drink. Like, you know, take a break. Like, take a break. Uh so they land anyway, we're on the runway, and the flight attendant comes over and she says, I have reported you. No. Um, you will not be welcome on a jet blue flight. So then the husband gets so mad. So there's like a domestic situation. Wow. Yeah. So what did the husband say? He was like, You're a fucking disgrace. And then the then the random woman is like, you all need to calm down. She's like the voice of reason. But she's totally slurring her speech. It's just like, everybody needs to stop yelling. I'm like, all right, I have not had enough Coke Zero.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

You were like, I'll I like all you're doing, the drunk woman. You're just looking perfect. I I'm a sucker for an imitation. I like any imitation. That's my thing. I love it. Yeah, so that was so that was my flight down to Florida. Um, but that's so lucky though. I love a good drama. Yeah. But you were basically a little bit sad. Oh, this it is a little bit sad. But it's also a little bit funny. Oh no. No, but it's sad. It's sad.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

No, but there was a sad there was a sadness in me because I looked at her and thought, oh shit, it didn't need to be like this. And then I thought about when she gets off the she's got to deal with the husband. She's gotta get they gotta drive somewhere together. The dog.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

It might be why show does it though?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Maybe like there's some weird. That is why I was like, so that was what was making me sad. I was like, are you medicating? Are you self-medicating because something else is going on? And then, of course, my brain starts going to all different places of what I'm imagining our life. And she was easily 20 years younger than him. So I was like, oh God, there's a Mark Buffy in my head.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

And I can imagine like the ex-wife like seeing this and being like, ha ha ha ha, you fucking asshole. I told you what would happen when you trained me in for a new model, right? Oh, I can see it. Yeah. Payback for this asshole. He shouldn't have cheated on his wife. Now we don't know, but I'm assuming. Do you see where we're taking it? We have written a little mini-scription. You know what I feel bad for?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

The dog. No, this is what I mean. It was like, what if we leave the dog in the airport or something? I you know, because she was so drunk she didn't know what was happening. And the crying and the mascara was running down her face, and she couldn't keep herself together. And I was like, oh shit, this is bad. It felt like it was a moment that needed an intervention. But I was like, Well, guess what?

SPEAKER_02 16:33

The the stewardess did it.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah, no. Well, I mean, I don't know if that happened, but that's what she said. She was like, You are not, we're you're not welcome on a jet blue flight. You treat me so badly, you were dead on. I was like, oh god. She was like, so yeah, that was my that was my little story. Um, what else did I want to tell you about traveling? Oh the other thing, wherever I was, I was in Detroit for say for uh Valentine's Day. I had a concert that night, but this was a moment where I was like, look at the world changing. I always go to a Whole Foods and buy myself or a grocery store, whatever, to get sparkling water for my room and berries and things. So they had a whole Valentine's display of non-alcoholic beverages for Valentine's Day. So nice. I was so impressed with them. You know, they had their because the store was all done up with cookies and chocolates and then they had this whole display, and they had maybe three or four different non-alcoholic uh champagnes, which I took pictures of because I haven't tasted all of them. I did uh taste the Josh sparkling, uh non-alcoholic sparkling. It was nice.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

It was good. You know, it's funny you talk about that because that was not on my list of things to talk about, but we do do that a lot. So when I travel, I travel a lot for work. Yes. And you know, I think everybody, anyone who's listened to this a little bit knows that I've developed an addiction for non-alcoholic wine. And I refuse to quit it and I don't give a fuck, right? Nobody's asking me to. You know, sometimes my husband's like, ooh, that's a lot of ad like the yesterday goes, you know, I I don't know if I I grave my I gave myself a like a Florida pour. We call it a Florida pour. You know, when you fill your glass all the way, yeah. Because it's simply because I didn't feel like going back up, right? And I use like you like the waterfurt, I like the rydell glass, you know, blah, blah. So it's it kind of doesn't match, right? You don't fill a rydell all the way. It's kind of like it's stupid, right? But it's like putting like I don't know, like a freshener in your Porsche. Uh anyway. So my point is, my husband goes, Oh, there's a lot of acidity in that glass. And I looked at him, I was like, There's a lot of alcohol in yours, asshole. It's like a lot of acidity. I don't even even want to hear this what's not in there though. So ethanol. Like two, yeah, two days ago, my teeth in the bottom was were hurting really bad. And I think it's because I was dreaming and I clenched, right? Oh gosh, I'm going through the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Actually, the whole of America right now is clenching. Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

So I was clenching and then my teeth on the bottom, I was like, oh man, and that didn't happen to me in a long time. So I was like, I think I'm clenching. And he's like, ooh, it could be the acidity in your NA wine. And I was like, listen, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Okay, he needs to stop blaming the NA wine.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Number one, and number two, I was like, Dan, I'm just gonna go buy Pepsi AC. I mean, I don't fucking get it. I'm not giving up this shit.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Or you need to get one of the things on my I mean my dentist gave it to me, and I never wear it.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Listen, I used to have one, that's a whole different podcast. But I went to Invisalign because I thought I have a massive overbite and it reduced it by 0.01%. But what the Invisalign also did, and I don't want to get sued by Invisalign because I love it, I still need to wear it at night. So it replaces a mouth guard, but it's not quite as you could chew through it, which I haven't. But what it did, because some inbred white people like me have thin gums, so it reduced my overbite by 0.01%. I'm the only one that can see it, right? And I'm like, oh my God, I don't have an overbite. I instead of looking like a horse, I look like a donkey. That's the only difference. But what it did is my gums were like, oh, we don't like that. So I had to put$20,000 worth of gum repair, which is also very painful because all my gums would so that's a different podcast. But what I want to talk about was traveling. Yes, yes. Before I land, when I start getting Wi-Fi, I Google the liquor store around where I'm gonna go. Oh, this is smart. I call them and I'm like, Do you have non-alcoholic wine? And so by the time, and then if they say yay, I say, okay, could you put what brand you have? And then they tell me because I'm still a little bit of a snob. And then when I find the red and the white I like, I have them put the white in the fridge, and I'm like, I'll be there in an hour. So every time I go, so I'm so resourceful. Because I'm like, when I get to my hotel, yes, I need a cocktail. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? I need something.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

So I love this. This is a great idea. Of all of the people out there making apps, everybody's making an app. Can somebody make an app with the button up on the phone?

SPEAKER_02 20:57

And then you can buy it online and then they wait for you and you come and you grab it. Yeah. So if you think your airport, I think your airplane story is better than my story that I'm gonna say about bad stories because yours was really funny. Mine is a little bit sad. So we went for me, it was sad, but not nobody died or anything. But we went to a really nice restaurant in New York City in Dumbo. Yes. And not nice that like you have to like wear a gown, you know, that it's six hundred dollars a person, like, not that nice. But a nice restaurant, normal, nice, yeah, yeah. Normal, nice, not like just just pizza. Anywho, and he's a famous chef, this person. So I go with my two husbands, Brooks and Kevin, because Kevin's husband was unavailable. And so um, they were gonna drink, and I brought my poison, which is fine. And I had been there before with my friend Orly, and she's like a bar fly there. And I brought my poison on alcoholic wine, and they had let me have it without paying a corkage fee. And I was like, great. And this time Orly wasn't with me, so I was not gonna, so I Said, you know, last time I was able, I didn't want to sneak it, you know. It's like I was able to drink non-alcoholic wine. You don't have it on the menu, right? Um, so um, I'll pay, I'll pay corkage fee, it's okay. They're like, okay, no problem. So, do you know how much a corkage fee was for non-alcoholic wine? And by the way, I mean if it's anything more than$20, it's bulletin. It was$58. What? So actually, my husbands were more who were drinking booze were more$58 fucking dollars. And I remember thinking, what if I declined and I just drank water? Then you like, if you tell tell me it's$15, fine. I didn't decline because I was already in and my two husbands were drinking, and I didn't want and it was an expense account, so I didn't tell anyone at work that I do this podcast. So I wasn't paying for it. If I were paying for it, I'd walked out, but I wasn't. But my point is like, okay, so if I declined the Corkage fee and just drank tap water, you would have been shit out of luck. You had made no money. So now what's gonna happen is none of us, like my husband. But you're not going back there, you're not bringing your drinking friends with you.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

My husband was like, I'm never going back there. So I have a question. Well, you probably don't know the answer to this. Well, what would the corkage have been of for alcohol? Was it the same? So they were just charging you the same. Yes. Listen, here's the thing for any restaurateurs out there listening. So go ahead. We have a number of calls to action today. We need airlines to start carrying non-alcoholic wine. We need some app innovator person to get an an alcohol-free um and non-alcoholic tracking for liquor stores. Um, and we need restaurants to carry board. Listen, some of them are amazing. Some of them are in Vermont, there's a lot of carrying full. And um I've been to plenty of places that have great choices and and great um cocktail mocktails and all that stuff. But like, if you're going to a place that is not offering the alcohol-free option, then you should just be allowed to bring it yourself.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Or if you're gonna charge something, make it like another. Another place I'd gone right there, like, well, I'll charge you the price of a glass of wine. Fine. That's reasonable. I get it. Your business trying to make money, blah, blah. But in it, in and they can't say, well, you're taking someone's seat. No, we're at the table of three, whether I'm there or not. Also, these guys are coming.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

It's an expensive restaurant. You're spending hundreds of dollars on food. Right. Um, and now you've just lost three customers, and then all the friends you're gonna tell.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Right, exactly. Whereas like the next day we went to pizzeria, uh, really good pizzeria in Brooklyn. Same thing at Tovega. Very good what?

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Pizzeria. Oh, pizzeria. I mean, every I know you so and love you so. But every time again, I'm like, I don't know what that was. I don't, I don't really care. Like, you know. It sounds so good. The pizzeria. Say it again. Pizzeria. No, but say it fast. You're your pizzeria, pizzeria, pizzeria. And and you know, the word pizzerie in French, I'm like pâtisserie. Like so many people don't know how to say that the way fabulous French people do. Pizzerie. But anywho, so this guy.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

I walked in in the pizzeria and I said, I have non-alcoholic wine. He's like, that's fine, and he's the owner. And I was like, but I'll pay a courtage fee. I insisted. And then finally he's like, Oh, okay. So you charge me the price of a glass of wine. And then he was not gonna charge me anything. Listen, if nothing, we are fair. Right, just so just put non-alcoholic wine on your menu, and then I won't bring my own shit. Yes. So I thought, and then the other restaurant in Quebec was worse because I was called disrespectful. So we went to like we're like a large group, we're like eight people. We go to this restaurant, which is more like a pub, by the way. It's a pub, it's got a pool bar, uh a pool table, and we're like eight of us. And by the way, it's me and Brooks that organize this whole beeswax, right? My mom is there, and my mom is really sneaky, so she loves that I don't drink anymore because she likes the idea of sneaking my stuff in. That's like the best part of our night. Like for me to.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Listen, I love, I love that about your mom, but this is this is another reason why we're doing this podcast. It's like, let's change the narrative, guys. Let's not be sneaking, non-alcoholic.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

I think then we'll really remove like her pleasure. Like she enjoys so much. We'll find something else. We'll we'll sneak something else on her, but anywho, so so we sneak because in Quebec, booze is uh owned by the state, yeah. But this is non-alcoholic, and fuck their Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola is not bought by the state liquor people, it's bought by the Pepsi Cola distributor. So don't tell me that every beverage has to come, it's called the sack. Don't tell me all the beverages have to come for the sack because that's bullshit. Because they're water, they're sparkling water, they're sodas don't come from there, right? So I'd asked before if I could bring booze there. Ned said no, uh, non-alcoholic booze. Whereas another restaurant graciously said yes. Same owner, but I guess the manager didn't. So they said no to you bringing it. Yes, last time. So my mom was like, sneak it. I'm like, she's like, everybody else is drinking, just sneak it. I'm like, all right. She likes she's so into it. Fucking I'm sneaking. And we're like at the back of the restaurant. This this is a pub and it's packed. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And I got my little bag of my, and everybody at the table is drinking wine, so they're gonna make money on us and beer and stuff. The lady saw, so originally I put a glass of wine and a busboy saw me, and I said, Oh, it's non-alcoholic. He said nothing, but he went to tell the manager. Oh, for goodness sake. So she came over to me and she's like, Um, you're not allowed to drink your own stuff from outside. I was like, it's not alcoholic. Look at the bottle, smell it. And she's like, Well, I understand, but you're not allowed to bring anything from the outside. And I was like, That's bullshit. I came here with water before. You know, you're coming from a hike and you're doing it. Anyway, uh, and she's like, So please, you know, don't drink anymore. I was like, all right, I'll just finish my glass, right? So then my mom is like, my mom is like, sip it. And every time you sip it, you refill it. So your glass is always half full. Because it's like a pub that we know everybody in there. We're walking around, like it's not a sit-down restaurant, it's like chaos in there. There's a bar and stuff. So it's hard to keep track, right? This is in Quebec City. Yeah, no, it's in Mont Tremblanc, where like when the lake house, yeah. So it's like it's like, you know, it's chaos. We know everybody in there. So it's hard to keep. Oh my god, is it that famous bar? Which one? What's it called? Oh, are we? Something. No. What? No, no, no. No, it's in the old town. Anywho, okay, lo and behold, she was watching me. So she comes a half hour later, watching me, and she goes to me and she's like, I've seen you report your and I felt like saying, My mom told me to do it. I was like, Because my mom did it. My mom was literally like, she's not looking. Go, go, go. Like every she was loving this way too much. And she goes, You are being extremely disrespectful. And I felt bad because she was a little bit right that I was being disrespectful in the sense that she had given me marching order, and me and my mom chose to ignore it. So she had a points. I couldn't get offended because I had been a little bit of an asshole. But at the same time, I felt as though they were not being very nice, that we were spending accommodating and we were spending hundreds of dollars on alcohol and food. Hundreds. We're eight, right? And there's the one asshole, me, I mean, I'm thinking that she's being disrespectful.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

She was not being very nice. She was being disrespectful. I'm sorry. You what you eight? I'm flabbergasted by this. Because what on earth? What on earth? Everybody else is drinking and eating and spending money.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

And the worst part, what she doesn't know, is they just got bought out by an owner, her name is Julie, who's a lovely woman who has another restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

All right, we need to be talking to Julie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

And the other restaurant, same thing, but it's a nicer, fancier restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

And they let you bring it.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Not only that, I was like, Can I bring my non-alcoholic water? They're like, of course. I was sitting at the bar, they're like, here, and they put it on. I was leaving in my back. Here's a bar.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

I think that was a person issue. Maybe. I think she was like, I don't like this woman with the overbike. She didn't like your. And then once she saw you trying to pull one over, she was going all in. Um, it's people like that. I put them in the same category back in the day when I used to go to nightclubs. The um, the guys at the door and the door. Um, remember you used to call them door whores. I don't know if this but the fucking velvet robe and the clipboard. And I'm like, you are on a power trip and I and this is the this is the highest level of power you are ever going to reach. Yeah. So you are absolutely milking it. So she was on a power trip.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

My mom wanted to get it, she wanted to get in the middle of it with her, and I'm taking like your mom. Five feet tall mom. I was like, mom, that's enough. She's like, she was like up on our chair and trying, and I was like, let's not do this. She was like the drunk woman by the window. That was my mom, except she was see cold sober, like trying to give her the right act. Like I was, you know, I was being abused. I was like, no, no, no, no, let's like, but yeah, so that's that's what happened.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Wow. So well, oh gosh, I don't know. Well, listen, I again I keep thinking about how the world is changing and and like restaurants, they've got to see the future. And and you can't, I was speaking to somebody about this yesterday, the business of it, right? You can't open a newspaper or a magazine anymore and not see an article about how the big alcohol industry is hurting big time. I read an article about the drop in red wine consumption in France for the first time in history. And and this is perfect because what we're talking about today is our national identity. So, you know, for for me, how many times I could count, I couldn't count how many times someone will say, Oh, you're Irish, you love a beer, oh you're Irish, you love to drink. Right. Oh, you're Irish. I can't think of another nationality that is more intrinsically linked with drinking than Irish. I mean, the franchise. No, I think Irish, you're right. I think you got to do it. No, I think we probably have the number one spot. Yeah. And um, it's always offended me, even when I was a drinker. Right. Like because it's the drunken Irish thing, which if you are Irish, by the way, you most of us know where that stemmed from, right? It stems from the caricature from hundreds of years of colonization by England and having to read signs in England and eventually in America, you know, no dogs, no Irish, no blacks. It's because we were put in a category of being sub. Of being a subpar. Yes. Of being unintelligent drunkards. And that was the propaganda that was used in colonization. Right. And very much so in Ireland.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

It's very common with that's very similar, except we don't have the reputation, but it's the same dog stigma that was with French Canadian. Like that subpar, the Anglos were lesser. We're lesser.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

You are um uh unintelligent, unsophisticated, correct, um, uneducated, and and capable only of menial tasks. And then so when you gather, you just get drunk.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

And beer was the equivalent to that. That's why French Canadians in the 70s, 60s, and before that were drinking beer. Yes. And they wanted when they wanted to, when they started going to university and stuff and being bilingual and wanted to raise themselves, they would try to switch to wine. Oh, interesting. See, and that like that old deer Irish.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

No, we don't have wine. I mean, maybe there's wine in Ireland, I don't know. Um, I you know, I haven't lived at home for uh 25 years. Right. So, but I go home all the time. But the the idea of that always, it always got my back up. And I used to get really offended. And I have some like I've still got some classic stories about what people say to you because you're Irish. One of my favorite ones is I had just moved to America. And um, and you know, it just comes again, everything comes back to lack of information or misinformation or education. Um, but the guy, this guy that I met with a friend of mine in a bar one night in New York, and she introduced me to him as Irish. And he was like, Oh my god, I love the Irish, and I love that movie, Braveheart. I've never seen it, but I know what it's about. That's not fucking about Ireland. Okay. Plus, isn't it an Australian playing the role? It's well, he's Australian, and the place it's the movies about Scotland. Right. And I'm like, okay, not the same, not the same. And then and then the whole the, you know, the other thing that the Irish, it's like, I will say to somebody, they're like, oh, you're Irish. And again, now people will say to me, Oh, you don't sound that Irish. I'm like, well, I'm not lying to you. Like, I've been away from home for a long time. Right. But then when people say, Oh my god, where are you from? And I'll say, Oh, I grew up in Cork, oh, do you know John Murphy? Oh, yes. And I'm like, I do. Yes, I know all the John Murphy's in art. All three million of them. Um, yeah, that one, that one cracks me up. But people talk about St. Patrick's Day, and and it's when I came to my first St. Patrick's Day in New York, my mind was blown. Because back then, and I know it has changed in the last two decades because of the globalization of the St. Patrick's Day debauchery. Uh-huh. When I grew up in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day was a national holiday, I say akin to Thanksgiving, right? Right. So you've a big deal then. Oh, a huge deal. It's our national holiday. So it's your 4th of July in America. It's like in Quebec or Saint Jean-Baptiste. It's like a big deal. Correct. It's like Bastille Day. It's our national holiday. And it's not actually when we're celebrating.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

So you get together as a family or you get wasted like in the States.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

You do not get wasted. Right. Like that is not a drink again. I know it is a good thing. We don't drink green beer. We do not drink, I never saw green beer until I came to America. We we we um you get a day off school, so it's a national holiday, you go to mass. Oh, because it's a religious St. Patrick's Day. Um, and then you have a meal. You have a meal with your family. So growing up, to me, that's what that holiday was. Right. And then the other great thing is St. Patrick's Day always falls during Lent. Oh. So you can't drink. So you can't drink, but you always were well, and I wasn't drinking as a child, but we used to give up chocolate and candy and sweets. And um, you were allowed to break your fast on that. So you get a pass. You get a pass on St. Patrick's Day. My I was from a household where my mother would give us a pass, but our dad did not agree with that pass. Got it. He would say, Jesus didn't come down from the mountain for a snack.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

That's so fucking funny. That is so fucking funny. But that's what he said. Jesus is a very strong.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Well, you know, he also wasn't Irish, and let's not get into the whole thing about what is real and not real in that book that you're talking about. That's a whole different podcast. It's like, yeah, yeah. So so then I come to New York and I learn about St. Patrick's Day here and I in America, and I remember, I remember vividly seeing my first pile of green vomit on the sidewalk in New York City. And the size of the parade. And listen, the wearing of the green and the proud Irish um heritage, the Irish Americans love their Irishness. Like it is such a big deal. But again, the history of the parade was was to march in solidarity of being a community of Irish people who were really kept down. Yeah, the Catholics were the one that, you know. So but then it then it what happened? It got commercialized, right? That's what happened in America. Like everyone. Like everything. And so now it turned into this thing. And when I see the people with the kiss me, I'm Irish. And then the other thing that drives me crazy is people use the clover, the shape of a clover. So the the symbol, our Irish symbol, one of the symbols in Ireland, there's a harp and there's obviously our flag, but it's a tr it's a shamrock. Right. It's the it's the leaf, the three leaves that St. Patrick folklore, legend, described the Holy Trinity of the Catholic Church, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Right. So that's why. And then people are like, oh, I'm Vigara, Vigara, I got my clover. I'm like, oh God, I need to teach you about the ways of the um my kids used to, uh they still, I still do it and it drives them crazy. Now they're embarrassed. They loved it when they were young. But I used to go to whatever school they were at around St. Patrick's Day and give a little speech called Fact or Folklore.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

I thought you were gonna call it Fuck St. Patrick's Day. I was like, wow, the kids already. Like, okay. I was like, woo, she saved that one.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Right, fact or folklore. Got it. I love St. Patrick's Day. Yes. I have a huge I have had a huge St. Patrick's Day party ever since I made moved to America. I love it, I love it, I love it. But I do it authentically and I try to like just spread a little bit of of reality, a little bit of fact over the folklore. And, you know, we don't have, we don't have what's the cereal? Oh, lucky charms. Like we don't have that in Ireland. Um, we don't eat corned beef in Ireland, and that's the other thing. Everyone here is like, well, corned beef and cabbage. I'm like, never had corned beef in my life. Yeah. Okay. We have boiling ham, we have bacon, we have pork, that's what we eat. Right. But it, but, but anyway, so I'm I'm a year year in, year out. I'm on a mission to like get some things straight. But but so now the whole idea, there's been a actually a company, a group, an organization in New York that I've known for years called Sober St. Patrick's Day. And it's like giving the opportunity for people to celebrate whatever it is in their own way. And if it's without alcohol, let's celebrate that instead of hiding that. You know? And and I keep going back to the why of this podcast is we just want to talk about our choosing to do this and how it's not only doable, but we've had these great experiences. So we've started, um, for everybody who's listening, we've started something called Happy AF Club, which is obviously just local right now to us here in Vermont. Um, and we had a sort of a first little gathering a few weeks ago and we're having and it's doubled in size. Right. Like one month. Right. Um, but one of the women in that in that chat group was just talking about how this podcast gave her the confidence and the security, or what what words she was using about going to work events and then everybody going to the bar afterwards and and being able to just say, no, I don't drink alcohol, and say with a smile on my face, instead of being sheepish and going, Oh no, I don't drink. Right. Why don't you drink?

SPEAKER_02 40:50

And the thing that people forget is like, I remember when I quit smoking, as hard as it is to quit a substance you're addicted to, like cigarettes was, at least, even though it was still you could still smoke in bars and restaurants and stuff like that, the jig was out, right? They were like, it's bad for you, it's gonna kill you, it's bad for your lungs, and and no one would be like, oh my god, I can't believe you're quitting smoking. Like everybody would encourage you. And and the thing with alcohol is it's the same addictive substance. I know. We're just not known, but we're not talking about it. So the reason why they are just not our podcast, but a lot of podcasts, is because when you quit drinking, you're kind of breaking away from the masses, and there's like a little bit of a spotlight. It's going against the grain. Yeah, and some people, people that make them uncomfortable. Me, I love a spotlight, so I was like, bring it on. Yes. But what I did like, the reason I was listening to people. You like spotlight? Excuse me. Here, over here, people. Um, but um, the one thing when I quit drinking originally is like I was craving listening to what other people went to. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Right? You know, I'm like, I'm I I don't want to go to AA for so many reasons that are just my own. And so, but I I was curious to hear like like what happened to you. Like, for instance, like I had the shits for five years, right? That's what one of the things alcohol did to me. And so I would have to Google that, and then you end up on the dark web.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

You're like, but you know. It's exactly what you're saying. And even in just this podcast, and as we are growing episode on episode, I mean, it's amazing how many listeners, subscribers, followers we have on social media after 10 episodes. Like it's really.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

And it's not, and for those who think that we're trying to preach for everybody to quit journey, we don't give a fuck what you do. You do you. Okay, it's for those that are interested and they're like, you know, sometimes I feel weird, or is it just me? Or like, or sometimes you you like at first when I quit drinking, you feel as though you're the only sad soul and to do that. Yes, right? And then so to just see that, oh, I'm not the only sad soul. There's other people that got under the jug of alcohol and needed to break away with it.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

It's my favorite word, and it's what we're doing with the podcast, it's what we're doing with Happy AF Club. It's community, right? Right? It's a community of people who are who are experiencing something similar, who have the same goals or the same mindset or the same growth ideas about about evolution of themselves as a person. And you know, to talk about again, like the whole idea of how the cultural shift is happening. I'm not the only person who gets pissed off when people say, Oh, you're Irish, you must love drinking. Right. It's like, stop saying that, okay? Right, that's that's enough. Okay, it's it's antiquated, it's it's m misinformed. And um, oh my gosh, I forgot I gotta tell you about this club. The uh did I tell you about this? No, this new club in New York. Oh, yes, that you like. Right. Shout out to the maze. It looks amazing, by the way. It is amazing. Do you see what happened there? Mm-hmm. Um. That wasn't really very funny, but the Maze is this new alcohol-free club in New York. And it's the same thing. It's about community. It's building community. And how did I forget to talk about this? On St. Patrick's Day this year, I'm performing there. I know, it's amazing. I know. And it's a full alcohol-free St. Patrick's Day celebration. They're doing a special menu and um that's full of options.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

And for those who listen to that and are like, man, what the fuck? Are these girls like looking for a cult? I'd like to remind everyone that in the 90s, where you could smoke everywhere, it was starting that you would have a few restaurants that would be like, you know what? No smoking here. Yes. Okay. And no one was like, oh, look at them with their cult or their, you know what I'm saying? So this is just the beginning of in 20 years, maybe half the restaurants would be this way. There is no question. You know what I mean? So I went to a party like two weeks ago or last week, I forget. Uh, my favorite neighbor in the universe of neighbors, Sarah. So sweet, it was our birthday. She's like the best person. I love her so much. Anyway, our friends kindly invited me to our little birthday celebration that we're having for her at their house. Yeah. I thought it was so nice they would even think of me. But my point is like there were just a few women, maybe like 10. And Sarah, who drinks, was, you know, so excited to tell me, like, she's like, by the way, because I was drinking my poison. She's like, she's like, I keep forgetting you don't drink because you're drinking wine all the time. And I keep referring it to it as wine. And she says that I haven't changed. So great. But she's like, by the way, you realize here that 70% of women are not drinking? Yeah. I was like, what? She's like, yeah. She's like, this one doesn't drink. This one quit 60 years ago. This one quit seven years ago. And she's like, these two drink like maybe one glass at dinner sometimes, maybe. Uh, and I remember thinking, like, wow, that has changed. And by the way, had I been drinking at this bin over a year and a half ago. Yes. Because I had to drive there, even though it's not far. I would have been the one person wanting to drink a lot more than all of these women there. Right. Because all of them were moderators or abstainers. And like, so I would have been counting my drinks so that I can drive, but it would have been like painful.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Oh, and that is the thing. It's like, that is one of the things for me that is the biggest relief. The driving. Is no, the thinking. The thinking about it all the time. Thinking about, I say this all the time, right? It's like I'm thinking about drinking, I'm thinking about not drinking. I'm thinking about how much I'm drinking. I'm thinking about when I'm gonna have a hangover. Like that that whole space in my brain has now been freed up.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

And by the way, Brooks wants me because when you sent me like the culture thing, and I was like, I have nothing to talk about. And he was like, oh man, if I will freeze up, he's like, that's what he said. Yeah, he's like, you can't talk about fucking beige pain, that's his favorite thing. But um he reminded me a culturally because I was like, French Canadians are not known here, so there's nothing to talk about. But so Brooks is like partly Norwegian, so we've been to Norway a bunch of times, and there's several things he's gonna be. By the way, cleaned up at the Olympics. Oh my god, of course. They're born with skis on their fucking feet, right? But so we were invited the Irish, by the way. What were they there?

SPEAKER_01 47:33

Yes, we were.

SPEAKER_02 47:34

They were at the Olympics? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Oh, we had a team of four.

SPEAKER_02 47:37

Oh that's very funny. What curling? Like you don't think when you think winter Olympics, you're saying we're famous for a lot of shit, okay. But like that's like a yeah, but anyways, Norwegian, so we were invited to this family party. It was like 90 people, okay? And it was during the day, we show up, it's a huge barbecue that killed the lamb, literally, okay, because that's a farm and all that. Actually, the guy was really funny. I was like, isn't that hard? Like, you killed your own lamb. He's like, Well, that one didn't have a name. I thought it was hysterical.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

Anyways, so I have a friend who is a farmer and she doesn't like to call it slaughter. She calls it harvesting.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

She's like, I'm going to harvest. You have to, you have to, otherwise it's impossible, right? And like, so yeah, this is like we don't name all of them. Anyway, there's like 90 people there. Most people are young, like super cool people, like Norwegian people are so funky. They're like a different brand of weird, but in a funny, funky, weird way. Like good weird. Yeah, yeah. No fucking booze. And I'm like, what? And that was on the sauce back then. I'm like, this is not gonna happen, right? So we have this three-hour, four-hour outdoor, beautiful setting by the ocean, barbecue, except it was pissing rain, so they had a tent, but doesn't matter. Gorgeous food, no booze. I I was like, I looked at Brooks, I was like, what the fuck is wrong with them? They're not a big drinking nation, are you? They are, but in hiding. Here's why. Wow. Because their drinking and driving laws are so, so, so strict that I believe even the people that throw the party can be held accountable. So if you're between 0.5, point, 0.02 and 0.05, which is well below here, you get like the fine. They they take your monthly salary and they do that times 1.5. That's the fine. And you lose your permit, which is you have to pay for permit, and it's very expensive. I can't remember how much it was they gave me, but it was hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

They don't drink.

SPEAKER_02 49:36

You lose your permit for 12 to 18 months. If you're between like 0.5 and 0.8, you can't go to jail. I mean, it's really, really strict, like stupid strict. Well, I mean, that's way one way to put you off. I mean, that's it. It works. So, and but the thing is, as much as I was upset about not drinking, yeah. At first I was like, fuck. I was like, how am I gonna stay here? Yeah. And everybody speaks English, but like all funny, more funny than me. So I was like, oh shit, it's gonna suck. But after a half hour, so I'm trapped there. Uh, there's no me leaving, and we're in in agricultural land, there's no delis to go buy booze. It's not happening. I need to cross this shit off my mind, right? I'm trapped through hours in a party, no booze. And after I got over the hump of not being able to drink, it took a maybe an hour, and I was forced to forget about it. I actually had a great time. Now, great time. And I remember thinking, like, oh, I had a good time, but I wasn't ready to quit then. So we got back to the hotel and we had told them, hey, can you start the sauna? When we come back, we're gonna do a sauna and go jump in the ocean. By the time we got back, I ordered two bottles of wine and like fuck the sauna. I was just gonna waste it.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

Listen, it's the thing that that we do to ourselves, right? It's we we're telling ourselves these lies. A lot of it was it was you telling yourself. It was nobody there going, Isabel, it's time to drink. No. This was you going, I need it, I want it, I'm not gonna be able to relax without it. Correct. And we're just slowly, and I think, you know, the example of Sarah's party of the number of women now of our age group who are just saying, you know what? I was out for dinner last night, and this lovely woman that I play tennis with this summer came up to me and she was like, you know what? I love not drinking now. I just love being the person I have, I don't worry about it anymore. I don't sit down and go, Oh God, I'm the one not drinking. And and and the fact that we need to get there, but you need to get there. And and the more it is normalized, as again, I say, listen, if you have all the information and you decide you want to drink, you knock yourself out. But I need you to not judge me for not drinking. I need you to let me talk about not my not drinking if I want to talk about it on a podcast or on the stage or any fucking wherever I'm and by the way, it's not uncommon to get addicted to an addictive substance.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

Yes. So a lot of people feel like, oh yeah, she had to quit, you know, she got hooked. Well, get me and probably you too. You just don't know. Like it's an addictive substance. And a lot of people out there addicted to it and they don't even realize they don't even realize it.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

But even, you know, I watched this feed in to the problem with my family member for so many years. Right. He wouldn't, I mean, and this was a this was a guy who lost jobs, girlfriends, family members, was in jail. Like, I mean a true bad, bad situation, and would not, for so many years, would not say, don't call me an alcoholic. Right. I don't want that stigma. I don't want that label. And so that was the harmful thing for so many people. And and still, I mean, I am at an age now, and having again worked in show business for the last 25 years, I don't give a shit what label you give me. Oh, me neither. I know who I am, I know what my relationship with alcohol was, and I am so happy that it ended. Right. And I will never ever look back and I will never regret those years. Oh, god, but I'm so excited about the future that doesn't involve it. And now, again, you know, to circle back to St. Patrick's Day, the the the article I read in one of the Irish newspapers the other day about um the the alcohol-free sales. So alcohol-free Guinness, it's called Guinness Zero Zero. Apparently it's delicious. So many people. Now, I I'm not a beer person. I'm not a beer parent. I like drugs down beer. I don't like any beer.

SPEAKER_02 53:42

I like the stuff, but I like this much of it. And apparently, the Guinness Zero, my husband says it's like really close to a real deal.

SPEAKER_01 53:49

So many people who are who are stout drinkers where I come from in Cork, we have another one called Murphy's, and I don't actually know if Murphy's have a zero zero. They must do. Right. But but the um you know, 1,500 pubs are now serving it on tap, on draft. Wow. The sales of Guinness Zero Zero have quadrupled in the last couple of years. And and it's just so lovely. And when I was home last summer, my cousin was saying to me, she was like, Oh, you know what a lot of people are doing, even if people are not saying I don't drink anymore, they're they're calling. Did you know about this term called zebraing or striping, zebra striping? What? What's that? So it's you drink an alcoholic drink and then a non-alcoholic pint. Oh, to try to dilute the amount of dilute the amount? So a lot of people who would go to the pub on a Friday night and have five, six whatever pints of Guinness are now doing alternating. So they're having a pint of Guinness and then an alcohol-free Guinness. Oh, good. And but that's what I'm saying. It's the shift, it's the cultural shift in our society, regardless of your nationality. People are now more aware. And and I love the idea when someone, like you were saying the other day, I mean, it brought tears to our eyes when a woman wrote to us on Instagram and was like, Thank you for making me feel empowered to say, I don't want to drink anymore and not feel weird about it.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

And by the way, like for those who are like, well, like, why do you have to talk about it all the time? Well, first of all, we don't go out. I don't go out in the world talking about it all the time. I wait to have a microphone because I think that's a lot more fun. Number one. And number two, it's because again, we are still at a stage that the people that choose to not drink, it's like a big deal. You're going against the grain, you're going against big alcohol. There's still a very big lobby. Look in Quebec like this.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

You're being punished in a fucking restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 55:39

Punished. Like I'm doing, like I'm bringing fucking cocaine. You know what I'm saying? So that's why people that quit feel as though they need to talk about it. And plus, when you quit something addictive, it's hard at first. Yeah. Your body wants it, your mind wants it because you've been self-meducating. Yeah, it takes a minute. And it's like something brand new. Like I said before, when you get a new set of tits, my friends that I have, that's all they talk about at first. My aunt, oh, I have this beautiful story. Shout out to my Aunt Mimi. Speaking of something new and shiny, nothing to do with boobs, but I need to Are you gonna tell me she just got new boobs? No, worse. She's my spirit animal. Aunt Mimi is gonna be 87. She's four feet eleven. She takes no prisoner. Her boyfriend is 80, and she lied about her age until not long ago, right? Love it. So love her. And uh Aunt Mimi smoked a pack of day until she was 70, quit. She has OCPD. You look at her face and she has no wrinkles. Like she just got lucky. She's not even yellow. You're like, how the fuck did you do it? Well, guess what? Aunt Mimi was very vain. My mother, too. That side of the family, like, you know, if you can be dumb, you can't find mean. Right. My in my family, that's how you can be dumb, you can be mean, you can be criminal, but goddamn it, you're not gonna be ugly. Okay? So that's how they roll. She decided at 86 that she did not like waking up in the morning and seeing herself pill. Well, guess what? She got permanent makeup. She got her eyebrows tattooed, she got an eyeliner tattooed, and she got natural lipstick tattooed. Fucking A. And she looks like.

SPEAKER_00 57:16

Okay, first of all, I didn't know this was a thing.

SPEAKER_01 57:19

Yes. What do you mean permanent?

SPEAKER_02 57:21

Tattooed. She had lost her eyebrows, you know what I mean? And and she found that her lips were too pale, you know, at 86. So she got tattooed her eyebrow. She got tattooed a little eyeliner here, and she got tattooed a very light pink lipstick.

SPEAKER_00 57:37

So what they make your lips a color that stays that way. Yes. This is freaking amazing.

SPEAKER_02 57:48

Which will they think of next? I I mean, but she looks great. But you know, how many women that age are gonna, they're they're gonna be like, fuck it, I mut I missed the boat, right? And she loves she called my mom. She was like, no, it's not even on our radio. She calls my mom, like it's been um about two weeks, and so she's building new things. And every morning she wakes up and she can't believe what she sees. Right. And every morning she calls my mom, she's like, I should have done this before. I look 10 years younger. Oh my god, oh my god, I love myself. It's not a good thing. Well, listen, can I tell you?

SPEAKER_01 58:18

It's I often think I often think the same thing about drinking. I'm like, God, I feel so good. It's your new good. It's your new tool. I feel so good, and I get to feel like this forever and ever and ever. And we're just gonna share the joy one episode at a time. And um, okay, next episode, by the way, uh, we're gonna do our first location shoot. I can't wait. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

And next one, I hope it's Bora Bora or something like that. Okay, well, this one we're just going down the road to Dorset.

unknown 58:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:52

Fiji we're gonna start there. No, actually, that's it's all it's all it's all on our future. And to talk about, you know, the again, just to finish on Aunt Mimi's, it's never too late. It's never too late. I feel like at 50, I often forget how old I am, 52. Uh, is is I I am so excited about the next decade of my life. I'm so excited about all of the things that I have yet to do in my career, in my travel, everything. And the fact that I have freed up all the brain space that I used to have clogged up with. Oh, I might be hungover after that day. I might da da da. Oh, that was a big one.

SPEAKER_02 59:29

Yes, that was a big one. Or, or, well, no, I can go there because I'm drinking at that time. Yeah, right. Like I would start drinking very early and I didn't want to drive. So if someone was like, Can we have like uh dinner at seven? I'm like, fuck, I'm not gonna be able to drink. You're like, no, no, no, no, no, no way. I can't.

SPEAKER_01 59:46

I was gonna go for 5 30, but I will settle on a six. You know what I mean? Right. Like our happy AF club at our next meeting. I was like, hey everybody, all right, six o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 59:55

But that's for a different reason, you know. Whereas like before when I was drinking, it's because I'd be several, several glasses in. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

Well, listen, uh, always fun. I love that we get to do this. And I want to thank all of our listeners. Um, we're we're a really growing community, and a lot of you have written in and thanked us for just sharing our stories and having fun. You know, we're here to entertain you first. Um, and if there's a little shot of inspiration on the side, uh, you want to feel part of our community, we just love having you. So thanks for listening. Follow us on all the various different social media platforms, happyaf podcast.com. Uh, subscribe, and we will see you next time for episode eleven. Happy Saint Patrick's happy alcohol free, happy Saint Patrick's, and happy as fuck, as always. We just always gotta finish with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Okay. Have a good one.