After a few heavier, more cerebral episodes, we wanted to lighten things up with a FUN ONE using Rachael’s silly list of questions to get to know yourself and others. These ice breaker questions are silly ways to actually get to deeper conversations and important topics, especially related to creativity and authenticity.
After a few heavier, more cerebral episodes, we wanted to lighten things up with a FUN ONE using Rachael’s silly list of questions to get to know yourself and others. These ice breaker questions are silly ways to actually get to deeper conversations and important topics, especially related to creativity and authenticity.
Episode Mentions:
The transcript for this episode can be found here!
Rachael: Hi, you're about to listen to an episode where Lauren and I work through some of my silly questions that I love for connection and incorporating play into your every day, and I'm really excited to share that I created this as a download, so if you want access to these silly questions that we cover in the episode and some more, you can visit the link in the show notes and get a copy. I'm also here to share that as we approach Black Friday and Cyber Monday this week, I am excited to open up my Prioritize Play workshop again for registration, and I'm going to be hosting a one-off 2025 creative visioning session where I give you prompts and we work through some of the ideas and set some creative goals for 2025. So both of those registration links are going to be live on Black Friday with a discount through Cyber Monday, so check those out too. Okay, let's get into the episode. I'm really excited to force you to listen to Lauren answering my silly questions.
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Rachael: How people respond when you bring up these silly questions, if they're like, "Hell yeah, this is silly," and they're into it, I am like, "Oh, you're my people. You're ready to get weird and talk about what you would look like as a gargoyle."
Lauren: Hello. Welcome to Chaotic Creatives, the show about embracing the chaos that comes with living a creative life.
Rachael: We are your hosts, two self-proclaimed chaotic creative gals. I am Rachel Renee. I'm your internet hype gal, an enthusiastic style gal, all around just really here to try to help you live a more creative and fulfilling life.
Lauren: All around good person.
Rachael: Thank you.
Lauren: And I am Lauren Hom, better known as Hom Sweet Hom on the internet. I am a designer, lettering artist, muralist, and most recently chef. I graduated from culinary school last year.
Rachael: Chef.
Lauren: Chef with an unknown accent.
Rachael: Bonus accent. Lauren's running on a little bit less sleep than normal.
Lauren: If you sign up for our Patreon someday, it's all accents. That's all it is.
Rachael: It's actually just a live cam of you not sleeping, you doing a chaos creative project at three A.M.
Lauren: That would be the perfect Patreon for me. It's just one of those just night cams with a baby monitor.
Rachael: I think about that too, because I toss and turn a lot and the cats definitely are on my head, on my chest and I want to record myself, but 1% of me is like, what if I capture a ghost? I don't want to know so I won't do it.
Lauren: That is so fucked up. That never crossed my mind before. I don't think of the occult or spirits or ghosts at all, and I prefer not to.
Rachael: Yeah, I mean, I have said out loud like, "Hey, if there's any ghosts in here, you're welcome in this space. Just don't creep me out." And so if there are any, we're living in harmony and I don't want to videotape them and cross that boundary by trying to capture my cat licking my face.
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Yeah. Okay. On that note, we had a couple of heavier, deeper emotional-
Lauren: Cerebral episodes.
Rachael: Yes episodes, the last two.
Lauren: Because we think you're smart.
Rachael: You are smart, we know you're smart, and we sometimes think that we are smart and love to gab about things we're noodling on, but today we thought we would do a little bit quicker episode and a silly one especially, this is perfect timing for Lauren being sleep-deprived because I feel like we're going to be giggly.
Lauren: Oh, yeah.
Rachael: So to set it up, I have a list of questions that I keep in my phone that I ask people all the time, whether it's out to dinner or when one just pops into my head, and it's one of the ways that I incorporate play into the everyday, making magic out of the mundane is a term that I've been using lately. And I feel like in starting to ask these questions and now my friends getting used to me asking these questions, there are some really good insights that actually are coming out of them. And Lauren and I went to dinner last week and we were talking about, I think your question was if you could have six categories that you would crush on Jeopardy, what would they be?
Lauren: It's a prompt that I've given to my students before when brainstorming about, okay, what are the topics that I'm passionate about? When you don't know where to start as a creative person for a passion project, what do I even like? That's such a daunting question. But you and I talking about play and creativity, we each have our own way of reframing those tougher questions into silly questions. And so mine is what are the six categories in Jeopardy that if they showed up on the screen and you were a contestant, you'd be like, "Hell yeah, I'm going to win the million. I got it."
Rachael: And I saw one on the internet, I can't take credit for this and I'll find the original creator.
Lauren: We'll look into it. You sent me a screenshot.
Rachael: But it was one of the things on Instagram where it's like the add yours and it's a template and it's a pentagram, and it's like, "If you needed to summon me or how you would summon me, what would you put at each point of the star?" Which is a similar question to the Jeopardy question, and I think us both realizing that we ask these questions, we thought it would be fun to do some of them on the podcast today, but also helping you realize that on a date in a job interview or just trying to think of what to draw, you have your, what the fuck should I letter? Is that still live?
Lauren: Oh, it's still live. I'm still paying for the hosting.
Rachael: Amazing.
Lauren: I get a notification every month.
Rachael: If we can get silly and release the inhibitions and feel the rain on our skin, if we can make it silly, we're able to still tap into the insights that we're trying to get to by, yeah, like you said, releasing the pressure.
Lauren: In a playful way. Another analogy for this that we were talking about off camera before we started recording was a lot of times you'll hear with self-help, creative talks, any conference you go to, a lot of us are talking about the same ideas. How to get out of your own head, get out of your own way, do the thing you want to make, be yourself, these are all concepts that a lot of us intellectually know, but what makes it stick a lot of the times, what makes the medicine go down is different for everybody. And for us, we're like silly playful gals, and if you're listening to this, you're likely a silly playful person as well. So you need a silly playful coding on the information for it really to stick and for it to actually metabolize in your body.
Rachael: Yeah, I mean, I think that's why there are so many different types of self-help and access your creativity books, why there is room for all of our art, because you will resonate so perfectly to your perfect client or perfect person, audience when you are fully yourself, and we just need to figure out who that is. And these questions are designed to help you reflect, have fun, first of all, but then reflect. I use a lot of them as icebreakers when I'm in a group setting.
Lauren: We went to a dinner party, a barbecue this summer.
Rachael: And Lauren and I, it was a friend of mine and I didn't know anyone else besides the friend that invited me, I asked Lauren to go with me.
Lauren: I didn't know anybody besides you.
Rachael: We came in swinging with these questions and they were a hit, and we had some really silly conversations, and I think you can start to gain a lot of insights into people from their answers. And you can also read way too far into these silly answers.
Lauren: That's the beauty of it is it's just an entry point and then you can start to explore, get curious and play. It helps to... It's social lubricant, right?
Rachael: Yeah. It really gives you a chance to get past that first initial discomfort instead of being like, "What do you do?" And then projecting your expectations of someone's career onto them. Instead, you can be like, "What's your favorite sandwich?" And then you're like, "Wow, you're wrong," and you can say that to them and then it's a silly-
Lauren: Because it's inconsequential.
Rachael: Exactly.
Lauren: I think with the lightheartedness of these questions, it makes it inconsequential to start bantering and to start... It's not heavy to fight over, "Do you like ketchup?"
Rachael: Yeah. Yeah. And I will fully boo and hiss at someone if they don't like condiments, and I'm fully okay with that. Yeah. So with that, I think what I have done is I took my notes app messy question list, and I actually organized it today in preparation. I did a lot of homework, so I broke it down into a couple of categories. There are some questions that are getting at qualities, interests, values. I ask questions in my Prioritize Play workshop. One of the first questions I ask is I pull up images of four different mythical creatures. There's a Pegasus, a fairy, a dragon, a centaur, and I make them choose which one they most identify with, top of mind, quick first gut reaction. So first I'm going to start with that. If you had to pick a mythical creature, what would you pick? What's the first thing that comes into your mind?
Lauren: I am so embarrassed on my lack of knowledge of mythical creatures.
Rachael: That's fair. I didn't plan to ask you this question.
Lauren: No, it's fine. I was like, can I be Sisyphus's boulder? Can I just be the rock?
Rachael: Yes, you can.
Lauren: Being pushed up and down the hill.
Rachael: Yes.
Lauren: Ruining this man's life.
Rachael: I feel like there's so much unpacked in you choosing the boulder that is part of a never-ending punishment. Okay. So we'll put a pin in that. But the question about the mythical creatures is really, I'm trying to get at why they chose that one. So if you chose the boulder, or if I chose the centaur, why? And maybe I am going to say, "Oh, because I think it would be really sick to run really fast and be strong and powerful."
Lauren: To have a ripped chest, but horse legs.
Rachael: Yeah. I just want to be topless, but have horse legs. That's the best of both worlds.
Lauren: Sounds sick.
Rachael: I would love to have hooves and cool fur.
Lauren: Oh my God. I'm just picturing a centaur. Are they female centaur?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Oh, okay. And their tits are just out?
Rachael: I mean, I think depending on the type of movie that they're in, they sometimes... It's like a mermaid that has a shell top or a fur top, or the fur grows over.
Lauren: Okay. Because for some reason, most of the women that I'm really close with in my life just have huge chests and the idea of a centaur version of them running around, it's so funny to me.
Rachael: Painful for them. Yeah. We can strap them down. So okay, we're getting in already, but this is the point. This is the point, then you're starting to think about things in such a weird perspective that you're not normally thinking of it from.
Lauren: It's the change of perspective, I think conversationally, that we're trying to get at here, because you hear a lot, think 2016 Instagram, there was a lot of travel inspo out there like, "Go explore the world," and listen, I did go explore the world. It was cool. Oftentimes we think of changing your physical environment as a way to get creatively unstuck, to explore different facets of yourself, to get out of your comfort zone. But you can do that without leaving your couch. You can have funny conversations with friends. You can explore new facets of your partner's personality by asking them weird questions. I was at dinner the other night and we were talking about philosophy and ethics. It was a serious conversation and someone goes... We were talking about the concept of an eye for an eye, and he was like, "Does it change things if the person only has one eye?"
Rachael: It does.
Lauren: It does. It does. And I'm not an eye for an eye person but I know people who are, and I was just thinking of all those people in my life who do want their vengeance or their even cut, having to look at someone who only has one eye already.
Rachael: Yeah. Yeah. So it's really about the perspective shift. And I think what some of these questions that I will ask get to is how you perceive yourself, what you find valuable in a person's character, your own character, your creativity. So are you going after the dragon or the centaur because they're strong and powerful? Do you feel that you're lacking strength and power or your own voice? I feel like there's a lot of digging we could do. Some of them are just silly. I have a category that is just LOL because I haven't been able to noodle out an insight other than this is weird and funny.
So a lot of these I think are value-based or interest-based. And then a big chunk of them, because I think it's so closely to the area that I work, is perception of self. How do people see themselves? And I feel like some of these questions really get to that. And then the other category that I picked, I called it areas that I'm poking at because they're a little bit more serious. They're not silly. Some of them are silly, some of them are gross, but some of them are really just poking you to think. So of all of those categories, quality slash interest slash values is one, perception of self, LOL or areas that I'm poking. What section do you want me to start with?
Lauren: LOL.
Rachael: Yeah. Okay. We talked about some of these. I added the question that you brought up on a different episode in season one. Would you eat shit every day for $5,000 a year?
Lauren: 500,000.
Rachael: 500,000. Yes. Sorry. Nobody's picking yes.
Lauren: In this economy, 5,000 US dollars, absolutely not.
Rachael: No way. 500,000. So we will skip that one. Okay. Did I ask you... I know I asked you in person, I don't think I asked you on the podcast. That's a perception of self. Would you rather sweat mayo or have Cheeto dust fingers forever? I know I asked you this when we were painting my bedroom, but I don't think we brought it up on the podcast.
Lauren: Oh, gosh. I used to have a more knee-jerk reaction to this.
Rachael: Yeah, you're very calm.
Lauren: Oh, yeah.
Rachael: Maybe I already asked you it.
Lauren: I'm pretty sure it's Cheeto dust fingers, because you could just wear gloves.
Rachael: That is repulsive to me. I could never, I think it's like-
Lauren: Does the Cheeto build up in the glove?
Rachael: Maybe, but think-
Lauren: Or is it like a birthmark?
Rachael: I think I have a texture thing where it’s like if I have something on me-
Lauren: But mayonnaise out of your pores is not a texture thing?
Rachael: No, That's a commodity.
Lauren: Oh, yeah. I mean, okay.
Rachael: You love to capitalize on things like the liquid fingers questions.
Lauren: Yes. Because that's the thing. I was just telling Kristle before this, we were talking about video games and how people got into Animal Crossing during lockdown, and how the only thing I wanted to do in Animal Crossing, an open-world game, was run around in a bath towel and fish. The only one... Because I can't fish in real life because I've been a vegetarian for so long that I don't think I'm ever going to go fishing unless I change my mind, it doesn't appeal to me in real life, but in the game it's inconsequential. And I can be a sick fisherman in a bath towel. And I like the methodology of the fishing, how you get the bigger fish, and there's the mercantile part where it's like, okay, fish are the most valuable things in the game. But what the fucked up thing was in Animal Crossing, I would just fish, sell my fish at the market and collect money and not spend it. I had $2 million in Animal Crossing.
Rachael: Oh my gosh. Wow. Okay. So that is a perfect example of just what your brain is naturally doing. Because I did not have that approach in Animal Crossing. I was making my house cute. I was spending the money I had, I was changing my outfit every day. I was bored with fishing, but I did the challenges. You give me a list of to-do items, I'm doing them. I was there for the seasonal things. I was excited.
Lauren: Oh, so you were a member of the community?
Rachael: Yeah. Oh, I was nice to all my neighbors.
Lauren: Did you talk to all your neighbors every day?
Rachael: I talked to my neighbors. It made me really sad when people would be mean to the characters to be funny. I also... Do you have any of the robot, like Alexa or Siri? I mean on your phone, but I have an Alexa in my house and I always say thank you to it.
Lauren: That's good.
Rachael: And I feel like it doesn't matter if no one hears me or if the robot doesn't know, I as a person with my own personal values, am going to have a pleasant exchange even if it's a robot.
Lauren: I think that's good practice for sure because video games, they can be escapist for some people, but they can also be like you living another version of your life. I think of, I mean, Second Life is maybe an example of that.
Rachael: Sure.
Lauren: Animal Crossing is like cute Second life.
Rachael: Yeah. Animal Crossing is you living out your fisherman's dreams.
Lauren: Yes. But I was just, oh, I was such a nut in Animal Crossing.
Rachael: I love that.
Lauren: But yeah, I think back to your original question, yeah, Cheeto dust on the fingers, even if it built up. I understand your answer though, based on what I know about you, because yeah, you could probably sell that as a weird fetish thing.
Rachael: But it's less about the selling it and more about the thought of always having something.
Lauren: You're so sweaty.
Rachael: I am sweaty.
Lauren: I'm sweaty too, which is why I opt for the Cheeto dust.
Rachael: Yeah. I think the texture would-
Lauren: You know, sweat out of all your pores though?
Rachael: Yeah. I'm going to be shiny. Loomed up.
Lauren: I guess we didn't ask the question. I've never asked the question because it's so repulsive to me at any amount, but at what rate? Do you sweat as much mayo as you would sweat a bead of sweat?
Rachael: Would that be a bead of mayo? I don't know.
Lauren: Because it's way more viscous.
Rachael: I didn't add those parameters in. Because It's like when we first joked about the would you eat shit every day for half a million dollars? The people who don't ask follow up questions-
Lauren: Yes. The follow-up questions from your friends were really funny of like, "Well, how much? Is it my own?"
Rachael: Is it someone else's? I didn't even think about that.
Lauren: Because my answer was no.
Rachael: I had people ask, "Is it in powder form? Can I mix it in with something else?"
Lauren: And that's creative thinking.
Rachael: Yeah. I feel like I'm screaming into the microphone.
Lauren: It's good. It's so funny. So sorry. Sorry, Kristle.
Rachael: I'm going to move it a little bit. Okay. All right. So you would choose Cheeto fingers?
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: Do you want to stay in the LOL category? This is kind of like Jeopardy.
Lauren: You jump around.
Rachael: Okay.
Lauren: I trust you to drive.
Rachael: Okay, great. What's the most boring fact about you?
Lauren: The most boring?
Rachael: I like this question because I feel like especially if you're meeting new people, there can be a lot of pressure to say your most exciting thing about you like, "Oh, I'm a designer. I just finished culinary school," and that can potentially put people at a, "Oh, I have to match that level of enthusiasm," or excitement or creativity or accomplishment or whatever and instead it's like, "What's the most boring thing about you?" And I feel like it also gives a little bit of insight into people's daily routines. My answer used to be before I got out of this habit is I floss every other day.
Lauren: That's impressive.
Rachael: That's a very boring thing. No one cares. But I think we can also come up with even more boring facts, it's hard to do, which is part of the fun. Do you have a gut reaction?
Lauren: Well, the first thing that popped into mind before you said your thing was, I can clack my tongue really loud, but that's not that boring. It is interesting.
Rachael: It's a special skill.
Lauren: Yeah. It's jarring. I will not do it in audio form. If you run into me at an event or conference in the next... I'm going to put a 12-month cap on this. From the time you hear this, you have 12 months to encounter me in real life, I will clack my tongue for you.
Rachael: Incredible.
Lauren: And it will shock everybody in a 20-foot radius.
Rachael: Okay, so that is a great answer for the question of what's your party trick? I feel like that's a good party trick.
Lauren: To get kicked out.
Rachael: Yeah. Well, mine is very similar because I can gleek, which is-
Lauren: That's the jizz version of what I can do.
Rachael: For those of you that are unfamiliar with gleeking, it's where you shoot saliva out of the gland underneath your tongue.
Lauren: Can you do it right now? I have a great view. Can you just do it? Not at Kristle.
Rachael: I'll try to do it. It won't go to Kristle. I can't do it that far. It gets stronger the more I have sour candy or something. Okay.
Lauren: Oh my God.
Rachael: Did you see it?
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: I used to do that as a little brat and people would spit on me and I'd be like, "But it's not spit, it's straight from the gland." Okay, so you can clack your tongue. We can come back to the boring path.
Lauren: I mean, the boring thing is I'm five foot three and a half.
Rachael: Amazing. That's a perfect answer.
Lauren: I have olive undertones. That's my foundation color. I recently learned that actually. I've been using warm foundation and I switched to olive and it's...
Rachael: Excellent. Would you say that this was in your journey of experimenting with makeup which may or may not have had unexpected results?
Lauren: Yes.
Rachael: Okay. I want to know your five items that would summon you, if I were a witch and I was summoning you in a pentagram.
Lauren: Okay. A colorful dress of sorts. A fun accessory, like a pom-pom earring, a craft, a DIY, a kit for a DIY accessory. Polymer clay. Pom-poms.
Rachael: A really good DIY kit.
Lauren: Yeah, jewelry making. Love that. A freshly baked, crusty loaf of bread, perhaps. Nutritional yeast.
Rachael: Yeah. That's a good one.
Lauren: If you know, you know. Nutritional yeast is just a seasoning that a lot of vegetarians and vegans use to add a savory, cheesy flavor. It's great on popcorn. Great in a tofu scramble. Great for omnivores too. It gives you your vitamin B-12, and it's tasty as hell. It's delicious. Ooh, the last one. Last one. I was going to say a posting on Facebook marketplace that is for a lot of art supplies that's free if you come get it right now.
Rachael: Says Lauren, who doesn't have a car.
Lauren: I've taken Ubers to go pick stuff up.
Rachael: Oh, yeah. That's smart.
Lauren: Yeah. All my ceramic supplies in here are from a lot of supplies that someone was like, "Hey, I just cleaned out a garage from a house I bought. Does anybody want these for 20 bucks?" And I looked at the photo and I was like, "That's a thousand dollars worth of ceramic supplies."
Rachael: One person's trash, one person's treasure.
Lauren: Absolutely.
Rachael: You have a little wheel in here.
Lauren: I do.
Rachael: Was that in there?
Lauren: No. That was from e-Bay.
Rachael: All your tools, all your tools came from there,
Lauren: The little tools are the ones that fucking add up. A $5 little thing here, $10 here. You're like, "How did I spend 500?"
Rachael: Yeah. Instead, you just paid for an Uber. Incredible.
Lauren: What are your five things?
Rachael: Those are great answers. I struggled with mine because I was thinking too much into it.
Lauren: Yeah, I just gave you a spitball answer>
Rachael: And that's what I want. The problem with me asking a lot of these questions is that I have time to think about my answers.
Lauren: So even if I took the list, you would know your answers.
Rachael: Yeah. Because these all came from my phone.
Lauren: That's fine. All good.
Rachael: I think for me, fantasy romance novels, number one. A collection of rocks and feathers, which feels very witchy, appropriate for a summoning. Nachos with liquid cheese.
Lauren: It's a nice way to sneak two things into one.
Rachael: Chips and cheese. Chips and cheese. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Nachos as a meal, really.
Lauren: Oh, that sounds good.
Rachael: Yeah. Should we find nachos after this?
Lauren: Yeah.
Rachael: Okay. Okay. Romance novels, rocks and feathers, nachos. I think my cats and then a collection of vintage quilts and afghans.
Lauren: Amazing. That sounds right up your alley.
Rachael: Yeah. Basically the things to make my home very cozy.
Lauren: Yeah. I'm trying to think. I do have a weird question I used to ask as an icebreaker at workshops. I've changed the language because I feel like it was diet-cultury. So the original question used to be, what's your shame snack? Which is what's the gross concoction that you like to eat late at night when no one else is awake? I just call it what's your favorite gross snack combination?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: My favorite sandwich growing up was... Okay, I'm going to say it out loud.
Rachael: I have a gross one too.
Lauren: Peanut butter, jelly, banana. Fine, right? Slice of American cheese.
Rachael: Interesting.
Lauren: It's so good.
Rachael: Have you ever made it as a grilled cheese version?
Lauren: No. It has to be raw.
Rachael: Has to be raw?
Lauren: Yeah. Just squishy bread.
Rachael: Squishy.
Lauren: Squishy bread.
Rachael: Wow. I haven't thought about this sandwich since I was 15 years old, but I used to love classic white bread, really thick layer of butter.
Lauren: Yep.
Rachael: Baloney. The circle baloney.
Lauren: Is this a Midwest thing?
Rachael: I don't know. And ketchup. The combination of the salty butter.
Lauren: Tangy. Sweet.
Rachael: And the weird texture of Oscar Mayer brown baloney. Great.
Lauren: All right. I'm going to tell you the other, this is actually the true shame snack. The sandwich is cute. I haven't thought about this or asked this question in a long time. Oh, man. This is going to turn into... If I ever get famous, this is going to ruin me.
Rachael: Oh, this is going to be it?
Lauren: Yeah, because it's a shame snack. We were a Sam's Club, Costco family. My mom used to buy the 12 pack of those really good croissants. I can't remember if it was Sam's Club or Costco. I would get one of those croissants. The only person who knows this is Tom, by the way, who's definitely not listening, and he'd bring it up all the time.
Rachael: Wow. I'm honored. I'm sure the listeners are as well.
Lauren: Here's the croissant. This is the croissant. I would cut it. Not sandwich way.
Rachael: Yeah. Hot dog way, but all the way through.
Lauren: I would cut it into two cones. Now I have two croissant horns.
Rachael: Oh, yeah. Okay. I love where this is going.
Lauren: Yeah. Okay. I have two croissant horns. I hope everyone's watching on video right now because I'm going to show you what I would do with these croissant horns. Keep in mind, I'm seven.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I was a thick little girl.
Rachael: Same.
Lauren: I had two versions of this, perfect because I have two halves, two versions of the snack that I liked. I would take the croissant horn, smush the croissant to the side.
Rachael: Yeah. Make it a cone.
Lauren: To create a cone and fill one with mayonnaise. And the I would fill the other one with the strawberry jam. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to tell you this. That's my favorite thing.
Rachael: I love little Lauren. Oh my God. I'm going to go eat that snack.
Lauren: Could you imagine walking into the kitchen seeing your child making this horrific snack?
Rachael: The mayo really throws me off, but I'm not opposed to it.
Lauren: Yeah. I mean, okay. Until you try it for yourself-
Rachael: And you all have to.
Lauren: You can be realistic with the proportions of... It's not a cup mayo.
Rachael: I mean, I love mayo.
Lauren: I do too. It's just a really indulgent snack.
Rachael: She was a culinary genius from age seven.
Lauren: And that's when I knew, that's when I discovered my passion.
Rachael: For bread and sauce.
Lauren: Should I go on a Shark Tank and try to pitch that? Consumer packaged goods.
Rachael: I would happily love... I would love to try it if you decide you want to make croissants and then make them into cones and then fill them with different dips.
Lauren: I always thought that a croissant ice cream cone would be good.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I don't know how structurally sound it would be, because a puff-ish pastry isn't always the best for a wet filling.
Rachael: Sure. For mayo.
Lauren: Mayo was great because it's so viscous.
Rachael: That is incredible. That is my favorite new fact about you.
Lauren: You're welcome.
Rachael: Wow.
Lauren: You're welcome, all couple hundred of our listeners.
Rachael: Oh, incredible. Okay.
Lauren: This is definitely going to get clipped and put on Instagram as well. I have a feeling. I have a feeling.
Rachael: Yeah, it's on the internet now. There's no going back.
Lauren: Oh, man. What if this is what makes me famous, this disgusting snack, childhood snack?
Rachael: We have talked about mayo a lot in this episode.
Lauren: That is true though. Okay. I will say on a serious note, sharing these things about ourselves, I'm not going to name names, I'm not even going to say the story. There are a handful of people in my life, I will tell you afterwards, who have shared similar childhood food stories where you're like, "You little psycho." And it makes me feel closer with them because we're speaking honestly about being weird. Anyone who's doing anything creative as an adult was probably a fucking weird little kid.
Rachael: Yeah. We're all freaks. And it's societal programming and conditioning that teaches us to bring that in and calm it down to be socially accepted. And I feel like only now as an adult am I peeling back those onion layers, the croissant layers, to get to the mayo, to let it out. And I just feel like when we can share our freak little weird selves, because those things came from our brains without... You're just like, "I like mayo and I like croissants, and look at this fun little thing."
Lauren: And you walk into the kitchen. And you're like, "What can I make myself as a kid who doesn't know how to cook? I can use a spoon. I can cut a croissant in half."
Rachael: I loved all cheese and dairy products, I still do, Midwest. One of my favorite treats, I think, to answer the shame snack question, is Cheeto puffs and sour cream. Yeah, I know. You would think that you would want a more flavored dip-
Lauren: They're so salty.
Rachael: The tanginess of the Cheeto and the dust with just the sour cream flavor with no added dill or vinegar or anything is really good.
Lauren: Yeah. I remember actually years ago, this had to be at least seven years ago, I posted a little lettering piece I did of the title of that sandwich, not the croissant. This is next level. It's taken me seven years to be comfortable telling people about the croissant.
Rachael: Honored that you're doing it.
Lauren: My PBJC. PBBJC.
Rachael: Oh, yeah. I forgot about the banana.
Lauren: I asked people about what their gross snack is, and people really came through in the comments. People were like, "Oh, I loved a bowl of Cheerios with some cut up hot dogs." It was honestly a lot of salty, sweet, and I think one, it's humiliating and humbling and hilarious to see what other people genuinely put in their bodies because you develop tastes for things and you're not hurting anyone. You're just like, "This is my gross snack." Salty and sweet tastes good, tangy and sweet tastes good. It's not acceptable to eat in public, but that's what indoors is for.
Rachael: And maybe we start making it acceptable to eat that in public.
Lauren: Yeah. That's what nighttime is for.
Rachael: Incredible. Okay. I have two more questions for you. Man, there are so many questions I want to ask you. I can't believe... I feel like I only ask the most recent ones when we're hanging out because it's top of mind.
Lauren: Yeah. We'll probably start talking about the question. We're long-winded, which is fine.
Rachael: Classic us. Yes. Gab gals. Okay. What would your role be in a post-apocalyptic, zombie society? You have survived and you're part of a community that is surviving. What's your role? What are you doing?
Lauren: I think I would run the garden and kitchen. I would be in charge of feeding the group.
Rachael: Yeah. That absolutely-
Lauren: My eldest sibling energy would come through so hard.
Rachael: Yeah. I struggle with this question because I don't feel like I have what it takes to be a disciplinarian. I have leadership skills. I feel like I have problem solving abilities, and I can get people together and facilitate conversations because I do a lot of that in my day job, but I don't have what it takes to be like, "Oh, someone was stealing all of the food and so we had to take their eye."
Lauren: Their only eye.
Rachael: And it's like, we have to have some sort of rules, and I don't want to be the one that's-
Lauren: You don't want to enforce law and order.
Rachael: I do not. No, that is not my role. So that one got nixed, and then I think I was like, "Oh, well, I could be the person that makes the plate and the bowls and I could do ceramics or something." And then I'm like, "Well, I don't think that there's going to be a shortage of plates and bowls. There's going to be a shortage of people, and we all have a million plates and bowls. I don't think that that's the best use of my time." So ultimately, I think what I've come to is that I do have an engineering brain, and I am good at solving problems and figuring out, okay, we have a door and we have these scrap materials. How can we make this into something that's useful? So not a handyman, but something along the lines of a tinker. People bring me all the shit that they go out and they source.
Lauren: You're the junkyard keeper?
Rachael: Yeah. And then I'm like, "Okay, let's figure this out." But I'm not mechanical at all, so I would need to have somebody that could do the motors and the soldering and stuff like that. But I can visualize structures."
Lauren: I can see that. I watch so few movies, but Crystal recommended a movie, oh, this might be right before or right when lockdown happened, Train to Busan. It's this Korean zombie movie that actually had me sobbing because of the storyline, but was extremely violent. But there are scenes where people make the decision, in any zombie movie, of to be taken or not, to be with-
Rachael: To sacrifice themselves.
Lauren: To either sacrifice themselves or to be like, "Fuck this, I'm done."
Rachael: I'm done.
Lauren: Take me out.
Rachael: Yeah. I feel like I would go out with a bang, but I don't think I have the strength to be like, "I'm done."
Lauren: If you die, not from a zombie bite, can a zombie bite your corpse and then you become a zombie?
Rachael: I don't think so. This is a great segue into... I wasn't going to ask this question, but now I will talking about this kind of stuff, and I love this kind of stuff. In my opinion as a, not a zombie expert, but someone who likes fantasy and sci-fi type stuff, I am under the impression that a zombie has to infect your active cells. So if you're dead, there's no blood pumping. There's nothing for it to infect and bring you back to life. But I feel like there's plenty of arguments in other directions. So I think they're going after living subjects, and that's who turns.
Lauren: Okay. Thank you.
Rachael: Yeah. That's my very uneducated opinion. I'm more educated on, the fact that I just said I'm more educated and now I'm going to admit where I'm educated from, my vast collection of fantasy romance novels, talks a lot about mythical creatures.
Lauren: Like werewolves?
Rachael: Werewolves, vampires, Valkyrie, succubi, incubus, succubus are the female.
Lauren: After you said vampires, I didn't understand a single thing you said.
Rachael: There's a lot of different mythical creatures. And what's cool is obviously this author that I read a lot of cares about the traits of these different... We know werewolves turn once a month or whatever, but there are all kinds of stories. And it's cool that she synthesizes it into like, "Okay, you're learning about this mythical creature. You're reading a love story. There's strong female characters that are badass fighters." And so this is where my knowledge of immortals comes from. So my question is, if we turned into immortals today, do you think our tattoos would fade?
Lauren: You have asked me this before and I don't remember my answer.
Rachael: And I feel like you maybe are not the target audience because you are less familiar with the lore.
Lauren: I assume that you're, as a non-lore Lauren, I assume that when you turn, let's say vampires or maybe the mainstream version-
Rachael: Yeah. Vampires are a great example.
Lauren: You just get frozen as you are. You don't age. Therefore, I would think that whatever... Do vampires need to get haircuts?
Rachael: I don't think so.
Lauren: Do they trim their fingernails? I just figured they froze.
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: Do vampires brush their teeth?
Rachael: Great question. They're sticking them in stuff. They better brush them. Yeah. This is a good question. And a vampire is a great example because a vampire is turned into, so if Kristle admitted to us today that she's a vampire and then decided to turn us into vampires for spooky season, we started today as humans with tattoos and turned and froze. However, there's another type of immortal that is not turned human, but is a natural-born immortal. I'm waiting for my day to come to find out that I am one of these. But so let's use a werewolf as an example, yes, they can turn people, but they can also, in these books, in this lore that I'm familiar with, have their own children and they grow up as werewolf babies. Your face is just like, "This is a lot of information to process." So in the books, when the immortal person reaches their peak physical time in their lives, they freeze into immortality. So for men, it's 30.
He's aging normally and looks like a human until he's 30, and then he looks like that forever. But in one of the books, this girl wants to cut her hair. She's a tomboy, she plays soccer, she doesn't want to have long hair, but when she freezes into her immortality, every morning, it grows back because her type of immortal creature is a succubus, and they receive their energy from fucking. And in order to be alluring, to attract a mate, to be able to get sustenance, she needs long hair according to fate. And so I'm like, okay, well, if whoever decides what the most attractive version of us is, would the tattoos fade? So that's where this question comes from. And the vampire answer is more common, but also eventually, if they fade and die, our skin cells are however long it takes, seven years or something, to slough off an entire layer of skin and if you're living forever...
Lauren: Oh, that's a good point, scientifically. Yeah.
Rachael: Yeah. Okay. That feels like way too much of me getting into the details of fantasy books, fantasy romance. Anyway, we'll link the Immortals After Dark series is what I read and am referring to. We'll link that in the show notes, but thank you for humoring me.
Lauren: Of course. Listen, I love seeing people geek out about the things that they geek out about. Even if it's not my thing, it's always nice to see the things that light other people up, because there's so many things that could be your thing. If you're feeling uninspired, there's so many things you could get into if you just let yourself get into them.
Rachael: If you release the shame that you feel because, "Oh, I shouldn't like that," because ultimately, the more that you can be yourself, the more you can also find your community, the more that you-
Lauren: Sorry, I'm thinking about my community of croissant cone lovers.
Rachael: Oh, I thought you were thinking about my community of horny gals reading books about vampires, which I mean-
Lauren: There's a lot of you.
Rachael: There's a lot of us, a lot of us. Especially lately, I feel like BookTok brought a bunch of the, it's called Romanticy now, that's a whole genre.
Lauren: Interesting.
Rachael: Which is great. And also as you were saying that, allowing yourself to be silly and explore these things, it reminded me, of course, I asked these questions in my workshop and one of the gals followed up and she said she asked the question, the liquid fingers question to a guy that she went on a date with. And I thought that this was really fascinating because also how people respond when you bring up these silly questions, if they're like, "Hell yeah, this is silly," and they're into it, I am like, "Oh, you're my people. You're ready to get weird and talk about what you would look like as a gargoyle." I sprung that question on someone the other day and without a hesitation, they were like, "Okay, this is what I would look like." And I'm like, "You are my people." And on the other hand, there are people that are like, "What? Why? Why do you want to know that?"
And it's like, "Why not? Why not?" It's something for us to talk about. And the liquid fingers question, just a recap, I think we've talked about it in a previous episode, but it's a question that I have asked that's on the internet that's like, if you could have five liquids come out of your fingers, what would you pick and why? And I asked that question to my group, and then she said she asked someone that question on a date, and his first answer was Cobra venom. I literally said to her, I was like, "Don't go on another date with that man," because his first instinct was using liquid that could harm people. Why do you think you need that? That doesn't align with my values.
Lauren: Yeah, that's like saying GHB.
Rachael: Yeah, exactly. So it's a silly thing, but it actually could bring out some really interesting insights, whether it's someone like yucking your yum because you want to talk about if we were immortal tomorrow, would we lose our tattoos? Or if it's someone answering a really weird question, why do you need a weapon as your first answer? Don't you want coffee or mayo to fill your cone?
Lauren: Yeah. It's funny because I think you told me about your mom's answer, which was just liquid gold.
Rachael: Yeah. My mom and I was like, "Oh, very lucrative, mom. Okay, creative."
Lauren: And that's not a euphemism for nacho cheese.
Rachael: No, which is what I want out of mind.
Lauren: She meant gold to fill into molds to make 24 karat gold bars to then make money, which is halfway how my brain works, because I chose all very expensive food, edible liquids, like olive oils. I can't remember what else I put in there. Manuka honey. Just higher price point liquids where I could in theory, have my hand resting while I'm doing my design work, filling bottles of artisanal.
Rachael: You've got a really fancy milking equipment on there.
Lauren: Yeah. I'm milking myself. I'm pumping. I'm pumping while I'm working.
Rachael: She's a working mother.
Lauren: That would be how I retired early.
Rachael: Perfect.
Lauren: But also liquids that I enjoy. I think someone said gasoline one time, which was interesting.
Rachael: Yeah, someone said raw petroleum, and I'm like, "Okay, you going to figure out how to deal with that?"
Lauren: I always appreciate the people who say lube.
Rachael: Yeah, sure.
Lauren: Because we know where their priorities are.
Rachael: Yeah. Good for you.
Lauren: Someone said sunscreen, which is smart.
Rachael: Sunscreen is really great.
Lauren: Really smart.
Rachael: Skincare stuff.
Lauren: One of yours is just water, right? Drinking water?
Rachael: Room temp filtered water.
Lauren: Which is really smart. A lot of people say coffee.
Rachael: Yeah, I want hot black coffee, African origin.
Lauren: Kristle's nodding along.
Rachael: Yeah, that's my favorite region of coffee. And I also have ADHD, so it frequently gets cold before I can drink the whole cup and it's just not as good warmed up. I just want it to come out when I'm ready to have it. Am I sucking on my finger, filling a cup? We don't know. That's for me in my personal time at home.
Lauren: Incredible.
Rachael: Okay. Well thank you for humoring me, pals. We will list some of these questions in the show notes and the resources that we've talked about. The resources, the fantasy romance series that I mentioned.
Lauren: We'll have show notes, the questions.
Rachael: Yeah. I'm working actually on trying to figure out how to put this into a resource that you can actually gain insights from the-
Lauren: Oh, like reflection questions?
Rachael: Yeah.
Lauren: I just bought a book from the Detroit Art Book Fair that I think you should check out as a way to lay it out. It's like a field guide.
Rachael: Oh, fun, fun. I wanted to go to that. I don't think I was in town. Okay. Well, hope you enjoyed this very silly-
Lauren: I hope it made you feel closer to us or repulsed by us, which is great.
Rachael: Also great.
Lauren: Which is so good.
Rachael: Either way, you have more information and you can decide if you are still a listener, or maybe you're like, "That was the last straw. That was the last cone of mayo for me. I'm out."
Lauren: Show you're weird. I did hear that being sleep-deprived is cognitively similar to being drunk, so that's probably why I disclosed the croissant cone.
Rachael: I'm honored. I don't remember the last time I cackled so much that I didn't make a sound.
Lauren: I always appreciate when I make you laugh so hard that you cry because you know me so well that there's not a lot I can say that's going to get that reaction from you. And I never try to get that reaction from you.
Rachael: I think you do it pretty frequently. You've got a lot of surprises left. Big dog Lauren is... We need more of her.
Lauren: Great. Well thank you for joining us.
Rachael: We will see you in the next one.
Lauren: Hopefully more well rested.
Rachael: Yeah. And on the internet. Bye.
Lauren: Bye.