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EP. 133 Michael Arceneaux on Family, Loss & His Book I Finally Bought Some Jordans | Full Episode
33 Plays4 months ago
Michael Arceneaux shares COPING WITH LOSS of his mother and the essays in his new book "I Finally Bought Some Jordans" that reflect on his close relationship with his mom and the complexities of family.
Arceneaux discusses the mix of humor and heavy issues in his writing, including topics like personal finance, celebrity encounters, and navigating the pandemic. His candid reflections on family, grief, and his journey to self-acceptance provide an intimate look into his life and creative process.
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.arceneaux
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Background
00:00:01
Speaker
All right, welcome back everyone to another episode of It's Personal. i am ah overjo It's early here, but I am super excited to talk to my guest today. He is such an incredible human for the work that he's done for the literary world, for people in general.
Challenges and Grief
00:00:22
Speaker
um And I'm super excited just to like chop it up today about life, joy, happiness, et cetera. Can you introduce yourself? I had a such a nice introduction. My name is Michael Arsenault. I really appreciate you making time, especially early. So thank you. No, thank you. Thank you. And I want to let you know that I see you. I appreciate you um and you.
00:00:46
Speaker
Based on what I've seen online and some of the conversations I've been listening to, I know that things haven't always been easy for you. um But I want to know how are things going right now um in regards to just life in general? um And um is there anything I can do right now to help you um yeah through this conversation? Honestly, you even asking is really con. You know, it's my it's my first um Mother's Day was this is my first Mother's Day without my mom. My mom died about six months ago. um We lost her to cancer. So um
00:01:30
Speaker
Grief is a daily challenge. um Life has its foot on my neck and his neck. So, um you know, I'm trying to be grateful for people like you and to remind myself of why I write and to keep writing because last year was pretty rock bottom for me all around, but you know I'm doing my best, which I don't know what that means on a given day sometimes, but you know I'm doing the best with everything. Yeah. And that's the most we can do sometimes, right? um But I hear you, I see you, and I haven't talked to you, but I'm sending all my love and condolences to you and your family because I
00:02:15
Speaker
ah haven't have I still am lucky to have my mom in my life, but I know individuals who don't, and I can only imagine um you know some of the thoughts, the processing that's happening with you. um Something about you know black females, and you speak about this very often in a lot of the work that you do. um Can you share a little bit about and i so when you talk about her, I think specifically about um one of your stories about when she's knocking on the door. And I think it's I want to say it's Houston, I think maybe. ah Yes. i Thank you again. Yeah, I think you're talking about um there's an essay in my new book. I finally bought some drawings where um after I left New York um after like seven years,
00:03:01
Speaker
I was there during the plague when Harlem was like the epicenter of the virus at one point. So it was a lot of sirens, a lot of death, a lot of sickness. And generally speaking, I had already felt like my time in New York had come to pass. So I left and went back to Houston for a while. I didn't end up, I didn't realize that I did until after the fact, but I was kind of foreshadowing. I think the last couple of years I've lost a lot of people. So I realized how time was so precious and that I wanted to be closer to my mom. So I ended up being there about, I can't remember the exact number of months, maybe like six days, something like that. But in any event, I was out in the Airbnb that I had rented out for a while and Texas had a snowstorm, but because of the governor and some other stuff, Texas had its own grid and the grid failed.
00:03:50
Speaker
So I was freezing. I did not have any battery, but there was no water. It was pretty bad for like three to four days. and There was one point I was like, I can't feel all my toes. And I really was in limited contact with my mom. And my mom, she didn't she didn't care how old I was. She's like, no, I'm going to get my baby. So at one point, I begin the chapter saying, you know, basically, I was about to defecate in the bag because no plumbing and I hear a bang on the door. And it's my mom, all five, four of her, I think.
00:04:21
Speaker
say then I'm messing up her hype, she's short. I'm banging on the door with a big flashlight. I'm like, come on, I'm going to come get you. I'll call out the house. Because i hadn't I hadn't had contact with her in probably have been more than 24 hours. And yeah my mom didn't play that. And I'm 30, I don't know, late 30. She's like, OK, come on, get ready. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. um And so I got up and went with her. and but just it's I'm glad I shared that because that's just kind of attesting to my mom. She didn't care how old her children were, her baby' babies are my babies. If she can physically come get me out of a situation, she would. um I mentioned in the book when I went back to Texas, first thing she handed me was holy water and a taser, which I think is the best way to describe my mom i don't know and Houston.
00:05:07
Speaker
So yeah, my mom, was um she she was my lifeline, my favorite person in the world. But yeah, she will come get her babies no matter what. I love that. And I think it's so it's a it's a testament to just Black mothering in general. like you has No hesitation. It doesn't matter the weather. doesn't matter the circumstance like she was, and let alone you're the baby. Like. Yeah, not her baby. Yeah, the streets still didn't have, like the street lights still weren't working. It was really bad. Like Houston was down bad. um
00:05:40
Speaker
She did not care, but yes, I'll just admit to her.
Family Influence and Writing Style
00:05:43
Speaker
Wow. and you I mean, you do yeah when i when I listen to your writing, I think one of the things I love about it is like just the depth that you can go into with specific topics, but then which I think anyone who's listened to your writing or read your writing is like the humor that is involved. um Where does that come from? Is that something that you know you've been brought up around or um is it something that has like grown over time? Um, ah you know, I never, I mean, I would like to think I'm funny now, but I didn't necessarily think I was particularly funny as a kid, but I will say like in hindsight, everyone in my family, in my media family, and the extended family, I do know some of them, like my mom's sisters, or whatever, cousins,
00:06:30
Speaker
um there Everybody's funny. um Everybody has, in my immediate family, like a very particular type of humor. We kind of can share jokes, but for the most part, we all have strong personalities. and you know I think sometimes people can use humor to overcompensate, in that they don't necessarily want to share their feelings. For me also, at the same time, it's like if I didn't know how to laugh at how difficult life could be, I probably wouldn't still be alive. So kind of a combination of everybody in my front family being funny on their own, but also kind of just needat needing humor to kind of get by. I think that's not necessarily unique to my family, but yeah, I would say it was encouraged. You know, like I always had like a strong point of view.
00:07:20
Speaker
And for the most part, even if my mom didn't agree with me, it she she didn't discourage, you know, whatever I had to say. So yeah.
Literary Growth and Themes
00:07:27
Speaker
No, I love that because for me, someone who um is early on in their like writing journey, like I feel like I've been writing for a while, but getting into publishing, this is i'm very early, but listening to someone like you and looking at like the progression that you've had in your books is amazing because I do feel like specifically with like, I can't date Jesus, and then moving to, um ah what's it called, I Don't Want to Die Poor, and then now finally to, and and and let alone, like I love them, i want I'm um bouncing around a little bit, but I love the cover of um I Finally Bought Jordan's as well. um But
00:08:09
Speaker
just the depth within all those books in itself and the way that you've been able to transition. um And I think you've also grown as a writer looking at those things as well because the way that you're able to, you know, lean in on some of the heavy topics that the world is going through um and that are also important to you. And then also put it on a page where it's accessible for, you know, everybody, um specifically, you know, um those who identify as queer, those who identify identify as black.
00:08:41
Speaker
um like that realm and then outside of that as well, which I love um and not a lot of authors I think can do that. I really appreciate that. a lot and so so i and I appreciate you. I appreciate you. um One of the things you'd speak specifically about that I'm so interested in is like just the intersections between like race, queerness and pop culture. You know a lot about pop culture, ah obviously, but how do you see like these identities and like the cultural kind of like forces shaping the experiences of like the LGBTQ plus community and like the people of today. Like how do you see those things like um interacting with each other? um One of my friends who's also an author, of one of my favorites, Janet Mock, I think when she was promoting her first book, Redefining Realness, she talked about how for a lot of people who grow up without
00:09:36
Speaker
a lot of means, which is more so how we relate it. Because when I read her book on a plane, I found her story fascinating. But then I was like, well, girl, our dad sounds like the same person sometimes. But she mentioned how, for a lot of people, pop culture is their access point to a world that they otherwise wouldn't know. A lot of that is related to just class. But particularly when it comes to queer people, who grow up in probably environments and communities where at least of a certain age, well, actually any age in America. But, you know, you're not necessarily exposed to as many people around you or if it's kind of like met with shame and silence and particularly how I grew up. i I feel like I'm that last part of that last generation where people were really kind of forced into a closet. I mean, we might be pushed back in given the next election, but I digress. But yeah, I think for a lot of people was just that access point. So for me,
00:10:31
Speaker
Even and before I sold out Candé Jesus, because it took a lot of convincing to for people to believe that there was a market for my voice and what I had to say. I wrote about how like Janet Jackson taught me about sex. When she did the Janet album, I was only nine years old, but i used to like have a I used to like one of her dancers, Omar Lopez, which I mentioned in the first book. um i had my button on top but I used to always like consume a lot of information. like I have an older sister, she's nine years older, so I would read her magazines. I would go buy magazines myself and my mom would take me. She didn't interview a Rolling Stone where she talked about being like a late bloomer and how sexuality for her was
00:11:09
Speaker
a means of her embracing her sexuality more and being more open about it helped her in her own, like, development. I'm paraphrasing, but that's not unlike, you know, a lot of queer people. That's not like, ah unlike a lot of people. So, for me, I gravitated to be like that. Mary J. Blige, the way she opened up about her emotions and kind of like, you know, cyclops of abuse, addiction that she had been around. These were a lot of things that, you know, theoretically were too young for some of my age, but because I was exposed to so much in the chaos of my childhood, you know, they were like, again, my access points, they were, they helped me articulate feelings that I couldn't yet. They helped me feel less alone. Even as I got older, when it comes to Beyonce, I love her, obviously, because she's from Houston and the greatest. And I'm like,
00:11:56
Speaker
the first stand, but at the same time, you know, she, I think she also doesn't often get a lot of credit for the subcultures that she included. Like if you're black and you kind of grew up on that, like East Texas, Houston got like borderline, you know, Louisiana, like the bounce music, the sissy culture, what they call sissy bounce back then. A lot of people didn't know what that was, but you know, you got drag queens and like, you know, I say colloquially, the punks in the background, dancing, you know, that helped me feel comfortable with the ah stereotype about like, in feminine men and kind of like, letting that go and like, not being defined by that. So I don't know, for me, a lot of the pop culture stuff could repeat, but it just for me,
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, I read books and there's academic theory and all of that. But a lot of times people just want something that they can watch and buy and onto that isn't so above. And I think pop culture, while you know in some cases we maybe rely on it too much, but at the same time, that's all we have. you know Because I wasn't able to learn this in schools. It wasn't talked about in church for sure. It wasn't talked about around people. So these are all the women who really helped me figure myself out. So I think it was only right that I incorporate that in my work, one, because it's just true. And also, you know, I kind of for a long time really talked in pop culture, I just couldn't help it. It's just a lot of my consumer. I mean, i'm I also am like
00:13:21
Speaker
into politics, but a lot of people don't care and I get it. So even then it's just easy to bring up Mayor J. Blige and Beyonce, then like, you know, policy, people don't care that much.
Pop Culture and Marginalized Communities
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that's so, yeah, I think that's so true. And it and I think you said it, you said so many things here, but one of the things that stood out for me was like, it's an access point, right? It's such a easy access point for people who don't want to go too far above because academia in itself can be
00:13:47
Speaker
It can be very challenging for people, including myself, who is a teacher. And it's like you know there's there's lots of theories about things that you know you just don't want to read. They're not fun to read. And the access point to that is not it's not accessible. right So i I totally agree with you. And I think pop culture does all of those things for so many different people. um Michael, what are you listening to right now? Are you listening to anything outside of the individuals that you just talked to? is there new new age kind of individuals within hip hop that you're enjoying. um Because I know that there's a, you know, there's an interesting thing online right now about like new age versus like old school. um And, and how the new age is very different than what it used to be. Oh, yeah, I'm not one of those. Not to cut you off. Like, um no take like, I live in LA. And I think generally speaking, a lot of people are into kind of um
00:14:44
Speaker
I mean, honestly, like old music gets more spins than new because people are very nostalgic. And that's cute. And I get that. But no, like I like to listen to new things. When I go outside, I don't want to hear the songs from 20 years ago. I definitely don't want to swag surf. You can vary that song for all eternity. So like you know like I like my things. But um no, because I pulled up my phone to see whatever I'm going to listen to. Well, obviously, I love sexy red. I'm not one of those. Get it sexy, actually. I was having one of my grief cries in the morning, turned that on, started singing and literally stopped to pray for her success so she can keep going. Then she brings me joy. um I love the Anisias. I guess that's a mix tape. I mean, I guess she called the album, it's like 30 minutes. I guess I got to accept that. That's what it is now. But what is it called? Princess Pop that? I love that album.
00:15:38
Speaker
I really love that album. I love my Meg with all my heart, Original Hottie, but I kind of want her to go back to the hood. I'm like, listen to that. um Obviously, every Kendrick diss that came out because Drake has gotten on my nerves for years, so the more the merrier. um Yeah, and was actually, I've been listening to a lot of Anisia. Anisia, oh, Lotto. I love Lotto. I'm a scratch off. Yeah. um I don't think enough people like Sunday service. The girls have been distant, going to distract before the man, but sexism. Uh-huh. And yeah. And oh, wait.
00:16:18
Speaker
That's not espresso. I actually do like that. i don't I didn't know we were arguing about it, but it's cute to me. It makes me want to flip on my air ponytail. So I'm fine with it. You got a lot. you gotta I think that's a well. You got a lot of range, which I always when I look at a playlist, I always look to see if someone has range. If they always if they have the same stuff, it's like, oh, I get it. like i'm I'm definitely like an album person. Like someone has an album. I listen all the way through. I listen all the way through again. And then I'll pick out like the songs that I that i like. I won't probably go back and listen to the whole thing again. But I could tell like, yeah, you're definitely like a ah for the culture person because it's not typical for someone that I don't think it's typical for someone to have so much range on a list. um Because oftentimes when I ask people to have, you know, two or three artists, it's like the whole list all the way through. Or it goes all the way back to, you know, the
00:17:14
Speaker
90s or whatever it is. And it's like so much of the nostalgia, which you can get tired of over time as well. um I have another question and my wife told me to ask you this. She said, tell me about your skincare routine. Oh, I just broke out. But hello. Um,
00:17:34
Speaker
Well, my friend Corey is much better at this. So I use, I think it's Sarahview. I don't know how you say that. That, the moisturizer. I do use that in the retinol. um Actually, I use a lot of their products. The face wash. You know, I will say like what helped my skin because I actually have to fight the sun in LA. I mean, it's it's like Jerry now. I don't know what the hell this is. but um I have to fight the sunlight a lot. It kind of breaks. That's been breaking me out. That's the only one of, well, the rent, but the drawback of LA outside of liking it. But yeah, I drink a lot of water. I moisturize. I use a retinol. I got to work on these. these I can't get had these bags. I can't get rid of that. But eye cream. But that inlays the hair removal. That helped a lot actually. ah And it's so interesting because I don't, I mean, I growing up, I'm from Canada, but I grew up in an all black community.
00:18:28
Speaker
largest black community, ah indigenous black community in Canada. And we, skincare in itself, and I think just like, specifically for men, was not something that I ever talked about with anybody. um My mom was an advocate for, you know, trying to make sure that I had good, clear skin. um And I struggled as a kid and I was self-conscious, you know, i went through so many phases. I like most recently told my wife like, yeah, I remember in high school, I was like, I played sports, but I was trying to put like cover up on I was trying to like do all the stuff just to like, you know, not be looked at a certain way. um But there are products out there that can help black people specifically men um take care of their skin, be proud of their skin.
00:19:20
Speaker
um But I feel like it's not talked about enough. um And I think right now there are people online that are doing it. But if you're not actively searching for those people, and they're not in your um algorithm, they're not going to pop up for you. um But there are people out there that are doing it. So um I had to ask that because she was like, Oh, you should just check and see like, what is he, his skin is so glowy. like ah thank you Thank you. Thank you to the wife. I appreciate that. We trying to hold on. I'm getting older. Yeah. No, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I guess the other question for me was, um I had it written down here. You talk a lot about um mental health. And I remember you mentioning before we came on, that is something that you know hasn't been easy for you ah recently. In an interview I listened to back when you first released this book.
00:20:08
Speaker
you talked about how um or no sorry this is way back when you i think you did an interview with um breakfast club i think this is a while back um you talked about um not seeing a therapist um is there moments in your life where you feel like um it is essential to have people like that to talk to or even just like friends to talk to or do you feel like you sometimes need to um sit with you know, those feelings alone, like how do you process through some of the mental health stuff that you've been going through?
Mental Health and Grief Counseling
00:20:41
Speaker
A kind of a combination of all I mean, you know, my thing is I think I don't really like this, this attitude that a lot of people particularly I think I can't remember exactly but the sentiment that black people do not value their mental health. I don't actually find that to be true. I think you hear a lot about black people talking about their
00:21:01
Speaker
mental health, particularly in their art. I think it's just not dealt with in the sense that people say you should go to therapy. But I don't think the reason why a lot of Black people um don't go to therapy has to do with stigmatizing. I think that's the case for some people. But for the last time, I was like, where does that stigma come from? And in America, it comes from Ronald Reagan, who was the president when I was born, when he was in California. Although he was a buckethead actor, he stigmatized and removed a lot of mental health care services in the state as governor, which is why you saw and continue to see a lot of people who are homeless on the streets who are dealing with mental with disabilities. He closed a lot of that stuff.
00:21:43
Speaker
he deprioritized mental health. So this is over the course of four decades, because he repeated this as president, like closing all these mental health centers, shunning it away. So I think that's a lot of the attitude, like a broader sense, that just generally speaking, white people have more money and have more access to mental health. I don't think if you went by the numbers and broke it down, particularly by class, there's not that great of a difference. That said, I'm happy more black people are going to therapy, but I also think you know when you go to therapy, There are not that many black therapists. And I think while, you know, you go to school and do all this stuff, there's a lot of cultural differences, racism, because I mentioned in my first book, I believe I tried to go to therapy when I was 19. I went to my mom and asked for help. I went to um a therapist who basically, and i articulated, you know, what was, how was, what was I feeling? I had these, he basically just said, you have ups and downs, but you're fine. And then shoot me away.
00:22:40
Speaker
He didn't know what to do with like some black 19 year old articulating his pain. I only found out like a year ago and that my mom still had to pay for that BS session. So I was like, you should have got your money back. So even now, you know, there are people I know that could benefit from therapy, but they just don't have the means. And so there are more, you know, accessible measures now to an extent, but I think in the same way, It's hard for Black people, regardless of their financial status, time at times to get adequate health care in this country. And I deal with like bigots and all types of crap. And you know if I can cuss in, I haven't said crap in like 30 years. But it's the same is true for mental health care. All that is said, I know that when it comes to me dealing with grief, it is time for me to find some sense of grief counseling.
00:23:33
Speaker
be it with a group, one-on-one, some combination of the or of the two. um Grief is something, again, that is a daily challenge. I don't know who I am anymore. And you know I still have a sense of score, but you know you're a different person when you lose a parent in most cases. And I'm definitely dealing with that right now. so um again I'm not against therapy, but I just think sometimes when people talk about you know black folks don't care about therapy, black man, black man, blah, blah, blah, are you going to pay for it? It's not because I'm doing the best I can with what I have. But I do know now that I need grief counseling, because I think this is something that I cannot handle. I mean, i'm handd I've been handling it on my own with friends and people understand. but
00:24:21
Speaker
There is like something to be said about professional care, particularly about something like grief that's going to be like a lifelong battle. who No, i appreciate I appreciate the vulnerability. And I think it's so true. like yeah Are you going to pay for it? yeah is very It is not cheap. It is not cheap. And the professional there is a difference from professional help and talking to a friend yeah and sometimes friends, partners, whoever, like they can, unfortunately, and not even unfortunately, but they have limits as well. Like that's not their specialty, right? And oftentimes they need coaching as well. So like, it's just a, it can be very complicated um and limited
00:25:02
Speaker
within like your bubble or your spirit like friendships and family. And sometimes you do need to reach out and sometimes that isn't accessible for everybody as well. So um I see you man, I really do appreciate. the vulnerability and just like the sharing, because I know that it is not easy to talk about grief um and trauma and all those things. And you, again, you do all those things really well within your books. um But what are some things that you do ah for joy? And that could be outside of listening to music, um reading, etc. What are some things that you try to do for joy?
00:25:42
Speaker
um I like my pop-pop walks and hikes. That's very LA transplanting me to say, but it can be helpful. um I hadn't really been out a lot, but I will say while it is surreal to have to promote a book ah only a few months after burying your mom, um it forced me to be outside. It forced me to go back to cities I used to live in, but hadn't visited in years. So it I say all to say it reminded me like, at one point I told one of my friends, oh, I think I missed me in New York. And he was just like, no, you just missed the streets. So sometimes it's going out and hitting the streets. Like, you know, I went out single to Mario. I went to brunch with two of my own boys, but then I went to a day party that one of my friends mentioned. And while it was wild running into so many different people from every walk of life, from elementary to the first time I lived in LA.
00:26:37
Speaker
I really just wanted to go with a margarita in my hand and yell, ovi ho. And doing that it really was great for me. I could still get low. My knees still work, praises to Houston. So even just going out and being social, that was really healthy for me. um Yeah, I think just kind of being around people. I think I'm comfortable with my own company. So finding things that I can do on my own outside of my apartment is good and has been helpful. But I think because I'm not with my immediate family, so only I'm really here understanding the magnitude of my laws. Being around people that I can be a little bit of my old self has been good, too. Like, no, no, the streets have brought me joy. That's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, i'm I hope you get more of that. You deserve more of that. I really i really do. um
00:27:35
Speaker
Have you had time or space to write? Is that something that um at this moment, this time allows you freedom um or liberation or whatever the the words are? Or is it harder when you're grappling with like so much that's going on in life? um i ah I'm a working writer, so I've been writing, like doing assignments and freelance stuff. um since it's been going on. I think I did fall back in some instances. Some of that is just, I don't know, media collapsing. But it's also just been trying to juggle a lot, including the book release and just trying to get people to give me the space to talk about the book and promote it. who um I've been able to do certain things like
00:28:27
Speaker
commentary, some interviews, some podcasts, pilot stuff, like things like that. That's not really writing, but just kind of working. Excuse me, but I will say I normally would have already probably had another book proposal completed. And I do have an idea about what to do, but um writing about my mom is a challenge. I've come to, I mean, not, I kind of knew it, but I have something, I don't know when it's going to run, but it'll be in like the New York Times magazine that I wrote about my mom in grief and trying to find connection. And that was really difficult to write. It was impossible not to do it without breaking down. So that's been a thing. And
00:29:17
Speaker
It was a challenge, but I think I i think i got it. um And in some of the writing, I've been working on, you know, I don't know if a year is, but I'm in a different position now on the TV adaptation of my first book. And that even itself has been, I appreciate it. um They're hazing me. It's like year six, but we're close. Yeah, that has actually even been a challenge, too, because it's not like I don't know what I want to do, but sometimes I get in my own head with this type of writing and more creative part, which to the point could be kind of, you want perfection so much, it's like destabilizing, debilitating, excuse me, and you don't get anything done. So I just sent in something off to my producer. I was like, yo, this is my sub, please help. Hopefully it's not as bad as I think. But I think, um I have been writing, I feel like I'm jumping ah jumping around, but yeah, I've been doing some work, but I think the work that I'm most passionate about
00:30:14
Speaker
has been a challenge. And I must say, like, to be honest, ah last year I kind of really came to resent writing. I felt like it kept me away from my mom. um I think that's something I'll work out with in therapy soon enough. But I'm trying to also regain my love of writing and why I decided to do this. in spite of all the signs that writing is being devalued. But it's not perfect. but And I think I'll get back in my groove soon enough. But yeah, I have been writing. It's just it's just challenging, depending on what exactly I'm writing. I appreciate that.
00:30:50
Speaker
um well I appreciate that you're writing. I appreciate everything that you put out. I see you. I do. I hear you. I'm sending all of the space, the time, the love your way um because I know you need it. And I want to make sure that other people know that like, you know, um you're not someone who's just doing the work, do the work. Like you're someone who's, gar you're grappling with something, but then you're also still sharing all these things with the world, which I think is,
00:31:22
Speaker
says so much about who you are as a person. So I appreciate that so much. And um I enjoyed my time. Where can people find you online? Thank you. ah Yeah, um though and no longer applies. I am young, the regular way. Young S-I-N-R-C-K. So young cynic. If you did did that, that was like a, if you, I had an old blog called the cynical ones. So at one point that was like my rap name. I really should have been a rapper. I'm really mad. I'm not, but to people out there, don't be able to win your rap dreams. ah Don't be like me. So yeah, that's that's where that name comes from. But I'm young cynic on Twitter, although that's a miserable place. um What is it thread? Not no one uses threads, but
00:32:07
Speaker
Shout out to threads um and and instance Instagram. I have a TikTok, but nobody, I don't post on this. You don't post on it. and i guess what's matter My last question, have you bought any Jordans lately? I got gifted some Jordans from my friends at my bookstop in Houston. okay It was my first time going home since my mom passed. My dad even went, which was interesting and a treat because he behaved and it was all nice. My brother was a part of it. My aunties and their wigs made a grand appearance. And then at the end, my friends bought me some Jordans. So that was really nice. And I'm still, I still need to buy the Jordans. I told myself in the book that I would give. um
00:32:49
Speaker
them 11s, but I'm gonna get them. But yes, I got gifted some in March. Okay, okay. I'm ah um ah um' a Jordan person too. i'm I'm also getting more into like Nike dunks a little bit, but yeah, like 11s and probably 4s are my 11 and 4. Those are the only ones that like fit well, and like once fit well, but everything else is, they just look, they're big. They just fit big. Yes, which is honestly, I normally I'm like an Air Max person. I love the Air Max. That's very of my, then I guess. But yes, those two joins you mentioned, it is about the fit because it's like big clunky shoes and I got like long skinny feet with a shrink and now that's the thing that happens. But yeah, it doesn't matter. I totally get it. I totally get it. I'm gonna stop it here.