TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 285.3 - Friday Chit Chat w Kendra Adachi
Jenna [00:00:04] I'm Jenna Fischer,
Angela [00:00:05] and I'm Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:06] We were on "The Office" together,
Angela [00:00:08] and we're best friends.
Jenna [00:00:09] And now we're doing the ultimate Office lover's podcast, just for you.
Angela [00:00:13] Each week we will dive deeper into the world of The Office with exclusive interviews, behind the scenes details, and lots of BFF stories.
Jenna [00:00:21] We're the Office Ladies 6.0.
Jenna [00:00:01] Hello everyone.
Angela [00:00:02] Hi there, what a fun day. We are joined today by Kendra Adachi. You guys know her as the Lazy Genius. We love her. Kendra, hi.
Kendra [00:00:10] Hi guys, it's so fun to be here with y'all.
Jenna [00:00:14] Thanks for joining us for a little, just a little chit chat.
Kendra [00:00:17] Just a little chit-chat. I'm a big fan of chit chatting.
Angela [00:00:19] We love a little Friday chitty chat chat. We should say we're all remote. We're all in a some type of closet room situation.
Jenna [00:00:29] We're Ladies Who Podcast, this is how you do it.
Kendra [00:00:33] In some ways, this is why you do it, because you can do your job in a closet, and it's great.
Angela [00:00:38] Oh, before you hopped on, Kendra, I told Jenna. She was like, "I didn't do my makeup." And I was like, "Oh, I slept in this shirt."
Kendra [00:00:45] Yeah, 100%.
Angela [00:00:45] This is the shirt I slept in.
Jenna [00:00:47] I am wearing my pajama pants, but I changed my shirt. However, I told Angela I slept in a gray t-shirt and I took it off and put on actually a sort of slouchier gray t shirt. So I changed out of my sleeping gray shirt into my day wear gray shirt, I guess.
Jenna [00:01:08] Substitute mine for the color black and we are the same.
Jenna [00:01:14] Well, we get our chit chat suggestions from listeners. It's this really fun new thing we do. People write in the best stuff. Our first one is coming from Missy S. in Hurst, Texas. Let's hear what she has to say.
Missy S. [00:01:29] Good morning Office Ladies, long time listener, first time caller. My name is Missy and I'm from Hurst, Texas. As I was listening to your Second Drink yesterday evening while I was making dinner, I realized that this is not right. What do I mean? You ask. Well, I've made a habit over the last five to six years, (however long you have been podcasting) to listen in the morning on my way to work. I'm a teacher. It's become habitual for me. It brightens my morning whenever there's a new show and I just love you ladies. So this got me thinking, what are some things that you do in your life that you can only do at certain times of day? Whether it's going for a run, whether it's having fun conversations with your kids, whether it is... Whatever it is. I don't know. I just thought it was so funny, that it felt so wrong to listen to you guys in the evening as I was cooking dinner. Because the habit has become to listen in the morning, on my way to work. Thank you so much for all you guys do. Love you so much. Looking forward to many, many years of more Office Ladies. Bye!
Angela [00:02:40] I love this question.
Kendra [00:02:42] It's deeply nuanced. I don't know that I've ever heard anybody ask a question like this before.
Jenna [00:02:47] It's very thoughtful. I love how in touch Missy is with her habits and routines and her attachment to them. I can relate to that.
Angela [00:02:56] Okay, well, I think we should all tell Missy, what are our things that we have to do in a certain order? What's an example of one for you, Kendra?
Kendra [00:03:04] I recently tried to meal plan on a Friday instead of on Sunday afternoon. It was what Missy said where it was so uncomfortable. Like, my pants were too tight. It didn't feel right. So I just decided that this has got to be a Sunday afternoon task. This is not a friday task. It does not belong on a friday. Nobody needs to meal plan on a Friday. But I also am so connected to my habits and routines. I'm sometimes too connected to them. When I was thinking about this question, it made me think of things that I have done at different times on purpose, just to shake it up. You know? Working out at night, instead of in the morning. The first time I went to the gym at 8:30 PM, I was like, "This is a whole other world. Look at all these people here." I can't lift weights at 8:30.
Angela [00:03:56] That's a whole different crowd!
Kendra [00:03:58] It was so bizarre. It was so bizarre. Or, like, baking at night. I think kitchen things, like, after kids have gone to bed, that was sort of a different shift. So I think it's a really great question because it illuminates both sides. You know with some things, it's just like, "keep the things where they are, they're so happy where they are." And then other things you go, "Actually this is sort of nice shake up. We're gonna shake it up a little bit." What about you guys?
Jenna [00:04:21] I'm like you, Kendra. I sometimes do intentionally shake something up because I don't want to become an inflexible person. I like the safety of my routines. I like to safety of order, but I don't want to be a person that's completely thrown off by change.
Angela [00:04:36] Lady, I must be so healthy for you.
Jenna [00:04:41] It is something I love about our friendship, Angela, because you are very flexible and spontaneous. You're like, "I'll do stuff whenever I feel like it,"
Angela [00:04:50] When I have the window of opportunity.
Jenna [00:04:51] It's kind of true.
Angela [00:04:52] But what's the thing you do, though, on a weekly basis, Jenna? What's one of your rituals that you do at the same time?
Jenna [00:04:59] Laundry on Fridays. I need to start the laundry process on Friday because I need it done by Monday. And if I start the laundry process, even Saturday morning, we're not gonna make it. It's not enough time. Cause I want everything in the drawers folded, put away by Sunday night. So that everybody wakes up Monday morning with all the laundry, all clean. We're not looking for socks in the dryer as we're on our way out the door for school.
Angela [00:05:33] I mean, I get that.
Jenna [00:05:34] And if I start it too early, then stuff is dirty again by Monday. So my laundry is very sacred.
Kendra [00:05:42] Can I ask you a question about your laundry routine? How long do you think that you tried it out and found that boundary before you landed on, "Oh, I need to start on Friday night, so that everything is done on Sunday?"
Jenna [00:05:56] I mean, my kids are 11 and 14 and I feel like I just figured this out last year.
Kendra [00:06:02] I'm really glad that's your answer because I think too many people create something from scratch and they're like, "This is going to work forever." And then they don't adjust it and find the thing. They don't find the limits that actually help them. Sometimes it takes actual years to learn that it starts on Friday night and it ends on Sunday night. That's when laundry happens. And so I actually kind of love that it took 11 to 14 years to figure that out.
Angela [00:06:32] But also, the needs of your household changes. I mean, I have adult humans now that I live with. I mean they're still in high school, but they're like 17 and they drive cars and craziness. So I feel like some of our routines that we had when they were younger are totally different now because they drive themselves. My mornings are so different because I don't do school drop-off anymore.
Jenna [00:06:59] What's that like, Angela? Tell me stories from the future.
Angela [00:07:03] They drive themselves. I mean, Josh and I have a new morning together time that we haven't had. I actually love it. We used to catch up at dinnertime. That's when we would come in and we'd start making dinner. That's when would chat about the day. But now we kind of have this morning chat, because we're not going and doing two different drop-offs and going in different directions depending on, "Oh, we have a kid at middle school. We have a kid at high school." Those are two different spots. Now the older kids drive everybody, it's amazing. So that's been really fun. But yeah, I'm not as structured as Jenna. I don't have certain days I do things. I just do them when I see the need, which can make a structured person go a little berserk. My husband's very structured. So it's very funny to me because two of the people that are the biggest parts of my life, which is my best friend Jenna and my husband, are very similar in how they're like, "This is the day that I make tacos, and this is the day that I make whatever it is." And I'm like, "Hey, guess what, newsflash, we don't have to have tacos tonight." "What? But I bought all the ingredients?" I'm, like, "Let's go out!" He's like, "No, ah!" So that's kind of funny to me.
Angela [00:08:10] But I do have one thing I consistently do, which is when I drive to tennis (which I play three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday), I call my mom on the drive to tennis. And that's our time. So every morning, around 8:30 in the morning, I'm calling my mom. I forget sometimes and I call her Tuesday, and that's her ladies Bible study. So then she puts me on speakerphone and I end up talking to everyone at ladies Bible study. But every morning on my drive to wherever I'm going, I call my mom, and one time I just randomly called her in the afternoon, and she was like, "What's happening? What's going on?" And I'm like, "Oh mom, I just thought I would call you in the afternoon today, instead." She was like, "Oh my gosh." So she's very used to this routine as well, that I call her on my drive in the morning. I really treasure those chats.
Jenna [00:09:03] Oh lady, I love that.
Angela [00:09:05] She has the cutest thing she says, by the way. So on a Thursday, I call her as I drive in. Normally we podcast in person, we have a studio. On Thursdays, I'll call her on the drive and she'll be like, "You going to podcast? Tell Jenna I said 'hi.'" Then on tennis days, every single time we speak on a tennis drive, she ends with "Alright Ange, go stick it in their ear."
Kendra [00:09:33] Everybody needs an Angela's mom.
Jenna [00:09:37] Angela, I'm thinking about how you said that both Josh and I are kind of similar. The two people you're closest to in your life are both these structured people. Well, you know, you and Lee are very similar. So clearly there's something about us where we're like, "I need to attract this other thing into my life in two big ways through my best friend and my husband. I need a flexible, spontaneous, laid-back person to balance my hyperstructure personality." You did the same with me and Josh. You're like, "I need two people who have a lot of order."
Angela [00:10:12] I mean, absolutely. Kendra, what about you? Do you have that balance in your marriage?
Kendra [00:10:17] Oh my gosh. My husband's name is Kaz. I call us "glitter and glue." He's the glitter. He's a glitter in every way. He is so fun. His birthday was this week. We started this thing, when we have family birthday dinner, where we do an acrostic of the person's name of ways we love them or things about them. It did morph into just synonyms for him being old. Because my children are brutal.
Jenna [00:10:43] It turned into a roast.
Kendra [00:10:44] It did. It turned to a roast, my children were big roasters. But before that, when we did father, because my kids call him "father." It's so funny. We're father, mother, brother, and sister. It's chaotic, but it's great.
Angela [00:10:55] It's very formal.
Kendra [00:10:56] So we started with father, because it's like a joke. F was immediately "fun." Everyone was like, "Oh, dad is fun." He's not funny. He thinks he's funny. He's a dad joke guy. But he is the one who is like, "Yeah, let's roll!" He's the spontaneous guy, he's the adventure guy, he just makes everything sparkle. I am like, "and this is how we're gonna get there. Here's my list to help." We really do balance each other that well. But yeah, he is not an organized guy, he's not an orderly guy. He's a great help and a great partner, but we're good partners because we're so different.
Angela [00:11:32] Yeah, I mean, I really related to everything you said. Glitter and glue is a nicer way to say, like, "I'm the hot mess and he's got his s**t together." But okay, let's move on to our next chit chat question coming from Kim W. in Fort Worth, Texas.
Jenna [00:11:50] All our questions are coming from Texas today. Thanks, Texas!
Angela [00:11:54] Two Texas gals, let us hear what she has to say.
Kim W. [00:11:57] Hello, Office Ladies. My name is Kim Westbrook and I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I was just wondering, who is a fictional character that you would hate to sit next to on a long flight? Can't wait to hear your guys' response. Have a good day.
Angela [00:12:15] I mean, I knew mine immediately.
Jenna [00:12:17] You did? Who is it?
Angela [00:12:19] Well, I don't know. Maybe it's because my kids loved Looney Tunes, and we watched so many hours of Looney Toons. But you guys, I would not want to sit next to Daffy Duck for any amount of time. He would just drive me crazy. Oh my god, he gets so annoyed so easily. I don't know. I don't want to sit next to daffy duck.
Kendra [00:12:42] That's a solid answer. So here's what I thought. I know there's a type of person that I don't enjoy sitting next to on an airplane. It is an arrogant man who doesn't know when to be quiet.
Angela [00:12:59] Oh, yeah.
Kendra [00:13:01] So my first thought was Gilderoy Lockhart from "Harry Potter." He's like, "Sign my books" and he's always taking pictures and he was always talking about himself and he's lying about his experiences and he drives me insane. Then the other version of that, like a backup, would be Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast." Like, that energy. That energy of like, "Hey, you're lucky to sit next to me."
Angela [00:13:27] Yeah, Gaston would be really annoying.
Kendra [00:13:29] "No, I'm not interested in this at all."
Jenna [00:13:33] This was the first thing that sprung to mind for me, which is, "I don't want to sit next to John Wick."
Angela [00:13:42] What?! Oh, because the assassins might come for you?
Kendra [00:13:44] [laughing] That's a solid answer.
Jenna [00:13:44] Might come for me?! Might come? The whole plane is full of assassins now. Like, as soon as John Wick gets on the airplane and sits next to me, I'm like, "Well, I am dead."
Kendra [00:13:54] Everyone's toast.
Jenna [00:13:55] I don't know what's happening to this plane, it's going down. Like, that is a sure sign that this flight is not gonna go well.
Angela [00:14:03] There might be a rave before it goes down. You might have a quick moment of, like, da club.
Jenna [00:14:11] Maybe.
Angela [00:14:12] Then it will be mayhem, yeah.
Jenna [00:14:13] But that was my first thought. Actually the first thing I thought was, "Oh, it'd be kind of cool if John Wick sat next to me. That'd be neat." But then I was like, "No, actually, that's bad news."
Angela [00:14:24] If an action hero is getting on the plane with you, this is not the plane to be on.
Jenna [00:14:27] No. You want to get off that plane immediately.
Angela [00:14:31] Alright, so I'm picturing us in a row with Gaston, Daffy Duck, and John Wick.
Jenna [00:14:36] Oh my gosh, that's the worst flight.
Angela [00:14:39] I mean, Kendra, Jenna will tell you this. I love to meet people. So I have met so many people on the plane and talked their ear off. I mean, I'm not annoying. It's if they are also a talker. If they're not a talkers, I mind my business. I do my thing. One gal I met on the plain, we exchanged email information and that was 10 years ago and we're still friends. I have lunch with her every once in a while. So, I do like to chat. If the other person wants to chat, I'm not a random chatter.
Jenna [00:15:11] You're not. I will confirm that Angela is the best person to sit next to on a plane. Cause if you need to talk to someone, she's gonna be there for you. She's open and welcoming and she will chat with you. If you don't, she'll read her book. She'll do work on her computer. She might journal about you though.
Angela [00:15:31] I might, because I love to journal when I travel. I love to people watch and then write about them in my journal.
Jenna [00:15:37] They're my favorite messages.
Kendra [00:15:39] Do you have an angle? I'm always fascinated by people who write with pen and paper, in a journal, on a plane, or in a book, when someone is next to them. I think you have to really work the angle of the journal a lot so that the person next to you doesn't see your words. I feel like you're probably a pro at the journal angle.
Angela [00:15:58] I'm a pro and now I do it on my laptop. So I have to laptop angle because you... Listen, it's not just the person sitting next to you, it's the people behind you with the gap. They can see your screen. So I get my angle and then (Jenna also knows) I'm amazing at code names. So get ready for this Kendra, a code name for you might be "Lindra." No one's guessing that. Jenna might be... [laughing] Penna. Yeah, I'm not the spy you want to hire.
Jenna [00:16:33] It's true. Ladies, this was a lot of fun. I enjoyed this. I hope that Missy enjoyed listening to this, in the morning on her ride to work. Before we go though, we just want to ask you, Kendra, what are you watching right now and what are your reading right now? Because you have amazing taste in books and I always like to hear what you're watching.
Kendra [00:16:55] Oh, that's fun. Well, I'll tell you what I'm rewatching. I watched for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I think I watched it three times since. And I do not have a lot of time to just dilly-dally and watch movies. But it's "Wake Up, Deadman." It's the new Knives Out movie. I love that thing.
Jenna [00:17:11] I don't know this movie.
Kendra [00:17:12] I'm a big "Knives Out" person. The first one, I adored. It's top five movies for me. I love a rewatchable, good time. That's my go-to movie. So, Wake Up Dead Man just came out. It's Josh Brolin and Jeremy Renner and Glenn Close and Kerry Washington. It's a really fantastic cast and I loved it so much. Also our family, we are a food competition show household. So currently we are watching "24 in 24," where you have to cook for 24 hours. We watch "Top Chef," we watch "Tournament of Champions." We are all in on food competition shows. It's one of the only categories of things that all five of us really love. So that's a fun thing. From reading, I read a lot and I am reading this book called - I haven't finished it yet, so I don't know if they're gonna stick the landing, but so far it's great. It's called "Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library" by Amanda Chapman. It is a story about a woman who inherited a library that also houses an exact replica of Agatha Christie's library. They have mystery books in there and people come in and whatever. One day this woman who's down on her luck (I'm not quite sure why, we haven't figured that out yet) walks into the library and Agatha Christie is there. And she's like, "Is this really Agatha Christie, or is this a crazy lady who wants to pretend she's Agatha Christie" and then someone gets murdered. So then she and pretend Agatha Christie are solving this case with this little snappy redhead Irish kid that they sort of adopt, too. It has been such a fun ride. It's the first book in a long time where I have been really excited and just keep picking it up. You know, like, "Oh, I wanna stop what I'm doing because I wanna go read some more of this book." Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library. So fun.
Jenna [00:19:08] Can I tell you my new favorite way to find out book recommendations?
Kendra [00:19:12] Tell me.
Jenna [00:19:13] Because that's the thing. Where do you get the recommendation for the next thing to read? So I've started going to (and then I even hosted one) book exchanges parties. So you invite a bunch of people over who love to read, and everybody brings a book. You have some charcuterie or some little snacks or whatever. You chit chat. Then everyone goes around and they pitch their book. You get one to two minutes to pitch why you love this book. Then everybody draws a number and you do a white elephant exchange. Then everybody goes home with a new book, but then you also go home with the list of the books that everybody brought. It's amazing. It's my new favorite way to spend time with smart ladies.
Kendra [00:20:00] I have a group like that. We don't do the white elephant drawing numbers thing. We just sort of politely circle the table with the books that everybody brought and you're like, "Do you want to read this one first? Is it okay if I read this first?" But I agree with you, that's one of the secret and perfectly wonderful ways to find out books. Because then you also get to take them home with you. I have little free library outside my house. I love to share books. I buy a lot of books knowing that I'm going to spread them around. I don't need them back. Certain ones I keep, I don't lend ones that I want to keep because I won't get them back. But I want to share them and I think there are a lot of people who feel that way. So you bring a book or two that are just your favorite and meet once a quarter. That's when my group meets, once a Quarter. It's just the most fun. It's the most fun. I totally agree
Jenna [00:20:51] I like it because I get to spend time with people who also love to read, which has really become a new passion of mine. I've always loved reading, but in the last probably year or two, I've become a voracious reader. I love talking about books now with people, but I don't have the bandwidth for a book club. Or the assignment of having to read a specific book in this month because I want to read what I want to read. So this other way of sharing books with people, I love it because we're all just reading what we want.
Angela [00:21:23] My goal is to someday be invited to a book club. It hasn't happened yet.
Jenna [00:21:28] You were invited to my book exchange party.
Angela [00:21:30] That's true. This is true. But I want to be in a bookclub because there's always really delicious book club drama and my tennis ladies I play with, part of them are part of a book club, but then a few of us aren't. And there was a time where they would be talking about their books at tennis. I am not miffed that I have not been asked to be in this book club. It has not bumped me. I don't think about it. They talk about their book. So I'm like, "Oh, that's fun for them." But this other gal, it really bumps her. She does a lot of like, "[sighs deeply] When they talk about their book..." I just I want to be part of that hot goss.
Kendra [00:22:08] The drama.
Jenna [00:22:09] You're in it for the gossip and the stories, you're in it for the real-life stories, not the book at all.
Angela [00:22:16] No, but I'll read the book but I'm also in it for the dynamics of the people that gather to discuss the book.
Kendra [00:22:23] Incredible.
Jenna [00:22:24] That's very on brand for you, Angela. You're there for the overall human experience.
Angela [00:22:28] Yeah, exactly. I do want to have a callback and wrap us up here. I would dare to say that if I got on a plane and Agatha Christie was there, I'd get off.
Kendra [00:22:41] That's a solid choice.
Angela [00:22:42] Another person's going down.
Jenna [00:22:44] It's a very John Wick situation, as well.
Angela [00:22:48] It is.
Kendra [00:22:48] I would like to see the plane with John Wick and Agatha Christie. How does that go? You know, it's like two magnets. Do they repel or do they attract? Which crime gets solved and which one gets accomplished. It's pretty good.
Jenna [00:23:02] Well, listen, everybody, thanks for joining us today on Friday Chit Chat. Thanks for writing in your suggestions. Kendra, thank you so much for being a part of this. We just love hanging out with you.
Kendra [00:23:12] Oh, this was so much fun. Thanks for inviting me.
Jenna [00:23:15] Everyone check out Kendra's podcast, "The Lazy Genius." We love it. We know you'll love it too.
Angela [00:23:21] Alright, see you next time.
Jenna [00:23:23] Bye!
Jenna [00:00:17] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [00:00:19] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:24] Our senior producer is Matt Beagle. Our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.
Angela [00:00:32] Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [00:00:35] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.
Angela [00:00:37] Our theme song is "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton.