Vermont PBS in cooperation with Orca Media and the Vermont Press Bureau presents Capital Beat, the Week in Review, from the Vermont State House. Here's host, Neil Goswami. Welcome back everyone to Capital Beat. I'm Neil Goswami with the Vermont Press Bureau and we are pleased to be back in the State House this year working with Orca Media and Vermont PBS to bring you interviews each week with key lawmakers and administration officials as the session wears on. We are in the Governor's ceremonial office this week and we are very pleased to welcome in Governor Phil Scott for his first extended interview since taking office last week. Governor, thanks so much for being here. Well, good afternoon. Thank you for having me on. So as I mentioned, it's been a week now. Any surprises? Have you found out any cool secrets that you can share with the people of Vermont? Well, I can share one story which is somewhat unique. It was the day after the inauguration and I'm an early riser. I've been in the construction industry almost my whole life. So I get up early and it didn't stop. I went, of course, I don't have any business to go into anymore so I went right to the fifth floor of the pavilion where the executive office is and it was around 6.30 or so. Not much going on on the fifth floor at 6.30 in the morning. So I did some things there and then thought I'd come over here to the State House and went in with my detail, ran up the stairs, came to the office door, no key. So at that point to ask the detail if he had a key, he did not. Went down to the Sergeant and Arms office, nobody there. Went to the Capitol Police, nobody there. And at that point I thought, what am I going to do? Going aimlessly throughout the building that I've served in for 16 years with no place to go. And then I thought, I know how to get in. I'll talk with Kevin. Kevin from the custodial staff and he came up and let me in. And I thought to myself after the day after the inauguration, I talked about this and my inaugural address about those on the front line, those in the trenches, those are the folks that we should be listening to. If we have a problem, we should be asking them to help solve it. So you found that out right away? First day. Yeah. Yeah. Aside from no longer having to carry keys, have you found anything surprising about this new role for you? It's just, it's non-stop. We're pressing go most of the time. And I'm used to working long hours. That doesn't bother me. The pace is tremendous, but it's great. It's exhilarating, exciting. But we have a lot to do in certainly facing the budget challenges that we have. It's a bit daunting. Yeah. You are one weekend to the job on your first day in office, and mere hours, I guess, after being sworn in. You signed four executive orders. Can you tell us a little bit about what those executive orders are and how they will shape your administration as it moves forward in this first term? Well, one of the executive orders was to set the agenda in terms of what my administration is going to be, my vision, in terms of the overall, the 30,000-foot vision. And it's about improving, growing the economy, about making Vermont more affordable and taking care of the most vulnerable. So that executive order went out to the administration, and I'm asking each and every one of our department heads, our secretaries, commissioners, to think of that every time they do anything, think about that executive order and what can we do to improve the lives of our monitors? Treat them as customers. And so that was part of the basis for that executive order. The other was the Opioid Coordination Council. And it's something, again, I spoke about on the campaign trail, that we have a tremendous challenge ahead of us. And I give credit where credit's due. Governor Shulman had brought this to our attention in the State of the State Address a number of years ago, and it proved to be the case that this may be one of our greatest challenges at this point in time. So we are wanting to move forward with that. I've announced a Coordination Council director, executive director of that, and that will be Jolinda LeClaire, as well naming those on this council that will seek to coordinate with others throughout Vermont in trying to adopt common themes and messages and what are we doing right, what are we doing wrong, how can we work together and really confront this problem that's before us. The last two were about the government modernization. And I believe that there are many opportunities throughout state government to take a look and see what we can do to streamline the process to make it more efficient, utilizing IT and trying to cut through some of the layers of bureaucracy. Your inaugural address was... there were no real unexpected issues brought up. There were four key points that I think everyone that works in the state house, works in state government would agree with that are things that should be addressed over the next two years. You talked about combating opiate addiction. You talked about transforming the education system here in Vermont. You talked about realigning our budget choices to grow with the growth of state government. And then you talked about reinvigorating the economy and taking a new approach to our economic development tools that we have. As I said, I don't think anyone would disagree with those four key points, but what can you tell us about transforming education here in Vermont? What does that mean? And I will say that there are a number of people that work in the state house, lawmakers and others that thought they were hearing you say you wanted to take some money from K-12 education and redistribute that to early education and higher education. So maybe you can clarify for us a little bit more what transforming education means to you. Sure, and we'll have more details as the next couple of weeks come together, particularly in the budget address. But you're right. What I spoke about on the campaign trail was, again, the challenges before us. We spend a billion six to educate 86,000 kids. That's 20,000 less than we were 20 years ago. So the budget increases. The amount of student population decreases. So at the same time, we are finding that early childhood education is extremely beneficial in the long run. The studies, the science shows that the brain develops tremendously during the first five years of a person's life. So the sooner we can get to them to properly educate and to try and utilize that portion of their life in a much better way, the better off we'll be as a society in years to come. So that coupled with the fact that we're one of the least spending in terms of higher ed of any state amongst the bottom. So we have both sides of that, but yet through K through 12, we're spending almost $19,000 per student and we're not number one in the nation in that regard. So my thought is that we're focusing all on K through 12. We're spending enough money. We just need to redistribute some of those resources to broaden pre-K as well as the higher ed as well and training for the jobs that are here today that we need to help in. So do you plan to propose a way to redistribute some of the K through 12 funding yourself, or what should Vermonters expect when you fill them in on Tuesday, the 24th of January? Well, again, we're trying to determine how we're going to move our way through that. Certainly, we need the legislative legislators to get on board with us and we're working on some of those maybe proposals right now and how we engage. Because as I've learned, I've served in this body for 10 years as a senator, six years as lieutenant governor. While you need a vision, you need a leader that will bring about new ideas and proposals. You can't do it alone. You need to have a legislative buy-in. And so I am looking to find ways where we have common goals and so that we can march in the same direction together, collectively, in order to accomplish that. And I believe that we may not agree how to get there, but I think most would agree with some of the proposals that I'm laying out and that being one. And do you see your goal to transform education in Vermon as coming in one big, bold proposal or a series of steps over a number of years moving forward? Yeah, probably a little bit of both. And we're trying to determine what the best approach is at this point in time without giving away the store. I know you won't tell anybody. No, nobody will know. You can tell me. Exactly. But we'll learn more in another couple of weeks. You noted a few minutes ago that Governor Shumlin started this conversation here in Vermont about opiate addiction and really, in some ways, launched a national conversation about how to deal with opiate addiction and whether it's a criminal justice problem or a public health problem. You spoke about in your inaugural address of continuing that and moving forward in an effective way. So in your view, what are the next logical steps for Vermont to take as it looks to reduce the number of Vermonters that are addicted to opiates and finding new ways to help them? I look at the crisis that we're facing today as a three-legged stool. And one leg of the stool is prevention. The next leg of the stool is treatment. And the third leg is enforcement. And it really is about a balance of the three in order to accomplish. We're not going to treat our way out of this, nor are we going to enforce our way out of this. So it's going to be a combination of both of those, as well as trying to prevent it from happening to begin with. And that's a tall order. And it's not as though we're the only state that's facing this issue. We're not unique. But at the same time, it seems to have affected our economy and the daily lives of Vermonters more significantly. And maybe it's because we're such a small, rural state. But if those out there who are listening don't think that this has an effect on them, then they're just unaware because it does. It affects our economy. It's leading to many crimes throughout Vermont. And it's really an epidemic that we should be treating much differently. If this was an epidemic, a real health epidemic that we, a disease of some sort that came to our state and started taking lives as fast as this is today, we'd be treating it much differently. And I would say that we need to treat this the same way. You want to create this new council. You created this, I don't know what the exact title, I'll call it the opiate czar. And you want to hold this convention or forum about opiate addiction later this year. So how broad, in terms of this new position, how broad will their powers be to get in, get their hands dirty and figure out what the next step should be? Well, this, the, Jolinda, the coordination of this czar will report directly to me on an ongoing basis. That's important to note. So their power is somewhat broad. And we don't know where this is taking us. As I, during, when I was Lieutenant Governor, I had the opportunity to go to Rutland and see Project Vision that they had implemented successfully in their community. And I watched what they did. I sat in on a couple of their meetings and I was struck by how outside the box this really was that you would contemplate having someone from corrections, enforcement, even maybe a building inspector, many different people from all walks of life within government and outside to be part of this so that you could really watch for the hot spots. Where, where are you, where's the most, where's the biggest challenge? And really trying to help one another out to solve this problem because many times, you know, if you work in a silo, so to speak, you think that the problem has been solved but it's really just been pushed to another area. And this is a way to really look broadly about where the problem areas are. And I'd like to take this somewhat, this concept somewhat to a statewide level so that we don't just solve the problem in Brutland, let's say, that it just moves it to Springfield, for instance. I think that what we need to do is to look at this broader and holistically.  What does success look like in the battle against opiate addiction? Losing less of our youth and having less of those, fewer of those needing treatment. Certainly we need to track that and develop a baseline and then see some of those issues where it's affecting the daily lives and really ripping families apart and literally figure out as well that we need to address the issue. So when we have less of that, then we're moving in the right direction. Are we going to solve it totally in two years? Probably not. Your team is working on a 2018 fiscal year budget right now. You have a plan for the mid-year budget adjustment for the current fiscal year right now. And we know that we are very likely looking at a revenue downgrade next week from the state's economists. So how is that budget process going? Yeah, very difficult, challenging. It appears that there's going to be a revenue downgrade in total of about $70 million for the next fiscal year. We'll be starting out with less revenue than we had starting out last year, even after the changes and the increases in tax and fees. So that's daunting in some respects. I've been fortunate though in surrounding myself with good people soon after during the transition. Not only do we have to hire a number of the whole administration, but as well putting your policies into place, promises you made along the campaign trail that I believe we should follow through on, as well as developing a budget that lives within our means that doesn't grow faster than the economy of wages. So in doing so, I was fortunate to coerce Neal Underville into coming back into service. The mayor was gracious enough to let us use Neal during this time, and he built a team as well. We asked people, Jim Reardon, a former finance commissioner, is also on board, as well as a number of others, business people and people from all persuasions. Even people that didn't vote for me, which is okay because it told me a lot about them that they want, they're doing it for the right reasons, for the betterment of Vermont, and they know the challenge we're facing, and I appreciate that. That means a lot to me. You mentioned promises made during the campaign, and there were a couple of big ones. The budget growth issue, not growing faster than the rate of Vermont's economy and wages. And then you also promised that you wouldn't accept higher taxes or fees. When you have a budget gap, when you have a revenue downgrade, as we expect next week, you've sort of boxed yourself into a very tight position here, and are you going to be able to hold on to those promises when you deliver the budget address in a couple of weeks? Yeah, this short answer is yes. Is it going to be challenging? Yes. And it's going to be difficult. We're going to need a lot of cooperation in order to do so. But budgetary issues are something that I face throughout my whole life in business personally, and you fall back to finding ways to become as efficient as you can. Delivering the services that you must while staying in business, so to speak. And I believe that we'll find enough efficiencies in government. We'll think outside the box. We put our talented team in place in order to do so. And we'll follow through on my promise. Are you bracing for a lot of blowback or pushback from groups that are always hoping to see more funding rather than less or equal funding? I would say that I may not be the most popular person in the room in two weeks, but I might be one of the more practical people. And I would only say that we may have this bit of pain over the next couple of years, but if we play our cards right, if we do this and we roll this out and we implement procedures and policies and put those into place, we'll be much stronger in the long run and then we'll be more sustainable and short-term pain, long-term gain. And I truly believe that. So it's going to take all of us working together. I don't have all the answers. And my budget, I'm willing to listen. If somebody has a better idea on how to do this without raising tax and fees, I'm here to listen. It's something I've done my entire political life and tend to continue to do so. There are sometimes fees in state government that are indexed to rise automatically with the rate of economic growth. Would you consider that to be a fee increase? Would you ask lawmakers to sort of change legislative language to stop them from rising at that level? I wasn't considering those when I made that statement. My belief is that without taking physical action, without raising fee increases from a legislative standpoint and our taxes for that matter. I want to switch gears a little bit to health care. Mon Health Connect was an issue during the campaign and about how the state should deal with its health care exchange in the future. You said during the campaign that you wanted to look toward the federal exchange or toward a partnership with other states. There was the report that came out, the independent report that said, perhaps the state is best off trying to fix Mon Health Connect so that it works properly rather than going in a different direction. I presume in a couple of weeks you will touch on this issue in your budget address but in your own mind behind your office door when you talk to your aides have you determined which direction we're going yet? We're working on that. Obviously we're in a bit of a holding pattern because of the federal government. What's going to happen to the Affordable Care Act? What is there going to be a repeal? We certainly don't want to waste our limited resources with another mistake. I'm being a bit cautious at this point. I believe even the report that was given may have a different feeling after the election than before. We're in uncharted waters and so we're going to continue to move forward. I still believe that the exchange is not functioning properly. It should be replaced. We should transition to something else that is accessible. I haven't been an advocate for repeal of the Affordable Care Act. I think there's some provisions in there that are helpful. But we'll live with whatever they do. But I'm looking forward to whatever the replacement might be and how that might benefit Vermont. Will Vermonters have a clear sense of where you want to go in two weeks in that budget address? We're certainly hoping so. Again, it will be a very honest approach. We're going to lay our cards on the table and we'll give my vision as to where I think we should be going. You're not the only new leader in state government. In fact, the top four positions are all new. Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House, Senate Pro Tem. You're known as a laid-back, nice guy who works well with others. How do you view the personalities of the other three top leaders now? And how do you see the four of you working together this session? Well, I certainly find areas of common interest with all. I'm here to help Lieutenant Governor Zuckerman any way I can because I served in that position over the last six years. We have a good rapport. I enjoy working with him and talking with him. So I'll be helpful in that respect. I've also worked with Senator Ash within the legislature as president of the Senate as well as the senator myself. And I appreciate his intellect. I appreciate his willingness to think about things pragmatically and his respect for the office. So I respect what he's already done thus far. And I think that we'll have a good working relationship as well while I haven't had a close relationship with a speaker, Speaker Johnson. Over the years I've known her for a number of years but never worked with her. But thus far she's talking about the same things that I am about looking at state government, finding ways to do things more efficiently and really thinking outside the box. So I believe that we can always find ways to work together and find common goals and let's focus on those and get to have some progress. Inevitably in any legislative session, even when the governor and the legislature are from the same party, there are sticking points. Do you have any in the back of your mind? Are you looking at anything now that you think could be a sticking point between you and the democratically led legislature? Well, time will tell. I think we'll learn more in a couple of weeks, certainly. Even, as you said, even if you're of one party, you don't always agree. And I'm prepared for that. And we'll, again, I look for ways where we can work together, where we can agree. And we'll disagree. I'll do so respectfully and civilly and show maybe the rest of the country how we can work together and not be so polarized. I've got about 30 seconds left. I just want to ask you, what would prevent you from signing a medical marijuana expansion or a legalization of marijuana for recreational use? Legalization. I've spoken about that a number of times. When I was in the Senate, I actually voted for medical marijuana. So that's not an issue. But the legalization issue is impairment on our highways, edibles, trying to figure out a tax structure that works. I think we should be learning from the other states that have legalized before we move forward with this initiative. I'm not saying no, I'm just saying not now. All right. Governor Phil Scott, thanks so much for inviting us into your ceremonial office here. We appreciate it. It's ours. It's the people's house. All right. Well, we'll come back then. Thank you. And we thank you for tuning in and watching. I'm Neil Goswami from the Vermont Press Bureau. And on behalf of Orca Media and Vermont PBS, we hope you'll tune in next week to see some more interviews from key lawmakers.


Hey y'all, as everybody watching this video knows, I am a Die Hard Bulls fan, and the one thing I need the Bulls to do more than anything is to fire Jim Boylan.  And the Bulls do have history of not having the greatest coaches, like we do have some of the greatest of all time, shout out to Phil Jackson, but we also have some pretty bad ones in our existence, but Jim Boylan is literally at the bottom of the totem pole. There's an entire compilation that people keep spamming me. 10 minutes of Jim Boylan being a clown for the Chicago Bulls. Now I don't know how many games Jim Boylan coached, but I promise you it wasn't long. So the fact that he has a 10 minute compilation of him being a clown tells you everything you need to know. It was like one season, a half a season last year, and this technically probably counts as half a season since we got quarantined and all, and it is an entire 10 minute compilation. So let's get into it. I already know this first clip. I already know this first clip. Listen, listen. I agree with what that fan is saying, but it's not very cool because Jim Boylan from everything I've experienced with him is a nice guy, you know what I'm saying? He's just bad at his job at the end of the day. He's just not a very good head coach. So you know what I'm saying? He's doing his best. It's just bad. He's a disgrace to the city. Again, he's just bad at his job. The person, not that bad. He's just bad at his job. I'm never really mad at him. Can I say that? No, I'm actually pretty mad at him sometimes, but I wouldn't attack him personally like that. But let me see at the end of this compilation, I'll let you know if things have changed because I have not seen every single interview with Jim Boylan. So here's one.  That's just, like the media member just wants an answer. Oh, his ankle is still not 100%. Oh, he hasn't shown to me that he deserves to be in a rotation. But because I said so, it's just kind of a nothing to say. You handled Lowry's minutes, but that long gap he had. Yeah, well, I played him more than the first half. I played him almost the whole first quarter. I looked at him and I thought he was breathing pretty hard in that first quarter, so I gave him a little break and then I got him back in there. Nothing.  You see how it goes. You bring them back. It's just basketball. Jim, do you see how that could like inhibit his confidence, because he's playing his best basketball for like the last two weeks, and then he gets benched for 14 minutes and 40. Who is this reporter? Who is this reporter? I need him. I need to follow him. Seven straight seconds. And then there's not a lot of rhythm there. Do you see how that could be hard on him and his confidence? Uh, I mean, are you saying it is hard on him or are you saying how it could be or what? Well, I'm saying I think it could be hard on him. Yeah, we got to go talk to him still, but yeah, I don't, I don't think so. Now I am not a coach. I'm not an NBA coach, high school coach, college coach, but that's a fact. If you sit out for 14 straight minutes, it don't matter what's going on. You're going to be like dang, coach like this, even especially since Larry Marketing was hot at that point. You sit him for that long. Come on, man. Ain't rocket science, baby. So I think he understands. I think he understands. But now he just came out and the interviewer said, just wait a minute, let's talk. And so, you know, I overplayed him in the first half, right? And then second half, it wasn't, it wasn't the same rotation. That's just part of the game. Was it a great plan to do that, or was that not a feel kind of, I have a scripted rotation and, but it's not in stone. It's not in stone. He's a bad coach. Jim, we know Gafford was on the active roster. Was he healthy enough to play? I thought he was available, which was good, but I didn't play him tonight. Was he healthy enough? I thought he was available, which is good, but I didn't play him tonight. Now some of you, if you're not a Bulls fan, you would understand. You wouldn't understand the terribleness in that statement. Because who was probably playing minutes instead of Daniel Gafford? Lou Cordonette, who is, who might be the worst center I've seen since Felicio, who's also on the roster. Daniel Gafford, even though he was a rookie, he was really nice for us. So the fact that he was active and you felt he was good enough to go and you didn't play him and we ended up losing. Up to play? I didn't play him tonight. I just wasn't going to play him with our two centers. So, with our two centers. Was it because of help? Was it because you had Felicio out of him in the rotate? Felicio is one of the two centers. I'm just wondering if a couple of things. Is this still wobbly on that ankle? See, Jim Boylan, he came from pop, so he tries to answer like pop, but you don't have the resume to do pop things. Pop can answer this question like this, because you're not supposed to question pop events. He's just great at what he does. This man is not even close to that. What do you think? What was that? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. This is my favorite moment for Zach Levine this season. This statement. I got 13 points scored on him, I guess. It was a start in five, I don't remember. I thought I did. I thought I was trying to do my job out there. I got taken to a stride. Like I said, I can't do anything about that. I just got to control what I can control. I can't control my mitts. Right. And what did he do next game? He came out and dropped like a thousand points to the game winner against Charlotte. Y'all saw that play off the inbound. He got the steal. I'm going to develop this bench. I'm going to develop this team. Oh my God. This is the moment. I got 15 guys that developed. This is the moment. I'm going to play them in those moments and they're going to learn how to play winning basketball. I'm going to develop this bench? Bro, we were up at like 20 against the Lakers that we lost this game. I'm going to develop this bench. I don't care that we got these guys, the starters actually playing really, really good. I'm going to develop this bench. Bro, half of that bench is not going to be there next season. You want to develop those dudes? They're going to be in the G-League. They're going to be out of the league. I'm going to develop my bench. I'm not doing that. We're going to develop that second group and we're going to have a bench here in Chicago and I'm going to keep coaching it. I don't think there's not really an answer to this. Hey, we make a couple more shots. You know, our records differ. We get a couple more stops. Our records differ. Our record is what it is. We get a new head coach and our records differ. My job is to keep coaching and developing this group of men. That's what I'm doing. And how we do that is becoming a work. We were just trying to get a three, execute something we've been working on, action that we've been working on. And I thought they're a pressure. This is a disgrace to that. That logo on the background is the best logo on the plate. This man is our coach. Still ain't fired him. Still ain't fired him. For whatever reason. This man is still the head coach. Chilling at the crib. He need to be selling himself to Chicago, bro. Sell it. Because he's more fit as an assistant coach, but not even here. You're done. No more assistant here. You've written your course.  These media people, they throwing them hard-hitting questions. They're not beating around the bush. They said to Boila, you're making mistakes here, bro. Oh, man, this guy's just such a clown. Ten minutes of him being a clown. In every single moment, it's like, yeah, that's him being a clown. But again, I wouldn't be like the one fan. I wouldn't be like the one fan to like literally call him out like that. I just think that's not, not very cool. And then obviously we couldn't help but know this gym, pull you back there. You guys have to hire some things out. You guys okay? It's the same interview. Yeah, no, we good. You know, it just gets frustrating when, you know, when you figure everybody gets frustrated, you know.  So we won't be a winner. Nine a row stuff, bro. Nine a row stuff. And now we just talk about the things throughout the game, stuff I didn't like, and then some stuff that, you know, what happened throughout the game. Player coach things that we just talk about every once in a while. I would love, I would love for a player to just come out and say, bro, my coach is trash. I know they can't do that because then what GM wants that person that can't keep things in house. But I just, I just want somebody on the bulls to be like, bro, get him out of here. I know they talk behind the scenes. We have Karni Chovas calling up the players and I bet they talk to each other like, man, Jim Boylan, that thing. Karni Chovas like, yeah, we do that. But like, what if somebody came out publicly? That will be fun. But then there'll be people out there like, he's not good enough to be saying anything about the coach. He has just many points per game. The bulls only want 22 games. Bro, somebody needs to be a leader and say, Jim Boylan is the worst coach I've played for. Obviously, you never know what can happen. Okay, I'm tired of this interview. What's the next interview? Zach said yesterday that you and he had a good player. This guy right behind me, he young, bro. Like, can I get a media pass? I need about my age. I need a media pass. Coach discussion after the games, how he described it. What, I mean, obviously you're not going to go into detail, but do you feel like you guys were off the page, got on the same page or how would you describe it? I thought we were frustrated. I think he's frustrated. I think our team's frustrated. Nobody likes these games. Yes, because of you. We're competitive people. I coach till the end of games. You guys know that. I don't even want to watch the rest of this. We know he's a clown. I know he's a clown. You know what? I think I typed in Jim Boylan to find this video. Let me find another Jim Boylan moment. Oh, this is because of me. I put out a tweet about this. And this has got so many views. Oh, my God. This is the moment that blows my mind. This is the moment that blows my mind. Don't touch. I have to look at the easy bucket. Tomas is very skin-brained. Watch this. Watch this moment. I was thinking about Jim Boylan. That's two points off the board. That's two points off the board. Hold on, hold on. No, no, no, no. I ain't done. I ain't done. I am not done. I am not done. My boy, Daniel Gaffer, gets injured right here. He's hurt. He's on the ground in pain. Right? He's on the ground in pain. I think it's Gaffer, as a matter of fact, who is down right now for Chicago. This man, Jim Boylan, did not call a timeout. He saw that Luca had the wide open three and saw him on the ground. He didn't call a timeout. Rick Carlisle did. The other coach. I know Rick saying they can't stop, but I also think that Rick was kind of sticking out. Look at this man. Like, boom. I don't think he... Thank y'all so much for watching. Jim Boylan's crash. I'd be a better head coach than him. In essence, something that I have no experience. I'm keeping it in the bucket. The guy's terrible at his job. Terrible, terrible at his job. My mom, I'm done.


Welcome, everyone. We'll get started in just a few minutes. Hey, SLP. Oh, you're muted. It's five oh, it's five oh one. Yeah. Hey, are we ready? Yes. We're ready. Welcome to Watch Me Work, where the me and the title is you. We've been doing this for 12 years. I finally figured it out. 12 years we started in the lobby of the public theater. And now thanks to the public theater and HowlRound, we are able to do this on Zoom, which is so lovely, so lovely. And what we do is we work for 20 minutes together, and then I take questions from you about your creative process, your work, whatever you're working on, whatever your concerns or questions are. So if you have a question about your work and your creative process, you can ask Lolly to tell you how to get in touch. Hi, everyone. If you have a question and you're here in the Zoom with us, you can use the Reactions tab at the bottom of your screen to raise your hand. If you have any trouble finding it, you can just message me in the chat and I'll help you out. If you are watching the live stream with us on HowlRound, you can ask questions by sending us, sending your questions via the public theaters Instagram or Twitter accounts or the Watch Me Work Twitter account, which is at Watch Me Work SLP with the hashtag HowlRound, that's hashtag H-O-W-L-R-O-U-N-D. So that's how you'll ask your questions. Fantastic. Okey-dokey, and we're gonna start. And then, yeah, so here's 20 minutes. Dude. All right, question time. Right, question time, question time. Feel free to raise your hand in the Reactions tab if you have a question. Looks like Rebecca has a question. All right, Rebecca. Hi, Susan, Lori, how are you? Rebecca, it's good to see you. Good to see you too. So my question is about the place of an artist statement in a pitch letter. I've never quite known what to do. I have one that I mostly like. I've never quite known what to do with it. And whether it's part of the biographical statement or how that works. To whom are you sending it? Initially agents. Okay, do you have online material to supplement it? So I can include links to things that have been published. Okay. And my website is coming back together slowly. To emphasize the writing is... to forward the writing as opposed to the consulting.  Because especially these days, we're so visual, you know. That might be helpful. So you're sending it to agents. So I'm guessing you're being, you know, honest and talking about what your work is.  What's important to you. Things like that. And with an eye on like how it might be, for lack of a better word, marketable. What communities it might interest. Yeah. I haven't included that yet. I have from a previous query letter. So I went to this website that I looked at a bunch of websites about how do you write a query letter. And I said, well, you have to tell them where it fits, like compare it to something else. And I was like, all right. And so I did a little bit of that. And yeah. I think that's good. I mean, and again, it's like people. And, you know, you think that folks would have more imagination given the exposure we have, the greater exposure we have to each other, but it seems to me that people have less imagination and more thinking what's it like, you know, because I mean, because you think of the things that are made these days and they're always, you know, you know, Star Wars stuff coming out as rehash of something else, you know. You know, people in the sales business, those agents and whatnot, want to know, yeah, is there a market for this? Usually the market for what we're making is connected to something that has sold before. Right.  But that's good. So you thought about it's like this. And I mean, it doesn't have to be like just one thing. Like this meets this kind of thing, right? Yes. And I've always, well, recently in the last year or so, I started describing it as part memoir, part travel. Oh. Journal part detective story.  I mean, like those things don't necessarily compute. So, yeah, but you can add, you can actually add that on. I love that part memoir, part travel, part, you know, part of the story. You can add that on to your detective story. As if this work met this work, you know what I mean? Like you can also get really, you really got to kind of. Yeah. Along, you know, and that's, that's not bad. That's just, that's just what we, we have to do to interest people in what we're doing. You know. And do you have a list of folks that you're thinking of sending it? Yeah, I've been gathering. I get publishers lunch every week. And I do look at sort of who's publishing works that are not a straight.  And, and, and look at who they are and where it looks like a good match. So I have about, I have seven or eight.  Uh-huh. That, you know, we'll see. It sounds good. It sounds like a great plan, Rebecca. Oh, thank you. So what are you thinking? Like, you're thinking you could approve on, on your plan. Sounds like you're doing everything right to me. You know, this. The, the kind of market part of it, that suggestion about, you know, this meets that in the light of the, the way I've been sort of describing it makes, makes it easier to think about the marketing part of it. Cause I really, right now I have none of the marketing. I have a lot of, I have a lot of, a lot of marketing in there and, and, and, and I really, I just want, what I really want is for them to get the flavor of the manuscript before they get to the 10 pages jammed into. An email. Right, right. Right. I mean, it looks bad. I mean, as much as I try to make it look good, there's no way of making 10 pages look good. Well, I mean, because depending on the size of the page, they're reading it on, it'll just, it'll, it'll flow, but it's not double space at this point as, because double space and an email is even harder to manage. I think. And. All good. No, I'm, so anyways, I want them to get the flavor of it before they get to the, the pages. Right. What about sending them an attachment, like a PDF? No, they say no, no attachments. No attachments. No attachments. Put 10 pages into the body of the email. Everyone in the agent say that now. I wonder why that is. I don't know. I don't understand why that is. Probably cause people sneak in the whole book. But then the agent only has to read 10 pages. I don't understand the agent line. Oh, no, do I? No, no. Just trying to do what I'm told. Okay. Oh no. Okay. Okay. That's, that's fair enough. Yeah. I'm just trying to think. What else can we do to make it, you know, more successful? You know, do you do affirmations? Not really. No, I don't. You don't like them. Well, you know, I try to do a gratitude practice. Okay. But sort of straight up affirmations. I.  So I guess that's as close as I get. It's not, it's not your thing. There's affirmations are your thing. No. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I just, you know, full disclaimer. I appreciate very much affirmations. Partly because they don't cost anything. I love them. We're free. And the alternative is. To my mind, this is just a personal to my mind, but I call it your negativity. And, and that is, that can lead to some toxic thinking in my mind, in my personal practice. I interface with the marketplace. You know, on a daily basis.  From people. And my affirmations sort of allow me to. To remember, you know, what's really going on. So, so it's kind of a, it's like a, it's like a power. A power tool or a sword or a shield. You know, that in my belief, you know, that the spirit provides me to maintain my. Good feelings about my work. And it's free. Again, you don't have to buy anything. You don't have to subscribe to some weird.   They're free. So. And I find them, I find them useful. And again, the alternative is. To take in some of that stuff. Because like, just so what you say, you know, this is a suggestion, you know, there's no way to make 10 pages look good in an email. I think that you could, you could. They open up your email and they're going to be really enthralled with your writing. It doesn't cost nothing. You know what I'm saying. They open up my email. They're going to be captivated by the idea of the story.  And so. Some good feedback is, is. I find very helpful. So, but it sounds like you're doing everything right, Rebecca. You know, it sounds like you're, you're writing a great. A letter, you know, of introduction. And it sounds like you're, you're, you're really, I mean, you've done a lot of research to get sort of the right angle on it. And it sounds like you're going to be sending it to the right people. And you certainly, I know you've done the writing work. So I was like, you're sort of positioning yourself, setting yourself up for success. Well, I will, I will add the, you know, there's a, so meta as a Buddhist practice for folks who've never heard of it. And it's four different phrases, sets of phrases. And there's one that's. Wishing good fortune to myself and others. So I will. I will add more of that too. And I'll, I'll try to send my emails with them. Yeah, that's. Sister, you can amplify that you can turn it up. Yeah, I could turn it up. I really could. Yeah. I wish, I wish good fortune to myself and others. That's beautiful. You know, it's not, it's not weird or selfish or, or, you know, it's very, very beautiful and very, and if you crank that up, you're also wishing more good fortune to others. So for my sake. Okay, I will.  I'll add watching work tonight. But into my things that I say, and I'm going to be thinking of you and everybody on the zoom. How about that? That, that works. What are the other three? So it's, um, loving kindness. Compassion. Good fortune and equanimity. Fantastic. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Sure. Thank you so much for that, Rebecca. We really appreciate that offer. Jay lists looks like it has a question. All right. Yeah, I like the idea of affirmation. I have something in my mind about what you mean, but I would really appreciate it if you could give us an example of what you mean when you say affirmation. Sure. Sure. Great question. Great question. Um, my information's come from, I mean, they're not. Uh, it's not a specific, like a part of a beautiful tradition like the Buddhist practice. Um, they come from anytime I catch myself saying something like, Oh, gee, that's going to be really hard. For example. I am, I'm, I'm really working always to kind of turn it around. Or G for example. Um, gee, this meeting is going to be really hard. They didn't like what I said last time, for example, you know, Hey, this time, the meeting is going to be great. These people are going to love my ideas. And even if they give me notes that at first seem difficult, I'm going to find the great note underneath the note. Or every note they give me is a great note. I have said that many times to myself as a mantra, when I go into meetings, every note is a great note. Every note is a great note. You see what I mean? So it kind of turns it. I am affirming the, the, the positive in a situation.  I don't look great in this outfit. Hey, I'm going to sit there. We're going to have a wonderful time. I'm going to really enjoy this person's company.  For example, you know, like that. Does that make sense? Yeah, I was trying to wait for the host to unmute me. But that does, that does explain it. And I'm going to think about that. And that sounds like something I really want to do more of. So thank you very much. That was clear. That explained it. And that's what I'm going to be doing.  I'm a realist. He'd say, I'm a realist, you know, bless his heart. Yes, yes.  And, and he did very well with his life and, you know, he's passed away several years now, but we kind of don't want to be too big for our britches or don't want to dream too big, unless we'd be disappointed. But again, what I found is that it is a wonderful alternative to negative thinking. Yeah, I think I need to practice exactly what you're saying. I go to these various meetings and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry to hear you. I go to these different meetings and I walk in thinking, oh God, you know, we really want to do this. But I think that it would be a lot better if I did a affirmation and thought about it before I got involved. So thank you. It's a lot for me to think about and I think it's really positive. And that's what I want to do. I want to be on the positive note rather than the, you know, the unpositive note. So thank you. I hear you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Anyone else have questions? Looks like we have one from Linda. Hey, Linda. Hi. I'm really glad to, to visit your class and I've visited your class seven years ago in public theater a really long time ago and was so amazing experience. And I had follows, followed the Zoom meetings as a blind passenger. And my question is sort of linked to what you have said before. I, I, I ask myself how I can work on yeah, negative experiences to, to transform them, that experiences into, into something positive through art. I'm not a writer, but that, that, that, that's at the moment my main question. How, if it's possible to achieve that or, or maybe how, how I can push myself to, to get in this direction, to get rid of that stuff happening around me, maybe I sometimes cannot react on and to transform it through my work to something productive. That's my question. It's a beautiful question and it's, I think it's completely possible. And I would say that that is the great, in my experience, that's the great gift of our work. You know what I mean?  It is a thing through which we can transform our experience. I found over and over again that my work is how I can help myself and wonderfully enough, an added gift other people move through experiences, whether negative or positive or, or, or neutral, you know, I feel like that's what, I mean, I look at when I think, and when I think of, you know, I look at paintings like Basquiat paintings or, or Picasso or whomever, you know, great artists, you know, Georgia O'Keeffe or, or Frida Kahla, you know, all great artists. And you think they're helping me process something, you know, and that's the great gift of our, of our work, whether it's writing or painting or sculpture or song or essays or dance or raising a child or whatever, right? That's, that's the great thing about our work, our life's work, you know? So I would say it's totally possible. You're totally on the right track. And what is the work that you would like to do? What's, what's your, what's your chosen form? My form at the moment is, as with the last piece I've done was a sound collage and photos I have done on the really special circumstances. And, and I did put all this together and this was such a, a, as an impressive experience at the weekend of Occupy Wall Street. And, and that was the last thing. And now I'm kind of working on that other material, but also, I'm kind of working on that other material, but also, I started to write a letter to a person whom I really appreciate. And, and the new piece, I have no idea what, what's coming next. I just thought a kind of a mixtape or something. I really don't know. So this was so stressful to do the last work. Yeah. So at the moment kind of video mixtape stuff. But that's so, that's not so great. That sounds great. I mean, I would just say like, maybe have, I mean, we're talking about affirmations. Today, but have part of your, you want to affirm yourself. You want to say yes to what you're doing, right? So you can say, you can first say yes in many ways. You can say yes by finding a particular time every day to do your work. Right. Do you have a time, a specific time during the day where you do your work? No. Okay. I mean, I hope you don't work like, you know, on your day job, 24 hours a day, I hope you have a little pocket of time. I usually pick my favorite time of the day. So for me, it's morning, but some people enjoy the evening or the night or at lunchtime or whatever. You pick just 20 minutes. Right.  Just give yourself some time. That time over the months you do this, that time can then grow to maybe an hour.  Writing down what might be. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's just like writing down what might be interesting to you. Listening to music that might be interesting to you sitting and just thinking about it. And if you show up for it, it will show up for you. It will start to, you'll start to have a vacation with it. Right? You'll start to feel comfortable about working on it. You know, you'll get, you'll start to get energy from it, but you have to sort of be consistent.  I'm gonna show up for her We're gonna we're gonna create a union and we're gonna work together to create this You just have to be consistent with it You don't have to have all the answers. You just have to keep showing up. That's the most important thing Presence You're showing up. That's why we do this, you know, we show up we sit here We have the time for those kinds of habits are really really helpful You affirm you say yes to your process On a daily basis And then the form of it will come to you The overwhelming feeling might come but you're gonna be sitting there with yourself and your work and It will not fail you That's what we're here. I feel that's what we're here for We're here to do our thing, you know, we're here to do our thing So our thing wants to wants to be with us, you know In my experience it the thing always comes through if I if I show up for the thing that thing whatever it is It always comes through You know Okay, where you call where you where you do you live? in Berlin Okay, I I have great love for for Germany. My husband is is from Braunschweig And Braunschweig. Oh, I see. Wow You're from Berlin. Okay. Okay. Well, well, you know next year we're gonna go over and visit So we'll look you up. So have some some installation or something so we can go and like Okay Thank you so much Linda. Awesome. We have like 10 minutes left. So we have time for another question or two Thank you Len Hey, Len I'm sitting in sunny, Los Angeles with my best friends Winnie Holtzman who's a great writer and Paul Dooley her husband who we used to write together and work together and You know, I my question and It really was an effort Emotional effort to get on a plane and and be with my friends who I miss so much So that was and it's the same thing about writing It's it used to be an effort, but since I've come Regularly to your class here. It's not an effort Does that make any sense? I have an hour a day You know, I'm right and I realize I don't have a goal for the writing Mm-hmm.  You know these people who have people with my life and I The wonderful and the heartbreaking you all everybody's human story, but I So is that enough of a goal I Love Constant star in this watch me work process girl you have shown up You know in the lobby of the public theater and for so many so many years. What a beautiful question Is that enough of a goal girl? But first of all goals are scary because once we set the goal You know in my experience of questions like I might not make it, you know, I mean once we say the goal out loud Oh, no, I said it out loud. It's A full goal. Yes, it's a beautiful goal and then we can refer and we can Basically what I'm doing right now for you in response to you we then will do for ourselves, right? Yes, it's a beautiful goal. It's a worthy goal. It's a noble goal. It's a great goal Thank you and more it's a beautiful goal You know, here you are you're going to sing the song of your family. Yes. Yes. Yes Fantastic, you know, I You know, I'm so inspired Paul Dooley we you we work together and also Paul is 95 now and he has written He writes every day. He has written This book this, you know, this screenplay this play I mean he's He's such an inspiration because his creative life is still informed by his heart and he's still so creative, you know And so I'm sitting here and you know a creative nest, you know I I'm very lucky, I think and I just anyway, I love you a lot Love you too. So proud of you. Look at you showing up every day and sure I mean, it's it doesn't feel like an effort. It feels like oh Just something you do somehow when we let when we just allow ourselves to go forward, you know Yes, you know, it's I realized what it meant to me To have their story down just that it's down the family, you know It Concretizes their lives, you know, they lived lives and it's very moving to me Yeah, congratulations. Thank you. Well done. Keep going. I will you make me Thank you so much, Lynn. Thank you. We have one time for one more question from Marta Hey Marta Hey, thanks so much. Good to see you and everyone and this is another sort of more spiritual question maybe but it's similar to the affirmations maybe but I'm kind of been I'm kind of very stuck because Shit ton of stuff is happening in my life a lot of endings after After a long time kind of asleep. I'm basically awake to a whole bunch of stuff, but Very long relationship had, you know, has been ending for the last few months amicably, but I'm sort of moving out this week Probably gonna leave the city I live in because it's like London. It's super expensive and That can be really exciting, but it's Uncertain and to top it all up.  I recently had like I basically fell in love with someone at a writing residency and It was beautiful. It was the most, you know alive I've felt in years and all that but But I had to say goodbye after a few weeks because like it's a different continent and like I'm going through The grief of that and like the heartbreak of that and there's a beautiful You know, there's beautiful intensity in feeling all these things, but it's a lot And basically I'm like completely not in my practice at all. I'm not even Consuming art or Being I'm not like able to read. There's just like so so so much going on And like part of me is okay with that because sometimes You're living and for me sometimes like when I'm living like when some things either really good or really bad Like I don't really have the headspace to create anything and that's fine, but I do feel like a bit I Don't like the lack of like I'm getting a little bit skeptical like I've been working on a novel for a few years and I feel like It's fine that I'm not working on it now because it reminds me of this whole residency and like it's a bit of a mess right now the novel but It feels like everybody has book deals left and right like I'm a little bit too in the Instagram mindset of it all and it seems like everyone's doing stuff and I'm noticing this in myself where I usually had my daily Appointment like in the morning to make things and I'm excited to branch out into visual art as well, but I'm feeling Like everything's a mountain to climb. You know, I'm like I need to learn all those skills in order to even Do this for five minutes. And anyway, this is kind of where I am. So I don't really know where to begin to like rehab or something and I don't need to be like writing right now, but This doesn't feel like, you know I know I totally hear you Marta and I'm listening to you. I just Suggesting a couple of things they might be helpful A lot's going on it might be helpful to go without something Instagram and all the other ones And maybe even step it out a little bit more and just take a take a what's called a dopamine fast You know only use your phone for you know, but communications with your friends or phone calls with your Parents or what you know, whatever and Don't you know, take it just maybe take it try it a day at a time or try it a half a day at a time if you really feel You know But I would try that and you have a meditation practice Um, yes, I'm not really in it right now Haven't let it for a while, but I used to do it every day. Okay. Well, I would say get back into that Definitely because if you if you have a very vibrant artistic practice very vibrant work practice And these two and you're doing a lot of Instagram which creates anxiety From what you say, you know, it create creates a feeling of I'm connected to everybody. Oh, no Look at everybody's book deal. Ah, that's horrible So I would turn off the Instagram and turn on your time with on your meditate I point there because that's where my meditation cushion is turn on your time with your meditation cushion definitely and Maybe some in 20 minutes a day of journaling. It's not, you know, you're hardcore working on your novel But it is just letting your thoughts just run Um we knows and Yeah, I mean journaling meditation practice and leave the social media alone for a little bit So you can find your feet on your path again, you know Okay, yeah Definitely the meditation though, that's probably the most important thing Okay Okay, and good luck with everything.  Yeah Martin Well, that puts us at six everyone. Thank you so much for another fantastic watch me work We'll be here next week Thank you, everybody. Have a good week. Bye. Thanks. Well


Good morning guys. I just woke up. I haven't even washed my face yet or anything So I feel like it's really puffy. I just made myself some coffee.  Anyways, happy vlogmas day 11 through 14, I think or 11 through 13. I think today. I'm heading off to my lake house I'm currently at my mom's house to be able to keep up with the vlogs.  It is just so pretty if you guys are new here, of course subscribe evermore Taylor's new album was released This morning and it is currently 7 a.m. And I've been listening to it I haven't listened enough yet But the first one that I did play was cowboy like me just because I felt like it was fitting So many of you guys were dealing me about that title and I really appreciate you guys thought of me Anyways, I'm gonna get a little work done and then before we head off to the lake today I need to go to Target. Maybe the pet store. I'm getting brunch with Julia Havens I have to go to the grocery store though because Sophie really wants to make a cake So I need to bring stuff to make or to make a pie. Okay. I'm dressed This is my favorite set from Revolve or any of my favorite foods from Sam element and this jacket is Princess Polly.  I think I'm gonna go to Target I just feel like going to Target this morning. I never grocery shop at Target, but I only need a few things Literally all I wear is brown guys.  Anyways, I'm on my way to Target. I need to go pick up some things for the weekend And then I'm gonna go meet Julia for breakfast at 10 Target, this is my favorite target to everything Starbucks target all of it It's always your favorite in your hometown. I feel like Honestly guys this mug dog person. It's actually really cute Like it's not just like dog wrong, you know, I mean even that one honestly is cute, but like that's really cute Wasn't thinking about the fact that I curled my hair I mean it only takes you five minutes anyways and how the rain was gonna mess that up anyways I just ran it very fast errands. I'm about to go meet Julia I got like wellness shots because I haven't had them in so long so I'm gonna check out and I was like No one did not taste good Vitamin C shots are always so much easier to take for me guys. We're at first watch. I'm with Julia Everyone's favorite blogger. We have the Kale tonic. This is my favorite I give this every time here and it's literally 495. I love Texas Yes, it's the cheapest creature you'll ever see that's not even normal like everything else That's literally $14 and then iced coffee So good This is my little brother. We're currently on our way to the road trip. He drove for me so I could work on my phone We are 18 minutes away from our house. It's only like an hour 20 From their house.  I don't know why I just left turns give me so much anxiety We listened to evermore. Did you like Taylor's this new stuff? Were you paying attention? Cody you're just such a hater Not into that. Oh, well, maybe you would get more girls if you were into it Don't you think you could like relate to them or something or they could be like? Oh my gosh He's different. I don't think any girl listens to Taylor Swift and morphs us you Cody that is just absolutely false guys comment below. Do you listen to Taylor Swift? Thank you Clearly not Cody. She's nominated for many Grammys Mass don't hear about her like that The world doesn't revolve around you you could turn here Call the Poor dog Okay, it's actually cold. It's so cute out here. Oh my gosh I think I actually Earlier we said it'd be boring to live out here And then we quickly changed our minds and we realized that there's really no one here to bother you And it would actually be great and this is this is kind of my dream my alternate life plan Or I like Idea of life that I think I would really love and thrive in it would be if I was an author and I live just in like a cabin. It didn't really leave my house much had cozy blankets cozy clothes And you know mugs and stuff. Can you see me doing that? I guess you guys Do you think I'm cool? Cody that's so rude You don't think I'm cool? Okay, I'll try harder I guess People are gonna think you're mean Cody's actually very sweet. I'm surprised. He said that to me. Obviously. I'm really cool Whatever My favorite thing about fifth is when he sits there like a child like So funny fifth I mean this is just like everything I've wanted this whole time I understand that I live in the city But look at this. It's so beautiful How many times can I point out the leaves changing color on this vlog guys? Seriously. Oh my gosh. Coco is So excited.  Are you ready? He's not paying attention to me here dude. Come on dude. Oh cool Are you so excited? Are you so excited? Look at you Have my some presents All right made it to the lake house. I'm in my room. This is the bigger lake house. I've never vlogged at this one I don't think Just the one in texas Here's fits. I'm gonna actually unpack just to pick out some outfits A lot of the decor here is like really old stuff. I mean not this like this is meant to be like, you know likey She has to like appeal to a certain crowd to get them to rent basically, but Ah Yes, I'm hanging up that stuff All of a sudden I'm not cool enough for her. She always is like right on top of my head though I'm on her cheetah chair my favorite chair literally She just like doesn't leave me alone Oh Isn't that so good I know and it's a puzzle Oh my god, we're doing this this week. It's not perfect. That's why I had to give it to you now Go go go.  I'm in my comfy clothes I'm so tired right now. Wait fits fits is so happy. Come here and away from me. That is rude Look at him go. Oh, wow guys. This is really giving me folklore and everlore everlore. Oh my gosh guys. Did you just hear that? It's giving me Taylor stuff vibes. Okay guys Soon on fits.  We are at the lake house. We have made it. Sof is here. She Sophie so these Mia had surgery this week So that's what she's in there, but is this your dog Sophie? Yeah. Yes. Is Mia doing okay? Yes, but these are not hey wait These are only a few of your presents and they're smaller presents. Okay, your big presents are going to come on Christmas Okay, this is just one for the one of them find the other elf Oh, okay. Okay. Here's our tree here. Fun fact. This is my childhood tree. Yeah throwback Present Do you want to show them what you buy? I know your kids really love this elf on the shelf thing. Sorry Sof one sec. It's fine. It's fine Okay, wait, do you want to say what else you got? Oh, yeah, you have to Oh, wow, so So cute. Did you just find the elf today? Yeah, wow. It's right there. Okay. Let's show them. It's right there. Okay. What do you? What about these? What are these? Um books books. This is dolly parton And this is Ella Fitzgerald Upside down so cute. Okay. Well, we're gonna have to think where we're gonna hide the elf What how do you know what it is? It's so cute, right? That is so cute. It is so cute Wait, is there only one pot? Oh, yeah one pot. What is that for then? Oh, yeah, it's probably like for the neck to go around Hi Sophia That's really how you do it Wow Sophia smart Oh They're like game room area so he has so much you're not tired. Oh, you're not tired.  Oh, oh my gosh. He is a moment. This is a moment. He's so cute He loves his cold floor. Look at him. Look at how cute he is So Does it look so pretty? Oh wow, I'm sure everybody I'm sure everybody. I don't like the makeup set. Oh, yeah, Maddie got her makeup set. Yeah, my mom got Everyone including the dogs matching pajama sets. So we're that family this year Wow So pretty Yes, oh look at Coco In his ear Yep, that is Coco Coco. All right guys Day two at the lake. It feels really good. It's so bright right now Sophie's nice guys.  You were so cool Oh my gosh So like I was saying guys my mom got all of us matching pajamas, which is normal It's normal, but this year the dogs have matching pajamas And so we 100 look like that family. You know, okay Do you know what I mean when I'm saying to like to know it girls? Yes There's a there's a photo that it's gone viral. Hey fit stop There's a photo that has gone viral. That is yeah one sec. So I have to let me finish Let me finish what I'm saying.  They're not like offended by it. At least she isn't anyways It's funny, but like if they get a photo of all of us that's gonna be us But it's for sophie. It's for sophie. We have to take up the phone No, we have to and it's just gonna be really something and sophie just sophie.  Don't you? Yeah, what are you doing? What are you doing girl? Wait, oh look how cute you are I hold it. Okay She says all she wants to do is is film the vlog Sophie you've got to oh, I know. Well, I asked her what to do Okay, look I don't think she's kidding. Yeah, my mom has those shoes. I know I got them for her So be you need to hold the camera better because I can't use that footage because it's too shaky He's like So you have to hold it. Let me show you hold it with one arm out like this. So it's really you know Oh fits is fine. Oh He's fine.  I'm gonna get the camera Can you hold my can you hold my bag? This bag? Uh-huh. Okay. I'm gonna go show the dogs. So So he needs a long sleeve. I lost it. So The dogs are lost The dogs are lost. We got them back though. Uh-huh. Let's put them inside guys So we can make a video. Oh Here we are So looks great Here we go This is the vibe that I was looking for I just don't think you guys understand how much in an alternate life I would live in a cabin and I wouldn't leave and this is all I would do. I know. Yeah That's all I would do. Oh When did they even get outside? I haven't seen them in a minute. Here they are No, it's funny If you think about how fits in um in kobe even relate to me and matty. Mm-hmm. Yeah You want me to sit by you? Yeah, why don't you sit right over here? This is so fee you are so trendy with your killer dice Oh, okay, so Oh, it's so cute Oh my gosh, thank you so much so fee Thank you so much. You tell everybody everything. I'm submitting my last college thing ever Really I got bubblegum. You got bubblegum. Wow She's sitting like this We've been outside people are inside. They're doing something for my graduation. I think so We are decorating some cookies. How's it going? Good. Good. Are you having fun? Yeah Sophie, guess what?  Yeah, I'm done with school forever Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. I'm going for a walk You know, I'm cozy here. What about you? What do you think? Maybe I'm so tired. Like no amount of coffee is gonna revive me. What do I do? Do you want to play golf? Golf is like like this but a little more How do you do it?  You did it. Like go get the ball. Go get the ball. Let me hit one Sorry guys Sorry guys. Wait, can I try? This is really small for me. Do you want to hold my phone? Huh? Do you want to hold my phone? Thank you. Ready? Okay, ready, so? Wait, stop, stop. Oh, my turn, my turn. No, no, no, no. Ready? One more. One more. Ready? Oh my gosh. Can I try for three? No. Yes? Yeah. Okay, ready? No, I got it. I got it. I got it. You're the queen of cheating. You cheat all the time Okay, let's let's see it Sophie, your slippers are so cute. Are you really left-handed or are you just telling me that? Here, let me show you how to hold it. Oh, wait. I got it. I did that Whoo All right, so I'm outside and I've been kicked out of the house It's really cold and I'm too lazy to put the fire pit on but I think they're I mean, I know that they're doing something for my graduation But like, I don't really know what it is So until then I'm just freezing outside I guess they're getting chips. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much Sophie, it's so cute Thanks, mom Wow One two three. Cheers. This is our new dart. Wait dartboard. I was the dart holder My stepdad made this guys. It was his Pinterest craft Um, he's really into it. It's actually looks really good. So we're playing darts Guys, it is I think it's like 5 30. I just took a nice bath To relax and I actually got ready. I'm just wearing jeans and odds I'm gonna throw a sweater on tonight. We're just hanging out We had a little grad celebration because I'm graduating on Tuesday I submitted my final assignment today. So I'm like done forever with school Most likely here's what I'm wearing my favorite jeans princess poly This top is revolve Uggs I actually got ready. So I feel just better. I've just been so Tired today. It's because I keep drinking coffee with creamer putting my favorite sweater on This is from revolve. It is so cozy very Cameron Diaz. Also, this is the best perfume legit ever It smells so good also purge for this time of year. It just is the must its replica by the fireplace so good While we're here. I've been loving my agave lip mask that I use The trick to this is it has to be melted like you can't use this when it's cold It does nothing, but when it's melted, it's really good summer fridays. It's still better It depends on your vibe summer fridays. It's kind of the applicator is kind of annoying, but it's really good Look at you You do the butter Yeah, it says you want this melted. Yes. Is that sugar? Yes, it is so hold on No, it's not good like this And no, you cannot just have straight sugars. So if I will get in trouble I saw that Okay, ready you can put the sugar in there Very good two-thirds cup flour Yes, so just wait You are yeah. Oh, okay Wow, that's good. Now you can put that in there. Oh Okay, good job. Now pour the butter. No, okay. We're done with this pour the butter in Good job, okay now Oh, yeah, we'll do it together. Oh, wow. I love your outfit.  Oh, you can get that. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea We should have gotten a fork for this because it seems like it needs more I need more flour So if I look at oh That's a real step like that. Your outfit is so cute. I want to get some idea too No, no, okay. I think this crumb topping is the best crumb topping we've ever had. Yeah You're right. Yeah, you think so too. Okay. Now do we need some eggs now? No, now this is It looks so good. Yep, and I'm gonna show Right here He's right by me. It was just oh fits. You made a mess Oh Hi, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh Cocoa, thanks for sure that this s'mores for her. It's not for you Cocoa Melissa magnificent job couldn't be happier couldn't be happier Cute cute Do you want to my glasses? The baking vlog with so if you went up. Oh did it? Yeah, her youtube star done was started now It's amazing. You see her already. She's like, what's your court? Let's make a video. No, literally. I want to vlog I want to vlog. Let's vlog. That's your court. Let's make videos No, she's no, I just want to record videos. Oh, yeah, that one is the best creamer.  Are we matching? Yes fits as well behind Cody Bentley Our morning coffee together. Oh fits Sophie oh, she's waiting Um Sophie wants to take a photo She's telling she takes photos and she tells me what to do. Okay. What do I do this time? This time you like take a pose. Take a pose. Is this a good pose? Yep Oh, is it good? Yep. Very good photo. Oh, that was with you. Oh, that is such a good photo. Well, this is that one This is the last one she had me take though. Yep. Very instagram worthy, right? Yeah, so if you said wait, we need to talk about something. What is it? We have to like cook breakfast We have to what? We have to cook breakfast. Oh, yeah. Well, they're making breakfast right now But we but we should make some dessert. We already made dessert. We made pie. We leave today. We're not staying here tonight Okay, isn't that sad? Yeah Well, we're about to open our presents guys Is that what you're the most excited for? She's always there Yes, so this is the living room. So if you wanted to show you guys It's very spacious What are we? Oh, yeah, we do Yeah, so if you already found the elf today, he's been hiding around the cabin for the house. Oh, yeah What about your elf that you love so much? This is her 12 dollar gift. That is her favorite gift Look at the rock Were you gonna say raccoon? Yeah, the pine cone And we read these two books like yesterday. Did you love your dolly parton book? Dolly parton. Oh my gosh. Dolly parton Yeah, hello Fitzgerald. I mean Look chocolate brown And I'll have my chocolate brown Yeah, whenever those come back and yeah, whenever that happens, it'll be so cute Oh my gosh, so oh my gosh, so they are so cute. We were mad.  Oh my gosh I have so much work to do when I get home, but I hope you guys enjoyed this vlog when I'm with my family Honestly, I'm just really bad at vlogging. So I did the best that I felt I could Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this vlog and we will be back to regular schedule programming at my house I actually have a lot of home decor that was delivered while I was gone So I'm excited for those vlogs, but I love you guys so much and I will talk to you guys in the morning