What Year Is It?

Happy new year and welcome to 2023 (we think)! In the latest episode of Juicy Bits Jen and Jillian reflect on some of the highs and lows from 2022, including that one time Jillian figured out how to incorporate sex work into a conversation with an annoying man about the name change at Palisades Tahoe. Have a listen and find out why we think 2022 was significantly better than 2021 and 2020 combined.

What is Juicy Bits?

We created Juicy Bits because we wanted to continue the conversations that we start out on the trail and on the chair lift. Hosted by our CEO Jen Gurecki and Ambassador Jillian Raymond, they talk candidly about everything from dude soup, to sex, to politics, to equity in the outdoors. We occasionally (read: frequently) drop F-bombs, interview some of the most interesting people in the outdoors and beyond, and say things that many of us think but don’t feel comfortable saying out loud. If you are easily offended or looking for something that is G Rated, this is not the podcast for you. But if you love truth-telling and irreverence, get ready to laugh, cry, and maybe pee your pants a little bit. 

Hello and welcome. I'm Jillian Raymond, the co creator of Juicy Bits and a Coalition Snow ambassador. And I'm Jen Gurecki, your co host and the CEO of Coalition Snow. For those of you who are new, get ready to laugh, cry, and maybe peer pants. A little. Juicy Bits is about taking the conversations that we start on the chairlift and at the trailhead and bringing them to you to explore alternative narratives that challenge the status quo about what it means to be a modern woman in the outdoors. Grab your helmet, because sometimes it's a bumpy ride. FYI friends, this podcast is for mature audiences, so you've been warned. Let's get to work and juice the patriarchy.

Some little reminders of some things that were happening in the world. 2023 didn't happen yet. And I literally had, like, a little mind fuck of not knowing at all. Kind of reeling if it's I look at my calendar, and I was like, oh, that only gives me the date. I was like, look at the other calendar. And I was like, Jillian. And I literally just scheduled an email to go out to the counselor and a parent about the new quarter at the community college, and I put in 2024. So then I was all confused. I went back and yeah, current times are 2022. It's going to be 2023. It's reasonable, though, because the last few years have basically turned time upside. Like, how long ago was that? How many years? What and okay, yeah. Here's my question for you, though. Do you think that our inability to conceptualize time has more to do with losing almost two years of our lives? Like, the time sucked to COVID Or is it because we're over 45? Because I feel like I don't know. When people talk about getting older, is this what they are talking about? I don't know, because I still feel like I'm doing my best at trying to be, like, 30. I'm trying to, like, adult. Like, what would a 30 year old that like, I'm an adult, so I don't know what's happening, but what do you think it is? Do you think it's COVID time warp, or do you think it's because we're just aging? So I'm going to go out on a pretty vulnerable limb here. I think it has a lot to do with the perimenopausal brain fog that you and I actually recorded about and talked about. So I had a stellar day, super busy day, doing all the things mom shred, teacher shred, and before I was headed out, I hopped on I Love Skinning from my house. It's like one of my favorite things to do. So I got on, and I was thinking about us meeting to record, and I don't know what year it started at 03:00 this afternoon, where I was like, what the fuck was this year like? And I was like, I actually can't remember. Was last year the year that I helped my school go through accreditation was last year, the year of Omnicrom. How old am I? I literally told someone, and it's not about age, vanity, because I just forgot. And I was like, oh, I'm going to be 42. And Brendan was like, I'm 44. And I was like, it has nothing to do with caring about getting older, but it has everything to do. And I'm not a fucking mathematician, but I could do the math of 1979. Now I actually maybe can't because I don't know what year it's going to be moved. Yeah, you can't do the math, actually, because that would require you to know that it's 2022 right now. I know. So I'm missing part of the equation. And so I think that the time lost to that. So I was recently watching the second season of the Morning Show, which I don't know if you binged that. I haven't finished it. I haven't finished it. I'm losing my mind over White Lotus right now. Let's be honest. That's what I'm freaking out about right now. But yes, the Morning Show, yes, have seen it continue. So no spoiler alert at the very end of second season thrust us into lockdown and basically March of 2020. And I was watching it just recently having kind of flashback that really happened to us. Right? And so I think your question of, like, is it this or that? I think every person that's experienced what we've all just experienced, based on the time you are in your life, the place you are in your life, your experience, has been vastly different. And I think that also contributes to sort of the collective chaos that we're all living in because everybody is still reeling from it really differently. So I can have the occasional brain fog, and I can have that occasional, like, I don't know what time, day, year it is. And then I pull up my handy calendar and I share it with the world as I'm doing with you all right now. And then I can reset myself. But I think for some of the emotional trauma and some of the just the challenging loss that people have gone through in that loss of community, loss of loved ones, I think that in and of itself, I think some of our memory stuff is related to trauma. And this is what my self assigned instagram psychologist is teaching me, that trauma and memory are very much linked. So there are things that I don't remember that I'm like, is this getting old? Is this COVID actually? Is this trauma in a way of me repressing? But I just deemed her about it. So I'll stay tuned. You keep us posted.

Yeah. I feel like so if I think about the year in review, which just so that everyone knows, I 100% know what year it is. Okay, let's just be clear. I know. This is Jen Gurecki. She knows what year it is. So I was out at the bar. I was at the bar on Friday night and it was sort of like a full said night. There was a big group of us from Reno who haven't seen each other in a really long time, and we've always just really adored each other. And we ended up at this entrepreneur event together without knowing we were all going to be there. And we were like, yeah, let's go out afterwards. So that turned into me not getting home till two in the morning and there was a whole lot of shenanigans. Saturday morning I woke up and I was still a little bit drunk and I was like, I don't care. I don't care that I have to go work 10 hours today and interface with the public. That was totally worth it. But when I was in the bar on Friday night, in this moment of having a drink and dancing, I was dancing and chatting with friends, I thought to myself, like, holy fuck, I missed this. I had a long time in life where I guess it wasn't that long, we all had it. It was COVID, right? We're like, I didn't go and do this. And I feel like 2022 for me was definitely that year of emergence where I traveled again, right? I had the most amazing ski trips to Steamboat, skiing with friends, I got to go to Boot Tan Fest. I was up in Oregon, I was at Hood and Bachelor. I had a huge long trip in Kenya. I had my whole cycling group there. I got to bring people to Kenya and I got to go out, like, I went out to dinner, I went out to drinks, I did all these things. So I feel like when I look back on this year, I feel a little bit like, wow, I'm super grateful. I got my life back. I got my life back in a much better way than I think it was before. COVID certainly not the same. I think my life got a lot better because of that time that I had to be alone and had to deal with really hard things. But I was thinking about that on Friday night. Do you think a bit of the time, again, you and I included, because we're kind of chatting and reflecting about this in our year, and I think the collective included, is that time spent really maybe isolated, really insular, has us emerging in a different way. Because I like that you use that word because I think each social interaction I've had and some of them are small and then some of them are maybe bigger. Like you're speaking to, gathering with friends, letting our hair down, getting kind of loose, staying out late, all that good stuff that yes, you can still do in your 40s and you're still really good at and just a little nicer and maybe your outfits a little bit less fast fashion and all that good stuff. Drinks are best, drinks are better. So much better, so much better taste in that.

I know for me, I've had the overachnowledgement of my presence in those spaces. I'm so happy to be back. I thought I didn't like people and now I remember I really do like people. And then also not dancing around some of that social anxiety. I don't think awkwardness is the right word because I think it's just human nature to be in situations where we're maybe in this growth zone, borderline panic, but then remember that everybody, we're kind of all in this together. And how it kind of clears that air or brings a sense of ease to just have it acknowledged and then be able to laugh it off and move on to the things that we all want to do, which is share in each other's lives, share a great trip or an experience, share some inspiration and then move on to dancing and drinking and having a good time. Yeah, I definitely think things I feel like in 2022, things kind of chilled the fuck out in terms of interpersonal relationships, really with sort of strangers in the sense that, like, we weren't wearing masks anymore. So there wasn't mention of like, you're wearing a mask, you're not wearing a mask. Although when I get on airplanes still and people aren't wearing masks, I'm like, do you all like to get sick in general? Do you know how disgusting all of us, we're gross. People are gross. There's like kids everywhere. That dude didn't just cover his mouth when he sneezed. That person's eating food. Like gross. I am not interested in getting sick at all. Anyhow, the tone has lightened up a lot because there's like one less thing for all of us to argue about regardless of what side of the mask wearing. That I think has definitely contributed to a lighter feeling this year. It's just not so polarizing anymore. People wear masks and no one cares. People don't wear masks and no one cares. Life feels a little bit lighter. And also I know it doesn't feel lighter for everybody. Like people who continue to be immune, compromised, or have different reasons why they're really concerned about their health with COVID it's not easy for them. But I'm just sort of reflecting on sort of the general mood of society in the United States is definitely lighter. I mean, even in Kenya, even in Kenya with still having a mask mandate, it was still lighter when I was there this summer than it was the year before. Well, and I like that I can wear one and if I want to, I wear it. Like, we're going probably this Thursday, I'm going to go out for the speaker series. It's going to be a huge gathering.

And now it's not just COVID, right? It's RSP and it's influenza and it's just that season. And I'm like, I've actually really appreciated not getting sick. And to your point of people, like a picture of the droplets coming out of someone's mouth, I was in the funeral just recently skiing at Palisades. And actually I really wanted this human to pause and say, hey, I just have a tickle in my throat. Hey. They were coughing the whole time. The two other of us, we kind of got up, and we were, like, standing towards the little window that just comes down at, like a 30 degree angle to try and get fresh air. And I was like, either this person needs to acknowledge that they just have a sip of water because they're literally in this small box with us, and we've got buffs on, and that's fine. But I'm like I also think we've learned those lessons of it's okay to not show up to a public place when you're coughing, seizing, or have a fever when you're sick, other people sick, you just bring up a really good things that happened in 2022 was in 2021, I don't know. So the resort in Tahoe got a name change. We now officially have Palisades as the name for the resort, otherwise known as the S word, which I was on the lift yesterday, and there were all these people, they kept using the old name, and I was on the corner. I was on the edge of the lift, and I kept trying to figure out a way to insert myself into the conversation, and I was like because I was about ready to be like, oh, so have you all been on the gondola? Palisades? And they were just I could not get a word in edgewise at all. But what a great thing that we have that a corporation took a step to eliminate a name that was wholly offensive to indigenous people and to women. And yes. Were there people who still act like that name change was like somebody ran over their dog? Yeah, they acted like it was that personal, but that was good to see. And for all the ways that nothing has changed, it's nice to be able to think about the few things that have well, and I think I have several stories of me interacting on the list, some not so friendly, and one recently that I actually think you'd really appreciate. Maybe our listeners would as well. So I'm in the funeral, and a skier, maybe older than myself, looks like they just had themselves a great ski day, asked me about the base to base gondola, and I was like, you know what? I kind of think it's maybe a little gimmicky. Maybe it's a PR thing. I'm not opposed to it. Good for them. Connect the mountains. That's great. And he throws out the S word, and I was like, hey, just, you know, the community vibe, we're changing that. We're not using that. I'm not sure if he was effing with me, but he was like, yeah, I don't really know why. And I was like, well, imagine it's really derogatory towards women, towards indigenous women. Imagine it hearing, like, fucking whore every time you say it. And he's like, well, that might help. He's like, but what is a fucking whore? Like, a prostitute? And I was like, no, sex work is work, so there's nothing wrong with being a prostitute. He's like, I was not planning on having this conversation.

What do you mean? Like, someone who's promiscuous? And I'm like, no, there's nothing wrong with promiscuity. Like, there's nothing wrong with a woman being sexually promiscuous. That's not what I'm saying. I'm like, if you were to call someone a fucking whore, it would kind of be rude, right? You would be like, offending them? That's not how you would talk to someone. And he's like, well, what is a whore? I'm like, I don't know if that's our conversation. I'm trying to help give you something to plant in your brain. Well, it was interesting. So there's two other people in this lunar town, and you can't see them right now, and I'm just, like, trying to have this back and forth. Everything this guy's throwing at me, I'm like, actually, that's not what I'm saying. Sell your body for sex. Like, be sexual. That's not the point. Just fucking say palisades. It is not a secret that this is an evolution and momentum of change, and we're embracing it here in this valley. We finally get in for, like, the funetel building, and the two humans that are just, like, kind of glued, they were like, you go ahead. And the guy was like, I think I was just educated. He's like, I need to look this up. I was like, you do all the research. You do all the reading, all the things you want. Because one thing I will say is that's where I'm like, please take some ownership over your own fucking knowledge and your own situation. Some of the interactions I've had have not been as positive, which I think could go back to that sense of a year. L

ooking at 2022, I feel like there's some things we can celebrate, and then there's things that bring some pretty aggressive and negative things to the table. And so I'm just trying to keep it amicable and friendly, and then I'm just answering people's questions when they have them because I've got answers. It's good to have the answers that people don't expect. That's a very good thing to be able to do. I'm trying to think, like, your story right now just made me think about, like, were there scenarios in 2022 or holy pissed people. Like, strangers? I don't know if I had any. Did I have any with strangers? Unless you had a year of like, again, it's your meditation Jen. I was thinking about our meeting, and I was like, 2022, which I might not have thought of the day I might have just been like, the year, and I was like, meditate, meditate, meditate. I meditate. I do a lot of yoga. Okay, here's something. I've had to articulate this recently, and I'm currently preparing to have a conversation with a lover when the spicy full moon is over. Because I know if I have it during spicy full moon, I'm going to say things that hurt his feelings. Because we all know that men are way more sensitive than they say they are in coming back into life, right? In doing all this traveling and getting to see friends do all this, really, like, 2022 for me was really fun. It was a really fun year. Like, I haven't had a fun year in a really long time. Even pre COVID, because pre COVID was all about screaming into my pillow about running a business. So I haven't had, like, a fun year in a long time. But what I realized this year, I've thought a lot about it, and this is probably like, through the meditation and all the various things, I just love spending time alone. I am outstanding company. I am incredible fucking company. Even if I'm just here all by myself, I love being alone, and I don't require the company of other human beings to be happy. And that is very, very liberating. And I've come to like, I'm really in this sweet spot with it where I'm so happy being alone, so happy. This relates to after the spicy moon. A lover needs to understand this because I'm thinking that this is one of my things for the year interview had to do with boundaries, and it's like my new it shouldn't be a new thing because it's been around for a bit, but I've had such a talk about liberating. I have had such a solid year professionally and as a mom and as a partner and just as a human embracing the sense of saying no and then saying yes. I like to say yes a lot, but what a fucking power it's been to set certain boundaries around things that I'm like, no, there's someone else who can do it. Or actually, I've done enough. And what does it look like to set aside that time for myself? Because then I actually show up way better for everybody. I feel like this time alone, setting up a little bit of someone might need to hear or set a little boundary that they might want your company, but it's okay that you can tell them that you're not getting their company right now. Well, it's a little bit so they keep me at arm's length because they're afraid if we spend more time together that we're going to develop very serious feelings about each other, even though this person, every time I see them, tells me that they love me. So I'm like, you probably should have not said that. You've been saying this to me for, like, eight months that you love me. So maybe look inside around your feelings of angst, of serious relationship. So what I have to explain, which is very funny to me, what I have to explain to this person is the reason why I would like to see you a little more is not because I am trying to be your partner. It's legitimately just because I want to fuck more. Like, I literally want to fuck more. I do not have the patience, the bandwidth, the interest to go out and look for people to fuck. I trust this person. They're very handsome, they're very kind, they're very good. I'm not sacrificing. This is really good. So I want to next level my sexual experiences. And I'm not able to do that with this person if we only see each other like 2 hours a month. Because at this point it feels a little bit routine. This is the part that's going to be spicy. I'm going to be like, yeah, okay, so I see you, you eat my pussy, and then I suck your dick. And then we fuck. And then we have a little pill talk and then I go home. I've had a lot of really good I had some really good sex in 2022. A lot. I had a little bit of bad sex. We ended that. We don't do that with that person anymore. Young people. I've just like, maybe this is the reason why I should not have do not have sex with people who are almost 20 years younger than you because they just literally cannot fucking keep up. The conversation that I have to have is I want to spend just a small bit more amount of time with you so that we can have more next level sex. Because you need a little bit more time. You can't have a session in like 2 hours. I want to have full on sessions. And so I need more time. And that's it. And I think that this person is not going to expect to hear that from me. I think that they're used to hearing from women how much women want to be with this person. And so I'm kind of like, yeah, I 100% do not want to be your girlfriend, nor do I want you to be my boyfriend. I just want to have a lot of sex. And the other thing that's really good about this person is that we both get to have our own lives. I know about other people who he's with. He knows about people who I, whom I'm with. He's bisexual. He doesn't have any problem who like so it's like very freeing and very good. Very, very good for me. But yeah, I guess like, in closing out 2022 and thinking about 2023, I'm going to have even more next level sex in 2023. Because I'm going to say what it is that I need in a sexual relationship. And I'm not going to feel bad about this. Person thinking that I want something different, and I think the conversation is going to go well. I'm not overly concerned about it. I just have to wait until after the spicy moon, because if I do it now, they're just going to like when I say, like, yeah, it's getting a little routine, that's probably going to hurt their feel. I have to find some new words around that. What a coffee? I like being alone. I love the fact that I wake up in my bed every morning by myself. I love that I sleep through the night. I love that I wake up every morning and I get to make coffee and I have my own time. I love that. I feel like one of the things that I learned, because this year we opened a retail store for coalition, which is, like, probably one of the hardest things I've ever done because it was literally fucking drywall and concrete with no electricity, no lights, no nothing. But the whole thing that did it, opened it, it was very hard. I kept my shit together, and I think the reason why I kept my shit together is because I had ample time to recover, right? Like, I could come home after work or walk away from the computer, and I was by myself. There was no one to take anything out on. There was no one needing anything of me. I could fully care for myself. I could run a bath. I could chat with a friend. I could cook some food. I could do all the things, and I could go to sleep and rest. I could wake up when I needed to wake up. Being single gives you incredible opportunity for rest. It gives you incredible opportunity to rejuvenate and focus on the things that you need for yourself. I don't need to be annoyed with anyone. No one's taking up my time. I think that that's probably why I don't want to be in serious relationship with anybody. It's like I'm probably the happiest I've ever been in a really long time. And I'm really good to people, and people are good to me because my relationships are super positive because I'm not taking anything out on anyone. I'm not angry about things. I'm not feeling burdened by anyone. So it's really great. So. Don't worry, Mr. Sexy Time, I'm not coming for you. I mean, I'm coming for your D, but that's different. Also, I think you're fine with that.

Has people often reflecting on, we've done this before, not so much with setting what are they called, resolutions, but setting the idea of reflections or intentions. It's just like that time of year. You can't get away from her, and it's all around us. And thinking back how you use your time, how your time is coming forward and I hope a takeaway, which I appreciate that you just offered, that is this idea that the sense of how good we are to ourselves allows us to be better for others and then also not necessarily falling into any relationship that there has to be this expectation of what it should look like. The idea was saying, if you were to tell me that you had a boyfriend, I'd be like,again, it has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that it's just so not modern, maybe, or so not. The sense of what that looks like. And have a boyfriend. Right. Be in a partnership of whatever. I've been married. We just had a 20 year anniversary. So I think that sense of I know we were, like, reflecting on it. We were, like, amazing. We're together. Amazing. Definitely a lucky human and found in my world again, bringing all kinds of good things to the table every day. We don't necessarily. I think what you end up doing, though, some of the things you were speaking to of, like, creating space for one another becomes really easy to do when you've sort of grown up together, because that sounds kind of gross because we're partners and not family, but we kind of are. Like where we've cohabitated, where we've moved, building a family together and then also stepping back. I can share this morning, it was a little hectic, right? I'm coming back from bringing Mike into school. Brendan's coming back from a morning ski. He's probably up at five in the morning as the cars are coming in. He parked a little like he was not paying attention, so I couldn't get the van in. He comes out, like, moves the car. I'm on the phone with his mom, who were unfortunately losing. She's very sick. And we go in the house and we're on speaker phone literally exploding to start our day. And it's like the piece of setting all those things in motion to send him out the door to me, set up for school is like, that sense of connection. And I love you, and I see you, and your work is important, my work is important. And all of that energy we've just had, this magical way of kind of keeping it swirling around and bouncing off one another and just seeing I don't know, it's just been this really fluid dance. And so if that's what you find, I wish that for you. And if it's not, then I wish all the sexy moons and all the sexy times for all the things. But, yeah, we have 20 year anniversary in 2022. That's a big thing, Jillian. That's so big. That's so amazing. We replaced our hot tub. That was our big treat to each other. Very cool. I'm coming over. I'm coming over. I mean, I literally did, like, a powder ski at the water tower today, and it was glorious because the day was just so busy. But the snow is quite exceptional right now. So I will say for that great start to our 2022, 2023 ski and. Riding season definitely sketchy snowpack out there. But other than that, we are looking at tremendous systems coming in. Good for water table, good for drought situation and all that good stuff. Because I will say there are some things I mean, Urine Review is definitely some highs and lows around the world in what we've seen for bringing people to the table. Katanji Brown being nominated to the Supreme Court and then the Supreme Court kind of fucking everything over with Roe and then Roe being overturned catalyzing and kind of bringing this political momentum back into election season and people really rallying around this sense of what his access and rights look like. So I do feel like there is some of that momentum kind of out in the societal swirl that is I don't want to say electrifying is not the right word, but it's like there's momentum even though there's some shitty ass, weird ass shit that people still do and say. I don't think that will ever go away. But I do feel like we had some strong memorable moments in 2022.

No, I'm thinking because I feel like one of the really it was really impressive after Roe v. Wade was overturned, to see states like Kansas codify abortion rights into their state constitution. That was really significant. Like things that we didn't think that we were going to see. To see that the Republicans didn't take control of House and Senate in the way that they thought. I think that that really is a reflection on American society and people really wanting to sort of temper extremes. I personally wish that we could move more to a progressive agenda, but I don't get everything I want. Doesn't mean I'm not going to keep talking about it and fighting for it. But also I'm like, thank you, Kansas. That was a pretty big win. I was sort of contemplating like, we're living in this really interesting time. We're always on we always are living in an interesting is there ever a time that isn't? But one of the things that I feel like I've talked a lot about this year and that has really sort of struck me though is how in 2020 and even into 2021, there was this major emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, right? There was this corporate mandate of the need for dei and there was this intensity around we must be better, we must do better. We must move beyond performative acknowledgments and really get into this direct action. I feel like 2022 for me was a time to say we lost that and white people white people forgot and or feel like they've done enough and or have changed their minds and or are tired and or are racist and or are sexist. I don't know. I can't say what everyone is, but we lost a lot of that momentum around wanting to have big grand change. I just think about I always look at the outdoor industry. I literally exist in a snow globe, right? So I'm looking at snow sports and the outdoor industry and the conversations aren't there the way that they used to be. While certainly I would say you look at the imagery of who's in the outdoors that's just imagery like on Instagram or website I'm not seeing really significant change in the larger corporations or corporations that can really sort of move the needle on things. With that said, I have seen there's a lot more women founded brands, women of color brands in the outdoor industry who are up and coming. Shout out to Raquel, my bestie from Alpine parrot. Talk to Martha from Ikatake today. All these really great brands that I don't think that they would have been successful five years ago and they're successful now not because anyone's throwing them a bone, no one's doing them a favor. Like they've put in the hard work and they've identified a really strong market and they have really good products. It's that they're not considered fringe anymore although they are very small representation of business owners and people in the industry people aren't looking at them as like what are you doing? Why are you here? There is more of this embrace and I feel like when I first started coalition like you've been there since the very beginning. You've been at the trade shows Jillian, you've seen the fucking shit we've had to deal with that would never happen anymore. No one would ever treat us like that anymore. It used to be okay so now maybe people are just keeping their sentiments to themselves or behind closed doors, I don't know. But it's been really cool to see these new brands emerging. Outdoor afro has their collab with Rei. Holy shit, that's huge. Room. Map, bow down. Oh my God, that's fucking there's these really big things that have happened that I think are just incredible. But I think I do feel like a lot of the conversations that we started to have a few years ago and the imperative around these issues has lost some steam and that's just like my perception of what I've seen in snow sports and seen in the outdoor industry, particularly in the last year. Everyone got to go back to life so they didn't have to focus so much on those things and people got tired of thinking about the things that made them feel bad about themselves. And that's a shame because when you are that self reflective like being self aware and that's how you figure out every day how you show up to do something better it's interesting. My snow globe is kind of more like a school globe, right? And I can think of a lot of what you just shared in relationship to education, which I'm like deeply entrenched in. And I think our work and a lot of the field's work has been around culturally responsive teaching, reaction to teachers strikes and unionizing around wages and lower class sizes, and treating teachers like humans that are on the front lines in educating our young people. And then also this sense of social emotional learning. And that was a huge conversation with kids in distance learning and in situations related to mental health and mental health challenges and concerns. And what I've seen is kind of similar is that it was such a mandate, if you will, right? Like, are we checking this off? Are we filling out this form? Did we do this ticking the boxes? Absolutely. And then what I've seen in certain instances is like when you have states that are standing up against teaching critical race theory, right, and they're saying that you can't do that, or you have states that are saying you're not allowed to say gay in the classroom. And then in reaction to that, you have schools that are like pulling out from publishing companies and you have teachers that are rallying, being like, you don't have control over what we teach. And we say we're humans, right, we're not robots. It's like the idea of showing up with a neutral persona, it's almost impossible, even if you think that you're going to still showing up as a person. And so I think in education it's been a similar thing. I like your language around, kind of moving the needle where I feel like there are people that saturated them and that momentum to have them self reflect and look at their own biases and look at that sense of systemic supremacy and that systemic white supremacy that's so entrenched in this dysfunctional system. That really hurts students, and it hurts all students. It hurts students of color. It hurts students that are socioeconomically disadvantaged. And this sense of what does it take to shift this current system to provide social justice education? And so what I feel like happened, and this is really, actually a little scary, is like to the point of people not maybe feeling like they have to talk about it anymore, they don't have to show up for the mandatory training. I don't know that their transformation happened. Right? And they unfortunately go to those dear dark, weird places where they rally online and they go to those extremist places of I mean, we saw a little bit of an underbelly of it in our own local community with a school board election. And thankfully those humans did not get voted to the school board. But a sense of wanting to bring really strong control and really strong conservative politics to Mountain District in respect of not listening to experts in the field and educators that are really about diversity and justice and inclusion and thankfully they again were not voted in. But I think there's an important realization to have that those humans do not go away. Right? It's like the current really strong racist and those that uphold those institutions of supremacy, they're like the great, great grandkids of the Jim Crow era. Those are the humans that all of that hate and all of that power mongering just got channeled somewhere else. So I think that's all on us to constantly be, like, celebrating the fucking winds and celebrating the evolutions and doing the work, but then paying attention to where those little quiet underbellies lie. Because I'd love to see them fucking all peel over. But that's not happening, right? It's like the sense of constant work and constant transformation towards that progressive agenda and more, that just agenda. Yeah, well, let's talk about just agenda and politics. I know you all listened and you thought Jillian and I would talk about skiing. You're all like, oh, juicy bits from coalition snow. They're going to talk about skiing. Instead, we talk about politics. Let's just acknowledge this is breaking news, everyone, okay? By the time you're listening to this, it won't be breaking news. But Senator Warnock in Georgia just held a seat, so this is fucking huge. I was so happy about this. What is wrong with us? This is amazing. This is huge. So it just came in on the New York Times. It just beeped on my phone like, wow, okay. This is like, yay for him. What a fucking intelligent, incredible man. So happy that he won. And what that means for the state of Georgia, what that means for the Senate. That's absolutely incredible. Another good thing that happened this year. Is that the book? White Women everything You Already Know about your own racism and how to do better. This book is by Regina Jackson and Cyra Row. I've had the pleasure of working with Cyra in the past this book came out. It made it to the New York Times Bestsellers List. It is an incredible book. My recommendation is to get it on an audiobook because every time Regina tells a ridiculous story about white women, she kind of like, giggles. She has this little bit of a giggle. And that cracks me up even more because you can tell she's like this ridiculous fucking shit. But she doesn't say that. She just has this little bit of a laugh. But this book again, white Women Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and how to Do Better. That came out this year New York Times bestseller, super pumped for them. Hard topics as white women to listen to. So thank you for making us listen to those things and reflect upon them. In fact, I'm going to keep going with more good things that happened in 2022. I started writing a book, legitimately writing a book. And I get to be in writing group with myrna valerio and sometimes Rebecca Rush, which is like, I don't even know how I got invited to that shit, but I get to do with that. And the last chapter that I've been working on right now is around our exceptionalism, like white exceptionalism, particularly within mountain communities, and how we think that we are better than everybody else because of what we're able to endure in the mountains, which is actually just an extension of that. Pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and the rugged individual and colonizer mentality and white supremacy. And that's been like a really interesting chapter for me to work on, particularly in just reflecting on the mentality and sentiments that I have held myself for a very long time as someone who lived in Mountain Community. So I really appreciate being able to listen to that book and reflect on the dumb fucking shit that I do that I need to not do anymore and be able to really think about the role that I've played in all of this and how I can kind of speak to this in talking about the outdoors a little bit more. So anywho, I'm in a writing group, I'm working on a book, Yay for 2022. The book will not get done even in 2023. So we're going to have to revisit this years down the road. But yes, we get a little excerpt or preview. Well, I will say when I was thinking about it just in the year, so, you know, I love Reese Witherspoon's Book Club that I follow on Instagram and part of my self care is reading and part of that is her monthly book. And I will say that in a year in review, I nailed everyone. Absolutely. I had to stopped buying them all, but I was buying them and then passing them on, which I felt good about. And now I was like, oh, I can get them from the library, or I have them on Audible, which is good. But I also think it's that piece of a little bit of self care, a little bit against all supporting women writers and then supporting literally a range of authors in respect to topics that relate to society. They take place all over the globe. And I was like, reading is fucking self care. Like going back to that sense of boundaries where I was like, I don't really need that much. I'm kind of low maintenance in my opinion. Others might disagree, but the sense of a really good book, that sense of a little, it's not really necessarily like an escape, it's just this little way of tapping into something else. And then also, again, fucking books. I'm like, yes, please keep writing them. I want to keep reading them. I want that idea of sharing and telling of stories is so fucking strong and it just kind of reminds me of that. So big win for me. I kept my book club vision. I'm actually waiting for the December book to drop right now. Not like right this second, but in the next. It should have happened this morning. Mon Reese waiting because yeah, it's just again, it's that self care, it's that boundaries and then it's also tapping into these other worlds and the work of self reflection and self work is fucking power in respect to interacting, I think, in a larger sense and in a greater sense. Jen, we might not deliver a doc a bit tonight, but let's keep going. I'm with you. I know. Have you watched White Lotus yet? No, I haven't, but it sounds like I need to. Yeah, because that's going on the list of good fucking things that happened in 2022, is that we got White Lotus. Okay. This is a big deal. I am obsessed. Yes, it's an outstanding program. You never even want to skip the intro. It's so good. So thank you, White Lotus, for that, for just the entertainment. It's fantastic. What other good things happen this year? Ski trips. Regina and Cyrus book time loaded on Audible. I can't wait. Good sex. Yes. Open the store. That was big. We launched trip. I took 15 people cycling across Kenya and we all had an outstanding time. That was no big deal. Also so excited to do that trip again next year. Yeah, I just really fucking got back into things. Like, things were so hard with the business before COVID then COVID hit and I had to spend all this fucking time alone and really focus and really just be comfortable with a lot of things. And now here we are, and I feel like, yeah, I'm ready to be back out there. I'm ready to do big things, I'm ready to do hard things professionally. Like, I did it, we did it. I want to touch on the successes of coalition, not just in the next year, coming into sustaining the business through all of this and then the launching of the store and launching a far out. Because do you do remember, you and I, after a very fun powder day at Alpine, sitting and doing some crowdsourcing on the panty vending machine that has come up again recently for me recently for a reason I might not want to disclose her. I was like, okay, I did not take a potty break all day and I'm on my cycle and now it's 530. But I had an epic day. I wonder how much these panties would go for. That's right. So, okay, we should back up for people. Aren't you glad you listened to the end? Because Juiciness is at the end of the episode. Okay. Last spring, probably March. Gillian and I shred the shit out of Alpine meadows with the greatest time. We go down to the Crest, we're having a little lunch, little beer. We're talking about what's the next thing we're going to do for coalition. At the time, we were, like, looking at retail spaces. Things were, like, very much up in the air and we were like, maybe we should do panty vending machines where you ski in your panties all day long and then we sell them either in a vending machine or like, only fans or something. And I was like, I bet there's a fucking market for this. I bet there are people who would spend real fucking money on panties that have been skied in all day long. So we have that. We're brainstorming this whole thing on the lifts, and we go to the Crest and we actually run it by human beings in the Crest Cafe. And at first it was like head tilt and kind of like I got through the pitch and they were like, yeah, no, I'm not against it. Okay. I think it was like, we're not against it. And I was like, that's something. And then I did actually look into the cost of vending machines, which you could get a really nice big vending machine for only, like $3,000. It wasn't like wildly expensive. And then I talked to people and I was like, would you send in your panties? You just skiing them. Then we'll like, package them up nicely. But then, like, really where really where things got tough and I stopped working on it was like, where would you put the vending machine? And really, wouldn't you need to have this be online so that you could reach more people? Which then the idea was like, we probably need like an only fans account. But that was a business idea started in 2022 that is yet to reach fruition, but still might. Who knows what's going to happen in 2023? Well, I'm going to applaud the opening of the retail concept store, which I know I owe you a trip to Reno, but thankfully we just had weather. It's not in the cards. If I don't have to leave the West Shore, I'm happy in that. But maybe it's just out there in the universe if someone else picks it up and contacts us and gives you the big referral fee, and then we have a place to send those pennies. But then I was almost peeing myself because I was laughing so fucking hard at the scene I had created for myself and then reminiscing on this panty vending machine. So yes, you're welcome. And thank you for listening and making it to this point in the episode so you can get here in review episode that you never thought you'd want to listen to. Maybe at the end you're like, I wish I didn't. I don't even know if Jillian and I knew what we were getting into because it is December 6. We're recording this so that we can have it released at the end of the year because it's literally going to take us, like three weeks to get this done, to be able to put the episode out. So it's like we're still in like, holiday hangover retail hell. Not even fully. I haven't fully reflected on the year. But this was certainly a good start to think about the year. And then we should do Jillian for our next episode. We should do our intention setting and the the things we want for 2023. Yes, we could do that, and that would be a really great thing. So for all of you who are still listening to the two of you, 1.5 of you, because one is definitely listening, the .5, you just forgot to hit pause. You're off doing something else. For the 1.5 of you who are still listening, you should email us and tell us what are the things that you're really looking forward to for 2023? Or, like, the big lessons you learned in 2022 that you're going to apply. You should email us so that we can chat about it and we can put it on an episode. We won't use your name unless you want us to, and that would be really great to hear from all of you here what you kind of went through in 2022 and what you're hoping for. 2023. That would be good. I'm kind of still hoping for that roaring 20s fashion moment come back. I bought, like, a really sexy, spicy, fun shirt for New Year's, which I'm like, oh, I always sort of do that. So I'm still kind of hoping that that an early manifestation of you and one of our reflections on, what the fuck is this all going to mean? I'm still hoping that that comes through. Jillian, you and I just need to go out because I have a super fucking hot black halter dress, and I've got purple clogs. Remember at the purple high hit? Like, I'm ready to go out. Okay, let's just go out and create that moment for ourselves. Maybe we do that. It's a date. I would love to. It's a date. Oh, my God. I bet you get some good material out of it too. 100%. It'll be great. Okay, we're doing that. Okay, get ready for us to talk about that. Friends, thanks so much for sticking with us here for nearly an hour. In case you missed this memo, juicy Bits is just about Jen and Jillian, myself and Jillian being able to catch up and talk about life, and we do it under the guise of a podcast, and we're still doing it, and you're still here. Thank you, everyone. Happy New Year. We will chat with you in January. Bye.