Episode #152: Feeney Talks with Lisa Lazarus and Deb Polun

#BeAGoodFriend and check out episode #152 of #FeeneyTalksWithFriends featuring Lisa Lazarus and Deb Polun. 

It was great to talk to my #friends, Lisa and Deb! 
 
Lisa  is the Associate Director of Compliance & Recruitment at the YWCA Hartford Region and Deb is the Chief Strategy Officer for the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut (CHCACT).  Both Lisa and Deb serve  on The West Hartford Town Council. 

We talked about:
The West Hartford community (minute 1)
Lisa has 11 siblings!  (minute 2)
Past podcast guests, Ball 4 a Cure & Shane Spencer (minute 4)
Lisa works at the YWCA (minute 7)
Deb attended Tulane University (minute 9)
Deb was the Chair of the West Hartford Board of Education (minute 10)
Deb is currently on Town Council and Lisa is running for Town Council (minute 12)
Lisa worked in Hawaii for The Navy  (minute 15)
Jillian Gilchrest  (minute 17)
Our favorite things about West Hartford (minute 18.30)
Local trees and The West Hartford Tree Project  (minute 21)
Podcast sponsors (minute 23)
3 Keys that make you a good fit for Town Council (minute 24)
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? (minute 28)
Liam Sweeney (Podcast Guest #31)  (minute 30)
How was your day today at work? (minute 32)
Adrienne “Ace” Billings-Smith (Podcast Guest #60) (minute 36)
“Ian is my best friend!” - Deb  (minute 37)
“Qualities of a good friend” - Lisa  (minute 39)
Lisa’s favorite teacher (minute 41)
Deb’s favorite teacher (minute 44)
Deb’s favorite restaurants: Ocho Cafe, Max Burger & Zaytoon (minute 48)
Lisa’s favorite restaurants: Frida, Zohara & Bricco (minute 41)
Lisa’s 4 dinner guests (minute 53)
Deb’s 4 dinner guests  (minute 54)
Recommendations (minute 55)
FoF swag and hat collaboration with Anthony’s Abatement (minute 1.00)
Wing tasting from Ocho Cafe (minute 1.02)
Closing remarks (minute 1.06)
Upcoming events (minute 1.08)

Creators and Guests

Host

Eric Feeney

After teaching for nearly a decade at his alma mater in Waterbury, in 2014, Eric Feeney began teaching at Wolcott Elementary in West Hartford. Shortly following, Sam Sohn, the father of one of his students, passed away suddenly from a heart attack. He left behind four beautiful children and a loving wife, Nancy Wallace-Sohn. Eric saw first-hand the toll this took on the family as they navigated their way through this unthinkable tragedy. The following year, Rashad Collier Sr., another father of a student in Eric’s class, passed away in Hartford as a result of gun violence. Rashad left behind two fantastic children and a loving wife, Denise Villegas. The impact of these tragedies weighed on Eric and motivated him to build an organization that could provide assistance for similar situations. With that, Friends of Feeney was born. In 2019, Friends of Feeney Inc. became an official 501©(3) nonprofit organization, allowing more funds to be raised and expanding the range of services provided to children and families in need. Today, over a decade since Eric’s idea to build a community organization dedicated to supporting our friends in need, Friends of Feeney has burgeoned into a reputable and recognized organization capable of providing financial and resource support to numerous families and individuals across greater Hartford and beyond. Through this work, an incredible community of children and families has been recognized, who care for and appreciate each other’s kindness.

Producer

David Chmielewski

David started his video career in the early 1990s working on video crews as an independent contractor for such companies as Martha Stewart Living, IBM and Xerox. After graduating Southern Connecticut State University with the degree in Corporate Communications, David continued his video production career and accepted a position at WFSB in Hartford, CT. Within a few years the news and production studios became his charge and David designed, installed and maintained the televisions sets for the various programs at the station. At the end of 2013 David founded DirectLine Media, a video production company that specializes in creating memorable and compelling video content for businesses.

Editor

Stefania Sassano

Stefania's acting journey began as early as the fourth grade, where she took on the role of Scarlett O'Hara in a stage production of Gone With the Wind. This early experience sparked a lifelong passion for the arts. With a background in musical theater fueled by her love of music and singing, Stefania stepped into larger roles, such as Fraulein Kost in Cabaret during her sophomore year at the University of New Haven. This performance earned her a nomination for the prestigious Irene Ryan Acting Award at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival—an honor she would receive again in her junior year.

What is Feeney Talks With Friends?

Eric Feeney talks with #friends! Eric is the founder of the nonprofit organization Friends of Feeney. Their mission is to help children and families who need assistance after heartbreak and tragedy. www.friendsoffeeney.com

All right, all right.

Feeney Talks with friends. Episode 152.

We're in an exciting place
with some great people.

How are we doing, Deb?

I'm doing great. Thank you. Hey, Lisa.

How are you doing? I'm doing great.

We got Lisa and Deb here
joining us for 152.

This is Feeney talks with friends.

My name is Eric Feeney, founder
and president of Friends of Feeney.

Our mission is to help

children and families that need assistance
after heartbreak or tragedy.

And I use this podcast.

Feeney talks with friends, and I talk
to wonderful people in the community

that are doing great things.

And you've been in the West
Hartford community since 2016.

I have been in the community since
1999, 1999.

All right. Check those notes. Feeney.

And how how long have you been in the West
Hartford community?

Going to need an asterisk.

I've been in the West Hartford community
from 1991 to 94

when I went to Romberg School,
but I've been living in West Hartford

probably for about three years now. Nice.

Yeah, nice. Oh,
so you three kids went here?

Two kids. Oh, boy. That's all right.

We're on a roll.

My third kid is our kitchen.

Actually,
we joke about this that we had one child,

and then we had a second child,
and then we said,

we've sort of like to have a third child,

but we also want to do our kitchen over
and we can't afford both.

So we have. Kitchen. Kitchen child.

Nice, nice.

Oh, so let's just get to it.

Everyone's wondering,
this is the hottest topic I need to know.

How is it you any questions?

You any guesses what I'm going?

How? It's.

No, I don't like to assume.

How is it.

Being one of 11?

Oh, you have a 11 siblings? Yes.

Are you one of 11?

Are you all right?

I do have 11 siblings. I am one of 12.

I have 11 siblings.

That's a list. And I'm the youngest.

Oh, wow. Great.

No, it's,

I don't yeah, I loved being the youngest.

I always I saw that, and I was like,
this has to be topic question number one.

Yeah I grew up with three.

I'm one of three but 12.

Yeah. Same house.

Same household, same parents.

It's perfectly
even six boys and six girls.

The older six,
it was four girls and two boys.

The younger six, which I'm part of
is two girls and four boys.

So the dynamic is completely different

among all the siblings
and personalities are different.

It was a lot of fun
and definitely a lot of fun growing up.

Growing up with four boys.

Yeah.

Jeez. And how many siblings?

I have three brothers.

And I'm also at the end. You.

The two youngest?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, so what do they say
about the youngest? Yes.

Nothing. Really.

You get. Away with everything.

Spoils. Of course. You, spoil.

The most trouble. Thing.

Sometimes you. Don't get. In the most.
Yeah. Same here.

No, no, not a lot of trouble at all.

But we'll follow her. Yeah.

Most resilient.

No, I don't know.

You know, when you're with your siblings,
you kind of never grow up.

So it's when we talk to each other,
it's still the same.

Like teasing each other.

I will say this.

That, like,
having siblings is such a gift.

I can I can tell you feel that same way.

Yeah. And my brothers know
I feel this way about them.

I'm just so happy to have them in my life.

And we're we have a text chat.

It goes all day
long with all different things.

Usually they're stupid things, but we're
just in each other's lives all the time.

That's awesome. That's awesome.

Now they say like three children.

The first kid eats dirt. You're like,
call the hospital.

The second kid eats dirt.

You're like, soap. And water.
We got to clear it out.

The third kid eats dirt. You're like,
that's lunch.

Yeah, that's.

So the 12 kid, they were like.

They can't. Imagine.

That's great. That's great.

Quickly, I just want to shout out some
the past podcast.

So 150 was great. 150 was ball for a cure.

There are another local nonprofit.

They help children with pediatric cancer.

So I want to give you a sticker
and a bracelet from a ball for a cure.

Wonderful guests.

Go back and check out with number 158.

We had a huge celebration here.
We got some stickers.

Yes. And bracelets.

Thank you, Luke and Matt.
They were great guests.

We filmed at New Park Brewery.

We had Lonesome Eddie
and the Bird Dogs doing live music.

After.

That's All on the podcast
you just told me the podcast is

2.5 hours long,
so be sure to check it all out.

Okay? What?

You watched it on a certain speed, right?

I the ones I listened to earlier today,
I did listen at 1.81.8.

I don't recommend that if there's music,
however.

Okay, I kind of changed things like.

For two hours you might want to do
what's the fastest. 2.5?

Yeah, sounds.
Like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

And then 151.

This is a great guest.

151 is my guy Shane Spencer.

Oh, wow.

The cover of Sports Illustrated,
it was a huge, met him in Brantford.

He came to our golf tournament. Great guy.

September 1998.

He was the hottest player in baseball.

Awesome guy.

Congratulations to you for landing that.
Yeah, it was great.

He signed. He was at our golf tournament.

Oh, awesome. Sons. You know,
thanks for all you do.

Your buddy Shane, three time World Series
champ.

Awesome.

And then he wrote. This was really funny.

He's like

he writes suck it Shane Spencer.

So he's like on this one.

He's like, hey great job.

Thank you for all you do.

Your body.

And then this one,
he's like you know. Invalid.

Funny but not great.

So I could say that someone was on
the cover of Sports Illustrated.

I had him interviewed,
so it was really cool. Yeah.

Have you guys been on the cover
sports illustrated? Not. Yet.

Not yet? Exactly.

Working on it.

What's your favorite sports?

Basketball. Nice.

I would say baseball to watch. Yep.

And I don't.

I don't really play any sports,

but I was pretty good at Foursquare
when I was a kid. Oh.

Nice. Foursquare. Yeah. I'm the champ.

At third grade recess every Tuesday
and Thursday.

I'm really good. I'm currently
playing with your third graders. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. And I'm football, too.

I could throw the ball the farthest.

Yeah. Can you also run the fastest?

I I've never been beaten in a race.

No no no tackling
actually I had no one could beat me.

I still remember Matthias.

Soccer player.

Like, you know, I was
I almost had a knee injury that day, but.

Recess is great. Yeah. This is great.

I miss recess, and I truly believe we need
to build that into the workday somehow.

Oh, for those of us who were not teachers.

Nice.

I. I like it, so I go outside.

Today. I did chin ups on the play scape.

I played a little Gaga.

Gaga is like a dog ball.

Like, below the knee. Dodgeball.

Oh, I know how you're.

Do you have a Lady Gaga lady?

You have a guy at your school?

We have a Gaga pit. Excellent.
Which is new.

Maybe within ten years.

It's a
newer sport, but it's a great sport.

You know, the kids line up,

that one kid gets out,
the next kid gets in, it's safe.

It's controlled, doesn't get too crazy.

But there are times it gets crazy.

Yeah, well,
seeing that you're at the YWCA.

Yeah. You must,

have some sports, right?

You know, no sports.

You're in the office.

I am in the office. Yeah,
I work in the administrative offices.

I'm in human resources, so.

No, I say, at a desk most of my day.

The closest I get so ball
is the yoga ball that I sit on at my desk.

Nice.

I tried that,
I had a yoga chair, actually.

Oh, yeah.

And you got to keep your core engaged,

and you sit with your feet
flat on the floor.

Yeah.

And then kids would bounce on it
and stuff.

But then after a while,
if you hunch a little bit,

it really makes like, oh, my neck.

That's exactly why I'm sitting on it.

Yeah. Yeah.

I am postural aware
as my, former PTA would say.

Yeah. You like to do walks, yoga.

Yeah. And read books. Yes. Gotcha.

Natural introvert.

A lot of solo activities and food.

We're going to get to food. Yes.
They can't.

We can't wait. Stick around to the end.

In preparation of 153,

our Hot Wings challenge, our third
annual Hot Wings Challenge would Abby haw.

Hey, Chris. Conway.

Allie at Luna pizza, we're going to eat
some hot wings, so stick around.

You see, Lisa and I eat some hot wings.

Deb, maybe.

Maybe we'll say
you can eat a buffalo wing.

Maybe it's not hot.

Hot ish. Wow. Buffalo's too hot for you.

Is Pepper too. Hot for you now?

Like black pepper?

Yeah. No.

Oh. Another connection.

I have a sociology degree and a psychology
degree as well.

Yeah. Same as me. Yeah.

Very cool.

I saw that I went to central,
I was not. Wow.

I don't even know school.

I went to,
I went to Southern in New Haven.

Central is in New Britain.

But, and you went to Tulane?

I did, in New Orleans. Yeah.

My daughter's applying to Tulane.

She is. Oh,
good luck to every application.

I guess I'll be fantastic. The green wave.

Roll wave roll.

Yeah. Like I was like this.

Roll wave roll. Nice.

Very cool.

Yeah.

They, it was a great experience
to be in college there.

Yeah. What made you go down there?

I'm not really sure, actually.

Well, I'll be honest, I had only applied
to three schools, and Tulane

at the time
was not as hard to get into as it is now.

And it was my safety school.

I didn't get into my top two choices.

Nice.

Never to be named, but, I loved Tulane.

Yeah, yeah. And transformative.

All that. Right now, seniors,
I have twin girls their senior year,

and a safety school and, reach

school, and,
And how many schools did they apply to?

We're telling them ten.

They're due November 1st, so we're
still up in the air of which ones?

But we're I'm pushing for ten.

Some are like,

you know, some they're more confident.

Others they just visited BC yesterday
with the day off.

They really liked it.

They saw Fordham, Villanova, BC, UConn.

A couple other ones.

Okay. So where'd you end up?

Where'd you go? Schools.

Yeah.

And I think Connecticut College
for undergrad

and American University for grad school.

Very nice. Yeah.

That's lovely.

Yep. I.

I was also a psychology major so yeah.

Oh no.

All right. Cheers to. That.

So the soft sciences.

Right.

And Deb,
also you were on the Board of Education.

I was I was on the Board of education
from 2017 through 2022,

and I was the chair of the board
of Ed for two years during that time,

during the height of Covid.
And there's a meeting tonight.

Are you going.

For the board of Ed?

I am not actually my daughter.
Where are you. Going?

Yeah, I go every year.

My daughter is not, every other week.

She's the high school representative
for Canada.

Oh, fantastic.

In attending to bring her, her ride.

So then I stick around.

But it's really interesting. Good stuff.

What were the pros and cons of that?
Did you like it?

It was, I loved it.

I had a lot to learn.

I didn't know education policy going in.

Thankfully, I'm married to a teacher now,
a principal, so that was very helpful.

I'd be like, what's this?

What's this? Test score? I mean,
I don't really know what this means.

He was super helpful.

Also, of course,
the staff of HBS are incredible.

During that time, Tom
Moore was the superintendent.

Yep. And,
we're still friends, so, I loved it.

It was a great learning experience for me
and such an opportunity

to make a difference on the lives
of our kids, our future.

Really? Here in West Hartford.

And then I was, I had an opportunity
to move over to the town council

and broaden the issues that I was focused
on, and I grabbed it.

I was very fortunate.

To be so.

Doctor Lorna, in your position
now. Is, Yes.

Yep. She is now. Okay.

And that she's actually stepping down. So.

So someone so there'll be a new chair?

Yeah. After the election.
That might be happening today?

No. No, it'll be after the election.
That's right.

That's it. Cool.

How did your time on the board of Ed help
you and your role at town council?

Just understanding, the issues in town,

how to interact
with our professional staff.

That's a really important part
of being an elected official here.

We have an incredible,
professional staff,

both on the board of Ed side
and on the town side.

And I think, what some people don't
realize is

how talented and expert
they are at a variety of different issues

so that they think, oh, it's
the Board of Education should just do ABCd

and E, when the reality is it's
the Board of Education

should look into these issues and find out
what's being done somewhere else.

What has worked.

Ask the people who know.
The people who know

are the professional staff
and then also the families in town.

So it's not all about
just figuring it out on your own.

So it was really helpful for me
to kind of understand the process

of how we work here in town government,
and then how the board of Ed

relates to what's going on on the town
council side of things.

So then when I moved over to town council,

I already kind of understood
what was happening on the board of Ed, and

I was able to broaden
and learn new issues.

Very cool.

Have you reached out to your friend Lisa?

Oh yes. I gave her sat here.

And gave her some advice.

Suggestions? Yeah.

And who else are you getting?

Advice and suggestions from.

I take. It probably everybody.

People. Yeah, exactly.

You know, you take in all the information
and listen.

And I think that's the very important,
statement Deb just made is that you're

working with a highly professional
and competent people,

and you have to have a disposition of,
I'm here to listen.

And, you know, she's obviously
been doing that for some time

now and on the board of Ed
and as a town counselor.

And, you know, I know a lot of people
would love to just jump into the role

and be able to change this and change
that and want to do this.

I want to do that.

It's like, hold on, there's a process
and you have to respect the process

and you have to respect
the people who have worked

so long trying to put these policies
and processes together.

And you got to know how to play
nice in the sandbox.

And if you can't,
then this might not be the role for you.

Yeah, yeah.

We have two ears and one mouth.

Yes. That's twice as much listening
as you do talking.

I will say too, though,
not everybody does

play nice in the sandbox as we know, and
so it does also help to have a thick skin.

Which I really have. Talked about this
a lot.

Yeah.

And, you know, talking about
being the youngest in the family

and then being the youngest
with the boys in the family.

We have definitely learned
how to be resilient and thick skinned

and tough and like, you know, advocate
for ourselves and our ideas for sure.

Yeah, I know you said that,
but I've seen it like,

it's all on the computer
though, too, right?

You're saying the harsh words
or the people not being nice.

Yeah.

You see that more often
when they're behind the keyboard.

But, yeah, it's unfortunate
they're not being good friends.

Right?

Everyone should be a good friend.

Yes. Be a good friend.

Be a good neighbor.
Be a good, good friend.

Yeah.

You have experiences with that? Come.

I had the Navy.

I was in the Army National Guard.
I wasn't.

I know you weren't in the Navy,
but you helped.

Yeah, yeah, I worked in human resources,
at the Department of Navy in Hawaii.

And Pearl Harbor Naval Station.

Yeah. In Hawaii too, I don't.

Know, it was awesome.
Getting better. Loved. Yes.

I loved going to work every day.

I'd get there super early. And,

what time?

A probably like 8:00 in the morning.

They'll do the Star-Spangled banner.

And then 3 p.m.,
they do the Air Force flyovers

because it was a joint
Air Force Navy naval base.

So that was really cool.

Wow. I feel super safe, super patriotic.

I get to hear Star-Spangled banner

every morning and see a flyover
every afternoon.

Can be. So cool. Can't be.

You don't get that at the YWCA?

No, I'm very different from the YWCA.

I definitely feel like I'm in a government
building, though.

I'm like old school building.

Cool. Yeah.

Yeah. No, we had a special guest coming.

Unfortunately, she can't make it.

That's a hint.

Any guesses?

Are you to give us more than just.
She can?

Can you give us policy?

State rep.

Oh, is it Jillian Gilchrist?

Ding ding ding ding.

Jillian was going to make it.

Jillian had to be somewhere else.

She was going to swing by for 5:00.

And on her way.

But we scheduled she's
going to schedule her own podcast.

Oh, cool. Excellent.

And she'll be so interesting to talk with.
Yeah, sure.

Yeah. See, I was
I had a good second guess.

Height requirement.

I like how tall. Tall would have been
good.

Kate has already been on.

And Tammy has the invite

but we haven't just reconnected yet so.

Yeah.
But that would be all the state reps.

So very cool. Very cool.

Now I'm so honored to live
and teach in West Hartford.

I lived in New Haven
after going to southern.

I mentioned going to southern.

My wife got pregnant with twins.

We were like, where are we going to move?

I'm from Waterbury.
My mom was in Waterbury.

Her parents were in East Granby.

Let's move to,
you know, both being educators.

She was a teacher at the time.

So now we're
here, and it was the greatest move ever.

I was a little hesitant. I'm like,
I want to go to West Hartford.

But now I play basketball at the JCC
for the past 17 years,

making friends and networking.

They're great people, teaching great.

And, you know, my commute is awesome.

My commute is two minutes to work.

Oh, that is nice.

It is now very nice.

So, driving or walking, right?

In the 13 years that I work there,
I maybe walked

13 times.

Wow. Maybe 20. I don't know yet.

But now it's great.

It's very nice. I love it.

It's like my bubble. Yeah.

And then we started the nonprofit,
which we're helping inside the classroom

and out
now. So it's just a great community.

So with that being said, what is your,
like favorite parts of West Hartford?

I'll let you
go. You've been here. Oh, boy.

I have a lot of favorite parts
of West Hartford.

I would say like physical space wise.

I keep discovering new hidden gems.

So, for example, I had for somehow
I had never been to the Walgett

Children's Forest until a couple of weeks
ago, and I highly recommend it.

Lisa, if you haven't been there yet.

The reason I went is that they had
a ribbon cutting for the new pollinator

garden. Oh, yeah. Yep.

And that's something that
we've been working on on town council.

And so I wanted to see that.

And then I was like,
this place is like magic actually.

It just is incredible.

And there's a lot of these little,

special places around
town, outdoor spaces around town.

So I would say those finding those,
you know, parks, the Tropic trail,

all of that,
I feel like, makes West Hartford

really different
than a lot of other suburbs.

But as far as beyond the physical space,
it's really, it's the people,

you know, the people here, you know,
every place is going to have people

that you gel
with and people that you don't gel with.

But I think overall, we have a community
that wants West Hartford

to succeed
and wants to be welcoming to all.

People.

Who want to move here
or want to stay here as they age.

That is a really good
answer, and I don't think I can come up

with anything to top it, because,
I mean, West Hartford, it's it's a vibe.

You just love being here.

Being a pedestrian,
the food is fantastic.

If I have to pick a favorite part

of West Hartford again, really hard,

but any tree lined street in West Hartford
just looks beautiful to me.

I, I mentioned that
because we have been doing a lot of

doorknocking and canvasing
and there's just some streets

that I'm like, wow,
this is a beautiful street.

Like seeing Augustine,
over in the fourth district.

I can yeah.

Tree lined streets.

I know.

Unfortunately,
they are beautiful. Taken down my street.

I'm on.

I tell everyone I'm on Bramley Road, but
when I used to pull off of New Britain.

Abby, it used to be a lot more trees.

Yeah, but now it's. We cut them all down.

My tree, unfortunately,
grew into my pipe of the bathroom.

Yeah.

In the front yard.

Clogged up the whole house, made a mess.

Yeah.

And then, just like, I guess that happened
a bunch of times, so.

But we worked with Ted, Ted
and the West Hartford Tree project.

Great people. Former podcast guests.

Ted, fellow teacher.

Town. Yep.

Sedgwick guy. And Helen.

So wonderful collaborating with them now.

So yeah my small business shout out my
hey our tree project.

And we are, planting the trees
back onto LaSalle road this week.

Very so it's been very stark for people
to to see LaSalle with no tree.

Right.

But the reason we took them down is,
just like you said, your tree, like,

grew into your bathroom. Essentially.

Same idea.

The trees on LaSalle, they were,
you know, buckling the sidewalks.

They were a hazard for people.

They weren't in good shape.

Anyway,
and now we're going to have new trees

that are native to our environment
and are planted in such a way.

We have these soil cells
I'm learning so much about, all of this.

I never expected to know anything
about how to plant a tree, but,

we've built these soil cells
under the sidewalks, the new sidewalks.

And so the goal is that the tree roots
grow down

and not up and over the sidewalk.

Yeah, yeah. That's cool. Yeah.

From a real estate perspective,
I would always see homes

where the tree might be like
hanging over the roof

or hanging of a right wire,
or you see the, you know,

it's the roots coming up too
close to the foundation.

I'm always like, oh my God, the insurance.

Oh my gosh, you know
what's going to happen to this house?

You know,
I think about these things all the time.

We love them for the beautification.

But you know, we have to be wise
and responsible and care.

Yeah.

I learned that as far as the branches
go, that's where the roots go.

So if the branches, like, way over.

Over here to the left. To. Yeah. And then

not only

did prior to clogging the pipe,
it buckled our driveway.

Yeah. Which put a crack in it.

But it did give us shade
because now our house actually, the sun

hit our front window,
reflected into the siding and melted.

Deciding, oh no, no, no, the tree. See.

And this is the first year

we don't have a picture on our first day
of school with Steve the tree.

So that's we.

Also have a first day tree in our yard.

So I do get it.

12 years in. Front of the year.

We faked it.

We were like where the tree would be.

So wherever you had your brand new signs
made, you should have a cutout

made of Steve the Tree
and just use it for photos.

Okay, I like it. I like.

Well, that's great.

So we play a game. Three keys.

Oh, let me do some podcast sponsors.

We're here at maximum beverage.

Thank you. Maximum beverage.

Thank you. Direct line media.

Thank you
Brooke golf law Parkville management.

Keating agency insurance.

I'm gonna drop Luna, Pete's.

Sally and Bob's

the fix.

Ivy float 41 and West Hartford lock.

So with West Hartford locks
you with three keys?

Yeah. Great. Clever, clever. Yep yep yep.

Three keys that, we're going to say

make you a good fit for town council.

Three keys and three keys
that make you a good fit for your car.

I mean, to go first. Yes.

These three key, three keys.

So my first key would be,

humility.

Knowing that I'm not always going
to have the right answer.

And I should rely on others.

Second key, obviously listening.

I think that's the most important thing.

And lastly, compassion,

listening without judgment,
trying to fully understand situations

before, jumping to conclusions
or making decisions or speaking.

Got it. Compassion.

Listening. Humility I like.

All right.

So now I am going to come up
with three different keys.

I'll say yes and yes.

My three are

I am a I'm curious about learning things.

And so I like to learn different people's
perspectives and,

see what's been done elsewhere.

So I would say curiosity,
I look for practical solutions.

And, the third is,
I believe in fiscal responsibility.

Nice fiscal responsibility, practicality,
practicality.

Curiosity and. Curiosity.

That's teachers love hearing that.

Curious kids are the best kids.

So our students wise.

But you want someone
that you know wants to learn.

Well human in general.

Right. Right.

Yeah.

It makes it makes for a great human
just being curious all the time.

You realize
you've got that beginner's mind

and you're open to new experiences
and people.

Yeah. And ideas.

That's great.

Anything that you want to add,

you know, about your, your, your journey,

pursuing this town council.

This has been very educational.

That has been my canned answer

is a very educational, you know,

because I had no, ambitions to do this.

It was just like time and opportunity
that it presented itself.

And I said, sure, let me do this.

And I really, you know,
you could talk to people all day

and get all the advice
and all the feedback,

but it's like you never really know
until you experience it.

And it has been an education
mentally, physically, emotionally,

spiritually, everything.

It's just opened my eyes to not just,

how the town
operates, how politics work, but just

a new type of education.

I never thought,
I would receive this, you.

Know, I get what you mean, because it's
something, you know, you didn't.

You say
you didn't have the ambition before,

but once you decide
you want to go for this,

it becomes, It's like a full body sport.

You go through a campaign,
even on the local level.

And I don't know how people do it
on the national level,

where there's all kinds of traveling
that isn't just, oh, I'm going to drive

across town now and go see Eric's
neighborhood versus my own.

But it is, a level of commitment
and just keeping in mind

that this is a volunteer gig,
but we are, aiming for right now.

So everybody who's running is running
to serve the town as a volunteer.

I think that's really important
to keep in mind.

Now, do other towns offer pay for that?

Some and some.

They've even our mayor is a volunteer in
West Hartford where other mayors get paid.

Yes. Yeah.

Is there any talks of that changing?

There hasn't been since.

I've since. I've been on the town council.

There haven't,
we haven't had any discussions like that.

I remember during Covid
I was sitting on the Board of Education.

You may remember this, that in Florida,

the governor threatened to withhold
the pay of the school board members

if the school district required masks,
or remote learning.

And I was like,
the pay for the school board members.

What in the world? What is he doing?

He's going to hold my $0.

So I looked it up and it was like, oh,

and Florida school board members
make like $30,000 a year.

And, I mean, it's not enough to not have
another job, but it's more than zero.

Yeah, it's for sure.

But I do think,

serving as a volunteer means

you're getting people who are really,
really committed to the work itself.

And obviously you're not in it
just for the paycheck, right?

You're in it because you want to do
what's best for the community.

And where do you see yourself in
five years?

Oh goodness.

I never even saw myself here.

So it's you know I cannot tell you
but I love living in West Hartford.

I love my life right now.

I love my job.

I don't want to change anything
in this moment.

I don't want to change anything.
One step at a time.

Yeah yeah yeah.

It's tough sometimes.

Yeah I would agree with I, I love
all of those things for myself as well.

Yeah I don't, I don't,
I don't think that there's anything

I want to change right now. Yeah.

Kind of just like living in the moment
and when, you know,

kind of like this
when the opportunity presents itself

and if it feels right,
then I'll go for it.

But right now I'm like, this feels good.

I like being. On the podcast.

That too. Yeah.
Being here with good people.

Yeah, yeah.

Make sure you like and subscribe
for any talks with friends.

Hey, that's right.

Episode 152 here with Deb and Lisa.

Oh yeah.

Who put us in connection?

Do you know, do.

You remember, I can't remember.

Oh my God,
that's another challenge of this.

Well, Liam. Yeah. That's mine. Yes.

My, Yeah, Liam was the original,
but there are multiple people

who mentioned you to me.

Leo, the guy. Liam's awesome. Yep.

Liam's great.

He was like, you got to connect with Lisa.

I was like, absolutely.
So thank you, Liam.

Great guy.

How you doing, sweetie?

30 100, right near top 50.

Yeah. When we meet friends of Feeney,
the original Phoebe.

Yeah.

He's a Knicks fan. He's an OG.

He played basketball with him. He's
a great guy.

Okay I don't yeah,
I stopped playing sports in high school.

So, now that I live with a boy,

I watch sports all day, every day,
and it's absolutely annoying.

He watches football.

He watches baseball.

He'll watch soccer. Lacrosse.

If there's a sport
on, he's going to watch it.

And so now he has his own little porch,
his patio, whatever.

If he wants to watch his sports,
he watches it out there.

I'm like,
do not bring it into the main living area.

I know more about sports that I want to.

And then.

I'm a Cowboys fan. I'm sorry.

I know this is what's happened.

Yeah, not. A football fan.

Well, I'm
not a fan. Here's why I clarify.

I'm not really a fan.

I have to say I'm a Dallas.

City,
so I grew up in Massachusetts in the 80s.

The Patriots were terrible.

And in my house it went,

Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins.

And then about like 50
steps down the ladder where the Patriots.

That's great.

Maybe they weren't
even on the ladder actually.

And when you came to Connecticut
Celtics is acceptable in Connecticut.

Yeah.

And Red Sox are all of
those teams are acceptable here.

Depends right.

That was a big change for me.
West Hartford

I went to TJ Max and I'm like,
oh what's all this Red Sox stuff.

And TJ I thought we're in Connecticut.

I'm from was from Waterbury
then lived in New Haven.

Yeah. Yankee New York.
So there's like a New Haven.

Maybe Waterbury is the line
where it starts to turn.

Oh, there's all kinds of great data
about that, actually.

Oh, yeah. Where the line actually where?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where do you think the line. It's
actually a sort of a diagonal.

Yeah.
So it's not just eastern Connecticut.

It comes over a little bit, west.

And I see that there are Mets
fans here as well.

Oh yeah. People
forget about that. But there are a few.

And how was your day today?

What'd you guys do? It's Tuesday.

Where I. Work.

Lisa and I both work side hustle.

That's our job, right?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

You know, preparing for the end
of the year and working in H.R.

You know, we're
preparing for our open enrollment.

So when people change, they're pregnant.

Pause.

I mean, I remember when.

Yeah. Your, medical benefits.

We'll find out what the new premiums
will be soon.

And you're the associate

director of compliance and recruitment
YWCA in the Hartford region. Rex.

Correct.

My background.

Prior to joining the YWCA,
I was in real estate.

And before that, I was the business,
vice president of operations

and business development
for a financial compliance firm.

And so that's where the compliance
experience come from.

Now is being an H.R.

Like being a third grade teacher. Do it.

Do you do it when employees.

Like interesting.

Are getting when they're getting
not being nice to each other to do.

You have to it's so problems.

I was actually talking to, someone else
who already, you know, nameless,

said, oh, you work in H.R.

So you spend a lot of your time
putting out fires.

And I rather consider myself,
you know, someone who empowers people to,

you know, perform their work,
making sure they have the resources

and skills they need to do their job.

Making sure
they have the communication skills

they need to overcome any challenges
with their peers or supervisors.

So I see my role more as empowering
people as opposed to putting out fliers.

Okay.

And so when you approach it
from that perspective,

you're being more proactive
in creating a culture

where people like showing up to work
and working with each other.

So that is very interesting because
obviously you will get those stories.

Yeah.

But it's regular people problems. Yeah.

It's usually always comes down
to miscommunication all the time.

Always comes out in miscommunication.

Very nice.

Yeah.

And you're the Deb is the chief
strategy officer

for the Community
Health Center Association of Connecticut.

That is sort of a mouthful, but okay.

Oh that's cool. Act. We say.

What is it, CHC act.

Oh, okay. CHC act I see that.

And we work with, our state's community
health centers

to help them do what they do better.

So what they do
is they provide medical, dental

and behavioral health care to all people,
regardless of ability to pay.

And so you can have Medicare, Medicaid,
you can have commercial insurance,

or you can be uninsured, and a community
health center will serve you.

So we have 17 community health center
organizations in Connecticut,

and we are, the trade association
that works with them.

And my role is around public
policy and advocacy.

Media communications work
and then building community partnerships.

Nice. And how long have you been there?

Well, I am am apparently what they call a
boomerang employee or a rebound employee.

So, I did work there from 2012
to 2019, left

for a different job,
and I came back about two years ago.

And this new role. Nice.

And how long were you in that position?

I love to mention that I started my job
the same day

President Trump was inaugurated,
January 21st.

I am counterprogramming
that's how I like to refer to myself.

Nice.

Because I

of course,
as soon as I started at the YWCA,

he started his job and then he wanted
to like basically put an X on everything

that the YWCA does or your organization
does and, like, okay, well.

It's kind of very interesting
nine months in the health care

sphere and social services for sure.

Yeah. Keeps us on our toes. Yeah.

And then you have some good friends.

I want to shout out and mention you took
the Who's step down out of town council.

That and you took her role. Who was. That?

Adrian Billing Smith.

Yes. Ace.

Yeah. So 3060.

Yeah. And Feeney talks to friends.

Go back and check it out.
Ace is a good friend.

She is.

She is a good friend and still doing
great work on behalf of our town

and our state, actually.

So yeah, it was an honor to be able to
I was.

Great, just text me on a. Chair.

CP's trying to get a basketball team,
so they're doing some fundraising.

So I'm going to try to help her donate.

But yeah, she's great.

KP you girls are the boys or a great.

That'd be great. And she's a baller too.
Yeah.

She is thousand point scorer and thousand
point rebounder at Central Florida.

Oh you did your
homework on that. Yeah. Yeah.

She's And then you had some friends.

Carol blanks.

Yes, we have friends.

We are all friends. Carol.

I surf together on the board.
And our town council.

She has twins. Yeah.

So we talk twins all the time.

Are you have so much common ground, Ernie.

You're like.

Oh, thanks.

Any 12, 12 deliveries? No, I have twins.

I don't have twins.

My my brothers I have there are twin.

Chances there in the fan.

What are the chances.

Mayor running I'm trying to get him up.

I go yeah you try and you know,
I could put in a word for you.

Oh. You're the guy.

Make the connection. Yeah, let's do it.

No. It's great. It's awesome too. Yeah.

So no good friends.

Yeah.

Speaking
of friends, our motto is be a good friend.

So hold the door.

Give compliments, be charitable.

Pick up trash. It's not yours.

So if you were to take turns
and maybe someone that we just mentioned.

Or are you, you guys

who would be a good friend
and what what makes them a good friend?

You could talk about each other.

Super cheesy,
but my husband is my best friend.

Iron is just an incredible person,
and I feel so fortunate.

We've been married for 30 years.

We've been together since we were 19.

Congratulations. And, he just.

He makes the world a better place
for a lot of people.

Nice.

But importantly, also for me.

Yeah.

30 years. Congrats. So, like. Yeah.

Yeah,
I got married when I was ten, obviously.

Haha. Yeah.

And I remember he,
he drives like far away for his job.

He works in Basra.

He's the principal at Fields
Memorial School,

which I learned this summer is the longest

continuously operating school
in the state of Connecticut.

Oh wow. Yeah. Wfsb did a story on them.

And like he's like,
not many schools are out there, right?

He it's one.

Yeah. He yeah. So the town of Boston.

And it like cancels or.

Yeah the town of Basra has one school.

It goes pre-K through eighth grade.

He's the principal of the one school.

It has, 175 students or so.

And, so it's one class per grade.

They travel with each other
and they have a part time superintendent,

a part time pupil services director,
and he is the one full time administrator.

So nice community too.

So wonderful community.

Yeah. Rural. Yeah. Yeah.

They have eggs. A lot of eggs.

Yeah.

Check your egg container
if you're buying local.

A lot of them are coming from Basra.

Do you put them in the fridge
or keep them on the counter?

Well,
when we buy eggs at the grocery store,

we put them in the fridge occasionally.

He will not it? Not often enough,
I have to say.

But occasionally he will come home
with something that somebody grew

and brought in and or,
you know, was generous to give him.

Because my brother lives in New Hartford,
now has chickens.

You keep them on the.
Counter, are supposed to.

And it's like in the yolks, really yellow.

There's a there's a.

Step some.

Getting used to it, the texture
or the taste, but gets the job.

Done scrambled.

And everything seasoning. Haha.

I do love everything about the bagel.

Yes, yes, I do love it.

And there's a Filipino one.

Got to go for me.

I see it for two different day.

All right.

Lisa, who's your friend? Oh, friends.

A trait that I think friends should have.

Or could have. Or who is a good friend.

Anyone who practices acceptance.

I love all of my friends. They're just.

And including family members.

They're very good at accepting people
for who they are.

No judgment.

What I love about my friends,
including my partner

John Blair, is they laugh at me,
and that's kind of like a rule

I need you to just laugh at me.

I need you to not take me seriously
so that I don't take myself too seriously.

And knowing that who I am showing up
or how I'm showing up in this minute,

this moment right here might not be
the same as how I show up tomorrow.

You know, I could
something could have happened,

something could have triggered
or whatever, you know?

So I just love and even me, I do that.

I like to think that I do that.

Just accept people for who they are

and how they're showing up in that moment
and just embrace it and laugh it.

Nothing's that serious. It's,
you know, good trait.

Yeah, yeah.

I like humor.

Yeah. Me too.

Some humor.

Having a good time. All of it. Yeah.

Smiling is positive attitude.

And smiling
goes a long way. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, so I'm a teacher.

What is it now? 22 years?

Nine years in Waterbury
at Kingsbury School.

The same school I went to as a kid.

My favorite teacher was Mrs. Jarell.

She was my fifth grade teacher.

Went on to be the principal
who hired me to be a teacher.

And now I'm currently in West Hartford.

13 years in, Mr.

Drill was my favorite teacher.

Do you have a favorite teacher?

God, this is so hard.

That's a hard question.

And also shout out
you went to Wren Brook and Miss Porter's.

Yes. Very nice. Yeah.
The two. Wonderful school.

So that's why it's going to be so hard
to pick a teacher.

I'm almost thinking I should pick someone
from my elementary school.

I went
I worked for two for one, and we did,

Saint.

Now, Miss Porter's this summer.

Beautiful camp.

Yeah, the. Food in the caf. Phenomenal.

So I'll definitely change
since I've been there, but. Yeah. Okay.

Is that all, girl?
So it was an all girls camp.

My daughters were counselors.

I was like, the sports director.

It was great.

I was after working ten years at,
High Meadow Day Camp, we switched up

and went to two for one.

But, that Miss Porter's was an excellent
school, so.

Yeah.

And the curve.

Yeah, exactly. The, new headmistress.

She's definitely, invested a lot
in the athletics program, which is.

And it shows. It's beautiful.

And I love the new motto, girls win here.

And I know that works with sports and
and academics and leadership.

It's great.

I love it, but.

Teacher. Favorite teacher. Oh my God.

I'm going to have to say,

Maggie Middaugh
I'm going to shout her out

because we actually found each other
on Facebook a couple days ago.

She was my seventh grade
math teacher in, at run Brook.

And she was just,
you know, being at Rumble, coming from,

you know, public school as,
like a 12 or 13 year old.

And then you go to this private school.

It was a lot of firsts.

And she was my, like, homeroom
teacher and,

you know, math teacher,
and she'd do these things.

You talk about the decimal dip or,
you know, just try to come up

with little catchy things
to make you remember, some math

programs or math.

What do you call this concept?

Problem solving concepts. Yeah.

So she was just always so lovely, so nice.

And she was also, I could tell
she was an athlete in her younger days

before she was teaching.

And so she'd say things to,
you know, to make the girls in the room

or the girl athletes feel like,
you know, whatever, you got a cramp.

You can work through it. Keep going.

You know, just this is a very
I found a very empowering and I.

What was her name?

Maggie. My door. My door.

Yeah,
I love it. What minute are we on? So,

Then the 43.

You got to send this to Maggie. The door?

Yes. Mrs. Reynolds or Mr.

Reynolds there, Coach Reynolds?

Oh, yes, they were there.
They were great. Yeah.

I was not the first of all there
to Reynolds, I think.

No, Mr. Irving.

No. Yeah.

Mr. Irving, I remember him more.

He was like the football coach
and his blond and so friendly, Mr.

Reynolds.
He taught mostly the varsity sports.

And I was never really
that good to be on the varsity team.

Like, by the time I made it to varsity,
there were other coaches there.

But. Yeah. Well, yeah.

Mr. Reynolds is the father of Luke
from ball, for sure.

Okay. That's connection.
That's my. Only right.

Person. Right
now. Yeah, he's a great guy too.

Everyone loves him. Didn't
they just dedicate something to him?

Yeah, yeah.

Court the name of the court after Coach
Reynolds. Court.

Now he's a great guy. Pete Reynolds,
great guy.

Yeah.

He actually lives across the street
from Wolcott School, too.

So stop by, tell him I said hello.

He even remembers me.

All right, well,
I had time to think of three teachers.

I want to make sure I mention
one is my kindergarten teacher, Mrs.

Nolan, who, friended me on Facebook
about, 8 or 9 years ago.

So, I think, you know,
what was really special is

she made school fun right from the get
go and made me want to be there.

And she was just so sweet
the way kindergarten teachers ought to be.

She's everything
a kindergarten teacher ought to be.

And then, the second one is Mr.

Murphy. Mr.

Murphy was my English teacher
in sixth grade.

He taught like
an entire generation of people.

I grew up outside of Boston,
in a town called Peabody.

There were 8 or 10 elementary schools
in Peabody, and my high school

English teachers used to say,
we can tell which kids had Mr.

Murphy in sixth grade by how you write,

by your grammar and your spelling
and your attention to that.

And, I mean, so many people that I went
to school where we still talk about Mr.

Murphy,
he had this eight ball on the end of this

long, stick like a pointer.

You could never get away with this today.

And he would walk around
with this eight ball.

And if you were kind of, like falling
asleep at your desk or drooling

or doing something wrong,
he would smack it on your desk,

right close to your head or your hand,
and it would wake you up,

I'll tell you that.

And, he also, had a very famous phrase

which was, you write tonight.

And what that meant was
you had to write the Gettysburg Address.

Oh, boy.

It was if you did something wrong. Right.

So you were talking in class
or for a while we had some rule about,

like, you're not supposed to
chew on your pen cap.

You remember when we had pens and and,
if he caught you doing something,

he would say, you write tonight.
You had to write the Gettysburg Address.

Oh, all of us know the Gettysburg Address.

And then and, and high school,
I had a chemistry teacher named Mr.

Bagga who was,

honestly not the best chemistry teacher,
but an awesome person.

He was a great friend.

And I used to go
talk to him after school,

and he would make me feel like
everything was going to be okay.

So I was sort of
a stress kid in high school.

So you went to Peabody?

Peabody? Peabody?

Yeah. You did that on purpose.

And Mr. Murphy, I think I had a mr.

Murphy, too.

The popular named Murph.

Did he go by Murph? He did not.

Now, he was very.

You know, this was.

This was when, he would wear, like,
a three piece suit to school, to teacher.

And so it was very kind of old school.

And, we learned to diagram sentence.

Yeah. The 80s were a while.

They didn't have an eight ball
at the end of a.

Oh, no.

So I tell you, Mr.

Gorey, my chemistry teacher would like,
jab his thumb in my wrist

and, like, pull my ear and stuff,
and, like, I loved it, but I.

Absolutely loved it.
It was a different time, but.

It's like it were grab my neck and stuff
like Feeney met the back of my neck,

but it was just like.

And he had like a anchor tattoo,
like he was in the Navy.

Sometimes he smelled of cigarets.

But you just love this guy,

you know?

He was like, yeah. I don't know.
You made an impression. That's great.

Right? Yeah.

Or then I had, you know, I had a mr.

Murphy and Mr. Riley.

Mr. Rowley was like five, five.

And I put on it, I would put on this coat

and it would be really small, like.

So how old are you doing?

That was a high school.

Oh, my God. In high junior high school.

Were you a troublemaker in school?
Oh, boy.

Oh, God. When I went to Kingsbury.

So I again I went to Kingsbury
and I went back to teach at Kingsbury. So.

And then there was Miss
Snyder was still there.

Mrs. wise was still there.

A couple of teachers were still there.

And they're like,

you're a teacher, like you remember
you, Feeney, you're a teacher.

You were a memorable student.
That's great, of course,

but your
students can't get anything over on you.

I try to been there, but then.

Like, the kids shout out and stuff
and I'm like. I was. That was me.

I would've done that. Yeah.

Yeah. That's me.

Can't sit still. Oh that's. Me.

So we work on strategies and

yeah, you know, channel their interests
or channel their energy.

Yeah. So very cool. Yeah.

Oh yeah.

We got to get a selfie to send that to ace
or the rest of the crew.

We'll pop it up in the video.

Wait, where are we?

And boom.

So we're talking favorites.

Favorite restaurant?

Then there's a follow up question.

That's a hard question.

You go first. Good go.

I started in vans on this one.

I'm doing three again. Oh, that's
all right. Oh.

Power of three. Over. Yeah, sure.

So I've picked a restaurant
in different parts of town.

Smart, smart.

Thank you.
And it doesn't have to be West Hartford.

I chose West Hartford around. Gotcha.

But not only because I live in West
Hartford and serve West Hartford,

but because these
are three of my favorite restaurants,

and one is right around the corner
from where we are now.

And he guesses

literally in this building.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, Joe cafe. Yes.

Love it.

Family owned super friendly,
fresh Mexican food.

Easy. Like you're going to go
you're going to get a table.

The food's going to be great.
It's going to be a great experience.

Love it.

Do you ever see when you go about
to grab the handle on the front door?

Yes. They have they have a Friends
With Feeney sticker on there.

Yes, I had it right here.

It's fine.

I'm going to put that stick right
here, though, because you know what?

I just took a picture of both.

Iron and I actually had lunch there
on Saturday.

It was Saturday. Yeah, it was on Saturday.

Eight outside. Very nice.

In the center.

I'm going to go with Max burger.

Okay. Love Max burger.

They have this like salad
that has like shaved brussel sprouts.

And you put a burger on top
and it's fantastic.

Shaved brussel sprouts on top.
Oh it's so good.

Now it's
while the burger is on the Brussels.

It's like it's a big salad.

And then you put the burger on it
okay. It's fantastic.

And then and Elmwood Zay tunes.

Nice. Yes. Underrated.

This place is incredible.

It's, Lebanese and other Middle
Eastern food also family owned.

Nice as people owners usually there
walk around and say hello to you BYOB.

Yes.

And the food is.

If you if you walk down the harvest.

And you can literally walk next
you get. A discount.

Oh, they were like, I'm eating as a tune.

They, I think they give you a 10% off.

And that's in the old,
you must have shopped at the chalkboard.

Why not? Was.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I loved that store. Yeah.

But then I was so happy that, Zay Tunes
was able to move into that bigger spot.

Yeah. That's right.

Go in. There. They've got.
I was just. Lovely.

I knew the woman that runs it and owns it.

Mrs. Clayton, my colleague
Leah Klein's mom ran that forever.

So anytime you need a name tags,

sort of booklet maps,
that was the go to spot.

Oh, man. Bringing me. Back.

I know,
and I'm, like, salivating over here.

Everything about all that
food. Yeah. But here's Lisa.

So, since she did three,
I'm going to do three to I don't sect.

So Frieda, over in the freedom.

Oh, my God, the food,
the tacos, the fish tacos.

Highly recommend. Go get that.

I have been to Zaytuna do love it,

but the Sahara.

Yeah, I could eat also doing that,
but also very delicious.

And then I have to shout out brick.

Oh, because Billy Grant,
I love Billy is good friend.

And it's just food.

Italian food for the soul, you know.

And then he's got
he loves the Jamaican culture.

And so sometimes these say

he'll have the Caribbean or the African
influence in some of the food,

salivating, thinking about it.

Where's my food, He puts. On Instagram.

He'll put on a plate.
Hey, this is this this. And he goes.

Belly.

He's a good guy.

And I do want to mention Trevor also,
since I'm not just Italian for you.

I love you, Trevor.

It's so hard to pick a favorite
that was the hardest one.

I was like,
there's no way to answer that question.

But I tried. I'm like,
all great. Love it.

I'm glad you shot it out of your cafe,
because we're going to do some

of your cafe in a few.

Oh. Their wings are good.

The wings. I've never had them.

Oh, I love their wings.

I love the barrel tacos at, Frida.

Zahara, the dip, the,

Yeah, the hummus, the lamb or the hummus.

Okay. Oh, yeah. Beets.

I love the lamb.

Lamb that I love the cigars.

The land.

These are so many. I'm
everything. I want it.

So honestly, I've never been to.

There's a tunes on New Bread,
but they used to be on Park Road.

Yeah. So I. I've had them. There.

Well, yeah. Highly recommend
you check it out.

Yeah. All right.

So you're at a restaurant you can eat with
four guests, dead or alive.

Anyone in the world.

Who eats. With a dead person, that's.

That's crazy question. All right.

They're alive.

I assume. While you're eating with. That.
Okay.

I'm saying for, you know, time frame wise,
like mine are always Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Rogers
old dirty bastard from the Wu-Tang clan.

And,
I'm throwing a different athlete either

Michael Jordan,
Larry Bird, Charles Barkley.

So this is awesome. Okay, this is great.

I would choose, Huey Newton,

founder of Black Panthers, FDR.

Obviously we know, Franklin Roosevelt.

Tupac.

I feel like,

I need to have a woman in there
and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Oh.

Good choice.
Oh, I it yeah, those are good people.

I wonder if I have four.

But since you mentioned Mr.

Rogers, I will join that table.

Let's add in Judy Blume, who,

just was such a formative
part of my childhood.

I read every single one of her books,

like front to back start again,
you know, front to back start again.

And I have.

A whole Judy
Blume basket in my room. Class.

I never read a Judy Blume, but.

It's not too late. Lisa.

Yes, I'll bring some nice. Not too late.

She told me I about. Library
pick one up there.

My great grandfather, Maury Sachs,

was, really special to me,
and he passed when I was nine.

He just had this,
like, warm vibe about him.

And I would just love to get to know him
when I'm an adult.

So if it's not too creepy,
I would invite him to join us, for dinner.

Probably, somebody like Ben Franklin.

He was really interesting person.

Very varied interests.

And, maybe he can help us
figure out what they meant.

Yeah. Wrote a book about farts.

I did not know that.

Kids love.

That. Can you get that from the library?
Is that also at the library?

Do you learned that at jeopardy?

Like, I.

Don't know
when and how, but. These facts I'm.

Going to ask, library director Laura,
I'm sure she can,

get the Larry and Franklin book on farts.

They don't talk. About that enough. Right.

Well, the kids are like,
hey, no, no, I'm listening.

Yeah, exactly.

And my athlete will be,
Pedro Martinez, who.

Of course.

Say Red Sox fan.

And then the next.

And before we do wings, we're gonna do
recommendations and questions for me.

So if you want to recommend the podcast,
a book,

or you want to just do questions for
me, whatever you want to do.

I highly
recommend that Diplomat on Netflix.

I am so addicted to it.

I'm going to rewatch it again one season.

How many episodes it has?

Three seasons, eight episodes per season,

and the third season just complete
is like every season.

It just it's good. It's insistently good.

Okay, it might be like the new that West
Wing or something.

I don't know, because I think they have
two of the, stars from West.

I saw their diplomat. Okay, interesting.

So I've been watching a lot of cozy
murder mysteries on BritBox.

Because they're nice and light.

Yeah, and there's a lot of heaviness
going on in the world right now.

So I'm noticing that with books
and, TV shows and things like that,

I try to find something that I know

is either going to have

a happy ending for sure, or is just going
to be something really light.

So I highly recommend that.

Oh, I want to recommend a book
to All About Love by Bell hooks.

I am a little bit more than halfway
done with it, and it kind of

just like shakes your old world

about what love is,
what the definition of love

could be or should be, and how you relate
and communicate to people with people

or rethink about, you know, your
your childhood and how you treat others.

It's so great, so good. Cool.

Yeah, I.

Just watched the first three
episodes of House of Guinness.

Yeah,
and I'm reading How to Talk to Strangers.

Malcolm
Gladwell, my daughter suggested it.

She actually, she got a voice.

Oh, nice.

She went and got she went to like, a book
fair and brought it home for me.

Tell me, the guy who runs podcasts,
how to talk to strangers.

Pretty good. Honing your skills.

I try to watch House of Guinness,
but once they came with the pop music,

I don't like that.

I don't like pop music and period pieces.
It was weird.

Keep it consistent.

Yeah, I actually thought the same.

I immediately turned it off
after the first episode

they played a pop song is like,
no, don't want it.

It's not fitting the time frame
or the genre.

Yeah, I didn't, I didn't get it either.

And then the words popping up on
the screen was kind of random.

Yeah.

Like how much the money is now.

Yeah. Compared to that. Yeah.

And something else was like
and then I was texting.

I'm like, I got kind of boring. Yeah.

Already 2. Or 3. I'm getting. Diplomatic.

All right.

Yeah.

Like the arc you need to like
you need to know.

That was like ten.

You're like, yeah, it's 12:00.
You're like, let's watch one more.

Yeah, exactly. Oh, man.
I love that show. Yeah.

What are some of the books
your students are reading right now? Oh

they're.

Great. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. Third grade.

So, yeah.

They're about 7 or 8 graphic novels.

Dog man, diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Oh. The classic, the bad guys.

Yes. Cat.

Cat. Something
something I want to say. Cat.

Bad guy.

Dog man. Cat, man.

Yeah. Anything again?

Diver.

Wimpy kid is the principal.

He wears diapers, he fights a toilet,

he's weapons, a plunger.

So the kids are, like, all about it.

Oh, the lunch lady?

Yeah, she's a superhero, so.

Yeah, she uses a spatula.

You know, I love to.

Pull up with the spatula, so,

And now

I guess it was graphic novels
when they first came out.

Kind of got a bad rap.

Yeah, not really reading,
because it's just, like speech bubbles.

But now we're really encouraging it.

And I went in my time frame, I would do
like I had the Judy Blume basket.

I had two graphic novel baskets.

Now I'm up to ten, ten baskets.

All, you know, the babysitters
came back as a graphic novel.

Who else?

Yeah, just so many. Good. Yeah.

And then there's some really cool ones
I survived.

So that's a realistic,

history.

It was a real, real realistic fiction.

So they'll do 911 or.

Yeah, Titanic or. And they'll.

Yeah,
they'll put a character in there. Yeah.

So the kids learn about that event.

But in a fiction. Way I like that.

It, it it reminds me I used to be
a teacher briefly, you know, reminds me,

you know, when you're working with early
readers, they have to do the picture.

Walk first. Oh, yeah.

Look at the pictures
and form the vocabulary or the story

in your own mind
before, you know, reading the words

and even this, at eight years old,
it could still be very valuable.

Helping them just create in their mind,
work their brains in different ways

predictions.

And we're helping with predictions
and things like that.

It's really good.

We in compassion like.

Yeah we have to
we we summarizer predictor clarifier.

Questioner.

Yeah, you get a role in a team and you

before you get a reading passage
or an article, we make predictions.

One person clarifies,
one person ask questions.

So that's helps the reading comprehension.

Oh let's shout out.

Oh so we got to get into these wings.

Anything I missed.

Anything you like to share.

But it went by fast.

We were talking. Boom boom two guest
I like it.

I was trying to make sure it goes by fast
so we can get to these wings. Yes.

Wings was like, oh, I'm focused with.

Some swag shout outs to see
these are some hats we have.

We collaborated with Anthony's Abatement
for our golf tournament.

Nice. Be a good friend is our motto.

You know.

Don't forget how you do it.

You're a great post buddies.

Be it.

Oh, that's a nice.

Nice scene. It's a hybrid fit.

It's great for watching sports
or walking and doing yoga.

Walking, canvasing. Yeah, exactly.

Curling up with a friend.

You look at some.

We got pineapple fresca. Habanero.

We got, heartbreak hot sauce cans.

So my students know
this is a gift from last year's class.

Okay. Sunkist tomato

Mike's.

Hi, honey.

Oh. Of course. Yeah.

Fly by jinx.

Spicy chili.

Latino herb.

Well, there's so many.

So many hot. Ones. Caliente.

Oh, hot ones, like the. Fly by jinx.

Session goals. So.

And then we got the shout out to Otro
Cinco.

Oh, okay.

Oh. Just singles in five five.

That's a five.

Oh Joe Cinco Chad Johnson. Oh, yes.

He changed his name.

Yes. So what?

Chad Johnson was a wide receiver.

He wore 85.

He changed his name to Chad Ochocinco.

Okay.

And for some reason I every time I say,
oh, I just Cinco has to come.

Down, comes out naturally. All right.

Oh that was a football reference.

All right.

So so that.

Much like you're on team
oh spirit star. All right. Yeah.

Oh I'm the same I'm the one I'll be like
there's there's carrots.

There's chips and salsa. Chips and salsa.

Got the ranch.
We got the chip. We got six.

There's rings a lot of sources B
be sure to tune in if you can join us.

Will this won't be out on time.

But next next Monday 5:00 Luna Pizza.

It's our third annual hot wings.

We're we're raising money for cancer.

Trying to rid the word of rid
the world of cancer.

AbbVie.

It's collected over $10,000
and he's trying to do more.

So he's like charging
you know like the hottest one.

The bomb is like the hottest of the heart.

And charging 100 bucks
for every bomb when he eats.

Okay.

And what you.

Want to pick one. Let's do one.

Or do you want. Me to pick. One
or just do regular buffalo?

You want to do that? What?
That is, we go to Buffalo.

Oh, no. No, we've got to try these sauces.

All right, so let's try,
which you said your students gave you.

All of. Them. All of them.

So I got a Nike gift card
because they know I like sneakers, and I

there was a lot more.

So currently, there's always in my room.

I'm looking at the computer.

Yeah, I have my cup of forks for lunch
and then hot sauces.

I like that.

I know there's a nice little shop
in, Boston.

You get some hot sauce.

Where are we going?

Are you somebody who has, like,
many kinds, many pairs of sneakers?

Yes. How many? How many?

36 pairs of sneakers right now.

Yeah. Lisa, do you.

Have anything that you collect?

Like sneakers? I'm not into collecting.

Sorry, ma'am.

I like that you have a lot of. No.

I don't so good source.

Did you go with.

Heartbeat hot sauce?

I like the flavor. It's
very good. It's perfect.

Our feet hot.

Yeah I can't yeah.

All right.

It doesn't look that hot right there.

That is really good.

We're going to get ready for that.

All right.

Have you not opened any of these.

These are all brand new. Oh my gosh

I have to agree.

One 150 was here.

Oh cheers.

How do you do.

Yeah.

Squeeze a burst of.

It's pretty hot.

What's the
do you have like a rating on these.

Oh, this is mild or medium.

Okay. No, some have the Scoville rating.

Yeah, I'm not big into that I don't know.

Okay.

Oregano, Basil.

How Italian might not like that one. Okay.

So which one's the hottest one.

I'm going to try the hottest on this.

Five out of ten heat level. Oh.

Looks like a medium
super spicy extra tingly oil.

I think I'm into this extra tingly.

Do it.

Do you want to be the one to open it.

I don't want to.

And I'll open another one.

Sorry I'm over here
like licking my fingers to it.

This is really. Good.

I know I order 12
but I think I ordered online

and then I had a call in like
oh I need these for 4:00.

You don't want to give it a go.

The waiter was really. I know it's Monday.

All right.

I go, do you like this time?

It's that real easily.

It was a little too easy.

Yeah. You know, I haven't had dinner.
So I know that's exact.

Maybe that's why I'm like, yeah,
let's do this.

Congrats to Ojo cafe.

Those wings are really flavorful, meaty.

Like, it does not need hot sauce.

But since we're doing this, why not?

Let's go for it.

I gosh,

and my family is part Asian,
so I do like to try out Asian sauces.

I'm gonna have the, I can do.

I have born back.

Okay.

Oh. Thank you.

Prepping. This is prepping for 153.

We're at 152 with Deb and Lisa,

the main part of West Hartford,
the community helping out this.

Yeah. This is I like this.

Where they get this.

They get this from, like,
a dog market or something.

I'm going to be.

This is a type of hot chili oil.

I like that when you put like in the
in the noodle

bowl.

This one I'm
a little nervous about this one.

Looks very oily.

Super spicy.

Extra tingly.

Oh that is flavorful.

Very aromatic but not a lot of heat.

There's more flavor than heat so far
I'm liking that one a lot.

The flavor is a lot better.

Any of them local.

Oh look Argentina let's try hot ones.

They're trying to make you think it.

Let's do it for it.

Do you have any Can I get it open?

Oh, she was I going to say.

Closing.

Remarks?

All right.

I want to thank you for having us on and
for everything you do for your students.

Now, your students in prior years
and then with your nonprofit.

Yeah, you're doing good stuff.

Thanks, Deb.

I appreciate the compliment.

Yeah, I know we chatted before,
but it was great to,

you know, to chat a little more
then I never really talked with you.

So it was wonderful getting to know you.
Yeah. Same here.

I wish you both the best of luck.

Hopefully we can collaborate
on a fundraiser or an event or.

That would be great.

Please continue to be good friends
and donate and support.

I want to thank you both for your support
and your generous donation.

Oh. Starting to that oily one.

I'm sorry.

I'm good.

Thanks. Yeah.

Good flavor.

This is a good commercial
for these hot sauce for the wings.

I am down for that.

Is it? Cheers to otro cafe.

Do you need. What?
Are you okay? Damn, girl.

I want to make it.

Yeah, sure. So, Oto cafe.

All right. Means for dinner. She and I.

I didn't even know that the wings
were going to be coming from Ojo, right.

I perfect, very fitting.

One of my top three.

I know as I was buying them,
I go, these are going to be

on a podcast downstairs
and we're going to talk about them.

She was like, all right. And

so we're going to show them, okay,
thank you for putting my sticker up.

I don't know who put that sticker
that's been there for a while

says good friends rule.

You saw out there earlier.

They're good people.

Yeah. The West Hartford
community is great.

They are very supportive of our mission,
are helping children

and families that need assistance
after heartbreak or tragedy.

We're going on, like,

six, 19.

So six years, we won the best of West
Hartford three years in a row.

So we're going back for our fourth year.
So go get out.

Get out and vote. Best of West Hartford.

We have our toy drive coming up.

We're collecting toys again at Luna Pizza.

It's going to be December 5th.

We'd love to have you come by,
bring a toy.

And, I gently used coat,

and that's it.

So we got toy drive.

Oh, we're handing out
candy this week at the Miracle League.

Just wonderful community.

I love being here.

That Echo League, they're doing a big,
celebration to honor coach Mike.

Yeah. Do you know when that's going to be?
That was last. Saturday.

Oh, it's already happened. Yeah.

Mike, podcast guest.

Of course.

I don't know what. Which one?

I'm trying to get them all.

All right.

We're getting everyone from West Hartford
unpaid.

Absolutely. We'll help you. Thank you.

So on three on three together
we're going to say be a good friend.

Ready? 123. Be a. Good. Friend.