All About The Joy
All About The Joy is a weekly hang-out with friends in the neighborhood! We share insight, advice, funny-isms and we choose to always try and find the positive, the silver lining, the "light" in all of it. AATJ comes from the simple concept that at the end of the day we all want to have more JOY than not. So, this is a cool place to unwind, have a laugh and share some time with friends!
All About The Joy
Work-from-Home Woes and the Healthcare Crisis: Violence, Injustice, and Luigi
What's the real cost of maintaining trust in a remote work environment? This episode of "All About the Joy" explores that question and more, as we welcome Cynthia with her shiny new tech gadgets and dive into Rick's unsettling work-from-home dilemma. Imagine balancing a heavy workload while caring for a loved one with dementia, only to be asked by your employer to install a camera for surveillance. It's a story that touches on trust, discipline, and the fine line between work-life balance and intrusion, with Rick bravely sharing his personal journey and practical solutions.
Healthcare is a hot topic, and we don't shy away from it. From the frustrating dance with insurance denials to the heartbreaking weight of medical bills, we tackle the tough questions about systemic inequities and the impact on everyday life. The episode takes a gripping turn with the controversial case of Luigi Mangione, accused of murder, sparking a conversation about violence as protest and the deep-seated issues within our healthcare system. We challenge the status quo, questioning the effectiveness of certain actions and pondering the role of media in shaping public discourse.
As we transition to lighter fare, there's talk of TV shows, streaming services, and the quirks of holiday planning. We sprinkle in some gratitude for our loyal listeners, sharing how their support across platforms like YouTube and Facebook fuels our conversations. With plans for exciting guest interviews on the horizon, the essence of joy and appreciation remains our guiding light. So, whether it's navigating the challenges of healthcare or simply finding time for a beloved series, we remind everyone to seek joy, maintain boundaries and opt for learning more about something - nuance matters - before sharing an opinion.
Thank you for stopping by. Please visit our website: All About The Joy and add, like and share. You can also support us by shopping at our STORE - We'd appreciate that greatly. Also, if you want to find us anywhere on social media, please check out the link in bio page.
Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth
DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.
Hey everybody, welcome to All About the Joy. Hi, what's up, hi Rick, hi Cynthia, how you guys doing Good, and look it, we can see and we can hear Cynthia. So well, why don't you tell us why girl Go ahead?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I got a tablet.
Carmen Lezeth:I'm finally upgrading guys, you're still doing a 1957 cell phone, but you got the tablet. I'm finally upgrading. Guys, you're still doing a 1957 cell phone, but you got the tablet. Go ahead, girl, with your headphones. Go ahead, I'm sorry.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:The intro on these headphones. Oh my god, it sounds so much better.
Rick Costa:Oh, wow, yeah.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:You can hear the bass and everything. Oh my god. Yeah, these headphones actually were a gift from a doctor I used to work with and they're both headphones. They're like the noise canceling.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, my God. You're so funny I'm just laughing. She's just recognizing the technology Working with 24. So awesome, Rick. How are you doing? What's going on with you? Before we get to Cynthia, because we got more background on her, but how are you doing? How was your week so far?
Rick Costa:A little scary work situation, but you know.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, do I already know about this or is this something new? Yeah? It hasn't been resolved, not even discussed, not even brought up, and I'm like, should I say it so, one of these things that happens all the time is when a boss kind of insinuates something and starts making changes and you're not sure why, and it feels uncomfortable, yeah yeah, so I, because he hasn't said anything and neither have I.
Rick Costa:I don't know if I'm gonna have a job after tomorrow. I don't know because I don't want to do it Well do what I know.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean, I don't want to share your business, but do you want to give people some insight or do you want me to finagle what it might be and not tell?
Rick Costa:what it actually is. I ain't got no shame. He wants to put a camera to watch me while I work at home.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, okay, let's tell people you actually work remotely and this is kind of a common thing with remote workers and I was telling Rick that I'm kind of. This is why I'm against remote work, and it's not because I don't think people should be able to work from home. Number one I don't think most people can work from home. It takes a lot of discipline to do it. And, number two, it makes people who own companies really uneasy because they don't have any trust, and what you're feeling is a lack of trust right now from your employer that you've worked for for a long time and he wants to sell a camera 20 years?
Carmen Lezeth:That's crazy. Yeah, why is tomorrow the deadline? I didn't know there was a deadline.
Rick Costa:He said I want you to get this set up by the 15th. And I thought wait, 15th is a Sunday, why the 15th? And then I remembered oh, he likes to fire people at the end of the pay period.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Okay, ricky, can't fire you. Why all of a sudden now?
Rick Costa:Well, honestly, I have been getting a little bit behind in work, but it's been overwhelming and he never helps. I'm like this is a lot on me. And then he's like and keep throwing more and more and more and I'm like I'm only one person like this is like for three people at least do you have that documented as well, though, like you have?
Carmen Lezeth:I'm like, let's say it came down to he did fire you. You actually would have a reason to fight, like to have litigation for cause, if you can prove some of this stuff, cause it sounds like to me he doesn't trust you all of a sudden, but he's also abusing you you know what I mean. Like he's abusing the fact that you're one person working from home and somehow you're supposed to take care of everything because you're not doing anything. And now I don't trust you. Let me put a camera and prove that you're not doing your work.
Rick Costa:What's also fascinating is I always answer the phone, practically the first ring. When they send me a message on a messenger, I immediately answer. So how am I not here at my desk? I even heard him say one time, snidey like oh, you're hanging out with your mom. No, not during work hours.
Carmen Lezeth:None of that is even important. That whole hanging out with your mom thing that's what I'm saying For him. It's really what he's doing is bad and he's handling it wrong. If I was advising him he'd be in trouble. Melanie just said could the employer be projecting how he would act, and not necessarily anything with Rick is doing? Melanie, that's what I said to Rick. I said this isn't even about you, this is about him, this is about the employer. He's having some issues, so why don't you want to just tell him you know what Great I have a camera. You have to reimburse me $425 for it, but I did get it. You know what I mean. And it's fine, I have it and I'll have it turned on. I mean, I know you don't want.
Rick Costa:So I'll tell you what I did do so because of my mom, for people that don't know. She has dementia and I live with her because she has dementia and you never know what she's going to do. So that's why I had to on cameras in every room, because I'm like I even today, like I caught her, like don't do that, whatever. So I took one camera out of a room that she really rarely goes to anymore. Thank god, because right next to my bedroom I put it in my room. I set it up just to see how it would feel for me and all I put it so you could see the screen, my work, my work screen, and you can see my hand on the mouse. That's it I'm. That should be enough for you to know. Yes, I'm here, you can see the screen. You can see I'm here working, just to see how I would feel.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:And.
Rick Costa:I still felt icky. I'm like somebody's going to be watching me constantly. It's weird.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, I mean, the reason why it feels icky again is because you feel like somebody doesn't trust you.
Rick Costa:And it kind of hurts, to be honest. 20 years Over 20 years, kind of hurts, honestly Not kind of hurts.
Carmen Lezeth:It does hurt and I think that's valid. It hurts me and I don't even know the motherfucker.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Excuse my and that's your house, that's your personal space, that's your privacy. If he really wanted to know what you were doing, why doesn't he just log into the computer remotely and see what you're doing on your computer?
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, that's even worse. You don't want him to do that, because-.
Rick Costa:Well, there's no camera like that on the computer he gave me. He gave me a computer with no mic, no webcam, nothing.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean, he would have to give you a you don't want that either, by the way. Either way, it's somebody watching, you Like?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:it doesn't matter how you do it.
Carmen Lezeth:So the way we have it set up with one of our clients because we have people all over the world that come, so we use like Slack and mondaycom and people kind of log in there and it's more of a, you know, it's kind of like a check-in system, but it is kind of like the water cooler place and that's where we all do projects and stuff and that's, you know, that makes people feel too. I'm like listen, you can't have it all If you're working remotely. There are some things you have to give up. There's just some of them. The problem, rick, I think that I see is it's been 20 years. You didn't just get hired as a remote worker three months ago. You know what I mean and this was part of your deal and I think you have every right to be angry and upset and hurt, for sure.
Rick Costa:And I think the biggest problem is communication, like, and I said to, I emailed him, I said can we talk? This was Friday. I said can we talk over the weekend offline? I'd like to talk to you, not a five minute conversation either. I want to really talk, okay.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, if he fires you, he also has to give you unemployment, and I mean worst case scenario, you know, and uh, we'll figure out the next steps from there.
Rick Costa:I mean we have to right. I mean I'm gonna need everybody to like, share and subscribe so me and carmen and content they can blow up and gotta work no more and rick would be the editor I'll probably be good at it. I will too.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh my God, wouldn't that be the crazy thing, like all of a sudden, the show blows up. No, I would hire you as a second if I could. I would. We would all do this on a more regular basis and I look it. I hope that doesn't happen, but if it does, you know well, you'll figure it out. It's not the end of the world, and you know what I feel like. Somebody doesn't deserve you. I was thinking about this today with one of my clients. I was working for another client and another client that I don't work for had to call me a couple times. Okay, and I hate cross-clienting.
Carmen Lezeth:You know, what I mean, but in my head I was like you guys, you do not deserve me. I kept thinking about it. I'm answering 15 different things in my head because everybody needs something and I'm too valuable. I should be spending time doing stuff I love to do. Imagine where we would be if we put all our energy into what we want to be doing.
Rick Costa:My friend called me today. We used to be really, really tight, but now he's kind of far away so that makes it hard, but anyway. So I told him everything. The first thing he said was tell your boss blank. I ain't going to say what he said, like, yeah, I'm not going to do that, but he goes. I was working at a job like a restaurant job, a chain, and a job like a restaurant job, a chain and he goes. I was disrespected, we were just not treated well. Now he works for another restaurant, mom and pop small operation. He goes. I work more hours and I actually get more tired, but I'm way happier. I'm respected. I'm actually making more money anyway, so he's much happier. He's like why would you work at a place where they don't even respect you?
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, rick, I'm respect you. Yeah, rick, I'm sorry, though this still sucks. It don't matter, it sucks, I'm sorry, you're still going through that. Um damn. Okay, cynthia, I hope you have good news with, uh, your brother-in-law. How's he feeling? Oh, yeah, but all and he's good he's home.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:He came home yesterday, day before yesterday. He's doing better.
Carmen Lezeth:He can't have any solid food, so just liquids for like the next week or two I know, but what happened like it wasn't you guys, it wasn't like a planned thing, right?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:no, it wasn't. He was actually at work. And then he said all of a sudden he got a really bad pain right around his stomach and he was bent over. He couldn't take a deep breath and his boss called 911 and ambulance came. They took him to the hospital and did ct and everything and found that that he had a bleeding ulcer and it was in his intestines. He had to do emergency surgery, remove the part that was bleeding, you know, and so up the rest of it. So now he's just on liquids for the next week or two.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:So yeah, I mean he's okay, he's home, but it kind of sucks because it's like his mom is also recovering from knee surgery and now he's home and recovering from this. So it's like you know.
Rick Costa:Yeah, that's rough recovering from this.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:So it's like yeah, that's rough.
Rick Costa:That's rough. I thought you were going to say uh, ruptured appendix. Appendix. However, you say it.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Oh, no, no, yeah. And this is like the first time he's ever been in the hospital, so it's like oh, so it's traumatic. Something so right.
Carmen Lezeth:So traumatic, poor guy. He's doing good. Good, you guys are doing okay, you're hanging in there. Yeah, we're good. Everything's cool with you at work. Oh my God.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Today was a good day because somebody wasn't there. Oh, there were a few people that weren't there. The doctor isn't there until Wednesday. Someone else wasn't there today. It was me and the resident. It was nice and quiet. I got to listen to my Christmas music, did my work. It was awesome.
Carmen Lezeth:You went to Christmas Wait why I, stupidly, was like I got into this moment where I'm like, oh, you know what I'm going to do. I'm going to buy people some Christmas gifts. I'm going to buy them like all about the joy t-shirts, everything. And so I ordered all. And I'm like I got into this moment where I'm like, oh, you know what I'm going to do, I'm going to buy people some Christmas gifts. I'm going to buy them, all about the Joy t-shirts and everything. I ordered all and I'm like that's cheesy, but I had already ordered them. I'm like that's so cheesy Buying people my cups instead of getting them. I'm going to have quite a few for myself. They're going to have quite a few for myself.
Rick Costa:They're going to be here next week so I've had people from my store order mugs a lot for christmas. That seems to be a popular thing.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, I didn't do a lot of promotions, so it's okay, but I was just cracking up. Uh, I'm gonna do better next year. I guess I don't know. I'm listen again. What's going in my head is this idea of how much time and energy and like emotional, just intellectual, all of the energy I'm using to help other people be rich and there's no joy in it for me. I mean, I get my paycheck and I can pay my bills, but there's no, I'm not excited by it, right, but I'm. Even when I complain about editing here at least, I'm like, oh, that was funny. When I'm not excited by it, right, but even when I complain about editing here at least I'm like, oh, that was funny. When I'm editing, I'm like, oh, my God, I can't believe this is a clip, there's some joy. Don't get me wrong, I hate editing.
Carmen Lezeth:I would rather that the person, send me the clips and me listen to them and see if I like them. But there's something in it for me that I'm invested in, because this is something I've created and I'm doing it with people I like and we're, I think, providing a service. And there's so much more we could do and I could do if I just had more time, and that more time is going to come from me not working for my clients, and that's what I've come to. So, cynthia, I'm here on air. I need you to tap into that trust fund and just send me a million. I don't know why you're being so stingy. Cousin, I wish I had it Right.
Carmen Lezeth:So I'm just I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing for 2025. But before we go into that, I thought we would talk about luigi, just have a little conversation about luigi, I don't know, oh, luigi let me just say a couple.
Carmen Lezeth:I love the man's name, right, if you were writing a script for a movie and you named it luigi, they'd be like, yeah, that's too on point. It has to be more creative. You know what I mean. Yeah, no, too good looking, you got to. No, no, no, he can't. That just doesn't. It's not going to work. It's not going to work in the movie, you know. But in all seriousness, how do you guys feel?
Carmen Lezeth:For anyone who's been living under a rock, I'll just say the Luigi Maggioni has been accused of second degree murder, which I thought was interesting. It wasn't first degree, second degree murder of CEO of United Healthcare, brian Thompson, killing him on the streets of New York, I guess at some normal hour of the day, with a plastic gun. He made a 3d printer, plastic gun or something and he's been accused of murder and it has really thrown the internet and people for a loop because people are considering, uh, luigi, a kind of folk hero, or I don't know what the right word is. I'm trying to use my words wisely. I think there's nuances to all of it, but people are not mad at him, not angry, and there are some people who are a little bit crazy and have t-shirts and are saying that they love him and that-.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Oh, they've sent money to a GoFundMe?
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, but GoFundMe wouldn't let them do that. Gofundme wouldn't let them do it. Gofundme took it down. Youtube took down all these things. People were trying to do all that, but they took them down. Anyways, Rick, why don't we start with you? I was curious to see what you thought about this whole thing.
Rick Costa:I mean, what was he thinking? I killed the CEO? Healthcare is fixed, now what you killed a man with two kids, what's wrong with you? Like a family man, like it's just ridiculous. The whole thing is absolutely insane.
Carmen Lezeth:Cynthia, I'm just. I mean, I'm just, waiting, I'm going to create controversy.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:So, being someone who does work in health care insurances, they do suck. All of them suck, because they do pick and choose who they cover. There's things that are emergency, that they don't cover, and it does suck, I get it, but one person can't take it into their own hands and kill one person. You know, and think, like you said, like, oh, it's all better now. No, it's not. It's like do something about it. Where it goes to court with insurance companies, do something legal, like that. Don't go out there and shoot somebody because now what I mean it's not like you know, oh, tomorrow everything is covered and you're getting free care all over the world. Like no, it doesn't work that way. So I mean it's stupid what he did. I get why he did it, but it's stupid what he did.
Carmen Lezeth:You know, I'm going to have to throw in the other side here, right, I'm going to have to defend the people now, okay. So I think it's a little bit more in depth than that and here's what I'll pose as a thought process that people should think about A couple of things. Luigi did not even have United Health insurance. That wasn't his insurance company at all. But if Luigi did it, let's just assume that he did for this argument, because he's presumed innocent until found guilty. Right, we still have that in this country. But let's just say it was him. That wasn't even his health insurance company, which I found interesting. That's number one. He was dealing with a chronic back pain and he doesn't come from a poor family. It's not like he didn't have insurance and he didn't have access, but even he was dealing with the pain and suffering of not being treated well because insurance companies kept denying him for the care that he needed. Now I'm going to pose this again thought process here. Let's be nuanced and let's really think about things a little bit thoroughly here.
Carmen Lezeth:I am against the whole gun culture in this country to begin with. So my first issue with this is when you get upset in this country, when you get really really angry, when you get really really pissed off. People still have easy access to guns and that's how they deal with their frustration. We don't use our words, we don't have the ability to talk things out with people and then everybody wants to throw it with oh, mental health, stop doing that. He's not claiming that, but I'm just saying stop with the mental health shit. Not everyone has a mental health issue and that's not an excuse for your behavior. And the gun culture in this country is ridiculous. That is the other problem here that people don't want to talk about. It is so easy to make a gun. It's a 3D printer gun. You make a gun. But, more importantly, that's the way we solve issues in this country. More importantly, that's the way we solve issues in this country. You know what? In Sweden, that's not how they solve issues. You know what I mean? I'm not saying they don't have any gun issues in other countries, but in the United States, because we have such easy access to guns, that's how we immediately think we can solve a problem. So that's my first nuanced thing to think about.
Carmen Lezeth:The second thing I'm going to say and this is going to rub people the wrong way. Clearly, I've been thinking about this for a while because I'm so just intrigued by it and pissed off by it because, cynthia, you know, I've been dealing with the insurance companies for the past year and it's been pissing me off. And I'm a single woman who makes really good money and have really good insurance and I'm shook. I'm shook by what people have to go through and people who don't have the time, people who have children, people who work two or three jobs and make ends meet. So here's the thing I'm going to say to you UnitedHealthcare, specifically, specifically, has a higher denial claim in double digits in comparison to all the other insurance companies, and how they deny claims and they deny them and then they make a percentage of money off of how much they deny. So, rick, what you're talking about, you're right.
Carmen Lezeth:Nobody, nobody, should be using a gun to kill anybody for any reason. That is not how you solve a motherfucking problem. But what is the difference between killing people with a gun and killing people with paper? What happens when you are somebody who is being denied care because you have cancer and you, whatever have some strange deductible that you haven't met yet, so you can't get your cancer pills because you can't afford them because you pay $500 a month and your deductible is $8,000 and your surgery just cost you $82,000. You don't even like. It's just this weird, horrible mess that we are in and it is so nuanced. So just think about that for a moment. Now I am not okay with killing Brian Thompson or any other CEO, but and this is the last thing, and then you guys can chime in on everything I just said, the same day that this happened, this horrible killing happened actually it was in your state, rick Costa.
Carmen Lezeth:Anthem Blue Cross had just announced and you guys can Google this had just announced that they were now putting limits on anesthesia during surgery. So you're in motherfucking surgery and Blue Cross was saying Anthem Blue Cross was saying you know what? We're only going to cover a certain time period while you're in surgery, and after that certain amount of time, I don't know, you're supposed to wake up and be like yo, doc, are you done? Yet I have no idea what you're supposed to do. But then they're not going to cover it. So you get out of surgery and now you're going to have a whole other bill that you weren't planning, because anesthesia should be covered for the duration of the motherfucking surgery you're in. Okay, blue Cross Anthem on the same day that that killing happened. Had just announced that, and you know what happened. The day after that CEO died Ooh. Do you want to guess? Anybody want to guess? Blue Cross was like ooh.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Oh, oh, to guess like oh, we tracked it. That huh, you know what?
Carmen Lezeth:we was just playing we didn't mean it, we we're not going to the next motherfucking day. I am not advocating for anyone to kill anyone. I am absolutely against it and I am so sorry for Mr Brian Thompson's family, but I am not sorry for how people have reacted to this, because people are fucking fed up. People are sick and tired of this shit and when you're wealthy, or at least from middle class, and you're still getting dicked over, I mean I'm not saying we should be getting dicked over like people who don't have anything, but you know that there is something really wrong in our country when this is what's happening. And, by the way, mr Brian Thompson and all of these CEOs are not making $80,000 a year, so the benefits that he's getting from his salary, which is in the millions of dollars, comes from the denial of insurance to people who are just trying to make ends meet. Okay, that's my time.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Yep, you're 100's my time. Yep, you're a hundred percent Right. Yep, and like I said, look, I work in healthcare. Even my insurance is not great. I even have a high deductible. I have asthma and I need medications, and it's expensive. Each month, I tell you right now, I spent almost like $250 on my asthma medicine and that's only like three inhalers. It's ridiculous. And I work for health care, so it's like a regular person or a health care worker doesn't matter. We're all getting treated like shit when it comes to insurance.
Rick Costa:Yeah, I always thought it was weird that. So let's use your anesthesia example. Okay, you need to have surgery. Okay, what type of surgery? Okay, well, we figure we'll cover an hour. That should be good, oh, really. So you went into your crystal ball and saw that there were going to be no complications, nothing weird coming up unexpectedly. You knew that was going to happen. You're not a doctor. What are you talking about? You have no idea. You are not a doctor. You're trying to tell me what they know I need and you don't. It's so backwards, it's so weird.
Carmen Lezeth:It what they know I need and you don't like. It's so backwards, it's so weird it is. The insurance lobby is hardcore in this country too.
Rick Costa:There's a lot I realized there was an issue. Was people saying like I was pregnant and they got me out of the hospital like the next day? They're like you gotta go.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I'm like oh yeah, what? Oh yeah, oh yeah. Natural birth yeah, you're out the next day. If you had C-section, you're in there for maybe a day or two.
Carmen Lezeth:I had hip surgery. I was in and out of there in four hours. I'm not kidding, I couldn't walk, but they were like you need to go. They forced you to walk. They forced you to walk right after the surgery Again.
Carmen Lezeth:I'm not complaining, but that's you know. Part of it is you know medical advances and technology, and the other is they don't want you to take up more space because we ain't paying for it. It's crazy. It's crazy all of it. So I think it's a lot more nuanced and I understand why people are acting the way they are and people keep saying it's not going to change. Yes, it is. It changed Anthem, blue Cross to change anesthesia right away, because they know it's immoral. They know it is. By the way, we don't have the best healthcare in the world. We rate really, really low in comparison to other first world countries. We don't have the best. Like we keep thinking we're the best country. No, we're not. We're failing over and over and over again. And healthcare is the big one, and education, but we can talk about that some other time. But healthcare is huge.
Rick Costa:I know several people that they're like they needed to have something done and like, oh, we're going to do it in a local hospital, no, we're going out of the country.
Carmen Lezeth:Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm thinking about you know, because I might be taking a trip to.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Spain lately.
Rick Costa:Going on vacation, I'm going on vacation.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean, Carmen, you're really going right, Carmen, I'm like I'm sorry what, I don't think I would ever have elective surgery, because I just surgery is just not my jam. I mean, I did that once.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Anything can happen. Anything can happen, anything can happen during surgery.
Carmen Lezeth:I know I'm vain, but I'm not that vain. I mean I'll never say never, like if God forbid something happened and I had to, I'd be like, while you're there, could you?
Rick Costa:You're already in that area.
Carmen Lezeth:Can you imagine? No, I'm just saying I just don't think I would ever do it. But you know, I don't know I had called Cynthia at one point this year because everything that's happened with my hand and here's the thing this has been an ongoing issue. We're now into over a year, because it happened last Thanksgiving, right, not this past, but a year. Because it happened last thanksgiving, right, not this past.
Carmen Lezeth:A year ago, thanksgiving and cynthia, I think remember when I called you because I got the bill it was like 914 dollars. All I did was have a fucking zoom call with my doctor and um, it was, and it was out of network or I don't even know what it was. I was so pissed and and I could pay it. See, I could pay it. See, I could pay it. Did I want to pay it? No, but I paid it. But it ate so much into my money.
Carmen Lezeth:And again, I'm not even complaining for myself, I'm really not. I keep thinking to myself I am so grateful I don't have children, I'm so grateful that I have the job that I have. You know what I'm saying? Like there are people who do not have that luxury and and I don't even have it that luxurious, so yeah, so I don't know. I think the Luigi thing is. You know I'm I'm being funny about his name, but I just think the whole casting of it in the movie. I'm always thinking about Hollywood because you know the movie's going to be made at some point, but it's a weird. It's just such a weird and interestingly fascinating thing that's happening and I ain't mad at it. I think people are angry and they're using this as the piggyback on. I don't think anyone who is talking about Luigi the way that they are is saying it's okay, two things can actually be equal, it's true at the same time.
Carmen Lezeth:I don't know if I want to say true, I guess true, yes, it's nuanced. Right, it's very nuanced. Both things could be valid. That's the word I'm looking for. I can be angry and upset and sad that somebody killed and gunned somebody, conversation, we weren't having these conversations and we weren't having these conversations and companies like Blue Cross, anthem were instituting bullshittery that people didn't know about. That's the other thing. The only reason why we know about it is because that happened. So that would have been like a little press release they sent out, right, right.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:And nobody would have been right there while the person's waiting to get operated on. Oh, why don't you just sign this? And it's like telling them all about the blue cross anthem yeah, that they cover blah, blah, because that's what they do.
Carmen Lezeth:Like before you go into surgery, they have you sign all this stuff. You ain't sitting there with a lawyer to read fucking 98 pages, true, yep, and you signing everything away. And when I had my hip surgery, it was like at 5 45 in the morning. We had to be there an hour before whatever. And andrea was with me because y'all know andrea stayed with me for those two weeks.
Carmen Lezeth:And, um, we went in and they asked me for a deposit of like I forget how much. It was like 350. It was 300 and something dollars, let's say $350. And I was like, wait, what? I don't even have anything with me. Like I can't. You know, they tell you not to bring anything with you. They're like well, just, I'm like you. Why didn't you tell me that when I came in for the conversation, right To talk about what's going to happen to anesthesia, why't you tell me I had to have a 350? That had nothing to do with my insurance? It's because I was at the specialty place getting surgery done instead of a hospital, because that's where my doctor it's not like I had a choice. No, I don't want their facility bill, facility bill, whatever, and they wanted me to pay it right then and there and then I was like you told me me I was so mad at like 4.45 in the morning you know what I mean Like an hour before we had to go in.
Carmen Lezeth:You know afterwards, because we all know I love my surgeon, right, we all know. But they sent me the check back for that deposit. I complained about it. You know what I mean. But again, it takes a lot of time, it takes the ability to do that stuff and most people will not do that Most people and it's not for any other reason except that they don't know, they feel beaten down by the system, they're not empowered and, more importantly, they don't have time and energy when you just have surgery.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Mm-hmm, and the most vulnerable are the senior citizens.
Carmen Lezeth:For sure.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Those are the ones that they take advantage of the most.
Rick Costa:Most of them are on Social Security.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:That's so sad.
Carmen Lezeth:I'm sorry, what Rick?
Carmen Lezeth:I don't know how they get by yeah, uh, because, um, here in the united states, when you turn 65, you also end up getting medicare. So you qualify for medicare and medicare takes care of, uh, quite a few things, okay, so, um, I only know about this because two of my clients are of that age, and so we end up and so we try to put them on Medicare because there are different parts. You've probably seen the commercials Medicare Part A, medicare Part B, and it's all so motherfucking confusing have, I think, six months to apply for it after you turn 65. And what it does is it covers certain things like, you know, ambulances or whatever. Anthony said. Don't bring anything except the money you'll have to give it. Exactly, preach, go ahead, anthony. So Medicare covers some stuff, but then other stuff it doesn't cover. So then you have to apply and decide to get a supplemental insurance. You know what I mean. So that's how they get have to apply and decide to get a supplemental insurance, you know what I mean.
Carmen Lezeth:So that's how they get by. Most people don't get the supplemental insurance because they can't afford it. You know one of my clients. He's like, why do I have to get it? He's like I pay for my family, blah, blah. I'm like stop talking, we're busy. You know what I mean. I'm like because you qualify for it, because you've been working and you get to, you know you can use that and there are certain things it does cover, but no people on Social Security, people on retirement, people who don't you know, who have their pensions or whatever. Not everyone has that. Don't do okay, they end up probably homeless. One medical event they end up homeless. Have compassion for the homeless because it might be used someday. You know, yeah, it's a tough one. Well, I feel good that I got that off my chest because I was just cracking up about it all day and I was thinking about it all week when it happened it just happened like when, like this weekend do you see?
Rick Costa:the conspiracy theories, though about the eyebrows, don't match oh god, no, I didn't see that.
Carmen Lezeth:I keep seeing all the things where people say he's finer than he is. I'm like, bring it down a notch, he's not. I mean, I know I'm older and everything, but he's not all that. Um, I just look at, I think, people are also.
Carmen Lezeth:People react different ways when they're uncomfortable, and people don't like to talk about healthcare because it's angry, it's very angry, and so it feels good, in a way, to talk about this in this way, like somebody's doing it for us, you know, and giving it to the man, and I think that's what we're seeing. And for all the people who are clutching their pearls, you know, like, how dare you? It's always the sorry Rick, it's always the religious, motherfucking people too. Stop it. It's more nuanced than that. Everyone isn't a bad person. If you just look at all the layers that are involved in what's going on, you know what I mean and understand that two things can actually be valid. You know, we can be angry about gun violence or someone thinking they should take, like rick.
Carmen Lezeth:You were right what you said, you know, like killing one person isn't going to change everything, but then people are at wit's end. In a way. It did, though it did change something. You know, yeah, and it's so funny because CEOs went and I guess they pulled down all their profile pictures from their websites. I'm like you can still Google them. Like you can still Google them, like you can still find them, and then they all have like more beefed up security. I'm like, okay, that's one way to go. Or you could, you could do what some places do and say you know what, we're going to re-look at how we handle things and kind of take this as a message to try to figure things out and do better when we know better yeah, I did hear one person say these people are loaded, they ain't got no security.
Carmen Lezeth:I don't think anybody was expecting to be walking. I think he was walking out of his car or something and he was coming out of the hotel. Oh, he was coming to the hotel. I don't know if he I mean, can you imagine living your life like that too, thinking someone might kill me because I make so much money off the backs of poor fucking people who can't get medical care? I'm just saying I'm sure he's a good family man and I'm not taking away that he was somebody's father and blah blah. I'm not taking away from any of that, but I wouldn't work, for there are certain things I will not do. Um, I don't work for places that I think are corrupt. I just don't. And I think the health insurance industry is corrupt. Sorry, Cynthia, absolutely.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:No, I agree 100%.
Carmen Lezeth:You know it is. And there was somebody I forget who I looked up. Oh, I was looking up the CEO of Google. Yeah, Google, who owns YouTube, YouTube TV just increased their stupid fees again and it's like 137% from when they first started YouTube TV, which was like I don't know three years ago. You know what I mean years ago, you know what I mean. So remember, when I was like promoting it, I was like this is so good, it's so much cheaper, it's like 65. No, now it's going to be $82.99. That was not more than two years ago that I told you it was like $65 or something and cheaper than your cable bill. You know what I mean. So I was like let me look up the CEO.
Rick Costa:Where's my 3D printer I?
Carmen Lezeth:was like I saw this it's funny.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I saw this funny like me about like streaming sites and stuff like that. And they were saying you know, before you would pay $200 for a dish or cable TV. Now you're paying, you know, $20 here for this streaming site and 50 for this. It adds up to twenty dollars. I mean two hundred dollars anyways. Yeah, it's like you because you're getting all these subscriptions.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, just to watch what you used to watch on regular cable yeah, I'm not because I don't do streaming, but y'all know that because I like that the initial draw months at a time. I buy it months at a time. What wasn't it? Months at a time, what?
Rick Costa:Wasn't? The initial draw of YouTube was like you don't need cable, we got everything you need. Come to us and you pay way less. But at this rate it's going to be the same as cable. It is. Well, it's the same as.
Carmen Lezeth:Hulu. So Hulu TV with ads is $82.99. And so now YouTube TV is also $82.99. They just raised it again, and so right now it's $72.99 for YouTube TV, and now it's going to be the same as Hulu, and that's what they're competing against. And again, why, right? So here's why I was looking up exactly, and it's not because they're giving me more of a product.
Carmen Lezeth:I didn't get an email that said, by the way, we're adding HBO to your lineup. That's why we're. They didn't say anything that they're improving. What they said was basically, we're competing and so we want to make sure that we're getting as much as anyone else. They're not offering anything, but they're competing. And then all the money that they're making is all about the profitability of what they, and that's why I was looking at the CEO to see how much he made, right? So they don't have exact details, but they know it's around the, I think, five to 7 million mark or whatever. I was like five to seven, that's it's not too bad. Like I thought it was going to be like 150 million or something.
Rick Costa:I'm just kidding.
Carmen Lezeth:But I mean that's you know, it was so infuriating. And so, yes, you're absolutely right. I you know I don't have any streaming and I pay for very high end Internet. I also pay for because I have to for work. I also pay for YouTube TV. I also have music. I have YouTube music. So whenever I look at a YouTube thing, there's no ads and I have YouTube music. So that's another $16.99. I'm already close to $300 a month when I used to pay almost $200 a month when I just had cable and the internet through the cable service. So it's higher now and I don't have streaming services. They're just screwing us over.
Rick Costa:I just pretty much just use Roku now. I mean, there's so much on there.
Carmen Lezeth:You still have to have internet for Roku.
Rick Costa:Yeah, I mean, everybody has internet. Who doesn't?
Carmen Lezeth:But here's the thing, though you have Roku, but then you also have and I know how you have it, but let's pretend you didn't but then you do have all the streaming services. So a lot of us don't have the ability to have it the way you have it, which is through family, so we'd still end up paying the same amount because you'd want to have all those streaming services at C-Stop. Roku does have a lot. I have Fire, my TV has Fire. What is it?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Fire TV.
Carmen Lezeth:My TV has a fire TV or something. Yeah, same thing. But I really want to be able to get all the local channels and stuff. But yeah, I have Roku on my other. I don't have another TV but I have a projector. Those are cool, but yeah, I mean, it's just all of it is so expensive, it's just so expensive. It's crazy.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, we hate rich people, but I will say this blue shield is a non-profit. There are some health insurances are non-profits, but I have to say those things come with, um, their problems too. It doesn't mean my premium's any cheaper and it doesn't mean the CEO is making less money. You know what I mean. So I don't know how they finagled that either, but I think things have to change and people get upset about saying universal healthcare. But that's where we need to go, people. That's not about socialism. That's about ending this bullshittery of not being taken care of and having the right to good healthcare. By the way, the only people who have great healthcare in this country. Do you know who it is the best healthcare in this country? Guess, who has the best healthcare in this country? And before you start, it is not a sports team.
Rick Costa:The government.
Carmen Lezeth:Yes.
Rick Costa:Oh, I guess right.
Carmen Lezeth:Our government officials all have the best healthcare you could possibly want. Why can't we have that? Why can't we, the people, have that same kind of healthcare? So when everyone starts throwing out these words, socialism, your government officials are getting the best health care and have the best possible policies paid for by the government, and they get the best healthcare possible, and we, the people, do not. Because they've stuck it in your head that that is socialism and somehow you've decided because none of you not you guys, I don't know what you do, but none of you in podcast land have picked up a book to learn what socialism is. Yes, Melanie, exactly Politicians. Yes, melanie, exactly Politicians. Yes, the government, they have the best health care.
Carmen Lezeth:So, again, all the pearl clutching of a Luigi. If anything, we should be saying prayers for people during this process. Everyone, you know what I mean, because this is. I think this is a I don't want to say a game changer, because it's not a game, but I think this is changing something. Sadly, I don't think it's a good thing. I don't want people gunning down people because they're pissed off.
Rick Costa:Right. Use your words, people Use your words.
Carmen Lezeth:Because we all know I have enemies. People be like let me get my plastic gun. I got yelled at today by someone in my office. I was like you can yell all you want, You're still not getting it, which pissed me off even more because I didn't react.
Rick Costa:That's going back to my boss again. That's what he hates about me, because I do not react. He's like and why'd you do that? Okay, why'd you do this? Made a mistake, I'm human, sorry.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Okay.
Carmen Lezeth:I don't react. I'm going to hear him talk to see if he really sounds like what he wants to sound like. I'm just going to say, okay.
Rick Costa:I'm like, yeah, what else can I say? But okay, yeah, you cry, get on my knees and cry and whine.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, cynthia and I were talking the other day, right because we had our own little private chat, well because we were testing out your stuff. But you said, and I said, you know it's so funny, like I do, I swear a lot, but actually when I'm angry and upset I don't swear at all. Like when I'm really upset and mad at like my clients or the people I work with or whatever, I'm actually totally chill and I think it's kind of funny. It's the irony.
Rick Costa:Unless somebody from another country comes and messes up the broadcast, then it might be a little bit different.
Carmen Lezeth:That's all different. Motherfucking, when you ask me for attention, I'm happy to give it to you, happy to give it to you. That's a whole different thing, but yeah, so, anyways, but that's different. That was also still. How do I say this?
Rick Costa:It was cathartic, I think Cathartic.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:How do you?
Carmen Lezeth:You see me, you heard me, you're like right here. Yes, it was a long time, motherfucking, coming. You know what I mean.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:That's how that went down.
Carmen Lezeth:You know what I mean. But whatever, whatever People do what they got to do. But I'm just saying, like, when you're in a work situation like what you're going through, like that's why these people get upset, or even my clients get upset with me, cause I'm just like I don't care, like I said to one of my clients the other day. I said I don't care if you go out on I'm not going to say the name of the street, but let's just say a Rosemary street and burn $100,000. I don't care what you do with your money, as long as my paycheck is paid, that's all I care about. What do you mean? I'm like I mean I am not your mama, because if it were up to me, you would have sold 15 things by now. But you enjoy this and I don't. This is not my. I'm not going to worry about your money. I go home and I sleep Friday to Monday morning. I sleep like a baby child because I don't care. Don't care.
Carmen Lezeth:It was like see, it's the way you say things. You're trying to be funny. I'm like I'm not even trying to. You think this is funny? I can't believe you say this to me. I can't believe you've been with us for so long. Why do you talk to me this way? I'm like you need a therapist and.
Carmen Lezeth:I ain't. It ain't Carmen. Carmen is not in the house, bitch.
Rick Costa:You think there's a therapist in my arm? No, I know, it's so funny.
Carmen Lezeth:People get all upset because they want you to react. They want you to be all like sometimes the best thing to do is just you know, use your words kindly, luigi. No, I'm just kidding, I don't know. I feel I feel bad for him in a way, but you know, he went into jail, he's in custody and even in the, even in the in the jail, they were saying the other prisoners heard what was happening, right, because they were all saying free Luigi.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I'm sorry, the name is just killing you, isn't it?
Carmen Lezeth:But it's also just a circumstance. So, like he's going to be safe in prison, you know what I mean. Like he's going to be okay, like it's in prison. You know what I mean. Like he's gonna be okay, like it's weird, you know? Um, how about the mcdonald's person that us, you know, called him in? How do you guys feel about that?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:oh, you guys don't know what happened the way he went to mcdonald's and someone found him there.
Carmen Lezeth:Wasn't it like the manager there.
Carmen Lezeth:No, I don't know the whole story, but he was in there having a burger or whatever. He had gotten away for five days. Motherfucker should have been out the country. I'm just saying you planned something. You could have followed it through. You know what I mean. It would have been like one of those folk things. You know what I mean. It would have been like one of those folk things. You know what I mean.
Carmen Lezeth:It was like, uh, whatever you call those things that you can never pinpoint what actually happened. You know it would be, but he, um, he went to McDonald's and somebody there called him. Uh, they snitched on him and that's how they got a hold of him. Uh, mara just said good for him, he needed the money, get the reward. The irony is is he's not going to get the reward. So here's the other thing people don't know. Here's the thing you got. I know he's not going to get the reward and I think it was a woman turned his ass. Well, here's the thing you have to call the tip line and the person called 911. And now there's somebody else out there saying that he saw him first. So they're fighting over the 50, 60, 000, whatever it was. By the way very low bounty for the amount of money we're talking.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Hold on hold on not to cut you off, but even the cops are there playing a game like insurance. Oh, you have to call the tip line. You can't call 9-1. I'm still calling you to come and get this guy.
Carmen Lezeth:It's the FBI, Not the cops. I'm happy to diss the cops at any moment I can, but this is not the cops' fault Well the FBI.
Carmen Lezeth:Right right, they're doing the same thing. They're fucking around with whatever. But also there's somebody else claiming that they were the first ones to notice him and they told the person and the person called 911. I know we all did. We were all there at McDonald's putting out money to reward people for finding people. I think it's 20% of the time they actually pay out and when they do, it's also taxed. So I mean I'm like wait, see, you cannot do this to the people. You cannot do this to the people.
Rick Costa:No, yeah, now we know. Well, am I even going to get? Is it going to be worth it for me to even turn this guy in? Because right.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:This is why people don't say anything.
Carmen Lezeth:Because here's the thing right, it's always good to do the right thing. Right. Because at the end of the day there was somebody out there violent enough to kill someone what's to say he wouldn't kill someone else, and someday that might be you because whatever, right. So I still think I I'm not mad at the person for turning them in. I know a lot of people were like snitch and whatever, and people like he got an alibi.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Luigi was with me, I was he was waiting for somebody named mario to say he was with me. They were saying they were saying what mario just say. He was with me.
Carmen Lezeth:That's what they were saying. They were saying, well, mario just said he was with him, but yeah, because of the game. Right, it's a fucking game. People were already doing that on TikTok. It was so funny, and I think that's the other part of this too. The story itself is so bizarre. It's so bizarre.
Carmen Lezeth:I think the way in which people handle things is what this is also about. Yeah, right, I think it's always good to do the right thing, and somebody asked me if I would have called him in, if I would have called the cops or if I would have snitched on him. I don't like the word snitch, I think that's bad. The truth is, I always follow the rules. I always do the right thing. So if I recognized him, I don't think I would have recognized. Like that's the thing. I see celebrities every day and I don't know who the hell they are half the time Cause they're not in there. You know they're not in context, so I don't know who they are. I don't know if I would have noticed, but if I did, I probably would have called the cops for sure. I'm not going to lie, I probably would have, because I think doing the right thing is also the right thing. In this case. He killed somebody with a gun and, as much as I can understand that somebody else killed other people by making profit and using paper.
Carmen Lezeth:Two rights don't make a wrong for me. Two wrongs don't make a right for me. I'm sorry. Right Did I say that that's right? That's right. Two wrongs don't make a wrong for me. Two wrongs don't make a right for me, I'm sorry. Right Did I say that that's right. Two wrongs don't make a right for me. So both of those entities. You know what I mean.
Rick Costa:So I probably would have called it. I view it, too, as you possibly protecting somebody else down the line, because, like you said, if you killed one person, what's to stop them?
Carmen Lezeth:from killing somebody else.
Carmen Lezeth:Right person was to stop him from killing somebody else, right? Yeah, so I I probably would have, but I think it's been interesting to watch. Like that mcdonald's got all of these uh bad reviews and it has like a one-star rating and people saying there are rats in the mcdonald's and people. Let me tell you, the internet has unleashed the fury of uh people kind of coming together and the irony is is it's both Democrats and Republicans. Like it don't matter, this was all across. This is everybody coming together and saying you fucked up, not Luigi, but the insurance companies. You know what I mean.
Carmen Lezeth:I find that fascinating Society is fascinating to me.
Rick Costa:I saw somebody talking about the whole McDonald's thing. They were like the internet is internetting again because everybody's leaving bad reviews and now they're trying to delete them all as much as they can. And I'm like, oh man, can you just watch? Can?
Carmen Lezeth:you just watch. Hi Charlie, how are you? Yeah, I just look at I. I feel like it's a. It's a tough time in our country. I think this was, in a weird way, a uniting moment to watch people kind of deal with this and we'll see what happens. But I'm I. I think being mad at people's reaction and clutching your pearls off around it without looking at the nuance is actually doing a bigger disservice. You know to really what the problem here is and the problem here the problem here. Let's be clear. Yes, we've caught this murderer, killer, allegedly he will be dealt with. But are you going to deal with the health insurance problem?
Carmen Lezeth:because this is not going to be the last of it if you don't do something about it. This is not going to be the last of it. Come on now. I ain't threatening nobody, so I don't want nobody to come to me I ain't got no. I ain't got no three-way printer, and that is not what I am. I use my motherfucking words as people now, but I'm just saying Copycat killers just saying.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, charlie just said rich people killing rich people. You know, right, I know it's still bad. Yeah, somebody's like how can you not have compassion for his children and his wife? I'm like bitch, please. First of all, okay, there are plenty of people that I could have compassion for that I don't that I actually know like this isn't about. I have compassion for anyone who has lost anything. They have enough money to get therapy and do what they need to do. What do you want me to say? I don't know them. People get all upset, like how am I supposed to? Of course, I have compassion. That's a horrible thing that happened. But that's not the only subject here Nuance.
Carmen Lezeth:I think what we're going to do for 2025, we're going to start talking about nuance everyone. We're going to start talking about how things have layers. We're going to become a much more educated audience and group of people. Charlie's like what's the world coming to? I think the world's always been like this. We just have better technology to do it together. You know what I mean. I think we've always been like this. We've always been angry, but now people got a voice and I'm all for it. I'm all here for it. I'm not here for the killing. I'm here for the part where people are trying to come together to fix something that's broken because government hasn't fixed it and insurance companies are the devil. I'm going to say it Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Anything else you guys want to talk about before we start to chime it down, since we're almost at the hour mark remember my cousin.
Rick Costa:She, um, she died at 34 from cancer and she kept going to different doctors because she was having pain. She didn't know, she had no clue, she had cancer. And they were literally all of them telling her different thing, different thing, different thing. And they're like just take some pain medicine, just, I'm taking so much already because this pain is unbearable. And then one day she woke up, went in the mirror and whites of the eyes yellow, skin yellow. She was jaundiced. So she went to the hospital and they're like you know, kept her there for a few days, like, okay, you're good now, so we're gonna send you home. She said no, nope, I'm not going home. What do you mean? Till somebody figures out what's wrong with me, I'm not going anywhere. And then they finally did scans and found out she had bile duct cancer.
Rick Costa:So wow a year later she died wow uh, charlie just said go home thing was the insurance probably probably that's why.
Carmen Lezeth:It's why I brought that up.
Carmen Lezeth:It also was bad health care. I want to respond to that, though. I just want to say Charlie said absolutely, you ever watched Deadwood? I did watch Deadwood. I don't know if you have. Have you guys watched Deadwood? Unless there's firemen in it, we don't really watch it.
Carmen Lezeth:Here's what I'm going to say, and this is going to be a pitch for Planned Parenthood, and there's a reason why I'm saying it. I know that Planned Parenthood has been put in this category of being all about abortion. Oh, abortion, abortion, abortion. That's all you ever associate with Planned Parenthood. I am going to tell you right now poor people, myself included, when I grew up, the way in which I got healthcare was by going to Planned Parenthood and to the community centers that they had open in the neighborhood.
Carmen Lezeth:Remember the Jamaica Plain Health Center? Is that still there in Jamaica Plain? Still there, oh my God. And never once was I sat down and told okay, carmen, if you're pregnant, get an abortion. Never once, because I was a kid, but it was a place to get good health insurance, especially as a young girl. And so part of what you're talking about, rick, is bad doctors, new doctors that don't have a lot of experience, because poor people always end up having to go wherever they can get to and there's not enough place that are really great and valid, that have enough money, resources to have the good people there, and one of the things you can always count on at Planned Parenthood is that the people that are working there are, on point, educated at the best places, are great doctors. It's an actual clinic.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:It's an actual clinic. It's not just a place where people get abortions, and that's what people have this stigma about it, and it's not. It's an actual clinic where people go just for the regular healthcare, did you?
Carmen Lezeth:ever go there.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I've never gone there.
Carmen Lezeth:My friend has though yeah, but so Jamaica Plain Health Center is not Planned Parenthood, but they were always the offshoots. Like I always knew where I had to go and even when I was in Vermont and even when I first came out to Los Angeles, I looked for the plant. It's like as simple as me finding out where the firehouse is and the police department is, like I always have the numbers because I came out here by myself, so I always have this, so I always know who, like where everything is or whatever. It's the same thing. I always look for the health clinic. Yeah, so that's a great point. It is a health clinic. That is the whole point. So I get annoyed because it gets stigmatized with this and I don't ever think I had one person talk to me ever about an abortion at a Planned Parenthood.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Right, yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:Ever. I think I heard about it because people were always protesting it, but I don't think I've ever walked in there and had anyone talk to me about an abortion. But I'm sorry, I'm pitching for Planned Parenthood here, but I'm also pitching for you to change your minds about supporting community health centers in your neighborhood. For this reason because, rick, what you're talking about is also just like I don't care what my health insurance says. If my doctor tells me something, I'm gonna do what my doctor tells me. But if my doctor's like you know you're, you're fine, you're good, you look hello, but go home, right, that's a bad doctor, right? Yeah, did you guys sue them? No, I don't think they ever did that. But you know why. You know why you didn't sue them because we're not empowered to sue them. But I know the people I work for who have money. If that ever happened in their family, they would have sued them in a heartbeat because they had the resources and the money to do it. They have the lawyers on retainer and, if anything, they would have had a settlement out of court. But poor people or regular hardworking people would never even think about suing for that injustice.
Carmen Lezeth:And how old was she? You said 34. 34 and misdiagnosed. For how long?
Rick Costa:Had to be a couple of years at least. It was literally nobody said nothing. Like nobody figured that. They literally said all different things. One person even said something about her feet. Had nothing to do with her feet. What are you talking about? Like cause she kept going to different doctors and like she's like nobody's telling me what's going on, nobody's helping me. I'm still in pain. It's crazy. Until she put her foot down.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, I'm sorry. But she still passed away. This is too young. I'm sorry, guys. Well, okay, let's talk about something joyous before we jump on. Okay, do you guys want to start with something? Anything great happen this past week or anything you want to share?
Rick Costa:Besides this new device. Did we talk about that online or no? Did we say that already?
Carmen Lezeth:What new device? What are you talking about? Mine, yeah.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Yeah, we did.
Rick Costa:Oh, we did, okay, sorry.
Carmen Lezeth:You're excited, so you're excited for Cynthia's new tablet, my new tablet.
Rick Costa:I also got a new device, which I mentioned last week. Yeah, you did these are things that give you guys joy Wow.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:No, I'm just kidding.
Carmen Lezeth:I know I'm a bitch.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:It's a little thing, you're thinking it.
Carmen Lezeth:I know You're like damn, carmen's a bitch. No, I'm sorry, I'm just kidding. Yeah, but okay, are you looking forward to anything? Anything coming up this weekend?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Oh yes, actually, this Saturday is our Christmas family dinner.
Carmen Lezeth:This is our third one, I'm sorry, our Christmas family dinner.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Well me, my brother, my sisters and some of the kids.
Carmen Lezeth:Your family Christmas dinner, right, yeah, okay, I'm not included. See how I'm family when it's convenient.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:We can FaceTime with you Sure whatever.
Carmen Lezeth:No, I'm just messing with you.
Rick Costa:Do you always do it this early?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Yeah, because on Christmas it's so hard because everybody has different families, so Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is always split up, so we try to do it a little earlier.
Carmen Lezeth:And also it's Teresa's birthday on the 14th or something right On Sunday, saturday, saturday, oh my God, I have to work tomorrow again too. Let me see, rick, what about you? Okay, so when do you find out? You think he's going to talk to you tomorrow.
Rick Costa:My weekend will depend on tomorrow. I guess he might not even say nothing and just drop it. I don't know. It's not the first time.
Carmen Lezeth:But you did set it up. You set up your camera thing in the bedroom with your mouse. I'm trying to think of a remote remote control, something he could have that pushes the mouse around every few minutes. You know what I mean. Like, I'm sorry, I just crack it up about that. You can buy like a little remote control car. It could be the other room. I'm just kidding, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you're going through that, but hopefully he does drop it and it's not a big deal.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I try to see the positive in it. If he drops it, he drops it, but if something worse does end up happening, just think of it as a blessing, that it's something where you can move on. Maybe it's meant for you to move on from this job, since you've been there for so long.
Rick Costa:Yeah, that's how I try to look at things. Don't necessarily think it's something bad. It might be a launching pad for something better.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, Exactly when a window closes, a door opens, something like that. Yeah, I don't know if I really believe that, but I want to believe it. I don't know. There's a part of me that's just kind of mad that anybody would play that game with you to try to get you out after that many years. Right, it's just like like for me. I want to call and be like what are you doing? Like, if you want to get rid of them, just get rid of them. Why are you playing this game?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Right.
Carmen Lezeth:You know, but you'll definitely do not quit. Remember, do not quit.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:You want to get unemployment and who knows? And whatever the reason is, have him do it in writing Always have it in writing.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah. Yeah, that's not the note I wanted to go off on, but it still seems kind of very. What are your plans, carmen? What are my plans for the weekend? So I have one client whose main person just went on vacation today. They haven't had a vacation in like 10, 15 years and they just left today. So I am working my butt off to cover that person because I want them to have a relaxing, wonderful time. They're actually on a cruise, cynthia. I was like oh, a cruise? Okay.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Well, whatever works for you.
Carmen Lezeth:I'm sorry, I said I wouldn't go at this time, but okay, well, it's him and his family, and I don't know where they were going, but I didn't ask. But I was like cruise, you know, I shut off, I'm like la, la, la, la, la la, but it's his entire family, so it's like a whole thing. So my whole thing is like I'm just going to power through for the next week because I am working for three different clients, but this client I'm doing like double the work and whatever, and so, even though it's not a exciting thing and it's not something I really want to do, it's a challenge for me and I know that it's going to help him have a really nice time. So I'm looking forward to it being over when he returns after Christmas. So we'll see.
Carmen Lezeth:So, yeah, there's nothing joyful. Yeah, for me either, I guess yeah. So you know, it's always all about the joy at the end of the day. See, we're all smiling. Anyways, I think it's fun to share. Yeah, I do have a question though. Cynthia, you're going to watch Stargate SG-1. You're going to try to watch it? Yeah, when are you going to try to watch it? Well, no, because, rick, I was thinking we should watch it again. We should watch it again and do a commentary or something every once in a while. What do you think?
Rick Costa:I mean, I watch a lot of people that do review things movies and TV shows all the time.
Carmen Lezeth:There's so many times I'm like I wish I could do that, but wouldn't it be fun if we did it? But we need somebody new to watch the episode so that we could go along with them. That's why I'm kind of pressuring Cynthia to do it. Okay, so it's.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Stargate SG-1. And it's the show, not the movie.
Rick Costa:As opposed to the movie which is just called Stargate.
Carmen Lezeth:Do not watch it. She does not need to watch the movie. It's just going to make her not want to watch it. I'm sorry, it's a different thing.
Rick Costa:What do you think? Do you think? I mean, I have appreciation for both, but um, if the point is to get her hooked into the sg1, then yeah, I probably just watched sg1.
Carmen Lezeth:Look, here's the thing kurt russell, um. And what's not javid spade?
Rick Costa:it's uh, it's not james spader oh, yes, yeah, yeah, is it james, but yeah, I think that's j.
Carmen Lezeth:James Bader are in the movie, right? So Kurt Russell, remember, like, whatever, and it's the continuation of that movie. Basically is what the TV show is. But Colonel Jack O'Neill, who is played by MacGyver Remember MacGyver back in the day, right? Richard Dean Anderson Is a whole different ballgame than Colonel Jack O'neill in the movie played by kurt russell, and it just. I think you don't, you, you do not need to see the movie at all because I think it'll turn, I think it'll turn her off. I, I had seen the movie, didn't like the movie and when, when the show came out, the only reason why I watched is because everyone knows I was addicted to Richard Dean Anderson. I can't believe he's like in his 70s now and I'm like I get so sad when I look at men that I was so hot for and I'm like, oh my God, you're so old, I'm so cute and adorable because I'm getting my face flipped in Chile, going to Chile, getting all tuxed and everything.
Carmen Lezeth:So I think it would be cool. I was thinking about this If you watch Stargate SG-1, you could do one episode a week. Right, we could do a different show. We could come on, maybe on a Friday night or whatever, and talk about this show. I'm not trying to force you to do another show, whatever day. It doesn't have to be a live one. We could do it closed and then air a Friday night or whatever and talk about this show. I'm not trying to force you to do another show with it, whatever day we could, it doesn't have to be a live one. We could do it closed and then air it. You know what I mean. Like, then I can do it and air it. We could just do a commentary on this. It might be fun, I don't know, but is that too much pressure?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:No, I mean I'll watch it, probably before the end of the year.
Carmen Lezeth:End of the year Like a 10-episode.
Rick Costa:I was going to say, should we talk about one episode?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:We're talking about one episode. Oh, okay, yeah, I can do one episode right now. Oh, you're thinking about?
Carmen Lezeth:watching the entire series. No, no, no what I'm saying is It'll take too long. Oh my God, it's like 10 seasons.
Rick Costa:Hey, I watched.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Game of Thrones that had eight seasons, 21 episodes in a week, what I?
Carmen Lezeth:sure did. I ain't got that kind of time, damn, really. Did you love it? You must have loved it, I loved it.
Rick Costa:Oh yeah, she had to have.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, can I tell you Game of Thrones. I watched 20 minutes and I was like I'm out, I'm out the whole forest and the killing and I'm like and I'm done, I'm done. It was too deep for me, I was done, didn't even get. I swear to you, 20 minutes most. Did you watch Game of Thrones, rick? No See, did you even try?
Rick Costa:No, Based on what I heard about it, I was like, yeah, I don't think that's for me no.
Carmen Lezeth:Based on what I heard about it, I was like, yeah, I don't think that's for me. I would think you would love game of thrones.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:That's so weird right, cynthia, I would think he would.
Carmen Lezeth:You know why I don't like it? Because it's too gory for me. Yeah, yeah, it's too dark. But, rick, I'm surprised. I would have thought you would have been like loving games of thrones because it seems right up your alley you know what would be right up your alley is 9-1-1. I'm just saying, if I'm gonna make cynthia watch, okay, no, cynthia, I was saying watch one episode, watch one any specific one or like okay okay, besides a pilot, isn't there an episode where they are in a false reality and they're firemen?
Carmen Lezeth:Yes, Are you being funny? I was just telling Cynthia about it. It's called Changeling. Do you know which one it is, rick, it's Changeling when Teal'c is sharing the symbiote with Braytac, but he's having that mental moment where he thinks he's a fireman and thinks he's on SG. It's really well done. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah, it doesn't sound interesting. I think you would like it. No, no, no, cynthia, watch the pilot. Just watch the first pilot and then we'll have a conversation about it. But if you don't want to do it, it's fine, we'll find somebody else.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I'll watch it it's kicking me out, that's all we can get somebody else to do it.
Carmen Lezeth:You know who would be the somebody else who would never do it, andrea. I will, I will fucking watch that shit. Okay, wait, one more thing. Wicked, thing, wicked. You saw Wicked Cynthia.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Yes, I love it.
Rick Costa:I love the play. I love the play Rick did you see it, yet how can I?
Carmen Lezeth:I know Well you've seen other movies.
Rick Costa:I'm just saying there's these people that I watch. And this one guy was like Adam, he's like I'm not going to watch that movie. And then he said you know what, if you guys, if I get because he gets super chats on his channel, because he's up there, or whatever he goes if I get $1,000, I will watch Wicked. And the people were like we're going to make him watch Wicked. And they did.
Carmen Lezeth:And he's like, oh, he go see it.
Rick Costa:I didn't see it. I think it's this weekend.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh, he's going to love it. It's so good right.
Rick Costa:He hates musicals.
Carmen Lezeth:Everybody hates musicals. I can watch it anyways, stop.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Let me say one thing about this with the whole musical thing. I've seen so many musicals in the past and there are movies where everything is just singing and singing and singing and it's annoying. This one and yes, it had singing, but it wasn't overpowering the movie like you had the specific songs, obviously, but there was a lot of talking. It wasn't like the whole movie was just singing. So don't go into that. You know, thinking that, my God, they're just going to be singing throughout the whole thing. It's not like that.
Carmen Lezeth:It is so well done, but I think it's because we love the story. That's why we but it is a lot they sing through the whole movie, Cynthia.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:They do, they do.
Carmen Lezeth:It's done so well and you lose that they're singing. That's what you mean. It's done so well that and you lose that they're singing. That's what you mean. It's done so well that it's a story that's happening. Yeah, yeah.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:It's so good.
Carmen Lezeth:It's so good and part two is going to be amazing. Oh my God.
Rick Costa:When's that supposed to come out? Next year or something Next year November.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Yeah, yeah I got to say, I cried.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, I gotta say I cried. Okay, here's the thing. I knew the story. I didn't cry. I did my TikTok thing. I knew the story. This is me going into Wicked. You know how everybody did that. This is me after Wicked. I was like it was good, I didn't cry, though I didn't enjoy it. I thought they were both brilliant. I thought what's her name? Both of them I'm forgetting that Ariana Grande and then Cynthia Erivo Cynthia Erivo, Right, Uh, they were just brilliant. But also, can we give props to what's his name? That young man? Let's give him some. Who plays fairy? How do you say it? Fairio, oh, oh.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I forgot his name.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, that boy is hot. That boy is hot. Okay, that's Luigi. Okay, that's not Luigi, he's not Luigi. But what's his name? I forgot his name, I forgot. But he is a sweetheart. But he plays one of the main characters too, and he ends up becoming the scarecrow for people. Oh, I probably gave too much away right there, but he ends up becoming oh, whatever, go see it Spoiler, spoiler, but he's amazing. And the dancing.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Oh, my God, the dancing. The dancing was so cool. Well done, can you say? Ariana Grande, grande. They picked the perfect person to play glinda, because she always plays this like little ditzy, like girl. But it was like I saw her and I saw kristen chenowitz oh, it was.
Carmen Lezeth:Didn't you love that part, though? And kristen, oh my, yes, that would be a spoiler, let me. I don't, don't know, but theater people like, unless you're theater people, you don't know who they are. Right, the woman who sang Frozen and Kristen Chenoweth they were in the theater aspect and they come into the movie as the same thing. It's very funny, cause they come on stage and you could tell all the theater people in the room, cause everybody was like could tell all the theater people in the room, because everybody, yeah, rick, it's kind of like when you saw captain america come out and he did, uh, what more did pool, deadpool, deadpool, it's kind of that same thing. Like captain america comes out but it's not captain america, and you're like, oh my god, it's that same feeling. You know what I mean. But you can tell who all the theater people are, because some people don't know who they are. Yeah, yeah, which is so weird because they're royalty, right, you know exactly, exactly.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:But anyway, it was so good oh see we found joy to end on.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, everyone, thank you so much. We'll be back next week for sure. Oh wait, okay, we stopped for a moment, hey sorry, okay.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:So um, oh no, there is a christmas craft festival that's going on over here in the seaport. Right that I went to uh-huh and I got this right before I went to see wicked, and I just put it together.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh wait, are you sending that to me for Christmas? That is nice, isn't that amazing? Oh, I love that Because people who don't know Wicked is intertwined with the Wizard of Oz. I don't think a lot of people know that. They don't get it. They don't understand that Wicked is about the Wicked Witch of the West and the story starts when she melts and dies, when Dorothy throws water on her and she dies. That's when the story starts, and then they go back to the beginning as to how, what happened. Yeah, what happened, and so that is really great. Oh, I love that You're sending that to me.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Happy birthday to me it's in your will. I can't understand why it's just so beautiful.
Carmen Lezeth:I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. I love that. Actually it's beautiful. So where did you get that? Oh, you got it at a craft show.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Yeah, so in one of the booths the lady does the illustrations. She had tons of different characters and I saw that one and I had to get it.
Carmen Lezeth:That's really cool. It's actually a beautiful one, so it's cool. All right, everyone. With that, I'm going to shut it down. Listen, please remember having some nuance in your life. Try not to overreact to things that come out in the news. Try to take a moment, think it through, do a Google search. I really think in 2025, we have to learn to go deeper in every single story.
Carmen Lezeth:So I hope everyone kind of takes that away from this live stream today, but also check out all about the joy on all of our live streams on YouTube, especially Facebook, linkedin, giving a shout out to people who keep following us. They're really appreciative. And, rick, I know you were surprised. We get a lot of people asking to be on the show and I don't know if I blind CC'd you, cynthia, but we have another person that wants to come on the show because they saw Dana's interview, so we might you know, we're going to try to have one great interview a month. We'll see how that goes. So, yeah, everyone, thank you so much. Remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy. We really appreciate you being here. Bye, everyone.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Bye.
Carmen Lezeth:Thanks for stopping by. All About the Joy Be better and stay beautiful. Folks have a sweet day.