EP. 194 — You Can Go Back To Your Seat Now, Thanks

[00:00:06] CHRIS: Hello to everybody who loves a good upgrade. This is Beautiful Anonymous. One hour. One phone call. No names. No holds barred.

[00:00:18] THEME MUSIC: I’d rather go one-on-one.  I think it’ll be more fun and I’ll get to know you and you’ll get to know me.

[00:00:28] CHRIS: Chris Gethard here. Welcome to another episode of Beautiful Anonymous, a show where we’re trying to cut through all the noise and static of this insane world. So we can actually get to know humanity, one person at a time, that’s a tall order, but we try to do it around here. I do just want to say really, really quickly, if you’re in New York City and you’re looking for something to do on New Year’s Eve, I am hosting a show at Little Field in Brooklyn, one of the great venues for comedy these days, it’s out in Iguanas, and it’s from 7 to 9 p.m. So I’m designing this show so that if you want to do something fun before you start partying, I got you covered. And also, if you are someone like me, a new parent or a perpetually exhausted human and you want to go out and do something and then go home, it’s over by 9:00 so you can get your tickets at chrisgeth.com. That New Year’s show, it’s going to be really fun. I’ve got some great comics lined up. Back to this episode. The caller you’re about to hear, we could have spent an hour talking about this person’s current profession, could have spent an hour easily talking about this person’s past profession. When you hear about a person’s family life. There’s some real struggles there. Did my best to balance all of them. I found myself wildly fascinated by all of this, let alone the fact that one person dealt with it all and is dealing with it all. And also at such a young age, I wish I had said this, at such a young age, such a good head on her shoulders. Just want to say buckle up.  And make sure your seat is in the upright position. Enjoy the call.

[00:02:03] PHONE ROBOT: Thank you for calling Beautiful Anonymous a beeping noise will indicate when you are on the show with the host.

[00:02:12] CALLER: Hello?

[00:02:13] CHRIS: Hi. How are you? 

[00:02:15] CALLER: Oh, my God is this real?

[00:02:18] CHRIS: I think so. Unless we’re all living in a simulation, you know. Who knows if anything is real?

[00:02:26] CALLER: Well, that could be the case. Oh my God. My heart beating, like, really fast.

[00:02:29] CHRIS: Oh, no need. At the end of the day I’m — 

[00:02:33] CALLER: How are you?

[00: 02:34] CHRIS: –wildly average? Oh, how am I? Okay. I’m tired. I’m tired. People are tired of hearing me say that though. Yeah, I mean, I’m good. I’m good overall. I’m good overall. Fighting off the seasonal depression stuff. Doing a good job of that. Enjoying life with the little boy. Loving my wife. Traveling a bit too much. I’ve been booking some work in Los Angeles, I’m getting flown back and forth, which is very cool and I have an easy life.

[00:03:03] CALLER: Oh, that’s cool. It’s probably warmer there. You’re in New York, yeah?

[00:03:07] CHRIS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I’m ready to not be on planes anymore. I know that that’s a very privileged thing to complain about.

[00:03:16] CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. Well I guess that’s true. So I also live in New York. I live in Brooklyn. 

[00:03:23] CHRIS: Oh, nice. 

[00:03:23] CALLER: And it’s pretty. Yeah. It’s pretty dreary out there today. 

[00:03:28] CHRIS: Yeah it’s rainy.

[00:03:29] CALLER: But I guess I could say I’m in a similar privileged position to you. I’m a flight attendant. So —

[00:03:35] CHRIS: What? 

[00:03:36] CALLER: — I live in New York, but I’m not here all the time. Yeah.

[00:03:39] CHRIS: Oh, I got questions for you.

[00:03:42] CALLER: I hope you do. I hope you do. Yeah. So, I mean, I haven’t. It’s been really slow lately, which is surprising, but I’m hoping it’ll pick back up. You know, with holiday traveling and stuff.

[00:03:54] CHRIS: Wait, are you not on just regular routes? Isn’t that how that works?

[00:03:57] CALLER: No. Well, OK. So I’m pretty new. I’ve been flying since, I had my flight attendant graduation ceremony in April, so I’ve been here, well, what is that, eight months? Been I’ve been doing this for eight months. So I’m on, I’m on reserve. I’m on reserve so I’m basically a substitute flight attendant. So when someone else calls out sick, I get to go to my job.

[00:04:25] CHRIS: And is that why you’re in New York? Because we’ve got JFK, LaGuardia and Newark, so that there’s those are three massive airports. I would imagine those are three, you want to be right in the middle so you can pick up the gigs.

[00:04:37] CALLER: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, so a lot of what a lot of flight attendants, and pilots do, a lot of people actually don’t live in the city that they’re based in. You know, they’ll commute in because we just hop on a plane. But I said, you know what?  You only live once, you know, your’e only young once, so why not move to New York City? 

[00:04:48] CHRIS: Nice.

[00:05:00] CALLER: So I moved here in April from Chicago.

[00:05:04] CHRIS:: That’s cool. Chicago, another hub.  Another major hub.

[00:05:09] CALLER: Another hub. I know, I know everyone, everyone, when anybody that I work with finds out I’m from Chicago they say “Oh are you trying to get back there?” Because the airline that I work for, we have a hub in Chicago as well, but I’m like “No”. Well, maybe eventually. But you could, when else are you, well, I guess you live in New York. But, you know, I mean, what else am I going to live in New York? I don’t know. So, I mean, I’ve just been having fun. Yeah. 

[00:05:35] CHRIS: It’s worth it. Brooklyn is for all the hype and the buzz and the hubbub. At the end of the day, it is still a magical place on its best days.

[00:05:44] CALLER: It’s such a magical place. Oh, my God. I love it. I really do. I love it. I just. Oh, my God. Yeah. It gives me chills. The skyline gives me chills. I will say, like probably one of the best sites that I’ve seen, that I ever will see in my life. When we’re flying in and obviously there’s, you know, a bunch of different runways at LaGuardia, specifically, I would say LaGuardia is the airport that I fly out of most often. And it’s it’s the easiest one to get there from where I live so I prefer that one.

[00:06:16] CHRIS: Me too. One bus stop. One bus stop and I’m at LaGuardia.

[00:06:18] CALLER: Yeah, well, its a subway and then a bus. But yeah.

[00:06:21] CHRIS: Yeah, I’m in Queens, though. I’m in Queens. So I just jump on the bus and I’m right there.

[00:06:25] CALLER: Oh, you’re in Queens. You just jump on the bus. 

[00:06:31] CHRIS: Now I’m not going to ask you what airline you’re at. And I don’t think it’s actually smart for you to reveal it. So let’s not. But I will say, I will say that LaGuardia can be a bit of a mess, except I fly primarily Delta and they have their own terminal there. Quite, quite nice.

[00:06:49] CALLER: They do have their own terminal there. Yes. Yeah. No, I work for I mean one of the, one of the major airlines in the US. 

[00:06:58] CHRIS: Okay. You were saying you mostly fly out of LaGuardia.

[00:07:03] CALLER:  I know. Yeah, I mostly fly to LaGuardia. OK. I mostly fly out of and into LaGuardia and there’s different obviously different runways that you can fly in and out of and different routes you can take when you’re approaching New York to land into the airport. And there’s this one route, I guess, that they take sometimes to land into LaGuardia. And when you fly it at night, you will, I mean, you live in New York. You might have experienced this, but you’re flying into New York and you’re flying like right over the city. Like, it’s kinda eerie, almost.

[00:07:40] CHRIS: Like over the Empire State Building. 

[00:07:43] CALLER: It’s really cool. Yes. Like you. Like you feel like you could reach out and touch it and you can see down into Times Square and. Oh, my God. I mean, I mean, I’ve only been here eight months. It’s not like I’ve been flying for years and years and years. But I mean, I’ve seen it quite a few times now and every time I just get full body chills. I love it.

[00:08:03] CHRIS: Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. It’s beautiful. It’s funny. It’s like it’s weird. I’ve always found that when it flies in that way, you look down at the island of Manhattan and it almost looks like a board game set. 

[00:08:17] CALLER: Yeah, yeah totally.

[00:08:20] CHRIS: It looks like you’ve set up a board game of Manhattan. But you know, you know, not to be macabre. Not always the best mental feeling to be flying in a commercial airliner right over the skyscrapers of New York. Also kind of. Also kind of weird. Also kind of weird.

[00:08:37] CALLER: A little. Yeah, a little eerie. Like it. It’s a little. Yeah. No. Totally. It is, it’s weird. But. Oh, my gosh. When you do it at night, you see all those those sparkling lights. It’s magical. Welcome to New York.

[00:08:50] CHRIS: Yeah. And then you come in Queens, you see the Unisphere, the old world’s fair globe.

[00:08:56] CALLER: Yep. Yeah, I’m really not so familiar with Queens like yet, you know.

[00:09:03] CHRIS: Good food out there.

[00:09:03] CALLER: I do. I mean, the airports are in Queens, so I go there mostly to go to the airports. But most of the time I’m over here in Brooklyn or in Manhattan, you know. 

[00:09:13] CHRIS: Living the life. Living in the young person’s life.

[00:09:15] CALLER: Living the life. I know it’s true. So do you want to know something?

[00:09:19] CHRIS: Yeah. 

[00:09:22] CALLER: Today is my 22nd birthday. 

[00:09:25] CHRIS: Hey, happy birthday.

[00:09:27] CALLER: Thank you. Yeah. It’s my it’s my 22nd birthday, but it’s kind of gross outside, but we mostly did all the birthday celebrations over the weekend. So that was really fun. We went to Olive Garden, in Times Square. 

[00:09:45] CHRIS: Uhuh. Uhuh.

[00:09:46] CALLER: We went to Olive Garden in Times Square.

[00:09:49] CHRIS: Because you like it? Or a like an ironic, an ironic hipster joke? Which one?

[00:09:54] CALLER: Oh, I wish it was an ironic hipster joke, but so my friend, one of my good friends, my best friend from Chicago, she flew in to hang out with me for my birthday and we were on the subway home and we just started talking about where should we eat? And somehow Olive Garden came up. But I said, I know exactly where an Olive Garden is.

[00:10:14] CHRIS: Really.

[00:10:15] CALLER: There’s one in Times Square.

[00:10:16] CHRIS:  Uhuh. Uhuh. Now you live in Brooklyn, so you could have been like, “We can go to the Di Fara’s Pizza where an 80 year old man has been making pizza his whole life. Makes it by hand.

[00:10:29] CALLER: I know. 

[00:10:30] CHRIS: Right in front of you.

[00:10:31] CALLER: I know but,

[00:10:31] CHRIS: We can go to Williamsburg. We can go to places where chefs from all over the world have moved to apply their trade. We can go get Polish food right in Greenpoint from people who, 

[00:10:44] CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:10:46] CHRIS: We could go out to Bensonhurst and pay rich for Italian food. Or we could go to fuckin Times Square and push our way past the dirty Elmo’s, to Olive Garden, which is weirdly expensive, too.

[00:10:59] CALLER: Now I feel kind of embarrassed.

[00:11:00] CHRIS: No, I’m just ribbing ya. Come on.

[00:11:04] CALLER: I know. No, I know. No, I know. But no. It was honestly, it was really good. 

[00:11:09] CHRIS: Yeah. You get that unlimited breadsticks. 

[00:11:12] CALLER: Unlimited breadsticks. What more could you ask for for your birthday?

[00:11:18] CHRIS: A lot. A lot.

[00:11:19] CALLER: It was a good time.

[00:11:20] CHRIS:  I would ask for a lot more than breadsticks on my birthday. Okay, can I ask. I want to hear everything about your life. I also have like a million questions about the flight attendant lifestyle. Can I get them out of the way? And you’ve only been doing it eight months, you said or you lived in New York eight months. But I won’t. So, yeah, you don’t have all the answers.

[00:11:42] CALLER: So I, no I definitely don’t have any answers, but. Yeah, so I was living in Chicago. I was living with my mom. I applied to be a flight attendant as soon as I could. For the airline that I work for, you have to be, I think 20. So I think I apply right when I turned 20. And it was a really, really, really long process. It was just kind of a weird time in the airline. And like they didn’t have any more training classes until a few, quite a few months out. So I had to wait a while. But I finally went to training when I was newly 21. I went in February with six weeks of training. I found out probably halfway through those six weeks that I was going to be based in New York City. We had two choices. They said, you can be based in New York City or you can be based in Washington, D.C.. Obviously, we have hubs everywhere, but those are the only two that were accepting more flight attendants into their hubs at that time. And so I kind of said, well, we’ll just try New York. You know, I love Taylor Swift. So I was like, yeah, I love Taylor Swift. So I was like, well, we can have that be the theme song to my life.

[00:12:54] CHRIS: Now I’m very old. I’m turning 40. What, obviously, I know who Taylor Swift is. Does she have a song about New York?

[00:13:02] CALLER: Oh, my God, Chris. 

[00:13:04] CHRIS: I’m old. I’m an old white guy. How does it go? I’ll know it if, remind me how it goes, remind me how it goes. Yeah. I don’t know every song about,  do you know, how many songs are about New York?

[00:13:14] CALLER: Welcome to New York. It’s been waiting for you.  Welcome to New York. No?

[00:13:19] CHRIS: I’ve literally never heard that. Jarod’s nodding his head. Yes, that he has. I have literally never heard that song. I just listen to my old pop punk from the 90s and stuff like that.

[00:13:31] CALLER: OK. Well, I mean, that’s really that’s awesome. Taylor Swift is really good dude.

[00:13:36] CHRIS: You’re 22. I’m listening to music that you that came out when you were. Like two or three years old, that was underground back then. OK, So get the gig. You’ve always wanted to fly. Sounds like.

[00:13:53] CALLER: Well, not always.  Well, OK. So I. I had, I guess, like a different sort of way that I went through like high school and stuff. So when I was eleven years old, I was scouted, as they say, to become a model.  So that started when I was 11 and I started modeling in Chicago for a, you know, department stores and catalog things and stuff like that. And that was my dream. And so when I, I went through high school and I did a mixture of like sometimes I would be in regular school and then sometimes I would withdraw and do online school because I was traveling. I did. I spent actually some time in New York when I was 16. I lived here for a month or two. Seeing agencies and stuff. And then I did the whole Fashion Week thing and I went to Milan and Paris. And I lived in Paris. About three months when I was 16. Yeah.

[00:15:08] CHRIS: So this is not like you’re a kid and they put you on like a local car ad. This went far. You took it to Milan and you did Fashion Week stuff.

[00:15:18] CALLER: Yeah, I did. I did. It was it was cool. It was a really, really cool experience. But I was 16. I was. So, yeah, I mean, I’m still young, but I’m 22 today. But yeah, I did all that when I was 16 and that was my dream. And I wanted to do everything. And I wanted to be a Victoria’s Secret model and do all of the things, of course, because you’re 16 and that’s what you want to do.

[00:15:44] CHRIS: What do they call them? Angels.

[00:15:45] CALLER: But. Yeah. The Angels, but they actually they canceled the Victoria’s Secret fashion. I don’t know if you heard. They’re not doing it anymore because of because of reasons that I think are completely fair. Looking at it from an outside perspective, I think that. Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. Probably the better thing.

[00:16:05] CHRIS: I know nothing. This is as foreign to me as a Taylor Swift reference.

[00:16:12] CALLER: Well, yeah. So anyway, I did that when I was young and then I, I had some issues from it, as many, many, many people do.

[00:16:24] CHRIS: Yeah, I feel like this flight attendant questions are far less important now.

[00:16:29] CALLER: I want to get to that, too.

[00:16:30] CHRIS: We’ll come back to those. We’ll come back to those.  Mostly I just want to know how I can get more points because I fly so much and I’m obsessed with points. Do you meet people a lot who are obsessed with points?

[00:16:41] CALLER: Not points so much I have people reach out to me asking for buddy passes a lot.

[00:16:46] CHRIS: Buddy Pass? Oh, right, right, right. Because you can get those.

[00:16:49] CALLER: Buddy passes.  Yeah, I kinda I mean I can’t get free body passes. I can get discounted. Standby tickets.

[00:16:56] CHRIS: Yes. I am about to make a gold status for the year and thank God because I was about to have to downgrade from —

[00:17:04] CALLER: Congratulations!

[00:17:04] CHRIS: — about to downgrade from gold to silver back to being a silver dirty person.

[00:17:11] CALLER: That’s awesome. That’s amazing. You do fly a lot.

[00:17:15] CHRIS: Yeah. Now when you meet one of these platinum or diamond people though. These these people get special treatment right. They get the special treatment.

[00:17:23] CALLER: I mean we have. Yeah. I mean, we have people. I won’t say like the name of, you know, the program or whatever that it’s called, but they have to be invited in.

[00:17:32] CHRIS: These secret programs. Now,

[00:17:34] CALLER: To be elite status. You have to be invited in and you have to be invited. And if you do that, you know, we’re supposed to address them by name and —

[00:17:43] CHRIS: They have their own entrance.  Let me tell you about this.  Because I have read up on this.  It’s my dream.  It’s my dream.  My understanding is a lot of these are people who are like corporate fliers who fly first class international a lot and who also have the ability to say, I’m coordinating a whole team that’s traveling. And so they bring a lot of money to the airline. They get invited, these people, these programs. I started noticing I used to fly United all the time and they’d say, you know, yeah, if you have kids, in uniform, military, global services and dot, dot, dot. And it’s like, what’s global services? I google it. You get invited, they’ll pick you up at your house. If you have a layover, they’ll do your laundry for you at the airport. If I read a story once about a plane that landed and a person had a connecting flight and they had a car pull onto the runway and pick them up and drive them to the next plane so they wouldn’t have to walk in the terminal.

[00:18:45] CALLER: Oh, You would you want to hear something even crazier than that. So we have this new thing and I know it’s in New York and it might be other places as well. They will take you up in a helicopter and they’ll fly you to the runway, to the tarmac. And basically. And I don’t even know the logistics of that, because you have to go through security at some point. So where do they drop you? You still have to go through security and whatever. But they will fly you in a helicopter from New York City to the airport.

[00:19:16] CHRIS: So if you’re late, if you’re living in like a mansion up in Connecticut or Jersey, and you’re a big baller. They send the helicopter come get ya. How do I get in on this? These mother first of all, these 1 percent mother fuckers, sorry Sally. Second of all, how do I get invited to this? Okay —

[00:19:37] CALLER: I don’t even know. I don’t even know. Anyway.

[00:19:39] CHRIS: Okay. Let’s talk about the more important thing. So. You said that your model this takes off quickly because. Okay. Because you get scouted when you’re eleven, you’re in Milan and Paris. By the time you’re 16. So this moved fast. Did your family have any background in this stuff or did it just upend everybody’s life?

[00:19:59] CALLER: No, no, not at all. Not at all. So when I was really, really, really young, people would kind of stop my mom and be like, oh, she’s really cute. Like, you know, you should get her into modeling. So she tried when I was a kid, but I was just so like so completely disgustingly shy that I just it was awful. And I wouldn’t look at the camera and it was really bad. She was like, OK, this is not for her. And she never tried to force me into anything. And so then when I was a little older, I was eleven and I was scouted at a Jonas Brothers concert.

[00:20:35] CHRIS: I’m aware that they exist.

[00:20:36] CALLER: These people came up, and there’s this woman from this agency approached us and she said, “Is this your daughter? You know, she’s really beautiful and whatever. And you guys should reach out to us.” So we looked up these people and we found that they had some some legitimate people on their roster. I guess, you know, people that had done cool things in the modeling world. And so we did some stuff with them. And then they kind of got me hooked up with my agency in Chicago, and that’s when I did department store stuff. And then it was kind of always the goal. They’re like, OK, you know, when you turn 16, you’ll be old enough. And we could fly you out to New York and you can meet with agencies there and then fashion week. And that’s what happened. And it was really, really cool. And I did all that and and I met really, really cool people. And I met some cool designers and stuff like that. But it takes a toll on you. Quickly, quickly.

[00:21:41] CHRIS: I think that’s as good a time as any to pause and remind you guys that very often modeling is done to promote products and services and we do that around here as well, got adds. Check it out. Use promo codes. It really helps the show when you do. We’ll be right back.

[00:21:57] [AD BREAK]

[00:22:03] CHRIS: Thanks, everybody, for listening to the adds and considering helping out the show by using those promo codes. Now let’s get back to this conversation.

[00:22:12] CALLER: I met really, really cool people and I met some cool designers and stuff like that, but it takes a toll on you. Quickly, quickly.

[00:22:22] CHRIS: Explain this to me. Explain this toll.  First of all, being a 16 year old kid in an industry where people let’s face facts. Models are sexualized. Models are, sexual images very often. You’re sixteen. This doesn’t seem like a great combination.

[00:22:44] CALLER: Yeah. No. And so I will. I mean, I never. Really experienced, like, I don’t know. I never felt like I was being taken advantage of. And like, I never really felt super sexualized. I don’t know. I guess I never got really to that point. For me, it was more just like the body image thing. And, you know, I did it when I was 16. And they and they measure you and you have to stay within the model measurements. And they put a tape measure around your waist and your hips and your bust and you have to be within inches that they want you to be within. And I will say, I do think now it’s changing. I mean, that was what that was. I was 16, so that was in my 2014. And already it’s changing even more. But in 2014 and what I experienced was they would put a tape measure around you and you had to fall within these measurements. If you didn’t  they would be like, “OK. Go home, lose weight, come back when you when you’re skinnier.” And I experienced that actually like I was 16 and I went to New York and I I don’t know, they did my hips. They were an inch or half inch too big. And they said, we’re going to send you home for like a week or two weeks or something. And when you come back, you need to have lost that half inch or whatever it was. And I did it. I did it. So I went home and I was eating so little and I was eating plain grilled chicken and plain egg whites and like carrots and cauliflower. And I was walking like six miles a day. But they didn’t want you to run because running would build muscle and they didn’t want muscle. They just wanted you to be really, really slim. And so I was walking six miles a day doing pilates for an hour, a day or two hours a day. And I just had this total tunnel vision that I needed to be the size that I needed to be. When I went back to New York and I did it and they went back and they were so proud of me and I was amazing. And yeah. And they kind of threw me in the Fashion Week and I was going to castings and everything. And then I went to Milan and then I went to Paris. And then I ended up staying in Paris for two or three months just to shoot with different photographers and and do that sort of stuff. But it was just crazy because I was 16 and I already was so small, because when you’re 16, you’re just you have a I mean, at least me, I had like a kind of a child’s body at that time. And even that wasn’t really small enough. So as I got a little bit older and I turned 17 and 18 and it became a lot harder, I struggled. I struggled with it for like a while because that was my dream since I was eleven, basically. And I learned that that could be a possibility for my future. But thankfully, I eventually figured out that it just wasn’t going to be a healthy possibility. And I was able to let go of it. But it took it took a lot to let go of that. I mean, I went through like, you know, years of therapy and body image struggles and that sort of thing. So it was hard. But thankfully, I I got out of it and I found I guess I mean, I think my favorite part of it was traveling. So I found another way to do that and not have to conform to these insane standards that they set.

[00:26:14] CHRIS: Well I’m glad you found your way out of it. Because —

[00:26:18] CALLER: Thank you. Me, too.

[00:26:19] CHRIS: — To hear that story, but to know that you know, to know that you were 16, you went through that. There’s a lot of people who I think might fall into a trap of chasing that their whole lives and to hear that by the time you are 21, you’ll go to a Time Square Olive Garden and eat the breadsticks is like probably a lot of people who, a lot of people with your story probably never get back to that place where they can just let their guard down and enjoy a piece of bread. 

[00:26:43] CALLER: Yeah. No. Absolutely. And it took me. It took me a long time. I mean, so that was that happened when I was 16, when I came back after this three months in Paris, I kind of went. I don’t know.  I just I had sort of a meltdown and I had these six months where I was like, I’m not going to model at all. And that was just too much. And then I gained. I mean, I don’t want to say a ton of weight, but for me, it was it was I gained like 30 or 40 pounds. And then once I was I mean, I don’t I think I don’t even know what how many pounds I weighed, probably like a hundred and fifteen when I was modeling some tall and was tall, 115 for somebody that I mean, I’m 5’10. That’s really small. And then I gained all this weight and I was maybe like 140. And I felt like at first I was OK. But then I. I don’t know. I guess it kind of settles. And I was like, oh, my God, I’m huge. And I was not. I wasn’t huge. But I felt like that at that time.

[00:27:47] CHRIS: 5’10, 140, I feel like is probably. I don’t know that I would imagine doctors I’d probably say that’s like still. You’re still tiny.

[00:27:57] CALLER: Oh yeah. No, absolutely. That’s  like completely normal. Like completely normal. Even like on the slim side of normal. But, you know. Yeah. And then. So I kind of went through this weird phase where I was like, oh, my God. And. Just really like, I guess, insecure in like self-confidence stuff. So then I did like the complete opposite. And then I was like, no, I got get back. So I like lost it all again. And then I was like 115/120 again. And this time I was like 17 or 18. So, you know, then you have, I guess, more of like somewhat of a more womanly body. And then you’re back to like 120, which is just insane at 5’10. And that’s when I kind of had more of like, I guess, eating disorder mentality and it was more of a more of a problem. And so then I finally talked to my mom and I got in therapy and I still was struggling with a lot like it took a long time. And then when I was 20. So I guess this is almost like two years ago now. My I had a younger sister. She was 17 and she struggled with depression for a lot of her life. And she took her own life when she was 17. And when that happened, it completely changed how I saw. Like everything, I guess, about like myself and just the world, whatever. And after that, I never really had. I’m not going to say never had another insecurity about like I just realized, like, wow, the things that I have been focusing on are so unimportant. And that’s when my dreams just kind of like. I guess, you know, changed and I was like nearly 20, so I applied to be a flight attendant because I knew I still wanted to travel and all this stuff, but I was like, no, I can’t focus on things that are so stupid and unimportant anymore.

[00:30:01] CHRIS: Well, I’m really sorry to hear that.

[00:30:04] CALLER: Thank you. Thanks.

[00:30:06] CHRIS: Yeah, I mean, that’s… You know, everything surrounding that issue is stuff that’s been very, you know, it’s affected my life and become very important to me and the stuff I’ve talked about. So that breaks my heart. And I’m sorry you had to go through it.

[00:30:24] CALLER: Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it was. Definitely like the hardest thing. That I’ve had to go through yet, but I will say, I mean. I mean, every every dark cloud has a silver lining, I guess. And I guess it in some ways it did show me these, you know, things that were really important. So I don’t know I guess I have I also have this like cheesy, this super cheesy image of my sister and I don’t know where I stand on religion or in that sort of thing or where she is now, but I do hope that she’s somewhere hopefully maybe. And I kind of have this image of her getting to the other side of wherever the other side is, you know. And because she really didn’t know that I like had all these struggles and kind of getting to other side of that. And I’m looking at me and being like, wow, OK. No, we’re not going to we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to deal with that. And like her kind of being like, no, we’re going to fix these problems. And you’re not going to you’re not going to deal with that anymore. And that’s gonna be over. So that’s kind of just like weird cheesy image that I have, her being, helping me, I guess, or like fixing those problems.

[00:31:44] CHRIS: I don’t think that’s cheesy. I think that’s a beautiful thing.

[00:31:49] CALLER: Thank you. So. Thanks. Yeah. So so yeah. That was my, those are my modeling adventures. I mean, it was I had a lot of cool experiences. I have a funny story, kind of I I think it must have been New York and I went to this casting. Can I can say like a designer, right. That’s OK.

[00:32:17] CHRIS: Yeah. I’m not I don’t need to protect some fancy designer.

[00:32:21] CALLER: OK. So I went to this casting, well this isn’t. I mean, I’m not talking anything bad about this designer, Tommy Hilfiger. And I love Tommy Hilfiger. But I went to this casting for his show and I was 16 and I was really, I guess, uneducated. Well, I thought I was educated about the fashion world, but clearly not because I didn’t know, I knew Tommy Hilfiger. I knew the name, and I knew his clothes. But I went into the casting room and there were these two old older white men in the corner. And I was looking around I’m like “where’s the casting room, where are the models?” So I went up to these two men and I’m like, “Hi, I’m a model and I’m here for the casting and I don’t know where to go.” And this man just looks me up and down and just stared at me for a good 15 seconds. And then he said, it’s in the other room. And I was like, okay, cool, thanks. Walked in, walked out. I was with my agent, manager, whatever you wouldn’t call him. And we were in the elevator on the way back down. And he’s like, “ Do you know who that was?”, it was like, “Who?” And he was like, “That man that you talked to at the beginning when you didn’t know where you’re going”. And I was like, “No.” He’s like, “That was Tommy Hilfiger.”

[00:33:30] CHRIS: That’s wild.

[00:33:32] CALLER: And I had no clue. Super wild, super wild.

[00:33:35] CHRIS: That’s like auditioning for a movie and walking up to like Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg. Like in your world, they say that is equivalent, right?

[00:33:44] CALLER: Pretty pretty much. I mean, you know, for a lot of the really big designers, the designer is not the one casting the show. So I didn’t really expect them to be there. And no, I didn’t know what he looked like I probably should’ve looked it up. But they have casting directors and I really I knew who the casting directors were more than I knew who the actual designers were, because those are the people that I was interacting with. And they’ll have one casting director that casts like two or three different really big shows. So I would see those people. I knew who those people were, but I was like he’s probably not actually going to be there. But now he was.

[00:34:17] CHRIS: Did you get the gig?

[00:34:21] CALLER: No. No, not that one.

[00:34:23] CHRIS: Maybe Hilfiger it was like, no, this crossed some lines and we’ve punctured that barrier.

[00:34:29] CALLER: Yeah, I didn’t worship him. I didn’t even know he was like, I’m not putting this girl in my show. No, that’s okay.

[00:34:44] CHRIS: I have to say there’s so many layers, so many layers to your story. It’s wild.

[00:34:52] CALLER: There are a lot of layers there are. I know I feel like I’m kind of all over the place, but it’s like, how do I even start? How do I start the story? Yeah. Yeah, there’s a lot of different things.

[00:35:01] CHRIS: I have to imagine too, because a number of things jump out. Let’s throw my questions out there. I feel like when you’re 11 and you start modeling and then when you’re 16 and it’s like, hey, you might have a chance to do this internationally. And you said you were with your mom when I was started. So clearly you’re in a family environment. I would have to imagine that your parents are going well there’s pitfalls to this life and we’re going to really watch out for them. And I would imagine that, yeah, any parent whose kid gets into modeling is immediately going to go we’re going to watch out for body image stuff, are going to watch out for eating stuff. And then you fell into it, you know, even under that umbrella of hearing that your parents were with you at the start. How does that happen?

[00:35:45] CALLER: Yeah, well, so. Yeah. So my parents were divorced when I was really young. I was mostly with my mom. We saw my dad, you know, like on weekends and stuff, but. Well, I’m not even on weekends.  Well my dad, here’s another layer to my story. My dad struggled with alcoholism since I was about 6 and that’s when my parents divorced. So we saw him like I mean, I loved him. He was a really, really good, good person. And he was a good dad. But he had an illness. And so we saw him when we could. We would. I mean, my mom was always really awesome and she’d take us to see him in his treatment centers. And, you know, we saw him when we could. But it was mostly my mom. My mom was the one that raised me. And she you know, she was really supportive. And at the same time, she had and she was supportive. And she was a what’s the word I’m looking for? I mean, she watched for things and you know, but she had three kids. And I was just so young and I was always like so thin growing up naturally, like my metabolism was so high. So she never really thought anything. When I was 16 and 17, I was still like, really thin, whatever. And she just didn’t really. Well that’s just how she is because I went that way. But I know. Yeah, and then and then when I was little, so my dad died when I was 16. And that’s kind of where my sister’s depression all started and everything. So there was just. And so my my sister was struggling with depression. My brother was also struggling with depression. He’s he’s doing better now. But there was just there was so much going on, like so much going on that I mean, I had focused, but I wasn’t her main focus of attention. And I don’t know, I like understand why she. But I don’t know, I mean, she did see things and I told her things and I was usually pretty open with her. And then she got me into therapy and got me help. I needed it. But right. There was just so many things to pay attention to that I wasn’t like, you know, the only I wasn’t me living in Paris wasn’t the craziest thing that happened.

[00:37:54] CHRIS: I would imagine, too that, In a situation where there’s a lot of pain and a lot of turmoil, you’re having these things that feel like exciting and magical and maybe there’s. Positivity for the whole family or you and your mom at least. Oh, my God, this is amazing. I could see that side of it too.

[00:38:11] CALLER: Yeah. No. Yeah, totally. I was. It was really cool. And it was it was a lot of fun. A lot of the time it was fun for her. And I know it’s really fun for my dad when he I mean, so he died later in 2014. You know, when I was like later in my 16th year. Yeah, I guess so. He’s still you there to witness me like doing all these cool things and Fashion Week and traveling internationally. And he was so into it and thought it was the coolest thing. So it was totally a source of happiness and excitement and stuff.

[00:38:48] CHRIS: Can.  I’ll ask. Here. You’ve been through a lot for someone who is just turning 22 today. A lot.

[00:38:55] CALLER: I know. There’s a lot. There is a lot, but some people have gone through even more. But no it is. Yeah

[00:39:04] CHRIS: When? So. I’m. OK. So I don’t feel bad saying, obviously, you you’re someone who’s walked the runway during Fashion Week and has modeled in Milan and Paris. You’re clearly we’re on the phone. I can’t see you. But clearly you are someone who is very beautiful. By society’s standards. When you’re beautiful. Do people. Assume you don’t have problems or do they resent you? You know what I mean? Do you ever feel that?

[00:39:38] CALLER: Um. Yeah, I mean. Well, OK. Well, first of all, thanks. I don’t know. I am tall and thin sure.  I think, I think I’m OK.

[00:39:50] CHRIS: Listen, if you’re, if you’re doing fashion runway shows,

[00:39: 55] CALLER: Honestly, to be a model you don’t have to be beautiful and gorgeous. You have to be tall and thin.

[00:40:01] CHRIS: Right. I mean, it’s wild living in New York, too, because during the Fashion Week, you know, and the time surrounding it, you walk around like 7th Avenue and you’ll see models on the street and some of them your’e like. Wow. You’re like a six foot four person who looks like you from a different planet. It’s not always like, you are overwhelmingly the hottest  person I’ve ever seen. It’s like you are the most, you are the most unique person. Anyway.

[00:40:23] CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah, exactly.

[00:40:27] CHRIS: Clearly truth to it though.

[00:40:27] CALLER: I would say, I don’t think I’m extremely unique looking. I think I’m pretty. I don’t. I’m pretty normal looking. I guess I don’t know. I don’t know.  Anyway, anyway.

[00:40:35] CHRIS:  You don’t have to be modest. You’re a model. It’s fine.  When you’re in people. Sometimes people don’t want to hear the problems of people who they perceive in that position.

[00:40:49] CHRIS: Pretty interesting question, I’d like to think answers are coming up soon. In the meantime, check out our advertisers. I’m telling you, when you use the promo code, it helps this show survive. So just consider it would mean a lot if you did. We’ll be right back.

[00:41:05] [AD BREAK]

[00:41:11] CHRIS: Thanks, everybody, for listening to the ads. For helping to support the show for everything you do to help out Beautiful Anonymous. Now let’s finish off a pretty fascinating conversation.

[00:41:22] CHRIS: Sometimes people don’t want to hear the problems of people who they perceive in that position. And I wonder if that felt lonely.

[00:41:29] CALLER: Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I will say like. I think. Well, I really always tried to be very open about things like I dealt with and that my family dealt with, and that was something that I had a lot of respect for my mom for too, that I think I mean, I would never pass judgment. But when you see families that have struggled with mental illness or somebody that’s taken their life and that kind of comes out a lot of times it’s like, oh, you know, are, my brother died. And that’s kind of it and that’s like all you say. And then people are like, well, what happened? Oh, well, he died. And I’ve live, I’ve seen that now that I have a sister that took her own life and I’ve, you know, related with other people. And a lot of times that really is the story. And I would never pass judgment on that. But I was very, very clear. Like my mom was as well liked from the beginning when she did take her life, like we’re not going to sit here and say, OK, she passed away peacefully in her sleep. You know, like whatever it was like. Now we’re like, OK. She had a mental illness and she struggled with depression for years. And unfortunately, you know, she ended that. In like a really devastating way. But we’re not going to sit here and pretend that, like, there’s some weird thing or I or just not say what it was or whatever. I just want to be very open. And I remember in the obituary we put, you know, like if you need help, like reach out to, you know, the suicide hotline and like all this stuff like you, I don’t I didn’t want it to be like shame around it. So I hope that people don’t look at me and think like, oh, my God, she has problems. I try to be very open about like, yeah, I do have struggles. My family has gone through things. And sure, I am a model. And like, that’s really cool. And I’m really tall, skinny, but also like, my life isn’t perfect. And I try to be very, very transparent with that. But no, I think they’re probably still is, is bias, you know, growing up in school and people probably just assume that my family had a lot of money for those modeling. Whatever, but that’s not. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m kind of rambling, but I think you know what I’m saying.

[00:43:43] CHRIS: No, it’s an answer to my question. And it’s I. I got to say, I commend you and your family because. It’s hard, that’s hard. You know, there is a stigma. And and I know I’ve talked about this publicly that when I was feeling my worst, one of the things that I always used to sit there and it would fill me with these feelings of guilt and fear was like, you know, if I if I ever, if I ever, you know, I because I don’t know how much you know about me or if you saw the show I did. But it deals with a lot of that stuff. And I have had those feelings in the past. And I remember feeling like, oh, man, it’s gonna like. If I ever do that, it’s going to stick, stick my family with this burden of, of having to, having to explain that or not explain that.  Yeah, so hearing that your family has said like, and hearing that you guys said we’re not going to show shame in this. We’re going to be public about it to encourage other people to get help. That’s that’s not easy still. In 2019, that’s not easy.

[00:44:48] CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so you just reminded me of something that I wanted to tell you and this is completely off topic, but you just reminded me so. Okay. So I will say, I don’t know, like a ton about you. I’ve definitely listened to your show. But so I just wanted to tell you, I’ve been listening to your show for about, I don’t know, maybe three weeks to a month now.

[00:45:15] CHRIS: All right. All right. Welcome.

[00:45:17] CALLER: And the reason.  So, thank you. So I’m kind of a new fan. But this is still, oh, my God. When he answered the phone, I freaked out. But so, I found your show because I I wanted to make this show, but I didn’t know that it was a thing. So I had this idea like a year or two ago. And I’m like, you know, it would be a really cool podcast because I listen to a podcast. I mean, all the time I’m like when I’m working out and now I listen to them all the time in the subway and whatever. And a lot of the podcast I listen to, are like true crime and stuff. But I. I had this idea. I was like, somebody needs to make a show where you just call a stranger and you have a conversation with them and just see what they say and see what they, you know, what stories come out. And I had this, like, really cool idea. I was talking to my friends about it and they were like “Yeah it would be really cool.” Like completely dumb to the fact that that was already a thing. And then I was listening to, I don’t remember what I was listening to something. And then one of the like ads or something was they were talking about your show or maybe it wasn’t even an ad maybe they were justing talking about your show. I don’t remember. I’m like, oh, that’s my idea.

[00:46:24] CHRIS: Son of a bitch!

[00:46:26] CALLER: You obviously had the idea first.  I had it later.

[00:46:27] CHRIS: The guy who played Ilana’s boss on Broad City already got to that one.  You didn’t know that.  You didn’t know that I was on Broad City. That was my effort. I thought that was the one show that might fall into your demographic. The Office I was on The Office. A lot of young people like The Office.

[00:46:47] CALLER: I know that you were on The Office. I know that. No, I know that.

[00:46:50] CHRIS: Kids in high school —

[00:46:51] CALLER: Weren’t you like Mose’s cousin or something?

[00:46:53] CHRIS: I was Trevor, the guy who hit Oscar with the pipe.  Sandwich delivery for Oscar Martinez.

[00:47:00] CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no I know that.

[00:47:02] CHRIS: Dwight hired me. Dwight’s friend.

[00:47:05] CALLER: Oh not Mose, Dwight had Mose, and then you were. Yeah. OK. OK. I knew that you were connected to Dwight. I did know that actually, I did. And I’m a huge fan of your work in that episode.  I do love The Office.

[00:47:15] CHRIS: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yes, I know the things that, I have a cousin who’s a year younger than you. And I have actually in a very pathetic way, asked her,  like, what do I, what, what are the things that I can be doing to get young-ins to like my stuff? And, I know that The Office goes a long way. That show has a long life anyway. Anyway, listen. I live in Queens and a lot of weekends, if they’re doing construction on this one runway at LaGuardia, they route the planes over my house and it’s really loud. Can you ask them to stop doing that?

[00:47:52] CALLER: I can absolutely put in a word for you. I totally will. I don’t know who I’m going to talk to you but I’m going to find that person.

[00:47:58] CHRIS: Thank you. Yes. When we the weekend we moved in, it happened and it was going on where like every five or six minutes, a plane would take off and go over our house and be like, *plane noise* And my wife was —

[00:48:10] CALLER: And you also you have like a really young child.

[00:48:13] CHRIS: Well, we didn’t then. This was four years ago, and. And my wife. I’ll never forget the quote. She goes, “Don’t even unpack the fuckin boxes. I’m not living here.” And I was like, we bought this place. That’s where we are. And then luckily, we realized it wasn’t every weekend.

[00:48:35] CALLER: OK. Well, at least it’s not every weekend. Absolutely. I’m going to write a letter to.  I’ll write a letter to the CEO. I don’t know. Yeah. Okay.

[00:48:43] CHRIS: Just whisper to the pilot before the flight. Hey let’s just go like a couple degrees to the left or right. So Gethard can sleep in.

[00:48:50] CALLER: Okay. I’ll do it next time.

[00:48:52] CHRIS: Now can I say my my understanding of the flight attendant lifestyle. So you hear stories that like like you said, like people don’t always like you hear stories that people will keep more like crash pads than houses that there and there will be like five or six flight attendants all sharing a space. And you’re you’re kind of like not rooted down anywhere and constantly. You know, by nature, I know from traveling. Yeah. You’re a nomad. It’s a little bit lonely. Is that coming in the wake of everything that’s happened with your family? I wonder if, are those things connected or if I’m reading too much into this?

[00:49:35] CALLER: So, I mean, OK. So, yeah, so totally. That’s true. I don’t live in a crash pad. I do live in an apartment. But it is I guess you could say crash pad-ish. I mean, so we have an apartment. We’re all on the lease.  There are six of us, there are six of us. It’s a three bedroom in Brooklyn.

[00:49:56] CHRIS: Welcome to Brooklyn.

[00:49:56] CALLER: So I live in a bunk bed.

[00:49:58] CHRIS: We each pay four thousand dollars.

[00:50:00] CALLER: It’s great.

[00:50:01] CHRIS: We each pay four thousand dollars, but it’s close to the G train. Most inconvenient train.

[00:50:07] CALLER: It is so close to the G train. But. Yeah. Yeah. So we. But the thing is, it’s like we’re all flight attendants. There’s, there are six of us, but there are crash, like actual crash pad. But there’s like 30 girls living in like. I don’t know, maybe like a five or six bedroom and they’ll  have like two or three or four bunk beds in one room. And I knew coming here, I was like, I don’t want to do that. I will share my room with one person, but that’s just sounds kind of crazy. So I share my room with one person and everyone. Were, there’s six of us, we’re all flight attendants and we’re not all here. It’s very rare that we’re all here at the same time. Right now, I think there’s like three of us here. So it’s really like it’s not as bad as it sounds when you say that you live in apartment with six girls and three bedrooms. There’s bunk beds that sound probably like hell, but it’s not. It’s really fun. And we all get along really well and honestly, like, it’s a really, really good time. I never went to college, so it’s kind of like my college experience that I’m getting.

[00:51:12] CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah, I mean.  That sounds like a crash pad.  First of all. 

Anyway, but not one of these, because you hear you’ll hear sometimes that people live in like a neighborhood in Queens where even I’m like, I’ve never heard of that. And it’s like, oh, yeah, but there’s 28 flight attendants in it. But you can get to JFK in eight minutes. But do you think.  And I don’t know. I don’t want to play armchair psychologists. Like, do you kind of just need to be nomadic right now just to kinda be on your own and have some headspace to figure stuff out.

[00:51:41] CALLER: Maybe. Maybe I don’t know if it’s really like a conscious thing that I, I mean. OK. So when I knew that I got this job, I still had like six to seven months before the training actually started. I had six to seven months to keep living with my mom. And I was just I was nannying and I just could not wait to get out. Like I love my mom more than anything in the world, but I just couldn’t wait to just have a change. I knew I didn’t want to live in Chicago, at least for a while. I mean, yeah, I guess maybe it is just because it’s like there’s just a lot that’s happened there. And I just needed like a total 180. But I mean, I didn’t know going to training where I was going to be based, I didn’t know I was going to get New York and I’d have to live with this many people. But I was just kind of really, really happy that it was finally this time where I would start my career, I guess. And I I don’t know, I was just ready for like a fun adventure. And obviously there’s downfalls to this adventure, like living in a bunk bed. But I was just I was so excited. It is like it’s really it’s really fun. I mean, living in a bunk bed is a great problem to have compared to other things that could be going on. So, I mean, I’m having a lot of fun. But yeah. I mean, I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know that being a conscious thing like that, I need to be independent lifestyle right now. But I guess that makes sense.

[00:53:16] CHRIS: I don’t want to put it on you. Just wondering. Although I have to say, it better be fun. If you’re 5 foot 10 sleeping in a bunk bed. If you’re 5 foot 10, you get the top bunk or the bottom bunk?

[00:53:27] CALLER: I have the top.

[00:53:29] CHRIS: Of course. Of course. Now. Now we have less than 10 minutes left. I’m going to fly through some questions, no pun intended. As I said it, I realized that was a cheap joke. Is it true that the flight attendants and pilots will party pretty hard when you land in your destination, and have to wait overnight to get back?

[00:53:49] CALLER: No, I’ve not experienced that. I am dating a pilot right now. But —

[00:53:51] CHRIS: dating a pilot? And do you fly with the pilot ever?

[00:53:57] CALLER: No. No, I’ve never flown with him. No, he doesn’t fly. He. Yeah. No, I mean, I could get into it, but. No.

[00:54:03] CHRIS: Okay. Fair. Now when you’re working, do you prefer working in coach? Because, are first class are the first class people better to deal with because they’re having a cushy experience so they’re easier? Or are they more entitled?

[00:54:19] CALLER: You know, I would say it’s kind of 50/50, I’ve had awesome people in first class that are so nice and I’ve had some stuck up people. I would say the majority of people that I deal with are are nice. I don’t know if there’s really like one I prefer over the other. I like to have a mixture. I like to work in first class sometimes and I like to work in coach sometimes. I like to get a little bit of both. I will say I do, actually. You know what, I think first class is kind of easier because there’s just so much there’s so many less people up there. That your’e dealing with. But depending on what kind of service and the length of a flight.

[00:54:50] CHRIS: Well, that’s true right. Like a first class flight to Cleveland. It’s just less people. But those cross-country ones, you know, I give everybody an ice cream sundae.

[00:54:59] CALLER: Yeah, you do. But you have so much time that, I mean, a flight where you’re doing that intensive services because it’s a really, really long flight. You’re kind of like “Well I’d rather have something to fill my time.” So it’s not. It’s a really it’s a really easy job. I mean, the hardest part is dealing with people. But I would say like most of the time it’s good and people are usually pretty nice.

[00:55:22] CHRIS: Do they give you training? Good. Great answer. You are a truly nice person. That’s become clear in the call. Do they give you training on how to deal with it when people try to enter the mile high club?

[00:55:36] CALLER: No.

[00:55:36] CHRIS: Really? Have you ever run into —

[00:55:40] CALLER: No, they don’t. No, I have not.  I have a friend that told me that she saw two people walk out of the bathroom. I don’t even think I don’t know that she said anything. But that’s just so gross. Do you know how dirty those lavatories, like oh, my God.

[00:55:55] CHRIS: Yes. I fly a lot.

[00:55:58] CALLER: I see people walk barefoot into the bathroom.

[00:56:03] CHRIS: Barefoot. Not even socks.

[00:56:04] CALLER: What are you thinking? What are you thinking? No.

[00:56:07] CHRIS: I’ve done socks, and I feel gross.

[00:56:08] CALLER: I think socks would be worse.

[00:56:10] CHRIS: Really?

[00:56:11] CALLER: No. Socks is worse —

[00:56:12] CHRIS: Because sponges up?

[00:56:13] CALLER: Because then if there’s like. Yeah. If there’s anything on the ground. What. What are you. No, just. No. We had this one lady one time she actually, she was just barefoot. I don’t think she had socks, just barefoot. But she went into the lav and she came out and she kind of was like, hey, hey. And we’re like “Yeah, do you need something?”  She was like “I just wanted to tell you that the floor in the lav, it’s wet”

[00:56:35] CHRIS: Eww.

[00:56:35] CALLER: And I was like, “Well, if you were wearing shoes, you wouldn’t know that.”

[00:56:39] CHRIS: But you have to keep a straight face. “Well, we’re so sorry, ma’am. We’ll get right on that.”

[00:56:45] CALLER: Yeah but I’m not going in there.  No way. That’s not my job.

[00:56:49] CHRIS: You have to be like, “Thank you for informing us. And I’m so sorry we had that experience.” And in your head, you’re like, “Why the fuck, would you enter a bathroom?” I wouldn’t, I don’t like peeing without footwear at home sometimes. Okay. How do you deal with, now I have a kid, he’s coming up on 8 months old. He’s flown once. When he was younger, he fell right asleep. But he’s gonna get to an age where he doesn’t want to just sit there. When you see kids, when you see someone like me roll up at the car seat, are you like, “No.”

[00:57:16] CALLER: No. I’m not.

[00:57:17] CHRIS: Some people are.

[00:57:19] CALLER: Maybe, some people are. No, but. OK. Again, I haven’t been flying that long and only been flying eight months and I, I’ve yet to be on a plane with like a baby that won’t stop screaming the whole flight. So. I don’t really have a problem with them yet. I think they’re kind of cute. I’ll give I’ll give them some little we have those little plastic wings you know. And sometimes if I if I’m working in first class and we have extra cookies, I’ll bring the cookies back to them, to the kids in coach, because it’s really cute and they get really excited. I had really good experiences with kids. I think the worst passengers that I’ve had on my planes are 50 to 60 year old white men. I’m not going to lie. 

[00:58:04] CHRIS: Makes sense.  Those are probably business guys who think they, the world owes them something.

[0058:09] CALLER: Yep. Yep, yep. Yep. And maybe they’re flying in, I don’t know, the 60s or whenever it was that flight attendants had a different reputation, I guess.

[00:58:20] CHRIS: Really? They’ll do, they’ll hit on you?

[00:58:23] CALLER: Not really like hit on me, but I had this I had this guy one time who was actually he was sitting in coach, but I think he has status, he probably booked his ticket really last minute. So he had to sit coach or something. And he came back and he started asking me questions about the uniform. And I was like, well, this is kind of strange, but I don’t know. Maybe he, I don’t know. I was kind of naive about it. I looked at it with this like innocent outlook. And I’m like, okay, I guess he was just curious about the uniform. So I’m like, oh, yeah, you know, like those different uniforms because he had that. Oh, you’re wearing something different than the other girls. I was like, yeah, well we don’t have just like one uniform. We have a collection and you can wear that dress, or you can wear the skirt with the shirt and the sweater I like, you know, so kind of explaining it to him and then he goes, well, I don’t think you guys have to wear uniforms at all. And I was like, oh, what? What should we wear? Just like jeans? Like, just really casual. And he goes, no, you should just wear nothing. You know, maybe you can wear lingerie.

[00:59:17] CHRIS: Eww.

[00:59:19] CALLER: This is not where I thought that conversation was going. I had like a, I just thought it was like completely normal until that part. And I was like, okay, you can go back to your seat now thanks.

[00:59:29] CHRIS: Oh, he got up and said that to you?

[00:59:31] CALLER: Yeah. He came to the back to the galley in the back. And and I was like, “Do you need something? And he’s like, “no, I’m just kind of stretching.” And I’m like, okay that’s fine. Because you can stretch.  It’s like, you wanna get up and move your legs. That’s fine. If you want to have a confrontation with the me, I’ll have a conversation with you, as long as it’s a normal one.

[00:59:47] CHRIS: No such thing. And then you got to go. And he’s like, oh, I’ll have a ginger ale. You got to deal with this.

[00:59:53] CALLER: I know, and I have to give it to him.

[00:59:57] CHRIS: I hate that so much.

[00:59:57] CALLER: Isn’t that the worst?

[00:59:59] CHRIS: Ugh. Ugh.

[01:00:00] CALLER: I hate that so much. Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. It’s really bad. I I have yet to be touched by anyone. Like, you know, I’ve heard stories of you walking the aisles and someone like slaps your butt or something.

[01:00:14] CHRIS: They get handsy.  They get handsy with you.

[01:00:17] CALLER: Yeah, and that’s never happened to me. Thank God. But if it ever does, I’ve already told myself I’m like if that happens. That person is getting absolutely nothing. They do not. They don’t even get pretzels. I, no. And I’m telling all the other flight attendants. Don’t give them anything.

[01:00:30] CHRIS: Can you flag people like that? Are you, like, allowed to let the airline know, hey, this person is a sexual harasser and we maybe shouldn’t have?

[01:00:38] CALLER: Oh, no.  Well, I mean, I would. I would report it for sure. I don’t know that they’d be flagged, like they could never fly again. I don’t know what the aftermath of that.

[01:00:47] CHRIS: I think they should.

[01:00:48] CALLER: I can at least tell my crew on that flight.

[01:00:50] CHRIS: I think a one strike you’re out rule, you walk up to one of the flight attendants, say, hey, I wish you were walking around in lingerie.  Cool, well, you’re never flying again. You got to go to Spirit Airlines now. Buddy. You gotta go to Spirit Airlines where they don’t even give you a seat.

[01:01:03] CALLER: Yep. Yep.

[01:01:04] CHRIS: Spirit for the rest of your life.

[01:01:06] CALLER: No recliners. No, you’re seat can not recline ever again.

[01:01:09] CHRIS: Spirit should be used as the punishment airline.. The time out box of airlines. Oh, yeah. You, you want to. You think you’re gonna fly American? Nope. You got two years on Spirit Airlines. You handsy mother fucker. Sorry Sally. I’ve been trying to curse less.

[01:01:27] CALLER: Yep.

[01:01:27] CHRIS: Now, when someone, minute and a half left, when someone gets on the flight and they’re already drunk. What’s the protocol here? Because I see it all the time and then they sit down like I have a mimosa and the jack and ginger.

[01:01:42] CALLER:  If they’re visibly drunk, yeah, right. If they’re visibly drunk, the gate agent should not let them on the plane. That’s really up to the gate agent. They’re the first barrier. And they if they see someone that they know for sure is intoxicated, they should not let. They’re not supposed to let them on the plane. But if somehow they sneak by, they get on the plane, we’re just I mean, we have to be on that plane with them. If the door shut and we’re, well, I mean, I know for certain circumstances we will go back to the gate, but most of the time we won’t even find out till we’re in the air. And then it’s kind of like, OK, don’t serve them. Give them some water. I’d give them a puke bag. I mean, you know, we just have to deal with them until we’re back on the ground.

[01:02:20] CHRIS: Okay. We’ve got 30 seconds left. I just want to say thank you.

[01:02:24] CALLER: Oh it went by so quick.

[01:02:25] CHRIS: It did. And I got to say. I would have listen to a whole hour about being a flight attendant. I could listen to a whole hour about what it’s like being a model. I could hear, spend a whole hour hearing about, losing two members of your family at such a young age. And. To hear that —

[01:02:44] CALLER: I know I honestly do wish I would have planned it out a little bit, but like I said, I’ve only had like three weeks to think of this and I’ve already, already entered that phase.

[01:02:51] CHRIS: No, it’s okay. You did great. It was a hell of a call. And I just want to say. Well, I just want to say, too. I mean, our time’s up. But you’ve been at one point in this call, you said losing your sister is the hardest thing you’ve dealt with thus far in your life. And I will say. I hope that you don’t have to deal with many things harder than that for the rest of your life.

[01:03:13] CALLER: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for talking to me. I had a blast. It was a really fun hour.

[01:03:18] CHRIS: Thank you for being so open and honest. And I wish that I had more time to ask you what I can do to get goodwill so I get more perks and upgrades. But I missed my shot.

[01:03:28] BELL RINGS

[01:03:36] CHRIS: Caller Thank you. Thank you for being so honest. Thank you for dealing with so much and being able to explain it. Thanks for pushing through the stigma surrounding suicide. That was beautiful and hopeful and uplifting to hear from someone who has spoken honestly about it as well. And I wish, you know, I don’t want to dwell on the dark stuff I could have talked about that more because it really sounds like you and your family had that and a strong and resilient, beautiful way. Thanks for telling us about everything, about modeling, about flight attending, about all of it. Sorry some jerks get handsy with flight attendants just trying to do their jobs.  Thank you to Jared O’Connell in the booth. Thank you. Shell Shag for all the music. Wanna know about me? I got a lot of shows coming up. chrisgeth.com you can find info on them. Hey, go to Apple podcast. Rate, review, subscribe. It helps. See ya next time.

[NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW]

[01:04:44] CHRIS: Next time on Beautiful Anonymous, I talk to someone who we talk to three and a half years ago, but never actually one that you’ve heard and they tell us all sorts of stuff about dad stuff and masculinity and gender. And it goes everywhere. It goes everywhere.

[01:04:58] CALLER: We spoke very briefly and I dropped my phone and it shattered. And so I could hear you trying to regain the call. My microphone wasn’t working. And it was I just I lived a nightmare for a few minutes and trying to get back in touch with you. And then randomly. I never expected to call the show again because the timing never worked out. And then. Yeah, kismet. I actually have today off so I had nothing going on.

[01:05:26] CHRIS: Amazing. And we should be clear to anyone listening.  This was over three and a half years ago. We looked it up over three years ago. That’s next time on Beautiful Anonymous.