Veterinarian Dr. Ellen Boyd Part 2

Episode 8 

This is part 2 of last weeks episode with Veterinarian Dr. Ellen Boyd.

If you didn’t already listen to episode 7 then go back so episode 8 makes sense.

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Randy “Big Swole” - Baptized people and did acts of strength for Jesus

In Seattle has first baby, Malcolm, while writing PhD dissertation.

Moved back to Chicago to be closer to family, started working in contract vet services at various clinics and animal hospitals around the area gets pregnant with her second child Logan.  

Began working at Animal House of Chicago http://www.animalhouseofchicago.com/

and is now working at Midwest Bird and Exotic Animal Hospital https://www.midwestexotichospital.com/

Helped us heal Isa when she had an impacted crop and then after she broke her leg. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9b4yzBhbFx/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Recently bought a flock of her own chickens.

Did rehab work with birds of prey.

Belly dancing became a huge part of her life out in Seattle with Delilah and a belly dance troupe named Raqs Serpentine.

Loves being a part of the artistic community,
Burning Man- https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-burning-man-theme-tickets-dates-outfits-2018-8
She-Wolf- https://www.shewolfsacred.org/community
Beastwomen- https://beastwomen.com/

Foster Beach Chicago Full Moon Jam- https://www.fullmoonjam.org/

Tiki Basement Bar circa 1940’s

Blackberry Doobie (not Ellens grandmas recipe)

https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/fruit-dessert/aunt-joshia-maes-blackberry-doobie.html

World Music/Middle Eastern

Clotaire K https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh7pt9FFonY Lebanese rap

Melanie Durrant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk2LFpv551M Canadian singer soul/funk

Rodrigo y Gabriela https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qgum7hFXk Spanish guitar duo

Zachary J. Mechlem - Sameera  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK7rEOjW6YA Belly dance music 

Transcript

spk_0:   0:01
Hey, everybody, Welcome back to what Can you tell me? The podcast? This is part two of last week's episode with veterinarian Dr Ellen Boy. If he didn't already listen to Episode seven, then go back and listen to that one. So Episode eight makes sense.

spk_1:   0:15
So, um and then we didn't even get into the social life in New Orleans. Oh, my God. New

spk_0:   0:24
Orleans. I don't know anything about that.

spk_1:   0:26
You talk about that? I was crazy time in my life. Let me tell you, I lived in the by water when it was not such a za. Nice place. That is is it is today when I was definitely the ninth Ward when I was like, Oh, you in the Ninth Ward, Like you, My Aunt Marie, who grew up in New Orleans. When I told her where I live, she was like, No and not say if you cannot live here, she was like, That's the ninth Ward. I was like, Yeah, I could walk to the quarter from there, so that was

spk_0:   0:58
a good thing. Ah, a few late nights, I imagine.

spk_1:   1:01
Imagine? Yeah. Just a few. Maybe once or twice. You know everybody there was a caricature. Nobody was just a regular person, you know, like a mundane person. Everything was, like so crazy. I after the very last year we were there, we lived. We moved up to immensity, and my neighbor across the street was this guy who used to play. There's a big dude, real big football player. Everybody called him big school because he was

spk_0:   1:31
so big smolders.

spk_1:   1:33
Yeah, he was all swole up because he's big. He used to be a gangster, but he had seen the light and was no longer lived that life. And I traveled around the world baptizing people and doing acts of strength for Jesus. And so he was really cool guy. And he had this pit bull named Baby that would patrol the yard when he wasn't there. He was like, the greatest guy, Randy, you know? Hey, was he's big swell. And he would do things like, you know, walk us down to the, you know, to the cornerstone. Make sure you know that we were gonna be okay and that kind of thing, like everything was like that. And everybody was like that. And everybody you know, was your best friend. the moment you meet them and that kind of thing. But, you know, and then I

spk_0:   2:20
like those kind of people,

spk_1:   2:21
right? Exactly. And you know, we did crazy stuff like, the cool thing about New Orleans is there is this huge range of stuff you can do and sort of debauchery at every level and station of society like it doesn't matter. You know what kind of your having like it if it's the debutante kind of a day? Or if it's like the gutter punk time of your life like there is, there is, like something for everybody. It doesn't matter what your poison is. They you

spk_0:   2:57
give crystal meth and you get crystal meth

spk_1:   2:59
and you get everything from the high society balls and for those things to in secret, secret society balls where they really is a secret. And people really don't know who's who are truly who's in my organization and that kind of thing. Scott, those kind of crazy debaucheries things. We were your evening gowns and out all night and watch this come up and then walking, wandering in the streets to so crazy crazy times. But yeah, but then

spk_0:   3:34
so eso Seattle

spk_1:   3:37
Yeah, we left Seattle. And whenever we left New Orleans and moved directly to Seattle, so it's a bit of a culture shock. Uh, yeah. Uh, it was like, Whoa. What? Who?

spk_0:   3:49
Yeah, totally different. Also very cold and rainy. A lot

spk_1:   3:54
different. Yeah, exactly. Totally different. So

spk_0:   3:57
you were there for 4.5 years. When When did you guys finally, depending back to Chicago.

spk_1:   4:02
We were actually there for a little Well, after a few years after that too, huh? Yeah, we stayed there always. We were really enjoying the West Coast. And so we After I graduated, I had just had my my son, Malcolm, my older son. And so, yeah, I had him while writing my dissertation, so had a baby and wrote a dissertation that is not

spk_0:   4:26
like you things I will never be doing

spk_1:   4:32
after that. I decided that, you know, maybe I would do some clinical medicine for a little bit more to just to kind of take stock of where I want to go, because I was kind of like I don't wanna to work in academia do that. I don't know how what sort of my niche is gonna be I didn't know if I wanted to go back to the zoo community doing what, exactly what I was doing before. I was had done a lot more wildlife and done more sort of evolutionarily based research looking at animal systems. And so I was really more interested in sort of bigger questions at that point. But I didn't necessarily want to go to university and follow that route. So I started really thinking about clinical medicine again and how I was going to be this sort of link between the laboratory and the field and working with animals in captivity and that kind of thing and wouldn't Where was I gonna do it? And also, I had a young child and we needed some money cause I was had been in school forever. Yeah, you know, I

spk_0:   5:36
know that feeling at all.

spk_1:   5:37
So it was like, All right, So you are a doctor. Put your shit to work. So I was like, you got a date. So I started doing some more clinical medicine and was, like, you know, clinical medicine and and stuff is pretty cool, too. I can't do some cool things here and started to get back into it from Started doing more pet medicine and moved back

spk_0:   6:00
here being in Seattle filler.

spk_1:   6:01
Yes. Still be there being in Seattle. But very soon after it started doing that, Jeff and I decided that we wanted to get closer to family, and we did not want to have to spend $4000 every time we wanted to go see our family. It is now that we were like a growing family, it was like, Oh, my gosh, Plane tickets And this and that. So my sister was living in Chicago, and it was just kind of a no brainer for us to come back here. So just like you,

spk_0:   6:29
and that was what year

spk_1:   6:30
that was. I want to say 2008 maybe. Okay. No. Yeah. 2008 I think. Yeah. Back here to Chicago. Yeah.

spk_0:   6:41
Okay. And then what? Would you start working when you come back to Chicago?

spk_1:   6:45
And I started doing just, like, contract work like relief work at all the different area clinics. Like I had a couple are a few that I that I worked with and just filled in because,

spk_0:   6:55
like a typical veterinary hospital, you're talking

spk_1:   6:57
about Yeah, like a typical private practice that you take your your your neighborhood bet you take your dog to get vaccinated. It was an added bonus that it did have exotics experience. And I knew some stuff about birds and stuff so I could see exotic. So there are a lot of people who can do that. So I was able to do really work. And I did some relief work, and soon after I got back here, I am pregnant again with my second child. Logan, You know, at that time was like, Well, I'm gonna take on full time job right now and then be away from my child all the time. So I just started to do relief work and contribute that way. Then when I was ready to come back to work full time, I had a place out in the burbs that I worked. But I the the commute I couldn't stand and then ended up a little house where I stayed for a good little while, was ready to move on from there and at Midwest Bird and Exotics right now, and have some other crazy schemes up my sleeve to come soon. But I have since I've been back in clinical medicine is just kind of the way I don't know is maybe it's just the way I think about things that when I get when I started to get into something, I just really get excited about it. And then it's like, Oh, well, of course I can have my niche here in clinical medicine again. And I can be a part of this growing community of of pet bird owners and really teach people how to make sure that they are owning If they are gonna own a bird that they're not, you know that it's going to be done in a way that's humane for the birds. So it's life is is a good that, you know, has a good quality of life. And then also maybe we should even just pick some birds like chicken, who are actually domesticated and kind of like people and benefit from being around people. You know, those air birds that are great birds. To have his pet.

spk_0:   8:48
Who could these weird chicken people be?

spk_1:   8:50
I don't know. No. And things kind of like, you know, Quayle. I mean Oh, my God, They're so cute. Those little quail

spk_0:   8:59
button quail I want so badly. Still trying to convince Emily That should be the next purchase. But we actually met because of our chickens, right?

spk_1:   9:07
Yes, you do. And that is how we we know each other from our escapades with a madam. Isa. I

spk_0:   9:15
said the miracle chicken.

spk_1:   9:16
He's a miracle Chicken way

spk_0:   9:19
Have this chicken. That's when she was not even six months old. Decided she would eat a ridiculous amount of gravel. I don't even know how we figured it out. Oh, it was cause her crop, which is kind of their belly part that you can feel on the outside, was super like rock hard legitimately. It wasn't soft and squishy, and we thought that was a bad thing. And so we bring it to the vet and we meet the lovely Dr Boyd at Animal House of Chicago and we get an X ray done, and this thing is full of gravel. And she has chosen to eat all the sand and gravel in the Cooper on that. Ah, they do eat some amount of rocks to help him digest with, but this one decided to eat all the rocks to digest with. And so we were, I think, genuinely concerned that she wasn't gonna make it. You were like, I don't know that there's anything I can do that's not going to just probably killer to savor. And so we brought her home and we tried to make her comfortable in the house, and she stayed in a little basket at

spk_1:   10:16
home. We did. You know, we anesthetized her older. I scooped out all the gravel so scooped out because it's the crop is right there is actually just before the stomach. It's just before the four exits this out. How ching of the esophagus. And it's not too far down, especially in a large enough animal, like a chicken, where you could reach down and just grab it. We anesthetized her the you know, the endotracheal tube in and capture airway safe and flushed and scooped. Literally. I have this instrument called a correct, and it literally looks like a scoop like ice cream scoop and used that to scoop everything out and then flushed and, you know, kind of held her upside down. Let everything all the grab fallout we could and then she. But she did have quite a bit of damage to mucosa of the esophagus there. So it was, like, really, really raw inflamed and had a lot of abrasions on it from all of that, and it was also very stretched out to So there had to be some contraction time, so we didn't really know she was gonna make it just because of all the damage that had been done to the esophagus and the crop, I really didn't have that much hope that she would I thought were like, Oh, God, her crop is gonna just

spk_0:   11:40
Yeah, And I think I was doing a gig in New York at the time. Like for 45 days, I flew to New York and was doing, Ah, gig for Hendricks gin. And so I'm over there and Emily calls me and he says now in a basket in our bedroom, just kind of in the dark, like we're keeping her calm and we have food and water in front of her. But she's not eating, She's not drinking, she's not moving, and we're basically assuming she's going to die in this basket and rather appropriately timed for this week being Easter. But on the third day Isa wakes up, takes a giant dump and starts eating water and drinking water and eating food and just, like, starts packing around like nothing's going on. And she seemed to be perfectly happy from that moment forward. So,

spk_1:   12:20
yeah, until the door had slammed are

spk_0:   12:22
Yeah, until one day Ah, we had a friend over who was going to say hi to me in the garage and unfortunately, closed the garage side door on her. Not realized. Yes, accidentally, Completely. She was stepping over the threshold, which is about 45 inches high, and he closed the door behind him, not paying attention. Why would you? You know, you're not expecting a chicken there. And so it broke her leg basically clean in half, just above the Scalea part, right in like the meat of the drumstick area, which you can then explain all the fun,

spk_1:   12:53
which was the femur, which was which is near impossible to fix. You normally have to have a very complicated sort of K e apparatus that it is off of the leg with pins coming out in all directions and you know, on different planes so that you don't get rotation and that kind of stuff. There are things about the angles and the planes that you have to in the number of planes that you have to fix a bone in to make sure it is actually not moving so that you don't get any movement at the fracture and that kind of thing. And that stuff is really, really difficult to manage him, especially in a big, heavy bird like a chicken, their bodies, or just so they're heavy bodied. And so it was really difficult to do the pinning and and all of the things that were required to to make sure that that leg would heal. And I really think that, honestly, there was some movement. That's why it took ASL long as it did to hell, I think a little bit of movement. I mean, also, she was in the laying process, so yeah, her body was mobilizing calcium instead of laying it down. Finally, after God months, four

spk_0:   14:03
to six months. I think we had her and I built a little wheelchair for her. I'll have to put some pictures there of that.

spk_1:   14:09
Yeah, yeah, her beautiful cart, Yes, and which is inspiration for another patient of mine. Um, who is dislocated? Its stifle in a little Quayle, who's hopefully will be able to make a little cart a Lego cart for her.

spk_0:   14:24
And that's the stifle is what

spk_1:   14:26
you have. The cycle is the knee. Excuse me? The truck. So everybody asked about why? Birds, knees, quote unquote been backwards. Me? That's actually

spk_0:   14:35
factual. Their ankle, right?

spk_1:   14:36
Yes. Yeah, yeah, I know what I'm talking about us. What you dio the quail is like a miniature chicken. So

spk_0:   14:44
it's gonna have a little miniature wheelchair. Yeah, exactly. I can't wait to see this. Help Totally helped make it.

spk_1:   14:49
So Yeah, that brings us up, Teoh. Sort of. You know where that I'm where we are now? Really? You know, enjoying. I just got some chickens of my own. I was really sad about not having any birds in my own house as this craziness and weirdness that we're in with The pandemic started. I had already planned on getting chickens I had meant to each year, but I just didn't have time to had some reason why I didn't have time to you. And I thought you know what it works totally stuck in the house. We're having chicken boys. They're not going to be in school. They're gonna be scuba and chicken poop.

spk_0:   15:24
Yeah, compost. Piles of four.

spk_1:   15:27
That's right. Exactly. Been the greatest addition to our household. I love them. I'm so happy that we finally did it. I'm only mad that I didn't do it sooner.

spk_0:   15:36
Yeah, there's so much people, always Oh, man, it must take so much work. And it's like it's a much work as you want it to be. You could be like a farmer and put him in your backyard and forget about him and make sure they have food and water and you get eggs every day. Or they could be your pets that you spend your time looking at petting, holding, seeing, watching, doing. I mean, there, there endlessly entertaining to hang out with. So

spk_1:   15:56
they are. They're so much fun and they're inquisitive and they have relationships among each other. And they have relationships. You and we're going in order. Yes, exactly. And pecking order. And they have their pretty much thinking about the food. Pretty much

spk_0:   16:14
everyone thinks are animals love us. And I'm like, yeah, they know that we feed them. So I know that there's some love, but it's also if you handed them food, they would love you to.

spk_1:   16:24
So yeah, that's why we've got our little we started. Also a meal, warm culture. So now we have a little permaculture down years, so we have a bunch of meal worms, and I just had the boy, the boys when we first brought them home, they were just like, they don't like us. They keep running away. I was just given time. Just stop. Don't chase them. They'll come

spk_0:   16:42
here and now they won't let me.

spk_1:   16:43
Yeah, yeah. It's like, if you just take them a little cup and just hand feed them meal worms every single day, they will love you.

spk_0:   16:52
So you're doing live mealworms?

spk_1:   16:53
Yes. Yep.

spk_0:   16:55
Okay. We're going to show me the set up. I totally want to do this.

spk_1:   16:57
Oh, yeah. They are loving, chasing them around chasing you. Like getting mad at each other for taking the mealworms right out of the other ones Mouth. Mrs. Buckles will jump two or three feet in the air for a meal warm.

spk_0:   17:13
So I cannot wait to meet these lovely ladies.

spk_1:   17:17
Yes, their names air bureau. No sunburn. Those air, the silver lace and the golden lace Silene is the the lavender one. Very beautiful. Gri and Mrs Buckles is the black and white, the olive acre. So

spk_0:   17:33
no, my goodness. Love the names and then they'll be, you know, probably three months from now. Start laying.

spk_1:   17:39
Yes. I can't wait. I know. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see the olive eggs. All of acre, olive eggs. I can't wait to see you. I'm gonna see

spk_0:   17:48
ours. Heads are says, like the subtle ist green color like you barely pick it up like truly. If you look at it in the right light, it's not as green as it's supposed to be, which is a bummer, but it Zelda, right, Your blue. I think it is. It's the Americana. So I think that's a bluer one. But it's like the most subtle color it's really you just look at and you assume it's a white egg. Hopefully, yours are nice and dark.

spk_1:   18:09
Hopefully we'll see. I'm hoping that giving them enough for the bugs and the protein and everything is gonna really make some tasty beautiful eggs. So

spk_0:   18:18
yeah, we definitely do not hold back on snacks in our yard. That's

spk_1:   18:22
yeah. Let me ask you this. Do you do any of those little herb mixtures in your

spk_0:   18:28
I was just reading about one today for for chicken health. Uh, I we do not. I really Yeah, I really just do. Ah. Hey, that's fallen in the goat area. We'll pick some of that up and throw them in the nest box. And as you'll find out when you build more than one nest box, everybody wants to lay in the exact same nest box Yesterday opened up the coop and there was one chicken laying in there trying to lay eggs. One chicken, like legitimately beak two inches away from her face staring at her, and a the third chicken standing just behind her. Basically, like two people ready to use the same bathroom. And and you feel like you're walking in on them when they're going to the bathroom. Ah, or like somebody going to the bathroom when you open up that coop door and they turn around and look at you like

spk_1:   19:10
What are you doing? I'm trying to lay an

spk_0:   19:11
egg. It Zen literally entertaining. But no, I haven't done much with the herbs. We do, You know, all the food, the feed and all the snacks we got. We try and do. Is Aziz kind of well balanced as possible? I've been using diatomaceous earth, which is supposed to be really good for kind of keeping the pest control down inside of their stomachs, all the worms and what not? And, ah, the only other thing we've really had to add, which is actually because of the duck. But is Brewer's yeast for a nice and supplement, but nothing really nothing else for the animals. But no, I should I should look into that gross, Um, some herbs in my garden for them,

spk_1:   19:44
you know, I was thinking mostly that it would be nice smelling, you know, and that the coup would be in a little bit nicer. But I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to be some kind of a version for them. Like they would be like, Oh, my gosh. With those damn flowers in there again Oh, no.

spk_0:   20:00
I mean, I think you'll find out real quickly if they don't like it or not. That's one thing they're good at is letting you know what they do and don't

spk_1:   20:05
like e just worked. You're, you know, not enjoy their aromatherapy, you know?

spk_0:   20:12
Yeah. Okay, So what's

spk_1:   20:13
your chicken? Better God be happy. Goddamn it. You know,

spk_0:   20:17
as it. What did you tell me? What is your the kind of maybe the craziest or most fun, weird, unique animal you've ever gotten to work on?

spk_1:   20:26
What's Oh, my gosh, I have gotten to I have had the luck of working on some pretty doing some pretty wild stuff. I would say Reptiles never seize to amaze me. They are. They really are dinosaurs. Sometimes I look at them and I'm just like, how were you even alive? You're so tough. This is You've been enduring whatever wound or illness for so long. And they're like you give him fluids and then they get better. Were not always. Sometimes it can be most of the time. Actually, it's quite complicated, but they're pretty amazing. Tough animals. They can bounce back from a lot of really horrible thing. And they are like sea turtles, honestly, that live as long as or longer than people Some of them, and have seen the whole world like the entire entirety of It s

spk_0:   21:18
when the entire ocean

spk_1:   21:19
go from what half of the globe Teoh eat and then the other half of the globe delay their eggs Pretty crazy. So I've gotten I had a good, good luck of good fortune of working with sea turtles, so that was one of my one of my favorite times in my life. I learned toe love birds when I was working with the cranes at At Acres at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species. And let's see, at that time I also got to work with this crazy little cat called The Asian Fishing Cat. And it's just this, like, gray tabby cat. But it has these, like, sort of webbed feet, and they have a sort of the different shape to them. £25 cat, something like that. So they're you know, they're bigger, but they're you know, they're sort of gray tabby, and they swim and they catch fish and they're like the craziest little like little cats. So they're they're pretty wild. Yeah, they're a cat. That's when we had a lot of those at acres. Some other stuff that I have seen that really out there. The birds of prey that I have had the opportunity to work with when I was doing wildlife, that was There is nothing more satisfying. And just that will make you feel better than to see a bird of prey fly away. That was one that, you know, somebody brought into you at a wildlife clinic that would have died if you didn't administer treatments immediately and deal with whatever affliction, laceration or whatever. Ocular trauma, musculoskeletal trauma, whatever you had to deal with and been seen them through rehab and learning relearning to fly and making sure they can eat and then setting scene and fly away is just like yeah, yeah, so is free. Cool 11 time the boys and I did. We had a little hummingbird is beautiful. We only had her for a couple of weeks. She was brought CoA's, gave her some steroids because I thought, you know, potentially some head trauma and some fluids, And at the time she was she was just a fledgling and she couldn't fly. And so I would feed her nectar. And with this, this little syringe a it took, I would take flowers from the neighbor's backyard, the trumpet mine and stick it on top of the syringe. And, like theater, the little flowered

spk_0:   23:36
Serena that's brilliant and

spk_1:   23:39
finally is like Oh, God, she's not taking off. She's not flying out now if she doesn't have enough space in there like, maybe there's nothing, maybe she's not motivated to fly. Like maybe there's some signal that we're not getting. But then I was feeding or one day I, like, opened up the the container and she just, like, flew up and lets me, right, and I and I was like, Oh, my God, OK, you have to be released right now. You actually are flying. You're going. You're gonna go my great and be with where you ever you need to be. So that was pretty cool. That was just a couple of years ago, and the boys did that my my two boys at home, so that was pretty satisfying. So those

spk_0:   24:20
in my next life I'm gonna be a veterinarian.

spk_1:   24:22
You should owe you must. Yes, yes. Well, you definitely seem to have I don't know what we would. You call it the It's not a green thumb. It's ah and I don't know. Thumb tell me exactly. Yeah, Gun White

spk_0:   24:39
menagerie going on. Currently. Two rats love murder, uh, or saltwater fish in a live reef tank. And then the two Nigerian dwarf goats, six chickens and a duck. And I'm still trying to get more things crammed into this house. So just give me more space. That's what I need.

spk_1:   24:55
Yeah, exactly. Now, Oh, um, when Maybe, you know, maybe one day we'll touch on the stories about the job that I usedto have while I was in veterinary school for the guy who owned my hanky on 36 big cats in his back yard just outside Knoxville, Tennessee. And I used to go there on the weekends and clean up after the cats when I was in veterinary school. So that was one of the while a wild, crazy job that I had.

spk_0:   25:25
Have you been watching Tiger King?

spk_1:   25:27
I have not. I refuse. I have not seen one single episode and I'm not going Teoh.

spk_0:   25:33
Probably not a bad thing for somebody in your position, but it is, um, a train wreck you can't turn away from, So ensure that I can say, but you do see a lot of interesting stuff with with animals and obviously some of it for the better and much more of it for the worse. Unfortunately,

spk_1:   25:53
yes. Yeah, but I am definitely enjoying these chicken so much, just having them around and looking forward to being part a bigger part of the Belmont Feed and seed sort of Chicken e and

spk_0:   26:07
Chicago chicken landing enthusiasts.

spk_1:   26:08
Yeah, exactly. I just kinda digging into that, I think and and, you know, seeing where that can take me just cause I'm This is this is definitely the more I study birds, the more I love them. You know, I realized that, you know, when I was younger in veterinary school and what I decided that maybe birds more weren't for me, even though I was really into the zoo medicine thing. And I started afterwards, started doing so much work and wildlife, I realized that, like, well, it was because so many of those parents are such unhappy birds because they really should be in the situation that they're in. And I was studying wild birds, just made me fall in love with them and then having a bird that's actually is domesticated like a chicken who likes being around people and

spk_0:   26:57
just wants food and comfort. That's it.

spk_1:   26:59
Yeah, exactly. Food and comfort is just so much fun. It's, um, when we even

spk_0:   27:04
feel bad with our lovebirds sometimes. And a lovebird is for those who aren't really aware. It's like, you know, Tweety Bird is the kind of size it would be from from, ah, loony tunes. Maybe a little bigger than that. But it's not a big bird, and we let it free fly around our house so it can literally, you know, flap its wings many, many, many, many times. And it'll make 500 laps a day going from our kitchen to our living room and back and forth, and it's probably a straight shot of 50 to 70 feet, so it gets a good good distance, and then it makes nests in a guitar and amazing next. It's currently nesting underneath our floorboard or the kick plate, the kick board of our cabinets in the kitchen. So it likes to attack our feet when we're washing dishes so we actually have to wear slippers 24 hours a day if you're walking on the house because you will get bit in the foot by a two ounce bird. That is a miniature terrorist, and you will freak out. And so, in order to not accidentally step on it, it's like you better have foot armor on. So, uh, yeah, do you feel that way? But we feel bad sometimes. Yeah, but this is at least a bird that does get to completely stretch its wings and fly around, and then it just, you know, happy to sit half of the day on us. So we don't feel bad there, because we know it's, like, super happy to be with us, so

spk_1:   28:19
yeah. Yeah, he is. He's nachos. The cuticle cute little

spk_0:   28:23
that he is not. You got to meet one of my guests, and you've certainly your at least the second guest who's met nachos that way. Just got him a backpack. That is a bird cage bird carrier backpack. So now we can walk around the neighborhood with Nacho.

spk_1:   28:39
Nice. Nice. Well, you know, I takes Yeah, I'm definitely getting some harnesses for the chickens, and we're gonna go on a little stroll.

spk_0:   28:48
Oh, yeah.

spk_1:   28:49
As soon as you know, as soon as we can stroll.

spk_0:   28:52
Just be prepared for them to, like, only walk where they're interested in. You might make it 13 feet before they are just bored and want to go back to food. So way got your goat pretty good. Take locks.

spk_1:   29:04
Yeah. Spectral. Yeah. Yeah. Mueller. And here's no.

spk_0:   29:10
What is it? Bread crumbs from Hansel and Gretel,

spk_1:   29:12
Right. Exactly. Read. Thank you so much for having me mad. Like this has been saying, You know, her being on I have so many other quite like this could be

spk_0:   29:23
a five hour interview. This has been awesome.

spk_1:   29:25
Yeah, there was so many there. You know, there were so many little times that I was like, Oh, well, I better not go down that rabbit hole because we were You know, we want to finish this century. We don't want

spk_0:   29:34
I mean, is there

spk_1:   29:35
any specific thing you want to talk about? I'd be Apparently, I enjoyed. So I

spk_0:   29:43
I enjoy listening about yourself. So one thing we did not get a chance to talk about whatsoever is you are a belly dancer,

spk_1:   29:50
are Yes, I know. We went s o allow

spk_0:   29:55
This guy left out a

spk_1:   29:56
little. My adventures in science. We did not discuss the belly dancing, which is a

spk_0:   30:03
huge part of my

spk_1:   30:04
life, which is one of the, like really has driven me to Would some people would call crazy but sort of obsession with belly dance since I learned I when I was in Seattle and I studied with a teacher. Well, I saw Delilah in the visionary dancers in the summer solstice from a parade and Fremont and saw them dancing. And I've always been kind of, you know, belly dance. Curious, but I saw them dance, and I was like, Oh, yeah, all right. I and I immediately started classes with her and a room myself into it and would take classes with her like three nights a week while I was in graduate school up in Seattle and sometimes and then started taking classes with other teachers in the Seattle area. But really, really studying with Delilah. She was one of those people. She really was visionary, really is visionary, and I'm so glad that I had the good fortune Teoh Teoh, like, learn from her and be part of this community that she created because they were certainly lots of really talented people that she just drew to, you know, our community because of her, her vision and her ability to project and just be super huge on stage and also her sort of mission in life, which is really to sort of liberate yourself, you know? And that's really you know, what she what she does with dance and the things that that belly dance has brought me to has been really, really special. Brought me some people that I in a very short amount of time In just a couple of years, I started dancing professionally with my troop rock serpentine. And so I have my sister's Leslie and Calorie, who I still communicate with an M ever so close with today. So I have. Those

spk_0:   31:52
were in Seattle?

spk_1:   31:53
Yes, there in Seattle. Yeah. Okay. I also have, like, the artistic community here in Chicago now, because I've been part of crazy underworld of belly dents and burlesque.

spk_0:   32:05
What one might say the underbelly

spk_1:   32:07
underbelly as a

spk_0:   32:08
cooler. So thank you. You're welcome. Actually, speaking of belly joke belt belly jokes, Speaking of dad jokes the other day, we were driving down the street and I made a horrifying dad joke to some. Some guys I had made this the week before. Twice. Now I've seen somebody walking across the street during social isolation with a, uh, lacrosse goal and lacrosse sticks and lacrosse ball. And so is these two guys walked across the street the first time I did it, I was at work, and I used the loudspeaker on my police car and said, Ah, boys, make sure you look both ways before you cross the road and they kind of drone and laughed. And then the second time I did it was with Emily driving down the road, and this guy turned back to me and said, Dad jokes, Huh? And I was like, Wow, I totally just got carved out. Okay, so enough of dad jokes, No so belly dancing. And so you're in Seattle. You you obviously then continue doing it in Chicago with the groups here, as you mentioned.

spk_1:   33:02
Yes, exactly, Um, and then also have been just part of the artistic community that travels out to the desert to that thing in the desert on Burning Man regularly. So it's been a long time since I've been out there. I really haven't been doing that. But do you know there really dedicated to experiential art? So I've been doing a lot of performance in that community, just really enjoying, like absolutely everything you know that I can do, starting to make more roads into the community as sort of an artist that's looking at not only the experience of the viewer but also the experience of the artist as well, to sort of make that one of the goals of the, you know, be because you don't get paid a lot as a performance artist. Eso there really should be some benefits. I kind of think

spk_0:   34:00
well, and the good thing is that much like myself now you're not required. You're not trying to live off of this as a paycheck. You have to do a lot more stuff when when this is your sole income, you have to do a lot of stuff you don't necessarily want to do. That drags you away from kind of what you actually do want to focus on. And so the nice thing, obviously, about having a a veterinarian job, is that you can choose to focus on exactly what you want to do

spk_1:   34:26
right, exactly I don't have to take jobs I don't want to take. Yeah, yeah. I don't have Teoh. Have Teoh can't Exactly.

spk_0:   34:33
And so any obviously shows coming up is ah, bit of ah, hilarious term right now because nothing's coming up right now, But any projects you're working on at the moment that are kind of exciting

spk_1:   34:42
to you. Big Big Project She Wolf is a sort of movement experience in the dancer community. And it's not just confined to belly dance. It's their ah, a lot of artists of different types of movement. Artists involved in that and that is now has been projected to show in think November of next year. It was originally gonna be shown in September, but clearly we have not been practicing together, So So we're gonna delay that a little bit, so that should be a really big show. I mean, it may actually be turn out that it is a sort of festival weekend kind of thing because there are so many people that participate in that and then also beast women is one of my regular circuits that I perform with because I just love them and they're so much fun to work for their late night cabaret, All Women's Cabaret. And there are They do every kind of performance art. So there is everything from burlesque to music to spoken word Teoh, and it's some of the best art that I've really ever seen. I just like it because a lot of this stuff is really out there, and it's the kind of the late night show. So it's kind of one of those places where if there's something that an artist really just wants to try, and it's maybe not the mainstream, you know, burlesque dancer, that is like, Well, you know, people want to see you strip, but maybe there is more to it that they want to work with and just be really out there and dig into your dig into whatever it is you're exploring of. The B swim in the peace woman stage is the right place to do it. You can just cope, get in that, get into it and be whatever you want to be. So

spk_0:   36:31
what venue is that?

spk_1:   36:32
That's at the Prop Theater. Yeah,

spk_0:   36:34
is that monthly?

spk_1:   36:35
It's usually quarterly, so, you know, four times a year I love I just love working with them. They're super fun. And then whatever comes up, that is, you know, something that I can realistically do, You know, I do. You have a family and, you know, full time job as a doctor, you know, Got that going on to you. So

spk_0:   36:53
I do remember picking you up for the boat ride, and you were wearing a witch hat and carrying a broom. And you were practicing a witch dance routine for a

spk_1:   37:03
hell of in parade. Yes. Yes. That's one of my artistic burner community friends project that I love doing too. And that's a community project. That's one thing that I love about being able to choose my projects and the stuff I want to do because I can be a real community member and do fun projects that maybe don't always pay the rent. And I can still have a band of belly dancing which is in the Halloween parade. Make, uh,

spk_0:   37:32
you do the, uh What is it? The full moon jam or the foster beach?

spk_1:   37:37
Yes. Ideo e. Do you know I haven't been out there in a long time? I don't do it that often, but it is a super fun place. I mostly watch. I haven't performed at it in a while. But, you know, one of these days, I will dust off the old fire bullet.

spk_0:   37:53
Listen, you give me that call and I'll join you happily, okay? See some of my friends who are out there, uh, about the dust off my performance socks. I like

spk_1:   38:03
copies. Go out with a blanket and have our own fun. Absolutely. Have our own little break

spk_0:   38:08
perfect. Following all appropriate laws. Of course, because I like, not want to be a hypocrite,

spk_1:   38:13
right? Well, you know, for my own jam, they are quite serious about making sure that all safety is

spk_0:   38:21
well, one must when there's fire and what not? And that's one thing I will say. They are very good about keeping things in check because they know that they're the first ones to lose out if they do mess up in any big way. So

spk_1:   38:34
right and

spk_0:   38:34
only affects them.

spk_1:   38:35
Yeah, and also, they just don't want anybody to get hurt. There's that. Yeah. You truly want to sell to BC?

spk_0:   38:44
Yeah, a lot of my circus friends are into that whole thing, and I've never been out there in all my years in Chicago. And finally, if I know, right, I need to finally Well, for so long I was just always performing and always busy. And now I'm busy working. And there's just always been a reason why I couldn't make it to Ah, a late night moonlit fun jam which there should be no reason not to make it. I should absolutely be making it every second, but But I did.

spk_1:   39:09
You're a musician to do you do you drummed You do rhythm and stuff?

spk_0:   39:13
No, I may. Ah, bagpiper an accordion player. You could maybe a didgeridoo. I could bring a didgeridoo along, but then I can't pocket amount of breath. And you know I like rock eggs. I

spk_1:   39:25
do? Yes, I do know that one thing about you,

spk_0:   39:27
Aziz, we go two hours into this conversation.

spk_1:   39:30
I know, I know. I was thinking the same thing. Oh, I didn't show you this. This was something that just that What is my chicken picture?

spk_0:   39:41
Oh, my gosh. Where's the chicken? Who did that?

spk_1:   39:43
Like a Ty Wilson chicken picture.

spk_0:   39:46
So fun, you're gonna have to take a picture and send it to me so we can share with the world what it is. Okay. And you're recording in a very fun spot, which is your way to tell me about? No, you didn't. And this is a place I've been fortunate to visit a couple times, but definitely look forward to coming back

spk_1:   40:01
to. Yeah, the whole basement is here. In my house is really a gorgeous, circa, sort of 19 forties tiki bar that is in south seen specific style. There is this gorgeous wood paneling that is faux bamboo, and everything is trimmed in, really and do I think? And what's the park? A faux bamboo child's or the best and a lovely, lovely full size are. And with bar stools? Yes, with bar stools, docks as well, by the way. And there's a gorgeous mural on the wall of the south put southeast sort of South Pacific scene. That

spk_0:   40:43
was that there when you bought the place.

spk_1:   40:44
Yes, it came with. They almost try to take it with him, and we were like, Uh, no way you can do that.

spk_0:   40:51
Absolutely not attached to the wall, It ours, and especially if you got a tiki bar. It's this the Uh, yeah. I don't look forward to being back in that any any favorite tiki drinks. Actually, this is a good Segway into some questions. I like to ask people, but I'll start first with what's what's one of your favorite drinks, then

spk_1:   41:06
really a mojito is my faith.

spk_0:   41:10
OK? Do we do a mojito in a normal glass? Or that we have a fun tiki glass for the bar?

spk_1:   41:14
Oh, you know what? Actually, for the mojito, I like to do just a nice clear glass. I am really a traditionalist when it comes to them of uto. You know, you wouldn't think it was such a hard thing to make nurse like three ingredients. But there is an art to it and to really keep it simple. And that's the best thing. Other than that, I mean, you know who doesn't love a margarita or, you know, some sangria force with my junkie friends. Beyond that, I have to say, I I do like just some good solid drinks, like some whiskey, you know, you up in that kind of thing, give

spk_0:   41:47
it some bourbon.

spk_1:   41:49
But that being said, I can always go for a frilly drink with some umbrellas in it.

spk_0:   41:55
As as you mean. If you got a tiki bar, you should. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay? And then growing up, what was one of your favorite foods is a kid or maybe one of like, grandma's. Like it could be anything

spk_1:   42:05
Well poundcake. Oh, jeez. Yeah. Oh, you know what? No, no, this was the best. My grandmother's BlackBerry doobie. What

spk_0:   42:15
is that BlackBerry do be? Because I'm thinking of something very different.

spk_1:   42:18
Different? I know. No doubt. Blackberry doobie is kind of like it like a collar, except it's made in just on the stovetop in a pot instead of having like a crust on the top. You just you you take the dough and you just a dollop it in there. So it has, like dough balls like dumplings. You know, like it's just like this. It turned out to be just the saucy blueberry goop with

spk_0:   42:44
saucy blueberry.

spk_1:   42:46
Yeah, with dollops of dough. Does

spk_0:   42:49
Ellen have a recipe for said blueberry doobie?

spk_1:   42:53
E o D o. Liver? Yeah, you

spk_0:   42:57
know, I said blueberry,

spk_1:   42:58
blackberry, BlackBerry, db. And yes, I do you know what? I haven't made it in a 1,000,000 years.

spk_0:   43:05
you can share that with me. I would love Teoh, a big man of learning people's favorite dishes from childhood and beyond.

spk_1:   43:14
Yeah, way would see. The thing is, is that all my grandmother's farm? We used tohave. Teoh would give us each a giant bucket in the middle of the summer when we were annoying her kids. Yep. And you would have to go get the blackberries. She would tell you do not come back to the house without that thing fools. And so we would start filling it up. And the blackberries, you know, if it was a summer time, is there pretty good? So we would start eating them, and then it would be like, Oh, way have the heat going with But out here, Really four hours and way once you one for me. One for you, One for me? Yeah. And so that was really my grandmother's way. Uh, keeping her hair.

spk_0:   44:00
Okay. And, uh, what about one of my favorite bar activities, which is karaoke?

spk_1:   44:06
Very hokey. You know, I enjoy karaoke. A. I don't do it that often, but I do enjoy it. But right over here, just down the way on cow What is it? No, no, you can't for your Lincoln, Lincoln. Lincoln? Um, yeah,

spk_0:   44:19
the cove. I think it is

spk_1:   44:20
a cove, right? Yeah.

spk_0:   44:22
Yeah. So a friend of mine had his birthday party there, and I forget what I was doing that evening. But I decided I'm gonna show up for his birthday party. And I came in full bagpipe outfit, kilt shirt, tie spats, the whole legging What? Not and my bagpipes. And while he was in the karaoke e booth with, like, 12 friends, I stood just outside and right as a song came to an end, I, uh I struck in my bagpipes and started playing Happy Birthday on the bagpipes for him. And everybody in that place went ape shit. Crazy and thunderous applause ensued, as it should. I don't know. I think we need to get I have a karaoke microphone that just hooks up to, like, a YouTube video. And you use that as the music and I'll have to bring that over and we can do some people. Come on. Maybe that's my donation to the basement, cause I don't use it nearly as much.

spk_1:   45:15
Yeah. Oh, man, that would be awesome. I mean Oh, yeah, That would be so much fun.

spk_0:   45:19
Okay. And any favorite? Any favorite tunes? What's your What's your go to?

spk_1:   45:23
I have to say, Captain and Tennille, so pick one for me. Oh, well, keep us together is one of my favorite ones They keep us

spk_0:   45:32
to give Ah, whatever. Yeah, I need to figure out how to make this work the ah, via podcast and, like, make make somebody do a karaoke duet with me any time and

spk_1:   45:44
you will be shocked and amazed at Jefferies. Elvis Impression it is nice is you will be shocked and amazed. I greatly look forward. Yeah, actually has a very quite lovely voice. Mostly the young Elvis. So

spk_0:   46:01
Okay, Yeah, sure. Three years where he was, you know, not terrifyingly fat and disgusting. I'm sorry. This is ghost. I'm not insulting you. Um, okay, well, and then that brings a nice segue way to Ah, What What is in your playlist? What do you like to listen to, or do you have time or or is that

spk_1:   46:19
video? I constantly listen to music, actually. Let's see. Right now, you know, I have a lot of world music because they listen to a lot of belly dance music and a lot of Middle Eastern music, actually, and trying to think of Ah, cold air que where they they speak French? Because all their lyrics Aaron French. So

spk_0:   46:41
I could be Lebanon.

spk_1:   46:42
Yes. I think there they may be Lebanese. Yeah, they are amazing rap group out of Maybe he's actually,

spk_0:   46:50
yeah, they speak French, and I was supposed to go to a show in Lebanon and I was leaving on a Saturday. It was gonna be a six week long show and two days before I left that Thursday, I get Ah, this is why when Emily and I had been broken up for that that little window of time, the girl I was dating calls me frantically. She's like,

spk_1:   47:06
you can't go to Lebanon. They were just blown up by Israel.

spk_0:   47:09
And I'm like, you're being ridiculous. And then I turned on the news, and this was when they had in No, I think 5 2006 s 2006. They have gotten a little skirmish with Israel and Israel. Sort of blew up the runways of the airport because they were retaliating for some soldiers that have been killed. And so I never got to spend my time in Lebanon. But I was super excited cause I'm like, I will just speak French with them the whole time. So they don't think I'm the typical ignorant American.

spk_1:   47:36
Well, you never got. I

spk_0:   47:38
did not. So someday I'll have to go back if if my visit to Israel didn't put a black stamp on my passport for their purposes, but we'll see. We will see. Okay. No, I want totally added. And I created a playlist recently of all the music people have been telling me on my podcast, and it's been awesome having all this new music to listen to. So

spk_1:   47:55
hot love, cold hair.

spk_0:   47:57
OK, so cold air and and anyone else that you Ah, you want to recommend there?

spk_1:   48:01
Oh, Melanie Durant, You're gonna love her.

spk_0:   48:04
Okay? Melanie Durant's And what kind of music is Melanie Durant?

spk_1:   48:07
She is sort of soul R and B, and she is almost Motown style new, but, you know, almost Motown style. Oh, do you know Rodrigo E. Gabriella? You see,

spk_0:   48:21
I know the name, but I don't know that I could say anything. I've actually listened to of theirs,

spk_1:   48:25
But I'm sure I

spk_0:   48:26
have. And then I'm like, Oh, yeah, of course,

spk_1:   48:28
Yeah, The guitar do their amazing Amazing. And then I was gonna give you one more Zachary Met clam. And the name of the album is Sameera But his negus his name is Zachary Macklin.

spk_0:   48:42
Absolutely have to put that into the What can you tell me? Playlist I've got going on Spotify

spk_1:   48:47
those air Cem, those Middle Eastern ones, Those air They're not, like super traditional there really modern postmodernists and and really funky. That's one of my favorite things about Middle Eastern music is that it's got this. The rhythms air really long and complicated. And it's got this sort of like the way they fall on the beat in the way that the rhythms go that have this hesitation to them the same way that does. You know, it's it's really just very guttural and really

spk_0:   49:17
almost like it makes for good belly dancing music or something,

spk_1:   49:20
right? Or something like that. Yeah,

spk_0:   49:22
on I am. Oh, man. I'm so excited to listen to this. I have been loving the new music I've been hearing and sharing it with everyone and getting it shared with me. Um, OK, and then when I assume now you're you're working a little farther away from home. But in general, you kind of a car, a bike or public transportation, sort of a gal.

spk_1:   49:40
In general, I'm public transportation and bike. You know, I used to have my life all set up so that I didn't even have to get like, I could walk everywhere. You were

spk_0:   49:50
like locks from work, right?

spk_1:   49:51
Yeah, I used to be. And that is not the case anymore. And then also some cool projects that I might be doing as faras. You know, just working with people in their homes to bring them veterinary care. Just myself is a contract yet, so I guess I'll be in the car more. And I'm already in the car a lot going now to work down at Midwest. Burdened, exotic. So there. That's down in Elmwood Park. It's not that it's super far. It's just that the way that the highways work out here in Chicago, it's like it's kind of a difficult route to go from where I live, you know, it's not like there's no direct route.

spk_0:   50:26
Well, you're north and west. So you have to go south and east into downtown, and then you kind of end up going straight south to slightly west again,

spk_1:   50:34
right? Exactly. So the row usually take is just towards o hare. And then I go self from there. Just still try to avoid the downtown craziness. There's that. Oh,

spk_0:   50:42
so you do a wrap around.

spk_1:   50:44
I mean, right now it's totally worth it. I really love working for them. They know they've been really good to me in the middle of this crazy, weird time that we've been having and I really love. I think their medicine is spot on. I'm really happy to be in a place where everybody is looking to improve their medicine and really work really hard on Stan and really interested in that they're doing. That's the thing. It's just it's not that people are trying to be competitive. It's just that people like what they do. So

spk_0:   51:13
yeah, well, I don't want to say I can't wait to like it to visit you down there someday, but I just gonna come for a visit. How about that? Cause I don't wanna bring any of the animals you're gonna come over and we're gonna have a vet playdate in the backyard

spk_1:   51:25
with Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah. The all the hens and the and the chick ease needs some, you know, their regular care.

spk_0:   51:33
They do. Also, the goats would like a manicure one of these fine days. So if

spk_1:   51:36
you could help with trimming of the hoods, that would be fine. Yeah, well, Elijah and you know, we haven't understanding, so

spk_0:   51:45
I'm glad to hear that. Hopefully he won't head. But, you know, understanding is

spk_1:   51:49
mostly that I will, yes, allow that they are under.

spk_0:   51:55
So I built a brand new. Yeah. In my day off yesterday, I built a wooden shays lounge with, like, a articulating back that leans up so you can obviously sit up like a deck chair would want or ah, you know, lounging chair would. And I put it in the yard, all proud of myself, and I go inside and I'm drinking some coffee and I look out back and he's scratching his head on the edge and then just starts head butting it until he knocks it over. And I'm like, Thank you. You wonderful little. That's my boy.

spk_1:   52:25
That means he loved me. Delight! It does well.

spk_0:   52:30
You have been an absolute delight to talk. Teoh. I am so glad I got to learn this much about your life. And I hope everybody had a great time listening

spk_1:   52:38
like our adventures. My friends think this has been a super fun time and I can't wait to have more adventurous And I can't wait to hear more about all these people that you're meeting. I can't wait to listen, Teoh. The next episode.

spk_0:   52:51
Well, guess what? That drive the Elmwood Park is the perfect time to listen to what can you tell me? The podcast. By that Robin, do I have to give a commercial for myself when people are probably listening to me?

spk_1:   53:03
I know, right? Thistles brought from that rope in Brought to you by that rubbish

spk_0:   53:10
by Matt Roman Edited by Matt Robbins. Well, thank you. You are awesome. Ellen and I look forward to our next boat ride, which had or no? Which at

spk_1:   53:19
Oh, thank you so much. And thank you for having me. I've had such a great time.

spk_0:   53:23
Yeah, all right. Billions of people doing millions of things on this planet. I want to learn about all of it. More in focus. Www dot What? Can you tell me dot com and follow me on social media to find other links in the description below. What can you tell me? The podcast. Hey, if you're enjoying the podcast, please do me a huge favor that only take a moment of your time and won't cost you anything. Share with your friends. A quick message on social media or just mentioning in a conversation would be great. Also, leave me a review on iTunes. Thanks.