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Hello, and welcome to Karen's Medical cor.

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I'm Karen O'Day. I'm a family
nurse practitioner and a
certified nurse midwife,

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owner and practitioner at
Evercare Family Practice.

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Today we're doing a
podcast called, it Took,

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but a kiss.

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And this podcast is one that's very close
to my heart because it really helped

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put into perspective things that
were important in my life. You know,

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over the past several years with
Covid, everybody's life has changed.

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Not only individuals who had themselves

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or family members or friends that were
devastated by this absolutely horrible

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virus, but medical professionals as well.

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I don't think anybody can say
that they weren't somehow impacted

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by the Covid 19 virus, and
were still impacted today.

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But I think 2020 and 2021
were really hard years for

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everybody. There was a lot of
suffering, a lot of people passed,

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a lot of people lost loved ones,

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and it really plummeted a lot of
people into a really dark place.

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It affected not only their work,

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but I was seeing patients
on a daily basis that we're

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really suffering from anxiety, depression,
post-traumatic stress disorder.

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And that really over time takes a toll

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on the healthcare provider. It's hard.
It's hard to see your patients suffer.

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It's heartbreaking. It's hard to see
patients pass. It is devastating.

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And when this whole
pandemic first started,

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we never closed our business.
My husband's business was open,

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and I was open for business because
we're healthcare and we have a

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responsibility to our patients to
provide healthcare no matter what,

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no matter if there's a pandemic, no
matter if it's cold and flu season,

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no matter what's going on, we're there.

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And we were there every single day.

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I took call 24 7 as needed for
patients through the entire pandemic.

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And I realized shortly into the
pandemic when patients were suffering,

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most of the patients that I was seeing
were telehealth because we were shut down

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all the, as far as inpatient
visits, unless it was an urgent,

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uh, or emergent situation.

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And then we were allowed to have patients
come into the clinic. We were all, uh,

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geared up testing for
Covid, uh, ourselves,

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making sure that, you know,

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we had everything to regulation for
the state and for the feds so that

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we kept ourselves and our patients safe.
And it was just a really hard time.

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And probably three months into the
shutdown, I told my husband, I said,

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I don't know if I can keep this up.
This is affecting my mental health. I,

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these patients are suffering and
I can't fix what's happening.

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I can only be there. And he
told me at that time, he said,

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you have to find a way to somehow

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detach your emotions from what
you're having to deal with,

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or you are gonna go crazy. And he
was right. Did I find that way?

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Not really, not too much, because
that's not my personality.

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My personality is such that I really

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empathize with patients
and how they're feeling.

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Although I was able to, to a degree,

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put myself in a bubble and change
my behavior during that time.

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But that also took a toll on
me because that's not who I am.

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And so I found myself, you
know, with all of us globally,

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shut down, socially isolated, not
able to do things that we enjoyed,

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and having that anxiety on what's gonna
happen next? What happens tomorrow?

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What happens in the next
hour? What happens next week?
Who knows? We don't know.

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And over a two year period of time,

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increasing numbers of
patients to a point of 2000

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patients in our office.

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And one practitioner was just building
up to where I really felt like I was

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turning into a robot. I was going
to work, and then I was coming home,

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going to bed, getting up a repeat.

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That's what I did the last
four months of this last year,

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seven days a week.

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So when they opened up our state and
when the nation started to open back up

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and the world started to open it back up,

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we started little by little doing
things to get out into society.

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So we weren't so socially
isolated, but it was weird.

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It was weird to be shut down and drive
to work for a year and a half and have

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nobody on the roads.

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And then you're in a situation where
you're starting to re submerge yourself

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into society and do things.

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And so one of the things that
we did last year in 2021 is

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what we love to do every year,

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which is to go to the
Roswell Alien Festival over

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the July 4th weekend.

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And my son and his girlfriend flew out
from Seattle because she had never been

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there, and my son hadn't been in a
few years, and they all wanted to go.

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So we're sitting at a restaurant, and
this is towards the end of the festival.

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And my son says, you wanna
go on a kiss cruise mom?

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And I said, what? I said,
uh, are you talking to me?

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And he said, yeah, do you wanna
go on a kiss cruise? And I said,

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what is a KISS cruise? And he said,
it's a cruise that's put on by kiss,

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and I want you to go with me. And I
looked at his girlfriend and I said, well,

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what about Laren? Is she
gonna go? And she said,

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Nope, <laugh>. And I said,

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why do you want your mom to go on
a kiss cruise with you? I said,

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what about your friends? Don't you wanna
take your friends? And he said, mom,

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he said, you took me to my first
KISS concert in Vegas. And he said,

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this is probably gonna be their
last cruise where they're in makeup,

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and I wanna take you to see them
on their last cruise in their

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full attire. And so I thought about it,

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and I haven't been on a
vacation with my son since

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2007. I love the band kiss.

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And he said there were gonna be a lot of
other bands there. And so I said, okay,

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sign me up. I'm gonna go.
And, uh, shortly after that,

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um, I had to have some
vaccines. Not for this cruise,

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but for another trip that was planned.

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And I had a severe reaction to the
rabies vaccine, went into liver failure,

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kidney failure, uh,

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developed basically d
i c where I was very,

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very sick for an extended period
of time. And, uh, but again,

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didn't stop working. I was at work
every single day. And, uh, so I,

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I started to get concerned about my
health. You know, I mean, what's going on?

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Why is this happening?
And I realized, you know,

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your mental health directly affects
your physical health. I mean,

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I had never had a reaction to a vaccine
like that in my life. And I thought,

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well, you know, I'll go on this vacation,

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this weeklong vacation on a kiss cruise,

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leaving out of la going to Cabo San Lucas
back through Ensenada and back home.

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And, you know, it'll be fun. It'll
be, it'll be good with my son.

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We'll have some quality time
together. And so the time came, uh,

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I think it was,

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I'm gonna have to look down because I
wanna make sure I have the date right.

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But it started on October
24th, which is when we set,

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set, set sale. And, um,

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we show up, we go through, you know,

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the whole boarding on a cruise. And
I've been boarded on a cruise before,

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but it was a little bit
different on this cruise.

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We were waiting in the
holding area to get on,

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and all these people are all
there in their kiss attire.

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One guy I saw was amazing.

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He had tattoos of KISS
all over, I mean sleeves.

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He had the kiss jacket on.

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It was something I only
remember from when I was a kid.

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And they had the whole kind of
holding area with the kiss crews,

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you know, waiting to, uh, board.

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And everybody was there just having
a good time. Everybody was relaxed.

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Nobody was rushed, nobody looked stressed.

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It was just a bunch of old guys and
gals like me and a few young ones

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like my son and a few kids just
waiting to have a good time.

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And so we boarded the cruise and you know,

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I've been on cruises before and I
thought, yeah, you know, this'll be great.

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It'll be fun. And oh my gosh,

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when Kiss Now they were
not in their full attire.

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They did not have their makeup
on, but they did the Sailaway, uh,

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concert.

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And it was completely like
I was transformed back in

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time, back to the 1970s when I was
a kid, when I first heard kiss.

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And just thinking about it
is making me shake right now.

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It was something I can't even describe,

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but it was like that social isolation,
that depression, that anxiety,

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that post-traumatic stress that I
was feeling with all of my patients

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was gone. It was gone.

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And I could not believe it.

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And so we listened for
over an hour to kiss,

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just playing their songs, just having a
good time, just talking to the audience.

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And, you know,

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I was nervous prior to getting on
the ship because I don't smoke,

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I don't drink, I don't party.

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I'm your typical total
grade, a number one nerd.

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If there's ever a nerd, it's me.

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And I loved Kiss when I was a kid,
but I wasn't cool like my friends,

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you know, we,

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I I wasn't really allowed to listen to
Kiss music because my parents listened to

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old country, which is fine. I like all
genres of music. I think it's all good.

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I think you can find quality
in any form of music.

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So when I would listen to Kiss, you
know, when I was listening on that boat,

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I was transformed kind of back in time.

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I was just transported back in
time to my best friend's house

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and sitting on the floor with her
green shag carpet while her mom

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was at work,

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and her older sister and
two older sisters and

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our two friends across the street just
listening to Kiss music. And of course,

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they would be dancing to Kiss
music, and I was too shy.

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I would just be sitting there
wishing I was cool like them.

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And so my son and I were up on
the deck, not down on the floor,

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kind of center stage outside where
usually they have the, the big pool.

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And what was so amazing is there were
people in the hot tub listening to Kiss.

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There were people on the deck,
there were people down center stage,

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and everybody was just having a
good time. And it just, it was like,

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it was magical. And after Kiss
played and we sailed away,

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the bands were gonna be
playing this whole time.

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So this was just like a party rock
and roll cruise. It was just amazing.

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Something I'd never experienced when
I'd been on cruises before I went to the

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art shows. And, you know, I went to
the, you know, the, the different,

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uh, shows that they had with
the showgirls and everything,

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but I had never done anything like this.

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And so we go to our room and I find this

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waiting for us. It was so amazing.
So we got all this KISS memorabilia.

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They gave us this snow globe. Actually,

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I have two because they
tried to confiscate my sons
coming back through, uh,

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customs and at the airport,
which was not gonna happen.

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This is like super special.

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We got our dog tags into the Kiss Navy,

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which was absolutely
amazing. Got some key chains,

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which was also fantastic. But
that wasn't the best part.

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The best part was actually listening

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to these performers talk. I
mean, the songs were great.

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The music was fantastic. I
felt like I was a kid again.

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But listening to how their
lives had progressed,

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history as they called it,
was absolutely phenomenal.

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They p played Kiss History on
the TV in our room and our,

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on our crews 24 7 from their
movies to their concerts,

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to their backstage, you know,
groupy Girls, which, you know,

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obviously I would, was never anything
pretty enough to be like that,

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but I didn't care. I just liked the
music. And they had tons of bands. Now,

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this is where I have
to have some of my, uh,

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some of my stuff because actually we,
we set Sail on Monday, October 24th,

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and I'm gonna bend down,

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so you're gonna miss me for a minute now
I'm back up. But we left on the 24th.

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And so I was so excited to see Kiss.
It was just absolutely amazing.

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And then after they finished
playing, oh my gosh,

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it was LA Guns and that was phenomenal.

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So nobody knows this until I
got back on from the cruise,

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and my husband is sitting
across from me right now,

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but the only person who's ever been
a musician that I ever had a crush on

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was Tracy Guns. I never saw
him in concert until now,

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until this cruise. And
he was playing on stage.

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And I, I looked over at my son, I was
like, oh my God, that's my total crush,

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Tracy Guns. I can't believe
it. He's here. And so,

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obviously I'm not the groupie
type, I'm the total nerd type.

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So I just watching and clapping and
screaming and having a good time.

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And we saw so many bands. We saw Baron,

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we saw Docan and Lynch reunion.
We Lynch Mob was fantastic.

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We saw the fifth, we saw the
aviators, heart to Heart, SI City,

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the Alive Green Jello, which
is now now called Green Jelly,

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because I guess the Jello company
didn't like them using the Jello name.

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We <laugh>. And we saw them
multiple times, which was amazing.

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And we could sit anywhere we
wanted. And then of course,

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we saw Kiss in Concert
dressed up full attire.

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We were on the floor.

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10, 15 feet away from watching them do
their show. It was absolutely amazing.

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But again, the most amazing
part was not the concert,

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it was actually getting to know these

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people on a more personal
level, and the fact that they,

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they have had struggles
and that they are human,

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and that they have survived,

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and they've actually
conquered and moved into

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a new dimension of their lives.
So that was amazing. I mean,

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to have tea time with Tommy Thayer
and watch him teach somebody how to,

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how to, you know, put
golf balls was incredible.

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Watching Paul Stanley Cook Pasta for
individuals on stage was fantastic.

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And trying, Paul Stanley's
Pizza was amazing.

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Eric Singer did face painting,
which was phenomenal.

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We watched a,

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a version of like the Newlywed Game
with Gene Simmons in his wonderful wife

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with other couples on stage. I mean,
stuff that you would never see. And,

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and it was just so down to
earth and so heartwarming.

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And the whole time I was on the cruise,

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I just had this surrealistic
experience that this is how life

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should be. I mean,

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obviously not on a
cruise with Kiss and all

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these bands, 365 days a year,
but I mean, how I should feel.

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I sh the whole time I was on that
cruise when it first started,

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I started having these
little blips of serenity.

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And as the cruise went on,
it got bigger and bigger.

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And I was experiencing,
it's hard to describe,

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but people who've had that feeling when
they're stressed and all of a sudden

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there's that moment and
everything's just serene.

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It's fantastically phenomenal.
Y I can't even describe it.

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I was getting up at six o'clock in the
morning working out with some of these

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young guys that are now playing for
these older bands and some of the

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old guys that are in the
older bands. I'd get up early,

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I'd be one of the first
people at the buffet,

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and I figured out that the lead singer
of Green Jelly probably doesn't need much

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sleep because he would be down there too,

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as well as the lead singer from La Guns.

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And there was no mobs,

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there were no groupies bothering
this, these performers.

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It was just like everybody
could have a good time.

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There were no politics
involved, no stress.

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It was just people with no agenda except

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to have fun and listen to music.
And man, is that what I ever needed?

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And while I was on that
cruise, I started thinking,

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I have to have more serenity
because I need happiness.

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I'm getting sick.

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I'm so stressed with everything that's
been going on in the world that I,

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this can't keep going on. Because
while I was on that, that cruise,

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I did not have any feeling
of illness whatsoever.

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I felt fantastic. We went to Cabo,

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my son and I got to go
snorkeling together.

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We got to go kayaking and paddle boarding.

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We went to Ensenada and we went
on a hike, which was phenomenal.

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We wandered off into the city and found
this local restaurant with Ama amazing

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ceviche. It was just fantastic.

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And then we listened
to Kiss with Giving the

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history, and all the band
members were up there,

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and it was just amazing
to hear their story.

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And then we listened to, um,

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several of the other bands just talk
about, you know, their experiences.

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We watched a guitar riff with Tommy
Thayer, and we watched, uh, uh,

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a drum riff with Eric Singer
where they had contests, you know,

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for who were the best drummers and the
best guitarists. And I'll tell you,

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listening to those guitar players and
those drummers, they were really good.

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But when you, there's a difference
between that and the professionals.

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And you could see in all these
professional musicians how hard

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they worked for what they had.

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And it just changed and put a
whole new spin on it for me.

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And then when I went to the talk that Doc

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McGee did,

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it was a total game changer for
me when he was talking about

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quality time remaining and
how he had brought Kiss

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00:19:23,730 --> 00:19:27,970
back and how he's brought these other
bands into light and everything that he's

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done.

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00:19:28,130 --> 00:19:33,010
And that nothing really
matters if you're not true to

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yourself and doing what's important to
you with your quality time remaining.

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Because how long do we
have? Who knows? You know,

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could have, I could have 30 years, I
could have 40 years, I could have an hour.

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I don't really know.
And in listening to him,

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I had this whole change of heart in
what I wanted to do with the rest of

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my life.

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And that's why I decided to
make a change in the practice.

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00:20:01,580 --> 00:20:05,960
And I decided that for the
quality time remaining,

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what it was important to me
was providing quality care to

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patients. And so that's what we're doing.
But my whole point of the story is not

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on me, but it's on the experience.

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And I, I think everybody should go
on a KISS cruise. It's fantastic.

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It's phenomenal. But that's
not probably for everybody.

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But what is for everybody is
what's important to them and their

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00:20:35,670 --> 00:20:36,670
quality time remaining.

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And I know there's so many people out
there that are stressed, that are anxious,

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that are depressed, both
panic attacks, PTs, d,

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00:20:45,140 --> 00:20:46,790
social anxiety.

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00:20:47,430 --> 00:20:50,880
A agoraphobia, you know, fear
of going out into society.

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00:20:51,540 --> 00:20:56,400
And it was there, it was like that prior
to Covid, but it's been even worse now.

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And the point of this podcast is to

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encourage people to get out there.

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I'm not saying you have to be on a cruise
with a couple of thousand people if

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you're not comfortable with that.

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But maybe go out into the mountains and
hike whatever it is that you love to

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do. If you love to ski, if
you love to be on the lake,

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if you love to ride your
bike or whatever it is,

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00:21:25,190 --> 00:21:28,360
don't waste your time

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00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:31,890
worrying about things you can't change.

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Spend your time living
your life. We got one,

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we all have one life and
that's it. And once it's gone,

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we don't know what happens.
But we just have this,

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we have the here and
now we have the present.

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And so I don't wanna put
anybody's health at risk.

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I don't want people to do anything
they're uncomfortable with.

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00:21:53,710 --> 00:21:58,690
But I wanna encourage people because
Doc McGee and that kiss cruise,

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00:21:59,590 --> 00:22:04,300
it was like an epiphany for me on
something that had been lacking in my life

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00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:09,300
for a very long time. But then
over the last two to three years,

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00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:14,380
had really, I had really taken a
plummet, just kind of a nose dive into,

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00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:18,060
I'm gonna work the rest of
my life and just be a robot.

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And then I went on that cruise
and I listened to Gene Simmons,

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to Tommy Thayer, to Paul
Stanley, to Eric Singer,

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00:22:28,270 --> 00:22:32,460
to the lead singer of Green
Jelly, who I absolutely adore

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00:22:34,110 --> 00:22:35,980
to listening to

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00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:42,280
Tracy Guns talk about his music.

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I mean, it was fantastic.
And we just had fun,

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you know, and that's what
life is about, having fun,

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whatever you like to do.

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00:22:53,390 --> 00:22:56,650
I'm probably the least likely person that
anybody would think would be on a KISS

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cruise. But people don't know
what I was like when I was a kid.

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00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:04,810
I was just like this, except I listened
to Kiss, I listened to bad company,

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I listened to heart,
I listened to A C D C,

350
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:12,050
I listened to Blue Oyster
Cult as well as Hank Juniors,

351
00:23:12,050 --> 00:23:15,530
Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, June Carter,

352
00:23:16,460 --> 00:23:20,770
my mom's favorite, Patsy
Klein, uh, you know,

353
00:23:20,770 --> 00:23:22,730
Aaron Nevilles, you name it.

354
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,810
I listened to it because my
aunts liked something different.

355
00:23:26,810 --> 00:23:28,610
My parents liked something
different. And then of course,

356
00:23:28,780 --> 00:23:31,570
my friends and I were just
cooling. We liked rock and roll.

357
00:23:33,490 --> 00:23:34,590
But the point is,

358
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do what you love because you
only have this life to do it in.

359
00:23:40,330 --> 00:23:43,310
And I just felt like I really
wanted to bring that across.

360
00:23:43,310 --> 00:23:47,120
I couldn't sleep last night
because I was thinking about,

361
00:23:47,170 --> 00:23:48,760
my son sent me a, uh,

362
00:23:49,410 --> 00:23:54,380
a text and it had Paul Stanley flying
through the air coming from the back

363
00:23:54,380 --> 00:23:57,940
of the audience down to the
stage. And he said, mom,

364
00:23:58,610 --> 00:24:02,580
thanks so much for going on that KISS
cruise. It was the best experience ever.

365
00:24:02,580 --> 00:24:04,740
And I said, yeah, it was. I said that,

366
00:24:05,570 --> 00:24:07,700
that is one of the best,

367
00:24:08,230 --> 00:24:11,260
if not the best experiences
I've had in my life.

368
00:24:11,260 --> 00:24:16,220
And it was exciting to have that
experience with my son because we hung out

369
00:24:16,220 --> 00:24:19,740
24 7 together. I mean, we, we
shared a room. We had these awesome,

370
00:24:19,740 --> 00:24:22,780
cool twin beds. We watched
KISS movies all night long.

371
00:24:22,870 --> 00:24:27,100
We got up at the crack of dawn
and we were all day go, go, go.

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00:24:27,100 --> 00:24:28,860
And it was just the best.

373
00:24:28,860 --> 00:24:31,620
I had to go back to work to
recover from the exhaustion.

374
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,100
But it was also that relaxation as well.

375
00:24:35,100 --> 00:24:38,780
The mental relaxation of just
listening to other people,

376
00:24:38,780 --> 00:24:43,420
having and watching people,
having fun and doing that myself.

377
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,820
And Kiss Cruise is gonna be two, 2024.

378
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:53,580
And I'm gonna be there
because it was an experience

379
00:24:53,580 --> 00:24:58,550
like no other. And I liked being
transported back in time to my childhood.

380
00:24:58,550 --> 00:25:03,470
So I just wanna put a shout out
to every single band that was on

381
00:25:03,470 --> 00:25:08,350
that cruise. And a thank you so
much to kiss for putting that on.

382
00:25:08,810 --> 00:25:13,390
You totally saved me kiss
and I appreciate that.

383
00:25:14,170 --> 00:25:16,950
And I wanna give a shout out to Kathy V,

384
00:25:16,950 --> 00:25:21,270
who's always been supportive
of me since I met you in 2009.

385
00:25:21,270 --> 00:25:25,550
And I just appreciate you
so much and thank you for

386
00:25:26,340 --> 00:25:27,510
always being there.

387
00:25:28,010 --> 00:25:31,590
And thank you for all of my friends
and all of my family and all of the

388
00:25:31,590 --> 00:25:35,210
listeners. I appreciate
you taking time to listen.

389
00:25:35,550 --> 00:25:40,190
And I wish you health and
happiness and pursuing

390
00:25:40,190 --> 00:25:44,230
what makes you happy and realizing
you can do anything you want.

391
00:25:45,250 --> 00:25:49,430
You just have to work for it. And
you just have to, to do it. Don't,

392
00:25:49,790 --> 00:25:52,910
don't let life pass you by. Have fun.

393
00:25:54,300 --> 00:25:55,720
And that, that's my hope.

394
00:25:55,720 --> 00:26:00,520
And I thank you and I appreciate
you and I'm thankful for everyone

395
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:02,880
who's listening. And, um,

396
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:08,160
thank you Tracy Guns for being
my, uh, my 30 year crush.