Ep. 41 - A "Just Us" Episode

Summer may be the "slow season" on campus, but Kevin and Brody know that's when some of the biggest conversations happen. In this Just Us episode, they swap stories about out-of-office replies, overpriced concerts, World Cup fever, and the quirky things international visitors are discovering about America before diving into a thoughtful discussion about one of higher education's biggest challenges: how do you create campus-wide collaboration without centralizing everything?

Along the way, they explore why students don't care about organizational charts, why breaking down silos matters more than ever, and how the best ideas often come from bringing skeptics to the table. Plus, they wrap things up with a hilarious Top 3 list of the most overrated summer activities—including a few opinions that might spark some debate.

*The Pickup Meeting is a spinoff of the Adventures in Advising podcast!

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook! Also, subscribe to the Adventures in Advising YouTube Channel!

Have a question? Want to chat? E-mail us at thepickupmeeting@gmail.com!

Connect with Brody and Kevin on LinkedIn. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

And away we go. Welcome to the pickup meeting. Go ahead and look busy for the next half hour so your supervisor thinks you're deep in a spreadsheet. Kevin Thomason writing Shotgun is the only guy I know who brings synergy to casual grocery store conversations. It's Brody Brochier on a Just Us episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Oh, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

That was great. I I didn't mess it up this time. So that's in the first episode. We were like, uh-oh, Kevin screwed it up again.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

And I love me a good random grocery store conversation. Like, I I love talking to strangers in the grocery store.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

I feel like you are the dad from the progressive commercial. Like, do you want to know how you're getting old? All these things. And you're you're that guy. Like, and I'm still at the grocery store. And if somebody talks to me, I think they're out to murder me.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Well, I am getting old, Kevin. So maybe I maybe I am turning into my parents. Yeah, that's all right.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Those things happen. I mean, it it is okay to get old and and and get new traits. My dad was super friendly.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

He loved a good random grocery store conversation.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Oh, I thought you were inferring that because I don't love a good random grocery store conversation that I'm not friendly. I I thought that's what was happening. Oh, I am kind of implying that, Kevin. Yeah, yeah. You're a jerk. That's what's happening here. Uh hey, so we're in mid-July, but yeah, just for full transparency, I think we're recording this. What is today? July. June 23. Yeah. So end of June. Um, we're a couple weeks ahead. Um but one of the things that strikes me in the profession that we work in in higher education is the whole out of office aspect of our work, especially in July. Good golly. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

You feel like it's a lot, right? It's a lot. It's very difficult to get things done. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

It's very difficult to get things done. Oh, yeah. I I think that it's that whole thing where if there is a slow time, and I don't believe that there is a slow time in a lot of our lives anymore in higher education, it might be for some of us in July. And so is that the out-of-office panic that comes through where um you're trying to get things done before August starts, and then you send out an email. Like I send out a campus email, yeah. Uh most weeks about enrollment on our campus, and I'll hit send, and then in my mind, I'm like, is it going to be over or under 10 out of office replies today? Wow. That happens. I mean, I mean, I'm sending it to 70 or 80 people, but it still feels like a lot.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yeah, you know, we we kind of ramp down some of our leadership team meetings. Like we still do them, but they don't happen every other week. More like a once-a-month deal. And I've just kind of started to approach these things like love the ones you're with, right? When you have these standing meetings, whoever's there, you just you you got to love the ones you're with and try to get updates and and move forward on some initiatives that you can. But it's a lot, there's no doubt about it. I mean, when folks are, and look, July is a great we we talked about, we have talked about, you know, people taking care of themselves and making sure they get time off. July's a great time to do that. But as a leader, it does make it hard to get stuff done from time to time, no doubt.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah, the pressure is still there, but you also have to realize your team needs to step away every once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

And that's nothing wrong with that. As long as when they do, they send that set an out of office message. Yeah, you just took a trip. Was it fun? I did. My son and I went on a trip to uh Memphis and Nashville. It was a good time. I saw Ed Sheeran play. That was that was fun. You went to a show. I went to a concert. You're not necessarily a concert guy. No, it was one of these things where Braden and I ended up at the wrong place for dinner on this trip. And when I we went to the restroom, there was all this like, these concerts are here this week. And and yeah, came out of the restroom, and Brayden was like, Ed Sheeran's here Saturday, that's fun. And I'm like, Do you want to go? And he said, Why not? And so we went and listened to Ed Sheeran sing and do his thing, and that was pretty good. Super talented guy.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Castle on the Hill is one of my all-time favorite songs. Yeah, it is a great song. He's got some that just make you say, I cannot believe that a human wrote that.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Yeah. But you weren't overly impressed. This was at the Titans football stadium, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Yeah, it was at the Titans football stadium. I would not say I was like overly impressed, but I was I was impressed by his talent, but I didn't know that I do not enjoy enough Ed Sheeran songs.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yeah, but we were we I'm going a little bit off script. We were talking about this last night. Like how much it costs to go to shows now, like to commit to a show. Like I'm finding Chicago, being this close to Chicago, I thought getting to Chicago and going to Chicago to see a show was going to be one of my regular things to do. And it's just turned out to be this massively expensive and really difficult endeavor. Gosh, I want to see Guster on Friday. And they're playing right next to Wrigley. And to get there, like and to go and to do all the traveling and the parking. And even if you were gonna ride the train, you're you're talking like 500, 600 bucks. Like, darn it, that's too much, man. I feel like this is a theme.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yes. You've had similar thoughts with the World Cup being just so outrageously expensive that you can't do it.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yes. Gosh darn it.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

And I haven't really looked at those tickets uh as the World Cup's going on because I'm not no interest in going. I mean, I if somebody said, here's $50, you can go, sure, I'm gonna drive to wherever. But I'm not spending a thousand dollars to watch whoever play whoever that I don't really care about, even though I'll watch it on TV.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Yeah, we got some other things going on too that make it a little extra hard, right? You know, our dog's not doing great. So every time you do that, you got to add some doggy daycare into that. It's it's all part of it. I'm not complaining, I'm pretty lucky, right? Like first world problems, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

But I it is frustrating uh because I I like Notre Dame football games, and and so similarly, you know, you get Notre Dame football tickets, and it I think I've gotten them for anywhere between 75 to 125 for a game, and it's like, oh, I feel pretty good about that. I'm gonna feel nice where I'm at, like just like you. I want to go to the show. This is gonna be great. And then it's like, I have to get a hotel, yeah. Okay, and then you go to get the hotel and it's 250, 275 a night. What? Like, yeah, come on, it's the La Quinta, yeah. So it does make it a little hard. But speaking of the the concerts and expensive things, uh we're four days away while this is airing from the World Cup being over. And so now that we're a couple of weeks into this, have you been watching nonstop?

SPEAKER_00 7:24

I have, I have loved it so much, Kevin. I forget how much I love soccer and how much I love the great game of football, right? And it has been at least what I've seen so far has been really fun, dramatic. The stars have shown out. Holland's scored a lot of goals. Messi is still the GOAT. The Americans were playing great as of the time of this recording, so I hope I don't ruin it, right? Like, I hope they keep that stretch going. But I watch all of the extended highlights on YouTube of any of the games I miss. I try to watch the evening games, it's been amazing. I can't get enough. I forget that it happens only every four years, so you got to really lock in.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah, I I've watched more than I thought I would. Uh, and again, at time of recording, my pick is still doing okay. Yeah, Mexico is still around. They are, yeah. And your picks are doing okay. Yeah, I don't remember them all, but I didn't have that many. Spain, France, something, uh Germany. I don't remember. But yes, it it seems like we're doing okay at this moment. But on July 15th, this will be a laughable segment of the show.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah, it will be. Maybe people will be tired of us talking about the World Cup by July 15th, too.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

They might, but I don't think they're gonna be tired of this part of it, which one of my favorite things from the sphere of social media has been all of the people coming to the United States and the things that they've been wowed by.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Yes, we've talked about this a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Yeah, I am uh I've really like these videos where people are getting coffee refills. One, I don't know why you'd want to refill is something I wouldn't order to begin with, but um but walking out of uh of uh the gas station with big gulps and just being in shock that it's a it's a medium, right? This was a medium. What do you want? You know, like it's just the mass amount of things where people are going in from other countries to Walmart and putting their hand in front of a big slab of meat, and they're saying, it's bigger than my hand. Like, you know, I mean just little things that are just humorous at this moment that we take for granted as Americans.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

And it's like the takeover of towns, too. So I had a colleague who did the mid-level institute with NASPA in Providence, Rhode Island, and apparently there's a heavy Ghanaian uh population there. So Ghana trained in Providence, which is really close to Boston. The team was there. My colleague got to meet a couple of the players, apparently, but all the Ghana fans kind of just embarked on Providence, Rhode Island. Uh, this same guy said, look, Scotland was in Boston, and if they weren't in Boston, they were in Providence. So he said he saw more people in kilts than he's ever seen before in his entire life. So I think it's been fun to watch the fans overtake the cities, too.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Yeah, no, I I would agree. Um, one of the the trip destinations that we talked about for Braden and I's trip was to go to Kansas City, and quickly we there was no hotel option because of the World Cup going on. Then it was Dallas, and again, same type of thing. And so it's just there's been limitations there, but I'm glad that those cities are being taken taken over in a way of just the energy and the atmosphere and these dance parties that seem to be breaking out where countries are just getting together and hanging out. That's that's pretty amazing. Pretty amazing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Kind of the opposite of that is campuses in July, right? Like we were talking about ghost towns, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:03

At least right now in June on most campuses. I would say the standard is lanyards for either orientation or for camps that are happening on your campus. Sure. But come July, it feels pretty empty.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Yeah. Like a this is us episode or something, or last of us episode or something like that. Not this is like this is us is a different show. This is us go goes to college. They're bringing their kids to orientation now. Like a sorry, a last of us episode.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, last of us is probably very maybe walking dead, but not this is us.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Yeah, this is us might make us cry or something along those lines. But but right, yeah, yeah, it does feel that way.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

And but to me, this is always the calm before the storm. And and I say storm in a great way because the energy that comes at this moment is tremendous. And you know, you're building up to it, you're building up to it, and you've been working, you've been doing the construction, you've been doing the things, and now it is is go time.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yeah, lots of construction on my campus. Speaking of go time, you have a topic for us today. I do. You know, I was thinking about our first show and thinking about the great Tara Warden, right? Our colleague and friend. She's pretty swell. Pretty swell. And uh she's doing she's doing some work, probably it's already probably over now, but uh, she did a session with Civitas Learning, kind of talking about coordination without centralization. I was thinking of thinking along these lines in my career, you know, I've I've not really experienced centralization in a way that would be useful, right? And so we're always coordinating initiatives or or systems in in decentralized worlds, at least on my campuses, that's kind of the way it's worked. And I was thinking of somebody asked me the other day, what's like one of the most pivotal moments in your career? And I was thinking back to 2000 when I presented with Dave Marcizzani and Michelle Peck and Gene Nybauer at the annual conference in Orlando in 2000 when I was at the University of Northern Iowa. And this this presentation was kind of born from this napkin conversation I was having with my friend Dave Marcizzani. And I wrote these three things down like how do we generate alliances that benefit students? How do we create a central understanding of each other and our processes? And how do we provide consistency of information and experience for students? And then I was thinking, in my entire career, I've used those three questions every time I've had to get something done, right? Like really kind of dig in, whether it's changing an advising system or coming in new and creating a center or thinking about student support in different ways when you don't have tutoring in a centralized space. Those three questions have really served me well in the coordination piece. And I was wondering if you've had strategy or if you've had ways in which you've tried to get this done on the campuses where you've worked, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah, it's some of this strikes me because if you follow me on LinkedIn, you've seen a lot of topics that I've been posting recently that are focusing on silos being a massive issue in higher education coupled with communication. And some of this hit, and and I don't think we've talked about this on here uh yet, but uh uh a couple weeks ago, um, I was at a meeting and the president came up to me and in my right hand, uh, Courtney Bryant, and we was saying, Hey, I have a project for you. And Courtney and I kind of looked at each other like, oh gosh, what's coming? And he goes, No, no, don't worry. It's not as hard as UCA commitment, which was our tuition fee-free program we built and spent a lot of time with. And Courtney and I had our hands in that along with uh some really wonderful colleagues here on our campus. And uh, and so he said, I want to talk about how we get communication uh efforts from entry through alumni to be focused and centered and together. And and and he said that wasn't gonna be that hard, right? I looked at him and I said, I have to stop you for a minute. This is way harder than UCA commitment. Yes and and the reason why it is because UCA commitment was a new effort and a new initiative, and you're bringing people onto something new that no one owns, that no one has that place in. And so you're not getting into that centralization of things because no one has anything in it, right? It's it's from scratch, and so when we look at the work that we do, so often it is that coordination part of the things that is the hardest because no matter what you're trying to coordinate, you're infringing, in quotes there, um, on other people's turf. And so that coordination has to be really strategic in what you do. Yeah and and so I don't know that I think that this is an area where I've met anybody that does it excellent, but I think one of the things that has to be a part of this is ego cannot be what is a focus of the conversation, and the student has to be the paramount part of it.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah, I think I think putting the student at the center is the great first approach to any kind of coordination activities, right? There's no doubt that that's really important. And, you know, when I've brought people together, I think there's always this tendency to only bring allies to the table. And I, while that might be important sometimes, depending on what it is you're trying to accomplish, I've had success bringing contrarians and cynics and critics and folks who might be opposed to an initial idea to the table and really having them understand first kind of what uh you're trying to accomplish. And I think that that's pretty good practice, right? We can't we can't automatically move the needle if we don't have the the critics at the table kind of thinking about and and pushing us to think about things in different ways. And so as long as folks are open to ideas, I think that can be a good strategy too.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Yeah, I think that's the one that I probably struggle with the most. And in my nature, I am somebody that once the bridge is burnt, it's really hard to build it back. Yeah, fair. And so I find this to be an area where I need to continually work to grow because I'm okay running into a wall. And I think this is where I get to on the coordination part of things. I'm okay with running into a wall a few times, but I went to college and I have three degrees. I'm not okay with running into a wall tens of hundreds of times, right? And at that point, then for people that are those contrarians and are those issues that you face, and the people that you want that different voice, if you're just running into walls and that's the only thing they ever provide, I struggle. How do you balance that?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Yeah, sometimes I guess you do have to be the Kool-Aid man, right? And run through that brick wall, I guess, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yeah, you're right. I I guess that's what it is. Because I I don't know that I have figured that out in a great way. Um, I think it goes some back to the conversation we had a couple weeks ago where we were talking about wins aren't ever a hundred percent. And so as you're working with folks, it's similar. How you extend olive branches, it's it's don't throw every gift that you have at them at once. It's, you know, let's keep extending that olive branch a little further and with a little more effort and a little more tact and a little more graciousness and until you get people at a table so you can actually work on things together.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

We've talked about this too, and I think it fits in this conversation. Sometimes it takes good leadership to get those things done, and that sometimes is making hard decisions and unpopular decisions to move an initiative forward and and then really trying to sort out kind of what that's gonna mean post-that decision.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

I but I think this theme of coordination without centralization is so important because students don't care. That's right. Very good, Kevin. I love that. Yeah, they they just don't. And and I and I think about this all the time when we look at assessment information and and how we phrase things. Like I worry about the Nessie survey when you see some of the comments that come back on our campus's NESI survey data where it says, has your advisor done this? And I in in the response, it says something about, well, I talked to them after class and they did this. And I think I'm thinking, that's not your advisor, or very likely that's not your advisor on my campus, it would not be your advisor. Sure. And and so, how often are students confusing faculty and professor and advisor into you work at UCA? Right. Shoot.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Well, I think I mentioned Northern Iowa. You didn't dig me.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

I thought I missed it. I gave you a chance to come back and get it. I know, thank you so much. I almost thought I missed it, and then I was gonna say, where did you and Dave work at again?

SPEAKER_00 20:32

I had so much fun in that. You where have things like advisory boards? I I know our orientation program we call preview. My my associate director here has had a lot of success bringing that group together and having them reflect on that experience every year. It keeps it fresh, it gets it, it it allows folks to kind of bring new ideas to the table. I think that coordination when you have a committed group of folks who kind of serve as a sounding board can be really helpful. Do you have any of those things? Have you had any of those things in in your past roles?

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Yeah, I think again, this has been one of these areas where I've struggled. Um, and I I like the idea of what you're talking about. And we talked about this with uh Christy Guff or Christy Fireball. Yeah. And then also with future episode that we've recorded but hasn't been released yet with Joe Thomas and these type of advisory board with action, advisory board with coordination efforts. And I think that I struggle in the area of not having it be a report out group. Yeah. And and so I've had them, but I don't necessarily love how they've worked. And when I've found most success in them, it's when you've brought people together that have authority to make change and not just talk. About it.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

And so I think those type of groups, when you're talking about that coordination of retention efforts or student success efforts or enrollment efforts, it's got to be advisory, but advisory with purpose.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Yeah, I had I had a student advisory board at the University of Southern Indiana. You were waiting for it. And it it was great. You know, we we we brought them together. We we started with kind of just a very uh ambivalent charge, which was to bring folks together to improve the work in university division. And these students had lots of opinions. They were mostly employees that worked in our space. And boy, it ended up just leading to a lot of great change, a lot of really cool initiatives. It forced us to kind of think about our work a little bit differently. I really enjoyed that. And I think the student voice made that especially fun. They have lots of great ideas, students do. And I don't think we talk to students enough when we think about this, these coordination efforts as well.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

No, and I think that one of the other themes that comes from great coordination is that as a campus, we are more proactive than reactive in the work that we do when we coordinate effectively. Yeah. Because how we segment information and how we segment efforts, all of a sudden we're all doing things a step behind. Whereas if we work together, I think we're closer to walking in step with each other.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Yeah, you just put a bow on that, Kevin. I think we've done pretty good today.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Yeah, I'm good with that. Which are we to a top three already in this episode? We don't have to go 45 minutes every time and adjust us, do we? We do not, but it feels so strange to just you know sometimes we get going and sometimes it's a lot of fun. And today it's been a lot of fun, but it's also just like the end.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Well, one of the things, well, okay, I mean, uh we we're gonna talk about this, I think, in a future episode, but we haven't talked that much about assessment. Assessment's not automatically my thing, but you just mentioned the Nessie, and I I part of good coordination is using assessment effectively too, right? And at the end of the day, and and making sure that you have outcomes and and that you're measuring those outcomes in whatever initiatives that you're looking at, and then using that assessment to improve, approve, improve, right, the student experience, improve the services that you're providing. And I'm not sure in our efforts we automatically think about assessment in that way.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

I think that's a good point, though. I often struggle when you start with these advisory groups or these action groups, and people will say, Well, what does the data say?

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

And that can be a really great thing to get the assessment information, the data, what's out there. But it can also be one of those things, depending on your campus, where progress stops before it starts.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Because you're not able to get the information. So then you say, Well, what are we doing? We don't even know anything. And so I I would agree with you that the assessment part is key, but not allowing assessment to be paralyzing when you don't have all that you want to have.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yeah, I think data informed is better than data driven. Like, I I people sometimes say data, I'm data driven. Well, I'm like, well, sometimes the data it drives us in a different direction. I I want to be data informed and have that data help me make good decisions. Yeah, I would agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

All right, there, there's the good bow. Yeah, there's the good bow. Speaking of good things, here's our top three for today. All right, let's go. Our top three overrated summer activities.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

All right, here we go. I have my three. Yeah, you get to go first because you actually came up with three. I'm still thinking about three amusement parks during the summer. I don't understand. And we've talked about this on the show before. I'm a Disney person. I love me some Disney, I love the parks. I would go all the time if I could. If it's 110 degrees, I don't care. Like, I don't really want to go. Who wants to be in that? The hotter the better to me. Let's go. No, never. Like, that's why I like the parks in the fall and the winter. Like, no, amusement parks, no. And and the thing that comes back to me is being a kid and going to Six Flags, and they had like the asphalt down, and it was just so smoking hot. And no, just no, cannot do it. Amusement parks in the summer, overrated. This is not gonna be a surprise to people. The beach, yeah. I Matt's talked to me about my language on this show, and I would say some things here, but uh the beach sucks, and and so I'm not a beach person because I hate the sand. I don't necessarily love the heat when it's on the sand, then you're walking around, your feet are burning. There's weird things in the ocean. Yeah, like where are people going to the bathroom? Because you know they're not going to porta potty, so they're just going out and doing it in the like it's just all terrible. Like, nobody wants that. Like, come on, and then the third, and I think we're on the same page on this one, maybe. We are fireworks. Yep, I don't understand blowing things up, it's just something I don't get, and then it goes into the air, and people look at it, and fireworks have evolved. I'm not saying that they haven't, but July 4th, July 3rd, July, whatever, and then the weeks after, when you're just blowing things up in the air, and people are like, Oh, look how great that looks. I'm gonna go back to Disney. I love fireworks at Disney because it's at night, it's in a park, somebody's doing it, and there's music playing. Fireworks to music, I'm on board. Fireworks to just blow some stuff up. Uh no, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Yeah, my my thoughts on fireworks have evolved. They they made my list too. And I'm always a little sad about this because my dad loved fireworks, and he would always take us to the fireworks on the Ohio River. That was super fun. Great memories there. Uh, and he was he was a big fan, but I, you know, when you have pets, like dogs, especially, every dog I've had has been terrified of fireworks. Oh, yeah. So that's a little annoying, yeah. Right. I mean, you just can't get through that, and so then you've got your neighbors setting off fireworks. Just go to the firework thing, right? Don't set off your own. I mean, people can do whatever they want, but I think it's overrated. I I 100% agree with you. No question about that. All right, same page. Are we on the same page for the other two? No, like so. Amusement parks during the summer. Come on, if it that's the only time you could go to amusement parks where we lived growing up. I grew up in southern Indiana. It was gonna be hot as the seventh layer of hell. You were gonna go if you're gonna go to Holiday World in the summer, you just gotta find a water park that's connected. Like Holiday World has the water park, so you can do the rides and then you can get into the water and cool off. Free sunscreen, free soda. Maybe we'll get a sponsor from Holiday World. Who knows? This is defending. This isn't telling me one of yours. Look, you you mentioned the water. Like, I love the beach, and if I'm gonna go to the beach, I want it to be hot. I'm not a big lake guy, like I think lakes are a little overrated. Like, I don't mind being on the pontoon boat, drinking beer, those kinds of things. But being in the lake, that's a little bit different thing. Like, what's down there? I've watched Ozark way too many times, right? So I think that's a little overrated. And then I I don't know, I don't know that I have anything else that's really over. Maybe you know, like grilling vegetables. No, no, that would be I mean, my daughter's gonna kill me because she's a vegetarian, but like uh I don't know, just cook your vegetables or or dip them into ranch or hummus. Uh, but you don't need to grill them, like grilling meat, that's what you grill for.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

The uh funny part of that is I would say I'm probably in the same boat of of that, but that would be at all times, right? That's not just a summer thing. Like, if you're doing a lot with vegetables, I'm I'm not on board. My honorable mention that's kind of a surprise too, is snow cones. Oh, dumb. I I don't mind snow cones in certain periods of the year, but again, living in Arkansas or living in St. Louis, and you go get a snow cone, and on a July day where the heat index is 110, like you're just getting soup, right? You're getting mixture of cold ice and food coloring. I, you know, it's like, what are we doing? And I would just say, why get a snow cone when you can get an ice cream cone?

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Like, come on. Yeah, if you're gonna have a melty mess, go ice cream. Yeah, all right. We've only lost a few listeners. I mean, we don't hate vegetables, really. Like, I love vegetables. Yeah, they're they're okay. But this was overrated summer activities, so like I mean, you have to come up with something.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

That's that is correct. And and it hit your list. And if people were voting, they would say my list is better.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Oh well, on that note, maybe uh that's it for this edition of a Just Us pickup meeting. We hope all your meetings, whether formal or pickup style, are as fun and as meaningful as this one. Until the next time, gang. Let's just do good and be nice. How about that?