A (0:16)

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Intrusive Thoughts. I am your host, Adam Rippon, and I am currently in, I'll be honest, disarray, completely unorganized, but we're going to power through. We're going to get this show in the books. It's going to be one for the history books once we're done with it, once we make it through it. And that is something that I am just completely sure of. So, you know, why would I even say. Why would I even tease to the audience, you're unorganized. Why would you even do that? Right? That seems like a crazy thing to do. Well, it's the honest thing to do. And if you've learned anything through listening to this podcast, Intrusive Thoughts by Adam Rippon, you know that he. I am. Is honest. And that is something that I stand by. That is something I stand with. Honesty. I think it's good. I think that we should be honest. So why would I be a little bit unorganized, a bit undone? I think undone is like, a good. A good way to. To put it. So I'm not sure if I mentioned. But I'm pretty sure that I must have mentioned that right before the last episode. I was on my way to St. Louis, Missouri. Missouri. St. Louis, Missouri. I don't know why I've said it like that twice. And I say it in a way that, like, oh, he must think that's funny. I don'. I actually don't think that's funny at all. I'm gonna stop doing that from here on out. Scout's honor. I saluted to the camera. I just, like, I've never been in the scout, so I don't know how to do a Scout's honor. But just, like, that's what I mean by that. I'll never do that again. Let me start over. St. Louis, Missouri. Doesn't it just. I don't know. I don't know what, like, took over me, Missouri. Whatever. I'll never do it again. Like I said, I've done it one more time. It's okay. I'm just getting it out of my system. So I was in St. Louis, Missouri, to cover the U.S. championships for figure skating, which was the last competition that the US Figure skaters would do before the US Olympic team would be announced. Okay, so I know on this podcast we do, like, intrusive thoughts and, like, random things, and it will, like, stay that way, but I do use this podcast as a way to, like, talk it out with myself, and I use this as a Platform to share those talking out intrusive moments with you. So over the next few weeks, it might feel that it's getting a little, like, Olympics heavy. Well, the Olympics are happening and I'm going to have a lot of, like, Olympics stuff jingle jangling inside my head, right? There's kind of nothing I can do about that. So you're going to have to bear with me. Don't worry. There's going to be a ton of. Hey, why did you say that? What is going on there? I don't know what he's talking about. There will be plenty of that. I promise you. I promise you we won't stray too far from, like, the plot. And the plot of this show is that there isn't any and that there probably won't ever be one. Will be one, and we will be one. As we continue, I am fiddling and playing with my driver's license because I didn't know that I was missing it. Okay, this is like, okay, we're gonna get back to the St. Louis, Missouri of it all and the traveling and whatever. But this is part of the reason why I do feel a bit, like, frazzled all over the place is because when I travel, I feel like I go to a place and I go there organized. But then by the end, when I'm trying to go home, it's like, things are all over the place, right? There's, like, kind of nothing we can do about that. And one of those things was, I remember now, when I was checking into the airport to get through security, I had my driver's license and I zipped it up in, like, my coat pocket, like, in a. In a spot that I still to this day consider safe. Now, here's the kicker, here's the deal that I just put my coat away. I've been home for. Well, okay, I was home. I flew home on Sunday night. Then Monday night I had a dinner that I needed to go to. And then Tuesday, all day I was doing something for LA28 because the tickets for the LA28 Olympics are on sale. So lots of, like, Olympic stuff happening. Okay. This is. I don't know if this show, this, like, episode will be entertaining at all. This is more of, like, a debrief with me. I'm. I'm panic. I'm not panicking, but I'm all over the place. We're talking it out, okay? We're getting this done together. So when I'm traveling, I feel like I. I'm kind of organized to, like, go back, but, like, Things just, like, they slip through the cracks. Do you know what I mean? When you're packing up your toiletries, you put them all the way, like, nicely when you're going there. But when you're coming home, you're like, I can just shove them all in. I'll deal with it when I get home. So it's a bit of that with everything, right? It's a bit of that with your clothing. It's a bit of that with your shoes. It's a bit of that with everything. I'll go back to the shoes in a second. There's a good shoe story that I need to tell. I need to get it off my chest because it's something I've been dealing with still to this day. You'll understand when I get there. So why am I fiddling with my driver's license? Well, that is because, as I said, I was going through security, and I put this in a zippered pocket, which, like I said, to repeat myself, because it bears repeating, I put it in a spot that I still to this day consider safe. Now, what's not safe is that I just put that coat away. And for some reason, I decided to, like, pat the pockets. And they were kind of heavy. I had something in them. I didn't know what it was. Well, it was a bunch of junk and also my driver's license. So I've been driving around for now, three days with no driver's license because it's been in a coat pocket. I didn't even know that. That's making me worried. That's making me, like, aha, what's going on? What are we doing? So that's just the state of mind I'm in, like, everything. I'm making things happen. I'm doing things, I'm doing well. But then all of a sudden, I find my driver's license. And I didn't know it was missing because I put it in a safe spot. Right. I tricked myself, and I'll try not to do it again. I really haven't had, like, a moment since I've been back because you might be thinking, okay, you go back on. You got back on Sunday. You had a dinner on Monday. You had all day Monday. Yeah. So you think on Monday I was basically thrown into, like, a coma. I went to bed and I woke up at. I didn't know where it was. My dogs were, like, trying to do CPR on me. Like, hello, are you okay? My husband was like, leave him be. The body is resting. And it just, like, I I was completely, like, out of sorts. By the time I, like, woke up and, like, washed my face, I was, like, going to this dinner, and this dinner was for. We just had this, like, LA28 event. Like I said, I was there. We did a whole event at the LA Coliseum, because now tickets are on sale. It's like, this is incredible because, you know, now, right now, my headspace is all like, Milan 26. Because I am leaving for Milan in just a few. I mean, God, just a few days. 18 days. Okay. Now I'm, like, sweating really a lot. So I'm leaving in about 18 days. So everything like that that involves my life right now is, like, centered around Milan, Italy. But before it could center around Milan, it had to recenter itself about from, like, where I live. LA28. Right. There's always something around the corner, and LA28 is around the corner. Tickets on sale. Lottery tickets start at $28. I know that because I heard somebody say that a few times yesterday, which I do think is clever. 28, $28. We want them to be affordable for the city. Right. I feel like I'm doing a great job of, like, reiterating the talking points of yesterday. Anyway, they lit the Olympic cauldron at the LA Coliseum yesterday. Pretty cool. Pretty very cool. And also, I got to see a lot of friends that I have who are involved with the Olympics here in Los Angeles, California. I'm on the athletes council, and I've become friends with, like, all of these other athletes who have. Who are in some way connected to Los Angeles. And it's been great to, like, connect with them and meet them, and now they've become, like, friends of mine. But what's been also fun is that there's a lot of, like, LA figure skating connections as well. And yesterday I got to see my friend Meryl Davis, who is an Olympic champion from the 2014 Sochi Olympics in ice dance, and also my friend Mariah Bell. So the thing about my friend Mariah Bell is that not only is she my friend, I'm bragging, but she was somebody I trained with when I was skating. And then I coached her for, like, the last few years of her career with my former coach to the Olympics in Beijing. And then she decided that she was going to join this fellowship program. So one of the amazing things about LA28, first of all, congratulations, everyone. This is the most boring episode I've ever done in my entire life. I'm just. I'm like a vessel filled with talking points. But I'm gonna Get them out. I feel like you'll learn something, right? Nobody can get mad at this episode because at least it's like me being boring and it's like not a guest that you're gonna hate on. Okay, I get it. No guess, no issues, no problems, whatever. Okay, so there's a fellowship program because with the Olympics coming around to the corner, basically, like it's a, it can be a really hard transition for athletes to go from sports to into like the corporate world, find like transition out of sports or from being an athlete into finding a job. And LA28 really wanted to help bridge the gap for athletes who were looking to transition into like professional positions. And so they have this fellowship program that they can apply for and they can try out different positions in LA28. And then eventually if they found something they like, they can apply for a full time job. And that's what a lot of athletes have done. And that's actually what my student and friend and lovely overall person, Mariah Bell has done. So she's now a full time employee at LA28 and she's fully working on the Olympics here in Los Angeles. So I think that's incredible. Yesterday our event was called like a collective, an athlete collective. And we're really trying to connect with a bunch of different athletes from, from all different games. And it's actually quite hard to connect with these athletes because there is no, and this might be like shocking to you, but there is no like, database of like contact information for all of these different athletes. The usopc, like the, the Olympic Committee, like they have what they have, but they're not legally allowed to share any of it, even with like a governing body who's putting together an Olympics like LA28. So if they want to like gather these athletes together, they need to like source and contact a bunch of people to get a bunch of contacts. So it's not so easy to get all of these people in one place. And so the athletes Commission and LA28 decided that they were going to do a reach out and they thought maybe they'd get like 50 or so athletes. But we got like 300 athletes from games. I think the games furthest from us was like we had somebody from the 1960 Games. Our oldest athlete there was 90 plus years old. And it was just like, it was really amazing. We got to share the things that we're doing. We could show everybody where the venues are, scheduling all of the things that we're doing to make sure LA is left better than it was and all of the positive things that the Olympics can bring to a city. I'm really sorry for this, like, episode. I know it sounds, like, so corporate, but, like, that's where my, like, head is right now. Please just, like, believe me, I found my driver's license in a pocket. And so now I'm just sort of like, okay, calm down. Anyway, love you. So let's just go back to, like, St. Louis for a second, okay? Where I'm. I'm done talking about the fellow. Why did I even talk about the fellowship program? Like, I'm sure somebody. I hope somebody found that interesting. Or, like, that's nice. At least you said that. Anyway, so we're going to be Talking quickly about St. Louis and something I did at the very beginning of my trip that I had to deal with and live with the entire duration of it. And that is I decided to dress in a pair of loafers because I thought that I was, like, going to look fancy for a minute. And it's. I'm still paying the fucking price. All right, here we go. I decided that at this U.S. championships, I was going to walk around. I wanted to, like, look nice, because famously, this is, like, the most important, like, event a US Skater, aside from, like, a World Championships. Like, those are the most prestigious. But, like, as an American skater, it's, like, really important that you do well at a US Championships, and people dress nicely. And there's, like. You know, there's a lot of, like, excitement going around because this is also where they'll announce the Olympic team. And the Olympic team is, like, not decided based on the results of this competition. Even though this competition's incredibly important, it's based on, like, the trajectory of how a skater has done throughout the past, especially this season that started in August. And they'll also consider, like, events that they did at the beginning of this year, 12 months ago. Like, last year's national championships. Four Continents World Championships. Four Continents is like, another big skating competition. God, there's a lot of, like, information in this episode. Are you following? Does it matter? Believe me, this is. I just need to get all of this off of my chest, okay? Because I'm all over the place. I'm all over the place. Ladies and gentlemen, I am doing my best. So actually, let's go back to the St. Louis trip. Before we go to St. Louis. I did something that I thought would be really fun. Okay? And instead of flying from LAX to St. Louis, I decided that I was going to fly out of a more local airport bur Bank Airport. Okay? Now, I think a lot of us, we live near these, like, bigger airports, and there's always an option for, like, your smaller local one that's, like, much closer. And ever since I've lived in California, I've always lived close to lax, except for when I've moved, like, out east because I live in Pasadena now. And so getting to LAX or like, the west side is like, it's a trek. Okay? Like, I'll be honest with you, it is. It's a bit far. And so when I was looking for flights to St. Louis, and I'm Delta loyal, you know, I'm always trying to get those Delta miles. When I was looking for flights, even if I flew through lax, I always was going to need to make a connection in Salt Lake City, which I will get to that in a second. So I thought, well, if I'm going to have to fly through Salt Lake City anyway, let me just check the flights from Burbank. Lo and behold, Burbank. You also have to fly through Salt Lake City. All right, let's try this out. I'm going to fly through Burbank now. I've picked people up at Burbank. I've dropped people off at the Burbank airport. I'm intrigued because it's small, it's easy to get in and out of, and it's like 15 or 20 minutes from my house. So, like, what could be better? So I get to the airport in the morning, a.m. early. This flight is at 7am I'm getting out there. I'm getting there at like, 5, 5:30. You know, I'm not playing around. We've got to get on this flight. We got to get there early. I need to get to Salt Lake City, baby. So I get there, and the first thing I notice is carpet everywhere. And this is like a very, like, period piece of thing to happen when you go into, like, a public building and there's carpet all over the place. There was a time in the history of our country when we thought, like, carpet in a public space would be the best thing. And I'm here to say, back from the past, I almost wanted to cancel my flight and go to LAX just to be on a tiled and mopped floor. I did. I really did. For just a moment. It was just. It took me by surprise. Also, low ceilings, low ceilings at the Burbank airport. I felt like if I put my hand up and jumped, I could have touched the ceiling. Something I'm not used to at open air, vaulted ceilings at an LAX did miss the vaulted ceilings. And you know, when you go to a smaller airport, there are no lounges. And I'll also say this, you know, I'll be honest with you. My economy ticket and low level status was never going to get me into a lounge, but at least I knew there was one. Do you know what I mean? Like, I consider, like, if I couldn't get into it, I consider it like a bunker. Like there's a safe place for me to go if I need to. Even though I would be denied access completely, I'd be embarrassed. They would publicly embarrass me. Excuse me, I would not be embarrassed, but they would publicly embarrass me and tell me to get out. If there was an emergency and I begged on my hands and knees to go into the Delta Lounge, they would go, get your economy fucking ass out of here. You are in the way of people who are flying Delta One across the country. You do not need to be in here. You're flying to Salt Lake city in row 26. Please leave. You do not need a plate of berries and melons, even though I would want one and in an emergency would kind of make me feel at least a little bit better, right? There is no option for that. When you are flying through Burbank. When you fly through Burbank or your smaller, like, local airport, the only thing you have are like, it's truly like walking in New York where it's like bodegas and, you know, all they have is milk, water, Sprite, Diet Coke, Coke, chips, sandwiches from another shop that they bought them from, and pretzels. That is the food pyramid. When you do go to a Burbank airport, it does not matter where you go. They will also have muffins if you get lucky. And they will have a few magazines, not really any books. Maybe they'll even have like a jewelry shop. But they absolutely will have an Anastasia Beverly Hill vending machine. You'll need that. What if you forgot your eyebrow pencil, right? They will have a Kylie cosmetics. What if you forgot your lip liner? Okay. That's what they're concerned about at the Burbank airport. At lax, it is sort of more like, what if you want a sweatshirt, what if you want a bag of candy? Not a lot of candy at Burbank. Low ceilings, carpeted floors. So I remember, I thought to myself as I'm like getting ready for this flight, you know, I'm glad I did it. I don't know if I'll ever do it again, right? I think there is a. There's a sense of security I feel from a floor that can be mopped at night. And there's a sense of worry I feel when I see a carpet that can never be mopped ever since it's been installed and what would I assume be 20 or 30 years ago, I'm assuming that that carpet was installed in the 1900s. You know, that could be 1999. Right. But it's definitely not from the 2000s. I think at least then we were thinking, let's make the, the floor hard, something non porous. When the carpet it just like, you know, and it's exactly that carpet that like they had at cvs, which I don't. I think CVS still has that like gray and it's like faux shag. You know exactly what I'm talking about. You could rub your like, feet into it where it's like, it's never been clean, but it's also kind of not dirty looking either. And I love it. I will tell you that when I used to live in Canada, Toronto, Ontario, that I would dream of walking into a CVS and smelling that carpet because it was nostalgic. And I still, to this day, I love walking into a cvs. I don't really go to CVS or like any drugstores that often. I'm going off on a bit of a tangent, but I will tell you that I do follow a lot of like, couponers, professional couponers. I'll say it on TikTok and Instagram. And it seems like the drugstores are the only places where you can really like maximize your deals, especially at a cvs. I feel like at a CVS they like give you money. I mean, you have to do like, I've seen these couponers go in and they like buy random assortments of things where it's like, that's where you lose me. Like, I don't need five toothbrushes, 18 toothpaste, a Pursil laundry detergent, and then like 10 Venus leg razors for women. Like, I don't, I don't need that. But it is appealing that it only costs $5. Where they lose me is that I. It costs me $5, but I need to do about 38 different transactions to make that happen. I don't want to do that. I think maybe I'll just pay full price. But I always think I should start couponing at cvs. I pass one all the time. I don't go in. And that is my mistake. I think I do need to kind of fix that and change that up. Anyway. Burbank Airport, CVS gray carpet. So I get on the plane, I fly there, I make it to Salt Lake, and then I finally do make it to St. Louis, Missouri, where there things are going well. It's absolutely fantastic. I'm happy to be there. There's an excitement in the air that. It just feels amazing. And I'm so excited for this Olympics coming up in Milan, because I remember four years ago, it just felt so strange, right? It just felt so strange. And there was a part of me that felt like, are the Olympics, like, dying? Like, does anyone care? And it really was like. That was just, like, the COVID of it, all, right? Like, people couldn't go. You couldn't feel the excitement. And people just had so much more going on. I'm so grateful that those athletes, like, had the opportunity to go. But, like, people had other things going on. They could not be bothered or worried about the Olympics, right? Like, people were dying. But this time around and this momentum really started with Paris, where the Paris Olympics, I guess now, two years ago, 2024. There was just so much excitement and so much attention, and the athletes, they just, like, they got the attention that they deserved and feel that this is happening again. I'm just so excited. I feel like this is gonna be amazing. I feel like this will be an Olympics where we get a lot of people going, like, to their parents and being like, I wanna skate. Because I remember watching the Olympics when I was little, and that's the reason that I wanted to get on the ice. I think a lot of young kids are gonna see themselves in a lot of, like, not only the American skaters, but a lot of the international ones as well. Because it is just. It's. It's incredible. It's amazing. It's going to be fantastic. So, like I said, this U.S. championships, it's important. You want to look good, you want to look your best, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? Okay. So I decide that, like, that one of the days that before I start working there, I'm going to be walking around, I'm going to be seeing a lot of people that I know. I just want to look good. Right? Can't blame me. Going to be around. And so I want to look good. I want to look professional in front of these people. So I brought this pair of, like, loafers that I had gotten, like, a year ago, and I'm like, okay, this'll be great. Like, I look good in a loafer. Okay, I'm not, like, don't overthink it. Me, loafer, loafer. Me. Good. St. Louis, Missouri. Okay, so I put these loafers on. Things are looking good. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling professional. And then all of a sudden, I start to feel a bit of, like, discomfort. I don't feel great in these loafers. I'll be honest. I'm starting to feel the skin being pulled from my. I'll say it. Bone. Like, it feel like a little like I am losing thicker layers of skin that shouldn't be leaving my foot. Okay? So I'm starting to feel like I don't have feet anymore. I just have two bloody stumps. And I go, well, I haven't been in them that long. That, like, can't be the case. But then I do start to walk around. Like, I have a poopy diaper on, you know, where it's like, you can't bend your knees too much because you'll, like, move your foot. So I am just sort of stomping down on the, like, flat soles of my feet, and I turned to one of my friends, and I go, I think we need to go back to the hotel. I do think I need to emergency change my shoes. She said, okay. And I think at that point, it's like I went through the stages of, like, grief. And at that point, I had hit a realization, acceptance. And I went, no, I have to accept that when I take my foot out of this shoe, it will just be blood and bones. And I have to accept that I'm gonna need a skin graft. I'm gonna need a doctor. I am going to need prayers and thoughts, and I'm just gonna need a lot. And I came to that realization, and I remember I took my foot out of my shoe, and I was correct, soaked, covered in blood, the heel gone, one of my toes bloody, Another, like, the top of my foot got, like. I don't know how. I pushed so hard. It's the Olympics. That Olympic spirit got to me. I went, you can push through this. You don't need a foot. In fact, you don't need two feet. You don't need any. You just need two stumps that you can plop onto the ground. And that's. It must have been the mindset that I had when I, like, got there and I started to feel that pain. I said, you're not feeling pain. You're feeling pressure. And you always step up when the pressure is on. And I did. But at that point, you know, I had brought a Few different pairs of shoes with me because at that, you know, when I got ready for this, I'm, you know, I'm going to the Burbank airport, then I'm going to St. Louis, I'm going to nationals. I want to look good. I was in my mind thinking it's a bit of a fashion show, right? Like, I'm gonna wear, like my clothes. But it is a time for me to, like, look my best. And at that point when I took my bloody stumps out of my now blood soaked loafers, I went, all right, now, now it's about survival fashion. Over Survivor. On Survivor. Under. Okay, I forget what I said about over, but now I'm saying under, you know, I'm trying to. I'm trying to concoct a joke because as you can see, I am a bit cut and dry this episode. This is sort of like, this is background music, you guys. This is like just the background. Also, voicemails. Not a chance. Text messages. Haven't touched them. I'm all over the place. We're gonna get to a little bit more of that in a minute. But basically, when I took my feet out of these loafers, I had to say I am sorry to my body. Body keeps the score. And right now it was shoes 1 Adam 0. And I said, I am sorry. And I was all. And I luckily had one pair of shoes that, like, felt okay. I could walk around. I needed to, like, warm my feet up to them because I just needed to, like, accept that there was going to be pain. But I was able to walk in them and shout out to those shoes, shout out to those white shoes. And that's just, you know, that's the way it was. I am still to this day dealing with the repercussions. I'm supposed to film something on the ice. Not tomorrow, but the day after. I can't wait to tell you about it. I don't really remember what it is, but I am. Have been like, sweating, sweating. I'm like about putting my foot inside a skate. So I'm scared about that. But I am going to. You know, the. The mind is powerful. So I will heal the skin through the mind and that will be that. I will have a healed. Two healed. I wish I would never show you, but it's like I showed my friends who I was, you know, not afraid to kind of show my bare bloody foot to. And they went, that doesn't look good. And I said, I know, I know, I know it doesn't look good. You can almost see the bone, right? At least you can see, like, the fascia of the body. It does. It does look scary. Anyway, we made it through the week in St. Louis. It was fantastic. I was there. I have a lot of. You know, but some of you might not know is I have another podcast called the Run through that's like, all about figure skating that I host with my good friends Ashley Wagner and not Olympic champion Sarah Hughes. And we say that because in figure skating, there is an Olympic champion whose name is Sarah Hughes. She won the 2002 Olympic Games. But my friend, her name is Sarah Hughes. No relation, never even skated. But she was a researcher who worked for NBC on figure skating about 10 years ago, and that's where we became friends. But we have a podcast. We did a few live shows that went through fantastically. We had an amazing time. We had great guests. I was also there doing some. Like I was doing in arena hosting, which basically that means that as soon as the skaters got off of the ice, I interviewed them before they got their marks and had a blast doing that. Especially when people had, like, really good skates. That was always fun. And when people didn't have good skates, you know, it was just about, like, getting the audience to, like, cheer for them again. Right? We all love cheering, but, you know, nobody even asked me, hey, how are your bloody feet? Because I didn't tell anyone. I kept it to myself. And I think that was for the best, because it wasn't about me. It was about them. Even though I love to make things about me, but I love to make things about other people to distract from my injuries that I inflicted upon myself. So then we fly back two. It's time for me to fly back. After this trip, I flew back to Burbank Airport. And this is when Burbank did win me over, because my husband was like, hey, I can pick you up. I said, all right. And the effortless trip that he made to pick me up at Burbank, I went, all right, there's a point. I can deal with the carpet. I can deal with the. With the low ceilings, because this makes sense. This took 15 minutes. This was easy. And I forgot what it was like to pack the car, like, airport curbside and not feel, like, the pressure of somebody about to, like, pull out a gun on you and be like, you better move. And it was really nice. It felt so good. I could take my time getting bags into the back of a car. Like, that just felt good. It felt right. And so I think, like, when it works out I will fly through Burbank again. I'll say it's not always easy to do, and sometimes it is, like, quadruple the price. But when it works out and there's, like, a connection anyway, hell, yeah, I'll do it again because this was, like, enjoyable. It was enjoyable to be 15 minutes from the house and to get, like, picked up. Because JP and I have gotten into, like, fights when he's, like, offered to pick what we've gotten into. Wait for this. We've gotten into fights when he's offered to do something nice for me. I'm not the one fighting, though. We'll, like, argue about, like, where I am, because sometimes I will look up at a pillar and it'll be the wrong one. I'll tell him I'm at a wrong one, and then I think I'm doing something nice by, like, moving to a different one, but then I'll forget to tell him. So, yeah, there is, like, sort of, like, we'll get into, like, an altercation about, you know, me not telling him that I'm moving. And also, you know, it's just lax is. It's pressure felt. It's a relationship tester. We've passed them. We've passed all those tests, which is fantastic because we're. We made it. But, you know, Burbank was just, like, easy, breezy, was so fun. He brought the dogs in the car. Come on. Like, you can't do that at lax. They'll freak the hell out. So I did like that. I really did like that. I appreciated that. So I think, like, when it works out, I will do it again. So I started the trip going, all right, Evita saying, I will never see you ever again. Thank you so much. But now I'm ending the trip going, yeah, why not? If it works out. And if the. You know, if it works out, I will. I will be at Burbank again because I did enjoy the quick trip, okay? It is what it is. So as soon as I got home, now it really is, like, it's on, motherfucker. It is on. Especially now that I found that I've lost my driver's license. I figured out that I lost it, and I found it. Now I'm. Now it's really on. And this is really exciting because now everything over the next few weeks is, like, we are full on in Olympic mode, okay? We are heading to Milan. Everything. Like, we. Now we need to get ready. And now I'm feeling like I'm getting ready for the Olympics because I'll be honest. So, like this is now the third Olympics that I'm working for NBC. Okay, I worked the Olympics in Tokyo, then I've worked the Olympics for Paris in Connecticut, and now I am going to Milan. And like I said, I was in Beijing, but I was there as a coach for my friend Mariah Bell, who I told you about earlier. So this is the first time I'm working for NBC, going to an Olympic Games that is like in a post Covid apocalyptic, apocalyptic era. Okay, we're on, we're out the other side. And so we've done it, we did it, we're here, let's go. And so I am quite excited. And so there's just a lot of things that I need to prepare in the lead up to this because I just want to make sure that like I'm making the most of it and I'm doing everything I can for this to be as a, as big of a success for me personally. And I want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to help like the athletes and highlight different things and all of that stuff, you know, Like, I just, I really want to do a good job. I'm really confident that I can do a good job, but it's really important to me that I do a good job. And after a trip like now I'm back to the St. Louis, like after, after a big trip, I really need time to like unpack. Everything needs to get put away. Like, I am not somebody who can like move forward in the direction of their dreams with things still in a suitcase with things still packed with things all over the place. And I'll be honest, when I'm sitting down to record this, it's like, hey, we gotta stay on schedule, right? And maybe you have to put your dreams on hold for a second, which I'm doing, right? I'm putting my dreams on hold so that I can get things done on a schedule. Because if I'm one thing, it is someone who will follow through, right? Like I'm speaking to you here, sitting in a chair. I still have two bloody feet to a pulp. Bloody to a pulp. But I am sitting here going, no, but we got to get the job done. And we will. And it's important that we do. And it's important that I do and that I am and that I am now doing it. I'm going to tell you this, sent this whole episode to me, feels like one run on sentence. But you know, that's the name of the game. Everybody that's the name of the game. But like I said, we're now, everything that we're doing, it's like, it's focused on Milan 20, 26 and the problem. And I really need, like, a day or two to just kind of like, whew, we gotta ease into it. But, like, immediately, as soon as I got back, we had all of these, like, LA28 things to get ready for. And now today's the first day that I'm, like, sitting down. There's a lot to do, and it's like my mind hasn't, like, you know, like, I feel like my brain needs to take, like, a breath, but there's no time. There's no time to take a breath with the brain, there's no time to take a brain breath. You've got to push forward. I have my driver's license. I can go anywhere now, which is amazing that I didn't even know it was lost. Now, what are some of the things that are, like, frazzling me around me? Let's just kind of talk about them. I have a brand new stack of paper from Office Depot that I just need to put away. I can put that away as soon as this episode is done. I can do that. Now to my right, I have a gift that I bought for somebody that needs to get mailed. I was going to bring that with me to St. Louis. Did not make it in time. So it's sad here in my office. Okay, I need to mail that. I'm going to put a label on that, tape it up, get it ready to go. We can do that tomorrow. Okay, we can do that tomorrow. I have another thing here. I ordered a jacket that now needs to be returned. We will put a label on that. We will send that out tomorrow. I ordered a power bank from Amazon that does look not legitimate. I think the specs on it are wrong. It looks. It feels so heavy and completely empty at the same time. I will be returning that power bank. I will not be plugging any of my nice devices into it. Okay, the power bank, that is going right back to its seller. We're not using that. What else is here? Oh, and I have a box of. It is just trash that I need to bring downstairs. I'll bring that downstairs behind me. Okay, so if you're watching the video, it does look. It looks like organized prim, proper, like, ready to go. But if I were to pan the camera down, which I never would do in a million years because I don't want to embarrass myself. Let me just Look, I have another box behind me that I just got that I think is from Ralph Lauren, which is some of the Team USA apparel, which is so nice that they sent me some. That is so kind. I also just got my Olympic credential, So I just got that in the mail from NBC. And, like, what does that mean? So, basically, if you're working in Olympics for NBC, they will send you your credential, which works as, like, a visa if you're getting into the country. Like, this will work as, like, a. As a work visa. And when we went to China and. And an American citizen needs a visa to get into China anyway, my credential for the Olympics worked as my Chinese visa to get into the country. So this piece of paper, this thing that I have with me is, like, vitally important. So, like, how I was like, oh, my driver's license. I didn't even know it was missing. I cannot lose that piece of paper that just got here from the FedEx man, okay? We can't lose that. I'm saying that to you, and I'm saying it to me to hold me accountable so that you don't have to hear me talk about how I lost it, because I'm not going to. It's going to be right there. Then I'm just turning around for a second. Do, do, do, do, do. It is. It's chaotic, okay? Because there were just, like, tons of things on this desk that I just, like, piled on, piled on, piled on. And I knew before I started recording this, I was like, before I do anything, I need to just, like, dust this desk off. Because when I sat down to record this episode, the first thing I did was I said, everything needs to get off of this desk. And for some reason, somehow I looked at it and I went, it's covered in do. How did that happen? So I. I dusted it off. The desk is clean. I. I need a clean workspace to, like, work and, like, do stuff and things at and in. And I was able to do that. And I really think, listen, maybe this episode isn't very ha ha, but it's raw, and it's me, and it's raw. Like, my feet are rubbed raw to the bone. I'm begging you to believe me. I saw one of my white socks that I was wearing on my trip, and it's like the heel is bright red. And I pushed through that, and I pushed through this episode. And I want you to know that doing these episodes is, like, not a struggle or not something that I go, ugh, but sometimes you gotta push through them because we're champions, right? Cause the Olympics are coming up. And then after that, another Olympics is coming up. There's no time. There's no time to sit back. There's no time to waste. We get things done here. Unintrusive thoughts. Because we are. We live life in the Olympic spirit. And with the Olympic spirit, we have copy and print paper next to us. And like I said, we have a bunch of things to get returned. Right? Returned. My computer also just said something so fucking mean where it's like, we can't do this update because we're completely full of. So I'm gonna have to deal with that. I also am gonna say something else before we go, because now I'm kind of wrapping up again. Like, no text messages whatsoever, voicemails. But we're gonna get there. Because I think this episode was just like a debrief and, like, let the brain relax. Like, I actually do feel much better after this, as you can tell. I don't feel high strung, stressed out. Nothing of the sort. As you can tell, I don't feel that. But this was like a de stressor. Like a nice deep breath. I'm feeling much better. I'm feeling good. And we're just gonna move ahead. Full steam ahead. And, you know, like I said, no texts or voicemails on this episode, but I think that I'm going to treat this podcast, like, in the next few episodes. Like, it's gonna be nice to take a bit of a deep breather. And so if you actually have any, like, Olympics questions or things that you're thinking about when it comes to the Olympics or, honestly, any intrusive thoughts, whether it be the Burbank airport or shoes that make your feet a complete bloody pulp mess, you should call or text the podcast hotline. And that number is 310-90-9717. You can find that number in my Instagram bio in my link tree. Like I said, It's 310-909-7117. I am actually so impressed with my. That I feel like I did this episode and, like, not miss a beat. Whew. Is it about anything you want to listen to? Probably not. But we sat here, we did the damn thing, good night, I pass out, and we got a good episode done. And you know what? When we do this show, it is about being honest and about where I'm not going to be funny if I don't think I can be. And I did not think this was as funny as I could be. Did you laugh? Probably not. Did you cry? I don't think you did that either. I think this is one of those ones where it's like I said it was for the record books. Maybe, maybe not. Because I'm looking behind me and I have a box from Ralph Lauren. I have an important package that I said cannot lose. And just I have about 55 Sharpies. Why? I don't know, but they're there. But now it's on. It's on. This was the Debrief episode. And now, from here on out, we are in Milan mode. Okay? We're in Milan mode, and I can't wait to get into Milan mode with you. Any intrusive thoughts when it comes to Olympics? Let's, like, you know, we're going to be there anyway, but like I said, any other. We're welcome. And they are welcome. And you are welcome here. And I am welcome for you. Thank you. Right? Thank you. You're welcome. If you'd like to call or text the Intrusive Line. Intrusive line. God. Okay, it's time to tighten this up. Let's do a tight ending like we did the whole show. Ready, set, go. If you'd like to text or leave a voicemail to the Intrusive Thoughts podcast hotline. Like I said that number one more time. 310-909-7117. My name is Adam Rippon, and these have been my Intrusive Thoughts. We'll see you next time. Bye, everybody.