Interview 05: Good People — Rock Meets Soil

Because the world is full of good people...
Here's a fun interview with some really good friends of mine, Eric and Corinda, who
always inspire me to be myself and to be a better person. We had a lot of fun with this one.
Read about life in a caboose, their relationship with Mother Earth, hear Eric's underwear
story, and find out what their favorite body part is :) This one's sure to entertain.

Disclaimer: profanity and sarcasm. This interview is not entirely PG...if anyone cares.

Aaand, I get it...most of you have ADD and won't make it to the last line, it's all good.
(You should though...it's a really good last line.) But if that IS you, what would you think if I started
a podcast on Rock Meets Soil where you could actually listen to these hilarious interviews and partake
in the laughter and fun? Seriously though, I want your opinion. Would you prefer to read them,
or listen to them...or do they completely bore you?
@rockmeetssoil

Who are you and where do you come from?

Eric: I'm Eric and I come from the carbon cycle.
Corinda: I like to think that I came from other places, other lives.
Like maybe I was a black panther at one point.
E: As in an animal or an activist?
C: As in an animal (laughing)
But yea where do I come from...the stars, I suppose, like all of us do.

If you had to describe yourself as a flavor, what would it be?

Eric: Salty....(laughs)
Corinda: I concur.
Jane: For Eric or for yourself?
C: Oh no, I concur for him.
J: Okay, what flavor would you be?
C: Blueberry yum yum.

So you guys lived in a caboose for a year?

E: We lived in an EMP-proof broom closet...with lots of condensation,
and we lived there for a year and four months, roughly.

What were some ups and downs to living in a caboose?

C: A pro would be...learning how to simplify and live with less.
E: The less you have, the fewer problems you have.
C: Being able to purge and find out what's important to spend your money and time on, and you know, learning to live with only what's necessary. Plus figuring out what's important to have as pretties. Cause everybody's gotta have your pretties...pretties and plants.
E: The simplification of life is a positive note of it, it's definitely cozy. Compared to a van I bet it's pretty spacious.

Square footage?

E: It's about 300 square feet, but not an actual usable 300. Probably more like 250, on a good day.
C: Less than 250.

Give us a down or two...or whatever.

E: The one that's pretty blatant is lack of space, but you can definitely get around that, but there wasn't a lot of yoga or exercising going on in there.
C: I would have loved to have more space to do crafts and things like that.
E: Like bedazzle stuff.
C: Yes, I would have loved to have more space to bedazzle things. We had to find space, or make space, to do the things we wanted to do. So that could be a double edged sword. It's a good thing and a bad thing; you learn how to use your space, but you don't always have the space.

What about temperatures in summer and winter?

E: The first winter was kind of rough, cause you're basically living on a bridge; there's a three or four foot airspace underneath the caboose. And it's a metal box, which doesn't help anything, but we figured it out...we fixed the windows (caulked) and got some decent curtains.
C: We made our own curtains by hand, with the help of his lovely mother.
E: You mean my mother made our curtains by hand.

Okay, moving on, would you rather be a giant hamster or a tiny rhino?

C: A tiny rhino.
E: See, just for the life expectancy, I'd have to go with the rhino. Are we talking hamster-sized rhino, like both directions? A hamster-sized rhino on the big side and a hamster-sized rhino on the small side? I'd have to go with the tiny rhino regardless.
C: Yeah, they can still run and prick ya from behind.
E: A giant hamster would be creepy.

Where do you find inspiration in the world?

E: Nature.
C: Oh, we're doing one word answers?
J: It can be as long or as short as you want. What inspires you?
C: The next seven generations, I think, is what inspires me the most. You know, leave the world a better place than how I find it. So I get inspired by, I don't know, by saving what I can, a little bit every single day. And putting back. Because I hate to see people who are sorrowful or without.
J: When there's plenty to go around.
C: Definitely. When we all can eat, we all should eat. So I get inspired by people and healing the world I suppose.

What current projects or hobbies are you working on?
Tell us about the house...

E: Well the house has been all-encompassing for past few months...which puts everything other than sleeping on hold.
C: When he says the house he means the 1800's historical home that we are completely renovating and remodeling and uh..making it new again. Making it a home for us, eventually..and our two best friends, and some animals too.

So, personal projects or hobbies of interest?

E: We like to hike. That's something that we do together a lot. We like to be on the side of cliffs and hiking though dense trees and stuff.
C: Personally, I love to hula hoop. That's kinda my thing, and holistic ways of living. I guess you would call that a hobby, alternative lifestyles, I suppose. But yea, hula hooping is something I do all the time and something I have been looking forward to being able to do in this new house and new yard.
E: My hobbies right now consist of mining and prospecting for minerals and semi-precious gemstones and fossils and what have you.
C: Yeah, we love rocks.

Do you lick the yogurt lid?

E: Like, the foil that comes off of it? Of course.
C: I don't eat yogurt, but when I did and if I do eat something else that has a lid like that, I would lick it. Maybe not so much on the hummus though, it's very large. You would just, like face mask it.

What is your relationship with Mother Earth?

E: I guess that's kind of half of living here, is reducing. We both care about her a lot.
C: I am Mother Earth.

Have you ever, or do you now, own a sword?

C: Yes! Would you like to see it?
J: Fuck yeah
E: It's not technically a sword.
C: Yes it is!
E: It's a bokken.
C: It's a fucking sword.
E: It's a wooden sword, or a sparring sword. It's our home defense.
(Corinda makes fighting noises in background with the bokken.)

Detailed or abstract?

E: I don't know, I'm mildy OCD,
so I would have to lean towards the detailed side.
C: Detailed

Green or red grapes?

C: Red
E: I'm a fat kid so probably both.

Crouching tiger or hidden dragon?

E: Hidden dragon
C: Crouching tiger

Liquid soap or bar soap?

E and C: Bar

Horizontal or vertical stripes?

E and C: Horizontal

Trash or treasure?

E: Um, I like looking for treasure.
C: Treasure

Underwater or up in the air?

E: Probably in the air cause we're not suited to be in the water.
C: We came from the water.

Salt or pepper:

C: Pepper
E: Probably pepper

Scrunchee or too-too?

C: Too-too!
E: Scrunchees are way too 90's for me so probably too-too.

Forrest Gump said, "I don't know if we each have a destiny or if we're just floating around accidental-like on a breeze. But I think it's both. Maybe both are happening at the same time." What do you think?

C: Maybe it's everything and nothing all at once.
E: There's an undoubtable interconnectedness to everything, which makes everything a domino effect when you think about it, from a scientific standpoint. I would say a bit of both, but everything is connected.

What is one important lesson you have learned in life?

Pause....
E: I don't know if I should give you a cynical answer or an uplifting answer.
J: You can give whatever answer you want.
E: Okay so I guess my cynical answer would be nice guys do finish last (laughing) An uplifting thing that I've learned in life? I guess just roll with the punches. You gotta keep going, perseverance, otherwise it'll bog you down.

Care to share how you got engaged, briefly.
Where were you at? How did it go down?

C: It was very romantic.
E: We were hiking up Mt. Sopris, and when we got to the top I took advantage of Corinda completely exhausted and low on oxygen.
C: After you know, six miles straight up a 13,000 foot mountain.
12,9..but whatever.
E: Yeah, and then I proposed.
J: And she said...no...
E: She said no like ten times immediately. I'm not sure if that was from the lack of oxygen or exhaustion or what was going on.
J: Disorientation.
C: I did eventually say yes.

Eric, describe your most interesting underwear experience.

E: (chuckles) Oh you left this one in here eh? Okay so...I used to work at this bar and this guy, who most would consider creepy as far as societal standards go, but societal standards are whatever. Anyway, this creepy guy, he really found me attractive and was really into underwear, which is odd because the city that we lived in has the Kinsey Institute in it, which is the number one sex studies place in the country. And so this guy collected underwear from this college town over years and years; he collected underwear from dudes. And he tried and tried to get a pair of my underwear because he really wanted them. So finally he started to offer to buy my underwear and I was like well shit, if he's gonna offer to buy my underwear, why not? So he tried to offer me 20 bucks and I was like nah. So he offered me 35 bucks. And I put the math together, and it's like dudes buy underwear in bulk. So 35 dollars worth of dude underwear is like 20 pairs of underwear; so one pair just paid for 20, so sure, why not? So I sold him my underwear.
J: The underwear that you were currently wearing?
E: Yes, so I went into the bathroom at work, yanked em off, and went comando for the rest of the night. Made 35 bucks. The dude then tried to uh...tried to offer to pay me to let him give me a blow job. And I was like no man, the underwear deal will suffice. (laughing) So yea, so this dude had probably thousands of pairs of underwear, and he said the Kinsey Institute tried to buy his underwear collection off of him multiple times. And then the cherry on top is that I didn't realize until maybe a week or two later that the house I lived in, well there was an antique store almost directly across the street. And this lady used to live there. Come to find out, he lived above his mother's antique store, across the street from my house.
J: That's where all the underwear was?
E: That's where all the underwear was. That's where my underwear were..or are. So yeah, that's my most interesting underwear story.
J: Can you top that Corinda?
C: Absolutely not. There's probably times when I should have worn underwear and I didn't. And times where I shouldn't have worn underwear, when I did. So we'll just leave it at that.

What is your favorite...

Animal beginning with the letter S?

E: Snakes, I love snakes.
C: Sloths

Day of the week?

C: Hump day!
E: Days of the week are irrelevant to me. I guess, the day I'm not working.

Gemstone?

E: Tiger's Eye has probably been my favorite the longest.
I love all of them, but Labradorite...
C: Mhmm..fuck...Opal, Labradorite, Smokey Quartz...
E: Opal or Labradorite, definitely.

School subject?

C: Science
E: Yeah, Science or Environmental Science
C: Earth or Space Science
E: Geology, even though I hate Chemistry.

Salad dressing, or thing to put on top of a salad?

E: Oil and vinegar.
C: Yeah me too.
J: Me three.

Color for your socks?

C: Black
E: Not white

Monopoly piece?

C: The blue one.
J: They're not colored. We're just gonna leave you with that.
You don't get to answer again.
E: I always liked the car.

Type of tree?

E: That's a tough one, I love trees. Probably an Oak tree. I don't know, I really like Cedar trees, the Eastern Red Cedar, not these non-fragrant Cedars around here.
C: I like Maple trees or Bonsais.

Disney movie?

C: Pocahontas
E: I really like Robin Hood.
C: Snow White, Lion King...all of them.

Body part?

E: Favorite body part on ourselves or someone else?
(laughing)
(giggles)
E: Alright so I'm just gonna split it...my favorite female body part is probably the vagina...what? she asked.
(laughing)
E: And then my favorite body part is probably my penis.
C: So I guess I'd say the same things, but I guess if you're talking about on somebody, I'd say I really like shoulders and noses, and chesticles. But if you're talking about favorite body part ever? Vagina, absolutely. Penises are cool, but you know...pussy power!

Indeed...