Maria Reed and Sebastian Gillespie

[00:04] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: All right. My name is Sebastian Gillespie. I am 26 years old. Today is December 9, 2018. I am in Jacksonville, Florida, and I am here with my fantastic girlfriend, Maria.

[00:19] MARIA REED: My name is Maria Reed My God. I'm 27. Today's date happens to be December 9th, 2018. I'm from Jacksonville Florida, and I'm here with my partner, Sebastian. Okay. I thought. I think we agreed to just, like, kind of banter, but I am very much curious about what your favorite non private memory of me happens to be.

[00:49] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: It's tough. I think, honestly, one of the most recent times that we had when we went to D.C. and we couldn't find anywhere. We walked around all of the museums that we wanted to, and there were too many kids, so we both decided that we already had too many memorials, which was kind of fun. And then you and I decided to go just make the day into getting as many cheese plates as we could, trying to get as many meat and cheese plates as possible without getting too full before we had to go hang out with your uncle. So that was a really fun time for me because it was our first big trip together, and that wasn't too, too long ago. So I've always got the image of us eating just fancy meat and cheese together, being bougie, being incredibly bougie. It was so fantastic. All right.

[01:37] MARIA REED: I mean, I like that memory, too. Yeah, it was definitely, like, a lot of fun, especially since we were both very much tired of the kids. I can see in your face that you didn't want to do it anymore. Nobody really wanted to say anything or just, like, library. No. And we just happened to be walking towards just a monument that was just ridiculously huge and so far away.

[02:01] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: It seemed like it was so much further or so much closer than it actually was.

[02:05] MARIA REED: It was a lie.

[02:06] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I know every time we kept getting closer to it, we'd just say, oh, it's just a little bit further. But, no, it was incredibly far away. It was our first airplane ride together too. I know, dude.

[02:15] MARIA REED: I was so scared. I know you saw me. I was terrified. I thought it was a sweet move, launched, and then I was just shaking everywhere, and I was really scared. But it was really fun. And I'm glad that my first actual kind of like, adult trip where I realized I can actually leave Jacksonville and go somewhere else was with you, because that was the best. You gave me so much courage. And look, now I'm trying to go to Seattle, and hopefully I can still go because of the move and everything, but we will See, we should be able to go.

[02:48] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Should be a good time. That's coming up. We got a couple of months until we go fly out over there, potentially. Yeah. We've already got an Airbnb book, so.

[02:54] MARIA REED: Yeah, we have to go now.

[02:56] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: So now it's kind of committed.

[02:58] MARIA REED: Oh, my God.

[02:59] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Plus, I think that's a little bit more in line with just getting fancy food than going to see memorials and stuff.

[03:04] MARIA REED: Oh, God, yeah. Dude, we can eat so much ramen. My brother was telling me that there's so many faux places there and just, like, all this great food. So is there anything that you're looking forward to eating whenever we get out there?

[03:16] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I don't know. I don't really know what's out there too. Too much. I mean, obviously, since your brother lives there, I think it's a good idea to use him as a resource for a while. I do want to go to that one fish market where they throw the fish. I think that's in Seattle. Is that the Pike Place market?

[03:31] MARIA REED: I think my brother told me about this market that's, like, ridiculously huge. It has a ton of boots and food.

[03:37] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[03:37] MARIA REED: And it is possibly a whole bunch. I think it might be that one.

[03:40] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I'm not 100% sure. I guess I'm not that cultured.

[03:43] MARIA REED: I don't think we are.

[03:44] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I'll just say that we're East Coasters, so we don't know anything on that.

[03:46] MARIA REED: Side, and we're just there to be a little bit bougie.

[03:48] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Just a little bit. It'll be fun.

[03:50] MARIA REED: Just a little. I mean, coming from Jacksonville, anything is a lot nicer. Not saying that Jacksonville is a bad place, but in terms of food and drink, we're slowly getting better. But it's always nice. Yeah, it's just different.

[04:02] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I got some stuff here.

[04:04] MARIA REED: He's a little bit more culture. I could totally go for legitimate pho places, kind of.

[04:11] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, that'd be nice.

[04:13] MARIA REED: Yeah. Okay. What was your question for me? Did you want to read it off?

[04:17] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I'm trying to think of the question I had for you, because now I'm blank.

[04:22] MARIA REED: Okay, I'll tell you the question. You can ask me it. Like I didn't tell you.

[04:26] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Hmm.

[04:27] MARIA REED: Okay. Maria, what was your first impression of me?

[04:34] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I like your impression of me, Maria. Here I am. Hello, Maria. Yeah. So what do you. What do you first think of me when we first started hanging out?

[04:43] MARIA REED: Sebastian.

[04:44] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Sebastian.

[04:45] MARIA REED: Sebastian.

[04:46] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yes.

[04:47] MARIA REED: Oh, my God, Sebastian. I know. Oh, yeah. Just in case the background story of this guy is that we met on Tinder. And before that, we met on Bumble. But I got really bad anxiety because he's really too cool for me. And I was, like, overstimulated, so I deleted Bumble and we ended up meeting on Tinder. But I remember, Sebastian, my first impression. Whenever I saw you walking towards me, I was already on the swing set. And you agreed to meet me on the swing set versus meeting me at the restaurant first. And you're walking on over, and I was like, man, he's so handsome. I hope he doesn't mind me. I hope. Sebastian.

[05:33] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I think I'm dressed the same way.

[05:34] MARIA REED: I think she was wearing the same way.

[05:36] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I think he just wasn't wearing the sun ratio.

[05:39] MARIA REED: You're wearing your teal jacket. No teal jacket. Teal shirt with your red jacket on top of it. Your nice blue jeans, the ones where you roll up and they don't have the camo on it. And your black fans, and your hair was all slicked back, and you look like Mr. Confident. And you were just trotting over, and I was like, oh, my God, Maria, you're in trouble now. This is great. You were so handsome. And I couldn't even believe that you even wanted to meet up with me. And I was so worried about who I was at the time that I know I jumped up. I was like, you know. Cause I have missing teeth. I have this thing called trigeminal neuralgia. And I hope it doesn't stir, like, make you not want to be with me. I think that was the first thing I ever said to you.

[06:28] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I think it was.

[06:29] MARIA REED: I jumped off. Just made my grand entrance, jumped off the swing and was just like, this is me. Don't be surprised. I probably won't smile because I'm really embarrassed. But my first impression of you, Sebastian, was that, man, this guy is, like everything that I could ever want in one person. And I already knew it as soon as I saw you.

[06:51] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Oh, man, my ego can only get so big. The amount of times my voice cracked. I think the first time we met, it was ridiculous. Hi, my name's Sebastian. It was incredibly awkward on my part.

[07:06] MARIA REED: But it was a date that never ended.

[07:10] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, it was a date that went on for, I think, three weeks straight of us seeing each other. We just started seeing each other, and then we just. It didn't stop. I think it only stopped because I think our roommates got sick of us hanging out as much as we were, so we had to go take a little bit of a break.

[07:28] MARIA REED: Maybe it was just Stockholm syndrome. He kept me locked up. You got to see me every day, Maria. This is your voice, Sebastian. You just got to see me every day. But it was. It's. It's what, a year and a half later? Sebastian.

[07:43] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[07:44] MARIA REED: And it's a never ending date.

[07:49] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: We're still here.

[07:50] MARIA REED: We're still here.

[07:51] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Now you're moving right down the street.

[07:53] MARIA REED: I know.

[07:53] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[07:54] MARIA REED: Taking like more steps. And eventually. Me and you. Well, me and you. I'll do 10 years. Like that guy we met yesterday.

[08:04] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Oh, man, that was so scary.

[08:06] MARIA REED: I know.

[08:07] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: A construction worker at your new apartment decided to come up to us and say what his entire backstory of his relationships were.

[08:18] MARIA REED: With my mom.

[08:19] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: With your mom.

[08:22] MARIA REED: Just this little short lady next to me. Firecracker, Filipino, gray haired, looking over at him like, what are you doing? But nice enough to entertain the conversation. That was intense. I did 10 years.

[08:36] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Stop it. I want them to get married. Oh, well, love is beautiful.

[08:41] MARIA REED: And I got two kids out of this marriage. And then he rolls up his sleeve and there's like 10 birthdates on his arm.

[08:52] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[08:53] MARIA REED: Two kids from one marriage. The rest of them are.

[08:56] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. It was a. Interesting person to meet, for sure.

[08:59] MARIA REED: I know. He was kind of scary. Unfortunately, not unfortunately. I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying. But he was definitely kind of scary. I think I like the idea that, like, out of all the insanity that has happened for me these last few weeks, that the outcome ended up being like, pretty nice place. A pretty nice place close by or down the street.

[09:21] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: You can walk to work, I can.

[09:22] MARIA REED: Walk to Publix, even though you don't want me to.

[09:24] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: It's not super far. It's like a mile, though. It's still kind of far.

[09:28] MARIA REED: It's not super far, you know, Sebastian. Huh? I don't know. You know, I have to be walked. And I can wear my book bag. Happy Pupper. Go into the store, filling it up, walking back to my place. It's going to be great. I mean, it's been a stressful, A very stressful time, but the outcome is beautiful. And I'm very much excited for the next year for not only me and you, but just like for myself. And you got a lot going on too. Yeah, you got a raise, got some awesome bonuses. Yeah, you got a lot.

[10:10] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: We're improving slowly. Slowly but surely we're getting there.

[10:14] MARIA REED: I know.

[10:15] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Make more trips, which is the whole. The whole deal. And maybe eventually we can get overseas somehow and go see the family over there.

[10:23] MARIA REED: Adult party, adult parties, adult parties.

[10:26] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. And not feel out of place at adult baby reveal parties.

[10:32] MARIA REED: Yeah, that's what you mean by adult parties. Not like, like that kind of adult party, but like the ones where you're surrounded by people in their late 30s, early 40s and they've got the nice house, they've got like the great car, fantastic relationships, just everything somebody would. That's the American dream. I can't believe it. It feels like so weird to say that for most. That, that's what, that's. That's like the whole public, the public saying, United States, come here, get the big house, white ticket fence, kids, cars.

[11:12] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: The dog, get the cat. Maybe just cats, get whatever.

[11:17] MARIA REED: It was cool though. Like that's, that's one of my favorite memories with you Sebastians. Like whenever we went to the adult party, getting to see all those people.

[11:31] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: With their kids, feeling super out of place.

[11:35] MARIA REED: Feeling out of place. But it also made me very hopeful for the future. It was like very. It was a very real thing for me. And it's funny because I've never had that thought with anybody before. I've never had that thought where I was like, I can see myself doing this with you. But when we were there really awkwardly talking to people, watching kids and kind of figuring out where we fit, I realized that I want to have those things with you. And it was the most. That's like the most frightening realization I've ever had. But it's also like the best one I've ever had. It's something that makes me want to put my ducks in a row so we can have that kind of future together. Like just seeing this from our first day, this handsome man walking towards me. Now a year and a half later, it's like I don't ever want to lose that handsome man. I really want to have a future with this person and dragging him story corpse. At least our love will be documented for like ever. Because you never know what happens. And if anything does happen, it's there for either of us to listen to.

[12:54] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That's true.

[12:56] MARIA REED: And we got our own copies, baby.

[12:58] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[12:59] MARIA REED: Oh yeah.

[13:00] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I get good looking pictures. Good looking pictures go into the library forever.

[13:04] MARIA REED: I know. Still, dude, I told you if I would have came in a dress suit and had my picture taken, I would have regretted it. It's like one of those old school things, like long like a regular dress.

[13:16] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Like a fancy dress.

[13:17] MARIA REED: No, it's like a suit but dress.

[13:20] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Because I'm thinking a pantsuit. But like the bottom is a dress.

[13:23] MARIA REED: Yeah. So like a long skirt suit. Yeah. Big puffy shoulders.

[13:29] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Why would you own that?

[13:30] MARIA REED: I don't know.

[13:30] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Who owns those?

[13:31] MARIA REED: I don't know. I thought about it. I was like, man, I gotta come here. I gotta do this interview. I'm gonna wear it A dress suit. But I am dressed comfortably like I normally would, and I kind of want.

[13:45] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: To get you a dress suit just because I've never heard of a dress suit.

[13:50] MARIA REED: Dude, Hillary Clinton wears them a lot.

[13:52] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That's a pantsuit.

[13:53] MARIA REED: I thought it was a dress.

[13:55] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Oh, man.

[13:56] MARIA REED: Okay. I've never seen that woman in a skirt in my entire life. You're right. Well, that would be. Oh, God. Big, poofy shoulders.

[14:03] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. You can get your pantsuits. You look like a professional executive. Like, everywhere you go, like, everyone else is wearing scrubs and wearing pantsuits.

[14:12] MARIA REED: I'm doctoring now. Just, Ah, what? Pantsuit?

[14:21] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Pantsuits.

[14:22] MARIA REED: Pantsuit. No, just suit.

[14:25] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Hmm.

[14:27] MARIA REED: This is a great debate. Yeah, this is. This is hard.

[14:37] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: All right, so we got the travel covered. We did D.C. we're doing Seattle. What's up next for us?

[14:44] MARIA REED: The Netherlands.

[14:45] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Netherlands.

[14:46] MARIA REED: Netherlands.

[14:47] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. Can I go visit Oma?

[14:48] MARIA REED: I'm going to visit Oma, and I want to see, like, you know, I'm doing that survey right now. And one of the topics for the survey was, you know, if you can go anywhere right now, your fairy godmother just appears, says, bam, you get your wish. Where would you be? And I was like, I would totally be in the Netherlands with Sebastian right now. Because every time we talk about it, I can see the twinkle in his eye. I can just see, like, the memories in his face, just how excited he is about his heritage and where he comes from. And then, plus, there's those weird scenarios in your head when you're like, we got to go to the Breadman, and then we're gonna go to the Cheeseman and go down the street to the market to meet the meat man. And just like, Schwarf waffles.

[15:39] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Schwaf waffles.

[15:40] MARIA REED: Schwab waffles. You should say something to me in Dutch. Tell me what we would do when we go to the Netherlands. Why?

[15:49] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Well, the good thing is, at least we're getting used to rainy and depressing weather in Seattle so that we can get rainy and depressing weather in the Netherlands as we go.

[15:57] MARIA REED: Is it really like that? Where in the Netherlands?

[16:00] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, it's, like, gray, it's cold, it's wet all the time.

[16:07] MARIA REED: What about the breadman?

[16:09] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: He still exists.

[16:11] MARIA REED: He made this look like it was such a perfect picture.

[16:14] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: It's a fun place. I guess. It's just cold. We live in Florida. We're wearing hoodies and it's like 70 degrees.

[16:24] MARIA REED: You're right.

[16:25] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[16:25] MARIA REED: So what about the bread man?

[16:26] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: The breadman exists. We can still go to the bread man. He's not out of the question. We're still gonna go to the bread man. There's a cheese guy that we can go to as well. We can get that whole salted herring. You gotta eat it. It's gonna be gross. It's gonna be gross.

[16:39] MARIA REED: I don't think I want to do that.

[16:41] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Just went into Holland, I guess.

[16:45] MARIA REED: I just want to eat cheese.

[16:47] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: They got some cheese there for you. We'll get some cheese.

[16:49] MARIA REED: It's just some good cheese.

[16:51] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[16:51] MARIA REED: What about the meats?

[16:53] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: We'll get some weird meats for sure.

[16:56] MARIA REED: Like pate.

[16:57] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Like pate. Like liverwurst and stuff. I'll have a good time after that.

[17:05] MARIA REED: Where would you want to go now next? Us somewhere here.

[17:10] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I don't know. That's hard.

[17:14] MARIA REED: That is a hard question, right?

[17:15] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, maybe. Like.

[17:23] MARIA REED: I could see you thinking. I wish people could see your brows and your mustache just wavering. Wrinkling.

[17:33] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Man. It'd be cool if we went, like, all the way to New Zealand or something like that.

[17:36] MARIA REED: Like Super Hobbit holes.

[17:39] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. And, like, do that Lord of the Rings tour. That'd be, like, the nerdiest thing ever. And it'd be amazing. We can go in the whole.

[17:45] MARIA REED: We gotta dress like hobbits.

[17:47] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I mean, I guess. I think you just don't wear shoes and you can be out. It's a really easy costume.

[17:52] MARIA REED: And my feet are big, so I think it works out for me. Are we gonna sneak some meat and cheese into the hobbit hole?

[17:59] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, we can go. I assume that they have food there. But, I mean, if. Just if we want to. Yeah, we can.

[18:04] MARIA REED: Second breakfast.

[18:05] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Second breakfast, third breakfast. I guess as many breakfasts as possible.

[18:08] MARIA REED: I mean, There's a. There's 12 Hobbit meals, I think.

[18:12] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I did not know that.

[18:13] MARIA REED: I think so.

[18:14] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That's a lot.

[18:14] MARIA REED: I could be lying.

[18:15] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That might be too much food for me.

[18:17] MARIA REED: Yeah. It's not. You're right. We're little people. Little pieces. Okay. We'll have a little second breakfast that's just like an appetizer. Like, oh, man, I'm still so salty about the appetizer that we got from.

[18:34] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: From the Thai place.

[18:35] MARIA REED: The Thai place. 450 for two spring rolls that are, like, as long as my pinky. I Have big hands. But, like, you can only do so much with, like, that much spring roll. That's so salty to me. I'm really upset about that.

[18:51] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That's something to be upset about for sure.

[18:53] MARIA REED: 450.

[18:53] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: 450 for.

[18:54] MARIA REED: Remember when they charged me for bread and butter?

[18:57] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, I understand. I remember how mad you were about getting charged for bread and butter. And then they asked you even if you wanted to extra bread for another $50. Amanda, look. You gave that lady. Oh, my God.

[19:07] MARIA REED: It was like.

[19:09] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: It was crackers.

[19:10] MARIA REED: It was crackers.

[19:11] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Charged you for crackers. I don't think I've ever seen you more upset.

[19:16] MARIA REED: You get, like, even at the crappiest restaurant, you get free bread and you get free butter.

[19:23] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I mean, at the Olive Garden, they'll let you eat it until you die.

[19:26] MARIA REED: I know. In Cracker Barrel, too. You pay that. You sign your soul away. And then you get unlimited bread.

[19:33] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Unlimited bread rolls. You just come back.

[19:35] MARIA REED: It's worth it. Going to the trough.

[19:38] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[19:38] MARIA REED: It's fantastic.

[19:39] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That's funny.

[19:40] MARIA REED: And then, like, dude, even Outback gives you bread. And you know where else gives you bread? What is that?

[19:50] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: You're saying that, like, you have it prepared, like, you know where else. Where.

[19:53] MARIA REED: What is that? What's the place called?

[19:56] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I don't know. Red Lobster.

[19:58] MARIA REED: Oh, those are biscuits. That's not bread. Bread and biscuits are completely different things.

[20:02] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: This is a really sore subject for you.

[20:04] MARIA REED: I'm salty.

[20:05] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[20:06] MARIA REED: Because I like bread, and it should be free.

[20:08] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: It should be free.

[20:09] MARIA REED: If I have a restaurant. No. Why don't I have a restaurant? Free bread.

[20:13] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Free bread.

[20:14] MARIA REED: You know what? I'm baking the bread, too. Ah, homemade.

[20:17] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: What about the butter?

[20:18] MARIA REED: I'll churn it.

[20:18] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Making that.

[20:19] MARIA REED: I'm churning the butter. Oh, yeah.

[20:21] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Wow.

[20:21] MARIA REED: Oh, yeah. I got bees.

[20:22] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That's impressive.

[20:23] MARIA REED: Honey butter.

[20:23] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Wow.

[20:24] MARIA REED: Honey butter.

[20:25] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: You're really setting the standard Thai right now.

[20:28] MARIA REED: You know what? I'll make some preserves.

[20:31] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: So, like, what are you. Are you actually making any food at this place, or is it just, like, bread and preserves?

[20:35] MARIA REED: It's just bread and preserves. They're like, oh, when is. When do we get the menus? Oh, like, give me five minutes. Just load them up on bread. Everything's for free. Really? It's just like one of those mind things where if you do decide to wait, like, the two hours for a minute. Bread and preserves, then I'm kind of screwed. I don't know what to do here, but, I mean, in a restaurant that I will have. Definitely. I will. Oh, man. I'll whip up so much food.

[21:05] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Just like, would you rather have the actual restaurant or would you rather just have the bakery? Because you've been talking a lot about bread and none of that was actual real cooking. It was all just. It was just bread.

[21:15] MARIA REED: I want a bakery. I want to be able to do what I love for, like, ever. And seeing people eat what I make, just being able to be like, you guys can't see this, but I'm kneading with my hands like a cat and just doing those things for the rest of my life. Making cakes, swirling cupcakes, you know, just stuff like that just would make me happy. And I would love to have a restaurant too, because I love to cook, but baking is my priority. And then drinks too. Look, I like everything. I like everything concerning food. I want to make good drinks. I'm going to make my own cider. I'm going to use that cider to make my cakes and my bread. It's going to be fantastic. Food. Everybody needs food.

[22:09] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Everybody needs food. That's why we like eating it a lot. That's why we try to go to as many of these weird new places as possible. Every time a new one opens up, we gotta make sure that we're trying to be there first.

[22:18] MARIA REED: We just gotta be careful though, because I mean, at the time that beer and cheese matching flight.

[22:26] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Oh, yeah, that was weird.

[22:27] MARIA REED: Delicious.

[22:28] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, but I mean, it was good. But man, it did make you feel weird afterwards.

[22:33] MARIA REED: Oh, yeah. Cheese and beer, man. Unless it's beer cheese. Yeah, pretzels. I mean, that's an exception.

[22:39] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: But I mean, there we are, us, naive, thinking that beer and cheese flight together pairing would be just as good as a cheese and wine flight pairing. It was good.

[22:49] MARIA REED: Oh, God, it wasn't bad at all, but.

[22:51] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Oh, my God.

[22:52] MARIA REED: Oh, God, it was bad coming out. Yeah, that didn't look too good. What did we eat after that? I don't think we ate.

[22:58] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Well, we did eat tacos before that. Oh, yeah, you're right. So we just decided like, oh, we're just going to do all the new things. Murray Hill, let's go get new taco place. Oh, okay. That was good. Oh, let's go get new beer place. That was good too. And lots of cheese. I guess we did set ourselves up for that.

[23:12] MARIA REED: Yeah.

[23:13] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Same week that we had nothing but tacos for like five days straight.

[23:17] MARIA REED: No, like, that happened every weekend we hung out.

[23:19] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, that was like a month or so. Like, for some reason, every time we went to go get food, we ended up just getting tacos. Somewhere. And then we made food and we made tacos, too. And I don't know what infected our brain to make it that the only thing we wanted to eat was tacos.

[23:33] MARIA REED: I don't know.

[23:33] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, it was good, though.

[23:34] MARIA REED: It was good. And unfortunately, today, whenever we ended up eating out instead of going for actual tacos, because they're right next door to our favorite taco place, we ate bread.

[23:45] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, it's not bad.

[23:47] MARIA REED: I don't know. I wish. I wish I could have forced my body to eat refried beans.

[23:53] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Refried beans and tacos. And 32 ounces a beer.

[23:56] MARIA REED: Yeah, dude, Bogo margaritas. Just the works. Cheap Mexican food is, like, the greatest food.

[24:06] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Oh, it's amazing.

[24:07] MARIA REED: Ever created. But you know what I don't like? Whenever they throw, like, weird things, they call them tacos, but it's not a taco because it's got all, like, extra stuff on it. You know what I'm talking about?

[24:21] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Gourmet tacos, where they put like an entire stock of cilantro on it and stuff.

[24:25] MARIA REED: Yeah, it's rustic. No, dude, you just didn't chop the darn cilantro. I hate that. Or like, radicchio. Who. Red cabbage is not the only topping you put on a brisket taco. Okay, that's. You can't just do that.

[24:38] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Like, rustic is like a trigger word for you when it comes to food. Because every time somebody describes something as rustic, you're like, no, it's just ugly. You can't describe it as rustic. It's just gross looking.

[24:50] MARIA REED: I like rustic in terms of what you can do with your household, like with, you know, wood and stuff like that. But in the kitchen, rustic just means that you're lazy. Okay, cool. You're rough chopping it. If I eat a piece of radicchio that's as thick as my thumb, that's not rustic. That's an accident. I could have choked on that. That would have been really bad. But yeah, I like. I don't know. I just. If you're going to make a taco, make it good. Don't make it just like, for Instagram, red cabbage, salt, bae. It's everywhere in your plate, you know? God, I complain about food a lot.

[25:31] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I know this. This isn't new to me. None of these are very new facts. I complain about food.

[25:39] MARIA REED: Yeah, this is a thing I like. When we went to Gainesville to see Gavin and he peered over at me as we passed one of your favorite restaurants and was like, you know what you said?

[25:54] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Please don't complain about this, but then it wasn't really great when we left. And he didn't say anything. To your credit, and I didn't get to say while we were driving back. I didn't really like that. It wasn't quite as good as how I thought it was when I was in college. To your credit, you didn't say anything.

[26:09] MARIA REED: I didn't. But, you know, I didn't have to say anything because you heard my stomach.

[26:13] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. And my stomach, too. That did not sit well.

[26:16] MARIA REED: Yeah. An hour and a half drive, right? An hour drive.

[26:19] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That was a tough. Yeah, that was like, oof. We pushed that to like an hour drive.

[26:23] MARIA REED: Oh, my God.

[26:24] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: That was bad.

[26:24] MARIA REED: That was really bad. That's why I'm picky about food. It was great. That broccoli and like, what, asparagus noodles that they made, that was intense with all that parm on top of it. Delicious.

[26:40] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: So what do you feel about the trend of places that seem to only exist to be somewhere to take a picture? Like the donut place over by the beach where tiny donuts are fantastic. But when you walk into the store, it seems like the only reason to be there is to take a picture to let people know that you went there.

[26:57] MARIA REED: See, I'm definitely not trying to be a snob about it. Food is the most important thing if you're going to have a restaurant. You have to have great food and it's cool whenever it looks pretty and it looks the part. But if it doesn't taste good, if it doesn't taste as good as it looks on your Instagram, then why are you eating there? It has to have something memorable about it. Like that mini donut shop is fantastic, actually, because the idea is really cool. I mean, they have a bunch of donuts. It's all the same flavor donut. But the way they used their toppings and simple syrup glazes and stuff like that is fantastic. And they keep it new. Now they have donut cakes. Those donuts are the thing that are in right now.

[27:38] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: What is a donut cake?

[27:40] MARIA REED: It's like they have, you know, mini donuts. Yeah, it's like little donuts put into a shape of a cake in different shapes. So it's like a star with, like five donuts stacked on each side and making a star and glazed. Okay, over the top. But I'm not salty about places that have beautiful food. It's like eating food is the whole experience. It's the smell, it's the way it looks, it's the way it tastes. It's just everything. It's the memories that go into it. But if you just put a whole bunch of radicio on top of a taco, even though it looks pretty and your meat's rough chopped, so I'm choking, half the time I'm eating it. That's not food, that's waste. I can have a better time Instagramming Taco Bell and getting sick afterward, I feel like. But I mean, if it's beautiful, it's beautiful. If it tastes good, it tastes good. I just wish we went back to the sense where, you know, we didn't take pictures of all the food that we ate and we actually took the time to enjoy what we were eating, you know, because we can eat a stew and it might look bad, but, you know, it's delicious. Oh, God. Is it coming? Or are you. Oh, good.

[28:58] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I keep it ready, though.

[28:59] MARIA REED: Just prepared.

[29:00] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Just prepared.

[29:01] MARIA REED: Just prepared. Okay. I think that I can ask you the same question. When it comes to beers, you got a passion for beer.

[29:10] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, I mean, I feel like every. I mean, the craft beer thing is, like, really popular now, and I feel like, especially in Jacksonville, I feel this. Seems like every other month or so.

[29:20] MARIA REED: There'S a new brewery popping off.

[29:24] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: And I don't know, I. I don't like a lot of the places that are trying to be like, hey, we're this fantastic brewery, but come. But we're also going to try to be a restaurant. Like, I get it, you can be a restaurant and brew your own beer. But, like, I think it'd be a little bit nicer if you kind of focused on your one thing where, like, if you're going to be a brewery, make good beer, put all your passion into making, like, your fantastic beer. So I think that a lot of people have been following just the general trends, and I'm not a huge fan of absolutely everything being that, like, super heavy IPA that's got to give you as much alcohol as possible and tastes super sour. But, I mean, obviously I drink them anyways, but I do like people that really like to put passions to the beer. But I do not to disparage the craft brew scene. I do like that it's actually something that's up and coming because there are a lot of people that are passionate about it. I mean, I don't know nearly half of what I saw.

[30:27] MARIA REED: I'm talking about, like, my uncle.

[30:29] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, like your uncle. Your uncle's super into it. And then all of his buddies up there in D.C. that have their entire guild of craft brewers that were like the nicest people ever, they're all super passionate about it. So I think that's actually the coolest thing is just seeing people like that one friend of his who was a teacher, but he was really passionate about brewing beer too. So it's kind of fun to watch people follow their passions that way, which is inspiring.

[30:55] MARIA REED: Yeah, definitely. And then being able. I mean, like you said, Jacksonville has become like a place for the craft breweries. It's just here. But to also go up to Virginia and see what they're working with is amazing. It just puts a different perspective on things because we have those really big industrial looking breweries here. It's beautiful. It's. But it's also pretty cold.

[31:18] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[31:19] MARIA REED: And the one brewery went to, like, up in what, Manassas.

[31:24] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. Where we got those T shirts.

[31:27] MARIA REED: Their brewery was homey and it felt good in there. And their secret weapon, the topper, was ridiculously awesome. All their beers tasted pretty good and they had a whole selection of them. None of them tasted the same, but if you didn't like a beer, you can put that topper on top and it brought it to like a whole nother level. It was like, sacrilegious.

[31:51] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, it was good, though. It was really interesting, that's for sure.

[31:54] MARIA REED: Oh, God, that was great. But I totally get what you're saying in terms of this, like, God, I feel. I feel the same way. Like, that new brewery that opened, they had what, six beers?

[32:08] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, but at least I had them when they opened.

[32:10] MARIA REED: Exactly.

[32:11] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Like the Buffalo place that, hey, it.

[32:14] MARIA REED: Never became a brewery.

[32:15] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: You're supposed to be one eventually. Oh, so you're a bar then. That's fine. But yeah, don't try to sell yourself as, like, I am a microbrewery, but we don't really make anything.

[32:25] MARIA REED: But it's nice to be able to see, like a different take because that blonde, that coffee blonde that they had was so good.

[32:33] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, it was super good for what it was.

[32:34] MARIA REED: I've never seen a coffee beer blonde. I've never seen it anything but that rich coffee color or just nutty and just dark tasting chocolate. It was. This blonde was just easy to go down. It was delicious and it paired well with that nice creamy cheese that we had.

[32:53] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[32:53] MARIA REED: Which was a mistake.

[32:54] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: I mean, tasty mistake.

[32:56] MARIA REED: But it's great. It's nice. I mean, I guess. What are your favorite breweries here?

[33:02] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Here? Yeah, I think my favorites are definitely Veterans United. Bold City is still fun. Intuition still fun because they get the nice little spot. Wicked Barley, I have to say, is great, because they gave me a freebie, man.

[33:16] MARIA REED: Wicked. Barley is awesome.

[33:18] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: And I do really like the fish beer, I guess, just because we don't go out to Springfield, I never get to go to Hyperion or. Yeah, but, I mean, they're all. They're all pretty decent. And it's nice that every little area has their own little breweries and stuff like that.

[33:33] MARIA REED: I know. It's really. It's really bringing Jacksonville to life. Like, born and raised here, I can remember the days where there was absolutely nothing.

[33:41] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Maybe even this area was super sketchy. I know, four or five years ago.

[33:45] MARIA REED: But that's called gentrification.

[33:49] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Unfortunately, that's what Murray Hills becoming.

[33:51] MARIA REED: Yeah. But a lot of the stuff, like the local breweries, the local bake shops, coffee shops, now being local, it's just becoming a really. It's a new thing here. It's a new idea, and it's wonderful because Jacksonville has a lot to contribute, and a lot of people don't realize that. Okay, we're at Duval. We got the Jaguars. We got, like, all the bad stuff kind of happening here. But behind the scenes, in these little communities, there are people that are so passionate about their craft that makes everybody else fall in love with the little areas of town they're in. Like, I can't. Now that I'm gonna be living in Riverside, I am ecstatic because I get to go to those locally owned bars. I get to go talk to the people that I see almost every weekend or every day. And our community just gets stronger. I get to enjoy the food here whenever we want to eat the food here whenever we actually know what we want to eat.

[34:42] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Exactly. That's the hardest thing.

[34:43] MARIA REED: But it doesn't feel as cold as the town center or Southside Riverside. It's his own home. And places like this, like Murray Hill, King Street, Springfield, even Avondale, they're growing, and they're flourishing. And I want nothing more for my city to be, like, the best that it could be. So whenever we move away and come back to Jacksonville, it'd be like, damn.

[35:12] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, look at this.

[35:13] MARIA REED: Gross. This is some good food over here. I don't know why I'm whispering, but, you know, my hand's up, too. Yeah, It's a secret. I'm winking.

[35:22] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. 40 minutes goes real, real fast when I'm talking to you.

[35:26] MARIA REED: That's a good thing, right?

[35:27] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. Right?

[35:28] MARIA REED: Never ending date.

[35:29] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah. Gosh, it's funny. I mean, you sit on the couch all day and just talk to each other and you don't realize how quickly the time goes by.

[35:35] MARIA REED: And now that it's being measured, it's like, oh, man.

[35:38] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah, I was I. A little bit of anxiety. I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to talk to talk about for that long. I thought I was only going to talk for like 10 minutes or something like that.

[35:46] MARIA REED: Oh, my God.

[35:47] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Oh, man. I don't have any material.

[35:50] MARIA REED: I'm scared. Scared. But it's great.

[35:54] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Yeah.

[35:55] MARIA REED: I am so thankful that you decided to do this with me. And, you know, I love my podcast. And, you know, like, I leapt like five feet in the air when I saw this little. This little ten over here corpse on it. I was like, oh, my God. I remember he chased me across the park because I started running. But it's fantastic. And I appreciate you and not saying that it will, but if this date never ending date ever ended, at least we have this. The good times. This is great. I got to just banter with you for, like, ever. And that's what we do. That's what I love about this relationship. Nobody has to be anything that they don't want to be. Nobody has to agree with anything they don't want to agree with. And we just get to be open enough to share everything.

[36:53] SEBASTIAN GILLESPIE: Well, I appreciate you letting me ask you questions, too, and I love that you drug me out here.

[36:59] MARIA REED: Yeah, this is great.