Wine Down Wednesday: Christopher Bland

Wine Down Wednesday: Christopher Bland

Aired: April 20th, 2022

Audio and Photo Source: Christopher Bland and Instagram

Episode Summary

Wine Down Wednesday is back and we kicked it off with a bang! To end our hiatus, we were joined by the king of “treat yourself” himself, Christopher Bland. He shared with us his tips and tricks on how he makes his travels, from take off to destination, a luxurious experience.

Chris claims to be long winded and long packed, and with a minimum of three bags per flight, he might be right about one of those things. There was a lot to unpack on this WDW. Don’t miss it. Hit play!

 

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A post shared by BlackTravelBox ® Clean Beauty (@blacktravelbox)

 

Episode Transcript

Wine Down Wednesday: Christopher Bland

Orion Brown (00:00:03):

Hello. Look, let me put my head in front of my y'all can see my dishes. Can't you let me put my head right there. Hi everyone. Oh my God. How many Wednesdays has it been? I missed you all so much. Oh my gosh. Hello? Hello, Dr. Toya MD. She said put some respect on my name and I'm here for it. Hello? Hello Deb. What's up? Hi guys. As you can tell, I'm happy. Look how sunny it is. Like it's actually spring now. So like there's sun outside. So all of a sudden, you know, the way my end orphans are set up sun, uh, and we wrap in our black drop box. It's so good to see you guys. It's so good to see you. It is Wednesday. Y'all we get to wind down is sunny. Yes. Chilling. Just, you know, it's hump day. We just gotta write up over it.

Orion Brown (00:01:04):

I am so excited to be back. Y'all the last few Wednesdays. It has been like I was speaking at events. I was on an airplane. It's been a whole thing. Uh, cuz the world is opening up. Hey my brows snob, if you guys want your eyebrows did look at y'all. Yeah. Now mind you, this is a total aside and this is not a paid promotion, but um, you know, I do have the filter on which these filters don't play. I called myself doing my face and then I got up in here and I saw the filter and I was like, or we'll just do that. But these brows, these brows, these are all Tony, the brow snob in Denver. So if you were in Denver son, she gets you, right? She gets you, right? We're gonna laminate these suckers. Next time you guys get to see something even better. Hey Christopher bland you're here. I was trying to find you. I'm so glad you're here. Y'all it's wind out. I hope you have your drinks, drinks up. Throw your drink in the comments. I don't care if it's coffee. I don't care if it's Kool-Aid mine is a midday mimosa an M. Mm. Because you know what? It's 5:00 AM somewhere. There you go. Clean, clean.

Orion Brown (00:02:13):

So let's get Christopher in here. Um y'all so it has been, it's been crazy, but I am so excited to be back and to be talking about travel and you know, my favorite things and getting to see y'all cuz it's been too, too long. Let's see, let's get 'em in here. [Inaudible] Right? Clink Clink ! Yes! Clink Clink! Throw those drink drinks in the comments. Hello?

Christopher Bland (00:02:44):

Hello everyone. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Everyone.

Orion Brown (00:02:47):

Cheers. He came ready with the nice glasses too. <laugh> he was like, we're not playing here. We, we need the glass that could might could hold a whole, whole bottle. We don't know. We're not gonna talk about it. <laugh>

Christopher Bland (00:02:58):

I definitely agree.

Orion Brown (00:03:00):

Dang, Miami? I'm jealous. I'm jealous. Although I don't feel like being hot. Like I'm not gonna lie. My AC is on it's on just a little bit. Meanwhile, you're a sweater. Where are you at Christopher?

Christopher Bland (00:03:11):

I'm actually in Tulsa, Oklahoma by way of New York city. Okay. So yeah. It's actually,

Orion Brown (00:03:15):

So y'all got that Chi chilly chill.

Christopher Bland (00:03:17):

Yeah. It's actually pretty warm out today, but the wind chill makes it like kind of nonexistent. So you actually really can enjoy the warm weather. So it's pretty much just windy and hot. So

Orion Brown (00:03:26):

<laugh> that's okay. Fashion knows no bounds and we will just keep it sweater, weather until we have to. Absolutely. Oh man. I'm jealous Miami beer week syn. Is it synthesizer? Oh my God. I love, I love your screen name, these screen names. Some of these I should have put my glasses on so I can get 'em all real good, but yes, I see you with the red, the red wine there. I am so excited. Let's get into it. I've already been sipping. I ain't gonna lie. I have a midday mimosa. Ah okay. As it were. Um, so it's it's 5:00 AM somewhere.

Christopher Bland (00:03:58):

Yeah. Well it's 5:00 PM.

Orion Brown (00:04:00):

So it makes sense. It's a

Christopher Bland (00:04:01):

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Orion Brown (00:04:02):

Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, you gotta have a little breakfast, get, you know, your vitamin C up. Yeah. That's really what I'm trying to do. So get those antioxidants

Christopher Bland (00:04:10):

In. Yeah. Cause you, because you can get it all from the Mimosa. You can definitely do that. <laugh>

Orion Brown (00:04:16):

It's part of your complete breakfast. Um <laugh> so, okay. Do you prefer Christopher or Chris?

Christopher Bland (00:04:23):

Whatever rolls up a tongue faster. So I guess to make it, you know, more time efficient, Chris is fine. Yeah. I actually make it actually quite confusing. Cause I will sign my name and also introduce myself as both Chris and Christopher and I actually use them interchangeably. So people have no idea all the time. So I just let people just, just say what they want. Yeah. I mean,

Orion Brown (00:04:39):

The thing is it's so to me it's about preference. Yeah. Yeah. Um, because we live in a society that's very much like if your name isn't doesn't fit into like a narrow. Yeah. So even if you have more of, you know, a mainstream name, I'm still like, do you want me to go use all 22 letters? Cause I will. I

Christopher Bland (00:04:56):

Gotcha. Listen. Absolutely. I think again, like naming is very important, like in autonomy and like kind of ownership and kind of yes. All of the same, so yeah. Totally understand stuff. But yeah. It's Chris is fine. Christopher is fine. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:05:09):

I love it. You're not a to though. I don't feel like you're a to

Christopher Bland (00:05:14):

Uh, no, a to

Orion Brown (00:05:15):

Like he said no, what is that?

Christopher Bland (00:05:17):

I dunno that it was like to like, Topfer like to, oh, I was lost. Listen. I was by my ministry. I was like, what are you talk about? I to, I was like, yeah, I'm not, I did wanna go buy like kit for like a good, like hot second, like a good three week span. Cause I thought like I found out kit was like shorter for Christopher. And I was like, if I can go buy kit bland, I think that'd be real kind of real nice. But

Orion Brown (00:05:38):

That's still though. I mean, I feel like that'd be a great pen name. Like if you're gonna, if you ever write a book, right.

Christopher Bland (00:05:43):

Kit

Orion Brown (00:05:44):

Bland is like,

Christopher Bland (00:05:45):

Now just release my identity. So now I can't even use that anymore. I mean, you

Orion Brown (00:05:49):

Can, you can do whatever you wanna with it, KB.

Christopher Bland (00:05:53):

Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:05:54):

Just like share, just share, you know, just do

Christopher Bland (00:05:57):

Definitely.

Orion Brown (00:05:58):

I love it. I love it. Oh my gosh. Okay. So this is your first time I wind out. I'm so excited to have you. I can already tell the vibe is right and look at all these people. Hey y'all what's good. I hope you have your glasses. It's wind down Wednesday for those of y'all who do not know me? My name's Orion brown. I'm the founder and CEO of the black travel box. You can't see my t-shirt cuz I'm cut off and I'm not about to stand up y'all cuz why? Yeah. This co this couch was so comfortable. These pillows. No baby. I ain't getting enough. <laugh> <laugh> and this is wind down Wednesday, wind down Wednesday started at the beginning of COVID because I was sick and tired of not being able to go outside and I missed travel and all I wanted to do was talk about it and you know, that feeling when you book, like when you hit the button and they got your money And you're like, Ooh, I'm really going. Yeah. Yeah. I ain't about to cancel this cuz it's past the cancel date. Mm-hmm

Christopher Bland (00:06:45):

<affirmative> mm-hmm <affirmative> yeah. It's my favorite thing.

Orion Brown (00:06:46):

And so we're just, we're trying to capture that in the bottle here. We're in a glass depending on how you look at it and how you drink. Yeah, absolutely. So introduce yourself to everyone. And I want you to tell us, um, you know, tell us about you. So you mentioned you're in Tulsa, like where you, where you are, where you're from. Yeah. And then how many stamps do you have on your passport? And it does not have to be down to the stamp. Yeah, generally speaking.

Christopher Bland (00:07:13):

Yeah. Um, so, uh, I'm Christopher bland. Um, and I'm originally from actually Jersey. I'm a Jersey boy. I was born in north Jersey. Uh, I was actually probably pretty much a nomad by nature. I actually moved upstate New York, uh, for like high school and in undergrad. And then I moved to Atlanta for five years and I went to university of Georgia for grad school. And I went to New York city for two years and I was working up there for about two, two to three years. And now I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma as of last January, but I still work remotely from my job in New York. Um, and for work, I'm just an environmental scientist. I work at Aon school of medicine at Mount Sinai hospital, uh, work at indoor air quality research and um, kind of toxins and asthma and all the sorts. So anything that you breathe, touch or come in contact with, I'm pretty much kind of, sort of a, a subject expert on that.

Christopher Bland (00:08:01):

So, um, that's kind of what I do through this day. Yeah. Uh, day to day, um, it allows me to travel quite frequently. I do a lot of domestic travel. Uh, the past few years I haven't done too many international travels of course. But um, last one I went on was I just got back from tum a couple weeks ago, which is fantastic. I love tum uh, about seven to 10 stamps today. I, I just checked, um, and some S are, uh, Cuba. Um, I love Cuba. It's probably my favorite vacation. Toum um, and I love Dr. Dr. Has some pretty special memory, so

Orion Brown (00:08:34):

Yeah. So you're on you a beach, BU it sounds like you're like I need some heat and some relaxation.

Christopher Bland (00:08:39):

Yeah. Yeah. I also, like, I think that, you know, for me being on the move is sort of, it feels like home, you know, it feels like, you know, I'm a east coaster by kind of right by nature and just kind of the faster pace to kind of on the go. I, you know, I love, uh, I hate to and love to be busy at the same time. You know, I feel like I, I get too, I of I'm sitting down, I'm like, I actually really get itchy. Like I'm like, I haven't been on the plane in like two weeks. Like I start feeling like I need to go somewhere. Right.

Orion Brown (00:09:05):

It feels wrong. Yeah.

Christopher Bland (00:09:07):

Yeah. I might be like, I don't know, like, I dunno some sort of anxiety from other places, but who knows? Right. I like to get on the plane. Right. So, um,

Orion Brown (00:09:13):

Yeah. But

Christopher Bland (00:09:14):

Yeah, it's, that's kind of what I've been doing. And a lot of travel domestically these past couple of months, just going a lot of my friends are like getting married or having children or getting engaged. And so I literally ha and they're not from here. So it requires me to, to travel to them specifically to be them. So I've kind of learned a lot of travel hacks and kind of, uh, tips along the way that I think that'll be really helpful. Um, so yeah, just happy to share and all

Orion Brown (00:09:39):

This stuff. That's awesome. That's awesome. And I love that. Like, you're, you're one of many people that I've talked to recently, it's like, oh, I'm going to a wedding, baby shower, all that. It's like all these life choices people made during COVID. Yeah, yeah. Uh,

Christopher Bland (00:09:54):

Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:09:54):

But how now with this itch with this, I haven't been on a plane in two weeks. How on earth did you emotionally survive? COVID cause, and for me I can totally relate cuz travel to me is a form of self care. Even if it's not relaxing, mm-hmm, <affirmative> travel per se. Like if I'm not going somewhere to get a massage and go to sleep or, you know, lay out somewhere, just having that space and just moving and being in different spaces is really cathartic for me. And I know it was rough. How did you kind of manage through that?

Christopher Bland (00:10:22):

Well, it was really interesting. Uh, I, you know, was in the height of the COVID epidemic in New York city. I was in New York city at the time and my hospital Mount Sinai hospital was obviously the epicenter of a lot of it. And so yeah, unfortunately they reshuffled the entire staff. So it didn't matter if you were like a resident, physician or a janitor, you were all working in the same hours at the same time, it was all kind of, you know, catastrophe duty. And it was just extremely stressful. And I say that to say that I did not stop going to work. So which means that I never stopped moving. So when other people were locked down for those couple of months, I still had to get up and go to dress and get work and, and go down the subway and go to work.

Christopher Bland (00:11:01):

So my routine necessarily didn't change that much. Mm. It was very eerily scary, cuz I would walk down the streets of times square and there was literally no one nobody and I, and I'm not exaggerating that like I'm not talking about one or two stragglers. There was literally no one, I still get chill thinking about it. Right. And so you have this weird kind of dynamic where you have a really day to day life that's really much active and kind of normal, but everybody else isn't. And so, so you tried honest. I never felt that I was so, um, so kind of like, you know, bombarded in the house or kind of stagnant in the house now when travel also remember, you know, at that point, um, travel was open to like essential travel to like healthcare providers. Right. So I was able to like, to, to be on some of those flights as well to have some, I was able to see family and things like that, those kind of loopholes and stuff like that. So I didn't totally stop travel during the pan. You know, you know,

Orion Brown (00:12:00):

You had that Mount Sinai badge on you, you were like, let

Christopher Bland (00:12:03):

Me, yeah, no, I didn't. Yeah. It's important. I didn't go, I didn't go to like Mexico. I mean I did go to Mexico. That was in September, but I didn't go to Mexico when it first started, you know,

Orion Brown (00:12:12):

When it first had, had happened. Yeah. Yeah. Once it became. Okay.

Christopher Bland (00:12:15):

Yeah. So my, my story of being, uh, kind of, um, my story looks very much different because I didn't, you know, I wasn't locked down. Right. I started working with traumatic experience, wrong with a terrible experience, but like me and myself wasn't locked down. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:12:29):

But you know what though, the interesting thing is, is while that is a very unique perspective, a lot of people were considered essential workers. Right. Whether you were working at a hospital or whether, like you said, it was everybody from the doctor to the janitor. And so I think there's something also compelling about just acknowledging that part of the experience as well, because it's still isolating to like, you have your routine, but your nobody else has it with you, like correct. <laugh>, you know, New York is like, I gotta see somebody flash me on the subway. Like it's not the subway unless

Christopher Bland (00:13:01):

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Orion Brown (00:13:02):

Yeah. Uh it's but I, and that's, you know, and we saw the pictures and all of that, you know, when no problem, when, you know, CNN would pop out for a second and be like, look, there's nobody on the street. And then they pop back in. Um, they had us all up in our feelings. So one, thank you for just doing that. Thank you. Because you're, and especially doing the environmental work, I mean that's

Christopher Bland (00:13:23):

Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:13:24):

Besides treating the disease, that's pretty much the rest of it. Yeah. Um, and so that's pretty impressive. Um, but I love that you were also able to work remote and yeah. And kind of be away as well. Um, how have you sort of navigated, I guess you're used to being on the road, but how have you sort of navigated making, uh, home on the road? And like you mentioned, like having hacks and things like that. Yeah. In an environment where things are a little bit more narrow where, um, what you can do or even what's like socially acceptable is a little bit different than it was.

Christopher Bland (00:13:57):

Right. So making like home away from home, I think, you know, I think you get the age old tips of like bring a candle or like, you know, bring your favorite blanket, which

Orion Brown (00:14:06):

I think a black travel box candle. I'm just

Christopher Bland (00:14:08):

Saying yeah. Uhhuh <affirmative>. Yeah. And I think, and I think those are great to remind you of home and stuff like that. But I think what's really helpful for me is to actually bring some of the items that I really enjoy day to day at home. Like, so I'll bring my white robe. I love my world. I love be in my Rob. Right. And so I'll bring my robe, like wherever I go, I'll be in my friend's house, like chilling in, in my white robe in they house. Like looking like this,

Orion Brown (00:14:30):

Like that. Right. Like your friend up the street, like you're at your friend up the street street, if I'll go visit, like, I got my robe,

Christopher Bland (00:14:35):

Oh, I got my friend. Like, I'll go to New York. You know, my friend I'll stay at her house essentially. Right. And I'll pull up my, I bust out my Rob, like, where's your roll robot? So it's like, no, I did. So, you know, but like, uh, so things like that, um, I also think that make me feel comfortable. So I have like a hyper volt, um, hyper volt where I have like a massage ball and then a hot massage gun, essentially. I'm always on like a layover flight. And so like sitting down for a long period of time is you need something to kind of loosen that up specifically. So right when I'm off the plane, I use my roller ball to get my muscles loosened up and things like that. Um, what else? It's really, really helpful.

Orion Brown (00:15:08):

That's super smart though. Like, cause I feel like we don't think about bringing like people who are like hyper into fitness, they'll bring like exercise accessories, but this idea of the stuff that you use to release muscles and all of that helps circulation. So you're just bringing like those, the rubber balls or you bringing something more intense. Yeah.

Christopher Bland (00:15:29):

I have like a, like a hyper, like an electronic like massage ball like that. Oh snap. Yeah. So you can literally, it's like roll. Like you can have like a muscle relief and kind of rolling thing. And I use that to my legs on my back and stuff and it's super small. It's like this big, um, I'll go grab it in just a second. Um, I'm it's currently over there, but it's really, really,

Orion Brown (00:15:48):

Yeah. You know, he got an affiliate leak and I'm just saying

Christopher Bland (00:15:51):

No, it's actually, because I'm part, I'm actually business on the top and party at the bottom. So actually can't get up without turning the camera off. I'm just, I got shorts on. I got

Orion Brown (00:16:00):

Through, I got yoga pants on,

Christopher Bland (00:16:03):

I got the shorts on,

Orion Brown (00:16:04):

I got yoga pants. Um,

Christopher Bland (00:16:05):

But um, but things like that that are like super, super helpful, like also things skincare is really, really important, making sure that your diet is really, really important. So I don't like to, um, to buy too much things at the airport. One, it tastes like chip, right? It's gross. It's terrible quality, super expensive. So I literally go to the corner store and pack my own snacks that dry goods, you know, bring a water bottle fits into a nice little pack. So whenever I'm in between flights or on a FLA and wrap up my, you know, snack pack, I don't have to wait for the drink service. I don't have to wait for the snack service. I can have, it has my snacks on the go. So keeping yourself comfortable that way, making sure that your skin is kind of hydrated. So making, I use like higher luronic set acid and outta serum before and after kind on the flight to make sure my kids moisturized.

Christopher Bland (00:16:46):

Um, and then like another thing I do that makes me want to get into, um, kind of the, the mood of, of trips is to do skincare routines. And so I don't necessarily have the time or really have the energy to do all my, like explaining these scrubs or kind of like all moisturizing and stuff like that. But I bring my, those things with me when I'm on a trip. So I'm in a nice hotel so I can treat myself when I'm at the hotel. So I don't necessarily have to, so I'll keep up with it that way. And so it's more of, um, what I would do, things that are more comfortable like at home bringing mugs. I, I love to bring a mug like traveling mug. Um, that makes me feel kind of like home. Um, where

Orion Brown (00:17:23):

Are you putting all this stuff? Cause these all, these are all great ideas. Yeah. And everything is by itself. Small, maybe not the robe, but everything is by itself small. But how are you getting all of this back and forth without ruining your favorite mug mm-hmm <affirmative> or without checking a bag or are you a bag checker? Is that like your

Christopher Bland (00:17:40):

Secret? Every single time, every single time I check and take a bag. Every single time I take a minimum of three bags. I take my check bags, I take carryon bag and then take my personal bag. My personal bag has my like electronics in it. My, my neck pillow, my traveling scarf. I always take a traveling scarf because it's cold. You use it for like an eye mask, enough planes, um, just really, really helpful to tie things on mm-hmm <affirmative> um, I'll carry in my, my per kind of the carry on bag. I'll carry my shoes or any of the type of like other clothing. If I get stuck and in my check bag, that's where I pull all my electronics. I'll bring steamers everything. I'll bring a whole steamer. Like, yeah, I don't play

Orion Brown (00:18:16):

Speakers. I do have a travel steamer. I'm not mad at that.

Christopher Bland (00:18:18):

Yeah. Yeah, no, I don't have, it's not even travel. It's this big. I like stick it. I like stick it. Yeah. I don't

Orion Brown (00:18:24):

Talk to you. Yeah. No know. Okay. Um,

Christopher Bland (00:18:27):

And I'll bring all my electronics and I'll bring all like things in, in that bag. So I'll even bring speakers. And so it's really interest, like really lovely to like, I'll bring my little boat speakers. So when I'm playing my music in the hotel and I'm doing all my body scrubs and I'm playing my music from home and my candle is lit, like everything makes sense and it builds much more comfortable and you really try to make every trip into a vacation.

Orion Brown (00:18:46):

Oh my gosh. And, and the thing that I love is that you're creating the space around you. Like you're not just, oh, I paid for a space. Let me just do whatever it is that they have there. It's sort of like, Nope, I'm creating the experience so I can get the most out of it, which is pretty darn impressive. Yeah. Um, but now my question is, you know, now in thinking in places like Dr and Cuba, which by the way, I second on Cuba, I love Cuba. It's so dope. Yeah. So, so dope VI is like my favorite cause they got the good food and it's beautiful.

Christopher Bland (00:19:18):

That's each, oh my God.

Orion Brown (00:19:20):

And it's just gorgeous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, but have you, like, what's been sort of the more adventurous places, if any, that you've been to and how do you sort of reconcile that sense of luxury and comfort? Like getting to a place that might require a little bit more roughing it? Hmm. Or do you just say, I'm not trying to do that. That's not vacation.

Christopher Bland (00:19:41):

It's, it's very interesting cuz I, I, I consider myself a travel enthusiast in the, in totality. So I love the, I love a luxurious explain experience. You know, I love the lounge experience. I love the hotel experience. I love the essence of travel and making it a nice travel experience. And so for me, when I do book hotels or when I do book places, those amenities are already set. And those are things that like I look for when I'm looking in the hotel, they're in appropriate area, they have access to downtown where either walkability like those things I'm already kind of looking at, I haven't had the, and that say that I haven't, and I don't want to, but I do wanna go to some countries where, you know, maybe, you know, it could be maybe a kind of, um, a, a develop, excuse me, a developing country where the infrastructure is not. So, um, so great. But the country is beautiful. I haven't been, you know, I honestly say I haven't experienced that. Um, yeah. I'm

Orion Brown (00:20:32):

Not mad at it. I'm not mad at it either. Cause that's the other thing I really feel like travel is an investment in you and you, you know, if, uh, I always put it this way, like you go into a store and you don't like the way people looking at you, at least I I'm like, oh, oh, we don't have, we don't have good service. Then we don't even spend money here. Right. Yeah. And so it's the same way with any choices that you're extending yourself. And I think it's the same way with travel. It's like don't stress yourself to be an adventurer or to be, you know, to be in these places, which by the way, side note, I've gone glamping in Kenya and it is dope.

Christopher Bland (00:21:05):

Yeah. I bet it is dope.

Orion Brown (00:21:07):

I bet. I mean like your entire, like a five star hotel room in a tent, mm-hmm <affirmative>, the tent is huge. Um, so I feel like that's

Christopher Bland (00:21:15):

What I wanna do. That's more, my that's what, that's more my speed. Like, you know, I love, I love that and don't get me wrong. Like I'm not opposed to like wrapping right now. I'm not been in places where I didn't have, you know, didn't have to wrap up before. I think that, um, I think it'll be a great opening experience, but I just know me. Like, I, I like, I, I know me like, you know, I'm yeah. Just like, I can't even sleep unless it's 67 degrees every single night. Like, you know, like I'm not your house. Like where's the fan, like, can, I'm still turning down your heat, I'm turning down your heat at your house. Cause I gotta be a hundred percent comfortable in order sleep. So

Orion Brown (00:21:48):

I mean, but, and that's the beauty of being inside, like yeah. Yeah. You can create the space that you want. And it's funny though, it's, it's not even necessarily about developing countries. I was in Croatia years ago and I have brought a check bag cause I was like, we're gonna be here for like 10 days. I want outfit changes. I want this, I want that. I'm not gonna stress. I'm just gonna throw it all in a bag and let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the challenge there was when you, you get to these cities, but they're historical cities and they have like cobblestone streets and they have Hills. So it's like, it's walkable. If you do not have a large bag. Right. When you do have a large bag, it's a whole other animal <laugh>

Christopher Bland (00:22:27):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you get lighter is better. Right. And I think that, especially we on those large tracks and stuff like that and day trips and for me, I, again, I like to have every single minute I want at home. When I trip like tomorrow I have a day trip to Boston tomorrow, like 5:00 AM I, I go for 24 hours. And I think I'm about taking an entire check back cuz I'm like, oh, but I might want this and I might want this and I don't need to obviously take an entire check back. You just want

Orion Brown (00:22:50):

Options.

Christopher Bland (00:22:51):

I just want options is that can a brother have options. Right. You know,

Orion Brown (00:22:54):

You can only have options.

Christopher Bland (00:22:57):

No it's but no, it's, it is really, um, I think it's important to like, to keep it concise as well. And it's one thing I don't, I pack, but I pack concisely to what I need. Everything's strictly organized. I don't, I'm traveling a lot. So I'm very prone to losing things, you know? And just in general, cause I'm moving so much, this I'm on, this is like number six, like, you know, like I'm like there's Ubers and trained and you just fluid it everywhere. You're moving so quickly. Um, so you know, just making sure that's concise to having a checklist of all the items that you bring, double checking it. Right. And, but the best thing is like, you know, I always like if I leave something, you know, ship it back wherever it is, I'm making sure that I have capacities to people to ship my stuff back. Cuz I like my ****. You know what I mean? Um,

Orion Brown (00:23:37):

That part, that part flat rate shipping y'all you could just had a box with you.

Christopher Bland (00:23:41):

Yeah. **** me. I, I, I didn't have my mom's ****. Tons of ****. Like, you know, every single time, every single time

Orion Brown (00:23:47):

I'm not

Christopher Bland (00:23:47):

Mad at it. Yeah. So yeah.

Orion Brown (00:23:50):

I'm not, I mean, if it's like, but you know, th self that's the big thing, right? Yeah. Cause you don't wanna get somewhere and then just be like mad that it different travel. So I'm so fascinated by like different travel style. Some people will be like, I have one outfit and I just wash my underwear and I'm like, Nope. Yeah. Uh, but that's your

Christopher Bland (00:24:05):

Business? Yeah. That's your business? No,

Orion Brown (00:24:09):

I can't do to flip midway. I'm just like, cuz like I said, the temperature gotta be regulated. I don't know. I don't know how this's gonna work. I can't. Um, and then there's supposed to have like all of the options. It's like you have a day, look, you have a night look, but then you also have a later night look and then you gotta, you know, the beach, look the beach, look

Christopher Bland (00:24:26):

The

Orion Brown (00:24:26):

Pool, see I'm good. I'm a big fan of like a three in one. Let me pull it off in layers kind of situation or pull it on in layers. Mm-hmm <affirmative> um, and even with that, like, what I'll do is this is kind of anal, but I'll put my clothes out like on the bed and create an outfit and then swap pieces with other pieces and like take a picture of each outfit. So then I don't have to remember what I put together cuz I'm not, this is not a natural thing for me.

Christopher Bland (00:24:52):

Yeah. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:24:53):

And so I try to let PE things do double duty. I'm definitely a carry on only like that check bag life I left too far behind. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

Christopher Bland (00:25:05):

Big. I gotta get,

Orion Brown (00:25:05):

I only check for official black chapel box business and that's usually because I have, it was so funny. We were, we were in new Orleans a few weeks back for wander Fest, meeting people, talking to influencers, vending, things like that. Yeah. And telling people about black travel box obviously. And I had like four check, three check bags and I was like, oh my God. And they're, you know, getting out of the Ubers like, oh you brought a lot of stuff. And I was like, you see this bag on my shoulder? Those are my, yeah.

Christopher Bland (00:25:31):

I see. Yeah. I mean, like I, listen, I, I, I say the glory cuz I, you know, I can't, I hope to get a little bit more concise that way, but we'll see. I I'm I'm longwinded and long packed. So I don't, I gotta a lot of, yeah,

Orion Brown (00:25:47):

That's just a quota right there. I am longwinded and long. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not mad at it. Yeah. Go long. Y'all go long

Christopher Bland (00:25:55):

Mm-hmm <affirmative> yeah. So I mean that's how I keep it, you know, concise, like, um, again, it's luckily, you know, if you have like a credit card with the kind of, you know, airlines like frequent flyer status or like, you know, at least that if that's great, um, it's one of the, the joys that I think it made my, my flight experience, it makes my flying experience, you know, great, you know, you know, the free upgrades and the lounge aspects and stuff like that really makes the, the travel more comfortable. And so I think, you know, having that, if you can, if you're able to kind of invest in that in the future, um, TSA pre-check was actually a new development for me actually, ironically, I've been taking, I know my friend shamed me into getting it, but like, like maybe like earlier this year

Orion Brown (00:26:35):

We don't stand in line. No,

Christopher Bland (00:26:37):

She love, she was like, you've take it. And I made it take me like 40 flights last year, like 40 flight seconds. Yeah. And she was like, you stand, you take off your shoes still you, she said go to precheck tomorrow. It's 80 bucks. It's five years. And like, I like shamed it to gain precheck. So its been great ever since. Um, but like

Orion Brown (00:26:56):

I, you know, it's I got TSA precheck probably about six, seven years ago and I never looked back now I am so ignorant cuz I will literally get to the airport 15 minutes before it's supposed to like start, you know, uh, uh, boarding. And I'm like, there will be no lines. There will be no waiting. Yeah. Um <laugh>

Christopher Bland (00:27:14):

Yeah. Someone said global entry changed their life. Like I, I know I don't have global entry. I have. Um, but I do have clear as well and they don't have clear a lot of like, you know, airports, not in regional airports, but I'm at every airport. Like you got clear y'all don't got a clear line. Y'all don't got a clear

Orion Brown (00:27:28):

PJ y'all clear. So this is interesting that you mentioned that because I started out with TSA. I ignored clear for quite some time, but we have clear here at the Denver airport and I started getting ****** off because I'm just gonna keep it real. Y'all TSA started getting lines. I was like precheck, how precheck got a line? Everybody got precheck now and Claire would just be like move along.

Christopher Bland (00:27:49):

Yeah. Move along.

Orion Brown (00:27:50):

Yeah. Yeah. And I got, I actually you mentioned like having cards with like travel benefits. Um, my Amex actually has like, it'll pay for clear and it'll pay for TSA, precheck and global entry, which you get global interest entry, then TSA precheck comes with it. Right. Um, and I'm like, again, now I'm real ignorant with it. I'm like six and a half minutes before they're bored the flight. I'm rolling up to the door. Like I dare you to stop me. Yeah. What you going? Do

Christopher Bland (00:28:17):

Not have. Yeah. First of all, I'm group one. So you ain't gonna stop nobody anyway, but like joking <laugh> first of all, I'm group one. No. Um, but no, I, I think just to go on the topic of, of like, like frequent flyer status, I, I think that if you are flying a lot it's I think for me it was super important to stick to an airline stick to an airline that is, um, that is regional to your location, that it services a lot and that you're gonna be able to take, you know, many flights of like if Delta doesn't service the Midwest and you love Delta. I love Delta. It's my favorite thing. I love Delta. Right. But it doesn't service the Midwest where I'm at. And so it is, it's not practical for me to take a lot of Delta flights, however America is mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Christopher Bland (00:28:57):

And so now I'm a frequent flyer. Well, I guess for both of 'em now, but for American, I usually that's my, my priority and kind of one I prioritize and I'll actually pay the premium, you know, to fly in American American cuz I know it's going toward my status. And so again, I think it's been the joy of like really flying is like all the free upgrades and kind of like all the perks that go along with it and you don't ever have to pay for check baggage anymore. So that's something that you, you save on. Um, yeah. And then just combining that I I'm a big person of like, you know, combining, you know, gaining points. So dining clubs, I'm a part of bills where I get money from. I get miles from dining specific restaurants. I love restaurants of taking surveys. You can get, uh, for, um, miles from, uh, specific, excuse me, staying at specific hotels.

Christopher Bland (00:29:43):

I've linked my Lyft account to my Delta sky Nile account. So every now I time, every time I take a ride to the airport, I'm gaining miles. And so every single time, you know, from different places. And so it's, you know, just keeping those options kind of really kind of widespread. So you can just gain as much as you can. Cuz now it's super important. The points are kind of devaluing as we go. The, the sky, the flights are sky high. I dunno if you everybody's been seeing these, I'm like what's going on? Like I'm like you're talking four and 500 for a simple flight. So two hours away, like I could be going over to, to Europe for these prices.

Orion Brown (00:30:13):

I could have drove that. Yeah. Like

Christopher Bland (00:30:15):

I could have drove that. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:30:17):

I, and I hear you, you know, it's so funny that you mentioned Delta sky miles. Cause I do have a Delta sky miles card. I hadn't used it in ages cuz uh, you know, I wouldn't consider Colorado. Midwest is definitely west, uh, or Southwest. I don't know. But uh, it's, it's interesting because I hadn't used it in the longest time. And then I had a trip out to the east coast and it was just one of those things that I was like, I could take this Delta flight and not get off the plane. Cause it just had like one of those land, four minute I upgraded everything. I had all my points. I had saved up over the last couple years. I hadn't used them. Yeah baby. Yeah. And then even with that, you know, being able to roll those points into car rental deals and hotel deals. And even beyond that, like y'all gotta check your points because, or you know where you're accruing points because you can also, oftentimes they'll have both domestic and international partners. Right. So then it's like, okay, I'm not really using you domestically. Cause I live in a different city, but a Mexico, a <laugh> like

Christopher Bland (00:31:19):

Absolutely. Or jet blue or like, or British airways or all like all part of the one world kind of network. So not only do you get points from them, you're able to access the lounges of your Italian end of status. And so exactly like, and on what other tip I, a lot of people didn't know, you can stock ticket prices after you buy it the ticket mm-hmm <affirmative> and then get that credit back. If you call the airlines and you know, say that you mentioned a lot of people didn't know that I was like, that's I do that all the time. Like I'll buy ticket price.

Orion Brown (00:31:45):

I do that at physical stores. I have no cos zero co I'm, like, uh,

Christopher Bland (00:31:51):

I saw that **** last week and it was not this right.

Orion Brown (00:31:55):

Look, I just bought this and then he flipped the sign over when I left the store. Oh no you didn't. Yeah. Watch people return it and buy it again. Give me some mess fish. You might as well just

Christopher Bland (00:32:06):

Yeah, a lot of people didn't know that, so I never wait to buy no, you know, flights it's I'll always buy the flights regardless the price and I'll stock the prices for up until literally a couple days up mm-hmm <affirmative>. And if I notice a flight difference of maybe 10 or $20 of difference, I'm not gonna do it for $5 difference, but 10 or $20 difference that that adds up. I'll call the airline, Hey, I see this exact same flight path as for this, um, for this amount. Can you please adjust and gimme the, uh, the difference in credit I'd be more than happy to do it. So if I had literally, I have literally lines of that from doing that build up a nice little credit, take a nice little hundred dollars off of your next flight. Um, just to, but to really, and also just your gay agent is your best friend.

Christopher Bland (00:32:45):

Like the person that call service is your best friend. A lot of times the, the price is online. Doesn't reflect the prices that they can really generate on the, on the phone while they're with you on their computers. So say for instance, I wanted to change a fight to a later time tomorrow. Um, I would, if I would've did it online and did do it myself, it would've been a hundred dollar difference, but I called up and said, Hey, can you do something switching for me? Yeah. One, a dollar 50 difference. You know? So like it's like they can work wonders. They can get you onto any, they have no problem of switching you. And that I, I realized that nothing is permanent. Like with travel, like nothing is in final pay, nothing. It's not even when they say no key cancellation refunds. I, I booked a hotel this for this Friday in Boston and I used a hot rate, hot wire for the first time I used hot wire. Um, cause I saying, I sent, I advertisement for it and I'm kind of like a little kind of iffy on kind of like third party website specifically. But I was like, I'm going, let me go, go see. And Hotwire's been around for a long time. So I was really comfortable, whatever. Yeah. I, I called I did, you know, I paid the hot RT rate. I was unhappy with the hotel that cuz you can't see the hotel until after you paid for it. Um

Orion Brown (00:33:53):

Oh package got you. Yeah, yeah,

Christopher Bland (00:33:55):

Yeah. So I saw and it was okay. I'll tell, but it was just not up to mm-hmm <affirmative> it was just not what I was looking for essentially. And so, and it was non-refundable and non, you know, cancelable and so know me knowing that nothing's permanent. I just right on the chat, Hey, I'm actually not happy with the standards of this, you know, hotel I'm actually looking to pay for the higher peer hotel. I would pay the difference. Can you please cancel this one? Hold on sir. Five, seven minutes later. We've sent in a refund please. Rebook when you can. So even when things are like non refundable, cancelable, just ask they lying. They lying. Just ask. Yeah. So closed mouths don't get fed and that's yeah. That's

Orion Brown (00:34:35):

That part and you know what? It's so interesting. You got, you got a lot in there, but it's so interesting that, you know, you talk about like clocking the prices, right? So if you look at sites like sky scanner or even, um, I'm not sure if hot wire does it, but there's a few of even actually just Google. You can, you can save a flight search on Google mm-hmm <affirmative> and even if you've booked it, leave the flight flight search on it. It'll just give you a notification when the price goes down so that you don't even have to do. I love to do the lazy work. Like I'm like, I don't wanna remember. I just want my phone to tell me Uhhuh

Christopher Bland (00:35:09):

<affirmative> yeah. <laugh> yeah, I will do that. But I'm track. That means I'll be tracking like six flights at the same time. I can't, I can't do that cause I'll be getting emails every single second. Um, that's

Orion Brown (00:35:19):

Very fair. That

Christopher Bland (00:35:20):

Type person, but I think, and specif, that is a great tip from coming up. I, and I think that these flight prices at this moment, aren't going down anytime soon, the rise in gas they're actually going, they're gonna be hiking up. So if you have any travel for the future, like please I would go ahead and buy as quickly as you can, because I don't see any foresee any, especially the regional airports of smaller airports, they get they're more expensive anyway. So go ahead and buy your tickets. I wouldn't wait. You know,

Orion Brown (00:35:48):

And you know what, and that's we also have the benefit of still being in the tail end of C mm-hmm <affirmative>. So a lot of the, um, the, uh, flight rules that they are required to go by the F uh, the FTC changed. A lot of the rules started reinforcing rules and basically started saying like, cause at the beginning of the pandemic, everybody was getting screwed. They were like, well right. We didn't tell you not to fly. So that's our money and now they can't do that. So you do also, still have the benefit of, they have to at least give you a credit. That's like fungible that can be used on a, on a flight of, you know, equal value or more. Right. And so, uh, it's, it's one of those things that there's far less risk in just like throwing that on your credit card for now, if you have the ability to do so. Uh, and then, you know, changing it up later, if you absolutely have to, and knowing that you'll have those credits, um, and you can always play around with it. Right. So that's yeah. I, but I love that. It's like, let's just complain. Like, can we just complain?

Christopher Bland (00:36:49):

Yeah, absolutely. And you bring up the, the whole, the, the new, interesting enough that the mass requirements have been removed from the planes. Yes. Now it's such, and I'm really split vote on this. I really am because as a person who travels quite frequently, you know, every other week it's in, in taking four time flights at a time, it's ******* annoying. Excuse my language. Sorry. It's annoying to, to, it is ******* annoying. Don't worry. It's annoying. Um, and I don't necessarily like it, you know, I don't necessarily like it to be on the plane, but now that it's been kind of, you know, retracted now I'm kind of anxiety. I'm like, actually, I don't know if I actually wanna be on the,

Orion Brown (00:37:26):

I don't like wearing it myself, but I want everybody else to wear one.

Christopher Bland (00:37:29):

I want you to wear it. Like, I want you to wear it. I like, I'm like playing. Like, I think I'm gonna wear it in the line for TSA. I think I'm gonna wear it. When I first got on the plane, then, you know, maybe if I feel comfortable, like taking off while I'm in the plane, but I, like, I realize that like everybody breath at the same time and everybody can't wait to get, no, I was like, that's not a really good idea. Like I was like, I, yeah. Yeah. So I'm, we

Orion Brown (00:37:52):

Shall see, we shall see. I mean, I think that my annoyance is sort of the, the compilation to wear it in the sense that I took it down to have three bites of something. And because I'm not chewing with it back on, you wanna jump back, but I'm also not floating around in first class. I haven't been flying as much as you have, so I don't have those points up. So cuz they leave you alone. The closer you are to the captain. Yeah. The nicer they are and the more flexible they are mm-hmm <affirmative> um, but yeah, I think the mask, I will definitely definitely on the plane. I almost feel better not wearing it in the terminal when they're not like crowded because it's just like I'm puffing and puffing cuz you know, I only got there five minutes before, so <laugh> that's rough. What is that? What it's true. I mean it's it's so

Christopher Bland (00:38:42):

It's a whole, you, you don't like to get to the airport early to sit down in my last,

Orion Brown (00:38:44):

No, I can't stand being at the airport. I can't, you know what and exactly for the reason that people have to wear masks, now I could not stand going to airports before and it would just be people coughing all up into the air. I had a kid turn around and sneeze right on me. Like as I'm walking by, it was just like here, take this. Yeah. And so I just don't like, and I don't like the crowds and I'm like, I don't like sitting close. Like I just, I love humans and I want everybody to be happy. Yeah. Jesus loves you. But I don't wanna sit next to you and I don't wanna be cramed in and I don't wanna stand in line. I can't stand when the queue starts and then people start doing this whole thing and it's like, you know you in zone five. Why are you lying? Um, so I just like to get there, get there when I need to be on whether I'm in zone one or zone six, if I'm in zone six, you're not gonna see me until zone five

Christopher Bland (00:39:33):

Is about right anyway. Right,

Orion Brown (00:39:35):

Right. I will have a frappe or whatever in my hand. Yeah. Maybe a cocktail cuz I've been at the airport too long. Yeah. Look too long. And you know, we just kind of go with the flow.

Christopher Bland (00:39:44):

So if you're last minute to show up, do what kind of packer are you like? Are you a laughing packer or are you like a early packer? Cuz I'm totally a laugh minute packer. I won't pack until like the 30 minutes before and I'm doing it. It's terrible.

Orion Brown (00:39:55):

Okay. 30 minutes is a little bit close, but I will say it depends on the length of the trip and what I'm trying to do. Um, I usually start to pack like a day or two before, um, depending on the trip and there are some times where I'm like, I have a really bad habit of working until I need to leave <laugh> so I'm like, yeah, yeah. I'm not supposed to be at the airport. I got two hours. That's cool. I got like a whole hour and you know, it's like, it keeps edging edging, edging. And that's when I've had those moments where I'm like, screw it, just throw it all in there. Just throw it all in there. Throw the steamer in with it. But I still have room and I, I like packing cubes for that reason as well. Yeah. Cause they provide com compression so that I don't have to be as like, I'm not the meticulous roll it up and all of this. And I'm like, no. And then I changed my mind two minutes before I leave the door. I'm like, Ooh, I should have brought that sweater. Let me go grab it.

Christopher Bland (00:40:48):

<laugh> and that's packing cubes. The, the bad girl, they say that she is packing cubes. Really? That girl, cause everybody keeps talking about packing cubes, packing cubes, packing cubes. And I'm like,

Orion Brown (00:40:57):

I

Christopher Bland (00:40:58):

Thought I got so much like stuff. I feel like I can't put 'em all in the packing cubes and real nice, but I feel you have to curate enough to, to do that.

Orion Brown (00:41:05):

Well, I mean, I think there's a few things. One it's it's understanding that now that you've got a, a finite space to put things in, whether you're a ball or in a buncher or a roller or a folder, doesn't really matter. It's just the beautiful thing is, is it sort of like filling up a pillowcase? Like you can just kinda mash as much. Yeah. And it still holds it to a relatively consistent space. So, um, I think it's like the extreme version of this would be like vacuum cubes, which would be amazing. And then I would take my entire closet. Yeah. But I, I think it's really helpful. I remember my aunt was going on a trip and I was staying at her house and she's like, oh, and I have a packed and I have all this stuff on the bed. And then she had, and I was like, that's not gonna, I was like, do you have any cubes? She was like, I, these, but I never used them. Did I got everything in there? She was like, oh my God. Yeah. I thought I was gonna have to check a bag now, baby.

Christopher Bland (00:41:58):

And people are everybody saying to, to stuff, a zip pillow case to save space. I saw girl stuff. Uh, bring cutes. People are loving their cubes. And I think, you know, I'm not sure if you referring to this destiny, but from one of the travel hacks for people who over stuff, their luggage is to bring a pillowcase in your, like your carryon. So if your actual check luggage is too much, you can take out whatever it is and just carry it in that pillowcase. And then you can double it as a pillow. So

Orion Brown (00:42:23):

Now y'all have been okay. A, I love the doubling as a pillow. Yeah. Two though. We've all been to enough conferences to have like a tote bag where at least it has some handles on it. Come on. Y'all yeah. Yeah. Like y'all got a tote bag you could use. Yeah. Uh, I, I love the fold out purse. It's like, it looks like it's a little clutch and it'll sit in the corner, but then you like pull the snap and it's like, Hey, that's, that's my buy stuff so I can bring it back home bag. Yeah. Uh, but the funny thing is, is I've seen people do this with neck pillows, take the neck, pillow out and stuff it with clothes. And then cuz nobody's gonna tell you to stop with the neck pillow.

Christopher Bland (00:43:00):

Right. That's very, very true. I didn't

Orion Brown (00:43:02):

Realize that I'm like, that's nuts. So I'm like, okay so I could take 15 pairs of socks.

Christopher Bland (00:43:07):

Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:43:08):

And a sweater. That's where you should put the Rob

Christopher Bland (00:43:11):

<laugh>. Yeah. Where No, that rope is going into the check baggage. There's nothing better to happen to my robe. Okay. It's a crisp white Rob. I'll put a nice, nice little folded up and a nice I'll put a nice little thing on it when my little mug next to it. It's whole ritual. So like I'll

Orion Brown (00:43:25):

It? Oh my love.

Christopher Bland (00:43:27):

Like you I'll take my nice little shower off the, off the, uh, off the plane. Do all my routine, my scrubs, all my special scrubs. And so now when I'm gonna do new city, I feel much more of a special, so now I've done all my, I feel much more groomed and much more kind of out there and I smell good. And my body's soft and now I'm I just smell

Orion Brown (00:43:44):

You from here. I'm like, I, he smell good. I'm mad. I'm like, I don't even do that much for myself at home. I'm I'm feeling kinda salted.

Christopher Bland (00:43:51):

Yeah. The chip ain't the trip without the robes. I, he said, so like

Orion Brown (00:43:55):

<laugh> now I know. I like it. And I do have my fuzzy, I have my fuzzy white for I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try it if it works. Yeah. I'm gonna have a travel robe and a home Rob though. Yeah. Cause it's just like sitting on the bed with your, with your travel clothes. Like once it's been outta the house, it needs to be washed. It can't be

Christopher Bland (00:44:11):

That's that? Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:44:12):

Can't be fungible <laugh> yeah,

Christopher Bland (00:44:14):

No, I get that. Unless mine is white. So I watch it quite often, but that's definitely a thing you don't wanna be bringing stuff back to hotels. And I'm very careful about that. Like, you know, as a person who like in the hotels and go to New York city a lot, like, I don't want nobody come. I don't want nothing come back home with

Orion Brown (00:44:25):

Me. So gross out there.

Christopher Bland (00:44:26):

Yeah. I don't want nothing come back home with me. Like, you know, my stuff stays off floor and it stays zipped up. Like I just like, I am that person. That's super cautious in that, in that way where I

Orion Brown (00:44:36):

Don't my look, it stays by the door.

Christopher Bland (00:44:38):

Yeah. You don't

Orion Brown (00:44:39):

Even, sometimes it stays outside the door until I spray it down. I'm not even gonna lie pre COVID. I was like, y'all got cooties. I'm sorry. Yeah. Come back from a trip once and see a aunt in your bag. Just one aunt it's

Christopher Bland (00:44:50):

Wrap. Yeah. I don't like

Orion Brown (00:44:52):

Bags aint coming back in the house. They

Christopher Bland (00:44:55):

And the cleanest sand from the beach. I don't like I go to the beach the whole weekend. I'm like, is that sand, like how did that sand get? I thought I shook everything out. Like yeah. So mm-hmm no, I, I totally get it. Um, but yeah. Yeah. It's

Orion Brown (00:45:07):

Very, I love that. You know? And that's so funny. That's the only downside I think of going to the beach is like finding sand in, in parts of yourself and parts of your bags and parts of your clothes wash the clothes and you still find it's like, hi, sand, get up in between the layers of the

Christopher Bland (00:45:22):

Fabric everywhere. Yeah. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:45:24):

It's everywhere. It's like glitter. It's nature's glitter.

Christopher Bland (00:45:27):

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Orion Brown (00:45:29):

It's nature's glitter. Um,

Christopher Bland (00:45:30):

But yeah, those are kind of like my everyday tips. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:45:34):

<laugh> yeah. So speaking of, of, of tropical travel and I just wanna live vicariously through you cause I have not been anywhere with a beach since January of 2020.

Christopher Bland (00:45:47):

Wow. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:45:48):

Feel sorry for me. Y'all feel sorry for me send donations. <laugh> I'm gonna start a GoFundMe for my sad face. Yeah. Um, where is your next like beachy vacation? I mean, I know you're going up to Boston and it's actually a, probably a really good time of year to see Boston and hang out there and not be miserable, but like when's your next, like, you know, we about to kick it at the beach. We're about to get this melon in on sleek. We're about to live our best

Christopher Bland (00:46:15):

Lives. Yeah. Honestly, the funniest thing about me, I actually have trips playing all the way until August. They don't include the beach, but I don't, I, I haven't planned a trip that I wanted my next beat trip. I know I'm gonna go to Miami for art Baso but that's not, I don't really count that, but I wanna go to, I'm thinking the only place I'll have water in the next couple of, in the next year is actually, um, Iceland. I wanna go to Iceland and be in the, I wanna be in the go and the lagoon like Gucci man, Gucci man LA go. OK. I wanna do the exact video. The

Orion Brown (00:46:45):

Gucci man was the best vibe ever. Mm-hmm <affirmative>

Christopher Bland (00:46:49):

Oh yeah, I can't wait. Uh, I absolutely cannot wait to be just like Gucci man, like, and being in LA go. Yeah. So that's the only water I I'm gonna be probably within in the, um, and the next that I could think that's kind of beachy kind of beachy vibes. Um, I do love the beach. Um, I do love going to Miami. My sister lives in Miami, so I go there a couple times a year. Um, oh yeah. So that's, that's kind of like my, I call my third home and so, um, that's, that's still that's I, I, I love to enjoy, um, but actually, yeah, I think, I think I'm actually gonna be getting more into the, the terrain, the, the, uh, what is it called? The, the more grassy greener type of places, the forests and the, the, the old structures and the kind of the historical places and stuff like that.

Orion Brown (00:47:34):

Ooh, I like

Christopher Bland (00:47:34):

That too. I really wanna go to, um, I really want to like, like Iceland is my next place. I really, really wanna go to, and I wanna go to Eastern Europe, not now. Of course, obviously

Orion Brown (00:47:43):

They got some stuff going on. Yeah. They're a little busy

Christopher Bland (00:47:46):

That's coming, unfortunately. But, uh, hopefully when that, that clears up in the future, that's somewhere I can go to, to look at the, uh, the historical sites and, and, and drink a lot and drink O beer. And,

Orion Brown (00:47:56):

You know, I mean, I guess it depends on what part of Eastern Europe you're thinking. Cuz I I'm sure there are. I mean, this is the interesting thing about, you know, political unrest is it's sort of like when you go to a, a new city and you realize that the neighborhoods are real different, like street by street, like block blah, blah. You're like, oh, this is a real nice block. And then you turn a corner. You're

Christopher Bland (00:48:16):

Like, yeah, yeah. I

Orion Brown (00:48:19):

Feel like Europe can be like that.

Christopher Bland (00:48:22):

Yeah. It's definitely, I think there's a lot of, you know, hyper awareness. I I'm hyper aware of, of, of, of my race and the way that I moved through the spaces anyway. But you know, I think that's, there it is. I'm a bit more hyper aware because I don't know anybody's intention. Right. You don't know when you speak to, to, to people of, of, of different cultures at different races, you automatically as a black man. Right. I, I don't know your intention, whether that intention is to hurt me or what you're feeling. Right. I don't, I know what I'm feeling. Right. But I don't know exactly how that portrays to me. Um, so that's something that I worry about a little bit when I go to <inaudible> for you, I'm talking about like the Czech republics and the OCIA and all that kind of the same, which I, I heard are beautiful, amazing countries,

Orion Brown (00:49:03):

Gorgeous,

Christopher Bland (00:49:03):

But not, but not so nice to black people. Um, which That's what I've heard. Right. And I'm not sure how that true that is. Um, and that, but not the United States is not that nice to black people either. So I'm not gonna

Orion Brown (00:49:18):

It's it's relative, it's global, but I think, yeah, I mean, you bring up a really good point. One is I think here in the states, we are very much conditioned, especially as people of color. I know certainly as a woman conditioned to focus on how the other person is like taking our, our presence mm-hmm <affirmative> um, and how it's being interpreted and it's weaponized, like it's weaponized here. That's why we learn to do that. Right. It's right. You know, it's trauma that people talk about. Like, if you're an empath likely I'm not saying everybody, but likely you endure some type of trauma or some type of volatility as a child where you were like, I don't know what's going on. So I need to be hyper aware so that I can make sure that, you know, there's no crazy surprises. And I think that that's very much true from sort of a race and ethnicity perspective. Um, but I will say though, I, I have gotten to an interesting place and understanding that I'm a little bit brighter, so I get a little bit more slack in the world. Mm-hmm <affirmative> but I also you'd be surprised some of the crap people will say to you anyway, uh, or, or that they'll say, because they think you're cool and you're like, right, right.

Christopher Bland (00:50:27):

That

Orion Brown (00:50:28):

Is so offensive. Um, yeah. Right,

Christopher Bland (00:50:30):

Right, right, right,

Orion Brown (00:50:31):

Right. But I will say I have gone into enough spaces that I was pleasantly surprised that now I don't automatically put that guard up, which is kind of nice. Like that's one of the reasons why I do really love travel now is because in the states, I mean, if it's just a neighborhood I've never been in before, I'm like,

Christopher Bland (00:50:52):

Yeah. Was good.

Orion Brown (00:50:53):

Was good. Miley was good. <laugh>

Christopher Bland (00:50:56):

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Orion Brown (00:50:58):

Mm-hmm <affirmative> but you know, I, you know, a couple trips to Ireland at different places and I realize I'm like, oh, cool. Y'all are just cool. Y'all just see me as American. We've talked about this on, on wind, down in previous wind downs, um, with different guests, that idea of putting on the cloak of American and sort of taking off the cloak of all of these other socio

Christopher Bland (00:51:19):

Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:51:19):

Racial ethnicity kind of things that just aren't even fun for, well, not fun for anybody. Right. But they're just like frivolous. Um, and so it, there's something really cool about that. Yeah. Uh, I will say I haven't been to the Czech Republic. I've heard things about Prague, but I've heard that from everybody. Like, I've heard it from everybody. They're just like, they don't like people, They don't like anybody, but the food's really good and buildings are pretty.

Christopher Bland (00:51:44):

Yeah. And the beer's really cheap, you know? So

Orion Brown (00:51:47):

I'm like that part. Right. Cause it's water,

Christopher Bland (00:51:49):

It's like water. Right.

Orion Brown (00:51:51):

It's just like water. Yes.

Christopher Bland (00:51:52):

Yeah. I, I think I'm gonna move. I think I'm shifting towards that, that place. I think that, you know, for me, I kind of my kind of idea with that. Like if you're not like particularly friendly or receptive or welcoming to black people, then I don't wanna see your country anyway. You know, like there's no reason for me to,

Orion Brown (00:52:07):

I ain't wanna see a little funky country anyway. Yeah, yeah.

Christopher Bland (00:52:09):

A little stink on it. Like gave a little think on it. Right. Like I, but like I realized that that's not, you know, obviously they don't represent the country and that's pockets. Like we have pockets of things look here. Right. And that most people are welcoming and most people are loving and, and most people are, are, are great. Um, and so yeah, that's something I'm, I'm trying to an extra

Orion Brown (00:52:30):

Mm-hmm,

Christopher Bland (00:52:30):

<affirmative> hyper white spaces as a black ***** man. How do I come across as in my queerness, in my blackness. And how does that relate? Right. And how does that like interact and how I'm perceived and how I'm receptive and how I'm getting going? Like, I'm thinking about all those things at the same time, simultaneously on all those actresses. And I know they work on different actresses and different, you know, um, disadvantage, disadvantages and advantages because I'm a male and because I'm Christian and, and you know, so many right. And so there's

Orion Brown (00:52:55):

Intersectionality is so much fun.

Christopher Bland (00:52:57):

Right. And they work on accesses. Right. And then your privilege and your, you know, your, your acceptability moves along that access, depending on how many of those, you know, you know, positive contributors that you have. Right. And so mm-hmm

Orion Brown (00:53:09):

<affirmative>, and that people are actually aware of.

Christopher Bland (00:53:11):

I think about that and aware of that. Right. And how you move through spaces, how you show up in spaces, the way that you're dressed, the way that you speak, right. All that depicts on how people are going to, to treat you. Right. You know, the way that you, the, the, your name before you even speak there, idea of who you are and how they're gonna treat you when people ask what you do, right. When you ask people, ask what you do, they're already assigning how much respect they're gonna give you. You think, if I walk around and say that I wasn't an environmental scientist, that people wouldn't respect me as the way they do. Right. But they do, because I have a sense of authority and it's the expert matter, right. If I was somebody else who works somewhere else, I wouldn't get the same attention, respect, you know, adoration, whatever it is. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so making, making sure that I'm showing up and not being, you know, you know, not even like pandering to that. Yeah. I'm, I can show up, you know, in wherever I look like and whatever I look like and say whatever I want. Um, and, and I'm still worthy of all the luxury and all the benefits and all the wonderfulness, because I just exist. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:54:08):

Yeah. Nice. Yes. And you know what, it's funny too, because like going into, and I know Ruby com mentioned, uh, hearing some funny stuff about Croatia. I did as well. Here's wait, here's, here's the cheat code. If you have some ally friends take your ally friend. Cause I was nervous about going to Croatia. I was like, that's a, that's real, that's real in the, okay. And um, so I just kind of like left, let her take the lead on conversation. But what I did find her presence may have been a deflecting factor. Mm-hmm <affirmative> but what I did find is I, I found people to be generally kind amazing. We had, um, language barriers and I kind of find like some of the best banter comes from people that you don't speak the right. Same language with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if all else fails, drink with them, I kid you not yeah.

Orion Brown (00:54:57):

Drink with them. And it's just like, it's cool. And the food is amazing and it's beautiful. I don't think I had any negative run-ins while I was there. Even when, you know, I took time apart or, you know, ran off and did my own thing. So yeah. Everybody's situation is different. Depends on where you go. All of that. But I went to Debo, Nick, I went to split, um, I, I went into Bosnia. Most star was a beautiful, beautiful town, highly recommend to go to very historical and it was dope and Hava. Yeah. I would stay in Hava for an entire summer.

Christopher Bland (00:55:27):

I could Hova

Orion Brown (00:55:29):

Like it's okay. It's gorgeous. So, okay. I think there's, there's an interesting balance of how far you are in your journey and shaking off some of the trauma that you've had in other places mm-hmm, <affirmative>, mm-hmm <affirmative> and the balance of interpreting cultural difference that are just like, has nothing to do with you, but just has to do with like American versus non-American culture. Right. And then also understanding context. One of the places that I really can't stand going, but it's absolutely beautiful is Barcelona. The people are just rude. <laugh> they're just rude.

Christopher Bland (00:56:04):

They're just generally flat out.

Orion Brown (00:56:06):

Yeah. Well I, at least in my opinion, right. And you know, when you're looking at, you know, when you're in a situation where they want you to speak catalog and you're like, well, I speak a little Spanish and they're like, that's three steps down from what I asked.

Christopher Bland (00:56:18):

Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:56:19):

And I'm like, yeah. I mean, you could be, I, I don't even think of it as a racial thing. There could be, I mean, we know there's practices and things that, you know, black PE and all that stuff that happens out there. But to me, it's more like you're just xenophobic up in the South Africa. There's xenophobic. They're like, I'll be nice to you as long as you're going home. But if you look like you're taking your shoes off and kicking it, oh, you gotta go,

Christopher Bland (00:56:39):

You gotta head out. You

Orion Brown (00:56:39):

Gotta go.

Christopher Bland (00:56:40):

You gotta head out. Yeah. That's really interesting. Okay. Yeah. I, I, I definitely shifted my thinking to, to think a little bit more to that a little bit more, cuz right now, again, as you heard, I'm a little bit more scorn. I'm like, oh, if you don't want my money, you don't want, I'm like, I know that even, you know what I mean? I don't

Orion Brown (00:56:55):

Hear the reason. Yeah.

Christopher Bland (00:56:56):

But also it's very limited to myself and like, like even though I, you know, you don't, I deserve this experience still. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and I think that, you know, that's, that's super important as well. Absolutely. Just kind of shifted that mindset.

Orion Brown (00:57:07):

You know what, that's such an interesting balance that is such, so one of the reasons why I live in Denver right now is, you know, people are like, well, how many us out there? And I'm like, we ain't gonna do the numbers. Yeah. But I am a firm believer that we deserve to have. I mean, y'all, can't see. But the view is fire it's house also hot. So I'm, that's why the shades are down.

Christopher Bland (00:57:28):

We

Orion Brown (00:57:28):

Were talking about that temperature control. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I'm like, I want people that look like me browner than me, different, you know, all of these things to be able to sit back and luxuriate and clean air. Right. I mean, being from Chicago, having lived in New York, luxuriating in clean air is a whole vibe. Number one, number two. It is sunny in the wintertime here. Yeah. And it's not that cold. Yeah. You know, I, and I'm like, we should be able to be here, but the way that it's thought of and the way that culture sort of around here has evolved. That's not where we're at. And so to your point, I've chosen that battle. I did pick that battle. I could've said, you know, what, if y'all don't want me, I don't want you. I'm like, no, I want everybody, we just gonna make this a boozy black brunch. That's what we don't

Christopher Bland (00:58:14):

Do. Yeah. Yeah. You just have to be uncomfortable for the three days that I'm here and get over it. Right. Yeah. And I, I totally get it. Yeah.

Orion Brown (00:58:20):

Yeah. I mean, and I'm like, I live here, I've been here for six years now and I'm just like, I'm kind of on a mission to help create this as a space that we can be like Atlanta number two.

Christopher Bland (00:58:30):

Yeah. Taking up space. Yeah. And unapologetically. So yeah, absolutely.

Orion Brown (00:58:35):

Yeah. But it takes energy. It takes energy. And especially if you need to decompress on vacation, sometimes it's just easier to be like, let me go to the Ritz where they respect my money and they don't care. Who's hand it

Christopher Bland (00:58:44):

To them.

Orion Brown (00:58:45):

Yeah. Or whatever. It might be. Sometimes money, money can solve some problems. It can't solve every problem. But sometimes you throw a little money at it

Christopher Bland (00:58:52):

About 99.9% of the problems in life. But so, and like they say that what is the, the great UNFI money is the great UNFI, right? Yeah. Class is the great UNFI. Right. And always, obviously not all the time. Right? There's many of cases where there's black millionaires and billionaires that still face racial injustice. Right. But they're crying and Bentleys and not behind us. Right. They're, they're their experience and, and their, their, their peace of mind is totally different from ours. And as you say, money talks, whoever you talk to, there's never, there's no final answer. Right. If you have enough money to pay for it, there's no

Orion Brown (00:59:25):

Final. Never take you no. From a person who can't say yes, period. Yeah. Mm-hmm <affirmative> cause that's where you're gonna get frustrated. That's where you're gonna get the nose bleed, where you're going back and forth with somebody who doesn't even have the power wherewithal or even common sense to be able to make the decision that you need. Absolutely. And that's where picking your paddles is good too. Right? Like if it's two in the morning and it's a, it's a janky hotel, go ahead and leave. You worked that out with the manager tomorrow, the manager ain't gonna be until noon anyway. Absolutely.

Christopher Bland (00:59:50):

It's above me. Now my favorite thing to say is if you don't know the answer, please appointment to someone who does. You're my favorite. Yeah. If you don't know where's your, who does, There's no such thing as I hate. That's my pet peeve. I don't know. What do you mean? You don't know? You're the person that's supposed to know who does not like nobody.

Orion Brown (01:00:05):

You know what, honestly, though, I prefer, I don't know to gas lighting because I feel like, you know, we talk so gas lighting used to be a rare thing. It used to be like, you don't try to get somebody to think the reality around them is false. Like that's just stupid and rude and like way too much energy. But now people will literally be like, I will do anything to not look like. I don't know. I would rather you say, I don't know, but I can find out or the person who does isn't here and here's when they'll be back.

Christopher Bland (01:00:37):

Absolutely.

Orion Brown (01:00:38):

Then to be like, well, no, because really that is,

Christopher Bland (01:00:41):

Or give me ******** because

Orion Brown (01:00:43):

Now don't, don't BS mean because my BS culture manager are better

Christopher Bland (01:00:48):

Now culture, man. And now I know what you told me is untrue. So now I gotta go back and complain to your manager about you and you, you know, it's like, I, I

Orion Brown (01:00:55):

Don't wanna do all now. You caught up in it personally and it could have just been a policy conversation.

Christopher Bland (01:00:59):

You just said something. Right. You know, I, I totally agree. Like I, I, I think that, you know, I, I, you know, and I'm a person who's not afraid to make mistakes. I think, I think being wrong is super, super privileged to be wrong. Right. Like to be like, yeah, actually I didn't know this. And I'm actually glad I know this now. Right. And like not being arrogant or egotistical about being wrong, right. When you are wrong, you're learning. It is through that, struggle through that. Just not knowing that you do know it. Then if you don't know, you point people that it does. Like, I don't know all the answers, but somebody that I do know does. And so yes, I service. That's a part when I travel. That is, that is that's number one thing to me is like, you know, I ask a lot of very tough and intricate questions cuz I wanna know the answers to, to things. Right. And so like, please just

Orion Brown (01:01:42):

Yeah. So I paid for this. I need to understand is DNA. I wanna know social security number.

Christopher Bland (01:01:47):

My job is to literally research. I literally figured it out before you I'm even speaking to you, I'm giving you the options that I think is best. And I just want you to either confirm or not like, you know, like I don't need you to go through this whole thing. I'll be like, yeah, I've already looked at this. Here you go. Ma'am here you go. Right. No, but I, I, I think I I've had any trouble with that and like, luckily everybody's been great. Um, I know people have been, um, having a hard time traveling the flight attendants and the airlines and like things like the commotion, the energy, the people, the violence people

Orion Brown (01:02:15):

Have lost them all **** minds. Yeah. *******

Christopher Bland (01:02:17):

Mind,

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):

Look, look, come up, come here, close. They in lost their whole

Orion Brown (01:02:25):

They're gone.

Christopher Bland (01:02:26):

They, they have gone the deep end. It's my right. My mask. I'm like, sweet. Just put it on for two hours.

Orion Brown (01:02:33):

God wait, I saw somebody actually protesting here and she had sign my body, my choice, no mask. And I was like, you gonna use it for that though.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):

You got,

Orion Brown (01:02:44):

You got a whole lot of

Christopher Bland (01:02:45):

You, you got whole issues. Right, right. Um, but yeah, no,

Orion Brown (01:02:49):

God bless. We should all protest all the things that we don't believe in. That's the beauty of our country. Ah, my God. But we might wanna use some wisdom with it. Yeah.

Christopher Bland (01:02:57):

A little bit. But I am glad that that travel is coming back and coming back strong. Yes. I'm loving the things that they're introducing back. I'm, I'm loving on everything. The, the niceties and everything that they're introducing back. I, I think that is a positive shift to being normal and as much as we don't like it, you know, you know, we're yearning for normalness and also, you know, you know, and change at the same time or you're trying to grapple to where we've been. But we understand that where we've been, it was not the greatest for everybody. And these changes are necessary. These changes are beneficial to a lot of people. And so it's kind of like this double edge sword and like, you know, I wanna get back to normal, but I understand that this is not really good for me. And so you kind of go into these different kind of layers. Um, but I, I, I do see the shift of, of traveling, coming back super strong, super robust. And I I'm happy that the way that the airlines are, are making decisions going forward with the customers and things like that, the flight prices could be a lot cheaper, but I, I think that for now it'll get there. They can. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and happy that it travel is back and travel is strong. Yeah.

Orion Brown (01:03:59):

And, and you know what, ultimately like we, for those of us who, to some extent have been storing up points, travel points and things like that. I actually did end up traveling quite a bit, um, domestically during COVID for like family stuff. And, but, uh, you know, you SQUI away those points it's gonna net out. And yeah, the beautiful thing is, is oftentimes the prices, the price of a flight versus it's point value can have a really nice arbitrage. So if you have the points, always check the point cost, even if you were planning on paying cash, cuz the arbitrage can be really helpful there. Um, but I love I'm I'm I'm right there with you. I'm glad travel's coming back. Not selfish. Well, selfishly, because I have a business that is really very much catering to travelers and travelers of color, but not only that, it's, it's a huge form of self care for me. And while we'll still be doing wind down Wednesdays, we, you know, I'm gonna be in Morocco in may. I'm gonna see if I can get

Christopher Bland (01:04:58):

Away from Morocco. Yes, absolutely.

Orion Brown (01:05:00):

Yeah. Lot's of sand, but no beach. Ugh. But it's okay. Amazing. Yeah. Um, and, and I'm really excited. And to your point, like Iceland is definitely on my list. I turned 40 this year and so I promised myself I would do four big trips and my big last trip this year is gonna be Antarctica and I'm super excited. Like it's gonna be me. I don't know if there's, there's no lagoons, but there's there's there's I was gonna say there are goons

Christopher Bland (01:05:27):

In

Orion Brown (01:05:28):

PENGOS them penguins are goons and I'm here for it. I'm just gonna be taking photos with penguins. They're gonna all be ****** off and I'm here for it. It's gonna be so much fun.

Christopher Bland (01:05:35):

Yeah, no that's gonna be a flex like, like I think say Antarctica is like actually one of the most like remote and hard places to actually travel to kids to so flex big flex on that. I can't wait to see that. Um,

Orion Brown (01:05:46):

Well, I mean it's a cruise ship, so let's be honest. It's so again, it's not like a cheap cruise around the Caribbean. Yeah. But I mean, I am still, I haven't. So y'all, you know, you get the, you do your deposit and then you do your fi yeah. Yeah. So I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I want to treat myself to a suite cuz they have a suite that has a balcony and a jacuzzi on it. Like they'll play,

Christopher Bland (01:06:10):

You're talking to king, treat yourself like I'm going absolutely what you're talking about. Like absolutely. Yeah. Go get that sweet. Yeah. You's probably once in a lifetime, right. You're probably not gonna get

Orion Brown (01:06:21):

It's I'm not going back. Let's

Christopher Bland (01:06:22):

You're not gonna, you gonna go, you go to the clubs. You're not going back. Right. You're going see the pain wins or the dolphins or whatever. They got there to the nice little ice and you enjoy your time and your nice little hot tub bath with your champagne on your little crew. Absolutely. But you're gonna get that. Sweet and I, yeah, you gotta get that sweet. You're gonna be real mad.

Orion Brown (01:06:42):

That's what's up. That's that's totally what's up. You just hype me and I think you just made the decision for me. Absolutely. You know that sweet. We gonna shake a little tail. We gonna pay for that room and uh, it's gonna be fabulous and <laugh> yeah. It's gonna be really dope. Oh my gosh. This was so much fun. You gotta come back. You gotta come back. Like there's no, absolutely. Yeah. I'm so here for it. This has been,

Christopher Bland (01:07:04):

Yeah. That's fantastic.

Orion Brown (01:07:05):

Christopher. You are. I mean, and now I'm like tell the people where we can find you and where we can see all your escapades cuz I know. Yeah. If your escapades in the social worlds is anything like the conversation we had here, it's a whole,

Christopher Bland (01:07:20):

Oh yeah. If you know me in person, this is <laugh> you scratch the person.

Orion Brown (01:07:24):

Right? He said, we, you only got the two dimensional me. You 3d me,

Christopher Bland (01:07:28):

You got the LinkedIn me, you didn't get the leg. You ain't get the Twitter. Me. I'm just joking. You got the real me. I love it.

Orion Brown (01:07:33):

But um, I'm about to follow you on both now. <laugh> yeah. Right,

Christopher Bland (01:07:36):

Right. Happy, happy to happy to come back. Like this was fantastic. Thank you Janique for connecting us. I think this is, this is a great, you know, I think this is a great kind of initiative. I'm super excited to be a part of it. And it's super to actually, you know, to get products and merchandise from me, I'm super D to explore that and to, you know, expand that and, and help you in any ways that I can. I think this was a great, great, great, great conversation. And thank you so, so much for having me. This is wonderful. Yeah.

Orion Brown (01:08:02):

Yes, totally. Totally. Christopher, it has been a pleasure. You have gotten me hiked properly. I put down my mimosa for you. My, my midday mimosa. Cause I was just so <laugh> y'all the, the bottle made an appearance and I'm not mad at it.

Christopher Bland (01:08:17):

Oh God, this is gone. It was

Orion Brown (01:08:19):

Real. Thank you guys. I mean I hope yes. Janique, shout out to Janique for finding some of the dopest people and I'm not gonna lie cause I'm sure you're a Tulsa remote program person. Like we've had so many Tulsa, remote people. I don't know the program. People. This is not like my only endorsement is the Tulsa remote program. People are doped as all get out and we've had amazing guests just being connected through Janique and the program. And I just love to see black excellence in all the different facets. Yeah. You know, some people are like, oh, I'm an influencer. Other people are like, I'm a PhD. It's like an everything in between. And we have a good time and I really love it. I sincerely sincerely wanna chat with you and come. So definitely come back and uh, I wanna know how the Iceland trip goes. So that's also another thing we gotta come back and chat about

Christopher Bland (01:09:08):

Mm-hmm <affirmative> mm-hmm <affirmative> yeah,

Orion Brown (01:09:09):

But it has been so much fun.

Christopher Bland (01:09:11):

Don't worry. Don't worry. You will get that lagoon. Video me in a selfie and ni and that's what you gotta post this post. Have the page. It's like I'm in a lagoon like, like

Orion Brown (01:09:19):

Laci man,

Christopher Bland (01:09:21):

Laci being, flashback me say he was gonna be lagoon. And I'm just like slide by side. I was like, I'm in a Lago, like get that November.

Orion Brown (01:09:28):

I'm on a boat. Yes. I'm gonna need you to tag black travel box. Yeah, absolutely. You're gonna have to tag back travel box and we just gonna have a whole flashback. We gonna cut it into the video. So people are like, oh, that's where he went. Uh, I love it. And for those of you who have been kicking in the comments with us, I've been reading all these comments. Like we're on a little bit of a delay, but I'm here for all the comments. Um, I really appreciate, hopefully y'all got something good out of this. I hope you got just a little bit of that tingly feeling when you book by just listening to us and chatting with us and engaging with us. Um, we almost to the end of the week y'all so it's all downhill from here. Let's just skate in to the rest of it's skating to our weekend and woo. Saw, and we are gonna do this again next week. Yeah. I'll I love it. Thank you all so much. Thank you Christopher, for hanging with me. It's been, been so much fun. I appreciate you

Christopher Bland (01:10:19):

So much fun. Yeah, absolutely. You everyone have a wonderful, uh, evening. Thank you for all the comments and thank you for having me. It was so wonderful. Yeah. Good night. Cheer. Yes. Cheer. Bye everybody. Bye everyone.

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