Episode Description:
This episode is Part 2 of my conversation with Mia and Delena, the introverted witch, on being a witch and paganism. If you haven’t already, go check out Part 1 of this interview.
Crossroads Metaphysical Store: http://crossroadsoccult.com/
Mia’s info: https://linktr.ee/Miarussell
Disclaimer:
Some parts of the transcript may be edited for better readability, but the content remains the same. Mostly removed duplicate words, vocal filler words, and added/removed some words for clarification.
Transcript:
Hey, everyone! This is Meliza, and I'm The Talkative Introvert.
Welcome back to another episode of interviewing an introverted witch. We weren't able to finish up asking all our questions in the first episode. So, we're doing a part two. So thanks again, Mia and Delena for agreeing to do another episode with me. How are you both doing?
Delena 0:27
I'm good.
Mia Russell 0:28
Doing good. How are you?
Meliza Manalo 0:31
I'm good. I'm hungry. (Laughter).
Delena 0:36
I made eggs on toast.
Mia Russell 0:39
Wow. Nice.
Meliza Manalo 0:40
I don't know why that's so simple, but it's so good.
Delena 0:43
Yeah, I'm trying to learn how to feed myself.
Meliza Manalo 0:46
That's good to know.
Delena 0:48
It's really hard getting anything away from diet culture. So I'm trying to be like, how do you feed a human person? (Laughter) So I'm making list of everything I like to eat. And one of those things is eggs on toast.
Meliza Manalo 1:04
Yeah, I mean, that's good for you. Eggs has like B vitamins and whatever.
Mia Russell 1:10
Omega 3s?
Delena 1:12
You get the good fats from the butter. The good and the bad fats, but you need some fats to run your brain.
Meliza Manalo 1:20
Yeah. My cousin's like, "You should try intermittent fasting." And I'm like, b*tch, I do that already. It hasn't done anything. What am I supposed to be doing? I don't even eat breakfast.
Delena 1:34
Yeah. My mom does that she only eats between like 11 and 4 or something.
Mia Russell 1:43
Hang on a second. Sorry. I'll be right back.
Meliza Manalo 1:49
So, what were you saying?
Delena 1:51
Oh, just my mom does intermittent fasting. Um, there's this lady I follow on YouTube, who is a dietitian and she says that maybe it won't do anything. Except for casually, you'll just eat less food because there's less time for grazing and stuff. But they said that doesn't make much of a difference versus like a calorie deficit.
Meliza Manalo 2:13
Yeah, that makes sense.
Delena 2:15
But it is also like a much easier way to inherently add in a calorie deficit if you're just eating over less time. Because your tummy can only hold so much. But like I said, I don't know sh*t about how to feed a human. I'm trying to figure that out without getting blasted by gross diet culture. It's difficult.
Meliza Manalo 2:39
Yeah. We use an air fryer for everything. We put everything in it.
Delena 2:47
Yeah, I have an airfryer and an Instant Pot. I can cook anything. (Laughter)
Meliza Manalo 2:55
So back to you being a witch. For people who didn't listen to part one, you shouldn't be listening to this first of all. (Laughter) Go to part one and then come back. So, I don't really remember what we last talked about. I still haven't edited it. I mean, I guess listeners wouldn't know that.
Delena 3:17
I came back to listen, and then stupidly started at the beginning, like 20 minutes ago. And so, I don't know what the end is like either. (Laughter)
Meliza Manalo 3:29
I did have some of our questions. And Mia is tired. So I don't know if she has questions to think about right now. Also, one of the things I wanted to ask you because you did mention your significant other in the last episode? And I was like, hmmm. So, is he also...? I don't know if you call them wizards or...?
Delena 3:54
He's a witch. So in that specific instance with wizards and stuff. So a witch is anybody that practices and then there's this term 'Warlock'. I have always understood the term Warlock to be somebody who has betrayed the coven. Like somebody who in good faith that you invited, who works against your group in malicious ways. And so that could be a man or a woman or in between. It could be any old person. A wizard is a lot more like studious in terms of magic. When you go into D&D, a wizard is intelligence base. They learn from books instead of from practice. And there are some people in the Pagan community that identify as wizards that do come at it from a very academic sense, rather than a spiritual practice sense. I don't know off the top of my head anybody who may except for ironically call themselves as wizards. Like there are people that probably are like, "I'm a wizard." (Laughter). And like he is mostly serious but also a little bit funny. So generally, it's just a witch unless they're Wiccan. And then as a Wiccan, sometimes they're like, I'm a Druid. It's different. Yes, he was raised pagan. And we actually met through... I knew his parents before I knew him from festival. And I thought he was under age, because there was another guy who was another son of adult Pagans that I knew who was like 16. And so I was like, yep, children of adult pagans that I know. They're under age. And then he was like, "What's up? I'm 20." And I was like, oh, hello. How are you today?
Meliza Manalo 6:11
He totally changed it. That's funny.
Delena 6:13
Yeah. Like we both describe it, like religion isn't really a coping mechanism for us. And so it isn't something that is aggressively in our faces all the time. I'm a lot more than he is. I still do a lot of the cast practices. But he is mostly just like pretend this is so sweet. I had a whisker that I had picked off on my cat. It had dropped and I picked it up out of the carpet, and I put it on a bookshelf to keep and he was like, "Oh, dust." And he swept it off. And he was like, "Oh, no, I'm an a*shole. Because that was a cat whisker." And it was so cute. It's so sweet. So mostly, he just understands all of my bullsh*t and why it happens and tolerates it. If there was a circle, he would come. He would participate and do that. But he doesn't on the reg. Makes sense.
Meliza Manalo 7:15
Yeah, no, that makes complete sense. It's like, basically, my whole family are Catholic. But I haven't seen someone go into a church since my grandma died, which was in middle school. So, I get that. Okay. And so another question I had is, are there restrictions because you said it's not really a coping mechanism for you guys? But religion for me, like growing up in the Christian church or whatever. There's like a ton of restrictions, especially the church that I came from is very specific. They took the Bible super literally. Like women don't cut their hair and women wear women's garments. And men wear men's garments and stuff like that. There's no premarital sex, and you know. So is there something like that? Like there's restrictions that you just absolutely don't do, you're not supposed to do anything like that?
Meliza Manalo 8:12
It's mostly that there's different levels and understanding of the universe and how it works. And I sort of a little bit talked about it last time. And then Wiccans, they do have that kind of structure. They have what's called the threefold law, which means that anything that you do and put out into the universe will come back to you three folds. So always be good, so that nothing bad comes back to you. But it's very group to group. I know there's Alexandrians and Gardnerians. They can only walk a certain direction in circle because it keeps the movement of the energy going the same direction. But our group didn't have too many of those. They're mostly centered around things that happen in ritual rather than day to day. In a first level, there's the general learning. How to think very intentionally and understand that other people have their own sh*t that they're dealing with. And then at second level, you can kind of lead up on that a little bit and do what's called Shadow Work. Which is where you sit with your own feelings. And and try to understand where your emotions come from and how to deal with them and how to control them. Not in like the I-have-no-emotions way. But if somebody says something sh*tty to you, and you react a certain way. I have a knee jerk cry response. Just because I have a lot of sh*t going on in my head. I got the ADHD, man. So when people yell at me and I'm really mad, I start crying because I'm so angry. So Shadow Work is like sitting down and figuring that out about yourself. That could take a lot of time. And then after that with the third level, it's once you've done your Shadow Work. And you work with intention, and then you begin to teach and sh*t like that. I totally went off track. But mostly, we don't tell people to act a certain way at least in my group. Except for like, you know, be excellent to each other. Don't be a d*ck. Just don't be a d*ck. (Laughter) Don't try to enforce your will upon other people or just beating other people. Once you get into the higher levels, there is a sense of asserting your will on people. But it's having the understanding and attention to do it in such a way that when you tell the universe to do something, that it doesn't call you a bluff.
Meliza Manalo 11:13
Yeah.
Delena 11:15
And that was related unrelated. But yeah, I don't think we have like...? Yeah, premarital sex is fine. Wear condoms. Make sure that they also want to have sex.
Meliza Manalo 11:30
Yes, consent is important.
Delena 11:34
It's that thing where if somebody was like, "Name this tenet of everything that you grew up, about that you know, for your life." And I'm like, ummm, pie. (Laughter) I don't know. But No. Not in the sense of like...
Meliza Manalo 11:51
Not in the same sense as like Christianity or it's like 'Don't do this'.
Delena 11:55
Yeah.
Meliza Manalo 11:56
That's interesting. That's such a different world than I grew up in. It's so foreign to me to like not... or I don't know. Growing up and not and not being told that you can't do this or whatever. Yeah. That's interesting.
Delena 12:16
Anything that means you can't is mostly, "Hey, you're seven." And you shouldn't stop.
Mia Russell 12:26
Don't put that fork in the electrical outlet.
Delena 12:28
Yeah, it's like, hey, I know that sounds like a great idea. And you can think about it later when I'm not literally legally responsible for your safety. But... (Laughter)
Meliza Manalo 12:43
Do you believe in the whole, I guess, karma thing? Like, it'll come back to you?
Delena 12:49
Yes. But in a sense that... like I was talking about it with intentionality. So when you put a request out to the universe, the universe listens. And it can hear if you're not sure. And so it's going to give you the answer that it says is appropriate. And so if you were to hack somebody or curse somebody, you got to mean it. Because otherwise the universe is going to be like, you're just being a b*tch right now. And it's going to kick you’re a*s back. And so it is everything. Everything is about intention. When it comes to Paganism. You don't want to be quiet, sad mouse, who's like, "He was mean to me. And it would make me feel better, if he broke his leg." Universe is gonna be like, f*cking cuss in the corner.
Meliza Manalo 13:42
So there has to be like, a genuine reason for...
Delena 13:47
Not like there has to be proof or something. But you can't casually be like, I'm mad at you today. You have to have the will and the reason to back it up with the universe, if that makes sense.
Meliza Manalo 14:07
I don't know. I think I'm just stuck in my Christian mindset. Cuz I'm like, is the universe God?
Delena 14:14
So I had actually conversations like that before. And it's very similar. I find Christian, just terminology very limiting. Because when you guys say God, I hear individual and when I say universe, I mean literally everything. But I know that when Christians say God, they mean literally everything. And so it's like, I once talk in circles with this lady for like 45 minutes being like, b*tch, we're saying the same thing. (Laughter) I'm just trying to tell you that my word means more than one. And your word is inherently individualized. She was like, "But God is everything." And I'm like, I hear you and I agree with you. We're not talking about that anymore. We're talking about the etymology of a singular pronoun. But anyway yeah, it can't be that way like when I have described the energies and everything, people are like, "Well, that's God." And I'm like, yeah, probably for you. That's similar. Like they serve a similar purpose. Without mine being a coping mechanism like I was talking about, if that makes sense.
Meliza Manalo 15:27
Yeah. I think it makes sense. I think I'm getting it a little bit.
Delena 15:32
Some people get confused when I refer to religion as a coping mechanism. And I don't mean it in a negative way. I just mean it's the thing that's there that I appreciate and I use, but I don't run to people and cry at a circle and tell them all of my woes, and that's my... I don't know how to finish that sentence.
Meliza Manalo 15:56
I get that. If someone's having some type of hardship, their first thing is to... I don't know, to go to church and pray.
Delena 16:07
They ask for prayers, they talk to their pastor. Every Sunday, they go to that group, and they say, "I'm having a really hard time." and then the group puts their hand on their shoulders, and they say, "We're here for you, we pray for you." Which is like super sweet. And totally awesome when they have pure intentions like that, instead of being weird and gross about it. And that's not something that I seek out of Paganism.
Meliza Manalo 16:32
Okay, I see what you mean. Yeah, that makes sense. So you're talking about when you put into the universe, so that makes me kind of think of like, is there any such thing as good magic and bad magic? Or good rituals or bad rituals like dark? You know, how people in TV shows they talk about dark magic or whatever?
Delena 16:55
Yeah. Some people who are working, they call it the white magic. Like all of the energy is there. And working in, it's called Shadow Work. It's not evil. It's just very introverted. The nature of humanity versus the 'we love cheese and we have big sales over bacon'. Like Buffy, they call it the WannaBlessedBe. But yeah, I don't believe that there's good magic and bad magic. But there is a hesitation from a lot of people to attempt to actually exert your will on stuff. But I don't think it's bad. I don't think it's is bad, because you know, some people really f*cking suck, and they need a kick in the a*s and you are not physically capable of physically going over and kicking them in the a*s. So, you send something over. (Laughter)
Meliza Manalo 17:59
So the act itself is not necessarily like black and white. But it's more like, whatever your intentions are. It's up to the individual, whether it's good or bad.
Delena 18:14
Yeah. There are good witches that do dark work and Shadow Work. And there are bad witches that do light work. And I don't like to call it dark work and light work because of that inherent thing of labeling anything black as being bad. And white magic is good and black magic is bad. It doesn't really work for me. The Shadow Work term is like working on yourself to understand your motivations and where you're coming from and whether or not you should work on those. But yeah, there's plenty of bad actors that use that as a scapegoat. And there's plenty of good actors that are like, well, my best friend just got cheated on and he's over there being a f*cking d*ckhead. And maybe all of his tires get slashed. (Laughter)
Meliza Manalo 19:17
Sounds reasonable.
Delena 19:19
We spiritually slash all the tires.
Meliza Manalo 19:24
I like that. I like that ideal. Because all I know is whatever you see on media or whatever. But I like that. I like that idea.
Delena 19:37
Yeah, and even if you get into the really dark stuff, where people are graphically abusing the animals and sacrificing stuff like that. For me, a sacrifice is not a sacrifice if you are not losing something. And so if you had a goat, you would feed that goat and you would care for that goat because that goat is important to you. And you're offering it. Like Halal or whatever. They say a prayer and they thank this goat and they're like, thank you for being a goat. We will eat you. You're delicious. And thank you, God and Allah for making this goat for us to eat and all that stuff. I don't know what they actually say. But I think that's what they say. Like, what is the sacrifice if it doesn't actually mean anything to you?
Meliza Manalo 20:20
Yeah, so you respect the animal and thank them for...
Delena 20:24
Yeah, you raise it. It's your animal that you're raising to offer as a thing. And then typically, you would eat it. Like, you don't want to waste it.
Meliza Manalo 20:38
So you eat the animal that you sacrifice?
Delena 20:41
Typically, because otherwise, like what the f*ck you're gonna do with this goat? I've never been to a sacrifice. I've never experienced a sacrifice. My mom may have. I don't remember. If she did, it would have been in the 80s. But it's not like the Satanic Panic thing. The people that do, few instances of that there are, are not working paganism. They're just like, we're gonna snort drugs and kill things and act like bad a*ses, you know? They're not actually doing a work. They think they are, but it's just people sucking.
Meliza Manalo 21:25
So what's the intent of a sacrifice then?
Delena 21:30
It would depend. Like I said, I've never done one. But if you needed to work a big project, if you were like, I need to get the f*ck out of this country and do this because my ex is doing this. And I have to take care of myself and my people, and I need it to happen now. Very fast, very quickly. And I needed to happen magically, then you would be like this thing is very important to me. And us as the people, I will offer up just like that little oomph. Like, help me please. And I really f*cking mean it. You know?
Meliza Manalo 22:07
Yeah.
Delena 22:09
That kind of thing. Like I said, I've never actually been through one. So, I don't have the example of what it would have been done for. I could Google it really quick.
Meliza Manalo 22:21
Sure.
Delena 22:23
Like in the ancient Greeks, they always offered up the best part of their meal. No, I have to turn off my ads. Hold on. Well, let me read this article. Florida man, why you do this? Anyway, this is all satanic panic stuff. That's not gonna help. So it's just offering something that means a lot so that the universe knows that you mean business. And legally, they can't really stop you from doing that if the animal is not suffering. They try. Like neighbors call and then ruin rituals, and then cops can't do anything. And so it just sort of makes everybody mad at each other. Yeah, if the animals not suffering, and you're taking care of it as you should, because what is the sacrifice that you just chain it to a tree and then you're like, okay. It's time. Like, what does that mean in terms of you offering up anything to the table?
Meliza Manalo 23:32
Yeah, I think it's weird. I understand the hesitancy of be accepting of these sacrifices, but at the same time, at least you're respectful to the animal and you raised it and it had a good life versus like an animal farm.
Delena 23:53
Yeah. There's bad people from all religions that hurt animals. And they should be stopped. We should not hurt the animals. But if it's humane and it's... I'm sorry, we're so deep on this tangent. But...
Meliza Manalo 24:15
No. It's cool. I like animals.
Delena 24:18
Animals are super cool. You should be awesome to your goats and love them. Don't let them pee on you. Because sometimes they do. Sometimes they're stinky and mean. But sometimes they are cute and precious. And if you're good to them and it is a sacrifice, like I said, it's literally like you were losing something that is meaningful to you for a great difference.
Meliza Manalo 24:44
I don't know if I could do that.
Delena 24:47
I don't know if I could either. I'm having a really hard time because I want to start a hobby farm. And I don't know if I could eat my chickens.
Meliza Manalo 24:58
Yeah, that'd be so hard. And only you know....
Mia Russell 25:03
It gets really hard to not be attached to them.
Delena 25:07
Yeah. I know this lady I follow on YouTube. She has a recipe called mean rooster stew.
Mia Russell 25:15
Yeah, mean rooster stew are about the only ones that you couldn't get rid of.
Delena 25:19
Yes. Because she's got little kids and she doesn't want them to be afraid of going to the chicken yard. So, she has a special recipe called mean rooster stew.
Meliza Manalo 25:25
Oh my God.
Delena 25:28
Like that. I could get behind. She says it's spicy.
Meliza Manalo 25:37
That's funny. Sorry. Okay. But Mia, do you guys eat you animals?
Mia Russell 25:52
No. There was some discussion about whether or not we're going to let some sheep graze on our pasture or whatever, and then have them be rendered and everything at the end of the season. But I think we decided against it because we would have gotten too attached to them.
Delena 26:12
They're really fluffy. Did you know sheep have tails? Like whole a*s dog tails? And they cut them off.
Mia Russell 26:17
What? Eww.
Delena 26:17
It's f*cking crazy. That wasn't my goddamn mind. So I was imagining a little stumpy sh*tty goat tail. Like, a little floppity thing. But I was watching this other video and the sheep's come out with whole long, flowy dog tails. But they get so grody and they're super unsanitary. And so, they dock it. But there's this farm in LA, I think they're one of the hippie hippie vegan types where they're like, "Protect all the animals as they naturally are." And so, their sheep have tails. And it's just f*cking crazy to see sheep walking around with full a*s tails.
Meliza Manalo 27:01
Like fluffy sheep fur tails?
Delena 27:05
Yeah. Well, it looks like...think of a big fluffy white dog. And then stick that tail on the back of a sheep.
Meliza Manalo 27:13
Oh.
Delena 27:14
It's weird.
Meliza Manalo 27:14
It's not what I was thinking.
Delena 27:18
It's weird.
Meliza Manalo 27:20
Yeah, I'm gonna google that later.
Delena 27:25
I'm going to put it in the schedule.
Mia Russell 27:27
I've seen sheep out in pastures before that can't step out and poop and everything because they're not groomed on a regular basis. So yeah, it gets to be a really bad situation. That's really unhealthy.
Meliza Manalo 27:44
That's so cute.
Delena 27:45
Isn't that crazy looking?
Meliza Manalo 27:47
So weird and so majestic.
Delena 27:49
Yeah. It's like a magical unicorn tail except that it's a sheep.
Meliza Manalo 27:55
How weird. Like, how is it so unsanitary if it's like a dog's tail?
Delena 28:06
You see how it curls in backwards in it's butt? That doesn't lift up like a dog tail and their bum accumulated with excretion. And so it gets all grody and sh*t covered and then maggoty and then it can get cuts and badness.
Meliza Manalo 28:25
Okay. They're essentially pooping on themselves.
Delena 28:28
Yeah. They're just sh*tting all over the tail. It gets really gross and infected. And so they just dock it right away. And then the lambs are like, I am a Lamb. Here I am.
Meliza Manalo 28:43
Okay, that makes sense.
Delena 28:45
Yeah. No, I am super behind sheep docking. But they're crazy to look at with the full tail. And there's the sheep that are called hair sheep, which are raised for meat. And so instead of being fluffy and woolly, they have really thin, wispy hair. And they keep their tails because it's not all woolly.
Meliza Manalo 29:07
Oh, interesting.
Delena 29:08
It's crazy.
Meliza Manalo 29:10
You knew a lot about sheep.
Delena 29:12
Remember how I said my friends called me Wiki? I just know about bulls*it. (Laughter) And I just regurgitate it like you hit the random page on Wikipedia. Like did you know that it takes eight pounds of pressure to break human skin?
Mia Russell 29:32
What?
Meliza Manalo 29:33
I did not know that.
Delena 29:36
Less than a pound?
Meliza Manalo 29:37
Does it completely break human skin?
Delena 29:40
Yeah, to... Anyway.
Meliza Manalo 29:44
That's not a whole lot of weight.
Delena 29:46
No, it's not. It's fragile.
Meliza Manalo 29:49
Oh my God. Yeah, I didn't realize it's that fragile.
Delena 29:53
It's fragile.
Meliza Manalo 29:53
Okay. Anyways (Laughter) I did actually have a question about wildlife though. Because you do see witches in movies and whatever. I'm sorry, I always quote with movies. That's all I know.
Delena 30:13
That's where the information is available. So...
Meliza Manalo 30:15
Yeah, so that's my knowledge of it. But they always have a close connection to wildlife and they connect with wildlife and sometimes even talk to wildlife. Is that like a thing that you have this close connection to the animals of the world?
Delena 30:33
I do. But I also have a healthy understanding that most animals could kill me. My mom has a rule, and I heartily agree and accept this rule that if sh*t goes down, and it went rabid, I have to be able to take it in a fight. And so like the bigger dogs are a little too big, you know? And so I'm hesitant to approach a deer. But that said, sometimes when we're in circle, like f*cking five point bucks just walk up and are like, hey, what's going on? Because my parents live in the woods.
Meliza Manalo 31:11
Oh, yeah.
Delena 31:13
I'm not opposed to nature. But I also know that it's their house. And I choose not to engage in their house. If they're in my house, then the rules aren't broken. But I talked to stuff, I talked to my plants. I talked to my cats. I talk to random birds, but I also don't want to get...
Mia Russell 31:34
I talked to my plants, too.
Meliza Manalo 31:36
Yeah.
Delena 31:38
Oh, I actually explained to a black widow yesterday why I have this. She was right in the path where me and my bare feet and legs walk all the time past my plants. So I had to be like, hey, you're gorgeous. I love this. Your little red hourglass is so shiny and pretty. And you're a beautiful dominatrix b*tch. But I have to kill you with this frying pan. Because I don't want to get bitten. I'm so sorry. And then I put her in my tomato bed.
Meliza Manalo 32:15
That's very nice of you.
Mia Russell 32:16
It's nice that you put her in the tomato bed.
Delena 32:19
Yeah, I rescue spiders. I don't rescue caterpillars, because they eat my plants. But any spider in the house if you release it outside, it'll probably die within like a day. And so I just sort of find a nice little corner in my house. And I'm like, here, move here. And then if they're in their web eating moss, totally hang out. But if they're like in my bed, I'm like, hey, buddy. We're close to home here. (Laughter) I keep house spiders, which does kind of result in webs which sucks but I like the free moth removal. You know?
Meliza Manalo 33:09
Yeah. I get that. I don't like insects at all. I really hate them. They're creepy crawlies. But sometimes I feel bad because they're just trying to make a home to themselves. And I did have like a little spider friend that I kept in the kitchen. And it was just nice. They collected the flies and all the little bugs that your plants get and whatever. And it was just like chilling up there. And one day we were doing spring cleaning and Brandon just took out the vacuum and just sucked it up. I was like, my friend! Oh, no.
Mia Russell 33:55
Oh, no.
Meliza Manalo 33:56
I know. I mean I appreciate him cleaning the house, but I wasn't expecting that to happen.
Delena 34:07
Yeah, I rescued a spider out of my shower this morning. Because the bathtub is their ideal hangout because they're like, I can see every wall and all the bugs are gonna fall in and not come out. And so I just have to take a little piece of toilet paper and be like, please walk on this but not on my arm and put it in a corner somewhere away from. Dylan and I was to spider kill a fly the other day. It was intense.
Meliza Manalo 34:33
Interesting.
Delena 34:34
Yeah. Well, we just both happened to be in the kitchen at the time that the fly hit the web and we were like, oh sh*t, it's about to go down. We stood there for like 15 minutes watching this spider and this fly.
Meliza Manalo 34:46
Oh my god.
Delena 34:48
It was crazy.
Mia Russell 34:50
That's pretty cool.
Delena 34:51
Dude, it was full on nature fight man. But the fly stopped all at once. So it was buzzing and it was stuck in the thing and it had one wing that was loose. And so it was just buzzing the sh*t out of that wing. But then that wing got caught and the fly kept buzzing, which means that the flies can independently make that noise, which is crazy. And then the spider bit the fly and it kept going. And we expected sort of like a slow rundown, you know, like an engine or something. No, the fly just took about two, three minutes. And then it was just like, aaaand we're done. It's just crazy.
Meliza Manalo 35:40
I'm just imagining two people just staring at a spider web. You know because from a distance you're like...
Delena 35:46
We were so in to it. So I was just like, look at to go. Until it's like, holy sh*t. Look at it go.
Meliza Manalo 35:57
I'm just imagining your neighbor just looking at your window and was like, okay, what are they staring at?
Delena 36:05
And it was our kitchen window. So it would have faced the street. The street people could be just like looking at it like, whoa. (Laughter)
Meliza Manalo 36:16
I did learn that Venus fly traps. After they eat a fly, like after they chop it, they die and then just grow another bud.
Delena 36:25
Yeah, it takes so much energy to move that quickly. That's why you don't tease them. I've learned a lot about how plants grow in the last year as I started gardening. So there's a lot of plants that just have a really strong base layer. And then they'll just shoot up little tiny clones. And then eventually, there's so many clones that it just looks like a giant patch. It's neat.
Meliza Manalo 36:59
Yeah, it's crazy. Because I'm just like, man, one meal and you're done. What a short life.
Delena 37:06
It is a lot of calories. When you think about it, though, compared to what a plant takes in.
Meliza Manalo 37:11
That's true. Like one whole fly. And they're pretty small.
Delena 37:15
Yeah, they're deceptively tiny. Because when you see the pictures, they're all zoomed in.
Meliza Manalo 37:21
Yeah. I saw in real life like. My sister-in-law has one. And I'm like, man. These are super tiny.
Delena 37:27
Yeah. I want to see a carpet of one in the forest somewhere.
Meliza Manalo 37:33
It'd be interesting. They're just so fascinating to look at, too. This is such a weird plant. Anyways. I did want to ask you... What was it? Oh, can you guys hear that.? You hear Link barking?
Delena 37:49
I can. Bark bark. There was some earlier but I thought we all knew. So, I didn't say anything. It's your podcast.
Meliza Manalo 38:00
Yeah. I mean, he's a Corgi and Corgis are very vocal. They bark.
Delena 38:07
They're vocal dogs, but they're tiny.
Meliza Manalo 38:09
Yeah, but it sounds like a big dog.
Delena 38:12
Yeah, I thought it was like a lab or something.
Meliza Manalo 38:16
No, that's a tiny Corgi. Pretty small.
Delena 38:18
That's funny. Pretty funny. (Laughter)
Meliza Manalo 38:25
I know. I mean, it's kind of nice because people are probably scared. Our post lady doesn't like dogs. And when she hears Link bark, she like stands in the lawn. For a minute, I don't know why it's like I'm not gonna release him out. Yeah, but she's just like, "Wait for a second." And then she'll go put the mail.
Mia Russell 38:48
She chose a wrong profession.
Meliza Manalo 38:50
She really did.
Delena 38:53
I don't know, man. You get excellent benefits once you're in your f*cking in for life.
Mia Russell 38:59
Yeah. That's true.
Meliza Manalo 39:01
Okay, hold on. Let me check what he's barking at.
Delena 39:04
Doggy feet. I hear doggy feet. Tip taps. Tappy tappy. Oh, man. My neighbors have dogs and I have not had dogs for like 11 years now. But sometimes when the neighbor dogs bark, my instinct is to get up and go to my living room to yell at my dogs that I do not have. I just have that instinct to be like, "Shut up!"
Mia Russell 39:27
Aww.
Meliza Manalo 39:28
I think he's done.
Delena 39:32
I heard his little feet.
Meliza Manalo 39:33
Yeah. His nails on the hardwood. Okay I don't remember what we're talking about.
Mia Russell 39:41
Venus flytraps.
Continue to Part 2 to read the rest...