Emily to Gremily

A Last-Minute Solo Turns Into Honest Stories And Big-Sister Guidance

• Emily Hogan

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A roof full of hammering, a boyfriend guest segment derailed, and a midnight deadline set the scene for one of our most honest solos yet. I hit record anyway and invite you into the real behind-the-scenes: holiday overwhelm, schedule triage, and why staying consistent sometimes means embracing the mess.

We start with two listener Gremlin stories that prove comedy is just catastrophe plus timing. Raquel’s half-finished Hades makeup collides with an apartment inspection, while Candice’s hot pink surprise reappears courtesy of professional cleaners. I share my own near-disaster from a move and pull out practical takeaways for apartment living: calendar your maintenance windows, do an embarrassment sweep, and build small systems that save your sanity. The laughs are big, but so are the lessons about privacy, preparation, and giving yourself grace when home life gets chaotic.

Then we shift into Gremlin Guidance. First up: how to tell a crush you’re in love when both of you are single. I lay out clear, compassionate steps while admitting I’m a recovering avoider who used to wait for signs instead of asking for answers. From there we head into a deeper question from a 23-year-old navigating a breakup, a tough job market, and moving back home. I reframe the quarter-life detour: you’re not behind, you’re rebuilding. We talk about grieving without getting stuck, using family support, sending stronger applications, and letting uncertainty widen your map instead of shrinking it.

If you’re juggling holiday fatigue, apartment curveballs, or a heart that wants a braver conversation, this one’s for you. Come for the awkward tales and stay for the practical relationship advice, career resilience tips, and a reminder that no one has it all figured out, we’re learning in public together. If it resonates, subscribe, rate five stars, and share with a friend who needs a laugh and a little courage today.

Have your own Gremlin Story? Need some Gremlin Guidance? Have a juicy piece of Gremlin Gossip? Email the podcast at EMILYTOGREMILYPOD@GMAIL.COM to be featured on future episodes. 

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, cheers everyone. Emily, Emily to Grammy here with a solo episode. So I want to welcome all new listeners and welcome back, all returning listeners. Thank you for tuning in again. So I am doing a solo episode this week, and I wasn't supposed to. There was a bunch of technical difficulties. I was supposed to have my boyfriend on the episode. I had mentioned it on social media. We had gotten ready to do it. I did my hair, did my makeup, got my outfit together, and we it was my fault actually. We didn't realize that there were going to be um roofers here working on the building, and it was so extremely loud. I thought maybe we could like rearrange or tune it out. I don't know. It was just a lot. It was too much background noise. It made me worried about how the sound was gonna come out. So we had to scrap it, and now I'm doing it. Um this is extremely last minute. We are I'm filming this Monday night um because the roofers have now left, I believe. I don't know what time it is, but I assume they left already because it's been somewhat quiet. And I have to do this episode very quickly and then go and edit and do a really big turnaround on this because it has to be uploaded tonight at midnight. So technically Tuesday at midnight on December 2nd. So this is gonna be a really fast turnaround, and which means it's probably gonna be um a shorter episode. We were originally gonna talk about what we had done for Thanksgiving. I had taken last week off from podcasting because I needed to prep for Thanksgiving. Um, we didn't host it, it was just, you know, my brain can only handle so much at one time. And uh we always go to his mom's house for Thanksgiving, and this year we decided everyone should bring a dish. That way it's not so overwhelming. Um, so I made mac and cheese and then a cranberry pear sauce, and um, it was labor intensive. I was happy with how it turned out, but I just couldn't focus on podcasting and getting myself and the food ready. It was just, it was more than I thought it was gonna be. And I decided to just take the week off for Thanksgiving. My plan as of right now, don't hold me to it, is I'm gonna put out an episode every single week despite the holidays coming up. I'm probably gonna have to batch some episodes together, like film two in a day, which will be hard, but you know, I this is the life I chose. So my plan as of right now is to not skip any more weeks, even though we have holidays coming up. So um, wish me luck and let's hope that works out. Um, yeah, so I this isn't really the episode I was planning on doing because I had a completely different outline to talk about with my boyfriend. Um, the guidance questions were going to be a little more um, I guess, male-centered, or like it would have helped to have a male perspective on it. But you guys get my perspective, and that's it. Um so yeah, this um hopefully this episode is good. This is also episode 30. I love it when it's like a nice even number, like 30. And then, you know, I love like then when it's gonna be 35. I know that's not an even number, but it just like it rounds up so nicely. So this is episode 30. Um, I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving for those who are in the US, which majority of my listener listeners, I believe, if I looked at my analytics correctly, it's about like 70% are here in the US. So happy Thanksgiving. And for the other 30%, sorry there wasn't an episode. Also, I'm gonna mention it now. I'll mention it at the end of the episode. But if you have any suggestions for future guests, people you want to see, um, whether you want to hear from specific people, professions, anything like that, let me know. I need all your suggestions. I am working hard to try to books book people and listen to your ideas. Also, the holidays are coming up, so you might have to just bear with me. There will be a lot of solo episodes coming up, but my plan is hopefully right after the new year, I can just get it going with um guests. And yeah, um, I hope you guys like this episode. My episode drink. You'll see it is so sad. It is just the most tiniest amount of Tito's vodka, mainly because I wanted to take the edge off because I've had kind of had a long day, but I didn't want to take too much of the edge off because I still have so much to do right after I film this. So I wanted to be a little loosey-goosey, but I didn't want to be loosey goosey. Okie dokie. Let's see, guys. Also, you might hear outside noises. Um, I there it sounds like there's still people around the building. So sorry about that. Just tune it out. I'm trying my best to tune it out. Hopefully, this episode isn't too choppy because I have to keep pausing for the outside. Um, yeah, that's our hope. All right, let's see. For this episode, I have two Gremlin stories and then two Gremlin guidance. Hopefully, I will answer those properly. And here we go. Let's start with the first one, it's from Raquel. Raquel says, this is probably my most embarrassing moment. I was practicing my makeup for Halloween since it was going to be intricate and intense. I was going to be Hades from Hercules, complete with the full-on blue paint and everything. Unfortunately, I forgot that the building manager had sent out a notice that there would be an inspector coming in all the units. I'm halfway through my makeup and my doorbell rings. I decided to be quiet and hope they go away, and then I hear the keys in the door. I jump up to see who it was and absolutely scare the shit out of this poor man in his 50s. I can't imagine what it looked like to see me running at him half blue with crazy eye makeup. I tried to explain why I was dressed like this two weeks before Halloween, and he chuckled, but I was mortified. From now on, I plan on putting all building maintenance visits in the calendar of my phone. Raquel. Okay. This when I read that, I was dying laughing. But I thought it was, you know, appropriate for me this week because apparently construction will be happening all around me for the entire week, I guess. And I honestly forgot about it. So yeah, putting the um the maintenance requests in your phone is always a good idea. Um, yeah, this also happened to me a couple weeks ago. The maintenance worker guy was gonna come, he come here and he was checking, like I guess for leaks. It was right after LA had that big rainstorm. So he was checking for any leaks and he was checking smoke detectors. And I hate it, they always give you a window. They said, oh, he'll be there between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. I'm like, that's such a huge amount of time. And it was, I want to say like a Tuesday morning or something. And I usually wake up at like 8:30 around the time my boyfriend leaves for work, and then I get up and start my day and do what I have to do. And I woke up when he my boyfriend had texted me. He said, Hey, remember the maintenance workers coming today? And I was like, Oh my god, what time is it? It was 10. And I was like, So I jumped up so quickly and tried to make myself look like a person, even though I looked raggedy as hell. And luckily, I put my butt on the couch the minute my door, like doorbell rang, and I was like, Oh, thank god. Like, at least he didn't like catch me in bed or something, which you know, whatever, what can we do? But yeah, um, I can relate to this. I the but the blue makeup was um was funny. Um, I kind of hope you got some content out of it and was were like making a TikTok because that would have been funny. Okay, the next one is from Candace. Candace says, I was having some family members come into town for the holidays last year and wanted my apartment to be spick and span clean when they came over. So I hired a company to send in some professional cleaners while my husband and I were at work. When I got home, my husband was already there and laughing. I asked what was so funny, and he asked me if I had lost anything recently. I wasn't sure what he was talking about, so he points me to our bedroom. When I walk in, I see my hot pink vibrator proudly displayed on my nightstand. I guess the last time I used it, I forgot to put it away and it had fallen between the wall and the bed and was found by the cleaners while they were cleaning the baseballs. I was so embarrassed and haven't reused that cleaning company out of fear they will send the same cleaners and they will think I am a degenerate. Candace. Yeah, that I don't I'd have to find a new cleaning company as well. I would be horrified. Horrified. Um, I don't have a similar story. It it's kind of similar. I don't know. It's probably also not really appropriate. But when we were moving um out of our old place into our new place, this place actually, um I uh they were move they it was it was a company they came in and they like did everything for you. We had obviously packed up like our clothes and like the little things, but this company was there. They were gonna take apart our bed frame and you know wrap our mattress and then rebuild everything when we got to our new house. Um couldn't tell you when I put it there or what, but they moved the mattress and walked out, and I walked into the old bedroom, and there was something on the floor that had obviously been under the mattress, in between the mattress and the the bed frame, um that was um not of legal substance, and I don't remember when I put it there, couldn't tell you when it was from, and I quickly snatched it up. Thank God my something in my intuition told me, hey, you should go check and see if there's anything there. I don't know why. It's not like I was expecting something to come out, and um yeah, there there it was, just on the floor staring at me. So I quickly grabbed it and was horrified and prayed to God they didn't see it because allegedly it could have um gotten me in some legal trouble. Allegedly. I'll just leave it at that. And yeah. So Candace, I get it. Um yeah, I don't how did you not know it was missing? You know what? It's fine. I get it. Okay, and that is it for Gremlin Stories. I actually wasn't even planning on doing Gremlin stories with him, so these I quickly found. Um I promise for the next episode I will absolutely scour my inbox and do a much deeper dive into it. It was just for today, I needed to get it, get it a goins. Okay, so the next two submissions are gremlin guidance questions. Um the first one I was really hoping to do with a man because I would have liked a different perspective, but dude, you're stuck with me. Anonymous asks, how do I let my crush know I'm in love with him? He is single, I am single, and I think he's the absolute world and just want to be his girlfriend. Anonymous. Okay, I feel like I kind of suck at this. Um I I like I like, you know, I don't I wish I had more information. Like, are you guys like best friends? Are you coworkers? Like, how long have you known him? I mean, I there's I feel like I need more information, but I don't know. I don't know if you're the type of girl who is willing to kind of just put it all out there and maybe just say like ask him out on a date, but you have to be clear it's a date and not a friend date because those are two totally different things. Or you can make it a friend date and then see if it can transition into a date date. Um, I'm honestly not really good at this. This isn't my strong suit. I never make the first move. Um, I'll act aloof till the day I die. Uh, because I just I'm very hard on people, which I'm realizing now is um kind of a character flaw of mine. Like with Michael, when he was talking about how he didn't want to put himself out there because he didn't want to be rejected. And I told I was kind of like hard on him, and I was like, hey, like you need to just go for it. In all reality, I you know, talk a big game, but I would have a very hard time going for it. But she that girl was putting herself out there for him, so I guess that's different. I guess all you could do is just drop some subtle hints that you or maybe it's not so subtle. I don't know how aloof this guy is either. So I say if you were in front of me telling me, I would just be like, just go for it. Like, why not? You know, also women empowerment. Make the first move if you want to make the first move. I'm just too much of a scaredy cat to actually do that. So I've never made the first move. But you know, who knows? Maybe I lost out on like a great love of my life. We'll never know. And you'll never know if maybe he has a crush on you too. So I say just put yourself out there. Um, but yeah, I that's all I could say. And you know what? The next time I have a man on the podcast, whoever that man may be, I will repeat the question and see what he says. But yeah, I say just go for it. Why not? You know, life's too short to wonder what if, and there's a lot of what ifs out there. So I say go for it, why not? The worst that happens is he doesn't like you back, and then you can move on and find somebody who's worth your time, right? I hope I'm giving good advice. All right, the next one is from Marin. Marin says, My life isn't going the way I have expected at all. I'm 23 years old. I have just gotten dumped by the love of my life after three years, and I haven't been able to find a job to utilize my degree. I am back living with my parents for right now while I get back on my feet and try to figure out what I should do. I guess all I'm looking for is some big sister advice on what you think and what I should do. Signed Marin. Okay, Maren, honey baby little girl, you're 23 years old. Believe you me, this is not gonna be the last time that life is gonna kick you, and then it'll kick you again while you're down. This is but at 23 years old, I remember like where I was at in my life, and um it's it's a challenging time because you when you know we're when we're younger, like I could think back to when I I was in high school and I was thinking, okay, I'm gonna go to college, and then I'm gonna get my dream job, and then I'm gonna get married, and then we're gonna buy a house, and then I'm gonna have kids. None of that happened, by the way. Like that's the way you that's the way you think your life is gonna go because that's what we've been told our entire lives, like this is what you do, and you do A, then B, then C, then D. And it's supposed to be, you know, pick picture perfect. And not none of that is picture perfect because, you know, life is unpredictable, and that is extremely scary, um, especially for someone like me who craves stability and I like to be very much in control and I like knowing exactly what's gonna happen and when it's gonna happen and how it's gonna happen. And you kind of just need to realize that life isn't gonna be that cookie-cutter, exactly what you imagined it to be. You know, I'm right now I'm 32, but when I was 23, I was engaged to a completely different guy and was thinking that that was the way my life was gonna go, and thank God it didn't, because I probably now would have been divorced and trying to figure out what the hell's going on. I am not divorced and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell is going on because I don't know what's going on around me or what to do. Right now, I am barely keeping my head above water because that's just life, you know. Even when people look like they have it all together, they usually don't. I remember thinking like people who are twice my age had it all together and all figured out. And I think in reality, we have to realize nobody really knows what's going on. We're all just doing the best we can. Um, you've just gotten dumped by the love of your life. He wasn't the love of your life. Plain and simple. You that mean you said you had been with him for three years. You met him when you were 20. No, he wasn't the love of your life. You haven't even met the love of your life yet. And you know what? You might have a couple loves of your lives before you end up with the one, and that's okay. You know, you need to see what else is out there. I'm not telling you to go be slutty, but maybe go be slutty. That's always fun. Um, and you haven't been able to find a job to utilize your degree. Uh a lot of people are in the same position you are because unfortunately the economy and the job market is absolute shit right now, plain and simple. Um, so luckily you it says you're saying you're living with your parents for right now while you get back on your feet. I would just say just, you know, slowly but surely, just put yourself back out there, whether it be dating or in the job market, but you need to just focus on yourself. And luckily you have parents that you can stay with and you can, you know, count on in these hard times. And hopefully you have, you know, a friend or two. It doesn't have to be a huge group, but you know, just a couple people to help you, you know, get the sad times off your mind. Um, but it will all work out. It will be okay, you know. I feel like when you were in these like terrible moments of like, oh my god, I can't believe this happened. Oh my god, my life is over. We have such big feelings that it feels like nothing else is possible. Like you feel like you're drowning right now and you can't, you don't know how you're gonna pick yourself up. But you just need to take a deep breath and realize that it will all work out. It's not gonna maybe work out exactly the way you need it to or want it to, but it's gonna be the way it was supposed to. And that takes a long time to accept and to it that takes a long time to discover and accept. And even, you know, now we don't accept it, you know, the older we get, but still, um, I would just say just slowly but surely, just you all you're allowed to have your feelings, you're allowed to grieve what could have been, but in the end, you know, in six months you're gonna be like, oh thank God, that wasn't it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, because now you're gonna be living this brand new normal and it could be so much fun and exciting, and you you can move to any city you want, any country you want, because you're not tied down to a guy who dumped you. Screw him, he's not worth it. Um, so yeah, I would just focus on yourself and you're allowed to feel sad, but don't wallow in your sadness for too long. Just realize that there's something so much better and so much greater that's going to be out there, and that's gonna happen for you, and that's what you should be excited for. That you don't know exactly what's gonna happen next, and that that's so exciting. Yes, this could put you on a path of something you didn't expect, but that's something you're gonna absolutely love and adore, and you're gonna look back on this time and be like, oh my god, I was worried for nothing. It happens, it always happens like that. So, Maren, in six months or a year, email me back and let me know how it's going and what you're doing. Cause that will be exciting to hear from you. Okay, guys, that's it. That's the episode. I kind of threw it together and I hope it sounded okay, but that's what you're getting. Um, if you want to follow myself and the podcast, you can do so on Instagram and TikTok, Emily to Gramlay Pod on both. You can also watch this episode on YouTube, Emily to Gremlade Pod on YouTube. If you have your own Gremlin story, you need Gremlin guidance, or you have a piece of juicy gremlin gossip. I didn't have gossip in here um just because I was kind of rushing. But if you have a good juicy piece of gremlin gossip, you can email myself at the and the podcast at Emily to Gramlaypod at gmail.com. Make sure to like, follow, share, subscribe, rate five stars, do all the things. And if you have any suggestions on future guests, or if you yourself want to be a future guest, email me or you can DM me on social media, Emily to Grammalay Pod on Instagram and TikTok, and EmilyTogremalaypod at gmail.com if you'd like to send in your suggestions. And that's our episode. Let's cheers out, guys. Cheers to you, cheers to me, cheers to the construction around me be being being done quickly, and cheers to Maren. Maren, it's all gonna be okay. I promise you. All right, cheers, guys.

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Bye.

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Emily Hogan

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