Heard A Zombie, Hid Under Bed, Dated The Boss

Ever had a night so chaotic it turned into your favorite story? We kick off with two Gremlin Stories that prove messy moments can rewrite your life. First up: a listener’s karaoke-fueled meet-cute that starts with couch naps and neighbor complaints and ends as a wedding dance to Don’t Stop Believin’. It’s goofy, tender, and exactly the kind of imperfect joy that keeps us singing along. Then we pivot to a high-anxiety misread: a loud crash, moans in the hallway, a barricaded bedroom, and a roommate who actually needed help. It’s funny and sobering enough to remind us how panic short-circuits our logic.

From there, we jump to Gremlin Gossip with an anonymous confession: sleeping with the boss. No cheating, no secret families—just a complicated age gap, workplace dynamics, and the reality that HR nightmares live next door to genuine connection. We talk boundaries, consent, and why nuance matters when real people and real jobs are involved. Finally, we explore the oddly universal klepto itch: the tiny lift from a big-box store, the ramekin that somehow makes it into a to-go bag, the taco stand shaped like a W that you absolutely do not need. We unpack the thrill, the embarrassment, and the quiet rules people invent to justify their behavior, and how most of us grow out of it once the risk feels heavier than the laugh.

We also set the record straight on two segments. Gremlin Guidance is where we offer options and scripts to solve your problem. WWGD, What Would Gremily Do is where you send a scenario and we tell you exactly what we personally would do. Clear lanes, cleaner advice, way more fun. Stick around for updates on upcoming guests and how we’re wrangling the chaos into something that works week after week.

Enjoyed the ride? Follow @emilytogremilypod on Instagram and TikTok, subscribe on YouTube, and leave a 5-star review wherever you listen! Got a gremlin moment, advice question, or gossip too hot to text? Send it to our inbox at EMILYTOGREMILYPOD@GMAIL.COM then tell a friend who needs a laugh and a little permission to be imperfect.

Transcript

Frazzled Check-In And Mocktail

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Okay, cheers guys. Emily, Emily to Gremly here with another solo episode. I wanted to welcome all new listeners and welcome back, all returning listeners. Thanks for tuning in. Real quick episode drink. Again, we're sticking with the mock tails. Okay, I'm a little frazzled today. Actually, I've been frazzled all week. This is, I got really excited. I went to the grocery store and found poppy drinks, which they usually have, but I've never seen the Shirley Temple flavor. So that's what I have is a Shirley Temple poppy. What I don't have is ice because I used the last of it this morning to fill up my big ass water jug because I need to drink a gallon of water every day. So I need to go to the store later, get ice, I need to do a lot of things later. It's been a week. I said that last week, and it's been a bigger week this week. I am frazzled. I'm not in my cutest outfit. I had to really throw this together. I had to throw my hair up in a clip because mainly I'm so sick of my hair. It's about to get chopped off and go bye-bye. But I'm just all over the place. I'm running behind. Even today, right now, I am so behind. I should have filmed this like two hours ago, but I was doing other things and editing this and filling this out and doing I it's just I am all over the place. And I came with frazzled energy. So it should be an interesting episode. Um, we are going to start with Gremlin stories, and then we're gonna go right into Gremlin gossip. And there won't be any Gremlin guidance today, simply because I need to clarify something, which I will do at the end of the episode. So today we just have Gremlin stories and gremlin gossip.

Meet-Cute Karaoke Love Story

SPEAKER_00 2:07

And let's see, the first Gremlin story is from May. I think that's like the cutest name. May. May said, I have a Gremlin story about the night I met my husband. I was having a girls' night at our local bar where we love to go for trivia and karaoke night. This night was neither. But I met a really cute boy who said he had recently moved to the city and this was his first time at this bar. My group welcomes him in and we all share drinks and stories. I was so charmed by him, and by the end of the night, we had shared a few kisses, and I definitely remember inviting him back to my apartment. But I do not remember the taxi ride to said destination. The next morning I wake up on my couch fully clothed with the cute boy curled on the love seat. He wakes up and I asked him what happened, and he said that when we got inside, I insisted on singing karaoke, so I had played sing along YouTube videos and we were singing until the neighbors came knocking to ask us to please quiet down. He even had a cute video of me belting out don't stop believing. I was so embarrassed, but he said it was cute. We cleaned up and went to breakfast and have been together ever since. At our wedding, we danced our first dance to the song Don't Stop Believing and invited everyone to join us in karaoke. Sometimes it pays off to be a gremlin. You just might meet the love of your life. Love may. I thought that was so cute. And you know what? Being a gremlin doesn't mean like it has to have disastrous consequences. Sometimes, you know, you're right, you can meet the love of your life. It doesn't happen as often, but you know, when it does, it's a real cute meet cute. And that's so cute that you guys did your first dance to that song. It has like such significant meaning for you. That's probably the night he fell in love with you and was all like, this girl's goofy, I like it. Alright, and the next Gremlin story is from Chelsea.

Stoned Panic And A Stair Fall

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Chelsea says, during the pandemic, there wasn't much to do except sit around and drink or get high. Yeah, I know. I wasn't much of a stoner before, but my roommate was, so I sort of got into it. I remember this story. It makes me laugh. Okay. One night I was home alone and smoking in my room when I heard a huge crash come from outside of my room. I freaked out, thinking someone had broken into the house and was now searching the first floor looking for valuables or people. In my highness, I quietly jumped up and pushed my dresser against my door and hid under my bed, hoping that the person would go away. Then I heard moaning coming closer to my door. I'm sorry, okay, hold on. Then I heard moaning coming closer to my door, and for a split second I thought, oh my god, the zombie apocalypse has begun. Then a large thud banged against my door as someone from the hallway attempted to push it open. I was scared shitless and screamed as loud as I possibly could as if I was being murdered. A voice rings out, what the fuck, Chelsea? Open the door. It was my roommate. I ran to the door and pushed the furniture away to let her in. It turns out I wasn't home alone. My roommate had gotten home about an hour earlier without my noticing, and the large crash I heard was her falling down the stairs after she lost her footing. She had to drag herself up the stairs to ask for help. I'm so sorry. It's not funny. It's just it's it's the visual. Um, okay. The fear sobered me up enough to drive her to the hospital where we found out she had two fractured ribs and a dislocated shoulder. Ever since then, we inform each other we are home, so this won't happen again. Love the podcast and the Gremlin family, Chelsea. Okay. I'm so sorry. I don't mean to laugh at someone else's pain, but I'm just I'm putting myself in your mindset where you you're thinking that it's either a murderer or a zombie, and you are fucking stoned out of your mind. And you hid under your bed. This poor girl, this poor roommate, was just desperate for help, and she had to drag herself up the stairs. Probably she probably was hoping that when you heard the crash, you would come down the stairs to find her and to help her up and take her to a hospital or a somewhere, and you never did, so she she was probably laying down there, like, where is she? I'm so sorry. It's not it's not as funny. That's not funny. I I I have a weird thing where I laugh at at people falling. It's not a weird thing, like if I think it's a universal thing. People falling is funny. I mean, I wouldn't laugh if like an elderly person fell. But I don't oh my god, okay. I need to shut up because anyway, I'm I'm glad that your roommate was not injured severely. Two fractured ribs and a dislocated shoulder. I I've never had either knock on wood. Again, there I need to put wood in here. I keep saying knock on wood and I have nothing. I'll knock on my head. Yeah, I've never fractured my ribs or dislocated my shoulder. Please don't let it happen to me now. I feel like as soon as I like go to the store, I'm gonna like slip in the aisle and it's gonna be the ultimate karmic F you. Yeah, thankfully it wasn't like a serious break or collapsed lung or broken neck. Yeah, and it's just the fact that you were stoned and you thought the absolute worst case scenario. You're a poor roommate. She's just you know that meme where it's I think I'm delirious. You know that that meme or like people like put it in TikTok comments or they send it to each other. It's from Family Guy, and it's the picture of Peter Griffin like on the floor, all like sprawled out because he fell down the stairs. That's just that's what I pictured. Okay, I am so sorry to your roommate. I feel like you guys laugh about it now because you guys now have a system where you won't scare each other. Um, so Chelsea, thanks for writing. Okay. Okay, and we are gonna head right into Gremlin gossip. And the first one is anonymous. Anonymous gossips. I've been sleeping with my boss since November. It's not as scandalous as it sounds. He isn't married, he's divorced with two older children, nor is he in a relationship

Laughing At Falls And Karma Fears

SPEAKER_00 9:08

with anyone. But I am his secretary at a law firm and he is 20 years older than me. If our colleagues found out, I'm sure it would be a big story around the water cooler. Anonymous. I mean, fuck it. I why not? I mean, I get it, like maybe there's like maybe a conflict of interest. I mean, is he like a partner at the law firm? So that means like he can't be fired. I mean, I guess if he can't be fired, they could fire you. I don't know. Also, it doesn't seem like you're that serious, but it could become serious. I don't know. I mean, to me, this isn't a big deal, but I might be a little desensitized to certain things. I mean, he's not married, he's not in a relationship, so he's not cheating on anyone. And to me, the age gap isn't that big of a deal. But you guys know my thing. I like older men. I mean, if you know, they were born in the same generation as me, I really don't have any interest. So 20 years, let's go. Um, so good for you, anonymous. Keep it going. Um, write back in and let me know if there's any updates on this. And the next gremlin gossip is going to be anonymous as well. Anonymous says, oh, okay, I remember this one. I picked this one for a very specific reason. I'll explain. Anonymous gossips. Okay, so I have a secret that no one in my life now knows about. I enjoy stealing. Nothing big, but I get the biggest rush from swiping a makeup item from a certain big box store. I have never gotten caught, so I think it has given me a big head, but I just absolutely love it. It's my only vice. Anonymous. Okay. Um, I don't know. This is kind of a girl after my own heart. I feel like everyone kind of goes through this like klepto phase. You know, maybe some earlier or some later than others. But like, I feel like we all get like that little klepto bug in us every now and then. I certainly have, I'm not gonna tell you where I stole it from, but I would like I would never steal someone's money. It would be like this, like something stupid from like a big box store. I'm not gonna say which one because I don't want to get banned. And also, like, what if they want to sponsor me one day? Anyway, so yeah, I haven't done it recently

Secret Office Romance Confession

SPEAKER_00 11:28

in recent years, mainly because I feel like if I were to get caught, it would be so embarrassing. Like you're you're 32 years old and you got caught stealing, like, you know, grow up, have it be a cooler offense kind of thing. So I haven't done it in a long time. I did used to do this thing where if I went to a restaurant and I saw like a cool ramekin, I would put it in my to-go box. I feel like I shouldn't say this either because what if one day this comes back and bites me in the ass and then people don't let me in their restaurants? Whatever. Anyway, um, yeah, I used to like to steal steal little rammekins from like restaurants. Restaurant chains though, not like, you know, again, mom and pop restaurant. Like I would not go to like, you know, Ma's Diner and, you know, steal their plates. But actually, I remember actually I have a couple stories with Klepto. There is someone who has been on this podcast before who I'm not gonna out the person. I'll wait till they are back on to discuss with them. But this person and I, we used to share our klepto stories, journeys. I don't know what you want to call it. But yeah, we used to tell each other the tales, and it was back when we were both still actively doing it, and this person thought they were gonna get caught, and it it's a great story, but it's not my story to tell, and I don't want to out the person, so I will wait till they are back on. Anyway, that was you know years and years ago, because you know I'm so grown up and mature now. But I but I remember I went to a certain restaurant

Klepto Rush And Tiny Thefts

SPEAKER_00 13:16

with my boyfriend and his mom, and I had gotten tacos, and you know those like little metal stands that they have for tacos where like it looks like a W or an M and they put the taco in the little slot. I really wanted it. I don't know why, but I was just like, and so I was kind of trying to like nudge my boyfriend, like, hey, I want this, I want this. He knew what I was up to, he just doesn't approve of it, which I have another story to talk about after this one. Anyway, I ended up swiping it. I don't have it anymore. I really wish I did, but I know I like put it in like the giveaway box when I was moving because it was just like too much stuff to bring. Anyway, um, but I took it and his mom was like, and then she wanted something too. So you know what? That makes me feel like I'm in good company. He was just being the wet blanket. A story about specifically him, because he's apparently a rat and a narc, is we went to a grocery store, and this was years ago, like kind of like around the time we first started living together. So this is like, I don't know, this story's gotta be like seven years old at this point. But he we were in line at the grocery store. We had got had our list, went through the list, and we're waiting in line, and I look and I'm like, oh no, like I forgot. I want it was a seasoning of some sort. Let's just say it was like lemon pepper seasoning. I was like, oh no, we didn't get that. And I saw I had time to run to the aisle, grab it, and go back. So I was like, I'll be right back. I run to the aisle and they don't have what I'm looking for. So I was like, oh, oh well. I walk back and he sees that my hands are empty. And I was, it was like winter time. I was wearing a jacket with like bigger pockets. I mean, it's Los Angeles, it's not like I was wearing a parka, but it had, you know, deeper pockets. And this bastard pats me down in line, and he was all like, Where is it? Are you gonna steal it? Mike, that is our local grocery store. We go here like all the time. We know the people by their names, they know us by our names, and now you're like patting me down in the middle of the line and making them think that I'm this like kleptomaniac freak. I was so embarrassed, I was so mad, and I still bring it up to this day because how dare he! Like, absolutely not. And you know what? When I see him later, I'm gonna remind him of that and give him shit again. So those are my klepto stories. I do have more, but I'll wait to share those to for when I have a guest, a very specific guest. So that can be its own episode, it could be the klepto episode. Actually, if you guys have any stories of your kleptoania tales, feel free to send those in and I will save them for my very special guest. And that will be a funny episode. I'm very excited. I have a few other things to say, and so would that other person. Okay, guys, that is the end of our episode. It's a short one, and it's only short because I literally don't have enough time in the day right now. I am running out of hours to get all my stuff done. I am behind on a couple deadlines, and I gotta get a going. So if you would like to follow myself and the podcast on social media, you may do so at Emily to Gremlin Pod on Instagram and TikTok. You can also watch this episode and almost all the episodes on YouTube at Emily to Gremlin Pod on YouTube. If you have your own Gremlin story, you need Gremlin guidance, or you have a juicy piece of Gremlin gossip, make sure to email those in at Emily to Gremlied Pod at gmail.com. You can also DM or message me on Instagram or TikTok if you'd prefer. Also, let me explain why I did not do Gremlin Guidance today. Last week I put out a call to action. I had a listener write in with an episode suggestion, and I got a couple emails questioning it. So let me read to you the suggestion that was given, and then let me do a better in-depth explanation on what I'm looking for. So the new call to action was sent in by Leah. I'm doing kind of an edited draft of her email. Leah said, I have an idea for a possible episode you could do. I would love to hear an episode WWGD. What would Gremlin do? I thought maybe it would be too similar to Gremlin guidance, but I feel you somewhat hold back on your advice out of consideration of others' feelings. You give options on how to handle situations. This would simply be if you yourself were in a situation, what would you personally do? Alas Liby Leah. And she signed it like that because she's from Germany. So I got a few emails questioning if what they were sending in was either Gremlin guidance or if it was WWGD. So for those that emailed me in, I emailed you back. So check your inbox. I emailed

Restaurant Souvenirs And Partner Drama

SPEAKER_00 18:20

you saying I was gonna respond to it on this episode, but also kind of doing a summation of what the difference was and then asking them to resubmit it to let me know what they wanted and what they were looking for. So what I'm gonna say is the difference is for guidance, I'm gonna give you possible solutions. So if it's a solution on how to fix a problem, on what to say, on how to approach someone, if you're looking for advice on what you should be doing or like different ways you can approach a dilemma or a situation, that's gonna fall under Gremlin guidance. If you're looking for guidance on how to fix or solve or bring a problem up to somebody, that's the guidance. WWGD is not gonna be advice, it's gonna be you emailing in saying this is the scenario. What would you personally do in it? So I did get one of the emails out of the few. It seemed like it was geared a little bit more towards WWGD. The others, I was questioning if they wanted me to give them solution-based advice or if they wanted to just hear right forward exactly what I personally would do in a situation. So that's how I'm really gonna differentiate. So before you send in your guidance questions, ask yourself are you looking for me to give you options on how to fix something? Or are you just curious on how I would remedy the situation or what my thought process would be about fixing something or saying something to someone? That's the way it's we're gonna differentiate the two. So hopefully that's not too confusing. And again, thank you to Leah for writing that in. I will be working on that episode. I don't exactly know when it's gonna come out and when I'm gonna air it, but stay tuned. I will be letting you guys know and also reminding you. Also, I am working on getting guests on this podcast. Like I said, I'm busy and all over the place and trying to make it day by day to just get all my work done. The amount of lists that I have in my phone and on paper and here and there, and just trying to organize my life is enough to make someone go insane. So I'm trying not to go insane. I'm trying to put a better system for myself and my own mental clarity to get it all done and execute everything perfectly. I'm working on it, I'm trying. Hang in there with me. I promise it'll get better. And make sure to like, follow, share, subscribe, rate five stars, do all the things. That is our episode. I'm gonna cheers out with my iceless poppy. Actually, his flavor's good. It was just like it kind of hit me. Like, you know, when you drink something fizzy and it hits you? That's what happened. So cheers to you, cheers to me, cheers to meeting your soulmate while you're having a gremlin moment, and cheers to me figuring out what the fuck is going on and what I'm doing. And next week we'll hopefully be a little calmer. Alright, cheers,

Send Your Klepto Tales

SPEAKER_00 21:29

you guys. Bye.