Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Armchair Anonymous: Graduation

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

Dax and Monica talk to Armcherries! In today's episode, Armcherries tell us a crazy graduation story.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Anonymous. I'm Dan Rogers and I'm joined by Lily Padman. Hi. Today we have crazy graduation stories. It's that time of year. It is. Happy graduation. Congratulations.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations graduates. Yes. Are you starting to see people around town in there having their hats and gown? There's fun Saturday lunches because the family's in town. No.

It's so fun. It is fun. One of your children is graduating. Yeah. I mean, they do a graduation now for every single grade. Well, this is a big one. Out of elementary into middle school. Yeah, they didn't do anything for us.

Did you have a graduation? Yeah, we had to sing. We sang. When the saints come marching in. No, I believe I can fly. I believe I can fly. That's right. We sang that.

Do you want to hit me with something? No. I can believe I can touch the sky. Think about you. Every night and day. Yeah, maybe. I think about it. But yeah, every now and then.

I think, if I remember correctly, but I was in fifth grade. Please enjoy crazy graduation stories. All times. Come and go. Take them slow. Shiny. Hi, can you hear me? Beautifully.

Where are you at? I'm in D.C. What line of work are you in? I work for a nonprofit. Oh. Okay. And how's it going? Are you moving the needle?

Maybe a little bit. I've only been here since October. I was in a lobbying firm, so it was quite the switch. Why were you going? going out and whining and dining politicians and urging them to, wow. Oh my God. It was a lot of fun, but, you know, it kind of takes a toll. I bet. What does it take a toll on? Because you're burning the candle at both ends or ethically, you feel compromised? It's a little bit of both. It's a lot of drinking. It's a lot of going out. I'd be great at that. Yeah, actually, no. I like to be

in bed by seven. Okay, so you have a crazy graduation story. Yes. I'll go with the name, Patricia. I don't want to get anybody in trouble. It's also my drunk alter ego name, so it felt fitting. Okay. Great. Where are you from originally? I'm from Virginia. Oh, okay. Great. So my girlfriend and I at the time, we decided to have our graduation party joint at a brewery that was about an hour away from our school because her parents happened to know the owners. Your college graduation? College graduation, yes. 2021. So we go, we get there. I for some reason scheduled a job interview at the same exact time as our party. So I, show up, I'm wearing my blazer over my party outfit. I go into the tap room. I take my interview.

Everybody else is partying, having a great time. Oh, because it's on Zoom. Yeah. COVID, post-COVID. So I had applied to so many jobs. I was like, if I can get an interview, I've got to take it. So I have this interview. I crush it. I'm feeling so good. I'm like going to get a beer. I'm going to go outside, join all my friends. Like, it's going to be awesome. So we go out there. We have a great party gifts and we do all the stuff. Cornhole. We're drinking. We're having so much fun. And I look over and I see this gator. And Monica, you might not know what a gator is. Oh, I do.

Not an alligator. The driving. Yep, my friend had one. Yeah, like a little six wheeler. And so I see it and I'm like, I got to drive this thing. For sure, a couple beers in. Yeah, yeah. My girlfriend's parents know the owners.

And I'm like, hey, can I please just take this for a spin? And so I convinced them to let me take it for a spin. I convinced like four or five of my friends to get on it with me. Did anyone give you a how-to on how to operate it? I don't need a how-to. I've been. Okay, so sorry. Yeah, okay.

My apologies. I'm like, we got to do this. So we get on, we go down this big hill, and then there's a river and a lot of land at the bottom. We get down there. I've got like three people on the back, a couple people in the front seat with me. I'm having fun. I'm going to show off a little bit. Okay, sure, sure.

So I'm going to do some donuts. And so I turn it real hard and I've just gun it. And of course, it flips. Of course. Of course. And you got chalked full of passengers. I jump off. I got my fighter flight.

A couple of people in the bag, they fall over. I look around. The gator has landed on top of my girlfriend. Oh. Keep in mind, her whole family is there. We haven't been dating that long a couple months. My other friends in the back, they're kind of beat up, but it's not too bad. People start running over.

They have to lift the gator off of her. Oh, this is the nightmare. I look at her, and it's like this color that I've never seen in her face. She's not crying. it's just like white mixed with yellow. I can only describe of like you just know there's bones that are broken. And so immediately my stomach just drops. And so they get her in the gator and they drive her back up to go to the urgent care.

And I'm sitting there just taking it all in. I get up to the top of the hill. Her mom gives me this look like, you really did it. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah. Did they think you were a bad influence already? Yeah. I mean, who does this?

Turns out you kind of maybe did need a little precursor. Yeah. Yeah, like maybe you did need a little, hey, just reminder, these flip easy. Yep. Yeah. Hindsight's 2020. So we get to urgent care and, you know, we get her checked in. She wants nothing to do with me at this point.

So I sit in the call with my friend. We're looking around. We're like, this is going to be a while. So we found some jello shots. those like pre-made ones that are pre-packaged in the car. We take at least one of those. We're like, this is going to take the edge off. You know, it's been a really tough day.

Sure, sure. It ends up, my girlfriend has a broken wrist and a broken ankle, and we have graduation like two days. And so she had to walk across the stage with a boot, with a cast on her arm, and a mask because it was COVID. Oh, so she looked just horrible. She looked like she fell out of a skyscraper or something. But I do have to say we got married and

September. So it did all work out. Oh, I thought you definitely broke up. Oh, you thought it's because of the jello shots. Yeah, like, you can't even not drink right now after you basically killed me. Well, that's all the more reason. You really need drinking at that point. I know. You feel terrible. Shame. Yeah. Have you fucked her up more? She does most of the driving. Okay, good. I'm so cautious about it. I really learned my lesson and I was so embarrassed. And my friends love to bring it up. That's what they're there for. I know.

But it all worked out and her mom loves me. Oh, good. Well, lovely meeting you. Yeah, thank you guys so much. I was really nervous. Oh, you were great. It was great to meet you guys. All right.

Bye. All right. Thank you. Bye. My friend Kim had a gator. Okay. And she had a lot of money. Okay.

And we would go to her big, big house and right around in her gator. On the yard? Yeah. And in the neighbor. It was really fun. Were you ever nervous she was going to crash you? No, she was very responsible. She wasn't a dare double.

My kids are, you know, I watched them drive the golf cart. And it's an interesting experience for me because I'm like, well, I know they're like me. So this thing's going to end up on its side at some point, you know. And that's just how life goes. Yeah. But then if it's on their bodies. Then we got to go to urgent care and we got to wear a boot. But we'll live.

And a cast. And a mask. Yeah. For fun. What else are you going to do? Yeah, I know. Everyone's allowed to learn their lesson. My PIPI used to tell me this allegory, that's what it's called.

He said that life is like driving up a mountain, and it's a twisty road that goes around the mountain in concentric rings. It gets tighter as you go up, the hill. And so your first lap around, you go pretty fast, you know, you don't really know better. And you say to yourself, I'm going to go a little slower. I barely made it. But when you get on that next ring, it's a little tighter. as you get older. Okay.

And so even though you slowed down, you find out a little too fast for that too. And then so the next ring, you go up, you're like, I'm going to go even slower. But it got tighter again. And that's life. That's the process of life. I guess for a male. Interesting. Like you're just constantly adjusting.

Well, because your responsibilities are going up and the stakes are getting higher as you get older. And you can't go as fast. You have to keep going slower and slower and slower because it tightens. You have to be more and more responsible for you. Yeah. Okay. And probably a really good man notices the pattern of, oh, it's getting tighter every year. So I should compensate.

Yes. Yes. That's the art of life. Because you do want to go as fast as the road will permit. Right. Otherwise you get run over hit. You just try to maximize. Oh, just for fun.

But you don't want to go off the side. No, you don't. You want to be right on that edge. Wow. Pippie. Pippie had a lot of wisdom. That's nice. And a lot of shortcomings, too.

Well, don't we all. Yeah. He had short men complex, I think. Oh, my God. I don't want to get into it. He was French. It was a mix, double whammy, very French and identified as being very French. Like, thought of himself as French.

Oh, that's the love. Well, we called him Pippi. And this mother fiber wasn't from France. And he was insisting that we call my grandma Mimi, but she didn't, she wasn't up for it. So that never stuck. Wait, so Pippi and Grandma. He wanted to be Pippi and Mimi. I know, but so Pippi is what they call a French grandpa.

That's what a Frenchman. But he wasn't. He wasn't French? He was by ethnicity, but it's not like he came from France. And his parents didn't come from France. He was like 80th generation, you know. Right. Took a lot of pride in the LeBos.

Did he call his grandpa Pippi? Oh, well, then that makes sense. You kind of want to be calling. For him, yeah. But to say that you got to call my Belgium grandma, Mimi. Although maybe they speak French in Belgium. Maybe he just thought that was cute. And she obviously didn't give a fuck.

Or he was controlling and he was tiny. And it didn't work, which is the best part. Isn't this your grandma midge? Yeah. So you didn't really just call her grandma. You called her grandma midge. Always grandma midge. Yeah.

Never grandma. And to remind everyone, Midge was her replacement name because she thought Madeline was an old lady's name. But Midge was really youthful. That's really cute. Is she still with us? No. When did she pass?

Just a couple years ago. I don't think you told me. I'm sorry. Grandma Midge has passed. That's really sad, actually. You know, don't make me mourn right now. Oh, okay. I'm sorry.

I would have texted your mom. I don't have been five years ago. Oh, my gosh. I lost track with her. Hi. Is this Olivia? This is her. I was just scaring Monica with stories of my grandma.

I learned a really sad thing that Dax's grandma died like five years ago. Yeah, years ago. And she's a little upset right now. I hadn't told her. Well, that's a big thing. That is a big thing to not share. Did you go to the funeral? You didn't.

I would have known that. No, I didn't. Stop running me over the colds here. I'm not. I loved my grandma. I was a good grandson. I know you did not go to the funeral. I don't even know if there was one.

Okay. All the kids were spread out. I might not have been invited. Okay. The point is I loved her and I was a great grandson. You were. You were. I'm not taking that.

Well, you were kind of a bad one because you didn't tell any of your friends that she had. I didn't want to make anyone say that. Listen, again, Olivia, if I saddled up to a woman at a bar and I was like, hi, I'm Dax. Are you staying at the hotel? And she said, yeah, I'm Midge. I'd be like, mm. This is you trying to prove you're a good grandson.

My God. You're a little old for me. Yeah, you look 40, but your name is a thousand. Okay. Sorry you got ensnared in that. Where are you at? I am currently in Iowa visiting my family. Speaking of grandparents, I'm here for my grandpa's 95th birthday.

Oh my gosh. That's wonderful. What a ding, ding, ding. That's like so sem scripted. Yeah. Happy birthday grandpa. Also, congrats to you on those genetics. Yes.

He's like very healthy too. So, yeah, fingers crossed. But I live in Chicago. So Rob, shout out. I live in Wicker Park. Right next to where I lived in Bucktown. I have to say, Rob often. Yeah.

Every time people say where they live in Chicago, he's like, that's by me. Guys where I live. Chicago's not that big. It's not like L.A. Also, this is the same for Michigan. Like, I was in Milford Highland, Wald Lake, Dearborn. and Detroit. I know, but all you guys just act like,

you're right by where it is and you're not. I will say Bucktown and Wicker Park are connected. So in this instance, I got your better crowd. I've lived in Wicker Park at one point, too. In the stadium. Yes. Okay. You have a crazy graduation story.

I do. So to set the stage, I am in a master's program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 2021. What's the graduate degree? I must know. You know, I was a little worried you'd ask this, actually, because it's weird. It was half medical, half design. It was called biomedical visualization.

Ooh. Wow. One of the easiest things to think about is, you know, during COVID, when that image of the virus, the like red one with the spiky balls came out, that was made by somebody who went to school where I did. Oh. Oh, interesting. Okay. So they can make artist's renderings of,

biological things. My first job outside of grad school, I worked for a company that did surgical simulations to teach doctors how to operate before they're doing it on a person. And then I also did it for like an e-learning anatomy company. So niche. You could come to L.A. and do pre-vis, probably. Oh, what's that? So when you're going to do a complicated, really expensive action sequence, quite often, they'll build the whole model digitally so everyone can watch it and get their sense of where there'll be in time and space. So that door is open to you in case you want. I don't know that I'll be moving to L.A.

but yeah, I'm in grad school and I am just very depressed. I'm just straight up not having a good time. I'm really going through it. And there's just like a combo of things going on and I won't get into detail there. but I, in my head, I'm thinking, okay, graduating school, that's going to fix all of my problems. I just have to get to May 7 and then everything will be better. To keep this forefront of my mind next to my desk, I have a sticky note and it says XX days until May 7. And so every single day, I'm going, I'm erasing the number.

I'm going, okay, 302 days left. Okay, 3001 days. You started a while. Yeah, yeah. Yes. And you're like a prisoner. pretty much a full year in advance. But I'm like, okay, I can do this.

Graduation finally arrives. My family comes to town and everything's going well. It's a really great day. I'm feeling good. My life's going to be better from here. Things are really looking up. It was raining that day, but who cares? Like, everything's great.

And we go out to dinner with my friends and my family who'd come to town. My friends and I go out to drinks after dinner. And while we're out at drinks, my sister calls my fiance and says, hey, mom's in the ambulance. I need you to come here, ASAP. They'd just gone to the hotel and they were walking from the parking lot into the hotel. And it was raining that day. And it was dark after dinner. And my mom accidentally stepped off of the sidewalk into some grass and did a full.

frontal split. Oh. That was really bad in itself. Late age splits. And she also has an artificial hip. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Big double whammy there.

And we find out later on that what happened when she does go into that full frontal split is the cup that holds the joint of your ball cracked. And so it completely came out. Oh. So her leg is out of the socket. Yes. It's like a Barbie. I just imagine a Barbie.

She's a Barbie. Yeah. She's a disfigured Barbie right now. So she's taken by ambulance and she's taken to a hospital that's pretty well known in Chicago for not being the best at all. Okay. What kind of like the pet? Lots of things happened. I don't want to bore you with every single thing that happened in the time.

time we're at the hospital, but to give a few highlights. One, they really drugged her up when we got there. So she was out of it the entire time we were in the hospital with her, like loopy, out of her mind. One especially spooky moment was at 3 a.m. She was like really high on ketamine and was like in a different voice and screaming and laughing all at once. And we were like, what is going on? And what they used to give her the drugs, the needles and stuff like that, they left all over the bed around her. What? We found out, like, once I made it to the ER and I'm like, what is all of this? And my sister and I had to clean that up.

Also, after they moved her out of the ER into the other part of the hospital, they just decided not to tell us where they were bringing her. And so for hours, we're trying to find out where she is. Some people are like, oh, she's not even a patient here. It's a big mess. She's undoubtedly in a hallway waiting for a bed to open up. Yeah, exactly. But then as we're looking around, suddenly I just get a call from a surgeon at the hospital. And since I am her medical proxy, he was like, we're taking her into surgery right now.

And I just need you to say, okay. And I'm like, okay, if she needs it, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A very long, 24 hours short, she got out of surgery. The surgeon told me she was stable enough to get back home to Iowa. It wasn't fully fixed, but it was like good enough to like get her back home. And from there, we had to get a wheelchair to get her out of the hospital. So you're thinking, okay, hospital, great.

Give us the wheelchair. We will take it. We are dying to leave here. And they say, oh, no, no, you need to get your own wheelchair. That's something I never knew was a thing. about hospitals. And so we're scouring Facebook Marketplace. We're asking any friends and family. We're looking all over the internet. I'd imagine people, they buy a wheelchair and then they don't need it. I'd imagine that the free section in the paper would contain tons of wheelchairs. Facebook Marketplace, that isn't allowed on there because it's a medical thing.

You got to go to Craigslist. We end up finding like a really sketchy website. We call up the guy. He's like, okay, I can come drop it off in an hour. He comes in his van. He drops it off. We're like, great. Let's get the hell out of here. We do. And now my mom lives back here in Iowa. We're visiting right now.

And luckily, I just graduated. I had some open time. So I go ahead and drive her back home. She's laying in the back seat. Her legs, like tied together, basically. Oh, my God. This is horrible. We make it back to Iowa.

The next day, we go to her original hip seat. surgeon. And he like takes a look. He's like, nope, everything looks good. Don't need to do anything else. I was like, well, the other surgeon said it's not all good. And he's like, nope, it's fine. And so two weeks later is my wedding. Oh. So fast forwarding through that two weeks of caring for my mom doing last minute wedding prep because I pushed a lot of stuff out because I was working on graduating. Get to my wedding day. My mom was doing good. She was actually like walking a lot better. And we were doing like the cute mom-daughter thing of I'm putting on my dress. She's like buttoning it up. And then we are about to do first looks. Suddenly she falls over and she is like holding a mimosa, splashes it all over my dress that I just put on and

is in a ton of pain. What? Okay, hold on applause for a little bit. This is whole. I mean, again, this is so flimsy and generic, but from the outside, you could go, mom's really having a hard time letting go of daughter. It's like the graduation is a symbol. She goes down. Are you suggesting Munch Houses? And then the marriages today, not even that you would be aware of it, but the way the body takes care of yourself. Wow.

Anyways, okay, that's just worth noting. I actually gave birth a year ago, and we were joking about that. We're like, oh, mom, like, be careful. Stay in bed. It's a big moment. We're at the point where we can joke now. Yeah, maybe it's best you just stay in bed, mom. Okay, so she pitches her mimosa all over you.

She hits the deck. Fuck. Mom. So she's like, I can get up. I can get up. We're like, okay. She's like trying to get up and she can not get up. My aunt and uncle take her to the emergency room.

Oh my God. This is like devastating on multiple fronts. Of course, I want my mom to be at my wedding. Two, I really wanted her as well as my dad to walk me down the aisle. That was something that was super important to me. And then another thing is my sister was actually going to be singing during the ceremony. She had like learned to play the ukulele. And she was going to surprise me and like play the ukulele while she sang the song.

So my mom's in the ER. She's like going like absolutely ballistic. She's devastated. She's distraught. She's like asking the physician like, can you just get me out of here? It's my daughter's wedding day. And she's like going on and on about my sister's song for some reason. She's like, I got to see it.

My other daughter's playing the ukulele. I got to go. Five minutes later, the physician comes back in with the ukulele and plays that exact song for her. What? This is an Iowa doctor. Yeah. Yeah, this is a different. What?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ew. That just made me feel grossed out for some way. I don't know why. Like, this early, I hated it. I don't know why. Oh, interesting. Oh, it made me, like, sob.

I was like someone taking care of her and was making her have like a good day. But I guess my thought is the point is it. You just don't trust doctors who can play ukulele. No, no, no, no, no. The point wasn't that she wanted to hear a song on the ukulele. It's that she wanted to see her daughter play. play at her other daughter's wedding, this doctor. Well, clearly that's what it was.

And he was like, let me try to, no. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. He was trying to go like, well, let me give me the next best thing. I know. I just like, I don't know why I said it. Yeah. I appreciate your honesty.

Yeah. I don't think you trust doctors who play ukulele. Maybe. I think if you dig deeper, that's what this is about. Maybe there's something there. Yeah, it's like, why you got to know how to play? With his fingers? Like, maybe that translates to the medical field.

I know. He shouldn't have time. I just don't understand how there was a ukulele at the hospital already. He's probably wooing nurses. See? Yeah. Now you get me there. Yeah, you're getting me there.

The nurse was in the room, like, holding the sheet music for him on an iPad. They'd, like, looked it up. I still like it. My mom actually ended up being able to make it to the wedding. She did. They, like, got it in place enough. We just pushed back the ceremony a little bit, and then she was able to still walk me down the aisle. Did you get to buy a second wheelchair or?

How'd she get around? We had that one still. Okay, so Olivia, I have some thoughts about this whole chain of events. I'm worried about how ambitious your scheduling is. Yes. The notion that you scheduled your wedding two weeks after graduation. I didn't want to say it. Seems a little.

But I think it's because you're like, I got to be done with college and I got to start my life. And starting my life means I'm getting married. I'm going to be done with this. Why was it so bad? The college. Oh, it was like a lot of personal things. And then we were in college during COVID. I'm just sitting alone at my desk and like up all night like alone and like kind of going a little bit loopy by myself.

But yeah, the wedding two weeks after would not recommend anybody. I think I was just like, let's just get it done. Then I don't have to worry about things anymore. But this is none of my business. But I will say I'm old enough now. It's like, unfortunately, that is how we march through life. It's like, get to this thing. Get to that thing.

And then you don't realize, no, that's life. That's life. You're missing it. Yes, you're missing it. I know. Yeah. It's so human. The one last thing I wanted to say was that sticky note creeps me out now that I was like counting down the days until this like bad thing happened. Ooh.

Yeah. All the time I'll say to my husband, like I just like hate thinking about that sticky note. It's like a doomsday clock I had for myself. And he's like, you're thinking way too much into it. Like it's not that big a deal. The more people we interview. it's like the mind's capable of these crazy things we don't understand. Oh my God.

Right? Like manifesting weird stuff. Yeah. There's some spooky going on. It's unreasonable to think, I mean, we've all done this, but like as soon as this is over, everything's better. And it's kind of just the world telling you that's not how it works. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know? I think too, we, Olivia, live in a city that is asymmetric in this way that so many people are out here trying to achieve a career. that is very elusive. And I think we're surrounded by a lot of people that think their life's going to start once they get the thing. And that's kind of heartbreaking because it already started. Yeah.

It's all such up and downs. I will say I do think things got a little better after grad school, but there's other dips and valleys afterwards. The hits keep on common. There's no perfection. Yeah, that's live, man. They hits keep on coming. Yeah.

Well, Olivia, you're delightful. You have a smile that many times reminded me of our friend Amy, who's our favorite person. I just as pure as big gifts. Yeah, yeah. You have that same quality. Well, it was so great to meet you guys. Tell Grandpa happy 95th. My goodness.

I will. I hope your mom lets them have this holiday without any theatrics. I know. I know. She's going to be like, this is closer to letting go. Like, there's a lot here. Oh. It actually is her 60th on Monday, too.

Oh. She's got her own thing. Oh, God. Okay. She's got to stay healthy for that. All right. Well, lovely meeting you, Olivia. Lovely meeting you.

Well, bye. Bye, take care. Amelia? Yeah. I don't know that I've ever met an Amelia. Have you? It's a great name. Only Amelia Bidealia.

Yeah, Amelia Bidelia or Amelia Earhart, rest in peace. Well, we don't know. Oh, true. She could still be alive. She could still be up there, up there wandering. She could be up there. Up in the clouds. Who is the second Amelia?

Amelia Bidelia is a very popular children's book series. That's the protagonist or the author? The protagonist. Did you have those books when you were a child, Amelia? I did, yes. Did you feel special? I did. Yeah.

You deserve that. Thank you. Where are you at? Just outside of Ohio. Yeah, not far from you guys. Such a nice place. Did you grow up there or did you relocate? We just moved here.

I lived in L.A. for like 15 years. And then before that, I'm from the East Coast. Okay. So you have a crazy graduation story. Yeah. I'm cheating a little bit. This is right after graduation, related to graduation. The story happens because of...

We play it lose. Right after we have our high school graduation, this is June of 2009. We all graduate. Everything is great. The following week, it's tradition for the graduating seniors of our school. And I think most schools in that county to go do a beach week to celebrate. And it's usually in Ocean City, Maryland, which is like three hours to the coast. We all celebrate.

We're all freshly 18. We can all get in real legal trouble. We're like groups of especially graduated kids renting houses near each other at the beach, and then everyone would party for that whole week. My very best friend, Megan, still to this day, her mom was somehow able to rent us this, like, massive mansion. It was perfect. It was like three stories and then square shape.

So each corner had a bedroom. So we're like 12 bedrooms, balconies all around, big old central staircase. How far from the water? It was like a 10-minute walk. So we would party all night and then go die at the beach. for a while the next day and then just same thing over and over again. Hookups, any hookups happening? Oh, yeah.

Oh, sure. Wonderful. Because we had like 25 people sleeping in that house. Oh, my God. So, so many kids in that house. So the best part is that it's in a gated community, and it's at the end of a dead-end street, and it's surrounded by vacant lots and, like, beach woods. So the chances of us getting busted by the cops were brought down way low.

And that's like all we cared about at that point. We're used to running, but like in high school, you get caught. We just get a citation. We do some alcohol classes. We do some community service and then it's expunged from your record. But now we're all 18. So we're on high alert for cops. That's why this house was the best because we weren't getting a lot of reaction from

the neighbors. So we made all of the other houses mostly come to ours to party. And this is like way before Uber. So kids are piling up like 10 people in their Honda civics and then driving over, partying all night, passing out, and then driving back to their houses in the morning. And it's pretty much rinse and repeat every day. And then we get to the last night before checkout. So checkouts on a Sunday morning. And so we decide to throw a rager on Saturday night, invite everyone from the other houses to our spot and then clean up the next morning worry about it then so it's like 10 p.m. People are arriving and it's already like a house full like 50 people when all of a sudden somebody on the front balcony who can see the driveway shouts cops.

Uh-oh. So terrible. Everybody panics. Say like default is like girls hide and the guys are looking for any excuse to like run. Yeah. Jump off of something. Yeah, they're kicking out the screens and the windows and jumping off the balcony. And I'm with a couple girls like flushing shit, hiding shit. All the dudes are just booking it into the woods behind the house.

And this is all within like one minute, like 60 seconds. It's just panic. Yeah. Into the front door walks a group of poor girls. And we were like, what? And turns out it wasn't a cop. It was just a cab because they decided to take a cab. So whoever was on the front balcony, just saw the top of the cab.

in the dark and was like, oh, that must be cops because nobody in our group is responsible enough to take a cab. Also, cabs either were Crown Vicks or Caprice Classics, which are also cop cars. Yeah, you default. You're like, that's cop, let's go. Now we're all communicating in the house. It's a false alarm. We're all like flip phone texting.

The guys that ran off, like, it's all good. Come on back. And we're all, like, gathered up on the main floor, catching a breath. The boys are making their way back in. They're like, covering his screen. scratches from hopping the backyard fence, and they've got like massive mosquito bites from the woods, and we're laughing. And then into the front door walks our friend Tyler. Tyler is now only wearing boxer shorts, and his shirt is flung over his shoulder, and both are soaked in blood.

Oh. He looks at us. Everyone is silent. He's silent, and then he just makes a 90-degree turn and goes into the bathroom and slams the door. And we're like, okay, we're not prepared for any medical emergencies. There had been some injuries that week already. Somebody got a full can of beer thrown at their head. Megan got cellulitis from a bug bite.

Somebody got their foot stuck in a door and their toenail ripped off. It was already a mess. But we were like, that was a lot of blood. We're like, Tyler, are you okay? You know, knocking on the door and his boys are like, we found some band-aids, do you need that? And we're like, I don't think that's it. He finally opens the door and he's still like gushing blood.

From where? Just down his legs. Oh. He's just like, somebody has to take me to the hospital. And we're like, no, are you sure? He's like, yeah. And so we're like, okay, new task. Who's the most sober to drive time to the hospital?

Yeah. So we had a group breathalyzer that I think Somebody stole from one of their alcohol citation classes, but we would bring it to parties and, like, of course. You know, play games with it. So we're passing it around. Everyone's been drinking for a week straight. So we're all like, no, no, no.

And then it gets to Megan. And Megan hadn't been drinking that day because she was reacting so badly to her bug bites. So she was the most sober. Megan was like, okay, I'll do it. but she was reluctant because this is her brand new car. It's an R32. She loves it. And she also has a suspended license for speeding.

So not ideal. This is my kind of group. This is really taking me back. Yeah, you guys would have fit in. Great. So she's like, fine. Put some fucking beach towels down, please. So she's driving.

Tyler gets in front passenger. And me and my other bestie Shelby were like, we're going to come as moral support, even though we're shit face. we're going to hop the back with you guys. I know. It's hilarious because five minutes before, everyone was avoiding cops and adults,

and now it's like, I'll go. I'll be the hero. Time to shine. I'll risk it all. And then we sped off, definitely, because Megan's driving, and that's why her license is suspended. And this is before GPS.

We don't know where the hospital is at all. We're just driving to the downtown boardwalk area of Ocean City, and we're like, we'll see a sign. I don't know what we thought or our plan was. We're driving for like 10 minutes, and he's still gushing blood. He's in like a puddle of it. And Megan spots two cops walking on the boardwalk.

And she was like, fuck it, guys. Like, I got to do it. And so she jumps out of the car. She runs over to them. And she's like, you guys got to help. My friend, it's like his dick or something. It's bleeding. You got to help them.

The cops come running over. And they're like, hey, man, you got to tell us what's up. You know, we're calling an ambulance, but you got to tell us. And he's like, nope, just call the ambulance. And they're like, it's coming, but we got to tell the EMT is what we're working with. And he just sits there and he just goes, I rip my fucking ball sack open, okay? Oh, wow. Because when he was jumping off the fence or something.

No. I don't have the fact on this because he never spoke about it again. But everyone jumped a fence and we don't think. Tyler cleared the fence and he ripped open. Oh, mama. These cops are young, too, and they're like giggling. They love it. Of course.

Megan is, like, dry heaving because she's like nutsack blood all over my new car. But the ambulance shows up, takes Tyler. Megan volunteers to go with him. They leave. And then the cops turn to me and Shelby. And they're like, you guys are a mess. So you're not getting anywhere near a car. And we're like, we'll walk back.

It's like miles away. And they're like, no, you can't walk back. we have to see you off safely. So why don't you get in the back of the cruiser and we'll take you home? You're going to bring the cops to the party? Oh, fuck. Yeah. But we were like, no.

And they were like, yeah, let's do it. And they were like, nobody's in trouble. Promise you are not in trouble. We just got to see you off safely. Then you can go have your night. And we were like, okay. So they get to the entrance of the gated community. And we're like, no, just drop us off here.

Like, we're good. And they were like, nope, we got to see you off safely. Which house is it? So they pull up to the house. And sure enough, an actual cop car is pulling up. So everybody goes running again. Jesus. People leaping out the balcony out the windows.

And that's promise they drove off. That was nice of that. Yeah, yeah. How fucked up was the house the next day? Oh, my God. There's blood everywhere. I mean, it's been a week's worth of booze. It's just sticky.

All the toilets are clogged because people were flushing blunts. Oh. All the window screens are kicked out. And checkout was like 11 a.m. So I don't know how we did it. I got a hunch the mom got a little bit of a bill. I don't remember. I think we did an okay job.

It might have been passable enough for whatever poor cleaning crew is. I know. I know that Tyler does have kids. Okay. Great. So I think everything is fine. It was a happy end. It didn't totally.

Vesctomize him? Yeah, correct. Yeah, yeah, that's good. That's best. Oh, wow. What a time to be alive. You're just hoping to be one of those kids that doesn't go down. As long as you're one that doesn't go down, everything's grewy. You're right. Thanks for that crazy story. Yeah, it made me very nostalgic for trouble. Yeah, every time I tell it, I do get nostalgic. Can I give two quick shout out? Yes, of course. Megan, of course. She's the hero of this story. And then my brother, Corey, who introduced me to your show a couple years ago, he listened. to a lot of podcasts while he's on the road driving his 18-wheeler from Monster Truck Show to Monster Show because that's his job. Amazing.

We could have met him when we lost Groot last year at Monster Jam, and we had to search the semis. Sad day. Yeah. He might have been transporting the Gravedigger communal vehicle. Yeah. That's a fun life. That is.

Shout, Corey. Well, lovely meeting you. Nice to meet you, too. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye. Hi. Hi there.

Do you have headphones? I'm trying to grab them on my bag, man. Sorry. Yeah, take your time. Are you in the South? Yeah, in Georgia. I knew it. I knew it. I said like four words.

You already knew it? You know how I knew it? Your shirt. And don't ask me how? But all my friends have that shirt. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. That's a standard Georgia issue.

It is peach color-ish. I don't know. I just could sense it. Also, what's it like to be so handsome? Is it fun? It gets a little old. But my wife is the only person that doesn't constantly remind me. Sure.

Yeah, that's why we get married to feel shitty about ourselves. Sounds like you got a good one. She's the best. If I were you, here's what I would do. Will, I would have sunglasses on that had little tiny mirrors on the sides so that I could watch women turn around after I passed. Isn't that the dream, Monica? Yeah, really sorry. I wasn't listening because I did see a Georgia something in the background.

I can't tell what all you can see back there, but we've got two Coca-Cola bottles from our two national championships. Oh, hell yeah. I'm never going to open these guys. Tell me this is a UGA graduation story. It is. Yes. You know, I went there. Do you know this, Will?

No, tell me. I went to Georgia. I graduated in 2009. Really? Are you from Georgia? I am. From Duluth. Okay, yeah, I'm in Peastree Corners right now, so I'm right next to your hometown.

Yeah. Oh, this is so exciting. Too bad I didn't meet you before you met your wife before I moved out here. What year did you graduate? It would have been a catch. That is too bad. I graduated in 2021. Oh, my God.

Yeah, that's okay. I need to leave. No. I got to go? No, no, no, no, no. I got to run right out of you. Will. Will?

Will, you're too young for this phone call. You don't pass my test, which is that you're younger than my brother. Oh. That's a good litmus test. That's just like that's the cutoff. No, look at his face again. Who gives a fuck? It's true.

Are you 24? I'm about to turn 27. Oh, we did something. Yeah. I'm 38. You're 38. So 11 years. Thank you.

Well, I thought you were 36. Age shaming out here. I know. I'm trying to help. And how dare he? You're 51. I'm helping you. I'm pretending you're younger and he's older.

Thank you. Okay. Anyways, graduation. Let's get to graduation. Go to it. Go dogs. That's honestly the only great thing about this story is that it was the University of Georgia. Everything else, it's just a mix of humiliation, but also a joke and the further we get away from it, the more I can laugh about it now.

Oh, I can't. The only reason I'm even doing this is because my little sister, of two younger sisters, my middle sister followed me to Georgia. And she literally called me like three weeks ago and said, Will, I'll listen to this podcast. This is the content that they like to talk about. They have a website. One of the topics is crazy graduation stories. She was there the night of it.

And she said, would you be willing to just go for her, see what happens? Please thank her on our behalf. Yes. That's incredible. This is our favor is when Arm Cherry's ensnare other people. Yes, it's great. Hopefully she'll get you and you'll start listening as well. She already sent me a couple episodes.

I started listening. I'm not as good of a podcast listener as I used to be a couple years ago. We'll get you back. I'll get back on to it, yeah. Okay, tell us what happened. What year? What went down? This was May of 2021 and I was graduating in the University of Georgia.

And it was a great day. It was a great evening, great weather. However, we were still kind of in that weird COVID time. And so graduation for us actually got. split over a couple different nights. It wasn't our entire undergrad class. It was just the business school graduating class. And so we were actually, we were doing it on the field of Sanford Stadium to the University of Georgia football field right there. It was outside. And I was really excited. Most of my friends were going to be with me that night. A few of our friends that were not in

business school had graduation on different nights. But I was greatly looking forward to it. And it was going to be a mix of emotions to celebrate my family came in town. I'm originally from Birmingham, but my parents had come in town. My two younger sisters had come in town. And then I actually had a new girlfriend at the time we'd been dating for a handful of months, but she only met my parents a few times. And so this was her second or third, maybe fourth time, really spending meaningful time with my family. And so really quick, this is a master's degree, obviously, business school. Undergrad, I thought about doing the double dogs, but I'd had enough school. Terry. Perry College of Business. That's right. Good shout out.

Yeah, I had to. Tax is embarrassed. No, I love it. I'm just laughing. Now, Monica, her love for UGA is very endearing. I'm not kidding. One of the only reasons I'm really enjoying this right now is because of the Georgia thing, having to tell this humiliating story, I'm kind of like, why am I doing this? I'm like, I've got a fellow dog. I want to say the ceremony was starting about 7 o'clock. So we got an early dinner reservation at a steakhouse right there in downtown Athens.

It was my parents, my two sisters, my girlfriend, and myself. I've got some jitters, like it's college graduation. This is a big deal. I also have some jitters. This is my girlfriend. she's meeting my family again. But overall, it was really successful. We had a nice dinner.

We drank a beer. Like, we were having a good time. And then we get in the car. The plan is going to be dropped me at graduation so I can go down on the field. I've got my cap and gown on. I'm dressed up. My family was going to park and then walk into the stadium and find seats up in the stands. So I run down on the field.

I meet up with my buddies. There's probably 30 or 45 minutes until the program is set to start. And I'm just chopping it up with the guys. We've got our friend group of guys and girls. we're hanging out, we're taking pictures. It's pretty surreal. How have we already made it to this? The time has been flying. I look back in the corner in the stands and I see that my family and my girlfriend had found some seats. I was waving to them. They're waving to them. They're waving to me. I'm texting them like, this is awesome. So they've got on the big screen up there, they've got the countdown of how close we're getting until like 3, 2, 1.

And then that's when the lights go off and they do like a big introduction video. And then the president's going to come out and the whole thing starts. So I'm looking up and there's 10-ish minutes left before we're supposed to kind of get our seats. and the whole thing's going to get rolling. Really quick. I need to know what did you eat at the steakhouse? The 12-ounce filet. Okay.

All right. No, no. I stuck to the red meat. Honestly, in hindsight, I wish I'd had the seafood because there's about 10 or nine minutes left. I'm wearing a cap and a gown and we're outside and I'm feeling great. And so I was just kind of farting it up a little bit, like subtly. But there's some mixed nerves and I've also just eat a bunch of steak in the last hour.

And I'm a guy. Yeah. And you've had some beers. Yeah, I had a couple beers. And I, what do you guys call it in unauthorized evacuation? Yes, that's right. Yeah, that's a technical term. So I'm talking to my friends.

I just got to let out a tiny little fart. And I immediately felt something wet coming out. I froze and I try to play it super cool. My face got immediately red. I'm looking around. I'm like, there is no chance that just happened. We've all had that experience probably at least once. I'm literally standing there looking around, begin panicking.

My heart is pounding through my chest. I know for a fact I just had an unauthorized evacuation in my pants And sizeable it sounds like Decent size it was just really wet Was the problem It wasn't like something just sitting in my underwear Like my boxers were just wet

Were you only wearing underwear? No I had slacks on I looked good I had slacks and I had a button down tucked in I was wearing a bow tie Oh my God Oh yeah We've been having a good time I was even down like five minutes before that

I was waving they had some cameras going around I got on the big screen I'm on my phone I said hey mom And so they're texting me. It was awesome. And then this happens. And so I start panicking.

I look up. I'm seeing there's an eight minutes until the ceremony is supposed to get going. And I look at my friends. I'm like, hey, guys, I got to go to the bathroom real quick. I waddle as quick as I can. And my parents are looking down at me and my girlfriend and my sisters. And they see me. Everybody else is hanging out because it's about to start.

And I am high tailing it back towards kind of where the stands are. And I'm looking around for a bathroom. They have the main bathrooms closed because it's COVID. They have individual porta-potties. And so I go into a porta potty. Really quick. Are you at least grateful that you're in a gown? Like if you're going to shit your pants,

there's nothing better than having a cloak around you. That is true. It was certainly helpful. It helped cover up and mask any potential damage of what could have been really humiliating publicly. And because I had normal clothes on underneath too, I knew there were some layers here. But really having that gown on to cover up any potential stains

that could be showing, it did make me feel slightly better. I was also, I was just mortified. I'm in the same. port-a-potty. It's like 115 degrees in there. I'm sweating boys. I can hear the countdown starting to begin. I'm freaking out. So I ended up just having to drop the drawers, throw the boxers into the port-a-potty. They're just floating in the water. I pull my pants back up. Was there a lot of seepage into the dress slacks, or were they pretty dry? The slacks were dark, which was helpful.

It was better than wearing like khaki pants. There was only a little bit of seepage. And so I throw the gallon back on. I'm using toilet paper to dab my face off because I'm sweating. Do I just need to try to go to the bathroom right now while I'm in here? Do I need to try to finish this thing out? Is this going to happen again? What's going on? And I'm having to think quick, guys. I mean, the countdown is starting when this thing starts. People are going to be looking around. I'm in front of, I don't know, let's call it 20,000 people. They're going to be looking at me walking down the middle aisle on the field. Like, why is this dude late? What's going on? And so I'm just having to think quick. I was not making the most rational decisions, but I'm just doing what I can to be productive

here and try to cover up my mistakes. And so I end up throwing the gown back on, zipping up the pants and the shirt and getting all settled. And then I go back out. It is starting as I'm walking out. The lights go off. The screen comes on.

I look up at my family and they're kind of looking at me, giving me a sign. And I'm like, no, we're good. We're good. Don't worry about it. So I go and I sit down in my seat with my buddies the entire time I cannot focus on anything.

I'm just wondering, can they smell me? Yes. Did I get this all the way gone? Are they going to smell what just happens? Like a lot of insecurity. It was the longest two hours of my life. Were you doing any weird? Like were you pushing on any fabric with your hand and then smelling your hand?

No. Well, again, the gown makes it kind of hard. But I am sitting there and I'm kind of moving around a little bit. Like I'm trying to feel with like my legs. Like, hey, are we good? Did I get everything out? And again, thankfully we were outside. So I suppose that might help rather be an inside.

But I'm looking around. My friends aren't saying anything. They never asked, like, hey, why did you go to the bathroom? They think I played it cool and I was just cutting it close to when the program started. But over the course of the two hours, the mixture of sweat and any residue that was left behind and being outside, again, it's May, it's Athens, Georgia. And we're on a football field. It's like 7 p.m. So the sun's still kind of high.

I just began chafing so bad. Oh, yeah. I could feel it. It was like the way it was all drying and it was just not going to go well. Yeah, yeah. I really could not focus. I don't remember much of that entire program because I'm just thinking. what next? What's going to happen after this? Are we going out? Are we going back home? Are we going to take

pictures for an hour with my girlfriend and my parents? This is such a metaphor for life. You're graduating. It's like, what's next? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, guys, this was the night I became an adult. Yes, yeah, yeah. This is my first experience. I'm not a child anymore. I'm an adult, an independent adult. But in fact, you are a child because you pooped in your pants. Correct. It was very, very humbling. And so I go meet up with my family up in the stands. I'm wondering, do I tell them? I make it a joke. I tend to be pretty easy on myself. I like making fun of myself.

I have a good sense of humor. It's okay. I knew we were going to eventually laugh about it. The question was when and also my girlfriend's here. Now, this luckily was the girl that I am married to today. Ultimately, this worked out. Wonderful. Because of that, I don't have near as many regrets as I would have if she'd end up

breaking up with me and this probably been one of the reasons. But I just decided to rip the Band-Aid off and we're taking pictures. And I say, guys, guess what? They said, what, Will? And I said, I'm not wearing any boxers right now. And they looked at me. I said, what are you talking about? And I said, yeah, I pooped my pants about two hours ago.

They're floating in that porta potty down there. If you don't believe me, you can go look. I'm sorry if I smell bad. I don't know how I'm going to get home. We have like a mile walk back home. Athens is very hilly. My parents tell me that they ended up parking at my house and walking all the way there. I thought they had parts closer.

They tell me that. I'm like, we're about to walk a mile home. Did you ask anyone if they had any baby powder or talc on them? Like, Mom, are you carrying any talc by chance? Some gold bond would have been super helpful, but no, at that point, I figured I was pretty out of luck until I got home.

And I will never forget, my mom grabbed my arm, and she looked at me. She said, Will, why are you saying this out loud? I was like, Mom, I have one of two options here. I'm just embarrassed about this. I don't tell anybody, or we just start laughing about it right now. And that was the route that I chose.

And so my sisters, they laughed it off. We go back home. my roommates, they're like, hey, why are you running back to the day? Because we're all trying to hang out on the front porch. Guys, I got to go to the room. I got to go change. What do you mean you have to change? It's like, I'll tell them the story.

They're dying laughing. I still am kind of mortified and disbelief. It ends up being okay. I was chafing like crazy. Grab Goldaunt at the house. Oh, great. Because we had the rest of the night. We were going out.

We were going to go celebrate my family and friends and we were going to go hang out and spend some time together. And I did not want that to dampen the night anymore than it dampened my pants up to that point. Yeah, I would call it a bottom boot and rally. Yeah, that's right. You had like you bottom booted, but then you rallied. That's right.

And you got to. You got to. You got to. I mean, only a couple more days left to party in Athens. You got to use it up. True. Also, I hate to keep bringing up your handsomeness. But, you know, the gift, it's like you can tell he looks so hot even with shit in

his pants. It's kind of a luxury. You're so lucky. Like, if you weren't so handsome, you wouldn't be married to that girl. She would have definitely ditched you. If you're like a monster and you're like, I just set my pants. Everyone's like, fuck, Frank. Get the fuck out of your man.

But they're like, Will, you little stinker you. Let's clean your buns, Will. I'm going to go help you clean your buns. My wife is great. And again, just being like a pretty new girlfriend at the time, she was a trooper for sticking that out with me. She's a real one. She loves me through and through.

She loves making fun of me for my weirdness and my mistakes. My sisters love pointing out my mistakes and laughing. about it. And now my parents do as well. My mom, she ultimately was the one that was most wrong here. I think she thought there was no chance that relationship was going to last. Right. Yeah. Here we are, mom. She's from the South. That's right. She has a decorum that she wants to maintain. She's like, well, that's not polite conversation. William, I did not raise you this way. If I hear William, I know it's serious. Yeah, real serious. Come again, William. You say you defecated in your slack? That was delightful. Thank you, Will. That was great.

course. You never know what someone next to you at graduation is going through. It's a real life lesson. All right. Well, again, thank your sister. Claire, this was for her. Claire bear, we love you. All right.

Bye. Be well. Be well, Will. That's hard. Be well, Will. Thanks, guys. All too. Go dogs.

Go dogs. Roll tight. No. Oh, sorry. Don't worry. I'll cut that. Oh, my God. I didn't kick him out.

He left. He was like, get me the fuck out of. He is from Birmingham, so he might not hate that. But he hates that because he's a big Georgia fan. Yeah, he was. He was. So hot. Yeah.

You were aggressive, and I loved it. I was. Yeah, yeah, I loved it. Amma, cut me being aggressive. No. What do you mean I was aggressive? You're like, I want to wipe your butt like you're, you're, you know. I didn't say that.

Yeah, you knew. And you know you do. And he knows, and I love it. You would wipe that butt all day long, wouldn't you? Yes. I think I would clean his butt. Speaking of changing, I got to change my pants too. All right, love you.

Love you. Do you want to sing a tune or something? We don't have a theme song. We don't have a thing song for this new show, so here I go, go, go. We're going to ask some random questions and with the help of our cherries, we'll get some suggestions. On the fly a rhyme dish. I love why I rhyme dish Enjoy