Office Ladies - Friday Chit Chat with Kendra Adachi

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

This week on Office Ladies 6.0 it’s a Friday Chit Chat! The ladies are joined by their friend Kendra Adachi (aka The Lazy Genius) for a cozy conversation about habits, routines, and shaking things up. They share the little rituals that shape their days (hello, sacred laundry schedule), debate the best and worst times to do everyday tasks, and reveal the fictional characters they’d least want to sit next to on a flight. Plus, book swaps, favorite reads, and the joy of finding people to balance you out. So settle in, embrace your habits, and enjoy. Happy Friday! Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question for Around the Town, Chit Chat, The Paper & Second Drink favorite moment: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTube Follow Us on TikTok To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What a fun day. We are joined today by Kendra Adachi. You guys know her as the lazy genius. We love her. Kendra, hi. Hi, guys. It's so fun to be here with y'all. Thanks for joining us for a little, just a little chit chat. I'm a big fan of chit chatting. We love a little Friday chitty chat chat. We should say we're all remote. We're all like in some type of closet room situation. Totally. We're ladies who podcasts. This is how you do it. This is what. This is what? You do. In some ways, this is why you do it, because you can do your job in a closet, and it's great. Oh, before you hopped on, Kendra, I told Jenna, she was like, I didn't do my makeup. And I was like, oh, I slept in this shirt.

100%. Yeah, 100%. This is the shirt I slept in. I am wearing my pajama pants, but I changed my shirt. However, I told Angela, I slept in a gray t-shirt, and I took it off and put on actually a sort of slouchier gray t-shirt. So I changed out of my sleeping gray shirt into my daywear gray shirt, I guess. Substitute mine for the color black, and we are the same. Yeah, same.

Well, we get our chit-chat suggestions from listeners. It's this really fun new thing we do, and people write in the best stuff. Our first one is coming from Missy S in Hearst, Texas. Let's hear what she has to say. Good morning, office ladies, longtime listener, first-time caller. My name is Missy and I am from Hearst, Texas. As I was listening to your second drink yesterday evening while I was making dinner, I realized that this is not right. What do I mean, you ask? Well, I've made a habit over the last five to six years, however long you have been podcasting to listen in the morning on my way to work. I'm a teacher. It's become habitual for me. It brightens my morning whenever there's a new show and I just love. you ladies. So this got me thinking, what are some things that you do in your life that you can only do at certain times of day? Whether it's going for a run, whether it's having fun conversations

with your kids, whether it's whatever it is. I don't know. I just thought it was so funny that it felt so wrong to listen to you guys in the evening as I was cooking dinner because the habit has become to listen in the morning on my way to work. Thank you so much for all you guys do love you so much. Looking forward to many, many years of more office ladies. Bye. I love this question. It's deeply nuanced. I don't know that I've ever heard anybody ask a question like this before. It's very thoughtful. I love how in touch Missy is with her habits and routines and her attachment to them. I can relate to that. Okay, well, I think we should all tell Missy, what are our things that we have to do in a certain order? What's an example of one for you?

you, Kendra? I recently tried to meal plan on a Friday instead of on Sunday afternoon. And it was what Missy said, where it was like, this is so uncomfortable. Like, my pants are too tight. Like, it just was like, this is, it didn't feel right. And so I just decided this is got to be this, this is a Sunday afternoon task. This is not a Friday task. It does not belong on a Friday. Nobody needs a meal plan on a Friday. But I also am so connected to my head. habits and routines. I'm sometimes too connected to them. And when I was thinking about this question, it made me think of things that I have done at different times on purpose just to like shake it up, you know? Yeah. So like working out at night instead of in the morning, like the first time I went to

the gym at 8.30 p.m. It was like, this is a whole other world. Look at all these people here. It's a whole different crowd. It was so bizarre. It was so bizarre. Or like baking at night. Like I think kitchen things, like after kids have gone to bed, that was sort of a different shift. So I think it's a really great question because it illuminates both sides. You know, like some things, it's just keep the things where they are. They're so happy where they are. And then other things, you go, actually, this is sort of a nice shake up. We're going to shake it up a little bit. What about you guys? I'm like you, Kendra. I sometimes, I do intentionally shake something up because I don't want to become an inflexible person. Sure. I like the safety of my routines. I like the safety of my order,

but I don't want to become a person that's like completely thrown off by change. Lady, I must be so healthy for you. It is something I love about our friendship, Angela, because you are very flexible and spontaneous. You're like, I'll do stuff whenever I feel like it. When I have the window of opportunity, it's kind of true. But what's the thing you do, though, on a weekly basis, Jenna? Like, what's one of your rituals that you do at the same time? Laundry on Fridays.

I need to start the laundry process on Friday because I need it done by Monday. And if I start the laundry process, even Saturday morning, we're not going to make it. It's not, it's like it's not enough time. Because I want everything in the drawers folded, put away by Sunday night so that everybody wakes up Monday morning with all the laundry. It's all clean. We're not looking for socks in the dryer as we're on our way out the door for school. I mean, I get that.

And if I start it too early, then stuff is dirty again by Monday. So, like, my laundry is, like, very sacred. Can I ask you a question about your laundry routine? How long do you think that you tried it out and found that boundary before you landed on? Oh, I need to start on Friday night so that everything is done on Sunday evening? I mean, my kids are a lot. 11 and 14, and I feel like I just figured this out last year. I'm really glad that's your answer because I think too many people, they create something from

scratch, and they're like, this is going to work forever. And then they don't adjust it and find the thing. They don't find the limits that actually help them. And it sometimes takes actual years to learn it starts on Friday night and it ends on Sunday night. Like, that's when laundry happens. And so I actually kind of, I kind of love that it took 11 to 14 years to figure it out. But also the needs of your household changes. I mean, I have like adult humans now that I live with. I mean, they're still in high school, but they're like 17, you know, and they drive cars and craziness. And so I feel like some of our routines that we had when they were younger are totally different now because they drive themselves. Like my mornings are so different because

I don't do school drop-off anymore. Like, that's going. They drive, tell me stories. I know. The future. I mean, Josh and I have a, like, a new morning together time that we haven't had. And I actually love it. We used to catch up at dinner time.

That's when we would come in and we'd start making dinner and that's when we would chat about the day. But now we kind of have this morning chat because we're not going, doing two different drop-offs and go on different direct. depending on, oh, we have a kid at middle school, we have a kid at high school, like, those are two different spots. Now the older kids drive everybody. It's amazing. So that's been really fun. But yeah, I'm not as structured as Jenna.

I don't have certain days I do things. I just do them when I see the need, which can make a structured person go a little berserk. My husband's very structured. So it's very funny to me because two of the people that are the biggest parts of my life, which is my best friend Jenna and my husband, are very similar in how they're. They're like, this is the day that I make tacos, and this is the day that I make, whatever it is. And I'm like, hey, guess what? Newsflash, we don't have to have tacos tonight.

What? But I bought all the ingredients, you know? I'm like, let's go out. He's like, no. So that's kind of funny to me. But I do have one thing I consistently do, which is when I drive to tennis, which I play three times a week, I play Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I call my mom on the drive to tennis. And that's our time.

So every morning, around 8.30 in the morning, I'm calling my mom. And I forget sometimes, and I call her Tuesday, and that's her lady's Bible study. So then she puts me on speakerphone and I end up talking to everyone at ladies' bubble study. But every morning on my drive to wherever I'm going, I call my mom. And one time I just randomly called her in the afternoon. And she was like, what's happening? What's going on? And I'm like, oh, mom, I just thought I would call you in the afternoon today instead.

She was like, oh my gosh. But so she's very used to this routine as well that I call her on my drive in the morning. And I really treasure those chats. Oh, lady, I love that. Yeah. And she has the cutest thing she says, by the way. So on a Thursday, I call her as I drive in. Normally we podcast in person.

You know, we have a studio. And on Thursdays, I'll call her on the drive. And she'll be like, you're going to podcast like I am. Tell you and I said hi. And then on tennis days, every single time we speak on a tennis drive, she ends with, all right, Ange, go stick it in their ear. Everybody needs an Angela's mom. Oh, no.

Angela, I'm thinking about how you said that both Josh and I are kind of similar. The two people you're closest to in your life are both these structured people. Well, you know, you and Lee are very similar. So clearly there's something about us where we're like, I need to attract this other thing into my life in two big ways. Through my best friend and my husband, I need a flexible, spontaneous laid-back person to balance my hyperstructure personality. And you did the same with me and Josh. You're like, I need two people who have a lot of order. I mean, absolutely.

Kendra, what about you? Do you have that balance in your marriage? Oh my gosh. My husband's name is Kaz. I call us glitter and glue. He's the glitter. He's the glitter in every way. He is so fun. His birthday was this week. And we started this thing when we have like family birthday dinner where we do an acrostick of the person's name of like ways we love them or things about them. And it did morph into like just synonyms for him being old. But before I got to that, because my children are brutal. He turned into a roast. It did. It turned into a roast. My children are big roasters. But before that, like, when we did father, because my kids call him father. We're father, mother, brother, and sister. Like, it's chaotic, but it's great. It's very formal. So we started with father because like a joke was like, father.

And F was immediately fun. Everyone was like, oh, dad is fun. He's not funny. He thinks he's funny. He's a dad joke guy. But he is the one who is like, yeah, let's roll. Like, he's the spontaneous guy. He's the adventure guy.

He just makes everything sparkle. And I am like, and this is how we're going to get there. Here's my list to help. You know, like we really do balance each other that well. But yeah, he's not an organized guy. He's not an orally guy. He's a great help and a great partner. But we're good partners because we're so different.

Yeah. I mean, I really related to everything you said. Glitter and glue is a nicer way to say. I'm usually like, I'm the hot mess and he's got his shit together. But okay, let's move on to our next chit-chat, Question coming from Kim W. in Fort Worth, Texas. All our questions are coming from Texas today. Thanks, Texas. To Texas gals. Let's hear what she has to say. Hello, office ladies. My name is Kim Westbrook, and I live in Fort Worth, Texas. And I was just wondering, who is a fictional character that you would hate to sit next to on a long flight? Can't wait to hear your guys' response. Have a good day. I mean, I knew mine immediately.

You did? Who is? Well, I don't know. Maybe it's because my kids loved Looney Tunes and we watched so many hours of Looney Tunes. But you guys, I would not want to sit next to Daffy Duck for any amount of time. He would just drive me crazy. And, oh, my God, he gets so annoyed so easily. I don't know. I don't want to sit next to Daffy Duck. That's a solid answer. Top that. Top Daffy Duck. So here's what I thought. I know there's a type of person that I don't enjoy sitting next to on an airplane. It is an arrogant man who doesn't know when to be quiet. Oh, yeah. So my first thought was Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter, the one who just like wants everybody to, you know, he's like sign my books and he's always taking pictures and he's always talking about himself and he's lying about his experiences and he drives me and says. And then the other version of that, like a backup would be Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. Like that energy. A guest on. Yeah, that energy of like, hey, you're lucky to sit next to me. Yeah.

I'm like, Gaston would be really annoying. No. I'm not interested in this at all. This was the first thing that sprung to mind for me, which is I don't want to sit next to John Wick. What? Oh, because the assassins might come for you. That's a solid answer. might come. The whole plane is full of assassins now. Like, as soon as John Wick gets on the airplane

and sits next to me, I'm like, well, I'm dead. Everyone's test. I mean, this is, I don't know what's happening to this plane. It's going down. Like, that is like a sure sign that this flight is not going to go well. There might be a rave before it goes down. You might have a quick moment of like a the club. Dish, dish, dish. But then it will be mayhem. Yeah. But that was my first thought. I was like, Because actually, the first thing I thought was, oh, it's kind of cool if John Wick sat next to me. That'd be neat. I'd get like, and I'm like, no, actually, that's bad news. Yeah.

If an action hero is getting on the plane with you, like, this is not the plane to be on. No. You want to get off that plane immediately. All right. So I'm picturing us in a row with Gaston, Daffy Duck. Oh, my gosh. That's the worst flight. I mean, Kendra, Jenna will tell you this.

I love to meet people. And so I have met so many people on the plane and talked their ear off. I mean, I'm not annoying. If they are also a talker, if they're not a talker, I mind my business. You know, I'd do my thing. But like one gal I met on the plane, we exchanged email information, and that was 10 years ago and we're still friends. I have lunch with her every once in a while. So I do like to chat.

If the other person wants to chat, I'm not a random chatter. You're not. I will confirm that Angela is like the best person to sit next to on a plane because if you need to talk to someone, she's going to be there for you. She's open and welcoming and she will chat with you. If you don't, she'll read her book. She'll do work on her computer. Or she'll journal. She might journal about you though. I might because I love to journal when I travel. I love to people watch and then write about them in my journal. They're my favorite messages. Do you have like an angle? Like I'm a little.

I'm always fascinated by people who write with pen and paper, like in a journal, on a plane or in a book, like when someone is next to them. And I think you have to really work the angle of the journal a lot so that the person next to you doesn't see your words. I feel like you're probably a pro at the journal angle. I'm a pro, and now I do it on my laptop, so I have to laptop angle. Listen, it's not just the person sitting next to you. It's the people behind you with the gap. They can see your screen. So I get my angle.

And then Jenna also knows I'm amazing at code names. So like, get ready for this, Kendra. Like a code name for you might be Lindra. No one's guessing that. Uh-huh. Jenna might be Pina. Yeah, I'm not the spy you want to hire. It's true.

Ladies, this was a lot of fun. I enjoyed this. I hope that Missy enjoyed listening to this in the morning. That's right. On the ride to work. And before we go, though, we just want to ask you, Kendra, what are you watching right now and what are you reading right now? Because you have amazing taste in books, and I always like to hear what you're watching. Oh, that's fun.

Well, I'll tell you what I'm rewatching. I watched for the first time a couple weeks ago, and I think I've watched it three times since. And I do not have a lot of time to just like dilly-daily and watch movies. But it's Wake Up Dead Man. It's the new Knives Out movie. I love that thing. Oh. I don't know this movie.

I'm a big Knives Out person. The first Knives Out, I adored. It's like Top Five Movies for me. I love a rewatchable good time. That's my go-to movie. And so Wake Up Dead Man just came out. It's Josh Brolin and Jeremy Renner and Glenn Close and Carrie Washington. It's a really fantastic cast, and I loved it so much.

Also, our family, we are a food competition show household. Oh, yeah. So currently we are watching 24 and 24 where you have to cook for 24 hours. We watch Top Chef. We watch Tournament of Champions. Like we are all in on food competition shows. It's like one of the only categories of things that all five of us really love. So that's a fun thing.

I also from reading, I read a lot and I am reading this book called, I haven't finished you yet. So I don't know if the ending is going to, they're going to stick the landing. But so far it's great. It's called Mrs. Christie at the Mystery. Guild Library by Amanda Chapman. And it is a story about a woman who inherited basically like a library that also houses an exact replica of Agatha Christie's library. And they have mystery books in there and people come in and whatever. Well, one day this woman who's like, she's down on her luck and I'm not quite sure why. We haven't figured that out yet. But she walks into the library and

Agatha Christie is there. And she's like, is this really Agatha Christie or is this a crazy lady who wants to pretend she's Agatha Christie, and then someone gets murdered. And so then, like, she and pretend Agatha Christie are solving this case with this little, like, snappy redhead Irish kid that they sort of adopt to. It's like, it has been such a fun ride. It's the first book in a long time where I have been really excited just, like, keep picking it up. You know, like, oh, I want to stop what I'm doing because I want to go read some more of this book. Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library. So fun. Can I tell you my new favorite way to find out. book recommendations. Tell me. Because that's the thing. It's, you know, where do you get the

recommendation for the next thing to read? So I've started going to, and then I even hosted one. It's a book exchange party. So you invite a bunch of people over who love to read, and everybody brings a book, and then you go around, and you know, you have some charcutory or some little snacks or whatever. You chit-chat. Then everyone goes around, and they pitch their book. You get one to two minutes to pitch why you love this book. Then everybody draws a number and you do a white elephant exchange. And then everybody goes home with a new book. But then you also go home with the list of the books that everybody brought.

And it's amazing. It's my new favorite way to spend time with smart ladies. I have a group like that. We don't do the white elephant drawing numbers thing. We just sort of like politely circle the table with the books that everybody brought. And you're like, do you want to read this one first? Is it okay? have I read this one first. But it is, that is, I agree with you. That is one of the secret,

like perfectly wonderful ways to find out books because then you also get to take them home with you. And I think a lot of us, like I love, I have a little free library outside my house. I love to share books. Like I buy a lot of books knowing that I'm going to spread them around and I don't need them back. Like certain ones I keep, I don't lend ones that I want to keep because I won't get the back. But I want to share them. And I think there are a lot of people that way. So you bring your book or two that's just your favorite meet like once a quarter. That's when my group meets once a quarter. And it's just the most fun. It's the most fun. I totally agree. I like it because I get to spend time with people who also love to read, which is really become a new passion of mine. I've always loved reading. But in the last probably year or two, I've become a voracious reader. And I love talking about books now with people. But I don't have the bandwidth for a book. book club. Yeah.

Like, or the assignment of having to read a specific book in this month, because I want to read what I want to read. Same. So this other way of like sharing books with people, I love it because we're all just reading what we want. Yeah. My goal is to someday be invited to a book club. It hasn't happened yet.

You were invited to my book exchange party? That's true. This is true. But I want to be in a book club because there's always like really delicious, I feel like book club drama and my tennis ladies I play with. part of them are part of a book club, but then a few of us aren't. And there was a time where they would be talking about their books at tennis. I am not miffed that I have not been asked to be in this book club. It has not bumped me. I don't think about it. They talk about their books. I'm like,

oh, that's fun for them. But this other gal, it really bumps her. And she does a lot of, like, when they talk about their book. I just want to be part of that. The drama. You're in it for the gossip. the stories. You're in it for the real life story. Yes. Not a book story. No, but I'll read the book. I'll read the book. But I'm also in it for the dynamics of the people that gather to discuss the book. Incredible. That's very on brand for you, Angela. You're there for the overall human experience. Yeah. Exactly. I do want to sort of, you know, have a call back and wrap us up here. I would dare to say that if I got on a plane and Agatha Christie was there, I'd get off. That's a solid choice.

That's another person's going down. It's a very John Wick situation as well. I would like to see the plane with John Wick and Agatha Christie. How does that? You know, it's like two magnets. Do they repel or do they attract? Which crime gets solved and which one gets accomplished. It's pretty good.

Well, listen, everybody, thanks for joining us today on Friday Chit Chat. Thanks for writing in your suggestions. And Kendra, thank you so much for being a. part of this. We just love hanging out with you. Oh, this is so much fun. Thanks for inviting me. Everyone, check out Kendra's podcast, The Lazy Genius. We love it. We know you'll love it too. All right. See you next time. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Matt Beagle and our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah

Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was Mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Ruppertry by Creed Bratton.