Amy Lu's View

Our photo holiday card this year may make us look like barflies. (Not that we’re opposed to looking like barflies, but it’s not an accurate description of us–because of Covid and full schedules, we currently do most of our drinking at home). 

So I’m going to provide some context for the card that may make us seem less like barflies. However, it may make us seem like stalkers. 

Our card features photos of us hanging out at Teddy’s, a dive-y sports bar in the Roosevelt neighborhood of Seattle, that we visited while on vacation. 

We’re not sports fans, and Teddy’s wasn’t that close to the downtown hotel we were staying at, but visiting Teddy’s was basically a pilgrimage for us. We wanted to visit Teddy’s because it’s one of the favorite hangouts of Andrew, a co-host of our very favorite podcast, “Too Beautiful To Live (TBTL)”. I’ve written several blog posts about TBTL, and we talk about it quite a bit, so you might recognize this. 

To be clear, we did not go to Seattle just to stalk, I mean see, Andrew, or any of his favorite hangouts. We went to Seattle because that’s where we embarked on our small “uncruise” of the Salish Sea. But, since we were going to be in Seattle…why not make a pilgrimage to the place we’ve so frequently heard Andrew talk about on the show?

Of course we really wanted to meet up with Andrew…so we did reach out to him, via email, in a completely socially acceptable and not creepy or weird way. We casually let him know when we would be in Seattle and threw out how awesome it would be if we happened to run into him so we could buy him a drink. And Andrew was very gracious about our invitation, but had other plans. 

I won’t lie, we were disappointed that it didn’t work out for us to hang out with our imaginary friend Andrew. (TBTL fans often refer to the show’s co-hosts as our imaginary friends because we feel like we know them, but realize we aren’t really friends. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to say in a conversation “Oh, my friend Andrew blah blah blah”).

Even without an Andrew sighting, it was cool to visit Teddy’s, a fun bar in its own right. Teddy’s felt like it would be right at home in NE Minneapolis with the other classic divey bars. It was also good to have inspiration to explore a Seattle neighborhood that was outside of downtown and a place we probably wouldn’t have gone as tourists. 

Like any good pilgrimage, having a real-world based experience makes us feel more connected to this thing we love that is mostly intangible. (Visiting Teddy’s and the Roosevelt neighborhood was similar in many ways to the Beatles Tour I took of Liverpool way back in the day). Now when we hear Andrew talk on TBTL about visiting Teddy’s or the Whole Foods by his apartment, we can really picture it. (Did I mention that we also walked past Andrew’s apartment? It was totally non-stalky…it’s not like we took selfies on his street or anything) (Editor’s Note: Amy only didn’t take a selfe outside his apartment because Chad pointedly noted that that would, in fact, be quite stalky). We also got to see the Broadcast Coffee, featured on TBTL, that we get our beloved coffee from through a subscription (it was closed by the time we got there so didn’t actually go in). 

Most importantly, it was really awesome for Chad and me to have this goofy shared mission. This was totally a Chamy endeavor. The fact that most people, even our most sympathetic friends, wouldn’t really get it made it all the more special. 

But there are folks who might get the Teddy’s Pilgrimage–other TBTL fans. One of the reasons we love TBTL is that it has such a devoted fanbase, and we love feeling part of that community. Which brings me to another piece of our card that needs some explaining: We signed it “Minnesotens” because TBTL fans are known as “Tens” — as in there are tens of listeners of the podcast. Okay, I’ll stop explaining now, just trust me that it’s endearing. 

The very reason I made this photo card in the first place was not just to confuse recipients and/or bore folks with this lengthy explanation, but to send the card to other Tens who participate in a holiday card exchange. Now is that a cool community based on a podcast or what? So yes, I am also admitting that this was not our “primary” card so if you got this card and you are not a Ten you could feel special and/or annoyed. 

We signed the card, “Let the fun begin,” not just because we like fun (ahem?) but that is one of the ubiquitous sayings/slogans from TBTL (okay, it’s actually from an “audio drop” of Tom Shane played frequently on TBTL https://audio.marsupialgurgle.com/audio/letthefunbegin.m4a and I’ll spare you a trip down the rabbit hole of how key audio drops are to the TBTLverse). 

Whether you find our TBTL-themed holiday card weird, nonsensical, boring, or slightly scary, I hope it inspires you to appreciate all the hobbies, interests, communities, etc. that bring you comfort, joy, and connection. 

Now we’ll start planning our next vacation to Portland to stalk Luke, TBTL’s other co-host. I mean, make a totally normal and appropriate visit of appreciation to the city where Luke lives. (Luke is also the host of “Live Wire,” so at the very least we can buy tickets to a live show of that).