Police at the Hotel, Trouble in the Skies & AI Everywhere

Shawna and LaLa: Life Beyond The Mic

Shawna recounts the chaotic details of her recent East Coast road trip, including unexpected police encounters and health struggles. The con

Key takeaways

• Shawna experienced a significant police presence at a Best Western hotel while officers searched for an EDP.
• LaLa expresses a lack of trust in businesses that use AI-generated imagery or flyers due to a loss of authenticity.

Main topics

• East Coast road trip mishaps
• Flight safety and hijacking concerns

Notable quotes

I just cannot win. I cannot win.

Conclusion

The episode highlights the tension between modern technological conven

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) What's up? You're listening to Shauna and Lala. Check us out at shaunanlala.com on all social media platforms at shaunanlala. You could follow me on Instagram at therealshaunamay. And Speaker 2 (0:14) check me out at bella underscore lala one two five. Speaker 3 (0:17) I am finally back from vacation and obviously I came back sick. What else is new? Speaker 3 (0:29) I just, I cannot believe that I got sick on the last day. Speaker 2 (0:32) At least it was the last day and not the whole trip because that would have really sucked, you know? Speaker 3 (0:36) Yeah. My allergies, let's just say South Carolina is not for me. Speaker 2 (0:42) My allergies Speaker 3 (0:43) were Speaker 2 (0:44) so Speaker 3 (0:44) bad. Speaker 2 (0:45) Really? Yeah. It must be some kind of plant. You know, I know certain parts of Florida you are allergic to too. Yeah, West Palm Beach, my favorite part. Oh my God, that sucks. Speaker 3 (0:58) Yeah. But I swear, like, I don't know if it was an allergic reaction because when I came home, I was sick. Although this time I went to South Carolina, to Myrtle Beach, and I was just so stuffy. And then I went to my cousins in North Carolina. And that day, that next morning, I woke up sick as a dog. Speaker 2 (1:23) Yeah, it's going around. I'm still fighting off a cold, and I had similar to you, the congestion. My kids had it. It was like school starts, and all the germs are just everywhere. So it's everywhere. You're bound to catch it, and at least you're on the mend and getting better. Yeah, Speaker 3 (1:42) thank God. Speaker 2 (1:43) So how was the drive? I know you were having severe anxiety about that trip before you left. Speaker 3 (1:50) The drive the first day was not bad at all. We drove about nine hours. We stopped to see my mom's friend in Pennsylvania on the border of Pennsylvania and Maryland. So to kind of like break it up a little bit, which was nice. It was nice to see her and her new house. The Dramamine definitely worked. Oh, Speaker 2 (2:13) good. Speaker 3 (2:14) So that was a plus. Thank God. Yes. And my IBS was fine. You know, I only had one episode during the whole trip. Speaker 2 (2:27) That's good. So, Speaker 3 (2:28) yeah, I think I just worked myself up beforehand. Speaker 2 (2:34) Oh, yeah, that's what I was telling you. I said, you're making yourself worse. And I get it. I've been there. It's hard. Our brain's so powerful and it takes over, you know, and it's very hard to fight your brain when your brain's telling you, nope, nope, nope, we're not doing that. It's going to be bad. It's going to this. It's going to that. It's really hard to fight that. So that's, but now you can tell yourself, hey brain, you were wrong. I was fine. And you got to remember that for the next time. And that's how you fight anxiety is finding that comfort of, no, I was fine last time. I'm going to be fine this time and telling yourself that every single time, you know? Yeah. Speaker 3 (3:08) It definitely helped. You know, we, I played music pretty much the whole way down. Um, and just tried not to think about it. Yeah. It was hard because, you know, you're trapped in a car for. however long. But the first day really wasn't bad. After we left my mom's friend's house, we drove through Washington, D.C. and we got a hotel in Virginia. And the first hotel that we went to was a Holiday Inn Express. I figured there's a dime a dozen hotels around here. There's got to be rooms, you know. So we just pulled in and we couldn't find a parking spot. And we finally found a parking spot and there was homeless. people oh god standing outside so my mom said before we walk in there with all of our stuff make sure they have a room so i said okay so i call and i'm like hi i'm like you know do you have a room blah blah blah and the lady's like we're sold out i'm like oh my gosh okay i said do you know of any other hotels around here she's like they're all sold out she's like i don't know what's going on in this area but they're all sold out oh my god So I'm like, Speaker 2 (4:18) okay. So I Speaker 3 (4:19) just Googled a hotel and found one. They had an opening. They had a room available. And it was the Best Western. So I figured, like, you know, Best Western, they have a good reputation. They used to Speaker 2 (4:34) be really nice, yeah. Speaker 3 (4:35) They've been around for hundreds of years. So we go there, and the check-in guy was, like, super, super nice. The hotel was nice. And we're sitting there checking in and the police show up. Oh, geez. And they say, we're looking for a female. And my mom goes, there she is. She's right here. Oh, God. And they just look at me. Yeah. And the guy says that he obviously knew who he was looking for. Yeah. He was looking for an EDP. Speaker 2 (5:12) Mm-hmm. Speaker 3 (5:15) They said, the guy's like, don't worry, there's no warrant. He said, but we need to speak to whoever this person was. So all of a sudden, that was two cops. All of a sudden, within five minutes, six cops show up. Oh, jeez. And they're all outside the perimeter of the hotel looking for this person. And all of a sudden, the person comes walking down the sidewalk with like a bunch of people. And they're like, there she is. She's coming down the sidewalk. And they're on their radios. And it was just insane to see it actually happening. Speaker 2 (5:51) I Speaker 3 (5:52) felt like I was on a Cops episode. Or just watching a Cops episode. It was crazy. So we get up to the hotel. And the room is just pitch black. There's one light that works. The lamps don't work. Oh, God. We couldn't figure out how to turn the TV on. I finally figured it out. Then I tried to plug my phone into charge. It doesn't work. Speaker 2 (6:17) Oh, my God. And my Speaker 3 (6:20) mom is like flipping out at this point because we're exhausted. Yeah. And she's like, what do you mean the lamps don't work? I said, do we really need the lamps? Like we don't need the lamps. We have a light. We have the charger to work. Yeah, we just need the chargers to work. So we finally get the chargers to work on a different outlet. And my mom's like, how much was this room? How much was this room? And I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, I just want to go to bed. Speaker 2 (6:44) I know. So Speaker 3 (6:45) I go to bed. I wake up. And my hand feels weird. I'm like, what the heck? And it's hot. Well, I got bit by something. In the middle of the night. Had an allergic reaction. Didn't know. And the whole rest of the day, my arm was just like three times the size. I'm walking and holding on to like a cup of ice. And throughout the hotel, everyone is like looking at me. And I'm like, I just cannot win. I cannot. win and uh you know we left we had breakfast and uh on our way and you know there was so much construction i thought like our area had a lot of construction but man it is throughout the east coast yeah Speaker 2 (7:32) it's it's never ending and Speaker 3 (7:34) never no so but long story short the trip was good it was good to see my family it was good to see my aunts um and my cousins um I will never take the road trip ever again. And I am flying from now on. Speaker 2 (7:52) I know. That's what I Speaker 3 (7:53) said to my husband. He's like, oh, geez. Speaker 2 (7:55) It's a lot. It's really a lot. And when you have kids, too. Imagine how many times you got to stop for kids. Everyone's on a different peace schedule. Everyone's hungry and they're fighting and they're bored. I'm like, let's just go on the plane. Yeah. Speaker 3 (8:09) So we stopped pretty much every two hours except the last day. We stopped a lot because I was just I was miserable. We had to find a CVS. I thought I bought like all my medication that I needed. Yeah, I didn't. I missed my allergy medicine and my nose spray. Oh, geez. And my mom didn't have any cough drops, which is like rare for her. So we had to find a CVS. And that took up about, you know, an extra half hour. Speaker 2 (8:39) Yeah, well, at least you're on the road, right? And I always say, at least you're in the country. You can stop at regular stores and get what you need. That's the nice part. Speaker 3 (8:47) Yeah, that was really nice. Traveling out of the Speaker 2 (8:49) country is hard when you forget things. You're like, well, I'm shit out of luck. Speaker 3 (8:53) Yeah. But it was really nice. I actually met a really nice person. We went shopping because when we came back from Florida, I figured I would spend at least two days on the beach in Myrtle Beach and just relax. Well, that wasn't happening because the storm, Speaker 2 (9:10) it Speaker 3 (9:11) hit Myrtle Beach first. Speaker 2 (9:13) Yeah. Speaker 3 (9:14) And it just poured. And so we went shopping and I met this really nice lady. People down there are so friendly. And it's just slow, like slow paced. And this lady, she just started talking to me about this cutting board that was on sale. It was in the shape of a Christmas tree. They had Christmas stuff out already. And she's like. She goes, oh, it's from India. She said, I'll take it. And she looks at me and she goes, I don't buy things from China. So I started laughing. And she said, I make it a game for myself. She's like, to make it fun. That I don't buy anything from China. So I was like, oh, okay. She's like, you know, you really need to get this cutting board. It's $16.99. Oh, my God. So I said, I was like, yeah, my mom would kill me if I have another cutting board or anything for like holiday decor. Yes. And so she was just really funny. And she's like, she goes, where are you from? I said, New York. She's like, are you coming back before Christmas? I said, I don't know. I might. She said, can you bring me back a shovel? What? And I was like. What? What? I said, can't you order it on Amazon? And she goes, no, I don't order off of Amazon. Jeff Bezos is disgusting. She goes, I refuse to order off of Amazon. Go to Walmart. I said, oh, well, there's always like Home Depot. Lowe's, Walmart, Sam's Club. Speaker 2 (10:54) Yeah. Speaker 3 (10:55) They have a Costco down there. And she goes, yeah, but she's like, we're in South Carolina. They don't sell shovels. She Speaker 2 (11:03) wants a snow shovel? Speaker 3 (11:04) Yes. Speaker 2 (11:04) Why? Because it snowed last year. Oh, yeah, it does snow here and there. Well, she can order through Walmart and it'll come delivered, you know, or Home Depot. Well, that's Speaker 3 (11:14) what Speaker 2 (11:14) I was Speaker 3 (11:14) thinking. I'm like, lady, I'm not getting on a plane or a shovel. I don't even know you. Speaker 3 (11:19) Yeah, it was just, it was really funny. But the stores there are so clean. I know. So nice. And very well stocked. Speaker 2 (11:30) I love, when we go to Florida, we love going to, well, Sarasota, their stores are