Faculty Off The Clock - Featuring Alicia Caudill (Special Staff Edition)

We change things up this month with a special staff addition! In this episode of Faculty Off the Clock, we sit down with Dr. Alicia Caudill to explore the passions, pursuits, and pastimes that shape her life beyond Student Affairs. From unexpected hobbies to meaningful side projects, discover a different side of the staff member you thought you knew. 

Follow us: @facultyofftheclock on Instagram and on Facebook

🎙️ Produced by Michael Overholt

📍 Recorded in Podcast Studio #1, Addlestone Library

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:07

We welcome you to this special staff episode of Faculty Off the Clock, a podcast series hosted by the College of Charleston's Office of the Provost that highlights the personal and lighter sides of our campus as professors. And in today's episode, one of our esteemed staff members. I'm Mark Del Mastro.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

And I'm Chris Corey, Associate Provost, and your host of Faculty Off the Clock. For this special staff episode, we welcome Dr. Alicia Cadill, the College of Charleston's Executive Vice President for Student Affairs.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Just a young gun with the quick fuse. I was uptight, wanna let loose, I was dreaming of bigger things, wanna leave my own life behind. Not a yes, sir, not a follow-up. Take a number.

SPEAKER_04 1:02

Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

Well, Dr. Cadill, before we get into your time off the clock, we are interested in finding out how you ended up at the C of C.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

That's a good question. Where do where would you like me to start?

SPEAKER_04 1:19

Maybe where you where your most previous uh position was and how you ended up the college of Charleston.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

So there is a little longer story to this, but um when we get back to I guess where I grew up and all those things, there'll be a there'll be a connection. So but I actually did my master's degree at the University of South Carolina a long time ago. And that's when I first really saw the College of Charleston. So I had been following it through a lot of my career. And before I came to the college, which has been about 10 years ago now, I was at the University of West Georgia, um, and then before that at the University of North Georgia. So I spent a lot of time in the Atlanta area, but I always kept my mind on Charleston, and I actually knew my predecessor here, and when he left, I waited for two years for the position to post. Um, and then was really lucky to uh to get to come here about 10 years ago. So but I've been watching it for a long time as kind of a as a this is my dream job. So Well, we're glad you're here. I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_06 2:20

So we in this entire podcast, we like to focus with our guests on their, of course, interest, diversions, off-the-clock activities. So um but before we get in there, if you could tell us a little bit about your life and where you're originally from, where you were born and raised.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

So uh it's gonna be very cliche, but I was born and raised in Ohio, uh in Marion, Ohio, which is the home of President Harding. And quite interesting when they taught us growing up, they didn't really teach us much much about his presidency. Uh so I learned about that a little bit later. But so that's right in the center of Ohio, uh farm industry area. And uh the cliche part is I was one of those families from Ohio that vacationed in Myrtle Beach. And so I see that's the bumper stickers. Yes, exactly. Uh, but I I grew up in a smaller community, uh kind of really in the center of the state.

SPEAKER_06 3:18

Any farmhand experience?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Uh I we lived on a property that had some farming, so yes, a little bit of um combine riding, uh soybeans, uh corn. We did car crop rotation, learned all this.

SPEAKER_06 3:33

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Not significant, but uh but definitely around it.

SPEAKER_06 3:37

Okay. Any farm animals?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Uh we did not have farm animals, but neighbors did, yes. Any rabbits by any chance?

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Yes, we had rabbits. You had rabbits. Oh, you had rabbits, what kind? So uh so this is a special okay special animal to Mark Del Mastro.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

So my um my grandfather was one of those grandfathers that would just show up like at holidays and things with pets that my parents didn't know were coming. So my first rabbits came with him. Um unfortunately, no, the female did not have a long, happy rabbit life. But the male did for a while. And uh and and he was um he was not a very his name was Jack the Rabbit, not real creative, but he was not a real friendly rabbit. Um and and I don't actually even know kind of what Jack's path was later in life. I think he quote unquote went to see some live with some rabbit friends. But um, but I later I later had a mini lop rabbit that was inside named Asher, and Asher was litter box trained and would could hop around and hop into the, you know, um he was in a large, you know, kind of living crate cage thing, but he could be out for hours and would go to his litter box, and he was super sweet and uh very much a domesticated rabbit.

SPEAKER_04 4:58

Oh I feel like we should get an interest group together on campus of former rabbit owner. Rabbit owner, several previous guests also had some weird connection.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Um my grandfather also showed up one year with ducks unannounced too. So I had Henry the Mallard duck for a while too. Oh my.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

So when you were you were growing up, you had some pets. Did you uh have any interest activities you did in rural Ohio?

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yes. So um I was, you know, kind of all the things growing up, Girl Scouts, 4-H um activities, all dancing. None of those did I do very well, but I but I did a lot of those things, school activities, all that kind of stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:39

So the 4-H Club, I feel like I don't know anything about it, but everyone says I was tangentially familiar with it, but I never had any.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

So so a lot of people in 4-H, you know, it's kind of got that farm home component to it. A lot of people did animals, but I did things like trying to learn to sew, which I still don't really know how to do. Uh like more of those kinds of things. Not well again. But you know, you other kids and families and um and other people that had pets that you were part of their pet experience.

SPEAKER_06 6:12

And you still like animals now?

SPEAKER_01 6:13

I do love animals. Do you have any? I have one very large pampered cat named Sullivan.

SPEAKER_06 6:19

Oh how big is Sullivan's?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Sullivan's about 15 pounds.

SPEAKER_06 6:22

Oh, that is big, it's bigger than both of my dogs.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Sullivan and I get in trouble every time we go to the vet, but he's very food motivated. Okay. Um, yeah, he has uh I grew up with dogs, but uh, since I've kind of lifestyle category.

SPEAKER_06 6:36

A cat's so big, it's kind of like a dog.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

It's kind of like a dog. He's he's pretty friendly.

SPEAKER_06 6:41

So you mentioned Myrtle Beach before. Would you say growing up that was your favorite spake vacation spot, or did you have any others?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

So that was pro we didn't travel much for vacation until I was a little bit older. Um, but growing up in Ohio, younger, Cedar Point, I was big amusing.

SPEAKER_06 6:58

Oh, Cedar Point, yeah. My wife's from Ohio, so I'm familiar with Cedar Point.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yep. Um, my family did some trips to Gatlinburg.

SPEAKER_06 7:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

So, but Myrtle Myrtle Beach was kind of what I knew as I got older.

SPEAKER_06 7:13

Still have a fond spot for Myrtle Beach?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

You know, I I don't, I don't, um, maybe as much anymore, but when we went, we stayed in the garden city, you know, more southern side. And so I have some very fond spots, you know, fond places in my heart for that part of my beach, the southern part.

SPEAKER_05 7:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

Yeah. So uh you had activities. Uh did you have a memorable worst summer job?

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Uh so I this I was interested in thinking about this. I um I I didn't have a terrible summer jobs, but I did the summer before my freshman year in college, you know, it was important to my family that I work full-time. Sure. And so I went to work for a company that was a dispatch company for restaurant repair.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

And so in the morning, I worked four hours in the morning just filing invoices that had backed up, which is as awful as it sounds. Um bit mind. Mind numbing. I didn't know the alphabet really well. Um, and then in the afternoon, I worked in a space where we dispatch service to different restaurants. Um, dairy, dairy mart was a big thing in Ohio, and they did a lot of repair for that. So I got I could dispatch like service to those places, but that at that time you could smoke in the office. So the woman that I worked with in the office smoked in the in this office, you know. So so I so that was an interesting.

SPEAKER_06 8:36

You became quite accustomed to secondhand smoke.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Yeah, I I feel like kids today have no idea what we endured.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

But I so I had two crazy summer jobs. Um, one is I babysat a lot, like even all through grad school, and I started babysitting other people's little children when I was 12 years old. Wow. So I can't really believe that. But uh I did babysit people's children and people wanted to get out. And now they're grown adults, and yeah, I guess. Um and and I was telling some people this recently. When I came to the University of South Carolina, they they brought me in early, so they brought me in, I you know, classes started in August or whatever, but they hired me to come in and I moved and started in June for a summer assistantship. And I'm coming from a I went to a college in Ohio that was about 2,500 students. And South Carolina at the time was probably 20,000, 25,000 students, and they put me in charge of move in in all the residence halls. And I was way too naive into the fire. Yeah, to to not to you know, to think I shouldn't be doing this. And so somehow or another we moved to the city.

SPEAKER_06 10:00

Exactly capabilities.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

I don't know, or just nobody else would do it, and they're like, okay, this new grad student.

SPEAKER_06 10:05

And you're like, sure, I'll do it. You mentioned um your rabbits as a kid uh as pets. Were they your first pets?

SPEAKER_01 10:14

And if not, what what was your so we also had dogs, and my my first pet was um the smartest dog ever named Scooby. Scooby. Scooby was a rescue, as in Scooby-Doo. Was it a great dane?

SPEAKER_05 10:27

Wasn't Scooby-Doo a great dame?

SPEAKER_04 10:29

Was it just like Scooby Snacks? Him and Shaggy.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

So no, he was like a smaller kind of mutt dog. Uh he probably did like Scooby Snacks, but um, but we I I said you know, I lived on a property with some farmland and we had a barn in the back, and and Scooby could climb the ladder up to the loft, but he couldn't climb down. So we did a lot of rescuing of Scooby out of the loft. He would cry to get down, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_06 10:54

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

All right, so growing up, did you play board games, cards with your family? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Um, so our our kind of big games, a couple of them, I was thinking about maybe y'all remember the game Perfection, where you had to put all the little pieces and shapes in while there was a like it it descended, and then if you didn't get them in fast enough, it popped up.

SPEAKER_06 11:17

Yes, I remember that. That was a traumatizing game. I didn't like that at all.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

I know that in operation.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

Operation Yes. Another reason, Dr. Corey. Yeah, thank you. All I did was that.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

And I'm from Ohio, so euchre is like what Euchre. Yeah, so we play my family plays a lot of Euchre. And and then I also played this game, I think, you know, the game of life, but I think that was too expensive. So I think the more affordable version was this game called Careers, where you had to like um, you know, kind of guess like what kind of points you wanted to earn in life or happiness or whatever, and then play the game.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

So I played that a lot too, but I'm knowing your your leadership team meetings, do you ever bring that game out?

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Like I haven't, but that is a very good idea.

SPEAKER_04 12:02

Get the leadership team to get we should do that in the office.

SPEAKER_06 12:05

Now you know my thoughts about board games, it wouldn't be good for me. Well we played Yeah, okay. I'll just close my door and let you guys all play.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

I know I know y'all talked about um uh spelling bees a little earlier. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:19

We yeah, with there's some spelling bee experience uh with the co-hosts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:25

Could you spelling bee?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

So I had a similar experience where I couldn't spell initiative um on the first try.

SPEAKER_06 12:31

It's more complicated than my word, which was computer equipment.

SPEAKER_04 12:36

And in fact that we all can remember what the word is.

SPEAKER_06 12:40

Trauma.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Um initiative. Yes. What grade were you in? I think it was like sixth or seventh. Yeah, I should have been able to spell it. But how did you s what did you I think I spelled out I and I T and missed the you know second part of it? I don't know. So um, but in second grade, you could do self-paced, like you know, memorizing a test, and I completed the whole year of spelling, and I got a very big Hershey bar as my prize. So I remember that.

SPEAKER_06 13:07

I got no prize. Wow. Fourth fourth place doesn't get any prize in the 70s. Yeah, that was there were no trophies for all back then.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

That was just memorizing.

SPEAKER_06 13:15

They just gave you some cigarettes.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Here we go. Here's your room.

SPEAKER_06 13:20

Um you know, focusing on your childhood grammar school years, is there a fun fact that uh you might share with your listeners that you think might be amusing?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

I don't I don't know if it's fun, but my mom was a teacher for a while in the school where I went, and so I got to uh I got to grade papers like in third grade when she was a first grade teacher, she let me grade papers. Wow.

SPEAKER_06 13:44

Was that considered orthodox? I don't know, I have no idea. And I got to go to school.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

I got to go to school early in the morning and play on the playground with other teachers' kids, you know, and write on the chalkboard and all those kind of things.

SPEAKER_06 13:56

The per the perks of having a parent as a teacher. So, Alicia, we're gonna switch to your high school year. Same fun fact question.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah. Uh so in high school, I um I I mean, there's nothing really super fun. I like I was a good student, that was important to my family. Um and uh I mean cheerleading days.

SPEAKER_06 14:19

High school's four years. That means something fun and interesting that we wouldn't.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Okay, this is kind of cool. Okay. Um my first car was a 1983 Mustang with T tops that uh I love the T tops. That's very cool. My my uncle and my grandfather owned a car a lot, and my and so that was my first car. Um was it a manual? No.

SPEAKER_06 14:45

Do you have an eight-track player in there?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Uh a cassette.

SPEAKER_06 14:48

Oh, you were more advanced. Okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

So that was pretty fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:53

So with the T tops off, you play the music loud, going on.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

It was Ohio, so you could have the T tops off, you know, like five days a year. But yeah, well, there's that. Yeah, that's classic. Mustang. You miss that car? Yeah, I do actually. Yeah, I don't think I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_06 15:07

Do you have a sports car now?

SPEAKER_04 15:08

No, no. You should.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Maybe one day.

SPEAKER_04 15:13

Uh so where did you go to undergrad and you know, life as an undergraduate?

SPEAKER_01 15:18

I stayed in Ohio. I went to undergraduate school at a liberal arts college in the Columbus, Ohio area called Otterbine University. Okay. Um it was, you know, when I was on the college route, it was well before uh lots of internet access and all that. Sure. Oh yeah. I know that. But um, so uh what I one of the things I remember about being recruited there is um the big thing in Westerville, it's this really cute little part of Columbus, and there is a donut shop that's still there called Schneider's. And the big cultural thing for Otterbine students is they would open at one in the morning with their homemade donuts. And so donut runs were a big thing. And this kind of donuts, just your normal glaze. Normal glaze donuts, like hot out of the, you know, better than Krispy Kreme. Better than Krispy Kreme.

SPEAKER_03 16:05

Pre-Krispy Kreme, right? Pre-Krispy Kreme. Mm-hmm. And so is it still there?

SPEAKER_01 16:09

It is still there. Um, and so like especially on the first night it snowed, there'd be, you know, a hundred students in line at one in the morning to get hot donuts. Yeah. So that was but they recruited you by sending you like a VHS tape, and the donut run was like central of the VHS tape, and you watch it and then you're supposed to return it to the the campus. No one will even know what that means. Um, but no, I had a great college experience. I was uh an involved student, uh, actually found out that you could work on college campuses for a profession there from mentors of mine um who uh who are still really present and active in my life. And uh and so I was student activity involvement, um, newspaper.

SPEAKER_04 16:56

Um did you so you did work in student affairs and engagement already as an undergrad?

SPEAKER_01 17:02

I did. I I worked some for a while in the student activities office, and then I did, you know, lots of student leadership roles, orientation. Um this is where I, you know, we had a great orientation program, community service, all that. So it was um really, really great place for me.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

Wow. Nice. Yeah. So then you moved to USC?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

I did. Yeah, right out of ground, right out of undergrad. So we already have your fun fact about running. Right into moving. Running moving. Yeah, the other, I think, crazy thing for people that know Columbia, and I just didn't know. Um, I lived in Five Points in like 2002 Green Street, which the apartment building is still there and looks exactly like it did all those years ago.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

So it was quiet and calm.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Quiet and calm it wasn't, yeah. No, as a grad student. But uh and another, I think, fun thing about my grad school experience. So I did my master's in um, it's higher ed in student affairs, is what it's called now, through the College of Ed. But I met six of my dearest, closest friends who are still my friends, and we met at recruitment weekend in March. Um, the woman who ended up being my roommate, we met at the airport getting off the plane coming into Columbia. Uh and so that group of women, we still spend a weekend together every fall, and for the past many years we've done that at Isle of Palms. So um so I met them literally at recruitment, and it's a huge reason why I ended up going there. Wow. So that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_06 18:20

That is cool. Yeah. So we're gonna move to the present right now, and of course, focusing still on our topic of off the clock. What are what uh pastimes or activities do you have now that you enjoy and how did it first start?

SPEAKER_01 18:35

So um a a huge one for me is yoga. Um I'm a register teacher. So when I when I went to work at the University of West Georgia, I had I had been really interested in yoga and hadn't really been able to figure out like a place to go or how to fit it in. And maybe like my first week there, new employee kind of living in a new place on my own. I looked across the street and there was a a community yoga studio. So I started going to yoga every week. Um, and I won't say it was love at first yoga practice, but but it was challenging and kept you coming back. And so then I started kind of a hobby of whenever I travel somewhere, I find a yoga studio and I take a yoga class. So it's a cool way to see. Usually yoga studios are in like tiny places and old buildings that are hard to find. So you see some really interesting the artsy part of town. Yeah, some interesting spaces and places. And I really wanted to, at some point, I just felt like I wanted to do the teacher certification. But of course, as you all know, our jobs are full-time in business. Yeah, a little bit. So the pandemic allowed me to do that because uh the place I really wanted to do my certification, which is the Asheville Yoga Center in Asheville, North Carolina, offered the training online during the pandemic. So I spent spring of 2021, you know, every other weekend and Wednesday nights doing the first level of 200-hour training. And um, and then now I'm about to finish the next level, which is 300 more hours um with 500 hour certification.

SPEAKER_06 20:07

So do you actually conduct classes now?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

So I I would say it's a hobby. Um I was teaching for a little while for an online studio, um, but they went all in person. Uh but I teach a 15-minute lunchtime yoga lunch break here on Wednesday. Here on campus at virtual from your desk. It is actually um really great. So there are a lot of faculty and stuff that I don't normally cross paths with that come for that. You just pop in when you want to. Uh I teach for students when they request, so student organizations. I teach occasionally for the fitness center, um, and then I sub a little bit around town at a couple different places. So it really is a hobby um from a teaching standpoint, but I am a regular practitioner.

SPEAKER_04 20:46

And then do you have a particular uh type of yoga that's the one you're training? So I like I'm I'm a hot idea.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Yeah, there are. I'm a I'm my the training overall is a hotha yoga, so basically like um positions and and so but I have some different, a lot of different training in restorative or yin. Um and I could pretty much kind of put together any style of yoga, but I'm uh probably a little just more traditional poses.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

I should prefer approach. How do you feel about the hot yoga?

SPEAKER_01 21:17

So I what is the hot yoga?

SPEAKER_04 21:19

The room is so hot. I've done it. So it's 100 degrees and you're doing yoga. Everyone is sweating everywhere, you're slipping because it's just sweat.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

So I think like I think there's a place for all kinds of yoga. I I do like hot yoga. I try to do maybe one class a week. Um there's it's a couple of different kinds. There's like a bikrim type, which is you do the same poses every time, and then there's like power yoga, which is a different, can be different sequence each time. Uh I think the the kind of um piece of it is it mirrors uh the subcontinent of India where yoga was founded in the heat and the temperature and the idea of like. Um releasing toxins from the body. And I mean it's also a you know it's a mental piece of being able to do this work and temperature. Um but it you know if you want 90 degrees outside to feel cool, go do a hot yoga class and you walk outside and you're like, hey, this is not so bad.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

Yeah, I liked it just because I'm so inflexible. And that heat I can it does really loosen loosen you up a bit. So you've done it? Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. When we lived in Cambridge, we went to um this studio for a while and it was just a hot, I think it was a power yoga one with like um the vinyasas and all that. But you would just be packed like so tight and it's so hot. So sweaty.

SPEAKER_06 22:40

I have never done a hot yoga.

SPEAKER_04 22:41

I'm not sure I did that on your list. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:44

A friend of mine out on the West Coast who had sent me what she viewed as uh an ideal video to get started on. And it was a a DVD and did that for a while and and enjoyed it because I'm not very flexible like Dr. Corey. And then I was out there for a conference and she said, Um, well, since you're out here, I want to take you to a high-level class. I'm like, okay, ooh, that was very challenging, enjoyable, but man, I felt like a real novice with that group.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

I'm just mostly embarrassed when I try to do downward dog because it's it's embarrassing.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

So I'm it's well, I I think um people come to yoga for lots of different reasons. They might come for flexibility or meditation, and and what the hope is is that as you come in, for whatever reason you come, that then you start to get all these other things too. And if they're in yoga, no one wants to believe this, I think, but it truly is not about the poses. I mean, it is about the breath and moving, and you know, everyone's body is different, so everyone's gonna look different. Um, and so I mean, I think there's a there's a component to it that is really about uniting mind and body in the same place, which probably most of us need more of in trying to do that. And so so there's lots of reasons why it's good, but the but the poses are really just one part of this kind of whole um culture or whole study of a of a type of way of being.

SPEAKER_06 24:08

Well, it sounds like you've really secured a an enjoyable and worthwhile uh off the clock activity, but is there one that you would still like to tackle that you haven't?

SPEAKER_01 24:19

You know, uh living in Charleston for 10 years, I uh I feel like I don't actually spend enough time on the water. So I would like to do more kayaking, more paddle boarding, even you know, if anyone has a boat, they want to take me out. You know, like I just I don't um I feel like I don't spend enough time on the water. I I feel like I probably don't even spend enough time at the beach near the water, which I think, you know, it's right here. Maybe that's true. So that's the so that is I some place I'd like to spend more time.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

So our last question before we get to the lightning round is if you weren't uh running student affairs, what would you be doing?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

I think I would be a preschool or elementary school teacher.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Oh you like little kids.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Yes, and I yes, I think uh and I before the pandemic I volunteered a little bit at ECDC, uh, like an hour a week with the three-year-olds. That was delightful. Um but I think yeah, I think there's some similarities in what we do, but uh, but I think that's what I would be doing.

SPEAKER_06 25:22

Well, we always conclude our faculty off the clock episodes with our lightning round where we ask each guest some important standard questions. Again, about your life off the clock. And it's important for us to clarify here that we do know the difference between thunder and lightning. But since this is an audio podcast, we have to settle on the thunder sound effect to cue this portion of the interview.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 25:46

Alicia, what's your favorite carb?

SPEAKER_01 25:48

My favorite carbon cookies.

unknown 25:51

Cookie.

SPEAKER_04 25:52

You have a favorite cookie place downtown?

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Uh yeah, insomnia. Do you do you bake your own cookies? Sometimes.

SPEAKER_06 25:59

What's your favorite type of cookie?

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Um, probably my favorite type is uh like a really good chocolate chip cookie.

SPEAKER_06 26:05

It's hard to beat a good chocolate chip cookie.

SPEAKER_04 26:07

I was trying to argue the other day that an oatmeal raisin cookie was actually healthy because it had like whole grain. Oh, I believe that. Oh, I totally believe that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:17

If if you've got a choice, that's the healthy choice.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

Uh do you have a favorite protein?

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Um so you uh you you all probably know I'm not a huge meat eater, so I really like I really like um like a really good um uh like a really good black bean burger, like spicy black bean burger. But I do I eat a little bit of poultry, so I like I do like like veggie.

SPEAKER_04 26:46

Do you have a favorite place that does a good black bean burger? Sometimes I find it's hard to find one that doesn't fall apart in the house.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Um so I like um sesame um has some good. I think it's more a veggie, but it has good, and so that's probably if I'm gonna get a like a black bean burger out. Okay. But I like the Morning Star Farm like frozen ones too.

SPEAKER_06 27:07

Never had those. Good. Pizza or tacos?

SPEAKER_01 27:10

So hard. I love them both. Probably pizza.

SPEAKER_06 27:13

Pizza? Do you have a favorite pizza place in Charleston?

SPEAKER_01 27:15

I really like Orlando's, which has Orlando's Daniel Island, and then there's one right across the bridge in Mount Pleasant.

SPEAKER_06 27:22

What is what is distinctive about Orlando's pizza?

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Um, I just think it's really good. Can you hold it and fold it? Mm-hmm. You could.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Oh, that's that's well designed to live.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

But I'm also a fan of sabotinos to grab a place, too.

SPEAKER_05 27:40

No, no one no one mentioned sabotinos. It is the best in my view.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

And our our office, uh, that's a frequent location for us to get it.

SPEAKER_05 27:50

Yeah, guys from Long Island, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

He's an alum, too.

SPEAKER_04 27:53

Yeah, he is an alarm. Yeah, he knows how to make good late night pizza.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

It's a good anytime pizza. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Uh I try to avoid that area of the city at nighttime given my job, but I've done it.

SPEAKER_04 28:03

So one time recently we were there very late. Uh we were with my kids and and family, and it was we closed it down and it was perfect. Uh yeah. We had a little, you know, some local fauna came by. Sure. Not surprised at that hour. It was good.

SPEAKER_06 28:22

I was in deep REM, I'm sure, at that hour.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Mellow. Everyone was mellow.

SPEAKER_04 28:26

That's funny. Uh frozen yogurt or ice cream?

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Ice cream, probably. So favorite flavor? Um, I this is I pretty much anything but vanilla. Anything but vanilla. Yeah, I'm not a van, I think, yeah. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_06 28:39

So you go to an ice cream place, what's your go-to flavor?

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Or chocolate or strawberry. And I like I really like off track, and I really like turbo cone as well.

SPEAKER_06 28:50

Oh, turbo cone endorsement, yeah. One of our recent podcasts. You're welcome, Kate. Yes. Mustard or ketchup on a hot dog?

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Uh probably mustard.

SPEAKER_06 29:03

Type of mustard? There's different types.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Uh I like I like a French's, like a good, you know, just a regular golden, you don't need a spicy brown Dijon, no. I mean, I'm not opposed to them, but for a hot dog, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

Uh hush puppy or French fry if you're going for Oh, hush puppy.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Yeah. But I do like a good McDonald's French fry too. The skinny one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:26

Mark does not.

SPEAKER_06 29:26

But I like the crunchy like waffle or curly fries, the Arby's RBs. Yeah. Do you have a favorite soft drink?

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Everyone that is interacting with Diet Coke. It's a t it's a terrible, terrible habit. Yeah. Diet Coke. You drink a lot of Diet Coke, do you? Too much Diet Coke.

SPEAKER_06 29:43

Yeah, you have a you have it stocked at home?

SPEAKER_01 29:45

I have it. I actually prefer it as a fountain, a fountain diet coke. So I don't keep a lot at home. So I like it.

SPEAKER_06 29:51

There's a whole culture of folks that prefer fountain. My wife, for example, likes it. If the fountain is available, oh, she's all over it.

SPEAKER_04 29:58

The post office has a fair number of Diet Coke drinkers as well.

SPEAKER_06 30:01

Yeah, yeah, we do. This is true.

SPEAKER_04 30:04

Um, so you have yoga, another favorite off-the-clock activity that you haven't shared? Right now?

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Uh so I'm a I'm a big reader. I like to be outside, you know, um thinking about it.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

What are you reading right now?

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Uh so I actually just finished a really good book that I enjoyed by uh author Taylor Jenkins Reed called Atmosphere, um, which uh parallels a little bit some the first woman um to go up in the space shuttle. Uh so kind of the early program. Yeah, so it's fiction, but it was quite good. Oh, good.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

All right, atmosphere.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Great.

SPEAKER_06 30:36

Do you have uh a favorite off the clock activity that you like to do alone, all by yourself?

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Um so I I I I actually I enjoy sitting on my porch with my iPad. These are not happy things and watching, you know, uh whatever, these are not exciting things, I guess. Uh watching, you know, some type of Netflix or something. I also am trying to keep my day streak on Duolingo, so I do a good bit of Duolingo. French, French.

SPEAKER_04 31:03

Oh, French. Okay. Great. Did you have a favorite music band growing up in rural Ohio?

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Oh, um, let's see. I liked a lot of um, a lot of different kinds of music at different times, but I uh so my first album that I bought, it's not really a band, but with my own money was Michael Jackson's thriller. Oh like the 33 that opened up, you know. Yeah. I remember.

SPEAKER_06 31:34

Okay. Prefer cold or hot weather?

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Hot.

SPEAKER_06 31:38

Hot. So you despite growing up in Ohio, you prefer the hot weather. Don't miss the snow, do you? I do not, no. Yeah, me either.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

Um, if you're gonna go barbecue, you got mustard vinegar tomato-based.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

I am a probably more of a tomato-based, like that sweet red tomato-based. Um but I so this is kind of I don't know if this is interesting or not, but in Ohio growing up, barbecue was whatever you put on the grill. Yeah. Some random barbecue.

SPEAKER_04 32:07

Same in New Jersey, KC masterpiece.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

So yeah. So when I moved when I moved to South Carolina, like I went somewhere and there was like an exhibit in the visitor center at South University of South Carolina about barbecue. And that's where I learned like that what I thought was barbecue was not barbecue. Um yeah, so I I I I like mustard base too, but I'm probably more I would probably lean more towards like a tomato base.

SPEAKER_06 32:27

Okay. Plane, train or automobile?

SPEAKER_01 32:30

U plane.

SPEAKER_06 32:31

Like a plane better. Wow. This is a first one.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

Everybody goes for the train.

SPEAKER_06 32:39

No one is in train.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Yeah, I wish we had more train access, but you know, I feel like, especially here, you know, you can get on that early flight, one of the early flights out in Charleston, and you can be somewhere completely different by like nine and o'clock in the morning. You know, and um and so I I just enjoy the experience of you know that travel and the generally the efficiency, not always.

SPEAKER_06 33:02

So you so if you're traveling and you're departing, you prefer to leave very early.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

I when I book the flight I do the morning of, I usually regret it, but but I do love that you can be places, you know, get a whole extra day if you leave here on that early.

SPEAKER_04 33:16

We've timed it. We have we have by time of day, like how quickly you can get from our house to the gate. Yeah. 33 minutes is our our uh our record. Really? Yeah. So we'll we get to the airport like an hour, 45 minutes before it boards.

SPEAKER_06 33:35

Wow, you've really um calculated this.

SPEAKER_04 33:38

Oh yeah, my scientific mind. Yeah, because I don't want to spend any time in the airport. And we got the pre-check. Like we have it timed. Like so I want what I want to be able to do is get dropped off, go through security, and have only about five minutes before they start call boarding, and then I can just get on. Perfect timing.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

I like a little more time than that, but but I I had a flight, I don't know, sometime that was like a 9 30 flight, and the airport was like a completely different place. And I thought this is why I don't take mid-morning flights because it took a long time.

SPEAKER_04 34:06

Yeah, you can really only pull it off on that first flight.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 34:10

Oh, it's uh my last question here. Uh toothpaste tube dispensing method.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

So you gotta squeeze it from the bottom, flatten it out all the way up. So I'd like hands and then maybe a little extra push on the counter or something. Um that's good. I don't do it with toothpaste, but I have cut off the bottom of like exp you know, face wash and uh and uh conditions. So you're resourceful the stuff out of the bottom of the yeah. There's like a whole other you know, day's worth in this.

SPEAKER_06 34:37

You don't have to convince me. Yeah, yeah. Uh you like popcorn? I do. Well, how d how do you like your popcorn?

SPEAKER_01 34:45

So I I like mine from the movies or from like the uh from like um Chicago style Gary. Not at home. You want to be able to barely eat popcorn at home, no, but I I'm not opposed to it. I just don't usually eat it at home. But I like that like Chicago caramel and cheddar cheese.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

Yes, the mix and you get it O'Hare Airport, which I need to bring back next time I'm visiting. Next time Chicago, definitely make sure it's so good. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay. Uh our last question is what would your entrance song be right now at a celebrity event about you? Yeah, featuring you.

SPEAKER_06 35:20

You're the star. You are the Michael Jackson of Tony.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

I heard Kyonya's and her was was so lovely, but mine is actually um Thunder by uh Imagine Dragons.

SPEAKER_06 35:31

Oh that's a good choice. Wow. Very nice. Have you ever used that for any event?

SPEAKER_01 35:36

So where I really started to like that song is the first year we did Cougar Nightlights, the students recommended that as a Cougar Nightlight song. And you liked it. And it was in the first year, and it was uh and it was it came, it was the first song in the series, and I'm like, it was I'm gonna be like, this is good. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

Check it out. Outstanding. Well, Dr. Kittle, thanks so much for sharing today about your time off the clock and for giving listeners an alternative glimpse into your life outside of the classroom and your workspace. We really appreciate it. And as a personalized marketing tool, we'll ask that you display your bobble head when we have it for you uh to represent the lighter side as you reveal to us today. So thank you. Stay tuned for next month's installment where we learn more about life off the clock of another College of Charleston college. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Thank you.