And I'm Alisha. I welcome to lovestruck daily where we give you the fields every single day. 100% guaranteed.
I'm in love with that, too. I'm in love with you. Have you ever wondered what it's like to date a spy? Well, today, we are going to find out. But before we get there, I have a challenge for you. Oh, I want to compile a very quick list of the five most unexpected places you might meet a special someone?
Do they have to be like things that actually happened? Or can they just be things I imagined as unexpected? I yield to your creativity. Okay. All right. What's number five? A shower, baby or wet or bridal? What's a no like a wet shower?
Like, like you just bump into this bump into somebody in the same shower maybe?
Okay, so here's what I'm imagining you're in Hawaii. And you I'm sold. Okay, great. Yeah, like, you know, those outdoor showers they have like in tropical places. So like, you went to the beach, you're coming back, you're showering off and boom, you bump into somebody like a public shower.
Okay. I say baby shower. Oh, I feel like
that's I feel like that's cheating. You're just going off on my shower. But okay. Yes, yes, I am. Oh, allow it Oh, allow it, um, a mattress store.
Which one mattress, one on the right or mattress, one on the left, because they're always dueling and facing each other across the intersection. I am
almost convinced that all mattress stores are like fronts for some kind of smuggling rings. So
there's a deep dive Reddit theory about that. But they're not well, so but
like imagine somebody innocently goes in there to get a mattress and and they fall in love with someone
meets the love of their life. Oh, imagine their wedding decor. Be all quilted and padded and comfortable? Everywhere. Right? Everyone's wearing a quilted jacket.
I could get into that quilting drama that's unfolding right now on tick tock.
Oh, I don't know about this. Oh, people are really
mad that other people are wearing quilts as clothes like that. They're like the quilted clothing trend has everybody but
it's fabulous. It's warm and snug. But like people are like,
that's not fashion. And so they don't want you to wear it anymore. And then other people are like, I'll wear what I want to wear, which I am actually on the side of I think except, you know what? No, I'm not on the side of anything. Because I don't know how deep this drama goes. I just talked to tiktoks about it. Anyway, that's the T in the quilt world. You should know this. Sarah, you're in the Cool World.
I'm in the quote. Robert, I'm not in the Tiktok world. Okay, maybe it's a different world. And I just think that you should wear whatever keeps you warm.
Yeah. Okay. So where else would be crazy to meet someone?
So my number two most unexpected places out back by the dumpsters wherever the dumpsters are.
Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, that's what you want
to get out of there. Because it smells really bad. And it's not pleasant. But if you've just met somebody that you're absolutely floored by? How much of that garbage smell? Are you going to endure? To be with this person for another two minutes?
Huh? That's legit. That's legit. I have a challenge. I would say. You know what, let's go with a realistic one. I would say while traveling. Oh, cuz you say the smartest thing because while I'm traveling, when I'm on a plane, I do not look ready to meet anybody. And I know you know back in the day that you were glamorous and you wore suits and stuff to get on a plane and you don't do that anymore. I wear like my radius yoga pants. And like a three times too big sweatshirt. So if anybody Well, you know what, maybe that's the best test because if they fall in love with me, then they'll love me forever no matter what. Well, I
have a story for you. And interestingly enough, I have a story about falling in love on an airplane. So it can happen. It can happen. And you're right back in the day, when flying was a new thing. It was a very big deal not only to fly but also work for an airline. So a young woman named Jocelyn Wolski became a flight attendant with Pan Am and was enjoying the absolutely Adventurous Life Of A Single Girl in the 70s she was getting paid to travel all over the world and if you remember the images of flying in the 70s it was very glamorous, very glamorous, very chic. She had just gotten out of a relationship with a pilot and I have heard that that is an advisable decision and was very happily focused on her work. During a very heightened security initiative Pan Am was assigning security officers sometimes they were from the FBI, sometimes they are from the CIA to fly with them on different flight routes around the world. Enter Tyler Harding, that's a romance hero name is no
that is a big time romance hero name Right, like somewhere an author just
sat up and was like, thank you. Yeah. Tyler Harding was assigned to her economy section and was late to the flight because he had been out buying Parisian scarves to impress girls back home. This guy knew it was up. She thought he was kind of hot but she pulled it out of her mind thinking that he would probably prefer the other flight attendants and also he, you know, bought all those scarves. He was very flirty though, and she kept it snarky assuming that he was kind of a Aletsch you know, guy buying scarf. stewardesses.
I'm imagining just like a bag bulging with scarves, though that's probably Yeah, what actually happened, but just me like trilling out of his out of his little carry on.
And language point, of course, now the people who serve a plane are the crew and the students are not stewardesses. But that's them that back then that was the actual job title, right? And out of nowhere in the middle of this flight with this guy who's hitting on her with a bag full of scarves for other girls. This strange thought just popped into her head, and I can totally relate to that. And this thought said, huh, what will it be like to be married to that man? Danger girl? Yeah, right. Sometimes intrusive thoughts are awesome. And sometimes it's like, listen, sometimes try to shake that one off. Sometimes
the man has a literal bag of red flags carry. And you got
to be careful. Red flags in the form of reasoning scars. Yeah, it's
a bunch of flags, right. But she could not shake this thought. And there was something that knew instinctively that this was a man that she was going to marry even though she was annoyed by him, which I can confess is a very good sign. If someone annoys you. He asks her out on the flight, and she says, No. But then when she's pouring coffee for him, she gets so distracted by his blue eyes that she pours tea into his lap. And he says, Okay, now you have to go out with me. So she invites him to her fellow flight attendants party that is starting once they land, okay. And when he actually showed up, she said it took her breath away, it really did. And for the next three hours at this party, they're, you know, hide off to the one side being those people who are super into each other. They talked about everything, everything for three hours, they just talk non stop. And if it's a party, you know, it's loud. So their voices are tired, and they are still going. But there is one key piece of information that he did not talk about. He worked for the CIA. I'm going to talk about that part. For obvious reasons. Well, keep that. Right. Exactly. That did not stop him from proposing to her right then and there. Oh, three hours? Yeah. Wow. You know, and she says, yes. But then jokes. Well, she's too busy to marry him right now because of work. Even so he's serious. He meets her parents, he wins them over. And he leaves his car in their driveway for their next for his next assignment. He parks his car in her yard, literally. Now, they both have to go to their own job assignments. He is going to Tehran, she is going to Rome. And she also had to go to Rome to break it off with her Italian boyfriend that she was seeing on layover. Oh,
this this woman had quite a life. I know I'm kind of amazed. I'm a little jealous. A little bit scarves
and pasta. Yes, fair. But when he gets back, he picks up his car. And they spent every possible moment together when they are not working a few weeks later, and is still only a few weeks since they first met he asked her to marry him again. And she says yes again. And on Christmas Eve in JFK airport. He makes it official and meets her with an engagement ring and they got married that March. Wow. They both continued their jet setting life for a year until one of his work assignments caused them to relocate to Thailand than to Hawaii than to Germany. And they eventually moved to Virginia, which is where Tyler was from. And they have remained married for the past 50 years. And guess what? She got all the scars.
flyer miles but that's even better. Well, yes, obviously.
Obviously. Obviously, she got the frequent flyer miles, but she got all the scarves. She got all the flags. I mean, I guess eventually
he told her that he was a CIA agent. Yeah, right. Yeah.
I presume I presume it's funny because it makes you think like, this is the plot of a lot of movies and a lot of books. Oh, yeah. Be like to date a spy, someone who has a secret life. And I found this article on refinery 29, which of course we will link to in the show notes about a woman named Emily branwen, who wrote about her experience in the CIA. She said it's very stressful. There is a lot of information and a lot of intermarriage inside the operatives but she also also says that being a spy makes you a better partner because you are more observant and a better listener.
Oh, interesting. Yeah.
And what do you think it would be like today to spy? Um,
so I kind of dated a spy. What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what? What? Okay, so this is like DC things, right? This is like dating in DC, DC. Yeah, this is a very DC thing. And so I lived in DC. And so I met this guy, and he was like, Oh, I work. I'm in the army. Like, I work, you know, in the army. That's my job. And I was like, okay, cool. Because you date like, there's a lot of army people there too. A lot of military. So that's not like a big thing at first. Yes. Oh, yeah. But I remember like, like a few dates in I think we were at a bar and we were getting like a little tipsy. And he was like, he was talking about like, oh, you know, we somehow like this subject of spies came on the subject, the CIA came up and I said something like, I think would make an excellent spy because I have a kind of face where people tell me everything. We've talked about this like we have a various
bartender, pheromone. Yeah. Yeah, I
call it my resting friendly face. Because even though I don't feel friendly, sometimes people think I'm friendly. And so they just come and like blurt out things that maybe they shouldn't blurt out to me. So I was like, I have I have like, a really like, cheerful face. And so people want to tell me things they'd like my cheeks or something. I mean, it's like, oh, it's like we should do this exercise that we used to do when we first started where we'd go to a mall. And they would point to somebody and they'd say, Go get as much information from them as you can. Oh, that's
not creepy. What a great date activity. I hope that's written up on Tinder.
Yeah, but I really was like we they did that in the army. Quicker than
me I would be like, great big gotta go. Thanks for
like, he sounded like so like nonchalant about it. And he just said he was like, in the army. Yeah, he goes, Yeah.
Well done, sir. Super smooth.
Oh, no. And so after that, like I started noticing, like little flags here and there. And there were like, it wasn't like a serious relationship at all. I wouldn't say it was one nightstand, but it was like a, like a nod or intermittent. Yeah, not attribute serious relationship. What, in any way? And I knew that. He's really cute.
Was he a good listener?
He was a great listener. Actually, now that I think about it, he was an excellent listener, and very excellent at remembering everything I told him.
When you listen to someone, even podcasting is you know, it's active listening, I'm listening to what you're saying. And I'm thinking about what you're saying, because I'm interested. And, you know, it's also it's deeply intimate for someone to welcome us into their eardrums to want to listen to what we have to say. And I think that we're getting better and better. As we consume more things through audio, we're getting better and better at listening, which is a very good human skill to have.
Yeah, I think that's just partially also just the sheer amount of content we have out in the world, like you have so true. Pay attention and to listen and to think about what the other person is saying, I hope so
what you said just now made me think of an article from August of 2020, by Tara Hale, who is a science journalist, the article is titled your surge capacity is depleted. And that's why you feel awful, you have no more surge capacity to handle additional crisis because we've basically been in that kind of environment for so long. And one of the things that's so important is listening to yourself and to other people, and to listen to what you need and what other people need. That was certainly a full serving of love and espionage for today. Alicia, do you have any love to go?
I think I think what I would say is that we just need to listen to each other. I think it's really important, especially in this day and age where we're just constantly hearing so much noise to maybe focus on one voice that we're in a close relationship with perhaps
Yeah. And also listening to yourself to
listen, listen to yourself in your body in your heart.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of clusterfuck Dooley. If you are ready for another love story, check back every single weekday to get your daily dose of love. If you would like to reach us and tell us your love story would love to hear it. You can email us at lovestruck daily at frolic dot media. If you have a love story to share, or you just want to ask us questions or share your thoughts.
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