Pessimistic at Best

Are you a responsible adult or do you lose at least one of your most important belongings every time to leave the house? If you’re anything like me, you’re so used to things going missing that you assume they’re lost before you even look. And you know what? Most of the time, you’re fucking right! But every once in a while you cancel a debit card and order a new one, only to find that you just put...

So, here’s the thing, Adam and I are running out of friends. We’ve both lived in Madison for basically our entire lives, we both grew up on the west side, we both graduated from UW, and slowly but surely all of our mutual friends have up and moved away, leaving us in the fucking dust. Are we bitter? Obviously not, but like our new “608” group chat is just our two-person text thread, so do with tha...

Would you guys believe me if I told you Josie paid a visit to the KK post-pandemic before me? Honestly me neither—but it’s true folks—just her and one hundred and twenty of her nearest and dearest! So glad I wasn’t waiting in that line and, more importantly, so glad I got to see my mountain girl! In this episode, we bitch about living in outdoorsy cities in the summertime, reminisce on middle scho...

You know what they say—what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas —and for good reason. Have you made the trip out to Sin City? Well, let me spare you because it’s honestly just an expensive version of the Wisconsin Dells. Everything’s neon, everyone’s sunburnt and walking around in flip flops and, for some reason, Bruno Mars can be heard everywhere you go. Get silly with us on social: FOLLOW THE PODCA...

Why do we glamorize being busy? Like seriously, when did we decide being busy was cute? Today on the podcast Sophia and I chat about how much we loathe (but also kind of love?) being busy. Here we are, so desperately wishing to be those girls who wake up with enough time for a cup of coffee (or two!) before our morning workout class that we somehow manage to squeeze in before starting our day. We...

We’re runners, but do we actually enjoy running? That’s a loaded question. And yet here we are, signing our lives away to Hal Higdon himself with plans to run 26.2 for the second time this November. So, in honor of signing up for our next race, this week on the podcast Kayla and I chat about one of our favorite (and somehow simultaneously least favorite) pass-times. We swap horror stories, bitch a...

Even if you didn’t miss *me*, you did miss out on watching the Bucks win in overtime at Silk Exotic, dinner at SUR without a single Lisa Vanderpump sighting, turning twenty-five on the Tipsy Cow dance floor, and spending lots of time with the a-dults—let's recap shall we? Get silly with us on social: FOLLOW THE PODCAST Instagram: @pessimisticatbest Website: pessimisticatbest.com FOLLOW SAMANT...

It’s almost July and you know what that means—it’s time to check in on our 2021 intentions! I have to be honest, this epi was a little bit of a gut check because I quite literally haven’t been living up to, well, ANY of my intentions. But you know what? That’s why we check in halfway through the year—to feel sorry for ourselves and then to get serious with it, okay? So here goes! Oh, and P.S. This...

Did we recently record an episode on the many downsides to traveling? Yes! Are we going to take it one step further and record another all about the absolute worst place on earth—the airport? You bet your ass we are! As you may have guessed, I just got back from an incredibly sweet little vacay and let me just tell you, everything that could’ve possibly gone wrong with my flights, did! How sweet i...

Thirty episodes in and we’re feelin’ fine! This week on the podcast James and I recap his v special birthday weekend, bitch about being too busy all of the damn time and brag about our cutie pie apartment to anyone who will listen, join in! Get silly with us on social: FOLLOW THE PODCAST Instagram: @pessimisticatbest Website: pessimisticatbest.com FOLLOW SAMANTHA Instagram: @samgeorgson Twitter: @...

Summer is overrated. It was cool when we were kids because it meant three months of absolute freedom, but now? Now summer just means feeling way worse about not being able to spend time outdoors because you’re stuck inside for eight (plus!) hours a day doing something tacky like answering emails. Don’t get me wrong, I like summer just fine, but imo, people give this hot, sweaty, sticky, bug-ridden...

When applied to the act of traveling, the phrase, ‘it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey,’ is actually so stupid. Traveling sucks. The entire process is a great big fat pain in the ass from start to finish and nothing, I mean NOTHING ever goes according to plan.  Get silly with us on social: FOLLOW THE PODCAST Instagram: @pessimisticatbest Website: pessimisticatbest.com FOLLOW SAM...

Guess who’s turning 25 next week? My best friend Zoe is! That’s right folks, go and wish my sweet, sweet bug a happy mother fucking 25th birthday, or else! Rumor has it turning 25 is hard. I wouldn’t know, but I will in exactly two months from now, luckily for me, Zoe’s going first. The thing is, we’re already in the midst of our quarter life crises, and on top of what is already a challenging tim...

I really don’t like bugs. I’m terrified of spiders, I hate mosquitos, I’m afraid of bees, and above all else, I’m absolutely REPULSED by ticks. I literally can’t think of anything worse—and boy do I have a story for you. Get silly with us on social: FOLLOW THE PODCAST Instagram: @pessimisticatbest Website: pessimisticatbest.com FOLLOW SAMANTHA Instagram: @samgeorgson Twitter: @samgeorgson Website:...

Last time we recorded, Elisia was still trying to figure out her next move after Miss Rona cut her Peace Corps experience short, but my girl is turning lemons into lemonade and moving down to Austin, Texas for grad school and let me tell you, I can’t wait to establish a semi-permanent residence down south with all of my Texas girlies—yeehaw! Get silly with us on social: FOLLOW THE PODCAST Instagra...

If the pandemic was good for anything, it was encouraging, nay, enforcing a pause. Today I have my amazing friend Victoria on the podcast to chat about the non-stop grind that is life in the service industry and even crazier reality of working in a salon in the midst of a pandemic. When you work with people, especially when you work behind the chair, you can’t exactly afford to have a bad attitude...

Ok, we get it, we're almost twenty-five and we still don't know how to do our taxes or get our oil changed, so what? Adulting is actually super messed up when you really think about it, and we prefer to believe that the fact that we don't know how to balance a checkbook or schedule our own appointments is really just a testament to our youth. We're working on it ok? We have big...

Why is it that when you work in a creative field, you’re so often expected to do it all? Ashley and I can certainly attest to this, as we’ve both taken turns playing the role of social media manager, graphic designer, marketing director, copywriter—you name it, we’ve done it—and we probably weren’t paid fairly for it either. Oh, and don’t even get us started on freelancing. In this episode, we bit...

Do you know what the School of Human Ecology is? How about ‘Human Development and Family Studies’ or ‘Retail and Consumer Behavior?’ No? That’s ok, because honestly, we don’t either! Josie and I weren’t entirely sure what we wanted to do when we got to college, hence the abstract majors, and frankly, we’re still not sure where we’re going to end up, so don’t you dare ask! We’re just a couple of ov...

It’s true, they really do hate to see a girlboss winning, but you know what they say, nevertheless she persisted! When we were twelve, we’d stay up all night long at sleepovers fantasizing about being married with kids at the age of twenty-five. Then, a few years later we watched the Carrie Bradshaws and the Sophia Amorusos, I mean, Marlowes of the world build their empires and take their cities b...

Was ‘learning to cook’ one of my 2021 intentions? Yes, yes it was! Is it working out? Absolutely not! But you know what they say, shoot for the moon and you’ll land amongst the stars—or at the very least you’ll become good pals with the delivery driver at your favorite bagel shop! I’m no chef, and frankly neither is James, though he does whip up some mean scrambled eggs. Cooking just doesn’t come...

If you don’t know what Eucerin is, then you don’t *really* know me. I have the driest of dry skin. We’re talking eczema, keratosis pilaris—the works. I don’t even really have skin, I have scales. My dry skin condition is genetic (thanks a lot, mom!) and I’ve been suffering from and complaining about dry, dehydrated skin for, well, my entire twenty-four years of existence and counting!   Get silly...

Liz and I fucking love the internet. Liz is a fellow podcaster and we met on Facebook after I volunteered myself to be a guest on her show. Our mutual love for the internet is just one of the many things we have in common. Liz and I both got into podcasting after seeking out creative outlets during quarantine. We were both furloughed last April, we both launched our podcasts in November and we bot...

You would think Lauren and I would have relatively small egos considering we were both banished to the B-team during volleyball our freshman year of high school, but sometimes you have to bond over being mediocre and well, cheers to that, am I right ladies? Now we’re here recording a podcast about the struggle to establish career goals whilst escaping the chaos of a statewide power outage (Hey, Te...

Eight years down (you know, give or take) and lots more to go! Today is our anniversary, and normally we’d be out celebrating in another city over a delicious meal at some fancy restaurant, but this year we’re ordering takeout and hanging out at home and we're going to like it god damn it! Even though 2020 was one big fat bummer, I’m so thankful to have spent the majority of it—like practical...