Who's taking care of your menagerie when you go to the same person, care for dogs and chickens and lizards and a buddy?

Yes, well, Violet's nanny and her wife are staying in the house and they're taking care of, I mean, everyone.

I didn't even tell you we have two new frogs. It's so much.

Hi and welcome to Happier and Hollywood, the podcast about how to be happier, healthier, sane or more creative, more successful and more productive and back-witing superficial, chaotic, unpredictable, fundamentally insane world.

I'm Sarah Fane, a TV writer and producer living in Ohio right outside LA and with me is my high school friend and writing partner Liz.

That's me, Liz Kraft. On this podcast, we talk about being writers in Hollywood, how we balance a career in friendship and how to survive the war of a tradition that is life in Los Angeles.

In today's episode, we are discussing what's been revealed about us now that we are not buried in work.

Then we've got a special guest, fellow showrunner and author, Rashid Newson, is here to talk about his excellent new novel, My Government Means to Kill Me.

And then Rashid is hanging around because he has a fantastic zoom-related Hollywood hack.

Okay, Sarah, it is time for from the treadmill desu, in which we discuss what's most pressing in our work psyches.

And this week, it's what is revealed about us when we're not working a lot.

Yes. And this was a conversation you and I were having the other day that was quite illuminating.

And it's actually for me, the combo of we're not working a lot and our kids are at camp.

Yes. Which talk about just a completely different reality we're living for these two weeks, you know.

And what I realized, I was like, wow, it's just everything feels so odd.

And what this time has revealed about me, unfortunately, is that I feel like this is the metaphor.

I feel like, you know, those air dancers at the car wash or the car dealership.

Yes. The giant blow up.

Yes. And they're arms, you know, and everyone looks and then the air stops and they go, boom.

Straight to the ground, I feel like without work and without violet, I'm one of those air dancers without air.

Like I was just like, what am I doing with myself? All that's left is like a to-do list.

I just feel like I'm a walking to do list. So I guess the first step is identifying the problem.

...