31. But First, Coffee and Puppies, with Yael Grauer

Yael Grauer shares why she doesn’t always use cute puppy terminology, coffee shops, and why her husband makes her happy.

Show Notes

Yael Grauer is a freelance journalist and investigative reporter. She writes about things that fascinate her. Lately, this has been all things tech, world changing NGO’s, and rampant government corporate corruption. Her work has been featured on Wired, Motherboard, Future Tense and many other publications.

Yael came to us with a list of things that make her happy. First and foremost, this included her puppy, Bailey. Bailey is an 9 month old Chiweenie who is always super happy and excited about everything. Because she was quite a handful, pretty much from birth, the people in charge of finding her a new home wanted to make sure she went to the right family. A few interactions and conversations about Jesus later, Bailey found her home with Yael and her husband.

How has getting Bailey changed Yael’s life? Well, she doesn’t want to leave home, for starters. (Probably because puppies are the cutest.) Bailey breaks up Yael’s day, provides a different routine and, allows her to take care of another being who’s kind of like a kid. That being said, Yael tries to have a balanced view of puppy motherhood. Although she and her husband send “Daily Bailey” pictures and ask for ‘pupdates’ when they are on vacation, they don’t leave Bailey at doggy daycamp, overly use cutesy dog terms or treat her better than they treat humans. They got her because they thought she would be fun and could afford it. Now it’s all about getting her used to other people so she doesn’t jump all over and lick them at first sight.

Next on Yael’s happy list: coffee shops. The kind of coffee shops she’s into attract so much of what she likes: artsy people, students, good music, good food and poetry readings. And, because she’s obsessed with chocolate? If they sell artisanal bars, she’s happy about that, too. All of these things are awesome to have, she explains, but still manage to let you keep your workflow.

Back in the day, growing up in the suburbs, part of what Yael enjoyed was live music at cafes. Even chains had musicians performing then. The late Borders was a favorite. (May it RIP. We thought you were going to outlive Barnes & Nobles with your awesome musical choices.) Now Barnes & Noble has Starbucks cafés. Speaking of which, Yael doesn’t completely mind the ‘Bucks. Although the vibe may not always be the best, she explains a few key things are usually present there: air conditioning, electrical outlets and sometimes gift cards from her brother. If she has a choice, though, vibe is most important.

In fact, Yael has a few things she thinks about when choosing which coffee shop to visit. We pictured her having an elaborate spreadsheet that asked questions like: “Am I feeling social today?…What’s the parking situation like?”. And although we were off on her having a spreadsheet for choosing cafés, she does have one for choosing gyms. Because, let’s face it. Yael is right in saying that picking a gym is kind of a big deal. They make you sign a contract and you barely have enough time to make sure you’re comfortable there before you do. So, she uses a spreadsheet to analyze pro’s and con’s. Because of injuries, she’s had to refrain on going to the gym for now, so she sticks with massages (Those make her happy, too!)

Time to cover who makes Yael happy: her husband, who she describes as thoughtful and cool. Although they have different temperaments, they also enjoy many of the same things such as hiking and being outdoors. She likes stranger food than him, though. Because they are such opposites, Yael helps him to be more spontaneous and he gives her more of a routine.

They met at an airport in Minnesota while Yael was visiting her brother and he was visiting his family. After a brief conversation, the appeal was that she had found someone to watch UFC with. She ended up texting him on her brand new flip phone – latest in tech at the time – and they went on a first date to Applebee’s…which had awful service, but the brewery visit afterwards made it better. They dated for 7 years following this date and have now been married for 2 years.

So how did she know he was the one? A book helped her get there. Well, kind of. In this day in age, lots of people meet online, but Yael talks about having really weird experiences with that type of stuff when it first came out. She did want to still make sure he met certain criteria, read a book about it and made a list. What she realized, however, is that the person you end up with doesn’t necessarily have to meet all of your requirements. In fact, that’s probably why the algorithms used by dating websites to match couples aren’t always successful. Sometimes there’s no reason you like something – you just do and it works out.

Last on the list of happy for Yael is a few TV shows. This especially includes Game of Thrones, but she also enjoys a few superhero shows. For a while there, she was actually anti-TV. Her mom watched a lot of what Yael says was bad TV growing up and didn’t interact with people. She didn’t want to do that and, in fact, ended up even having an issue with anything fictional. Including reading. Now she allows herself to get lost in it a bit.

Yael’s happy word is bliss and her happy color is yellow. You can catch up with her by visiting her Twitter or heading to her website.