HAIRMTL - Trista's PL8STORY Podcast Plate 41 with Christopher Peralta of Phoenix AZ

  This week we meet Chris Peralta of Arizona. He has loved Hair Metal since he was a teen and honors it with his vanity license plate. Chris is multi-faceted as you’ll learn in this episode. Some of his other passions include lover of all the doggies, avid concert goer, avid golfer. He is a coffee and bourbon connoisseur but not together. Chris co-hosts Knocked Conscious and Beer Googgles podcasts with his long-time friend and Mark Puls, featured in the DNTBEVL PL8STORY episode. Let’s go meet Chris.

HAIRMTL

[00:00:00] Trista, Host: [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's episode of Trista's PL8STORY   (Plate Story)   Podcast. I'm Trista Polo from iwokeupawesome.com and I am your host. Each week, we learn the story behind that vanity plate. You know, the one you saw driving down the road... what did it say? What did it mean? Why did they choose it?  

This week we meet Chris Peralta of Arizona. He has loved hair metal since he was a teen and honors it with his license plate. Chris is a multi-faceted person as you'll learn in this episode. Some of his other passions include lover of all doggies, avid concert, goer, and avid golfer. He is a coffee and bourbon connoisseur, but not together.

Chris, co-hosts the Knocked Conscious and Beer Googgles podcasts with his longtime friend, Mark Puls. Let's go meet Chris and hear his plate story.  

Trista, Host: [00:00:54] Welcome to this week's episode of Trista's PL8STORY   (PLATE STORY) podcast. I'm really excited to have Chris [00:01:00] Peralta from Arizona. His license plate is H A I R M T L. So you could see if you can figure out what that means. Chris. Welcome.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:01:10] Thank you so much for having me.  

Trista, Host: [00:01:11] Yeah, I'm excited to have you here. So what is your license plate say? And what's the story behind it.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:01:18] The license plate says hair metal, hair metal. Yes, ma'am I love all the hair metal from the eighties, the poisons of the rats, the warrants, the Bon Jovi's, but I also love irony. so I'm bald, which, when people go, Oh, hair metal, and you don't have any hair, like yeah. Good job, smart guy.  

So I love, I have a very strange sense of humor and I love all the hair metal, but I also love the heavy stuff like Slayer and Iron Maiden as well. But metal is part of my oxygen and I've been a fan for 35 years. I'm S I'm the old guy I'm pushing 50 and I'm the old guy at the back of the concerts, but I still... I go to concerts as [00:02:00] frequently as possible. I've seen Iron Maiden 26 times. I have a problem. I have an, I have an addiction to concerts. I don't drink it shows cause I, when I pay 50 bucks for a ticket, I want to remember. Yes, I don't go into pit. Because I'm five, six, and I don't like to run into people's elbows. That's not good. That happened once and it's not fun.  

So I'm a, I'm a psycho, psycho, heavy metal person. I love all music, classical, jazz, love Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky and Mozart. But, metal is my thing. And it ha it has been since I was 14, when a friend of mine introduced me to Iron Maiden and in 1986, and it's never, it did, it spoke to my soul.

And when I go, it's like souls taking a shower, it's just like, You can not only, obviously it's loud and I wear earplugs because it's ridiculous, but it's like, I'm taking a shower and I feel [00:03:00] amazing. So it's part of who I am. It's amazing. I have a, I have a little Iron Maiden sticker above my license plate and that's it very simple back of the car, but I've been hair metal for 15 years and everyone knows me as that.

And one time someone says. You're a hair model? Model. Okay. First of all, I'm bald. So how could I be a hair model? Second of all, you need to check your spelling.  

Trista, Host: [00:03:24] No T's and model.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:03:26] Holy crap. That's not at all. It's not a D Oh my goodness. With the spelling. Oh my goodness.  

Trista, Host: [00:03:34] I would say though, I am not the best at figuring out license plates.

I sit there and stare at them. I don't get it. I think my second or third license plate was N A T U R L V R. And I actually chased her down the parking lot because I thought it was really cool. It was a new podcast. I didn't have any guests lined up and I thought it was natural VR.

[00:04:00] I'm like, what about VR is natural? What do you love about VR? That it's natural. I'm thinking virtual reality. She's like, no, it's nature lover... nature lover. I'm like, no, I get it now. Now I can't unsee nature lover, you know, but until she told me I was like completely off the Mark.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:04:15] I love vanity plates as well. I have a thing for that.

And I'm always looking, I always look at license plates because I like to see all the different States and what States have different. Like, cause Arizona has probably 40 different license plates that you can get. You can get a Christian one or a Phoenix Suns one or a Grand Canyon, one or a, you support this, or you support that.

Or you support schools or you support whatever you support. I think that's cool. You pay 25 bucks and you can get whatever you like. And I think that's awesome. So I'd like to see, Oh, Hey, here's one from Montana and they have a blah, blah, blah. So I'm interested. I don't know. I liked that, but I've always been into that like road trips with your parents and you're bored out of your mind.

So you get to look at stuff on the road and I like to see license [00:05:00] plate frames. Are the license plate frames somehow verbally   tied to the license plate itself because I'm. That's how my mind works. Are they using, I saw a license plate years ago. It said, I think it said two tickets and the license plate frame said, I've got two tickets to paradise. Yeah. Yes. So if you're an Eddy Money and you get that. Yeah, I was probably 22 or something like that, but I was like, that's so smart. Wow. You, you tried it all in together. So I'm not the biggest Eddie money fan, but I was like, that's so ingenious that you did all that.  

Trista, Host: [00:05:37] So you are in Arizona?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:05:39] Yes. Ma'am.  

Trista, Host: [00:05:39] And your license plate. Do people in Arizona stop you? Do they honk at you? Do they ask you about it?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:05:46] The metal heads. Yes.  

Trista, Host: [00:05:48] Okay. So they get it.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:05:49] Oh yeah. The guys that I, the guys, cause Ray metal is a, is a, is a male dominated genre, you know?

I mean, obviously [00:06:00] there are ladies that go to the shows that I go to, but it's 10%. Okay. 9.6%, you know, rounding up. it's it, obviously the music that I listened to is it's not female friendly. It's not poison. Every Rose has its thorn anymore. So they they're still trying to tour. They're still trying to play those shows.

But the, the bands that are playing now are much heavier. And so, it's the guys that come up to me and I can hear their stereo and they're playing something and they go, yeah, man. That's a good plate and then they'll take off, you know, so yeah, I get that about once a week. Yeah. They'll, they'll see it, they see my little Iron Maiden sticker and then they'll give me the horns and then they'll take   off...that happens.

And I was driving up to Flagstaff to play golf last summer, and a motorcycle comes up next to my car and he looks at me and he starts banging his head inside of his helmet. You know, he's got all of his gear on and I'm a motorcycle rider as [00:07:00] well. So I know the helmet, the gloves, the gear, the pants, the jacket.

Sure. Banging his head, takes his hand off the floor, brought off the gas and he goes like this. And I was like, I rolled my window down. I give him the horns. Puts his hand back on the gas and just boom right up the Hill. And I was like, all right, awesome.  

Trista, Host: [00:07:19] You guys like had this kismet moment?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:07:21] Cause we no, because metal is such a small community. It's such, the music is such on the fringe of people don't know. I'll say. Oh, cause I'm so weird. I'll go. I, everywhere I go, you hear music. You go to, you go to Chili's or Friday's or whatever, or every restaurant you go to, there's always music playing and it's usually garbage. In my opinion, it's Taylor Swift or an overproduced pop star that's mass marketed by the music, industry, Hollywood, et cetera. That's [00:08:00] 80% of America likes that. And I, I mean, I it's. Okay. I'm not, I'm not, I don't hate it, but it's, to me, it's not, it's, it's not pure.Truth in it. That's not the right word, but I don't know how to say it. So I'm a jerk and all, all, I'll sit down with my friends at wherever we're at and they'll go, Hey guys, do you want to hear the specials?

Like, yeah. Oh, well we have a Turkey burger tonight and we have a law and we have a fish grill with asparagus. Oh, that sounds good. Yeah. What can I get you. Can you guys play some Slayer? And I always asked that and my friends were like, Oh my God. And most people don't even know who Slayer is and about 10% go... they think Buffy the vampire Slayer. And that's actually why I didn't get the plate Slayer because I was worried people will think that I'm a Buffy the vampire Slayer fan I did specifically did not get that plate. And in Oh five it was available. It's gone now because I always check. Cause I'm weird because I [00:09:00] go to that service, arizona.com and I check, Oh, Hey, is this available?

  So yes. To answer your question, people do recognize the, the phrase and I mean, you know.  

Trista, Host: [00:09:09] Right. So you are more than a man with no hair who loves hair metal. Correct. You are more than that. You have something that is very dear and near to my heart. You're an animal guy. You have dogs?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:09:24] Yes. Ma'am.  

Trista, Host: [00:09:25] Let's spend the next 14 hours talking about your dogs.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:09:29] that's the second best subject in the world. Yeah. I have two boxers that are they... I mean, they're the loves of my life, you know? Roxy's 11 I've had her since she was six weeks.  

she's phenomenal. Been everywhere with me. hiking at 8,000 feet and Flagstaff and I got Anders. I got Anders, a year ago. He was a rescue boxerluv   (luv) .org. Oh, and  

Trista, Host: [00:09:53] he's also full bread boxer.

Christopher Peralta: [00:09:56] He's the smallest boxer I've ever seen. He's a brindle [00:10:00] and his, his, I love the Brindle. Nub is he's no nub. Like he literally has no tail it's. So I don't know if they, I I've only had them a year and he's eight. So I don't know what his seven years before me was like, yeah, but he just. I met. I met Del or I met boxer, love the, the rep at a PetSmart to pick him up.

And I got down on one knee and he jumped on my knee and he licked my face and I was like, wow. Yes, he's the one you win. All right, little dude. Let's go, come on, get in the car shake. He's like, okay, dad, I pick you. You picked me, let's roll out of here. And it was funny because you could see his ribs. And I, and you know, I'm not the skinniest dude obviously.

And, the, the lady says, okay, well, don't get him fat.  

Trista, Host: [00:10:49] Come on. Now, lady  

Christopher Peralta: [00:10:50] in my head, I'm half Mexican. So in my head, I said, Really I'm going to get chimichangas right now, I'm going to [00:11:00] chimichonga he gets the chimichanga. Roxy gets the chimi.... everybody gets a chimichonga are you serious?He gained like 12 pounds.

Oh my goodness. It was quick, like cause cheese tortilla, every single day, there  

Trista, Host: [00:11:14] are people judging you right now. I just want you to,  

Christopher Peralta: [00:11:17] and then three months I was like, okay, maybe that lady was right and I backed it off. And now he looks great because he turned into a little tank. I was like, Whoa. Okay. Okay.

That was all right. Lou, more walks a little bit longer. And then back off the cheese and the tortillas. So now that's phenomenal, but that dude and I named him Anders, because it's a strong Swedish name and I have no Swedish blood in my head at all, but I love Swedish death metal.  

Anders is like Steve in Sweden. So it's a common Swedish name. and I, I, it's the singer of my favorite Swedish metal band, nice flames. So that's why his name is Anders. And he's just the coolest little dude, the coolest little addition to the family. I love it.  

Trista, Host: [00:11:58] And I love that name for a [00:12:00] dog.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:12:00] Anders is strong and he's so little.

Little attitude. My last dog that I also rescued another dog, which my ex wife still has. He's amazing. We also rescued him from boxerluv.org, amazing organization. And they, all they do is take in boxers and they have a great website and I cannot endorse them enough. They're just a great organization.

And they, they spade and neuter all the boxers, they have foster homes, they have an amazing infrastructure and great,  

Trista, Host: [00:12:29] great, awesome.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:12:31] And, and they bring in boxers from Vegas and from New Mexico and from all over all over the state of Arizona. And I just, I will, I'll never, you know, I already know that. That I'm always going to have boxers from them.

I always do. It's going to be, my life is just, yeah. If I won the lottery, they would get, Oh, he, Oh yeah. Just bring him to my yard. Just bring all the boxers. Just bring them all. Just here's money. Boom. They're just to me. Yeah. There's I call [00:13:00] them teams swishy face.  

Trista, Host: [00:13:02] Very cute. Why boxers, is there a reason that your breed of choice?

Christopher Peralta: [00:13:07] Oh, I didn't know. I was a boxer guy. I had a mutt. My old dog, Nina. She was 16 and she passed away. five years ago, a friend of mine said, Hey man, my, my, my boxer, Jasmine, I'm going to breed her. Do you want a puppy? You would give me a purebred boxer?

He goes yea, for 100 dollars for the shots, just give me a hundred bucks. So I was like, and I was thinking, okay, if I, my dog, I think she was about 11 at the time, maybe 12. And I'm like, okay, if I can get a puppy, it'll keep Nina you're young at heart. It'll keep her younger. It'll keep her alive longer was my thought process.

So I gave my friend a hundred bucks and I got this little six week old, these sharp boxer teeth, the little jowles and this little nub and 11 years later, I still have her. And she's. And now I didn't know I was a boxer guy and now I just, those, those jowls of [00:14:00] fury. And the overbite and the attitude, and they just want to love you.

They just want to love you and sit next to you. And then I bought of course, cause I'm a metal head I had on slayer.net, their website. I had to get Roxy a Slayer t-shirt and she, she hates it and, but she looks awesome and I don't get her. Hey, it's Slayer Thursday. I don't want to, I don't want to wear this shirt.

It's only for five minutes. It's only for your stupid Instagram @roxy_anders just it's only for five minutes. No, you're going to get a treat. Okay.  

Trista, Host: [00:14:37] We have a dog. I'm a huge dog person and I've always had dogs my whole life, but my dog now is a rescue. Her name is Bella. She is a cattle dog mix.

So she's a working dog breed. But I decided that because of the age of the internet, I'm like, she's going to work for her keep. she's going to have an Instagram account, a website and all kinds of [00:15:00] stuff. And so I decided that I was going to do fashion shows with her because I've never been one to dress animals, you know?

But I decided that she was gonna, cause she had this nice, you know, thin frame and she's just adorable with, half her face is Brown. The other half is kind of spotted. She's just kind of this very cool looking dog. And so I got her a corduroy coat. a winter coat and it was winter and she's short hair and so I'm thinking short hair dog probably needs to wear a coat. Cause what do I know? They don't by the way. And so I put this thing on her and she is so angry. She is so mad at me for putting it on her, that she just turns her back to me and sits down. She won't look at me. She won't engage with me. She won't communicate with me.

She won't respond to me. She's so angry. So I take it off of her realizing that maybe she's just not a dog who wears clothes. I [00:16:00] mean, you know, she should have that choice, of  

Christopher Peralta: [00:16:02] course.  

Trista, Host: [00:16:03] And so then she runs up to the couch.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:16:07] The  

Trista, Host: [00:16:07] couch has very like movable pillows. They're not. They're not stuck to the couch. So she kind of sits on the top of the cover of the pillows with her back to me.

And she sits facing the wall for 20 minutes in protest of having to, had to wear this coat. She was so angry. Well, so  

Christopher Peralta: [00:16:32] rightfully so. Yeah,  

Trista, Host: [00:16:35] she did not approve or agree. Now we live in New York and the winters can get pretty frigid and cold. And so I do make her wear something when we go out, if it's below freezing.

So we manage it, we manage it together, but she's very expressive. She's the most communicative dog I've ever had. I feel like I can actually [00:17:00] have conversations with her and that's never, ever happened to me before with it, with a pet. So it's pretty cool.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:17:08] The life of a dog.  

Trista, Host: [00:17:09] All right. So I guess we can stop talking about dogs now, unless there's anything else you want to talk about with dogs?

Okay.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:17:17] I could probably tell you some stuff that I would get in trouble, so,  

Trista, Host: [00:17:20] Oh, okay. Well we'll leave it there. So you also love golf. I  

Christopher Peralta: [00:17:24] do.  

Trista, Host: [00:17:24] I understand.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:17:25] I'm an avid golfer. Every Sunday. I golf.  

Trista, Host: [00:17:29] You're you're just becoming more and more interesting to me. You're a heavy metal guy who has, hair metal as his license plate has no hair loves dogs, but you'll see him out on the golf course on Sundays.

You're like an enigma wrapped in, right? No, it's  

Christopher Peralta: [00:17:41] very strange area. We. Yeah, I'm not a great golfer. I'm a 15 handicap, but I I'm, I have great shots and terrible shots and I have great rounds and I have horrible rounds and we're, but I just love being outside. And I love being with my friends and I love being on [00:18:00] the grass and the trees, and I love playing different courses.

And I love the challenge of it's just you and the golf ball. It doesn't matter. What my friend Adrian just did, or my friend, Steve just did. They had a great shot or a bad shot. It doesn't matter. It's me. And Hey, I'm 147 yards from the pin. It's me and the ball. It's not, it's completely in my brain. Like, can I do yes, I know I can hit the shot.

But the PR it's about having fun. We always smoke cigars. some guys have a couple of beers. I don't, you know, cause I always drive home and I don't want a DUI. So that's my own thing. That's me. And we all, we have a Bluetooth speaker and sometimes we play metal and sometimes we play country. Sometimes we play, hair metal.

Sometimes we play the eighties alternative channel out of England, like Depeche mode here. And so I love that stuff. And then we have this very strange music that's a golf tradition with us. It's called metal-achi it's since [00:19:00] I'm Mexican,  

Trista, Host: [00:19:00] mariachi and metal mix  

Christopher Peralta: [00:19:02] yet. Yeah, It's a mariachi band from Los Angeles and they're very good musicians, a trumpet player, violin, a big bass, old school, Mexican bass, and an, a, a guitar player and a singer.

And they only play the covers of eighties metal songs, Whitesnake Bon Jovi. My goodness. So instead of crazy train by Ozzy Osborne, they play locoi train. They have, they play 'em. They play some heavier stuff like a pan Tara, but it's not heavy because they don't have a drummer. So, and they have three albums.

So we just put it on shuffle. They play hot for teacher by iron maiden. It's the stupidest stupidest. And of course the teacher's name is ms. Mendoza and they go to detention and they can't wait to go to detention because they love ms. Mendosa, the little writers are there and they're talking to all like [00:20:00] cholos from LA.

And you're like, you're on the fourth fairway. Yeah. You hit a shot and your you're smoking this huge cigar gone. Hey, miss Mendosa. Cause, but we're just being stupid. So we're, it's all, it's all of us just trying to have a good time. So yeah, we're trying to play golf, but it was the stupid metal-achi playing on this dumb little speaker and one guy smoking a cigar.

And so it's more about, yeah, we like to play golf and yeah, we want to play well, but. We're just trying to enjoy the day. We're trying to enjoy our lives. And if we don't play well, Hey man, did you have a good time today? Hey, we weren't working. We're just happy to be here. You know, we're just grateful to be here and we're with our friends.

We're just, we're just happy to be here. That's the whole point. I love that. Enjoy the moment. Just enjoy the moment, you know, be here, be present here, hear  

Trista, Host: [00:20:55] now,  

Christopher Peralta: [00:20:55] you know, and I'm but I'm trying to, how do I get the dogs pm the golf course. [00:21:00] No. How to get the dogs on the golf cart without freaking them out. I think it would be too jerky.

Trista, Host: [00:21:07] The only way I've ever seen dogs on a golf course is when they're trained to remove the geese from the golf course.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:21:13] Oh, you have to work on that.  

I have a fear that Roxy would probably try to pee in every sand trap. Ah, it would be really not. Okay. Where you would get fired, man. We would be asked to leave  

Trista, Host: [00:21:24] very fast, super bad,  

Christopher Peralta: [00:21:27] sir. We're gonna, Oh, we have a code seven on hold for a, you're going to have to get your dogs a sir, and get out of here.

That would be very unfortunate. It would be unfortunate. Yeah, but she can say she did it. Yeah, right.  

Trista, Host: [00:21:42] You could, you know, add it to her bucket list.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:21:45] Ding dong. I've taken her to the driving range while she wore her Slayer shirt. And then she was, she didn't want to be there. She wouldn't sit still. She was wandering.

I tried.  

Trista, Host: [00:21:55] Yeah. Yeah. My dog doesn't like sailing. What? I know you can try and [00:22:00] take a dog to water.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:22:02] You can't take it. You  

Trista, Host: [00:22:03] can't make them sail.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:22:06] It's a tough gig  

Trista, Host: [00:22:06] coming up with some good doozies.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:22:09] I know  

Trista, Host: [00:22:09] I would. I'm very impressed with us. Yes, we're doing a very good job. Nice.

Now you become even more interesting as we go, right? You have even more facets. You, it turns out are a California guy, right? And therefore you are a surfer and a skateboarder. We cannot leave the conversation without talking about that.

Especially knowing all the things that we already know about you.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:22:34] Yes. Ma'am  

Trista, Host: [00:22:36] yeah, please elaborate.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:22:38] I grew up in Southern California in orange County, South of LA. My parents moved to orange County when I was a toddler and I grew up about 20 minutes East of, of the beach. And I saw every summer I was down in San Clemente, Laguna beach, Newport beach, Huntington beach.

I was there every summer, every single day. Boogie board. [00:23:00] Surfboard, skateboard. I was a California kid, so I, I still, I, I have a skateboard in my room. I don't skateboard anymore now because I don't want to break a hip. So, that's a joke. I'm not that old, but yeah, I did. I did surf. I had a surf board. love the beach, the smell of the salt air, the, the, the, there, there was a few bands that Suicidal Tendencies was a big Southern California metal band. That was like the sound of my childhood because they were metal band. So that whole, that whole, the, the entire eighties beach vibe was that's my childhood wearing vans, tennis shoes, which I still have probably nine pairs of that's that whole, that was my whole adolescence was beat from the age of six or seven until I was 17. It was just, I was at the beach when, from the day after school, got out to the day, till from Memorial day to labor day. Boom, you're at the beach. I mean, [00:24:00] that's just the way it was. That's just. In the sand and your teeth and getting pummeled by the waves. That's just the way it was the smell of sunblock, eating hot dogs for lunch.

It was beautiful. Listening to ball games, listening to van Halen, his 1984 album. When jump came out on my buddy, Eric's stupid boombox that horrible, crappy boombox. Crusty Duracell batteries with the stupid copper come out of it. The rust come out of it sounded terrible, but it sounded beautiful. Cause you were just real raw life was innocent and you had your whole life, you had it and you had beautiful hair.

Whole life was ahead of you. You know, those beautiful days, the beach was beautiful and you got to do whatever you wanted.  

Trista, Host: [00:24:45] Amazing. Why would you ever move out of that area?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:24:48] Cause I'm an idiot. I know. And the cost of living is ridiculous.  

Trista, Host: [00:24:51] Oh, sure.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:24:53] Yeah. Yes. And everyone's packed in, you know, boom.  

Trista, Host: [00:24:57] Yeah. And so now you have space to breathe.

[00:25:00] Christopher Peralta: [00:25:00] Yeah. Arizona is very, very spread out. The, the, the Phoenix metropolitan area is very flat, but very spread out. So it takes a long time to get from one end of town to the other. So it's the exact. It's kind of the opposite of Southern California where everyone's packed on top of each other. Yeah. Sounds like it, but it's, you know, but it's, it's hell for it's Hades for four months, but

Trista, Host: [00:25:24] it's a dry heat...

Christopher Peralta: [00:25:27] That's garbage six days ago. It was 116. So that's not, it's not acceptable. It's not ok.

Trista, Host: [00:25:33] I'm not visiting you ever like from, for four months,  

Christopher Peralta: [00:25:39] but that's thegood thing about COVID when you get to work from home. I don't. I think it was yesterday. I took the, I took the trash into the garage and I thought when's the last time I drove my car. I think it was like five days ago. I think. I don't, I don't even know which just like, I just, I took, I take the dogs out every morning for a walk. I checked the mail, [00:26:00] but I hadn't been in the car. Right. So I was like, huh, but it's. I mean, it's a nice place to live, but you know, it's called the Valley of the sun.

Okay. It's fricking hot.  

But it's, I forgot it's the other eight months of the year. It's very nice. It's, you know, There's so many people that are retired here in the snow and you know, and from October to April, it's amazing.

That's it? So you're, you know what you're getting into when you live, so yeah.  

Trista, Host: [00:26:28] And open eyes.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:26:30] Yeah. You're you, you're not, you're not, when you don't come June, your AC bill is going to suck. This is the deal. Yeah. It's just what happens,  

Trista, Host: [00:26:38] but you love it there?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:26:40] No, I'm trying to, I'm trying to move. I'm so sorry.

I'm going to be honest with you. I'm trying to move to  

Trista, Host: [00:26:46] Flagstaff.

Always be honest with me. Oh yeah. I'm sorry. That's still Arizona.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:26:49] Yes. Ma'am it's two and a half hours North of Phoenix. It's in Northern, Northern Arizona.  

Trista, Host: [00:26:52] So is it not 116?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:26:54] No, it's at 7,200 feet. So it snows, it never gets above about 85 degrees. [00:27:00] So it's mountains, pine tree. There's a ski resort. So it does get very, I mean, it's not, it's not New York or Michigan cold and snow, but it's, it does get cold. It does get down to zero. well, below freezing that's event, that's where I'm trying to move. If I can, if I can finagle, a full time work from home situation, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,  

Trista, Host: [00:27:23] that's awesome. Amazing. Yeah. So what else do you want me to know about you? We've covered so many different  

Christopher Peralta: [00:27:28] topics. I'm an avid coffee drinker.  

Trista, Host: [00:27:30] Okay.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:27:31] Well,  

Trista, Host: [00:27:32] old  

Christopher Peralta: [00:27:32] brew. I do like  

Trista, Host: [00:27:34] four over Starbucks latte. What's your jam?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:27:37] Cold brew in the summer because it's a Haiti's here. but I do love, I started doing French press about a year ago.

I do, I prefer hot coffee, but I do French press and I've been, I got turned onto Death Wish Coffee Company.  

Trista, Host: [00:27:51] I've heard of them or they just really high caffeine. Is that why they call it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:27:56] All the caffeine. And they have my favorite. It's called The [00:28:00] Valhalla Java, obviously, because it talks about the Vikings.

So, that's my, probably my, and a friend of mine introduced me to Bulletproof coffee, which is, Oh God, that's fantastic. And I'm also,  

Trista, Host: [00:28:16] I am, I'm not into really strong coffee. I like a latte. You know, I, I, I'm not huge into the heavy, heavy strongness, and I'm pretty sensitive to caffeine.

So one cup of regular caffeinated coffee is all I can stand or I'm wound too tight the rest of the day. I have to be really careful with it actually. So those, you know, energy drinks and Bulletproof coffees and stuff. I, I have friends who love them, but I never partake.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:28:48] I only have two cups a day. Cause I used to be, I used to drink a pot a day or three, four cups a day and I'm like, okay, that's fine. I need to back off. So I'm the only, I'm only two cups a day. [00:29:00] The weekends, it's only one cup a day. Cause I just, you are doing something now. There's always something going on. So it's a. It's only one cup a day, but I'm also, I try not to, but I, I'm also an avid bourbon fan, but I turn out to drink too much, but just like, Oh, I'd like to try this  

Trista, Host: [00:29:17] and don't have one drink,  

Christopher Peralta: [00:29:20] Kentucky.

Trista, Host: [00:29:21] I want to make sure to talk about your podcasts. Cause you have a couple of podcasts. We had your cohost on.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:29:28] Yes  

Trista, Host: [00:29:28] with his vanity plate. And actually I got connected somehow with him first. And then he told me about you and your plate. I'm like, Oh indeed, we have to do that. So tell us about your podcast.

Christopher Peralta: [00:29:40] I am on, two podcasts with my good friend Mark Puls. first is Beer Googgles, which is a sub podcast of Knocked Conscious, knockedconscious.com and Knocked Conscious is more of a serious podcast where we talk about spiritual topics. We do. we also did [00:30:00] a, some topics about, conspiracy theories and Beer Googgles is more topics where we basically, drink vodka. So if I drink tequila, because that's what my, I would leave, they would want my grandmother. She would get pissed if I didn't and we'd look up random things on the internet and talk about them like which stupid Marvel character are you. And, you know, I got the Hulk which is   completely not accurate.

I'm like, I'm not the Hulk this is, do I look green? No, that's not. So Beer Googgles is underneath the Knocked Conscious. So those are our two podcasts.  

Trista, Host: [00:30:33] Awesome. And we can find those on all the standard podcast listening.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:30:38] Yes, ma'am I do Spotify and Google podcasts. And then those, once those posts, every Tuesday and Friday mornings, those do go up on YouTube.

Trista, Host: [00:30:48] Very good.  

I wish you a lot of luck with your podcast. I know it's new. And you know, when people talk to me about a podcast, I always say, make sure it's something that you love because it will become a grind week after [00:31:00] week.

And at least if you love the topic, then it's a labor of love. I wish you a lot of luck. Thank you. Thank you.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:31:08] Thank you. We really appreciate that. And, and you as well. I love . I love the few that I listened to. I know I'm a, w I'm a vanity plate guy, so it's like, wow. SNKRMUTT?  

Trista, Host: [00:31:19] I know. Right. I know I loved her.

She was great.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:31:23] Really dog.  

Trista, Host: [00:31:25] Did you listen to TRIPAWD yet?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:31:27] I did not. I saw the picture of it and I was, I can't believe I saw the dog and went, how did I miss this one last night? I went, Oh my God. I, it was late. I'm like, I gotta get to that one.  

Trista, Host: [00:31:36] Yeah. So if you like dogs, definitely go to TRIPAWD. It's an organization about dogs and cats and other animals with three legs and you know how to have them have an amazing life after their, after they have an amputated limb. Yeah. Great. Very moving. And the video version has lots of pictures of the dogs that we're talking about and [00:32:00] yeah, that was a good one too.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:32:02] Yeah. That's that's great.  

Trista, Host: [00:32:03] I do love my podcast.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:32:05] Yeah, you're rockstar.

I mean, what a great idea. Dang. Wow. Just, wow.  

Trista, Host: [00:32:10] I've had a lot of ideas in my life and usually people are like, that's nice, good luck with that. Oh, you're still doing that. And this one is the first idea I've had where people are like, Oh my God. Oh my God is so cool. That's so cool. What a great idea. Finally, you know, 49 years into life.

And I finally hit an idea whose time has come  

Christopher Peralta: [00:32:36] good for you. That's so cool. I love, I love stories like that.  

Trista, Host: [00:32:39] Yeah. Yeah. I'm having fun with it. So I want to thank you so much for being on I'm really excited. I'm apparently going to be on your podcasts as well, so people can get even more of our repertoire and our, you know, chattiness you and I had a lot of chattiness was fun.

Christopher Peralta: [00:32:59] I [00:33:00] agree. Yes. I love who doesn't love chattiness.  

Trista, Host: [00:33:02] I mean, it's one of my favorite things,  

Christopher Peralta: [00:33:04] right. And dogs  

Trista, Host: [00:33:06] and dogs.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:33:07] Right. I have to tell you something. Tell me. Mark's not a dog person. Can you believe that crap?  

Trista, Host: [00:33:14] I don't like him anymore. I knew there was something off about him he's fired.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:33:19] So fired.  

  (whispers) I didn't tell you. You don't know that that's a secret.  

Trista, Host: [00:33:22] Oh, it is okay. I have a friend I work really closely with, and she doesn't like dogs, but we were already pretty closely working together and huge fans of each other before it came up, which is a good thing. It's not. It's a good thing.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:33:39] swishy face. I don't get it. I don't like  

Trista, Host: [00:33:41] it.

I like it. Thank you so much for being on Chris. That is a wrap. ..Oh, wait!  

Christopher Peralta: [00:33:49] Yes. Ma'am  

Trista, Host: [00:33:49] did you ask me a question?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:33:50] No,  

Trista, Host: [00:33:51] you   have to ask me a question.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:33:53] And so I had liked a million questions for you.  

Okay. Great. Well, so you get one and then you can ask me the rest [00:34:00] on your podcast. So, what I like to do at the end of every podcast is turn the tables.

And have you asked me a question? It can be anything as long as it's not about the podcast or license plates, what do you got?

Oh, no. The about license plates.  

Trista, Host: [00:34:18] All right. I could find license plates.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:34:22] I'll say that's fine. I don't want, first of all, I don't like your rules. Okay.  

Trista, Host: [00:34:27] Okay, way more rules than you. It's true.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:34:29] I have a lie. Second of all, that was sarcastic. Third of all, I will go with my question is the significance of   the picture behind you. What is the significance?   What's  

Trista, Host: [00:34:40] the, what's the significance of dragonflies?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:34:42] Yes, ma'am.  

Trista, Host: [00:34:43] Okay, so, cause you're right.

There's a dragon fly here. There's a dragon fly here. . so the significance of dragon flies, they are like a guidepost for me.

It all started a couple years ago. Was having like this [00:35:00] existential crisis and trying to figure out who I am and what am I doing here? And I remember I was sort of having this argument with myself and I was really feeling badly about myself. I was sitting in a parking lot of the TJ max.

It's like kind of an outdoor mall sort of thing. And I'm just having this really bad moment. And all of a sudden this dragon fly, I'm sitting in my car and this dragon fly comes and flies and sits just like eye to eye, eye level, and hovers right in front of me. And it's facing my face face to face dragon fly to me  

Christopher Peralta: [00:35:38] like on the windshield,  

Trista, Host: [00:35:39] like outside the car, but hovering flying, but hovering like just right here at my face.

Okay. And. It's like I could, I just had this really strong feeling that it was there for a reason. And so I started arguing with [00:36:00] myself and then I started kind of arguing with the dragon fly. Like, you know, I'm, I know I can't figure it out. You know, it was this sort of like a spiritual existential sort of thing.

And I swear that dragonflies stayed there until I finally admitted. Whatever it was that I was arguing with myself about that I was a good person, or I don't remember what the specifics were, but when I finally surrendered to the goodness in me, the dragon fly left, and I swear it was over a minute, but it stayed there.

And that was the first time. And then that sort of began this dragon fly relationship where they show up when I need guidance, when I need to be reminded when I need a little support. you know, so for some people it's Cardinals, like I have a friend, if, if a red Cardinal [00:37:00] shows up, then she knows her grandmother's with her, you know?

So there's different things we can look for to kind of make us feel a little more secure and like we're on the right path. And like, we have guidance from outside of ourselves and dragonflies have just become that for me. And what's so freaking cool is I now live in a place we've lived here for a couple of years and I live in a place where there's a ton of dragonflies here, so I'm now surrounded on all sides and when it gets to be dusk outside my husband and I sit on the deck.

And we have a hummingbird feeder and they're very comfortable flying around us. So we've got hummingbirds flying around us and we have dragon flies above us. And it's just the most magical time. That's  

Christopher Peralta: [00:37:48] so cool.  

Trista, Host: [00:37:49] Yeah. So I just sort of see them as this guidepost and I, so then I started having them at first cause I'm like a rule follower as you might have noticed.  

And [00:38:00] so at first it was like, well, I can't put dragonflies in my life because then that's not a symbol. That's just me trying to collect dragonflies. I can't do that. So, and then I'm like, all right, calm down. There are no rules, you know, just calm down.

If you wanna have dragonflies around it, if it gives you comfort, if it gives you peace, then frickin do it. Right?  

Christopher Peralta: [00:38:17] Yeah.  

Trista, Host: [00:38:18] Yeah. and a friend of mine gave me that dragon fly on the wall for a gift. And so I now just sort of let them in whether it's that I choose to have them or they, you know, show up on their own.

I don't, I don't make a big, you know, thing about it. I just let it  

Christopher Peralta: [00:38:35] be. Yeah.  

Trista, Host: [00:38:36] That's great. So there's that good  

Christopher Peralta: [00:38:38] question. That's cool. I dig it,  

Trista, Host: [00:38:41] yeah. Thank you. Thanks for asking, that was a great question. Thank you. And a perfect way to not end our conversation, apparently that is continuing.

But to end this episode of our conversation.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:38:53] Yes, ma'am  

Trista, Host: [00:38:54] thanks so much for being with us.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:38:56] You're welcome. Thank you.  

Trista, Host: [00:38:58] You got it. Have a great day.  

Christopher Peralta: [00:38:59] You too. [00:39:00]

Trista, Host: [00:39:00] Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of Trista's PL8STORY podcast. Please subscribe to Trista's PL8STORY podcast to get the story behind all those vanity plates, driving with you on the road. And if you would like to nominate the owner of a license plate, including you... Or visit any of our partners and sponsors come and see us www.pl8story.com. That's P L number eight story.com and give us the details.  

If you enjoyed this episode, please drop a review and give us a share. I'm Trista Polo wishing you well on the road to your next adventure.