Off Record: Lost in the Woods (with Gaby)

Patia Eaton (0:00)

Hey, it's Patia from The Knife. Our show is up for a Signal Award in the Documentary category, which is so exciting. The link to vote is in the show notes, or you can go to vote.signalaward.com, navigate to categories and select genre, then Documentary to find The Knife and cast your vote. You do have to sign up to vote, but it's quick and painless and your vote would mean so much to us. Voting is open until October 15th. Thanks so much and we hope you enjoy this next episode.

Hannah Smith (0:28)

This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.

Patia Eaton (0:33)

The claims and opinions in this podcast are those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent The Knife or Exactly Right Media.

Welcome to The Knife Off Record. I'm Patia Eaton. As most of you know, Hannah is currently on leave after having a baby. She's doing well. We actually had a chance to catch up yesterday, which was so nice and she will be back soon. I'm sure you miss her just like I do. But today, I have the distinct pleasure of speaking with one of Hannah's longtime friends, Gaby. Gaby has an amazing story to share with us that Hannah and I both think you will love. It's funny and terrifying and we tend to cover a lot of really difficult topics and stories on this show. This episode is a little bit of a breather from that.

Hi Gaby. Hi. It's so nice to have you in the studio.

Gaby (1:41)

I'm so happy to be here.

Patia Eaton (1:43)

So you are a friend of Hannah's.

Gaby (1:46)

That's right.

Patia Eaton (1:46)

And I'm so excited to hear the story today. Hannah gave me just the littlest bit of information. I was like, stop right there. I want the full scoop from her in person.

And we thought it'd be perfect to record this while Hannah's on her leave anyway. And I'm so excited you're here. So we always love to start off with just a little introduction.

Gaby (2:08)

Okay. I'm Gaby. I live in Los Angeles, California. I lived here for about almost 15 years.

Patia Eaton (2:14)

Me too.

Gaby (2:15)

Wow. Doesn't time go by?

Patia Eaton (2:17)

It really does.

Gaby (2:18)

I am currently in school to become a nurse.

Patia Eaton (2:23)

Oh, that's exciting.

Hannah Smith (2:23)

A bit of a career change.

Gaby (2:24)

Yeah.

Hannah Smith (2:25)

Very exciting.

Gaby (2:27)

I have been doing personal assistant work, but I was in the entertainment industry for a while.

Patia Eaton (2:32)

Okay. I am a former personal assistant.

Gaby (2:35)

Yes. I know. I know the grind. It's really intense.

Patia Eaton (2:39)

Yeah. Shout out Patty Stinger, millionaire matchmaker, among others.

It's a great way to see the city, but it's also so taxing.

Gaby (2:51)

Yeah. It's really taxing. Yeah. Long hours. Long hours, which I'm about to go into, arguably, the most stressful taxing career. Right. You're not going to be relaxing as a nurse. It's going to be worse, but different.

Patia Eaton (3:03)

Different. Well, that's awesome. I love a pivot, you know?

Gaby (3:06)

Hey, we love a pivot.

Patia Eaton (3:08)

Yeah. Why not? So today, just to preface everything with the story, this story is about you and your now ex-boyfriend, and we're not going to use his real name because he's not here, and it wouldn't be right. So we're going to call him Ryan.

Gaby (3:21)

That's right. We are going to call him Ryan.

Patia Eaton (3:22)

That's what we've decided on.

Gaby (3:24)

We've decided, we've agreed.

Patia Eaton (3:25)

Great. So I want to start off with a little bit about when you first met Ryan.

Gaby (3:33)

Actually, Ryan and I met because I cast him in a short film that I made. Never came to fruition, but he was great in it. He's an actor, he's a comedian, was very drawn to the way he was in the world and his sense of humor. Very, very funny person. People were very drawn to him.

It was a bit of one of those relays. It was like a rebound, not a rebound, but you know how your next relationship-

Patia Eaton (4:02)

But maybe you weren't in the perfect place.

Gaby (4:04)

Maybe I wasn't in the perfect place.

Patia Eaton (4:06)

But so far this is a perfect LA meet-cute.

Gaby (4:08)

Exactly.

Patia Eaton (4:08)

You know, you're casting him in a short film. Very LA. You're drawn to his energy.

Gaby (4:12)

That's right.

Patia Eaton (4:13)

Okay.

Gaby (4:13)

So I think our relationship started well, but pretty soon after we started dating, COVID began.