TattleTeeny

YES! In fact, I have had two and both are glorious: Gardein's Ultimate Beefless Burger and Field Roast's FieldBurger. They're both super-easy to prepare on the stove, and I can't wait to bring them to barbecues, where I tend to feel almost jealous of the meat people. And I hear there's one that is even better but I have not been able to get my grimy paws on it: the Beyond Meat brand. And Field Roast also has a hot dog that is not only not eraser-like, but really good; it even gets crispy! Maybe they don't want my kind getting in on their fun? Of course, their fun usually also includes talking to me about (my perceived lack of) protein while revealing they don't know a thing about their own, haha! You eat "normal" food in the USA, you're getting enough protein without much effort.

Just speculation but Eden reminds me of someone I know (right down to the overly familiar behavior with people she's only just met) who is desperate for a connection that is "just so," and also even more desperate for the people around her to see that she is able to obtain such a connection. Sorry if that is weirdly vague and simultaneously very specific, but it just, as they say, pinged my personal radar.

I actually like the taste of burgers, seafood, and various other non-vegan things--most of all cheese! But all that is simply less important to me that not using animals, so I don't do it anymore. But I have had people--mainly non-vegans, oddly enough--outright argue with me that I am wrong for finding vegan substitutes for these things (e.g., a meatless burger that tastes like a real one as opposed to your run-of-the-mill veggie burger that mimics the shape only) because if I like meat I should "just eat it then." Talk about missing a point! And that's why in some social situations, I try to be pretty inconspicuous with my food (go for a pasta dish in public; makes things somewhat easier).

I take them as seriously as VPR Ariana takes comedy, damn it!

Well, some people might be taking her way too seriously...that much appears to be true.

Yes, we understand, some don't like her. We get it.

Oh my god, Slumdog Millionaire!

I like her. Out of all of them, I think she's the one most like someone I'd hang out with. I don't know if she'd be my "real" friend who hangs out doing nothing at my house, or merely a person at work to have lunch with, but I pick her. I like Kyle too, but I don't get the idea I'd laugh at many of the same things as she does. And I like Lisa V. but maybe she's a bit exhausting.

I like Erika but, oy--yes! Her makeup, while excessive, is flawless. But so much. So, so much (to me, at least--I'm pretty minimal out of lack of desire and ineptitude). I guess that's kind of true for many of the HWs though.

And let me tell you, even from the other side of the food-choice fence, one has to justify it nonstop! Good lord, sometimes at functions, I dread letting anyone see me not eat meat! I swear, one more weird, pointed question disguised as concern about protein, and I'll take a bite right out of a person! I don't find this farfetched when it comes to Rinna, haha. In fact, I can picture her waving her arm up in the air, all "ooh, ooh, pick me!"

UGH, my peeve this week is the stupid snow-plow guys that our condo association contracts. The geniuses piled it all around the mailboxes and now the mailman can't get to them. I figured that might be what was going on after two days with nothing, but confirmed it today when I tracked a package and saw a note that said "receptacle blocked."

I can honestly say that if my parents had divorced when I was much younger (I was 18 when it happened), I would have fought tooth and nail to live with my dad (and knowing how to push my mother's buttons since birth, I probably would have eventually gotten my wish, no matter where I started out, haha!).

I'm with you on this 100%, and I'm saying that as one of those filthy vegans, haha! Maybe I shouldn't but I do have my own inner differentiation between just eating meat (even if the way it gets to the table is, to me, unacceptable) and committing outright torture for fun and entertainment. To oversimplify, the former is just something I don't want to do while the latter makes me feel every negative emotion that could come out of a person. And that might be where Lisa V. and many others are. Maybe the dad's home was just a better option all around (schools, neighborhood, bigger apartment/house, more kids in the area?) regardless of Erika's career goals and whatever else. It happens--I know a few people who lived with their dads growing up after a divorce.

It's not that I disagree with you at all on this. It's just that I don't know that calling people hypocrites helps, I guess? I'm having trouble articulating...maybe I just think that while the word "hypocrite" could apply in a technical sense that it just sounds a bit harsh directed at someone who is at least doing something to support animal welfare? I mean, maybe I am being not harsh enough because if I call LVP a hypocrite, I'd have to call most of my friends and my BF and sister that too (and yes, I do get all charged up sometimes when someone posts some damn link about "OMG, cruel people are eating horses!?!!!!11!" just a few hours before posting a photo of their dinner--usually my sister, who wants all of FB to view her as an animal savior; it's weird!). But even if they're hypocrites, they also make donations to my animal shelter or try to buy cruelty-free brands or whatever, so it's better than doing nothing for animal-welfare causes? To be honest, I am probably a hypocrite too because I rarely address their hypocrisies even though it's important to me, as it's just easier to shut up and seethe silently. Haha, this is tricky!

I WANNA SEE! Again, I have no look book but I doubt anyone who knows me would be surprised if I had one! As for organizing (when I have the chunk of time I need to really, really get into a purge-and-revamp groove--you do not want to start this kind of thing when you've got only a couple of free hours), just ask my BF how many times he can stand to hear the term "like with like" ever again. The thing with a look book though that stresses me out (oh my god, what kind of person stresses out over a hypothetical look book?) is the constant updating I'd need to do! A look book might be like giving myself a life sentence! Agree on the Photoshop; she looks like she's made of matte-finish clouds--you see this so often on fashion blogs by chicks who must assume no one notices. But who the fuck gives a fuck abut looking like a damn drag queen already? And I'm seeing nothing remarkable about those thighs--they seem pretty normal to me (way better than the fashion-blog chicks who give themselves thigh-gap without knowing how to correct the background that now shows behind their legs!).

Yeah! You want her to be your friend, and practically obsess over the fact that she isn't doing it fast enough, yet when she does something to indicate that she's got no real problem with you (even after the underwear business that wouldn't die), you call her out on it in front of people? (I'm exaggerating the terminology a bit, the the point is there--I think, anyway.) I'm no Rinna fan but that tiny amount of time didn't and couldn't tell us whether or not she/Harry and the dog's vet are already dealing with it. If there's even an "it" to be dealt with, that is.

I'm skinny now at 46, and always have been, and I keep telling my BF that I need to fatten up my face just a little before I get old! He doesn't understand this at all! So far, nary a wrinkle even around the eyes, but the day will come that I will need more face to keep things up where they belong!

And who can blame them in many cases? You want to believe that what you're told is the truth, especially when it's told by hopefully trustworthy sources, you know? And without knowing that there is something deeper to dig for, you generally don't start digging (if that makes sense). Everyone can't run around being suspicious of everything, or have the time, resources, and constitution to investigate everything. For example, my allergist says do this, I probably won't run off to Google her "this" and see if she's wildly off course (...or maybe I will. Bad example, I am kind of That Guy sometimes). The urge to research is often the innate, reflexive result of simply finding "Issue Z" more close to home/interesting/horrific/gut-punching than Issues A through Y. No one can do it all, but everyone should do something! And a job's a job--good for you for being able not to have a public meltdown and subsequently get out of it as well.

I'm not saying that that anything isn't horrific--just the opposite in fact: it's all horrific. I'm just saying that when people picture "cage-free" or "free-range" animals happily roaming loose, it's inaccurate. Well, thanks (that ain't snark--I mean it, haha)! While I have no doubt that it's all super-interesting (I'm a documentary nerd), I just can't do it to myself; I don't deal well with the subject matter.

Plus, this "free range" stuff makes much less of a difference to the animal than people are led to believe that it does.

Yup. Though if I could become glammed by just snapping my fingers or saying a magic word -- no people futzing about and tugging and poking -- I'd give it a go. And I'm not too bad with the age-"inappropriate" or the platforms (I have a closet full of '70s, with some '90s clunks thrown in) as long as the wedge doesn't dramatically taper toward the bottom. I hate that! Consistently fat wedges only, please! CLUNKY! And haha to Excel--that's how I Christmas shop among other things in life. Makes me wonder exactly how in the hell I am so addled in other aspects!

Oh my goodness, right?! Seriously, I will stress and stress and stress hard until the moment comes that...oh, well--too bad, can't do a damn thing about it anymore*! Like when I'm boarding the plane, or whatever. And while the former part is kind of my natural "setting" that I am used to, the latter is quite liberating. (However, I do have to add that this can sometimes be a tough way to live. Working on it.) And guess what else? Depending where I'm going, it is entirely likely that, no matter what I packed, I'll spend 95% of the time in beat-up cut-off jeans and flip-flops anyway. Sometimes I think there's no damn middle ground with me, man. (* This was also my approach to exams in college, and editorial deadlines now--e.g., once I was in my seat to take the test (that I may or may not have been prepared for), there was nothing more I could do even if I wanted to. Poof, stress gone.)

Not your fault that you have eyes and ears in what was, for a while, a Kardashian-saturated market! But, I mean, if you want a look book, have a look book. I'm 46 and no one's wife but it if helps indecisive me navigate an overstuffed closet better than I do on my own, I think I do rate a look book! Not that I'd ever get around to it, mind you--clearly I'd rather come up with what I am sure is FINALLY THE PERFECT CLOSET PLAN THIS TIME...and then waste the good part of a weekend only to realize not only that is is not, but that it's also not that different from my previous "foolproof" arrangement.

Parts of me -- the overthinking part that packs way too much, and the considerably smaller but just as real "who gives a shit?" part -- thinks the look book is a bit out there. But then there's yet another part that wonders how much time I'd save on any given day with a book of my own. Imagine a life without "I forgot to wear my super-cool new-old vintage cardigan that I had such glorious plans for!" or even "Shit, these tights are navy not black! Curses!"

Not to mention Rinna volunteered not only the Xanax-smoothie info, but also produced the bag o' pills hoping to elicit an "Oh, that zany Rinna!" reaction. And while it seemed (to me, anyway) like Dorit was trying to start some shit when she told Lisa V. about Rinna's pills, it also kind of seemed like it got dropped pretty quickly and no one cared. I feel like Rinna is the only one putting this pill-bag business out there and trying to make it a Big Thing. Haha--maybe she was on the junk while on the junk.