Empress1

It must have sucked for the actors to have to be drenched all day every day during this shoot.

Huh. They must have fallen out more recently. When Monique's youngest was born (I think he's about six or seven months old now), Candiace was on IG holding him as a newborn and saying cute things about the whole family. A few of my friends' kids call me Auntie Empress1. If I fell out with their parents, it would hurt to lose those friendships and I would be REALLY sad to lose the relationships with their kids. Monique's kids seem genuinely fond of Candiace so I hope they're able to preserve those relationships.

I thought it was interesting that Candiace wants 6-7 bedrooms, including a suite for her mother when she visits, and Chris was like " ... Or my parents." I've been wondering where Chris's parents fit into all this. And Candiace has a father too. What about when HE visits? Or Chris's two kids that they apparently see regularly? If she's getting a six-bedroom house, those two kids should have their own rooms - it would be pretty fucked up not to have space for them in a house that size. Candiace and Dorothy really are unhealthily enmeshed.

I was like, he's never seen The Wire! But then I realized how young these kids are - The Wire started airing the year after they were born. I found the stuff with McKay's dad pretty interesting. The "doing a whole-ass practice before practice" stuff was like ... damn, but the part about channeling his aggression on the field was interesting because on the field (or court, or baseball diamond or ring or track) is the only place a Black male's aggression is celebrated. The n-word is literally a fighting word, so I don't blame McKay at ALL for fighting that piece of shit who called him that on the field, but that can come at an extreme cost in the predominantly white circles in which McKay seems to move. I suspect McKay's dad knows that.

I don't think Gizelle is neglectful. I actually thought that was ... I'm not sure how to phrase this, but a way of illustrating what a family friend told me when I was about 21-22: you can have it all but you can't have it all at the same time. Gizelle is a single (and if I recall correctly, her ex-husband lives in another state so I doubt she's handing off the kids every weekend) mom of three who has a business. She's busy. She said herself that she felt like she thought her kids were seeing her as a strong woman building a business for them, but she didn't know her kids felt like she was falling down on the mom job. If you're a working parent, odds are great that you're going to miss some soccer games. Her kids do seem bonded to her and comfortable enough with her to tell her how they feel - it was probably hard for the twin who feels neglected (I don't know which twin is which - I know Grace is the oldest and the other two are Angel and Adore, but I can't tell the twins apart) to tell Gizelle that but she did, and I think Gizelle heard her. I don't think Gizelle is neglectful in, like, a CPS sense; I just think she's busy juggling and sometimes balls get dropped. I thought it was a rare moment of vulnerability for her. Re: Gizelle being introverted, she may be. She seems to like her alone time. I am an introvert, and when I tell people that they are always shocked. I recharge by being alone. Extroverts recharge by being around people. I think there's a misconception that introverts are shy and socially awkward, when introversion, shyness, and social awkwardness are three different things - you CAN have some combination of them, but it's not a guarantee. I highly recommend the book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain - it helped me understand MYSELF better, because it breaks down all the different kinds of introversion (and there are different kinds!)

I assume so, but her hair looks terrible.

What is going on with Ashley's look in the pink?

IMO Megan definitely resents the baby. She said she wished the baby weren't Michael's because it tethers him to Sarah, which ... I mean, he has a whole-ass other kid, Megan. He is legally tethered to Sarah. The "connection to Sarah" ship BEEN sailed. She doesn't strike me as anywhere near mature enough to handle step-parenthood (not that Michael has any plans to marry her). She REALLY needs to just walk the fuck away from all this; what she wants (Michael all to herself) is impossible AND SHE LOOKS SO STUPID.

My brother and I have four different godparents. Mom's Friend 1 is my godmother; Mom's Friend 2 is my brother's. Dad's Friend 1 is my godfather, Dad's Friend 2 is my brother's. Obviously if anything had happened to my parents in my childhood, they wouldn't have divided us among four people! It was purely symbolic. Some godparents are guardians but not all guardians are godparents. (This is why IMO if someone asks you to be a godparent, you should get all that straight up front - am I a guardian, will you leave your assets to me in that case, is this all in a will, etc. I am very pro-documentation.) Brittany keeps saying she has no one, but I swear she had like 4 sisters at her wedding. Maybe they're not close. He does. I thought Lizzie was Latina. "My boyfriend's wife is having another baby." At least Megan ... kind of hears herself? She's still dumb as fuck though. Her fear is that she'll come second to Michael's kids, and she SHOULD come second to them. (I also doubt her ability to be a good stepparent to them, if it came to that.) The place Clint and Tracie stayed in really does look like a pit.

I saw this movie because it is literally a hundred degrees outside today with a heat index of hell and I happened to be near a theater and it was starting in 10 minutes. I figured, I'll use their AC instead of mine - I've seen quite a few movies for this reason. I'd seen the trailer. But it's actually good! Much better than I expected. It does a couple of things well: you only have to care about the father and Haley, not the entire town, and the plot is really simple: Dad and Haley are stuck in a crawl space that is flooding, and it's Florida so there are alligators everywhere. I am not claustrophobic but I could feel how tight things would be under that house (it was also fucking gross). They weren't superheroes - they had strengths it made sense for them to have. The daughter was a competitive swimmer so her being able to hold her breath for a long time and swim fast made sense, and they were Florida natives so it made sense that they understood a few things about alligators. And they don't escape unscathed (although I thought Haley's wounds should have been worse). The acting isn't great and I didn't really care about the emotional back story (Haley is mad at Dad because of her parents' divorce, Dad can't bring himself to sell the old family house ... which I guess won't be an issue since it was completely destroyed by the hurricane), but the "trapped in a flooding house with alligators" stuff is very effective. And it's only an hour and a half so it's not bloated. I compete in sprint (short distance) triathlons for fun so I had fun imagining I could out-swim an alligator. (I am certain I cannot.)

I agree, Amber seems childlike to me too. I wonder how she is as a teacher?

I mean, he's four! Hasn't he used stairs at some point? Even people who live in homes without stairs encounter stairs. I remember reading an article about things ER physicians say they'll never have because they'd seen too many injuries as a result of those things and they were things like motorcycles and trampolines. Stairs were not on the list. She did look sour all the time and she had a generally stank attitude. If she's THAT concerned about safety, I'm surprised she rode in a car. I did think her fears were both genuine and extremely irrational, to the point where I wondered if she should seek treatment for anxiety. I'm not being flippant. She's only going to need to loosen the reins on her son as he gets older, and I wondered if she'd be able to do that. That hot dog machine looked like a toaster oven to me. And it's not like you're going to get real-deal, lucrative famous by being on this show. It's publicity for a realtor but there's not much reason for anyone else to do it, other than out of a desire to be on TV.

No, I, Tonya wasn't a documentary. Margot Robbie played Tonya Harding and Alison Janney played her mother (which, whoo, chile, that was something. Talk about not having a loving mother; she makes Elektra look like Clair Huxtable). I saw it on a plane fairly recently so it should be floating around somewhere.

I would amend this slightly to say that when someone tells you they don't want to or can't be in a relationship with you, believe them - even if it means you have no romantic or sexual contact, or any contact with them at all. "I'd be a bad boyfriend." "I've sworn off relationships until after med school." Whatever it is, take them at their word. Don't probe further, don't ask why, just keep it moving. They are ALWAYS telling the truth. It took me a while but I learned to live by Maya Angelou's quote "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time" and once I did, life got easier. I've never understood why people want to be with people they have to talk into it - we should all be with people who choose us enthusiastically. I thought it was interesting that Ana finally got that Aaron didn't want to be with HER, not that he didn't want to be in a relationship period - had Zoe chosen him, he'd be in a relationship with her right now. If someone else comes along that he wants to commit to, he will commit to her. I've seen it a million times. Doesn't mean she's not worth committing to, doesn't mean their connection wasn't real, but he's not for her. Exactly. I suspect Nomi will look back on this once she's gotten some more distance and think "that was really fucked up." She was dead right when she called out Paige's hypocrisy.

Girl he has two ovens. The meals I could make in that kitchen ...