I know! That was actually my favorite part of the essay, because it demonstrates so clearly that having special needs doesn't preclude kids from forging their own identities and learning to navigate the world in ways independent of their parents/caregivers.

"I didn't make a point of pretending that I'm good, moral, or humble, so it's not fair of you to notice that I'm not."

BEST! BEST COMMENT!

Oh, well, there's nothing wrong with that, either.

Sinatra...pretty...ugly...does not compute...

Ha...there was this awful period in May-June when I was at work every night until 11, usually in the office by myself, and usually about 10pm I would have to have a spontaneous dance break just to push through the rest of the night. I'm sure I looked like a crazy person.

Agreed.

That bit where she's explaining why she can't discuss legal issues with her fellow housewives sounds like a little girl parroting back what mommy just told her about why we don't touch the hot stove.

I wonder if it's even some kind of combination of Italian region-of-origin and North American region-of-settlement. My New Jersey-Neapolitan ILs drop the "a," but my Midwest-Sicilian family never did.

I see the hand of The Best Friends Gang at work in this.

I don't blame you, goodness. Did he have any kind of explanation at all for being so thoughtless?! I'm just so sorry to hear this happened, and I hope you get some good help and support.

Yeah, this is a nonsense claim. If the amount of meat being "slipped" to them is so small that they don't even notice that it's there, and they happen to get violently ill from that, it's because they have some other meat-related digestive or immune issue, not because they haven't eaten meat in a long time.

Jesus, where were your friends in all this? I think you're well within your rights to be FURIOUS with them for not having your back here. Not that we should constantly put our friends in the position of having to babysit us when we drink irresponsibly, but the time for them to react to that would be today, AFTER they…

I think it's a stretch to call these people hot. The man has an extremely small head, and that worries me.

Henry V but not Henry Percy?! Hot + doomed is such a sexily tragic combination.

Has "trendy" come back into use as a word among The Youth? Because this is a word I primarily associate with my mom trying awkwardly to relate to teenage-me. As in "OBABS, you really like trendy clothing, don't you?"

Oof. My least favorite thing in scenes like these is when I'm hearing the actors speak but at the same time I can't stop picturing the dialogue on the page, because it's so flat and unnatural it just never seems to fully launch. If that makes any sense.

I know. They're so cute that this may be the only time I've thought the mullet-skirt look is actually working.

What that boob thing specifically reminded me of, mask-wise, are those tiny little eye-covering masks that people who go to tanning beds wear to protect their eyes while still trying to tan as much of the surrounding eye-area as possible. Like, a very LITTLE mask. Which is not meant as a comment on her actual breast…

A tribute to someone who died early and tragically because of drug use, given by a recovering alcoholic incorporating a message about the dangers of addiction into her memorial, does exactly the opposite of glorifying drug use.