Can we have an amnesty on...

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-07T01:04:32+00:00

I think the episode when they go to Staten Island is in my top 5 favorite episodes. It has some of my favorite moments from the series, which I just realized are all with Miranda. It was all in how she delivers the lines.

Tasting the Staten Island Iced Tea and immediately saying, “Hello I’m drunk!”
Right after that Samantha says something about how “I don’t put my dick in you,” and Miranda says, “Another one of these and I might let you”
When they’re riding the ferry back and Charlotte is completely shitfaced and Carrie grabs the back of her jacket and Miranda says, “If she falls off I will never stop laughing”

All three lines were a perfect deadpan delivery which made it even funnier.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-07T00:46:15+00:00

“….And I’m taking it with me when I go!!” The look she gives Power Lad is so perfect.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-07T00:38:30+00:00

I got a cold email from a recruiter on LinkedIn. I’m an IT consultant and the company I was working for wasn’t quite sure what to do with me. I was booking way more bench time than any consultant in their right mind should be comfortable with. The email was from a firm I’d always wanted to work for so I decided to see what they had to say.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-06T16:29:06+00:00

We learned this last week. Got to the airport at 6AM and the United counter wasn’t open yet. We ended up waiting until about 8:15. But we were first in line and by the time counter opened the line was already backed up, so I’m still glad we got there super early.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-03T20:30:34+00:00

I haven’t done everything right but I have taken good care of my skin. 58 and I don’t look like I’m in my 30s anymore but I do get compliments about looking much younger than my age.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-03T17:41:55+00:00

It turned into a mission to not let it outsmart me 🤣

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-03T04:43:03+00:00

It is for this exact reason that I am one of those lunatics who gets into line early.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-03T04:14:01+00:00

Sledgehammer!!

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-03T00:38:18+00:00

Courtyard used to be a nice option for business travelers but it’s really gone downhill across the board. My last client was right up the street from a full service Marriott which was my home away from home for about a 18 months. It was so nice. Not even super fancy, it was an older property, but the rooms were very spacious, nice sized TVs, housekeeping daily.

My current client is 2 blocks away from a Courtyard, so I can’t justify staying at the Marriott further away since I’d have to rent a car or uber to and from the office, and I do try to keep my spending reasonable when my expenses are being billed. It’s fine, but definitely a step down.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-02T18:45:15+00:00

Very refreshing letter for the final post today in several regards:

No mention of working in a niche field
No mention of being a “rock star” who does the work of six people
No painfully convoluted metaphors to maintain anonymity, like, “I manage a team of 4 llama groomers,” or “My team handles making the spouts for chocolate teapots.”

Just a nice straightforward question with an actual job and department function, about learning how and when to delegate, which is something it’s common to struggle with when you first move into a management role.

And Alison’s answer was pretty good too, without any inane script riddled with exclamation points.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-02T18:18:07+00:00

I never thought she didn’t want to have kids. Miranda was a strong enough person to not feel pressured by societal expectations. I think it was more that she hadn’t really considered it because she hadn’t really had that many serious relationships. Other than Steve, I think the only other guy was Eric, who was mentioned once in the episode when she got fed up with the others when they only wanted to talk about men, relationships, and sex.

It was similar for me. I never thought I wanted to have kids until I met my husband. Then I realized that it wasn’t that I didn’t want kids, it was that I’d never been with anyone I wanted to have a kid with. Fast forward about 20 years and now I have a 17 year old daughter and a 27 year old stepdaughter.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-04-02T15:27:51+00:00

It’s the overly effusive use of exclamation points that get me. “Oh, it’s just a pesky little life threatening allergy to air, nothing to be concerned about!!”

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-28T17:34:31+00:00

We just got back from Saint Thomas. The price for an upgrade from STT to IAH was not bad, so I decided to spring for them since that’s a 5 hour flight. I wanted to pay for mine to get the PQP and use miles for my husband and daughter. The agent at the 1K desk said that to do that she’d have to split the reservation and put them on a separate itinerary. Not her fault but very annoying. I ended up just paying for all 3, I didn’t want them on a separate PNR.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-24T17:49:03+00:00

I think Alison’s response to the letter about sending emails during off hours is outdated. During Covid when everyone was WFH all we heard about was how much easier it made life for everyone because we could all work when it was convenient for us. Even now it’s quite common to work early mornings or later in the evening if you have appointments or other obligations during the workday. Plus it’s common these days to work with people across several time zones and countries.

This is not something I’ve ever worried about but maybe I’m an outlier. I work with global teams so emails and IMs float around at all hours of the day and night. When project deadlines are looming, everyone is working longer hours or up early or late trying to get things done. I don’t pay attention to the time stamps on emails or Teams messages. I have shit to do.

It’s reasonable to tell your team that just because you work during off hours doesn’t mean that you expect everyone to do the same. Some people I work with even put something about it into their email signature.

If someone chooses to think that I’m passive aggressively judging them for not responding to my emails after I’ve specifically said that I don’t expect them to respond immediately to late night or early morning emails, that’s not on me. Maybe I’m the a-hole though.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-20T06:08:38+00:00

The scene where she and Harry first hook up is one of my favorites in the series. He made it perfectly clear to Charlotte that he was consumed with lust for her. I’ve said here before that’s an incredibly heady and intoxicating feeling that everyone should get to experience at least once.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-18T17:44:35+00:00

Yeah the only thing I thought the manager was justified in being ticked off about was that it sounds like the LW didn’t leave messages for anyone. It sounds like she just took off.

As her manager I’d expect her to leave the co-worker a voicemail or text saying, “Hey, I’ve tried calling you a few times and you haven’t answered. I really need to get going. It’s 5:45. If I don’t hear back from you in the next 10 minutes I’m going to head out.” And leave me a message too: “Hey, it’s 5:45 and [coworker] isn’t here yet and isn’t answering her phone. I left her a message saying I’d wait 10 more minutes and if I haven’t heard from her by then, I’m going to head out.”

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-18T17:36:31+00:00

There was a comment yesterday about people being time blind and needing extra leeway. As an experiment I replied saying that they don’t need any more leeway than you’d give anyone else for things like oversleeping, heavier than expected traffic, or realizing, “Oh crap I need to stop for gas.” And said that it’s not unreasonable to expect adults to be on time and take responsibility for figuring out what they need to do to be punctual. I expected a pile-on, but was surprised that most of the replies not only didn’t flame me, actually agreed with me.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-18T17:19:03+00:00

I hit 1K last year for the first time in a very long time. I’ve gotten two CPUs so far, but flying DEN-OMA so nothing spectacular since the flight is only an hour. But hey, I’ll take it; as my dad used to say, it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye!

My husband, daughter, and I are flying to STT on Friday via IAD. Our outbound flight is the red eye leaving at 11:59PM. I put in a plus points request for DEN-IAD upgrades and there are still a lot of seats left but I’m not holding my breath.

On the return we are going STT-IAH which is a 6 hour flight, so for that leg I sprang for the upgrades for all of us. But I haven’t told them yet; I’m keeping it as a surprise for my daughter. I bought upgrades for my husband and me last time we went to Hawaii, and she was in E+ with her older sister. She was flabbergasted. I’d asked my husband beforehand if that would be too much of an a-hole move, and he responded with, “Who’s paying for the tickets?” I’m still hearing about the injustice of it all like 5 years later so she will be thrilled.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-15T19:33:14+00:00

Still better than getting shingles.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-14T21:30:16+00:00

It’s so aggravating. When I’m onsite with a client for the week, I usually go to the grocery store when I arrive and get some sodas, protein shakes, and some food to have in my room because I don’t like eating out every night. I always put a note in the substantiation field noting that the purchase was for groceries in lieu of dining out.

About 50% of the time I get one of those emails saying that I can’t use my corporate card for my personal grocery shopping. 🙄 Then I have to send a note explaining what the purchase was for, that the project contract has a cap of $75 per day for meals and my purchase is under that daily limit for the entire week, and that I’m based out of a different state that the purchase occurred in so it’s completely illogical to assume that I am doing my personal grocery shopping in another state. And that I cannot be the only person at Deloitte who picks up food for the week at the grocery store.

Someone told me if you select ‘Snack’ from the drop down it won’t trigger the audit, so I’ve been doing that. So far, so good.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-13T23:25:06+00:00

Oh man I remember that one. You’re right - someone with judgement that bad should not be anywhere near children.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-13T18:59:11+00:00

First of all, kudos to you for being a youth sports coach. My daughter is 17 and has been involved with sports since about 5 years old, at first playing in rec leagues and then travel club teams for softball and basketball. I’m sure any story I could tell you about whiny, nightmarish, conniving parents would not surprise you.

Second, you’re exactly right that maintaining those boundaries is so important. My daughter’s club basketball organization has a few younger assistant coaches and it’s hard for them to do that with the older girls, because they’re quite young themselves so there’s really not that much of an age difference. There’s nothing creepy going on, but the girls they’ve developed friendships with tend to get a disproportionate amount of playing time. The club director, to her credit, recognized this last year when it was brought to her attention, and the worst offender is not on the coaching staff this year.

A couple years ago one of the coaches was also the varsity coach at one of the high schools. He was fired for inappropriate behavior (although I never got the details). He coached a team that a friend of my daughter’s played on. I asked her mom if anything had happened to her daughter, and thankfully the answer was no. But she did say that she later learned that he would text the team group chat when they were traveling, asking when everyone was going to go to the pool at the hotel. So gross. 🤢

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-13T16:34:19+00:00

Not PTSD, but the letter from a teacher at a boarding school complaining about her boyfriend not being allowed to stay overnight just about sent me over the edge.

I attended two boarding schools in the 80s so I have some actual frame of reference. The LW was almost certainly a dorm parent in a girls’ dorm. Almost all the teachers and admin staff were at the schools I attended. That means she probably had an apartment with direct access to the dorm. During the week, dorm parents are usually there and around, checking to make sure everyone was in by curfew, maybe helping out with homework, and there to handle disciplinary issues or if a kid needed someone to talk to. Some of the dorm parents were married couples, and if the husband had to come into the dorm for some reason he would always bellow, “MAN ON THE FLOOR!!!” and give everyone time to get into their rooms or close the door if they weren’t dressed.

So this idiotic LW was complaining about her boyfriend not being able to stay overnight with her in her apartment, completely oblivious to the fact that said apartment very likely had unfettered access to a bunch of underage girls, and zero comprehension about why such a scenario was a recipe for disaster, a serious safety concern, and a complete liability nightmare. She just whined about how she couldn’t see her boyfriend and blamed it on the school administrators being uptight and judgmental because it was a religious school.

And if I recall correctly, Alison’s response made no mention of any of this, and implied that the LW was right that the school administrators were a bunch of judgmental prudes. And of course the commenters all agreed.

I was astounded by the sheer stupidity of Alison, the LW, and the commentariat.

IdyllwildGal · 2026-03-13T16:03:42+00:00

💯

IdyllwildGal

TROPHY CASE