Love Wrecked (2005), Stupid Walks for my Stupid Mental Health, and My Birthday Dinner
Hello Friends,
It has been a minute! Long story short, life has been throwing me some interesting pitches lately and I’ve never been good at baseball. I am trying to get back to the things that make me happy, so here I am writing my newsletter! Let’s get right into it.
Rants
Have you ever been talking about a movie that you loved as a kid and all of a sudden you realize that parts of that movie have aged like unrefrigerated milk? This happened to me recently when discussing Love Wrecked (2005) starring Amanda Bynes and Jonathan Bennett. While it only has a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, Love Wrecked had an absolute chokehold on me as a teen. Jonathan Bennett plays Ryan, the sweet best friend who has feelings for Jenny, Amanda Bynes character. He totally won me over with his guy-next-door, puppy dog eyed persona. However, looking back on the movie he has one scene that just absolutely does not sit well with me.
Ryan is covering for Jenny at the resort where they work, and through some shenanigans, gets mistaken for a masseuse. His next client is a fat woman. Ryan is horrified that he has to touch this woman and makes disgusted faces as he starts to massage her. At one point he sticks his hand in between her arm and her torso and when he brings it back out, it is covered in some sort of slime and his watch is gone. He then has to fish his watch out of her slimy armpit. GUYS I WISH I WAS KIDDING.
I cannot believe that I ever watched this scene and laughed. It makes me sad. Why do we treat fat people like this?? What poor actress had to put slime in her armpits for this scene?? Why was anyone okay with this?? The trope that fat people are gross and dirty is so unbelievably harmful and mean. And it is not just in media. I have had this stereotype used against me. I made a TikTok once about how it is okay to have a big belly and some ignorant teenage boy commented on it “You must smell so bad.” My first instinct was to write some snarky comment back, but I just took a screenshot of the comment and found his mom and sisters on Facebook and sent it to them. This is how I think all internet trolls should be handled.
Anyway, I just hope that by the time my future daughter is a teenager, she has better media to watch. I have started to see more fat representation and better treatment of fat people in some media, but we still have a looooooooong way to go.
Raves
If you are a TikTok user, you may have heard of hot girl walks. Hot girl walks consist of wearing a cute matching set (think lululemon), slicking your hair back in a ponytail, wearing cute sunnies, filling your Stanley cup with water, and going on a walk. During your walk you are supposed to manifest all your hot girl dreams and listen to uplifting podcasts and solve world hunger, or something like that.
Now, no shade to the hot girl walkers. I wish I could be a hot girl walker, I really do. However, there is another type of walk circulating on TikTok that just fits my needs a little better - the stupid walk for my stupid mental health. This walk consists of dragging yourself out of the house, wearing whatever clothes you happen to have on, leaving your hair in its three-day-old top knot, and walking sullenly until you remember that being outside does actually make you feel better and you like the smell of fresh air and the chirping of the birds. A stupid walk for your stupid mental health is low pressure. It has no aesthetic requirements. It asks nothing of you but to put one foot in front of the other.
I have salvaged so many dark days with a stupid walk. And pretty much every time I find myself thinking, as John Green so eloquently put it in a recent video of his stupid walk, “it is, in spite of myself, quite pleasant.”
Reviews
This week I will be reviewing two things I ate as part of my birthday festivities. I don’t have a picture of either of them, but I do have this cute picture of me at my birthday dinner.
1.) For my birthday dinner, we tried an Italian restaurant in Downtown Spokane called Tavolata. They make all of their own pastas fresh in-house. I had the Pappardelle Pasta with Beef and Pork Ragu. It was DIVINE. The ragu sauce had hints of orange and mint, and the pasta was cooked to the perfect al dente. 10/10.
2.) In lieu of a birthday cake, I opted for a Raspberry Cream Pie from Birdie’s Pie Shop. I dream of this pie. I would name a child after this pie. If you come visit me I will make you try this pie. I am going to grab a photo off of their website so you can see this pie. This is the description from the website:
Fresh raspberries are perfectly blended into a light, mouth-watering cream base saying goodbye to all your previous cream based pie favorites, our raspberry cream pie will make you realize the true destiny of the raspberry fruit. Perfectly placed atop a chocolate, butter crumb crust and adorned with our house-made whipped topping with a kiss of a fresh raspberry on top. Yum!
Believe me when I say that this seemingly dramatic description is an understatement. 11/10.
TTYL!
Your Friend,
Kelsey
