Dunder Mifflin Tiff? As If! The Office BFFs Put it all Down on Paper

What if The Office's Pam and Angela were best friends?  What if, instead of reluctant colleagues who tolerated each other at best and gossiped about each other at worst, they supported each other like sisters?  Surprise! (Or maybe not, as I'm always the last one to the office holiday party.)  In real life, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey are each other's ride-or-die, as chronicled in their popular Office Ladies podcast and now in their book, The Office BFFs.

Weathering work, family, and other woes, Jen and Ange have a friendship that transcends sitcom seasons.  They're so in sync that they've even broken their toes at each other's houses (accidentally, of course, not as part of some weird friends-to-the-end blood oath).  I loved reading about their memories and anecdotes.  Also, it was fun to find out that Angela Kinsey is nothing like the sour and rigid Angela Martin.  She's warm, bubbly, and irreverent -- and clearly an amazing actor!

Still, it's these reflections from Jenna that are my favorite parts of the book:

"Pam's dreams are not extraordinary.  She wants to marry the man she loves, have a family, and feel creatively expressed in her work.  In the end, she gets all three.  It's not lost on me that the series ends when Pam's dreams come true.  The documentary doesn't stop when Michael leaves.  They keep filming.  I like to think that's because they might have been following Pam all along." (223)

Her words go hand in hand with Pam's last words in the finale:

"I thought it was weird when you picked us to make a documentary.  But all in all . . . I think an ordinary paper company like Dunder Mifflin was a great subject for a documentary.  There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things.  Isn't that kind of the point?" (299)

So yeah, The Office BFFs is a sweet, poignant read.  

And now I just may have to become a podcast person.

Only Book Club With People You Love

So you joined a book club.  And it's your turn to pick.  Your ideal title?  One that's not too serious but not too light, right in the sweet spot of what you'd enjoy and what you think others would enjoy too.  You search and search, but it isn't easy.  You've read this one, the others wouldn't like that one, and this one is about aliens.  Wait, what's this?  A New York Times bestseller and, oh look, the 2021 book club pick of the summer!  Plus, it's by an author you already know and love.  You click Add to Cart, feeling virtuous and even a little smug about what a good choice you've made.  But then again, you know books.  You've been a reader all your life.  You brought books to the playground, you majored in English.  You've got this.

And then one of the other book club members starts reading the book and tells you that there's something in it that'll upset another member.  And you're suddenly feeling all of the things, none of them good.  Your confidence in your ability to recognize quality literature has been shaken.  What's more, now you know how the others felt when you were so put off by The Guest List that you couldn't even finish it.  

Obviously, the "you" in this story is me, and the person who couldn't read my book was my mom or sister.  I'm not going to tell you which, nor will I reveal the title of my bad apple pick.  Partly because I don't want to open that door, but mostly because I protect the privacy of my nearest and dearest better than my own.  When I told the husband what happened, he said that 1) (without any prompting) I know good books (I knew I married him for a reason!), and 2) unless all we read is comics, this is going to keep happening.  He is, of course, right.  As was I when I said that reading is a very personal thing in last year's hard-hitting My Book Club, My Boyfriend.  

Nevertheless, this experience has forced me to grow.  There was a time when I'd cringe even after picking a movie that the other person didn't like.  So if nothing else, then being in a book club has ripped the Band-Aid right off that nonsense.  It also reminds me that other people have nonnegotiables and triggers too, and that we all need to be sensitive to each other's needs.  Still, I don't think I could be in a book club with anyone who isn't family.  Because although my mom and sister and I may sometimes disagree, there's no malice under it.  They're a safe space because they're my people.  And if I'm going to discuss books -- and all the baggage and emotions that come with that -- then I want to do it with people I love.        

That said, I'll still read my slush pile selection.  

I'll just keep it between me, myself, and I -- a.k.a. my book club of one.    

Light at the End of the Funnel Neck: Shirts of Schrute

Skirt: Celebrity Pink, Macy's

Bag: Xhilaration, Target

Top: TJ Maxx

Shoes: Mix No. 6, DSW

Wrap: Amazon

Headband: Lady Arya, Zulily; Mustard bracelet: Cloud Nine, Ocean City; Brown ring: Charlotte Russe; Black bangle: Mixit, JCPenney; Yellow bangle: Silver Linings, Ocean City; Black and white bracelet: Mixit, JCPenney; Magenta ring: Express

Bag: Kohl's

Shoes: Circus by Sam Edelman, Kohl's

I thought I knew everything there was to know about The Office, but now that I'm reading The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, I can see that I was wrong.  Written by Rolling Stone veteran Andy Greene, this comprehensive, interview-rich history of how The Office went from underdog British knock-off to one of America's most beloved shows is nothing short of pure joy.  

The Office began life as a dark comedy, and when it first aired, I, like many others, didn't like it.  But when it hit its stride in Season 2, I began to appreciate, then love it, understanding that it wasn't really about an office at all, but about the people who felt trapped inside it.  The hilarious and sometimes sad way they got through their day was a spark of hope, that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.  So, it's inspiring to read about the cast and crew experiencing the same kind of slow success as they rode the wave from obscurity to fame.  It's cool to hear how Creed (Creed Bratton) weirded his way into becoming more than an extra, or how Andy (Ed Helms) started calling Jim (John Krasinski) Big Tuna because showrunner Greg Daniels once had tuna twice in a row for lunch.  There's even stuff about the set design and camera style, which I didn't expect to like but did.  I learned that in most sitcoms, the crew curates the set to look like a painting by choosing prop and costume colors that pop and complement.  This makes sense; I can think of tons of mediocre sitcoms I've tolerated over the years just because they looked pretty.  But The Office didn't want to look like a painting.  It wanted to look like an office, a real office.  And despite my love of color, that (eventually) made sense to me too.  The Office would never have been as believable if Dunder Mifflin and the people who toiled there looked glamorous.  

Nevertheless, one piece of clothing in the series stands out.  No, it's not one of Kelly Kapoor's (Mindy Kaling) outfits, the wrap dress that Pam (Jenna Fischer) wore during the fashion show at lunch, or even Michael's (Steve Carrell) Burlington Coat Factory fur from the infamous budget surplus debacle.  It's Dwight Schrute's (Rainn Wilson) mustard dress shirts.  Dwight's shirts became so integral to his identity that he complained about not getting to wear them during his short-lived and ill-fated stint at Staples.  Dwight's signature color is fitting because mustard is kind of like Dwight himself, unpalatable at first but strangely appealing once you get to know it.  So I decided to devote this post to outfits where this warm yellow shade, well, cuts the mustard (even if in just a few drops).  Sure, these ensembles also feature un-officey looks like a bold funnel neck top and hot pink faux fur.  But in the spirit of The Office's more, ahem, workaday aesthetic, I included a version of each with a muted, nearly black-and-white filter.  

Although I don't have any Schrute loot to use as a visual aid, I do have this Dunder Mifflin snow globe and Michael magnet.  The snow globe used to be in my cubicle. 

Speaking of keeping it real wardrobe wise, here I am in, of all things, a sweat suit.  (The husband suggested I say that "I mustered the courage" to wear it.  Husband and French's, you're welcome.)  Despite having been voted least likely to wear sweatpants in eighth grade, this quarantine's got me collecting -- and living in -- loungewear.  

Sweat suit: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's      

Now that I work from home, I'm the one wearing mustard to the office -- not to mention any number of other unsightly things (my ratty old bathrobe, pajamas, even, on occasion, a muumuu).  And I've discovered that there's something nice about writing reports and editing documents in the comfort of my down-home duds.

Art imitates life, life imitates art.  The heart wants what it wants, and what it wants is the heart.  And the art.

It's lines like this that make me think of the mumbo-jumbo monologues of Michael Scott.  And remind me to not quit my day job.

Sweatshirt Alert: JCP on TV

Last Wednesday, I was watching American Housewife when Taylor (Meg Donnelly) entered the Otto kitchen wearing a retro gray, purple, and turquoise color block Arizona Jeans sweatshirt from JCPenney.  "Hey, that's my shirt!" I exclaimed.  The husband looked up from his phone dubiously.  "If you don't believe me, I'll show you!" I sputtered with all the righteous indignation of a third-grader in the '90s whose Yo! MTV Raps trading card collection is being called into question.  ("You don't have LL Cool J and Dr. Dre!"  "Do too!")  Then I raced upstairs to grab the sweatshirt.  When I returned, the husband nodded, then restarted the show, paused it, and took this pic without me even having to ask.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  The husband is a prince among men.

This isn't the first time I've seen one of my garments on the small screen.  The Middle's Sue Heck had a pair of my Target pajamas, and The Goldbergs' Erica wore my L'Amour by Nannette Lepore crop top, also from JCPenney.  I guess ABC likes JCP, that mecca for middle class shoppers, even when it's on life support.  Later during the Housewife episode, Greg (Diedrich Bader) took the thread a step further when chiding wife Katie (Katy Mixon) about one of her stunts:

"I had to take all those tops back to JCPenney and explain why there were no tags and why they smelled like deodorant."

It wasn't so long ago that Mixon was doing JCP commercials with Splitting Up Together's Jenna Fischer, then after that show got cancelled, Single Parents' Leighton Meester.  Then Parents was canned too.  Will Housewife, which has bounced around timeslots for years and was, this season, forced to recast spooky and snarky youngest child Anna-Kat (easily my favorite Otto), fare better than these sacked sitcoms and their preferred yet doomed department store?

Only time and ratings will tell.  In the meantime, I'm going to wear this sweatshirt like it's 1990-something.  And reminisce about my troll collection.

Because I never owned a single Yo! MTV Raps card.  That was the neighborhood kids and my sister.

Movie Moment: Hall Pass

This weekend the bf and I saw Hall Pass. It'd already been dropped from one theater and shunted to a small screening room in another, so I knew we had to act before it disappeared into the land of On Demand. Is it me, or do movies seem to move on at warp speed these days?

Anyway, I've set forth a nice little challenge for myself for this review. I'm not going to spoil the ending! I'll say here and now that this decision may mess with my formula, resulting in an unbalanced and lackluster write-up. But I'm willing to risk that if you're still willing to read it.

So, Hall Pass. We've got two couples: Rick and Maggie (Owen Wilson and Jenna Fischer) and Fred and Grace (Jason Sudeikis and Christina Applegate). As I'm sure you know, the wives are sick of their husbands gawking at other women, so they follow the advice of their psychologist friend (Joy Behar) and issue them hall passes - one week off from marriage, no questions asked. Even in light of this questionable proposition, Rick and Maggie are established early on as the moral compass, whereas Fred and Grace represent more of the "what if?" factor. The men inaugurate their week of freedom with a pig-out dinner at Applebee's, slowly working their way up to a golf course, a coffee house, and a gym, attempting the bar scene only on the last night when their notorious bachelor buddy (a really scary-looking Richard Jenkins) rolls back into town. Maggie and Grace, on the other hand, spend the week at Maggie's parents' beach house, where they are hit on by a college baseball coach and player, respectively, without so much as batting an eyelash, proving, of course, what most of us already know - that it's much easier for a woman, married or otherwise, to find a date than it is for man (regardless of how lecherous that man may be).

That having been said, Hall Pass offers a few plot twists and some sweet surprises. That's not to say that it doesn't serve up its share of gratuitous gross-outs. (It doesn't come from the Farrelly Brothers for nothing.) As for the characters, Wilson is unexpectedly and endearingly nerdy as family man/realtor Rick, and Fischer slips comfortably into the nice girl role that made her famous as Pam on "The Office." Sudeikis's Fred is the typical tries-to-get-away-with-as-much-as-he-can best bud, albeit not exactly lovable. At one point he tells Rick that women in general and their wives in particular get to live their dreams, whereas men don't, phrasing it something like this: "Maggie used to play house as a kid, right? So, you bought her a house. She used to play kitchen; you bought her a Viking (stove). She wanted to be a mommy, and you made her one. But what about us? You don't see me hosting "The Price is Right" do you?" Yep, Fred. Women have clearly won because that's all we want out of life: houses and babies. Thankfully, Applegate's feisty Grace is more than up to the challenge of tangling with him.

Overall, Hall Pass was more fun than I'd expected. Stay tuned for the next spoil-free movie recap. :)