Love Is Blind 🙈 & some excellent cookies

Hi friends!

How are you my dears? I didn’t plan on writing to you again so soon, but then I finished watching this season of Love Is Blind, and I simply had to share my thoughts on this bonkers season immediately (lots of those later on). I’m trying to send these newsletters more sporadically throughout the week.

I woke up yesterday with head congestion, feeling totally out of it, and spent 60% of the day sleeping. It was the strangest thing. Even my husband Ross said, “How did you get sick? You never leave the house.” (Rude.) Anyway, I had some tom yum and spicy Thai fried rice for dinner and I actually think that helped, because I’m feeling a little better today.

My lovely in-laws were in town this weekend on a long layover on their way to New Zealand and Fiji. I aspire to one day be as well-traveled as they are. I got to hang out with them before I got sick, and we played Code Names and went to peep the tulips at Descanso Gardens. Then, on Sunday, I hid in the bedroom like a leper while they hung out in the living room so I wouldn’t get them sick before their big trip. I felt like Bertha in Jane Eyre, except instead of setting fires, I was just listening to true crime podcasts and napping.

Sadly, I did not watch the Oscars last night because I don’t have cable. It’s the one time a year when I regret being a cord cutter. I like looking at everyone in their outfits. So many metallics this year! So much black and white! So many nude illusions! It was all a bit snoozy for me, but then, I’m a color and big risks kind of girlie. Ice Spice looked like she got her outfit on Shein, Kris Jenner’s dress made me think of mold growing on a piece of bread, and America Ferrera looked beautiful, but like she borrowed Margot’s dress. Gabrielle Union-Wade actually had one of my favorite outfits of the night, although, can you imagine trying to walk in that? Overall, it just did not feel to me like people were bringing their A-game to the red carpet. Sorry!!

Let’s get into some things:

- Baking! I had some dark chocolate chips left over from a previous baking project and decided to use them in this salted chocolate chip cookie recipe from Milk Bar. This is a super simple recipe that does not require chilling! Yay! But one warning, the recipe lists ¼ cup of flaky sea salt at the bottom of the ingredients and doesn’t tell you what to do with it. DO NOT PUT THIS INTO YOUR BATTER. There are some very unhappy (one might even say, salty) people in the comments who did this. This salt is for sprinkling on top of your cookies as they cool. Also, I would not use the full amount, just a pinch. That is SO much salt, holy moly.

And while there are truly few things better in life than a warm chocolate chip cookie, I would encourage you to let these cool as much as possible before digging in. The texture changes considerably from when you first take them out of the oven (I um, “taste-tested” them at multiple stages). The outsides get crispy and crumbly and the insides stay soft, making them a real crowd-pleaser! The only downside is that I cannot stop eating them.

- e.l.f. Halo Glow Setting Powder ($8). I am obsesseddd with this glowy setting powder! I wear it in “Light,” and it has basically replaced my do-or-die Kosas Cloud Set ($35), which is way pricier (although it does last a long time). I was looking for a setting powder that doesn’t look powdery or too matte on the skin, but has a natural finish, and this e.l.f. one does that job flawlessly. It really just looks like your skin, but better. I would recommend using a kabuki brush or other loosely packed fluffy brush so you get a really fine distribution of powder.

- Love Is Blind, season six (Netflix). SPOILERS ahead, be warned! This season was one for the books!! A lot of twists and turns. There were several moments when I straight-up gasped. I loved it! There also was never not a moment where I wasn’t also on my phone or laptop while watching this show, because it certainly does not demand our full attention. If you need a “background show,” and you like dating reality TV, give this season a try.

Before I get into breaking down these relationships, I must say: the townhouses that the couples lived in after getting engaged are in the creepiest, most repetitive, everything-looks-the-same complex. Every time they showed b-roll of the exteriors, a chill ran down my spine. It’s giving the company housing in Severance, it’s giving that neighborhood in Vivarium that goes on for eternity and you can never leave. The ghost of Chelsea may still be there for all we know, a reedy voice still shrieking, “Clingy?!”

Let’s get into these couples:

- Amy & Johnny. What even is there to say about this couple? They seem like they genuinely like each other. Snoooooze! No, I’m kidding, I’m happy for them, but I watch this show for the mess, not the bliss. I do hope they figured out their birth control situation, though. I totally get why she didn’t want to be on the pill, but there are so many other options now, including non-hormonal ones. I also get that in a just world, birth control wouldn’t always fall on the woman in a straight relationship, but let’s be real, outside of condoms, what is he supposed to be doing, exactly? They mentioned a vasectomy was on the table, but considering they want kids, that’s uhhhh well, not how that works. He at least seemed to be researching his options. She just really didn’t seem to be taking control of her own situation.

At any rate, I think they’re adorable and I hope they get to boink soon!

- A.D. & Clay. Can I just say one thing? It really bothered me when, at the first party when the couples got together, all these white people were commenting on A.D.’s body like it was up for public consumption. That felt really gross, and I do think it had a racial, sexualizing, dehumanizing undertone. Ick, ick, ick! Do better, people!

I watched a few of the first episodes with Ross while he played a video game on his laptop. I told him that I thought A.D. had a broken picker, and he said he didn’t like that term, so we landed on, “her choosy-woozy is a little snoozy,” which is obviously much better. The fact that she fell for Matthew, an actual alien who even the other aliens think is a dick? That is a broken normal meter right there. I appreciate the fact that she is in therapy and was so open about being on her own “hilling journey,” as Whitney from RHOSLC would put it, but being able to recognize patterns and being able to break free of them are two different things… clearly.

All that said, I have to give credit to Clay where it’s due, because I think him not going through with the wedding was actually an extremely mature choice. Now, should he have made that choice at the altar? No, of course not! That’s humiliating! But it was good TV. Credit for that as well.

- Brittany & Kenneth. That was the most sniper-from-the-side breakup I’ve ever seen! I had to rewind it because I was certain that I’d missed something! The editing for this couple was doing the absolute most. I don’t think that any couple that sits with a few moments of silence are necessarily doomed, or if one person is unpacking while the other person is on his phone, there needs to be a dramatic ballad over it. But then again, we didn’t get much of an explanation for what broke them apart, so I guess that’s why they went so hard to try to build a narrative in post? Crazy!

Also, I didn’t like in the pods when Brittany said she wanted their family to have an “ask your father” kind of power dynamic, but I guess that’s her choice?? I think abdicating all your agency and power in a relationship is very dangerous for women, but at the same time, I do see the appeal of offloading some of the mental labor of running a household. Somehow, though, I don’t see Ken keeping track of when the paper towels are going to run out and when was the last time the cat got its flea medication. Men on this show always want power but not responsibility, don’t they?

- Laura & Jeramey. I know it’s hard to focus on anything other than the bombshell that was dropped in episode nine, but this couple had issues even before that happened. One of my pet peeves is when couples “jokingly” tear each other down in front of other people. They think they’re being cute, but it always gets too personal and makes me so uncomfortable! You’re supposed to like each other! It also irks me when people complain about being single but then get hung up on some petty bullshit like their partner occasionally wearing Hawaiian shirts. Who gives a flying fuck what they wear if they’re a great person?

That said, Jeramey is NOT a great person, Jeramey is a dildo. Jeramey also does not look like a guy with a fitness business, and I’m not talking about his body. He looks like a guy who went to college on a fencing scholarship. He looks like a guy with a PhD in Medieval weapons. He looks like a guy who owns several swords, is what I’m saying. But instead, he lives in a home that is way too pristine, like a staged room in an Ikea. It made the pods look warm and lived-in! There’s something deeply not right about that.

At any rate, we now know that Jeramey is a very unserious fuckboy, based on him staying out until five in the morning talking to his pod ex, Sarah Ann. The way he came home and just expected Laura not to be upset about that?? It’s not quite gaslighting, but it’s something close to it. Gaslite™, let’s call it. I don’t love that Sarah Ann DM’d him after his engagement to shoot her shot, it was pretty disrespectful, but at the same time, how much can one be expected to respect a relationship of all of two weeks, ya know? But then, Sarah Ann is also anti-choice and a “patriot” (lololol), so I don’t really need to defend her too much. She and Jeramey deserve each other.

- Chelsea & Jimmy. So much to unpack here!! Jimmy’s no prize, but clearly, Chelsea is an incredibly needy, insecure, and manipulative person. There comes a point where someone’s constant need for reassurance is emotional abuse, and setting their partner up to fail so they can punish them for not doing enough. Every time she told him, “I love you,” it felt like a test to see if he would say it back. That’s fucked.

It goes without saying at this point, but it is WILD that she chose to put out there, sight unseen, that passengers on the plane say she looks like Megan Fox “all the time.” Likeness or not aside, I really have to wonder about this scenario she’s created where people are turning to a flight attendant in uniform, probably pushing a beverage cart or collecting garbage, and asking, “Excuse me miss, are you famous actress Megan Fox?” Really brain dead stuff!!! Also, the way Chelsea was “sniffling” when she dumped Trevor with completely dry eyes was the fakest shit I’ve ever seen. Take an improv class, lady! She is truly a dark-sided individual!!

Then there is the Jessica of it all. I definitely have respect for young moms who make it work, so credit where it’s due and all, but there is something off about her. The value she places on her own good looks is almost as bad as Chelsea Fox! When she was all, “Jimmy is going to go into anaphylactic shock when he sees me,” it was like, okay, and?? This show is supposed to be about winning people over with your personality, ya dumb dumb, and you failed at that!

Jimmy is perhaps the first man who has ever apologized too much. I hope that the internet’s reaction to Chelsea has been cathartic for him. I hope he has been able to heal from this experience. I hope I never have Chelsea as a flight attendant. Can you imagine if she handed you a seltzer and you didn’t say “thank you” in the right tone? They say that take-off and landing are the most dangerous parts of a flight, but I think not validating Chelsea is the real danger of air travel. Yikees!

Alright, that’s enough yapping from me!

If you have a second, I’d love it if you’d like or comment on this post–just click this link to go to the post page.

Until next time—don’t be salty!

Love,

Liz

XOXO