New Jersey, New Drama

Ever hear the myth that New Yorkers pretend they don’t know where New Jersey is? Well, this Brooklynite does – and last night Simon and I were at the Brownstone to celebrate the beginning of the season with most of the cast. We met so many Housewives fans that I lost count. We never even made it to the step and repeat, although we DID sample the food, which was great.

So, what do we think so far? I was glad that Jacqueline shared her home video of Nicholas’ birth, but have to ask…were the Sirens singing that day? ;-) Either way the footage looked great.

Next, it’s over to tomato time at the Giudice’s. I loved this scene – random trivia about our family is that we make Bolognese sauce once a month and freeze it – a big production the boys call "making dead cow sauce." Anyway, I can totally imagine Teresa screaming to herself, the baby is coming in two weeks, I HAVE TO MAKE THE TOMATOES!! No comment on the feminine hygiene discussion. Except to snicker. Just a little. Good on them – looked like a fun day.

Next, Danielle takes her daughters to Posche for after-school shopping. Fairly innocuous scene, until later, but let’s continue on the school front back to Teresa’s house. Cute girls, fabulous girls, running around with curls flying – I love that they packed their lunches. I kind of wanted to call all the organic snack companies Simon and I love for the boys and say, PLEASE send them some organic fruit squeezers, veggie straws and cheddar bunnies for the kiddos…not so much sugar! Though who am I to judge, I let my boys eat chocolate on TV season 1. Anyway…

Danielle confesses to the Father and advice is given – I appreciated the scene but felt like it was a little stilted from the priest’s end; how could anyone who gets to the point of being filmed for RHONJ not know at least part of the back story?

And the big girls have boyfriends! I predict that either Albie and Vito will smooth things out, or Lauren will cause her brother bodily harm. Given that I saw them both last night and there was no blood, I’m hoping that everything worked itself out there. We’ll see, I’m sure. Now onto Ashley – I just have to make a comment about that mom/daughter relationship here. In the past I’ve thought that Jacqueline needed a stronger hand with her, and at the beginning of this scene I still felt that, UNTIL she called the BF out about whether they used protection, and got an answer. Good going Mom! Just stare him down until he answers you. Well done. Now about the checking account, that’s the one thing all episode that stopped me in my tracks. How old is she? She doesn’t know how to open a bank account? OK, when I was 13 and got my period (hey, if Teresa’s FIL can talk about it, so can I) my mom bought me an empty leather checkbook cover. She said, here’s the cover, go open a checking account. She did drive me to the bank, but the rest was my call. Here’s hoping that six months later, Ashley’s account is open!

Nail salon – OK, most Real Housewives fans know I try to stay neutral, until I can’t. I’m coming into this blogging experience with a neutral position about Danielle. I do have to say that the line about Dina working in the salon seemed like an unnecessary dig. Who cares whether Dina used to do nails? A job is a good thing. Finally, we get to the Sheriff’s dinner with a perfectly dog-poop-free lawn, thanks to Albie and Vito. So glad Danielle didn’t follow through on her drive-by; good call to listen to the kids. It did kind of seem like the old Danielle was driving the car and the new Danielle was glad she didn’t do it when it came to interview time.

It seemed like a great party though not particularly dramatic…until Kim from Posche came over. Hold the phone. Put the damned phone down. How does one do that? Seriously??? Kim, have you talked to Danielle since you saw this episode? How two-faced is that!? You don’t need to make sales so badly that you pretend to be friends with someone who is clearly vulnerable, just because you want their business. You don’t then attend the event of her archenemy and deny the friendship. That is not appropriate. Maybe if you’d arrived with a “message” from Danielle, LOL. LuAnn would say, it’s not countess-like. Jill would call it an attack, Ramona would wait until you and Danielle are in the same room and then bring it up over cocktails and Kelly would say STOOOOOP. I would say, Kim, you succeeded in p***ing off both camps. That behavior smells worse than sewage backup in West New York.

Can’t wait to see what happens next! Congrats to Teresa on her book release this week good luck to her on the tour as we know how that goes! Simon and I will take turns blogging throughout the season.