Ep. 122: My Mom's House

[00:00:04] Welcome to Ink Drinkers, a literary tea party podcast where we discuss books and drink tea.

[00:00:23] Hi! Hi! First, fair warning to all of our listeners that you may hear screaming baby

[00:00:39] in the background at some point during this episode. Yes, my sister is here and

[00:00:44] she is trying to keep Finn calm so we will see how this goes. We apologize in

[00:00:48] advance. What do we have going on? It's Mother's Day coming up. Mother's Day is

[00:00:55] coming up. We have, this will come out the day after the day after Mother's Day

[00:01:00] so we wanted to go ahead now and wish everyone a happy Mother's Day. We hope

[00:01:05] that your day was all about you. Definitely. Or whatever whatever you

[00:01:10] wanted to do. We hope that you didn't have to lift a finger all day. As mothers

[00:01:15] know that's not gonna happen but we can dream. Yes, what do you have plans? We're

[00:01:23] going to my brother's house for brunch and then probably see Michael's family

[00:01:27] after. That'll be nice. Yeah. What are y'all doing? My dad is boiling

[00:01:31] crawfish at my mom's house. My dad is boiling crawfish at my mom's house.

[00:01:36] What does that even, my dad is boiling crawfish. Isn't it funny how we, like I

[00:01:40] always will just say my mom's house? I do that too even though it belongs to both of

[00:01:44] my parents and they both live there. I wonder how many people do that. Well and

[00:01:50] sometimes whenever that comes out of my mouth I wonder if people think that

[00:01:54] they're not together. Yeah. I think that too but because it'll be like well my

[00:01:57] mom's dog and my dad's dog and like they both yeah it's their dogs. I always

[00:02:04] say I'm going to mom's house. I do that too. My parents are together they do

[00:02:09] live in the same home but it is still my mom's house as it should be. I don't know

[00:02:14] why. Yeah, that is interesting. If you also do that I'm very curious. Yeah I don't

[00:02:21] know how prevalent that is but anyway yeah we're here to talk about books. We

[00:02:30] are and so we shall. Go ahead. I think it's your turn. Okay so my book is called

[00:02:40] Say You'll Be Mine by Nina Kumar. I think I'm saying that correctly. Okay it's a

[00:02:46] pretty cover. Yes it is it's all pink and flowery and beautiful. The book was

[00:02:52] kind of flowery as well but I was I was cool with that. This is actually a

[00:02:58] debut. Okay and it's Indian culture so loving it. So basically at the beginning

[00:03:05] of the book Magna who is our lead female character she learns that her ex-boyfriend

[00:03:13] from college who she still really hung up on and still best friends with her

[00:03:19] is getting married. Yes you guessed it you just mouthed the answer and so she

[00:03:26] is obviously mildly devastated and she goes to her parents and says I'm ready

[00:03:35] you can finally like set me up on okay with I think it's called a Rishhti or

[00:03:40] something like that. So you can finally set me up you know what start doing the

[00:03:43] interviews yeah all that kind of stuff. Right sure and her mom's like yay so the

[00:03:51] very first one comes over to her house his name is Kartik and Kartik has decided

[00:04:00] that he's never getting married. Basically he has some issues with his past

[00:04:06] and like his dad is not a good guy and he's always been terrible to his mother

[00:04:10] okay and so he does not want to perpetuate this cycle. So why is he

[00:04:15] even in the pool? His mom really wants him to get married okay and so he has

[00:04:20] agreed his parents don't know that he's never getting married this is just a

[00:04:25] him thing. Okay so he's like yes mom I will go on all of these interviews or

[00:04:30] dates or whatever they're called and so his mom he lives in New York City or

[00:04:36] New York yeah New York City and his mom has been flying him around the

[00:04:41] country every weekend for to meet different women. Oh my gosh commitment.

[00:04:46] Right. She really wants him to find somebody. And so he's been doing this for a

[00:04:50] couple months now he's a little exhausted by it all and so when he gets to when

[00:04:57] he meets Magna they kind of have a connection but like she thinks he's

[00:05:02] really hot and he thinks she's really hot but they both for various reasons

[00:05:06] are just like this can't work okay obviously because he doesn't want to

[00:05:11] get married and tell her this not and she kind of gets the feel of it or that

[00:05:17] he's not really into it not so I think she's really just looking for like a

[00:05:22] date to the wedding not necessarily a husband okay but they kind of both

[00:05:29] agree that it would be better for both of them if they just say this is it

[00:05:35] this is the one we're getting married so he's like if we if we get engaged they're

[00:05:43] both pretend it's pretend but he's like if we get engaged then I won't have to be

[00:05:48] flying around the country forever and eventually we can break it off and I'll

[00:05:52] just be like oh I'm devastated whatever but I'll like get a little break from

[00:05:56] having to meet all these women every weekend and she will have a date to

[00:06:01] the wedding so it's beneficial on both ends win win win exactly and so they

[00:06:08] agree to it and they fly back and forth to Dallas in New York depending on like

[00:06:13] what events are going on and what the needs are and they have this fake

[00:06:19] engagement or is it okay yeah it was really cute like just very light-hearted

[00:06:31] very easy listen the characters are both sweet and fun and their parents are

[00:06:37] are funny their parents are funny his his dad is not a good guy sure so you know

[00:06:46] but and so like some stuff happens with him but the other parents are very

[00:06:50] entertaining cool yeah yeah sounds like a good read just something light when

[00:06:55] you need it yes it was exactly what I needed awesome well I'll tell you about

[00:07:00] my book it's called expiration dates by Rebecca Sarrell and I've read her before

[00:07:06] I know you have to and you haven't loved everything by her no I've decided I'm

[00:07:10] done but okay well this I know that you didn't like in five years but in five

[00:07:15] years I prefer right over this one but I thought this one was good as well I

[00:07:20] did not like some of her others like my Italian summer I wasn't a fan of

[00:07:23] and the dinner list the dinner list I wasn't right of they always have a little

[00:07:30] bit of a heavier yeah topic involved but I thought this was a solid read I wouldn't

[00:07:36] say it was a five but it was solid okay convinced me because somehow I keep

[00:07:41] getting sucked into her books even though every time I say I'm not gonna

[00:07:44] read so I just think her concepts are interesting I agree with that and I feel

[00:07:49] like she yeah I don't know I will say that I thought that I already knew what

[00:07:55] was gonna happen in some respects not every detail obviously but I think most

[00:08:01] people would pick up on it pretty quickly that kind of what's going on so the

[00:08:07] main character is Daphne Bell and Daphne is she's in her early 30s she's had

[00:08:15] lots of different relationships she has a best friend named Hugo who she dated

[00:08:20] previously and she has this unique thing that has been happening to her since

[00:08:27] high school or even middle school possibly she gets a note or a letter or

[00:08:33] a scrap of paper a napkin just random with a name of a man and a timeframe I do

[00:08:43] remember this premise now okay and the timeframe is how long they're going to be

[00:08:47] together right so this has been her entire life so she has this knowledge

[00:08:53] that they don't have so she can be who she wants to be in these relationships

[00:08:59] and in her mind you know she's thinking this is just gonna continue and so it

[00:09:08] kind of has a warped her view of relationships well I guess so what is

[00:09:12] possible for her there's also some deeper struggles that she's going through I

[00:09:20] don't want to go into too much detail because it's part you know you kind of

[00:09:23] find out about it as it goes on sure but yeah Hugo is her best friend and she

[00:09:31] did date him previously I think he was like a three month or something like

[00:09:34] that and he is loud and fun and good-looking but you know the card said

[00:09:47] three months so so it ended it ended and it's not that it she's just like okay

[00:09:52] well the three months is up something always happens that ends the

[00:09:55] relationship so it's not like she's just like I'm done something will happen

[00:09:59] yeah it's just that she happens to know in advance that something will happen

[00:10:04] right she doesn't know what it is right yes it's an interesting concept yeah it

[00:10:09] is I can't imagine how I don't know how like I guess I would kind of be like if

[00:10:16] I'm only gonna date this guy for three months why am I even bothering no I

[00:10:20] agree but I get it you know it's experiences and when she looks back on

[00:10:25] things you know she's had all these experiences and she's had a rich life

[00:10:29] so to speak because she's gotten to do these things and meet these different

[00:10:33] people and logically I know that the people influence you and change you and

[00:10:38] you need all of these experiences to be who you are but like I'm with you what's

[00:10:43] the point at the same time I'm like but why bother right I'm with I understand

[00:10:47] um yeah I mean I don't know I will say this the last thing I'm gonna say

[00:10:55] about this book because it's really not much I can say without giving things

[00:10:58] away yeah but she is around 32 she receives another note yeah and it says

[00:11:07] Jake nothing got it got it and so that's where I was wondering was like what when

[00:11:15] she gets to the one that she's but then what like what if you what if you got

[00:11:20] a note that said Michael and it was like you know 20 40 something and you knew

[00:11:28] that you were gonna get divorced in the future yeah I don't know that it would

[00:11:32] play on I don't know because all of hers were never that long I think the longest

[00:11:38] one she had was two years and it was in college and there was it was like two

[00:11:43] years and two months and there was a reason for it right but I'm saying in

[00:11:46] our life no I know how would you feel yeah at that point and be like I don't

[00:11:52] want to do this yeah I don't want to be with him for all these years but then

[00:11:56] you don't have your children I know but you'd have that in the back of your

[00:11:58] mind so how could you even have a good relationship right when you know it's

[00:12:01] just gonna end how can you live like that I don't know I think I think

[00:12:06] because hers are generally the short tris right the one in Paris it was

[00:12:12] three nights oh three girl yeah and one was it oh and also sometimes she'll get

[00:12:20] them after the fact okay which is weird so like she'll say she'll like meet some

[00:12:27] guy or she'll run into someone that she knows and they kind of have chemistry

[00:12:31] and there's like a hookup and then as she's leaving the wind will come through

[00:12:36] and like the reason they never eat it's like Chad one night and she's like okay

[00:12:41] thanks a lot so she doesn't know that so she's still living her life in going on

[00:12:47] dates and doing stuff even without getting it it's not like she's waiting on the

[00:12:52] next right note I mean gosh if she was like her whole life would just be

[00:12:59] revolved around the relationships that she's in which is just not healthy okay

[00:13:03] and in those topics come up so yeah again not a five-star but I liked I thought it

[00:13:09] was interesting it's an interesting thing a plot to think about it is I mean

[00:13:15] obviously it's working conversation right for us right but I feel like I would

[00:13:19] just get annoyed reading it I understand you know I got to point

[00:13:26] where I was a little bored and then there's one thing that picks up that I

[00:13:30] was not anticipating and I was like oh okay and then you know and then it was it

[00:13:36] was towards the end anyway so you're like okay but okay yeah I feel like I need a

[00:13:42] book right now that's just gonna like knock it out of the park for me let's

[00:13:47] find our next joint read let's figure it out keep saying that just text me with

[00:13:52] a book title and I'll read it but you can't decide what if it's not great I

[00:13:56] want I want collaboration okay okay I wanted to do a little bit research so it's

[00:14:02] a good read so we have good conversation I don't want to dud like I've done that

[00:14:05] before with that book about New York and the girl that was house sitting I don't

[00:14:11] remember and we were both just like this book was not great we have nothing

[00:14:16] good to say yeah okay but how am I supposed to know what's gonna be I

[00:14:21] mean I'll look to our book I'll look to and we can just kind of like give

[00:14:25] each other some like it like an option like why don't we like give an option or

[00:14:29] two and if they both seem good then we'll have one for the next month's joy

[00:14:32] three okay I did I did finish reading all of the Harry Potter's I finally finished

[00:14:39] and I was how many how though what there's so many times oh I can't even

[00:14:45] count at this point I mean at least at least five or six okay like I think

[00:14:53] there's four in my good reads maybe but I've read it more than that yeah but

[00:15:03] yeah and the it was all so emotional and I was like it really is the seventh book

[00:15:10] is intense and I like got to the end of the seventh book and I mean I know what's

[00:15:14] coming and I know it's gonna be a hard listen and I was like at the office and

[00:15:17] I just shut my office door I just like had tears streaming no seriously

[00:15:23] okay okay see I don't know yeah it's it's a lot to yeah whoo but I finished it I was

[00:15:32] like ready to finish it because I didn't want it to like have this hold over my

[00:15:36] life anymore I wanted to be able to focus on other books but I also was

[00:15:40] anxious about finishing it because I knew I was gonna make me feel all of the

[00:15:43] things mm-hmm and I wasn't ready for that but I got through it I got through

[00:15:47] I can move on now and I can't decide if I want to like go watch all the movies now

[00:15:53] or not I may need some time take as much time as you need me thank you thank you

[00:15:58] so much let's talk about the tea okay let's do it so this is another pick by

[00:16:04] Churchill's fine tea which we have done in the past this is a world of Earl

[00:16:09] gray selection yeah keep going all right you're doing such a good job this one is

[00:16:18] Paris and the description is a salon black tea with a rich and subtle blend of

[00:16:25] vanilla black currant bergamot and caramel it's so cozy yeah it's delicious

[00:16:36] it is really good I'm excited I just want to say that we we were about to try a

[00:16:44] different one from this collection called Moscow nights and it says Chinese and

[00:16:51] salon black teas blended with bergamot safflower and a hint of smoke and we

[00:16:55] were like cool let's do something different and then I opened it up and

[00:16:58] was like a freaking furnace it did not smell good it was so smoky yeah and I just

[00:17:05] I couldn't do it today save it for another day yeah or never or or never but

[00:17:13] definitely not today but Paris Paris is yummy mm-hmm so go to

[00:17:19] Churchill's teas calm if you're interested in the vanilla black currant

[00:17:25] bergamot and caramel flavors quite good yeah on that note cheers cheers thanks for

[00:17:33] listening be sure to check out the show notes for the full list of books we

[00:17:36] discussed today you can find that in your podcast app or on our website in

[00:17:40] drinkers podcast calm and please support us by subscribing anywhere you

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