Designing Women S3 E13 - Even More Beautiful in Braille

This week, we meet the *perfect* man. He’s educated, polite, funny and…RICH! Sounds like a match made in heaven for Suzanne. There’s just one little catch…he’s blind and can’t see her for how beautiful she really is. Or can he??? Guess we’ll find out…

Speaking of how beautiful Suzanne is, let’s honor her hard work by talking all things spas in “Salina’s Sidebar.”

Last, but never least, stick around for this week’s “Extra Sugar,” where Julia’s taking us to the mall (in our heads) with her Lenox Mall reference.

Here are a few references you may want to check out afterwards:

• The Atlantic’s take on the rise and fall of malls (and, surprise! Lenox Mall gets name-dropped.)

• Good Housekeeping takes us on a trip down memory lane with 40 amazing 90’s mall memories.

• Unwind at These 7 Southern Spas - Deep South Magazine

• The 11 Most Over-the-Top Hotel Spa Treatments

• The World Spa Awards Names The 13 Best Spa Treatments And Best New Hotel Spas

Come on, let’s get into it!

Or listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts.

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Transcript

Salina: Hey, Nikki.

Nikki: Hey, Salina.

Salina: Welcome back.

Nikki: Thanks.

Salina: Happy belated birthday.

Nikki: Thank you very much.

Nikki: Do I look 29?

Salina: Like 15?

Salina: Is that too young?

Nikki: That's too young.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I would have preferred, like 20.

Salina: How about 25?

Nikki: That feels old.

Salina: Does it?

Nikki: 23?

Salina: Yeah, that's fine.

Salina: But you're telling me right now if I said you could have 25 again and everything you've accumulated since oh, yeah.

Nikki: That'S a different story.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: You would take 25.

Nikki: I would take 25.

Salina: I would take 28.

Nikki: I'd take 35 at this point.

Salina: Right?

Salina: I know.

Salina: I was, like, not thinking correctly when I turned 31, and I was like, I'm not knocking on death door.

Salina: No, time just keeps going.

Nikki: It just keeps going.

Salina: And welcome to Sweet TV.

Salina: TV.

Salina: Hey y'all, the podcast where Salina and Nikki try to age well, we don't try one of those.

Salina: I forget.

Salina: So do you want to tell the people, where have you been, what you've been doing?

Nikki: Nothing.

Salina: No?

Nikki: Normal stuff.

Nikki: Yeah, no.

Nikki: Kyle treated me to a trip to Mexico for my birthday to just south of Cancun and Tulum at Akumal, which is Mayan for place of the turtles.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: It was an all inclusive resort, and the beach is right next to a protected preserve area.

Nikki: And so the beach that was with the resort was a haven for sea turtles.

Nikki: I saw one, I seen one.

Nikki: The one his name is Trevor.

Nikki: I tried to bring him home.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Kyle said no.

Salina: I got a picture.

Nikki: He was beautiful and he loved me.

Nikki: He wanted to come home with me.

Nikki: He was swimming away from me, but I think it's because he was leading me back to shore.

Salina: Sure.

Nikki: That's what I think.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't know if I've told you this before or not, but Casey has always reminded me a lot of a sea turtle.

Salina: I think it's because of Finding Nemo, where dude.

Salina: Which is like, sometimes how Casey acts to me.

Nikki: Oh, I didn't know this.

Salina: And he's just, like, really relaxed more than like the hang tin surfer guy.

Nikki: Oh, okay.

Salina: And kind of like, oh, what?

Salina: I don't remember.

Nikki: Which is perfect foil to your personality.

Salina: What are you trying to say?

Salina: You don't think I'm relaxed?

Nikki: I saw this meme that was like, I can be go with the flow, and then it cuts to this woman going like, but what time does the flow start?

Nikki: And is there a dress code for the flow?

Salina: She's just looking for some parameters.

Nikki: That's all you need in life is parameters.

Salina: So trevor.

Nikki: Trevor.

Salina: Yes.

Salina: That's a top memory, then.

Nikki: Trevor is a core memory.

Nikki: Trevor is going to stick with me the rest of my life.

Nikki: This is only the second time I have swum swamied.

Salina: You know, I don't think it's swum, but please go with that.

Nikki: It's only the second time I've ever been swimming with a wild sea turtle, and the first time is a core memory for me.

Nikki: They just pop up out of nowhere.

Nikki: You don't know where they're going to be.

Nikki: You don't know what they're going to do.

Nikki: I mean, you can show up at the place of turtles and hope you see something.

Nikki: But for three days, I saw nothing.

Nikki: And I would go out there for on this recent trip, I'd go out there for an hour at a time looking for these guys, and I just couldn't find them.

Nikki: So then I was acting on a tip from someone that you sort of had to swim out a little ways and get away from the beach a little bit more, go beyond the buoys, which is outside my comfort zone.

Nikki: But I really pushed myself because I knew Trevor was out there waiting.

Nikki: Right.

Salina: And he was.

Salina: He was.

Nikki: So that was really cool.

Nikki: But it was cool even right off the beach.

Nikki: I'm terrible with distances, but maybe like 50 yards.

Nikki: There's all kinds of wildlife.

Nikki: Like, I was showing Salina before we started pictures of a starfish that was bigger than the size of my hand.

Nikki: There were tons of fish.

Nikki: I saw the biggest fish I've ever seen, like, out in the wild, literally.

Nikki: What is this, like a foot, a foot across?

Nikki: A foot and a half?

Salina: More than a foot.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: They were huge.

Nikki: Just swimming, just hanging out out there.

Nikki: I saw an eel.

Nikki: I saw multiple manta rays.

Nikki: It's crazy.

Nikki: And it's just like, right off the beach.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: That's exciting.

Nikki: It was very exciting.

Salina: Would you feel well rested?

Salina: You did?

Salina: I did.

Nikki: We had a long travel day coming back, and that just SAPS it out of you.

Nikki: Like, you could have the most wonderful trip and then traveling back, you're just like, man, I got nothing left in me.

Nikki: I mean, I still had things left in me, but I was tired.

Salina: Yeah, but yeah, it was good.

Nikki: That was our first trip, just the two of us, since both our kids were born.

Nikki: So it's been almost six years since we've been on a trip, just the two of us.

Salina: I think it was time.

Nikki: It was time.

Nikki: It was good.

Nikki: It was really nice.

Nikki: I didn't have to do any dishes.

Nikki: I didn't really have to do any tidying.

Nikki: I mean, I'm just obsessive about keeping my stuff put away, so I would tidy up before room service would come.

Nikki: But other than that and I can just sit on a beach all day long.

Nikki: If I have a pair of goggles and a beach, I'm set.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Well, I'm excited for you and welcome back.

Salina: I'm sorry about that part, but here we are nonetheless.

Salina: Not here.

Salina: This is fine.

Salina: It's the other stuff.

Nikki: All the other stuff.

Salina: But if you want, I figure we can jump into the episode.

Nikki: Sure.

Nikki: This week we're up to season three, episode 13 one Sees, the other doesn't.

Nikki: This week we're using Hulu's episode description because IMDb just didn't make sense to us, so we're using Hulu.

Nikki: Hulu says the other women are shocked when a wealthy blind client falls for Suzanne.

Nikki: Air Date february 27, 1989 we're calling this one even more beautiful in Briel.

Nikki: It was written by LBT.

Nikki: And Pamela Norris and directed by Ron Troutman.

Nikki: First time we've seen this.

Nikki: Director Salina tells me he's only had three directing credits in his filmography.

Nikki: I also wanted to mention I don't know if this made it into your notes anywhere tom Sullivan, the guy who played Danny, did you look into him at all?

Salina: It's so funny.

Salina: This morning I did a rewatch real quick because it's been a minute since I saw this one.

Salina: And when I was I was like, you know what?

Salina: I should look him up.

Salina: And I was like, you know what?

Salina: I think Nikki will.

Salina: Nikki did.

Nikki: So I'm glad you did it.

Nikki: He just seems like a cool guy of everything I read.

Nikki: So he was born preterm, and he was put in an incubator, as you do to preterm babies, but he was given too much oxygen, which ended up costing him his eyesight.

Nikki: So add that to your list of fears about having a baby.

Nikki: One more thing that can go wrong.

Salina: I was like, this guy.

Salina: I'm pretty sure he's really blind.

Nikki: That's why I ended up looking into it.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I didn't 100% know, but it seemed pretty authentic.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: That's interesting.

Nikki: So he spent the first part of his career pursuing singing and songwriting as a career.

Nikki: Later, he would have a steady string of regular performances.

Nikki: Following an appearance on The Tonight Show, he wrote a book called If You Could See What I Can Hear, which was turned into a movie in the early highlights.

Nikki: At one point, he was a special correspondent for Good Morning America.

Nikki: He saved his infant daughter from drowning by listening for air bubbles.

Salina: Whoa.

Nikki: And he was a longtime friend of the late, great Betty White.

Salina: Really?

Nikki: Wow.

Nikki: So he's a really cool guy.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: That's awesome.

Salina: Yeah, I guess.

Salina: Maybe LBT.

Salina: Pamela wrote this with him in mind.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: Oh, that's a good thought.

Salina: I didn't think about that.

Salina: You're never going to find that unless LBT.

Salina: Comes on the show.

Nikki: When she comes, that'll be a question we ask her.

Salina: I would say the chair is always here for you, but there's literally not another chair.

Salina: But there would be well, there's a window seat, which I think is Salina.

Nikki: And I will share a chair.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Which is this room or you all just stand.

Nikki: We could go somewhere professional.

Nikki: We could come to your house.

Nikki: LBT.

Nikki: Is that weird?

Salina: Oh, no, that's great.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: We can come to your house.

Nikki: We can bring our own mics.

Nikki: We can sit in your front yard.

Nikki: We just start doing that now?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Got a pool.

Nikki: That would be amazing.

Salina: That would be wonderful.

Nikki: So general reactions and stray observations.

Nikki: What you got on the general front.

Salina: I got to tell you, I was in a weird mood when I watched this one initially, and so my general reactions are very I don't know if it's like, universal or, like, it's not even really about the show.

Salina: It's, like, more what I was seeing in these themes that were coming up in the show.

Salina: Okay, so the first one I would ask you, would you like me to tell you about it?

Salina: But I feel like you're probably going to be here for not new choices, but these themes that I want to talk about real quickly, and I'm not fast, so it probably won't be quickly, but it got me thinking about how both of them can shape and affect your entire life.

Salina: So the first one is looks.

Salina: So in the episode, Suzanne has a low key meltdown, like towards the very beginning because well, not towards the very beginning.

Salina: That meltdown was about something else.

Salina: She's having some meltdowns in the episode, but she has this sort of crisis because she thinks her good looks is what she brings to the table, just her looks.

Salina: And she says, I've always been the pretty one.

Salina: And I just wanted to say I think there are people out there who are very pretty and are told that over and over their whole life, and I think that can affect them in several different ways.

Salina: I've seen it make people uncomfortable, confident, arrogant, reliant, unseen in other ways.

Salina: I've seen it make people where they're, like, overestimated because of their looks, where they're underestimated because of their looks.

Salina: They're just treated differently, sometimes better, sometimes worse, and all for this thing that you can't even really control.

Salina: And I just want to say that generally that intrigues me.

Salina: I even ran across the University of Buffalo.

Salina: They did a study which showed that attractive people are more likely to get hired, receive better evaluations, and get paid more, indicating there is some kind of beauty premium across professions.

Salina: Before I go to the second one, did anything about that stick out for you?

Nikki: I think what Suzanne feels about her looks was something that stuck out to me, and I'm trying to decide if it's a good segue into saying that.

Nikki: One of my general reactions to this episode was it felt cheesy in a way other episodes don't, in part because of that diatribe that Danny has at the end where he tells the ladies that he could just tell she's beautiful from the inside out.

Nikki: And it's obvious they don't understand that or they can't see that or something.

Nikki: And it just felt so like I don't know.

Nikki: We're three episodes in with these characters.

Nikki: They know each other.

Nikki: Sorry, I meant three seasons.

Nikki: Sometimes they short sell each other for sure, but I think they know what Suzanne's made of, and I don't think they need one guest occurrence to tell them that.

Salina: Well, that is in all fairness, because actually, I think I walked away feeling a little differently than that, which I think is good, because I feel like, again, if we both felt the same way about every episode, what are we even then?

Nikki: Who would be wrong?

Salina: It's just what life's all about, who's wrong and who's right.

Salina: But like season one with Shadow, that New Year's episode, right?

Salina: You needed the man to come in, tell everyone about Charlene.

Salina: So I think that's fair.

Salina: Maybe I just think that Danny is more likable.

Nikki: Yeah, that might be true.

Salina: But I think all will be revealed as we get down through these other categories about how I reacted to that.

Salina: The second theme that came up for me, sight.

Salina: So what you see or you don't shapes your entire world.

Salina: And I was even thinking about taste and how taste can be affected.

Salina: So I don't know if you've ever done a blind taste test.

Nikki: They're the worst.

Salina: They're hard.

Nikki: It ruins everything.

Salina: They're so hard.

Salina: And so that's really because when we do that, we're relying on sight with.

Nikki: Your eyes and whatnot.

Salina: Well, I was actually looking into dining in the dark, and this had me thinking about again, I've heard it's a really cool experience from one of my friends, and I really want to try it.

Salina: But when I looked into dining in the dark, they say that 80% of the eating experience is visual, which I was like, yes, I see everything.

Salina: And then I eat 80% of it.

Salina: Probably.

Salina: Okay, 99.9.

Salina: Actually, I think my record is more like 103%.

Nikki: I'm so full.

Nikki: But we can't waste that.

Nikki: I just put it over here.

Salina: I just need that hot dog.

Salina: And it's all funny until it really happens that it's embarrassing, right?

Salina: But anyway, dining in the dark, it's a cool experience because it forces you to use your other senses.

Salina: But in this episode with Danny, this is where I think we're going to probably I understand where you're coming from, but I think he was able to quickly calculate in just a few encounters what some of the other cast couldn't in years.

Salina: And that's what makes Suzanne special.

Salina: And I'm not always sure that I think they love her, but I think they struggle a little bit with Suzanne.

Salina: Probably particularly like a Mary Joe.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: And I think, too, that because we do such close watches, it's kind of hard because in some there does seem to be this closeness and this understanding.

Salina: And then other ones, it feels like we're a start over again, where they're like, oh, she's just a pretty face and nothing between her ears.

Salina: But anyways, this kind of sight issue loops back a little bit to me for the first thing about looks.

Salina: It's weird to think if we couldn't physically see the people in our lives right now and we had only gone on their personalities, would they be in our lives right now?

Salina: Or would our life and those around us be completely different?

Salina: I don't have any answers for that.

Salina: I just thought it was like it was just an interesting thought that I thought about as I was watching this.

Salina: That's what I was saying.

Salina: I was in a really weird mood.

Salina: I was like, Nicky's going to be.

Nikki: Like, what is wrong with you?

Salina: What are the general reactions?

Nikki: Did you have mine feel stupid now?

Nikki: I feel like this would have made a better Valentine's day episode than, like, the naked truth, which aired on Valentine's day, or the Junies, which aired the next week.

Nikki: Don't you think?

Salina: I think you're right.

Nikki: Does it make you think a little bit about airing out of order?

Salina: Definitely.

Nikki: My other general reaction other than the episode feeling cheesy.

Nikki: I think we've said this before.

Nikki: I like the character growth episodes where we see something new or different about someone, and, you know, I got a soft spot for Suzanne, so watching her grow and watching her be appreciated was really fulfilling for me.

Nikki: This episode did a little of that.

Salina: Yeah, I really liked it, and more of that will come out in the likes, but I think I had something similar my likes because it does feel like we're not just spinning our wheels.

Nikki: Right.

Nikki: So that was my last, like what did you have in Strays?

Salina: Suzanne spent $2,000 for a week at the spa.

Salina: Today, that would be $4,779.21.

Salina: According to my half a** internet research, the average cost of a vacation for a family of four is $4,500.

Salina: So just something to think about.

Salina: So just Suzanne on herself is spending more than a family of four.

Nikki: Well, I can say that from my recent experience at an all inclusive resort that tracks those treatments are very expensive.

Salina: Oh, agreed.

Salina: I'm not really sure what makes them so expensive, but actually, when we get out of strays, I would love to do a little Salina sidebar on spas and treatments.

Salina: Okay, but what did you have for Strays?

Nikki: I have fashion.

Nikki: Note what's happening.

Nikki: Fashion in this fur coat situation julia is wearing when she walks into the first scene.

Salina: Oh, yeah.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: It's just what is that?

Nikki: It's like, almost a houndstooth pattern on the main part of the jacket, and then the sleeves are completely like a black fur.

Nikki: So the shape is it's very imposing on her.

Nikki: She looks like a linebacker in this.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Wasn't for me.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: That's interesting.

Nikki: On the note of the opening scene, I feel like we should note for posterity's sake, we're coming up on the 36th anniversary of the three days that Locomotion skipped on Charlene's favorite radio station.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: She said it skipped for three days straight, august 14 through 17th, 1986.

Nikki: And it is, as of today, August 13.

Nikki: So tomorrow we'll start the anniversary celebrations of that song skipping.

Salina: Wow.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Another stray that I had the last name Hedgecock because they said he's from South Carolina.

Nikki: I could not because I'm an SEC brain person.

Nikki: I could not get past gamecock because he's from South Carolina.

Nikki: And I wonder if Hedgecock was a play on the University of South Carolina's gamecocks.

Salina: Oh, I don't know.

Salina: All it made me think of was Hedgehogs.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: I also did the math you did on inflation for Suzanne's spend at the spa.

Nikki: And then the last thing I'll say that was stray is we've talked before about contrived storylines, and I just thought the plot to get the women out of the house so Danny could be, like, sitting there alone when Suzanne came down the stairs was, like, super contrived and really annoying.

Salina: Oh, you all have to go sign.

Nikki: Everyone has to go sign paper except Suzanne.

Nikki: Yeah, we need everyone but Suzanne.

Nikki: And I tried looking it up, and I couldn't find it.

Nikki: I felt like that had happened before in another episode, trying to get everybody out, they all had to go sign some paperwork.

Salina: Good call.

Salina: Yeah, good call.

Salina: I feel like I was just really not paying attention in this one.

Salina: So my last stray is that we get a consuela and Noel story, and it just feels like it's been a super long time since we've heard about them, and I was glad to have him back in the fold.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So, are you ready?

Nikki: For what?

Salina: To Salina sidebar.

Nikki: It's a sidebar.

Nikki: Salina sidebar.

Nikki: She's got a keyboard.

Nikki: Looking for a reward by taking deep in the obscure.

Nikki: Taking us on a deep tour.

Nikki: What you got, Salina in Salina sidebar.

Salina: So today I have an absolutely decadent treat for your ears and all of our imaginations, y'all.

Salina: We're talking spas inspired by Suzanne's luxurious trip to be wrapped, scrubbed, vacuumed, oiled, mudded, seaweeded, and kelped.

Nikki: So sounds nice.

Salina: You should know that today we are drinking spa water recipe that consists of orange, grapefruit, lime, lemon, and mint.

Salina: In mine, PH balanced water.

Salina: And for Nikki, she is in sparkling water.

Nikki: Good.

Salina: Or that's just like, what I sound like every podcast as I'm, like, trying to be coy about drinking coffee.

Salina: But we're also snacking on some light treats high in both protein and deliciousness.

Salina: So we wish we could share with you is what I'm trying to say.

Salina: We don't.

Salina: That was all delicious.

Nikki: Very good.

Nikki: We would share with you if you were here.

Nikki: Be rude not to.

Salina: That's right.

Salina: And we're southern, after all.

Salina: So first up, I thought we could talk about southern spas, you know, where theoretically we can go.

Nikki: Sure.

Salina: I ran across a deep south magazine article featuring several of them, and I picked three to talk about the first up the spa at the omni Grove Park inn in Asheville.

Salina: So I've been here a few times.

Salina: Have you been there?

Salina: So I went once for Thanksgiving dinner years and years ago with my family, and then I dragged some friends there a handful of years ago just because it's so beautiful.

Salina: Like, just to walk through.

Salina: It's right in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Salina: So the scenery is breathtaking all on its own, but the space itself is it feels silly to say, but it's like, divine.

Salina: The front is constructed of nothing but this beautiful cut rock that also cuts through all of the inside with these impossibly high ceilings, these massive rustic chandeliers, and then fireplaces like the size of my garage.

Salina: There's also a view out back that will knock your socks off.

Salina: I mean, it is nothing short of picturesque.

Salina: I love it there so much.

Salina: I've only accidentally made my way to the spa before, and I really didn't get to see all of it, just parts, but it's built underground, so what I was able to see were, again, all of these beautiful cut rock walls and tunnels.

Salina: I think they kind of wanted it to feel a little bit like a lagoon or something.

Salina: From the website what I miss behind closed doors, 20 water features, including mineral based and therapeutic waterfall pools, as well as a lap pool blanketed with 6500 fiber optic stars and underwater music.

Nikki: Wow.

Salina: And I mean, they know this place is pretty awesome because unlike a lot of different spas I looked into, they really actually showed it off on their website.

Salina: So you can see the paradise that it is.

Salina: I want to go here, like, so bad.

Salina: Now, treatments that caught my eye include the mountain honey wrap and the gingerbread pedicure, but the massage and wellness pod really stills the show.

Salina: It offers healing from infrared heat, adjustable thermal sauna gemstone and vibrational therapy, mood enhancing colored lights, aromatherapy, a calming negative ion field, and music to enhance the theme of your choice.

Salina: Participants select from four theme programs designed to meet their specific wellness journey.

Salina: Number one.

Salina: Now we're going to move on to what I did not have time to look up this pronunciation.

Salina: I am very sorry.

Salina: I want to say relachy, but it's Relatchy Spa and salon at G****** Opryland in Nashville.

Salina: If I'm wrong, please tell us and also send us to this spa.

Nikki: Yeah, that's the only way to know.

Salina: Yeah, sure.

Salina: And we can totally clear this up, but I haven't been to their spa, but can conform.

Salina: The g****** itself is amazing.

Salina: Have you been?

Nikki: No.

Salina: Okay, so there's basically a river inside the hotel where you can take a boat ride, and then it's all encased in this huge glass atrium.

Salina: So you get that natural light in you're obviously inside, but you sort of feel like you're outside.

Salina: They've got all these lush plants everywhere.

Salina: It still breaks my brain to think about what this place looked like.

Salina: In the article, they specifically mentioned a deeply relaxing forehand massage, the gentleman's hot towel facial packages, like a seasonal watermelon and starfruit infused massage, facial and pedicure, and the Johnny and June experience for couples.

Salina: Unfortunately, they didn't offer this level of detail on the website, so I can't actually confirm they have those services still, but they do seem to have all of the traditional spa services.

Salina: I saw your face at the forehand massage.

Salina: Sexual four hands.

Nikki: Like four different hands.

Salina: I'm not sure if it's four hands forehand or two.

Salina: They just knock you around for 25 minutes and charge you $300.

Salina: I'm not actually sure if it's two different masseuses with their two hands is what I imagine.

Salina: So they're able to coordinate.

Salina: You think that just wait.

Nikki: Seems like a couple too many hands.

Salina: It sounds frisky.

Salina: So the last one on the list, I included this one for you.

Salina: It's the Ritz Carlton Spa in New Orleans.

Salina: You love New Orleans.

Nikki: I do like New Orleans.

Salina: At the time of this article, they had an Apothecary scrub bar and a Marie Levo voodoo love bath.

Salina: I got nervous again, just like the last place the article was maybe, like, from 2015.

Salina: And so I was like, oh, what if they don't have these same services?

Salina: I don't want to sit here and talk about all of them.

Salina: I went on their website.

Salina: What I can tell you is they do a voodoo ritual and a couple's treatment utilizing coffee and praline.

Salina: I'm going to tell you something.

Salina: I saw your face perk up.

Salina: I don't even know what that means, but, like, I'll do it.

Nikki: I'm in.

Salina: I'm like, I want to be eating pralines and drinking coffee.

Salina: You can rub my body down.

Nikki: I'm getting coffee.

Nikki: They're one of those things that's what I think is going to happen.

Salina: I'm, like, standing in a corner, and they're just pelting me with pralines.

Salina: I'm like, fine, I'll just pick them up on the floor.

Salina: No problem.

Nikki: Take it.

Salina: The last thing I want to talk about is some actual, like, over the top hotel spa treatments.

Salina: And now these are in the world, not just in the south.

Salina: So what I would like to do is start with the most affordable of the three that I'm going to highlight.

Salina: This is at the Four Seasons.

Salina: Mauricious, do you know what Mauritius is?

Salina: Am I the only oh, is that work that doesn't know?

Nikki: Kate and Will vacation?

Salina: Probably, yeah.

Salina: So this is the island country off the southeastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.

Salina: It's like, if you're more familiar with Madagascar, like I am, it's like, to the side of Madagascar.

Salina: So anyways, I don't want to sit here and act like I'm some world traveler that knows what this very exciting.

Nikki: I never knew how it was pronounced till just now.

Salina: Well, I never knew until this morning.

Salina: And then that's with a southern lil on it.

Salina: So someone else might tell you no.

Salina: Anyways, this is related to the forehand massage because they have what they call their let it go eight handed massage.

Salina: It is $757 for 60 minutes or $1,048 for 90 minutes.

Salina: Now, I can tell you what this one is.

Salina: It's four masseuses.

Salina: That's why I figured the other one was two synchronizing movements, like a choreographed dance.

Salina: I don't know why I just said that.

Salina: So weird.

Salina: A choreographed to balance the body's energies.

Salina: Massages take place in an overwater villa.

Nikki: That's nice.

Salina: Yeah, that sounds nice.

Salina: Is that comfortable for you because you didn't like the forehand?

Nikki: Oh, no, I think the choreographed massage feels like spas make me very uncomfortable.

Nikki: I feel super out of my element there.

Nikki: So, like someone.

Nikki: Not someone.

Nikki: Four people choreographing their service of me.

Nikki: Feels weird.

Salina: Well, that state.

Nikki: Whatever, move along.

Salina: Can we rename this episode now to whatever it is Nicky's over here being serviced anyways?

Salina: Well, let me put it to you this way and see if maybe this makes sense.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I mean, I don't really love to be touched, but I love a massage.

Nikki: I do love a massage.

Salina: You do, too.

Salina: So just think about this.

Salina: You probably have favorite places to be massaged.

Salina: Like a scalp.

Salina: Come on, hold it together, my bunyan.

Salina: Well, sometimes you need that, but just, like, maybe your shoulders or you also, like, your lower back.

Salina: And then I love a scalp massage.

Salina: So the only thing I'm thinking is if there are these places that it really feels nice to be massaged, please get your minds out of the gutter, everyone.

Salina: We'll get to the gutter part in a second.

Salina: Right now, we're talking strictly professional.

Nikki: It is really hard to talk about massage and not sound.

Salina: It is.

Nikki: Handle it.

Salina: But I'm just thinking, like, I love my hands massage.

Salina: So I'm trying to think how amazing it would feel to have my scalp, my hands, and, like, my back run all at the same time.

Nikki: Overstimulating.

Salina: I love to be overly stimulated.

Salina: Sounds amazing to me.

Nikki: Sounds very stressful to me.

Salina: I also feel like we're going to lose our clean podcast sorry.

Salina: Just off the massaging area.

Salina: But anyway, so that's an eight handed massage.

Salina: I mean, it's so foreign to me that I have to, like, look back.

Nikki: I'm like, how many hands to do the math?

Salina: 100 hand massage number two spa, montage, Beverly Hills, and the L Raphael royalty treatment one $400 for 90 minutes.

Salina: This uses an advanced $500,000 oxygen machine there's only five of them in the world.

Salina: To blast oxygenated, vitamin C and L Raphael's LEC 40 complex into the skin to fight hyperpigmentation, smooth wrinkles, and even the skin tone.

Nikki: One of my favorite sayings ever is, I'm not ugly.

Nikki: I'm just poor.

Nikki: That's what that reminds me of.

Nikki: Like, if you could afford that, you probably look like I probably look like I'm 24.

Nikki: Yeah, probably right.

Salina: I'm like I just think about already.

Salina: I know she takes a lot of good care of herself, but I think about her ability to have access to things like this, and I don't know.

Salina: This is why we're aging.

Nikki: True.

Salina: Because no one will give me the Raphael Royal Sea drink.

Salina: All right.

Salina: And.

Salina: Then this is the final one and the most expensive.

Salina: The Talise Ottoman Spa in Dubai features the world's most luxurious spa experience.

Salina: $6,800 for a full day.

Salina: Guests can book a full day journey fit for a queen, including a milk and rose oil bath, argon oil massage, the use of an Arabian gold hamam, caviar lunch in the spa suite, and a custom made 24 karat gold facial mask.

Salina: So the one thing that I'll add on again, like, how I want to be honest, that I didn't know where the first treatment was, and I didn't want to be like, oh, yes, I absolutely know where this island is.

Salina: I was like, AHA, mom, I don't know what that is.

Salina: It's basically a public steam room think in the way of, like, Turkish baths, but Arabian gold.

Salina: So I'm assuming the room is made of gold.

Nikki: Even if you're in a room with other rich people isn't part of the benefit of being so wealthy that you get to do everything on your own.

Salina: I feel like this is more cultural, like, going back even to Roman bathhouses and things like that.

Salina: I think people saw it as a little bit of, like, a chance to interact, maybe.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I'd like to look more into that.

Nikki: I'd love not to talk to anyone when I'm having my day.

Nikki: Of me.

Nikki: That's just me.

Nikki: I don't care.

Salina: You know what actually turned me off.

Nikki: A little bit is like a six hand massage.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I guess I could go in with a book like a regular human being, but a lot of these places where you have to leave your phone behind, I was like, what will I do.

Nikki: If your book with your giant target sales sticker on the front of it?

Nikki: Leave me alone.

Nikki: I feel like $6,400 or $6,500, whatever it was.

Nikki: I feel like if you're really, really wealthy for a day's service, that's not bad.

Nikki: I'm going to continue to call it service because that's what it is.

Nikki: They will service me.

Salina: So on that train of thought, what of these sounded the most interesting to you?

Salina: The eight hand massage, the thing that's going to make you J lo or this $6,800 full spa day?

Nikki: I think I'm always going to go for the full spa day.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: I feel like that's a really reasonable price.

Salina: I will tell you.

Nikki: Full day in the lap of luxury.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: You want me to sign you up?

Nikki: I can't afford it, but I feel like it's a reasonable price.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: All right.

Nikki: If you're a millionaire.

Nikki: I also really like that oxygen thing, but that's probably yeah, I'm into it.

Nikki: It's just probably I wouldn't want to pay for it.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Although if you just did something like, one time and you really saved for a long time to do it, but I'm assuming just the one time probably isn't going to help you.

Nikki: You know what's funny to me is that this segment is a reminder of how big the world is, because when you brought up Beverly Hills, I was like, oh, yeah, I guess that's interesting.

Nikki: I feel like there would be a lot of great spa treatments in Beverly Hills.

Nikki: There's so many famous, very, very wealthy people there.

Nikki: But famous, very, very wealthy people are all over the world, and they go to lots of places, including Dubai and Mauritius.

Nikki: So reminder how big the world is.

Nikki: It's not all about La.

Salina: But isn't it interesting that that spa culture permeates out through, like and everybody wants to be taken care of all these different ways?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Everybody wants to be pampered.

Salina: And so the only other thing I'll say is for me, and I know I limited you to those three, but the one I'm actually the most interested in was the pod.

Salina: I thought that sounded really cool, and if I can find a way to save up for the next ten years and go do that, I would really enjoy how much was that one?

Salina: That one?

Salina: It wouldn't be ten years.

Salina: It'd be like five.

Salina: I want to say my best memory of it is it maybe was, like, three to 500, which isn't nearly as bad.

Salina: But I'm not a millionaire right now.

Salina: What I can say that makes it more expensive is for anybody who is very interested in going to the Omni Grove Park.

Salina: In spa, they no longer take non guests.

Salina: So it's also the price of staying at that hotel, which is quite expensive.

Nikki: I've looked into it.

Salina: I think that place is, like, $500.

Nikki: A night at least.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: So when you add that and the rest of the trip and everything, that's when the things really start mounting up.

Nikki: Right?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: So all that to say we'll link to these articles so that folks can look into for themselves.

Salina: And no matter what you do, no matter where you are, no matter where you go, all I'll say is find ways to pamper yourself.

Salina: It doesn't all have to be $6,800.

Salina: You can have a nice spread of.

Nikki: Granola ten for $10.

Nikki: What is sparkling water?

Nikki: PH water.

Salina: That's right.

Salina: And you can make your own spa water yourself and just treat yourself.

Salina: You know, it so we'll end there, and I'll just say what is it about this episode that you liked, Nikki?

Salina: I mean, you've already mentioned some things that you liked.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: It's possible that Anthony Suzanne talk in the storeroom may be one of my favorite scenes in the show so far.

Nikki: I just really appreciated it.

Nikki: I really liked his bonitia story.

Nikki: I thought that was really, really funny, and I thought it was a really clever allusion to the relationship he has with Suzanne.

Salina: And he's just so smart.

Nikki: Very smart.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: And I think that was really smart writing too.

Nikki: The other thing I really liked in this episode was something we talked about at the top, a little bit, but watching her, Suzanne, be appreciated for the parts of her personality that can be grading for other people.

Nikki: And it was sort of the flip of the attractiveness bias, which I think you mentioned in your general themes.

Nikki: But basically, like, people are nicer to attractive people.

Nikki: There's actually the flip of that, where people can be really unkind to attractive people because they're driven by whatever it is, could be jealousy or whatever.

Nikki: I looked it up.

Nikki: It's actually called, lookism, discrimination against attractive people.

Nikki: But I appreciated that Danny could see those things and appreciate her for that stuff that other people might not have liked.

Salina: Yeah, well, I like you like, thanks.

Salina: Was there other things that you wanted to share?

Salina: Okay, so I would just say that and maybe this is what it was, because hearing you say, I agree that the way that they got them outside and early in the episode, I didn't see it at the time, but that was really contrived.

Salina: And I also agree that it's a little annoying to have a one time character come in and say, here's all the things you don't appreciate about this person you're with every day.

Salina: But what I really did like was the build, the pace, and the scene choices.

Salina: I like how we spent the time and I liked who we spent the time with.

Salina: Suzanne and Danny's lunch.

Salina: I don't even know how to put this, really.

Salina: It's like there was an ease between them, like, right off the bat.

Salina: And he seemed I don't want this to sound weird humored by her.

Salina: I wanted to say tickled sounded weird.

Nikki: So humored hand tickled.

Salina: A full hand tickle.

Salina: So I like that she just real casually and without thinking about it, it almost seems like some deep buried nurturing to her.

Salina: She takes and undoes his napkin and puts it on his lap for him.

Salina: I don't know, there was just something about that that stood out to me.

Salina: Suzanne and Anthony's conversation was also tops for me.

Salina: I just absolutely loved it.

Salina: I love that she's able to be vulnerable with him, even if insulting at the same time, but that he also takes it in stride.

Salina: I think he really sees Suzanne too, and he knows how to build her up, but also keep it light and funny.

Salina: And I just thought that scene was nice and crisp.

Salina: And then the other thing for me was Danny's chat with Julia, Charlene and Mary Joe.

Salina: I totally, again, understand what you're saying, but I also thought that it was an interesting device to help us understand or remind us, I guess, again, about what is special about Suzanne and not to forget that.

Salina: And there was something about the not dichotomy, but where Julia is telling Mary Joe and Suzanne what's not Suzanne, Mary Joe and Charlene what's really going on while we still hear Suzanne in the other room making some excuses, she does say, like, I've always been the pretty one.

Salina: But she also has this moment where Anthony's like, you have a lot to offer, and she's like, oh, I know that silly.

Salina: You always kind of see her snap back to that Suzanne that puts up that wall.

Salina: But then Julia's in the other room explaining, like, suzanne's worried about someone really seeing her, and that makes her nervous.

Salina: And I thought the way that was set up was interesting.

Salina: And then to your point earlier, I just liked that there was growth for almost everyone, not just Suzanne, but also the rest of our cast, being reminded that Suzanne really does have a lot to offer.

Nikki: So what we didn't like I don't.

Salina: Like the things that you said that I agree with you now, but I had no not likes for this one, really?

Salina: Which is unusual for me.

Nikki: So you don't not like the fact that we'll probably never hear of the Danny Suzanne dream team ever again?

Nikki: That doesn't bother you?

Salina: Yeah, it does bother me, and I do mention it somewhere.

Salina: I'll say it.

Salina: It's in the who won and who lost.

Nikki: Okay.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: And I already said I didn't like the cheesiness of the episode.

Nikki: And then the last thing that I just I'm not sure what to make of at the end, julia tried to break off the date with Danny.

Nikki: She had sort of, like, a nod from Anthony on behalf of Suzanne.

Nikki: She had, like, a nod from Anthony.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: And I appreciated her backing her sister up and kind of doing the dirty work for her, but I also felt like she could have just gone and talked to her before completely trying to back out of the date on her behalf when Suzanne actually wanted to go.

Nikki: I don't know what to make of that.

Nikki: It felt weird to me.

Nikki: I didn't like it.

Nikki: I didn't like it.

Salina: Yeah, I think this is really, actually very realistic, but I do think it's kind of annoying that she's, like, always on Suzanne's case, and then this time, she's like, you guys don't understand Suzanne, right?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Yeah, for sure.

Nikki: So that was it.

Salina: Well, do you want to rate this sucker?

Nikki: Sure.

Salina: What you got?

Nikki: Poor vacuums.

Salina: As in P-O-R-E-P-O-R-E.

Salina: Not like oh, my poor Dyson.

Nikki: Yeah, my poor Dyson.

Nikki: It really has a tough life.

Nikki: No, poor vacuums.

Nikki: Like the pores on your face.

Nikki: Okay, I give it three.

Nikki: I had to remove, like, a whole point for the cheesiness factor.

Nikki: It just really bothered me a lot.

Nikki: So you mentioned this interaction between Suzanne and Danny feeling like an easiness between the two of them in that scene.

Nikki: I felt stiltedness throughout the rest of the episode.

Nikki: Like, the acting was all very uncomfortable.

Nikki: And I listened to this armchair expert interview recently with Brian Cranston.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I think of him as the Malcolm and the middle dad, but everybody else probably thinks of him as Breaking Bad.

Salina: But do you think about him as the oh, no, you don't.

Nikki: The dad seinfeld.

Salina: Seinfeld, yes.

Nikki: He did a whole thing about that on the podcast, but he talked about being a guest star, and he talked about how awkward it can be for you to kind of step into this long standing relationship sometimes like a family.

Nikki: Right.

Nikki: And so I give him a little bit on that because I'm sure that was not easy, but it felt really awkward to me.

Salina: Do you think maybe they were having some trouble with the stage directions and stuff, too?

Salina: That maybe it was challenging, that they were all probably trying not to?

Salina: Literally and not metaphorically.

Salina: Literally and something not step on each other's toes.

Nikki: Oh, maybe.

Nikki: I guess that's true.

Nikki: Anyway, I had to remove some things for that.

Nikki: And also, like, I'll never get over the fact that we'll probably never hear about the relationship again.

Nikki: They really liked each other.

Nikki: The least they could do is throw us at Danny bone later, and I'm going to guess they're not going to whatever.

Nikki: Slam.

Nikki: Move on, Danny bone.

Nikki: What about you?

Salina: So I gave it five out of five undetective flirts.

Salina: And that's from at the beginning when Suzanne's like, basically shoving her cleavage in his face and not realizing that he's blind.

Salina: But I'm not going to rehash what I've already said.

Salina: But it was a filler episode with heart, and I appreciated that.

Salina: I also cried a little, and when that happens, I feel like that's an automatic high score for me.

Nikki: You cried?

Salina: I think maybe I was PMSing when I watched.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Sounds like something's going on.

Nikki: Yeah, you were going through some stuff.

Salina: I wonder if it's right when I got back from vacation.

Nikki: Oh, there's depression, too.

Salina: Yeah, I was feeling a little down after I was sick, so I don't know.

Salina: There's a lot of things going on.

Nikki: Tough times.

Salina: Good thing I wasn't making a big purchase.

Salina: Who knows what could happen?

Salina: We'd accidentally wind up with, like a second mortgage or something.

Salina: I'm like, I need this mountain home.

Salina: So who won the episode?

Salina: Who buttered our biscuits?

Nikki: Mine is such an obvious it's so obvious.

Nikki: It's Suzanne.

Nikki: Just because I felt like she grew a little bit.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Mine was Anthony because I felt like every episode I'm just like, Anthony.

Nikki: It should be Anthony.

Salina: He's like not even there.

Salina: He won.

Nikki: He's probably carrying luggage somewhere.

Salina: Probably.

Salina: So he just really saved the day.

Salina: And he also saved the date.

Salina: If he hadn't talked with Suzanne, I don't know that she would have gotten the boost that she needed to go out with Danny.

Salina: And so I gave it to him.

Salina: I'm like, I always give it to Anthony.

Salina: Okay, that's not a bad.

Salina: All right, who lost the episode?

Salina: Who served this lumpy gravy?

Nikki: I've got a few candidates this go round.

Salina: Oh, we're all losers.

Nikki: I'm really worried about that DJ from the beginning that she the skipping like what was going on?

Nikki: How did he not catch that?

Nikki: I'm a little worried about him.

Nikki: I also worry about all the other men in the world who are missing out on Suzanne's company during the time that she's going out with Danny.

Nikki: I mean, what about those guys for.

Salina: These next 5 minutes?

Nikki: And what about those guys?

Nikki: But mostly the other women looked really kind of looked kind of bad in this episode for being so ugly to Suzanne in front of Danny.

Nikki: Good point.

Nikki: It's the women.

Salina: I said us.

Salina: And this is where we'll never see Danny again.

Salina: See, I told you I had it somewhere.

Nikki: Somewhere.

Salina: I really liked him and I would have liked to have seen him and Suzanne together again.

Salina: I mean, there's been lesser dates that have gotten a couple episode stints.

Salina: Come on, man.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: He might have been busy though.

Nikki: It's true.

Nikki: He was busy guy.

Nikki: He had a lot going on, so that's possible.

Salina: He just didn't have the time.

Nikki: 80S things, radio stations, records and DJs.

Nikki: I know those are all things that still exist today, but that felt very.

Salina: Eighty s but you don't necessarily well, I don't really know.

Salina: That's true.

Salina: But hold on.

Salina: There's so much that's digital now and then.

Salina: I think there was more of a physicality to it then, so I think that's fair.

Salina: And the radio itself, maybe, right.

Salina: With the antennas.

Nikki: She just sits there at her desk and listens to it.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Dustbusters again.

Nikki: They still make them, but I feel like they had their moment in the.

Salina: Actually had to look because I was like, do they still make these?

Salina: But yeah, it feels like people used to use that as the way that you talked about vacuum cleaners.

Nikki: The dustbuster.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: It just felt like it was more in the culture or something.

Salina: But it's cordless rechargeable and handheld, so I think when it was introduced that must have been a huge deal.

Nikki: Probably was a big deal.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Car radio was my other one.

Salina: Good one good.

Nikki: That's all I had.

Salina: My only other one was Suzanne calling the half bath a powder room.

Salina: Just in general that it feels dated or like a thing of yesteryear, which is also, I feel like what this category becomes as a catch all, for sure.

Salina: Pretty good amount of southern things.

Salina: Did you have anything on your list?

Nikki: A lot.

Nikki: The saying walk in in tall cotton is how she described how Julia described Danny.

Nikki: Lennox Square Mall, where Julia said her mom took her to get her hair done.

Nikki: That's a mall here in Atlanta.

Nikki: I looked it up.

Nikki: It opened in 1959.

Nikki: They mentioned the Atlanta Symphony.

Nikki: There was a mention of Vanderbilt and Old Miss old Miss Hehaw and then three sangs like a duck on a June bug.

Nikki: She'll get outright quick and Danny going hog wild all just in a row.

Nikki: Those felt like all very southern.

Salina: Right.

Salina: Well, and the tall cotton.

Salina: Tall cotton, yeah, all of those things.

Salina: And I thought what was funny to me is this idea.

Salina: And I noticed this with that what was that show on Netflix, sweet Magnolia or something, where they just feel the need to interject all of these kind of these kinds of sayings.

Salina: So we remember we're in the south.

Salina: Hey, guys, we're in the south.

Salina: There's ducks on June, bugs, there's cotton.

Salina: It just feels so a little silly and especially if it's a ton of them.

Salina: I mean, I'm glad we get the chance to talk about I was going.

Nikki: To say they add to our list.

Salina: We need it.

Salina: We need it.

Salina: We'll take it.

Salina: References we need to talk about.

Nikki: There were only two that I caught.

Nikki: Stevie Wonder and Jose Feliciano.

Nikki: These came up as like references somebody was making in talking about Danny.

Nikki: It may have even been Suzanne who was asking them if he knew either of these guys.

Nikki: They're both blind musicians.

Nikki: And incidentally, I found out that Stevie's blindness was caused by the same thing that Tom Sullivan's was, which is he was born preterm and he was put in an incubator and he was given too much oxygen and he lost his eyesight.

Nikki: I never knew that, Feliciano.

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: But he was Puerto Rican and started out as a musician or he is Puerto Rican.

Nikki: I feel like maybe he's still alive.

Nikki: I'm sorry, I wrote was now, I don't know.

Nikki: But he started out as a musician in the he was around a really long time.

Nikki: But I've never heard of him.

Salina: No, I haven't either.

Salina: And I think at the time I went and tried to look for some of his music and I think he does a lot of covers.

Salina: And so there wasn't anything for me like, oh, that song.

Nikki: Right.

Salina: Because it was something that I knew for other reasons.

Nikki: Right.

Salina: So one thing that I just have to say is julia says to Danny, I was just listening to some early recordings of his on the car radio.

Salina: What a weird way to say that.

Salina: It's almost like another time or something.

Salina: I often feel like almost like the high cotton saying it feels sometimes like they extracted her out of the wrong century and dropped her into the 1980s and they were like, have at it.

Salina: I'm almost waiting for her to be like, oh, the call radio just simply can't compare to the divinity that is the phonograph.

Nikki: The phonograph.

Nikki: That's what I was trying to think of.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I had to look it up, let.

Nikki: Me pull out my phonograph and crank it so we can listen to this early recording.

Salina: It's just strange, right?

Salina: Because I would have just been like I was just listening to him in the car.

Nikki: Right.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Well, that whole thing was weird.

Nikki: That whole bit was weird.

Salina: So it's interesting that you bring up the music thing.

Salina: I wonder if they were trying to like the guy in real life tom.

Salina: Tom, if that musical aspect, that they tried to build that into his character for some reason, because otherwise they were either like, oh, he's fancy and rich, and Julia's fancy and rich.

Salina: Which brings me to another reference, jean Pierre Rampal.

Salina: This is who Danny's listening to, or whatever.

Salina: The only thing that's interesting is what they say about this guy.

Salina: So he's the way they said it, he's a French flautist in the 20th century.

Salina: He has been personally, quote, unquote credited with returning to the flute.

Salina: The popularity is a solo classical instrument.

Salina: It had not held since the 18th century.

Salina: And I just want to say, like, that is also the weirdest way to say, you guys, he made the flip, the flute hip again.

Salina: That's it.

Salina: Why do we have to make that so complicated?

Nikki: It all sounds so I was in orchestra, I played the violin for eight years.

Nikki: And it always when people talk about classical music, I think there's genuinely no way to talk about classical music that does not sound uppity.

Nikki: Like there's just no way to talk about musicians from hundreds of years ago without sounding like, you know, it's interesting.

Salina: Because I think so I had to take a music composition class, and you learn about the history and at some point in time, there was a flip because it used to be that, like, people use their voice to, like, imitate, like what eventually instruments would do.

Salina: And so there was a time long, long, long ago where instruments were thought to be second rate.

Salina: Oh, you're only doing this because so isn't that interesting that over time and now people are like, oh, you're that stuffy person that listens to classical music, which, by the way, I like listening to classical music.

Salina: I'm not hating on it at all.

Nikki: It just feels uppity to talk about Jean Paul Rompe or whatever his name was, as just routine course, I don't know.

Salina: So I read something that said that some people call it flautist, but a lot of people normally just call it flutist.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: What do you think?

Salina: What's your hot take?

Nikki: Probably I think you should probably call it what it's called?

Nikki: The flautist.

Nikki: But it sounds weird.

Salina: Yeah, I don't know.

Salina: I think flutist sounds pretty I probably.

Nikki: Say person who plays the flute.

Salina: I like, tootie.

Salina: Flutey.

Nikki: Flute or flutter.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: I also have to say that for me, it's just a fun fact just for me, that Stevie Wonder and I share the same birthday, may 13.

Salina: That's a fun fact for you?

Salina: It is a fun fact for me.

Nikki: Deon Sanders and I share a birthday.

Salina: Oh, there you go.

Salina: See, I don't know why that's interesting.

Nikki: Houston and I may share a birthday as well.

Salina: Shared voices, too, right?

Salina: Well, that's what I was thinking, too.

Salina: Stevie got all the talent, sucked it all up.

Salina: I also got the May birthday, which just kind of makes me a stubborn a**, so I don't know what to say about that.

Salina: My very last reference was that we get Suzanne's Jetsetter lifestyle again, where they mentioned weekends in Bimini and St.

Salina: Croix.

Salina: And I was going to say that in addition to another fun fact, only for me, I went to St.

Salina: Croix on my honeymoon.

Salina: It's beautiful.

Salina: Paring, back to your story about seeing the sea turtles.

Salina: I saw sea turtles, baby sea turtles hatch on the beach there.

Nikki: That's cool.

Salina: And there's a very embarrassing video of me gushing over these turtles.

Salina: I probably would have it's pretty bad, but it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

Nikki: Seems lovely.

Nikki: They had tons of sea turtle nests on the beach where we were staying, so I'm sure they're going to hatch soon and I won't be there for that's.

Salina: Really cool.

Nikki: Any one of them could have been Trevor's child.

Salina: That's true.

Salina: I wish Trevor was here now.

Nikki: I do, too.

Salina: Nikki, do you have any cut lines for us this episode?

Nikki: I do.

Nikki: I have two, I believe.

Nikki: I think the Hulu people must have heard us complaining about Anthony always carrying Suzanne's luggage, because after she comes in from the spa, they cut this part.

Nikki: Oh, now, Anthony, be careful.

Nikki: Those are my new beauty products.

Nikki: Those are all beauty products.

Nikki: I was looking at some of this stuff on the way in from the airport.

Nikki: We've got turtle oil, we've got algae from the bottom of the ocean.

Nikki: We've got seaweed mud and kelp.

Nikki: I'm telling you, if all these products really did beautify, your average catfish would be a lot more attractive.

Nikki: Well, poo on all of you.

Nikki: So Anthony was just completely cut from that scene, I believe.

Nikki: Right after that, there was another cut where Suzanne, I think it was mentioned it being her time of the month and her hating men around this time of the month, and Julia getting on to her about treating Anthony as if he was one of the gals.

Nikki: And that's what comes up later when they're in the closet together in the inventory room, and Suzanne says, I know julia says, I treat you like a eunuch.

Nikki: It's because earlier in the episode, julia had gotten on to her.

Nikki: So next episode, episode 14 O'Dale.

Nikki: As always, we'd love everyone to follow along with us and engage Instagram and Facebook at sweettv.

Nikki: Our email address is sweettvpod@gmail.com.

Nikki: Our website is www.sweettv.com.

Nikki: And there you can find some ways to support the show, including a tab titled Support us on the website.

Nikki: But you can also just tell your free ways to support us.

Nikki: Just tell your family and friends rate or review us wherever you listen.

Nikki: That's helpful, too.

Nikki: And hang tight.

Nikki: For extra sugar, pull out your Abercrombie Polo shirt, spritz yourself with some Bath and Bodyworks body spray, and let's share some mall memories.

Salina: Well, you know what that means?

Nikki: What does it mean, Salina?

Salina: Means we'll see you around the bin by.

Nikki: Welcome to this week's edition up extra sugar.

Nikki: As we mentioned right before we wrapped up this week's show, we're talking mall madness this week.

Nikki: If you aren't from Atlanta, or if you weren't listening closely, you may have missed Julia's reference to Lennox Mall, which we discussed in Southern references.

Nikki: We're using that reference as an excuse to share some of our favorite mall memories.

Nikki: Yeah, so I'm pretty hard pressed to believe that somebody out there doesn't know what a mall is.

Nikki: And especially anyone listening to this podcast is like, what's a mall?

Nikki: But it's possible.

Nikki: So I'm thorough.

Nikki: You're thorough.

Nikki: Let's give the people what they need.

Nikki: According to Wikipedia, shopping mall is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center usually anchored by department stores.

Nikki: Shopping centers like America's indoor shopping malls have their roots in outdoor covered shopping experiences like bazaars in the Middle East and the world's first covered shopping passage built in France in 1798.

Nikki: These sorts of experiences were more pedestrian, meaning by foot experiences.

Nikki: So they were sort of long and meandering and you just go and go and go, whereas I think the mall is a little more consolidated.

Nikki: I found an Atlantic article.

Nikki: Incidentally, the article was written by an author who was waiting at Lennox Mall for a repair at the Apple Store when they got the idea for this article, which was all about the history of the shopping mall.

Nikki: According to that article, though, the first American enclosed shopping mall was built in Minnesota by an Austrian born architect, Victor Grun, in 1956.

Nikki: He was hoping to bring the European pedestrian experience as a way of building community to the suburbs in the US.

Nikki: So apparently these shopping experiences in Europe were community gathering places.

Nikki: And so he wanted to bring that to the suburbs because at that time, the suburbs were seen as like this really desolate, barren wasteland.

Nikki: They didn't have what the city had.

Nikki: They didn't have all the urban experiences.

Nikki: So he wanted to bring that to the suburbs.

Nikki: Also, the suburbs had been dominated by the car to that point, and he really wanted to give people a gathering place where they didn't have to depend on their car to go to all these different shopping places.

Nikki: They could just walk to them.

Nikki: According to the article, his original vision had malls connecting to residential and commercial spaces, medical care, libraries and other public spaces, which never really happened.

Nikki: We have those now.

Nikki: I think of like the Avalon over in Alpharetta that's coming to fruition, but it's not like the covered mall experience.

Nikki: It's still sort of like an outdoor sprawling area.

Nikki: But that was his original vision.

Nikki: What did happen is that 1500 enclosed standalone shopping malls were built across the US.

Nikki: In the six decades following the establishment of the first mall in 1956.

Nikki: 1500 ton.

Nikki: It's a lot, right?

Salina: Is this Mall of America, what he built?

Nikki: It is not.

Nikki: Okay, it's not.

Nikki: I didn't write the name down, but it's a predecessor to the Mall of America.

Nikki: At some point, though, builders stopped building them at such a ferocious pace.

Nikki: Then people really stopped going.

Nikki: That article I found said that just about half of those original 1500 remain.

Nikki: I'm sorry.

Nikki: The article says that as many as half of those that remain could be closed in the next ten years.

Nikki: It didn't say how many remain, but as many as half of those that do remain could be closed.

Nikki: So it's my sense that if you grew up in the malls were like a quintessential part of your childhood.

Nikki: Is that your sense too?

Salina: It was definitely my experience.

Nikki: So what was your go to mall?

Salina: My go to mall would have been Southlake Mall for most.

Nikki: Really?

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: South Lake clothes.

Nikki: Now it is.

Salina: I have no idea.

Salina: I thought it was one of the movies definitely still there.

Nikki: Oh, okay.

Salina: But there are a lot of places where there's still building.

Salina: But I mean, at least it's a couple of years ago it was still open.

Salina: Now what the pandemic did to it, because I think it was probably standing on its final leg is a good question.

Nikki: For some reason, I was thinking it had been turned into a movie filming location or something.

Salina: Oh, it's definitely possible.

Salina: I really have not made it out there a lot.

Salina: I used to drive by it on the way to my grandparents old house, so I don't know.

Salina: So I was going to say it's still there.

Salina: It's not great, but I think for a long time that was the biggest, best option on the south side of Atlanta.

Salina: So from like I think it was built when my mom was like a little girl and then on through until really Stonecrest came into play when I was in high school.

Salina: Mala, Georgia, that kind of thing.

Salina: But actually, the one addendum that I would add is that even though that would have been the place we would have gone if we just needed to go somewhere in a hurry, it's hard for me to not say that Linux isn't a go to spot because my mom, even though we were in Henry County, she spent so much time in Atlanta in her formative years that it was not uncommon for us to just go all the way up to Lennox and pass five malls just to get there.

Salina: Because I think that's the place that she preferred.

Salina: And so the two of us were actually there quite a bit.

Salina: And Linux at that time was considered the fancy mall, right?

Salina: And also like, Phipps Plaza.

Salina: And so Linux was also like my introduction to upscale dining.

Salina: So they used to have a place called Tom Tom there that Chef went on to open.

Salina: Twist, Shout, prime, all of those that dominated the dining culture in atlanta for the early to mid 2000s longer.

Salina: I think they all closed in 2015.

Salina: So I don't know that mom knew it at the time or intended this, but she was always exposing me to different things.

Salina: And this sort of folded into my experience of me recognizing from an early age that I just really needed to get out of Henry County.

Salina: So that's kind of what I connect these things to, my experience at Southlake Mall versus Lennox.

Salina: And then I kind of grew up with the mall because when I was in high school, my friends and I didn't go to South Lake as much as we would leave and go up to Linux or go to like, little Five was a big thing for us.

Nikki: Oh, man, I can't even imagine that.

Nikki: So lennox mall.

Nikki: The only time I went to Lennox as a kid would have been as a teenager when we went to see the fireworks, which they've stopped doing now.

Nikki: But I remember that was like a big excursion.

Nikki: We did that two or three times.

Nikki: And it was a big deal to go to Lennox Mall because they had all the stores that we didn't have.

Nikki: But I just felt like it was such a treat to go.

Nikki: I didn't feel like that's the mall I needed to keep going to because it felt so far away.

Nikki: And I'm a Gwynette kid, so it really wasn't that far.

Nikki: And I'm like, Jimmy Carter Gwynette, so it wasn't that far.

Nikki: But that felt really, really far.

Nikki: Our mall was Gwynette Place Mall.

Nikki: When I first moved to Atlanta, Gwynette Place Mall was really nice.

Nikki: Like, they had everything there.

Nikki: So when I was home with my mom and my stepdad, we'd go to Gwinnett Place Mall.

Nikki: When I went to visit my dad and my grandma in Greenville, we'd go to Haywood Mall.

Nikki: A fun fact about Gwynette Place Mall that I got to share with my niece recently is that it was the filming location for Stranger Things season three starcourt mall.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Because it literally has not changed since it was built here.

Nikki: It was a big deal.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Like the way the mall looks, it looks like an 80s mall.

Nikki: And when I was going in the looked like an 80s mall.

Nikki: But they had all the stores, they had everything I needed.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: I loved that mall.

Nikki: When I hit 8th grade, I think, is when they built the Mall of Georgia.

Nikki: And that also felt really far because it's like six exits from where I lived on the other side of Gwinnett County.

Nikki: So I had a friend who moved way out to way out to Dekula, right by the mall.

Nikki: So I would go visit her.

Nikki: It's really far.

Nikki: So I would go visit her and get to go to that mall.

Nikki: And it was so fancy, but there was nothing there.

Nikki: I remember the first time I can remember going to that mall for the first time there was an FAO Schwartz.

Nikki: There was a very nice FAO Schwartz, which just felt like, my God, are we in New York?

Nikki: This is amazing.

Nikki: It closed very shortly thereafter, but there was like a Lord and Taylor, there was Belk a Macy's, just everything in terms of anchor stores, but all of the interim stores, the stuff in the middle hadn't been opened yet.

Salina: I'm glad that you mentioned them because and I know I had said something about when it was built, but for us on the south side of Atlanta, you think Mall, Georgia was a long way from you.

Salina: Yeah, I mean, that was a real.

Nikki: Trip for me, for sure.

Salina: So when that was built, everyone was looking forward to that because I think that was going to be like our Mall of America.

Nikki: Yeah, and it's wild because it is the mall I go to now, Gwynette Place Mall has downscaled a lot over the years to the point where they were able to use it as a filming location and nobody noticed because the mall is so dead now.

Nikki: But they're going to raise it.

Nikki: I think they finally have signed off on the plans that they're going to finally knock it down and build like, a mixed use whatever facility.

Nikki: But the Mall of Georgia is the one I go to now.

Nikki: If I need to go to the mall, that's the one I go to.

Nikki: And it's so crazy that that one at one point in time was supposed to be like the Mall of America in Georgia.

Nikki: And it's nice and there's a lot of stuff out there, but it's not like just a mall to me because this is the one I go to.

Salina: Right.

Nikki: So I wanted to leave space for us to wax poetic about malls and share our memories, but I thought maybe we should give it a little structure.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: So I found a list of 90s mall staples on Good Housekeeping's website, of all places.

Nikki: It's a list of 40.

Nikki: So as always, I'm going to scale that back a good bit because that was a lot.

Nikki: And some of them I'd never heard of anyway, so it didn't resonate with me.

Nikki: So I'd love if you'd chime in along the way when I mentioned some of these things and share any memories you have or any special spot in your heart that you have for them.

Salina: Okay, I'd be happy to.

Nikki: So the first one, Salina's, sipping on one right now is like an Orange Julius creamsicle, sort of smoothie.

Salina: This is delicious.

Nikki: Oh, is it good?

Salina: But you did, like, a healthy thing.

Nikki: I did a healthy version, yeah, it's really good.

Nikki: It's almond milk and protein powder and oranges.

Salina: I've never had an Orange Julius ever.

Salina: Never.

Salina: Wow.

Salina: I was always a Dairy Queen kid.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: So I remember them.

Salina: First of all, I don't think they were in South Lake Mall.

Nikki: Orange Julius.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't think so it's very hard to remember that food court now, and especially different iterations of it, but I would see them as I got older, but I was never like, I got to go get me that.

Nikki: It wasn't like a routine thing for me, but I've definitely had them before because I love an orange creamsicle, an orange any sort of orange drink I love.

Nikki: But on that note, food courts, we can even just broaden that to food courts in general.

Nikki: Do you have like a food court staple that you are like every time you're going to hit?

Nikki: For me, it's food court, chinese food.

Salina: I think that springs to mind, is probably the most regular that it could be.

Salina: When I was thinking about you doing this segment, I was trying to prepare and think about some different things and it sort of depends on the era that it is.

Salina: So I think when it would be my mom cinnabon, I just said, that really weird.

Salina: Cinnabon, cinnabon.

Salina: Cinnabons.

Salina: We would go and split one and.

Nikki: That was always nice.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And that was at Linux and that was always like a big thing.

Salina: And then I do think about getting older and now I can polish one all on my own.

Salina: Polish it off.

Salina: Just talented gal that I am.

Nikki: You probably could have then too.

Nikki: Your mom just didn't let you.

Salina: Maybe that's what was going on.

Salina: They felt like impossibly.

Nikki: It felt like a really big undertaking.

Salina: Because I was smaller.

Nikki: You just didn't believe in yourself and.

Salina: I wasn't trying you've really come into your own.

Salina: Yeah, I really know how to finish off cinnamon buns.

Salina: Just a whole can, but yeah, so that one comes to mind.

Salina: I agree about the Chinese, but I think one of the things that I struggle with a little bit is when I think about the last time I was really in malls a lot, I was a teenager and very poor.

Salina: And so I think it was more like any one thing that we could get.

Salina: And it might have been like eight of us on one thing of Chinese or something, or, like, trying to get samples.

Nikki: And when I was a teenager, we would go like as a family, it would be like once a month, maybe a couple of times a month, we'd wake up on a Saturday and my parents would just be like, let's go to one that place for a little while.

Nikki: And so we would plan lunch around being at the mall.

Nikki: And so for whatever reason, I will never be able to explain it because I've had really, really good Asian food in my life.

Nikki: I just still really love the Lomaine noodles from a food court in a mall.

Nikki: I don't know, it's just good.

Salina: That's totally fair.

Nikki: But I remember when Starbucks first started coming into the malls and the Starbucks at the Mall of Georgia was a really big deal.

Nikki: It still is.

Salina: That thing is packed out all the time.

Salina: It's not like I go a lot to the mall, which is what's so funny about your story, because your story is, like, on a regular basis.

Salina: My parents would just be like, let's go hang at the mall.

Salina: It was so embedded in the culture, which feels so different from today.

Salina: I doubt there's a lot of mornings where you wake up and tell your kids, like, on a weekend, hey, you guys, get dressed.

Salina: We're going to go to the mountain.

Nikki: Absolutely not.

Nikki: That sounds like h*** on Earth.

Nikki: It really is.

Nikki: Unenjoyable days.

Nikki: You have a great movie theater at the Mall of Georgia, so that's where we go see movies.

Nikki: And occasionally I'll get, like, a wild hair.

Nikki: That Carolina.

Nikki: And I should go shopping together.

Nikki: I also really hate shopping.

Nikki: There's something very different about shopping.

Nikki: When, one, you had no money, or two, you had a little bit of money, but it wasn't yours, so it was fun to spend it.

Nikki: Now it's like my own money.

Nikki: I don't want to spend it on crap at the mall.

Nikki: Don't want to.

Nikki: B.

Nikki: Dalton Bookstores or Walden Books.

Nikki: Either.

Nikki: One of those ring a bell for you?

Salina: Barnes and Noble.

Nikki: Oh, really?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't ever.

Salina: Maybe Walden books, but I feel like but Barnes and Noble wasn't in the mall in South Lake Mall.

Salina: It was separate.

Nikki: See, we had a Walden Books at Gwinnett Place Mall.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: They just had such a good magazine selection.

Nikki: And you would go and you'd look at your Tiger Beats and your Teen Beats or whatever.

Nikki: Teen People.

Salina: Read a book.

Salina: Great.

Salina: Crazy town.

Nikki: I love a bookstore at the mall.

Nikki: The Body shop or Bath and Bodyworks.

Salina: Yes.

Nikki: The Body Shop I never really went into for some reason.

Nikki: It felt very fancy.

Nikki: Elevated.

Salina: Yeah, I think it was.

Salina: It was more expensive.

Salina: That might be why they're either gone or very hard to find.

Salina: Yeah, they had some scents that I really liked.

Salina: SCE?

Salina: N t, but yeah, both of those.

Salina: But, I mean, I should just say, like, at various malls, this wasn't we're not just talking about go to malls.

Salina: Just malls in general.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Malls in Chicago.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Bath and Body Works.

Nikki: You could just smell it coming towards you before you even got there.

Nikki: I'm sure that's a huge mall staple.

Nikki: It is.

Nikki: And I would get, like, a little money for Christmas, or, like, my grandma would give me a gift card.

Nikki: And that was always really exciting to go to the after Christmas sales because they would do, like, body washes.

Nikki: Five for $10.

Nikki: I don't know, something crazy.

Nikki: And I would just buy all those body washes and then use them for the rest of the year.

Nikki: Yeah, these ones don't ring a bell with me.

Nikki: Really?

Salina: Wet Seal.

Nikki: Five, seven nine.

Nikki: Charlotte Ruth and or the limited.

Salina: Oh, girl, you're in my wheelhouse.

Nikki: Doesn't ring a bell for me.

Salina: Wait, hold on.

Salina: You don't know them?

Nikki: I haven't ever shopped in them.

Nikki: I know them.

Salina: So can you go back through that list again?

Nikki: Wet Seal.

Salina: So, Wet Seal I think I shopped at until I was like 28.

Salina: Could you be out of Wet Seal?

Nikki: I had so many friends that loved Wet Seal and I hated the name.

Nikki: I thought that just sounded like the worst place to buy your clothing from.

Salina: Yeah, 579579 was a huge one for me.

Salina: That one was at South Lake Mall.

Salina: And I still think I have a pair of pants in here.

Salina: From there that I had in high school, I had this oh my God.

Salina: I will wear this right now.

Salina: Today.

Salina: It was like pinstripe pants and then that was like mainly black with the white, like a thin white line or maybe cream.

Salina: Then a pinstriped top that was mainly white with the black.

Salina: And then it had a tie and like a vest.

Salina: So I know you hate it, but that's okay because our styles are different.

Salina: Just let me be.

Salina: And I love that outfit so much.

Salina: Yeah, I've worn those pants to work before.

Salina: They sound familiar to me.

Salina: So yeah, I spent a lot of time there as a youth.

Salina: What else was on the list?

Nikki: Charlotte Ruth.

Salina: That's another one.

Salina: That was I got a dress in here from there, too.

Salina: That's where my graduation dress was.

Salina: I've also worn that one to work.

Salina: It's like a black polka dot dress with a hot pink ribbon.

Nikki: I know that one.

Salina: Yeah, see?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So the reason I'm bringing that up is because I think a lot of that clothing doesn't hold very well except that dress I've had since I was 18 and I'm not 18 anymore and it still works.

Nikki: And you know, that was always my thought about Wet Seal.

Nikki: For some reason, in my mind, Wet Seal was like the precursor to sheen the clothes you can get on Amazon that are like fast fashion or what's the other one, the big one at the mall?

Nikki: Not H and M forever 21.

Salina: That was a huge one for me, too.

Nikki: Yeah, they opened one at Gwenette Place Mall and it was really nice.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: The Limited is another one on here.

Nikki: And I will admit that this is a brand that seems like you to me.

Nikki: I didn't know The Limited until I got into working and I needed business wear.

Nikki: And it's an excellent I have several Limited pants that I love now.

Salina: Did they change the Jones in New York or not?

Nikki: New York and company.

Salina: New York and company.

Nikki: Two separate brands.

Nikki: Are they really and actually, New York and Company is my wheelhouse because I've been wearing business casual since I was twelve.

Salina: Mike and I pictured a little Nikki like with a briefcase.

Nikki: My ideal shopping trip to the mall.

Nikki: And I can pull this in my head like it was yesterday.

Nikki: A white fitted T shirt with New York and Company in rhinestones across the chest.

Salina: Oh, yeah.

Nikki: And that was one of my favorite T shirts.

Nikki: And I felt so great wearing that T shirt.

Salina: If you didn't have some sort of T shirt with something and rhinestones on it, like, what are you even alive?

Nikki: Right?

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Limited.

Salina: I grew up with the Limited.

Salina: What I mean by that is I started in Limited two, and limited two was awesome.

Salina: Now this is around the time of when Clueless came out.

Salina: And so it was all the plaid skirts with the knee high socks and all the little vests and stuff.

Salina: So I had all those too.

Nikki: That's cute.

Salina: I would wear that again right now.

Salina: I tried when 90s started getting big again, like three or four years ago, maybe a little bit longer.

Salina: And it doesn't feel the same.

Salina: No, I mean, they've changed it just enough that I didn't like the way it looked as much.

Salina: It could also be that I was like a woman in her early 30s trying to dress like a twelve year old.

Salina: It's fine.

Salina: Yeah, but I'm short.

Salina: And I just feel like when you're short, you should be able to get away with things for longer.

Salina: Because that should be the flip side of having to have been short your whole life.

Salina: Like, I should be able to get away with things a little bit later.

Nikki: You have this interesting perspective that life is somehow better when you're tall.

Nikki: Clothes don't fit you any better.

Nikki: New York and Company is a place you end up having to shop at twelve because they only have talls.

Salina: I see what's going on now.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: And you know what's?

Nikki: Actually not on this list since we're talking about clothes, what's not on here is Abercrombie American Eagle.

Salina: But what year does Abercrombie?

Salina: Oh, Abercrombie's.

Nikki: Abercrombie is established in 1959.

Nikki: I don't know, I just made that up.

Salina: Well, I think it might be 60 something.

Salina: I have 1892.

Nikki: Those are my memories.

Nikki: Not because I shopped there, because I smelled it.

Nikki: Wanted to shop so badly at Christmas time, sometimes we would get like a new pair of American Eagle jeans or an American Eagle shirt.

Nikki: And that was a really, really big deal.

Nikki: This was like high school, and that was a really big deal.

Nikki: I used to like my sister and I would swap T shirts so that we could make our four American Eagle T shirts last that much longer.

Nikki: We could almost have a full week out of it.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Fye or Sam goody music store.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I don't have a lot of connective memories to music stores in the mall.

Nikki: What about Circuit City?

Nikki: Or Best Buy?

Salina: Media Play is the one that really I loved Media Play so much.

Salina: Now this is separate from the mall, and this is another place like, my mom always loved movies.

Salina: My mom used to act so I think she always had a connection to that.

Salina: And I think she always wanted to be in and of that or just near it.

Salina: And so we would go in there and it was probably like 20 TVs, but they were all close to each other and they'd show one big thing across those 20 TVs.

Salina: And then they had little directors chairs in front of it.

Salina: And you could go and you could get popcorn from the thing that looks like it's at the circus, like the Glass a**.

Salina: And we would go in there and we would just hang out and eat popcorn and stuff.

Salina: I don't know how it's really weird she actually had any time to do that because the woman had, like, three jobs at all times.

Nikki: We all wanted to be at the mall.

Nikki: We make time for the things we love.

Salina: That's true.

Nikki: I think Sam Goody was the one you could sample music in.

Nikki: So they had in each genre, they had a station set up almost like a jukebox, but with headphones.

Nikki: And you could pick from, like, one of a dozen song samples.

Salina: Oh, okay.

Nikki: So my sister and I would go in there and just do that.

Nikki: And one of my favorite things I still do this to this day, at the time that I'm thinking of, like 96, 97, I was a gigantic Hanson fan.

Nikki: I loved to go to every store that had CDs and see if they had any because they used to release singles on CD.

Nikki: And sometimes you could get, like, an Asian only release or, like a limited edition US release or you'd find the random CD that was signed.

Nikki: So to this day, I will sometimes walk through the CD section, which is very small these days, at, like, Best Buy or Walmart.

Nikki: And I will kind of walk through just to see, like, I don't know.

Salina: What handsome do they have?

Nikki: Or now it's like, What Taylor Swift do they have?

Nikki: Because you will find some really cool stuff.

Salina: Or back to albums.

Nikki: Right.

Salina: Records.

Nikki: And so when we would go to the mall, we would usually get, like, One Treat or whatever.

Nikki: And it was almost always music for me.

Nikki: I just loved buying CDs.

Salina: This was a huge one for you.

Nikki: This was a really big one for me.

Nikki: But all of the music stores in the mall, I loved going to.

Nikki: All right, we have a few more.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Gad, Zooks or Hot Topic.

Salina: Yes.

Nikki: And back in your wheelhouse.

Salina: You know it I'm guessing they were not in Your Wheelhouse.

Nikki: They were, because they were in my sister's wheelhouse.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: So we would go in there together.

Salina: They were forced in there.

Nikki: I wouldn't say forced, but I didn't find much for me in there.

Salina: I just love Gadzook so much, and I can't imagine I feel like people today would really enjoy it again because, see, what was going on in the 90s is that we were harkening back to the what kids are doing now is they think they're like, oh, this is 90s fashion.

Salina: But it's really 90s twist on 70s.

Nikki: Fashion, which is probably 70s twist on 20s fashion or something.

Nikki: Like, it all sort of builds on each.

Salina: It's usually in these 2030 year cycles.

Salina: So I had to talk about this.

Salina: My favorite shoes that I ever had were these.

Salina: Because I was short, I was always, always in forever.

Salina: The second that I was at an appropriate age, which probably wasn't an appropriate age for me to be in Hills and as high as possible, I was in them.

Salina: And I had this great pair of black patent platforms with a cutout clear flower on the side.

Salina: I loved those shoes.

Nikki: I can imagine those shoes so much.

Salina: And then I also had like it was like a I don't know if it's chiffon or like silky kind of bell bottom sleeve blouse that was all rainbow colored.

Salina: And then it tied right here.

Salina: Like you all don't know what right here is.

Salina: Right here is at the chest.

Salina: I love those two pieces of clothing so much.

Salina: I'm surprised I don't have them somewhere still.

Salina: I think something might have happened to those shoes.

Salina: But I love that store so much.

Salina: And it's interesting because I think even though now I realize that eleven and twelve years old is very young and you are really still a baby, then it's like this time where you're really trying to find yourself.

Salina: And so Gadzooks came along at that time when I was really actually trying to find, like, who is Salina and what is Salina's style.

Salina: And it turned out that I liked things that were a little funky.

Salina: And then Hot Topic, that didn't really come along for me until later in high school.

Nikki: Right?

Salina: But when it came along, it was definitely in those average Levine style days.

Salina: Not that I was like, a huge average Levine fan, but definitely it makes me think of her.

Nikki: Everybody wanted to dress like her.

Salina: Why not?

Nikki: She looked so good.

Salina: She did.

Nikki: She was really cute.

Salina: And so I definitely found myself in a little bit of a Hot Topic phase because I've always been the person that I am.

Salina: On college day our senior year, when everyone else dressed up in their favorite college swag, me and my friend went and we decided to have Goth Day.

Salina: That's an interesting choice.

Salina: It's a very me choice.

Salina: And so we went to Hot Topic and we got the most goth clothes and makeup and everything that we could do, and that's what we did.

Salina: We didn't care about sports.

Salina: I was just an emo kind of kid.

Nikki: We had a lot of people at my school that were like the hot Tide.

Nikki: And that's the thing.

Nikki: I didn't find anything for me there, but all my friends went there.

Nikki: That's like the style.

Nikki: Not all my friends, but a good portion of my friend group shopped there, and that's just sort of the vibe they lived in.

Nikki: So it was that's total thing.

Nikki: And that was a certain type of person.

Nikki: You had that type of person there.

Nikki: Then you had a certain type of person at American Eagle.

Nikki: You had a certain type of person at Charlotte Ruth or whatever.

Nikki: It's fascinating at that time to walk through a mall and see all those.

Salina: People, and I went through all of them.

Salina: Yeah, I literally did all of the phases and in a very short amount of time.

Salina: I mean, from 8th to 12th grade, I mean, I must have gone through, like and that's what was interesting about this segment, is it made me realize how many different phases I went through so quickly.

Nikki: The next one, we have three more JCPenney and Sears.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: JCPenney's is probably more resident than Sears.

Nikki: I shopped at both.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: We would do our back to school shopping at Sears because they had a really big back to school sale at JCPenney.

Nikki: We got my mom a family portrait one year.

Nikki: I remember it because I saw it within the last couple of years.

Nikki: It is such a 90s snapshot.

Nikki: Like, just my mom's hair is perfectly teased, and it was like, early 90s.

Nikki: My stepdad's button down shirt is perfectly tucked into his, like, almost acid washed jeans.

Salina: Wonderful.

Nikki: Fantastic.

Salina: Nice little time capsule.

Nikki: But that was a really big deal, was to go to JCPenney and get your family portrait taken.

Salina: Sure.

Nikki: KB Toys.

Salina: Yeah, I think that's a staple that I remember.

Salina: I haven't seen one probably in, like, 510 years now, but when I think of them, I think of them trying to entice customers in.

Salina: They always have some toys going out front.

Nikki: Yeah, we shopped a lot at KB Toys and Toys R US.

Nikki: Probably a lot of my experiences shopping are beyond the age would have been appropriate for me to be at X, Y, and Z store because my brother was five years younger than me.

Nikki: So we spent a lot of time at stores that I probably was too old to be at.

Salina: I will go in Toys R US right now, except for technically they're closed, but they're revamping and opening, I think I heard.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: So our Toys R US obviously closed a couple of years ago, but they closed right after maybe between Carolina and Landon.

Nikki: But after I had Carolina, that would be a big postpartum excursion for me, would be to go to Babies R US and just shop around and then peruse over there again.

Nikki: I have to look at the Barbie aisle.

Nikki: I have to see what the Barbie options are.

Salina: I love that you said that, because something that maybe it was FAO Schwartz in Linux Mall when I was little, there was a whole it must have been so there's, the whole toy store.

Salina: And at this time, it's like, I'm probably, I don't know, nine.

Salina: Something like that and just the biggest store you've ever seen in your life.

Salina: And then when you exit out through the other side, there was this enormous Barbie section, and they had these columns that were filled with liquid and Barbie shoes.

Nikki: Oh, that's cool.

Salina: It was so amazing.

Nikki: That's really cool.

Salina: Especially like a we thing.

Salina: I know there are some kids who are like Barbies, but I definitely went through a huge Barbie phase.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: The last one we have is Claire's.

Nikki: Yeah, man, I used to love Claire's.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: I had a lot of ear piercings, so I have three in one ear and four in the other.

Nikki: So I used to love to go get their multi pack earring sets and mix and match those.

Nikki: Or you could buy they would be like two for $5 or something.

Nikki: And you could have a whole bunch of different options.

Nikki: I don't remember getting my ears pierced at Claire's, but I'm pretty sure I got at least some of them pierced there.

Nikki: That's just where you went to get your ears pierced.

Salina: I got mine pierced the first time at Meryl Norman.

Salina: Oh, do you know what meryl Norman is?

Salina: Okay.

Salina: I feel like that's not common knowledge.

Nikki: I did not know they pierced ears, but it tracks.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And I did because the same makeup lady, which that is definitely not, but that's what I call it as a makeup lady, but went with my grandma's, my mom's, and then sold me my first packaging of makeup or whatever.

Salina: And my mom was friends with her, so I would get dragged.

Salina: This is another thing that happened at South Lake.

Salina: I would get dragged into this store and she would sit there and talk to this woman for hours.

Salina: It was a terrible thing to do to someone who was a kid.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: But there was one day I was just, like, really bored and I taught myself how to do eyeliner while I was at the counter because I was like, gosh, just won't shut up.

Salina: And I remember my mom was like, pretty good for your first time.

Salina: I was like, yeah, what else was I going to do with these three and a half hours?

Salina: But anyway, so they pierced my ears there.

Salina: My mom would only let me go there.

Salina: She's just one of those people who has, like, sounds just like me.

Salina: She's got something in her mind, and that's the way it's supposed to be.

Salina: And so that's how she's going to do it.

Salina: Don't you be over there laughing.

Salina: And I think I did go to Claire's at some point to try and get my second holes repaired, and I think they messed them up.

Nikki: So that's the end of our list.

Nikki: Did I miss any of your favorite mall memories?

Salina: I would just say one store that was really pivotal for me when I was younger also was Hello Kitty.

Nikki: Oh, yeah.

Nikki: See, I don't know anything about this.

Salina: Only when I was a baby.

Salina: Baby.

Nikki: I have no memory to what would have been, like an age appropriate obsession with Hello Kitty.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I don't have it.

Salina: So, like, every time that we would go in the mall, I would insist on going in Hello Kitty.

Salina: It was also probably tied to some if you're good, we'll go in probably.

Salina: But the whole store just smelled so good to me because everything was plastic, and I can still it's like visceral, like, how strong that smell was.

Salina: But I just loved it, and everything was plastic.

Salina: Like little plastic wallets with Hello Kitty, the pencils, and they had the erasers that were it's very Lisa Frank.

Nikki: It is, yeah.

Nikki: It is very much like that would have been I would have been perfect for that.

Nikki: Between the ages of, like, five and ten.

Nikki: That would have been right up my alley because I loved Lisa Frank.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: And I'm sorry.

Salina: There is one more thing.

Salina: Do you remember when they used to have cigar stores in malls?

Salina: Tobacco stores?

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: That also is a huge memory for me.

Salina: I think it's because that reminds me more of my dad.

Salina: There was a lot of John Wayne memorabilia, kinds of things on the wall, and I mean, people were smoking cigars in there.

Salina: What a time to be alive.

Salina: I love the smell of tobacco.

Salina: So you could smell it while you were walking by it to go through the mall.

Salina: And that just always sticks out to me as a memory as well.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Well, unless you have anything else, that's it.

Salina: I think we covered it top to bottom.

Nikki: Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane, everybody.

Nikki: If we missed any of your favorite memories, share them with us on social media or by email.

Nikki: We'd love to hear what resonated with other people.

Nikki: Plus, it that's this week's extra sugar.