Don't Blame Me! - Winter Olympics Drama

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

This week on Don't Blame Me, Meghan and Melisa are giving advice on: Dating guys from the same country Reconnecting with your sibling They also discuss: Melisa getting it on by a weirdo Bad Bunny's Halftime performance The Winter Olympics Frequent delivery orders Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dontblameme Subscribe to But Am I Watching? Apple  Spotify Subscribe to Don’t Blame Me! Apple Spotify Call In for DBM - 310-694-0976 (3 minutes or less) Write In for DBM - [e-mail] (300 words or less) DBM Submission Form Buy Our Merch https://crowdmade.com/collections/sister-sign Follow Us! instagram.com/meghanandmelisa @meghanrienks instagram.com/meghanrienks https://twitter.com/meghanrienks @sheisnotmelissa instagram.com/sheisnotmelissa instagram.com/diamondmprint.productions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

hi welcome back to another episode of don't blame me where we two gorgeous wonderful amazing humans give you advice we chit chat we talk about pop culture you get some of our hot takes maybe we'll get some of your hot takes and hey we're just like the little friends in your ears your blush looks good you do it different I just added more because I'm on camera and I'm like I think for a while I forgot that when you're on camera like you you need more makeup because like you can't see it and I had noticed that when I when I did my makeup last time I was like my makeup looks so good and then I remember I closed out of this when we finished recording and I was like oh my makeup's a little heavy and I was like oh I think I need a little more makeup just for

it to look great on camera so I'm also rocking my wavy hair because it's supposed to rain and I don't want to deal with my hair blown out with the rain yeah it was supposed to start heavy on Tuesday night and it was just a little sprinkle oh we got like three inches on I got just a little sprinkle and then now everything's pushed to Monday yeah and I'm I'm waiting because they do keep predicting like a torrential downpour and i'm a wee bit nervous but it does it does seem like it keeps pushing it off but i'm like well i don't i don't want the universe to think that like my nerves mean that like i don't want the rain like i do want the rain and i want it to be cold because if we don't have rain and it doesn't get cold

then summer has already started and i don't want that but we usually get there's usually like a couple like hot weekends in february and then it gets cold again yeah so every year though i'm always like what is this weather as if it doesn't almost do the same thing every year but yeah how was your weekend well you know it started out rough it did it did but then i missed uh things i was supposed to do saturday morning because i had to sleep i was worried yeah i had to go to sleep. Then the evening though, my sorority was having pink goes red, which is for heart health awareness month in February. Instead of wearing pink, we all wear red. And then we did, you're supposed to do like some type of cardiovascular movement or something. And so a bunch of the

chapters here in southern california got together and um went to one of the colleges and had rented out the whole gym and did like line dancing and so we had some instructors come and teach and there was there was hundreds holy shit of people there it was really cool and i hung out with my cousin yeah hung out with her hung out with ashley new friend ashley you haven't met yet ashley Parentheses new. Yes. And we have fun. And then we went out to eat.

And as I was sitting there at the table, a man. Why would a man be there? Comes up behind me and shoves his meaty paw in my hand after I've washed my hands. So, you know, big nightmare. I'm about to eat. Oh, my God. And then he continues to grip my hand. And it's like, this whole table, because it was like six of us, this whole table is full of beautiful women, but you, there's just something special about you.

And he goes, where are you from? And I said, I've lived all around. And I kept trying to pull my hand away from his, and he would not let go. And he was like, well, I grew up in the military, but I'm from whatever he said. And I said, I stole a line from LaRoche. And I said, we're from the same place. the world he didn't get it did he of course he didn't get it and then he like kept breathing heavily in my face and asking me questions and would not let go and he was like what do you do

and i said i work in entertainment and then he goes have you seen black panther yes i've seen black man cryogenically frozen and just unfroze and then he goes my cousin he was black panther but his cousin was what black panther my cousin was black panther so unfortunately now i actually do have time did we have a family tree for proof they have the same last name he had told me his last name before and last names do match bozeman for sure but that's not like it's not an uncommon last name but was there family resemblance he was too close to my face for me to even make out his features it's a paint by number situation you can't see the whole image yeah right he's too close and i'm like that's your pickup line okay i'm not surprised so annoying he's like yeah i

used to manage him before he took off big okay so if you are a cousin you're not a close cousin anymore like it hasn't been because i would assume you'd keep managed also telling me that the bartender was one of his former students oh okay so he just knows everybody he literally his brother was also at the bar on a date but he didn't know his brother was going to be there Mind you, I'm sitting at a table. Leave me alone. With other people. Yes. And so then he finally lets go after I give him a fake phone number. And he then asks the table, do y'all know Melissa?

Obviously they know me. And Ashley goes, we don't know you. And then that's when he starts naming all the people in the bar that allegedly know him. But none of those people are at that table. right irrelevant then he leaves thank god hour later comes back again jumpscare he has now put his phone number on a piece of paper and put it down in front of me on the table and he said you need to put that somewhere safe and i said it's fine where it is and for some reason that set him off and he snatched it and stormed outside wow philly knew it was that easy right that there's

no logic behind that that that's what upset him yes i will say the only believable thing about him actually being chadwick boseman's cousin is cousins of famous people are the most name dropping people you'll like quite literally ever meet like i i had a friend who went to college with taylor lautner's cousin taylor honor's cousin was was the college bike like the way that that man used that and like got with absolutely everybody and i remember being like so did taylor come to like family day like are we sure this person is not just like completely lying to everybody and i was like no no he was his cousin but like the way that he used it was in a way that made you doubt if he was a cousin because it was like i feel like someone who's actually in the family wouldn't use

it siblings not so much cousins cousins are using it and the thing is him saying have you seen black panther that makes me like in the way that he said it makes me believe that he is chadwick's cousin yeah because he's like still being kind of an asshole cousin who's like downplaying the movie that was a fucking massive thing have you seen it of course i've seen it everyone has seen it right yeah it has cousin that's that's cousin energy yes ashley kept saying the deceased like what does that have to do with the here and now i love new ashley that's funny yeah so is this put you off this restaurant yes even though i like the restaurant because now i don't know if he's gonna pop up but the thing is it's not really close to me

so it's not something someplace i would have frequented yeah you're not losing a regular no damn that's men don't know how to act in public no they that needs to be like a privilege that's like earned at this point like that is just or if like you know that many people at this restaurant they should know they can't let you talk to people because it's flattering at first but then it wasn't though it wasn't even flattering because don't he jumps he came up to me from behind when he could have come from the side and said like excuse me or something he forced his hand inside of mine we're at a restaurant like you don't touch people's hands in a restaurant and also like you you're saying that you grew up military you would also know

why are you approaching someone from the back right how old do you think he was late 40s because like if he was the bartender's teacher then yeah the bartender is at least 21 he would be at least mid 40s but he looked like late 40s from the amount that i saw him well it's too close yeah yuck well that's an eventful weekend was the line dancing fun yeah it was a lot of fun i'm glad you got that i guess like a group of like they call them like soul line dancers they like get together and like this is what they do like so that's who was teaching us and they were really cool oh that's fun i finally learned how to do boots on the ground then there like they also created some and so there's one of them in particular that i really like that

i will be teaching to more people teach me i love a line i will it's like an elevated more modern the one that i really like uh electric slide line dancing is just like so fucking fun like we went to like a bar in college that would like do it and i remember everybody was like oh my god this is like so silly and i'd be like i'm hopping right in like i i'm gonna get in the back and gonna learn and it's just so i don't know like i love to me that's like the acceptable form of like a group of like a flash dance yeah you know because you're opting in you're choosing to do it but like people are always like why aren't there more things for people to do like going out to bars and stuff or choreographed dance yeah just do that it was great i had a good time i saw

uh prince harry's father an old photo of him with facial hair harry looks exactly like him you know like he just grew into being a toad oh so he used to not be toady yeah wow that's that's actually remarkable because like he's like so far evolution to like the rivet rivet like i didn't know that like i didn't know that he could go yeah i didn't know the journey was that long I assumed we were only taking a couple steps to Toadville but no he was fully not there that's really sad

that to me is like a generational curse like I do think that like when you see those things and I go some you're it might even be you but more likely than not your ancestors like they did something and you are repaying which his did

and he is I'll send it to you and we'll put it up I'm gonna be shocked I didn't even know it was an option for him to be handsome. Oh, my God, that's hairy. Right. So, when men go bald, does everything go bald? Because, like, this is the thickest beard I've ever seen.

A lot of times they still have facial hair. There's a lot of bald men that still have facial hair. For him, he gives naked mole rat currently. Like, he gives, like, I've actually never had hair on any part of my body ever. Wow. That is... That is news to me. Not for me, but I could see it for hours.

Like, he looks like Harry. Yes, totally. I love that. Did you watch the Super Bowl? I mean, I didn't go to the party like I was planning on because I had to take care of some things. But I watched, more so, I watched the halftime show. I wanted to give a shout out to MiaTaylor2.0

for typing a very poetic tweet. and she said no guillotine in existence could take away the head i would give to that man i i already loved that man but like that was such a fantastic like it's only like i just feel like every year it's just like getting there's just there's like the jay-z era which is just like a different era of Super Bowl shows. It is. It's really taking on what's happening in the current world and making it patriotic. Yeah. Well, and it's theatrical, which I think is like so, so fun because in general, everyone who goes to the Super Bowl talks about how regardless if they're on a stage or not, like the show is for TV. And I think like a lot of the time when it's

like just a stage and a microphone and like flares and stuff, they're like, well, we're performing for the people there and performing for tv you're performing for tv the people there like cannot the acoustics are not good the audio is not great and like they really can't see you they're like watching the only way they're seeing you is on a screen which is the same feed that we are seeing on tv and so i think like stepping away from like the stage like traditional performance and like doing something that's like more immersive and like that is better for camera is so like such a smart choice i wrote down that it felt fully immersive so yeah yeah i just like i i i loved it and every adult was like completely enamored with it where i was and the kids were

being very loud to the point where not me because i'm not a parent but one of the parents snapped at the kids and was like if you guys do not quiet we you're gonna get in trouble like it was just very much like you need to be quiet and they were like running around and they were one of them was dragging this like um wagon style thing not drag a wagon you know what i mean yeah exactly he's in diapers um and it was just like so fucking loud and like then finally the kid who's three he was friends of um my niece and nephew and he finally goes i can do this instead and he just picks it up and is like walking like carrying the bag and his parents were like sure okay and so it wasn't dragging anyone that's what i said i was like hey good problem solving dude but i had to explain to

the kids um that the word bad is slang for good in my my era so when they were like i don't know if we should be watching a bad bunny if he's like an evil bunny and i go he's not do you know slang which i've taught my nephew about slang and i'm like it's like a slang like bad it's like it actually means good and it's like or cool so it's like oh it's really cool like he's bad and they were like oh he's a good bunny he's a cool bunny and i was like exactly so hopefully they will get into it more later but my nephew likes what he likes he goes it's not beyonce and i said it's not beyonce i was like it's not but he's still great and he went okay but i did point out and i go who's that on tv and he goes that's blue ivy who's she with and i go that's her dad and he goes

who and i was like she has a dad that's jay-z okay where's beyonce not there blue ivy's looking more and more like her every day though there's some um news articles that were saying it was beyonce i was like that is a child come on like it was because like i will say like at cowboy carter it would be half the time i would be like that's beyonce and the other half time i go that's Like, it's just that. And now, when I saw her there, I was like, oh, my God. Like, you are your mom's twin. Like, crazy. Crazy. And she looks like she was having so much fun,

and she did her annual jumping picture, which I was like, wow. And the taller she gets, the higher and higher she gets off the ground. And she was doing it with Rumi, too. Mm-hmm. So fucking cute. I have to say, my favorite response to someone's, like, unhinged racist rant

about the Super Bowl show was Don Lemon to Jill Zarin. Mm-hmm. Where she had said, like, where are the white people? And he said, if you want to see white people, just go look in the Epstein files. Right. And I was like, damn! Yeah, that woman is not entertaining on television as it is.

Yeah. she was fired very early on from real housewives of new york and has been begging to get back on television she finally got the job and then said this shit and got fired again i obviously don't watch housewives but like i like was reading all of this thing and i didn't see anyone being like oh no like it didn't seem like she was even like a fan like a problematic fan favorite it's like One of the ones who I have met, who was very kind to me, but I'm sure she's done wild things, Ramona Singer. Yeah, she's terrible.

She's at Mar-a-Lago every weekend. Exactly. But she's entertaining to watch on TV. Yeah, and her daughter, they were like, thank God for her daughter, because her daughter, like, reigns her in so we can still enjoy her chaos on television. Like, the chaos that translates, obviously, to real life and her choices and her belief system and all that,

but reigns in enough that she's still able to be more entertaining on tv than like dangerous on tv or like anything like that and i was like but no one was saying that about jill's hair and i was like oh damn no like ramona was when i it was years ago early in the days when we were doing but am i wrong and i said like not everybody i think my hot take was like not everybody on tv needs to be politically correct or something like that and i was like because there's no drama if everybody just agrees yep but she's got a kid to keep her to reign her in yeah which shout out to that i mean that's tough jill i mean yeah jill also does but i don't know how much her daughter's because she her daughter wasn't that much on the television

where ramona's daughter was very much on tv yeah but damn i i was like don lemon that was if I'm behind the camera that camera's shaking I'm giggling I'm like that was quick that was really good that meme of Leonardo DiCaprio behind a camera that's literally me

alright let's take a break and we're back shall we give some advice let's do it and if you want to know how there are many ways that you can submit your question. It could also be a hot take that you just want us to dive into. You can fill out the form that we have listed in the show notes as well as on the bio for our socials.

You can also send us a DM. You can send us an email to meganpodcast.gmail.com. You can leave us a voicemail at 310-6940-976. You could, again, type out that email or you can send a voice memo there. Whatever suits your fancy. And we've gone over all of the rules so many times. The only really one that i'm focusing on right now is you got to be over 18 no no no youngins no and you got to be like graduated high school 18 yeah you can't be like my parents like held me back and like i'm a quadruple super senior i'm 20 and i'm like a senior in high school no i was more so saying you could you can't be like turned 18 and still in high school that's what i'm oh okay yeah that's true i know you had a later birthday so you didn't experience that no and i think about

that that like i when i hear about them like red shirt and kids i wouldn't even have like the option a lot of places now that i would have had to be held back a year because everyone's like well you know summer birthday obviously and i was like oh yeah most people are they're on the august it was like nope yeah and i was like oh i was just so very young and now that i think about it i literally did only know two other people summer birthdays and i only knew one other person who had a birthday after me and it was like pretty close right after me i was like damn we were the babies everybody i knew that was like post july they were just the next automatic okay i'll go first okay hi eminem i'm 23 she her i was dating an italian man antonio 26 male for about two

months everything was going great we met weekly the sex was amazing and the conversations even better things were moving towards a relationship we were taking it slow which i like since i tend to be a little avoidant though he didn't like texting much which did irk me suddenly he had returned to italy due to a serious family situation we decided to end things since a long distance casual situationship wasn't what either of us had wanted.

He doesn't know when or if he'll be back but we agreed that if he does return he'll reach out. I'm not waiting around for that though part of me

thinks he may eventually come back as he still has a PhD to finish here. I also snooped and noticed his Tinder distance hasn't changed

suggesting he hasn't opened the app. However, I did go back on Tinder and impulsively matched with another Italian man, Matteo.

24 male, where are you that all these just Italians are about you? Maybe. up north new york area is that like a geography thing or there's a lot of italians in new york there's a lot of italians okay that's what i thought i was like that's how my brain went

too but i was like i don't know how close italy is to that i wasn't looking for an italian an italian was looking for me i'm kidding that part they didn't say it just happened or or she's from the area by me in arkansas oh my god yeah where she's like an insane concentration of italians we went on one date which was fun and he texts a lot i like him but i know i won't like him as much as the first guy. I might be open to something casual, especially since he's only here until June. I'm not a serial dater, and generally I'm fine being alone. I only initially started talking to Matteo because of impulsivity. As of now, I know that if Antonio came back, I'd want to see things through with him. My questions are, would it be weird if Antonio came back and found out I

started dating another Italian so soon? Should I stop dating and focus on myself, or would that put me in a waiting mindset for someone who may never return? And is this fair to Matteo? mama mia let's say spicy meatball of a problem but before we really jump into this can we also consider maybe the first guy didn't actually leave since his tinder hasn't updated oh does it give you the last time it doesn't say the last time but it does give location maybe he hasn't opened it but also is there a possibility that he didn't actually leave because then that will solve some problems yes so my initial question and it really like everything hinges on it is like what is the concentration of italians where you are because like if there's like a lot of italians

then i don't think it's weird kind of like at all if there's not a lot of italians or like there hasn't been and there was like a sudden influx of just like these two italians do they know each other like are it are they because if it's just like oh no it's i live in i don't know like rural nebraska and like everybody here it's like a tiny town has been born here forever and then you just suddenly go on tinder after going on let's say all the time and suddenly there are two italian men i i might be like okay that's a little it's a little odd maybe a little fetishy i don't know there it's it's just like if there are only two i also think you could solve the like the the conscience problem if you also just like start dating someone else who's like but then also

you're gonna start like screening people for being italian you're gonna sound like my grandparents are you italian yeah yeah i just said you like what you like and why do you have to explain this to this other man well oh my worry was that she thought maybe they were they would know each other but if it's a family emergency you'd think all the family would go so yeah therefore he either didn't go yeah or i think the man would just be like the first man would be like so you just replace me with another guy from the same place that i'm from also i think that's what she's thinking well he also if he's coming to america dating americans you know yeah and he'd be like you're dating another american after me so like just gaslight him switch it on his head

just completely gaslight him yeah i mean you can't wait for him and if you're just having a good time having a good time i don't think this specifically means that you need to not date anybody and figure things out for yourself no and i think like this feels like an italian problem but i also think this is just like dating and i think you might just like there might be a mirror kind of like showing yourself because like what if you put him next to all of the other guys you've dated who aren't italian i'm gonna assume there's a lot of other things that like they share whether it's like looks wise personality like i would assume i mean in general when like you see someone that like your partner has like dated before you're always like okay we kind of we have that kind

of similar like you can usually tell a type and unless like from a very early age you like exclusively dated italians i think you would know that i think it wouldn't be like a sudden realization at this at this point in time but also maybe maybe the universe is telling you that like you got to go to italy not to find him but like maybe you're like ready to be an italian point your life also it just seems like the second dude is just a backup plan anyway he's very much a fling he's only there until june so just just date him just date who you want and have a good time you're putting too much pressure on this yeah let's let's learn to to date and plan your trip up to italy going to italy might be too much oh because it might be like where is he no it might

be overwhelming because there's so many oh my god you're right and be like she's like holy cannoli right i can do this everybody i have italian dna thank god those grandparents are dead they would be so upset let's take another break we're back hi megan and melissa thanks in advance for any advice you give on the situation i love everything you girls do for some background on me i'm 29 an aries but right on the cusp of taurus which i feel like matches me more sometimes and you can be brutally honest with anything you want to say i am not sensitive on this topic whatsoever. Some necessary background. My grandparents on my mother's side raised me and I saw my dad growing up a couple times a month. When I was in high school, things kind

of took a toll. He started dating someone that had two kids of her own and then they had a kid together. So I have a half sister. That's what the situation is largely about. And my dad and I started having issues when I was about 17. I don't need to get into those, but all you need to know was for about four years after that we were on and off talking I kept getting you know bigger problems with him I kept getting let down by him false promises etc etc when I was about 21 I decided just to cut him out of my life completely and haven't talked to him since he messages me on like my birthday and Christmas every now and then but I don't ever respond I don't talk to anyone on that side of the family anymore as a result of what's happened with him as well a couple weeks

ago. It was about midnight. It was late. I got a friend request on Facebook and a message from my half-sister who I only ever saw as a baby. I have not ever talked to her. She lives now with her mother and other siblings. Her mom and my dad are no longer together. They live quite far away but she messaged me asking if we could get to know each other and meet up the next time she's in the area that I live in. I don't know what to do. I personally think she's too young. I did kind of anticipate this day coming at some point you know like if she ever found out about me maybe she would reach out I would probably do that if I was in her situation but again she's only 11 and I feel like she's too young for me to really get into any of the reasons as to you know why I don't

talk to her or why I don't talk to my dad like I just don't think she needs any of that drama but I also don't want to completely shut her down because I don't know I'm a pretty empathetic person like I feel kind of bad about it but I know since she's so young like if we were to meet up then I would have to see someone else from my dad's side of the family potentially him which I really don't want because I don't want him to have an opportunity to get back into my life and then you know there's also a voice in the back of my head going she is super young like obviously kids have Facebook but there is a chance that this message didn't even come from her and it came from my dad or my dad motivated her to send this message so I'm basically just looking for

some advice on what I should do in this situation hopefully I give enough context and thanks again and then uh the writer also or the caller also sent us a note that said uh just wanted to add a correction to my voice note as it may change the advice I say my half sister is 11 but she's actually 13 and that actually does change for me yeah so I understand I understand where you're coming from um i haven't been in this situation but i get what you're saying like you don't want this to open up a whole can of worms because what if it's not her or what if he's urged her to reach out to you but then on the other hand like what if it is her what if she's also probably going through some of the same things that you have gone through and she needs somebody to relate

to and she knows that you don't talk to him i mean you literally haven't seen her since she was a baby so is there i don't i'm sure you don't even talk to his now ex-wife but is there a way to contact her and see because it's x for a reason a way to contact her and see like hey i um received a message from whatever your sister's name is and i just wanted to see uh make i wanted to see if you were aware of this like out of respect coming from an adult to another adult yeah i think that's like the move i can very much relate to this i like really i i really understand this different estrangement on different ends and but like as like the i have a half sibling who's like exponentially older than me and there is a chance that it was your dad in the message but there's

that also doesn't mean that like you have to shut this down like i think the way to go about it in general i think like 11 year olds shouldn't be on social media 13 years old sorry i don't think they should be on social media in that way and like reaching out to people who are sure related but also like you know internet safety that it could be this it could be the wrong person like you're a baby you might not necessarily remember i mean you wouldn't remember but like it could be the wrong person so i think like the best thing to do is like to reach out like melissa said like reach out to your ex-stepmom and be like hey don't know if this was him don't know if this was you if this did come through him i'm for my own self like you know that we are no longer

in contact i really don't want her to be a unintended um to face like unintended effects by that like and i don't want that to come across any sort of way for her so i don't want to shut down that relationship whatsoever but i would like i would prefer if that could be facilitated like through you and like i don't want to talk to her about anything that's not like age appropriate for these things but i you know we share a dad and like i don't really like i have a very complicated relationship with that dad and we don't have a relationship right now if she gets to that point in life i don't want her to think that she doesn't have me either like i think that's a good thing to do but yeah i would i wouldn't i would encourage it because like there is like

at a certain point you like again as the younger kid to someone who i have a way older half brother i don't really need to be told certain things like i had eyes i could figure stuff out and i did but there is also a real possibility that you're being this kid is being used as a pawn especially if like your dad fucking sucks like you could be being used as a pawn to facilitate that and like i also understand that and so that's like a i'm not going to say that like that's not a possibility and i'm also not going to say like you know it's worth the risk because like it's not necessarily worth the risk because your half sister will still be unintentionally hurt in that situation because like she doesn't know she's being used as a pawn so if she is if you still go through with

it and like she realizes that this was a scheme for something else and to facilitate a relationship with like a family member that you have cut off like that's like an unintended amount of like guilt on someone who like had no idea that that's what they were doing and even if it's like you think that it's supposed to be a certain type of way i just i think if you can go through your stepmom and then you called the shots in a way and be like hey you're here we'll meet at this restaurant bring a friend with you to like not you know not stay and not see that but like just to like sit in the restaurant just to kind of like do some recon to see if any of the family members like have shown up and just like assess the situation and you know and then finally if

that's how it doesn't work out in a way that you don't feel like you're not being thrust back into family dynamics that you've taken yourself out of then i think you can respond to the same facebook account and being like hey this is like you know not a place that i'm willing to be at and i don't have a relationship with this side of my family anymore and we can have that conversation at some point um but like when you turn 18 give me a call like give me a text we can talk about it i don't want you to know that like not being able to pursue this relationship right now because like other people in the family are sticking their like they're they're they're participating in a way because you're a kid and like they should is not something that i can do but it's i'm not

closing the door on this forever like i would love to get to know you but when you're 18 like give me a call like give me a text i think there's no it's never too late to foster a relationship like that with like anyone but yeah i don't know i guess i'm a little bit wary of a 13 year old pursuing that and like maybe that's just because like I was never the one who pursued a relationship with my brother like it always had really come from like him and his like wife because like I do think in general when there is a really big age gap my brother was like an uncle like it's it's just it felt like the ball was always in his court and has always been like that so maybe she's is a much more bold 13 year old than i was but i don't think that your worries are unfounded but

and i think that you it should be you should be doing your due diligence around it because i do think it could be a setup but that doesn't negate the fact that i think you should still pursue a relationship with her it just might not be able to be right now yeah the age gap isn't as big as you and your brother and it might be also different because it's like they grew up together at some point yeah or like not really she was just there when she was a baby yeah but like i didn't meet my brother until i was like five or something and i've probably met my brother like five times in my whole life so like there is like a difference and also it sounds like your dad did raise her which is also different my dad did not raise my brother so there's kind of like an assumption

there that i could be like okay we've i i would assume how you feel the way you feel but he raised you that's what i mean so it's the same in that sense because he raised the sister oh you're right no you're right the older sister wasn't okay yeah so that is that is this that is similar yeah but it's like it's it's tough and i just would say that like it's i obviously can't know who it's like tougher for but as the kid who was technically raised by the parent who did not raise the other kid i don't i did not grasp that concept until i was older like i had a lot of gel i had so much fucking jealousy for my nephews like because they were grandpa and like my dad was much more present as a grandpa with them than he was like as a dad at home and so like i had so so much jealousy

and my brother again was it was a much bigger age gap that I'm like damn the fact that you weren't like and I was like probably nine the fact that he wasn't like are you kidding like like truly shut the fuck up and I was like just so I was just so jealous and so envious but he like did not feel any sort of type of way about that towards me or anything like that and so I think that there are like there are illogical feelings that kids will have about certain situations and you already knowing that you're like i'm not going to explain or share any of these things in that kind of way i think the only way that you can kind of maintain that is if you don't compromise your boundaries with other family members in pursuit of this relationship yeah so

this is tough so i think that just know that like you're not gonna fuck it up you know i mean like you're you're not gonna like fuck it up at any point because it's not it's not permanent like it just is she's a kid and it probably it won't last forever and so yeah within the next five years she'll be 18 yeah and it does like for me like hearing an 11 year old versus a 13 year old does change it because i will say at 13 i realized a lot of things that were going on that i definitely didn't recognize when i was 11 totally and like a 13 year old to me is more likely to have access to the internet and or it's more likely that they asked their stepmom if they could message you or confirmed this was your profile if they could message you and stepmom

said like okay go for it but didn't want to put pressure on you so like let you know i still think she should have reached out first and also it might be the age that like your stepmom might be telling your sister like she might be having more questions about why their relationship ended and like she might not have like the most glowing view of her dad like how long have they been divorced as well and is he like actively right is he actively in her life like are you able to see like pictures like if she plays a sport or something does he come into it or is she just like with him on a holiday yeah because i do wonder if she has like a very robust extended family from his side sure she could be reaching out to you because like they've gone in her ear

and they're using her for that but like also like you got a big extended family on your dad's side and you're like looking for the one family member who has cut him off that relationship with that family might not be all it's cracked up to be and she just might be even like looking for like a sounding board of someone who's like okay i'm not crazy for like maybe noticing certain behavior or not feeling a kind of way about this person but yeah you won't fuck up this kid by any means so just like don't remove any of the pressure off of yourself because like again as i grew up i've never held any expectations for my brother ever with our relationship and as i got older that became like more and more true and when the age gap is that big it's only like a sibling if that's

like a conscious choice on both people's ends and that doesn't make you any less related it doesn't make any of that stuff like but i think when you have that much separation and how you grew up and how you're raised that being family family is like a it is a choice it's not something that i ever felt like deprived of by anything because it's like well that's it's just extenuating circumstances so but this is tough and weirdly i understand deeply all right we're gonna take a break we are back and i need to know if you have heard about the norwegian olympian the skier is he a skier snowboarder that hit every nook and cranny nope okay then let me find him while you're looking that up i saw that there used to be like ballet skiing that's the other one on my list

they only did it like twice and it wasn't ever really it was more like an exhibition like the break dancing was um because you can't really score it because they were more like it's vibes so of course not and like you have to be built with a level of knee stability that like i cannot fathom no but it looks so cool it looks it's like ice skating but on skis and also like were the skis built of something different because i was like it looked like the normal skis well some of the ones i was like these skis are both more rigid and more bendy than i knew skate like skis could be skis are pretty bendy though but even some of the ones they were about and they were doing something in a way that i was like oh this felt i thought they were softer than this oh i thought

they were harder than this and i'm just like so enamored with like the because like people get injured skiing uphill downhill when you incorporate like i'm a i'm a flip and i'm a twist the danger of that like they're built they were built differently yeah just like the ones that are i don't know i haven't been really watching the um winter olympics because i don't like looking at things that are cold as i've said numerous times on this podcast but and i do enjoy ice skating a lot but i also think about them being cold especially because they don't have on any clothes but there was another one where they're just like in skis running up a hill i love who came up with that wait so do you know about the um the one where they like um i think

it's ski jumping scalp something where they ski off and then yeah and they inject their penises with hyaluronic acid so they can have bigger suits so they can get more air time the way that i don't understand the same thing with luge i do not understand how you get good at this i don't know what makes someone better than somebody else and like you gotta it's the the speed and the angle yeah but isn't that just like velocity like isn't that just like science you have to know how to throw your body correctly but how is somebody throwing their body but that's a but i'm like i think once you can do it you can you have to first you have to know your body and then you have to know like you have to take into account like wind oh there's a wind score yeah uh like

because it depends on how much you got to lean and then like the speed at which you have to go down because like all that it's like you have to in the same way that you have to throw like a ball with accuracy you have to be able to throw your body with accuracy and i will say the best my favorite kind of olympic sports are the ones where i have this initial reaction where i go what the fuck but then i've watched three runs and i can immediately go they're good they're bad and i don't even know really know why but i can like tell where i'm like oh that was a bad one that was a good one but for that one where they're the ski jumping the men all look really similar like regardless of what country they're from they all have like they all breathe out of their mouth

and like you can just tell based on like their facial structure that they've always breathed out of their mouth and like they all look and i would assume there's a little bit of um uh extreme body expectations because like they all have the exact same build and the same like look and the same they all probably weigh almost like the exact same yeah but like that you look at like a jockey that's riding a horse they all look kind of the same totally but they to me i was like so has your whole family like done this and like did this originate from a group of people who then like moved across different countries because i'm like are you all because it seems like such as like how do you find are you all related i think they're all like they were into

skiing and then their skiing instructors looked at them in the same way that my nephew was looked at and like oh you'd be a good swimmer yes and they're like and then they train for that it's just like if somebody off just like looks they'd look at you and be like you'd be a good volleyball player they try so hard but then look at your coordination it's like no no no and someone looks at me and it's like a gymnast like everybody has fits in two totally but it's just like so interesting but my other favorite one has been the um bi-athlete the biathlon which is skiing and then that was like bi-athlete it's skiing and then people are bi okay yeah there's a whole group of just bi athletes no they're it's skiing and then shooting guns okay so they're skiing with

like rifles on their back and actually i don't remember if it was big guns or small guns but the part that killed me is they like never showed us the targets they we just like saw them like shooting off into the distance and i was like what's going on but there's norwegian one who does this this guy his name is sterla home legrit i might be getting the last name wrong um so he won the bronze medal like last tuesday okay this past tuesday he won the bronze medal and in his like celebration like emotional speech he like used that camera time moment to plead with his ex-girlfriend to get back together with him as he revealed on national television that he did in fact cheat on her yes i did see this i did not look into it just because

i'd seen it after i'd been my hand had been violated um and i just men were just annoying yeah i did see this information cheated and then pleaded uh-huh and i'm like first of all don't air my business out there and secondly after the bronze medal you think third place is going to win me back third place you could have not at least gotten gotten gold and then privately tried to woo me back with like your your i don't know whatever sponsorship that you get maybe give me some beanies give me some like nice cold weather gear get whatever but i'm like you're gonna get up there win bronze and by the way now that's not just being picked up by norwegian media it's picked up everywhere now the entire world knows and she responded she said it would be hard

to forgive him for cheating on her even after a declaration of love in front of the whole world who remained anonymous thank god but yeah he said six months ago i met the love of my life i'm sorry i didn't even realize that part that's even crazier six this man is a love bomber without a doubt six months ago i met the love of my life the world's most beautiful sweetest person and three months ago i made the biggest mistake of my life and cheated on her he said fighting back tears he said he told his partner a week ago about what had happened i'm so sorry you did it three months ago told her a week ago and then said sorry gotta gotta go to italy gotta get getting up my skis and my gun but she made it clear to him that she was still pretty upset i did not

choose to be in this position and it hurts to have to be in it we have had contact and he's aware of my opinions on this oh my god and then he did eventually say i deeply regret that i brought up this personal story on what was a joyous day for the norwegian biathlon i'm not quite myself today i'm not thinking clearly oh and then he apologized to the gold medal winner because apparently was completely overshadowed by him admitting that he cheated what a loser yeah they also my ex-girlfriend who unwillingly ended up in the media spotlight but you i hope she's doing well but he was like just like crying about it i was like oh my god people know who she is too like just because she stays anonymous like people know her and the people that she would want to know

about this the least like the people she cares about are the ones gonna be like hey that's like all these other people who like don't know you will never come across you completely like no one's gonna remember you yeah they won't know her but the people in her life and in her orbit and people who like care deeply or within like satellite orbit of her they're gonna know or they're gonna find out and that's gonna be the one that fucking sucks and also by the way if she gets back together with you that's so fucking embarrassing like do you know what i mean like she might have gone back together with you and said i'm not gonna tell everybody you cheated on me but now she's like well now everybody has to know yeah unless she asked you to be like

you need to you need to fucking tell the world what you did yeah but instead he's like sorry no and like there are certain athletes i would never date i would never date a marathon runner not that i think there's anything wrong with them it's just like we are so mismatched on levels of intensity for like and like what we're intense about never that never a tennis player i could date a tennis player oh i'm too silly goofy like i just i just know that i would hurt their feelings and then i could never date a skier mostly because i hate skiing but also there's just a there's just like a level of like zoned in serious dedication but i'm not saying swimmers don't have that but like swimmers also know how to have fun you know they swim in the

pool they get out they smoke a little weed like there's just like the you'll notice a lot of the major quote-unquote doping scandals of swimmers is they got really high and smoked a joint and i'm like okay that's different than i'm injecting my penis with hyaluronic acid so i can achieve a fraction more air it's just different it's just different and it's not my it's not it's not my cup of tea personally but my god yeah i heard about that and i wished i hadn't heard about it and he like still is like maybe maybe now she'll get back together with me he's like no maybe there's a chance she will see what she really means to me you're embarrassing after six months please stop and also like you cheated three months into the relationship

if you had kept this like totally offline like there's a chance you would have been like you know yeah that sucked but we can move past this you told her and then you hopped on a motherfucking plane with your skis and your gun freak absolute freak what else you got i think i covered everything on my list yeah darius rutger haven't thought about that man in years so me neither until a video of him singing stumbled upon my for you page i didn't even know it was him turns out i guess every five to ten years he does like a complete pivot rebrand and i didn't know that because i think i have been stuck about 10 years ago for whatever current rebrand was where i discovered him and that's kind of where i stayed he is singing like he is in a i like a jazz bar in this

okay it is it's well we're not we're not there i almost said the 20s because you know you know i don't know the decades so i didn't want to misspeak but let me find this there's there's jazz stuff in the 20s. No, I know, but I didn't want to pick a certain one because I was worried it was going to be akin to scatting. And he's, as far as I can tell, has not done that part yet. Fly with me, we'll fly, we'll fly away.

If you could... Okay. Oh, my God. Sounds the same. Totally different genre. Okay, he's singing Fly Me to the Moon, but he still sounds the way that he sounds today. i want a christmas album you know anytime i have one anyone sing a song he was up for a grammy a

few years ago oh so you think for like a different category i think it was still in country but not in like before he was like pop country and then he went like country country i just i was like my wow beautiful also like you could be in a musical that was just when i found out that he was in hootie and the blowfish that completely blew my mind i mean that's who maybe you just missed it by a few years but like people would call him hootie and he'd be like that's not my name like he was hootie and the blowfish it was like he was hootie and everybody else with the blowfish me if i'm in a man he to me is wagon wheel like that is darius rutger is wagon wheel oh my god Pete Goss.

He was in Shallow Howl. Oh my God. What God Wants for Christmas. Yeah. I'm fucking there. Just gorgeous. Loved it, loved it, loved it. He got a humanitarian award from the CMAs.

Oh. Three years ago. And also the Gary Haber Lifting Lives Award. Double win. Hell yeah. Congratulations. Now I want to call him Hootie. that's a good nickname he hates it it's like my name's darius and i think that's why he left the

blowfish because oh he left the blowfish behind yeah do they find a new hoodie or they just think so i think they just disbanded well because i mean if he was if they were just a blowfish yeah what are they without no it was just it was his voice nobody else was singing i mean they could have been in the background but he was the singer i don't want to be with you i couldn't name a single song that song was huge i all i know is hootie and the blowfish as like a a name i i it's like the same thing i know like creed or guns and roses but the guns and roses sing every rose no that's brett michaels because that's why he gave roses with thorns on rock of love really that era if they didn't have a dating show on vh1 i'm i'm unsure of who they are i'm unclear but the other

thing so i found out from this tiktok of this the username is daniel rabinowitz and they made a tiktok basically responding to someone who had asked on tiktok being like hey people who work at restaurants let me know like can the restaurant know if i like i'm frequently ordering via doordash and daniel was like um not only that but like we get a notification of being like susan gold star like frequent order and it's like no you become like famous within the restaurant did i not did we not talk about how the one restaurant like they'll if i don't order what i usually order they'll just put it in my bag so all the comments are saying things like that and they'll be like i think your husband messed about that no i which place uh it's one of the the um

it's like this what's it called i don't even the thing is i don't know the name of the actual restaurant because i just like go on door dash but i know where it is i've never been inside of it but i like passed by it what is the name of that restaurant well now you have to go inside because now i'm all i'm seeing from this is everyone going please everyone if you're one of these customers come inside we want to meet you so bad i don't i don't want to break the facade you know there's a mystique and then when i moved there was an oh there was another person that is like a frequent door dasher that like drops stuff off oh yes and when i moved he was confused he was like what are you doing here wait i'm like loving this i will say the only place i've had this kind

of relationship with besides like places we go to now was and i tell everybody if they're on the west side or you know mid-city ish to go if they're visiting gloria's in culver city fantastic so good i remember when i was moving because i literally lived on the same block like i used to just walk there multiple times a week when i moved i remember i told gloria i told every i told the servers and i told gloria being like i'm moving i'm just letting you know i'm not going to be here as much and then we i like still would go like still go like occasionally and they would be like so happy to see me i remember i used to bring uh the different guy i dated before mods i had brought him there and then when he didn't come with me the next time they're like you broke up

but I like him and I was like no they like Mott's though um but now we'll go back it'll be like months and I remember during the pandemic we like would go out of our way to go and they were like so like they were like oh my god like you guys are engaged like so sweet but I think about that where I'm like just completely dropping off the face of the planet like I'd be concerned you're right yeah yep there was one person that like always ordered something and then he didn't i think it was pizza maybe like he was always ordering the same pizza and then hadn't ordered it and then they sent a to do a wellness check and the person wasn't okay and they now like i'm pretty sure that they go they're like every all the workers at that restaurant like visited when

they were in the hospital and like they still now every week or whatever the timeline is if that still have that same appointment that goes to eat there but this one's so funny i ordered i'm not sure what this is mountain melts from the ale house by my house every day for two weeks straight and i got a linkedin notification that the manager of that location looked at my profile like the comments are killing me um there's a pizza place that's 0.2 miles from me i ordered from like four different apps whenever they had the best deals i went into the store once and they were like hey it's every app girl like i love it yes yes we can there is a cook who works every tuesday so do i and once i told him he made the wrong size of ranch for an order and he replied

she orders every tuesday i know what i'm doing i never spoke up again and like it says it's like they say like loyal customer on it i came in and they called me emily no onions like it was my last name and so apparently people also like if you're ordering a lot they'll like write on like the slip be like come in we want to meet you um and it's just like they usually put like thank you m and then because i don't put my full name on there but i'll put a smiley face and then like they'll give me even if i don't order my drink that time they'll give me the drink or if i don't order the fries they'll still give it to me i love it this is devastating news but also explains why burger king started sending me a crown with each one of my words like i i just like love it um i walked

into wingstop with my now husband when we first started dating and the cashier and the line cook greeted me by name the first thing he says is first name basis at wingstop is wild like i just i love it like it's just so so fun like it's just so sweet and there's like the worst thing about this is when you have a regular and then one day they just stop ordering and you have to be like what the fuck happened to janet and you never get to know yeah i i just i love it it's just so or this yeah this sounds like what you were saying during my pregnancy i would order sweet potato tempura rolls which sound great with a side me not to you no it's very soft i would need the tempura like so fucking crunchy with a side cup of sriracha mayo pretty often one day

i forgot to order the sriracha mayo and they sent it anyway that's when i knew i was ordering too much no such thing that's excellent customer service yeah the day malcolm j came in in person after two years of daily orders it was like we all met a celebrity like i just like i love that and it's true like everyone's saying like no our regulars and people like that like unless and there are some people being like our number one regular like never tips but it was like besides that like you're ordering a lot and it's an easy order to remember it's the same thing over and over and over again they're like yeah we're giving you extra of everything like that's like the only thing we can do and like yeah we talk about you behind your back we don't want anything about you

someone else was probably going yeah i try and look all of them on social media i was like my god but yeah it makes me think of like the places that i frequent and then i feel bad for the places that i used to frequent like so much and then i just i dropped off the face of the planet for them yeah i've kind of just stopped ordering as much i've been trying to cook more at home which i haven't ordered in maybe three weeks now. And then plus I was gone for a long time. So like they probably do think

that something happened. And that's the point where I go now I kind of hope you stalked me and you like know I'm okay. But I don't have my real name on there so they can't find me. Wow. You're like such a huge question mark to them. They got wonder what happened. I bet if you walked in they would it'd be like wait wait which who

are you. Because I keep it keep a secret. I love that. i thought it was fun and i remember we had like some regulars when i was at tcby and those same regulars also those regulars would just be regulars again waffle cone wednesday worst thing tcby ever did for the people who worked at tcby because you know what tip you get you get it based off of the discount no no it's waffle cone wednesday which is a 99 waffle cone you know the tip you get every time keep the change thank you a penny a penny every time

it's a penny pennies aren't even a thing anymore so now they get nothing all right let's read some reviews so last week's episode that's entitled the week of bad bunny josie said it is absolutely part of the job of professors to write letters of rec they also had to do the same dance when starting their career my lead professor in the 200 plus person lecture ita or has written recs for students even after only having them for a quarter it will not be weird at all i trust josie's opinion on this me too and then scrambled egg said oh addison ray said that blm is a cult so i go off that for my opinions on her not a fan no one here said they were where did she say that sometimes i wonder i'm like were you asked a direct question or did you just like jake paul like post it on

twitter and be like bad bunny's a fake american i'm like huh she did apologize and said because of my privilege i didn't understand wasn't educated enough on the social injustices facing the black community i don't know again i don't know this girl but yeah no i i mean i don't i don't have any i i will i don't give like grace for those things but i'm also like i don't wish for those people to like maintain the same viewpoints you know i mean like i'm not i'm not going to chastise someone for admitting that they were raised in a certain way that shaped their opinions because like i think if i as a fellow white person do that like it becomes like purity perfection politics that like it's not productive yeah and that happened when she was 19 there's a

lot of growing up to be done i'm not like okaying this but i don't know the girl yeah and then atlas underscore hope said as a former russian orthodox christian person i don't think heated rivalry romanticized russia at all i think it well depicted the pressures of russian parents paired with the pressures of religion to hide your gay feelings and in turn making it near impossible to consider coming out until your parents have passed i honestly think it made russia look quite sad in a realistic way i didn't know there was any religious aspects to the show neither i'm being worn down i'm gonna watch it at some point i'm gonna watch it at some point not now because i gotta watch uh what's the show i gotta watch paradise yep i gotta watch paradise

thank god that means the new season's coming out soon yeah it comes out in the month oh best thing thing i've ever heard all right then uh moises said agree melissa how cat's eye needs to work with good writers or even write their own songs i just know it's hard especially when girl groups like little mix and black pink were slept on who also worked with writers and wrote their own stuff was black pink slept on i don't think so i thought they were huge yeah and then anna mckenzie said uh omg the discourse around heated rivalry is insane let me confidently say that they do not romanticize russia in the show and if fans are doing that they lack media literacy uh also the way this show has been billed as so sexual really grinds my gears it's no more sexual than

bridgerton it's literally two men falling in love and sex is part of that story oh my god if it's just as sexual as bergerton that has deeply been oversold to me even people say bergerton they're like it is like so much sex it's not no i think it's usually just like one episode of a lot of and then benedict having sex throughout and it's also like it's not it's like a tv sex scene like it's a lot of like sweeping shots of like household sheets and covers and like a bare ankle like you're not especially when it's like the love love story it's not like uh the rakes at the at the brothel you're not getting like main character on top riding a dick titties out and that's how bridgerton was like sold to me that you're never gonna believe how

dirty this is and i was like i because they don't shower or don't bathe no you never told me that but every how everyone talks about it online the way that i people talk about online being like i just can't i just i saw someone who was like did this whole fucking thing piece on reddit about like the reformed rake trope is like really dangerous it's like really problematic and like i just like don't i don't like it and like why don't the women get to be like that this person was like so this is like historical fiction fiction being the key point but if you want to talk about history yeah no women couldn't do that if you can't suspend the disbelief to enjoy the romance you need to stop watching like this is not going to be what you think i keep saying if you

don't know a trope and you can't buy into the trope this genre is not for you no and like it's also very okay to be like someone else was like i really can't stand cheating one so like i really can't like i get so mad i'm like okay but like you don't have to watch that like i there are certain things that i go that's not for me right there even writing things there's i write things that are within this these tropes and there's a certain genre that i told them do not put me on people like things that span a lot of different genres vibes circumstance situation and like i would be shocked if everybody was into everything yeah just might not be for you all right well join us on thursday where we'll be reviewing the queen latifah movie just right and then we'll be

back on Monday for another episode of Don't Blame Me. Woohoo! Goodbye! This is a Sister Sign production hosted by me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa DeMonts, plus Diamond Imprint Productions. Post-production by Coco Lorenz. Production assistance by Melanie D.

Watson. And music by Ryan Hunter and Giacomo Picasso.