In 1994 I was working at a college in South Carolina that was part of the Clemson University system. At that time, the Internet was in the early stages. Somehow I found an email group of professors who would play this word game. The winner of the last round would give us a new (IIRC fake) world to write a “definition” for. It was a creative writing game of sorts. I had one of those government paid do nothing jobs. I basically ran a study hall for nurses. It was mind numbingly boring because I could not teach much. They basically just wandered in and out to do their time with the reading specialist. Long portions of my day I would just sit alone in the lab. I was bored to tears and living in a small town. While I did have a good social life, I needed to teach. So they hired to me teach a night class. I think it was a writing class. Ugh.
One day I got in a shit ton of trouble. (SURPRISE). I mean how much trouble could I get in being paid to sit in an empty room all day? As it turns out, I spent hours a day on the Internet. Little did I know that back in 1994 they were paying by bandwidth usage. So, I would log on every morning and log out at night. Apparently, that was very expensive. Ooops.
So why is TT fixated on a story about 1994? Well, while I had that job there was a huge story. A young woman named Susan Smith rolled he car into the lake with her two kids under the age of three drowning them. She was all over TV claiming she was carjacked by a black man and playing victim. But she was convicted of murdering her own kids because her prospective boyfriend did not want kids. It was a huge scandal in the small town I was living in. Everyone was glued to the TV and the Internet. Well today People is reporting, That Susan Smith is having a passionate pen pal relationship with some fool on the outside. Although she is serving life in prison, apparently she is eligible for parole after 30 years. So she could be released in 2024. Surely she will not be allowed out of prison, right? RIGHT?
A few weeks later OJ Simpson went on the run for killing Nicole Simpson. 1994 might not have been the best year, but it sure was interesting.
IN OTHER NEWS: Thanks to those asking about my doctor’s appointment. It was a very traumatic experience, I’ll spare you the details. I’m fine. I’ll be getting caught up on all my old people tests soon. The doctor is calling me for a phone appointment on Wednesday. So far so good. I’m hoping the next appointment is about my mental health. I’m paying an ASSLOAD for health insurance this year. I skipped it for seven years because is an INSANE amount because I smoke. So I am back at Kaiser and they want to run all the tests I have missed over the years that I also have to pay for. UGH. I’m in the bad place. But, otherwise fine.
Susan Smith never needs to be out of jail. She deserves death. I remember that horrible time and have always felt so sorry for those little boy’s father. I’m glad you are getting all checked out Tamara and I pray you get good results.
I remenber that. I remember when she was on 60 minutes I believe. She said she watched her kids cry out for her as the car was plunging in the lake. That detail has haunted me. That piece of shit deserves to rot in hell for what she did
On another frightening note a Panasonic employee was kidnapped waiting for her shuttle at the Walmart in Fernley, NV. Naomi Irion was seen waiting in her car when a man entered her car. Not sure if by force in the video the perp knocked on her window and she moved over. Her car was dumped in the outskirts of Cold Springs. Police released that a crime was commited. But not much else. They just reported a suspect in custody. My thoughts and prayers to her and her family. Safe return.
I emailed you from my personal account today because I think you muted or blocked my work one. Just wanted to follow up and see how you’re doing and if you needed anything. Offer still stands 🙂
Also unblock me or take me out of the gmail WLS Please
I emailed you back around 4 pm today. I’m okay. I got your work one too. Just wasn’t really functioning at the time but I am okay. Thanks. I would never mute or block you!
That story haunted me. I saw a first in Illinois of all places. A semi that read Disaster Relief on the sides. B Strong on the back.
I never heard that story here in Canada in 94
we only got some American news back then
Here in Canada theres 2 kinds of cigs
theres real cigs and then rez cigs
rez cigs are packed with deadly chemicals but their CHEAP in baggies
in American Mary Kate Olsen puffs away on her Marbolos like the queen that she is, I have a funny story about her
I think Susan smith had also gotten in trouble for having sex with the guards as well. I think they got fired but she is a crazy child murderer who needs to be locked away forever
Yes, that is true. Why do any men pay the baby murderer any attention?
slightly different values
lol at “slightly.
I somehow deleted all my photos off of computer. So I have been saving tons of gifs from my site (I use them on Twitter. apparently I have almost 700! So I am trying to pare down because the more photos on my website server the more expensive my bill is. I’m nowhere near halfway through and my brain is fried. Thankfully I did Wordle and Quordle first. Got them both in record time.
Don’t forget I have ALL of the photos I’ve done AND MORE. High-res and low-res (for website).
Good timing because I was about to purge.
I can put on a thumb drive and send to you.
NO these were things I kept on my personal computer. My gifs and stuff. Some family photos, etc. I delete all photos immediately after posting so nothing site related was effected. Thanks though.
I have 33 hour of taped shows on my DVR and that is after watching five of six hours of TV today. My cable company is for some reason only letting me watch DVR. It’s probably fixed now but I have everything I need on DVR.
I hope to get through everything before the Sunday night shows. I do not have the brain function to recap the shows I am behind on today.
Again, I really appreciate you guys checking on me. I’m back on my vitamin D and B12 and trying to stay hydrated and feeling better.
This is still an open forum and I’d love to hear how the rest of us are doing.
Posted a new Kempire video above about Yolanda Hadid.
Is she *allegedly” trying to trade her girls again?
I dunno. You know I love you, right? I’m sorry for taking so long to get back to you. It’s just been a few crap days,
So for the first time in at least seven years I got the sort of test where you have to lie down and schooch, schooch, schooch, to the end of the table without using your legs because they are in stirrups. I could not do it and kinda hurt my back a bit. Things got worse after that. But, I am on the mend.
well you need that sort of test, good for you!
Oh they are testing me for all sorts of things, but nothing that explains why I get dizzy when I stand or have problems walking, or why I can no longer schooch down a table like I’ve done all my life. No they tested me for HPV and asked when my last menstrual cycle was. Like who remembers that? I haven’t had one for 97 years. Or sex. So um WHY? Follow up question, “So you would say you are out of menopause?” And I so wanted to say, “My age is on the chart, right? RIGHT?” Can we either address what I should do about my mental health or figure out why I stopped being able to go up stairs are walk very well? Even my neighbor walked me to the door of the building because I’m not so steady on my feet.
There was A LOT MORE that happened. I do like my doctor, so far which is rare but I am with Kaiser and they love sending you all over metro Atlanta for tests. I do need a mammogram, and I asked the absolutely inept but very kind man if they had mammograms on site because I am not able to drive to Buttfuck Egypt to get one and he said yes and asked if I’d like him to see if they could fit me in because they were right across the hall. But after he hunted for my veins on the top side of my arm and then took another gallon from the top of my hand…. I said, “I think I have been through enough for one day. What happened to taking blood from the crook of your arm? I was bandaged up like a mummy when I left. Then it was rush hour and I was in downtown Atlanta and had to navigate a turn on a highway with four lanes of traffic in each direction. It took two attempts, I didn’t know what to do the first time because it was a Interstate corner and I didn’t want to get stuck having to get on the Interstate after all of that. It was a very traumatic three hours.
Okay. I think I got most of that out now.
Request a 3D mammogram.
I should probably do that. What is it like? Every time I get a mammogram I have to get the other scan, I forget what is called afterward. It goes like this every time
Get Mammogram: They kind of sort of see something, and send me for a sonogram or whatever,
Get Sonogram: They don’t see anything. billed insaned prices for both.
A few years ago I got a “call back” from the breast center saying they want to check something and I need to come back for an ultrasound of my breast. I almost had a fucking heart attack. My son had not been well that summer, it was crisis after crisis, and my mother had fallen down the stairs and broke her arm inside out and bones in her back and was in rehab.
I got the ultra sound, panicking the whole time, and it was nothing. All of you who have been through shit with breast cancer are so damn brave!
Anyway, I get the ultrasound every year now, got it last week and it was fine. My mom and son are doing well. I recommend it, if you can. The 3-d mammo is done exactly the same as a regular one. Have you seen an endocrinologist about your dizziness?
Monday it will be the 2 year anniversary of My husband getting sick, I have been feeling all kinds of things this weekend.
What is the difference between a 3D mammo and a sonogram?
If that is for me, I get it. My parts are being removed in august, well, what’s left of them. If you’re up to travel I’m making ham and stuffing and potatoes and Mac and cheese and stuff for Easter. We are catholic so it includes mass but you’re welcome to any and all of it.
You are so very kind. I’d love to BE THERE and go to Mass, (but Mass has always been confusing to me.) I am “Catholic” in Paris and even back when I had a brain, I had to think really hard to know when to kneel or stand. And the last time I was there, reeking of alcohol, (My favorite cafe was quite nearby and it was always my final stop on the way back to the hotel. My favorite waiter used to give me free champagne and whatever snacks he thought I might like. I said to him, “Welp, I guess I should stumbling the two blocks to my hotel and miss Mass.” and he insisted I go anyway saying have the people there were drunk.”) The little old lady beside me would turn the hymnal to the right page. And I bawled like a baby when one of the priests sang Oh Holy Night. Everything was kind of okay until he was standing at the door when I left and started bawling again telling him how beautifully he sang.
Ah… the good old days…
But no, I can make it to Publix these days let alone to the frozen Yankee Tundra of the North where you live. 🙂 I normally go to my sisters but have not been doing that and all of that branch of he family keeps getting Covid. Also, her idiot of a Realtor sold her a tri-level house. There are nine thousand steps to get to the top. And then once inside you have to go up and down, or down and up more stairs and I can’t do that anymore.
PS. I am said Realtor.
And also, IT IS DRESSING? ARE YOU SOME KINDA YANKEE? 🙂
I am definitely a Yankee and it is stuffing, even if you don’t actually stuff it in the bird.
Also, having been without health insurance at times, check and see if it is cheaper to pay out of pocket for your tests rather than bill your insurance. LabCorp and others have a lower rate if you pay when the tests are done, than they charge insurance companies, just because they get payment upfront instead of billing. I’ve paid 1/3 of the posted price for blood work. It’s worth checking.
It’s dressing🍽🍗🦃😊❤
I am so glad you posted an update about the doctor visit, I have been thinking about you but thought it impolite to ask. Also glad to hear you are taking B12 etc. I was low in iron (ummm, why? at my age?) and since starting to take a supplement my energy levels have been much improved.
From the sounds of your drive to your doctor’s I would not be surprised if your blood pressure would be high. Just reading of 4 lanes of traffic with turns offs everywhere made me hyperventilate, bless your heart (in a good way) for making it there and back.
Who in their right mind, would ever seriously engage in a passionate affair with a woman who is capable of murdering her babies? I hold contempt for whoever that joker is.
Susan Smith should never see daylight again. Ugh.
I just went through a similar thing. Hadn’t been to doctor in like 5-6 years because I left my cushy insurance-providing job to go into business for myself. Been a nighmare ever since. It’s like you live in some sort of alternate reality if you don’t have insurance through a job. Well, if you live in a backwards ass state like this one. The premiums are out of control, even if you get a high deductible plan. Which, of course, is what i have. Keeping monthly bills down, doncha know? Well that backfired when I went to see my old doctor. I realize that is on me. But to get a low deductible plan cost as much as my mortgage. It’s insance. I have always liked my gyno’s office, went there for 25yrs. I don’t anymore, of course now they’re owned by the huge hospital group around here. It’s all such a freaking scam. There is zero common sense involved. I wish I could get a Dr. Pol, but for people.
After an annual exam and mammo, I ended up getting a uterine biopsy, a breast cyst aspiration (my breasts have always been lumpy, by my old mammographer retired. I knew it would happen this way since she’s gone), They had me scheduled for a core biopsy instead. I had to fight with the billing office who makes you pick whether you just self pay or file insurance before you even take your top off. I’m like, you’re across the hall. And paying yourself is a tiny fraction of your “responsibility” versus filing your crappy insurance, which has copays and coinsurance that’s twice as much. $1300 for a diagnostic mammo? It wasn’t even 3D! Just a regular mammo that they recode! It wasn’t until I was laying there with a needle sticking out of me that the tech said, why didn’t you just come back in six months to see if this went away on its own? I’m like, WTAF? Ok. I feel manipulated. It’s such a clusterfuck.
Now, I’m going to owe thousands of dollars b/c they won’t let you “switch” to self pay after all this. The only reason I didn’t do it is because they are whispering cancer in your ear. Made me angry. Yeah, I’ve got family history but this is bullshit. they act like it’s all just free because you’ve got insurance, right? So send me down the hall to a radiologist on the spot, guess what? Not covered. And they won’t let me visit my friend in the billing office first b/c “we need you here.” My heart goes out to anybody that has a real medical issue. What we have going on here is a fucking crime.
Hi fellow Tamara tattlers—long time fan— first time commenting. Healthcare seems to be a popular topic here and I have to say I am abhorred by what each of you have to experience for any kind of healthcare! I’m a Canadian and we often take our healthcare for granted— a few years ago I had a stroke caused by an AVM in my brain that ruptured (AVM’s only cause 1% of strokes) so after 3 days in an ER they finally figured it out and I woke up in the ICU 2 weeks later with no memory of the last ten years. When I was finally sent home I had a bevy of different therapists at my door every morning for 2 months putting me thru tests physically and mentally etc. Later I needed a gamma knife brain surgery to kill the AVM with radiation and then I was once again going to a rehab hospital for classes where they teach you how to cope and live with the long term effects a stroke leaves you with. I wanted to tell you all of this because I had just left my beloved job as a producer and moved across the country and only had the basic healthcare plan when I had my stroke and all it cost me was just the monthly fee of my healthcare (less than $50.00). If I was an American I would be bankrupt right now instead I am eternally grateful for being a Canadian and reading all of your stories reminds me to suck it up when it comes to the effects of my stroke as it could clearly have been worse ie.costly. I love the attitude on this site and genuine offers of kindness you give each other; bravo Tamara for creating this space for authentic voices, kindness and empathy.
There is a heart-breaking song by Hayden “When This Is Over,” written/sung from the POV of Michael Smith! Susan’s older son. So sad, so good.
I NEVER believed Yolanda’s story about Zayne, largely based on your “hypothetical” Lyme post from a few years back.
Link to that AND the best explanation of the internal workings of RHOBH.
What I am sending are links to two of Tamara’s best writing. This is T in the pre-pandemic days. The “Yolanda Lyme Chronicles,” (my title) makes scary sense. And why I did not believe the Zayn shit. The second “RHOBH: How It Really Works” is very interesting too.
Anyone who reads here and hasn’t read these two archived posts — BUCKLE UP WITH YOUR FAVORITE BEVERAGE AND READ ON …
Tamara’s
Yolanda Lyme Chronicles (my title)
https://tamaratattles.com/2015/12/03/a-completely-hypothetical-intellectual-discussion-with-psylocke/
RHOBH: How it really works
https://tamaratattles.com/2016/04/15/here-is-how-the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills-works-an-abridged-history/
The rundown of the BH housewives is such a good read! I’m sure I read it when TT first wrote it, but it makes even more sense now after LVP’s departure. More money, more problems!
Susan Smith should be locked into a car seat and drowned. Let her see what it was like for her 2 young sons. This woman is evil to her core!
omfg, TT. mIRC. Haha. Really???! I was there also (93-2000)
I got in so much mischief. Haha. Don’t ask.
Or I may tell.
I was at Lander.
Tamara, I have been thinking about you today. I am in Charleston for the very first time and when I saw she crab soup on the menu I remembered you once talked about it on the blog and said it was a favorite of yours. I ordered it and it was delicious! Thank you for the recommendation and Charleston is just as beautiful as you said it would be.
I don’t just like she crab soup, I live on it when I am in Charleston. I literally walk through Charleston and go to multiple restaurants a day and get a cup of she crab soup and a beer. Then on to the next place. LOL. I’m so jealous. It’s not as great outside of Charleston. There is a place near me that sells it but THE PUT CHIVE OIL ON TOP! WHO DOES THAT! BLASHPEMY! The only thing that belong on top is a little bit of dry sherry!
TT -Hey- first time commenter. Live in the OC. When I first read your column, I thought you were TJ (of the OC Housewives) (someone who lives fairly close) but, after a few reads, knew the person writing was no dummy and had true writing skills. I was going to write about my experiences with some of the (old time, OG) housewives of BH and the OC, but, I kinda feel a little different about them than most as some of them have done some wonderful, nice things for my family plus, I did enjoy talking to them at parties. (Don’t know any of the newer ones). The real reason I am commenting is that I am concerned about your health. Smoking causes dizzyness, lack of oxygen, etc but so does the effects of long term Covid. P.S. I am not a doctor, so take this this with a grain of salt. Maybe step back a little re TV reviews (less is more), stop smoking if you are(?) and enjoy your life. People do care.
Wait? Are you saying smoking is bad for you? WHO KNEW?
Otherwise, welcome to the madness, and we’d love to hear your stories, Christian.
Please tell us your stories Christian😊
I am coming off a long stomach bug. And my mom’s brother passed away two night ago. He passed in his sleep, so I am thankful for that. He had cancer which was likely caused by toxins he was exposed to during Vietnam Nam. He and my mom talked through his wife over the last 12 years. Anyways, I am scared to go to his visitation tomorrow. I was close to his first wife, and his daughter that is my age. She and I spent so much time together in middle school years. But he has kids are younger, and I don’t really know them. It is just so werid. I was super close to Brandy during middle school years, so I have to go and hug her, right?
This is one of those tough ones. If you are over your stomach bug and feel able, it sounds like you want to be there to support your cousin Brandy. Maybe the same things that are making you uncomfortable about going are hard for her too. She would probably take much comfort in seeing you and remembering happier times. If you go be careful traveling. I am sorry about your uncle.
Speaking of convicts has anyone watched LAL? That was a doozy of an episode! What is wrong with Indy?? Harry cheated on her and has told her point blank he is not interested. She still pursues him? The one that is frightening is Chance 3 days out and he is showing his true colors. The amount of gaslighting was terrifying. That weeny who was knocked out. Oof.
i know, right? loved the look on indie’s face when harry was pulled over by the cop. i now think harry has a mental age of 14.
Yes 14 zero accountability too!! Need momma bounty hunter to take the grandkid. Clearly Ms Indie needs some help.
I know I’m days late to the party, but well that’s normal for me. Knowing that I have not seen a doctor in 5 years, while having Lupus, scares me. I now have insurance but I still don’t want to go to a doctor. I know my body is breaking down and parts are failing yet again but dam it I don’t wanna know! When I was diagnosed with Lupus and starting losing organs to it my kids were 12 and 7, I prayed that I would live long enough for them to be men. Well they are 28 and 33 now so I made it to my goal. Each day after the youngest turned 18 is just a gift.
I totally understand the fear of going to find out what is going on with you. I hope you find the strength to get there. I know it is very hard to do so. Kaiser has been sending me lab results for days and each time I get an email I am paralyzed and trying to interpret the results ahead of an upcoming phone call to go over them. The fear is real.