All’s Fair in Love & Mahjong

[00:00:39] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast Hello everybody! Hello there! It is great to be here today, sans Dan! Sans Dan! The way the Lord intended. Dan boycotting this one. That's the word. He doesn't like moms. He doesn't like Mahjong. And the surprise of my year, he doesn't like Unwritten by Natasha Betteght. I know! That was the most shocking part of this.

[00:01:09] That song came on and I said I can't believe Dan's missing. All these years of all the hype he tried to pretend for that song. Yeah. Well Dan is gone, Aaron is here. Alonzo welcome back! Long time person long time host of Decom Descendants. And it's great to have you here today. It's not long time no see because I see you every week. I see you every week. But on this particular pod, it is long time no see.

[00:01:37] Would you like to give people a three second update on your life? Five update. Ready, set, go. Hi, I'm happy to be here. I missed ETH. Three. Great. That was less of an update and more of thoughts. But yeah, it is. Well, that was the only thought I had. Yeah, fair. Dan is gone. Forever. Forever. We'll see how the rest of the week goes, but he is gone. At least for this. I am contractually obligated to ask you how your weekend was. Yeah, thank you. It was real nice. Thanks. Yeah? Real nice. Tell everybody about your stinky meat.

[00:02:07] Oh, well, I was going to grill some steak yesterday. Yeah. From Mother's Day? From Mother's Day, obviously. And the package, it was like an air sealed, real tight package. Was it? It was. Okay. It was real tight. So I cut it and when I opened it, I'm like, oh man, it's like fragrant. It smelled like not like meat should when you first open it. And so I was like, maybe it's me or maybe it just needs to air out. Maybe it's Maybelline. Yeah. You know you have to air your meat. Yeah. Sometimes it gets trapped in there.

[00:02:36] And so I'm like, all right, I'll just throw some salt and pepper on this thing. It'll be no problem. So I left the kitchen and my wife walked in. She's like, it smells like a sewer in the kitchen. What happened? And I was like, oh no. Okay. It wasn't just me. So we, yeah, the steak, I guess something went wrong with it between. And knowing you, you didn't contact the store. No, I was like, should we try it? It was, you know, it was, it was a mother's day. So you handled it. Well, sort of in a way where I was like, what do you think we should do?

[00:03:06] It's your day, your big day. So she's like, you guys with the Fudd records didn't you? Oh, that would have been way better. No, she actually went ahead at, you know, being the strong mother that she is. She took that meat back to the store. She did. Good for her. She loves that stuff. Like she loves that stuff. You know, like a confrontation over. Yeah. I'm like, I'll just throw it out and we'll just. The best mother's day gift. You were ready to eat it. Like you were ready to eat this. He was going to cook it. Should we try? He was going to cook it. I mean, I already had the salt and pepper on it. I'm like. The best mother's day gift that you could give your wife is confrontation. Yeah. She loves it.

[00:03:36] She's not getting it at home. I won't engage. So she has to go seek that at retail stores and at the pool. Yeah. Fair enough. The big question is, is will Dan be back next week? And the answer for that actually is I don't know that answer either. He's only taking these days off. He says, I'm not doing homework movies anymore. So, you know, and that's fair. All's fair. Well, Aaron's real close by. So yeah, all's fair. Although you actually had to drive in today. I did have to drive in today because Dan's away. I'm watching Dan's dogs.

[00:04:06] So I did have to commute to the studio this morning. How was the commute? It was fine. Good. Put in that sidewalk down there. Oh, yeah. I almost called you guys and said, hey, watch out. They're doing construction. And then I said, they're strong independent men. They'll figure it out. We are. We are. All right. Let's talk all's fair and love and the and side. What's that called again? Ampersand? Ampersand. Ampersand or Ampersand? Sand. I stand Ampersand. You're an Ampersand stand. Yes. Yes.

[00:04:36] And Mahjong, which you've played with my wife before. Yeah. I did not bring them. Well, we played multiple times. I think we all won at least one round. You want to keep track? But we know. So we were. We have only played one time. We were just learning and we said we said we are. Caitlin, I knew we had it. We had a fun time just trying to understand the rules. And then Caitlin said, oh, we can also keep track of points. And we all said, no, thank you. Not today, ma'am. That's another math is a different game. And we'll get to that later.

[00:05:05] It is the traditional Chinese version. The traditional Chinese version. Let it be known. American Mahjong is too complicated. And why? It's more complicated. It's so much more complicated. I'll get into it when we, you know, when we get into the movie. We'll get into it. We're going to get into it. Are we there now? We're going to get into it when we get into it. Okay. First, we have to talk about the movie. Don't. We don't have a fun little like acronym for this podcast. Sorry, it's my first time. Yeah, DECOM has a fun little acronym so you know where you are in the program. Let's talk all's fair and love in Mahjong.

[00:05:36] It originally aired on May the 9th, 2025. And it went a little something like this. The movie kicks off with the history of Mahjong in China. We then meet Ronnie. She is the school nurse and she is a mother. She is a mother, but she still makes time to host a long running Mahjong game with her best friends, Shelly, Carly, and Melissa Peterman. Her name is Melissa in the movie. That's right. She's Melissa Peterman. I like to believe that she is playing Melissa Peterman in this movie.

[00:06:06] Life is good, but it starts to get a little bit more complicated when her daughter Savannah goes off to college early. Her ex-husband is insisting that they sell their old house now that Savannah is gone. It's a mess, but at least she has her Mahjong. She ends up showing up at the school to teach the game at a school fundraising event and she meets Hot Dad Ben.

[00:06:30] He ends up taking a chance to play Mahjong and has a great time learning the game alongside of his mother and learning about life at the same time. They end up really hitting it off, but the hits keep coming for Ronnie. Her job is being reduced to part-time. Hits are coming. Yeah. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.

[00:06:55] But Ben finds her and asks if she would be willing to come to his mom's assisted living community and teach Mahjong so that her mom might be able to make some friends. And in exchange, I will do all the repairs to your house for free so that you can sell it and get your ex-husband out of your hair. That's a deal. He shows up for the first day of repairs and they immediately take a... Oh boy. Oh boy. Sorry. Repairs.

[00:07:22] They immediately take a break to go eat lunch, get to know each other a bit more. The sparks are flying. He even joins her and her friends for karaoke where they sing unwritten as if they stole an entry from my diary of the last time I sang karaoke. She starts teaching Mahjong, comes up with a crazy idea. Maybe I can teach more and end up buying out my ex's half of the home. That way I don't have to sell this house that I have all these memories.

[00:07:51] And she talks to her ex about it and he's like, well, you have a month because I need to make an offer on another home. So good luck with your little business. She starts getting hired to teach at private clubs and community colleges. It's going great. Plus, she ends up going out on a date with Ben. Then they end up back at her place, playing a little Mahjong and they end up kissing. Life is good.

[00:08:18] After a few successful weeks of teaching Mahjong, she marches into the bank and says, money, please. The bank says, come back in a year when you have enough data to present to us about your sweet little cute little business. And then maybe we will be able to give you money. Either that or if you happen to get a long term contract. If you happen to get a long term contract, then maybe we could talk. When Ben tells her not to give up, she says, there's just no other options.

[00:08:46] OK, they fight and then they make up. Yay. She heads out of the community center to get her check from the class that she taught. And they end up offering her a long term contract. Non-exclusive. Year round work. Best case scenario for her. She takes that contract to the bank and it works. She's pre-approved. She throws a Mahjong party to celebrate.

[00:09:09] And afterwards, Ben surprises her by showing her that he saved Savannah's birth chart that was on the wall before he painted over it. So you still have that. She's pumped. They kiss some more. And the rest is still unwritten. And then my friends was all's fair in love and Mahjong. We did it. We're going to take a break. We're going to come back. We're going to break this movie down with if it's OK with you guys. Four seconds. Oh, you only told me three.

[00:09:39] Just wing it. No one's going to know. We'll be right back here on Deck the Hallmark. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. We're talking about all's fair in love and Mahjong. The second of two Mom May movies. Made for moms. The rest of these movies in May? Yeah. The rest of these movies are not for moms. That's right. Actually. Yeah. The rest are mystery movies.

[00:10:09] The rest is not for moms. Not for moms. Moms won't like these movies. That's what moms say. That's what you need to know. All right. Let's break this movie down. We're going to start with the hot takes. We're going to share exactly how you felt about this movie. I'll start with you. Bri guy. Bri. What do you think about the all's fair in love and Mahjong? Shame. Uh oh. Embarrassment. Ignorant. Out of touch. Those are the words that come to mind when I think about our preview episode where we talked about this movie. Hmm.

[00:10:38] Boy, were we wrong. I've also the words that were written in your yearbook. I took a page for my yearbook. Yes. Yeah. When I need some negative adjectives, I just look back on high school. Uh, we were brutal when talking about this movie. It was ridiculous. This movie was so good. I really liked this movie. Uh, this, this is such a cool idea. Watching this movie. I mean, the friend group. So fun. I mean, Melissa Peterman playing Melissa Peterman. More of them. More.

[00:11:08] Yeah. More friend group movies. Yeah. Turn this into a series. Like we don't need three more. I mean, let's. Thanks for not getting. Let's not get. That's what we try. But Melissa Peterman, like a perfect amount of levity. The friend group just was so great. What an addition. This movie made me miss playing cribbage so hard. Like I, I love playing cribbage and I don't. I'm glad Dan's not here for this. Oh man. He's going to, I'm going to make him listen. Uh, I, hopefully he's out learning cribbage. Um, I have not played.

[00:11:36] It's hard to find people who play cribbage and I'm so good at cribbage. Like I will just, I destroy everyone I play. And so nobody wants to play with me. And so I miss playing cribbage and watching the group of friends sit around and play their game reminded me of times when I was in college and you know, as you do in college, you sit around with your bros and you play cribbage and you just whoop them. And so I didn't. Well, you know, yeah. Different experience. Yeah. So it made me miss that and thought just what a cool idea for a movie.

[00:12:02] I wish I wasn't so hard on it in the preview because this was a really, really fun time. I liked it a lot. Uh, the only thing about it that I was waiting for that didn't quite happen. Paul's character was like so perfect. Like he was such a great guy. He was so positive and so encouraging and like so good and the best gift giver in eternity. Like who's ever existed and ever will exist. Just a great gift giver. And then nothing really like there wasn't a conflict with his, his character.

[00:12:32] Like he had worked out everything, I guess, after his divorce and through therapy and he was just the perfect person. And I was waiting for something to go wrong with him and it didn't really happen. And I guess that's maybe it wasn't about him. Yeah, I know. But I just was like, what's he's just all full throttle. He had the issue of his brother. 100% great. He did. I guess so. I guess he was not great. He was a control freak. I guess that was the problem. All right. Now I'm realizing. Yeah. I had issues. Don't worry. No. Yeah. I guess it just made me feel like, wow, he's just so much better than I could ever try to be.

[00:13:01] But it was just so and I was, I had a good time. I really liked this movie. I'm glad that we're getting to do this. Uh, yeah, it was a fun movie. It's it's, uh, it was, I really enjoyed myself. I you're not wrong when the four friends are on screen together. This movie sings. This movie is a ripper when those four are on screen together. Um, there is the Mahjong of it all, which is, uh, I think, uh, complicated and I did find it interesting.

[00:13:27] Her insistence to teach American Mahjong when she has her friend, Yon K. Crystal Lowe, who is great in this movie, who does this wonderful presentation about the history of Mahjong and talks about the deep seated roots of Chinese Mahjong and how it has been taken by other groups of people, including the Americans and her insistence on only teaching the American Mahjong was interesting choice where I feel like it might've, I don't been a little bit

[00:13:55] better if she liked my friend taught me Chinese Mahjong. I loved it. I try to play it as well. It's way easier to play. And so I don't know. That was like the part of this movie. That's like a little bit of a weird part of this movie is that element of it. And it is in the mood title of the movie. Uh, so there is that, but the four friends are great. I thought that, uh, the two leads were wonderful together and, uh, overall really enjoyed this movie. Uh, I agree, Brian, much more than I anticipated, uh, that I would.

[00:14:25] And I think a large part of that is the four friends. They were just so much fun in this movie. And, uh, I love that. Uh, Erin. Yeah. You despise it? Uh, no, I really liked this movie. Um, I thought their meet cute was actually cute. Um, it was cute. I, I thought Paul was charming in this movie. They had some really good banter. Um, I believed the chemistry between them. But one of my favorite things about this movie is a lot of times on Hallmark. Um, and blessing bracelet. I'm looking at you.

[00:14:55] We see these single moms who have, you know, are just down on their luck and they have all these people trying to help them and hand them $10,000 checks and the women rip them up. And they're like, I can do this all on my own because Hallmark is like, that's the inspiration we want. Whereas this movie was like, no, you know what? I have this amazing community of people who love me and support me and I'm going to ask for help and I'm going to take it. And like, I can pay that back and I can pay it forward, but you know, I need to ask for help.

[00:15:24] And I just love that because who out here is ripping up $10,000 checks. I'm still mad about it, obviously. Um, so I really liked this movie. Um, and I do think part of my love for this movie is just context and where we live here in South Carolina. Um, Mahjong is huge here and talking to some of my other friends, they're like, what do you mean Mahjong? And I'm like, okay, so that this is just a location situation. Um, but we have, like I work part time at the cook station downtown and we do host one

[00:15:54] to two nights a week. A lady who comes in and teaches American Mahjong. Um, and it's in the Google, the group comes in. I wish. Um, but it's, it's insanely popular. Um, but I know that it takes her a full hour to explain the rules of American Mahjong. And I tried listening once and I said, this isn't for me. Um, and I know when you play American Mahjong, you have to have that scorecard in front of you because the way to earn points is written on that card.

[00:16:22] And I think the American Mahjong association changes those points every year. Like you have to get, I, there is something where like it changes and they keep track of it. So you have to have that card in front of you in order to score. That, that, well, that's the key of a lot of all good games is to change it every year. Um, to keep people on their toes. Yeah. Money grab, but sure. And so with like Chinese Mahjong, you just have to make pairs and, and, and centuries, centuries old rules that don't change.

[00:16:51] Americans get ahold of it. Like let's make more money off of this. Literally. Like let's make really cute sets that don't look like the traditional Chinese sets. Um, and let's just make this a money game and they do, and that's fine. And it works for them. Um, but yeah, so I really liked this movie. I have played, uh, Chinese Mahjong with Caitlin and some of our other, other friends. Um, had a great time doing it. Uh, was not as good at it as these four friends in this movie, but I really liked this movie.

[00:17:18] It made me think of my friends here and I really liked their, uh, Fiona and Paul's chemistry in this movie. But it was interesting. Like Yon K. Crystal Lowe's character in this movie, it like she does this whole amazing presentation on, on the history and it's wonderful. Uh, like it was so interesting to me that she like was just showing up for her weekly game of American Mahjong with her. Like, I don't know. That was interesting.

[00:17:47] I mean, I don't know a lot about the Mahjong culture of either side of it. Mm hmm. Unless it would. I don't know. I, for it to have the thing be centered around Fiona teaching Chinese Mahjong. Maybe that was not the direction they were going in. 100%. Yeah. I can see why they did it that way. Yeah. And maybe just, maybe, you know, Yon K. She like grew up playing American cause she didn't know her Chinese roots. And as she's gotten older at working with this foundation, maybe that's how her character found it.

[00:18:16] And now she's honoring her cultural roots. Yeah. That's really good. I love that. I love that. Uh, all right. It's time for the fields. Um, and I will start with you, Brian. And why was it unwritten? Yeah, I, I, I'm not going to take it because I'll let you go to town on it. But obviously that was a huge moment in this movie. Totally unexpected. I had forgotten Melissa, or maybe I didn't know Melissa Peterman was in this movie. So that was a huge surprise at the beginning. And then when this happened, I was just taken back to that company dinner we had where that

[00:18:44] guy, JD Ross was playing music at that restaurant and we were just screaming out songs and he did this song for us. And we were just, it, nobody else in that restaurant wanted to hear it except for us. And we were just wailing it. It was a blast. Such a good time. Uh, but my, my feels was the growth chart on the wall that Paul saved. That was nice. It is such a nice idea. And you know what? I didn't see it coming either. Same here. I was just going to say that. I didn't even see it coming. Like he paints over it, right? Obviously. Yeah. Of course he should because we're planning on selling it. 100%.

[00:19:13] Uh, but I was like, oh, that's kind of like, she's going to get to keep the house, but not have the growth chart. Right. I thought the same thing. So really. Aaron's like you dummies. I saw it coming from the whole time. So such a nice idea. Great, great little additional movie. Uh, yeah. Unwritten, um, a banger. It's a tough karaoke song. It keeps climbing. Um, and I thought the, uh, the sister sister did a wonderful job, uh, singing it. And then all the friends coming up there. It's a great old play. Unwritten. Also the goop.

[00:19:42] Uh, once this, the second movie Fiona Goodman starred in where going into it, like the last one was Royal Montana Christmas. And it's like, this movie is going to suck. And it didn't. I really liked that movie. Yeah. And, uh, Fiona is a floor razor when it comes to these movies. No ceiling. Floor razor. Yeah. Not that we know of. Yeah. Because it's like, you know, she takes these movies that in theory should be bottom of the barrel.

[00:20:10] And I ended up liking them way more. So maybe Fiona can't make a bad movie. That's what it looks like. This is the goop. You've put that into the universe. I mean, I could go back into her filmography and I'm sure I could find some, but let's just take these two specific movies. We're going in. I didn't have the highest of expectations. I've been a pleasantly surprised by both of them. So, uh, goops on quite the streak. Uh, Erin. Yeah. I had quite a few feels in this movie. Um, my first one was when Fiona and Paul were just in the backyard sitting around the campfire.

[00:20:40] That's just a fun spring summer. Well, not summer in South Carolina, but a fun spring fall. I can't do fires. It's a thing. I don't, I don't. It was just like 85 yesterday. I don't do it. I'm mad about it. Um, so that was really cute. Um, I really loved when her, she's talking to her husband. He's like, well, the appraisers are here. Look at the house. But you agreed. I had time. And he just goes, you can't just decide one day I'm going to turn my hobby into my job, which first of all, I mean, people, that's the thing people do.

[00:21:09] It was a wrong podcast. But then she just responds, watch me. Yeah. Go Fiona. Like that's the energy I want. And I really liked that. Uh, her first kiss with Paul when they're like talking about Mahjong and then he's like, I'm not talking about Mahjong. And she's like, I'm not either. I thought that was really cute. Um, I had, I had a lot of feels where after she finds out she's not getting the loan and she and Paul have their fight.

[00:21:37] I was like, here we go. Classic Hallmark miscommunication. And she goes and finds him. And she's like, I'm sorry. He's like, no, you were emotional and upset. Like you just needed some space. And I was like, oh, oh my gosh, are we guys just perfect? We going to be adults in this movie and like, just understand the complexity of human emotion. Boom. I missed all the hallmark. I loved it. I said, this is perfect. Very evolved.

[00:22:01] Um, and then for me, my feels was yes, I loved the karaoke unwritten, but then the last line of the movie was, I mean, come on, you know, the rest is still unwritten. Um, so just just to bookend it with unwritten. I gotta be honest with you. That movie, that should be the bookend of every movie. It works every time. And I was watching it and she said it and I was like, come on. Yeah. Nailed it. The only problem was that the credits didn't have unwritten underneath it. They should have. It just should have brought it back for the cards.

[00:22:31] Yeah. But that would have been too much money. We can't do that. In the karaoke version? Yeah. It's just no vocals. Listen, it's a good song. All right. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll get to the wait what and the what the homework. Here on Deck The Hallmark. Welcome back everybody. Deck the Homework. It's Tuesday. We're talking all's fair in love and mahjong. Is that true though?

[00:23:01] I think it is. I think there's rules in mahjong though. But it's still all fair game, I think. Oh, okay. All right. Let's get to the wait what. So we're talking about what this movie is going what? Right guy? Yeah. My first was the more distance I've had from this, I realized it was important to do this because it was like a big character moment. It showed his stripes. The ex-husband Mike when immediately as the daughter is not even out of the driveway, like the gravel, the dust is in the air. You can still see her waving his eye. He's like, so we said we were going to wait until she leaves for college. I wonder why they got a divorce. Yeah. No kidding.

[00:23:32] I mean. And by my calculation, she has in fact left. So. I mean, it wasn't even, it was like pre-college. Leave me in a deal. A deal's a deal. Yeah. Technically this is a pre-semester like mini thing. It wasn't even fall semester starting yet. And he's like my biological clock is so he villain of the year early. She took an AP class in high school. We could sell the house. That's us. College credit. That's college credit. That counts. Get her out of here.

[00:24:01] Why isn't it on the market yet? Uh, just yeah. Early candidate for villain of the year. This ex-husband. It was so. Oh, he was brutal. That guy was such a jerk. I mean, I thought his timing on that was awful, but I also don't think he was wrong. No, he's not wrong, but you don't have to. There's, there's like technically no, he's not nice. And that's a villain. Yeah. He's a villain of the year. Yeah. Early candidate. I said qualified that it's like an AP class. It's like for college credit. Like it's just early.

[00:24:29] This next Hannah Swenson movies, the villain of the year. The whole existence of it. That's the villain of the year. She just brings a four person folding table everywhere. What? What? Is that a new Ducky's category? The villain of the year? It should be. Yeah. Now it is. I can't think of any other villains, but. He wins. We should just send him the Ducky. Send it to him now. Yeah. Uh, yeah. She just, her bringing the folding table everywhere was really funny. Can I piggyback on that real quick? Yeah, please. Has she never carried a folding table in her life? They're awkward.

[00:24:58] I mean, they are awkward. No, okay. But like she carries it in a way no one has ever carried a folding table in their life. Yeah. And then when her, her friend, the principal there comes by to take it from her, just like picks it up. Yeah. I am all for like, you know, do, do stuff yourself. You don't need no man. But in that situation, you could see why someone might want to help you. Yeah. You are walking blind. She was like, I don't need help. And I was like, ma'am. Yeah. Listen, I'm a strong independent woman.

[00:25:27] I've carried many a table in my life. You in fact looked like you needed a little help. She could have gone from this position to this position. Oh, yeah. Like you just gotta be able to see where you go. But like it's a card table. They are small. Like you can carry it. You can carry it. Yeah. Yeah. So everyone else had no problem. Yeah. And for, but for someone who literally travels with a card table, learn to learn, Fiona, learn how to carry a card table. Yeah. The biggest hurdle for her and who's starting a new business is learning to carry the card table. Really?

[00:25:53] It looks like that was one of the, uh, things she had to agree to, to sign the long contract at the community college. You have to learn how to, you have to learn how to carry this table. Or do you think in offering her the long contract, they're like, we're going to provide the table. You know what I mean? Please don't walk in with a table. Our workers comp does not cover you injuring yourself. She also carries bags in a crazy way too. She's just like loads them all up this way. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. She's not good at carrying. No. And have you, have you picked up the, your wife's Mahjong set? I have. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:23] She's got like multiple of those sets. Like those are heavy. Like just take a little help or make two trips, you know, get a wagon, get a wagon. Just pull it behind. She'll buy you a wagon. A wagon. Fiona, there you go. That's why we do this. We're going to give you a wagon. Um, the, the two, two small ones, the, the mom at, she said she was 70 and she's already in like a retirement community. I felt early for, for that. Right. Is that just me? Like I felt like she, she said she was doing okay. Yeah. I don't know.

[00:26:52] It sounded like, but she had a stroke. They had like, right. Oh, so she, maybe she needed the care, but I think it was a retirement community because the woman who joins the Mahjong that was like angry at first was like, don't sell me a timeshare and then ended up loving it. She talked about like her neighborhood. So I thought there were like independent homes. Oh, maybe. And then they could go to the community center and have staff on hand, but it was like an assisted living community. Oh, that's cool. That's what I thought it was. All right. All right. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it does.

[00:27:22] I feel way better. Uh, the last one was if, Oh, if a woman shows up to a construction job site with a casserole, like you're never hearing the end of that from your crew. It doesn't matter if you're the boss or the boss's kid. Like he's going to hear about that for a long time. And I thought that was a really funny move to have her show up with a fully baked casserole at the job site. Well, before they're even like dating and being like, I thought maybe we could have lunch. Yeah. Hey, Fiona, good for you. Strong, independent woman. Yeah. She carried that. She carried that. No problem though. 100%.

[00:27:52] Um, I, I, uh, I know there are a lot of, uh, one of the, the big issues is funding of schools, right? This is an issue. I don't know. From my understanding. I don't know. Um, but like, I feel like I am sure that there are part-time school nurses. It does seem like something that you need, uh, you've worked at a school. Is that a thing? Like you can cut the hours of the school nurse. I think that's one of my, that's one of my questions.

[00:28:21] Cause that feels like something that feels illegal. I feel like you need to have. So, so I said, in a, could there be more than one nurse? Like the elementary school that I worked at had two nurses. 100%. And they do each have part-time. So maybe they can pay them less that way. Well, they were both full-time cause we had a very large school. Okay. Well, I was thinking like, if the school had, I mean, I was thinking like if the school had two full-time nurses and they were like, Hey, we've seen, we're looking at like the records

[00:28:49] and it's looking like there's not a lot of traffic for two full-time nurses. I could see them cutting the hours of one who would come into like supplement, you know, maybe like a few days a week. I could, but like, that's never explained. We never see another nurse. So they just say that we're, we're cutting school nurse in half. Yeah. I was hoping there was a second nurse there, but the way Hallmark leads me to believe is that she's the only nurse on the premises for this entire school. I feel like every school needs- And half the week they're not going to have medical attention. And I feel like that's not allowed.

[00:29:19] But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is a thing. Somebody else let me know. I thought you had to, cause when we, when I also worked at summer camp, we have to have a medical professional on grounds at all times. Yeah. Like, and this is what I would say if it's, if, and I love the arts, but maybe we should cut the arts. We need a full time medical person on the campus. It was wild. If that's not happening now, it made me want to call my kid's school and be like, Hey, I just want to make sure is there a nurse there?

[00:29:48] All the time. Like, can you imagine a little, whatever that kid's name was, Bobby or whatever, like cuts his arm and he's bleeding. They're like, well, can you just like put some pressure on it? The nurse will be here at one. Well, I think they teach the kids to tourniquet themselves. Yeah. Yeah. That was, but she's worried about budget cuts. I, at first I said out loud, well, you're the nurse. You're good. And then the principal was like, we haven't heard yet. And I was like, wait a minute. Is she not safe from budget cuts? You should just call your school rent. The kid's school. It was like, Hey, can you connect me to the nurse? Just to double check.

[00:30:17] I just want to talk to her. I just want to check on her and see how she's doing. Just to see if she's there. Um, yeah, I, I, uh, really liked the name. I'm in Melissa Peterman's corner and just about everything. I really liked the name. Get your Mahjong. Uh, that I liked it more than the name. I know it's a better name. Yeah. I did not like that. That, that, uh, that was weird to me. Right. And then, um, I just, I felt old, uh, because I had to Google what victory warrant Royale

[00:30:45] was, which is a, apparently a fortnight thing. And it's, I don't, I don't like feeling old when I watched the homework movies. I watched the homework movies to feel young. Right. Because I'm like, I get all this stuff and now we're introducing fortnight terminology. I didn't need that. They've crossed over. They've crossed over. I didn't need that. It made me feel old and I did not appreciate that homework. Uh, Aaron almost said Dana out of, uh, you know, Dana, respect, respect, respect, he's actually here. Um, I, Dan impression.

[00:31:15] I have him locked in another room. Um, so I have a few, even though I liked this movie a lot, let me be clear. Um, I just thought it was really funny. I know there were a lot of, you know, is this movie appropriate with her playing Mahjong as a white woman? Um, but also if you caught it in the beginning when she's daughters leaving for school for college, they mentioned that the daughter started her high school step team. And I just thought that was really, you know, following in her mother's footsteps there.

[00:31:40] Um, typically I don't think that's a white, white thing, but I thought it was stem. I thought she said step. She may steps way cooler. I think she say stem. She might've cause she was all, I thought it was. Okay. Then I take that back. I heard. Excuse me. What? She also might've. Well, in Aaron's defense, you watch, gotta step it up. Uh, gotta kick it at whatever step, step up to what you watch this every weekend.

[00:32:08] So you always have, you always have stuff on the brain. And so you hear you. I had a very long day yesterday and I watched this on my phone last night with three dogs who were trying to convince me that they've never been fed before in their lives. That's true. Um, after I had just fed them dinner, they like finished the, they finished the bowl and looked at me and they were like, what about dinner? And I was like, I do think it was, I do think it was an early steam class thing, but I do love the idea of her leaving for college early for step. In my mind, she started a step team and I thought that was funny. Well, I love that though.

[00:32:38] Let's do that version. I think her dad found out there's the step starts before every other thing. He's like, let's get her to college step. Um, let's see. Fiona took, uh, uh, mahjong and she's taking stuff. That's what I, that's what I was like. All right. Bold. Um, listen, I know that the, you know, it's, it's divorce is, you know, sometimes really awful and you don't want to think about the consequences of it, but ma'am, you've known for five years that when your daughter leaves for school, you have to sell the house.

[00:33:08] Just be like, I don't know. I just want to spend, I personally would have spent a five years, maybe not packing the house, but at least thinking about what my next steps are. Um, I love Aaron being on the husband's side in this movie. I'm not on the husband's side. I'm shocked. Brian and I are both like, he's a villain. She's like, define villain. And Aaron's like, pack it up. Not pack it up. You've had five years. What have you been doing? Yes, you've had five years knowing that you have to- With your friends, letting the wood rot in the pipe's clog.

[00:33:39] Listen, if he had like waited until the daughter, you know, wrote off to school and said, Hey, now that she's gone, can we sell the house? Then I'd be like, all right, sir. But in his defense, like this was an agreement that they made five years ago. She's like, I know. I just don't want to think about it. But he never follows through on his agreement. She know that. So either, are you going to sell the house? Do you want to keep it? Like, think about it at least once over five years.

[00:34:09] Um, that was- No, you stuff those things deep down. You don't think about them at all until they come up. Um, that was today. Yeah. When Paul- Try and stuff over my dead body. Yeah. I didn't see this coming. You did. Um, when Paul first comes to the house to work on things and he leaves the room to go get something out of the hall closet and they're all like, Whoa, look at him. That's her handyman. Guys, unless that living room has secret doors that none of us can see, he can hear this entire conversation. Like-

[00:34:38] Well, based on the way she takes care of that house, there's probably holes in every wall, according to you. Um, so just, there's that. Uh, I did have the, one of my way was, I can't believe Dan skipped the movie where they sing unwritten. Yeah. Um, also I love that her name was Ronnie. And I think every time they said her name in this movie, I said to myself, shy Ronnie. And that was just really funny for me. Not, not only what, just, just funny for me. Um, I wanted to know where the daughter went to school because that dorm room was huge and it looked like she was living alone.

[00:35:08] And I was like, where, where was that? Step school. Step school. I lived in a closet with another girl. So like, let me know where I could have a room. Um, do, do, do, do. Anything else about Mike there? You want to support any good news about Mike? No, I mean, I just want, I did have his line that I had in my field. So you can't just decide one day I'm going to turn my hobby into my job. Sir, people do that literally every day. That's how you, uh, that's how you're listening to this podcast right here. That's how side hustles turn into full time jobs.

[00:35:37] Like it literally is how most businesses start. So side hustles turn into full hustles. Full hustles. Full hustles. You got hustler. You got hustled. I mean, that's when you become a villain. If you're telling your wife, she personally doesn't have, you know, what it takes to turn her hobby into a business, then you become a villain. Um, but just saying people in general can't turn hobbies into businesses. I just picked it for, uh, all right, it's time for what the homework is. What could it be? Maybe what are we still wondering about? Brian. Yeah. We've touched on a little bit and I was wondering why they settled on marvelous.

[00:36:08] Miss Maj, Mrs. Maj for the name. Yeah. Like a marvelous. I feel like, yes, they had to have been, I guess, but it just, it wasn't as good as Melissa Peterman's name and, um, get your Maj on. Get your Maj. It's such a funny name. So I'm, I just wonder why, why that name? There has to be a reason behind it. Uh, and maybe it's just a shout out to marvelous Miss Maisel, but that was my big one. Uh, yeah. Is Melissa Peterman, Melissa Peterman in this movie?

[00:36:33] Uh, it is, you know, anytime somebody's named their name in a movie, it's always like, are you just playing yourself? That's what I want to know. Um, but also like how much was the contract worth to, to be the full time, whatever thing at the community center that she could then bring to the, uh, bank and the bank would be like thumbs up from us. Like it had to be, it had to be a certain amount, but I also think it was just, she didn't have

[00:37:02] a backlog of pay receipts, but she had like a future log of, I will be earning this over the next year. Right. So if that's all it took, Hey, just buddy, can you fill out, can you fill out this form and just say, Hey, I'm going to, it doesn't matter if you actually do pay me to teach you just, just a little form here. Well, she also had the part-time nursing gig. I think those two together. No, all I'm saying is, it's all, if all it took was the promise of long-term, just have

[00:37:31] somebody be like, Hey, I will teach you. I will. I'm going to hire you. It was like on par with like her part-time job. Just being like, here's this part-time teaching position. So together you have full-time employment for the next year. And the rest is still there. Could handing out fake contracts be a nice side hustle? That's a good question. I'm going to start, I'm going to start bringing fake contracts. I'm going to get contracts to banks for loans and just being like, give me money. I promise I'm good for it. Um, but Brian, just keep in mind if brand for some reason, can't make it to an episode. Cause he's in drew. Uh, just call me.

[00:38:02] I can go to jail for this. Uh, Aaron, you can't get in trouble for this. I don't think so. Aaron. Um, I would just like to know how this works out for Fiona and Paul in this movie. Um, I thought it was really smart where she didn't just bet the whole house on her mahjong classes. She was going to stay at her farm. She could have sold that to keep the house, but she decided to keep that too. Um, but I thought that was really great of her, you know, I don't know.

[00:38:29] It's just, I haven't seen a homework movie in a minute, but usually they're just like, yeah, I'll just bet it all on the mahjong, but she was going to keep that job. And I'd love to see like in a year or so, does she go full mosh? Does she just give up nursing altogether? And she's just teaching community classes and country club classes about mahjong. Um, and then also how long does this go on? Does mahjong stay relevant? Mahjong is forever. Okay. Yeah.

[00:38:56] Even though you've taught everyone in the community mahjong, they still need lessons. They study lessons. Um, eventually. Yeah. You don't have to do it once they learn. I mean, the lessons that happened at the cook station, like they are packed every week. And I do wonder like, is this ever going to slow down? And it hasn't yet. So I don't know. Uh, another thing that I just remembered, it was, uh, the husband, you know, comes to her and is like, you actually, you have one month because we're going to put an offer on a house. It's not on the market yet, but we know that it will be on the market in exactly one month.

[00:39:25] It's like insider trading. He's like, I don't know. It's going on the market soon. And she's like, how long do I have a month? Like a month. And I'm like, you just pulled that out of nowhere. But like, how does he know? How does he know? What is this? How? Yeah. But like one month, like if you see like your dream house and you see it getting like work done on it and you go up and you're like, Hey, are you getting ready to sell this house? And they go, we are getting ready to sell this house. Um, and then you go, well, how long?

[00:39:54] And then they say one month. It's like, well, I, that's still a far, like, that's still like a lot could change. Like that's still a long time in house speak. Like a lot can happen. House speak. Yeah. It could sell off market. It could sell off. That's what I'm saying. Like if he really wanted to go in there and put an offer, you don't have to wait for it to go on market. And then his new partner. Yeah. Where were they staying? Like they couldn't sell that? I don't know. At least a down payment. I don't know. Maybe you always spend more than you can afford when you're buying new houses.

[00:40:22] You always spend more than you have in your own house. Yeah. Always. Financial advice. When you move into the new house, you find out that you have to do new floors and okay. Just the financial advice given by Brian does not. Yeah. Totally. That's just him. Not us. We did it. Everybody. Congratulations. Come back tomorrow for some more. It's going to be a lot of fun until then. May the first to wish you a Merry Christmas. Dr. Holmourg is a Bramble Jam podcast. It's permitted by nobody. Give us money, please.

[00:40:53] It's produced by Brandon. It's hosted by people. Sign up. Best corner of the internet. Bramblejamplus.com. You'll get live movie watch along when Brandon remembers to post the thing. And you also get other stuff. Bramble Jam plus. Bramble Jam plus.com. Dan out. Brands the best. You're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio.

[00:41:21] Thanks for listening or don't listen. It's really up to you at this point. It's at the end of the show. I mean, you're listening to me. Hi, but here they come. I promise they're coming. Yep. Here they are. Happy day. Before talks, Billy. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you.