From the Desk of Dr Toni Lodge #008

Hello! Welcome to the Blog, we hope you enjoy your stay here. And by we, it’s obviously just me, Toni.

Equalizers: They’re everywhere.

Everyone reading this is here as a fan of Toni and Ryan, but that’s not an equalizer, that’s more of a common thread.

I mean like how in Princess Diaries when Lilly is trying to calm Mia down before her big debate, she says ‘you like our uniforms, they’re equalizers.’ Like it puts everyone on the same level.

A bit of a dodgy screengrab of this scene. I couldn’t find it online and you can’t screenshot inside of Disney+ so I had to get the scene up on my computer and then take a photo on my phone and then Air Drop to my computer. Very involved.

Everyone looks shit because they’re all wearing the same ugly uniform and colour story that doesn’t do anyone any favours. Though I’d have to argue my highschool uniform was actually pretty cute. Sky blue nurses dress in winter, and sky blue blouse with maroon tartan skirt and tights with a maroon jumper. Actually kind of chic and made me feel VERY Gossip Girl vibes.

Another equalizer example could be that no matter who you are or what you look like or where you come from, no one looks hot or cool running for a train and then getting to the doors just as they close. And then you have to do that little walk away from the train and act cool like you don’t mind that you just missed the train and that it’s ACTUALLY FINE and you didn’t wanna catch it anyway!!!! Fuck off train! Who cares!

But secretly, you care. You needed to catch that train in order to get home for your wife's birthday and now you'll miss your kids bath time or some other thing people worry about.

Another transport related equalizer, the reason I wanted to bring this up, is driving into a carpark that requires you to take a ticket from a machine. Not sure if this is common everywhere, but most paid parking in Australia have a cardboard ticket you take from the machine as you drive in, and then you use that to pay and exit the carpark later. Surely that’s a thing everywhere???

But it doesn’t matter whether you’re in a car that cost $5, $5,000, or $500,000 - everyone is driving around the car park the exact same way. Hoping to get a spot, while holding the TICKET in their MOUTH.

The other day I was driving around a car park looking for a spot, and just driving past every other person with the ticket hanging out of their mouth brought me so much JOY in a way not much else does in a car park. Parking in a shopping centre is fucking TENSE! So to see everyone driving around with a serious look on their face with a ticket hanging out of their mouth, made me very happy. A fantastic equalizer.

Hope you’re having a great day!!! Love you, bye!

Toni xxx