A Fan Girl’s Ode to The Office Ladies

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Excuse me while I have my fan girl moment.  If you have talked to me in real life in the last several months, you know all about my love for The Office Ladies Podcast.  My love and moderate (OK, full blown) obsession stems for my love of the show, The Office.  Before the days of Netflix, before kids, my husband and I would watch The Office every night in syndication and we would talk about the various people who worked in our offices who were such a “Dwight” or how we could relate to the show’s Party Planning Committee.  I served on the PPC back in the day and let me tell you, I was 100% an Angela. The Office is always the one show we can both agree on and we don’t have to fill each other in on the plots and we just die laughing.   

When I discovered The Office Ladies Podcast, I was all in, but extremely late to the party.  I immediately started binging so I could get caught up, which I was finally able to do the last week of January.  Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey became a part of my Quaran-Team.  I recently wrote a post for Scottsdale Moms with my list of 10 things that were giving me life during the pandemic and The Office Ladies was high on the list.  They don’t just recap each episode of the show that made them household names, but they go on deep dives into different subjects and share some interesting tidbits about how a TV show gets made, from wardrobes to sound engineering, to how the characters are developed.  But more than that, they tell stories about their real-life relationships with each other and their co-stars.   

I’m a bit of an extrovert and one of the hardest parts of staying home these days has been the lack of girl time with my friends and sisters-in-law.  Lunches, happy hours, moms-night-out, family parties… CANCELED.   

Enter The Office Ladies Podcast.  Did you know that in real life Angela and Jenna (aka Angela and Pam) are best friends?  The banter between these ladies on the podcast is so effortless and real, just like it is when you talk to your bestie.  As I listen to each episode, I actually feel like I’m part of the conversation.  I laugh at the stories that they tell, I talk back to them and find myself as an active participant in the conversation.  When they share stories of motherhood, I fully relate.  And my favorite part is that despite the ladies’ Hollywood careers and fame, they are so REGULAR!  Just like us!  In a world of Kardashians and Beverly Hills Housewives, Jenna and Angela are keeping it real in a way that is actually real.  They do regular, every day mom things with their kids, they do laundry and clean their kitchens and have collect-all corners.  If you follow the ladies individually on Instagram, you can see that their houses are (although, I’m sure lovely) seem so regular.  Also, sometimes they put on makeup and sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes they do stories in their bathrobes and sometimes in a hoodie and jammie pants.  How regular is THAT?!  

Oh, and talk about being influenced!  I recently made a soup for dinner because Jenna Fischer made it.  My husband was crazy about it and asked where I picked up the recipe.  I said, “Well you know how I’m best friends with Jenna Fischer?  She told me about it.”  Angela & her husband have a YouTube channel & website called Baking with Josh & Ange, which I am now following for more yummy dinner ideas and special treats.  Do yourself a favor and browse the one pot & sheet pan recipes.  My best friends like to eat just like me. 

I am craving the bonds of girlfriends but with motherhood, and while trying to navigate all the online learning and homeschooling and trying to hang on to life for dear life, it’s hard to even arrange a phone call with my bestie.  Though nothing can replace the connection I have with my dear girlfriends, I can hang out with Jenna & Angela whenever I want by just popping my earbuds in.  I love listening to their easy, breezy conversations about their time on The Office and everything else and I really feel like they are my friends.  Is that weird?  If it is, I just don’t care.   

There is one final thing that I have to mention here.  My mom and her best friends growing up had a secret language called Ab.  My mom taught it to my dad and they would always speak Ab around us kids when they didn’t want us to know what they were saying, usually around Christmas time and birthdays.  When I got older, my mom taught Ab to me and now we speak it around my kids.  I’ve never once heard of anybody else in the world who knew this secret language so imagine my absolute surprise when Jenna Fischer brought it up on the podcast that she speaks Ab!  I nearly drove my car off the road!   

So Jenna, I say to you, “Abi fabeel Gabod abin thabis Chabilabi’s tabonabight.  Wabith sabo mabuch laboveyabour frabiendJabennabie Labove abof Scabottsdable Maboms.   

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Jennie Love
Jennie Love is a native Phoenician turned Scottsdale-ite. Jennie and her wonderful husband Scott have two adorable little boys, Robert, the sweet & spunky "threenager," and baby Weston, who is full of cuddles and smiles. As a family, they enjoy the Phx Zoo, riding the rails at the train park, and exploring hiking trails. Jennie is a yoga instructor at Modern Milk in Scottsdale and routinely subs at Moksha Yoga Phx. While indulging in all things beauty related, Jennie also loves cooking, wine, chocolate, and spending quality time with her family & friends. But her favorite pastime is to browse through Target all by herself.

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