I Love The Real Housewives - Atlanta Jan. 23 2011

In my first blog I touched on the theory that the Housewives shows do so well because we all can relate to many of them on a personal level or personally know similar types of women. How many of us know a Kim and a NeNe? I know a few very similar ladies now and have known several others in my lifetime. They are best friends one day, then at each other throats (in this case literally) the next. These two ladies know how to push each others buttons. Kim is Kim and she is not the type of person that is going to change her behavior, whether you like it or not. Kandi seems to be able to deal with this a little better than NeNe. Kandi is able to let things roll off of her back when it comes to Kim. NeNe apparently cannot.

I do understand why NeNe was upset with Kim regarding her treatment of Sweetie. But referring to someone as a slave (especially a black woman) evokes strong feelings with good reason in most people. Not NeNe's best choice of words in my opinion. Nobody was thrilled with Kim's treatment of Sweetie and I'm sure there is plenty more that they saw that we as viewers did not. But at the end of the day, Sweetie is an adult and Kim is her employer. If she chooses to accept Kim's treatment of her, that is her business. Perhaps it really doesn't bother her. We don't know all the workings of her and Kim's relationship. If they're "good" with each other then case closed. However, Kim needs to realize that her aggressiveness towards Sweetie upsets people and she should try to tone it down when around others.

NeNe needs to remember the "keep your hands to yourself" rule. Perhaps the whole fight could have been avoided if NeNe would have explained why she brought up Kim in her interview with Jermaine Dupri in the first place. That's where this argument really began. Clearly she did so as kind of a funny little ice breaker to get a conversation going with Jermaine. I don't think she did it to be mean. But still, why not just try to avoid the wrath of Kim?

NeNe's actions tonight were not NeNe like in many ways. I wish she would have let the argument go when they arrived in Florida and showed the other ladies and their host a little respect. But she was angry, and she was letting it out. Much like I speculated with Kim and Kyle on Beverly Hills, I think inner turmoil was behind a lot of NeNe's anger and it came out on Kim. But for our viewing pleasure her mood worked just fine. After all, what fun would an Atlanta season be without a NeNe vs. Kim smackdown?

Doesn't it seem like the girl trips and the girls night out parties never work out on any of the Housewives series and really just seem to cause problems? Remember New York season 1 when Simon came to the dinner party and Ramona went bonkers? That was the episode that put NYC on the map! How about last season on OC when Vicky was distressed when some of the men joined the ladies in Miami? This is another thing that really ticked NeNe off. It seemed everybody invited a guest to come and crash the girls party. So in that respect, I don't blame her for being angry. If it's supposed to be a group of girls getting together then maybe it should just stay that group of girls. Like I said, it never works out otherwise. Housewives, in the future, please learn from the above mentioned episodes!

In fairness to NeNe, when she realized her stammering about wasn't going to change the situation, she invited her friend to the party and started to let things go and roll with everything. This trip was supposed to be focused on Cynthia and if Cynthia didn't have a problem with the extra guests than nobody should have. I was worried NeNe was going to force her will on Cynthia and make them leave early. Good for Cynthia for staying. It meant a lot to the other ladies.

Please don't think I don't like NeNe in general. I LOVE NeNe. This was just one of those episodes that remind us that this really is reality television and it caught NeNe in a surly light. I love Kim as well, but honestly, she is enough to give an aspirin a headache!

Going back to Cynthia, at this point, I would implore her to put off her wedding or at least scale it back. Getting married under this much stress is not the way to get the marriage off to a happy start. Does she only want to get married if it's her "dream" wedding? I hope not. We'll have to watch and see what happens next week!

I have to mention the house they stayed in. Very eclectic? Is that a good word for it? There certainly were plenty of interesting curios to look at but I don't know how "comfortable" it would be to hang out there for an extended period of time. The real stuffed animals are creepy to me. Clearly there's some deeper history between the owner and Kim, but hey, it's a free country, she can have as many Big Papas as she wants! It was just all a little strange I thought.

I do wish people would stop criticizing Kim's performances. She knows she isn't Celine Dion. She's a novelty performer. Nobody really expects her to go on stage and be amazing, just entertaining. You just have to take it for what it is and have fun. On a style note, I absolutely loved Kandi's multicolored earrings. Kandi looked really great tonight and sounded brilliant as usual.

These are my thoughts after just having watched the episode. Please share yours with me. I love reading them. We don't have to agree. It would be a boring world if we all did. I'm having a great time writing this blog and hope we can grow into a "community" of readers and commentators that share the same love of the Real Housewives. My dream/goal would be to interview some of the Housewives. I didn't know if anybody would even read this blog when I started it so I now believe anything is possible!

I want to send a huge, heartfelt thank you to Jill Zarin for tweeting my blog and putting it on her Facebook page. I am beyond flattered! Thanks also to Lynda from the DC Housewives who also re-tweeted it. So very kind of both of you. Biggest thanks to all of you who read the blog, commented on it and passed it along. I hope you will do so with this one as well.

If you missed my last blog about the Beverly Hills finale, you can read it here: http://hubpages.com/hub/I-Love-The-Real-Housewives-Beverly-Hill-Finale
Or click "See Other Hubs By Lisanewengland."

Who else is counting down the minutes to the Beverly Hills Reunion? Here is a little Giggy treat to get you by. Enjoy!
http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills/season-1/blogs/giggy-the-pom/so-many-pawsabilities

Until next time, please follow me on Twitter @lisanewengland or e-mail me at
lisanewengland@juno.com