Office Ladies - Special Project

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

This week is “Special Project”. Dwight is tasked to go to Tallahassee for a work assignment and both he and Andy must choose which Dunder Mifflin employees will go with him. Also, Pam has returned from maternity leave! Jenna looks into some animal facts, Angela shares a sweet “lol” story and the ladies have a bff basket moment. So be like Florida Stanley and smile because this is another great episode!  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestionFollow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPodCheck out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladies

I'm Jennifer Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate office rewatch podcast just for you. Each week we will break down an episode of the office and give exclusive behind the scene stories that only two people who are there can tell you. We're the office ladies. Pack your bags, lady. Are we going to Tallahassee?

We are Sam Cassie Angela Me, special project. It's happening. Yeah, it's not really going to be a Tallahassee. No, but it's fun idea. Some people are in today's episode. I have wanted for a long time to do an office lady's road trip. This is true, you have. I'm gonna make it happen.

Well, today, it's not happening, but today we are talking about special project which was season eight, episode 14, written by Amaligh Gillette and directed by Dave Rogers. Here's your summary. Angela's competitive mommy street continues as she and Pam returned from their respective maternity leaves.

Dwight is excited to be heading a special project for Saber in Tallahassee, but not thrilled with the team Andy has appointed for him to lead. Meanwhile, Darryl tries to figure out the meaning behind his Valentine's Day gift from Val. Fast fact number one. Mm-hmm. This episode was a Valentine's Day episode. It was.

It aired on February 9th, 2012. Angela, no pressure, but will we be getting a Valentine's Day to core breakdown from you later? No. Oh no! I didn't do it because I was like, Angela's probably gonna break down all these baskets and cupids. There's so many. I do have one background catch that I wonder if anyone

else noticed, but I'm gonna wait. Okay. Well, I'll have you know that this episode was a hit with fans and critics, Miles McNutt, who we have not checked in on in a while. I've been wondering, he gave this episode, are you ready for it? No, an A minus. Come on! We have not been in the A's for a while. Miles McNut gave it an A minus.

Yes. He did say this, he always prefaces his good news even. Okay, he said, quote, I could take some time to question how exactly this Grant and Branch is going to operate without six people for three weeks. And I could also ask about the economics of a printer company establishing an Apple-esque retail

presence. That was one for me too, Miles. Like the majority of Saber's storylines since the company's introduction, there. Like the majority of Saber's storylines since the company's introduction, there's a fundamental lack of logic operating here that does puzzle the part of me that enjoys policing the show's reality.

But he loved the potential of the storyline. He talked about how great it has been in the past when characters branched off to different locations. Like he said, it was so successful when Jim went to Stanford or when Pam Ryan and Michael made Michael Scott paper company. He also loved the people who were ultimately chosen to go on the trip. I honestly have not seen Miles this excited in a while. I think I have to take off my earrings.

Oh, why? Well, they're made- Are they jingling? They're jingling. Look at, I took them fromingling. They're jingling. They're, look at, I took them from my daughter. They're little zippers. They're so cute. I know. I was trying to be stylish, but then I was like, oh no, am I just a mom trying to hard with her daughter's trendy zipper earrings that are now rattling in my ear. I thought they looked cute. Thank you. I was curious by them. They seemed like a branch out for you. I know. And I thought Jenna's wearing little zippers.

But you know what? You've told me you're trying to like step into a new kind of fashion. Like what is my fashion? Yeah. Anyway, I had to take the zippers off. So sorry everyone. Fast fact number two.

And we're back. I thought the fact that Pam and Angela are both returning from maternity leave and the fact that we have been discussing my own maternity leave lately on the pod, I maybe it was time for a maternity leave deep dive, like a mini deep dive on maternity leaves. Sure.

Okay, I did not know what I was gonna find when I did the steep dive, but did you know that there are only eight countries in the world in the whole world that do not guarantee paid family leave at the national level for men and women? Did you know that eight? Do you want to know what they are? Well, I'm sure we're one of them. We are. We're one of the eight. They are Marshall Islands, of them. We are. We're one of the eight. They are Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Serenam, Tonga, and the United States. All of the other 187 countries in the world guarantee some kind of paid family leave. Wow. Yeah, here's what we have in the United States. In 1993, we passed the Family and Medical Leave Act.

And that allows you to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave when you foster, adopt, or have a child, or in case of illness or a health condition whereby you can't work or if you need to care for an immediate family member. It just means you can't be fired. This is what I applied for when I had my son. I took leave from the office under this law. However, I'm saying that as if this is a major bright side, it's not, but sometimes paid leave is offered through your employer. But sometimes paid leave is offered through your employer. So definitely check that out.

And your state may offer some sort of disability or family leave paid. So there, I think there are like 11 states that do offer that. But on a national level, it is not guaranteed. Also under that family and medical leave act, I guess there are so many requirements in order to qualify that only about 60% of the workforce is actually eligible to take

the unpaid family leave. So loopholes, yeah. That was my very depressing maternity leave deep dive. I guess depressing if you live in the United States for all of our international listeners Congratulations. You have some sort of paid family leave. I always find it so fascinating. These kind of stats, you know? Yeah, you know when you grow up somewhere, you don't often question like why don't I have paid family leave? Why don't I have healthcare? Right. Why do I have to open up a go fund me if I'm in a car accident? It just becomes sort of like, well, this is what you do. Right. That's your reality. Yeah. And so

when you travel somewhere else and see that they don't have that burden and that stress, it's very eye opening. Yes. Or if you do a maternity leave deep dive and you sit at your computer in shock, and you're like, oh wow, it's like a kind of new this, but now I'm looking at it in black and white and it's, huh. Well, you know, Angela Martin only took a three-day maternity leave. That's right. Three days. That's all she needed. Dwight seemed upset about it. He did and when we get to that Angela I have a catch. Okay. Speaking of catches, are you ready for Fast Facts 3? I don't know if I can.

This is a Florida fan catch fact check from Aaron W in New Mexico. Say that again. A Florida fan catch fact check. Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah. Fan catch fact check. Okay. Here is what Aaron had to say. I am a native Floridian. I grew up in Miami until I was 18, then moved to Tallahassee to attend Florida State University, and ended up living there for 11 years until I moved to New Mexico in late 2020. and ended up living there for 11 years until I moved to New Mexico in late 2020. I notice that all of Dunderclund thinks that all of Florida is the same, and they assume Tallahassee will be just like Miami, but let me tell you that you could not be more different. Tallahassee is a medium-sized quiet Southern College town. There are giant oak trees with Spanish moss and hardly any palm trees.

And while there aren't four distinct seasons, Tallahassee can get very cold in the winter months. So here are just a few things I noticed in special projects that made me think Dunder Mifflin assumes all of Florida is the same or that they will be actually in Miami. First, Dwight Tells Pam to pack swimwear. February and Tallahassee is not pool or beach weather. The closest beach to Tallahassee is almost 40 miles away. I guess the average temperature around Valentine's Day would be in the 60s. Next, Dwight mentions trips to Cape Canaveral. That is 309 miles away from Tallahassee. Oh dear.

He mentions Gloria Estefan, who lives in Miami, which is 482 miles away. Then Dwight mentions it is 85 degrees Fahrenheit with a 73% immunity. Again, I understand he's trying to convince people not to go, but this weather is true for late spring summer, not February. Also, hurricane

season does not officially begin until June 1st, and it runs to November 30th. Clearly, the writers did not consult anyone from Florida. No, as I was reading this letter, I was like, wow, wow, the people living in Tallahassee who are watching our episode right now just must be squirming. Although this is Dwight's perception of Florida, right? True. Yeah. Which may be tracks. Aaron did say that giant cockroaches,

AKA Palmetto bugs do not Google this. Aaron said, are sadly accurate and they fly. I know they fly. I've had one fly at me. A cockroach. It's just maybe the most like undone I've ever come. Like you would have thought. I was like, I went crazy. Yeah, I don't like bugs that fly at me. Not big, hard shell crunchy ones either. That's right. I don't like that. I don't like. Finally, Aaron said mosquitoes and giant frogs are also accurate. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, Aaron, thank you very much for the telehassy breakdown. That's right. Well, now that we've set the record straight on maternity leave and Florida,

well, maternity leave in Tallahassee, yes. There's Florida's big. We don't know all about Florida. Well, maternity leave in Dallas-Hassie. Yes, there's Florida's big. We don't know all about Florida. That was Aaron's point. Yes, I agree, Aaron. Let's take a break. And when we come back, it's Valentine's reception. It's very decorated for Valentine's. Sorry, I didn't do a cupid breakdown, but I have some other stuff. Pam was going to return. Everyone's very happy to see her. Stanley kind of hints that she's just had an eight-week vacation. Pam's like, um, was it really a vacation? Angela's also going to return after her three-day maternity leave, as we talked about. And this outfit was a whole meeting. I can tell you that. Really? Say more. They really wanted to sell this idea that she came back as if

nothing had happened. I had multiple fittings. They wanted wanted to sell this idea that she came back as if nothing had happened. I had multiple fittings. They wanted everything to be tight fitted and very spelt. The belt was a whole conversation. Oh, I don't know if you notice, but I have a tight little turtle neck. And then I have the tiny skinny belt right at my waist. I did notice. And a pencil skirt.

Yeah. Everyone wanted the belt. I was like, do we really need And a pencil skirt. Yeah. Everyone wanted the belt. I was like, do we really need the belt? They're like, you need the belt. Because I guess the belt really accentuates the waist. You know what I thought when I saw the Angela from maternity leave and Pam from maternity leave? I thought Angela is Instagram and Pam is real life. That trend. Yes. Like, Angela is what postpartum moms on Instagram are showing you. They're snapback. Yeah.

And then Pam is like at home being like, what the f? Is happening. Well, in addition to her outfit, she's also brought in a lot of snacks. Brownies and cookie bars. Brownies with and without walnuts. Yeah, because she does not have mommy brain. Yeah, she does know what Pam's talking about. Angela, I remember filming this moment

where you offer me a brownie, and I have to decide if I'm gonna take it. And it kept making us laugh so hard. Not only did it make us laugh, but then after you take a bite, and you like the brownie, I know. Then you're like, what about you, don't you want one? only did it make us laugh, but then after you take a bite and you like the brownie. I know. Then you're like, what about you, don't you want one?

And I'm like, I'm trying to watch my weight. I know. It was making us laugh. It's so hard. The brownies were good. They were very good. But this also made me think of, you know what I was eating at this time?

What? I was eating those lactation cookies. Did you make those? They were all the rage when I was postpartum. They were like an oatmeal cookie that you made with brewers yeast and coconut oil. And they were supposed to help you with your milk production. And so, I was eating these cookies all the time. Right. So it was really good to eat that chocolate brownie. Like a break from those. Yeah. What I remembered most about this scene is how tickled we got and it was you and I having the dialogue just between the two of us. So that meant everyone was waiting for us to finish

our lines. Yeah. And we kept laughing. And I am telling you, you can see John check out. If you look at his face, he's just like, oh my God, are they going to get through this? It's so true. Well, this cold open ends with Pam trying to give cash to people. Yeah. And Jim's like, no, it's done. Stop, stop, don't get it. You didn't bring in any brownies. It's fine. Oh, but Angela, I have my catch. What? My background catch, when Dwight is surprised that Angela has come into work and he says, you just had our baby, our collective baby. Yeah. Kelly has really great nail polish on and you can see it over Dwight's shoulder.

Oh, it's really great. That's it. Okay. Super important catch. Well, the episode's going gonna start in Andy's office. He's got some big news for Dwight. Dwight's like, listen, if you're making me head of sales again, so help me.

I guess that's been happening a lot. But he's like, no, no, no, this is real. Dwight has been tasked with assembling a special team to go to Tallahassee for three weeks to develop and launch a chain of saber stores. So I guess what they're selling in the saber stores are the tablets, the new pyramid tablets, and printers? Possibly. But this is the best news Dwight's had in a long, long time.

As Dwight's doing all of his celebrating, did anyone else see the Valentine's gift basket over Andy shoulder? Yes, I'm glad you're bringing it up. It's unopened. It's there the whole entire episode, unopened. Is this for Jessica? That's what I wanted to know. It was it for him? Is he giving it to someone? It has a bear in it. I don't know. It's there the whole time. Dwight is now going to share that he's having one of these perfect moments in his life. In fact, it's called perfect and schlog. Yes. Have you ever experienced perfect and schlog in your life? I think I experience it every week when I come here.

That's what I feel like. I feel like minus my broken shoulder. I am in perfect and schlog right now. Perfect and schlog. Yeah. I'm just really thankful and I love this chapter of my life. Same. I was curious if it was a real term. And I found a very interesting thread online of German speakers who love the office and wanted to get to the bottom of us using this word as well.

They all said it doesn't exist in the German language, but one entry had an interesting theory. Marco says, I'm a huge fan of the office and actually from a German-speaking country, Switzerland. So as some of you have pointed out correctly, there is no word in the German language that sounds like perfect inshlog. But as the English-speaking folks often pronounce German words in this particular way, I just thought of something that sounds familiar. Oh! Perfector Einschlag. Marco goes on to say that maybe this isn't what inspired the writers, but this is his theory. Perfector Einschlag means perfect impact.

And if you ask me, Marco says says, it's a pretty good description of a perfect and outstanding situation. That's very interesting. My question that I didn't look up is does schlug mean pork anus? It did not look up pork anus. I thought about it and was like, no. Yeah, no, right?

You didn't want to Google that. I didn't want to Google that. Because Dwight does say perfect and schlug could also mean perfect pork anus, but that's not what he's talking about. Interesting. Aaron is now gonna give Andy his faxes of the day and he gets so many faxes.

Yeah, why do you need so many faxes if you have email? I don't know, but he's gonna say, I've got some facts for you. Lady does Andy like a fast fact? Did I fact check his facts? I fact checked his facts. We both fact checked his facts. We both fact checked his fast facts. All right, let's see if we got the same answers.

Okay, go. Okay, his first fact is that frogs can hear with their lungs. True, true. Yeah. Frogs have no external ears. The only way they can hear is by sound traveling through their body to the lungs and then it goes to the ear drums. That's what I learned. This is also true of salamanders.

Okay. All right. What's the next one? Flamingos can have orgasms that last 30 minutes. False. False. Not true. But they do last up to 15 minutes. They have a decently long orgasm. They do. I got curious and wanted to know what animal has the longest orgasm. Oh, Lord, can I guess? Yeah. What mammal? A whale. No. It's an animal that walks on the earth.

Very common. Animal. Humans? No. Monkeys. Humans have orgasms that last longer than 15 minutes. I don't know. You said very common. You said they're walking around. So what's more common than a bunch of people?

Pigs. Oh, God. The domestic pig on average, their orgasm lasts 30 minutes, but can go for as long as 90. Wow. Mm-hmm. Oh, my gosh. Well, that changes how I look at my bacon. Sure does. It really does. Oh my gosh. Well, that changes how I look at my bacon and shirt. It really does.

Well, after Andy gives these partially true, partially false facts about animals, Andy and Aaron are going to discover they both have the same blinking little Valentine's Day pin. And Aaron's going to find out that Andy got it from Jessica. And they're going to exchange real gifts later, not gag gifts. Yeah. Aaron's gonna have a talking head where she says, while she thought something might happen with her

and Andy, you know, he's still with Jessica, they even carpool to work. I'm sorry, one moment. Is it carpooling? If you don't go to the same location, is it carpooling? Is it carpooling where multiple people get in a car and then they go to the same destination?

Carpooling isn't like driving around, dropping people off at different locations. I looked it up, I'm right, I'm just gonna say. I don't know why I'm posing it as a question. I became so annoyed that she referred to this practice of Jessica driving Andy to work and dropping him off as carpooling that I was like, I don't think that's carpooling. Did that carpooling meant sharing a car? Not according to the definition of carpooling. Because

that's sort of I thought the whole point is to lessen your carbon footprint. So you hop in a car with someone else so you're only using one vehicle, which lessens traffic. So those are all great things are just not called carpooling. What's it called? I don't know. Carpooling is when you go around

and you get people and then you all end at the same place. That's a carpool. Oh. Otherwise, it's giving someone a ride somewhere. Like car sharing, maybe car sharing. Car sharing. Yeah. Like you carpooled me to work.

When my shoulder was broken, you picked me up, and then we both came to the same destination. But if you picked me up and dropped me off at my physical therapy, and then you went to the grocery store, we're not carpooling to physical therapy, we are car sharing. We're car sharing. Right, so go to the bottom of it.

Go to the bottom of it. Go to the bottom of it. Sometimes I get a, you know, I know, I know. I know, I know. I know. Well, Darrell is gonna return to his desk, and he's gonna find a homemade knitted hat with a card from Val.

And he's like, hmm, is this a friendship beanie or let's get it poppin' beanie? Yeah. He's gonna decide to match her gift with Romantic Gift of his own. Mm-hmm. Meanwhile, Dwight's gonna invite Pam to Tallahassee. He's chosen her to be part of the team.

Yes. This is huge. But she has to wear a one-piece swimsuit to his barbecue. I want to say, I don't know if you noticed on my computer in this scene, but there's this like, Fakey office supply document. It was several pages long. It was like a fake office catalog. This was a new prop that I got for my computer, and it was my favorite fakie computer screen prop for the whole show. I was obsessed with it. You're gonna see it forever on my computer now

because it was my favorite thing to fake do. Okay, I just scroll through this. It was like a PDF that they invented for me, and then I had these worksheets. So my background fakie work was me doing like, I guess I was ordering office supplies for our office supply company. I don't know. Well, you guys that were in the middle of the bullpen,

your screens were seen more than ours over in accounting. Yeah. I had one little page they designed that I could pop up, but mostly my computer was never seen. I had like a few icons on my desktop, and if we were gonna see my computer screen, which as you said happened often, I could pick one of these things,

but I became like slightly obsessed with this one document, and I think you're gonna see it all the time. Okay, they designed it while it was gone. I remember getting to work and be like, what is this? I love it. That was gone. I remember getting to work and be like, what is this? I love it. That was amazing. Thank you so much. Well, down in the warehouse,

Darryl is gonna tell Val that he loves his beanie. It's like sweatpants for his head, and then Nate walks up wearing a beanie also. And Darryl looks around everyone in the warehouse has a knitted beanie. All from Val. I gotta call BS here for a second. Okay. Nate's beanie does not look like it was handmade.

It looks like a machine beanie. Darryl looks handmade. I'm there with you on that one. Nate's, come on. I asked Steve Burgess about this. I got the same thing. Steve said we cheated a little. Oh, yes, Steve.

We noticed only the beanie that Darryl received was hand-knit by someone. He's not sure who did it, but Phil Shea had it done. All the others were purchased. Mm-hmm. Well, Darryl is now too embarrassed to give Val the gift he bought, so he says it was for Nate. And they are beautiful, elegant, cashmere, winter gloves. I mean, Darryl.

And the card. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh, the card is so sweet as well. Ah, Nate's very moved. Yeah, I thought Mark was so funny in the show. So funny when he was like, ah, Darryl, I know. I appreciate you too. The look on bag's face.

He holds this stare. I know. That is so perfect for so long. They did such a great job, the two of them. Dwight is now going to have a talking head where he says that his first task as special project manager will be assembling a crack team. He's going to need people that are loyal. He starts kind of scanning the bull pin. In the background, Creed puts his hand

in his mouth. That was scripted. Really? Yep. It said, Creed puts his hand in his mouth. Was it scripted that the people in the kitchen were trying to touch their tongues to the tip of his nose? Yes. Scripted. Can you do that? I can't do it. No. I can't do it. I wonder if Daniel Radcliffe can do it. Oh, flower-dust. I remember when he was just asked. Yeah.

Cloverleaf tongue. Cloverleaf, I knew it was a plant. It was some kind of plant. Well, now we're going to have a big wrinkle in the story, which is that Jim is going to receive a text from Robert California telling him to bring his golf clubs to Florida. He's very confused, he doesn't wanna go to Florida. So Jim is like, what should I text back? Should I text back to question marks?

And Pam is like, no, no, that's too aggressive. That's like, what? I loved that Jenna. I loved your, what? We couldn't get through it. I loved it. You guys kept cracking up, but then also we all just started saying it.

Do you remember? I still say what? What? Yeah. Yeah. That became a bit. There's a blooper of it because the first time I did it, it was really big. And John just immediately like just tears came out of size.

I was just, I was loving so hard. And we all were like, what was that? What did I just do? That was insane. It was very hard to get back to work. I loved this Jim Pamp storyline where they're trying to figure out how to compose a text together. It was so relatable to me.

My husband really hates writing emails or text. He's just more of a talker. You know? And so he'll always be like, oh, we helped me with the text. I'm like, okay, that's so interesting. Lee is our text expert in our marriage. He's much better at putting together a text. There's always one, right? So Angela, we had a fan question from Kaitlyn in California about this scene, and I'm going to throw it to you. Kaitlyn asked, when Jim gets the first text from Robert California, what are Pam

and Aaron doing? They're cutting green paper at Pam's desk, but it never comes back. Was there a deleted scene that went with this? Caitlin, I was super curious about this too. I mean, remember how I said I was going to point out a few Valentine's things. Yes. I saw Andy's basket. Yes. You guys, of course, I saw the basket. You know I love baskets. What did I bring you today? Can I brought me the biggest baskets ever? She had said, okay, Ange, do you want some baskets that I have?

And I'm like, who are you talking to? Of course, I want your baskets. I was doing a deep clean. Yeah. And I had two extra giant baskets. You know, the kind that you put throw pillows and things in. I sent you a text that said, do you want two giant baskets that I don't need anymore? And before I could send you the picture,

you wrote back yes. I know. I've been waiting them side on side. They're really big. Sam took a picture of us with them. I am very excited. I can only imagine what Josh is gonna say when I come home today with these giant baskets.

He's gonna be like, where did you get these? But okay, Caitlin, sorry. My love of baskets got me chatted, but yes, okay, my other Valentine's background catch was exactly this scene, exactly what you're talking about, and I went to the shooting draft to get to the bottom of it, and here's what it said. Aaron has her chair pulled up to Pam's desk

between Jim and Pam. We see a wall decoration of an angry gun toting Cupid. Pam says Cupid uses a bow and arrow, not a gun. Aaron says, who's Cupid? That's baby Jesus. Pam says, okay, you know what? Let's just do pink hearts. Red hearts.

That kind of thing. Aaron says, if you're not in a relationship, Valentine's Day isn't pink hearts. It's not even red. It's like gray, or dark brown, or blue. What's the color of want? Stanley, without even looking up, says Burgundy. Kathy looks over and says, oh, are you guys making more Valentine's decorations?

Pam says just a couple for fun. Kathy says, I guess I didn't put up enough. Do you guys need any help? I'm pretty crafty. And then Kelly chimes in out of nowhere. Don't let her help. Whoa. Mm-hmm.

So I guess Aaron didn't like all the red decorations, because for her Valentine's Day isn't about love, right? Right. So she's found some other construction paper. But I did want to point out, as soon as Stanley said that, I couldn't help but notice that Kelly, Pam, and Kathy are all wearing shades of burgundy, and Darrell's beanie is burgundy.

It's very funny that you mentioned what people were wearing because I clocked three things that I found very curious. You can see them in an upcoming scene. Should I save it? Yeah. All right, I'll save it. Well, let's take a break because Jenna, when we get back, I have a fun thing to share from the script about this scene between Dwight and Andy. Ooh, great! We are back and Dwight is in Andy's office and they are negotiating over who the telehassy

team will be. Dwight has some ideas, Andy has other ideas. Yeah. Dwight wants to take Darryl, Phyllis, Toby, Angela, and Oscar. I don't know if you notice, but he has handed Andy a folder of photos of each of us, eight by 10 photos of Dwight's pics. And I was very curious, I could see there was writing next to the photos. I went to the script, here's what it said.

Interior Andy's office. Andy is looking through Dwight's material, which is several sheets of paper. Each paper has a photo of the person he wants and on the side, a list of their special skills, personal history, foes, first appearance, and weaknesses. I was like, I wanna see! I wanna see what they wrote on these pieces of paper.

I was really curious what was gonna happen to Dunder Mifflin if Dwight was taking both Oscar and Angela. Who's doing the accounting for us? I think that leaves us Kevin. I think this is Andy's point. Andy's like, um, can I interest you in someone less essential like a creed or a meriteth perhaps? Dwight says, are you kidding me? I'm supposed to get in an airplane with those ninkum poops. We'd never get off the runway. I'm like, why does he go to traveling with them? That's his first thought.

How do I travel with Meredith and Creed? I mean, he's not making a bad point. I know. Andy wants Dwight's team to be Darryl Phyllis, Kathy Kelly, and Kevin. Dwight has a talking head where he says he's just been given a chain with three-week links. Have you ever tried to use a chain with three week links? He has and now he no longer owns an Arctic wolf.

Oh boy. Well, we got a fan question from Melita in Colorado who said, were there any alts for things that Dwight lost on a chain with three week links? Oh, Melita, you know us so well. Yeah. You know our writers must have had a whole candy bag of things. Well, I looked it up and there was one alt where Dwight said, have you ever tried to use a chain with three weak links I have and now I no longer own a bear? I much prefer Arctic Wolf personally, but there was another must shoot talking head that could have gone here, where

Dwight would have said, Darryl? Good worker. Wanted him all along. Phyllis? No picnic, but given the options, she's fine. Kelly? Has her moments look wise? Otherwise useless? Kevin? Sweet guy? Like him a lot? Worse than useless? Kathy? Barely even a person. Couldn't pick her out of a lineup if I had a gun to my head. No, this will not stand. Kathy also had a deleted talking head here. Hmm, where we find out a little bit about her past.

She says, well, Pam's back so I'm out of a job. Funny thing is, if I had just married Doug, I wouldn't have this problem, but I'm not attracted to Doug. Hey, remind me the next time I forget, Kathy, you were not happy with Doug. Doug, who's Doug? I don't know. Did he propose?

You know, I've been trading text messages with Lindsay because we very much want to have her on the show. I just keep texting her more and more questions. You're going to have a very, very long interview. Yeah. Because this Kathy character is such an enigma to me. There's so many things that they wrote, so many things that we shot that we didn't end up using. I got to hear her perspective on this.

I know, every week there's all of this footage of her in deleted scenes and stuff in the shooting draft that we shot. So Pam and Jim are now in the break room and they're still working on this text to Robert California. They might be overthinking it. They needed to get away so that they could compose

this text, really concentrate on it. But another reason why we're in the break room, Angela, was because Dave Rogers said if we filmed in here, it would shorten my work day because it would be a separate scene from the rest of the story. I really appreciated that. He did that for me. Like I said, there were a lot of ways that our cast and crew helped me get through these early weeks back at work postpartum, and this was one of them. When I saw us in the break room, it just reminded me of that choice that he made for me. It felt good. Oh, Davis is such a nice guy. I know. I have to shout him out. Yeah.

Well, yes. So Jim and Pam are still working on this text. They've decided to make it more about golf. Let's emphasize the golf back in Scranton, not in Florida. Yes. And then Jim says, you know what? Wait, I just feel weird. back in Scranton, not in Florida, right? Mm-hmm. And then Jim says, you know what, wait, I just feel weird. I should just call him. Kelly says, you want to call someone that texted you?

Do you want to drive them away? I mean, ugh. Oh my gosh, lady, I looked up texting versus calling online. There is a lot, a lot, a lot about this on the internet. Is Kelly right? People have strong opinions. Wow. I mean, ultimately, what it all comes down to is sort of

what you want out of the relationship, right? But I found this great article on Greater Good Magazine's website. It was titled, Should You Call or Text? Science weighs in. Science, you know, I love some science. I know. What does science say about this? There was a study that suggested we undervalue the bonding enjoyment we get from hearing someone's voice. According to the article, we'd be better off picking up the phone or setting up a video call

where we can actually hear another person's voice than texting or emailing. Lady, this is why we do our audio memos. I know. Because we can hear each other in our storytelling. That's exactly right. In this study, they found that people who spoke on the phone were happier with the exchange, felt closer to the other person than those who emailed. the exchange felt closer to the other person than those who emailed. I mean, that makes total sense. It's very interesting. So the voice in particular helps you to connect with other people, hearing someone's voice. Science.

Science. Science says, call, don't text. But that's not what Kelly says. No. Kelly says, are you crazy? I have a little personal catch from this scene. Okay. I am wearing a new necklace and new earrings.

And I loved this necklace and earrings so much that I took both of them when we wrapped. Oh, what is the necklace? It's like a little tree. And then the earring is just a filigree dangle, but it was like I came back from maternity leave and I had this new PDF document on my computer and I had this new necklace and earrings and I guess I don't know I became very sentimental about these new items.

Darryl is now gonna receive a phone call maybe someone's voice he doesn't want to hear. Val's boyfriend is calling. Yes, Brandon. We did not even know Val had a boyfriend, but he wants to send some flowers and he needs the warehouse address. Yeah. Darryl says I just need to find a pen. Brandon says why do you need a pen?

He says, hey, I have my reasons. Well, Val's boyfriend was voiced by actor Jerry Minor. He was actually on set with us, calling from a phone off camera. And I don't want to give any spoilers, but you'll be seeing more of him. Yes. Which I was very excited about because I've known Jerry for a very long time. Yeah, Jerry's hilarious. It's time for a conference room meeting for the Tallahassee team.

But they're not going to make it to the conference room because Dwight is purposely, very manipulatively, listing the people who are going to Tallahassee. Sabotage. He is doing some sabotage. And he starts naming Andy's picks. Well, people want to know what was the criteria for these picks. And Dwight says you're going to have to ask Andy. Oh, Andy does not like this. He's like, guys, guys, guys, guys. This was the scene, Angela, where I made some interesting observations about

wardrobe or maybe not so interesting, but I made them. I will let you know. Let me hear them. Dwight is wearing a tan short sleeve shirt, not mustard. I noticed that. In this episode. I noticed that. Okay. Kathy is wearing heavy gray tights and a burgundy sweater. Yeah, her outfit is mismatched. Finally, Darryl is wearing a light blue t-shirt under a white button down. This is something I'd not seen before, where you wear usually a white t-shirt under a button down of another color,

but do you wear a colored shirt under a white button down? I don't know, lady. Is that a thing? I don't know. I don't know either. Well Is that a thing? I don't know. I don't know either. Well, Darryl's doing it. He is making his own fashion statement.

He is. Those were my fashion catches for special project. Well, Andy didn't realize so many people wanted to go to Florida. So he says I'm open to hearing anyone who wishes to plea their case. Dwight thinks they should take several hours to come up with their statements. Andy says 30 minutes. And then Creed says, I'm out.

Yeah, he doesn't have 30 minutes to spend on this pitch. A Creed talking head would have followed this moment. Please tell me what it does. Right after Creed says, I'm out, here's his talking head. Florida's 13th in education, 13th in tourism, 13th in cleanliness, it's literally the worst state in the union. That is nowhere I thought that talking head was going. I thought maybe he was going to be superstitious about all the 13s, but clearly Creed doesn't

know how many states are in the United States because to be 13 out of 50 is not the worst. And I didn't Google it. I actually don't know where Florida now lies in any stats because this was written a long time ago. But I was also so curious like, when is Creed researching Florida? What is Creed's life? Oh, Creed one of the other things in the scene that cracked me up is when you see Phyllis walking by as she's preparing and she says I have a new swimsuit I need to break in did you hear her say no I was wondering if that was scripted. I thought it was so cute and this is what it said in the shooting draft There are quick shots of people preparing their presentations Kelly sits nervously outside Andy's door, Stanley talks to himself while pacing, Ryan listens

to his iPod, I shut, head bobbing, Andy pokes his head out the door. Hmm, so that little bit with Phyllis was totally improvised, and whatever Kate as Meredith is starting to say, I just thought it was cute. Well, now Jim and Pam are back at their desks and they're working on a new draft of his text to Robert California. They finally figure it out. They decide to just sort of be honest.

Be like, hey, my wife just had a baby. We have a newborn and a toddler. I should be around to help out. And Robert texts back LOL. To which Aaron just starts laughing. I think she took it as a command. Yes. At least she knew what LOL stood for. Well, I have the cutest story about LOL. Okay. It's so cute. My dad, when he was alive, you know, these little abbreviations were just sort of happening. People were emailing and stuff.

And my dad started signing his emails, LOL, dad. And I thought, what is that? I was like, dad, you know, that means lots of laughs. And he goes, oh, I thought it meant lots of love. Oh, I knew. And then he said, when he learned it was lots of laughs, then he started signing his emails, AML, which he made up himself, which just means all my love. So sorry. I know. After he passed away, my sister made us each little

necklaces that had the little gold bar and said AML. Oh my, I know. Wow, I know. And whenever I see LOL, I always think of my dad. Oh, I love that. So cute, so sweet. Mm-hmm, I got choked up. I know, I know. Gets me to. Well, while the group is preparing their pitches,

Dwight has a talking head where he says he's already chosen his team. Yes. He's going to take Darryl, Oscar, Angela, Phyllis, and Toby. And while he might only have influence over the decision, that's all that Balth's or Gladfield had, and now no one eats owls for Thanksgiving. I did Google this. I did too. I did too. I Google to people eat owls. It's illegal to eat owls. It's illegal.

I mean, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which was in 1992, 1980. We did not both learn about this Migratory Bird Treaty Act. We did. You cannot consume, possess, including their eggs, our capture or sell, our trade or transport, any protected migratory, birth species, which includes owls and hawks, Yes. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Yes, Eagles can be hunted for food and their eggs can be eaten by indigenous people. But only if their tribe is federally recognized and only if they have a permit from the federal government. Yes, exactly. In the only time you can, I guess, take action against the other ones, is if you have authorization by the Department of Interior, US Fish and Wildlife Service, like

if there's an overpopulation or sometimes, but it's got to be authorized. Yeah. So, I guess, Doni and Owl. Don't do anything to an owl. I mean, there's Mr. Meanor offenses, felony offenses. You can pay a big, wop and fine or even get gel time. Wow.

But as you probably found as well, bolts are glad field is a fictitious name. Yes. And no one ever ate an owl for Thanksgiving or even considered eating an owl for Thanksgiving. We made that up, yes. But our Googling led us to this migratory bird's act.

Tree. Yeah, somehow it also led me to, if you have birds that are hunters, they can be real gross tasting. Yes, I read that too. That they don't taste good anyway. Yeah. Things I didn't know I was going to learn this week. Things I didn't know.

Well, Ryan's going to now do his PowerPoint to pitch himself. I loved it. Oh my gosh, BJ was so good in the scene. So good. When he is Ryan is like, again, take one of us, but not both. Yeah Then it's Kevin's turn. He clearly has a gambling problem. Brian again, I was just so blown away by the whole cast this episode Brian is Kevin when he's talking about episode. Brian is Kevin when he's talking about placing the beds. Maybe there's a mismatch.

He did such a good job. He does this weird little thing with his tongue. Kevin cannot wait to get to the dog track. Then we have Toby, super sad sack Toby. Yes, he suffers from sad, which is seasonal effective disorder. Yeah. It is real. Yes, it is. Moods do change with the seasons. And for some people, this is really can be serious. I had heard about this, but I read a little more about it because I know that Andy and Dwight make a joke of it, but I just wanted to like stand up for people who suffer from this, because especially people who have bipolar disorder are at an increased risk of seasonal effective disorder,

that truly the spring and summer months can trigger more mania and the fall and winter months can trigger more depression and anxiety and irritability. And so this is like, if you're feeling this in you, you're not crazy. I actually crave being outside. If I'm inside for too long, I start to feel a little blue. I got to get out, I got to see the sky. And I know it's not exactly the same, but I know how that affects me, just needing to be able to see the sky and get outside. Yes. Next up, someone who really wants to get outside in Florida is Florida Stanley. The happiest we've ever seen Stanley is Florida Stanley.

Where did he get this outfit? Suddenly in the middle of the day. Is this what? Did he go home? 30 minutes? Yeah, I think he went home and changed. Completely changed clothes. Florida Stanley is going to give a very enthusiastic sales pitch here. The scene was longer and we would have found out a very interesting tidbit about Stanley. Okay? Stanley would have gone on to say,

My boy lives in Telehassy. We haven't talked in a while, but this might be what I need to get my family back together. What? Yeah! Wait, what? Stanley has a son that lives in Tallahassee. He has an ex-wife?

Besides his current ex-wife, and, er, wait, he has a wife, a girlfriend. And an ex-wife? And an ex-wife with a son in Florida? I mean, that's what was in the shooting draft. That's a curve ball. I know. Well, in the kitchen, Pam, for a reason that feels totally unmotivated to me, tells Jim

he needs to go to Florida for three weeks, and assures him that she'll be just fine at home with her mom and sister at the house. I'm happy that in this scene, we acknowledge that Pam has a sister, but this kind of came out of left field for me. I guess does Pam think that Jim just shouldn't stand up to Robert? I guess she thinks, was there a scene missing here? I don't know, but all of a sudden Pam's like, you need to go to Florida. And then Jim is going to jump on that, All of a sudden, Pam's like, you need to go to Florida. And then Jim is gonna jump on that. Like, he's gonna charge into Andy's office

and be like, I'm going to Florida. Look, I have a text from Robert California. I'm going. It just seemed like very like an abrupt change for me from these guys. It seemed like a very quick decision. Yes. Yeah, I think.

I don't know. Yeah, because you're like, where's the scene where Maybe they're like maybe this gets you a promotion. Maybe it gets us for money. Maybe you should go Yeah, maybe there was an extra text that they're dealing with from Robert California since LOL Yeah, like something that was like Jim. I really need you here. I don't know Something that would motivate Pam to say, I think you need to go to Florida. Yeah.

It felt a little random to me when I saw it. I was like, oh, he's going to Florida. Remember, I was in a bit of a haze when we were shooting this. So sometimes I'm watching these episodes and I like, it's like I'm doing it for the first time. Andy is gonna address the bullpen and finally reveal the Tallahassee group.

It will be Kathy, Stanley, Ryan, Aaron, and Jim. Rain's reactions as Dwight were so hilarious. I looked at the script because I wanted to know what it said. All it said was that Dwight takes a big breath gathering himself, then walks out and screams. So all those little reactions when Dwight is like kind of like putting his fist to his mouth and cursing, yeah, that was all Reigns' performance. Well, that explains this fan catch from Brandon and Illinois who said, at 15 minutes and 50 seconds, when Andy announces the official Florida picks,

Dwight's swearing triggers so many people to break. Yes, Lindsay, Leslie and BJ are all smiling a little too strongly for their characters in that moment. I think I saw BJ smile and look right at camera, like as BJ, where he's like, are we keeping that? That was amazing. Like I could see his editing brain. Right, like is that staying in?

Yeah. Well, there would have been a Dwight talking head here. This is what it said in the script. Let's see. My team is Stanley the town grump, Ryan a never-ending failure. Kathy the random temp, Aaron a mayor receptionist,

and Jim, my worst enemy. This is who I have to take to Florida and manage. I'd be better off taking five of my cows. I may be laugh. Well, now Dwight is gonna take his Florida group into the conference room, which he has, I guess turned into a humid, hot and muggy full of mosquitoes, tons of posters that he thinks depicts Florida.

This is like Florida orientation for Dwight. Did you catch the Florida facts he has on the poster board? No. Okay, it says, just written in no particular order on poster board, scar faces, heat strokes, theme parks, brick hogan, sinkholes, molde obese people, geriatric capital of the world. Hmm, those are Florida facts. Those are his Florida facts. According to Dwight K. Shrewd.

Dwight is doing all of this because he's hoping that people will drop out of the trip, but it doesn't work. Nobody caves. Nobody presses the taboo buzzer, which is how to get out of the trip. Right. There's some funny bloopers with that taboo buzzer. I bet. Back in the warehouse, Nate has made Darryl a whole bunch of sort of friendship coupons.

You know how? I was like, when you're dating and you have the little coupon books, like, this is good for one back rub. Yes. Well, for Nate, they're called Nate Ponds. Yes. And Daryl's rich in them. I had an idea for the ultimate like coupon

that like a husband could give a wife. Okay. Now, I'm gonna preface this by saying that I'm making some assumptions, but probably some correct assumptions about invisible labor that happens in a relationship with men and women who are parents. Okay. I dare a man to give this coupon to his wife for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day Christmas, whatever it is. What is it?

It says, for one year, I will read and deal with every email from our children's school. No, there's so many. There's so many. I will take this on. This is no longer your responsibility for a full year. That means if we get an email about picture day, I'm going to put picture day on my calendar. I'm going to make sure that the kids close are clean. Yeah, that their hair is cut for picture day. I'm on it Anything feel trip. I've got that parent teacher conferences. I'm guessing them. Yes. Oh was there a request to bring in something for teacher appreciation day? I'm on it. I've got it every single email from the school is my responsibility for one year. You get one year off. Coupon.

Wow. If you do it, write me a letter. Let me know how it goes. I want to know your wife's reaction. And then report back in a year. Report back in a year. I suggested this to some friends. We were having a barbecue

at our house and I said, what do you think of this coupon idea? The wife actually had a mild panic. She was like, they both panicked in the moment. Like, it was so clear to me, right? And she was like, I don't know if I could not read them. Like, I don't know if I can turn that over, right? But this is the reason why we get stuck with all this invisible labor is because we don't turn it over and also because we don't sometimes allow our husbands to step up. Yeah.

I think this would be a really great exercise. I don't know. Let me know. That's definitely a juicy coupon. That's a juice pond. That's a juice pond. Darryl is gonna compliment Val on the bouquet of roses that she received

and she says they're from my mom. And he's like, oh really? Cause your mom called me, had kind of a deep voice. Brandon was the name your mom gave and she's like, yep, that's my mom. Well, now Darryl knows where he stands because Val's lying about her boyfriend. It was a love beanie. How, what is going on? Dwight has cleaned out the conference room now of all of his weird Florida stuff and he's

gonna have a real meeting because no one dropped out here as his team and guess what? People surprise him. They are eager, they are engaged, they're presenting good ideas. Yeah, Dwight is coming around, he's like, you know what? Maybe this isn't such a bad team after all. Perfect in schlock. I loved this conference room scene. It warmed my heart, me too. I'm excited for them. I loved how earnest and excited everyone was. Erin is gonna have a talking head

where she says she's going to Florida and she's not coming back. Ooh, Miles McNut really liked that talking head. He liked that Erin was doing this for other reasons. Yeah. Again, you can't go there with logic. Like, why Saber would put together this specific team of people for this specific project. Yes, it makes no sense that we need both Aaron and Kathy. Yes. Two admins. Mm-hmm. One of whom is not a permanent employee.

That's right. In fact, if they did let Kathy go since Pam has come back, they would be recouping that salary. True. Can't go there, Miles. We can't go there. Ha-ha-ha. This episode ends with the Florida group

getting into a van for the airport. Everyone's saying goodbye. Wait, wait, Kathy's on the phone. Yeah, she's talking to her friend on a bench. Yeah, she says all expenses paid. Yeah, Jim's gonna be there. Their marriage is not good. Nobody knows better than me.

Definitely, we will. It's three weeks in Tallahassee. What else is there to do? Dun, dun, dun. Guess who didn't care for this talking head? Who? Sydney and Charlotte in North Carolina. What you got Sydney wrote in and said,

the ending of this episode dot, dot, dot. Kathy. Boo! The start of this episode dot dot dot. Kathy. Boo. The start of this new Jim Kathy storyline. How did you guys Jenna especially feel about this whole quote new girl tries to steal Jim storyline. I get that Jim and Pam need conflict, but it's gross that I just don't like Kathy at all. And I feel bad because I'm sure the actress is very nice, but she had to play such an icky character. Well, Sydney, how I felt about it was that I didn't feel like we earned it, Sydney. I didn't think we earned this moment on the bench for this character of Kathy. We hadn't

seen her look at Jim, pine away for Jim, be interested in Jim. And now all of a sudden she's I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know.

I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know.

I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. And Kathy's age and in that office could be enamored with Jim. Sure. Have a type of emotional crush on him. I could see where Jim might like the attention even if he doesn't realize he does.

But none of that happens. I know, because it's all cut out. So it does seem out of absolute left field. Yeah. That's how I felt about it. Yeah. It didn't feel earned. And then as for what's going. That's how I felt about it. Yeah. It didn't feel earned. And then as for what's going to happen,

we'll get to it. We'll get to it. Well, that was special project. You guys, thanks so much for sending in your questions and comments. Thank you, Steve Burgess, for getting back to me about a few of those tidbits I was wondering about. I'm going to put on my zipper earrings.

I'm going to walk out of here feeling like fashionable mom, and we'll see you next week. We'll see you then. We hope you have a great one. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jennifer Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Cassie Jirkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Keeper.

Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbaco. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. you