Modern.
The podcast is supported by.
From the New York Times and WBUR Boston.
This is modern love stories of love, loss and redemption.
I'm your host, Meghna Chakrabarti.
Baggage we all have it to some extent, but we don't usually unpack it on a first date, Gillian Lauren found herself without much of a choice, but where things went from there took her by surprise.
Taylor Schilling, best known as Piper Chapman on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, reads Gillian's essay finding marriage without losing a self when I met.
Scott, I was somewhere between the before and after picture in a no man's land called cosmetology school.
We went on our first date on a balmy night in the early fall of 2003.
I had met him the week before at a bowling party, and he'd asked me what I did.
I go to beauty school.
Beauty school is hot, he said.
Beauty school is not hot, I said.
Anyone who thinks beauty school is hot is a pervert.
Scott was not deterred.
I'll show you, he said.
I'll pick you up at beauty school and take you to norms.
Norms is a kitschy diner frequented by the senior citizen population of West Hollywood, along with the occasional rock musician looking for a nostalgic breakfast.
Scott, who plays bass for the band Weezer, was the latter.
The invitation to a date at Norm's was a nod to Frankie Avalon's version of beauty school.