WHY AM I

LONELY?

❝she's crazy, she cheers too loud,

she doesn't know shit about football,

and always parks her goddamn mini

van in the wrong spot every fucking

time. phoebe fucking loves her. ❞

━━ a very annoyed ,

describing terry to coach lasso.

❝ good god, lasso... and i thought

i didn't know about football. ❞

ted lasso

winona ryder

ted lasso

alive

❝ oh my god, dinner's gonna burn! i

knew i had forgotten something! ❞

theodora gale

ㅤ previously theodora beckham, when married.

ㅤ › terry, by everyone. the standard nickname since she was a kid, which probably also sounds childish now that she's a fully grown woman with a kid of her own, but well, that's life.

ㅤ › ted, or ted 2, by ted. once ted found out terry's name was theodora, he made sure to call out TED! whenever they met. richmond players also started taking after him and greeting ted twice — hi ted, hi ted — when they were seen together. eventually, terry would join in on the bit as well, so they often greet each other as ted 1 and ted 2.

45 as of season 1, and from then on.

cis female, she/her

unlabeled

ㅤ she's had her experiences with people all over the gender spectrum and out of it, and honestly nothing makes sense at all when it comes to terry's feelings, so she just assumed she loved her husband and that's what mattered. apparently that's not just what matters anymore. things continue not making sense, though, but she'd rather push it aside and repress it than actually sort out anything.

london, england

❝ goodness, he fucking hated me!

he did! i could see it in his eyes!❞

winona ryder

ㅤ › a few little scars from paper cuts, bumping onto things, burns from cooking, falling when she was a kid, scraping her knees and stuff. she was a pretty rowdy kid and is still kind of clumsy. nothing very significant, though.

ㅤ › lobe piercings for earrings.

ㅤ › a small tattoo, roughly the size of a coin, of a rubber duck on her right lower back; she got it due to losing a bet, when she was twenty and stinking drunk. she regrets it very, very much, and pretty much the only people who know this are her ex-husband and her one-night stands.

ㅤ › terry has a pretty basic style — t-shirts and jeans are the default look, sometimes a sweater or flannel or jacket on top. she's not the biggest fashion guru or something, and most of the time only grabs the first thing she sees in her closet (much to keeley's horror).

ㅤ › her appearance is not an overall disaster, but she's not a fashionista beauty queen either. however, especially after the divorce, she's been a tad more self-conscious regarding her appearance; fixing her hair, worrying about zits and wrinkles, that type of stuff.

❝you know, being single

isn't exactly my jam. ❞

ㅤ terry is... complicated. not the absolutely unbearable type of complicated, not we don't talk about terry complicated, not says-she-has-strong-personality-but-is-actually-a-bitch complicated. it's more like... not understanding what's going on, or trying to keep it together and kind of failing complicated. she's lovely, of course; with a big smile and a friendly attitude, big bear hugs and some snacks every game, terry is your friendly neighborhood mom. she cares about people and just seems to be overflowing with love, whether she's hugging her daughter after a football game, or bringing snacks for the entire team, or dancing with little lizzie in the kitchen. the thing is, terry is also a walking ball of anxiety. it's kind of obvious — in the way she always stresses over forgetting her keys, or picking up her daughter on time, or her room being a mess. it's in the little things, such as her almost-too-fast stream of thoughts and almost-too-visible eyebags. because terry cares about people so much, she can't help but care about what people think of her. that seems a little contradictory, since terry has a sort of eccentric personality, loud and energic behavior, and makes a fool of herself with a notable frequence; however, she is actually constantly worried about... a lot of things. how annoying she is, how she drives people away, how much of a failure she is as a mom and as a person. but for her daughter's sake, and her own heart's desire, she still has a tired smile on her face at the end of the day.

ㅤ › writing & storytelling. it's kind of an obligation, as it's her job, but writing is also her passion and terry is very damn good at it. she works as a journalist and mainly writes articles or reports, but she has this longtime, distant dream of writing and publishing a book. the main outlet for this creative side of her writing is currently telling bedtime stories to lizzie — say what you want about her mothering, but terry's bedtime stories are unbeatable.

ㅤ › baking. as a stay-at-home mom, cooking was something she kind of needed to be good at; still, her cooking is kind of average. what she's good at, actually, is making cakes. especifically cakes. to be honest, it's a single recipe of chocolate cake handed to her by her mom, which tastes like childhood and she often makes when she's stressed.

ㅤ › driving. even though she always forgets where she is allowed to park, don't doubt terry's abilities in conducting a mini van. phoebe swears to this day that once, when they were late for a game, she saw terry drift it in high speed and then parallel park it so they arrived on time (roy calls it bullshit).

ㅤ › board games. especially clue. her notes are always terrible, but either she's a terrific player or she's very lucky. she lets her daughter win in game nights with friends, but there were times in which terry absolutely crushed a bunch of eight-year-olds.

ㅤ › screaming. this is kind of a joke, but also not, because terry does have powerful lungs and vocal chords. either for calling her daughter from afar or screaming REFEREE! when needed.

ㅤ › music, like 70s, 80s and 90s pop and rock, the ones she can dance to in the kitchen and sing along with a hairbrush as a microphone. she's a terrible singer and definitely tone-deaf, though.

ㅤ › dancing, not like she's a dancer or something but rather casually in her house. when terry is happy, she's practically bouncing around. she also often puts on some music from her teenage years to dance along to, and most of the time pulls lizzie along to hop and twist around the living room somewhat out of rhythm but having fun nonetheless.

ㅤ › her daughter, it may seem like too much but lizzie gale really is her best friend and the person she loves most in the world.

ㅤ › kids, in general. as the resident mom of lizzie's football team, she is often tasked with carrying the girls around, taking them to eat and hosting amazing slumber parties and game nights. she's always wanted to be a mom, and maybe even a teacher, but she doesn't trust her organizational skills (or lack thereof) enough.

ㅤ › wine, it's not like she's an alcoholic, but she likes to drink a glass of wine sometimes. it's like, one of the only alcoholic drinks she actually likes the taste of. after the divorce, however, she's been drinking a bit more of it than she should.

ㅤ › sweets & desserts, especially chocolate and cake. terry is a big stress eater and an acceptable baker, which means she usually drowns her sorrows in a chocolate cake. or deals with stress. or simply eats it when she wants to.

ㅤ › shortbreads, which are the second thing she stress eats beside cake. actually, terry tends to eat more biscuits than cake when it comes down to stress, because sometimes she's in too much of a hurry to bake. there is an everlasting stock of shortbread in her pantry.

ㅤ › cats & dogs, she loves pets and would like to have one, but she's allergic to them. lizzie wants a dog, though, so she's trying to find courage to take allergy shots.

ㅤ › arrogance, god, arrogant people get on her nerves. she isn't all trying to be nice just so an asshole can come and make everybody in the room feel bad. that usually makes her lose her composure, or at least get pissed.

ㅤ › aggressively straight guys, you know, that specific type of guy that makes liking women and fucking women and going to dates with women and being very very macho his entire personality. dates with those types of guys are always uncomfortable, and oh how she went with dates with those types of guys. her twenties were dreary times in regards to her love life.

ㅤ › tomatoes, she hates their taste, or lack thereof. but she has to be a good example for her daughter to eat healthy, so she buys tomatoes anyways and puts them on the salad, even though something in her bowels twists in disgust when she eats them.

ㅤ › yoga, she tried. she really did try. but no force of nature or humanity would be able to make terry sit still and meditate.

ㅤ › mosquitoes are her sworn enemies and she keeps one of those electric racquets to kill those hellish little creatures.

ㅤ › needles. she's kind of ashamed of it, but terry has been scared of needles since she was a kid. she doesn't even believe how the hell did she get a tattoo when she was in college, but she blames it on the alcohol. ㅤ › being alone. terry's biggest fear, by far, is being alone. she cares about people so much, and gives so much of herself to others; but then they walk away, and she's left wondering whether she was the problem from the beginning. her chaotic romantic history definitely heightened her fear of not having anyone by her side in the end, and especially of being the one to blame for it. she seeks some kind of validation from people, mostly romantic nowadays, due to her fear of being abandoned.

ㅤ › her own forgetfulness. it's not exactly a fear, per se, but terry can't deny she's afraid of how much she forgets things and the impact that may have on other people's lives. terry's lack of personal organization is a huge insecurity for her, and she constantly feels like she's a horrible mom due to that.

❝ lizzie, dear... mom's just a

little tired. that's all. ❞

ㅤ › journalist, pre-canon. terry graduated in journalism and had a promising career in a local newspaper until she married donald and got pregnant a while later.

ㅤ › stay-at-home mom, pre-canon. from her daughter's birth to her divorce, she stayed at home, taking care of lizzie and other mom-related matters.

ㅤ › pharmacy clerk, seasons 1-2. after the divorce, she had to start working again very quickly — terry got a job at a local farmacy as a cashier and store clerk while she went back to job interviews on local newspapers.

ㅤ › afc richmond website writer, season 2. near the end of season 1, keeley asked terry to write articles for the afc richmond official website and social media as part of her marketing plan. what started as favors for a friend and individual articles as a side gig became an actual job during season 2.

ㅤ › journalist at the independent, post-season 2. in the end of season 2, terry gets a job as a writer for a column in the independent. cue ted going terry gale, the independent! when she announces the new job.

ㅤ › terry was born to margaret and frederick gale, a random couple in a random neighborhood in london. they were not poor, but not rich either; not bad parents, but not that fun; not perfect, but not traumatically flawed. margaret and frederick were awfully average. terry loved her parents as a kid loves their parents (if they're not assholes, of course), but their family dynamics were incredibly dull and often she wondered why did her parents marry anyway. well, that wondering proved itself to be valid, since the gales divorced when she was around ten — frederick moved away from their house and margaret never really recovered. terry grew up with her mom crying at a song coming up on the radio, or cutting off her ex-husband's face from family pictures, or throwing away useful things and brand new items simply because frederick bought them. they were invited to frederick's second wedding, and margaret forbid 13-year-old terry from going. actually, she still thinks her mom wasn't exactly heartbroken, and more like angry/sad at being abandoned, but that's a story for later. what matters is that, as time passed, terry got a reputation in school as "the weird kid with a crazy mom". terry's school life wasn't the most abnormal, but it also wasn't the best — as in, she didn't have many friends, but it wasn't outright bullying or something like that. she was never the best at social interactions, so from early on her reputation was of the "awkward weird kid". her mom's somewhat erratic behavior definitely contributed to that; margaret became increasingly unstable and bitter after frederick's departure. terry wasn't the brightest, her thought process was too chaotic for that, so she simply tried to guide her school life as smoothly as possible. she didn't go out at night, didn't have friends anyway, so she spent them studying; didn't have bonding time with her mom, margaret was too busy crying and complaining, so she spent time studying; didn't have much attachment to stay home, so she spent her time studying, to get in a good college and pursue her dream of writing. and that happened just as planned, which prompted her to move away and motivated her to turn her life around.

ㅤ › terry spent her entire childhood as this meek little kid with little to no friends and almost no life experience, so she decided to go all out in college and live the teenagehood she didn't get to, in some way. beside still focusing on her grades and her creativity, writing for the school newspaper and discovering a knack for journalism, terry turned her mind to dating, because the last thing she'd like to be is a virgin at 40 or something. college parties were a gateway to guy after guy after guy, and succesful and failed (more often than not failed) dates, and hookups and flings and boyfriends who didn't last more than a month. and girls as well, one-time nights in bedrooms and kisses in corners that she still hasn't thought much deeper about to this day. after college, terry got an internship, and later started a job at a conceited newspaper in london; while her career seemed to be thriving, her love life was... something.