Ramona Dishes on Her First Impression of Simon and Alex

In sneak peeks from Ramona Singer's new memoir, Life on the Ramona Coaster, readers have been treated to some candid insights from the Real Housewives of New York star. The book includes in-depth looks at her relationship with her father to her split from Mario and how it affected their daughter, Avery. Life on the Ramona Coaster doesn't officially hit retailers (like Amazon) until July 28, but the Daily Dish has been teasing out passages ahead of its release.

In this latest excerpt, Ramona reveals her first impressions of Alex McCord and Simon van Kempen. Check it out below.

I FIRST MEET ALEX MCCORD at Townhouse, David Burke’s innovative restaurant on the Upper East Side. My first impression: this woman is a boring Stepford wife. Judgmental? Yes. At this point in my life I have a tendency make to snap judgments based on first impressions, but this is something about myself that I am about to learn that I need to change. It’s the fall of 2007 and we have just begun filming the first season of The Real Housewives of New York City. I already know or have met all of my castmates, with the exception of Alex. The executives at Bravo have planned for us to meet a bit later in the season. But, as often happens in reality television, it doesn’t quite work out that way. Mario and I have just finished a romantic dinner together and are about to leave the restaurant, when I hear Jill Zarin’s raspy voice coming from over by the bar. She is waiting to be seated with her reserved, soft-spoken husband, Bobby. Beside them at the bar is a lanky, fair-skinned blonde and a flamboyantly dressed, animated man with closely cropped ginger hair. For a moment, I wonder if Jill has replaced her “gay husband” Brad, but then I see the man affectionately caressing the blonde’s slender back. Oh my God, I think to myself as I scrunch my face in distaste, are they a couple?

Mario and I walk over to the bar and say hello. Jill, who prides herself on connecting people, introduces us to the couple.“Ramona,” she says, “I’d like you to meet Alex Mc-Cord—who will be filming the show with us—and her lovely husband, Simon.” I am taken aback. This is Alex and Simon. The same Alex and Simon with whom I will be spending the next few months filming. Now that I’m seeing them in person, I suspect the reason Bravo wanted us to meet after we started filming was so that they could capture my initial reaction to them on camera. Too late.

If you want more Ramona, check out the most ramotional rides on the Ramona Coaster, below.