Finally, a challenge close to home! First of all, I work out at 24 Hour, so that was familiar, but then it was weird showing up to a gym, and then getting my hair and make-up done in a locker room, to look nice, rather than getting all sweaty and gross. The other nice thing about shooting locally, is I was finally able to invite my friends and family to come watch. My mom and dad came with my brother and his new wife (they were married last Christmas) and Dave came for a little bit. As well as Bryan (Dattilo, Days) and Kyle (Brandt) stopped by later in the evening.
We didn’t start shooting until after 9pm, which definitely made for a late night. I think we wrapped around 3am the next morning. A long day – given that I had been shooting at Days since 6:45am that morning. But never mind my schedule – I can only imagine how brutal it was for everyone competing in a triathlon until 2am. But, man did Hollie kick butt in that swimming pool or what?
Lol – luckily it was Friday night, so I was very psyched to hand Dave the early shift with Ben and sleep in. In fact, when I heard Ben wake up at 7am, I woke up a little feeling like I’d been drugged… it was still the middle of the night for me!
Those donuts. What to say? I was actually kinda surprised that everyone (except Kae) participated in the temptation. But, it took for ever to set up that night, and it actually looked really fun… the way B had his toes in the jam, and everyone was just throwing donuts all over the place. And there was a mini-food fight at the end when Bill won. Again. He has a Biggest Loser Bowflex at-home gym, a Ford Escape Hybrid, and now $5,000, and then he caps off this episode by making it to 100lbs. What an amazing accomplishment. Neil mentioned it briefly on the show – but these two did have a bit of a rivalry going on campus. There would be stories about each trying to beat the other to the gym in the morning, or stay later at night. They seemed to be great motivation for each other. Frankly, I was glad Bill got the focus of those donuts – because Kae and I were kinda afraid we were going to be the targets! So we were able to stay clean!!
Back to the challenge. Nicole, Julie, all the girls, really, loved meeting Bryan and Kyle. For the obvious purely superficial reasons but I did hear them trying to get dirt on me too. My family loved seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into making the show. All the cameras, the monitors and the fantastic crew that works non-stop to make everything look so great. But I was so nervous with all of them watching! Like my first day again.
And… Amy was eliminated. (She looks fantastic now doesn’t she??!! And her daughters are so adorable!) As I commented in the elimination room, there were some strong words spoken by several players. It seemed to come down to strategy vs merit for some of the voters. Several talked about how hard B worked every day, and that he was 100% committed to being on campus, and Amy’s home-sickness made people question her commitment. It’s so much easier to watch the show at home and say ‘oh you should have done this’ or “why didn’t she say that?” but when you’re living it like they are, its so much more difficult to remove yourself from what you’re going through to figure out what to do. And in the end, who’s to say which way is right?
