My Perspective

[gracie]

Episode 1

(Gracie’s Note: Remember .. this is from my perspective and I did not know what everyone else was doing so it can seem ‘off’ to you. If it is, I invite you tell me how )\

(Gracie's Note #2: I'm a business writer and not creative at all .. so my stuff probably seems really dry. Sorry)

Getting to know 17 other people all at once was a little overwhelming. Part of my strategy was to get to know everyone (and I like that part of the game). Some people were easier to talk to than others. The first people I got to know were Mitch, Jamie, Annette and Kyle. I had chats with everyone except for Lil Steve and Tony.

Also, on the first day, I discovered that I knew Jenne and Taylor as well as Lucas (Tenzil) and Ashlee (Lis). However, neither Jenne nor Taylor knew who I was. And, honestly, I was sort of bummed that I knew so many people playing, I had played this game for fun and had really wanted to play with complete strangers. (I had a previous experience of playing with friends and it was a crash-n-burn experience and I didn’t want to repeat that.)

I also got real irritated with Taylor (as you can tell from the episode) because he kept calling Ashlee "Lizzie". I was afraid if he found out who I was, that he would give me away also. *grumble* Turns out he wasn't the one who would give me away.

Mitch right away asked me for an alliance to work together. And, Mitch will hate to read this, but he turned me off right away. He started testing me, and TELLING me that he was testing me. Not exactly the way to win my trust.

The night of our first challenge – Break the Code – was interesting. Lil Steve showed up finally and I quickly talked to him to get his part of the code, poor little guy had no clue what I was even talking about. He didn’t even know what GAME I was talking about. But I did get his clue from him.

So … Cupid had to attend the first tribal council.

I was talking to “Stephanie” quite a bit and she told me that she knew Lisa from another game. But, when I finally talked with Lisa, she told me she didn’t know anyone in the game. Now, I completely understand Lisa not wanting people to know her connections to other people, but I didn’t get she wouldn’t have talked to Stephanie first to get their stories straight.

The name being tossed around for Cupid’s first boot was Jenne’s. I didn’t want Jenne to be voted out. If I had to, I would have gone along with the vote, but she wasn’t who I wanted to go.

There were actually two reasons I put Lisa’s name out as a possibility. She was the Cupid person I talked to the least and I didn’t really connect with her and there was the whole thing about Stephanie knowing her but Lisa telling me she didn’t know anyone.

(Keep in mind, this was before we knew Stephanie was really Chance. So it’s possible Lisa knew Chance and not Stephanie.) But anyway I went to Jamie and told her someone had lied to me and I didn’t like it. In the end Lisa was voted out with everyone except Kelley voting for her. Kelley still voted for Jenne.

I think Kelley was very brave to go against the majority at that point and not vote for her friend, and, that is something I admired. That Kelley would use her vote how she wanted and not “blend” in. Kelley has great convictions!

What was interesting, and humorous, to me is how many people quickly took credit for “saving” Jenne. And trust me – I do NOT take all the credit for saving Jenne. Because first of all, Jenne did a lot to save herself. People WANTED to save her. She went and talked to all the girls and most of the guys so the end result is no one really wanted to vote her out. But I will take credit for putting Lisa’s name out as an alternative boot.

[JoJo]

Thanks so much for writing this, Gracie! I really enjoy hearing this type of perspective...

Great job so far!

JoJo

[Kyle]

I remember back in those days that EVERYONE was taking credit for saving Jenne! That was freakin hilarious! Especially going back and reading Mitch's confessional that his plan for getting rid of Lisa had worked.

But I tend to agree that Jenne saved herself. She's just a loveable creature and as she said, "One charming chica with big "knockers."

And also, because Gracie was loyal support.

[Jenne]

Thanks for the credit Beth and Kyle!!! I swear I was more than a nice rack out there! Playing by Beth's side was such a joy in this game!!! She really is THAT good!

[Angie]

I could probably help you clear up the Steph/Lisa thing, because I was in the game with both of them. The thing is, being Chance knew Lisa I'm sure he remembered her better from that other game, than she did "Steph" since Lisa had probably never seen "Steph" before that game. It was Survivor Dominica, or something like that. I can hardly remember because it got cancelled just a few weeks into it. But, it started just a little bit before Holidays started. But they were both in that game, and I'm sure it was just easier for Chance to remember Lisa than it was for her to remember "Steph". If that makes any sense at all? I'm sorry if I only caused more confusion.

[gracie]

[glow=blue,2,300]Episode 2[/glow]

Well, wasn’t this just peachy! My PIC (partner-in-crime) Jenne was being majorly creeped out by Mitch and I didn’t like that. And when Jenne and I compared notes, we found that Mitch was handing us the same bull lines. So Operation Vote Mitch The Hell Out started. One note though .. I never lied about what Mitch was doing (as far as I know ... I’ll add that caveat).

The challenge we had this time was sort of a round-robin storytelling. The object was to post the most sentences of the story.

At one point during the challenge it was me, Ellie and Stephanie/Chance working and posting. I about died laughing ‘cause Stephanie/Chance asked if it wouldn’t be easier to just combine the sentences. I could just HEAR Ellie’s tone when she responded saying that it would defeat the whole purpose of the challenge. I think both of us were dumbfounded at the question and afterwards we wondered if she/he were just playing at being dumb.

So Cupid won the challenge - life was good. Except I really wanted Mitch to be voted out and I was a tad upset I couldn’t actually vote him out.

I had some great talks with Steve and found out that Steve was creeped out by Mitch too. So I was fairly hopeful that Mitch would go bye-bye. Now I know that others have questioned about how scared you can be of someone over the internet in this kind of game and I can say that I know Jenne was nervous about him. And post game Mitch definitely made me nervous and I has VERY happy that he lives on the opposite side of the country than I do.

Anyway . here’s a chat between Steve and I about Mitch.

Big Steve: we really didn't work well as a team on that challenge- well, you are going to see a very upset bootee, that's for sure
Gracie: ut oh .. can I ask who's leaving?
Big Steve: Mitch (but I didn't tell u that)
Gracie: (good.... you didn't hear me say that either *grin*)
Big Steve: LMAO
Big Steve: it's the smart move for everyone
Big Steve: but, we do have inactives on this team.... :/
Big Steve:
Gracie: yeah ...
Gracie: Mitch gives me the total creeps
Big Steve: apparently, u aren't the only one
Gracie: yeah .. I've heard a little bit
Gracie: Mitch came on really strong to me
Gracie: that we were "best friends" or something
Gracie: ick
Big Steve: yea, lol.... he never came on to me (haha!) but he got frickin annoying with his strategizing. He wanted to get rid of all the "players". And I'm like, "we are all players"
Gracie: LOL
Gracie: and to say that to someone is insultingGracie: it's like insinuating you are a pawn
Big Steve: well, in my farewell words to him along with my vote: I said you think everyone is a "player". Welcome to Survivor, I AM A PLAYER TOO! LOL... he will hate me for that
Big Steve: he just got so over-dramatic
Big Steve: he expected me to listen and follow him
Gracie: lol .. I love your comments!
Gracie: yeah ..
Gracie: hopefully it will be better with him gone
Big Steve: I am hoping
Big Steve: how's it going over there?
Gracie: we're all doing pretty good, I think
Gracie: it would have been tough if we had lost
Big Steve: I don't know what to think of these guys
Big Steve: they seem kind of ruthless to me- so many alliances- they will have to break some eventually
Gracie: yeah
Gracie: lol . you should be here .. we're all pretty quiet
Big Steve: I am not comfortable over here, even though I am secure and safe
Gracie: I'm relieved and glad you're safe, though!
Gracie: I'm thinking we'll probably have some switch after the next challenge
Big Steve: would you be willing to help me out if there was a switch?
Gracie: heck yes!
Gracie: you willing to help me too?
Big Steve: yes!!! I don't trust these guys
Big Steve: I think my only chance in this game is to remove myself from them
Gracie: it's sort of weird .. 'cause I'm not sure what the guys think of me, ya know?
Gracie: some of 'em hardly chat at met
Gracie: me*
Big Steve: I think you are probably the nicest female in this game
Gracie: lol .. I don't know about that .. but thank you!
Big Steve: Ellie is sweet too
Gracie: I like Ellie!
Big Steve: aw, she is a doll
Big Steve: she is a big country buff like me, lol
Big Steve: Well, I think there would be alot of skepticism with a tribal switch
Big Steve: I think trust will only be gained through a vote, u know?
Big Steve: u there?
Big Steve: I have to get back to reading- you can PM me if u'd like so we can talk more
Big Steve: take care


I got a pm from Steve too .. Where he sent me a chat between him and Mitch. Steve signed offline a couple of times that night to simply get away from Mitch.

So .. Thank you Tribe Arrow for voting him out.

[gracie]

[glow=blue,2,300]Episode 3[/glow]

I was thrilled right now I wasn’t on Arrow. They were having more drama than Cupid! They were all trying to figure out how the votes came out from the last tribal council. And it felt like more and more people weren’t trusting Lucas, who I wanted to help protect if I could. Before this, I think I was not letting on how much I chatted with Lucas, but now I started letting people know that I thought Lucas was okay.

But the drama was about to start on Cupid. Let me just say for the record, I never told Stephanie/Chance that I wanted to vote out Ashlee/Lis. When I found out, from Lucas, that Ashlee was plotting against me I was alternately pissed and very sad. And then Annette showed me where Stephanie/Chance confirmed how tight Stephanie/Chance and Ashlee/Lis were and that Stephanie was ready to vote me out.

Somehow, Stephanie/Chance had found out who I was, and thought Jenne was Dani.

Therefore, Stephanie must go. *grin* I didn’t want to be voted out. So I let Annette, Jenne and Jamie know what was up. And hoped that they’d rather have me stay than Stephanie.

What bothered, honestly, during this whole episode, was the fact Ashlee had all these facts and never told me. Since I knew that Jenne and Lucas would probably take each other to the F2, I had seriously wanted Ashlee to be there with me. But when you have an alliance with someone, communication is KEY. And when I found out from at least two other sources that Ashlee was planning on voting me out, I didn’t feel I could trust her. Ashlee did show she was with us by voting out Stephanie, but the trust had been broken. More on the Ashlee saga next episode.

Anyway, Cupid lost the challenge and had to head back to tribal council. I went to that tribal council fully expecting to see my name come. I trusted my tribe, but I wanted to be prepared.


coming up ... actual chats

[gracie]

Gracie: you rocked Ashlee
Ashlee: I try :-P
Ashlee: I figure our best strategy is to have the women rotate between picking Tony and Steven
Gracie: *nods*
Ashlee: although I think this Tony one might do them in
Gracie: I haven't even seen him online in quite a while
Gracie: how's school and stuff?
Ashlee: -snow day today-
Ashlee: -sigh-
Ashlee: lol, works for me but gosh it will pile on the stress for sure
Ashlee: becuase now exams are either pushed back or skipped to the next day
Ashlee: and it's confusing, ya know, becuase you don't know what to study for
Ashlee: but, lol, I'm not complaining
Ashlee: it's a SNOW DAY
Ashlee: :-D
Gracie: lol
Gracie: its a DAY OFF!
Gracie: and I'm stuck at work doing boring stuff
Gracie: I have to retype a procedure manual
Ashlee: oh, definetely jealous
Gracie: your snow day worked well for Tribe Cupid *grin*
Ashlee: haha, well, I would have checked it this morning anyways
Ashlee: but never hurts :-P
Ashlee: I think we got this one
Gracie: I think so too
Ashlee: AHHH
Ashlee: I'm excited
Ashlee: lol
Gracie:
Gracie: wonder who the guys would vote out
Ashlee: probably whoever gets left with the valentine last
Ashlee: I would say Tony or Steven, since that's all we would target
Ashlee: it's just an easy choice, I would think
Gracie: same here
Gracie: I would think they'd get rid of an inactive person
Ashlee: who do you think would leave our tribe next?
Gracie: I don't know!
Gracie: I haven't really heard any murmurings or anything
Gracie: lol
Gracie: which could be bad for me .. as in .. maybe they're talking about voting me out
Gracie: how about you?
Gracie: who do you think we should vote out?
Gracie: *if* we had to
Ashlee: if we had to...
Ashlee: ...I don't know either
Ashlee: lol, which could mean they all want me out
Ashlee: oh well, looks like we just have to have each other's backs
Ashlee: and win immunity to boot
Ashlee: :-P
Gracie: well, I know I haven't heard your name
Ashlee: same here :-D
Gracie: though .. I think all the girls are really not wanting to talk about that, ya know?
Ashlee: oh, definetely agreed
Ashlee: I know that -I- don't even want to -think- about it
Ashlee: but, it's nice to have a head's up I guess
Ashlee: makes for some explosive tribal councils, lol
Gracie: lol .. definitely
Gracie: I'd rather have nice calm ones
Gracie: lol
Gracie: where we know what's happening
Ashlee: I just wonder if our tribe is so close, like, how would you approach it?
Ashlee: all hash it out together
Ashlee: or will it be more behind the scenes?
Ashlee: I don't know
Ashlee: so, anyways, lol
Ashlee: how's life treating you these days?
Gracie: I have a feeling if we have to decide a vote it will be a behind the scenes thing
Gracie: but not sure :-P
Gracie: life is going pretty good
Gracie: *grin* only 50 more days until I go on vacation to Mexico
Ashlee: that's what I'm worried about, becuase I don't want someone to go and be completely blindsided
Ashlee: but if we win immunity we don't have to worry about that :-P
Ashlee: REALLY!
Ashlee: lucky

[gracie]

[glow=blue,2,300]Episode 4[/glow]

This episode just makes me sad. I don’t think Ashlee will necessarily believe this, but I really didn’t want to have to vote her out. I knew it was coming, but I was hoping so bad that Cupid would win the challenge. And Cupid lost. Ashlee had a very good reason why she wasn’t at the challenge and I felt bad for her. But I also knew I wasn’t going to put myself in danger to save her. If she had gotten the votes I would have gone with her – I think. And while I was telling her the votes just weren’t there, I also told her I didn’t think I could write her name down. End result, I wrote her name down.

Part of the reason I didn’t want to vote her out was because I had already played two games with her: Okinawa and Socotra – and voted her out in both games. In Okinawa she didn’t deserve to be the first one voted out .. that should have been Henry – hands down. But, Sato voted out Lis. At that point I didn’t really know her well enough, but we got to spend time together in Loser Lodge.

In Socotra, when she got voted out I truly believe it was going to be her or me. I don’t know that for sure, obviously. But the tides turned against Lis and she was voted out instead.

Now, I really didn’t want to vote her out a THIRD time, but I also didn’t want to put myself in danger and I didn’t want the other two games to influence this one.

I made a final two pact with Ashlee almost immediately. Tenzil knew who I was and had told Ashlee that I was playing. He also had told Jenne I was playing. And honestly, I was a tad upset that he had told both of them. IF they knew, I wanted to tell them. And this will probably tick off Ashlee more .. but I didn’t trust Ashlee to not tell someone. I was fairly sure that if someone found out, it would be because Ashlee told them.

Though, honestly, Ashlee gets props also for making a move that would hopefully keep her safe. If she knew how tight and close Jenne and I were becoming, then it was definitely in her best interest to make other plans. And I don’t blame her one blasted bit. In the end though, Ashlee was voted out.

Yeah .. can you tell I felt majorly guilty in voting out Ashlee? I honestly like Lis. She’s a great person and can be funny as hell.

So the end result was voting out Lis made me feel awful – but I still think it was the right thing to do – gamewise. And yes, I was still mad when she called Beth at the end of tribal council. But I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same to her were our roles switched.

[gracie]

[glow=blue,2,300]Episode 5[/glow]


Going into this episode I was worried - big time. LOL .. and I had no clue that Ashlee had, in fact, spilled the beans to Kelley. I don't know if Kelley shared that information with anyone other than Annette. It was probably a good thing for me that I didn't know any of this ... I would have been so paranoid and may have way overplayed myself.

I vented to Lucas/Tenzil about what she said when she left tribal council ... Lis, if you read this, I'm sorry for what I said. I need to learn to keep my mouth closed when I'm that angry.

Can I just say how frustrating this challenge was! ;D I mean seriously .. the chance of finding an open thread to claim an idol .. was simply chance. We were all constantly refreshing. I looked for times when either of the hosts were on the board.

Gracie said:

AML6349: Hiya!
Annette: Challenge is up and it looks like it requires luck more than skill.
Gracie: oh?
Gracie: *goes to see*
Gracie: oh my
Gracie: this is going to be tough
SurvivorGracie: er hard
Annette: I figure once someone posts, they can keep looking out for the rest of us.
Gracie: definitely!
Gracie: did it say how long the challenge goes on for?
Annette: I got one!
Annette: I got #7!
Gracie: woot!
Gracie: congrat! and yay for our side
Annette: YAY for us! I'll keep looking.
Gracie: me too!
Annette: And, no, I didn't catch an end time on the challenge.
Gracie: it says sometime through Wednesday
Annette: Ahh, ok.
Annette: I was hoping for one quick, an 'early bird special', and we lucked out.
Gracie: yay! .. that's cool
Gracie: she's not on the board now .. so it will probably be a while before another is unlocked
Annette: I got that idol, life is good!
Annette: I agree.
Gracie: you deserve a night out!
Annette: Unless... she went invisible mode? I think moderators can do that.
Gracie: ooh .. that's sneaky
Annette: And she might be invisible on AIM, trying to throw us off-guard.
Gracie: ooh .. very sneaky!
Annette: Then again, I might be reading waaaaay too much into it and she's offline. lol Brb.
Gracie: lol

*glares at hosts* Until, we realized they could be invisible and not show up on the board I think we were all helping each other to find an open one. A couple of times I was in *just* after someone claimed it.

YAY and Cupid pulled off the win. I was THRILLED - and hoped that Arrow would dump one of the more inactive players. I have to admit though .. keeping up with Arrow at times, you needed a changeable scorecard.

And I'm sure Lil Steve is a great person, I just never knew him at all. I had maybe two chats with him and both times he asked me who I was and what game was I in. I was totally shocked when he told me he was playing 14 games all at the SAME TIME.

Hopefully, with him getting voted out here it gave him more time to concentrate on those other games.

[gracie]

[glow=blue,2,300]Episode 6[/glow]


WOW .... when Taylor told me that Lucas was on a short list to be voted out ... PANIC. And was Lucas even signed on at the time - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO .. no he wasn't. Do you know what it does to my heart when I have BIG information and can't tell anyone! LOL .. preservation mode struck.

And unfortunately, I didn't have much of a relationship at all with Tony so the guys voting him out didn't upset me at all. Sorry Drew!

*grin* During the immunity challenge and the Family Fued game . the girls ROCKED. We had a separate chat going so we could help each other. I think its one of the reasons the girls did pretty good on challenges. We worked together and were pretty good at thinking outside the box. And I was also pretty happy that we didn't have a switch - which was something I feared and I tried so HARD to outthink what they would do to us.

[gracie]

[glow=blue,2,300]Episode 7[/glow]

One of the R Twins


With Tony voted out, it was all good because Lucas/Tenzil/Mikey had been saved again!

And though it wasn’t shown, almost immediately following the vote I told Taylor who I really was. Up until this point in the game, Taylor thought I was Gracie. Earlier on he had said to Jenne that he suspected me (since my two screen names on AIM would sign on or off at the same time – lol .. that was also the main reason I ended up getting DeadAIM to prevent that from happening). So anyway, Taylor suspected me and I honestly was starting to feel guilty that he was the only one left that didn’t know. So after talking to Jenne I decided to tell him who I was.

Taylor: what
Gracie: Hi
Gracie: can you keep a secret? a BIG secret?
Taylor: yes
Gracie: I'm not Gracie
Taylor: what? who are you?
Gracie: *grin* someone you know
Taylor: Hi Beth
Gracie: LOL. you knew
Taylor: You signed off at the same time
Gracie: damn. I knew that would give me away
Taylor: I told Jenne around the steph boot " I think Gracie is Beth"
Gracie: LOL
Taylor: the words you used were to close to what you use
Gracie: yeah .. I wasn't trying to hide from you too much
Taylor: have you told Jenne?
Gracie: yeah .. Jenne knows
Taylor: for how long?
Gracie: *grin* we're pretty tight
Gracie: but I decided you should know too
Taylor: Yeah thanks
Gracie: are you mad?
Taylor: no
Taylor: I'm just happy
Gracie: lol
Taylor: I was beginning to doubt gracie a bit
Gracie: how come?
Taylor: no real reason
Taylor: just the last tc shook me a bit
Gracie: how come?
Taylor: because you were distant
Taylor: and it was starting to become very hard to have a convo with you
Gracie: I'm sorry ... I was trying not to push what I wanted on you
Taylor: no its cool
Taylor: how are things on the girls side?
Gracie: if the guys lose .. any way you can ditch either Ryan or Rami?
Taylor: I'll try
Gracie: the girls side is okay
Gracie: if we lose I think we'll vote out Kelley
Gracie: Ryan and Rami are trouble though
Taylor: I know I know
Taylor: but I had to get rid of tony last week to save lucas
Gracie: yeah ... *hugs*
Gracie: Lucas is a good guy
Taylor: i need you guys if at all possible , to not do so well this time. I need time to work on big steve
Gracie: yeah ... I've been clicking in Arrow's gains
Gracie: I think Steve should be easy to work with
Taylor: I hate these challenges
Gracie: *grin* I remember saying that about one or two of yours *giggle*
Taylor: true
Taylor: the last one was fun
Gracie: it was!
Gracie: lol .. the girls had a 2nd chat room going
Taylor: i made a note of that in tc
Taylor: It was " What do you think the guys can do to better their chances at winning challenges?"
Taylor: I said work together better, you know, the girls had an extra chat going last challenge, and maybe that's not fair, but we need to work together better and quit trying to be the hero."
Gracie: *nods* ....
Gracie: the 2nd chat room helped us a lot!


So, we get to the challenge and at first I was really, really worried about Cupid’s chances of winning. For the first, probably two to three hours, Cupid was getting trounced. BIG TIME. I was positive that Arrow had found an autorefresher to get the numbers they were getting on us.

And Annette deserves all the praise and credit for Cupid winning. She found two different autorefreshers for us to use. One of them, you could set it to refresh once every second. So …on my computer at home I ran Cupid’s gains AND Arrow’s gains. Yes, I was helping the enemy. Both Taylor and Lucas had told me how vulnerable they were feeling and I wasn’t willing to have either of them voted out. So what I did, I loaded the refresher page and had two of them running on Cupid’s gains and one open on Arrow’s gains. So I was giving Cupid (girls) twice as many hits as Arrow’s. While I wanted both Taylor and Lucas to be safe .. I also wanted Cupid to win. I don’t throw challenges (see Okinawa for reasons why). At work the next day, I had the autorefresher running on Cupid gains (two windows open doing that) AND because I did want to win, I ran it on Arrow’s losses. So, while technically I was helping Arrow gain some points, I was also taking ‘em away. And the rest of Cupid was just rocking on our numbers, so it ended up not really mattering what I did for Arrow … they were doomed. For some reason, they just weren’t using the autorefresher. Though I have to admit, when asked directly if we/I WAS using one .. I lied. Sue me.

With Arrow heading back to their third tribal council in a row, I was pretty sure that either Ryan or Rami would be voted out. Big Steve and Kyle were telling me that’s what they were doing. Of course, then came the idea to vote out Lucas. ARGH.

And honestly, both Rami and Ryan are nice folks, and I had a great time talking with Rami BEFORE tribes were decided. But as soon as we were on opposite tribes, they just didn’t talk to me anymore and I finally quit trying. So, my strategy just didn’t include them at all.

[gracie]

[glow=blue,2,300]Episode 8[/glow]


*waves to Ryan*

I really wish I had more to say. I'm sorry Ryan, I would have like to known you more better.

Couple things that happened ... we merged. I was thrilled to make the merge! I think it was pretty much a foregone conclusion as far as I was concerned that Ryan would go .. barring him winning immunity that is.

And Tribe Orleans ... so NOT valentiney . ... lol .. even Lucas didn't like it much.