TAR check: tonight, one of �my� teams got eliminated. Sniff. I�m actually quite bummed about it. I mean, it�s not like I didn�t see it coming, but I was still biting my nails for the last fifteen minutes or so.
Okay, technically I was biting Reese�s Peanut Butter Cups, but that�s only because my nails are frightfully devoid of chocolatey goodness. Were my nails constituted entirely of emulsified sugar, I would have bitten them down to the quick as three teams hurtled toward the finish, alternately overtaking one another and falling back.
Reichen and Chip fell behind early on, and May Day and I were chanting for them to use their Fast Forward. Frankly, it isn�t even so much that we wanted them to win, as much as it was that we really didn�t want to see them get cut quite yet. Particularly when other teams (or individuals who completely dominate their respective �teams�) still in the competition deserved to get axed so very much more, Millie.
And speaking of Millie, WHY IS SHE STILL THERE?? I don�t get it. And I�m really pissed off at the editors for The Amazing Race for cutting the previews for tonight�s episode to make it look as though Millie heard people making fun of her on the train. I spent a whole week feeling bad for her, when really I ought to have been shaking my head in dumbfounded antipathy at her perennially obnoxious behavior. She didn�t hear dick on the train, as it turns out. And if she�s worried that people are talking smack about her, maybe it�s because she�s rude, bossy, and overbearing, and people are sick of it. She even complained today that the other racers have managed to bond, both with each other and within their respective teams, in a way that she and what�s-his-name have not. The reason being, of course, that she�s rude, bossy, and overbearing, and no one in their right mind would want to open themselves up to the kind of abuse and whip-cracking she regularly and generously doles out, unless they were starving immigrants at the turn of the century, she was building a railroad, and they had absolutely no other means of supporting their families.
The thing that just about kills me is the knowledge that there are actually people out there who really like Millie. I mean, love her, and all her psychotic, backbiting efforts to get to the front of the line, everyone else be damned. I have known people similar to Millie. These are people who work 80-hour weeks and openly criticize anyone who doesn�t do the same. These are the people who honk at you when you stop in the middle of the road to avoid pulverizing somebody�s housecat. These are the people who act insulted if you make any attempt to speak while the two of you are having a conversation, because it means you�re implying that the conversation (read: monologue) that they were having with you was somehow incomplete, or that they in any way required your input to make something better. I don�t like those people. Those people always had that box checked on their report card that said �Does Not Play Well With Others�.
On the other end of the spectrum, Tian and Jaree were finally learning how to work together as a team. Granted Tian was still pretty much carrying them, but that�s the way she liked it. Like Millie, Tian seems to be the kind of person who has boatloads of confidence in her own abilities, but little in the abilities of others. Unlike Millie, Tian learned that if you want something done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself, rather than just pestering the living shit out of your teammate until they either hang themselves with a rope made from their own hair, or try to stab your eyes out. For a second consecutive week, Tian and Jaree learned how to cooperate, compromise, and have a good time while still trying to win, and it was great to see. When they aren�t sniping at each other, these two make a fun pair.
Too bad it wasn�t enough to win. In the end, I�m glad that Chip and Reichen managed to make the final cut, but I�m sorry to see Tian and Jaree go. The race won�t be the same without them.
