Survivor Fafarazzi!
Have you picked your team for this weeks Survivor Episode?! How are you doing on points? Jodda is in the lead in our group with a very commanding 40 points! She’s even beating me and my 32 points! It’s still early in the season though – feel free to join and make sure you’re team is ready to go for tonight’s episode!
Do you think Russell will get caught on all his bs this week? And WHO is the Galu Tribe? Will we ever get to know them? Tune in and see!
PS: I’ll be recapping this week later, not live. It’ll be up by morning. 🙂
DWTS: Surprise Elmination in week three!
This week is one of the best – the sexiest dances are performed: The romantic Rumba, and the Sexy Salsa! We even saw the first 10s of the season! There were two of them, both for Mya and Dmitry’s rumba from Carrie Ann and Bruno, though Len brought them down to a total of 27 with a mediocre 7. OOOOOOOOH the BOOING!
Len must have needed some fiber or something, as he also gave out two 4s and a bunch of 5s and was consistently the lowest score all night long.
Ross Interviews Marcy and Ron!
Here’s Ross’s interview with the last team to be eliminated from The Amazing Race, Marcy and Ron:
And here’s their Elimination Station checkin from CBS too. Enjoy!
The Amazing Race: Ep 2!
Are you ready for our next stop in this Trip Around The World?! I know you are! 10 teams remain, who will be eliminated next?
We started on the Bassac 3 Riverboat was the last pitstop – and it was moving. They leave the boat to make their way to Ho Chi Minh City, where they need to search for the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theater – where they’ll garb the next clue from the mouth of a water dragon. They leave in the order they arrived: Gary and Matt, Sam and Dan, Globetrotters, Lance and Keri, Zev and Justin, Meg and Cheyne, Maria and Tiffany, Mika and Canaan, Marcy and Ron, Brian and Erika. Sam and Dan are already bickering with each other, butting heads on the way they’re going. Lance is urging Keri to lead but not waste time. He’s of course selling himself as a “lion” who will cut down the rest of the pack of gazelles or zebras. Heh.
One by one, the teams get into cabs and head on their way. Marcy talks a bit about it being such an emotional thing for her to be in Vietnam – her father was shot and killed there during the war. She feels it makes her stronger. Marcy and Ron are very zen about their cab ride, the people and how much she appreciates being in the city, with the people waving and smiling.
Lance says he feels like they’ve been dropped on the planet Mars, they don’t know where they’re at, where they’re going. Gary and Matt are shocked at how many scooters there are, and declare the traffic organized chaos.
Turns out that grabbing the clues out of the water dragon’s mouths is trickier than it seemed – they’re quick and good timing is a must. The clue they find is a bullet, which they unscrew to find a stamp inside. They have to figure out that they need to find the building shown on the stamp – Globetrotters are in the lead, with Gary and Matt not too far behind – though they decide to run the Kilometer to the building instead of taking a cab to save their cash. Dad is worried, but they press on. Everyone figures out the clue quickly – except for Lance and Keri. They didn’t realize there was anything inside the bullet – and when they finally figured it out, they were still confused for a while, falling behind.
Globe Trotters get to the Detour first – the choice is Child Play or Word Play. Child’s play – they choose a concrete animal in a children’s park, put it on a rolling board, and manuever it through the paths, collecting five colored balloons and delivering them to receive their next clue. In Word Play, they go to the rooftop observatory deck, and search for letters in the intersection below. When they have all 6 letters, they have to go downstairs, and unscramble the Vietnamese word Doc Lap – which means independence.
Ron and Marcy are the only team that chooses to do Word Play – everyone else maneuvers through the children’s park, some better than others. Zev and Justin drop their Giraffe, and they had to pick up all the pieces to make sure they got to the other end of their task. It slowed them down, for sure.
Next up, the Road Block, and the Globe Trotters are still in the lead. At Dien Co 008 @ intersection Durong Vinh Vien and Durong Ly Thurong Kiet. When they arrive, one team member takes apart 2 VCRs and puts the parts into the correct piles. Flight, Cheyne, Matt, Brian, Sam, Tiffany, Justin, Canaan, Lance and Ron do the dismantling. Lance, of course, being uber macho (..gag) used his hands instead of the tools. I know I was impressed. Not.
After leaving the detour – the next clue sends them to the pit stop at the Reunification Palace, where the Vietnam war ended after a tank crashed down the gates. It comes down to a foot race, and no one can beat the long legs of Team Globetrotter – and they win a trip to Aruba. The rest of the teams hit the mat in this order:
Meg and Cheyne
Gary and Matt
Bri and Erika
Sam and Dan
Poker Girls
Mika and Canaan
Zev and Justin
Lance and Keri
…and Marcy and Ron. Unfortunately, they were eliminated from the race.
"I'm pregnant."
(That thud you heard was my mother falling over in a dead faint before she gets a chance to read the rest of the entry. We’ll wait for her to revive. Better, Nana? Here we go. 🙂 )
If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know I tend to be a snarky little wench and tend to put a humorous (to me anyway) spin on just about everything. Even teen pregnancy. When folks ask me what the average age for a first pregnancy is in my area, I don’t even bat a lash when I say “Sixteen. I was behind the curve by waiting until I was 21!” Because I’m so often a snarky little wench, folks think I’m kidding.
I’m not.
Fact of the matter is, we have a LOT of teenage mother’s in our area, and I know we’re not alone. Even our Governor’s daughter got knocked up, preacher’s kids get knocked up – it’s like it’s almost inevitable, and most parents are dealing with this by closing their eyes and hoping it goes away. They told their kids to keep it in their pants/keep their legs closed once, so obviously they’re in the clear. Know what I call those folks? Grandparents.
Let me break it to you gently: YOUR CHILD WILL HAVE SEX WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT. Not only that? but they will do it WAY BEFORE YOU ARE READY TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT. And also? THEY WILL LIKE IT. Burying your head in the sand will NOT keep your child from getting knocked up, or knocking someone up. The only thing that will do that is education. And I don’t mean the “abstinence only” crap they’re feeding your kid at school. This education must come from YOU, the one source your teenager should be able to trust above all others.
It’s a valid concern. Teen mothers are less likely to finish high school, tend to be single parents, and find difficulty finding jobs that will cover the daycare expenses, let alone everything else they’ll need. Babies born to teen moms also tend to have low birth weights, and other complications – not to mention they’re twice as likely to continue the cycle and become teen parents themselves. This is not to suggest that they’ll be automatically bad parents or fall into this cycle – but the concerns are REAL, and ignoring them is not ok.
But we KNOW the statistics – the information is out there. So why are we so scared to talk to our kids about it?! Wouldn’t you rather have those important conversations ahead of time, rather than trying to shut the barn door after the horses already got out? Sexual responsibility isn’t something that your kid is going to think about all on their own – it comes from having an open and honest conversation with YOU. It’s time to force yourself to take the step from “I don’t want them having sex until married (or an adult)” to a more realistic “I want to make SURE they have the information to protect themselves from pregnancy and STDs if they do decide to have sex.” Studies have proven that if you have these discussions openly and honestly, your teenager will be 20 times more likely to use condoms more regularly – and even 3 times more likely to use the condom their first time.
Not sure how to bring up the conversation? Here’s some ideas to get you started:
1. Start singing “Let’s talk about SEX baby! Let’s talk about you and NO ONE ELSE EVER. And also, here’s a condom.”
2. The next time you go to the store, take your teenager with you. Stand in front of the condoms. Ask them if they think they’d prefer ribbed for her pleasure, or extra lube. Tell them spermacide is the way to go, always. Then ignore their mortified ‘omg i don’t know you’ looks and PUT A BOX IN YOUR CART AND BUY THEM.
3. While taking your younger kid in for vaccinations, bring your older teens with you. CASUALLY drop this into conversation with the nurse: “So, what age to you recommend the first pap smear?” When your teenager as picked themselves up from the puddle of embarrassment, ask for pamphlets. BTW – the answer to that question is “18, or earlier if/when they become sexually active” though they should see an OBGYN for an appointment to discuss contraception options before they take the plunge.
Look, I know it might be hard to broach this subject with your teens – girls AND boys – but it’s part of your job as a parent. So buy the box of condoms. Put them in an easily accessible place, and let your kids know where they are. Let them know that you would MUCH rather them wait – but you’d also rather them have the condoms if/when they need them, rather then NOT have them when the time arises, and that if you discover they are missing, you won’t judge or jump to conclusions, you’ll simply replace them. No questions asked.
Keep the communication lines open, parents. Talk to them. Listen to them. You’ll be glad you did.
