Alright, let's go ahead and knock out this first confessional! Hope you've got your reading glasses on!

- For starters, I am pretty recognizable from game to game simply by the way that I write my confessionals. I have always done this awkward, bullet-point thing and, for some reason, I refuse to give it up. It's just how I do things, I suppose. I like to keep my talking points separated and my confessionals organized, so you have this to look forward to all season.

- The social butterfly in me didn't exactly care for the way things got started. We were all dropped off together and pretty much told to have a free-for-all with conversations. Because this game is alias, it turned out to be a lot of boring conversations where people were giving limited details to help cover their identities. I'm all for small talk, but when you have about fifteen conversations going with none of them really going anywhere, it kind of gets old fast. I can honestly say that I am glad that we are now split into tribes. Conversing with eleven people (ten technically) is much more manageable than trying to talk to the whole cast.

- My Sausage Island debut got off to a less than stellar start, I would say. I think the most obvious way that this is true is how I did in that first Captain's Challenge. I knew I was going to be late showing up because I was out with some friends, but I'm a little bummed that I couldn't at least make a better statement for myself in the early going. I'm not sure that I could've held on long enough to compete with Charlie or Purple Kelly, but I would have preferred to have not been one of the first one's out. I feel like I've spent the last couple of days trying to prove myself, which could probably go a long way in explaining my performance in the first immunity challenge.

- I'm honestly not taking it too personally, but I got a good laugh out of the fact that I was the very last person picked for a tribe. It definitely brought back some memories of the elementary school days. No one ever wants to be the last person picked for anything. On the one hand, I just tried to brush it off and not think too much of it. Then again, on the other hand, I should probably take it as a reminder that it's crucial to make meaningful bonds with everyone in the game. You never know who you're going to need to work with, so you can't exactly put all of your eggs in one basket. I clearly had not established relationships with Charlie and Kelly like I needed to, so I can use that as a solid reminder for myself.

- Going back to a previously mentioned point, my performance in this challenge was a bummer. I was pretty confident that I could get at least 40 coins and decided to push myself for 41. Turns out I ended up with 38 (one second away from 39), so I will undoubtedly be relying on the Sausage Links to keep my safe. Like I mentioned, I think I was trying too hard to prove myself and probably should have gone with a much more reasonable number like 36 or something. People may be lying to me, but everyone I have talked to said they ended up bidding a number closer to 30 than 40. Who knows? I may have been able to win that challenge had I not been so overzealous.

- Speaking of the Sausage Links twist, I absolutely love it so far and I think it should go a long way in shaking this game up. I apparently loved it so much that I didn't fully read all of the details about it. I didn't realize until just a moment ago that we aren't going to be using it every round. That was kind of a bummer for me, but I will definitely be looking forward to the rounds that it does make an appearance. Purple Kelly and I were talking and we both agree that people are going to be using this as an indicator every round of who is working with who, so you almost have to pick decoys from time to time to keep from showing your hand. Should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

- Just a couple more points. This one is probably the most important in my eyes. I have talked to a few people about strategy already and just tried to get a feel for where they stand strategically. Jean-Robert and I went so far as to create an alliance of our own, but we wanted to be careful about who we extended it to. Obviously, you don't want that word getting out either. Purple Kelly and I discussed the potential of creating a block of people who would essentially choose one another during Sausage Link rounds. While she didn't exactly seem opposed, she also seemed a little reluctant to start something like that because of the number of ways it could backfire. While I see where she is coming from, I'm also a little worried about the notion that she may already have something in place with others. Finally, Ken and I have a phenomenal relationship, so I'm highly considering extending some sort of agreement to him, or possibly talking to Jean-Robert about adding him as a third. The key to this game is going to be having numerous connections, while never putting too much stock in any one person.

- Finally, just wanted to make a public service announce for checking my bootlists! I plan to update them every round and give some of my insight on each person in that thread. It should give a pretty good idea about how I'm thinking... I think.


Hope you've enjoyed reading this first one! And I hope it wasn't too long of a read!


Best,
Betsy

I like the bullet points! Way better than a huge block of text

Thanks, John! It helps me keep my thoughts organized, so I'm glad it's a little easier for y'all to read as well.

I liked that you signed your confessional.

Just a few more things I thought I would jot down before we close this first chapter.

- Seeing the results posted the other night and realizing that I could have won (or at least tied) in that first challenge was quite the heartbreaker. I tied Ken's winning score and was one second away from surpassing it. To me, this was a good lesson in humility. I don't have to be the hero in this game. I just need to do what I need to do to advance. There were a lot of people on our tribe who bit off way more than they could chew, so that tells me that being a middle of the road player who doesn't try to do the most all the time will be more than sufficient for these immediately upcoming rounds.

- I really like what Jean Robert and I have going. He pretty much told me upfront the other day that I was his number one in the game. We were pretty open with each other about who we liked and who we thought were the ones we might want to consider working with. At one point, we even began working toward expanding our small little alliance of two; more on that in a second. Anyway, right when JR was picked in the Link, he came to me immediately and asked if I wanted him to pick me. I left it up to him to decide, and I feel like he made a great decision. Choosing me would have been really awkward and out of place there and would have likely tipped our hand. I keep reminding myself that I cannot invest myself too much in one person, but I think Jean Robert is someone who can be trusted for a long while. I'm curious to see how our alliance continues to progress.

- As previously eluded, JR and I decided to extend the offer of aligning to someone else and agreed that we both might want to include Purple Kelly. I pointed out that it might be too obvious to both approach her about being a third, so we decided that JR would approach her first and then subtly bring up adding me on as a third. Well, if Jean Robert is telling the truth, she apparently avoided the proposition altogether. That's her prerogative, but that now makes the second time she has done that (7th point in previous confessional). I've pretty much come to the conclusion that Purple Kelly is either waiting a few rounds before committing to something strategic or she's already got something in place with other people. She's interesting.

- I thought the bottom three were spot on. Russell is kind of a douche, Katie and I haven't spoken at all (still), and Marisa is either MIA most of the time or she's very lackluster in conversation when she is around. Putting myself in their shoes for a moment, I'd be willing to wager that Katie and Marisa are going to work their asses off and make all the connections necessary to insure they aren't in that situation again. I really need to work on building stronger relationships with both of them because, as I previously mentioned, burning no bridges will be the name of the game this time.

- Final point. You're either going to like this or find me extremely creepy and OCD. I've decided I need to start documenting things for my own personal reference later in the game. I've kind of dubbed myself The Secretary (Phillip Sheppard-esque, I admit) but The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend may also be appropriate here. I'm keeping tabs of where people are moving in the idol search. I'm jotting down who picked who in the Sausage Link order. I'm even writing down the order in which people finished in challenges. I'm either a genius or bat-shit crazy - I haven't decided which yet. The day may come where I need to reflect on these details. Or, they may just sit in a Word document on my computer until I stumble upon it again in a couple years. I'm going to give myself the benefit of the doubt and say that it will be well worth it.

See ya next round!


This one's for you Bob Dawg,
Betsy

For all-stars Betsy The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend sounds pretty good.