Author: Shawn

The original post that popped up the day of “Beauty and the Geek: The Aftermath” filled up with comments rather quickly. This one may fill up just as quickly, but at least it’ll contain some commentary from yours truly. If you have questions, this is the place to ask them.

As an added bonus, I’ll be adding the answers to the main text with the answers so you don’t have to keep scrolling down all the way down the list to find them in the comments section. Why? Because I’m lazy, too.
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We don’t know why Eric wasn’t there. They told Cheryl to say he was hiking in the mountains in Europe, which may or may not have been true—your guess is as good as mine.
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Regarding “changes in my social life,” here’s what happened. I was talking with a group of people at a Mensa gathering and explained how much I hated getting phone numbers of random women (something I said during the reunion show that was subsequently edited out—can’t imagine why…). One girl had parked her car a couple blocks away and when everyone decided to leave, I walked her to her car. Since I’d been parked a few blocks from the bar in the opposite direction, she offered to drive me to my car.

I got in and we headed over there. I had just a few moments before we parted ways and there were tons of butterflies flapping around and bouncing off the walls of my stomach, but I managed to say, “Is this where I ask you for your phone number?” (Hey, I was nervous as hell—it felt nothing like the challenge because I was planning on using that number if she gave it to me.)

“Are you serious?”

I’m not sure whether I looked her in the eye at that point, but I said “Why not?”

As I said at the reunion show, she did give me her number, it was her real number and we did get together a couple times. (She came to see me play soccer one Sunday morning and I think we grabbed lunch later that week.)

After saying that much at the reunion show, I wanted to get a rise out of the crowd, so I said, “We decided to be friends, but you never know what might happen…” They all went OOOOO-oooo, but since the editors cut out that last sentence, I’m really glad I told the girl what I said before the show aired.
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There was a portion of the show when I didn’t like Richard very much. When asked about his “rivalry” with Chuck, he just waffled. When asked to compliment Chuck, he just waffled for a couple minutes before coming up with “You remind me of Al Gore.” To me, that meant one of two things: he wasn’t willing to compliment Chuck, which makes him an ass, or he felt the need to stall until he could come up with the funniest possible answer, which also makes him an ass.

Still, I’m glad that he went on his first date. And those fifteen pounds that being on TV adds were really there when I picked him up off the floor.

—> I’ll bet you a nickel that he would have gotten bigger laughs by saying, “According to Shawn, you’ve got really soft lips.”
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I had one tooth whitened between the show and the reunion. I cracked my upper right front tooth back in high school, so the root is dead—you can lighten the enamel, but the inside will be forever dark. (Poetic, no?) Back in February, the dentist gave me a mold of my upper teeth and some bleach; by using it on that single tooth, my entire smile looks brighter. Sweeeet…
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For the dance challenge, we were given a CD with 1-minute segments of R&B, disco and salsa. Scarlet taught me the basics of salsa dancing (1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3…), but the rest was kinda freestyle. As such, I felt rather stupid up on stage in front of all those people and once broke down laughing (I was thinking about how much my little brother was going to enjoy watching that on TV).
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The editors cut out some good stuff and some not-so-good stuff:

I wish they’d left in the part when Scarlet was apologizing profusely about losing her temper after the outdoor challenge so people would understand that it was just a blip of her behavior and not a full-blown character trait.

Conversely, I’m glad they left out this audience question: “Did the Boy Scouts revoke your membership after your meltdown?” It wasn’t “in good fun”; it was blatantly offensive. (I had no trouble answering it—“Part of me still thinks they should have, but it’s all good now”—but it was probably best for the network to chop that part out of the final cut.)
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Mindi is an incredibly sweet girl. While she basically nursed Richard through the course of the show, she was always caring and supportive of everyone else in the mansion. (I’ll be adding a post one of these days about our dinner together which should give you some additional insight into the kind of person she was.)

As for Mindi’s middle name, I was shocked when Richard didn’t come up with the answer right away (I’m going to remember “bass” for the rest of my life…). Still, that’s what it seemed like—he was waffling again, much like when he was talking about his “rivalry” with Chuck. If you were Mindi and you didn’t think he remembered, wouldn’t you want to make a joke about it (flash back to when she told Richard she’d make out with him if they won the money)? When she made that suggestion, he jumped right up and said [drum roll, please] “Nicole.”

In Ashton Kutcher terms, she’d been punk’d. Again, if you were Mindi and got played like that, wouldn’t you be screaming, “Richard, I hate you!”? Honestly, I was impressed that she followed through with her offer and even more impressed because she gave him more action than Lauren when she came over and tackled Richard to provide him with some sweet, sweet lovin’.

I’ve heard the rumor about Mindi and Brian floating around on the Internet. I’m pretty skeptical for two reasons:

1) She’s currently living in Missouri and I fairly certain Brian’s still in L.A.
2) She’s got pretty good taste in a lot of stuff and I’d like to think that includes whoever she might be dating nowadays.