It’s my third morning at the beach and, per usual, I’m up first.  Where has my ability to sleep in gone?  I want it back because it’s one of the best parts of the single years, right up there next to being able to toss your clothes across the room if you so choose.

We spent the day yesterday almost exactly as we spent the day before: being as lazy as possible.  This goes completely against my nature and so I had to tell myself — had to convince myself — that my “task” yesterday was to spend as much time reading by the pool as possible.  It worked; I finished one book and then read an entire other one, too.  Give me a book and a few hours and you’ve got one happy girl on your hands.

Well, did you watch the show last night — The Sing-Off? Y’all, I have never been so nervous in my entire life.  I’m not a big television watcher (I’ve seen American Idol only once in my life — the time my boy Trey was on!) but having so many of my acquaintances on prime time television at once last night?  I was so excited I could barely sit still.

I know all but one of the students in the group — and I can’t believe I didn’t think to mention this yesterday — but three of the girls were Starlite volunteers during their freshman and/or sophomore years of college!  I also know almost the entire group because I spent a little big of time with some of them on their tour bus during my senior year of college.  I had won a scholarship that carried a requirement that I go to this huge thing in Florida and speak about my experience at our college and how the scholarship had helped me.  Oh, you’re going to like this story — this is a prime example of how Type-A I used to be.

So, I was supposed to go with the other girl who had won the scholarship — the President’s Office at our university was sending us down in a car driven by someone from their office.  The day I was scheduled to leave, I was sitting at my desk when I began losing my vision — it would just go in and out.  Someone took me over to our campus health center and, as they were evaluating me, I started losing my ability to stay balanced, walk, etc.  The doctor at the clinic sent me straight to the hospital and, a few minutes after arriving there, the doctor was pretty sure I had spinal meningitis, something that is common to college students — and deadly.

The next several hours were awful.  They called my parents and told them to begin heading my way; my younger brother — who at the time was a freshman at the same college as me — was standing outside my room because they wouldn’t let him in to be with me.  They did a spinal tap and, because I was conscious for it, had to re-attempt it several times before getting what they needed.  I remember having someone call the university to tell them I couldn’t go on the trip and hearing that the other girl who was supposed to go had something happen and couldn’t make it either.  I was immediately upset because I felt awful that we were leaving them high and dry without either of us being able to cover for the other one not being there but there was obviously nothing I could do about it.

It turned out I didn’t have spinal meningitis and, after treating what was going on, they finally released me from the hospital.  The conference in Florida had already been going, of course, but the day I was scheduled to speak was still about 24 hours away.  I found out that one of the singing groups from our university — the Voice of Lee, whom you saw on television last night — were going to head down there on their (extremely nice) tour bus and, after a few calls, arranged to be on that tour bus when they left at the crack of dawn.

I’ll never forget my roommate Lindsey packing a bag for me because I literally couldn’t get out of bed due to whatever they had put in that IV.  She got me to the tour bus and I settled into my very own bunk for the ride down there because I was supposed to stay in a horizontal position for 48 hours after the spinal tap.  Nine hours later I was in sunny Florida; I did my thing at the conference, got back on the tour bus and came back home with them.  Looking back, I was a fool for going — but, at the same time, I wanted so badly to honor that commitment.  That’s just who I was back then, maybe a little bit of who I still am today.

That was an awfully long story just to tell y’all that I know the kids and have been on their tour bus before!  Anyway, I said all that to say that, last night when I was watching them on the show, I kept bouncing up and down on the couch because I was so nervous for them.  When I saw the other performances in their section, I felt pretty sure that they weren’t going to advance to the next round.  I couldn’t stand to watch their faces fill with disappointment so, when the time came, I covered my ears and put my face into the side of the couch so I wouldn’t have to watch it happen.  When Cara began screaming, I knew that we had a Christmas miracle on our hands and I jumped off the couch and jumped on top of Cara because I was so happy.  Cara?  I’d like to apologize again for the whole “jumping on you” thing.  I just couldn’t help myself — IT WAS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE THAT THEY GOT TO THE NEXT ROUND!

So, we’re on the show again tonight which means that, all day today, I’m going to be a nervous wreck.  I hate to see any group leave a show which explains why I don’t watch American Idol or anything like it.  But this? This I have to watch because, for crying out loud, it’s our hometown heroes on NBC, y’all.  COUNTRY HAS COME TO TOWN.

Speaking of hometown heroes and country coming to town, guess who is headed to Savannah this morning to have lunch at Paula Deen’s restaurant?  Now, I’m not a fan of Paula for her cooking — only because I cannot cook and even Paula couldn’t help me right my cooking wrongs — but you better believe I’m a fan of how big she wears her hair.  I have never — never — seen a picture of that woman without big hair and I don’t care what you think — that, my lambs, is quite an accomplishment in itself.  Forget her cooking — somebody give this woman a book contract just for her hairstyling abilities!

Speaking of which, I need to go fix my own.  Hair doesn’t just get big on its own, you know.