My weekend stole Monday too.

It was such a full and crowded and busy and fun and exhausting weekend that it just creeped its way right into the first day of the week and I couldn’t tell Monday from Saturday somehow.  (Also, is creeped a word?  I’m not going to bother finding out.)

Friday night and Saturday I spent being a bit of a nerd.  A TV show nerd.  Or fan.  Or whatever word is the word I should use here.  (Someone tell me the words I should be using so I sound cooler than I actually am.)

Former Survivor castaways were in town for a fundraiser and I was all about enjoying the little glimpse into TV Reality Show drama that I got to witness, first in my friend’s living room and then in my town at a fitness center and then at our favorite pizza place.

It was indeed surreal to walk into my friend’s house and see former Survivor show winners Sandra and Tina just sitting on the sofa, eating burgers, chilling out in Leslie’s kitchen.  You know.  Leslie was beyond gracious and I played it as cool as I could, eating my burger and listening to everything they said.  There were about seven of the castaways there that evening while I was visiting.  They were all regular.  Of course they were.  But they were also kind of characters to me since I’d only ever seen them in the box in my own living room as I discussed their skills at challenges and groaned when they were voted out or cheered when they left the tribal counsel area.  Their faces and their images were familiar to me and yet they were complete strangers.  I was leaning against the counter and talking about Kentucky and pound cake and cutting coupons.  (Two time million dollar Survivor winner Sandra still cuts coupons.)

It was about as much fun as my little geeky Survivor fan self could handle.

When I left the house that evening, I sent a text to the only person I could think of who likes Survivor as much as I do – my college roommate Gretchen, who has actually applied to be on Survivor.  (Something I’m not sure I could actually follow through with.  Although Sandra told me I should.  So – there you have it.)

The next morning I met the Survivors and more fans like me at Hub Fitness to take on a two hour work out.  (All for charity.)  What on earth?  I don’t work out for twenty minutes.  Two hours was intense for me.  Leading us was one Survivor – one very fit Survivor.  Behind me on our little yoga mats was another Survivor.  He was rather amusingly distracting as he fumbled his way through the exercises.  I think his fumbling was the result of him laughing and playing the clown a little, while mine was for real struggling to do a plank.  A plank, ya’ll.

I paid a mighty high price for that work out too, and I don’t mean dollars.  I mean – on Sunday I thought I might literally not be able to move.  My body hurt in places I never knew actually had muscles.  I either want to do all of that exercising again so those muscles can become something they have never been, or I want to lie very still from this day until the day I die.  Whichever.

I had the opportunity to send several of the Survivors down to our Farmers Market and persuaded them to try the best shaved ice with my buddies at Nomadik Few.  I was pretty satisfied knowing that I introduced them to that treat.

The afternoon held a pizza party at Sidewall with more folks and Survivor castaways.  A really neat couple drove down from North Carolina with all of these Survivor-esque games and challenges that we could all try our hands at.  (This fella – Russell – has tried out for Survivor 17 times!!  I told him that it’s time to try out 18 times and I hope I get to see him on the show one day.  He and his wife were great!)  The challenges are my favorite part of the show so it was fun to attempt a few ourselves.  The kids beat me in almost every challenge though.

It was also such fun to just watch other Survivor fans like myself mingle with and chat with the Survivors – who were all just generous and kind with their time and their attention – who listened to people and shared pizza and laughed and enjoyed the rainy afternoon for a wonderful cause.  The question and answer section was funny and entertaining and answered a handful of those sort of questions you always want to know about the show and how it all breaks down off camera.

I found each one of the Survivors to be interesting and normal, warm and gracious, just regular people like I assumed they must be, but was still so satisfying to experience in real life.  Truly – it was such a fun day to be in my own town and eating pizza and sitting at a table with people who have sat at tribal counsel, have voted one another out, served on the jury, met Jeff Probst, won the entire show, worn the same outfit for forty days.

It makes watching the next episodes that much more exciting, that much more tangible.  And that my kids got to experience it all with me was even better!

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