Live from the Grand Ole Opry...

What a week....and it's only Tuesday! I woke up Saturday with a sore throat, dry cough & had a hard time talking. Sunday I had zero voice whatsoever, which led me to the walk in clinic, who announced I had laryngitis. And now here we are on Tuesday, where I feel even worse than I did on Sunday! Thank goodness for my awesome doctor this morning, who gave me the laryngitis spiel but also informed me I have an upper respiratory infection & got me the meds that I needed to start nipping this in the bud.

My doctor knows me too well -- and decided to write this one out for me as well, to remind me that he doesn't want me attempting to talk for 2 more days. Sigh. I had no voice the last part of the weekend, and when it sliiiiightly starts to come back, he tells me to keep my mouth shut.

I also may have had a slight breakdown at Kroger today looking for the specific mint tea my Granny always made me when I was sick. Apparently it hit me, "hey Nicole, you can't call her anymore!" and I burst into tears. I'm a hot mess today. Tomorrow's the anniversary of Granny's death, and there's just no day I hate more than April 2nd, I suppose it's heavy on my mind right now.

But all is well now, because I'm heavily medicated and snuggled in my favorite blanket watching movies.

thanks doc...

Thankfully, none of this really hit until Saturday -- and thank goodness for technology, or else my friends never would have known what the hell I was saying Saturday night! Since I didn't really feel fabulous Saturday, I cut out as soon as P's performance was over.

Friday, however, was pretty fabulous. Larry & I were backstage and as usual, had a blast....

More exploration of the dressing rooms. You can probably find something in every dressing room that you never noticed before, no matter how many times you are back there!

I love the entrance lit up at night. #photographynerd 

And I love this girl! It was soooo wonderful to catch up with her. It's so hard to believe so many years have passed  - I do believe Patty might be one of the very few things I stuck with as a kid ;) I know I gush about her all the time, but it's such a significant thing in my life. Larger than life to me as a kid -- who would've thought years later things would be the way they are now?

It's no secret how much I love classic country music. The Opry sure isn't what it used to be....but some of the stuff backstage brings me to tears.  (I suppose that's not hard, since I'm such a freaking sap.) I'm not a performer, but country music was totally my first love. 

Larry had his pics taken with a bunch of different folks while we were there - he knew so many of the people there through his work with Dottie, like Michael W. Smith & all his crew.  It was great to meet folks, but when we weren't seeing my P, I was in my own little Opry world.  

However, I was pleasantly surprised to run into Steve Burton, who was there to support Jonathan Jackson. I don't watch the "Nashville" show, so my knowledge of Jonathan Jackson is from his portrayal of Lucky on "General Hospital". (Jonathan is a super nice guy, by the way!) Steve was a great guy & brought on some great "soap" talk, bringing up my beloved All My Children and how bad that got screwed up. 

such a nice guy!

and of course....the queen bee was the star of the show. 

I capped the night watching the Kentucky basketball game with the Security backstage. Can't neglect my Cats -- WHO TOTALLY BEAT LOUISVILLE!!!!

Such a great weekend, even if I DID spend the majority of it sick! And now...it's time to get away with being incredibly lazy & eating ice cream because I totally deserve it today.