Monday afternoon I got a call from Beauty asking me if I wanted to be a judge for a karoake contest that night at our local country bar. I wouldn't have minded singing karaoke as a contestant, but I decided I probably didn't have a chance in hell of winning, so I agreed to be a judge that night rather than embarrass myself, lol (I have never considered myself a bad singer - I've been compared to Stevie Nicks, quite often as a matter of fact, and I have been singing ever since I can remember. I was actually the vocals for a garage band in Texas called the "Cracked Bricks", lol - but I personally equate my voice to a dead frog half the time.) So anyway, I agreed to be a judge.
When I got to the country bar that night, I found out this wasn't just a local karoake competition. It's just the starting point for a much bigger competition that actually leads to a recording contract for the winner. (Yikes! I'm glad I didn't try to compete. I might have had a chance on the local level, but it's highly unlikely that I would have made it to the recording contract.) Anyway, when I got there, they sat me at the judges table. (Nothing like being front row!) Then they proceed to explain to me what the judging process is all about.
There were four categories being judged, with points for each catagory (up to 40 points max):
- Vocal Performance
- Personal Confidence
- Audience Participation
- Appearance
Then, on top of the scoring, we are asked to leave personal comments about their performances, like the good points of their performance, and ways to improve. In addition, each judge had to write their name on the back of each score card. Great! Now, not only are they going to be mad at the judges as a whole if they don't win, but they'll know exactly who scored what. *sighs* With that in mind, I tried to be as nice as possible on both the scoring and the comments. What else can you do, right? Rules are rules.
I have to say, for the most part judging was fun! :) And most of the people in the competition actually sounded great! There was this one girl who really didn't belong up there though. She was dressed sloppy, sounded like shit, and showed zero enthusiasm. The sad part was even with the words on the moniter in front of her, she still managed to botch the words. I gave her a score of 11, just because she had the balls to go up there, LOL!
After the competition was over and the top three winner's were announced, they had "open mic", so I finally got a chance to sing. Yay! :) At that point I was sitting with Beauty and her husband. It's about 12:15 at this point, and after I sang, I decided it was time to go home, so I told Beauty I was going to go out to start my car. Beauty had been out about 5 minutes earlier and when she came in she said it was snowing outside, which was what prompted me to go home.
On this particular night, I was wearing my black cowboy hat and a pair of boots with 5 inch heels. When I stepped outside I realized the snow was pretty slick, so I kept my head down looking to make sure I didn't slip on any icy patches. Well, I'm walking along, and then next thing I know I'm flat on my back on the pavement. Eee-GADS!
While I was walking with my head down, I managed to run into a sign that was sticking out from the side of the building. (Any "here's your sign" jokes, and you might just get clobbered, LMAO!) I hit it with my head so hard that I knocked myself off my own two feet. Talk about embarrasing! I also hit my head hard enough that I saw stars. (It's okay, you can laugh - I'm laughing about it now too!) I really don't know how long I was on the ground. I don't think I knocked myself out, but it was enough that I didn't know where I was for at least a minute or two.
When I finally managed to get up, I walked over to my car and got inside. I sat there for a good 20 minutes trying to get my head together before I drove home. When I got home, I told Hubby what happened, and while trying to stiffle a laugh, he asks me if I want to go the emergency room. Well, we all know how much I hate hospitals, so I said no.
I should have gone to the hospital that night. I didn't sleep well, which was actually a good sign, but the next morning when I woke up, my head was pounding, my neck hurt like hell, and I had a big goose-egg bruise on my forehead from the impact. Then I got out of bed and I felt dizzy and nauseous too boot. I called Hubby at work and told him we needed to go to the hospital.
At the hospital, they determined that I needed a CAT scan. Like this isn't embarrasing enough, and now they want to take pictures of my brain. Wonderful. Well, through the CAT scan, they determined there was no bleeding, but a slight amount swelling (and this was about 17 hours after the fact). I also had a fever of 101 when I got there, but it managed to start going down while I was in the emergency room, thank goodness.
When all was said and done, I was diagnosed with a level one concussion, meaning I hit my head hard enough to classify it as a concussion, but not hard enough to do any damage. Thank the Gods! And everyone was in agreement that it was a good thing I had my cowboy hat on my head at the time, because it probably cushioned the blow and stopped me from cracking my skull wide open. Yay for cowboy hats! Of course, if I hadn't been wearing the hat, I would have probably seen that stupid sign and wouldn't have run into it, lol! Before I left the hospital that night, they dosed me up with some "super motrin", a muscle relaxer, and vicodin all at the same time. And they told Hubby to stay home from work the next day to keep an eye out for any "funny behavior", LOL! Needless to say, I was happy and feeling no pain, and Hubby was happy because he could sleep in in the morning.
Now here we are - three days after the fact, and I still have a slight headache, but the goose-egg on my forehead is finally going away, although it is still tender to the touch. The only thing I'm taking at this point is the "super motrin", because I hate that drugged up feeling. I also have plans to go out tonight because Hubby is off tomorrow, so tonight is our official "date night", and I don't want to miss it. As it is, I've already missed ladies night last night. *pouts*
OH! And the big question of the day...Was I drunk when I had this little accident??? The answer...NO! I was completely sober. Honest! And that's what makes this even more embarrasing. At least if I had alcohol in my system that night, I would have had a good excuse for what happened. But alas, the truth is that I was actually drinking water all night because I didn't feel like drinking alcohol, plus I was driving. I don't think the doctor's at the hospital believed me though. When they asked where I had the accident, they all looked at me with that "yeah, right" look on their faces. Oh well...life goes on.
