I'm exhausted - and it's Taylor Swift's fault

This weekend, for the first time in the past few weeks, I didn't have to go in and work on Saturday. I had a real day off. I didn't even have a show or two that I had to write on Sunday. In fact, I didn't even bring home any production to write, shows to edit or photos to caption. I was merely going to relax and think about anything BUT mergers, new channels or websites that need to be updated.

Friday night I took a couple of benadryls after dinner (I'm sick again... or maybe still... I can't keep track) thinking I'd be going to bed nice and early. However... I made a fatal error in judgement that caused that plan to fail.

I gave Delaynie the new Taylor Swift CD Fearless.

Now... this in itself wouldn't have been a bad thing. She was listening to the music while she was cleaning her room. She cleans better to music, she tells me, so I'm thinking this is a win win situation.

After a while Delaynie comes downstairs and starts talking to me about the music. She loves lyrics where the girls aren't like everyone else, when they laugh at the girls who think they're so cool. This is the kid who had me custom order the phrase "Dare to Be Different" from Uppercase Living for her bedroom wall, because it was her "motto." Taylor is the poster child for daring to be different, after all how many high school freshmen were going to Music Row writing appointments? Delaynie can sense all this, and she love love loves Taylor.

It was after a nice musical discussion about the content of the album, accompanied by looking up lyrics and sharing some scoop (thanks to ShortCuts!) I knew about the pictures that I made my fatal mistake.

I told Delaynie about the secret. Secrets.

Secret codes. In the lyrics.

Big mistake.

Big, BIG mistake.

Not that she couldn't know about the secret codes - the actual revelation that they existed was not my mistake.

Telling her about them at 9:30 at night was the big mistake. BIG. Silly me thought it could be a "hey, here's something for you to do tomorrow, now go brush your teeth and get ready for bed" kind of factoid. Because after all... I was going to bed early. Catching up on some sleep.

Ha. Ha ha ha HA!

Not.

1 o'clock in the morning. That's when I finally insisted that she stop the madness with just a couple of songs left to decode. And that is why I was completely exhausted the rest of the weekend.

I do have to admit... her enthusiasm about trying to find all the letters was adorable. And a little contagious. She'd get so excited when she'd get one figured out. For those of you who don't know, Delaynie has really bad eyesight - even with her glasses, due to a defect that can't be corrected. And those lyrics are in little bitty letters. After a while I made her go get her magnifying glass, but even then, those capitol "I"'s were tricky!

I have to admit, there are worse ways to spend a Friday night then giggling with your daughter as you google "Love and Theft" because you can't stand not knowing what that means. It was probably the most fun I'd had in a month. And Delaynie's already planning to write Taylor a letter about it all.

But get this... in the process of this detective work, she of course decided that she had to get her best friend Hope the CD for her birthday the next day so that Hope could decode all the secret messages too. We had already gotten her a Hannah Montana shirt, so I casually asked who was cooler - Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus.

"Well I've never met Miley, but I feel like I've got a connection to Taylor because we've talked. So other kids probably think Miley is cooler, but I know that really, Taylor is."

Delaynie told Hope about the secret codes, so I'm sure one night soon, my friend Dianne is going to lose sleep while her daughter tries to find all those capitol I's. And she too will be exhausted the next day.

And it will be all Taylor Swift's fault.