The tribe has spoken.

For those of you who've never experienced intense back pain, I don't recommend it because it hurts. Bad. Trust me--I threw my back out last week. I'd spent Labor Day weekend in Ann Arbor, helping my sister move into her new house, and I did a lot of lifting and lugging furniture up and down stairs. I felt fine afterwards, but 2 days later, I got out of my car, and my lower back didn't. I then proceeded to hobble around for the next 24 hours, unable to carry anything or stand upright. Here's the thing with not being able to stand upright--after awhile, it's not just your back that hurts; EVERYthing hurts.

Fortunately, the recovery time for my back ailment coincided with the men's semifinal matches of the US Open, so while I reclined with an ice pack at my back from 11 AM to 6 PM on Saturday, I watched athletes in peak form hit the heck out of tennis balls in 90-degree weather. It was quite relaxing. By the time tennis was over, the physical pain was pretty much gone, but then once I started watching the UT game, emotional pain took over. But that's another story for another blog post.

Anyhoo, I continued my enjoyment--albeit vicariously--of strenuous physical activity tonight by watching the premiere of season 21 of Survivor, my favorite reality TV show of all time. I've never missed a season, never missed an episode. I love everything about Survivor, from the crazy mix of people to the strategy to the challenges to Jeff Probst to the drama of Tribal Council, etc...

The funny thing of course is that I personally could never be on Survivor. It's like Woody Harrelson says in the movie Doc Hollywood, "I could've gone to medical school; it's just the science part of it I had a problem with." In theory, I think I could be good at Survivor because I like strategy and am good at solving puzzles and can get along with people. But the problem with Survivor is that you have to survive. In nature. And yeah, as most of you know, I'm not a nature kind of gal. For one thing, I hate sand, dirt, and bugs. I also hate feeling dirty, sticky, and smelly. I need to brush my teeth. I need toilet paper. I need a soft place to sleep.

What it all boils down to, though, is that I don't really like to do anything where I have to do anything. So yeah, I'll never be on Survivor. Instead, I'll sit at home waiting for my gift basket from Delta and watch other people be on Survivor, and I'll be very OK with that. But if Survivor ever moves indoors, you'd better believe I'm going after that million dollars.