Fins to the left, fins to the right: Jimmy Buffett's in town

When I walked in, Dr. Saunders' secretary was on the phone and told me to have a seat. I overheard her tell the person on the other end of the line that Dr. Saunders was having lunch with an "important person" and he, Bob, should be on standby, in case Dr. Saunders can introduce the two.

"I can't say who it is, but his initials are J.B.," the secretary said.

I sat there listing politicians in my head and failed to come up with any J.B.'s. "Barack Obama, Johnny Dupree, Gene Taylor…" Then I got bored and gave up.

I left the office and began walking to the library. Then I saw Dr. Saunders and some man. I stared at him thinking, "Hm, I guess that's the important person."

Then, it registered. Jimmy Buffett. J.B. I'm 10 feet from Jimmy Buffett.

I involuntarily started smiling to myself, and I whipped out my phone to call my dad. Then, after I'd walked past them, I immediately turned around to walk behind them. Two students saw me do this, and I saw the same excitement in their eyes, so I started walking with them. Meanwhile, I'm blabbering to my dad, who's saying, "You've got to be kidding," over and over.

I soon lost the two students and ended up next to another guy, who was following the two, with bug-eyed eyes on Jimmy, saying, "I've got to shake his hand. I just want to shake his hand."

I decided I wanted to shake his hand, too, so we walked up alongside them and shook Jimmy's hand. I told him I flew to Dallas over the summer to see him in concert, and my dad was a huge parrothead. He smiled and thanked me and told me to study hard.

I called Dad again and told him what happened.

Then I called Bryant, the photo editor for The Printz. He didn't answer, so I called a few other staffers, desperate to find someone with a camera.

By the time I found someone, I'd lost Dr. Saunders and Jimmy. Topher and I wandered around the stadium, where I'd seen them go, but we had no luck.

Topher soon got bored and left, and then Bryant texted me, saying he was in the office. He also said he didn't have his headphones, which his malfunctioning phone requires if he wants to talk on the phone.

So, I power-walked to the office. I opened the door and told Bryant to grab a camera; we're going to find Jimmy Buffett. Bryant asked no questions. He grabbed a camera and said, "Sweet."

We started walking, really fast, even though we weren't sure where we were going. We soon heard from Topher that Jimmy would be heading back to the Administration Building at some point. So, Bryant and I went and sat on the porch of the Administration Building. I soon decided to go get a lemonade, because it sounded like we had some time. Bryant, meanwhile, would stay and keep watch.

Walking back, Bryant texted me saying he heard Jimmy was at the Ogletree House. I raced over there only to find Bryant had not found J.B. at the Ogletree House.

At this point, Bryant decided to stop at the office and get a better camera. Meanwhile, I'd take the sub-par camera and go back to the Administration Building. As I'm walking up, without Bryant, I see them. I temporarily abandon my lemonade, because the lemonade, camera, notebook, phone and approaching celebrity were too much for me to handle. I text Bryant, "Here!"

I run up and shake Jimmy's hand a second time. I start asking some questions, and Bryant runs up, out of breath. We talk to Jimmy for a few minutes, learning that he and Dr. Saunders graduated on the same day. Jimmy asked how things at The Printz were going, and I grinned at him like a crazy person and said things were going great. I mean, hey, I was about to write a story on Jimmy Buffett visiting campus. Things don't get much better than that.

Then I called Dad again and then Mom and the rest of my family and all of my friends.