Collect Call From...Taylor Swift

DAY 1
February 24, 3:51 p.m.
Swift calls from Nashville, where she lives with her parents and younger brother.
“I’m so happy to be home! I’ve been in Europe for two weeks. I got back two nights ago and spent half of yesterday sleeping.

“This is my only week off for months, but I categorize vacations differently than most people. I don’t care if I’m doing interviews from when I wake up till I go to sleep: As long as I’m in my own bed, that’s a day off. This morning I went to some of the radio stations in town, said hi to program directors. Then I met with my stylist—we talked about tour outfits. And now I’m getting dressed for my brother Austin’s lacrosse game. He plays goalie—this is his first game as starter. His friends used to tease him about me, but now he’s six two and built. I don’t think they make jokes anymore.”

DAY 2
February 25, 4:14 p.m.
Swift phones from home, where she’s “lounging on the couch under a quilt” and playing with her dogs, Baby (a Doberman) and Bug (a mini Pinscher).
“Austin did great! His team won, and he kept a bunch of balls out of the goal. Afterward I went with my friend Emily to a Nashville Predators game. I did a commercial for them, so they hook me up with tickets when I’m in town. There’s a couple of cute guys, but I think they’re all married. I totally cheer and do the fang-finger thing. Last night they put me on the JumboTron, and you could literally see the wave of people getting up to come over. I’m still getting used to the fact that being stared at is part of my day—in high school it meant I had something on my face. The fact that my album has been No. 1 for 10 weeks—it’s unbelievable. But this week looks a little questionable: The Jonas Brothers have an album out, too. Hmm.”

DAY 3
February 26, 5:30 p.m.
Swift dials in from the road in Nashville, where she’s stuck in rush-hour traffic.
“I just shot a video with my friend Kellie [Pickler] for a song we wrote together. It’s about ex-boyfriends. In the video I’m kind of her troublemaking sidekick—I wore this strapless studded dress with a zipper up the front. The whole day I was afraid someone was gonna walk by and unzip me. It would have taken half a second to ruin my day.

“Oh, my God, last night I fell asleep on the couch watching CSI: NY. I was out at like 7, but at some point I dragged myself to bed, and apparently in my haze I turned the heat up to 95! I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat, with my poor cat lying on the floor panting. I made myself an ice bath and called my friend Emma in L.A.—she was in Superbad—and she kept me company for two hours while I cooled down.”

DAY 4
February 27, 4:37 p.m.
Swift rings from the music room at her house, where she’s teaching herself how to play piano.
“I’m still not caught up from my jet lag. Today I woke up at 5:30, ate some cereal and fell back asleep on the couch. I didn’t sleep long, though, because we had rehearsal this morning. Kenny Chesney was rehearsing next door, so we chatted for a bit.

“Nashville is a really small town. I still live with my parents because I’m never home long enough to move out. And I don’t go to bars, because I’m 19 and scared of breaking rules.

“Besides Kellie and my best friend Abigail, who moved to Kansas, most of my friends are in L.A. And boys aren’t even an issue right now. I categorize guys as ‘talking,’ ‘nomi¬nees’—people you feel like you could someday date—and ‘dating.’ Right now I don’t even have nominees. I don’t even have potential future nominees! But I’m used to being single. Before my last relationship [with Joe Jonas] I was single for like two years. It’s sort of my thing.”

DAY 5
February 28, 12:50 p.m.
Swift checks in from her mom’s car with some medical news.
“So, I’m driving to the doctor’s office. I burned my face with a curling iron! Don’t worry, I’m fine—I’ll call you after we’re done. [She phones a few hours later.] OK. What happened was, I woke up at 6 a.m. and decided to curl my hair. I guess I was still asleep, because I slipped and burned my face under my right eye. It hurt really bad, but I didn’t think much of it. I edited and uploaded a MySpace video—unhindered by the fact that my face was melting off—and went downstairs, and my dad was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ I guess it was worse than I realized. So we went to the dermatologist. She gave me a prescription for some burn cream—I’m not sure what it is, but it has a lot of syllables. The good news is I’m expected to make a full recovery.”

DAY 6
March 1, 10:03 p.m.
Swift phones from Plant City, Florida, where she just performed at the world-famous Florida Strawberry Festival.
“This place is strawberry city! When we landed, there were official Strawberry Festival minivans waiting to pick us up, driven by people in strawberry shirts. In the dressing room there were bushels of the most beautiful, gigantic chocolate-covered strawberries I’ve ever seen. It’s like they welded three together! And this afternoon I met the Strawberry Festival Queen and her court. They were dressed in red and looked very sparkly.

“It was cold for Florida, like 55 and rainy, but everybody bundled up and had a great time. Afterward we had a police escort, which always makes you feel cool, and we’re taking a private jet, which is even cooler. On the way to the airport all these kids were trying to hurl themselves on our car—it was pretty frantic for a second. But thankfully no one got hurt. That’s why it was cool.”

DAY 7

March 2, 12:50 p.m.

On her last day at home, Swift calls from her favorite couch, where she’s enjoying the view of Old Hickory Lake.
“It’s freezing in Tennessee! It’s like 29 degrees, and I’m sitting here packing sundresses and flip-flops for two weeks in Australia. That and downloading movies for the 20,000-hour flight I’m about to embark on. I have three goals for this trip: One, get a tan. Two, go to the beach. And three, debut my new summer wardrobe. Oh, and four, play some good shows and make an impact on Australia! Ha.

“I don’t go into most situations thinking I’m going to win. I’ve never even won a raffle. These blessings I’ve had lately are more amazing than I could have ever imagined. We got the new projections today, and it’s looking like we’re going to be No. 1 again. Does it feel a little sweeter this week? [Laughs] Yeah—just a little.”