I Was Her FIRST Fan!

This past weekend, Beth and I went to a book signing of a little known blogger named Ree Drummond, a.k.a The Pioneer Woman. 

I had read other bloggers’ tales of how the lines were so long and the wait time was extremely long, so I got it in my head that we had to get to the book store at the butt crack of dawn. 

I was wrong. 

I didn’t mean to be the first fan to the parking lot that day, but I was.  I even beat the store manager.  Beth forgave me, eventually, for getting her out of bed earlier than she gets up on her work days. 

It turns out, not many people knew that the store was handing out tickets for the signing as early as 9am.  And they didn’t realize that the earlier you came, the closer to ‘first in line’ you could be.

While I may have been the first person in the parking lot, I was not the first person in the line.  We went out to get breakfast, then sat in our warm car and waited until the store opened at 9.  When one person walked to the door to get a ticket, the few others who had arrived and been waiting in their warm cars flooded the doors before we could even get our seatbelts unbuckled. 

But there weren’t too many ahead of us that morning.

After we got our ORANGE tickets (they went by color, so we were in the second color group – so much for being first in the parking lot!), we headed down the strip to Target.  FUN!

Beth and I spent time trying on clearance items and looking around at nothing we needed.  Then she realized she was going to be late for a date, so she ran out of the store, leaving me to wander the aisles of a store that can take money out of your pocket faster than an underage pick-pocket in the streets of London.  Scary.

I did find some great bedding ideas for Jack’s big-boy room.  Hopefully that will happen sometime this year.

When I finally went back to the book store, I had 3 hours to just sit and wait.  They had set up her signing table at the front of the store.  I sat and read a book and waited.  I was waiting for Beth to get back to the store, waiting for Ree to show up, and waiting for my coughing fits to scare everyone out of the store.   Two out of  three ain’t bad.

 

Without any fanfare or any announcement, Ree walked in and sat down at the table. The lines started forming, and she was off and signing.  She was poised, beautiful, and friendly to everyone who came to see her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were so many cute kiddos there just waiting to make her ovaries quake. 

Finally, I got to ask her to sign my books, one she signed twice because I asked her to sign a page other than the one she was automatically programmed to sign first, and I got to talk to her like I was a raving lunatic.  I told her she was the first celebrity I’d ever met, and that I was nervous to be there next to her.  I also complimented her on how beautiful her oldest daughter is – has anyone else noticed that?  She’s such a beauty.

Beth and I got our books signed, then we were herded out of there like sheep.  That was that.  It was over.  My grin wasn’t TOO huge, like it could have been, and the lady who took the picture with my camera got a clear shot.  Yippee!!  (though, now that it’s cropped a bit, it looks a tad fuzzy to me)

It was a bit anti-climactic in the end (much like this post), but it was so fun spending a day with Beth (who ditched me for a date, but I’ll let it slide since it was a FIRST date), seeing a huge blogger who I admire, and getting my cookbook signed by the author.  That’s a good day in my book!