The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, in Dallas

For those of you who might stumble upon this in an unfortunate google search or follow a link here from some awesome blog, you will just have to bear with me. Be warned: there are about 30 photos to follow in this post!!

I’ve not much time to crank out this post as I used what few hours I had between the signing and work this morning sleeping. That’d be four hours in case you were wondering! My adventure started just before 6pm yesterday and I walked out of the Borders where she was signing at 1:15am. And she was still going! Yikes.

I don’t do well in new environments usually so I shuffled to and fro for some time. I was in the light blue wristband group and knew I had some time to wait and wasn’t entirely sure what to do with myself.

I had no idea how much I would need this. Unfortunately, they were closed long before I remembered it was there…

Getting prepared for her grand entrance…

I couldn’t take a still shot to save my life. Focus, Elle, FOCUS. (Get it?! Ha. I slay me.)

After she was introduced, showed off her family, and sat down to sign, I wandered down to a pizza shop in the same plaza and grabbed a quick bite. That place was full (not that it had more than 12 seats) of PW fans. It was somewhat amusing to watch regular folks off the streets walk in to this hole-in-the-wall pizza place filled with women chattering about Ree. I saw more than a couple wide-eyed men walk in and place an order! Ha.

I called my brother to wish him a happy 12th birthday. He was too busy to talk very much – a girl from his old school had called. So having just spotted a Free Wi-Fi sign, I ran out to the car and grabbed my laptop. At about 8pm, a little over two hours after setting off on my adventure, I plopped myself down clear across the store from Ree and opened my computer.

I debated live blogging while chatting with some friends and catching up on my blog reading. Eventually I did begin to post (at close to 10 if I remember correctly) but that all quickly ended when Kate popped up. I had messaged her saying if she got online we could video chat when I went up to have my cookbook signed (and hers too, but she didn’t know about that yet). She agreed and we started up the chat, about five feet from where I had started and about an hour later!

Kate was a good sport and we took photos along the way. It took us about another hour to come upon the official blue tape, the line of tape that led to Ree! That was exciting.

This is about a third of the way through the line. I kept having to look for outlets to plug into so as not to have the computer die along the way…

As we would come to new sections, I would turn the computer around and let her see where we were. I would explain how far away we were and what commotion was going on around us.

Little X man joined us for part of the adventure. Too bad he was sleeping when we finally got to meet Ree! Everyone in line ooed and aahed over him. Such a sweetheart!

It was a happy crowd…

… and that girl in the purple? Very sweet. Very helpful. Full of energy! Thank you, girl in the purple shirt.

There was Waldo-finding…

And baby-shushing…

non-picture-taking…

and teasing.

We were dorks and took LOTS of pictures of each other…

Learning about how NOT to decorate cakes… oh my. Cake Wrecks, thank you for the laughs!

One of the coolest parts of the night was overhearing someone mention “i ♥ faces” and then hearing Amy saying, “I’m from i ♥ faces.” (I can’t remember exactly how she said it…) I was star struck! And her sweet comments? Pretty sure I was blushing. So sweet!

Poor thing held my hot hand and let me stand next to her in my burning body. I was wearing this ridiculous down jacket and was so hot but was fed up with carrying it around! Too. much. stuff.

(Hi, Amy! Sorry for the awkward-ness.)

Getting so, so close…

There she is!

aaaand…

WE MADE IT, KATE! WOO!
That was fun!

She loves me forever. Amen.

p.s. Kate blogged about her experience here: Why I love Laura for ever and ever amen

and here: Laura is effing amazing!

Go read! She’s much funnier than I!

UPDATE: You can ready Amy’s recount here: Amy of I Heart Faces Meets The Pioneer Woman!

~ by Elle on December 2, 2009.