Another brush with fame...meeting the Pioneer Woman (!!!)

Ree Drummond came to town last month for a cookbook signing, and it seemed a large portion of the metroplex decided to stop by to see their favorite blogger in person. The signing was at Borders in Dallas, and luckily, we were prepared! Having read other blogs about PW's book signings in other cities, we knew we might face mass chaos and hours (and hours) in line, so we called Borders way in advance to find out their system.

Borders doesn't mess around. On the morning of the signing they began giving out color-coded wristbands at 9:00 a.m. to those who purchased a book or brought previously purchased book with a receipt. Each color group had 100 people and your color determined your place in line. It was a good system...if you got an early group, you didn't have to camp out all day to be in the front of the line, and and if you got a later group, you didn't have to stand in line for 6 hours to hold your place.

I was one LUCKY GIRL that morning. I wasn't going to be able to miss work to get my wristband, and they were not allowing one person to pick up a wristband for someone else. Both of my booksigning buddies (Melody and Jennifer) were not going to have a problem getting to Borders first thing in the morning to get their GOLD wristbands for the first group. Part of the fun was going to be the three of us spending the evening together, and I was afraid I was going to be stuck by myself in a separate color group. So Melody's sweet sister Donna was going to meet her at Borders to get a wristband on my behalf. But before she was able to get there, Borders was running out of books and had given out almost all of their gold wristbands. Lucky for me, an EXTREMELY SWEET and EXTREMELY TRUSTING stranger who had no idea what all this fuss was about, noticed Melody waiting anxiously and letting people ahead of her in line while waiting for Donna...and volunteered to buy the book for her...and trusted Melody (who didn't have cash) to pay her back later! So I wound up getting one of the coveted GOLD WRISTBANDS along with Melody and Jennifer.

Let me tell you, I felt like a VIP with that wristband. When we got to Borders at 6:00 that evening (signing started at 7:00) only the golds were allowed to start lining up. The other few hundred people (mostly reds...the second group) just had to mill around the store. We were about 35th/36th in line, with more than half of the golds lined up behind us...and there were still about 7 or 8 additional color groups that would not be lining up until later. So we ended up being about 35th in line of a total of about 800 or 1000 people all together. NICE!

Ree came out right at 7pm, along with her two daughters. She said about 2 sentences, and then told us that Borders wanted her to get started immediately with the signing. She spent a few minutes talking to every group of fans that came through the line, so even with our prime spot, it was 7:45 before it was our turn. I attempted to come up with something witty or interesting to say, but that definitely didn't happen. Melody had her cute baby with her, and Jennifer was visibly pregnant (8 months) so I basically stood alongside them and smiled and nodded while PW made small talk about babies and pregnancy. She was friendly, relaxed, gracious, and fun...just like she is on her blog. Her two daughters were in charge of doling out t-shirts (another benefit of being at the front...they always run out of shirts before the night is over) and we had them autograph our books as well. (And Amy...I've got a shirt with your name on it if we ever get to see each other!)

And then, that was it! We left the mob and went and had a relaxing dinner at CPK. From what I read, the signing continued almost until 2 in the morning. It was funny to read some of the other blogs written about the Dallas book signing because our experience (our gold-banded VIP experience, haha) was not like these other ladies' experiences that involved camping out, spending hours upon hours waiting, fighting for parking, and getting slap-happy while bonding with other superfans to pass the time. As we walked out of the bookstore almost an hour after the signing began, we were acosted by many wristband-challenged people who were dying to know what color group she was on now...and were quite disheartened to learn that not only was she STILL on the gold group, but that we were in the first-half of the gold group. There were so many people who hadn't called ahead and had no idea about the wristband system, and had no idea the sheer number of people who would be there...and were quite surprised to walk in off the street and realize it was going to be HOURS before it would be their turn.

It ended up being a fun evening and a nice night out with some friends I don't get to see often enough. To be honest, I think PW is pretty neat...but there is no way I was going to spend 6+ hours waiting for her signature...some of her fans are a little bit nuts! So I am glad everything worked out so smoothly for us.

Despite making it back home before 11 p.m., I was WIPED OUT the next day at work. I felt like I had spent the past night partying like a rock star...apparently these days, a book signing and a calm dinner out on a weeknight is all it takes to put me out of commission. Yet another reminder that I am not 21 anymore!

Pictures! Courtesy of Jennifer...

Our prime spot in line...not many ahead of us!



A portion of the madness...these folks were in later groups that hadn't started lining up yet...many people aren't even at the store at this point since their groups would not start lining up for quite a while.



Can you imagine the poor unsuspecting souls who just wandered into Borders that night thinking they would pick up a book or two?



Aside from the roped off areas, the store was jam packed.




Melody brought Haydn, who won the award for Easiest Baby Ever. She may have cried for about 0.4 seconds the entire evening.

Getting close! On a side note, I LIKED the brown hair! I do tend to be partial to brunettes though.

Our big moment. I love how us being in the foreground makes us look photoshopped into the picture.

Getting autographs from Alex and Paige:


Mel and Dana


Ta-Daaaaaa!!