P-Dub Comes to P-Town!

Confession: I am totally and completely hooked on reading Ree Drummond's blog. And have been for about 2 years. Do I know this woman? No. But...I CAN say now that I have met her!

Note: If you haven't yet wandered past this lovely woman's blog, don't think about it, just immediately click HERE to go discover why literally MILLIONS of visitors view her blog every month. Start with her love story, "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels." But only start there if you have about a day to spare. :)

A couple friends got me hooked on The Pioneer Woman (the name of Ree's website), and I have loved seeing her beautiful photos, reading her hilarious posts, and trying out her awesome recipes. (Her recipes, by the way, are INCREDIBLE--she posts photos of every step, and while they may not be the healthiest, they are ALWAYS delicious!) I followed the blog all through her process of creating, editing, and publishing her new cookbook, and was pretty bummed when her book tour last fall brought her nowhere near the West Coast (she IS from Oklahoma, after all).

This means I was STOKED when she announced she'd be visiting a few more cities this spring, INCLUDING PORTLAND!! Not only that, but the store she'd be signing at was LITERALLY five minutes from my house. SO EXCITING!! It also happened to fall when my sister was visiting, so I called her and begged her (she is not addicted to PW's blog...YET) to agree to come with me (which she did).

So, when the day finally arrived, I raced home from work, picked up my sister (who didn't understand my urgency to leave until we got there and saw literally HUNDREDS of people waiting to see Ree), and we ran over to Powell's. We were about an hour early, so we were lucky to get tickets (they gave out 375 tickets, and after that, it was a free-for-all), then we went to Cold Stone to grab some ice cream and headed back to wait. The employee in charge of crowd control was pretty much a complete schmuck (seriously...who gave that guy a mic?!), and obviously had NO idea what he had gotten himself into. At the appointed time, he headed toward the store's main entrance with the mic and waited for Ree to arrive.

PW (or P-Dub, as she calls herself) was supposed to start her talk at 6, but she got stuck in traffic (not shocking). She was about ten minutes late, and ran into the store through the mall entrance. Everyone started clapping and cheering as she hurried to the mic and apologized for being late...into an empty mic stand. Everyone laughed as she regained her composure and the schmuck with the mic finally figured out why everyone was laughing and clapping and made his way back to the podium with the mic.

Ree was every bit as funny and charming in real life as she is on her blog. She was also graceful and incredibly nice. (And if you've read the blog, YES, she did the Ethyl Merman impersonation!) She answered questions for 20-30 minutes, then started signing cookbooks.

I had gone ahead of time and purchased cookbooks for Amy and myself, so we just hung out and waited. They were calling people up by number in groups of ten (our numbers were 218-219)...so we had awhile to wait. After about an hour, when they had only gotten through about 80 numbers, Amy needed to get back to study and I was supposed to be at puppy class with Allee, so reluctantly, we headed home without getting our books signed. :(

I dropped Amy up and picked up Allee and headed to our class. After class, I decided I'd swing by the bookstore to see if people were still there (it was about 9:00 PM at this point, and it was on the way home anyway). I left Allee in the car and walked through the door, cookbooks in hand (just in case!) and heard, "Numbers 220-229 can line up." WHAT??? They were literally JUST finishing up our number!! Wahooooo! I jumped in line real quick and waited less than ten minutes before it was my turn. I gave a lady in the front row my sister's camera and asked her to snap a few photos for me.

I probably only got to talk to her for about a minute, but she was a total sweetheart and I'm SO glad I went back in! It was awesome to meet someone who I've read so much about--I think everyone who follows her blog feels like they know her personally. I can't wait to try more recipes from my autographed cookbook--YUM!