Well, it is hard to believe, but exactly 24 hours ago, two of my best friends and my daughter and I arrived at Unity Temple on the Country Club Plaza to see Ree Drummond, better known as "The Pioneer Woman". To say that we enjoyed ourselves would be an understatement! We had a blast! We acted like giddy school girls. . .well one of us still is a giddy school girl, but you know what I mean. Even though there was cold, dreary rain outside, we enjoyed ourselves so much.
It was like Christmas for us! Even though we already had our numbers tickets for the book signing portion, we wanted to get there early to get a good seat for the event. And my good, I mean, close. Those seats were very uncomfortable! And for those of us that are fluffy, well. . .they were downright torture! But knowing we were actually breathing the same air as Ree (and Marlboro Man!!!) was worth every minute (and by the time we left there were over 400 minutes!!!) My friend Karen, literally skipped to the car when my daughter and I picked her up! She got in the front seat and clapped
her hands in excitement and looked at me and squealled! Then, noting my earrings, she leapt from the car yelling, "I forgot earrings!!!". ROFL. Did she think that Ree would kick her out if she did not have earrings? Ha ha, seriously, though Ree does have some awesome taste in earrings (and jewelery in general I might add). After Karen jumped back in the car, with her earrings, we were off to pick up Jana.
Jana was all dolled up and ready to go! She said in her Facebook status that afternoon and I quote, "Dear Pioneer Woman, I am
so excited to see you. I have put more effort into my hair, makeup, and clothes than when I am going out with my husband. And you're not even putting out. =o)" Jana is funny like that. Here is a picture of her after we arrived. . .cute, huh!?
After a quick stop for Advil and drinks ( the non-alcholic kind. . .lol) we were on our way to the Plaza. Not even the cold rain and threat of the first snow of the season could dampen our moods! My Google Maps directions were fail, but luckily I had 2 gals with me or navigated us exactly where we needed to go with 15 minutes to spare! We parked in the covered garage at Unity Temple and made our way inside where about 15-30 people were already in line waiting for the doors to open. Jana stood in line while we filled out our tickets for the door prizes and asked about where we could eat our picnic. We were told the lobby would be fine, but not the sanctuary. We were just glad we did not have to eat in the rain!
Maeghan, my daughter and Karen left Jana and I to save our seats while they went window shopping on the plaza for a bit. They missed the arrival of Marlboro Man(MM) and Ree's boys! I know, it is not in focus. . .but we were caught by surprise! One minutes all of us ladies (and a couple of men too!!) were waiting patiently for 7 pm to come so we could listen to Ree speak. . .then the next minute. . .MM comes in carrying a huge bag like it was a feather! The whole room was in a state of shock. I grabbed my camera as quick as I could (I had literally JUST put it away!) and snapped this picture. When MM came back in with another bag of shirts, you would have thought a major movie star was arriving on the red carpet with all of the flashbulbs going off! There were even a few cat calls!
At this point I might have been the only one who knew what he was carrying! I happened to be in Rainy Day Books earlier that day picking up our 3 copies of the cookbook when the owner, Vivian Jennings, called the store to announce that MM was giving every one who was at the evening event a Pioneer Woman t-shirt! They are so very cool, but I digress. (What else is new, right?)
I called Karen to tell her that if MM was there, then Ree was not far behind (she does like to follow his behind after all. . .) and that they should hurry back. After a few minutes we were all seated, with about 1000 other adoring fans eagerly awaiting the arrival of Ree.
Following a few minute introduction and instruction session, Vivian Jennings, brought out Ree and they sat in comfy ( well they looked comfy at least) chairs from Will Wyatt's Cowboy Couture. Vivian asked Ree questions that the audience that had been submitted a few minutes earlier. There was much laughter at some of the questions and even more laughter at some of Ree's answers. Ree even channeled Ethel Merman at the end. . .of course right after I turned off my video camera! ACK! Man those Drummond's know how to avoid having any photographic evidence! LOL!
The boys helped their mom with the door prizes. Here is how one of them helped. (click on the word helped) This picture was taken by MM himself! This next picture is almost the same exact picture, but from my perspective and taken with my crappy camera! One of these days I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a camera as nice as PW's!
I have video of the boys balancing the gift basket that had ceramic tea cups in them on their hands like they were walking a tight rope. . lol. The crowd was amused and I am sure that P-dub was mortified! So stinkin' cute! I was disappointed that none of my friends won a prize. BTW, what ever happened to the KitchenAide Mixer? There was supposed to be one in the drawing. I guess we should not complain, since we all got t-shirts, but I really wanted a bigger KitchenAide (and Jana wanted my older one! )
I bought one of my books over a month ago, so I had 2 tickets that were relatively low numbers, 155 and 156. So Jana and I were in the 4th group to go up and get our cookbooks signed. I went to the car and brought back the picnic basket and we has our dinner in the lobby while we were waiting for our turn. Maeghan and Karen's numbers were 509 and 541 I think, so they had a REALLY LONG wait. Actually we all did since we waited together.
While we waited we got to see:
- Marlboro Man signing books
- The boys 'rastling- a LOT ( reminded me of my boys without the boots!)
- lots of cute little babies with headbands
- April from Coal Creek Farm
- 1 other person on their laptops (we brought ours b/c we knew it would be a long night)
- Ree greeting each person very sweetly. . .down to the very last one.
Here is a link to the rest of the pics. . .I do not know why they are not posting right. Karen's camera is better so she will have some more pics too. I am especially looking forward to seeing the one of April taking pictures. She looked like a giraffe trying to take a picture of a mouse! Right now I have to go be the mom and get my boys cleaned up and do some laundry. At least the laundry is easy with Purex 3 in 1 sheets!
