I considered titling today’s post “In the Presence of Blogging Greatness.”  But then decided that perhaps The Pioneer Woman might google herself occasionally to see what people are saying about her.  And I wanted google to lead her right here to my little ol’ blog.  Because she doesn’t know it yet (even though she met me and talked to me in person), but we are bonded.  Soul sisters.  BFF’s for sure.  Just as soon as she figures it out.

My palms were sweaty and my legs were shaking as we listened to her talk about her own issues with anti-perspirant.  And I barely remember what we talked about as we had our books signed.  But I need to start at the beginning, don’t I?

First of all, it was a special, special day.  It was Valentine’s Day for starters.  And it was also my friend, Suz’ Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Suz!  Isn’t she cute?  She’s standing in line at the Borders Bookstore about an hour before the store opened.  We got there early so we could be sure to get a good spot when it came time for the actual signing.  She was scheduled to pick me up at 8-ish.  I informed her when she got to my house at 7:55 that “ish” means after in my dictionary.    So Boo entertained her for a few minutes before we set off to sit in traffic.  Because we were headed to Big D where traffic is the norm.

But look!  We were only this far from the front of the line.  Number 15 and 16 in line to be exact.  I counted because I knew you’d want to know.  You like to have all the details, right?

Here I am, waiting in line.  And can I just say that we have turned into a smartphone world?

Suz emailed me this pic and I decided to use it.  Just because.

 

Suz is hiding behind the pillar.

See?  There she is.  Right behind that pillar.  And the line grew behind us as we waited for the Borders people to open the doors.

Which they did.  Ten minutes early, as a matter of fact.  Notice the line outside the window.  And then we waited to get our magic wristbands.  Color coded.

And purple was the magic color of the day.  And we had purple wristbands.  And we were very happy.  And later in the day, others were very envious.  “Oh.  You have purple wristbands.”  Like we were royalty or something.  Notice Suz’ pretty pink shirt too.  Pink for Valentine’s Day.  Apparently when your Birthday is on Valentine’s Day, you are all about Valentine’s Day.  At least Suz is.

She had a really cute Valentine’s card for Pioneer Woman.  And now I’m really sorry I didn’t take a pic of it!  Trust me.  It was really cute.  I hope PW enjoyed it.  Actually, I hope PW read it.  Wonder how many cards she got before the day was over?  It was cute enough to warrant featuring on her blog.  And believe you me, if I see it there?  You’re gonna hear about it.

After we got our coveted purple wristbands, we left!  Because we had hours and hours to kill before the actual signing.  So we decided to drive to Fort Worth!  After all, we had hours and hours to kill.  And a Quilt Show meeting to attend.

But not without a stop here.  We needed nourishment.  And caffeine.

Cute sign.  Just thought I’d share.  And it was a beautiful day as you can tell from the blue sky.

And even though we killed a few hours in the meeting in FW and at lunch with Sally & Peggy, we still got back to Borders about 2 hours before it was time for Pioneer Woman to show up.

See how empty the place was?  Not for long though.  But I had a project to complete.  So I was glad for the extra time.  You know how I am.  You know my reputation.  Remember?  Last Minute Lucy.  That’s me.  And I was sewing a pin to the back of a little fabric flower that I made for PW just a short time before she made an appearance.  It’s a good thing I work so well under pressure.

See?  Little pin on the back of my flower.  Looks kind of tacky when you view it this close.  But who sees the pin anyway when it’s pinned to your jacket or shirt?  Next time I’ll consider not so close a close-up.

Suz took advantage of the extra time to begin reading The Book.  And she was tearing up at the introduction.  Sheesh!  She’ll never make it through the whole book without a box of kleenex.  We were pretty emotional about getting to meet PW in person.  It’s just what crazy quilter stalker fans do.  And we decided it would be best to leave out the word “stalker” when we introduced ourselves to Ree.

I finished the flower with hours to spare.  Not.  But I did have time to stage a few fun pics for you.

Because I like staging fun pics.

And how about this one?  Cute flower, isn’t it?  And Suz brought that cool little heart. 

While we were waiting I got an email from my friend Susan saying she wished she’d had me buy books for her and Brooke to be signed and maybe it would mean extra time with Ree if we had extra books to be signed.  So I ran right over and bought 2 extra books.  Thus the tower you see in the picture.  And it did mean extra time talking with Ree!  I’m sure all the people behind us in line were thrilled too.

Did I mention we were second in line for the signing?  We had those coveted purple wristbands and we got there really early.  The stars were apparently aligned in our favor, it being Suz’ Birthday and all.

The crowd was gathering in all directions at the store.

More and more people all the time.

We made friends with everyone around us.

And by the way, these were not 11 hour boots I was wearing.  See those heels?  What was I thinking?!  The things we do for fashion….

This gal was dressed very appropriately for the occasion.  Cute boots.

This Mom would be getting lots of attention from PW.  She is over-the-top with cute babies.  This Mom wouldn’t even need extra books to be signed to get extra attention.  She had a cute little Valentine!

And finally there was Ree!  Did you feel like you waited at least two hours for her to appear?  I wanted to share all of the waiting.  And that’s her family to the left of the speaker.  Marlboro Man is wearing his signature cowboy hat.  And their youngest daughter, Paige, is in white.  And just to the left of her is oldest daughter, Alex.  The one with the camera at her face.  Hey, Suz!  Pioneer Woman has a picture of us!!!!!!!!!  Of course, in the picture I will look just like Alex.  A camera completely hiding my face.  But Suz will look great in her pretty pink Valentine Birthday shirt.

And Ree entertained us with stories as she answered questions from the crowd.  I even got up the nerve to ask a question!  And she looked me right in the eye as she answered.  Nice lady. 

My question, for those who are just dying to know, was “Do you ever get tired of the notoriety?”  And she basically said no.  That life on the ranch is just the same.  And that she doesn’t have to worry about paparazzi when she goes to her local IGA in Pawhuska, OK.

And when she finished speaking and was ready to start signing, she brought the family up so we could all get pics of them.

And Marlboro Man’s eyes are just as blue in real life as they are in all the pics she shows of him.

Soon it was time for the signing to begin.  Notice Alex with the camera again.  I didn’t see that camera at all while we were there and I wondered if that meant there would be no pics of Dallas on her blog.  But there are pictures!  I sure hope she shows them.

Did I mention we were second in line?

Here we are visiting with Ree.  The nice people at Borders took our cameras and took pics for us while she was signing our books.  Don’t ask me what we talked about.  I have no idea.  I couldn’t remember five minutes after we walked away.  I stammered something silly about us being quilters (I thankfully remembered to leave out the stalker word) as I handed her the fabric flower.  She said something about wanting to check out the flower.  I told her it was Suz’ birthday and Suz thanked her for sharing Valentine’s Day with us and hoped she got to do something fun with her family.  And I think she told us they went ice skating at The Galleria.

But I meant to tell her that we thought the punks really needed to learn how to quilt.  And that we were just the quilters to teach them.   And that we’d be happy to drive to the ranch any time for private instruction.  Ree, are you reading?  Did you google yourself today and get a link to my blog?  Just leave a comment and I’ll be in touch!  Yeah, right……

Here we are in our little posed shot.  Doesn’t Ree have the cutest dimples?

But I wanted to be this person.  The one who knows her well enough to be able to go behind the table and hug her neck.  But then I fear I’d have been the crazy stalker woman.  However, look just behind the cup and you’ll see my flower there.  We are bonded.  I’m just sure of it.

She just doesn’t quite know it yet.

I have video too.  And I promise I will upload it to YouTube later today.  And I’ll post a link so you can see it.  It’s very cute and I think you’ll enjoy it.  And it’s actually longer than the segments they give her on The Today Show!

It was a perfect day and one I’ll remember for a long time.  And a really fun way to celebrate Suz’ birthday too.

Happy Birthday, Suz!
Love,
The Crazy Stalker Pioneer Woman Fanatic
P.S.  Call me, Ree, and we’ll set up those quilting classes!  Your punks really need to learn how to quilt.