Meeting P-Dub

Early yesterday morning, three young and wide eyed girls embarked on a journey eastward to meet their idol.  Said idol was not a movie star or a runway model, but a blogger.  Yes, a blogger.  Not just any ole blogger, but the most famous blogger in the country-turned cookbook author, The Pioneer Woman, aka P-Dub.  She also goes by Ree Drummond, and she was in Atlanta for her book signing tour and we were going!

picture from Bill Nyard

Jessica and I took an entire day off work for the adventure, which had been marked on our calendars since September, when Jessica pre-ordered the cookbook for me for my birthday present.  Jessica slept over Sunday night, we scooped up Ashley Grace on our way out of town, and we hit the road at 6:30am.  I had two cups of coffee to work with and took the liberty of driving up a one way street just because I could.  I get a rush off of things like that.  The three of us enjoyed the sunrise and crept up I-20 with much anticipation.



After Garmin led us astray for a minute, we found the Borders bookstore we were looking for near the Lennox Mall.  They started handing out wristbands at 9am, and we got there about 9:45ish.  We were still in the top tier, Orange, and got the letter D.  Not bad, we decided.  We began to document the day, starting with our obtainment of our orange wristbands.

 

Now, we had an entire day to kill before the book signing at 6pm.  We window shopped and then met Hayden Gunn, Lauren Schaper, Ellen Brides, and Lisa Alfano for lunch at the Lennox Grill.  We nearly broke our necks because we thought this red headed lady was PDub for a second, but it was not!  The food was delicious. I had no regrets about my baked mac & cheese/chicken skillet concoction, or the mimosas for that matter!  It was our day off!  We then went and saw The Blind Side, since we had nothing but time on our side.  It was a great movie, go see it if you haven't already.  We were too full for popcorn, which was unfortunate.  After the movie, more window shopping which involved looking on the shoe sale rack at Saks.  Those $700 Louboutons were only $450.  Oh well, maybe in another life.


Time to go back to Borders!  FINALLY!


The anticipation was killing us.

Let's document for the blog.

Crowd was beginning to form. 

Here comes Ree!

Bakerella was there, but I give Jessica all the credit for recognizing her.  She handed P-Dub these goodies with her mini cookbooks stuck on them!  How awesome is that?  The only thing that would have been cooler would have been a Darby and Erika sighting at the P Dub signing.

We only waited about an hour or so.  Ree was just so cute in person.  She is 40 and has had four kids, and does not look like it!  I loved her hair.  I loved her boyfriend blazer.  I was pretty nervous about meeting her. I mean, this woman is part of my daily morning ritual.  I have to see what's going on at the Ranch and what Charlie, her bassett hound is up to.  

I introduced myself and I think I told her she was awesome.  I don't remember!  Jessica has a great shot of me wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans.  What can I say, I was star struck!

Candid of Jessica and PW

 

Ashely and PW!

Here is Ashley, cool, calm and collected.  She didn't turn red AT all!

The group ambled over to get our complimentary Pioneer Woman T-shirts:

which were being handed out by PDub's sister Betsy (aka Wetsy) and her BFF Hyacinth.  They were so friendly and fun!  Of course we had to get a picture with them, since they have two recipes in the cook book!  

They thought we were so cute and sweet and asked what all we had been cooking.  Jessica told them how she was getting married next spring and was working on her cooking and domestic skills.  It was great.  They took OUR picture with PDub's camera, which was HUGE, so hopefully we will make it on her blog post about Atlanta!  I also gave her a sticky note with mine and Jessica's blog addresses on them.  I felt sure she would be interested in all that goes on in our lives (hahahaha), but she does list other blogs on the book tour posts, so keep your fingers crossed! 


We wrapped up our day with some Chick Fila and hit the road.  While it was a long day, it was totally worth it.  Pioneer Woman is such an inspiration.  Here is this normal, incredibly smart woman, who just happened to start a blog, who has managed to reach thousands and thousands of people, just by being herself.  People relate to that, and you can't help but just want to be her.

Buy her cookbook, because she is awesome!