Searching for Balance: I met Pioneer Woman .. Sort of

Don't know who Pioneer Woman is?? Seriously?

Ring a bell? If you are unfamiliar with her, check out this site.

Any way, PW has written a cookbook. She's an amazing cook and everything she makes is so, ummm ... lowfat. Rriiiggghht! Well, me and the sister-in-laws (all three of them) are big fans of hers and read her blog religiously. When I read that she was going to be coming to Big D to do a book signing, I immediately shot Dad an email and had him put it on his calendar. Not for him to attend; for him to COME HOME FROM WORK SO I COULD GO!! Auntie M and I made a great night of the event. Of course I took my camera along to chronicle the evening ...

Here we are getting ready to go (time 5:00 p.m. taken by Petunia) -

Auntie M's good friend met us there. It was just the three of us. The three of us and about 1000 of our closet friends for the evening.

(6:15 p.m.)

I had read on Facebook earlier in the afternoon that people had already started lining up (that was about 3:30). Having never been to a book signing before, I had no idea a) what I was in for and b) how this whole thing worked.

We learned that each person received a colored wristband which in turn determined where they were in line to meet PW. We were purple. Not for Royalty. Royalty would have been at the front of the line. Nope, we were way, way back at the end.

We quickly spotted a spot up close to listen to PW when she first came out. Then, we waited ...

and waited ...

Finally PW made her way to the podium. The evening was noted as a "discussion and book signing". Due to all the friends who came out to see PW, she was only allowed to make a brief statement.

It was so exciting to see PW. Of course I had to get a picture of her cute boots she had on...

PW brought a few family members with her. It was very exciting to see 1/2 of her punks ...

As an extra bonus, we got to meet her brother, WDS ...

(7:07p.m.)

After the initial excitement died down, the three of us decided to go out and forage for food. It was pouring down rain (and freezing cold outside!) so we didn't want to go too far. Fortunately, a small (and I mean SMALL) pizza joint was open in the same strip as the bookstore. It quickly became PACKED with many of our other new-found friends. This friend was one of the very first ones in line to get her book signed. She was so excited ...

Waiting in very close quarters seemed to be the order of the evening.

After a fabulously CHEAP dinner (the pizza joint opted to continue to run their lunch special for us!), we headed back to the bookstore for ... whatelse? More waiting!

At 9:00 p.m., we had to have a pow-wow and decide how late we were willing to stay. Our color hadn't even been called yet and we were two hours into this thing. We opted for 10:00. That was the magic time. 9:45, we decided it was hopeless. Our decision was helped tremendously when we kept hearing that these things would/could go on until 1:00 a.m, 2:00 a.m., even 3:00 a.m. Due to my desire to function at work the next day, I opted to say my fare-the-wells to my friends and head home. We couldn't go home without at least getting our picture made with PW ...

All in all, it was a great night. I seldom get to "go out" and never with my SIL! Dad graciously took this photo around 11:30 when we returned home ...