Afternoon Road Trip

I’m not going to lie, it surprises me how many people know who the Pioneer Woman is, but on the other hand, it surprises me how many people still have no clue who she is.

I started my blog before I knew who she was.  In fact I found out about Tasty Kitchen before I found out about PW’s actual blog.  Then sometime around late spring 2010 someone introduced me to her blog.  Like most {but not all, there are some haters out there} I fell in love and was hooked.

When her first cookbook came out I still didn’t know who she was until after all the book signings around here had been held.  Then she added a few additional ones and one of which was Stillwater, OK, 3 1/2 hrs from here.  Mom & I went :).

So now jump forward to March 2012 when her new cookbook came out.  Hubby actually pre-ordered mine last fall when he found out there would be a second book so it was at my house the day they released it.  Then I got on her website and saw this:

Tulsa
Thursday, March 29 @ 6:00 p.m.
Booksmart presents at Cain’s Ballroom
423 North Main Street
*Special presentation + book signing, live music, great food and drinks!
**via**

I immediately emailed hubs and told him and he’s like, well let’s go.  I was like hunny, it’s a work day and we have to work the next day and came up with all these excuses although deep down, I REALLY wanted to go.

So life went on and I actually forgot about the signing until Tuesday of last week {March 27th}.  I called him at work because we’d both actually  made other plans for that night and told him what we were going to miss.  I was a little bummed, but hey, life goes on.  Then he told me, If you want to go, ask off.  Well wouldn’t you know all my bosses were gone so I started flying emails to them (gotta love their email downloads to their phones!) asking if I could have the afternoon off.  They said yes!  Woohooooooo!

So last Thursday we headed to Tulsa.  Besides, it’s closer than Stillwater, just sayin :).

This is driving down the Will Rogers Turnpike (I-44) in Oklahoma.  Nicely dug fields and beautiful green everywhere!

 

 

I know my way around Tulsa fairly well, but had never been to Cain’s Ballroom.  All I could figure was it had to be downtown.  Before we left hubby told me to look up directions just in case our phone lead us astray.  Hey it’s been known to happen.  Instead wonderful mapquest tried to lead us astray, luckily we had our handy iPhones!  oy!

 

We got there around 3, but doors didn’t open until 5.  That’s ok, we stood in the hot sun (it was 83 degrees in March) and waited, I knew it would be a packed house.  We talked to a sweet lady from here in Tulsa & her hubby who didn’t want her having to go alone, a gal from just outside Tulsa who missed her night class for this, and a sweet couple who drove in from Dodge City, KS.  {side note: you’ll see my necklace in another photo straight on… yeah I have a cute tan line from that necklace :)}

Once the doors were open you could come in and purchase books if you didn’t have any, grab a chair {if there were any left}, got a signing letter {we were group A}, and find a place to park it {or stand}.  We got front row seats.  Heck yeah!

Tiffany Poe & the Platt College Culinary Institute catered the event.  You talk about yummy.  They were all recipes from her latest cookbook.

Whiskey-Mustard Meatballs pg 112
Beef Tenderloin Sliders {couldn’t find this one}
Fancy Mac & Cheese pg 132
Pots de Creme pg 244
Citrus Butter Cookies pg 236

They also had musical entertainment starting around 5:30 by a local Tulsa Band called Bandelier

Hubby got up to go throw something away and he left me text my mom & Stef & Doti.  I was a little excited!

It was packed!

This guy must have been with Booksmart?  He introduced the band and Pioneer Woman {yes I know her name is Ree Drummond}

 

And here she comes!

She’s just as nice and funny in person as she is on her blog & her TV Show.

She welcomed us and told us that she’d prepared a slideshow to go along with her talk so that hopefully we’d take our eyes off her.  She said she was sweating so bad and so nervous that she thought she got all the paper towels out from under her shirt, but if not and we saw one fall randomly, just don’t think anything about it.

About here is where she told us they even allowed her to have a clicker 🙂

She started off her talk by saying that she never assumes anyone knows who she is, for all she knew someone could have been driving by, heard the band and stopped in to see what was happening.

Her first slide said something about January 1969 I was born.  The second slide was a photo of her and she said, And I was a girl.  The next slide she said, and I’m still a girl. ha!

She said she wanted to bring Charlie, but he needed a bath because he got into something and stunk.  She even sang to him, on stage.

We were group A, but even though we were one of the first 15 through the door, people were butting in that had letters E, etc and so we got stuck at the back of the A group.  Oh well, we got to speak with a nice lady from Miami who was there with her mother.

As we finally got closer to the front of the line 2 hours later, we spotted Cowboy Josh and hubby told me I needed to get his autograph also so I went looking through the book for his picture.  I finally found one that would do so I marked the page.

Finally, there she is!

And I actually even remembered how to talk when I got up to her.  When we went to Stillwater I apparently lost my tongue.  Isn’t my hubby cute?  I know that’s random, but I love him and he is!

So then we walked over to Cowboy Josh and asked for his signature.  It was hilarious, he’s like sure, page 42.  I was like well if I’d have known it was that easy!  Then I asked if he’d be in a picture, he said as long as he didn’t have to put his beer down. ha!

Marlboro Man was there too, of course.  I swear, he signed just as many autographs as she did.  They needed to get him a table!

The picture of him in the new cookbook is much better than his picture in the last cookbook, just sayin!  I also took my MIL’s book with me and got them signed for her also.

After we got all of our signatures, we stopped and talked to the couple from Dodge City for a while and then headed for home.  I was exhausted!  We got home and to bed around 11:30 or midnight so not too bad, but try telling my body that when Friday morning rolled around.

How was it in college I was able to go to bed at 2am and get up for 8am classes and never miss a beat?

Hubby, Thank you so much for taking me/going with me/making me go!  You are the absolute bestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestestest!  Just sayin!