Meeting the Pioneer Woman

So, I mentioned in my previous post that my Saturday was pretty packed. "Why?" you may ask. Well, I spent the majority of my time hanging out to meet this lovely woman.

(source photo by Bill Nygard)

The Pioneer Woman.

I have been a huge fan of her blog for the last few years and when my dear friend Kai told me she was coming to our neck of the woods to promote Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, her new book, I knew we had to go.

I had never been to a book signing, and neither had my friend, so we didn't know what to expect. To be honest though, I don't think the book store had any idea the amount of people that would turn out. They did a good job handling it though. When you arrived, you went to the checkout counter and got a color coded card for your little group. Once the signing started, they would line up two colors at a time, in ROYGBIV order. We stopped in about 3 hours before the signing was set to start and got a green card. The middle of the pack. We left, got lunch, then came back and found a spot to just sit and wait.

They gave us post-its to put in each of our books so she would know how to spell our names and how we wanted them personalized. We found a good spot, right by the front, near the register and close to window.

See way out there? Thats OSU and just the top of the Horseshoe.

Like I said, I don't think they had any idea what they were getting into. There were people everywhere.

I don't think he was there for the signing. I think he just came on a bad day.

When we were sitting near the registers, we quickly saw that the bookstore had made their way through all of the original colors for the cards they were handing out and were now handing out neon cards instead.

By the time the signing actually began, they were handing out white pieces of paper with letters on them.    This photo was right after she walked by us and up front. I came out of an aisle and almost ran into the event coordinator who was leading her through the store. Talk about a possible bad first impression.

After about an hour and half from when the signing officially started, they called our color to line up. The goal was to make it to the tile. When you made it to the tile, it was pretty much your turn.

About half way there...we were so close.

The tile! We made it!

By this point, I'm starting to get nervous.

I had all my books, ready to be signed. They had a person going through them, putting them in the correct order and making sure your post-it notes were on the right pages. Since I had never done any of this before, I was glad for the help.

And then finally, two hours into the signing, I made it. I met her! If it was possible she was even sweeter in person and it was such a great time. I complimented her manicure and asked the same questions I am sure she had heard from everyone else, but she was wonderful and nice and made me believe that she was really answering it for the first time that day. For my first book signing, I couldn't have asked for a better experience, for real.

Since I had such a wonderful time, I wanted to share the fun with you guys, especially if you haven't been able to make it to one of her books signings before.

Remember that photo of all the books I was having signed? Well, one of them was to giveaway here!

The contest will run until midnight EST on Friday, February 25th.

To get one entry, either follow my blog or follow me on twitter and leave me a comment here letting me know which one you did.

If you would like an additional entry, follow me on both, leave a comment here letting me know and tweet about the giveaway. Sample Tweet: Enter The Pioneer Woman #giveaway from @christinaherum over at http://ow.ly/40Mr4

Make sure to check back to see if you won!

Peace out *g*