The Pioneer Woman

Some of you may know her, most probably don't.  You may have noticed that I have a link on my blog to the Pioneer Woman.  Her name is Ree Drummond and she's an Oklahoma housewife who started a blog about cooking, her self-taught photography, homeschooling her 4 children, and her general life living on a working cattle ranch.  She started out publishing cooking books, then a biography, and recently a children's book.  She's a frequent step-in for the Today Show, she's done a Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and it was recently announced that she's getting her own TV show on Food Network.  As if that wasn't enough, Columbia pictures is currently developing "The Pioneer Woman" movie that's going to be a romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon.

Anyway, a friend turned me onto Pioneer Woman because of her photography, but I quickly gained an appreciation for the woman.  She's obviously a very enterprising lady that's managed to make a career out of just living her life, and to think it all started with a blog.  So, when I found out that The Pioneer Woman was coming to Houston for a book signing of her new children's book, a friend and I decided to drop in.

The book signing was at a very, very small local book store called the Blue Willow that was no more than 20 miles from our house.  I wouldn't say there was a massive crowd, but I would estimate there were a couple hundred people who showed up to have books signed, maybe 300.  We called in early and got line tickets, so we showed up, grabbed our line tickets, and then leisurely browsed through some of the neighboring shops while we waited for our group to be called.  The store was so small, that they could only allow about 20 people in at a time.  The actually signing started at 5 pm.  We showed up around 6:15 pm, shopped awhile, chatted awhile, and were in the store by 7:15 pm.  So it was really enjoyable and not the miserable waiting in line that I was expecting.  Several moms were there with their children.  Shellie and I opted to leave the kids behind and make it a girls outing.  This was one reason it was enjoyable, because I'm certain the moms that were there with children weren't as relaxed as we were!

We had seven books to sign, so we had a few minutes to chat.  She's seemed very personable and we chatted about her photography and cooking.  She asked about where in Houston we were from.  It was what I expected of 3 minutes conversation with a total celebrity stranger.  But, I'm glad we went.  This is my only celebrity encounter, except for meeting Mike Tyson while waiting for my vallet at the Four Season in Downtown Houston.

She was very sweet and signed Love to Brenna in the book.  The book is called Charlie the Ranch Dog and is about her lovable basset hound on the ranch.  I was excited to get home and read the book to Brenna that night.  My first indication that the book may not live up to expectations came when my daughter, who never says no to reading a book, took one look at the cover and said "Let's read it tomorrow."  I was tired, so I agreed.  The next night, we snuggled up and read it.  Lets just say that Ree should stick to photography and cooking and leave the children's books to Dr. Seuss.