I met P-Dub

When I moved to Nashville 10 years ago I thought for sure that at some point in time I would meet someone famous. You know like run into Faith Hill at the grocery store and strike up a conversation with her. Or maybe I would see Kenny Chesney at the gas station and ask him kindly if he would fill my gas tank up. Or, even better, stand behind Michael W. Smith at Starbucks so I could report back to family and friends what he likes in his coffee. Well, after all this time I have not had ANY close encounters. My husband will tell you that I get completely starstruck, even if we happen to see the local weather guy in the car beside us on the highway. To this day, all I can claim is seeing Reba McEntire at a restaurant, like across, the restaurant. Oh, and I did see George Jones picking out pillows with his wife at Steinmart. Not really anything to write home about.

So, when I found out that THE PIONEER WOMAN, (aka Ree Drummond, aka P-Dub, aka the author of that amazing blog that everyone follows) was coming to Nashville for a book signing, guess who was one of the first ones to pick up a line ticket so I could meet her? Me, of course.

Thank goodness I was "johnny-on-the-spot" with the line ticket (which ,by the way, means that I got the tickets 3 weeks ago) because by the time we got there, they were handing out tickets for group 18! My pretty purple ticket had a 3 on it. With 25 people in each group, can I just tell you how thankful I am that sometimes my pre-pre-pre-planning isn't so bad?

Mike indulged me and went with us. I think he was secretly hoping for some cattle and cowboy stories. When I asked him if he was having fun he said, and I quote, "of course, because a room full of woman bloggers is where I feel the most comfortable." I told him it was a HUGE deposit in my emotional bank account.

The place was packed out. These pictures don't really show how many people were there, but let me tell you there is nothing like trying to herd hundreds of woman around the basement of a bookstore.

Oh look! There she is. Her sister, Betsy, and her friend, Hyacinth were there as well. They all looked like they could be on the cover of a fashion magazine. At this point my heart started to beat faster and I got nervous. Then, I completely blanked.

By the time it was my turn, my mind turned to mush.

Do I tell her that her chicken scallopine is the best ever?

What about telling her that my sister has had a difficult time making the icing for her chocolate sheet cake?

And those horses...does she ever let anyone just borrow one?

Should I tell her that I had a dog once named Charlie?

Or better yet, can we come to the Lodge and will you make us your cinnamon rolls?

I could have only hoped it would have gone that well.

I think I told her that we were glad she came to Nashville and that it was so nice to meet her.

My mind then got further jumbled up when she opened up my cookbook and saw 2 post-it notes, one with my name and one with my sister's (while in line a bookseller came by and put your name on the post-it so that she would know who she was signing the book for). Since my sister lives in Ohio I had her just sign the post-it note for my sister so that she could stick it in her own copy. Anyway, I had to remember, am I Sarah or Christy? Sarah. Okay, next sentence.

Uh....uh....so um....yeah...I don't think it really went quite like that, but after it was all said and done, I ran the entire minute and a half through my mind and thought, really Sarah, you couldn't come up with anything better than that?

Anna Claire thought she was wonderful and turns out to be a much better conversationalist than I am.