Last weekend my cousin Jake told us about a recent encounter he'd had with Bronco Mendenhall. Jake said he was tying his tie next to Bronco in the temple locker room and once Jake realized who Bronco was, he went to shake his hand. He said he did that awkward continuous hand shaking thing while he thought of something to say, and all that came out was, "This is awesome!" And Bronco walked away laughing...
I had a somewhat similar experience last night...
As a preface to my night, I should mention that I am a regular reader of Ree Drummond and her Pioneer Woman website. I love and read all sections of her blog: Confessions, Cooking, Photography, Home and Garden, and sometimes Homeschooling. As some of you fellow readers know, she recently put out her first book, a cookbook of all her favorite recipes.
I love all the big pictures and colorful pages.
And I especially love that the personality seen on her blog is repeated perfectly in her book, through pages of her ranch life and her family mixed in with all the recipes. I love it. I wasn't expecting that when I bought it! Extra bonus.
Ree decided to go on a book signing tour to various cities across the nation, and last night she was in Salt Lake! So I dragged Jessica along with me to go see her...
I figured it'd be a busy event, but I had no idea that there would be 300 people waiting outside the teeny tiny King's English bookstore. (Wrong choice of venue, I'll tell you that.) I also didn't know that people had been there since 3-4pm and had gotten tickets to get in first! Apparently there were 20 tickets per letter of the alphabet from A-R who got to go in before people without tickets. FANTASTIC. They were only on D and it'd been going for 45 minutes already...
Jess and I decided to go to Starbucks since I was hungry, and I bought basically the last baked good they had left, a piece of lemon bread/cake. It was really good though! We also got hot chocolate and steamers, and went back to sit in the car for a while. An hour later we headed back up to see how things were looking at the bookstore. They were on I... We were seriously debating whether or not we were going to wait any longer...
When by some miracle this lady heard us talking about how we didn't have tickets and handed us an extra ticket she had for M! There was a girl by her with an R that sure wasn't happy about that, but I sure was happy! To make another hour and a half sound short, we finally got inside, through the tiny bookstore, and up to meet Ree!
And that was when I had my "Jake and Bronco" moment. I got up there, and didn't know what to say. I walked awkwardly up and and got out an exuberant, "Hi!" and by that time she was pretty much done signing my book... I asked for pictures with us to which she happily obliged, and then that was it. We were done. She said, "Thanks for coming ladies!" And all I could say was "Thank you!" And we were ushered down the stairs. I felt so LAME; I'd just stood there like an idiot, with nothing to say. How about, "Hi Ree! How's your hand holding up? Is Salt Lake as busy as Denver was? How do you like Utah? How 'bout this mild weather?" But no. Not even a lame weather comment or question about her cramping hand. That would've at least been better than nothing...
Oh well. She was just as beautiful and charming as I'd imagined from her website, and I got to meet her, take pictures with her, and get my book signed! Still worth it. :)
As we were leaving we stopped to talk to her mother-in-law outside who was out greeting people and who came along for the tour. She was incredibly sweet, down-to-earth, and friendly. She was more talkative than I thought she'd be. It was so easy to carry on a conversation with her. Someone asked her if she was worried about the safety/security of their ranch and her grandkids as a result of Ree's fame, and she said at first she was, but not anymore. She also said they went shopping at Gateway today cause, "Ree always needs new tops. She needs a new top all the time, you know, with all her TV appearances, she can't wear the same thing twice!" She also said they went into the bookstore at Gateway to see if it carried Ree's cookbook, and it did, with only one copy left. They were just curious to see if the book was carried there, as if they thought it was too surreal of a thought to have her book carried in a Salt Lake bookstore. How funny. I love it. Ree's mother-in-law was funny, and very genuine. We really enjoyed getting a chance to chat with her!
We didn't get back till midnight and we missed Jeff and Cody's soccer game, but it was fun to have some girl time and do a little something out of the ordinary!
Thanks Jess for coming with me and hanging out all night!
Mandy it was good to see you!
KSL news story
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=8558111
Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/arts/ci_13670962
I had a somewhat similar experience last night...
As a preface to my night, I should mention that I am a regular reader of Ree Drummond and her Pioneer Woman website. I love and read all sections of her blog: Confessions, Cooking, Photography, Home and Garden, and sometimes Homeschooling. As some of you fellow readers know, she recently put out her first book, a cookbook of all her favorite recipes.
I love all the big pictures and colorful pages.
And I especially love that the personality seen on her blog is repeated perfectly in her book, through pages of her ranch life and her family mixed in with all the recipes. I love it. I wasn't expecting that when I bought it! Extra bonus.
Ree decided to go on a book signing tour to various cities across the nation, and last night she was in Salt Lake! So I dragged Jessica along with me to go see her...
I figured it'd be a busy event, but I had no idea that there would be 300 people waiting outside the teeny tiny King's English bookstore. (Wrong choice of venue, I'll tell you that.) I also didn't know that people had been there since 3-4pm and had gotten tickets to get in first! Apparently there were 20 tickets per letter of the alphabet from A-R who got to go in before people without tickets. FANTASTIC. They were only on D and it'd been going for 45 minutes already...
Jess and I decided to go to Starbucks since I was hungry, and I bought basically the last baked good they had left, a piece of lemon bread/cake. It was really good though! We also got hot chocolate and steamers, and went back to sit in the car for a while. An hour later we headed back up to see how things were looking at the bookstore. They were on I... We were seriously debating whether or not we were going to wait any longer...
When by some miracle this lady heard us talking about how we didn't have tickets and handed us an extra ticket she had for M! There was a girl by her with an R that sure wasn't happy about that, but I sure was happy! To make another hour and a half sound short, we finally got inside, through the tiny bookstore, and up to meet Ree!
And that was when I had my "Jake and Bronco" moment. I got up there, and didn't know what to say. I walked awkwardly up and and got out an exuberant, "Hi!" and by that time she was pretty much done signing my book... I asked for pictures with us to which she happily obliged, and then that was it. We were done. She said, "Thanks for coming ladies!" And all I could say was "Thank you!" And we were ushered down the stairs. I felt so LAME; I'd just stood there like an idiot, with nothing to say. How about, "Hi Ree! How's your hand holding up? Is Salt Lake as busy as Denver was? How do you like Utah? How 'bout this mild weather?" But no. Not even a lame weather comment or question about her cramping hand. That would've at least been better than nothing...
Oh well. She was just as beautiful and charming as I'd imagined from her website, and I got to meet her, take pictures with her, and get my book signed! Still worth it. :)
As we were leaving we stopped to talk to her mother-in-law outside who was out greeting people and who came along for the tour. She was incredibly sweet, down-to-earth, and friendly. She was more talkative than I thought she'd be. It was so easy to carry on a conversation with her. Someone asked her if she was worried about the safety/security of their ranch and her grandkids as a result of Ree's fame, and she said at first she was, but not anymore. She also said they went shopping at Gateway today cause, "Ree always needs new tops. She needs a new top all the time, you know, with all her TV appearances, she can't wear the same thing twice!" She also said they went into the bookstore at Gateway to see if it carried Ree's cookbook, and it did, with only one copy left. They were just curious to see if the book was carried there, as if they thought it was too surreal of a thought to have her book carried in a Salt Lake bookstore. How funny. I love it. Ree's mother-in-law was funny, and very genuine. We really enjoyed getting a chance to chat with her!
We didn't get back till midnight and we missed Jeff and Cody's soccer game, but it was fun to have some girl time and do a little something out of the ordinary!
Thanks Jess for coming with me and hanging out all night!
Mandy it was good to see you!
KSL news story
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=8558111
Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/arts/ci_13670962
3 comments:
Cool! Definitely a once (maybe twice) in a lifetime kind of thing. I just found her website a few weeks ago and have had so much fun browsing around. Lindsey, it sounds like we need to get together. You know, hang out cuz we've got a lot in common. :) Glad you had a great night and that it was totally worth the wait! BTW, I'll bet Ree appreciated the little that was said between you two. The same questions and lame comments over and over can be so annoying.
that sounds cool! I don't know who she is, but her story sounds awesome. What is she famous for? Give me her blog!
Jealous. I wish that I wasn't working late that night!
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