Stalking Meeting the Pioneer Woman

I do not remember how I first discovered the Pioneer Woman. I think I just randomly stumbled across her one day out in the blogosphere and have since been regularly laughing at her confessions, trying her recipes and sighing over her photography. When she published a cookbook I ran out and bought it. When she announced a book tour I waited for her to come to Portland. She did not. Then about a month ago she announced Spring mini book tour and this time Portland was on the itinerary!

Monday night I grabbed my friend Karla and we headed over to Powell's book store, cookbooks in hand ready to meet the ranch wife turned biggest blogger on the block. It started at 6:00 and we figured in about 30 minutes to spare in case it was crowded. Alas, we underestimated PW. There were easily 400 people there. The front entrance to Powell's was packed, people spilling out into the mall entrance. Which was exactly where we ended up. On the steps in the mall looking out over this scene.

Not only that but there were tickets. Tickets! I obviously have not attended enough book signings. They started handing out tickets at 4:30 and stopped at 300. Clearly I was not going to get my book signed, but it was still fun to be there. She was running a little late and I was bemoaning the fact that I was not going to get any closer to her than this when she entered through the mall and walked right by us. My camera was not out of course. I got a picture of the back of her head as she walked by. She did a quick little Q&A session. She is very funny and down to earth and feels just like she could be your next door neighbor.

At about 6:45 they started lining people up to get their books signed. 10 tickets at a time. We had no tickets. But how long could it possibly take? We wandered out into the mall. We got a coke. We visited the apple store. We went home. Karla had a baby to feed. I was feeling conflicted about being with the rest of my family at Cole's baseball game on Danford's last night in town. Not to mention I had to get up at 4:00am to take Danford to the airport. But I wanted my book signed.

Heck, we decided to go back an hour later. The crowds must have thinned out by now, right? Not. They were only half way through the tickets. But there were now empty chairs. So we settled in for the wait. As I was sitting there I realized the extent of this woman's popularity. There were people there from miles around. People who drove hours to see her. With small children. And very supportive husbands. People who still had long drives ahead of them to get back home. And here I was 10 minutes from home. What was I complaining about, I could wait. And wait we did.

11:00pm - I got my book signed!