P-Dub and the Marlboro Man

Well, I feel exceptionally behind on our blog.  Not that it's been a long time since I updated.  Simply because we had so many things going on this weekend, and it really doesn't seem like I should lump it all together.  So, I think I'm going to break it up a bit!  This post will have to cover my Friday night!

Thanks to my good friend Jenny, I found out last week that the Pioneer Woman was coming to Davis-Kidd Books in Memphis on Friday night to sign her new book Black Heels to Tractor Wheels which I'd heard about and planned on purchasing, but hadn't yet.  Not knowing anyone in Memphis who wanted to go or anything about it, I decided to go alone since the Book store is literally five minutes from my house. Maybe ten if you get stuck trying to cross Poplar.  For the record, my hubby did offer to go with me, but he needed to spend his Friday night "seasoning" our "new" cast iron grill so that we could grill out for his parent's Saturday night (more on that in another post).  And by "seasoning," I mean letting it roast for four hours.  And by "new," I mean his Christmas present from 2009 that was put together in our living room on Tuesday night of last week.  

Anyway, off I went to Davis-Kidd to grab a copy of my new best friend's P-Dub's book.  I assumed there would be a line, I'd jump in and be home by 8pm at the latest!  Just in time to help David finish off the grill.  Much to my surprise, no one was in line.  People were walking around the store everywhere, chatting, taking pictures, and holding copies of her cookbook and book.  I'm the kind of person that likes to survey the situation before rushing into something that will make me look foolish. I guess you could say, I'm overly cautious in new situations.  I searched all over the store to buy a book.  I could find NONE.  There were plenty of cookbooks, but no books to be found.  For a split second, I considered calling David and saying, "quick, run to another book store, buy me a book, and bring it here!"  But upon walking back to the front, I saw a table with about 10 books sitting on it.  TEN!  It was 6:03pm at this point and they were down to ten!  I grabbed one, bought it, and asked how this thing worked!  He gave me a "wow...where have you been look," and told me that there was a line ticket stuck in the book.  Great I thought as I walked back towards the center of the bookstore.  I pulled it out to see the letter.......Q.  As in Quilt. As in Question...do I really have to wait this long?  Maybe they were starting with the letter P for Pioneer Woman.  Or M for her hunky hubby Marlboro Man (more on that later).  SURELY, by the letter Q, they didn't mean we'd be starting with the letter A. There weren't THAT many people here!  

As I walked towards the middle of the bookstore, I spotted a cowboy hat.  That cowboy hat was a man dressed in a denim shirt, wranglers, and boots.  And of course, none other than Marlboro Man.  For you non-reading Pioneer Woman people, that would be her hubby and the reason she left her big town, city dreams to pursue a life on the ranch with horses and cattle.  He was covered up with crazed excited fans wanting photos and autographs.  I thought to myself, "I'll just wait till his line dies down and go meet him," and "I'm sure he thinks we're all whack jobs anyway for coming out here to meet his rancher wife."  And finally "bless his heart for coming all this way to be mobbed by married women in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and yes, even 60s."  There were grandmothers getting their picture taken with him.  Pardon me, but I felt a little cheesy waiting in line for another woman's husband. So I didn't.

I went to the front where Pioneer Woman was signing books for her loyal, and plentiful, followers of Memphis.  A nice lady who worked for Davis-Kidd was collecting the three books they had on display on the table she was signing from.  Five minutes later, and I wouldn't have had a chance to purchase the book!  Thank goodness my house was only five minutes away.  I stood there as it took 45 minutes to get through the letter A.  Yup, crazy as it may sound, they had started with the first letter of the alphabet!  I thought, hm...I can stand here and watch and make my back hurt worse than it already does---I'd been prepping for 4 hours that day to get ready for my inlaws coming to dinner.  Okay...maybe not four hours, but it involved an hour and a half grocery store run {you know me..I can't get out any faster!} and making a pie, sauce for the chicken we were making, and cleaning my house.  So yes, 4 hours.  So back to my thinking.  Stand here and make my back hurt or go find a corner to sit in.  I walked towards the history books and found an unused bench.  I thought, well, since I've already bought the book and plan on reading it, I might as well start now.  

So I began to read into Pioneer Woman's world.  Her first dates with the Marlboro Man, whom I'd just seen at a distance moments before.  I read chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3.  All of a sudden, I looked up, and I was on chapter 8.  Crazy.  I looked up to hear them call letter D.  Then I sent David a text and told him he could join me after the 4 hours of roasting the grill and making it "seasoned."  In the meantime, a husband and wife had joined me in my hidden world of the history books.  She saw me look up and asked what letter I was.  She was K.  It was like a battle to see who would get to go first, and I'd just been defeated.  


Now, at this point, I just want to say...you who know me know that I could talk to a brick wall.  True.  But for the next two hours, I started talking to this woman and her husband piecing together every possible way that we could know each other, and talking about the wonderful ways God has been at work in our lives and marriages.  For a girl who sure needs new friends in this town, it was wonderful to meet such a fun new friend.   I'm not going to put up her name or any of the ways we figured out connections, but I know at least one of my readers knows her.  I'm sure she probably wouldn't appreciate us putting her name up, but I just wanted to show you a picture of a girl who could hang with me on talking!  It definitely made the wait worthwhile, and honestly, gave me reassurance that God had a plan for putting me at letter Q!

 My new friend and I in the history section

They called my new friend's letter, and I was back to reading alone.  I picked up my phone and called one of the people we had spent an hour talking about and caught up with her.  When I hung up the phone, I popped out of my secluded corner to see what letter they were on.  My luck, they'd have made it through the letters and be on 13 by now.  However, my new friend did share with me that they had been giving out line tickets for 2 weeks now.  Explains my 6:00pm letter Q.

I walked around the corner and saw my friend and her husband talking to none other than Marlboro Man.  The one and only. So I went over to where they were and met the man himself.  For the record, his voice is just like PW describes it in her book.  He was so nice and down to earth.  I mean think about it.  He's just a rancher man who happens to be famous in the lives of millions of women worldwide.  But you'd never know it.  We spent about 30 minutes with him telling us about cows.  Yup, cows.  I learned about protein cubes and grass losing it's nutrients in the winter.  He talked about Cowboy Josh like he was a person and not just some figurative character PW had made up on her blog.  He talked about how laid back it was for his kids to grow up on the ranch and how everything his wife put on the internet was all true.  We told him to go eat ribs at the Rendezvous since they were staying downtown.  Even if it was midnight before they could get there!  Then I asked him to sign my book and take a picture with me.  He was so nice and it definitely gave me perspective in reading her book since it's mostly all about him!

Yes, Marlboro Man is drinking beer in a bookstore.  A strangely familiar guy in an MSU shirt walked by and MM said, "hey man, thanks for the beer."  Haha.  Priceless.  I never did figure out who it was, but I was glad he had worn his maroon for maroon Friday as I had not.

FINALLY, they called letter Q.  FINALLY.  And right after they did, they said, actually if you have any other letter, go ahead and line up!  SERIOUSLY?  It was 10pm.  Not kidding.

This is my photo with Ree (that's her real name).  She was so nice and down to earth, and I'm glad I stayed to meet her.  No offense P-dub, but I could care less about the autograph.  I just wanted the chance to ACTUALLY meet you, and I got so much more than that out of my evening at Davis-Kidd books.

I arrived home at about 10:15pm to my handsome hubby in the driveway still working with the grill.  I helped him clean up {some}, and we came inside and set in our {finally} organized office.  This is how our Friday evening ended. 

You know you think she's precious!

Looking at me like, "seriously mom?"

 And that ends my eventful evening with the Pioneer Woman and Marlboro Man.


*Somehow, by the end of this weekend, I'd managed to make it through 2 parts of her 3 part book already, and I've barely had time to sit and read.  I would recommend this book to anyone!