The Night I Almost Met Ree Drummond

I finally feel at peace enough to talk about it.  It was a traumatic experience to say the least.  If you don't know who Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman is click on the link, spend a few weeks over there then come back.  She is my blogging idol and I want her husband, Marlboro Man.  Make sure you click on that link if nothing else - you'll be glad you did.  He's a sexy, sweaty man in chaps and he loves babies - swoon.

Anyways, it all happened on Monday, May 2nd.  I noticed that afternoon that Ree was going to be in Naperville to do a book signing for her new Children's book that very night!  OHMIGOD.  Ree was going to be so close!  She lives on a cattle ranch in the middle of Oklahoma so the chance to see her in person doesn't happen everyday.  So I texted Mom to go with me.  She said no.  I called Taylor, she said no.  I was starting to panic.  Okay who do I know that is up for anything....think Tess think....NANCY!  I texted my friend Nancy that I had worked with at the bank.  If she would go with me it would be great - I would get to go and we would laugh the whole way and say crazy things and she would sing for me.  But Nancy couldn't go either.  I was crushed.  I was resigned to my fate. 

I did say something to Dustin when he got home but he just doesn't "get it."  So I pouted around the house for a while and then went to Mom and Dads house to pout to them that everyone was ruining my life by not riding with me.  I got there a little after 7:00.  Hmmmm its only 7:00 and Ree just started singing and Naperville is about 2 hours away, surely we could make it right?!?!  I went and pounded on the bathroom door and made  The Sister get out of the tub and told her she was going with me no matter what.  Josh said he would drive us when he found out I wasn't exactly sure how to get to the interstate going through Odell...  I blame it on my parents who never let me drive out of town until I turned 18.

So while Taylor was getting dressed I called the bookstore just to be sure she would still be there by the time that we got up there.  The guy told me he couldn't guarantee she would still be signing.  Noooooooooooo!  But she was nice enough to sign one for me and the book store was nice enough to charge my credit card $39.95 for a book I already had at home.  So, totally dejected I walked home, curled up on the couch next to Dustin and shed a tear at how unfair it is that we live in the middle of nowhere and there are no book signings here.

But a couple of days later this arrived:

And made it all better.  I'll cherish it forever.  I decided to have her sign her love story Black Heels to Tractor Wheels since it was for me instead of her newest book Charlie the Ranch Dog.  I bought Charlie the Ranch Dog for Asher.  I let him look at it once but he touched it with his grubby little hand so I told him to get his own copy and put it on the top shelf in my closet.