Like I said, there were about a million people at the signing. I sort of wondered around for a little bit and ran into Leisa, Angie, Jessica, and met Keely. Then I took Libbie into the children's section where I hoped she'd be able to run around for a bit. There, I discovered some key things:
1. Davis-Kidd has an incredible children's play area. If Libbie has been a little bit older, she would have been in child heaven. She did enjoy wandering around and sitting in the child-sized chairs.
2. Janna, my coworker's daughter-in-law, and her daughter were playing right there too!
3. I found out there were 25 people in each group. I was in group 13. Hence, there were at least 300 people in front of me in line. And the signing was due to start right at Libbie's bedtime. YIKES.
BY THE GRACE OF GOD ALONE, Karen stopped me as I was leaving the children's area, slightly befuddled as to what to do. She gave me a ticket for group 4 that she had. Shortly after that, they had groups 1-4 line up. I was the last person in group 4, but I was there, right behind Karen and her daughter "Munchkin."
I really thought The Pioneer Woman was going to give a short talk/reading like she had at her other signings, but apparently Davis-Kidd was just not anticipating the number of women that showed up. So all we got to hear was a short "hello" from P-Dub and then the signing began.
As we inched along slowly, Karen and I chatted with Rachael, who was right ahead of us, and Munchkin entertained Libbie, much to my delight. According to Munchkin, they even made up a special "footshake."
The only other eventful thing that happened in the hour we waited to reach PW was I went to the cafe inside Davis-Kidd to try to get Libbie some plain, cold, whole milk. Which cost $2.50 and took 15 minutes for someone to get me (sigh). But someone actually recognized me from the blog! I think her name was Heather--so Heather, if you're reading this, please leave me your blog address if you have one! I love to read stuff from locals! UPDATE: Heather writes for Nashville Foodies! Great local restaurant reviews if you're in Nashville. Had I thought to ask her, I would have found out that I read her blog, too!
So we finally arrived at the Table of the Signing. I believe what I said to PW was, "I brought you a whiny baby. Want to take her?" She just said, "Thanks," but didn't take the little one off my hands, and we took our little picture. UPDATE: PW herself apparently read this and actually sent me a Twitter reply! She says she would have never refused to hold a baby. Maybe I didn't say this, or maybe I didn't speak clearly enough. It WAS loud in there. As this was totally spur-of-the-moment for me, I didn't even have my own camera and had to ask Karen to take the picture. Unfortunately we were all a little flustered and the best we got was this:
But I did talk to Betsy, Ree's sister, who asked me how old Libbie was and said her son (a few months older than L) would have been zonked by then!
So, to sum it all up, I give you the following:
--I met the Pioneer Woman and she signed her cookbook, which I paid way more than the Amazon price for because you had to buy one to get a ticket. (How's that for a run on? I'm tired. And cold.)
--I met some really fun new-to-me bloggers
--I was bummed that PW did not speak, and I probably would not have gone had I known it was going to be like that
--I got soaked, but I did get a new sweater, pair of pants, and shoes out of that deal!
--It was certainly an experience, if nothing else.
Amen and The End.
Pictures by Karen at Our Crazy Blessed Life.
