Nice That Way

My bud, Ree, the Pioneer Woman was in Lake Forest Park yesterday and I was too. Ree always says, if you send me an email or a comment, even if I don't respond, you're my bud. I kinda feel like we're best friends. I wanted to meet her and have her sign my copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Leslie, Holly and Kelly and myself left town shortly after noon. I say shortly after because Kelly was a little late. Her children were crying, as she was trying to make a run for it. They couldn't find their socks. She had to go back and find her punks their socks. Then we had to stop in town because Kelly had to buy Ree's book locally. She feels pretty strongly about the shop local thing. Kelly is nice that way.

At this point, I decided Kelly maybe didn't get the urgency of seeing P-Dub.

So, we get on I-5 and 40 miles down the road we all shared our childbirth stories. Women just do that sometimes, we can't help it. Leslie had one of her babies in the doctor's office. We laughed, she shared, Leslie is nice that way.

I drove straight to Third Place Books. Holly has lived in Lake Forest Park so she navigated. She later bought my dinner when I thought I lost my wallet. Holly is nice that way.

We got our tickets, we were in the E group. Fifty in each group and the A's started lining up at 4:30. So we went to Alderwood Mall and shopped for a few hours.

After shopping or sipping at Starbucks we went back to Third Place Books. Checked out the line situation, and had dinner. They have five restaurants in the bookstore. This was very convenient as we were starving at this point.

We used the photo booth so we could give Ree a picture to remember us by. You may be wondering just how all four of us fit into the photo booth. Not very well. A sweet woman came up to us and told us she would be happy to take a picture of the four of us outside the photo booth. She was real nice that way.

While we were waiting we shopped around and visited with other Ree fans. Some of the women brought their babies. Ree loves babies and we saw some darling babies. We referred to these women as cheaters. Using their babies, like that! Not that I wasn't above asking Max to come with me. He growled at me. I left him at home and it was probably better that way. But he is my baby and he is cute. I don't have a picture of him growling, just a nice random shot.

We milled around, read books, chatted and waited. Kelly overheard a conversation and had to speak up and get involved. She's nice that way, helping people out and all.

So, they called the E's and we got in line and it was HoTTer than you know where. It was hot, not even including hot flashes! We were all wishing we had paper towels for our underarms. That's what Ree uses in nervous hot situations. We had all put some thought into what we were wearing. I had served at the LC pancake breakfast that morning, came home and took another shower so I would not smell like pancakes. As it turned out, pancakes would have been preferable. We had gotten caught in the rain so there were hair issues too. Sometimes the best laid plans...

Then we got nervous. What would we talk about with Ree?

Uh, hello, we forgot she is our bud and women never run out of words! So, we talked about punks, her recipes, spanxs and Kelly shared the conversation she had gotten involved in earlier, which I will share with all of you.

Kelly's conversation. A young couple is talking about the crowds while looking at Ree's book, and Kelly is eavesdropping.
Girlfriend- "She was a vegetarian."
Guy- "Is she still a vegetarian?"
Pause
Kelly- "No, she's not."
Guy- "So, all these people are here celebrating that?"
Kelly- "yep, pretty much."
Guy- "That's disgusting!"
He is outraged. Kelly is laughing. Obviously, this guy has never eaten Ree's recipe for rib eye steak with whiskey sauce. Kelly gets it because she was a vegetarian. That is until one day, while pregnant with Riley, she grabbed a burger out of Robb's hands and chowed down. Kelly really gets it, the reformed meat eater thing, that is. Of course, being the steak lovers that we are, we thought this was funny stuff.


Ree is a very sincere woman. She is very gracious and pretty. And she helped me figure out what size spanx I should buy. That's a good friend. Ree is nice that way.

We met up with Ree's oldest punk, Alex, she signed our books and chatted. She got to come with her mom to Seattle because she was the only punk without a soccer game this weekend.

She showed us her boots, posed for pictures and told us she had a fun day at Pike Street Market. It was a pleasure to meet her.

I came home so thankful for these women in my life. Leslie, Holly, Kelly and myself talked, laughed, and giggled all day. I learned more about each of them. It was the kind of day where you get home, fall into bed and drift off thinking about just how good life really is.

It was nice that way...