This is my friend, Layla. She is one of the friends I have made here in the great land of Seattle.

This is a line Layla and I waited to get into for 5 hours the other night so that we could see Pioneer Woman. I learned about Pioneer Woman the day before she came to Lake Forest Park for a book signing. Since learning about her, I have read her love story (awesome) and have been inspired by her down-to-earth personality.

Layla tells the story of what happened when we finally got to SEE Ree Drummond. As you’ll read in her account, we found ourselves to be amazingly polished at meeting celebrities. Between Layla telling Pioneer Woman, “Well, you better hurry!” when the poor lady dashed off to a bathroom break before signing our books and me telling her, “You’re….[10 second pause]……welcome,” when she told us thank you for waiting so patiently so long (hey, the girls before us had used the line, “Aw, you’re so worth it!” and she’d told them very humbly, “No, I’m not…” – I just didn’t want her to have to repeat herself and think we were copy-cats!), I’m still surprised she was kind enough to let us have our picture taken with her.

And here I am with Pioneer Woman. Well, perhaps saying, “…with Pioneer Woman,” is stretching it a little bit, considering I’m about two feet away. It might be more appropriate to say that Pioneer Woman and I ended up being in the same picture.