How I didn’t get to see Pioneer Woman

Last nite DH and I went over to Powell’s at Cedar Crossing to see Pioneer Woman and get her new cookbook signed…

alas, there were well over 4oo people there and they had given out all the tickets…which I didn’t know about until it was too late to get them, seeing as how they were gone by 3pm and the book signing was for 6pm.

So we hung back in the crowd and watched the guy announce that Pioneer Woman was lost and going to be late…

I don’t know if you can make him out, he’s in the olive green t-shirt checking his wrist watch.  So we waited (while I wonder at how the Unbelievably Wonderful Pioneer Woman is allowed to navigate Portland/Beaverton on her own in a car and why wasn’t someone looking out for her?)

Finally she comes and brings her daughter and mother in law with her…I spy her daughter in the back of the crowd while she talks so I snap a pix because I can’t even see Pioneer Woman through the crowd.

see that tall girl with the pony tail and the blue shirt with flowers?  that’s her.  and I don’t know her name.

I sit on the steps and knit and listen to the Pioneer Woman talk and wonder how long I may have to wait before I get my book signed.  DH nods off beside my and I have to nudge him now and then.  (He gets up at 4:30am and is ready for bed already, but being good-hearted he takes me to this…this crowd of women all wanting to see Her.)

The guy in the olive green shirt announces the ticket system, and explains how we will wait until numbers are called, and the rest of us…well, shoot.  I move over to a seat just outside the window of Powell’s.

Chris works his way through the crowd to actually purchase us a book.  I can see his head bobbing way above everyone in the crowd and can watch his progress.  (DH is 6’4″ tall, easily recognizable in a crowd!)

He comes back with “The Pioneer Woman Cooks” and tells me the info he picked up while chatting with the clerks.  He says the were to initially  order 650 copies of the book and within the first three days, had gone through 1,000 wanting the book.   He says the guy planning this didn’t think it would be so many people, he had no idea how popular the Pioneer Woman is.  I told him that was obvious.

My friend Rachel (Trtgrl) was there somewhere but we never saw each other.  I hope she got her book signed.  I waited until they announced numbers 90-100 and when I realized it was 7:30 already, decided to give up and let DH go home to bed, where he wanted to be.

If they had 400 to go through and it took until 7:30 to get through the first 100, it would be midnite before it was my turn.  Before I left, I came to realize that the Pioneer Woman’s daughter had ended up sitting with her back to me on the other side of the glass, so I snapped a quick pix.

Notice the book at her elbow, eh?  “The Old Barn Book”.  Coming from a ranch in Oklahoma, I wonder if that was intentional or serendipitous?

I elbowed my way alongside the line a little ways and attempted to snap a pix of Rhee, The Pioneer Woman herself at the book signing table.  I came all this way, waited all this time, the least I could do is try to get one unobtrusive pix.

So that’s as close as I got folks.  I took the book home and started a batch of  herCinnamon Rolls.

It was the least I could do.

Inside the guide

Here is an example from The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery.
The author likes to take photos, rough them up and create artwork around them.

This pix is just right for our day and time.

Altered Art Inspiration

It says its a complete guide…well it has some great ideas and inspiration, however, I would not call it complete.   That being said, it has parked beside my nightstand several times while I perused it for new ideas to try.

The Shack

Dad gave both Melissa and I a copy of this because it apparently is the best book ever.   He seldom gets excited about things like books, and I can’t recall that he has ever bought another brand new copy to give away, because it’s that good, so it must be…really good.

Now, I have to be honest and admit that I have really struggled to even read this book;  or to keep reading it and to pick it back up again after I came to a complete stop for weeks.

So, what I am reading is a conversation between the author’s version of God and the main character, who is really struggling with the whole “God” thing.

Or Faith, or belief.  Whatever you call it.  He is struggling with it.  I am struggling with it.  Really, aren’t we all?

Just like me.   Just like where I am at.  With so much disappointment and hurt, I often have trouble believing the whole “God is good” thing.   And then I doubt.   Boy, do I doubt.

Then I came to this conversation about a bird and the difference between the bird flying or not flying:

“It would be like this bird, whose nature it is to fly, choosing only to walk and remain grounded. He doesn’t stop being bird, but it does alter his experience of life significantly.”

He doesn’t stop being the bird…well, that got me, right there.  I could just here Him say to me, “Just as you haven’t stopped being Rebecca.”

Even with all the life altering crappy experiences? Even though I have been grounded?  Could barely walk even?  I am still Rebecca and I still possess the capability of flight.  EVEN though my life has been significantly altered!

Ok, so I bared my soul, don’t laugh, but it is a comfort to me to know that I am still Rebecca because I was afraid she was lost.  I was afraid she would be grounded for life, never fly again, never be fully Rebecca.

ATC Book

Here’s my latest reading material, I joined a couple of ATC and Altered Art groups and am exploring a new creative thing for me.

I am signed up for two swaps right now: one with my fellow knitters on Ravelry with a Nature Theme and one with Yahoo Groups ATC’s on orange and pinks together.

I nabbed some stuff from my sister for the orange and pinks since we are already working with those colors for Sarah’s new “Big Girl” room. So when I saw the Orange and Pink Open Swap, of course I had to sign up!

Good Read

Of course I am partial to anything historical and cultural, because I find other people lives pretty interesting…most of the time.
Evelyn Cameron qualifies as a very interesting person, living in a very interesting time. This book kept me up several nights; between reading the journal excerpts and looking at the pictures, there was always something engaging.

She was a British ex-pat and moved to homestead land in the earliest days of Montana settlement.  She religiously kept journals of her life and experiences and took up photography as both a way of recording it and to earn some money.

Anne of Green Gables

Joined a “All things Anne” group on Ravelry and was inspired to read this timeless series again. Had to go to the garage and shift some boxes to pull out my set, and now am happily absorbed in the reading of all eight of them!

Walking the Bible

I am currently reading this fantastic story from Bruce Feiler, “Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land through the Five Books of Moses”.  Bruce teams up with an an archaeologist, and tries to visit all the places he can locate, as closely as he can locate.  The book is part story, part history, part archeology, part literary and part geography all blended together in with such insightful perspective, that you start to experience the trip with him.   I like how he intertwines his story, with the history, with the facts.

Here they were having a discussion about the improbability of some of the biblical numbers:

“The point is…that the Israelites had a different sense of history than we do.  They weren’t trying to record facts objectively.  They were trying to tell a story, and let the facts support the story.”

I think that very often in ancient cultures, the symbolism was more important than the facts…people across thousands of years understand symbolic meanings…the Bible isn’t journalism, its a story.

Do we want to spend our time arguing over whether 600 thousand men plus women and children really crossed the Red Sea, and was it really the Red Sea? or somewhere else?  If you do, you might miss the point of the story which is:  a really, really large number of people crossed thru the middle of a sea, on dry land!  And that is about God, and what He can do, and that is the point of the stories in the Bible.

on the knitting sutra

re-reading for third time, “The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice” by Susan Gordon Lydon.

It is on of those books that strikes me differently each time I am reading, depending on where I am at with my own crafts and spiritual practices.  Although I still think she rambles all over the place…and then…amoungst the ramblings she nails it.

like her explaination on why crafts (particularly fabric and yarn crafts) are so fascinating:

…”the work lives and thrives in your imagination for a long time, providing pleasure and excitement far beyon its usefulness when finished.”

and her reason why she still adores the craft of knitting above all other crafts:

“I often describe myself as someone with a low boredom threshold, which is one reason I like to knit, as my passion is portable and may be performed anywhere.”

This is also what I like about knitting, that it is so portable and can be done anywhere.  I am always surprised when I knit in a coffee shop how often the MEN come up to me and comment on what it is that I am doing.  My theory is that MEN just are drawn to women performing domestic activities, just like they seem to always be drawn to a women cooking in the kitchen….and knitting just looks so darn domestic.

on the nightstand

as stated in verse of the week post:

“Beyond Our Selves: a woman’s pilgrimage in faith”  by Catherine Marshall

and  “The Case for a Creator: A journalist investigates scientific evidence that points toward God” by Lee Strobel.

Beyond Our Selves I am now reading for the 3rd time, as I am in my own sort of pilgrimage of faith. or crisis, or something.  I have found Catherine Marshall to have great combo of compassion and truthful insight, and I really appreciate her candor.

The Case for the Creator I have picked up and read on and off since it first appeared in my local bible bookstore, it is very good information, and very well researched as all of Strobel’s books are.

Yesterday, my good friend Tami asked me what I was reading and when we were done answering each other I realized I have not read any fiction in quite some time…does that make me a “heavy” reader or what?