Lauren from Texas

Happy Friday! My plans after work include: a trip to the vet for shots (not excited, it always makes me sad to see my puppies so scared!), then dinner & maybe a movie with my friend Corlene tonight. I kind of want to see Valentine’s Day, is that terrible of me?

Tomorrow a few of the Houston bloggers (& one Dallas blogger who will be in town) are getting together for a meetup – because what’s more fun than brunch & bloggers?! If you’re in the area, & you’re free tomorrow around 11am, email me & I’ll send you the details: laurenfromtexas[at]gmail[dot]com. DO IT.

Sunday might include a trip to the middle of nowhere, Texas. Mama Gooch‘s parents are in town again, & they’re dying to head to a little town not too far away where they heard there is a restaurant that serves chicken fried bacon. Although I can feel my arteries screaming in protest, I might just have to go anyway; it sounds like quite the adventure. Pictures will definitely be happening.

Be sure to come back here Monday – my sister & I recorded the answers to the Q&A – Ask the Sister questions & I’ll be posting the video Monday morning. We talk about the worst trouble we got into together & reenact a scene from one of our favorite movies. It’s pretty much a hilarious train wreck. You don’t want to miss it.

Have a beautiful weekend everyone! What are your weekend plans?

The rumors are true. I did, indeed, meet The Pioneer Woman, and the experience was, as she would say, “blogworthy.”

The morning began with me trying to decide what to wear. What do you wear when you meet a blog celebrity? One of the most famous bloggers of all time? Who tweeted you a week before?

Cowboy boots, of course.

With the perfect outfit selected and my hair in place acting all crazy, I set out for my long journey. I drove and drove and drove a little more. The roads were nuts. I was texting Chelsea, who told me part of I-45 was closed down. Excuse me, what? Needless to say, we were a little later than planned. Our scheduled time of arrival was 11:00. By the time we got there at 11:30, the place was already filling up quickly. I had to stand in a very long line to get my cookbook. While I stood there, I noticed this Dutch oven:

But I was too nervous to write down a question. What if my question was picked? What if she thought it was dumb? No. I couldn’t.

Chelsea’s friend Kelly said to us, “My question is, ‘How many Dutch ovens do you have?’” Ooh, good one. I wish I’d thought of that. Maybe then she’d give me that one. I need one.

After I got my book, we saved ourselves some seats (so far Kathleen, Chelsea, Kelly, and I had met up). I was craning my neck, looking around for other bloggers in a room that was rapidly beginning to like a sold-out rock concert. You know, if you replaced the scary black-eyelinered people with stay-at-home-moms.

We had some lunch and waited. Then we waited a little more. We were all getting antsy and jittery when suddenly, the crowd went wild. Ree had arrived!

She answered some questions and said something hilarious about Marlboro Man going commando. You have to love this woman. She’s strikingly gorgeous, yet not afraid to tell you about her sweaty Spanx. I adored her instantly.

Then we waited until it was our turn to get in line to get our books signed. We had red tickets, which meant we were in the third group to meet Ree. There were a lot of groups. They told the last group to prepare themselves to be there until 6pm or so. Listen, meeting the Pioneer Woman is a big deal!

We bumped into Taryn!

“No paparazzi, please.”

Cheesing it. Also, how cute is Darla on her pink cell phone?!

The closer we got to Ree, the more nervous I became. My hands were sweaty, my heart was beating a hundred miles a minute, and I had butterflies in my stomach. I was 10 people away. 5 people away. OHMYGOSH ONE PERSON AWAY.

Me: “Hi. IloveyouItweetedyouonthenightbeforeThanksgivingbecauseIranoutofcocoaandyoutweetedmebackanditwasmazing.”

Ree: “Oh yeah? What did I say?”

Me: (sweating profusely) “You said, ‘I’ve been there more times than I care to admit.’”

Ree: “Oh yes! I remember. Sorry I didn’t offer you much help.”

Then we chatted for about 2 more seconds and she signed my book. Then I threw my arms around her and we took a picture. And I wanted to hug her and braid her hair and make friendship bracelets with her. But I couldn’t. There were other people behind me, after all. So I graciously moved along. But for the next hour or so, I was on a high. I had just met The Pioneer Woman! And she kind of halfway remembered my tweet! Life was too sweet!

I tried to explain it to Michael like this:

Me: “It would be like if you met a sports star.”

Michael: “Like who? Kobe?”

Me: “Sure. She is to me like Kobe is to you.”

Michael: “Honey, that’s not even the same thing. She’s not as famous as Kobe!”

Me: “TO ME SHE IS.”

It was a wonderful day. I left with a fabulous cookbook, a free (and cute) T-shirt, and a huge smile on my face. But more than that, I was reminded anew that this thing, this “blogging thing” that most people don’t “understand,” and they don’t know why I want to spend all this time blogging and sharing my life with complete strangers, and they just don’t get why it means so much to me – blogging is serious business! Pioneer Woman isn’t famous because she is a supermodel (although she could be, she’s so gorgeous!) or an actress or invented the cure for a disease. She’s famous because one day she decided hey, maybe I’ll write stories about my life and cooking and put them on a blog, and throw some pictures in there for good measure. And now, 12 million page views per month (give or take) later, she is a celebrity. A blog celebrity. And that makes this small town girl with a blog from Texas smile.

One last thing. As I was sitting around, waiting to meet Ree, I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned around, and there stood a lovely young woman whom I didn’t recognize. She told me she found my blog on Google (her name is also Lauren and she’s from Texas, so there you go!) and is now a reader. She recognized me and wanted to introduce herself. I freaked out (geeked out is more like it), hugged her, and probably made a fool out of myself and/or creeped her out. I’m all, “A blog fan who found me completely at random and then recognized me in public!” I mean, when you put it in the perspective of The Pioneer Woman and Dooce, maybe it’s nothing. But for me, it meant a lot and I’m so glad the other Lauren from Texas decided to say hi.

xo

[via]

Houston Blogger Meet-Up/Girls Night Out!

October 30th, 2009

7:30pm

Location: Gravitas Restaurant (click for more info, location, menu, etc.)

I’ve reserved a couple tables in the SideBar. Marissa, the Event Coordinator at Gravitas, has generously offered our group their happy hour special drink pricing for the entirety of our event.

Please leave comments (or send me an email: laurenfromtexas(at)gmail(dot)com) and let me know if you’re coming, and what time you’ll be able to make it. I told Marissa we’d probably have a few people coming and going throughout the evening.

Looking forward to meeting/seeing everyone there!

xo

Sorry I haven’t updated for a few days. I’ve been busy sleeping, being miserable, watching hours of Arrested Development and How I Met Your Mother, drinking Slim-Fast, and putting ice packs on my swollen face. I can’t say I’ve minded the guilt-free excessive television watching and ice cream eating, but otherwise, this whole wisdom teeth thing has really sucked. I’ve been in a lot of pain, and pretty out of it. I was hoping to have lots of time to catch up on blogging and reading/commenting, but it turns out Lauren On Vicodin is a lot less motivated than Lauren Not On Vicodin.

I have so much to do and so much I want to catch up on, but the throbbing pain in my gums is preventing me from focusing on anything besides the fact that I have craters in my mouth, and that kind of freaks me out. The Vicodin has been making me really nauseous, so basically I have a choice: take half a dose and stay in partial pain, or take a whole dose, feel like I am going to puke my guts out, and then pass out for a few hours, only to wake up in pain again.

I know I am being dramatic, but please understand – I’ve been horizontal on my couch for the last three days, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to wear a bra or deodorant, and every time I stand up, I feel like I am going to pass out. I am getting tired of eating yogurt and chicken broth and for whatever reason, my television deems it necessary to play food commercials when I am either most hungry or most nauseous.

Throughout all of this, my husband has been a saint. He has taken such good care of me, staring with Friday morning, when he took me in to have the surgery, and waited patiently to take me home. As I was sitting in the recovery room, I remember him saying, “You know what we should have done? Asked them if we could keep the teeth!” He also took a few pictures of me in my most swollen state, but I think we’ll save those for another time. Like, never. Also, my sister came over on Friday and made me mashed potatoes, brought some movies, snuggled my dogs, and cooked dinner for my husband. I feel bad for anyone who has to go through something like this and doesn’t have such great people to take care of them. If you ask really nicely, I will let you borrow them. Maybe.

Sorry this post kind of sucked. Hopefully I’ll be back to regular posting in a day or so.

ATTENTION HOUSTON BLOGGERS: The Houston Blogger Meet-Up has been officially scheduled for October 30th. Mark your calendars! The venue is still up in the air (we’re currently considering a few options and are still taking ideas). We’re looking for somewhere fun & casual, where people can come in costume (or not), and we can have dinner, drinks, and a lot of laughs. Leave ideas/suggestions here or email me: laurenfromtexas (at) gmail (dot) com. It’s going to be fun to finally meet all of you!

First things first. A picture of my new hair! Not the greatest picture, but I’ll try to take more and post them later this week.

Moving on to the good stuff. Readers, you have been slacking! I was only able to scrounge up three questions this week. Alright, alright, I’ll forgive you, but DON’T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.

This question comes from Deva at Always Carried Away:

Q. “I need to ask this question how you stay THAT slim after eating this food???” She was referring to THIS POST, but she could have just been talking about my life in general.

A. Deva, the answer is simple. It’s a combination of the 30-Day Shred 3-4 times a week, optical illusions, Photoshop, and sucking in.

This question is from Beth at @bethmarty:

Q. “just spent 15 minutes oohing and aahing over your cutetastic pups! what breed are they?”

A. I already answered Beth in this tweet, but I thought there might be someone else who is dying to know. Pancho is a 15 lb. chocolate long-haired chihuahua. We think that maybe he takes steroids while we’re not looking. Leia is a 14 lb. miniature (actually, more like a toy) Australian Shepherd that was supposed to grow to at least 25 lbs. Needless to say, we no longer have much faith in what people selling dogs say, but we love our dogs very much. I mean, HOW COULD YOU NOT?

Our last question is from Joe at Meeche & Joe:

Q. “Ok this is serious. We can’t buy either in my house because my wife and I disagree, and it takes up too much room in the fridge to have them both cold at the same time. Coke or pepsi?”

A. Joe, I am glad you asked. I AM GLAD YOU ASKED. When Michael and I first met, I liked Coke and he liked Pepsi. Do you know what kind of problems this posed for our relationship? Of course you do. You’re there right now. Let me give you this advice: Wear her down. Tell her how awful her choice is. Only buy the one you like. Eventually, she’ll cave. It worked for me. Now Michael drinks Coke. Problem solved!

ATTENTION HOUSTON BLOGGERS: Houston Blogger Meet-up/Halloween party. We have a growing list. It’s going to be the party of the year. OK, maybe not the year, but at least the month. My questions to you, fellow Houston bloggers, are as follows:

Q: Do you prefer Friday night (October 30th) or Saturday night (October 31st)?

Q: Where would be a great place to have it that would give us a room of our own and maybe some free stuff? Someone told me that the Houston Downtown Aquarium would give us a room and free appetizers. I have emailed them with no response. Let me know if you know of any great places and/or deals and I will give them a call.

Welcome to my 2nd attempt at keeping a “Blog Schedule” – a Q&A post. I’ve sorted through some of my most recent comments to find questions, and will be answering them to the best of my ability.

But first, let me pose a question:

Q. How many of you in the Houston (& surrounding) area would be interested in getting together for a meet-up? How about a Halloween-themed meet-up? Let me know. Once I get an idea of how many of you would be interested, we can figure out a date/venue, etc. Leave a comment or better yet, email me at laurenfromtexas (at) gmail (dot) com with your contact info and any ideas/preferences you might have. I think it would be really fun!

OK, now for the questions:

This one is from my BF4EV (Blog Friend Forever), Chelsea from Roots & Rings.

Q: “Wait a second. You got mad at me for saying “When it comes out on video.” but your mom is allowed to say “Did you tape it?” Can we say double standard???”
A: It’s 2009, and you are not yet 25. You can say “DVD” instead of “video.” (For more background, see this post and the comments on this post.)

This one is from Marli at Chase Simplicity:

Q: “have you ever been told that you look a lot like catherine pierce (the blond sister of “the pierces”)?”
A: No, but you are now my NEW FAVORITE PERSON. I don’t see it, but I will take it.

[via]

This one is from Nora at Walking Through The Rain, Lauren (gotta love that name!) at Little Loves, and mentioned by several other people:

Q: Where did I get my weekly to-do list paper, referenced at the end of this post?
A: Barnes & Noble! Through some diligent googling, I found a link where you, too, can purchase this adorable to-do list notebook! Click here.

This one is from my friend Bryan at My Heroic Story:

Q: “where did you get that blonde hair?” He is referencing this post, wherein it is revealed that I look nothing like my family (coloring-wise, anyway).
A. I will answer this question with a story. When I was little, I got this question quite a bit, and some more brazen people would even ask, “Are you adopted?” As a 5-year-old, that takes it toll, so after many tears on my part, my mom told me to answer, when people asked some form of this question, “GOD.” So, Bryan, that’s my answer. God. Oh, and my hairdresser helps out too.

And now it’s time for my FAVORITE comment of the week, from Helene at I’m Living Proof God Has A Sense of Humor:

“In other news, my daughter is sitting next to me as I was reading your post and she said, “Mommy, I didn’t know that you knew Barbie in real life”. I’m not sure if you think that’s a compliment or not but coming from her and knowing how much she adores her Barbie dolls, it’s a compliment.”

Helene, please feel free to package up that little girl and send her straight to me!

That’s all, folks. Leave some questions in the comments! You can also tweet me @laurenfromtexas or email me. Can’t wait to see what y’all come up with next.

xo