I lied. 

When I said, on Friday, that I was going to make Black Bean and Corn Salsa... well, I didn't. Not because I didn't want to, but because I waited five and a half hours to meet a woman known as "The Pioneer Woman." Five and a half hours! You might ask, "Is she the second coming? Are you her number one fan? Were you paid? There was free beer, right? She must be your idol?" Sadly, no, no, no, no, and no.

The Pioneer Woman is my good friend Melissa's favorite blogger. And when Melissa caught wind that the internet sensation was on a book tour and traveling through Charlotte, well, I was guilted into tagging along. I mean, I couldn't let poor Melis wait in line all alone... for what I thought couldn't be more than 30mins. 

I should have known better....  Pioneer Woman's posts regularly receive thousands of comments a day, Hollywood is in the process of casting a movie based on her life, and she's made several cameos on national TV. Still, to be one of over 500 people, waiting to have a COOKBOOK signed by some lady who calls herself "THE PIONEER WOMAN" (!?) - it blew my damn mind.

So we waited, and waited, and, you guessed it: waited. Thankfully the event was held at a mall bookstore, and we were given waiting line numbers. First we played checkers in the "Kids' Korner," then read every current magazine on the shelf, and finally decided (after 4 hours) that it would be safe to leave our coveted chairs, venture out into the mall and reapply our make-up at Sephora... because we were looking pretty haggard at this point, and I insisted that a photograph be taken of this preposterous pilgrimage.

So here we are with THE Pioneer Woman incarnate. I'm one hell of a good friend.