Chelsea and I sure can. We have before, we did this time, and I'm certain we will in the future. It happens just like other people who have true BFFs say it happens: when we finally, finally, finally see each other again, we run to each other, embrace, sway a little, shake with excitement, tear up a little and wipe it away so the other won't see, embrace and sway some more, stomp our feet to get out all the extra energy, and then pull away, look at each other, and sigh with relief; the wait is finally over, and we're back together at last. Well, okay, another enthusiastic hug or two. And then for real this time. It's out of our systems.
Now what trouble can we start?!?
Chelsea and I had planned this Ree Day & BFF Weekend for months. Seriously! We schemed and made lists, and even took an entire vacation day away from work to make this weekend as magical as it actually turned out to be.
Ree Drummond, known out here in the blogosphere as The Pioneer Woman, was in Atlanta this weekend. If you know me, then you know that I'm a huge fan of hers, as is Chelsea. When Chelsea broke the news to me that "P-Dub" was going to be in Atlanta for a book signing, we immediately made a set of "Ree Day Rules & Such" (which we have decided to keep strictly to ourselves for fear of utter embarrassment or even a restraining order if Ree herself ever read it!). We worked up plans for an entire BFF weekend that included meeting Ree, shopping at IKEA, dining on tapas, enjoying cocktails, listening to great music, resting at my sister's house, cooking recipes from P-Dub's aaaah-mazing cookbook, and who-knows-what-else. I had a countdown on my calendar at work. I purchased a flattering, flowing, flowery, flouncy blouse because a) it's flattering, flowing, etc., and b) it's Ree's favorite sort of blouse. Why not coordinate for the photo op, am I right?? And yeah, I was totally shopping for a compliment.
So our countdowns finally dwindled down to 3, 2, 1!!! and so I packed my bags, drove to up Macon, and Chelsea and I hugged like BFFs hug after not seeing each other since last July. It was pretty awesome. Then we loaded up her car and headed for Atlanta! Of course, our Ree Day schedule worked perfectly, so we made it with a few hours to burn. What's a girl to do besides shop in a two-story Target complete with escalators for people... and buggies, too??? That's right, an escalator for your shopping cart. We stood there and waited for someone with a buggie to come along so we could see how it worked. And it was really cool. After we exhausted our will to shop anymore we headed to a little place next door to the Borders book store where Ree Drummond was scheduled to make her appearance just a couple hours later. What was next door to Borders?
Pinkberry.
Not familiar with Pinkberry? Well, it's only pretty much one of the best things to ever eat for a snack. Ever. It's fat free yogurt mixed with fat free milk and flavored with natural stuff to make some freaking amazing frozen yogurt. Oh wow, it was so good! I immediately checked out the floor (paved in tiny pea-sized pebbles), furniture, lighting, and color scheme. What fun!
Then Chelsea and I were educated on Pinkberry--how it's made and what it's made of--and then we got a tour of all the amazing toppings (as long as it fits "comfortably" within the rim of your bowl, it's included in the price of the yogurt!). I was so pumped to look at the menu and read Blood Orange as a yogurt flavor! That's one of the Lamberth ladies' favorite flavors. On top I opted for something rather simple: fresh, handmade blood orange syrup, pineapple chunks, and raspberries (on the right). Chelsea went for a double flavor bowl of coconut and mango yogurts and just about every fruit there was (on the left)!
Then the time came to wait our turn. We were in group "E" which meant there were groups A through D ahead of us. Bummer. We camped out in the childrens books section and watched Ree stalkers and judged wardrobe mishaps and hairstyle don'ts, and once our letter of the alphabet was announced, we stood in line with letters A through E.
While we waited in line, Chelsea found this really cute little hedgehog finger puppet perched on a
book shelf:
Then we found a stack of PostSecret books and left our own little secrets for someone else to discover and read for themselves. I know PS is supposed to be anonymous, but we signed one of them anyway:
And then the time we had been waiting so long for finally came! Chelsea and I met Ree Drummond, aka Pioneer Woman, aka P-Dub, aka our new BFF. She was absolutely delightful. She had a sort of Midwestern accent. Her dimples were totally cute, and her red hair was just red enough. And did you notice her blouse? Well, she surely noticed mine. That's right, people, Ree loved my flattering, flowing, flowery, flouncy blouse and totally told me she loved it. Then we talked for a couple minutes as she wrote little notes in our cookbooks. Chelsea and I asked her if her face had gotten tired of smiling yet, and she replied that that's just kinda how her face is, and we said, something like "how lovely to have a smile stuck on your face all the time!" and then we snapped this picture. Can you see how nervous we were? Well, we were totally nervous, and we felt so stupid for being so nervous. But we were nervous anyway. And then, as we finished up our little nervous and giggly conversation with Ree, she said, "It was just lovely to have met the two of you! Oh, and can I borrow your blouse?" And then I melted. And exploded. And then I melted again.
(Oh my goodness, I still can't believe we met Ree! She was divine and lovely. And so pretty! And those dimples. And that red wavy hair. Ah!)
Oh! And did I mention that her utterly studly husband was there as well? Well, he was. Marlboro Man, dressed down to the boots, Wranglers, and--yes, even he cowboy hat, score!--was there. Here's the picture that Ree herself posts on her blog all the time that defines what she thinks of her husband, Marlboro Man:
Chelsea and I were determined to get our own shot of this famous behind, chaps or not. He was surrounded by women who were fawning all over him, gasping and giggling and groping and taking all sorts of pictures and hogging all the time he had while lots of other women waited and snapped pictures from a distance. But what did Chelsea and I do? We staged a Photo Bomber session. And for those of you who don't know what the art of Photo Bombing is, it's basically standing in the background of a picture that's currently being taken and doing something funny. They person taking the picture, as well as the people in the picture, don't see what you've done in the background until they get home and relive their memories of groping on Marlboro Man's sweaty chest at the Borders Book Store in Peachtree City! I've got to say, I really hope it was as successful from other womens' cameras as it was from mine!
Then, after we cooled off from that fun little game, we went around the corner to a tapas restaurant called Twist and enjoyed tapas, a fun and noisy atmosphere that neither of us was used to anymore as old and grown adults, and some outta-this-world delicious cocktails. Before we knew it, we were coming down with a serious case of the sleepies. Maybe it was the cocktail that got us just warm enough to want to snuggle up to a cool pillow. Maybe it was the fact that our Ree Day adrenaline was finally subsiding. But we were ready to settle down and get out of that noisy restaurant, so we headed for my sister's house.
After a couple glasses of "hello, we're here, and thanks for letting us crash in the guest room" wine, we all went to sleep without an alarm clock set! And oh my goodness, that felt sooooo good to wake up without an alarm screaming at us! We played with the pups, watched My Girl ("And don't come back for five to seven days!!!"), ate orange-and-cranberry muffins along with sausage for breakfast, and just basked in nothingness for a whole four hours.
And then it was time to IKEA. Do you IKEA? We sure did! For some reason, we decided to take a picture on the way OUT of the massive superstore. My apologies for the dishevelment! OMG I'm looking rough. Those big yellow letters always blow me away. How tall do you think they really are?
Bless my little sister's heart for shopping with us that afternoon. I don't know if she meant to or not, but she kept me and Chelsea moving at a (somewhat) acceptable pace. I'd get caught up in the gadget kitchen drawer organization section and Chelsea would come to a standstill while admiring random coat hangers and storage shelves. But Kristen would always remind us that there was something else more interesting just around the corner. And thank goodness for that, because even with her guidance (towards the exit door) and perseverance (aka constantly walking about two steps ahead of us with our shopping cart), we shopped at IKEA for over 4 hours! While that does include a delicious lunch of Swedish meatballs and mashed taters, the shopping just dominated this IKEA visit. To the max.
That being said, IKEA did us in. Chelsea drove herself and me back to Macon like a champ where Andrew greeted us with copious amounts of wine (yum, shiraz!), salmon, ribeyes, potatoes, mushrooms, and a few other accoutrement. Morgan and Larry, some of their great friends there in Macon, met us at their house where we ate a lot, drank a lot, laughed a lot, and played a lot of Phase Ten... until a lot of wine was spilled all over the playing cards!
(Yes, that's my bendy straw in a glass of red wine. I didn't want PLS (Purple Lip Syndrome) from sipping on that wine all night, and that's my brilliant solution for it, okay?)
After a long, long, loooooooooooooooooong night of playing "Watch That YouTube Music Video and Remember When That Song Was Awesome" with Andrew and Chelsea, we retired for some well deserved and much needed rest.... at 4:30am!!! Needless to say, sleeping until 12:00 in the afternoon was an accomplishment for me, and I woke up rested and ready to get home to take a nap in my own bed... after some steak and eggs prepared by the Ray Household resident chef, Andrew himself!
Like I said, this weekend was just maybe perhaps possibly the best weekend I've had in years. And it's definitely one for the books. Thanks to Chelsea, my Very Best Friend of over 14 years. May God bless us with at least 14 more!!!
That sounds like a thoroughly awesome weekend.
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