Sometimes, my life is surreal. Take this week, where I found myself up at o-dark-thirty, watching the sunrise through the boarding gate windows, on the way to The Pioneer Woman's beautiful ranch in rural Oklahoma.

BlogHer is hosting a series of conversations, generously sponsored by Macy's, that are being filmed at Ree's guest lodge. While the normal scope of my job keeps me in the office, when I was asked to pinch-hit for Erin Kotecki Vest for this shoot, I leaped at it. Gee, spend two days with Ree, Karen Walrond and Holly Burns, talking about men? Woo hoo!

My flights were uneventful, and I rented some sort of SUV, and set off from Tulsa, stopping to pick up some groceries on the way. The drive was beautiful and startlingly green, and I believe I encountered about four traffic lights in the 100 miles.

After arriving at the lodge, I gleefully unloaded my groceries and suitcase and then skipped from one end to the other. It is as lovely as you may have heard, and I had the place to myself for the night.

Ree, unfortunately, was feeling a little under the weather and wasn't able to join me that evening, but hey, I things to do and beds to jump on. (Not really.)

(Maybe.)

I picked a bedroom, and after exploring all the rooms and admiring the beautiful views from the deck, I decided to make a couple of quiches for the film crew to nosh on the following morning. I had a few OMG, I'm cooking in Ree Drummond's kitchen moments and pondered who I should call. I called Sean and left a message that I think went something like "SQUEEEEE. Bye!"

Then I went to bed, anticipating the arrival of Ree and the crew the next morning for day one of filming.

As I was flipping out the lights, I noticed a storm front moving towards the lodge, but it was really far away, and looked like a comic book version - a big ball of black clouds with lightning spiking out here and there.

After floating like a starfish in an enormous bath, I jumped on the bed.

I mean, into the bed.

Cue the lightning storm! Although I usually find storms easy to sleep through, the vigor and frequency of the lightning and thunder made me want to get up and see if I could capture some of it on my camera.

I didn't do a very good job and ended up back in bed, slumbering like I'd been clubbed.

The following day of filming was a hoot - lots of people, lots of controlled chaos, and I just tried to stay out of the way as much as possible. Ree is so funny and warm - it made the day fly by. Everyone apparently liked my quiches, with the vegetarian one being the big favorite. WHO KNEW? We also got to enjoy a whole bunch of one of Ree's fabulous salads, which is now immediately going into my recipe box.

After Ree headed home to get the kids some dinner and the crew cleared out for the day, I had a few minutes to regroup before Karen and Holly showed up. Within minutes of their arrival, the three of us had giant plates of salad and glasses of wine out on the deck, where we were joined by a pack of dogs with names like Hooker and Horny. I was delighted when Charlie showed up to visit and stole all our hearts.

Karen got some beautiful shots of Holly and I, as well as number of other folks on the shoot (see them here) and then set out for a photo walk to see what she could see. I heard her laughter floating up the hill and spotted her below, in the company of Cowboy Josh.

Leave it to Karen to find a new friend within moments of arriving at a new location. Moments later, she arrived in style as the passenger in a John Deere, and we invited Josh to take a load off and tell us more about the ranch.

There were many, many laughs that night - I'm sure Josh had no idea what he was getting into when we started peppering him with questions, but he charmed us all. He even offered to make us calf fries, which are apparently testicles. Happily sadly, it would have been a logistical nightmare to prepare on short notice. Next time, perhaps. Whew!

After laughing ourselves hoarse, Holly, Karen and I turned in for the night, with plans to wake up to see the sunrise. (Yeah, didn't happen.)

Once the crew arrived the next morning, Ree, Holly and Karen headed in to get more gorgeous, while I manned the coffeepot.

Man, the laughing. My stomach is STILL killing me from all the giddy.

Filming got underway right on schedule and all three ladies were amazing.

It was so fun to watch how these things are planned and executed, and I feel really lucky to have participated.

After the shoot wrapped, I leaped into the middle of the action and discovered what is possibly the least attractive body posture EVER, but I love the photo because we were all genuinely having a fantastic time.

Then I cornered Ree for a slightly more flattering shot with me. She's so stinking adorable!

We all enjoyed a light lunch and then headed back to the airport. Holly, Karen and I passed an enjoyable 45 minutes over a drink, and then headed to our separate gates for our flights home.

Somehow, I managed to get the one row on the plane that had an empty seat on the last leg of my flight to San Francisco, and I was able to spread out a bit. Everything went like clockwork, even the hour and a half drive home.

As business trips go, this was insanely fun. Of course, I'm now horridly behind on the rest of my workload, but I'm so grateful to have had the chance to spend some time with some of my favorite bloggers and see both Ree's lodge and her beautiful corner of Oklahoma. I hope I'll get the chance to visit there again someday.

See Holly's take here. As a note - while I may have been the one chanting "eat a ball! eat a ball!", I would like to point out that it was KAREN, who is a vegetarian, who showed the first signs of willingness to eat cow fries. When in Rome, etc.

See Karen's take here Another note - Karen's assessment of my ability to ringlead fellow merrymakers is accurate. That said, SOMEONE went for a walk and brought the party back with her. I'm just saying.