Home Again

A thousand apologies for my posts stopping halfway through my trip to Miss California. 

Let me put it this way, I had an amazing time and I fully plan on going back sometime in the future. It was an amazing experience, one I'll treasure and hold near and dear to my heart. 

Congratulations to Kristy Cavinder, formally Miss Yosemite, for winning the coveted title of Miss California 2009 last night! She did an amazing job!

I'm so excited for summer to officially start. And for the 4th of July!

Day #5

Prelim night #1 has come and gone and I'm exhausted, yet so thankful I got to sleep in this morning. 

As each day passes, the girls bond even more and we're able to take goofy pictures of one another with out it being bizarre. I uploaded my camera last night with nearly 100 photos of all of us, these being my favorites from the batch. 

I'm really enjoying myself a lot more than I expected to. Yes, the days are long and grueling. You don't get breaks, you can't complain and you have to dancedancedance the night away (not the fun dancing either...)

Yet, the relationships you make with the other girls are what makes this whole ordeal worthwhile. You become friends with them, become excited for them when they do well, gossip with them in your hotel rooms at 1 in the morning (a group of us did it last night...)

After prelims last night (where Megan Lyne and Brittany Henry both took home the top prizes, best evening gown and best talent) we were able to escape to something called a "Visitation". 

Here, we're able to reconnect with our family and friends for a short time, LEGALLY. It's nice to be able to see them all at the end of such an exhausting day. 

Oh and by the way, I totally crashed and burned on my on stage question. It went as follows:

Melissa Chaty: How do you feel we can put an end to gang warfare?

Me: (Thinking she said GAY warfare) Can you repeat the question?

Melissa Chaty: Absolutely, how do you feel we can put an end to gang warfare?

Me: Well, I believe....(pause) Can you repeat the question again?

Melissa Chaty: How do you feel we can put an end to gang warfare?

Me: Well, I believe in peace and I believe that schools should try to teach more about non-aggressive problem solving because peace is the way to go and I think schools should try and teach more about non-violent problem solving. 

GAHHHHHHHHH. I had no idea how to answer the question. Every other girls got questions about Twitter or global warming or some other subjects that I would've LOVED to answer a question about. Thank GOD it's only worth 5% of your total score, otherwise I probably would've walked off crying.

Afterwards, everyone kept coming up to me and telling me that I got the hardest question and that they would've had no idea how to answer it either. Another girl told me that she thought they said GAY warfare as well, so at least I wasn't alone in that one.

At least I know I wasn't the WORST onstage question of the night. At least I answered the question (eventually) and gave more than a one word answer. 

But still, I'm feeling slightly discouraged about how difficult my stupid question was.

35%

Finished with interview. It went great!
No political questions at all, thank god.

Now all I need tonight is figure out the timing for evening gown and make sure I don't crash and burn on my onstage question.

Interview

I'm sitting here in the hotel room, anxiously waiting to be called down for interview.
I'm dressed head to toe in black, in sky high stiletto heels, my hair straight and pulled back into a high ponytail.

I have my first area of competition tonight and I'm more nervous about it than I expected myself to be.

Gahhhh

Day #4

I can't believe the worst is over.
Jansie just helped me straighten my hair. It took literally half and hour and it looks GOOD. Wooo!
My interview is tomorrow morning, followed by ANOTHER rehearsal and then the first night of competition...

Bring on the evening gown.

Day #3

Day two of our epic rehearsals has come and gone. We're getting better at all the dances and even started learning our competition walks. 

We got a break for lunch when we went and ate at the Rotary Club of Fresno's monthly meeting. We got up, introduced ourselves and told them all the schools we attended as well as our majors. Then we got to sit back down and eat. 

The girls are all SO nice. Which you don't really expect when you think of a beauty pageant. They're all willing to help you with whatever you need and I'm finding that you can literally talk to ANYONE. 

The first round of interviews have come and gone and I'm frantically trying to think of a good way to close out my ten minutes of questions and answers with the judges. Trying to think of something poetic, yet that brings everything home. Of course, it all depends on what the questions are I get when I'm in there. I still have a whole nother day till I go into the room of death though, so I have time to brainstorm. 

Jansie, my roommate, is checking up on current events right now, since her interview is tomorrow morning. I'm helping her out with practice questions.

Day #2

We rehearsed from 8:30 this morning to 11pm tonight.

I'm exhausted, no joke. 

We had a dinner break and went and dined with the Rotary Club of Fresno, where we heard a few stories, then had a massive dance party on the dance floor. Us Miss California girls know our musical theater (Grease medley) and all the words to Sexyback. 

Tomorrow it's going to be the same way, just instead of dinner, we're going to lunch. And we're bringing all out competition outfits with us over to the theater. Sandy and the girls are in Fresno now, and it's nice to know that my family and Kellen will be here on Tuesday. :)

Jillian has her interview tomorrow. Good luck, girl! Knock em dead. 

:)

Day #1

In bed, reflecting. Hah. Not really. 

So today was good. I was talking with Sophia on the way back from the BBQ and we decided that it felt like several different days instead of just one. It was so long and exhausting and basically just gives us a general idea of what we're going to have to deal with the rest of this week. 

Today:

I woke up this morning in the room Jillian and I shared for the night. We roomed together and woke up around 7, instructed to be downstairs around 8:45. 

We played around with our make-up for a while, finally putting on our dresses, figured out some double sided tape and headed for the hotel lobby armed with our gifts for the mayor.

We all got onto a luxury (no joke) school bus and endured the short drive to City Hall. 

Once there, we posed for multiple group photos, several with Jackie Geist, and then alphabetized ourselves by title and made our way inside.

We sat around talking, waiting for the council to get there, then decided to take more group photos as we waited. 

We were finally able to present our gifts to the mayor (her assistant rather) and I presented my grapes with apologies that it wasn't wine. 

Afterwards, we all re-boarded the luxery bus and headed back to the hotel where we made our way to a ballroom for a meeting. Bob and the hostesses sat down with us and told us all the rules and what to expect for the week. 

They also handed out a pamphlet dubbed "The Bible" which was our schedule for the next week. 

We headed back upstairs, changed into our rehearsal clothes then Jansie and I headed to get lunch. 

Once lunch was over, we all headed over to the theater where we were introduced to Season, the choreographer. We learned the ENTIRE dance for the Opening Number in two hours. So much dancing!

We were released and headed back to the hotel. 

Jansie, Alex, Sophia and I did some stretches in the hallway of the hotel, tried to figure out the dance some more, then gave up and just decided to eat.

We got dressed for the BBQ and met up with everyone in the hotel lobby. 

We got onto the school bus and headed to our host's house. When we got there, we were shocked to see that it was a mansion and it totally reminded me of something out of the South. I kept expecting to see chinese lanterns and twinkle lights laced inside the trees.

For dinner, we sat at the loudest table, where one girl knew the Taco Bell rap and where we passed our phones around, showing off pictures of our pets. 

Overall, it was a fun day. Exhausting, but not that bad. I don't know what I'll say after tomorrow, since we have rehearsal from 8:30am to 11:30pm.

I don't know if I'm quite so into that.