OK, hi again! Let's see...when we left off it was Friday night and I had to wake up at 7am Saturday to be at Hughes Center by 9am. Anyone who knows me knows I am *NOT* a morning person! So, you can probably sympathize with my mom, who kept trying to get me up and into the shower. Well, I did that around 7:30, which did not give me much time to do my usual amount of primping. But, I managed. Mom even went downstairs and got breakfast for us. We had arranged to follow Meghan there, since she was better with directions than any of us. So, right around 8:30, She, Kim, Kim's mother, my mother, and I all piled into our cars and were on our way. The drive was fairly simple, although Kim and her mom had to run a red light to keep from getting stuck behind it and losing us!
Hughes Center is a really old, kinda run-down building (a girl in my French class said her grandparents went there!), but it has so much character! There were drinking fountains that were so ornate and beautiful, made out of tiles with terrific vintage artwork. The auditorium was a simple wooden stage, wooden floor, and really hard wooden seats, the kind that the seat flips up when you stand.
Believe it or not, we were the first ones there. We hauled our stuff up the steps outside and into the foyer, where Ronn (the director of the pageant) greeted us and directed us to the cafeteria, which was to be our little changing quarters. There were enough long tables for us to have our own and spread our stuff all over it, but there were no places to hang our dresses. Some people got creative and used door hinges, window sills, or a vending machine. I chose a table with a pipe by it so i could use that.
Well, after that, there was nothing to do but wait for everyone else. Mom and I walked around admiring the architecture for a while, then found seats in the front row of the auditorium. Finally, around 9:30, Ronn passed out some program books and copies of the day's schedule. (Usually, they send those out ahead of time, but according to everyone else, this pageant was extremely disorganized. Ronn's dad had died recently though, and he'd injured his knee, so you couldn't really blame the poor guy!) Basically, we would rehearse the opening number from 9:45 till 10:15, then walk through the routine for the swimsuit and evening wear competitions, and begin talent rehearsals at 11, in reverse order of the interview schedule. Interviews began at 1:30 and lasted until 6. Basically, we could go or do whatever from the time our interview was over until 6:30.
Anyway, I checked the interview schedule to see what time mine was and it just said contestant numbers instead of names. So, I had to find my contestant number. It was one. I had to be the first contestant to walk out onstage in every competition!! What a terrible thing for a rookie! If I complained, though, it wouldn't look very good because Miss Cincy/Ohio/America is supposed to be a leader. So, I tried my best to untie the knot already forming in my stomach and accept it.
Well, we had a brief briefing (haha), where he said a little about the Miss America program, gave us some history on it, and introduced our emcees. One was the current title holder for Miss Mon County named Jessica. The other was an older guy named Lester. More about him later.
When we were getting ready to rehearse the opening number (which was supposed to be a little dancey thing to music from the 1948 Judy Garland movie "Easter Parade." We had to wear a typical Easter dress and a little hat or bonnett.) There were supposed to be some choreographers coming, but they didn't. In fact, no one had any idea what they were gonna have us do. They just figured they'd decide as they went along. First, they had us form two lines off-stage and come in about 5 beats apart, meet in the center and greet each other, then stand back for the next two girls. The last 2, after they greeted, were supposed to wave to the audience as the rest of us curtsyed. It took a while to figure that out, though. They kept changing their minds about little things, or someone would say, "I don't think this is gonna work." Well, anyway, after we had that straightened out, we practiced introducing ourselves to the audience. Of course, I was first. I just did what I saw the contestants do on my Miss America videos: "April Yeager! Bowling Green, Ohio! A senior at Bowling Green State University!" (a huge smile on my fce the whole time.)
We almost didn't go through the swimsuit and evening wear routine, but someone said we should for the people who hadn't done it before. (That would be me! And another girl! So, I wasn't the only newbie! Pretty much everyone else, though, had been doing it for a while and knew all the other girls from previous pageants.)
Well, we finished around 11 or so and then everyone broke for lunch. My little carpool, plus a few others, all decided to go back to the hotel and get something there. So, we all followed Meghan again! And, Kim and her mom had to run a red light...again!
Mom and I saved a table while the others dropped some stuff off in their rooms. There ended up being eight of us all together: the aforementioned people plus two other contestants, Kara and Jennica, and Jennica's mom. It was fun talking with all them about Miss America. They all couldn't believe I'd been following it so closely for so long and never entered until now. Yup, that's me: a Miss America junkie!
Well, around 12:30, I had to hed back to the school to get ready for my...dunt dunt DAH!!...interview. Mom and I drove back with Kara (following a map Meghan had drawn for us).
This was the part I was most nervous about. I had no idea what kinds of questions they'd ask me, what kind of people they were, etc. After I'd changed into my business suit and fixed up my hair and make-up, I had some time to spare, so I skimmed through Cincy's newspaper, just in case they asked me about current events. That got me all worked up again, so I found the crossword and started doing that to calm me down. As soon as my watch said 1:30, I got up and followed Lester to the interview room (a regular classroom with desks, a small podium, and Spanish verbs written on the blackboard. Haha.) They weren't ready for me though. So, I went back to the cafeteria and chugged water like it was going outta style. My mouth always gets so dry when I'm nervous.
After 5 minutes or so, I went back again. They were ready this time. I took a deep breath and entered the front of the classroom as gracefully as I could.
And, that's where I'll leave y'all tonight. Time to go home (and empty my bladder!). Be sure to tune in again soon for the conclusion of "April Ann Yeager's Choronicles of Miss Cincinnati!! Byeeeee!