Lakiamia's Diaria: The Vegas Edition, Part IV

Tuesday was a good day for me because I got to sleep in that morning. My whole family did, although we got up in time to catch the breakfast buffet before they converted it to lunch. Funny little anecdote: When I was standing in the buffet line, one of the servers noticed my Cinderella name badge and asked me if I was a judge in the pageant. I told him no, I was a contestant, thank you! 

Anyway, Tuesday was also a good day for me because I got to present my talent piece. Talent has always been my favorite part of competition, and by far my strongest area. So, it bodes well for me that, in Cinderella, it amounts to 50% of your score. In the Miss America system, there's always a few weak talents that slip into the finals due to "interview points" spilling over from that phase of competition. But Judy had assured me that Cinderella is not like that. Of course interview was crucial, and if you didn't have it in there, your chances of making the finals were next to nothing. But, if you didn't have it in talent, either...game over. 

Well, my obstacle now was finding the piano so I could practice before heading over to Cashman. And, if possible, I really wanted to be able to try out the piano they had there just to see what kind of action I'd be dealing with so I could adjust my touch accordingly. Oh, and I also had another problem: The souvenir exchange party was that night after competition, and we were supposed to go up to the salon area at certain times throughout the day to drop our souvenirs off in the souvenir bags. Well, the Women's drop-off time was 6:30-7:00, but our bus to Cashman left at 6:30. So later that afternoon, I went over to the salons to find the piano and do some more gift shop shopping. But, first the gift shop was closed because the lady running it was sick (and I needed to get a garment bag to carry my dress to the theatre in), the piano was nowhere to be found, and I didn't see anyone who looked like they could help answer my drop-off question. So, I just asked the first person I saw and he told me he was planning on setting up the bags at 4:30 or so and I could just do it then. So that's what we did. All four of us took turns lugging the 2 full suitcases all the way over to the ballroom. The guy was just setting out the bags, all lined up neatly in rows, one for each contestant. I only had to put one in the bags for my own age group, plus the bags for the staff, judges, and royalty. But after those had been filled, I still had quite a few souvenirs left. I'd made 100 like the instructions said to, but clearly I'd only needed to bring half that many. Dad, however, said we were not taking any of them back to Ohio with us, so we put the remaining ones in some of the Teens' bags. After that, I went to find the piano again while the others took the empty suitcases back up to our room. This time, I found the piano in one of the salons, so I sat down and ran through my song several times, hoping to at least warm my fingers up a bit. My freshly-manicured nails were getting pretty chipped by then (plus my fake toenails kept breaking off and I had to keep re-gluing them back on). I just hoped they would last through today. After that, it didn't matter so much anymore. 

When I was satisfied with my warm-ups, I went back over to the gift shop (which had re-opened by then) to buy a garment bag, then went back to the room to get ready. I didn't even attempt to do my own hair this time; I decided to let someone who actually knew what they were doing fuss with it. Cashman theatre isn't too far from the hotel. There were two shuttle busses that would run continuously back and forth between the two places until the last person had gotten back. We'd also been given a bus schedule telling us which busses we were assigned to and at approximately what time they was supposed to leave. Well, it wasn't easy packing all my hair supplies, make-up, shoes, and accessories into my suitcase, but we were ready right on time and went down to meet the bus. But it was gone! One of the pageant moms sitting outside on a bench told us it had just left, even though it wasn't quite time yet. I was determined not to let it throw me off, though. After all, another one would be along soon and I probably had plenty of time to get ready since I was at the end. We sat there talking with the other pageant people while Rob ran across the parking lot to the 7-11 to buy me some more water. Within 15 minutes or so, the next bus pulled up. We boarded that one with no problems. 

The inside of Cashman is lined with light blue carpeting and spotless walls painted all the way up to the ceiling. There was a concession-like area inside the foyer and a few wide stairs leading up to the theatre entrance. I started to walk the perimeter to find the dressing rooms. But, all I found was a set of bathrooms. Several people had already set up camp outside the auditorium so there were dresses hanging up on door hinges and make-up arranged on the wooden benches outside the entrances. The rest of us just crammed into the bathroom area. I grabbed a stall and hung my garment bag containing my dress on the door, then shoved my way over to the mirror, plugged in my curling iron, and went to go find Judy. Poor Judy had to sit through all 12 hours of talent that day since she had contestants in every age group. She was sitting low in her chair in the very back of the auditorium, looking very tired. I let her know I was here and asked her when she wanted to get started on my hair. She told me they were still doing the Mini-Miss talents and were running behind due to several technical difficulties, so I still had plenty of time. I asked her how the other talents from Ohio had gone. Not good news. The teens had gone first, starting at 8:30 this morning. When it got to Lisa's turn, she was so nervous her lips froze up on her and she freaked out and ended up forgetting most of her song. Then Jessica (our Miss contestant) had done a baton number, which she'd practiced over and over at the hotel. But when she got to the stage at Cashman, the floor was extremely dusty and grimy, which did not make for good dancing. Plus, every time she threw her baton up in the air, it got lost in the darkness above the stage lights. She'd ended up dropping it three times. Apparently, she was so upset she told her mom she wanted to quit and go home right now. (She didn't actually leave, but she wanted to.) Our Mini-Miss contestant Toral's dance was the only one that had gone well so far. 

Determined not to follow that trend, I ran over to the backstage entrance to ask someone in charge if I could test the piano during intermission or something. I found Fred, who seemed to be in a hurry, so he told me to come back after the Mini-Misses were done and see if someone would let me do it then. So I went back to the auditorium to watch the rest of the talents. There were so many technical problems, with the mics not working and music not starting in the right place. And every time it compromised the contestant's performance, they had her to go back out and do it again a little while later. So the schedule was pretty much shot to hell by then. Eventually, they decided to break for intermission again, so I ran back to find Fred and asked if I could play the piano. I was told they didn't allow any full rehearsals, because it would be considered special treatment. But all I wanted to do was feel the action on the keyboard, so they let me do that. It was a small, ebony baby grand and played fairly lightly, even though it badly needed voicing. Satisfied with my findings, I went back to the bathroom to put on my dress then find Judy to get my hair done. 

My dress was badly wrinkled from the plane ride and from hanging in the hotel room closet. I'd tried to steam it that afternoon, but it only did so much. I hoped the judges couldn't see that from the stage. Jennica and Jamie were already dressed in their costumes and adjusting their hair and make-up. Judy curled my hair while Jennica (a professional New York City make-up artist) helped paint my face and shape my eyebrows. I'd been debating whether or not to wear my fake hair piece since this was supposed to be a "natural" pageant. But I really needed to have my hair pulled back to play the piano, so I used it anyway. It looks so natural, though, you can't even tell it's not my real hair. I also put in a couple of rhinestone barrettes on one side for extra sparkle. 

They were only at the beginning of the Woman talents by the time I was ready, so I sat in the auditorium to watch a few of them. I didn't want to watch too many in case I saw somebody really good and psyched myself out. As it turned out, everyone was good. There were a lot of dancers (lyrical, ballet, jazz, tap, and acrobatic) and a few pop and Broadway vocalists. One girl sang the vengeance aria from "The Magic Flute," a couple girls sang country songs, and another one sang the gospel song "Amen." Once they'd gotten to the contestant numbers in the late-20's, Jamie, Jennica, and I decided to head backstage. They were calling us back in groups of ten or so. I was starting to feel antsy by then and I just wanted to go out there and get it over with so I could relax. Chatting with the other girls helped take my mind off of it until they called our group back. I had a few people ahead of me yet, so I sat down at a tiny little table backstage and ran through my piece in my head, using the table as a piano. (Funnily enough, I make the same mistakes when I'm pretending to play it as I do in real life.) 

When it got to Jennica's turn, I stopped and paid attention to how her song went. She was singing a rendition of "How Great Thou Art" as originally recorded by Sandi Patty (one of my idols!). It starts out soft then get stronger and ends climactically on a high-B. She nailed it! She bowed and left the stage to a thunderous applause and a chorus of whistles. Jamie went next, doing a character jazz dance to "All that Jazz" from "Chicago." I'd actually heard a lot of other contestants doing routines to that song. I didn't think I'd ever want to hear it again after this week! Jamie's dance went well except for a minor malfunction with her hat. I couldn't see it from where I was standing, but she told me it had fallen off her head before she was supposed to take it off and throw it, or something. 

The girl in between Jamie and me was named Peyton, and she was doing some kind of country vocal. I heard her tell the sound guys before she went on, "No matter what happens, do not stop the music!" Well, her song started off upbeat and fun and she danced around the stage with the microphone. Suddenly, there was a loud noise that sounded like a tape being chewed up. She stopped and looked over at the sound guys, her eyes wide with panic, and said, "What just happened?! Did it break? Did the music break? Oh, my God!" She then ran to center stage saying, "It's O.K.! I can do something else! I can dance....or recite Hamlet...." and went into a series of impressions and random dance steps. This whole time, I kept wondering why she didn't just walk off the stage and do it over again after they'd had time to fix her music, like the other girls had. But then her music started back up again exactly on cue, and she finished with a big flourish. It was all part of the act! She totally had me fooled! 

After that, it was my turn to go face the music, so to speak. I took several deep breaths, counted backwards from ten, and waited for them to announce my name before stepping forth under those giant beams and onto a stage all of my own. I usually bow slightly to the judges before sitting down, but I didn't then for whatever reason. I adjusted the bench to my liking, placed my hands on my lap for a 5-second, pre-performance meditation, praying to God to make this go smoothly. Then, I began Rheinhold's "Impromptu in C# minor." It starts slow and soft, very melodically, then crescendos into several dramatic chords...oops, I missed one. It's OK, I recovered and hoped no one noticed the slight discord. After slowing and softening to a pianissimo as I neared the end of the introduction, there's a light, fast trill...then begins the hard part. Fast melismatic passages in the right hand with large leaps of staccato arpeggios in the left hand. Big dramatic chords, then runs up and down the keyboard. Uh-oh, another mistake. I recovered again, but I then noticed the piano was moving. Not away from me, but rocking slightly every time I played hard. It was like they didn't secure the brake all the way after rolling it out on stage. I tried to think about nothing but concentrating on my piece, but all I could concentrate on was the distracting wobble of the keyboard. Then, for a split second, my mind went blank. Half a second later, I found it again, but there had been a very obvious mistake in there. I was getting near the end and all I had to do was make it through the big finale. But my confidence had been shaken and several of the final chords were muddled. I smiled big and took a deep bow anyway, then walked calmly off the stage. Then I let all my breath out. I truly believed the competition had just ended for me. I didn't want to see anybody or talk to anybody just yet so I hung around outside the backstage entrance, feeling sorry for myself. Danielle, the other pianist from my age group, walked by and tried to give me some words of encouragement. She said that other than that one mistake, everything sounded good. The other Danielle (the one from Texas who was last in contestant order) came out after finishing her song and told me pretty much the same thing. She asked me if I saw what the judges did after my performance. I told her I'd tried to get their attention before taking my bow but they weren't even looking at me, they were all busy writing. She said that was actually a good sign because they wouldn't even bother to write any comments if I wasn't still in the competition. 

The competition was done for the day, so I went back to find Judy and my family. Judy hugged me and told me good job, but I shook my head and said, "It's over." She disagreed, saying that even though there were a few mistakes, 75% was flawless. Plus I ended strong, which was important, and probably no one else in the theatre even knew that piece. Mom said she was watching the judges and the one was nodding his head along the whole time. 

After gathering all my stuff up from the bathroom and catching the last bus to the hotel, we had just enough time to get changed into our state Cinderella T-shirts and shorts for the souvenir exchange party. This time, it wasn't a full-blown, sit-down dinner. There were cookies and punch, and we just went in there, picked up a bag full of souvenirs, and stayed until we felt like leaving. I sat on the floor with the rest of the Ohio group as we discussed our talent performances and pageant experiences so far. There was also a lot of "souvenir trading" going on. I quickly realized that my souvenirs were among the best ones, and I'm not just bragging! Most were small trinkets, like a piece of candy taped to a card signed by the contestant, or a bottle of shower gel. Some of the more impressive ones were a hand-painted miniature wooden surfboard and stand (made by Peyton), a pair of red and green chili pepper earrings made by a girl from New Mexico, and a white wash cloth embroidered with a script C (the Cinderella logo) in royal blue thread. Aside from exchanging gifts and eating cookies, we also learned how to do the "Cindy Disco." By the time I'd gotten there, though, most of the dancing was done and people were already filing out. Mom, Dad, and Rob had gone out to one of the hotel restaurants for dinner, so I stopped by the Burger King in the casino on my way back up to my room. There was another younger contestant in line there who showed me some of her souvenirs while I showed her mine. Then she asked me what age group my daughter was in. That made it twice in one day that someone accused me of being older than I was! 

After changing into my jammies and sorting through all my souvenirs to determine which ones I could eat, I went back to dreamland to prepare for yet another day of competition.