Lakiamia's Diaria: The Vegas Edition, Part VII

The Finals!

YES!! We made it to the finals! In case you were wondering, no I wasn't nervous. I didn't expect to make the finals, even if I did see a star by my name in one of the judge's books. I was really just hoping to go home pleased with my performance, maybe with one of the special awards.

Friday morning was the Farewell Luncheon in the grand ballroom. Dress was semi-formal so I had to pick out one of my nice dresses and Dad had to break out his good shirt and dress pants. Rob got to wear his brand new snakeskin boots, which I thought were horribly tacky, btw. In fact, they had already become a running joke in our family. This luncheon provided the usual coffee and punch plus several kinds of pastries. I had to leave it for a second, though, to go down to the Starbucks in the lobby. There's just no other way to start my day!

Aside from eating pastries, one of the items on the agenda was for the 2004 International Royalty to give their farewell speeches, starting with the Mini-Miss then progressing up to the Woman. Everyone's speech was quite long, and they all cried the whole time they were talking. When it was over, everyone went back to their rooms to start getting ready for the finals. We also had to turn in our garment bags at certain allotted times. (The reason behind that is that nobody save a few staff members knows who the 5 finalists are. So, in order to keep it a secret, they had us all turn in our bags with our entire wardrobe, props, and accessories in it, but only the bags belonging to the top 5 in each age group would be transported to the theatre.)

I went over to Judy's room around noon-ish so she could work her little magic touch on my hair and get that out of the way, then I went back to the room to put on my makeup and gown, since we were all supposed to wear our evening gowns/party wear to the theatre for the finals. Well, that was all well and good, but when I went to look for the earrings and necklace I wear with my gown, I realized I'd forgotten to take them out of the jewelry case when I turned in my garment bag. I didn't have anything else that would go with it so I figured I would just have to make do with a plain old neck and ears. But Dad suggested we check the gift shop to see if they had anything that might fill those empty spaces. Would you believe there was one white rhinestone necklace and earring set that matched my gown? For $40, it was a pretty good last-minute deal, so we got that and I put it on just as we were running out to meet the shuttle.

The finals were just about to get underway when we got to the theatre. My family went inside the auditorium to find seats and I joined the rest of the woman contestants outside the backstage entrance, waiting for our cue to go on for our opening number. One of the girls had the idea for us all to form a circle and join hands in a prayer, which we took turns jumping in if we had anything we wanted to add. I didn't, so I just let the other girls voice their prayer requests. Soon after, we were led backstage to get in place for the opening number we'd rehearsed. That went smoothly, without incident, even when our Tots made their onstage entrance. After that was the much-anticipated announcement of the top 10 Tots. When they called their contestant number, we were just supposed to push them forward a little and let them go to center stage. Wouldn't you know it? Shelby, my Tot, made the top ten!! I was so happy for her!

Once they announced the Tot semi-finalists, we all just walked off the stage and either took a seat in the audience or stood in the aisles until they got to the announcement for our age group. Each time they called the names of the top 10, the MC sang a song to them. Then they announced the top 5, who would compete that afternoon for the International title. Shelby didn't make the top 5, and she seemed very disappointed. I tried to tell her good job but she just scowled and buried her face in her mother.

This part was definitely the hardest. Some of those little girls couldn't care less about pageantry and were only there because their mothers made them. But others took it so seriously, you'd have thought their life was over when they found out they weren't in the finals! I saw little girls sobbing and saying, "I'm sorry, Mommy!" The older they got, the better they handled the disappointment. No one from Ohio made the top 10, although, several of my friends from the week did! Stephanie (the one from Grand Cayman whom I'd talked to the day of our interviews) made it, as did both Danielles (the one from Texas who was last in our group, and the other pianist), plus Peyton, the girl who was right before me in contestant order. Also, the girl I was sitting next to at the time of the announcement made the top 10 and subsequently the top five.  After those announcements had been made, there were several minutes of "filler" so the girls could get ready for the first competition of the night. During that time, I found my dad and borrowed a few dollars from him for the concession stand since I was starving by that time. My mom and Rob both decided to take the next bus back to the hotel (as did most of the people whose girl didn't make the finals), but my dad and I wanted to stay for the talent competition. I'm glad I did, too. Let me tell you: there are no weak talents in the top 5! All of them are very polished and entertaining, even the little Mini-Misses! Every single one impressed me.

I was under the impression that they waited to announce the winners until the awards banquet that night, so Dad and I left right after talent. I got changed out of my evening gown and just relaxed until dinner time. At the awards banquet, the tables were all assigned numbers again, so we got to meet some brand new people. They were a family from Arizona who had 2 girls in the pageant, one in Tot and one in Miss. The Miss girl, Kaylee, seemed very interested in me and was very talkative. When I told her I liked football, she told me one of the girls in her age group had an uncle there with her who was a college football player. She even pointed him out to me when he walked by, so I got his attention and talked to him for a while about football and if he knew much about Bowling Green or Omar Jacobs (our starting QB and future NFL hall of famer!). I later took a picture of him, plus pictures of me and Kaylee together, as well as one with her and I and Shelby, who still seemed pretty upset about not making the finals.

Right before they served dinner, they had us all stand for the introduction of the new 2005 royalty. I was surprised because I thought they would announce the results at the banquet instead of at the end of the finals, like we'd done at the state pageant. Apparently, I was mistaken. The 2005 International Woman was Kristen Connor, whom I recognized from the Miss Arkansas America state pageant that had taken place barely a month earlier. The girl I'd been sitting next to at the finals had gotten 2nd Runner-up (or "alternate" as they called them there). After dinner, they proceeded with all of the awards, including the best souvenir award (Peyton won for her colorful hand-painted surfboards) and Miss Congeniality (I don't remember who won, but I did tell Danielle from Texas later that I'd voted for her). They also recapped the AAMTC modeling and talent awards, and the cover girl awards. Since Lisa had cleaned house in those events, she had at least 3 humongous trophies that she had to figure out a way to get home on the plane. They also gave trophies to all the winners and runners-up in the beauty, talent, and photogenic categories.

Then, they moved on to the special awards. When I'd talked to Judy about these, she explained that they give these out to everyone who they feel deserves recognition for one area or another. She also explained that they don't try to spread them out over the age group just so everyone goes home happy. You either have it or you don't, and in order to even be eligible for some of these awards, you had to at least be in the top 20. Of course, my worst fear was being the only one from Ohio who didn't get anything.

They began with the Tot awards. Kaylee's little sister won an award, which she and her parents were very excited about. They were also worried about the possibility of Kaylee not winning one, because it would make for trouble at home. Fortunately, Kaylee did win one! None of the other Ohio reps got anything, though, from the Tots through Teens.

When they got to the Women, my heart was pounding. They didn't seem to be calling them in any particular order, just shouting out a name and what the award was for. When they announced an award for best gospel vocal, they called Jennica's name! Just after her, they gave Jamie one for best character dance! Then, right as I was about to have my worst fear realized, I heard them yell, "Best pianist goes to contestant #35, April Yeager!"

I was elated! I don't even remember making my way up to the stage because it all became such a blur. I do remember giving Jamie and Jennica a thumbs-up gesture and smiling for the camera as we formed a line across the stage. On my way back to my seat, I stopped and posed for a picture Dad took with my digital camera, and then posed with Kaylee, displaying our awards. Judy came up to me after the ceremony to give me a big congratulatory hug. I told her to let me know the dates for all the prelims next year as soon as she had them scheduled. According to the eligibility rules, if I win one before I turn 27, I still qualify for states and nationals. That means I have until March, and I definitely want to go back next summer!

We waited until the next morning to call my grandparents and tell them the good news, since they were likely already in bed by the time the ceremony was over. Of course, they were very happy for me, and I was happy because I was merely hours away from seeing Kirby!