Miss City of Orange 2012: Miss CA - Day 5 (Evening Gown) & Day 6 (Talent)

Day 5 - Evening Gown

Wednesday evening I competed in the Evening Gown portion of competition! It was a very relaxing day leading up to the competition. I got to sleep in and enjoy watching some regular television while my room mate Katie was off at her talent rehearsal. Around noon I headed down with my things to the committee luncheon where I was able to see my family and Connie. Thank goodness Connie brought us Subway because I don't think I could have eaten another salad. When we finally got back to the theatre we immediately changed into our opening number outfits and began our rehearsal. The cool thing about Evening Gown competition is you get to do the opening number and then wait around for 2 hours until you compete. Time flew by and before we knew it dinner was being served and we were getting ready for the show to start! I feel like I did a great job in my Evening Gown and I felt amazing! Katie performed her talent that night and she blew the house away!!!! I was so proud of her!!!!!

My Evening Gown :)

Connie's Angels <3

Day 6 - Talent

Today was probably one of the most exhausting days for me because I had to be up and ready to go with all of my things at 7:30 am. I was bundled up in a scarf, sweater, and blanket in preparation for the freezing theatre and the many hours I would be spending inside of it. It was very strange being in backstage with only a handful of the contestants, only talent competitors for the night. I immediately made myself some tea and began warming up my voice in one of the bathrooms. I always hate having to warm up where people can hear you because vocalizing isn't about making pretty sounds and I don't want anyone to think I actually sing like that. So the restroom was really the best place (acoustics don't hurt either) and I felt pretty good going into my rehearsal. When you perform your talent in the rehearsal you are allowed visitation with your executive director or anyone you specifically need for advice pertaining to your talent. Connie was great at giving me advice and my field director Russ Gladden was there to lend some words of wisdom. I also finally got to see my Grandparents who arrived in Fresno the night before!!! They are from Indiana so with the time difference (+3 hours) they were so exhausted and couldn't see me earlier. It was so nice to see them and my parents at my talent review. Afterwards was the stressful part of my day, waiting. I was literally snuggled up inside of my blanket and sipping tea to keep myself warm. In addition, I did my best to remain on vocal rest but I was a little too excited sometimes and had to talk to people so maybe I was really on a half vocal rest. Around noon again we trudged back to the hotel (in sweats) to meet our families again.

When the show finally started I was feeling anxious. I was so excited to just perform that I couldn't stay seated in one place. I needed to pace around and warm up again so my voice could be 100% ready for lift off. Let me just say when I finally reached that stage my heart was pounding so fast!!!! It felt absolutely wonderful when I hit the first few high notes and I could feel them just soaring through the air. What a rush!!!!!! The only problems I had were technical in that I could not hear myself at all in the monitors and the music was hard to hear. It was fixed during rehearsal so I'm not sure what happened during the show. However, it didn't matter because the reviews I received from people in the audience were all positive!