3rd and 4th of July Celebrations!

               I wasted no time returning from Miss California in getting back to my Miss City of Orange duties! I was honored to be invited as the National Anthem performer for the city's annual 3rd of July celebration and I had an absolute blast! (No firework pun intended) When I arrived there were already hundreds of people in attendance enjoying all of the food and activities. There were several people I recognized including young girls who attended my Queen for a Day event! It was so great to see them and hear how much they loved the event and were excited for next year's. I also was congratulated by Orange's council members on my recent success in placing in the Top Ten at Miss California. I am so glad I could represent this wonderful city and make them proud! The singing of the National Anthem was the beginning of the 3rd of July ceremony, so I was on stage right at the beginning! Immediately after performing the National Anthem I was presented with an official Proclamation from the Mayor and Council members for all the hard work I have done for the city of Orange. This was such a surprise and a complete honor! I absolutely love this city and I am so proud to be Miss City of Orange! The evening was followed by a performance honoring our "Unsung Heroes" and a fabulous firework procession.  Let me just say the city of Orange knows how to put on a show!

            This morning I was asked to participate in the 4th of July parade in Orange Park Acres. I rode on one of the remodeled trolley's with some of the Council members and their families. Together we greeted and tossed candy to some of the citizens of Orange who woke up as early as we did for the parade! The trolley played music along the parade which kept the party going on and off the trolley. It was a lot of fun and a great way to get to know my Council members in a more informal atmosphere. The parade also gave me the opportunity to see new parts of Orange! I couldn't believe some of the gorgeous homes I saw that are hidden jewels inside of this city! Orange is a large and beautiful city, but the people who live inside of it are the best part!

Miss CA - Final Night!!!!!

              Well folks, today finally came and it was an anxious but wonderful day! We started with our early morning rehearsal where we practiced pulling out girls for the top 15 and how things would be accommodated in dances. It was interesting to see who got moved where, but you couldn't really figure it out (our choreographer is that good). I was only moved a few times but I didn't let it bother me. Afterwards came the waiting game which is probably one of the most awful things because you have no idea if you should warm up your voice, stretch, sleep, do your makeup, or start working on your hair. So many things to do and you have no idea if you made it into the top 15 or beyond! Very nerve racking as you can imagine. I decided to focus on relaxing :) So I popped in my headphones and listened to some of my favorite music while slowly starting to put on my makeup. Then suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and Katie was trying to tell me something. I take off my headphones to find she is singing One Direction's "You Don't Know You're Beautiful" and naturally I decide to join her. We went above and beyond entertaining our area of the dressing rooms and sang loud and proud the lyrics we knew and danced on the chairs. Yes, everyone looked at us like we were crazy and one person even videotaped it (maybe I will share the link... maybe). But honestly it helped break the ice in the room and made the girls realize we should remember this is about having fun! This is one of the many things I love about Katie!

           Ok now I will fast forward to the show! We performed our opening number and then immediately we began calling off the Miss California top 15 semi-finalists. My friend Laura Berger was the first name called and I had barely finished screaming and clapping for her when MY NAME WAS CALLED! Ahhhh so exhilarating!!!!! Last year my name was called second to last so I was expecting to have to wait awhile if I was even going to get in, but nope this year it was right away! My fellow top 15 ladies were Katie Wayland, Stephanie Patterson, Leah Cecil, Crystal Lee, Marina Inserra, Laura Berger, Lauren Smokla, Caylynn Simonson, Morgan Edwards, Katy Tang, Ryan Osborn, Carly Valdes, Grace Pusavat, and Sara Choi!!! These women are fantastic and it was such an honor to be side by side with them during that moment! Then we quickly ran off stage and changed into our swimsuits for our first phase of competition. My swimsuit went great and I felt stellar! After that is where things get tricky, they made a cut from the top 15 into the top 12. Instead of having us line up in our swimsuits they allowed us to change into our talent costumes before the cut (thank goodness!). I was lucky enough to make the cut and had the opportunity to perform my talent again!!!! I was so glad I had warmed up my voice earlier that day and felt ready to go! I believe I can honestly say performing "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" tonight was the best performance I have ever done. My high notes were impeccable and reports from the audience claimed it brought tears to their eyes. I feel so accomplished because honestly I am someone who usually has terrible stage fright and it used to get the best of me, but tonight I just enjoyed singing!

        Once everyone was finished performing their talents, the top 12 we were brought once again back to the stage for another elimination. This time the cut was down to the top 10! My talent performance was good enough to slide me into the next round and I could not have been any happier! I had already achieved more than I did the year prior and that was success to me. Last year was a bit different in that they only had a top 12 and didn't make any cuts until top 5, so making it through all of these new things this year was great! The new top 10 then got ready for their evening gowns and prepared for the most graceful moments of their lives. I absolutely love my evening gown, I bought it last year from Claire's Collection and it has been my favorite piece of clothing I own. I felt like a movie star. From there came the final decision, which of these young women would continue into the top 5 and answer an on-stage question? Well, unfortunately I was not one of those lucky ladies. However, I am so proud of my friends Leah Cecil, Crystal Lee, Marina Inserra, Lauren Smolka, and even Caylynn Simonson for getting into the top 5! I won't keep you hanging anymore but our new Miss California 2012 is...... LEAH CECIL!!!!!!

        After the competition was the Miss California Gala where we finally were reunited with all of our family and friends after such a stressful and exciting day. I loved seeing my parents, grandparents, boyfriend, and best friends all there to greet me when I had made my entrance as a Top 10 Semi-finalist! You can then bet I ate some of the best food I could grab and yes even some dessert! Then we danced the night away and I even had the chance to speak with a few of my judges! I absolutely adore Janet Carr Terrel (a former Miss California) and she told me she would come visit me at Disneyland where I work! In addition I made a point of finding my judge Dr. Anthony Radford, an opera professor from Fresno! He said he thoroughly enjoyed my performance and encouraged me to continue studying and singing classical music. Oh and by the way, one of my judges Gene Hill told me I looked like a combination of Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor and he suggested I definitely come back next year or go become a famous actress. Love him!!!! All of my judges were fabulous and they definitely picked a wonderful Miss California - Leah Cecil!


    As for me? Well I am VERY happy with how much I accomplished this week and I can see how much I have grown even since last year. I am not sure yet if I will return next year to compete for my last time but I do know this, it is one of the best moments in life when you accomplish your goals and you know you did your very best!

My Dad and I entering the Miss California Gala

Your new Miss California 2012 Leah Cecil!!! 

Miss CA - Day 7 (Swimsuit)

Day 7

           Tonight was the night I literally worked my booty off for, swimsuit! I am so proud for how far I have come in motivating myself to get swimsuit ready and I feel like it has paid off. Sure there are more things I could have done and will do in the future, but I was content with where my fitness level was tonight and how I presented myself on stage :)

          This evening the beautiful Katie Wayland competed in on-stage question and our graceful Stephanie Patterson floated across the stage in her evening gown. I am very proud of the two of them and they have both accomplished so much throughout the year and even this week at Miss California. In addition, our little teen Sarah Dahdouh achieved the best non-finalist interview award and the overall top interview award. She truly shined in every area of competition and was definitely up there with the rest of the teens in our opinion. However, a big congratulations goes out to our new Miss California's Outstanding Teen - Grace Lee Grant (Miss Golden Gate's OT). Ironically enough her evening gown is the exact same as my talent gown! Hopefully that will bring me some luck tomorrow? Speaking of which, I am very excited for whatever happens tomorrow evening. I am a firm believer in the phrase "everything happens for a reason" and it will be exciting to see how my future turns out tomorrow. No matter what I am happy for the experience and the friendships I have made along the way. Plus my best friends and boyfriend made it up to Fresno tonight so I am just glad to have people I love here to support me! Well... wish me luck!!!

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!

Snuggling in my blanket!

Right after I performed my talent!!!!

Came back to our room to see JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!!! :) 

Miss CA - Day 4 (On-stage Question!)

                Today was such an exciting day! Things started off by sleeping in (always a plus) and then heading over to the theatre for lunch and dress rehearsal for night one of stage competition! Tonight I competed in the On-stage Question portion of competition which is towards the end of the night's competition. However, I will let you know that I absolutely rocked that opening number dance!!! That was probably the one thing I was most nervous about and it feels good to know I can somewhat dance. Afterwards I had a lot of down time, most of which I spent hanging out with my friends backstage and supporting one another during talent. Everyone did absolutely spectacular tonight and I am so proud of my friends! Especially my two dear friends Stephanie Patterson (Miss South Coast) and Leah Cecil (Miss Southern California Regional) who tied for best talent tonight!!! AMAZING!!!! Also, another shout out to my friend Lauren Smolka (Miss Gavillan Hills) who won tonight's evening gown! As the night of competition drew to a close I was getting ready for my OSQ. The Miss contestants had the pleasure of being asked their questions by Arianna Afsar, Miss California 2010, as we selected slips of paper from a fish bowl. My question was as follows: Do you think it is necessary to reform health care or can it wait? My answer was basically yes reform was necessary and I included references to Obamacare. I can't say the exact words but I remember it was generally that answer and I felt very good about it!!! I heard from some other people that I had one of the best answers of the night :)

             Immediately following the pageant tonight we had visitation with our families and friends. It was so nice to see my parents after a few days of basically little communication. Each contestant has a table for their friends and families and it gets to be decorated, and may I just say my parents did an absolute breath taking job at creating my table. My Dad constructed the entire centerpiece and my Mom helped decorate it and it honestly was one of the most beautiful tables there! We were able to visit for a short while before we were told we needed to get to our rooms so we can prepare ourselves for tomorrow evening's competition. Tomorrow I will be competing in evening gown :)

Laura, Katie, and I before the show!

Opening number outfits!!!!

On-stage Question!!!!

Team OC :)

My awesome table!!!

Typical ;)

All of us with our pictures provided by Walter!!!

Miss CA - Day 2 and Day 3!!!!

DAY 2                

            Yesterday was a BIG day for interviews, however mine was today so I didn't really do too much during the day except watch the news. Stephanie and Katie had their interviews and they did great!!! So proud of them!!!! While they were getting ready I decided to attend the optional dance rehearsals. But let's be honest it shouldn't be optional for people like me who are not exactly gifted dancers. I am VERRRRY glad I did that!!! Hopefully now I don't look too silly trying to do a susie-q in high heels. My friend Bree Morse (Miss Garden Grove) led part of the rehearsal and may I just say that girl is talented at teaching dance! She made it so much easier to understand when certain moves followed each other and I am very grateful! After the rehearsals I was able to fit in a good workout with my friend Caitlin (Miss Santa Clara) to which I am still a little sore, but that's a good thing! Then we had to get ready for our first Rotary event at Pardini's Restaurant. We had a great time interacting and conversing with some of the rotarians and their families. I met a very lovely couple who were fascinated with my platform, the woman was a psychiatrist and the man was a retired lawyer. I also met this nice woman and two of her granddaughters, they were so cute! They even joined me later on the dance floor during our conga line dance. Nothing was cuter and funnier than seeing the Miss California contestants dancing with some of the older gentlemen in Rotary. We danced and danced until it was time for us to leave for our official dance rehearsal back in the theatre. I'm pretty sure every year the theatre gets colder and colder, because it was freeeeezing last night! The Miss contestants had some more work to do than the Teens, so we were constantly rehearsing on-stage. We stayed there pretty late which is why I wasn't able to post this blog until now because my interview was this morning :)

Team OC heading to the Rotary dinner!

               

Bree Morse and I at the Rotary dinner :)

Came back to my room and found this lovely surprise from my Fullerton family! Thanks Doug and Kathi!!!

DAY 3

            Flash forward to today, more specifically THIS MORNING! INTERVIEW!!!! AHHH!!!! It was really stressful waiting in my room until I was called to go into the waiting area. As I walked downstairs I met up really quick with my Executive Director Connie for some last minute consultations. She definitely helped me calm my nerves down and reminded me to just be myself. In the waiting room Bob Arnhym (Miss CA CEO) gave us a quick briefing before we entered the judging room. He told us what the judges were looking for and to tell them all about who we are as individuals and young women. They bring girls down in groups of 5 contestants, and considering I am number 6 that meant I was the first interview in my group of five. The judges were very nice and asked a lot of inquisitive questions that proved they had done their homework on me and were interested in my opinions on hot topics. To be honest I felt it was a challenging interview but at the same time was definitely something I handled well. I felt very relieved once it was over, interview is always a fun yet extremely anxious portion of competition week. Immediately after my interview I had to race over to the theatre to join the other contestants who had already been practicing more choreography. I think I am getting better at the opening number sequences but I'll admit I am not thrilled about being in the front row at times. If all else fails I will just smile and enjoy the music! In the middle of rehearsals we had to leave and attend one more Rotary event. We quickly changed into something nice and loaded onto the bus that drove us over to our lunch destination. Fortunately we were able to reunite with some of the Rotarians we had met the night before, but we also met many new friends! I sat at a table with my friend Leah Cecil (Miss Southern California Regional) and we chatted for a long time with the gentlemen sitting with us. They were very impressed to be eating lunch with two blondes from Orange County who also were educated in music. I'm pretty sure we surprised them with our knowledge and even taught them a thing or two ;) After our wonderful lunch it was straight back to the theatre for more rehearsal! We took a few breaks here and there for dinner and what not but it was mainly running portions of the show so we look awesome tomorrow night! Speaking of which, I am competing in On-Stage Question tomorrow!!!! Very exciting!!!!

Right before my interview!!!

Miss CA - Day 1

          This morning we started off right with our Red, White and Blue attire as we geared up to meet the Mayor of Fresno Ashley Swearengin. With gifts in hand there were 59 patriotic contestants loading onto the bus that kindly dropped us off in front of city hall where we joined for our first official group picture of the week! Then we headed inside to present our gifts to none other than the Mayor herself! You may ask why we brought gifts along with us? The  Miss California Organization is a guest in Fresno and has sustained this positive relationship for almost 20 years. In order to maintain this relationship, the contestants are encouraged to bring a little something from the area they represent to share another part of California and to express our gratitude to the host city. As Miss City of Orange I presented a beautiful pin and flag of the city in addition to a baseball cap from my Alma Matter Chapman University (that's still crazy to believe I graduated!). In exchange the Mayor also presented to us a little bag full of Fresno goodies such as raisins, chocolate covered almonds, and even some Sephora makeup!

        Those snacks, while tempting, held us over until we were able to reach our lunch destination at the Habit restaurant. Being a vegetarian my ordering menu was limited, it was either the garden salad or the veggie burger. Since I did not have the chance for breakfast I decided on the veggie burger, plain! Don't worry I did some workouts later to make up for it ;)

       After lunch we headed back to the Radisson hotel (home) where we had a long break until we had to reconvene. Some girls took naps, but I am not really one who can sleep during the day. So, I decided to use that time to organize somethings and collect little things that I needed for the following days. However, that break went by fast and before I knew it we were getting out of our comfy clothes and back into full hair and makeup for our BBQ graciously hosted by the Lester family. They have such a lovely home and it is so nice of them to invite us into their home. Our wonderful food was provided by the Fresno Kiwanis club, and one of the men tried to trick me into eating meat! He said, "it's not meat, it's Seagull!" Nice try!!!! The food was delicious though and the entertainment was very enjoyable with a fun karaoke machine. It started out slow but soon girls were signing up and singing! Even Bob, Noelle, and the hostesses joined in singing the "YMCA" song! The evening was fairly cool (not normal for Fresno during the Summer) and we ended it by taking one more group photo and even created a new version of "Call Me Maybe" that I will try and find the video of and post on here!

     As soon as we arrived back at the hotel, Bob sat all of us down for a little heart to heart followed by a very informative speech from Noelle. She has truly grown since the last few times I have seen her and even since she was crowned Miss California. I am very impressed with what she has accomplished and how the journey has helped her evolve into the woman she is today. It was a very important address she administered and I believe the next Miss California will be glad she heard those words as she begins her adventure, whomever she may be.