Miss America Day 4

 Day 4 started at 4:45am getting up, waking up, and preparing myself to be hair and make-up ready by 6:00am which would give me enough time to grab some breakfast and snacks from the hospitality suite and get to the elevators by 6:15am call time.  I'll break down the process a bit for those of you who didn't see the live show.  There were 6 different groups of girls filming their introductions at 6 different locations.  But as each new location, the girls from the previous shot were participating in the dancing.  We were all in alphabetical order with the exception of the girls who were under 21.  Because some of the intros were being filmed in bars we didn't want to have anyone underage.  The first few girls in the alphabet did their shot the day before and the next groups shot needed to be done after noon so we began that Sunday morning at the Bellagio with my group.

 This day proved difficult because there was a lot of what we call "hurry up and wait" happening.  The film crew and production people had a lot of setting up and testing of this and that but we had to be ready at the snap of a finger.  And although temperatures in Las Vegas were warm and toasty by midday it was rather chilly that morning.  Needless to say we spent a lot of time cuddling for warmth. 

After what seemed like 100 shots we got it down perfectly and we were off to the next location!  Le Reve at the Wynn was one of the coolest places I've seen.  There is a circular stage that is surrounded by water.  The stage changes levels and spins too!  Luckily I was in the back row for this shoot because aside from my yelling out dance moves to help our Miss Nevada keep it together, I was fighting my tendinitis in my knee.  Something about the rubber style floor and high heels was making for a horrible combination.  But with some subtle dance moves and some massaging in between shoots I made it through!

"Thanks for the shout out Lady Gaga, Nebraska, Nebraska I love ya!"

A group of us having lunch at the Palms!

After lunch at the Palms we headed to the secret coded Ghost Bar for the second group of girls.  This was the one we had to postpone so the sun was in the correct position, and also the one that I wasn't in!  Nap time was an understatement.  I think it took only a matter of minutes before each couch, car and rug were covered by a sleeping body.

Getting ready for nap time with Miss Nev at  the Ghost Bar.  This was our only break in the day.

After the Ghost Bar, we drove to downtown Las Vegas, which besides the somewhat vulgar women advertising for the $2 hotdogs and $5 mixed drinks, was a really neat place.  (This was the location that we had the non-alphabetical and underage girls in)  The sun had gone down at this point and all those coastal girls were getting very cold.  We had run through this dance many times and it happened to be my favorite dance so I was very much into it.  To the point of breaking a sweat.  So I ditched my scarf, and gave my coat to someone more cold than I was and kept groovin' to keep myself warm.  Something about that dance gave me a huge kick of much needed energy to finish the shoot.

Our second to last shoot of the day in downtown Las Vegas!

Having a great time teasing Brucy the photographer!

And last but certainly not least was poolside at the Cosmopolitan!  It was 9pm by this time and besides being sleepy we were all freezing, but despite all of that we were all in good spirits which was so uplifting and gave everyone the last kick we needed to get through the last shoot!

Last shoot at the Cosmopolitan!

We got back to the hotel shortly after 10pm and I was showered and in bed faster than you could think, but I still didn't know what time my interview was the next morning.  After a few calls I had the schedule in hand and my alarm set for 6am.

It was a crazy exhausting day, but so much fun!

Psalm 29:11
"The Lord give strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace."

Kayla,

Miss Nebraska