Our Little Miss Sunshine

You know how obsessed I am with Toddlers and Tiaras.

 

Well, I never thought that I would know someone who was actually IN a pageant. My friend's 12 year old daughter has aspirations of being an actress. Or a marine biologist. So she convinced her mother to let her try out for the local National American Miss competition. As luck (?) would have it, she placed in the finals for the state competition in Columbus.

It was a two day event and unfortunately, since she and her daughter are the ones who come and stay with the dogs when I go out of town, I was only able to attend on Sunday for the closing ceremony.

 

Columbus is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Cleveland and it is SUCH a boring drive because it's all trees or farms. I figured at least it was a nice day and since I actually like driving, I would just crank the radio and sing.

 

 

 

Then, about an hour and a half in, the skies starting looking a little questionable. I hate driving in the rain even more than I hate driving in the snow, so I was hoping it would just be a light rain. As I kept driving, that seemed unlikely.

 

 

 

I contemplated stopping at the adultmart but I wasn't sure if the doors would be open to sinners on Sunday so I kept driving.

 

 

Smack into this!

 

.

 

The skies just opened up and all of the traffic came to a complete stop on the freeway. It lasted about 15 minutes and then we were able to move on and into clear skies again.

 

I have some familiarity with Columbus but I probably wouldn't have had to backtrack if I hadn't left my directions on the printer at home.

 

They started the closing ceremony with an introduction of each of the girls that included what their favorite things are and what their goal in life is. The girls came out in their evening gowns and walked across the stage as the crowd of parents and friends applauded. The applause got a little light after #99. Who knew there were 183 girls?!?! And that was just in the pre-teen category.

 

We started to get a little slap happy and I'm sure my friend and her older daughter were worse than me because they had to sit through 183 girls for each competition all day Saturday. At one point, I thought I heard the announcer say, "Tamika likes porridge and collecting porn" but I scratched my head and thought, "That can't be right."

 

Of course, my mind went to what a money making venture this is. My friend probably spent almost $1000 to enter her daughter, buy the clothes and stay in a hotel for the weekend. Each additional category that she was entered in was another fee. Plus, it cost each person $15 to watch the closing ceremony. Parking in the hotel? Another $20.

 

Why am I not running a pageant??

 

They wouldn't allow video cameras or flash photography in the ballroom because, you guessed it, you had to purchase a video of the closing ceremony. Cha-ching!

 

Here's my lame attempt at no flash pics. We got in line 45 minutes before the ceremony started but we still ended up in the back row.

 

 



 Here's our girl. The leggy one under the crown.

 

She did an awesome job, but, unfortunately, the judges were blind and/or drunk and she didn't place in any of the categories. She's a trooper and took it well. I think we were more upset than her. Who knew you could get so into it??

 

Then it was time for the 2 1/2 hour drive home.

 

Here are the highlights. Well, you get the idea.