January 15th has FINALLY arrived. Everything is packed – well, almost everything. Half the fun of getting ready for Miss America is making sure all of one’s competition wardrobe fits perfectly into the suitcase(s). I have been spending many hours with Marie Fryer and staff at Belles and Beaus finalizing outfits and making alterations. Since the weight just seemed to keep coming off the last three months, this has been an ongoing task…taking in seams! YES! Marie once again saved the day, putting on the final beads (a five hour project) to the hem of my evening gown. Mom will be flying my evening gown to Las Vegas in her luggage on Sunday. Yes, everything is packed, EXCEPT my competition evening gown! Three large suitcases of gear were toted to the airport. I wasn’t looking forward to THAT bill when we got there. The baggage guy looked at us and said, “You know that is going to cost you quite a bit for three suitcases!” We didn’t explain, just assured him that we needed to get all three bags on the airplane. $165.00!! Ouch!! One suitcase included all of my competition outfits…two walk-on gowns (for preliminary nights that I’m not wearing my competition gown), one swimsuit, one on-stage question cocktail dress, one interview dress, one talent outfit, one quality of life interview suit, a robe to wear in the dressing room, six pairs of four inch heels, seven pairs of earrings, and pantyhose. Hope THAT suitcase doesn’t get lost! The other two suitcases contain outfits for production rehearsal as well as outfits for numerous appearances and outings during my ten days in Las Vegas. One suitcase alone was filled almost entirely with makeup and hair product. But I digress. Got a little off track with all this talk of packing.
