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| Ali Rogers Miss South Carolina 2012 |
We tried a few different make-up ideas and hairstyles talked about her talent (piano) and I saw photos of her evening gown and just generally made sure we were going to be on the same page for Las Vegas!
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| Arlie Honeycutt Miss North Carolina 2012 |
While in aisle seat 30D, I tried to sleep, tried to listen to my iPod, tried to read on my eReader, but was constantly interrupted by the creepy men who wouldn't shut off their phones and were texting each other constantly, meeting at the restrooms a few times and speaking in a foreign language. I shut off my eReader, wrapped my earbuds around my iPod Classic and in between the airline hostesses cart smacking my shoulder just kept looking at my watch to see how much longer I would endure this trip. When we landed, I was so happy to get off the plane that I jumped up from my seat, grabbed my laptop from the overhead, got my purse and deplaned as quickly as possible! Only 2 days later did I realize I left my cherished old school iPod in the seat back in front of me on the plane...sad day...I miss my iPod...I have contacted USAirways in Vegas, Charlotte and the 800 customer care number to be told that it is probably never going to be returned to me again...yeah I know it is an OLD style, but it was MY old style iPod which I adored. **sniffle sniffle**
Margaret & I were on our way to grabbing a cab from the airport when we saw the line of doom awaiting us! There were 100's of people just arriving for the "CES" convention that would kick off on January 8th, so there was a very long line of tired road weary people looking to get their bags into their hotels. As I am rolling my bags, a person in front of me had a baggage malfunction, so I of course helped them out, and kept the line moving.
A person a few people behind me bumped into me knocking my bags over and when I was trying to gather my bags (no one helped me out) a French woman spoke to me rudely telling me to hurry up and stop backing up progress. Yes, she was French because she was speaking French to her friend in line. So I did what any person would do and told her "You could help me and had you not knocked my bags over in the 1st place this wouldn't be an issue, thank you!". Then I slowly and carefully gathered my items. Note to travelers, we all have places to go, let's try to get there with a smile on our faces!
We arrived at Planet Hollywood! I have heard many talk of how nice it is and was excited to get in, check in and get settled! Went right up, checked in to my room, and was heading to my room! Yay! Margaret's contact was stuck in transit so she couldn't check in right away, so I had her come to my room & leave her luggage so we could grab a bite to eat.
We were not told that we had to take the "north elevators" to get to the room, so we of course took the wrong elevator and were dragging our luggage behind us...ugh...heavy...sleepy...when we asked a random hotel employee to help us & he got us to the right elevators! Thanks random employee! :-)
We get in the room, and at first glance it seemed really nice. I was in the "Empire Records" movie room complete with memorabilia and photos from the movie! Then I hear Margaret tell me that the bathroom didn't look clean, and I was like...oh no! So I look at the sink and sure enough there was dried BLUE toothpaste on the sink spout and I had to call housekeeping...sigh...why? Housekeeping recleaned the room and all was good and Margaret & I went to find something to eat in the Miracle Mile Shopping Mall attached to the hotel.
We were both extremely tired and hungry, so we went to a place that Margaret had eaten before and had tried to decompress from the travel adventure so far. We ate at a restaurant called Ocean One Bar & Grill, and I had a nice tuna steak meal which was very flavorful and the people watching was interesting too! After dinner Margaret told me we needed to grab a spot in the "Salon" for tomorrow's first day of work which for our contestants meant preliminary interview competition. So, we went to the room where we would be setting up the next morning to set up our signs (that were laminated by Margaret THANK YOU!) and when I saw where we would be working I was in a state of shock and NOT in a good way. The room that Planet Hollywood gave us to set up & work was a meeting room with 10 tables total, a handful of mismatched various sized chairs and well overhead canned lighting that was NOT good to work under. Thankfully, I brought a clamp light to use.
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| Alicia Clifton Miss Oklahoma 2012 |
Margaret has a many makeup friends and one who was already in the room (working on Miss Oklahoma) saved Margaret a table spot & she in turn told me I could share the table with the both of them! Yay! So, we grabbed a couple tall bar stools and set our place holding signs on the table and were off to bed to make sure we were rested & ready for the first full day of preliminary competition for the "Sigma Group" contestants.
I went back to my Planet Hollywood room and was trying to get lights on in my room, but alas I couldn't get them to work! Tired and knowing I had an early morning I figured I could unpack & sort things out the next morning so at about 1:30am I went to sleep...sort of...I tossed and turned as I can't get comfy the 1st night out of town and when my wake up call happened around 5:30am I was already up before the phone rang!
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| Glamcor Lighting fixtures |
We had our schedule of events and our contestants were scheduled to be in the "Salon" to get ready for interview from 7:30am-8:30am plenty of time to get them ready! So, I arrived in the "Salon" at 7:00am to make sure I was set up and ready to roll. So the contestants rolled in and there was much excitement in the air as the chatter, hairspray and make-up was in full effect! My contestants group got to the room about 15 minutes late and another group was 15 minutes early, and many contestants had 2 artists working on them one for hair & one for make-up, but it was just me & Ali back there together...and yeah WE ROCKED it out! ;-) I saw a handful of artists using Glamcor lights and I had contacted the company about getting some for the pageant but never got a reply...boo...I think that company missed out on a BRIGHT idea! hehe!
Ali was ready for interview and that hour went by faster than I could have ever imagined! Whew! Ali was tanner than we anticipated, but I had many airbrush shades with me to adjust accordingly. They were ready and we were off to find the Starbucks for some coffee and then maybe some breakfast. I also visited the Sephora store in the Miracle Mile Mall multiple times to return and buy the perfect shade for her to use when I was not with her! Our next time we were to report to the "Salon" was 5:00pm to get the ready for the preliminary evening gown & swimsuit competition, which I had my preliminary ticket for that evening!
While I was running around trying to make sure all my ducks were in a row for the evening competitions, the contestants were finishing up interview, doing rehearsals, filming ads for Artistry and doing all kinds of sweaty exhausting things of that nature. I went to the "Salon" around 4:45pm to get set up only to see that we needed more tables & chairs for the many artists that were just descending upon the room. Yes, I had a table and a chair, but I am not one to not care about others, so I went to the business center of the hotel and asked if they could give us more tables & chairs. They were very gracious and the room full of artists all cheered and called me the Miss Congeniality of the room! haha! Made a few friends, and had people coming up to me when they heard I was working with Miss SC to tell me that they thought she was the most beautiful contestant there and did I know I was working on the future Miss America. I told a few of them "Don't we ALL think the contestant in OUR chairs is the winner?" because all the contestants were so beautiful to look at. While waiting for Ali to come in for the 5:00pm "Salon" time I talked with the hairstylist for Miss NC Dawn Carrington and we were instantly friends! Margaret & Dawn made Arlie look her best! Plus they were really nice to work with as well. We were waiting and the clock read 5:15....5:30...and no contestants yet...I was worried we were not going to have any time! Then an announcement came that the rehearsals were running late and they would be to the "Salon" soon. I thought OK we will have at least 45 mins. Ali got to the room at 5:45pm, we were told they HAD to leave the "Salon" by 6:10pm! Whoa! 25 minutes to get her stage ready? Yikes! So I went straight to work to have her ready for 1st swimsuit and then she would have to change her own hair for evening gown. After finishing Ali for the night Margaret & I grabbed dinner at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant BURGR, which was good but it wasn't the best burger place I have ever been to....just sayin'!
Here is how she looked the first night of prelimiaries! GORGEOUS!!! GO ALI!! :-)
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| Ali Rogers Swimsuit Preliminary |
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| Ali Rogers Evening Gown Preliminary |
Ali ended up winning the Sigma Group swimsuit preliminary competition! She also won the Duke of Edinburgh's GOLD medal for outstanding volunteerism that night too! Miss Oklahoma, won her group's talent preliminary competition so my make-up table was having a WINNING evening! YAY!
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| Miss America 1st night Preliminary Winners Miss OK & Miss SC |
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| Clarka Wickliffe Miss Spartanburg 2013 |
When I got to my seat in PH Live to watch the preliminary competition, I met some new friends: Clarka Wickliffe (Miss Spartanburg 2013) was sitting to my left and Alison Rawl was to my right with her very talented daughter Catie Rawl (who is the NEXT Taylor Swift so WATCH out for her future!). Clarka helped me understand & keep track of what was going on on stage and who we thought were doing well & who we thought needed a bit more polishing too!
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| Ali and Catie after preliminaries! |
Alison & Catie were cheering loud with me for Ali! I also learned that Catie was Ali's princess during her competitions while she was in Miss South Carolina, and she is a really awesome musician and singer too! I really enjoyed running into these new friends! I told them about the wonderful ABC store in the Miracle Mile Mall...no I am not a heavy alcohol drinker...silly! The ABC store has 99 cents 1 liter bottles of water!! Whoop whoop!! Yes, I went through SO many liters of water that this was a wonderful find! So I of course had to share my findings with others!
So, after preliminaries they have allocated time for the contestants to have visitation with their friends, family and state directors. The 1st night we could visit them from 10:00pm to 11:00pm. Well....the preliminary winners were held up in interviews and photo opportunities so we didn't get to see Ali until at least 10:30pm and there were over 300 people from Laurens, SC who were so excited to see her after she won swimsuit! I met her wonderful family & friends and got to know her Mother, Adair, quite well as I was her lifeline to giving Ali anything like cards, notes, bobby pins, etc. Adair is such a gracious & kind person I can see why Ali has turned out so well! Everyone was holding their signs and waving the SC state flags and when Ali finally was able to enter the visitation room it was crazy! There were people vying for a photo with Ali and since I can see her when I work with her backstage I just wanted to smile at her tell her congrats and let others have there time with her!
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| Skyler Kamaka Miss Hawaii 2012 |
The state of Hawaii has a neat tradition that Ali was introduced to the first night at visitation. Miss Hawaii and her state directors, family and friends go over to the preliminary winners each night and sing a congratulatory chant bestowing a gorgeous lei around each winners neck! It was so nice to witness this wonderful tradition first hand! The camaraderie seemed wonderful there with the pageant contestants and all that were in the visitation room! I went to sleep after visitation time feeling very content, excited and ready for the next day which meant my group would be performing their talent on stage!
The second day of preliminaries schedule for me was to be in the "Salon" at 5:00pm to have until 6:30pm to get Ali ready for talent competition. We have been through a couple of these "Salon" times and I was there once again early at 4:45pm to set up and get ready for the talent competition. I was all still glowing from last night's excitement when I walked in the "Salon" to find that my laminated "Miss South Carolina" sign had been torn off the chair where it was taped and thrown on the ground! At first I thought, maybe someone knocked the chair over, and the sign fell off innocently, but I was quickly told that it was in fact torn off in anger at my contestant winning swimsuit. Why would someone do that? Ali would not see this, the make-up & hair people would see it first. I was the artist who everyone was cheering for getting more tables and chairs...weird feelings filled my head....I had heard that pageants can be catty but this seemed very infantile!
The contestants were once again NOT on time due to rehearsal running late and while I had more time than the previous day, we never were actually given the full allocated time with our contestants ever. So, note to anyone who might do this in the future, you won't be given nearly the time they say so best to prepare for hurry up & wait and then HURRY up and get finished! Ali LOVED her hairstyle for talent and people were commenting on how it was a "work of art" so I was thoroughly pleased as punch too!
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| Dena Blizzard Miss New Jersey 1995 |
The second night of preliminaries started off as exciting and fun with a great hostess Dena Blizzard who herself was Miss New Jersey 1995 and she was telling us to tweet to her during the competition to her twitter account @onefunnymother. She made us laugh and made the lulls not quite as lull-Y. I had my new seating friends commenting along with me and we had entertainment of this group of young guys from Virginia (they held up V A letters) in front of the 300+ SC fans who whenever Ali would be on stage would cover their ears to protect them from harm of our yelling! I tweeted Dena Blizzard that if she gave Miss SC a shout out the guys in front of us would cover their ears...again but she never replied or tweeted back...oh well! What can ya do?
The winners of the second night of preliminaries were Miss Illinois for swimsuit and Miss Maryland for talent.
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| Miss America 2nd Night Preliminary Winners Miss IL & Miss MD |
I think Ali looked & sounded amazing on the piano, but the judges didn't award her the talent preliminary win. Ali did receive an award from the Children's Miracle Network for being a "Miracle Maker" and raising the MOST money of all contestants for the Children's Miracle Network! Congrats Ali! When I talked to her backstage in the "Salon" she was relieved that she didn't win the talent preliminary because she already noticed that certain contestants true colors were starting to show and she didn't need to give people more reasons to have a target on her back. I still am amazed that this actually happens to the contestants. These are all adults and yet some of them act like they are in elementary school with bad attitudes!
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| Miss America 3rd Night Preliminary Winners Miss ND & Miss WA |
Well, the third and final night I would get to work with Ali in the "Salon" was the one night we had the MOST time and it was of course Ali's easiest night with only having an onstage question. The mean girls were having an effect on the mood of the backstage "Salon" and you could feel the tension around everywhere. I tried to keep the mood light and happy around Ali. When we were leaving the "Salon" for the last time, a man asked us if we were going to go to the "Halo" bar after the pageant, because Dennis Rodman was going to be there and he was lots of fun to party with. I thanked him for the warning and kept walking. When we were waiting to get through the line to sit in the seats of PH live Dennis grabbed an Ali sign and held it over his face and was running around like that! That boy aint right! Hahaha! Well of course Ali rocked her onstage question she is a champion for making a difference! The final night of preliminary winners were Miss Washington for swimsuit and Miss North Dakota for talent.
I was sad that I wouldn't see Ali again in the "Salon" but I knew that she was prepared for the final night of the pageant on Saturday night! I did go to visitation and enjoyed seeing everyone but I had a really scratchy throat from yelling and turned in before visitation was over. So, Thursday was the last night of competition and I was excited to have a couple days to navigate and explore Las Vegas! I was going to walk around grab a cab to the "Pawn Stars" pawn shop and be a tourist! So I went to bed excited about my adventures tomorrow!
Well, Thursday night I felt really bad...was coughing a bunch and my throat was super sore! Ugh! NO! I was NOT getting sick no way no how! Woke up and barely dragged myself into a shower Friday morning to get myself to the ABC store for throat lozenges, Zicam and DayQuil...sigh...I was sick...NOOOO!!!!
My plans were now changed...MUST GET well enough to go to the final night of the Miss America pageant! Stay in the bed...get well...stop coughing....drink more water....sleep....ugh...maybe I could go be a tourist if I could feel a little better? NO SUCH LUCK! I was feverish, had the chills, was coughing and didn't have anyone to help me in Vegas. My 2 make-up & hair buddies Margaret and Dawn were already flying back to the Carolinas, so it was Heather versus this yuck! This is where Vegas got really nasty to me. Everywhere I looked seemed infected with flith. I was miserable and I wanted to go home, but I also wanted to see how Ali would do on stage for the finals! Sigh....Friday was a wasted day of icky no fun for me. I went to the mall to buy a scarf because oh yeah Las Vegas weather was FREEZING, the news people were saying it hadn't seen these temperatures in YEARS! So I walked over to CVS to see if they had better options for me and just ended up with NyQuil so I could just sleep away this funk I had picked up.
Saturday a was trying to convince myself I felt better than Friday, because I wanted to attend the Miss SC lunch at YOLO's in Planet Hollywood, so I took my DayQuil, Cepacol and Zicam at the right time so that I wouldn't cough or feel too icky at lunch. The lunch had a great turn out and everyone was pumped for the evening's big ticket event THE MISS AMERICA finals! So I went back to my room to try to plan how I was going to take my medicine so I could go to the pageant finals and not be a complete coughing mess! I got myself prepped dressed in my little black dress and sparkly heels even and headed down to be seated! I was not feeling great, but I knew I didn't want to miss this event!
When I got to my seat in between Clarka and Alison I was excited to see the hosts for the evening, Brooke Burke and Chris Harrison. 
The production team went over the details of the do's & don'ts for the audience and away we were whisked into the fantasy of a young girl's dream coming true as she is crowned Miss America 2013! The top 16 were announced and ALI was in the top 16! Screaming YAYYYY!!! Loudly and clapping for her we watched the top 16 go to I think top 12 and ALI was still in the top!! SOOOO exciting! My phone was going crazy with my at home friends & family watching and updating me on what the TV was saying! This was getting really more exciting as they narrowed it down to the top 5 who would answer the final onstage question! Ali looked great and we were all confident in her speaking ability, so this could be her moment to grab that Miss America crown! GOOOOO ALLLIIII!!!!! Listening to the questions and answers so far, I was waiting to hear what Ali's question would be and then it came...a question about if Ali thought Brent Musburger's comments regarding a QB's girlfriend's looks were inappropriate...WHAT does THIS have to do with ANYTHING?! Wow...I felt sorry that Ali got such a bizarre question. She answered it well, but in the end Miss New York's question about gun control won over the judges and Ali was the judges 1st runner up! YAY ALI!!
The way the pageant ended was anti-climatic. I wanted to hear "the song" ya know "There she is...Miss America!" but nope no song...no confetti canons...no balloons...it was just over....done.  |
| Mallory Hagan Miss America 2013 |
I was feeling super bad after the pageant and did not get to go to the visitation to congratulate Ali on her 1st runner up award which gives her $25,000 in scholarship money! Whoohoo!
I really feel blessed and honored to have worked with the amazing Miss South Carolina Organization, they are wonderful people and a CLASS act! Thank you Steve & Ashley!
I just wanted to get back to my room, take NyQuil and sleep...being sick is NO fun in Vegas!
I just wanted to get back to my room, take NyQuil and sleep...being sick is NO fun in Vegas!
I flew back to Charlotte on Sunday. I took NyQuil to sleep the flight away. Met an airplane mechanic who was being deployed to Afghanistan for a year on my flight home. Went to the doctor on Monday and was diagnosed with pneumonia! YIKES! I still am sick and think my coughing really stinks, but I am home now so hopefully I will get well SOON!
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