Preliminary Competition Day #1

It's Here! It's Here! It's Finally HERE!!!!!

The first night of on-stage Preliminary Competition for Miss America 2011 starts TONIGHT!!! I've been studying the individual groups as listed below (Mu, Alpha, Sigma) and it's my job to narrow the field down to 4 possible winners out of 13 girls competing. I'll do this today, tomorrow and Thursday - and while I don't necessarily 'win' anything by doing it, it helps me get into the Judges heads to see if we're on the same page or not. Each day, I'll offer my picks for the winners in both Swimsuit and Talent (they don't announce a winner for Evening Wear or the On-Stage Question)... and I usually have a bit of commentary associated to back up my picks. Typically, I get 4 out of 6 winners correct over the course of the week. A good year would be 5 out of 6 (which is what I'm shooting for this year), a 'less than average' year is 3 out of 6 (although, I'm thinking of asking the officials to place an asterisk next to the year Miss Vermont won Talent) and we'll all know I have completely fallen off my rocker if I only get 2 out of 6 correct (I mean, almost anyone can do that!).

So! Without further adieu, here are my picks for TUESDAY'S PRELIMINARIES:

Swimsuit = Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, and DC. Florida is a GORGEOUS blond and all of 5'11!!! If they let her wear her black, silver-studded, over-the-knee leather boots during the swimsuit competition, i think she would (she can be seen in several photos with them on this past week!). Also, Illinois and DC won swimsuit at their state competition - and Hawaii is a former Miss America Outstanding Teen for Hawaii (more on that later).

Talent = WOW! This is a PACKED group for Talent --- Lots of girls won Talent at their states from this night! I could miss this one - but hopefully not!

Talent Picks = Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Tennessee. Seriously - this one was HARD! These are all strong pageant states - and I'm guessing it's going to be close! Penn plays the Electric Fiddle, the others are vocalists. California made it to the Top 36 at American Idol (just missed going to Hollywood) and she was 1st Runner up at the Miss American Outstanding Teen national competition in 2005. The vocalist judge on the panel is a country music singer - so, I'm not sure 'classical vocalists' are going to win any preliminaries this year... we'll see. Georgia could sneak out and win tonight - but I'm sticking with my original 4 states.

OK! And - this just in! The Prelims will be streamed on the web tonight - starting at 8pm Pacific! Yay for Technology!!!

Finally - as soon as I get the chance, I'll put together a form for our contest this year... I'm giving away a Vera Wang "Princess" Perfume gift pack to the person who scores the most points by choosing the most finalists correctly! You don't wanna miss out!

OH! And I'm anxiously waiting until Thursday morning when I'll get to fly to Vegas to see it all in person!!! Honestly - I'm having a hard time getting my rest because... "I'm too excited to sleep!!!" :)

Must Press On! Results from my picks will be available on Miss America's Facebook page around 11:30 tonight! Whoooooooooooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! :)

crl