Orlando: The fun begins

I made it to Orlando safe and sound, continued to obsessively check twitter for the details of the INSANE primary election (it all came down to 1% of the votes!), and I've been enjoying total pageant immersion ever since.

Over the past few days, I've fallen even more deeply in love with the Miss America system, our Outstanding Teen program, the volunteers, and my fellow Miss America contestants.

We've been meeting each other, saying things like "Oh! You're Miss XYZ!! I've been reading your blog/loving your facebook updates/ following you on twitter!" I have been so pleased to find that these young women are as wonderful as I hoped they'd be!

On Tuesday night, Erin totally rocked in the Lifestyle and Fitness portion of the competition. The teens have a very intense fitness demonstration this year- all of the Misses were looking at each other and saying "Thank goodness we just have to WALK!" I was so glad to see Erin during visitation- she's making us proud!

Yesterday (Wednesday), I woke up at 4:30 AM to get ready to be on TV! Miss California, Miss Hawaii, Miss New Mexico and I are all former state Outstanding Teens, so while we're in Orlando we've been doing some press to promote the two programs. By 6:00, we were off to the studios of the Daily Buzz, a morning show that airs all over the country. We had so much fun! They interviewed us about the Miss America Organization, and then we got to play a mini game show called "Pageant or Not". You can check out a video of the game show here:



We had fun with Kim and Nicole from MAOT, and we loved hanging out on set!

Nicole and Kim are so great!

Madison: Miss Daily Buzz 2010!

That afternoon, Miss Rhode Island (Debbie) arrived! I was so excited when we worked out that we would be able to be roommates this week- we had so much fun talking about the realities of being a titleholder in a small state as we got ready for the second night of prelims.

Last night, Erin's talent was fantastic! Her American Sign Language interpretation of her song was different and beautiful- I'm just so incredibly proud to be her Miss!

Together on Prelim Night 2!

This morning was another early one (sleep is no longer an option), because today all of the Miss America contestants are filming 60 second spots that will be used to promote the upcoming Miss America pageant! When they're released, you'll have to let me know what you think. Arianna, Jalee, Madison and I had fun again this morning!

Next up, the four of us have a photo shoot with fourpoints in about an hour, dinner as a Miss America class tonight, and then we'll all be attending the final night of preliminary competition later in the evening. I'll be tweeting as we go, so if you're looking for more of the scoop on Miss Vermont in Orlando, check it out here: http://twitter.com/CarolineBright