Meeting Miss Michigan

The Magazine that came out at the end of the year (I'm at the bottom right of the big "C")

The cover shot!!

"A Beautiful Rivalry"

With our war paint :)

Last Night I left St. Bernard to go up to Columbus, OH. While I was driving, I was getting pretty nervous. The closer I got to downtown, the faster my heart was beating! This would be the first time I would meet my sister state, Michigan; the first time I would meet another girl in the Miss USA competition! I didn't know what to expect. I was just hoping that Rima, Miss Michigan, and I would get along. I was told that every year Ohio and Michigan had to become like sisters because they spent so much time together and were both owned by Proctor Productions.

When I got to the Westin Hotel at 7pm, I immediately got my room and hung out until 9pm, when I had to meet everyone in the lobby. I got downstairs, but no one was there yet. Soon Eric, the photographer, and his assistant arrived. But they didn't introduce themselves right away. I was actually on the phone with my mom, telling her that I made to Columbus safely. I soon realized that there were these 2 men staring at me and whispering. When I finally got off the phone, they were still looking straight at me! I felt a little weird, until they finally came up to me and introduced themselves as the photographers. Roopan, publisher of C-Magazine and Anna Melomud, Miss Ohio USA 2007, arrived shortly after. Now I had to just wait for Rima. When she finally came down, a weight was lifted off my shoulders! We immediately hugged and got to talking. She was the exact kind of person that I was hoping she would be. We soon started taking paparazzi shots entering the hotel. Then the photographer said to do a funny shot, so we started pushing each other on the luggage cart. We were having so much fun!

After the photographer got his shots, we all went to dinner in the hotel. We talked to Anna about the Miss USA pageant and Roopan about tomorrow morning. He said that we were going to shoot with a red and yellow Lamborghini, but they weren't able to get the yellow one. :( Rima and I joked that the red one still had 2 seats! After dinner we had to go straight to bed, for tomorrow would be a long day!

In the morning I got dressed and checked out of my room. I then met Rima in the lobby where a chauffeur was waiting for us. He drove us to Eric's studio and when we arrived breakfast was waiting for us! We had to eat now because we didn't know when we would get a chance to eat again. After filling up our stomachs, Rima and I went straight to hair and makeup. Our hair stylist made us look like Victoria Secret models for the first shot and the makeup artist kept it very clean and natural. We then were styled in our OSU and Michigan jerseys and Rock and Republic Jeans. The theme of this shoot and magazine was "A Beautiful Rivalry." I was dressed in scarlet and gray for OSU and Rima was in blue and gold for Michigan. The magazine is to come out right before the OSU vs. Michigan football game.

For the shots in the jerseys, we fought over the ball and did the Heisman pose. The makeup artist even put the black liner under our eyes! There was even a point where they wanted Rima and me to face each other with other noses barely touching while glaring at each other in the eyes. It was so funny! It was hard not to stop laughing. After that we did a shot of us arm wrestling and let's just say Rima and I really got into it! It was now time to change up our clothes and hair and makeup. They gave us these crazy fur coats and had us jump in these shots. When we were shooting Melissa walked in. She really liked the direction the magazine was going and how cool the pictures were turning out. This was the first year they used Miss Michigan and made it a duo shoot.

It was now 2pm and we finally had lunch. There was only one look left to shoot and that was the evening gowns. We both had on these beautiful BCBG dresses and had crazy hair and makeup. The theme for this shot was tug-a-war. Once again we were having a blast working together! When we were finally done shooting, we had to do an interview together for the magazine. It went really well and when we answered the final question, we realized that the day was finally over! There was a car waiting for Rima and I to drive us back to the hotel where we said our goodbyes. I knew it wouldn't be long until I see her again. I absolutely cannot wait till the magazine comes out and hope the pictures turn out great!

Rima, we have to buy those Ray Ban sunglasses for Vegas!!!