I woke up on show day, at 6:30 am to a hotel “phone ring” wake up call. I stayed there in bed for a couple of minutes trying to take in the moment and concentrate on how I was feeling. I always imagine having these grand feelings on “important” days but you still have to go through all your normal stuff. On your wedding day you still have to brush your teeth. On the day you go into labor to bring a fresh human into the world you still have to run a comb through your hair and put on Chap Stick.

Don’t get me wrong, I was extremely nervous. I was also a little excited or anxious or both. I had at least a dozen butterflies in my stomach that I couldn’t get rid of.

This morning was a little different. I couldn’t take a shower, or put on deodorant, or put on body spray or lotion. I couldn’t put anything on my skin because of the tan. Any other chemicals added to the tans chemicals could cause the tan to discolor possibly even turn green! That kind of sucked because all other important events in my life generally start with a shower.

I didn’t have much to do. I sat in my hotel room in front of a full length mirror while both my boys slept and took my time straightening my hair and putting in my extensions. Ben was gone, he got up an hour earlier to go to the gym.

After I finished with my hair I brushed my teeth, put on a loose tank top and baggy sweats. I couldn’t put on a sports bra or regular bra because it could mess up the tan. I was going to get one more coat that morning after the athletes meeting. It was a good thing because I sweat during the night and I had some streaks on my belly and chest. I didn’t inspect my legs or “underbutt.” I was sure it would just make me more nervous if I saw more smudges and streaks! It would all, hopefully, get taken care of later. I got my bag ready to go to the venue, and then went to the hotel lobby for coffee. I remember asking Sam if he wanted anything to eat from the hotel breakfast. He said biscuits and gravy, if they had it. They didn’t. But, they did have every other breakfast item you could imagine. I knew better than to get either of my boys something that looked good to me! So I just poured two cups of black coffee and headed back up to the room.

I paused before I drank my coffee. I wondered if I was supposed to drink coffee the morning before my show? I’d never read either way if people did this. I was too keyed up to Google it and get 100 different opinions about drinking coffee on show day. So I just said, “screw it!” I gulped down both cups.

Sam took Will down to the lobby to get them food while I packed my bag with all the things I would need for prejudging. I knew I wouldn’t make it back to the hotel until after.

I didn’t want to put on my makeup or suit before my next third tan so I packed all of it.

The athletes meeting started at 9am. I checked the tanning schedule one last time before Ben got back from the gym. It said the figure competitors were scheduled to get their third coats at 9:45 am. This didn’t make sense to me because the prejudging was supposed to start at 10am. But, I figured it would all work out and that they had a system in place.

My posing coach, Jo, was also competing at this show. I arrived about 10 minutes late to the meeting. Thankfully, Jo filled me in on everything I’d missed.

But, as I began looking around at all of the other competitors at the meeting I noticed that all of them had their makeup on and most of them had their suits on as well underneath robes. My stomach started to turn! Thankfully, my hair was done. But I still needed at least 20 minutes to put on my makeup!