Here she is, Miss America...not quite

Thank goodness for scheduled programming on American TV.

Yes, you heard that right. I'm feeling thankful for network television.

 I know that football games and the Oscars often run over time, but the networks do try to limit this as much as possible.

My thoughts come from last December when Kylie, Karis, and I were invited to the Miss "Country" pageant here.

Our friend was in charge of choreographing the entire program, and she was given a table in the back where she could seat her own friends.

Salads and water were on the table, we weren't all that far from the stage, and so we settled in for the night.

The program took place in a building attached to a TV/radio network designed for recording events.

This program doesn't look bad.

It looks like we could tackle it in a reasonable amount of time.

Two...Two and a half hours, tops

I was seriously fooled.

We had evening gowns.



National dresses (and dancing).



Casual wear??



National dancers and singers.



And questions for the contestants that sometimes had to go through two interpreters.  Some of the judges were from other countries.

You know what kind of questions they usually ask on Miss America pageants, right?

Political, human rights, global awareness, etc.

Well, one question tonight was, "What is the capital of Chile?"  That's it!  I kid you not.
(And the lady didn't know)


And FOUR hours into it (around 11pm), our Table 47 finally got served food.



I don't think they ran out and had to go make more because it wasn't hot when we got it.

Tables in front of us were fed and finished two hours before us.

I think there was just a glitch in the system.

All I know is that we were hungry and tired.

In this picture, the man across from me is asleep, and the young ladies at our table were completely done for the night.



Nearing midnight, the three crowns came out.

Then the audience readied their cell phones for the announcement.

And, here she is...

I can't even tell you who won except that it is one we had discounted long before the end.  

None of our top choices made the top three, so obviously this is not our "thing."

It was definitely an entertaining experience, and I'm so glad we got to go,

but I if pageants went past midnight in America, I would never in my life have seen a crowning.