In covering both the Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen Pageant and the Miss Mississippi Pageant, I will have attended five preliminary competitions and two final nights of competitions within the span of one month. That is a lot of pageantry over a 30-day period.

I have to admit I am a little exhausted. It can be tiring to doll up, put on makeup and straighten my hair consecutive nights in a row, but the fatigue has been well worth it.

Both the Miss Mississippi’s Outstanding Teen Pageant and the Miss Mississippi Pageant shows have been entertaining and fun. Vicksburg is home to some awesomely talented people including the two executive producers and two choreographers for the teen and misses pageants, Janie Fedell, Taylor Thomas Hoseman, Amy Jackson and Chesley Sadler Lambiotte, respectively.

These four women have worked “jazzy magic” into the month of June in Vicksburg, and my guess is they may be a bit exhausted after it is all over, too!

Tonight, our community will crown a new Miss Mississippi, and after a brief interview and story for Sunday’s paper, I will be relegated to spending my evenings at home once again.

As much as I have delighted in all the entertainment these two pageants have offered, I have to admit I am looking forward to what some may call boring nights at home.

There was a time that repeatedly going out night after night was fun, but gone are my youthful days of wanting to buy a new dress for an evening out on the town. In fact, just going out for a quick bite has sometimes even become daunting.

My poor husband has repeatedly invited me out for dinner, and all I can think about is how all I want to do is lounge around the house, sip on my glass of wine, watch a couple of episodes of “House of Cards” on Netflix and then crawl into bed to read.

I am afraid I am on the way to becoming a fuddy duddy.

I would never have thought I would have become like this, perfectly satisfied to spend a quiet evening at home in my sweats and t-shirt.  However, if I was going to give up a few nights in the evening of watching TV and wearing lipstick past noon, covering the pageants for the newspapers has been well worth the sacrifice.

Hanging out with royalty offers some nice benefits, and I always enjoy a live performance.

Vicksburg has many fine features to garner our pride, and playing host to these two state pageants lands near the top of the list.