REUNITED...(And It Feels SO Good): Best Buddies Golf Tournament

So, this has been quite a busy week, but I had the opportunity to step away from the bar exam books for a few days and I headed to Ocean City, Maryland for my last "official" Miss DC USA appearance until after the bar exam. The event was a 2-day golf tournament hosted by Galaxy 66 to benefit Best Buddies Maryland, which is an awesome organization which works with special needs children. The two-day event kicked off with a cocktail party at Galaxy 66, this retro space-themed bar and grille with an incredible roof top bar. At the party were some of the golf tournament players, Tammy, the owner of Galaxy 66, her staff, Best Buddies Maryland staff and volunteers and none other than....Miss USA contestants! Miss New Hampshire (Brianne), Miss Maryland (Casandra), Miss Delaware (Vincenzia), Miss New Jersey (Tiffany), and Miss West Virginia (Skylene) all drove in for the tournament and boy did we have a ball!

Now, we started off selling raffle tickets and taking a ga-zillion pictures (which shouldn't be that strange after 3 weeks in Vegas on the red carpet) and the next thing you know, we were partying with the sponsors, players and DJ for the cocktail party-turned-jam-fest! Though the day (and night) were long, I really enjoyed it. I made it to bed around 1 a.m. on Sunday and was back up, dressed and made up for our radio interview with Ocean City's own Bulldog of 88.9 FM talk radio. The radio station is located in Ocean City's historic hot spot, "Seacrets", which features a pool bar...in the water! While we didn't get to hang out at the pool bar, we did get to talk about the tournament, our experiences at Miss USA, what we do in regular life, and where we plan to go after our reigns end...plus, we even got a surprise (and random) call from one of the American Gladiator girls on air. All in all, another interesting experience...which just so happened to lead to six of us packing into Cassie's (MD) brand new Mini Cooper to make a breakfast run. Now, imagine six lovely ladies all dolled up with these blinging sashes on smushing into a Mini Cooper... we looked like we were getting out of a clown car once we got to our destination and the locals definitely took notice!

Next up, we changed and headed out to the Glenriddle Golf Course, where the Best Buddies "Man O' War" course tournament took place. And a million pictures later, six lovely pageant girls headed out to the course to meet the teams and judge some special categories, including "Farthest Drive", "Straightest Drive", "Closest to the Hole", and then some special categories created in honor of the USA girls, like, "Team Photogenic", "Team Congeniality", and the winner of the tournament-- "Team USA!"

While I didn't get to work on my drive (yep, I'm still the reigning "farthest drive" champ from out stint on the course over the summer with McKee Nelson, my law firm), I did get to meet Bobby Vermillion of the syndicated golf show, "Endless Golf" and I even taped an episode with him, interviewing teams on the green.

After the tournament, we headed back to the hotel to clean up, then to Galaxy 66 to end the festivities with food, fun, awards, a 50/50 raffle worth $15,000 and a silent auction. After that, my USA sisters and I had a good, long catch-up session then we each said our goodbyes and headed back to our respective states. All in all, I must say it was the BEST way to end my appearances for a while and I definitely enjoyed myself!

A Nice Study Break at the Girls' Modeling and Acting Camp

So today, I snuck away from bar class for a few hours to go pay a visit to some lovely ladies and boy was I glad that I did. There's nothing like impacting someone else's life to really help and put your life into perspective. So here I am running around stressing over this bar exam (Teri bore witness to it on Monday at Amanda's Miss Black USA sendoff which I'll discuss further down), thinking that not passing the first time is the end of the world. And then I met Holiday Johnson's beautifully talented little girls between the ages of 7-10 at their Modeling and Acting Camp and just that easily I was able to step back and see the bigger picture. See, to these girls, I am their hopes, dreams and aspirations. To them, I have already conquered the world (as one of the girls kindly told me). To them I am fearless, fun and fabulous and they don't have the first clue of what the bar exam is. To them, I am what they strive to be. And that is an awesome feeling... because often times we get so bogged down in our own life issues, stresses, work, frustrations, goals, etc, that we never really see the big picture. My big picture says "calm down" and "stop worrying because you made it to Miss USA, so you can certainly pass the bar exam with flying colors." Funny how the environment I was called to to teach life lessons turned around and taught me! Those are the kinds of experiences that I love!

Speaking of which, on Monday, I had the pleasure of hosting Amanda Lewis's Sendoff to Miss Black USA 2009. She is the current reigning Miss Black District of Columbia, and she is quite an awesome young lady with a powerful story. She left to kick some pageant booty this week at Miss Black USA 2009 in Las Vegas and I am positive that she will do well because although I met her for the first time competing with me at Miss District of Columbia USA in November, we have really fostered a friendship and I have seen her grow into an incredible woman. She said something at her sendoff that really struck a chord with me; she so eloquently said, "being a titleholder is way more than just having the title; it's about the power and opportunity that having a title gives you to be able to impact others lives. It's amazing how the simplest things mean the world to some of the people you meet." And she was 100% correct. At the end of her sendoff, I started thinking about how many appearances I've had over the past six months, and how excited people are just to talk with you, let alone get their picture taken or an autograph and that's a great feeling. When I see people that I've met before at a prior appearance, their hellos are genuine and so are their smiles. And that is a good feeling.

Susan Komen Race for the Cure and Hoop Dreams Celebrity Basketball Game

Boy have I been busy! With graduation and Miss USA both behind me, I thought there would be some down time, but I could not have been more mistaken! I have been studying for the New York bar exam, but recently got to take a study break for two exciting events: the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on June 7, 2008 and the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund Celebrity Basketball game on June 14, 2008.

Breast cancer awareness is an important cause that is near and dear to my heart not only because it is the national platform for Miss USA, but more importantly because I and just about everyone that I know has been affected by the deadly disease, so what better cause could there be for Miss DC USA?!

The National Race for the Cure drew hundreds of metro DC residents and companies who donated both their time and money in an effort to help Susan G. Komen for the Cure raise money for breast cancer research and awareness. I, for some strange reason, signed up to participate in the 5K run (instead of the nice, calm fun walk) that started at 8:00 am! But...even though I haven't really been in the gym working out since I returned from Miss USA AND even though it was definitely 90+ degrees outside that morning at 8 am, I managed to finish the race (yes, running the WHOLE way) in 30 minutes and 39 seconds. Now, true that is nothing like my time when I used to run distance in high school, but then again...it's been quite a while since I've been that young and that in shape! So, 30 minutes (and not passing out at the finish line) works for me!

Plus, after the race, I met some really awesome survivors and their families who had incredible stories to share. And in return, I told them about the three people close to my heart that I ran for-- my aunt Eleanor Taylor and my friend's mother that I never even got to meet, but have heard so much about, Vivian Burley, and a very close friend of mine who is a 5 year survivor, Donna Lindsay. And honestly, every time I got tired and wanted to slow down, I saw someone in a pink survivor shirt in the crowd running, and I said to myself, "If they can do it, then the least I can do is finish this race!" And I did!

Afterwards, I even saw Miss DC USA 2007, Mercedes Lindsay, who represented for Team 17 with her boo, Redskins star Jason Campbell, and some of the Redskin cheerleaders who also participated. The post-race party was pretty fantastic too with New Balance and Energizer giving away goodies, a dance troupe performing, and several survivors sharing their inspiring stories. Then the kids had the opportunity to get some exercise in the Kids for the Cure race where I got to cheer the children on and even met a real, live survivor queen herself! She was just as excited to see me as I was to see her (queens are drawn to each other! :-) )

Now, this may come as a surprise to some of you, but besides my lawyer- turned- beauty- queen- slash- distance- runner lifestyle, I also am a pretty good (ok...decent?!) basketball player. No lie! Yeah, I'm not the best with three pointers, but I have a mean show from the free throw line! And I got to show off at the 13th Annual Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund Celebrity Basketball Game on Pennsylvania Ave on yesterday. Now, I've imagined myself doing a lot of things in DC... shooting a basket in the Verizon Center during halftime at the Wizards game, catching a fly ball during a Nationals game, or even standing behind the President's podium during a press conference (optimistic, I know) in the White House... but never did I imagine that I, Chelsey Rodgers, would play basketball in the middle of the street just a few blocks down the street from where the President lives! And boy was it an awesome experience!

I played on the blue team which was coached by my new friend and DC native, Vernon Davis, who graduated from Dunbar High School (where I guest taught a law class... small world!) and now plays football for the 49ers. Our "assistant" coach was none other than Wizards guard Roger Mason, who led our BLUE team to victory over fellow Wizards forward Andre Blatche's RED team, who had a lot of bragging to do but took a pretty stinky butt-whoopin to our team on the court! Also on our team was who I would call our MVP, none other than "White Chocolate" from AND1 (and yes, that really is his name). On the red team was fellow pageant queen and my dear sister, Jasmine Alexis, aka Teen Miss DC USA 2007, and the newly crowned Miss District of Columbia's Outstanding Teen 2009.