Day In The Life Of Game Day

Happy Victory Sunday Lovelies! I’m sure if you’ve been following me, you are used to the Dallas Cowboys Game Day posts! On the field-cheering-OBVIOUSLY!  But have you ever asked ‘What actually goes on during game day?’? Well!! If you HAVE- I’m going to give you a run down of exactly what yesterday looked like for me! 

7:00AM - WAKE UP VICTORIA!!! IT’S GAME DAY!! 

7:30AM - Pilates! I try to take pilates everyday! Even though today I’m already going to be getting so much movement in, pilates helps fire up those muscles and makes sure I’m centered for when game day begins!                       

8:30AM - Time for brekky! I eat the same breakfast everyday… I know.. Don’t judge! But I know that I will have so much energy from it that I’m kind of superstitious about it… 

-2 eggs with spinach and mushrooms 

-apple

-ezekiel english muffin 

** While I eat breakfast I love to watch the Today Show during the week (Shoutout to my guy, Craig Melvin), but since it’s the weekend I’m putting on one of my favorite tv shows, Gilmore Girls or Gossip Girl! **

9:30AM - POWER NAP! Everyone is probably thinking “WHAT??” But this is part of the Victoria Kalina regimen, a 30 minute Power Nap after breakfast. I set my alarm for 30 minutes and I swear I wake up feeling more refreshed and a NEW WOMAN! Without this power nap I would be draaagggiinggg. 

10:00AM - Time for the pin curls. I don’t need to leave for the bus until 12:45pm but I like to go ahead and put my pin curls in early enough for them to really set! This will allow them to set and cool for maximum volume and curl! 

10:20AM - Now, it’s a little too early to start my makeup, but this is where the Victoria tornado happens making sure everything is ready to get packed.

-Uniform lapels have to be pinned. Stars on! Belt buckle on! 

-Tights. Make sure that all the pairs I pack don’t have runs. 

-Game Day Meal for before the game for more ENERGY!! 

-Extra boot socks.

-Comfy clothes for when we come back in and have some wind down time. 

11:00AM - Time to beat the face! We need to arrive on the bus for game days fully DCC ready! On game days I like to take extra time on my makeup. I can do my make up routine in 20 minutes but I like to set that extra time aside on game days! 

12:00PM - Change into rehearsal gear and warm ups + last minute packing! Final run down of grabbing anything and everything I will need for today. Once we leave the house, there is no going back, so I have to make sure I have everything Including my makeup, curling iron, bobby pins, hairspray, water bottle, pom-poms, etc. 

12:45PM - Put an egg in our shoe and beat it! Time to go! Mom and I drive together to the Star where the whole squad meets to join on the bus and ride over to the stadium together! Note: my hair is still in pin curls. :p

1:10PM - Our DCC bus departs at 1:30pm, but we as a team will arrive in the parking garage at 1:15. In DCC world— BEING EARLY IS LATE! This allows me to unpin my hair and get the traditional game day car picture with Mom! <3 

1:30PM - Bus ride to the stadium!! On the bus, I love Kristi Scales’ “BUS BITS”. This is when she give us updates on what we can expect of the game, injuries we should know about on the team, and what we should be on the lookout for when we’re on the sidelines. While on the bus, I also spend some of my time trying to come up with a clever and cute game day post for the gram. 

2:30PM - Once we arrive at the stadium, we unload and settle into our locker room. I will hang up my uniform, set out my lunch and water, and get everything out so I’m not having to scramble for it when we come back in to touch up.

3:00PM - Yesterday’s game day was super special as we inducted Jimmy Johnson into the Ring Of Honor during halftime. Even though we weren’t ‘performing’ a halftime routine we still practice the walk on/escorts to the field that way when the time comes, its seamless and world class just like the Cowboys way. 

4:00PM - Now that we have completed halftime rehearsal, it’s now time for our DCC rehearsal. This is when we run through all of our game day elements (pregame, quarter changes, TD dance, etc.) like we would in our regular weekly practices. We do this on the day of to make sure when it hits game time, it’s seamless and we know exactly what to do. 

5:00PM - Back into the locker room to rest, relax, and reset. Group 1 exchanges gifts first thing so we can spend the rest of the time redoing our hair, touching up our makeup, and refueling for the game! 

6:05PM - Performance #1 Baby I’m A Star!! We perform a little under an hour outside of the stadium at an area called the Miller Litehouse. I LOVE THIS PART OF GAMEDAY! It is sooo hype! During this performance we are close to the fans and the energy is EPIC! 

6:10PM - Arrive back to the locker room for one final fluff of the hair, swipe of lipstick, and touch of our toes. Before walking out for pregame we always exit the locker room by praying all together ‘Our Father’. 

7:00PM - Pregame!!! AHHHH first is to step out onto the field and out of the tunnels for ‘Thunderstruck’. After landing the iconic jump split we strut in to the field level club where fans are going WILD! It’s then time to re-rile up the crowd as we chasé back out to the field to introduce America’s team. We then fold seamlessly into lines where we honor America with the ‘National Anthem’. We exit the field as the teams flip the coin and as ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ comes on… it’s GAME TIME. 

7:15PM - Game Time Cowboys Nation! If you have never been to a Cowboys game at home, I encourage you to put it on your bucket list. It is an experience that you have to have for yourself. We are nonstop dancing from here on out-plus we have halftime, so we will only have a quick 2 minutes for a sip of water, a dab of powder, and a swipe of gloss until finishing the game. And what a way to win the game!! VICTORY FOR COWBOYS NATION! 

10:15PM - After dancing the night away, we head back into the locker room for our “celebration/win” dance to ‘All We Do Is Win’! We spend this time packing back up, changing into our warm ups, grabbing snacks and drinks (my go to is a Diet Dr.Pepper after every game) + some skinny pop popcorn! Once everyone is packed we always group up and have a team pow-wow afterwards. This is either to discuss what went great, what could be better, and what the next week looks like to prepare for the next game or event ahead of us! This is also when Abbey bear gets passed around from teammate to teammate for being Above and Beyond!   

11:30PM - Driving home is a whirl wind of emotions— excitement from adrenaline still rushing, tired, achey, and love combined in one. We will talk about how the game went by reconvening with Kristi Scales and hearing her details, but also individually catching up on our own media as we haven’t been on our phones since before game time. 

12:30AM - Making it back to the star, our tradition is having the current Rookie class leave the bus first to take out the luggage. LOL-I guess you might consider this “hazing”. But once the luggage is out and we are off the bus that is GOODNIGHT Cowboys Nation and GOODNIGHT SQUAD! I then head to my car where my rock, my mom, also just came from the stadium to pick me back up and drive us home. 

1:00AM - Usually it would be straight home, empty out, separate any and all things that need washing, and then to bed. Howeverrrr, tonight I’m staying up to do some last minute packing for New York City—which I leave for first thing in the morning and packing is the last thing I will want to do at 5:30am except for the last minute items. As I’m packing, it’s a tad too late for me to really want to eat something so I grab a nice cold glass of OJ to satisfy my hunger needs until the morning time. 

1:30AM - I head upstairs, rip the false eyelashes off, and take my shower. It’s then the nightly routine: skin care, teeth brushed, eye contacts out, and jammies on! 

2:00AM - Head is hitting the pillow and now it is officially time for SWEET DREAMS <3 

XOXO,

Victoria <3