All night I was tossing and turning, getting up every hour to go to the bathroom.  Ugh   None of the taxi service that the hotel recomended were available 6:00 in the morning for a pickup.  And the shuttle isn't available until 8:30.  I was afraid to miss my 7:15 to 7:45 practice.    Thankgoodness there were these nice ladies who I've seen time to time at skating events and they were sweet enough to give me a lift to the rink.   I felt a little lethargic but relaxed leading to my practice.   I stepped on the ice at 7:20 (I was in line waiting to buy hot chocolate).   I was careful not to push too much and waste energy.  I figured I only have a limited amount.   I botched my flip attempts twice.  My body was still not awake and I was too relaxed.  I got mad and finally did one, followed by a lutz, loop, sal/toe/loop and backscratch.    

I tried to relax for the next hour by eating some sliced apples and jamming with my walkman & I-pod.  Close to the event I can feel my body started to get tense and numb.  But at the same time I was getting into a zone.  I started noticing that it was a good  and relaxed vibe.  We all stepped into warmup at 9:45.  On the warmup I took things one step at a time.  I had my red bull and starburst.   I did a loop, flip, lutz, and another loop.   I felt awesome, but I was careful not to get overly excited and carried away.    I was slotted to skate 5th out of 6.  I got to watch most of my competitors and saw they skated CLEAN.  I was thinking hope what happen with Johnny Weir doesn't happen to me.   After seeing my competitors I decided some last minute changes within my planned technical elements.  As usual I took my time on starting.  I took a deep breathe and took my inhaler twice and had a last sip of my red bull.  I felt nervous but I knew I can control it.  I took my opening position and instantly felt at ease.  I proceeded to do: lutz/loop/loop (since I saw Jeremy attempt one, I had to get even in some way), then onto the second lutz (Since I was having too much problems at the end of my program due to lack of stamina, I knew I had to do my lutz back to back), Flying camel (I tried to shut out any negative thoughts going into this since I didnt do well on it at practices yesterday), a blah straightline footwork into a flip, camel/attitude (I was so happy that I caught the hook and was quite suprised), ena baur into a salchow/toe-loop, and a final scratch spin (I was a little late with my music so instead of going into my planned backscratch I decided to opt out on it).  Throughout the program I felt so at ease and enjoyed my time on the ice.  After 5 minutes they posted the results and was overjoyed with placing first.  Thank goodnesss this trip was worth it.