It was quite an evening. Due to the time lag on the "live" TV coverage, those of us on the West Coast didn't see the event until 3 hours later, so before the ladies began, I checked out the results. Normally I wouldn't do that, but I wanted to find out so I could prepare for writing this post. My reaction - Wow. I love figure skating competitions. You just never know what will happen.

To be the best figure skater in the nation requires passing approx. 20 skating tests, ranking in at least that many competitions, practicing for thousands of hours on and off the ice, spending oodles of money for ice time, custom designed skates and costumes and top notch coaching, it takes the right choice of music and choreography, an intense sense of discipline, and unlimited motivation before skaters make it even to the qualifying events before going on to Nationals.