Deborah Burgoyne North American Invitational

I competed at the Deborah Burgoyne North American Invitational in Wyandotte, MI, on Saturday. This is always one of my favorite competitions. Everyone is so nice, and people are really supportive of one another. I felt like I skated pretty well, especially considering that my knee still isn't back to normal. I didn't land my loop in either program, but it showed up for practice Friday night; I was pleased. Everyone seemed to like my interpretive program (I was the Wicked Witch of the West and I skated to "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked), and one of the skaters in the interp group before mine did another song from the same musical, "Popular." Her program was great, and we had fun posing for pictures together.

Things I learned:

* It will always snow at DBNAI. (If it doesn't, we'll have freezing rain.) It's happened seven years in a row now.
* I need to find another way to secure my witch's hat. Clips don't work. A former Wicked Witch suggested sewing a ribbon to the hat, which I'll try next. (The damn thing stayed on every time in practice, but tried to lift off my head in competition.)
* It's hard to put green makeup on the back of your neck and get it right.
* It's hard to talk on the phone while putting on green makeup.
* Sometimes I don't shake like a leaf after I compete. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for why it happens or doesn't happen.
* If I'm not going to land my loop, I can put my opposite foot down instead and do a half loop. At least it's still a real jump.