The thoughts going through my mind during my approximately 25-30 seconds parallel bars routine tonight at my meet:

Okay [R], breathe. Salute the judge. Smile. Good. Now, step onto the mat. Okay. Adjust your grips. Are they good? Yes, okay. Raise your arms...now, Jump! Point your toes, don't let your feet tap the ground. Don't let your fingers fall out of the grips. Grip the bar. Now, quick! Let go with both hands and twist. Re-grip! Okay, you caught it. Nice. Now, kip back up. Don't tap. Good, no tapping. Okay. Collect yourself and..squat on! AGH! You fell! Don't fall! Don't fall! Don't' fall! Okay, you can do this. Hold onto the bar. Don't let go. Just kip back up. Should I tap or should I let go? I fell. What happens when I fall? Should I fall? I don't want to fall. Okay, so I won't. And I'll kip back up. Without tapping. Okay...KIP! What? I did it? Cool! Okay, now, should I attempt another squat on, or should I just climb up. A squat on will look better, but what if I don't get it right and fall back again. But what if I do get it right. Then I'll be happy. Squat on, climb up, squat on, climb up. Oh.... okay. I guess I'll... Hey! I just did another squat on! Great. Okay, now I've got to kip. Point my toes! Another kip. Great connection! Point my toes! Okay, now the hard part. Cast. Swing back far. Swing up even farther. Don't let your hands get to close together, then you wont' be able to connect the dismount. Okay, hands apart. I swung back. Now, swing forward. Point toes. Now...back again. And....PULL! Yes. Good uprise. Now, don't stop. Keep it connected. And... dismount. Put toes on bar, slide underneath. Yup. Ride it up high. Don't fall. You don't have to. Now, let go. Let go and TWIST! Okay. Hey! You twisted [R]. And you didn't fall on your butt. Okay, it was only a 3/4 twist, but it was almost a full. So it was almost a superior. Cool. Now, salute. Okay, turn around. Smile. Salute the judge. Smile. Scamper off the mat. Pick your wedgie. The end! Good job. You did it! But, oh wait. You forgot to breathe. Again. Breathe. Okay, good. Now you can be done.

I did okay. Not my best ever. But, I recovered from my near-fall on the squat on. Although I think it still counted as a fall, the judge must have given me some credit for not tapping on the weird fall. I got a 6.8; My best score ever was something like a 7.6 or so. But it's still the beginning of the season and my dismount is not up to par. So, I'm happy.