Oh yeah, so about that skydiving adventure.

My friend and I had been talking about going skydiving for years. This is my traveling adventuresome friend, who went to Australia/Belize/Costa Rica with me, who did a 30-minute intro scuba dive despite fears of hyperventilating, who walked across perilous hanging suspension bridges in another (tiny) country with me, who wants to visit every continent soon and has almost done so, and while she won't be joining me for my 20-day Antarctica journey she has her own plan to get there...

So anyway, I knew she was serious. The original plan was the class-5 rafting trip with some other friends but she had to postpone. I replied, "No worries, we'll make our own adventure - how about skydiving?" (I think I got the reply in record time. It was something along the lines of "YES!!!!")

We opted to do this on her actual birthday a few Sundays ago. I made the reservations well in advance, but because the day was so foggy in the a.m. they had to make up for the weather with the earlier groups and we ended up waiting a really long time.

In that really long time, where we were able to wait on the field and watch the take-offs and landings, I went through the following thought process:

• Hour One: Holy bloody hell. We are going up THAT HIGH?? I can barely see the jumpers! They look like stars in the sky!! What the hell have I gotten myself into?!...

• Hour Two: Hmm... overall it doesn't look so bad. People are taking off and landing just fine. Lots of people.
  

• Hour Three: Our safety instructions, which literally lasted THREE MINUTES and consisted of "don't walk into the plane propeller" and five other safety tips that basically culminated to "just effing do what your tandem guide tells you to do and enjoy the ride." I walked out thinking, "Um, I think I need another three hours of safety training," but since I'd signed a liability agreement hours earlier which specifically stated that I understood that "sport parachuting is not a public or essential service and is not of great importance or practical necessity"* and also that "parachutes do not always open," I figured that would be a moot point.
  
• Hour Four: More watching of the take-offs and landings. Oddly calming, despite the group of gals who landed and wouldn't leave the bathroom area because they were convinced they would puke from the adrenaline rush. (They didn't. But suddenly I was convinced that I would.)
  
• Hour Five: OMG really I am ready can we just do this already? At which point I get geared up by a great tandem guide named Terry, who senses my apprehension but also picks up on my exhilaration. He managed to address both adequately in the 15 minute ride up.
  

And from there, it was a 15 minute plane ride up to 13,000 feet complete with instructions and peripheral guidance to the mountain ranges from Terry, followed by an "are you ready?" question as I was sitting on the edge of the plane about to jump (I mean really, what other answer could there be?) and then a minute of intense 125 mph free-fall followed by 8 minutes of 25mph floating and viewing lots of mountains in a 360 degree radius.

So, basically, it was awesome and I hope to do it again soon if an interested friend comes to visit during skydiving season. I went to cross it off my "list" but it's not there. Maybe because I knew it was a done deal?

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* I disagree wholeheartedly, BTW.