A LEAP OF FAITH

The day after Rob and I got married. We went skydiving.

The Place: Las Vegas
Altitude: 15,000 feet

I absolutely love this picture, because it looks like I'm praying, in the next photo, we're gone.
The most amazing part of skydiving is actually getting out of the plane. No matter how much you prepare your mind, it screams "NOOOO!" When you are trying to exit face first.

I had one whole knee out of the plane, and I felt like I was totally out of control, and a little panicky. Then, I had 50 seconds of free-fall. It goes by quickly.

(You feel the skin on your face being stretched, you dare not open your mouth for fear that it will balloon. Your depth perception leaves you wondering if the Earth is going to stop before it collides with you. You are falling at approximately 110 mph. The jumpmaster taps you on the shoulder to tell you to arch your arms back, but your brain processes the input very slowly. Compared to how fast everything is happenning, you feel like your brain is molasses in January.)

Then, blessedly, the parachute opens. The overwhelming noise and rushing air just stops. I didn't even realize there was noise and rushing air until it stopped.
I was still hyperventilating. And laughing hysterically, it took me so long to stop laughing, I wondered if I even COULD stop laughing.
My jumpmaster took me for a couple of loops around the landing site, then he flared the parachute and we touched down lightly. My knees still came out from under me, because I think I was still in shock.

Then I went into the hangar to take off the safety gear. The most memorable part of the entire experience was still hanging with me. My brain was still screaming "NOOOO", I realize it never stopped screaming from the moment I forced myself out of the plane.

For an entire week I relived the feeling of going out of the plane. In my dreams, in my daydreams, it was a vertigo of sorts. Finally the feeling has faded from my frontal neurons and I don't feel it as keenly as I did. Thank Goodness.

MsAmber