Erika Anderson came to visit me this past weekend and oh what an amazing weekend it was! The question is not what did we do, but what didn't we do. From the time Erika planned to come to visit me in Austin we had talked about going sky diving. We have always talked about doing crazy super hero stuff, but never did it. So when Erika came we decided that we would be hard core and do it!! I made the reservation at Capital Skydiving for 12pm on Friday the 11Th. That whole week my mother was taunting me about how I was going to die and that because I was being stupid that I would be buried in a pink Costco Coffin. So the big day came and I got a call from Mike (Skydiving Scheduler guy) and he said that the wind was too strong so we would have to wait till later in the day to jump. In the mean time I gave Erika the grand tour of Austin. To her surprise it was not a barren waste land, but extremely green with rolling hills and lakes/rivers. We also went to Amy's Ice Cream and while there I decided to call Mike for a weather check. He told me that it was looking great and to head down. Erika and I had only taken one bite of our ice cream when we were told to come and our stomachs started to churn so we threw it away and headed to Capital Skydiving. We drove up to a wide open field with a tiny plane to the side and a small building in the front. Me and Erika looked at each other and then looked at the tiny plane and both thought that it would be a miracle if we even made off the ground. We entered the building and filled out all the necessary paper work. More people showed up to jump and the place was soon buzzing. There was a couple that was going to be jumping before us so we would be able to judge how good this place was. While we were waiting Erika had a minor panic attack because the place didn't take pictures, only video....actually they did take pictures but it was only with the deluxe package which was paying for another guy to jump with you and have him fall in front of you with a camera on his head. This was an additional $80 and Erika would not have it. The only other option was to have the guy who was strapped to us film with a camera attached to his hand. Erika settled for the hand cam. I wasn't going to get anything, but my instructor, Eric, told me he was going to film me anyways and if i didn't want it at the end then i didn't have to get it....of course after I saw it i decided to get it. In honor of my threat of getting a pink casket I wanted to wear the bright pink jump suit, I started to put it on and it was really small, but Eric said it was perfect and that it was supposed to be tight. I looked absolutely ridiculous, but it was fun.
So skydiving was incredible! Terrifying, but incredible and I think everyone should do it! Such a freeing experience. I think we all picture it as falling like in a huge steep roller coaster drop, but its not at all. Once you leave the plane you feel like you are floating, there is no feeling like your stomach is in your throat.... Seriously! It feels like you are in floating with a ton of wind in your face. It is so peaceful. I will be posting my skydiving video once i figure out how to put it on. It is really embarrassing because when I am freaked out about something I giggle and become extremely awkward. There was also another guy in our plane from the Air Force doing a jump on his own and just jumped out of the plane and waved at me while he fell, I totally freaked out!! That was Erika's favorite part in my video. My instructor was so hilarious and made fun of me a lot. I was not to impressed at first because he was jumping in jean shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt, but he was really good and really safe. Me and Erika would ask questions like "How long have you guys been doing this?" to which they would reply "um... since October I guess", they had actually been doing it for years. I asked my instructor in the plane how many jumps he had done and he said " uh, 18". I laughed nervously and he was like no I've actually done 10,876. He was really good at freaking me out but then making me laugh. So I hope you like the video, I didn't look at the camera to much because I was totally fascinated with everything else. When Eric looked over the video when after the jump he kinda freaked out about the fact that my shoot didn't open properly. You can see it really well in the video. I had no idea, I thought it was all normal, but apparently I was lucky.
