"You are now in control of the parachute."

Ok, picture this:
You climb into a perfectly healthy airplane with 15-or-so other people. You squeeze in, put on your seat belt, and the plane takes off. It's a small plane, so the ride is a little bumpy, but really not bad. You stare out the window as you climb through the clouds - it's been a few years since you've flown and you'd forgotten how much you like takeoff. The proverbial seat belt sign is turned off, and you unbuckle and chat with the people around you. Before you know it, you're being strapped to a bearded Aussie named Steve while watching the door open and the people in front of you begin their 10,000 foot fall. Steve scoots the two of you up to the door, you cross your arms over your chest, lean out, and...

Post-jump is all you get. Pictures from them were too steep for us!
I am aware that we (unintentionally) look like Christmas.

HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS!
I JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE TODAY!

By "I", I mean "Rich and I".
By "Rich and I", I mean "Rich and Larry" and "Steve and I".

It was crazy. Brilliant. Incredible. Insert positive adjective here. There really are no words to describe how amazing the whole experience was. We weren't even sure we were going to get to go up because of the weather - it was pretty cloudy when we got there and they hadn't done a jump all day because of it. We were lucky enough to be able to sneak in during the one window of clear sky all day. They were so anxious to get people jumping that we (shh! don't tell!) ended up skipping the training video/mini class session and just went straight into action.

The view from the sky was beautiful! As soon as we got below the cloud cover we had a great view of Chicago and the lake (and Gary, but meh, it's Gary.) Remind me to wear a sports bra next time, though. As soon as he opened the chute I got all kinds of painfully smashed. Probably the most terrifying part - for me, anyway - was when Steve handed me a pair of yellow straps and then said, "You are now in control of the parachute." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOLY ADRENALINE, BATMAN! haha

I called my brother after we left - he's been more than a few times and loves it - and we decided to go next summer when he gets out of the Navy. I'm looking forward to once again hurling myself at the earth!

There may be another post to follow about how I lied on my paperwork and how I later realized that the adrenaline surge felt almost exactly like being manic. If I feel like writing one. Hah!