Trapeze Adventure! Do you DARE TO FLY?!

I. am. still. in. shock. this. morning.

Let's go back a few weeks to an email I received from Annemarie. I barely read it, and then BOOM: the words Trapeze Adventure popped out at me. I quickly replied, and before I knew it, 5 of us girls were anxiously awaiting the big day. Fast forward to last night... We arrive at The Crossings, boy is it a gorgeous place, resort/spa, absolutely beautiful. The 5 of us FLY GIRLS (and Toni, who was our trusty photog) checked in and made our way down to the trapeze. It's a crazy mess of wires, nets, bolts, ropes, and ladders. Lord how I hate that ladder. We will get to that, don't you worry.

Anyhoo...we are just piddling around, sort of in awe of what we are looking at, thinking "Uh, us? Up there?!" A few short minutes later the crew arrived, and we quickly began our stretching. Lots of stretching. Lots of funny positions, and bending over, we all brought the jokes for the stretching. Now we are stretched out and Peter Gold, who is just awesome, teaches us the ropes. Haha.

We practice the knee-hang on the ground to get a feel for what it will be like...

Here we are, full of trapeze knowledge, ready to FLY!

Here is the gist of what goes on: On the first pass, you have to swing, then at the end, you tuck your legs up under you and you're hanging by your knees, still holding onto the bar. On the next pass, you let your arms hang and stretch out behind you, then bring your arms back up, untuck your legs, swing front, back, front, tuck, lean backwards, tuck your legs and back flip off. Simple.

Uh... for most people. Here's where things get tricky. I am afraid of heights. People say that about themselves all the time, but for me it's very much a handicap. When I am off the ground, the equilibrium wiring in my brain becomes frayed and starts to spark and smoke. That's when I suddenly cannot move and become frozen. This experience really let me pull out that frayed, sparking/smoking wire in my brain - and tell it to go to H-E-Double L.

We were belted up and assigned an order and off we went. Annemarie went first. Who'd thunk. She was a pro. Little brat. So was Laura and Dana and Danielle. My turn: After 10 minutes of talking myself up that ladder which I LOATHE... I made it to the top.

Only to become frozen in the wind and view. Terror. Peter talked me back into the real world (which I'm sure he's done before) and I'm ready. I grip the bar, (panicking) wait for "HEP!" (the go word) and fly. Terror. Sheer flippin' terror. I hear Jay-Bird tell me to tuck my legs, and... well, it wasn't pretty. To save you having to read this blog for 30 more minutes while I explain what happened next, I will just speed things up for my readers. I land in the net, slide down the pole and kiss the gravel under my feet, literally.

Each of us girls take turns, after 4 more turns of my own, I am now climbing the ladder I once loathed, at a rapid pace, and don't need Peter's calming words to jump when I hear "Hep!"

After 5 attempts, I was pleased with how I did. It took a lot of strength, physically & mentally.

Here I am... Daring to fly!

I am very proud of my accomplishment. Although I didn't "make the catch" with Jay-bird at the end of my swing, I made HUGE leaps and bounds from where I started. It was a phenomenal experience, and it seems us girls are doing it again soon, I am bringing Terry, because he wants to experience the adventure too! To give props... Annemarie and Laura made the catch with Jay-bird. They were awesome! And me and the other girls were awesome too. What a beautiful experience, with beautiful weather, beautiful views and beautiful friends.

Only 13 short hours ago I was staring my biggest fear in the face.

I CONQUERED MY FEAR.