Be My Valentine

Every cruise there is a Not-So-Newlywed show which consists of married couples getting up on stage and answering questions about each other.  For this cruise, and ironically because it was only a few days before Valentine’s Day, only two couples volunteered to play.  Therefore, by default, Jason and I played as well.  I will preface this next part by saying that we were not expecting to play.  We won of course, even though technically we were ineligible to win.  The points we won were split between the two other couples. 

First the boys were asked to leave the room and the wives answered questions about their husbands.  I did very well and got them all right, hooray me!  Then the wives were asked to leave the room while their husbands answered questions.  Jason got them all right as well, much to my chagrin, as one of the questions was “What color underwear is your wife wearing right now?”  Any guesses as to what the answer was and why I can no longer pass any guest without them making comments about my panties?  Superman.  That’s right, they were red and blue superman underwear with the slogan “This looks like a job for superman” on the back.  My knickers were the hit of the show.

I mention this story because a few days later for Valentine’s Day I decided to do something very romantic for my husband, something he has always wanted to do…skydiving.  Yes I took him skydiving and since my superman underwear were residing in the laundry, naturally I wore my batman underwear.  He loved it…the skydiving, not the underwear, although he thinks the underwear are cute. 

I will never skydive again.  Not ever!  It was so unbelievably scary.  I planned it as a surprise for Jason.  Julian and Matt, the two other male singers on our ship went with us.  I do have to thanks Julian for setting everything up, as I almost hyperventilated every time I even thought about it.  We skydived in Melbourne, Australia over the beach and it was absolutely beautiful.  I had plenty of time to enjoy the view while plummeting towards the earth.  

We jumped from 14,000 feet in a tiny bright green eight-seated plane.  We jumped in tandem with people who have done it before.  The only reason I actually jumped after having watching everyone before me as they were ripped out of the plane and tossed to the wind is that the man who I was strapped to in tandem was much stronger than I was.  When my questing hands and feet found no hold, I didn’t have a choice but to succumb to one of the craziest things I’ve ever done in life.  Now I’ve checked it off my list, even though it was never on my list to begin with, and I won’t go back.  I got the video and as soon as my computer stops thwarting my uploading efforts I will be posting it for all of you to enjoy.  Yes those are my screams that you can hear over the wind and the superimposed rock music …

After the adrenaline rush of the day, we retired to the Grand Hyatt in a King’s Suite which was Jason’s gift to me.  I seriously got the best end of the gift giving that day.  There were a dozen roses, a huge tub with jets and room service awaiting me in our gigantic suite with its beautiful view.  Now that’s a good life!

The two pictures:  The first picture is the very first moment after I was pushed out of the plane.  I wanted to include it because it shows exactly how far away the ground is and how terrified (if horrible) I look.  Yes that is the ground over my left shoulder because we started out plunging head first towards the earth.  The second picture is when my parachute finally opened.  This picture hopefully captures how relieved I am, and also that I’m now willing to take in the view.  Ha!