1st: Getting Back in Shape: Okay so those of you that know me know that I'm a freak when it comes to sports or outdoor activities. One look at me, and you'd think, "I think I'll pick her last for my kickball team," but au contraire, you'd be making a mistake. I went walking and jogging with my brother's fiancée the other night. We just went around the neighborhood twice. She said, "we have to go this way so we can tackle the 'big hill.'" Now, I don't like it when people say, "the big hill," and approaching it, I was thinking, "Oh dear Lord" as we gingerly half jogged/ half walked down it, leaned back as not to fall forward. (Yes, they could have graded this hill a little easier!) We turn around in the lower cul-de-sac, and I decide to sprint/jog up it. Now K. is about 6 feet tall and has an athletic swimmer's build. I'm 5'6" and have a curvy, Janeane Garafalo build. I turn the curve and off I go...half sprint/jog/hike up this massive hill. I get to the top and slow my jog, and I notice some things: 1) Holy crap, I'm not out of breath. 2) I made it without thinking twice about how sucky it was 3) Where's K.?
K. was almost to the top, half jogging/half walking, and I could hear her do her breathing. It was then I realized that I have, indeed, been getting into shape.
2nd: Playing in the Mountains: February 29, 2000 - yes, I said the 29th, it was leap year. Becca (girl from college) and I decide to Polar Bear it in North Georgia. We don bathing suits with shorts and sleeveless shirts over top, a tube, a float raft, and her in the same attire. We stop by Subway and buy two 12" rolls for $0.25/ea (a trick we learned when you are running on a LOW budget. See, I think it's funny when people have $$$ to their name and complain about having "no money." Until you are at the point where you literally have pennies to your name, I don't want to hear it. I learned about Ramen noodles, peanut butter, bread, jelly, and cheap meat in college). We head up to Dick's Creek/Water's Creek. We park the car, suck it up, strip out of our jackets and pants we wore up there, grabbed out raft/tube, and headed straight for the Water's Creek waterfall (now private property). We did an intial jump, and it stole our breath. This could be the dumbest thing I've ever done (no that was saved for the Spring). We tried floating, but floating over rocks on cheap pool floats don't work. It got to the point where Becca ended up getting stuck standing on a rock in the middle of the river. I swam out and tested surrounding rocks and guided her back to shore. We stripped naked, put our jackets and pants on and dried off with the heat blaring. Yes, I have a photo of me somewhere, a candid shot, Subway bread in my mouth, wrapped in my jacket and towel in her car. I did something similar to that in January 2004.
3rd: Hurling Myself Off of Rocks: Spring, 2000 - We head back to Dick's Creek. This time, we went up past Water's Creek to Dick's Creek, and we saw people hurling themselves off a rock outcropping, nearly missing the rocks below and plunging into the base of a waterfall. AWESOME. We go to where they're jumping, and immediately, I no longer want to go. The rock outcropping they were hurling themselves off of....let me try to explain it. The rock outcropping is approximately 20 feet from the water's surface. However, the last point you can throw yourself off of is 3 feet back FROM the edge of the rock outcropping and is about 6" higher. In a sense, you half jog/walk towards the edge and jump OUT 3 feet to get DOWN to the water's surface. Anything past that 3 ft. marker has too steep a slope and is slippery and dangerous. I know, I almost slid off of it when I caught my foot on a root:
The first time I did it, I was freaking out, especially when I grabbed onto a tree and scrambled back up the mud to the cliff while onlookers that had jumped just sat there and watched. I was sure I was going to fall to my death as I hadn't gone OUT from the rock. If I had let go, I would have fallen on the lower outcrop below. I got back up top and said, "I'm getting down!" so I did. I jogged, I jumped out and WOOSH! The water stole my breath. The cold waterfall water surrounded me as I went under about 11 feet, touched the sandy bottom and kicked off coming back to the surface. My friends cheered as did the onlookers.
My friend, Erin, decided she wanted to do it. We got back up there, and me thinking that I wouldn't be as nervous said, "let me show you how it's done," but...I was wholly nervous! When I jumped this time, I knew what to expect, and her boyfriend took a photo of me jumping off the rock outcropping. Erin went next and vowed not to do it again. It's a dangerous rock outcropping as I saw someone slip and smack their tailbone on the rocks below. His friends jumped in, pulled him out, and he was vomiting on the rocks from it all.
That's about it for random stories today.
